LITMIR.BIZ

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of telling him no—about everything. As a result, he was learning to live with constant frustration.

      He could almost feel her gathering her courage. She did that a lot with him and it amused him. Grown men had been steering a wide path around him since his late teens, but not Celia. Right from the start, she’d tried her best to stand up to him, but always there was a touch of fear in her mellow hazel eyes. She’d rail against him, give him hell, but with obvious nervousness. To him, the fact that she stood up to him despite her fear indicated a hell of a lot of guts and he admired that in a woman. In fact, he’d admired a hell of a lot about Celia Carter since first setting eyes on her.

      What he didn’t admire was her impetuous race for adventure that had kept her on the edge of danger ever since she’d left her family’s secure company and joined up with Dane. He still couldn’t figure that one out. So her fiancé had turned out to be a grade A bastard? There were plenty of them in the world to go around, and it certainly wasn’t Celia’s fault that she’d been too innocent to see through Raymond’s scam. Alec had already been working with Dane to nail Raymond for numerous crimes, not the least of which was the murder of Dane and Celia’s brother. At the time, they hadn’t known for certain that Raymond was the culprit, but they’d had their suspicions. In the end, Celia was the one who’d saved the day, sneaking up on Raymond and clobbering him with a crowbar while he’d held Dane and Angel at gunpoint. Celia had more than vindicated herself in everyone’s eyes.

      Everyone’s but her own.

      Alec knew Raymond had hurt her tender feelings, trying to use Celia as a pawn in his schemes. It was the worst emotional insult a man could deal a woman, using her that way. She obviously felt horrible for having ever believed in him. In truth, Alec wondered what the hell she’d seen in Raymond. He’d disliked the man on instinct the moment he’d met him. But then he was good at what he did, and he’d been doing it a long time. The same wasn’t true of Celia. For the most part, and despite her loud claims to the contrary, she was still a wide-eyed innocent.

      So why the hell did she want to risk her damn neck day in and day out trying to prove something? The anger washed over him again, fresh and raw, and he growled, “You’re not going back there, so you can stop your scheming right now.”

      Her head snapped around toward him and she glared. “I’m going to talk to Dane. You’re not my boss and I want you to quit acting like you are.”

      Primal satisfaction settled deep into his bones. With this one woman, he wanted every advantage he could get. “Now there’s where you’re wrong.”

      He felt a return of her wariness. He was so painfully attuned to her and her feelings, he always seemed to know what she was thinking and feeling. It unnerved him, even as it turned him on and made him more determined to have her. There was a link between them that she did her damnedest to deny. He wouldn’t let her do that much longer. When she was lying naked beneath him, he’d see to it that her thoughts were centered solely on accepting him and the incredible pleasure he’d give them both. There’d be no room for doubt or denial.

      “What are you talking about?”

      He tightened his hands on the wheel, pressed his foot to the accelerator and relished this moment of proper balance between them. He hadn’t liked it worth a damn that Dane was her ultimate boss, leaving him no say-so in what Celia did or which job she chose. That had finally changed, and not a moment too soon, given where he’d found her.

      Luckily, the darkness hid his smile, but the satisfaction came through in his tone. “With Angel pregnant again, Dane’s decided she needs an extended vacation. He’s rented a house in the Carribean and he’s taking the family there for a month. While he’s gone, I’m in charge.” He slanted her a look, saw her shock and decided to clarify just to make sure there were no misunderstandings. “So you see, Miss Carter, I am your boss.”

      “No.”

      He took great pleasure in nodding. “Afraid so.”

      “I won’t have it!”

      “You, Celia, have no choice.” Her hands fisted, her entire small body going taut in automatic rebellion. He wanted to pull her close, to cuddle her and reassure her; they were soft urges he hadn’t experienced with a woman in fifteen years and he didn’t welcome them now. He firmed his resolve, blocking out all the weakening, tender emotions. Protecting Celia was for her own good, so he’d do it whether she liked it or not.

      “Listen close, honey. If I find you even thinking about that particular case again, I’ll fire you in a heartbeat. As a matter of fact, from here on out, I’ll personally give you which assignments I want you to have. And you can bet they won’t include dressing like a hussy and putting your sweet little ass on the line.”

      He finished that grand statement with a flourish, pleased with himself and his implacable stance. But when he slowed the truck for a turn in the road, Celia unsnapped her seat belt and opened the door.

      Cursing, Alec slammed on the brakes and tried to steady the wheel. The truck shuddered to an immediate, bone-jarring halt. Alec saw red and reached for her, the idea of getting her over his lap more appealing by the moment. But she was already leaping out, her own anger giving her the advantage of speed. She landed awkwardly on her high heels, fell to her butt, then jerked quickly to her feet again. If his reflexes hadn’t been so good, and he hadn’t stopped the truck so quickly, she might have broken her neck. Waiting for the truck to actually stop hadn’t seemed like a concern to her.

      A middle-aged couple who’d been walking by on the dark night stopped to stare. Alec saw Celia dust herself off, nod at the people, then start briskly on her way, limping slightly.

      He quickly maneuvered the truck to the curb, jerked out his keys and trotted after her. Damned irritant. Her brother was sharp as a tack, reasonable, calculating. There wasn’t an impulsive or careless bone in his body. Dane always knew what he was doing, and how he was going to go about doing it. He and Alec worked perfectly together, both of them practical, methodical, sensible. So where the hell had Celia gotten her foolhardy, damn-the-consequences attitude?

      Alec grabbed her arm and held on while she tried to jerk away. She swung her purse at him and he dodged it. “Just settle down, damn it, before you hurt yourself.”

      “You bullying behemoth, get your hands off me!”

      The names she called him usually made him grin. But not this time, not when he had an important point to make and already knew how resistant she was going to be. He clasped both her arms, effectively immobilizing her. Through clenched teeth, he growled, “Just this once, Celia, will you please use your head?”

      “I am using it,” she insisted, her eyes and cheeks hot with temper. “I’m going to go to the corner and hail a cab, and from here on out, I want nothing to do with you. You think you’re going to fire me? Ha! I quit.”

      The pedestrians, still enthralled by the drama taking place in front of them, moved on quickly enough when Alec’s darkest, most threatening glare shot their way. He pushed Celia into a small storefront doorway, out of the path and view of anyone else out wandering the streets on this blacker-than-pitch night. The corner streetlamp didn’t quite reach them, and they were isolated by the darkness.

      He forced himself to take three deep, calming breaths. Her statement that she wanted nothing to do with him had cut like a knife and left him bleeding. Damn her, she would not shut him out. Not anymore.

      “You’re being unreasonable,” he finally said, doing his best to keep his tone calm, to hide his own anger. No one, man or woman, had ever set him off like this, but then it had always been that way with Celia. She elicited more emotion from him, in all forms, than anyone he’d ever known. She could make him furious with a word, amuse him with a burst of temper, or arouse him to the point of pain with a simple shy look. He didn’t like it, but more than that, he wasn’t quite sure how to deal with it, and feeling helpless was something he hated above all things. The only way he could see to get over it was to finally have her, to sate himself on the scent and feel and taste of her. He could easily spend a week doing just that, and he eventually

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