Eagle's Heart (8 page)

“Are you going to try to sell me a timeshare?” she asked with a smirk.

She doesn’t know anything, he thought. She can’t help you catch Bardhyn. She probably didn’t even know he was the one responsible for what had happened to her. Julian would fix this for her, but there was nothing that could be done until at least the next day. The transcripts would have to be cleared for release as evidence in order for her to be exonerated, and that couldn’t happen until they took down Bardhyn.

Julian put his drink down on a nearby banquet table and stepped closer to her. If she didn’t have any information that would be useful to the case, then she was no longer off limits, he reasoned. He didn’t want to spend another night thinking about his family and how he had failed them. He wanted to hold someone close and feel their warmth against him. Not someone: Salomeh.

“No, I’m going to ask you to dance,” he said, holding out his hand.

The group of people next to them was moving to the slow reggae music that had been playing for some time now. It was still humid out, but the breeze had picked up, making it possible to dance without ending up a sweaty mess.

“Only if you promise not to bust out with any weird Albanian folk dancing,” she said. “If you do, I’ll be forced to pretend I don’t know you.”

He laughed. He had some moves he’d love to show her, but not on the dance floor.

She took his hand as he led her into the crowd of swaying bodies. “So, what are you doing in New York? Do you live here? Are you visiting?”

“I’m here on business, taking care of a problem that should have been handled a long time ago,” he said over his shoulder.

“What kind of problem?” she asked.

He turned and placed his hands on her hips and gave her a censuring look. “Remember the rule about having fun tonight? Answering that question would violate that rule. I’ll just say I’m here to tie up some loose ends that have turned into downed electrical wires.”

He held her gaze until she nodded in understanding. As if she could sense his immediate need for distraction, she began moving to the music, and he followed suit.

“So that means you can’t tell me what you do, then?” Salomeh asked, glancing at the couple dancing in exaggerated pantomime next to them. He noticed Salomeh was stiff, as if she hadn’t danced for a while. He exerted just a bit of pressure with his fingertips against her hips, a small gesture meant to force her to focus on him but that left him musing on how pliant she felt under his touch.

“I’m a consultant,” he said, swaying in time with her but leading all the same.

It wasn’t exactly a lie.

“A consultant secret agent? Do you recommend the latest gadgets to stop super villains?” she asked, referencing their running joke and startling him again in the process.

“If only consulting were that interesting,” he said and then remembered he should return the question even if he already knew the answer. “What about you?”

“I’m—” She paused, and he could see her grappling with emotion. “I’m a teacher. I teach literature at a high school.”

Her voice only caught a little when she said it, and he would have congratulated her on a job well done if it wouldn’t have resulted in her throwing her drink in his face.

“Sounds like a hard job,” he said. “Do you like it? Did you always want to be a teacher?”

“I love it,” she said, her eyes shining. “When I was a little girl, I would set up a classroom with my stuffed animals serving as the pupils, and I would go over the alphabet and read books to them. My mom says that I just enjoy bossing people around and I found a way to get paid for it.”

Julian laughed and slid one hand from her waist to her back, pulling her in closer. He didn’t give it any thought. It seemed natural to hold her against him.

“Is that true?” he asked.

“No,” she said and then added, “Maybe a little. But when I got older, I saw that it wasn’t a game, that a teacher could affect lives. Most of my peers do well enough, but I’ve seen so many kids fall through the cracks who might have had an entirely different life if someone had just reached out to them. We need teachers who care enough to do more than the bare minimum…”

He heard the break in her voice before she went silent, and felt the anger rising in him again. This time it was directed at the right source. Bardhyn would love to know how he had fractured Salomeh’s life, and inadvertently the lives of all the children she wouldn’t be able to help unless she was absolved.

“I’m sorry. I’m rambling on,” she said softly. He could feel her pulling away again, withdrawing.

“Don’t be silly,” he said. “A woman who’s passionate about her job, who cares about helping children is incredibly attractive.” When she looked up at him, he added, “Don’t worry, I won’t make any hot-for-teacher jokes.”

She flinched, and he remembered the tabloid headline.

Way to go, Tamali.

“Are you passionate about your job?” she asked, obviously wanting to turn the conversation away from herself.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “I’m good at it, and I’m committed to it. I like when I’m successful. I like when I can help people.”

“I thought being a spy was supposed to be exciting,” she said.

“It has its perks,” he said, leaning down and allowing his forehead to brush hers.

As they danced to the slow beats, Julian learned all the things he had in common with her. They both loved sports, although they disagreed over whether baseball or golf was more boring to watch. Salomeh was a staunch defender of modern fiction while Julian preferred the classics, but when they compared their favorite authors, Julian found himself agreeing with everything she said. They talked about politics and religion and some things that were just plain random, like Salomeh’s ability to wiggle her ears. He brushed her hair behind her ear so she could demonstrate, his fingers brushing against the silken skin of her neck as he pulled his hand away.

I’m a goner, he thought as he looked down at Salomeh. Her face was scrunched up as she struggled to move the appendages.

“They moved!” Julian said proudly when she finally pulled the trick off.

“I guess I’m out of practice,” she said sheepishly. “I guess I could say that about a lot of things.”

Julian was fairly certain she wasn’t talking about riding a bike, but he didn’t press her further.

Their dancing was innocent, simultaneous swaying and two-stepping, but his thoughts were becoming increasingly focused on the slide of her dress under his fingers and the coconut scent of her hair wafting up to him. The graceful column of her throat when she threw her head back and laughed made him want to run his tongue over it, to make her throw her head back in a very different way. She was no longer stiff; she had relaxed under his hands, and she moved languidly and without insecurity, making Julian think of his fantasy from earlier in the day. Now that he had her in his arms, he couldn’t stop wondering how tight she would feel around his cock, or whether she would taste savory or sweet as she rode his tongue.

“You okay, 007?” she asked when his eyes met hers, and he realized he had let his mask drop and his face was an open book, dog-eared at the sexiest scene. Her mouth parted just a bit, and her eyes seemed to reflect what was coursing through him in that instant. Want. Pure, undiluted desire.

A fast, Arabic-inflected hip-hop song came on just then, and Salomeh rocked her hips to the beat, brushing against him in the process. Julian thought it was just a chance meeting of body parts, but then she closed her eyes and moved her body to the spiraling melody. She turned her back to him before swaying her hips in a sensuous snakelike pattern.

His hand went to her stomach of its own accord, pulling her against him. The curve of her ass pressed against him as she danced, teasing him mercilessly with its proximity. Although he held her firmly in place, her hips never stopped moving, sometimes dipping low, sometimes flicking to the sides. He not only kept time with her, he took the lead, sliding his body against hers in time to the music as his hands gently caressed her belly and hips.

His cock thickened from the stimulation of her ass brushing against it and from the erotic vision she presented as she danced without inhibition. Salomeh bounced to the beat of the infectiously danceable song, and her breasts followed suit, threatening to spill out of the halter top. Her dress hitched farther and farther up her thighs. Julian’s fingertips followed in the wake of the material, running up the smooth soft skin and cupping her backside before letting his hands drift back down to someplace respectable near her thighs.

She gasped but didn’t push him away. Instead she danced harder.

“I see you live up to your name,” he said into her, and he felt the shiver go through her as his breath brushed against her sensitive skin.

He turned her so that she faced him, their rhythm so synced they didn’t skip a beat of the music.

“Hm, so you’re gentleman and a scholar? What do you know about my name?” she asked with a mischievous smile. He hadn’t seen her wear that expression yet, and he thought it suited her perfectly.

He scoffed. “I don’t feel like much of a gentleman at the moment,” he said as he ran his hands down her exposed back and settled them at her hips. He slid his knee between her legs just as she pressed closer to him. She rocked back, the fabric of his jeans the only barrier between her warm pussy and his leg. She subtly ground herself against his thigh, a low moan escaping her lips when Julian leaned into her motion. Desire rocketed through him at the sound.

He let out a harsh breath. “I do know that Salomeh’s dance could bring any man to his knees, ensuring she got whatever she wanted.”

Her hands gripped his shoulders as they swayed. He wondered if the people around them could possibly tell she was so wet for him that she was soaking through his jeans as she worked herself on his thigh. Her breasts were crushed against his chest, and he could feel the hitch in her breath when he settled her more firmly against his leg, desperate to make her come and not caring if it was in the middle of a crowd.

“I’m not interested in your head on a platter, at the moment. That would be a buzzkill, don’t you think?” she asked before she worked her way slowly down his body and then back up again.

Julian stopped dancing and used his fingertips to raise her chin so she looked him full in the face. “What do you want, then, Salomeh?”

For a second, and only a second, panic flashed in her eyes. But then she smiled her new, mischievous smile before leaning up close to his ear.

“I want you,” she said, her voice sending a shot of desire straight to his core.

Julian ducked his head and brushed his lips over hers. Despite the fact that his mouth barely grazed hers, a shock jolted through his body. There was something potent, electrifying, in the way her mouth molded to his, the floral taste of elderberry mixed with her own heady flavor.

Her hands came between them, and he thought she would push him away, but instead she grasped at his shirt, pulling him closer. He deepened the pressure of the kiss, his lips clinging to hers greedily. He had to willfully gentle himself when her tongue flicked at the seam of his lips. Their tongues finally touched, first softly exploring and then fighting for supremacy.

One part of him screamed,
Isn’t this the opposite of being professional?
But most of his senses were occupied with how perfectly Salomeh fit in his arms. Nothing had felt this good, this
real
for as long as he could remember, and he intended to savor it. He gentled the kiss, no longer plundering her lips with his, but sipping, seducing. He took his time, kissing her slowly and thoroughly as he cradled her against him. He licked at her plump bottom lip, and nipped it lightly with his teeth. The music drowned out Salomeh’s moan, but the sound reverberated in her chest and her hips bucked beneath his palms.

He ran his hands down her arms soothingly as he resumed swaying to the music. His heartbeat kept pace with the song’s speedy backing drums, and his erection pulsed against her stomach. She didn’t pull away. Instead she seemed to focus the friction of their dancing to that specific area.

Julian’s voice was husky when he finally spoke. “Salomeh, I don’t mean to be presumptuous, but—”

“Let’s go,” she said, her voice nearly as thick with need as his.

Salomeh turned to search the crowd for Marta, who was dancing with a tall Asian woman, possibly more suggestively than Julian had been with Salomeh. Salomeh managed to catch Marta’s eye and held her thumb and pinkie up to her ear, signaling that she would call her. Marta smiled brilliantly before turning her attention back to her dance partner.

Julian already had his hand outstretched and waiting when she turned back to him, and she took it without hesitation as if they had been executing the maneuver for years.

“Lead the way,” she said.

Chapter Seven

Salomeh couldn’t breathe. Julian had her pressed against the elevator bank, crushing his mouth over hers and angling his hips forward, heedless of who watched. Lodged between the cinder block wall and the rival hardness in Julian’s jeans, Salomeh didn’t care much either. He felt so good. Everything about him was strong and sexy and enticing, and he didn’t treat her like a pedo or like a fragile flower. He was exactly what she needed right now.

She had intended to have fun chatting with him and then call it a night. Somewhere along the line that intention had upgraded into dancing her blues away with him, and then calling it a night, and now here she was. There was something so damned attractive about the man. He was hot, of course, but he was also smart and funny, and he laughed at her jokes without thinking she was a dork. Something about him rekindled the fire within that the past few weeks had threatened to douse permanently, which was as exciting as it was frightening. Part of her wished it was only a physical attraction. Julian seemed like the kind of man a woman could easily fall in love with.

She pushed the thoughts out of her mind, chiding herself for even thinking that particular four-letter word when there so many others presenting themselves at this very moment.
Kiss. Lick. Fuck.