Someone To Watch Over Her

Chapter 3

The first brush of his mouth was tentative. She could feel him holding back, hesitant. And she knew that the smart thing to do was lean away from him, murmur thanks for all he’d done, then slip quietly away from Marcus Waters.

But a part of her she didn’t recognize, a wild, untamed part that had lain dormant for all of her twenty-one years, pushed aside the rational voice in her head. Instead, Jessica curled her arms around his neck and pressed against him.

He felt solid and tough, his chest and legs hard and unyielding against her softness. It felt as if his heat would consume her until there was nothing left of her but the aching at her core. She felt helpless in his arms, completely overwhelmed. But she trusted him, she realized. She had connected to Marcus on some level, and she didn’t want to move away. Instead of frightening her, his heat and desire thrilled her, increasing the throbbing deep inside her. She twisted against him, not sure what she wanted but knowing that she wanted more.

He groaned and crushed her lips beneath his, devouring her mouth. When she gasped with surprise, he plunged into her mouth, tasting and caressing her with his tongue.

She tightened her arms around him, and he groaned again. Pulling her closer, he pressed her more tightly against him until every part of her was touching the hot, hard length of his body. Pressure coiled deep inside her until she squirmed against him, searching for something she couldn’t name.

“Jessica,” he groaned, tearing his mouth away from hers. “Tell me to stop.”

“I don’t want you to stop,” she whispered. She wanted to be joined to him, to know everything possible about Marcus Waters.

He swept his hand down her back, lingering at her hip, shaping the curve of her buttocks. She could feel his hand tremble against her. “I want you,” he muttered. “I don’t want to stop, either.”

“Then don’t,” she said recklessly, throwing all caution to the winds. She was lucky to be alive tonight. And suddenly she wanted to know what she had been missing all those years she’d spent in the lab doing nothing but working and studying. Knowing she might have been killed, she wanted to know what it felt like to be fully alive.

He pulled back a little, and she felt him staring at her. She opened her eyes with an effort. The desire that glittered in his blue eyes made her feel drunk with power. She had done that, she thought. She had made this man want her. And holding his gaze, she reached up and kissed him.

He kissed her with his eyes open, watching her, seeing her response to him. And as he kissed her, as his hands roamed over her back, she saw his eyes darken, felt his muscles harden even more. He reached up and brushed the hair out of her eyes, and she realized he was trembling.

Suddenly he picked her up and laid her on the bed. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured as he leaned above her. He traced the curve of her cheek to her neck, and his hand lingered at the top of the T-shirt. “I didn’t bathe you very well, you know.”

“Why not?”

He stared at her, his eyes hot and dark. “Just looking at you made me hard. By the time I put you in this bed, all I wanted to do was touch you.”

Jessica swallowed. “You can touch me now,” she said, her voice husky and low. She hardly recognized herself. This wasn’t Jessica Burke, the woman whose middle name was cautious, who had never had a serious relationship.

The neck of the T-shirt gaped between her breasts, and he let his fingers linger there, sending fire shooting through her veins. “Are you sure, Jessica? It’s not too late to say no.”

“I don’t want to say no.” A part of her was appalled, but her body throbbed wherever his fingers slid over her. And the ache inside her was too urgent, too all-consuming to be denied.

He watched her for a moment, then bent his head and pressed his mouth to her collarbone, his hand still between her breasts. His lips and tongue tasted her, teased her, until her hips moved restlessly beneath him.

When he lifted his head his eyes gleamed. “You taste wonderful. But I’ll bet there are other parts of you that taste even better.”

Slowly he pulled the neck of the T-shirt down until her breasts were exposed. She jerked when she felt the cool air brush across them and instinctively reached to cover herself.

He stared at her hand for a moment, then looked at her again. His eyes were almost black, and tension vibrated out of him. He held her gaze as he bent and kissed her, and she felt all her muscles go slack.

“Move your hand,” he whispered. “Wouldn’t you rather have me touching you?”

Her hand fell to the bed beside her, and he kissed her again. Then he raised his head to look at her. She felt her nipples getting hard just from his gaze.

He propped himself on one elbow, and his hot gaze swept her body. Then he lightly traced the curve of her breast with one finger. When she shivered, he cupped her with one hand. “They’re just as beautiful as the rest of you,” he whispered.

The throbbing was almost unbearable. She felt like Marcus was slowly winding a spring tighter and tighter inside her. When she twisted toward him, he closed his eyes briefly, then opened them to stare at her. He drew one finger across her nipple.

The jolt stunned her, and she cried out. She watched his face tighten, then he touched her again. She couldn’t stop the moan that started deep in her throat.

Suddenly he bent and took her nipple in his mouth. She bucked against him, overwhelmed by the sensations. Her body felt completely foreign to her. Nothing mattered except the touch of Marcus’s hands and the feel of his mouth. A sharp need throbbed deep inside her, and she instinctively moved her legs apart.

Marcus slid his hand to her thigh, and his fingers traced circular patterns on her skin. A whirling vortex pressed down on top of her, drawing her inside it. When Marcus slid his hand up her thigh and lingered between her legs, she rose to meet him. The sensations crashing over her were almost unbearable.

Marcus grabbed her shirt with an urgent hand and pulled it over her head. She was naked in front of him, but she didn’t care. She had gone too far into the vortex to think about modesty. Instead, she reached for him, trying to unbutton his shorts.

“Let me,” he whispered. “If you touch me now, it will all be over much too soon.”

He stripped off his T-shirt and tossed it to the floor, and she stared at his chest. Dark blond hair swirled around his nipples, and she ached to touch it. Then he pulled off his shorts, and her eyes widened.

He watched her look at him while he reached into a drawer of the night table and pulled out a foil packet, which he opened quickly. Then he kissed her again, his hand sweeping over her body, sending hot licks of fire down every nerve.

“Shall I show you the other places that taste good?” he murmured.

She was incapable of speaking. Her tongue was thick in her mouth, and her head was spinning. He stared at her for a moment, then let his mouth trail between her breasts and down her abdomen. She jumped when he bit the inside of her thigh.

Then he put his mouth between her legs, and she cried out with shock. His tongue caressed her slowly until she knew she would go out of her mind. Tension coiled inside her, tighter and tighter as he gently suckled her.

The world exploded around her. Spasm after spasm shook her body, and all she could do was cling to Marcus. She felt the hard length of him probing her, and she lifted herself to meet him.

She felt herself stretching and stretching, then suddenly he stopped. When she opened her eyes, he was staring at her.

“You’re a virgin.” His voice and his eyes were full of shock.

“What difference does that make?” she asked, her voice wobbly.

“It makes a hell of a lot of difference,” he retorted. He tried to move away from her, but she wrapped her arms around him and held on tightly.

“Please don’t stop.”

She felt him quivering in her arms, felt the tension that pulsed from him. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Please, I want you to make love to me.”

He groaned and pressed his forehead to hers. “You’re a virgin, Jessica. It’s going to hurt.”

“Only the first time, right?”

He stared at her for a long time, and she could see that he wanted to stop. He was trying to move away from her. So she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him to her. He took her mouth in a deep kiss and pushed into her with one stroke. Then he lay still.

The pain was sharp and stinging, but after a moment it receded. Then he began moving slowly and gently. At first it felt like she was being stretched beyond the limit, but as her body began adjusting to him, she felt sensation stirring all over again.

Wrapping her arms around him, she held him close as the tension built. Then suddenly, she exploded all over again. Marcus tightened his arms around her and shuddered above her, whispering her name.

They lay tangled together, unmoving, for a long time. When the world finally stopped spinning, she shifted her hands so that she could explore his broad, solid back.

He moved to his side and propped himself on one elbow as he stared at her. There was a shadow of sadness in his eyes.

“You should have told me before I touched you,” he said.

“I wanted you to touch me. I wanted you to make love to me.”

“How could you know what you wanted, when you’d never done it before?” He reached over to brush the hair out of her face, a gesture that seemed almost unconscious. “I took something that I had no right to take, Jessica.”

“You didn’t take it. I gave it to you.” Her voice was fierce.

The sadness seemed to fill his face. “Your virginity should have been a gift to the man you love.”

“I didn’t feel like waiting around for him,” she said tartly. She reached up and touched his face. “I wanted to make love with you, Marcus. I’m old enough to make my own decisions.”

“Just how old are you, Jessica?”

“I’m twenty-one, almost twenty-two.”

“And I’m a very old thirty-five.” He stared at her for a moment, then he lay down and pulled her close. “God help me, I know I shouldn’t have done that. But I can’t regret it if you don’t.”

“Not for a minute,” she said. She turned so that she was cuddled against him. “Stay with me, Marcus,” she said, and she heard the weariness in her voice. She was already half-asleep.

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Marcus looked at the woman wrapped around him and cursed himself long and silently. He was a real bastard. He should have stopped the moment he realized she was a virgin. Hell, he told himself, he shouldn’t have started in the first place.

He’d known she was upset, known that she needed to be comforted. But what had started out as an innocent embrace had become anything but innocent. And it had happened very quickly.

He’d been too aroused, too hot for her, to be able to think rationally. And she hadn’t done anything to stop him.

It wasn’t up to her to do the stopping, he reminded himself. Once he realized she was a virgin, that had been his responsibility.

She murmured in her sleep and moved closer to him, and he tightened his arm around her. She was only twenty-one years old, for God’s sake. She was far too young for him.

But he had never responded to any woman the way he’d responded to Jessica. The heat of their lovemaking still lingered, and he was becoming aroused all over again just thinking about it.

It was the circumstances, he told himself. That would explain this intense, uncontrollable attraction. It was a well-known fact that danger and excitement were potent aphrodisiacs. Satisfied with his explanation, he closed his eyes and allowed himself to pull Jessica closer against him.

The hushed stillness of the deepest part of the night surrounded him when he woke suddenly. He could feel that Jessica was awake, too. She was tense and silent beside him.

“What’s wrong?” he whispered.

She turned to him, and he saw the fear fading from her eyes. “I’m all right now,” she whispered. “I woke up and didn’t recognize the room, then I remembered being kidnapped. It just took me a moment to figure out where I was.”

“You’re safe, Jessica.”

“I know.” She stared at him in the darkness, a pale sliver of moonlight falling on her face from the window, and he wanted her all over again. She must have seen the need in his face, because she reached up and put her arms around his neck. “Kiss me, Marcus.”

He knew he should untangle himself and tell her to go back to sleep, but he couldn’t look away. Desire raged inside him, and her dark eyes were luminous with need. Slowly he bent his head until he was kissing her, and as her mouth opened beneath his, he felt a rush of need fill him.

She must have felt the same thing, because she turned so she lay pressed against him from her chest to her toes. Almost as if they had a will of their own, his arms came around her and pulled her tightly against him.

He gave in to the need coursing through him and covered her body with his. This time, he tried to be gentle and careful, as he should have the first time. This time, he tried to go slowly. But she arched her back and cried out for him, urging him inside her, and he lost control.

And when she lay clasped around him, her fingers digging into his shoulders, her mouth fused to his, he poured himself into her, feeling the ripples of her release clamping around him. He drank in her cries and clasped their hands together, holding on to her tightly.

They fell asleep still bound together, holding hands. Marcus’s last thought was that nothing had felt this right in a long time.

The sun was shining through the window when he woke up again. He stretched, then went still as he realized that he wasn’t alone in the bed. He looked at Jessica’s blond hair and knew that the night before hadn’t been a dream. It had been very real.

He couldn’t remember ever wanting another woman the way he had wanted Jessica. The way he still wanted her, he admitted. And he couldn’t remember lovemaking ever being so powerful or moving him so deeply.

And how was he going to deal with that in the light of day?

He eased away from the sleeping Jessica and slid out of the bed. But instead of moving away, getting dressed, he stood staring at her. She was so beautiful in the morning light, and so young. A wisp of guilt fluttered through him. He had taken advantage of her. It was as simple as that.

He couldn’t give her back her virginity, but he could protect her from whoever was trying to kidnap her. His jaw hardened. Not only was it his responsibility, it was part of his job. Simon was behind the kidnapping, he was sure of it. The traitor must be getting desperate for money if he was willing to take such a chance.

By keeping Jessica safe, he would force Simon out into the open. And further into the net. Yes, he would keep her with him until Simon was caught and all danger to her had passed.

He ignored the flare of pleasure at the prospect of having Jessica close by for an indefinite length of time. He was just doing his job. And his job was what mattered to him. No woman could compete with that.

He glanced at Jessica once more, then deliberately walked out of the room. He made coffee and put on some clothes, trying to put the magic of the night out of his head. He needed to concentrate on his job, but it was impossible to forget how Jessica had tasted and felt, how she’d responded in his arms.

Scowling, he walked into the bedroom with two cups of coffee, stopping in the doorway when he saw Jessica sitting up in the bed. She had pulled the sheet over her breasts as she leaned back against the head-board, and he felt himself getting hard all over again.

“Good morning,” he finally said. What was he supposed to say to her? I’m sorry I took your virginity last night and could we make love all over again?

“Good morning.” He saw a faint blush of pink on her cheeks and realized that this was a first for her, too. She’d never faced a lover after a night of passion.

Setting the coffee on the night table, he sat on the bed. Her cheeks became pinker. “About last night,” he began, but she cut him off.

“Please don’t apologize again. You’ll make me feel very…inadequate.” She plucked at the sheet and pulled it higher over her breasts. He could see the pink of her nipples through the light sheet, and he wanted to touch them again, feel them get hard and tight in his hand.

Then her words registered. “Inadequate?” He stared at her. “Believe me, Jessica, if I’m apologizing, it’s not because you were inadequate.” He took her hand and pressed it against his arousal, closing his eyes as need rocketed through him. “That’s what you do just by looking at me.”

He opened his eyes to see an answering need in hers. He dropped her hand and stood abruptly. “I brought you some coffee.”

“Thank you.”

She reached for the coffee cup, not meeting his eyes. And suddenly he understood. She didn’t know the rules. Hell, she didn’t even know how the game was played.

“Jessica, if I had stayed in bed with you this morning, we would have made love all over again. More than once. And I couldn’t do that to you.” He took her hand. “I don’t want to hurt you. And I would have if we’d made love again.” Pressing his lips to her palm, he said, “You’re going to be stiff and sore this morning. I’m trying to be a gentleman here.”

Finally she looked at him. “Thank you for explaining. I was afraid that…” She swallowed but continued to meet his eyes. “I was afraid that you were disappointed in me because I don’t have any experience.”

He groaned and pulled her against him. “Jessica, I can barely think of anything else when I’m near you. And neither of us can afford that right now. We need to concentrate on your problem.”

“You’re right. I should take a shower and get dressed.”

He nodded. “Your clothes are dry, but they probably need to be washed. I’ll give you some of my clothes to wear in the meantime.” He looked at her again, at the faint outline of her curves beneath the sheet, then stood. “I’ll get out of here so you can take a shower. I won’t be responsible for my actions if I watch you get out of that bed.”

Finally her face relaxed into a small smile. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

As he walked out of the room, he wanted to turn around and stay, wanted to step into the shower with her. But he forced himself to keep walking, to shut the bedroom door behind her.

He’d picked a hell of a time for his hormones to rage out of control. If his suspicions were correct and Simon had orchestrated Jessica’s kidnapping, the SPEAR traitor must be very close. He might even be on Cascadilla already. Marcus couldn’t afford to be distracted.

But he couldn’t turn Jessica loose, either. He’d promised to protect her, and he always kept his promises. Marcus downed a gulp of scalding coffee and stared moodily out the window. He should never have touched her last night. Now that he knew what they were like together, it was going to be almost impossible to keep his mind on his work.

The bedroom door opened behind him, and he turned to see Jessica standing hesitantly in the doorway. Her hair was wet, and she wore another of his T-shirts and a pair of his cutoffs that hung to her knees. He’d deliberately picked a dark blue shirt for her to wear, but he could still see the points of her nipples pressing into the fabric.

He scowled at her, shoving his hands into his pockets to stop himself from reaching for her. “You look like something the cat dragged home.”

She lifted her chin. “I thought you were the one who dragged me home.”

He felt his mouth curving into a reluctant smile. “Touché. Come into the kitchen and have some breakfast. You must be hungry.”

“I guess I am.” She slid into a chair at the tiny table and looked at the fruit and muffins he’d set out. “I’ve almost forgotten when I had my last meal.”

They ate in silence for a while, but it wasn’t a comfortable silence. Memories of the night before danced between them. The silence grew louder and louder, and the tension stretched and swelled. Finally Marcus pushed away from the table.

“I’ll throw your clothes into the washing machine.” He was tormented by the sight of her wearing his clothes. Every time her shirt brushed against her breasts, desire clawed at him. Every time the neck of the shirt gaped wide, he had to stop himself from staring.

At that she looked quickly at him. “I can do that.”

“Go ahead and finish eating. I wasn’t very hungry,” he said gruffly. He felt her gaze on his back as he hurried out of the room.

After he tossed her stiff, wrinkled clothing into the wash, he leaned against the machine for a few moments to compose himself. He could do this, he told himself. He could walk out there and have a normal conversation with her.

When he walked into the kitchen, she was standing at the sink, rinsing the dishes. Sunlight streamed through her blond hair, turning the red highlights to fire. Her legs were strong and tanned, and he noticed that she had painted her toenails a bright red.

“We need to figure out what to do next, Jessica,” he said.

She carefully set a dish into the dishwasher, then turned to face him. “The first thing I need to do is call my parents. They must be frantic with worry.”

He shook his head. “You can’t tell anyone where you are.”

Her eyes narrowed and she glared at him. “You may have rescued me, but that doesn’t mean you own me. I’m going to call my parents, and you’re not going to stop me.”

Chapter 4

“It’s too dangerous,” he said.

“Why?” She flashed him a challenging look.

“Because we want the kidnappers to wonder what happened to you. We want them to worry about it. We want them to be forced into the open to ask questions.”

“My parents wouldn’t tell anyone where I was. And I can’t bear to think about what they must be going through.”

It would be best if she didn’t make that call. But he could see the anguish in her eyes, her concern in the trembling around her mouth. Finally he picked up his cell phone off the counter. “You can use this,” he said gruffly.

“Thank you.”

“It has a scrambler on it so that no one can electronically eavesdrop.” He scribbled Russell Devane’s phone number on a piece of paper. “Tell them they have to act as if they haven’t heard from you. They have to act as if you’re still missing. And tell them if they get a phone call demanding a ransom to call this man and follow his instructions to the letter.”