by Mimi Barbour
He turned in time to catch it, and his expression hardened.
“I’ll be at your place tomorrow morning to pick you up. Pack, because we’re going on a trip. I mean it, Crystal. You know I won’t leave this alone. If you won’t let me protect you in Vegas, then we’re leaving town. I’ll be there first thing. You have my card. And if you need me for any reason at all tonight, you call, and I’ll be minutes away. Got it?” He whispered to the back of her head. “Please call me, Crystal. I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to you because you helped a friend in need. Promise me.” His voice resonated with an honest passion she had no power against.
“I’ll think about it,” she muttered, but still kept her head turned away from him. She stared down at her hands scrunched together.
He waited. She’d turn to him soon. He silently demanded it.
She didn’t.
He sighed loudly, and repeated, “In the morning. Early!” He left, closing the door with an audible snap behind him.
Before she sat down she let out the breath she’d locked in her throat. God, he was hard to resist. She’d never found it this tough before. From the time she’d promised herself that no man would mean more than a good friend, she’d never questioned that decision until today. Could any man have enough sensitivity to understand her foibles, love her anyway, and respect her heart’s rash choices? She couldn’t take the chance.
The knocking on the door heralded Joey. His one-two, one-two-three let her know to open up for her boss.
“Hey, Joey. How did you like the show tonight? I thought it went pretty well, especially with a full house.”
“Missy! What the hell have you gotten yourself into now? I can’t leave you alone for two minutes, and you get in trouble. How many times I tell you—keep a low profile. Huh? It’s for your own good...”
“Hold it! What are you talking about? I haven’t done anything wrong. What’re you yelling for?”
“Arnie! That’s what! He found out it was you in the alley last night. You, with a bat, for Christ’s sake! What were ya thinking of?”
“Quit screaming at me, and back off.” In his fury, Joey had advanced towards her, and she’d run out of room. She pushed against his fancy pink sports jacket. He stumbled backwards, out of her personal space. “You were beating the hell out of some guy, three of you! That’s fair? You should be ashamed, all of you.”
“The only shame I can think of is how your boyfriend Ash Parks is gonna look after Arnie gets through with him.”
“What are you talking about? He never hit Arnie. I did.”
“Yeah, well, Arnie came to me after he’d found out who the culprit was, and I talked him outta hurting you. Told him the boss would kill him if he touched a hair on the head of our newest star attraction, but he’s so mad, he’s decided if he can’t hurt you, he’ll settle for killin’ Parks.”
“My God, Joey, you have to stop him! Talk to him.”
“I’ve talked till I’m blue in the face. There’s no getting through to the stubborn, freaky moron. He’s got a one-track mind, and it’s on revenge—pure and simple. I can’t warn Ash, but you can. If Arnie sees me going over there or talking to Parks, I’m as good as dead myself. You call him and warn him. Talk him into skipping town until the idiot calms down.”
“He won’t go unless I go with him. He came earlier. Wanted me to leave with him tomorrow morning. Said he’d be picking me up, and whether or not I ‘want’ to go didn’t appear to matter at all.”
“Aw! No! Not you! You can’t leave...”
“I’ll have to take time off, or he won’t go anywhere. He feels responsible for what happened, and he’ll never leave me alone here with Arnie.”
“What about me? What’ll I tell the boss? Dammit, what about the act?”
“You can stuff the act. There’ll be no act ever again if anything or anyone hurts Ash. You got that?!” She struck quickly. Her hands wringing his tie choked him, emphasising her seriousness. She saw exactly when the look in her eyes convinced him she meant what she said.
“Aw, honey bunch, calm down. We’ll warn him, and he’ll lay low for a while. Things’ll die down, I promise.” He patted her shoulders and tried to extract his twenty-five-dollar silk tie from her clutching fingers.
A man’s dumb answer or a dumb man’s answer, it made no difference. It was the wrong answer! She tightened her hold. “You idiot! Listen closely. I swear! I’ll never work for you again if anything happens to Ash Parks.” The words, spoken slowly and succinctly, got through.
The redness in his features hinted at his discomfort, but the sorrowful look scrawled across his face confirmed his acceptance. She meant business.
“Okay! Okay!” Pathetic defiance, since she knew she had him convinced. They both understood his recent success was due to Crystal for producing her hit show. He recognized talent; he had a nose for it. Joey might come across to some as a weak, unimaginative character, but his street smarts and savvy ways flourished in the high-end job as manager of operations in the hotel. She didn’t like the lowlife mobsters he worked for, but Joey treated her with respect, and that went a long way with her.
She let him go, turned away, and wrapped her hands around opposite arms. Uneasily, he patted her back.
“Remember, I gave you a job when no one else would. Don’tcha forget that. There you were, with one suitcase, a curly blonde ponytail halfway down your back, legs that wouldn’t stop, and a rotten attitude. I helped you then, didn’t I? I found you.”
“Oh, stow it, Joey. I came for a job as a waitress, and you needed a girl for the show. My mistake in dressing in the wrong costume and ending up on stage just happened. Having the microphone jabbed into my face just happened. Me remembering the words to the number just happened. But the audience’s positive reaction was luck, pure and simple.”
“Ya won’t give me any credit for knowing a good thing when I see it? You’re a mean one, right down to your silver-toed slippers, baby. Ya know that?”
“Yeah! Yeah! I’m a meanie, but I’m serious as a tornado, Joey. If you want the Ice Princess to ever again grace your stage, you’d better do everything to keep that man safe.”
“Okay, already! Go away with him. Just keep me in the picture. Is that too much to ask?”
“You got it.” She patted his cheek and pushed him out the door, closing it against his backside. Quickly she opened it again and ordered. “Get security to stop Ash before he leaves, and send him back here. I want him where I can see him until we get out of town.”
“Right!” He grabbed at the mobile phone attached to his belt under his suave jacket and dialled the number. Mumbled words answered, and he replied. “Stop Ash Parks from leaving the building. Tell him to return to Crystal’s dressing room. And let me know where Arnie is. I want someone watching him at all times.”
Crystal’s panicky mind was in turmoil from mixed emotions. But one thing was definitely clear. She needed to keep Ash near her at all costs. It was the only way she’d be assured of his safety. If anything happened to him because of her screwy protective instincts, she’d never forgive herself. Ever!
When he arrived, the pleasure flashing in his shiny-blue sparklers had her hesitating for a minute, but she accepted that the situation had moved out of her hands. Now she had no choice, even if it meant leading him on with false expectations. She’d have to deal with that situation if or when it came up. New priorities overrode her personal space issues. Keeping Ash safe, away from Arnie and unaware that he’d become the intended victim, was foremost. Concern over fostering a wrong impression in his soft head about her sentiments had to come in second.
“I’ve thought things over and decided you’re right. I’ll come with you. I just talked to Joey and told him I was the batboy, and he suggests we get out of town as soon as we can. He figures since Arnie’s close to finding out where I live, he’ll come calling sooner or later. We need to be far away by then.”
“I’m glad you’ve come to your senses. I’d p
retty well decided guarding your hallway would be my plan for tonight, and let me tell you, I didn’t look forward to it one little bit.”
“You’d do that for me?” Her voice turned husky. The widened grey eyes glistened. Her top teeth bit down on her trembly bottom lip. She swallowed and looked away.
His hand reached out to smooth her flyaway curls. “I’d do anything for you, sweet girl.”
Too emotional to reply, she leaned her forehead on his chest, a transfer of control more telling than she knew.
“First, we go to your place to grab Daisy and the gang, plus the rest of your zoo. You can pack a bag, and we’ll go back to my penthouse at the Parks...”
“You wouldn’t mind? About the animals, I mean?” Astonishment rang in her voice. She moved a step back to read his expression, disbelief entwined with hope etched on hers.
“What do you take me for? Of course we have to save them. If Arnie gets into your place, and I have no doubt he will, there’s no knowing what he’d do to the brood. We don’t have a choice, do we? Now there’s a good girl. Organize the stuff you need from here, and let’s move. I’ll have one of my staff cover us during the rescue mission. He can give us a heads-up if Arnie shows his face anywhere near your place.”
The childish kisses she plastered over his face shocked him into freezing, but only for a minute. Not being a total fool, he took advantage of her affectionate display and sealed his lips to hers in earnest. His moaning unravelled her indifference.
She stopped trying to pull away, and held still for him to do what he wanted to her, a first for her. Putting her trust in the actions of another person, especially a male person, had never happened previously.
All the time his lips moved gently, searching for a response, she watched him. His lashes curled on his cheeks, and the pained expression she saw from her rather close vantage point made her sigh. He obviously took that as a sign of enjoyment, as he gathered her more firmly in his arms, and notched up the pressure of his tongue against her closed lips. When he growled with annoyance, she couldn’t help herself. She smiled. It was all the entry he needed. His tongue rubbed against her open lips and stimulated, coaxing hers to meet with his in this playfulness. She had to follow, had to see where he’d lead—curiosity and fascination gripped her almost as tightly as he did.
Oh, God! It was fantastic. When he sucked at her lips, she fell in love with kissing, when he rubbed against her body she fell in love with his maleness, but when he put his hands on her, she fell in love with surrender.
Pliant and willing, she tantalized with her mouth, wanting more. Her eyes drifted shut as her blood congealed to the consistency of jelly. His waist fit her clutching arms perfectly, a hold fated to keep him locked close while her sleeping e-zones came to life.
He tore out of her embrace, breathing hard. “Damn it all to hell, we don’t have time for this right now. I don’t want that ape getting within ten feet of you. We have to leave now. But trust me, sweet baby, we’ll pick up where we left off as soon as I know you’re safe.”
It took a few moments for her heavy, languid eyelids to unplaster themselves from her cheeks. His shaking snapped her out of the groove, and she hurried to do his bidding.
With the Parks security called in to play bodyguards, they cautiously made their way to her apartment, where he collected the paraphernalia for the cats, birds and turtle, and she stuffed a bag for herself. Before the door closed she reached behind it and grabbed her best friend, the slugger, and hefted it under her arm.
Her human protector might have need of her old wooden standby. She wasn’t about to take any chances with that man’s health.
Not as long as those incredible lips were attached to his body.
She needed to keep him safe.
She wanted more of his special brand of magic.
Chapter Six
“What is wrong with you? Why are you being so hard to get along with?” Her temper ignited slowly, even when pushed, but if and when it caught, look out. She could feel the eruption coming.
“I don’t understand why we couldn’t stay at my penthouse. Why you’ve dragged us to this dumpy motel. I don’t like sleeping in bug-infested beds in rundown dumps or dealing with smirky-faced desk clerks. He stared at you as if you were a Dixie cup full of his favourite ice cream, for heaven’s sake.”
“Don’t yell at me.”
“I’m not yelling!” The banging on the inside wall along with the distinct word, “Shaddup!” proved him wrong.
“Sorry!” Sullen and childish, but cute as a choirboy, he made her grin. When he noticed, he had the grace to redden. “I had plans for us, and they sure as hell didn’t include this kind of surroundings. You don’t belong here. I don’t belong here. The guy at the desk thinks you’re a working girl and I’m your john. I don’t like it one bit.”
He went to place his jacket over the chair back, but he stopped abruptly. Instead he threw it on the floor, kicked off his shoes and they flew, one landing by the window and the other on the coffee table. He brushed his hands together, and looked back at her with a pleased smirk on his face.
She groaned, looked upwards, and shook her head slowly back and forth until she noticed his enquiring expression.
She tiptoed over to where he sat morosely on the side of the twin bed, his hands flat on the washed-out mauve satin spread that almost matched the shoddy purple shag rug. “I realize you don’t like it, but I feel safe here.” The small room appeared dismal, reflected in the floor-length, tarnished mirror on the opposite wall from where they sat. But they were safe—away from the Strip and in a place where Arnie would never think to look.
She rubbed her hand up and down his back. Leaning close, breast brushing his arm, she pacified him as best she could. Thoughts of getting those lips of his plastered to hers again bombarded her. She had no talents as a seductress, just the honest needs of a frustrated virgin, plus the reminiscences of the incredible tingling he’d initiated earlier.
To think she had taken special care with her outfit. An angora sweater of the softest rose hue fitted her like a second skin, and her swirling grey maxi skirt snugged her body, showing off the curves most men craved to get their hands on. What the heck was wrong with this man?
He sprang up, and she toppled over, sprawling against the mattress. She groaned, and the satin spread creased in her clutching hands.
His gritty voice sounded choked, and his caustic tone deflated her hopes. “You’d better get some sleep. I’ll stay up and watch to make sure no one sneaks up on us. I’ve decided that tomorrow we drop the pets off at Rhett’s house for his housekeeper to look after. Then we catch the first flight to where he and Carrie are visiting her grandparents. It’s as good a place to hide as any.”
“Where does her family live?”
“A small place in England, called Bury. You’ll love it. There’s an old vicarage there I must show you.”
She interrupted him. “Will your brother be able to help us stop Arnie?”
“He’ll try, but I don’t know as how anyone can stop the freak. Until he does something against the law, and he hasn’t so far, he’ll be free to tail us all he wants. That’s why it’s vitally important to get you out of this neighbourhood. Someplace where we can keep you safe—where he’ll never find you. I want you to stay close to me.”
If you’d cooperate, I’d be pretty damn close right now. To clear her mind of those kinds of cravings, she asked, “Is there a safe place in Bury to hole up for a short time?”
“Trust me, I remember the perfect place. Now go to sleep. You’ll need your beauty rest.”
Seeing his pouty face harden into a scowl, she sensed inflexibility. He wouldn’t budge, and she couldn’t beg. The idiot was going to waste a perfectly good night wanting a special setting, whereas all she wanted was his body, and those skillful lips teaching hers.
And to keep him safe, a priority she accepted without question. She sighed deeply. Grabbing a blanket to wrap around herself, she lay on
top of the quilt and closed her eyes. Her pets were all bedded down for the night, tolerating their new lodgings calmly. As long as she stayed in sight, they stayed unruffled.
Her breathing evened out after a few minutes, and she slept, her bat horizontal on the floor beside her.
How he had kept his hands off her, he’d never know. She was the most intriguing mix of “keep your distance” intermingled with “show me” he’d ever run across. He didn’t trust her signals, put them down to fear for her safety, plain and simple, but he could’ve sworn she’d wanted him tonight.
Her blatant need to keep him in sight at all times didn’t fool him into believing she’d developed a sudden crush on him. Rather, it told him she was terrified to be left alone, poor darling. As much as his hands ached to caress her curvy little body, his mind accepted he was all that stood between her and the sick jerk who wanted to kill her. He needed to keep his wits about him and his mitts off her.
The morning couldn’t come soon enough for him. Watching her sleep and not crawling into the bed next to her scored him an ace on his scale of tolerance. The pile of cigarette butts in the ashtray by the end table attested to his stress. Circling smoke wafted around his head as he guarded, while his mind was tortured by images of their bodies entwined.
Blonde strands of silky hair, some nestling around her face while others spread in disarray, shimmered with golden highlights from the feeble light of the small bedside lamp. It illuminated her tempting form. Both birds, free to roam, huddled puffed up on the adjacent pillow, as if protectors of a sleeping beauty. Perfume, the provocative scent he’d noticed before when she’d been near, drifted towards him. The distracting smell reminded him of roses, which brought to mind the unique bush in England where an abundance of multicoloured roses spilled over a quaint old bench.
Her small ringless hand reached towards the edge of the bed as if in readiness, beckoning. She slept, no sounds, no movement, as still as a picture—uncanny. He knew he himself was a roamer in bed, a wiggle-puss, a cover hog, never still. A thought entered his mind, and brought a smile with it. Their mating should prove interesting.
