Unexpected

by Lori Foster

  “If you want Eli home in one piece, he’ll have to be responsible for himself and no one else.” Ray pushed away from the wall and strode forward until she towered over Jane. With a wide-eyed look of worry, Jane scuttled closer to Eli’s side as if for protection. It was hard not to laugh, but Ray had excellent control. She summoned her meanest expression. “You’d only distract him.”

  Jane sputtered. “I’m his fiancée. I should be with him.”

  Fiancée? Ray allowed the single moment of crushing disappointment, then shook it off. Eli’s life, outside of the mission, was no concern of hers. “You’d only be a hindrance.”

  Ready to crawl back to bed, Ray turned to Eli and, seeing his relief, added, “I’m putting my foot down on this, Eli. If you want me, you’ll have to send her home.”

  She gave him the easy out, taking the blame fully on herself, but Eli didn’t look grateful. No, instead, he looked . . . hot.

  His hazel eyes seemed to smolder in the evening light until Ray felt unsettled and uncertain and ready to bolt.

  She never ran, damn him, and definitely not from a man. She thrust her chin up. “Make up your mind, Eli.”

  His gaze dipped to her mouth, lingered, before he turned to face Jane. “I’m sorry, Jane. But I need her help.”

  Jane gave one more pitiful sob, flinging herself into Eli’s arms and nearly smothering him with a long, drawn-out kiss. Ray couldn’t be sure, but she thought tongues might have been involved. Standing there watching that kiss, she felt like a voyeur, and worse, she felt pathetic. She wanted to walk away, yet her feet remained glued to the floor.

  Eli didn’t fight Jane. He merely waited her out. When Jane finally pulled away, he flattened a large hand on her back and started her toward the door.

  “Go back to your hotel, Jane. I’ll call you when I get home.”

  “Please be careful, Eli.”

  Prodded by some evil imp, Ray called out, “I’ll take real good care of him, Jane, don’t you worry none.”

  Jane started sobbing again.

  Ray could hear Eli’s strained reassurances. Deciding that she’d gotten into enough mischief for the night, she started down the hall. Just as she reached her room, she heard the front door close. She stepped inside and quietly closed her door, leaning back against it. Eli’s footsteps sounded softly on the carpeting, then stopped outside her door. Ray held her breath.

  “Good night, Ray,” she heard him whisper, his tone laced with amusement. Then he went on to his room.

  Ray turned out the light and crawled into her bed. She curled into a ball on her side and tucked her hands beneath her cheek. Her thoughts were jumbled and confused. She wasn’t certain what to make of her feelings because it had been so long since she’d felt anything like them. She was appalled that this could happen, that she would let it happen, but she had.

  For the first time in a very long time, she was interested in a man. She actually felt desire.

  What rotten timing.

  Chapter Three

  Eli was already up and dressed when Ray came into the kitchen the next morning. It was early, only six o’clock, and the sun had just begun to rise. Ray yawned as she sauntered in and casually seated herself at the table.

  She still wore that damned provocative shirt, but now she had on loose matching shorts, too.

  It didn’t help.

  The army green, mannish getup should have looked ridiculous. It didn’t. With her trim healthy body, a burlap sack would be sexy.

  “Coffee?” His voice emerged as a low rumble. He’d awakened with thoughts of Ray on his mind, which had caused his morning erection to linger. Now, with her here in the flesh looking sleepy and tender, his dominant male instincts surged.

  “Yeah, that’d be terrific.” She yawned again. Assuming he’d serve her, assuming he could ignore the provocative way she dressed, she lounged back in her chair.

  Her legs were sleek with muscles, smooth and straight. Her shoulders were toned, proud. She showed a lot of skin and all of it looked creamy enough to kiss. When she’d first appeared last night, he’d been hit with such a wave of lust it had almost staggered him.

  Throughout the long night, his thoughts had centered on her, and when he had managed to sleep, he’d dreamed of her. Restlessness had driven him from his bed nearly an hour ago.

  He handed Ray the coffee, then settled himself across from her. Unwilling to alarm her or put her on guard, he tried to be casual, too, but damn, he’d never known a woman so completely comfortable in her own skin.

  Her short, midnight hair stuck out at very odd angles, and her eyes were alert but puffy from sleep, the lids heavy. Her cheeks were flushed, one of them bearing a small crease from her pillow. She obviously hadn’t suffered the same distractions he had.

  He propped his head up on an elbow and smiled at her. “You don’t look like you could take on a rescue right now.”

  Sipping the hot coffee, she peeked at him over the rim of the cup and shrugged. “It isn’t necessary that I do any rescuing right now, is it?”

  “And when it is necessary?” he asked, doing his best to keep his gaze on her face rather than the sleep-warmed skin of her upper breasts, revealed by the low neck of the undershirt.

  She paused in the middle of a drink, then gulped down a good portion before plunking the mug onto the tabletop. “What’s the matter, Eli, getting cold feet? Your fiancée convince you I wasn’t right for the job?”

  Her comment gave him the perfect opportunity to clear up at least one misunderstanding. She’d run off to bed last night, taking away his chance then. Which was maybe a good thing, because the way he’d felt last night, he’d have ended up kissing her before she reached her room, and Ray being Ray, she might have crippled him for it.

  “Contrary to what Jane might say, she’s not my fiancée. She was just being possessive.” He grinned, remembering Jane’s expression. “You made quite a grand entrance last night. Really took her by surprise.”

  Ray snorted in doubt. “Not a fiancée, yet she came all the way from Kentucky to declare herself, to offer up her body and her undying love?”

  Beneath the sarcasm, Eli could hear Ray’s genuine curiosity. And the way she didn’t quite meet his eyes was telling. He knew her question wasn’t just to pass the time and that pleased him, especially since she had been so careful to remain impersonal. “Jane has a business office here, also. She probably had a meeting to attend and decided to kill two birds with one stone. Actually, she travels a lot more than I do. We generally don’t see each other all that often.”

  “Then how did the two of you ever get together?”

  Briefly, Eli considered teasing her about the forbidden nature of her personal question, but he didn’t want to discourage her. It’d give him leverage when he got around to asking his own questions.

  But he also wasn’t willing to go into detail, sensing that Ray would find too many differences in their backgrounds. “With each of us in the department store industry, we have similar interests.”

  Ray’s dark eyes were enigmatic and unconvinced. But as if she’d belatedly recalled her rules, she said “Whatever.” She had one arm crossed over her stomach, the other holding her cup. “You have anything for breakfast? I’m starved.”

  Her outspoken manner and brazen attitude delighted him. She was so different from other women he’d known. Hell, she was different from the men he’d known, too. “Tell you what. Why don’t you get dressed and we can go out for breakfast?”

  She shook her head. “No, I’d rather eat here. We still need to get you some clothes, and you need to gather up some cash and book our flights into southern Texas this afternoon.”

  “Cash?”

  “To pay off the informants. It’ll be cheaper than the ransom would have been, but it’s going to cost you.” She gave him a suggested amount to have on hand, her sharp gaze waiting for any resistance. It was less than he’d anticipated paying, so he didn’t argue.

  “After we land in Texas,
we’ll meet up with a friend of mine who’ll fly us into Mataya in the morning. We may have to spend one night there depending on how things roll out with my contacts. Then we get your brother and come home.”

  “Just like that?” He was amazed by how simple she made it sound, how nonchalantly she discussed invading a foreign country and enacting a clandestine rescue.

  “I hope. Things can always go wrong, but there’s usually a way to correct problems before anything disastrous happens.”

  She stood and walked to his cabinets to scrounge for food. Eli leaned back and enjoyed the sight. She had a terrific body, honed and sleek like a female jungle cat, sexy in a way only a female body could be.

  She was on the slim side, her hips flaring gently from a narrow waist. Her breasts weren’t large, but they were high and firm, displayed beneath the cotton shirt when she stretched up her arm to reach for a bowl.

  Her nipples pressed against the soft cotton and he felt his muscles twitch. Damn.

  After locating a loaf of bread, some eggs, and the bologna and cheese, she searched for a pan. “I’m going to cook. You want some?”

  “Uh, what are you making?” Eli was pleased that she’d offered to fix him breakfast, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to eat whatever she intended to concoct with her ingredients. Bologna for breakfast didn’t seem particularly appetizing.

  “I’ll just scramble the eggs and the bologna and cheese together. Sort of a lazy man’s omelet. Trust me, it’s good.”

  Actually, he would have said “yes” just so he could stay and watch her cook. Every movement was agile and flowing without deliberate effort and she seemed to get a great deal done without rushing.

  That was something he’d noticed about her. She seldom hurried, but she was always productive. At one point, she stopped stirring the eggs to give an elaborate stretch. Eli nearly strangled on his coffee.

  Though she’d assured him Jeremy would be fine, and he trusted her experience in the matter, he wouldn’t relax completely until he had his brother home safe and sound. He should have been concentrating solely on that, not on Ray, not on the firmness of her ass or how sweet her belly looked and how he’d like to kiss her there . . .

  She glanced up, saw where he was looking, and rearranged her undershirt so it again covered her stomach.

  Her expression was devoid of emotion.

  Because he normally went after what he wanted, and he definitely wanted Ray, he had a hard time restraining himself. “Sorry.”

  She turned away, an odd introspective mood clouding her previous lack of inhibition. The kitchen remained silent while she finished cooking. But when she returned to the table to dish up the eggs, she made a wry face at Eli.

  “I guess I don’t have any modesty left. Being in this line of work has a way of forcing you to get to the core of survival. After being around men so often, I’ve begun to feel like one of the guys, and men have always treated me just that way.”

  Eli had a really hard time believing any man, young, old, single, or attached could be around Ray without complete and total acknowledgement of her as a woman. It didn’t matter what she wore or how she acted with the men. Unless they were blind, they’d be noticing her.

  She gave a self-conscious shrug. “I’m only in this mode when I’m on an assignment. There’re just too many other things to concentrate on to worry about my appearance. I hope you don’t mind too much.” She pushed her bangs away. “I’ll try to remember a little more modesty.”

  He didn’t want her to do that. But after that speech, where she took everything so seriously, concentrating solely on the job of saving his brother, mentioning that he had enjoyed the show might seem insensitive.

  He’d just have to try harder to hide his reaction to her.

  But then she took her seat, reached for her toast, and the strap of the undershirt slid down her arm. For one breathless, heart-stopping, anticipatory moment, Eli thought the shirt would give way to gravity and reveal the fullness of her breast. Neither heaven nor hell could have pulled his gaze away from her.

  But she caught the strap and tugged it back up, oblivious to his turmoil.

  Eli rubbed his face. Much more of that and he’d be making a fool of himself at the kitchen table. He concentrated on the food, on his brother, on anything and everything other than Ray.

  Eating eggs and fried bologna while feeling like an anxious adolescent preparing for his first intimacy wasn’t easy to pull off. His lack of control annoyed the hell out of him.

  As she wolfed down her portion of breakfast, Ray pulled out a map and laid it on the table between them. Using her fork, she pointed to a spot in Central America. “This is where they have your brother, just a couple of miles from the Macal River.”

  He glanced at the map. “A plateau?”

  “Yeah. Real pretty land, but riddled with caves, some pretty treacherous. There’s a clearing here,” she said, pointing to the map, “that used to be an old logging camp. It’s being reclaimed by the forest, though, and isn’t really passable except on foot. Deadfalls are everywhere. The wood makes good campfires, but it also houses some deadly insects and snakes.”

  Eli wasn’t worried about a few bugs. “Is the pilot you mentioned reliable?”

  Her eyes came up to his with a suddenness that was both startling and provoking. “Would I suggest him if he wasn’t?”

  With the morning sunlight flooding through the window, her eyes appeared a shade of brown, rather than black. But there were flecks of gold and ebony in them. They were beautiful eyes, eyes that could eat a man alive. Without thought, Eli reached out and took her hand where it rested on the table. “I didn’t mean to insult you, Ray. The truth is, despite everything, I’m still anxious.”

  A strange expression came over her face, and she nodded. “I understand. All I can tell you is that worrying won’t help. In fact, it’s the worst thing you can do because it weakens you, both physically and emotionally.”

  “So you never show fear and you never worry?” He said it teasingly, while wondering what kind of restrictive life she’d led when she didn’t want to laugh, didn’t want to connect with people, didn’t want to care enough to feel concern.

  “I try not to. Sometimes . . .” She shook her head and sighed. “I have my weaknesses like everyone else, Eli. But if I hear you repeat that, ever, I’ll make you sorry.”

  Her threat lightened his mood and gave him a smile.

  As if that had been her intent, she smiled, too, then curled her fingers into his and gave his hand a hardy squeeze. “Distract yourself. Think of pleasant things, fond memories, whatever. But don’t dwell on it.”

  He already knew what those pleasant thoughts would be, and they all centered around her. Still holding her hand, glad that she hadn’t pulled away yet, Eli asked, “What do you do to distract yourself?”

  “Exercise to the point of exhaustion, which I’ll probably do tonight. Sometimes I read a book. If I’m home, I play with my dog.”

  Doing a double take, he said, “You have a dog?”

  She smiled, a full, genuine smile for once, and Eli felt his stomach muscles contract in reaction. The smile transformed her face, taking her from cool and aloof to warm and open.

  “Yeah,” she whispered, “I have a dog. He’s about the meanest mutt you’d ever want to meet. Growls at everyone, and wow, he hates men.” Then, very softly she added, “But he loves me.”

  Eli was entranced, there was no other word for it. He sat there staring at her, knowing he’d just been sunk, that he was in over his head and didn’t even care.

  Ray was so tough one minute, so oblivious to her femininity, then within a blink of the eye, she turned gentle and sweet. His gaze drifted over her face, taking in every nuance, every small detail. There were tiny lines at the corners of her eyes, testimony to the seriousness of her missions. And those small scars . . .

  She looked fragile, if such a thing were possible for a person of her capabilities. But with her shoulders bare, no makeup o
n her face, and her features relaxed, she looked utterly female and frail. He wanted to protect her, from the world and her own sense of herself. Even more than that, he wanted to mark her as his own.

  And if Ray had any idea of his thoughts, he’d be in trouble for sure.

  She broke his pensive mood by saying, “If you’re not going to eat your eggs, can I have them?”

  The hilarity of the situation hit him. Here he was mired in profound ruminations of the heart—and she’d only been coveting his eggs.

  Laughing, he pushed his plate toward her. “Go ahead. I wouldn’t want you to deplete your resources.”

  She gave him a very prim “Thanks,” then dug into his food.

  Eli knew it wouldn’t be wise to push her, not yet, maybe not ever. He couldn’t tell her the carnal course his thoughts had taken, but he could tease her, perhaps get another smile from her. “You know, your naturalness is refreshing—I think.”

  Ray glanced up from her contemplation of the map. “My what?”

  “The way you say and do just as you please. It’s nice not to have to wonder what’s in your head.”

  She blinked at him lazily while storm clouds gathered in her eyes. “You think I have it so easy? You actually think you know my thoughts?”

  Uh-oh. Apparently, he’d stepped in it again. “Ray, you haven’t exactly been circumspect in your speech or”—he glanced at her body, teasingly displayed—“in your attire.”

  Her eyelids narrowed just the tiniest bit. She propped her chin on a fist. “You didn’t by any chance think to get to know me better, did you?”

  Eli wasn’t quite certain what was going on now. Seconds ago she’d been open and friendly. She’d told him about her dog, damn it. Of her own accord, she had opened up. “I’d like to get to know you better.”

  “Why?”

  He couldn’t tell her that he wanted her, that despite the situation with his brother, he couldn’t get her off his mind. He shrugged and settled on saying, “You fascinate me.”

  Her smile was mean. “Kind of like the strange animals at the zoo, huh?”

  “No.” He resented the gibe, especially since it had come on so suddenly. “I think you’re very independent and honest and up-front. I like and admire that about you. You don’t meet too many people with those traits.”