"But what if I wanted something else? Something you had no problem doing to get that card."
Jamie recoiled, and Drake instantly regretted his words.
"I'm sorry, that was out of line." He took a step back, hanging his head. "Just the sight of you, dressed like that, it drives me a little crazy."
He was startled to hear her laugh. "Actually, it's good to know I still have that effect on at leastoneman."
Drake caught her eyes. "What do you mean?"
Jamie shrugged. "You said you wanted something else. Whatever. You'll have to go kill a fake spider in my bathroom now."
"What? I don't follow you." His expression tightened with confusion.
Jamie burst into a fit of giggles, and the prettiness of it set his brain buzzing. "I tried real hard to get Lance to succumb to my 'charms,' as you said, but he seems to be immune. So I finally had to resort to lying about a spider so I could swipe the card."
Drake couldn't believe his ears. "So your fiancé wouldn't sleep with you? Is that what you're saying?"
"Well, it sounds unflattering when you say it like that."
"He's got to be out of his fucking mind," he breathed, sincerely confused. "But, you guys are engaged. Haven't you...?"
Jamie shook her head. "He's never pushed it, so neither have I. Until tonight, which was, I'm ashamed to admit, a spectacular failure."
"Great Noruma's ghost," Drake breathed. She had to be lying.
"Great who’s what?"
"Never mind," he said, drawing close again. "You're telling me that you set out to seduce your fiancé and failed?"
His mind working at the speed of light, Drake had the realization that perhaps Dr. Lance Cargraves wasn't all that he seemed. There was no way an unattached heterosexual male would walk away from Jamie. So either Cargraves wasn't unattached, he wasn't heterosexual, or he wasn't male.
"You don't have to rub it in," Jamie said, her voice small.
Drake looked into her face and noticed that insecurity had taken up residence there. "No," he said softly, putting a hand to her face to bring her gaze to his. "I can tell you right now that your fiancé is fucking crazy if he took one look at you and didn't fall down on his knees and beg for one embrace."
"Thanks," she said, her voice now almost a whisper.
"I mean it," he said. "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. You don't know how hard it's been, following you around and having to keep my distance, when all I wanted to do was touch your skin to see if it is as soft as it looks."
Jamie gave him a tiny smile, and his chest filled with joy. It was a heady feeling, being this close to her, close enough to smell her enticing scent, to see the color change in her lovely eyes.
"Just because Cargraves can't see what he has in front of him doesn't mean the rest of us are blind."
She blinked up at him, her eyes large and sparkling like twin gems. Drake's gaze moved to her lips and he suddenly couldn't stop thinking about how they must taste. Before he could stop himself, he was bending close to rub his lips against hers.
For the millionth time, he cursed the Hareema suit around him. It limited him from feeling things as he should, like he was touching the world through a thin layer of membrane. But there was no way that layer was going to stop him from kissing her. Not now that he had the chance.
Jamie didn't pull away, so he deepened the kiss, pulling her into his arms. He increased the pressure on her lips until they opened, allowing his tongue entry. She gave a sigh and he realized she was enjoying it as much as he was. The thought brought a thrill to him more powerful than anything he'd felt before.
She pulled away at last to gulp at the air and Drake immediately missed the contact. He realized then that he couldn't leave her here thinking that she was in any way undesirable. Her fiancé had left her unsatisfied, but there was no way in hell he would do the same.
Placing both hands on her face, he bent in close to whisper against her mouth. "You're the loveliest thing I've ever seen, and I would give anything to taste you again."
"Anything?" she whispered back.
He nodded, his eyes drowning in hers.
"Then do it," she murmured against his lips.
