As she turned to glance behind her, a hand shot out from the dark, covered her mouth, and stopped short her squeal. Her heart pounded as another arm snaked about her ribs and pulled her against the solid wall of a chest.
Her breasts rose and fell with her short breaths as her blood raced through her veins. LeAnne willed herself to be calm as the intruder leaned toward her ear and whispered, “Unlock the door,” in a deep, evasive voice.
She did as told, all the while willing herself to remain composed. After she unlocked the door, the man pushed them through the opening and slammed it closed. Before the intruder could stop her, LeAnne flicked on the light switch.
What caught her attention in the adjacent mirror, however, rent a horrified cry from her lips as the hand covering her mouth dropped away. Snake Gallego held her securely in his arms, his face battered, bloodied, and bruised.
He released his hold and grunted in pain as she stepped away. His arm immediately wrapped his upper torso, which was covered by a bloodied shirt. His raspy, wheezing breaths had her guessing his arm protected broken ribs.
“My God,” she whispered, touching his swollen lip. Snake flinched. “What happened?”
“Who is more like it,” he mumbled. He walked with a noticeable limp further into the house and sat heavily on her sofa.
LeAnne followed. “Who did this to you, Snake?”
“A friend.” His sarcasm seemed somewhat misplaced as she stared at his battered face.
“Who?”
“Just drop it.”
“Snake, I—”
His jaw tightened. “I said, drop it.”
She held up her hands in defense. “All right, all right. Where…where’s your motorcycle? I didn’t see it when I came up the driveway.”
He leaned his head against the couch. “I parked it out back, so no one would know I was here.” He chuckled, then grunted from the pain. “Wouldn’t want your dear fiancé to get up in arms over my sudden appearance.”
“How did you know he wouldn’t be here?”
“I took my chances.”
LeAnne sat down beside him. Grasping the sides of his shirt, she tried to raise it, wanting to see from where the blood stemmed, but his hand interrupted her.
“For crying out loud, Snake, I just want to see if we should take you to the hospital.”
“No hospital.” But then he released his hold on his side and allowed LeAnne to remove his shirt. Purple bruising already marred the tanned skin in several places and blood seeped from scrapes.
“Snake,” she pleaded. “Let me take you…”
“No,” he growled with as much affirmation as she was sure he could summon.
“All right, all right, you win,” LeAnne agreed reluctantly, sensing she would never change his mind. She gently touched one of the bruises on his side, again causing him to flinch. “Looks like you might have a few cracked ribs. Who did this to you? We should call the city.”
Snake shook his head. “This is my beef.”
“For heaven’s sake, Snake, let the cops—”
“No,” he said again firmly.
“Then why come here? I’m a cop.”
“No shit,” he mumbled. His split lip had been reopened and was again bleeding. He tried to mop it with the back of his hand. “That’s not why I came here.”
“Let me get you a cold washrag,” LeAnne said, then briefly left the room, returning with a plastic bag of ice and a cold rag. “Here,” she said, handing him the ice. “If not for alerting the authorities, then tell me why you came to me?”
She dabbed at his lip with the wet cloth, careful not to cause him further pain. His eyes locked with hers as a dull, throbbing ache plagued her lower abdomen. My God, she was pathetic. Withdrawing the rag, she handed it to him. The less she touched him, the better off she was.
Snake ignored the gesture, but held the bag of ice to his lip. “Shit. I shouldn’t have come.”
“It’s certainly too late to debate that now. Is anything else broken?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You really should get the blood washed off. You can use my shower.”
He grasped her chin and forced her to look at him. “Are you offering to do it for me, Detective? Because right now, I’m not so sure I can move again.”
Shrugging her chin out of his grasp, she stood up from the couch— and as far out of his reach as possible. “Tell me why you came to me, Snake.”
“I got the hell beat out of me and I wasn’t so sure I’d make it all the way home.”
“You have other friends. Why me? And how did you know where I lived?”
“It’s a small town. I asked around.”
“You’ve been asking around about me?”
“Yeah.” He chuckled, grasping his swollen ribs and groaning from the pain.
“Why?”
Even through his swollen eyelids, LeAnne could see his irises darken. His gaze intensified. “Because I want in your pants, Detective. Is that clear enough for you?”
Her brows rose. “Excuse me?”
“I don’t believe I have to repeat myself unless you get some kick out of hearing a grown man grovel. I want to screw you, LeAnne.”
“Would you get yourself beat up just to…”
His amusement returned, cutting off her statement; he grasped at his ribs again. She wanted to run to his side, but held her stance.
“I wouldn’t have gone to this extent. But right now, you have nothing to worry about, I’m in no position to get laid. I just need a place to crash for a bit.”
His crudeness was nearly her undoing, though certain parts of her anatomy throbbed at the implications. She raised her tone a notch. “And there wasn’t anywhere else, you could go?”
“Nope.”
“Lucky me,” she grumbled, then pulled him to his feet. “If you’re not going to the hospital, then clean your wounds so you don’t get an infection. You need a shower.”
A slight grin turned up one puffy side of his lip. If it hadn’t been for the movement of his cheek, LeAnne wouldn’t have caught the slight gesture at all.
“Will you help me take off the rest of my clothes?”
“Sorry, Charlie,” she said, placing one of his long arms over her shoulder and walking him to the bathroom. “That’s where you’re on your own. I’ve got to draw the line somewhere.”
She heard the slight rumble of his chuckle, though he seemed to contain the sound to spare himself the agony. “You really do need to lighten up, McVeigh—have fun.”
“I think I’m better off not knowing your type of fun.” LeAnne lowered him to the closed seat of the toilet. “Afraid?”
She stared at him for a few minutes, then started the water in the shower and dropped a couple of white towels at his feet.
“Not much scares me, Gallego,” she said, then made to exit the suddenly too-small room.
“I say you’re wrong,” he said; his words stopped her quick retreat.
She turned at the door. “I think you’re scared of me. As a matter of fact, I think I scare the hell out of you.”
“And why would I let a foul-mouthed biker like you scare me? I chew up and spit out worse adversaries than you in my job, every day.”
Snake stood, his form towering over her. With one arm he pulled her flush against him.
“I’m not your enemy, LeAnne,” he said, the sound feather-light. “I don’t want you to be scared of me.”
“Then what is it you want?”
He leaned close to her ear, his breath fanning the surface. “To taste you.” He licked the sensitive spot below her ear. “To smell you.” His nose nudged her neck. Then, barely audible, he whispered, “To be inside you…melt so far into you that you no longer know that I’m not a part of you. And then…when I’m done…I’m going to want to do it all over again.”
No words could form in her muddled brain. The only image remaining were the two of them rolling around on her satin sheets and doing exactly what he had insi
nuated.
“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?”
She pushed at his chest, forgetting his injuries, and forced him to drop his hold with a grunt. “You’re full of yourself, Gallego.”
“Am I?”
Then, without a decorum of modesty, he undid the front of his jean shorts and dropped them to the floor, leaving LeAnne gaping, rooted to the floor where she stood.
He grinned. “Like what you see?”
Every bare inch of him was hard. The word “soft” could never be used to describe Marcus Gallego.
Her face heated. The steam in the room became unbearable. “You might want to think about a cold shower, Gallego,” she said and turned from the room, slamming the door behind her.
She leaned against the wood door, listening to the groans his chuckling caused. Her imagination went rampant as she heard the change in the sound of the shower, knowing he stood beneath its steady stream.
How the hell did she ever get into these predicaments?
Chad had no doubt slipped beneath the sheets of his own bed by now, dreaming about LeAnne in hers. And here she was, thinking about the steam of the shower and being wrapped within Snake’s embrace.
LeAnne tapped the heel of her palm against her head, cursing herself, and walked into the living room. No one ever said her life would be safe and easy with Chad. But damn, no one ever told her temptation would come in the way of Marcus Gallego either.
This was going to be one hell of a long night.
Chapter 17
LeAnne paced her living room like an animal trapped in a cage. Side to side, back and forth. Her carnal thoughts attested to the fact that at the moment, she was no better than an animal either. She could do this; she could control her thoughts, her desires. But right now, nothing seemed stronger than the lure of Marcus.
She could certainly understand Debra Lewis’s position when she bowed to temptation and slept with her husband’s best friend. One more kiss from Marcus, and LeAnne doubted she would have the will to resist him either.
Maybe she ought to break the engagement with Chad. He certainly did not deserve this kind of behavior. But he had been her rock, her haven of security. They had been through so much already. And for her to turn her back on him, with the wedding but a short month away? She never wanted to hurt him. He loved her—and yes, she supposed she loved him, too, though at the moment, her actions spoke otherwise.
Straightening her shoulders, as well as her resolve, she headed toward the bathroom door to tell Marcus just that, when a loud thump and a following moan sounded through the quiet house. LeAnne ran the rest of the way, expecting to find Snake lying at the bottom of the tub, powerless to help himself. She flung open the door.
Marcus stood in the shower, blue-striped curtain pulled to the side, one hand above his head, grasping the rod, the other about his rib cage. The viper on his left biceps seductively wound up the arm holding his ribs. Nothing but a white towel wrapped his lean hips, one leg cocked up on the tub’s edge; his skin still dripped from the shower.
Even battered and bruised, the picture he presented was almost too much to bear. LeAnne wanted to make a hasty retreat, but the look in Marcus’s eyes fixed her to the spot. It wasn’t fair that God had created a creature so perfect, and of course, He had placed him on this earth just to tempt her.
“Is something wrong?” he asked.
“No…no,” she stuttered, thinking of a befuddled excuse she might be able to come up with. Instead, she opted for the truth. “I thought you might have fallen. The thump…your groan.”
His swollen lips curved gently. “I slipped getting out of your deep tub. When I grasped the rod to stop myself from falling, I pulled at my ribs.”
“You’re still holding onto the rod.”
“It’s going to hurt like hell, too, when I lower my arm. I was just bracing myself for the pain.” The corners of his puffy eyes turned up. Obviously, he enjoyed her uneasiness. “But thanks for the concern.”
Finally, he stepped over the edge of the tub, moaning, then lowered his arm, still holding his side. “Shit. I can think of a million better ways to be spending this night.”
“You might have internal injuries, Snake. Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?”
“Just let me get my shorts on, and I’ll get out of your hair. It’s obvious, I’m upsetting you by being here.”
Like he had not already known that before he arrived.
But to dispute the fact would be admittance. The sooner Snake Gallego left her house, the better off she was.
“You’ll need a clean shirt or chance infecting those scrapes.”
“I don’t carry extra ones with me. Got any bright ideas? I doubt anything you wear would fit me. Not that I wouldn’t mind having something of yours next to my skin.”
If nothing else, he remained consistent. LeAnne cleared her throat. “Umm—Chad has a few things here that you might be able to borrow.”
“He lives here, then?”
“Not that it’s any of your business.” Her ire rose in defense. “But he stays here part time—the weekends. Weeknights, he usually goes back to his own home.”
Snake let out a harrumph and shook his head. “If it was me, I’d be here every night. I wouldn’t miss a single opportunity to be inside you.”
LeAnne’s face heated. Her ears surely glowed red. “You wouldn’t get the chance. Besides, Chad and I will be together every night, once we’re married. Right now, we allow each other the space.”
“To each his own,” he said, then stepped into his cutoffs, pulling them up over his hips and letting the towel drop to the floor.
LeAnne turned her face until she heard the zipper and his answering, chuckle.
“Now what’s so funny?” She glared at him.
“You—a moment ago, you saw all there is to see. And now, when I’m putting my pants on, you turn away, reddening from head to toe. Your shyness—it’s a real turn-on. Too bad I hurt too damn much to do anything about it.”
Wanting to change the subject and get him out of her house as fast as possible, she asked, “Are you sure you can make it home? I mean, I’d hate to see you get hurt any worse.”
Marcus advanced on her until little space separated them. He glanced down. Hell, even looking like something out of a horror movie, he was oddly appealing.
“Why, LeAnne? You going to let me stay the night?”
She attempted to back from him, but the wall stayed her position. “I can give you a lift home. But staying here wouldn’t be such a good idea.”
“Why?” he whispered, his tone husky. “I told you, I’m in no position to get laid. But if you want a rain check…”
“What’s going on here?” another male voice came from the opened doorway.
LeAnne turned her head as the acid in her stomach churned. She glanced into Chad’s angry eyes.
Oh God, her life was over.
Snake simply backed away, not looking guilty in the least as he grasped the white towel from the floor and finished drying his chest. Not one word in the way of an explanation to his presence.
She was on her own; she was dead meat.
“LeAnne?” Chad asked, bringing her full attention to him. “I asked you a question. What the hell is going on here?”
LeAnne immediately stepped away from the wall and backed Chad out of the bathroom, hoping to defuse the situation. She closed the door behind them. Snake’s chuckle filtered through the dead air. The thick tension in the room she could have cut with a knife.
“It’s not really what you think, Chad.”
His brows rose. “My fiancée is standing in the bathroom with a nearly naked man, talking about getting laid.” His tone rose to a fevered pitch. “Tell me, LeAnne, which goddam part did I misinterpret!”
“Chad.” She laid her hand gently on his chest and he smacked it away.
“Get the hell away from me, LeAnne. Right now, I’m too pissed to deal with this. I’m afraid if you ge
t too close…”
“What?” Marcus asked as he picked the worst time to exit the bathroom, the bloody shirt covering his torso. “You’ll hit her?”
“I suggest you get back on that bike of yours and get the hell out of here.”
Gallego shifted his stance and crossed his arms. The last thing LeAnne wanted was for this to come to blows, Marcus being in no condition for another fight. She grasped his biceps and led him from the room, toward the back of the house.
“I think it’s best if you leave,” she whispered. “You going to be all right? If not, I can…”
“Please, Marcus, believe me, you’ve done enough already.”
“If he lays one hand on you…”
LeAnne placed her finger against his lips, silencing him. “You’re in no position to defend me right now. Besides, I can take care of myself. Chad would never hurt me. He loves me.”
Marcus shook off her touch as if offensive, then headed for the door. She sensed he intended on leaving without saying another word. “Marcus.”
He turned halfway through the door.
“Who did this to you?”
Snake’s cheeks rose ever so slightly. She cared about him, and he knew it.
“Bull Grant—lucky for me, gained his release—he’s still pissed that I knocked out his gold tooth in the joint. I guess some people just carry grudges.”
LeAnne narrowed her gaze. “He did this all on his own?”
Snake chuckled, then groaned. “He had a couple of buddies with him. But, hey, who said life was fair?”
“Are you going to be all right?”
“There isn’t much you can do about that now, is there?” She shook her head, causing him to chuckle again; his arm wrapped his ribs.
“Take care of your boyfriend, LeAnne. Right now, I think he needs your attention more than I.”
He exited the house. LeAnne watched until he started his Harley, then turned the big bike and drove out of sight. She shut the back door, set the dead bolt, and then spun around to find Chad standing inside the kitchen, glaring at her. The door to the kitchen swung silently behind him.
“Well?” he said.
She half expected him to be tapping his toe on the linoleum. For crying out loud, she was not some child to be scolded. Snake Gallego had come to her for help. What the hell had she done wrong?
Kiss of Deceit Page 16