a fright. I washed my face, brushed my teeth, tried to brush the godawful bedhead out of my hair. I ripped my work clothes off and flung open my drawers, wondering what to put on.
Five minutes. Ten.
Damn it. I put on a Yankees T-shirt and a pair of jeans, simply because I couldn’t think of anything else and I couldn’t answer the door naked. I ran out to the kitchen and put away the celery and cream cheese I’d left out. I tried to tidy, and then I caught sight of myself in the mirror and attacked my hair again.
As the buzzer went off, telling me Holden was here, I realized I’d forgotten the wine. And the bra. Any bra, actually—I wasn’t wearing one.
“Damn it,” I said as I buzzed him up. Instead of the hot seduction of the guy I’d liked since high school, Holden was getting wild-eyed, half-asleep Mina, in her messy apartment with her terrible hair and her girls in full swing. I would be lucky if he didn’t take off running.
But I put my chin up and unlocked the door when he knocked, letting him in.
Holden slipped through the door as soon as I opened it, closing it behind him. He was still in his uniform, which was rumpled and the worse for wear. The beard on his jaw looked thicker and he looked a little wild himself, his skin pale with exhaustion. He carried a CVS bag in one hand.
“I got condoms,” he said breathlessly, and dropped the bag on the table next to the door. Then he pinned me to the door and kissed me.
Everything that had panicked me vanished. Everything.
I fell into the kiss the same way I’d fallen into bed a few hours earlier. My arms slid around his neck and I drank him in, feeling his body press flush against mine the way it had last night. My blood pulsed hot and in seconds my entire body was ready for Holden Whittaker, whatever way he wanted me.
He broke the kiss and I vaguely remembered what time it was. “You’re still in your uniform,” I said. “I thought you got off at eight.”
“I worked a double.”
“You’ve been working since last night?”
He dropped his mouth to my neck and kissed it, making me stupid. “Overtime is the best way to make money.”
“Aren’t you tired?”
Another kiss, lower down. “Yes.”
So he’d worked twenty-four hours, and now I was going to make him have sex with me. “Do you want to… I don’t know… sleep or something?”
Holden pulled back and looked down at me. His eyes were dark and very, very serious. “I do not want to fucking sleep,” he said. “Take your clothes off.”
My toes curled. “Okay,” I said. Then I got bold. “You first.”
“No deal.” He took my hand, grabbed the bag of condoms with the other hand and led me toward my bedroom, as if he had every right to be going there. I followed him like the puddle of melted wax I was. I didn’t think my feet even touched the floor.
In the bedroom, I sat on the edge of the bed and said, “I mean it. You have to go first. I think I’ll die if I don’t see you take that uniform off.”
Holden looked like he was going to argue, but he gave in. He unbuttoned the navy blue shirt as I watched and pulled it off. Beneath it he wore a plain white tee, glowing clean in the dim light, and the sight was so sexy I thought I might swoon. He took that off, too, in one motion, dropping it on the floor. Now he was shirtless, that chest I’d fantasized about so many times right in front of me, all muscles and planes. There was a narrow line of black hair trailing down the center of his perfect stomach, just like I’d imagined.
“What does that mean?” he asked, and I realized I’d made a sound halfway between a gurgle and a sigh of lust. Humiliating, but true.
“The pants next,” I managed.
His voice was tight. “Mina, get naked.”
I pointed in the direction of his fly. “The pants.”
“There isn’t anything interesting to see.”
“Excuse me? Speak for yourself.” I gestured again. “You owe me, Holden.”
That made him smile with amusement, but he obeyed. He kicked off his work boots and unbuttoned the uniform pants. He didn’t make a show of it, just did it the way he would usually do it in his room every night.
Oh, my God. He yanked