Chapter One

by Judith Rochelle

  Quinn said nothing, just wrapped his arms around her and let her lean against his chest. His arms tightened around her but nothing could quiet the strength of the storm raging throughout her body. All the gates were down, all the rigid discipline gone, the true reality of her situation smacking her in the face.

  Even as the newer, stronger Kate Griffin, it struck her that she hadn’t thought beyond staying on the move, keeping ahead of the men tracking her. She had no destination, no plan other than what she’d been doing. And she couldn’t do it forever. Sooner or later they’d find her and it would all come crashing down.

  The fact that she’d fallen apart in front of a complete stranger didn’t even seem to enter into the equation. She just let the emotional hurricane rage over her until it was finally spent. Her throat was raw and her eyes felt like burning coals but still the tears came.

  She was barely aware of Quinn picking her up and carrying her into another room, laying her down in acres of bed and pulling her against him. His hand stroked her hair and he murmured soothing, crooning sounds to her while her breathing steadied and the last of the tiny shivers died away.

  Kate lay curled into Quinn’s hard, muscular body, sheltering in the circle of his arms. She was too exhausted to even care that he must think her a nut case, and be cursing his Good Samaritan tendencies. She only knew that he made her feel safe. Secure. As if Peter and his men didn’t even exist.

  She had no idea how long she lay there like that, Quinn’s hand stroking her as one would ease a child, still murmuring to her. Eventually her breathing evened out and she fell asleep.

  ****

  Quinn hadn’t known what else to do with her. The racking sobs that had ripped through her body stabbed at him like tiny knives. There didn’t seem to be any solace he could offer her, anything to ease whatever was driving her with such destructive force. At last, with gasps and shudders, the storm abated.

  Now he lay on his bed with the slender body tucked against him, staring into the darkness. He knew nothing about this woman except that whatever was wrong had her completely terrified. From what little he’d seen of her behavior tonight he was sure she wasn’t a person given to hysterics. She’d apparently been holding herself together with spit and baling wire and tonight her discipline had come to the end of the line, her collapse triggered by a reminder of what she was running from.

  The two men? Quinn had watched carefully to see if they followed the truck, but miles down the road there’d still been no sign of them. Or anyone else they might have contacted. No, they were probably just what they seemed—tourists here for the rest. But to Kate they represented something more terrifying. Now that she’d edged her way into his life, he felt a need to help her, but not until he knew what was going on.

  He knew he had the skills and the contacts to help her, but he had his own fears to wrestle with—fear of letting someone into his life again. Fear of feeling again. Fear of pulling his emotions out of cold storage and having them ripped apart again.

  Yet how could he turn her away, knowing he was throwing her back into the path of danger?

  Finally, his head aching from the thoughts banging around in it, he shifted his body long enough to skin his jeans and T-shirt off. But when he lay back down, pulling the covers over them and spooning her against him, he realized stripping down to his boxers was a mistake. She felt too good next to him, her small body fitting his perfectly. She wore nothing under the soft fabric of the sleep shirt, a recipe for disaster. Her nicely rounded rear pressed against his groin, making him harden reflexively.

  He banded his arm around her middle to keep her close and felt the softness of her breasts resting on him. She smelled clean and fresh and tempting.

  How had he gotten to this point, anyway? All night, from the moment he saw her on the side of the road, he’d had an eerie feeling someone or something was pulling his strings. Maybe his hermit life was getting to him mentally. He didn’t know. The only thing he did know was his common sense had just taken a nose dive. There was no way he was letting her leave. Tomorrow he would find a way to get it all out of her. Make him tell her what was wrong. Then he’d put a plan together to help her.

  “Are you satisfied?” he whispered to whatever unseen presence was screwing up his life.

  Gritting his teeth to make his body behave, he finally fell asleep.

  ****

  Kate woke slowly, still sluggish from sleep. When she tried to move, the first thing she discovered was a man’s arm thrown around her waist, tanned skin covered with fine dark hair. One muscular leg was lying across both of hers. Behind her, male warmth cocooned her body. She was in bed with a man?

  She opened her eyes wider, looking around at an unfamiliar room. Sunlight poured in through a wall of French doors, casting shadows on cream-colored walls. The high ceiling gave the room an additional feeling of spaciousness. Across from the bed was a wall of bookshelves with a built-in entertainment center. This was a room for a man who liked his comforts.

  Where was she and whose room was she in? Whose bed? Wearing only her night shirt, for God’s sake. And totally naked beneath it. But when she tried to shift her body, the arm around her tightened.

  “Mornin’,” a warm male voice said behind her, soft breath tickling her hair.

  The delicious scent of soap and the outdoors teased at her nostrils and sent shivers through her body. And it all came flooding back. The car. The rain. The motel. The two men. Quinn. And that godawful breakdown.

  She should move. Get up. Be embarrassed that she’d fallen apart so completely, that she’d taken comfort in a stranger’s arms. Spent the night wrapped up with him in what was apparently his bed.

  But where she was felt so good, his strength surrounding her. So right. So safe!

  “So...how goes it this morning?” he asked, his lips against her neck. “Feel better?”

  Images and sensations of her gigantic meltdown flooded her again and the heat of embarrassment bloomed on her cheeks. She was glad her back was to him as every detail replayed itself in stark clarity.

  She cleared her throat self-consciously. “How did I get here? I mean, I know how I got to your house, but how did I end up in bed with you?”

  “You pretty much came apart last night. It was the only thing that calmed you down and made you relax. Fall asleep.”

  Her cheeks turned even hotter. If only she could block her entire performance out of her mind. “I guess I pretty much made a fool of myself.”

  “No.” He kissed her temple, a wisp of a contact that sent unexpected shivers through her. “My guess is you’re just exhausted running from whatever is chasing you—and please don’t try to tell me it’s nothing. I’d say it’s pretty bad, enough to string out your nerves to the raw edge.” She hadn’t moved and his head was right next to hers, his warm breath fanning her cheek. “I’d say you probably needed the emotional release. I was just trying to keep you from totally self-destructing.”

  Kate knew the smart thing would be to jump out of the bed as fast as she could, but it was impossible to think with his body molded so closely to hers. The feel of him was so good, his breath against her neck teasing at her, and there was certainly no mistaking his hot, hard and obvious erection. Or the unexpected spikes of pleasure it drove through her.

  Okay, any minute now he would slide away from her, they’d get past the initial awkwardness, and she could try to figure out what to do next. Right?

  Wrong!

  Then another thought stabbed at her. Had they already...God. Was she experiencing blackouts now? Lapses where she couldn’t even remember having sex? Holy hell!

  “Listen, Quinn. Did we...I mean, last night...that is...”

  Why couldn’t she just get the stupid words out? Because she didn’t want to know the answer?

  “If you’re asking if we had sex, the answer is no. You were hurting, Kate, and vulnerable. You needed some...human contact. But not sex. Just...holding. You were pretty much a mess.” He gave a r
ough chuckle. “Besides, I’d like to think I have a little more class than that. And that the woman wouldn’t have to ask if we had or hadn’t.”

  She wanted to hide under the covers. “I am so mortified. I can’t...I don’t...”

  “Ssh.” His voice with its soft Texas drawl was so soothing. “It’s all right, Kate. Whatever it is, I promise I can help make it all right.”

  She buried her face in the pillow, trying to shut out the mess that was her life. “You can’t imagine how not all right everything is. Or ever will be again.”

  “Maybe if you tell me about it we can figure out a way to fix it.”

  If only.

  The warmth of his body was seeping into hers, chasing away the cold that lay inside her like a block of ice. The same sense of cold living inside her since the night she fled Peter’s office. What would it be like to just say the hell with everything and let this man take away her pain?

  She sifted slightly. The arm holding her tightened even more and she couldn’t mistake his body’s response. Well...

  “Quinn.” She had to ask. Had to make sure she wasn’t misinterpreting this. “What are we doing here?”

  He sighed, his chest rising and falling against her back. “Damned if I know.”

  “I was hoping maybe one of us did,” she told him, her breathing unsteady.

  Get up, Kate. Move away. Don’t do anything stupid.

  “Kate?”

  Fingers stroked her rib cage. “Yes?”

  “I haven’t wanted a woman in four years, and we haven’t known each other long enough to even have a meal together. I don’t know if it’s the circumstances or what, but if you don’t want to get us both in trouble, you’d better get up. Quick.”

  Wetting her suddenly dry lips with her tongue, she tried to find what was left of her brain. This was so not like her. At least not like Kathryn Holt. She hadn’t been Kate Griffin long enough to make judgments.

  She drew in a shuddering breath. “And if I don’t want to move?”

  “Then I think we both know what’s coming. Crazy as it seems.”

  “Do we?”

  “Please don’t panic and leap out of bed when I tell you something, because this is completely out of character for me. But Kate? You don’t know how much I want to make you feel better. A lot better. I want to chase away those shadows I see in your eyes if you’ll let me. But more than that, I promise you if I don’t move right now my brain is going on vacation.”

  And what would be so wrong? So maybe she didn’t do this kind of thing. Maybe she knew diddly squat about this man. But she did know he’d helped her when he didn’t have to. He couldn’t be working with Peter or he would have just turned her over to him, or some of those deadly-looking men. By tomorrow she could be dead, and she was so unutterably weary of being alone and tough. Just for a little while she wanted some emotion other than fear. As soon as her car was ready she’d be gone and they’d never see each other again. She was far from promiscuous, but was it so wrong to take a little pleasure? To give her the courage to go on?

  In answer she pressed back against his body. One big hand moved tentatively to cup her breast and his mouth pressed against her ear. Oh God it felt so good. When she didn’t move away his hand tightened. A feathery kiss sent tremors skittering through her, straight to the spot between her thighs that seemed to be getting wetter by the minute. And for once she wasn’t thinking of Peter or anyone connected with him.

  Quinn brushed her hair back behind her ear in a gesture so tender it made her throat close. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had touched her in such a way.

  His thumb barely brushed her nipple, but even with such a faint touch, it plumped and beaded, fingers of heat streaking to that hot spot between her thighs.

  Mistake! Mistake! Her brain thundered.

  But in the next moment her pulses went haywire and moisture seeped embarrassingly onto her thighs.

  “I want you,” he said, “but I guess that’s pretty obvious.”

  “I want you, too.” Her words were barely a whisper.

  I need this. So badly. Whatever happens next, happens. If I’m dead none of this will matter anyway.

  He kissed the tip of her ear, his hand kneading her breast with a gentle motion, and he buried his face in her hair.

  “Kate, listen to me a minute. There’s something I have to tell you first.”

  Oh, God. Now what? Was something wrong with him? “Is...Is there a physical problem I should be aware of?”

  “No. But I haven’t...been with a woman in a long time. A very long time. You’re the first one I’ve even had any desire for. It’s a long story, one I’d rather we not get into right now. I’m only telling you because I’m afraid my technique is a little rusty.”

  She closed her eyes, tiny pinpricks of sensation spreading outward from where he was again working her nipples. “I’m not sure I’d know the difference,” she told him in a tremulous voice.

  “Then we should make a good pair.” His voice dropped, low and heated.

  His essence, so clean and masculine, surrounded her like a tranquilizing aroma. His strength wrapped around her, bringing every nerve in her body to life. There was something so impossibly erotic about Quinn, the dark knight, that made her throw away all her inhibitions and safeguards, made her body respond with so little prompting.

  Pushing away any lingering reservations, she wriggled back against him and his shaft hardened even more, pressing firmly against her buttocks.

  Just get on with it before I explode.

  Quinn rolled her over to face him. He looked even better this morning, sleep-rumpled with a day’s growth of beard, than he had the night before. No man should be allowed to look this sexy, she thought.

  He stroked her hair, his eyes devouring her face, before he bent his head and touched his lips to hers with feathery kisses that were both tentative and firm, searching, as if, like he’d said, he’d been out of practice for a long time and was relearning what to do and how to do it.

  When he pressed his lips that felt like rough silk more firmly to hers, the kiss that began as a gentle connection soon turned heated and drugging. They were like desert refugees who could never satisfy their thirst. His mouth was hard and demanding as he pressed his tongue against the seam of her lips. She opened for him, inviting the intrusion, savoring the taste of him. He probed her mouth with a tongue that parried and thrust like a rapier, exploring, feeding.

  Time slowed for them as he traced the line of her cheeks and eyelids with fingers that trembled slightly. Moving his mouth away from hers, he nibbled at her ear, licked the sensitive spot behind, nipped at her ear lobe.

  She was liquid against him, resistance gone like a wisp of smoke. He cupped her bottom, pulling her tightly to him, pressing his erection into her with sudden desperation. It was obvious he was hungry for the feel of her, wanting nothing more than to be inside her. And wherever he touched her, flames ignited, spreading directly to the spot between her thighs.

  She reached up a hand and brushed the beard-roughened skin of his jaw, the corded muscles of his neck. Her fingers threaded through the black silk of his hair, loving the feel of it on her skin.

  “I want to see you naked,” he whispered, pushing the night shirt over her head.

  She was self-conscious at first, spread out for him like a meal before a starving man, his eyes devouring her. But the heat and appreciation she saw in them wiped any misgivings away. And made her flame even hotter.

  His hands drifted over her body, mapping it, learning her, feeling every dip and crevice, his eyes following their movement. He cupped her breasts again, testing their weight in his hands, thumb and forefinger plumping each ripe nipple. His warm palms moved slowly across her tummy, pausing at the indentation of her navel to trace the swirled flesh, then moving lower to the soft curls at her mound. His fingers sifted through them, petted them, as his eyes consumed the sight of her.

  Heat sizzled through her, snapping every
where in her body, melting what was left of her brain as well as any reservations she might have had. His touch was like magic, drawing responses from her in places she’d never thought of as erogenous zones. She was floating on a cloud, her body both pliable and demanding, driven by the carnal look in his eyes.

  She worked her hand between their bodies, brushing against the thick, springy curls of his chest. Her fingertip rubbed over his flat, male nipples, drawing a hiss of breath from him, then traced the line of soft hair down his hard abdomen until she reached the rich nest of curls and the thick, hard shaft rising from it.

  Just touching him this way made sensations of pleasure spike through her body. She’d never wanted to feel every bit of a man the way she did with him. Whatever chemistry had ignited between them was beyond incendiary, threatening to combust and consume them completely.

  With slight pressure, he urged her thighs apart, stroking the soft inner skin, sweeping the length of each leg and back up again. By the time he reached her sex, parting the curls to find the throbbing, furled nub, she was panting and every pulse point in her body was beating a loud tattoo.

  “You’re so soft,” he murmured, his voice thick with desire. “Your skin feels like satin.”

  He leaned down and placed an open-mouthed kiss on her tummy just above her mound as his fingers slipped into her. Every synapse fired and her inner muscles jumped and quivered.

  “So wet. Jesus, Kate. I have to taste you.”

  Levering himself between her legs, he spread them wider and let himself feast on her, his tongue like a livewire on her slick tissue. She jerked at the sensation.

  Her breasts felt tight, her nipples swollen, her breath trapped in her throat. Everything fell away except this man, here and now, and the erotic things he was doing to her. The low moaning sound she heard was hers, shocking her that it came from her mouth.