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  Grinning, Eagle grabbed his hat and Katya by her arm, and sauntered out, knowing he was ruining Russell’s morning. “Come on and get these things, will ya, Ace?”

  “Later, Susan. It was great meeting you. We’ll have to do lunch, huh?” Katya called.

  “Sure, lunch. Great.”

  Eagle said something else, but Russell ignored him, ready to shut the door on him.

  “Russell! Stop being so mean.”

  “Hell, baby, he’s a damn—”

  “Russell—Geez, you are really going to have think about that mouth of yours.”

  “I’d rather think of yours, Sunshine. Come here.” Without waiting for her response, he tugged her close and kissed her before she could wiggle away. She opened up, all soft and warm in his arms.

  “Maybe we’ll come by after the roundup,” Eagle muttered at his elbow.

  Susan hid her head against his chest.

  He speared Eagle with a glare. The man was cruising for his fist in his face. “Just leave the stuff.”

  “Sure you don’t want us to come back later?”

  “Fuc—”

  “Russell!”

  “It was nice to meet you again, Susan. You take care of Ace, true?”

  Hell. Eagle winked and headed to the truck. Katya waved.

  Tugging Susan inside, he slammed the door shut with his boot. Eagle needed his ass kicked.

  “Well, that was interesting.”

  He tucked Susan up close, letting her feel how uninterested he was in his friends, and how very much he was interested in her.

  Susan sucked in a breath and said, “Russell, you need to learn to share.”

  “Hell with that. I let them in, didn’t I? Now, how about round two?” Cupping her ass, he brought her up close, not even pausing to get a reply because she was already working her hands up the back of his shirt. “Forgiven?”

  “Maybe… You might convince me to forgive you if…”

  He held in a groan when she slid her hands past the waistband of his jeans and dug those nails in his bare ass. “Yeah, baby?”

  “Mmm, I think you’ll find a way,” she whispered, rubbing her thigh along his cock, her meaning more than clear. Hell, yeah.

  “Ah, that’s my girl. Let me show you how I can make you scream, baby.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Mara? What are you doing, darling?”

  Eric was happy today. His tone of voice always changed when he was happy. Lighter—boyish, somewhat. And he was happy now.

  Still, Mara knew better than to keep him waiting. She finished her hair quickly and smiled up at him immediately when the bathroom door opened. Exactly five minutes. She’d been very fast. It always made him happy.

  “Beautiful.” He kissed her on the nose. “Absolutely beautiful, darling.”

  “Thank you, my love. I dressed for you.”

  His cheekbones darkened, and she knew he was aroused before he lightly kissed her, pulling her close and rubbing his thickness against her tummy. “You make me happy, darling. Do I make you happy?”

  He was teasing her. He wanted her to be flirty and bold. She brought a hand down and cupped his cock, squeezing him gently, but firmly like he’d taught her. “Very happy. More, more please.”

  As she knew he would, he chuckled. He nibbled her lips before placing a hand around the back of her neck and lifting from her.

  “More, huh? You want more of me?” His erection swelled harder in her hand, and she shivered. The drugs he fed her made her always ready, always willing, but she still feared his swift mood swings.

  “I love you.” They were the safest three words she’d ever learned. He couldn’t hear them enough, and immediately his face softened slightly. “Can I show you how much?” This, too, was always safe. He was tense, his mission making him unpredictable.

  “Ah, if we had time, my little angel, I would. Maybe on the way back. Will that be enough for you?” He gripped her mound with one hand and with a twist of his wrist he moved her panties aside to slip a long finger inside her body. “Ah, you’re wet, my naughty little girl. I’ve taught you well, no?” He began pushing his fingers in and out, watching her face as he did, his features clouded with lust. She knew better than to move away. Instead she pretended to shiver and caressed his shoulders with her hands.

  “Oh, Eric, please, I want you.”

  He laughed roughly and withdrew his fingers, as she’d known he would. He traced her lips with his fingers before kissing her flavour off her mouth.

  “I love your flavour. You taste like heaven. After this little check-in, I want to taste you for hours.”

  She nodded eagerly. Eric was completely in control of her. But he brought her such pleasure with his body that she didn’t have to fake her reaction to him once he started moving over her. His fingers scared her, though, as did his hands and his temper, but not enough to chance losing him. She did love him, she did. She simply didn’t trust him. Not in the least. But she loved him desperately. He was all she had, her everything.

  He bent down and kissed her cheek. So chaste compared to most of the things he did to her. Had her do to him.

  “Later then, my little pearl. First we need to go see how difficult this fifty million will be to acquire. You’ll be my partner, how’s that?”

  If only she was. A partner, she imagined, you could trust. How could she possibly trust a man who murdered for a living?

  She tiptoed to kiss his jaw, hugging him like she’d always done, burying her nose in his chest, wishing it was the way it had been before she’d called her family. “I would make a good partner, Eric.”

  “You do, little one, you do.” He pulled her arms from around his waist and kissed her wrist, frowning slightly at the scars from the ropes. “Where are your bracelets?”

  Quickly, she took her arm away from him and tightened her arms around his lean waist again. “You took them off last night. I couldn’t find them.” She giggled, making certain he knew she was not accusing him.

  He laughed—happy, she could tell. “Ah, damn, that’s right. We got wild, didn’t we, darling?”

  Wild. Yes, he made her wild. Scared her, punished her, but loved her. What was she to do with that? She had no idea, besides survive.

  She reached up slowly and traced his newly tanned skin. He looked so different with his brown hair dyed blond, his dark eyes coloured with blue contacts.

  “So different. You look so different.”

  He cocked a brow, watching her closely. “Better?”

  “No, no, I like you, not this.” She knew it was the right thing to say when his face softened even more.

  She could do this. Survive.

  Lacey navigated the dirt road to her house, peeking at the clock on her dash every few minutes. She knew she was counting the minutes until she could see Russell again and hated being so pathetic, but couldn’t stop herself. She missed him. He’d been gone for what seemed like forever on his roundup, when in reality he’d only been gone for four days. She felt empty inside. She’d caught herself turning at times during the past four days to tell him something, only to remember he wasn’t right there in her kitchen, or in her bed, or on the couch, or lounging all sexy-hot against the wall, watching her. He was always watching her. And now she realised how much she had been watching him, too. So instead of watching him, she was watching the clock.

  Geez, she needed to get with the programme. She’d tried to stay busy. She’d gone to lunch with Katya the first day he’d left. And she’d enjoyed Katya’s company. She hadn’t had a close friend since Mandy, but Mandy had left years before and, since then, life had been full of superficial friends at best. Most didn’t understand life on a base. Or life with a father who was once a Navy SEAL and forever part of that lifestyle. And team.

  Katya seemed to understand that. Plus, she was with Eagle, a former SEAL. So they had a great deal in common, even if she couldn’t share her past with them. Katya and Eagle had even been to the base she’d lived on, which was sl
ightly frightening. But she had never met Eagle, and certainly never Russell.

  Sighing for the hundredth time, she wiggled a bit on her truck seat and grinned, thinking about what Katya had talked her into. Getting waxed, of all things. Yeow! It had hurt, and when Russell came back…tingles hit that sensitive area of her anatomy at the idea of what Russell would say, let alone do, with her freshly waxed and pampered skin. And she’d pampered it, too, because it had hurt worse than her wounds had! Katya had laughed her head off, but the reality was that even now, three days later, Lacey shuddered at how badly having her hair ripped out had hurt. Russell was lucky he hadn’t been around when she’d had it done, because she would have hit him. Hard, too.

  Now Katya wanted her to try getting her hair lasered off, and, yeah, every time her new friend had said it she’d done the little Mini-Me thing with her fingers like that guy in the Austin Powers movies. God, Mandy would have loved Katya. Mandy. Lacey hadn’t missed her best friend so much since the first year Mandy had been gone. If Mandy learned she’d ‘died’, she’d be devastated. And she’d learn. Pain filled Lacey at the thought. Mandy had run, like Lacey, but not from a killer. She’d run from a man. And for good reasons, but still. She’d run. Fast and far. Lacey had got a few postcards at first, a phone call once or twice, but nothing more in a long time.

  Maybe she should contact Mandy somehow, and let her know she’d not died. She couldn’t trust anyone, the agents had warned her repeatedly. Not even Russell. A former SEAL.

  And definitely not Katya. Grinning, she pictured the woman doing that laser gesture again and laughed. Who knew that someone in Troy, Montana, loved Austin Powers and watched the movies repeatedly? And maybe Lacey was a wimp, but she wasn’t too keen on getting lasered, either. Although, to be honest, she liked the feel of being bare. Now. Days later. Russell did not need to know that, though. She expected a great deal from him for the painful experience. Had she ever thought of going bare? No, not until a husky voice had whispered it over her body while he was a breath away from her clit. The man was a menace.

  And she missed him.

  So here she was, taking the position with Sawyer and Bishop, a great firm out of Spokane, and on her way to meet a client who needed specs on his add-on porch. It was a baby job, an easy fix, and she knew the firm was testing her. And at this point, she missed Russell so bad she could barely put two and two together. She’d be lucky to even remember anything about Mr Lance Daffie’s porch.

  She glanced at her truck clock and punched her foot on the gas. Shit. She was driving too slowly. The man was supposed to meet her at her place in twenty minutes. She was still dressed from her trip to the firm, which meant she wasn’t going to have time to change. She’d headed into Spokane today to meet some of the other employees and had been introduced as the new addition. A new addition who was working out of Troy. From home. That was the seller. Besides, the money was good, she was bored, and this would keep her busy.

  Time she really wanted to fill up with Russell. And Russell’s constant lovemaking. She missed that as much as his warm body cuddling her close all night. The bed was so empty without him. And she had to sleep in it now. He’d made her return the U-Haul with him on Sunday. It was the only time they’d left the house that day, and when they’d got back he’d been insatiable. But then, so had she. She’d even given him a run for his money, he’d told her. She grinned at the memory of how happy Russell had looked. He’d been breathless, hot and sweaty, lying on his back when she’d crawled up on him and explored every single inch of his amazing body.

  God, she missed him. Her body was going through withdrawal, and her waxed pussy was so new and tingly she was in a constant state of flushes, arousal for no reason—oh, other than thinking of Russell. God, it would be embarrassing if she ever planned on telling anyone. Russell would love to hear that particular tidbit, no doubt. He was not only insatiable, he was dirty-minded! He loved to make her talk dirty, and the things he husked in her ear while he thrust in and out of her were an incredible turn-on. She’d never known she was one of those women who liked to hear such things…but she was.

  It was only three o’clock, and he’d said he wouldn’t be back until after dark tonight, possibly tomorrow afternoon, but she hoped he’d be here today. Katya had told her the men would be back today, and said she thought Ace didn’t want to disappoint her in case they did take longer, but she thought Eagle would be back today.

  Lacey thought it was more that Russell hadn’t wanted to leave her at all. She’d heard him talking to that guy on the phone again, and he’d told him he couldn’t make it down. Wherever ‘down’ was. She wasn’t quite clear where or why, but whatever the job was, it sounded like time away, and Russell didn’t seem to want time away.

  Finally passing through town, she saw her realtor and his wife outside their shop and waved. They were a nice couple. Katya said they’d once been in love years ago, but had drifted apart, only to come back together again a few years ago. Sad, she’d thought. Kat had thought it sweet.

  Glancing down at her clock again, she saw it still wasn’t quite three and, darn it, she really didn’t want to meet the guy at her house, but it would help the time go by until she could see Russell.

  She wondered if he missed her. She hoped he did. He seemed to be interested in a whole lot more than sex. He’d brought quite a few of his things down to her house. That meant something. And he’d murmured to her when he’d left, early on Monday morning, that he wanted her in his bed.

  His bed. Meaning his bed at his ranch. She secretly wanted to be there, too. Not that she felt she had to hide it from him, but she didn’t want to put herself too far out there, either. If Russell hurt her, she might not recover. She recognised that already, and hadn’t even known the guy for more than a few weeks. But she had to admit that what she knew of him she liked. She liked his take-charge approach to life, his confidence, and especially his smile. And his humour wasn’t bad either. Kinda sexy—confident and witty. Dry. And, of course, she liked all those dirty little things he said to her while he was driving her absolutely crazy with his mouth, hands, and big, beautiful body…

  She flushed and had to squirm on the seat of her truck, remembering the nights. And the days. But especially that last night. He’d made love to her all night. A banquet of sex. And he’d done it on purpose, it would seem, because right when he’d finally taken her body over the edge and was losing his own control, his hips pounding so firmly the headboard was hitting the wall, he’d leant down and husked in her ear how much he wanted her to feel him deep inside, fucking her hard and hot, for days afterwards. She’d come so intensely after he’d whispered those seductive little dirty words, she’d nearly blacked out.

  She could still feel him now, days later. Deep, deep inside her body she could still feel the lingering fullness of his flesh, so steely hard, thrusting deep. And she might feel that possession in a few more hours, too.

  Her body softened, wetting her panties so much she was afraid she’d leave a stain on the back of her skirt. Breathing deeply, she tried not to think of Russell for ten seconds and only managed because—oh shit! Her client was at her house. God, she only hoped she truly hadn’t made a stain on her skirt because she was aching, aroused to the point of pain, and really didn’t want to do more than tell the guy to leave, then go and masturbate for the rest of the evening.

  She was truly pathetic. Taking a deep breath, she clenched her hands around the steering wheel and groaned, sounding like Russell.

  Mr Daffie drove a big white Dodge pickup with an extended cab. Clean, white, and parked where Russell always parked.

  Cutting her engine, she sighed and gathered her sketches, resigned to meeting Mr Daffie. And, since the man was here, she had no choice. A broad-shouldered, tall man in a black Stetson stood waiting, his truck door half open until she pulled up. Then he shut the door and turned with an odd expression, almost a grin but more like a smirk. Dressed in a light blue button-down like Russ sometimes wore,
jeans, and a belt, he looked a great deal like most of the other men she’d seen around town, only he was tanned—unnaturally so—and looked…off. Too slick, perhaps?

  She pasted a pleasant look on her face before she shimmied down out of her too-tall truck and tugged her skirt into place. He grinned wider and waved. Yeah, like she hadn’t seen him? She waved back and fixed her suit jacket and gathered her things.

  “Hey, I’m Lance Daffie. You must be Susan Fielding, right? I hope so, or I’ve got the wrong house.”

  She couldn’t shake off her unease about the guy, but held her hand out and took his in a firm shake. “Yep, that’s me. You needed to see my specs, right? Come on in, I just got back from Spokane and Mr Bishop mentioned you again today.” He’d actually set this up for her on Monday, but Mr Daffie had changed it to today, thus her rush back from Spokane.

  “Great. Glad you could rearrange things to meet today. Want some help with that?”

  “No, I’ve got it.”

  She unlocked the front door, punched in her code Russell’s buddies had set up for her, and waited until it beeped green before waving her client in.

  “Nice security.”

  She frowned over at him as he checked the security out. Men and security systems, they were both odd.

  “Thanks. My…”—Boyfriend? Lover?—“…friend hooked me up with some guys who installed it.”

  He raised a blond brow. No doubt he’d not missed her stumble, but he didn’t say anything. Still, something about him was off. His teeth were too white and his skin looked tanned. As in, by a tanning bed. And something about him made her…nervous.

  “Maybe I could get their names. I need something at my place. Can never be too sure with these things.”

  These things? She must have looked sceptical, because he looked away a little self-consciously and moved to the table, taking his hat off to reveal blond hair that looked sun-bleached. Maybe even bottled.