Against the Edge (The Raines of Wind Can - By Kat Martin Page 0,44

adjusted his seat, bringing it back into position. “Why don’t you pull off at the next gas station and I’ll drive the rest of the way.”

“Are you sure? You only slept a little over an hour.”

“I’m good. Besides, driving gives me something to do.” Besides sit here and think about peeling off that cotton blouse and nibbling on those lovely white breasts. If he closed his eyes, he could still feel the texture of her rose-colored nipples, hard against his tongue.

Claire seemed to be doing just fine not thinking about last night. He, on the other hand, couldn’t seem to stop.

In an oddly perverse turn, he was the one who wanted to talk about it, wanted to hear her say how good it was. Because it had been. He wouldn’t have figured it, not with a woman as reserved as Claire.

Or maybe he would. All that bottled-up sexual energy. All that untapped heat. Making love to her was like popping a cork on a shaken bottle of champagne. Like riding a roller coaster on a ninety-mile-an-hour dive. He had the scratch marks on his shoulders to prove it.

And yet under all that hidden passion, there was an underlying innocence. Michael Sullivan might have taken the lady to bed, but he hadn’t begun to give her what she needed. Not by a long shot. Now that Ben knew exactly what those needs were, all he could think of was satisfying them again.

It wasn’t going to happen. They had made a deal—one night of hot, no-strings sex and nothing more. Claire was clearly sticking to it, and that meant so was he.

That didn’t mean he hadn’t noticed how pretty she’d looked this morning. How sexy she’d looked in her teddy-bear nightshirt with her long legs exposed and her red-painted toenails.

It didn’t mean he hadn’t noticed the way her jeans cupped her sweet little ass, didn’t mean his fingers didn’t itch to unzip those jeans, shove them down and rip off another pair of bikini panties.

Jesus, he was getting hard just thinking about it.

“There’s a Shell station up ahead,” he said a little gruffly. “Take the next off-ramp.”

Claire pulled off and he gassed up while she went in to use the head. He did the same, then they continued down the road with him behind the wheel.

“What do we do when we get there?” Claire asked as they neared their destination, bringing his thoughts full circle back to Sam. Except for those few hours with Claire last night, the boy was never far from his mind.

“It’ll be dark when we get in. Sol says Hutchins lives in a crummy apartment on the south side of town. I’ve already plugged the address into the GPS. We’ll drive by, take a quick look at the area.”

“Maybe we’ll get lucky and spot Bridger’s pickup.”

It was a possibility. “On second thought, I’ll drop you off at a motel, then drive by. If Bridger’s there, I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“But—”

“No arguments this time, Claire. I need to focus on Sam and getting him out of there safely.”

“Time is crucial, Ben. You’ve driven four hundred miles at the speed of light to get here. Drive by the apartment, then you’ll know what you need to do.”

She was right, dammit. Finding a motel and getting her checked in took time. As far as he knew, Bridger had no idea he was being followed. A drive-by would probably be safe enough.

“The sooner we get to the apartment, the better our chances of finding Sam,” Claire added, as if he needed a reminder.

“All right, but Hutchins has a record, and he’s probably armed. He’s a dangerous man, Claire. If something seems off or if we come in contact with him or Bridger, you do what I tell you, okay?”

“Why didn’t you tell me he had a record?”

“I didn’t want you to worry.”

“I’m already worried, Ben. From now on, please, I want to know what’s going on. That’s the only way I can help.”

He tended to work on a need-to-know basis, but he could see her point. “Fine, but you do what I tell you, okay?”

“Okay.”

Neither of them said more till he pulled off the freeway and began following the GPS directions toward the south side of town.

As the area changed from a clean commercial neighborhood into run-down apartments, boarded-up businesses and graffiti-covered walls, he began to regret his decision to bring Claire along. He should have followed his instincts and left her someplace safe. He checked the black SEAL dive watch