was lying and she couldn’t for the life of her understand why. “What’s the matter?” she asked with soft concern, plowing her wet hair back off her face.
“Nothing, kid. Nothing. Who’s the guy?”
Calli glanced back over her shoulder, her eyes narrowing dangerously. Angel was sprawled on her bed, folded arms pillowing his head, ankles crossed. The arrogant creep, she thought. She picked up an ashtray and threw it at him. He batted it away, then resumed his position. She gestured for him to get out.
He simply stared back.
“He’s the waiter.” His gaze went fiat. “A real pest,” she said meaningfully. “And I have to get rid of him.”
“Be careful, Calli.”
Another man playing knight-errant, she thought, and her first impulse was to vent her anger and hurt on Daniel, but he didn’t deserve it. He was the best thing to happen to her career since her graduation from the Culinary Institute and she didn’t want to dump on him.
“I will,” she said finally. “And tell the seven wizards that just because I’m on vacation doesn’t mean they are, too.”
“I will,” Daniel laughed “’Bye, Calli.”
“Later, boss.” She hung up, her fingers flexing on the receiver before she shoved them into her robe pockets. She faced Angel. “Get out.”
He said nothing, his cool gaze assessing her as if he’d palmed every inch of her naked body.
“You have to know you’re the absolute last person I want to see. Or are you just a sadist?” He kept quiet and she wanted to kick him. “Why are you here?”
Leaning up on his elbow, he dangled her keys.
Her forehead wrinkled. She’d had them last night. She was sure of it. “You stole them?”
Angel swung his long legs off the bed and straightened. Calli stepped back, and he arched a brow at the sudden move, studying her.
She was afraid. Good. Lesson achieved.
“You could have left them at the front desk.”
Gabe shrugged. Sure, he could have, but he’d needed to see her, needed to see for himself that he hadn’t smashed that untouchable energy of hers.
Calli held out her hand and he dropped the keys into her palm. They were warm from handling She turned away, staring at the keys, then him. He had to have taken them from her purse. She hated to think he’d taken anything else.
As casually as she could, she poured herself a cup of coffee, realizing he’d gotten inside by way of the waiter. She would have to speak to the hotel management about that.
“So, are you a thief, as well as a...molester?”
He stiffened. “The car’s outside,” he said. The sound of his raspy voice shivered through Calli.
She gulped hot coffee and met his gaze in the mirror. “Leave, Angel.”
He moved up behind her. She clutched the cup defensively. “How’s your head?”
“What do you care?”
“I don’t.” He did. But he didn’t want to. She was a case, an assignment, nothing more; protect her, get the memo back before Daniel’s competitors came after her for it. And if Daniel could find her this easily so could they. Gabe had never guessed the dessert business was so bloodthirsty. “I don’t.” He shrugged big shoulders. “Just making conversation.”
“Should have tried that last night.” Instantly Calli wished the words back and set the cup down with a sharp click.
He moved up behind her and still she wouldn’t face him. “Wouldn’t have been as much fun.” God, he nearly puked on those words.
“Jeez,” she mumbled, eyes downcast. “I hate to see what you think is pain, then.”
Guilt tightened his features and he was glad she wasn’t looking at him. Gabe didn’t know what possessed him then, but he leaned down and scented her, his face close to the bare nape of her neck. She didn’t smell like soap or shampoo, but of Calli, of innocence and energy and life. He wanted some. Just a little to warm his dark dreams. “You liked it.”
“You have no idea what I like, Angel, honey. But it certainly isn’t you!” Her voice fractured, fresh wounds mirrored in her eyes. “Get out,” she sneered.
Angel caught her arms in a gentle hold and pulled her back against him. Calli went still as glass, instantly sensing a difference. His long body was hard against her back, her soft buttocks, and raw desire burst like a newborn star. Calli struggled against it, against the urge to open her robe and let him touch her.
Gabe felt it, too; her quickening breath, the sudden tightness of her small, naked body beneath the thick terry cloth. Blood rushed to his groin. His fingers flexed on her arms. He didn’t want to know what she was feeling that easily, didn’t want to be such an intense part of it. Yet he turned her to face him, tipping her chin till she looked him in the eye
His fingers sank into her hair as he covered her mouth with his. Calli immediately fought. But his kiss was different than the last; gentle, probing. Unhurried and seething with suppressed desire. Her heart thundered against the wall of her chest. Her knees softened Her resistance melted a fraction more, but instinct born in survival, in a little girl left to fend alone years ago, kept her from giving him what he coaxed to the surface.
She tore her mouth away, breathless.
“No. No!” She pushed him back. He went only because he chose to, she knew. Sweet mercy. How could she fall for this again? She leveled a scathing glance at him. “Last night must be fuzzier than I thought, if I keep walking into your traps,” she muttered more to herself as she scooted a safe distance from him.
Calli faced the fact that she was highly attracted to him, that she trusted him no matter how hard she tried not to or how serious he was about wanting her gone. Yet even in her confusion, which was threatening to dissolve any guard on her self-preservation, a familiar awareness drew her back to him, to the darkness and secrets he wanted to shield from her, from the world. She promised herself she would fight it. But then she glanced at him and was swallowed in those hard green eyes devouring her willpower like a panther with a defeated victim. His gaze slipped to the neck of the robe, to her skin, and she was acutely aware of her nakedness thinly shielded, aware of him and how erotic his touch felt on her body. Her breathing increased, a deep, pulsing ache spreading up her thighs as he simply looked at her. She broke her gaze, frantically grasping for some anger, some disgust. But it just wasn’t there.
Frustrated, she threw her hands up. “All right, I give up. I know when I’ve been licked.”
“So,” came the dark rasp. “Last night is coming back to you.”
She sputtered, swinging around to see him pause at the door, his tanned hand on the frame as he looked at her. An odd half-smile tugged at his lips, his gaze caressing her. White-hot heat spiraled through her, making her mad.
“You’re twisted, Angel.”
“Remember
