Her Hero And Protector

If that was really his name.

It left her with a very uncomfortable feeling. He had blatantly displayed how physically vulnerable she was when he had thrown her over his shoulder as if she were nothing more than a sack of feathers and then pinned her to the floor when she had tried to run again. With each ensuing question her emotional vulnerability increased.

And she didn’t like the sensation—the same helplessness that had beset her for the past month. An emotional upheaval that she couldn’t control.

Somehow, she had to regain the upper hand over what was happening. She had to once again be in charge of her own life. Whether anyone believed her or not, she knew she was in danger, and it was up to her to protect herself from the unknown person who seemed determined to harm her. She had tried to go to the police and had been dismissed as if she was some delusional nut case—some irrational woman. She didn’t have anyone she could count on other than herself.

His voice interrupted her attempt to make sense of things. “You haven’t answered my question, Brandi. How do you know the man who abducted you was a police officer?”

She steeled her determination, put her hands on his hard, muscled chest and pushed him away. “Stop browbeating me!”

He straightened up as her words sank in. And along with his realization of what she had said was the heated sensation of her hands against his chest. One thing was blatantly clear. He had to avoid any more physical contact with her. Two years in prison followed by three months of self-imposed isolation had left him with a very tenuous hold on his libido. Being around her had ignited a burning need that all the cold showers in the world would not be able to quench.

He took a step backward. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. It’s just that I’m very interested in what you’re saying. I want to know about this man you claim abducted you. I…uh…I know some of the members of the Rocky Shores police force—”

“You’re friends with the police?”

He saw the alarm register on her features and knew he had said the wrong thing. “No, I didn’t say I was friends with any of the members of the Rocky Shores Police Department. I merely said I knew some of them. I came in contact with several of the boys in blue over the years. Sort of an occupational hazard.”

“Occupational hazard?” She furrowed her brow in confusion. “What is it you do?”

“I was a private investigator.” He clenched his jaw in a hard line of determination. “And a damn good one, too. I lived on Mercer Island, but my office was in Rocky Shores.”

“A private investigator?” Her entire demeanor brightened. “I had considered hiring a private investigator when the police wouldn’t help me with my stalker.”

“Why didn’t you?”

A downcast expression crossed her face. “I guess I thought it would all come to a stop by itself, the same way it had started. I kept putting it off—” she emitted a sigh of resignation “—and then it was too late. Maybe if I’d hired a private investigator I wouldn’t be in this mess now.”

“So, let me try this for the third time.” His words and tone of voice were part exasperation and part determination. “How do you know the man who abducted you was a police officer?”

“Well…he was dressed in plainclothes, but when he grabbed me his jacket came open and I saw a badge clipped to his belt.” She saw Reece’s eyes narrow as if he was turning the information over in his mind. A little tremor of anxiety fluttered around inside her. Had she said the wrong thing?

“Describe him for me.”

“I only got a glimpse of him before he blindfolded me.”

“Do the best you can. Let’s start with his size. How tall do you think he was? My size? Shorter? Taller? Heavier? Lighter? What was your impression of his physical presence?”

She looked at him quizzically. “Why do you want to know? Why are you suddenly so interested?” She returned her gaze to the flames crackling in the fireplace. She had to admit that she felt a little more at ease around him. Whatever fears she might have harbored about Reece Covington and her safety while in his cabin had subsided. If he had wanted to harm her there was nothing preventing him from having already done it. He had her in his control and hadn’t taken advantage of the situation.

“No one believed me before I was abducted, including the police. I know no one will believe me now, especially the police, if I say that I think it was one of their own who did it.”

“I’m not everyone else. I’m me and I’m interested—very interested.”

He searched the depth of her eyes and once again felt the emotional tug of her vulnerability, something he didn’t want to experience or even know about. He also felt the physical pull on his desires, something he most assuredly wanted to explore even though he knew he shouldn’t. But a very real sensation all the same.

“Why? Why would you be interested in what happened?” A shortness of breath caught in her lungs. He seemed to be looking into the very depths of her soul. If she thought she had been in trouble while running through the woods to escape her abductor and again when Reece had tackled her, she didn’t know what to call what was happening now. She had run for her life and ended up in a cabin with a man who left her confused, unnerved and uneasy. But she was no longer fearful of his presence.

Quite the contrary. In some strange way she felt a sensual pull toward him, a totally inappropriate attraction. There was something very solid and real about this man, something very reassuring. He exuded a silent strength that said he knew who he was and could handle himself in any type of situation, whether physical or mental.

And he claimed to be a private investigator. Perhaps he was just what she needed. Could it be that fate had delivered her into the hands of someone who would believe her story? Someone who could actually help her find her way out of the nightmare?

Reece shifted his weight from one foot to the other in a moment of discomfort as he turned her words over in his mind. “Let’s just say that I have an old score to settle with someone.”

He allowed his tensed muscles to relax while carefully choosing his words. He didn’t want to do or say anything that would cause her to stop confiding in him. “I want to find out if there’s a possible connection between what’s been happening to you and something from my past.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t think that’s pertinent to our discussion.”

Brandi stood up, dropped the blanket to the floor and took a couple of steps toward the fireplace. She held her hands out toward the warmth. “I see. I’m supposed to bare my soul to you, but whatever is going on in your life is none of my business.” She turned to face him. “That doesn’t seem very fair to me.” She leveled a stern look in his direction. “How about you? Does that seem fair to you?”

There was no doubt in his mind about the message she had just delivered. He was pushing her too much, too hard and too fast. He needed to back off and let things calm down. He had to keep his own issues off the front burner if he was going to get the information out of her that he wanted.

Reece shifted gears in an attempt to gain her confidence. He extended a warm smile. “I’m hungry. I notice you helped yourself to some soup, but that’s not much of a meal. Now that I have food in the refrigerator, could I interest you in some dinner? Maybe a steak and a green salad?”

A tentative smile curled the edges of her lips. “I have to admit that Iam hungry. You’re right, soup isn’tmuch of a meal and that’s the only thing I’ve had to eat all day.”

He went to the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with an opened bottle of wine and two glasses. “My favorite merlot to go with the steak. How do you like yours cooked? Rare, medium…”

“How about a pink center, but not really too red?”

He smiled—a warm, engaging smile. “Consider it done.”

Brandi took a sip of her wine as she watched him return to the kitchen. He had a marvelous smile framed by an incredibly handsome face. His eyes were honest, eyes that didn’t look away as if they were trying to hide something. And a smooth voice that she suspected could lull anyone into believing whatever he wanted them to believe. Or so it seemed.

She was beginning to relax as the stress started to melt away. For the first time since the nightmare began, she felt a flicker of hope try to assert itself. If Reece Covington truly was a private investigator maybe he could help her. She allowed a slight sigh of resignation. It took more than someone with a handsome face, a hard body and enough sexual magnetism to fill the Grand Canyon to be able to help her. She knew the danger surrounding her would not go away on its own. Should she trust him more than she already had? After all, what did she have to lose?

Only her life, that’s all.

She leaned back and closed her eyes. The sound of the rain on the roof mingled with the crackling and popping of the burning wood to form an intimate coziness. With his office in Rocky Shores he certainly would have come into periodic contact with the Rocky Shores police. As a private investigator he surely had occasion to interface with the local police on cases he was working on.

There seemed to be a lot of mystery surrounding him, but she felt somewhat reluctant to question him too much. Her mind drifted to myriad thoughts, some of them about the trouble she was in, some of them about this very disconcerting man and others to what the future held for her. It seemed no time at all before Reece returned with a tray. He set it on the table.

“Dinner is served.”

They ate, sipped their wine and engaged in superficial conversation. She immediately recognized his mastery at controlling the situation, including the direction of the conversation and the topics they discussed. If he was even half as good a private investigator as he was at manipulating what went on around him without giving the impression of seeming to be demanding or intimidating, then perhaps he would be the ideal person to help her.

If he really was a private investigator.

And if he meant what he said about not harming her.

When they finished eating, he indicated the sofa in front of the fireplace. He put another log on the fire, then sat down next to her.

“Now that we’ve had some dinner and you’ve had an opportunity to relax, perhaps we could get back to the main issue at hand.”

She gathered her composure and challenged his take-charge attitude. “Okay, I believe my question was what had happened in your past that you apparently think might be linked to what’s going on in my life right now. What kind of a connection are you talking about and why do you think such a connection would even exist?”