Her Enemy Protector (7 page)

He laid a finger on her lips, stopping any further protests from her. “Trust me. They don’t pose a threat.”

She frowned.

His grin widened. “Wanna really give them something to stew over?”

Her eyebrows raised in question, but that was all the response she had time for before he leaned down swiftly and captured her mouth with his.

Wow. Heat and man surrounded her completely, invading the darkest corners of her mouth and her mind. His lips and tongue were warm and wet, biting and licking and sucking like she was the best ice-cream cone he’d ever tasted, all sweet and drippy and melting, and he was determined to capture every last drop of her.

Her knees went wobbly without warning and she leaned into him, suddenly hot all over. She devoured him right back, and Lord, if her insides didn’t actually start to quiver with desire. She needed him like water in the desert. She hadn’t even known it, but her soul had been dried up, shriveled and parched until he breathed life back into her. She all but inhaled him, right there on the spot. Her leg started to creep up, to wrap around him, to press her core against the hard bulge at her belly. But then a sound that was more a groan than a chuckle came from his throat. No. No, no, no! She had to have more of him right now! All of him!

Gently, his fingers wrapped around the back of her knee, disentangling it from around his thigh. His thumb gave a single caress to the sensitive skin behind the joint, sending white heat shooting up her thigh and straight to her core. Her breath hitched and his gaze snapped to hers, his black eyes blazing.

Oh, yes. They definitely had a spark between them.
More like chain lightning.

He lifted his mouth away from hers. Cleared his throat.

She clung to his shoulders, not because she was needy and trying to seduce him but because her legs were so weak she wasn’t sure they’d bear her weight.

“Uh, well then,” he mumbled, “I think that pretty much seals the deal.”

“How’s that?” she managed to mumble back through the buzz of lust filling her ears.

“When Frick and Frack report to your old man that I just examined your tonsils with my tongue, and in public, I’m betting daddy dearest will stick a shotgun in my face and make me marry you if I don’t beat him to the punch.”

And abruptly, she became aware of several hundred people staring at her as avidly as if she’d just grown horns and a third eye. Why was her skin crawling all of a sudden at the idea of all those gazes locked on her and Joe? She’d made a spectacle of herself plenty of times. She’d even laid hot kisses on guys in public before, back when Eduardo didn’t watch her every move, back before Julia disappeared. But tonight, the party-girl mask just wouldn’t stay on. It kept slipping away, leaving her raw emotions unprotected, her heart on display. Her
heart.
Not an act. Not the public image that everyone always saw. But her. Carina. For real.

She never, ever, showed her true self to anyone. Not to her father. Not to rooms full of cynical, voyeuristic jet-setters, and certainly not to Joe. He was practically a stranger, for God’s sake! She barely knew him at all. And what she did know of him didn’t inspire a girl to think of happily ever after, kids and rocking chairs.

She vaguely realized that she was still bent half-backward over his arm, his strength supporting most of her weight. His body, hard and hot, pressed into her, branding itself on her memory, marking her as his.

And then with a quick bunching of his muscles, she was upright once more, whirling off into a kaleidoscope of light and color. Music throbbed in time with the pulsing desire between her thighs. Her breasts ached for his hard chest against hers once more.

With a snap of his strong wrist, he spun her away from him and pulled her back again. And then his other hand landed in the middle of her back, anchoring her sinfully against him.

She sighed in delight as he swayed back and forth. She might die right here, on the spot, from wanting this man so bad she could hardly stand it. She still tasted their kiss in her mouth and savored the spicy, clean flavor of him. It made a girl want more of him. Much, much more.

For all of her wild ways, she really had very little experience at seducing men. They had always come on to her, the rich, spoiled brat they were sure would spread her legs for the right man with the cash or the cool to earn the privilege. God, she was jaded. How had she gotten that way at twenty-four? She felt a hundred years old.

For a change, she went with her instincts and went on the offensive with Joe. She wanted more of what they’d just done. A lot more. She ran her fingers up the back of his powerful neck into his silky hair and undulated her body against his.

Her feminine intuition was right on target. Joe half growled, half laughed and pulled her even closer. He maneuvered her into the thick of the crowd of dancers, out of sight of her bodyguards. His mouth descended, capturing hers again. He kissed her with his entire body this time, surrounding her in his strength and grace as they danced, locked together in a sizzling embrace.

She was so dizzy she could hardly stand by the time the song ended. Another tune cranked up and the people around them gyrated as Joe tore his mouth away from hers and stared down at her. He looked as thunderstruck as she felt.

In the din, she barely heard him say, “We definitely have to get married right now.”

He sounded like he was talking about a whole lot more than their plan to escape her father. Her heart stuttered in shock. Was he really as attracted to her as she was to him? The thought sent her head reeling even worse than it already was.

“C’mon,” Joe shouted over the music.

She followed along as he tugged her hand. He led her quickly off the dance floor and toward the back exit of the club.

They cleared the dance floor and the direct blast of the speakers. “What are you doing?” she asked him.

“Getting out of here,” he replied as he hustled her toward the door.

“But Neddie…”

“Is still wading across the dance floor with Freddie. C’mon, hurry!” he urged her.

“But the others… They’re in the limo….”

“Exactly. They’re still in the limo. Out front.”

“How do you know that?” she demanded. “They could be in the alley out back right now.”

“Only one way to find out. C’mon!”

The wildness he’d set loose in her still prowled in her veins, hungry. Insistent. She wanted this man. No matter what the cost. No matter what the consequences.

This was really dumb. Dangerous at best, suicidal at worst. But damned if she hadn’t let him lead her off the dance floor quickly, and was making haste beside him for the exit.

They burst out into the muggy warmth of the night. The sultry air stoked the lust zinging across her skin.

“This way,” he murmured.

She broke into a run beside him as he raced toward a side street. They ducked around the corner, out of sight of the club. She didn’t have any illusions about being safe, though. Freddie and Neddie were bulldogs who’d never let go of their bone.

But when Joe yanked open the door of a dark Cadillac with tinted windows parked at the curb and urged her inside, that did surprise her. The vehicle’s driver pulled away quickly. She looked out the tinted glass of the back window in time to see Freddie careen into sight, huffing. But then their car turned a corner and her bodyguard disappeared from view.

She turned around to face front. Joe lounged casually beside her. He lifted an armrest and pulled a soft drink out of a concealed mini-cooler. “Thirsty?” he asked.

Joe had this escape planned before he came inside the club!
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had this car waiting for them. She ignored the soda, outraged. “You knew all along you were going to pull me out of there tonight, didn’t you?”

He frowned. “I wasn’t sure. I had a car waiting, just in case. An opportunity presented itself, so I seized it. Your father’s men are too careful to give us many chances to get away from them.” He peered at her in the dim interior. “Are you angry at me, Carina? I thought this was what you wanted.”

Joe’s hand captured hers gently, stilling it against his chest. She was arrested by the slow, steady thud of his heart under her palm. Not the heartbeat of a frightened man.

He said soothingly, “This plan isn’t only about getting you away from your father. It’s also about getting him to let you live your own life once and for all.”

Cari’s outrage subsided. “Where are we going?”

Joe looked her directly in the eye. His dark gaze was warm and compassionate. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured, “and so damned young.”

Young? She hadn’t felt young in a long time. Living with her father aged a soul. Joe’s smooth voice caressed her, raising the fine hair on her forearms. She tingled all over. And then his next words registered.

“We’ve got an appointment with a judge, princess. We’re getting married, remember?”

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She looked up at him uncertainly. “Are you sure about this?”

His smile would have lit the whole night sky if they were standing outside. “Yeah, I’m sure. How ’bout you?”

She stared back at him, losing herself in the midnight depths of his eyes. He’d take care of her. Keep her safe. Give her freedom. All those promises swam in his gaze. But she saw something more in his eyes, too. Something male and possessive that made her hands shake and her breath come in unsteady jerks. Something that made her pause a long time before she answered.

Finally, she took a deep breath and replied in a shaky voice, “Yes. I’m sure, too.”

Chapter 4

B
reathe, Cari, breathe.
Lord, bolting from that club had been a risky thing to do. She was supposed to be a wild child. Adventurous. The kind of girl who’d take eloping in stride or, at least, take it as a big joke. Drawing what shred of courage she could around herself, she turned to peer at Joe in the car’s dark interior.

“Since we’ve got wheels and have already ditched my watchdogs, why don’t we just head for the airport? We can hop the first flight to anywhere.”

Beside her, one of Joe’s silhouetted shoulders shrugged. “We’d never make it far enough out of the city to reach the airport. There are police checkpoints everywhere, and military patrols are crawling all over St. George. Plus, as soon as your pet thugs report to daddy, you’d better believe Eduardo’s men will be racing all over this city looking for you, too.”

“But—” she started.

Joe interrupted. “Any extraction plane or helicopter stands a good chance of being shot down. There is a civil war going on in Gavarone, after all. I could haul you out into the jungle, but it’s crawling with rebels right now and would put you at grave risk. Especially if you were caught with me.”

“Why’s that?”

Joe grimaced. “Let’s just say I’m not well loved by the rebels these days. I was involved in a little run-in with them a while back that took a whole lot of their people out of action.”

Her eyebrows shot up. He must be referring to that fiasco last year where the high-tech rifle Eduardo had stolen from Charlie Squad was mysteriously stolen back from the rebels he had hired to take it. Her father had been furious when the rifle slipped through his fingers. He’d also been livid that nobody seemed to want to tell him exactly how it had happened. Maybe someday she’d manage to pry the story out of Joe.

“Look,” she argued, “I’m no wilting lily. I can stand tromping around in the jungle for a while if it wins me my freedom.”

Of all people, the driver replied, “Joe’s right. It’s too dangerous to try to move you out of the city right now. Believe me, he’s examined every option. And the war severely limits his options.”

She frowned. “But there isn’t any fighting in St. George. The government regained control of the capital months ago.”

Joe retorted, “Then why are there
nightly
bombings, kidnappings and assassinations in the city? Why does everyone who owns anything more than the shirt on his back hide behind locked doors after dark and sleep with a gun under his pillow? This town’s a real slice of paradise thanks to your father and the revolution he’s funding.”

“What? My father—”

Joe cut her off. “Forget it. Forget I said anything.”

Not bloody likely. Her father funded the rebels? Actually, it made a certain kind of sense. It was exactly the sort of thing Eduardo would do. His ambitions certainly extended to buying an army and controlling a small country. Nausea rumbled in her gut. She didn’t want to think about the hundreds or thousands of people he was responsible for killing with this newest little venture.

And as for Joe…wow. That was quite a speech out of him. Until now, he’d been pretty laid back about life. It was almost as if his act had slipped for a minute there. Like a mask of casual reserve had fallen away to reveal the passionate man beneath.

But then he commented lightly, “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to avoid marrying me, princess. What’s the matter? Aren’t I your type?”

“Oh, you’re my type, all right,” she blurted out before she realized what she was saying. Her gaze snapped to his. Sure enough, he was staring a hole through her, his eyebrows quirked.

Oh, God. Here came the taunting, the exploitation of the weakness she’d just shown him. She braced herself for his sarcastic comeback. But he said nothing. He didn’t make fun of her crush on him or laugh at her or even smile. In fact, the only thing he did was reach out in the dark and take her hand in his. Maybe he wasn’t the only one whose nerves were causing the act to slip a little too much tonight.

The interior of the car went silent. They drove for a while toward an affluent residential section of St. George. Large homes nestled behind tall fences and iron gates and thick landscaping that hid most of them from view.

“Where are we going?” she finally asked again, breaking the thick silence.

The driver answered from up front, “To pay a little visit to a man named Miguel Cabot.”

She gasped as the name of one of her father’s most loyal supporters congealed in a knot of horror in her throat. “Judge Cabot?” she managed to choke out.