Page 96 of The Rescuer

When it was over, people gathered their mats, but Reece was bent over, inspecting whatever the woman beside him was showing him, with Shane looking on. That woman was Germaine, and she was holding something up, all flirty smiles and big boobs straining her stretchy crop tank—boobs she was shoving out so far her back curved into a Cshape.

Ugh!

In his usual way, Reece listened quietly, his eyes on hers and not the D-cups she was shoving in his face, punctuating their interaction with a few words so softly spoken Neve couldn’t make them out. The little green monster inside her pushed her to her feet, and she started toward them to find out what the hell Germaine was up to—as if Neve didn’t already know—when Reece pulled an object from his gym shorts and sliced through the item Germaine held up. But that wasn’t what caught Neve’s attention. It was the knife itself, the little red one Christopher, the boy from the car crash, had given Reece. Neve knew for a fact that, like most other men around here, he owned at least two dozen knives, including some very special ones from his childhood, but the fact that he carriedthatone made her heart liquefy inside her chest. She could have sworn it sloshed as her footsteps carried her nearer. It definitely puddled when he looked up at her and gave her a special smile meant only for her. “Hey.”

“Hey. Everything okay back here?”

“I was helping Germaine get loose from a strap on her towel that got caught on her bracelet.”

A strap on her towel? Yeah, right.Neve crossed her arms over her chest and slid Germaine a side-eye. A return glower came back at her. Neve wanted to tell Miss Big Boobs to leave her man alone. And hewasher man. Wasn’t he? They were married. Even if it had started out as the world’s biggestoops, they were living like husband and wife, and they had sprinted way past the annulment stage days ago.

“Well, I’m glad you got it all sorted,” Neve said primly. She didn’t miss the way Reece’s lips tipped up in a smirk. He could probably ready every fleck of green that had invaded her otherwise blue orbs.

She left them to tidy up the room and grab her stuff from the instructor’s closet. A gentle shove against her shoulder sent herintothe closet, and soon the door was closed and Reece’s hard body pressed against hers. His mouth went straight to that spot at the base of her neck that always turned her knees to jelly. The mild scent of sweat mingled with pines and leather engulfed her. God, she loved how he smelled. Her arms immediately encircled his shoulders, pulling him closer so she could sniff his neck.

“You’re jealous.” Even though he mumbled the words against her skin, she didn’t miss the note of triumph in them.

“Am not.”

“Are too. But you should know better. Germaine is a nonstarter and always has been.” His big hands slid to her ass. He cupped it and drew her closer, lifting her to her tiptoes. As natural as could be, she hooked her legs around his waist and nearly gasped aloud when his hips flexed, leaving no doubt he was as hard as a granite rod. “See? Only one girl in this town does it for me.”

She tilted her head. “Were you thinking about me in my tights out there?”

“Nah,” he teased. “I was picturing yououtof your tights, spread eagle on one of those mats, your hair wild and all that skin on display and ready for me to explore with my tongue.”

She stifled a laugh. “So I’m flopped back on a mat without anything on?”

“I said spread, not flopped. There’s a subtle distinction. You might have been tied up, and you weren’ttotallynaked. You might have been wearing those lace gloves from the wedding.”

She couldn’t hold back her mirth. “Reece Hunnicutt, when did you become such a—”

“Perv?” Dipping his head, he bit at a nipple through the stretchy fabric, then tongued it.

Shelovedhow, in an instant, Reece transformed from the quiet, still-waters guy into the dirty, sexy beast with her now. That he would show her that side of him no one else glimpsed. Well, maybe Chelsea had at onetime, but she was an irrelevant footnote in his past. At least that’s what Neve tried to tell herself.

“Oversexed lech was more what I had in mind, but perv fits too.” She gave his shoulders a shove, but they didn’t budge. He moved to her other side. The man was on a mission. “You’re going to leave wet marks, and everyone’s going to know!”

“Hardly anyone’s out there, but we can play it safe by getting your top out of the way. No wet marks, very efficient. Then we’ll stay in here until the last person leaves. Problem solved. And to answer your question, I became an oversexedlechthe morning I woke up in Vegas, looked over the side of the bed, and saw your cute tush wiggling at me. You corrupted me.”

Damn the wet spots. The damage was already done anyway. She dropped her head back and let him do what he wanted, let the sensations rock her. “You mean you’re not the type to assault women in storage closets?” A breathlessness came through in her husky voice.

He raised his head and stared at her, his expression earnestly serious. Cold air pricked her wet peaks. “I’m not kidding. ‘Corrupted’ is the wrong word, but the kinds of things we do, I’ve never done with anyone else before. The fantasies I have about you I’ve never had about anyone else.” Then he grinned from ear to ear. “But you, I’m ready to take in any closet anywhere, any day, anytime. You make me nuts.”

Her mind took an unexpected detour to a nagging question: Was Reece her benefactor or not? Between the take-down-on-ice debacle gone terribly wrong and their extended lovemaking sessions going soright, the unsolved mystery had moved into the dusty back rooms of her mind. But she needed a definitive answer. No more evasiveness. And if hewasher generous donor, she had some apologizing to do. One should never try to check one’s benefactor during a no-checking game.

She would wheedle an answer about the donations. She had some very creative ideas about pulling the truth from him—every single one involved the two of them naked. Getting him into a compromised position where she held all the power would be easy. He was good about letting her have her way with him, and she wasn’t above playing dirty.

Lifting a hand above her head, she arched her back in a provocative, sex-kitten pose and baited him. “Nuts in a good way?”

His eyes traveled down, landing right where she wanted them. Yes, she was acting like a shameless sleazeball. If anybody walked in on them—

“Depends on your definition of ‘good.’ I’m having a hard time getting anything done these days.”

“What do you have to get done, besides pack for Vermont?”

If one sentence could freeze an entire closet and murder a playful moment, hers just had. He lowered her to her feet and tugged her top back into place, regret shimmering in his eyes.

Cringing inside, she whispered, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to put a damper on our fun.”

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