When You Dare (38 page)

Her toes curled.

Without her realizing it, he freed her hair from the topknot, and it tumbled down to her shoulders.

He sank both hands into her hair. “I can’t believe you were going to cut this.”

His mouth grazed her throat, her jaw. “I can’t believe it mattered to you.”

“It does.” He kissed her neck, then her ear.

“I couldn’t believe you took the time to work the tangles out for me.” In fact, that might have been the moment she started falling for him. The tenderness after so much brutality, the matter-of-fact way he’d handled her and her personal trauma, had devastated her senses. She hadn’t been prepared. She still wasn’t.

“I enjoyed it.” Hooking a forearm under her derriere, he lifted her and turned with her to the bed.

It was insane, how easily he handled her, the ease with which he lifted her, carried her. His strength continued to amaze her; his care would forever impress her.

Settling into the cradle of her body, he lifted to one elbow and looked down at her. With care, he smoothed back her hair, kissed her swollen lips.

Molly touched his face. Tears threatened.

“What’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “The way you look at me makes me feel pretty.”

Pressing a hand between their bodies, he touched her, and his cheekbones darkened with aroused color. “Pretty doesn’t cover it.”

“No?” She could barely speak as he pushed not one, not two, but three fingers into her. Breathless, she whispered, “Then what does?”

Stroking in, back out. In again, so deep…“Smokin’.” His chest expanded. “Sexy as sin.” His gaze was so intent, it affected her as strongly as his touch when he said, “Mine.”

Startled, Molly stared at him. She didn’t know what to say, how to interpret that. “Dare…?”

He moved away from her in a rush, going for a condom that he rolled on in record time. When he came back to her, he caught her hips and turned her to her stomach. “On your knees.”

Even as she got to her knees, her thoughts scrambled—until his hands clasped her waist and he drove into her with one hard thrust.

After two climaxes, she was swollen and sensitive and oh-so-ready for him. She cried out with that initial entry, then cried out again as he began a hard, fast rhythm. It was so deep this way, she felt every inch of him.

“Arch your hips up,” he told her in a rough command. She felt one hand on the small of her back, the other under her, first touching her nipples, then sliding down between her legs.

It was too much. “Dare… I can’t.”

“Yes, you can.” Just as he’d done to her nipples, he caught her clitoris and held it with his fingertips. Each of his deep thrusts caused her to tug at his hold in a maddening stimulation.

When she groaned, he said, “Spread your knees out a little more, baby.”

The pleasure drugged her until she couldn’t think, could only feel. She felt heavy, so heavy that her arms didn’t want to support her and they bent until she rested on her forearms.

Dare growled a low approval over that.

Another release began spiraling within her, drawing tighter and tighter. Her body throbbed, ripe and aching and in need.

Dare started pumping faster, and she knew he was close. His thighs were slapping hard against the back of hers. Heat poured off him, off her.

Tighter and tighter.

Her lungs burned. Her legs trembled.

Eyes clenched, Molly fisted her hands in the sheets to hang on—and the release hit her. She cried out loud, sobbing with the power of it, her body on fire.

Dare’s savage groan filled her ears. He stroked deep, stiffened, and she knew he was coming, too. He’d held on, waited for her.

When he stilled, she literally collapsed flat on the bed. Dare landed over her and started to move, but she whispered, “Please. Not yet.”

She could still feel him inside her, not as big now, but she didn’t want to lose the sensation yet.

“Just for a minute,” he whispered with a kiss to her ear, and he wrapped his arms around her, giving her his weight.

It felt heavenly. It felt safe.

It felt like love.

M
OLLY FELT THE HANDS
on her, pinching. Deliberately hurting. She couldn’t see beyond her fear, but she cursed them, English curses that she knew they might not understand but gave her strength all the same.

One man reached for her breast and laughed at her panic. Instead, he struck her in the ribs. She lost her breath, gagging with the pain, falling to her knees, knowing they might kick her, knowing the ground held bugs and mud and worse. She struggled to stay upright, struggled, struggled…

Jerking awake with a start, Molly cried out—and immediately Dare came into the room.

“Hey. It’s okay.” The overhead light came on, blinding her. The bed dipped when he sat down beside her, when he pulled her into his arms.

Her throat felt too tight for her to swallow, burning with the need to cry. She was crying. She felt the tears hot on her cheeks and shame beat at her.

Angry at herself, at the bastards who’d done this to her, she tried to struggle away from Dare.

He tightened his hold. “Don’t do that, Molly. I understand. I know. But don’t push me away.” He kissed her hair, closed those impossibly strong arms around her.

“I hate them.” Her voice sounded high and broken, infuriating her more. Shaming her more.

“I do, too.” Shifting, he pulled her onto his lap. “When I was younger, when I got that knife wound on my chest?”

That got her attention, and she nodded to let him know she was listening.

“I was so pissed off I was blind with it. Mostly at myself for not being able to stop it, but at the man who did it, too. It took me a few weeks to recover, especially after I got an infection.”

Dare wore a shirt now, and she subtly tried to dry her eyes against the soft cotton.

He caught the sheet and lifted a corner of it to her. “Do you need a tissue?”

“No.” She sounded strangled, as if those awful hands were around her throat again, threatening to kill her. She buried her face against Dare. Ignoring the rasp of her voice, the weakness, she asked, “What were you doing when you got stabbed?”

“This isn’t to be repeated.”

She nodded.

“A senator’s son was being held hostage. I was hired to go get him. Me, specifically, because no one knew me yet. I was brand-new, tested but not yet tried, if you know what I mean.”

His hands moved over her back, up and down, not in any way sexual but still possessive.

Molly gulped back a fresh wave of tears. “I don’t.”

“I’d been trained. Everyone knew what I could do in live-action tests, but I hadn’t yet gone out in the field. This was my maiden run. And I almost fucked it up.”

As the nightmare faded, she licked her dry lips. “But you didn’t?”

“No, thank God. Not entirely. If I had, the kid would’ve died. Talk about nightmares…” He shook his head and squeezed her again. After a deep breath, he continued. “The boy, who was around twelve at the time, was being held in a compound in Arizona. The place was owned by a wealthy, supposedly law-abiding businessman. No one would have thought to look for the kid there. But I’ve always had good instincts, and I tracked him to that location.”

“How?”

“You can almost always gauge a person by their associations. If a man has enough ties with people of questionable character, then I label him questionable.”

“Like my dad.”

“Like your dad,” he agreed.

Thinking about her father added to her angst. “How do you think you messed up?”

“I got too emotional.” Disgust sounded in his tone. “Thoughts of that kid and how scared he had to be, wondering if he was hurt or even being hurt right then, riddled my discipline.” The muscles of his face tightened, and his voice lowered. “Even knowing better, I went in too soon.”

Concern for Dare dispelled the leftover fear of the nightmare. She looked up and saw his beautiful face, the clean-cut jaw, the straight nose and deep blue eyes. “What did you do?”

“I found the boy. They’d roughed him up some, deliberately terrified him, but he was being so damned mature, so strong… He didn’t cry.” Dare looked down at her, using his thumb to brush away a tear. “I would have understood if he had. His eyes were red, and his voice shook. I was so proud of him—just like I’m proud of you.”

“You saved him?”

“Yeah, I got him out of there, though not before I had to tackle a guard.” His mouth quirked. “The son of a bitch blindsided me, and he was going to cut my throat. But that scrawny little kid jumped on his back, wrapping around him like a spider monkey. It slowed him down and gave me the advantage I needed.”

She knew, but still she asked, “To do what?”

Dare’s eyes darkened. “I pulled that fucking knife out of my chest and gutted the bastard with it.”

Dear Lord. “You could do that?”

“He didn’t hit my heart or a lung, so yeah. It hurt like hell, but it wasn’t a death blow.” He rubbed his ear. “The thing is, if the kid hadn’t acted when he did, we both would have died, and that’s inexcusable. It was a lesson about taking my time, studying everything before I make a move.” He went silent for a second, then he let out a breath. “It was a lesson, too, about my own ability.”

“Because you got him and yourself out of there.”

He discounted his own heroism. “God, I bled like a stuck pig. Twice I almost passed out. Luckily my guys were waiting outside the perimeter of the place, because I’m not sure I’d have gotten much farther before dropping.”

Tucking her head against his shoulder, Molly hugged him. “I’m so glad you made it.”

“Yeah.” He let her sit there for a while, not rushing her. “The thing is, that day plagued me for months. I couldn’t close my eyes without thinking about all the possibilities, all the what-ifs and what-could-have-been scenarios. It’s human nature to agonize over unsettling episodes.”

“How did you finally get past it?”

“Time. And closure.” He gave her a hug. “After I healed, I exposed everyone involved in that kidnapping, without putting the kid or his father out there for the media to pick apart. Knowing those bastards were punished helped me to put it behind me and move forward.”

Would finding the one responsible for her abduction somehow rid the dregs of fear from her memory? God, she hoped so.

Molly would have liked to linger in Dare’s embrace, but she knew they had to get moving. She tipped her head up to see Dare. “How long have you been awake?”

“I didn’t go to sleep.”

Now she felt doubly bad. She moved away from him and shoved her hair from her face. “I’m sorry I did.”

“You needed your rest.” Holding her chin, he bent and kissed her, lightly, easily. “You think you can get ready now? We don’t want to miss your dad.”

She’d like to miss him. The last person she wanted to see was her father. He could be abrasive at the best of times, and this… Well, he wasn’t going to add to the festivities.

But the reality was that the confrontation had to happen.

“Sure.” Realizing that she was naked while Dare was dressed, Molly blushed. “Could I have some privacy?”

He stared at her for a long time before his mouth curled into a grin. “All right.” He got up from the bed. “I’d like you to pack a bag, too. Take whatever you think you’ll need.”

Not sure what to say to that, Molly looked around her room for inspiration and found none. “How long will I be gone?”

He gave her another lingering look. “Pack enough for a few weeks, and we’ll see what happens.” And with that, he left the room.

Molly took a few moments to catch her breath, but a peek at the clock told her she had to hustle if she wanted to pull it together in the right way. After washing, brushing her teeth and dressing in casual jeans, a red sweater and boots, she styled her hair and applied some makeup. Seeing herself in the mirror, she felt better, more like herself.

Then she remembered everything she’d done with Dare, and a flush of heat brightened her skin. She put her hands to her cheeks and fought back the giddiness. No, she wasn’t like herself at all, at least not with Dare.

Not sexually.

With him, she always felt better than ever before—at everything.

Hurrying so that Dare wouldn’t be waiting on her, she got out her briefcase first and stowed what she could of her manuscript, her flash drive, everything she thought she might need to continue working on her book. Remembering that both Chris and Dare had said they wanted to read her work, she found a few of the paperback copies in her closet and packed them, too. While in the closet, she found a replacement purse on the floor. Although she didn’t have her wallet, she’d feel more complete with a purse on her arm. She loaded it with a few essentials like a comb, lip gloss, a small mirror, mints…anything she thought she might need. Later, after they went to the bank, she’d put money in there, too.

She did not like being dependent on Dare for everything. It was enough that he kept her safe without him paying her way, too.

Next, she dragged her suitcase out from under the bed and packed the toiletries she used most often. She spotted the birth-control pills, and decided to get back on them ASAP. Any woman who was sexually active couldn’t be too careful. And she fully intended to stay sexually active with Dare.

After taking one, she packed the rest in her purse. Assuming she wouldn’t need any dressier clothes, she folded in several pairs of jeans, sweaters and sweatshirts, underwear, bras, socks, another pair of shoes, her sneakers and two sets of pajamas.

It was as she was placing those in that Dare looked in on her. He frowned at the ice-blue, very cute PJs on top of her case. “You won’t need those.”

“They’re pajamas,” she told him, just in case he didn’t realize.

He settled an incendiary gaze on her, studied her a moment with interest and moved closer. Distracted, he continued to look at her as he said, “We’ll be sleeping together.”

She had assumed as much, but was glad to have it verified all the same. “Chris—”

“Goes to his own place at night.” He tipped his head, examining her features with a touch of confusion. “I’m the only one who will see you, and you don’t have anything to hide from me.” His gaze dipped to her breasts. “I like looking at you.”