SLEEPER (Crossfire Series) (13 page)

The water shut off. She heard him moving about, pushing the shower door open.

She was scooped up against a bare chest. She was very aware of her nakedness against his. He smelled clean. She had the insane urge to lick his skin, to taste him. He carried her out of the bathroom, where the air wasn’t as steamy but his heat penetrated her cooling skin. She heard his strong heartbeat and it was still at galloping speed.

Then she felt him lowering her gently. She swallowed as she felt his penis pushing hard against the side of her thigh when he lowered her onto something soft.

He stopped when he realized she was staring at his nakedness. He looked down at the obvious, then turned around and walked out of the room without another word.

Lily continued staring. Nice back. Nice ass. And up close, nice…front.

* * *

What was wrong with him? He was acting like some horny teenager.

Reed dried his hair with a towel and threw it with the pile of clothing on the bathroom floor. Nothing had gone the way it was supposed to.

Instead of negotiating with Lily Noretski about a missing weapon, instead of finding out whether she’d sold it and whether she was still under the influence of mind control, he was naked with her in his family’s penthouse suite. In his father’s hotel. And his mind certainly hadn’t been on missing weapons or sleeper cells.

He pulled another towel off the rack and wrapped it around him. He wasn’t going to use the excuse of having a naked woman in his arms. He’d trained himself to be unaffected by emotion, especially by feminine wiles. Not that Lily was practicing any feminine wiles on him.

He released a sigh, tucking the knot securely. That was it. She’d been soft and pliant. She’d really needed him to take care of her. His emotional distance had been culled from years of listening and watching his mother’s calculated play on his emotions, and nothing about his mother was pliant in the least. But Lily hadn’t been playing that kind of game—she’d been direct at the club, even though she was lying about her identity. She hadn’t fooled him one bit with that tough girl act. There was something vulnerable about her, almost fragile. He had no idea how to stop the feeling of tenderness that engulfed him when she was in his arms, like a helpless kitten left in his care, knowing that she needed him, even though she wasn’t aware of it. It did strange things to him. Must be some entrenched genetic makeup in the male to take care of someone so lost and on her own.

“The flower…” He raked a hand through his hair impatiently. Oh, stop fucking thinking about the stupid book. He had to get out there and act like who he was supposed to be…a former soldier running illegal weapons, doing one last final run for profit. He also had to make the woman lying on the bed in the other room think she was safe with him. He took the bathrobe off the hook. She was safe from everyone but him.

Lily was under the spread when he walked back into the room, not that it helped. He could remember every part of her shapely body, the long legs, the…ah, better not start naming body parts again. That was what had gotten him in trouble.

“This is for you,” he said, showing her the bathrobe.

She looked at him, her eyes settling briefly on the towel around his lower body before quickly going back up to meet his. “Uh, where are we?”

“My best friend loaned me his hotel penthouse,” Reed lied. “This is the only place I could think of at the time where I know we’ll be safe.”

“Safe…” She thought for a moment, her forehead furrowing. “I’m trying to remember everything. You saved me in the river. Thank you.”

“Not sure,” he said honestly. He needed to communicate with several parties as soon as possible. “Actually, I’ve got to go tell someone we’re here, so after I’ve taken care of that arm, I’m running down to make sure no one barges in on us or something.”

“Are you sure we’re safe here? Can’t we just call someone?” She looked at the phone by the bed.

“Since I didn’t tell anyone, the phone line’s dead.” This time he had to lie. “And my cell’s in the river. I didn’t see any on you.”

Her eyes darted away. “Your friend trusts you so much that you can just pop into this place without calling him?”

He walked to the table where Petr had set the medical box. “Yeah,” he said easily, taking out what he needed. “I’m very close to him. Someone like me has to have a place away from the usual fun and games, you know.”

“I’ve never met a gunrunner without a hideout,” she said from the bed. “This is nicer than most, from what I’ve seen.”

He headed back to her. He could see she wasn’t sure how to take him. He sat down by her, on her injured side. “So you associate with gunrunners a lot?”

“Some,” she replied noncommittally. “Business only.”

“Are some of them after you? The car was going straight for you.” He unscrewed the bottle of iodine, then wet a big swab of cotton with it. “This is going to sting. Who wants to take you out?”

He glanced up. Her gaze was on her arm, so he couldn’t look into her eyes. “Are you sure?” he asked gently. “You knew they were after you.”

She stared at him, her expression freezing. He knew she’d just realized what he’d known since he’d brought her here. “The passports…” She closed her eyes. “Oh my God, they’re gone. I was holding onto them when I jumped.”

Her shoulders slumped. She stayed that way as he continued to take care of the wound. He waited, knowing that she was running through her options. Even though the original plan hadn’t included all the passports being gone, it was helping him tighten the screws on Lily. Still, he felt a twinge of reluctance to bring it up right now. It couldn’t be a good feeling to be slowly forced into a corner.

“This is going to throb for a while. I have pain medication if you have trouble sleeping tonight,” he said quietly. When she just shook her head, he added, “I’m going to tell someone we’re here. Will you be all right alone?”

He gave one last backward glance at the bedroom entrance. She looked lost in thought, lying there on the propped-up pillows, looking up at the ceiling.

“Lily?” He felt a need to comfort her, to take away that worried look. “It’s going to be all right.”

* * *

Lily looked at the shut door, listening for the sound that would tell her Reed had left. But there was nothing. She frowned. Maybe it was one of those heavy doors that closed slowly.

She looked around the bedroom again. From the ultra-huge bed she was in to the intricate furniture to the beautiful artwork hanging on the walls, it looked and smelled expensive. One of her many jobs dealt with art pieces, some of them stolen. Through the years, she’d learned to recognize the real from the fakes. Many of these were originals. This friend of Reed’s had lots of money.

Which reminded her…She ran a weary hand through her damp hair. What the hell was she going to do now? How could she have forgotten about her bag? Granted, the passports would still have gotten destroyed, but she hadn’t even given them a thought. Instead, she’d been in that shower admiring a man’s naked body.

She was totally useless. When she wasn’t thinking, she reverted back to her stupid, silly self—the one who would forget, just because a handsome body happened to be in front of her, that other people were depending on her.

There was a time when she’d have immensely enjoyed the whole ridiculous experience. She wouldn’t have minded sitting up and taking that bar of soap from Reed’s hands. There was a time when seducing a man had been downright easy and she would have done it just to know she could conquer that male body.

“Lily, you can’t be like that anymore,” she muttered, picking up the towel Reed had left on the bed and starting to dry her hair. “Can’t let your emotions take over.”

She was afraid. If she let herself go, how long would it take before she forgot, and then before she knew it, she would pick up a cell phone…. She threw the towel on the floor in disgust. She couldn’t use one, so how was she going to reach Tatiana?

Leaning over on one side of the bed, she touched the phone. He said the line was dead but she could check. Once would be okay, wouldn’t it? Her finger hovered over the speaker button, but she was unable to push it. She took her hand away. She couldn’t chance it, not until she got the girls away from her.

Lily sat up and kicked off the spread. She had to get out of here, get back to the girls and rethink this whole situation.

Pain shot up her entire side when she put weight on her arm. Gasping, she fell back, tightly holding her bandaged arm as her body absorbed the shock, waiting for the stars floating in front of her eyes to disappear. Minutes went by before the pain subsided. She hadn’t realized how tender the areas around her neck, shoulder, and arm were.

Slowly she made her way out of the bed, carefully sliding off the side. She let her injured arm hang loosely, trying not to jar it any further. Cracking the bedroom door slightly, she peered outside.

Reed was nowhere to be seen. She opened the door wider and hesitantly stepped outside, her bare feet clinging to the soft carpet. Her mouth gaped open as she took in her surroundings.

The place was incredible. The living room looked like one of those settings in an expensive magazine. Fireplace. Dark paneling. Even a whole wall filled with books. A plasma TV hung on the wall.

She walked through each room, looking at everything. Picking up the notepad by the phone, she read the letterhead and frowned. Hotel Palazzo, with the address. She walked to one of the windows and parted the drawn curtains a few inches.

She looked down. The street was way down there. She turned back to the living room, looking left and right for the main entrance. It was nowhere in sight.

She walked around the place again, checking all the doors, but they all only led to closets or a powder room. Finally, she paused by the phone table again. This looked more like a foyer, with its coat rack and little table placed in a narrow, well-lit area. The wall opposite had panels of mirrors from ceiling to floor to create the illusion of space. Pausing, she looked at the light switches on the wall. One of them looked like a wall intercom with a numbered pad.

Walking over, she examined the mirrored wall carefully. Part of it was recessed. She took a few steps back, looking at its height and width. Here was her door. She ran a hand along the creases. It looked like it could slide open, but where was the handle? She glanced at the pad with the numbers on it, then at the door again.

A coded doorway that she couldn’t open. And oh, one more major problem. She stared back at her reflection. Without her clothes, she was totally at Reed’s mercy.

* * *

“She’s going to want to get out of this place soon,” Reed said, sitting back in the leather chair.

He knew that Lily wouldn’t just lie there and wait for him to come back. She would be checking out the suite and, of course, looking for the obvious—a door out of there.

The suite used an elevator to get around the hotel. It was designed for private use, for special guests—sometimes a politician who wished to have a few quiet days or a family friend. His family had a lot of international connections. Reed had been here several times while off duty after a mission in these parts and hadn’t felt like flying home. He liked it here, where he was neither Joker at his job nor Reed at his family home. He was just “sir.” Almost anonymous, although he was sure his father always knew he was here. Not that the old man bothered him or anything.