Dangerous (17 page)

“What a bum,” Winnie said angrily.

“We’ll get Matt a new one,” Boone said. “No problem.”

“We can get him an Xbox 360, too, and some games for it,” Kilraven said. He glanced at the tiny television. “And a bigger TV to play them on.”

“Maybe an Xbox Live gold card, too,” Clark suggested.

Kilraven was thoughtful. “He can stay with Winnie and me for a few days, after we’re married,” he said. “I have a three-bedroom apartment. We won’t be able to go down to Nassau for a couple of weeks. The senator’s wife had a change of heart and went to visit her sister in New York, but she’s supposed to be going to the Bahamas week after next.”

“You spies know everything,” Clark said.

Kilraven grinned. “Of course we do.”

Winnie moved closer to him. “We could wait to get married….”

“No, we couldn’t,” Kilraven said firmly, looking down at her.

She averted her eyes, but the reply pleased her. Maybe he was getting used to the idea, and just maybe he wouldn’t want a divorce at the end of the pretense.

M
ATT WAS BUNDLED INTO
Boone’s big Jaguar, along with a ratty suitcase full of things he thought he’d need, and the apartment door was locked.

“We’ll bring you up to the hospital tomorrow to see your mother,” Boone assured Matt. “I want to see her, too.”

The others voiced their assent.

“I’ll bring Winnie home in a little while,” Kilraven told them. “We still have things to talk about.”

“We’ll leave a light on,” Keely said with a smile.

They waved the Sinclairs off and got back into Kilraven’s own Jaguar.

“This has been a very strange night,” Winnie said heavily. “I have a brother I didn’t know about, and a mother who’s a well-known police detective. I feel as if my life just turned on its axis.”

“I can understand that.” He moved out into traffic. “He’s quite a boy,” he said, smiling.

“Yes, he is. It’s amazing, how easily he speaks of his handicap.”

“It’s only a handicap if he makes one of it. I had a friend in Iraq who had lost both his legs to a rocket attack. He was fitted with artificial ones and he wins races now. He said that as long as he still had his life, he wasn’t bothered by trifles. Trifles!” He laughed. “Can you imagine?”

“Soldiers are tough,” Winnie said. “Boone came out of the service with wounds much worse than he ever told us about. Keely said some of them were bone deep. He never said anything, and we never knew.”

“We all have scars of one sort or another.”

She glanced at him. “You said you’d had bullets dug out of you.”

“I have.” His tone was grim. “One out of my lung, another out of my hip and one out of my arm. When I’m older, I’ll probably have some arthritis because of the way the bullet went in. They did repairs, but no repair is as good as the original part.”

“Battle scars,” she said quietly.

“Yes.”

Her eyes narrowed. She looked at him evenly. “You wanted the most dangerous assignments you could find,” she said aloud, speaking as if she were accessing information from some intangible source. “You asked for them. One took you right into an enemy encampment and you walked straight at a man firing a machine gun…!” She broke off because he slammed on the brakes. Thank goodness they weren’t in traffic.

“Who told you?” he asked curtly. “Who?”

She was disconcerted. “Nobody,” she said at once.

His eyes narrowed. He wasn’t buying it.

“I don’t know anyone who was with you overseas, Kilraven,” she said reasonably.

“Then how did you know that?”

She grimaced and looked away. “I don’t know.”

He was remembering what they said about her mother’s intuition, and then came the memory of Winnie painting the raven and sending backup when he was in great danger in Jacobsville.

“You have the same ability your mother does,” he said aloud.

She grimaced. “I guess so. I didn’t know where it came from. Not until tonight.” She glanced at him apologetically. “It’s freaky, huh?”

He sighed and started the Jaguar forward again. “Not so much. It just takes a little getting used to.”

“And you don’t like talking about personal things.”

“No,” he replied at once. “I don’t.” He glanced at her. “But I’ve told you more than I’ve ever told anyone else, except Jon, about my private life. So I guess I trust you.”

She smiled. “Thanks.”

He pulled into the parking lot at his apartment building and led her inside, where a security guard kept watch from a desk.

He walked to the desk. “Kilraven,” he said, “Apartment 5A. I brought a woman here for illicit purposes….” He indicated Winnie, who gasped and flushed and started protesting.

“It’s okay, ma’am,” the security guy chuckled. “He says the same thing when he brings other male agents home with him. We’re used to it.”

Winnie burst out laughing and slapped Kilraven on a big, muscular arm. “You beast,” she muttered.

“Actually, we’re getting engaged,” Kilraven told the security guy with a grin. “You can see why. She’s a trouper. She’s a 911 operator in Jacobsville.”

“I’m impressed,” the security guy said. “My sister is one for San Antonio EOC. Tough job. You have to love it to do it.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” Winnie agreed.

“We won’t be here long,” Kilraven said. “I just need enough time to convince her that I’m a good prospect. She’s reluctant.”

“Well, if you didn’t go off on secretive missions, shooting people and coming home with wounds, I might try to help you convince her. She probably thinks she’ll be a widow in a few months,” the guy replied.

“You shut up, or I’ll tell everybody who comes in here that you wear women’s lingerie under your uniform.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” the security guy said indignantly.

“Just try me.”

The security guard gave him an international signal with one hand.

“Yeah, and the horse you rode in on.” Kilraven chuckled.

They went into the elevator and up, silently. Kilraven opened his apartment with two keys and invited her inside.

It was amazingly elegant and neat for a man’s living space. There were original paintings on the wall and the furniture was good quality leather, white and spotless. The television was state-of-the-art. Several gaming consoles were connected to it. The carpet was beige, and the curtains were earth-toned.

“You said you didn’t watch television,” she accused.

He chuckled. “I don’t. But I have two, one here and one at the rental house in Jacobsville, to play games on.” He looked around. “How do you like the apartment?”

“It’s very nice,” she said, surprised.

“Did you think I lived in a cave?” he asked.

She grinned. “It wouldn’t have shocked me.”

“Well, this is my cave, and you’ll notice that I can pick up after myself.”

“I did notice that. Good job.”

“Don’t be condescending or I won’t marry you,” he assured her. “Coffee?”

“I’d love some.”

“Come on.”

He led her into a spacious kitchen with built-in appliances. There was a microwave, and sitting next to it, a huge coffeepot.

“I drink a lot of it,” he explained as he made coffee. “Most nights, I don’t sleep.”

She could see why, but she wasn’t keen to bring up his past. “It’s a nice kitchen.”

“Spacious,” he agreed. “And bright. I don’t use half the gourmet appliances I’ve got, but my brother comes over once in a while and cooks something for us. He’s a gourmet chef, very accomplished.”

“I heard that.”

He put out mugs and sat down at the kitchen table with her. “You’ve got a brother you didn’t even know about.”

“It came as a shock. Like my mother’s profession. I’ve spent years hating her for what Dad did to me,” she said heavily. “He hated her. I guess he thought the child was my uncle’s and he couldn’t forgive her for it. I’m sure she tried to tell him that Matt was his. Obviously, he didn’t believe her. My father was a proud man, but inflexible. He didn’t forgive people. Boone’s a lot like him, but less judgmental.”

“I like your brothers.”

“Me, too.”

The coffee was ready. He poured it, black, into two mugs and handed her one as he sat back down. “Down to business. We can get married by a probate judge here or in Jacobsville. Where do you want to do it?”

“Jacobsville,” she said without thinking about it.

“No frills,” he added firmly. “It’s a temporary marriage.”

She nodded. “Got you.”

“And no roomful of witnesses. Just Boone and Keely. I might have asked Jon, but he’s going to be out of town.”

“Okay.”

He scowled. “You’re taking this very calmly for a woman who wanted to beat me up a few days ago when I suggested it.”

“I changed my mind,” she replied.

He sipped coffee. “I won’t change mine, Winnie,” he said suddenly. “If you’re thinking I’ll be reluctant to end the marriage when this case is closed, don’t. I meant it when I said I didn’t want to remarry or have a child.”

“I know all that.”

He drew in a long breath, and suddenly he looked older, worn. “Rogers got shot working this case. Marquez got assaulted. A man who wanted to tell me about it was murdered and left unrecognizable.” He glanced at her worriedly. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to involve you at all. Maybe Boone was right. I could be putting you in the line of fire.”

That was flattering, that he was worried for her. “You also told Boone that there was no man around who could protect me better than you could.”

“Well, that’s true.”

“Of course it is. And it’s not like I’m going to be walking into a machine gun,” she added wryly. “I’m just going to help you get in touch with the senator’s wife.”

He sipped coffee again, thinking. “She’s the only hope we have of getting any inside information. The junior senator has already tried to stop the investigation. If it wasn’t for Senator Fowler’s help, we’d already have been forced to give it up. But I’m still not sure we won’t face more roadblocks. If the junior senator’s brother is involved in these murders, he’ll probably go the limit to try and save him. It’s just human nature,” he added solemnly. “I’d do anything to protect Jon, although he’ll never need it. He’s as honest as any man I know.”

“So are you,” Winnie said.

He smiled. “Thanks.”

“Why did you offer to let Matt stay with us?” she wondered.

He gave her a sardonic look. “Birth control.”

She flushed.

He chuckled. “Nothing gets by that young man. He’ll keep us honest. Besides,” he added, “he’s great at video games.”

“So am I,” she pointed out.

“Suppose you prove it?” he challenged with a grin.

He turned on the television and his game console and loaded the newest
Halo
game. They sat down and took up twin wireless controllers, and the game began.

But, as always, the dire Hunters started taking Winnie out the minute she encountered them. Kilraven gave her a sympathetic look and proceeded to take down the Hunters as if they were the humorous little grunts in the game instead of the sturdiest villains.

“How do you do that?” she exclaimed, breathless.

“It’s not that hard. Watch.” And he proceeded to show her his tricks.

Two hours later, they were still playing, except now Winnie wasn’t getting blown away by the Hunters every few steps.

She glanced at the clock and gasped. “It’s two o’clock!”

“Awww, and the coach turned back into a pumpkin, didn’t it?” he sympathized, blasting his way through a barricade.

“You don’t understand, I have to be at work at eight!”

He blinked. He looked at her. “Eight?”

She nodded.

He sighed and turned off the console. “Bummer.”

She chuckled. “It is, but I have to go.”

He put the controller down. Then he turned her into his arms and looked down at her with quiet, piercing silver eyes while her heart hammered up into her throat.

“Pretty and brave and plays video games,” he murmured. His eyes dropped to her mouth. “And tastes delicious…”

He bent and kissed her. It wasn’t like any way he’d kissed her before. It was soft, tender, teasing. And then, quite suddenly, it was fierce and hungry and demanding. He wrapped her up in his big arms, riveted her to his hard body that grew harder by the instant. He groaned, his mouth insistent as it pressed her lips apart.

Seconds later, she was stretched out on the leather couch with Kilraven’s body over hers. One long leg was in between both of hers and his hands were all the way under her blouse and bra, bent on exploration.

She would have protested. She just couldn’t get her mouth away from his long enough. Then he had her bare to the waist and he was poised over her, looking down at small, firm, pretty pink breasts with hard little dusky tips, and the expression on his face stopped the words in her throat.

He touched her as carefully as he’d have touched a butterfly’s wings. “My God,” he whispered, and the words sounded reverent.

She was breathless. She watched him, watching her, and her eyes were dark and soft.

He traced around a hard nipple, propped on one elbow, fighting for control. “I wondered what you’d look like,” he whispered deeply. His silver eyes glittered as he studied her with soft appreciation.

“I’m…small,” she managed.

He laughed. It had a predatory sound. “I like small.” He bent and brushed his lips very softly over the warm flesh, drawing a shocked gasp from her. He lifted his head and searched her eyes. “You haven’t done this before,” he said, surprised.

“I told you I didn’t believe in that sort of thing,” she managed.

“Yes, but most women indulge in petting at some point.”

She swallowed. “I’ve been rushed, grabbed, lunged at…” She searched his eyes. “You make it feel…”

“Dirty?” he asked shortly.

She remembered what she’d said to him, at the roadside park, and she winced. “I didn’t mean that,” she said. “I was scared.”

“Of me?” he asked, shocked.

“You’re a steamroller, Kilraven,” she told him. “You walk right over people. I was afraid you’d rush me into something I wasn’t ready for, and I fought the only way I knew how. It’s not dirty when you touch me,” she whispered. She managed a self-conscious smile. “I like it.”