Double Dare (9 page)

Lou’s joyous whoop drew his attention and Sam
instantly hurried to her side.

Her eyes sparkled, her body
vibrated excitement. “That was amazing! I wanna do it again! Can I
go again? My Lord, that was the most exhilarating, thrilling…” She
shrugged, at a loss for words. But Sam knew how she felt. “At first
I was utterly terrified because I hadn’t expected to fall so fast,
but—” She sighed and her gaze turned inward. “—then I just
became
the fall and…and I
was flying and…it was wonderful.”

He couldn’t have put it more eloquently
himself. Lou’s cheeks were flushed with excitement, her hair
delightfully mussed and windblown. Her sweet lips were curved into
a radiant smile, one that tugged at something deep inside him.

Warning bells in his head, signaling imminent
danger. This woman enchanted him beyond reason and past good sense.
He chanced another glance at her and some unnamed emotion seized in
his chest.

It suddenly occurred to Sam that resisting
her would most likely be an effort in futility.

But he had to try nonetheless.

After all, this was Lou’s adventure. Nothing
more. When it ended, what would she do? Say to hell with her
fortune, to her father and her heritage? Sam inwardly humphed. Not
likely.

Though he hated to admit it, most likely
she’d go back to Atlanta and do her father’s bidding. She’d marry
Chat—a red rage settled in his brain at the thought, but Sam forced
it away. She’d secure the merger and go on with her merry life,
thrilled that she’d taken a couple of weeks in her life to do with
what she pleased. She’d look back on this hiatus from her life for
what it was—an adventure. And, regretfully, all adventures came to
an end.

Given the way his heart kept trying to
engage, Sam didn’t think he’d fare as easily were he to let himself
go and truly enjoy this time with Lou.

Lou was special; he’d recognized that from
the beginning. He would simply have try harder to keep his
perspective.

Lou threaded her small fingers through his
and tugged him toward the lift. “Come on, let’s do it again!”

Perspective? Yeah. Right.

Lou felt exhausted by the time they returned
to the hotel. She had been too hyped up from the jumps to eat, so
it didn’t bother her when Sam failed to ask if she were hungry.

Regretfully, it appeared to be taking him
longer to come around to the idea of being with her. Lou knew she’d
thrown him for a loop with that kiss on the platform, but she
hadn’t been able to help herself. Besides, Sam had kept her
unsettled from the get-go. The time had come for him to be a little
off balance.

“
Thanks again, Sam,” she
told him as they walked through the deserted corridor to their
rooms. “I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed that.”

Sam chuckled. “Oh, I think I’ve got an idea.
You jumped four times. That’s a record for me. None of my clients
have ever done four consecutive jumps.”

Lou found herself torn between the reminder
she was only a client and thrilled because she seemed to have
impressed him. If she could impress a jaded adventurer like Sam,
then she must have truly accomplished something.

She returned the grin. “I’m glad. This
adventure stuff is pretty cool.” She paused as they reached her
door. “Have you got everything arranged for tomorrow’s trip?”

Sam frowned. “That’ll depend on whether Mona
finished with her psychic,” he said tightly.

Mona? Her psychic? Lou squinted, confused.
“Come again?”

Sam laughed. “Mon’s my assistant, the one you
met when you came to the office.” He looked away, a little grin
playing over his lips. “She’s rather…unique.”

“
And she uses the advice of
her psychic to help her plan adventures?” Lou asked skeptically,
leaning against the door.

“
Hardly,” Sam snorted. “She
calls her psychic on my dime and helps arrange adventures at her
convenience.”

“
You’re right,” Lou agreed,
smiling. “She sounds intriguing.”

“
I’m sure she’s got it all
worked out.” From his expression, she’d hate to be Mona if she
didn’t have it all worked out. “Since we jumped tonight, we can’t
fly. It’s going to be a long drive. Are you sure you don’t mind? We
could give it another forty-eight hours and fly.”

No, for her purposes, they’d be better off
driving. She wanted to let the paparazzi do their stuff. A flight
could be tracked with very little effort. That’s probably how they
found her so easily the first time. No, they’d have to work for act
two of this bizarre play, Lou decided, suppressing a grin.

“
I don’t mind the drive if
you don’t,” she told him.

Sam shook his head. “Not at all. Be ready at
seven. I’ll help you with your luggage.”

Lou grinned. “Aye, aye, Captain.”

Sam’s grin dimmed as his gazed strayed to her
mouth. His gaze darkened and she likened the color to molten steel.
Emboldened, Lou deliberately licked her lips.

Sam started and stepped back. “Er, Lou—”

Oh, no. Not again. She’d be damned before
she’d listen to another lecture on the “no fraternizing with client
clause.”

Lou slid her hand up over his neck and
quickly pulled his head down for another kiss. He groaned in
response, met her halfway and kissed her back until Lou’s knees
grew weak. Before he could come to his senses, she ended the kiss
with a lingering peck, then slipped into her room.

Lou sagged against the door and did a little
hooray jab with her fist.

On the other side of the door, Sam punctuated
it with a hot oath and his trademark, “Aw, hell.”

Like a disoriented rat lost in a maze, Sam
wearily pushed his card down another grocery store aisle. Where in
the hell had they hidden the Fudgy-Nutty cakes? he wondered,
growing slightly perturbed.

A dull pain began to build at the back of his
skull and he blamed Lou for this unnecessary trip. If she hadn’t
gotten under his skin, if she hadn’t kissed him again last night,
he wouldn’t have been compelled to eagerly munch through his last
box of snack cakes, and thus, wouldn’t have had to mush out and
locate an all-night grocery store at the ungodly hour of six
A.M.

But he couldn’t spend three days in Key West
without his preferred snack, so here he stood, wandering aisle to
aisle, hunting the damned Fudgy-Nutty bars. Lou had better pray
that his mood improved, Sam thought crossly, otherwise, he didn’t
think he would be fit company to travel with.

Then again, he supposed he couldn’t really
blame Lou for his powerful attraction to her. She held some sort of
mystic power over him, and he wasn’t about to resist it.

And really, Sam told himself, so long as she
kept launching herself into his arms, how could he help but respond
to her? Any red-blooded male would. He didn’t lack character, he
simply reacted like any man with a healthy sex drive. The thought,
however lacking in logic, made Sam feel marginally better.

He ambled down another aisle and finally
found the Fudgy-Nutty display. He tossed a couple of boxes into his
cart, then, with a scowl, added a third box for good measure.

On the way to the front of the store, he
passed through the bakery. Remembering Lou’s breakfast preferences,
he paused at the muffins. Blueberry, banana, and lemon poppy seed,
were the choices. He debated over them for a couple of minutes,
then berated himself for the unwarranted delay. Hell, they were
muffins, for pity’s sake. He grabbed one of each and, cursing
himself for a fool, continued to the check-out.

In the process of unloading
his cart, a headline snagged his attention.
Kidnapped Heiress Forced
Into Sex Cult
with Abductor
. A tremor of fear shook Sam
to the core even before he saw the grainy black and white
photograph of him and Lou lip-locked in the pool.

Sam’s jaw dropped as he grabbed for the
magazine, overwhelmed with shock, humiliation, and rage. He felt a
tic begin near his left eye. His hands tightened into fists,
crumpling the magazine in the process.

“
Hey, you can’t—” the clerk
began to berate him, but faced with Sam’s furious glare, the girl
simply shut up.

How in the hell had this happened? he
wondered wildly. He knew Lou’s father had threatened to keep the
gossip hounds after them, but Lou hadn’t seemed all that concerned
about it, so he’d let her lull him into a false sense of security.
High-strung, she’d called him. Accused him of having delicate
nerves. Sam scowled.

Well, his high-strung nature and delicate
nerves were certainly feeling the strain now, he thought, ready to
punch his clenched fist through the nearest wall.

Despite his anger, common
sense prevailed and Sam hurriedly gathered every copy of the
Global Grapevine
from the
store. Sam supposed his odd behavior had frightened the clerk,
because within minutes, the manager had posted himself at her
quivering side and stared at Sam as though he were some sort of
deranged lunatic.

Under the circumstances, Sam couldn’t blame
them. He happened to be concerned for his sanity as well.
Undoubtedly by the time Lou’s little adventure ended, he’d be
sealed off in a padded room devoid of sharp objects.

Once in the parking lot, Sam unloaded his
purchases and took the time to read the actual article which had
accompanied the photograph and headline. 

He shouldn’t have.

Unbeknownst to Sam, apparently he was the
ringleader of a little-known sex cult. He was also purported to be
adept at brainwashing and hypnosis, and he supposedly possessed a
penis that was the envy of porn stars everywhere. Apparently the
combination of all three had ruined more than thirty women. Bigamy
appeared to be another of his sins. According to the article, at
last count, Sam had married more than twenty-five woman and had a
whopping forty-five children, with six more on the way.

Were he not so mortified, Sam might have
found it funny.

At the moment, he didn’t.

With grim determination, Sam forced the
hysteria choking his brain away, and made himself think logically.
Damage control had to begin, most importantly in Atlanta. If his
mother saw this... God forbid, Sam thought, feeling sick to his
stomach.

Fortunately the article hadn’t given his
name-probably to avoid a lawsuit since there wasn’t a word of truth
in the whole damned thing-and the picture had been hard to make
out. With luck and a lot of fancy footwork, he could lessen the
impact this nightmare would have on this life, and he hoped, his
business.

Wondering why he’d ever imagined that this
would be an easy adventure, Sam pulled out his cell phone and
dialed Mona’s home number. Getting her out of bed would be a chore,
and he dreaded listening to her lazy drawl on top of his migraine.
But Mona had to recruit the guys who were back in the office and
get out and gather up as many of these magazines as she
could…otherwise they would all be looking for another job.

Sam could see his dream of marriage and
family, his hard-earned success, being smashed beneath James
Honeycutt’s Gucci loafer-shod heel.

Obviously Lou’s private talk with her sire
hadn’t worked. She’d have to try again—and this time he’d be there
to witness the exchange.

Sam was late.

Lou struggled to keep her panic under
control, but she couldn’t—not really. Had she gone too far with
that last kiss last night? Had he been more upset than she’d
realized? He could have pushed her away, he could have stepped back
and asked her to stop.

But he hadn’t.

Oh, no. He’d responded like a match to dry
timber. His hot mouth had melded with hers instantly. Lou’s knees
weakened at the mere thought of his kiss, his talented lips and
tongue.

No, she decided. She couldn’t have misread
him. Still, Lou thought, he’d told her that it couldn’t happen
again. And instead of simply letting him come around to the idea on
his own, she’d grabbed him like a sex-starved maniac—which she
was—and hauled him to her with all the finesse of a hormonally
charged adolescent.

Given her new seize-the-day attitude, it had
seemed to be the best way. Now uncertainty plagued her.

What if he’d decided that guiding her
adventure had been more trouble than it was worth? That her
additional compensation didn’t justify her spirited advances? What
if Sam had taken off last night and simply left her a note at the
front desk?

Lou’s heart stumbled in her chest and her
stomach roiled at the thought. He couldn’t do that now. She needed
him. She’d only started this adventure and she desperately needed
his guidance to complete it.

Lou knew she’d attached entirely too much
importance on Sam’s participation, but she couldn’t seem to help
herself. The idea that he’d left, that he wouldn’t help her finish
what they’d started, resulted in an unreasonably profound sense of
loss. A revelation lurked in that thought, but she was too
overwrought to deal with it right now.

Biting her lip, Lou paced back and forth in
front of the beds, then crossed to the door and peered out the
peephole.

No Sam.

Damn. What was wrong? Another thought
occurred to Lou, sending a bolt of fear straight to her heart.
Could something have happened to him? Had he fallen in the shower?
Dear heaven, could he be over there now in need of help?

The thought had no sooner formed when Lou
bolted from her room and next door to his.

“
She pounded on the door.
“Sam. Sam?” she called. Another wave of fear washed over her. “Sam?
Can you hear me?”