She nodded and tugged the shirt back over her head.
“Then that’s where we’re headed. It’s more than an eight-hour drive going up the back way. That’ll put us in while it’s still dark. We’ll hit up a motel and get some sleep before retrieving that evidence.”
The word “motel” started two different alarms ringing in her head. She ignored the louder klaxons, which were blaring over the thought of her and Nate sleeping and showering together, and focused on the other issue instead.
“We can’t do that if we’re going off the grid,” she said. “They can track you by watching your credit card use. They’ll know right where we are.”
“Which is why I won’t be using my card after the gas station. I don’t care if they find out we stopped here to fuel up. It’s where we go next that will be our little secret.”
“Motels won’t let you rent rooms without credit cards,” she said. “Believe me, I tried. I couldn’t find a single place between here and Colorado that would work with cash only.”
Nate pulled open the door for her. “There are a few, but not enough to count on. That’s why I picked up these.” He reached in the bag and showed her one of the prepaids.
“Those will work?”
“Yep. One of the many tricks I learned chasing down skips.”
Her mouth fell open. “I never thought of that. I wound up sleeping in my car on the way.”
He dropped the card back in the bag and gestured for her to get in the passenger seat. “Go figure that I picked up a few things in my twelve years of hunting that you didn’t figure out in a week. I learned these tricks to outthink fugitives, though. Never figured I’d be one.”
She felt a throb of guilt. It wasn’t his fault that her boss was out to get her. But it was both of their problem now.
“We should probably stop and eat on the way,” she said when he got in beside her. “I’m starving.”
“Drive through only,” he said. “And road snacks.”
She wrinkled her nose. “You’re going to be very bad for my figure.”
He actually cracked a smile as he started the car. “That sounds fair, since I was already very bad to your figure.”
The look on his face sparked something unexpected in her, and she leaned over without thinking and kissed him full on the lips. It started off as a quick brush, but she caved to the immediate and overwhelming desire to keep their mouths in contact. She took hold of his face while he tensed in apparent surprise, but his lips were pliable and willing when she prodded his mouth with her tongue.
A hot jab of lust revved up her erogenous zones when their tongues began an eager dance, and she flirted with the urge to climb on his lap. By the time she pulled away, her heart was racing and Nate looked more hungry than dazed.
“What was that for?” he asked.
She wasn’t entirely certain. “I guess that’s my way of saying thanks.”
He blinked. “For what, exactly?”
“For doing all this. Believing me. And for not sounding disgusted just now when you brought up what you and my figure did earlier.”
He licked his lips, looking more as though he was trying to taste her on them rather than keep them moist.
“If this is the way we’re expressing our gratitude,” he said, “then let me just say this.”
His sudden grab was even more unexpected than her mad impulse, and her nipples tightened at the firm, almost demanding press of his mouth to hers. He gripped her upper arms almost painfully while he kissed her half senseless. His thumbs brushed the sides of her breasts, weakening every muscle in her body.
He pulled away and gave a smiling, satisfied nod while she reeled from the wash of happy tingles passing over her.
“So what was that one about?” she managed.
“Thanks for saving the day twice by flashing your incredible rack at a guy.”
“Check your math. I believe that would be three times.”
“Twice,” he repeated. “Once here and once so I could clock that goon back at your place.”
“You’re forgetting when I bared my breasts for you. If I hadn’t done that, I’m betting you’d have had me cuffed and out the door without a clue that those idiots were planning to jump us on the road. Might not have gone so well.”
“I suppose that’s a fair point.” His smile sobered, and he reached over to take her hand. “It’ll be okay, Lydia. We will find a way to dig out of this hole. Trust me.”
She just nodded, gaping at him in silence. There was something far more intimate in the way he touched her hand than the kisses they had just indulged. She laced her fingers through his, and they stayed that way while he drove them back to the highway and for a good while beyond.
Somewhere between California and Arizona, she came to a decision.
Nate had put himself out there for her, fighting off the men he could have simply handed her to. Because of his heroics, he was in almost as much trouble as she was. She couldn’t allow that. His idea about using the evidence in court to gain her the upper hand was noble, but naïve. Andrew would find a way to cover his bases by the time it came down to it. She couldn’t take the risk. She had to play this game the hard way.
Despite Nate’s warnings that they should stick together, she knew she had to do the opposite. Once they made it to Flagstaff and she caught a few hours’ sleep, she would have to slip out and finish this alone.
* * * * *
Nate woke up to the tickle of a woman’s hair trailing over his bare stomach. A hand that was not his own was exploring the hard, throbbing ridge inside his pants. He had been sleeping on his back with one arm flung over his head and the other curved protectively around the woman who was no longer sleeping peacefully at his side.
The naughty seductress was back in force.
Lydia had pushed herself up on one arm, and she was leaning over him while she stroked his hard cock. When he stirred, she raised her head and gave him a guilty smile.
“I’m sorry,” she said, sounding no more remorseful than the last time she’d apologized while he had an erection. “I swore to myself I wasn’t going to do this. I was lying here watching you sleep, and I couldn’t help myself. All I could do was stare at your chest. It’s your own fault, you know, for not having a shirt on.”
“Now you know how I felt the first few hours we were together,” he said thickly. He rubbed sleep from his eyes, but when he went to lower his other arm, it wouldn’t budge.
He flinched and jerked his head up to find his wrist was cuffed to one of the spindles on the wooden headboard.
“What the hell is this?” he asked, tugging on the cuffs.
“Now you know how I felt the first few hours we were together. Some of it, anyway.”
“You stole my cuffs while I was sleeping.”
“Relax, Nate.” She winked at him and began pulling down his unzipped trousers. “You like kinky sex, don’t deny it. Or else that whole little scene back at the beach house would never have happened.”
He liked kinky sex just fine. But his fantasies about her and handcuffs hadn’t involved him being the one bound up. Maybe it wasn’t so bad, though. His dick sure wasn’t complaining. It jumped out and hit his belly stiffly when she tugged off his pants. And he still had one hand free, at least, in order to take advantage of the fact that he wasn’t the only one who no longer had any clothes on.
Lydia climbed on top of him without a stitch on. As unbelievably beautiful as she’d looked splayed out naked on the dining table, straddling him with her hair hanging down to partially obscure the gleam in her eyes turned her into a wicked goddess. Every curve and dip beckoned, driving him instantly insane.
She had his wallet in her hand, and it occurred to him that in another setting, the overall picture would be a lot more disturbing. But he knew what she had in mind.
“One left,” she said, tearing the foil packet with her teeth the way he’d done the night before.
“I knew there was something I forg
ot to pick up when we were out shopping,” he said and groaned out loud when she touched him to roll on the rubber.
He’d obviously slept through some interesting foreplay, because neither Lydia nor his pulsing cock seemed to need any warming up. She raised her ass up and sat down on him slowly, and he watched his dick disappear inch by inch inside her trimmed, already primed pussy. Her nipples were stiff and pink, and her body went rigid while she speared herself on him.
He gazed at her in near disbelief when she began fucking him. Such beauty and animalistic, pornographic need didn’t exist in women outside the triple-X-rated movies, did it? Maybe he was just dreaming. Maybe he was still back in the other motel room, the one where he’d only fantasized about doing the hot woman he was hunting down.
She pressed her hips against his pelvis and began to rock, and she let out a moan that stood the hair on his arms straight up. Jesus, the woman could turn him on like no other. He reached for her with his free hand, and she bent down obligingly so he could grab a luscious, round tit and give it a squeeze.
“What is it about you that turns me into an insanely horny woman?” she asked, opening her mouth in a silent gasp when he pinched her hard nipple.
“Maybe the same thing that has me throwing every warning about trouble in high heels out the window.”
His frustration mounted as the restraint on his other wrist kept him from pleasuring her other breast. Or gripping both her hips while she rode him. Or better yet, flipping her over and plunging into her with her legs draped on his shoulders. Still, he shoved his hips upward hard to meet hers, grunting with each thrust until he felt his balls begin pulling tight to his body.
“Nate,” she said, riding him faster. “I have a confession to make.”
“Now?”
“You’re the best I’ve ever had.”
“Stop talking and fuck me harder, woman,” he said with a wicked smile, remembering her words to him when she’d been the one on her back. “Let me feel your nails on the chest you were busy staring at while I slept.”
She dug in immediately, and he tensed with the exquisite pain-pleasure of her raking his skin. She pinched his nipples hard, then twisted them while she started picking up her entire torso and slamming her ass against him violently. Her tits practically jolted off her body as she fucked him wild, and he knew he was going to explode before she could come.
“Easy, baby,” he told her through clenched teeth. “The idea is to use me to get yourself off before you kill me.”
Lydia froze and gave a yell, and he realized she’d already gotten there. His toes curled as he took hold of her thigh and let go, joining her in a real gut-wrenching orgasm that seemed to blow off more than just sexual steam. For a moment, he was free of the whole bullshit scene. There was no fear that a battering ram would crash through the door at any moment, and men shouting and waving guns would pile in while he was shoved onto his face and handcuffed. In climax, it was just the two of them, a pair of sexually compatible adults who were free to indulge any passion they wanted.
When his consciousness floated down to the bed a short time later, it wasn’t only to discover good sex couldn’t actually repair the hole fate had just ripped through his life. Lydia was already off him and tugging on the jeans that had given him an instant erection in the middle of a store. She put them on commando style, dropping her bikini bottoms on his bare, still-throbbing crotch.
“I’m not wearing those,” he said, trying to scoot himself upright.
“I should hope not. Consider them a little memento of the occasion.”
“Can I have the handcuff key now, please?” he asked while she pulled on her shirt and flipped her hair out of the back.
She put her shoes on without a word.
“Very funny,” he said. “Be a good girl, Ly, and take off the cuffs so I can shower.”
She whirled on him. “How do you know that nickname?”
“I heard it when I was eavesdropping on your call with Valerie the day she hired the stripper.” On the drive to Flagstaff, he had already told her how Valerie had inadvertently provided him with everything he needed to know about where Lydia was, as well as giving him the stripper idea.
She actually looked stricken at that. “Oh.” There was a pause. “So there was actually a stripper.”
“I told you there was. Is that disappointment I hear?”
When she grabbed for the jacket he’d bought her, he frowned. “What are you doing?”
She pulled on the ski coat and turned, and this time, the guilt in her face and her voice were quite real. “I’m really sorry, Nate. I planned to be gone before you woke up.” She gazed at his body longingly. “I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave without fucking you one more time.”
Now he was pulling hard on his wrist. “Leave? What the hell are you talking about? I thought we agreed we need to stay together?”
She shook her head and went to the door. “I can’t let you be involved. It wouldn’t be right.”
“I already am involved. You leaving now won’t change that.”
“Those men nearly shot you because of me. If we stay together, you might get in harm’s way again.” She glanced at the floor. “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you because of me.”
“A little late for that, wouldn’t you say?”
“I’m going to fix it. I have to see Andrew.”
“Why? No, Ly. Don’t.”
“That’s the only way to stop this. I know I can work a deal with him. Then you’ll be free again, and hopefully I will too.”
She reached for the knob, and desperation reared up in him. “Stop!” he called. “Do not go out that door. Let me help you, Lydia. Don’t do something we’ll both regret.”
“Too late,” she whispered, and she pulled open the door. Bright sunlight streamed in, meaning it was midmorning at least.
Lydia paused in the open doorway for a final look at him. “God, I really wish we could have met under better circumstances. Stay safe, Nature Antillean.”
Then she was gone.
“God damn it,” he said, shifting around to check the handcuffs. They weren’t loose, but she had neglected to secure them on his arm above the wrist bone.
Putting his thumb to his pinky, he used a twist and tug motion. It took some doing, but he managed to slip off the cuff. Resisting the urge to bolt after her stark naked, he grabbed his pants and barely tugged them on before running barefoot out the door. Their room was on the second floor, and by the time he hit the stair rail, he saw the taillights of his car headed out the driveway.
“She’s stealing my fucking car,” he said, racing back to the room with his pants still flapped open. “Miss I’m-not-a-lawbreaker just committed grand theft auto.”
Which would be exactly what he would have to do in order to stop her.
He took quick stock of what Lydia had and hadn’t taken. She’d left with the new cell phone and some of the cash, not to mention the contents of his trunk. But she hadn’t left him entirely destitute. She hadn’t emptied all the cash from his wallet, and he still had a few of the prepaid cards. One of them had already been used to secure the motel room, though.
Nate stuffed what he had into his jacket pocket, except for the key to the room. He left that on the round table on his way out the door. He wouldn’t be coming back.
Breaking into a car and hotwiring it was among his skill sets, but he’d only done it on his own cars. He’d never swiped someone else’s. Anger and guilt mixed in his gut as he picked out an older, nondescript car that he was lucky enough to find had the back door unlocked.
“Add one more sin to the list of reasons why the cops want you,” he muttered as he twisted wires together to spark the engine to life.
He squealed out of the parking lot, hanging a right in the direction he’d seen her go. Why was she doing this? If she wanted to meet with the asshole boss on the sly, there was no reason not to let Nate help. It would have been much better to ha
ve him on her side. Not wanting him in danger was noble, but it was a weak excuse. Danger was a been-there-done-that deal already, and it had left him a wanted man. She was putting herself in a highly unsafe situation by not having someone to watch her back.
Nate spotted his car a few blocks away, and he zoomed up to follow her from a couple car lengths behind. She pulled off for gas, and he considered confronting her then and there. He could re-cuff her and strap her in for the ride, and then demand that she tell him where they were going. But somehow, he knew she would find a way around accepting his help. He’d have to give it to her without her knowing.
The Toyota he’d swiped had only a third of a tank of gas, so he couldn’t follow her for long before fuel became a problem. Still, if his instincts were right, she wouldn’t be headed out of town just yet. He knew what her next stop would be after this.
She came out of the mini-mart with his new cell phone pressed to her ear. She looked worried as she spoke, not to mention guilty as hell. Her eyes flicked all around, as if she expected a SWAT team to jump her at any moment. Or maybe for Nate to pop up.
Judging from the look on her face when she hung up, he had a fair guess who she’d been talking to. She’d made contact with Andrew about a deal. Nate slipped out of the stolen car while she was gassing up, and he kept a low profile while he picked out a blue Neon.
The ignition cap was trickier on this model, and he was still fucking with it when he saw Lydia hang up the pump nozzle and get in the car.
“Shit,” he said while she pulled away. Maybe he should have stowed away in the back while she’d gone inside.
A screwdriver in the glove compartment came in handy, and he popped the ignition with it and roared off to do his version of casual tailing in midmorning traffic. A glance at the dashboard told Nate it was eleven a.m., and the gas gauge was encouragingly close to the Full mark. He wondered how long it would take Lydia to drive to wherever she’d hidden the evidence, which was somewhere in Flagstaff. He had no doubt that was her destination.
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