9 1/2 Days (12 page)

“Watch the road so we’ll get back in one piece.” Jordan patted his leg in admonishment.

“Then watch where you put your hands. At least until we get to my place.” Not only did she leave her hand where it was, she moved it a few inches higher, tracing sensual patterns along his thigh. He responded with a look that could have melted steel. “Tease.”

Maybe she was teasing, but she seriously wanted him. Her breasts ached for the feel of his mouth; her body throbbed in anticipation of making love with him. She felt proud of taking the initiative and yet wondered if she’d have to make the decisions for the rest of tonight. She was on her way to becoming a bona fide seductress, but she didn’t know exactly what to do with him.

A familiar yearning lurked on the edge of her mind. She wanted…don’t be stupid. This arrangement was temporary and so were these feelings. Mentally she flipped through the pages of
Fifty Fast Fantasies,
then smiled to herself as she chose one she thought she could handle. Jordan furtively reached into her handbag.

Danny parked the Jeep in front of his building. Upstairs, she slipped off her jacket and left it with her purse in the living room. She followed him into the kitchen, where he opened the refrigerator and handed her a bottle of Jamaican lager. “Shall we retire to the veranda, my dear?”

“What a lovely idea.”

Jordan stepped through the back door and onto the fire escape. She chose one of the two wrought-iron chairs and set her Red Stripe beer on the small table next to a dead ficus tree. Obviously he watered his plants as often as he cooked. The night sky had clouded over and the air was ripe with humidity. It felt hot and steamy, perfect weather for a seduction.

Danny settled onto the blue paisley cushion of the seat next to her. “So, you’re initiating the ‘anytime, anyplace’ rule. Did you have a particular fantasy in mind, or did you just want to wing it?”

“
Wing it?
That’s really romantic, Danny.”

He shrugged. “Our agreement isn’t about romance. So who am I supposed to play tonight?”

She stared at him, but he didn’t return her gaze. His relaxed posture seemed feigned. Was he upset about pretending to be his brother at the barbecue? She didn’t understand why, since the whole thing had been his idea. Jordan ignored the edge in his voice and purposefully misinterpreted the question.

“I’m not really in the mood for international spies or plumbers. I was thinking we’d try something different.”

“How different? My space suit is at the cleaners and I don’t own a horse.”

She laughed and made a face. “Not that different. I thought we could play Hide In Plain Sight.”

Danny looked around as if he expected to see all of his neighbors watching from their own balconies. “Are you crazy? Somebody might see us.”

Jordan elevated one eyebrow and cocked her head. “Oh, so it’s okay for you to fondle me in a public place when my family is nearby—”

He raised an open palm to interrupt. “Okay, you’re right. But we don’t have any protection out here.”

Jordan reached up with her right hand, leisurely trailing her fingers toward her cleavage. Danny’s eyes narrowed and focused on the movement, lingering on her breasts as her hand dipped inside her dress. She grinned while retrieving the condom that she’d slipped into her bra.

“How’s this for spontaneity?”

“Not bad. Not bad at all.”

She liked the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled, the heat in them as he looked at her. He came over to stand in front of her, reaching down to help her to her feet. She wrapped her arms around his neck and brushed her lips over his. His hands grasped her hips and pulled her closer until her breasts flattened against his chest. A light drizzle began to fall, the droplets evaporating on the heat of her skin.

His mouth opened beneath hers, welcoming her tongue as she explored and savored the taste of him. Her pulse thudded along her veins while her whole body vibrated with need. As he deepened the kiss, she felt his fingers gathering the material of her skirt until he’d lifted the front high enough to skim the edge of her panties. His fingers slipped inside the waistband and eased them over her hips.

Her panties slid down to her ankles and she stepped out of them, never breaking contact with his mouth. She moaned as he cupped her breast through the light cotton dress, gently rubbing her pelvis across the hard heat of his erection. Dampness flooded the apex of her thighs. God, how she wanted him. She clasped the sides of his face and gave him a kiss that branded his taste onto her lips.

Danny maneuvered them until they had reversed positions, then reached between their bodies to unzip his jeans. She tugged the placket open until she could take him in her hand. His penis was long and thick and throbbing and she ached to feel him inside of her. He broke the kiss in order to protect them and sat down.

Jordan shifted her skirt out of the way and settled on his thighs facing him, her legs dangling on either side of the chair. Had anyone been watching, they would have appeared to be doing nothing more than kissing in the rain. He bent his head to nibble the side of her neck, his voice a low growl in her ear.

“Mmm, you taste delicious.”

She shrugged, giggling as she tried to dislodge his mouth from the tender spot on her throat. “Didn’t you eat enough at the barbecue?”

“I never get enough of you.”

Jordan leaned back and speared him with a look. “Does that line actually get you anywhere?”

“You’re sitting on my lap, aren’t you?” His expression was just this side of arrogant.

“Good point.” She tilted her head and smiled at him. “What are you going to do about it?”

“Come a little closer and I’ll show you.”

With Danny’s hands on her waist, she gripped the cool iron of the chair back while he guided his penis to the slick wetness of her passage. He entered her in one smooth motion, merging their bodies in the gathering darkness. Her eyelids drifted shut as her head fell back and she trembled with desire. Rocking his hips, he began moving in a deliberate, sensuous rhythm. She braced her heels on the fire escape and held on for the ride.

It was raining harder now, water poured down on them in rivulets, but Jordan couldn’t have cared less. She felt wild and wanton, making love outdoors where anyone who looked out of their window might catch them. The illicitness of what they were doing was as much a turn-on as the man she was with. She opened her eyes, wanting to watch his face.

A rush of ice swept through her and she faltered.

Even in the dim light, she could see the detachment. Despite the obvious physical evidence of his desire, Danny seemed more intent on pleasuring her than in sharing the excitement of the fantasy. Something told her instinctively that he was holding back in more ways than one. Suddenly the rain felt like stinging needles on her bare arms and thighs.

“I’m getting cold.”

He hesitated and she wondered if her expression told him how miffed she was. “Yeah, me too. Let’s go in.”

Jordan started to lift herself off of him when she realized the heel of her left sandal was jammed into the grate. As she tried to pry her foot loose, Danny groaned and she suddenly realized that she was wriggling on his lap. Damn it! She was trying to end this sexual encounter, not prolong it. With a jerk, she wrenched the shoe free and stood up. In three strides she was back in the kitchen, dripping puddles onto the black-and-white tiles.

Danny grabbed a paper towel from the counter and wiped his face while she steamed, both literally and figuratively. Her clothes were soaked and plastered against her body. She was cold and she was angry and she was just about to let him have it when he looked over at her.

“Why don’t you take off that dress?”

Why don’t you go to hell? I’m through playing for one night.
Jordan scowled at him, but didn’t say it out loud.

Danny sighed and tossed the balled-up towel into the trash can. “I meant, you should get out of that wet dress and go take a hot shower.”

“Oh.” She felt heat stealing into her cheeks and welcomed the warmth as her teeth began to chatter.

He led her down the hall to the bathroom. After flicking on the light, he turned to her and tapped the wall. “There’s a robe hanging right here and the towels are clean. I’ll put your dress in the dryer for you.”

Slipping past him, Jordan partially closed the door. She peeled the wet cotton from her body, handed it to him through the crack and shut the door with a resounding click. She dialed on the water and waited for it to heat. Stepping under the spray, she took off her panties and rinsed them out before hanging them over the shower rod.

Fifteen minutes later, her skin pink now instead of blue, Jordan dried off and finally noticed the bathrobe. It was a delicate yellow flannel and obviously meant for a woman. She couldn’t imagine Danny in anything with lace cuffs. She stared at it, wondering how many others had worn it before, and tucked the ends of the bath towel around her chest.

She walked across the hall, uncomfortable about being in the intimate setting. Danny was reclining on the bed, his long legs crossed at the ankle, his elbow propped on the copper-and-black geometric spread. He’d stripped off his wet clothes and now wore only a towel around his waist.

“Your clothes aren’t dry yet, Jordan. As soon as they are, I’ll drive you home.” He got up and offered her a smile that missed his eyes by a mile. “I hope you left me some hot water.”

When he walked out, she clutched the towel a little tighter, wondering what to do. There was no way she was going near that bed, but there was nowhere else to sit. So she remained standing as she looked around the dimly lit room. It was warmly decorated and yet minimalist. The furnishings were pale wood, modular with clean lines and a European feel.

Curious, she walked over to the bookcase to look at the unusual light sitting on top. She’d never seen anything like it before. The translucent rock was cool to the touch, but it cast a soft orange glow over the cream-colored walls.

“It’s salt.”

Jordan startled at the sound of Danny’s voice behind her. “It’s what?”

“It’s a lamp made out of a hunk of rock salt. A stewardess friend brought it back from Germany.” He opened the top drawer of the dresser and pulled out a pair of boxer briefs. Reaching beneath the damp bath towel, he struggled to put them on. “Next time, give a guy a little warning. I smacked myself in the face with your panties when I got into the shower.”

He had a beautiful back—cappuccino-colored skin stretched over lean muscle. But as he moved about, the light shone in such a way that the scarring she’d noticed before looked worse.

“How did you get hurt, Danny?”

In the past, when someone asked about the scar tissue on his upper back, he’d simply said, “Line of duty,” and left it at that. So he had no idea why he turned around, braced both palms on the edge of the dresser and told her, “I was assigned to Fairfax County Fire and Rescue on September eleventh.”

He heard her soft intake of breath but didn’t look at her, concentrating instead on the soft orange glow of the rock light. “I remember it was a beautiful Tuesday morning. The sun was shining and it was just a gorgeous day.”

“You—you were at the Pentagon.”

“VATF-One is one of the most experienced urban search-and-rescue squads in the country. Because of flight time, we could have been in New York City in a matter of hours. We were all ready to go up and help when that plane slammed into the Pentagon.”

“Oh, Danny. Omigod.”

“We thought, ‘We’re going to get people out alive. The Pentagon is so close we’ve got a great chance of finding survivors.’” He hunched his shoulders, crossing his arms over his chest, and stared at the carpet. “When we got there, pieces of the plane littered the ground near the heliport. The vehicles posted there were on fire. I’ll never forget that. The Pentagon fire trucks were on fire.”

Jordan made a little choking noise and he glanced over to see her hand covering her mouth beneath eyes damp with unshed tears.

“It was weird, you know. I mean, less than twenty miles from Dulles Airport the skies were absolutely silent. Until the F-16s screamed over the building. And I realized there were fighter jets, combat ready, flying over the nation’s capital because we were under attack.

“Inside it was like hell. The building was unstable and it was still burning. There was so much oily black smoke filling the air, cutting me off so I couldn’t see and could barely breathe. God, it was so hot in there. It smelled like burning insulation and aviation fuel. Ceilings had fallen and the walls were charred and there were bodies entangled in the wreckage.”

He dropped his head into his palm and massaged his temples, wanting to erase the memories, knowing he’d always see them in his dreams.

“It was so damned dark and the heat was like nothing you can imagine. We had on full flash gear with face shields and helmet lights. We had radios, but they were useless. We kept looking, kept hoping. For hours we just kept searching for anybody who was still alive.

“There was so much debris and twisted metal and suddenly there would be… I saw horrible things. Something slammed into me, knocking me to the floor. I couldn’t believe how deep the cracks were. Concrete shouldn’t have spalled like that. I didn’t realize that what was left of Flight Seventy-seven was right below us.