“Everything okay?” he asked as Skye stepped back to invite him in. Both of them were still dressed in the black jeans and sweaters they’d had on when they’d gone into the compound the night before.
“The girls are getting settled. Callie needs a chance to digest everything that’s happened.”
Edge nodded. “I could use a little breather myself.”
Skye watched him cross the room. His features looked tense, his broad shoulders tight as he took a seat on the sofa, resting his tall, hard body against the cushions behind his back.
It took a while to unwind after a mission. It had been a tough few days.
“You want a drink?” Skye asked, definitely needing one herself.
Leaning back, Edge spread his arms across the top of the sofa. “God knows I could use one.”
“Whiskey, beer, or a glass of wine?”
“Whiskey.”
“That makes two of us.” She usually drank wine, but as she thought of Henson, the women in the compound, and the explosion that could have killed a lot of good people, a straight shot of whiskey seemed a better idea.
She headed for the ultra-modern stainless-steel kitchen that opened into the living room. After her very profitable trip to Mexico and her PI earnings, she had plenty of money, which her luxury high-rise apartment reflected.
The kitchen and cabinets were white, the countertops gray-and-white granite. Barnwood gray hardwood floors ran throughout the living room, two bedrooms, and two and a half baths. The apartment was sleek and modern, done entirely in white and dove gray with dark blue accents. The view of Denver through a wall of glass shared with the master bedroom was spectacular.
The apartment was walking distance to the office, not far from a similar apartment building where Edge lived. She had only been there once, when he’d had a party and invited the entire Nighthawk crew, as well as his two brothers and their wives.
Edge had been with a curvy redhead that night, but Skye had never heard him mention her again.
As she poured two fingers of Jack Daniels into a pair of heavy crystal tumblers, she glanced over and noticed Edge watching her. His gaze traveled slowly from her face to her breasts, then returned to settle on her mouth. The look in those amazing blue eyes sparked a fire low in her belly.
It had been months since her failed attempt to have sex with her fiancé, more months before that in the hospital. She might have been injured in the war, but from the sexual pulse she was feeling as she looked at the virile, blue-eyed male on the sofa, clearly she wasn’t dead yet.
It was only natural, she told herself. She had seen his naked, hard-muscled torso when Edge had stripped down in the heat of Mexico, remembered the six-pack abs, the thick biceps, and heavily muscled shoulders.
Working at Nighthawk, she saw fit, good-looking men every day, but none of them made her feel the abdomen-clenching desire burning through her now.
“I’ve been thinking,” Edge said, rising and making his way to the kitchen counter to accept the drink she offered. “After what they’ve been through, Mollie and Callie could probably both use some space. My place is bigger than yours, so I’ve got plenty of room. Why don’t you stay with me until the girls get things worked out and find places of their own?”
Everything inside her froze. For days, Edge had been tossing out not-so-subtle invitations to join him in bed. This one was more than clear.
He wanted her.
And heaven knew, she wanted him.
Her mouth dried up. Her heart was beating so fast she felt dizzy. “I don’t . . . don’t think that’s a good idea.”
He rounded the counter and walked up behind her. She felt his hands on her shoulders, lightly massaging away the tension in her weary muscles. He unfastened the clip holding back her dark hair and pulled it aside, pressed his lips to the nape of her neck.
The tension returned to her body, followed by a soft melting sensation that poured out through her limbs.
“Why not?” he asked softly, moving to the side of her neck. Another soft kiss, and his teeth grazed an earlobe. “You could come back here whenever you wanted.”
Her knees felt weak. She couldn’t believe this was happening.
He curled a finger in the neck of her sweater and drew it aside, pressed a damp kiss on the curve of her shoulder. A tremor ran through her. Heat slid into her core. She worked to stifle a moan.
“It’s not that far away,” he said, his mouth returning to the side of her neck, trailing hot, wet kisses over her skin, making her shiver. “Walking distance.” Desire swept through her, need she hadn’t felt in months, maybe years.
She swallowed as she forced herself to turn and face him, rested her palms on his wide, hard chest. “What’s changed, Edge? We’ve been working together for more than a year. Now all of a sudden—”
