Bound and Determined (6 page)

Kerry stretched for the string to close the blinds, baring the smooth nip of her waist. His plan dissolved as lust stung him, burned his brain. Did she have any idea what she did to him? Likely, yeah. And more likely she just didn’t care.

“Can’t quite reach,” she muttered to herself, stretching higher.

More of the lean length of her leg appeared as she stepped on tiptoe. Golden curls streamed down her back and brushed the little denim shorts that cupped her derriere, tempting him. Blood left his brain and rushed directly south, where he felt his cock stiffen under the sheet. Kerry extended a bit farther for the short lead string, and her top edged up until he swore he could see the shadow of her breast on her rib cage. Sweat broke out across his chest.

Damn! He wanted her, no question. Wanted her like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat buffet. Rafe had never had a thing for crazy women, but he wanted this one naked, writhing, covered with a fine sheen of perspiration and begging him to satisfy the ache he’d created after a leisurely feast on her body. All she could think about was keeping him captive to help her brother. Did she even remember half of what they’d done together in the limo?

Why couldn’t he just forget about that, and remember that she’d kidnapped him, risking his future?

Rafe told himself to tackle her and force her to release him, to stop salivating over the enemy. And he would. Any minute now.

Finally, she yanked on the right string. The blinds snapped closed and a golden-edged darkness enveloped them. Perfect for romance or great sex—or both.

She turned to face him with a tentative smile. And Rafe realized he’d let a perfectly good opportunity to overpower her and gain his freedom pass. Damn it, what was the matter with him?

“Better?” she asked.

No. He was furious with himself and hard as hell. Worse, he’d bet she used that sweet tone when talking to her brother.
The thought pissed him off. How could he have such a raging erection for a woman who was so oblivious to him? A woman who’d abducted him? Appetite gone, he set the remainder of his breakfast aside.

“Peachy. I love being tied up in the dark when there’s no sex involved.”

“You’ve got quite a mouth on you. Anyone ever tell you that?”

“My dad, every day from the time I was twelve until the day I left at eighteen. I hope you weren’t planning to enact some whacked-out nurturer’s fantasy and lecture me about it. I don’t need a mommy.”

“Aren’t you a bright ray of sunshine? Do you kick kittens as a hobby?” Kerry cocked her head. “I’d hoped that time to cool down would make you more civilized. I guess not.”

She’d taken him from his life and job, bound him at ankle and wrist like some damned sacrifice, and she expected him to be civilized about it? “Where are you from, Planet Unrealistic?”

“I’ll come back later when you’ve had more time to—”

“No!”

Round one to Kerry. He couldn’t take any more boredom. Besides, the longer he was tied up and left alone, the less likely he could escape. And the less likely he could take her down . . . or touch her. Unfortunately for him, those two needs both ate at him.

Much as he hated it, he was going to have to rein in his temper and play her game. Otherwise, escape would be next to impossible.

Rafe sighed. “I will try not to snap at you.”

Kerry nodded. She should be relieved, but watching her captive lounging, mouthwatering and half-naked, filled her with several feelings. Relief wasn’t one of them. Lord, she could barely think with her gaze roving the hard width of his bronzed chest and abs that put a six-pack to shame. The sight of him awake, tousled, and tied to the bed gave her ideas she’d never before imagined and simply couldn’t afford. And all the while, Rafe kept his eyes glued to her, like he remembered . . .

Kerry looked away, focusing on the French doors—anything to gather her wits so she didn’t drool on the man.

“Kerry?”

That whiskey voice of his sent a shiver down her spine. She swallowed and turned back to him too eagerly. “Yes.”

“Look at me for a minute.”

Her gaze flipped to his, startled by his request. He knew what looking at him did to her blood pressure. He had to know. And stupidly, she played right into his hands, staring a path from his dark eyes, down to linger on his decadent mouth, then lower again to touch those enticing pectorals that made her want to caress him all over.

Get a grip
. Kerry sighed, raised a hand to the chain suspended between her collarbones. Was her hand actually trembling? She toyed with the dangling handcuff key, an increasingly nervous habit.

“Yes?” she croaked.

Rafe watched, devoured her all the while with his dark eyes. Kerry swung the key back and forth on its chain faster as a fresh rush of heat suffused her, along with a tingling his nearness inspired.

Rafe suddenly smiled, a wide, naughty grin. “I have an idea, a way for you to get what you want . . . and what I want.”

His casual, out-of-nowhere suggestion snapped her attention back to business. “Pardon?”

“Well, you want me to help your brother, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And I”—he leaned forward, the sheet dropping dangerously low on his naked hips as he fixed her with a wicked stare—“I want you.”

Kerry swallowed. Heat and tingles tore through her belly. She opened her mouth to respond but no words came out. Was he serious . . . or just trying to give her a taste of her own medicine and distract her?

“I want to finish what we started in the limo,” he murmured, his voice a sexy rumble.

Rafe shifted again, leaning back against the headboard and raising his arms over his head. The muscles of his rounded shoulders and biceps bulged with quiet power. The hard ridges of his pectorals tightened. Kerry’s heartbeat raced.

Why had she kidnapped the most beautiful man she’d ever
seen? The only one she’d ever met who could make her dang near witless without a word?

“I want to kiss your mouth over and over. I need to taste your breasts and those beaded nipples again. I’m dying to know the feel of you, hot and tight, around me.”

Liquid heat flooded between her legs as her belly exploded with dangerous sensation. Just sitting there, the man rattled her. But when he talked like that, he was lethal to her common sense.

Pacing, Kerry forced herself to look away. Rafe couldn’t know how much he affected her. If she’d met him any other time and place, she’d likely run, not walk, down this avenue. But as angry as he’d been all day, his sudden about-face made her more than suspicious. Touching him was just stupid. Captor and captive—that would keep their arrangement tidy and easy. Once he’d helped her prove Mark innocent, he could go.

Her gaze slid back to him. If she took him up on his startling, heart-stopping suggestion, their relationship would be anything but easy. But bottom line, he was her key to helping Mark.

“At least I think that’s what I want,” he said into her silence.

“Excuse me?” Had she heard him right?

He shrugged, the muscles under his golden brown skin flexing deliciously. “In the limo I was drugged. What if memory doesn’t serve correctly? What if I only thought we sizzled together?”

What he said made sense . . . in a way that made her nervous. “What are you saying?”

“I need to know for sure before I agree to any sort of bargain.”

“Bargain?” He was talking too fast for her hormone-charged brain. She had a feeling Rafe was scheming to pull a fast one, but he’d overheated her too much with his seductive words.

“You want to help your brother. I want you.”

He was direct and completely unapologetic about that fact. Kerry wondered if women today ever swooned like they did in the historical romances she sometimes read. She hoped so, because much more of that talk and there would be a full-on faint in her near future.

“I was thinking a bargain made sense. You agree to be all mine for forty-eight hours—”

“Yours?” Her tongue wet her suddenly dry lips at the possibilities his words inspired.

He leaned again, until she could smell the tang of his woodsy, musky scent with visceral clarity, until all she had to do to touch him was lean forward, too.

His dark eyes drilled her with a carnal stare. “Mine to do with as I want, anything I want. For forty-eight hours.”

Oh my, that gave her a visual, one folks would definitely have to be over seventeen to see in a theater. Kerry flushed hot from her belly to her feet and swallowed hard. “And?”

“I’ll look into your brother’s situation.”

“That’s wrong. That’s extortion!” She frowned both at his suggestion and her very politically incorrect excitement.

“That’s commerce.” He smiled, gray eyes gleaming. “I didn’t think a kidnapper would be so sensitive about morals.”

Kerry shook her head. “It’s a bad idea.”

“Bad as in mistaken, or bad as in naughty?”

“Both.”

His smile turned lascivious. When had her heart started chugging like a freight train? Why did he have to look at her as if he’d become the Big Bad Wolf and she, Little Red Riding Hood, wearing only a garter belt? For some perverse reason, despite his brazen, not-so-nice suggestion, she was oh-so-tempted.

“So what do you say? Are you game for a little audition?” he whispered, the stark white sheet caressing then exposing the bronzed ridges of his belly.

“Audition?”

“Just kissing, and a little touch here or there.”

Just?
Kerry didn’t believe Rafe had anything that mild in mind. Lord, she felt faint.

“No sex,” he clarified. “Yet.”

She struggled for her next breath. “And this will prove that you want me?”

He nodded. “And if I want you as bad in ten minutes as I did in the limo, I’m all for a bargain. What do you say?”

“You’ll help my brother if I agree to this insane idea.”

“If I’m getting what I want, you’ll get what you want.”

Thoughts raced through her brain faster than headlines changed on cable news. His suggestion was unconventional at best, exploitive at worst. So why did it arouse her? She was a modern woman. Okay, so she had a few old-fashioned tendencies. Despite that, letting a man call all the shots settled about as well as static cling with her. But somehow, the idea of giving herself over to someone as sexy and dangerous as Rafe had inexplicable, undeniable appeal.

Lord, did that make her as bubble-headed as Mark’s wife, Tiffany?

Kerry’s gaze strayed to his hands and stubbornly stayed. What would he do to her with those? Caress down her spine, plump her breast, squeeze her nipples, probe the part of her that was growing wetter with each passing second? And if the theory about judging the size of a man’s penis by his fingers was true, then Rafe’s intelligence wasn’t the only thing above average. Hell, she knew it was true; she’d seen every hard inch of him with her own eyes.

“The clock is ticking,” he reminded her. “Where is your brother now?”

Kerry closed her eyes, reality slamming her again. “The Pinellas County Jail, awaiting trial.”

“Which starts . . . ?”

She swallowed. “In less than two weeks.”

“And you’re waiting for what? I’m asking for a simple yes or no. It’s completely your choice. If you’re not interested, just say so.”

The bargain should be that simple, but it was also that complicated. She bit her lip. What would he say if he learned she was a virgin? He’d think she was an undersexed freak. And not that she’d been saving herself for marriage, but the idea of trading it away pricked her with disappointment. Yeah, she was going to have to lose it sometime—hopefully soon. But bartering it to keep her brother out of prison wasn’t what she’d had in mind. She wanted it to mean something to the guy she gave it to. Losing it here in Dominating Dave’s Love Shack seemed as unromantic as doing it in a bathroom stall at Denny’s.

And then there was Rafe himself. She didn’t know him well, and allowing him anything and everything . . . well, that meant giving a lot of trust.

“What is it? You look worried. Talk to me.” Gone was the wicked grin, replaced by something serious, edged with concern.

“I—I’m thinking.”

Suddenly, he reached for her hand and took it in his warm grasp, thumb caressing her knuckles. “No apologies. When I see something I want, I go after it. But I know that no means no, Kerry. I’d never hurt you.”

“And this isn’t about revenge?”

He glanced down at the tented sheet. “Do you think I’d rather have revenge or sex?”

She met his gaze, thick with lust and anticipation. But she saw sincerity beneath it all. For some bizarre reason, gut reaction maybe, she believed him.

Helping Mark was her priority, without question. But after sleeping less than three minutes since she’d arrived at the cottage, damp sheets haunted by the remembrance of Rafe’s mouth on her, Kerry could not deny that she wanted another taste of the man.

“A-all right.”

“Yes?”

She nodded, feeling suddenly emboldened and shy at once. Finally, she’d know more about a man’s touch than drunken pawing at the prom. But what would he expect? What should she do?

“I’ll need a hand free, sweetheart.”

That demand set her suspicions on alert. “No.”

“Yes, or I can’t touch you the way I want to. Gotta touch you. I’m dying for it.”

Obviously he thought she’d been born in the last five minutes. “You’re just saying that to persuade me to uncuff you.”

Rafe laughed, something mirthless. “Did you fail to look down?”

Kerry looked again and found the sheet tented up by an erection that, if anything, had become more impressive. Her eyes widened. “Oh, my.”

“Manipulating you would not put me in this state. I assure you, it’s all about the idea of touching you. And I’ve got to tell, I won’t be able to do that well with this thing around my wrist.”

Faced with such irrefutable evidence, she felt herself caving in. Shocking that a hunk of man like Rafael Dawson would get so thoroughly aroused by her, particularly after her ranting over the phone and abducting him. Miracles never ceased.

“I’ll even give you my left hand.” He held it out.

She’d bet he could manage plenty of sensual devastation with that hand.