Page 26 of The Mech Who Loved Me
Antidote: either pretend it's not happening, or... submit to it. Get it out of yoursystem.
"What are you doing?" she squeaked. This was not helping her levels ofdistraction.
Which was probably exactly what he'd intended when he told her tocomein.
"What does it look like?" A black lock of hair fell over his forehead, highlighting the blue of his eyes in the reflection. "A man has toshave."
"Yes... but...." Ava gestured to his chest, and didn't quite have the words to continue. He had a thick pelt of black hair on his chest, and a trail of it led suggestively from his navel downintohis—
She jerked her gaze elsewhere, feeling flushed and bothered. There was some sort of steel contraption circling his waist under his waistband, but his trousers were tight enough for her to see prime example of an exquisite gluteus maximus and she forgot what she'd been thinkingabout.
Kincaid smiled smugly when he saw where her attention had gone. "Are you tempted, Ava? Are you thinking about myproposition?"
My goodness. Her cheeks heated, and she abruptly gave him her back, squeezing her eyes shut. There was no help for it: the image of him was imprinted behind her eyelids. How horrifically embarrassing. "I am trying to concentrate onthiscase."
"Ah, the case. So... two other blue bloods visited the vaccination clinics recently and ended up dead with Black Vein," he mused, and the sound of the scrape of his razor over his skin made her nipples harden. "I'm no investigator, but that sounds like aconnection."
Ava stared at the wall, the folder curled against her chest.Concentrate, damn you. "Uh, yes. Francis Jenkins was the second victim, and Marcus Long was the fourth. Both had been vaccinated around a month before they died." There was a pause. Water dripped, and she could only imagine it gleaming on Kincaid's smooth cheeks... sliding down his hairy chest in rivulets. "Could you please put someclotheson?"
"Why?" That suggestive lilt was back in his voice as fabric rustled. A towel, perhaps. "Does itbotheryou?"
"Yes."
"Keep your voice down," he murmured, setting something aside with a clank. His razor, she suspected. "We're surrounded by people with exceptionally finehearing."
"What's wrong? We're not speaking of anything untoward, are we? You're not embarrassed by yoursuggestion?"
"I value my balls where they are, thank you very much, and several Rogues have made quite complicated threats to their well-being, should I even look at youtwice."
Her cheeks had to rival a sunset right about now. The other members of the Company of Rogues had threatened him? Wait... what? "That makes no sense. It's not as though I have to beat my suitors away with a stick. I would have thought Gemma a more likely candidate forseduction?"
The femme fatale gave new meaning to the word alluring. Sometimes Ava just liked to sit and watch Gemma in action when she was flirting. The other woman always had a witty comeback, a saucy double entendre. Sometimes Ava wished she too had the same confidence and easy manner, but she might as well be wishing forthemoon.
"You underestimate your attractions, especially to a man like me. Gemma's the one warning me away. She smiled very sweetly as she offered to poison my tea with a severe emetic. Then there's Malloryn, of course, who was most put out to find Ingrid and Byrnes in a dalliance. He wouldn't approve. You're you and I'm me, and never the twain shall meet. That sort ofthing."
Never the twain shall meet? "That's not what you were proposing lastnight."
"Oh, were you thinking ofaccepting?"
Ava caught her breath. "I haven't decided, but I will thank the lot of them to keep their noses out of myaffairs."
"They're justprotectingyou."
"I can make myowndecisions, thank you very much. I am not a child. I am not a weak-willed woman. And if I want to indulge in an affair, then that is my business and no oneelse's."
"Perhaps Gemma thinks I have a badreputation?"
"You do." She'd seen women eye him appreciably, and Kincaid had often given them a wink in return. That utterly wicked smile spoke more than words ever could. "Now... are you dressed? We have to work out why there are five dead bluebloods."
"Yes, I'm dressed." Fabric rustled once again. "Your poor innocent eyes should be safe if you turn around. So what's the diagnosis? Disease?Murder?"
"I don't know. But don't you find it interesting this Black Vein rears its head at this particular time—right when Lord Ulbricht and thedhampirgroup have shown themselves committed to causing civil unrest in London? Right when one of thedhampirthemselves died in the same way? As much as I dislike leaping to conclusions, as you said, that sounds like aconnection."
She chanced a look at him, only to find him doing up the buttons on his shirt.Apity.
Ava pinched herself.Not a pity. It isnota pity.She needed to forget he'd ever put his hands on her at the Garden of Eden. It was too distracting, too close to home. There was nothing between her andKincaid.
You're lying to yourself. You find Kincaid physicallycompatible.
