Irresistible Deceptions

by Mackenzie Crowne

  A simple lowering of her head proclaimed her agreement, and he heaved a silent sigh of relief. With a final squeeze of her arms, he released her and stepped back.

  A half hour later, with breakfast behind them and their bags loaded in the trunk of the Taurus, they set out for Arizona with Lyndsay trailing in his big SUV. Six inches of new snow covered the ground as they pulled from the motel parking lot, and the weather continued to deteriorate throughout the day. The near-blizzard conditions made travel difficult. They stopped every few hours, both for necessity and to stretch their legs, before Rhy herded them back into the car to continue west.

  Nicky remained quiet throughout the morning hours, and Rhy was happy to leave her to her thoughts. The mix of emotions she inspired, from frustration to protectiveness to outright lust, threw him off-balance when he should be concentrating on the job at hand. Unfortunately, concentration was difficult while they were trapped together within the confines of the car. Her subtle spice-and-honey scent left him twitching like a horny teenager on prom night.

  He didn’t even want to think of spending another couple of nights listening to her quiet breathing as she slept a few, short feet away in a separate bed. Thank God for Alex.

  Rhy clung to the diversion of the four-year-old’s buoyant excitement like a drowning man. If Nicky was sullen and withdrawn, her son couldn’t have been happier. His eyes full of eager anticipation, Alex looked on their travels as a grand adventure and soaked up Rhy’s attention as if he’d been parched.

  Once again, Rhy was struck by the boy’s calm resiliency in the face of what must have been a confusing circumstance. With the clarity of innocence, he’d accepted Rhy’s presence, not once questioning why a strange man had barreled into their lives and taken charge.

  The only exception to his lack of curiosity on the subject was Lyndsay’s addition to the group. Nerves tightened Nicky’s shoulders as if she was reluctant to explain why Rhy insisted the big, blond man tail them. Her hand flinched under Rhy’s when he reached across the seat, but she looked relieved as he explained to Alex how Lyndsay’s ability to shadow people was an important part of his job. Like all things, to do them well, a person needed practice, and that was exactly what Lyndsay was doing.

  “So, he’s pretending like we’re the bad guys?” Alex immediately warmed to the idea of playing an important role in the cloak-and-dagger exercise.

  Rhy grinned and winked at Nicky. She dropped her gaze, but not before the pink of a blush bloomed on her cheeks.

  “That’s right, sport. Our job is to spot him, if we can.”

  Alex’s smile was blinding. He spent the rest of the day with his nose pressed to the window.

  “I think we lost him,” Alex lamented late that evening.

  As Rhy watched in the rearview mirror, Alex twisted his body in the seat belt to peer out the rear window. He turned back with a frown, the prospect of successfully outwitting their opponent clearly at odds with his concern for Rhy’s friend.

  “I bet he can’t see so good as you in the snow.”

  Rhy chuckled. “He’s out there, sport.”

  “What if he don’t know where we are?” Alex stared at the heavy snowfall illuminated by the neon lights of the motel sign.

  Rhy brought the car to a stop in front of the office door, turned to Nicky, and arched a brow. She shrugged, but her twitching lips said she enjoyed his attempts to field the many questions her son’s fertile mind produced.

  “He’ll know.” Rhy sent her a mock scowl that only made her smile broaden. Pleasure coursed through his body as he took an extra moment to enjoy the genuinely happy smile curving her lips and sparkling in her eyes. Before he gave in to the urge to lean toward her and taste her rare flash of joy, he shook his head and turned around in his seat. “I’ve worked with a lot of men, but I’ve never met a better shadow than Lyndsay.”

  “Okay.” Alex sighed then squinted out at what he could see of the parking lot. “But I still don’t see him.”

  Rhy laughed and tucked his hand inside his jacket pocket. He pulled out a small radio and depressed the switch. “Goldilocks, Baby Bear is concerned you won’t be able to find his porridge.”

  Lyndsay’s deep voice answered immediately. “Tell Baby Bear I’ll be sitting down to eat his porridge in less than five minutes, and don’t those flakes look cool with that pink glow all around them?”

  Alex’s eyes rounded like blue china saucers, and his mouth dropped open. He swung his head around to stare at the pink, neon lighting of the motel sign. His lips formed a tiny, silent O.

  “I think you’ve made a believer of him.”

  Nicky laughed softly, and as if she’d thrust her hand between his thighs, Rhy went hard in an instant. He turned his head slowly.

  All trace of humor slid from her face. Shadows emphasized the soft curve of her cheeks while soft pink highlights danced in her ebony hair. In the pale light from the motel’s sign, the green of her eyes darkened, glittering in a deep umber hue as his gaze dropped to her lips. They parted on a silent gasp.

  Need erupted, careening through Rhy’s system, and his cock twitched beneath the constraint of his jeans. When he lifted his gaze to hers once more, she stared unblinking and the answering awareness in the depths of her eyes made him swallow a curse. His uncontrollable attraction for the General’s daughter was already a problem, and with the way he was beginning to crave her, it was bound to get much worse.

  He forced a teasing smile. “We aim to please, ma’am.”

  “That’s cool.” Oblivious to the sensual undercurrents zinging through the vehicle, Alex had eyes only for the radio in Rhy’s hand. His reverence for the high-tech tool was blatant in his breathy tone. “My friend Kenny has some walkie-talkies, but his don’t sound so good. If I walk too far away so I can’t see him no more, it sounds like crinkly paper.”

  Rhy snatched at the change of subject like a lifeline. He tucked the radio back inside his jacket and reached over the backseat for his heavy overcoat. “It’s a two-way radio, and if I go too far, it sounds like crinkly paper, too. I can go a long way before that happens, though.”

  “Wow.”

  Rhy shrugged into his coat. “I’m going to check us in.”

  He dropped his gaze to the keys, still in the ignition of the idling car, then turned back to Nicky. He’d asked for her trust, but she hadn’t reciprocated. Would she and Alex be here when he came out, or would he and Lyndsay have to go to the trouble of chasing them down?

  “Wait here.”

  Surprise lit her face, but if they were going to work together successfully, they’d need to start trusting each other at some point, at least on a surface level. Now was as good a time as any to begin.

  Their gazes held for several heartbeats before she nodded.

  “We’ll be here.”

  Rhy returned the nod with a curt dip of his chin, but instead of climbing from the car, he hesitated. He wanted her trust, but he also needed her, them, to be safe. If something should happen, they’d need a backup plan. As he reached for the glove box, her spice-and-honey scent teased his nostrils, arresting the cooling of his blood in an instant. He froze with his hand hovering above her leg and turned his head. Her chest rose on a silent breath. Memories triggered: her soft body pressed to his, her cool fingers in his hair, warm lips, and a sinfully seductive tongue twining around his. His gaze flew up to clash with hers, inches away. Similar memories echoed in her darkened eyes.

  He knew it was a mistake even before he skimmed his fingertips over her knee, but he couldn’t resist touching her. Her catching breath broke the sensual spell.

  “Sorry.” The lie lay flat on his tongue as he looked away.

  The click of the glove box latch may as well have been a gunshot. Nicky jumped, and he straightened away from her. With a guilty grimace, he held up a pen and an old receipt. Settled back in his seat, he used his thigh as a surface and wrote on the back of the paper. After handing her the slip, he tossed the pen back into the glove b
ox and snapped it shut.

  Clearly shaken, Nicky’s chest rose and fell with her sharp breaths. Brow furrowed, she stared at the slip of paper in her hand.

  “Memorize it. If anything happens and we get separated, I’ll expect you to head there.” There wasn’t a damned thing Rhy could do about the graveled texture of his voice. With a final pointed glance, he got out of the car into the blowing storm and hurried for the motel office door. He cleared his throat and called himself a fool. He’d asked for her trust, then behaved like a horny teenager who couldn’t keep his mind on the job. If the General’s daughter questioned whether he was interested in more than simply finding his brother’s killer, he’d just proven her right.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Nicky blew out a ragged breath as McLean stalked from the car in a broad-shouldered swagger. Her gaze snapped to the keys in the ignition. Hmm. When he decided to trust someone, he didn’t fool around.

  Geez, she had no business getting worked up over a simple brush of his fingers, but damn it, what woman wouldn’t get a little wet when faced with the sensual temptation in his blue eyes? She squirmed in her seat, and paper crinkled in the hand she pressed to her belly.

  Reminded she had more important matters to consider than a blue-eyed devil, she reread the address on the paper and committed it to memory. She had no illusions about how furious Jonathan would be when he discovered she’d bested him one more time. If something did cause them to become separated, she could only hope she’d be alive to meet McLean as he asked.

  Alex kept up a running dialogue on the many uses for McLean’s wondrous radio and continued to list possibilities as McLean returned and ushered them into their motel room at the back of the building. Nicky recognized her son’s tactic. He’d employed the same one in his campaign to have a dog. Charlie was now a well-loved member of the family.

  “And if I had one in my room, then you wouldn’t have to yell up the stairs when dinner is ready. You could just say, ‘Time for porridge, Baby Bear.’” Alex grinned. “But umm, maybe you could call me BB instead, ’cause baby and bear both start with a B.” He nodded his approval of the code name.

  McLean chuckled and draped his overcoat on the back of a chair. He dropped to sit on the bed nearest the door.

  Nicky peeled Alex out of his coat. “I think I can handle the BB part, but I’m not sure about the radios. We’ll have to wait and see.”

  Alex’s face fell. “Wait and see means no.”

  “No.” She dug through her duffel to find his pajamas. “It means we’ll have to wait until my business is done and we’re back home again. Then we’ll see about the radios.”

  Alex’s lips twisted mulishly.

  “They’re not toys, but I will look into it.”

  From his downcast expression, Alex didn’t hold out a lot of hope, but he accepted her comment as the end of the discussion, at least for now. He took the pajamas she held out and sat on the second bed to pull off his sneakers.

  “Your mom’s right.” McLean pushed to his feet to take the radio from his coat pocket. “They’re not toys, they’re tools.” A grin split his face. “But they’re a lot of fun, too. How about you help me sign out to Lyndsay?”

  “Sign out?” Alex’s head popped out of the neckhole of his pajamas. He jammed his arms into the sleeves.

  “The last call of the night.” McLean sat on his bed. “To get an ‘all clear’ before we go to sleep.”

  “You mean it, Mr. McLean?”

  “Sure do.” McLean cocked his head. “Except, you’ll have to call me Rhy from now on.”

  Nicky arched a brow, and McLean smiled.

  “Really?” Alex climbed up beside him.

  McLean nodded. “Only members of the team are allowed to sign out. And we don’t call fellow team members mister.”

  “Okay!” Alex scrambled to his knees in unconcealed excitement.

  McLean cued the button and spoke into the radio. “Goldilocks, come in, Goldilocks.”

  A deep voice responded. “Goldilocks here.”

  McLean winked at a wide-eyed Alex. “Baby Bear, that’s BB to you and me, will be handling the sign-out for tonight. Hold for BB.”

  Alex cradled the radio in his small hands, holding the gadget reverently as if it were made of pure gold. “What do I say?” he whispered.

  McLean twisted his lips as if he considered several options while Alex knelt on the bed, utterly still, and waited for his instructions.

  “Ask him if he ate all his porridge and if he found a bed that fits just right.”

  Alex repeated the question word for word and proved he’d been paying the closest of attention to McLean’s every movement earlier by needing no help to work the thing properly.

  “That’s a roger on both, BB.” A deep laugh sounded in Lyndsay’s reply. “And tell Papa Bear there’s no sign of the big bad wolf.”

  Nicky stared, mesmerized by the hero worship shining in Alex’s eyes as he returned McLean’s grin. By necessity, interaction with adults had been sadly lacking in her son’s short life. Other than the rare visits with her father, male interaction had been almost nonexistent. Considering the seriousness of the situation and what was at stake for all of them, the patient kindness McLean showed her little boy was a precious gift she could never repay.

  Dismay hit her hard and fast. Breathing became difficult. Her heart performed a chaotic triple flip then dropped to her stomach with a helpless thud.

  God. There was no denying the sensual pull between her and McLean was mutual, but that was just lust. The last thing she needed was to go all mushy over an arrogant man whose main interest in her was her value as bait to trap her ex-husband. But it was hard not to react to a guy who so clearly understood a lonely little boy. Especially when the little boy in question was hers.

  Flustered, Nicky cleared her throat. “Okay, BB. Teeth first, then a few minutes of TV before bed.”

  Alex reluctantly handed the radio back to McLean, then scrambled off the bed to skip toward the bathroom in front of her. She remained there long after he’d returned to the bedroom, using the time taken on her nightly skin care regimen to settle her rattled mind and heart. The familiar ritual didn’t help. Finally, she gave up the effort.

  Gunshots and squealing tires filled the room when she left the bathroom. An action-adventure movie played on the TV. Alex cuddled beneath the blankets on the bed farthest from the door. McLean stretched out on top of the other, fully dressed minus his shoes and socks. Her gaze darted to the door. There was no sign of the handcuffs of the night before.

  The trust thing again. Nicky’s mushy heart softened further with helpless pleasure. She settled down next to Alex.

  McLean switched off the TV and lamp. The room went dark, though not so dark she couldn’t still make out his face and form. Muscled arms crossed beneath his head, he stared up at the ceiling. The weave of his natural-colored sweater stretched and molded to his thick biceps, wide chest, and flat stomach. His long, denim-covered legs were crossed at the ankles. Her gaze lingered on his large, well-shaped, bare feet.

  “Rhy?” Alex said beside her.

  Nicky quickly pivoted her head so McLean wouldn’t catch her staring.

  The bedding rustled as he rolled his head their way. “Yeah, sport?”

  “Thanks for letting me make the sign-out.”

  “You’re welcome, buddy.”

  “Good night, Papa Bear.”

  A quiet chuckle then, “Good night, BB.”

  Alex heaved a happy sigh before he turned onto his belly. He yawned. “Good night, Momma Bear.”

  Oh, good Lord, Alex. Nicky made her wry sigh silent. “Good night, baby.”

  Darting a wary, sidelong glance at the second bed, she wasn’t surprised when her gaze clashed with McLean’s. That sexy, single-dimpled smile softened the handsome planes of his face. Damn, she really wished he wouldn’t do that. Heat bloomed on her cheeks at his soft laughter.

  Nicky rolled over, giving him her back.

>   “I’m going to check in with Lyndsay and pick up something for breakfast.” McLean cocked his head and studied Nicky. “I’ll leave you my phone. Lyndsay’s right next door.”

  He didn’t add, call Lyndsay if something happens. He didn’t have to.

  “Don’t open the door to anyone. I have my room key.”

  She nodded. After a moment’s hesitation, he scooped up the car keys and stepped outside.

  Foggy from a lack of her morning jolt of caffeine, she reminded Alex not to open the door and headed for the bathroom. Ten minutes later, she returned to find him sprawled on his belly in the middle of the bed.

  He sat up. “What does E-S-C-A-P-E spell?”

  Nicky’s fingers clenched on the towel she’d been running over her hair. “What?”

  Alex held up McLean’s cell phone. “It beeped. I tried to read the text, but I don’t know that word.”

  Eyes glued to the phone, she crossed the room and eased onto the bed beside him. “Let me see.”

  Her hands shook as she read the text. Tell my wife she can run, but she won’t escape.

  The fight-or-flight reflex was a powerful force. Scalding-hot adrenaline rushed through her bloodstream like a liquid flash fire. She bolted to her feet. The phone dropped from her shaking hand and clattered to the floor as her eyes darted about the room in search of a weapon. They came to rest on the metal-and-glass lamp on the table near the door.

  “Get dressed, Alex. Quickly.” She tossed the towel aside and rushed across the room while scooping her wet hair into a ponytail. Casting a wary eye at the door, she shoved items into her duffel. “Put on your shoes. Where’s your coat?”

  “Mommy?” Alex’s tense voice pierced the harsh grip of fear.