sure she could stand on her own after that. He brushed a few loose strands of hair from her shoulder and placed his lips there—not moving, not kissing. In small little circles, he ran the tip of his tongue along her flesh like he was tasting her and when he pulled away, cool air chilled the lingering moistness. Needing him to stay close, she ran her fingers along his scalp to keep his mouth there. She wasn’t done with him, but she wasn’t sure what she was craving. Only that she needed more. He raised his head, his shoulders stiffened slightly and he held her out at arm’s length.
Apart from him, she was cold. She wanted to see his expression, read what he was thinking, but his face was hidden in shadow.
Of course. It was his turn now. How could she be so completely absorbed in her own needs? She bent to unzip his pants but he clasped her wrists and straightened her up.
“Just you tonight. I can wait.”
“Wait?” What does he mean by wait? As in not right now? As in yes, but later?
A hint of anxiety gnawed at her stomach—her conscience? She’d never gone home with someone she just met, let alone experienced an orgasm like that, or offered oral sex to a man who was a perfect stranger mere hours ago.
The muscles of his arms bulged beneath her palms and strange feelings tightened around her insides like a fist. Maybe she wasn’t reading him correctly. He was apprehensive for some reason.
Was it simply an excuse to get her to stop? God, he wasn’t married, was he?
At that moment, the door opened with a bang and two couples stumbled onto the rooftop terrace. One of the women erupted with laughter when her companion dropped his wineglass onto the concrete floor with a crash. Sounds of music and clinking silverware wafted through the opening.
Mackenzie tore away from his embrace and grabbed her handbag. “I should go. Martin’s probably wondering where I am.”
She cast a glance over her shoulder as she reached for the door handle. Dom remained near the back wall, the orange light from an overhead infrared heater giving his features an eerie glow while the rest of his body all but faded into the shadows. It was obvious he wasn’t going to stop her, so she swallowed her disappointment and pulled open the door.
“There is no one else,” she thought he said, although she could’ve sworn she didn’t see his lips move.
UNDER A BURNED-OUT streetlight on the other side of Fifth Avenue, Dom leaned a hip on the hood of the Porsche parked halfway down the block and watched as Mackenzie stepped through the revolving doors of the Columbia Center building and into the taxi line. Perfect. He’d wait for her to jump into one of the yellow cabs, then get the phone to the Agency’s tech lab only an hour late. Santiago should be satisfied with that.
He took a deep breath to filter the smells and detected nothing unusual. His olfactory receptors weren’t nearly as sensitive as Lily’s—he smelled only the salty air rolling off the bay and the wet roadway—but he wouldn’t relax until he knew Mackenzie was safely on her way home. His hair whipped across his face, still loose from when she pulled out the leather tie. When he brushed it away, he caught a whiff of her musky, exotic scent still on his fingers and the blood rushed to his cock yet again.
Another chilly burst of wind whistled up the city street and the skirt of her flimsy dress Marilyn Monroed. With a little shriek, she caught it just in time and laughed with the people standing around her. Something tugged at his insides and for an instant he wished he were over there, sharing in that silly moment with her. She flung her wool coat around her shoulders and when a taxi pulled away, she moved to the front of the line.
Aware of a faint throbbing, like the pulse of a vein behind his eyes, he shook his head to clear away the sensation, but it didn’t change. It neither lessened nor intensified. Of course. He jammed his hands into his pockets. This was her headache, not his. Her blood levels still weren’t what they should be. Combined with the several glasses of wine she’d drunk tonight, she undoubtedly felt like hell. All because of him.
Finally, another cab pulled up, blocking everything but her face from his view. He could stretch