Page 68 of Smuggler's Beauty

Aiden shifted on the bed, moving with swift graceful movements that drew a startled gasp from her. Before she knewit he was hovering above her in a punishing plank. His green eyes twinkled with mischief.

“Speaking of appreciation,” he said, and gave her a gentle kiss. The tenderness of it rocked her off center.

Evelyn could handle flirting. She could handle banter without blinking an eye. She could even handle lust. Carnal desires were some of her favorite things. What was easier to get lost in than an orgasm?

She didn’t know if she could manage being the focus of such tenderness.

Her eyes welled with tears, threatening to spill over.

“Hey, hey, hey,” he whispered. “What’s this?” He collapsed next to her on the bed, pulling her into his arms until she was securely tucked up against his side.

What is this? Well, Aiden, I’m a psychic disaster waiting to happen. I have no actionable control over a talent I should have mastered decades ago, but I was both too important and too unimportant to my family to bother dealing with training properly. I’m a dirty little secret weapon. Oh, and I’m on the run from a megalomaniacal fascist. I’m supposed to be staging a coup when I don’t know how to stage shit. I have no idea what you see in me, and I’m slightly worried that you’ll figure out that I’m a complete and total fuck-up.

“I just have so much baggage,” she whispered into his chest.That sums things up nicely.

“I don’t know if you knew this, dollface, but this boat has a fuck-ton of storage.”

She laughed, the sound thick with the tightness of threatening tears in her throat. He stroked her hair and held her. The pressure in her sinuses cleared. Her breathing returned to normal. She tilted her head back and looked up at him. The tenderness in his gaze was disconcerting. She was willing to work on getting used to it.

Evelyn indulged in the comfort of Aiden’s arms until she could no longer put off the necessities of being awake.Stupid bladder.She nuzzled closer to his chest, taking one last deep inhale of his cedar and rosemary scent before disentangling herself.

“You must have a bathroom somewhere in here,” she said.

“Just through there.” He pointed to a discreet sliding door panel behind the conversation area. “I grabbed some of your stuff when I went to make coffee. I figured you would want your own toothbrush.”

“Toothbrushes are sacred to my people.”

“I’ll have L.I.N.D.A. update the data entry on Tanalia.”

Chuckling, and with great reluctance, she left Aiden’s bed and wandered to the bathroom. The floor was covered in triangular tiles in a scattering of green and cream shades. The deepest green was picked up in long, vertical subway tiles in the shower.And I thought my shower was big. This one’s massive.The fixtures were all a brushed gold tone, and there was a neat cluster of her toiletries on the bench.

Evelyn turned to the sleek double sinks and located not only her toothbrush, but all of her skincare items and hairbrush. She couldn’t stop the smile from spreading on her face. She often grinned like an idiot when she thought about Aiden, and the evidence of his thoughtfulness strewn around his bathroom was one more thing that brought it on.

She tended to her morning necessities and exited the bathroom. Her bathrobe, the one she’d initially fled the medivessel in, was draped across the back of one of the chairs. There was a plate of artfully cut apples and a small dish of peanut butter on the coffee table.

Aiden was pulling a pair of trousers off a hanger. She hadn’t even noticed the panels in the wall that held his closet. He nodded to the fruit on the table.

“We should be getting to the rendezvous with Vinnie’s contact in an hour or so. Hopefully he’ll be able to help you with the tricks he learned keeping his talent under wraps.”

“Was this meeting planned before or after you called her up to chew her out?” Evelyn picked up an apple slice and dunked it in the peanut butter. Honey-roasted salty sweet goodness battled for dominance with the crisp, tart apple in her mouth.

“Before, but I didn’t know how important the contact would be. I’d have pushed for a quicker route here had I known he might be able to help you.”

She munched her snack, content to watch Aiden dress. He’d selected a button down shirt, and Evelyn watched his deft fingers swiftly secure the buttons. He tucked it into the trousers and went searching for a tie.

“It shouldn’t be sexy watching you put clothes on.”

He quirked an eyebrow at her. “You’re just fixated on my hands.”

She felt the blush creeping up her cheeks.Busted.“Irrelevant.”

He flashed that grin at her, the one that made her stomach flip, as he selected a tie and swiftly had it knotted at his throat. The silk was a shining green shade that brought out the highlights in his eyes.

“Maybe I want to see how badly I can make your fingers shake when you unbutton this shirt later.”

Evelyn swallowed the chunk of apple she was chewing harder than she’d intended. There was absolutely no hiding the flush in her cheeks now.

Never play poker with this man. You’ll spontaneously combust.