'You take care of our Addy.' Rusty walked over and draped one arm around Addy's shoulder, then reached out and placed his other arm around Nick. 'If you hear the least little peep out of her during the night, you rush right on in. You—' he turned to Addy '—behave yourself and cooperate.'
Rusty walked them to the double doors leading out into the foyer. Stepping away from them, he laid Addy's hand on Nick's arm.
'Why don't you just play along with your father?' Nick whispered. 'It'll make it easier for both of us.'
'It's obvious that you don't know Rusty McConnell, Mr. Romero. He doesn't respect easy compliance, especially not in his daughter. He expects me to fight back.'
'Have you always?'
'No, I haven't.' Addy allowed Nick to lead her up the winding staircase. 'Daddy has always loved me. Adored me, really. But when I divorced Gerald and moved out of this house, Daddy learned to respect me and accept what I wanted.'
'And you're afraid this kidnap scare will somehow turn back the clock to the way things used to be?'
'I won't let that happen.'
Nick didn't doubt her. There was more to Addy McConnell than met the eye. Was that why he felt so attracted to her? He couldn't figure it out. She was far from his type. Hell, she wasn't much to look at. Too flat- chested, too plain, too tall and too hostile toward men. He liked women who liked men. Soft, fluttery females. Sultry, sexy ladies who enjoyed flirtation and seduction. Experienced women who knew the rules and played the game to perfection.
Addy McConnell didn't fit the description. But there was something about her, something lonely and vulnerable, and something filled with raging hunger. She hid it well, but Addy was a woman in need. And Nick wanted to be the man to fill that need.
Addy opened her eyes. Dawn light filtered through the sheer panels that covered her bedroom windows. She'd forgotten to draw the yellow drapes last night. An early morning hush enveloped the room. Stillness. Quiet. Then she heard the woman's voice coming from the room next to hers, the room her father had assigned to Nick Romero.
Addy scooted to the edge of the bed, slipping into her blue house slippers. Feeling around at the foot of her rumpled bed, she found the blue robe that matched the lace-trimmed cotton gown she wore. When she'd moved out of her father's mansion nearly seven years ago, she'd left everything behind. She wanted nothing that reminded her of the three years she'd spent with Gerald or the two heartbreaking miscarriages she'd suffered. But her father had kept not only her room unchanged, he'd kept every one of her possessions, including her clothes.
Walking softly, Addy made her way to the door, cracking it slightly open. When she heard Nick's door opening, she closed her own, leaving just enough space so she could peep into the hallway. Dina slipped out of Nick's room. He stopped in the open doorway. She stood close, her body grazing his. Dina wore a sheer black silk negligee. Addy gasped at the sight of Dina's near nakedness. My God, had the woman no shame?
Dina ran her long nails down Nick's cheek, then across his lips. Addy sucked in her breath.
'We're in agreement, then,' Dina said, breathlessly. 'You won't say a word to Rusty about—about what happened, will you? He might not understand.'
'It's none of my business.' Nick looked down at the small blond woman who had once tempted him beyond reason. Strange how age and experience change a man. 'But Rusty McConnell is nobody's fool. My guess is that he already knows exactly what you're all about and he wants you anyway. Why not be totally honest with him and see what happens?'
'Silly boy. You know better than that. You men are all such fools when it comes to women. You get so possessive and can't bear to think that we might be as experienced as you are. We're supposed to be thankful to all the women who taught you how to be studs in bed, but you're jealous of the men who taught us how to be pleasing.'
'Hell, Dina. Rusty knows you've been married five times, doesn't he?'
'Yes, but—'
'Go back to bed before Rusty wakes up and finds you gone. It would be easier to explain everything about your past to him than it would to explain what you've been doing in my bedroom at five-thirty in the morning.'
She ran her fingers down his throat, across his bare chest to the undone snap of his tuxedo trousers. 'All we've done is talk.'
Nick grabbed her hand, shoving it away. 'And that's all we're going to do, now or ever. I'm not a sex-hungry seventeen-year-old.'
Addy didn't want to listen. She wanted to close the door and forget what she'd seen and heard. But she couldn't. She owed it to her father to find out what was going on between Dina and Nick, didn't she? Of course she did.
It was because he'd rescued her that she'd started thinking of him as a knight in shining armor. During the few hours of restless sleep she'd had, she'd dreamed of Nick. Black eyes. Bronze skin. Big and broad and strong. She didn't want to think of him as her champion, as her own personal paladin, but she did. He had defended her from her ex-husband's insults and then saved her from an attacker. Nick Romero, no matter what else he was, was quite a man.
Dina reached out, allowing her hand to hover over Nick's bare chest. 'If you're entertaining any fanciful notions about Addy, I'd advise you to forget them. Rusty keeps a close watch on his little girl's love life and he wouldn't approve of you.'
'Now that's where you're wrong,' Nick said. 'Rusty McConnell wholeheartedly approves of me. Just earlier this morning, after you and Brett went upstairs, he told Addy that he wouldn't mind having me for a son-in-law.'
'What?' Dina's voice screeched loudly.
'Quieten down before you wake Addy.' Nick glanced at Addy's partially open door and smiled.
'You're leaving in a few days. Going—going to El Paso to visit your grandmother.'
'I might stay around a while longer.'
'Are you doing this to make me jealous?' Dina asked.
'Go back to Rusty's bed, Dina, and leave me alone.'
'You can't ever forgive me, can you?'
'Leave, Dina. Now.'
Swirling the floor-length robe as she turned, Dina marched down the hall, her chin tilted high. Addy watched until her father's fiancee turned the corner leading to the west wing of the house. She started to close the door. Nick Romero stuck his foot inside the narrow crack. Addy tried to shove the door closed. Ramming his shoulder into the door, he pushed it open.
'Up awfully early aren't you, Addy?'
'Something woke me.'
'Something or someone?'
She glared at him, the corners of his mouth curving upward in a self-satisfied smile. He knew she'd seen Dina leaving his room in her see-through nightie and he didn't know whether or not she'd tell her father.
'I think we should have a little talk,' Nick said, his body pressing against hers. 'In private.'
He was warm, his thickly muscled bronze chest like a hot pad where it touched her. Even through her gown she could feel his heat. The tremors began in her stomach, radiating upward and outward until every nerve in her body tingled. The reaction was totally unexpected. Being near a man had never shaken her so badly.
When he grasped her elbow, maneuvering her backward into her room, she made no protest. But when he shut the door, she stepped away from him, wary of his intentions. She didn't know this man, this brother-in-law of Dina's, this former DEA agent. How did she know he was trustworthy, despite her father's approval? Rusty had liked Gerald in the beginning, had been impressed with his knowledge of aeronautics and the day-to-day running of a company like M.A.C.
'Stop looking at me as if you're afraid.' Nick took a tentative step toward her, then stopped suddenly when he realized she was genuinely scared. 'I don't ravish unwilling women if that's what's worrying you.'
