by Cara Summers
When she went limp and lost her grip on the handrail, he caught her and guided her to the floor. Need battered him as quick and hot as lightning flashes. His fingers fumbled as he tore his belt free and lowered his jeans. Then he moved over her and drove into her.
The sharp stab of pleasure nearly stopped his heart. For a moment he held himself still, wanting the moment to last. But when she wrapped arms and legs around him, when she opened her eyes and met his, she filled his vision, his mind, his world. Together they began to move, quickly, desperately.
“More.”
Had he said the word? Had she?
All he knew was that there was more. Impossibly more. The single word became a drumbeat in his head as he drove her, drove them both higher and higher until they reached the peak together and shattered.
LAYER BY LAYER, Jase’s mind found its way back to reality. The scents were the first to penetrate—body heat—a mix of his and hers and sex. His mouth was at her throat, the memory of her taste still haunting him. Beneath him, her heart beat fast. One of his hands was tangled in her hair though he had no clear recollection of how it had gotten there.
It had all happened so fast.
Opening his eyes, Jase confirmed what he already knew to be true. He’d just made love to Maddie Farrell in an elevator at the Donatello. And he was still sprawled on top of her. In spite of that, he didn’t seem to have the will to move.
With great effort, he managed to lift his head. Her eyes were open, her face flushed and her mouth still moist and swollen. In his peripheral vision, he could see their reflections in the mirrored wall. Their clothes were in disarray, their hair wildly mussed. They each looked as if they’d just survived some kind of natural disaster. Barely.
He plucked a twig out of her hair. He hadn’t been gentle with her—not here and certainly not when he’d shoved her against that boulder in the park. He frowned. “I was rough with you. Are you all right?”
“Better than all right.” She studied him for a moment. “I’m a lot tougher than I look.”
“Yeah.” He thought of how she’d clocked the hit woman with that tree branch—and how she’d knocked him on his ass earlier that day.
Earlier that day? It seemed impossible that he’d known her for less than twenty-four hours. So much had happened.
“How about you?” she asked. “Are you all right?”
Something in her tone finally eased the knot of guilt that had tightened inside him. “Much better than all right.” He grinned down at her. “I haven’t done anything like this since I was sixteen.” And he’d been a randy teenager then.
“I’ve never done anything quite like this—ever.”
“Good.” He didn’t want to imagine her making love in semi-public places with anyone but him.
Her eyes widened. “You’re…”
“Yeah.” Incredibly, he could feel himself growing hard inside her again. Experimentally, he rocked into her and watched her eyes cloud.
“Jase.”
The word was half question, half demand.
With a groan, Jase eased himself up to his knees. First he did his best to rearrange her rumpled clothes. Then he managed to pull up his jeans. Finally, he got to his feet and helped her up. “I think we’d better take act two to our suite. Louie might decide that the elevator has malfunctioned and if anyone sees us like this, he might not ever do me a favor again.”
He shoved a button, and the elevator began to climb.
MADDIE WOKE to the sound of rain, the hard, pounding kind that often produced flash floods at the ranch. She was going to use it as an excuse to spend an extra hour in bed before she went to her studio. Burrowing more deeply into her pillow, she tried to slip back into her dream.
But the scent was all wrong. It wasn’t the lavender from the fabric softener she used on her sheets, it was stronger, male.
Jase.
Opening her eyes, she sat straight up and found herself in the middle of a bed. Alone. The covers were tucked neatly around her. The last she recalled the bedding had been rumpled, some of it on the floor.
Come to think of it, she and Jase had been on the floor too. Using both fists, she rubbed sleep out of her eyes and tried to clear the fuzziness out of her brain. Then she looked down at the bed again. He must have tucked her in. Something inside her softened at the sweetness of the gesture.
How long had she been out? She was reassured when she spotted a sliver of sunlight sneaking through the drawn drapes. That’s when she realized that what she’d mistaken for rain was the sound of the shower in the next room. The last thing she remembered, Jase had been on his cell phone, first with Dino and after that, she was pretty sure he’d talked to someone about who might have fenced the jewels. That was when she must have shut down.
A double-toned chime sounded.
Not Jase’s cell, she decided, glancing at the small table near the bed where he’d left it.
The chime sounded again.
Maddie crawled from beneath the covers and reached for the hotel robe Jase had thoughtfully left on the foot of the bed.
When she reached the door to the suite, she used the peep hole. On the other side was a tall woman in her late thirties wearing a black suit. Her long dark hair was curly, and she reminded Maddie of Julia Louis-Dreyfus from Seinfeld.
“Yes?” Maddie said.
“I’m Sabrina Michaels and I’m delivering some packages Mr. Campbell ordered from the shops at the Donatello.”
Maddie opened the door and took the bags.
Sabrina smiled at her. “If there’s any problem with the selections, just let me know. Mr. Campbell was pretty specific with his requests, but I can certainly bring up more for you to look at. You can reach me through the hotel operator.”
As soon as she shut the door, Maddie couldn’t resist. Jase was still in the shower, and she didn’t want to wait. She carried the bags further into the main room of the suite, and set them on one of the long glass-topped coffee tables. Jase had been pretty specific with his requests, Sabrina had said. That must have been after she’d fallen asleep.
In the first bag she found a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved blue chambray shirt that Jase had evidently ordered for himself. Beneath those, she found a black scarf and a pair of sunglasses. For disguise purposes? Setting the first bag aside, she lifted a pair of cream-colored strappy sandals out of the second one. Unable to resist, she ran one finger over the buttery soft leather and sighed. The heels were only half as high as those on Jordan’s blue shoes, but they were still very stylish. And she was dead certain they’d be easier to walk around Manhattan in. At least for her.
In the second bag, she found a summer-weight blazer in the same creamy white. And instead of a matching skirt, she found a pair of slacks.
Slacks.
Hugging them to her, she sank down on one of the sofas. Jase had remembered her saying that she felt more comfortable in them. Maddie felt her heart take a little tumble. She’d grown up around men, and her impression of them was that while they were well-meaning, they weren’t the most attentive of creatures.
But Jase was different. With a little sigh, she rose and laid the slacks carefully over the back of the couch.
When she peeked in the third bag, she found lace panties, a bra and a silky black nightgown. Definitely more seduction-wear than sleepwear. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that if Jase had ordered the slacks to please her, he’d ordered the frothy black nightgown to please himself. She made a mental note to wear it that night.
That night.
After the hours they’d just spent together, she was actually thinking of making love to Jase Campbell again. Something must have happened to her brain. Perhaps the pollution in the Manhattan air had affected her synapses. She’d never before developed an intimate relationship with a man she barely knew.
Correction. She hadn’t known Jase at all when they’d first made love. That had been a mistake made by two strangers because she’d accidentally crawled into
the wrong bed.
Maddie sighed again. But making love to Jase Campbell never felt like a mistake. It always felt so right.
Jase was different for her. In so many ways. And because of him, she was becoming different too. She’d never known she could be this way—happy, sexy, desperate, crazy. Every time he touched her she felt something new.
It wasn’t just the sex. Not when she looked at him or thought of him and something inside her tilted. That was emotion.
Maddie thought of the strategy she’d developed to handle Jase when she’d been in the shower this morning. Logic and reason. Hah! Being logical and reasonable just wasn’t part of the equation where Jase was concerned. She wanted him and he wanted her. It was just that simple. Just that elemental.
She also recalled telling him that she only had three weeks to accomplish her agenda in New York, and that making love again with him would only complicate things.
Maddie turned and walked toward the bedroom. Like it or not, making love again with Jase Campbell had become an important part of her new agenda in New York.
And she was certain that she was going to like it. A lot.
12
JASE STARED at himself in the mirror. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d spent this much time in the bathroom. He’d showered and shaved. He’d even considered using the hotel hair dryer to do something with his hair.
Pitiful.
But Maddie needed some sleep. And he hadn’t trusted himself to stay in the same room with her and not make love with her again.
Even when she’d finally fallen asleep, he hadn’t been able to stop himself from watching her. Finally, he’d moved to the bed and stroked her hair. He couldn’t seem to prevent himself from touching her.
That’s when it had happened. It was while he’d stroked her hair that he’d felt something move through him, something that had nothing to do with the fact that he wanted very much to make love with her again.
Trying to figure it out, he’d studied her sprawled across the bed. She slept with the same intensity that she did everything else. And she was a lot tougher than she looked. He’d experienced the strength and passion that she brought to their lovemaking. But right then as he’d looked down at her, what he’d wanted more than anything was to protect her. To cherish her.
The fact was that he was coming to have feelings for her other than those of a casual lover. Feelings that went far beyond making sure that she wasn’t killed.
He thought of what she’d said to him that morning in the kitchen—that if they made love again, it would complicate things. Well, she sure as hell had been right about that. But he hadn’t brought her here to the Donatello just to make love to her. And though it had been a long day, they still had a call to make. After what Dino had told him on the phone, he very much wanted to see what Eva Ware had written in her appointment book.
He ran his hands through his hair and started toward the door to the bedroom just as it opened and Maddie entered the bathroom. Both of them stopped in mid stride.
MADDIE’S THROAT went dry, and the air in the room was suddenly thick. Jase’s shoulders still glistened with droplets of water from his shower. The towel was tucked low over his hips.
The silence stretched between them.
Maddie finally broke it. “I want you again.”
“Ditto. But we need to get to your mother’s apartment.”
“I know. The clothes you ordered came. I need to shower.” But hadn’t she known what she really wanted when she’d stepped into the bathroom?
“Right.” On his way to her, he dropped the towel and then he shoved the bathrobe down her arms. Finally, he scooped her up into his arms.
“What are you doing?”
“We might as well try the age-old solution.” He twisted the faucets. “A cold shower.”
Maddie screamed as the icy water sluiced over them. “Turn it off! I’m freezing!”
“That’s the idea.” He set her down but used his body to block her in.
Through the wet hair plastered to her face, she glared at him. “I don’t like this idea.”
“It does have its drawbacks.” There was laughter in his voice. “But I thought you were tougher than you look.”
She raised both hands and gave him a hard shove. She might have had more luck with the boulder in Central Park. Sputtering, she made a blind grab for the faucets.
He grabbed her wrists. “No cheating.”
“I’m sure I’m turning blue.”
“That is one of the drawbacks.”
He backed her farther into the shower, and a fresh spray of icy needles pelted her.
“I’m going to get even for this.”
“I’m looking forward to it. But for now, since you don’t like a cold shower, I thought we’d shift to plan B.”
“No, you—”
He cut off her protest by covering her mouth with his. With one arm holding her close, he slathered soapy lather all over her body.
Incredibly, her skin began to heat. When his fingers slipped between her thighs, found her, pierced her, she began to burn. Wrapping her arms around him, she drew him even closer. The fire he’d ignited built rapidly then. With his hand alone he took her on a desperate ride, driving her up and up until the climax shot through her with a violence that left her trembling.
That was enough to drive him to the edge. When she whispered his name, he lifted her and wrapped her legs around him.
“Maddie, open your eyes.”
She did as he asked, and he looked into those blue-violet depths. When he drove himself into her, he knew she thought only of him.
When she murmured his name, he thought only of her.
He pulled out, thrust in again, over and over. She shuddered again and again. When he could no longer help himself, he drove them both into the madness.
MADDIE WAS just slipping into her new shoes in front of a full-length mirror when Jase’s cell phone rang.
He tucked it under his chin and listened silently while he shrugged into the new blue shirt, then buttoned it. He left it hanging loose and tucked his gun into the back waistband of his jeans.
The man was definitely efficient. As a security agent, as a lover, as a friend. And he seemed to be able to shift between his various roles effortlessly. Since they’d left the bathroom, he’d been all business again and she was learning to follow his lead.
But something had happened while they’d been in the shower. It was as if some question between them had been asked and answered. Maddie just had to figure out what it was.
Jase shut his cell phone, then tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “D.C.’s plane is boarding. He’ll be in Santa Fe tonight. Between him and Cash, Jordan will be all right.”
She’d already told herself that, but it helped to hear Jase say it.
“Ready to hit the road?” he asked.
“Yes.” They’d decided while they were dressing that they were going to go to her mother’s apartment and get the appointment calendar. But it wasn’t finding the calendar that had nerves knotting in her stomach. It was the idea of seeing the place where her mother had lived.
“There’s a strong possibility that whoever it is we’re dealing with will have Eva’s apartment staked out. In their place, that’s what I’d do. They have to know by now that the hit failed, and they may have a back-up plan.”
“What are you saying?” Maddie asked.
“We have to take precautions. I already asked Dino to post one of our men near the entrance. His job is to see if anyone else is watching. But we’re going to have to be fast. We can ditch the taxi a few blocks away, and I’ll pay the driver to wait for us across the street from the apartment so we can make a quick getaway. You’re going to wear the scarf and the sunglasses I had sent up.” Plucking them out of the bag, he tossed them to her. “It’s standard celeb wear.”
His eyes when they met hers were sober. “I don’t suppose there’s any way I could talk you into waiting here and letti
ng me get the appointment book?”
Maddie shook her head firmly. “No way at all.”
“Figured.” He took her arm and they were halfway to the door when his cell rang again.
He checked the caller ID, then said, “Yeah?”
For a few minutes, Jase said nothing. He merely listened. When he finally repocketed the phone, he opened the door of the suite.
“That was Dino checking in again. While you were sleeping, he called to tell me what he’d found out about Michelle Tan.”
“Michelle?”
“About a month ago, three days after the robbery, in fact, a bank check for one hundred thousand dollars was deposited into Michelle’s bank account. The money was withdrawn in cash two days later.”
She shot him a look. “Can Dino hack into a bank’s computers?”
Jase grinned at her. “Sure. He’s getting better at the technical stuff. But it was a bank check, so he doesn’t know yet who it came from.”
“I see.”
“Even more intriguing, it turns out that Michelle’s the granddaughter of Cho Li.”
“GOOD JOB,” Jase murmured as they rode up the seven flights to Eva Ware’s apartment.
“Thanks. It seemed the easiest way.”
And it had been. She’d gotten them past the doorman by lowering her scarf and pretending to be Jordan. It had also saved them some time. And Jase wasn’t sure how much time they had. Whoever was behind this was smart and prepared. In his experience, people who were prepared always had a back-up plan.
He glanced sideways at Maddie. She’d been very quiet during the short cab ride to Eva’s place. Because she was trying to absorb the news about Michelle and Cho? He could understand that. He was trying to figure it out too. The two least likely suspects for robbing Eva’s store had risen like cream to the top of the group.
He was positive Jordan hadn’t known about the relationship between the two. She’d certainly never mentioned it to him, nor had she put it in the notes she’d given Maddie. Had Eva known? Or perhaps suspected? The appointment calendar just might tell them something.
