A smile ghosted across her lips. Daniel LeCroix. She wasn’t surprised he’d joined the armed forces. Even in her brief association with him on prom night five years ago, she’d seen his valor, his kindness, his integrity. When her date hadn’t deigned to get his hands dirty to retrieve the stranded kitten, when her friends had all abandoned her for “wasting time” on the rescue, only Daniel had stayed behind to help her instead of going to the dance. Daniel had ruined his rented tux moving the sewer grate and climbing into the drainage pipes, then had walked her and her new pet home. And left an indelible mark on her heart.
Nicole couldn’t help but wonder how different tonight would have been if he’d been her escort instead of her father.
The night’s not over. Her breath stilled. Ditching her father in favor of Daniel would be waving a red flag in her father’s face. He’d never forgive her for the snub and the damage to his well-crafted public image.
But had her father respected her feelings when she’d complained about his friends’ untoward advances? A flash of anger spiraled through her. How long was she supposed to put her life on hold to be her father’s PR darling? She was already a year behind her class in nursing school because of his last election campaign and months of filling her mother’s shoes as his companion at high-profile events and parties. As much as she loved her father, she just didn’t want the high-society lifestyle he thrived on.
Inside, the orchestra began playing the ballad from a popular Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, and Nicole sighed. Fixing her gaze on Daniel, she crossed the porch and approached him. “Dance with me?”
He cut a startled glance her direction. “Nicole.” His gaze shifted behind her, obviously noting that she was alone. “Why aren’t you inside?”
“I needed a breather. Too much hot air in there.” She twitched a grin and hitched her head toward the party. Stepping closer to him, she held out her hand. “So will you dance with me? This is one of my favorite songs.”
His gaze locked on hers, his regret obvious. “I can’t. I’m on duty.”
She moved close enough to slide her hand along the polished buttons of his dress whites. She could feel the strong, steady beat of his heart beneath her fingers, and the life-affirming cadence struck her as powerfully virile and maddeningly sexy. “Just one dance. No one will know or care if you just danced this one song with me.” She slid her arms around his neck and twined her fingers in the close-cropped hair at his nape. “Please.”
His mental battle played across his face, the tug-of-war between duty and desire. “Nicole...” Closing his eyes, he settled a hand at her waist and halfheartedly tried to push her away.
Suddenly the idea of losing this opportunity to dance with Daniel, because of the rules of his job, or her father’s code of conduct, or any other stuffy social convention or arbitrary legal dictate, made her want to scream. She fisted her hand in the back of his dress coat and refused to be budged. Tears of frustration and rebellion puddled in her eyes, and she raised her chin to meet his gaze.
“Screw the rules, Daniel. I want to dance with you.”
His dark eyes narrowed on her, and hands that had pushed her away now touched the bare skin exposed by the low cut in the back of her dress. The warmth of his fingers against her night-chilled skin spun a delicious tingle from her head to her toes. A groan rumbled in his throat as he flattened his palm at the small of her back and drew her close.
A tremor of anticipation spun through her when she aligned her body with his. The stiff creases of his uniform and the sensual play of his muscles tantalized her through her sheer dress. Resting her cheek on his shoulder, she melted in his arms, moving with him when he swayed and shifted his feet in a slow dance. The tension that had pounded at her temples slipped away as he held her, and Nicole could almost pretend they were alone, the only two people in this corner of the world.
Daniel skimmed a hand up her spine, sending sparks of shimmery heat through her blood. When he reached her nape, his thumb caressed her sensitized skin with lazy, hypnotic strokes.
“You know,” he murmured, his deep voice a low, sexy rumble, “I always kind of regretted that we didn’t make it to prom that night. I’d been hoping I’d have the chance to dance with you.”
She smiled and curled her fingers in the fabric of his dress coat. “Then this dance was long overdue.”
He drew a slow deep breath, then let it out on a hum of pleasure. “And worth the wait.”
“Agreed.” She snuggled closer, inhaling the crisp scent of soap that clung to him. She closed her eyes and savored the moment. But all too soon the ballad ended and a faster song began. Daniel stopped dancing, but he didn’t step back right away. He didn’t have to tell her he was thinking about his guard duty, the rules he’d already broken for her.
Nicole mentally scrambled for a way to extend the precious minutes she’d had in his arms. She wasn’t ready to say good-night to the thoughtful Daniel she’d gotten to know on her prom night, the honorable soldier concerned tonight for his duty, the sexy man whose touch made her feel thoroughly feminine and on fire.
“I should—”
“Be my date tonight,” she interrupted. Lifting her head, she met his dark gaze and gripped his arms to keep him from moving away. Hoping she sounded enticing and impulsive rather than desperate, she flashed a grin. “Come inside with me, and we can spend the rest of the night dancing.”
His expression dimmed. “I can’t leave my post. Not until my replacement arrives at midnight.”
Hope swelled in her chest. “What if someone else covered your post until then? Robert, our chauffeur, is trained in security and often works protection detail for my father.” She reached in his front coat pocket, pulled out the cell phone she’d felt there while they danced and dialed.
Daniel opened his mouth to argue, but she turned a shoulder as Robert came on the line. Within minutes, a scowling and skeptical Robert was in place at the front steps, and Daniel had no more excuses not to join her inside.
A giddy sense of victory swirled through her when Daniel finally relented and followed her up the porch stairs. Her triumph was all the sweeter when she thought of the buffer Daniel would provide between her and her father’s tedious friends.
Daniel offered her his arm as they crossed the porch. “Is this going to cause a problem with your father?”
Nicole hiked up her chin, remembering the blind eye her father turned to his business associates’ behavior toward her. “Maybe. But I don’t care. It will teach him a lesson.”
Daniel frowned as they stepped into the foyer. “I don’t want to get in the middle of some family thing….”
“Don’t worry.” She tugged his arm, pulling him into the ballroom, where the volume of music and voices made conversation difficult. “I’ve got this.”
* * *
Daniel could feel Senator White’s dark glare following him as Nicole led him out onto the dance floor. When she’d explained why Daniel was at her side, the senator had clearly been unhappy with her stunt, and something in Nicole’s manner had rankled Daniel, as well. But once he had Nicole in his arms again, the senator faded from his thoughts. With Nicole pressed against his body, his hands on the silky skin of her back, the delicate scent of her surrounding him, he forgot anything beyond that moment, this woman. And the fire that consumed him.
When she threaded her fingers through his short cropped hair or angled her head to flash him a smile with equal parts of sweetness and seduction, his blood ran hot, and his need wound tighter. Months of anticipation and longing coiled inside him.
He’d spent the past five years thinking about Nicole and regretting the chance he’d let slip through his fingers the night he’d walked her home with her new kitten. His sense of honor and propriety, along with a belief that she was out of his reach, had lulled him into inaction when she was sixteen. Since that night, he’d sworn never to miss another opportunity, in any form, when it knocked. For a kid from the bayou, life didn’t offer many luck
y breaks or second chances.
As they moved together, she chatted amiably, filling him in on her years in nursing school, her mother’s illness and recent death, her dream of working overseas in one of the many poor communities where health care was so desperately needed. She quizzed him on his career plans with the Navy, his last tour in the Persian Gulf, his specialty in weapons and explosives.
“Why weapons?” she asked with a frown.
He shrugged. “Because...I’m a guy, and guys like guns and things that go boom.”
Her frown turned to a scowling pout, and he was slammed with the urge to kiss her plump raspberry lips. He swallowed hard and determinedly refocused his thoughts. “Because...” he said, schooling his face. “It was where I was needed. It’s what I’m good at.”
Her smile warmed. “I bet you’re good at a lot of things.”
He grunted in acknowledgment and brushed his thumb over her bottom lip. “Better at some things than others.”
Her pale blue gaze heated, and she canted closer, tracing his ear with her finger. “Do tell.”
Lust sent a scalding jolt through him, and as his desire-crazed brain scrambled, weighing discretion against temptation, a firm hand clapped him on the shoulder.
“I’m cutting in,” her father said, effectively dousing the flames licking Daniel’s veins.
Nicole stiffened. “Actually, I’d rather not.” She pulled away from her father’s grip and gave Daniel a confident smile. “Daniel was just about to take me home. These shoes are killing me, and my headache from earlier is back.”
“Nonsense.” The senator took her elbow and guided his daughter off the dance floor. “If you’re ready to go home, I can leave now, or have Robert drive you back to the hotel.”
“No, Dad, I—” Nicole turned, met Daniel’s gaze with a silent plea in her eyes.
Firming his jaw, Daniel wedged through the crowd and cut the senator off at the edge of the dance floor. “The hotel is on my way, sir. It would be my pleasure to take Nicole home.”
Nicole beamed, freeing her arm from her father’s grasp. “I’ll be fine. Good night, Dad.”
Daniel seized the chance to pull Nicole toward the front door. He could feel her father’s glare burning holes in his back as he escorted Nicole outside and toward the parked cars.
She looped her arm in his and leaned into him as they crossed the grassy lawn. “Thank you. If I’d had to dance with my left-footed father or one of his ass-grabbing friends again tonight, I think I’d—”
Daniel stopped short. “Ass-grabbing?”
She snorted derisively. “Oh, yeah. Right before I came out and found you, the sleazeball from the Chamber of Commerce copped himself a feel.”
He tensed and fisted his hands, feeling the thrum of anger pounding at his temples. Performing a stiff about-face, he stalked back toward the mansion. “Show him to me.”
Nicole slipped off her high heels and jogged to catch up to him. “Why? So you can defend my honor by punching him in the dentures?” She blocked his path, and when she met his gaze, her eyes sparkled with mirth. “I’m flattered by your chivalry, but save your energy.”
He sucked in a deep breath, struggling to calm his raging pulse. “It’s just...when I think of some creep with his hands on your—”
She laughed and ran her fingers up the front of his jacket. “You wish you’d thought of it?”
He scoffed and caught her hands in his, tugging her closer. “Believe me, cher. I thought about it plenty.”
She laced her fingers with his, her expression coy. “Then why didn’t you?” She tugged his hands behind her and planted them at the small of her back. “I think I’d like having your hands on me.”
The coil of lust inside him yanked tighter. With a groan, he slid his hands down the silky fabric of her dress to palm her bottom. He curled his fingers, testing the supple flesh beneath her dress and tugging her closer.
She sighed her pleasure, and when she tipped her head up, her eyes zeroing in on his mouth, he captured her lips with his. Moving one hand to cradle the base of her head, he held her in place while he explored the taste and texture of her kiss. She clutched at his back, returning his passion and meeting the thrust and parry of his tongue. A sound somewhere between a whimper and a purr rumbled in her throat, and the seductive mewl threw kindling on the fire already blazing in his blood. He wanted her so much he hurt.
“Nicole,” he rasped, barely recognizing his own voice, “let me take you home.”
“Only if you promise not to leave me at the door.” She nibbled her way down his jaw to his ear. “Last time, in high school, you left me...aching for you.” Nicole looped her arms around his neck, pressing her breasts against his chest. “I’m still aching for you.”
He half moaned, half sighed. “The feeling is mutual.”
When he slipped his hands under her dress and filled his hands with her bare bottom, she gasped. “Daniel...”
He shifted his hand, delving a finger into the moist heat between her legs, before the slam of a car door reminded him they were in public. If not for her reputation, he’d take her there in the grassy lawn of the antebellum mansion. But he wouldn’t subject her to any scandal or scorn from her social set. Grasping her arms, he kissed her forehead and levered back. “Not here. Which hotel are you staying at?”
She gave him the name of a posh hotel on Canal Street, and as he led her to his truck, he stooped to pick up the shoes she’d kicked off earlier. They seemed ridiculously small to him—size 6—with dangerously spiked heels. “How do you walk in these?”
She grinned. “Very carefully.”
He smacked another kiss on her lips before closing her door and circling to the driver’s side. The thirty-minute drive to her hotel was torture. He fought the urge to pull to the side of the road and toss her in the backseat, or stop at one of the many lower-rent motels they passed. But Nicole White was not the kind of woman he could take to a second-rate motor inn. He would wait another half hour until they reached her hotel room. Even if his body was strung tighter than a guy wire.
If it killed him, he would wait. For Nicole.
Chapter 2
Present day—Colombia
Nicole woke with a start when a large hand clamped over her mouth and a low male voice growled in her ear, “Don’t make any noise.”
He gaze flew to the dark figure hovering over her, and panic flooded her brain. In the night shadows, she could tell little about her attacker, except that he was large, and strong, and dark featured. When she squirmed, trying to find Tia, terrified this man could have harmed the little girl, the man’s hold on her tightened.
“It’s all right, Nicole. I won’t hurt you,” he whispered, his mouth so close to her that his lips brushed the shell of her ear and his warm breath fanned her neck. In the fog of her fear, it took her a moment to realize he’d used her name. And that he spoke English.
She snapped a startled gaze to his, straining to make out his face while her heart drummed an anxious beat against her ribs. No use. In the blackness of the jungle night, she couldn’t see anything distinguishing about his face.
“I’m an American operative. I’m here to take you home. Do you understand?”
Home. The word held such sweet promise, she couldn’t help the whimper of relief that squeaked from her throat.
Her attacker—no, her rescuer—loosened his grip on her mouth. “Promise to be quiet?”
She nodded, and tears of joy puddled in her eyes. She was going home. Finally. And Tia could get the medical attention she needed. Nicole’s heart soared, even though the prospect of escaping the camp filled her with a chilling fear.
As he removed his hand from her mouth, the man dragged his fingers along her chin, brushing her hair back from her face and wiping a tear from her cheek with his thumb. The intimate gesture startled her, and the first uneasy whispers that something was off tickled her nape. He hovered, scant inches above her, and she searched his face, wishing desperately she
could see him better in the darkness. Then, with a troubled-sounding sigh, he dipped his head.
And kissed her.
Nicole’s breath caught, and her pulse scampered on a fresh wave of panic. Had he lied about his intentions? When her initial, paralyzing shock passed, she gained the frame of mind to resist. But hesitated.
His lips were gentle. The tender caress of his mouth surprised her, intrigued her. Filled her with a sweet warmth. Her body responded to his kiss as if she’d known him her whole life...and yet the edgy prickle at her neck bit harder.
A groan rumbled from his chest, and he broke the kiss to sit back on his heels, muttering a curse under his breath. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Damn right, you shouldn’t have! Who are you?” she whispered fiercely.
He tensed and angled a hooded glance toward her. “Your ticket outta here. Get up.” His tone was gruff now, in contradiction to his soft kiss, and she shivered, despite the clammy heat of the jungle. “I brought shoes and socks for you. Size 6,
right?”
“I—yes. How did you know?”
“It’s my job to know.” He slid a pack off his back and pulled out a pair of boots. “Can you walk? We have a difficult hike ahead of us.”
“I can, but Tia’s weak.” She glanced to the sleeping girl, whose age she estimated at eight years and who’d shared her cage for the past several months. She’d come to love Tia like a daughter, bonding with the terrified child as she protected her from the cruelty of their guards. “She’s had a fever and hasn’t eaten in days.”
Her rescuer followed her glance to Tia and shook his head. “Forget it. She’s not coming with us.” He shoved the boots at her. “Put these on. Hurry.”
Nicole’s chest tightened. “What? She has to come. She’ll die here if I leave her!” She shifted her gaze down the row of night-darkened cages. “And what about the others? There are twelve of us being held here!”
The Reunion Mission: The Reunion MissionTall Dark Defender Page 2
