“Don’t run off, Kell,” Tabby pleaded softly then, her hand landing on his arm, her fingers curling against the silk of the material. “I believe several of Emily’s friends are here tonight as well. We could all visit.”
Emily knew she should have expected this. Tabby was a regular at these parties, and she wasn’t the only one.
“I believe I might actually know most everyone who is here,” Emily stated with a smile. “Considering the crowd, that’s not surprising, Tabby.”
Satisfaction gleamed in Tabby’s eyes.
“Deuter Meyers seemed quite surprised that you and Kell were living together,” Tabby said with a self-satisfied smile. “He flew out from D.C. this morning just for the party after nearly deciding not to come. But when I mentioned you would be here, why he felt he just had to show up.”
Emily’s arms ached. She could feel the chill racing over them, the echo of the deep bruises that had marred them for weeks after she had left another party that Deuter Meyers had attended.
“Deuter Meyers?” There was an edge of suspicion as Kell glanced down at her.
“I knew him in college.” Emily shrugged, careful to control her reactions now.
“Quite well, from what I understand.” Tabby’s smile was pure spite. “Very well.”
At this point, Emily wanted to roll her eyes. She leaned forward instead. “Unlike some of us, when Kell came to my bed he knew exactly who he’d shared me with and who he hadn’t. You’re barking up the wrong tree.” Bitch.
Tabby’s eyes narrowed as she glanced at Kell. “Oh please, tell me you didn’t fall for the virgin ploy.”
“I think Kell’s smarter than that, Tabby,” Emily pointed out. “He rarely falls for anything, as we both know.”
Just as he evidently hadn’t fallen for the other woman or her carefully practiced sexuality.
Tabby flashed her a hostile look then slid her hand over Kell’s opposite arm. “You should dance with me. It’s been a very long time since we’ve danced.”
Oh geez, give her a break.
“Tabby, I think you know that’s not going to happen.” Kell’s voice was a hell of a lot nicer than the other woman deserved. Of course, Emily knew the enmity between her and Tabby might have something to do with her feelings on the matter.
Fury flashed in the other woman’s eyes then. “Poor Kell.” She sighed. “It’s obvious you’re still drawn to the poor little creatures outside your own social class. My parents were so certain you would grow out of that habit.”
The little bitch.
“Excuse us, Tabby.” Kell’s voice was ice now. “But I think Emily needs some fresh air. Good night.”
Kell drew her quickly away from the other woman, but not before Emily turned back, her gaze connecting with Tabby’s in a look of promised retaliation. She may not attend the parties often, but she had her own friends. Friends who could make certain portions of Tabby’s life uncomfortable.
“Bet me that Drage Masters rescinds her membership in his clubs for the rest of the year,” she muttered, remembering the times she had seen the other woman at the clubs when she had gone to them for research into the BDSM fringe societies.
Kell drew her quickly along the wall, glancing down at her in shock. “How do you know Drage?”
“Drage likes me.” She shrugged. “When I wanted to use his clubs for research I made an appointment with him and Jayne Doe first thing rather than just barging in. He thought I was very polite. He even offered to let me downstairs if I was willing to pretend to be his sub.”
He muttered something. Something along the lines of death, dismemberment, and Drage in the same sentence.
“He’s charming.” She shrugged.
“He’s an alleycat,” he argued back.
“They are the most charming of all,” she assured him with a smile. “They appreciate the attention.”
And the byplay was doing nothing to help her forget the fact that Tabby and Deuter were here. Together.
Damn Tabby and Deuter Meyers. She didn’t need this. She still hadn’t gotten over the nightmares that little event had produced before Fuentes had kidnapped her. She didn’t need to meet that bastard again, especially not while Kell was anywhere around.
“Want to tell me about Meyers?” he asked as they once again began to move and headed through the open French doors into the candlelit gardens beyond.
“There’s nothing to tell,” she assured him before sipping at her wine again and wishing she had thought to get a refill.
“You know, Em, I’ve known you a long time,” he drawled. “I could tell when you were lying even as a kid. That hasn’t changed.”
“Then maybe it’s just none of your business.” She had managed to keep that little event quiet for the most part. Few people knew about it, and even her father hadn’t so much as heard a muttered rumor.
“I might have accepted that if it weren’t for the fact that I could almost smell the hatred and anger rising off you,” he growled. “You hid it damned well while Tabby was there, but I know you a hell of a lot better than she does. Should I ask Deuter about it?”
God forbid.
“You know, Kell, I don’t go around questioning your ex-lovers,” she pointed out. “Why should you question men that you should have enough sense to know aren’t my ex-lovers?”
He was silent for long moments, drawing her through the crowds as she stared at faces and tried to place names to them.
“Because they frighten you,” he finally said. “I want to know why.”
“Maybe he was just weird.”
“And maybe I know weird doesn’t frighten you,” he snapped. “It takes a hell of a lot more than weird to even faze you and I know it. So what the fuck happened?”
Emily flinched. He was working himself into a seriously pissed mood. Not that she really cared if Kell got pissed; there wasn’t a chance he would hurt her. But if they came face-to-face with Deuter, she couldn’t exactly predict what he might do.
“Nothing happened,” she snapped back. “He wanted it, I said no, end of story. And you shouldn’t worry so damned much about a past that is none of your business.”
Before she could predict movement, Kell pulled her between the tall flowering shrubs that bordered the walkway, then pushed her against the stone column that hid there.
His body flattened against hers, his hands grabbing both wrists and anchoring them over her head with one broad hand.
“Now. I would like to ask you again. What happened with Deuter Meyers?”
Twenty-five
“HAS IT EVER BEEN POINTED out to you that you are just a shade arrogant?” Emily asked conversationally as she melted against his body.
He was hard. Her body noticed that the instant he pressed against her. His cock pressed against her stomach insistently, reminding her that she hadn’t had her daily dose of Kell yet.
“You’ve mentioned it often,” he bit out. “Now tell me about Deuter.”
“Look, it was nothing. He was at a party and he freaked me out a little bit. Deuter likes to think he’s a ladies’ man, end of story.”
“How did he freak you out?”
He wasn’t buying it and he wasn’t bothering to hide it. Dammit, why did Tabby have to be such an interfering bitch? She had managed to keep Deuter alive by the simple fact that she had never allowed her father to know what had happened. His life would be extinguished even faster if Kell found out.
In one single, stupid moment, the other woman had ignored all Emily’s careful discretion. Not that she cared if Deuter died; she just cared if her father or Kell spent time in prison for his death.
Emily licked her lips nervously. She really didn’t want to lie to Kell. Besides, he always seemed to know when she was lying.
“He was a little rough.” She shrugged it away. “That’s all. He’d had a little too much to drink and—”
“Don’t excuse anything he fucking did,” Kell snarled. “Just tell me what the fuck happened.”
br /> Deuter had happened. He had been determined to rape her and thought he could hold her still by nearly breaking her arms. If it hadn’t been for the training her father had given her when she was a teenager he would have managed it.
“He just scared me a little.” Her lips trembled. He had terrified her. “That’s all.”
Kell had suffered an attack on one woman who had been important to him already. A wife who had died—as well as their unborn child. If she told him what Deuter had done, he would kill the other man. His voice had been tortured, guttural with pain, when he described what he had done to Tansy’s killers that night.
“Are you going to make me ask him what happened, Emily?” he asked her softly. “I should warn you, I’m trained to get the answers I want. I know Deuter, it won’t take long to break him.”
Emily shuddered. No, breaking him would be easy, but Kell would make certain that killing him took a while. And it would be painful. Very painful.
“For God’s sake, Kell,” she snapped. “Let it go. Don’t you think I would have told you if I wanted you to know?”
“No, I don’t,” he snarled. “Because you know I’d probably kill the little son of a bitch.”
“And he’s not worth it,” she stated fiercely. “Now stop manhandling me before I get really pissed off. It’s sexy as hell when you use it for sex, but using it to make me give you answers that should be my choice to give you, it’s just wrong.”
He frowned at her statement, loosening his grip. “Is that what you think I’m doing?”
“What else could it be? You don’t control me so stop trying to convince me that you do.”
“I don’t want to control you.” His lips quirked. “Though I’m beginning to see the merits in it where you’re concerned. And don’t think for one minute that I won’t find out what you’re hiding.”
“Fine, why don’t I just go poking into your past?”
“It’s like sex, Emily. If you want to know, just ask. Anything from the day I met you, till now, I don’t care to answer. Just as anything that happened from the day I met you is definitely my business.”
“Which means most of my life.” She pouted as he released her hands, watching as she began to rub her arms.
She stilled the movement. He hadn’t touched her arms. And he was too damned smart when it came to picking up clues to stuff.
“Is he the reason you’re always rubbing at your arms as though you’re trying to wipe away something dirty?”
Damn, damn, damn. She glared back at him. “I get cold easily, and sometimes you make me nervous.”
His lips thinned. “Don’t lie to me, Emily. I don’t like it.”
He would dislike the truth even more.
Emily sighed. “I dropped my wine. And aren’t we here for a reason?”
“A reason that I’m beginning to believe is fucking stupid,” he snapped. “No one can make a move in this crowd, and definitely no one intent on a kidnapping.”
“We could find a tree to prop up,” she suggested, fighting the nerves building within her.
“You’re making me crazy.” He sighed then, lowering his forehead to hers as his hands slid over her hips, his fingers gripping them firmly, holding her against him.
“No, that’s the people here,” she whispered, trying to inject just a little humor into the situation. “All those pesky women wanting a piece of you. I’ve heard it makes a man a little tense.”
“One of these days, I really am going to paddle your ass for being so stubborn,” he whispered.
Her rear clenched at the thought of the pleasure that could bring.
“So you keep saying,” she whispered back, a real smile tugging at her lips. “I think you’re too scared I’ll like it.”
“I know you’ll like it.” His lips lowered to her neck. “A lot.”
Emily inhaled roughly as his lips slid over her neck, his tongue licking, stroking.
“Kell.” She was breathing heavily now. “Umm, maybe we should mingle some more.”
If one was going to protest, then she really shouldn’t tilt her neck to the side to give him greater access to sensitive flesh. But that was what she did, her lashes fluttering as she struggled to keep them open against the pleasure suddenly rising inside her.
She loved it when he touched her, reveled in it, craved it. It was the culmination of every dream, every fantasy, she had ever known.
“Maybe,” he growled into her neck a second before sharp teeth nipped with erotic heat. “In a minute.”
He licked the little sting as she flowed against him, her body softening, moving against him, feeling the desire rising hot and fast inside her.
Between her thighs, she could feel her flesh heating, preparing her for him. Just that fast and easy. And now, if the world would just work with her a little here, and give her just a few minutes to enjoy this.
But it seemed the world working against her had other ideas.
Kell stiffened, his head rising dangerously as he turned protectively, glaring as the brush rustled and a feminine figure slipped inside their hiding place.
“Problems,” Kira whispered, grimacing as she glanced at Emily. “Reno and the guys outside just busted the cutest little South American assassin. All scars and nasty threats. He says Mr. White isn’t here. I think Judas might have duped us.”
Emily tensed, pressing her head against Kell’s back as Kira gave the report.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Kell snarled, wrapping his arm around Emily’s back and pulling her closer to his side. “Where’s Ian?”
“On the other side.” She jerked her head toward the brush. “He wasn’t about to interrupt you.”
Kell reached into his pocket, pulling free the small radio and ear clip. Putting it in place, he turned it on.
“Macey, are you there? We’re heading out, bring the limo around.”
Disconnecting the ear clip, he pocketed the radio once again and headed back into the garden before turning and advancing toward the house. Kira walked ahead of them, with Ian pulling in behind Kell.
They made an odd group. Emily dressed in her bronze silk gown, the flared skirt rustling over the petticoat she wore beneath it. Kira in snug black satin, and Kell and Ian in their dress suits. And she realized she was focusing on clothes when her stomach was knotting with tension.
Her gown was slit from her feet to her knees in the front, with the gathered skirt showing the darker petticoat and slip beneath.
Strapless, snug from her breasts to her thighs, it was more revealing than the gown she had worn to the previous party. Still, her gown was one of the least revealing, except for the matrons who still covered themselves from wrists to ankles. Not that there were many of those left.
“Let’s move,” Kell urged her.
“I can only go so fast in heels,” she informed him, her voice shaking.
“Then take the damned things off.” He pulled her to a stop, knelt, and pulled the shoes from her feet before stuffing them in his jacket pocket and rushing her to the open French doors. “We go straight to the limo, no stopping in between.”
“Fine.” She was in no hurry to stay.
They entered the ballroom, cutting a direct path through the center of the dance floor to the open doors on the other side.
He kept her moving through the crowd, ignoring the few guests who tried to stop them and chat. With Kira ahead of them and Ian behind them, it was easy to keep the quick pace without appearing to be in a rush.
“Kell.” A voice stopped them just inside the foyer. “Drage said you were here.”
Emily stopped, causing Kell to curse behind her. She turned and stared into the gentle, pale blue eyes of the man watching them, his arm thrown around his wife’s shoulders.
“Jansen, we were just leaving,” Kell announced as Emily stared back at her father’s boyhood friend.
His face was so kind. Crow’s-feet wrinkled the corners of his eyes and his lips held a fatherly smile.
&
nbsp; “I understand.” He nodded. “I was just taking Elaine to the powder room to freshen up; she wasn’t feeling well.” Jansen Clay glanced at Elaine’s bent head. “We just received some distressing news about Risa.”
Emily felt her mouth go dry. Elaine was pale, her eyes damp with tears.
“Is Risa okay?” she asked, fearing the worse.
“She’s alive.” Jansen’s expression tightened as Emily blinked back at him. His expression seemed to flash with something, fear perhaps.
“She’s taken a setback?” Emily reached out to Elaine, her hand touching her shoulder. Elaine was Risa’s stepmother, but she had practically raised her after Risa’s mother’s death.
Elaine broke off a sob as she pushed from Jansen and wrapped her arms around Emily’s shoulders. “It’s been so hard,” she sobbed. “Oh God. I have to find the powder room. Emily, please go with me.”
Emily glanced back at Kell, seeing the tight grimace that pulled at his expression.
“Kira, could you help me?” Emily wrapped one arm around Elaine’s waist as they headed for the ladies’ room.
“I’ll find Markwell and let him know we’ll be leaving soon, sweetheart.” Jansen kissed his wife’s head as he glanced at Emily again.
For a moment, his eyes seemed cold, hard.
Emily shook the vision away. Jansen was anything but cold and hard. He had always been filled with laughter, always chiding her father for the bodyguards and his protectiveness.
“Hurry,” Kell urged, following behind her. “I’ll be waiting outside the ladies’ room. Kira, go in with them.”
Emily led Elaine through the foyer as the older woman sniffed and wiped at her eyes.
“Risa is such a sweet little girl,” Elaine whispered. “It nearly destroyed Jansen to put her in that institution.”
Daddy, help me! Risa’s frightened pleas echoed through Emily’s head as she and Kira helped the other woman into the ladies’ room.
They were Risa’s screams, not her own. Filled with horror and pain, and realization—
The ladies’ room was empty. Silent.
Daddy, why . . .