him toward the big bed in the corner of the room. He was a bed-maker she noted with approval. The satin coverlet was military smooth and the pillows uncreased.
She pulled back the covers and the linens smelled like detergent, dryer sheets, and that tangy scent that belonged to Johnny. With a little shove, she managed to maneuver him onto the mattress.
As she pulled a sheet over him, he found one of her hands with his free one. "It's all right," he said. "It's all right."
"Of course." She smoothed the sheet over his chest and could feel his heart pounding against her palm. A heart attack? "But maybe I should call a doctor."
"No!" He found her fingers, squeezed them again. "Don't need a doctor. Water. Need water. Need you."
She brushed her fingers through his damp hair. His forehead was clammy. "I'll get you water," she promised, then hesitated, staring at her book still squeezed by one of his big hands. She'd get his water and then she'd get her book.
In the attached bathroom, it took her a few moments to get her own breath back. She hadn't made it this far on her first tour, so she hadn't known about the sybaritic tub or the orgy-sized shower, both of which were surrounded by the same kind of mirrors that made up the bedroom ceiling.
Turning her back on the etched X-rated figures, she filled a water glass then wet a washcloth and wrung it out. With one in each hand, she returned to the bedroom.
There she found Johnny rolled onto his stomach, the sheet stretched diagonally across one hip and buttock. Asleep.
The Loanshark book nowhere in sight.
Now what?
She put the glass down on the floor then touched his face, turned in profile against a thick pillow. His skin was warmer now, no longer damp, and he was definitely sleeping, his breath easing in and out in a regular rhythm. His lashes were bristly stubs of dark gold against his cheeks and she could see shadows on his lids and under his eyes. He'd said he hadn't been sleeping, and now that she was really looking at him she could see that it was true.
But even when he was exhausted he looked beautiful.
Her gaze moved from his dark blond hair down the shallow valley of his spine to the tight, round butt that only men possessed but didn't deserve. She put out her fingertip and pressed - just to make sure the muscles were as hard as they looked - and then flushed. Joey would call the action a BL - a body liberty - and Tea had watched Eve take them dozens of times. Little pats on the butt, fingertips sliding inside the open neck of a collar, a proprietary set of nails scratching along the back of a man's hand.
Tea had never thought much about the little maneuvers, had never wanted to pet the men she dated.
But then, she'd never dated a man like Johnny.
And probably never would again.
With that sobering thought, she decided to get her book and get out of his house.
She glanced around the covers to see if he'd left it lying about. No luck. Walking around the bed, she searched to see if it had fallen to the floor.
Not there either.
"What did you do with it?" she whispered at the back of his head.
He stirred, his legs stretching wider and one hand shoving deeper beneath the pillow where he rested his cheek.
Ah-hah. That's where the book had gone, beneath the pillow.
All that she had to do was play Tooth Fairy. Heck, she didn't even need to leave a dollar behind, but she'd be happy to do so if she could get the book and get away.
She circled to the far side of the king-size bed, where his sprawled body didn't take up quite so much room. There, she slipped out of her pumps and then kneed her way from the edge of the mattress toward the pillow he was using.
He muttered something in his sleep. "Don' go. No."
Tea froze as he turned his head on the pillow to face her.
"No," he said again, his eyes still closed but his voice sounding anxious again. "Please, no."
"Shh," she whispered, her hand reaching out to caress his hair. "It's all right."
His eyelids fluttered.
She froze again, not wanting to wake him. Surely he'd be suspicious if he found her sneaking around his bed and stealing under his pillow.
He settled back into sleep with a sigh, and she let out the breath