Whisper In The Dark (The McKinnon Legends-- The American Men Book One) (16 page)

He looked her square in the eyes. “I swear, as God as my witness, I’m not toying with you, Kate. There is something here between us and I dare you to deny it.”

There it was.

There was the trap, the challenge, the checkmate. He was backing her into a corner.

If she admitted and acknowledged what she knew to be growing between them then he could wield control and power over her body, heart, and soul.

He pulled her to him and kissed her out of desperation trying to prove his point. That kiss was sizzling hot, designed to ignite and froth with the dangerous passion that she knew could be unleashed between them.

She wanted to drown in that kiss and drowning she was. She could not breathe.

Pushing the flat of her hands against his chest, her fingers ached to run nails down those hard pecks. Gently pushing off, she stepped back. He advanced. She would not be the first to blink. She was still stronger than the bond knitting them together, not by much, but she still was at this moment. If he stayed much longer that would no longer be the case, and she vowed when Daniel hurt her no person would ever have that kind of power over her again.

She had to get him away from her.

“Would you do something for me?” she asked breathlessly as she unconsciously gave him access to the pulse at the tender base of her throat.

“All you need to do is ask, Kate. How can I ever refuse you?” he asked nipping the tender skin at the crook of her neck just below her ear. Breathing deeply and drawing in her scent, he barely heard her request.

“Call off your men.”

She felt him go still.

“What did you just ask me to do?” He could not believe his ears. He was so surprised that he turned her loose without even a struggle.

She put several feet between them again.

“Call them off. I don’t want any of you around. I’m sick to death of having all you people in my house and on my land.” Her voice sounded foreign to her. It was a lie, but he must never know.

“You never even see them, so how can you be sick of them? You are not making sense, Kate. George has just gotten home. You need us here. If they have been in your way, I’ll make sure they stand clear.” He was rambling, desperately trying to regain the small foothold that he had so quickly lost.

“No, I never see them, but I know they are there. Watching, waiting, taking note of every freaking move I make and running right straight back to you like they are tattling on me for doing something wrong. I just can't take this any longer!” She was tired, and frustrated almost to the point of tears and certainly past the breaking point. She was pushing him away and she really had no idea why. She did know that it hurt.

“Don’t be foolish, Kate. Not about this. Not to prove some idiotic point that you could never convince me was valid. I won’t let you.”

“You won’t let me?” her voice was smooth and steady as she cocked an eyebrow. “You and what army, Robert?"

"Wrong choice of words," he said, quick to admit it.

"Hum, perhaps." If she was not so tired she would have enjoyed needling him a little further. She decided to still have a little fun, so she dried the tears. "Shall I call the sheriff and have you forcibly removed,” she asked picking up the phone. Her resolve was not quite as tough as her words. She could never do that to him.

 To Robert she appeared to be serious. Cold fear shot through him. There was nothing legal he could do if she chose to force his hand. Technically, he was trespassing since she had never officially contracted his services. Contrary to what she thought, she was not just another job or a fulfillment of a promise to Kyle. Over the last four days all he could think about was getting back to her. He needed to be with her and to keep her out of harm’s way.

The helicopter had filmed a nasty and sordid incident of him pulling Candi from the railing in an aborted attempt to jump. He had told her that he was assigning her to another bodyguard due to the demands of his current business dealings. She had threatened to jump and very nearly succeeded. If he had any doubts about his feeling for Candice, that had settled it. She was a nut case and he was washing his hands of her. However, he could not abandon her as a client. He did, however, have other ways to fulfill the duties of McKinnon-Bride Security. Those means he was fully prepared to enforce. It just would not involve him personally.

“You’re just upset right now, Kate. Don’t make a foolish decision running on emotion that you will regret later. Just sleep on it. And for God’s sake, don’t do this as some lame attempt to punish me because of Candi.”

Kate sighed. Men, she thought. Would they never figure women out?

"Robert, you are my business partner. We’ve shared some banter and a few tasty kisses. That doesn’t constitute a relationship in most circles. And I’m usually not a vindictive person. However, when I am holding a grudge,  I will make my punishment stick and I will make sure the punishment fits the infraction, you can take that to the bank. And if I were going to punish you, rest assured, Big Guy, I would leave you without any doubts that you were in the freaking dog house, and there would be no questions as to what address the flowers and candy would need to be sent.”

If it weren’t so dire a situation, he might have laughed. This was the Kate of old, no-holds-barred-straight-up-in-your-face Kate.

She breathed heavily and sighed, tired of all the drama. “Look, I just need some space, Robert. Nothing more. Take George to your place. You agreed to take him regardless of the outcome."

“I’ll take George, but not your security detail. I’ll come and stay with you if that makes you feel better.”

That met with stony silence. She was no more immune to him than he was to her. The attraction was undeniable even if she had not verbally owned up to it, so slipping up next to her he tried another tactic.

“You need me, Kate. You need what I can give you,” he purred next to her ear pulling her back against his chest. The insinuation was unmistakable. “I can give you security, safety, and a partnership with some really great fringe benefits,” he said just before nipping her earlobe, running his lips delicately down her neck, and lightly sinking teeth into her shoulder. The effect was erotic sending chills down her arms.

She closed her eyes against the feeling, but did not take the bait. She stepped away.

“I can take care of myself. You said so yourself.”

He saw his plan backfire. They were squared off again standing by the back door.

Robert straightened to his full height. “Kate, don’t toss my words back at me. I'm going to assume that your being tired is making you careless, and I cannot let you put yourself in this position of vulnerability.”

She felt trapped, unable to breathe as if he was pulling the air from her lungs. “I may need your security services, Robert, but just so we are very clear, I never, ever, required your stud services. I shall leave that to the other women in your life.”

He smiled in spite of his frustrations. She was going to have to realize she was not going anywhere and neither was he. He gently took her shoulders in his hands. “Kate, there are no other women in my life, and there certainly is nothing between me and Candice. I said I was sorry. That was an oversight on my part, and I have taken the necessary measure to correct that mistake. And hopefully it makes you feel better knowing that I have passed her over to Bill Fleming. He is now head of her security detail. I can promise there will not be a repeat of the last four days.”

She felt herself wavering. She believed him. However, she could not give into the urge to let him move in. She was fearful that she would never want him to leave.

“I believe you and I'm sorry I over-reacted, Robert. It was just a shock to see you like that on the television and I'm running on very little sleep."

That lack of sleep always made her such a grouch if Robert remembered correctly from conversations he had with Kyle.

"Then let me stay and you can go upstairs and crash," he offered.

"No. Thank you, I'll pass. I still need you to leave."

Robert eased up to her and gently kissed her lips. "It feels good to be home," he said and meant it.

"And I'm glad your home,” she said pulling the back door open wide with much more bravado than she really felt. "You just cannot stay here."

“George, maybe you talk some sense into her?” Robert beseeched the old man who was just then walking into the kitchen with his overnight bag held in his good hand.

“Best learn quickly, boy. Just do what she says. Easier on everyone that way, I can assure you. Now Katie, you stay inside after dark, lock all the doors, and call me later. Robert and I will be playing a game of poker around seven, and I’ll need the distraction to pull out the ace I just stuffed into my cast.”

George winked and kissed her on the cheek, then walked out the back door. He stood beside Robert’s truck. “Come on, boy. My night-time soap is going to be starting any minute. I cannot miss my stories.”

Looking up from the code book, Kate was aware of the quiet of the house. It was not as comforting as she thought it would be when she asked Robert to take George.

Still continuing to work, there was one symbol remaining that she had yet to crack. However, her brain was a fog refusing to cooperate constantly moving to the way Robert had looked when she asked him to leave. She had hurt his feelings, and he was deeply concerned.

Rubbing her eyes and covering a yawn, she was second-guessing her decision to have him go. She kept thinking about those fringe benefits that he dangled out there in front of her like rich milk chocolate in the window of a candy store.

Maybe she had overreacted. She had said as much at the time.

What if George was not ready to make a move this soon after returning home? It was selfish of her not to think of his well-being.

Seeing Robert with Candice hurt, catching her by surprise and alarming her. Reacting as strongly as she did to seeing Robert and Candi together was not a good sign in her mind, and the fact Robert was right that she was making decisions based on an emotional response did not help much., she supposed. If the truth were told, she had no right to react that strongly, either. She had no rights to him or his time, any more than he had claim to her, right? Yet, somehow that statement just did not seem quite true. She recognized cold fear when she saw it. His fear for her staying alone in this old mansion was quite evident. She understood he cared for her safety as an individual. He was just that kind of a man with those individuals under his care. They mattered where he was concerned. He knew she had no money to pay for his services, yet he had installed a state of the art security system complete with interior and exterior monitoring devices. He posted men around to see to it she and George were as safe as humanly possible. But all those things did not mean he cared for her as a woman. More troubling was the fact she wanted him to care even when she was not sure she could surrender to the weakness long enough to return those feelings.

Getting up from the old desk in the Brandenburg office, Kate pushed the chair back and stretched placing her hands at the flat of her back. She had sat there for hours hunched over the code book, making considerable progress. The treks out onto the ranch had allowed her to put a physical space to the code book and the hours after she had forced Robert to leave had been filled with complete focus. It was her way of coping and always had been her way. She usually just ignored the issue and hoped it eventually went away. However, through the years she had discovered it really did not work that way in real life. Confronting head on like a freight train usually was not the best way either. She had been a freight train with Robert and probably owed him an apology conceding she had overreacted earlier. Such overreaction was evidence of the fatal flaw in her character. She had not banished the flaw even though she thought she had done so years ago. She guessed not by a long shot, gauging the intensity of her emotional outburst.

Wondering why Robert even put up with her, she went to the window and pulled the curtain back enough to take a peek outside. The full moon already dropping low on the horizon in the west cast long shadows across the inner yard. She smiled. A raccoon waddled off to the side of the barn. It was then she noticed the figure.

So, she thought, Robert had not heeded her warning to withdraw his ghosts after all.

Huffing she dropped the curtain. She made her way to the back door and impulsively out to the barn. Slinging the door open, she went inside hitting the overhead lights as she went.

“You are so busted,” she shouted fully expecting the ghost to acknowledge he had been caught. All she heard were restless horses and tack swinging on the hooks from the rafters.

“Robert?” Only cold silence and animal noises answered. “Chase? Ok, guys. This is not funny. Come out, admit I caught you, and I’ll let it slide.”

She knew someone was inside the barn simply because of the reaction of the horses.

“Who’s there? Crap!” she mumbled under her breath.

What the hell are you doing?
had definitely crossed her mind.

Being stupid was a good answer, she supposed.

Cold sweat broke out on her lip as she felt the adrenaline dump into her bloodstream. This just did not feel right, she thought, as she began to very quickly back track. She saw a shadowy figure run, dashing between the outer stalls before disappearing into the darkness.

The dogs began to growl and bark outside as she turned to run out of the barn, hoping to get back to the safety of the house. Back in the kitchen she slammed and bolted the door before leaning back against it, letting her heart rate return to normal.

“You're an idiot,” she chastised herself for going outside in the first place, but she had made it safely back into the house and figured it was
friend
not
foe
posing no danger to her. She would have felt better if they had identified themselves, but any good self-respecting operative would never divulge or acknowledge having been seen. She smiled feeling better.