Dumb thought, he told himself, shaking his head as he felt her move into the room cautiously.
Striding to the walk-in closet, he pulled one of his T-shirts from one of the drawers built in beneath the hanging clothes. From another drawer he pulled free a pair of his sister Stacey’s cotton leggings. She was always leaving clothes scattered around the upper level of the house.
Moving from the closet, he glanced at where Emerson stood in the center of the room, staring around it, resignation filling her face.
She might as well resign herself to it. Other than the bolt hole, this place was locked up tighter than Fort Knox. There was no getting in and no getting out without his help.
“Shower’s in here.” He moved to the door at the far end of the room, opened it, and flipped the lights on. “Towels and washrags are under the sink, fresh soap, both bar and that shower gel gunk my sister likes, is on the shelf beside the tub. Get whatever you need.”
“Now you have a sister, too.” She was leaning against the door frame, looking around the bathroom with hazel eyes that were gleaming a brighter green than before. “Guess you weren’t hatched after all, Macey.”
“Guess I wasn’t,” he drawled, his lips quirking as he watched white, sharp little teeth nibble at her lower lip.
She was nervous. He rarely saw Emerson nervous, and had never seen her uncertain, until now. Seeing it in her made him want to kill. It made him wish he was hunting terrorists with Nathan and drawing their blood. It plain pissed him off that Emerson would know so much as a moment of uncertainty or fear.
He watched as she backed out of the doorway and turned to the bedroom again. Her shoulders were stiff, her head held high, and as he moved around her he caught the flicker of indecision on her face. “I want you to promise me you won’t try to leave while I’m trying to sleep, Em.”
“I am not stupid, Macey.”
“I didn’t say you were stupid,” he assured her. “But you’re headstrong as hell. The admiral gave the orders, sweetheart; calling him or trying to run to him isn’t going to do anything but endanger your life. And if I have to stand and listen to another bastard strike you, I just might have to lose my temper.”
He reached out to run the backs of his fingers over the bruise that had formed on her cheek, remembering the killing rage that had swept through him when he heard the blow.
“It wouldn’t do a lot for me, either,” she assured him, pulling away from him as a flush brightened her cheeks and renewed arousal glittered in her eyes.
Oh, she was hot. As hot as he was and just as ready for bedroom aerobics as he was; she was just more cautious.
Macey caught her arm as she turned away from him, holding her steady as her gaze flashed back to his. Wide, wary, her eyes glittered like emeralds and threatened to ensnare him in a web of arousal.
“I told you this wasn’t a good idea.” Her breath hitched as he curled his arm around her waist and pulled her to his body once more.
He couldn’t help it. He needed to feel her breasts against his chest again, needed the taste of her kiss going to his head like potent liquor.
“It’s the only idea.”
Her lips parted, whether to protest or meet his kiss he wasn’t certain, so he took the kiss.
It was late. Weariness was dragging at both of them, but he couldn’t help it; one more taste, one more touch, that was all he needed. His head lowered, his lips touching hers gently as he stared into her eyes. He didn’t take the kiss this time, he eased into it, eased her into it. He licked at her lips until they parted further. He nipped at the lower curve and felt her ragged breath of response, watched her lashes flutter as her hands clenched on his upper arms.
And he felt that tight clench in his heart again, the one that had warned him years ago that Emerson’s touch went deeper than flesh. Deeper than bone.
Macey could tell that she didn’t know whether to push him away or to pull him closer to her. Her breathing was harsh, irregular, those temptingly full breasts moving against his chest heavily. He wanted to fill his hands with them, feel her hard little nipples against his tongue again. He wanted to devour her.
“Macey, please…” A whisper-soft plea fell from her lips as he licked over them, her eyes dilating, the small ring of green darkening in arousal.
Macey cupped her cheek with one hand, his thumb relishing the feel of satiny flesh dewed with moisture. He could feel her burning, heating up for him.
“I want to touch you, Em.” He nipped at her lower lip. “I want to feel you silky and wet.” His hand moved from her cheek, down her neck, her shoulder. Going lower, he watched her eyes, her expression, each nuance of emotion that flickered over her face as he gripped the material of her skirt and drew it upward.
She trembled in his arms, a delicate little ripple of response that fanned the flames inside his own body higher. He was burning for her. Touching her was addictive; the more of her soft, sweet flesh that he touched, the more he wanted to touch. The more he needed to touch.
As the material of her skirt cleared her thighs, Macey watched Emerson’s lips tremble, part, fight to draw in air.
“Can I touch you, Emerson?” he whispered, his fingertips running along the elastic band of her panties as they curved around the cheek of her rear.
“Macey…” There was protest and hunger, fear and need resonating in the tone.
“Just a little touch,” he crooned, keeping his voice soft, cajoling.
Touching her meant everything. Touching her right now was as imperative as breathing.
He moved his hand around her thigh again, sliding his fingertips over the soft damp crotch of her panties.
“Emerson.” He groaned her name as his forehead rested against hers. “You’re wet.”
Her face flushed brighter as her hips jerked, pressing her silk-covered flesh more firmly against his fingers. She wanted, she needed, just as desperately as he did.
He moved his hand higher, slid his fingers into the low band of her panties, and a groan tore from his throat as his fingers feathered over damp curls. Sweet, heated dampness beaded on silky curls, drawing his touch, his hunger, as nothing else could have.
He couldn’t stop himself. He had to have more. He wanted to see her face, watch her eyes as he took more. And he did. His fingers slid into the narrow slit, parted sweetly swollen folds, and found the nectar of the gods.
“You’re hot.” He was burning alive in her heat. “Hot and sweet, Emerson.”
Hot and sweet. Emerson stared back at Macey, fighting to breathe, to make sense of the wild sensations tearing through her. She couldn’t find the strength to pull away from him this time. She felt weak, senseless, unable to process anything but the pleasure. The feel of his fingers sliding through her pussy, parting the sensitive lips, circling the entrance to her vagina.
She lifted closer, standing on her tiptoes, desperate to encourage his fingers to delve further, to slip inside her, to ease the tight knot of pressure building in her womb.
She needed to orgasm. Oh yeah, she needed that so bad. Just this once, in his arms, to know the culmination of this pleasure.
A finger slipped inside her. Callused, firm, confident, it parted the tight muscles and sent her senses careening. Flames seared her nerve endings and she felt as though she was burning alive in his embrace, coming apart at each touch.
“This is going to be mine, Emerson,” he snarled, his finger thrusting inside her, sending waves of heat and violent pleasure through every cell of her body. “You’re going to be mine. You know you are.”
“Macey.” Her head tipped back as she fought the sensations. “You don’t understand…”
His fingers moved inside her, fracturing her senses. But nothing could cover the feel of something … something smooth twining around her ankle.
She jerked, looked down. Her eyes widened. Terror ripped through her senses as a bloodcurdling scream tore from her throat.
Emerson jumped as a pointed head lifted, the flickerin
g tongue touching her bare ankle. Nothing mattered but escape.
She was screaming, screeching, trying to crawl into Macey’s body, frantic to evade a bite from the biggest, most terrifying snake she had ever seen in her life.
One minute she was climbing Macey’s body, the next he was cursing and they were falling. Was he laughing?
They rolled away from the too-long, too-thick reptile, but it wasn’t enough. Emerson scrambled to escape. She felt her knee hit Macey’s body, heard his grunt, his strangled curse. Clawing at the wood floor, she finally managed to drag herself up on the bed, panting, certain the snake had followed.
But it was gone. It was gone and Macey was curled up on the floor, his hands cupped between his thighs as something between a laugh and a groan left his throat.
“It’s a snake!” She jumped to the floor now that it seemed to be gone and tugged on his arm. “Get up, Macey. It’s huge. Oh my God, it’s horrible.”
He was laughing?
Emerson stared around the room, caught sight of the huge reptilian head peeking from beneath a chair, and screamed again. She was back on the bed, staring at the chair in horror.
“Macey, get up. Oh my God. Macey, get up.” The head was the size of a platter, and surely its mouth was large enough to swallow an ankle whole.
“Drack.” Macey groaned, pulling himself to his knees and giving a faintly wheezing cough.
“Are you crazy?” she screamed, watching the chair carefully. “Where’s the gun? Tell me and I’ll get it.” She was terrified he wasn’t going to get off the floor in time.
“Drack.” He laughed; he was laughing, for pity’s sake.
Emerson stared back at him, fighting the panic, the fear.
“What the hell is Drack? Macey, please get on the bed.”
He laughed harder.
“What’s so funny?” she cried, still keeping an eye on the chair. “Would you please get in the bed until we can find a gun.”
He straightened, bent over laughing again, then restraightened.
“You just terrified my anaconda, Em. And demanned me all in the same whack. Hell, I bet you’re related to Morganna.” He laughed again, drawing her shocked gaze as his words began to register.
“You live with a snake?” she wheezed.
“Well, he lives here.” He snickered, moved to the far wall, and pressed a lever.
And there it was, the biggest aquarium she had ever seen, ripples of water, foliage and flat stones displayed behind glass as Macey opened the door.
“Come on, Drack, time to go home.”
Drack. The snake. The huge snake. The twelve-foot-long, at the very least, reptile slithered from beneath the chair with lazy ease and slid into the aquarium.
Once he was inside, Macey closed and locked the glass door before turning back to her with a grin.
“He watches the place while I’m gone.”
Emerson sat down slowly, staring at the well-lit aquarium, certain her heart had stopped and she had died.
“He lives here?”
“Right in there.” Macey nodded, chuckling as he pointed over his shoulder at the glass-enclosed cage.
“You should have left me with the terrorists,” she said. “It would have saved them the trouble of recapturing me after I leave here. Because no way, no how, not in a million years am I staying here with a snake.”
chapter 4
emerson’s sleep was restless that morning, filled with visions of a naked Macey and an anaconda twined around his body rather than her. Flickering tongue and slitted eyes dared her to touch his gleaming, muscular body.
She shouldn’t have been bothered by him. She didn’t consider herself innocent; sometimes she considered herself too jaded, too cynical. She had learned years ago that defending her heart wasn’t easy. She wasn’t like her family. The Navy, preserving honor and tradition, had meant more to them than trying to understand the clumsy, too-emotional child they had found themselves stuck with.
Her parents had been overprotective, and each time she tried to protest the restrictions, her parents had pulled the guilt card. They were trying to protect her. They couldn’t work if she was constantly crying for their attention or arguing over their precautions. So Emerson had kept her mouth shut and endured. Until her graduation from high school, until she left on her own for college and began carving out her own life.
But she had learned that those lessons she had missed as a child held her back now. She succeeded in her career, enjoyed it and the company she worked with. But interaction, allowing herself to be vulnerable, defenseless enough to allow herself to belong anywhere or with anyone, had become impossible.
Now, lying on Macey’s big bed, that monster snake curled in the glass tank across the room, she admitted that she had never felt that loss more keenly than she did now.
She could have been curled against him, reveling in a fantasy come to life. Macey had starred in her most erotic dreams for nearly two years. But as she lay there, she realized he had somehow managed to situate himself into her heart.
If he were any other man that she desired, then she could have at least taken the physical pleasure he could give. If she hadn’t hungered for more than just his touch, if she didn’t crave more than just his kiss or the heated possession of his body.
Shaking her head, she forced herself from the bed, glancing at the bedside table and the clock set there. It said twelve, but if it was noon or midnight, she had no idea. There were no windows in the basement Macey called the cave, no way of telling if it were day or night.
She glanced at the glass cage and watched as the snake, Drack, Macey had called him, flicked his tongue out, his eyes slitted and displaying something akin to curiosity.
It figured Macey would own an anaconda. He couldn’t do anything the easy way, could he?
“Well, he’s awake,” Macey spoke from behind her, his voice lazy and amused as she straightened the bed.
“Is it noon or midnight?” Whichever it was, she needed coffee before she took someone’s head off.
“Noon. Sunny and in the high nineties. Weather guy said it might hit a hundred before evening. Be thankful we’re nice and cool down here rather than sweltering out there.”
“I like the heat.”
“Yeah, I like it hot, too,” he assured her. “Want me to turn off the AC?”
Emerson shook her head. “Do whatever you want to as long as you have coffee.”
“I couldn’t live without it. I also have lunch on the stove and ready to eat. You can shower first if you like. Homemade veggie beef soup and bread. It’s one of my specialties.”
She straightened and stared back at him suspiciously.
“Soup out of a can doesn’t constitute homemade just because you fixed it on your own stove, Macey.”
She turned and caught the flash of his smile as he leaned against the door frame, his arms crossed over his broad chest.
“Homemade means from scratch, smartass.” He laughed at her. He was the only person she knew who had the nerve to actually laugh at her to her face.
“It’s safe to eat?” She moved to the dresser and gathered the shirt and leggings he had left there the night before for her to wear.
“It’s not safe to snarl at me when you first get up,” he told her, though the vein of laughter hadn’t left his voice. “Where did you come by that prickly attitude, Em? It’s cute as hell most of the time, but when a man’s trying to seduce you, you should soften it some.”
“I do, when I want to be seduced.” Her return smile was tight, but the tension whipping through her was anything but anger.
She could feel his touch. His lips on her breasts, his fingers between her thighs, and that was a very dangerous thing to remember.
“Go ahead and shower.” He shook his head at her, his overly long hair brushing his shoulders as his gaze softened. “I’ll put the coffee on and feed you. Maybe you’ll be nicer then.”
“You like that dream world you live in, don’t you?”
she asked him, though she had to admit she wanted to smile. It was impossible to stay mad at Macey for long. Irritated, yes. Frustrated, most often. But anger wasn’t an emotion she could sustain around him when he was trying to be nice.
“Hey, baby, my dream world is what it’s all about.” He grinned wickedly. “Want to know the part you play?”
“No, thank you, I think I can probably figure that one out on my own.”
She escaped quickly to the bathroom and the shower with his chuckle lingering in the air behind her. Damn him, he was getting under her skin and she knew it. It was bad enough that she had all these pesky emotions to deal with, but dealing with them while the object of them was around wasn’t going to be easy.
She showered quickly, dried her hair, and dressed in her borrowed clothes before striding into the living room and toward the smell of coffee and homemade soup. If the smell was anything to go by, it was going to be delicious.
“On the stove.” He was sitting at the computer, a security program working through several formulas and protocols, if the screen she managed to read meant anything.
“We had a bit of action around here early this morning sometime after we arrived,” he told her as he pointed to two monitors off to his left.
A replay showed a black van had pulled up in the alley and four men had exited it. Dressed in overalls, they had entered the backyard and began canvassing the outside of the house.
“Did they manage to get in?” She moved to the control center and watched as Macey flipped through several commands to show each view of the house.
“They didn’t get in, but only because they managed to figure out the garage alarm had a false code box.” He shrugged at that. “They moved back when they saw that, seemed to be checking for signs of life. They had all their heat-seeking and sound-detection devices.” He shook his head as the replay followed the men working around the house with black boxes.
“Military devices?” She leaned in to look closer. “I thought they were still in the R and D phase.”
“So did I,” he grunted as he rubbed his jaw and leaned back in his chair. “That means our boys have some military connections we haven’t managed to pinpoint.”