Lethal Lover Part 8

He was beside her, but she wouldn't face him. "Forget it!" she snapped.

"No notebook. No copies." When he grabbed her arm, she swung around with fire in her eyes.

"Let me go!"

But instead of complying, he tightened his hold. "Listen to me, Tess.

We have to work together."

"No! You listen! I don't have to do anything but try to save my cousin's life."

"Which you won't be able to do without my help," he informed her flatly.

"Oh really?" she snapped back, jerking free of his grasp.

"Well, what if I said I think it was your interference that pooked Selena's abductors tonight and almost got me killed?"

"I'd say you know as well as I do that the whole rendezvous was a setup from the beginning. Believe me, you were a perfect target. If they'd wanted you dead, you would be."

She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of agreeing with him, nor could she say with absolute certainty that she did. Exasperated, she threw up her hands. "Look, all I know is that my cousin's life is in jeopardy and I've got to do everything I can to help her: I don't care two cents for that journal or what's in it. All I care about is finding Selena and getting off this island alive."

"And I can help you do just that, Tess."

"But how? I told you what the kidnapper said--that I was to tell no one and contact no authorities."

"And so far, they have no reason to believe you have. When those bullets started to fly, the limo was already leaving. I doubt they even saw me dragging you into the shadows. I said it before, Tess--if they'd wanted to do anything other than scare you, you wouldn't be here now."

G.o.d, how badly she wanted to believe he understood the situation as well as he appeared to.

"Whoever is holding Selena has a clear plan for how this thing is to be played out."

"You make it sound hopeless, as if we haven't a chance of rescuing my cousin."

"The situation isn't hopeless, but it is dangerous. Far too dangerous for you to try to handle on your own ."

"And if I cooperate with you, my cousin could be murdered."

"And if you don't, she could be killed anyway. Are you willing to take that risk?"

Tess shuddered.

"Of course not," she replied in a ragged whisper.

"Then you need to work with me, Tess."

"You make it sound easy."

He shook his head.

"It won't be. But I want your cousin back safely almost as badly as you do."

"But for an entirely different reason," she reminded him.

"You're right," he admitted, unreasonably disappointing her when he did.

"But what does it matter, so long as we both get what we want?"

Tess stared at him a long moment before she shook her head.

"I guess it doesn't matter so long as we find Selena,"

"Good. Now, here are the ground rules. You go nowhere,. see no one, agree to-nothing without consulting me" -- when she started to protest he held up a hand to stop her "--and when the kidnappers call again, you'll tell me everything they say, no holding back, no more spider-woman tricks."

Despite their grim situation she had to smile. Reed's expression remained deadly serious.

"You can't play both sides of this thing and Win, Tess. Either I call all the shots or we go our separate ways. And I think you saw tonight just how unprepared you are to deal with these people," he added for emphasis. "If we're lucky you get your cousin back, alive. And I get a crack at convincing her to go back to the States with me to testify." He held his hand out to her.

She thought a moment, remembering every bitter lesson he'd ever taught her about betrayal and abandonment. Shaking hands with Reed McKenna felt as though she were literally striking a deal with the devil.

What choice did she have? She was all alone in a foreign country, involved in a bizarre series of events over which she had no control. A criminal with a voice as cool as a banker's had threatened to kill Selena if Tess didn't do what he told her to do. But even when she'd complied, he'd terrorized her.

In his own way, Reed McKenna seemed to Tess to be as dangerous and unpredictable as the men who held Selena. But at least he was on the side wearing the white hats', she consoled herself. In the end, Tess realized she had no other choice. She took his hand.

"All right," she said.

"It's a deal. But I keep the journal. I'll hand it over to you once Selena's safe--and not a moment sooner."

He didn't answer, and when she tried to withdraw her hand from his much larger, much warmer grip, he wouldn't let go, but held on even tighter and tugged her to him, close enough so that his dark gaze was inescapable. "I could force you to give it to me, you know."

Though shaken, Tess matched his stare without flinching.

"I know. I don't think you would," she dared.

His eyes narrowed and she held her breath.

"Don't be a fool, Tessa," he warned, his voice hard and low like cold steel wrapped in warm velvet.

"You tried to make me into a hero once. It didn't work then, and it won't work now."

For a long dark moment his eyes held hers against' her will.

"Then why should I trust you to help me?"

"Because you have something I want. I'm the same b.a.s.t.a.r.d you've hated for almost ten years, Tessa," he reminded her.

"Self-serving and mercenary. You'd do well to remember that."

"I haven't forgotten for a second," she whispered over the lump swelling in her throat.

He released her hand abruptly.

"Smart lady," he said, his unexpected smile surprisingly sad.

"Just so we understand each other."

They walked in empty silence the rest of the way to the hotel and just before they climbed the wooden stairs that led up from the beach (o the hotel grounds, he said, "We'll find her, Tessa," and slid his arm around her shoulders and hugged her against him.

The simple and completely unexpected act of compa.s.sion unnerved her and when she turned to look at him, she saw that he meant to kiss her.

At the first touch of his lips, the door behind which every memory of their time together was stored burst open. As though he'd sensed the change, he lifted his lips from hers for the s.p.a.ce of a heartbeat, giving her the chance to pull back.

But even though his mouth had released her, his eyes still held her mesmerized, and when he settled his mouth over hers again and kissed her deeply, she responded with a hunger that rocked them both and left them breathless.

"Reed." She murmured his name and the spell was broken. He drew back so quickly she almost stumbled.

"We'd better go in," he said.

She could only nod and look away. Her voice was stolen by the series of sudden shocks rippling through her system. She felt dizzy, weakened by his kiss, by her body's own intense awareness of him.

Numbly she followed him up to the room, her mind in turmoil and her heart in her throat.

In one short night, she'd cheated death on a narrow ledge, narrowly escaped an attack by armed a.s.sailants and survived a car crash that should have killed her.

In light of everything she'd endured, she ought to feel invincible, Tess told herself. Why then, she de red as they walked into the hotel room and he closed the door behind them, had just one kiss from her for-met lover made her feel so utterly and hopelessly vulnerable?

Chapter Seven.

For Reed, spending the night in the same room with Tess Elliot had been an exercise in self-control. He hadn't slept, hadn't even closed his eyes for longer than ten minutes, because every time he had, the image of her standing in front of that warehouse with bullets flying came back to him in chilling detail.

Though he longed to, Reed doubted he'd ever be able to forget how he'd felt at the thought of her dying. For a moment he thought his 'heart might explode.

The aftershock to his emotions had been even worse, resurrecting too many old feelings that were better off left for dead, or at least sleeping. Last night, instincts that were distinctly and disturbingly protective had been stirred and feelings he didn't want or need had begun smoldering again. A fire was beginning inside him that he hadn't allowed himself to feel for anyone since he'd left her.

He'd spent most of last night pacing and wis.h.i.+ng to h.e.l.l he had a cigarette. The more he'd paced the more he wanted her and the more he wanted her the harder he paced. The memory of how good she felt in his arms had taunted him through the long, dark hours and it still tortured him now.

With luck, Selena Elliot's abductors would contact Tess today and when they did, Reed meant to resolve the situation and get the h.e.l.l out of Grand Cayman in the next twenty-four hours. He had to do something and do it fast. If Morrell's thugs didn't kill him, Reed warned himself, spending another night alone with Tess in separate beds certainly would.

As he moved past her bed and into the bathroom, he glanced down and saw that she'd slept fully clothed, with her purse, still containing Selena's notebook, tucked beneath her pillow. He could see leather strap extending over the side of the bed and he couldn't resist smiling at her naivett.

Did she really think if he wanted that journal badly enough a pillow would stop him? That sleeping in clothes would stop either of them, if the} other as badly as it seemed they had last night they'd kissed? Reed forced himself to look away.

In the bathroom, he showered quickly and into a blue knit pullover and white shorts that tunately offered him no convenient place to his shoulder holster or gun. For now, he'd have to be satisfied with keeping the . 38 in his duffel bag.

"By the time Reed stepped back into the room, the first pale rays of morning were filtering through the wooden blinds that covered the sliding gla.s.s door.

Pus.h.i.+ng the blinds aside, he stepped out onto the balcony and inhaled a lungful of ocean air. If things went well, fresh air would become part of his daily routine, he told himself, although the air he hoped to be breathing would be mountain air from the front porch of a cabin tucked somewhere high in the Rockies.

But even though his home state of Colorado beckoned him like an old friend, he had to admit that this island was pretty close to paradise, especially this morning bathed in the soft, pink light of a perfect sunrise. The only clouds were high and thin, and Reed guessed the temperature was already in the seventies.

The whisper of rustling sheets told him that Tess was beg' ming to stir.

Before he went back inside, he took another deep breath and braced himself for the gut reaction he knew he'd feel when he saw her again.

She wasn't awake, but she'd turned over and kicked the sheets' off her long, bare legs. She'd slept in an overs' we man's white s.h.i.+rt and a pair of pink running shorts. An unwanted twinge of jealousy caused Reed to wonder whom the s.h.i.+rt belonged to.

Her long hair was tousled, but still silky where it fanned in thick swirls of dark brown against the white pillowcase. Her dark lashes lay like velvet shadows against her creamy skin.

The sight of her face, as captivating in repose as it was when animated with her indomitable spirit, touched' Reed deeply-and he remembered how much he once loved his beautiful Tessa. The term beautiful didn't really do justice in describing Tess Elliot, Reed decided as he sat down in the wicker chair opposite the bed. With her perfect bone structure, delicate features and skin as flawless and creamy as a child's, she was the kind of woman other women envied and men wove into their fantasies.

Unbidden, his thoughts drifted back to a perfect Sunday morning nine years ago when he'd picked up on his Harley to take her hiking on a high-country trail behind her parent's home in Evergreen. It had been the first time they'd made love.

The memory caused desire to ripple in fresh waves through his body.

As he watched, her dark eyelids fluttered open.

"What is it? Is something wrong?" she asked, her voice husky with sleep and unbearably s.e.xy.

"Nothing's wrong." His aching awareness of her made his response terse as he rose and walked to the door.

"I was just going out to get us some break fast." Until she'd opened her eyes, he'd planned on calling room service, but the sight of her, combined with his idiotic daydreaming, warned him to put fast distance between them before he reacted again on impulse as he had last night.

"Lock the door behind me and don't let anyone in," he said over his shoulder.

Before she had th chance to answer or he had the chance to look back, he walked out, slamming the door unnecessarily hard behind him.

OPEN-AIR RESTA wasn't crowded, but Reed chose a small table in the corner to nurse a cup of black coffee while he waited for their breakfast order.

Out of habit, his eyes flicked over his surroundings, a.s.sessing the situation for anything or anyone who could pose a threat.

He spotted and recognized Talbot immediately, even though the tall, sandy-haired agent had taken the precaution of dressing similarly to the members of the hotel staff.

Nick Talbot was Reed's age, thirty-one. He'd already been with the agency at least eight or nine years, recruited right out of college.

They'd worked together during Reed's own brief stint on the federal payroll.

Reed respected Nick, as much as he respected any of those by-the-book types who pledged blind allegiance to the bureaucrats.

Even so, Talbot was something of an enigma.

In contrast to his mild temperament, Talbot's specialty was explosives.

The few times that Reed had been a.s.signed. to a case with a bomber or a wacko with a penchant for chemicals, Nick had been the expert the agency called in.