Dare To Love - Eileen Nauman Mills & Boon M&B

Скачать книгу

      His look made her feel as if she’d just been shot.

      “Look, Kai, the game we’re playing with each other is necessary. I’m sorry we kidnapped you and not your sister.”

      Suddenly Kai sobbed. It was unlike her to be overemotional. She had been a nurse for almost six years after winning her navy commission out of college. She loved her work and her patients. But this was too much. They had wanted Susan—not her. Her lips parted as tears rolled helplessly from her eyes. “I—I’ve never hurt anyone. At least not intentionally. And neither has Susan.” Well, that was a bald-faced lie. Susan effectively cut up everyone with her royally bred tongue. When she was in one of her shrewish moods, she made everyone who didn’t come up—or down—to her standards feel like a case of the urban blight. And Frank’s perverse moods made Susan’s look like the pranks of a child in kindergarten.

      Kai turned her head toward the wall, trying to escape the mortification of crying in front of her captor. She felt Matt Taylor’s fingers come to rest on her chin, gently drawing her head back toward him to meet his gaze. She stared up into his anguished gray eyes.

      “Believe me, no one’s sorrier about this than I am, Kai.” He brushed her cheek dry with his fingers. “You’re Easton’s daughter by his first wife.”

      “Y-yes.”

      A slight smile hovered at the corners of his mouth. “The love child?” He posed the question softly.

      Kai winced. “Please….” Her voice was strained. “My father’s second wife and her three children remind me of the circumstances every time I come home on leave. I’m a bastard to our mutual family.”

      She blinked back the tears. Why did she have the feeling he knew about love? And yet he was her kidnapper. She had seen loss reflected in the depths of his eyes as she’d spoken.

      2

      MATT TORE HIS GAZE from her. He had found himself falling helplessly into those wide, understanding emerald eyes. Kai’s compassion for others jarred him to the core. He had expected a twenty-three-year-old woman who had a reputation in Houston for being a spoiled brat. Instead they had captured Kai, who seemed to be a diametric opposite to Susan. What a pity, he thought. He could at least have reconciled himself to the fact that the experience might have made her a bit humbler. He had rubbed elbows with the wealthy enough times and found them an interesting lot. They lived by a different code, a different set of principles. He returned his attention to Kai.

      “Feeling any better?”

      “A little more coherent. My right thigh aches, and my wrists—”

      “There was no need to hurt you.”

      A shiver coursed up her arm from where his fingers rested. My God, did Matt affect her that much? Quickly she reorganized her thoughts and began focusing on her plight.

      “So you’re the boss?” Her voice was whiplash taut.

      “That’s right.”

      Kai was annoyed with herself. She prided herself on her ability to judge people. If Matt Taylor had masterminded this whole fiasco, then he was the worst of the lot! She jerked her wrist away.

      “You bastard.” She struggled to sit up, suddenly aware that as the blanket fell away, her sweat shirt was revealed, clinging to her like a second skin and outlining her full breasts, flat stomach and slender waist. Heat rushed from her throat up into her face. She was blushing. As much as the recuperating military officers and enlisted men ogled her in the hospital words, or teased her good-naturedly, she never blushed. But this man made her excruciatingly aware of her femininity, exhilarated and uneasy all in the same breath. Infuriated with herself and frightened, Kai was not in full control of her emotions, and her anger ballooned.

      “I take that back. I’m a true bastard. But you—” her voice shook with feeling “—you’re the worst kind of human being. You’re a parasite. Someone who bleeds off people’s losses and misfortunes.”

      Matt resigned himself to the tirade. Color had rushed back to her cheeks, and her eyes had a flicker of life in them once again. It appeared that she was beginning to throw off the effects of the drug. He drew an inner sigh of relief, willing to have her recuperation compensate for her anger.

      “Let me finish cleaning your wrists,” he told her in a level voice that was meant to defuse her rage.

      “I’ll do it myself! Just hand me that—”

      “You’re shaking like a leaf, Kai. You couldn’t even hold—”

      She drew her knees up against her chest, her body pressed to the wall. “I don’t want you to touch me!” she cried fiercely. That was a lie. Matt’s touch gave her an instant’s reprieve from this unfolding nightmare. He imparted strength, stability and some intangible emotion that made her feel protected.

      His eyes grew cold and unreadable. “Tough. Knock it off, and give me your wrist.”

      They stared at each other with the silence engulfing them. Exhaustion was thinning Matt’s reserve of patience; he hadn’t slept in the past twenty-four hours. He didn’t believe in using unncessary force, either. Especially on a helpless child or a woman.

      “You’re upset. We’ve got a long way to go, Kai. Don’t start fighting me now. I’m not going to hurt you. I’ll try to make it easier on you. After I get you bandaged up, I’ll find you something to eat. Are you hungry?”

      Kai tucked her trembling lower lip between her teeth, afraid she would begin bawling in earnest. Just the rough velvet of his voice destroyed the anger she had aimed at him.

      Matt groaned inwardly. Why the hell did she have to look like a helpless, vulnerable child in that moment? She was tearing down defenses he had erected two years ago. He cocked his head, studying her, trying to ferret out the answer. Her ponytail had loosened, the auburn hair framing her square face with softened waves. Her eyes were large, the color of flawless emeralds. High cheekbones gave her eyes almost a tilted, catlike appearance. She was exotic looking. Her mouth was generous and asymmetrical, one corner curving up more than the other. He liked her nose, patrician but with a slight hump, making it a bit less than perfect. An arresting face filled with contrast. The sort of face he could spend the rest of his life mapping with his eyes.

      “Please,” Kai quavered, breaking into his thoughts, “let me go. My father will pay the ransom. All I want to do is go home….”

      She was little-girl scared, and that fact tore yet another wall away from his heavily guarded heart. He hung his head momentarily.

      “I can’t do that. There’s much more at stake here than you realize.” Matt closed his eyes. He knew this whole operation was going to be tough. But he had never envisioned this kind of emotional impact on him. Kai Easton was magically affecting him on every sensory level. And in those precious seconds of discovery, Matt realized he felt the first stirrings of wanting to live again.

      “Kai, you have to trust me. Just do as I ask. Those two guys out there are hard. They won’t listen to your pleas or—”

      “Or feel sorry for me like you do?” she hurled back contemptuously.

      Matt leaned forward, gently recapturing her arm. “Lady, what I feel is hardly pity,” he warned her in a vibrating voice.

      Matt’s touch was electrifying, and Kai bit back a gasp. His strong, tanned fingers wrapped firmly around her forearm, and she surrendered, remaining silent. After cleaning her wrist, he gave her an apologetic look. “All I’ve got is Vaseline so those cuts won’t stick to the gauze.” He allowed her to pull back her wrist while he drew out the ointment and smeared it across the dressing.

      Kai said nothing, trying desperately to ignore him and his sensual touch as he carefully wrapped her wrist. He looked satisfied with the attempt.

      “Not hospital-recommended,” Matt conceded, “but it’ll

Скачать книгу