Somewhere I'll Find You (31 page)

She swallowed before nodding,
appreciating his words despite the fact that they didn’t make her feel any better
.

“Now,” he commanded softly.

She pulled left, coming to a hard stop just behind a large tree before cutting the lights.  The car settled around them with the hiss of hard sand and the pop of cooling metal.  As darkness closed in, she could hear the sigh of wind as well as the rush of leaves overhead.

But no sound of a passing car.

She looked at Michael, barely able to make out his hard features in the darkness.

“Give it a few seconds,” he said absently.  “If it stays quiet, take this road straight to a church.”

“But how did you know?”

“It’s my business to know.”

Business.  Yes, of course it was.  She looked away, her fingers clenching the wheel. 
Just business.
She had to remember that.
 
And wasn’t I the one who wanted it that way?  Just the way it is – all business.

The seconds passed by.  No lights or shouts.  No noise.

“Let it rip.”

The engine answered her movement, thundering back to life, but it didn’t match the sound of Paige’s heart.  Then she heard the sound of an opening door.

“Michael?  What . . .?”

“Drive straight ahead and stop just past the church.  Lock the doors and wait for me.
  I’ll meet you in about ten minutes, after I take a look around.”

* * * *

Ten minutes could be a very long time.

Paige discovered that it was long enough to be born, to die, and be born again.  She learned it was plenty of time to taste her own fear, feel her sweat
,
and force herself
in
to desperate decisions. 

It was also time enough for her to realize how dangerously entangled her life had become with Michael’s  She was
far
beyond fear, beyond feeling much at all, when a light tap came on the far window.

Michael’s face loomed up from the darkness before she pushed open the door.  “Drive,” he said impassively.

“What happened?  Were they . . .”

“Later.  For now, let’s just get back to Mulholland.”

She knew that he was right, but it only made her angrier.  She didn’t want to drive, she didn’t want involved in this mess at all.  Still, she started the engine, knowing there was nothing else that she could do.

He didn’t talk until the large house loomed in the darkness.  “There was one car,” he said quietly, ice in his voice.  “You lost them on the way to the church.  They doubled back, loo
ked around, and then went north
before I lost them.”

“Who are they?  What did they want?”

“My best guess . . .” He paused
,
as if considering how much to reveal.  “My best guess is that someone knows about those papers and assumes that you’ve found them since you bought the place.  They also wante
d to see how well protected
you are.
  As for spotting you, it was an easy task.  It isn’t as if they don’t know what you look like, after all, Angel; your picture has been in quite a few magazines lately.
”

“And it isn’t unusual for people in the business to have a bodyguard.”  She looked at him with appraising eyes.  “But if you think that I’m running, you can forget it.  I’m not uprooting my life . . . again."

“You’ll do whatever you’re
told to do,” Michael snapped.

“Dream on, Ace.”

Paige swung into the circled drive beneath the darkened windows before yanking her door open.  “Right now, I’m taking a long hot bath and then, I’m going to
bed. If you want to argue, fine.  G
o argue with the ghost.”

Michael made no move to stop her.  He had enough demons of his own to battle without adding hers to the growing list.  He’d been stupid and slow, missing things that no beginner would have missed.  But as he went over the night’s events thoroughly, analyzing every detail, he could
not
get one thing out of his head
:
I
t had been too easy.

Striding into the house, he found Paige as she was emerging from the bath, her delicate scent driving his adrenaline into overdrive. 
He paused to suck in a quick breath, his gold-dusted green eyes wide with appreciation.

Clutching at her flimsy robe, she edged away from the sight of his burning eyes.  “What gives you the right . . .” she began, furious both at his intrusion and the fact that the look in his eyes wasn’t entirely unwelcome.

He moved to her with a swiftness that left her gasping.  Pulling at the robe, he openly caressed her, dragging his thumbs over aching nipples.  “
This
gives me the right.  Tell me . . . what am I thinking?”

Reckless, not knowing why she would give in to such a demand,
Paige looked into his eyes, frowning as she took the bait he offered.

She reached out, instantly rewarded with the hot turbulence of his thoughts.  They ripped through her, sharp and rapid, terrible in their intensity.  She tasted his hunger, raw and naked. 

It
is
the kind a man feels for a woman he’s wanted all of his life . . . or dreamed of for a very long time.
She swallowed before shifting nervously; suddenly aware of . . .  perhaps she had always
been
aware of, the breadth of his shoulders, the fluid play of his thighs against her hip. 
It was too much.  She tried to break the link, telling herself that it was his desire influencing her own feelings.

“So,” he asked slowly, his voice deadly quiet.  “What am I thinking?”

“Right now?” her voice trembled.

“Right now,” he answered darkly.

She fought the desire to slide down into those smoky eyes and let him have his vision, the one that she had seen,
and help it to
become a reality.  But it wouldn’t be enough.  Just as it hadn’t been enough for him before.  She shuddered, vainly attempting to push away, but his hot, hard hands held her in place.

“Paige?”  There was a harsh smile in his voice as if he could read on her face what she had seen in his eyes.

She shook her head, forcing herself to look away.  “I’m not feeling well.  You can’t  . . . fool me like this.”

The room was spicy with flowers and herbs, and between them, the air began to throb, charged with primitive emotions.  She didn’t trust herself to look up, but
found herself helpless against doing so.
  “What do you want from me?”  She tried for exasperation, but he had an unsettling effect on her, and they both knew it.

His eyes were flecked with gold.  “I want everything . . . Everything that you have to give.  Everything that I can take
.  And I want you to have the same.”  He watched her face shift and change with the onslaught of her emotions.  Smiling faintly, a bit of uncertainty replaced the smug confidence in his eyes.  “Does that scare you?” he whispered.  “Because it scares the hell out of me.”

She felt something break inside of her when he spared her none of his fears.  Within the thoughts and visions she had seen, she learned that Michael was, above all, a very honest man.  He deserved someone, she thought firmly, who could be totally honest with him.  Gritting her teeth, she dug deeper into his mind, searching for the elusive face she had glimpsed before.  Perhaps it was her own long self-enforced secrecy about her
gift that
had her looking deeper.  She didn’t know and it really didn’t matter as she plunged once more into the darkness of his mind.  Drawing in a deep breath, her dark eyes searched his.

“Did you love her?”

“Her?
”
He repeated.

“T
he woman that hurt you so badly,
”
she murmured, her
heart rate
picking up. 
Now he will see – now he will see that I can dig deeply into his soul … and he’ll run.  People always do.

He cursed softly, “You don’t miss a thing, do you?”

“Not if I don’t want to,” she admitted softly.

“I wanted her,” he admitted.  “I admired her . . . so maybe it’s the same thing.”

She could feel his frustration, his doubt, and knew it was her own.  She remained silent, allowing him to continue if he wanted to.
 
He’s not running … He’s still here.  What does that mean?

He laughed grimly.  “Who am I kidding?  The answer is no, I didn’t.  Not compared with even half of what I’m feeling for you right now.  Does that sound crazy?”

“No,” Paige said softly. 
But it might have if I didn’t feel the same way.

His eyes
darkened
his voice low and unsteady when he spoke.  “If I cared any less, I’d kiss you
.  I’d touch you and taste your very soul.  But if I did – if I started, I don’t believe I’d be able to stop.”  Before he knew it, she was caught up in his arms, her lips close to his.  Groaning, he backed away.  “It’s not going to be that way, damn it.  Not fast and certainly not easy.”

Again, Paige found herself marveling over the strength of his jaw, the stubborn set of his mouth.  Maybe it was the memory of the afternoon’s debacle, the left over rush of adrenaline from the chase, that made her feel reckless.  Or perhaps it was her fear that she had finally slipped over the edge of insanity.  Maybe it was the honesty in Michael’s eyes.  Whatever it was, it was drawing her onward.  But the need in his eyes warned her that if she continued, something was bound to happen.  Something that they both could regret.

Just as suddenly, she was certain that she would never regret her actions.  “Look at me, Michael,” she whispered.  Running a thumb over that stubborn jaw, her other hand slid to the dark curls at the base of his neck.  “You know, Michael is such a nice name,” she mused softly.  “Yes, a very nice name.  I’ve always thought that a woman should at least know
and appreciate
the name of the man she’s going to go to bed with.”

He cursed
,
low
ly
and violently.  “It’s the wrong time, Paige.  There are still too many unanswered questions.”

“Not for me, there isn’t.”  She eased into the rigid, unyielding line of him.  “I have no questions where this is concerned,” she continued, pulling him down to take her kiss.  “In fact, it feels like the most natural thing I’ve ever done.”

When she ran her tongue over his mouth, he cursed.  When she eased past his lips, he groaned.  She feathered her tongue over his, feeling him shudder.

Then his hands were molding her, his lips harsh against her brow.  Pulling her closer, his strong hands locked their urgent bodies together. With trembling fingers, she caught the fine line of his shirt, shoving it over his shoulders.  “I don’t care about tomorrow, Michael.  I just want now.  I just want you deep inside me.”