Guardian Angel (11 page)

"No!" She sat up in bed, wildly grabbing the figure seated on the edge of the bed beside her. "Don't let them get me!" she pleaded, a far cry from the cool, self-assured woman she showed to the world.

Jared wrapped his arms around her and spoke quietly into her ear until her sobs gradually subsided to ragged sniffs. He had been sleeping soundly in his room at the end of the hall when Alex's moans and cries had awakened
him
. When he entered her room, he hadn't expected to see her body thrashing wildly in its sleep-filled torment. The sight tore through him.

"It's just a bad dream, Alex," he crooned. "Nothing more."

"No." She shook her head emphatically. "You don't understand."

"Then tell me," Jared suggested, still continuing to speak softly. "What is it?" Leaning back slightly, he was surprised to see tears streaming down her cheeks. He frowned, realizing she was speaking the truth. This was more than just a bad dream for her. "Alex, what is it?"

Although she found a measure of comfort in his arms, she didn't trust him enough to reveal her inner fears.

"As you said, it was just a bad dream," she replied in a distant voice. "I'm sorry I disturbed your sleep."

Jared's jaw turned to granite at her prim "thank you." "It was more than just a nightmare. You're frightened of something," he gauged.

"Doesn't anything ever frighten you?" she challenged.

"Yes, you," he replied without hesitation. "You fright
en me, no, you more than frighten me; you scare the hell out of me. I figure I'll wake up one morning and discover you were nothing more than a figment of my imagina
tion."

Alex was silenced by this intense and all too candid reply. The atmosphere in the room was just a little too intimate with her in her nightgown and Jared wearing only a pair of jeans, his lightly tanned chest bare save for its sprinkling of hair narrowing down to disappear in the waistband of his jeans. She hadn't wanted to think how the musky scent of his skin had filled her nostrils or how the feel of the crisp hairs on his chest tickled her nose when he had held her close to him. The comforting part of his embrace was over as far as she was concerned.

"You're lying," she finally managed to whisper.

His fingers toyed idly with her nightgown strap. "Am I?" he asked lazily. "I figure when morning comes, I'll discover that my bodyguard is really Max."

A reluctant smile tugged at the corners of her lips. How could she laugh when the slightly rough fingertips were caressing her bare skin and finding their way down to the deepest point of her nightgown's neckline. "I'd like to go back to sleep now," she said pointedly.

He flashed her a crooked grin. "Great idea."

Now fully awake and temporarily immune to his touch, she lifted one hand and circled her fingers around his wrist. "Jared, go away," she purred, then adroitly twisted her hand around until she had a bone-breaking grip on his fingers.

He winced even as he replied wryly, "Okay, you've made your point. Though how I'll explain the bruises in the morning, I'll never know."

"Good night, Jared."

He nodded and stood up. "It's a step in the right direc
tion. At least you're using my first name now."

After he left she huddled under the covers, beginning to wonder if she might not have been better off staying in the navy after all.

The
next morning Jared detained Alex just as they left the dining room after breakfast.

"Did you sleep all right after I left?" he asked softly.

"Naturally."

For a moment Jare
d's eyes darkened with some indefinable
emotion. "If you need to talk, I'll be willing to listen, anytime."

This gentle side could soon prove to be her undoing. Where Dennis and anyone else who had tried to banish these dreams had always failed, Jared could succeed. Deep down she believed that, but she didn't want him to have that hold over her. Now there weren't any signs of the fear that had been on her face during the early morning hours.

"There's nothing to talk about. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some of my own work to do before your meet
ings." She walked away, leaving a puzzled Jared behind.

CHAPTER FIVE

By Friday of the third week Alex's carefully controlled patience was beginning to run out. Her daily telephone calls to Dena weren't helping her peace of mind either. Deep down in the very bones of her body she had a feeling something was going to happen.

Two days later a grim-faced Chris walked out to the porch where Alex was seated in the rocking chair.

"Alex, Dena's on the phone. Says it's pretty urgent."

She pushed herself out of her chair and ran into the house. She grabbed the phone just inside the hallway.

"Dena, what's happened?" she demanded.

"You were right." Her quiet voice throbbed. "There was a rape in the parking lot last night. It was the same man you caught before. Luckily one of the security guards happened to come by before it could have gotten much worse." She c
ouldn't go on
.

Alex swore fiercely under her breath. "Who was it?" she asked tightly.

"Caryn Warren."

She closed her eyes and recalled the petite blond wom
an, who, ironically, worked as Walt St. Clair's secretary. "Did St. Clair say anything about security when he heard about this?"

"He mentioned that it was a good thing the guard came along when he did. They did catch the man."

Alex took deep breaths to control her temper, but it wasn't helping much. "See if you can get a copy of the police report for me. That guy isn't getting out this time if I have anything to say about it. I also want you to find me a voodoo doll that looks like St. Clair and a lot of pins. I want enough to make him damn uncomfortable for a long time," she finished on a savage note.

A few moments later she slammed the phone down and reached up to rake her fingers through her hair.

"Did you kill it?"

Alex spun around, ready to fight, and Jared was the perfect victim. "There was another attack in the parking garage last night," she began hotly.

"Who?" he demanded tersely.

"Caryn Warren." She laughed harshly. "Ironic, isn't it? Well, I've had it, really had it this time and now my suggestions are ultimatums. I want those cameras in
stalled today."

"All right," he agreed quietly without hesitation.

By now she was past anger. Her body was shaking with an inner rage. Her eyes burned with tears that refused to fall.

"Damn it, Jared, did it have to be rape to bring you to your senses?" she rasped, uncaring that Rashid stood be
hind him and was listening to every word. "This could have been prevented from the beginning if you hadn't listened to that pompous ass, St. Clair." She spun around and walked to the open front door.

"Where are you going?" Jared's voice lashed out with the strength of a whip snapping overhead.

"You can get along with just Rashid's men today. Right now I don't think I could give you the protection you pay me for." The front door slammed shut after her.

"She's wrong, you know." Rashid's quiet voice broke the charged silence.

"About what?" Jared asked, inwardly wanting nothing more than to strangle her.

"Instinctively, she would protect you. She is someone who would give her life for you, and not because she is well paid for it either." He laid a hand on Jared's shoulder. "We can dispense with our talks today. I'm sure you have other matters to attend to. If I could make use of one of your men to drive me into Santa Barbara?"

"Of course." His mind was clearly somewhere else.

Needing to get away from the house, Alex ran down to the barn and saddled a horse. Despite Tim's warnings when he could see how agitated she was, she rode out.

She lost track of time as she gave the mare her head. She had no particular direction in mind. She just wanted time to herself.

When she found a narrow stream she reined in her horse and dismounted. She settled herself on a bed of dead leaves and stared up at the mountains.

"You're not too bright, are you?"

Alex slowly turned her head and found an angry Jared looking down at her. He dismounted and walked over to her.

"Do you realize how long you've been gone?" he snarled.

She looked around and finally noticed the deepening shadows that heralded dusk. "No, but I'm sure you'll tell me," she replied indifferently. She started when something was tossed into her lap.

"Mavis was afraid you might be hungry," he explained. "Personally . . ."

"As far as you were concerned, I could starve?" she finished on a sardonic note, opening the paper bag to find a thick roast beef sandwich and a small thermos of coffee.

Jared squatted down on his heels and watched her hun
grily demolish the sandwich.

"The cameras will be installed by tomorrow," he said quietly. "I had a long talk with Dena too."

"Oh?"

"She told me about your budget meeting with Walt."

"Really?"

Jared's features hardened at the monosyllables he was receiving. "Why didn't you tell me about the trouble he was giving you?"

Alex finished the last of her sandwich and faced him with cold eyes. "It was my problem and I preferred to handle it my way," she said stubbornly.

"And because you refused to tell me, you lost."

"I wouldn't have if this hadn't come up," she argued.

Jared reached out and gripped her wrist, always marvel
ing how much power was in the delicate bone structure. "You make me so damn mad!" he gritted.

"Welcome to the club!" Alex snatched her hand away as if his touch burned her and scrambled to her feet. A moment later she was on her horse urging her back to the house.

Alex was conscious of Jared following her every step of the way back to the barn. Her imagination even told her that it was his warm breath on her nape instead of the cold wind blowing around her.

When she reached the barn, only her sense of responsi
bility forced her to stay and unsaddle her horse.

A steel viselike hand grabbed her shoulder and wrenched her around. "You sure picked the right way to try to break your neck." Jared's eyes shot sparks. As he stared down at her mutinous features, something else took
over. "Damn you," he groaned before his mouth closed over hers.

Jared's other hand clasped her neck, pulling her head back as far as it would go. His body had pressed her back until they were molded perfectly together against one of the stalls.

Alex's own arms slid around his waist and pressed her palms fiat against the slight curve of his buttocks.

"Jared." Her whisper was lost among the rough posses
sion of his tongue. She could feel his hardening length against her pliant softness.

In reply, he moved his hips suggestively against hers. His hands had unbuttoned her shirt and torn apart the fragile, lacy bra so that his lips could drift down to cover the pulsing coral-tipped nipple. Alex cried out, feeling the pull of his lips all the way down to the center of her body. Her hands were equally busy sliding under the rough denim of his jeans even as her sane half spoke out loud.

"Someone could come in," she gasped as Jared's teeth bit down gently on the nipple, then pulled on the sensi
tized skin.

"Tim drove Rashid into Santa Barbara," he rasped. "I can't wait for you, Alex, not anymore."

Alex was in a daze as Jared took her hand and pulled her down the length of the barn to a ladder then pushed her up it. When she reached the top, she stumbled until his hands steadied her and spun her around to fall against him.

"This is crazy." She took deep breaths but only inhaled the musky scent of his skin mixed with the earthier fra
grance of horseflesh and perspiration.

"No crazier than we'd be if we tried to walk away from each other right now," he informed her in a rough voice.

Jared swiftly unbuttoned his shirt and dropped it on the hay. Alex's shirt soon followed. He pulled back slightly to
feast his eyes on her rapidly heaving breasts. The dark, blazing lights in the green orbs sent a tightening ache throughout her body and tautened the nipples until they stood out, silently begging for his touch.

"I want to see all of you, Alex." Jared's voice was husky with passion.

This was no time to think coherently, only to act. There was no modesty or coyness in her movements as her hands dropped to her belt buckle. A moment later her jeans and boots were discarded. Now wearing only a pair of delicate lace bikini panties, she faced him.

"Your turn," she prompted softly.

Jared's slow smile was seduction in itself. "I've always fantasized about stripping for a woman," he murmured, his hands dropping to the waistband of his jeans. He took his time in unsnapping and unzipping, as if knowing the anticipation was most pleasurable. It took him a moment to pull off his boots and socks, then it was back up to push the denims down his legs and step out of them, sliding them to one side with his foot. He pushed his hands inside the dark blue briefs and just as slowly pushed them down over muscular thighs and strong legs leading to the equal
ly muscular calves. Alex couldn't keep her eyes from the vitally masculine figure before her. If Jared had fantasized about stripping for a woman, then her inner fantasy must have been to watch a man strip just for her. A private showing for one. And what a showing! She knew that his body was in excellent physical shape. The few times she had seen him at the swimming pool told her that. His broad chest was tanned an even bronze with the curling hairs accenting his flat nipples then arrowing down to his potent masculinity. Her body was essentially female, com
plementing his definitely
male contours. Not only comple
menting, but reacting
to
his maleness. She could feel the warmth rush through her body at the arousing thoughts
of his lovemaking. Her nipples peaked, not from the cool air, but from the idea of his caressing them, and she could feel the steady throb in her lower body silently calling out for him to fill her with his strength. This was no fantasy, but a reality worth holding on to for all time.