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Burned Hearts
By Calista Fox St. Martin's Press
Copyright © 2016 Calista Fox
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4668-8421-2
CHAPTER 1
"I'm not staying here a second longer."
I tossed clothes into my suitcases, not caring in the least how haphazardly they were strewn about.
"Ari, just take some deep breaths," said Kyle Jenns, my best friend and up-and-coming Mr. Muscle Bodyguard Extraordinaire. He crossed his bulging biceps over his wide chest and pinned me with a serious look. "You're freaking out prematurely."
"Oh, yeah?" I glared at him, my pulse racing, my heart thundering. "Two diamondbacks on the Kool Deck mere feet from where I turned off the waterfalls in the pool is no cause to freak out? Come on, Kyle. Everywhere I turn, it's snakes, scorpions, and stalkers. And I am always the mark. I've had enough, thank you very much."
"Should have thought of that before you married Dane."
"Leave him out of this."
Kyle heeded the warning, but demanded, "Where will you go?" Concern etched his strong features. "There's nowhere else like this fortress — walls that can't be scaled, topped with high-voltage electrical wiring. We even have a watchtower, for God's sake."
"Fat lot of good that's all done. Vale Hilliard got to me anyway, didn't he?"
The man who'd once kidnapped me and unleashed unspeakable nightmares was supposed to be dead. But he was the only one who knew how to terrify me, and he'd done it again this evening. So chances were very good he had not been in the car struck by a freight train, despite earlier news reports suggesting otherwise.
Kyle gripped my shoulders and looked deep into my eyes, which were a couple of shades darker than his sky-blue ones. "Ari, chill out for a minute." He spoke with a slow, measured tone, meant to reassure me, no doubt. "I know you're scared. But whatever happened tonight, we'll get to the bottom of it. There's no better place for you to be than here."
"Yes, there is. Home."
He released me. "The Oak Creek house?" He hated that I considered it my permanent residence. He'd taken great offense when I'd moved in with Dane last fall, after only a few months of seeing each other — although it hadn't taken even that brief amount of time for us to realize we were fated, couldn't exist without each other.
"I feel safer there, Kyle." I'd never once encountered a problem inside the gated property. Yes, Kyle and I had been set up a while back and we'd nearly fallen into the trap, but the trouble had occurred on the other side of the massive security fences, not within.
He shoved a hand through his crazily mussed sandy-brown hair. Agitation turned his all-American, athletic looks stony. A former college quarterback, Kyle had taken to bodybuilding, martial arts, and target practice with the GLOCK he'd recently purchased. Over the past year, he'd turned into the quick-thinking, determined-to-save-the-day sort of man who made a walking target such as myself thankful for his loyalty. And monumentally guilty that loyalty put him in danger right along with me.
"I know Amano is grilling his security people right this very minute," I said, trying to sound reasonable and stable, though my voice faltered. "And he'll figure out how two rattlesnakes ended up on our back patio. I'm grateful for that. I'm also grateful that you're still here, when you really ought to wash your hands of the whole damn —"
"Not gonna happen, Ari." He gave me that stern yet somewhat cocky expression he'd adopted, which radiated confidence and heroic charm. The two-day stubble currently lining his squared jawline added to his rugged good looks and resolute disposition. "If you're going to the creek house, I'm going with you."
So, too, would Amano. My shadow. Kyle's mentor. A man you wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley if you'd just mugged a little old lady of her collection plate money. You'd pay dearly out of sheer principle.
"Get packing then," I told Kyle. "Because I can't stay here tonight. I can't sleep here. I can't breathe here."
Facing coiled and hissing rattlers was horrific enough — I wouldn't wait around for the second-string army of venomous scorpions on the attack. Tonight I'd lost my steady frame of mind when it came to this precarious situation we'd all inadvertently found ourselves in after several of the original investors in the opulent hotel 10,000 Lux had been cut from the roster for global financial and criminal corruption.
My husband, owner of the now-decimated megaresort, wasn't one to take blows without hitting back. Although he'd frightened me a bit at first with the wrath he'd let loose on Vale Hilliard when he'd found me bound and bleeding, Dane had sworn to work with the FBI to bring down the ousted investors legally — not with his lethal bare hands. And he was so very close to finishing what he'd started.
But while he put the heat on so, too, did the opposition.
With shaky fingers, I zipped my luggage and said, "If it was just Amano and me waiting for this to all come to a conclusion, I could stick with the plan. Sit tight in this fortress. But the circle has expanded, Kyle. To include you — and believe me, I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you. Neither would Dane, despite the fact that he, well ... doesn't like you."
It was a territorial thing. Dane was the determined sort who protected what was his at all costs — so he didn't easily accept that his wife's best friend was male. A macho one at that, who was always by my side.
"I've told you a million times, Ari. I know what I'm involved with. Do I like it? Hell, no. Would I love to punch Dane in the face for all of this? Hell, yes. But I get what it is that he has to do." This came reluctantly. "He's given up everything to crack this syndicate wide open and help the Feds reel in these assholes. I can't imagine the torture of all that — knowing you're here with me, out of his reach, and the fact that your baby is in jeopardy, too."
That was the other contributing factor to my panic attack. I was five months pregnant. I'd kept the news from Dane as long as possible, so that he could concentrate on his work, not worry about me and our child. Amano — devoted to me, but loyal as a Labrador to Dane — had ratted me out. I didn't blame him. Still, it complicated matters, just as Kyle had stated.
"I don't feel safe here," I reiterated. "No offense to you or Amano, but that was a very foreboding sign on the patio tonight and I read Vale's threat loud and clear."
"Fine. If you want to leave Sedona to return to Gotham, I'll go with you. Amano will, too, but you already know that."
I smirked at Kyle's reference to the creek house. Yes, I'd gone a little Mistress of the Dark when I'd thought Dane had been killed in the explosion, but the fact was, his house comforted me.
The Mediterranean-style estate on which we currently resided was beautiful and spacious, with all manner of amenities. But I missed the lovely serenity of our home, nestled in the woods with the water flowing over smooth rocks just beyond our terrace.
"If you're sure you want to go, I admit I could use the company," I told Kyle.
"I'd pretty much follow you anywhere." He shook his head. He knew as well as I did that wasn't a sane conviction, but we were sort of attached to each other. Kyle wanted more between us and, had I never laid eyes on Dane Bax, he just might have gotten his wish. But one look at the tall, gorgeous, green-eyed brooder ... and I'd been hooked.
There would never be anyone else for me. Ever. No matter what.
"You know that I appreciate everything you do for me — for all of us," I said. Then added, "Shit, I should pay you. Why didn't I think of that sooner? You haven't been able to work recently, because you've been dodging danger with me." The attacks had started last fall. It was now May. The trouble had only escalated.
He said, "Dane already offered."
"What?" This shocked me. "He never said anything."
"Probably because it's moot. I turned him down."
"Are you insane?" My husband was worth billions. That meant I was worth billions, too, but that was still a near-impossible reality to grasp, even though we'd been secretly married for six months.
"What's the big deal?" Kyle asked with the shrug of a ridiculously broad shoulder. "I made plenty at the Lux and then the physical rehab retreat when you were there to put into savings. I let go of my apartment when I moved in here. My Rubicon was bought used and is now paid for, and let's face it, I practically eat you out of house and home. Plus, I canceled my gym membership because of the fitness room we have here. I figure we're even."
"You figure way wrong, my friend. You deserve hazard pay. And you know Dane's going to end up compensating you, regardless of your stance on the subject. He's indebted to you. We all are."
"See?" Kyle gave his enthusiastic, engaging grin — the one I'd witnessed turn many feminine cheeks flush since we'd met. "The King of Everything is indebted to me. Really, that just makes my day. And I get to hang out with you."
"I am a lucky girl for that." I gave him a quick hug.
"Feeling any better?" he asked.
"A little calmer, thank you."
"Great. Why don't you take a bath, have some hot tea, and relax? We'll move in the morning."
I didn't love the plan. But the upheaval could wait until tomorrow, I surmised. Amano was doing Amano things, anyway. No need to disrupt his business, especially since he was helping Dane and the rest of us. I didn't want to hinder their progress. The quicker my bodyguard got to the bottom of the snake visit, in addition to the indictments being wrapped up, the sooner Dane could come home. For good.
I took Kyle's advice and felt a little less tense as, later on, I curled on the couch and flipped through magazines. I retired early and crawled under the covers — after I had Kyle double-check all the locks on the windows and patio doors in my room. Take a peek beneath the bed and inside the closet for critters of the reptilian variety.
My nerves were still jangled, but I was exhausted, so it wasn't too difficult to drift off.
I woke some time later, a warm body spooning me from behind, muscles surrounding me. Or maybe I was dreaming of the intimate cocoon, because Dane couldn't possibly have returned so soon. He'd just been here with the FBI when they were in hot pursuit of Vale.
"Am I imagining this hard, hunky body pressed against me?" I whispered.
"Nope." His soft lips grazed my neck. I'd pulled my long, dark-brown hair up in a messy ponytail before falling asleep.
"Who called you?"
"Kyle."
"You're kidding?"
"He was worried about you. Said you had a meltdown earlier." Dane's voice was a low rumble against my skin. Sensuous, though also tinged with concern. "That's not like you, baby. At all. And it's not like Kyle to think he can't handle on his own anything that spins you up."
My eyes squeezed shut for a moment. "I suppose he mentioned the rattlesnakes?"
"That's why I'm here."
"Dane." I sighed. Wiggling in his loose embrace, I rolled onto my other side to face him. A devilishly handsome man with strong, sculpted features and a commanding, reassuring presence.
I whisked my fingertips over his cheek, then tried to smooth away the furrow between his brows. Not much luck there.
I told him, "You can't keep running back every time something happens to me. That's why Kyle and Amano stick around. To talk me off the ledges and protect me."
"That should be my job, right?" I heard the anguish in his voice and it broke my heart.
"You have another job to do. A very important one. And they know it — they understand how risky this is for you, too. How painful, really." I thought of Kyle's words when I'd had my panic attack. He wasn't hip on admitting Dane was living the proverbial rock and a hard place existence for a valiant cause but clearly couldn't dismiss it.
"Nothing's more important than you," Dane said, his emerald eyes glowing with an intense longing that mirrored my own, deep in my soul. The slivers of moonlight filtering in through the shutters made his dark-green irises shimmer, captivating me.
"And our baby," he added as he rubbed my stomach in the slow, circular motion that always made me want to purr. No matter how wound up I was. He had a very soothing effect on me.
"I'm not arguing the fact that you're here, or complaining about it," I told him. His priorities had shifted from 10,000 Lux to me when we married. Now to include our child. Dane wasn't the type to shy away from his responsibilities, but his focus really needed to be on his work with the FBI. "I don't want to distract you."
"Too late," he murmured against my lips, sending a shiver of delight down my spine. "It's impossible to stay away from you. Impossible to get you out of my mind."
His hand slid under the oatmeal-colored Henley I wore — his shirt. Unfortunately, it smelled of fabric softener, not Dane. Though it would after tonight, and tomorrow I'd be thrilled about that when I put it on again.
He palmed my breast and gently massaged.
"You don't have to be so careful with me," I reminded him. Ever since he'd found out I was pregnant, he'd considered me fragile. I wasn't.
He caressed a little rougher and excitement shot through me.
"Better," I said on a heavy sigh.
His thumb swept over the puckered bud. Then he pinched and rolled lightly. I instantly ached for him.
"I love your body," he said as he nibbled the corner of my mouth. "I love you."
"So make me come."
A throaty sound escaped him. "You know I will. Repeatedly."
He shifted away from me just long enough to drag the Henley up and over my head, tossing it aside. My panties followed. Dane was already naked and I feasted on all those chiseled-to-perfection muscles. I traced my nails over the hard ledge of his pecs, tenderly scraping a small nipple. Making him jolt from the wicked touch.
It never ceased to amaze me that I could incite such strong physical reactions from this man. He was powerful and mysterious. A bit intimidating. Incredibly brilliant.
Perhaps what really astonished me was that he was all mine.
My fingers skimmed lower, along the ridges of his abs. Lower still, until they wrapped around his thick shaft. I held him at the root and pumped slowly.
His head dipped and his tongue fluttered over my nipple, teasing it tighter. Then he suckled. A soft cry of pleasure fell from my lips.
He eased my hand away from his cock as he whispered, "You're too good at making me come." His head lifted and he kissed me. Slowly and seductively at first. Then it became a hot, sizzling lip-lock. I gripped his strong biceps with a hand and plowed the other through his lush, onyx hair.
I'd married a man who innately knew how to draw me in, how to mesmerize me so that all I could focus on, all I could think of, all I could feel, was him. His muscles and heat surrounding me, his lips and tongue engaging me further, his hands caressing my body. One of which skated downward, over my slightly rounded stomach, to the apex of my legs. The tips of his fingers glided along my slick folds.
Breaking the kiss, I stared into his eyes and said, "I'm already wet for you."
"And you make me so damn hard. So fast." His erection pressed to my hip. Tempting me once more.
While his fingertip flittered over my clit, his mouth wreaked beautiful havoc on my neck, his teeth nipping in all the sensitive spots that lit me up. Desire rushed through my veins.
"I'm feeling less and less guilty about you returning this evening," I told him.
"Baby, I want to come back to you every night." He slipped two fingers inside me and leisurely stroked. "Mm, this is nice, but I want you wetter."
My inner walls contracted around his fingers as my hips undulated. The slow burn was sinfully delicious. A private decadence I loved sharing with him.
"You taste so fucking good," he said, his teeth tenderly biting just below my ear. "Once you have our baby —"
"I know exactly what you're going to do to me." And that thought hitched my pulse.
"Night after night."
He liked to make me come with his mouth, his lips and tongue teasing my clit, driving me half out of my mind. My OB-GYN didn't currently recommend it, so Dane refrained. But I craved the intimate act as much as he wanted to pleasure me that way.
"I can hardly wait for you to get me off like that again," I told him. "It's always so, so good." As was his current technique. I writhed beneath him, his chest pressed to my breasts. The heel of his hand rubbed the swollen knot of nerves between my legs as his fingers continued to stroke steadily, the tempo gradually increasing.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Burned Hearts by Calista Fox. Copyright © 2016 Calista Fox. Excerpted by permission of St. Martin's Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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