by Lora Leigh
"Only if I gave you the chance." He didn't smile but he stared at her with hunger. A somber, dark hunger that had her stomach clenching in answering need.
"Would you like to join me?" She waved her hand to the three empty chairs. "My uncle should be here momentarily. I've chosen the most gorgeous little villa outside of town. A lovely white and red stucco with an outdoor pool and wraparound balcony. One side of the property is even bordered with a ten-foot handplaced stone fence."
His eyes narrowed on her. Of course she had picked the villa next to Diego Fuentes's, and Ian's. Did he believe she was going to make this easy for him?
His lips thinned as she smiled back with subtle satisfaction.
"No. But you can join me." He gripped her arm with the pretense of helping her from her chair before pulling her along with him into the reception room of the restaurant. From there, he led her to a hallway at the far end of the room and then to an unmarked door that he unlocked, opened. He pushed her into the darkened room.
Kira found herself flat against the wall, the door slamming closed behind them, even as Ian's lips captured hers in a kiss that curled her toenails.
This was what she needed.
Her arms wrapped around his broad shoulders as he lifted her to him. Her breasts pressed against his chest, became swollen and sensitive, desperate for his touch.
When had she become so addicted to him? When had his touch become the focal point of all her fantasies and hungers?
Surely it had happened before Atlanta? One stolen night of sexual frustration couldn't have developed over nearly a year to this burning hunger? Or had it? Perhaps it was a product of years of meeting him in the heart of danger, their eyes connecting, knowing he knew who she was each time, seeing the recognition in his gaze, in the slight tilt of his head in acknowledgment. So many years of it. Meetings in the dead of night, bullets blazing, nothing mattering but the success of the mission and the lives at risk.
And each time, her fascination for him had grown. Grown until she had researched him, tracked him, accepted assignments that were almost guaranteed to be supported by the team he fought with. Because he fascinated her. Because he had known her in all her disguises when no one else had.
What else did he know about her?
He knew how to stroke his tongue against hers and fracture her thoughts. How to grip her hips and pin them against the hard ridge of his cock, and how to make her long to ride it.
"What the hell are you still doing here?" he groaned as his lips slid from hers to nip at her jaw, then her collarbone. "I told you to get out of Aruba."
"Go with me," she panted, arching closer, holding him to her. "We could find a beach. Lots of sun and sand. Make love all day."
He stilled and she felt her breath hitch in agony. He was going to let her go again. She knew he was.
"Kira, you're killing me." He sighed against her shoulder a second before he tasted her skin with his tongue. "You're playing with fire, baby, and you know it. This is no place for you."
"I can help you." She didn't have a choice. If she hadn't taken the assignment, then it would have been given to someone else. Someone who couldn't have understood the rage he was going to feel when he learned Diego would walk free. She understood. She ached because of it, hated it, and something inside her refused to let him face that alone. She knew, knew what he was doing. And she knew why. She understood why. And she couldn't let him face the realizations and the betrayals alone. His head rolled against her shoulder. His lips pressed tightly to her neck. "You'll distract me. You'll get us both killed. I can't concentrate like this. Sorrell will pick me off like a duck in water. Is that what you want? God!"
He jerked away from her, the lights flipping on, blinding her for precious seconds as he moved away from her. To check the room.
She leaned against the wall and watched as he moved around the office, checked the closet, then dragged his fingers through his hair and faced off with her from the distance of the room.
His brows were lowered, his expression tormented.
"You're not leaving, are you?"
She lifted her shoulders, suddenly uncertain, wondering if the attraction between them wasn't as strong for him as it was for her. She had counted on that. Counted on the fact that he ached for her just as much as she ached for him.
She was as fully trained as he was. If he could get under her skin so easily, surely she was under his as well.
"I won't leave."
"Why?" he bit out. "Why stay where you aren't wanted, Kira?"
Oh, that hurt. A lot. She crossed her arms over her breasts and narrowed her gaze at him, allowing it to flicker to his obvious erection. Her lips curved in a smug smile before her eyes lifted to his.
"I'm not wanted in any way, Ian?"
She hated pushing him. Hated being forced to hide the truth from him. But God help her, Diego Fuentes, and Ian if Diego learned the truth of why Ian was there now.
"How you're wanted doesn't matter," he informed her, his expression turning stony. "What you think you're doing does. You're poking your nose into something you have no business being involved with. Get out while you can."
It was too late to consider walking away. It had been too late the day she realized what Ian's mission was.
"I'm staying."
He breathed out almost wearily, frustration flickering across his expression as he stared back at her.
"Don't get in my way. Hurting you isn't something I want to do or to see happen. But mess with what I'm doing here, and you'll regret it."
He moved toward her, but not to touch her, only to jerk the door open and escort her from the room.
His bodyguards were waiting outside, and behind them stood her bodyguard, Daniel. The sight of them had a grin tugging at her lips. Five men, each wearing expressions of varying degrees of disapproval.
"Goodbye, Kira." Ian nodded to her as he closed the door behind them and moved toward his bodyguards. "I hope your visit in Aruba goes smoothly."
"I'm sure it will," she murmured, a smile touching her lips as she watched him walk away, his men surrounding him, protecting him.
"He's a hard man," Daniel reminded her as he drew close to her and they moved back to the dining area.
"Yes. He is," she agreed, smiling gracefully at a few of the diners she recognized and the waiter who hovered close in case he was needed.
She stopped momentarily to talk to Joseph Fitzhugh and his son Kenneth. The English-born industrialist and his son dabbled in politics occasionally and contributed heavily to several of the charities Kira was involved in.
Thankfully, she had never had to fend off Kenneth's advances, though he was always charming, almost sociable.
She returned to her chair, aware of Daniel taking his place once again at a table behind her and watching her as her uncle, Jason McClane, entered the dining room.
"Kira, sweetheart, the plane finally landed."
Jason stopped in front of the table, accepting the chair the waiter pulled out for him and lowering his massive body into it.
Six and a half feet of pure, powerful muscle and Kira imagined she heard the chair groaning under the burden.
Jason McClane wasn't a small man. He wasn't a subtle man. The Texas native and multinational business owner did everything on a very large scale. Except his work for the Department of Homeland Security.
He was her handler and, in turn, he had his own handler. The Chameleon was actually two people, herself and her uncle. Neither was officially listed with any law enforcement agency, but the information they brought in was invaluable.
"I hear you've chosen a place to play," he teased her, his gray-blue eyes sharp and knowing.
"The Villa de Angelic." She leaned forward as though overly excited over the purchase and the property. She was still trying to regain her equilibrium after being in Ian's arms. "And you're going to love it, Uncle Jason. It's so me." And so very close to Ian.
He chuckled at that. "I've learned to trust
your taste, sweetheart," he announced. "So have you ordered yet?"
"I was waiting for you." Her affection for him wasn't feigned.
"And now I'm here. We'll enjoy our lunch and then check out your Angelic Villa."
That evening, well after the sun had made its stunning exit from the sky in a multihued splendor of brilliance, she and her uncle smuggled her weapons into the newly leased villa and stored them in the false bottom of the locking cedar chest at the foot of the filmy-curtained king-sized bed. But first they had made a complete sweep of the house for electronic bugs.
Kira sighed wearily as she straightened, glanced at the clock on the bedside table, and calculated her chances of catching up with Ian that night at one of the clubs. Considering the amount of time it would take to get ready, they weren't good.
"Daniel will be staying down the hall," Jason told her as he stored the little electronic black wand used to detect the listening devices into a secure section of the overnight bag she kept by her bed.
"Will you be staying in Aruba?" Kira kept her voice soft as she moved to the curtained balcony doors and looked out toward the stone fence that surrounded the Fuentes estate. She could see the upper floor of the villa, and if her source was right, she was staring directly at the window to Ian's bedroom. It was the single most important reason for the acquisition of this particular property.
"I have to fly out day after tomorrow," he told her softly. "I'll take one of the guest rooms and set up the security while you go let yourself be seen tomorrow. I'd be interested to know which players we have gathering here."
"Too many if those I saw in the clubs last night were any indication." She sighed, watching as the bedroom light in the other villa flipped on then seconds later was dark again. "Ian has a bull's-eye on his back, Jase, and if I'm not mistaken several of the players based here believe America would give them a quiet nod of approval if they took him out."
"Ian made the decision himself," Jason pointed out, apparently satisfied that there was nothing compromising in the room, then moved to where she stood by the balcony doors.
"You're fascinated with him," he stated, stopping behind her to grip her shoulders and pull her back against him. She felt his lips at the top of her head and his steady affection surrounding her.
They were each other's rocks, and had been for twenty years now. Their shared past had shaped their shared present and all the choices that had brought him there.
"What would Daddy have thought of him?" she suddenly asked. She hadn't wondered in years what her parents would have thought of anything.
"He would have respected his strength," Jason answered simply. "But he would have worried about it as well. Your man isn't known for his tender ways where women are concerned, sweetie."
No, Ian was known for tying them down, torturing them with demanding caresses and warm spankings. He was known for his sexual demands and his determined lusts. He wasn't known for roses and champagne or poet's verses.
"I'm not exactly known for my tender ways where men are concerned either," she pointed out teasingly.
"No. You're not." There was an edge of sorrow in his voice. "Your father would have gutted me for drawing you into this life and your mother would have never forgiven me."
Kira leaned her head back against his chest and clasped his hands at her shoulders.
"Momma told me once that you were destined to do great things," she told him, remembering how much her tiny mother had adored her overgrown brother. "She loved you as fiercely as she loved me."
And her momma had been taken away from them both. Her momma, her daddy, and the woman her uncle had been engaged to. A terrorist's bomb had killed them while they were on vacation in Greece, though it had been speculated that the bomb had been meant for them. Her father had been as immersed in the covert life as she and Jason were.
"She would have been proud of us," she finally whispered, surprising herself with her introspection.
She had been doing that a lot these past months. Reflecting, thinking, considering the choices she had made, and her life in general.
She was thirty years old. She had a failed marriage behind her and no children. Her marriage to Kane Austin had been the first casualty of her secret life and covert activities.
She had no family but Jason, and so few true friends that at times the loneliness bore down on her.
And lovers? They didn't last long even when she did find time to get involved with a man. She was too intent on partying and playing. They didn't really know her, so they had no idea why the parties, the trips, and the shopping were so damned important.
No one really knew her. Except Jason. And Ian. That part of her that she hadn't even known herself, had only begun learning in the past year, ached with loneliness. Ached for the man who held himself just out of reach.
Ian knew her. Ian had done what no one else had, he had made it a point to learn about her. He knew about her parents, about Jason, but more importantly, he knew who and what she was. He had informed her, his voice filled with amusement the night he slipped into her condo, that he knew her as no one else ever would. And he was right. He knew how to touch her, how to make her heart and her body come alive. And he knew the woman she hid from the world.
Which could be a liability if she thought there were so much as a chance of his turning against the friend who lay so helpless in that damned clinic.
"Where do you go from here?" Jason kissed the top of her head before moving slowly away.
"For now, I wait a bit." She shrugged, turning back to him. "He'll show up."
"You seem certain." His gaze was piercing in the dark.
Kira hid her smile. "I am certain." He was growing as desperate for her as she was for him. She dreamed of nothing else, and sometimes, she thought of nothing else.
"I have a few contacts here," he told her. "Let me know if you need invitations."
"Dozens have already poured into the hotel," she reported. "The flies are converging like a plague."
Jason grimaced. "I was hoping to eat dinner tonight."
Kira widened her eyes innocently. "What did I say?"
"Trouble," he muttered. "That's all you are."
Kira rolled her eyes. She was growing tired of that accusation.
* * *
Six
IAN STOOD AT HIS BEDROOM window, the technologically advanced night-vision goggles sitting securely over his eyes as he stared at the bedroom window in the villa across from him.
He should have been ashamed of himself. Hell, he was using a set of military hardware that even soldiers in the field didn't have yet, to spy on a woman. He watched as Kira leaned her head back against Jason McClane's chest and lifted her hands to clasp the ones at her shoulders. The pose was entirely too intimate, too close. He felt anger twitch the muscle in his cheek as McClane kissed the top of her head and rubbed his cheek against her hair. He knew he wasn't the least impartial when it came to Kira, and possessive instincts he didn't know lived within him were now tightening at his gut.
He wanted to kill McClane for touching her, and that was a bad thing. As the two moved back from the balcony doors, Ian pulled the goggles free of his face and tucked them once again into the wall safe.
The villa the Eventeses had leased for the season had every amenity, right down to personal safes in each bedroom.
Pushing his fingers through his hair, he paced his darkened bedroom, feeling lust edging into desperation as he thought of her, possibly allowing another man to touch her.
He shook his head. He'd watched Kira and her uncle together before, and though there was a surfeit of affection, there seemed to be no sexual tension. But that assurance wasn't easing the tightening in his gut, or in his cock. He knew it wasn't even possible that she would do something like sleep with the bastard. He knew that in his head, but logic could never apply to how he reacted over Kira, especially when another man was around, no matter who that man might be. He wanted to be the only one who touched her.
So why was he waiting? She was over there, accessible to him, and it was more than apparent that she wasn't going anywhere.
But she was a woman.
Ian snorted at that thought. Oh yeah, she was a woman. She was all woman. And Ian couldn't push back the thought that it was his responsibility to protect her, to shelter her. He didn't want her involved in this mess, and yet she seemed determined to immerse herself in it.
So determined that no more than a few months after her own brush with death during that Atlanta assignment, she had been in Nathan's hospital bathroom, lying in wait, eavesdropping on their conversation.
A mocking grin shaped his lips. She had known his visit to Nathan had been arranged. She had said as much. She had guessed all along that this was an operation. But how much of that operation had she guessed?
And now, here she was, poking her nose into the most dangerous assignment he had ever undertaken, for whatever reason.
He needed to know that reason, he realized. He needed to know why she was here and what she wanted. And he needed one more taste of her. Just to see if she was as hot, as sweet, as mind-numbing as he remembered.
He needed his head examined was what he needed.
Ian grimaced as he threw himself into the cushioned chair in the sitting area of his room and stared broodingly at the window that looked out over her villa.
Propping his hand on the arm of the chair, he rubbed at his lips with his finger and glared at the window. That damned woman was nothing but trouble. She was going to make him crazy.
Going to? Hell, she already had made him crazy. He should be in his study going over the supply routes the cartel soldiers used to transport the drugs from the warehouses to the transport ships and cargo planes flying them out.
