“Are you going to kick the door down?” she whispered.
“Do you want me to kick the door down?”
Seeing that he was teasing her, she cocked her head at him and then knocked on the door. There was no peephole or he’d have stopped her.
An old man answered, his face turning perplexed. “You don’t look like room service.”
“Sorry, wrong door.” Travis guided Raeleen away, hearing the door close.
At the last room, he heard a man’s voice talking. Testing the knob, finding it locked, he glanced over at Raeleen. She watched with big, round, crystal-clear blue eyes. Fearless eyes. She wanted questions answered just like he.
The door opened a crack and a familiar face appeared. The man from the hotel bar tried to shut it. Travis put a booted foot in the opening and pushed with one hand.
The man stumbled backward as Travis entered and reached behind him to stop Raeleen from entering with him. He hoped she’d get the message. And do what he wanted.
Advancing on the man, Travis saw in his peripheral vision that Raeleen entered the room and closed the door. Frustrated by that, he took in details at the same time. The king-size bed opposite the door with tables on each side. Two chairs in front of a window to his left. A television centered with the bed and next to the door, and a desk next to it with a pistol by the lamp. The man hadn’t expected visitors.
Travis maneuvered so that the man’s back was to the bed and his was to the pistol. The man watched him and didn’t seem concerned he had no gun. Travis hadn’t drawn his yet. No fear. He was a trained fighter.
“Who sent you?” Travis asked.
The man didn’t alter his stance, only backed between the bed and the chairs as Travis moved toward him. At one of the bedside tables, the man lifted a lamp and yanked the cord from the wall. Then he lunged toward Travis.
The man threw the lamp and Travis blocked its well-aimed trajectory. A second later, he had to block the man’s swinging fists and kicking feet. He finally answered with two well-placed chops and a stomp against the man’s ankle. The man went low, his hands on the floor and his legs scissoring for a kick. He struck Travis and almost took him off his feet. He flipped his tall frame and landed behind the man, then slammed his foot against his back. The man crashed against the television and would have gone for his gun if Travis hadn’t been ready. He grabbed the man and threw him to the side, away from the gun and close to the door and Raeleen, who sidled deeper into the room, approaching the gun.
She better not even think about picking up that gun. The man collided with him and he went down. Travis cursed at his own distraction. Cursed again for Raeleen causing it. The man punched him and tried again, but Travis rammed his palm against his chin, jerking the man’s head backward. Raeleen appeared above them, the lamp raised in her hands, Amazon woman in sexy shorts. She hadn’t gone for the gun. Instead, she beaned the man on the back of his head. The man fell off Travis and jumped to his feet to go after Raeleen.
Rage filled him that the man would dare to try. He sprang to his feet and kicked him in the kidney, sending him sailing sideways toward the two chairs and the window. Raeleen moved out of the way as he corrected his fall. Travis went after him, but the man kept running and crashed through the window.
Raeleen joined Travis there. He could barely make out the man struggling to get out of a beat-up Dumpster. Glancing at Raeleen, wishing she’d listen if he told her to wait for him, Travis ran through the door. He heard her behind him in the hallway. They passed the old man who stood in the hall gaping at them. As they ran downstairs, a man wearing an apron appeared at the base, no doubt responding to all the noise. Travis pushed him aside and ran with Raeleen behind him toward the front door.
“Hey!” the man yelled.
“Sorry!” Raeleen called as she followed Travis through the door. “We’re sorry.”
Outside, the man who’d jumped into the Dumpster was at his car, grabbing the door handle.
Just as Travis was about to reach him, he abandoned the locked car door and ran toward the neighboring building, a house similar to the inn but smaller. Travis gained on him as they reached a strip mall with kiosks scattered about. People worked to clean up what the winds had torn apart.
Ahead, the man pushed a woman with her arms full of rumpled clothes. She dropped her burden and Travis caught her before she fell. Letting her go, he saw the man duck into a small clothing store. He heard a man yell, “We are closed!”
Raeleen was ahead of him now, running into the kiosk.
Travis swore and ran after her. Inside, he saw Raeleen duck from a blow the man intended for her while the shop owner spoke rapidly in indiscernible English, waving his hands in a futile attempt to stop the destruction of his meager possessions. Raeleen dodged more kicks and swinging hands from the man who attacked her.
Her ability surprised him as much as he was relieved. She was okay. She wouldn’t be able to fight the man much longer, though. She’d be no match for him. Travis grabbed the man’s wrist and punched his nose. The man yelped and twisted free. When he ran, Travis let him go. He didn’t like how glad he was that Raeleen could fight. What if she was hurt?
Raeleen pivoted to follow, but Travis stopped her with his arm around her waist, bringing her against him and forcing her to look up at him. Damn, he could feel himself falling for her more.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re going back to the hotel, and in the morning, I’m taking you home.” It had been a bad idea to go after the man. He shouldn’t have gone to Deet’s house with her, either.
“Travis, we can catch him. You can make him tell us who’s behind all of this.”
“I don’t want you involved anymore. It’s too dangerous.” He took in her alert blue eyes and messy blond hair and was too aware of her soft curves against him. If he didn’t end this now, he might pay for it later. With his heart.
“We can’t leave now. That man was watching us. Let’s go. He’s getting away!”
“Then let him.” Travis wrapped his other arm around her.
Her hands were on his chest, and she began to notice the heat building between them. Her gaze lifted and a different kind of alertness radiated in them.
The kiosk owner appeared beside them. “You go now!”
Travis used the interruption and took Raeleen’s hand to lead her out of the kiosk. Out into the night, he walked with her toward their hotel, staying on the busy street and searching for another cab. The stolen one would be discovered soon, if it hadn’t already. The inn owner had surely called the police.
“I can’t believe you’re just going to let him get away.”
“I’m not. I’ll handle this after you’re safely back home.” He’d find the painting. Then anyone after it would come to him.
“Safely back home,” she muttered. “You need to let go of whatever happened to make you so paranoid.”
She could call him overprotective until the next ice age proved global warming was just another spike in geological history. He was getting her out of here. Then she was her father’s problem. He wouldn’t have to worry about her and she wouldn’t be around to tempt him. He kept his reasons to himself. He couldn’t tell her that he was taking her to her father any more than he could tell her how much he wanted her.
* * *
Back in the room, Raeleen turned on the television while Travis went over to the window, scanning the street and everywhere else. She still couldn’t believe he’d allowed that man to get away. She could see how he’d want to protect her. It was dangerous chasing that man. Normally she wasn’t afraid of defending herself, but she’d been afraid of him. It had been a while since she’d practiced martial arts. She’d veered away from it after the disenchantment with her father had settled in.
But that’s not all that was at play with Travis. Some
thing deep was going on there, and she meant to unravel the cause.
Travis moved to the foot of one of the queen beds and unfastened his belt, slipping it free and dumping it into the duffel bag.
She moved to the foot of her own bed, where her suitcase lay open. “Why are you so anxious to get rid of me?” It wasn’t the question she wanted to ask, but it was a good start.
“I don’t want to get rid of you. I’m just keeping you safe, that’s all.” He pulled out his gun from the waist of his jeans and checked its ammo.
“Mission accomplished.”
He lowered his gun. “It’s more than that.”
Sensing he meant it, she moved toward him. Without asking aloud, she waited for him to explain.
“I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
She couldn’t refute that, but there was something else driving him. And it had nothing to do with this insane attraction between them.
Going to the table between the beds, he put his gun there. End of discussion.
That’s when she realized that he believed his protection of her wasn’t overdone. While it hadn’t been tonight, most of the time it was.
“Who was she?” It had to be a woman.
He turned to face her.
“The woman who made you so overprotective.”
“Haley always called me that,” he said, noncommittal.
“Haley?” Just as she thought. A woman.
“Why are you asking me so many personal questions? I thought you had a distaste for men who worked for your father. I’m starting to get a different impression.”
Wow, he was really good at turning things back onto her. And then she chided herself for allowing her guard to go down. Instinct had led her to probe for what lay in his heart. Instinct had made her feel that they were growing closer, that this sexual magnetism might have some merit. When in truth they were strangers who didn’t belong together. And Travis had just reminded her of that.
“Sorry, I...I shouldn’t have asked.” Turning away, she rummaged for the long T-shirt she always slept in, an old, soft thing that she’d never be able to replace when it was too torn to wear.
“Haley Engen.”
Going still with the unexpected sound of Travis’s voice, she dropped her T-shirt and gave him her full attention.
He moved closer to her now. “She was an operative, a communications specialist for TES. We were on assignment in Monrovia, doing surveillance on a diamond merchant, when our cover was blown. We were ambushed by the merchant’s client. I was shot and a mercenary saved Haley. He was after the client. Later on, he and Haley ended up catching the man.”
“He was a mercenary?”
“Yes, but not the kind you might expect. He affiliated his private military company with TES. If it hadn’t been for him, I wouldn’t be alive right now.”
“Do you resent that?”
“Not at all. I’m grateful he showed up when he did. After I was shot, I couldn’t protect Haley anymore. He finished the job.”
It had been a job to him, protecting Haley. That sort of explained his hang-up. If he was busy protecting a woman, especially one he was attracted to, he was less focused on the mission. Except, Travis was always focused on the mission. He was capable of carrying it through with or without a woman to protect. Didn’t he see that about himself?
There had to be more. “Would you have been shot if Haley hadn’t been with you?”
“No.”
He was sure of it. “But you were because you were protecting her.”
“Yes.” What about this woman was so different? He’d protected Raeleen just fine, and she wasn’t even a TES operative.
“Before joining TES, Haley was captured in Iraq,” Travis explained, obviously reading her unspoken questions. “Insurgents brutally beat and raped her. It’s what led her to work for TES. She wanted to fight terrorists. But her experience had more of an effect on her than she liked to admit.”
She’d convinced herself she was stronger than she was and it had nearly gotten Travis killed. At least, that was his version.
“I admire her courage,” Raeleen said. “Not many women could do that. Come back from an experience like that and join an organization like TES.”
“She’s an incredible woman.” His affection spread all over his face, softening his eyes and lifting his mouth, the creases in his skin sealing the message.
He clearly had feelings for this woman, but they weren’t together.
“Was she afraid of you?” she asked.
“Very, at first. But then we became friends after working together so much.”
And then she wasn’t afraid anymore. “You loved her?”
He blinked, closing out the affection. “I wouldn’t say that. I was too protective of her.”
At least he recognized that much. “And you don’t think you’re too protective of me?”
“I wasn’t too protective of Haley when I was shot.”
In other words, it was either him or her. He’d saved her and risked his life doing it. That made sense, but something was still missing in Raeleen’s mind. “Then why didn’t you have a relationship with her?” She was sure he would have had he not felt the need to protect her. Why had he felt so obligated, so driven, to do that? “Did you lose someone before her?”
“I think we’ve had enough heart-to-heart for one night.” He pulled off his shirt and twisted his impressive torso to toss it to the floor in front of his bed.
She was momentarily sidetracked with the sight of his bare chest. If it hadn’t been for that, she’d have fretted over pinning his hang-up.
“I’m not Haley.” She took a single step closer to that bare chest. All that smooth skin over hard muscle...
“No. You’re not.”
“Am I like the woman you lost?” Although she didn’t want to ask that question, it was the only explanation that would make him the way he was. He hadn’t lost Haley. She was only part of the equation. But he must have lost someone. Someone very close to him.
“Yes. You ask too many questions.”
She looked down at his chest and then back into his magnificent blue-gold eyes. “Did you love her?”
He saw where her gaze had gone, where it kept going, and glanced down the front of her tucked-in sparkly gray and dark pink T-shirt. “Yes.”
Whoever the woman was, he had her tucked deep, deep down inside, and the emotional wreckage was the black coal that fueled his purpose. It was also what made him so overprotective with women in danger. But it wasn’t enough to stop her from touching him.
“Who was she?” She had to know. She couldn’t avoid it.
Instead of answering, he slid one hand around her waist and firmly pulled her against him. An instant later, he raked his other hand through her hair, gripping and drawing her head back. She was too startled to react to anything but the tantalizing sexual sparks shooting everywhere.
He kissed her, igniting the sparks into an incredible blaze. She heard her own moan and slid her hands up his bare chest, loving the feel of him. He was just as smooth and hard as she imagined.
“Travis,” she whispered against his warm mouth, running her hands up to the back of his neck.
He kissed her again, harder this time, crushing, needy.
Somewhere through the fog of desire lingered the realization that he’d started this to avoid answering her questions. He’d kissed her to shut her up. But once he’d started, the reason changed. Now he kissed her with the same intent she had. Their passion was more powerful than she could have anticipated.
He tugged the hem of her T-shirt out of her shorts. Raeleen stepped back to pull it over her head and felt Travis’s fingers unfastening the clasp of her bra. Heat scorched her. She wanted this so badly. She wanted him. Her bra
slackened, releasing her breasts. She let it fall to the floor and the intoxication continued when his hands held her soft flesh.
She watched his face, how his lashes lowered over eyes that were riveted on her breasts. She lifted her hand and touched his face, tracing her fingers over his brow line, to his cheekbone, then his lips.
Taking her hand into his grasp, he put her finger into his mouth and sucked. She had to catch her breath as her pulse quickened with excitement. She couldn’t wait for him to be inside her.
He kissed her again, this time much sweeter, taking his time. She glided her hand from the side of his face, down his chest, over his abdomen and finally sank her fingers into the waist of his jeans. He put his hands on her butt.
“These shorts have been driving me wild all day,” he said just above her mouth.
She smiled. “Good.”
“But now I want you to take them off.”
The sound of his voice and the burning look in his eyes made her tremble with humming desire.
“You have such sexy legs.” He stoked her fires hotter. He moved back and began to unbutton his jeans, all his glorious muscles working as he unzipped them.
Raeleen watched him, aroused to throbbing need.
“Take off your shorts.”
Registering what he said, she unbuttoned her shorts, seeing his jeans go down with his boxers to expose his erection.
Travis finished first and came to her as she kicked off her shorts and underwear. She’d never seen a man more endowed than him. On his way to her, he dragged her suitcase one-handed off the bed. It landed between the two beds, some of her clothes spilling out. She didn’t care. All that mattered was him.
At the foot of her bed, his arms drew her against him and he kissed her. Their naked bodies pressing together swarmed her senses. Her breasts mashed against his chest. His erection lay rigid on her lower abdomen. He put his hands on her butt and ground her against him.
Raeleen moaned and climbed up onto him as if he were a tree trunk. He lowered her onto the bed, easily sliding her up to the pillows.
Seducing the Colonel's Daughter: Seducing the Colonel's DaughterThe Secret Soldier Page 9