Kincade's Rose (Megalodon Team) (4 page)

Jayde repeated the same thing as she
slipped the ring on his finger.  She was shaking, so Tyson laced their fingers
together and gave her some of his silent strength.  Somehow it was enough for
he felt her relaxing.

When the priest smiled and said they were
now husband and wife, Tyson noticed his new wife was still in a state of shock,
and he kissed her sweetly, cheering when she eagerly leaned into him, taking
all of what he gave her.

When Tyson pulled away, both of them were
breathing hard.  The priest shoved the certificate at them and took one copy
for himself after they signed it.  Then everyone else left the newlyweds alone.

The door shut and the room was silent as
Jayde and Tyson stared at each other.

Tyson saw the rant forming on her lips and
stopped her with a finger across his mouth and a silent head shake.  Warily,
she stayed silent, for about five seconds.

“Well, honey,” she started.  “Not exactly
how I anticipated our vow renewal to go.  But I suppose another year, another
surprise.”  She arched a brow at him, crossed her arms, and tapped her bare
foot on the floor, bringing his eyes to her lapis blue toenails.

“I’m sorry,” he said.  “This isn’t exactly
what I had planned, either.”  He turned on the stereo system to find some
romantic music and adjusted the volume to cover their voices.  Taking a hold of
her arm he steered her gently towards the bed and sat beside her as she turned
angry eyes on him.

“Start talking,” she seethed.  Her face was
flushed with anger, her eyes sparkled, and Tyson realized again just how truly
beautiful she was.  “I would almost think you had this planned; where did you
get the rings?”

“Look, I am so sorry about this whole
thing.  I didn’t mean to get you involved.”  He paused at her look of disbelief
but then continued.  “I am currently—or was—working for a counterterrorism unit
for our government.  Those men are drug runners who supply, buy, and sell
information to terrorists. When I got injured, they put me on leave and I ended
up down here.  I noticed two of those guys at dinner watching me.  After I got
back to my hotel room, they showed up with two other men and took me with
them.  To be questioned.” Tyson watched as she narrowed her eyes further.

“I know it was wrong of me to bring you
into this, but it seemed to be my only option.” He paused again.  “The rings
belong to me.  I wish I could tell you more but I can’t.  Please trust me.  I
am not a spy; they didn’t want you to trust me.  Just for a little longer,
trust me.  I am one of the good guys.”  He didn’t want to tell her the rings
sealed their fate together, for all eternity—that might just freak her out.

Jayde just shook her head.  Tyson hoped she
knew he wouldn’t have put her in this situation unless absolutely necessary. 
“Okay, Tyson, I will go along with this for a while.  For some reason I do
trust you; not sure why, but I do.”  She reached out and touched his arm and
desire filled him.  “So, where does this leave us?”

Tyson released a huge breath that he didn’t
realize he’d been holding.  She was going to go along with him on this.  She
trusted him. A proud smile grew on his face.  “Well, I have to place some calls
to some people in the States and then I think I owe you more explanations.”

She nodded as she stood.  “I think you do
too.”

“Thank you for trusting me.”  His eyes were
gentle as they looked upon her dark beauty. 
Damn, I have never seen a woman
like her before in my life
.  Although a world traveler, he’d never known a
woman to affect him this way.

“Well,” she said with a forced
lightheartedness, “if a wife can’t trust her husband, then who can she trust?” 
Then she turned and walked into the bathroom, shutting herself off from him.

Jayde just needed some time.  She changed
her clothes quickly as she put on her originally intended clothing from her
shower before things had gotten crazy: a pair of men’s pajama bottoms and a
cutoff sweatshirt.

She leaned on the marbled bathroom
countertop and looked in the mirror at her reflection.  Running the cold water,
she splashed some on her face and used the thick absorbent towel to dry it
off.  She stared.  What had she done?  What was her family going to say?  Would
she even tell them?  Doubtful.

Standing there she noticed something about
her reflection she’d never seen before.  Her hands still held the towel in
front of her face, but now she detected something different. The glittering of
silver on her left hand.  Her wedding ring.

She put down the towel and held up her
hand, palm towards her face, and looked.  The ring shone brilliantly against
her dark skin.  Like it belonged there.

“Well, my family was always after me to do
something.  I guess getting married is something.  Besides, it won’t hold up
once we get back to the States,” she spoke to her reflection.  “I could always
put it as helping my country.”  She smiled and saw she appeared almost happy.
She was glowing.

Jayde walked back out into the main part of
her suite and found Tyson on the phone.  He looked up as she entered and sent
her a soft smile along with a gesture she took to mean “just a few minutes.” 
She nodded and took a seat on the chaise lounge in the room, closing her eyes
as she listened to the comforting rumble of his deep voice mixed with the
seductive music that played in the room and the pounding of the rain against
the windows.

Tyson watched as his new
wife
settled herself on the lounge; she looked so delectable lying there with her
eyes closed.  He understood she must be exhausted, nothing like this was ever
easy and she was holding herself together admirably.

The voice in his ear had faded into a faint
hum so he had to shake his head and fully concentrate on what his boss was
saying to him.  Even as Tyson talked his eyes never left Jayde, and he knew the
exact moment she fell asleep.  Her chest rose and fell in a steady rhythmic
pattern, one arm held a pillow at her side with the other arm lying between her
breasts.

Finally all his calls had been made.  He
shut the phone and walked over to where she lay slumbering.  Pulling up a
straight back chair, Tyson sat down beside her body that was dead to the
world.  “Thank you, thank you, my little rose,” he whispered, brushing her hair
back from her face.  “Thank you for trusting me.”

For a few moments he stayed beside her watching
her sleep. Then he became restless.  There was so much he wanted to do with her
and to her, but he had to find a way to keep her safe.  Those men were dangerous
and now she was his responsibility.  It was his fault she was possibly in
danger.  He snorted with disdain as he amended his thought; she
was
in
danger.

He strode to the window and looked out on
the town below.  The rain still came down in torrential sheets.  Maybe he could
convince her to go with him to another place, really act like a married
couple.  He knew for a fact they would be watched for the remainder of their
time here.

Eyes that had hardened with menace at the
thought of someone hurting Jayde softened as he turned away to view the woman
he’d promised to protect.  Tyson went to her and picked her up, realizing she
felt light in his arms.  In fact, she felt damn near perfect.  She wasn’t a
petite woman, she was ideal.  And for the time being, she was all his.

He placed her reluctantly on the bed and
covered her with a blanket.  Tyson gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and
groaned, struck with just how much he would love to explore every nook and
cranny of her luscious body.  “Damn, I must be some kind of saint,” he said as
he shook his head in disbelief.  He took a blanket over to the lounge so that
he could sleep between her and the door.  Tyson knew he was in for a restless
night, but he didn’t survive sleep deprivation training for nothing.  So he
cleaned up the remaining traces of blood on his head and went to bed.

“

Jayde woke up to the sunlight hitting her
eyes.  She opened them slowly against the glare.  Her movements were slow as
she organized her body to get moving.  “That was one messed up dream,” she said
to the room she believed was empty.

“I don’t think it was a dream.”

Jayde screamed at the deep voice ringing in
the room and bolted up out of bed.  Her legs became tangled in the blankets and
she pitched backwards towards the corner of the wrought-iron nightstand.  She
found herself in a pair of strong arms that held her immobile just shy of her
banging her head, staring into a pair of hazel eyes that seemed remarkably
familiar to her.

“Easy there.”  He set her on her feet and
still had a hold on her shoulders as he asked, “Okay now?”

“Fine.  I’m fine,” she answered with an
undeniably shaky voice.  “Thanks for…that.”  She gestured over her shoulder. 
Jayde sat down on the edge of the bed.  “It wasn’t a dream was it?”

“No.  Are you disappointed?”

“Well, I don’t really know you.  But since
we aren’t even in America, I don’t think there will be any lasting damage
done.”  She smiled briefly.  “How about breakfast?”  Every time she got nervous
she ate, which was why she wasn’t pencil thin.

“It’s on its way up.  I ordered a bit of
everything since I don’t really know what you like.”  He stroked the side of
her face before walking away from her.

Jayde tried to calm her rapid heartbeat. 
She didn’t know this man and now she was helping him out of some kind of mess. 
What kind, she didn’t know, and apparently wouldn’t have time to ask since
there was someone knocking at the door.  She stayed by the bed as Tyson
answered it, admitting room service.

The man who brought in the cart made Jayde
feel self-conscious and so she instinctively moved closer to Tyson.  She
noticed his understanding look as his arm settled protectively around her
shoulder, tucking her close to his side.  Aware of the man’s gaze on her she
laid her head against Tyson and tried to look in love.  It was an attempt she
had pulled off better than she would have ever imagined.

Tyson tipped the man and walked to the door
with Jayde still beside him and shut it behind the hotel employee, leaving them
alone again.  “Well, I hope you’re hungry,” he said in a light voice.

“Starved.”  And she was.  Jayde sat down at
the table and stared in shock as Tyson began to fix her a plate.  No one had
ever done that for her before.  He pointed and she nodded or shook her head;
once the dish was filled, he placed it in front of her and fixed his own.

“So,” he asked later in between bites of scrambled
eggs, “what do you want to do today?”

“Go to the jaguar preserve.  You remember,
right, Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary & Jaguar Preserve?  That was
going to be today’s venture.”  She took a long drink of her juice and waited. 
She wasn’t about to give up going to the one place she’d actually come down
here to see and was willing to fight for the chance.

“Whatever my little rose wants, she gets.”

“Well, since the whole jig is up, I suppose
you should go and get your things to move in here, since I like my room
better,” Jayde said. 
And I have no idea where your room is.

He coughed harshly, clearly surprised by
her suggestion. “I suppose so…” He stared at her but she avoided his gaze.  “I
will do that right now,” he said, almost as a question.

Jayde still wouldn’t look at him.  “Yes. 
And I will get ready for our day.”  She slid her chair back from the table and
walked towards the bathroom, her body quivering more and more with every step
she took.  The door didn’t get a chance to close before his hand was there
pushing it back open.

“Jayde,” he said as he forced his way into
the bathroom.  Although his hands have killed, he was extremely gentle as he
turned her towards him and brought her chin up to meet his gaze.  A lone tear
ran down her smooth face.  “Oh, Jayde,” he moaned.  “What have I done?”  He
gathered her into her chest and held her against him.

“I’ll be fine,” she sniffed.  “I think I am
just a bit overwhelmed.  Even if we are just acting for these people, I don’t
usually have men in my room.”

Tyson didn’t have the heart or balls to
tell her it wasn’t an act.  They were truly and legally wed; that was a real
document she signed and that man had been a real Catholic priest.  “I can keep
my room at the other hotel.”

“No, I don’t want them hauling you off to
jail.  You will stay here.”  Jayde pulled back from his chest and looked up at
him.  “Besides, it might be nice to have a
husband
while I’m here.  That
way people will leave me alone.”

Tyson frowned.  “What do you mean?”

Jayde shrugged, waving a nonchalant hand
over her shoulder.  “A few of the hotel staff have been hitting on me and it’s
getting old.  I’m not a huge fan of the attention.”

Damn straight they will you alone.
 
“Glad I won’t be too much of an inconvenience to you.”

All she did was smile softly.  “Well, you
should get going.”  She wiped the last remnants of the tear off her cheek. 
“I’ll be waiting.”

“I hope so.”  Tyson couldn’t stop his next
movement anymore than he could stop the blood that flowed through his veins. 
He cupped her face and lowered his mouth to hers.

At the first touch of his lips he felt her
sag.  Her hands already around his waist moved up to his neck.  One of them
moaned as their tongues met and danced.

Tyson’s hands moved lower and back up
again, this time under her cutoff sweatshirt.  The feel of her satin skin
beneath his hands made him tighten his hold on her body.  Her curves enticed
him in ways he had never dreamed.

Jayde trembled.  All through her body she
trembled.  In all his life he’d never met a woman whose reaction was this
genuinely lustful, this impassioned.  She gave herself over to the feelings
completely, causing him to do the same.  It was like she was a different person
clamoring to get into his skin.  A small voice in the back of his mind told him
not to do this, not to take advantage of the situation, but that voice was
muffled by the desire coursing through his body.