He led her toward the far corner of the dance floor, where he could be alone with her while keeping his eye on everyone else. Taking her hand in his, Jack pulled Cameron into his arms. He held her close with his other hand on her bare lower back as they began to dance. They fit perfectly together; in her high-heeled shoes, the top of her head came right to his chin.

“Thank you for this. For everything. I wouldn’t have had this night if it wasn’t for you,” she said.

“I’m just sorry we couldn’t be here under different circumstances.”

“If there were different circumstances, you wouldn’t be here at all.” She shifted closer to him. “I’m glad you were the one who walked into my hotel room that night, Jack.”

He smiled. “What a change—two weeks ago you hated pretty much everything about me walking into that room.”

“That conversation would go a lot differently if we had it now. For starters . . . I don’t think there’d be much actual conversation,” she said in a throaty voice.

Jack’s eyes bored into hers. “I’m at the edge, Cameron. Tread cautiously.”

She shook her head, no. “I think it’s time for us to leave this wedding.”

“If we go now, there’s no coming back. You’re mine all night.”

Her eyes flashed. “Promise?”

That was it.

Jack grabbed her hand and pulled her off the dance floor, toward the main entrance of the tent. He stopped before Agent Rawlings, who had been posted there all evening.

“We’re heading back to the room,” Jack said. “You and O’Donnell should keep watch over the Tower lobby—both the elevators and the emergency stairwell.” He led Cameron out of the tent. The white runner went one direction, but he took her across the lawn toward the Tower. And their room.

Cameron threw him a look. “Nice. Rawlings probably knows exactly what we’re going to do.”

“Cameron, with the way you look tonight, every man at this wedding knows exactly what I plan to do with you.”

“Wow, that may be the sexiest thing any man has ever—shit—I’m ruining my heels in this grass. I keep sinking in.”

Without breaking stride, Jack lifted her into his arms and carried her.

“I could’ve just taken the shoes off,” Cameron said with a smile.

“I’m not wasting time while you undo those damn straps.”

He got her inside the Tower lobby, set her down, and led her into an elevator. He pushed the button for their floor. The minute the elevator doors shut, she reached for him. Jack caught her hands and spun her around, her back against his chest.

“Not yet, baby,” he said huskily in her ear. “I need to get you into that room safely.” He held her hands tightly, doubting he could take it if she so much as touched him. She pressed back and rubbed her just-out-of-sight ass teasingly against him.

Son of a bitch. Jack growled low in his throat. He thought about hitting the emergency stop button, pushing up her dress, and taking her right there in the elevator. And as much as he throbbed at the wanton image of her standing in her heels, bracing herself against the wall and moaning his name as he took her from behind, that was not the way things were going to happen for their first time together.

He bent his head and kissed the base of her throat, not trusting himself to get any closer to her mouth. He could feel her quick pulse underneath his lips. “Remember how I said I was in charge? That includes tonight, Cameron.”

With a sly smile, she closed her eyes, tilting her neck to give him better access. “We’ll see about that.”

They would see, Jack agreed. The minute they got into that room.

The elevator sounded, indicating they had arrived at their floor. The doors sprang open and he smacked Cameron lightly on the ass to get her moving.

Twenty-five

AS THEY HURRIED through the hallway, Cameron’s body tingled with anticipation. Jack had barely touched her, and she was already completely turned on.

He unlocked the door and let them into their room, tossing the key on the desk in the corner. As he did his usual check, Cameron noticed that housekeeping had turned down the beds and had left the lights on dim. She set her purse on the nightstand.

She turned to face him when he finished, thinking that if he didn’t kiss her soon she might suffocate from all the sexual tension in the air.

She expected him to pounce and throw her onto the closest bed.

He didn’t.

Jack folded his arms across his chest. “So I’ve been thinking about your Walls of Jericho. Actually not so much about the wall, but about the other part. Where I show you how a man undresses.”

The temperature in the room rose so fast the glass on the television fogged.

Cameron exhaled. “All right. I’m watching.”

First, Jack took off the jacket of his suit, exposing his gun harness. He quickly removed that as well and set it on the desk. His hands moved to his tie. He loosened the knot and pulled it off, and Cameron had to fight the urge to storm over and yank the rest of his clothes off him.

There was a glint in his eyes as he made no move to undress further. “Sorry, but this is the twenty-first century version.”

“What happens in the twenty-first century version?”

“You lose the dress.”

Well, then.

“There’s not much underneath,” she said. She’d had little choice with the way the dress was cut.