In either scenario, she’d have Lowell and a hotel. In reality she had neither.
She’d expected a call from Lowell, but it never came. Oh, she’d made excuses at first. Brandon needed him. Lowell had to prioritize and put the public view of his family life first. It had stung, but it made sense. She was the extra piece in his life.
Still, some worry about her well-being would have been nice. They’d been sleeping together for more than a year. She was the one he turned to when he needed to complain about Brandon’s activities and Sonya’s craziness. When someone at work needed to be fired, she had to handle the ugly task. But when a building fell on her head, he didn’t appear to care.
A quick check-in at the hospital told her Lowell had gone home. He left and never called. Didn’t text or even leave a message to see if she needed him. He abandoned her the same way he had the last two women in his life.
All those hints in the conference room. The way he looked at her as he demanded to know who had launched the attack on him.
He knew and she had to cut off any attempt to pin the worst of tonight on her. There was only one person she could turn to for that, and he was upstairs with the light still on.
It took a quick check of her office contact list to even figure out where Aaron lived. She didn’t have direct access to that information, but the investigation report on Aaron’s company included it. Checking out his building now, she was surprised. He charged a lot for his services but lived in a relatively modest place.
Probably said something about his character. Angie never understood that. Being noble and self-sacrificing struck her as a waste of an otherwise fabulous life. With so much to buy and so many things to see and do, why settle for an everyday existence?
She flipped her collar up against the pounding wind and stepped off the curb to head across the street. She still wasn’t sure what she planned to say, but she had to win him over…no matter how.
The empty street made it easy for her to cross. She’d almost reached the lobby door when two figures slipped out of the alley next door. They didn’t look anywhere except at the lobby in front of them.
Something in the walk of the one on the right looked familiar. The slight limp and heavy gait. When he turned to the side to talk to his partner, even from this distance the face registered. She knew him, had spent hours trapped in a room with him. Had watched as Palmer declared him dead.
Max.
But that was impossible. He had died in that conference room. Palmer had taken his pulse and the ambulance wheeled the bodies out…or did they only take Mark’s out? She couldn’t remember since those shocking minutes all blurred together in her head.
Either way the only person with less right to be outside Aaron’s condo than her was Max. Unless he worked for Aaron.
Her brain clicked into gear as she watched Max fiddle with the door. It opened and they disappeared inside. Without a doorman, guests should have had to buzz in. Unless they were expected.
Walking faster, she reached the building. A peek in the glass in the front door showed Max and his friend headed past the elevator. She dropped back, leaning against the side of the building as she tried to pull her thoughts together.
Her timing had been brilliant this time. She could have pushed her way upstairs and walked straight into a trap. Gone to the one person who had more to lose from last night than she did.
The rumbling pain in her stomach eased. It was if a healing light spilled through her and wiped out the panic and desperation before it could fester and grow.
Max worked for Aaron. Aaron was behind everything.
There was no other explanation. She had a new angle to work. Now she had a way to survive the scandal.
Blame Aaron.
* * *
R
ISA HAD INSISTED ON A
shower. The hot spray of water woke her up. Her skin tingled and the bruise on her stomach quieted to a sting thanks to some aspirin. The urge to slather on the special burn cream the hospital gave her was strong, but there was nothing sexy about that smell, so she left the tube Aaron fetched for her on the counter.
Her bare toes curled into the thick carpet as she walked around his king-size bed, waiting for Aaron to pop out from his turn in the shower. They could have gone in together, but she’d wanted to scrub the grime and grit off before he touched her.
Her finger turned blue from where she’d wrapped the belt of his robe around it and pulled tight. Yeah, she wasn’t nervous or anything.
“Risa?”
She spun around so fast she lost her balance. With her arm flung out to the side, she stopped herself from tripping and falling onto the bed. She sat down hard to end the comical display.
The sight of him with nothing more than a crisp white towel wrapped around his slim waist didn’t help her equilibrium. If possible, his shoulders seemed even more broad without a stitch of clothing. The way his bare chest dove in a V to his muscled stomach made hers do a crazy somersault.
No wonder he ran and shot with ease. Every inch of him was physically perfect. So lethal.
Her mouth went dry.
“You okay?” His husky voice dipped into sexy territory.
Heat rushed to her cheeks. She inhaled a few times, trying to put the fire out, but the embarrassing giveaway didn’t lessen.
“I’m usually more graceful than what you just saw.” That wasn’t true, but he could find that out on the tenth date.
He held up the burn cream tube. “I meant this.”
The tightening inside her unspooled. “Oh, what about it?”
“You need to put it on.”
Yeah, and after that she’d throw on a pair of panty hose because they were just as sexy. “I’m fine.”
“Get on the bed.” When her eyebrow raised in question, he laughed. “Not subtle, I know, but medicine before fun.”
“I can think of a better order of events. I’m happy to make a list and include a description.”
“I’ll pass out if you do.”
She pretended to check her mental list. “Fainting is not anywhere on my priority list.”
He shook his head. “Point of order. Women faint.”
“What do men do?”
“Drop over.”
“I’m looking that up later on.” And she would because that seemed like hokum to her.
“Not now.” He put his hands on her shoulders and eased her onto the bed, then squeezed some cream onto his finger.
“Definitely not now.”
She sat there, thinking this had to be the least sexy start to a night that any woman had ever had.
Then his hot mouth found the sensitive bend in her neck. She leaned back to give him great access, and his lips traveled. He rained kisses across her collarbone as he untied the belt at her waist.
When she fell back across the mattress, he followed. His mouth dipped to the soft valley between her breasts as his hand found her stomach. The gentle caresses had her forgetting this was partly about doctoring her up. All she could think about was what would come after. She longed to make love to him.
Her hands wandered over his back as his fingers traced the aching skin around her injury. The raw skin soothed under his touch. When his mouth found hers again, she didn’t care what he rubbed all over her.
Heat pounded off him. Energy buzzed around them until she was lost in a sensual haze of his hands and mouth.
He lifted his head. “Let me make you feel better.”
“You are.”
His mouth traveled over her and down the sliver of skin peeking out from the open center of her robe. When his lips brushed over her breasts and kept going, she nearly jumped out of the bed to beg him for more.
She glanced down her body. His fingers rubbed the cream in soft circles over her injury while his mouth inflamed the rest of her. The mix of delicate touches and his hungry mouth proved to be the hottest foreplay she could imagine.
When he dropped the cream container on the floor, she pulled him back up to face her. “Thank you.”
“We’re not done yet.” He rolled to his back, taking her with him. “I think you’ll be more comfortable in this position this time around. No pressure on the stomach.”
Her legs straddled his trim hips. His impressive erection pressed against her as she cradled him, teasing and preparing them both for what was to come.
He reached over and grabbed the condom off the nightstand. All traces of exhaustion had left his face. His eyes glowed with a vibrant desire as his hands skated over her.
“I don’t want to be done.” She kissed his chin, then his neck when he lifted his head higher. “I want to burn. Make me burn for you.”
His mouth closed over hers, and her body caught fire. She felt the tug at her waist then the robe fell open. Every cell caught fire as his hands roamed over her. The brush of his fingertips. The sure touch as he found a spot that had her head falling forward.
Her breath jammed in her chest as his palms landed on the back of her thighs and pressed her closer. She felt him enter, gasped as his body stretched and inflamed her. She wanted to talk, to whisper his name, but instinct took over. Her body moved, slow and steady until he took over the rhythm and everything inside her tightened.
Then she couldn’t think at all.
Chapter Sixteen
An hour later, Aaron still couldn’t sleep. Thoughts and possibilities pinged around his brain. He’d taken all the pieces apart from Elan and still couldn’t get any of them to fit back together in a logical way.
When he wasn’t thinking about strategies and plotting, his mind wandered to Risa. The smooth skin and expert hands.
Yeah, if this level of work and personal life continued, he didn’t foresee a decent night’s sleep in a very long time.
He bent his arm behind his head and wrapped the other arm around Risa. She lay naked and curled up on his side, her light breathing blowing across his hypersensitive skin.
This he could get used to.
She’d been as free and giving in bed as he’d fantasized she’d be. With her mouth and her hands, she’d zapped his strength and then refilled it. She wrapped around him until all he could feel or see or smell was her.
The hours of violence that had preceded the session in the bedroom hadn’t cooled his desire for her one bit. If anything, by the time he got her to safety he’d wanted to rip her clothes off and push deep inside her. Probably not very heroic on his part, but she didn’t complain when he did just that.
Neither did he. The lovemaking session relaxed his muscles and fed a need that had been brewing inside him for longer than he would have guessed. He toyed with the reason he’d failed to call her back for another date a week ago.
He had all sorts of excuses about being busy and concentrating on the Craft problem. The reality was being with her like this made it hard to imagine being anywhere else. The last time he’d walked down that road he’d ended up alone, watching the couch he’d owned for years get loaded into his ex’s moving van. Not exactly an event he wanted to repeat.
“Why aren’t you sleeping?” Risa’s mumbled question vibrated against his bare chest.
The sound of her voice wiped out all memories of Pam and their train wreck of a relationship. It almost knocked out the nagging questions about what had happened tonight at the conference center. Almost.
“Still on edge, I guess. It’s hard to turn the adrenaline off once it starts pumping.” And his mind took even longer.
She treated him to a fake half snore, half grunt. “I could sleep for a month.”
“I am all for staying in bed, if that is the offer you’re making.” His hand slipped down to her lower back and the soft skin he’d kissed so many times just an hour before. “Or is that not what you meant?”
“You wore me out with an hour. If I stayed here I’d need medical attention.”
She balanced on her elbow and stared down at him. With her forefinger, she traced a pattern over and around his nipple.
Even in the dark bedroom he could see the flash of her smile. Talking with her, watching her face light up, calmed the frustration gnawing at the edges of his brain.
“Just what every man wants to hear.”
“Then you should be delirious.” She dropped a nibbling kiss on his chest.
“Much more of that and we’ll need to find more condoms.”
“Tomorrow.” She snuggled closer, with her long hair fanning over him.
He ran his fingers through the strands, feeling the ends still damp from her shower. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
“Can we just agree tonight was the worst holiday party ever? I mean, like epically bad.”
He laughed until his muscles ached. It took a small pinch to his biceps to get him to focus again. “Any chance you’ll still hold yours there?”
She lifted her leg in the air behind her and twisted her ankle around in circles. Watching the move made his twisted knee throb in pain.
“Since we were hoping for an indoor venue and Elan is now open air, I kind of doubt it.” Even she laughed this time, causing her body to vibrate against him.
“Sorry.”
“You didn’t blow it up or let in the bad guys or cause any one of a hundred of the odd things that happened tonight.” Her leg stopped moving. “We still don’t know who did, do we?”
“Not yet. The fire marshal will do an investigation. The bomb components were crude and not well hidden, so I don’t think this will take too long.”
“That’s probably good for Elan.”
“I doubt they see it that way, but the owners want the conference center up and running fast, and that will require a closed investigation and insurance money.”
She let her leg fall back to the mattress. “Any more information on Craft’s son and Royal?”
Aaron reached over and grabbed his cell off the nightstand. He’d already read the text an hour ago but wanted to double-check. He was desperate to hear good news about Royal and kept asking for details until Gail joked about needing sleep.
He clicked a few buttons. “The last report from Gail was that Brandon was still not responding but the doctors were hopeful. Royal has moved into the bitching phase of his recovery where he insists on going home immediately and coming to work tomorrow.”
“At least the part about Royal is good to hear.”