gate, punched in a code, and waited while the gates opened for him. Of course they’d closed and she wasn’t able to drive up the winding driveway behind him. But that was just as well. She didn’t want to get too close.
Her body reacted strangely when in close proximity to this man. Well, not exactly strangely … Kalina knew sexual attraction when she felt it. She just didn’t want to feel it for Roman Reynolds. Still, as she’d watched him walk to his car, briefcase and suit jacket in one hand while the material of his dress shirt molded his absolutely kick-ass upper body, her mouth had watered. Even now, just sitting in her car thinking about him had her nipples hardening, her center pulsating with need. A need that hadn’t plagued her in years.
She tensed at the thought, heat moving in slow rivulets throughout her veins. Heat she hadn’t felt in … heat she had never felt before in her life. That’s what this attraction to him was, it was new and unwanted and she detested it. He was a criminal and deserved to be treated as such. How dare she want on her body the same hands that exchanged money with the cartels, which in turn shipped drugs to the streets that were killing kids? How could she sit here and wonder how it would feel to walk into that big house with him, to spend the night in his bed, beneath his muscled body, letting him do whatever he wanted to bring her pleasure? It was deplorable and ridiculously inappropriate to think of him that way.
And yet she couldn’t stop.
So tonight she was at Ralph Kensington’s first political banquet to support his run for the Senate. She didn’t support him or the crooked people he had working for him—whom she couldn’t actually connect him to. Kensington was in the drug game up to the crisp white collar of his expensive dress shirt, but he was good at covering up his less savory deals. Tonight, however, she couldn’t afford to worry about all the corruption going on in the government. She was here to watch Rome and there was no turning back. Stepping out of her car, she handed the keys over to the valet, who looked young enough to still be in high school. He smiled at her as she walked by, that I wanna get with you. Give me your number? kind of smile. Kalina was flattered but not at all moved to try her hand as a cougar. Younger men were definitely not her style. As a matter of fact, no man—at least for the last couple of years—was her style. Funny she would think about that now—the fact that she didn’t have and hadn’t had a man in a long time.
Those thoughts cluttered her mind as she walked into the hotel, down the foyer, and right in the line of sight of one very sexy and angry-looking Roman Reynolds.
Thinking fast, she turned on her heels and moved in the opposite direction. Not out of the ballroom completely but toward the other side of the room. She didn’t want Rome to see her, even though he had no idea she was following him. The quick glimpse of him had her heart thumping against her chest and some other vibration moving toward her center. Cursing as she moved through the ballroom, she hated the fact that he could arouse her on sight. Hated that her body felt drawn to him, like he sang a song for only her to dance to. It was crazy, she knew, but that’s how she felt. Even now, as she moved farther away from him, that tug was still there, that urging inside her to go to him, to be with him in any way possible.
She ignored it, snagging a glass of champagne from a tray carried by a woman dressed in slacks, shirt, and jacket that made her look more like a man. She barely sipped, wanting to blend in but not sacrifice her good judgment. Champagne or any alcoholic beverage for that matter put her right over the top, and it didn’t take much. So she’d learned long ago to keep her sips short and shallow.
She couldn’t see Rome but she felt his presence, knew he was there and he was close. And wasn’t it crazy that she was supposed to be here watching him, yet she was running in the opposite direction?
Get a grip, Harper. Her own words echoed in her head and she took another sip of champagne. Clutching her purse, she thought about her job at the MPD and how much she wanted the position with the DEA. She wasn’t going to get it by running from Roman Reynolds. Whatever this physical thing was between them, she could handle it. She’d handled killers and drug-dealing scum for the last six years of her life; surely one sexy-ass man couldn’t be that big a deal.
When her glass was empty she looked at it in surprise, then figured she was ready to face him. She turned and scanned the room but didn’t see Rome.
But someone saw her. A trio of someones she noticed as her head turned in the opposite direction. Three men, all dressed in tuxedos, all looking as if their minds were on something other than this function. Something rolled beneath her skin—a warning, traipsing along the length of her arms.
Her gaze locked with the man in the middle, the biggest, meanest-looking one. He was dark, his skin like polished onyx, his lips thick, nose wide and flat. But it was his eyes that drew her, the eerie slant to them that made him seem more inhuman than he should. The other two beside him shared that different type of look—or she should probably say glare. And each of them was glaring at her.
Not even with all her training was Kalina prepared for the rush of anxiety pouring through her. They began to walk toward her, and everything around her seemed to slow so that only those three men moved. The wild thumping of her heart echoed in her ears, her skin itching with an awareness she’d never experienced before. Who were they and why were they coming for her?
When answers didn’t come soon enough she turned, opting to get the hell out of Dodge, saving the analysis for later. But when she turned it wasn’t toward an easy escape. Instead she rammed into an immovable strength, a force that might prove harder to deal with than the three strangers behind her.
“Don’t move.” His voice was deep and more sinister than any she’d ever heard.
It was also familiar.
Chapter 5
“What—” she started, but the hands that gripped her shoulders slid down her arms to stop at her waist. Heat speared through her body, halting her words.
He turned her so that she was at his side, his arms tightening around her, holding her there.
The party seemed to come back to life. She could hear the voices of those around her, the clinking of heels across the floor, the sound of murmured conversations. Searching the crowd, she quickly spotted the three men, who had stopped their approach but still glared at her menacingly.
“Making friends?” Rome asked from beside her.
“I don’t know them,” she answered trying desperately to hide how nervous she really was. Why three strange men scared her she had no idea. No, that was wrong. She knew exactly why they scared her, and the knowledge pissed her off. No matter how much time had passed or how many visits to the shrink she’d made, the events of that night still haunted her. On the streets she was a tough undercover narcotics detective, with her badge and her gun always nearby. She’d been trained to kill if need be, to bring justice at all costs. But one night none of that could help. She’d been alone, vulnerable, and afraid. And she’d hated it. Hated it even more when those emotions crept up, taking hold of her.
“You can let me go now,” she said, bravado trying to win out.
“What if I said I like holding on to you?”
“I’d say I don’t care. Let me go,” she insisted, pushing against his side. He was a lot stronger than he looked garbed in his perfectly cut tuxedo—a tuxedo that just made him all the more attractive. Just one more reason she needed to get away.
“Not just yet,” he whispered, but he wasn’t looking at her this time. He was looking across the room.
Following his gaze, she wasn’t surprised to see he was staring at the three stooges who had been taunting her with their eerie eyes and fullback builds.
“I don’t know who they are.” Why she admitted that, Kalina had no idea. It could be that she was still trying to figure out why they were watching her. This was so not the way her investigation was supposed to go. But suddenly she wasn’t in the mood to investigate. He wasn’t supposed to know she was here and now he did. Those men creeped her out—that wasn’t supposed to happen, either, but it had. And now she’d rather go home and curse herself for being so stupid and so weak. How did she expect to get into the DEA if she couldn’t handle following this one man and getting the goods on him?
His jaw clenched and she thought she heard a low growling sound. But Kalina was tired, her emotions were all out of whack, and she just wanted to go home. Coming here tonight had obviously been a bad idea. “Look, can I go now?”
