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

Nell glanced into the bathroom, checked the shelves one last time. The rest of her family would worry also. Duncan and Reid were filling them in on the plan right now. At least Aunt Vi wasn’t alone at the castle. Daryl Garnett, her fiancé, who headed up the domestic division of the CIA, was with her. He’d taken some time off when Adair and Cam had left for Scotland to help Vi run the wedding business and make sure she was safe.

Piper stopped her pacing, sat on the foot of the bed and patted the space next to her. When Nell joined her, Piper said, “I just wish I could go with you.”

“Your big trial starts on Monday. You need to be here. You’ll be safer here.”

“So will you. There are so many ways to sneak onto the castle grounds. And there’s a wedding scheduled there on Saturday. A rehearsal tomorrow. Those will provide ample opportunity for someone to get close to you.”

“I’ll have two agents watching over me. And I’ll know that Duncan will keep you safe.”

Piper frowned at her. “Only because you’re drawing this person away. You’re making a target out of yourself.”

“I’m also making a target out of Reid. I can’t believe whoever this is will be happy that I’m taking a Secret Service agent with me. Deanna’s partner will follow me to the castle, and I think he’ll keep a close eye on me.”

“You’re not making me feel better,” Piper said.

“I’m just thinking of their side of the story. Clearly they believe they have a right to those jewels, and if they turn out to be descendants of the Stuarts, they could be right.”

“But we’re Eleanor’s descendants,” Piper said.

“Exactly.” Nell beamed a smile at her. “It will all boil down to a classic case of conflicting narratives. You deal with that in court every day. The thing is, they may have a more powerful claim on the jewels. Yet we’ve always believed that they were Eleanor’s dowry.”

“Well, the jury’s out on that one.”

“Agreed,” Nell said. “But wouldn’t the possibility make you just keep turning the pages to find out?”

Piper stared at her sister. “This isn’t some story you’re writing, Nell.”

“No.” But it was certainly a story she was thinking of writing. The twist would fit well in the book she was working on—an adult thriller with a romantic subplot.

There was a knock on the bedroom door and Duncan said, “You two ready in there?”

“Yes.” Piper rose and took Nell’s suitcase. “The only reason I’m letting you go is because Reid’s going with you. No one could be more devoted to protecting you than he is.”

True, Nell thought. Yet having a guardian angel along was going to make it difficult to find the necklace on her own without being protected by Reid. But that wasn’t her only problem. Difficulty number two was she wasn’t sure she wanted to be protected from Reid.

But that was an entirely different story line, one she wasn’t quite ready to share with her sister. She had to plot it out for herself first.

* * *

AN HOUR LATER, Reid found himself folded up like an accordion in the front seat of Nell’s sporty little Fiat as she shot it up a ramp onto the beltway that would take them out of D.C. Using the side-view mirror, he checked the cars behind them.

“You think he’ll try to follow us?” Nell asked.

“It’s a good possibility,” he said. “He’ll want to make sure you’re headed up to the castle.”

“That’s what your work is like, isn’t it? Coming up with all the possibilities?”

“Yes.”

“Writers have to do that, too. Except that we can choose one of the possibilities, and you have to deal with what you get. Like getting stuck with me and going up to the castle.”

“I wouldn’t call that getting stuck.” But he was definitely stuck big-time in her little car.

The seat was pushed back as far as it would go, but he still felt as if he’d been stuffed into a shoe box. And he was listening to Bach or Beethoven or Brahms on the radio. He’d never been able to keep those classical composers straight.

He had no one to blame but himself for the cramped conditions. Nell had made several arguments while they’d taken the short walk to where he’d illegally parked his sedan. That was something she hadn’t done when she was six. That summer she’d been willing and eager to do everything he told her.

First she’d demanded they take two cars. In separate vehicles, it would be less obvious that she’d acquired a bodyguard. He’d countered by pointing out that, once they got to the castle, his presence would be clear to anyone. Then she’d gone for the emotional appeal—she’d feel more comfortable if she had her own vehicle. After all, it had been the only steady companion she’d had for the past year when she’d toured the country teaching classes and promoting her book.

But if there was one thing he’d picked up on in the past two hours, it was that Nell was most interested in being a key player in recovering Eleanor’s necklace. Bottom line—she wanted her own car, because it would give her a certain amount of independence. It was that desire to operate independently that was going to make his job more challenging. His knees were bumping against the dashboard right now because he intended to indulge her need for independence on the less important issues so that he could successfully block it on the more important ones.

That had always been his strategy with the VP. Nell was going into a dangerous situation at the castle. She’d put on a cheery act for her sister, and she might have an overly optimistic view on how everything was going to work out, but he didn’t doubt for a moment that she had a clear outlook on the situation.

This couldn’t be easy for her. One minute she’d been signing her books and looking forward to spending another few days with her sister. The next, someone had tried to run down Piper, immediately followed by another written threat against her family.

“We’re going to find a way through this, Nell.”

“I know.”

The confidence in her tone had him looking at her. It occurred to him for the first time that her attitude might be fueled by more than her overly optimistic nature. “Do you have some idea about where the necklace is?”

“No.” She shifted to the center lane as traffic began to clog the right lane. “But I’ve been thinking about it ever since Adair found the first earring. There’s got to be a story behind the way Eleanor divided them up and hid them in different places.”

“You think she had a method to her madness?” he asked.

“Exactly. With characters, motivation is always key. One of Eleanor’s reasons for hiding the jewels had to be that she didn’t want to pass them on to members of her own family. That has to be why she didn’t hide them inside the castle. I think that once it was discovered that they were missing, the surviving children must have searched every inch of that place.”

“Yet Cam believes that whoever is behind this believed that either she hid the sapphires or some kind of clue in the library.”

“That’s a very logical theory,” Nell conceded. “If I were Eleanor, I’d want to leave behind something to point the way. Yet my sisters came upon the earrings without any clue at all.”

Reid shifted to study her a moment. “Do you have a theory about that?”

“It’s more of a story idea.”

“Tell me.”

She shot him a quick look. “Promise you won’t laugh.”

Intrigued now, he said, “I won’t. Cross my heart.”

“That’s what you always used to say to me whenever I got scared that summer we played together. All those days when it was your job to get me up to the cave in the cliff face so that I could wait around to be rescued, you’d say, “You’ll be safe, Nell. Cross my heart. Remember?”

Reid could hardly forget. Hands down, his brothers’ favorite game that summer had been pirates hunting for treasure—the treasure being Eleanor’s sapphires. Of course, any pirate had to kidnap and hold a fair damsel captive. After the first game, it had been Reid’s idea that Nell should have the permanent role of kidnapped damsel. It had been the only way to keep her off the cliff face and safe. “I never lied. And you’re stalling. Tell me your story idea.”

She passed a truck, shifted back into the right lane and said, “Okay. First, Eleanor wanted to leave proof behind that the jewels existed and had been in her possession. That’s why she wore them in the portrait. And she wanted the sapphires to eventually be discovered. She didn’t just throw them away. The two earrings were very carefully wrapped in leather pouches and hidden in places built to survive time and weather. So far the jewels have been found in the places we played as children—in the stone arch and the cave.”

“Correct.”

“So—and this is the ‘don’t laugh part.’ She hid each piece separately—so maybe she wanted them to be found now, and by my sisters and me.”

“You’re implying that she had some insight into the future.”

“Something like that.”

For a moment, Reid considered. “That idea might work very well for a children’s story.”

“But it’s not a possibility that a Secret Service agent would entertain.”

“No. We work in much more concrete scenarios.”

“Hypothetical or concrete, we’re both after the same thing,” Nell said, easing the car into the center lane again.

“With one important difference. You want to discover the story about the sapphires, why Eleanor hid them, figure out who they belong to and why someone else believes they have a claim on them. My goal is much simpler. I want to catch a would-be killer and write ‘the end’ on the story.”

She shot him a grin. “Works for me. And thanks for not laughing.” Then she turned her full attention back to negotiating her way through traffic.

By the time they’d cleared the D.C. area and had entered Pennsylvania, Reid became aware that he had a bigger problem than the cramp in his leg. He’d been trained to use all of his senses, and sitting in the tiny space with Nell, he’d found that he was definitely using all of them.

First, there was no escaping her scent. He still hadn’t come up with a description. But he’d smelled it before, perhaps in the gardens at the White House at night. He’d kept his eyes on the road, but he had excellent peripheral vision, and he’d been trained to use it. Therefore, in the space of thirty miles, he’d become very aware of the soft curve of her lips when she smiled, and that the sun lightened the color of her hair. He’d also had time to study her hands. They were small, the fingers slender. She wore her nails short with just a sheen of pink polish. A lady’s hands. And twice so far, he’d caught himself imagining what they might feel like on his skin. He’d found out when they’d both reached to turn the radio station at the same time. Her fingers had just brushed lightly against the back of his hand, but the burning sensation had shot right to his loins.

“Sorry.” They’d both spoken at once.

She’d laughed and held up one hand with her little finger extended. “Pinkie wish.”

“Pinkie what?”

“We both said the same word at the same time. Now we’re supposed to link our little fingers and make a wish. C’mon.”

“Okay.” He linked his pinkie finger with hers and felt the arrow of heat shoot through him again.

It gave him some satisfaction that her hand trembled just a little as she placed it back on the wheel. But he shouldn’t be hoping she might be feeling even some part of the attraction he was feeling. Because he shouldn’t be feeling this way; he shouldn’t be wanting Nell MacPherson.

The problem was, like it or not, he did. And the desire to have her was growing with each passing mile.

“Well, are you going to do something about it or should I?” Nell asked him.

Everything in his body went hard as he turned to stare at her. “Do something about what?”

“The static on the radio. What did you think I was talking about?”

Not going there, Reid thought. “What do you like?” But even that question had his mind wandering beyond her taste in music. How did she like to be touched? Tasted?

“I have pretty eclectic tastes.”

Good to know.

“But Piper’s been listening to that classic station for three days now. I need a change. Do you like the Beatles?”

“Who doesn’t?”

This time he kept his hands to himself as she punched some buttons and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” blasted into the small car. Listening to it didn’t solve his problem. He wanted to do a lot more than hold Nell’s hand.

She lowered the volume. He tried to do the same with the desire that was thrumming through him. He had only briefly touched the woman, not yet kissed her on the lips. His hormones hadn’t run this hot since he was in college.

Not since the last time he’d seen Nell beneath the stone arch.

Grimly, Reid shifted his attention to the side view mirror again and watched that for a while. “Pass a few cars,” he said.

While she did, he kept his gaze fixed. He saw what he was looking for when the highway began to climb.

“There’s been a silvery-gray sedan three cars back for a while now,” she said.

Surprised, he shot her a sideways glance. “You noticed it.”

“You said it was possible he’d follow us, so I thought it might be a good idea to keep a lookout. That car was behind us when we drove onto the beltway. It got ahead of us about twenty miles back, but we passed it when traffic got congested again before the last exit.”

The woman had good eyes. He, too, had noted the cars that had followed them onto the interstate, but he’d lost track of the gray sedan after it had passed them.

Because he’d been thinking of Nell.

A sign for the upcoming exit flashed by. “Cut back into the right-hand lane and take your speed down to just below the limit.”

Nell did exactly as he asked. Within minutes, the car directly behind them cut into the passing lane and drove by. The gray sedan merely slowed and kept its distance. Before long, several more cars passed.

“What now?” Nell asked.

“A break,” he announced. “We’re going to take the next exit ramp and stop for some coffee, stretch our legs and see if the gray car follows us.”

A break sounded like a very good idea. The fast-food chain they stopped at had a drive-through, so Nell was surprised when Reid told her to park. The gray car not only followed them onto the exit ramp, it turned into the restaurant behind them. By the time Nell eased her Fiat into the parking slot and turned off the engine, the gray car was moving past them toward the drive-through lane. Nell caught a glimpse of the driver in her rearview mirror and gasped.

“What?” Reid asked.

“The driver of the car that’s been following us. It’s the woman who came up to me in the café and asked me to autograph that book. I’m sure of it.”

6

REID TURNED TO face Nell and blocked her view of the car. “Don’t look at her again and stay right where you are. I’m going to get out and come around to your door.”

Nell’s mind raced almost as fast as her heart while Reid took his time extricating himself from the front seat and circling the front of the car. She summoned up the image of the woman who’d approached her on the sidewalk and compared it to the quick glimpse she’d gotten of the driver. The same hair, the glint of gold at her ear. It was her all right. Though Nell badly wanted to, she didn’t look at the gray car again. Another vehicle drove past. In the rearview mirror she could see it was a big SUV with at least half a Little League baseball team packed into it. In her peripheral vision, she saw it follow the gray car into the drive-through lane.

Then Reid opened her door and extended his hand to help her out. When it closed over hers, the effect on her system was instantaneous. She stilled in her seat. All thought of the autograph lady faded from her mind as it filled with Reid. Just the sight of her hand lost in his had all of her senses heightening. She noticed the contrasts first. His hand was larger, broader, and his skin made hers look even paler. His palms were hard. She felt the pressure of each one of his fingers as they tensed on hers. There was power there. Danger. It pulled at her in a way nothing else ever had. Her body heated so quickly the hot afternoon sun felt cool on her skin. When she looked up to meet his eyes, she saw the same intensity that she felt in the grip of his hand. The gray of his irises had darkened. His hand tightened on hers and for a moment she thought he would help her up and then right into his arms.

She had to find out. Her mind was already racing forward, anticipating what would happen when her body was pressed fully to his, what she would feel when his mouth closed over hers.

Before she could move, he stepped back and shifted his gaze over the top of the car. Then he dropped her hand and closed the door. She made some kind of sound, but he was already moving around the front of the car. Biting down hard on her lip, Nell desperately tried to gather her wits. The time it took for him to insert himself into the front seat again helped. A little. But her heart pounded so hard and so fast she could hardly hear him when he finally spoke.

“She’s gone around the corner, and she’s trapped by the two cars that pulled in behind her. She’s probably expecting us to go in.”

His words and the brusque tone helped her to focus on reality. And on the woman who’d followed them from D.C. A woman who had played a role in nearly killing her sister.

Gripping the steering wheel, she forced herself to relive that horrifying moment when she was racing toward Piper, hoping and praying that she’d get to her before that car did. That did the trick. What she was feeling about Reid and what she wanted to do about it had to be shoved to the back burner for now. They had bigger and much more dangerous fish to fry.

“She can’t afford to stay too close or to follow us into the restaurant. She has to be careful I don’t recognize her,” she said.

“Good point,” Reid acknowledged.

“Still she’s taking a risk. We could leave right now and be out of sight by the time she gets through the drive-through. But there may be another reason why she can afford to let us out of her sight for a few minutes.”

“What are you thinking?”

Nell turned to face him. “She might not be our only tail. And you’re thinking that, too. Aren’t you? That’s why we’re still sitting here instead of going into the restaurant, isn’t it?”

Surprise flickered in his eyes. “That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”

“I should have thought of it sooner,” she said.

“Why would you?”

“Because one of my guilty pleasures is watching TV shows about crime fighters. I’m addicted to this one about this ex-CIA agent who’s been burned from his job and is working for private clients in Miami. He and his pals use the double-tail strategy all the time. Police use it, too.”

“So does the Secret Service,” Reid said in a dry tone. “Let’s put your theory to the test. If I’d set up the double tail, the second car would have pulled to the shoulder on the interstate and will be waiting to pick us up when we return. Back out and use the entrance to get us out of here.”

Nell started the car, shot it into Reverse, then drove out the same way they’d come in. Turning left, she headed back toward the interstate. Three cars were waiting in a line to make a turn onto the highway. Other than that, there was no traffic, and no one had followed them out of the restaurant. “We’re clear.”

When she put on her signal to turn onto the interstate ramp, Reid said, “Keep going. You have a GPS system in the car, right?”

She glanced at him as she reached for the button to activate it. “What’s the plan?”

“My guess is that the second tail is waiting for us near the entrance ramp, and your autograph hound won’t panic until she picks up her drive-through order and notices that our car is gone. Her first call will be to the second tail. Keep your eye on the restaurant in your rearview mirror, while I find us a back-road route to Albany.”

“Albany?” It was her turn to feel surprised.

Reid’s fingers were busy on the console. “Just as soon as we’re sure no one is following us, we’re going to use an hour of the forty-four or so we have left to pay a visit to Deanna Lewis.”

“She’s still in a coma.”

He pushed a button. “True. But I’d like to see her in person and talk to the staff. If we’d stayed on the interstate, we would have had to drive around Albany. This way our tail or tails won’t know about our visit. Any sign of the gray car yet?”

She checked the rearview mirror. “No. And the three cars exiting from the toll area all headed in the direction of the restaurant. We’re still clear.”

“Turn left at that intersection ahead.”

Once she made the turn, Reid pulled out his cell. “Keep your eye out. I’m going to text gray car’s license plate to Duncan.” After a moment, he continued, “Can you describe the woman who asked you for the autograph?”

“Sure.” After glancing in the rearview mirror again, Nell pictured in her mind the woman who’d come up to her in the café. “Long dark hair pulled back from her face with a gold clip. Not pretty, but very attractive. Early to mid-fifties, but she takes some care to look younger. Makeup, manicure and expensive clothes. She was wearing a silk shirt, gold necklace and earrings. And a ring on her left hand with some kind of insignia. Maybe a coat of arms.”

She felt Reid glance up from his cell phone to look at her for a moment.

“Do you look at everyone you meet that closely?”

“I suppose,” she said. “I never know when I might need those details for a character I’m writing.”

“Did you notice anything else?”

“She spoke with a slight accent. British perhaps.”

For the next fifteen minutes, there was silence in the car except for the low throbbing beat of the Beatles retrospective on the radio. With the road stretching out before her like an endless ribbon, Nell found her mind arrowing back to those few world-stopping moments in the parking lot when Reid had grasped her hand to pull her out of the car.

Earlier, when they’d made that pinkie wish, she’d nearly convinced herself that he hadn’t shared that hot explosion of desire that she’d experienced. But during that space of time when she’d been anticipating the kiss she’d fantasized about for years, she hadn’t been mistaken about his response. His intention. She couldn’t have felt what she had if he had felt nothing. She’d taken enough chemistry in school to know the basics. Two substances had to interact for combustion to take place.

Just thinking about what might have happened if he’d kissed her triggered flames that licked along her nerve endings.

Breathe. She could barely feel her fingers on the steering wheel.

Focus. After checking the mirror again, Nell allowed herself a sideways glance at Reid. He was texting back and forth with Duncan. Doing what needed to be done. And what she needed to do was drive to Albany. But sooner or later, they were going to have to talk about what was going on between them and what they were going to do about it.

Just the thought of “doing something” was enough to release the floodgates again. She felt the torrid liquid heat flowing through her system, enough to make her shiver.

“You okay?” Reid asked.

It’s all good, she told herself. “I’m fine,” she said.

On second thought, perhaps it was best that they didn’t talk about what was happening between them at all and just get to the doing it part. At any rate, now wasn’t the time or the place. There were much better settings.

Once more, she checked the mirror. No sign of a gray car or any other vehicle. A glance at the GPS screen on her console told her that they were still ten miles from the outskirts of Albany. With nothing but a constantly unrolling ribbon of road in front of her, Nell increased the pressure on the gas pedal and thought of where at the castle she and Reid might have their “talk.” Or not.

In the little fantasy she wrote about Reid all those years ago and buried in the metal box, the setting she’d chosen was in the gardens. She had to avoid the stone arch. Because the fantasies she’d spun about him had nothing to do with happy-ever-afters and everything to do with slow, teasing arousal and hot, unbridled chemistry.