KIDNAPPED, A Romantic Suspense Novel (18 page)

Hadn’t her marriage proved that fact? Quiet, staid Michael should’ve been the perfect man for her. Yet, when she needed his strength to help her fight the leukemia killing their daughter, he’d turned tail and ran. Oh maybe not physically, but emotionally he sprinted out of their marriage. It just took his body a while to follow.

A shiver shot through her as she stood in the cold night air, watching her brothers climb into Matt’s truck. She should’ve known they’d put their lives at risk to come help her. What had she been thinking to call them?

Jake stepped off the cabin porch as the truck pulled out. He made a B-line straight for her.

Oh yeah, now she remembered. Thinking had nothing to do with it. Her heart and her over-active hormones had taken control long ago.

“Samantha?”

He approached her like a lion tamer cornering a frightened cat. Oh he was smart all right. When she’d stormed out of the cabin, he’d been in great danger of getting his head bitten off. Now that she’d had time to calm down, he might only loose a finger or two.

Sami crossed her arms tighter around herself. “Done setting up your own suicide?”

“It isn’t a suicide mission.” He stopped inches from her. “But it’s the only way to draw out all the main players.”

“The plan sucks, Jake.”

He just stood there, a foot away, patiently studying her, waiting for her to make the first move.

Why were men so cocky about life? She turned away from him. No way was she going to show him the tears that had started running down her cheeks.

She felt him step behind her. He wrapped his arms around her, drawing her back against his chest. A shiver shot through her. He was so warm, so alive. Sami leaned her head against his shoulder. A shudder ran through her as the tears poured out.

“Shhhhhh, sweetheart. Don’t cry,” he murmured in her ear.

A second shudder, then another wracked her body. Jake turned her, kissing her softly, cradling her face in his hand. “It’s going to be okay, Samantha. I swear it.”

He smothered her face in soft, gentle kisses. Sami couldn’t stop her crying, despite the tenderness he poured over her.

“God, Samantha, you’re killing me. Please stop crying.” He led her slowly to the cabin, lifting her into his arms at the door and carrying her inside. He sat on the leather couch, holding her tight in his lap.

Slowly, the heat of the fire in front of her, and the warmth of Jake all around her, seeped into the cold emotional cave she’d slipped into. She relaxed against him, listening to his heart beat against her ear as he held her cradled in his arms.

“Sami?” Nicky’s small voice penetrated the mist of emotions still swirling around her. “Why do you cry, Sami?”

She fought to smile reassuringly at him. “I think I’m just a little tired, Nicky. Women sometimes cry when they get that way.”

“You are not scared?” The little boy peered at her.

His perceptiveness startled Sami. She struggled to sit up from Jake’s lap. It took a minute for him to release her so she could slide to his side. She drew Nicky beside her, wrapping her arm around his shoulders. “Nicky, I’m not going to lie to you. Yes, I’m scared. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you or Jake.”

“Jake is Big Partner, Sami. He not let Boss Kreshnin hurt us.”

She hugged Nicky close. “You’re right, Nicky. We can trust Jake to take care of us.”

If only she could trust him to take care of himself. Sami peeked at Jake. He reached out to touch her cheek, his eyes held their own promise.

“You okay now, sweetheart?”

She simply nodded, fighting a second, less intense volley of tears that threatened.

“Let’s get some food and rest then. Tomorrow’s going to be a big day.”

Sami agreed. She just prayed it wasn’t a bad one.

CHAPTER TEN

Sami finished tucking the covers around Nicky. She smiled down at his sleeping form. The little boy still had one hand clenched around the book they’d discovered on the shelves flanking the fireplace. He’d fallen asleep while she read to him from
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson.

“He’s probably dreaming of pirates and buried treasure,” Jake said from behind her.

She turned to see him standing in the doorway to the bedroom. Starting at his sock-covered feet, she let her eyes take in every inch of him. His jeans hugged his hips and powerful thighs, leaving nothing to her imagination, including the bulge of his desire. Naked from the waste up, her makeshift bandage, spotted with dried blood, covered his left shoulder. The firelight cast shadows across the golden skin and hard planes of his chest and abdomen.

She licked her lips, remembering how his skin had tasted earlier.

He cleared his throat, and she lifted her eyes to his face. Heat and desire met her gaze.

“You said you wanted to check your stitches?”

Heat filled her cheeks. She knew he could see she’d been thinking about something totally not related to his wound. She swallowed and approached him. Stopping mere inches from him, she reached up to remove the bandage.

Her fingers shook. She clenched them once, before opening them to try again.

Cursing herself for acting like a novice who’d never seen a half-naked man before, she forced her mind to function as a nurse. Jake was simply another patient in need of her attention.

Yeah right and the pope was simply a catholic priest.

Determined not to hurt him, she pried the tape loose from his skin, then peeled back the gauze. “I knew it. That little wrestling match with my brothers tore one of the stitches in front.” At least it wasn’t as bad as she’d imagined. “I’ll still have to check the back.”

“Will it have to be replaced?” The rumble of his deep voice next to her ear flowed over her like a warm bath.

“It’s already clotted over, so no. Which is a good thing, since we left all of my suture supplies back at my apartment. Besides after twenty-four hours suturing it now would only introduce more bacteria to the wound.” She gently prodded around the wound to be sure no pockets of fluid were trapped beneath the skin. “Okay, turn around.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Following her command, his shoulder and arm grazed across her chest as he moved.

Her nipples hardened in response and sent a new tremor of desire coursing though her. Her gaze shot to his face, and the cocky smile tipping the edge of his lips told her the contact hadn’t been accidental.

She returned the smile, then peeled the tape away a little less gently than she had before.

“Ouch.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did that hurt?” she asked with feigned innocence.

He chuckled. His back and shoulder vibrating beneath her fingers. “Yes, it did. But then I think you knew that.”

“Want me to kiss it and make it better?” The purr in her voice surprised her. She’d only meant to tease him, not seduce him. Or had she?

He turned his head, and all the teasing was gone from his face to be replaced by a tense stillness in the hard planes beneath his several days-old beard. A smoldering heat darkened the blue of his eyes. “Yes, I think you should.”

She held his gaze and leaned forward until her lips met his shoulder. The heat of his skin beneath her lips thrilled her, and she pressed closer, letting her tongue slip out to sample what she’d been craving moments before.

“Mmm. Nurse, I like your beside manner.”

She slowly pushed back and focused on examining the back of his gunshot wound. “There’s only one torn back here, too. Overall, I’d say you’re a very lucky man.”

He continued to watch her over his shoulder. “Yes, I think I am.”

The underlying meaning of his words made her blush again. “I’ll put some ointment on it to help it heal better and keep it clean.”

She moved around him into the bedroom, glad to put a little distance between them. Despite the intimacy they’d shared that afternoon, being near this half-naked man had her nerves on edge. Scooping up the tube of anti-bacterial ointment, she turned only to slam into his hard body.

He grabbed her by the elbows to steady her. “I thought it’d be easier for you to do it in here.”

She swallowed at the suggestion. What did he want to be easier, for her to cover his wound with salve? Or strip him naked and have her way with him?

“Sit.”

He followed her order, sitting on the bed, with his legs spread in the casual way men had of taking up more space than necessary, virtually trapping her between the bed, his thigh and the nightstand. She arched a brow and looked at him.

He grinned.

Okay. Two could play this game.

She opened the salve, squeezed and squirted a long row of the semi-greasy medication onto her fingertip. With her left hand resting on the top of his shoulder, she leaned over him to work the salve onto his back wound first, letting her breasts press into his chest and upper arm.

He sucked in his breath and she hadn’t even touched him with the ointment. She bit her cheek to hide her smile. It was nice to know that after all these years she could have that affect on a man, especially this man.

Gentle, so not to really hurt him, she rubbed the ointment around the wound and between the stitches. “Since I used dissolvable suture, I won’t have to remove them in a few days. They’ll fall out on their own.”

“Nicky’s too?”

Her heart flipped again at the concern for the boy’s welfare present in his voice. “Yes, Nicky’s, too.”

She finished, and pulled away from his body, turning to put more ointment on her finger. He grabbed her wrist mere inches from his skin. “What? I promise to be gentle.”

“Come here,” he said, as he guided her around his knee to stand between his spread thighs. He released her hand and settled his hands on her hips, moving her closer until she was wedged in against him. “Mmm, that’s much better.”

“Can I begin now?” she asked with a little laugh.

“Yes, nurse. Please make me feel better.”

His double meaning made her heart jump a beat and her cheeks burn. “You know I’ve had lots of male patients say that to me over the years.”

“You know why, don’t you?”

“I’m sure I’m not going to like the answer. This is my chosen profession after all. But okay. Why?” she asked as she smoothed the cool ointment against his warm skin.

He moaned slightly. “There are two theories on why. The newest one is that we all watched those student nurse porno flicks as teens.”

“Really?” she asked as his hands smoothed their way over her hips and down to cup her butt.

“Yes. It was a favorite of most of the fraternities on campus.” He slid his hands forward to the clasp of her jeans and popped the snap. “The theory continues that we all fantasize our nurse is dressed in white stilettos, white hose and garter belt, silk panties and a skirt so short we can see the creamy curves of her ass when she walks or bends over.”

Sami tried not to laugh at the cartoonish image he painted. His hands working down her zipper helped to distract her.

“There’s one problem with that theory tonight.”

“And that is?” She slipped her hands to his shoulders to balance herself and looked down into his dark blue eyes.

“You’re too overdressed for my sexy nurse fantasy. These jeans will have to go.” He shoved them down, his hands caressing her hips and ass before sliding over her thighs. With trembling legs she stepped out of them, still holding onto his shoulders.

“Mmm,” he murmured as he slid his hands back up her flesh to cup her ass cheeks. “That feels so much better.”

Sami swallowed hard, fighting her own urge to moan. “Wh-what is the second theory, professor?”

“Oh that is the one I prefer. It’s the caveman theory.”

“The caveman theory…of nurses…fantasy?” she stumbled across the words as his hands slipped up to her waist, lifting her sweater with them.

“Yes,” he lifted his hands, pulling her sweater up to her breasts and cupped them beneath it. His thumbs idly rubbed back and forth over her nipples. “Back when men were hunters for the food and protectors of their women on a daily basis, they looked forward to a soft, comforting woman to come home to and have their wounds soothed.”

“Ah, the tender ministrations of a woman to the big warrior.” She trembled as he kneaded her breasts through the silk of her bra.

“A tender angel of mercy to comfort him in his hour of need.” He lifted the sweater over her head. “Oh, baby. I’ve been thinking of seeing you like this ever since I laid these out for you to wear yesterday.”

Clad only in the wisps of blue silk that made up her bra and matching panties, she looked down to see him staring in near reverence at her body. For the first time she felt not just sexy, but seductive. She couldn’t remember feeling this desired by any man, ever.

The look on his face and his slow bewitching words had her so hot, she thought she’d melt into a pool of butter.

“Jake.”

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“I can’t take anymore.”

He grasped her by the hips and pulled her closer until he could grind her against his hard erection straining at his fly. “I’m afraid you’ll have to. I intend to enjoy every second of this.”

Unable to stifle the moan this time, she tightened her grip on his shoulders.

“That feels so good, doesn’t it, Sami?”

The first time he’d ever used her nickname and he said it with such passion. Her heart swelled with emotion. “Yes, so good,” was all she managed to whisper.

He slid his hands up her sides and around back and fumbled with the clasp of her bra. For a moment she thought she’d have to help him, when suddenly he had it free. He swept it forward, releasing her breasts, then pulled it up her arms as she relinquished her hold on him. He tossed it to the floor and grasped her by the wrists before she could latch onto him again.

“Do this for me,” he said and gently pushed her arms backward until her hands met behind her head.

Posed in such a submissive fashion, she felt so exposed, vulnerable. At the same time she felt worshiped, because the look on his face was the kind she’d dreamed of seeing on a lover’s face only in her dreams. Was this how super models felt? “Is this part of the caveman theory?”