by Debra Webb
“It’s nothing.” She didn’t want to talk…. She wanted him to continue what he’d started. When he still hesitated, she muttered, “One of Ivan’s dogs.”
“We need to take care of that.”
“Later.” She moved his hand up her thigh. His fingers splayed on her skin, made her gasp.
He burrowed two fingers beneath the silk of her panties.
She bit down on her lip to hold back a cry of sheer want.
For one long moment he hesitated again. When her eyes fluttered open, she realized that he was staring out the window, checking the house across the road.
A smile tugged at her lips. He wanted her. No doubt about that. She could feel how hard he was. But he wasn’t about to fall down on the job. She liked that a lot. He was a man after her own heart.
Convinced there was no immediate threat, he wrenched open his trousers. She helped, sighing with satisfaction as her fingers wrapped around his full arousal.
He pushed the damp panel of her panties aside and thrust inside her. Her body contracted, drawing him more deeply inside.
He leaned down, braced an arm on the table on either side of her, then kissed her. Softly at first. He held still when she desperately wanted him to move. To kiss her harder. To start that rhythmic friction her body was screaming for.
She loved the feel of his skin…the sensation of how completely he filled her. And the taste of his lips. She’d told herself she wanted to slap his face so many times. But it wasn’t true. She’d wanted to kiss him. To shut that smart mouth of his by covering it with her own. To have him just like this…someplace wholly inappropriate and dangerous.
The waves of completion started deep inside her. She bucked to get him moving. She couldn’t wait any longer. She needed him to…to keep touching her. His hands began to slowly trace her body. Rubbing, squeezing her breasts. Lifting her hips just enough to bury himself more completely inside her. Then those skilled fingers flowed over her bare legs, positioned them forward for deeper penetration.
She couldn’t stop it. She came.
He held still and watched.
When she could think again, she grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled his face to hers. She kissed him so hard, their teeth scraped together. She wrapped her legs around his waist and started a rhythm of her own. He growled into her mouth. She didn’t slow, just kept pumping, dragging her hot, slick walls along that hard, solid length.
He tried to slow her frantic movements, but he couldn’t control her…. She couldn’t control herself. She was lost to the rhythm and to the new rise of pleasure.
He pulled her against his chest, carried her to the wall next to the window.
She was gasping for air as he took yet another seemingly endless moment to check out the house across the road.
How could he have that kind of discipline?
She couldn’t think, much less see anything but him.
His gaze collided with hers once more and he gave her his full attention. He pressed her back against the wall and set his own ruthless pace. Her nails buried into his back. His mouth sealed over hers.
He drove into her over and over until she came yet again before he finally gave in to his own pleasure.
When his body was spent, he sagged against her, gasping for air just as she did.
“I wanted to do that,” he murmured as he teased her lips with his teeth, “every time I watched you walk down the hallway at the agency. Every single time you lashed me with that wicked tongue of yours. I’ve wanted you so damned bad. I didn’t want to…I called it a lot of other things. But this is what I wanted.”
“I knew you’d be good,” she confessed with a soft, breathy laugh. “I’ve watched you move.” She rocked her pelvis into his. “Until I thought I’d go crazy if I didn’t figure out a way to get you out of my system.”
He searched her eyes. “Is that what we just did?”
She had to smile at his uncertainty. Usually it was the woman feeling uncertain about now. “No. I think you just planted yourself as deep as you can get.”
He lowered his lips to hers, kissed her with infinite tenderness. How could a man capable of doing what he’d just done to her against the wall kiss so sweetly?
“I suppose,” he said finally, when they both needed air, “we should get focused on the case again.”
“Yeah.” She rubbed his nose with her own. “We wouldn’t want to get caught with our pants down.” She squeezed his bare bottom with both hands. “Now, would we?”
He smiled. “Guess not.”
She really, really liked the way he smiled.
She lowered her feet to the floor but hated so badly to let him pull away. That connection had felt more right than any she’d shared…ever.
Strange. He was the last person she’d expected to connect with.
Her abdomen clenched at the idea of what Ivan Romero had had planned for her.
If that vicious animal had his way, she would never know just how right things between her and Ted Tallant could be.
Chapter Sixteen
9:00 a.m.
Ted stood at the corner of the wraparound deck. Soto’s sedan remained in front of the house across the road. That she’d parked in front felt wrong. Was it a signal?
There had been no traffic on this stretch of desolate road.
The only good news was that Trinity had been released after hours of detainment at the airfield. The problem now involved his getting here without being followed. Romero’s people would be watching him. To come straight here would no doubt bring trouble right to their door.
None of that included the fact that Ted had stepped way out of line.
He’d made love to Nora…Friedman.
A knot of mixed emotions tangled in his gut. What the hell had he been thinking?
They couldn’t stand the sight of each other. Working together had been the dead last thing either one of them had wanted to do.
But that had been before…before he’d known just how brave the sassy woman was. The risks she dared to solve a case.
And the way she’d stood up to a man like Romero.
She’d risked her life to save the life of another woman and her unborn child. Nora Friedman had sacrificed more than Ted could ever have imagined her capable to ensure the safe and happy future of a victim.
Incredible.
How could he have not known this about her?
Because he’d chosen not to look past the kick-butt facade she chose to wear. He now understood that, too. Self-preservation. She’d understood that she could never allow herself to be that vulnerable again.
He should have recognized the depth behind those exotic dark eyes.
He’d read the background on her. Born and raised in the L.A. area by a mother who kept a roof over their heads by selling herself on the street. An absentee father and no options for a future others took for granted.
Nora Friedman had raised herself, had made a life and a future without any foundation…without any help from anyone.
Ted hadn’t given her an ounce of credit for that feat.
He’d been too busy fueling his frustration with her attitude.
He was a class-A jerk.
There was no other excuse.
“Look.”
Ted turned to face the object of his disturbing musings. She’d managed to get within three feet of him and he hadn’t even heard her approach.
Their situation was far too precarious to be so damned distracted.
“Everything okay?” He’d cleaned and bandaged her ankle with a first-aid kit he’d found in the doctor’s car.
“Yes.”
The way her arms were folded protectively over her chest and the somber expression on her face signaled otherwise. She was as lost in all this as he was.
She lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “I wanted to dispel any misconceptions about what just happened.”
Maybe it was her choice of words, but the idea that she would compartmentalize what they’d share
d in such a way rubbed him the wrong way. Ticked him off, actually, and he didn’t know what she intended to say yet.
“Let’s hear it.” He hadn’t meant the words to come out in that harsh tone, but it was too late to take it back now. That she flinched tied some more of those knots in his gut.
“The last twenty-four hours have been insane.” She lifted one hand and made a vague motion of incredulity. “We’ve both been wired to the max, totally running on adrenaline.”
Here it came.
“Sex is a natural survival instinct. We shouldn’t feel awkward about it…or try to dissect it.”
“I can’t argue with that.” Ted turned to scope out the place across the road. There was no reason to debate the point. She obviously didn’t feel anything remotely related to a connection—other than the physical. And he…well, he didn’t know how he felt.
Now wasn’t the time to delve into personal affairs. He knew better.
“I’ll check on the doc.”
Ted didn’t say anything to that or even spare her a glance. Time to get back on track. Without, as she had so eloquently put it, making more out of the moment than it was.
The thought left an emptiness inside him.
He pulled the doctor’s cell phone from his pocket and checked the time. Trinity should contact him soon. Simon’s Bureau contact hadn’t seen any sign of Romero’s people sniffing around the Palomino Hotel. By now he had likely given up the search for Ted and Nora. He would be checking flights, buses, rental car agencies. Eventually he would realize that the two of them were still here somewhere.
Romero would pull out all the stops then. He would shake out every sandpile and turn over every rock for fifty miles around Vegas until his gamble paid off.
And he’d found them.
The case—Heather Vandiver’s case—kept them from making a move to protect themselves.
They were squarely between a rock and a hard place.
Definitely.
THE OLD GRAY-HAIRED GUY kept moaning and groaning until she removed his gag. “You need water?” She should have asked him that already. He wasn’t really an evil person, just a greedy old bastard who’d gotten drawn into Romero’s ugly games.
“There’s no time.”
“What’re you talking about?” Nora didn’t like the look of him. Paler than before. Feeble almost. “You need water.”
“No.” He shook his head, tried to wiggle his hands free of the bindings. “I tried to tell you before but you stuck that sock in my mouth.” He made a face.
“It was your sock.” No “six pairs for a few bucks” special, either. Silk socks. He shouldn’t be so incensed.
“Please—” he searched her eyes with his own “—just listen to me.”
She felt a little sorry for him, but not enough to untie him or get close enough for him to bite her or something. “Talk fast. I have things to do.” Like wash the scent of Tallant off her skin. That her body trembled at the thought of his name made her want to scream.
She would kick herself for this later. When she had Romero off her back and this case was settled.
“He’ll come after us. It’s a miracle he’s not here already.”
Now she recognized what it was that looked so different about the doc. He wasn’t sick or feeble. He was scared to death. “What do you mean? He doesn’t know where we are.” Just because Romero owned the place didn’t mean he would look here first.
“The car—” he swallowed with effort “—there’s a tracking device on the car.”
Adrenaline roared through Nora’s veins. “Your car?” She knew this without asking…. Her mouth just hadn’t caught up with her brain.
He nodded. “He’ll kill me, too. You were supposed to let me go.”
Holy… “Tallant!”
Nora raced to the front door, ignored the doctor’s frantic shouts behind her.
Tallant stopped her bolt out the door with his wide shoulders. “What?”
“The car.” She hitched a thumb toward the back of the house. “It has a tracking device. Romero knows exactly where we are.”
As if her words had summoned it, the military-style SUV, a trail of dust in its wake, barreled into view on the long sand and gravel road.
“Back in the house,” Tallant ordered.
This was her fault. Other people were going to die because of what she’d done five years ago.
“I have to hide the doc.” She didn’t wait for Tallant’s approval. When she reached the back bedroom, the old man had managed to get into an upright position on the bed and was ranting at her to help him. She shook him to get his attention. “Listen to me.”
Miraculously his mouth closed.
“I’m going to untie you so you can hide.” When he would have started his tirade again, she put a hand over his mouth. “Do what I say and you’ll be fine. We’ll tell Ivan that we tossed you out on the road without your cell phone or anything. Okay?”
He nodded. She dropped her hand away from his face and quickly untied his hands and feet. With a quick shove, she hid the bindings, including the gag, between the mattress and box springs. Then she considered the limited options for hiding the old man.
The doc was a smallish man. Not any taller than her and thin.
The one decent possibility that came to mind might just work.
“Come on.” She grabbed him by the arm and headed to the great room.
Where the hell was Tallant?
In the kitchen, she opened the doors beneath the sink. The base cabinet would be a tight fit, but if he curled up and stayed put, it could work. She gestured inside. “Get in.”
He started to argue but decided against it. The task wasn’t easy, but he curled up and got himself jammed into the small space.
“Do not make a sound,” she warned. “No matter what you hear.”
He tried to nod but there wasn’t enough room to do it right.
She closed the doors, palmed her weapon and moved to one of the windows that looked out across the front of the property.
The SUV pulled into the driveway and stopped midway between the road and the house. What were they waiting for?
Then she saw the first of Romero’s team.
Another one…then another.
The three circled the house.
A fourth man remained at the SUV.
Romero was in there. Otherwise all four would have been surrounding or busting into the place, rather than only three.
Where was Tallant?
She moved noiselessly through the house to check out the views from other windows. Approaching each window carefully in the event one of those bastards had the same idea about getting a peek inside, she moved from one room to the next.
If Ted was…Tallant…if Tallant was out there, the odds were stacked seriously against him.
Nora moved back to a window that offered a view of the SUV and its vigilant guard. Romero had to be in there. It was her he wanted. Getting Tallant killed was wrong. Just wrong.
If she provided a diversion, at least he’d have a shot at getting away.
It was her only option.
From her position to the right of the front door, she reached for the knob, gave it a twist, then swung it toward the opposite wall.
The continued silence surprised her. She’d expected the guard posted at the SUV to take a shot.
Keeping out of sight next to the door, she pulled the weapon from her waistband at the small of her back, checked to see that it was on safety, then tossed it out onto the deck.
Still no reaction from the guard.
“I’m coming out,” she shouted.
No response. No sound at all.
Taking a deep breath, she sidestepped into the open doorway.
The guard leveled a bead on her, center chest.
The red spot from the laser beam confirmed her assessment.
Hands up, she started across the porch.
She felt fairly confident that he wouldn’t shoot her. No, Rome
ro wanted to savor that duty himself.
Down one step, then two.
Still no sign of Tallant or the other three from Romero’s security team.
Strange.
But then, every damned thing about this investigation had been strange.
Third step. And then the final one to the ground.
She kept an eye on the guard as she approached him.
“Round up your friends and let’s go,” she suggested.
She didn’t have to see his glare, couldn’t since he wore sunglasses, but she could feel his contempt.
“Get in. Rear passenger seat.”
“Whatever you say.”
She walked around him to the passenger side and opened the back door.
“I’m really quite annoyed, Nora.”
She smiled at Romero. “That—” she climbed into the seat next to him “—actually makes me happier than you know.” She closed the door.
Before she could settle into the seat, the back of his hand slammed across her face.
Her cheek and nose stung, eyes watered. But she refused to make even a whimper of distress. She settled into position and stared at him. “You always did enjoy torturing those weaker than you.” The whole getting knocked around thing was getting old.
“Only those who lack the discipline to follow my orders.” He rapped on the window.
The guard posted at the front of the SUV immediately stalked to the driver’s door.
Nora stole a glance at the house. Had Tallant been taken down? If so, where were the three jerks who’d arrived with Romero?
“What’s the status of the others?” Romero asked the man as he slid behind the steering wheel.
“Nonresponsive.”
Hope bloomed in Nora’s chest. Had Tallant managed to take down all three?
“Let’s go,” Romero ordered.
“We dumped your doctor,” Nora said, more to distract him from the windows as the SUV backed toward the road than to give the doc a cover. “Hope you don’t mind.”
Romero shot her a glower. “My staff is fully expendable.”
Nora wondered what his driver thought of that. “Where’s your number one bully, Lott?” It struck her as odd that he hadn’t arrived with Romero. Usually he would have been the one providing his personal security.
