Wicked Attraction Read online

  She looked again into the tank where the graceful animals were now swimming in underwater barrel rolls. “Do you think they believe their parents abandoned them? Or did they move out on their own, like they went off to college or something? Do the experimenters visit?”

  “They went to prison, I think. For unlawful animal experimentation. At any rate, I’m sure Hale banned them from coming here. They wouldn’t be able to get past security.” Ewan stepped closer to the glass to look inside it. One of the dolphins swam closer, its mouth opening in what looked like a grin.

  “That seems cruel. They were taken away from their family. No wonder that one looks so sad.”

  He’d never known her to be sentimental, but she wore it well. “I thought it looked like it was smiling.”

  “You can smile when you’re sad.” Nina put a hand flat on the glass. “So beautiful.”

  In the blue-green light, wavering and soft, Nina was the beautiful one. Her dark curls, tied at the nape of her neck, hung over one shoulder. Her smile curved. Her eyes, the color of excellent whiskey, gleamed as she looked at him.

  “Why did you bring me here today, Ewan?”

  He spoke without having to think, not even for a second. “Because I’ve spent plenty of time making sure your stomach is fed, but I haven’t done much to make sure anything else is satisfied. I thought you’d like this. It’s something not many people get to experience. I wanted to share it with you.”

  “That might be one of the nicest things anyone’s ever said to me,” Nina told him after a few seconds. “One of the nicest things anyone’s ever done. Thank you, Ewan. That means a lot.”

  Nina didn’t trust herself to say anything else to him, not without a hitch in her voice. She turned her attention back to the dolphins in their tank. “This is so much better than a virtual viewing.”

  “You don’t have to stay,” Ewan said after a moment.

  Nina didn’t answer at first, her gaze fixed on the dolphins now circling each other as though they were dancing. “I’m not ready to go yet.”

  Ewan touched her shoulder so she’d look at him. “I didn’t mean the Aquacenter.”

  “I know that.” She smiled a little, wishing all of this didn’t have to be so hard. That might be what made it worth everything, in the end. That none of it had been easy. Right now, all she could do was take it one step at a time.

  They watched the swimming dolphins in silence for a few minutes. Earlier, she’d been foolish enough to take his hand. She wanted to do it again now but didn’t, even if the memory of how his fingers had felt linked in hers wouldn’t go away.

  Ewan had hired her this second time, not because of any real threats to his life, but as a way to bring her back to him. She’d stayed originally because she was stubborn. Now, Nina wasn’t entirely sure of her reasons, but one thing she did know—just because there weren’t currently any threats against Ewan’s life, that didn’t mean nobody was out to harm him. Nina thought about the girl Betts at the lab, and her suspicious reaction to the alleged vandalism.

  “You first hired me to protect your life from people who wanted to kill you,” Nina said quietly.

  “Yes. And you did. More than once.”

  She glanced at him. “You hired me this time for different reasons.”

  “Yes,” Ewan admitted after a hesitation. “That’s why I’m telling you now that you don’t have to stay with me.”

  “Do you think you’re not in danger anymore?” The dolphins had gone away from the glass, so she and Ewan started moving toward the next exhibit.

  This room was full of floor-to-ceiling glass tubes, some with bubbles constantly rising in soothing waves. Others, softly lit from the inside with bioluminescence. The biggest tubes had jellyfish in them. The room was designed so viewers wove their way through all of the tubes, like walking through a field of trees.

  “I guess, considering what I do, I might always be in danger of some kind of threat,” Ewan said.

  Nina paused between two giant tubes of jellyfish. She studied them. They moved constantly. “I don’t know very much about jellies, but I imagine their lives must be pretty peaceful, don’t you think? I mean, they eat. They reproduce. Do they sleep?”

  “I have no idea,” Ewan said, by her side.

  “Do they love?”

  She reached to snag his sleeve. She didn’t tug him closer, but moved herself instead. One, two, three steps until she could kiss him. Their last embrace had been rough and almost brutal; this time, Nina was conscious about making sure she offered, but did not insist.

  Ewan sighed into her mouth as one hand slipped beneath her hair to cup the back of her neck, his fingers tickling the skin bared above the scooped neckline of her shirt. The kiss deepened. They moved closer, their bodies fitting perfectly together. She put her hands on his waist.

  Ewan broke the kiss and pressed his forehead to hers. Eyes closed. He drew in a sigh and let it out softly. “Nina.”

  “I want to forgive you,” she whispered and closed her own eyes, so that the soft mutter of the bubbles in the tubes and the shifting light casting shadows through her eyelids could soothe her. “I want to, Ewan. So much.”

  “But you can’t?”

  She opened her eyes and pulled away enough so that she could meet his gaze. She took his face in her hands. Her thumbs stroked the bristles along his jaw. She traced his lower lip with a fingertip and jerked it back with a startled giggle when he nipped it.

  “I want to,” she repeated.

  Ewan nodded as though her answer was no more than he’d expected. “I never wanted to hurt you, Nina. I hope you believe that.”

  “I believe you never wanted to. But you did.”

  He sucked in a breath as though her words had stung him, but she couldn’t be sorry she’d said them. It was the truth, no getting around it, and it would serve neither of them to pretend otherwise. Ewan nodded again after a second, perhaps having rethought whatever protest he’d been considering.

  Nina kissed him again, a little harder this time, and if it was because she wanted to hurt him, that was because she knew he would like it. Her body pressed to his again, also harder this time. More insistent. Her fingers dug a little into him just above his hips, and she thought about sliding up his shirt, tugging it free of his pants, to get at his bare, smooth skin beneath. He’d be warm. Firm. Her hands almost ached with the desire to touch him that way, but she kept herself still.

  “There are cameras here,” she murmured into his mouth. Without human staff, there had to be a very sophisticated security system including visuals. “Right?”

  “I’m sure there are . . . ask me if I care . . .” His hands roamed over her back. One came around the front to slide up and over her breast.

  Her body reacted at once, her nipple peaking tight and hard under his palm through the soft material of her shirt. She didn’t gasp, but only because she bit back the sound. She spoke around giddy laughter. “We’ll end up streaming on the viddy gossip channel.”

  “Again,” Ewan said through a series of nibbling kisses, “ask me if I care.”

  Her laughter rippled up and out of her as smoothly as the air bubbles in the glass tubes surrounding them. “I care. I have a reputation to consider.”

  “Are you saying you’d be embarrassed?” Ewan kissed her deeper, both hands moving up to cup her breasts now as he walked her backward toward a small, shadowy nook and pressed her against the wall.

  Nina turned her face as Ewan mouthed her jaw and neck. With a shiver, she whispered into his ear, “Mortified.”

  He nudged his face against the curve of her shoulder as his heated breath caressed her. She turned her face into the soft brush of his hair and took in the particularly delicious and unique scent of him. No lover had ever smelled so delectable to her, and she took in a long, slow breath to savor him.

  “Can’t say that I blame you. I really have nothing going for me. I’m surprised you’re not sick to your stomach right now at the very sight of