Chapter Fourteen

She wrapped a large towel around and dried her hair with another, before she padded back into her bedroom. Time to get all spruced up, she thought as she whizzed through the hangers in the closet. She frowned when she couldn't find the dress she wanted she panicked for a minute thinking she hadn't bought it with her. Then she remembered, it was in his room where she’d put a few of her things.

She slathered some body butter on and made her way there. God knows what the night would bring, all she knew was she had to be on her best game of make believe and on high alert. She tapped her knuckles against the door and made sure her towel was securely tucked in.

"Jon?"

Jon opened the door, tugging on his shirt, checking to see if he'd fully zippered his pants before opening the door. "What's up..." his words died off as that scent wafted through the door as she stood slick and near naked, her dark hair falling in around her shoulders. A towel held on for dear life, cinched between her breasts. Fucking hell.

She'd hoped he hadn't been naked but she decided when he did finally open the door, this was worse. She swallowed hard. "Uhhh,” He was half dressed, his feet bare and the buckle of his black dress pants dangled out in front. The white buttoned down shirt was half done up exposing half of the fine splattering of chest hair. She snapped her eyes up to meet his realizing she was still in mid sentence "Dress...my dress..." shit wake up Mackenzie you're going to have to do better than this. “My dress is in your closet,” she managed a small smile.

"Oh," he stood back as she passed him by. The end of the towel hovered over the curve of her ass and he looked away. No way in hell was he looking at that right now. Watching her twitch through his closet hit him low and hard. It had been a long time since he'd shared his closet with a woman. Seeing her clothes mingled in with his held an intimacy far more potent than even her wisp of a towel.

She found the one she needed tugging the garment bag off the rack. “Ah, here we go. Have to tell you it’s been a long time since I’ve been in one of these things, but I’m sure I can still do it justice.” She winked and her fingers curled when the scent of spice and freshly showered Jon wafted past her. The glint of his buckle caught her eye, “you know you’re pants seem to be complete. Just let me know if you need a hand.” She laughed and slipped out of the room, her heart beating in her ears. What? She was flirting with him now? Good Christ.

He looked down at his flapping buckle and up again at her retreating back. "Shit," he muttered and slammed the door. He shifted his semi-hard on and tucked his shirt in with a wince. He was so sick of being on the ready around her. How the hell was he supposed to live with her and not want her? Especially when she walked around in a towel like he was her fucking roommate. Did she even realize what it did to a man to have a woman smelling of a clean shower and not want to tug that towel off? Christ, what kind of saint did she think he was? He quickly donned the rest of his suit, cursing as it required a tie instead of his normally open collar dress up. He'd grown used to the tie over the years, but he still felt half strangled.

He walked into the living room to use the large mirror in the dining room, his fingers sliding away as she stood in the same spot, snapping drops into her ears. The dress crisscrossed low on her back leaving the dusky skin looking soft as silk and twice as tempting. Silver and black vied for the most attention. The black hugged her perfectly and the silver glinted, calling to his nomadic soul.

"God, Kenzie," he said before he caught himself.

Her eyes locked with his, no one called her that, except him. And it was becoming a habit and a bad one for her hormones. Once the earrings were in, she let her hair tumble around her shoulders. He looked slick, with his dinner jacket cinched neatly at the waist. The black Armani suited him, and made him every more bit as sexy as it could. God damn it. "Not bad huh?" She turned, over her shoulder in an attempt to keep the mood light.

He just nodded in approval.

Her mile high heels were something else. Who wore these on a daily basis? Impracticality 101. But lucky for her, stupid college beauty pageants had taught her to walk in them, and well. "Who wears these things? Seriously?" She tilted her shoe out letting the fabric from her dress slide upward revealing a little more leg than she possibly intended to.

Women trying to kill me slowly. "I don't know, but Jimmy Choo makes a fortune on just that sort of deal," he said, trying to keep his voice even. If he wasn't careful he was going to sound like a strangled adolescent boy with a cracking voice all damn night. "But you look amazing." He glanced down the heart shaped V of her ass and the clinging fabric that hugged her close. His gaze rested on the small purse on the dining room chair then back to her second skin outfit. Where the hell was the gun going to go?

She did look good, but hell so did he. "Thanks Jon," she straightened herself up feeling the cool steel on her inner thigh. David had taken a good old laugh when she'd spoke to him on the phone earlier than day and told him her little plan for the gun to be strapped to her inner thigh. The things I do, she thought. She flattened out the lapels on his jacket and smiled. "For the record you look pretty sharp, now I think I'm ready. Oh," she pressed her finger against her lips. "I need lip-gloss... And then we can go."


Sure, lip gloss...just great. So he could stare at her mouth all night, just as shiny as the straps that floated along her shoulders. Awesome. He tried to control his rioting hormones that screamed--rip off the damn dress--and cinched the tie tighter than he intended. "Fuck," he muttered.

She quickly found her lip gloss and applied a generous coat before fluffing her hair one more time. "Not bad Mac," she teased herself before she tightened her gun strap around her thigh and joined him by the door with her purse. "Ready, time to go and play"

He held his arm out to her, "All right, let's get this done." When she slid her hand through the crook of his arm, he led her out of the apartment and into the elevator. "I suppose we need to show we're a couple to the doorman and staff downstairs too, to keep our cover.'

She nodded, no turning back now. This is where it began. Good god what are you about to get yourself into Mac? "I agree, come on then," when the lift doors pinged open she shifted her body into his feeling the wool of his suit press against the skin of her arm. She flashed the doorman a huge smile as they walked passed.

Her hand itched to move as they made their way to the car waiting outside the double doors. This was either going to go really bad, or really good. She took the lead and slipped her hand lower sliding over his ass giving it a gentle squeeze just in view for the doorman to see as they walked through.

"Yup just as I thought... hard as steel," she teased lowering her voice.

His eyebrow quirked, as he dragged her closer. "I won't forget that," he warned and tucked her hand back into the bend of his arm. Retribution simmered in his eyes as he opened the car door to his town car. "In you go," he said and slid his own hand down her ass.

Her heart hammered into her throat as she climbed across the soft leather interior. She sat back and crossed her legs, "You so don't want to start something with me Mr Bongiovi.” Well hell, this didn't feel so bad so far. Apart from the fact she wanted to rip that Versace suit right off him and suck him dry in the back seat, it wasn't going bad at all. He soon slipped in beside her and held his arm out for her to tuck in beside him. Right, the driver. She did so and crossed her legs further over one of his.

The intimacy was strangely comfortable with him and that scared her. She looked up her chin resting on his shoulder as he curled his spare hand around hers. "So got any moves?" she whispered.

"Baby, I don't need moves--so this will be a learning process for both of us." He said it, not with ego, but with fact. He had women fall into his lap, not the other way around.

She nodded, "I'm sure you don't but what if I'm not prepared to live up to your ego?" She walked her fingers up his shirt to his chin. His penetrating gaze surprised her, she'd gone in and now she couldn’t exactly run back out.

He leaned down enough to drag in that spicy, soft scent. "Ego be damned," he said and caught her glossy mouth in a kiss. The peppermint flavor of the gloss burned as his fingertips drifted into her hair, tipping her head up to deepen the kiss. His thumb traced her jaw line, as the kiss went from teasing to intense. She opened beneath him, her tongue as greedy as his. He fought to keep to his side of the seat, but his hand slid around to her lower back, tracing over the indent of her spine that had teased him. He pulled her in, her fingers sliding into his hair as well, gripping tight as the kiss spiralled from hot to blazing.

The moan slipped from her mouth and was swallowed by his. Her fingers loosened in his hair and her palms flattened on his cheeks turning his mouth for more. God she wanted more, it'd been so long since she was kissed and wanted by a man. A man she was attracted to. She pressed her body into his, her nipples ached beneath her dress desperate to know what it would feel like if....

Her mind derailed on that thought. Her ass had left the seat as she twisted herself into him. Her lips finally broke free from his but she didn't stop there. She needed more of a taste. Her teeth scraped down over his chin and across the bump of his Adam's apple as the groan left his throat. "Jon," she breathed. Her fingers curled around his collar as she looked back up, his eyes matched the heat of her breath on him.

The car rolled to a stop, and his regular driver, Joey, cleared his throat. Their eyes locked and his gaze returned to her mouth. The gloss was gone, but it still burned on his. Whether it was the heat of the kiss or the peppermint on his lips he didn't know. He met her eyes once more, watching her back away from him by degrees. "We're here."

She pulled away as the driver opened her side of the door. She blinked. What just happened here? The erratic pounding of her heart against her chest told her exactly what happened. She indulged. The first fucking night and she indulged and couldn’t take it back. She clutched for her purse. "Right," she said climbing out the car, the now warm steel between her legs reminding her that this was her job NOT her pleasure. She waited for him to climb out beside her and hook his arm through hers. The only way to save yourself, was to lie. "See, and here you didn’t think I could act."

"Right," he swallowed down the acid. "You aught to get an Oscar," he said under his breath and smiled for the cameras.