Chapter 3
Chapter Three
“I don’t understand what’s happening here.” Marley sat with her delicate shoulders hunched and her hands twisting in her lap as the limo pulled away from the hospital.
“We’re getting away from the hospital and going back to my suite at the hotel.” Simple enough to understand. Declan ignored the faint headache that drummed behind his left eye. Getting out of that hospital had been a bitch. He’d had to wait hours for the doctor to arrive. There had been more blood work. More tests. And the annoying detective—the one who liked to touch Marley far too much—had lingered the whole time with his too watchful stare as he’d fired off question after question. And during all of those questions, the detective’s stare had drifted a bit too often to Marley.
Find your own PI, asshole.
Because as far as Declan was concerned, Marley was his.
“Yes.” Marley cleared her throat. “I get that we’re in a vehicle and heading for your hotel. Check. Not having a problem understanding that part.”
He would not smile. He shouldn’t even want to smile, not after the shit that had gone down the previous night. But there was something about Marley Jones…
She didn’t leave me in that basement. She came back for me. Even when he’d told her to get the hell away. She’d come back.
Marley might not get it but…that didn’t happen his world. When danger came calling, people tended to flee. No one had tried to protect him before.
Certainly not some gorgeous, sensual, five-foot- six angel with curves that begged to be touched, dark hair with streaks of red hidden in its depths, and dark, chocolate eyes that stared straight through him. Her skin looked like silk, and all he wanted to do was reach out and touch her. To see if it would be as soft as it appeared.
I touched her in the hospital room. She was so soft. I need to touch her again. Only instead of touching her, his hands fisted.
“What I don’t understand is why you insisted I come along with you.” Her head tilted as she studied him. Locks of her hair slid over her shoulder. “I thought you didn’t need me.”
Oh, I need you. In ways that he had never expected. “You’re the one who keeps saying that you saved me.”
“Because I did, in fact, save you.”
And now he was going to have to save her. Something she would not understand, not until it was too late. But as James had revealed, the press was, in fact, salivating. Billionaire kidnapped, held in torture basement. That headline was too salacious to pass up. Especially because his family had been tabloid fodder for years and years. With good reason. And bad reason.
I am not my father.
At least, he normally wasn’t like his bastard of a father. Declan’s right fist slowly unfurled. His hand lifted, and his fingers skimmed over the scar that would mark him for the rest of his life.
“I saved you, and now you’re carrying me off to your…hotel suite?” She blinked those deep and dark eyes at him. “And you keep telling everyone I’m your fiancée. I get it, I shouldn’t have said that bit. My bad.”
No, she should not have. A target had been placed on her back the minute that she helped him, and with her claims to the EMTs and the hospital staff that she was personally involved with Declan, that target had only gotten bigger. “You’re the one who insisted on staying with me.” So this was her fault. She’d also insisted on helping him to escape from hell. “Tell me…” His fingers stroked once more over the scar before his hand dropped. “Do you always risk your life to save people you don’t know or am I special?”
Her long lashes flickered. “I feel like you’re playing with me.” She turned away. Slithered a bit across the leather seat and then her hand was rapping on the window that separated them from the driver. “I’m just going to get out now. I don’t enjoy being someone’s joke.”
Lightning fast, he closed the distance between them and caught her hand mid-rap. “I could never think of you as a joke.” No, she was far too important for that.
He heard the faint catch in her breathing.
“You feel the attraction, too,” Declan noted. Good. I sure as hell don’t want to be alone in this madness.
The screen that separated the front of the limo from the back slowly lowered. “You need something, boss?” His driver—and bodyguard—Andy Greer stayed focused on the road ahead of him as he asked the question. Marley had been right when she said that he normally had an army of guards around him. A man in Declan’s position required protection.
Except, last night, he’d ditched the protection. And someone had been watching. Waiting for that mistake.
But the thing about Declan—he was an extremely fast learner. And he never, ever repeated the same mistake twice.
“Yeah, I need something,” he told Andy. “Gonna want you to make a pitstop by Marley’s place so that she can pick up her luggage.” He couldn’t help but glide his fingers along her inner wrist. Her pulse raced beneath his touch.
Was that because she felt the surge of attraction like he did?
Or because she was pissed as hell because he’d basically forced her into the back of the limo with minimal explanation?
“What’s the address?” Andy asked.
Declan stared at Marley.
“Why do I need luggage?” she whispered.
Tread carefully. “Because I’m hiring you. Didn’t you say I needed protection?”
“Uh, boss…” Andy began. “You’ve got plenty of?—”
“The address, Marley,” Declan demanded, cutting through Andy’s words because Declan was quite aware that he did, indeed, have plenty of protection. Not like he needed a reminder. “Rattle it off, would you? Then we’ll talk more.”
Though her delicate jaw hitched up, she rattled off the address.
Declan barely held back his smile. He did keep holding her wrist, but with his free left hand, he hit the button to raise the privacy screen once again.
Her gaze never left his face. Her angry, distrustful, and utterly delightful stare.
“Where have you been all my life?” he wondered.
She blinked. Then frowned. “You’re still not yourself, are you?” Marley pulled her hand free of his grip.
Dammit.
But then she reached her hand up—both of her hands, actually—and she cupped his face. “You should have listened to the doctor and stayed put in the hospital. The staff there should have kept observing you, but, oh, no, you had to be the big, demanding, billionaire badass who left right away. Against the doctor’s orders. Do I have to remind you that you were drugged?”
Yeah, he was quite aware. No reminder necessary. “Someone slipped something in my drink.” A mistake—theirs and his. “I saw the bartender prepare the drink myself.” Which just meant that the SOB had been damn good at slight-of-hand tricks. A real magician, that asshole.
Her lips parted in surprise. “You didn’t mention that to the detective. You told him last night was still blurry. ”
Bits were blurry. True story. “I don’t remember how I got to the basement. Who tied me up. That shit is blurry.”
“But the bartender isn’t. You remember him, don’t you?”
He did.
Her gaze never left him. “Parker wanted to know where you’d been before you were abducted. You didn’t name any club or bar, but you do remember exactly which places you visited, don’t you?”
Declan inclined his head. “Place. Singular. And I thought I might revisit the location with a certain intrepid PI that I will be hiring.”
Her hands slid away from his cheeks. Then she inched away from him. Marley returned to her original seat in the limo. “Don’t play games with me.”
“Why not? Don’t you like games?”
A negative shake of her head. “This is life or death. Not Monopoly.”
So good of her to point out the difference. He slid his index finger along his lips to hide the quirk of his mouth.
He could practically see the wheels turning in her head before she muttered, “Parker said the cops should be in charge of the investigation.”
“Um. I did hear him mention that a time or twenty.” He’d also picked up on a few things like… “The detective doesn’t like you.”
“He doesn’t like that I wouldn’t sleep with him when we went out.”
Every muscle in Declan’s body tensed.
“But I don’t screw every man who buys me dinner, and, for the record, it was a crappy dinner.”
Breathe, Declan. Breathe. A sudden, red haze seemed to have clouded his vision. Hell, maybe it was the drugs he’d been given. Because the heat flooding through his body didn’t feel normal. It actually…hell, did it feel like jealousy? Was this what jealousy was?
“He’s held a grudge since then. And…” An exhale from Marley. “I am a new PI.” A bit of a forlorn confession. “Parker has that part right.”
He doubted if Parker had anything right. “Did you know who I was when you gave chase after the van?”
“We’ve been over this before. No, I didn’t.” She didn’t even blink. “All I saw was three men. Two were trying to drag your rather large and slightly floppy self into the back of a van. I saw the back of your head. Dark, thick hair. I screamed for them to let you go. They ignored me. They shoved you inside and hauled ass away.” A delicate roll of her shoulders. “So I gave chase. I called the cops along the route, but those creeps in the van were moving helluva fast. And going down some seriously snaking roads. I lost the signal on my phone twice. Once I thought I’d lost the van. I had to be careful. I kept my lights off a lot because I didn’t want to tip them off that I was trailing. I was afraid that if they realized they were being followed, they might panic and do something foolish.”
“More foolish than kidnapping me?” Because that would prove to be a fatal mistake.
“I thought they might panic and kill you. Then they’d just toss your body out of the rear of the van and keep driving.”
He grunted. “Lovely visual.”
A nod from her. “I snuck into the cabin as quickly as I could.”
Yes, she had. “Do you often rush straight into dangerous situations?”
Her gaze cut from him. “Danger can be everywhere. You don’t have to rush and find it. Sometimes, it will find you.” Her shoulders didn’t roll in a shrug again. Instead, they straightened with determination. “You do need me.”
Yes, I do. But, darling, you need me even more. Something she did not yet realize. Soon enough, she would.
“I can find these guys, I know it. Tell me the bar you visited—describe the bartender to me. I’ll go from there. You can keep your guards in place, and I’ll track down the people who took you. Count on me for this job.”
“Oh, I am definitely counting on you.” He spread his legs out in front of him. “You’re my PI.” Was there a subtle possessiveness on those words?
She’d stiffened.
Okay, perhaps the possessiveness had been not-so-subtle.
“I’m hiring you,” Declan told her. “Full-time. While we are together, I will be the only client you have. So any others will need to get the news that you are off the market.”
“Uh, yeah, I’ll give them that news.” She coughed. “Don’t you want to know my rates first?”
“I’ll pay you three grand a day. Meals and lodging will be provided.”
She coughed again. Or maybe choked. Declan wondered if he should lean forward and pat her on the back. He even lifted his hand to help.
“Three grand a day? That’s like…twenty-one thousand for seven days.”
Yes, it was exactly like that. “Is it not enough?”
Her eyes doubled in size. “Dude, I will do the job for twenty-five bucks an hour, plus expenses. You do not need to overpay me. Keep the cash.”
Why? “I have plenty of cash.”
Her wide-eyed stare swept the limo. “Clearly. But I am not taking advantage of you.”
Is that what she thought was happening? So very wrong. “Three grand a day. You move into my world. You stay close to me. We hunt the kidnappers together.” There was no way he was letting Marley out of his sight. Not even if he had to chain her to his side. Which was exactly what he was doing, in his way. “In case you missed it, I have money to burn.”
“Yeah, but I’m not a fire, so don’t throw money on me.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “And you’re not going to stay a billionaire if you are so careless with your cash.”
She fascinated him. “Are you always this blunt with people?”
“No. Usually I don’t call people idiots when they try to hire me. I tell them that they are geniuses.” A huff. “Look, I’m taking the job. I want the job. Finding these guys and stopping them is my goal.” Her lips pulled down. “Honestly, I’d hunt them even if you weren’t hiring me.”
Yes, he’d rather feared she would. Thus, the job offer. “You’ll need to move in with me.”
“What?”
“Move in. With me.” Was that clear enough? He thought he’d enunciated things very well. “While we are in town, you’ll stay in my hotel suite. Don’t worry, it has two bedrooms.” Unfortunately. “No one-bed situation.”
“Uh, good to know.”
“And if we travel to Chicago, my estate has ample rooms.”
“Ample, right. Check.”
“Where I go, you go. And, of course, if any reporters get too curious about what’s happening and why you’re so close, we’ll just provide the handy cover story you already created for us.” Hello, my lovely fiancée.
Her pink tongue swiped along her lower lip.
And his gaze became absolutely locked on her mouth. Oh, the places I want that sweet mouth to be.
“Can’t we just admit that fiancée stuff was BS? Tell everyone I’m a PI? I’m sure some enterprising person will pull up my job info, anyway.”
He wondered what she would taste like.
“Uh, Declan?”
His gaze slowly rose so that he could get lost in that dark stare of hers again. “You’re going to marry me.”
Her brows rose.
“That’s the cover story we are telling everyone. It will allow you to move in all of my circles. To be with me at every moment. No one will think I’m just moving a junior PI into my life. But they’d buy that I was moving my new obsession in close to me.”
Obsession. A slip of the tongue.
She bit her lower lip. Dammit. And his eyes were right back on her mouth. I want to taste her.
She freed her lower lip. “So this is to be an…undercover mission?”
If that was what she wanted to call it. “Do you have a boyfriend who will object?” Boyfriend, lover, person who Declan needed to make vanish.
“No, I’m not involved with anyone right now.”
“You are.” Again, he pinned her with his stare. “You’re involved with me. Going forward, this will be our story.” He paused for a beat. “We were out together. We became separated. You saw the bozos shoving me in the van. Like any concerned fiancée, you followed me and called for help.”
“A concerned PI would do the same. I don’t see why we need the cover story.”
He needed it because it would be another layer of protection for her. When he publicly claimed her as his… You do not touch what is mine. Some messages would need to be deeply, deeply understood.
“Declan?”
His chest tightened. His dick hardened. He liked it when she said his name. Too much. “I want you.”
“ What?”
The limo slowed to a stop.
Declan made no move to leave the vehicle. “I want you. Figured I should just tell you how I felt. If you aren’t interested, you say the word right now. I’ll make sure things stay completely professional between us.”
“A professional PI relationship?” Her voice had gone a little breathless.
“Um.”
Her lashes swept down to conceal her eyes. “And if I say that…if I say that I get an electric rush each time we touch, that my heart rate speeds up and I get these images of us together, doing all kinds of…of things in my head…what would you do?”
No one in his world had been this honest with him. Certainly, no romantic partner.
“Oh, God. That’s what the three grand is for, isn’t it?” Absolute horror coated her face as her lashes swept up. “You’re paying me for sex.” Red blasted into her cheeks. “I’m a PI, not a prostitute.” She lunged toward him, and her index finger stabbed Declan in the chest. “And you can just?—”
He kissed her. He’d kissed her in that hell of a basement, but it had been a fast, fleeting brush of their lips. A taste that had tormented him.
Now, he wanted her mouth more than he wanted anything else, so he took it. Declan expected heat. Sensual energy. Desire.
What he didn’t expect was the full-on, lust-filled explosion that happened when their mouths touched.
And she tastes even fucking better than she smells.
Her mouth opened wider beneath his, and he let his control slip away.