Heart of Danger (3 page)

He groaned. Why was he thinking about Natalia now? She had worked for them since they started the company eight years ago, now was not the time to start thinking about getting inside of her. If she weren’t in there having an orgasm in her dreams maybe he wouldn’t be thinking about sex. “Yes you would,” he sat down hard on the sofa. “You were thinking about sex with her the moment you saw her on that dance floor.” And to deny that fact would be lying to himself. When he saw that blond leading her onto the dance floor he hadn’t expected the show he received. He expected tame, innocent, barely noticeable in a crowd Natalia to dance like she went through her day to day activities, but that woman—hell, the moves she had could drive a saint to the woman’s bed.

He shoved his hand through his hair again. “Sleep,” he admonished himself. Tomorrow was going to be a long day and if he didn’t get sleep now he would be sorry later. He looked at the Romanesque clock on the wall. “Today,” he mumbled because the time had clearly put them into the next day already. He had five hours before he needed to officially be up. Jocelyn’s father had demanded they all come to a small party he was throwing for them. He wanted the entire team there—except for Natalia. She wasn’t invited and something about that made him angry. It didn’t make him angry at the time, but it made him angry now. She should be there. She might not have the training and skills they had, but just because she wasn’t going in on rescues didn’t mean she wasn’t vital to the agency. She was their compass. She was the only woman he knew who could gather research when the trail was as cold as Arctic ice. And that innocent look of hers got her more assistance with the cops than they could ever get. One smile, one sweet little word and she had them all hooked. Without her their jobs would be twice as difficult. “She’s important,” he laid his head on the back of the snow white couch. “She should be there too.”

There was no point in thinking about it now. There was nothing he could do about the oversight right now. Later in the morning he could ask Jocelyn to clear an additional guest with her father. It would be last minute, but he would ask anyway because Natalia really should be there.

Chapter Two

N
atalia stopped in her tracks the moment she saw Micah putting on his shirt. She had already showered and put on a pair of jeans with a simple pull over shirt of her own, but she hadn’t stepped foot outside her bedroom-bathroom joined area until now.

“How are you feeling?” His sexy alto voice sent vibrations through her body.

“Um…” she tried to sort out the situation. Micah was in her house. He was putting on his shirt, which meant his shirt had been off at some point.

“You don’t remember last night do you?”

“I thought I was dreaming,” her voice was shaky. Had she actually slept with him? How could she forget that?

“You almost let some snake hump you outside of his car.”

The bluntness of his words made her shiver. She remembered the blond guy actually. She vaguely remembered getting in Micah’s truck, but she didn’t remember anything about how she ended up in her bedroom.

“If we weren’t there you could have been hurt,” he scowled at her as if he had any right to be upset.

She knew drinking was dumb. She knew before she took that first drink what it could do to her, but at that moment she just…she wasn’t thinking. She didn’t want to think or feel or have to see Micah’s new perfect girlfriend with her hands all over Micah. Natalia was so in love with him that she felt like she was drowning in that love and watching him with Jocelyn was slowly killing her because she knew if anybody could get Micah to settle down it would be Jocelyn. People like Jocelyn had no trouble getting what they wanted and making it keep for as long as they wanted it. She was much like her father in that regard—ruthless when it came to conquering, and she had her sights set on Micah.

“Don’t ever do anything like that again,” he closed the last button on his shirt. “Understand?”

“You’re not my father,” she snapped because she really didn’t want him trying to protect her. Her words, though warranted, seemed to fall on deaf ears. Or maybe not really deaf ears considering the anger she saw rising in his eyes.

“Do you know what that bastard could have done to you?!”

“Yes!” She matched his tone before remembering just how dumb matching his tone was as much as her head was hurting. “I get it; it won’t happen again.”

“I’m going to ask Jocelyn if she can have her father add you to the guest list for the party. It starts at one o’clock, but from what I hear this is a through dinner event.”

“Don’t bother,” she tried to push past him and he caught hold of her arm, keeping her right there next to him. “I have plans,” she quickly added as she pried his fingers off her arm.

“Where are you going?”

Not that it was any of his business. “Into the office.”

“Work; right, those are plans.”

“I’m off next week. Or did you forget that? Kelly’s moving to Australia and she asked me to go down with her just to help her get settled. I have the week off; you all approved it months ago…no, you weren’t here. We thought you were…” She shook her head trying to wipe the thoughts from her mind. She thought he was dead and they thought he might be too. There was no way he would go MIA and not find a way out. They hadn’t been able to find his location before he went missing. It was a mess; the entire thing was a mess and her heart had been breaking until they got the call that he was returning with the package. The package was code for the person they rescued.

“You’re gone a week?”

“Yes. I leave Monday, so I want to get as much work as I can completed before I go. I’m in the office today and tomorrow part of the day. I’m already packed.”

He growled low in his throat. “You work too much. You should take the day off and come with us.”

“You won’t say that when you’re looking for something that’s sitting on my desk because I didn’t finish it before I left.”

He shrugged. “Do you want to tell me what last night was about? Why did you start drinking when you know you can’t?”

She sighed. No, she didn’t want to tell him. “Rough day I guess.” Actually it had been great until Jocelyn showed up. Natalia never got invited to go out with the guys and their girlfriends, but yesterday they had invited her and she said yes. She was so excited and then Jocelyn showed up at the office, confirming the Saturday party attendance and Micah asked her to come along too. She wasn’t even the bar and grill type of woman, yet she said she would go. Natalia had tried to get out of going, but she had already said yes and they weren’t willing to let her back out now—that is Alex wasn’t willing to let her back out of going.

Jocelyn followed Micah to the bar because she wanted to have her car on hand. She didn’t think it was safe to leave it in the parking lot of their building by itself. The second Jocelyn said, “sure, I’d love to go,” in that society girl tone of hers, was when Natalia’s day started going from great to rough.

“Look,” she paused. The chime of the doorbell was her saving grace this time. She could avoid the conversation. “I wonder who that is,” she started to step past Micah and he stopped her.

“The guys,” he walked over to her front door and opened it. “They told me they were coming by. We need to take you back so you can get your car.”

“Right, my car.” She had been too drunk to drive home. Oh good lord she was never going to do that again. Never again in her life was she going to ever drink again. Her head was still pounding and the aspirin she downed with the water she put in one of those tiny bathroom paper cups this morning didn’t seem to be getting rid of the ache.

“Hey, Natalia. Are you hung-over?” Alex kept his voice low which was far more considerate than Micah had been.

“I think that is what I must feel,” she smiled. “I took a few aspirin. I’ll be fine by tomorrow morning…I hope.”

“A few!” Micah winced at the level of his own voice.

“I’m hung-over,” she pressed her index finger to her temple. “I’m not deaf.” She walked over to the front door and opened it. “You all have to go. You have some place to be and so do I.”

“Kicking us out already?” Jet folded his arms across his chest.

“Yes,” she took a step back because the bright sunlight was making her head hurt worse. “I have to get to work.”

“You have to get your car,” Micah made a measured attempt to keep his voice lower.

“True,” she closed the door. “Just let me grab a bagel before we go. I don’t want to work all day on an empty stomach after taking those pills.”

 
“And a bagel is all you’re planning to eat today?” Preston’s expression was that of a father trying to protect his child. The man wasn’t that much older than her. She wished he would stop treating her like a kid. Maybe if he did then Micah would recognize she was all woman.

“No, it’s just what’s going to hold me over until I can get my car, pick up something from the local grocery store and then get into the office.”

“Are you planning to work all day?” Jet seemed to be having fun tossing his keys up in the air and catching them as they fell.

She shrugged. She didn’t really have too much else to do. The going away party for Kelly wasn’t until Sunday night. “I have some things to take care of,” she decided that was the best way to phrase her words. “And I still want to make sure I have everything packed.”

“Do it tomorrow; come with us today,” Jet tossed out the alternative, but it wasn’t one she was willing to take.

“No. I really want to get all of my work done, and tomorrow I’m only putting in a half day to finish things up because Kelly is having a going away party. We’re going out to Stetson’s Pub downtown for drinks,” she looked at the men in front of her; all seemingly ready to put her on lock down. “They’re drinking; I’m not. But we’ll have some dancing, a little fun and then it’s back home because our flight leaves at five in the morning.” She knew she could handle the early flight, but she wasn’t sure Kelly could. The flight took off at five which meant they should technically be to the airport by two o’clock in order to stick with the three hour prior to flight suggested arrive time for internationals. Since it was so early they would probably cut three hours down to two hours. Or maybe, given the fact that Kelly was involved here, they would probably end up running for the plane and have a near miss as the flight attendants started to close the doors. That had actually happened before and it was all thanks to Kelly’s procrastinating.

Natalia made a mental note to call her friend and check in with her. She probably didn’t even have her luggage packed. Natalia knew the house had been packed completely. Everything she was taking with her instead of selling was definitely done and she was sure of that because she had helped Kelly pack it up for when the movers came. Kelly was putting the last glass vase in a crate when the movers knocked on the front door. So, it was safe to say her clothes were probably still lying on top of the suitcase instead of in it. Not to mention the fact that she had left her parents with a huge stack of items to sell for her. It was just too much against Kelly’s norm to actually be more organized and have a moving sale before she left. Somehow Kelly’s mother had gotten roped into hosting the moving sale and sending the money to Kelly after they were done, which meant that Natalia got roped into organizing it. She didn’t mind helping, even if Kelly could have gotten it together and had it done before moving.