Somewhere I'll Find You (9 page)

In spite of her, she felt her breath wedge in her throat while unguarded minutes passed.  With each new sensation that came out of the tangled darkness of his mind came slashing pain that seemed to go on without end.  It was his pain . . . but it was an agony that she recognized all too well.  Frantically she tried to block those feelings, tried to resurrect her guard, but it was too late.  Maybe it was because she was tired, or too slow.  But whatever it was, fear was quickly taking hold.

Michael’s eyes burned as he gazed at the woman he had dreamed about for so long.  How
was
he
to
tell her, he wondered, now that the reality was in front of
him?
  How could he explain without sounding like a loon?  Inching forward, he slipped his arms about her, all
heat,
and muscle.
All granite and male, the very scent of him reminding Paige just how long it had been since she had known a man’s touch.

“You’re a sight, Paige O’Neal.”  His voice was low and rough, but even its coarseness was persuasive.  A finger touched cheeks that blazed
with color
.  “I didn’t know that women still blushed like that.”  He laughed wryly, “Hell
,
the women I know never blush.”  His eyes slid over the curves outlined against a sweater the color of a tropical sunrise.  “All that softness.  Hidden and sweet.  Just here . . .”

He knew he should stop, that he was scaring the daylights out of her, and yet he couldn’t.  He had dreamed of her for so long, had woken in tangled sheets, desire making it impossible for him to move.  And now, here she was, staring at him with doe eyes filled with fear.

She tried to move but found that she couldn’t.  Watching his face inch closer, her mind screamed for her to push him away, to escape before it was too late.

But she didn’t.  Perhaps it was the tension in his eyes or the raw hunger in his touch that both frightened and fascinated her, but she couldn’t ignore it.  It felt somehow familiar.  Yes, that was the word for it.  She found her voice in the last seconds just before her senses departed.  “No . . . no.  You can’t.”  Yet even as she spoke, the fire of his closeness touched her, tearing a frightened sound from her throat.

That sound had Michael stopping in his tracks where nothing else would have done. 
What am I thinking?

Pulling free, Paige spun for the door.  She had to get away.  She’d call Miles, she thought frantically.  He could deal with this Neanderthal.  She simply wanted him out of her home and away from her.

Reaching for the knob, she stuttered.  “I don’t know who you are or what you want . . . oh God, did Alistar
send
you?  Is that why you’re here?  I’m not going to do what he wants, and not even he can make me.”  She was babbling and she didn’t care.  Snatching at her valise, she jerked open the door, with Michael dead on her heels.

“Where do you think that you’re going?  Angel . . . Paige, stop!  Listen to me!”  He tried to make his voice calm, to ease her back inside.  “I’m a friend of Serena’s.  You know she wouldn’t have told me how to find you unless she trusted me.”  He prayed that she wouldn’t hear the lie in his voice.  It had been Miles,
truly,
not Serena
,
who had told him of the house, and how to get there.

Shaking her head, she moved towards the night and the sleeting rain.  “I don’t care who knows you . . . I’m leaving and when I come back, I won’t be alone.  Someone will
make
you leave.”

When his brow arched as he cocked his head, Paige’s mind was sent reeling by the intimacy of his expression.  She had seen that look before
.
B
ut where?  Distracted, her mind went skittering down the endless hallways of her memory even as she wondered why she was so afraid. 
Who cares?  Just go!
No one who’s any good for you follows you all the way out here just to ask you to supper after spending five million dollars on a stupid necklace!  He’s
crazy
! Get
away
from him!

Whirling at last, she heeded her mind
’
s cry, fleeing out the opened door and into the night.

He swore long and fluently, watching as slender shoulders vanished into the night.  Spearing his fingers through his hair, the movement brought back a brief, painful memory of just how incredibly good she felt in his arms.  Lord, she even smelled good, like ocean breezes accented with the sweetness of wildflowers.

Outside the living room, prongs of lightning forked through the sky.  Hearing the slap of rain pound the ground, Michael knew that in a minute or two, the woman would be drenched.  Ignoring the pain in his leg, he went out after her.  After all, someone had to rescue her and tonight, he seemed the only hero available.

In his rush, Michael didn’t see the faint glimmering that lit the room, or the shape that emerged from it.  The specter of a man appeared with his dark eyes flashing and hair shining like the unrelenting black of the sky outside.  Light shimmered around his shoulders, catching the fire of a diamond stickpin.  It was so tangible an image that an onlooker, had they seen him, would have fully believed the ghostly figure was still among the living.

Pacing, the ghost of the house crossed the cold floor with knitted brows, his lithe hands behind his back.  His eyes were fixed on a past that few remembered, and a future that refused to be revealed.  For a moment, anger
filled
the air
with
a fury and wanting that stretched down the long corridors to the past.  A name was whispered into the night; a name that for decades
,
he had refused to say.  “Jenny . . .”

The wind swept the name away.  It sighed through the roses that wrapped about the house
’
s base.  Of course, there would be no answer to his call.  Erik had long since given up on expecting one.  Only now . . . now
,
he sensed that the past was about to be revealed, and that secrets long since hidden would finally come to light.

Paige
was struggling up the drive when Michael finally caught up with her.  He had tried calling out, but the wind threw his words away. 
Reaching her at last, he pulled her in a sharp about-face to meet him.
  “Look, let’s get one thing straight.  Neither of us can go driving off in t
his storm.  Not with the curves
that
you would have to maneuver.  You could end up going off a cliff.”

“Going off a cliff would be preferable to spending another momen
t with you,
”
she spat, trying to free her wrists from his grip.

Michael smothered back a curse.  “Come back in
side
and dry off.  Then I’ll try to explain
…
”

Paige shook her head angrily, ignoring the rain that poured about her.  “There’s nothing to sort out, believe me.  If Alistar sent you to change my mind, it was a mistake.  Now
,
one of us is leaving.”

“Have you gone
barking
mad?
”  Michael demanded incredulously.
 
“
I’d never make it down those
turnabouts,
and neither would you.”

“No?  Just watch me.”

His jaw tightened when she insisted on struggling up the drive, slipping on wet grass.  He’d have to carry her back, he realized.  Otherwise, there would be no stopping her.

Just as his resolve was forming, Paige slipped on a patch of mud.  Soil and grass gave way with a gurgle, sending her sliding to her knees. Her valise flew from her hands, its contents tumbling in a heap at Michael’s feet.

The Englishman bent with leisurely grace, lifting an undergarment from the pile.  White lace and impudent ribbons dangled from his fingers.  “Nice,” he said softly.  “Very nice.”

“Put them back,” she sputtered
over her shoulder
, shoving rain soaked hair away from her eyes.

“I don’t believe that
,
at this moment
,
you’re in any position to be giving orders.”

“Oh
,
no?”  Without stopping to think, she lashed out with her foot, catching him dead in the calf.  His shout of
surprise
and his look of
dismay
was a balm to her
rattled nerves
.  But what happened next was not so soothing.

Tumbling on top of her
when his leg gave out beneath him
,
he hit the ground, the camisole forgotten as he
pinn
ed
her further into the mud. 

She felt him shudder
ing, his whole body stiffened
with the
surprise
of impact.  Too late, she remembered the
brief flash of pain
she had sensed in him earlier.  “Are you . . .” She shoved at his tense shoulder.  “Did I kill you?”

His mouth was rigid with pain.  “No, I’m fine,” he answered through gritted teeth.  “Marvelous
,
in fact.”

For a moment, she lay stunned by her own actions
, but it took no more than a moment for her sense of self-preservation to set in
.
 
He’s immobile – I can get away
.

A grim smile creased his lips as her body tensed to move.  Circling her wrist with his fingers, he growled, “Oh no
,
you don’t.”

The rain licked at her face as she twisted wildly, driving one foot against the grass while fighting to work her way free.  But her movements only brought them closer.

Staring down at her face, his
mouth
drew into a firm line.  “We’ll both get drye
r a lot faster if you would
quit acting like a git.”

Her answer was an angry fist headed for his jaw.

Avoiding the blow, he smiled darkly. 
“
In that case, it’s going to be a long, wet night.”

He scowled down at her mane of wild, dark hair, at the rain streaked jacket and the butter soft angora that hugged her curves.  His eyes followed the shape of her hip, up to her slender waist.

Then he stopped.  A shot whined out, cracking harshly off the house’s granite walls.

“Stay down!” He moved at the same moment he uttered the command, shoving her beneath him.

“Please tell me that we weren’t just shot at.”
  Paige’s hands gripped his shirt tightly, her voice nothing but a soft whisper.