Bound By Passion: No Desire Denied / One More Kiss / Second-Chance Seduction

He should have, Reid thought. When his cell rang again, he grabbed it.

“Piper just called me again,” Duncan said. “Nell asked the officer who responded to the attempted hit-and-run complaint to stay until one of us gets there.”

“Smart,” Reid said.

“Yeah, but we should have been smarter. I had Piper put the officer on the line. He filled me in on what the eyewitnesses saw. They say the driver of the car accelerated as soon as Piper stepped into the street—as if he’d been waiting for her. He would have run her down if Nell hadn’t tackled her and gotten her out of the way.”

Reid heard a thread of panic in his brother’s voice he’d never heard before. “The important thing is that Piper’s alive and unharmed.” But he was thinking of Nell, the little fairy-tale princess of a girl he’d done his best to protect that long-ago summer. The image of her tackling her sister didn’t quite gel with that. Nor did it fit with the fragile-looking teenage girl he recalled standing beneath the stone arch as their parents had taken their wedding vows.

“I knew there was another shoe that had to drop,” Duncan said. “I should have known something like this might happen. The facts are all there. It’s just that the attacks on Adair and Piper occurred at the castle, and only after they’d each found one of the earrings.”

Reid had reviewed the same things in his own mind, until it had become a continuous loop. He’d first suggested they come to his office to get them out of the neighborhood. But he should have—

“I knew Deanna Lewis was working with someone,” Duncan continued. “I knew they were obsessed with getting their hands on the Stuart sapphires. I should have—”

Reid cut his brother off by saying, “If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been blaming myself for not going there right after you called about the letters.” Not that he would have gotten there in time. But he’d be there now.

There was a beat of silence on the other end of the line. Then Duncan said, “You’ve been blaming yourself?”

“That’s what I said.” With one hand, Reid eased the car out of the traffic circle.

“Wait. I’m going to punch the record button on my phone. Would you mind repeating that?”

“You can always dream, bro. And if you even breathe a word of that little confession to Cam, I’ll deny it. Then I’ll have to beat you up.”

“You can always dream, bro.”

With the panic in Duncan’s voice replaced by humor, some of Reid’s tension eased. But traffic had slowed to a crawl. Two blocks ahead, he saw the revolving lights of a patrol car. “I’m within sight of the apartment. I’ll update you soon.”

Reid jammed his car into a No Standing zone, jumped out and ran down the sidewalk.

NELL TURNED THE flame on beneath the teakettle on Piper’s stove. She preferred coffee, but the ritual of making tea had always soothed her nerves. It brought back memories of the times she’d talked through her problems while she’d watched her aunt Vi brewing a pot in Castle MacPherson. Nell had spent a lot of time in the sunny kitchen after her sisters had left for college.

Adair had been the first to leave. Nell and Piper had shared one more year before Piper had deserted her, too. Then for her last two years of high school, she’d been alone. Of course, she’d still had her aunt Vi. And her father had been there, tucked away in his rooms painting or teaching some art classes at nearby Huntleigh College. But there’d been no one to sneak out to the stone arch with in the middle of the night, no one to laugh with as they’d written down their hopes and goals and dreams on different-colored papers and buried them.

Spotting the teapot in Piper’s kitchen, Nell lifted it off the shelf, then nearly dropped it because her hands were trembling. So far she’d been able to hide that little fact from her sister. Since Piper’s clothes looked as if they’d wiped the street, she was showering and changing before Duncan arrived.

Thank heavens Nell’s own navy suit was made of some kind of miracle fabric she could roll up into a ball, stuff into a duffel bag and then shake out wrinkle-free. It had been perfect for her lifestyle during the past year. All she’d had to do to repair the damage from their close encounter with that wannabe hit-and-run driver was to sponge off a few spots of dust with cold water.

If only all her problems were that easy to solve. Tea, she reminded herself, as she searched through the cupboards and finally located the box. When it slipped through her fingers and landed on the floor, she retrieved it and set it gingerly on the counter. Pressing her palms flat on the ledge, she took a deep, calming breath.

She had to settle down. Once the nice young officer had taken their statements and escorted them up the alley stairs to her sister’s apartment above a Georgetown boutique, her knees had begun to feel very weak.

A perfectly normal reaction, she’d told herself.

Someone was threatening her family. She hadn’t heeded the warning in that first letter fast enough, and they’d taken action, nearly succeeding in killing Piper. Now that the initial adrenaline rush had worn off, shaking hands and wobbly knees were understandable.

But the butterflies in her stomach weren’t just due to what had nearly happened in the street. They’d started frantically flapping their wings when Piper had told her that Reid Sutherland was on his way over. He would arrive momentarily.

Nell thought she’d have more time to prepare for meeting him again, time to think and to map out possible scenarios. Find the necklace first. Then deal with Reid Sutherland. Closing her eyes, she drew in another breath. The way she saw it, her problem was twofold. If he came to the castle with her, he posed a threat to her plan to prove to her family that she could take care of herself. The other problem was more personal. She wanted very much to bring to life her fantasies about seducing Reid. They couldn’t be denied. Wouldn’t be denied. But the last thing she needed to deal with right now was her attraction to him. She needed to find that necklace.

On her own.

Reid might present a challenge there, too. The Reid she remembered had made all her decisions for her. And she’d let him.

She couldn’t allow that to happen again. No way was she going to slip into her old habit of letting others involve themselves in her life and control it.

The sudden shriek of the teakettle made her jump. But it also jarred a thought loose. In a well-plotted story, the heroine never has the luxury of time to plan everything out.

She had to face the unexpected—and improvise. That was the key to a good page-turner.

It was also the key to becoming the truly independent woman she wanted to be. A girl would want to separate the two problems and solve them one at a time. A woman would take on the challenge of juggling two or three agendas.

Anyway, why not? A thrill moved through her just thinking about it. There had to be a way to find the necklace and fulfill that fantasy she’d written seven years ago. She’d just have to find it.

Turning off the kettle, she refocused her attention on making tea and noted with some satisfaction that her hands were steadier as she poured water into the china pot. Though the specific details of the sexual narratives she’d buried seven years ago remained a bit fuzzy, her overall goal was still crystal clear. That one searing look Reid had given her ages ago had awakened a desire in her that couldn’t be denied. Wouldn’t be denied.

All she had to do was find a way to convince him. She measured out tea leaves into a tea ball. As she swirled some of the hot water in the teapot to warm it first, then tipped out the water into the sink, she noted that her hands were perfectly steady.

Good. But this was not the time to wonder how it might feel when she ran them over Reid Sutherland’s skin. After carefully adding boiling water to the china pot then adding the tea ball, she turned back to face the table. She had a much more pressing problem.

Someone had tried to run Piper down with a car.

Before her sister had gone into the bedroom to change, Nell had spread out all three letters carefully on the table so that when Duncan and Reid arrived, they could examine the evidence. The third letter frightened her the most.

Losing another member of your family.

The man who’d gunned his car straight at Piper wasn’t fooling around.

Neither was she. Nell welcomed the spurt of anger. She turned back to the counter, opened a drawer, and located a pad of paper and a pen. From the time she’d first learned to write words, she’d made it a habit to capture her ideas on paper. Moving to the table, she read the third letter again.

This time it was something else entirely that jumped out at her.

Forty-eight hours.

That was the important part of the message. Why hadn’t she absorbed it sooner? A ticking clock was a literary device many writers and moviemakers used. She wrote the number on the pad. The writer of this story wanted to put pressure on her to find the necklace fast.

The sudden knock at the door had her nearly dropping her pen.

“Duncan made good time,” Piper called from the bedroom. “I’ll be right out.”

Nell set down her pad and pen on the counter, before she moved to the door and opened it. It wasn’t Duncan standing there. It was Reid. For the first time in her life, she experienced what it was like to be struck dumb. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. Lucky for her, his attention was focused on the young officer who’d agreed to stand guard outside on the landing.

Hers was focused on Reid. She might have been transported back in time. Except he wasn’t the same. On that day, her eyes had been riveted on a twenty-two-year-old boy on the edge of manhood. Right now she was looking at a man. Perhaps the most intimidating man that she’d ever seen. His shoulders were broader, his face leaner, the angles more defined. Even the long rangy body was more muscled.

Harder. That’s what it was, she decided. Reid Sutherland looked bigger and harder than she had remembered him being. He was definitely not storybook prince material anymore. Those characters were never scary. And Reid was—just a little. When he turned, and she met his gaze, she realized that one thing was exactly the same. He could still make her throat go dry, make her bones melt in that strange way, and she had to press a hand to her heart when it gave that little flutter.

“Nell?”

She realized that she wasn’t going to get his name past the dryness in her throat.

“Reid, come in.” Piper joined her at the door. “The letters are on the table. Duncan?”

“On his way.”

As Nell stepped aside and let Piper lead Reid into the kitchen, she felt a rush of relief. Her legs were working. He was standing in the tiny kitchen shrugging out of his suit jacket. Just to make sure she could, she shifted her gaze to Piper. Then she thanked the young officer who’d allowed Reid up the stairs.

No worries. Her body was working again. Any moment now her brain would catch up. It was all going to be good. She turned back to the kitchen. Reid stood in profile, leaning over the table reading the letters. He looked every bit as attractive and dangerous from the side as he had face-to-face. Her gaze went to the gun that he wore in a shoulder holster.

Of course he wore a gun. And of course he looked dangerous and intimidating. That was his job. What surprised her was she found the whole package incredibly arousing. She was just going to have to get used to the dry throat, the heat pooling in her center and the fluttering sensation beneath her heart.

Focus.

Following the direction of Reid’s gaze, she looked at the three threatening notes on the table. They were what she had to concentrate on now.

* * *

HALF AN HOUR later, Reid leaned a hip against the counter in the tiny kitchen. The table offered two seats and as soon as his brother had arrived, Reid had encouraged Piper and Duncan to sit. Both of them were shaken up. Not surprising since two attempts had now been made on Piper’s life in the past ten days.

Duncan was currently on the phone with a friend of his, Detective Mike Nelson, who was officially handling the case. One of his officers had already placed the three letters in evidence bags and taken them away. Reid was sure there wouldn’t be any prints, other than Piper’s and Nell’s. Whoever had orchestrated the one-two-punch attack on the MacPherson sisters today had planned it too carefully to make a careless mistake. According to the young officer on the landing, the second part of the punch had come within a hairbreadth of being successful. The bastard would have run Piper down on the street if not for Nell’s quick thinking and amazing reflexes.

Reid shifted his gaze to where she stood arranging mugs on a tray and once more absorbed the overload to his senses. He was almost getting used to her effect on him.

Almost.

He certainly hadn’t been prepared when she’d opened the door of the apartment. That first sight of her had hit him in the gut with the power a double-barreled shotgun. The sexual pull had been even more potent and primitive than he’d recalled. Seven years ago, he could blame it on hormones, but he found it harder to rationalize it now and impossible to deny.

Thinking back, he recalled that he’d sensed her the instant she’d opened the door—a tingling awareness along all of his nerve endings. And he’d caught her scent—something he couldn’t quite describe. When he had turned away from the young officer and looked into her eyes, his mind had gone clear as glass, and all he’d seen was her.

All of her.

He was trained to take in numerous details in one glance, but they’d never registered so clearly on his senses before that he’d lost track of his surroundings. In that freeze-framed instant in time, he was completely absorbed in taking her in. The golden-blond hair that was clipped back from her face fell below her shoulders. The jacket and pants in some clingy fabric revealed a neat athletic body with more curves and longer legs than he remembered. Even as he registered all of that, his gaze hadn’t wavered from her face. He couldn’t look away from those eyes. They were still that dark, deep blue—the color of Eleanor’s sapphires—and every bit as fascinating. Then there was the pale-as-milk skin, the soft unpainted mouth, the lips that were slightly parted. In surprise? Anticipation?

Nell? There was a question in the word he’d spoken, but he still wasn’t sure what he’d been asking. What he knew was that for an instant he’d been tempted to step forward and take a taste of that mouth. It was fear that had kept him from moving. Fear that he might not be able to stop with a kiss.

No woman had ever made him afraid before.

Then Piper had come to the door, and he’d remembered who he was, where he was, and that this was Nell.

His stepsister.

He wished he could think of her only that way—the tiny and fragile girl who had to be cared for and protected. But the girl he’d carried around in his memory was turning out to be a sharp right turn from the woman who’d rescued her sister with a flying tackle. As a man who had fine-tuned his abilities to anticipate the future, Reid normally didn’t like surprises. But in Nell’s case, there was a part of him that was looking forward to them.

As long as they didn’t distract him from the job he had to do. The MacPherson sisters were currently the priority he had to focus on.

He shifted his gaze back to the table where Piper was frowning down at her cell phone, examining the photos she’d taken of the three letters as if she had missed something. But she hadn’t missed anything. The message was clear. Someone, and he was betting it was Deanna Lewis’s partner, wanted Eleanor’s sapphires badly enough to kill off the remaining members of the MacPherson family to get them. The would-be killer’s focus seemed to be on the sisters for now, but the threats extended to their father, his mother, their aunt Vi. And because of their relationship with Adair and Piper, Cam and Duncan could also be on the list.

“Send me something as soon as you have it,” Duncan said, then ended his call. “Nelson says that the car was just reported stolen from a hotel parking garage. But two of the eyewitnesses have arrived at the precinct. They’re going to work with a sketch artist. If all goes well, they’ll have something to put on the early-evening news.”

“The sketch probably won’t help us much,” Nell said as she served tea to Piper and Duncan. “Both witnesses said the driver was wearing a hat low on his forehead, a beard and sunglasses. Those are pretty standard items for a disguise. In fact, he could even be a she.”

Reid exchanged a glance with his brother. He was impressed with her analysis. And her focus. It was stronger than his was.

Piper frowned at her cell. “You should have told us the second you received the first letter.”

Nell moved forward and rested a hand on Piper’s shoulder. “I should have acted faster after I received the first letter. I won’t make that mistake again. Whoever is behind the notes planned everything very carefully, and I must have been under surveillance. In Louisville, the letter was delivered to my work. To do that here in D.C., the job was trickier. The manager of Pages told me the sign’s been in the window for almost a month, so the author of the letter knew exactly when I’d be there to sign for it. Arranging for the instant delivery was a piece of cake. But he had only a few hours to verify that Piper was with me and that we’d eventually have to cross the street to get to the apartment. It was a good bet that we’d stop for lunch or coffee at the café. We’ve done that every day since I arrived. All he had to do was wait.”

“I agree,” Duncan said. “He planned everything meticulously.”

High praise from a profiler, Reid thought.

“But here’s the thing,” Nell said. “He couldn’t have possibly known that Piper would step into the street alone. We could have been together just as easily.”

As she described what had happened just before the attempted hit-and-run, Reid pictured it in his mind—something he should have been doing much earlier. “Why weren’t you in the street with her?”

“She left fast,” Nell said.

“And Nell always moves slow,” Piper added.

“Wait. I remember now,” Nell said. “There was a woman who came up to me and asked me for an autograph.”

“I didn’t see that,” Piper said.

“You were talking to your boss on your cell. The woman said she’d missed the signing, and she wanted me to sign a copy of my book for her daughter. Then I was distracted by that horn again, and I heard the motor racing. I just pushed past her.”

Reid reached for his jacket. “C’mon. Let’s go down to the street and walk through it.”

5

THE STREET IN front of Piper’s apartment had returned to normal. Tourists and shoppers strolled along the sidewalks, some stopping to peer in windows. Nell noted that both Duncan and Reid were in full bodyguard mode, walking on the outside as they escorted the sisters across the street and along the sidewalk to the café.

They stopped just in front of the table where she and Piper had sat earlier. Reid made sure that she was just a bit behind him and to his left. That way he could shove her out of the way with his left hand and draw his gun with his right. Perfect, Nell thought. She had to stifle the urge to stop and make a note of it on her pad.

“Tell us what happened, Nell,” Reid said, “just as if you were writing it. And we’ll act it out.”

Nell pointed to the street. “Piper, you were right there.”

As Duncan and Piper moved into position between two parked cars, she said, “I heard the horn first and I glanced down the street to see this car holding up traffic. He was double-parked in front of the art store, and the driver behind him was getting impatient. I was about to join Piper when the woman came up to me with the book.”

“And you signed it?” Reid asked.

Nell shook her head. “No. I was reaching for it when the horn distracted me again. Then everything happened at once. I heard the motor, saw the blur of motion, and I just ran toward Piper.”

Reid took her arm and drew her with him toward the art store. When they reached it, he glanced up and back down the street. Then he signaled Piper and Duncan to join them.

“Nell says the car was stopped here blocking other cars when she first spotted it,” he explained. “But he couldn’t have been here long. Too much traffic.”

“I bet he was illegally standing in that loading zone two stores down,” Nell said. He could have idled there until Piper stood up. Then he pulled out into traffic and waited. That’s the way I would have written it.”

Reid glanced at her. “You could be right.”

Nell heard something in his tone that she’d never heard before. Surprise? Admiration? Whatever it was, it sent a little stream of warmth through her.

“I’m sure she’s right,” Duncan said. “The guy’s been watching her every movement since she arrived in town. He was watching her in Louisville, too.”

“I’ll bet the loading zone offers a good view of the café,” Nell said.

When they reached the empty space two stores down and stepped into the street, Nell continued. “From here, he could see Piper drop the money on the table.”

“Then I just walked away,” Piper said. “I was totally focused on calling my boss to tell him I’d be late. Family emergency.”

Reid could picture it very clearly in his mind—the driver pulling out and blocking the traffic. He should have seen it before. The problem was that his brain had been working in slow motion ever since he’d looked into Nell’s eyes again. He had to change that—and fast.

“I’m about to join her when the woman comes up to me with the book,” Nell said. “If it weren’t for a driver who was heavy-handed with his horn, I wouldn’t have turned to look. He would have had a clear shot to hit Piper.”

“Gutsy bastard,” Reid murmured. He pictured the acceleration, the collision. He frowned. “He wouldn’t have been able to build up much speed. He couldn’t have been certain he’d kill her.”

“He didn’t have to. All he had to do was make me think he could kill her.”

They all turned to stare at her.

“He clearly intended to hit her. She could have been killed,” Duncan pointed out.

“But hit-and-run is sloppy,” Nell said. “Especially in Georgetown traffic. I think his real goal is to make me believe he’s ready to pick off my family one member at a time so that I’ll find the sapphire necklace for him and hand it over. Which is what I’m going to do.”

“I don’t think he’s quite as nice a guy as you’re imagining him to be,” Reid said. “My guess is that he had murder on his mind, but he wasn’t a professional.”

“If he’s anything like Deanna Lewis, he’s not nice at all,” Piper said. “Nell, it’s too dangerous for you to go to the castle. You’ll stay here with me, and we’ll get protection. It’s going to be all right.”

Nell took her sister’s hands. “You’ve been telling me that all my life. Now it’s my turn to tell you this. I’m going to fix this. He’s given me forty-eight hours. The clock is ticking. It’s the oldest plot device in the world. But it works. So I’m going to the castle, and I’m going to find Eleanor’s necklace. He’ll follow me up there, because the Stuart sapphires are what he really wants.”

Piper looked from Duncan to Reid and back to Duncan again. “One of you has to talk some sense into her.”

Reid glanced at his brother, then said, “The thing is, she’s making sense. At the very least, she has to go to the castle and go through the motions of looking for the necklace. That will buy us forty-eight hours to put an end to this. I’m going with her.”

“In the meantime, we’ll beef up protection for the whole family,” Duncan added.

* * *

“IT’S GOING TO be all right,” Nell said as she checked her suitcase for the last time. She was beginning to really enjoy saying those words to her sister. What she wasn’t enjoying was the fact that Piper was so worried. Though there wasn’t much space in the small bedroom, Piper was pacing just as she always had when something was really bothering her.