Bare Facts (13 page)

Justine had a hard gaze. Having looked into Charity’s gaze, which could be lethal as well, made him realize the difference.

“I’m the boss.”

“I’m so sick of hearing that,” she said under her breath. “If this backfires, Sam will chew my butt out.”

“I’m good.”

“You better be.”

He didn’t say anything, just signaled to her that he’d take the right flank and moved out. He felt the years slip away and the instincts that had kept him alive as a boy flared. He moved with near silence, knowing that the slightest sound would give him away and possibly get him killed.

He was angry that Charity was out there trying to protect him. He knew it was her job, so that wasn’t the main source of his rage. It was the fact that he’d shut her out in the car. She’d tried to play it like it didn’t matter, but he wouldn’t want everything to end between them on this note.

The gun felt like an extension of his arm as he moved through the crowded garage. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness and he stayed low, moving carefully.

Suddenly everything got unnaturally quiet. He felt the minute exhalation of breath on his neck a second before he turned and brought his gun up.

The assailant had a knife which he brought down toward Daniel’s neck as he raised his weapon and fired. He hit the man dead center, right between his eyes.

A second bullet ripped through the man’s head, and Daniel rolled to the left to miss both the bullet and the knife, which was still coming straight toward him.

He disarmed the dead man, searching for identification in his pockets and finding only the small pin on his collar—the same one that Charity had found earlier.

He glanced up and saw Charity standing in between the cars and the open driveway. Her weapon was held loosely by her side. Justine came up beside her and the two women were like photo negatives of each other.

One blond, the other brunette. Both lethal and vigilant as they watched the garage.

“Was he working alone?” Daniel asked.

“I didn’t find anyone else,” Justine said.

“Me, either. I drove him this way. What the hell were you thinking?”

Daniel stood up. “Are you talking to me?”

“Yes—and you, Justine,” Charity said, turning on her friend. “Our job is to keep him safe. He should be up in that apartment with Anna sitting on top of him, not down here drawing out the assailant.”

Justine shrugged. “He handled himself. I’m going to tell Anna to get the police in here.”

“I’m taking Daniel upstairs. Send the cops up to get our statements.”

Justine nodded and Daniel had a true measure of the reason why Sam Liberty had hired Charity. There was an icy coldness in her eyes but also that fierce protectiveness.

D
aniel wasn’t too into philosophy but figured Winston Churchill knew what he was talking about when it came to anger. He wondered what the leader would say about a woman’s anger.

A part of him understood what was going on in Charity’s head. He knew that he’d compromised her job by refusing to leave, but he was a man and there was something cowardly about making sure he was safe and secure while his woman—
his woman?

He followed her through the foyer of his high-rise condo. She was bristling with restless energy—he suspected it was the aftereffects of taking a life. He’d learned a long time ago to process it and move on. His life had been formed by
kill or be killed.

“Charity?”

“Not yet, Daniel. I’m still likely to say something that will not be nice.”

He bit back a smile, something he found himself doing all too often around her. She made him feel good in ways he’d never noticed.

“You’re not really mad at me.”

She turned to face him, her blond hair flaring out around her shoulders as she stalked back to him. She had her semiautomatic handgun in her right hand and her left hand was bunched in a fist. As she approached, she lifted her empty hand and punched her index finger at him.

“Hell, yes, I am. Back off. Not another word or else.”

“What?”

“Do you realize how incredibly stupid you were in the garage? You could have died—
died!
This isn’t a game you’re playing, even if Sekijima is treating it like one. Your life is on the line.”

She was right in front of him, nose to nose, chest to breasts.

“I’m not going to let some hit man kill me. If Sekijima wants me dead, he’s going to have to do the job himself. And I think he knows that, too. He sent that hit man to get you out of the way, Charity.”

She shook her head at him. “Don’t turn this around. I’m the bodyguard, not you. I take the risks while you are safely tucked away. When I send someone to take you to safety, I expect you to go.”

She bit her lower lip, a fine trembling shaking her body. He wrapped his arms around her, drew her tight against him, pressing her face into his shoulder.

She turned her face into his neck and he heard her breathe deeply, felt the exhalation of her breath against his neck. Then her arms came around his waist under his suit jacket, her free hand digging into his skin through the fabric of his shirt.

She clung tightly to him and he let himself believe that she was the only one holding on so tight. But he needed the body contact with her, needed to feel her in his arms now, after he’d come close to losing her.

When had she become important to him?

“It could have been you,” she said softly.

He tipped her head up and stared into those gray eyes of hers and felt his world tip on its axis. This woman wasn’t his. She couldn’t be his, but man, he wanted her to be. He wanted to stake a claim that the world would see, mark her in the old ways that every man would fear and acknowledge.

But knowing Charity, she’d kick his ass for even thinking such a thing. It was one of the things he really liked about her.

“It could have been you,” he said. “I won’t let anyone harm you when I can stop them.”

“Daniel…”

He didn’t want to talk anymore. He needed to kiss her. Needed to feel her mouth moving under his so he could really know deep inside that they were both alive. That they were both here together. And his bed was upstairs. He wanted her there. Needed to see her sunshine-blond hair on his pillow so that when she was gone from his life, he’d be able to remember her in his private sanctuary.

His mouth moved over hers with more force than he’d anticipated but he couldn’t stop himself. He wrapped his hand in her hair and held her head still. Thrusting his tongue deep, she moaned as he took her mouth. He wrapped his free arm around her waist and lifted her off her feet.

Her legs came up around him and her hands got caught in his suit jacket. He set her on her feet and shrugged out of it, tossing it aside. He needed them both naked, wanted to feel her bare skin pressed against his. He loosened his tie and ripped open the front of his shirt, reaching for her again. She put her gun on the console table next to them.

He pulled her back into his arms. He didn’t want to breathe unless the air had been touched by her mouth first. He fisted his hand in her hand, wanting to be gentle. But his feelings were too raw where Charity was concerned. What he really needed was to be buried hilt-deep in her body.

Then maybe the fear that he’d felt for her safety would abate. Maybe then he’d be able to put on his suit jacket and fasten his tie again and go back to pretending he was a civilized man.

Right now, however, he was straight from the cave. All instincts and needs. He unfastened her leather pants and pushed them down her hips. They got caught on her shoes and he let out a growl of frustration. But Charity caged his face in her hands, kissing him with sweet passion.

“Give me a second.”

He nodded, reaching for the zipper on her leather jacket and drawing it down while she used the toe of one foot to push off her shoe. He liked her head hitting him mid-chest when she was in her bare feet.

She kicked free of her pants just as he slipped his finger under the cup of her sexy black bra. It wasn’t fancy or lacy but it was still sexy as hell against her pale skin.

He pushed the fabric cup of her bra down and bent to capture her beaded nipple between his lips, sucking her deep into his mouth, trying to assuage a thirst that was only for Charity. He felt an ache deep inside where he’d always been alone, something that could only be caused by this woman.

She held him to her and he heard her sigh. Understood that they were more connected in this moment than he’d expected.

He caressed her back and spine, scraping his nail down the length of it. He followed the straps of her bra around to the front and felt her through the silk of her undergarment.

She closed her eyes and held her breath as he fondled her through the material. Peeling back the cup, he ran his finger over her nipple. It was velvety compared to the satin smoothness of her breast. He brushed his finger back and forth until she bit her lower lip and shifted under his touch. She was so alive. So damned alive right this moment, when she’d been so close to dying in the garage.

Her sweet moan drew him back to her body. He leaned down and licked at her lips until she tipped her head to the side and allowed him access to her mouth.

He lifted her by the waist and she wrapped her legs around him, rubbing her center over his erection.

God, he hadn’t been this hot since…he couldn’t remember ever being this hot for a woman. He scraped his fingernail over her nipple and she shivered in his arms. He pushed the cup of her bra off of her breast. Glancing down at her bare flesh, he saw the nipple distended and begging for his mouth. He lowered his head and suckled.

He held her still with a hand on the small of her back. He buried his other hand in her hair and arched her over his arm so that both breasts were thrust up at him. He had his arms full of woman—a woman he wanted more than any other.

Her eyes were closed, her hips moving subtly against him, and when he blew on her nipple he saw gooseflesh spread down her body.

He pushed the fabric from her other breast and bent to suckle her some more. He loved the way she reacted to his mouth on her breasts. Her nipples were so sensitive, he was pretty sure he could bring her to an orgasm just from touching her there.

The globes of her breasts were full and fleshy, more than a handful. He hardened as he wondered what his cock would feel like thrust between them.

He leaned down and licked the valley between her breasts, imagining his cock sliding back and forth there. He’d swell and she’d moan his name watching him.

He bit carefully at the lily-white skin of her chest, suckling at her so he’d leave his mark. Hell, he wanted to tattoo his name on her so that any man who saw her would know she was his. Possessiveness was foreign to him, but with this woman he felt the need to stake a claim.

But that was out of the question, so instead he sucked hard at her skin, not lifting his head until he was sure he’d left his mark on her. He wanted her to remember this moment and what they had done when she was alone later.

He kept kissing and rubbing, pinching her nipples until her hands clenched in his hair and she rocked her hips harder against his length. He lifted his hip, thrusting up against her and then biting carefully on her tender, aroused nipple. She screamed his name and he hurriedly covered her mouth with his.

Rocking her until the storm passed and she quieted in his arms, he held her close, her bare breasts brushing against his shirt front. He was so hard he thought he’d die if he didn’t free himself and get inside her.

He held her in his arms, his erection still between them. She smiled up at him and he felt a clenching deep inside him.

Daniel carried her down the hall and into his bedroom. He closed the door with his heel and then walked over to the bed, then set her on her feet.

She knew that sex right now would be about adrenaline but she didn’t care. She needed him in her body. Needed more than just an orgasm to feel like he was really safe.

She’d never been scared for a client the way she’d been about Daniel in the garage. It was the first time she hadn’t been able to shut her mind down and just concentrate on doing her job. As much as she knew she needed to check in with Anna and discuss the man they’d killed in the garage, she really just wanted this. Needed to feel Daniel’s arms wrapped around her, his body buried inside her.

She’d never expected the pleasure she experienced with him to be like this. “Finish getting undressed and lie on the bed.”

He was too bossy, but she felt a little tingle of excitement at his orders. “Only if you take yours off, too.”

“Ladies first.”

She shook her head, but pushed her jacket off and finished removing her bra. She put her hands on her hips. “Your turn.”

“On the bed,” he said.

“Are you going to be stubborn about this?”

“Hell, yeah.”

She pivoted really slowly and then walked to the bed, using her runway experience from her modeling days. She moved slowly, sensuously—deliberately trying to entice him with every step she took.

“Charity.” He said her name but it came out as a growl.

She stopped, looking back over her shoulder. “Yes?”

“Get on the bed before I take you against the wall.”

She licked her lips and blew him a kiss. “I might let you.”

He lunged toward her, but she wasn’t ready to stop playing with him yet. She dove for the bed, doing a neat tuck and roll that left her lying in the exact center of the king-sized mattress. “Was this what you wanted?”

“Yes.”

He sank down on the edge of the bed. Leaning over her, he lowered his mouth to hers. His kisses overwhelmed her. She’d never felt this kind of burning desire before. All she wanted to do was make love to him She should be thinking about Sekijima and saving his skin, but they were safe here. She knew Anna and Justine had her back and she also knew once she left this bedroom, their intimacy would end.

The way he’d acted in the garage was a warning. She was going to have to force him to be safe, and that was going to make intimacy…impossible. She pulled back, looking up at him, wanting to memorize his face so that later when she was alone she’d be able to remember this.

She brought her hand up between her breasts and fingered the hickey he’d left on her chest. He brushed her fingers aside, rubbing his mangled forefinger over it. “I should apologize for marring your skin.”

“But?”

“I wanted to mark you as mine.”

“Oh, Daniel,” she said, because there were no other words to say.

He cupped her face and lowered his head to hers, as he thrust his tongue deep in her mouth. She felt the rekindling of her own desire. She wanted him again. She tried to angle her head to reciprocate, but he held her still.

She felt a fierce need in him to dominate her, to remind her that she was his. She found the proof she was searching for that Daniel was different from every other man she’d ever met.

Her nipples tightened and her breasts felt too full as he pulled her into his embrace. He canted his hips toward hers, the ridge of his erection bumping against her. She moaned deep in her throat and clung to him.

His biceps flexed as he shifted her in his arms, rolling her under his body. Running his hands over her body.

His mouth moved down the column of her neck, nibbling and biting softly. He lingered at the base of her neck where she knew her pulse beat frantically. Then he sucked on her skin. Everything in her body clenched. Not enough to push her over the edge, just enough to make her hungry—frantic for more of him.

She scored his shoulders with her fingernails, felt the fine linen fabric of his shirt. She pushed it off his shoulders, taking her time to unfasten the cuff links and put them on the nightstand; then she pushed the shirt off of his shoulders.

As soon as she saw his arms she knew why he’d kept his shirt on the first time they’d made love. His arms were covered in the beautiful ritual tattoos of the Yakuza.

She knew if she asked him anything, he’d shut her down, so she tugged him onto the bed next to her and got up on her knees. She traced the design up his left arm and then crawled around behind his back to trace the large dragon there.

“This creature looks so fierce, so dangerous.”

He pulled her around onto his lap. “Remember that I am, too.”

“Yes, you are,” she said, pushing him back toward the pillows. She skimmed her hands down his chest. Tucked his loosened pants down his legs. She removed his shoes and socks and then took care of all his clothes. When he was naked, she lowered herself over his body. The full contact of flesh to flesh was exquisite.

She sighed at the rightness of it as he rolled her body under his. She caressed his flat male nipples as he held himself above her on his strong arms. She liked the way she was surrounded by him, felt very feminine as she lay there under him. His skin was hot to the touch and she wrapped her arms around his body, pulling him closer.