To Love & Protect Her (5 page)

Griff was right. They both had other things to worry about.

She stifled her heart's protest and stood. If Griff was getting firewood, she could make lunch.

 

Griff raised the ax again and brought it crashing down on the log. It split into several satisfying pieces, and he bent down to stack them in the growing pile next to him.

The wood piled next to the house had needed to be split before it could be used, and Griff was happy to do the job. He figured if he raised the ax and brought it down enough times, if he pushed his body to the breaking point, he'd get rid of the desire that still pulsed inside him.

He still couldn't believe he'd kissed Willa—and that he would have done a hell of a lot more than kiss her if he hadn't accidentally touched the bruise on the side of her head.

Thank God she'd flinched. It had brought him to his senses, and not a moment too soon. He'd been so consumed with his need for her that in another few minutes he'd have had her naked underneath him on the couch.

He cringed when he thought about it. He was here to protect Willa, to make sure that nothing happened to her. And the first time they were alone together, he had forgotten everything he'd been trained to remember.

Some protector
he
was.

He swung the ax again and split apart another log. At the rate he was going, he thought sourly, he'd have the whole forest split and stacked before his desire for Willa disappeared.

Why couldn't Willa have been a woman from his world, one who knew the rules and how the game was played? Why couldn't she have been the kind of woman who could indulge in a casual affair and then walk away with no regrets?

Willa
wasn't
that kind of woman. She was a lady—a college professor, for God's sake. He was the last man she should get involved with. He was too cynical, too wild, too much a loner for a woman like Willa. She needed someone who could give her what she deserved: a home, the picket fence around it, and everything that went inside.

All the things that he couldn't give her.

Why would she want to get involved with someone like him, someone who dealt in death and destruction? If she knew the real Griffin Fortune, she would run away as fast as she could.

So, they would have to get through this enforced isolation together and hope that Ryan uncovered some information—and quickly. He'd call Ryan tonight, he thought, and let him know that they'd arrived.

And make sure Ryan worked fast.

 

The fire in the huge fireplace crackled in front of them, radiating heat throughout the room. Griff picked up the poker and stirred the fire again. It didn't
need stirring, but it was better than the alternative, which was watching Willa.

“Tomorrow I'll figure out how to turn on the heat in the cabin,” he said.

Willa looked up from the book she was reading. “Don't worry about it. The fireplace keeps the cabin plenty warm. And with any luck, we won't be here too much longer.”

Her voice was cool and polite, and her eyes were guarded.

When he'd finally gone back into the cabin after chopping the wood, he had found that she'd made lunch. She'd smiled at him and they'd talked, but her eyes had been wary and her words had been careful.

It was just as well. They'd both be happier in the long run if they ignored the heat that flared between them. Neither of them needed the tension that hummed in the room. And they didn't need a repeat of that kiss they'd shared.

But her taste, the way she felt, was burned into his mind. It would be a long, long time before he forgot about Willa.

“I'm going to call Ryan tonight, anyway,” he said, looking at the fire again. It was too painful to look at Willa and know she was out of his league. “I'll ask him about the heat. It was easy enough to turn on the water. I'm sure the heat will be simple, too.”

“Fine,” she said, her tone of voice implying that she didn't care. “But don't worry about it because of me.”

“You're tough, right? You can survive in near-freezing temperatures?”

She looked up at the savage tone of his voice. “It's not anywhere close to freezing. The temperature in the cabin has been very pleasant.” Her voice was logical and even.

“It's the middle of December, Willa. We're in the mountains. It gets cold. It might even snow.” He was taking out his frustration on her, but he couldn't stop himself.

“If it does, we'll turn on the heat.” She gave him a calm smile, and added, “Do you need some help splitting the wood? I can do that, too.”

“I do not need help splitting the wood.” He forced himself to speak slowly and distinctly. What he wanted to do was yell at Willa, tell her that there was no way he was risking letting her use an ax.

He jumped up in disgust and stormed to the window. What he really wanted to do was sweep Willa into his arms and savor another taste of her. Only this time it would be more intense, because he knew how quickly she responded. And he knew that she wanted him, too.

The fact that Willa seemed oblivious to the tension and the desire that threatened to spill out was infuriating. But he knew better than to let it provoke him. So he strode over to the counter and picked up the phone. “I'm going to call Ryan and let him know we arrived. He might have some information for us.”

Her eyes became animated for the first time since
he'd come back into the cabin. “Maybe the kidnappers have already been caught.”

“Maybe.” He doubted it. They had too little information to work with. “You'll be glad to get back to College Station, won't you?”

Her eyes became cool again. “I'm sure you'll be glad to get back to your own life. You can't enjoy baby-sitting me.”

She had no idea how much he'd enjoyed taking care of her that afternoon. He scowled at her. “Both of us have things to do, I guess. Let me see if Ryan is around.”

He dialed the private number for Ryan's office, and his uncle picked up on the first ring. “Fortune here.”

“Ryan, this is Griff. I wanted to let you know that we arrived safely.”

“Good.” He heard the older man take a deep breath. “Lily and I have both been worried sick all day. I'm glad you called.”

“We picked up enough supplies to last awhile, and no one followed us here. So we should be safe. Have you heard anything from College Station?”

“Not a thing.” Griff could practically hear Ryan frown. “I have a team of the best investigators in College Station working on the case, and none of them have been able to come up with even a hint of a lead. There's no trace of the blue van. Apparently it vanished into thin air. And the management of Willa's apartment building says they didn't hire any painters or any carpet layers. There wasn't supposed
to be anyone in that building when she arrived home.”

“So they were waiting specifically for her.” Griff felt a coldness squeeze his gut.

“That would be my guess. The only question is why.”

“I'm figuring it has something to do with you. Maybe they thought they could get ransom money out of you. Maybe it's someone with a grudge. Someone like Cling Lockhart.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. “I've thought about that,” Ryan said finally, reluctantly. “And we both know what he's capable of. Until we catch the culprits, take care of Willa. I think you'll be safe where you are. Don't take any chances with her. Or yourself.”

“Don't worry. I know what I'm doing.”

“That's why I'm not worrying.”

Griff asked a few more questions about the cabin, and received instructions for turning on the heat and several other maintenance problems. He finally asked if he wanted to talk to Willa.

“Just give her my love,” Ryan said.

Reassured that Ryan was taking the threat seriously, Griff said goodbye, telling Ryan he'd talk to him again soon.

When he walked back into the main room, Willa watched him with wary eyes. “What did Ryan have to say?” she asked.

“They haven't found anything. Not a trace of the van, not a trace of the housepainters. According to
the management of your building, there were no painters or carpet layers scheduled to work that day.”

“So what do we do now?” she said, licking her lips.

He turned away abruptly as desire sharpened inside him. “We wait. Ryan has hired the best investigators in College Station. Sooner or later, our kidnappers will make a mistake. Then we'll have them.”

“I should have asked you to let me talk to Ryan.”

Her voice sounded wistful, and he tried to push away the softening inside him. “That wouldn't have been a good idea. I didn't want to take a chance on someone overhearing your conversation. There are a lot of people in and out of Ryan's office every day.”

Her eyes widened, and a ripple of fear crossed her face. “I hadn't thought of that.”

“Don't worry about it,” he said, cursing himself for alarming her. “We're not going to call him that often. There's not much chance anyone will be able to overhear our calls.”

Willa laid her book on the couch and stood. “How long do you think we'll be here, Griff?” she asked quietly.

He shrugged. “I have no idea. It could be a couple of days, it could be longer than that.” The devil that was riding him made him add, “You said it didn't matter. You said you didn't care when you got back to your classes. I believe you said something like, you'd worry about that when you had to.”

“I'm not worried about my classes. I just don't
think it's a good idea to stay here, together, for any longer than we have to.”

For a moment, a shadow of the desire he'd seen in her eyes that afternoon flickered on her face, then was gone. She was trying very hard to hide her feelings for him, but Willa was a transparent woman. It was obvious that she'd had no experience hiding how she felt. And for that moment, exultation filled him.

He banished it as quickly as it appeared. “I agree. But we don't have a lot of choice right now. I'm going to bed. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.”

After checking all the windows and the door one more time, he turned and headed up to the loft.

By the time he was ready for bed, Willa had turned off the lights in the main room of the house and closed her bedroom door. There was a faint glow in the cabin, and he assumed it came from the light escaping from underneath her door.

He wouldn't think about Willa in the bedroom, he told himself. He needed to get some sleep if he was going to be any good at all the next day.

He fell asleep almost immediately, but his sleep was restless and unsettled.

He could stop himself from thinking about Willa. But he couldn't stop himself from dreaming about her.

E
yes bleary and weariness dogging him, Griff dragged himself out of bed early the next morning. He didn't want to face yet another dream of Willa. So he walked noiselessly downstairs and started the coffee.

There would be no newspapers on the front porch to tell him what was going on in the world, no messages from his boss sending him to the latest global hot spot. He had a whole day in front of him to fill, and nothing to do with it but spend time with Willa.

That was a dangerous prospect after the previous night. His dreams had been far too vivid, and far too enticing. He'd have to make sure he and Willa kept busy. And away from each other.

“Good morning.” Willa's voice embraced him, just as if he'd conjured her up from his dreams. He spun around to face her.

“What are you doing up so early?”

She shrugged. “I couldn't sleep. How about you?”

“I couldn't sleep, either.” He wondered if dreams had disturbed her sleep as much as they'd disturbed his. “Coffee's almost ready.”

“Thank goodness.” She moved into the kitchen,
and he saw that she wore a robe that had been hanging in the bedroom. It was tightly closed and belted securely around her waist, but he immediately began wondering what she wore underneath—if anything.

“Aren't you going to get dressed?” he asked carefully.

She shook her head. “I thought I'd have something to eat, then take a shower. If you don't mind, that is.”

Hell, yes, he minded, he wanted to shout at her. She wasn't wearing her glasses, and her blue-gray eyes were huge and soft in her face. Her hair was tousled and curled wildly around her face. The damn robe outlined her curves perfectly, firing his already overheated imagination. She looked like she'd just stepped out of his dreams and into the kitchen. He wanted to reach out and fold her into his arms. Instead he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans.

“I guess there's no hurry. Neither of us has to rush off to work.”

She smiled at him and reached for the coffeepot. “Work or not, I have to have my coffee.” She poured him a cup, then took out the cream and set it on the table in front of him. “I'll get the sugar.”

“You remember how I take my coffee?”

She turned away to reach into a cabinet, but not before he'd seen the slight blush on her cheeks. “My father entertained his army buddies a lot. I learned to remember what they all liked to drink. It's just a habit, I guess.”

He was irritated with the disappointment he felt.
Did he want her to say that she'd studied him, that she knew all kinds of things about him?

“There's a radio in the living room,” he said, trying to ignore the automatic ‘yes' that sprang into his mind. “Do you want to listen to the news?”

She nodded. “I'd like to, yes. I teach political science.” She gave him a quick, nervous smile. “I guess I'm a news junkie.”

He hurried over to the radio, fiddling with the tuner until he found an El Paso news station with clear reception. He needed something to keep his mind off Willa. Only a saint could look at her in that bathrobe and not want to peel it away from her.

And he was far from a saint.

She didn't meet his eyes while they ate breakfast. She seemed engrossed in the news from the radio, half turning to hear it. While she wasn't facing him, Griff devoured her with his eyes.

When the news was interrupted by a commercial, she turned back to face him. She went very still, and he saw her eyes darken. Her breath caught in her throat, and he knew she had seen the need in his face.

“I'm going to take a shower and get dressed,” she said, standing up too quickly. The chair toppled over and fell to the floor with a crash. “Sorry. I'll clean the dishes when I'm finished.”

She backed up a few steps, then turned and hurried into the bedroom. She was smart to run away, he thought as the door closed behind her. Because he was finding it harder and harder to control himself. He, who had always prided himself on his control,
who had always before had the ability to walk away, was having a very hard time putting Willa out of his mind.

It was just the circumstances, he tried to tell himself. They were alone in this cabin, and might be for a while. She was in danger, and he had vowed to protect her. He hadn't had nearly enough sleep in the last two days. Of course his groggy mind would try to build his attraction to Willa into something more than it was.

It was only hormones and the scent of danger. He'd seen it often enough in his line of work. He worked for the British government. He was what the romantic Americans would call a spy, but all that meant was that he did the dirty jobs no one else would do.

Willa would probably be horrified if she knew the person he really was. She was grateful to him, and he had been too long without a woman. That's all there was to it.

Telling himself that the explanation satisfied him, he began to clear the table. When he found himself hoping that it took Willa a long time to shower and dress, he slammed the dishes down on the counter. This was going to be a hell of a long day.

By the time Willa emerged from the bedroom, Griff had settled in the living room. He was still listening to the radio, with the appearance of complete attention. But she noticed that he tensed as soon as the door opened.

“You didn't have to clean up the kitchen,” she
said, standing behind the couch. “I said I would do it.”

“There wasn't that much to do. And why should you do all the kitchen work?” His voice was surly, and he didn't turn around to face her.

“You chopped all the wood yesterday. It's only fair that I do my share of the chores.”

“Fine. We'll figure out a ‘fair' distribution of the work.”

She moved around the couch and sat down in one of the chairs. Griff had a brooding look on his face. “What's wrong?” she asked softly. The anger that had stirred in her at the sound of his sharp voice a moment ago disappeared completely. Something was bothering him.

She didn't think he was going to answer, because he stared into the fireplace for a long time.

Then he sighed. “I'm not used to just sitting and waiting. I need to do something. I want to be in College Station, hunting for those kidnappers.”

She scooted over to sit on the edge of the chair, and took hold of her courage. “I'm glad you mentioned that. I was thinking the same thing.”

“What do you mean?” He gave her a suspicious look.

“I don't want to just sit here, either. I think we should go back to College Station.”

His eyebrows came together in a frown. “Why would we want to do that? That's where the kidnappers are, presumably. That's why we left. Why would I take you back there?”

“You just said you wanted to do something. Well, so do I. If we go back to College Station, maybe we can lure them out into the open. I'll go into my office at the university, do my usual chores and just generally make myself visible. Then when they try to kidnap me again, we can catch them.” She beamed at him. “What do you think?”

“I think you're crazy, that's what I think.” He shot up from the couch and paced over to the window, then he turned and gave her an incredulous look. “What makes you think I would do something as insane as that?”

“It makes a lot of sense.” She raised her chin. “What if the kidnappers just sit and wait until I'm back in College Station? Ryan's investigators will never find them. We'll be stuck in this cabin for ages, and when I finally go back to my job, they'll just wait for a chance to grab me again.”

“Then we'll stay here until they're caught.”

She saw the flashes of anger in his eyes, but she refused to back down. They'd only been at the cabin a day, but already the tension in the air was disturbing her sleep and making her jittery. “That might not be possible, Griff, and you know it. We don't really know anything about the kidnappers. How can we find them unless we have more information about them? At least if I'm in College Station, we can hope they make another kidnapping attempt.”

“So you want to become bait?” His eyes flashed at her. “You want to go home and walk around with a target on your back? You want to spend all your
time wondering if today is going to be the day? And what if they only want to kill you? What then? Maybe they won't even try to kidnap you again. Maybe there'll just be a sniper shot, and you won't even know what hit you. Have you forgotten my sister Matilda getting shot at on her honeymoon?”

The fury in his eyes would have made most people retreat, but she stood her ground. “Of course I haven't forgotten, and I thank God she's okay. But if they'd wanted to kill me, they could have done that in the hall of my apartment building. Besides, how else are we going to catch them?”

The anger faded as she watched him, and he finally sighed. Running his fingers through his hair, he said, “That's not an option, Willa. I won't put you in that kind of danger. Forget about it.”

“Who gave you the right to decide what I would and wouldn't do?” She took a step toward him, feeling her own anger grow. “I'm not a child, Griff. You can't tell me to stay here like a good little girl while the grown-ups take care of me.” She moved closer to him and poked a finger at his chest. “You may be used to telling your sister how to live, but this is
my
life we're talking about. I'm not going to let you decide how I deal with this.”

A heat that wasn't anger flared in his eyes, and his hand closed around hers, trapping it against his chest. “No, you're not a little girl, Willa,” he almost growled. “I'm far too aware of that. But just because I'm attracted to you doesn't mean we're going to turn tail and run back to College Station.”

His heart pounded beneath her hand, and her breath felt as if it were caught in her throat. “You're attracted to me?” she asked, and to her disgust her voice squeaked with surprise.

He stared at her, and she saw raw, naked need in his eyes. It was the kind of need that Willa Simms had never stirred in a man before, at least not a man like Griffin Fortune. He was a man who could have anyone he chose. He probably had women throwing themselves at him. But apparently he wanted her—quiet, ordinary-looking, studious Willa.

Her heart soared and an answering need stirred deep inside her. Then Griff stepped away, letting go of her hand. He let her fingers slide through his slowly, then he shoved his hands into his pockets.

“Oh, yeah, I'm attracted to you,” he said, his voice harsh and rough. “But I know that you come from a different world from mine. I know we have nothing in common. Don't worry, it's not going to interfere with what I have to do—which is protect you. And we're
not
going back to College Station.”

“I still think it's the right thing to do.” She spoke quietly as she turned away from him. He was right. He might be attracted to her—and God knew she was attracted to him—but their lives couldn't be following more different paths. So the smart thing to do was ignore that attraction and try to focus on why they were here in El Paso. “How are we going to catch the kidnappers if they don't know where we are?”

“That's not our concern right now.”

She could feel him close behind her, but she
wouldn't turn around. She couldn't. She suspected that he would have no trouble reading her face right now. And she didn't want to be the pathetic spinster who was panting after a man she couldn't have.

“That's exactly our concern right now,” she forced herself to say.

“How would your godfather feel if you got hurt?” he said, laying his hands on her shoulders. He squeezed once, then let her go. “You know how much Ryan cares about you.”

“I know,” she whispered, longing for him to touch her again. “He's been so good to me.”

“Then do him a favor and stay here, where you'll be safe. Don't make him worry about you, too.”

She spun around to face him, but there was only understanding in his eyes. “You're not playing fair,” she said.

He nodded. “I know. But that doesn't change anything. Ryan and Lily would both be sick with worry if you went back to College Station. Give your godfather a little time. If he hasn't found something by the time you have to start teaching again, we'll discuss going back to College Station.”

“That's weeks away,” she said, appalled.

“I'm sure Ryan's investigators will come up with something before then.”

He moved several steps away from her, as if he needed some distance, and said, “I'd like to check out the area today. How do you feel? Are you up to a hike?”

She touched the cut on her head. It no longer
throbbed, but it was still a little sore. “I'd love to go for a hike. My head is fine.”

“We're at a higher elevation here than in College Station,” he warned. “You have to worry about altitude sickness as well as your injury. Promise me that if your head starts to hurt or if you get light-headed at all, you'll tell me.”

“I promise, Griff.” She turned to grab her coat. “Believe me, I'm not a martyr.”

“I hope not,” he muttered. “Let's go, then.”

“I'm ready.” She stuffed her hat and gloves into her pocket, and followed him out the door.

“Hold on a minute,” he said, and he turned back to the door.

“What are you doing?”

He tossed her a grim look over his shoulder. “Just setting a few traps so I can check for uninvited visitors when we get back here. I'll want to know if anyone's been in the house.”

The sun was warm on her back, but Willa felt a chill as she watched Griff. His world
was
very different from hers, she acknowledged. In her world, she didn't worry about dangerous people waiting in ambush for her inside her own house. She didn't think about escape routes, as Griff was doing now. She watched his gaze linger on the shed where his truck was hidden, then scan the road and the area around the house.