The Dare Affair: Summer In Savannah Anth. (Dynasties: The Danforths Book 6.5

by Sheri WhiteFeather

  He lifted his head, watched her thick eyelashes flutter open, saw the smoky green glaze of desire. Her lips were swollen and moist from his kiss, softly parted.

  “What’s happening?” she murmured.

  It took a will of iron to release her, but somehow he managed. “Hell if I know.”

  She eased back, her eyes wide now as she watched him. “I’ve never asked a man for this before,” she said, her voice shaky. “It never mattered before. But it matters now. I need you to tell me what’s happening here. Because if it’s just sex, I—”

  “It’s not.” His hands snaked out and grabbed her. “It’s not.”

  Her eyes met his and she nodded. Then she said with a smile, “Well, maybe a little it is.”

  “Oh, there’s that, all right,” he said with a grin. “But there’s more.”

  “Yes,” she said softly. “I think there is.”

  “Look.” On a sigh, he slid his hands down her arms. “This, whatever this is, has never happened to me before. Taking a bullet was easier.”

  “Gosh, thanks.” She laid a hand on her chest. “Your compliments make my heart all atwitter.”

  “Yeah?” His grin faded. “Well, here’s another one for you. I want you, Sophia.”

  His declaration made her breath catch, then she reached out and touched his cheek. “I don’t believe this is happening. But you’re real. All of this is real. All we have to do is stay alive.”

  “We will. I won’t let that bastard near you.”

  “I can take care of myself, Sloane,” she said firmly. “You’re the one who played dodge ball with the bullet and missed, remember?”

  “I’ll be fine by tomorrow.” He pressed his mouth into the palm of her hand, felt the need rise in his blood again and forced it back down. “Completely fine.”

  “That’s rather optimistic, don’t you think?” Her voice had a breathless quality to it.

  “It’s not optimistic, sweetheart. It’s a promise.”

  “Well then, I suggest you eat.” She picked up the hamburger he’d set down and handed it to him. “You’re going to need your strength.”

  He picked up her hamburger and handed it to her, as well. “So will you, sweetheart.”

  “Nick.” She stared at the burger for a moment, then said, “I called my sister, Tina.”

  He swore softly. “Kurt will be expecting you to contact your family, Sophia. He’ll have the ability to trace any calls you make.”

  “I called from a pay phone several blocks from here,” she said defensively. “You don’t know my parents and Sunday-night dinner. If I hadn’t shown up, especially without calling them, they’d have the police out looking for me. And if I’m not at the bakery for my afternoon shift tomorrow, they’ll have the fire department and coast guard called out, too. I needed Tina to run interference for me.”

  He closed his eyes on a heavy sigh. “What did you tell her?”

  “I told her I had a problem that I couldn’t explain right now and asked her to cover for me with the family for a few days. Nick, if anyone can help us, my sister’s husband can. I don’t have to tell you the kind of influence Reid Danforth and his family have in this city.”

  Nick couldn’t argue that. Abraham Danforth, the patriarch of the wealthy family, was a decorated war hero running for state senator. Nevertheless, it was risky. “Did you tell her where you were?”

  Sophia shook her head. “I just told her I’d be fine, and not to do anything or tell anyone she’d spoken to me. I promised I’d call her tomorrow.”

  “All right.” It was risky to go out in public right now, but at the same time, he realized they couldn’t stay on this boat and do nothing, either. “I need to make a call, too. If Kurt is working with someone in the department, I need to find out who.”

  “How are you going to do that?”

  “I don’t know yet.” He glanced at the wig and glasses on the bed, then smiled slowly. “But I think I’ve got an idea.”

  Chapter 5

  Early the next morning Sophia stepped out of her room into a light cover of fog. It would burn off within the hour, but for the moment, the soft blanket of gray gave her a sense of security. It was probably foolish thinking, but she figured if she couldn’t see out, then no one else could see in. Right now she needed every little kernel of calm she could find.

  Her pulse jumped at the sight of the man standing at the railing several feet away. She relaxed when she realized it was Nick, but when he turned, her pulse jumped for an entirely different reason.

  His shirt was open to the waist, as was the top button on his pants. With his hair rumpled and his face shadowed with a two-day-old beard, all he needed was a patch over one eye and a saber in his hand to make him the perfect pirate.

  She couldn’t imagine how she’d ever thought this man wasn’t her type. He was every woman’s type.

  “Mornin’.” He leaned back against the railing and nodded at her.

  Lord, even his voice had the rough, husky sound of a pirate. She closed the door behind her and stepped out onto the deck. “You’re up early.”

  “So are you.”

  How could she sleep, knowing that all she had to do was walk the few feet from her cabin to Nick’s and she wouldn’t have to be alone? She wouldn’t have to be afraid. Not in Nick’s arms.

  When she caught the scent of bacon on the air, she glanced toward the galley. “You’re cooking?”

  “Don’t look so surprised.” He pushed away from the railing. “Eggs are one of my specialties.”

  “Is that so?” She held her ground when he moved toward her. “What are your other specialties?”

  “Coffee.” He slid his hands up her arms and pulled her closer. “Potatoes. I’m a pro with potatoes.”

  “Potatoes?” Her breath caught when he lowered his head. “Heavens, you do know how to impress a girl.”

  “Good,” he murmured, lightly brushing his mouth over hers. “Let’s eat.”

  When he turned and walked away, Sophia wished she had a potato. She’d throw it at him. How could he leave her like this? With her body tingling with anticipation?

  Fuming, she followed him to the galley, then took the plate of food he handed her and sampled. His boasts hadn’t been idle. The eggs, potatoes—even the coffee were good.

  “Not bad, Sloane,” she said somewhat reluctantly. “Who taught you to cook? Your mother?”

  “Hardly. She took off when I was ten and my brother was eight. Said she needed space and she’d come back in a couple of months, but she never did. Last I heard she was in Italy somewhere.”

  “That’s a lot of space,” Sophia said quietly, wondering how a mother, any mother, could do such a thing.

  He shrugged. “We got by. My old man bought a tavern on the south side, and my brother and I worked there. Short-order, bus boy, waiter. I pretty much did it all.”

  “And bartending,” she added. “Is that why your department chose you to work at Steam?”

  “Actually it was more of a punishment.” He bit into a piece of bacon. “I had a disagreement with a lieutenant and his nose sort of stepped in front of my fist.”

  The bite of egg Sophia had just scooped up stopped halfway to her mouth. “You hit a superior officer?”

  “He sent a team in to raid an auto body shop before I gave the okay. Two months undercover work down the drain, and in the chaos, two officers were shot. If anyone had died, I would have done more than broke the guy’s nose.”

  She studied him for a long moment. “That’s some job you’ve got, Nick.”

  “It’s no cakewalk.” His gaze met hers. “Hard as hell on a relationship. My last girlfriend moved in, then out again in a space of six weeks. I’m still pissed she took my toaster.”

  “Trying to make me jealous?” She was jealous, dammit, and she knew it was ridiculous. “Shall we compare notes?”

  His eyes narrowed, then he set his fork down and reached out to take her chin in his hand. “Bad idea, babe, unless you wa
nt to see someone’s nose broke. Everything before this happened doesn’t exist. From now on, there’s just you and me. If you don’t see it that way, this is your chance to say so. I don’t share.”

  His grip on her, the intensity of his gaze, his statement of ownership, all of it was brutish and barbaric and absolutely thrilling. “That goes both ways.”

  He nodded, then released her chin and traced the line of her jaw with his knuckles. “You are so soft.”

  Sophia felt the floor shift under her. He’d gone from fierce to tender in a heartbeat, and she simply didn’t know how to respond.

  “I want you,” he said, making her heart trip, but then he dropped his hand. “But I’ve got something I have to go do.”

  “What do you mean ‘I’? You’re not leaving me here.”

  “You distract me, Sophia. I can’t afford to be distracted.”

  “Get over it.” She lifted her chin. “I’m going with you.”

  He shook his head, then sighed. “Has any man ever said no to you?”

  Smiling, she simply sipped her coffee. Some questions were better left unanswered.

  Going to the Savannah Police Department in the middle of the day was risky but necessary. Because he worked there, Nick knew how to circumvent the security. He knew what cameras were where, who would pay attention and who wouldn’t. And even if someone did notice him, all they would see was a bucktoothed, nearsighted pizza delivery guy with a blond ponytail.

  And besides, with Sophia dressed the way she was, no one would be noticing him, anyway.

  Walking behind her on the sidewalk was sheer torture. She had the best pair of legs he’d ever seen. The skirt she wore was black and tight and short enough to be illegal in twenty-six states. Her heels were black, too, strappy and so damn high he’d have thought she’d need an oxygen mask to breath in the thin air up there.

  Hell, if he kept watching those hips of hers swing back and forth, he’d be the one who needed oxygen.

  He had to be insane, letting her talk him into coming with him. But with the disguises they’d put together from the prop room, his plan just might work. He was fairly certain that Kurt hadn’t put out an APB on Sophia yet, but even if he had, between the makeup, fake mole beside her mouth and short red wig, no one would recognize her.

  They would notice her, he thought, letting his gaze drift down to her bottom again, but he doubted her own mother would know who she was.

  One block away from the station, she stopped in front of the display window of a jewelry store and appeared to be studying a diamond necklace. He stopped beside her, pretended to study an address on a slip of paper.

  “Just making sure you’re still back there,” she said over her shoulder without turning around.

  “Oh, I’m back here all right.” He caught her reflection in the mirror while he shifted the pizza box in his hand. “Watching the trail of devastation you’re leaving in your wake. One guy walked into a mailbox and another guy in a Lexus nearly rear-ended a delivery van.”

  She tugged on the hem of her pink halter top, exposing a little more cleavage. “I guess the plan is working.”

  “Oh, it’s working all right. A little too good. You pull that top any lower or hike your skirt any higher and I won’t remember what I came here for.”

  One corner of her glossy red mouth tipped up while she ran a finger over the strand of pearls at her throat. “You ready?”

  That was certainly a loaded question. “You can still back out, Sophia. It’s not too late.”

  “Yeah, Nick, it is,” she said softly. “The second I walked into that alley, it was too late. I’m not backing out, and I won’t stand idly by, either. Let’s do it.”

  He’d thought nothing and no one could ever surprise him. But Sophia did. He hadn’t seen it when he’d first met her, had thought that because she was beautiful and working upstairs in a cozy office that she was spoiled or lazy. All he could think now was, where the hell had she been all his life?

  “I’ll be right behind you.” He slung the pizza box up on his shoulder. “If anything goes wrong, anything at all, don’t wait for me. Just walk out calmly and go back to the boat. Got it?”

  “Got it.”

  He followed her down the block, then through the entry doors of the police station. The lobby and security check-in point were unusually busy, but the front desk was clear. Every head, male and female, turned when Sophia walked up to the young desk clerk, a sergeant named Pete Stubbs.

  “Excuse me, Officer, can you help me?”

  Oh, she was good, Nick thought. Not only was she using some kind of European accent, her voice had just the right touch of breathlessness and frailty. What man wouldn’t want to help this woman?

  Pete swallowed visibly and smoothed a hand over his tie. “That’s—” the man’s voice cracked, then he cleared it and spoke more deeply “—that’s what I’m here for, miss.”

  Nick headed for the security checkpoint, which was a two-part process, the scanner and the walk-through metal detector. The line was long today, which worked in Nick’s favor. All he had to do to bypass the system was get by the guard, a lieutenant named Lyle Cross.

  “Pepperoni, pineapple and anchovy for Whistlemeyer,” Nick said loudly, moving to the front of the line. Everyone in security and on the third floor knew that Detective Lieutenant Dave Whistlemeyer ordered the obnoxious pizza at least three times a week.

  “You’re new.” Lyle looked Nick over. “I’ll have to scan you, then check you out.”

  “Fine by me,” Nick said with a bored shrug. “But can you make it quick? I got two more deliveries.”

  “Ohmigod!” Sophia’s shriek echoed through the station lobby. “My pearls! My grandmother’s pearls!”

  Tiny iridescent pearls rolled and bounced across the polished floor. To the pleasure of every man in the room, Sophia dropped to the floor on her hands and knees. His bulging eyes on Sophia, the guard didn’t even notice Nick move past.

  It took him exactly one minute to get up to the third floor, then casually stroll through the office. Several agents, DEA and Savannah police, were gathered around a corner desk eating lunch. Nick spotted Iris, Captain Emmet’s secretary, coming out of Emmet’s office, but the attractive redhead didn’t even glance up from a file she was reading.

  He was nearly across the room when one of the female officers, Linda Rodman, looked up.

  “Hey, pizza guy.”

  Breath held, Nick slid her a bored glance.

  “Whistlemeyer’s in the john—just leave it on his desk.”

  With a wave of his hand, Nick kept walking. When he rounded the corner, he ducked into his own cube, then opened the bottom drawer of his desk and pulled out the false back.

  Every undercover cop in the department had a “stash,” which usually consisted of weapons, sometimes drugs that would buy information, some cash and a bug or wire for those times when a court order took too long.

  Nick had never been a patient guy.

  He retrieved what he needed—a Beretta, a couple hundred dollars and a wire tap. He tucked the cash in his pocket, the gun in the waistband of his jeans and tossed the wire tap and a bug in the pizza box. Two more minutes had passed.

  Three minutes after that and a trip to Kurt’s office, Nick was on his way back downstairs. All he had to do now was collect Sophia and get the hell out of here.

  When he came around the corner, he spotted her. She was smiling up at a man, openly flirting. Nick’s heart slammed in his chest.

  Kurt.

  Chapter 6

  “You are so kind to help me.” Though her insides were shaking, Sophia managed to flash Kurt a brilliant smile. “How can I ever thank you?”

  “Your name and phone number would be a great start.”

  When Kurt pressed three pearls into Sophia’s hand and let his touch linger there, her stomach rolled. He’d come up behind her out of nowhere several minutes after she’d staged her performance with the broken necklace. The other men who’d
assisted in retrieving her pearls had moved on after she’d thanked them, but Kurt had stayed.

  This can’t be happening, she thought. The man who’d tried to kill her two nights ago was now trying to pick her up.

  “I do not know you.” She laid her family’s Hungarian accent on heavy, was equally disgusted and relieved that Kurt was not looking at her face. Dammit, Nick, where are you! “My mother would not approve.”

  “Kurt Matthews. Detective Matthews,” he added, as if to impress her. “I assure you, you’re safe with me.”

  Safe? Sophia nearly choked. She could still hear Marcos’s moans after Kurt had shot him, then the sound of bullets exploding just inches over her head. It took a will of iron not to lunge for this man’s eyes.

  “A detective. That is so fascinating.”

  Her heart lurched when she spotted Nick come around the corner. His step faltered when he saw Kurt, then his mouth pressed into a hard line.

  “My name is Ava Kovak.” Sophia held out her hand quickly, releasing the pearls in her palm. They dropped to the floor and bounced. “Oh, how clumsy I am.”

  While Kurt bent to retrieve the pearls, Sophia looked at Nick and shook her head, then quickly turned her attention back to Kurt when he straightened.

  “Do you have a pen?” she asked, smiling at Kurt as she dropped the pearls into her shoulder purse. “I will write it down for you.”

  From the corner of her eye, she watched Nick walking closer, pretending to read a flyer he’d picked up off a counter. She was on the verge of hyperventilating when he stopped no more than three feet away.

  “Why waste time? Let’s pretend I already called and go to lunch now.” He leaned in closer and lowered his voice. “I live close by. We could go to my place for the afternoon.”

  Between Nick inching closer and Kurt’s revolting invitation, Sophia struggled to hang on to her last thread of composure.

  “I would love to, but I must pick up my twins from preschool.” As she’d figured, the mention of children dimmed the spark of interest in Kurt’s gaze. Batting her fake eyelashes, she dug in her purse for a pen and scrap of paper, then quickly scribbled the number for her dry cleaners and handed it to him. “You will call me tonight?”