Against the Fire (8 page)

The economy might be in a slump, but after the initial drop, Tracy had continued selling houses. She believed the falling market prices and the low interest rates made real estate one of the best investments around, and she made it a point to convince her clients she was right.

Everything about Tracy Spencer spoke of confidence and success, an image Tracy went out of her way to project. It was her way of keeping the awful memories of her childhood at bay. Mattie believed Tracy’s outgoing personality masked a deep insecurity that stemmed from the violence she had suffered as a child.

Though Tracy dated a lot, she had never been married, never even had a serious relationship. Since neither of them were particularly good with men, they considered themselves lucky to have each other.

“Okay, come on.” Tracy caught Mattie’s arm as she returned to the living room and hauled her toward the door. “Got your purse? Let’s rock and roll!”

Mattie laughed, eager for the one night out a week she allowed herself, and headed for the car.

Gabe finished his meeting and drove home. After a discussion of the pros and cons of various downtown improvement projects, a battle that had dragged on for hours, he deserved a little relaxation. He changed out of his sport coat and slacks into a pair of jeans and a polo shirt. A few minutes later, he was on his way to the Hammerfield building and his rendezvous with Sam, more than ready for an ice-cold beer.

And he was curious to see how the remodel had turned out. He always liked seeing historic places renovated and brought back to life, and the Hammerfield building had been around for a hundred years.

Gabe parked in the lot and made his way to the front of the three-story brick structure that had been refitted and repainted. From what he could tell, the upper floors had been converted into offices. A neon sign above the entrance to the first floor read, Club Rio.

An unusual name, Gabe thought, but as he walked in, he understood why. Karaoke had gotten its start in Brazil. Apparently, the popular amateur singing went on three nights a week at the club. And the menu posted beside the door featured a number of Brazilian dishes including churrasco, Brazilian barbecued meat, and cocktails like a ciparina, a very strong sugar cane drink. The owner had gone for something out of the ordinary, and from the sound of the noisy crowd inside it was working.

Gabe made a quick perusal of the interior. The walls were painted with brightly colored parrots and huge banana plants. He smiled his approval and made his way to the bar.

Sam stood in front of the long, sweeping, black granite counter, sipping from a bottle of Lone Star Beer. “You made it.”

“You didn’t think I would?” Gabe caught the bartender’s eye and pointed to Sam’s brew, ordering one for himself.

“I wasn’t completely sure. You’ve seemed a little distracted lately.”

He thought of the fire, of Angel and Mattie. “Yeah, I guess I have been.”

“You talk to Parsons about rebuilding the lobby?”

He nodded, picked up the icy brown bottle the bartender set in front of him. “He wants us to start again yesterday.”

Sam chuckled. “Don’t they all?”

Gabe took a swallow of his beer. From where they stood, he had a clear view of the stage where the karaoke singers performed. A high-tech projector hidden overhead allowed the amateur entertainers to belt out the words to whatever song was playing at the moment. Currently, a dark-haired guy in skinny black jeans and a T-shirt with a dragon on the front sang the words to an old Beatles tune, an incongruous picture to say the least. Paul McCartney he wasn’t.

Still, the crowd appeared to be entertained, giving the singer a hearty round of applause when he finished.

“Fun place,” Gabe said.

“You ever try it?”

Gabe grunted. “I’ve got a voice like a bullfrog.”

“Mine’s no good, either. Besides, I’d rather listen. Believe it or not, some of the singers are pretty good.”

Gabe wasn’t sure he believed it. So far, the best of them had only been mediocre. He guessed it didn’t matter as long as everyone was having a good time.

He finished his beer and ordered another, sipped this one a little more slowly. A busty brunette got up and sang. She had a moderately pleasant voice but nothing special. He glanced over at Sam, saw that he was watching someone and followed his gaze to a svelte little blonde sitting at a table not far from the stage.

“You like the looks of that, do you?” Gabe teased.

Sam’s mouth curved. “Her name’s Tracy Spencer. She’s in real estate. I’ve thought about asking her out, but I’ve got a hunch I’d be getting into something I can’t handle.”

“How’s that?”

“I don’t know…. On the surface, she looks like she’d be fun, but I never see her with the same guy twice. I think she’s got issues. I’d just as soon steer clear.”

Tracy threw her pretty head back and gave out a robust bark of laughter.

“Maybe it would be worth it.”

“Maybe.”

Gabe returned his attention to the stage as another singer climbed the steps and crossed to the microphone. She was wearing a very short silver dress, the spotlight catching on the sequined bodice, which displayed the tops of a nice pair of breasts. She had a set of legs that wouldn’t quit and a figure that made the men in the crowd sit up a little straighter. But it was her hair that snagged his complete attention.

Thick, glossy russet curls that seemed to catch fire in the spotlight. The music kicked in, a hot disco number. The woman began to sing and conversation slowed, then completely halted. Every eye in the place swiveled toward the stage.

Gabe’s attention was as tightly snared as the rest of the crowd and suddenly he felt an eerie sense of recognition.

No way. It couldn’t be.

The beat began to swell. The singer moved, began to strut and sway, tossed her head and all that gorgeous red hair. He stared, still unable to believe it.

Hot love, the background music strummed. Ooooh, hot love.

The singer smiled and picked up the beat, and Gabe’s whole body clenched in arousal. Her voice was crystalline, throaty and sexy. Mattie Baker’s voice. It was Mattie who strutted and danced, moved her body in sensuous rhythm to the beat.

The music pounded and so did his blood.

“If you ain’t hot, love, you can’t have me. I need some hot love, baby, tonight. If you ain’t hot, love, you can’t have me. Gotta have some hot love. Need to have some lovin’ tonight.”

Gabe couldn’t breathe. This was the Mattie he had imagined, the woman beneath the layers of drab clothing. The woman Mattie had kept hidden until tonight.

He was hard, his erection hot and throbbing. Fate was a hunter, they said, and maybe it was true since the lady who dominated his thoughts was standing on the stage right in front of him. She spun around, giving him a look at her shapely legs and that round little ass he had man-handled in his dreams.

He listened to the music and watched her acting out a sexual fantasy that had every male in the room panting, and he finally understood.

He’d been right about Mattie. There was more to her than she let people see. A sensual nature that begged to be released.

The music track played on and Mattie kept moving, crossing the stage from one side to the other, holding up the microphone, her hips subtly swaying, the spangles across her breasts jiggling with every drumbeat.

She reached the final chorus and the song played out. Mattie laughed and bowed to a riot of whistles and applause. The disc jockey gave thanks for a fine performance by Club Rio’s favorite, Lena Sterling, a name as phony as the straitlaced Mattie she pretended to be.

Gabe wasn’t surprised. With Mattie, business came first and she wouldn’t want her colleagues to know her secret.

He watched her leave the stage and head toward the stairs leading down to the basement. He assumed the bathrooms were down there. He tossed some greenbacks on the bar, motioned to Sam where he was heading and followed her.

As he reached the bottom, he paused, catching a glimpse of Mattie at the end of the long, dimly lit hallway, disappearing into the ladies’ room. He leaned back against the wall to wait, folded his arms over his chest, his gaze riveted to the spot where she had disappeared.

Mattie came out a few minutes later, looking cool and unruffled. He wished he felt the same. Instead he was hot and fiercely aroused. As she made her way down the hall, he stepped out of the shadows in front of her.

“That was some performance, Lena,” he said.

Mattie’s head shot up. She moistened those glossy pink lips. “Gabe. What…what are you doing here?”

“I didn’t know you’d be here, if that’s what you’re thinking. I came with my foreman, Sam McBride. He seemed to think I might enjoy the entertainment.”

For once she didn’t back away from him. “Did you?” The words held a note of challenge. He had never seen her more in control.

“I liked everything I saw on that stage. And for the first time since I met you, I think I’ve got you figured out.”

One of those fiery eyebrows went up. “Is that right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Watching you up there gave me the answers to the questions I’ve been asking myself since the day I met you. I know what you need, Mattie Baker. Believe me, I’ve got exactly what you need.”

And then he caught her face between his hands, lowered his head, and claimed her mouth in a burning kiss.

Eight

Mattie couldn’t move. The man of her midnight fantasies stood right in front of her. The last person she expected to see tonight was Gabriel Raines.

But as his hands cupped her face, as he lowered his head and those soft lips settled gently over hers, coaxing and at the same time insistent, something hot and ragged broke loose inside her.

“Gabe…” she whispered as he deepened the kiss, and instead of pushing him away, she opened to him, giving in to his subtle demands, tilting her head to allow him better access. Heat rolled through her in long, powerful waves. Desire stirred deep in her belly and dampness slid into her core.

His hands dropped to her waist and he drew her against him. Her palms came to rest on his muscular chest and she felt the power there, the strength, and her heartbeat pounded in her ears.

“Gabe…” she repeated, kissing him back, letting her tongue slide over his, teasing, asking for more. He nibbled and tasted, alternately coaxed and demanded, and desire swelled, began to expand like hot liquid in her stomach.

For an instant, she thought of stopping, ending what would surely wind up a disaster. But the instant she started to pull away, Gabe caught her wrists, lifted and pinned them against the wall above her head.

She tugged a little, testing his determination, felt the implacable strength of his hands. His mouth claimed hers again, a leisurely and thorough exploration that spun her into a world of sensation, and his grip did not lesson. He wanted her and he meant to have her.

Her body relaxed against his. Now that the decision had been taken away from her, she felt free in a way she never had before. Gabe wouldn’t let her resist. He was going to take what he wanted.

Give her exactly what she needed.

She moaned into his mouth as he pressed himself more fully against her, let her feel his powerful erection. He was big and hard, promising what she hadn’t understood she had been craving.

He was all solid male, nothing like the men she had slept with before, and it made her yearn to know what it would be like to make love with a man like that.

She barely heard the door open beside her, just felt herself being subtly moved into some kind of storage room, then the door closed and the room fell into semidarkness. A sliver of moonlight poured in through a narrow basement window near the ceiling, just enough to light Gabe’s face, enough that she could see the naked hunger in his fierce blue eyes.

“I want you,” he said. “I can’t remember ever wanting a woman more.”

Fresh desire spilled through her. She had to know, had to find out if the wildly sensuous woman she became on stage was really part of her nature, some part that had been dammed up until now. Until Gabriel Raines.

She felt his mouth on her breasts and realized he had unzipped her dress and eased the top down, unfastened the front of her black push-up bra.

“Beautiful,” he said, his teeth lightly grazing her nipple, his tongue circling the tip. Her knees felt weak as he took the fullness into his mouth and began to suckle her. His big hands slid up beneath her silver dress and he cupped the bare globes of her bottom, covered only by the tiny red thong panties she wore. Lifting her into the V between his thighs, he let her feel the thick ridge bulging beneath the zipper of his jeans.

“Oh, God…”

His tone gentled. “It’s all right, I’ve got you. I’m not going to hurt you.”

She was clinging to him, she realized, practically wrapping herself around him. She should have been embarrassed, should have been mortified at her behavior. Instead, she just wanted more.

She reached toward the bulge in his jeans, tentatively cupped him. He was huge and pulsing. Her fingers itched to pull down his zipper and wrap around his hard length.

Gabe groaned. “Take it easy, sweetheart. I can only stand so much.”

“I want you,” she said. “I’ve never felt…I want you so much, Gabe.”

His erection leaped beneath her hand. “I want you, too.” He dragged in a deep, shuddering breath. “But if I take you like this, in this damnable storage room, tomorrow you’ll regret it. You’ll never forgive me.”

“I don’t care. I just…I just need…”

“I know what you need.” He eased her skirt down over her hips and refastened her bra, drew her dress back into place.

“We’re leaving.” He reached out and took hold of her hand. “Right this minute.”

She was shaking with need. She had never been this turned on in her life. “But…where are we going?”

“My place. If we go to yours, you’ll turn back into Mattie Baker and it’s too soon for that to happen.”

He was right. She was already beginning to hesitate, to reconsider her actions. Before she could panic completely, Gabe was tugging her down the corridor, hauling her up the stairs.