Fire and Ice - Anne Stuart [32]
She jerked when she felt his hand on her face. It was oddly gentle. “Close your eyes and sleep, baby,” he whispered with surprising tenderness as his fingers drifted over her eyelids. “You can hit me tomorrow. Sleep now.”
And she did.
Shit. Ji-chan was crying. He hated it when women cried. Even if it was just a physical response to great sex, he hated it. And it wasn’t just the power of her climax that brought the tears.
Shit. If he’d been dumb enough to do something like that, he could have stripped off his own jeans and gotten off as well, and now he was lying here with a hard-on that was probably going to kill him, and then who would look after Jilly, keep her safe?
No one ever died from an unsatisfied erection—he should know. He’d probably been hard from age twelve till he finally got laid at age fourteen, and he’d survived well enough.
Her breathing was deep and even now—she was sound asleep. Now he was the one who was wide-awake. Thinking about the feel of her beneath the thin cotton, the dampness, was making him even harder.
Reno slid his hand down inside his jeans, rearranging things to be more comfortable. He could always jerk off—she’d probably sleep through it, and even if she didn’t, he wasn’t asking her to take care of it. But he wasn’t going to. Like a twelve-year-old kid, he wanted to keep his erection, and think about her. As soon as he got her out of Japan and into safe hands, he’d expend all that energy on someone willing. Despite his taunts, he had no intention of actually fucking her. He could wait for someone who didn’t come with strings attached.
He closed his eyes. He didn’t have the faintest idea what the hell he was going to do tomorrow. Or today, actually. He was going to have to get to his grandfather without going through the usual channels, which would be tricky. He was far too recognizable among the members of his grandfather’s cell, and he had no idea who was gunning for him. Matsumoto-san had always hated him, as had Tomatsu-san. And then there was the new guy, Hitomi-san. He was an unknown—he couldn’t ever remember Ojiisan bringing anyone new into the organization without telling his grandson and heir.
The problem was he needed to find a place to stash Ji-chan before he went looking. And he couldn’t think of any place safe enough, anyone safe enough to leave her with.
He’d figure it out in the morning. His erection wasn’t going away, but he could control his mind. He needed sleep, and for now they were safe inside their little bubble. He moved, just slightly, closing the few inches she’d managed to put between them, so that their bodies were touching, shoulder to thigh. And only then did he let himself sleep.
Jilly awoke in stages, drifting through the seven layers of bliss before she realized exactly where she was. Lying on her back in the narrow bed of a capsule hotel, with Reno’s body sprawled across hers. And then she remembered what had happened just before she fell asleep, and she shoved at him, hard, so that he fell back with a grunt, his eyes flying open.
“Asshole,” she said, scrambling away from him as best she could in the tiny space.
He reached to the wall and switched on the light, momentarily blinding her. When she opened her eyes again he was looking at her. And there was nothing she could do about it.
“Shouldn’t we be getting out of here?” she said, determined to remain cool.
“Soon. The salarymen are all getting ready to go, and you’re not supposed to be in here.”
“You’re going to tell me no one ever sneaks a woman in here?”
“The only reason to bring a woman in here is for sex, and there are more comfortable places. In case you didn’t notice.”
She was lucky—this time she could control her instinctive blush. And now that she was fully awake, she had the sudden, extremely uncomfortable image of having sex in that confined