I grabbed her hand. “Nope. Inside.”
“Where? There?” She glanced over her shoulder, her expression frantic. “We can’t go in there.”
I wiggled my fingers to get the blood flowing. Okay, brain bring back that code. It was in my head somewhere. Too bad most of my brain cells were located in my very unhappy dick, currently banging on my zipper to come out and play.
“Shit.”
She crowded into my back. “What?” She was looking around. “Do you know the code or not?”
“Give me a second.”
“This isn’t a good idea. Someone is going to come down—”
“2-3-1-8. Got it.” The panel turned green and the locks disengaged. I swung the door open and dragged her inside. “Up the stairs.”
I stopped at the huge stack of lumber left in the stairwell. Well, that was a fire hazard. Whatever, a problem for tomorrow. I vaulted over the stack and held my hands out for her.
“August, this is crazy.” But she reached for me.
I lifted her up against me and slowly let her slide down my body. “It is crazy, but I like it.”
She stared into my eyes, her gaze uncertain and yet there was a spark of the wild there. Exactly what I’d been looking for all night.
“Don’t think. Let me show you just how amazing we can be together.”
She opened her mouth. I could see the questions and the second-guesses behind her eyes, but I covered her mouth again and kissed her until she was sagging against me, the little purr in her throat back.
I locked my fingers with hers and headed up the stairs, dragging her behind me. The second floor was a hot mess, but the third floor was almost done.
A woman with more money than sense had decided she liked having a whole floor to herself. Gideon had been rehabbing it to make the space into a huge loft apartment. I’d just delivered one of my bed frames last week.
“I’m not built for sprinting, Aug.”
“Just a few more steps.” I shouldered my way into the half finished door. It was just a frame, but the door hadn’t been plumbed yet so it was just a piece of particle board closing it off. The nails creaked under the weight of my body and finally let free. I stepped over the threshold and caught her around the waist, dragging her inside.
“Holy Goddess.” She twirled around, her heels clicking on the endless stretch of beachy gray hardwood. There was light coming in from the street. No blinds were up on the windows yet.
But thank God there were actual windows in so we wouldn’t freeze. A huge bay window slashed moonlight and lamplight over the room. It hit on the gorgeous island countertop and L-shaped kitchen. The living room was wide open and her steps echoed in the space.
I followed her slowly, watching the wonder and curiosity chase across her face. Then she slowly let her coat slide down her arms and she tossed it on a stack of flooring that needed to be finished.
She turned and her curls glowed in the moonlight. Her pale skin was gilded in silver and one of the crystal necklaces she always wore glinted between her breasts.
I hadn’t gotten a look at her without her jacket before. Her dress was a floaty bunch of layers that draped along her willowy form. The edges of it floated around her knees and hung a little lower in the back. The neckline curved along the gentle swell of her breasts in some complicated layer of material.
So many layers. And I wanted to strip her out of each one of them.
I crossed to her, my soft-soled shoes silent in comparison to the quiet click of her stilts. I steered her gently to the right and sure enough, there was my large four poster bed made out of ash.
We weren’t in my bed this first time we were together, but at least I’d be able to spread her out on something I made.
Our fingers twisted together and her chest rose and fell with…excitement, I hoped.
I couldn’t read her eyes in the dim light, but maybe the darkness was best for now. Maybe she wouldn’t see how nervous I was. How much I wanted her.
I reached up to the little ties between her breasts and tugged one free. The layer of dark material slipped open, showing her milky skin. I lowered my mouth to her chest, teasing my tongue around the chain of her heavy pendant and up to her neck.
I buried my face in th