‘Mm-hm,’ he said, sounding a little amused. ‘Snug as bugs.’
Isenberg had agreed it was a smarter use of resources to house Mallory and Wendi in the hotel room adjoining Shane and the Davises. That way they could increase the protection detail by only one special agent, who’d provide breaks to the other two currently guarding Shane and Kyle.
Parrish Colby would stay with Wendi, but as a civilian. He was technically on vacation, just as Kate had been all day. But knowing Parrish would be there to watch over Wendi and Mallory had left Meredith with one less worry.
She bit her lip. ‘It seems . . . decadent to have the condo all to ourselves.’
Adam had offered his friend’s condo to Shane and Mallory’s group, but moving them seemed more dangerous, especially knowing a cop might be involved. Their location was secret. Other than those being protected and their guards, only Isenberg, Zimmerman, Adam, and Trip knew where they were. Moving them would require resources and planning and a bad cop in the mix jeopardized security. So they stayed put. For now.
‘Safer here for you,’ he murmured, ‘even without the protection detail. Besides, you deserve a little decadence.’ His voice deepened to a soft growl that made her shiver.
But her mind would not still. Her grandfather and Kate had both been admitted to the hospital and Bailey had come to watch over them. An RN, Bailey had skills that Meredith did not have.
So now Meredith found herself with no one to take care of but herself. And Adam.
It was a heady sensation. It was what she’d wanted for more than a year. But . . . ‘Am I horrible to be relieved not to have to accompany Mallory to the safe house tonight?’ she blurted out, realizing this was what she’d really needed to ask.
‘No.’ Adam kissed her temple. ‘What do they say on the plane? Make sure you put on your own oxygen mask before helping others? You needed not to be needed for just a little while. Let someone else take care of you. Let me take care of you.’
He tipped her chin up and took her lips in a kiss that started out chaste and sweet, but quickly became urgent and . . . She shivered. And deliciously carnal. Full of promise.
He abruptly ended the kiss, leaving her blinking at him dazedly until reality seeped through. The elevator doors had opened to the hall and Adam was instantly on alert, looking for threats. Thankfully there were none, because, dammit, he was right. They were due a little respite, decadent or no.
‘Why are you smiling?’ he asked as he unlocked the door and ushered her inside.
‘Just thinking that we deserved the respite and then I heard Kate’s voice in my head, asking if that’s what we’re calling it these days.’
He chuckled, a deep throaty sound that made her shiver again. ‘I hope I can make her voice go away.’ He closed and locked the door behind them. ‘The only one I want you to hear for the next few hours is mine,’ he said. ‘Stay here. I have to make sure we’re clear.’
She said nothing more, allowing him to do his job until he was satisfied the place was safe. He returned to the door where she waited and held out his hand. ‘Let’s use that tub for something other than to cover up tears, okay?’
A bath sounded heavenly. She was sorer than she’d let on, having hit the asphalt hard when the shooter had tossed her away from Mallory in the parking lot. But she hadn’t wanted to be admitted to the hospital, so she’d faked her way through the ER doc’s exam.
She’d wanted to be with Adam and now she was. He set the water running and sniffed at the bath bubbles Kate had packed until he found one he liked. ‘You have a lot of bubble choices,’ he remarked as he studied the label and added exactly the number of capfuls called for. Not more or less.
He was a man who stayed inside the lines. Or tried to. One of these days she wanted to push him outside the lines, just a bit. For now, he drew comfort in routine, just as she did.
He rather formally began removing the scrubs she’d been loaned at the hospital, lifting the top over her head, like he was slowly unwrapping a present. He stood back, taking her in for a moment before gently cupping her breasts in his work-roughened palms. ‘You’re so damn pretty. You take my breath away.’
He kissed her again, teasing her tongue with his, but not demanding. Just . . . reacquainting them. His fingers pulled at the drawstring on the scrubs and he pulled them down, going down in a crouch as he did. He looked up with a frown. ‘You’re bruised.’ He brushed his fingertips over her hip, his dark eyes flashing with anger. ‘He hurt you.’
‘It’s where I fell in the parking lot. It’s fine.’
He looked like he wanted to argue, but thankfully dropped it. ‘You’re pretty everywhere, you know.’ He ghosted a single fingertip up one thigh, stopping just short of where she wanted to be touched, making her knees shake.
‘You’re a tease, Detective,’ she murmured, then surprised him by grabbing his T-shirt in both hands and ripping it over his head. ‘That’s not very nice.’ She kicked away the scrub bottoms and urged him to his feet. ‘I should tease you and see how you like it, but I won’t.’ She angled a smile upward as she pulled his belt from his trousers. ‘Because that bath looks amazing and I want in it.’ She made quick work of his pants and the tight boxer briefs she had to peel off his body, freeing the very nice erection. And that I want in me.
‘Come,’ she said as she slid into the tub, the word coming out huskier – and sexier – than she’d expected.
He climbed in after her, sinking into the hot water. ‘I fully intend to. Several times.’ With his back to the tub wall, he held out his hand. ‘Come,’ he said, his grin wicked.
She laughed. ‘You’re terrible.’ But she took his hand and let him pull her to his lap so that she straddled him.
He ran his hands up and down her sides, teasing her nipples on the way up and between her legs on the way down. ‘But you like it.’
She rested her arms on his shoulders. ‘I do.’ Leaning into him, she covered his mouth with hers and gave him the kiss she’d been thinking about all day. He growled in his throat as he kissed her back, his hips bucking up, splashing water over the tub’s edge.
Abruptly he tore his mouth away and disappeared under the water, startling her a few seconds later by surfacing and shaking his wet head. ‘I need to get clean because I need to be inside you,’ he said and that fast, it was all she wanted too. They washed each other with an urgency that was heightened by the moment, by every brush of his body against hers. Every pass of his cock between her legs, up into her folds.
She locked gazes with him as they teased each other, so she saw his shocked pleasure when he actually slipped inside her. She gasped, her head falling back, because he felt so damn good. So hot. So full. The last time she’d felt a man skin to skin had been . . .
No. Not going there. She wasn’t thinking back to the last time she’d been with a man without using a condom.
She stilled and he froze, his only movements the flaring of his nostrils and the throbbing of his cock inside her. ‘I’m clean,’ he said quietly. ‘And before this morning, the last woman I was with was still you, last year.’
‘So am I. Clean, I mean. And so were you – my last one. Last year.’ She frowned, trying to focus because he felt so damn good. ‘But I’m not on the pill.’ It messed with her hormones, making her super depressed. ‘So we can’t.’
He let his head fall back with a groan. ‘I know. Lift off. Carefully.’
She did and as soon as she was out of the tub he reared up, flooding the floor as he got out, grabbed her around the waist and hiked her up, tucking her legs around his hips. He carried her into the bedroom she’d been given last night, pulled back the sheets she hadn’t used and laid her down on the bed she hadn’t slept on.
‘I’m still wet,’ she protested.