“You stay put.” Cold steel was in the deep timbre of his voice. “Don’t leave that phone booth. You hear me, Saber? I’d better not find you throwing dice with a bunch of deadbeats down there.”
“Very funny, Jesse.”
She laughed, actually laughed, the little brat. Jess slammed down the phone, itching to shake her. The thought of her, so fragile and unprotected, down near the warehouses, one of the worst parts of town, scared him to death.
Saber hung up and leaned weakly against the wall of the phone booth, momentarily closing her eyes. She was trembling so hard she could barely stand. It took an effort to pry her fingers, one by one, from the receiver. She hated the dark, the demons lurking in the shadows, the way the black night could turn people into savage animals. Her job at the radio station, the job she owed to Jess, couldn’t have been better suited to her, because she could stay up all night.
And tonight, her first night off in ages, had to be spent with Larry the Louse. He just had to dump her butt in the worst section of town he could find-not that she couldn’t take care of herself, and that was the problem. It would always be the problem. She wasn’t normal. She should be afraid of what lurked in the night, not afraid of harming someone.
She sighed. She had no idea why she had gone out with Larry at all. She didn’t even like him or his rotten breath. The truth was, she didn’t like any of the men she dated, but she wanted to like them, wanted to be attracted to them.
She sank down in the small booth, drawing her knees up to her chest. Jesse would come for her, she knew it. It was as certain as Jess’s silly story about needing someone to rent the upstairs apartment, or how it was so cheap because he needed someone to do light housekeeping for him.
The place was a palace as far as Saber was concerned. Wide open spaces kept immaculately clean. The upstairs was no apartment, had never been an apartment. The second upstairs bathroom had been added after she had moved in. The huge, well-equipped weight room and full-size swimming pool were an added enticement that he’d said she could use anytime.
For the first time in her life, Saber had swallowed her pride and had taken a handout. The truth was, as much as she hated to admit it, she had never had cause to be sorry, not once since she’d moved in-except that she’d known she couldn’t stay too long. Jess was the real reason she stayed-not his house, the swimming pool, or her job. Just Jesse.
She closed her eyes briefly and rubbed her chin on her knees. She was getting far too attached to the man. Six months ago it wouldn’t have occurred to her to call for help, now it didn’t occur to her not to. The revelation made her uneasy. It was time to leave, past time to leave, she was getting too comfortable. Saber Wynter had to go out in flames and a new identity had to rise from the ashes, because if she stayed any longer, she was in terrible danger, and this time, it wasn’t going to be anyone’s fault but her own.
The van rumbled up to the curb in record time. Jesse thrust his handsome face out the window. His eyes were dark with shadows as he looked her over rather anxiously. The drift of those gorgeous eyes had her stomach flipping when she didn’t want to feel anything but relief.
Saber stood up slowly, a little shakily, and dusted off the seat of her jeans, allowing herself time to recover.
“Saber,” he growled, cold steel very much in evidence.
She hopped in, leaning over to give him a quick kiss on his shadowed jaw. “Thanks, Jesse, what would I do without you?”
The van didn’t move, so she made a slight face at him and, under his watchful gaze, she snapped her safety belt around her.
“Let’s not find out.” Velvet over steel. He said the words in exasperation, his glittering eyes sweeping her small, slender figure possessively, assuring himself she wasn’t hurt. “What happened this time, baby? Someone convince you these little warehouses are death traps and you decided to commit a little arson?”
“Of course not,” she denied, but she studied the buildings with a prejudiced eye as they drove by. “Although now that you mention it, someone should probably look into the problem.”
Jess groaned his annoyance. “So what happened, angel face?”
She shrugged with casual disdain. “My date dumped me off after a little tiff.”
“I can imagine,” Jess said, but something dark and dangerous began to smolder in the depths of his eyes. “What did you do? Suggest stealing someone’s chairs from their porch? A raid on the YMCA? What was it this time?”
“Has it occurred to you that it just might be Larry’s fault?” she demanded indignantly.
“Sure, for all of two seconds, although I intend to find this friend of yours and beat him to a bloody pulp.”
“Can I watch?” Saber grinned at him, inviting him to laugh at the entire incident with her. That was the thing about Jesse she loved so much; he was so protective and dangerous. He gave the illusion of being a teddy bear, but underneath…underneath all that muscle was something deadly that drew her like a magnet.
“It’s not funny, you little brat, you could have been mugged, or worse. Now what happened?”
“I’m quite capable of taking care of myself,” Saber informed him haughtily. “You know I can too.”
“I know you think you can. That isn’t quite the same thing.” He turned probing, hawk-like eyes on her. “Now stop avoiding the question and tell me what happened.”
Saber stared sightlessly out the window. It almost made her resentful that she was going to tell him. She didn’t want to, but for some reason she seemed to tell him anything he asked. Worse, she never felt uncomfortable with him afterward. She was definitely getting too close-and that meant she had to leave him.
Leave
“Stop sticking your obstinate little chin out, Saber; it always means you’re about to become stubborn. I don’t know why you bother, since you always tell me what I want to know in the end.”
“Maybe I don’t think it’s any of your business.” She said it decisively, pretending she felt no guilt.
“It’s my business if you have to call me out at two thirty in the morning when one of your lowlife boyfriends dumps you out on the street.”
Instantly Saber’s temper flared to life. “Hey, I’m sorry I bothered you,” she said belligerently, because the way he made her feel was scaring the hell out of her. “If you want me to, I’ll get out of your precious van right now.”
He sent her a long, mocking, ice-cold stare. “You can try, sweetheart, but I can guarantee you won’t make it.” His voice gentled, became a velvet caress, smoothing over her skin and sending a current of electricity snaking through her bloodstream. “Stop being your usual contrary self and tell me why he dumped you.”
“I wouldn’t sleep with him,” she muttered in a low voice.
“Run it by me again, baby, this time looking at me,” he suggested silkily.
Saber heaved a sigh. “I wouldn’t go to bed with him,” she repeated.
There was a long silence while he opened the security gate by punching a code into the remote control opener and maneuvered the van down the long winding drive and into the large garage.
Jess, using his heavily muscled arms, hoisted himself into his waiting chair. His electric one, Saber noticed. “Come on, honey,” his voice was so unexpectedly gentle she found herself blinking back burning tears. “You can ride on my lap.”
Saber managed a small smile, although her gaze skittered away from his all-seeing eyes as she curled up, snuggling against his chest, drawing comfort from his presence. He was as hard as a rock. Her bottom slid over the large bulge in his lap, sending a thousand wings beating against the walls of her stomach. She sat on him all the time, and he was always hard. Always erect. There were times when she desperately wanted to do something about that-like now-but she didn’t dare change their arrangement. And it wasn’t as if it were all for her. She wished it was, but he never once made a move on her. Not one.
Jess could feel the trembling of her slender body. His hand brushed the pulse beating so frantically at the base of her throat. For a moment his arms closed protectively around her, his chin resting on the top of her silky head. She had to feel the monster of a hard-on, but she never said a word, simply slid her bottom over him and settled down as if she fit there perfectly. If she could ignore the damned thing, so could he.
“Are you sure you’re all right, Saber?” he asked quietly.
She nodded, making a little sound of affirmation, muffled against the broad expanse of his chest.
