Lucan (Steele Protectors 6)

by Carole Mortimer

  She snorted. “So you just learned of this situation—somehow,” she added sarcastically. “And now you’re helping to keep me safe out of the goodness of your heart?”

  He arched one dark brow. “Your tone of voice says you obviously don’t believe that’s the reason I’m here.”

  “Is that so surprising?” she snapped. “If I was really who you say I am, wouldn’t I have all sorts of reasons for not believing a word you’re saying? Wouldn’t that caution be the very reason I’ve survived under a new identity for the past eight years?”

  Intelligent and sexy as hell!

  “Yes, it would.” Lucan shifted slightly on the seat to accommodate the increasingly painful bulge in his jeans. “But you saw the list. There’s no denying Ernesto Silva is out of prison and that he’s going to come looking for you.”

  She nodded. “And if you want me to trust you any further than that, then you’re really going to have to give me something else!”

  Damn Hailey. And damn his brother Haydn for assuring Hailey they would leave it to her to tell Rebecca Snow her sister was still alive.

  Becca leaned back in alarm when Lucan suddenly turned the SUV off the road and up onto the grass verge, moving his seat all the way back before switching off the engine.

  She was rendered completely speechless as he leaned over to unfasten her seat belt before placing his hands about her waist and lifting her across the middle console. Seconds later, she was facing him and straddled across his muscular legs, her weight on her knees and her skirt having ridden up to the tops of her thighs.

  A move that ensured Becca was totally aware of the telling bulge in Lucan’s jeans as it pressed hotly against the crotch of her tights and through to the silk panties beneath.

  The very telling bulge.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Becca used her hands against his shoulders to push away from him, but was forced to come to a halt when the bottom of her spine hit the steering wheel.

  “Good question,” he acknowledged grimly.

  “Well?” she prompted.

  “You asked me to give you something else,” he reminded.

  “I didn’t mean sexually,” she protested.

  He blinked. “Then what did you mean?”

  “Not this!”

  “Are you sure about that?” A half smile slowly curved his lips as he studied what she could feel were her flushed cheeks and fever-bright eyes.

  The truth was, his close proximity, the heat and invasive musk of him, ensured she wasn’t even sure of her own name right now.

  Not surprising when, until eight years ago, she had been Rebecca Snow but had then become Rachel Shaw.

  Except, she reminded herself, minutes ago, this man had called her Becca.

  She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “Why did you call me Becca earlier?”

  “Because it’s your name— What do you mean, no?” Lucan demanded when she shook her head.

  “No one has shortened my name in that way for a long time,” she stated firmly.

  “But—”

  “Not since my sister, Cassie,” she added softly. “My parents always called me Rebecca, and my school friends called me Becs.”

  Telling Lucan he had seriously fucked-up.

  Damn it, no wonder she had fallen so silent during the drive out of London.

  Fuck.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  He should have known about the name. If he’d had more time to prepare for this, he would have known that. As it was, that ignorance had now compromised the situation.

  “It’s my name for you too,” Lucan bit out.

  Her eyes widened, the pupils so dilated that only a thin sliver of green was visible. “Why?” she breathed softly.

  One of his hands moved up to gently cup the side of her face, fingers lightly caressing. “You look like a Becca to me.”

  “I do?” She sounded slightly breathless.

  “You do.” He nodded. It was true. Rebecca was too formal, and Becs sounded juvenile. This woman was neither of those things.

  Then what was she?

  Mine.

  Abso-fucking-lutely not, Lucan instantly protested the visceral claim.

  In the past six months, his five brothers might have found and were now either married or engaged to their soul mates. But Lucan had no interest in doing the same.

  Did he think Logan, Atticus, Bryce, Rourke, and Haydn had expected it either?

  No, he was pretty sure his brothers had been enjoying their unattached state as much as he did. But when the right woman came along, they had eventually accepted their fate. Some more readily than others, he recalled affectionately.

  But it wasn’t happening to Lucan!

  The scars he had brought back from Afghanistan were on the outside, as well as the emotional ones on the inside. In the form of fucking ugly ridges and scars across his back and shoulders, where the wounds hadn’t healed properly. With a hookup, he didn’t need to worry, because either he or she didn’t hang around long enough for the scars to become an issue.

  He and Becca were stuck together for as long as this situation lasted. After that, Lucan had no doubt that when Hailey married Haydn she would become the sister of his sister-in-law.

  Better not to start something that, because of Haydn and Hailey’s relationship, could only makes things awkward for everyone in the future.

  Lucan’s jaw tightened as he lifted Becca up and carefully placed her back on the passenger seat. “Sorry,” he muttered. “That was out of line.”

  Becca agreed. It was totally out of line. And yet, despite having straightened her skirt and pressed her thighs together, she was still aware of the heat of the hard length of Lucan’s cock pressing against her pussy. And she was aroused by it.

  Which, as it was way too soon in her captivity to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, probably made her as fucked up as this situation was.

  “If I allowed you to make one telephone call, who would it be to?”

  Becca studied Lucan’s face for several seconds, looking for deceit or subterfuge. But she could see only sincerity in his expression.

  He gave her time to consider the question. Until she knew for certain who she could trust, Bianca was obviously no longer an option. Nor was Becca close enough to anyone at work to explain this situation to, let alone ask them for help. She had a few friends still, from when she was at university, but they were all scattered about the country. She wasn’t sure she dare confide this to any of them either.

  She turned her gaze back on Lucan. He looked arrogant enough never to need or have any reason to tell lies, least of all about his actual identity.

  That was the answer. She needed to be sure he was really who he said he was…

  Becca straightened in her seat. “I’d call the offices of Steele Protectors.”

  Lucan had been so busy beating himself up for having given in to the desire he felt to have this woman’s heat pressed against him that it took him a few seconds to take in what she’d just said. “Why?” he now demanded.

  She shrugged. “That way, I can be sure that at least one part of what you’ve told me is the truth.”

  It made sense, Lucan acknowledged admiringly. “You also have outside confirmation Ernesto Silva is out of prison,” he reminded.

  “True. But I have no idea if you are who you say you are.”

  “Believe me, no one who isn’t me would ever claim to be inside my head,” he assured self-derisively. “If I allow you to make that call, can I trust you not to start screaming bloody murder the moment your call is answered?”

  She grimaced. “Would the person on the other end of the line listen once they know it’s you I’m screaming murder about?”

  “They might,” he allowed darkly.

  Becca snorted. “That does not engender confidence!”

  “I didn’t mean it to.” He sighed. “My family are well aware of my…idiosyncrasies.”

  Her eyes widened. “The person
who answers the phone will be a member of your family?”

  “Sophie, Rourke’s wife, is the receptionist at Steele Protectors.”

  “Okay.” She seemed to have come to a decision. “If Sophie can confirm you are who you say you are, then I’ll stop asking so many questions and take it on trust that you don’t mean me any physical harm.” Her gaze dropped from meeting his mocking one, her cheeks once again a fiery red. “Any lasting physical harm,” she corrected awkwardly.

  Lucan wished he could be sure of that himself. Unfortunately, right now he just wanted to lay her out on the back seat of the SUV, push up her skirt, pull down her tights and panties, and make a seven-course meal of her pussy. He knew instinctively each course would taste delicious.

  He took out the burner phone and punched in the number for the offices of Steele Protectors, turning on the speaker, before placing it on the console between them just as the call was answered.

  “Steele Protectors. Sophie speaking. How may I help you?”

  “Is this Rourke’s wife?” Becca prompted at Lucan’s silence.

  “It is, yes,” the woman confirmed lightly.

  “The same Rourke Steele who owns Steele Plaza apartment building?”

  “Yes,” the woman answered more cautiously. “Who is this?” she prompted warily.

  Becca drew in a deep breath, aware if she answered that question honestly, there would be no going back.

  That Lucan Steele would then know, without any doubt, she was exactly who he said she was.

  Chapter Five

  “My name is Rebecca Snow,” she stated firmly, her gaze fixed on Lucan as he made no acknowledgment of that statement apart from a slight narrowing of his lids.

  “Oh my God!” Sophie came back excitedly. “Really?”

  “Really.” Becca felt reassured by the fact the other woman had at least recognized her real name. “I am currently sitting in a vehicle with a man claiming to be your brother-in-law, Lucan Steele.”

  “If he says that’s who he is, then I’d be inclined to believe him,” Sophie answered dryly.

  Becca kept her gaze fixed on Lucan. “Because, as he told me, anyone who isn’t him would never claim to be?”

  There was a splutter of affectionate laughter on the other end of the line. “Partly.”

  “And because you know about what he calls his…idiosyncrasies?”

  “I wouldn’t call them that,” Sophie Steele dismissed. “Lucan is coolheaded and controlled, often to an infuriating degree. But he’s utterly trustworthy,” she hastened to add. “I also know he currently has your best interests at heart, if that’s what this call is about?”

  Becca felt some of the tension ease from her shoulders. “Everything he’s told me is the truth?”

  “I have every confidence of that being the case, yes. Talking of which… Are you there, Lucan?”

  “Yes,” he acknowledged.

  “We didn’t know if or when we would hear from you again, but Rourke said if you called here, I was to tell you we were right about the DC situation.”

  “Fuck,” Lucan muttered. “Okay. Thanks, Soph.”

  “Lucan, where are you—” The line was cut off abruptly when Lucan pressed the button to end the call before once again opening the casing to remove the sim card and breaking it in two.

  “Why do you keep doing that?” Becca snapped her impatience.

  He gave her a pitying glance as he pressed the button to unfasten the glove compartment before stowing the broken pieces inside and then turning the engine back on. “All of the telephone calls to Steele Protectors are recorded. A cell phone, even if it’s a burner, can be traced if the hacker is good enough. My brother Haydn is one of the people who is more than good enough,” he added dryly.

  “But he’s your brother.”

  He nodded. “And I trust him implicitly. I trust all of my family. It’s everyone else I suspect.”

  “Including me?”

  “Not you exactly.” He shrugged. “But if you were to trust the wrong person, you could inadvertently put the two of us in a vulnerable position.”

  “Without a phone, I have no means of communicating with anyone.”

  “Who do you need to call?”

  “Well, work, for one thing. Sheila will know I’m lying, but I at least need to call in sick, either this afternoon or tomorrow at the latest.”

  He shrugged those broad shoulders. “I have other burner phones you can use for that.”

  “Here?”

  “No.”

  “Where?”

  “At our end location.”

  “And where is that?”

  “I’m afraid I can’t tell you that.”

  “Why not, when you keep saying you’re only trying to protect me?” Her frustration with this man had reached an all-time high.

  “I am protecting you,” he insisted. “From yourself, if necessary. As I’ve already told you, the less you know about where we eventually end up, the less chance you would accidentally be able to reveal it to a third party,” he assured grimly.

  Becca threw up her hands. “You’re utterly paranoid!”

  A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw. “Maybe if I’d been more paranoid six years ago, I wouldn’t have spent six months in that hellhole,” he bit out vehemently.

  She gave him a searching glance. “What do you mean?”

  His eyes narrowed to dark slits. “The only reason I was taken prisoner was because someone revealed my position to the rebel soldiers.”

  “Someone?”

  He nodded abruptly. “We had kids hanging around the camp all the time. Mostly orphans who had nowhere else to go. They were all pretty fucked-up by the war and losing their families, and we were all warned about getting too close to any of them. But we’re English, and suckers for small and vulnerable children and animals. I’m as gullible as the next man when it comes to the welfare of children.” His expression became bleak. “One of those ‘small and vulnerable’ children had already been taken in by, and given his allegiance to, the rebel soldiers. To that child, we were nothing more than the invaders of his country and the reason his family was dead. Two of us were sent out on a scouting mission. This boy passed on the information of our location to the rebels. Richards was killed, and I was taken prisoner, their intention being to extract information from me regarding military positions and strength.” He moved to ease the tension in his shoulders, as if recalling each and every moment of those physically cruel interrogations.

  “Oh God…”

  Lucan’s tight smile totally lacked humor. “That boy, no older than eight or nine years old, returned to the rebel camp a couple of days later and became one of my biggest tormentors.”

  Becca felt sick. Lucan had not only been captured and tortured, but had known that inhumane treatment was because he had been betrayed by a child he had befriended. No wonder he didn’t appear to trust anyone except his family.

  She swallowed down the nausea before continuing. “The DC situation Sophie referred to was Bianca, wasn’t it?”

  Lucan’s tension eased a little. “We had to know where Silva was getting his information, so we set a trap for him and the informant. If he pursued a certain course of action, then we knew that informant was Bianca D’Angelo. Silva is currently following a false trail to Scotland because of information passed on to him by D’Angelo.”

  “But—”

  “We need to keep moving.” Lucan cut off any more of her questions by accelerating back onto the road. He had already answered too damned many of them.

  Once they reached their destination, he was going to need time to himself to sit down and consider exactly how he had not only lost control of this situation but of himself.

  Time he had a feeling the ever-curious Rebecca Snow wasn’t going to give him.

  “Where are we?” Becca woke suddenly to sit up groggily and look about her in bewilderment. There seemed to be the darkness of trees looming on either side of them, and all she could
see illuminated in front of them by the vehicle headlights was the deeply rutted track Lucan was driving them down.

  They had been on the road for hours, it seemed to her, Lucan’s brooding silence hanging so heavily in the air between them, she had eventually closed her eyes and fallen asleep. Only to wake up to pitch darkness outside and being shaken about slightly inside the SUV by the unevenness of the terrain.

  Lucan kept his attention on the track ahead, his face all harsh angles in the light given off by the dashboard. “You know I’m not going to answer that beyond assuring you we’re still in England.”

  Becca shot him a glare. “I’m pretty sure I would have noticed if we’d boarded a boat or plane.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know, you were pretty out of it. You snore. Did you know?”

  Becca’s eyes widened indignantly. “I do not. I— You— Do I?” she added uncertainly.

  Lucan grinned. “Just the odd snuffle. It’s quite endearing.” Not as much as it would have been if Becca was doing that snuffling against his throat while she snuggled the length of her naked body against his in a comfortable bed after they had made love, but—

  What the fuck!

  Damn it, driving for six hours should have made him too tired to even raise an eyebrow, let alone have another serious hard-on pressing against the front of his jeans merely from thinking of having Becca’s naked body curled against his own.

  This unexpected and obviously uncontrollable desire he felt toward Becca was seriously compromising his ability to assess and act on this situation.

  Unfortunately, the thought of having one of his brothers take over Becca’s security was unacceptable. Not that Lucan doubted for a moment that all his brothers were completely in love with, and faithful to, the women in their lives. But a couple of his brothers were certainly more amiable and charming than him. A couple? Even Atticus, known for being the grouchiest and most aggressive of the Steele brothers, would no doubt come across as more amiable than Lucan was right now.

  Physical frustration had never been a problem for Lucan before, but now that it was, it was doing very little to improve his mood.