Hush (36 page)

Her lashes fluttered heavily to make eye contact. Her mouth twitched in a small smile. “Can I eat in the shower?” At least she still had her humor. That was a bonus.

“I doubt that hamburger could stand up to dousing, but you can make it a quick one, okay?”

Turning on lights as he went, Zak wrapped his arm around her waist and escorted her into a small, clean bathroom. She leaned her butt against the sink and watched him with glassy eyes.

“Hot or cool?”

“Hot.”

He turned on the shower for her. Anticipating her needs, he peeled the paper off a bar of soap and reached in to set it on the tiled shelf. The bathroom was rapidly filling with steam. “Need help getting undressed?” he asked, his pulse suddenly loud and heavy in his ears.

Her arms dropped limply to her sides as he tugged her shirt from her waistband. She had the prettiest breasts he'd ever seen. Small, and full, with delicate apricot-colored nipples that peaked as his hand skimmed across her chest to liberate the other arm.

He'd forgotten that her clothes were filled with all sorts of gear. He quickly undid the vest zipper, loving that she was braless. He eased the heavy vest over her shoulders, tossed it out through the open door, pulled off her T-shirt, then found the button at her waistband and eased that zipper down. Smiling, he said thickly, “It's never been
this
easy to get a woman out of her clothes.”

“You have to have them kidnapped first, then try to blow them up a couple of times.” Her lips curved. “Those won't come off over my boots,” she pointed out
as he eased the loose-fitting, pocket-laden khakis down her long, gorgeous legs.

Zak settled on his haunches to untie the laces on her boots. Acadia rested one hand lightly on his good shoulder.

“Then,” she continued seriously, with a little more life in her voice, “you have to follow all that up with a death-defying, high-speed car chase. Try it again. You'll see just how accommodating women will be.”

Using his last gram of willpower, Zak ignored the fluffy triangle guarding her womanhood directly in front of him, and bent lower to tug off her boots. She had a red blister on one of her baby toes, and he paused to kiss that before pulling off her pants. Then he saw the quartersize bruise on her thigh. He had to kiss that as well.

He eventually stripped her pants off. Braless was excellent, commando was a slice of heaven.

She folded her arms under her breasts. Zak liked them all plumped up like that. A lot. But despite having a boner that wasn't going to go away without help, he refrained from grabbing anything.

She was exhausted; he'd put her through the wringer. She deserved to be left alone to take a private shower before getting some much-needed rest.

“I'll wait.”

He lifted an eyebrow as he straightened. “For?”

“You to get naked,” she said, and all the remaining blood left his head to plunge between his legs. Fuckit. Acadia plus hot, steamy water?

Two bombs couldn't kill him, but this had a
serious
chance of success. And there was no way he was going to argue with her.

“Right.” He stripped in record time, tossing his clothes out into the bedroom. There was no hiding his erection, so he just stepped into the tub and held out his hand to help her climb in with him.

Soft gray eyes gave him a leisurely up-and-down, and her diabolical smile was deceptively innocent, her lashes fluttering back to his face as she stepped in beside him. “Your bandage is getting wet.”

She wasn't looking at the damned bandage, and having her clutch his waist to keep her balance wasn't helping his good intentions. “It'll dry. Turn around, I'll wash your hair first.”

With his help, she maneuvered to face the spray, bracing her hands on the tiled wall beneath the shower-head. She had a small cut on the back of her hand, and a bruise on her ring finger, which reminded him of what she'd been through and reiterated why this was supposed to be
just
a shower.

The view from behind was almost as luscious and spectacular as it was from the front. He'd never really thought about a woman's back; he'd always been a lot more interested in the front. But Acadia's was creamy and sleek, with a scattering of golden freckles across her shoulders he hadn't noticed before. Her tight ass was shaped like an inverted heart. He'd taken little nips and—

“Zak?”

With a noncommittal grunt, he dragged his attention away from her ass and poured shampoo into his palm, then lathered the long strands, running his hands through to the wet ends that hung halfway down her back.

She moaned as he massaged his lathered fingertips against her scalp. The moan made his dick grow like Pinocchio's nose after a big lie. He rinsed, lathered, and rinsed again. He should get a damned medal of honor for his commitment to duty in the face of almost certain death by blue balls. “Conditioner?”

“Hmm.”

He applied the smoothing liquid to her wet hair, then reached for the soap. Lather, rinse. There was probably a washcloth around somewhere, but he used his hands. His hands and plenty of the glistening suds turned her skin into a play area with lifts, runs, and jumps he just wanted to dive into.

Zak gritted his teeth and kept his touch as impersonal as a doctor's. “Turn.”

He had to hold her arm so she didn't slip. Holding her arm meant his hand was beside her breast. It needed washing. Lather, wash. Lather … a little more washing.
Concentrate, pal. And don't forget to breathe.

“If you're going to keep that up, it would only be polite to kiss me first.”

He smothered a laugh. “I don't want to get you worked up; you're tired.”

“I'm worked up, I'm just too tired to show it by exuberant movements and wild cries of delight.” Her eyes
glinted from beneath a spiky fan of lashes. “I'm
quietly
worked up.”

Jesus. How damned adorable was she? Very. Zak slid his soapy hands down her hips, then slid one into her soapy nest of curls. “I'm quietly worked up, too.” The understatement of the century.

He rubbed his dick against the smooth, wet skin of her stomach and smiled against her mouth. “Hard to hide.”

She nibbled his lower lip. “I have a perfect place. Nobody but us will ever know.” With a laugh, Zak turned off the taps and picked her up, soapsuds, pouring water, and all, and carried her into the bedroom, a matter of a couple of feet. Stepping over their scattered clothing and boots, he dropped her on the mattress with a little bounce, then followed her down.

Their bodies were dripping wet, sliding erotically together as he shifted to rest between her sprawled legs. Acadia practically purred as she lazily wrapped her arms around his neck, entwined her legs around his waist, and shifted her hips to accommodate him.

Zak's penis slid into her tight, wet sheath without fanfare. He slanted his mouth to kiss her, loving her response, loving the feel of her arms and legs enveloping him. Loving … hell, loving it all.

Their lazy, almost dreamlike lovemaking made the intensity of their shared climax even more powerful when it struck them within seconds of penetration. Zak's muscles tensed unbearably as a rocket blast of power ratcheted his muscles and tendons and left him gasping for an unrestricted breath.

The climax went on and on. One rolling into the next.

He thought Acadia moaned his name. But his hearing was on mute, every ounce of focus on where their bodies joined.

It felt like a nanosecond, or a year, later when her legs fell limply away from his hips and her arms dropped from his shoulders. She dragged in a shuddering breath, lifted her hand weakly to touch him, dropped it back to the bed, and looked up at him with dazed eyes. “Death by sex.”

“Hell of a way to go.” He brushed a tangle of wet hair off her face and shoulder as she closed her eyes. “I'm sorrier than hell I got you into this clusterfuck. Do you wa—”

She let out a gentle, but unmistakable, snore.

SIXTEEN

A
cadia yawned, her face buried in the lumpy pillow, decided she was awake, and cracked open one eye. Sunlight filtered through the cheap, uneven red curtains, and sounds drifted through a haze of half-awake consciousness.

Tap-tap-tap.
Fingers on a keyboard. The hum of a cheap vacuum cleaner laboring up and down the hallway beyond the door. A distant dog barking.

Opening the other eye, she rolled over and stretched. Naked and well rested, she felt terrific, considering everything they'd been through in the last couple of days. Must be all the sex keeping her energy levels up. Whatever it was, she knew it had everything to do with Zak. She'd hated saying good-bye yesterday, and she was going to hate it again today. Probably more. Every hour she spent with him was making it that much harder to be cool and sophisticated about saying good-bye.

Dressed and freshly shaved, Zak looked both devastating and determined. A muscle worked in his jaw, and he was frowning, as he sat at the small table working on the computer.

“Don't you ever sleep?” she asked around another yawn.

At the sound of her voice, he turned around, resting his arm along the back of the chair. His expression made Acadia's heart skip several beats. Satisfied male, yes. But there was also a warmth and softness that she hadn't seen reflected in his eyes before.

More than likely just her own postcoital glow, she warned the butterflies swooping around in her tummy. Dangerously close to her heart.

“I only need about four hours.” Heat flared in his hazel eyes as she stretched her arms over her head. He liked her body, she knew, and she held the pose as his smoldering gaze traveled in a leisurely fashion over her breasts and down her belly, paused at the juncture of her thighs, and lazily moved like a caress all the way to her toes. Then climbed unhurriedly back up.

“I need at least eight or I get grumpy.” She arched her back and gave him a memory to keep after she was gone.

The skin across his cheekbones pulled tight as his gaze returned to her face, and a pulse beat in his jaw. Voice thick, he said, “You look like Aphrodite emerging from the sea.”

He could probably make her come just by looking at her like that. “Ha!” She shifted, thrilled when his pupils flared. Teasing him turned her on all over again. The man was a sex whisperer. “You're just too polite to tell me I look like Medusa. I know, because I slept with wet hair.” She pulled a face when she tried to run her fingers through the tangled mass. Flushed by the intent in
his eyes, she sat up and curled her arms around her bent knees. “What's the plan for today?”
Get rid of the blonde, avoid bombs and kidnappers, cheat death, find brother.

“For one thing, I'm sick and tired of playing defense.” Zak's expression hardened. Acadia rubbed her shins with both hands. She wouldn't like Zak ever to look at her like
that
. “Time to go on the offensive,” he said, more, she figured, to himself than to her.

“Excellent. I'm with you there. You're not wearing the watch? Numbers bothering you?”

“The strap should be replaced; it's starting to show signs of Gid's wear and tear. If I hadn't been so damned distracted, I would've noticed. He's a lot harder on his things than … Don't want to lose it. And no, seeing the numbers doesn't bother me now that I know what they are. In fact, they give me hope. I figure if I'm still seeing them, then he's still alive, and I'll find him.”

He picked up the watch, which lay on the table beside the computer, and glanced at the time. “The embassy opens in eleven minutes. I'll call. See where we stand on our paperwork. If we need to cross a few more palms with cash to expedite this, then that's number one on our to-do list this morning. Getting you on a private plane is next; unfortunately, I can't get another one sent here before I leave. I
really
want you safe and on your way home before I hie off with Buck's security guys.”