No More Mister Nice Guy

by Linda Randall Wisdom

  “Nothing to worry about,” he told her as he snapped on the light. “What we heard was rain coming down. This is our lucky break, since we can count on it washing away most traces of our escape.”

  “Maybe it will erase our trail, but it will also wake them up,” she guessed. “And I can’t imagine they’ll be all that happy about getting wet.” By now, she could hear the rain drumming outside.

  Jed nodded. “They’re going to be even more ticked off when they discover you’re gone.”

  Although the cave was warm, Shelby felt very cold. She wrapped her arms around her body in an effort to get warm, but it didn’t do her any good. Jed noticed and reached into his backpack, pulling out a plaid flannel shirt. He draped it around her.

  “I can’t get warm.” She shook her head, confused by her body’s sudden drop in temperature.

  “Shock,” he explained, wrapping the folds of the shirt around her and helping her put her arms through the long sleeves. He carefully rolled up the cuffs. “You’ve been through a lot. It’s natural for you to feel this way.”

  “No, it’s not,” she protested between chattering teeth. “I’m always in control. I don’t have panic attacks.”

  “Of course, you don’t,” he said soothingly, briskly rubbing her arms. “You’re a very calm person. But then, you don’t get kidnapped every day, either.”

  “Don’t patronize me!” Shelby swatted at him with her hands. She might as well have been batting at a pesky mosquito.

  Instead of answering, Jed pulled her into his arms and allowed his body heat to permeate her skin. He remained silent, just keeping his arms around her, with one hand stroking her hair. Shelby might claim she didn’t want comfort, but he sensed the best thing he could do for her was offer an unthreatening presence. He hated to think what else those bastards had said to her. It was all too easy to guess. He wondered if they knew just how lucky they were to even be alive.

  It wasn’t long before Shelby realized she wanted more than comfort from Jed. A strange heat streaked through her veins as her skin felt his against her, a heat intensifying with each slow stroke of his hand against her back. She felt an urge to feel his hands on her bare skin; she wanted to do the same to him. She stealthily moved against his hand the same way a cat might brush against a human hand in hopes of more.

  The feel of Jed’s hand resting against her bare arm was unbearable. His breath, warm against the back of her neck, sent shock waves to her nerve endings; the rough bristles of his beard electrified her skin. He smelled musky, a healthy tang of sweat coupled with his own scent, which she could have recognized blindfolded.

  She muttered incoherently as she twisted in his lap and began tearing at his T-shirt. She grasped the hem and started pulling it upward.

  “Shelby.” He tried to capture her hands and keep his shirt down.

  “No!” she ordered, successfully pulling his shirt up to his neck. “I need you, Jed. I need you now.”

  “You’re suffering an adrenaline reaction from what’s happened to you,” he tried to explain. “It’s a natural occurrence after what you’ve been through. But the way you’ve been mad at me, you’ll only be angrier later on if you go through with this now.”

  With a strength she had no idea she possessed, she grabbed the back of his head, combing her fingers through the dark, tangled strands. She pulled on his hair until his head bent back. She stared him straight in the eye with a gaze that didn’t waver.

  “Let me put it to you this way. Those men would have killed me sooner or later,” she said succinctly as her other hand fumbled with his jeans’ zipper. “For the past two days I’ve been dragged up a mountain trail that was more rocks and potholes than dirt, threatened with the most disgusting punishments, tied to trees and made to wear a cap that smelled like a skunk that’s been dead for a hundred years!” Her voice rose steadily with her agitation. “I have humongous blisters, my skin feels like old leather, and so help me, Jed Hawkins, if you don’t make love with me at this very moment I won’t be accountable for my actions.” By now, she had his zipper lowered and her hand tucked inside the fly. She practically purred with satisfaction when she discovered he wasn’t wearing underwear. She curled her fingers around his steely heat.

  Jed had no time to reply. He could only react as her hands drew him out and fondled his aroused length and her mouth covered his in an incendiary kiss. Her tongue plunged inside his mouth with the ferocity of a jungle Amazon warrior. This was a woman who was going to take all he could give her—and more.

  Shelby didn’t want the slow, easy lovemaking they’d shared in the past. Her take-charge manner told him she wanted him without any preliminaries and as hot and wild as he was willing to be. Without taking her mouth away from his, she pushed her pajama bottoms down past her knees and kicked them to one side. With the way Jed was seated on the ground, there was no difficulty in her straddling his lap with her legs hooked around his waist.

  “Wait,” he said hoarsely, gripping her waist with fingers that held on to her like steel. “I don’t have anything with me.”

  She rested her forehead against his to better gaze into his eyes. Even in the dark, the gray seemed to shimmer like pewter. “If you think I’m going to stop now, you’ve got another think coming,” she said in a raw voice that vibrated with need. “Besides, I’m on the pill.”

  She slowly lowered herself the rest of the way. When her moist center touched him, Jed was beyond argument. He thrust upward, seating himself inside her with one sure stroke. The moment she felt his heated length slide inside her, she moved with a wild abandon as she sought that pinnacle. Sensing she needed raw power more than gentleness, he thrust upward fast and furiously. She rotated against him in an equally untamed counterpoint, their mouths still fused together and their hands roaming everywhere. Jed propelled his hands under her pajama top to find her breasts. His thumbs flicked her nipples to an aching arousal that shot down through her body, while her hands roamed over his chest as if mapping out every inch of his skin. She raked her fingers over his back as she arched her chest against his. It was as if she was trying to meld her body with his, and with the heat they were generating, it wouldn’t have been implausible.

  In the back of her mind, Shelby realized Jed was as wild for her as she was for him. Their voracious hunger for each other fueled them as they took and gave, until Shelby finally threw back her head, wanting to scream as the convulsions within her body took over. As if fearing she might be overheard, Jed pulled her face back toward him and captured her mouth with his. They swallowed each other’s cries as he pulled her down hard onto his lap while she rotated against him and he thrust upward one last time.

  Shelby could feel moisture filming her skin and could taste the salty dampness on Jed’s shoulder as she sagged against him. Her chest rose and fell as she forced her respiration back to normal. She couldn’t help but notice Jed was having the same problem she was in regaining her breath.

  “If I’d known kidnapping would turn you into a wild woman, I would have carried you off long ago,” Jed said once he found his voice.

  Chapter 6

  “This is not like me,” Shelby murmured. She felt as if all her bones had melted into a thick pool. The last thing she wanted to do was move. If she did, that meant she’d have to face Jed, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for that. She still couldn’t believe she had acted in such an abandoned manner. At the moment she wasn’t sure whether to be embarrassed at her actions or proud of herself for finding that other side of Jed. He wasn’t that self-contained, after all.

  “Do you hear me complaining?” There was no mistaking the amusement in his voice.

  She carefully eased herself off him and reached for her pajama bottoms. In the end, embarrassment won out. She was positive that her face was a bright red and that her blush went all the way to her toes. She was grateful the darkness in the cave covered her heightened color.

  “Shel,” Jed said quietly. “You needed to know you were still ali
ve. It’s a natural reaction. When you face a dangerous situation and get out of it in one piece, you feel the need to reassure yourself you’re still living. I told you that before.”

  “Yes, but that didn’t mean I should practically ravish you,” she muttered.

  “I did my part, too,” he reminded her.

  “It’s just that Meredith’s—” She choked on the name. “All the time they had me I could only think how she was gone and I survived.”

  He instantly realized what had been tormenting her. “Shelby, Meredith isn’t dead.”

  Her head whipped around, her eyes wide with surprise. “What do you mean she’s not dead? I heard her screaming, and when Chris pushed me down the hall I saw her lying on the floor in her bedroom. There was a lot of blood around her head and she wasn’t moving. I didn’t see her face, but I knew she couldn’t be alive.”

  He shook his head. “She might have been dead if someone from the sheriff’s office hadn’t gotten right out there to investigate the alarm. He found her and got her to the hospital pronto. There was so much blood because she had a head wound—they always bleed a lot. I visited her in the hospital before I came after you. She has a concussion and some bruises, but she should be out in a few more days. If anything, she’s furious at the men for kidnapping you.” He smiled. “She told me to get up here and raise some serious hell.”

  Shelby blinked rapidly, holding back her tears of joy. “I was so upset when I thought they had killed her. And I felt horrible because I knew with her gone, no one would have any idea where I was,” she whispered. “Then she was able to give you an idea where they had taken me. That’s how you got up here?”

  “She was unconscious when they took you,” Jed explained. “She didn’t know you were kidnapped until after she came to. I took the logical course and started out at her family’s cabin before tracking you three up here.”

  She looked puzzled. “How could you track me? They were making sure to cover any signs we made along the way. They were furious every time I broke even a grass stem.”

  “They were good at what they did, but I was better,” he said without arrogance. “Besides, it’s easy enough if you know what kind of signs you’re looking for. Some people might have had trouble picking up your trail, but I didn’t.”

  Shelby still couldn’t take in all she was bearing. “But you have no experience out here. Or of doing anything like that.”

  He took a deep breath. “As long as you know which direction is which and find the signs, you don’t need familiarity with an area. It was obvious they were taking you up the mountain, so I looked for their tracks and followed them.”

  “I had no idea you knew anything about the great outdoors,” she continued, still trying to puzzle it all out. “After all, when you travel for my father you spend all your time in large cities.”

  Jed hesitated. “Not always.”

  Shelby started remembering her father saying things like that—a vague answer that actually said nothing. Suspicion flared up as she mentally went over what Jed had just told her. She felt as if she was adding two plus two but wasn’t coming up with four.

  “Then where do you go?” she demanded.

  “Wherever your father needs me,” he said cryptically.

  Shelby couldn’t believe he could look her in the face and lie to her in such a convincing tone. She was positive something had altered her brain cells over the past couple days; what she ordinarily would have regarded as an unqualified truth she now questioned. She knew he was lying. And wondered what else he had lied about.

  “Where have you been for the last three months?”

  “Hong Kong.” He pulled his backpack toward him and rummaged through it. Finding a couple of granola bars, he handed one to her.

  Shelby studied the flavors of each bar and reached for his instead. Jed shrugged and tore off the wrapper on the remaining one.

  “How do I know you were really in Hong Kong?”

  He shot her a lazy smile. “Do you want to see my passport?”

  She refused to give in to a smile that usually had her insides melting. “No, because it’s easy enough to alter a passport. Instead, for once, I want to hear the truth.”

  Jed’s smile disappeared. “I don’t lie to you, Shelby.”

  “Not even by omission?” She felt as if a few pieces of the puzzle might be starting to fall into place. “I feel as if I’ve been lied to all my life, Jed.”

  He bit into his bar and chewed carefully before answering. “Sometimes lies are given because they’re easier to handle than the truth.”

  “Maybe I want to hear the truth.” She bit into her own bar and wrinkled her nose as she energetically chewed. “This tastes like dog food.”

  “It contains all the nutrients a person needs to survive in the wild.” He pulled a second bar out and unwrapped it.

  “That sounds as if you’ve eaten a lot of these.”

  “You know I enjoy a healthy diet,” he replied, easily demolishing it.

  Shelby reached for the canteen and unscrewed the cap. The water was warm and tasted vaguely metallic, but she didn’t care. The moisture was welcome to her dry mouth.

  “So do I, but I prefer my food to not only look real but to have some flavor.” She nibbled on her bar. “Come to think of it, I can’t imagine even a dog eating this.”

  “There are times when you’re grateful for anything edible,” he told her.

  “Such as?”

  He cocked an eyebrow at her seemingly casual question. “When you’re hungry.”

  Shelby thought up several curses she’d like to rain on Jed’s head. Where was the soft-spoken man she had dated and made love with all this time? The man she’d always thought walked like a jungle animal but acted like a pussycat, with the manners of an old-fashioned gentleman and a sex drive guaranteed to send any woman wild? She always thought of him as the best of two worlds. She remembered once hearing a man saying he wanted a woman who was a lady in public and a courtesan in private. Switch the gender and she felt that described Jed perfectly.

  She had told Meredith she wished Jed would lose his control and break out of that shell. She feared he’d done just that.

  “I’m very tired,” she murmured, pulling his flannel shirt closer around her. She edged back to the cave wall and started to lie down, but Jed stopped her.

  “We need to get your feet taken care of,” he told her. “Can’t afford having those blisters get infected.”

  “And I suppose you have a first-aid kit in that bottomless pit of a backpack,” she said sarcastically.

  “It’s always a good idea to have one when you’re out somewhere like this.” He pulled out a metal container and opened it. Within moments, he had bandages, antiseptic, a small bottle of alcohol and gauze pads laid out. He took off one shoe with great care, but she still couldn’t prevent her groan of pain as the raw skin on the ball of her foot met the air.

  Jed winced as he studied the angry-looking flesh. “I’m afraid no matter how careful I am, this is going to hurt,” he warned.

  She gritted her teeth in preparation. “Go for it.”

  Shelby hissed what could have been a curse or a prayer as Jed’s sensitive fingers cleaned the blisters, then covered them with gauze pads and wound a bandage around her foot. After he finished he turned his attention to her other foot.

  “We’re going to have to keep those as clean and dry as possible,” he told her as he rummaged through his backpack again. He pulled out a pair of white socks and handed them to her. “These should help some.”

  Shelby nodded as she slid the heavy cotton over her feet. They were too big but felt like heaven to her abused feet.

  Jed also pulled a metallic blanket out of his backpack and handed it to her.

  She hesitated before taking it from him. “What will you use?” She was not going to suggest they share the blanket.

  “I think I’ll stay awake awhile,” he told her. “I want to make sure we don’t receive any unwan
ted visitors.”

  Her eyes widened in alarm. “Even with the rain?”

  “They’re not going to get you again, Shelby,” he assured her.

  Even in the dim light, she could see how tired he was. “How long have you been back?” she asked softly.

  He shrugged. “A little over two days.”

  “What about sleep?”

  “I’m used to going without sleep.”

  Shelby’s alarm intensified when she saw him pull a gun from the back of his jeans—she couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed it when they made love—and set it down in front of him. He slipped a nasty-looking knife out of his boot and placed it next to the rifle. She gulped. He glanced up and caught her expression. A tiny smile tipped up the corners of his lips.

  “What did you think I’d do if they showed up, sweetheart? Bargain with them for your charms? Tell them they were bad boys, but if they went away quietly, we’d all forget about it?”

  She winced, realizing she could easily have thought just that. “But guns are dangerous,” she said inanely.

  “Only if you don’t know how to use them.”

  Shelby felt as if she had one other tidbit to add to the growing list of details she was compiling on Jed. She clutched the blanket in front of her. “Did I ever know the real you?”

  The soft pain in her voice reached out to Jed, but he forced his feelings back to that dark place deep inside him. She had rejected him once, he reminded himself. If she knew the entire truth, she’d only reject him again.

  “Nowadays a person can’t be too careful,” he said flippantly. “Why don’t you get some rest, Shelby? You’ll feel better in the morning.”

  She curled up in a ball, dragging the blanket over her. “Only if there’s coffee and a hot shower waiting,” she murmured before rolling over, presenting her back to him. “Leave a late wake-up call with the operator, please.”