He eased her down on the sofa, his hand deliberately brushing against her tight nipples.
Lacey smothered a moan and jerked her robe together. “Don’t,” she pleaded on a soft note only he heard. “Don’t do this to me.”
“Damn it, Danger!” Rafe scurried across the room right on their heels. “She’s my wife, if she needs rescuing, I’ll be the one who saves her.”
“You were a little slow on the draw, Rafe,” Danger said, his voice taut.
Lacey slid her gaze over him, settling on his crotch. She looked quickly away trying to control her breathing. God, he had a huge hard-on and he wasn’t making any attempt to conceal it. He wanted her to see, to know. She prayed Rafe didn’t notice. Thank God all Rafe’s attention was on her.
“Sweetheart, I—”
She held up a hand halting Rafe’s words. “I can’t conceive?” she asked in a shaky voice. “You let me believe there was a chance?”
“Trouble in Paradise?” Danger quipped. “So soon? How the serpent of truth rears its ugly head. You didn’t tell her?”
“Lace, I’ll tell you everything the doctor told me…later. Okay?”
“Tell her now,” Danger said. “Don’t mind me.”
Rafe clenched his hands into fists at his sides. “No, I won’t tell her now. It’s none of your business.”
Lacey got up and headed back in the kitchen.
“The glass,” Danger reminded her.
“I took care of it,” Rafe said. “You can go now.”
“Stop it,” Lacey shouted. “Both of you…just stop it. I’m not a bone for you two to fight over.” She didn’t want these men fighting over her. It was ridiculous. She was Rafe’s wife and that was the end of it. She took down another mug, filled it, and pressed it into Danger’s hands. “Why don’t you tell us why you’re here?”
She glared at both men. Danger took his time sipping the coffee before he finally said, “Karen would like for you to come over and—”
“No,” Lacey exploded. “No. I don’t give a good damn what Karen wants. I didn’t agree to come back here to be sociable with your wife!”
“Get out!” Rafe balled his fists. “What the hell is wrong with you? Do you believe for one second Lace wants to be around Karen?”
“No.” Danger handed her the cup. “I know why Lacey came back. She’s bait, but this might work as bait. Smitt is watching my house. I know he is.”
“How do you know?” Lacey asked.
“My gut. I’m not so inhumane that I’d come here and ask you to accept Karen’s invitation, but I…”
“What?” Her brows creased with question.
“I don’t know.”
Rafe snorted. “Lacey isn’t coming to Blackstone. If Smitt Davis wants her, he’ll have to come here.”
“I accept,” Lacey said. “What time?”
“No, Lace,” Rafe argued, anger lacing his words. “I won’t let you put yourself at risk.”
“Then there was very little reason for my returning to Rimrock. I understand why you didn’t tell me what the doctor said, but you can’t protect me from life, Rafe. I won’t break. I might crack around the edges. In fact I already am, but I won’t shatter. ”
“Rafe, listen to me,” Danger quickly inserted. “I know you don’t like this and believe me, I understand.” He settled his gaze on Lacey. “She’s precious to both of us—if she’s carrying your child, then doubly so. I don’t know what’s going on with Karen, but I do know she makes my skin crawl. There’s something not quite right—”
Rafe snorted. “You’re just now figuring that out?”
“I’ve known almost from the moment I married her that I made a big mistake. I have to live with that, with her, but if Lacey doesn’t come to the house, then Karen might come here. I don’t know what she might do or say. I think she’s unstable and in her own way, as dangerous as Smitt Davis.”
“What time do you want me there?” Lacey asked.
“Four this evening? Karen thought you might want to see Calla or visit Joseph’s grave.”
“I’ll be there, but I might be a bit unstable myself,” Lacey replied, her eyes blazing.
Danger grinned and scratched his jaw. “Unpredictable, sweetheart, but never unstable. The invitation is for both of you. I’ll meet you in the barn.”
Rafe nodded. “I’m sure you know the way out.”
“Yup.” Danger nodded. “Relax, Rafe. Lacey loves you. You’re a lucky man. Take care of her.”
“Count on it.”
Danger opened the door, hesitated, then turned back. “By the way, who do you think assassinated the first lady?”
“What?” Rafe sounded shocked. “Molly’s dead? When?”
“You didn’t know? Sorry, I figured you’d listened to the radio or saw a newspaper.”
“No.” Rafe shook his head. “There was too much static on the air waves the last few days. Shit. Is Duel in D.C.?”
Danger shrugged. “No. He disappeared. Jace called earlier and said Sam’s lost contact with him and a potential witness, some woman. You have any idea where Duel might vanish with a witness?”
“No.” Rafe rubbed a hand down his face. “When Duel and I worked together, he wasn’t much of a talker.”
“Duel not a talker?” Danger laughed. “You must not know him as well as you think.”
“There’s a side of him you don’t know,” Rafe said. “He’s dangerous. He’s a walking lethal weapon. There isn’t any kind of weapon or self-defense move he doesn’t have or use. If you cross him or someone he loves, he’ll kill you. I saw him bring down ten men in hand-to-hand combat when we were in Iraq. He didn’t even raise a sweat and we were in the damn desert.”
“I knew he was involved in some deep cover work,” Danger said. “I just never saw a dangerous side to him.”
“It’s there, believe me.” Rafe slid a possessive arm around Lacey’s waist and drew her close. “Duel allows people to see what he wants them to see. If he’s protecting a witness, then he probably doesn’t want to be found. He’ll take care of her.”
Chapter Thirty
I love you for not only what you are, but for what I am when I am with you.
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Annandale, Virginia
February 19, Thursday
Fifty-six hours after the assassination…
Sam opened her eyes and knew immediately Travis was in her bed. He lay spooned against her, one arm around her waist.
“Hi, beautiful,” he whispered, nuzzling her ear.
“Hi.” She turned so she faced him. He tugged her on top of him and settled his hands on her butt.
“Sam, I love you. Marry me?” His gaze steady searched hers.
Panic slammed inside her. She loved Travis, she did, but she didn’t know if she was ready to give herself over to the complete control of a man again, be a wife, risk being dominated.
He brushed her hair behind her ears. “I can see the idea of becoming my wife terrifies you.”
“No.”
“Yes,” he whispered. “I’d never hurt you, Sam. I’m not David.”
“I know. I know.” She splayed her hands across his wide chest. “My heart tells me that you’d never hurt me, but my mind says something entirely different.” She shrugged. “I just can’t, Travis. I can’t marry you.”
The hurt in his eyes sent a shaft of pain through her heart. Nervously, she toyed with the V of dark hair on his chest. “I’m sorry.”
He rolled her off him and flung back the covers. Sitting on the side of the bed, he sat there breathing hard, his head bowed. He slowly rose to his feet and stood before her, unashamed and gloriously naked. Even after their night of loving, and God, he’d loved her well, his shaft rose hard as the barrel of a gun. “I hope you’re on the pill, then.”
“What?” She blinked. “Why?”
“For God’s sake, Sam, I didn’t use anything. I thought—”
“I know. I know. It’s okay. I didn’t want
you to use anything.”
He stared at her, baffled. “But…I don’t understand.”
“Travis.” Sam crawled to the edge of the bed and took his hand. “I love you. I do. Please try to understand, I don’t have to be wed to you to be happy or feel complete. I don’t care that you didn’t wear a rubber. I think it’s time Hayley had a brother or sister, but we don’t have to be married to give her one or the other. We can see each other, but we don’t have to share the same roof to prove we care about one another.”
Travis pulled his hand out of hers. “Maybe you’d be happy pregnant and not married to me, but it’s you who doesn’t understand, Sam. You see, I want a wife. I want a woman I can come home to every night, one I can call my own, who loves me enough to trust that I’d never, ever, do anything to bring her pain. I want babies. I’d love for you to be their mother, but only if you’re my wife, otherwise…what’s the point?”
Sam stared at him stunned. “But…we–we already took the risk. It only took one time with you last time and I conceived Hayley. How many times…last…night…did we…” Her voice ended on a questioning note.
“Three.”
“So I might already be…”
“Yes.”
“Wha–what if I am? What if I’m pregnant?”
“Then I guess we’ll have a problem.”
“We won’t have a problem.” She choked on the lump in her throat. “I love you, Travis.”
“Not enough,” he said quietly, walking away. He closed the bathroom door with a soft snick behind him.
Still, she flinched. It had sounded like a death knell to her. With her refusal to marry him, she’d destroyed something between them. Sam rubbed her shoulders and tried to concentrate, but all she saw was his face. He’d looked devastated, as though her refusal to marry him had crushed him.
She sat there on the side of the bed, too numb to move and listened to the sound of splattering water as Travis showered. Not enough. Oh, God, she’d made a terrible mistake. She should never have slept with Travis, given him hope, because he was right—she didn’t love him enough.
Tears filled her eyes. Sam grabbed her clothes and keys. She couldn’t face him again, not right now and she sure couldn’t bear to see his face again. No. Not yet. She needed time to think, to decide what she was going to do with the rest of her life.
* * * *
West of Denver
Duel’s Cabin
February 19, Thursday
Fifty-seven hours after the assassination…
“One thing’s for certain, you’re not and never have been Mac’s mistress. So what the hell are you to him?” Duel stood staring out a north side window at the snow-capped mountains. His face remained dark and distant—etched with fury.
Flayme shivered at the iciness in his tone. She pulled the colorful blanket over her breasts he’d handed her when he left her side a few minutes ago. Leaning back on both arms, she gazed across the room at him. “You’re angry at me?” she asked, incredulous. “You’re pissed because I wasn’t Mac’s lover?”
He whirled to face her. “Yes,” he spat. “No! Yes, damn it!” He thrust fingers through his dark hair. “But I’m angrier at myself for not realizing until it was too late.” He shoved his hands in his front pockets and rocked back on his bare heels. “What is Mac to you?”
“Does it matter?” Flayme searched for the thong he’d removed from her earlier, but couldn’t locate it. To hell with it! She shimmied into her jeans and shirt and stood facing him. So far as she could tell, there was no pleasing the male species, especially this tough cowboy. He’d been pissed when he thought she was a whore. Now he was pissed because she hadn’t been.
“Yes, it damn well matters. Of course it does,” he said, his cheeks flushed with rage.
“No, it doesn’t. What are you mad about?”
“Flayme, who is he to you?”
“Why?” she asked.
“Who is he?” he shouted.
“My father! God.” She drew a sharp breath. Struggling to hold back the tears welling in her eyes, she met his steady gaze. “He’s my father and yes, I love him. I’d do or say anything to protect him, but he wouldn’t let me save his job. Mac’s the only family I have that I can have any kind of a relationship with.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You don’t believe he’s my father?”
“No.”
Flayme clenched her hands into fists at her sides. This was madness. “I don’t give a good damn what you believe. Mac’s my father.”
Duel stared at her, his face filled with disbelief. “It’s impossible.”
She relaxed her hands and lifted a brow. “I’m here, so I assure you it is entirely possible.”
“How?”
“I’m also sure you know how it’s done,” she said, laughing, “if what you just did to me is an example to go by.”
“Yes, certainly I know how it’s done.” Duel wiped a hand across his mouth and sighed. “I guess I’m asking when.”
Flayme dragged her fingers through her mass of tangled curls. “I only know what Mac told me a few months ago when we first met. After my mother’s first husband died, she married Camden Jansen, but she hadn’t given herself time to grieve or know for certain if she even loved Camden. My mother had a brief affair with Mac, many years ago…well not so many, but you know.” She shrugged. “Mother was on a dig in Thebes right after she wed Camden, and Mac was in Egypt on assignment. They met by chance, Duel, pure chance. They happened to be staying at the same hotel. Mom was lonely and unsure about her new marriage. One drink led to another and conversation led to—”
“Bed,” Duel supplied.
Flayme tilted her chin. “It happens. She and Camden had been apart for months on different sites. I’m not excusing what she did, but if she hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here.”
Duel shook his head. “I wasn’t condemning her, just following the conversation, but I can’t see Mac with anyone but Marie. He loves her, or at least I thought he did.”
“He does love her.” Flayme assured him. “I think you’re more of a romantic than you know.”
He frowned. “I believe in the sanctity of marriage, although God knows where I get it from.”
She touched his arm lightly. “It didn’t have anything to do with Marie. Mom and Mac were both far from home among strangers in a country filled with daily threats. I guess she needed to feel protected, if only for a little while. They spent one night together. One night.”
“Thank God for that single night,” Duel whispered.
“Thank you,” she said on a tiny sob. “For a moment there, I wasn’t sure you were happy about my existence.”
“Aww, sweetheart,” Duel said softly, “if not for that night, I’d have been condemned to an eternity of loneliness. My life would have been empty and worthless.”
“You’d have found someone else.”
“No, baby, when a Remington man falls, he falls hard. We love but once in a lifetime, and we never settle for second best.”
Flayme thought if she didn’t say something, she’d burst right out and bawl like a baby. “I have to tell you everything,” she said, fighting tears.
Duel nodded. “I’m listening.”
“After my birth, Mom sent Mac a letter telling him he was a father. She didn’t want anything from him. She thought he had a right to know. I think they both decided it was best to leave things alone. He’d met Marie by then, and Mom had returned home and she and Camden were happy. I don’t know if she told Camden or not, but he was the only father I ever knew until recently. She never told me about Mac.”
“She should have told you.”
“Maybe she would have someday, but she didn’t get the chance.”
“Marie?”
“My conception happened before Mac and Marie met and married, but when she learned about me, she was still angry that he’d had a child and kept it a secret from her. She divorced him. I wanted to tell everyone at the
office that he’d done nothing wrong, that he was my father, but someone started the rumor we were having an affair, and Mac said let it be. He wouldn’t let me clear his name. He suffered because of me.”
“He wasn’t the only one, sweetheart. You were besmirched by almost everyone.”
“It was better than the alternative,” she said. “Mac didn’t want me exposed to John’s wrath. So we let everyone believe he was cheating on his wife with me. It cost him his job and Marie, but there was worse danger if anyone found out I was his daughter. There was the risk of someone snooping deeper. One nosy reporter digging for the entire story, and everything would come unglued.” She sighed. “It’s complicated, and if you want to change your mind about getting involved with me I—”
“I don’t.” He growled the words. “My family and I have survived far worse. I love you, Flayme. I fell in love with you the moment I saw you standing there in the hall giving Neil hell. You looked like a candle flame and so damn beautiful I couldn’t breathe.”
Tears burned her eyes. “I fell in love with you first.” She smiled through her tears. “Before you commit to me, maybe you better understand that the complications I come with lead right up the steps to the White House and into a den of snakes.”
“Your brother?”
“Yes, and his cohorts. He’s good friends with Senator Ross.”
Duel held up a hand. “Wait. Hamilton Ross? Jayla Ross’ father?”
“I believe he’s her stepfather, but yes, Senator Hamilton Ross. He’s a twisted bastard if ever there was one.”
“Good God, why does everything always circle back to that woman?”
Flayme blinked, confused. “Who? Jayla? You know her?”
“I know her better than I want to, believe me. So, does the president know about Mac?”
“No.” Flayme shook her head. “He doesn’t know about Mac, and I tell you, John isn’t a forgiving man. If I did anything to risk his presidency or smear his good name, then I’d be as dead as Molly.”
Playing For Keeps (Montana Men) Page 35