Dangerous to Love

by Sally Tyler Hayes

  “I owe you a lot, ” she said.

  Letter to Reader

  Title Page

  Books by Sally Tyler Hayes

  SALLY TYLER HAYES

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Copyright

  “I owe you a lot, ” she said.

  “Jamie, we haven’t worked together in years.”

  “I’m talking about everything you taught me, Dan. When everything gets crazy, I can hear your voice inside my head. You’ve kept me alive more times than you can imagine.”

  Looking oddly off balance, he said, “I didn’t realize...”

  “Well, now you do.” She shrugged uncomfortably, tried to smile, and told herself to get out of the room. “But before you misconstrue everything I just said, I’m not offering to stick around because I owe you. I’m offering because I want to. Because—

  “I’d better get out of here,” she said, turning to leave. It was the smart thing to do. Because if she stayed, she would tell him everything.

  I’m offering because of all these foolish dreams I have about us...because I could so easily fall in love with you....

  Dear Reader,

  Happy New Year! And welcome to another month of great reading from Silhouette Intimate Moments, just perfect for sitting back after the hectic holidays. You’ll love Marilyn Pappano’s Murphy’s Law, a MEN IN BLUE title set in New Orleans, with all that city’s trademark steam. You’ll remember Jack Murphy and Evie DesJardiens long after you put down this book, I promise you.

  We’ve got some great miniseries titles this month, too. Welcome back to Carla Cassidy’s Western town of MUSTANG, MONTANA in Code Name: Cowboy. Then pay a visit to Margaret Watson’s CAMERON, UTAH in Cowboy with a Badge. And of course, don’t forget our other titles this month. Look for Dangerous To Love, by Sally Tyler Hayes, a book whose title I personally find irresistible. And we’ve got books from a couple of our newest stars, too. Jill Shalvis checks in with Long-Lost Mom, and Virginia Kantra pens our FAMILIES ARE FOREVER title, The Passion of Patrick MacNeill.

  Enjoy them all—and be sure to come back next month for more of the most exciting romantic reading around, right here in Silhouette Intimate Moments.

  Yours,

  Leslie J. Wainger

  Executive Senior Editor

  Please address questions and book requests to:

  Silhouette Reader Service

  U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

  Canadian P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

  DANGEROUS TO LOVE

  SALLY TYLER HAYES

  Books by Sally Tyler Hayes

  Silhouette Intimate Moments

  Whose Child Is This? #439

  Dixon’s Bluff #485

  Days Gone By #549

  Not His Wife #611

  Our Child? #671

  Homecoming #700

  Temporary Family #738

  Second Father #753

  Wife, Mother. .Lover? #818

  Dangerous To Love #903

  SALLY TYLER HAYES

  lives in South Carolina with her husband, son and daughter. A former journalist for a South Carolina newspaper, she fondly remembers that her decision to write and explore the frontiers of romance came at about the same time she discovered, in junior high, that she’d never be able to join the crew of the Starship Enterprise. Happy and proud to be a stay-home mom, she is thrilled to be living her lifelong dream of writing romances.

  Writing has given me many wonderful things. The sheer

  bliss that comes from having a story to tell. The joy of

  having more time to spend with my children, and

  freedom from the 9-to-5 grind.

  But the most unexpected gift has been the sisterhood.

  Friends who always understand, who care, who

  sympathize and celebrate each little step along the way.

  This book is for my sisters:

  Barbara Samuel, Liz Bevarly and Christie Ridgway.

  Here’s to many more years of sisterhood and success.

  Chapter 1

  An inky blackness settled over the District of Columbia in the aftermath of a hard-driving rain and gusting winds, which left downed power lines in their wake. But the man had eyes like a cat. He knew how to cut through the darkness and the elements to focus on his target, and it was second nature to him to take note of everything around him.

  Parking his car two blocks from his destination, as instructed, he crept through the nearly empty streets. Arriving early as always, he used the time to familiarize himself with the area before moving any closer. Experience had taught him a man couldn’t be too careful, and a familiar tightness between his shoulder blades had been nagging at him all day.

  Something was going to happen tonight, something bad.

  He circled the area, making detailed observations from the four corners, finding nothing amiss. But as he approached the building from the south, he caught a flicker of movement in one of the alleys and found himself slipping into the canyon created by the tall buildings on either side.

  The deeper he went into the alley, the blacker it became. He stopped and waited, patient and still, heedless of the drizzling rain, until nothing moved and no sound came to him for a five full minutes. Had he seen something? Or was he just jumpy?

  Working his way back to the main road, he watched and waited again, then found himself curiously disoriented in the darkness. Visibility was infinitesimal, the rain falling harder, the streetlights still out and all the buildings looked alike now. The one he sought had a recessed entrance, a high arching tunnel that housed fifteen wide stairs leading to the front door. If someone wanted to break in, the cover it provided was ideal.

  The man slid his hand beneath his dark leather jacket to the weapon he kept, loaded and ready, in a shoulder holster that fit like a second skin after so many years of being strapped in the same spot.

  Pausing, the man decided to check in on the radio before moving any closer. He’d already inserted a tiny earpiece before he left his car, and he had a small microphone clipped to his left shoulder, preset to the channel he needed. He touched a button to turn the unit on. But when he spoke softly into the mike, no one responded. That was definitely cause for concern.

  He made a quarter turn to the right, planning to check the area again. But suddenly, the tightness between his shoulder blades was crushing, and he reconsidered the wisdom of moving at all. Standing perfectly still, he looked all around. Something wasn’t right.

  He backed to the edge of the nearest building. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Instinctively, he knew the barrel of someone’s gun was leveled at his back. Too late, he reached for his own and whirled around.

  “Don’t do it,” a voice warned.

  His weapon never even cleared the folds of his jacket, and he found himself staring long and hard at the wrong end of a gun. It was pointed with deadly accuracy at the center of his chest.

  He didn’t so much as blink.

  It took him all of five seconds, once the roaring in his ears receded, to realize he knew that voice, recognized something in the way she held her body braced, ready to shoot.

  The man had the audacity to smile.

  “Steady as a rock, Jamie. I’m impressed,” he said, a hint of pride in his voice. After all, he’d taught her well.

  “Yo
u should be impressed I didn’t put a bullet through that hard head of yours.” She took her time about lowering the weapon. “Damn it, Dan. Could you just stick to the plan and call us on the radio before you approach us?”

  “I got distracted. And my radio shorted out for a second,” he said, peering at her through the darkness, hearing her irritation rather than seeing it. “Sorry.”

  “Sorry? I could have killed you.”

  He laughed, because she was killing him, little by little, day after day. Even thousands of miles away, sneaking into his thoughts at the oddest of times, she was killing him.

  Jamie kept right on giving him hell for sneaking up on her, and Dan tried not to smile—knowing it would only exasperate her more. He must have just caught some interference in the signal from his radio, because he could hear her voice echoing through his earpiece as well now. She could chew him out in stereo sound.

  He took a minute to study her. Like him, she was dressed entirely in black, a silhouette of long limbs and shapely curves encased in snug pants and a dark, loose jacket that covered more than he would have liked. Still, he knew exactly how she looked. He’d memorized every detail years ago, then fought a losing battle to forget about her.

  She had pale skin, flawless and luminescent, like the polished ivory keys of the baby grand piano his mother once played. Rich black hair; the last time he’d seen it loose, it had fallen to a point just past her shoulders. Eyes big and dark. Soft, generous lips that smiled easily. A voice that laughed beautifully. She was a woman who’d always seemed impossibly young and innocent to him, and he’d fought against ever letting her get too close to him.

  Inside his head a voice taunted him with the knowledge that he could have had her years ago, could have forgotten her by now.

  If it was possible for him to have her and forget about her. He’d fallen into the habit of needling her, just to keep her at arm’s length. Which said a lot for the way he dealt with the women in his life. How was he going to handle her now?

  “You scared me half to death,” she complained, “and you have the nerve to stand here laughing about it?”

  Dan wiped the smile off his face and wondered exactly what she would say if he admitted that she was just about the only person who could still make him laugh. He wondered if she’d care.

  “How ’bout I stop laughing,” he suggested, “and the two of us get out of the rain?” He didn’t wait for her agreement, merely turned to walk with her toward the building. Feeling edgy and a little reckless, he brought his hand up to curl around her elbow, even though he knew better.

  Because touching her, even in the slightest of ways, set off a chain reaction that rippled through him. It brought a tightness to his body that started in his throat, slid downward to do peculiar things to his breathing and his heartbeat, then tied his stomach in knots, sometimes sinking even lower, making itself embarrassingly evident in the changing contours of his body.

  She did that to him, always had, probably always would, and he was tired of fighting both her and himself.

  Give in to it, he thought recklessly. She was right here in front of him. All he had to do was reach out for her and pull her to him.

  She’d wanted him years ago, still looked at him from time to time like a woman who was his for the taking. And there were so few things left in this world he truly wanted. At the moment, he could think of only one.

  Her.

  “Dan?” she said hesitantly.

  He swore softly, the words carried away on the wind, absorbed into the darkness.

  “Out of the rain, Jamie. I’d be happy to argue with you when we get out of the rain,” he said, trying to ignore the impression of her body at his side, the gentle sway of her hips that he couldn’t quite feel but somehow sensed, the narrow shoulders and hips, the top of her head that would fit perfectly under his chin if he ever let himself hold her cradled against him that way.

  With the rain coming down, washing the air clean, he shouldn’t be able to smell whatever it was she used on her skin, either. Too delicate to be perfume, it had come to haunt him. Soap, he imagined. Or scented lotion. Something she poured into her bathwater, maybe. Whatever it was ended up all over her body. He could swear that at various times he’d smelled it in her hair, on her hands, at the nape of her neck. She must drown in the stuff, and it made him want to drown as well, in her.

  Too soon, they reached the arched entrance of the building and stepped out of the rain. Dan let his hand drop from her elbow, then brushed the worst of the moisture from his hair.

  “Did you catch that?” Jamie called out, looking over his right shoulder. “I had a gun stuck in his face, and he laughed at me.”

  Dan turned and saw a tall, lean, smiling man with the face of a movie star and the demeanor of a diplomat, the latter a role he played quite regularly, in the line of duty, with great skill and success. “I heard,” the Golden Boy said. “Good to see you again, Dan.”

  “Josh,” he nodded, looking quickly from the too-goodlooking man to the woman who so thoroughly tormented him, and wondered for the hundredth time if there was something going on between them.

  “If I could trust you two not to fight, I’d go inside and get my walk-through done while we wait for Geri,” Josh said.

  “We’ll behave,” Jamie said. “You should, too, Josh.”

  Dan wondered about the look that passed between them. Was it the closeness that came from working together for a long time, or the intimacy of lovers?

  “Hurry,” Jamie called out “Dan’s scowling at me again.”

  Damned if he wasn’t.

  Josh punched a security code into the sophisticated system mounted at the side of the front door, then slipped inside, leaving Dan alone with Jamie once again. Without a word, they walked down the steps, to the front wall of the building, their eyes scanning the darkness stretched out before them.

  “Sorry I spooked you,” Dan said. It couldn’t be that much of a risk to talk to her, and he just wanted to hear her voice, which still held a hint of her Virginia upbringing. “I thought I saw something in the alley,” he explained.

  “So naturally, you took off after whatever it was without telling anyone what you were doing.”

  “I tried the radio. Must have hit a patch of interference, because I couldn’t hear anything for a few seconds.”

  “It’s working now?”

  He nodded, thinking he heard an edge to her voice tonight, wondering if she was still uneasy at having him creep up on her, or if something else was going on.

  “Any problems tonight?”

  “Not a one,” she said.

  End of conversation.

  Dan eased back against the wall. This assignment had come up at the last minute. And ever since he found out Jamie was going to be here, he’d done nothing but think of her.

  Dan didn’t make a habit of obsessing over women. He didn’t get rattled often, either. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been thrown off-balance like this over a woman. But he’d needed to see for himself that she was okay, after that nasty business in London last week.

  “When did you and Josh get back?” he said.

  “Late yesterday.” She sighed. “Things....uhh. Let’s just say things came together faster than we anticipated in London.”

  He supposed that was one way of putting it. Dan had heard about it—a bomb had gone off about fifty feet from her, and she was damned lucky to be alive.

  A well-connected U.S. businessman had been shipping high-tech electronic circuitry to a group suspected of bombing popular tourist spots in London over the past year, and Division One had been trying to find out where the shipments were coming from and how to stop them before anyone else was killed.

  Jamie had been trailing one of the suppliers when his clients decided to cut all ties with him and make a political statement at the same time. They blew the supplier to kingdom come while Jamie was standing across the street.

  Ever since then, Dan had been asking hims
elf how it would have felt to know he’d never see her pretty face again, or hear her hint-of-honey voice that had a way of skimming softly across his skin and setting his nerves on end.

  Hell, he decided. It would have been hell.

  So was imagining her in bed with Joshua Carter.

  “About London,” he began, unable to leave it alone. “It was good work. Tanner’s giddy, thinking the agency’s stock just shot through the roof with everybody in the District.”

  “So giddy he stuck us with baby-sitting duties?”

  “No, this is...” Dan shrugged. “I don’t know, Jamie. I don’t understand what this is.”

  They seldom worked in the States, seldom took on anything as simple as a bodyguarding assignment. Tanner, their boss, had been quite cryptic about this one. They were told there’d been troubling security problems at the scientists’ previous location, and temporary arrangements had been made to move them here until a permanent place was found for them. The agency had been called in temporarily because they had teams available in D.C. to take on the job immediately. But they’d been given pitifully few details about the three men inside or what they were doing.

  Supposedly, the assignment would be over within forty-eight hours, which could account for them getting so little information about the situation. Still, it was odd.

  “Have you seen these guys?” Dan asked.

  “No. They’re hermits. They haven’t shown their faces to us or to anyone on the previous shift. Doc came on two hours ago. He’s patrolling the corridor inside. He’s talked to them through the intercom system, but that’s it.”

  Dan glanced toward the door. He only had a few moments before Josh returned, and he didn’t think he could afford to lose this opportunity. The way they worked, they could go their separate ways when this assignment was over and not see each other again for months. If ever.