Dangerous (18 page)

He raised an eyebrow. “You do?”

She nodded. “I might point out that I am lying here naked,” she began.

“No, no,” he said, “naked is when you have all your clothes off.” He grinned. “Shall I demonstrate that?” he asked with gleaming eyes.

She slapped his hands when they went to her slacks, but she was laughing. “Don’t you do it!”

“Spoilsport.” He sighed. “Okay, I’ll do my best to exercise some restraint.” While he was saying that, he was stripping off his shirt.

Winnie’s breath caught at the wide, thick wedge of curling black hair that covered him to his belt buckle, and probably beyond.

He pursed his lips. “Impressed?”

“Oh, yes,” she said, far and away gone from hope of subterfuge.

“And I will tell you, it feels as good as it looks,” he murmured, easing down over her, so that she got the full impact of the soft, curling hair as it tickled her breasts before it settled down on them. He nudged her legs apart. “No, no, you mustn’t discourage me, you’ll hurt my feelings,” he chided as he bent to her mouth. “You wouldn’t want to make a grown man cry…?”

She couldn’t have answered him if she’d wanted to. He was immediately passionate. He never seemed to lead up to it. He didn’t need to. The impact of his sexuality was so intense that it just blew away all her defenses at once. She arched up into his hard body and slid her arms around him, her nails digging into his muscular back as he kissed her, as if he never meant to stop.

At the same time, she felt his hips shift. There was a threatening hardness where their bodies met, and she started to protest just as he moved in. The feverish motion of his hips brought a surge of pleasure so unexpected and intense that she cried out, gasping.

He felt that explosion of breath against his mouth and lifted it. She was shivering. Her eyes were wide. He looked into them, seeing her innocence, her shock, her enjoyment as he moved sensually against her.

“Feel it?” he whispered.

She gasped. Of all the outrageous things to ask…!

“Now, think how it would feel, pushing slowly down into your body,” he whispered at her lips, “into that warm, moist darkness, hard and deep!”

“Kilraven!” she gasped at the outrageous comment.

He laughed. But the need was growing by the second. His hips curled down into hers, hard, emphasizing how capable he was. He groaned softly and shivered. “There’s a big soft bed just a few feet down the hall.”

She groaned, too, but her hands were pushing, not pulling. “No,” she managed in a husky little voice. Her face was flaming, and not only from the intimate position. She hadn’t dreamed that men would say such blatant things to women! “I’m not on the pill!”

That stopped him dead. His mind wasn’t working. It was enslaved to the throbbing hunger in his lower extremities. He dragged in a harsh breath, and then another. He didn’t have anything, either. He didn’t carry around prophylactics because he never slept with women. She could get pregnant. Just for an instant, he thought about a baby in her arms and his whole soul felt grief like a lance. No! Never again!

He dragged himself up into a sitting position, his head in his hands as he fought down the nausea and pain. He’d almost let it go too far. He didn’t dare look at her. She was even more perfect than he’d imagined, under her clothes.

She hurried back into her things, swallowing down her embarrassment. But she realized, belatedly, that he was still struggling to regain his composure. It made her feel better about the loss of her own. She sat back down beside him, a little uneasy.

He lifted his head and met her wide, worried eyes.

“I know. I’m a bad man. Luring you in here with video games, seducing you with promises of cheats and victory codes…” He chuckled when she hit him playfully.

“Seducing women with video game cheats,” she accused, relieved that he wasn’t mad. “You villain.”

“Hey, whatever works,” he teased.

“Take me home, so I can get enough sleep to do my job.” She chuckled, getting up.

She got her purse and waited until he turned off the television and the lights and opened the door.

“It amazes me,” he said.

“What?” she asked.

“How very innocent you are,” he remarked quietly, staring straight into her dark eyes.

She colored prettily. “I’m getting less innocent by the day,” she said tautly.

He grinned. “Didn’t know men said such blatant things to women?”

She colored even more. “Kilraven!”

He laughed. “I shouldn’t tease you. I can’t help it. You fascinate me,” he said involuntarily. He caught her hair at her nape and drew her face up to his. “Pretty little breasts,” he whispered, and brought his mouth down on hers, hard, before she could protest. “We’d better go.”

T
HEY WERE ON THE WAY
to the car. He studied her admiringly. “You’re richer than sin, your whole family is, but you work at a minimum-wage job.”

“The work ethic was pounded into us at an early age,” she said simply. “Boone works on the ranch with his men.”

“I know. I read the magazine article in
Modern Ranching World.
” He chuckled. “In fact, there’s a copy of it on my coffee table. Your brother is unique. So is Clark, in his way.”

“Clark is always trying to be Boone, and knowing that he never will be,” she said sadly. “I think it must be terrible, to be the younger sibling of an overachiever.”

“Don’t tell my brother that. He’d never understand.”

She laughed. “Your brother is like you, an overachiever with an abundance of intelligence and courage. He could never feel like a second son.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Kilraven agreed, warmed by her opinion of him. “He’s excelled in his chosen profession.”

“So have you.”

He shrugged. “I had reasons for overachieving, though.”

“Yes, I know you did,” she said with sympathy. She stopped at the Jaguar and turned to face him. “You’ll break the case,” she said. “I’m sure of it.”

He touched her cheek gently. “Blind trust or some secret knowledge of the future?” he teased.

“I don’t know. Both, maybe.”

He sighed. “Maybe. We’d better go.”

He drove her down to the big Sinclair mansion in Comanche Wells and let her out at the front door.

“I won’t come in,” he said from behind the wheel. “It’s too late.”

She noted the lights still on in Clark’s room. “I guess they’ll be up all night playing video games,” she said enviously. “Clark has the new
Halo,
too. So does Boone.”

“You can tell Boone how to get past the Hunters,” he chuckled.

“And I will. See you.”

“Tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll drive you and Matt up to see your mother. What time do you get off?”

“Four, tomorrow,” she said. “It’s usually a longer shift, but one of the girls wanted to be home when school’s out for a teacher workday, so she’s doing the night shift for me.”

“Nice.”

She grinned. “Very.”

“I’ll see you at four. We never did set a date for the wedding,” he added. “How about Friday?”

Her heart jumped. She was thinking of all the arrangements and invitations and a gown and flowers. Just as quickly, she remembered that she wasn’t going to have any of those traditional things. Not for a sham wedding. A temporary affair.

She managed a smile anyway. “Okay. Friday it is.”

“See you tomorrow.”

“See you.”

He didn’t move. He waited. She realized that he wasn’t leaving until she was inside. It was flattering. She went into the house and closed the door. Only then did she hear the car drive away.

On her way to bed, she went through a dark house. The only room alive in it was Clark’s. She poked her head in the door. Matt was sitting in front of the game console, in his chair, while Clark perched on a beanbag chair beside him. They were whacking grunts in
Halo.

“Having fun?” she asked.

The two males grinned at her, looking so much alike they could have been twins.

“Never mind. Watch out for sticky grenades,” she advised.

“We’ve been sticking them on Hunters,” Matt told her.

“Does it work?” she asked, never having tried it.

“Watch,” Matt said. His avatar tossed one at the huge Hunter. The next minute, the fearsome creature was on the ground.

“Excellent,” Winnie said, giving him a thumbs-up. “I’ll have to try that. Kilraven’s coming up to take us to see Mom tomorrow just after I get off work at four,” she told him.

“Your brother…I mean, Boone, called to check on her. They said she’s sleeping and doing well,” Matt replied.

“Good. Sleep well.”

“Eventually,” Clark promised.

She shook her head and went to bed.

10

Winnie had a boring day at work. It was the norm to have a few days of routine calls and then one that taxed personnel to their very limits. On a difficult shift, there could be terrible wrecks, attempted robberies, suicides and futile foot chases after suspects that ended in frustration. There could be officers injured. There could be suspects who resisted arrest. There could be drunks with guns daring police to evict them from an abused wife’s house. There could even be dog attacks or wild animal attacks. But this day was uneventful, except for a chase after a stolen car that finally resulted in an arrest.

“Guess who made the collar?” Winnie asked Kilraven when she and Matt were in the Jaguar with him, headed for the hospital in San Antonio.

“I’ll bite,” Kilraven said.

“Macreedy,” she replied.

He gaped at her. “Him?”

“Him,” she said. She glanced at Matt in the backseat, who was frowning, curious. “He’s a deputy with the sheriff’s department. He’s famous for losing funeral processions in inaccessible places. He has no sense of direction. So when he does something like this, we’re all surprised.”

Matt grinned. “I get it.”

“Maybe Carson Hayes was right, and all he needed was a little self-confidence,” Kilraven said.

“Maybe so.” Winnie laughed.

T
HE HOSPITAL WAS CROWDED
. Kilraven maneuvered Matt’s wheelchair through the crowds with Winnie following close behind as they made their way to Detective Gail Rogers’s room.

“Mom!” Matt exclaimed, reaching up.

She laughed and leaned over, grimacing at the painful effort to hug him. “You’re okay, then?” she asked, fighting tears.

“Of course I’m okay,” he scoffed. He sat back down and grinned at her. “You look pretty good,” he said. He was fighting tears, too, although he tried to hide it.

“I just got shot,” she said. “No big deal.”

“Right,” Matt drawled.

Rogers looked past him at Winnie and Kilraven. “I think I may have missed something. The nurses said he went home with the Sinclairs. How did he end up at the ranch?”

“We knew who his father was the minute we saw him,” Winnie said quietly. “I would try to apologize, but I don’t know where to start. Boone and Clark feel the same way.”

Gail lay back on her pillows and looked at her daughter with quiet pride. “I never tried to explain,” she said after a minute. “Your father was furious when he knew I was pregnant. I tried to tell him the child was his, but I couldn’t get him to listen. Finally, I just quit trying. I knew it was no use to try and contact any of you kids. He would have stopped any attempt and he’d have made you pay for it. I had Matt and got on with my life. He’s been a joy,” she said, glancing at her youngest child with a smile.

“That’s in between being a holy terror.” Matt laughed. “That’s what she calls me.”

“He likes to take the chair for rides down hills,” she said, making a face at him. “See these gray hairs,” she asked him, pointing at the top of her head. “You gave them all to me.”

“I like going fast,” Matt protested. “Not that I get much speed in this old thing,” he muttered. “I’m not complaining,” he added quickly. “It helps build up my arm strength.”

“We’ve got a motorized one ordered,” Winnie said, surprising everyone in the room. She smiled. “Boone had them do a one-day ship. We’ll have it tomorrow.”

“Well!” Gail exclaimed.

“You can’t argue,” Winnie added firmly. “You know how the Sinclairs are when they get the bit between their teeth. Boone and Clark want to see you,” she said then. “But they won’t come until you say it’s okay.”

She bit her lower lip. She was hesitant, and Winnie understood why. She moved closer to the bed. “We’ve all had a rough time,” she said slowly. “It isn’t going to be easy, trying to put our family back together. But we all want to. Especially me.”

Gail took in a long breath. “We can try.”

Winnie smiled. It was a genuine smile. “Yes. We can.”

“When do I get to come and stay with you?” Matt asked Kilraven. “Not that I don’t like the ranch, I like it a lot,” Matt said. “But he works for the CIA,” he said in a loud whisper. “Maybe he can use his influence to get them to hire me when I get out of college.”

Kilraven laughed. “Maybe I can. If I still have any by then.”

“I’ll bet you’ve got all sorts of top secret gadgets, too, don’t you?” he persisted.

“A few,” Kilraven admitted. “But some of them are classified.”

“Darn.”

“You can see the ones that aren’t.”

“When?”

Kilraven glanced at Winnie. “We’re getting married Friday.”

“Wow! Will it be in a church with a minister and everything? Can I come?”

“It will be in a judge’s office,” Winnie said calmly. She smiled. “Of course you can come.”

“Oh.” Matt seemed very disappointed.

Kilraven felt uncomfortable. “I want coffee.”

“I want hot chocolate,” Matt said. “Can we go get some and bring it back here?”

“I guess so. You want something?” he asked the women.

“Coffee would be nice,” Winnie said.

Gail shook her head. “They’ll never let you give me caffeine. I know. I tried to bribe one of the nurses to bring the pot in here. Vicious girl,” she muttered. “Made all sorts of threats. If I just had my service weapon…!”

“Now, now, no shooting up hospitals,” Kilraven chided. “What would people think of the department if Marquez had to bail you out of jail, and you in a hospital gown?”

Gail glowered at him. “I hate hospitals.”