The Marshal's Witness (15 page)

With exquisite care, he brushed his thumb across her lower lip. He slid the fork inside. She closed her lips around it and he pulled the fork out, his gaze heating as he watched
her chew.

He put the fork on the tray and picked up a piece of bacon. When she swallowed her mouthful of egg, he slid the tip of the bacon between her lips, teasing her by pulling it back so she had to move forward to take a bite.

A bead of sweat ran down the side of his face as he watched her, even though the room was cool. When he lifted the bacon back toward her mouth, she shook her
head.

“No more bacon?” he rasped.

“No.”

“Eggs?”

She shook her head. “No.”

His gaze dipped to her mouth. “Pancakes?”

“Nuh-uh.”

He set the tray on the table beside her bed without taking his eyes off her. “What do you want?”

“You. Only you.”

“I was so hoping you’d say that,” he said just before his mouth claimed hers.

* * *

J
ESSICA
’
S
EYES
OPENED
.
She gasped at the numbers on the bedside clock. It was already after eleven. Stuart was supposed to be here soon, and she definitely wasn’t dressed for company.

She rolled over just in time to see Ryan, without a stitch of clothes on, walking into the bathroom. The man had absolutely no modesty.

Then again, when a man looked like he did, there was no reason to hide. Her belly did a
funny little flip as she replayed the scene of him walking across the room in her mind. It was her first glimpse of him totally naked without being in near darkness, and she was still reeling when he came out of the bathroom.

He strode toward her, his muscles rippling beneath his golden skin. When her eyes dipped lower, his body immediately reacted.

Her gaze shot to his face as he reached
the bed, one of those disarmingly sexy grins curving his mouth seductively.

“I’d like nothing more than to lie in bed all day with you, Jessie, but we have things to do.”

He flipped the covers off her and she squeaked in surprise as he lifted her into his arms.

“What are you doing?” she gasped as she was forced to wrap her arms around his neck, her breasts rubbing against the wiry
hair of his chest.

“I love it when you blush,” he teased. “Everything turns pink.”

She groaned and hid her face against his neck. He let out a deep throaty laugh and carried her into the bathroom, setting her down and planting a quick kiss on her lips. “You have five minutes of privacy. Then I’m coming in to get a shower.”

“Five minutes? I can’t shower that quickly. It takes me
five minutes just to wash and condition my hair.”

He looked down at himself, drawing her attention to his growing erection. “The five minutes was for anything else you might want privacy for. I don’t expect you to shower alone.”

He pulled the door shut.

Her mouth dropped open. He planned on showering with her? In the past day she’d done more things with him than she’d done with
any man in her entire life. She’d certainly never showered with a man before. She glanced at the small tub that was barely big enough for one adult to stand in and considered the physics of it.

“Four minutes,” he called out from the bedroom.

Her eyes widened. She hurried through her morning routine, ran a brush through her hair and squeezed some toothpaste onto her toothbrush. She’d
just started brushing her teeth when he popped his head around the door.

“Time’s up.”

Her eyes widened as he stepped inside the bathroom. “I’m not ready yet,” she tried to say around a mouthful of toothpaste.

“Sorry, beautiful. I can’t understand what you’re saying. Your mouth is full of toothpaste.” He reached past her and turned on the shower, adjusting the temperature.

She hurriedly rinsed her mouth, just barely finishing before he picked her up and stepped into the tub.

“Ryan, stop it. There isn’t enough room in here for both of us.”

He pulled her against him, his erection prodding her belly, leaving her no doubts whatsoever of his intentions. His eyelids went to half-mast as he reached down and ran his hands down the curve of her bottom. “Sure there
is. Let me show you.”

He proceeded to do just that.

Chapter Eighteen

Ryan shut his cell phone off, took out the battery and shoved them both into his pocket.

“Stuart’s still not answering?” Jessica asked.

“Something must have happened.”

“Maybe he’s on his way.”

Ryan glanced at the clock beside the bed. “He should have been here by now.” He reached down and grabbed the ever-present backpack and put it on. “We’re
leaving. We’ve already stayed here too long as it is. Let’s go to another motel.”

She stepped outside. “What do we do about a car?”

“I’ve got plenty of cash. We’ll get the motel office to call a taxi so we don’t leave an electronic trail. After that, I’ll figure something out.”

* * *

T
HEY
TOOK
THE
taxi north on Interstate eighty-one. They’d only driven a few miles when Ryan
directed the driver to take the next exit and pull into a rental car company’s parking lot.

Jessica waited in the back of the cab. She was starting to wonder if something had happened to Ryan when a black BMW with dark tinted windows pulled up beside the taxi and Ryan stepped out. He paid the cab, and as the taxi was driving away, he held the BMW’s passenger door open for Jessica.

“Actually,
I’d rather drive.” She ran her fingers lovingly across the roof of the sexy car.

“It’s a stick. You can’t drive a stick.”

Jessica sighed and got in. She was surprised he’d remembered her telling him about that.

He sped out of the parking lot, down the service road.

“How did you rent the car without leaving an electronic trail?”

His jaw tightened. “I bribed the clerk.”

She raised a brow. “Was the clerk a woman?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. Why?”

“I see. You flirted with her. Did you give her your number?”

He rolled his eyes and glanced in the side mirror before accelerating up the ramp back onto the interstate.

Jessica had to admit, Ryan really knew how to drive a manual transmission. He shifted smoothly and the car’s engine fairly purred
as it raced forward.

When they passed a shopping mall and Ryan didn’t pull off the interstate, Jessica began to feel uneasy. “Aren’t we going to stop for a computer?”

His knuckles tightened on the steering wheel. “I’m not sure the computer’s the right way to go.”

What was that supposed to mean? Jessica knew she could hack in without being detected. Frustration simmered inside her.
She was so tired—tired of running, tired of being afraid, tired of being judged.

Tired of Ryan making decisions without her.

“Is there anything else you planned that I should know about?” She tapped her hands on her jeans.

He glanced at her hand and frowned. “Not really.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Is that a yes or a no?”

He switched lanes to get around a slow-moving
truck. “Is something wrong?”

“Did it occur to you that I might want some input into decisions affecting my future? We agreed I’d hack into the Justice Department.”

“That’s more of a backup plan.”

“I see.” She tapped her fingers again and stared out the window.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“I know better than that.”

“Really? You think you know me that well? Don’t
flatter yourself. Just because we slept together doesn’t mean you know a thing about me. Because you don’t.”

His eyes flicked to her. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

“You don’t trust me. That’s why you don’t want to get the computer.”

He swore beneath his breath. “I just don’t think using the computer is a good idea.”

“Then what’s your plan?”

“I don’t have one yet, other
than to lie low. I’ll try to contact Stuart later and see what’s going on with him. Maybe he had a lead and he’ll be able to give us some vital information.”

“Are you sure you can trust Stuart?”

His gaze shot to her. “Excuse me?” His tone was icy.

The force of that cold stare had her heart hammering in her chest and she suddenly felt like she’d just crossed a line she didn’t even
know was there. “Never mind. I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“Oh, no. You started this. You can finish it. Why shouldn’t I trust Stuart? Before you answer, I should warn you that we grew up together in Colorado. We graduated from the same high school. We joined the army together. Why, exactly, do you think I shouldn’t trust him?”

She swallowed hard and clutched the seat. “It’s just
that, well, without me knowing him, things just look kind of...strange.”

“Explain.” His voice was short, clipped.

She waved her hands in the air in frustration. “I don’t know, it’s just...okay, at the motel, you told me you trusted that other man, in Afghanistan.”

“Aamir.”

“Right, Aamir. You knew him for years and he betrayed you. I’m not an expert, but I always heard that
men confess their sins when they’re dying. They don’t tell more lies, not when the end is near and they’re worried about their soul. Don’t you think it’s odd your friend swore he hadn’t betrayed you as he lay dying? You said Stuart is the one who helped you set the trap to catch whoever had ambushed your men. Tell me, who shot the bullet that killed Aamir? Was it Stuart?”

His eyes widened,
then his jaw clamped tight.

Jessica was obviously right. Stuart was the one who’d shot Aamir.

“What would Stuart’s motive be for wanting to kill you?” Ryan insisted. “For that matter, if he wanted to kill you, why didn’t he do it when he picked us up in the mountains? Or when we were at the motel?”

“I don’t know why he would want to kill me. As far as not killing me after he picked
me up, maybe he didn’t want to risk hurting you, or he was afraid that you’d kill him if he tried. Or maybe he just wanted an alibi so he could send someone else, like the men in the mountains who tried to kill us.”

Ryan jerked the steering wheel, ignoring the honking horns of passing drivers as he fishtailed onto the exit ramp.

Jessica gripped her seat and the armrest as the tires squealed
around a curve. Making him angry probably wasn’t the best idea while he was driving seventy miles an hour.

He shifted gears and raced down a little two-lane road. A minute later he slowed the BMW to a saner speed and pulled it under a clump of oak trees.

He cut the engine and stared through the windshield at the gravel road. “Get it all out now. Say everything you want to say about Stuart,
and then I don’t ever want to talk about this again.”

Jessica straightened in her seat and narrowed her eyes at him. There was only so much arrogance and bossiness she could tolerate at one time, and she’d just reached her limit. “You want me to talk? Fine. I’ll talk. When Stuart picked us up in the mountains, I was convinced I’d met him before, or at least seen him. The only people I was
allowed to associate with when I worked for DeGaullo were other people who worked for him. What does that say about Stuart?”

Ryan’s faced turned slightly red, as if he was struggling to control his temper.

Jessica plunged ahead. “Stuart is a demolitions expert. Could he rig a toy car to blow up a van?”

“You, of all people, shouldn’t question a decorated military officer.”

She jerked back. “Me, of all people? You know about my past, the choices I made, and why I made them. I thought we’d moved beyond all of that. I thought you understood and that you’d started to trust me.”

“Stuart’s not the mole.”

“Forget Stuart. I want to know if you trust me. Do you?”

He didn’t look at her. They sat in silence for a long time. Jessica finally turned back toward
the window, her throat so tight she could hardly breathe.

Ryan swore next to her and started the engine. He floored the gas, sending grass and dirt flying as he spun out onto the gravel road and headed back toward the interstate.

They didn’t speak for the rest of the afternoon. Ryan kept driving. Jessica kept wondering how she could have given her heart to a man who looked at her and
only saw her mistakes.

When they stopped for gas, she started to get out of the car but he grabbed her arm.

“Where are you going?”

“Unless you want a puddle on the leather seats, I’m going to the restroom.”

He studied the parking lot, which was empty except for them. The ladies’ room was on the outside of the small food store, to the right, clearly visible from where they were
parked. “Okay. But if you’re not back in five minutes, I’m coming in after you.”

She got out and slammed the passenger door. Three minutes was all she needed, but she took the full five just to spite him. The second hand slowly ticked around the face of the clock on the wall inside the bathroom. Jessica studied her nails and leaned against the sink. Another minute went by.

The door flew
open even though she distinctly remembered locking it. Ryan stood in the opening. When he saw her leaning against the countertop, his mouth tightened into a hard line and his eyes narrowed dangerously.

Even though she didn’t believe he would ever hurt her, not physically, at least, she barely suppressed a shiver beneath that menacing stare.

She stiffened her spine and stepped past him
with as much dignity as she could muster after having him follow her into the bathroom. Ryan followed close behind, closing her car door with far more force than necessary. He peeled out of the parking lot without a word.

A few minutes later, he pulled into a hotel parking lot. Certainly not five-star, but it was nicer than the motel they’d been in the previous night, and much more modern
than the ones the marshals had put her in. It was four stories, with no outside access to the rooms.

He kept her with him as he registered, as if he were afraid to let her out of his sight. Guiding her through the lobby, he blocked her from view and herded her into an elevator.

They emerged onto the top floor and he led them down the hall to a room marked “Honeymoon Suite.”

She
raised an eyebrow when she saw the plaque.

He shrugged, and inserted the key into the reader. “It was all they had available. There’s some kind of convention going on.”

The suite boasted a kitchenette with chocolate-brown granite countertops, a flat-screen television in the plush-appointed sitting room, and an enormous bedroom dominated by a king-size, four-poster bed with a canopy and
brown silk drapes hanging from each corner.

She peeked into the bathroom, her eyes widening when she saw the Jacuzzi tub sunken into the floor.

Ryan joined her in the doorway, backpack in hand. “If you want to take a bath now I’ll order us something to eat.”

She glanced up at him, some of her hurt and anger fading at the prospect of getting clean again. “Is it that obvious how badly
I want to get in that tub?”

He grinned and for a moment it seemed like none of the tension of the past day had ever happened.

“Baby, you groaned when you saw the tub.”

She returned his smile, only to see his smile fade and that shuttered look cross his face again. Their relationship had altered in the past day. It would probably never be the same again.

Without a word, he placed
the backpack on the floor beside the tub, then crossed to the door. He was starting to pull it closed when she called out.

“Ryan?”

He hesitated, his hand on the doorknob.

“Thank you,” she said.

“For what?”

For giving her a glimpse of what life and love could have been like, even though she knew she would never love another man after him. At least she’d experienced that
emotion once in her lifetime, rather than going through her entire life without knowing.

“For protecting me, taking care of me. I owe you far more than I can ever repay.”

Some kind of dark emotion flashed in his eyes. Pain? Anger? She wasn’t sure. It was gone so fast she might have imagined it. “Quit thanking me. You don’t owe me anything.” He closed the door behind him.

Jessica
sighed, wondering how something so incredibly right had gone so wrong so quickly. After filling the tub with warm water and bubble bath from one of the tiny bottles on the vanity, she slid into the water, groaning with pleasure as the steam rose around her.

She leaned back and tried to blank out her mind and relax. For a few minutes, she just wanted to forget that people were trying to kill
her. She wanted to forget the hurt, angry look in Ryan’s eyes when she’d told him her suspicions about Stuart.

When the water began to grow cold, she sighed and turned off the jets. Her moment of luxury was over. She’d just started to rise from the tub when a knock sounded on the door. She slid back into the water and grabbed a towel to hold over herself.

“Come in,” she called out.

Ryan opened the door and lounged in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. His gaze flicked to her towel, then he looked away. The little lines around the corners of his eyes were more prominent than usual. And when he finally spoke, his voice was flat, without emotion.

“All right,” he said. “We do it your way.”