His eyes crinkled as he studied her face and then darkened with sensual promise. “Ready?”
She could only nod her head. His warm breath brushed over her cheek and whispered over her lips. Tears, unwanted and unexpected, prickled at the back of Lana’s eyes. Pulling away, she tried to contain the emotions skittering through her. How many nights had she spent tossing and turning, dreaming about kissing him again? He was the first man she’d ever trusted since escaping from Levi, the first man she’d believed would never hurt her.
The first man to truly break her heart.
Chapter Four
“Shhh.” James wiped a rogue tear away. “Crying won’t make for a convincing show.”
“I’m not crying,” she snapped. “There was something in my eye.” Lana took a deep breath and locked all her emotions away in an imaginary closet—a survival trick she’d learned at the age of sixteen after her life had come crashing down around her. She sniffed and forced a smile. “Maybe I should cry. He might lose interest if my face is all puffy and my eyes are red.”
James gently kissed away yet a second rogue tear. “Wouldn’t deter me.”
“I don’t know why. You could have just left me to fend for myself. I managed to escape your clutches at Carpe Noctem the first time we met and you were pretty damn fierce.”
He slid his arms around her waist and snorted a laugh. “You didn’t escape. I threw you out of the club.”
“That was my escape plan.”
“And all the swearing and threats were for effect?”
Lana looked up at him through her eyelashes and her lips quivered with a repressed smile. “That was to get your attention. You didn’t seem to be the kind of man who would be attracted to a quiet, mild-mannered woman.”
James cocked his head and gave her a quizzical look. “I was particularly harsh with you during that interrogation. Are you saying even after that…even after I confiscated your camera and kicked you out, you were trying to get my attention?”
“Not ‘even’. Because.” Her cheeks flamed and she looked away.
James tightened his arms, drawing her close. “Do you know why I threw you out?” he murmured. “Because if I hadn’t…”
A stick cracked behind them, cutting him off. “Show time,” he whispered. He cupped her face in his hands and tilted her face up. Lana closed her eyes. She imagined she was with the man who had made her trust again, the man she had thought was her future. She imagined she was Buttercup in The Princess Bride and she had just discovered Westley wasn’t dead after all.
His lips found hers and he teased her mouth open, sweeping his tongue inside. Lana fisted his shirt and pulled him close, kissing him back with a fierce, unexpected hunger. James groaned into her mouth and he deepened the kiss, his tongue tangling with hers, stroking, searching, exploring. Breathless, she opened to him, wrapping her legs around his hips, pulling him closer.
“Thought I might catch a cop out here,” Rex growled. “Maybe another one of Angel’s fucking investigators. I was damn sure we were being watched. Not often I’m wrong.”
Lana jolted. In the back of her mind, she had known that Rex was coming and this show was for his benefit, but for a moment she had lost awareness of anything but James. She dropped her forehead to his shoulder to hide her puffy eyes, and his arm circled protectively around her.
“Told the old lady it was time she met the brothers, but we got distracted, if you know what I mean.” James chuckled. Lana cringed. Although she knew it was a game, a part of her resented the harsh words and the cold, detached tone of his voice. At least he hadn’t punctuated his words with a pelvic thrust.
Rex gave an annoyed grunt. Lana didn’t need to look up to know he was studying her. She could feel his eyes drilling into her head, willing her to meet his gaze. She leaned her forehead against James’s shoulder. She had seen enough of Rex last night, and until she got her photos, she would be forced to see more. James’s shirt held more appeal than staring into Rex’s soulless eyes.
Rex exhaled and his voice turned cold. “Send her home. I’ve called a meeting of the inner circle. She can meet everyone at the barbeque on Saturday.”
Lana’s head jerked up. “Barbeque?”
James shoved her head back down to his shoulder. “She can’t make it. She’s going out of town.”
Lana’s mind whirled. She couldn’t think of a better way to get the pictures she needed. Rex on his home turf, beer in hand, his newest squeeze under his arm, Lana’s camera snapping in the background. But she would have to go into the clubhouse. Her heart protested with a violent thud and her stomach clenched. No clubhouse. Not for her. But the pictures…Angel. Her mind spun in circles. What to do?
As if sensing her indecision, James pressed his lips to her ear and whispered, “You are not going anywhere near the clubhouse. No fucking way. And that’s final.”
The hair on the back of Lana’s neck stood on end. “Don’t tell me what to do,” she growled. “We need to discuss it. Do you know that word? Discuss? Ever thought about using it?”
She looked up at Rex and forced her lips into a smile. “I might be able to change my plans. I’ll discuss it with Ice. I would love to meet everyone. I’ve heard so much about you all.”
A sound erupted from James’s chest, a cross between a snarl and a choke, and the look he shot her was nothing short of…well, icy.
“We’ve heard nothing about you.” Rex gave her a snake-oil salesman smile. “And I’d like to hear how you and Ice hooked up. You’re not his usual type.”
Lana’s face fell. “What type is that?” The question came out before she could run it through her internal censor. As usual.
Rex’s dark eyes glittered with all the warmth of an Antarctic summer. “You come to the barbeque. I’ll tell you all about Ice and you can tell me all about you.” He licked his lips and Lana shuddered. Why did she suddenly feel as if she was prey?
“Wear something very short and very tight,” Rex added in a firm voice.
“My old lady wears what I tell her to wear,” James said, his voice low and even. He turned to face Rex, his body in front of Lana like a shield. “She does what I tell her to do. She goes where I tell her to go. I thought we sorted this out last night.”
James played the old man pretty good, Lana thought. She hoped it wasn’t because he’d had scores of old ladies. He was still breathtakingly gorgeous…and in those leathers… Her throat tightened at the thought of James with other women. If he did have a past littered with old ladies, she didn’t want to know.
“If she’s your old lady—and I’m not convinced she is—she’s Hades.” The undertone of warning in Rex’s voice sent a shiver down Lana’s spine.
“Last I checked,” he continued, “I was in charge of Hades.”
James folded his arms and leaned against the vehicle, forcing Lana to part her legs around his hips as if he was about to give her a piggyback ride. Although his posture seemed casual, his position protected both Lana and his back.
“I think we’re done here,” James said in a completely different voice, so deep and powerful it resonated down her spine.
Undaunted, Rex’s lip curled and he stood his ground. “I believe Roxie and I were having a conversation. Seems to me she wants to come to the barbeque and you’re standin’ in her way.”
“The conversation is over,” James snapped. “She’s going home and she’s gonna stay there. She won’t be showing up on Saturday, and she won’t be showing up at Hades. Ever.”
Lana frowned and sucked in a sharp breath, drawing Rex’s attention. He studied her face and smirked. “She might have something to say about it. Look at her. She’s chomping at the bit to tear into you. I don’t think you have what it takes to deal with a fireball like her.”
“You want me to prove myself, I will. Here and now.” James’s hands curled into fists and he took a step forward.
Rex folded his arms. “Got better things to do than scratch your itch, Ice. Back down.”
To Lana’s shock, James loosened his fists and leaned back against the vehicle. Rex gave him a curt nod, turned and walked away.
“Saturday, Roxie.” Rex looked back over his shoulder and gave her a wink.
For the longest time, she and James didn’t move, didn’t speak.
“You backed down,” she whispered, unbelieving. The James she knew never backed down. Never gave up without a fight.
“Had to. Don’t want him to think I’m a threat or he’ll slit my throat while I sleep, and two years of undercover work will go down the drain.”
The loud rumble of Rex’s engine cracked the stillness and she watched it disappear across the field. James turned to face her, his eyes glittering with an intense light, wild and untamed. She could feel his anger, taste his power, and it took all her self-control not to throw herself on him in a frenzy of animal lust.
Her breath hitched. Unnerved, she slid off the vehicle and tried to sidle past a thoughtful James, but he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her close.
“I’m not done with you yet.”
Maybe not, but she was done with him. She had to be—for her own sanity. Never had she felt such an internal disconnect. The James she’d known was still there—protective, possessive, sweetly caring and utterly confident. So at odds with the man who’d walked away. How could she still want him after he’d hurt her so much?
Her rational mind cut through the fuzz of lust and the question she’d asked herself a thousand times fell from her lips. “Why?” she gritted out. “Why did you leave me?”
He drew in a ragged breath. “At the time I thought it was the right thing to do. I got a call about an undercover assignment—this assignment. Too dangerous to have any ties. I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
“And you couldn’t have told me that? I would have understood if you couldn’t share the details.”
James shrugged and she studied him closely, marking the shift in his eyes from blue to gray, solid to insubstantial.
“That wasn’t all of it,” she said on a hunch, “was it?”
“No.”
She bit her lip to stop any possibility of tears. He didn’t deserve her tears. He didn’t deserve to know how she really felt. “Are you going to tell me the rest?”
He hesitated, twisted his lips as if considering, and then finally shook his head.
Her heart shriveled, her breath leaving her in a rush. “I deserve more than that.”
“You do,” he said softly. “But I can’t give it to you.”
She seethed inside, angry at him, angry at her own weakness, angry she wanted him so desperately she ached inside. Turning her back on him, she scooped up her clothes and yanked open the door to her car. “Guess I’ll see you on Saturday.”
“Not happening.”
Oh yes it is.
She slid into the safety of her vehicle and turned the key in the ignition. The Jetta wheezed and died. She tried again. Her betraying car refused to allow her the dignity of a clean escape.
“I told you to get rid of that piece of junk two years ago,” he growled. “It’s not roadworthy and in your line of work you need a reliable vehicle. What if it had been Rex and not me who caught you out here?”
She bristled at the harsh words he threw at her beloved Jetta. “He would never have recognized me and I could have talked my way out of it. You know that. I went along with your little show because I had nothing better to do with my time. But in the end, I didn’t need you. Just like I didn’t need you two years ago. Just like I don’t need you now.”
Shocked by her own harsh words, she slammed her lips together. She had never in her life been purposely mean. Not even to her father who had all but ignored her in favor of her two older brothers after her mother died. But then she had never been as badly hurt. The pain Levi had inflicted had been skin deep—superficial wounds that had disappeared within days, sometimes weeks. But James had bruised her heart, and seeing him again only opened up a wound she had long thought healed.
James tightened his jaw. “We need to—”
The Jetta finally sputtered to life, cutting him off. She hit the gas, speeding across the grass like there was no tomorrow.
But there was a Saturday. And Hades was in it.
James waited until Lana was safely away before walking across the field to the small clearing where he’d parked his motorcycle, a custom Harley Rocker. Life hadn’t prepared him for moments like this. Duty had always been the dominant force driving him forward. From a family background steeped in law enforcement, James had adhered to tradition and entered the police force, rising through the ranks from the beat to drug enforcement, then to homicide and finally undercover. A clear path. But now duty warred with desire and a soul-deep longing he’d spent the last two years trying to deny.
Lana’s scent still lingered on his clothes, her warmth on his skin. But it was her fire that drew him, aroused him. Beneath the flames smoldered a passion he had been—was still—helpless to resist.
He drove the short distance to the airplane hangar and parked alongside the motorcycles of Rex’s closest advisors. He could only hope—with Rex’s entire inner circle present—the discussion would turn to the club’s latest drug-smuggling scheme. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) had assured James his wiretap recordings had given them enough evidence to justify a raid on the club. They just needed an opportunity and some hard evidence.
He stopped at the keypad and punched in the code, then checked his wire. Although Rex had no compunction about announcing the club’s presence to the world with the garish patch artwork over the door, he was almost obsessive about security. The clubhouse was impenetrable, thanks to a state-of-the-art security system. If he ever found out James had been recording his conversations over the last two years, he would kill James on the spot. And if he found out Lana was sniffing around Hades…
James shook his head. Her disguise had been damned good. If he hadn’t recognized her Jetta, even he might not have known her in that blonde wig, her beautiful body hidden under those bulky clothes. He knew from past experience, Lana could talk her way out of almost anything, except with him. Rex would likely have bought her story.
But now he had a bigger problem. If Lana was investigating Hades, he had to stop her. Not only could she compromise his cover, she would likely get herself killed. Problem was, stopping Lana when she was set on a course of action was next to impossible.
The door swung open and he walked inside. The twenty-thousand-square-foot space had been completely renovated and now housed an office, workout area, showers and bathrooms, kitchen, full bar, two lounges, media room, pool table and a suite of bedrooms on the second floor where he, Ryder and most of the single club members lived.
Dawg and Punch were sprawled on the couches in Rex’s office. Bones and Diesel had dragged in a few chairs. Ryder leaned against a wall, his arms folded. Rex, as always, reclined in his oversized leather chair, feet propped up on his desk. All of them were dressed in leathers and black T-shirts, the unofficial Hades uniform.
“She gone?”
“Sent her home.” James took a seat beside Dawg. The high-ranking member of Rex’s inner circle had released his long, wavy brown hair from its usual hair tie, and it brushed over his shoulders as he turned and nodded a greeting. With his long, thin face and slender frame, he now, more than ever, resembled his namesake, the chocolate lab curled at his feet.
“Heard you’d found yourself a bitch.” Dawg barked a laugh. “Never thought I’d see the day. She must have one sweet pussy to take your attention away from the club. I was beginning to think we were all you had in your pathetic life.”
“Just you, Dawg. You’re all I fucking need.” He feigned the usual banter, even going so far as to blow Dawg a kiss, but his mind was on Lana. He couldn’t let her anywhere near the barbeque. It had been hard enough to pull off the old-lady act in the field in front of Rex. How could he keep it up for an entire afternoon? All the old
emotions had come surging to the fore, and for a moment she’d been his again and he’d forgotten they’d ever been apart.
“Don’t worry.” Rex smirked. “You’ll get to meet her on Saturday. She’s coming to the barbeque. Ice is afraid of letting her near us, but I have a feeling once that little fireball gets an idea into her head, she doesn’t let go easily.”
A wave of possessive jealousy surged through James, followed by an even fiercer urge to keep her safe. Although there was no future for them, he could damn well ensure she had a future without Rex. Whether she liked it or not.
Rex folded his arms behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. “I’ve always liked the wild ones,” he mused.
James’s brows drew together. Although Rex’s infidelity was no secret in the club, he had always kept things discreet, usually taking the women straight to his office and then sending them home. He never talked about them. Never touched them in public. But even if he had, the brothers wouldn’t talk. What happened in the clubhouse stayed in the clubhouse. So what had changed? Had he and Angel split? What about their daughter?
“Won’t be anytime soon,” James spat out.
Rex’s eyes darted to his, picking up the undertone of a threat. For a long moment, they stared at each other. James forced himself to drop his eyes first. He’d worked hard to gain Rex’s trust. He didn’t want to lose it so close to the end of the assignment. And over a girl.
His pulse quickened. Not just a girl. Lana.
Rex grunted his satisfaction at James’s tacit acknowledgment of his top-dog status, and nodded as if something had been settled in his mind. “Got a job for you tonight. We got a tip the police are going to raid the mobile home of Punch’s mom and her husband out on the Fraser Highway. We just relocated all the club’s firearms and explosives out there. Need you to collect them. Take Ryder with you.”
Barely Undercover: Legal Heat, Book 2 Page 4