Her Kind of Hero (11 page)

“Dear God!” he exclaimed.

“So after that, I wore floppy old clothes and no makeup and pulled my hair back so I looked like the plainest old maid on earth, and I acted real tough. They left me alone. Then my mother married your dad,” she added. “And I didn't have to be afraid anymore. Except it was worse,” she murmured drowsily, “because I wanted you to touch me. But you didn't like me that way. You said I was a tramp, like my mother…”

“I didn't mean it,” he ground out. “I was only trying to spare you more heartache. You were just a baby, and I was old enough to know better. It was the only way I knew to keep you at arm's length.”

“You wanted my mother,” she accused miserably.

“Never!” he said, and sounded utterly disgusted. “She was hard as nails, and her idea of femininity was complete control. She was the most mercenary human being I ever met.”

Her pale blue eyes blinked as she searched his black ones curiously. “You said I was, too.”

“You're not mercenary, honey,” he replied quietly. “You never were.”

She sighed, and her breasts rose and fell, drawing his attention again. “I feel so funny, Micah,” she murmured.

“Funny, how?” he asked without thinking.

She laughed softly. “I don't know how to describe it. I feel…like I'm throbbing. I feel swollen.”

She was describing sexual arousal, and he was fighting it like mad. He drew in a long, slow breath and forced himself to let go of her wrists. Her arms fell to her sides and he stared helplessly at the thrust of her small, firm breasts.

“It's so sad,” she sighed. “The only time you've ever looked at me or touched me was because I was hurt and needed medical attention.” She laughed involuntarily.

“You have to stop this. Right now,” he said firmly.

“Stop what?” she asked with genuine curiosity.

He lifted the sheet and placed it over her breasts, pulling one of her hands up to hold it there.

She glowered at him as he got to his feet. “That's great,” she muttered. “That's just great. Are you the guy at a striptease who yells ‘put it back on'?”

He chuckled helplessly. “Not usually, no. I'll leave the door between our rooms and the bathroom open. You can sing out if you get scared again.”

“Gosh, you're brave,” she said. “Aren't you afraid to leave your door unlocked? I might sneak in and ravish you in your sleep.”

“I wear a chastity belt,” he said with a perfectly straight face.

Her eyes widened and suddenly she burst out laughing.

He grinned. “That's more like it. Now lie back down and stop trying to seduce me. When you wake up and remember the things you've said and done tonight, you'll blush every time you look at me.”

She shrugged. “I guess I will.” She frowned. “What was in those pills?”

“A sedative. Obviously it has an unpredictable reaction on you,” he commented with a long, amused look. “Either that or I've discovered a brand-new aphrodisiac. It makes retiring virgins wanton, apparently.”

She glared up at him. “I am not wanton, and it wasn't my fault, anyway. I was very scared and you came running in here to flaunt your bare chest at me,” she pointed out.

“You were the one doing the flaunting,” he countered. “I'm going to have Lisette buy you some gowns, and while you're here, you'll wear them. I don't keep condoms handy anymore,” he added bluntly.

She flushed and gasped audibly. “Micah Steele!” she burst out, horrified at the crude remark.

“Don't pretend you don't know what one is. You're not that naive. But that's the only way I'd ever have sex with you, even if I lost my head long enough to stifle my conscience,” he added bluntly. “Because I don't want kids, or a wife, ever.”

“I've already told you that I'm not proposing marriage!”

“You tried to seduce me,” he accused.

“You tempted me! In fact, you drugged me!”

He was trying valiantly not to laugh. “I never!” he defended himself. “I gave you a mild sedative. A very mild sedative!”

“It was probably Spanish Fly,” she taunted. “I've read about what it's supposed to do to women. You gave it to me deliberately so that I'd flash my breasts at you and make suggestive remarks, no doubt!”

He pursed his lips and lifted his chin, muffling laughter. “For the record, you've got gorgeous breasts,” he told her. “But I've
never seen myself as a tutor for a sensuous virgin. In case you were thinking along those lines.”

She felt that compliment down to her toes and tried not to disgrace herself by showing it. Apparently he didn't think her breasts were too small at all. Imagine that! “There are lots of men who'd just love to have sex with me,” she told him haughtily.

“What a shame that I'm the only one you'd submit to.”

She glared at him. “Weren't you going back to bed?” she asked pointedly.

He sighed. “I might as well, if you're through undressing for me.”

“I didn't undress for you! I sleep like this.”

“I'll bet you didn't before you moved in with my father and me,” he drawled softly.

Her flush was a dead giveaway.

“
And
you never locked your bedroom door at home,” he added.

“For all the good it did me,” she said grimly.

“I never got my kicks as a voyeur, especially with precocious teenagers,” he told her. “You're much more desirable now, with a little age on you. Not,” he added, holding up one lean hand, “that I have any plans to succumb. You're a picket-fence sort of woman.”

“And you like yours in combat gear, with muscles,” she retorted.

His eyes sketched her body under the sheet. “If I ever had the urge to marry,” he said slowly, “you'd be at the top of my list of prospects, Callie. You're kindhearted and honest and brave. I was proud of you in the jungle.”

She smiled. “Were you, really? I was terribly scared.”

“All of us are, when we're being hunted. The trick is to keep going anyway.” He pushed her down gently with the sheet up to her neck and her head on the pillow, and he tucked her in very gently. “Go back to sleep,” he said, tracing a path down her cheek with a lean forefinger. He smiled. “You can dream about having wild sex with me.”

“I don't have a clue about how to have wild sex,” she pointed out. She lifted both eyebrows and her eyes twinkled as she gave him a wicked smile. “I'll bet you're great in bed.”

“I am,” he said without false modesty. “But,” he added somberly, “you're a virgin. First times are painful and embarrassing, nothing like the torrid scenes in those romance novels you like to read.”

She drew in a drowsy breath. “I figured that.”

He had to get out of here. He was aroused already. It wouldn't take much to tempt him, and she'd been through enough already. He tapped her on the tip of her nose. “Sleep well.”

“Micah, can I ask you something?” she murmured, blinking as she tried to stay awake.

“Go ahead.”

“What did my mother see that made her think she'd enticed you that night we had the blowup?”

“Are you sure you want to know?” he asked. “Because if you do, I'll show you.”

Her breath caught in her throat and her heart pounded. She looked at him with uninhibited curiosity and hunger. “I'm sure.”

“Okay. Your choice.” He unsnapped his pajama bottoms, and let them fall. “She saw this,” he said quietly.

Her eyes went to that part of him that the pajamas had
hidden. She wasn't so naive that she hadn't seen statues, and photographs in magazines, of naked men. But he sure didn't look like any of the pictures. There were no white lines on him anywhere. He was solid muscle, tanned and exquisitely male. Her eyes went helplessly to that part of him that was most male, and she almost gasped. He was impressive, even to an innocent.

“Do you understand what you're seeing, Callie?” he asked quietly.

“Yes,” she managed in a husky whisper. “You're…you're aroused, aren't you?”

He nodded. “When I got away from you that Christmas night, I was like this, just from being close to you,” he explained quietly, his voice strained. “The slacks I was wearing were tailored to fit properly, so it was noticeable. Your mother was experienced, and when she saw it, she thought it was because of her. She was wearing a strappy little silver dress, and she had an inflated view of her own charms. I found her repulsive.”

“I didn't know men looked like that.” Her lips parted as she continued to stare at him. “Are you…I mean, is that…normal?”

“I do occasionally inspire envy in other men,” he murmured with a helpless laugh. He pulled his pajama trousers back up and snapped them in place, almost shivering with the hunger to throw himself down on top of her and ravish her. She had no idea of the effect that wide-eyed curiosity had on him. “Now I'm getting out of here before it gets any worse!” he said in a tight voice. “Good night.”

She stretched, feeling oddly swollen and achy. She stretched, feeling unfamiliar little waves of pleasure washing over her at
the intimacy they'd just shared. She noticed that his face went even tauter as he watched her stretch. It felt good. But she was really sleepy and her eyelids felt heavy. Her eyes began to close. “Gosh, I'm tired. I think I can sleep…now.” Her voice trailed off as she sighed heavily and her whole body relaxed in the first stages of sleep.

He looked at her with pure temptation. She'd been sedated, of course, or she'd never have been so uninhibited with him. He knew that, but it didn't stop the frustrated desire he felt from racking his powerful body.

“I'm so glad that one of us can sleep,” he murmured with icy sarcasm, but she was already asleep. He gave her one last, wistful stare, and went out of the room quickly.

 

The next morning, Callie awoke after a long and relaxing sleep feeling refreshed. Then she remembered what had happened in the middle of the night and she was horrified.

She searched through the bag Micah's friend had packed for her, looking for something concealing and unnoticeable, but there wasn't a change of clothing. She only had the jeans and shirt she'd been wearing the day before. Grimacing, she put them back on and ran a brush through her short dark hair. She didn't bother with makeup at all.

When she went into the kitchen, expecting to find it empty, Micah was going over several sheets of paper with a cup of black coffee in one big hand. He gave her a quick glance and watched the blush cover her high cheekbones. His lean, handsome face broke into a wicked grin.

“Good morning,” he drawled. “All rested, are we? Ready for another round of show and tell?”

She ground her teeth together and avoided looking directly at him as she poured herself a cup of coffee from the coffee-maker on the counter and added creamer to it.

“I was drugged!” she said defensively, sitting down at the table. She couldn't make herself look him in the eye.

“Really?”

“You should know,” she returned curtly. “You drugged me!”

“I gave you a mild sedative,” he reminded her. He gave her a mischievous glance. “But I'll be sure to remember the effects.”

She cleared her throat and sipped her coffee. “Can you find me something to do around here?” she asked. “I'm not used to sitting around doing nothing.”

“I phoned Lisse about thirty minutes ago,” he said. “She'll be over at ten to take you shopping.”

“So soon?” she asked curiously.

“You don't have a change of clothes, do you?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No.”

“Maddie travels light and expects everyone else to, as well,” he explained. “Especially in tight corners. I'll give you my credit card…”

“I have my own with my passport,” she said at once, embarrassed. “Thanks, but I pay my own way.”

“So you said.” He eyed her over his coffee cup. “I won't expect anything in return,” he added. “In case that thought crossed your mind.”

“I know that. But I don't want to be obligated to you any more than I already am.”

“You sound like me, at your age,” he mused. “I never liked to accept help, either. But we all come to it, Callie, sooner or later.”

She let out a slow breath and sipped more coffee. “I couldn't
repay you in a hundred years for what you did for me,” she said gently. “You risked your life to get me out of there.”

“All in a day's work, honey,” he said, and smiled. “Besides,” he added. “I had a score to settle with Lopez.” His face hardened. “I've got an even bigger one to settle, now. I have to put him out of action, before he organizes his men and goes after Dad!”