She looked so stricken. “Kristy,” he said, falling into her familiar nickname. “If you weren’t so gorgeous I wouldn’t right now be wishing I had you naked beneath me.”
She sucked in her breath. Sean stepped toward her, blood rushing south, his cock aching painfully. He wanted to taste her, take her mouth with his and push his tongue between her soft lips.
“This is a bad idea,” she said, in an uncertain whisper.
“That never stopped us before.” He took another step, stalking her like a predator.
But she suddenly started, scooting around him.
“Okay, lift me up. I’ll try the window.”
Sean was disappointed, but he still grinned. Clearly, being alone with him even for twenty minutes was such a temptation she was willing to tackle the window. It would totally suck if she were unaffected, but she obviously was not. This he could work with. She still had some feelings for him, even if they were simply sexual. He could fan the flames of her desire, coax her into his bed, and say goodbye to their marriage and Kristine properly and on a positive note.
He had enjoyed their marriage, and frankly, he didn’t want it to end in bitterness. If she was determined to divorce him, then he wanted to go out with a bang. Literally.
So he squatted on his haunches and cupped his hands together to make a perch for her. Kristine kicked off her heels, and while she gave his hands a dubious look, she took a deep breath and put a foot into his hold. Her skin was warm, and her knee bumped his chest. She squawked as her balance failed and her foot fell onto the floor.
“You have to hold on to my shoulders.”
Kristine gave him a look, as if she was convinced this was a ploy to get into her panties. Which he supposed it was, though he’d had absolutely nothing to do with the door being locked. He wasn’t taking the blame for that.
Now that he thought about it, why was the door locked? It didn’t seem like something a caterer who didn’t normally work in the building would do. He’d been so distracted by seeing Kristine that the obvious had bypassed his attention. “So this Allison, have you worked with her before?” he asked Kristine as she stepped into his foot again, fingers lightly perched on his shoulders.
“No. I’ve had this job for only two weeks. I just got back to Minneapolis.”
Well, at least she hadn’t been fifteen minutes away from him for months without communicating. That would have been something of a kick in the nuts to hear. “Has the gallery used this caterer before?”
“I think this is the caterer they always use, yes.”
Huh. So was it really just an accident? He supposed it must be, unless the caterer was an international art thief clearing out the gallery as they spoke. For a second, he wondered if they should call the cops, but the gallery sounded dead silent and Kristine distracted him from his thought processes. She wasn’t doing anything. One foot was still on the floor, and her waist was still tantalizingly close to his face. His mouth.
“What are you doing?” he asked her.
“I don’t know. What am I supposed to do?”
He grinned. “You have to reach for the ledge. You pull and I’ll lift you up.”
“This is not going to work. Forget it.”
His phone rang. It was Michigan. “Excuse me, Kristy, this is my assistant.” He tapped at his phone to answer it. “Hello?”
“There’s been an accident and I’m sitting here completely stopped. Looks like a semi rolled and three lanes are blocked. So, um, it may be a little longer than twenty minutes. I’d guesstimate an hour.”
Sean should be more annoyed than he was. “Okay, thanks. Sorry.”
He hung up and said to Kristine, “There’s an accident on the highway and Michigan is in the thick of it. He estimates an hour before he gets back here.”
“Oh, geez.” She eyed the window. “That’s a long time without air.”
He wanted to laugh. “There is plenty of air. It’s fine.”
“I’m a little