Part 6 (1/2)
Not Blue Callahan. She had a nine-millimeter, a .38 and enough att.i.tude to keep life pretty d.a.m.ned interesting.
Who needed a man?
”h.e.l.lo, Maggie.”
The sound of Noah Drake's deep, rich voice s.h.i.+mmered over her, making her pulse react and her brain contradict her confidence in herself.
Blue touched her chest, feeling the small light stick beneath her blouse, drawing comfort from it. ”You enjoy sneaking up on people, do you?” She strained, trying to see him in the darkness. ...the darkness will get you.
She forced away the old woman's words. The dark wasn't going to get her. She could run too d.a.m.ned fast to get caught by it or anything else. Besides, she had her light and her Glock.
Drake laughed softly. ”I didn't think anything rattled you, Maggie Callahan.”
She silently railed at herself for allowing the edge in her voice. He was the last person she wanted to know what scared her. ”You annoy me, Noah Drake, you don't scare me.”
”Is that right?”
He was right behind her.
She spun around expecting to find nothing.
He was almost invisible, his black clothes faded into the night like a chameleon's cloak. But that handsome face was plenty visible in a narrow spotlight provided by the moon, the lean, chiseled features a study in shadows and light. That carnal mouth almost smiling.
He stared down at her, those dark eyes drawing in the spa.r.s.e light, glittering with it. Another velvety laugh. ”I don't believe you, Maggie Callahan.”
She ignored her brain's warning to back up a step. She would not give him the satisfaction. ”Why do you do that? Call me Maggie Callahan?”
He watched her mouth as she spoke, only lifting his gaze to hers when she finished speaking. She barely restrained a s.h.i.+ver. He was doing this on purpose...goading her.
The smile stretched fully across that sculpted mouth. ”Because it annoys you. I like it when you're angry.” He laughed, more a breath of sound, but the amus.e.m.e.nt was clear. ”It keeps you off guard.”
She nodded once. ”I see. I'm glad you're enjoying yourself at my expense.”
He moved...closing the already minimal distance between them. It took every ounce of determination she possessed not to step back. ”I didn't invite you here. You came into my world and refused to leave. All is fair in love and war, Maggie Callahan. And this is definitely war.”
She lifted her face, looked directly into his eyes, ignoring the realization that only inches separated their mouths. ”But you forget, Mr. Drake, we're on the same side here.”
”Are we?”
The whisper of his breath across her lips was almost her undoing. She trembled in spite of her best efforts not to. ”Of course. I'm here to protect you.”
He looked at her mouth for so long that she almost groaned with the effort of keeping her responses in check.
”And who is going to protect you?”
”Am I in danger right now?” she answered his question with a question of her own. Don't give him any more ammunition, she warned, the impulse to run almost overwhelming.
Another long, blatantly hungry stare at her mouth. ”Very definitely.”
A little hitch disrupted her breathing...an answering catch in his crumbled any bravado she had left.
Enough.
”Why don't you just go ahead and kiss me?” She looked straight into that startled gaze. ”I know you want to. Just do it. Then you'll have it out of your system and we can get past this silly little game you like to play.”
His fingers were in her hair, his palms cupping her face, so fast she felt dizzy from it. But it was his eyes that took her breath away. So much need...so much pain.
That sinful mouth lowered slowly toward hers and her heart lurched in antic.i.p.ation. Her whole body tingled with it. Who was she kidding? She wanted this as badly as he did. From the first moment she'd laid eyes on him she'd wanted him.
Why pretend?
It was just the two of them in the darkness. Tension as thick around their bodies as the swirling fog.
His firm, full lips brushed hers and she gasped. G.o.d, if he didn't kiss her now...she would die. She would just die.
A twig snapped behind her. Twenty yards away maybe.
Drake's head went up.
Blue swiveled toward the sound.
Voices.
Male.
She flattened a hand against Drake's chest when he would have moved past her. She looked up at him and shook her head, simultaneously drawing her weapon. She gestured for him to stay, he only glared at her.
Ignoring his disapproval, she eased toward the voices. Slowly, carefully, not making a sound.
She glanced back once to make sure Drake wasn't following her. He'd disappeared again. Fear stung her at the thought that he might try to work his way around from the other side. She had to get there first.
Moving more quickly, Blue made her way toward the voices. Two, she estimated. Both male.
But one thing she'd learned long ago and had consciously chosen to ignore, unfortunately for her, proved true, haste makes one careless.
The rustle of leaves beneath her right foot, then the crack of a twig. She'd just given away her position.
Before she could move in a different direction, the muzzle of a weapon bored into her skull.
”Well, well, Blondie, fancy meeting you out here in the dark.”
One of the two guys Chester had told Lowell about had referred to her as the blonde. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who this bozo was.
”You're trespa.s.sing,” she said succinctly. ”And if that weapon you're carrying is a hunting rifle, you're in even more trouble than you know.”
”Oh, yeah?” He jabbed her a little harder with the tip of the barrel. ”Drop that gun you're carrying or you'll find out the hard way just what it is.”