“Hello? Are you still there?”
Duh. He couldn’t see me nod. “Yeah, I’m still here. My eyes are blue, yeah. And something else is wrong with me-well, a lot of other things. What is going on?” My voice squeaked with alarm.
“It’s probably best if we meet up again. Say, six-thirty at St. Anthony’s cathedral? That’s a half hour from now. Do you know where that is?”
I blinked in surprise. A cathedral at the crack of dawn on a Wednesday? “Are they even open this early?”
“The doors of the church are always open.” He sounded amused at my naïveté.
“Uh, okay. Why so early?”
“I’m unavailable during evening hours.” Before I could say anything about that weird comment, he continued. “I need a few minutes to round up a friend. And be calm. Everything will be fine.”
Easy for you to say. I sighed. “Okay, I’ll meet you there. I’ll be the one with the clothes that don’t fit.” Dry humping the pews.
“Sounds like when we met the other day.” He chuckled, sending twin bolts of desire and rage through me.
I wanted to hang up on him, but I forced myself to end the call politely. Help was on the way, though I was terrified of what he was going to tell me. I hadn’t paid much attention to his earlier nonsense-something about a succubus. Now I wished I had.
Tense and moody, I wandered into my closet to see if I had any pants that would stay around my waist and a shirt that wouldn’t outline my overly excited nipples.
I hoped Noah had a good explanation for what was going on, because so far? this sucked.
CHAPTER SIX
He took his damn sweet time getting to the cathedral. I’d been checking my watch every thirty seconds since the clock struck seven, and still no sign of Noah or his friend. When seven-thirty crawled around, I decided that Noah had been yanking my chain. This was just another joke in the long line of misfortunes that had been my life lately.
Of course, just as I stood up from the pew, Noah walked through the double doors, sending my hormones through the roof. At the sight of his broad shoulders, my insides quivered and I felt a flush sweep over my body and centralize between my thighs.
Then I noticed what appeared to be a supermodel following close behind him, and distaste flared as well. How dare that jerk make me wait because he was on a date? Self-consciously, I smoothed my hair and hoped my Notre Dame sweatshirt didn’t have any stains on it.
Noah looked as delicious as ever. His wavy dark blond hair was pushed off his face in tousled bed-head fashion, and he wore a cool gray jacket and dark gray slacks. His shirt was a dark garnet color, which I wouldn’t think would go well with a business suit, but he made it work. No tie again, and his collar gaped slightly, revealing a smooth, tanned chest.
“Hi,” I choked out, trying to control myself. The urge to dive onto him and kiss him madly was tough to resist. “Thank God you’re here.”
The supermodel took off her sunglasses, revealing pale blue eyes. “Wow, she’s got it bad, Noah. Check out her eyes.”
“I see them.” His gray ones stared into my own. “Are you all right, Jackie?”
“I don’t think so,” I said, unable to keep the whine out of my voice as I sized up the competition. The girl behind Noah was utterly gorgeous, tall and dusky. She must have been Indian or Arabian or something along those bloodlines. Her hair was a smooth black curtain rippling down her shoulders, and she was built like a Barbie doll. Her light-colored eyes were striking, and her skin was the most delicious shade of deep olive I had ever seen. A short, tight minidress revealed impossibly long legs and a svelte figure that had likely never seen a Slim-Fast shake in its life. I was pretty sure I’d seen her before somewhere-like on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
“Why’d you bring her?” The petulant words slipped out of my mouth before I could stop myself.
Supermodel took one look at me and began to laugh. She nudged Noah forward. “Didn’t you explain anything? Good lord, man. Her panties must be soaked at this point, and here you show up with a date.”
I blinked at her crude words. “I beg your pardon?”
Noah put his hands on my shoulders, and my entire body began to tingle. God, he smelled good. I grew dazed at the thick, masculine scent; he smelled like leather and cinnamon. I leaned closer, admiring the hard angle of his jaw. If I moved in close enough, I could tuck my head under it and be enveloped in his arms, held against that broad, delicious chest.
“Are you okay, Jackie?”
“Not really. Something’s wrong with me, Noah.” I reached for him, dying to touch him, then pulled my hands back at the last moment. Maybe I was being too forward.
Noah sat down on the pew, and I sat next to him so close that I was practically in his lap, and stared into his eyes.
“Do you believe me now?” he asked.
“About?” I said, distracted by his nearness.
“You’ve been turned into a succubus.” His hands clasped my own.
“Right …” My skin began to itch, and I wanted to rip the jacket off his shoulders. I was having a hard time concentrating. If he moved his finger just slightly, he’d rub against my palms. My thighs quivered at the thought. “And what exactly does a succubus do, again?”
“It’s a long story,” Noah’s friend explained. I’d almost forgotten she was there, like a buzzing fly. “I doubt it’ll sink in until we take care of your Itch.”
“My itch?” I echoed. How had she managed to put her finger on the exact word for what I was feeling? I was itching, all right. My whole body was pulsing, and the feeling was centralized in my pelvis. Noah’s proximity didn’t help, either. I shifted a little closer, my thigh brushing up against his.
“The first time’s always the worst,” she said cheerfully.
I barely heard her; my entire being was focused on that leg so close to mine. Noah had very large thighs, I noticed.
Noah must have sensed what I was telegraphing. He picked me up off the bench and slid me into his lap, and my nerves thrilled at the contact. My mind swam from the sudden rush of blood, my senses fogged, and all nerve endings focused entirely on the small of my back where his hands rested.
“I guess we’d better find someplace to take care of this.” I heard his voice from far away, through the roaring of blood in my ears. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my breasts against him as he glanced around the room.
The supermodel snorted as I buried my face in Noah’s neck and began to lick his skin. “Yeah, it must be a real chore for you, Noah. I’ll sit here in the back and wait for you two to finish, ’kay?”
Noah stood with my legs locked around his waist. The juncture of my thighs pressed against his groin and I could feel the hardness in his pants. Thank God it wasn’t just me.
“The confessional,” he murmured, and headed for the side where the wooden booths were set up, near the long row of unlit prayer candles.
“The confessional?” I lifted my head to look at him. Bad idea-this close up, he looked even more perfect and delectable. There was a hint of a dimple in one cheek and I wanted to touch my tongue to it. “We’re in a church,” I said faintly. “I’m pretty sure that’s against the rules.”
He pushed the door to the confessional open and slid me against the wall of the booth. I breathed a sigh of delight when he gently bit my earlobe. “You can say a few Hail Marys after we’re done.” His eyes had flicked to bright blue and now blazed into my own.
Warm hands slid under my sweatshirt and his mouth hovered just above mine. His hands paused when he discovered I wasn’t wearing a bra, then his mouth crushed against mine in renewed excitement. My moan of pleasure was swallowed by his mouth, and I returned the kiss with fervor. God, the man could kiss! His tongue did things to me that I didn’t think were possible.