Danger and Desire: A Romantic Suspense Anthology

by Kimberly Kincaid

  “I’m sorry for you both.”

  “Thank you for getting my clothes off. Hopefully, that made me a little more bearable.”

  She was standing just out of reach—more closed off and distant than she’d been during their dinner. She had to have questions.

  She gestured toward his chest. “You have a lot of bruises. Some of them look older than others—not just from the fight.”

  He winced. He was going to have to tell her the truth.

  All of it.

  His head was still fuzzy from the drugs but clear enough to know that the repercussions from this conversation would be ugly. He had to tell her not only about his current mission, but what had been happening for the past year as well.

  And then he’d be one more person who’d betrayed her trust.

  All the soft smiles she’d been sharing with him would be gone, and he wouldn’t blame her for a second.

  “Will you answer me something first?” He needed to know. “Why were you at the hotel?”

  She looked a little embarrassed. “I was going to ask you something.”

  “Yeah?” he asked gently. “What’s that?”

  “It’s not important.” She reached over to the nightstand, grabbed the glass of water, and handed it to him. “You should drink. Flush the drugs out of your system.”

  He took the water. Her evasion meant whatever she had been going to ask him was personal. He didn’t push and drank the water instead.

  When he finished, he put down the glass. “You came back to the hotel…”

  “I texted you, but you didn’t answer so I went inside. There were three guys in the lobby who caught my attention—definitely out of place. When I asked the front desk to call your room, they near fell over themselves to eavesdrop.” She began to pace. “I didn’t know what was happening. I realized I didn’t know anything about your meeting here. I thought I might have blown your cover… I ducked into a stairwell and planned to sneak out and let you know there was trouble. But then I heard the fight…”

  Wyatt shifted to ease the ache in his ribs. “Wasn’t much of a fight, more like an ass-kicking.”

  She shrugged. “I heard you, so I came to help. Pepper spray. Palm to the nose. Got you to my car and came back here.”

  Fuck. She made it sound like it was a trip to the grocery store rather than facing down someone who would’ve enjoyed doing horrible things to her. She could’ve died.

  He reached out and grabbed her hand, stopping her movements as she paced. “You saved my life.”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that.”

  “I do. Believe me, I’d be dead or wishing I was by now.”

  He stood slowly, carefully. Everything hurt like a bitch, and he was stiff, but his body followed his commands.

  Nadine stood in front of him with her arms outstretched to catch him if he did a face plant, but they dropped to her side when it became obvious he wasn’t going to need assistance.

  Her eyes dropped, giving his body a once over before she looked away with that sexy little flush in her cheeks. He grabbed his jeans from where they were folded at the foot of the bed and slid them on. He very much liked her looking at his semi-naked body, but these weren’t the circumstances under which he’d imagined it happening.

  “Somebody’s trying to kill you?” she asked. “I assume that means you’re not in town for a meeting?”

  He tilted his head toward the bedroom door, and they walked into the living room, toward the kitchen. He stretched as he went, ignoring pain, concentrating on getting his muscles more limber. “I didn’t want to tell you the truth and put you in danger.”

  “But you weren’t here for a meeting.”

  “No. I got word from a contact who had information about a human trafficking ring. He wanted me to come to Salt Lake City. He’d agreed to give me the info in exchange for helping him disappear—new papers, new identity. By the time I got to Salt Lake City, my contact had been pretty badly wounded.”

  Nadine chewed her lip and whispered, “Keep going.”

  “He had just enough time to give me the hard drive containing info about the ring—and to tell me Linear was being watched—before he died. It wasn’t safe for me to go back there.”

  And damn it, Wyatt wasn’t going to let Bryce’s death be for nothing. The guy hadn’t been the most upstanding of citizens, but he’d died trying to make sure people got out of a human slave ring.

  Nadine didn’t say anything, just walked over and pulled out the leftovers of their pasta primavera. She pointed for him to sit at the table as she warmed it up then put it in front of him.

  He took a bite, though the thought of Bryce’s death had stolen his appetite. He needed nourishment—energy to burn through the rest of the drugs. “The people following him immediately started chasing me. I managed to keep away from them for three days before they ran me off the road not far from Idaho Falls. I got out of the car in time to avoid getting shot, but my car wasn’t that lucky. I hid until they were gone, then made it the rest of the way into town on foot.”

  Her eyes went wide as she sat down next to him at the table. “And you came into that market where I was shopping. Thank goodness I was there. God, what are the chances of that?”

  The pasta tasted like sawdust in his mouth. Shit. “Nadine—”

  “It’s a miracle, plain and simple. You needed me and there I was.” Her smile was so sweet and trusting it damn near broke his heart. “See? I told you.”

  “Told me what?”

  “The universe was working in my favor. It was all meant to be.”

  This was it. He had two choices—keep lying, use her as an asset and end any chance of a relationship, or he could tell her the truth, the whole truth.

  And probably still end any chance of a relationship.

  He had to try. He’d wanted her too badly for too long—and respected her too fucking much—to keep lying to her.

  “Nadine.” He put his fork down and covered her hand with his. “I knew you were going to be at the market. That’s why I went there. I needed to hide with somebody not associated with Linear Tactical. You were the perfect solution. It wasn’t the universe, it was surveillance.”

  Watching the smile fall from her face ripped his guts out. Her hand slid away from his, inch by inch. “Surveillance? I don’t understand…”

  Wyatt took a deep breath. “I’ve been running security surveillance on you for a year. Ever since the situation with Travis Oakley.”

  “What?” She bolted up from the table. “Why? Why would you do that?”

  He reached a hand toward her, but she stepped back. “Chloe was worried about you. She asked Shane to find someone who could make sure you were safe. That you were okay. Shane asked me since I’d already met you.” And was already half in love with you. “You were all the way out here by yourself. Everything that happened was so public. They wanted to make sure you were safe.”

  She looked at him with something akin to horror in her eyes. “And you?”

  “I wanted to know you were safe, too. You’d been through so much already. We weren’t sure if Oakley had some friends who would come after you. I didn’t want you to get hurt again.”

  He’d long since accepted that Chloe’s offer had allowed him to do what he’d desperately desired to do from the beginning—protect Nadine.

  “What did this involve? Cameras? Have you been recording me?” she asked in a tight voice.

  “No, nothing like that.” Wyatt shook his head. “There’s nothing inside the house that infringes on your privacy. My team and I did sweeps of the surrounding area to make sure no one else was keeping tabs on you. It helped that you rarely left the house, to be honest, but that meant having frequent deliveries. We vetted the companies you ordered from, made sure their delivery people were legit. That sort of thing.”

  She stared at him and swallowed several times, then she began to pace again. She was struggling, and he didn’t blame her. It was a lot to work through.
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  “I’m so pathetic.” She looked at the floor, arms wrapped around herself. Her body seemed to turn in on itself like she was trying to make herself smaller. As small as he’d made her feel.

  He was out of his chair in an instant, longing to put his arms around her, dying inside because he knew that wasn’t an option. Might never be an option again.

  “You aren’t pathetic. Don’t say that.”

  A snort. “Right. You’ve been watching me for a year, and I had no idea. That’s not pathetic at all. And that stuff I was saying about the universe…? What a joke.”

  “Can I tell you how I see it?” He gently laid a hand on her shoulder. “I loved looking after you this past year.”

  She rolled her eyes but didn’t pull away. “Right.”

  “If you want to talk about pathetic, then let’s talk about the fact that I was glad Shane and Chloe asked me to head your security detail. More than glad… thrilled. It gave me the excuse to see you as much as I wanted. To know you were safe, that no one was able to hurt you. Combined with the emails we had exchanged, I was part of your life. It meant the world to me.”

  She stared at him like she still wasn’t sure whether she could trust him.

  “That’s how I knew you would be at the market on Monday. You go every week. It’s been my favorite day of the week for months.”

  “Why?”

  “The market has some security cameras, and we hacked into them. Most of the security we’ve done for you has been external—not watching you, but monitoring anyone who would come in contact with you. But not the market. Because of the cameras, I could see you every Monday. Could see you walk through and pick your lovely flowers and all your fruits and vegetables.”

  “You watched me?”

  “Every Monday. Even had a damn app made so I could watch the footage on my phone no matter where I was in the world. I never missed a week. So if we’re going to talk about pathetic, I think we should start with me.”

  Chapter 7

  He watched her.

  Her face was hot. She could even feel it in her eyelids every time she blinked. The emotions coursed through her too quickly for her to get a handle on them. Embarrassment? Rage?

  And under it all… pleasure?

  He’d watched her every week for a year. Set it up so he could watch her from anywhere in the world.

  “You think I’m a stalker, don’t you?” His voice was hesitant, his hand still on her shoulder, although she had no doubt it would fall away at the slightest pull from her.

  “No. Setting up security for me sounds exactly like Chloe, so I’m not surprised.”

  No wonder Chloe had gotten so quiet and weird on the phone whenever they talked about Wyatt. Chloe had known how much Wyatt already knew about her. Might’ve known he watched her each week at the Fresh Market.

  She and Chloe would definitely have some words soon.

  But the other part… Was that true? She stepped back from Wyatt’s hand on her shoulder. “You know you don’t have to lie to me. Not about the security, I know you’re telling the truth about that. But you don’t have to lie about seeing me on the market security footage being the best part of your week.”

  “Why would I lie about that?”

  She looked down at her feet. “To make it all easier to swallow. To make me think you care about me more than you actually do…” She looked up at him. “To make it so I’ll help you in this situation you’re in now.”

  He gave a brief nod. “Concern that you’re being manipulated, given everything I’ve told you is more than fair. But I’m not lying. If anything, if I were going to lie, it would be smarter for me not to have mentioned that.”

  Maybe. But, God, she’d been such an idiot going on and on about how the universe had thrown them together.

  She shook her head and walked into the kitchen. She filled the teakettle without thinking, set it on the stove to boil, and stared at the wall as she waited.

  “Nadine…” His voice came from a few steps behind her. “Talk to me.”

  “You have to think I’m an idiot. You have to.” How could he not? “That I didn’t learn anything at all by what had happened with Travis. He used me to try to kidnap and kill my best friend, and I was too stupid to see it. And I was just as trusting with you.”

  “It’s not like that—”

  “Isn’t it? I believe that you don’t want to do anything bad to me, but I’m still as gullible and trusting as I was a year ago. I still believe any man who pays the least bit of attention to me, no matter what lies he tells. I’m like a pathetic lap dog.”

  The kettle screamed the way she wanted to. She’d barely gotten it over to a different burner before Wyatt had both hands on her shoulder, turning her toward him.

  “I’m not going to stand by while you say that ridiculous shit about yourself. If you want to be angry because I brought danger right to your doorstep, that’s fine. Let me have it. You could’ve gotten seriously hurt, or worse, at that hotel yesterday. But you will not talk down about yourself in that way. Not in front of me.”

  She could feel the strength of his fingers in her shoulders. They matched the intensity of his words.

  Intensity about his feelings for her.

  But could she really believe him? “Were the emails over the past few months part of the security? Was it all because Chloe hired you? Sympathy words to help me get through all this?”

  He made a strangled sort of noise. “No, our communication over the last year had nothing to do with the security detail. I would’ve been messaging you as often as possible, even if I had no professional reason to be near you.”

  She nodded then turned and poured the water into her mug. She still wasn’t completely sure.

  “I volunteered for your security detail. Shane contacted Zac to see who at Linear was available. As soon as I heard, I volunteered. I wanted to be the one to keep you safe. There was no way in hell I was leaving that to someone else.”

  He paced over to the other side of the kitchen. She’d never seen him look so frustrated.

  “I’ve kept my distance for a year. I wanted to ask you out. I wanted to come here and take you where you wanted to go for a date, but I couldn’t. Not while there was that secret between us. But don’t you dare doubt that you’ve been in my thoughts every damn day. And that’s the absolute honest truth.”

  Her eyes grew round. There could be no doubting the sincerity of his words.

  He rubbed the back of his neck, bowing his head a little. “God, I sound more like a damn stalker with every word I say, don’t I? I’m trying to make things better, and I’m only making them worse.”

  “You’re not making things worse…”

  “I’m not?”

  “It’s actually sort of nice, knowing that you wanted to focus your attention on me. I mean, let’s look at my history. My last boyfriend used me to get information about my best friend before he kidnapped her. Hell, my own mother didn’t care enough about me to get off drugs. That’s how I met Chloe in the foster system. So, it’s a pleasant change, knowing somebody was looking out for me.”

  He edged his way closer to her, and she didn’t move away this time. “You know what I would like? If I could take you to Oak Creek sometime to meet my brothers, the Linear Tactical guys. That’s what they are to me, my brothers, in every way but blood. I want to introduce you to my family too, but it would mean just as much to me to introduce you to them.”

  She stiffened and set her mug down on the counter. “Wyatt, you really don’t need to sweet-talk me. Thank you for looking out for my safety, but I release you from that. I’ll have a talk with Chloe and Shane and make sure they know the security detail needs to end. I’ll still help you with whatever is going on now. I’m assuming you need to get to Oak Creek?”

  He ran a hand through his thick brown hair. “Yes, I do. I was warned the people looking for me are already watching Linear Tactical, so it’s going to be tricky.”

  “I know you’ll fi
gure it out,” she said softly. “I don’t want you to think you have to be nice to me to get me to help you—”

  He grabbed her by the waist and pulled her close, his face mere inches from hers. “I’m not sweet-talking you or letting you down easy. Yes, please and thank you, I need your help. But what I’m saying to you is not about that. I’ve wanted to take you to meet my Linear Tactical family for a long time, but I wanted you to be ready first.”

  “Okay.”

  He growled softly. “You’re allowed to be mad at me for how I’ve handled this. I fucked up, and I’m sorry.”

  She squeaked as he pulled her closer, every inch of his hard muscle against her much softer curves.

  “What you aren’t allowed to do,” he continued in a deeper voice than before, “is think I don’t want you. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

  Her heart pounded against her ribs, almost painfully, fast enough to make her dizzy. Or maybe that had something to do with his hands keeping her pressed against him.

  “Really?” she whispered, almost afraid to hope it was true.

  “Really. You’re the only thing I’ve been able to think about for almost a year. You’ve been on my mind ever since I met you in the hospital. You were so brave and strong, even in the middle of everything Travis did to you. God, I can’t imagine how you must’ve felt. Still, you held it together. I couldn’t forget you.”

  If only it was true. Why was she so reluctant to believe him?

  His touch was real. His nearness was real. Why couldn’t she get out of her own way and accept what he said as the truth?

  Maybe it was all wrong and would ruin the moment, but she had to know. “How can you feel that way after knowing how stupid and gullible I was with Travis? I let him use me. I was blind for ages. And then, because I was too stupid to see who he was, somebody I loved ended up in danger. How can you look at me and know that and mean anything you’ve said?”

  His thumb and finger hooked under her chin, lifting her face to him. “You’re a trusting person. That’s not the same as being stupid or gullible. You want to believe the best in people because you have an amazing heart. That’s something I’ve learned about you this year, a little bit more with every message, and I’m so glad I did.”