Bare Facts (22 page)

C
harity wasn’t in the best mood as she entered the offices of Liberty Investigations. It was eight o’clock on a Saturday night and she had a date with BBC-America and
Dr. Who
. But when Sam called, she didn’t argue. The same box of Celestial Seasonings Raspberry Zinger tea sat in the kitchen and she made herself a quick cup while she waited for the rest of the team to arrive.

She and the Dalai Lama still weren’t back on the same wavelength. But then, nothing Zen had been happening for her since she’d left Daniel in Seattle.

She knew from what Sam said that he’d recovered from his wounds and was back to work. Back to his life. A life that she didn’t really fit into. Guarding Daniel had changed her—she no longer felt half alive anymore.

“Now I feel dead
all
the time,” she muttered. God, she was getting morose, which she couldn’t stand.

She took her tea and walked out into the hallway when she heard the airtight door open with a beep. She froze as she recognized Daniel standing in the doorway. He stepped inside and let the door close behind him.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you,” he said.

“Are you still being blackmailed?” she asked, focusing on the business that had been between them because the little thrill she’d felt at his words wasn’t comfortable. She didn’t like to think about how many nights she’d laid awake longing to feel his arms around her once again.

“No. Everything’s going good with my business.”

“That’s great. So why are you here?”

“For you. I know you heard me say that.”

“I don’t know what that means, Daniel.”

He closed the gap between them and took the tea mug out of her hands, reaching around her to put it on the counter in the kitchen. “It means that I needed to see you again and ascertain that what I felt for you wasn’t a dream.”

She was afraid to let him continue. All she’d wanted was for him to come back into her life, and she knew she wasn’t going to deal well if he was back for sex and nothing more.

“A sexy dream?”

“Well, that’s part of it, but it was more how completely you fit into my life. I know that I’m not much of a catch as a man…”

“Daniel, you’re a wonderful man. You know I admire what you’ve made of your life. How you came from nothing…please don’t say that you’re not much of a catch.”

“Do you really believe that stuff?” he asked.

“Yes. I do.”

“But I’m still a Yakuza street punk deep inside. That mark will always be on my body and in my mind.”

“You’re also a CEO and that is also a mark you wear. I admire that you have melded those two parts of yourself. I’ve never been able to.”

He drew her into his arms. “That’s because you’ve never let any man know both sides of the complex and beautiful woman you are.”

She rested her head on his shoulder for just a second. “Why are you here?”

“Because I want you.”

“Sex?”

“Love,” he said. “My life has always been solitary and I’ve been okay with that, but you gave me a brief glimpse of what it could be and I find that I want more of it.”

“I’m not like other women.”

“Which is precisely why I love you.”

“You love me?”

“Yes, I do. And I’ve never loved anything. But you I can’t get out of my mind, Charity. You are in my heart and soul and I’m desperate to meld our lives together.”

Charity’s breath caught in her throat. “Oh, Daniel, I want that as well. You’re the first man who’s seen every part of me and accepted it.”

She thought of the gift that Daniel was offering her. All she had to do was believe him. Believe in the love he said he felt for her. And she knew without him saying anything else that she already loved him. “I love you, too, Daniel.”

“How can you? I’m a street punk, even dressed in these clothes.”

“I love everything that makes you who you are.”

Daniel pulled her close and kissed her slowly and deeply. She wrapped her arms around him and held him tightly, realizing that she’d found the home she’d been searching for since her parents’ deaths long ago.

And she’d found that home here in Daniel’s arms. They left the office and went back to his suite, where they made love all night and made plans for the future.

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“C
-c-can we just, um, establish here and now that I am no bodily threat to you?” she squeaked. “Cross my heart. All I did was trespass. It was stupid. I’m sorry. It will never happen again. The gun, the cuffs, this interrogation routine, it all strikes me as, um…overkill?”

A menacing grin flashed across his face. “Does it strike you that way?” he crooned. He was so close, the surface of his body touched the tips of her breasts. The swell of her belly. The points of contact seemed to burn. Her lips were so close to the hollow of his collarbone, the swatch of smooth black body hair that disappeared into his shirt. “Maybe you’re right,” he added softly. “Only time will tell.”

“H-h-how much time?” she stuttered. “You’re trying to intimidate me, buddy. I do not appreciate it. One bit.”

“Trying? I thought I was succeeding. I must be losing my touch.”

She gulped. “It’s not working,” she lied. “It’s falling very flat.”

He glanced down. Her puckered nipples brushed his chest, as softly as a kiss. The heat of his erection jutted against the curve of her belly. Scorching her. Sweat broke out on her face. Her heart thudded.

“Doesn’t look flat to me,” he murmured. “The landscape looks pretty rugged, from where I’m standing.”

“Step away from me, right now,” she whispered. “Give me space.”

A frown creased his brow. He stepped back, to her amazement. Cold displaced the buzzing force field emanating from his body. She felt exposed, vulnerable. She wrapped her arms around herself.

He grabbed them, and flung them wide. “Don’t,” he said. “You wanted to be more adventurous, right? So stand up straight. Stop cringing. No wonder your boyfriend ran around on you. Would Kaia ‘the bitch’ slut cower and cringe?”

She gasped. Her back straightened, her chin lifted, her breasts tilted as she hiked her ribcage up. “Go to hell,” she hissed.

It was becoming ever more obvious that he was aroused. His loose raggedy cargo pants hid nothing. He was naked beneath them, and getting bigger by the second. He noticed the direction of her gaze, and jerked his chin, with a you-wanna-make-something-of-it look.

God, did she? Her thighs tingled. She wondered, out of the blue, how it would feel to, ah, accommodate a man of those proportions.

He was picturing that scenario, too. She saw it in his eyes. Fear and excitement jolted over her. Oh, boy. Oh, dear.

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“I
don’t have anything to eat. We can stop at a Micky D’s for breakfast.”

From the confused look on her face, he didn’t think she even knew what a McDonald’s was. His amnesia theory was starting to make a lot more sense. “I just have to get my wallet.”

Nick hurried to the bedroom but there was a pop as he reached the place where his door used to be. His head smacked into a hard surface.

His door was back.

Great timing.

He rubbed his forehead.

“She is not an alien. She is not an alien,” he mumbled as he opened the door and grabbed his wallet off the dresser.

On the way to the fast-food joint, he covertly observed her every move and noticed how she watched him before repeating what he did. He still hadn’t ruled out that she could be from another country.

He parked in front of the fast-food place and they went inside.

“What do you want?” he asked, looking at the menu.

“I’ve never had food before.”

He glanced around. Good thing everyone was busy and no one had come over to wait on them yet. “You don’t eat…where you’re from?” he asked, keeping his voice down.

“Food capsules. It provides plenty of nourishment, and we don’t have to bother with using space to grow anything.”

She turned those dark blue eyes on him and his insides began to melt.

“But I’d like to try your food. The soda was quite refreshing.”

Hell, he’d give her anything she wanted if she kept looking at him like that. Food, sex…state secrets.

He cleared his throat and ordered two pancake breakfasts and two milks, then carried them to a table in the far corner. Keep a low profile, that was the name of the game.

He covertly watched her as she slid into the booth across from him. Man, if she was playing him for a fool and Sam was in on this, he’d kill them both.

She just stared at the white Styrofoam, then pinched off a corner of the lid and put it in her mouth. Before he had a chance to react, she spit it out. “Ugh, your food isn’t good.”

He quickly glanced around to make sure she hadn’t been seen, breathing a sigh of relief. No one was paying them the least bit of attention.

“That’s the box,” he told her, then opened it and poured syrup over the stack of pancakes. “Like this.” He cut into one, then forked it into his mouth. She followed suit.

Her eyes closed, she moaned. The overhead lights began to flash. A bulb popped.

“Mmm…this is good. Oh, yes…yes!”

Nick’s gaze scanned the room. A busload of geriatrics had just come inside. Their expressions ranged from amusement, to reprimanding looks, to fear as some noticed the wild light display above their heads.

“This is so wonderful, Nick.” She rolled her shoulders, her back arched, her tight nipples clearly outlined through the material of her top. “I’ve never had anything this good before.”

He realized he was holding his breath when the room began to spin. He exhaled, but continued to stare. She was giving him a major hard-on as her tongue came out to slowly lick the syrup off her lips.

She opened her eyes and forked another bite into her mouth. “I think I love your food, Nick.” Her words were raspy, like a woman ready to smear syrup all over his body and lick off every drop.

He grabbed a paper napkin and wiped the sweat from his forehead. That’s when his attention was drawn to the lights. They were still flickering, but that wasn’t all. A wave of bright blues, yellows, and pinks swirled like the aurora borealis.

Damn, the same thing had happened last night when they’d had sex, but he’d dismissed it as a figment of his imagination. She’d been really hot in the sack and it’d been a while for him so he hadn’t really thought much about them. Only that his eyes had to be playing tricks. It had been a really fantastic orgasm.

Kia squirmed in her seat as she shoved another bite in her already stuffed mouth. Syrup drizzled down her chin. She swallowed.

“More. I want more…thank you.”

She looked like a woman in the throes of passion.

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“I
thought you went home?” Reed asked the question in the friendliest tone he could muster, while his car sat in the direct firing line of Gabby’s anger.

“Not yet.” She scraped her heel against his fender.

He felt the screeching sound echo down to the pit of his stomach. “Yeah, I see that.”

As if sensing his discomfort, she banged her heel a second time.

“Could you not do that?”

“Sit?”

He rubbed his hand over the cool metal and winced when he felt what he feared was a deep scratch. “Vandalize my vehicle.”

“Do you have a better target in mind?” Her voice dripped with disgust.

He pulled back until he stood out of kicking range. “So, the idea of this meeting was to finish me off in the middle of the street?”

She stopped watching the front door of the restaurant and started scowling at him. She may have even snarled.

“What, a man can’t ask a question?”

“You’re making me think that finishing you off has some merit.”

Just as he thought. “Maybe we should go back inside.”

“Why?”

“Because there are people in there who can act as witnesses and the ambulance is only a call away.” He adjusted his earphone to make sure she could not see it.

Pete was not talking but Reed could hear him breathing. Reed hoped his lazy partner also had 911 on speed dial.

“I’m not going anywhere with you.”

That was pretty clear, but her comment did not explain everything. “You have me at a disadvantage here, Gabby.”

“There’s an interesting take on this evening’s festivities.”

“Uh-oh,” Pete whispered on his end.

Reed saw the trap without Pete’s help. Making the lovely lady even angrier was not a good plan. If he knew how to prevent that possibility, he would.

“What are you doing out here?”

“Standing.”

“On my car?”

“Feeling dramatic, aren’t you?”

“You’re the one who threw the wine and beat up my car.” He cleared his throat in an attempt to send an I-mean-business signal. “And, feel free to jump off it at any time.”

She saw his I-mean-business signal and raised him a your-car-is-at-my-mercy look. “After everything that’s happened tonight you’re telling me the only thing you care about is the vehicle? Typical male.”

Did not take a genius level IQ to know the comment was not a compliment. “Did I miss the part where you explained why you’re out here?”

“I’m waiting.”

That explained…nothing. “For me?”

He almost hoped she would say no.

“Yes.” She slid off the hood, clanking her heels against the car a few more times before she hit the ground.

“Could you be careful—”

“You have my keys.” Her icy tone made the back of his neck itch.

“I do?” He patted his suit pocket but only felt the wet and sticky remnants of his dinner beverage. No keys. “I don’t have—”

“They’re in your glove compartment.”

Sounded plausible even though opening the door meant turning his back on her for a second. “When did you stick them in there?”

“When we parked. They didn’t fit in my purse.” She waved a square black box in his face.

“Then why buy it?”

Her eyebrow inched up. “Excuse me?”

Words stuttered to a halt in his throat but he forced them out anyway. “Just seems like it would be more practical to carry a bag you can stick crap in.”

“Do you really want to have an argument about my accessories right now?”

“That would be tough since I have no idea what that even means.” Then he saw the flat line of her lips. “And then there’s the part about the lack of witnesses to my potential homicide.”

“You might want to keep that in mind.”

“I am. Trust me.”

Pete’s chuckle echoed in the earpiece. “She is so damn hot.”

“Get my keys.” She said the words like an order.

“You didn’t have to wait out here. You could have…” Reed was not sure how to end that sentence since a return trip to the table likely would have resulted in more liquor throwing. “Forget it.”

“The keys.” She held out her palm. “Now.”

“Sure.” The horn sounded as he hit the unlock button. A few seconds later the glove compartment popped open. “Here you go.”

She grabbed her keys but did not move. “I wasn’t waiting for you.”

“You said you were.”

“I lied.”

“Man. I’d run,” Pete whispered but the warning boomed through the ear speaker and straight into Reed’s brain.

Somehow Reed focused on the furious woman in front of him instead of the wise words in his ear. Probably had something to do with the fact Gabby held her keys like a weapon.

“My initial thought was to break your car window and get the keys myself.”

So, she thought about using violence. Now there was some bad news. “Lucky for me you came up with a second option.”

“Not yet.” She pursed her lips together as if thinking of her next move or how best to kill him. “I want you to understand something.”

That he was a dead man? Yeah. He got that part. “Which is?”

“What you gave up.” She dropped her keys on the hood.

“Hey, be careful—”

When her lips covered his, he stopped talking. Stopped thinking. Stop giving a damn about his car. She took his breath until he had nothing left. Including common sense.