Nick saw the flash of uncertainty in her glorious eyes, and, not giving her time to dwell on it, he rose to his feet, taking Liza with him. ‘A call to your hotel for your luggage,’ he informed her and drew her hard against him, allowing her to feel the extent of his need, and he kissed her once again hard and fast. ‘And we can leave within the hour.’
Leave! Hell, he wanted to tumble her down on the sofa and take her now. It was what they had both been fighting all day, or maybe longer…he wasn’t sure about anything any more, except the need to get her away from Lanzarote, he reminded himself, and stepped back, setting her free.
Liza blinked and for one wild moment wondered what she had committed to. As he stood before her, dark and slightly dangerous with certain possessiveness in his eyes, she suddenly felt threatened, and she did not understand why.
His request was straightforward enough, and after a few tense seconds she smoothed damp palms down over her hips and said lightly, ‘You and your mother seem to have it all arranged, and it will be nice to see Anna again, so far be it from me to disappoint you all.’ She could play the sophisticate as good as any woman.
‘You could never disappoint me, Liza,’ Nick said in a throaty voice, and with a faint smile he slid one long finger down her burning cheek in a tender gesture. ‘But if we don’t stop this now, I cannot be responsible for my actions,’ he said thickly, his finger tracing the outline of her slightly swollen lips.
Helplessly Liza’s lips parted and just as abruptly Nick stepped back. ‘No.’ His great chest heaved. ‘Later, or we will never get out of here. I think we need that brandy now.’
‘NOW that wasn’t too painful, was it, Liza?’ Nick asked, releasing his safety belt, and, turning, he deftly unfastened the belt restraining her in the flight seat next to him, but not before dropping a swift kiss on her full lips. He saw her eyes darken, and it crossed his mind that it was after ten in the evening and there was a bedroom on the plane. It was a two-hour flight, and he doubted if a girl with Liza’s obvious sexual appetite would object.
‘Painful, no. A mad rush, yes,’ Liza quipped, striving for some sense of normality even as her head spun from his brief kiss. ‘You do realise we will arrive in Spain in the middle of the night? That is hardly going to go down well with your mother.’
She was still not sure she was doing the right thing. But Nick was very persuasive. As he had said when she was dithering while waiting for the car to take them to the airport, it was only for a few days, and it would mean the world to his mother. Liza recognised it was emotional blackmail but powerful nevertheless.
Nick’s comment that they could have fun as well and the sensual gleam in his dark eyes had told her exactly what he meant. When she had queried how she would get back to Lanzarote, he had told her not to worry, he would take care of everything and her boss needed never know she had been away. Which, she thought drily, put it in perspective; a brief affair was all he had in mind, and it was up to her just how much fun it would be.
Nick considered her thoughtfully; she was nervous and striving to cover it. He had been keeping up a subtle sensual pressure in case she changed her mind, and would like to think it was his obvious attraction that was making her nervous but he could not suppress the suspicion it was more likely the change in her plans that he had contrived. The cynical side of his nature reminded him that in his experience a really good criminal rarely liked their schedule altered by an outside influence. ‘Let me worry about Mamma,’ he reassured her with a lazy smile. ‘Relax.’
Easy for him to say, but Liza was on her way back to the house where she’d suffered her biggest humiliation, and she was scared. ‘Will there be a lot of people at this party?’ she asked, lifting guarded blue eyes to his, and there was something about the way he looked at her with a kind of amused sensuality that was incredibly arousing and she could not tear her gaze away.
‘Quite a few. You know Mamma; it is her brother and his wife’s golden-wedding anniversary.’ He was aware that she was staring at him as intently as he was studying her and the amusement vanished from his face as her gaze involuntarily darkened, the tension between them renewing itself with a cosmic force.
How did she do that? Confuse him… One look from her baby blues, and she made him feel guilty for being economical with the truth, and at the same time turned him on so hard his loins ached.
‘You worry too much,’ he insisted, strain making his tone curt. He leaned back in his seat and circled his shoulders to ease the tension. It had been a horrendously long day; the anger that had sustained him this morning had calmed somewhat after meeting Liza again, and getting the information he required. But he felt as if he had been walking on eggshells for the past few hours. Never forgetting his primary concern was to help Carl catch the criminals, but at the same time endeavouring to protect Liza from the result of her own actions; whether with criminal intent or not, she was involved up to her swan-like neck. But what to do about Liza he still was not sure…
He knew what he wanted to do… She made him feel like a randy teenager again.
He cast a sidelong glance at Liza and he saw the uneven rise and fall of her breasts, the subtle scent of her perfume—or was it simply her—fogged his brain and his body tightened another notch.
Nick dragged an unsteady hand through his hair. They were airborne now; she could not change her mind and getting her out of Lanzarote was for her own good, he told himself. He owed it to the delightful child she had been to protect her. He could not let her go to jail. It should have made him feel better, but it didn’t. Instead beneath his cool exterior he was struggling to contain emotions that were as unwelcome as they were unfamiliar.
Had he taken leave of his senses? How the hell was he going to explain to Carl that he had taken off with one of the prime suspects? His friend would think he was crazy. Maybe he was. But he knew he would do anything, pay anything to keep Liza out of trouble with the law, and if that made him a fool, so be it.
Leaping to his feet, he crossed to a cream leather sofa. Slipping off his jacket and tugging his tie loose in the process, he dropped them and his long length down on it, his angry eyes raking over her. Frustration wasn’t the word!
Liza was a walking, talking sex goddess. Either in trousers and a cheap top with her glorious hair scraped back in a childish pony-tail, as he had seen her this morning, or with her hair a tumbled mass around her shoulders and elegant in black wrap-around dress that was just begging to be unwrapped. Crook or not, she turned him on without even trying.
‘To hell with it!’ he swore under his breath. Keeping her out of jail did not mean he had to keep her out of his bed. She had matured into an incredibly sexy, sophisticated lady, and he was acting like an idiot. He was a man who prided himself on his control and anger bubbled beneath the surface of his smooth smile as he gestured with one hand to the adjoining sofa.
‘Take a softer seat. You’ll be more comfortable,’ he offered, and watched as she rose from the aircraft seat, her hands nervously sweeping the smooth fabric of her dress over her hips, and he almost groaned out loud.
She looked so shy, almost innocent, and that was part of her charm, or her act, he reminded himself cynically, and, unfolding his long length from the sofa, he stepped towards her. ‘But perhaps a guided tour first,’ he suggested, curving his hand over her shoulder. ‘The plane is divided into three compartments—this seating area, a bedroom and restroom.’
Liza
