Staying On Top(33)

The glance she threw me seemed to ask an opinion on her German. It was translatable, though whether it would be understood was another story. I gave her a baffled nod. I inched upward until my eyes cleared the top of the seat, just in time to see all hell break loose.

Blair’s mouth had shocked the gunman into silence, and two of the bigger organ thieves took advantage of the distraction and rushed him. His gun arm flailed. They wrestled and shouted while the bus swerved again. A shot exploded. Someone screamed and I grabbed Blair around the waist, yanking her down on my lap and curling around her body.

The commotion ceased as quickly as it began. My heart pounded so hard against Blair’s back there was no way she didn’t feel it, and my arms trembled from holding on to her so tight. My eyes were closed and I had to work at opening them for several seconds—the feeling of her breathing said she was alive, but fear that there would be blood everywhere kept ice in my veins.

“Sam.”

I gulped some more air. “Yeah?”

“I can’t breathe.”

“Oh my god, are you hurt? Did he shoot you?”

“No, dumbass. You’re squeezing the shit out of me.”

“Oh.” I loosened my grip and opened my eyes, already feeling a little stupid and expecting to see exasperation and contempt in her gaze. She maneuvered on my lap until she straddled me, and then smiled. For some reason, her reaction swapped my cold fear for hot anger. “What in the hell were you thinking? He could have shot you!”

“Somebody had to do something before the driver freaked out and drove us over a cliff.”

“You didn’t even know what was going on, or what kind of crazy he is! It didn’t have to be you.”

“I was willing. Everyone else was sitting on their hands. Ergo, it had to be me.”

“Blair.”

She cut me off by placing her palms on my cheeks, hesitating for the tiniest of seconds, then leaning forward to press her lips against mine.

The kiss was soft, so unlike Blair that it took me by surprise. I slid my hands to her hips, squeezing hard enough to keep her in place. She scooted forward on my lap, her palms drifting to my chest while her fingers brushed the exposed skin at the base of my throat.

Her touch drove out my fear and replaced it with shuddering desire, and I tangled a hand in her hair. The slip of her tongue against my bottom lip shot boiling need into my gut and I opened my mouth, greedy for the taste of her.

What began as a kiss, maybe to thank me for trying to protect her, maybe born of the relief of surviving a harrowing incident, turned into something animalistic inside ten seconds. Her chest pressed against mine as her fingers dug into my scalp and our tongues tangled with far more urgency than was appropriate for a very public place.

I didn’t care.

It was as though my hands had minds of their own. They explored until they found the hem of her sweatshirt, then the tank top underneath, reveling in the softness of the skin on her back.

Blair gasped against my lips, the tiny, incredible admission of pleasure bringing me back to the present. As much as I didn’t want to let her slip away, we had to stop or end up being the second horrifying thing our poor fellow passengers would witness today.

I didn’t remove my hands, though. Now that she’d touched me, now that she’d proven that her body felt the same pull as mine, going back was off the table. She laid her forehead against mine, eyes closed, until both of us could breathe normally.

“I knew you were hot for me, Blair Paddington,” I whispered with a smile.

She sat up and crossed her arms, avoiding my gaze. “Whatever. I just thought it was sweet that you tried to protect me. Even if it came a little late.”

“Don’t do that.” Her eyes snapped to mine, and I held on to her gaze, refusing to let her look away again. “There was nothing sweet about that kiss, and I never come late. I’m a right-on-time kind of guy.”

That made her smile, even if she didn’t seem to want to. “Fine. I might be attracted to you, but that’s it. I don’t like you or anything, so go ahead and unswell your head accordingly.”

“I don’t like you, either. You’re a pain in my ass, you do crazy shit like stand up in front of men holding guns, and I’m considering the idea that you could be the Antichrist.” I ran my hands over the bare skin of her back, then trailed my fingers around front, skimming the softness under her bra. The way her eyes fluttered made me ache to pull her against me, but dammit, we were still on the bus. “But you’re a fucking sexy devil.”

“You really are an idiot.”

“But I’m hot?”

She rolled her eyes and climbed off my lap, turning to check out the scene that had started all of this. I almost wanted to thank the psycho with the weapon for helping me break down the emotional barriers Blair had spent who knows how long erecting. Even though she’d kissed me as though she wanted to fuck me right here, even though she’d acknowledged the crackling attraction that felt as natural as breathing, I had an inkling that getting her to admit to any feelings would be harder than pulling teeth out of a rabid raccoon.