by Amelia Autin
“So she came to you.”
He nodded. “She knew about RMM, of course. I told her we’d help her, that RMM would come up with the balance of the ransom...if we could stake out the ransom drop, track the kidnappers and try to rescue the victim.”
“I thought you said kidnapping in Hong Kong is almost like a business, and if the ransom is paid, the victim is released unhurt.”
He slanted another look her way. “You remember everything, don’t you?” Admiration was in his voice, and something else. But she couldn’t figure out what that was.
“I don’t remember every little thing, but the important things, yes. You were telling me about Sean, so naturally...”
“You’re right. That is the case where professional kidnappers are concerned. But I had a feeling these weren’t professional kidnappers, same as with Sean. And I was right.”
“How so?”
“For one thing, only a little digging on their part would have revealed their target didn’t have the kind of ransom money they were demanding. Ten minutes on the internet told me that much. If they were professionals, they’d have switched targets.”
Jason pulled into a public car park, parked neatly and turned off the engine. Then he faced Alana. “For another thing,” he said quietly, “the ransom drop they’d chosen. Only amateurs would have picked that site. Which told me it was very possible they weren’t going to follow the rules.”
“And they didn’t,” she hazarded a guess.
He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “They didn’t. They retrieved the money and were just about to slaughter their victim when RMM broke in.”
“That’s when you killed a man,” she said softly, nodding to herself. She could envision it as if she’d been there. One or more of the kidnappers moving toward the woman with a knife...or a gun... A split-second decision by Jason that meant life for one, death for the other. “His life...or hers and her unborn child’s. You had no choice.”
“Yes.”
“But then...”
“Right. But then.” He breathed deeply again as if trying to dispel the tension talking about this engendered. “I’d never killed a man before. I’d known going in I might have to. I thought I could deal with it, no problem. And I did deal with it, long enough to take the other kidnappers into custody and turn them over to the police. To take the woman to hospital to make sure she and her unborn baby were okay. To call her husband to come be with his wife. Then I went back to my condo and...fell apart.”
* * *
Mei-li had found him there. Shaking. Trying to process a reality that included watching a man’s life fade away, his eyes locked open. Unblinking. Unseeing. And knowing he was responsible.
You did what you had to do, his sister had fiercely reminded him. You saved two innocent lives, one a baby not yet born.
It hadn’t really helped. Not then. Not until he’d visited the maternity ward two months later and held the kidnapping victim’s healthy baby boy in his arms had he finally come to terms with it. You’re here, safe, he’d whispered against the downy cheek. The price I paid was worth it.
But that wasn’t something he would tell anyone. Ever.
“Jason?” Alana touched his arm. “Where are you? It’s like you’re a million miles away.”
“Sorry.” He forced his mind back to the present. “Where was I?”
“You were saying you fell apart after the killing.”
“I eventually got over it, but yes, I’d say my first reaction counts as falling apart. Come on,” he said, unbuckling his seat belt and changing the subject. “You haven’t had dim sum until you’ve had it here.”
* * *
A little while later Jason helped Alana into his Princess V62-S sport yacht, anchored at the far end of his private dock in Victoria Harbour near Causeway Bay. The dock housed three small speedboats, a launch, and Night Wind, a high-speed interceptor boat used by RMM, in addition to the yacht, aptly named The Princess. Not that he’d told her the yacht was his. But unlike switching his Jag for a less prestigious automobile, he couldn’t see taking Alana on a cruise around Hong Kong Island in anything less worthy of her than The Princess. A Princess for a princess, he thought with an inner smile. Other than his mother and his sister, he’d never brought a woman on board his yacht before...as if he’d been waiting for Alana.
“When you said cruise, I thought you meant...you know...a cruise boat. With other passengers.” Alana removed her hat and wandered into the main level salon as she spoke and made a complete rotation as if trying to take everything in. Then she said, “This is a yacht, Jason. Did you rent it just for me?”
Deception about just how rich he was was one thing, but he didn’t want to out-and-out lie to her if he could help it. So he said, “What if I did? Don’t you think you’re worth it?”
“But...”
He moved until he was standing right in front of her. Until he could feel the rise and fall of slight breasts that for some reason turned him on big time, just as they had that first night and every moment since. “I want to make it up to you for putting you through yesterday. Can you understand that?”
“Oh, Jason, I already told you, you don’t have to apologize or do anything to make it up to me. It wasn’t your fault. It just happened.”
The earnest expression in her amethyst eyes ringed by those extravagantly long natural lashes did something to him. At first he couldn’t figure out why, but then he realized her eyes were the windows into her soul. A soul untainted by those things that had scarred his own. And he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he needed Alana in some indefinable way. That with her he could lay down the burdens he’d carried so long, and rest. Truly rest. The slights and insults he’d suffered in his youth would lose their importance. Light would be shed on the dark corners of his mind. And his sins would be forgiven...if Alana believed in him.
“Who are you?” he whispered, brushing the backs of two fingers against her cheek. “How is it possible you’ve bewitched me with just a look?”
She gazed up at him. Solemn. Serious. “I haven’t done anything.”
“Oh, but you have. And I’ll never be the same again.”
* * *
Then he kissed her. Alana had been kissed before, by men who’d thought they were experts and by a man who’d truly cared about her. But she’d never been kissed by a man who embraced her as if she were his salvation, and her whole body went up in flames.
His arms were impossibly tight around her, but not tight enough. She wanted to crawl inside his skin to get closer. Wanted the fire he’d ignited to devour her. Driven by a need she’d never experienced before, she rocked against his hardness until he moaned her name and lifted her up so she could straddle him, so she could cradle that hardness where she needed it most.
In some distant recess of her brain she heard a whimper, then realized it was coming from her. She tore her lips from his. “Please, Jason,” she pleaded, knowing what she was asking. “Please.”
But it was as if her words had broken the spell enthralling him, because the next moment he’d lowered her to the deck. Unwrapped his arms from her aching body. And stepped back. Away from her.
All Alana could think of was how much being released hurt, really hurt, both physically and mentally. All she could say was his name in a needy voice she scarcely recognized. “Jason?”
His eyes squeezed shut as if he couldn’t look at her and deny them both, and his lips thinned as if he were holding on by a thread. Then his eyes opened again, those dark, dark, mesmerizing eyes. “Don’t look at me that way,” he grated. “Do you know what we almost did?”
She swallowed hard, her throat working so she could get the words out. “I know.”
“I didn’t bring you here to seduce you, damn it!”
“It wouldn’t have been a sedu
ction.” The words were out before she could consider the wisdom of them. But once they were uttered, she didn’t care anymore. An eerie calm settled over her. “I wanted you, Jason. I wanted you that first night. I wanted you yesterday. I want you today. Here. Now. Is it wrong to admit it? I don’t think so. I’m not married. Engaged. Pledged to anyone in any way. Are you?”
Shock flashed across his face, then he frowned. “Do you think I would have touched you if I was?”
She shook her head slowly. “So explain to me why you stopped, when I...I didn’t ask you to stop.”
“Because...”
“Because?”
“Because I didn’t plan for this, understand?”
Puzzled, she replied, “No, I don’t understand.”
“No condoms. Is that plain enough? Unless you’re on some kind of contraception.”
Alana could feel the flush that crawled up her neck to her cheeks. “Oh. No. No, I’m not.” Having gone this far, she figured she might as well make a clean breast of it. She steeled herself, took a deep breath and admitted, “I’m not on contraception because I’m not...sexually active.”
“You’re not—” He shook his head as if to clear it. “Say that again.”
“I know I told you I don’t sleep with a man on the first date, but that was a...a slight understatement.”
He opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it, words unsaid. He swung around for a moment, away from her, the muscles of his back rigid. Then he faced her again. “You’re a virgin.” She nodded slowly. “You’re a virgin,” he repeated as if stunned, “but you wanted...want me.”
She licked her lips and nodded again.
He muttered something under his breath. She figured the words were a curse, but she didn’t catch it and she didn’t ask him to repeat it. Then his face hardened. “That confession proves my point. I had no business touching you.”
She took a step toward him and raised her chin. “So what you’re saying is, if I’d slept around before I came to Hong Kong, then it would be okay to touch me?”
“I didn’t say that!”
She took another small step in his direction. “Sounded like it to me.”
“You’re missing the point.”
Another step forward. “Explain the point to me.” Oh-so-politely. Now she was close enough to reach up and cradle his cheek with her hand. “Two weeks ago you said I was as safe with you as I wanted to be,” she breathed. “But I don’t want to be safe, Jason. Not from you. Please.”
He groaned, then pulled her into his arms and kissed her again. And it was as good as the first time, or maybe a tad better. Because now she knew...and he knew...how explosive they were together. Now they both knew breathing was overrated.
Eons later Alana drew her lips from Jason’s and whispered, “Tell me there’s a stateroom on this yacht.”
His voice was husky when he repeated, “There’s a stateroom on this yacht.”
“Tell me you’re going to show me the stateroom.”
“Alana...” If she didn’t know better, she would have sworn he growled her name. “No condoms, remember?”
She smiled up at him with an invitation as old as Eve, one she’d never extended before. But she knew what she was doing. “My money’s on you, Jason. I’m sure you’ll think of something.”
* * *
The stateroom was luxurious in the extreme, but Alana barely had a moment to look around before Jason’s arms enfolded her. But he didn’t kiss her. Instead he held her tight and gazed down at her, myriad emotions crossing his face. “Are you sure this is what you want?”
“Oh, Jason...” She was touched, but she didn’t want a gentleman. She wanted the man who’d kissed her upstairs as if she were his salvation. She wanted the blazing inferno. The ferocious need. The essential man. She wanted...Jason.
But that wasn’t going to happen this time. Not this first time between them. If she wasn’t a virgin...maybe. If they had a condom...maybe. But she was a virgin and they didn’t have a condom. Which meant they would have to be creative. Which meant there was no way Jason would let her unleash the animal in him again. This time.
Afterward Alana could never remember removing her clothes...his clothes. But she would never forget the expression on his face when one by one she removed the pins holding up her hair, uncoiled the braid, then slowly unplaited the strands.
“Let me,” he said, his voice deep and low as he ran his fingers through her hair to finish the job. Then he gently pulled the silky mass forward, until it lay like a dark cloud on her shoulders. “I’ve dreamed of doing this. Of seeing you this way.”
The boat swayed with the undulation of the water in the harbor as Jason drew her down onto the king-size bed with him. He was hard everywhere she touched...and she touched him everywhere. Smooth skin over muscle and sinew were a tactile sensation her fingers couldn’t get enough of.
“What’s this?” she asked, lifting the heavy gold medallion he wore on a gold rope chain around his neck. She couldn’t quite make out all the details in the relatively dim light of the below-deck stateroom, but it was intricately carved with what she could tell was a dragon on one side and some kind of stylized, ornate bird on the other. “Is that a phoenix?”
He nodded. “A perfect pairing in Chinese mythology.”
She didn’t know how she knew, but the knowledge settled in without conscious thought. “RMM. This is the symbol of RMM, isn’t it?”
A faint smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Brilliant as well as beautiful. A potent combination.”
She reverently pressed her lips to the medallion, then lowered it back to his chest, and her hands continued their thorough investigation. Soon she was sighing a little, because she loved touching him and it turned her on. She wasn’t shy about letting him know it, either, worshipping his body with her hands. Her lips. Brushing her long tresses over various body parts and eagerly watching for his reaction.
Just because she’d never slept with a man didn’t mean she was a wide-eyed innocent. She knew enough. And even if she hadn’t, Jason’s quickened breathing, the harsh sounds of encouragement he made, betrayed him. All she had to do was be sensitive to the cues he gave her.
But Alana soon learned making love was a two-way street...and Jason loved to drive. He stopped her from taking him to the brink, then took the wheel. Her skin quickly became hypersensitized when large male hands stroked her curves, when firm lips suckled her slight breasts. But when his lips nibbled their way down, inch by excruciating inch, she caught her breath at the sensations coursing through her body.
Then his mouth closed over her. She arched upward like a bow and choked on his name. He gave her no mercy, driving her up and up, his tongue doing wicked things she’d only read about and dreamed of. The ache built with excruciating slowness, until the world condensed into one word. “Please. Please.”
She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t even say his name. There had to be something wrong, because her body was coiling tighter and tighter like an overwound watch spring. And still Jason gave her no respite, no—
The sudden release of tension rocketed through her, and she sobbed. Just sobbed, her fingernails digging into Jason’s shoulders all unaware. She never even noticed him moving up until he was holding her trembling body tight against his, bringing her down gently from the pinnacle.
Whispered words broke the silence, and she tried to understand; she really did. But her brain couldn’t focus because the blood was pounding in her ears like the roar of the ocean, and all she could think of in that moment was there couldn’t possibly be more to making love than she’d just experienced. Not. Possible.
When her heartbeat finally slowed, the words Jason was whispering still didn’t make sense. They were just utterances, including something that sounded like ngoh oi lei, which he said more
than once. Then she realized the words didn’t make sense for a very good, nonorgasmic reason—they weren’t in English.
Cantonese, she realized. He’s talking in Cantonese. The idea sent a little thrill through her, because even though he looked and sounded like the upper-class British gentleman he was, she’d already deduced Cantonese was the language of his heart. She touched his cheek. “What did you just say?”
His eyes held secrets, but his smile was very male...and just a touch smug. “You don’t want to know.”
“I do. I really, really do.”
He laughed softly. “I said you’re exquisite when you come. And I want to watch you come again. And again.”
Chapter 8
Warmth flooded Alana’s body, and she couldn’t think of a single thing to say except, “Oh.”
“I told you, you didn’t want to know.”
There was absolutely no reply she could make to this. But then she remembered Jason had stopped her from taking him all the way earlier, and when her hands stroked over his body and down, she quickly ascertained he was primed and ready.
She was a little nervous about what she intended to do, because not only had she never done it before, she’d never imagined she would want to. It had ranked in her mind as one of those things men loved for some crazy reason and women barely tolerated because they wanted to please their men. But turnabout was fair play. And besides...she was curious.
So she did to him exactly what he’d done to her. Her lips nibbled their way down, her intent obvious. His hands caught her shoulders before she reached her final destination, holding her back. “You don’t have to, Alana.”
She raised her head and smiled slowly. “I know. But I want to.” And when she said it, she knew it was the truth.
When her mouth closed over him he almost arched off the bed. And his guttural cry filled her with a sense of power. It didn’t take her as long as it had taken him. Partly because he was already so aroused, and partly because Alana soon learned she loved doing this for Jason.
