Fighting (37 page)

"Ethan,"
I breathed out.  "I'm gonna come if you keep doing that."

His
eyes were so dark, they were nearly black.  He looked down at his hands that
were still on me and covered by my shirt.  He blinked.  "Fuck, are you
wearing my shirt?" he asked.

I
nodded and he made the growly noise that he usually made when he was angry.  He
kissed me hard and fast before he tore the shirt off my body.  And then I was
totally topless in front of Ethan.  I could feel the tips of my hair fanned out
against my sensitive skin, curling against my shoulders and chest.  He took a
step back and scorched my skin with his gaze as he scanned over my body.  I
wrapped my leg around his, wanting him to come back to me.  I thought he would
kiss me, but instead he dipped his head and his tongue licked a path between my
breasts, up toward my neck.  I made a high pitched noise in the back of my
throat and my head hit the wall.

"Oh
my God," I muttered.  That was unexpected but felt amazing.

"I
want to do that to you every time you show your cleavage," he rasped out.

He
had my permission.

He
kissed a path up my neck and his hands slid to the small of my back.

"I
wanna lay you down," he murmured against my jaw.

"Okay,"
I whispered.

My
leg was still wrapped around his, so he lifted it higher to his hip, grabbed my
other leg to do the same, and then lifted me up.  I wrapped my arms around his
neck and kissed him as I marveled at the feel of my bare chest against his.  He
turned us around and walked the ten feet to the bed.  We bounced a little as he
put a knee to the bed and walked us up to the pillows.  My head hit the pillow
and our mouths stayed connected as his hips settled between mine and his hands
rediscovered my breasts.  After a few seconds, his mouth left mine to trail
down the skin of my neck and skim across my collar bone before he slowly rubbed
his closed mouth across the crest of one breast.  His stubble was scratching my
skin softly and my hips raised slightly at the graze of it over my sensitive
nipple.  He finally opened his mouth and sucked lightly.  My hips raised a lot
at the feel of that. 

There
was no controlling my breathing, and now I was losing control of my voice.  I
kept making little keening noises when he would do something particularly hot. 
Like when he licked my other nipple and then sucked
deeply
.  My hands
were gliding over his skin, but they gripped his hips tightly when he did
that.  No one had ever done that to me before and it was fucking awesome.

"Do
that again," I gasped.

He
did, and shifted slightly to elevate himself off of me with one hand by my
head, so I lost the feel of his skin against mine.  My hands flew to his
shoulders to protest, but then I became very aware of his free hand as it
skimmed over my stomach and down to the waistband of my pants.  His mouth
returned to mine to kiss me deeply and my hands feathered through his hair.   

Did
I want to go that far?  Was I ready for that?  Oh, who was I kidding?  We did
worse in my dreams every night.

His
hand didn't dip inside my pants, but it did twirl around so his fingers were
pointed toward our feet and with deliberate slowness, again so I had time to
protest, dipped down between my legs.  His fingers pressed in and I ripped my
mouth from his. 

"Ethan,"
I wheezed out. 

My
eyes snapped wide open and his hand stilled. 

"You
okay?" he rumbled, his voice huskier than normal, both of us breathing
heavily.

Was
I okay?  I'm pretty sure I was high off of my ass on ecstasy or something, he
made me feel so good. 

I
pressed my eyes closed tight and said in a high pitched voice,
"Mmhmm."

His
hand disappeared and I opened my eyes.  He pushed himself up on two hands so he
was hovering over me, which in itself was a turn on. 

His
eyes were intense but understanding on mine when he said, "We can
stop."

"You
don't put your hand back where it was, I'll break it," I snapped.

His
eyes flashed wider and he burst into laughter so loud, it echoed around the
room.  I slapped his shoulder and he shoved his face in my neck and pressed his
chest against mine, so I could hear and
feel
him laughing.  It was
sweet, and I couldn't hold onto my irritation, so I ended up wrapping my arms
around his neck and laughing right along with him.

"You
know I could," I laughed.

He
rose up to look at me again and said with mock seriousness, "Yes,
ma'am."

He
had just lowered his lips to graze mine and pressed two fingers against me when
there was a sudden insistent knock on the door.  In seconds, he was off the bed
with a gun in his hand and I was across the room with a knife in mine.  He
tossed his shirt to me and I slipped it on and grasped my gun.  I pressed my
back against the corner of the wall closest to the door and stowed my knife in
my pants, dedicating two hands to the gun.  Ethan slowly approached the door
and pressed his back against the wall beside the door and kept his eyes on me. 

"Yes?"
he called out.

"Sir,
I'm with the hotel staff.  If you could open your door for a moment, I would
appreciate it."

He
raised his eyebrows and I shrugged.  Trap or the actual staff needed, for some
ungodly reason, to talk to us at four in the morning?  Decisions, decisions.

Ethan
motioned for me to stay hidden and cover him as he stowed his gun in the
microwave.  He opened the door cautiously and the employee took a small step
forward and wasted no time getting to the heart of the matter.

"Sir,
we've gotten a few noise complaints from your neighbors.  Sounds of fighting,
by the sound of it, with a woman."

Ethan
relaxed and his hand slid up the edge of the door while his other hand rested
on his hip.  "Yeah, sorry about that."

"I'm
going to need to see the woman, and make sure she's all right."

Oh
good, they wanted to make sure Ethan didn't murder me in the night.  I quickly
switched the knife in my waistband for the gun and slid the knife between the
mattresses of the bed. 

"Babe,"
Ethan called out.

I
pulled Ethan's shirt away from my waist and lazily walked around the corner and
into their field of vision. 

"What?"
I asked sleepily, openly eyeing the employee with suspicion.

"He
needs to make sure I didn't hurt you during our fight."

I
looked from Ethan to the employee and said, "I'm fine."  I almost
said something sarcastic, but it wasn't lost on me that they wanted to make
sure that a woman wasn't being abused or something under their watch, so I kept
it in check.  "Sorry about the fighting, but he just drives me crazy
sometimes, you know?"

"Could
I speak to you in the hallway privately for a moment?" the man asked.

"You're
not a cop," Ethan said.

"No
sir, but I can call them if I need to," he vaguely threatened.  This guy
was pretty good at his job.

I
put a hand at the small of Ethan's back and pressed in meaningfully, letting
him know I had a weapon there.  "It's okay.  I'll be right back."

Ethan
looked like he wanted to protest but he nodded and I followed the man outside. 
He led me down the hall a bit so that Ethan couldn't overhear us and as soon as
the door clicked shut, he spoke.

"Are
you all right, really?" he asked with roving eyes inspecting for visible
damage.

"Yes,"
I said firmly.  "I'm very sorry for how loud we were.  We're not usually
like that, but we're in town having to stay at the hotel while his brother is
having serious surgery.  He might not make it.  We're both extremely stressed
out and took it out on each other, but no, he didn't hit or otherwise hurt
me."

He
nodded his head with sympathy and said, "And you feel safe with him?"

I
didn't have to lie about this part.  "Extremely."

"Well,
if you're sure, then I'll let you get back to your room.  Have a good night and
please, keep the noise to a minimum."

"Of
course.  Thank you for your concern."

He
nodded and swept toward the elevator.  I stayed to watch as he got on and noted
the numbers over the elevator doors to see which floor he stopped on.  If he
was a mole, then he just had me at his mercy and did nothing, but he could have
went back to report in to someone.  Of course, he could have merely been a
concerned hotel employee.  The elevator stopped on the ground floor and
satisfied that I was alone on the floor, I walked back to the door.  I didn't
even get a chance to knock before it opened and Ethan pulled me inside by my
hands. 

He
released me and asked, "What'd he say?"

"He
just made sure that you didn't hurt me.  I wouldn't have told the truth if you
were right there, towering over me."

His
hands squeezed on my shoulders anxiously and he asked doubtfully, "He
really worked for the hotel?"

I
shrugged and said, "I don't know.  He seemed legit, but wouldn't you, if
you were in his position?"

"Are
we being too paranoid?"

"Brooks
would say to act first and ask questions later, because otherwise we'll wake up
with black bags over our heads, locked to a chair beside a tray of torture
tools."

He
looked slightly astonished when he asked, "Brooks told you that?" 

"Yeah. 
I think we should probably go.  What do you think?"

"Better
safe than sorry, I guess."  One of hands slid up to cup my jaw and he got
in close.  "We going to talk about what just happened?" he asked
softly.

"Yeah,"
I whispered.  I cleared my throat.  "But later, when an army of
mercenaries are probably not on their way to our hotel room as we speak,"
I said in a stronger voice.

"Right."

I
smiled, happy that this was happening at all.  I mean, his lips were just on
mine! 
Huzzah
!

He
let me go so we could gather all of our belongings, which were already mostly
packed.  The only things we needed to grab were weapons and the clothing we had
shed.  I grabbed my bag and ran to the bathroom to change and came back out to
lace up my boots as he quickly did a quick wipe down of the entire room,
erasing our fingerprints.  I got another rag and wiped down the bathroom the
same way. 

I
grabbed our bags and waited for him by the door.  He swiped his gun from the
microwave and shoved it into the waistband of his jeans.  He stole the trash
bag from the can and opened the door with the rag.  He held the door open for
me as I peeked out to inspect the hallway.  I stepped out fully when I found it
empty and Ethan followed me, pulling the door shut gently still using the rag. 
We tossed both rags into the trash bag and he took his bag from me as we walked
to the stairwell.  We exited through a side door, avoiding the main exits.  I
tied the trash bag shut and tossed it in the dumpster once we got outside to
the back parking lot.  We pressed flat against the wall and scouted the parking
lot for enemies.

"I'm
guessing we're leaving for the beach house right now," I said quietly.

"Yeah,
might as well."  He looked over at me.  "We're both wide awake and
already dressed," he reasoned. 

Two
guesses why we were so awake.

"Five
hour drive," I muttered.  "I don't think I want to straddle the bike
for that long.  And we never did get helmets."

"I
was planning to get us a car for that leg of the journey."

"Well,
let's go shopping," I said cheerfully. 

I'd
never stolen a car before!  He smiled at my eagerness and looked out at the
parking lot.

"Maybe
we should pick a random place to take one from," I suggested.

"Might
be a good idea."  I took a step to walk to the front parking lot but
stopped when he put a hand to my stomach.  "This could still be a trap. 
The bike is in the front, so I'll get it and bring it back here to get
you."

"What
if they're waiting on you?" I asked somewhat anxiously.

"Then
they don't get you," he said, walking away without waiting for an answer.

I
resisted calling out after him in protest and ran a hand through my hair.  Did
I have to fall in love with a freaking hero?

I
became aware of a painful tingling in my scalp and realized I was pulling on my
hair anxiously.  I let out a breath and my body sagged.  Okay fine, I was in
love with him.  I had been for a while, but denial is a bitch.  So is karma. 
And payback, now that I think about it.

Whoa, focus Alex.
  I was without Ethan,
standing in a dark parking lot at four a.m.  This was definitely not the time
to lose my focus.  I scanned my surroundings vigilantly and dipped my hand into
the back of my jeans to feel the reassurance of the gun.  My muscles tensed in
caution, prepared to flee on foot.  I heard the purr of the bike engine and
within moments, he was pulling around the lot to where he left me standing by
the wall.  He hadn't come to a complete stop before I was running over to him. 
I jumped on and had barely wrapped my arms around his abs before we took off. 
Guess he felt twitchy being separated, too.