“You are not getting on that plane,” Lore stated, his deep, confident tones cutting across her panic. “This is a terrorist.”
“But…” Kenna struggled to keep up with the hope his words offered. Not getting on that plane sounded so good.
“Listen to me, Kenna. You are what this guy wants. He went to a lot of expense and trouble to trigger your telepathy. You are an outstanding telepath, but it’s not like there aren’t others. Conclusion, there is something else. You have it. He wants it. He’s willing to kill millions to get it. He is not willing to kill you. Putting you on a plane gets you out of range for him to detonate and cover evidence he thinks he left here. As long as you’re on the ground, there will be no explosion.”
Kenna concentrated on controlling the trembling. She wasn’t shaking in fear. Fear had fled the building an hour ago. Terror was the only emotion brave enough to hang around, except for the too-stupid-to-live ones.
At this moment, the thing she wanted more than anything else was to slide forward into his arms, which would be the too-stupid-to-live part. As if his holding her would make her any safer.
“Will your people find the other bomb?” Kenna wanted to know.
“Eventually. Right now that’s not our problem. We need you visible in the middle of the festival. We’re going to act like we never found the note.”
Lore paused as something that might have resembled a smile in an alternate universe touched his face. It made Kenna shrink back a fraction. There was lethal intent in his tone as he continued softly. “Game on.”
Lore stood and gently grasped her clutched hands, pulling her up. She had no confidence in her knees being able to perform normally but apparently he did. Surprisingly steady on her feet gave her time to digest his statement.
“Game? What game? This isn’t a game,” Kenna protested hotly.
“Sure it is,” he responded smoothly, once again the picture of concentrated purpose. “Bad guy told us what he wants. Arrogant mistake. We’ll go to the joust. You’ll be sitting with me as if nothing has happened. Now we force him to alter his plan, make another mistake.” He outlined his plan in bullet statements. Confidence dripped from each word.
Lore turned to the two men in the room as he finished removing the bomb suit. It was the warrior in fatigues and a black t-shirt who continued. “Yuri, the U.S. team is wheels down in under two hours. Make it low profile. Thomas, you’re at the joust as planned. Keep the note between us. The U.S team will see it, but I know them. There will be no leaks.”
Both men nodded, but it was Yuri who spoke. “No time for you to change here. Arrangements have been made for both of you at the event. Julianna is waiting for Miss MacKelsey.”
“Excellent. Thank you for taking care of that.” Lore led them out of the room, his large hand folded around hers naturally.
“I’m bait? Things never turn out well for bait. Anything called bait dies right before the real target gets blown to bits,” Kenna explained to the man with a firm grip on her hand. Fighting him would have been stupid and she wasn’t that much of an idiot…yet. Behind them strode Yuri and Thomas. It felt vaguely like being herded.
“No, honey. You’re the prize. It’s the rest of us who are bait. He has to get rid of us to get you.”
His logic made sense, but it didn’t do a thing for the terror reaction. Kenna didn’t want to be the reason someone died, almost as much as she didn’t want to die. When had she stepped through a portal into the land of warriors and hunters?
Being attracted to her captor was some sort of insane syndrome she’d read about, but she didn’t think it could start long before one was captured. Also, she had to admit her hand in his grip wasn’t exactly involuntary.
Wait, did this make her his stalker? No, but she kinda suspected she could be if he weren’t forcefully dragging her with him.
They exited the spacious hall into a large, round entrance. Beyond a set of lovely double doors with intricate leaded glass windows sat a black limousine. In front of those doors stood a small group of men, in the center of which was an angry-looking individual who seemed to be talking fast. He was perhaps six feet tall with elegantly graying hair slicked back in an expensive cut. As he turned a frowning face to them, it seemed titled authority draped all over him.
Kenna’s eyes were drawn to the angry man, the others faded. Her hand tightened in Lore’s as the impact of this person’s gaze hit her. Her feet stopped moving until Lore released her hand to swing his arm around her shoulders, tucking her into his side and moving forward.
“Gentlemen,” the low timbre of Lore’s voice inserted iron into his greeting as they stepped into the marble entry.
“Your highness!” The elegant man managed to make the cultured tones of his voice convey dismayed shock. “I’ve been very concerned. Where were you? None of these men seemed to have a clue.”
“There was something I needed to take care of. Thank you for your concern but there was no need,” Lore responded smoothly.
Kenna clenched her teeth and glanced away from the man. He was projecting anger and something else. When he looked at her, she felt a creepy kind of disgust mingled with real fear. She worked at blocking impressions from him. Not that she was very good at blocking. Hadn’t been aware it was possible before Lore had done it so effectively three days ago when she first arrived. Since then, she’d been working on it but could not quite cut the man’s aura out of her consciousness. He made her feel sleazy. There was no doubt his response to the sight of her had been superior revulsion, as if she were a bit of trash stuck to Lore’s shoe.
“I’m concerned that your little friend might not be an appropriate companion. Let me suggest…”
Lore continued walking, passing the man as he responded, “Relax. I don’t need help finding a date. Miss MacKelsey is my guest and will be fine.”
“But, sir, there are formal matters that must be attended to in this event. I have no idea what Ms. MacKelsey’s qualifications are. Do you? Besides her obvious physical attributes?”
Lore stopped, his body turned to subtly to place Kenna behind him as he faced the angry man. “Careful, Gregory,” Lore warned in a silky tone that could only be called frighteningly calm. “Don’t make me respond publicly on this matter. Miss MacKelsey is not someone you need concern yourself with.”
Gregory’s face tightened at the command in those words. Or perhaps it was the warning tone that made him more a child than a man. Kenna still couldn’t block the malevolence that slithered around him.
“Your highness, the car is waiting,” Yuri spoke into the strained silence as Lore coldly regarded the angry face of his advisor, effectively ending the confrontation before it escalated.
“Thank you, Yuri,” Lore murmured.
His tone flat with command, Lore continued to Gregory. “I know you have things to take care of here. We will see you after the joust.”
Gregory nodded stiffly.
Yuri held the door as Lore and Kenna moved through it. Thomas followed.
The limo driver hurried to open the back door. He came to an abrupt halt, his eyes on Kenna. For a moment he froze in what appeared shock, and then he bowed deeply to the entwined couple. Lore nodded while Kenna frowned as the limo door was opened by the bowing man and Lore led her to it.
“Aren’t you supposed to go first?” she whispered. Abstractedly she recalled that royal customs were complicated. It was hard to figure out normal concerns when touching this man.
His impact on her was intensifying. It had to appear wildly illogical to normal people that they’d jumped into an intimate relationship, but it was almost impossible to worry about appearances when she was the focus of his attention. He addressed her using endearments, and it hadn’t been demeaning, the words were much too natural and, well, she did have the advantage of reading his intention as he said them. Defending her to the arrogant man had created an incredibly tense situation. She hadn’t been the only one who could read Lore’s intention behind each word
. It had been clear to the “normals” as well.
There was no defying him as he swept her into his world, but she didn’t want to defy him in a real sense. And even though she had no complaint about what he was doing, there was a deep suspicion that her free will was gone, lost in the whirlwind that was Lore taking care of Kenna. Everything had changed.
“Never before my lady.” He insistently ushered her into the plush vehicle, retaining possession of her hand as he slid in beside her. Yuri and Thomas squeezed into the front seat with the driver.
Kenna spent less than two seconds wondering why both large men jammed themselves in the front while there was a big empty backseat facing her and Lore. Then she was distracted by the driving need to find a reason for her response to the large man beside her. For three days she had been struggling with this question, but now it was so much more.
His sexual impact was making her an idiot, but more than that, she liked him. Liked was not the correct word for the powerful effect he had on her. Physically, mentally, he surrounded her, invaded her, seized control but did it with velvet words and gentle touches. He didn’t apologize or even attempt to conceal his intentions. She simply couldn’t resist all that power. So she was making excuses by using a safe word. A normal word to justify this level of trust in someone she’d just met.
His concern for her seethed around him. Kenna felt it in terms of worry and determination. She felt him seeking something else. He was reaching around them, trying to feel the threat before it reached them. His entire body was in some uniquely male way hardened with the will to defend.
Again she struggled to put a name to what she felt in him. His instinct to kill was like nothing she’d ever encountered before. Kenna shivered mentally and tried to pull back.
Glancing down at his hand covering hers and seeking a distraction from the internal view, she focused on externals. His fingers stroked her skin absently. She swallowed as those long fingers captured her attention with a vision of exactly how she’d like them to touch her. He knew immediately and his hand stopped caressing the back of hers.
Lore had been examining his impressions of the danger he sensed. Why was he convinced it was aimed at Kenna, despite what he’d told her? Then her emotions changed.
Sexual awareness engulfed him and it hadn’t been instigated by him. Feeling her want him was so unexpected he was incapable of fighting it for a moment. It took all his will to remain still beside her. If he answered her need in this moment, it wouldn’t matter that others were in the vehicle with them.
“Don’t,” he murmured aloud.
Kenna scrambled for another subject to distract her from the sexuality her thoughts were forcing on them. His response of utter stillness would have felt like rejection if she hadn’t felt him on that other level. His need to respond to her had been a primal roar and he’d brutally silenced it. Turning her face into his shoulder, she squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed the first thought guaranteed to calm her down and hopefully release him from the need for that painful control.
“Your guy was right. I can’t show up beside you. Isn’t the joust supposed to be a formal reenactment thing?” She was referring to the distasteful man’s statements.
Satisfaction softened the hard edge of lust as Lore looked down at her bent head. She hadn’t turned away from him, hadn’t tried to deny the intimate connection. Gratification from that small surrender was almost as powerful as her escalating sexuality had been to him. Lore resisted the urge to comment on it, so she’d verbally acknowledge their involvement. Forcing her to face her unconscious choices would only make her defensive. That didn’t mean he couldn’t encourage her with his acceptance on the same unspoken level of communication.
Lore’s head bent and his lips brushed her forehead as he answered. “I feel your concern, Kenna. Please relax. I’ll take care of it.”
Kenna’s face turned up from his shoulder. “You have some magic plan to teach me what I’m supposed to do so I don’t embarrass you?”
Lore settled his lips over her sharp question. He’d only meant to test a theory, see if the reaction in the war room had been a one-time thing. She drew him, of course she did. Beautiful, smart, gifted, the woman was made to order, but surely his animal response was just that, the animal within.
Too late he realized his mistake. Their connection rippled with an indefinable power. He wasn’t as prepared as he thought for the primal drive that came from touching her. Perhaps it was her acceptance that did it, but he wasn’t sure as everything in him lunged toward her.
Her head melted back in invitation. She might not be aware of her natural submission, but it inflamed the aggressive male at the core of his being. Leaning over this woman as she yielded and mewed around his tongue compelled his responses as if she were triggering a survival instinct. The arcing sexual avalanche meant there was a very short period of time to pull this back. It looked as if he had less than a minute or he’d be doing her in the backseat. Unacceptable.
Lore wrenched his mouth off hers. Breathing hard, he tried not to glare down at her shell-shocked face. Scaring her because he couldn’t smile about this shit wasn’t his intention, but it wasn’t possible to look like a cuddly bear when it felt as if his cock were going to burn through his zipper.
“Damn it, Lore. Quit kissing me. Just because you’re good at it doesn’t mean you have a right,” Kenna hissed.
“Trust me.” His deep tones washed over her ragged responses, soothing them as he continued. “The way we respond to each other isn’t something I manipulate and use against you.” He let her sit up, but no fucking way was he giving in to her little tug for more space between them.
“We fit, Kenna. The physical response we trigger in each other is growing. I suspect it is recognition on a cellular level because of our similar abilities.” He dragged a hand through his hair and glanced out the window to gage where they were. “But we have responsibilities, and now just showing up at this event is a life-and-death matter. I need you to trust me, Kenna.”
Kenna studied him using her natural talent to seek deep into the man. It wasn’t something she should be doing. It was one of those things she didn’t want to explain if he somehow felt her doing it, but this was way beyond a special circumstance. He wanted her trust and she’d be kidding herself if she didn’t admit she wanted to give it to him. Just surrender and let him handle everything. What she found in his soul wasn’t helping her pull away.
He felt such a deep apprehension about what might occur if he let her go. And he was just as confident he could handle whatever was happening. The man didn’t have an ounce of back up in him. He was not only willing to handle everything, he intended to do it. Kenna pulled back.
Big, handsome, powerful and fully focused on her, could he be any more irresistible? But modern women do not just swoon into the big man’s arms and let him take care of everything, even if they really want to.
It was time to light a candle for the demise of her modern woman because this situation had nothing to do with that chick. When death was personal and the one standing between her and it was the big man, he might as well be guarding the cave entrance.
“Stop worrying about trust,” she answered softly. “I need to trust you. Do you get how scary that is? I need your strength, your protection, and we hardly know each other. Then there is this sexual-craving insanity happening between us. It scares me. Not as much as a terrorist bomber and kidnappers, but close.”
“No one will take you from me,” he answered. “Don’t be afraid of our responses to each other. Consider it a bonus, another way to know you can depend on me.”
The limo glided to a stop. Security jumped out of the front seat and did a quick search of the area before the king and his guest stepped out of the vehicle at the back of a large tent.
“We’ll change into costumes here,” Lore explained as they moved quickly into the tent. “The woman with your clothes is waiting for us.”
Inside, an elegant woman smiled a
nd curtseyed deeply to the king. She simply looked courtly. From her Italian pumps to the faultless twist of her thick black hair she was perfection without appearing distant. It was difficult to tell her age. Kenna guessed somewhere in her thirties. She looked at Kenna and her eyes rounded in surprise as an almost reverent exclamation in her own language fell out of her mouth.
Kenna smiled and held out her hand. “Hello, I’m Kenna.”
The woman glanced at the king and took Kenna’s hand while dropping into a deep curtsey again.
“No, no. No need for that.” Kenna tried to pull her up, a little astounded that this woman would think to curtsey to her.
“This is Julianna,” Yuri’s richly accented voice rumbled as he entered behind them. “Please go with her, my lady. She has your clothing.”
Still in possession of Kenna’s hand, Julianna pulled her toward a curtained-off area.
“Come out when you’re done. They can’t start without us,” Lore responded to Kenna’s questioning look over her shoulder.
Once behind the curtain, Julianna chatted in a steady flow of Hungarian. It didn’t appear to bother Julianna one bit that Kenna couldn’t understand it. The process of removing Western clothes was accomplished with a lot of fumbling.
Swiftly, Kenna realized letting Julianna do whatever she wanted was the safest route in this situation. Besides, most of Kenna’s attention was taken up with the ebb and flow of Lore’s emotions while he dressed a short distance away. Awareness between them was constant. They both were finding ways to deal with it, even manage it. They were absorbing new abilities and information at a rate she realized should be impossible.
Any Price Page 3
