Star Bright (40 page)

“This is driving me
crazy
,” she cried. “What if he’s just biding his time until the FBI stops guarding me? Surveillance is costly. Eventually, if nothing happens, won’t they consider reassigning the agents here to another case?”

“They might,” he acknowledged.

“Then what? I’m left hung out to dry?”

He sat forward and reached across the desk to grasp her hands. “Sweetheart, calm down. The FBI won’t call off their dogs unless they’re confident that Danning no longer poses a threat to you.”

Rainie gulped down a shrill protest and struggled to regain her composure. “I
know
him, Parker. He’ll never rest, not as long as I’m alive. I belong to him. Don’t you see? He’s a twisted, sick man, and in his mind, I have to be punished for leaving him.”

“You don’t belong to him, not anymore,” he assured her huskily. “You’re mine now, and trust me when I say, I guard what’s mine. If the FBI loses interest in the case and leaves you unprotected, my family and I will take over from there. Stop worryin’. Okay? You’re gonna make yourself sick.”

The truth was that Parker was every bit as worried as Rainie was. Why wasn’t Danning making a move? One week soon became two, two became three, and Peter Danning was still maintaining high visibility in Seattle and playing the press for all it was worth. No matter how Parker looked at it, that made no sense to him. By all accounts, Danning was a maniacal killer. If he stayed true to form, he had to come after Rainie sooner or later. What if the man was actually cunning enough to bide his time until Rainie had no protection?

The suspicion intensified Parker’s determination to keep Rainie in training until he felt confident that she’d be able to protect herself from any kind of physical attack. When she came to work each morning, safely hidden from prying eyes in the arena, Parker’s first order of business each day was to work with her. He became a merciless taskmaster, putting her through a grueling exercise regimen, and then pushing her harder and harder as she trained with the punching bag and weights that he’d borrowed from Quincy’s home gym.

“Strength, speed, and automatic reflexes!” he drilled, day after day. “Make him
your
victim and show no mercy.”

The office work suffered as Parker lengthened Rainie’s training periods, but as the days passed, his reward was to see the woman he loved become a toned, ruthless fighter. Early on, Parker could push his face at her, tell her to hit him, and then easily dance away, but as time wore on, Rainie became faster and faster, until one day when she managed to belt him with all her strength, squarely in his eye socket.

“Oh, my
God
!” she cried.

One hand clamped over his eye, Parker waved her away. “I’m all right,” he assured her. Then, as the pain radiated through his skull, he said, “Damn, girl, you’re startin’ to pack a wallop.”

“I’m sorry. You always duck! I never meant to hit you for real.”

It suddenly struck Parker as being funny, and he started to laugh. When he saw the indignant look that crossed Rainie’s sweet face, he caught her around the waist with one arm and hauled her up against him. “Kiss it and make it better,” he requested with a chuckle. “I’m
proud
of you, Rainie mine. This is
exactly
what we’ve been workin’ toward, and now it’s official. My lady can kick ass and take names.”

She lightly touched his cheekbone, her hazel eyes shadowed with regret. “It was never my aim to kick yours.”

Parker often felt that he might drown in the depths of those eyes, and the feeling came over him then, stronger than ever before. He bent his head toward hers, wanting, needing to kiss her. With each passing night that he held her in his arms, his physical yearnings became more and more urgent. He’d promised her that he would wait as long as she needed him to, but,
damn
, it was reaching a critical point for him.

Her eyes went soft with love for him, and to his surprise, her lips met his in soft surrender, issuing what he could only interpret as an invitation. A rushing sound pounded against his eardrums as he claimed her mouth. His heart started to beat so hard that he felt sure it might fracture one of his ribs.
Rainie.
He’d never wanted any woman as intensely as he wanted her. Her mouth. She tasted so damn sweet, like mulled wine with a touch of cinnamon. Always before, Parker had been cautious while kissing her, not wanting to do anything that might remind her of Danning. But this time he lost it, delving deep into the recesses of her mouth with his tongue, tracing the shape of her small teeth, teasing the sensitive skin between her lips and her gums.
Rainie.
God, how he loved her. The emotion roiled through him with volcanic force, and he no longer felt certain he had the strength of will to hold himself back.

“Showtime!” Jericho yelled from the opposite end of the arena. “I got tickets, ten bucks a head.”

Parker jerked back to reality, realizing with a shock that he’d run his hands under Rainie’s T-shirt and had been about to touch her breasts right there in front of God and everybody. Fiery heat rushed up his neck to pool in his face. He straightened quickly away from her and dropped his arms. She teetered toward him before catching her balance. Parker half expected her to blush with embarrassment and run for cover. Instead her beautiful eyes filled with a mischievous twinkle, and her soft mouth curved into a sultry, flirtatious smile.

“Later, cowboy.”

He could scarcely believe his ears.
Later?
Could that possibly mean what he hoped it meant? He took careful measure of her expression, but before he could get a good reading on her, she danced away on the balls of her feet and resumed a fighting stance. With no little effort, Parker forced his mind back onto the training session.

They’d been practicing her takedown kicks and punches for days, and until this morning, Parker had always managed to dodge the blows. Now that he’d been treated to a fist in his eye socket, he no longer felt quite so confident in his ability to parry her thrusts. At the same time, he still didn’t feel she was ready for him to curtail the one-on-one sparring. The more she practiced with him, the better prepared she would be for Danning.

“Okay, you obviously have your punching technique mastered,” he said as they circled each other. “So let’s work on your kicks for a while.”

“I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.”

“Because you got in one lucky hit?” Parker circled her, ready to dodge whatever came his way. “Don’t wimp out on me. You’re gettin’ good, darlin’, but you’re not yet
that
good. Come at me with everything you’ve got.”

It had become her habit to call out a warning before she took aim at a part of his body. “Knees!” she cried, and then came at him like a little whirlwind.

Parker bounced to one side so her foot met with empty air. “Excellent form,” he told her. “More force, though. Put everything you’ve got into it. You won’t hurt me, I promise.”

After recovering her balance, she came at him again. “Groin!”

Parker angled his body to take the force of the blow on his thigh. “Good job!”

“Stomach!” she cried next.

He folded at the waist to minimize the impact as her foot connected with his belly. “Awesome, Rainie. You’re so quick now that he’ll never see it comin’.”

“Groin!” she yelled again.

Parker turned at the waist to take the blow on his thigh again, but her foot came at him with such speed that he didn’t react quickly enough.
Pain.
It exploded in his scrotum and shot up into his lower abdomen. A red haze blinded him. Dimly he was aware that he dropped like a fallen tree, his knees hitting the dirt with such force that the dust mushroomed in a cloud around him.
Oh, God.
Crossing his wrists, he thrust his hands between his thighs, hunched forward, and then rolled onto his side. Nausea crawled up his throat. The pain was so intense that he couldn’t even breathe.

As if from a great distance, he heard Rainie saying, “Parker? Oh, God, Parker, are you all right? Talk to me.
Please.
Are you okay?”

Hell, no, he wasn’t okay. He’d be singing soprano for the rest of his natural life. He curled into a fetal position, still struggling to inflate his lungs.
Sweet Christ.
He felt Rainie’s arms come around his shoulders. A hot, wet tear struck his jaw.

“I’m so sorry! Oh, Parker, I’m so sorry!” She struggled to turn him over, but didn’t have the strength. “Why didn’t you dodge the kick? I called out the warning. You always give me such a hard time if I hold anything back that I just . . .” She tightened her arms around him. “Please be all right. I never meant to actually hurt you.”

Parker blinked the world back into focus, and his lungs finally started to work again. The pain was starting to ease up. “I think we’re done practicin’ one-on-one. From now on, you’ll just have to work with the bag.”

“I’m
sorry.
”

“No need to be sorry, honey.” Parker still felt as if he might puke. What if she’d turned him into a eunuch, and he could never make love to her? Just the thought of having sex made his abused testicles start throbbing again. He concentrated on his breathing, not wanting to humiliate himself by vomiting. “I’ll be all right. Just give me a minute.”

Jericho came limping over. Shifting his weight onto his good leg, he folded his arms and grinned. “I think you’ve created a monster, boss. She flat nailed you where it hurts.”

Parker could not see the humor. He made a mental note to wipe that smirk off Jericho’s face when he finally got back on his feet.

“Would you like me to help you to the house?” Rainie asked. “Maybe some ice will help.”

Ice?
Not on his balls, no how, no way. Parker groaned and closed his eyes. He wasn’t sure how long he lay there, whether it was for only a couple of minutes or an hour, but finally the pain receded enough that he was able to sit up. Rainie still knelt beside him, her small, delicately carved face pale with concern.

“I’m all right,” he assured her. “No permanent damage done.” He hoped. He’d taken blows to the crotch several times, but never a dead-on kick. He sat there until he felt certain he could stand up without assistance. “My own damned fault, I guess. You don’t tell a woman to come at you with everything she’s got unless you expect her to do it.”

“I really am sorry.”

He thought he heard just a hint of a smile in her voice and sent her a wondering look. Sure enough, the corners of her mouth were trying to tip up, and her eyes danced with unmistakable delight. She shrugged, and her gaze went chasing off to the opposite end of the stable.

“I’m just—” She broke off and swallowed. “
Amazed
, I guess is the word. You’re so much bigger than me, and stronger, too. I never
dreamed
you could actually teach me how to take someone like you to his knees.”

Parker hooked an arm around her shoulders. “Help me to the office, Killer.”

She giggled and hugged his waist. En route to the corridor, Parker decided no permanent damage had been done to his balls. The bump of her hip against his thigh felt too damned good.

Once inside the office, she turned to him and said, “I feel so
liberated
.”

“Liberated?”

She hugged herself and spun in a circle, her beautiful hair flowing out around her. “Yes, liberated!” She whirled to a stop, her eyes large and luminous as they sought his. “I’m not afraid of him anymore. I know I can protect myself. Unless he’s got a gun, of course, but Peter is too into up close and personal for that. If he comes at me with a knife, no problem. I think I can disarm him.”

“Do you now?” A warm, light feeling moved through Parker’s chest. From the start of her training, this had been his goal, to see that marvelous glow of self-assurance on her face. “That’s great, sweetheart.”

The feeling of accomplishment still hadn’t left Rainie when she got home that evening. For the first time since her return, she didn’t quake with fear when she entered. If Peter was hiding somewhere, he’d better be ready for one hell of a fight. After locking up, she marched straight into the kitchen. She sat at the table with a tall glass of iced tea and an apple as a snack. As she munched on crisp bites of fruit, her thoughts turned to Parker, and wondrous warmth filled her. True to his promise, he’d remained content with friendship, but now Rainie finally felt ready for more. Correction: She
wanted
more. That kiss today. Her eyes swept closed on a rush of sweet yearning.
Parker.
As a child, she’d listened to her mother read fairy tales, and deep in her heart, she’d always believed that someday her very own prince would come into her life. And now, at long last, he actually had. He even had a dashing steed.

The thought made her grin. Pushing up from the table, she went to her bedroom to go through her drawers, hoping to find something sexy to wear. Peter Danning wasn’t the only man she now felt prepared to disarm. She just needed slightly different weapons. Problem: While she was shopping for clothing at Goodwill, seductive lingerie hadn’t been on her must-have list. She had nothing but modest night-gowns and goofy-looking nightshirts in her drawers. Her underwear was equally boring.