open, so …” She shrugged and tried to look like seeing him hadn’t been in her plans when it totally had. “Anyway, you have it now, so I should go.”
She’d barely gotten two steps when Aidan caught her arm. “You haven’t given me the package yet,” he said.
She picked it up off his dropped duffel bag and offered it to him.
“Sorry,” he told her. “My hands are full. Bring it in, could you?”
“I—”
But he’d grabbed his duffel bag and was unlocking his door. Then, leaving the door open, he walked inside, leaving her to follow or not.
And dammit. She had way too much curiosity not to. Which he damn well knew, because he didn’t even turn around to check. He’d known she’d follow him.
Hopefully he had no idea just how far she’d do so.
In truth, she had no idea, either, but she suspected it was to another zip code entirely. One she’d never been to.
Aidan dropped the bag from his shoulder and walked through his living room, down a hall to his bedroom, and out a sliding glass door to what was a private deck.
Which she knew because she was still following him like a lamb to the slaughter.
Aidan hit a button on the hot tub and the jets started up with a rumble. He pushed the cover aside and kicked off his shoes.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
He still didn’t look back at her. Again, just as well, because she was pretty sure where this was going and her eyes—glued to him, naturally—would one hundred percent give her away.
“I’m going on four hours of sleep over the past few days and I’m sore as hell,” he said. “I’m getting into the hot tub.”
Yeah. That’s what she’d thought. “But—” She broke off when he pulled off his shirt and dropped it to the deck.
Gah. He was just so damn beautifully made. Like heart-stopping, drool-inducing, cut with lean muscles and smooth, tanned, sleek skin, beautifully made. She wanted to lick him from the base of his throat to the dangerously low and sinking lower by the second waistband of his pants. And then maybe she also wanted to bite his—
He unbuttoned his cargoes and she stopped breathing.
With his back still to her, he dropped the cargoes.
He was commando. And it was official. She definitely wanted to bite his—
He turned around to face her and caught her gaping. He smiled and gave her the finger crook. The universal “Come here.”
“Oh. Well …” His chest was hard, his abs were hard, his thighs were hard … everything was hard, and she felt herself staring, unable to tear her eyes off the hardest thing of all, which was pretty much standing up and waving hello at her.
She swallowed hard. “Um— You’re—”
“Yeah, ignore him,” Aidan said. “He’s just happy to see you too.”
Oh boy. Her feet moved her over there and once again Aidan took the bag from her and set it aside. Then he pulled off her sweater.
“Um,” she said again, inanely.
He went brows up. “No?”
She hesitated, and he surprised her by backing right off. “It’s okay,” he said. “You can just watch if you want.”
And if that wasn’t an image that would fuel her fantasies for nights to come …
Unconcerned, he ambled over to the hot tub and got in, lowering his body into the hot water with a groan. Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back and let out a long breath.
“A rough one, huh?” she asked sympathetically. She could see a bruise across one of his shoulders and arm, and he rolled his neck like it ached.
“Yeah,” he said without opening his eyes. “And you’re still staring.”
Without even realizing it, she’d moved closer. Giving in, she kicked off her sandals and sat on the very edge of the hot tub, hiking her skirt up to her thighs to stick her feet into the water.
And then realized Aidan was now watching her, eyes glittering with things that made her thighs tremble. “What,” she said defensively. “You were making all those happy noises so I had to check it out. The water’s nice.”
“Happy noises?”
“Yeah, like when you—” She broke off as she felt her cheeks flame again and she clapped her hands to them when he tipped his head back and laughed.
“Stop it,” she said.
“No, I want to hear this,” he said. “I make the same happy noises when I what?”
“You know what.”
“Tell me,” he said, and pushed away from the edge he’d been leaning back on to wrap his arms around