“He sounds like a decent guy,” Scott agreed, wanting more than ever to carry her up the stairs and to bed. To his bed. He was beyond furious that Werner Dearth had not only threatened her after the trial but had just called her. If necessary, he’d have a discussion with that man one on one. Soon. “Come on, Millie. Let’s try to get a couple hours of sleep.”
She pushed to her feet, patted Roscoe again, and ambled around a chair. “Good idea.” Yawning, she held the railing as she took the steps.
He followed her, trying not to notice the sway of her cute ass in her tight jeans.
At the landing, she stumbled.
He caught her easily, his body wide awake.
For the first time, she didn’t move away from his touch. Her eyes glistened with a mystifying shade of blue. “Scott?”
He kissed her. Holding her on the stairway, he leaned down and went all in, losing himself in Millicent Frost for the briefest of moments. Then he gently set her back on her feet on the landing.
She blinked, her lips still pursed. “I’m tired of fighting this.”
He almost swallowed his tongue, several steps beneath her so he met her eye to eye. “Millie?”
She put her hands on her hips. “There’s something here. Has been from day one, and this tension is driving me nuts. We need to get it out of our systems so we can concentrate.” She reached for him, and he climbed a stair, lust careening through him as she planted both hands on his pecs. “It’s not just me, is it?”
“No.” Even his breath felt heated. Was she saying what he wanted? “Millie, I’m all sorts of fucked up.” The woman deserved the truth. “Plus, the world is smacking you around right now, and you might not be thinking clearly.” His thoughts deserted him entirely.
Her breathtaking eyes deepened to a mysterious indigo color. “We’re both hot messes right now, Terentson. Planning anything would be insane. But I’m tired of pretending and wondering. Aren’t you?” She caressed his chest, and her tongue flicked out to lick her bottom lip. “I was so scared about Roscoe, even though he’s always been fine. But you never know.”
“Me, too.” Scott didn’t want to admit it, but he’d grown fond of the eccentric canine. “Millie, I don’t think—”
She leaned up and kissed him, her lips so soft he nearly dropped to his knees. He let her play and held his breath, his hands clenching into fists to keep from taking her to the landing in one motion. Swallowing, she leaned back, a peach color spreading across her pale face. “If I’ve misread you—”
“You haven’t.” He sounded like he’d been eating rusty nails. Lust poured through him, sparking his body on fire. He knew, without question, that JT was watching the house for the night, so they were safe. He could lose himself for a few hours and not worry about another surprise attack. Even so, he’d never take advantage of a sweetheart like Millie. “I’m trying to be a gentleman here.”
“Forget that.” She jumped toward him, her trust that he’d catch her landing hard in his heart. Both of her small hands tunneled through his hair and she kissed him again, her tongue sweeping along his lips and then sliding inside his mouth. She tasted like hazelnut coffee, and her warm little body felt soft against him.
That quickly, Scott Terentson, a man always in control and usually living in his head, was lost.
He tangled his fingers in her hair and took over the kiss, his body jolting with the impact. Sliding one hand beneath her butt, he secured her, still kissing her, and climbed up the remaining stairs, taking a left toward his bedroom. Her compact body moved against him, and he held her firm, letting the moment take them both.
The blood roared through his head and pounded in his ears, but he forced himself to be gentle as he laid her down on the bed, knowing without a doubt that she’d break his heart. No other way forward existed for them, at least as long as memories of blood and death trapped him. But he no longer cared.
She partially sat up and reached for the clasp of his jeans, desire flushing across her delicate features.
The chance to turn back had long slipped away.
Chapter Fifteen
Millie had never felt so out of control. As a woman who normally found her passion in challenging machinery and her own quest to invent, the intensity of her need for the hard-bodied protector shocked her even as it rushed through her. Leaning over her, he kissed her again, pouring intense fire down her throat to scorch each nerve on the way to her core.
She reached up and dug her nails into his shoulders, fighting to get closer to him. To feel him. All of him. More than passion emanated from his kiss. He harbored a loneliness that echoed through her body and matched the feeling in her soul. Both of them, lost, searching for something more.
Maybe it could be each other.
Warning ticked through the back of her mind, but her sense of control blasted away. Banished along with common sense and practicality. In its place, passion and desire made her breath catch in the back of her throat.
He released her mouth and nipped her jaw before dropping to his knees near the bed.
She looked up and stilled.
The tame lawyer was gone. Instead, the primal being inside Scott Terentson, the man who’d shed blood to protect her just the night before, lay revealed, raw and dangerous. His eyes were a shocking midnight blue, nearly black, and a dark flush heightened the rugged angles of his face. Slowly, deliberately, he removed first one of her socks and then the other, his touch firm and his thumbs massaging the arches of her feet.
Shocking electricity bolted through her legs, making her knees tremble. “Scott?” she whispered.
