In Enemy Hands

by Michelle Perry

  “Nadia!” Ronnie said sharply. “I’m not kidding. Quit screwing around and get down from there.”

  She jerked her hand up to salute him, and lost her footing. Dante’s heart did a crazy dance while she flapped her arms wildly, struggling to regain her balance. Before he could move, she screamed and fell over the side.

  Dante ran to the rail and stared down. He barely registered the flash of Ronnie’s camera as he stared at the creek some thirty feet below. For a moment, he saw nothing. Then Nadia bobbed to the surface like a cork and waved at him.

  “Hey, Ronnie. How was it?” she shouted.

  “Not bad,” Ronnie yelled back. Looking at the screen on his digital camera, he said, “Not as good as Waynie’s, but still … not too shabby.”

  Dante stared at him open-mouthed. “You mean … you did that on purpose!”

  Ronnie grinned. “She did that on purpose. All I can tell you is the girl’s got a messed up sense of humor. She nearly made Waynie cry doing that.”

  Dante scowled down at Nadia. “How deep is that water, Ronnie?” he asked.

  “Deep enough. Waynie jumped off there day before yesterday and didn’t touch bottom, so you’ll be okay. Just keep to the center.”

  “Ready or not, princess, here I come,” Dante yelled down to her, and took off his shoes. After he climbed on the rail, he looked at Ronnie. “You coming?”

  “I don’t dive,” Ronnie said. “Not when there’s a perfectly good trail over there.” He shook his head and scooped up their things. Walking off, he muttered, “You and Nadia need to switch to decaf.”

  Dante stared into the crystal blue water below. Nadia butterflied backward, giving him plenty of room.

  He jumped.

  Wind roared in his ears and adrenaline surged through his veins like electricity. He sliced through the cold water and managed to keep himself from bobbing to the top. Propelling himself through the water, he scanned the surface above him, searching for Nadia.

  When he thought he was going to have to give up and come to the surface for a breath, he saw her. Her lovely legs treaded the water to his left, looking unnaturally white in the dark water. He kicked up to grab her.

  She sucked in a breath the instant before he dragged her under, but then she looked at him and bubbles of laughter escaped her mouth. Dante let her go.

  He popped to the surface and she clutched at his neck, burying her face in his chilled skin.

  “You dog,” she gasped. “You scared me.”

  “I scared you?” he said incredulously, and she laughed again.

  “Damn, baby, this water’s c-cold,” he chattered.

  She wrapped her legs around his waist and he opened the arms he was hugging himself with to pull her against his chest.

  “I’ll keep you warm,” she said, and crushed her mouth to his.

  Her hot mouth was a shocking contrast to the bitter cold that enveloped the rest of his body. Like she’d flipped a thermostat, Dante’s blood surged, flooding him with warmth. He waved his arms at his side to keep them adrift while she clutched at his shoulders.

  “Still cold?” she asked coyly, her nose bumping against his.

  “Huh uh.” He caught her lower lip between his teeth, and then found himself enveloped in another firestorm of a kiss. By the time they separated, they were both panting for breath.

  Nadia gave him a seductive smile and pushed a chunk of damp hair out of her face. She slid her cheek against his until her lips hovered at his earlobe. She whispered, “I’ve been daydreaming about that all day.”

  The thought of her wanting him as badly as he did her caused an unexpected, savage thrill to race through him.

  “Hey, Dante!” Ronnie called, and they guiltily broke apart.

  Dante scanned the banks, but didn’t yet see him. Then Ronnie’s white shirt appeared through the greenery.

  “What do you think about the waterfall?” he yelled.

  Dante laughed and lifted his eyebrows. To Nadia, he said, “What waterfall?”

  Nadia pointed over his shoulder. He twisted his head to look at the white, foaming water spilling over the rock wall.

  “Oh.” He grinned. “It’s great!” he yelled back at Ronnie.

  Ronnie peeled off his shirt and tossed it on a rock along with the pile of their shoes. He dove into the silvery blue water and Dante took advantage of the moment to give Nadia another quick kiss.

  “I wish we were alone,” he said.

  Well, most of him wished that, but another part of him wondered how the hell he was going to walk away from her now, and they weren’t even lovers yet. Not that he wanted to walk away, but he had the feeling she’d leave him no choice when she found out his true mission. Nadia made it painfully clear that she valued honesty and directness, and he’d been neither with her. But looking into her smiling face, he granted himself a short reprieve from the doubt and worry. For the next couple of hours, he was simply going to enjoy being with her.

  After they exhausted themselves swimming and playing beneath the waterfall, Nadia announced she was getting out. Dante followed her to the rocky shore. She sat on a long, smooth rock.

  They lay on their sides, facing each other. Dante trailed his fingertips down her side and she smiled. Ronnie emerged from the water a few minutes later and stretched on a grassy bank several yards away. With an exaggerated yawn, he turned away, giving them a small measure of privacy if they talked softly enough.

  “Your old man would kill me if he found out about this,” Dante whispered, caressing her hip.

  Nadia’s laugh was low and husky. “Well, I’m not telling, and Ronnie won’t say anything either. He’s like a brother to me, and he wouldn’t narc me out unless he thought I was going to get hurt.” She propped her head in one hand and stroked his face with the other. “You won’t hurt me, will you?”

  Dante twisted his head to kiss her palm. “Not on purpose. Never on purpose.” He cleared his throat. “So, tell me what it was like growing up here. How long have you been under lock and key?”

  “Well, let’s see.” Nadia glanced up at the sky, pretending to count. “The fifth of next month will be … forever.” She smiled and trailed her fingers over his Adam’s apple down to his necklace. Dante shivered and she bit back a smile as she toyed with the medallion that hung from it. “Please tell me all about New York,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to visit there …”

  Dante grinned. “There you go again, trying to turn it back to me. Why won’t you tell me about yourself?”

  Her playful smile faded and he caught a glimpse of pain in her eyes, though her voice was deadly calm. “There’s nothing to tell. What you see is what you get. Sometimes I feel like I’m trapped in one of those snow globe things. Everything around me looks perfect and still, but it’s all an illusion. My life isn’t real.” She wrinkled her nose and smiled. “I want to see the world. I want to live.”

  Come away with me.

  The stupid words swelled in Dante’s heart and nearly escaped his lips. For just a moment, he dreamed of stealing her away from both her fathers. He wanted to be the one who showed her the world and all the amazing things he’d found in it. He wanted to hold her hand while they walked the white, sandy beaches of Mexico, see her face lit by the gorgeous orange and reds of an African sunset, and get snowed in with her in some cozy little cabin in South Dakota.

  It wasn’t simply her beauty that called him, though it scorched him like the sun. It was the hunger in her eyes. He wanted to be her lover, her guide.

  He wanted to be her everything.

  “What?” she asked, her smile returning. “What are you thinking about?”

  “That’s easy. The only thing I’ve thought about since I walked into that diner … you.”

  Nadia leaned into him, pressing her soft, sweet mouth to his. Her skin was slick from the residue of the coconut scented oil and water, and his fingers glided down the curve of her spine. His lips parted to welcome the slow, sweet invasion of her tongue.
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br />   Her bikini top felt cold and clammy against his bare chest, but the skin around it burned like fever. Since his divorce, he’d been reckless with many things, but never his heart. As her hot, lithe body melded to his, Dante felt in danger of losing not only his heart, but his very soul.

  Dante caught her staring at him. Mesmerized, he couldn’t look away, giving himself over to the desire in the jaguar green depths of her eyes as they kissed. Never had a simple kiss felt so intimate. So consuming.

  Come away with me, he thought again. Run away with me forever.

  Drugged from the heat of the sun beating on his back and Nadia’s intoxicating kiss, Dante’s mind drifted, again carrying her with him to all the exotic places he’d been.

  Nadia broke the kiss, trailing her lips along his jaw to his ear. His breath caught when she nipped his earlobe.

  “If your lovemaking is as good as your kisses …” she whispered huskily, “… I’ll never survive it.”

  Funny, he’d just had the same thought.

  “Ahem.”

  They both started at the loud cough behind them.

  “I am not looking,” Ronnie said, “because I don’t want to go blind or anything, but we’d better get going if you want to make Charlie’s tonight. I know how long it takes you to get ready.”

  “Charlie’s?” Dante asked, but Nadia didn’t seem to hear him. She scrambled to her feet.

  “Ooh, right.” She rubbed her wrist where her watch usually rested. “What time is it, anyway?”

  “Ten till six,” Ronnie answered.

  Nadia shimmied back into her shorts with a little wiggle that made Dante’s blood pressure spike and slipped her pretty feet into her white tennis shoes. Her eyes gleamed when she looked up at him.

  “We’re going to have some fun tonight, boys,” she promised.

  Dante grinned and squeezed her shoulder. “I can’t imagine any time spent with you not being ‘fun’, princess.”

  The climb out of the swimming hole was a steep one. Ronnie scaled the nearly vertical terrain like a mountain goat. Although Dante thought he could’ve probably kept the same pace, he hung back with a panting Nadia.

  She gasped, “He always … leaves me.” Putting her hands on her hips, she stopped and straightened for a moment, turning her face up to the sky. “Hey, Ronnie,” she yelled. “You see this? A real gentleman waits on a lady.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he called, with a dismissive wave over his shoulder. “Smoke you another one.”

  She made a rude gesture at Ronnie’s back and Dante laughed.

  Sweat trickled down Dante’s back by the time they reached the top. Nadia bent over at the waist, clutching her sides.

  Ronnie grinned at them and nudged Nadia with his shoulder. “What a loser. You’re sucking wind like Waynie.”

  “Shut … up,” she panted.

  He snapped a picture of her reddened face and turned to Dante. “You should’ve seen him the first time. He crawled the last five or six feet to the top and lay there like a beached whale. I seriously thought he was dying. We ended up having to go back and get a four-wheeler to haul his sorry butt home. He’s getting better, though. The last time he didn’t start begging us to call 911 until he was halfway up.”

  Dante laughed and Nadia gave a grudging smile.

  “It’s a fun trip down, but … whew.” Dante rubbed a hand across the top of his head.

  Ronnie snapped another picture of them and they headed into the forest. Nadia slipped her hand inside his, and Dante stroked her fingers.

  He released her when they emerged in the backyard. He hated to let go of her, but he couldn’t risk getting fired. It was a pretty safe assumption that Nick Branson would not tolerate insubordination lightly. They crossed the yard and wandered around the side of the house.

  “I’m going to get a shower.” Ronnie pointed at Nadia. “You get to tell Mr. B we’re going out.”

  She came to an abrupt stop. “Me?” she whined. “Why me?”

  Ronnie grinned. “Hey, he’s your Pops.”

  Nadia rolled her eyes and he snapped his shirt at her. “Ah, quit pretending like you don’t know how to work him. Dante’s already seen your scheming.”

  He twisted up his shirt to pop her again and Nadia snatched it out of his hands. She balled it up and tossed it at his head. “Gee, thanks, Ronnie. You’re a real pal.”

  He stuck out his tongue at her and walked off, leaving them standing by the barracks.

  Dante smiled and lifted his eyebrows. “I guess I’d better get cleaned up too. What is Charlie’s? I hope it’s nothing fancy, because I don’t do so good with fancy.”

  “Charlie’s a campus bar and grill. A beer and peanuts kind of place.” Nadia did a half-twirl. “Do I look like a fancy girl to you?”

  Dante smoothed a twig of her damp hair between his fingers. “You look like a beautiful girl. A perfect girl.”

  Nadia flashed him a dazzling white smile and it was all he could do not to take her in his arms right there, Nick Branson be damned.

  He forced himself to take a step backward. “Okay,” he said. “I’d better …”

  She nodded, but remained still, watching him with her arms crossed over her chest. Her cheeks and the tip of her nose were pink with sunburn. The rosy flush made the green in her eyes flare to life like kryptonite.

  Superman was going down for the count, and there wasn’t a thing he could do about it.

  Damn, but she was beautiful. Dante forced himself to take another step backwards, then another. She grinned at him like she was reading his mind. He turned away and smacked headfirst into the one of the barracks’ porch posts.

  “Smooth,” he muttered, rubbing his forehead and feeling his face turn as red as Nadia’s.

  “Are you okay?” she choked out.

  He glared at her and she giggled behind her hand like a kindergartener. He tried to scowl, but he couldn’t quite make the corners of his mouth turn down.

  “Stop it,” he said, pointing at her while he climbed onto the porch.

  She pressed her fingers to her mouth and gave him a wide-eyed “what?” look.

  He tripped going in the doorway, but didn’t look back. The sweet, musical sound of her laughter followed him inside.

  He was turning into such a spaz. It would’ve been demoralizing if it wasn’t so damn funny.

  Ronnie walked by with a towel and pair of blue jeans slung over his shoulder. He looked at Dante, smiled, rolled his eyes and kept walking.

  “The shower on the other end is open, Romeo,” he said. “I’m taking this side.”

  “Thanks,” Dante replied.

  Waynie sat on the sofa, munching a handful of potato chips. He squinted at Dante. “Dude, what happened to your head?”

  Dante grinned and shook his head. “I don’t know, man.”

  He wandered off in search of his room. The ceiling fans pushed cool, conditioned air down on him. He caught the sweet scent of coconut and brought his forearm to his face. He could still smell the scent of her where his arm had rested against her body.

  Man, the next thing you knew, he’d be-well, hell, he didn’t know what he’d be doing. This was unknown territory. He was afraid to guess what stupid thing he would do next.

  After showering and changing, he joined Ronnie and Waynie on the front porch. They seemed to have been waiting on him, because immediately they wandered to the main house.

  “How did you—do in the poker tournament?” Dante asked Waynie while they climbed the front steps.

  “Got busted on the last card. It was a bad beat, man. Some amateur. Getting an eight on the river was all that would save his butt, and what do you think he got?” Waynie rolled his eyes heavenward and tugged on his goatee. “I finished five spots out of the money.”

  “How many people were playing?” Ronnie asked. “Six?”

  “Ha ha. I’ll have you know, there were over eighty people in that tournament. Some of them were big shots too.”

  “Here we go.
” Ronnie rolled his eyes. “Are you going to tell us you played Elvis again?”

  “It was the king, man,” Waynie said earnestly. “He knew stuff only the real Elvis would know.”

  “Great.” Ronnie shouldered past him. “The next time you talk to him, tell him I want Lisa Marie’s number.”

  Waynie shook his head. “Sorry, I already thought of that, man, but he said he hasn’t spoken to her since the whole Michael Jackson thing. He said that if he had been dead, he would have rolled over in his grave.”

  Ronnie smacked his forehead with his palm, then rubbed his hand down his face. “Do you see?” he asked Dante. “Do you see what I have to put up with around here?”

  Dante laughed and clamped a hand on Ronnie’s shoulder. They entered the living room together.

  Dante paused at the sight of Nick and Maria Branson together on the leather sofa. She lay back against the chair arm with her legs propped in his lap. He whispered something to her and she chuckled softly as he stroked one of her nylon covered feet with his thumb. Dante coughed, feeling like an intruder.

  “Hey, boys, come on in,” Maria said.

  “Sorry to interrupt, Mrs. B,” Ronnie said.

  “You’re not interrupting anything.” She smiled and swung her feet to the floor. “Nick and I are being lazy. Are you guys hungry? Lee Ann made chili …”

  Ronnie made a face. “Chili? In this heat?”

  Nick laughed and nudged Maria. “Ah, ha. See there?”

  She gave him a grudging smile and he looked at Dante.

  “That’s what I tell them all the time, but they insist that anything she cooks would be hot. It’s not the same, is it?”

  “I think you should only have chili during the winter,” Ronnie said, plopping into a chair and brushing a wave of dark hair out of his face.

  Nick opened his mouth to speak, but paused when Nadia skipped down the stairs in a bright red halter top and faded jeans. Her dark hair curled around her face, and makeup accentuated her features, though Dante didn’t think she needed any help at all.