Armed And Dangerous (The McKinnon Legends - The McKinnon American Men Book 2) (10 page)

“Just pretty? You wound me,” he teased, taking the rose out of her mouth and putting it in his.

She wanted to giggle at this playful side of him she had never seen. “Devastatingly pretty then.”

His palm at her back felt heated on her skin.

“Better. But you need to try harder,” he said as he jerked his hips into hers before moving onto the next movement.

All right, she thought, giving him her most smoldering look she could muster. “Mason, I’m so wet for you. Between this dance and the way you look and smell I’m just about as hot as I have ever been.”

He stopped dead on the floor. The final move completed. They had been marvelous. The clapping was thunderous.

“Better?” she asked winded from the intensity of the world’s most sensual dance and with whom she had just completed those suggestive movements.

She had managed to shock him. He helped her off the floor and then he saw the little gleam in her eye, the small sensual laugh in the back of her throat. She had him there for a moment. Again, he let his guard down.

“Touché.” He bowed over her hand.

She had won this round, he admitted as he brought her fingers to his lips.

It was all for show, he kept telling himself.

Nevertheless, he still wondered for a brief moment if she had been honest. Was she hiding in plain sight? Her body language was confirming exactly what her gorgeous lips were saying, come and take me. However, now was not the time to ask as dancers were filing onto the floor for the next set.

“May I cut in?” The voice was thick with a Spanish accent and purred, dripping with sensuality.

“Of course. Just don’t try to steal her away.” Mason bowed out allowing the very handsome gentlemen to dance with Barbara. There was no other way to play it without making a scene. Besides, it might give him the opportunity to survey the room and get any hint of information which might be lingering.

The Waltz. Innocent enough compared to the dance they had just completed. He watched his
wife
dance with this stranger. She smiled and laughed on cue and more than once looked longingly and lovingly in his direction. He never took his eyes off them in spite of the bombshell sitting just within his line of sight. She was desperately trying to gain his attention. He totally understood that was a piece of ass he could have if he wanted it. He didn’t want it, putting it down to the long flight and the mission facing him.

The dance was over, but not soon enough for his liking. He stood back up as they approached the table, taking her hand from the gentleman.

“
Señor
, your wife is a vision and very lovely to behold. You are a lucky man to have such a creature be so totally in love with you.”

“Thank you, she certainly is a lovely woman, but I’m not sure about the totally in love part. I’m certainly still working on it as I’m not an easy man to love at times. However, if she will endure me for a few more days I might be able to turn her around to my way of thinking.” He winked at her in understanding. He watched her reaction to that comment. He fully understood that if they were not in public she would probably draw that tiny gun she had stashed in that tiny little purse and shoot him with the single shot she carried. He smiled. There was nothing cold about this woman. She had fire in all the places that counted. And he was finding he liked her very much.

“How did you meet?” The charming and suave older gentleman asked, his question directed to Mason. Barbara jumped in first. She had told him to make stuff up. The last thing she needed was for him to say she worked at Cougar’s Gentlemen’s Club, and he had tucked a twenty dollar bill and his phone number into her g-String, thus launching a romance for the ages.

“I work for Mason’s brother.” Best stick to the truth as far as the truth would take them.

“Did you date long?” he asked.

Mason looked back over his shoulder for direction from Barbara. The small negative was enough.

“Actually, no. I just opened my eyes one day after several years and there she was standing in the doorway of my brother’s office. It was as if I was seeing her for the first time.” Again, the truth.

Mason had yet to take his eyes off her. “I failed to catch your name,
señor
?” Only then did he direct his attention to the man who seemed overly curious.

“Juan Redondo. Well, love is like that sometimes. I lived right down the road from my Corinne for years before she caught my eye. I was riding my bike down the same road I had for years when one day she stepped out of her father’s house. I ran over a stack of wood tumbling head long over those handle bars. I never have recovered from that fall.” He smiled, then rose from the table and bowed, “
Señor
McKinnon, S
eñora
McKinnon, it has been a pleasure.” Then after kissing Barbara’s hand he left.

“Strange,” Barbara commented. The man made her just a little uncomfortable. “I’m not sure what to think of this encounter. Training tells me there is something to it; gut says he was fishing for information, and to see if we are the real deal.”

Mason could not agree more. What he wasn’t telling her was Juan Redondo was Panamanian Police. They were tagged.

“Dance with me?” he asked, yet the undertones were unmistakable as he held out his hand. Taking it, she rose from her chair gliding to the dance floor where now many couples had joined the party, and many dancers were well on their way to drunk.

It was a slow dance. The Latin music played as they swayed to the rhythm. It was intoxicating as the music blended with the night sounds and rich aromas of the city. She felt his honest reaction to her and the dance, and his body was unmistakably aroused. She placed a little more space between them out of politeness. He gently pulled her back in. He liked the feel of her body as they danced. It was enjoyable. He felt alive for the first time in ages. This woman, he admitted, was as intoxicating as any exotic food or drink.

“Let me judge what is too close, Barbara, unless you find it offensive.” He was still a gentleman even if she felt he was a pig.

She smiled. “No. I’m fine.” She was. He was a wonderful dancer, and the feel of him was natural, arousing, and what woman would not enjoy his undivided attention.

They swayed slowly suspended for a moment, locked in indecision. He leaned in kissing her softly, lingering on her mouth before lightly tugging her bottom lip. It was what she would consider acceptable public display between two people in love.

He released her mouth before he deepened that kiss. He knew they were now being watched. “We have company.”

“Yep, I know we are not alone and haven’t been for some time.” She leaned into his ear nipping it teasingly before resting her cheek against his. “The woman just over my right shoulder and the gentleman just beyond the bar in the red polo both came in together, but have split up. I saw them talking behind the weight room. The gentleman was not happy about something.”

“How did you see that?” he asked reaching around and placing his hand very low on her back his finger brushing her cheeks. He gently caressed before moving it up. There he splayed his hand across the bare skin of her back and trailing his finger tips higher he brought them to rest on the nape of her neck.

“The mirror behind the bar has a reflection of the mirrors inside the weight room.”

“Do you find it repulsive that I kissed you?” he asked as he gently held her neck.

“I’ll take one or two for the team.” She did not find it one bit repulsive, but was not about to give him that advantage.

He kissed her again, fighting the urge to deepen it as she wound her arms around his neck and ran her fingers slightly into his hair. They were in public and this was just for show she kept telling herself.

“Let’s go.” His voice was no longer soft. “I want you alone.”

She nodded as he took her hand and led her back to their room.

Mason closed the door and grabbed her arm turning her around before she could react. He kissed her again, holding her body firmly against the suite door keeping her from moving. There was no tenderness in this kiss. They were both breathing hard by the time that kiss was done, for very different reasons. He was aroused. She was aroused, and it frustrated her to find she was no more immune to his sexuality than any other woman.

“There is no way you do not like men, Doll. I’ve been with too many women to know when one is aroused. And you, my beautiful
Wife
, are aroused.” He kissed her again, not giving her a chance to answer. It was some moments before they came up for air.

“Yep, you are right, Mason. I am deeply aroused.” She was not going to lie to him as she ran her finger nail up his chest. She had all the signs.

“Hah! You were smart enough not to try to deny it,” he said jerking off his tie, never breaking eye contact.

“Of course not, it would be a lie. Did you not see that bombshell sitting at the table just to the left of our seats? The woman with a shape like an hourglass was drop dead gorgeous. You cannot tell me that you did not think 'dessert' when you saw her.” She turned her back to him for him to unzip her dress hiding her look.

The silence coming from him was telling. She had just tossed cold water on him, or at least that was the plan. Yet, she felt hollow in the victory.

“You did see her, right?” she repeated succeeding in deflecting his attention from her state of arousal.

“Yeah, I saw her.” He forced his answer out while trying not to disclose his anger and frustration in being deeply aroused by the one woman who wanted nothing to do with him.

Mason backed off tossing his jacket over the chair. “I’m wondering if that buffet is still open. She was sure offering me a free for all.”

“Then might I suggest you go find her and let me live vicariously through you? You simply must come back and tell me all about it.” She smiled sweetly licking her lips as if in true anticipation. “You seem the type to kiss and tell.”

“Fine, whatever.” Mason slammed the door on his way out of their suite.

Mason slipped back into their room shortly after three. Barbara knew he was there as he sat on the side of the bed.

“I’m sorry I provoked you, Mason. Are you all right?” She mumbled half asleep.

“Yes. I was just paying our friendly dessert bar a visit,” he lied.

“Well, how was it?” She really did not want to know.

“Sometimes cake is just cake.” He felt that was vague enough and truthful. He had in fact found Miss Dessert just after leaving their room. Or more correctly she found him. She was exactly what he usually would have liked in a quick rendezvous. Ironically, he turned her down rationalizing it as a potential threat to the mission by blowing his cover. No man on his honeymoon would cheat on his wife. Even he had that much moral fiber. It was thin, but still there from time to time. He was not about to tell Barbara he was drinking alone in the bar after winning eighty grand at the black jack tables on only four hands. Then he had nursed the same beer until it was too warm to drink. The bar tender asked why he was there on their honeymoon night. He offered some lame excuse of insomnia.

“Go back to sleep, Doll.” He unconsciously stroked her hair.

“Humm,” she mumbled already there.

It was then he noticed she was sleeping on his side of the bed. And he did exactly the thing he said he would never do.

He slept on the couch.

“I had forgotten how miserable Panama is in the summer,” Barbara commented as they stopped to eat and take a short rest break from the heat and dust of the road.

“You should try Iraq,” he offered dryly. This was nothing in his opinion, but still uncomfortable. She was not used to this environment.

“Bad?” She had never asked him about his multiple tours of duty. Maybe she should?

“Bad.” He left it at that to go get them some water from the back of the jeep.

They left the resort just before six that morning on the guise of an eco-excursion and had been out for over six hours. The mid-day heat was stifling with no ocean breezes to move the air. It was the rainy season with humidity well past any comfort for human tolerance. Mason poured some of his cool bottled water onto his face, wiping the sweat and dirt from his forehead and neck with an old bandana. He offered the rest of the bottle to Barbara to do the same.

“No thanks.” She shook her head. “The heat doesn’t get to me so much as the bugs,” she said slapping the side of her face and arm in quick succession. “Freaky little blood sucking vampire bastards. It is a wonder I have anything left for them to take.”

He laughed softly. “Make sure you stay hydrated. Between the blood loss and heat, I really don’t want a fainting woman on my hands.”

She began to tease him. “Hey, hey, hey, I just might have to drag your sorry ass out of here. Ever give that a thought?” She did not take offense to his domineering attitude. She was used to it by now and realized he was oftentimes teasing. She would play along as long as the game was fun.

“Cold day….” He grunted some incomprehensible answer back pushing a fresh bottle into her hands to drink. “Drink it.”

Barbara was teasing and he knew it. Their conversations were becoming more comfortable. He was actually beginning to like her now that she was actually letting him inside her circle of  trust. The temperature around her had risen dramatically, and she was actually good company with a very macabre sense of humor he found to his liking.

“I may look girly, but I’m tough,” she teased back flexing her bicep. “I ate my Wheaties this morning. See?” She poked her slender, but very toned arm.

Mason could not agree more. She was looking quite delectable this morning with the tank top and khaki shorts. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail leaving the column of her slender neck exposed. He had the inexplicable urge to play mosquito and take a little bite himself. He resisted the urge as he flopped her shade hat back on her head. His resistance was far less from the fact he would undoubtedly take away a combination of sunscreen, bug spray, and sweat. It was more the fact that he was not sure if he could stop there. He had a hard night both literally and figuratively after he had kissed her in their room. He was sensing she might not be as tough a nut to crack as he had first thought. His only issue dealt with Robert's nagging advice to keep it professional. Nonetheless, he was having just a little too much fun teasing her.