Smart And Sexy

Chapter 8

Bailey felt as if she’d swallowed her tongue. Or maybe that was just her heart, which had landed in her throat.

They were coming.

The day had just been one long Mr. Toad’s Wild ride.

Still holding her immobile and silent, Noah flicked his light over the penthouse door and found the keypad. Reaching out, he hit 6-9-6-9.

The door clicked open.

“At least he was consistent,” he murmured, and pulled her inside. “Listen to me,” he instructed over his shoulder as he kept guard at the door. “Hide. Don’t come out until I come for you.”

Through the dark she looked at him making a stand at the front door, shoulders broad, body braced.

He was going to try to protect her.

But he had no idea what he was up against. Hell, she barely knew. She was too exhausted to think. She was cold and tired, and truthfully, just about ready to give up. “No,” she whispered, shaking her head. This wasn’t going to happen. “No way. You can’t do this for me; you have to-”

“Hide, Bailey.”

She grabbed his hand to try to turn him to face her, desperate to make him understand. He had to hide, too. “Noah-”

“And stay hidden.” He shoved something into her hand. His cell phone. “If I don’t come for you in ten minutes, call for help.”

“Where are you-”

The door shut in her face.

“Going. Ohmigod.” If he got hurt, or worse…With a half sob, she whipped around and used the penlight to view the penthouse condo.

She couldn’t see much with the narrow beam of light, but it appeared the place was still overly done in wealth: cool tiles, warm woods, expensive art on the walls, and a ridiculous amount of silk pillows on the overstuffed furniture.

Stay hidden.

Noah wanted her to stay hidden while he, an innocent in all this-never mind that there didn’t seem to be an innocent bone in his very fine body-dealt with her mess.

Hopefully while staying alive, very alive.

Please, Noah. Please stay alive.

She moved down the hallway toward the master suite, which she’d never actually slept in. Alan had never invited her, other than the time she’d toured the place at the inspection phase.

Now she wondered why. Had he stashed his hidden fortune here? If so, she’d know soon enough because Alan enjoyed keeping his safes behind his pieces of art.

It’d amused him to keep his private things in plain view.

The master bedroom was so big she couldn’t span it all within the small beam of light. She took in the artwork on the walls, then began pulling out the pictures to peek behind each.

At least two minutes had gone by. She knew Noah had said to hide, but she had to finish looking.

She moved back down the hallway into the living room and checked beneath the art there as well. Nothing. She went to the front door, put her eye to the peep hole, and saw…

Nothing, just an inky blackness.

A third minute had gone by, possibly a fourth.

Oh, God.

Where was he? The thought of something happening to him because of her made her feel sick.

And where were the people on the elevator? Was it possible they didn’t know what floor she and Noah had gone to?

Or maybe they’d sent up an empty elevator to trick them, and they were taking the stairs, too, in which case Noah had walked right into a trap.

She put her hand to the handle and nearly wrenched open the door, but managed to get a rein on her panic. Running out into the dark hallway wasn’t going to help anyone.

Think.

Alan had spent some time here. He’d probably had meals…

Using the light to find her way into the gaping huge kitchen, she eyed the walls. No pictures. No safe-

Wait. Had she just heard something?

Heart in her throat, she eased open a drawer. And then another, and another, until she found what she’d been looking for-a steak knife. Fisting it, she whirled around, ears straining.

The sound came again, so slight she couldn’t be sure she’d really heard anything. She gripped that knife like a lifeline. There. There it was again, but she couldn’t pinpoint the location. Hide. Trying not to hyperventilate, she hunkered down, her back to a cabinet, trying to make herself as small as possible. Plus she wasn’t sure her legs could support her weight. She clicked off the penlight. Reaching behind her, she opened the cabinet doors. Please don’t let there be spiders in here, she thought, turning to crawl in. It smelled musty, and-

And she nearly jumped right out of her skin when from behind her, fingers wrapped around her ankle, then tugged her back against a hard chest. In one motion, she was unceremoniously relieved of her knife. She braced for a stabbing pain as she opened her mouth to scream, but a hand clamped over it. An arm came around her hips, holding her immobile.

She’d seen all the horror movies, she knew what came next, so she bit his hand.

“Ow, goddamnit!”

Noah.

He hauled her back up against him. “Goddamnit, I told you to hide.”

Adrenaline whipped through her. He’d scared her half to death-a real feat tonight. “I was hiding! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did they get you? Oh, my God, you’re in one piece, right? Where are they-”

Again his fingers covered her mouth. “Momentarily stuck in the elevator. The keyword here being momentarily. Now, can you please stop moving?”

Got it. Don’t move. Not a problem, he had her back to his chest, her butt to his-

Um.

Oh, boy. And now that she knew it was him, she became aware of his hands, one across her front, just above her breasts, the other low on her belly, which she sucked in as she tried not to wonder what he could feel through her sweater. “What part of don’t move didn’t you get?” he asked, tightening his arm, making her realize she was wriggling all over the place.

And that her wriggling had…affected him.

Now neither of them moved. In fact, she barely breathed.

He was hard.

He was hard, and if she turned her head, she could kiss him-

“We’re going to get what you came here for,” he said in her ear, his voice a mere whisper. “Then we’re going to go back down the stairs. Silently.”

How could he concentrate on their situation with an erection pressing into her bottom? She couldn’t. She couldn’t think of anything but what it would be like to go for it, right here in the dark, just two strangers in the night. She had a feeling he could show her all that had been missing from her life, that he could relieve this odd and building pressure within her, or at least try.

“No noise,” he reminded her. Taking the penlight back, he gave the kitchen one quick glance-over. Outside the kitchen window, the night was utterly black. No moon, just a foggy layer that blanketed most of the stars from view. Inside, things felt uncomfortably close and intimate.

Having circled the room, he came close again. She could feel the heat of his body, and given how chilled she felt, she almost wished he’d come in even closer.

“Your move,” he said.

She wet her suddenly dry lips and watched his gaze dip down to take in the movement. “I…don’t have a move.”

He stared at her, his tension making him look pretty damn scary. If he hadn’t taken such good care of her, she’d be shaking in her boots because he now appeared incredibly intimidating. But he had taken care of her. He’d done everything he could to keep her safe, and also…he’d kissed her. “I can’t find…what I’m looking for.”

“Bailey-”

But just then, from the other room, the front door opened with a shockingly loud click.

Hell, Noah thought. More trouble. Why was he not surprised?

Bailey was shaking, and not just a few little tremors, but full body shudders that were knocking her pretty teeth together. He ran a hand down her arm, which felt way too cold through her sweater and made him frown. Yeah, she was soft in his grip, her hips nicely curved, her breasts mashing into his side, the sweet scent of her skin teasing his nostrils, but it also appeared she might be in shock. Not good. “Don’t move,” he said in her ear. “I’ll be right back.”

She clutched at him. “No-” But then she purposely clamped her lips shut and shook her head, her hair flying into his face, the silky strands clinging to his jaw. “Nothing.”

Nothing, his ass. She was holding on by a string, and desperately trying to be strong while doing it. Good. They were going to need her strength and all of their wits put together to get out of this, and he still had no idea what “this” even was. Noah squeezed her arm gently, trying to signify that he really would be right back. She nodded, but didn’t let go. He stroked a finger over hers, which were currently embedded in his shirt.

“Right,” she whispered, but it was another second before she let go.

He told himself this was her own doing and shifted silently to the double kitchen doors. What they needed was time, but that wasn’t going to happen.

The handles were western style brass pulls. Pretentious, not to mention ugly as hell, but perfect for slipping the knife through and barricading the door closed. It wouldn’t hold against brute force, but it would gain them the few seconds they needed.

Hopefully.

Because for whatever reason, gorgeous Mrs. Sinclair had four extremely goon-sized knee-cap breakers on her tail, and while they weren’t exactly fast on their feet, they were as persistent as bulldogs.

Two of them were downstairs watching the exits. The other two had made their way out of the elevator and were now inside the penthouse. Armed to the teeth.

Apparently Bailey’s “something” was something extremely valuable, and he’d bank on the fact that it involved money. Bags of it.

That Bailey wanted it so badly bothered him.

Distance, he reminded himself. You need distance. Like miles and miles of it…

Okay, things were far too tight in here for him to risk leaving her. Backing to the cabinets, he pulled her to his side and once again put his mouth to her ear. “Another exit?”

“Patio deck,” she breathed. “But-”

They didn’t have time for buts, and he dragged her out of the kitchen, wincing at the sound of her heels click, click, clicking across the fancy tiles. He was all for a woman’s high-heeled fuck-me boots, especially hers because they made him hot. Probably, she could wear steel-toed work boots and he’d get hot, because the truth was, it was Bailey herself that did him in. She could just stand there and breathe and he’d react, but his point was that he wished she’d been wearing running shoes.

Hell, he wished she wasn’t here at all, but instead safe on the Learjet heading to Aspen. That was what he wanted-her far away from all this shit.

They got through the kitchen just as someone tried to get in the double doors. From the other side, a radio squawked. Then a voice softly said, “Get your ass up here, we’ve got ’em.”

Not yet, you don’t, Noah thought grimly, relieved about one thing. If the two men from downstairs were being called up, that meant there was no one watching the perimeters of the building.

That would work in their favor.

“Den,” Bailey whispered, sounding as if she was hyperventilating.

In the den he spotted the reflection from double French doors that probably cost more than he’d made last year. He headed for them, hoping like hell there was some sort of fire escape plan.

From behind them, the kitchen doors splintered open, and Bailey gasped.

Don’t fall apart on me now, he thought, and pulled her along. She pushed ahead of him and shoved open the French doors. There were a few inches of snow on the covered deck, only what had been able to blow in sideways, but the sharp slap of icy air sucked the air from his lungs.

“Hurry,” she said.

That was his line, but he moved out after her and carefully shut the doors behind them, pushing her out of the line of sight from inside.

There wasn’t much to see in the pitch-black night. No moon, no stars…just a storm moving in.

Yeah, that was just icing on his big fat cake tonight. But there was, hallelujah, a fire escape, which consisted of a narrow ladder from each deck to the one below. “Down we go,” he told her.

She stared at him blankly.

“Down the fire escape.”

“Down the fire escape.” She looked over and gulped. “As in down the fire escape?”

He pulled her toward it. “There’s no way around this one, Princess.” He manhandled her to the edge and physically lifted her leg over.

As she caught a glimpse of the ground far, far below, she froze. “Ohmigod.”

“Don’t look down.”

“My boots-they’re high-heeled. Noah, I’m going to slip and fall.”

Holy hell. The fuck-me boots. Were they going to catch absolutely no breaks tonight? “Yeah, okay. Move over.”

“I can’t-”

Not waiting for her, he swung his own leg over, which left him pretty much straddling the princess ninety feet above the ground. Still not enough to make him forget that she had a soft, sweet body that fit perfectly to his. Ignoring that, he slid down that soft, sweet body, his cheek rubbing up against all sorts of interesting parts that flipped his senses into overdrive, until his feet were several rungs below hers on the ladder.

This left his face right about tight, amazing ass level. Okay, he hadn’t thought this through. His jaw brushed one denim-clad cheek, and for just a second, he closed his eyes.

He wanted to nibble. They were ninety feet above the fucking ground and he wanted to eat her right up. Yeah, Shayne and Brody had definitely been correct-going six months without having sex with anyone other than his own fist had been a colossally bad idea.

He needed to get laid in the worst possible way.

“I’m scared,” she gasped, and executed a careful turn so that she faced him.

Perfect. Now her crotch was right in his face. Not exactly a problem, except he was having a little trouble concentrating.

“You can’t fall now,” he said, feeling like a perv, telling himself to keep breathing, not to go nuts now. “I’m just below you. I’ll catch you.” He helped her turn back around, which of course involved lots of touching. Now his face was once again two inches from her ass, and his mouth was watering. “Start going down with me.”

Or on me…

Still breathing as if maybe she’d already climbed this building, she nodded. “Just go down with you,” she repeated.

Christ, the words sure did conjure up an image. He shifted down a few rungs so that, thankfully, his mouth came level with the backs of her knees. Nothing sexy about the backs of anyone’s knees.

Nope, not a damn thing.

But then she did as he’d asked, she followed, so that she shifted right back into the circle of his arms, and once again he was staring at her most perfectly delectable ass. Closing his eyes would be a bad thing, he reminded himself, and stoically, he kept his gaze on her as they crawled down.

The things he had to do.

“Are we almost there?” she asked breathlessly.

He looked. Not even halfway. “Nearly,” he lied. “Keep moving.”

“I wish he wasn’t dead so I could kill him.”

“Who? Alan?”

“And my father.”

This was a new one, but now wasn’t exactly the time to point out she’d been less than forthcoming with certain vital information.

From in his back pocket, his cell phone vibrated. He had no doubt it was someone at Sky High Air with more demands that he come home now. And it made perfect sense, except for one thing. For the first time in far too long, he felt…alive.

That was when the bullet pinged right past his ear.