Charmed and Dangerous (7 page)

If he kept thinking like this, he’d be rock hard in a matter of seconds. He was halfway there already.

“Yep,” she said, “I’ll be out there on my own, no protection, no gun, a woman traveling alone. You know I’m gonna be pretty well defenseless.”

“You’re about as defenseless as a porcupine.”

But even as he denied her vulnerability, he felt his guardian instincts charge to the forefront of his emotions. He’d always possessed this need to defend the underdog. It was one of the reasons he’d become a cop. Unbelievable how this irksome woman had figured that out about him.

How had she known the one thing he simply could not refuse was a damsel in distress? She didn’t seem the type to take advantage of her femininity but here she was suddenly giving him a wide-eyed, helpless look. He knew he shouldn’t fall for it, but damn his hide, he did.

“You’re going to plague the living crap out of me until I agree to take you along.”

“Pretty much.” She nodded.

Sighing, he let her go and stepped back. “I can’t trust you.”

“Why not?”

“I can’t have you trying to one up me again like you did at the airport. And speaking of that, give my badge back.” He held out his hand.

She fished in her purse, found his badge and passed it over to him. “I won’t try to one up you again. I promise.”

“Oh, that makes all the difference in the world,” he said sarcastically.

“I’ll swear on a bible.” She raised her left hand while splaying her right hand over her heart. “Got a bible? Betcha the Gideons left one in the bedside table, they’re reliable that way.”

“No need to be a smart-ass. This isn’t a court of law, you don’t have to swear on a bible.”

“Then how are you going to know you can trust me?”

“Swearing on a bible won’t make me trust you.”

“I never break a solemn vow.”

The expression in her eyes told him that she meant every word. He decided to surrender, mainly because he knew if he didn’t he would end up spending more time fighting her than chasing after Shriver and Cassie. But he also gave in because she seemed so earnest and a little desperate.

Besides, if she was with him, he could control her. Out there on her own she was a wild card and he couldn’t afford to let her run amok and screw up his investigation.

“All right,” he said after a long moment. “You can come.”

Her shoulders sagged visibly at her hard-won victory. She blew out her breath with an adorable sound that made him feel warm and protective inside. Ah hell, he liked her.

“Thank you,” she said, and headed for an overstuffed chair in the corner. He noticed her hand quivered ever so slightly as she lowered herself down. A cloud of dust motes drifted up. “Now let’s establish some ground rules.”

“Ground rules?” he echoed.

How cute. She still had the illusion that she had some measure of power in this crazy relationship. Mind- boggling. Give the woman an inch and she took the entire freeway.

“I promised not to one up you, but now you’ve got to promise me something.”

“Like what?”

“No more using sex as a weapon.” She nodded from his shirt to his bare chest. The heat of her gaze scorched his flesh.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard what I said.”

“Wait a minute. Simply because I took my shirt off you think I was using sex as a weapon?”

“Don’t forget calling me submissive and then pinning me to the wall with your knee to try and prove your point.”

“How could I forget that?” He wriggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“Ah, ah.” She pointed a finger. “See there, you’re doing it again.”

“You call eyebrow wriggling a sexual weapon?”

“It’s innuendo.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Oh, give it up. You know what you’re doing and I know what you’re doing and as long as we’re working together I won’t stand for any more of your masculine intimidation tactics. Got it?”

She was like an impudent kid, trespassing on a farmer’s land, cockily waving a red flag at the bull in the pasture.

He could have replied in a thousand different ways, each and every response designed to put her firmly in her place, but somehow David managed to restrain his tongue.

Maddie was worried about her sister and even though he fought against the guilt, he felt responsible for what had happened. He had known Shriver had a spellbinding effect on women. He had also recognized Cassie was gullible and yet he’d enlisted her anyway. He’d used her hunger for excitement to fulfill his own needs.

Man, it hurt when your selfish decisions came back to bite your butt.

“No more using sex as a weapon,” he agreed.

Maddie looked surprised at his capitulation. “Thank you. Now could you, um, cover up?” She waved a hand at his naked chest.

Grinning, he slowly leaned over, making sure she got an extra good view of his muscles and plucked his shirt off the bed.

“Any other rules I should be aware of?” He might as well know what her rules were so he could systematically set about breaking them.

“That’s all for now, but you should prepare yourself for future rules as they arise.”

He slipped on the shirt but didn’t move to do up the buttons. He could tell she was still struggling hard against her desire to look at him. You couldn’t deny it. They had sexual chemistry, no matter how unwanted it might be on both their parts.

“I can’t promise you anything. I’ll be fair with you, but that’s all I can offer. Take it or leave it.”

“I suppose I’ll have to take it.” She hopped up from the chair and edged toward the door, giving him a wide berth.

Good. He’d rattled her at last.

“Wait just a minute.” He reached out and touched her elbow. She sucked in an audible breath.

“Yes?” her voice was soft, but her skin was softer.

“I have a few ground rules of my own.”

“Oh?”

“When it comes to this investigation, you have to obey me without question.”

“I can’t agree to that.”

“Then I can’t take you along.”

“But what if you tell me to do something detrimental to either Cassie or myself?”

“I’m afraid you’re just going to have to trust me,” he said, feeling her muscles tense beneath his touch.

“Trusting a stranger isn’t my strong suit.”

“Mine either, kiddo.” He thrust his hands deep in the pockets of his trousers. “But for the foreseeable future, I’d say we’re stuck with each other.”

Chapter

FIVE

W
HERE ARE WE
going?” Maddie shouted an hour later as she sat in the passenger seat of the no-frills subcompact car David had rented.

The bargain basement vehicle didn’t have air conditioning so they had all four windows rolled down. Her hair lashed her face like a hundred tiny whips. Her skin stung and she felt as if she was sitting in a NASA wind tunnel.

“To see Shriver’s fence,” David answered.

“Who is that?” she asked, battling valiantly to smooth her hair down.

“Name’s Cory Philpot. He was raised in New York high society. He and Shriver have known each other for years,” David hollered.

Maddie was still feeling unnerved from their encounter in his motel room. She thought about the way David had used his bare chest as a weapon of intimidation. How he’d speared his knee to the wall between her spread legs. How he’d pinned her arms over her head.

Her stomach went quivery all over again.

He seemed much larger than he actually was. Even though his body wasn’t the least bit bulky, he had a bearish quality about him. Maybe it was the wide shoulders or the broad chest. Maybe it was the way he managed to come off gruff and cuddly all at the same time.

Or maybe it was his uncommon combination of brute strength, cocky self-confidence, dogged determination and pure animal magnetism. He was deeply intense at times, while at other moments he seemed cynical and flippant. She liked the contrast but she did not know why.

Usually, she went for quiet, brainy guys who analyzed everything to death just as she did. She’d only been in love once and that had been during her senior year in high school.

Lance was a wild, reckless guy who ditched her for being too cautious. He’d even had the audacity to ask her why she couldn’t be more like Cassie. Imagine! She’d told herself never again. She made it a habit to stay away from dangerous guys like the one sitting beside her.

The sun hunkered on the horizon, a big orange smoldering ball. The mingled smells of pungent fish, aromatic frangipani and sweet tropical fruits defined the aroma of Grand Cayman. They drove down the waterfront road passing quaint restaurants, souvenir shops and financial institution after financial institution after financial institution.

“What’s with all the banks?” she asked, abandoning the struggle to tame her hair.

“Offshore accounts, laundered mob money, tax evaders. The Caymans are a great place to stash cash you don’t want other people knowing about.”

“I see.”

David leaned back in the seat in a casual but oddly alert posture, like a male lion guarding his pride. One arm lay draped over the steering wheel, his other elbow rested against the window. Maddie tilted her head and surreptitiously studied his profile.

The wind tousled his short, golden brown hair. It gave him a relaxed, simple look and stirred a surprising appetite inside her. An appetite she tried to pass off as hunger. She hadn’t eaten anything all day except two handfuls of roasted almonds on the plane.

Without meaning to, Maddie found herself wondering what it would feel like to run her fingers through that thick, unruly hair. What would his heated skin taste like against her tongue?

Her errant thoughts spun dizzily, wildly as she pondered how his warm body would feel straddling hers, moving over her, supplying them both with stark physical pleasure.

Beneath her skin, a strange hotness extended, throbbing outward. Something about him, something mysterious yet fundamentally masculine, called to her. But Maddie was determined to ignore the summons.

Her hormones did not easily influence her. Unlike her earthy twin, she had never been a slave to either her libido or her impulses. So why now was her brain sending her body a dozen frantic messages all centered on sating her sexual desires?

The uncharacteristic bent of her thoughts alarmed her and she quickly jerked her gaze away from his face, but not before he caught her giving him the once over.

Jeez, she’d practically been drooling.

His eyes narrowed, his thick lashes lowered as he swept a glance at her lap. Maddie looked down. Her denim skirt had ridden up, revealing a yard of thigh.

One eyebrow quirked on his forehead and he grinned like a man with a dirty secret. The faint laugh lines at the corners of his eyes deepened, making him somehow—impossibly—even more good-looking.

Damn him.

Maddie tugged her skirt down as far as it would go, which unfortunately wasn’t far enough to extinguish the heat burning her cheeks.

Both sets of ’em.

“Eyes on the road, Mister.”

“I could say the same thing to you.” David chuckled. “I caught you checking me out.”

Disgruntled with her unruly hormones, Maddie snapped her head around, stared purposefully out the passenger window and wondered why she was having such a hard time breathing normally.

The sun slipped below the horizon. All along the waterfront festive lights flicked on. Bonfires blazed on the beach. Yachts on dinner cruises bobbed in the harbor. People strolled the sidewalks in brightly colored casual wear. Grand Cayman was a nice island. Too bad she wasn’t here to have a nice time.

“Where is this place?” she asked.

“Dead Man’s Cove, tip of the North Shore.”

“Quaint name,” she said dryly.

“The Caymans have a bit of a pirate past.”

“So I’ve gathered. What are we going to do when we get there?”

“I’m not sure.”

“What does that mean?”

“We’ll play it by ear.”

“Do you think Shriver is there? With Cassie? Fencing the Cézanne?”

Was her sister okay? Was Shriver treating her right? Was she getting enough to eat?

David shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Wow, you’re a real fount of information.”

“Detective work isn’t an exact science.”

“So tell me, is there anything you do know?”

“I know you’re a nosy pain-in-the-ass,” he said and glared at her.

“Watch the road,” she said and automatically braced the flat of both hands against the dashboard.

She hated it when drivers took their attention off the road. Her sister was the world’s worst. Cassie could talk on the cell phone, eat a bagel and apply mascara all the while hurtling down the freeway at seventy miles an hour. Maddie shuddered just thinking about it.

David might have muttered “bossy wench” but she could have misunderstood him. In actuality, he probably said something far less complimentary. You never knew about men.

Silence descended, broken only by the sound of Maddie’s rumbling stomach.

“You hungry?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“We don’t have time for a restaurant. Fast food in the car suit you?”

“Anything.” She nodded. As any athlete, she wasn’t much for greasy fries and burgers but under the circumstances she’d take what she could get.

“Ah, the ubiquitous burger franchise,” he said, wheeling the car through the drive-through. “What’ll you have?”

“A salad. Fat-free Italian dressing. Hold the croutons.”

“It’ll be kinda hard to eat a salad in the car. I’ll get you a burger.” He pulled up to the order box. “Two cheeseburgers, a couple of orders of fries, two chocolate shakes and an apple pie,” he said into the intercom. To Maddie he asked, “You want an apple pie?”

“I want a salad.”

“Just one apple pie,” he cheerfully told the anonymous female voice taking his order.

“That’ll be twelve fifty-eight, sir. Please drive around.”

Maddie plucked a twenty from her purse and held it out to him.

He waved her off. “My treat.”

“If you planned on telling me what to eat, why did you ask what I wanted?”

“Because I’ve figured something out about you,” he said, paying for their order and handing her the sack of burgers.