Nothing to Hide

THIRTEEN

THIRTEEN

A contented kind of peace weighed her lashes. Even though Roxie was technically awake, she hadn’t yet mustered the will to open her eyes. Something smelled good. Hot. Like the kind of hot that took her awareness to her p***y. That tingling corner was much more awake than the rest of her. Like ready to go awake. Need heated the pulse between her thighs, moving her hips. Instinct rocked her against the solid body beneath hers.

Huh.

Still without opening her eyes, a frown creased her brows. A body in her bed? It wasn’t either of her roommates.

Hair. Her fingers were in his hair and yes, it was a guy because her forehead was against scratchy stubble. Damn, she loved the way men felt in the morning.

Men. She smiled. Zairn. He was the only one she could be curled against. She’d shifted to lie down during the second movie and told him to lie with her. No guy had ever been so safe, which was maybe why she hadn’t minded taking his hand to coil his arm around her. Directing and arranging them was harmless because he couldn’t read into it. Movies was the agenda. Just movies.

Not that she would boast about it, but Roxie had woken up with her share of guys. Yet, somehow, she and Zairn had discovered a unique position she’d never experienced before. One of her legs was curled up over his torso, but she was so high up on his body that only her calf came into contact with his good stuff. And, yes, hello, his good stuff rose with the sun… Both of his arms were wrapped around her; his hands filled with her a*s. Yep, apparently, he was an a*s man. Even in his sleep, he managed a strong grip. Impressive.

If he got to grab her a*s, then she got to do something fun too. Without opening her eyes, Roxie tipped her head back and opened her mouth to drag her teeth through his stubble until it settled on his jaw.

The sound he made was half groan, half moan. His grip tightened. Either he was awake and figuring out what was going on, or he was still in his dream and her real-world actions were transferring to his subconscious.

Under her leg, the line of his c**k grew harder and thicker. Whoever he thought she was, his body sure didn’t mind her taking liberties. Pursing her lips against the square corner of his jaw, she hummed, teasing him with the vibration.

Tucking her head deeper, she rubbed her nose in the arousing scent of his hair before letting her lips tickle his ear. “This is your early morning wake-up call, Mr. Lomond,” she purred in her deepest seduction voice. With her leg, she stroked his d**k through his sweats. “You’ve taken care of rise. I’ll take care of shine, if you ask nicely.”

Instantly his head shifted away, not far, just enough that he could turn to focus on her. “Rox,” he exhaled and relaxed, letting go of her a*s to drop his fist on his forehead. “Shit.”

“Who’d you think it would be?” she said, her leg still sliding up and down. “I was the last woman you lay down with.”

“I thought you were a nightmare,” he said and dropped his hand to stall her knee. “Stop that.”

“You don’t like it?” she teased, propping her fist on her temple to support her head.

“No, I do…” His eyes were closed again. “I shouldn’t.”

Those last two words were muttered with disdain, but it wasn’t aimed at her.

“Oh, cut yourself some slack,” she said, boosting herself on top of him. “You’re a guy with morning wood.” The glare in his gaze roused her smile. Bowing to touch her forehead to his for a second, she rose to sit on him, trailing her hands down his torso. Her hips did their own thing again, rolling in varying patterns to grind against him. “It doesn’t mean anything.”

The glare was still there although the hue of it altered. “No?” he asked, curling his fingers around her hips. His digits straightened to insinuate themselves under the hem of her Lola top. When they curled again, they wormed their way under the elastic waistband of her plaid cotton pants. “If you take that shirt off, it still won’t mean anything.”

“Yeah?” she asked, amazed that he hadn’t yet learned not to play chicken with her.

Demure just wasn’t her. Gathering the hem of her top, implying that she might… His eyes flared. Oh, he was anticipating it. Yeah, right, how many millions of pairs of t**s had he seen? Letting go of the fabric, she dropped to plant both hands on the couch at either side of his head, suspending herself over him. He adjusted to the disappointment fast, driving his fingers deeper into her pants to hold her a*s without the inconvenience of clothes in the way.

Releasing the lock of her elbows, Roxie descended, her eyes growing heavier in response to his doing the same. Her lips hung barely an inch above his. The heat of their breath mingled, intensifying the morning humidity that was absolutely all them.

“It wouldn’t be fair,” she murmured, rolling her hips to respond to his kneading hands. “To tease you with the one thing you can’t have.”

“You’re not unattainable, Lola.”

“Money can’t buy you love, Casanova,” she said, angling her head to take her mouth even closer. “Didn’t you hear?”

“I’ll hear you when you tell the truth. You’re wild for me, baby… It’s ‘cause I said no. Ever since then, it’s been the only thing on your mind.”

“Oh, I wondered where my cocky friend had gone,” she said, searching his expression with a smile.

His hips surged up and he forced her a*s down, clamping their bodies tight together. “Mm?”

“You want it bad,” she teased, brushing her nose across his. “Are you thinking about it, baby? About sliding yourself into me?”

“If I took control of this, I’d f**k you anyway I wanted. You’d be begging for it, baby.”

“You think?”

“I know.”

“Mm,” she hummed.

“s**t, you feel good, baby,” he admitted in a rush of breath, forcing his head far back.

Their bodies raced each other. Hands weren’t required; instinct led the way. Excitement of intuitive animal stimulation fired her with blazing fury.

The exposed column of his throat was too tempting to ignore. After kissing and l*****g his Adam’s apple, her mouth trailed to the side of his neck. The pressure behind her c**t began to build. Damn, she was close. Coming only minutes after waking up with him would dent the credibility of her aloof taunting.

Oh, who the hell cared? “Z,” she whimpered, pressing her mouth to the underside of his jaw.

“f**k it,” he hissed, yanking his hand from her pants to drive it under her top up the route of her spine.

Just as his fist clenched in her hair, both of them heard the same sound: the door opening. For a breath, they froze, eyes locked, then in frantic unison, they fought to extricate themselves from each other. Despite movement in the long foyer, she didn’t pause to check who was about to join them.

Dashing around the chairs, Roxie snatched her robe from the floor and tied the belt in the same second Ballard appeared. His scowl went from her to the man she’d left by the couch, back and forth a couple of times.

“Been years since you pulled this kind of s**t,” Ballard said, focusing on Zairn. “No, I take that back. This? You’ve never been this stupid.”

“Bal—”

“Og is on his way,” Ballard said, cutting off his boss: ballsy choice. “He’s finished downstairs.”

“We’re not buying,” Zairn said.

“On Balfour’s word?”

“We’ll talk about this later.”

“Right,” Ballard said, punctuating the word with a judgmental snicker. “You trust her to suck your c**k but are smart enough not to talk business in front of her. And you wonder why I’m glaring at you.”

“I don’t wonder,” Zairn said. “Did you hear me ask your permission?”

“I’m gonna go,” Roxie mumbled, pointing at the hallway.

Ballard spoke before she got more than a step. “Your friends are on their way back.”

That startled her. “Back from where?”

“They stayed at the club last night,” he said. “At the private lock-in lounge.”

At the whosy, what-now? “That sounds like a super-secret, top-level something… Why were they invited there? The leech guys?”

“Staff notice when the owner’s head of security and logistics singles out two particular women.”

And who asked him to do that? No one, mm hmm… Though that wouldn’t be the best moment to climb onto her high horse.

“Did you know?” she asked instead.

“That you snuck off early for a booty call with my boss? No,” he said and drew his eyes past her to Zairn again. “Not until I got back to the club and found out he’d left too.”

“We don’t have time for this. Rox—”

“I’m going,” she said, throwing up her hands, returning to her escape route.

If her friends were on their way back from the club, she didn’t have much time to get to her room. They’d have some tales to tell, hopefully giving Roxie a reprieve from telling hers.