Nathan's Vow (5 page)

But when she saw Nathan sitting in
one of the chairs looking potently masculine against a background of pink and
eyelet, any calmness she might have garnered vanished.

He stood and came toward her, his
gaze settling on the scoop neckline of her gown and robe.  Extending his hand
toward her, he said in a husky voice, "Here are the pictures you asked
for."

The message in his blue eyes was
clear--he found her desirable.  She didn't need psychic powers to read that. 
"Thank you," she murmured, ordinary words suddenly seeming hard to
come by.  "I'll work with them before I go to sleep."

"Gillian?"

He stepped closer, and she held her
breath.

Chapter
Three

Everything seemed to happen in slow
motion.  All energy  gathered into a cloud surrounding them.  Gillian raised
her head, intending to tell Nathan he was confusing her, that his presence
caused turmoil within her that could be detrimental to finding his daughters. 
But she couldn't speak.  The power of his blue eyes captured her words before
they could become sound.

His hands rested lightly on her
shoulders, but their imprint burned into her skin.  She could feel heat
emanating from him mixed with the colors of the rainbow that seemed to combine
their auras in a radiant glow.  His breathing was in unison with hers, both
rhythms increasing as they gazed into each other's eyes.  Reality became the
two of them, close, wanting the same thing.

Nathan took her face into his large
hands and tipped up her chin until his lips were as close as the scent of his
cologne, the warmth in his fingertips, and the strength of his desire.  She
trembled before he touched her, and his arms surrounded her as if to protect
her against the pleasure to come.

His lips were as mobile, as warm,
as expert as she'd guessed they'd be.  But his urgency and demand took her by
surprise.  He slipped his tongue into her mouth before the idea of protest
could even form.  And maybe that was his intention, to act before she could
think about what they were doing...the consequences...

Thought vanished into sheer
sensation as his tongue swept her mouth and need became a yearning chasm
demanding to be filled.  Trapped between them, her hands opened so her fingers
could feel the taut muscles of his stomach.  Nathan groaned when she moved her
fingertips and, tilting her head, he took greater possession of her
mouth--exploring, stroking, arousing.

Nothing Gillian had ever
experienced had prepared her for this type of kiss, this type of need, this
type of man.  Her body tingled, the center of her ached.

Abruptly, Nathan broke off the kiss
and dropped his hands.  When she swayed, he caught her upper arms and steadied
her.  Her daze shattered into the reality of what had happened as she opened
her eyes and saw the expression on his face.  Their breathing was no longer in
unison, though Nathan's was as rough as hers.

The muscle in his jaw worked. 
"That won't happen again.  I said I wouldn't harm you.  I won't."

The kiss hadn't felt like harm.  It
had felt too...right.  But if she told him that, she'd be stepping into the
exact situation she didn't want.  It would be better if they both drew a line
and didn't cross it.  She would have to make sure she stayed on her side, and
she hoped he would stay on his.

Feeling something on her bare foot,
she looked down.  The photographs.  She didn't know if she had dropped them or
if Nathan had.

He scooped them up and handed them
to her without touching her.  His gaze was shuttered, and he'd removed himself
from the friendliness of supper and the passion they'd shared.  Just as well. 
She needed to concentrate on finding Maddie and Dana.

"I'll probably be up and gone
before you are in the morning," he said as if he were formally addressing
a client.  "I'll leave directions on how to activate the alarm system and
lock up."

She nodded.

"Call me sometime tomorrow and
we'll make plans for what to do next."

She nodded again.

He went to the door.  "Lock it
so you'll feel safe."

As Nathan closed the door behind
him, Gillian didn't turn the lock.  She wasn't in any physical danger from
Nathan Bradley--she didn't need to lock her door, she needed to lock her heart.

#

The house was huge with marble
and pillars.  A second floor balcony looked out over a winding drive that made
a circle in front of it.  Maddie wiggled in and out of the bushes, playing hide
and seek with Dana.  The scent of roses permeated the area
.

Gillian awakened and sat up in
bed.  Fumbling for the bedside lamp, she flipped on the switch and
automatically reached for her notebook and pen.  As impressions came, she wrote
fast and furious without stringing thoughts together.  When she finished, she
read what she'd written and without thinking once, let alone twice, grabbed her
robe and ran down the hall, shrugging into it as she went.

She rapped sharply on the closed
door.  "Nathan?"

No more than two seconds passed
before the door opened.  Nathan stood there bare-chested, navy flannel jogging
shorts hugging his hips.  "What's wrong?"

His voice was sleep-husky, his hair
mussed.  The line of brown wavy hair that curled down the middle of his chest,
dipping into the waistband of his shorts, abruptly reminded her this was the
middle of the night.  They were standing bare feet to bare feet with few
clothes between them.

Gillian self-consciously held her
robe together across her breasts.  "I...I probably should have waited
until morning.  But I managed to connect with the girls--"

He grabbed her hand and pulled her
into his room.  "Tell me."

She took a quick look around the
wine and forest green draperies and spread, the rich mahogany bedroom suite. 
As he motioned her to the loveseat in the sitting area, she brought her
attention back to him.  "Maddie loves music, doesn't she?" Gillian
asked as she sat.  "She has a favorite music box she took with her, a
wooden box with a kitten painted on the top."

He lowered himself beside her. 
"You saw that?"

Gillian was too aware of the heat
of his skin, his muscled shoulders, the worn flannel covering his lower body. 
Taking a slow breath, she said, "Impressions that came while I was
dreaming.  I'd studied the pictures before I fell asleep.  But I...I think I
was blocking the energy."  She'd been too distracted by Nathan's kiss, in
too much turmoil to relax.

"And something happened?"
he prompted.

"No.  Nothing.  But I fell
asleep with Maddie's picture on my lap.  I had this dream, but it wasn't really
a dream because I've had them before.  So I wrote down everything that came. 
The girls are fine.  They're staying in a large house with pillars out
front."  Gillian described the scene she'd envisioned with Maddie playing hide
and seek with Dana.

Nathan absently mowed his hand
through his hair.  "Leona's father owns property so many places--England, France, Scotland, Australia.  Jake checked the holdings he found out about, and Leona and
the girls weren't at any of them.  But they could be moving around or her
father could easily have set up a dummy company and bought a few more
properties.  Did you get any idea of where this house could be?"

Staying with the impressions that
had been so strong a few minutes before, she tried to sense the area, more
concrete information.  "No.  I'm sorry, I didn't."

Nathan was silent for a moment. 
"You said the girls are all right.  What does that mean?"

"Maddie's happy, but she
wonders where you are.  She misses you."

He averted his eyes, staring at a
spot above Gillian's shoulder.  "Damn, this must be confusing for
them."

"Nathan, I know how
frustrating this is.  I wish I could...do more.  Faster."

He took her hand in his.  "At
least we have something.  I'll see if Jake can get descriptions of Arthur
Carrero's holdings.  Maybe that will help."

"Arthur Carrero is Leona's
father?"

"Yes."

The coldness of Nathan's voice told
her what he thought of the man.  "You don't like him."

"I wasn't good enough for his
daughter.  I never had a chance to like him."

"Not good enough.  You can't
be serious!"

Nathan's eyes darkened.  "You
don't know me, Gillian."

She couldn't believe the hint of
vulnerability she saw in his eyes.  Maybe it was the dark shadows in the room. 
Maybe it was because she'd just given him news of his daughters.  "I know
what your friend Linc told me.  I know how deeply you care about Maddie and
Dana.  Why wouldn't this man think you were good enough?"

Suddenly Nathan realized how much
Gillian's opinion of him meant to him.  He wasn't sure why.  Perhaps he was
beginning to understand that life had dealt her an unusual hand, and he admired
her integrity in the use of her gift.  He didn't want to see her respect for
him lessen.  He didn't want to see the disappointment in her eyes if he told
her the truth--that he'd been a lousy father and the wrong kind of husband.

He saw respect in her eyes now. 
And something more.  The same something he felt when he looked at her in her
nightgown, robe, and bare feet.  Their kiss earlier had done more than aroused
him.  It had opened a part of him which had been closed, opened it just a tiny
bit, but enough to make him want to shut it tight again to protect himself.

Leona had not only taken the
girls.  She'd taken away his ability to trust a woman.

"Nathan?" Gillian asked
gently.  "Why didn't he think you were good enough?"

"Because I came from a
different background than Leona.  Because I don't have blue blood running in my
veins."

"You're a CEO!"

Nathan laughed wryly.  "And
proud of it.  But he believes what I am today had everything to do with where I
came from, and he's probably right."

"That doesn't make any
sense."

Nathan couldn't keep his hand by
his side.  He had to touch her.  As he stroked her cheek, he said,
"Unfortunately it does to Arthur and it does to me."

"But, Nathan--"

Slowly, he rubbed his thumb across
her lips.  "Shhh.  I think it's time you get back to bed."  Because
if she didn't, he'd soon be kissing her and persuading her to stay the night in
his bed.

She looked hurt for a moment, as if
she'd offered friendship and he'd refused it.  Then she drew away from him and
stood.  "I'm sorry I interrupted your sleep."

"Don't be sorry.  I want to
know anything you discover about the girls--anytime, day or night."

She looked uncertain.

"I mean it, Gillian.  Nothing
is more important.  Not my clients, not my peace of mind, and certainly not my
sleep.  All right?" 

"All right," she murmured
and crossed to his door.  With a simple, "Good night," she closed it
quickly behind her.

He wanted to call her back, he
wanted to kiss her, for a brief moment he wanted to experience again that
breath of air when her kiss had opened his heart.  But he couldn't.  He
wouldn't.  He'd experienced enough pain for a lifetime.  He might desire
Gillian, but that's all he'd ever let it be.

Desire.

#

Gillian went back to the girls'
room, trembling though she wasn't cold.  It felt as if energy was trapped in
her body, screaming to get out.  Nathan's touch, not to mention his kiss,
created such a surge, she felt as if she'd ignite.  Unless she could calm down
and restore some sense of order, she couldn't trust what she sensed.

She paced around the room, lifted a
coloring book from the table and plopped it back down.  This kind of blockage
and turmoil had never happened with Brian.  She'd found his son within hours. 
But then Bobby hadn't been out of the country, but simply lost in the woods. 
And she hadn't felt this powerful attraction to Brian when she met him. 
Actually, she hadn't felt this powerful an attraction even as they spoke of
becoming engaged.  Brian had been easy, friendly, laid-back.  She'd loved the
peacefulness she'd felt when she was around him because it had counteracted her
hectic life.

Peaceful wasn't a word she'd
associate with Nathan.  Intense, overwhelming, sensual.  Blast it!  This line
of thinking would never calm her down.  Sinking into a bedroom chair, she
rested her hands on its arms and took several deep breaths.  Sometimes it
helped to let her excess energy flow into inanimate objects--like the chair. 
Closing her eyes, she focused on the rhythm of her breathing.

After a few seconds, she shook her
hands, then laid them on the arms of the chair again.  Calmness was descending
when Gillian opened her eyes and stared at the nightstand next to the bed.  She
felt drawn toward it.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, she
opened the drawer.  As she shuffled through doll clothes, she found a small
gold bracelet nestled in a corner.  It was Dana's.  Holding it loosely, she let
the impressions come.  Arthur Carrero's name flitted across Gillian's mind. 
Dana was in touch with her grandfather on an ongoing basis.  Gillian could see
a phone in the little girl's hand and knew her grandfather was on the other
end.

Wanting more, hoping for more,
Gillian waited.  But the impressions stopped.  Should she go to Nathan again?

No. The word was loud and clear, a
warning and a conclusion.

Tomorrow would be soon enough to
talk about it.  Tomorrow Gillian needed to hear the whole story from Nathan
about his relationship with his wife and his father-in-law whether he was
reluctant to tell it or not.

#

Gillian overslept.  Not surprising
since she'd been awake most of last night and the one before.  She'd made it to
work a few minutes late with her first appointment already waiting when she
realized she'd have to wait until evening to talk to Nathan.  Yet the
information she had was too important to keep.