by Unknown
He took her offering with lazy grace, purposefully brushing his rough, calloused fingers against hers in the exchange. Raising the glass, he tipped back his head and drank, his strong, smooth-skinned throat rippling. She waited, unable to look away, as he licked the last bead of moisture from his lips once he’d drained the glass. “Thanks.” He handed her back the glass.
Her own throat felt dust dry. “You’re welcome. Now please go away.”
He acted as if he hadn’t heard her. “My name’s Dominic. Dominic Steele. What’s yours?”
“I see no reason for you to know that,” she said coolly.
“Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. After all—” his gaze dropped from her eyes to her mouth, lingered, then unhurriedly came back up “—how can I ask you out if I don’t know your name?”
If she had any sense, she’d walk away. Yet she stood rooted to the spot. Silence stretched between them. Then she heard herself say in a breathy way that was totally unlike her, “It’s Lilah…Cantrell.”
“Lilah,” he repeated. “That’s perfect. A pretty name for a pretty girl.” The faintest of smiles crinkled the corners of his vivid eyes and her knees instantly went weak. “Come on, Lilah, go out with me. Please?”
She knew she should say no. She could just imagine her grandmother’s reaction to her dating someone from the lawn service. Then again, Gran was gone for the rest of the summer on her honeymoon cruise. And except for the staff, Lilah was alone, as usual, the weeks until her sophomore years at Stanford started stretching interminably before her.
Still, except on rare occasions, such as last winter’s charity cotillion and her senior high school prom, she didn’t really care to date. She’d always found the opposite sex to be either crass or boring, or both.
Dominic Steele was neither. In the past five minutes, he’d managed to turn her ordered world upside down—surprising, annoying, intriguing and charming her all at the same time. Which was no doubt why what was left of her common sense was shrilly insisting that nothing good could come from the pull she felt merely standing close to him.
The prudent thing to do was say no.
Oh, come on, whispered an unfamiliar little voice in her head. Aren’t you just a little tired of always doing the right thing? Of forever being the straight-A student, the dutiful granddaughter? After all, you’re not a child any longer. And no matter what Gran says, you’re nothing like your mother—
“You’re not afraid of me, are you?”
Her spine stiffened automatically. “Please,” she said with a faint sniff.
“So prove it.” He looked at her expectantly.
“Oh, very well.” She did her best to sound blasé, but it was hard to do with her heart thundering like a drum solo. “I suppose I could rearrange my schedule.”
Satisfaction flashed across his face. “Great. I’ll pick you up at eight.” He turned to walk away, then twisted back around. “Oh, and Lilah?”
“What?”
“Wear pants.”
“Why?”
His expression turned enigmatic. “You’ll find out tonight.” As assured as a prince, he strode away, leaving her to stare after him, already questioning the wisdom of what she’d done.
She got her first inkling of what she was in for when he’d roared up the drive that night on a gleaming black motorcycle.
Grateful again that Gran was away, Lilah had reluctantly allowed Dominic to coax her onto the back of the bike. Once there, she’d found she had no choice but to wrap her arms around his lean hard middle, press her cheek against the warm hollow between his shoulder blades and trust him to keep her safe.
Looking back later, she’d been able to see that their ride that night had been the perfect metaphor for the relationship that followed. It had been wild, scary, exciting and exhilarating, with Dominic taking her places she’d never been before.
Within hours, she’d begun to fall in love with him. Within days they’d become lovers. And after that….
“Li? You awake?”
With a start, she opened her eyes. She blinked, surprised to find that while she’d been strolling down memory lane, night had fallen. The cell block was cloaked in darkness except for a single weak arrow of light streaming in the small barred window. It was just enough illumination to reveal Dominic standing over her. Startled, disoriented, suddenly not sure she wasn’t dreaming, she gazed up at him. “But…how did you get in here?”
“Lock pick. In my boot.” He held out his hand. “Come on. It’s time to get the hell out of Dodge.” Hard and calloused, his fingers closed around hers.
She drew in a sharp breath at the contact. Climbing unsteadily to her feet, she struggled to come to grips with the shift from weeks of waiting to sudden action. By the time her head had cleared, he’d led her out of her cell and into his.
She continued to follow him, her gaze locked on the solid outline of his back, when, without warning, he stepped to one side.
She rocked to a halt, a stiff salt breeze slapping her in the face, and stared at the man-sized opening that now gaped in the previously solid, seemingly impregnable wall. Beyond it stretched nothing but a vast black sky littered with glittering silver stars.
“Dear God.” With a start, she remembered he’d said something about a drop, but she’d never, ever, imagined this.
She took a cautious step forward, craned her neck and looked down. There, so far below it looked to be miles away, the ocean rolled in with an impressive crash as it met the perpendicular cliff face. “You can’t be serious. This is your escape route?”
“That’s right.” Unlike the water, Dominic was suddenly far too close. His breath washed over her temple and every sensitive inch of skin on her body had goose bumps.
She tried to ignore her rapidly disintegrating nerves. “It’s got to be at least a hundred-foot drop.”
“More like fifty.”
“But how are we going to get down?”
“Easy.” All of a sudden, the lazy humor was back in his voice. “We’re going to jump.”
For a second, Lilah was sure she hadn’t heard correctly; then she was afraid she had. “You’re kidding, right?
“Nope.”
“But that’s crazy! If the fall doesn’t kill us, getting dashed by the tide against the cliff will do the job. That is, if we haven’t already hit a submerged rock!”
“No rocks,” he said calmly. “The tide’s on its way out. And the waves sound a lot worse than they really are. It’s a clean shot down, with more than enough depth to be safe. I checked.”
He’d checked. The knowledge brought reassurance, which was crazy in itself. If ever there was a man not to trust, he was the one.
Yet it wasn’t as if she really had a choice, she realized. Not anymore. She didn’t want to think what would happen if they were still here when the guards showed up in the morning and saw Dominic’s handiwork.
“Look,” he said quietly, his face in shadow, which only served to make his voice even more compelling, “I know you’ve always had a thing about heights—”
“No. It’s all right. If you—if this—” she stopped, swallowed, reached down deep to steady herself “—if this is what we have to do, this is what we have to do.”
He moved out of the darkness and into the moonlight, an odd expression on his face that she couldn’t identify. “You mean I’m not going to have to tie you up and gag you to get you to jump?”
She shivered at the picture his words conjured. “No,” she said quickly.
“Too bad.” That crooked, cocky grin that had always made her stomach flip-flop flashed across his handsome face. “Then let’s do it.”
“Now?” She took an involuntary step back.
“Yeah. Now.” Before she could retreat farther, he reached out and wrapped his arms around her.
For a moment, the shock of his embrace was so overwhelming she forgot to be afraid.
And then she forgot to be anything else as he lifted her off her feet, took two
powerful steps through the crude doorway he’d created and vaulted them out into the wind-whipped void.
Four
T he night breeze danced through the palm trees that fringed the small cove, while the moon played hide-and-seek with a flotilla of clouds. Still, the silvery orb provided sufficient light to guide Dominic and Lilah as they waded through the surf toward the shallows and the tiny sliver of beach beyond.
“Easy,” Dominic said, as a wave broke early and Lilah stumbled. He reached out to steady her.
“I’m okay,” she said instantly. It was one thing to be touched by him when fear was crowding everything else out of her mind. Without that distraction, however, she was suddenly aware of how easy it would be to step a little closer, allow herself to lean against him, give in to the desire to feel his arm around her—
Rattled by her thoughts—get a grip, Lilah—she shrugged off his hand. “I’m just a little tired.”
“Yeah, well, after the fall and crawl we just did, that’s normal.”
Normal? For her. But for Dominic? She slanted a sideways look at him. Moving effortlessly through the thigh-high water, his olive T-shirt and fatigue pants molded to his muscular body like a second skin, he looked larger than life, like some matinee-idol action hero come to life. What’s more, he was practically vibrating with energy; for all the toll the past half hour had taken on him, he might have just completed a few leisurely laps in a heated pool. But then, as she now knew in a very up close and personal way, he was every bit as good at the rescue business as he’d claimed.
It had been his firm hold and unwavering calm that had gotten her through that terrifying fall that had gone on forever and the plunge down, down, down into the pitch black water that had seemed to go on even longer.
It had been his reassuring voice telling her to breathe that had kept her from breaking down altogether when she’d finally surfaced, her body screaming for air.
And it had been his steadying presence that had given her the fortitude to ignore her trembling muscles and burning lungs to make the endless swim along the curve of the coast to this little niche that the waves had carved out of the cliffs.
Which somehow made it all the more humiliating that now, with the water finally receding to their knees and solid land only yards away, she was shaking so hard she couldn’t walk while fighting an inexplicable urge to cry.
“Li?” She sensed Dominic stopping and turning toward her. “What’s the matter?”
The unexpected gentleness of his voice nearly did her in. She swallowed. “Nothing. I just need a moment to catch my breath, that’s all.” To her horror, a sound midway between a sob and a chuckle promptly escaped her, revealing her words for the lie they were. “Oh God, I’m sorry,” she said, both her voice and her knees suddenly shaking. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. All of a sudden my legs feel weak and I want to laugh and cry and dance and shout all at the same time and—oh God, I haven’t even thanked you yet!”
“No need for that,” he replied. “I’m only doing my job. And you’re having a normal reaction after a huge adrenaline rush.”
Adrenaline might explain her crazy emotions. But not why she felt stung by his response. But then maybe she didn’t want to be just “a job” to him. Although what she did want, she had no idea. Not that it mattered. Despite his disclaimer, she owed him her freedom, and very possibly her life.
So is this how you intend to repay him? By breaking down? By acting like the self-indulgent debutante he once accused you of being?
No. After what he’d done, he deserved better.
She straightened and forced herself to meet his eyes. “You may not need to hear it, but I need to say it,” she said with all the dignity she could muster. “Thank you, Dominic. Thank you for coming here and getting me out of that awful place.”
To her surprise, instead of the “hey, no big deal” she’d expected, his gaze flickered over her, then he shrugged and abruptly turned to survey the grove of palms. “Don’t thank me yet. We’ve still got a ways to go before we’re in the clear.”
His dismissal cut even deeper. Ignoring the voice of reason that cautioned her to just let it go, she reached out and touched the solid curve of his shoulder.
He gave a start at the contact and swung around to face her. “What?”
A bead of water rolled down his temple and just like that, the reckless part of her, which she’d been sure had died with their romance, yearned to lick it off with her tongue. She lifted her chin. “No matter what you think or what happens next, I’ll still be grateful for what you just did. Nothing can change that.”
“Dammit, Lilah—”
Another comber swept in. Pushed by the wind, it was stronger than those that had preceded it had been, and it snatched at the sandy bottom beneath their feet. Caught off guard, Lilah swayed and Dominic immediately reached out to brace her, gently wrapping his fingers around her upper arm.
Which might have been all right if she hadn’t lost her balance, taking a step that brought the back of his hand into intimate contact with the yielding curve of her breast.
She heard his breath catch, saw his eyes lock on hers and felt the old wildness that only he had ever been able to tap into surge through her blood, demolishing everything sane and practical in its path.
She didn’t care. All she could think was that she might have died tonight. They might have died tonight. Somehow, in the face of that, all her inhibitions and concerns didn’t seem to matter.
Blanking her mind, she gave in to instinct and closed the distance between them, yielding to the temptation to frame his face with her hands and feel his hair slide like wet silk through her fingers.
He stared down at her, his face shadowed, his eyes washed of color by the moonlight. “Lilah—” he said, the note of warning in his voice unmistakable.
She ignored that, too. Instead, she sketched a path from temple to cheekbone to press her fingertips against the forbidding curve of his lips. “Shh,” she whispered, the blood pounding so loudly in her ears it was the only thing she could hear. “Just…kiss me, Dominic.”
For one endless second, he didn’t move, just continued to stare down at her with that totally unreadable expression. Then with a primitive sound low in his throat, he locked one arm around her thighs and the other around her waist, lifted her up and found her mouth with his own.
The press of his lips was heaven. He’d always been a terrific kisser and that hadn’t changed. He seemed to know exactly how much pressure to apply; how long to wait before he changed the slant of his mouth to gently bite her bottom lip; at what point she was desperate to have his tongue slide into her mouth.
Heat poured off his body and she soaked it up, welcoming the hard grip of his hands, the knowing play of his mouth, clinging to him like a vine to a trellis.
And then, as quickly as it had started, it was over as Dominic abruptly dumped her onto her feet, tore her hands from his neck and stepped away. “Enough,” he said harshly.
Dazed and dismayed, her blood still running hot, Lilah automatically took a step forward. “What?” she asked uncertainly. “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t,” he said sharply, taking a giant step backward as if she carried some infectious disease.
She jerked to a stop, no less shocked than if he’d slapped her face. In a rush, the world around her came into sharp focus: the water lapping at her calves, the palm trees rustling, the moon drenching everything in its soft silver light.
And Dominic, his expression frigid, staring at her as if she were a stranger. One he didn’t particularly like.
Dear Lord. What had she done?
“Come on,” he said, his voice clipped and devoid of all emotion. “We need to get out of the water and off this beach. Now.”
And without another word, he turned and strode away.
Her throat aching, her body suddenly overcome with fatigue, Lilah swallowed the host of questions she longed to shout at his back.
They didn’t
matter, she told herself. Because she already knew everything she needed to. Although Dominic clearly didn’t find her physically repulsive—the heavy thrust of his erection had been ample proof of that—he also clearly didn’t want her enough to forget and forgive their past.
Well, fine, she thought. That was his right. No matter how humiliated she felt, how desperately she wished she could erase the past ten minutes, how much she wanted to hide her face and never have to see him again, she would respect his wishes and keep her distance.
It was the least she could do.
Holding firm to that thought, she blinked back the wash of tears blurring her vision, squared her shoulders and set off after him.
“What the hell?” Dom stared with a mixture of disbelief and disgust at the Jeep he’d hidden in a dense tangle of vines a good fifty feet off the road.
Or, more correctly, what was left of the Jeep. Which wasn’t much. The bare metal frame squatted forlornly on the rusty rims, stripped by some enterprising local not just of its leafy camouflage but of everything that mattered—the engine, the radiator, the gas tank and all four tires. Damned if even the seats weren’t gone.
The Extraction from Hell, Part Two, he thought sardonically, the frustration he’d felt ever since he’d been forced to end that mind-blowing embrace with Lilah threatening to explode.
What the hell had he been thinking?
How easy it would be to shift some clothing and bury yourself deep inside her?
His mind’s instant and mocking reply had him clenching his jaw against the urge to let loose with a string of profanity.
That’s just priceless, pal. What a great way to repay Li for the gutsy way she handled the jump, even though she was clearly scared out of her mind. How professional of you to just blow off procedure and conveniently forget that her safety comes before anything—including you. Besides, she told you right up front what she was feeling—and it was gratitude, not lust.