Hell on the Heart (25 page)

Out of remote curiosity, she asked, “Did you offer him a ride?”

The get-real look he shot her made it clear her cousins lacked certain social qualities. But considering it was Stillwater, he probably lacked them as well.

“I’m not his mother. If he wanted to borrow a car he could have asked.”

True. “Is that all?”

“Sheesh, girl. I thought you’d want to know. Since you aren’t answering your phone, I trucked my ass all the way up here to tell you.”

“Thanks.” Cezi shut the door and wandered back to the bedroom, snatching her phone from the charging unit on the way. For the first time in several days, she turned it on. Seventy-two missed messages, sixty-four from John Stillwater.

In exchange for sixty-four messages, he got another notch on his bedpost. Lucky him. And she got another rejection.

She crawled back in bed and pulled the covers over her head, knowing she had to get up. It wasn’t in her nature to stay in bed one minute longer than she needed to, but a few more seconds under the covers wouldn’t kill anybody.

The loud thumping on the door woke her for the second time. She glanced at the time as she threw the robe over her shoulders. Noon. She didn’t even bother to close the robe as she pulled the door open. “What now?”

“Not a morning person?” Stillwater’s broad shoulders filled the doorway. The lazy amusement in his voice sent goose bumps up her arms.

He hadn’t left. He was here. Without thinking she sprung into his arms and kissed him repeatedly. One could never say the man was slow. By the time she’d left the ground he’d braced himself, opened his arms and took the kisses measure for measure as though they greeted each other this way all the time.

His tongue coaxed hers out to play offering her unseen delights. She followed willingly where he led. The guy could kiss.

Whether they’d been lip locked for three seconds or three minutes she had no idea. Time had been reduced to the heavy pulse of blood, sluggishly churning through her veins. Kissing him could continue forever as far as she was concerned.

A throat cleared. He wasn’t alone. Cezi froze as Stillwater’s arms loosened. He pulled back and helped her find footing. A good thing, too, because she was none too steady on her feet.

She craned her neck to look behind him and relief poured through her. The other man was a complete stranger and not a member of her family. His companion rested his jean-covered ass against the banister of the porch railing, tilting his blond head skyward as though he hadn’t paid any attention to the spectacle she’d made of herself.

“Czigany, this is Agent Dare Jacobsen, our team medic. He’s set up an appointment with an allergy specialist online to look at your asthma.”

A medical exam? If this got out, she’d be toast. She gestured with her hand for Stillwater to lower his voice while snatching his shirt and pulling him inside.

Dare picked up a large duffle from the floor and followed as she sized him up. He wasn’t a pretty boy like Agent Lassiter and didn’t have the combatant scars Stillwater boasted, but still he had the stance of a man used to being in charge.

“Let me put on some clothes first.” The floral satiny camisole set she slept in revealed too much skin and the robe was almost transparent.

“What you have on is acceptable.” Dare held the chair away from the table, then set the computer in front of her. “You’ll be on webcam, so the doctor can see you as I administer the tests.” He knelt in front of her and slid the robe off her shoulders. His fingers brushed her skin once or twice, but the impersonal touch did nothing for her. The blood pressure cuff came out of the duffle and wrapped around her upper arm before she understood the extent of what was happening.

“Wait. We don’t need to do this. I’ll be okay,” she pleaded with John. “It’s Rolf who needs you. He was shot two days ago. When I saw him last night he was still unconscious.”

John tilted his head as he swung a leg over another kitchen chair and settled in behind the medic. “Will Luca let us see him?” In his position, the webcam wouldn’t pick him up, but he could see everything that happened.

She thought about what he asked. Would Luca allow an outsider to see his son? If Rolf was coherent, he’d be all for it. They’d long agreed the healer’s methods were out of date. “I think so, but it’ll be a problem if Vadoma finds out.”

Dare pumped the bulb and pressed a stethoscope to the crook of her elbow. “Why isn’t he in the hospital?”

“It’s not our way.” Cezi thought about the number of instances she’d said those words since she’d met Stillwater. Each time she wondered more and more, why the gypsies were so insular. America was the melting pot, but not if one never interacted with other Americans.

His face caught her attention. Freckles, he had tons of freckles even on his eyelids. His lashes were sunshine yellow as was his short, spiked hair. Had he not been as tan as he was, he would have looked peculiar.

“You know,” she leaned forward in the chair, “You shouldn’t be good-looking, but you are.”

He choked back a laugh. “Thanks.” His warm hazel eyes met hers as he removed the cuff and typed on the keyboard. “Breathe deep.”

“You’re the first man I’ve met with yellow eyelashes.” This time Dare didn’t bother hiding his amusement. “Do your brothers and sisters also have them?” she asked, as though it never occurred to her that she might be crossing a line into TMI.

John was amazed when Dare began to talk about his family. “Two of my three brothers do.”

“Are you the oldest?”

Stillwater sat back in his chair working to keep his face impassive. Of all his team, Dare was the quiet one and in a group of quiet men that was saying something. Within minutes, she’s discovered things about the man that had taken John years to find out. Like he had three older brothers who ran the family farm in Nebraska.

He wanted the team to like her, but she’d transformed Dare into chatty-Cathy. Every time his teammate touched her, John fought the urge to jump up and snatch his hand off her bare, silky shoulder.

Sex with her had shifted his perspective.

When she publicly spurned him last night, he believed he’d lost her. But her kisses today changed his thinking. He wasn’t going to lose her. She needed him. Although with her mercurial personality it could be a challenge, one he wouldn’t mind seeing though to the end.

Since she’d already cut with her family, why go to a town where she knew no one? Why not enroll in a college in the DC area. He would watch out for her. Maybe take her out to dinner occasionally. Not enough that she got the wrong idea. He wasn’t looking for marriage or even commitment.

This would be convenient. If things progressed, maybe they could look at more – like her spending weekends at his condo. Eventually she’d want to come back home, of course. That was good. A definite end would mean neither set their expectations too high.

Dare held a long hose with a paper tube at the end. The hose attached to a machine with digital numbers adjusted for the doctor’s vision. 

“Take a deep breath and then exhale as hard as you can into the tube until I tell you to stop.” Dare rubbed small circles in the middle of her back. “Exhale now. That’s it. Keep going. You’re doing good. You can give me more. Keep going. You’re doing fine. Whoops.”

John studied the wood grain boards in the floor. He couldn’t watch Dare cheer her to victory and comfort at the same time. At Dare’s change in tone, he raised his gaze and saw her slumped against him. Her eyelids rested against her cheeks as Dare spoke gently to her. “I’ve got you. You’re going to be fine.” He had his arm wrapped firmly around her otherwise she would have slid to the floor.

John leaped up, knocking the chair to the ground and rushed to her side. Her lips had a bluish tint. “You pressed her too hard.”

“No, he didn’t. In order to get a measurable read on this test it takes pushing like that. She’s not the first to pass out. Strong men have told me they see spots before their eyes,” the doctor said. Cezi blinked as she began to come out of it.

Why he expected the hot air to cool him down he had no idea, but as he leaned on the railing of her porch, he tried not to think about how foolish his actions had been.

She was just a woman. He needed to let her go. And he would. After he fixed her asthma and arrested Cain. She might need his help moving and getting settled into a new place, because he was sure that pink couch was a treasure she wouldn’t be able to live without.

The wind chimes sounded in the gentle breeze. Angels laughing? Yeah, he could understand how it would give a motherless girl some comfort. Actually it was soothing him now.

Taking a deep breath he stepped inside the small cabin in time to hear the computer voice say, “a lot of new medications are available which will help get your asthma under control. What’s the name of your pharmacy?”

“Can’t do that, but I can overnight you samples that’ll hold her for a few months. Let’s try that and see how the medication works.”

Cezi wanted to protest. John watched her mouth open and then close. He was learning to read her mind and knew exactly what she was thinking. Once Cain was caught, it wasn’t like John would ever be back.

John’s eyes met hers. “More unexpected things have happened.”

As he answered her unspoken question, a startled look crossed her face followed by a frown. In his mind, John hit an imaginary high-five.

“We’ve got something,” Ciggy told Twylla as he studied the monitor. “The property owner’s listed as Adam Smith. I’ve traced it back as far as I can. Like all the other names it’s an alias, but he paid for the property with a cashier’s check drawn on Los Alamos National Bank, Santa Fe, New Mexico.”

John hung up the phone as Czigany dashed into the bedroom to change clothes. Dare packed his bags, unhooked the computer and gathered medical equipment. Stillwater eyed the closed bedroom door, but instead of following her, filled Dare in on the details of Twylla’s call.

He and Czigany had some issues to discuss. Like how she could disavow any relationship with him the night before and kiss him like a long-lost lover today.

Observation, analysis and years of study gave him the ability to predict certain behaviors in people. But Cezi’s actions were all over the board. This was a helluva of a time for Psychology to let him down.

Dare’s words broke into his thoughts. “I’m going to step out onto the porch to make some calls. Why don’t you see if she needs a spotter?”

John shot him a look designed to silence him, but judging by Dare’s quirked lips, he’d added fuel to the fire.

Czigany’s arms were above her head as she shimmied out of the camisole top. At the sound of the door, she whirled to face him clutching the top to her chest. “What are you doing here?”

John sought words to answer her, but found himself fascinated by the dark nipple that played peek-a-boo behind the fabric as she shifted her weight, flashing him unintentionally.

Forcing his gaze away from her chest, he saw her flustered expression. “Dare went outside.” Her look of consternation faded, but her eyes darted around the room as though looking for spies who would report this to her family.