“Not really. All we have to do is lay low until the court case. If your friend tows the line, she’s safe.”
Adrian nodded, relieved.
“She’s a very attractive woman,” Seth commented.
Adrian nodded. “You can say that again.” Would she hate him for this? She had every right to do so. “I should go talk to her, apologise.”
“You need to rest, and she needs time to get used to this. She’s upset. You’ve had a bit longer to come to terms with it.”
“That’s true.” He looked at the door, concerned about her and how she must be feeling right now.
“I’ll check on her, okay?” Seth got to his feet. “I’ll get you some food first.”
“Brandy,” Adrian bartered.
“Food, then brandy. You know it makes sense.”
“You drive a hard bargain.” Adrian forced a smile he didn’t really have the energy for, and gave Seth a thumbs-up.
When Seth had gone, he let out a deep sigh and settled back on the sofa. If only he hadn’t taken the Carlisle contract. None of this would be happening. He might have been having dinner with Lily instead, getting to know her properly. Instead she was in her room hating him for what he’d dragged her into. Life played some weird tricks on a man. Reaching back, he punched the cushion behind his head, pushing it more forcefully into the crook of his neck.
Then again, if I hadn’t been on edge about Carlisle, I might never have asked her out and I might never have looked into those sexy eyes. His head throbbed, and he mumbled half-heartedly, cursing as he closed his eyes, giving in to the urge to doze.
Chapter Five
Lily couldn’t rest, no matter how hard she tried. Instead, she paced up and down the narrow passage between the twin beds in her designated room, trying to come to terms with her situation. It wasn’t easy. She was in some sort of protective custody, in the depths of the Welsh countryside. The building they were in was an old manor house, done out like some sort of hotel. Not what she was expecting, but then she wasn’t sure what to expect. Being thrust into witness protection was way beyond her personal experience.
The room reminded her of an old youth hostel she’d stayed at years ago, except that place was sparsely furnished with bunk beds and this was comfortably furnished and kind of plush, if a bit tweedy and old-fashioned. It made her think of Fawlty Towers, and she had a slightly crazed laugh at the idea of it, flopping on to the nearest bed.
There was a portable TV on a bedside cabinet and she turned it on, watching the news and yet feeling as if it were about a different planet to the one she currently inhabited. After a while she got up again, too restless to concentrate, and stepped into the en suite bathroom. She peered at herself in the mirror, for the third time that evening. She didn’t look too bad, considering. Her mascara was smudged and her eyes were a bit wild, otherwise she looked as if she had just had a night out on the town. If only. Sighing, she tugged the bathroom light cord, and went back into the bedroom that she had been designated. True to her captor’s word, the room had warmed up quickly, despite the high ceilings and the fact the place had obviously been empty a while. She glanced around.
“How long am I going to be stuck here?” She stood with her back against the old-fashioned Victorian radiator warming her hands and legs and stared around the strange bedroom while she tried to make sense of everything that happened over the course of the evening. The witness protection officer, Seth, had taken charge as if it was his god given right. He’d been so high-handed and arrogant that her back was well and truly up. She balked at following his instructions, and she expected at least a modicum of respect—especially if Adrian and she were such highly valued members of the public that they needed his protection. He riled her. Then there was the fact she’d accidentally gotten intimate with him, which apparently had given him an excuse to act as if he owned her. Was he that way with everyone?
The question made her remember each and every detail of what had happened between them, and her response to the memory was physical as well as mental. Tossing her hair back, she pushed the memories away as best she could. One thing was for sure, she wanted her phone back. She had to get in touch with her flatmate. Andrea would be worried sick. They worked together, and they had a business to run. Andrea knew she was out on a date but if she wasn’t there in the morning Andrea would have to bring in a temp, and they couldn’t afford that right now.
After a moment she gathered her resolve and listened at the door. Clicking it open, she found that the hallway was now in darkness. Across the corridor light poured out of an open doorway. She could hear the sound of the television and the two men exchanging comments. Somebody laughed, and for a moment she was tempted to join them. On principle, she denied herself that luxury.
It’d been hard, because her curiosity was raging—about both of them. Adrian, the man who she had been so intimate with online, and Seth the arrogant man who was now in charge. Phone, she reminded herself. As her eyes grew accustomed to the gloom she could see that the two phones were still sitting on the hall table, where he had left them.
Opening the door a little wider, she winced when it squeaked. Squeezing through the narrow gap, she took a deep breath and darted across the hallway. She had the phone in her hand when a tall shadow blocked the light from the sitting-room doorway.
“Don’t even think about it.” Seth was beside her inside four paces, his expression overcast and inscrutable. He removed the phone from her hand, flipped it over and showed her the back panel.
Lily’s mouth tightened when she saw that he’d removed the SIM Card. She glared at him. He’d left the phones there as bait, the bastard. “I suppose you think that’s funny.”
A half-smile broke the stern look on his face, and that only served to emphasise his dominant hold over her. Lily didn’t want to hear whatever smart remark was about to come out of his mouth. Turning on her heel she went back to her room, but when she went to close the door she found it blocked by the weight of his body. Her pulse tripped and then raced on.
Seth stepped inside, closing the door behind him. It was then that she was reminded of exactly how large he was. His physique was solid and strong. He’d abandoned his leather jacket and the shirt he wore was closely fitted, revealing the breadth of his shoulders and the narrowness of his waist and hips.
“What do you want?” She issued the question sternly and then folded her arms across the chest, every pulse point in her body aware of his presence. The way he was looking at her—with a slow and obvious up-and-down perusal of her body—left her in no doubt of what he wanted. Great, I kissed the man, and now he thinks he has rights.
“We need to talk.” He was so still, so contained, and yet everything about him suggested action. “I need your compliance. I want you to do as I say while you are under my protection.” He paused. “But you don’t like following instructions, do you?”
Her spine straightened. She glanced away, blocking out the thoughts that surfaced. He’d hit a nerve there, but she wasn’t about to let him know that. “I don’t like being pulled out my life over something that has nothing to do with me.”
He looked at her, steadily. “I understand that. Believe me, if you were aware of all the circumstances you’d be glad you are in witness protection.” He paused again, and one corner of his mouth lifted. “In fact, you might even play nicely.”
“You reckon?” She threw him a sarcastic glance.
That only seemed to amuse him.
“Why don’t you come across the hallway and be social?”
The smile that hovered around his mouth made her lips part as she thought about how that mouth felt under hers, and how brazenly she’d acted when she thought he was Adrian. She wasn’t ready to go in there and ‘be social’, because there was no way she could sit with the two of them and chit-chat, not yet.
He took a step closer, and it was with such deliberate intent—his eyes never leaving hers—that her heart missed a beat. Frustrated, she lashed
out. “Okay, you win. I can’t make any calls. But my flatmate will report me missing if she doesn’t hear from me, I know she will.”
He frowned. “That may or may not be good news.”
There was no way she was going to flatter him by asking what his cryptic comment meant. “Look, I need some time alone to get my head around all of this.”
He stared at her for the longest moment, and then nodded. But he didn’t make a move to leave. In fact he looked rooted to the spot.
“Keep an eye on Adrian,” she said, hurriedly, feeling guilty about that, “concussion can come on several hours after the injury.”
“Don’t worry, I will. He’s doing okay, he’s just a bit shaken up and that’s understandable.” That did set her mind at rest, but he was still focused on her, seemingly unwilling to leave. “And you need to eat,” he added. “I’ve made you a sandwich, I’ll fetch it.”
Why was it that everything he said annoyed her? “You’re too kind.”
“I’m trying. Believe me.” A sardonic smile passed briefly over his face.
The way he smiled made Lily realise how rarely it happened, but when he did, it was thoroughly wicked. His eyes were dark with secret thoughts.
“I’m not your enemy here, Lily, please try to remember that.”
His comment struck a chord, and the way he said her name—as soft as a caress—made her breath hitch. His glance was brooding, sexual. It was also intimate, and somehow intrusive. It made her feel frustrated with him, and yet it made her feel outrageously horny, too. She knew she should put her foot down, tell him to get out of the room, and yet the fact he was there at all secretly thrilled her. Wired to every sensation, to every atmospheric change in the room, her skin prickled.
“This would all be so much more pleasant if you chilled out.” Eyebrows lifted, he went further. “We could act as if we were meeting for the first time, like we did earlier today.”
The bastard, he had to bring that up—and there was a suggestive glint in his eye as he reminded her of it. She shook her head. “You’ve had your fun with the phone, leave me alone.”
“You don’t mean that.” They were inches apart and he was studying her as if he was aware of how turned on she was by his presence.
“Don’t I?” Her body was a mass of conflicting signals. Her blood raced and she was finding it difficult to control her breathing.
Moving quickly, he grasped her around her wrist with one determined hand and drew her arm away from her chest, taking away her shield. His hand felt warm and yet unyielding as he held her wrist, and her other arm automatically fell to her side.
“We have unfinished business, and you know it.”
Unnerved, she tried to pull away, but when he held on to her and drew her closer still, she melted. “No. That was a mistake. I thought you were Adrian,” she whispered. “That’s why I kissed you.”
That didn’t faze him.
“I know. It was a blind date, but you liked what you saw, didn’t you? You made your move, and you made it on me.” He said it so suggestively, and for some reason his Welsh accent seemed to key into a deep part of her.
“You’re an arrogant prick.” Even so, the memory of what she’d said and done raced through her mind over again, hammering the point home. Her face was on fire.
“Thing is,” he said, running one finger down her top and around the outside of her breast, making her head spin, “I enjoyed it, and I think you did too.”
There was no answer to that. She couldn’t deny it, not after what had happened, and now his thumb rested over her knotted nipple, applying just enough pressure through her top and bra to make her crazy. She’d well and truly dropped herself in it with this man, and by the looks of it he was going to torture her for his own amusement.
When she didn’t respond, he continued. “Unfortunately I was distracted, and that wasn’t very gentlemanly of me, not while you were being so generous with your affections.” He lifted her chin with one sure finger. “I feel we should try again, and this time I’ll give you my full and undivided attention.”
Before she had a chance to deny him or respond, he kissed her full on the mouth. Lily could do nothing to stop it. Her hands instinctively went to his chest, with the intention of pushing him away. When she tried to do so she couldn’t seem to apply any pressure. His body was hard and powerful, and hers gravitated closer as her lips parted. His mouth claimed hers, thoroughly, his tongue teasing hers. His hands moved over her bottom, squeezing it through her skirt, holding her against his hard hips so she could feel his erection growing.
I can’t do this. Breathlessly, she broke free, and yet her hands still stroked across his chests and shoulders, learning him, her body pivoting on one heel and her hips locked against his. “You’re just trying to embarrass me.”
“No, not at all. I’m trying to make you relax.”
“Yeah, right.” Looking into his eyes she saw that he really meant it. Could it be true? Even if it was true, it didn’t stop her being embarrassed. She shrugged his comment off. “Is this what you do to all of the witnesses under your so-called protection?”
He lifted her, bodily, and turned her around, pressing her up against the wall in a flash, his hands sliding her skirt up the sides of her hips. “No,” he said, voice husky and intimate, “but you’re the only one who has ever come on to me before we were even introduced.” His eyes flickered. “That makes you pretty damn memorable. Besides, you gave me an invitation I don’t intend to let you revoke.”
Christ, he was so full-on, and her body burned in response to his hands on her. “What the hell are you doing?”
He ducked down and planted a hungry kiss on her throat. “Touching you…everywhere I think you need to be touched.” His hand was under the front of her skirt and it closed over her knickers, cupping the mound of her pussy and making her gasp aloud. He lifted his head, and nodded. “Oh yes, you’re hot. You did enjoy it, didn’t you?”
“I thought you were Adrian,” she shot at him, annoyed, and then moaned involuntarily when he squeezed her pussy. The action took her breath away.
“So you keep saying.”
Her clit burned and pulsed inside the hard cup of his palm, and she shifted from one foot to the other.
He moved one leg against the outside of hers, caging her in. “But it’s me now, touching you, and your underwear is damp in my hand…how…shocking.” He tutted mockingly while he massaged her pussy, ignoring her feeble, half-hearted attempts to push him away.
“You bastard.” Her arms felt weak, and her head tipped back against the surface of the wall for balance. Her eyes closed as pleasure filled her groin, her core clamping, aching to be filled by that hard cock he had pressed against her hip.
Then he pushed his hand inside her knickers and one finger sank into her damp groove, brushing over her swollen clit. Her pulse beat wildly in response.
“Tell me you want me to stop, and I will.” He paused, loosening his hold, teasing one finger along the damp, sensitive lips of her sex.
“I…” Her head rolled from side to side.
He roved deeper and stroked her clit.
Once.
Aching need shot through her.
Her core spasmed and she squirmed, her hips rolling. “Don’t stop,” she begged, unable to help herself. “Please don’t stop…”
With consummate skill he stroked his finger back and forth over her clit, teasing her orgasm to the surface. He held her gaze while he did so, watching her as she climaxed—as if every moment fascinated him. That alone would have pushed her to the edge, but his finger had already become her master. She was lost to the experience, and seeing his reaction only made her peak come all the faster. Her breath hitched in her chest and she moaned aloud. Latching her hands over his shoulders, she held on tight.
Release barrelled through her.
Her legs buckled and the inside of her thighs was slick wet.
Strong arms held her up.
It was through a ha
ze of pleasure that she became aware of his mouth on her jaw. He kissed her softly, his breath warm on her alert skin. She jerked back, confused by him, and confused by what had happened. He lifted his head and smiled knowingly at her. A moment later he stepped away and walked to the door, leaving her slumped against the wall with her skirt hitched up around her hips, dazed and panting.
He’s going to walk out, right now, she realised.
She glared at his back as she pulled her skirt back into place. “You’ve just gone and made it even harder for me to leave this room!”
He paused with his hand on the door handle and looked back at her. Humour filled his expression. “You can do it. I have faith in you.” He looked her up and down. “Oh, I’ll bring you that sandwich. You’ll need sustenance.”
I hate you, she thought, as she watched him leave, wishing that he was staying, instead.
Chapter Six
Dawn broke, the icy morning mist lingering around the red brick housing estate. Emery Lavonne pulled the collar on his jacket closer around his neck and watched the safe house through narrowed eyes, his cheeks grinding with annoyance, his huffed breath hanging in the atmosphere. It was a plain suburban detached house on a postage stamp of land, surrounded by identical houses. The only difference was this one was empty. It shouldn’t be.
Lavonne had headed straight for the Midlands after he’d seen Seth Jones removing the witness. The fact that they hadn’t turned up here was bad news. Why? Throughout the night he’d hidden in the bushes, having sought out a good viewing point, but now he emerged and glared at the place unchecked. Jones had obviously not followed the plan he had been given.
An attempt on the witness’s life would have unsettled him. Would that have been enough to make him deviate from the plans that had been set in motion at headquarters, or had there been a last-minute change? Jones was seen as a stalwart of the department, he never usually broke any rules, but he’d also never lost a witness. He wouldn’t want a black mark on his record now. Lavonne had been in the office earlier that day, when Seth Jones left for his one-on-one time with the witness. Either it was a last-minute change in safe house, or Jones had reacted to the attempt. Whichever it was, it was bad news. He didn’t need complications. This had to be quick and clean. Plan A, take the witness down before he left London. Plan B, track Seth Jones and his witness, preferably getting to the safe house before they got there. He was going to have to figure out plan C, and fast.
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