Myron’s eyes went wide. This was clearly not the answer he expected. “You want them to run the story?”
His gaze unfocused, Lucas saw McKenna as she’d been this morning when he’d left her in bed, asleep and vulnerable. Awake, she was so determined to be tough and invincible, but underneath that bravado was a fragility. Damon Hughes was obsessed and would never stop looking for her. The only way to protect McKenna was to get Hughes out of her life forever.
“What do you think a man like Hughes would do if he saw what he considers his property being touched by another man?”
“Explode,” Myron answered.
“Exactly. He wouldn’t be able to stand that another man has been in possession of what he believes is his.”
A frown of confused concern replacing his surprise, Myron gave a cautious nod.
“He’ll come after me.”
Myron surged to his feet. “You’re crazy, Lucas. Do you know what the man would do to you?”
Having been in the Kane family’s employ for many years, by necessity Myron knew a little about Lucas’s past. However, he didn’t know the extent or specialization of his employer’s training.
“I can handle the bastard.”
Staring hard for several seconds, Myron apparently saw the determination in Lucas’s eyes. He dropped into his chair with an explosive, resigned sigh. “What do you want me to do?”
fourteen
“I can’t believe you’ve never competed.”
McKenna grinned at him. This was the second swimming race they’d had and she’d beat him each time. He looked so incredibly proud of her, as if he had discovered a national secret.
“I tried out when I was in junior high but I didn’t have the reach I needed. My arms were too short. Then, when I got to high school, the swim team had pretty much disbanded. The school ran out of money and it was one of the first things they cut.”
“That’s too bad. You could’ve been one of their stars.”
She didn’t answer that it probably wouldn’t have worked out that way. She’d met Damon and her life had not been her own from the moment she saw him. Why had she not seen his possessiveness sooner? What she had thought was romantic and sweet had really been obsessive and sick. Her parents had seen it, and because of her stupidity, they’d paid the price.
“Stop it, McKenna.”
“Stop what?”
“Reliving the past. You can’t change it, but you can change the future.”
She didn’t want to think about it or dwell on it. There were just a few days left until her self-imposed deadline. Thinking about Damon would destroy the joy, and he had destroyed too much already.
“Race you to the end,” she challenged.
“Not on your life. I think I pulled a muscle during that last stretch.”
“Poor baby. Want me to rub it?”
“Yes…in fact, I think I pulled several muscles.”
Sputtering with laughter, McKenna swam away from him. One thing Lucas could do was make her laugh. Every day was a new adventure with him. It had been so long since she’d felt so lighthearted, so free from burdens. Lucas had given that to her and she would be forever grateful to him.
There was that word again. Forever. When would she get it through her head that forever was out when it came to them?
“Ready for lunch?”
Turning her mind away from those dark thoughts, she smiled up at him. “Do you even need to ask that question?”
Holding a towel for her, he said, “Come on up here, then. I might even allow you a second dessert.”
As she walked slowly up the steps, air hit her wet, naked skin, but it was the heated look in his eyes that caused the goose bumps to form all over her body. She loved it when he looked at her as if she were the most beautiful, desirable woman in the world.
Allowing him to wrap the towel around her, she put her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a slow, languorous kiss. Then, leaning away slightly, she whispered, “And I might just ask for thirds on that dessert. What do you think about that?”
“I think I’m damn glad this is an indoor pool, and that I gave everyone the afternoon off.” With those words, he pulled the towel from her and then unhooked the top of her swimsuit, dropping both to the ground. His mouth went to her breast.
Gasping at his hot mouth on her water-cooled skin, she held his head as he suckled. Finally she managed to ask, “What about lunch?”
Without lifting his head, he muttered, “Dessert first.” His mouth moved to her other breast and gave it the same treatment.
“Mmm. Yes, definitely.”
As his mouth worked at her breast, his hands swept down her body and removed the minuscule bathing suit bottom. McKenna’s hands were equally busy as she tugged at his swim trunks. They were more difficult to get off and she grunted her frustration at the effort.
Chuckling at her impatience, Lucas lifted his head and pulled his trunks down with one jerk. His erection sprang out and McKenna sighed at the sheer beauty of him. In her life before Lucas, she would never have acknowledged that a fully aroused man was anything but an atrocious, evil demon. Lucas had made her fall in love not only with the man inside but with the body that housed the man.
Her hands went to the hard, throbbing erection pressed between them. Lucas’s mouth had gone back to her breast and he growled in approval of the firm strokes she gave him. While one of his hands held her close, the other glided down her stomach and pressed against her mound. McKenna opened her legs, knowing what he wanted. At the first touch of his fingers on her clit, she went wild, arching into his hand. Lucas thrust three fingers into her and she screamed at the suddenness of her release.
With a fierce growl she’d never heard from him before, Lucas lifted her in his arms and carried her to a lounge chair. Thinking he meant to drop her on it, she was surprised when he pulled the mat from the frame and threw it on the ground. Then she forgot to think at all because he lowered her onto the mat, positioned himself over her, and then was inside her.
She was about to wrap her legs around his waist, but Lucas grabbed her ankles, stopping her. She watched as he slowly pushed her legs up and wide until she was totally exposed to him. Following his eyes, she looked down to where they were joined. And together, they looked as his penis slid in and out, stroking deep, over and over again. McKenna almost screamed at the sheer eroticism and earthy sexuality.
“Lucas…,” she groaned, and closed her eyes.
“Open your eyes, love.”
His gaze was hotter, his expression wilder than she’d ever seen. Pulling out of her completely, Lucas bent down and licked her slowly, softly. As if he were licking a melting ice-cream cone, savoring her taste, her essence, he swirled and licked her inside and out. McKenna didn’t know whether to sob, scream, or explode. When his tongue plunged deep and his teeth nibbled delicately on her clit, she did all three as she came in a long, earth-shattering sensation of ecstasy.
Before she could catch her breath, Lucas was inside her again. With her ankles wrapped around his neck, he pounded into her with more force than he’d ever used before. McKenna hung on, enjoying his wild, untamed lovemaking just as much or more than the tender, sweetness of their earlier times.
Another growl, this time deeper and more guttural, came from his throat as he stiffened above her and then exploded.
McKenna loosened her legs and let them fall on either side of him. Holding him close in her arms, she cherished the gasping breaths of her lover. The golden man of her dreams.
A soft sound woke him. Without opening his eyes, he pulled McKenna’s body closer. She lay on her side, spooned against him. Reaching down to kiss her neck, he had to move her hair aside, and for the first time he realized how much it had grown since he’d known her. When they first met, her hair had been almost as short as his. Now it fell just below her ears. And since she’d been here, she hadn’t colored it, which meant the light golden brown of her natural color was showing.
Lucas didn’t question why her appearance was changing. He knew the reason. Here she felt safe. Here she knew there was no way Damon Hughes could find her. His heart jerked at the deception he was playing, but he couldn’t back away.
So far his investigator had been unable to ascertain Damon’s location. If he didn’t have it soon, Lucas would go with his second plan. The photograph and a small teasing caption under the photo should more than satisfy Damon that McKenna not only was alive and well but had a lover. Once the bastard saw the pictures, the ball was in his court.
He’d had to pay a tidy sum of money for the delay in printing them, but if this worked, he’d pay ten times over. Though he wasn’t giving up hope that Damon’s location could be determined before the photographs were printed, he wasn’t counting on it. The pictures would ensure that Lucas got the results he wanted.
McKenna planned to leave him soon. He’d seen the truth in her eyes. She didn’t believe there was a future with him and she would do what she thought was the right thing. To protect him, she would leave him. Little did she know that not only did he not need her protection, he would soon be luring a demon out of hiding for a confrontation. One that Lucas planned to win, assuring McKenna she need never be afraid of anyone again.
She groaned softly, wiggling her round bottom against him. Despite the pleasure of having her silken body in his arms, fury at the marks the bastard had made reignited in him. Each scar was a badge of courage. She had thought they would repel him. The only thing they made him want to do was rip the head off the creature who’d put them there. McKenna’s outer scars didn’t pain him nearly as much as the scars he knew she had on the inside. Damon had damaged so many things inside her. Things Lucas didn’t know if she’d ever be able to reclaim. He only hoped that once the threat was over, she could find the innocent, trusting, and loving woman who had been smothered by the freak.
Another bottom wiggle told him she was waking up. Unable to deny such a lovely invitation, Lucas lifted her left leg up and pressed his erection into her soft warmth. She moaned in approval. This time it was soft and sweet. Arousal built like a campfire, small, unassuming, until soon a cinder would catch and a blaze would burst forth, out of control. Lucas surged and retreated, thrust deep, slowly withdrew, again and then again. Heat bloomed…building…building…building. The blaze flared, turned into an inferno. He could wait no longer; turning McKenna onto her stomach, he simply, passionately, and lovingly mated with her.
Paris
Noah stared at the computer screen, an ominous feeling spreading through him. Though he wasn’t much of a cursing man, every curse word he knew came to mind as he studied the photo of the missing woman. Jamie Kendrick had been missing for weeks, maybe more, and it was just now being reported. How the hell did this happen in today’s society, when a fucking celebrity can kiss someone in public and in seconds it’s spread like a wildfire on the Internet?
“What’s wrong?” The concern on Samara’s face told him she’d sensed his rage.
“Take a look at this picture.” He turned the screen so she could get a good look.
“Oh, Noah,” Samara breathed. “It’s McKenna.”
“No…just looks an awful damn lot like McKenna.” Using the eraser end of a pencil, he pointed out the differences. “See, the nose is tilted up a little more than McKenna’s. Her eyes are more rounded, less oval. And her chin is squarer.”
She peered closer. “You’re right, but the resemblance is uncanny.” She looked at him then, concluding what he had only moments ago. “You think Damon Hughes took her, don’t you?”
“It’s a damn good possibility. What fries my ass is that no one reported her missing. Apparently she’d just moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, a few months ago and hadn’t made any friends. The part-time jobs she had were low-level positions and the people assumed she had just decided not to work there anymore.”
“How did they finally decide she was missing?”
“She missed a court date in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Seems her husband, now ex-husband, had abused her and was in jail, awaiting trial. The woman had moved away but with the obvious intent of going back to testify. She never showed up.”
“But couldn’t it have been her ex-husband who arranged her disappearance?”
Noah nodded. “That’s what the authorities are going on. He’s made several threats against her. They’ve not named him as a suspect since he was in jail at the time of her disappearance; however, they’re speculating that he hired someone.”
“That’s a reasonable assumption.”
“Yes, and I’d be the first one to agree with them if she didn’t look almost identical to McKenna.”
Samara sat on the edge of his desk, pressed her fingertips to Noah’s temples, and rubbed. From experience, Mara knew that if there was any tension in his body at all, it resulted in a slight ache in his temple. And dammit, yes, he had tension.
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“What I don’t want to do, but there’s no choice. If Hughes has this woman, McKenna needs to know.”
“She’s been with Lucas for almost a month.”
Noah blew out a sigh. Standing, he took his wife in his arms, drawing comfort from her warm, enticing body. Holding Samara always helped.
“Have you talked with her since she’s been there?” Noah asked.
Samara nodded against his chest. “Only once. She sounded…”
She trailed off, and Noah knew why. She didn’t want to say the words because it would reemphasize what he knew and would only make calling her doubly hard. McKenna had sounded happy. For the first time in her young life, she was feeling safe and secure. And without a doubt, she was falling in love with Lucas Kane. Dammit all to hell, he didn’t want to have to do it, but he didn’t have a choice.
McKenna gripped her cellphone in her hand, afraid if she let go of it, she would throw it across the room. Refusing to flinch from what she knew she had to do, McKenna stalked jerkily to her laptop. She hadn’t had it on in days. Just how freaking irresponsible could she be?
She went to the website Noah had set up for LCR, typed in her code word, and hit enter. And there she was. A face that wasn’t hers, but looked too much like hers not to mean something.
Jamie Kendrick looked like McKenna, yet she didn’t. This woman still had a wholesome, innocent quality about her. McKenna could no longer claim either. And if Damon had taken her, she wouldn’t be wholesome or innocent for long.
If? She snorted under breath. Of course he had taken her. She wasn’t into lying to herself. The woman’s ex-husband might be the only suspect, but McKenna knew in her gut he had nothing to do with her disappearance. Damon had somehow found the woman and had taken her. What had he done when he realized she wasn’t McKenna?
Physically, she had changed many things about herself. However, she still had one identifying emblem that was almost impossible to demolish. Long ago she had tried to have the brand on her bottom removed. The D had been burned into her skin so deeply and was so large that it would take several skin grafts to repair the damaged area. And even if she had the brand removed, the doctors told her, she’d still have scarring. Either way, if this woman didn’t have scars or a giant letter on her bottom, Damon would know.
Would he kill her? Years ago, Damon hadn’t minded killing. He’d done it as easily as some people swatted at an insect. If someone irritated him, he killed them. Was she now responsible for one more death?
“What are you doing?”
McKenna closed her laptop and looked over her shoulder at Lucas, who stood at the door of her bedroom. A bedroom she hadn’t used since they’d become lovers. “Checking my messages.”
Standing, she went toward him, willing herself the courage to do what she had to do.
“Something wrong?”
“No.” She grimaced. “Well, other than I have to leave earlier than I planned.”
“Leave?”
She sighed. “Yes, I had hoped to stay a
couple more days, but Noah McCall just called. He needs my help with a job…sounds really intriguing.”
“Just like that, huh?”
“Just like what?”
“You can leave with no regrets?”
“I didn’t say I wanted to leave, Lucas. But you knew I would have to eventually. We’ve talked about it.”
“We talked about it before we became lovers.”
“Nothing’s changed. I can’t stay permanently.”
He turned and walked away. “You’re right.”
Well, what the hell did that mean? She followed him as he headed down the landing toward his bedroom. “Where are you going?”
He turned and gave her a mild look. “Taking a shower. Want to join me?”
Jerking to a stop, she could only stare at him. Though she hadn’t wanted him to be angry or upset when she left, she had expected a different kind of reaction. McKenna didn’t know if she should celebrate, cry, or stomp her feet with frustration. Had she misread him? Did he not care as much as she thought?
“That’s it?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them.
“What exactly do you want me to say, McKenna? Please stay? Of course I want you to stay, but I’ve known from the beginning you were here only temporarily. Why should I waste time on an argument when I know it will do no good?”
Hell, he was right. She should be glad there were no harsh words said between them. Their time together had been so special and he had been so wonderfully good to her. She forced a smile to her frozen mouth. “You’re right. And I wouldn’t want to spoil anything by arguing.”
She looked down at her hands, surprised and disturbed to see them clenched. Acting indifferent came with her tough-girl persona. She damn well needed to get it back before she confronted Damon. Taking a breath to center herself, she said, “I need to leave within the hour. Would you mind asking Conrad to call a taxi for me? I need to go to a car rental place.”
“Take one of my cars. I have several I never use.”
“Thanks, but then I’d have to arrange to have it returned. I’ll just rent one that I can return to a rental agency in Paris.”
Last Chance Page 17