"Auntie Kez?"
"What!" Her eyes opened in time to see John Jason's recoil and her conscience took another blow. "I'm sorry, honey, I shouldn't have yelled at you. What is it?"
Eyeing her warily, he flicked back his cape and kept his distance. It killed her. Nothing would go right until she told Marion what she'd done. This weekend.
"I can't find Roland."
"Remember Christian put him in your room so he could clean out Roland's cage." Despite her torment, Kezia's mouth lifted in a ghost of a smile, remembering Christian's face when she'd given him that task.
"I do it twice a week," she'd insisted, straight-faced. As with every job she'd tripled her workload.
Except he'd simply given her a look and grabbed a clothes peg and some rubber gloves. "It won't work, you know," he'd said. "You're stuck with me."
Kezia shook off her doubts. He'd left her twice; he'd leave her again. That was one thing she could count on.
John Jason stamped his foot, his eyes glittering through the slits in the mask. "My rat's not there!"
He was right; Roland wasn't in his room. Wasn't anywhere else in the hotel or the grounds. Kezia searched and re-searched. By dinnertime, John Jason had worn Kezia out with his tantrums and tears, and she suspected Roland had escaped or been flattened under the newly laid carpet.
She didn't tell John Jason her suspicious, keeping up a running commentary on the adventures the rat was having and helping the boy lay cheese trails so Roland would be lured home. "Don't worry, he'll be back."
"You promise?" It was a measure of the child's need that he was prepared to put his faith in her again.
Wishing with all her heart she could give John Jason the answer he wanted, she cupped his chin in her good hand. "I promise to try my very hardest, but if he doesn't want to be found … "
John Jason sagged against her in relief. "Then you'll find him because he wants to be found. He'd never leave me." Now she was in serious trouble.
"Who'd never leave you?" Christian was in the doorway. "Me?"
"Roland's gone missing," John Jason blurted.
"I'm sure he'll turn up when he's ready, don't worry about it." Christian patted the little boy's head with an almost forced heartiness. "So, what's for dinner? Please tell me it's not breaded chicken and mushroom gravy."
A suspicion occurred to Kezia. "Don't you want to join the hunt?"
He looked away. "Let me go wash up first. I won't be long."
She stared after the rat-hater's departing back. He wouldn't have … would he? "John Jason, how about watching a video?" She settled Batman in front of the television and marched down to the bathroom, not bothering to knock before opening the door.
It was full of steam. Really, they needed an extractor fan in here. "What do you know about-"
The shower curtain swept back and Kezia momentarily forgot what she was going to say. Her gaze slid over Christian's naked body, slick under rivulets of water.
"The rat?"
"Yes … the … the … " Discomfited, she turned her back, felt foolish for showing him how much he affected her, then turned back to show him she wasn't. Affected. Through the steam she fixed her gaze on his eyes, blue as heaven, knowing as hell.
"The rat?" he prompted again, and she flinched, spoke more sharply than she meant to.
"What have you done to Roland?" Realizing she'd raised her voice, Kezia shut the door.
He shook his head in disgust. "You really don't trust me, do you? Pass the damn soap."
Kezia held out the soap and he jerked her forward against his wet chest. Water sprayed her face like rain. "My cast!"
"It's fiberglass," he reminded her, and hauled her all the way in, ignoring her yelp. Hot water pummeled against the denim of her jean skirt, which grew sodden and heavy. "Do you know how many old ladies hit on me today? Do you know how much I hate your car? Do you know how hard I'm trying to fill your Goody Two Shoes and prove you can trust me? And you ask me if I've killed that goddamned rodent? Screw you!"
So he was buckling under the pressure. "I guess that's a no, then," she said calmly. Dread mixed with her relief.
Christian's eyes narrowed, then one hand pressed the small of her back while the other tangled in her hair. Very slowly he tilted her face up to his, exposing her throat. "Screw you," he said again, a threat and a purr combined. "Two can play mind games."
He bent his head and his mouth was hot on her neck. His tongue followed the water droplets down, all the way to where they disappeared into her pink camisole top. Kezia shuddered as his mouth closed over a nipple, clearly outlined under the wet cotton. She pushed him away. "Stop."
"That's not what your body's telling me." He caught her arms, splayed them against the shower tiles to hold her still and took his time, teasing her nipples to tight need.
"Stop it!" Her voice shook. She tried to put more authority into it. "I said-"
He caught her lower lip lightly between his teeth and his tongue slid into her mouth, cajoling hers into a response while he ground his lower body against hers. And Kezia felt herself get wetter and hotter and more desperate.
Desperate for what?
She couldn't remember but it had to be this: to drown with him under the pummel of water, to drown in him. Christian yanked her skirt up to her waist, his hands everywhere, tantalizing and teasing, and it still wasn't enough.
It wasn't enough to run her hand down his ridged abdomen to the smooth, velvet hardness, to make him groan and grow harder. Not enough to lick the water droplets off his chest and rake the fingers of her good hand down the sleek muscle of his back. Water trickled inside her cast; she didn't care. Steam billowed around and between them, but she could still feel him, oh, yes, and crave him.
She let Christian pull off her panties. He cupped her bottom in his searing hands and lifted her up. With a moan, Kezia clung to his neck for support, wrapped her legs around his waist and impaled herself on him. He thrust and she countered, both clumsy and panting in their need, too hungry for grace. This coupling was like no other they'd shared. Impassioned, raw, almost painful in its intensity.
Kezia's climax seized and shattered her. As she clasped Christian closer in the throes of his own release she knew with utter certainty she would never get over this man. And she hated him for bringing her down to this level of need. "Put me down."
Still shaken by what just happened, Christian heard the anger in her voice. It had been mutual … hadn't it?
Gently he pulled out, slid her along his body to the floor. "That wasn't meant to happen, I'm sorry." He felt like a heel, an animal rutting in heat. "We didn't even use any protection."
Her expression was unreadable. Her voice fierce. "Don't worry, I've just finished a period. There won't be any consequences you can't handle."
"That's not what I meant!" With a shock he realized he wanted her to be pregnant. She'd have to marry him then. Crazy thinking. "Are you all right?"
"I'm furious." She slapped away his helping hand, winced slightly as she pulled the sodden skirt down around her thighs.
Christian handed her a towel. "I hurt you."
She didn't deny it, wrapping the towel around her body sarong-style. "How can you make me feel like this-say one thing and do another?" She turned on him like a caged lioness. "I hate this, this … "
"Need?" Relief made Christian dizzy. He had a chance.
"Weakness. My own weakness."
Someone's cracking, babe, he thought as she slammed the door behind her. But it's not me.
The door flew open again. "What did you do to Roland?"
He wrapped a towel around himself. It was infuriating how quickly Kezia could rebuild her defenses. "I hid him."
"You hid him?" Her face was a study in shock. "I've been searching the hotel for hours, John Jason's been crying … What the hell do you think you're playing at!"
"Think about it. The rat disappears, John Jason is inconsolable. You find and return the rodent and are back in his brilliant books. I thought it was a pretty good plan myself. I did mean to call but you kept me so damn busy I didn't get a chance."
A range of expressions flitted across her face. "It's a plan," she conceded. "But where is he? I searched everywhere."
"In a shoebox, bottom of the wardrobe. Go put some dry clothes on and then get him."