Hidden Agendas (9 page)

The senator had never heeded her cries though. He had :old her to "buck up," he had encouraged her to dry the tears and work harder. He was proud of her. Confused by her. But in the end, he did as he wanted, not as Emily needed.

Shaking his head, he stepped back from her doorway, closing the door gently behind him as his hands clenched around the silk and lace panties. He had to fight to keep from bringing the soft material to his face, to restrain himself from drawing the scent of peaches and cream into his head. If she thought she was getting them back, she was wrong. But he would see her in them again. And he promised himself he would pull them off with nothing but his teeth and devour the silky sweet flesh they covered.

As he moved through the living room the cell phone at his belt rang demandingly to the tune of AC/DC's

"Hells Bells." Grinning, he pulled it from the holder, checked the number coming through then flipped it open. "Good evening, Senator," he answered. "What the hell is going on?" the other man snarled into the phone. "You haven't been alone with her an hour and she called me nearly in tears begging for a replacement. What the hell did you do to her?"

"We're just getting our ground rules established, Richard," he assured the senator calmly. "She's a little upset over it."

"Don't try to pull shit over my eyes, son, I'm not a fool."

"No, you're not," Kell answered firmly. "You're a father answering to your daughter's anger. If you want me off this assignment I understand that." Like hell. "But as long as I'm on it, then I'll protect her as I see fit."

"Did you hurt her?"

"Do you really need to ask me that question?"

He could hear the silence in the background, he could practically hear the senator's mind churning.

"Emily is an intelligent, cunning woman. We both know that," Kell said then. "She twists her bodyguards around her little finger as easily as she would a ribbon. She's frighteningly brave, as she proved today at the strip club and in the excursions she's dragged her bodyguards into. I won't be conned, twisted, or convinced to let her endanger herself needlessly. It will take us a few days to establish the ground rules, but once we do, she'll settle in fine."

That was his story and he was sticking to it.

The senator remained silent. Kell followed suit. He checked the patio door locks, then the windows, working his way through the house and into the room he had been assigned.

"She's a good girl," the senator finally said softly. "Her feelings are easily hurt. Don't run roughshod over her, Kell. You could hurt her more than any of the others. She's always been infatuated with you."

And strangely enough, the senator had never pushed that infatuation and he had never pushed Kell toward her.

"I don't run over anyone, Richard. I simply convince them of my way."

Senator Stanton grunted at the comment. "If she calls me again, I'll consider her request. Whatever you're doing, fix it."

"You promised no interference," Kell reminded him.

"That was before the woman who's already halfway in love with you called, nearly in tears, begging for something she's never begged for before. Fix it, Kreiger, and do it gently. Or we'll have words. And you don't want that."

He would prefer to avoid them, but he could handle it.

"That's your choice, Richard," he finally answered as politely as he could. "Just let me know when I need to pack and I can be ready to roll. Until then, please refrain from calling to take me to task over your daughter's anger. It's detrimental to the assignment and creates a tension neither of us needs."

"Lieutenant Kreiger, you are testing my patience."

"And you should remember how well I excel at testing everyone's patience," he pointed out. "I guess you'll just have to forgive me for it again."

"You better hope I do," he snapped. "Now fix this. And that's a damned order."

The call disconnected as Kell shook his head on a wry smile. Dealing with the father might turn out to be more trouble than dealing with the daughter.

He laid the lacy panties on the dresser by the door, turned to the duffel bags, and began to unpack. The weapons went close to the bed, with the holstered back-up weapon strapped to the top of his lace-up work boots and the legs of his jeans covering it.

The Glock he normally carried on his belt was tucked into the bedside table, the automatic rifle and extra ammo pushed beneath the bed.

Clothes were hung in the closet and pushed into the dresser. Within minutes he was unpacked and staring around the room with a vague sense of discontent.

What was it about Emily Stanton that had always called to him? From the day he'd realized what a beauty she was growing into and how the fire was barely banked within her, she had made him hard.

Hard enough to hurt. Hard enough to scare the hell out of him and keep him running in the opposite direction for the past five years. There was something fresh about her, something wild and untamed. But it was restrained. Driven down and simmering beneath the surface as it fought to survive amid the life her father, loving though he was, was trying to force her into. Emily was never going to give her father what he needed from her. Senator Stanton wanted a pretty little dress-up doll who followed his commands and never thought to question them or her own happiness.

The problem as Kell saw it was that the two of them were too much alike. If Emily had been born a man, she would have made a hell of a Navy SEAL. But she hadn't been born a man. She had been born soft and gentle, easy to break and easy to scar.

He knew exactly how easy it was to break something that soft and delicate. Fuentes had already destroyed one woman in Kell's care. He wasn't going to let the drug lord destroy another.

He felt something twist inside him at the thought of his wife, Tansy, and the son he had never known.

Tansy hadn't been wild. She had been gentle, ethereal, as though her body knew she would be on this earth for only a short time.

She had made him laugh. She had made him see himself as something other than the heir to the combined Kreiger and Beaulaine fortunes though. She had opened his eyes and taught him how to begin maturing when his family would have continued to convince him he was perfection and that everything in his life had to be the same.

He could barely remember her face now. He hadn't dreamed of her in years, and the burning lance of pain had dimmed over the years. He felt regret. Fury at the evil that had taken her away from him and the knowledge that Emily had the power to hold him with a strength that he now knew Tansy never would have.

He had loved Tansy as a boy. If Emily stole the man's heart, then the risk to his soul could be that much greater.

He would never survive losing her.

She was like the little fox he always compared her to. Inquisitive. Stubborn. Sensual.

She was determined. She might not always know what she wanted, but she was working her way there, and Kell intended to become what she wanted. All those wild impulses. all that heated hunger was going to be his.

A man learned young that he couldn't tame the wind, so instead, he learned to become part of it, to channel it. That was the key to Emily. Channeling all that frustration and pent-up need for adventure. Like a vixen, like the wind, there was no taming her. But he could enjoy her. And that he definitely intended to do.

You didn't tell me that the elusive Kell Kreiger was now your lover, why?"

Emily restrained a sigh as she stared across the small patio table at her best friend, Kira Porter, the next day and gauged the suspicion in her eyes.

Heavy suspicion. She wasn't fooling Kira in the least, and she damned sure couldn't tell her the truth.

She had tiptoed around Kell the night before, watching him warily, trying to get an idea of the best way to handle him. She hadn't come up with anything yet. Of course, it would have helped if she actually knew a bit more about him than she did. She knew he wouldn't hurt her. She knew he could be trusted, depended upon. He was a friend to her father, and in the back of her mind she had always known she could call on him if she needed him.

Though she never had.

"He can hear you, Kira," she pointed out with a frown instead. "Keep your voice down."

The other half of that coin was the fact that he didn't know her as well as he thought he did either. She didn't need to give him any added information.

"Emily, the man just pulled you out of your bed, fixed you coffee, and somehow procured cinnamon rolls before you awoke, all without a single kiss or tussle. He's another bodygaurd, isn't he, and you're just too ashamed to admit you gave in to your daddy again."

"He's not a bodyguard." Emily kept her voice firm and free of frustration with a struggle. "Really, Kira, you're making too much of this. I don't tell you everything."

"When it comes to men you do." Kira snorted. "I've listened to you rant for hours."

"Only when they fail to please me," Emily pointed out with a smile. "Maybe Kell pleases me."

Emily kept the smug smile on her face as she sat back and savored the coffee Kell had made. It was excellent, damn him. And somehow, he had managed to get fresh cinnamon rolls without leaving the house.

"Yeah. Right." Kira propped her chin on her hand, her gray eyes staring across the table mockingly as her shoulder-length black hair fell forward and gave her face an exotic slant.

Kira was quite simply gorgeous. Perfect facial features, pouty lips, seductively tilted eyes, and perfectly arched brows. She considered herself the ultimate seductress with just enough mocking amusement to assure a person that she didn't take it seriously.

But more than one of Emily's bodyguards had fallen half in love with her, while the others had been panting like wolves after a prime slice of meat.

"Yeah, right." Emily nodded, wishing her friend would drop the subject, and much too aware of Kell sitting in the living room just inside the door, pretending to watch CNN.

"So, he relieved you of that nasty virginity problem you had without so much as a love bite? He should be congratulated."

Emily choked on her coffee, nearly spewing it in Kira's amused face as she stared back at her friend in horror. Oh God, she was going to kill Kira. She was going to string her up. She was going to lock her front door and never, ever allow the other woman in her home again. At least, not until Kell Kreiger was gone.

She felt mortification sweep through her, burning beneath her cheeks before spreading over the rest of her face.

There wasn't a chance in hell that Kell hadn't heard that one.

"Maybe I prefer my love bites to be hidden, Ms. Porter." His voice sounded behind them, calm, controlled, displeased. "And I never considered Emily's virginity to be a nasty little problem."

Emily propped her hands on the table, covered her face, and felt like sinking into the cement beneath her.

"I do not need you out here." She gritted her teeth as she forced her hands down and turned her head to glare at him.

The corner of his lips kicked up in a grin, his green eyes sweeping over her as though he owned her body and knew every inch of it better than she did herself.

He leaned casually against the doorframe, staring down at her with mocking arrogance and amusement.

"We need to go to the grocery store, sugar," he told her as though she didn't already know that. "Those cinnamon rolls only last so long and then I'm going to need food. Takes energy to keep up with you."

Kira snorted. Emily felt like snarling.

"I'll excuse myself then." Kira straightened from the chair, sleek tanned skin revealed by the low-cut camisole top she wore and snug low-rise white shorts.

She looked like a sex goddess rising from a pedestal and deigning to give mere mortals the briefest glimpse of her perfectly flat stomach.

Emily reminded herself that she hated skinny women. Sitting there, still dressed in the loose sleep shirt and cotton leggings she wore in bed, she felt like a frump.

Her hair was barely brushed, she was makeup free, and she felt like she had wrestled her bed all night long. She'd just wrestled the blankets and her own arousal instead.

"Show up a little later tomorrow morning, Kira," Emily asked as she rose from her own chair, determined to ignore her lack of polish and less than glamorous effect in doing so.

"She might be busy," Kell murmured.

"Uh-huh." Kira's snicker wasn't in the least cruel. It was good-natured, but that didn't detract from the disbelief in it. "It always amazes me how Emily manages to draw her bodyguards into whatever scheme she decides to set up." Her gaze went over Kell. "But I have to admit, she did very well this time."

"Go to hell, Kira." It wasn't the first time she had consigned her friend to those fiery depths.

"They're tired of me there." Kira laughed. "I think I'll head out shopping instead. Uncle Big Bucks sent me a gift card for my birthday and I intend to put it to very good use." Kira's uncle kept her in gift cards, vehicles, and a round of invitations to the best parties. The other woman was the slightest bit spoiled, but good-natured. The problem with Kira was that she never let Emily get away with even the smallest lie.

She seemed to see right through her.

Emily followed her friend through the house and watched as she left, giving her a jaunty wave before she turned slowly to Kell as he closed the patio doors.

"This is so not going to work," she snapped. "People •now me, Kell. I don't lie worth shit and Daddy knows it.

"Now you know it. Revise your little game plan and figure out how to fix it."

"I'm getting a little tired of people telling me to fix their problems," he grunted, his gaze brooding as he stared back at her. "Why didn't you tell me before this that you were a virgin?" She was going to burn to ash she was blushing so much. Emily glared back at him as she ground her molars in frustration.

"Because it's none of your business?" she questioned him sweetly.

"Everything you do is now my business," he informed her. "Get used to it. Now, let's see what we have to do to convince your very suspicious friend that I'm already making a meal of your delightful little body."