Smoke and Mirrors - Hollywood Knights One (15 page)

We stood there on the jetty for a while longer. I
was marginally warmer with my hands and arms curled between me and
Seth, but I was ready to get somewhere with artificial heat. I
forced myself to take a step back, but that’s as far as Seth let me
go. He looked me in the eye and cupped my half-frozen cheek.

“Thank you,” he said, his voice almost lost to the
wind and the waves. “For being here.”

I nodded, unable to speak past the sudden tightness
in my throat.

Then Seth did the last thing I would ever have
expected him to do: he leaned forward and pressed his lips to
mine.

Over the years, Seth had kissed me a handful of
times. It had never been more than a peck, a gesture of affection.
But that kiss felt like something more. And Seth confirmed that
when he deepened the kiss.

I knew it was a bad idea. I knew that Seth was just
looking for an escape, a place to hide. I didn’t care. I wrapped my
arms around his neck and kissed him for all I was worth, savoring
the hint of salt on his lips, the warmth of his mouth, the feel of
his hands on my bare skin as he slid them up beneath my hoodie and
t-shirt. I let him lead for a minute, and then I tangled my hands
in his hair and took control of the kiss, showing him that I was an
active participant in whatever it was that we had started. He
groaned and slid his hands down into my back pockets to pull me
against him. I wrapped a leg around his, trying to get even
closer.

Somewhere in the distance, a car alarm went off. It
startled us both, and we broke apart. Seth looked around as if just
remembering where we were.

“Like I was saying,” he said, “let’s get somewhere
warm.”

Chapter Thirty-One

We walked back to the car hand in hand, except for
on the steep-ass stairs. The second I was behind the wheel, I
started the car and set the heater to ‘roast.’ While I waited for
my shivering to subside and my fingers to thaw, I suggested that
Seth use the internet on his phone to find a decent place to
stay.

“I saw some hotels on our way in. There’s one on
this road, way down there,” he said, pointing back the way we’d
come.

I nodded, and once I was warm, I popped a U-turn and
headed back down Seawall. A couple of miles down the road, Seth
pointed toward a driveway.

“There.”

I looked up at the massive hotel
beside the driveway and almost missed the turn. It looked like
money. Not that Seth couldn’t afford it. Not that
I
couldn’t afford it.
Still, it looked elegant and proper and we didn’t. I wasn’t sure
they’d let us past the front door.

Once we’d turned into the drive, Seth suggested we
valet the car, but I shook my head. I had a loaded gun loose in the
trunk. I didn’t need to hand the car over to someone else, and I
didn’t need the valet to see me with the Sig, either. Instead, I
followed the signs around to the parking lot behind the hotel.

Once we found a parking space that wasn’t too far
from the back doors of the hotel, I put on my shoes and gathered up
my gear. I looked up to find Seth waiting on me, his shoes shoved
toe-first into a side pocket of his duffle. He pushed himself off
the fender and headed toward the hotel, barefoot with his
surf-soaked jeans still rolled up. I sighed and followed him.

We stepped through glass doors and into a nice, warm
foyer. A quick glance around showed nothing but stairs, an
elevator, and the kinds of doors that are meant for employees only.
We looked at each other, and Seth shrugged and headed for the
elevator. Inside, there was a sign telling us where to go, so we
hit the button for the third floor and headed up to reception. The
whole setup freaked me out, I admit. And when we stepped off the
elevator into the hushed, elegant lobby, I became even more
uncomfortable.

I watched Seth pad across the tile floor in his
bare, sandy feet, aware that we were out of place. The front desk
agent didn’t bat an eye, though. I guess sand and sea covered
guests were a common sight. I relaxed some, but not much, and I
realized that I’d been...I’m not sure what the psych term is for
it, but I’d been redirecting my anxiety. I wasn’t nervous about the
freakin’ hotel; I was nervous about what was going to happen once
we were alone in our hotel room. And who wouldn’t be? I’d only been
waiting for this opportunity for twenty years, give or take.

I pressed a hand to my stomach, which felt like it
had become home to an army of rampaging canaries. Or pterodactyls,
maybe. Something larger and pointier than butterflies, for
sure.

Before I could get the pterodactyls calmed down,
Seth was at my side, room key in hand.

“You okay?”

I looked up into his concerned eyes, and the stupid
dino-birds stopped bumping around. I reached for his hand and gave
him a little smile.

“Are you kidding? I’m fucking amazing.”

Seth grinned and pulled me into a hug, kissing me on
the temple. Then he led me back to the elevator. He stuck the key
card into a slot in the control panel and punched the button for
the tenth floor. I just leaned against him and waited.

The elevator doors opened onto a small lobby area
with red, modular seating and a lot of dark wood. A hallway
stretched off to our right, and we headed that way. We didn’t make
it far, though, before we were brought up short by the view.

Floor-to-ceiling windows looking out on Galveston
Island made up the entire right-hand wall. The lights of the small
city spread out below us like some kind of fairyland. I could
imagine that the view would be even more spectacular during the
day.

After a long pause, Seth started moving again, and I
followed him down the hall to our room. He gestured for me to go
first and then ended up bumping into me when I stopped in my
tracks.

I’ve stayed in some nice hotels. Hell the one I’d
stayed in with Elizabeth back in Jacksonville had been awesome. But
this room...it walked a line between enough and too much without
ever veering over onto the wrong side. It was class and elegance
and wealth. It was also really, really pretty without being the
least bit fussy or feminine.

A huge bed with a leather-padded headboard was the
centerpiece of the room. At its foot sat an upholstered bench. I
dropped my backpack on the floor and pushed it under the bench with
my foot. Then I looked around some more.

Seth ignored everything, dropped his duffle on the
armchair, and made a beeline for the sliding glass door that led to
the balcony. He stepped outside, leaving the door open behind him.
With a sigh, I followed him out, bracing myself against the chill
wind I knew I’d encounter.

The view, even at night, was worth braving the cold.
The moon on the water was just as beautiful from that balcony as it
had been from the jetty, and the pounding of the surf, though more
distant, was just as soothing.

Just as I had down on the beach, I stepped up behind
Seth, wrapped my arms around him, and rested my chin on his
shoulder. This time, though, I slid my hands beneath the front of
his shirt.

He jumped. “Jesus, your hands are cold,” he said,
covering my hands with his own, his shirt between them.

“Sorry.”

He ignored my apology and moved his hands to rest on
the top of the concrete barrier that edged the balcony. I closed my
eyes and shut out everything except the sound of the sea and the
feeling of Seth in my arms.

And the damned cold.

Before long I was shivering again. And again, Seth
turned toward me and said, “Let’s get you somewhere warm.”

He headed back inside and I followed, shutting the
door behind us. When I turned away from the door, I found Seth
stripping off his clothes and letting them fall to the floor as he
walked across the room. He disappeared into the bathroom, naked,
and then peered around the doorway a moment later.

“You gonna join me or what?”

As romantic declarations —or even come-ons— go, that
was a lame one. But it was one-hundred percent Seth. Grinning, I
stripped down to my skivvies and stepped into the bathroom. The
water was running, but Seth wasn’t in the shower. Instead, he was
examining the bathroom mirror. After a few seconds, I understood
why: they’d inset a flat-screen TV into the thing, and he was
curious about how they’d done it. I made a little sound that wasn’t
quite a laugh, and Seth turned to look at me.

“You’re kind of overdressed for a shower.”

“I can’t get the hooks unhooked,” I said. Yeah, it
was a lie, and he probably knew it, too. Neither of us cared.

Seth slid his arms around me, but instead of
bringing both hands up to unhook my bra like I’d thought he would,
he slid one hand up to my bra clasp and the other down the back of
my panties to cup the curve of my ass and drag me closer to him. I
might have gasped. I might even have squeaked. At that point, I
wasn’t aware of much that wasn’t Seth.

He unhooked my bra with one hand and slid the strap
down and off one arm without ever letting go of my ass. I pulled
the stupid contraption off my other arm and tossed it on the
counter beside me. Seth’s now-free hand tangled in my hair, and he
swooped in for another soul-searing kiss.

He didn’t let me take control this time. Instead, he
stepped back and smirked at me and then climbed into the shower. I
stuck my tongue out at him while he had his back turned, and then I
discarded my panties and joined him in the shower.

To my surprise, Seth didn’t try to turn our shower
into shower sex. He was a perfect gentleman, which I found kind of
unsettling, really. I got myself cleaned up and then stepped out of
the shower, mostly to see what would happen. I grabbed a bath towel
and stepped out into the bedroom. Two seconds later, I heard the
shower shut off, and I smiled to myself.

Seth stepped out of the bathroom and said, “Oh,
cool.” I looked at him to find him stark naked, rubbing his hair
with a towel. I forced myself to follow his line-of-sight instead
of just staring at him, and I saw what he was ‘oh cool’ing. While
we’d been in the shower, room service had delivered a bottle of
champagne in an ice bucket and a plate of chocolate-covered
strawberries.

“Nice,” I concurred.

Seth finished drying off, and then he popped the
cork on the champagne and poured us each a glass. He took the
glasses and the plate of strawberries to the little table that sat
in front of the l-shaped corner sofa (also leather, to match the
headboard). He frowned at the sofa for a minute, and then he
crossed the room and opened the closet door.

“A-ha!” he exclaimed

“Did you really just say a-ha?”

“Bite me,” he said, pulling two fluffy bathrobes
from the closet.

He held one of the bathrobes open for me, and I slid
my arms into it and tied the belt. He tugged the other on, leaving
it unbelted, and went to sit on the sofa. I curled up next to him,
and he handed me one of the glasses of champagne. Then he picked up
one of the strawberries and offered it to me, pointy end first and
at mouth level. I smiled and leaned forward, sliding the strawberry
into mouth as suggestively as I knew how. It was, apparently,
suggestive enough. Seth inhaled sharply and barely even waited for
me to chew my bite of strawberry before kissing me again.

We played his game for a little while, feeding each
other strawberries and sipping champagne until we were both past
the point of wanting to drag each other to the nearest horizontal
surface. Even though night had become morning, and even though we
were both tired, we weren’t in any hurry. We took our time, teasing
and tempting...and trying to see who would break first.

It was Seth. He set his empty glass aside, stood,
and held his hand out to me. I took his hand, and he pulled me to
my feet. He untied my belt and slid the bathrobe over my shoulders,
and I let it fall to the floor. His joined it a moment later. Then
he pulled me close again, one hand on my ass and one tangled in my
hair, and kissed me long and hard. Just as I had on the beach, I
took control, and this time he let me. I wondered how long he’d let
me stay in control, and I decided to find out.

I nudged him toward the bed, and he walked backward,
still kissing me, until his legs hit the mattress. He tried to sit,
but I tightened my grip on his hair, refusing to let him. Then I
let go of his hair and shoved him down on the bed. He scrambled
backward, and I crawled up to straddle him.

“You are so fucking hot,” he said.

I didn’t respond verbally, but I rewarded his
compliment by sliding back a little so my mouth could find his
nipple. He grunted and clutched at my hair. He enjoyed my torture
for a minute and then abruptly turned the tables, tumbling us both
so that I was pressed beneath him. Then he pulled away.

“Hold that thought.”

Seth scrambled for his duffle-bag, and I breathed a
sigh of relief. I hadn’t planned on this, and neither had he, but
at least one of us was prepared.

I watched him tear the condom packet open with his
teeth and spit the torn bit out, letting it flutter to the floor.
Then I helped him roll it on. And by helped, I mean I did my level
best to drive him absolutely crazy with desire while he tried to
concentrate on getting the thing on. Then he shoved me back down
onto the mattress, pinning my hands over my head. We were
nose-to-nose, and he took advantage of that fact to rub our noses
together.

I giggled. Seth beamed a smile at me and pressed a
soft kiss to my lips. Then he kissed me in earnest and pressed into
me. I gasped against his mouth and wrapped my legs around him,
tight, not letting him move. He broke the kiss and buried his face
against my neck, holding himself still for a long moment, even
after I relaxed my death grip on his hips. Then he began to move,
and we gave ourselves over to the moment completely, losing
ourselves in each other, heedless of the consequences.