out of the shadows and he tipped his head up, making sure she could see him.
Shit, she mouthed and started to walk toward him.
He shook his head slightly and held up two fingers. She nodded, signaling that she was aware they weren’t alone.
Lara hit the bottom step and he turned. She took one look at him, and a scream broke through the air.
Unfortunately so did a bullet. Connor tackled her just as one hit his arm.
ELEVEN
Lara hit the ground with a hard thud, but that didn’t stop her from kicking out at her attacker. His big body covered hers, and then they were rolling to her right. “Get off me. Do you know what my boyfriend will do to you?”
She heard sirens in the distance. He stopped and pulled back his hood. “Do you know what your boyfriend is going to do to you?”
Connor stared down at her, his expression ferocious.
Lara couldn’t breathe. Her heart nearly stopped. “I can explain.”
There was a pinging sound and Connor cursed as something rained down on them. “Get behind the wall, damn it. They’re shooting.”
She scrambled to her knees and he shoved her into the shrubbery that lined the steps on the road level of the monument. The leaves raked against her skin, but her palms were already wet. In the dim light she could see it was blood. Connor’s blood.
“You’re hit.”
He crouched in front of her, a gun in his hand. “It’s nothing. And it’s definitely nothing compared to what I’m going to do to you. You lied to me.”
“Not exactly. You never asked me if I was going to a meeting.” And why did it matter when he’d been shot? “You need to go to the hospital. Who’s shooting at you?”
“Not me. You, princess. As with all things in my life lately, this has nothing to do with me and everything to do with you. The Russian mob sent a welcome party. They probably have had a man or two casing your apartment building just waiting for you to do something idiotic. You don’t like to disappoint people, do you?”
She ignored his harsh words. He had every right to be testy. And she hated that she’d had more than one occasion to see how Connor handled nearly being killed. She gasped as she remembered her partner in crime. “Everly’s out there. Oh, god, Connor. I brought Everly into this.”
“Yes, I’m sure we’ll talk about that later, but Everly can handle herself. In fact, it looks like she handled at least one of them.” He stood up. “Where’s the other?”
“He took off.” Lara could hear Everly shouting.
“Tell me she’s alive.” Connor nodded at something Lara couldn’t see.
“I would love to but I’m probably done with lying this evening. It was clear self-defense so don’t worry about me. You should get her out of here.”
Lara peeked above the line of bushes and saw the body of a woman lying at Everly’s feet. She gasped and started to dash toward her friend.
Connor hooked an arm around her middle. “Not on your life.”
“Put me down.” Despite the fact that he’d been shot, he easily carried her along. “We have to stay and talk to the police. You don’t know what they’ll do to Everly. They might think she’s a murderer.”
“She’ll be fine. She’s a survivor, princess. You better hope you are, too. Put this on.” He stopped and set her down, handing her a helmet.
She looked down at it. He was climbing on the back of a Harley. Had he been the one following her earlier? Had he been trailing her the whole time? “I don’t understand what’s going on.”
He turned to her as he started the bike. “Right now, you don’t need to understand. You need to obey. I’m not kidding, Lara. If you don’t get on the back of this bike and hold on, I’m going to lose my shit. You don’t want me to do that.”
People tend to die around Connor Sparks. She stared at him, blinking, unnerved.
“Lara, if the police get here before we leave, they will take whatever evidence that man gave you into custody and you won’t see it again.”
She was being ridiculous. Connor wouldn’t hurt her. Oh, he was going to lecture the hell out of her and she had a lot of explaining to do, but she couldn’t believe he would truly harm her. And he was making a lot of sense. Since she hadn’t even looked at the list, she couldn’t afford to let it go. On the other hand, she’d dragged Everly into danger. Lara looked back in her friend’s direction.
“Gabe is on his way. She’s fine. Now get on the bike or we’ll do this the hard way.”
She believed him. She shoved the too-big helmet on her head and scrambled on behind him. The minute her arms went around his waist, he took off. It probably wasn’t the time to fret that he wasn’t wearing a helmet or remind him that was dangerous. He’d already been shot, so he probably wasn’t thinking about possible concussions.
She held onto his solid frame as he roared into the night. When they got back to her place, Lara had no doubt he intended to fire off a bunch of questions. But she had a few of her own.
Her confidential informant sounded like he knew Connor very well. And the CI had called him Sparks. Had Connor really been in the Crawford Building when all hell had broken loose? Not according to him. Supposedly he’d been on the West Coast for months.
Lara leaned against him. She’d never been on a motorcycle before. They weren’t the most environmentally friendly vehicles, but she liked how close she felt to him. When he stopped at a light, he balanced the bike before running his hand over her right knee as though assuring himself she was really there.
She pressed her chest against his back and dragged her hands up the ridges of his abdomen and his pectorals, stopping to feel his heart beating.
“That won’t save you,” he growled. “But it might put me in a better mood. It might encourage me to take my payback in a different way.” His hand drifted from her knee, up to her thigh.
She cuddled closer to him. Maybe she wanted a little payback of her own. After all, he’d given her the fright of a lifetime. He could have told her he was there. He’d deliberately hidden from her. He’d been sitting there, looking homeless as she walked by.
But he’d also risked his life to save hers. Someone had been waiting to steal the information the CI had given her, maybe even mow her down with bullets. Connor hadn’t thought twice, just shielded her with his big body as he’d led her to safety. Yes, he’d first come home with her as her bodyguard, but he hadn’t merely saved her because she was a job. The way he touched her told Lara that.
The light changed and he took off again. She should be thinking about how her informant knew Connor, but all her brain seemed capable of was thinking about Connor and the enormity of what he’d done for her. It touched her heart . . . and parts farther south. Adrenaline pumped through her system and fed a need that seemed to flow straight to her sex.
She wanted him.
Lara always thought things through, but what she felt for him didn’t have anything to do with her intellect. It was a primal thing that wouldn’t be denied. What she felt now didn’t care about questions. It didn’t stop to second guess. And her libido didn’t give a crap what someone else said or thought. She’d latched onto Connor with her heart and now she only cared about him.
When he drove right by her place, she didn’t question him. She simply followed his lead.
It was time to tell Connor everything, to truly trust him.
As he drove through the night, Lara held tight. She wasn’t sure how much time passed, but after a while, he pulled off the freeway. He’d twisted and turned a path through the city. She’d finally figured out he was trying to make sure they hadn’t been tailed.
He pulled into a nondescript motel parking lot, stopped the bike, and eased off. “Come on.”
“Connor?”
He turned, his jaw a tight line. “No questions right now. I need you to walk in and get us a room. I’ve got blood on my jacket. They won’t rent to me. In fact if they get a good look at me, they’ll likely call the police an
d then you lose whatever it was that was far more important than our relationship.”
She managed to hold in a crushed gasp. “Connor . . .”
He shook his head sharply. “Not now. Pay cash. They will want a credit card. You can’t give them one. This should work instead.”
She took the bill he handed her. One hundred dollars. “You expect me to bribe the clerk?”
“If you want us both to survive this situation, yes. If he won’t take it, we’ll find another motel. Understand I’ll be watching your every move. You don’t want to make me come after you.”
If he thought she couldn’t pull this off, he was wrong. She could bribe people. She could get motel rooms on the down low. Hell, she was wanted by the Russian mob. If that didn’t say something about her toughness, she wasn’t sure what did.
And if he thought he was going to intimidate her, he was wrong.
She marched right up to the rundown registration desk, explained that she was an adulteress looking for a quiet place to cheat on her insanely jealous husband with her poor but handsome lover, and she was willing to pay to keep her name out of the records.
The clerk sighed with utter disinterest, took her hundred bucks, and handed her the key to room number four.
Maybe she hadn’t needed her well-crafted fiction after all. Lara shrugged.
Once she exited the office, Connor hustled to the room, hauling her with him. He took the keycard and dragged her in before he turned, shut the door, and dead bolted it. She’d noticed he’d parked the motorcycle on the other side of the lot, so no one traveling the freeway could spot it.
Now that they were safely inside, she looked at Connor, ready to have it out with him. His dark blond hair was mussed, making him look disheveled and even sexier than usual. The urge to smooth his hair back almost overwhelmed her, but she doubted he would accept the affectionate gesture from her now. She had to make him understand that while she loved him, she also had a job to do.
Oh god, she loved him. She really, really loved him.
And then she was a little afraid of him. He shot her a narrow-eyed glare, his expression dark and predatory as he stalked across the room, closing the distance between them. Lara backed up until she couldn’t anymore, until her back hit the wall. That didn’t stop Connor from closing in. He pressed his palms flat beside her head, caging her against his body and invading her space. She couldn’t breathe. Intimidation flowed from him like charisma off a really good politician.
“D-don’t you want me to look at your arm?”
“Fuck that.” He glowered. “Why?”
She couldn’t possibly misunderstand his question. She found herself stuttering not out of fear but arousal. The desire she’d felt as they’d fled the Mall came back like a tidal wave. “Y-you wouldn’t have let me meet him otherwise.”
“You don’t know that.”
He hovered so close. Heat poured from his body. Her arousal picked up. Lara found herself breathing hard.
“I do. I know you. You would have locked me away. I would have missed the meeting and that source would have dried up.”
His stare pierced her. “At least you would have been safe. You would have been out of this mess.”
She wasn’t so sure about that. That text she’d received at the end of her meeting seemed awfully personal. Why wouldn’t the Russians simply demand that she give over the information or that she stay out of the situation? Instead, they had chastised her because she hadn’t gotten rid of “him.” The message hadn’t even mentioned the information, just an unnamed “him.” Connor?
Maybe the Russians hadn’t sent the text at all . . .
Her CI knew most everything, and he hadn’t seemed terribly worried about Connor. Sure, he’d given her warnings but nothing dire. Was this how the informant intended to keep her on her toes? Did he want to isolate her? Play good cop in real life and bad cop via text?
None of that mattered now because Connor was so close that her breasts brushed against his chest.
“I won’t leave this story alone.” Maybe it was time to be painfully honest with him and figure out where she stood. She’d been a coward with Tom, hiding her feelings and not letting him go when she should have. If she didn’t tell Connor how she felt now, she’d only be a coward again. “I love you, but I can’t give up everything I am because you want me to be safe.”
He froze and she was almost certain she’d made a mistake. “What did you say?”
Coward it was, then. “I can’t give up everything I am because you want me to be safe.”
When she ducked her head, he snagged her chin in his grip and forced her to look at him. “That is not what I meant and you know it. Say it again.”
That gruff command hadn’t exactly been the response she was looking for, but she hoped the fact that he wanted to hear her confession again was a good sign. “I love you.”
He pressed his body close, pinning her to the wall. His hard cock nudged her belly. “Say it again.”
Connor had told her in the beginning what he wanted—warmth and affection. She could give him all she had. She rose up on her toes until her mouth rested bare inches from his. She wanted to breathe the words into his skin so he soaked them up. She suspected he hadn’t had a lot of love in his life. She wanted him to know that had officially changed.
“I love you,” she murmured.
She’d barely spoken the words before he slammed his mouth down on hers and pinned her to the wall with his big body, holding her beneath him to take his onslaught. He dragged his tongue over her lower lip, demanding entry. She didn’t deny him. No, she opened herself up fully to the crazy, heady experience of being loved by this man. And it was love, she felt sure.
He devoured her like a starving man at a feast, holding her so tight she swore he’d never let go. The sizzling ache for him consumed Lara. When Connor made love to her, he sank himself in to the core of her being, and she felt as if they were the only two people in the world. Two who had merged to become one.
He tugged at the zipper of her jacket. “Take it off or I’ll rip it off. Anything you want to keep better hit the floor in ten seconds or less because that’s how long it’s going to take me to get inside you.”
Her hands shook as she quickly unzipped the jacket and tossed it away. He gave her just enough room to kick aside her sneakers then wriggle out of her pants and undies.
He shoved at his jeans, pushing them down to his thighs and setting his cock free. “Turn around. Hands against the wall.”
“Connor?” She felt ridiculously vulnerable wearing nothing but a shirt and a bra.
He turned her. “Hands against the wall.”
She pressed her palms flat and had to force herself to breathe when his fingers slid across her bare backside, traced the line between her cheeks, and ran along her swollen slit.
“You’re wet.” He groaned as he parted her labia, sliding a finger deep. “Is that why you rubbed against me on the bike? Were you wet and trying to steal an orgasm from me like a cat in heat?”
She knew she should be offended, but when his voice went guttural and his words turned to filth it just made her hotter. If any other man talked to her like that, she would slap him and leave. With Connor, she spread her legs so he could have more access. “I liked the bike.”
“That’s not all you like.” He nuzzled her neck, his lips blazing a trail of fire to her ear. “That’s right. Spread those legs wide for me. Get that pussy ready because I’m not waiting. You put me through hell tonight and I can take it out by punching something or by filling you so full of cock you can’t see straight. Which would you like?”
She’d pushed him to the edge, and he wasn’t a man who liked to be out of control. If her surrender to him would help right his world, Lara was all too happy to give in.
“I want your cock, Connor. Please. I’ll do anything. Give it to me.”
When he caressed her folds and nipped at her shoulder, the rest of the world dropped away. The fear
that had plagued her all day melted under his onslaught. She shivered.
“Tell me this belongs to me.” He plunged two fingers inside her while his thumb worked her clit.
She was already so close to the edge. Pleasure shimmered right in front of her, but she held still because she’d forced him to