Courting Trouble. Kimberly Dean

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СКАЧАТЬ That was strange. She scrolled down and even went through three pages of results. There were no links to a company with the name Luxxor, at least not in the DC area.

      She leaned back against the pillows. Were they a defence contractor? It was DC, after all. Many of those companies liked to keep a low profile.

      She tried variations on the spelling and even did a search under Nina Lockwood’s name.

      She became even more puzzled when that came up null.

      Sienna picked up the card from the nightstand. Ms Lockwood had been a very impressive woman. There was something about the way she carried herself. She demanded respect, and everyone at the Smithsonian party had nearly fallen over themselves to give it to her. The woman was beautiful, classy and obviously powerful.

      Who was she?

      Sienna brushed her thumb over the phone number and an idea occurred to her. She did a reverse-number look-up on the Internet. Her nose scrunched when site after site wanted payment. Finally, she found one that simply said it was an unlisted number.

      Did people still do that?

      ‘Call this number in the morning,’ the woman had instructed. She’d offered an interview, but for what?

       I’m impressed by what I’ve seen here tonight.

      Sienna blinked, and her throat tightened when she remembered that statement. She’d been told that by teachers and professors her whole life. Friends’ parents had always approved of her. Yet now that she was out in the real world, all it seemed to want to do was slap her in the face.

      She let out a ragged breath and toyed with the ends of her hair.

      It wasn’t in her to complain outside the privacy of her bedroom, but she’d worked so hard for so long. She’d done everything her mentors had asked of her. To fail so miserably just out of the starting gate had wrecked her confidence. Hearing those kind words meant more to her than the woman could know.

      ‘Ready for another go around, baby?’

      Sienna groaned and threw a glare at the wall when the sexy words seeped through. No, please. Enough, already. She couldn’t take much more of the stereo hijinks.

      ‘Always, you sexy beast.’

      There were giggles, and then the discussion dropped mercifully to the point where Sienna couldn’t hear. She was just relaxing into her pillow again when a thud against the wall nearly sent her off the bed.

      ‘Want to join us, Si?’ Margo called.

      Sienna’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. She recoiled inside and out. She was trying frantically to come up with a polite excuse when she heard giggles again.

      Giggles directed at her.

      It was impulsive and totally out of character, but she swept one of her running shoes off the floor and flung it at the wall.

      The splat turned the giggles next door into flat-out laughter.

      Margo thought Sienna was frigid, a true ice queen, simply because, in the time they’d lived together, she’d never had a guy spend the night.

      Sienna flounced on the mattress and jabbed her ear plugs back into her ears. It had only been five months since she and Kyle had broken up.

      Five months. It didn’t seem that long, but that was nearly half a year of celibacy. With no intimacy, no connection, no climaxes …

      She wiped a hand over her brow. The heat and discomfort were back.

      She yanked the headphones off and tossed them onto the bedside table. They weren’t working any more, at least not for her needs.

      Margo and Drummer Boy had caught their second wind and were going at it full-tilt. The soft pop music coming through the earphones couldn’t cover up the noise. Neither could the classical music she liked so much. The only thing that might work was hard, driving rock ’n’ roll, but wouldn’t that be defeating the purpose?

      Giving up, Sienna shut down her laptop and put it back on the nightstand shelf.

      She let out a long gust of air as the situation became impossible to ignore. Would it be better in the kitchen? Because that was about as far away as she could get and still be in the apartment. The only other person she knew in the building was Mr Russell, the building manager, and he was a creepy guy.

      ‘Roll over,’ the drummer panted.

      The mattress squeaked.

      ‘Like this?’ Margo asked.

      ‘No, turn the other way.’

      ‘Oh!’ her roomie squeaked. The sound turned into more of a coo. ‘Oh, my.’

      ‘Come on over, Sienna,’ a deep voice prompted. ‘I’ll help you relax.’

      This time, Sienna did jump off the bed. That hadn’t been Margo. She bounded the two steps it took to get to the door and locked it.

      She stepped back.

      And heard more sounds of pleasure.

      Unbidden, her nipples stiffened and she rubbed her hand over the strange sensation building in the pit of her stomach. It wasn’t fear. She didn’t feel threatened, and she knew neither of them would make her do anything she didn’t want to do.

      But there had been desire in that male voice. A gruff kind of turn-on.

      Her knees weren’t steady when she took another step back and bumped against the bed.

      She should go somewhere. Anywhere. This might be her home, but the situation was becoming more than embarrassing. She could sleep on Erin’s sofa. Her BFF had already started packing things for storage after the wedding, but surely she had a sheet and pillow to spare.

      Although it was nearly two o’clock in the morning.

      Sienna stared at the clock on her nightstand and swept her hand through her hair. She couldn’t wake Erin. It would take the rest of the night to peel her off the ceiling if she called this late.

      But God.

      The words from next door disintegrated to whispers and sighs. Sienna could hear the creaking of old box springs, the wisp of sheets and the jingle of Margo’s tambourine on the bedpost.

      She moved to the window, trying to concentrate on the rain that had started outside. The heaviness in the air had made it feel even warmer, but the humidity was finally squeezing out raindrops. They wetted the street and streamed down the glass in rivulets. Instead of distracting her, though, the low clouds only tamped down the space.

      The soft rain increased the intimacy and cocooned her with the lovers in the tiny apartment.

      The drummer in the nearby bed let out a guttural sound, and Sienna bit her lip to stop a corresponding moan.

      Oh, she missed sex.

      She might not be СКАЧАТЬ