Jill Shalvis - Smart And Sexy

“That’s the one. It’s one of Sinclair’s Fun and Sun resorts. Alan’s.”

“And that’s where you have to get your ‘something’?”

It’s where she hoped to get her “something.” Something green. As in US dollars that she could then hand over to the men presumably following her.

And then, hopefully, as in please God, she could live the rest of her life in peace, maybe even find some semblance of normality.

Damn it, Alan, I can’t believe you did this to me… She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to the cool glass window at her side. She should have believed it. Hell, she should have expected it. Her entire life she’d been manipulated by the men in her life, first her father, then Alan. Charming, elegant men, the both of them, but beneath their veneer had been an edgy danger she’d never guessed at.

How had she not?

But oblivious, she’d gone in search of the easy love she hadn’t found with her father, and had mistakenly believed Alan would offer it. In reality, she’d just exchanged one charming, wealthy, smooth-tongued man for another, like a meek little puppy searching for that elusive acceptance.

Alan had treated her well enough, if not a little distantly, until the day he’d gotten himself killed.

Now she was left to face the music. But even bankruptcy and social humiliation didn’t touch the fact that the very people that had once kissed Alan’s ass now expected her to lead them to the money she’d never even seen. It was beyond a nightmare at this point because she couldn’t wake up.

The road opened up, and instead of a cliff on their left now, they were passing a vast, unending forest. Dark. Scary. On the next sharp turn, the Jeep slid on a patch of ice. She gasped, but Noah had the wheel in a firm grip and muscled the vehicle, keeping them on the road.

She let out a low breath. “Close.”

“What’s closer are the guys on our ass.”

Whipping around, she saw the headlights behind them and chewed on her lower lip.

“Who knows you’re here?”

“Only apparently everyone at Sky High Air.”

“No one there told a soul. Who else, Bailey?”

“No one!”

“Kenny.”

“Kenny is my brother. He’s on my side.”

He said nothing to that.

“Turn left,” she reminded him when she saw the large hanging sign up ahead: Sinclair’s Fun and Sun.

“With them right behind us? No way.” He went straight past the turnoff, speeding up until her blood pounded in all her pulse points.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered, forcing her eyes open so she could see it when they plunged off the road.

“Yeah, we’re not going to be so lucky as to get divine intervention tonight,” he said tersely, watching the rearview mirror instead of the road, which was giving her more than a few bad moments.

“Noah-”

“The cops would be pretty welcome about now-”

“What are we going to tell them, that someone’s tailgating us?”

“I don’t think that’s all they have in mind-Shit. Hold on.” In one sudden movement, he flicked off the headlights, whipped a U-turn at speeds that rolled the eyes in the back of her head, and yanked the Jeep to the side of the road and into the woods.

Bailey thought maybe she screamed, but couldn’t be sure that wasn’t just her brain imploding. She had no idea how Noah could even see-she sure as hell couldn’t-but she could hear branches of trees slapping and scraping the sides of the Jeep as they drove into the woods.

Then he hit the brakes and jerked up on the emergency brake at the same time, sending them into a careening, spinning stop. Bailey’s seat belt tightened painfully over her ribs, but before her momentum could take her forward enough to kiss the windshield, Noah thrust out an arm to hold her back.

Her breasts pressed into his biceps, his hand flattened on her belly, and it seemed in slow motion that she settled back into her seat and turned her head to look at him.

Unbelievably, her belly quivered. Her nipples hardened. She didn’t understand the reaction-or hell, maybe she did. She’d gone a long time without sex, maybe too long, and now her body was going to take whatever it could for pleasure.

In the dark, he slid his big palms up her torso, pulling the seat belt loose. She thought for a second maybe he’d been taken over by aliens.

Or maybe that was her, because suddenly she was leaning into him, her gaze glued to his lips, the lips she wanted back on hers.

Crazy.

They were in the Sierras, on the run from some big bad-asses who wanted her dead.

And she wanted another kiss.

His head was bent. He was trying to see her, and meanwhile his fingers-

She actually closed her eyes to better absorb the sensation, which if she could think, would mortify her. It’d been too long, much too long, since she’d been touched in any pleasant way.

And the truth was, she wanted his arms around her, wanted his mouth back on hers, and wanted him to never let go while he was at it.

Insane.

He lifted his head and in the dark met her gaze. “You okay?”

“Yes.”

He was quiet a moment. “How do I believe anything you say?”

Not knowing how to respond to that, to the absolute truth, she just swallowed and looked at him.

He shifted closer, a small movement that upped her pulse rate. “A beautiful liar,” he murmured, a mere breath away and getting closer with each passing heartbeat, which, granted, came fast enough to warrant a heart attack warning.

He was looking at her mouth, his eyes sleepy and sexy enough to have her closing the gap herself, just shifting a little bit closer-

“But still a liar,” he whispered, and then in direct opposition to those words, he kissed her.

Noah’s mouth was warm, deliciously warm, against Bailey’s frozen one. All of her was frozen, and as she pressed close to him, she wished that they could stay like this forever.

And for one glorious moment, he did stay, kissing her long and wet and deep, oh God, so deep. She could feel his arms around her, and nothing, nothing had ever felt so right. She slid her hand across his nape, through his silky hair, holding his head because she didn’t want this to end.

Obviously her brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders. But then Noah changed the angle of the kiss, and a sound of pure pleasure escaped her, and then again when one of his hands slid down her side and up, beneath her sweater, his fingers fanning gently across her ribs to barely, just barely, brush against the underside of her breast.

The sensations were so lovely, she prayed they would never stop.

But then he pulled back, and she saw why.

A car went whipping down the highway. A nondescript SUV, moving way too fast.

Looking for her and Noah…

That had her brain firing at top speed, and she let out a breath, trying to control her racing heart. She carefully drew air into her lungs, uncomfortably aware of her body, quivering and tense and still straining toward his. “Smart move, hiding.”

Noah didn’t say anything, didn’t move.

How did he do that? she wondered. Was he totally and completely unaffected by this odd and inexplicable attraction? Or maybe it was all adrenaline for him, a release of that energy, nothing more. She slid a glance his way and found him looking at her with such a great intensity it blew her hair back, and…and when she took a peek at his button fly, she found something else.

Okay, he wasn’t unaffected.

That shouldn’t have made her feel better, but selfishly, it did. “Can we go now? And get to the resort?” She needed to get there. She had no idea how she’d gotten so lucky as to have him get rid of the bad guys for her, but he had, and she had things to do. “Noah?”

“Not yet.”

Not yet? Maybe he somehow missed her urgency-

A second car whipped by on the highway. Also a nondescript SUV.

She stared after it in shock. “Two? There were two of them?”

Noah waited until the taillights faded from view, then started the engine of the Jeep.

“How did you know there was a second car?” she asked, dazed.

“Wrong question.” He maneuvered them back onto the highway, going back the way they’d come.

“What do they want?”

“Yeah, there’s the right question.” He looked over at her, because they both knew the truth. She knew what they wanted. She’d taken too long getting the money, and Stephen and his thugs had gotten antsy. They didn’t trust her.

And now they wanted her blood to go with the cash.

Noah turned into the resort. The road in was a mile long, lined by a vista of rugged mountain peaks that couldn’t be seen on a dark night like this. Thick with snow, the road forced Noah to take it slow, utilizing the four-wheel drive. Finally the tight, narrow curves opened into a large parking lot at the base of the resort. Though the buildings were unfinished on the inside, in true Alan style, the outside of the place looked ready and welcoming. Always the cart before the horse with Alan. The main lodge was a four-story cabin-style building with snow three feet thick on the roof and icicles hanging down along the eaves, making it look like a gingerbread masterpiece. A deserted one-there were no lights, no other cars, nothing.

Noah pulled into the front row. “It looks finished.”

“Not on the inside.” Turning in her seat, she glanced uneasily behind them. “We lost them?”

“No. They’re still back there, lying low.”

Her stomach dropped at his easy acceptance of the trouble they were in. “I don’t see them.”

“That’s because they don’t want to be seen.” He had one arm along the back of her seat, the other on the console in front of her. He looked big, bad, slightly attitude ridden, and…worried.

About her.

She didn’t want to see that, didn’t want to know he cared.