Kitabı oku: «A Wicked Persuasion», sayfa 4

5

KATE WAS AWAKENED BY someone shaking her shoulder. She tried to bury herself deeper in her covers, but there was no escaping.

“Time to wake up, Kate.”

The masculine voice shocked her into action and she sat up, heart pounding. Disoriented, Kate blinked at the hard-eyed soldier who stood over her, holding a flashlight directed at the ground. The indirect light was sufficient for her to make out Chase Rawlins’s features. For a moment, she had no idea where she was, or why she was sleeping in a tent. Then everything came rushing back, and her gaze snapped to the entrance.

“What time is it?”

“Oh-dot-dark.” His low voice was laced with amusement.

Kate could see it was still pitch black outside. “Why are you here?”

“Didn’t you promise to call your sister?”

Kate stared up at Chase, bewildered. Looking around her, she could just make out the shapeless lumps of the other women asleep on their cots. “Yes,” she whispered fiercely. “At six o’clock, not the middle of the night.”

“I’m sorry to tell you that on the East Coast of the United States, it’s almost six o’clock in the evening. They’re eight and a half hours behind us. If you still want to make that call, you’d better hustle.”

With a groan, Kate realized she hadn’t considered the extreme time difference. She was half tempted to change her mind about calling Tenley, but in her mind’s eye she saw her sister waiting to hear from her. If she didn’t place the call, Tenley would be frantic. She’d think the worst and put herself through hell. Kate couldn’t do that to her.

She scrubbed her hands over her face. “Okay, fine. Give me ten minutes.”

“You’ve got five. I’ll wait for you outside.”

She watched the bobbing light of his flashlight as he crossed the tent and disappeared through the flap, and decided she would need to speak to someone about tightening up the security on the sleeping quarters.

Pushing back the sleeping bag, she swung her legs to the floor, shivering in the predawn chill. Her eyes felt gritty and every muscle in her body ached with exhaustion. Fumbling on the floor beneath her cot, she found her shoes and pulled them on, not bothering to change into street clothes. Her flannel lounge pants and long-sleeve top were adequate, and would enable her to jump right back into bed after she’d talked with Tenley.

Despite her exhaustion, she’d been right about not being able to fall asleep after Chase had left her. Her biggest surprise had come when she’d unzipped her duffel bag and discovered a jar of licorice inside. It was the same jar from Chase’s housing unit, and she realized he must have stashed it in her bag after she’d made that first failed telephone call to Tenley. She found the gesture oddly touching.

She’d lain awake thinking about him. Now she understood what he’d meant when he’d said he would see her sooner than the morning, but at the time her imagination had conjured up all kinds of erotic fantasies about him. On top of that, the cot was uncomfortable, and she was unaccustomed to sleeping in such close quarters with other people. The unfamiliar sounds of the base had kept her awake until finally she’d fallen into a fitful sleep, only to be wakened by Chase.

Yawning hugely, she pulled back the flap of the tent and found Chase standing just outside. His eyes swept over her, taking in every detail of her lounge pants and thin top, lingering just a little too long on her breasts. Glancing down, Kate saw her nipples were stiff from the cold and poked against the fabric of her shirt. She crossed her arms over her chest.

“You realize that I only fell asleep like fifteen minutes ago,” she said crossly. “Why didn’t you tell me I’d need to wake up at two-thirty in the morning if I wanted to talk to Tenley? I could have chosen a different time.”

“Do you want to make the call or not?”

Kate frowned at his impatient tone, and guessed that he was no happier about being awake at this hour than she was. Her bones ached and she actually felt a little sick. More than anything, she wanted to crawl back into her cot and sleep, but she’d told Tenley she would call her, and she intended to make good on her word.

“Yes.”

“Then let’s go.”

Without waiting for her response, he turned and walked away while Kate watched in dismay. He gave a low whistle and a dark shape materialized from the shadows. A dog trotted toward him, its tail wagging enthusiastically as Chase reached down and gave it a friendly rub behind the ears. The animal wore a harness and stayed close to Chase’s side.

The night air was chilly, and for a brief second Kate debated on going back for a sweater, but Chase wasn’t waiting for her. With a sound of frustration, she followed him. The roads were covered with small rocks, which made walking treacherous when you couldn’t see where you were going. After she’d stumbled twice, Chase finally stopped and waited for her to catch up, using his flashlight to illuminate her path.

“So, did you wake up just so I could make my phone call, or do you not sleep?” Kate asked, hugging herself around the middle and trying to keep her teeth from chattering. She wouldn’t have been at all surprised if Chase responded that he didn’t require sleep; he was a machine.

“I caught some sleep, but I don’t need much to get by.”

“Will you go back to bed after this?” she asked, partly because she was interested, and partly because she was just trying to make conversation.

“Well, I guess that depends,” he mused.

Kate shot him a startled look. Had she only imagined the sexual suggestion in his voice? She tried to read his expression, but the darkness made it nearly impossible.

“Actually,” he continued smoothly, “I’m up for the day.”

Kate should have felt relieved, but found his words left her oddly deflated. She remembered what he had said earlier that day: I have no intention of sleeping with you. Either the change in time zones had seriously messed with her biorhythms, or she had definitely gone too long without sex, because she spent way too much time imagining him naked. “Who’s your friend?” she asked, in an effort to change the subject. Kate tried to pat the dog, but the animal shied away from her hand.

“This is Charity.”

“Ah,” she said meaningfully.

Chase looked at her. “What does that mean?”

Kate shrugged. “When you and the other guys were talking about Charity, I thought you had a girlfriend on the base. I never would have guessed you were talking about a dog.”

“Well, I think Charity would disagree. I’m pretty sure she thinks she’s human.”

“So, do you?”

“What?”

“Have a girlfriend?”

He gave a surprised laugh. “No, I do not. Right now, Charity is the only female in my life.” He glanced at her. “Aside from you, of course.”

Kate had already noticed that he wore no rings, but felt a surge of satisfaction in knowing he was single.

“Where did you get her?” she asked, moving to safer territory.

“She was a stray that I rescued from a village in the mountains. I guess you could say we adopted each other.”

“Do you keep her in your housing unit?”

“She won’t come inside, but when I’m on base she’ll sleep outside my door. When I’m in the field, I leave her with the K-9 unit. She gets along with the other dogs, and the handlers have been teaching her how to track.”

The mention of his housing unit reminded her of the small gift he had left in her duffel bag. “By the way, thank you for the licorice. I feel guilty that you gave it to me.”

“Don’t.” He rubbed a hand over his flat stomach. “I try to avoid sweets, but I can’t resist licorice drops. It’s better if you take them. Besides, my mother will send another jar in her next care package.”

They had reached his housing unit, and Kate welcomed the warmth of the interior after the chill of the night air. As Chase dialed an outside line, she stood in the middle of the room and looked around. Although she had already been inside his unit once, everything looked different at night. A desk lamp cast a warm glow, making the room seem almost cozy.

While Chase was concentrating on the phone, she took a covert peek into his bedroom. Disappointingly, his bed was neatly made and there was nothing to indicate that he had slept there at all. She would have enjoyed seeing rumpled blankets or clothes on the floor—anything to indicate the guy wasn’t completely perfect.

“Something interesting in there?” Chase asked, catching her.

Kate flushed. “I was, uh, just checking out your bed.”

His eyes grew hot, and Kate’s body responded instantly. Her breathing quickened and her imagination surged with images of the two of them, naked and entwined in his sheets. She would have sworn those same images were swirling through his head, too, but then he thrust the phone receiver at her, breaking whatever spell she had been under.

“Make your call,” he growled, and spun away.

Keeping a wary eye on him, Kate quickly dialed Tenley’s number, frustrated when the call went to voicemail.

“Tenley, it’s Katie. I told you that I’d be calling. Why aren’t you there?” She lowered her voice. “I don’t want you to worry about anything, okay? Russell will drive you to the airport tonight, and I’ll be right here waiting for you when you arrive. Okay, I’ll try to call you later.”

She hung up the phone and stood for a moment, chewing the edge of her finger. Where was Tenley and why wasn’t she answering the phone? She briefly considered calling Russell to ask him to check on her sister, and just as quickly discarded the idea. She’d asked both the housekeeper and Russell to keep an eye on Tenley and she trusted they would. There was a reasonable explanation for why her sister wasn’t answering the phone. She was not going to freak out, especially not when there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

She blew out a hard breath. “She’s not home.”

“Jeez, what a surprise,” Chase said drily. Seeing Kate’s annoyed expression, he spread his hands. “What? She’s not exactly Miss Responsible. If she was, you wouldn’t be here.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Chase gave her a tolerant look. “C’mon, Kate, don’t play coy with me. We both know that the only reason you’re here is to try and save your sister’s career.”

Kate desperately wanted to tell him he was wrong and that Tenley was coming over for all the right reasons. But seeing the truth in Chase’s eyes took the fight out of her. Plunking herself down on the nearby chair, she dropped her head into her hands.

“You’re right,” she admitted in a weary voice. “I’m not even sure she’ll come. I should have stayed behind and flown here with her, but she actually seemed excited about the prospect of coming.” Raising her head, she looked helplessly at Chase. “What if she doesn’t get on that plane? I mean, I can’t make her. I just thought if I came first and assured her that it wasn’t nearly as scary as everyone made her believe, then she wouldn’t be so reluctant.”

To her surprise, Chase dropped to his haunches in front of her, putting him at eye-level with her. He placed a hand on either side of her seat, effectively trapping her.

“I think what you’re doing is completely harebrained,” he said, but his sympathetic smile took most of the sting out of his words. “But I also think Tenley Miles is very lucky to have you on her side. I don’t see any other publicists over here doing this for their clients.”

Kate gave him a rueful smile. “That’s just because they’re not related.”

“The bottom line is, if she isn’t willing to do what it takes to fix the mess she made, then that’s her problem, not yours. At some point, Kate, you need to let her take responsibility for her own life.”

Kate stared at him, knowing he was right. “That sounds easy in theory, but you don’t know Tenley. She’s just a kid. She couldn’t find her own way across the street without someone to help her. The music industry would eat her alive. She needs me.”

Chase pushed to his feet and stood looking down at her, and Kate could almost read his mind. He thought she was nuts.

“Look,” she reasoned, “maybe I am a little overprotective, but trust me when I say you would feel the same way if you met her. She brings out the protective instinct in everyone.” Kate gave a soft laugh. “Even you wouldn’t be immune.”

“It is hard for me to imagine that someone who’s been in the public spotlight since she was young could have any vulnerability left,” Chase said wryly.

Kate looked down at her hands. “Maybe that’s what makes her so vulnerable.”

“You were pretty young when your mother died,” he said quietly. “It couldn’t have been easy for you, either. What I don’t get is why I didn’t know that the famous country singer, Willa Dean, had another daughter. Hell, I’m not sure anybody knows.”

Kate shrugged. “My mother was still in high school when she became pregnant with me. She and my dad tried to make a go of it, but she had her heart set on becoming a superstar, and he just wanted to be a car mechanic. They were only kids.”

“So what happened?”

“They split up before I was a year old. I traveled with my mother and her band for the first six years of my life, until I started elementary school. Then I went to live with my dad and his new wife.”

“That’s rough,” Chase said. “Were you happy with your father?”

Kate sighed, remembering. “I wasn’t unhappy. But he and his wife had a new baby and hardly any money. Things were tough for a couple of years and I always had the sense that I was a burden. But then my mother started selling albums and she began to send some money to my father for my upkeep. That helped.”

“Did you ever go back and live with her?”

Kate didn’t look at him. “No,” she said quietly. “My mother rose to the top of the billboard charts very quickly, and she didn’t have time for a kid.” She gave a rueful laugh. “Even after she had Tenley, she didn’t have time for a kid. Sometimes, I think the only reason she brought Tenley on tour with her was because it helped her public image. She dragged that poor baby everywhere, and what the public didn’t see was that when the cameras weren’t around, Tenley rarely saw her mother. She spent most of her time with a nanny. But when people thought of Willa Dean, they automatically thought of her angelic little daughter. So when she died …” Her voice trailed off.

“You became Tenley’s mother.”

Kate laughed, refusing to dwell on those days. “Well, more like a doting aunt.” She slanted him an amused look. “Were you a Willa Dean fan?”

Chase chuckled. “Still am. I’m from Texas, and there’s nothing a Texas boy loves more than a good old country song. Man, I grew up listening to Willa Dean, and it didn’t hurt that she was so damned gorgeous. In fact, my brother had a poster of her hung over his desk all through high school.”

Kate couldn’t suppress her smile, not at all surprised to hear that Chase’s brother had kept a poster of her mother in his bedroom. She’d been a beautiful woman, and an amazing singer. Everyone had loved Willa Dean, the same way that they now loved her daughter, Tenley.

“Yes, my mother was an incredible woman,” she agreed. She yawned hugely. “Oh, my God, I’ve never been so tired in my life.”

Chase pulled her up, his hands strong and warm under her elbows. “C’mon, let’s get you into bed. You’re asleep on your feet.”

“I’ll be fine,” she assured him. She thought of the long, chilly walk back to the tent and couldn’t suppress the shiver that ran through her. “Maybe you have a coat or sweater that I could borrow?”

“I have something even better,” he murmured, and turned her toward the rear of the small housing unit. She went, unresisting, until she realized they were in his bedroom. He bent down to pull back the blankets of the bed.

“What are you doing?” Her heart began an unsteady rhythm in her chest as she watched him peel back the sheets. “I’m not sure—”

“Shh,” he said soothingly. “Your virtue is safe with me. Lie down and get some sleep.”

He pushed her, unresisting, into a sitting position on the edge of the bed, and then crouched down to pull off her shoes. Kate studied his bent head and barely resisted the urge to run her fingers over his velvety short hair.

“Why are you doing this?” she asked. “Aren’t there some kind of rules against having members of the opposite sex in your quarters?”

Setting her shoes aside, he looked at her. In the dim light of the bedroom, his eyes seemed to glow in his face. “Yeah,” he acknowledged. “There are. But I’m not going to be here. I’m going to head over to command headquarters and catch up on some stuff.”

“When will you be back?”

He glanced at his watch. “We’ll leave for Camp Leatherneck at 0700 hours, but I’ll wake you up well before that.”

The temptation he offered was too great to resist. “Okay,” she acquiesced. “You win. But I really, really want a hot shower, so if we could work that into the morning routine, I’d appreciate it.”

He gave her a brief smile, but there was a tension in his expression that set her pulse tripping. He made a movement to stand up, and Kate impulsively caught his hand in hers. His skin was warm and dry, and she could feel the rough calluses of his palm. He glanced in surprise at their joined hands, and then looked at her face, and for an instant, Kate saw hunger in his eyes.

“Thank you,” she murmured, and she leaned forward to press a kiss against his cheek. She meant for the gesture to be quick and impersonal, but he turned his face at the last instant, and her kiss landed on his lips. For a microsecond they both froze, and then Chase made a small sound of defeat and his mouth began moving against hers.

Kate stopped breathing. The guy knew how to kiss. His lips were warm and firm and she found herself tentatively responding. His beard was rough against her sensitive skin, but she didn’t care. He didn’t touch her except for where his mouth was fused to hers. Kate pressed closer, wanting more of the sensual contact. Chase complied, leisurely slanting his mouth across hers until her lips parted, and he tasted her. The slick contact of his tongue against hers caused heat to explode beneath her skin, and she felt a rush of liquid warmth to her center.

She shifted restlessly, curling her hands around Chase’s neck to pull him closer. He made a small groaning sound, and for an instant, Kate thought he would resist. Then he pushed her back against the mattress and covered her body with his.

The sheets were cool through the thin material of her shirt, but Chase’s body was warm and Kate dragged him closer, sliding her arms over the sleek muscles of his back. He deepened the kiss, exploring her mouth with his tongue and catching her small moans of pleasure. Kate speared her fingers through the velvet roughness of his short hair, reveling in the feel of it beneath her fingertips.

How long had it been since she’d felt a man’s arms around her, or luxuriated in the hardness of a masculine body pressed against her own? Too long, apparently, because she was igniting beneath his touch. She no longer felt tired; every cell in her had come alive. Desire coiled tightly in her womb and then unfurled to radiate through her limbs and finally center at her core, where she pulsed hotly. She wanted to rub herself against him and relieve the ache that was building with every sensuous sweep of his tongue against hers.

Chase dragged his mouth away and Kate had a moment of panic when she thought he was leaving. But he moved his lips to her jaw and pressed hot kisses against her skin until he reached her ear, and then lightly licked along its contours. Kate shuddered and arched her neck to give him better access. He complied, following the path of her throat until he reached the neckline of her shirt. He glanced at her face, and Kate’s breath caught at the heat she saw in his eyes.

She didn’t object when he slid a hand over one breast and cupped it in his palm. But she was unprepared when he moved his fingers to the hem of her shirt and dragged it upward, exposing her to his hot gaze.

“Christ, you’re pretty,” he rasped, and slid a callused hand over the smooth skin of her stomach, until he covered one breast.

Kate made a small mewling sound of need and arched upward, wanting more of the sensuous contact. He complied, rubbing his thumb over her nipple and watching as it contracted. Then, as if entranced, he bent his head and kissed the underside of one breast, before drawing her nipple into his mouth, sucking gently on it and laving it with his tongue. She felt an answering tug of need between her legs and instinctively spread her thighs to cradle Chase’s hips against her own.

He made an incoherent sound of approval and covered her other breast with his hand as he continued to suckle her. Kate couldn’t get enough of him. Boldly, she slid her hands down the length of his back and over the firm rise of his buttocks, pressing him to where she ached for fulfillment. Nothing mattered except the man whose delicious weight pinned her to the mattress.

“You feel so good,” she whispered against the top of his head. “I want to feel you inside me.”

He groaned loudly, and his mouth stilled. He raised his head and then, almost regretfully, pulled her shirt down, covering her breasts.

Kate frowned, grasping for his hands as she tried to stop him. “What? Why are you stopping? Please don’t stop.”

But Chase carefully disentangled himself from her limbs and sat up, scrubbing his hands over his face. His breathing sounded uneven, and Kate cautiously sat up, feeling chilled without his warmth.

“That was a mistake,” he said in a low voice, not looking at her. “I’m sorry.”

“Please don’t apologize,” she murmured. “This was my fault, not yours.”

He angled his head to look at her, and she could see remnants of the earlier heat lingering in his eyes. “My job is to keep you safe, not to take advantage of you.”

Kate gave him a wry look. “I’m thirty-one years old, not sixteen. I know what I want.”

“Do you? Because I think if you thought this through, you’d realize the last thing you want is a short-lived fling with a guy you’ll never see again after this trip.”

The thought of never seeing Chase Rawlins again caused a tightening sensation in her chest. She knew he was right, but at that moment, the only thing she wanted was to finish what they had begun and to hell with the consequences. Her job as Tenley’s publicist kept her too busy to see anyone seriously, but Chase’s touch had reminded her just how much she missed having intimacy in her life, even superficial intimacy with a near stranger. She was pathetic.

Gathering her dignity, she laid a hand on his arm and gave him a forced smile. “You’re right. I’m sorry to put you in such an awkward position. I didn’t mean to make this any more unpleasant for you than it already is.”

“Jesus.” Chase gave a disbelieving laugh. “You think that was unpleasant for me?” His eyes grew hot. “Do you know how badly I want you?”

Abruptly he stood up, adjusting himself quickly, but not before Kate saw the evidence of his arousal. Her hand fell away from his sleeve, and she pressed her fingers against her mouth, still feeling him there. He stood looking down at her for a long moment, before he dragged a hand over his hair, frustrated.

“I’ve gotta get out of here.” His voice was no more than a husky rasp. “Get some sleep, Kate.”

She watched as he left the bedroom, and then she heard the door open and close, followed by the click of a key in the lock. It was the first time he had called her Kate, and she wished she didn’t like how it sounded coming from his lips. She lay down and dragged the blankets over her shoulder, staring into the darkness as she replayed the encounter over and over in her mind.

Turning on her side, she bunched the pillow beneath her cheek. His scent clung to the fabric and she found herself turning her face into the cloth and breathing deeply. Only then did she drift into sleep.