Perish the thought.
“I was right,” he said, walking back toward the ring and stopping in the doorway. “This place will work well for our purposes.”
“Sure.” She swallowed, suddenly nervous. Or maybe the truth was she was never not nervous around Angel. “Our purposes.”
She wanted to ask him which purposes those were exactly. The stay-out-of-sight-and-out-of-trouble purposes? Or the strip-each-other-naked-and-get-down-and-dirty purposes?
If it was the latter, God’s honest truth was…she was beginning to second-guess herself.
She’d only known Angel for two weeks, and even then it’s not like she really knew him. How smart was it to fall into the sack with a total stranger? Especially one who reminded her in so many ways of the love of her life?
Not smart at all, Sonya, a little voice piped up from somewhere in the far reaches of her brain.
And yeah, okay, so they had chemistry. Big-time chemistry that bubbled and boiled anytime they touched. But did that mean they should act on it? Was chemistry enough reason to allow a man as diabolical and mysterious as the Prince of Shadows to see her at her most vulnerable, all naked and uninhibited?
No, it’s not, Sonya, that little voice chimed.
And so what if she hadn’t been laid in two years. That didn’t mean she got a free pass to play pelvic pinochle with the first guy who showed any interest in her, did it? She wasn’t into casual sex—at least she’d never been before—and given Angel’s lifestyle, he was the definition of casual sex, wasn’t he?
Yes, he is, Sonya.
She must’ve given herself away somehow, because Angel reached both arms above his head and casually gripped the molding above the doorway to the ring. He leaned forward into the grand foyer where she stood. “You want to tell me what has you spinning out over there?” As always, his messed-up voice with its weird non-accent carried easily through the stillness.
“No.” She shook her head. “I mean, yes. I mean, I don’t know. I just—”
With his arms above his head, his cotton shirt had pulled away from the waistband of his jeans, and she could see a half inch of his stomach. All she could think was… Tan. And hard. And hair.
“You just…what?” He cocked his gorgeous head. He was too handsome for his own good. For anyone’s good.
She dragged in a breath, the dry smell of dust tickling her nose. “How did you escape from Iran?” she blurted.
Whoa. That was a conversational about-face if ever she’d heard one. Where had that come from?
His dark eyes flayed into her even from across the wide foyer. She could now say with certainty that if she lived to be one hundred years old, she would never get used to his piercing gaze. “Why do you want to know?”
Because I’m stalling. Because everything about you makes me nervous and excited. Because I don’t want to make a mistake with you.
What if she slept with him, and he reminded her so much of Mark that she transferred some of those old feelings onto him? Or worse, what if she slept with him, and some of those old feelings began to fade only to be replaced by new feelings?
“Just curious, I guess.” This time she was too chickenhearted to give him the truth. Although, it was sort of the truth, wasn’t it? She had been curious about his escape ever since learning he was the Prince of Shadows.
He lowered his arms. Thank goodness. She couldn’t think straight with that half inch of stomach showing. “It is a long story.”
She looked around and lifted her hands in a helpless gesture. “You have some other way to pass the time?”
The second the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to pull them back in.
His lips twitched, and the skin over his face seemed to tighten. A leisurely journey…that’s what his eyes took down the length of her body before returning to her face. She could see his hunger, his need. Unlike her, he wasn’t afraid of it. Wasn’t hiding from it. “I can think of a few things.” He walked toward her.
No. Stalked toward her.
She didn’t realize she’d taken a step back until her ass bumped into the cool glass of the door. She thought maybe he would cage her in, put a hand on either side of her head and prevent her from escaping. Not that she would have escaped. Despite her misgivings, she knew the second he touched her, she’d be down for the count, all her second-guesses having liquefied in her brain and leaked out through her ears. But he stopped a good foot from her and simply held out his hand.
“Come with me, Sonya.” His scratchy voice had turned into a purr.
Swallowing dryly, she placed her hand inside his much-larger one. His skin was so warm and rough. His grip so unyielding and sure. And yep. There they went. All her second-guesses.
Docilely, she let him pull her through the door and down the steps leading to the circus ring. The large, cathedral-like room was dark. The only light shined in from the entrances to the circular foyer outside, but it was enough to show her the stadium-style seats surrounding the place. They were covered in dust and looked cheerless and despairing without an audience.
