Chapter 14
KARA
While Shawn was in the bathroom, I slid off my shoes, climbed under the sheets, and pulled them tight around me. He’d shaken me to my core, and I was still trembling to prove it. What had we done? What had he done to me?
My heart refused to calm down, fluttering in my chest like a butterfly trapped beneath glass.
When he returned to the bedroom, he came to my side of the bed and yanked the sheets off, my skin instantly pebbling in the cold.
“No hiding,” he said.
“I’m not hiding.” Yet I searched for something else to cover up with. Just because we’d slept together didn’t mean I was comfortable being naked around him.
He gently pulled me up onto my knees facing him, my bare skin pressed against his. Then he kissed me. Oh, God, how he kissed me. His mouth on mine made me bold, fearless, and hungry. It was passionate. It said that the fire between us hadn’t dwindled—it was building into more.
Abruptly, he pushed me down on the bed with firm hands.
I gaped up at him. “What was that for?”
He grinned. “You don’t like it when I’m nice to you.”
His appreciative eyes wandered over every curve of my body, and I felt a blush heat my face. He was just as confident without a stitch of clothing on, and he strolled over to the mini-bar, opening a bottle of red wine.
Since he couldn’t stop me, I pulled the sheet around myself again. “For being the CEO of a beer company, you drink a lot of wine.”
“Would you like something? I’m sure the fridge is stocked with beer, but it’s not Budweiser.”
The muscles in his bicep flexed subtly when he uncorked the bottle and poured a glass. Holy crap, he was a beautiful man.
“I’d rather have the wine,” I said.
He poured a second and came back to me with a glass in each hand, extending one, frowning at the sheet. When I reached for the glass, he pulled it away. “I should mention this wine comes with strings.”
I paused. “You’re going to have me so wrapped up in your strings I’m not going to be able to move. What are they?”
He smiled. “That we get to do that again.”
“Now?”
His smile hung. “Uh, not right this very moment.”
I took the offered glass and chuckled before I took a sip. “Need a minute, do you?”
This challenge backfired when he took both our glasses and set them on the nightstand.
He crawled onto the bed and hovered over me, tugging the sheet out of his way.
“How about we focus on you for a while? I can catch up later.” His sinful mouth dipped down, skimming over my cheek, drifting toward my lips. “We have all day.”
As if on cue, his phone chirped with a text message, but it was ignored.
He teased me with his tongue. Its indecent stroke in my mouth was coupled with his hands on my breasts. His thick hair was soft in my hands when I tunneled my fingers through it. I’d just had him and I wanted him again. How was that possible?
But his phone rang, forcing his head up. The bed rocked as he climbed off and dug the ringing phone from his discarded pants, glancing at the screen. “It’s Jason.”
During the ensuing conversation, he bent down and pulled his underwear on, following with his pants.
When the call ended, his gaze lingered over me. “I don’t want to say this, but you should get dressed. The security team will be here in ten minutes.”
I scrambled for my clothes, hurrying, feeling marginally less scattered with them on. My hair was easy enough to get back in place, my feelings much less so. He pulled his arms into his suit jacket but paused when I stepped into the red shoes.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Your shoes.” His gaze was fixed on my heels.
“What about them?”
He came to me, brushing a hand over my cheek. “Never mind.”
I didn’t wait for him to kiss me. This time I took the lead. It was meant to be short and sweet, but that obviously didn’t figure into his plan. Shawn didn’t do short and sweet. Arms wrapped around my back, pulling me tighter, bringing me closer so I was fitted against him.
“What are you doing?” I said.
“I find you distracting.”
The knock on the door made us both stop and separate. An impatient voice came from the hall. “Shawn.”
When he opened the door, a younger, broader, physically intimidating version of Shawn stepped inside, followed by two men in dark suits.
Jason’s brown hair was almost the same length as his older brother’s, but he had a few days’ worth of stubble decorating his face.
That and his jeans made him look more American than the other Dunn.
Jason’s gaze scanned the room and assessed everything in a moment. I was fully clothed, as was Shawn. We were standing across the way from each other and hadn’t spoken.
But the bed.
It was unmade and two glasses of wine sat together on the side table.
Yesterday, when Shawn had burst from the bedroom in my apartment, I couldn’t have imagined someone could move faster, yet his brother made him look slow. Jason had Shawn slammed against the wall in a heartbeat, a forearm buried into his chest.
It was the same spot where Shawn had pinned me to the wall.
The unexpected burst of violence set both the suited men on edge. They adjusted their stances, ready. There were furious words between the Dunn brothers, and I had no doubt their German was angry.
Jason shoved him away with a final phrase that seemed sobering, and Shawn turned to face me, a strange look in his eyes. Tendrils of cold sweat prickled across my back. What had that argument been about?
Since he was finished antagonizing his brother, Jason came to me.
“Is everything okay with Laurel?” I asked, preempting any lecture he was gearing up to give me.
“Yeah, she’s safe. She wanted to be here, but I convinced her it was too dangerous.”
My sister was almost as headstrong as I was. “That probably wasn’t easy.”
He gave a tight smile. “No, it wasn’t. Are you all right?”
When I nodded, he pulled out his phone, thumbed to something, and handed it to me.
The picture on screen showed a man sitting at a table in a plain, white room with metal handcuffs on.
His black hair was past due for a cut, and it contrasted too sharply with his light eyebrows.
A bored look was plastered on his face, but his eyes . . . Disturbing.
“This is Juric. Was this the guy?”
I shook my head.
“You’re sure? If his hair was shorter and lighter, could this be him?”
“No.”
Jason’s disappointment was clear. He wanted it to be, and I did, too. I’d like nothing more than to bash Juric in the head with a frying pan and end all this.
“I told you it wasn’t,” Shawn commented quietly.
Jason shot his brother a glare before turning his focus back to me. “I need to know everything you can tell me about your attacker,” he said. “Had you seen him before?”
“No. He was young and short. Dark brown hair.” I tried to remember what I could. It felt like a blur. “Uh, green shirt and black jeans.”
“Eye color? Build?” Jason’s gaze went from me, to Shawn, and back again.
“I don’t remember his eye color. He was small, kind of skinny. He spoke English like it was a second language.”
“What kind of accent?”
“Italian, maybe?”
Shawn retrieved his wine glass and sat on the bed. It felt like he was considering Jason’s questions but was studying me even more.
“Did you see any tattoos or scars?”
I frowned, wishing I had more to give him. “He looked pretty ordinary.”
“What about the knife, what kind was it?”
“It was long, with a black handle,” I said hesitantly. “And it was sharp.”
Jason didn’t react, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw Shawn turn away and take a long sip like he was uneasy.
“What about you?” Jason’s question was directed at his brother, and there was a distinct tone to it, like he’d just barely left the word “asshole” off the end of it.
“That sounds right.” Shawn’s voice was less confident than normal.
The conversation went right back into German, and I couldn’t take it anymore. “English!”
“He wants to know,” Shawn sounded bitter, “why I can’t remember any details.”
I swallowed a breath. “It happened fast.”
His focus returned to his brother. “When I came out, blood was pouring down her neck, and I thought she was dying. So, no. I don’t remember what he looked like or the knife.
” His gaze swung to me. “I remember that you put him face down on the floor, when I should have been the one to do that.” His expression made it hard to breathe.
“All I remember is that he hurt you and I failed.”
Shawn liked his control, which probably meant he couldn’t tolerate feeling helpless.
Yes, I’d been the one to strike the man down, but I wouldn’t have been able to do that without Shawn’s distraction. Why on earth did he think he’d failed?
“Shawn, no,” I said softly. “You didn’t fail.”
I wanted to go to him, but the intense look on Jason’s face and his previous angry tone echoed in my ears, keeping me motionless. My statement hung in the room.
“Tell us what to do,” Shawn asked his brother. “Should we stay here or get out of the city?”
“She should stay put for now. Moving might draw attention. I’m working on a secure location and how to get her there.
” He motioned to the hulking stranger standing closest to him.
“Kara, this is Markus, your primary.” The man nodded an acknowledgment, his professional face unchanged.
Jason then motioned to the other. “Alex will be your secondary. You won’t notice him much, but that’s because he’s good. ”
Alex had a pleasant European face that could pass for German. Or French. Or a half-dozen other nationalities. It made sense that he could blend, at least physically.
Jason produced another phone from his pocket, this one smaller than the other, and passed it to me. “Here’s a burner phone. My number and L’s are programmed already. Don’t use it unless you need to, though.”
“Okay.” I clutched it tightly. “Thank you, Jason.”
He nodded and his attention turned to his brother so he could deliver more German that sounded angry. Shawn said nothing, his expression set as he was reamed out.
Jason didn’t stay long after that, stating he wanted to get back to Laurel. The security guards he’d brought exited with him. Alex, I was told, would be in the lobby while Markus patrolled the hallway outside.
Tension compressed every inch of the room once Shawn and I were alone again.
“Let’s order dinner,” he said finally, not meeting my gaze. He flipped open the menu, but I stalked toward him, stilling his hands.
“What did he say that freaked you out?”
He gently brushed off my grip and stared at the menu like it had Juric’s location written on it. “Nothing.”
A bald-faced lie, and after what we’d done, it hurt. “Unbelievable.”
He finally lifted his gaze to me. “He told me that the water damage in the corporate room had spread to the one next door.”
He was speaking English, but I didn’t understand. “Explain.”
“The Palace Hotel had a plumbing issue, and water damaged the Osterh?gen corporate room. It’s unsuitable for use until it’s repaired.”
I tilted my chin down in confusion. “The room we’re standing in.”
“Yes.”
It took me a moment to get it. No one knew we were here because the hotel had listed the room as uninhabitable, and now they were claiming a second one was affected. “Jason wants us in separate rooms.”
He gave a slight smile. One which conveyed that was not what he wanted.
“Okay, what else did he say? He was obviously upset.”
His rich brown eyes turned serious. “He said I shouldn’t have fucked you.”
“Yeah.” My voice was dry. “I figured that part out.” Why did he have to say it like that? I liked him least when he sounded the most American. “That couldn’t have been what it was.”
“He pointed out you’re not someone I can do that with and never see again. That my niece or nephew will be yours, too.”
His revelation settled in and started a slow burn that built into an inferno of anger. That was what had made him panic? “You’re freaked out you can’t, what? Make a clean getaway? Escape from a one-night stand with me?”
He frowned, and it seemed like he was trying to put the words together, assemble something that wouldn’t make me ballistic, but it was wasted effort.
“Don’t worry about it.” I hardened my voice. “I don’t have a problem being another notch on your belt,” I lied. “You’ll only be one on mine.”
His face skewed and gave the impression that whatever he was about to say was pushed aside. “I don’t believe that any more than you do.”
“Why not? It was just sex, and I got what I wanted out of it. Didn’t you?”
His expression went dark, like my lie offended him. It filled me with liquid fire, and I approached the threshold of my anger.
“Stop being like this,” he commanded. “If it was just sex, you wouldn’t have been crying.”
I pulled in a deep breath and slammed my eyelids shut. I had a temper, one which had severed the connection between me and my sister for half a decade, and it was a terrible struggle now to keep it in check.
When I calmed, I found him staring at me with a different expression. I didn’t understand it.
Frustration edged into my voice. “That was—”
“You can lie to yourself, but I don’t want to hear it. It meant something.”
Oh, my God. This reaction was because I’d bruised his massive ego. “Do you expect every woman you sleep with to fall head over heels in love with you? Because, believe me, I haven’t. I’m not even sure I like you.”
He gestured to the unmade bed. “You want me to remind you how much you do?”
“No. No, that won’t happen again.”
“More lies.” He snatched up his glass of wine and took a long sip.
“I mean it, Shawn.”
“All right, fine, but don’t tell me it was just sex.”
His arrogance made me ball my fists.
“Because,” he added, “maybe it was for you, but it wasn’t for me.”