Page 51 of Under Fire in Big Sky

“Gravity?”

“Yeah, gravity,” he said, as if he had an epiphany. “I’m starting to think this thing between us is bound by the laws of physics. Maybe no way to change it.” He stroked her lips with his thumb, sending a flurry of sparks dancing through her.

Wrapping an arm around her waist, he pulled her from the door. He leaned closer, pressing his body against hers, and kissed her. To end the conversation, or distract her from the topic at hand, she didn’t know and didn’t care.

The heated kiss was hungry. Demanding. Filled with longing and a touch of sadness that tugged at her heart. He licked inside her mouth as emotion seared through her, a wave of need threatening to buckle her knees. She craved his touch, this intimacy. The connection with him.

As his hands caressed her body and he kissed her like she was special, like she mattered to him more than anyone else, she melted, turning into a puddle of goo.

The questions evaporated, the frustration, the anger, the paralyzing fear that had gripped her on the helicopter while she waited to see if Eli would disarm the bomb in time.

It all disappeared, supplanted by the thick, hot yearning surging through every muscle and every vein. He shuffled them away from the door, peeling off her jacket and then his own. They tumbled onto the bed. Instinctively, her legs parted, and she hauled him between her thighs. His fingers tangled in her hair as his mouth slanted over hers and devoured. Her skin felt too tight. Her blood hummed. Even though she worried this didn’t mean everything to him as it did to her, all she wanted was them out of their clothes.

He tossed his hat and yanked down the bedspread.

“I can’t believe you took the time to make the bed this morning,” she said, smiling and unbuttoning her shirt. He was always so tidy, but this was the first time he’d straightened the bed in a hotel.

Eli stilled, the grin on his face fading. “I thought you made it.”

An eerie silence settled between them.

“Maybe, maybe housekeeping ignored the Do Not Disturb sign and did it,” she muttered.

He climbed off the bed. Looking around, he walked through the room, starting in the bathroom. Checked the closet. Under the beds.

“It’s been a long day and we’re tired,” she said. “We could be paranoid.” Although there was a fine line between paranoia and hypervigilance.

He crossed the room, heading into the kitchen, then halted and swore.

“What is it?” She buttoned her shirt.

“Someone was in the room and it wasn’t housekeeping.” He grabbed something from the dining table and held it up.

A white envelope. With something written on the front.

A shiver slid down Olivia’s spine as she stood up. “Did you check in under your real name?”

“I didn’t see any reason not to.”

Did Audrey contact Shepherd before she was arrested and tell him everything she knew? Olivia didn’t want to imagine that Shepherd had found them, and they were sitting ducks. Anything but that.

She stepped closer to Eli.

There was a single word on the envelope in his hand, typed in all caps. PARLEY.

A discussion between opposing sides of a conflict with the aim of reaching an agreement.

“Open it,” she said. “Read it.”

“Doesn’t matter what it says.” He dropped the envelope on the table and snatched his jacket and hat from the floor. “We’re getting out of here.” He tossed her jacket to her.

Putting on her blazer, she picked up the envelope. It was unsealed.

Eli hurried around the room, collecting their things, and throwing them in their luggage with brisk efficiency.

She took out the note card, slowly, searching for traces of any kind of powder. It appeared clean. The cardstock was bright white, heavyweight, smooth finish. She read it.

Take no further action that will endanger others.