She glanced back at Leyton and he slowly shook his head, telling her to say no to that. She breathed in deeply, trying to fight her exasperation. One chance to clue Dan in and he wasn’t taking the bait. Unless he was, but he was careful not to let on.
“I’m fine. Thanks for checking on me. I’ll call you when I can.”
“Sure thing. Have a nice safe trip out there.”
“Thanks, Dan.”
Leyton knew Kate had been wracking her brain, trying to come up with a way to alert the sheriff she was in trouble. He immediately had worried that the sheriff had seen them drive by his house earlier, him, a stranger, sitting at the wheel. And if the sheriff had been able to see clearly enough from the house, he would have noticed Leyton wasn’t wearing a shirt either. Besides the fact that Leyton was certain driving in that direction wouldn’t be her first choice if she was heading out on her vacation, and the sheriff would have figured something was wrong.
They ended the call and she gave Leyton a scathing look as she grabbed a paper napkin and began to clean off the greasy chicken fingerprints he’d left on her phone. “You could have wiped your hands first before…” She paused staring at the phone for a minute, as if realizing Leyton could have left fingerprints for someone to use to learn who he really was.
He smiled. No one was going to check her house for fingerprints, unless she left a clue she was in trouble, and then he suspected they’d just be trying to locate her and not be investigating the house for prints. Not at first.
“Didn’t have time. If you hadn’t answered, Dan might have headed on over here, suspecting there was trouble.” Leyton finished his chicken. It was so good, he swore he could have eaten the whole package and another.
She set her phone on the table, but Leyton motioned for her to hand it to him so he could stick it in the bag again.
“Didn’t give him any hints anything was wrong, did you?” Leyton couldn’t help being suspicions. Anything she said could have tipped off the sheriff that something was wrong. Leyton wouldn’t have a clue if she’d done so either.
“Sure. He’ll be over here with half the town ready to take you into custody within twenty minutes.”
He smiled. Not that he didn’t believe it couldn’t happen, but he liked a woman with gumption. “Aren’t you hungry?”
She let out her breath and began eating her food.
“You’re a great cook, by the way,” Leyton said. “I might be starving, but even so I don’t normally pig out like this. This is really great.”
“Thanks.”
After they finished eating and she cleaned up, she moved the clothes to the dryer while he watched her.
He’d make sure she’d put them all away where no one would see them and wonder why she had a hospital gown and Elsie’s scrubs at her house after they dried. But he was too exhausted to wait around for that.
It was time to find something to tie her up with. He had offered to use a sheet to do the trick, but so that he wouldn’t cut up her nurse’s scrubs or something else, she showed him the rope she had coiled on a hook in the garage.
“So you had rope after all.”
“Of course. But why would I have told you, considering what you planned to do with it? I just want to save the scrubs that Elsie loves and my good sheets.”
“If she’s trying to catch a man, that’s not the way to go about it.” He carefully wrapped a T-shirt around the rope to protect Kate’s wrists and then tied them in front of her. Then he took her back to the bedroom and helped her into bed.
“Shows what you know. The guys all think she’s cute in them.”
He grunted. “I’m trying to be nice and make this as comfortable as much as I can for you. It’s not the safest thing for me to do, so I’m trusting that you’ll behave.”
“Thanks for trusting me,” Kate said, knowing what a big mistake that was on his part!
“Don’t kid yourself. I don’t trust you in the least. I’m just trying to do the right thing by you as much as I can.”
She shook her head. “The right thing to do would be to tell the authorities and let them help you with this since you’re obviously…” She hesitated.
Incompetent at his job?
”Well, suffice it to say, you’re not exactly in the best shape to pursue this shooter, now are you?” she continued.
“I’m fine. Look at it this way. We’re going in the same direction. You can use the company. And I can protect you from the bad guys.”
“Ha!”
He smiled and pulled her into his arms. “Just lie still, Doc. Pretend this is all just a heavenly, sexy dream and—“
She squirmed.
“Or not. Let me sleep and we’ll get along just fine.”
Kate had to be daft to believe anything this man said was the truth. She’d wanted to tell Dan that something was wrong, but she had stuck close to the truth to hopefully appease…hell, she didn’t even know the man’s name. She’d hoped Dan would realize that no way would she stop by the house and grab dinner, then go to sleep. She always took off on these trips right after work. Which was why the ladies had brought over a feast earlier. Maybe he’d talk about it with Dottie and she’d alert him that something was wrong. She was his police dispatcher so she had a sixth sense about emergency situations.
An hour passed and Kate could tell the man wasn’t sleeping. He was tired, but still tense. Just as tense as she was, waiting for the moment that she could slip away from him, free herself, and call the troops. They could learn if he was telling the truth about being a good guy or not. And help him if they could, if he was. But she knew that Dan must have been clueless about her situation.
“Sleep,” the man said, as if he could read her mind.
“If we’re going to be together for a while, what do I call you?”
“Leyton.”
“Your real name?”
“Sleep.”
She tried to relax, but his hot and hard body was pressed against her back, which also indicated to her that he was not sleeping. His warmth warmed her, his heated breath tickling her hair. She hadn’t been with a man in forever, but she’d never really been with a man like this before. She didn’t mean the bit about being tied up, but the part about sleeping with a man, his breath in her hair, his arms wrapped around her, holding her close as if he didn’t want to lose her.
Which of course was the situation, but in her mind, she wanted to think about how it would be if it was a much more normal situation between a man and a woman sharing a lover’s intimacy, certainly not a hostage situation.
She thought she felt his arm relaxing about her, but as soon as she tried to move just a hint away from him, he immediately tightened his hold around her. She cursed to herself. After eating, and not having the nap like she’d planned earlier, if she tried to stay awake until he fell thoroughly asleep? She wouldn’t last.
3
Leyton woke to a woman snuggled against this chest, her leg pressed against his groin, her head resting under his chin. His shoulder ached where he’d been wounded, but thankfully he’d been able to get some sleep last night. He closed his eyes, remembering just where he was and why he was holding one pistol of a cougar in his arms. It appeared the doc needed to sleep as much as he had. He would have loved to cuddle with her further, close his eyes, and sleep a little longer, but he didn’t want to get up too late and chance having anyone in Yuma Town see him with her when they left.
He rubbed her arm and said low so as not to startle her, “Hey, Doc, let’s get up and go.”
She didn’t stir.
He smiled. What he would have given to make love to the woman, if she was so inclined and he wasn’t on a mission, desperate to take Butch down and make sure his own name was cleared of any wrongdoing.
“Kate,” Leyton said, rubbing her silky arm again. “Time to go so you can enjoy your vacation.”
She jerked awake, saw him, but it apparently didn’t register who he was. She slugged him in the jaw with her clenc
hed hands before she attempted to dive off the bed.
He caught her foot and dragged her back, pulled her into his arms, and held tight. “Whoa, it’s just me.”
Realization dawning, she growled at him. “That’s just as bad as what I was thinking.”
He smiled “Come on. Let’s get dressed and get ready for your vacation.”
“What are you going to do about having no shoes?”
“We’ll stop at a store somewhere—in another town--I’ll get some clothes, and we’ll be all set.” He carefully untied her wrists.
She rubbed them to get the circulation back in them. “What if everyone knows me for miles around,” she asked, as he took her into the bathroom. “What are you doing?”
“I have to pee. Just turn your head. Besides, you’re a doctor and when you’re running in the woods with your kind as a cougar, no one makes a fuss about what comes naturally.”
“I suppose that means you’re not going to give me any privacy either.”
“I’ll shut my eyes.”
He needed to take a shower, but he didn’t want her to slip out when he was in the middle of it. She probably would like to have one too. Why not kill two birds with one stone? She had a window in the bathroom, so he couldn’t leave her alone to do anything in there without being there to watch her.
“I need a shower,” he warned her.
“You can’t get your bandages wet,” she said, her doctor skills immediately coming to the forefront.
He hadn’t thought of that. “Well, you might want to take one too and we can wrap some plastic around the bandages.”
“Don’t tell me. We have to take a shower together because you don’t trust me not to escape and tell on you.”
“That’s the gist of it. But we do have other options.”
She raised her brows.
“I can tie you up, keep the glass door open, make you stay in the shower with me, but you can shower after me.”
“Not before? Seems a gentleman would let the woman go first.”
“Rope or no?” he asked, cognizant of the minutes passing by. “Or you can skip one, if you prefer.”
“No rope.” Reluctantly, Kate taped plastic over his wound on the front and back. Then she stripped out of her jeans and blouse and shoes. Dressed in her black silky underwear, she got into the shower while he washed up. Never in a million years would she have envisioned being in a situation like this.
She grimaced when he was having such a time of it with washing, and she knew his shoulder had to be hurting. Even though she should have been totally annoyed with him, she couldn’t help being a doctor too.
“Here,” she said, and took the soap sponge from him to wash his back. He turned around and faced the shower spigot while she ran the sponge all over his silky skin. She washed him all the way down to his feet, trying not to take notice too much of his hard muscled body, and then had him turn around so she could wash the rest of him. She told herself it was just like giving a patient a shower who was having difficulty doing the task himself, but hell, as soon as she saw his erection, that changed her mind about the dynamics between them. Still, he couldn’t wash himself adequately, and she hoped if she did this for him, he’d give her some privacy.
She quickly and efficiently washed his torso, trying not to linger anywhere that would make it feel intimate to him, and then under his arms, and back to his body. She quickly washed his penis, pretending she didn’t notice it jerk in her hands, and then continued to his legs and feet. “There. My turn. Get out and I’ll take my shower in privacy.”
“Works for me. Thanks, Doc.”
Then he brushed past her and shut the glass door. He didn’t watch her, but began drying himself quickly, then used some of her scent-free deodorant, pulled on the sweats, and watched out the window as she quickly showered. She was glad she’d get a shower before they left, but hadn’t wanted to mention it because she wasn’t sure that just this would happen—that he wouldn’t trust her and they’d end up in the shower together.
But she wasn’t giving up on trying to get away. She hadn’t been able to before. The problem was that he’d locked the bathroom door. That would force her to take the time to unlock the door, then pull it open. She was seeing the whole thing in her mind’s eye. Her pretending just too dry herself while he continued to allow her some privacy, but she’d leave the shower, twist the doorknob, unlocking it, shove it open, run out, and shift. She’d bolt out of her cat door and head for Dan’s. If she was a cat, no way could Leyton catch hold of her in time. She didn’t want to hurt him, but she wasn’t going to go with him.
She knew he was better off, if he was a good guy, getting Dan and the other men involved, not being the Lone Ranger. Especially in his current condition.
Not wanting to waste any more time in the shower, she thought for a moment of leaving the water on, and then bolting for the door, but he would hear the shower door opening anyway, and be even more suspicious of her movements, turn, and thwart her.
But would he have enough time to stop her?
She had to give it her all and risk it anyway. If she didn’t make it, then what? He already didn’t trust her.
She pulled the shower door aside, and he turned his head a little. She knew she could only do this one way. She reached for the towel rack as if she were going to pull a towel off it, but then she jumped out of the shower, grabbed the doorknob, and twisted it, unlocking it. Before she could yank the door open, he was moving toward her, and she frantically called on the power to shift.
* * *
Wild cat, Leyton thought as Kate shifted into her growly, golden cat form, her teeth bared when he had grabbed her from behind. One minute a woman, the next a big cat. He jumped back, avoiding her razor sharp teeth and claws. She hissed at him and he yanked off the sweats before he called on the urge to shift. Two could play at this game, but he was a lot larger than her, and she wasn’t winning this competition. Better get this out in the open right this moment, then they were free to continue on their way. She was going with him and that was all there was to it.
As soon as she saw him shift, she backed up against the door. He wondered if she’d ever had a cat fight with another. He’d had plenty over the years, but what he’d learned was the most aggressive won. And he always won. Not that he wanted to hurt her or anything, but he had to make the point she was going along with the program or else.
He was again reminded of the time dwindling in the mental image he had of sand in an hourglass timer quickly sifting to the base of the glass jar. He lunged for her and she rose up on her back legs, powerful, snarly, and aggressive.
So much for him being more aggressive. He didn’t want to hurt her, and he was afraid he would, just because of his size. But the other problem was, his shoulder hurt like a son-of-a-bitch as the bandages dangled from his fur.
Still, he could easily take her down, though maybe not as easily as he was thinking as she got a good grip on his skin on his uninjured shoulder, not puncturing it, but not letting go either. He retaliated by jerking free, lunging, and pinning her to the floor. She tried to get up. She could wriggle and squirm all she wanted, but he wasn’t letting her up until she acquiesced. Her heart was beating pell-mell just like his was, her breathing labored, her tongue hanging out of her mouth, panting.
He waited for what seemed like hours when it was more likely only a minute or two. Then she shifted and he quickly moved off her, but waited to ensure she wasn’t going to shift before he got dressed. She was still wet, furious, and looked ready to shift and take him on. Instead, she grabbed a towel, wrapped it around herself, and yanked open the bathroom door. Then she stomped into the bedroom and he followed her, keeping an eye on her. She jerked open the drawer containing the silky panties, dried quickly, and yanked a pair of black and white polka dot ones on.
He waited until she’d put on her bra, jeans, T-shirt, socks, and hiking boots before he shifted, just to make sure she wasn’t going to shift back again. He made
her return to the bathroom, and he pulled on the sweat pants. She had to bandage his wounds again, her fault, not his. Then he pulled the sweat shirt over his head, growling at the pain that coursed through his shoulder. Still not speaking, neither were in the mood, she fixed coffee, then slammed a jar of over-the-counter pain medication on the counter. He took some, then grabbed some bottles of orange juice, while she filled two thermal travel cups for them, adding cream to both, whether he wanted any or not, but being cats, she probably assumed he would.
He made her show him the paperwork for the rental cabin to prove to him that she was giving him the right location for the GPS before they left. He wasn’t about to allow her to lead him astray like she tried to do with the trip to “her” house yesterday.
He almost forgot about the wash in the dryer. Not that he’d think anyone would be inspecting her dryer or anything, but…
“Why don’t you put the things in the dryer away before we hit the road?”
Her luscious lips parted for a second. Then she pursed them and stalked into the laundry room. “As if anyone’s going to be looking in my laundry room for anything. For heaven’s sake.”
“Right, but you never know about people. You think someone’s just over here to water plants and then…” He gave a little shoulder shrug, then after he watched her put everything away, they headed out to the garage and settled into the car.
He took the wheel at first, backing out of the garage, then shutting the garage door. He watched all around him as he pulled out of her driveway, not seeing anyone lurking about, waiting to turn on the floodlights and holler, “Police! Step out of the vehicle with your hands up!”
He was glad that if she had given the sheriff any clues anything was amiss, he hadn’t caught on.
Leyton kept to the speed limit, just in case anyone was about at this early morning hour, waiting to catch the unsuspecting in a speed trap or for a sobriety test.
“Do you always drive this slowly?” she asked, settling against the seat, a pillow tucked under her head against the window, a soft jaguar throw covering her body. She looked like she was about ready to go to sleep.