Forbidden Stranger Read online

  Nina sat up and swung her feet over the edge of the bed. Without a word, she went to the bathroom, first to draw herself a few handfuls of water from the tap that she gulped down but did little to ease the heat in her cheeks and throat. Then she started the shower, aware that taking this liberty seemed almost a more intimate action than what they’d just done in the bed. She stepped beneath the hot spray and bent her head under the water, her eyes closed. Both hands on the tile wall.

  In a moment, she heard the sound of Ewan’s feet on the floor. Sensed his presence as he stepped into the shower with her. Nina did not move, waiting for him to speak and ruin everything that had just happened. If he apologized . . .

  Ewan said nothing. He drew her gently back against him, his mouth pressed to her shoulder blade. He kissed her. He turned her after a moment to take her in his arms. Her face nestled perfectly against his chest. The water fell down all around them, blotting out anything but the sound of his heart thudding beneath her cheek.

  They couldn’t stay in the shower forever, even if the water never ran cold. Nina finally pushed away from Ewan to look into his eyes. His smile stopped her words, whatever they were—she wasn’t even sure what she’d meant to say.

  “Come back to bed with me,” he offered.

  So she did.

  * * *

  Ewan woke from the first full night’s sleep he’d had in almost a year. Nina was gone, the bed still warm beside him where her naked body had rested next to his and kept him deep in his dreams until dawn. Last night they had cuddled naked for a while, then slept. Woken again to make love, slower this time. They’d fallen asleep spooning, him behind her. They hadn’t spoken much at all.

  They were going to have to. Making love was not going to take the place of conversation. Nina had to have dozens of questions Ewan would probably be unable to answer.

  He stretched, yawning and drowsy and not eager to get out of bed just yet. Through the window he could see gray skies. The patter of rain on the roof meant it was still storming, and although he saw no flashes of lightning, a far-off rumble of thunder still came now and then. Faintly, he smelled coffee. His stomach rumbled. They hadn’t eaten last night. Nina would be in the kitchen, he thought. If he was hungry, she had to be starving.

  Downstairs, he found a pot of coffee and a mug set out for him. A platter of warmed blueberry muffins with a small dish of honey butter sat next to it. He grabbed one and filled his mug, ate half the muffin to quiet his rumbling stomach, and sipped the coffee as he sought to find Nina.

  She was working out in the den. She wore a tank bra and workout leggings. He was as familiar with her body as his own, but it had been months since he’d seen her in anything less than full clothes. Well, until last night, and most of that had been in the dark. She looked strong, but much thinner than she had been.

  He admired her grace and strength from the doorway, quiet so he didn’t disturb her. He wanted to watch her do this every morning for the rest of his life. He’d never been religious, but sent up something that resembled a prayer now, to the Onegod, to the universe, to whatever force would listen. A single word.

  Please.

  “Morning,” he said finally.

  She straightened from the twisted pose she’d been in. Her skin glistened with sweat he wanted to lick off. Her smile bloomed, a flower in the desert. “Hi.”

  “Thanks for breakfast.” He held up the muffin and shifted to hide the way her smile had affected him.

  She tilted her head to look him over as though she knew, anyway. She probably did. “My pleasure. I didn’t wake you when I got up, did I?”

  “No. Did you sleep all right?”

  “Shiny fine,” she assured him.

  Silence. Ewan finished the muffin so he could pretend he didn’t want to talk with his mouth full, not that he was sure what to say. The coffee, next, although it was too hot to gulp and he burned his tongue with the first sip.

  Nina continued her workout, moving into each position confidently and with smooth, sexy precision. “Want to join me? I’ve been studying from those viddies you had saved on the old tablet. ‘Stretch for Success’?”

  “Oh, no. You haven’t. What?” Ewan snorted laughter. “Those are ancient.”

  “They’re fun, though. Easy. I’ve added some of my own um . . . well, embellishments, I guess you could say.”

  Ewan had seen some of her additions already. Nina might think she’d made them up to supplement the exercise viddies he’d downloaded as part of a post-surgical therapy for a minor back injury years before. What he’d seen her doing, though, was hard-core military training, along with the years of additional training she’d undergone as private security. Uncomfortably, he was reminded that he knew that about her but she didn’t. That conversation, he thought, was going to suck.

  “Want to try it with me?” she asked and gave him a curious look. “It’s not that strenuous, I promise.”

  “Maybe I just prefer to watch.”

  Her eyebrows flew up before her expression turned sultry. Flirting. “Uh-huh. ’Cuz this is so sexy, right?”

  She twisted and contorted her body to get her hands flat on the floor and turned only her head to wink at him. She wiggled her hips to show off her butt. Ewan groaned. Nina stood up, laughing.

  “C’mon,” she said in that same sultry tone. “Are you worried you can’t keep up with me?”

  Ewan got into place next to her. “Sounds like a contest.”

  “Maybe it is,” Nina said. “What do I get if I win?”

  “What would you like?” He followed her lead as she twisted at the hips to plant her feet shoulder-width apart.

  “I’ll let you know when I pick you up off the floor,” she told him.

  Ewan had always made a point of being physically fit, but there was no way he could keep up with Nina. Not only did he not have the training, his body didn’t adapt to the stresses of activity in the same way. He couldn’t control his heart rate, temperature, breathing. There was no way he was going to surpass her, so he wasn’t surprised that after only about fifteen minutes of seemingly easy stretches and twists, he was huffing and puffing as hard as he did after running up the side of the cliff.

  “Tapping out,” he said with a laugh. “You win, you win.”

  Nina went still, breathing out, then joined his laughter. She shook her head. “Okay, old dude.”

  She seemed to catch herself at that and shook her head, looking embarrassed. “Sorry. That was rude.”

  “I’m not offended. You kicked my ass.”

  They stared at each other. Both began to speak at the same time. Ewan silenced himself and gestured for her to continue.

  Nina drew in a breath. “So, we aren’t going to pretend last night didn’t happen. Are we?”

  “I would prefer we didn’t,” he said. “But if you want to—”

  “No,” she cut in hastily. “I don’t want that. Not at all.”

  “Good. I don’t want it, either,” Ewan said sincerely.

  Nina tapped the tablet to stop the exercise viddy she’d been streaming to the wall comm. She straightened, one hand on her hip. She licked sweat from her upper lip and pushed her riotous, damp curls away from her forehead.

  “This drives me crazy,” she said. “It won’t stay in place.”

  “It used to be longer,” Ewan said without thinking.

  Nina eyed him. “I know you’re in love with someone else, Ewan. I don’t expect what happened last night to change that.”

  He shook his head, wishing he could just tell her that she was the woman he loved. Wishing he could just tell her everything, exhausted from having to keep everything a secret. He gave her as much truth as he could. “It doesn’t change anything, Nina.”

  “And I don’t expect anything from you because of it,” she went on. “You’ve already been hyper generous with me, for reasons I’m not sure I will ever completely understand, but I do appreciate.”

  “Did you sleep with me out of gratitude?�