Fifty-five

Stuart watched Qindra as she spoke to the concierge at The Governor hotel in downtown Portland. She’d booked the Lewis and Clarke Suite—a two-bedroom suite which caused him to wonder about the signals she was sending. If Sarah had been right about Qindra liking him, what did this mean? Not that he needed things to move along too quickly, it was just strange to be sharing a suite, but not a room.

Was there any chance he was leaving this city without kissing her? He knew there was much more that he wanted to do to her, but he just couldn’t tell if she wanted him in the same way.

“It’s a short walk from here,” she said, breaking his thoughts. He blushed which drew a curious look from her, but she didn’t pursue it.

“What time is our meeting?” he asked, checking his watch. The drive down had taken nearly four hours, longer than they’d anticipated, but the company was good and they talked a lot. He couldn’t really remember much about the subjects, but her voice filled his head in a way that left him feeling drunk.

If anyone had asked him a year ago if he’d be all googlie-eyed over the dragon’s witch, he’d have decked ’em for the thought. Now he just wondered what this breathtaking beauty could possibly see in him.

“I’ve called Mr. Philips,” she said, placing a hand on his arm. “He’s offered to send a car around at six.”

“Or we could walk?”

She shrugged. “Walking is nice, but we still have time to kill either way. We could just go upstairs, have a drink …” She threw him a sultry look that made his brain stop working momentarily.

God, was he reading that right? Why was this so damn hard?

“It’s entirely up to you,” she continued, when he didn’t say anything.

That was sultry, right? Not shy, not demure? His mind ran about ten thousand miles an hour. Signals and innuendo. How was he supposed to understand what was going on in that amazing mind of her?

He looked at her face, gauging her, trying to discern her mood, her thoughts. Maybe it was time to throw caution to the wind. In an obtuse and defensible way.

“I’m afraid if we were alone in the suite for several hours things could get a little out of control.”

He blushed again, but he meant it. She was intoxicating.

She stood a head taller than him, but he didn’t mind. She was beautiful and smart, elegant and way, way out of his league.

Of course he’d carried her out of that house in the fall. She seemed quite pleased then. And since, their conversations had been like dancing—exotic and enticing.

“Why don’t we take our chances?” she said, leaning in and kissing him ever so lightly on the lips.

Magic was all he could imagine, the way the fireworks were going off in his head. He just stared at her numbly as she took his hand and led him back to the elevators.

“Perhaps we’ll skip dinner altogether,” she said as she pushed the elevator button.

His brain finally lurched into gear. She’d kissed him. That was definitely an opening move. Did he dare try it himself? He took a deep breath and plunged ahead.

He stepped closer to her, placing a hand on the small of her back and pulled her to him. This time the kiss lasted until the elevator chimed its arrival.

“Oh, my. That was nice,” she said, smiling at him, a hint of color rising in her cheeks. “Let’s do that more, with a bit of privacy.”

She pulled him into the elevator and slipped her card in to unlock the suite before she was kissing him with a passion and energy he couldn’t remember ever experiencing with any other woman.

When the elevator door opened, she kicked off her heels and ran down the hall ahead of him, laughing like a schoolgirl.

He picked up her shoes and made it to the door just as she got it opened. He followed her into a huge room. It was two adjoining suites with a conference table in the middle, in case they needed to take a meeting, he supposed.

He dropped the shoes by the door and swept her into his arms, kissing her while he carried her around the table.

“My room,” she whispered to him, starting to pull at the buttons of his shirt. “The view’s better.”

“Oh, the view from here is marvelous,” he said, covering her mouth with his.

To hell with the dragon, he thought. They could see Sawyer in the morning.