by Joan Swan
“He can wait.”
“You obviously don’t know kids. This car is going to reek of urine in about two minutes. You got to take a piss over an hour ago.” Which had been a very good thing. If he hadn’t, she wouldn’t have been able to call Luke. “But you expect a kid to hold it?”
Tony looked at his watch, rubbed his hand over his mouth.
“Stamata t’aftokinito, Thia.” Mateo’s voice rose in a whine.
Keira looked down into his earnest eyes. He was trying to tell her something, and she didn’t think it was that he had to pee.
“Fuck.” Tony took his foot off the gas pedal and slowed to a stop in the middle of the deserted two-lane road. “If you try to run, I will shoot you. Do you understand me? Even in the dark, I’m almost as good a shot as you are, Keira. Don’t make me prove it.”
SIX
Keira kept her mouth shut so she didn’t ruin this opportunity to escape. Maybe her only opportunity.
Tony scanned the surroundings and dragged Keira across the driver’s seat and out the door. She struggled with Mateo’s weight. The boy tried to hang on instead of standing, causing all her injured muscles to pull.
The cold night closed around her, adding gravity to her circumstances. The air was frostier than she’d guessed from inside the car, but as long as she kept moving, she’d be okay.
Tony pushed her off the cracked asphalt to a dirt strip. “Get busy.”
Keira set Mateo on the ground, guided him a few feet away, and crouched in front of him. She searched the terrain from beneath her lashes, or at least what she could see of it in the sliver of moonlight and the diffusion of headlights.
A whisper of calm blanketed her shoulders. Unjustified, but real. Familiar, yet unknown.
The sandy dirt pitched and rolled in hills so slight she hadn’t noticed them from the car. Ones that could provide temporary seclusion as she ran. But she’d have to do something to disable Tony first. She was fast, but carrying Mateo, she’d never outrun the man.
“And while we’re out here, you go, too, Keira,” he snapped, nervous eyes darting right and left in the car’s faded side beams. “I’m not stopping again. For anyth—”
A wave of energy splashed her with heat just before a fleshy smack split the air. Tony grunted and stumbled sideways, then whipped around, his weapon pointed into the darkness, wavering from one area to another, searching for the threat.
“She doesn’t like being bossed around.”
Luke. A mixture of excitement and relief pushed the breath from Keira’s lungs in one long whoosh, and she smiled. A big, face-splitting, cheek-pinching smile.
His voice snaked through the quiet night from what seemed like every direction, but she could feel him kicking off surge after surge of emotion on Tony’s right. Volatile, complex emotions she couldn’t label.
Tony twisted one way, turned another, unable to pin Luke’s location. Another crack of flesh on flesh, and Tony flailed backward. The flash of his gun burst red against the black surroundings. The sound exploded in Keira’s ears. Her heart jerked at the same time Mateo grabbed her shirt with both hands and squealed in terror. She scooped him into her arms and darted to the opposite side of the car.
Once she’d set him on his feet, Keira pushed him back by the arms and looked him in the eye. “Stay here.” With a shake of his shoulders and a determined gaze, she repeated, “Don’t move.”
When she turned and scuffled toward the trunk, she anticipated the grab of his hand, the sound of his voice calling her back, but neither happened. Peering around the bumper, Keira watched the men’s silhouettes struggle. Both were tall. Both lean and muscular. Both trained fighters. But Luke’s blond hair shimmered golden in the moonlight.
In a crouch, she started toward them. The vibrations flowing off each were so different, she would have known who was who even if she hadn’t been able to see the shine of Luke’s blond head. She followed her senses and angled behind Tony. Grunts, kicks, smacks, scuffles. Another gunshot. Keira’s heartbeat spiked.
Her gaze hooked on to the neon flash, and she lunged. She caught Tony’s wrist from behind and yanked his arm backward. When he turned a shocked look her way, Luke plowed his fist into the side of Tony’s face. He jerked, spun, and dropped. Keira stomped on his forearm, wrenched the gun from his hand, and pointed it at his chest. But Tony didn’t notice. He was already unconscious.
“Goddamned sonofabitch!” Luke clutched one fist inside the other, both held tight to his body. “I think I broke my fucking fingers to go along with my fucking ribs.”
A laugh bubbled up from her throat. A traumatized, Tinker Bell–like laugh. When she lowered the gun, her hand was shaking. Her gun hand never shook. Never. The laugh twisted into a pained moan of relief as her shoulders sagged and her mind shorted out.
Luke advanced on her, shaking out his fist, a grimace on his scruffy face. His energy or aura or whatever the hell it was she felt spilling from him traveled in tandem, and his approach pressed in on her like an impending tsunami. She fell back a step before he closed his arms around her, yanked her against his body, and lifted her off the ground.
Sizzle. Pop. Buzz. The current mellowed to a soothing hum. Warmth coated every inch of her body. She melted into him. Dropped her arms around his neck, her face against his shoulder. He was warm and hard and strong. He smelled so good, fit her so perfectly.
Oh, yes. This is where I belong.
“Jesus Christ, Keira,” he muttered against her neck, where he’d buried his face. Where she wanted it to stay. Where she wanted him to kiss her. “You just took ten goddamned years off my life.”
She skimmed the fingers of her free hand through his hair. Still as rich and soft as she remembered. “Only ten?”
“The second ten. The first ten came off when I saw you hanging from that roof. At this rate, you’re going to dig my grave in a week.”
She grinned. “You always said I’d be the death of you.”
He loosened his hold and let her slide down his body. And, oh, wow, how had she forgotten the steely, searing beauty of it? By the time her feet touched the ground, her hips were wedged against his erection, her belly pressed to his, her breasts flattened against his chest, and fire ripped over every inch of her.
Luke started to pull back, but Keira held on. She shouldn’t. She knew. But her arms wouldn’t release his shoulders. His hands gripped her waist, fingers digging into her flesh and holding her against him, as if he, too, was having a hard time letting go.
He looked into her eyes, and she could have fallen back in time—to when she could read his mind with one look into the beautiful blue irises. Now, she saw traces of that man. Relief, lingering adrenaline . . . desire. Yes, definitely desire. Need pulsed deep in her abdomen. She lowered her gaze to his mouth, so very hungry for the taste of him again. His lips looked fuller outlined with several days’ worth of whisker growth, and they were so close.
“Back then I was talking about how you wore me out in bed.”
She watched his mouth move with the words, basked in the way his voice showered over her, and smiled at the same time fire exploded at the center of her body. Her fingers slid into his hair, head tilted up until her mouth was on a trajectory with his—
“Thia.” Mateo gripped her jeans.
Her eyes snapped up from Luke’s mouth and met his; found them mirroring her flash of surprise. Then they crinkled at the corners with his slow smile, and Keira’s heart flipped, twisted, and floated to her throat.
“Thia. ” Mateo bounced restlessly at their feet, his arms stretched up to her. “Aggalia.”
Reality check.
She released Luke, and as if the three years separating them whirled in to take over, contentment and love washed out on one wave, disappointment and heartache swept in on another.
Definitely a reality check. What in God’s name was she thinking? Kissing Luke was like inviting catastrophe into her carefully secured world. She needed to get back to Sacramento—way the hell far away from hi
m.
Mateo clawed at her clothes, panic shining in his eyes. Exhaustion crept into Keira’s muscles. As much as she wanted to wrap that little bundle of heat into her arms, she just didn’t have the energy.
She set the safety on Tony’s weapon, stuffed it into the waistband of her jeans, and dropped into a crouch. Mateo immediately crawled into her lap. And while one type of heat ebbed, another grew. She closed her eyes and let her face drop against his pillow of curls. This was all so damned confusing.
“I can’t carry you anymore, kid.” She glanced up at Luke. “He may not look big, but he gets heavy after a few hours.”
Reality seemed to have crept in for him as well. His smile was gone. The light, crystal-clear eyes she’d looked into just moments ago had turned dark and veiled. Scowl in place, one arm crossed protectively across his abdomen, he used his foot to roll Tony onto his back.
“This from a woman who maneuvers her body like a freaking acrobat.” He leaned down and grabbed the collar of Tony’s shirt. “You’re going to have to handle the kid. I’ve got this mess to deal with.”
With a firm hold on Mateo, Keira pushed to her feet. Luke hauled Tony across the dirt and onto the asphalt, dropping him alongside the still idling vehicle. Tony’s head smacked the road, and Keira winced. Luke pulled handcuffs from the back of his jeans, clamped one around Tony’s limp wrist, the other around the passenger door’s handle. He paused for a moment, bent over, hands on knees, breathing hard, face scrunched in pain. Then started going through Tony’s pockets.
“What are you doing?”
He plucked the wallet and phone from Tony’s trousers and shoved them into his own jeans. Then he tugged off the unconscious man’s dress shoes and chucked them into the darkness.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m making sure he doesn’t go anywhere anytime soon.”
“But . . . Shouldn’t we take him in . . . or with us . . . or something?”
Luke’s eyes cut to hers, looking more silver than blue in the moonlight. “You were the one who told me not to trust anyone. Do you want to explain all this to local deputies?”
“Well, no.” It sounded absurd now that he’d spelled it out. Still . . . “It just doesn’t seem right to let go of someone who knows so much. He has information—”
“That I doubt he’d give us short of torture.”
“How did you find us?”
Luke opened the back door. With one long leg extended behind him, the other knee braced on the backseat, he rummaged through the car’s contents. She didn’t notice he hadn’t answered. She was too busy staring at his butt. She couldn’t say it was her favorite part of the male anatomy, she preferred the tan, sinewy strength of a man’s forearms. Or hands. Broad palms, long, strong fingers, short, clean, well-shaped nails. Good hands were hard to find. But Luke’s hands . . . Oh, Luke’s hands were . . .
No, no, no. Keira snapped a mental stop sign into place. Really, don’t go there.
She had to admit, Luke’s butt had always been exceptional, too. Perfectly shaped, muscular . . .
“Why don’t you make yourself useful instead of staring at my ass?”
She was startled out of her daydream, her face heating all over again. For a long second she wasn’t sure if he’d said it or thought it, but the words still rang in the cold night air, and her embarrassment ramped up faster than she could shift Mateo to her other hip. “Get over yourself. I’ve seen better.”
He straightened from the car and shot her a smirk. No, you haven’t. You’ve said so yourself.
The memory of telling him what a great ass he had and how much she loved it every chance she got so many years ago sent a rush of heat up her neck. And the way Luke was projecting his thoughts as easily as if he’d spoken was really starting to bug her. “You sonofa—”
“You really should stop swearing in front of the kid.” He rounded the car to the driver’s side.
She narrowed her eyes and beamed her next thought at his head like a softball. Fuck you.
“Baby.” He pulled open the car door and crossed his arms on the roof, his eyes intent and direct on hers. “Don’t let that smart mouth write checks your sweet little ass can’t cash.”
She wasn’t going to take the bait. It would just start a senseless fight. “You’re reading my thoughts now, too?”
“I guess so. Lucky me, huh?”
Luke ducked into the car and rifled through the glove box and center console while Keira tightened the reins on her temper. He knew exactly how to push her buttons. This must have been where she’d learned how to mess with people’s minds.
He shut down the engine and pulled the keys. The silent night rushed in and filled the void, shaking her back to her barren surroundings and the near freezing temperatures. She shivered.
Before she could broach a discussion on plans, Luke turned, drew back his arm, and chucked the keys into the night.
Keira’s mouth dropped open. “What . . . ? Why did you . . . ? How are we . . . ?” Her mind clicked in and she peered around the darkness again. “You didn’t answer me. How’d you find us? How’d you get here?”
“I found you the way you expected me to.” He came back around the car, took one last satisfied look at Tony, and put a hand on her arm, urging her forward. “The GPS on your phone. Brilliant, by the way. I’m impressed.”
She shouldn’t be bolstered by the offhanded compliment, but she was. “Where are we—”
Her gaze fell on a black sedan parked in a shallow valley.
She held the rest of her questions until he was behind the wheel, pulling out onto the road. “You’re going the wrong way.”
“No, I’m not.”
She turned and looked at his profile. So different from Tony. All balance and symmetry. Square jaw, high cheekbones, full lips. Too handsome. Too damned sexy. Frustration burned. “Your hair’s too long. You look like a girl.”
He lifted a brow, cast a where-did-that-come-from? look out of the corner of his eye, and raised his chin toward Mateo. “That’s funny considering you can’t keep your hands out of those curls.”
“He’s a little boy, not a grown man. When’s the last time you shaved?”
“I was about to when someone called begging for my help. I got a little . . . distracted.”
Distracted. Keira’s mind shifted to another place, another time, another distraction. To Luke standing in front of the mirror in his bathroom at his home in Truckee, with nothing but a white towel wrapped low at his hips. She could still see the tan shade of his skin and the muscles of his chest and belly rippling beneath. The strip of fine gold hair starting at his navel and disappearing beneath the edge of the towel shimmered in the fluorescent light as he bent over the sink with a razor in one hand, shaving cream in the other.
She had uncoiled from their warm bed and walked in on him. The animalistic look he’d tossed her way then made her blood simmer even now.
“Baby,” he’d said, with a hot, sweeping glance down her naked body, “don’t distract me when I’ve got a razor blade in my hand.”
Luke hit the brakes. The car jerked and slid on the sandy highway. Keira held Mateo tight with one arm, slapped the other hand to the dash.
When they came to a stop, Keira’s gaze scoured the landscape, searching for a threat. “What? What’s wrong?”
Luke’s low growl filled the car. “What the fuck was that?”
“What was . . . ?”
Keira swung her attention to Luke, and the expression on his face stopped her midsentence. Then the sensation penetrated. Lust. Vivid, fiery, nearly painful desire danced around the car’s interior, pierced her chest, and prodded a similar awareness deep inside her to come out and play.
Lucky for her, Luke didn’t give it a chance. He lowered his chin, raised his hand, and pointed at her. “Don’t you dare start putting shit like that—”
“Shit?” She raised her brows. “I see. Our memories are now shit in your book?”
“That’s not wh
at I meant—”
“Let’s make this clear—I’m not putting anything into your head.” She swung her hair over her shoulder and lowered her voice to a velvety tone he used to thrive on. If she had to suffer, she might as well have company. “Because if I were, I would have added the incredible smell of that shaving cream. Mmm, yeah.” She closed her eyes, dropped her head back, and took a long, slow, deep breath through her nose, filling her chest. “I would have added the memory of how I pulled that towel off you and started drawing—”
“Keira! Stop.” He shifted in his seat and tugged on the leg of his jeans as if they were too small. “For Christ’s sake, I remember just fucking fine, thank you very much.”
“How does that saying go?” A zing of accomplishment made her grin. “Don’t let that smart mouth write checks your sweet ass can’t cash?”
“Christ,” he muttered, releasing the brake and starting forward again, wiping his forehead as if he were sweating. “I don’t even want to hear what others say aloud half the time. I sure as hell don’t want to hear what they’re thinking. Why the hell am I here again?”
A flutter of guilt dulled the enjoyment of seeing him suffer. He had saved her. She didn’t know if she would have gotten away from Tony on her own or not, although she would have tried. She could have very well died out here tonight. Mateo could have died out here with her.
Keira released her seat belt and shifted Mateo in her lap so she could lean across the console. She pressed her forehead to Luke’s cheek. Absorbed the gentle scratch of his whiskers on her skin. So real. So alive. Closed her eyes and breathed in that familiar sexy scent of pure Luke. The blend of sweat and soap and skin went straight to her bloodstream. Who needed booze? Who needed drugs? He was the only controlled substance she’d ever wanted. Only, coming off the high? Not so fun.
She pressed her lips against the hollow of his cheek. Just for a second. Only a second. Forced herself to pull away. “Thank you for coming.”
“Suck-up.” His voice came out rough as he reached around and gave her head an affectionate squeeze against his before pushing her away. “Get back on your side of the car and fasten your seat belt.”