NINA DIDN’T KNOW where she expected Rick to take her, but it wasn’t the luxurious hotel they pulled up to.
“What?” he asked, reading her surprised expression. “You’d rather a motel?”
Motels were an institution in Rio, never to be confused with hotels. Rented by the hour, for short stays only, a motel was a solution to the lack of privacy caused by overcrowded living conditions. Their clientele included adults who still lived with their parents, kids who wanted to get away from their parents, parents who wanted to get away from their kids, or couples who needed to be alone to have wild, hot sex.
When Rick just continued to look at her, she blushed. “This is good.”
The room had two beds, which was a good thing, Nina told herself. She was lost in grief and fear, and she desperately needed her rest before tomorrow’s trip.
But as she crawled into the cold, stiff sheets a short while later and closed her eyes, she realized rest was as far away and as out of touch as her sister was.
Flipping over, she smashed her face into the pillow, but the images that had been loitering in the corner of her mind for hours now came flying back.
Blood and gore and death.
With a small cry, she squeezed her eyes tighter and tossed onto her back. Opening her eyes, she expected to stare at the ceiling, and instead looked into Rick’s green, green eyes. A lock of his dark hair had fallen over his forehead as he leaned over her.
“You okay?”
Unable to speak, she nodded, then changed her mind and shook her head.
“Is that yes or no?”
No, she indicated with another shake of her head.
A sound escaped him as he sank to the bed at her hip. “Go to sleep.”
Another shake of her head, and yet another sound of frustration came from deep in his throat. His jaw was tight and chiseled, his body tense. He was at least 180 pounds of pure hunger and muscle, and she knew with his dark and dangerous good looks he could have any woman he wanted.
If only he’d admit he wanted her.
“You’re not even trying,” he said, skimming his fingertip over her eyelids. “Stop looking at me. Close ’em.” He stroked her face in a dreamy gesture until she relaxed, but when he pulled back, she opened her eyes again.
“Nina.”
“My whole world is upside down.”
“I know.”
“Rick...help me.”
“How?”
“Tell me everything will be okay.” She lifted a hand to his cheek. “Make me feel it. You can do that for me.”
“I am not going to have sex with you.”
“Then make love to me.”
“God.” He pushed to his feet, shoved his fingers into his hair and turned a slow circle. “You have no idea how I want to. Or how wrong that would be.”
Hope and joy combined as a heady rush, and tossing back the covers, she came to her feet as well, standing before him in a T-shirt and bare feet. “Show me.”
“No!” He backed away from her, this big, bad, tough guy who could be terrified by the thought of true intimacy. “I will not.”
“Now who is not using contractions?” she teased, taking another step.
“Stop right there,” he said, holding up his hand. “I mean it. You’re hurting and vulnerable and there’s no way in hell I’m going to take advantage of that.”
“I am asking you to.”
“Yes, but you’re an innocent. You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“I am not an innocent.” At his dubious glance she growled, “I am not! I have...done this.”
“Done what exactly?”
“Done...you know.”
“Had sex? How can I believe you when you can’t even say it?”
“I have had sex!”
“Yeah? How many times?”
She sighed and looked away. “Once.”
“Once! That’s an innocent.” He looked at her. “Did you come?”
Her face went hot, and she tripped over the words. “What does that matter?”
He closed his eyes and tipped his head heavenward. “You didn’t.”
“That is not the point!”
She slid her hands over his chest. Beneath his shirt, his muscles leaped and quivered, thrilling her. “It is simple,” she whispered. “Make me forget everything else. That Baba is dead and that my sister...” Her voice quavered. “That my sister could be.”
With a grimace, his hands came up to her waist, squeezing gently. “Nina—”
“I have nothing at the moment but you, Rick.”
“You’re shaken,” he said a bit desperately. “Anyone would be. You want comfort and I’m the closest guy, but I’m not that big an ass to—”
She pressed her body to his, her face to the crook in his neck where she fit as if she belonged there.
She did belong there. “Please,” she whispered, sliding her arms around his neck.
He groaned, then wrapped his arms around her tight. “This isn’t right, you don’t know—”
“I know all I need to about you. You are alone, too, and though you think you are totally unlovable and do not deserve anyone in your life, you are wrong. So wrong.” Gliding her lips along his throat, she thrilled to his shiver and the sound of his low, gruff groan. “You are a good man, Rick. The best. I know you do not want me to care about you, but it is far too late.”
Going with instinct, because it certainly wasn’t experience, she bit his jaw, forcing that sexy sound from him again. “I care,” she whispered. “So much. Please care back, Rick. Please?”
“Nina,” he breathed, burying his face in her hair. “I’m not a good bet. You shouldn’t trust me, I—”
“You can tell me all your bad habits later,” she promised. “Right now I just need this...this connection.” And she did. Having him against her, she could feel his strength, his heat...his erection.
She was a grown-up; she knew this wouldn’t last, but she wanted whatever part of him he could give her. Letting go of him, she reached down, grabbed the hem of her T-shirt and pulled it over her head, leaving her standing there in nothing but a pair of panties.
His gaze devoured her, and he swallowed hard. “You’re not playing fair.”
“I know.” As she watched him watch her, his face twisted with barely managed restraint, and her insides went soft and pliant, melting and aching in ways that went far beyond the physical need. But physical need was what she’d created in him, and for now, it would be enough. “Do not make me beg.”
His eyes were deep, so very deep, and slowly he shook his head, reaching for her hand, pulling her back against him. “I’m the one who should be begging.” One hand cupped the back of her head for his hot, hungry kiss, the other splayed low on her back. His fingers stroked up and down, up and back down again, dipping into her panties to cup and hold her against him.
Still kissing her, he walked her backward to the bed until the mattress bumped the backs of her knees.
For a brief moment, nerves flickered within Nina. Not that she’d changed her mind, but that it was going to happen. Here. Now.
Finally.
“Lie down, Nina.”
She did, arching up beneath his hot, hungry gaze, feeling a heady urgency she couldn’t quite contain. He pulled his shirt over his head, tossed it to the floor. Then came the pop of the button on his jeans, and the metal on metal glide of his zipper as he shoved off the rest of his clothes.
He put a knee on the bed, still staring down at her as he crawled up her body. “Second thoughts?” he murmured, dipping down to glide an openmouthed kiss along her neck.
“No.” She gasped as skin met skin. His thigh brushed against her leg, settled between hers, opening her to him in a way that left her feeling vulnerable. Vulnerable and strong.
So strong.
Her pulse shot up and she sank her hands into his hair. “No second thoughts,” she repeated, dragging his mouth back to hers. She ran her hands down his back, marveling at his smooth, hot skin, at the hard, strong muscles. His body lay heavily over hers and she moved restlessly against him, wanting more, wanting to feel him lose control, wanting to feel his body inside hers, wanting so much she could hardly contain it.
His mouth left hers. She moaned at the loss, then felt the tickle of his hair over her collarbone, the heat of his lips as they closed over her breast.
Sensation after sensation pelted her. His hot tongue rasping her nipple. The thrust of his knee high between her legs. His work-roughened hand dancing over her belly, then lower, slipping into the heat of her. The glide of his fingers as he stroked the tender, swollen flesh between her thighs. The growl in his throat as he found her moist enough to sink into.
She nearly jerked right off the bed.
“You’re going to come this time,” he promised.
She sucked in a breath. “Yes.” Her body arched, her legs opened wider, letting him have his way. She flexed her hands over his back, and he trembled beneath her touch.
With wonder she blinked up at him. “You are shaking.”
“I want you, Nina.”
He wanted her. He had passion and need and hunger for her, and the knowledge lit a fire unbridled until now, a fire that wouldn’t go out. Not this night.
His fingers were working magic on her, something simple really, just a steady, soft stroking, but it made her wild. “Please, please,” she breathed against his neck. “I need—”
He knew what she needed, and gave it to her before she had to put it to words, pressing just a little harder, a little deeper, and within seconds, she was writhing beneath him, crying his name, pulsing around his fingers.
“Another,” he commanded. Lying between her thighs, holding her open to him, he gave her exactly that, made her come again.
And then again with his mouth.
Catching her breath, she stared at him in dazed wonder as he climbed up her body, towering over her.
She was still shaking.
Never in her life had she felt so...so desired, so needed, and she opened her arms, drawing him down to her.
Holding her gaze, he reached down, guiding himself to her opening, easing himself inside her a fraction, just enough to rip a groan from his throat and a welcome cry from hers.
He pushed himself deeper, and then deeper still. The fit was tight, the friction ecstasy as he slowly pulled out, only to thrust in again.
Her mouth opened, she could hardly breathe. “Rick—” She arched her hips up to meet his. “This is good for me.”
He let out a laughing groan. “It’s good for me, too.”
“I mean this is good for me. With you.”
He went still, looked into her face. “I know.”
Their rhythm was as old as time. Perfect. And in an unexpectedly tender gesture, he cupped her face, whispering her name in a voice of hushed awe. She whispered his back, just as awed. Impossibly, he grew even harder, and quickened his thrusts.
Wrapping her arms around him, she held on, meeting him stroke for stroke until it all exploded again, together this time, bigger and brighter, all the more intense with him buried so deep within her, and just as lost in the impossible pleasure.
Eventually she came back to earth and found herself plastered against Rick’s side. Her body still occasionally shuddered from the incredible love-making, her heart soft and melting with so much emotion she could hardly stand it.
She didn’t dare put it into words.
His body was slick and hard and warm. His hand had curled around her almost possessively, making her feel...safe. Closing her eyes, she pretended they could stay this way forever.
Forever.
She liked that, and along with feeling languid and incredibly sated, she realized she was sleepy... so very...sleepy.
“Nina.”
“Hmm.” Maybe he was going to tell her now. Maybe he’d say the three little words she’d never heard from anyone, but would be so welcome from him.
She needed to wake up for this, but she couldn’t, she felt so...relaxed. The events of the past few days had just caught up with her, that’s all. Her eyes wouldn’t stay open, and actually, she wasn’t sure if that was really exhaustion, or from having her first orgasm.
Orgasms.
Either way, she really wanted to hear him. Couldn’t wait to hear him, because with this out of the way, they could do anything.
Together they would face this mess and survive.
Together.
Oh yes, she liked the sound of that, and for the first time in her life, her heart opened up. Her soul stirred.
And she yawned widely, her brain drifting off without permission.
“Nina, it’s about Terry.”
She opened her eyes again, though it was a huge effort. She found his gaze on her, no longer dark with passion, but with an intensity she found unnerving. “Terry?” she asked, her voice thick, her tongue unruly.
“I told you I came here to find her.”
What did this have to do with what they’d just shared? “Yes.” She sighed, smiling, yawning again, her brain fuzzy. “You came to find Terry.”
“For Mitch,” Rick added. “Nina?”
“Yes...because he loves my sister. Very sweet.”
Something flickered in his eyes. Regret? Guilt? Whatever it was, it vanished in a flash, replaced by a disturbing emptiness. “Yes,” he whispered, dragging her close. “I think he loves her.”
Her eyes were heavy, so heavy, and she tried to stay awake, but it was an uphill battle.
“Nina?”
Sleep had claimed her.
* * *
DAWN CHASED the night away, and after having watched Nina sleep for hours, Rick sank his fingers into her thick hair, stroking until she stirred. “I have to tell you the rest,” he whispered.
Eyes still closed, she stretched like a cat and smiled. “There’s more? Why do you not just show me?” Reaching out, she ran her finger down his chest, down, down—
He grabbed them. “Not...that.” His heart was in his throat, but he couldn’t hold the words back any longer. “Wake up, okay? Last night I should have... Aw, hell. I need to tell you everything I didn’t before. Nina, Mitch has Terry’s baby. Their baby.”
Her eyes flew open. “Mitch has...what?”
“Someone left a baby at the apartment building where he’s staying in San Antonio.” He was nervous, he’d never been so nervous. “A paternity test proved it was Mitch’s. Doing the math, he figured the mother had to be Terry. There—there was no one else during that time for him.”
Nina sat up and tugged the sheet over her body. Her hair was wild, her eyes right on his, wide with confusion. “Terry had a...baby?”
“Yes.” He reached for her arm, but she pulled away.
“I do not understand, Rick.”
“From what you’ve told me,” he said more quickly now, realizing he wasn’t going about this right, “your sister’s on the run, possibly from real gem smugglers. Fearing for the baby’s life, she left it with Mitch.”
“She left a baby—her baby—with Mitch?”
“Yes. It—”
“You keep saying it.” She got out of bed, keeping the sheet around her so that Rick could no longer see the body that had taken him to heaven and back during the night. “A baby is not an it.”
“She. Hope. Nina—”
“You knew this, these past few days? That Terry had a baby? You knew this and kept it from me, even after last night?”
“Yes. I...” He frowned when Nina walked into the bathroom, and he leaped up, but not fast enough.
She shut the door in his face.
“Hope,” he heard her whisper softly, sounding devastated. Destroyed.
“That’s the name Mitch gave her.” He stood there with his palms on the door, bare-ass naked. “Nina.” God, how had this happened? “Let me in.”
“You should have told me, Rick.”
Yes, he should have. Playing with the handle that didn’t budge, he said, “Open up.”
“I do not think so. No.” Her voice cracked, killing him.
“Nina—”
“Why did she not bring Hope to me? I would have died to protect that baby!”
Rick’s blood ran cold at the thought. “Which is exactly why she didn’t. She was protecting both of you. Nina, open up.”
“Why? So you can handcuff me again to get your way? Wheedle more information out of me for your case? No, Rick Singleton, you are through using me.”
He’d really done it this time. “I didn’t do this to hurt you—”
“I know.” Her voice was so soft he had to put his ear to the wood. “It is because you did not trust me. Maybe you thought I had my own sister arrested? Framed? Maybe you thought that she was on the run from me?”
“No. No, I never thought that.”
“Then why?”
“Why didn’t I trust you? You didn’t trust me until last night.”
“Because you kidnapped me!”
This was stupid. He wanted to see her face, wanted to haul her close and bury his face in her hair and be forgiven. He wanted to make her understand it wasn’t her, it was him and his own irrational fears that had held him back from her.
God, wasn’t this a joke. Somehow, while busy protecting his life, his emotions and his heart, all three had ganged up to play some sort of cosmic joke on him.
They had turned on him and opened up to Nina.
Whipping around, he shoved all ten fingers through his hair and stared out at the calm ocean. What had happened? When he’d first come to Rio, his life had been as calm and placid as the sea. Yes, there’d been danger and excitement and thrill, but that had been his work, and work no longer touched him.
But now his life was no longer peaceful, not even close. Nina had walked into it and turned it upside down with one shy, beautiful smile.
At a soft gasp, he jerked around and found her standing in the now open doorway, fully dressed.
Her eyes were on his body, wide and dilated, reminding him he was still stark naked.
She turned away. Grabbed her bag. Headed for the door.
“Wait,” he said, leaping after her.
“I do not think they allow naked people to fly.”
At least she was still coming with him. Unless—“You’re going to wait for me.”
She studied the ceiling.
The floor.
Anywhere and everywhere but him.
“Nina.” He grabbed her arms, shook her slightly until she looked at him. “You’re angry. I get that. I deserve all your fury and more, I know, but damn it, wait for me.”
A slight shrug was his only answer, and he had to trust that even as angry as she was, she wasn’t going to be stupid enough to try to go after Terry without him.
With one last look of warning—which she completely ignored—he grabbed his clothes and headed into the bathroom.
“You didn’t trust me until last night,” he called out. “I’m just slower than you, okay? Nina?”
“I did not hold out news about a baby.”
He shoved his clothes on as fast as he could. “No, you only nearly got yourself killed. Twice.”
“At least I trusted you as soon as I knew I could. You only trust me out of guilt.”
He came out of the bathroom to see her standing by the door, smoke still coming out her ears. “Look,” he said. “Before we go, we should finish this—”
She opened the door of the hotel room and walked out.
“Or not,” he muttered into the thin air before following her. But he stopped her outside. “We’re talking on the flight, Nina. Because we both know your pride is what’s hurt here. Terry didn’t come to you. That’s what this is about.”
She yawned, making it clear what she thought of that.
“On the plane,” he repeated firmly. “We talk.”
* * *
THERE WAS A JET waiting for them at the designated airstrip. The pilot, a man in his early forties, took a sip from a can of vanilla cream soda before tipping his hat to nod at Nina.
She nodded curtly back and got onboard without looking at Rick.
Rick followed the stiffest spine and squarest shoulders he’d ever seen.
She was still not speaking to him.
The pilot didn’t speak either as he prepared for takeoff.
Before Nina could sit, Rick took her arm and forced her to face him. The look of utter misery on her face almost did him in. “I don’t know what’s ahead,” he said, and because he couldn’t help himself, he stroked her cheek. “But we’ll get through this.”
Her eyes misted and his gut twisted.
Trust me, he wanted to tell her.
But the words wouldn’t come.