Bare Witness (3 page)

The drawing was a fair likeness of her. But Justine noticed that her eyes had a militant gleam that she herself rarely saw. She looked tough on the page, and Justine definitely liked that.

“So you like to draw?”

“Very much. My mother was a painter.”

“You take after her, then,” Justine said.

Piper shook her head. “I’m not as good as she was.”

Justine leaned forward, but Piper frowned over at her. “Sit back the way you were.”

Justine did as she was asked. “You will probably be as good as your mom one day.”

Piper shrugged. “I’d rather be like Daddy. In charge of a large company.”

“Drawing is just a hobby, then?”

“Yes, it is,” Piper said. “What are your hobbies?”

Justine wasn’t sure she had any hobbies. Her entire life was about staying focused, staying sharp, and keeping her body honed. “Kickboxing, I guess.”

“Kickboxing? That sounds…interesting.”

“It is interesting. It’s a combo of a couple of different martial-arts disciplines, with a focus on kicking.”

“I saw your gun before. Have you ever shot anyone?”

“Piper, enough questions,” Nigel said from his desk.

She glanced over at him, but his attention was fixed to the laptop open on the computer desk in front of him.

“I don’t mind answering this one. Yes, I have shot at people before. I’m prepared to shoot at anyone who threatens you, Piper, or your dad.”

The little girl glanced at her and Justine noticed that Piper had sea-green eyes just like her father. “Good.”

Justine nodded and bit back a smile. The little girl wanted her father safe. Piper finished sketching and Constance called her back to the bedroom for a nap.

“Will you sit for me again?” Piper asked.

“If there is time. I can’t do it when I’m working.”

“Thank you, Justine.”

“You’re welcome, Piper.”

Piper walked toward the back of the plane and Nigel reached out to touch the top of her head as she walked past him. He didn’t look up from the laptop where he was working.

“Your daughter isn’t what I expected,” Justine said when they were alone.

“She’s one of a kind,” Nigel said, with no small amount of affection and pride in his voice.

Justine felt that gap in her past opening again, reminding her of the relationship she’d had with her father. And she realized as she looked at Nigel that this man was truly different from the other men she’d met before.

She tried not to let it matter, but it was too late. She was looking at him differently. A part of her knew it had nothing to do with Nigel. Ever since the moment Sam had announced who the client was on this case, she’d been different.

She just hadn’t realized how much of her past Nigel was going to be stirring up. Hearing the pride in his voice when he spoke of his daughter touched something inside her. That pride reached past the layers she used to insulate herself from caring about anyone, and pulled out the little girl who’d loved her daddy.

The little girl who’d thought that all men were like her own father. And she was just realizing that some men were. That Nigel Carter, despite his somewhat questionable decision to bring his daughter along with him to Peru, was one of those men who truly loved his daughter.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Am I looking at you?” she asked, just to needle him. But she realized that she had been staring and trying to figure out how she was going to put him in his place—and keep him there.

N
igel couldn’t stop watching Justine as she moved around the cabin. She didn’t stay in one spot, but paced like she had too much energy. She was a live wire, and though he already had too much on his plate with the business situation and his daughter’s safety, a part of him was intrigued by Justine as a woman.

Intrigued, hell, he was in lust with her. It was her eyes. That fierce intelligence combined with her curvy petite body. He wanted her.

“What are you staring at?” she asked. Her voice was low-pitched and didn’t carry beyond the two of them. She paused at the door to the cockpit, looking back at him.

“You.”

“Don’t.”

“Why not?” he asked, having the feeling that not too many people questioned this woman. It was in her stance and her attitude. She acted like an Amazon and he suspected that made most people get out of her way. She carried herself like she was a tough-assed tank, but he saw past all that.

“I don’t like it,” she said, her voice tough as nails.

He couldn’t help smiling at the way she said it. “So?”

“Nigel?”

He almost smiled at the sweet way she said his name, because he heard the steel underlying that dulcet tone. “Hmm?”

She came a few steps closer, stopping when less than three feet separated them. She put one hand on her hip and the other one hovered just over the butt of her handgun, which she’d holstered on her hip for all the world to see.

“I’m trained to kill. You know that, right?”

“Are you threatening me?” he asked, not feeling threatened in the least. He wondered what exactly it said about him that he was turned on by the strength inside her. A part of him acknowledged that with Justine, he’d never really have to worry about her ability to take care of herself.

“No, just making sure you have all the information necessary to keep yourself healthy.”

He laughed. He couldn’t help it. Because there was an element of teasing in what she’d said.

“I’m not just a CEO,” he said.

She arched one eyebrow. “I didn’t see a
Guns & Ammo
magazine subscription in your profile.”

“You looked?”

“Yes.”

“What did you see?”

“Three kids’ magazines and a bunch of boring business journals.”

“Boring?”

“Yes, boring…frankly, Nigel, I had expected something a bit more exciting.”

He stood up from behind his desk, blocking her path as she turned to pace by him. She drew up short so their bodies didn’t touch. But Nigel wanted to feel her against him.

He put one hand on her hip and she crossed her arms over her chest. All the animation and teasing that had been part of her just a minute earlier was gone now. Completely shut down as if a switch had been thrown.

“What’s up?”

She shook her head.

He removed his hand from her waist and she shuddered. There was more here than met the eye. More to this than he was seeing, and for a quick affair—and that was really all he could have with a woman like Justine—he didn’t need to plumb her psyche. He just needed to figure out if the lust he felt was one-sided.

But he wasn’t a cad. Wasn’t the kind of man who thought only of his own needs.

“Should I apologize?” he asked as she continued to stand there with her arms crossed over her chest.

She shook her head again.

“No. It’s just…I don’t like to be touched.”

“Is it a bodyguard thing?”

“What?”

“You know, your instincts are honed to a trigger point.”

She arched an eyebrow at him. “Are you making fun of me?”

“Never. I was trying…trying to tease a smile back on your lips.”

“Why?”

“I like your smile.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

He shook his head this time. “You mustn’t get many compliments.”

She shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t trust them.”

“Why not?”

“What’s with you and all the questions?”

“I’m a CEO. I thrive on information.”

“So do bodyguards,” she said.

The teasing note was back in her voice, and he felt a little thrill of victory at having done that. “Why are you a bodyguard?”

“Well, to be honest, I’m usually more of a weapons expert and marksman. For most assignments we take on, Charity functions as the bodyguard.”

“Why is that?”

“She’s tall and gorgeous, just the sort of person that makes most assailants think they don’t have a thing to worry about.”

“And you’re not.”

She gestured to her short frame. “Height is one thing I’ve never needed.”

“No?”

“No,” she said. “I learned early on that if I don’t quit, I can take anyone.”

“Can you take me?”

“Easily,” she said.

He took two steps toward her. The plane rocked and bucked, and all the playfulness she’d had a second ago disappeared as she used her body to take him down to the floor, and braced both of their bodies.

When the plane leveled itself, she knew it had to be turbulence and not an engine malfunction, or any other danger. But her heart was racing, and it had nothing at all to do with the security of Nigel Carter or his daughter.

Justine closed her eyes, but that just made everything…better. All of her other senses came to life. The feel of his hard body under hers, the scent of his spicy aftershave, the sound of each exhalation of his minty breath against her cheek.

She opened her eyes as Nigel’s hands settled low on her waist. This time it wasn’t different. His hand was in the exact same spot that had worried her when they’d been standing toe-to-toe. But now it didn’t bother her. She was on top of him.

She shifted her weight, letting her legs slide off his hips so she was braced above him. He looked up, his green eyes watching her. His hold on her was loose and not threatening at all. She wanted to stay there.

His eyes slid lower, his gaze moving over her face and lingering on her lips. They felt dry and she licked them.

He moaned and leaned up, his own tongue tracing the same path hers had just taken. She let her own tongue touch his and he breathed into her mouth. The taste of him was delicious. He slid one of his hands up her back to her neck, cupping her head as his mouth took hers, his lips rubbing against hers as his tongue teased hers.

The touch was featherlight, and though she was the one in the position of power, he was totally in control in this moment, and a feeling she’d never experienced before swamped her.

Her breasts felt fuller as his mouth continued to move over hers. He caught her lower lip in his mouth, held it lightly between his teeth, and sucked on it. She moaned deep in her throat and shifted against him, wanting to feel him between her legs. She started to lower her hips before she realized what she was doing.

She jerked back, pushed herself to her feet, and offered Nigel her hand. He ignored it and stood up next to her. He towered over her, and she tried not to focus on the fact that he’d felt warm and had smelled good when she’d been lying on top of him.

She didn’t get close to men. She just never did, but that one moment of body-to-body contact was setting off alarm bells in her body. And not the flight ones, for once. She’d wanted…ah, hell, she’d wanted to stay on top of him, continue kissing him until…

What the hell? She didn’t think about sex. Ever. Especially not on the job.

She brushed her hands down her hips and turned away from Nigel. “I’m going to check with the pilot and make sure that was just normal turbulence.”

“What else would it be?”

She had no idea; she only knew she needed to get away before she did something she couldn’t control. Something that was not in her normal m.o.

Her heartbeat was racing, her blood flowing heavier in her veins, and her entire body was alive. Her skin was sensitive, as a strange restlessness moved through her. She knew it was arousal, but she’d never experienced it before. She wasn’t a virgin, but she’d never really made love. Never experienced these feelings before, and like another new and unfamiliar feeling, it made her edgy.

“Something else,” she said, trying to get her head around what had happened. Trying desperately to figure out how to calm her body. She felt jittery, and she knew herself well enough to know that she was going to do something stupid if she didn’t get away from Nigel.

He gave her one of those cocky grins of his and she had the feeling that he knew exactly how being close to him affected her.

“It could be an engine out, or maybe a time-detonated bomb set to go off once we’re in flight. Or maybe some kind of odorless gas release that will kill everyone on the flight.”

He shuddered, and she felt mean as soon as she’d started talking. He turned on his heel and went back to check on Piper, no doubt. She hated that about herself. But she knew she couldn’t change it.

She’d always been able to find someone’s weak spot and manipulate it. The fact that she’d used his concern for his daughter’s safety to make him feel the way she did, was…disgusting, she thought.

How could she cause him to worry about his child, just because he’d kissed her and she hadn’t known how to handle it?

She cursed under her breath, feeling angry and sad as she moved to the cabin door that led to the cockpit. She hesitated there, not wanting to face the pilot until she was more sure of herself.

She took a deep breath, but yoga breathing never really worked for her. She needed to kick something or punch something. She needed a physical outlet for these emotions.

She stood there, her hands shaking. Goddammit, why were her hands shaking? Facing down an armed assailant didn’t bother her, but being kissed by a man did. Damn, she was seriously screwed up, wasn’t she?

She wanted off this assignment, she thought. For the first time since she’d left the juvenile detention center, she wanted to run. Was this just more of the same feeling she’d had when Sam had told her they were taking an assignment from Baron? Or was it something else?

Her gut said it had something to do with Nigel. Nigel Carter and his sexy eyes, teasing questions, and soft kisses. He’d held her loosely…over the years, she’d had men come on to her before, but never the way he had.

There had been no doubt he was in control, but he hadn’t forced her, hadn’t tried to take anything from her…he’d just coaxed her gently until she responded.

She laid her head forward on the cabin door, realizing that she had no idea how to handle Nigel Carter. She could protect him and his daughter from any outside threat, but she had absolutely no fucking idea how to handle the man when they were alone.

Nigel exited the bedroom at the back of the plane and froze. Justine stood where he’d left her, but her demeanor had totally changed. She seemed smaller; for the first time since he’d met her, he was really aware of her height. He didn’t know what had shattered her Amazon persona, but he had a feeling it had to do with whatever had sparked her temper.

Hell, he knew he had sparked her temper. Knew she’d deliberately preyed on his fears about his daughter. He was angry at himself for the weakness. But it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Piper was his weakness. Everyone at Baron knew it.

“Justine?”

She straightened up and when she turned, he saw a hint of vulnerability in her eyes. But it was gone in a flash and instead, he was staring into those hard-as-steel blue eyes of hers. The keen intelligence and the strength he’d first seen in her was back.

“Yes?”

“Everything okay with the pilot?” he asked, pulling back from his own need to get some kind of retribution from her for scaring him.

“I haven’t checked yet. I’ll be back in a second.”

She opened the door to the cockpit and Nigel went to his desk. He sat down in the big leather chair he’d earned. He looked around the private jet and instead of seeing the hard work that had brought him here, he saw the safety it gave him and Piper. The luxury of flying when they wanted to, instead of having to comply with an airline’s schedule.

He saw the opportunity that he’d been given by using his chutzpah and intelligence to climb his way to the top of the corporate ladder, and he knew there were men and women in the Amazon Basin who might want the same thing. Men and women in Peru and Brazil who would be happy for the opportunity to carve out their own niche in Baron Industries the way he had.

He had never questioned why he was determined to open the operation in Cusco. From the first time he’d met with the commerce officials, he’d understood what they wanted to do. The shared vision had been enough incentive, the financial ones simply a bonus.

The door opened, and Justine reentered the main cabin. Nigel glanced up from his laptop and their eyes met. She stood there with none of the restless energy that had been so markedly different from what he’d seen from her earlier.

“Everything okay?”

“Yes, the captain took us to a higher altitude to avoid any more turbulence. We will probably arrive in Lima a bit earlier than we had anticipated.”

“That’s fine.”

She shrugged.

“Justine?”

“Yes?”

“I’m not sorry I kissed you.”

She looked at him for the first time since she’d reentered the cabin, really looked at him, and he realized that he’d inadvertently hit the problem. She was nervous about that embrace. He knew then that a simple affair wasn’t in the cards for the two of them.

He rubbed the back of his neck and waited. Finally, she walked forward and sat in the captain’s chair in front of his desk.

“I’m not used to kissing my clients,” she said at last, her voice low-pitched and the slightest bit husky.

“Good.”

A slight smile lit her lips. “You aren’t what I expected.”

He arched one eyebrow. “What did you expect?”

“Some moneygrubbing, type-A-personality executive.”

“Moneygrubbing?”

“Ya know what I mean. The locals don’t want you in their area, but you are going anyway because of the money.”

He noticed she’d changed the topic, turned the conversation toward business, and away from the personal. “You know nothing about why I’m determined to build that operation.”