One-Click Buy: June 2009 Harlequin Blaze

by Tori Carrington

“That’s what I’ve been afraid of. Can you keep Maddie safe?” Cash asked.

  “I’ve put extra men on it. I want to send my brother out to Santa Fe to play back-up on your end.”

  There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line. “That might be a good idea.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Jase said and disconnected.

  “I’ll handle the background checks.” Dino got to his feet.

  “I’ll book my flight,” D.C. said.

  Maddie wanted to feel relief but Jase merely frowned at the phone. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “The cowboy,” Jase said. “He agreed pretty easily to the back-up. My impression before was that he thinks he can handle pretty much everything.”

  “That would describe Cash in a nutshell. He’s a lot like my father was.”

  Jase met her eyes. “I’m thinking that something has happened that Cash and Jordan haven’t shared with us yet.”

  11

  WHEN THEY LEFT the office, Jase bypassed the elevator and opted for the stairs. Her borrowed sneakers helped Maddie keep pace with him. At ground level, he steered her to an exit door that opened onto an alleyway.

  The scents of beer, human sweat and ripe garbage assaulted her senses. “I see we’re taking the scenic route back to the apartment.”

  “We’re not going back to the apartment.”

  “I really need to change my clothes.”

  “We’ll buy something.” At the end of the alley, he drew her with him toward the nearest corner. “For the time being, I’m not letting you go anywhere near that place. Whoever is behind this has to know you’re staying there. And they also know who I am and where I work. This time we’re not going to give anyone the opportunity to tail us—or to know where we’re staying.”

  The light changed and they crossed the street.

  “So your cover of acting as my brand-new lover probably didn’t fool the killer.”

  “It didn’t have to. The hit had to have been set up before we got to the store. It might have been arranged as soon as Jordan told them when your first day at Eva Ware Designs would be. This way.” He drew her with him into a coffee shop on the corner.

  At three-thirty in the afternoon, the lunch crowd had thinned. A black woman in a deep purple waitress’s uniform was leaning over the counter, flipping through a newspaper.

  “Edie,” Jase said when he reached it.

  The woman straightened and her face lit up. “Long time no see, sweet cakes. I missed you.”

  “I’ve been working an out-of-town case for a couple of weeks. Just got back.” Jase circled behind the counter, gripped her shoulders and kissed her cheek. “I missed you too.”

  “Go on now. You missed my apple pie.”

  Maddie could have sworn that the woman was blushing. And Jase…well, it was the first time since they’d left the park that she’d seen the easygoing Jase Campbell. She wasn’t sure which side of the man fascinated her most.

  Jase grinned. “That too.”

  “Sit down. I’ll fix you a piece.”

  “No time. I just stopped in to say hi.” He slipped a folded bill into the pocket of her uniform. “I need to use your back entrance.”

  Edie glanced at Maddie, then back to Jase. She waved her hands in a shooing motion. “You’re working another case. Go ahead.”

  At the swinging doors to the kitchen, Jase paused and looked over his shoulder. “If anyone comes in and asks, the lady and I are—”

  “Using the facilities,” Edie finished. “I know—the usual cloak-and-dagger stuff. I’ll save you that piece of pie.”

  A few of the people working in the kitchen smiled or waved at Jase as they headed toward the back door.

  “Get followed a lot, do you?” Maddie asked as they exited.

  “Now and then.”

  She noted that the moment they left the coffee shop, Jase was back in security mode. After cutting through another alley, he crossed to the edge of the sidewalk and hailed a cab. Once inside, he leaned forward and said, “The Donatello.”

  Five minutes later, Maddie found herself walking into one of the most luxurious hotels she’d ever seen—except in the movies. Couches and chairs offered spacious seating to guests in the lobby, and the soft sounds of a Mozart string quartet could be heard beneath the muted conversations.

  They passed an array of shop windows displaying high-end clothes and jewelry. Everywhere she looked, mahogany shone and brass gleamed. Three crystal chandeliers hung from a carved ceiling, and a vase of fresh flowers as tall as a Christmas tree graced a marble-topped table.

  When they arrived at the registration desk, a young woman wearing a black suit with a nametag that read Jessie beamed them a smile.

  “I’d like to speak to Mr. Benson,” Jase said.

  “Certainly, sir.” She disappeared through a door and a few minutes later a man of medium height with dark hair and a perfectly trimmed mustache stepped out of the same door. He wore the black suit that seemed to be the uniform of the hotel staff and the same nametag. His read Louie. The moment he saw Jase, Maddie noted that the serious expression on his face lightened just a bit.

  He bowed slightly when he reached the counter. “Mr. Campbell, welcome to the Donatello.”

  Jase leaned forward. “Louie, I need a favor.”

  “Certainly, sir.”

  “I need a room for a few days. The lady here is in a bit of a jam, and I need a place to keep her on the q.t.”

  His expression still perfectly serious, Louie Benson raised one eyebrow. “You’re using the Donatello as a safe house?”

  Maddie detected a slight note of horror in his tone.

  “So to speak,” Jake said. “And I can’t use a credit card. It’s too easy to trace them. You’ll have to bill my office.”

  “Very well.” Louie typed rapidly into a computer and within seconds tucked a plastic key into a folder and passed it to Jase. “Your suite is on the top floor. You access it by taking the private elevator down the corridor to your left. Press the button for the penthouse.”

  Jase nodded toward the row of shops. “Can you make some credit arrangement with the shops? I’ll have to get her some clothes.”

  “No problem,” Louie said. “I’ll tell them to put any purchases on your bill.”

  Jase smiled at him. “Thanks, Louie.”

  “No.” Louie’s smile was thin, but it reached his eyes. “Thank you, sir.”

  “How did you do that?” Maddie whispered as they moved down the short hallway to the private elevator.

  “What?”

  “Get us a room in this hotel with no reservation. We don’t even have any luggage.”

  “I know,” he said on a sigh. “There goes my reputation.”

  Maddie couldn’t prevent a laugh. “I’m serious.”

  Jase punched the elevator button. “I did a favor for Louie about six months ago. Someone was stealing from the guests by breaking into the in-room safes. The police had been called in twice and everyone was being discreet. But if the thefts had continued, it was bound to get into the papers, and the reputation of the Donatello would have been irreparably damaged. Louie called my office and asked me to solve the problem. I did. The thief turned out to be one of the hotel detectives.”

  The elevator doors slid open, and they stepped through them. The three walls were lined with mirrors. As the car began its ascent, it was suddenly very quiet, and the air seemed closer. No Mozart, no chatter of guests. For the first time since they’d left Jase’s office, Maddie let herself think about the fact that she and Jase would be alone once they reached the suite.

  She could see Jase reflected endlessly in the mirrors. Perhaps that was why he seemed to fill the space. He was leaning against the brass rail on the wall across from her. He’d been easy and relaxed when he’d been talking to Louie, but he wasn’t now. There was tension in his jaw, in his shoulders, and the knuckles of one hand showed white where he gripped the railing. The fact that his face looked a
bit battered from their encounter with the hit woman made him look tougher and sexy as hell.

  In the back wall of the elevator, she could see the profile of that lean face and the length of that rangy, male body. A body that she had touched. A body that she could touch again. All she had to do was take a few steps to close the distance between them and she could slip her arms around him, run her hands over those taut muscles and feel his heart pound against hers.

  Her bones were already in meltdown when she met his eyes. What she saw stopped her breathing. She was trembling, aroused by the fantasy she’d spun—and by the man.

  It was shocking how much she wanted to make love with him. Terrifying. In her mind she’d always been practical, cautious. She should be worried that her life was in danger—that her sister’s life might be in danger too. But right now all she could think of was making love with Jase again. It was as if she was a totally different woman with Jase Campbell.

  Worse yet, she had no desire to return to what she’d been before she met him. What she wanted was for him to touch her again, really touch her. To feel his hands skimming over her naked flesh, making it burn, taking her to a place where there were only the two of them. Only the now.

  “Maddie?”

  His voice was hoarse, raw.

  Her throat went dry. “Yes?”

  “I promised myself that when we got to the room, I would let you sleep. I’m not going to do that. The moment we get to the room, I’m going to make love to you.”

  Maddie wondered if her heart had actually stopped. Somehow she found her voice. “Why do we have to wait until we get to the room?”

  He moved then, very quickly, first to punch the button that stopped the elevator between floors. As the car jerked to a halt, Maddie felt her heart skip a beat. Then he trapped her against the wall. And at last, his body was pressed against hers.

  A scorching wave moved through her. Everything about him was so hard—his hands, his chest, the angle of his hip, even the long length of his thigh as it moved between hers. She arched helplessly against him.

  His mouth hovered a breath away from hers. “I was going to bring you here for lunch. You looked so tired. Instead, I took you to the park. I told myself it was so I could keep my hands off you.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and threaded her fingers into his hair. “That didn’t work out.”

  “No. I can’t stop wanting you.”

  “Same here.”

  “I have to figure this out.”

  “Me too.”

  “Later.” They spoke the word in unison.

  He brushed his mouth over hers, drawing back just enough to nip her bottom lip before sliding his tongue between her lips.

  She arched helplessly against him. Even his mouth had grown harder, more demanding, as if he believed that there was some flavor that he had yet to discover.

  And all the while his hands, his clever, ruthless hands were moving over her, pressing, molding, claiming. When those lean fingers slipped beneath the hem of her skirt and pushed it up, flames seared her nerve endings.

  Still gripping her waist, he sank to his knees, slipped her panties down her legs and tossed them aside. In her peripheral vision, Maddie saw the white lace arc before settling on the floor of the elevator. The sight had a hot thrill shooting through her.

  To steady herself, Maddie wrapped both of her hands around the brass rail as he eased her thighs farther apart. With his thumbs, he separated her folds, then he began to use his mouth on her.

  She was sinking, drowning in a storm of sensations, each one more erotic that the last—the soft texture of his tongue, the scrape of his teeth. First she burned, then she shivered.

  And still she wanted more. Widening her stance, she arched her hips to give him more access. His fingers dug into her buttocks at the same instant that his tongue pierced deeply into her.

  He knew exactly when her orgasm began, and when she peaked he heard her cry his name. The sound urged him to send her flying again. And again.

  When she went limp and lost her grip on the handrail, he caught her and guided her to the floor. Need battered him as quick and hot as lightning flashes. His fingers fumbled as he tore his belt free and lowered his jeans. Then he moved over her and drove into her.

  The sharp stab of pleasure nearly stopped his heart. For a moment he held himself still, wanting the moment to last. But when she wrapped arms and legs around him, when she opened her eyes and met his, she filled his vision, his mind, his world. Together they began to move, quickly, desperately.

  “More.”

  Had he said the word? Had she?

  All he knew was that there was more. Impossibly more. The single word became a drumbeat in his head as he drove her, drove them both higher and higher until they reached the peak together and shattered.

  LAYER BY LAYER, Jase’s mind found its way back to reality. The scents were the first to penetrate—body heat—a mix of his and hers and sex. His mouth was at her throat, the memory of her taste still haunting him. Beneath him, her heart beat fast. One of his hands was tangled in her hair though he had no clear recollection of how it had gotten there.

  It had all happened so fast.

  Opening his eyes, Jase confirmed what he already knew to be true. He’d just made love to Maddie Farrell in an elevator at the Donatello. And he was still sprawled on top of her. In spite of that, he didn’t seem to have the will to move.

  With great effort, he managed to lift his head. Her eyes were open, her face flushed and her mouth still moist and swollen. In his peripheral vision, he could see their reflections in the mirrored wall. Their clothes were in disarray, their hair wildly mussed. They each looked as if they’d just survived some kind of natural disaster. Barely.

  He plucked a twig out of her hair. He hadn’t been gentle with her—not here and certainly not when he’d shoved her against that boulder in the park. He frowned. “I was rough with you. Are you all right?”

  “Better than all right.” She studied him for a moment. “I’m a lot tougher than I look.”

  “Yeah.” He thought of how she’d clocked the hit woman with that tree branch—and how she’d knocked him on his ass earlier that day.

  Earlier that day? It seemed impossible that he’d known her for less than twenty-four hours. So much had happened.

  “How about you?” she asked. “Are you all right?”

  Something in her tone finally eased the knot of guilt that had tightened inside him. “Much better than all right.” He grinned down at her. “I haven’t done anything like this since I was sixteen.” And he’d been a randy teenager then.

  “I’ve never done anything quite like this—ever.”

  “Good.” He didn’t want to imagine her making love in semi-public places with anyone but him.

  Her eyes widened. “You’re…”

  “Yeah.” Incredibly, he could feel himself growing hard inside her again. Experimentally, he rocked into her and watched her eyes cloud.

  “Jase.”

  The word was half question, half demand.

  With a groan, Jase eased himself up to his knees. First he did his best to rearrange her rumpled clothes. Then he managed to pull up his jeans. Finally, he got to his feet and helped her up. “I think we’d better take act two to our suite. Louie might decide that the elevator has malfunctioned and if anyone sees us like this, he might not ever do me a favor again.”

  He shoved a button, and the elevator began to climb.

  MADDIE WOKE to the sound of rain, the hard, pounding kind that often produced flash floods at the ranch. She was going to use it as an excuse to spend an extra hour in bed before she went to her studio. Burrowing more deeply into her pillow, she tried to slip back into her dream.

  But the scent was all wrong. It wasn’t the lavender from the fabric softener she used on her sheets, it was stronger, male.

  Jase.

  Opening her eyes, she sat straight up and found herself in the middle of a bed. Alone.
The covers were tucked neatly around her. The last she recalled the bedding had been rumpled, some of it on the floor.

  Come to think of it, she and Jase had been on the floor too. Using both fists, she rubbed sleep out of her eyes and tried to clear the fuzziness out of her brain. Then she looked down at the bed again. He must have tucked her in. Something inside her softened at the sweetness of the gesture.

  How long had she been out? She was reassured when she spotted a sliver of sunlight sneaking through the drawn drapes. That’s when she realized that what she’d mistaken for rain was the sound of the shower in the next room. The last thing she remembered, Jase had been on his cell phone, first with Dino and after that, she was pretty sure he’d talked to someone about who might have fenced the jewels. That was when she must have shut down.

  A double-toned chime sounded.

  Not Jase’s cell, she decided, glancing at the small table near the bed where he’d left it.

  The chime sounded again.

  Maddie crawled from beneath the covers and reached for the hotel robe Jase had thoughtfully left on the foot of the bed.

  When she reached the door to the suite, she used the peep hole. On the other side was a tall woman in her late thirties wearing a black suit. Her long dark hair was curly, and she reminded Maddie of Julia Louis-Dreyfus from Seinfeld.

  “Yes?” Maddie said.

  “I’m Sabrina Michaels and I’m delivering some packages Mr. Campbell ordered from the shops at the Donatello.”

  Maddie opened the door and took the bags.

  Sabrina smiled at her. “If there’s any problem with the selections, just let me know. Mr. Campbell was pretty specific with his requests, but I can certainly bring up more for you to look at. You can reach me through the hotel operator.”

  As soon as she shut the door, Maddie couldn’t resist. Jase was still in the shower, and she didn’t want to wait. She carried the bags further into the main room of the suite, and set them on one of the long glass-topped coffee tables. Jase had been pretty specific with his requests, Sabrina had said. That must have been after she’d fallen asleep.

  In the first bag she found a pair of jeans and a short-sleeved blue chambray shirt that Jase had evidently ordered for himself. Beneath those, she found a black scarf and a pair of sunglasses. For disguise purposes? Setting the first bag aside, she lifted a pair of cream-colored strappy sandals out of the second one. Unable to resist, she ran one finger over the buttery soft leather and sighed. The heels were only half as high as those on Jordan’s blue shoes, but they were still very stylish. And she was dead certain they’d be easier to walk around Manhattan in. At least for her.