His thumb flickered over the hard bead his hand had aroused. She didn’t miss a beat as she leaned closer, but her heart rate stepped up and gave her away. “It was exciting, wasn’t it? I thought we might lose our heads when he took the boat right under that overhang where the river had cut away the side of the bank.”
“I thought we already had, you know, lost our heads.”
She shook, shoving against his palm as it encased the whole of her breast. “Is this the point where you reflect on the dangers of getting tied up with an accident-prone woman?”
“Uh-uh. It’s the moment I admit I knew you were trouble the second I laid eyes on you.” He felt her sigh brush his lips, inviting him to taste.
“That long, huh?”
“A lifetime…”
In the glimmering twilight tears glistened in her eyes and moved him to confess, “I’ve been chasing trouble ever since.”
He didn’t care that they might not be alone; the occasional passing car on the other side of the trees, faded to a faint hum compared to the tumult of beating hearts. “Ngaire.” He whispered her name on a breath she took as her own. “Ngaire.” He wrote the passion in it upon her lips as she opened up to his possession. They were deaf to the slamming of car doors at the road’s edge. Didn’t hear pounding feet flatten the grass while they shared air, in a prelude to love, until he raised his head and they were almost on them.
Three men. Black balaclava-covered faces announcing their intent. Dark stares threatened through the slits in their masks, from eyes as oriental as those of his Chinese tour companions. He pushed Ngaire behind him before the three could touch base. So, he had a height advantage? They were three to one. Odds he’d never minded before Ngaire. It went to prove the old adage, never get emotionally involved with the subject.
Too late for recriminations as he parried kicks.
Too late to reach for a gun that would give away his calling. They circled. He feinted a pass. “Keep behind me, doll. These guys mean business.”
Damn, she’d ignored the warning again. But she’d been hot all over and too deep in thrall, Kel’s thrall, to notice the heat radiating from her pack until the threat was real and on top of them. “I’ll watch your back.”
She heard rather than saw the blow he blocked, bone on bone. His voice was rough with misgiving, the words thrown over his shoulder, “I’d like it fine if you just kept safe.”
“Too bad…this guy has other ideas.” Her breath hissed as two hands reached for her. She brought up her arms and broke the hold without leaving a space where they could jump at Kel from behind. She improvised, stepping on her opponent’s toes, then kicking his other knee from under him. He went down but not for long. He bounced back, wary now, as his dark bloodshot eyes cursed her without words. The eeriest part of all was no one spoke a word.
Everything after that merged into a whirl. She was on automatic pilot, yet the only thing flying were hands and feet, if she discounted the occasional curses from Kel’s mouth.
Kel had to be winning. Why else was she facing two goons instead of one while they sacrificed the other to him?
Hmm, two hands to four, she’d faced worse odds. Dropping her pack might have shortened them, but all her instincts said she might as well hand the mere over without a fight.
Temper bit hard as she struck another defensive blow. Damn Savage! This was all his doing. She slapped the face of an anonymous ski mask and fought with refreshed energy, taking all her anger out on them since she couldn’t reach Paul Savage.
The last person to rob her had taken more than her money; he’d stolen any children she might have raised. A hot spike of rage shot through her. She was sick of Savage’s goons sniffing at her heels like jackals. Scavengers, snapping at the bones of the only thing left—her life. She’d be darned if she’d give him the satisfaction. And knowing no red splotches had put in an appearance on the mere—the signal of approaching death—strengthened her arm.
Either way, she was counting on Te Ruahiki. The least he could do after all she’d been through was give her these last five weeks. As though her thoughts had lit a bomb under it, the strap of her pack slid down her arm and the greenstone blade took on a life of its own.
Blunted by canvas and silk, it still packed a wallop.
Encouraged, she stopped being frightened to put the mere to the use it had been designed for. It added an extra eighteen inches to her reach, an advantage she maximized, holding one assailant back while dealing with the other. It didn’t stop her sigh of relief when Kel’s opponent hit the dirt and he joined her, fighting shoulder to shoulder.
He made some moves she wanted him to teach her. Hell, he’d been doing that from the first time they made love. Her mouth curved in satisfaction as she tried an unconventional move of her own and heard a bone break, a move the guy dropping back would remember as long as it took his arm to heal.
The fight ended as quickly as it started, with a shout from the roadway. Taking a moment to glance over her shoulder she saw that the cavalry had arrived, and turned back to see the two left standing run off hauling the third.
Schmidt, excitement mangling a mix of English and German, said, “Mein Gott! What happened? Anyone verletzen…uh, injured?”
Still breathing hard, she looked at Kel. Everything changed once her troubles swooped down to hurt him as well. He gave Schmidt the thumbs-up and said, “I’m okay.”
Thanking God for Te Ruahiki, she flung herself at Kel.
His arms opened and gathered her in. “Looks like our tag team came off best. Make that one for the good guys.”
“Sehr gut. Frau Schmidt is by the taxi. Please to share it to the hotel.”
Kel took one of his arms from her, holding it out to shake the German’s hand. “That sounds like a plan. You’re on, Schmidt.”
Following his lead, she loosened her hold on his waist, instantly missing the warm imprint of his body. “Guess I’m with you there. Walking along the lake edge just lost some of its glamour. Besides, I think we already worked that meal off.”
“And then some.” Kel reached across, tweaking her bicep, a promise warming his eyes, then laid an impulsive kiss on her cheek. “Later, doll. Let’s move on out.”
Touching her cheek, she let Schmidt shepherd them to the taxi, holding on to the promise of his lips till they were in her room.
Kel felt he could ride the elevator for hours, as long as Ngaire was in his arms. The soft sound of the doors opening interrupted a kiss that was becoming more heated by the second. Reluctant to part even for that long, they were bumped by the automated doors as they squeezed past, damn near falling into the corridor.
On a mutual high, Ngaire giggled. “Race you to the room,” she challenged, taking off down the long, glossy green space filled with pastel watercolors of mountains, lakes and trees above a quiet pool of carpet that soaked up noise as if they were in a funeral parlor. Except nobody ever ran or laughed out loud in those places, full of the joy of just being alive the way Ngaire was now.
She was fast, but he was faster, and they reached the door together, panting more from lust and desire than the race. In a combined effort, she zapped the lock with her key card and he pushed it open. It clicked behind him, a sleek, expensive feel at odds with the emotions bubbling inside him. “You were fantastic. I loved it. Where did you learn to fight that way?”
He pushed her sweater and pack to the floor in one continuous movement. “I told you, self-defense classes.”
His boots hit the floor, one thunk following another, marking their progress toward the bed. “Come off it, I know marshal arts training when I see it.”
Her hands pulled at his shirt, popping the buttons. “You win. The gym where I work is mine. I’m a hapkido master. It’s my vocation and I teach it to others.” Generously, she handed him a compliment. “You’re not so bad yourself, big guy.”
He didn’t feel diminished by her condescension as he whipped his hands under her top and found her breasts. It made him ho
t to see her eyes glaze over as his thumbs circled and made him smile at her next breathless question. “Where did you learn?”
“Army…SAS.” His brain suddenly made the connection that he still had a gun strapped to his ankle. Part of his mind worked on how to deal with it as they circled across the room, gazing into each other’s eyes. He knew what he saw in Ngaire’s tonight to be the truth and nothing but the truth. She wanted him almost as much as he wanted her, with a passion that might never be slaked.
He shucked off his shirt while Ngaire rid herself of her tank top and he was grateful that she didn’t wear a bra. “Get my buckle,” he said, stepping closer, reaching for her.
“Guess what happened to the last guy who tried that tonight?”
“What?” He’d almost reached his goal when she took his feet out from under him and they tumbled on to the bed with her on top. Her breasts pressed into his chest, soft and hard at the same time. He groaned his appreciation. “No problem. I was heading this direction, anyway. Except, I wanted to be on top.”
He rolled, taking her with him, and heard her breath escape in a rush, loving the feel of her against him as she drew in another. He bent to taste the sweet curve of her neck.
“Kel, you need to resist this tendency you have to control everything around you.”
He rose over her, “Who me?” She had sized him up.
“Is there anyone else in this room?”
“No, only me, the control freak.” He rolled to one side, propping himself on an elbow so he could watch her. “You need an answer to why I treated you like I did in the pool that night.”
She touched his face. “Honey, it’s not necessary.”
“Yes, it is. I was a bastard, I admit it. Damn, that’s the first time I’ve acknowledged it. You know I was in the SAS, but I didn’t tell you I had a wife in those days.” With a shrug, he released Carly’s hold over him. “It didn’t last, me being away a lot. Every time I got home, the tension got worse. Hell, she took more headaches to bed than they made aspirin. Finally, she said she couldn’t bear my hands on her. That my touch made her skin crawl because of the violent use I put them to.” He pushed up farther on the mattress to watch her eyes. “Dammit! I was a soldier, trained to defend her, but she wanted none of that. She didn’t want kids with someone like me, either. That hurt most of all.”
Tears welled in her eyes as she sat up beside him. “Hey, doll. I didn’t tell you this to make you cry, just to make you understand what was driving me. To understand it myself.”
“I’m not just crying for you. I’m crying for the babies she didn’t want.” She grasped both hands, kissing their palms, then flattened them against her body to rub over her skin.
“What are you doing, doll?”
“Making you all better.”
Her simple statement of belief twisted his gut in knots. He almost cried out with the pain. The pain of knowing he truly was a bastard and he still hadn’t been completely truthful to either her or himself. That’s what happened when the truth was too frightening to face.
For long moments Ngaire thought she had drowned the momentum with her tears. Tears for them both. She’d never understand women who took for granted the one thing she’d never have. Children. No one to name Sarah for her mother, or Daniel, after her father.
It sure was a wacky world they lived in. Full of contradictions and people who didn’t know when they were well off. A thought disappeared as Kel’s big hands took over. And if his touch was rougher, more urgent than the ones she’d instigated, she didn’t care. He made her feel alive and that was worth more than any gentlemanly caress.
Gentle and manly sure didn’t combine overmuch with the speed her pants and good lace thongs were ripped from her body. Or his curses when they caught on her Nikes. She’d had enough of men too timid to touch, for fear of an elbow in the gut or foot in the groin.
Kel came over her, simultaneously reaching for the box on the nightstand and parting her legs to kneel between them, pulling his khakis low enough to give him access. “I’m past dealing with niceties. If you don’t want this, say it now.”
“And here I was, wondering what was taking you so long.”
He answered with a snarl, yet his hand shook as he prepared himself. She wanted to shout there was no need. No worries. But that meant peeling another layer off her soul, and she wasn’t quite ready. She’d see what the evening brought.
His arms tensed as he came down to his elbows. Fascinated by the whorls of hair on his chest, she twined it through her fingers.
He turned aside a smile for a grimace. “No more teasing, doll, just tell me you’re as hot for me as I am for you.”
She was still saying “Hotter,” as he thrust into her. A swift action her hips arched to meet. Their joining so powerful it almost blew her mind. Long gliding strokes took her, then let her go, rocking her close to the head of the bed with each thrust. She glanced down as he entered one more time, his slim, muscled hips pounding fiercely. The sight set her alight as she shaped her body to fit his the way a bow curves to take an arrow.
Almost too late, she had met her match. A warrior for a princess with her full quota of fighting blood from nations as diverse as the countries that looped the globe from end to end.
And just when her heart thought it could take no more, locking her legs round his waist to hold him tight, she and her champion fell into a world that knew no barriers, had no demarcation lines. A world that knew only love.
Ten minutes later, Kel’s body was still draped over hers, unmoving. His weight pushing her into the mattress. Struggling out of a dream conjured by her desire, she felt sure he’d fallen asleep.
Then his hand reached for her breast and squeezed.
She licked at the lobe of his ear. “Still alive, then?”
“Fighting, fit and ready to tackle another round.”
“I hate men who boast.”
“Just let me get rid of my pants and I’ll show you.” He rolled off her to sit at the side of the bed. She heard fabric scrape down hair-roughened skin and wasn’t prepared for his question. “One thing bothers me, what’ve you ever done to the Chinese?”
Confused, she raised her head off the pillow and said, “Sorry, back up. You just lost me.”
He slid closer to her, already hard and pressing against her hip, one long leg sliding between hers. “I’m back, and I was talking about the Chinese who attacked us. Someone’s upset them and I don’t think it was me.”
Her head reeled back into the soft quilted foam. She’d never heard rumors that Savage had connections in Chinatown. The Mafia, yes, she knew that had to be right from what she’d seen of his goons. She’d presumed leaving San Francisco without his knowledge would be easy. Wrong! But if he’d had Chinese connections all along, where did that leave her? Set up, with egg roll on her face?
“Let’s not ruin the evening by puzzling over it, we can talk tomorrow.” With that, Kel’s hand smoothed the knots at the back of her neck, dismantling the twists in her braid as swiftly as he’d unraveled her composure. She’d begun wondering if tomorrow was the day she’d have to confess all when he asked, “Did I tell you about this fantasy I’ve had since we met?”
She frowned, curious. “Not that I remember.”
He rolled, taking her on another whirling ride, then announced, “The good news is, this time you get to be on top.”
Pale, watery sunlight glanced off the lake onto the ceiling, unhindered by the drapes they’d forgotten to draw the night before. Ngaire awakened slowly, blinking, aware, in the moments before her eyes focused on Kel’s hand on her breast.
It felt so good, she soaked it up before turning in search of the rest of him. He lay flat on his stomach, solving the problem of too much sunlight, too early in the day, by shoving his head under the pillow.
Squinting through half-closed eyes, she searched for the clock on the nightstand. Kel’s hand trailed over her ribs as she rolled. It fell onto the sheet with a soft bump. Seemed
it was going to take more than that to wake him up.
The once prettily wrapped box blocked her view. She knocked it aside. It tumbled to the floor, empty. A random flash of memory spiked a thrill low down in her belly and almost managed to make her smile until she saw the time, 5:30 a.m. As she stretched, the notion of waking Kel and making them both happy leapt to mind. And just as quickly jumped out, with a nudge from the empty box on the floor.
He was almost paranoid about using condoms; not even a rush of passion could block the need to protect her. She felt guilty. It would have been easier on them both to have told him the truth.
Slipping from between the sheets, she stood, curling her toes into the soft carpet, surveying a disaster scene of impatient desire.
Looked good to her, though closing the drapes on the mess couldn’t hurt. So, should she shut her eyes and head for the ensuite, or close the drapes first and let Kel sleep?
Or should she do all of that, plus hop a cab down to the twenty-four-hour mom-and-pop store they’d passed last night and renew their supplies?
Half an hour and a cab ride later, she was feeling pretty smart finding the right aisle without having to ask. She picked up one box and eyed a second, then shook her head. Bad enough having to pass one over the counter to the old guy yawning behind it. Besides, they only had two more nights.
The heel of her Nikes squeaked on the checkerboard floor as she turned and went back. Two days be damned, she was going to make the most of them.
Head held high, she passed the boxes to the cashier, adding a package of doughnuts from a stand near the counter. Let him make what he liked of that. He never even blinked, just rang them up.
She laid the notes on the counter beside her purchases and averted her eyes, looking through the window while he bagged them and made change.
A vehicle drew up to the curb behind her cab, a Range Rover. Her mouth dropped as Kel got out. He was halfway through the glass door before she thought to alter her expression. A pity there was nothing she could do about the flash of embarrassment as she clutched at the grocery bag.
Heartbreak Hero Page 19
