by Em Petrova
He’d been off-duty for the night. He thought to have a nightcap after a long day of working security, where several bigwig billionaires required bodyguards. When he took the woman eyeing him up from the end of the bar to his room, he didn’t even know her name.
In fact, until the minute Pippa tapped her on the shoulder and he saw her face, he still hadn’t known her name. She was nothing to him, then or now. He hardly recalled more than a quick fuck, and then he’d sent her on her way.
“Pippa.”
She didn’t turn or speak.
“I told you not to come out here.”
She stood at the rail of the balcony, back to him. “You slept together.” Her voice, already quiet, was softer in the wind.
He stepped up behind her. Aching to pull her into his arms.
“You don’t deny it,” she said.
“No. But I didn’t know her name. It was one night at a convention I was working.”
“I don’t know why Meredith would attend a tech convention. She works in gene studies with me.”
He processed that but said nothing. “Honey…listen to me. Nothing’s changed between you and me.” He took her by the shoulder and turned her to face him.
The wildness haunting her eyes made him flinch, but he held her stare and bore the brunt of her fury. When she stepped up to him, grabbed him by the neck and yanked his head down to her, shock flared inside him.
Staring into his eyes, she gritted out, “You are not hers.”
“Fuck no.”
“You are mine.” Her anger hit him full force in her kiss. She crushed her mouth to his, and he stepped against her, trapping her to the balcony wall. Her soft body in that red dress had him wanting to rip it off her since the minute she donned it. She tore at his buttons and he practically shredded her dress getting the zipper down.
Their mouths slammed together again and again in an all-consuming claiming. He couldn’t get enough. She whipped his shirt off and raked at his shoulders as she stepped out of her dress and climbed up him like a tree on the Wynton Ranch.
His hands shook as he wound her long hair around his fist and tipped her head to get to her throat. He sucked at her pulse point and raked her ear with his teeth. With a cry, she managed to free his cock.
He took himself in hand, the length thick and pulsing. She dropped her panties.
Christ, she was so beautiful. Strong and smart and everything he could ever want in his life. The only woman he could see himself with from this moment on.
Staring into her eyes, he lifted her and thrust his cock into her pussy. She screamed. Not holding back. Her cry was snatched by the wind and carried off into the world as a war cry, as if she fought for Ross and won. But didn’t she know he only wanted her?
“I love you,” he said at her ear as he jerked his hips. Her walls clenched on his cock, trying to hold him, but it felt too good not to pull out and push inside again.
She gulped in another groan and rocked against him. “I love you too, you damn idiot man.”
“I am an idiot. I should have waited my whole life for you.”
“Damn right,” she rasped, her body going boneless in his hold, telling him she was on the edge of release.
He kissed her again, pummeling her plump lips, forming them to fit his and making her his. His balls swung forward on the churn of his hips. As the tip of his cock buried deeper in her wet heat, he lost his damn mind.
She cried out in bliss. His growl rumbled up from the pit of his soul as the first spurt of cum filled her. He hoped it coated her walls and found its way to her womb. He wanted a family with this woman. To bind them forever.
Her pussy tightened with each contraction of her orgasm. Her lips stole over his as the passion went on and on.
“Ross! Where the fuck—” Boone’s voice invaded his sexual haze.
Realizing his brother stood behind him, staring at his bare ass, he twisted free of Pippa’s kiss to look at him. Shielding her nakedness from Boone, he said, “What do you need?”
“The guys have that Letters dude locked up in an office and are interrogating him. Thought you might want to be there.”
“Gimme a minute,” he grated out.
Boone’s footsteps faded, and Ross listened for the room door to shut before he withdrew his cock from Pippa and let her slide to her feet. She shivered at the wind hitting her bare skin, and he bent to scoop up his shirt and drape it over her shoulders. She still wore her high heels and nothing else. Her hair disheveled and her eyes alight with a mix of bliss, fury and pain, he couldn’t stand to tear himself away from her right now.
But he needed to hear what Letters had to say. His men must have a damn good reason for removing him from the bar and locking him up to interrogate him.
Still, Ross stood there gazing into Pippa’s beautiful eyes. “I love you. You know that.”
She nodded.
“I have to go.”
“I’d like a few minutes alone anyway.” She stepped around him through the open French doors. He grabbed a black T-shirt from his bag and righted his clothes, settling his hat straight before eyeing her again.
“Boone will be just outside if you need him.”
She bit into her lower lip and then set it free.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Walking away from her felt like ripping a scab off his soul. But he held on to that wild need that drove her to make demands of his body…to claim him as her own.
Chapter Thirteen
Pippa cleaned up and dressed, but she couldn’t erase the feel of Ross’s hands on her—his lips on her. The passion and raw need that had driven them on the balcony seemed etched into the pores of her skin.
Part of her.
Working in a scientific field all these years had made her out of touch with a lot of her emotions and clouded her view of the world. Meeting Ross again had shifted all that for her. She hardly knew what to think of her actions a bit ago.
Jealousy and anger fueled her. Love had too. It swept her up into a tempest of emotions she didn’t know what to do with, so it all channeled into lust.
She sat on the side of the bed, her mind spinning and yet curiously calm. Ross had surrendered to her as much as she had him, and no amount of one-night stands from his past would break that bond. She couldn’t even be mad at Meredith, as she hadn’t known what Ross was to Pippa at the time.
She still didn’t. Pippa hadn’t exactly confided in her friend.
Sitting alone with her thoughts led her through several lanes of feelings, from nervousness at presenting her speech tomorrow and what would happen when she did. Someone still wanted her dead and to lay claim to her findings. Men were still guarding her with their lives.
When the phone rang on the nightstand, she jumped. Throwing a glance at the door, she expected Boone to burst in—again—and order her not to answer it. But the door remained closed.
She reached out and nabbed the phone. “Hello?”
“Pippa, it’s Meredith.”
Mixed emotions tangled in her throat. “Hi.” What did she say to her friend?
“I’m embarrassed. I made a fool of myself drinking too much in the bar. We didn’t get to talk at all, and then you ran off. I’m not sure what happened.”
“I think you do, Meredith.”
Silence met her words. After several heartbeats, she spoke, “I do. You have to understand it was a one-time thing and I didn’t know he was connected to you in any way, Pippa.” Regret rang in her tone.
“He said as much.”
“So he’s important to you. I knew it by the way he wouldn’t move from your side. I’d like to talk to you in person, Pippa. Is there any way you can come to my room?”
She slanted another peek at the door. “I don’t know. Maybe.” She chewed her lip in thought. “What’s your room number?”
“401.”
“Okay. If I don’t come down, please don’t take it to mean I’m angry. It’s just late and I have to be f
resh for my speech in the morning.” Lying was coming more and more naturally to her, and that wasn’t a good thing.
“Of course. I hope to see you, Pippa.”
After hanging up, she sat there, contemplating their conversation and whether or not she wanted to talk to her friend and learn her side of the encounter with Ross. She wanted to put this all behind her as quick as possible. She loved them both.
She went to the door and opened it. Boone whipped around to face her.
“Everything okay?”
“Yes. I’m hungry. I wondered if you might get me something to eat.”
“I can order room service for you.”
She shook her head. “I was really craving Chinese. Would you be able to pick it up at the front desk if I order?”
He gave her a crooked smile. “I guess it’s the least I can do.”
She smiled in return. “Thanks. I’ll let you know when it’s ready.” She started to close the door. “Oh! Any word about what Ross is doing right now?”
“No.” His eyes took on a distant expression she read as he didn’t want to say.
“Thanks.” She closed the door, counted to a hundred and then opened it again. “The delivery person will be in the lobby in fifteen minutes.”
He gave her a Wynton nod, a single dip of his head she often thought the family had picked up from their horses.
When fifteen minutes was up, she opened the door, heart pounding. Sure enough, her plan had worked. Boone was nowhere to be seen, having gone to fetch her food, and she knew Ross and his men were tied up with Ryan Letters.
She quickly slipped out of the room and ran for the elevator. Ross would kill her when he found out she left. For that matter, he’d kill Boone for leaving his post. But surely they’d both understand when she told them it was for the sake of saving a long-time friendship?
She rode down the elevator, heart pounding each floor she passed. When she reached Meredith’s floor, she began to step into the hallway.
A cloth whipped over her head, wiping out her vision. She opened her mouth to scream, but a hand like a vise clamped over it, cutting off any sound. She struggled, her Aikido training jumping to the fore. But someone—she could only guess two or more people—bound her hands and feet. She bucked in their arms but was carried off with no sense of direction.
She attempted to scream again, heard the tearing noise of duct tape on a roll and anticipated what was coming next. She might have blacked out for a minute, but next thing she knew, the scent of Seattle filtered through the cloth over her head. A car door slammed. Then another.
Tires whirred on pavement as someone drove her away from the hotel. Away from Ross.
If she died at the hands of her kidnappers, it was her own damn fault. But Ross would never forgive himself for it. She couldn’t give up—she had to fight her way back to him.
* * * * *
Ross leaned over the table, his glare directed at the douchebag Ryan Letters. The man hadn’t told them a thing yet, other than yes, he did have a thing for Pippa. He always did. At that point, he broke down in tears and told them his ex-girlfriend had found him stalking through photos of Pippa in a work setting and called it quits.
Disgusted, Ross straightened. Behind him, someone knocked on the door. He twitched his head toward Noah, who went to see who it was.
“Fuck. What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be with Pippa.”
Ross swung around at Noah’s words, his gaze landing on Boone. His brother’s face was ravaged with anguish, and Ross’s heart flipped end over end, like that vehicle they’d run off the road on the highway.
In two steps, he grabbed Boone by the shirt front. “What the hell happened?”
“She sent me for food and now she’s gone.”
“For—” His throat clamped off the rest of the sentence and reopened on his bellow. “She sent you for food and you left? Jesus Christ! Find her!” He stormed from the room, Ryan Letters forgotten as he ran to the elevator. A quick sweep of the floor and her room came up empty.
He grabbed his phone. “Silas, get on the security footage. I want a man at every exit in this place. How the fuck did she slip past us? You all better start looking for jobs, because you’re fucking fired!”
Fear pounded through his veins. He could barely draw air. Gone? Where?
Meredith.
He knew her room number after meeting up with her in the bar, and he raced to her door. When he pounded on it and got no response, he kicked it in. Meredith wasn’t here either. The room was empty.
His brain pieced the puzzle together. She kept calling Pippa. She acted as a concerned friend, but what if she really was the evil behind the threats and attacks? Pippa said herself it was odd that Meredith attended a tech conference, a fact that wasn’t lost on Ross. It could mean she didn’t know her friend as well as she thought she did. It also gave Meredith a knowledge of technology that might get her into Pippa’s phone and laptop—and them out of this hotel without WEST Protection knowing.
He froze in place, fists clenched at his sides. Terror and shock and fury throbbing through his system. How would he find her? He had to find her.
He stuffed the comms device in his ear and bellowed at his team. “Man every exit. I want footage of the building inside and out. Stop all flights leaving Sea-Tac…” A thought hit him. “And get the authorities to the ports. They might try to get her out of the city by water.” He clicked off, sprinting for the stairs. “Goddammit!”
Where to even start? He didn’t know which way to turn. As he hit the bottom of the staircase and whirled around the landing to the next, he came up against Boone. Chest heaving, he faced his brother.
“I’m so goddamn sorry, man. I know you love her. This is my fault. Tell me what to do.”
Ross’s eyes blurred momentarily with tears and then cleared. “I don’t know. I can’t think where to start.”
“We need a lead.” Boone took control of the situation. “C’mon.” They took the stairs to the ground floor at a deadly pace, hurtling forward.
“I got something. The footage is blacked out, as if someone knew when to cut power to the camera, but it comes on again as a car drives away. The times mesh with the time Pippa went missing.” Silas’s voice overlapped with Josiah’s as they filled in the puzzle for Ross.
“The car?”
“Black sedan.”
“Plates?”
“Hard to see in the footage. I’m running it through the program now,” Silas told him.
Ross found no hope in what his team told him. He could only think of Pippa getting carried away and how frightened she must be. Sure, she knew how to fight, but anybody could be disabled easily if blindsided.
“License isn’t coming up,” Silas said.
Ross and Boone exchanged a look. “The fake plates,” Ross said.
Boone nodded.
A whoop sounded in Ross’s earpiece that could only come from a Wynton. Josiah’s voice penetrated his head, each word dropping into him like nuclear warheads.
“I’ve got eyes on the car. It’s traveling west. Ross, I think you’re right—they’re taking her to a port.”
* * * * *
Pippa’s lungs burned with the need for air. She didn’t relish the thought of going out by suffocation, but she teetered dangerously close.
The hood over her face and the strong tape around her mouth cut off too much oxygen. A dozen biology classes told her that adrenaline would only boost her heartrate, which demanded more oxygen in her veins to keep it beating.
She had to calm down.
All the meditation taught by Tibetan monks and her Aikido training with Japanese masters couldn’t stop the panic sweeping through her, though.
Would she ever see Ross again? Her family? She started to think of Meredith—her oldest, dearest friend—but that only took her heartrate higher.
Meredith was behind all of this. The moment someone threw her into the car, she clearly heard Meredith’s voice and her or
der to take her to the dock.
She still couldn’t totally believe it. Her friend left her those death threats? Sent someone to attack her in the airport and several other times on the trip to Seattle? She also knew exactly where Pippa was at all times—she’d probably grown savvy enough with technology to infiltrate her laptop with the tracking software. Maybe her phone too.
She had no intention of Pippa reaching Seattle alive.
Pippa poked her tongue between her lips and wiggled it back and forth over the fabric over her mouth. She needed to make a pocket of space where more air could rush in, and she found when she wet the cloth, the tape seemed to loosen. If she could find enough saliva in her dry mouth, she might be able to remove some of the tackiness from the tape.
As she worked at the cloth with her tongue, she took stock of the rest of her body. She sat somewhere hard, probably on concrete or asphalt. Her ankles were bound tight. Her hands tighter. When she attempted to move them at all, a tough plastic dug into her flesh.
Zip-ties.
She wore no coat, and a brisk wind cut through the fibers of her sweatshirt, making her shiver. Which in turn took more oxygen.
She gulped for breath, found little, and panic hit. A scream bottled in her throat. Tears burned on her tongue.
If she cried, her nose would clog off and so would her air. She could…not…cry.
Nearby, someone was smoking. The scent of tobacco carried to her on the wind.
Testing the bindings on her wrists again, she racked her brain to find a way to get out of them. Ropes she could do—she’d done it in her training. But hemp stretched. Even nylon rope had more give than hard plastic zip-ties.
Could the plastic snap with enough force behind it? She had to try. What choice did she have?
She sat there for long minutes trying to gain the courage to fight her way out of this situation. Part of her wanted to give up and just sleep, but she knew that was her need for oxygen. Her mind shutting down.
She drank in a deep breath and slowly inched her knees up, dragging her boots across the gritty ground. She no longer smelled the cigarette smoke and hoped the person had moved away.