The Promise of Love (21 page)

Her mind went completely, utterly silent.

“Hey, princess, I hear you’re not—”

“David Jansen, I should kill you,” she said, then ran to him and hugged him as tightly as she could. Tears blurred everything, even the six months of heartache, as his solid body and warm pine scent settled around her.
He’s here. He’s here.

“Whoa, there, no killing me before I get to explain.”

His voice sounded deeper than she remembered. Rougher. Then his words registered. “I am so mad at you, so very, very mad at you! You left me, here, then dragged me back…here!”

“I’m sorry, hell, I didn’t mean for them to do this, I didn’t know they were doing this,” he said, sounding oddly choked up.

Probably because I’m squeezing his neck too tight
.

She let go and stepped back, giving him a once-over. He was dressed in combat clothes, the kind of dusty brown camo that men in the military wore. He wore it better than the men behind him. But he
looked
better, too.

Don’t go there. He left once
.
No more second chances
.

Even as she thought it, she knew such a thing could never apply to David.

“Why am I here?” she asked, a sudden suspicion and the memory of the last time she’d seen him rising to the surface. “Where is Will?”

“Look, you’re not supposed to be in here,” he said firmly, and waved off the two big MPs behind him.

She glared at them. They’d been the ones to pick her up at home and drag her to the SUV then drive her down here. Maybe she’d been very unwilling to go, but they shouldn’t have manhandled her like that. “Will is, well, he had to go clean up more of this mess. But I’m here now.”

That caught her attention. Will hadn’t come. She explored her feelings on that and found no hurt, just worry over him. David was here, that was why, too. David the blue-eyed, cocky soldier who made her knees grow weak with his sleepy eyed smile. The man who’d made her choke on sandwiches from his insane questions. The man who’d woken her heart, then ripped it out.

“So it’s just me,” David muttered and reached up to rub a hand over the back of his neck with a wince.

After this long, it’s just him. That’s all he has to say?

Go slow, don’t jump in. Steady, just slow down. Don’t give your heart out so quickly—again.

She folded her arms and assumed a bored posture.

“Oh, great,” she muttered. “At least you’re not dead. Although I’d love to hear how you searched for me, because that would be a truly tall tale since I was right there, in the same hotel room, in town, waiting for you.”

He widened his blue eyes, but quickly gave her his big confident smile, the one that had got her into his bed—and Will’s arms—all in one wild week of such passion she even now woke up aching for more.

Adjusting his crutch, he said, “Look, princess, it’s—”

“Don’t. I don’t like it here. I want to go home. I have work I’m missing. This place stinks and those men were rude and very,
very
uncool dragging me out of my house the way they did. Who knows what this will do to my uncle, and I really,
really
don’t appreciate being ignored for months, then shoved back into this as if no time had passed. You—”

“Whoa, that’s a lot of pent-up anger. You’d better calm it or you might just end up burning your wick at both ends.”

She snapped her mouth shut then speared him with the glare she reserved for very spoiled brat skaters wanting her to let their lazy skating slide. “My wick and ends are none of your concern. You left me here!”

“I didn’t leave you here!” he exclaimed with heat. “I left, and when I came back, you were gone!”

Shocked, she stared at him, unable to believe all her pain and loneliness was that easily explained.
He came back and I was been gone? That was it?

“We told you to stay here, to wait—”

“What? Are you saying it’s
my
fault? That if I’d just stayed here everything would have been okay?” she asked, waving at the entire compound. “Everything would have been
fine
?” she shouted.

“Yes. If you’d stayed put, none of this would have happened—”

“None of
this?
What do you know of
this
, Mr. Smarty-Pants G.I. Joe? Nothing! You would have left too if you were suddenly surrounded by sick perverts thinking you’re their next play toy!”

“Holy hell,” he breathed, and his crutch crashed to the floor. He hobbled over and suddenly she was in his arms again, and just like before, it was okay. More than okay, so much better it was good enough she felt tears spilling free. “I’m sorry, Paris, sorry, hell, I never would have left you here to deal with that, if I’d known.”

“I know, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to shout at you—”

“Hell, I’m listening, shout away, as long as you tell me you’re okay and you missed me, but come on, Mr. Smarty-Pants G.I. Joe is the best you got?”

“What!” She pushed at his chest, but he only kissed her temple and didn’t let her go. He’d tricked her, hadn’t he? God, she shouldn’t have felt her heart melting at that, but she did.

“Just come on, say it, whisper it if you need to,” he murmured, stroking her back. All those times he’d said that then done everything she’d whispered came back with a full body shiver. Even her traitorous breasts grew heavy and achy at the sexy tone of his voice.

“You got hurt,” she said, instead of dragging him into the room and whispering exactly what she wanted from him. She moved back enough to inspect the brace he wore on his leg and knee. “And you shouldn’t stand on it, either!” she exclaimed and picked up his crutch.

He took it, but she could tell he wasn’t completely buying her nervous attempt at changing the subject. It was too soon, and she was too close to falling for him all over again. The last time she’d barely survived. David had shown her what real heartache meant—she wasn’t ready to lose again, so soon. But God, he had great reasons, and such an earnest expression mixed with his bad boy grin, she wished they
were
alone.

“Yeah,” he sighed heavily and eased back on his crutch a few steps. He seemed to catch on that she wasn’t falling so easily this time, or else the sneaky man knew he’d have her alone soon and God only knew what he had in mind. Another traitorous tremble dove down her spine at the thought.

“What happened to your leg?” she asked.

“It was an accident. One of the reasons I couldn’t make it back in time to catch you before you ran off,” he accused. She opened her mouth and he tacked on, “I hurt it again recently climbing down too fast from a cliff. Another mission, not a big deal, but I was careless.”

“You’re using a crutch, it’s a big deal,” she surmised.
He hurt himself? That’s why he didn’t show up?

His grin grew in his eyes. “You know me so well already, don’t you, princess?”

The comment sizzled between them and filled her with such possessiveness she tightened her fingers on his camo jacket. “I guess so, mister, so fess up. You’re hurt and it is a big deal, isn’t it?”

Laughing, he surprised her by slipping his hand along the back of her dress and squeezing her butt.

“David!” she whispered and thumped his chest. “Stop that. We need to talk,” she said, still cautious of the men who might or might not be watching or listening through that glass. “Especially before we move toward
that
.”

He ducked his head and stole a quick kiss before she could break out of his arms. With a heavy sigh, he straightened. “All right, we’ll talk, but I’m warning you, I’m not waiting too long.”

With that sexy threat, he shouldered the door open wider and beckoned her with his hand.

“Come on. Let’s get you out of here and to a room—a clean one, so we can talk.”

“What’s going on? Really going on?” she asked, easing by him, still nervous he would try something else with his quick sneakiness.

“I’ll tell you.” He bent low and whispered against her ear, “when we talk.”

The ticklish sensation of his hot breath, and hot body, apparently very ready to make up for all those lonely nights, had her feeling as if she were walking on air. She tripped, since, of course, her brain was focused on the man and the things she wanted to do to him, let alone him do to her. She’d been getting ready to go meet a banker for a loan to purchase the local ice rink, so she was still in her heels and wrap-around blue dress.

“Until then, let’s just keep the ideas flowing silent-like,” David added. “And, princess, you look beautiful in that dress. You’re going to be more beautiful when I lift you up again for a better look, but damn, I missed you.”

The honesty and teasing hit like a double whammy. She’d missed both so much, and him so much. She knew exactly what he was talking about seeing… David was so strong he had been able to hold her up as if she weighed nothing and make love to her. He had a chest she’d never grow tired of touching, let alone the other parts of his anatomy.

She pulled her mind off David’s incredible body and swallowed to ask, “A clean room, what does that mean? And please don’t tell me it’s near the last one.
Either
of the last ones.”

He grimaced at that, and she felt bad. He’d been hurt. That meant he hadn’t been able to find her, especially with her phone back in his room.

Before she could apologize, he said, “It means it’s an unused wing of this disaster and safer than anywhere else I can put you.
Us
, put us right now,” he said. His expression could only be described as hungry. “No one is near there, and no one has clearance to be there, in case, you know, you get loud.”

She felt the familiar blush warm her cheeks. She had never been loud. Even when David had done things to her trying to make her scream—she’d been quiet, which seemed to amuse him, and she hoped please him, too. He’d certainly gotten out of control with her when she had whispered and moaned quietly. Her blush turned hotter at the memory.

David noticed it and nodded. “We talk, then we’ll see about being loud—”

“Don’t you dare,” she murmured, seeing the passion, banked for now, in his lazy blue eyes. The two MPs waited down the hall, but when David approached, they nodded respectfully.

“I want your reports.”

“Yes, sir,” both said smartly and saluted.

She rolled her eyes and blew her hair off her forehead. “Nice. You get the ‘yes, sir’, I get the ‘get in the vehicle’,” she mocked.

“Just walk.” He guided her past the men and down a hall. “They were doing what they were sent to do, Paris. Protect you. I’ll admit—”

“Protect me? From what?” She glanced back to see the men already heading off down another hallway.

“We never thought someone would come after you. Hell, we didn’t know where you were, not until this past week, and then we were—”

“Someone is after me? Why me? Why would anyone be after me?” she asked, and pulled on his sleeve to slow him down. He amazed her, but she also doubted the way that he was using the crutch was okay. It seemed to keep his weight off his hurt leg, so she guessed it worked. But he went at a pace that had her hurrying to keep up.

“We should talk about it when we get to the room.” He led her along several deserted hallways, then farther, until finally they came out of the hall and into what reminded her of some huge, ritzy hotel lobby from a Hollywood movie set. There were sad, neglected plants in huge planters lining a wall of windows, and more scattered throughout the marble-floored room. The entire place seemed deserted. She’d only seen two men other than her MPs her entire time here.

“What
is
this place?” she asked, awed by the huge chandelier and long, black marbled topped bar along the far wall. There were bottles of alcohol lining the shelves still. The large, round, plush velvet benches on either side of them were so luxurious she wanted to see if they were as soft as they appeared. The light dove gray velvet matched the dark purple carpet swirled with black and gray perfectly. The place had to have been amazing when it had been taken care of. “This place reminds me of a Stephen King movie set. If I’d seen all this that day, I’d have done something besides jumped out the bathroom window.”

He laughed then froze, realizing, she guessed, she wasn’t joking. “You jumped out a bathroom window?”

“Yeah,” she admitted. At his round-eyed expression, she plunked her hands on her hips. “Listen, Mr. G.I. Joe. You were gone, and I was scared. I did everything—almost—you said. They wouldn’t let me get my things, but I had no wallet remember, so I had to go back to the same hotel. I waited six—”

“Paris, slow down, breathe. I’m fucking sorry, there, I said it again, I’m sorry, this time more polite, okay? I was hurt, and Will was sent after a real sick bastard and I couldn’t get him to come and hunt you down. I didn’t think of the hotel, just saw you’d left the phone behind and thought—”

“You thought I left you?” she asked quietly. Now that she had a chance to see him, really comprehend he was standing here, she could see he had circles under his eyes and he was a little leaner.

“I didn’t make it back as quick as I wanted, since I tried to get off the mountain like a dumba— Anyway, I fell on down a cliff and was out for a bit.”

Ice shivered between her shoulder blades. “You fell off a cliff?”

He nodded, then seemed to think he’d said something wrong and cleared his throat. “It’s no big deal. I got shot and they had to take the bullet out, which took time. I didn’t let them operate on my leg,” he added in a tone that seemed to imply he thought that would please her. “Once I found out what really happened to you, what those two…bozos did, I punched one hard enough to break his nose.” He frowned and rubbed his jaw, considering her, then added, “Maybe the other, too, before they pulled me off.”

He stood there when he was done, as if he wasn’t sure what she’d say. As if she would criticize him. All the days missing him and he had been hurt. Shot. And thought she’d left him like…well, whatever kind of person does that…

Her brain was too full to come up with more than, “The men who took me from your room?”

“Yeah, those two.”

Her heart clenched and she had to fight to keep her hands off him.
He’d punched them?