by Linda Turner
Ace didn’t so much as bat an eye at the rampant poverty that they suddenly found themselves surrounded by. “Yeah, this is where he came looking for help. It has to be. A man would have to be desperate to even think about approaching Barrera’s stronghold, and these people are desperate.”
Half expecting Maddy to comment on the stark despair on the faces of the children who stopped their play to watch the taxi slowly cruise down the street, he glanced over at her and couldn’t help but smile. Sitting stiffly erect, she was fighting for all she was worth to stay awake, but it was a losing battle. Her weighted eyelids were already at half-mast and, even as he watched, her head bobbed. She caught herself almost immediately, but seconds later, her head started to drop again.
The ease with which he spontaneously reached for her stopped him before he so much as laid a finger on her. Oh, no! he thought, quickly drawing his hand back. He wasn’t falling into that trap again. He’d held the lady once before while she slept and found it an all too enjoyable experience. She wasn’t his type, dammit! He liked women with some meat on their bones and a sexy twinkle in their eyes. Maddy Lawrence had neither. The only reason she was starting to look good to him was because she was the only female around and he was stuck with her. That didn’t, under any circumstances, mean that she was available.
Reminding himself that he had a job to do and that didn’t involve getting messed up with a woman who might or might not be an uptight spinster who’d probably never even been with a man, he deliberately left her where she was and turned to scan the neighborhood as they drew deeper and deeper into the slums. The hopelessness was more prevalent here, the cantinas and liquor stores more numerous, sometimes taking up whole blocks. It was, he decided, just the type of environment Sneakers would have felt right at home in.
Instructing the driver to pull over at the next corner, he glanced back at Maddy and sighed at the sight of her sinking like a wilting flower against the door. Damn. What was he going to do with her? He didn’t want to wake her, not when he already knew how the lady came awake. Soft and disoriented, drowsiness darkening her big, unfocused eyes, she’d blink up at him with a delightful confusion that was damn hard to resist.
But he couldn’t just leave her there while he went looking for a guide. Blaming her for this crazy tug she seemed to have on his hormones, he scowled at her. “Wake up, Maddy!” he said loudly. “We’re here.”
A soft snore was his only answer.
Unexpectedly, Ace couldn’t stop the grin that started to curl the edges of his mouth. Who would have thought prim and proper Maddy Lawrence would snore? And she probably didn’t even know it. Picturing her face when he teased her about rattling the windows, he reached over and gave her shoulder a quick, rough shake. “Come on, deadhead. I don’t have time for you to loll around and snooze. We’re already at least two hours behind Sneakers. If we’re going to catch the bastard, we’re really going to have to haul ass.”
His gruff, grating voice pounded at the edges of Maddy’s consciousness, needling her, dragging her kicking and screaming into wakefulness. Forcing her eyes open, she pushed herself erect and gave him a narrow-eyed look that warned him the self-control and good manners her mother had drilled into her as a child weren’t inexhaustible. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re an extremely annoying man?” she asked irritably.
“Frequently,” he retorted, chuckling. “I’ve been told that that’s one of my more endearing qualities.”
She snorted, drawing a grin from him. “That wasn’t meant as a compliment. And for the record, I don’t haul ass for anyone,” she said, wrinkling her nose in distaste at the expression.
“You will for me, Princess Di, or you’ll get left behind.”
The cabby pulled over at the corner then, and in the blink of an eye, he was all business again. Quickly instructing the driver to wait for them—they’d never get a cab in this part of town, otherwise—he turned back to Maddy, his expression stern. “This isn’t exactly Central Park West, so I suggest you stick close, do as you’re told like a good girl and leave the talking to me. Got it?”
Maddy had never considered herself one of those women who instantly took offense at some of the stupid, sexist things that seemed to come out of a man’s mouth so naturally. But then again, she’d never met anyone quite like Ace before. Lord, he knew how to push her buttons!
Lifting her chin a notch, she looked down her nose at him with a superior haughtiness that was guaranteed to put him in his place. “You know, this might surprise you, but I’m neither stupid nor slow-witted. And I haven’t been a child for a very long time now. For the record, my name isn’t Princess Di or Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty. It’s Maddy. I’d appreciate it if you’d use it. As for following your lead, I’ll be happy, to. Not because I haven’t got the brains God gave a turtle,” she added huffily, “but because this is apparently your field of expertise and I’m smart enough to know when I’m in over my head. Now, Mr…. Ace, have you got that?”
She faced him like a bantam hen with its feathers ruffled, ready to light into him if he so much as looked at her wrong, Ace thought, stifling a smile. Snapping his shoulders back, he gave her a teasing, militarily correct salute. “Yes, Maddy,” he drawled. “Anything you say, Maddy, darlin’. I beg your pardon for underestimating you. It won’t happen again. Okay?”
Not yet ready to back down, she studied him suspiciously. “Why don’t I believe you?”
“Maybe because I can lie through my teeth with the best of them,” he admitted baldly, grinning. “Now that we’ve got that settled, let’s get out of here. The meter’s running.”
There was, regrettably, no question that they were strangers in unfamiliar territory. After spending more hours in the air than either cared to remember, they both looked the worse for wear. The new clothes helped their appearance, but in the slums of Caracas, they stood out like sore thumbs. From every barred window and shadowed doorway, they drew hostile, distrustful glances.
Feeling the eery, invisible touch of unseen eyes, Maddy shivered. “Now what?”
“Just stay close,” he advised in a low voice, and turned to the nearest bar.
With Maddy practically glued to his side, Ace moved from one cantina to the next, each worse than the last, as he tirelessly questioned everyone he saw. Openly asking only about Sneakers, he also cautiously put out feelers about Barrera and the whereabouts of his hideout in the jungle. Of those who would talk to him, no one would touch the subject of Barrera. As for Lazear, maybe they had seen a stranger fitting Sneakers description, but then again, one man looked much like another.
Frustrated, Ace knew a brick wall when he saw one. Standing on the cracked sidewalk outside one of the better dives in the area, he stared unseeingly down the street, muttering curses under his breath. “He’s been here, dammit! I can smell him. He walked in here, waving some cash around, and found some poor sucker looking for his next fix to take into the jungles to Barrera. And we don’t even know which way they went. Hell!”
If he hadn’t had Maddy along, he would have done what he always did in this type of situation—gone into one of the bars, pulled up a stool next to the shadiest character in the place and kept the liquor coming until his drinking partner loosened up enough to tell him what he wanted to know. But that would hardly work with Maddy standing nervously at his side, looking as out of place as a virgin in a whorehouse.
Losing her for a while was out of the question, though, so he’d have to try another tactic. “I need a drink,” he muttered, and led her into another bar.
Inside, it was shadowy and warm, the pall of cigarette smoke thick in the air. Waiting near the door for his eyes to adjust to the poor light, Ace noted the position of the halfdozen people in the room, from the bartender who was drying glasses with a dirty dish towel to the grizzled old drunk passed out cold at a table in the far corner. A couple, at the bar was wrapped up in each other and didn’t spare them a glance. Everyone else, Ace noticed, looked him and Maddy up an
d down, then turned back to the serious business of getting drunk. All but one, that is. Sitting alone at the end of the bar, nursing a cold beer, a thin, wiry man watched Maddy’s every move.
Irritated, Ace didn’t like the looks of the man one damn little bit. What the hell was he staring at? Hadn’t he ever seen a woman before? A plain, ordinary woman? All right, so she was looking pretty good right now in spite of the shadows under her eyes from lack of sleep. That didn’t mean the jackass had to drool all over her.
Or that he, himself, had to stand there scowling like a jealous lover when there was work to be done and the means to do it was staring at Maddy from across the room.
Grabbing her arm, he hauled her over to a deserted section of the bar, pushed her down on a stool and leaned over her. “Listen close,” he whispered hurriedly. “You see that guy at the end of the bar—no, don’t look! Trust me, he’s there, and he’s looking at you like you’re the candles on his birthday cake.”
“What? Oh, God!”
“I want you to go over there and talk to him.”
She couldn’t have looked more shocked if he’d suggested she jump on a table and strip. “Are you out of your mind? Why would I want to do that?”
“Shh! Keep a lid on it, will you? I’d just as soon not advertise this to the entire bar, if you don’t mind.” Quickly glancing around to make sure that they hadn’t drawn anything more than passing interest from anyone but the man at the opposite end of the bar, he sighed in relief when no one but Maddy’s secret admirer appeared to be interested in their actions. Turning his attention back to Maddy, he gave her a hard look. “Remember our agreement? That this is my field of expertise?”
“Yes, but-”
“No buts. My gut’s telling me that Casanova over there is the type who knows everything that’s going on in his neighborhood. If Sneakers came in here, he saw him. And he’s interested in you.” Reaching into the front pocket of his jeans, he pulled out some crumbled bills and stuffed them into her hand. “Go over there and buy him a drink and flirt with him a little and see what you can get out of him.”
Horrified, Maddy just looked at him. “I can’t do that!”
“Why not?”
“Because…” Oh, Lord, how did she admit her inexperience to a man who’d probably never been innocent or unsure of his sexual prowess a day in his life? He was a gorgeous specimen of a man—and he knew it. Flirting seemed to be as natural as breathing to him. He would never understand what it was like to grow up knowing you would never be anything other than ordinary at best and being all right with that because you spent so much time with your nose in a book. Just the thought of walking up to a stranger and trying to sweet-talk him made her stomach turn over. Her mouth suddenly dust dry, she swallowed. “Because I just can’t. Anyway, you’re the expert, as you’re so fond of reminding me. You go talk to him.”
“What for? Look at him. It isn’t me he can’t take his eyes off of.”
“I don’t care. I’m not flirting with him or anyone else. You’ll have to find another way to get him to talk.”
“Why not, dammit?”
Goaded, resenting the pressure he was putting on her when he had absolutely no right, she blurted out the last thing she ever wanted to admit. “Because I don’t know how, okay? I don’t know how.”
Caught off guard, Ace unwisely said the first thing that came into his head. “You’re kidding. Everybody knows how to flirt. It’s instinctive.”
“Maybe for you,” she retorted huffily, her chin lifted to a defensive angle as she turned away. “I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I guess I have a defective flirting gene.”
He wanted to believe this was another part of her act, but no one could fake the hurt he saw in her eyes. Dammit, could she really be involved with Lazear? He’d been so positive, but now he couldn’t be sure. He’d never met anyone who had so little confidence in themselves when it came to the opposite sex. And it wasn’t as if she were some baby teetering on the edge of womanhood and afraid to try her wings for the first time. She should have gone through all the uncertainties and awkwardness of adolescence decades ago.
Frustrated, not exactly sure how to proceed, he reached out to cup her cheek in his palm and gently but firmly turn her eyes to his. “It’s not that hard,” he said quietly. “In fact, flirting with this guy will be a piece of cake since he’s already got his eye on you. You just go up to him and smile and buy him a drink. When you get him loosened up, I’ll stroll over and ask him about Sneakers.”
“But I don’t speak Spanish!”
“Some things don’t need words, sweetheart. All you have to do is give him a couple of slow smiles and a beer and, trust me, he’ll get the picture.” Looking her up and down, he frowned. “But first we’ve got to make a few adjustments.” Before she could guess his intentions, he fluffed her hair, then moved his fingers to the top button of her T-shirt.
Her heart lurching in her breast, Maddy gasped and swatted at his hands. “What are you doing?” she squeaked. “Stop that!”
“Settle down. I’m just showing a little skin so you won’t look so straitlaced,” he assured her, struggling to hold back a smile. “Don’t get all bristly on me. You’ll still be well covered.”
The top button slid free. Her mouth dust dry, her pulse thundering like a scared rabbit’s, Maddy couldn’t catch her breath as she watched his strong, agile fingers start to move another half inch down her chest. Suddenly she was hot and confused and her knees had this alarming tendency to just buckle. Like a steel trap, her fingers snapped shut around his.
Flushed, she pulled back, shaking her head, whether in denial of the strange feelings he stirred in her or of what he was asking of her she wasn’t sure. “This’ll never work.”
His eyes dropped to the hollow of her throat. Barely an inch of skin showed—not even a shadow of cleavage. She wasn’t exposed, she told herself. There was nothing to be embarrassed about. Then he drawled, “Some men like to do their own unwrapping. If you came up to me like that and bought me a drink, you could get anything out of me you wanted.”
Every suggestive word was like a long, slow glide of his hands, stroking her, heating her, sending her blood rushing up her throat into her cheeks and down into dark, secret, feminine places. Transfixed, she should have buttoned her T-shirt at the neckline again and told him that the sun would turn green the day she asked him for anything other than a plane ticket home, but her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth, and she couldn’t for the life of her think of anything but what it would be like to have him touch her— really touch her the way a man touched a woman he found attractive.
You’re out of your mind, Maddy Lawrence. The humidity in this godforsaken place has fried your brain.
Shaken, she pushed his hand away and started to button the top button again. “I don’t care. I can’t do this—”
His fingers closed around hers, trapping them against her breasts as his eyes drilled into hers. “This isn’t some kind of game, lady,” he said tersely. “If you want to go home, if you really are as innocent in all this as you claim and you want to see your mother anytime soon, then you’ll help me find out which direction Sneakers went. Because you’re not going anywhere until we catch up with him. You got that?”
She wasn’t dense—of course, she got it! But he didn’t know what he was asking of her. “You don’t understand. It isn’t that I don’t want to help. I’ll just never be able to carry it off. He’ll take one look at me and know I’m a fraud.”
She was serious, Ace realized with a jolt of surprise. She might be able to appreciate the change in her appearance, but deep down inside, she didn’t think a man would. And for some reason that he couldn’t understand, that irritated the hell out of him. Were the men in her life blind or what?
Making a snap decision he knew he was going to live to regret, he grabbed her by the wrist and headed for the door. “C’mon.”
“But what about the man at the end of the bar—”
“He’ll wait. This won’t.”
And before she could say another word, he pulled her outside, around the corner of the building, and pushed her up against the wall. In the split second it took to lower his mouth to hers, he saw her eyes widen, heard her gasp, felt her stiffen, and still he kissed her.
It was, he discovered almost immediately, the biggest mistake of his life. Too late, he realized there was a big difference between kissing an experienced woman and one who didn’t know squat about what she was doing. The former he could enjoy and find mutual pleasure with without once engaging his brain. The latter was a whole different ball game.
He hadn’t expected her to be so vulnerable.
The minute his mouth touched hers, she went as still as a fawn caught in the cross hairs of a hunter’s sight. She didn’t move, didn’t breathe, and he could have sworn he could actually hear the wild fluttering of her heart. Unable to resist, he ran his tongue along the tempting curve of her bottom lip, learning the shape and sweet contour of her, and just that easily she started to tremble.
Entranced, he tried to tell himself it wasn’t with fear. Surely by now she knew she had nothing to fear from him. But deep down inside, he couldn’t be sure.
Shut up! he fiercely ordered the doubts in his head and gathered her closer without even being aware of it. But while one side of his brain was quickly sinking into pleasure, the other was roaring at him not to be any more contemptible than he already had been with this woman. She was innocent, dammit! If he’d had any doubts whatsoever on the matter before, they were silenced now. What she didn’t know about kissing could fill the Grand Canyon, and he was a man who’d always avoided innocence like the plague.
He should have released her immediately. He liked women, enjoyed their company, their delicateness, and took no pleasure in scaring one. But her chasteness, he was discovering to his shock, had an unexpected appeal. Protectiveness rose in him, along with a tenderness that completely undid him. His hands gentled, his mouth softened on hers, words of reassurance rising on his tongue. He wanted to go slow with her, teach her, sweetly tutor her in the art of lovemaking and all that she had been missing until she came to him willingly, eagerly—