TooDangeroustoLove Read online

  “Kiss me.” Her eyes looked directly into his. “What?” As much as he wanted to hear those words from her mouth, standing by a corner didn’t exactly fit the setting he would hear them from her in.

  She cocked her head slightly to the left. “Kiss me. And make it good, make it believable.” She slid her arms around his waist, tugging him closer as she turned her mouth up for his kiss.

  “Make it good? Not a problem,” he growled low in his throat as his lips captured hers. This time it wasn’t a gentle kiss.

  His lips swooped down with demanding mastery. Plundering the warmth of her mouth, his tongue dueled with hers, stroking and inflaming her passions. Raven’s mouth parted to accept his tongue. Her own sparred with his as she felt her body melding closer to him.

  He closed his eyes and enjoyed the kiss. After a few moments, she sank into him. Brandt opened his eyes after a while and backed off, pleased at her swollen full lips from their kiss.

  Her mouth had tasted like peaches and chocolate. Where the peaches came from he had no idea, but he wanted to know everything about her.

  “What was that about?” he asked after he had regained control of his verbal skills.

  “We were being followed and I wanted to make sure who they were.”

  “Followed?”

  “Yes. Followed.”

  He felt her withdraw her arms from his back and flinched when he saw the gun in her hand. “You’re serious,” he said, astounded.

  “Yes, I was. One of my old team is around and he sent a signal, a faint raptor cry. So I knew we were being followed.”

  He took a moment to digest what she’d just divulged to him. “Where the fuck did you have that hidden?” His gaze raked her form as he wondered where she could keep a gun on her in that dress.

  “My leg.” That said, she lifted the dress a bit and slid it back into the holster before straightening the dress and giving herself a quick once over in the light from the streetlamp.

  His entire body shook with raging lust. Damn, but he wanted her. “Let’s go get our pictures.”

  “Very well.” Easily her arm slid into his and they walked to the booth where the man waited with their pictures.

  There were six different ones. Brandt bought all of them. As he slid them into his jacket pocket he looked down at the woman beside him, then they headed back to get his vehicle. For once he didn’t want the evening to end. He enjoyed the time they spent together.

  “Can we stop at a gas station?”

  “Excuse me,” he said as his Porsche was stopped in front of them. “What did you say?”

  * * * *

  Not even looking at him, but across the street to where a man stubbed out his cigarette and climbed into the passenger seat of the running GTO, Raven spoke again while her eagle eyes made out the license plate. “Stop. At a gas station.”

  “Tonight?”

  “Yes, Brandt, tonight. Please.”

  “Very well.” He helped her into the passenger seat and walked to the driver’s side.

  “There was a place right before the freeway that would work,” Raven said as she kept an eye on the car that was following them. Whoever they were, they weren’t amateurs. But, by the same token, they weren’t professionals either since she spotted them. She did have an advantage that most didn’t even know about—even Dylan didn’t know about her heightened senses.

  “Aren’t you full from dinner?” he asked as he pulled off into the gas station parking lot. When he made to get out of the car, she stopped him with a hand on his arm.

  “Listen to me.” It was her nothing but business tone. “I want you to get out and go inside for about one minute. I don’t care if you get something. When you come back out, you will climb into the passenger side.”

  “You want me to let you drive my car?”

  “No arguments. Just do it, Brandt Fowler. No more than a minute. Go.”

  He went, jogged into the store and barely waited a minute. As he had been told, he headed for the passenger door, slipping in quickly.

  The second he had the door shut she was peeling out of the lot. “Get that belt on.” She whipped out in front of a big rig to get on the interstate before him, the loud blaring horn told him how close she had gotten to the vehicle. At the last second, she did a one-eighty and headed back towards oncoming traffic until she could get on the other side. Cars blasted on their horns as she drove towards them. Brandt blanched.

  A quick glance to the rearview mirror told her that the GTO’s driver hadn’t expected that maneuver. The brake lights indicated that they were doing the same thing. She gunned the powerful engine and immediately got them turned around again towards the interstate that would lead them home.

  “Jesus, woman! What are you doing? Trying to get us killed?”

  “Saving your life, now be quiet and let me drive.”

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “There was a car following us. They were waiting for us at the restaurant and I am not sure what they want, but I am pretty damn sure it is not an autograph.”

  “So that is why you wanted to drive?” He winced as she swerved in between two cars to get them back on the interstate, where at least she was going the speed limit.

  “Yes.” Her eyes constantly checked the mirrors. Her cell phone chimed and Brandt watched as she pulled it out of his console, then shot across three lanes of traffic with the flick of a wrist.

  “Raven. Another one. Fine. We are fine. I’m driving. You comin’? Good. Hang on a sec.” She put the phone down and removed the gun from her leg and laid it in her lap. “Okay, now I’m good. What kind? Color? Thanks. See ya.” She ended the call and went back to driving.

  “What is going on?” he asked as she whipped back across the lanes to the fast lane.

  “There’s another tail. Ford Mustang, black with tinted windows. If it comes up alongside, I want you to duck until I get us away from it.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “Taking a different route. Just sit back, Brandt Fowler. Just stay low.” She shifted the car and it leapt forward. “I will take care of you.”

  * * * *

  Those six words coming from her mouth made him tingle all over. He realized that he wasn’t really worried. He trusted her to do her job. “I know you will. Is there anything I can do?” His adrenaline was running and he needed to be of some help if he could.

  “Take my phone and press the call button for Talon.” She checked her mirrors and zipped back over to the right side of the interstate.

  Who the hell was Talon? But he did what she asked and handed it to her.

  “Hey. You there? Can you see me? Good. Here is the GTO’s plate number…DKL 489. Take a message to Morgan.” The rest of her words were garbled and Brandt had no way of understanding her. Finished, she closed the phone and settled back.

  “What was that?”

  “Nothing you need to worry about. I had to send a message to . . .” Her eyes caught sight of something in the mirror. “Shit. Hang on.”

  Before those words had time to register in his brain, she had swerved onto the shoulder as she shifted again. The Porsche gave her the speed that she asked for. She pulled away from the car next to her and put the car back on the road.

  With a glance behind him, he noticed the set of headlights that was racing through other vehicles to get closer to them. His heart began to pound again as he looked over at Raven.

  There was a mocking smile on her face as she alternated glances between the mirror and the road ahead of her. “Come get some,” she whispered. That was the second he realized that she was enjoying herself. She was an adrenaline junkie.

  He noticed that whenever the lights following them tried to come up on the right side she put the car on the shoulder so she was always in the middle. The car behind them put on another burst of speed and gained on them.

  “Hang on, Ice.” She gunned the motor and the car tore forward, dropping his heart to his stomach. She raced on towards
two semis that were side by side. With a quick, smooth motion she shifted again and the silver Porsche shot like a bullet in the narrow space between the rigs.

  He looked at the speedometer and noticed that they were going close to one hundred miles per hour as they flew down the interstate. At the last second, she whipped the car onto the exit ramp and squealed around the cars in front of her.

  Tense seconds passed as she sped them back onto the interstate, heading back in the direction they came. Once again, she was driving the speed limit.

  “Where did you learn to drive like that?”

  “Street racing.” She glanced at him. “You alright over there?”

  “Great. This is an everyday occurrence for me.” Street racing? Just who the hell was this woman? His heart was pounding frantically.

  Just as she was going to say something to him, a car jammed into their side, momentarily causing her to lose control. “Damn it.” She swore as she fought to and finally regained control.

  Within seconds, Raven was going close to ninety miles per hour again. This time, however, there was a blankness on her face that alarmed Brandt.

  She reached for her phone and said, “Call Talon.” Her phone did.

  “Talon. There was more than one waiting. Clear it with the state patrol. Silver Porsche. Vanity plate that reads: ICE. Make sure they all know.” She floored the gas pedal, rocketing them ahead.

  She wove in and out of the traffic like they were all standing still. Her expertise would have impressed Brandt if he hadn't been having a hard time breathing. When they flew past a state patrol car, Brandt thought it was over but all he did was flash his headlights one time.

  She tore off the interstate onto the exit and headed for his home. The world blurred by as she pushed the car around the curves and through the night. The car barely slowed as she turned onto a road that he had never been on before.

  Raven came to a stop in front of an old cabin. There was a black Suburban in front and the light was on. She got out and he followed on shaky legs.

  A tall, distinguished man came out of the door to meet her. His eyes swept over her form, but there was concern in his gaze. Brandt wanted to put his hand on her just to make sure she was truly there beside her.

  “What the hell happened?” the man who’d opened the door demanded.

  “You, Commander Morgan, have a problem. The stakes have just gone up. They want this man dead now. No more incompetent threats. They’re serious.”

  “So handle it.”

  Brandt flicked his attention between the two of them.

  “I want the Raptors. All of them.”

  “I can’t do that. You know that.”

  Her gaze narrowed as she shouldered past him into the cabin, dragging Brandt behind her. “You can and you will. Do it or I am taking him where no one will know.”

  “Do you know what you’re asking?”

  “I’m asking you to trust my judgment, for once.”

  “The admiral. . .”

  “I don’t give a damn about the admiral. I have a job to do. You asked me, begged me to come do this. I don’t want another situation like I had before. Agree or I walk away here and now.”

  “Damn you. I already apologized for what happened last time.”

  Brandt didn’t know what they were talking about, however, both of them seemed to have forgotten that he stood in the room, listening to them.

  “I didn’t want your apology. Not then, not now. You should have known better.” Finally, emotion showed on her body. “After all we had been through, why would I assault your wife? She was the jealous one, thinking that there was something between us. All I did was defend myself from her. You took everything from me. And then when I came back to get the last of my things I almost died.”

  Damn it, Brandt wanted to know more of what they were talking about.

  “I never asked you to save my life.”

  She tossed her hands up with an exasperated sound. “You know you never would. You also know that I would never stand there and let anyone take your life without doing my damnedest to prevent it. That was in the past; yes, I am still angry with you. Yes, my voice is deeper because of the attack. For a while I thought I lost my confidence, but I will not go into another situation where I don’t know everything that is going on. There’s something you aren’t telling me. So spill.”

  “I can’t tell you.” Morgan shoved his hands through his hair in an impatient gesture. “Believe me. I want to but I can’t.”

  “Not good enough. Tell me. All of it. Now!” That last word was uttered with such a chill, even Brandt felt it.

  “He is going to kill me for this.”

  “Him or me, the choice is yours.” Both men knew she meant what she said.

  “He wanted you from the beginning, but I put it off, sending the others before I even attempted to contact you.”

  “Again, I’m going to ask you. Why me?”

  “Because of your reputation.”

  “What hold does he have over you? You got any other clothes here?”

  Morgan pointed to a corner where a bag sat on a chair, and when Raven went over to it he kept talking. “He is holding Laurie. Or at least I think he is.” His tone was full of fear, telling Brandt just how scared he was about the whole situation.

  Raven stopped in her tracks. Her head turned as she brought her gaze back to the commander’s. “You shittin’ me?”

  “No. After the first four men had been relieved of their command he took her.”

  She gave a short nod. “That’s when you came to me. Because he knew that your fiancée was the one thing that would motivate you to seek me out.”

  “Yes.” Morgan stared at her back as she lowered her dress, exposing her body to the two men in the room. Brandt didn’t like the idea of this man looking at her, but he also didn’t move.

  Her body was only exposed for a few moments before she wore a pair of black fatigues and a brown shirt. As she laced up the boots on her feet she met Brandt’s gaze before turning her attention back to Morgan.

  Chapter Five

  She sat down on the couch and waved Brandt over to sit beside her. Morgan lifted an eyebrow, but continued with his story.

  “And?” she prompted.

  “I’m to report everything to the admiral, but I was told that under no circumstances was I to allow all the Raptors to come together. That, and I’m not to tell about Laurie.” He rubbed his hands over his eyes.

  “All right. I understand why you did what you did, not that I agree with it, but I understand. We won’t get all the Raptors back together. But I want two more.”

  “Who?”

  She said, after she ran some things over in her mind, “Falcon and Osprey.”

  “Done.”

  “When this is over, I will help you get Laurie back, then I am done. I never want to be involved in this again. Ever.”

  Dylan nodded. “Deal.”

  “Who is Laurie?” Brandt interrupted.

  “A friend.” Raven wouldn’t embellish on that.

  “So where does this leave us?” Brandt demanded to be a part of this conversation.

  “Brandt Fowler, meet Commander Dylan Morgan,” Raven said. “This leaves us with two days until the ball and the signing of the papers.”

  “I have some ideas, but maybe this would be better spoken about in private,” Dylan said.

  “I think after tonight he deserves to be in on at least some of it,” Raven interjected.

  “All right. But first perhaps he should change into something else. I mean, the two of you should be wearing similar clothes when you get back.”

  “Good point. There are some clothes in that bag. You’re about Talon’s size.” With a gesture, she pointed Brandt over to where she had changed. “Go change, then we will talk.”

  Brandt rose and walked over to the bag. Sure enough, there was a set of clothes in there that he knew would fit him. He shucked off his suit coat and tie, and as he began to unbutton
his shirt he glanced over his shoulder at Raven.

  She watched his every move even though she still spoke to Dylan. As his shirt slid away from his body she moistened her lips. Brandt broke eye contact only when he slipped the shirt over his head.

  This so isn’t fair. Not at all.

  * * * *

  The brown shirt fit him so nicely. The sleeves were stretched over his biceps and Raven found her mouth was dry. His gaze kept hers and he arched an eyebrow as he began to unfasten his pants. A smile crossed his face as she looked away.

  A newly dressed Brandt joined them after changing. He reclaimed his place by Raven and sat forward with his thick forearms resting on his knees.

  They were there for another hour or so before they gathered their clothes and strode back to the car. Raven walked to the passenger side and slid in.

  “You don’t want to drive?”

  “Need to have you come home driving.” She leaned her head back.

  “What is Morgan to you?” he asked as he headed them towards home.

  “Commander Morgan? Nothing.” She rubbed her eyes with her hands.

  “What’s between you two? Is he responsible for the scar on your neck?”

  “In a roundabout way. I don’t wish to discuss this. Drop it.”

  They rode in silence for the rest of the way. It was after two when they parked the car at the garage and walked back to the house, dress clothes in their hands.

  The door opened silently and they crept into the house, acting almost like teenagers who had been out too late. “Where have you two been?” a loud voice boomed. Brandt’s father came out of the side room.

  “Out,” Brandt answered.

  “Do you know what time it is?” he thundered.

  “Of course. Morning.”

  “Ms. Dare? Do you have anything to say?”

  “Yes, good night.” She scampered up the stairs, leaving him to face his father alone. Raven took her dogs outside using the back stairs and didn’t run into anyone.

  * * * *

  Brandt woke early, considering the time he finally fell asleep. His first thought was of Raven. He showered and dressed quickly before he went to her room. There was no answer to his knocking, so he walked downstairs.