Guarded Heart (9 page)

Morgan felt her frustration rising like a space heater
kicking in.

“How am I supposed to
relax
and
enjoy
the view
if there is a killer or killers out there looking for him? His
house
blew up last night—”

Destan had told her to relax and enjoy the view? That hardly
seemed normal.

“This isn’t what I was trained for, Kyle,
”
Brook said.
“
A Ranger is never supposed to let her guard down while on
the job.”

She paced to the opposite side of the cabin. “I’m glad you
have that level of faith in my ability to go off the grid, especially
considering I’m
on
the grid this very second speaking to you.”

Her usually throaty voice lifted. “What? How is this a test
for Master level? You do understand a man’s
life
is at risk—” She sucked
in a sharp breath. “You can’t be serious.” Brook exhaled noisily through her
nose. Her next words shook out of her mouth. “They don’t know what they’re
talking about. I
can
adapt—to any situation. I’m highly adaptable.”

Brook’s shoulders slumped. “Yes,” she said at a soft volume.
“I understand. I will do my best, Master Destan.”

She dropped her phone on the nearby kitchen island and then
tossed herself onto one of the natural wood stools. Morgan remained quiet while
she leaned over the counter as though she’d nap on it. The phone call hadn’t
gone her way. Clearly she needed a few minutes to herself.

Morgan tiptoed into the corridor for a look at the rest of
the cabin. His silent tour around the place was quick because every window was
an opening for a potential assassin. He discovered there was a second living
area with a large television, three bathrooms and a total of five bedrooms.

Would Brook let him sleep alone tonight? Did he
want
her to?

He silently laughed because the answer was a resounding no.

“Priest Seaton,” she called from the main room.

Morgan hurried back, brows lifted in question.

Brook gestured a limp hand around. “This is apparently where
we’ll be staying for the next few days while the Rangers watch the covens’
actions and track any large sums of money.” Her bitter tone and sour expression
made her opinion obvious. “My instinct is to fortify the place but I’ve been
told we’ll lose a hefty security deposit if I nail anything.”

An image of
him
nailing
her
flashed in his
mind. He battled it down before she could catch the spike of lust on her
empathy net.

“I’ve also been told this is a test for Master level
Ranger,” she said. “They want to see that I can adapt to any situation. I’m
supposed to make do with the cabin’s natural security to keep you safe. I
shouldn’t be telling you any of this but I feel the Rangers aren’t giving you
the appropriate level of support. You have the right to demand more from them.
You are the customer.”

He glanced at the private lake view and then back at her.
“Do you think you can keep me safe here?”

Brook drew in a slow breath and then released it over two
seconds. She scanned the exterior, deep in thought. Finally she looked him in
the eye. “Provided I did my job in the city and no one followed us, yes, I can
keep you safe here.”

“Then the Rangers have given me the appropriate level of
support.”

“Morgan.” His name sounded like an argument though she
didn’t explain why she’d said it.

He forced a smile. “You don’t get Master level if I complain
that you can’t keep me safe here, do you?”

Her mouth twisted but nothing came out at first. “Possibly.
But that’s no reason to take chances with your life. You can use my phone to
call Master Destan. He’ll dispatch another Ranger who isn’t currently testing
for Master level and get a better safe house.”

“I don’t want another Ranger.”

Brook stared for a silent beat. Morgan resisted the urge to evade
her gaze.

What was going on in her head? Was she recalling the limo
last night?

“Under the circumstances, another Ranger would be a good
idea.”

Her toneless response frustrated the Water out of him. Which
circumstances and
why
was another Ranger a good idea? Did she mean how
he couldn’t stop fantasizing about her? Or perhaps how he’d woken nude this
morning?

“I don’t want another Ranger,” he said. “You have always
kept me safe. You’re the best person for this job.”

She leveraged her weight onto the tips of her toes and the
stool. The new pose made her almost taller than he was. “I can’t keep you safe
if I’m avoiding you for an unrelated reason.”

His lungs halted. Had she admitted she couldn’t be around
him without wanting to have sex?

“Don’t avoid me,” Morgan said.

Brook glanced away. “I have to. I can’t…” She trailed off
with a deep sigh.

“You can’t what?”

“I can’t be indifferent with you.” Her blurted words were
almost resentful.

“Why would you want to be?”

“It’s why I’m the best Ranger. I don’t let my emotions
control me. I’m indifferent. But you…you’re all—”

“Emotion. We’re Water witches. We’re all about emotion.”

“I’m not. It’s a rare gift in a Water witch. Except…”

When it comes to me.

“Ever since we were kids, no one made me angrier than you
did,” she said as if she’d spoken the words he’d silently supplied. “Nothing
has changed.”

“You haven’t been angry today.”

“No, but you have.”

“I apologized for it.”

“That’s not what I mean.” She popped up off the stool and
stepped behind the island into the kitchen. “I’m sure I make you every bit as
furious as you make me.”

“Yes, but it’s because you point out my faults—the things I
secretly wish I could change.” He massaged his forehead while considering his
next words. “You hold up a mirror and force me to acknowledge things I don’t
want to. Like Mira…I didn’t want to see that she was infatuated. But you forced
it. I could have gone on blissfully unaware but eventually that would have
exploded in my face. So while I was momentarily frustrated with you, you helped
me in the long run.”

“And maybe I just ruined what might have been a romance for
the ages.”

Morgan snorted at her derisive response. “How could it be a
romance for the ages when the only woman I can think about is you?”

He pressed his eyes shut, unsure if he’d made a huge misstep
admitting it or if he ought to be relieved.

This was Broo
k. It was
definitely a misstep.

Before yesterday Brook would have assumed he was poking fun
at her. But last night… He’d certainly
seemed
into her before his lake
house had exploded.

She eyed him warily. “Why?”

“Why what?”

She slanted an impatient look at him, one he mutinously
mirrored.

“Why aren’t Mira and I a romance for the ages?” he asked.
“Or why are you the only woman I can think about?”

“Both.”

Morgan massaged his fingers into his temples and then leaned
against one of the only solid walls in the place. “Mira is too
high-maintenance. She’s easily jealous. And her emotions are all over the
place.”

“So she’s a typical Water witch.”

“I suppose.” He shrugged. “It’s strange though that since
I’ve been here, not a single witch has asked me to breed with them except her.”

Brook let her eyebrows arch at the news. While her kind was
raised to believe it was noble to further their race with pureblood births—even
if a relationship wasn’t involved—she’d never subscribed to the idea. “I assume
this is strange for a regional high priest?”

Morgan nodded. “My father had offers daily during his
tenure.” He hurried onward before she could suggest that perhaps women didn’t
find him to be an ideal male to father their offspring. “I had my share in the
Northwest coven I headed. I have this…feeling she’s keeping the others from
asking…as though she’d told them it’s not an option and I’ll become angry if
they suggest it.”

“Have you asked her about it?”

“No.”

“What about Irvin, wouldn’t he know?”

He took the few steps to the island. “He only laughs and
tells me I should be glad I’m not fighting off would-be mothers.”

Brook shouldn’t have smiled. Not when the Irvin in question
could possibly be the reason they were holed up in this…hedonistic…cabin in the
first place. What had Judy been thinking? Worse, why had Kyle allowed it?
Surely they’d seen pictures. They knew this was no safe house.

“As for why I can’t think of any woman but you…”

He had all of her attention now. Unfortunately.

“Maybe it’s because you do force me to look at myself. It
might also be because you’re the least high-maintenance woman I know. And your
emotions aren’t all over the place.”

So he liked her because she was a Water witch who was least
like Water witches?

Morgan went on, “It could also be because you’re beautiful
and sexy.”

Brook let out a loud snort. “No one has ever called me
beautiful
or
sexy.”

“Good.”

“Why is that
good
?”

“If they’re too foolish to see it then I can have you all to
myself.”

She swallowed down a sigh. “Morgan—”

“I know I signed a contract.” He leaned over the island
toward her. His gaze was earnest. “I know it’s against the rules. But something
isn’t right about this safe house of yours.” He gestured at the windows behind
him. “If your Ranger boss put you here with
me
then maybe they’re trying
to tell you something.”

Brook’s jaw clenched. “You’re right. They’re trying to test
me on the one rule I’ve never had a problem abiding by.”

“How did they know you’d have a problem with it now?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because I was so resistant to working
with you.”

Morgan stepped back from the island and stood upright. “I
also can’t stop thinking about you because I admire you.”

She shot him a reproachful look because she
knew
that
was a lie.

“You’ve always been brave enough to do your own thing,” he
said. “You didn’t let anyone walk all over you. And you didn’t let anyone else
get walked on either. You stood up for a puny boy against bullies even when he
was too afraid to stand up for himself.”

“You forget that the bullies broke the puny boy’s fishing
pole.”

“I didn’t forget. You tried to teach me how to be brave. I
didn’t listen.”

“That’s because I’m shit at teaching,” she said, derailing
his praise. “I was too abrasive and opinionated to get my points across without
insulting. You were always diplomatic and calm in the face of opposition. Do
you know how many years and hundreds of hours of meditation it took me to get
to where I didn’t want to hurl aspersions when a client did something foolish?
I don’t have an ounce of your ability to lead people.”

“Are you saying you admire me too?”

Brook let out a harsh laugh. “I guess I am.”

“I really want to see what we could be like together,
Brook.” Morgan’s soft words slithered under her skin, raising tiny bumps.

It was mad. They couldn’t be together and it wasn’t solely
because of the contract they’d signed. They’d be at each other’s throats. And
yet…she’d never felt desire the way she had with him in the car last night.

“I can’t,” she said, barely thinking it through. “I’ve
worked hard to get where I am now. I can’t risk my career on an uncertainty.
I’m sorry, Morgan.”

She strode for the nearest exit before their conversation
turned into an argument. It was time to check this “natural safety” anyway.

Morgan shifted on the sofa for no other reason than to make
noise. Brook had seemingly forgotten his existence. She’d spent twenty minutes
outside and then had been on the phone since she’d returned. He felt like a
neglected child acting out to get his parents’ attention.

But her refusal had put him in a foul mood much like a rowdy
youth. Brook’s logic was sound—that this was a test of her willpower on the
job. Morgan didn’t have to like it.

“I’m desperate. At this point any model would do,” she said
to whoever was on the other end.

Desperate. He wasn’t quite there but if forced to spend more
than a day alone with her in this decadent cabin, that could quickly change.

“You do?” Her pitch lifted. “Excellent. Where are you
located again?” Brook exhaled grumpily. “When do you close? All right. Thank
you. I’ll be there soon.”

She faced him. “I have to go out. I found a shop that
carries Tasers. If I can’t fortify the place, I can at least get my weapon of
choice.”

Morgan stood, meaning to follow her wherever she went.

“I want you to stay here,” she said with a shake of her
head. “The TV room has the fewest windows. Turn off the lights, close the
curtains and watch a movie. Whatever you do, don’t answer the door or phone.
I’ll be back before you know it. I’ll even bring dinner with me. Any requests?”

Her served with a dollop of whipped cream?

He grunted. “No. Are you sure you should go without me?”

She gave him a who’s-the-Ranger look that silenced any
further protests. “I’m leaving my number by the phone. Only use it in the case
of an emergency. If you see anyone other than me pull into the driveway or walk
around outside, call me. Don’t call me if you get lonely or decide you need
beer or something. Got it?”

He muttered his understanding.

She took a step closer. “Morgan, have you got all that?”

“Yes, Brook.”

Her assessing look implied she didn’t believe him. She
turned and left him alone despite her skepticism. Morgan listened as the rental
car pulled away. He’d
gotten
all that she’d said, but that wasn’t to say
he’d follow her suggestions. No, he needed to take the edge off and he’d rather
not do that while watching a movie.

* * * * *

Brook felt more secure now that the Taser was strapped to
her waist. Given her loss of control over everything else, it was nice to
finally return to a measure of normalcy. Though she would have preferred to
avoid Morgan, his safety was her priority. She’d pushed the car to the speed
limit everywhere she could on the trip without him.

The restaurant had taken far too long with her order given
she’d called ahead while she’d waited at the gun shop. Brook had killed more
time at a big box store after the gun shop and yet she’d still had to wait for
the pizza to come out of the oven. The world conspired against her—though
hopefully it was only benign conspiracies like hitting constant red lights and
being stuck behind slow drivers.

Her stomach growled at the scent of cheese and red sauce
wafting into her nose on the walk to the cabin. The door opened on its own
before she could hitch a hip out as a pizza box stand. A blond head appeared
and then a set of bare shoulders as the door widened.

She stared at Morgan with a combination of shock and
irritation. He was shirtless. At the door. When he should have been hiding in
the TV room.

“You’re
supposed
to be watching a movie,” she said as
he made way for her.

“I was also supposed to call you if an unfamiliar vehicle
pulled into the drive.” He reached for the plastic bags in her other hand.

She let him have them because the handles dug into her
fingers.

“I was beginning to worry,” he said as he crossed to the
kitchen island. “When an hour passed, I was concerned something had happened.”

Brook said nothing. She didn’t owe him an explanation. It was
a miracle the trip out had only taken as long as it had given the trouble she’d
had at every stop. And he now had deodorant, a razor and combination body wash
shampoo. Not to mention proper sleepwear so he wouldn’t have to snooze in the
buff. He should be grateful.

Morgan tugged light cotton pants out of the bag, arching a
brow at her. “Is this a hint?”

There was no good answer for that question. Brook popped the
top off the pizza box so she could snatch a piece. A mouth stuffed with cheese
and crust couldn’t be expected to speak.

“I should see if they fit.”

Brook tossed the pizza box on the island beside him and then
started for the other room, all while avoiding glancing at him.

“You could tell me how they look,” he called after her.
“Unless you saw enough last night.”

She froze where she was. Had that been a complaint or a
dare? Did it matter when the answer was the same?

Brook made a quarter-turn—only enough to see him out the
corner or her eye. “You don’t need my approval to know if they’ll be comfortable
for sleep.”

“I want your approval.”

This couldn’t end well.

Especially when the
snick
of a zipper meant he was
disrobing in the kitchen. Heavy fabric thudded to the floor. Morgan’s bare feet
slapped the wood as he walked. He was fully visible beside the island with his
boxers riding low on his hips and the sleep pants in hand.

The view should have been domestic—a male comfortable in his
kitchen. However domesticity was the last thing Brook thought of when she faced
Morgan. When had he shifted from an annoyance to a sex object?

Morgan flicked his elastic waistband. The boxers slithered
down his hips, leaving nothing behind except skin lightly coated in golden
hair, and a rapidly thickening cock.

Turn away.

But…this was another test. Brook could handle it. She lifted
her chin, staring Morgan in the eye. Whatever he was doing, it wasn’t going to
work. No matter how her insides heated and her mind provided sensory reminders
of how he’d touched her last night.

She ignored the prickle of awareness that raised bumps all
along her arms as he stepped into his new pants. Slowly he brought the cotton
over his knees and on up his thighs. The fabric caught beneath the jut of his
erection. Morgan paused a beat, perhaps ensuring she’d noted his arousal, and
then he loosened the cotton until he could capture the unruly appendage.
Sporting a miniature tent, he turned for his own piece of pizza.

Brook was no longer hungry for pizza. Without a word, she
fled to the TV room and forced herself into a meditative pose.

Morgan stared at the empty kitchen, painfully aware he was
alone and sporting a raging hard-on. Brook had watched him disrobe. She’d
spared glances for his cock. And she hadn’t shouted at him.

She’d
run
.

That was the last reaction he’d expected from the hard-nosed
Ranger. How was he supposed to feel? Deciding that meant understanding why
she’d fled. He was more likely to communicate with the squirrel running up the
tree outside the kitchen window than get anything out of Brook.

Although…

She
had
been surprisingly forthright earlier.

So Brook admired him? If he hadn’t wanted her before, he
surely did now.

New footsteps sounded like miniature shotgun blasts to his
head. He gripped the counter, waiting for her inevitable blowup. Yet it never
came. Instead she padded through the corridor and into a distant room without a
word.

Morgan listened for hints as to what she was up to now.
Water pattering against ceramic gave him a crystal-clear answer. She’d turned
on the shower.

But why had she left the door open? Was it in the effort to
keep an eye on his safety? She couldn’t let down her guard for five minutes
after she’d left for over an hour? That didn’t add up.

He stepped into the corridor, noting the light from the
bathroom cast a conical glow on the corridor’s wooden floor. He’d heard
correctly—she had indeed left the door open while she showered. Morgan eased
around the last corner, peeking as he went.

He choked on his next breath. Brook stood half nude with her
arm in the shower surround, checking the temperature. Her skinny jeans were a
sinful second skin that tormented as much as they covered, especially now that
her chest was bared. Breasts every bit as pert as he’d remembered thrust high,
begging for attention. Dusky areolas framed puckered nipples he could practically
taste.

She stared at him, defiantly sexy. Again he expected her to
shout at him. Instead, her hand reappeared from the tub, settling at her
waistband. Shockingly she unfastened the button. Slowly. Down the zipper came.
Each tooth it traversed heated his blood another degree.

Brook was disrobing. For him.

An invitation? Or a
dare
? They’d both signed a
contract. Less than twenty-four hours ago he’d vowed he’d do everything she
said. He should walk away.

Pink lace appeared between the V in the denim. All concerns
of contracts and morality were instantly blotted out. She might be a hard-nosed
Ranger but she was still a woman. And she wanted him.

Her fingers crimped the stiff edges of her garment. She
peeled them down, revealing healthy, toned muscles the likes of which he’d
never seen in person. She was in peak physical condition—a requirement, he
assumed, of her job.

Brook kicked off her jeans and stood nude except for a
tantalizing scrap of lace. She turned, revealing the fabric was practically
nonexistent on her backside. Morgan gulped at the sight of the thin pink strip
that disappeared between her firm ass cheeks. Never would he have guessed she’d
wear something so sensual beneath her tomboy wardrobe.

She reached for her clothes, thrusting her ass in the air as
she did. It was too much. If her actions had been a dare, he’d gladly forfeit
whatever prize if he could have her.

Brook reached a finger back and slipped it beneath the upper
portion of her thong as if the fabric were uncomfortable. And then she lifted
it. The flash of her unguarded sex was the last straw.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise when his tongue thrust
into her pussy. Not given the cloud of lust Brook had sensed for the past half
hour. But she’d not heard his movement over the water pounding the tile beside
her. Nonetheless, he was there, knelt behind her and lapping for all he was
worth.

Brook clamped a hand over the rail on the glass door,
swallowing down her startled gasp. Morgan’s rough tongue laved between her
folds, discovering sensitive spots no one else had. Warmth swelled through her
chest that had nothing to do with the steam filling the room.

This was wrong. Against the rules. And yet she couldn’t
bring herself to stop him from peeling away her panties.

Brook bit back a moan as he hauled her ass back, spreading
her for his invasion. A finger coiled around her clit and though the motion was
gentle, Brook hissed at the instant flood of sensation. She smacked the glass,
hardly able to hold herself up. The aroma of an ocean spray floated over her as
if he’d emerged from a wave seconds earlier. Images of them entwined on the
sand filled her mind.

His grip shifted and then he stood behind her, hot, urgent
and completely nude.

“Morgan!” she said before he could do more than rest his cock
against her back.

His breath rushed into her ear. “No one will know.” His
rasped words sent a thrilling zing to her nipples. “I won’t tell. They don’t
have this place wired for video or audio, do they?”

She’d done a sweep for bugs. It had been clean. But that
wasn’t the point. “I’ll know.”

“You’ll know what? That I wanted you so badly I couldn’t
wait until you discovered who was attacking me before I had you?”

Morgan reached around, slipping his hand between her legs.
He cupped her mound and slid a finger into her folds. The delicate stroke drew
shivers across her lower half and a moan she couldn’t hide. If he hadn’t
realized she wanted him in return, he certainly did now.

With dexterity she’d not given him credit for, Morgan
twisted her by the shoulders. A single beat passed in which his eyes were
visible in all their lusty glory before he fastened his mouth over hers. In
that moment the ingenuous priest became a desperate man.

Morgan cupped her jaw, tilting her head and holding her
firm. He sucked in her breath as though it were the only cocktail that could
sustain him. His tongue teased the tip of hers. Red sauce and his unique
saltwater flavor burst over her taste buds. Morgan twisted his head left, right
and left again, his lips pulling and possessing, tongue thrusting and
conquering every bit of her mouth.

Shock coursed through her—from the kiss, from the knowledge
this was Morgan Seaton and from the stirring his intimate embrace caused. For a
second she forgot they were nude—she imagined him clad in his tuxedo on the
dance floor, kissing her in front of dozens.

He tore himself away. Brook whimpered because it had ended
too soon.

“No one will know.” He held her gaze. “I swear to Neptune,
Brook. No one.”

I’ll know.

That took on a new connotation now. It was too late to save
herself from the memory of his kiss. Was that reason for or against continuing?

Morgan abandoned his wait, dropping to his knees so he could
tongue her nipple. Her head fell back as a long sigh escaped her.

The battle was lost when he smoothed his hand through her
pussy. Liquid desire surged, drowning her remaining arguments in her searing
need for him. Brook dug her nails into his shoulders. And tugged him up for
another of his stirring kisses.

Morgan froze for as long as it took to decipher her actions.
Brook had forced him to his feet.
She
had initiated this kiss. He slid
his tongue through her parted lips, drinking in all she shared. She was water
in a parched desert—a beautiful mirage he never wanted to dispel.