Chapter Ten

Beginning to feel self-conscious, she shrugged her shoulders at him. “What?”

Those blue eyes stayed glued to her darker ones. With a smooth turn of his wrist, he drained the rest of the tea and set the glass down on her marbled counter top. Still silent, his large, muscular body pushed away from the counter he was leaning on and prowled towards her, not stopping until their bodies were less than two inches apart.

“What?” she asked again.

“What is that man to you?” The words were quiet, but the tone was deceptively calm and Alexis wasn’t fooled for a second.

“Nothing more than a friend. I have to go to the store. Can I drop you off somewhere?” She took a step back.

“I’m not leaving you, Alexis,” his smooth voice said clearly as he reclaimed the step she’d surrendered.

She would love it if he really meant that, but she knew that couldn’t be true. “Where are you staying?”

His arms reached around her, settling her against his chest and allowing her to hear the beating of his heart. “My bag is at a motel. I want to stay with you.”

There have got to be so many rules against what I am doing. “You are free to stay in the guest room to-night. Come with me and we will get your bag, then you can help me with the shopping.” She inhaled deeply, utterly affected by the smell of this man.

“Shopping?”

A smile played quirkily on her face as she imagined the horrified look on his. “Surely a big strong man like yourself, a SEAL nonetheless, can handle shopping with a woman,” she teased.

“Of course I shop. I do eat.”

“I can tell.” Alexis pushed back so she could view his magnificent physique. “Jesú, Scott what do you weigh, two-twenty?” Her hands moved over his chest and down the side not marred with the bullet wound.

“I thought women didn’t like to talk about weight,” he said as he looked down at her lissome dark hands moving over his lighter-hued body.

“We don’t like talking about our weight. You, however, you are a work of art,” she breathed. “You must have only three percent body fat, it’s amazing.” Her hands weren’t touching him as a lover would but as a doctor, inspecting and impressed. The light touch moved to one of his arms and trailed up his well-cut arms.

“I weighed about two–thirty-five at my last physical.” He grabbed her hands, stopping their movement. “Lex,” he groaned. “I haven’t quite recovered from the living room earlier, and if you keep touching me like this I promise I will be buried deep inside you in less than five minutes.”

“Sorry.” Her hands dropped to her side. He called me Lex. Oh, my God!

Scott cupped her face. “I love it that you want to touch me; at least we are past you pretending that you don’t feel anything for me. But if we are going to get anything done before the party…” He arched an eyebrow, his point made.

“Got it.” She smiled and stepped away from his touch. “Let’s go. I guess we should get your bag first and then shop.” Her feline gaze found his and she narrowed her eyes.

He frowned. “What?”

“How’s your wound?”

The smile was masculine and arrogant. “I’ll be fine. I have the best doctor in the world.”

“That doesn’t change the fact I should have taken you in to the hospital,” she muttered as she led the way towards the door, grateful he couldn’t see the goofy smile she wore on her face as a result of his compliment.

“I’m glad you didn’t.” He followed her outside and down the steps to her gold Expedition, climbing into the passenger side.

She hopped in as well and followed his directions to where he was staying. Parking at the motel, Alex-is turned off the motor. “Well, I will wait here.”

“No, come inside. I want to show you something.”

I know where that will lead. “I think I have seen everything you have to offer me, Commander,” she stated.

He groaned. “Back to that name, are we? And for your information, there is something that you haven’t seen of mine. Not yet anyway. Don’t worry, you’ll like him. And I know he’s dying to get to know you.” He leaned over and kissed her quickly on the mouth before jumping out and jogging up the stairs to grab his stuff.

Fanning herself, Alexis kept her gaze fixed firmly on the tight ass as it moved out of her sight. Blinking hard, she grabbed pen and paper and began to make a shopping list for tonight’s party.

Movement on the stairs caught her attention about ten minutes later. Dear Lord, that man is fine! “Jesú,” she panted to the interior of her car. Down the last few steps walked a vision. He just oozed sexual virility.

Scott had changed. He now wore a white tee shirt and another pair of body-hugging faded blue jeans. Slung casually over his back, as if it barely weighed an ounce, was a sea bag packed full.

Every woman in the vicinity stopped and looked at him in amazement and lust. It filled Alexis with a bit of pride to know that the object of their affection was striding towards her. Not them, her. He tossed his bag in the back mere seconds before his immense size filled her vehicle.

“Sorry about that,” he said as he shut the door behind him. “I took a quick shower and shaved.”

Just what I needed to know. Like my brain doesn’t give me enough erotic images of you. Now you tell me you were showering to add to my mental pictures! Her body squirmed on the seat as she tried to sound unaffected. “That’s fine. I was just working on the list of things to buy.”

He took the list from the floor where it lay and looked over it. “This is a lot of stuff.”

“Yep,” came her fast response. She steered them onto the road leading them to the supermarket.

Scott sat in silence for about two minutes. “Question.”

“Yes, Commander?” Alexis responded as she pulled into the lot at the superstore.

“Lex,” he growled, showing his displeasure at what she called him.

“What, Commander?” she growled back.

“Don’t call me that.”

Turning off the engine, she maneuvered her head so she could stare at him directly. “When you say ‘question’ like you did, it’s an instinctive response for me. My whole life has been following rules and regulations. I can’t stop overnight.” Alexis climbed out and waited for him to do the same before she locked and walked away from her vehicle.

He fell into step beside her. “Just try, please. I want to hear you call me Scott, and not as an introduction.” That blond head bent close to hers as he whispered. “I want you to scream my name as I pound deep into you.”

How can he just say things like this? Alexis stumbled and immediately found herself surrounded by arms that would rival Atlas’s for strength. “Thanks,” she mumbled.

He released her but didn’t move back, positioning himself right next to her, close, as if they were a couple.

They entered the air-conditioned store and Alexis grabbed a cart and headed off. “I can do this part, you just put things in,” Scott offered as his hands covered hers and his body trapped her between him and the cart. “Unless,” he whispered into her ear, “you are ready to let me do the ‘putting in’.”

She shivered and shook her head. “Stop that.” Ducking beneath his corded arms, Alexis picked a direction and walked away, willing her legs to stop being so shaky.

Scott behaved for the most part. The cart became extremely full as Scott dutifully followed Alexis up and down each aisle. Her head turned and caught his bemused expression. “What’s the matter?” she asked, placing another object in the cart. “Trying to imagine your SEAL team seeing you do this?”

A brilliant smile crossed his face. “I know they wouldn’t believe this for a second.”

Her topaz eyes narrowed. “Believe what?”

Scott delved one hand into her loose, thick hair, bringing her closer to him with pressure on the back of her head. His firm lips were a hair’s breadth away from hers as he purred, “That their stuffy commander was pushing a grocery cart and doing so quite happily. Don’t let your mind even begin to go down that other road, Alexis. Not even for a moment.”

She knew what he meant and didn’t want to deal with that right now. “What do you mean, stuffy?” This time she walked beside him so they could talk.

He chuckled. “I don’t know how to have fun, according to my team. I sit at the hotel after a mission instead of going out and getting a woman…or two.” His blue eyes cut down to the beautiful brown face of the woman beside him.

She looked at him skeptically. “Right, so you never went out with women?”

“I didn’t say that. It’s just that my attitude changed.” He stopped the cart and loaded the case of bottled water she pointed to.