“You use this one. I’ll go in the one beside you.”
Lucy swallowed a hard ache of longing. His good-natured willingness to give her some space was the sexiest thing he had done yet. Nobody in her life gave her space. Everyone demanded everything of her.
His consideration of her request made her want to reach for him all the more.
Hold on until she had to let go.
“Most people prefer to lie down on the ledge.” Alec was pointing out the features in the ten foot by five foot dry sauna room. “But you probably know that.” He held the door wide for her to enter. “I’ll set the timer for you.” He stepped out and shut the glass door, leaving her alone.
Lucy lay down on cinnamon-colored teak boards. Immediately, sweat pooled on her bare belly. When she lifted her pale legs in the air, white clouds obscured her ankles. Water ran from her calves to her hips, and her hair spread around her head in a loose mess. So much for the Girl Scout leader.
Her heart beat loudly in her ears, demanding more oxygen, less heat. Her mind wandered from Alec to Joey. What if Gino continued to threaten Joey to get her cooperation? How far was she willing to go to save her twin?
She turned over, but the air was just as hot. The timer said only ten minutes had elapsed. The suffocating room and her worrisome thoughts had her bolting up and grabbing for the door.
In the round foyer, the eucalyptus scent was welcome, cool, the smell of renewal and a distant San Francisco spring. She pulled the refreshing air into her lungs and leaned against the damp arabesque tile.
In an adjoining chamber, Alec sat on a bench, his legs wide apart and his bare feet solidly on the ground. His head rested in his large hands, and his dark hair pushed through his fingers. The muscles of his back flexed over his rib bones as he breathed. She had never seen him so still. He seemed troubled, probably wrestling with some mega-casino problem.
As if sensing her, he lifted his head and stood. He opened the door and came to her. “Too much heat for you?”
“Yes.”
“Then it is time for the rain shower and massages.” Alec stepped into a narrow alcove, and she followed. The sound of cascading rain and the occasional macaw monkey serenaded them when he flipped a lever. Cool water poured from the ceiling, sending a waterfall flowing down his face and back. His cheekbones and slightly crooked nose stood out under the rush of water. When he opened his eyes, he looked at her directly, with a gaze that was both curious and patient, a seductive combination that made Lucy want to stand closer and lean in.
Alec reached for her and pulled her under the shower with him.
The cold water hit her skin, making it tingle. “Oh!” She sprung from one foot to the other.
Alec laughed, and the sound had a careful tenor to it that plucked a too taut chord in her heart. He ran his hands over her breasts and under her hair. “Nothing happens here that you don’t want.” Lucy nodded, even as sensitive nerves stood on end and demanded more of his touch. He flipped another switch and the waterfall changed to a shower head pulsing warm water.
He put the nozzle between her shoulder blades, massaging her back, sending delicious currents through her body. “How’s that?” He moved the current down her backside, over the large muscles in her rear.
“Lovely.” Lucy moaned with pleasure. Why had she said she didn’t want this with him?
Was she crazy?
She should do this, grab the once in a lifetime chance at a gold ring held by a gorgeous man, prove the gypsy woman right—she would have passion in her life.
“I want to touch you.” Alec brought the shower nozzle to her inner thigh and put a wide hand at her back, gently caging her. “Is that okay?”
“Yes.” The words left Lucy’s lips, and she knew in her heart they were true. Her body ached for what came next with him. Lucy reached back to hold his forearm in place. “Please.”
Alec flipped her in his arms so that her butt was pushed to his groin. He slid his hand inside the front of her bathing suit bottom and nibbled at her neck while his wet fingers circled her nub. Her stomach muscles tightened, and a low pulsing began between her legs. He rubbed with sure strokes and then moved the shower head over her.
“Ahh.” Sensation spiraled, and Lucy felt her knees go weak, but Alec anchored her to his chest. Methodically, he worked the nozzle, away and close, away and close, until Lucy grabbed his arm and held him still while her release shook through her limbs.
“Oh, God.” She clutched at his supporting arms and squeezed her eyes shut.
Alec dropped the shower handle and turned her in his arms. He braced her against the wall and lifted her so that her legs spread around him. He was hard and ready, but instead of seeking his own satisfaction, he kissed her gently on the lips.
“You are mine. Only what you want. Only what you are ready for.” Alec seemed to be talking to himself.
From her fog of pleasure, Lucy opened her eyes to see his blue ones inches from her own.
“Remember that,” Alec said, his voice too tight and serious for her lax mind.
“What?” Lucy blinked owlishly at him.
Alec grinned, all sexy playfulness again. “Everything really is better with me.”
Chapter Eight
Stretched out on a massage table in the atrium, Alec watched the masseuse work out muscle kinks on Lucy’s back.
“Sooo relaxed.” Lucy lay on her stomach under her white massage sheet. “You win.” She smiled at him and closed her eyes. “Twist my arm. I’ll just have to go to dinner with you now.” Her breathing became shallow and regular and she dozed.
It was a good start. He understood, even if Lucy did not yet, the level of trust she placed in him to relax like this in his presence. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on keeping his dragon under his human skin. He wanted Lucy with a desire that bordered on madness.
It had taken all his control to not take her in the shower, claim her as his. But they had some hard truths that needed to be spoken first—like why she had stolen his keycard for her brother—and the small fact that he was a dragon.
Alec shifted on the table.
“Too much?” Lilly Belle, kneading his calf muscle, misinterpreted his restlessness as discomfort.
“No, it is fine.”
It rankled that Lucy worked against him, that her loyalties to her guttersnipe brother were so great that she would deceive him. Would she be able to leave her brother behind to join him among the dragons? Alec thought back to the conversation he had witnessed between the siblings in Lucy’s kitchen. Lucy seemed a different person around her brother. The brother would be a problem, one way or another.
A knock sounded at the glass atrium door. Leo stood in the hallway, waiting to talk to him in person. He’d had enough massaging for the day anyway.
“That will be all for now,” he said to the masseuse. He wrapped the sheet around him before leaving the spa.
“A word, Alec.” Leo moved a short distance away and leaned against the corridor wall, lifting his knee so that the sole of his cowboy boot rested against the Venetian plaster.
Alec was not fooled by his casual posture. “What’s so important that you pull me away from my mate?” He couldn’t help the broad smile that stretched his mouth. To find one’s mate, it was the work of a lifetime for a dragon.
Leo gaped at him and pushed away from the wall. “Your mate? But, she is a human, and she stole your keycard.”
“Yes, I am aware of that.” Alec gave a what-else-you-got shrug.
“Does she wear your dragon mark?”