Vehemently, Sophia shook her head and backed up toward the door. Lord help her if she was that close to him for one hour, much less three. “I’m afraid that won’t work for me.”
“I’m not sleeping on the floor or in the tub.”
“But—”
“Look, lady, I saved your life, and you’re acting like I’m a rapist. I’m an adult, you’re an adult. It’s not the best of situations but we’ll make the most of it. Now, strip.”
Sophia dug in. She was being unreasonable. She knew it. And she knew why. It supremely bothered her that, having spent the last few hours sitting less than a foot away from him, he still did not recognize her! Was she that forgettable?
“Is it something I said, or do you always act like a spoiled two-year-old when a man saves your life?”
“I didn’t ask you to save my life!” How stupid did that sound?
“At the very least, a thank-you would be in order.”
Her eyes narrowed, but her body warmed. “At the very least? What did you have in mind for the very most?”
He grinned. “I could think of a few things.” Her nipples stiffened.
“I hardly know you!”
He strut toward her, his eyes blazing. Her eyes dipped to the bulge in his jeans.
“Hardly.”
Sophia swallowed hard when he reached out and swept her mangled hair from her shoulder. He lowered his lips to hers. Her heart pounded in her chest. He was going to kiss her.
“I know you’re afraid, Sophia. I would be too. But I need you to trust me. I won’t let anything happen to you on my watch.” He stood back.
Her heart stopped. Embarrassment flushed her cheeks.
“Now strip.”
Mortified, she nodded, hurried into the bathroom, shut the door, and shucked the dirty clothes. She opened the door slightly and dropped her damp clothes, including her bra and panties, onto the floor.
Then she shut the door and locked it. For a long time she stood with her back against it, trying very hard to regulate her breathing. A myriad of emotions and sensations ran a relay race inside of her. Yes, she was terrified Angelo would hunt her down. Terrified that he would exact a slow, excruciating death from her for embarrassing him, and then force her to witness him do the same thing to Colin.
Colin. Lord help her. When she thought he was going to kiss her she melted like an ice cube on a hot griddle. She wanted him. She wanted to experience the sublimity of him again. For sixteen years she had held on to that memory. Maybe it had been blown out of proportion in her imagination. Maybe she had created a fantasy to carry her through the terrible years, a beacon of hope that not all men were sadistic pigs and that sex wasn’t meant to hurt. Maybe she was a lunatic! Sophia turned the shower on as hot as it would go. Maybe she needed meds or a shrink—or both. Maybe she just wanted to get laid by a man she trusted not to hurt her. Or maybe, a woman scorned, she wanted some payback.
Sophia debated the entire time she was in the shower whether to silently seduce Colin Daniels and make him so crazy for her that he would get down on his knees and beg her to make love, or to just turn the hot water to cold and forget about it.
Chapter 3
Colin paced outside the hotel room door. He did not want to go in. If he did, he was not going to be able to keep his hands off the woman inside. The minute she spoke in the car, her soft husky voice stirred his dick and his memories. Maria. His graduation party. She had come to him like an angel from heaven and given herself to him. He took it. All of it. Repeatedly.
He still remembered the feel of her soft skin, her full breasts, her sweet virgin pussy. The way it clung hungrily to his dick.
Fuck!
He swiped his hand across his face. He wanted that again. And it pissed him off that she didn’t remember him. How the hell did a girl forget her first time?
He had almost kissed her. Whether she remembered or not, she wanted it. He could see the spike of her pulse in her jugular. The way her nostrils flared and her lips parted. Her nipples had hardened and it was not cold in the room.
Keeping it professional was proving to be damn near impossible. She was damn vulnerable. Scared to death. And while he might be a lot of things, he wasn’t the kind of guy to take advantage of a vulnerable woman. He wasn’t going to remind her about that night either. It could complicate things. And Uncomplicated was his middle name.
Didn’t mean he didn’t want to sink balls deep into her.
He sucked in a breath and exhaled. For both of their sakes, he was just going to have to do a better job of keeping it cool, and of keeping his dick on a leash.
He slid the key card into the lock, pushed open the door, and locked it behind him. He turned into the room and groaned. His body jolted painfully, as if he had been struck by a Mack truck.
He put his tongue back in his mouth as she emerged all hot and dewy from the bathroom. He tamped down the immediate urge to throw Sophia Gilletti onto the bed and sink so far into her he’d be lost for days. All he had was a towel wrapped around him. After he called in his change of plans to Moriarty, he had barely escaped the cougar’s lascivious claws when he’d stripped and handed over his and Sophia’s clothes. He didn’t want to think about what she was doing to them. But the same lust that induced her now induced him. He wanted the woman standing in front of him in a real bad way.
All Sophia had on was a thin damp towel that hugged her sweet curves like a second skin. “Jesus, can you cover up?”
She turned those wicked eyes up to his and smiled. His dick flinched against his thigh. This was turning into a really bad idea. “I’m not a genie. I can’t blink and make this towel larger,” she said, then looked at his towel that was beginning to rise. “I could borrow yours.”
Colin set his jaw, mentally commanding the devil between his legs to mind his manners. “Do you really want it?” he heard his raspy voice ask.
Her huge eyes stared at him, unblinking. She swallowed. He watched the slow undulation of her throat, imagining his lips pressed there. His jaw dropped when she squeaked out the word, “Yes.”
His dick sprang against the cotton, the friction excruciating. He hissed in a breath. Jesus. What was her game? Colin stepped toward her. Her big eyes widened, unsure. He struggled to regulate his suddenly shallow breathing and reached for her, not, he told himself, for sex, but to reassure her she was safe. As much as he wanted to, he reminded himself he wasn’t a complete dog, and would not take advantage of her vulnerable state.
She shook her head and backed up against the wall. Fear flashed in her eyes. He stopped and dropped his hand. “I’m not like Angelo,” he said softly. “I won’t hurt you.”
Tears rose in her eyes. She nodded, and they tracked down her cheeks. Colin had always considered himself a compassionate guy. But what he felt at that moment for the woman standing six inches away from him was more than compassion. A fierce protectiveness reared its head in his gut. Violent in nature, willing to kill anyone who dared hurt her.
He touched a finger to her cheek and caught a tear, then traced it along the scar on her face. “When I meet up with your husband, I’ll kill him for that.”
She looked up at him, her eyes pools of hurt, fear, and—a raw need he understood.
“What do you want from me?” he softly asked.
“My freedom.”
His chest hurt at just the thought of Angelo or one of his goombahs hurting her. “I can’t give you that, Sophia.” Her name slid off his tongue like a caress. She was an old soul, kindred somehow to his. He shook his head and these ridiculous emotions from him. His fingers dropped to her dewy shoulder. Her body quaked violently.
He stepped away, wondering what kind of animal instilled such fear in a woman. She needed to know she had nothing to fear from him. He’d keep his hands to himself, but he’d be damned if he was going to go all altar boy on her. He was what he was, and he liked what he liked, and maybe he could get her to loosen up just a little. He strode past her into the bathroom. He dropped the towel a
nd said over his shoulder as he stepped into the shower, “I’m going to be watching you.”
And he knew she was watching him. He turned and fully faced her, every inch of him clearly visible through the glass shower doors. He watched her eyes drop to his resurging erection, then rise to his gaze. He turned the shower on, the hard spray of cold water hitting him like a glass wall. His muscles flexed; his dick flared. He fought for composure as the water turned warm, spraying the head of his dick. “And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll be wrapped up like a cocoon in that bedspread and asleep before I get out of here.”
But she didn’t move. Didn’t so much as blink. For a long, drawn-out minute their eyes locked, neither looking away. He reached for the soap, and, not taking his eyes off hers, he worked up a lather between his hands. Steam frosted the glass, so he swiped his hand across the door in a wide swath. He smiled and slowly began to work the lather into his chest, down his belly, then lower . . . Sophia’s eyes widened. He watched the heat rise in her cheeks.
His hands slipped around his rock-hard dick. His body flinched in his grasp. His eyes narrowed as he slowly began to stroke himself. Sophia’s big pouty lips parted, and then her gaze dropped to his stroking hand. She swallowed hard and shut the door.
Sophia tossed the nasty bedspread from the bed and ripped the blanket off and wrapped herself so tightly in it she could barely breathe. Her heart was beating so fast she couldn’t swallow. My God! Why had she done that? He must think she was a—She buried her head in the pillow, reached over to the lamp and turned it off. Embarrassment over her boldness consumed her. She wasn’t like that!
Like what? her alter ego demanded.
Like that horrible woman at the front desk! A sex-starved hussy!
Pah!
Moments later, the bathroom door opened. Sophia prayed the bed would open up and swallow her.
The bed dipped with his weight. He stretched out and the curve of the mattress rolled him on top of her. Sophia stiffened. He pushed away from her but she could still feel the tension in his body. It matched hers. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to ignore his warm breath on her neck. She squirmed and attempted to burrow deeper into the sheets. Her bottom brushed against something hard. Her eyes popped open.
“Jesus,” he groaned. “Stop moving.”
“I can’t get comfortable.”
“You’re making me damned uncomfortable.”
Sophia could not help a smile. “A small price to pay for kidnapping me.”
He moved closer and pressed his body against hers. “I’m not kidnapping you.”
She made the mistake of turning around to face him. Her chest smashed into his. The sheet separating them slid across her sensitive nipples. She gasped, arching her back.
“Bad move,” he said hoarsely. Pressing her back into the mattress, his lips swept hers in a deep, feral kiss.
Sophia’s body lit up on sensory overload. She tried to pull her arms out of the tangle of sheet wrapped around her, but it was like a straightjacket and she couldn’t. Colin tore his lips away, his hot breath fanned her swollen lips. “I’m not going to apologize for that, Sophia. But damn it, it won’t happen again.”
He hauled himself off the bed, grabbed a pillow, and dropped down on the comforter she had tossed on the floor. “Go to sleep. I’m waking you in two and a half hours.”
Sophia stared at the ceiling for what seemed like hours, trying to calm the storm that swept through her body. Why did he get to make the rules? Why couldn’t she? She wanted him. It was obvious he wanted the same thing. Did she just have to flat-out demand it?
Maybe she would.
She woke to Colin’s warm breath against her cheek. “Wake up, Sophia,” he whispered. “We need to get out of here.”
Her eyes flashed open and her heart rate skyrocketed. Angelo?
“You’re safe. We just need to keep moving,” he reassured her.
She rolled back to face the wall and nodded. The blanket had fallen away from her sometime during her sleep and she realized she was bare-ass naked. As she moved to the edge of the bed, his finger touched the small of her back. “What’s this?” he asked roughly.
Her entire body stiffened as he traced his fingers across the mutilated skin. “My brand,” she bit out, then walked with her chin up into the bathroom and quietly shut the door behind her. She flinched when she heard him punch the wall. But she wasn’t afraid. Colin’s violence was different from Angelo’s. Colin’s brand of violence would never be turned on her. He was not that kind of man. Part of her heart melted a little bit more for him.
When she emerged, Colin was dressed and angry. He pointed to the bed. “Your clothes.” He turned away while she quickly dressed. Just as they were opening the door, the room phone rang. Sophia’s heart lurched against her rib cage. Colin put his finger to his lips and quietly lifted the receiver and put it to his ear. She heard a woman’s raspy voice then the phone went dead.
Colin set the phone down on the cradle and looked at her. Her blood ran cold. “They’re out front, where I parked the car. That was Ruby, the cougar. Her red Firebird is parked behind the office with the keys in it. We’re going to walk very slowly toward it.”
Colin grabbed his leather bag and cracked the door open. He held his hand out to her. She took it and they slipped out into the blinding sunshine. Sticking close to the rooms, they passed a housekeeping cart and an open door. The Firebird was in view, fifty yards away.
The prowling sound of a car turned the corner behind them. Colin pushed Sophia back, into the open door, startling the maid. “Por favor, señorita, el esposo de mi hermana es muy malo y en busca de ella. Por favor, vamos a quedarnos aquí hasta que pasa,” Colin said urgently as he pulled out a wad of bills and shoved them in her apron pocket. The sound of slamming car doors preceded heavy footsteps.
“Por favor,” Colin said as he pushed Sophia into the bathroom. He left the door partially open to make the room look completely inconspicuous.
“Where’s the people from the room next door?” a rough-sounding Guido asked the maid.
“No habla Ingles,” she said.
The maid screamed when he smacked her. Sophia flinched hard against Colin’s rigid body. “A hombre and a señora. Donde? ”
“Se fueron en un taxi,” she lied.
“What taxi?”
“Los Banos taxi,” she cried.
He punched her again for good measure. Sophia’s heart broke for the brave woman.
When the car doors slammed shut, Sophia broke free from Colin and went to the maid. She was wiping the blood from her broken nose. “I’m so sorry,” Sophia said, helping her up.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” the maid said. “Those motherfuckers can go to hell.”
Sophia’s jaw dropped and the maid grinned a toothless grin. “I lived with an abusive man for ten years before I shot his ass. I should have done it sooner.”
Colin shook his head and handed her more cash. “What’s your name? I’ll send more.”
“Berta Martinez. Ruby’ll know how to get in touch with me. Now go before those tontos come back when they realize there is no Los Banos taxi.”
“Berta, we owe you big-time,” Colin said, kissing her forehead then grabbing Sophia’s hand. He peeked out into the parking lot. Clear. “C’mon.” He pulled her behind him to the dilapidated circa 1980 Firebird. They hopped in, Colin turned the key, and it rumbled to life. “Duck down,” he said as he slipped on his sunglasses and the cowboy hat he’d grabbed from off the backseat.
“It’s the same guys and the same car parked in front of your place in Tahoe,” Colin said as he gave the car some gas and turned right on what she knew was the frontage road. Long, drawn-out moments passed as Sophia tried to regulate her erratic breathing. She was terrified.
“You can get up now,” he finally said.
She sat up and took deep, cleansing breaths.
Colin reached over and squeezed her hand. “I said I would protect you.”
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She didn’t look at him, afraid she’d break down. She pulled her hand away, wanting to believe him, but she knew Angelo too well. He would not stop until he had her back. Not because he loved her, but because she was a possession, and as his, his pride could not take the hit that she was running from him. “How did they find us?”
“I’m guessing they beat the info out of the rental guy in Placerville until he gave them the GPS coordinates. Then followed us on their laptop.”
“But how did they know he had rented you the car?”
“The SUV I dumped had a GPS chip in it too and they got lucky finding the place at the Tahoe airport I rented it from. Might damn well be the same place they rented theirs from.”
“Where are we going now?”
“San Francisco airport. I’m going to dump Ruby’s ride, borrow a car from long-term parking, then drive to San Jose airport, dump it, and rent a chopper to get us as far from California as possible, then find another ride and head east.”
“They’ll find us.” They always found their target.
He reached over and squeezed her hand. “They’ll have to catch us first.”
Sophia pulled her hand to her lap and stared out the window. The nondescript landscape sped by, and so did her life. She never should have left Angelo. Because she had, people were dying. More people would die. And when he got his hands on her, he would make her pay in slow, painful increments.
“Why did you marry Gilletti?” Colin asked out of the blue.
“He made my father an offer he couldn’t refuse.”
“Which was?”
“He told him if he didn’t hand me over, he’d cut my mother up piece by piece until there was nothing left of her. He gave my father three days to say yes, or else.”
Colin’s knuckles turned white as he grasped the steering wheel. “I would have killed the bastard on the spot.”
“Daddy didn’t know I overheard the conversation. I went to Angelo on the morning of the third day and told him I would marry him when I graduated high school.”