“Your eyes,” she sighed. “Your eyes look sad. Why are you here? Did somebody die?”
“Nobody died,” he answered automatically. Tire tracks were all that was visible on the road. No plows had been out yet. Elliot turned up the defrost and increased the wiper speed. “You think I look sad?” Was he? Yes, he’d been sad earlier, when he’d walked into the bar. His sister’s antics scared the hell out of him.
Had that only been tonight?
“You seemed mad and sad.”
“I’m here for my sister. She’s got drug problems. I have to move her from detox to rehab, so yeah, you’re probably right.”
Noel turned sideways and snuggled into the seat. “Is she gonna be okay?”
It was the million dollar question. “God, I hope so. She’s… I don’t know if she wants to be.”
“It’s good you’re here for her. Must be nice to have a brother like you.”
He couldn’t help but recall how angry he’d felt when he’d taken the call. Again? He’d wanted to yell at her. And when he’d walked into the detox center he’d wanted to shake her. She’d aged a good ten years in the last twelve months. She was slowly killing herself.
“I don’t know if I’m enough.” The raw emotion he heard in his own voice surprised him.
She reached out and squeezed his arm. “She’s lucky to have you. Trust me.”
Elliot glanced over, hearing the conviction in her words. Suddenly she looked one hundred percent lucid.
And kissable. Sweet and sumptuous and kissable. If he wasn’t driving… and she wasn’t hopped up on pain killers…
He shifted his eyes back to the road. A lot of good he’d do both of them if he slid off the highway.
“Ya know what El-ee-ot?” Her voice had gone warm and low, almost a whisper. He couldn’t help glancing at her again. “You’re like, probably, the nicest guy ever.”
Now he knew the pain killers had taken over. Even though, he appreciated the sentiment. Nice wasn’t something he’d ever been accused of.
He chuckled. She might take back her words if she realized the things he’d been thinking about her earlier– and on and off all night. The problem was that at some point her body had become attached to a person. The person that was Noel Blake tugged at him. So sweet looking but so damn feisty at the same time.
“El-ee-ot? Do you have a girlfriend?” This version of Noel was considerably chattier than the other one had been. If that was possible.
Would he have considered any of his recent hook ups as relationships? Probably not. “No. What about you? You have a boyfriend?”
“No time. I clean condos in the day.” Of course. The poor girl worked her life away.
The drive back to the hotel took considerably longer. By the time he’d parked and come around to rouse her, he was pretty sure she’d passed out.
“Just a nap,” she slurred when he pulled her out of the car. And then, realizing where they were, she wrapped one arm around his waist. “Shush Elliot… Have to be very, very quiet. Nobody can know I’m going upstairs with you. It’s against the rules.”
The only sound he’d made were his footsteps in the snow, but he understood.
This was where she worked. Of course, they would discourage employees from going up to the guests’ rooms. “Is there a back door?”
She stopped walking for a moment and shook her head with horrified eyes. “We have to walk past the front desk.”
Elliot thought for a moment and then reached out and flipped her hood over her head. His hands somehow settled on the sides of her face and he just stood there, lost in her eyes.
She gazed at him openly, every emotion revealed for him to see. Right now, she trusted him. Enough to show that she wanted him. “You have the most expressive eyes.” And the softest skin. The most inviting lips and…
He leaned forward and pressed his mouth against hers. He couldn’t help himself. It was like she was crying out to him to touch her, to taste her.
He couldn’t resist. Why would he?
When he released her lips, he pulled back less than an inch and noticed a snowflake caught on one of her eyelashes. He captured it with another kiss.
