seemed to melt away beneath his touch, replaced by a different sort of tension, desire fluttering to life inside her.
He skimmed his hands down the length of her bare arms, his lips pressing hot kisses to her shoulder. “I can’t promise you anything, Samantha. I’ll be leaving soon. I’m not the kind of guy who gets married and settles down in the suburbs.”
“I know.” Nothing he’d said surprised her. “I appreciate your honesty.”
Hookups down here didn’t last. Everyone knew that. He didn’t seem like a man who wanted a conventional life. If a little heartbreak was the price she had to pay for feeling like this, she would pay it—gladly.
“I meant it when I said we weren’t finished.” He teased her with feather-light kisses, heat searing her skin where his lips touched her.
“I… I hope so.” Samantha’s breath caught, her eyes drifting shut.
Then one hand moved to cup her right breast through her towel.
“See?” He nuzzled the sensitive skin beneath her ear, his voice deep and soft. “You fill my hand.”
She opened her eyes, watched as he gently squeezed, his thumb rubbing over the bump in the terrycloth that was her nipple, making her belly clench. She arched into his hand, giving herself to him, wanting more. “Thor.”
Usually, she was too nervous to enjoy a man’s touch, especially in the beginning of a relationship, but that wasn’t true with Thor. She sank back against his chest, her head resting on his shoulder, his broad chest seeming to cradle her.
Voices.
Someone was coming.
Thor muttered something she didn’t understand and drew away. “Can I come to your room?”
Samantha stood, moved toward the door, her heart thrumming as she weighed her answer. Would she be making a mistake? Would she regret it? He wasn’t going to be here much longer, and she would probably never see him again.
You need to lighten up, be brave, let yourself go.
She would rather regret sleeping with him than spend the rest of her life wondering what she’d missed. “Yes.”
She stepped out of the sauna, passing Ryan and a few of his firefighter buddies as she hurried back to the changing room.
Thor took a quick shower and brushed his teeth. Then he dressed—jeans and a T-shirt—and tore through his gear, looking for his packet of condoms. “For helvede.”
Damn it!
He always carried some—just in case. Had he somehow unpacked them?
No, they were in his shaving kit.
He grabbed them, slipped two into the pocket of his jeans together with his phone. Then he armed his security camera and started toward the door, hesitating when his hand touched the doorknob.
What happened to your self-control, man?
He shouldn’t do this.
He was in charge of a murder investigation, and he couldn’t allow personal connections or hormones to interfere with his work. Although he knew Samantha hadn’t killed Patty, he couldn’t prove that. She, like everyone else, was still a suspect.
More than that, he didn’t want to hurt her. He wasn’t going to be here for much longer. How would she feel when he got on a plane and left her life forever?
She was vulnerable, alone at the bottom of the world, her best friend murdered, her life turned upside down. She also didn’t have a lot of sexual experience. Hell, he wouldn’t be shocked if she told him she was a virgin.
No, he shouldn’t do this. It was reckless. It wasn’t like him at all.
But Samantha had lit a fire in him that he couldn’t put out with her intelligence, her directness, those blue eyes, her dancer’s body. The way she’d reacted when he’d cupped her breast through the towel, arching against him…
He thrust away his doubts, opened the door, and made his way upstairs, careful not to be seen as he stopped outside her room.
Last chance to do the right thing.
Samantha was the right thing.
He knocked lightly.
Still wearing her bathrobe, she answered right away and let him inside.
He locked the door behind him, their gazes meeting, the sexual hunger he felt mirrored in her eyes. He dragged her against him and ducked down to claim her mouth with his, gratified by her little gasp of pleasure.
Fuck, yes.
She melted against him, yielding to his kiss, her body pliant, eager.
He willed himself to slow down, gentling the kiss, brushing his lips over hers, nipping them with his teeth, tracing their outline with his tongue. She tasted so good and felt wonderful in his arms, his second thoughts vanishing as she kissed him back.
He let her take control, her tongue teasing and tasting his, her hands sliding