Cara opened the back door of her house and stepped outside. Straight into a brick wall masquerading as a man. Or was it a man masquerading as a brick wall? When it came to Adam Kingston, Cara wasn’t sure.
Whichever it was, he was standing in her way. Deliberately so, she realized, when he made no effort to step aside.
“Move!” she instructed forcefully. “Adam, I said move, damn it.” She tilted her head back to glare at him.
“I should put you over my knee and spank your arse for being so fucking reckless!” he muttered as he purposefully moved her back inside the house before closing and locking the door behind him.
Cara stared up at him in the confines of the hallway. “What did you just say?”
“You heard me the first time,” he growled aggressively.
Yes, she had, but she was giving him the chance to retract that incendiary comment. She should have known better. Adam Kingston was a law unto himself.
As always happened, no matter what the circumstances, just looking at Adam was enough to steal Cara’s breath away, even more so when the narrow hallway made it impossible for her to ignore the heat and power coming off his body in waves. In response, her own body had become instantly aroused, her nipples engorging and heat flooding between her thighs.
Because, at the age of thirty-nine, dark-haired Adam was one of the most savagely attractive men she had ever met. With emphasis on the savage.
With his naturally swarthy complexion, dark and piercing eyes, a sharp blade of a nose between high cheekbones, sculpted lips which were invariably unsmiling, and the dark scruff on his square jawline, Adam always gave the impression of being ready to defend whatever needed defending. A fight he had no doubt he would win.
A belief backed up by the fact he was so damned big, he dominated whatever space he was in.
At least a foot taller than Cara’s own two inches over five feet, he had shoulders wide enough to block a doorway—seconds ago, this doorway. His chest was muscular, the ridges of his hard abs clearly visible against the close-fitting black T-shirt he wore beneath a battered black leather jacket.
The tattoos on his body added to those other indications of his being dangerous. An impression Cara had never seen him do a single thing to contradict. Even when he wasn’t moving, Adam gave off a vibe of power and lethal intent.
She also knew that ink decorated the length of his right arm and from just beneath the elbow of his left one, with more of the same on his neck. Cara had a feeling there were more tattoos on his chest, although never having seen him without one of the T-shirts he always wore, she couldn’t be sure. Not that she hadn’t wanted to; the opportunity had just never materialized. Unfortunately.
Her sister, Rosie, was going to marry Adam’s cousin Max next week, and she’d told Cara that Adam had added the tattoos on his body over the years to cover the scars from injuries he’d received when he was part of the military, mostly in the Special Forces team he and Max led as the captain and major.
Cara knew both men had resigned from the army almost ten years ago to open a security firm with Max’s five brothers. Some of Adam’s visible tattoos looked as if they might have been added during that time, leading her to wonder what sort of security the Kingston family provided for their clients.
That aside, her fingers had itched, more than once, to trace the outlines of Adam’s tattoos. All of them.
As well as the T-shirt and leather jacket, Adam wore buttery soft black jeans that rested low down on his hips, the denim material so old, there was a slightly faded patch on his bulge at the front. He was also wearing black biker boots with steel toecaps on what looked to be very large feet.
Now, what was it she’d once heard said about the size of a man’s feet reflecting the size of his—
Oh, for God’s sake!
Cara didn’t have time to speculate on the physical attributes of Mr. Silent-and-Lethal right now. What she needed to do was get away. To go somewhere, anywhere, where she could throw off what felt like a heavy weight resting on her chest and feel as if she could breathe again.
“Unbelievable!” She decided attack was the best form of defense. “Normally you don’t have a word to say to me, and then when you do, you threaten to spank me.” A threat that should incite the anger she’d implied it had, but instead made her ache with arousal.
“I speak to you,” Adam growled.
“When?” she challenged.
He gave a shake of his head. “All the time.”
“I beg to differ,” she derided. “You talk to your two dogs more than you do me.” Again, she knew from Rosie that the guard dogs living on the Kingston family estate, Rottweilers named Loki and Thor, belonged to Adam.
His brown eyes darkened to black. “I don’t speak to them. I give them instructions.”
Cara snorted. “I suppose I should be grateful you don’t attempt to do the same to me.”
His mouth twisted. “Would it have a favorable result if I did?”
“Absolutely not.”
“That’s what I thought.”
Her frown lifted. “I suppose it’s something if you already knew that.”
Adam’s jaw tightened. “And the reason I should spank your arse is because you know Langley is out on bail, pending further police investigation into whether or not he kidnapped you or you attacked him while the two of you were away for a romantic weekend together.”
All humor faded from Cara’s expression. “I already know that, and the reason I do is because I was also in the courtroom when the judge announced that as being his decision.” It was the reason she hadn’t been able to breathe properly in the hour since.
It was also why, during the furor that had broken out in the courtroom immediately after they heard the judge’s decision, Cara had quietly escaped the room without anyone noticing her leaving.
She’d left by the back doors, well away from where the reporters and other media were waiting to pounce on anyone leaving through the front of the building.
The story of how Cara Ferrari-Smythe, the politician Richard Smythe’s daughter, claimed to have been kidnapped for the second time in her life was all over the front page of the newspapers. It was also the reason Cara had been dodging reporters all week.
She was going to need to avoid them even more after the judge’s decision today and the release on bail of the man she insisted had carried out the second kidnapping.
In those circumstances, she’d been grateful to reach home earlier without being stopped by anyone. She’d hurried upstairs once she reached home and changed into less formal clothing than the black business suit she’d worn to court. Her intention had been to leave again before anyone realized she was here.
She desperately needed to disappear somewhere so she could be alone to just think.
She should have known Adam wouldn’t let her do that.
He’s been a thorn in her butt, and never far from sight, ever since he and his cousins had found her a week ago on the island where James Langley had taken her.
“But James—Langley,” she added hastily when the frown on Adan’s brow became even darker at her using the familiarity of the other man’s first name. “I made sure he was still in the courtroom when I left,” she reasoned.
Adam scowled at her. “And he could have had men waiting outside. By leaving in the way you did, without telling anyone where you were going, you left yourself wide open for being kidnapped again.”
She snorted. “It seemed preferable to the alternative of my throwing up in the middle of the courtroom! Besides, I’m not answerable to you for my actions.”
The intense glitter of Adam’s eyes and his large hands clenching into fists at his sides told her that he really wished she was. No doubt because then he would feel justified in carrying out his threat to put her over his knee and spank her.
Cara happened to think her behavior this morning had been completely logical, given the circumstances of James’s unexpected release.
And if this Neanderthal even attempted to put her over his knee, she’d make sure he regretted it.
Adam shook his head. “You can’t just disappear like that when there’s now a fucking psychopath loose on the streets whose soul raison d’etre is to hunt you down and kill you.”
“Thanks for that!” She gave a shudder. “And he wasn’t loose when I left the courtroom,” she reasoned.
“But he is now. The press will have also left the court building by now, and will no doubt be arriving back here again in a few minutes.”
“Which is exactly why I was leaving out the back door. Was, obviously being the operative word,” she snapped.
“Where were you going?” he demanded.
“Initially just for a drive out of the city. But if I’d found somewhere I felt safe I maybe would have stayed there for a few days.”
“Without luggage?”
She shrugged. “As I said, I’m not sure where I’m going or for how long yet.”
“Did you call Rosie and let her know you were leaving London?”
“I would have called her once I’d decided what I was doing,” Cara snapped her irritation. She and Rosie had always been close, more so since the kidnapping ten years ago, and she didn’t welcome Adam’s implied criticism of her not having confided in Rosie on this occasion. Because she would have called her sister once she’d calmed down enough to sound relaxed when she did so.
“Not good enough,” Adam rasped.
“I don’t believe I asked for your opinion.”
“I don’t believe I give a fuck!”
She eyed him frustratedly. “What exactly are you doing here?”
His eyes narrowed. “Making sure you’re safe.”
Cara snorted. “I didn’t ask you to do that.”
Truth was, she never asked this man to do anything where she was concerned, he just did it. Usually without saying a word. In fact, this conversation was the longest they’d had in the week since Adam and his cousins had helped rescue her from where she was being held captive by James Langley.
“I didn’t ask you if I could either,” he came back curtly. “It is what it is.”
Her eyes narrowed. “And if I don’t want you to ensure my safety?”
“That’s just too bad.”
No one could ever accuse Adam of being subtle.
Not that Cara didn’t appreciate him wanting to protect her. She’d just appreciate it more if he would actually talk to her about it first.
“This isn’t your responsibility, Adam,” she reasoned. “I’m not your responsibility.”
His narrowed eyes glittered. “I think I’m the one who gets to decide that.”
“No—”
“Yes.” His tone brooked no further argument on the subject. “At least until the authorities get their heads out of their arses and rearrest the duplicitous bastard,” he added in a hard voice.
Cara shrugged. “From a logical point of view, I can see why the judge made the decision that the situation needs further investigation. James is saying I went away with him willingly to the Lake District and then to his private Scottish island. A wholly believable claim considering we had been dating for several months prior to that. Even more so when the woman who is claiming otherwise—me—had to have psychiatric counseling for a year after she, her sister, and their mother were kidnapped ten years ago. A kidnapping during which my mother was killed,” she added gruffly.
“All of which happened under the direct orders of Langley’s father,” Adam growled.
“That just makes James’s claims against me all the more believable.” She sighed. “Think about it, Adam. By the time Rosie and you and your cousins had followed the two of us, first to the Lake District, then to the Scottish island, you arrived to find I’d already knocked James out with a frying pan. I then tied him up and pushed him down the stairs into the basement.”
“He deserved it. And more,” Adam bit out mercilessly.
She nodded. “I agree. But my actions also meant that by the time we handed James over to the police, he was covered in bruises and had a concussion from being hit on the head with a metal pan. You have to admit his counter accusation, that I’d somehow discovered his father was the man responsible for the kidnapping ten years ago and consequently my mother’s death, and that I then deliberately targeted him because I was the one wanting revenge, sounds completely plausible.”
Adam’s jaw tightened. “It shouldn’t. Not when we all made statements to the contrary to the police when we handed Langley over to them a week ago. Not only did the bastard kidnap you, but he tried to kill your sister and the four people helping to search for you by setting off a bomb.”
“A bomb he claims to know nothing about, and which he was nowhere near when it went off.” Once again, Cara tried to stand back and play devil’s advocate.
Her younger sister was the one who had asked the Kingston men for help in finding Cara. Rosie had told her since that she’d felt as if something was driving her to go to Max Kingston and ask for his help. Help he had immediately given her, as had his brothers and cousin.
Amidst the mayhem of them all trying to find Cara and the chaos of bombs going off, Rosie and Max had somehow managed to fall in love with each other. They were now organizing their wedding for the following week.
A nerve pulsed in Adam’s tightly clenched jaw. “I can’t believe the bastard is accusing the five of us of breaking and entering his house in the Lake District before we blew it up.”
“Technically, you did break in,” Cara reasoned. “As for blowing it up, the five of you were the ones on site and so could more easily have caused the explosion than he could. We’d already flown to James’s private island when the explosion occurred.” She shrugged. “The investigation into the explosion is still ongoing, but so far, they haven’t found the cell phone, mine, as it happens, you all claim was the trigger for the bomb.”
“Because it was blown to pieces and then melted beyond repair in the blast and the ensuing fire.”
Cara nodded. “Exactly.”
If she wasn’t feeling quite so upset by the court’s decision to release James on bail, she might actually be able to appreciate how neatly the bastard had turned the tables on them by claiming he was the victim rather than the instigator.
James had even explained to the police that he’d changed his name to James Langley and moved to England nine years ago in an effort to distance himself from the infamy of his Russian bratva father.
He’d also claimed, because he’d been living in Russia at the time and not involved in his father’s business, to know nothing about the previous kidnapping of Cara and her family or his father’s involvement in it. An involvement which had subsequently led to that man’s death.
James’s story was that Cara had somehow discovered who he really was and deliberately encouraged him into a relationship with her. Her motive being, because his father was already dead, to find a way to make James pay for the death of her mother. He was also claiming, because Cara had needed counseling after the kidnapping and murder of her mother ten years ago, that she was obviously a mentally and emotionally disturbed woman who had deceived and threatened him.
The problem was that on paper, it could appear as if that was exactly what had happened.
She grimaced. “James is also accusing you and Max of being complicit in that retribution, because the two of you and the rest of your Special Forces team were involved in the rescue of Rosie and me ten years ago.”
Which, incredibly, was also true.
With all these counter accusations going on, Cara couldn’t blame the judge in the least for wanting the police to look into the incident further before he would accept any charges being made against any of them.
Or, because of that, the judge could see no reason why he shouldn’t release James Langley on bail, pending the result of those investigations.