She couldn’t say the same for Zander. His eyes were narrow, his mouth was tight. “That’s the way it always is for you, isn’t it?” he said. “Tit for tat, quid pro quo. You don’t give unless—hell, that’s not even it. You can’t receive, unless you give something first. Something at least as good, if not better. I’d forgotten about your pathological need for parity. Is that something else you inherited from dear old mom and dad? Because it’s absolute bullshit. And it sure as hell isn’t going to win you any points in building a relationship.”
“We’re not building a relationship, Zander.” How had this suddenly turned so awful, so quickly? “We, and I quote, needed to ‘get this out of our systems.’ Well, good for both of us. Now we have.”
“Yeah? And how’s that working for you, Erin?” Once again, Zander moved so quickly that Erin wasn’t expecting it, striding across her room in three long steps. He stopped before he reached her, but the weight of his stare was like an intimately physical touch, as he let his gaze travel down her robe-clad body, lingering on the vee of skin between her breasts, her naked thighs. “Because unless my own senses are deceiving me, you’re still turned on, and that throb in your neck has shot to double time in the last fifteen seconds.”
Then he reached out and tilted her chin up, and Erin couldn’t mask the way her body jumped at his touch. Zander’s lips curled into a hard smile, and he leaned in close. “So maybe I’m not quite out of your system yet, huh?” he asked, his lips barely brushing hers. “Maybe we’re not so good after all?”
“Oh, stop it.” Erin tried to bat him away, but Zander grabbed her hand, just like that. He didn’t spin her around and hike her arm high, like some sort of commando, but the speed and precision of his movement made her realize exactly how much of a commando he really was.
Zander seemed to be reflecting on that, too, because he didn’t let her hand go. Instead, he brought her wrist to his lips, his eyes never leaving hers, and pressed a kiss to the nerve that was beating frantically at the base of her hand, the move so unexpectedly tender that she swayed a little on her feet.
Zander’s gaze remained pinned on her. “Erin, I really don’t care how much you piss me off. Which is a lot, for the record. But I will tell you this. There is no fucking way I’m going to let you walk into this clusterfuck tomorrow with a backpack full of money and not a single clue of what to do if something goes wrong.”
“What? No!” Erin said, shaking her head fiercely. She tried to yank her hand out of his grasp, but he held firm. “Zander, this is not your pity project, and I don’t need your help. You’ve given me information and I appreciate it, but…” She jerked her hand again, and this time he let her go. “No.”
“Yes,” Zander said simply. He turned and went back to the bed, recovering his shirt to pull it back over his head, his movements more methodical and focused now. Then he turned and regarded her, tucking his thumbs into the waistband of his cargo pants. Loose. Easy. But she knew enough to know there was nothing loose or easy about Zander right now. He was up on the balls of his feet, more than willing to rush her again, just to prove he could. And, God help her, she was more than willing to let him. “How much money did you clear out of your accounts, Erin? Enough to meet the kidnappers’ initial demand?”
The bald question dumped ice on her libido. “Yes, of course,” she said, straightening her shoulders. “And to spare. For expenses.” Ha. She saw his eyes flare in understanding and appreciation. That’s right, Zander. As it turns out, I’m not an idiot. I know that American dollars come in handy no matter what side of the border you’re on.
“How much?” Zander’s sharp question interrupted her self-congratulation, and Erin lifted her chin.
“That’s none of your—”
“How much, Erin?”
Fine. “Three hundred for them. That’s what they asked for, all that I said I had. Then I have another fifty K for…whatever.”
“Good.” Zander nodded curtly. “So, I tell you what, Ms. Parity, it’s your lucky day. You need a partner, and you’ve got the money to pay for one. I’m not only on leave, I’m free for the next few days, with nothing much to do. That’s about as quid quo pro as it gets.”
“What?” Erin shook her head, adrenaline punching through her system. “No. That’s not happening.” Even as she said the words, though, her mind did the math. Because yeah, she wasn’t an idiot. Zander was an Army Ranger. He’d actually been in fights that involved more than pulling hair and screaming. He was used to walking into enemy territory, observing the situation, identifying threats. And he’d actually know what to do in the face of those threats.
Zander, to his credit, just watched her work it out on her own. His outrage had been replaced by a steady certainty, like he’d already known he’d won this battle before he’d even begun it.
Erin snagged on the first glaring problem with the plan. “It won’t work, Zander. They told me I had to be alone. To bring the money and nothing else.”
He shrugged. “We’ll deal with that when we get there. But how unreasonable would it be for a defenseless woman to ask her corporate boyfriend to come along with her on a joyride to Mexico?” His eyes flashed dangerously. “I mean, right? Weren’t you the one who told me you had a lame-ass corporate boyfriend?”
“Oh, shut up,” Erin muttered, narrowing her gaze as triumph flashed across Zander’s face.
“That’s what I thought. So you could even tell them, if they ask, that you brought me along for cover, in case anyone questioned a woman traveling alone with a large amount of money.”
She couldn’t deny the truth of that. And yet…“Zander. No one is going to believe you’re a corporate stiff. And I can’t ask you to put yourself in the middle of this when you’re supposed to be on leave with your family. It’s not your problem.”
“No shit, it’s not my problem,” Zander shot back. “But here’s how I make that part easy for you.” His lips twisted. “In a manner of speaking, anyway. I’m not volunteering for this duty, you’re hiring me. And I don’t come cheap.”
Erin frowned at him. “I’m hiring you?”
“Yes, you are. You’re hiring me to escort your ass down to Laredo, to give you good advice on how to handle the meet, and to guard your back the entire time you have the money in hand—because if I were your bad guys, I’d just steal it from you right outside the bank and be done with it.”
“But I—” Zander’s raised hand cut her off.
“I can also incapacitate a gunman—any gunman—at close range, and I’m familiar with just about every firearm we’re likely to run into in that shithole. I know how to look for traps, and how to disarm them. Ditto with anyone cocky enough to tail us. I’ve even handled hostage negotiations before, so if push comes to shove, I can deal with these asswipes if they try anything cute. But that’s probably not going to be necessary, because it’s hopefully going to happen just like they told you it would, in broad daylight, in public, just a meet and greet among friends. But the moment it goes sideways, I’ll be there to make sure you and your parents get out safely and back across the border. Over and done.”
“Over and done,” Erin repeated, but more faintly, without any of the cocksure aggressiveness of Zander’s tone. And she knew she was finished, that he was right. She had to accept his offer. She would be beyond foolish to say no, even if he asked for every penny of the money she’d drawn out to cover expenses. “All right, fine,” she said, bracing herself. “How much do you want for the job?”
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that,” he said, his voice hard and immovable. “We’ll discuss my fee when we’re back. But here’s one thing you do need to understand. You do this with me, then you do it my way. You tell me everything that’s happening, when it’s happening. You do not pull an audible and go haring off to handle anything on your own. And I mean anything. You go to the bathroom, I want to know about it. For the next forty-eight hours or however long we’re down in that armpit, you stick to me like
glue. You got that?” When she just glared at him, he let his grin go broader. “And one other thing, Erin. Stop lying to me. There’s something else going on here that you’re not telling me, and it’s time you knocked that shit out.”
—
Zander liked to pride himself on the looks he got from most women, but the shock in Erin’s eyes trumped all of them and then some. He’d been right. She’d been holding out on him. “So what’s it going to be, Erin?” he asked. “You gonna level with me, or you really want me to walk away?”
She recovered, lifting her chin. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Uh, uh, uh,” he said. “Spill. And remember, with me, you get your parents back, and yourself, in one piece. Then you can go back to your fancy art-gallery job, they can go back to whatever stupid jobs they abandoned to play Mexican Vacation. Without me, though, you not only lose all your money, but your folks will probably end up dead as well. And you, too, though I suspect the bad guys would have a good time playing with you first.”
Erin’s eyes shot open wide with shock, betrayal, and more than a little fear. Good. She needed to understand that what she was walking into down in Mexico was not some sort of Christmas-gift exchange. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
He shrugged again. “What haven’t you told me?”
“Fine,” she snapped. “You want to know what else? I’ll tell you. It’s not my mom and dad down there. I don’t know my dad. I never knew him.” Her face was red with…what? Anger? Embarrassment? But she pushed on. “It’s just my mom’s boyfriend, some guy named Mike who I’ve never even met before. That’s who I get to go bail out.” She shook her head. “You know what, screw this. Don’t get involved, Zander. This is just the latest in a long string of dumb things my mom has done to me since I was old enough to walk. Hell, probably even before that.”
“Too late,” Zander said evenly, no longer sure what to believe about Erin’s mother, though at least this time, the words rang true. “I’m already involved. You’re stuck with me now.”
“I’m not ‘stuck’ with anything. I can do this on my own.” Erin’s hands were now opening and closing, making tight, compact fists. He noticed the smear of blue oil paint across her knuckles. She never did get all of the stuff off, even if she showered three times a day. But it was Erin’s face that really drew his attention. Her eyes were bright with long-burning anger, her mouth open, as if she was too pissed off to keep it shut. Instead she was breathing, low and steady, like a bull about to charge.
So much pent-up emotion was warring in her that Zander felt the rekindling of a passion of an entirely different sort. So, of course, he pushed it further.
“Yeah, well, that would be pretty damned stupid,” he said, his tone deliberately mocking as her face darkened with anger. “But we’re wasting time. If you want to make this little rescue mission work, you better start learning your lines. Lesson number one, sweetheart, is that you and I are very, very much in love. So much in love that I was willing to come down and stand by your side even though I do not have a clue about what the big fuss is; I’m just here to keep you company on a little trip to Old Mexico. That means you have to look at me like I’m the answer to your every prayer. You know how to do that, don’t you, Erin? Isn’t that how you looked at me fifteen minutes ago when I made you come?”
“You’re a fucking bastard,” she whispered.
“That’s closer, but still not quite right.” Zander moved forward then, smiling when Erin instinctively backed up. She didn’t have a prayer of getting away from him, though. Not tonight, anyway. He’d run this assignment ironclad starting tomorrow, no games, no dicking around. But tonight—
Another step and Erin’s back was flat against the wall. Her breathing was erratic at this point, her eyes screaming rage at him, but he knew better than that. There was more than fury in her gaze. A hell of a lot more, in fact. A whole host of reactions that he’d be carrying with him into the hot desert for years to come, to run over and around and through his mind. He wanted Erin so bad he could taste her, and she wanted him back. There was no way she could deny it.
“There you go, babe,” he breathed, noticing the way her pulse was pounding in her neck as he pressed his hands against the wall on either side of her head. “That’s what I’m talking about, that kind of response. Like you need me and I need you.”
“Need.” Erin all but spit the word. “You hardly need me, Zander. You need something to distract you, some new thrill to keep you busy until you re-up—” She pressed her lips shut as her voice broke on the last word, and Zander let his lips curl into a lazy grin.
“And in return for that, I’m going to get your mom and her deadbeat boyfriend out of whatever mess they’ve gotten themselves into. All while keeping your pretty little ass safe”—he swept his lips across hers, and Erin’s mouth opened on a strangled gasp—“and sound.”
“I don’t need your protection,” Erin retorted, but it was a reflexive protest, one he figured she had to make. She suddenly seemed to remember she had hands, and she lifted them up quickly, planting them on his chest as if to shove him back. He wrapped his hands around hers and plucked them away, then pressed them up high against the wall, to remind her she had all the strength of a ball of twine.
“Yeah, you do,” Zander murmured, his lips still hovering over hers as Erin’s gaze dropped from his eyes to his mouth, her breathing once more ragged. He didn’t give her the satisfaction of a kiss, however. Instead he trailed his mouth along her jawline, even as she flinched away—which just gave him better access to the long column of her neck and her ear. He pressed his lips to her jumping pulse then, and Erin’s knees buckled a little, the movement loosening her clamped thighs. The smell of her heat wafted up and curled around them both, and Zander felt his body harden again in instant response. He chuckled against her ear. “God, you’re so hot for me, Erin,” her murmured, even as she tried to jerk away from him once more, trapped in his grasp. “Hot and ready for me right now, aren’t you?”
She bit out a curse that sounded refreshingly like “Fuck you,” and he laughed again, his lips on her temple now, where a thin line of sweat also attested to exactly how much his attentions were costing her.
Erin seemed to find her voice. “I am not hot for you,” she said, her words like chipped ice even as her body seemed to want to melt in his hands. She stared off into the shadows of her room, as if she weren’t practically vibrating in his arms with every kiss and lick along her salty skin. “I will play the part and do what you tell me, and you will do the job for which I am paying you. And when this is over we will have nothing to do with each other, ever again. We’ll be even. You understand that?”
Zander shrugged easily. “Works for me,” he drawled. He kissed a line back down her cheek, finally reaching her mouth again, a mouth that was wet and open and waiting for him, despite Erin’s clear desire to be cold and emotionless. There was nothing about her that was cold and emotionless, though, and there never had been. “The thing you gotta remember, though, is this,” he murmured. “I’m here to protect you from the bad guys, and to make sure your parents get out of that hellhole safe. I take that job very seriously.”
He moved in for the kiss so quickly her inhalation was smothered by his mouth. He took her hard, almost viciously, surprised and more than a little aroused that she kissed him back just as fiercely, all the anger and rage and shock and fear mixing together in an embrace that would have become an attack if he’d been stupid enough to let her hands go. Instead he broke off the kiss roughly, glaring straight into her eyes.
Then he grinned.
“But I’m sure as hell not going to protect you from how badly you want me, babe,” he said. “For that, you’re on your own.”
Chapter 11
Erin gave the pretty blonde teller her best smile. She and Zander hadn’t been in Laredo, Texas, for more than an hour, but she was already at the bank in her best summer-weight business outfit—tailored b
louse, linen pants. Professional, without looking obsessive. Earnest, without looking desperate. She carried a brand-new prepaid cell phone in her shoulder bag, and was currently trying to look like she wasn’t clutching her ID and passbook as if they were about to spontaneously explode. “I’d like to make a withdrawal,” she said, holding up her passbook. “I’m Erin Connelly, and the Bank of America rep said I should tell you that it’s in regards to a deposit wired to your accounts this morning.” She smiled as the girl widened her eyes beneath perfectly manicured brows and big Texas hair. “You should probably get your manager.”
“Of course, Miss Connelly. We were told to expect you.” The teller was nodding, but her hair didn’t move, and Erin watched it for a moment, mesmerized. “Miss Grainger can help you.”
She turned to see a woman striding toward her, and Erin’s heart rate kicked up again. She was immensely glad that she was wearing her lightest shell underneath her business suit. And that she’d applied and reapplied deodorant, like, six times already that morning, twice on the plane trip, and once more in the airport restroom. Still, she gave Miss Grainger her most winning smile, and answered only the questions she needed to. The woman was clearly dying to know what sort of purchase required money in stacks of hundred-dollar bills, but she never came right out and asked, and Erin used her best gallery-arch smile and cool demeanor to get herself out of the bank with the money safely in her bag. A bag that suddenly felt like it weighed a million pounds as she crossed the street to where Zander was sitting in their rental car.
She blinked, still trying to get used to his new look. While she was all cool sophistication, at least for this leg of their journey, he’d transformed into…a geek.
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