Читать книгу All She Wants...: Oh, Naughty Night! / Nice & Naughty / Under Wraps - Leslie Kelly - Страница 9

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LULU DIDN’T QUESTION her decision or second-guess herself. She simply laced her fingers with Chaz’s, and let him lead her back over to her table so she could grab her things and say good-night. Viv had gone to the dance floor and was gyrating in the middle of a mosh pile of guys, and Amelia was talking to someone at the next table. As Lulu grabbed her purse and coat, Amelia raised a curious eyebrow but didn’t ask any questions, merely wishing her a Happy Halloween and smiling at Chaz. Blessing the more tactful of her two friends, she let Chaz drag her out of the bar, both of them desperate to find someplace to be alone.

Lulu wasn’t going to allow herself to think about how crazy this was. Nor could she dwell on how their families might react. She suspected all four parents would like the idea of the two of them together romantically, but they probably wouldn’t love the whole one-night-stand thing, which was all this was going to be.

Hell, she couldn’t even imagine how Chaz himself would react if he knew who she was! She was just going to do it—take something she wanted, and then let it go, content with the memories of an amazing experience that would be her secret forever more.

They got outside and the sharp October air filled her lungs, redolent with the scent of a log fire burning nearby. Everything about the night revealed the pleasures of autumn—a season she’d missed when going to college and grad school in Arizona. Dry leaves rustled on the trees and blew gently across the sidewalks. The stars filling the sky weren’t too dimmed by the city lights, and the air was cold enough so little puffs were visible when they exhaled.

Dupont Circle was an area popular with people her age—young professionals, new grads, maybe a few families, but certainly none were out this late for any candy-begging. Inside every bar and coffeehouse, though, loud music played and voices could be heard even through closed doors. Few lingered on the streets. By now, folks in costume had arrived at their preferred holiday destinations and were staying inside, as an early cold snap had made D.C. a chilly place to be outside at this time of night.

“It’s a perfect night for being wicked,” she said, keeping her voice low, thick and throaty, as she’d tried to do once she’d realized he didn’t know who she was. She might very well see him as herself in a few days and did not want to make herself so easily recognizable.

“I agree. I’m planning all kinds of wickedness with you.”

“Are you sure you’re not interested in candy corn anymore?” she asked with a flirtatious grin. “You could always try to find an all-night convenience store.”

“Definitely not,” he replied, dropping an arm across her shoulders, tugging her tightly against his body as they walked. “I wouldn’t walk away from you right now if sweet old Lady Larsen from my hometown showed up with a whole box of Snickers bars.”

A giggle escaped her lips but she quickly silenced it. As a stranger, she shouldn’t know about old Lady Larsen, a neighbor of theirs when they’d grown up. She’d always given out full-size candy bars on Halloween. Every kid in town had hit her house.

“How far away is your place?” she asked, to cover her near-miss.

“Just a couple of blocks away,” said Chaz.

Lulu already knew that. When his real estate agent had shown her the available rental properties around here, she’d pointed out the cute townhouse Chaz had bought last year. It was a couple of doors down from the carved-up brownstone in which Lulu had an apartment. They were almost as neighborly as they’d been growing up. Yikes.

That would make things very uncomfortable if he found out who she was, but should also make her getaway easier tonight.

“Will you be okay walking there in those shoes?” he asked, staring down at her feet with a frown.

“I’ll be fine,” she insisted, ready to run if it meant they could be alone and could get back to that crazy-wild-delicious kissing. And everything that came after it.

She’d walked to the bar, too. But she didn’t reveal that, not wanting to let on that she lived around here. She was already being very careful, unwilling to leave him too many clues.

Of course, she might be overestimating her own sexual potency. Maybe tonight would be forgettable, and Chaz would never again wonder about the red-haired, green-masked witch he’d seduced on Halloween night. But she doubted it. Their chemistry was strong. She suspected the encounter would be something they’d both long remember.

“I’m glad it’s close,” she said. “I don’t want to wait too long for that wickedness you promised.”

They’d walked for less than a minute, hadn’t even rounded the corner to turn onto his—their—street, but Chaz pulled her off the sidewalk into the shadows beside a credit-union building. “You don’t have to wait another second.”

She threw her arms around his neck and tugged him to her, parting her lips before they met his. They tasted each other as thoroughly as they had on the dance floor, but this was slower, less frantic, more erotic. The pulsing, seething hunger was there, but, as if they both knew it would soon be satisfied, they were content to kiss like pleasure-seeking lovers and not like strangers trying to figure out if one kiss was all they’d have.

Sharing merely one kiss with Chaz would have been a crime for the ages, she realized as he cupped her face in his hands and tilted his head. Their tongues danced. He swallowed down her sighs, tasting her, teasing her. His subtle cologne wafted to her nostrils and she went softer and wetter as the scent imprinted a sense memory in her, one she knew she would recall forever when she smelled his fragrance.

She couldn’t wait to touch him. Remembering how easily the shirt had glided over that incredible body, she slid her hands around his lean hips, and pushed up. The shirt moved with her fingers, leaving her free to explore that hot male flesh. His body rippled with muscle, and was slick with desire-stoked sweat. She touched him, explored him, wanting to taste her way along every ridge and line.

“Christ,” he mumbled against her mouth when she scraped her nails across his bare back.

Inflamed, he picked her up by the waist, wrapping her legs around his hips and supporting her entire weight. He swung around, bracing her against the building, kissing her more desperately. One big, powerful hand stroked the outside of her thigh, pushing up under the skirt.

The heat and friction of his fingers against the patterned tights heightened her awareness. She was conscious of every single sensation battering at her senses. Being completely in his control, held by him, explored by him, she closed her eyes and enjoyed it. Maybe it was the holiday, or the eroticism, or the drinks...something was making her lose every inhibition and give herself over to him and those magical hands.

Despite the possibility of discovery, he seemed unable to stop himself from touching her. Reaching up under her skirt and tugging at the waistband of her tights, he got them low enough to delve into.

“Naughty girl,” he whispered against her mouth when he realized she wore no panties.

“Very naughty. Because right now, I wish the tights were crotchless,” she admitted.

“I’d give a year off my life if they were,” he said.

He made do by pulling the tights down a bit more, until he was holding her bare ass, stroking, squeezing.

“Mmm,” she groaned, wanting more than anything for him to pull her legs even farther apart, opening her to him so he could slam into her right now.

He lifted her higher, shocking her with his strength. Long gone was the uncoordinated, weak little kid. She wondered if he now liked to pick up cars in his spare time.

Holding on to her with one arm, he began a determined, erotic exploration with his other hand. He pushed the tights down farther, until he could slide his hand between her cheeks. He touched her intimately, the sensations wickedly erotic, making her gasp with shocked pleasure. Her gasps turned into needy pleas as his fingers moved deeper, reaching the curls covering her sex and tangling in them. Lulu arched eagerly toward the touch, wanting everything and more from him.

“I wanna drop to my knees and bury my face here,” he said, his need making him handle her roughly, clenching her so tightly she’d probably have bruises tomorrow.

She didn’t care, wanting him as hot and crazed and out-of-his-mind as he was making her.

“Yes, oh please,” she groaned, wanting him to move those fingers just a tiny bit more so he could slip one inside her.

He shifted her to try to grant her unspoken wish, but the rough brick of the building scraped her hip, scratching her sharply. Lulu hissed in pain.

“Oh, God, I’m sorry.” He immediately pulled her away from the wall, still holding her tightly, her legs around his hips. “I wouldn’t hurt that magnificent ass for anything—not when all I want to do is nibble it.”

“I’m not sorry,” she said, pressing frantic kisses on his mouth. “It’s worth it, and you can nibble away.” Feeling the cold air against her exposed bottom, she giggled. “Though it is a little cold.”

“I guess we should go.”

“Just get me to the nearest warm place and finish what you started,” she urged, not sure she’d have the patience to walk blocks at this point. Nor that her legs would carry her.

Chaz turned to glance around. If a seedy, rent-by-the-room hotel had been across the street, she would have raced him to it, but no such luck.

Still, a smile crossed his lips. Lulu followed his stare, seeing his gaze had landed on the door of the credit union. It had an after-hours key-card lock for customers to use the ATM in the vestibule. He studied it for a moment, then looked at her and lifted a suggestive brow.

“You wouldn’t dare,” she said, her tone amused and a little taunting. Was she egging him on? She honestly wasn’t sure.

“Watch me.”

“A camera will be watching you.”

He glanced back toward the bar they’d left. “Damn. I forgot my sheet. We can’t be unidentifiable ghost and witch.”

“You would pull a sheet over us, take me in there and...?”

“Oh, hell yes. Right this very minute.” He edged closer to the door. “Of course, maybe we don’t need the sheet. If we’re very careful, and you keep your mask on....”

“Are you an exhibitionist?” she asked, half shocked, more than half aroused. The vestibule was fully exposed right inside the building, and fairly well lit. Though nobody was around to watch, there could be at any moment.

“Honestly, I don’t give a flying fuck who sees us. I just want to touch you, get my fingers in you, see if you’re as tight and wet as I think you are.”

She had to close her eyes as more blood rerouted toward her sex. The man was intoxicating and aggressive, nothing like the boy she’d known, and his demands rang with sexual confidence.

“But there must be cameras,” she said, her protest sounding weak to even her ears.

“There’s just one in the machine, recording anybody right in front of it. It can’t catch all the corners and sides.”

“Are you sure?”

“I bank here. I’m pretty sure. But we can go in and check.”

She felt herself weakening.

“Just a quick exploration,” he begged, kissing her throat, then scraping the tip of his tongue down to the tops of her breasts. “Throw a starving man a bone so I’ll have the strength to get us back to my place. I’ll carry you home, just like this, and save you from those wicked shoes, if I can just take a tour of your delicious body right now.”

She held on tight, her fingers digging into his shoulders as she urged him on. “Do it.”

Letting her down, he grabbed her hand and pulled her with him to the front of the building. “I’ve never been more glad that I bank here,” he said as he pulled out his wallet.

He removed his debit card, and swiped it in the card reader to unlock the door. She waited as he pulled it open and ushered her in. They were like fish in a bowl, encased in glass, visible to anyone lurking nearby.

She should have been shocked, nervous and ready to bolt. But the utter wickedness of it thrilled her. She hadn’t done anything this daring for as long as she could remember, and the sheer riskiness of it urged her on almost as much as her hunger for him. She needed his hands on her, his mouth on her, but a part of her—the part that had been focused on school and work and hadn’t spared a moment for sex—almost wanted to be seen.

She didn’t spot a soul nearby, and they were surrounded by dark, closed businesses, but they were near lots of parked cars and were only a few buildings up from the bar they’d left.

And then there was the camera. She spotted it embedded in the top of the machine, pointing directly out to catch whoever was standing in front of the ATM. Chaz was already in line with it, and she had to be at least partly visible. No doubt they were already being recorded. But he was right about the tiny neighborhood bank’s security. There were no other cameras in sight—no black domes on the ceiling or in the corners, just the one wired within the ATM, facing out, at about eye level.

They might really get away with this.

“Come here,” Chaz ordered, beckoning her over. “Stand right there, with your back against the wall.”

Understanding what he had in mind, she turned around and backed into the corner directly beside the ATM. It couldn’t possibly capture her image; she was side-by-side with the thing. And if there were any inside cameras, she was completely blocked from them by the interior wall between the vestibule and the lobby.

“I think I’ll check my balance,” Chaz said with a wicked grin as he inserted his card, eyeing her and not the screen.

“I suspect you’ve hit the jackpot,” she teased.

He didn’t even look over at her, exploring only by touch. Shifting slightly to further block the camera’s view of his actions, he reached for her, scraping his fingers across her jaw, her lips, then tracing a line straight down her throat. She felt the touch down to her very toes, wishing his mouth would follow the same trajectory.

When he reached her bustier, he easily untied it, one-handed. She arched toward him, loving the brush of his warm skin against the sensitive curves. Drawing the laces, he loosened the whole top until it sagged open, and then, only then, did he glance away from the screen to stare at her.

“God almighty,” he whispered, sounding nearly reverent. His eyes were dark with want. His muscles bunched under his shirt and his jaw clenched as he struggled to maintain control. Lulu had never seen a look of such pure, unadulterated want in anyone’s face before.

She couldn’t manage to say a thing as he reached for her breast, cupping it, squeezing gently, stroking his thumb over her hard, sensitized nipple. She was dying for his mouth, but he remained several inches away, pretending to focus only on the cash machine, while secretly pleasuring her just out of sight.

The man’s patience stunned her; she was ready to say screw the camera and leap on him, pull his mouth to her breast and beg him to taste her. But he kept his cool, still blocking her from view of the camera, and from anyone who might walk up to the front of the vestibule.

The side, of course, was another story. She was looking right out into the parking lot, and if somebody approached from that way, they’d notice her standing inside, her top hanging open, her breasts freed and heavy, being caressed by a man who definitely knew how to use his hands.

“Damn, I forgot my pin number,” he said with a chuckle. “You distracted me.”

“Keep trying, you’ll get it sooner or later,” she whispered as she reached down and tugged her skirt up, inch by inch.

He shifted his gaze and watched, hunger dripping from him as he dropped his hand and stroked his way down her belly and between her legs. He cupped her sex and she arched into his touch, dying, spinning, flying, all at the same time. He felt so good, his touch so possessive, as if he were staking his claim to what lay beneath his hand.

“You’re so hot.”

“And getting hotter by the minute,” she groaned.

“Show me.”

He helped her tug the skirt the rest of the way up, and work her tights back down, baring herself from hips to upper thighs.

He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. “You are gorgeous. I’ve got to get inside you.”

“That might be difficult from that angle.”

“My cock is just going to have to wait in line.”

Her hips thrust reflexively. “Touch me. Please.”

“Thanks, I think I will,” he said, smiling wickedly as he again reached between her thighs.

He toyed with her clit for a moment, making the world tremble, bringing an orgasm to within tasting distance. While it rattled and thrummed through her, he slipped between the lips of her sex. She was drenched and ready, and his finger slid easily into her sensitive channel.

“Mmm,” she said, closing her eyes and dropping her head back as he pleasured her.

“You are so tight. So wet for me.”

“I got wet the minute you made that sun-coming-up comment.”

“Thought it made you wonder if the world would end.”

“I’m wondering that now—because if you don’t make me come, I think it just might.”

Masculine laughter rumbled from him as he moved his thumb to her clit and stroked it again. His long fingers pleasured her deep within, and his gentle swirling motion around her clit brought her up higher and higher, even as tension and stormy heat pooled lower and lower.

“Yes, Chaz,” she groaned, torn between utter pleasure and a tension that was almost painful. She needed release desperately, and knew it was just a few breaths away.

As if sensing she was so close, he stepped over in front of her and caught her mouth in a hot kiss. Plunging his tongue deep, he stroked her right to the edge of the abyss, until she was almost sobbing against his lips.

“Please,” she begged. “I need...oh, yes,” she groaned as he gave her the right amount of pressure to send her soaring.

Her hips thrusting helplessly, Lulu gasped as waves of delight washed through her, to the top of her head, to the soles of her feet. Not one molecule was unaffected as she pulsed with satisfaction, and she wanted to cry at how good it felt. She couldn’t remember coming so hard before in her entire life. If he could work such magic with his hand, she couldn’t even fathom what he would do with his mouth, or with that powerful hard-on pressing against her middle.

Collapsing against him, still savoring his kiss, meeting every delicious thrust of his tongue, she tried to bring herself back down from the incredible high he’d provided.

Easing his lips from hers, he kissed his way down her throat, tasting her skin, sucking gently, biting lightly. He ended up at her breasts. Plumping one in his hand, he covered the tip with his mouth and sucked, hard. More heat sluiced through her, as if she hadn’t just had a limb-weakening orgasm. Every inch of her that wasn’t already on fire got that way immediately.

“These are beautiful,” he told her, moving to pay attention to her other breast, suckling one nipple while he tweaked and caressed the other.

She kept her head back, her eyes closed, loving the moisture and heat of his lips and the stroke of his fingers. Her nipples were so sensitive, every pull of his mouth on her breast was echoed between her thighs. Her clit was pebble-hard again, and she was right on the edge of spilling into another climax.

“I think that’s enough for now.”

“You think so, do you?” she asked, twining her fingers in his hair.

“Yeah. That took the edge off. Let’s let it build up again on the way back to my place.”

Fiend. She was so wound up, that first orgasm might have happened a week ago.

Kissing his way up to her face, he stared down at her and gently helped her put her skirt and tights into place again. He left her bustier open so he could continue to play with her breasts, both building the pleasure and denying release with every firm yet gentle caress.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m not sure my legs work anymore.”

“I promised I’d carry you. You held up your end of the bargain. I’ll hold up mine.”

She didn’t doubt he could. Perhaps being a world-traveling adventurer equipped him to carry a girl for blocks down a dark, windswept street, after he’d fingered her into oblivion.

“Give me a sec to recover,” she told him, not ready to go back out into the cold night and surrender their private—but oh-so-public—chamber. “Finish checking your balance.”

He chuckled lightly. “I definitely can’t remember my pin now. I’m not sure I can remember my name. That was something to see.”

He looked as pleased and cocky as a man who’d made a woman come in under two minutes with just his fingers should look. And while it had been her pleasure to oblige him—most definitely—she also wanted him just as crazed and lost to sensual delight as she had been. “Maybe I can help you remember the number.”

“Oh?”

“Sure. Go back over there and put your hands on the keys.” She licked her lips. “And keep them there.”

He didn’t appear to understand at first, but he did as she ordered, stepping into place again and eyeing the machine. “Hmm. Deposit or withdrawal? Or just the balance check?”

“How about ninety minutes of serious deposits and withdrawals,” she said. Her smile impish, she added, “Especially if you have a lot to deposit?”

“Find out for yourself.”

Unable to wait, she did just that, reaching out to stroke the tented front of his pants. Feeling the massive erection straining against his zipper, she melted, the last bit of strength draining out of her legs. Sliding down the wall, she didn’t stop until she sat on the backs of her calves.

Which was a very nice position to be in, indeed.

“What are you...”

“Let me see if I can help jog your memory, and, uh, take your edge off at the same time,” she said, gazing up at him with wanton sweetness. “Maybe if you relax and don’t think too hard about anything, the number will pop right into your mind.”

He watched her, looking surprised and excited as she edged between him and the wall, directly below the machine, out of the camera’s prying eye. Kneeling face-level with his groin, she grasped his zipper and carefully lowered it, her hand trembling as she acknowledged just how big he was.

“You aren’t seriously...”

“Oh, yes, I am,” she whispered, moving closer so she could brush her open mouth against the cotton of his tight boxer briefs. She exhaled and then pressed her tongue there, wetting the fabric, tasting the heat and musk of him.

“God almighty,” he said, dropping a hand to tangle it in her hair. “Your mouth has been driving me crazy since the moment you smiled at me.”

“Did you picture me using it on you...here?”

He groaned as she pressed her lips to the straining cotton again. “Not in the very first ten seconds after I saw you.”

“Fifteen?”

“Maybe twenty,” he admitted with a boyish grin.

Her laugh was sultry. “Points for honesty. So what did you think about for the first nineteen?”

The rough pad of a thumb scraped her bottom lip. “I thought about kissing you. Tasting you. Swallowing that smile. I figured somebody with a smile like that was somebody I needed to get to know. It brightens a room.”

She swallowed hard, trying not to react too strongly to the gentleness of his words and tone. Innate sweetness had always been a part of Chaz’s personality; it had been genuine, unfeigned. That kind, earnest streak was potent in combination with the hot masculinity he now possessed in spades.

Needing to return to sexy-and-edgy things and not sweetly-seductive things, she said, “And on the twentieth second?” Pursing her lips, she added, “What did you think then?”

“I plead the fifth.”

“Chicken.”

Not waiting for him to reply, she licked again while unfastening his belt and unbuttoning his jeans. Seeing that the tip of his erection was nudging out of the elastic at the top of his briefs, she moaned, deep in her throat. He had a lot to deposit, most definitely. More than she’d ever seen in her life, and for tonight, it was all hers.

Dying to taste him, she gently tugged the cotton down, revealing him to her hungry gaze, inch by inch. God, he was beautiful, bold, masculine and strong. She wanted him in every orifice of her body, starting with her mouth.

“Come on, admit it. You imagined this. Me on my knees, sucking you off,” she said, still utterly fascinated by the awe-inspiring erection.

“Not on your knees.” He sounded hoarse, needy.

She shifted her gaze to see him clenching both sides of the ATM. The tendons in his forearms flexed with the strain. He was dying for her mouth, she knew, but she drew things out, enjoying the sensual torment she was inflicting on them both.

“Where then?”

He scorched her with a glance, his eyes blazing with hunger. “I pictured you lying on top of me, turned around so you could suck my cock while I licked you into incoherence.”

He didn’t shock her, as he might have intended. “Sixty-nine is my favorite number.”

“Mine, too.”

“Maybe that’s your pin number,” she said with a saucy wink.

His response was more helpless groan than laugh. “Let’s get out of here,” he urged. “I’ll take you to my place, get you in my bed and we’ll talk about all our favorite numbers.”

“First, I’d like to do some pleasuring. Now shut up.”

He shut up.

Totally in the moment, uncaring of who might pull up outside, or what the camera above her head might record, she could focus only on the masculine perfection before her eyes. Lulu had worked the briefs down low enough to encircle as much of him as she could hold in one hand. Leaning closer, inhaling deeply to create another sense memory—one she would no doubt always associate with pure, driving need and hot, illicit sex—she flicked her tongue across the engorged tip, sampling his essence. His soft skin covered steel, and tasted salty and musky. Delicious.

Widening her mouth, she covered the tip of his erection and gently sucked, her tongue wetting him, her mouth devouring him. His hips instinctively thrust toward her, and she turned her head so he could go deeper. She took him in, sucking until that delicious cock filled her mouth, the end of him hitting the back of her throat, and then she greedily sucked a little bit more.

“Oh, yeah,” he groaned, tangling both hands in her hair.

She ignored him, making oral love to him, taking him deep, then pulling away, tormenting him with every stroke. Chaz groaned mindlessly, and his hand tightened in her hair, coming close to the elastic that looped her mask over her ear.

Lulu instantly pulled away, missing the taste of him the moment that powerful shaft left her tongue.

“Huh-uh. You might be willing to risk showing your face, but I’m not,” she said, hoping she sounded sexy and mysterious and not slightly desperate. Because, heaven help her, if he insisted that she take off the mask and reveal her true self to him, she wasn’t sure she would be able to say no.

Maybe he wouldn’t recognize you. Lust has clouded his brain; he might not have any idea who you are.

But she knew better than to think that might really happen. It might take a few seconds, and he wouldn’t believe his eyes at first, but he would recognize her.

Besides, in the nearly impossible chance that he didn’t, there was no way she could avoid seeing Chaz for the rest of her life, especially since she lived right down the street. He’d eventually find out who his mysterious witch had been.

“Sorry. I got carried away. I wouldn’t expose you here.”

Here. Right. But later? All bets would be off. It was madness to think that he wouldn’t demand she take off the mask at his house. She had no idea why she’d believed she could get him to agree to anonymous, faceless sex. Which meant she might not be able to go through with her reckless plan to go home with the man and take whatever hot eroticisms he would be willing to offer a mysterious, unidentified woman.

Maybe he won’t be that curious.

Yeah, and maybe a cop would pull up outside, smile, and tell them to carry on with what they were doing. Hell, the guy was a reporter. Chaz lived to solve riddles and get to the bottom of stories. He might let her blow him with a mask on her face for her own protection against the camera—typical, protective Chaz—but there was no way he’d let the mask stay there once they were assured of privacy.

Now might be all she had, unless she could figure out how to later reveal every bit of herself except her face.

“Am I forgiven?”

“Yes. But no unmasking, okay?”

“Cross my heart,” he said, staring down at her, his hands braced on each side of the machine.

Sure of retaining her anonymity for a while longer, knowing she would probably never have another chance, Lulu concentrated on grabbing whatever illicit pleasure she could. She moved back to him, licking the shaft from base to tip.

“You taste so good, Chaz,” she murmured as she shook off any unpleasant thoughts and focused only on the very pleasant task before her.

She reached down and cupped his tight balls, gently toying with them as she devoured his cock, concentrating as much on her own pleasure as on his. She loved how he tasted, loved all that heat and power in her mouth, loved knowing she was bringing him figuratively, if not literally, to his knees.

It didn’t take long for him to reach that same state of mindlessness, and his groans signaled his impending release. Ever the gentleman, he cupped a hand around her cheek, trying to stop her. “Wait. No more.”

She didn’t let him push her away, determined to take him all the way. Gripping his hip, she kept sucking, and with just a few more pulls of her mouth, she got her reward. Shuddering, he came hard, his essence spurting against her tongue. She swallowed every warm, salty drop and licked her lips before releasing him and sagging back against the wall.

They both gasped for a while, and she watched him try to regain his composure. He’d been bracing himself against the machine, his eyes closed, so visibly delighted there could be no doubt something serious was happening out of view of the camera.

She wondered if anybody ever watched the security tapes without there being some kind of crime to investigate. Hopefully not. If they did, Chaz might have to find a new bank.

But right now, she suspected he wouldn’t give a damn.