Mercenary's Woman (20 page)

MERCENARY'S WOMAN

DIANA PALMER

149

that's what the worried look is
about," he added when he saw her face. He smiled. "I wouldn't take
the law into my
own hands. Not in this country, anyway," he added with
a grin.

"Thank
goodness," she said heavily. "I had visions of
trying to bail you out
of jail."

"Would you?" he teased.

"Of course."

She looked so solemn
that the smile faded from his lips.
He gathered a handful of her thick blond
hair and pulled
her wan face under his. His grip was a little tight, and the look in his
green eyes was glittery. "Danger is an aphro
disiac, did you
know?" he whispered roughly, and bent to
her mouth.

He hadn't kissed her that way before. His
mouth was
hard and demanding on her lips,
parting them ruthlessly
as his body
shifted and one arm pushed her hips deliber
ately into the changing
contours of his own.

She felt helpless.
Her mouth opened for him. Her body
arched up, taut and hot, in the grip of
madness. She re
turned his kiss ardently, moaning when his legs parted so that he could
maneuver her hips between them, letting her
feel the power of his arousal.

His tall, fit body
shuddered and she could feel the sharp
indrawn breath he took.

After a few wild
seconds, he dragged his mouth away
from hers without letting her move away even a fraction
of an inch. He looked down at her with intent,
searching
her wide, soft gray eyes
hungrily. The arm that was hold
ing
her was like a steel rod at her back, but against her
legs, she felt the
faintest tremor in his.

"I've gone hungry
for a long time," he whispered
gruffly.

She didn't know how to reply to such a blatant state-

ment. Her eyes searched his in an odd
silence, broken only
by the whir of the attic fan in the hall and the muffled
sound of voices as Eb's men searched the house. She
reached up and
touched his hard mouth tenderly, loving the immediate response of his lips to
the caress.

He bent, nuzzling his
face against hers to find her
mouth. He kissed her urgently, but with restraint,
nibbling her lower lip sensuously. Both arms went around her, riv
eting her to him.
Her own slid under his arms and around
his hard waist, holding him close. She closed
her eyes,
savoring the
wondrous contact. The fierce hunger he felt
was
quite obvious in the embrace, but it didn't frighten
her. She wanted
him, too.

"When I heard
the explosion," he said at her ear, his
voice tight with tension, "I
didn't know what we were
going to find when I ran toward the house. We'd planned
for any eventuality, but the chopper came in under radar.
We didn't even hear the damned thing until
we could see
it, and then the launcher
jammed...!"

She hadn't imagined
that Eb would be afraid for her. It
was wonderful. She hugged him closer and felt
him shiver.

"We were a
little shaken,'' Sally whispered. "But we're
all okay."

"I didn't expect
to feel like this," he said through his
teeth.

She lifted her head
and looked up at his strained face.
"Like...this?"

His green gaze met her
soft gray one and then fell to
her mouth, to her soft breasts flattened against him.
"Like
this," he whispered and moved deliberately against her
while he held her eyes.

She blushed, because it was blatant.

But he didn't smile.
"I knew you were going to be
trouble six years ago," he said through
his teeth. He bent

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151

and kissed her again, fiercely, before he put
her away from
him and stood trying to get his breath.

She was shivering a
little in the aftermath of the most explosive sensuality she'd ever felt. She
searched his face
quietly,
despite the turmoil inside her awakened body.

"You've never
felt like that before, have you?" he
asked in a hushed tone.

She shook her head, still too shaken for words.

"If it's any
consolation, it gets steadily worse," he con
tinued. "Think
about that."

He turned and went
out into the hall with her puzzled
eyes following him. She touched her swollen
lips gingerly
and wondered
what he meant.

The sheriff, Bill Elliott, and two
deputies pulled up in
the yard, took
statements and looked around with Eb and
the other men. Sally was questioned briefly, and when the house was
secure, Eb drove her back to his house with the
rest of his men
remaining in the woods.

"I don't think
Lopez has any idea of trying again to
night," he said, "but I'm not
taking any chances. I've
already
underestimated him once."

"He does keep his word," she said huskily.

"Yes."

"What do we do now?"

"I take you and
Stevie to school and Jess stays at my house. In fact, you all stay at my
house," he said curtly.
"I'm not putting you at risk a second time."

She was stunned at the emotion in his
voice. He was
really concerned about her.
She felt a warm glow all the
way to her toes.

He glanced at her
with slow, sensuous eyes. "At least
at my own house, I can find one room with no
bugs." His

eyes went to her breasts and back to
her face. "I'm starv
ing."

She knew he wasn't
talking about food, and her heart began racing madly.

He caught her hand in
his free one and worked his fingers slowly between hers, pressing her palm to
his. "Don't
worry. I won't let things go too far, Sally."

She wasn't worried
about that. She was wondering how
she was going to go on living if he made love
to her and
then walked away.

When they got to the
house, Jessica and Dallas were in
the small bedroom Eb's male housekeeper had
given
Stevie, tucking him in.

Eb had his
housekeeper show the others to their rooms
and he excused himself, tugging Sally along
with him, to
Dallas's obvious
amusement.

"Where are we going?" Sally asked.

"To bed. I'm tired. Aren't you?"

"Yes."

She supposed he was
giving her a room further down
the
hall, but he didn't stop at any of the closed doors. He
led her around a corner and through two double doors into
a huge room with Mediterranean furnishings and
green and
gold and brown accessories.
He closed the double doors,
locking
them, before he turned to the dresser and pulled
out a pair of blue silk
pajamas.

"You can wear the pajama top and I'll
wear the bot
toms," he said
matter-of-factly.

Her breath escaped in a rush. "Eb..."

He drew her into his
arms and kissed her slowly, with
deliberate sensuality, making nonsense of
her protests with
his hands as they skimmed under the sweatshirt and up to
find her taut
breasts.

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153

She moaned, feeling
the fever rise in her as he unfas
tened the bra and touched her hungrily. Her
body arched, helping him, inviting him. Her hands gripped hard against
the powerful muscles
of his upper arms, drowning in
waves of pleasure.

His mouth lifted
fractionally. "I won't hurt you," he
breathed. "Not in any way. But
you're sleeping in my
arms
tonight."

She started to
protest, but his mouth was already cov
ering hers, muffling the words, muffling her
brain.

His hands removed the
sweatshirt and the bra and he
looked at her with quiet, possessive eyes, drinking in
the
soft
textures, the smooth skin, the beauty of her. He
touched her gently, smiling as her
body reacted to his
skilled hands.

His mouth slid down to her breasts and
kissed them slowly, each caress more ardent than the one before. He
had her out of her jeans and sneakers and down to
her
briefs before she realized what was happening.

He moved away just
long enough to pick up the pajama
top and slip it over her head, still
buttoned. He lifted her, dazed, in his arms and paused, balancing her on one
knee, to pull the covers back so that he could tuck her into bed. He leaned
over her, balancing on his hands, and searched
her flushed, fascinated face.

"I'll be in
after I've talked to Dallas and reset the mon
itors."

She didn't bother to
protest. Her gray eyes searched his
and she sighed a little unsteadily. "All
right."

His eyes kindled
with pleasure. He smiled, because he
knew she was accepting anything he proposed.
It was hum
bling. He kissed her eyelids closed. "Sleep well."

She watched him go, uncertain if that
meant he was sleeping elsewhere. She was so tired that she fell asleep
almost as soon as the
doors closed behind him, wrapped
in sensuous dreams.

DIANA PALMER

155

Chapter Ten

Sally had violent, passionate dreams
that night. She
moved helplessly under invisible caressing hands, moaning, arching up
to prolong their warm, sweet contact. Her
body burned, swelled, ached. She whispered
to some face-l
ess phantom, pleading with it not to stop.

There was soft, deep laughter at her
ear and the rough
warmth of an unshaven face moving against her skin,
where her heart beat
frantically. Slowly it occurred to her
that it felt just a little too vivid to be a
dream...

Her eyes flew open
and blond-streaked brown hair came
into focus under them in the pale dawn light
filtering in
through the
window curtains. Her hands were enmeshed
in
its thick, cool strands and when she looked down, she
realized that her pajama top was open, baring her
to a
marauding mouth.

"Eb!" she exclaimed huskily.

"It's all right.
You're only dreaming," he whispered,
and his mouth slid up to cover her lips as the
hair-
roughened
skin of his muscular chest slid over her bare

breasts. She felt his legs entwining
with her own, felt the throb of his body, the tenderness of his hands, his
mouth,
as
he learned her by touch and taste.

"Dreaming?"

"That's right." He lifted
his lips from hers and looked
down into misty gray eyes. He smiled. "And a lovely
dream it is," he
added in a whisper as he lifted away
enough to give his eyes a stark view of
everything the
pajama top no longer covered. "Lovelier than I ever imag
ined."

"What time is it?" she asked, dazed.

"Dawn," he told her,
smoothing her long hair back
away from her flushed face. "Everyone else is still
asleep.
And there are no
bugs, of any sort, in here with us," he
added
meaningfully.

She touched his rough
cheek gently, studying him as
he'd studied her. He was still wearing the pajama
trousers,
but
his broad chest was bare. Like her own.

He rolled over onto his back, taking
her with him. He
guided her
hands to his chest with a quiet smile. "I was
going to let you wake up alone," he murmured. "But I
didn't have enough willpower. There you lay, blond
hair
scattered over my pillows, the pajama top half off." He shook
his head. "You can't imagine how lovely you look
in the dawn light. Like a fairy, all creamy and gold. Irre
sistible," he added, "to a man who's
abstained as long as

I
have."

She traced the
pattern of hair over his breastbone. "How
long have you abstained?"

"Years too
long," he whispered, searching her eyes.
"And that's why I set the alarm in
Dallas's room to go
off five minutes from now. It will wake him and he'll
wake
Jess
and Stevie. Stevie will come looking for you." He