by Leanne Banks
“I'm confident in my tracking abilities, and I'm confident that Wilhemina will have to use her charge card or withdraw some money from a bank before long. When she does, I'll know it and we'll find her.” He paused. “Worst-case scenario is Ivan comes back before we rein Wilhemina in and I lose his contract. I won't be happy, but I'll survive. If I play things right, I'll do better than survive. He may be the big fish I wanted, but there are others.”
Katie digested his words and wished she could say the same. If her worst-ease scenario happened, she wouldn't get the bonus and it was likely she would lose her job. Her stomach twisted. And what would happen to Jeremy then?
“You're so tense you could give off the same electrical energy as one of those bug zappers. What are you so afraid of?”
“I don't have your options,” she admitted in a low voice. “I don't want to get fired.”
“If you get fired, you can get another job.”
“It may not be that easy,” she said, gnawing her lip.
“You're young, unencumbered, bright, attractive when you ditch the plain-Jane look. The world is at your feet.”
“You're not much older, but you don't act like the world is at your feet.”
His mouth tightened. “I've got more than my history to settle.”
I do too, she thought, but kept her mouth shut. She might be starting to think she could trust Michael, but there was too much at stake to bet on it.
He pulled the car to a stop. “Time to hit it,” he said. “You can have the shower first.”
Her throat tightened at the notion of continued proximity with him. “Thanks,” she managed and nodded.
They walked in silence to Michael's room and Katie felt the knot of tension inside her grow tighter with each passing second. This was ridiculous, she chided herself. Michael wasn't interested in her. It wasn't as if he was going to turn into a raving sex maniac once the lights went out.
You would be so lucky, she heard her mother murmur.
Katie rolled her eyes and took her bag into the bathroom. When she finished bathing, she dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, then headed for the big king-sized bed.
His shirt stripped from his upper body, Michael sat glued in front of a laptop computer. She was momentarily glued to the sight of his bare chest and broad shoulders. She watched him lift his hand to rake it through his dark hair and saw the slight flex of his pees. A strange quiver jiggled through her stomach. The odd sensation caught her off guard, but she quickly pushed it aside.
Be matter-of-fact. As if it's no big deal to share a bed with a man like Michael. “Finding anything?”
“Not a damn thing yet,” he said and turned off the computer wearing an expression of disgust. “Tomorrow we go to Bandera. I'll make some calls to the hotels tonight asking if a woman with a weird cat checked in.”
Katie couldn't hold back a chuckle. “I can't help wondering how Chantal is enjoying her visit to Texas.”
“She's probably so traumatized that Ivan will have to take her to a cat shrink when she gets back to Philadelphia,” Michael muttered, shaking his head. “I know she's a rare breed, but why anyone would want such an ugly pet is beyond me.”
“Ivan looks at everything with a measuring stick of prestige or money.”
He shrugged. “I don't have to like him. I just want his business. I'm taking a shower, then hitting the sack.”
Katie nodded and looked again at the big bed. Another spate of nerves jiggled through her. Brushing aside her silly reservations, she pulled the covers back on one side, slid in, and hugged the edge. She took several deep breaths and the sound of the shower finally lulled her to sleep.
Sometimes later, she awakened to complete darkness and the sense that Michael was in bed beside her. He hadn't crowded her, but she could feel his warmth. She listened quietly and heard the even sound of his breathing.
Her mind sped into hyperdrive. What was he wearing? Was he naked? Was his hair damp from his shower? How could he fall asleep so easily with her in the bed beside him? Should that offend her?
No. That was good.
Katie willed herself to go back to sleep, but her brain was too busy, her skin sensitized. Maybe a different position would help, she thought, and carefully rolled over. She closed her eyes and began to count sheep, but a vision of Michael's chest and sexy, intent eyes crowded out the image of white, fluffy animals.
Sexy.
Katie frowned at the unedited thought. He wasn't sexy. He was single minded and disturbingly perceptive. He could be chivalrous, but he could also be a pain. He was strong, reluctantly dependable. He had allowed her to help the deaf woman. He was sharing his bed and not climbing all over her.
She had slept alone for so many years that she wondered what it would feel like to fall asleep in someone's arms.
She sighed and turned again. She flipped her pillow over to put the cool side to her cheek. Why was her cheek so hot?
She turned over again.
Michael sighed. “What's the problem? You're making more turns than meat on a rotisserie.”
She winced. “Sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you. I'm just not used to sleeping with—” She broke off, not wanting to reveal more.
“Not used to sleeping with anyone,” he knowingly finished for her. “Neither am I.”
“Then how did yon go to sleep so easily?”
“I'm tired.”
“Oh,” Katie said and bit her lip.
“Something on your mind that's keeping you awake?” he asked, shifting in bed.
“Not really,” she said, then asked what had been on her mind all evening. “Why did you punch that man when he hit on me?”
A long pause followed, and the silence between them grew charged. “I didn't think you deserved it. You weren't asking for what he wanted to give.”
“But I was dressed like I was asking,” she said.
“But I knew you weren't asking.”
“Do you often punch people?”
He gave a rough chuckle. “I haven't punched anything in four years, and that was a wall, I broke a damn finger.”
“Why did you punch the wall?”
“Because my partner double-crossed me.”
“Oh, I can see how that might bother you.”
“Yeah, it did.” He paused. “Do you have a ritual?”
She stared into the darkness, wishing she could see more than the outline of his frame. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, do you have a ritual for when you can't go to sleep?”
She thought for a moment. “I read sometimes.”
“Did you bring a book?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then why don't you read?”
“Won't the light bother you?”
“I'll turn away from it.”
She hesitated a second, then grabbed the opportunity. There was no way she was going to fall asleep in the same bed with Michael while she counted sheep. She flicked the light on low and he immediately rolled over. The covers slipped revealing his bare back.
She tore her gaze from his smoothly muscled skin. “Are you sure this won't keep you awake?” she asked, pulling a book from her duffel bag.
“I'm sure,” he said, glancing over his shoulder to look at her. “But I have a favor to ask.”
Her stomach tensed. Was this when he asked her to take off her clothes? “What?”
“Read aloud.”
The simple request surprised her. She cleared her throat. “But what if you don't like what I'm reading?”
“It doesn't matter,” he said with a shrug and rolled over. “Just read in your natural voice. I like your voice.”
He murmured the request in a low, intimate tone that tickled her nerve endings. At the same time, however, he'd rolled over as if he had no intention of, well, doing anything but sleeping.
Trying to push aside her hypersensitivity, Katie flipped open the classic tale of Macbeth and began to read. She continued for several pages, darting a glance at
Michael every now and then. Soon, she began to relax. Pausing, she looked at him and listened. His breathing was even, his chest rose in a peaceful rhythm.
She swallowed a chuckle. Why had she been worried? She hadn't turned Michael into a raving sex maniac. She'd only made him sleep like a baby.
He was as hard as a rock.
Her voice slid through him with a combination of Philadelphia proper and slow easy drawl that affected him like a caress across his groin. He deliberately made his breath even, so she wouldn't know. The woman was about ready to jump out of her skin, let alone his bed.
She was such a contradiction. One minute she was giving up her room to strangers taken in by a scam, the next she was freezing him with a stare so cold a winter in Antarctica would feel balmy.
She'd made him curious. He shouldn't be, didn't have time for it, but she had layers and he wanted to look beneath them. A little searching on the net had told him her mother was Sunny Collins, the mother of Katie and her two sisters. The records had been a little murky, but it appeared Sunny's daughters had been fathered by different men. Sunny had lost custody of two daughters within two days. Michael suspected Sunny had known how to use her feminine wiles to her advantage, or necessity as Katie had said, and Katie had been living that down her entire life.
Katie wasn't exactly what she seemed, starting with her name. He wondered what she would do if he called her Priscilla. With her voice drifting over him, his mind began to wander. Underneath the tough uptilted chin and chilly exterior, she was soft and warm. He wondered how she tasted, what sounds she would make as he slid between her legs.
She made him curious.
And hot.
Michael and Katie visited three popular bars in Bandera, and she quickly grew tired of fending off passes while Michael quizzed the bartenders. She cast a quick hopeful glance in Michael's direction, but he just shook his head. Another dead end. She sighed, and the man dancing with her lifted his hand to her hair.
“What's wrong, sweet thing? If you're tired, I can take you home with me,” he said.
Forcing a smile, which she suspected looked more like a grimace, she shook her head. “No. I was just looking at my boyfriend. I've been trying to talk him into learning to dance, but he refuses.”
The man frowned a second, then chuckled. “Well, I'm disappointed you won't be coming home with me, but maybe I can persuade him to take you for a spin. You think it would help if we made him a little jealous?”
A trickle of panic raced through her and she shook her head. Darn. Wrong move, she thought. “It's nice of you to offer, but there's no use trying. He's just not the jealous type.”
Her dance partner gave her an appreciative once-over. “Well he should be. If he's not careful, someone's liable to steal you away.”
Katie gave an uneasy chuckle. “Oh, that will never—”
Before she could finish, her dance partner planted his lips on hers. Katie stiffened. “What—” she tried to say, but the man pushed his tongue into her mouth. She nearly bit it. “No,” she said, pushing at his shoulders.
“Trust me,” he muttered against her mouth. “Stop struggling. He'll be here any min—”
Katie felt the man abruptly pried away from her. She stumbled backward, instinctively wiping the man's kiss from her lips with the back of her hand. Michael steadied her as he glared at the man. “The lady isn't interested in your advances,” he told the man. “Any fool could see that.”
“Any fool could see she wants to be dancing with you. What's your problem?”
Katie froze as Michael scored her with a questioning gaze. “I-uh-I told him that I wished you—my boyfriend,” she clarified, feeling her cheeks heat. “I told him I wished you would dance with me, but you refused.’
His blue eyes didn't waver from hers and she felt the sizzle of something electric crackle inside her. “I didn't know it was so important to you,” he said in a silky voice that did strange things to her insides. “You should have told me. I'll dance with you,” he said and pulled her into his arms.
“I told you so,” she heard her dance partner say, but then the rest of the room seemed to fade.
“Teach me,” he said in a voice that got under her skin.
She saw something different in his eyes and her breath hitched in her throat. He tugged her against him, and she let him. She lifted her hand to his shoulder while he took her other in his. She was extremely aware of his hand pressing at the small of her back. His gaze didn't waver from hers and she felt a million emotions she'd never felt before.
Another couple brushed against her and she blinked, trying to regain her equilibrium. She shook her head to clear it. “You-uh-move your feet like this,” she said and demonstrated. He followed, catching on quickly. Too quickly.
She searched his face suspiciously. “You've done this before.”
“I was in the military and country music was popular at one of my posts.”
She shook her head again. “I never would have thought it possible. You're just so—” She broke off when she couldn't come up with the right description.
“So what?”
“Anti-fun,” she said when her muddled mind would produce nothing else.
He tilted his head to the side and his eyes held a dangerous glint that made her heart trip. “I haven't had time for fun,” he told her, then whipped her around in a fast twirl.
Surprised, she rushed her steps to keep tripping. “Neither have—”
“Trouble keeping up?” he asked with an arched brow when he dragged her against him.
She inhaled and his scent went straight to her already dizzy mind. “Absolutely not,” she retorted, but her voice was too breathless.
“Okay,” he said and shot her a rare, potent grin. He twirled her again and again, then pulled her back against him
Determined to meet the challenge in his gaze, she clung to his shoulder and let her feet follow the training her mother had drilled into her. She could dance while she was asleep and dreaming, and at the moment she felt as if she were in the middle of a dream.
His hands made her feel warm and secure, his gaze made her giddy. The combination was breathtaking. After everything they'd been through during the last few days, she could almost trust him. She instinctively squeezed his shoulder and wondered what it would be like to be held by him, to be able to rely on him. To not have to be alone. The notion was so tantalizing it nearly blew her circuits.
She'd never considered the possibility of not being alone. It had been too dangerous. She'd never met a man on whom she'd thought she could truly rely. He pulled her against him so that she was flush against his front, soft against hard. The desire to be closer rolled through her like gasoline on fire. Closer, close enough to…She looked into his eyes, and saw his gaze drop to her mouth. Her lips burned as if he'd kissed her. He stopped moving, but her heart was hammering at breakneck speed. Anticipation stole her breath. She waited.
Michael inhaled audibly. He stepped back slightly with a reluctance she could almost taste. He looked at her with an expression of stunned wanting.
Her insides echoed the same emotion.
“The song's, over,” he finally said, breaking the spell.
Katie blinked and noticed he'd dropped his hand from hers, but she was clinging to him. A rush of self-consciousness raced inside her. Her cheeks burning with embarrassment, she pulled her hands away from his as if he were a hot stove. “It is. We should leave, shouldn't we?” She glanced at her watch just to give herself something to do.
Avoiding his gaze; she walked with him out of the bar to the rental car. He opened her door and she slid in. He rounded the vehicle, got in, then started the engine. The silence between them was thick with forbidden possibilities that Katie tried to chase from her mind.
From her peripheral vision, she saw him pull out his cell phone and check his messages. His eyes narrowed and his jaw began to twitch. She couldn't squelch her curiosity.
“Problem?” she asked.
> “Not with this case,” he said.
“Another client?”
He shook his head and narrowed his gaze. “Not with work.” He shot a glance at her and worked his shoulders. “My mother has a medical problem. She sometimes confuses me with my father.”
Katie remembered Wilhemina had told her the story about how Michael's father had ruined the family finances, then committed suicide. “I'm guessing you don't like that,” she ventured.
His mouth tightened. “Considering the fact that he managed to lose millions of dollars, then take a hike into the hereafter because he didn't want to deal with the consequences, he's not my favorite person.”
She nodded slowly. “Not everyone can be strong.”
“But everyone eventually needs to accept responsibility for their actions.”
Katie heard the edge of bitterness in his voice and felt an odd urge to soothe him. “What did she want?”
He paused, then glanced at her. “For me to come see her. No, I meant to say for my father to come see her.”
“How long has it been since you visited her?”
“A month,” he muttered. “Every week I check with the nurse's station at the facility where she stays.” He rubbed the back of his neck. His guilt was tangible.
“She wants to see you.”
“She wants to see my father, and I can't pretend to be him.”
Katie remembered how she'd avoided seeing her own mother after she'd left Texas. She identified with the conflict of his sense of obligation and his desire to avoid any association with his father. “I understand,” she said softly. “If I were you, I think I'd go anywhere but Philadelphia.”
“I did when I was in the service, but running wasn't going to solve my problem.”
Now that she was back in Texas, Katie couldn't disagree with him. She wasn't sure what she'd accomplished by leaving. She only knew she'd been certain she would suffocate if she stayed.
“Did running solve yours?” he asked.
“When I left Texas, I could be someone else. I wasn't known as Sunny Collins's daughter who was bound to turn out just like her mother.”
“So now you're known as Katie Collins with the tight hair and plain clothes. Is that who you really are?”
