THE LAWS OF PASSION Page 2

  "Yeah, okay. We'll talk about it." If he could manage to get past the pictures in his head—and also past some strong impulses a lot lower on his body, too.

  "If I head south on this surface street, can we get to your place by the back roads?" she asked.

  He nodded, but couldn't find his voice. Whoo boy. It had been a long time since he'd felt anything at all. Now suddenly he had tender images and sexual fantasies about a woman he'd just met?

  These emotions must be originating from the events surrounding his arrest. Adrenaline, from fighting for his freedom, must be their root cause. He was just over stimulated, that's all.

  Well, he had to put a lid on all of these powerful sensations. His life depended on being clear and focused.

  And now that he thought about it a little more, Dana might be erotic as hell and have a body built for making love, but what did he really know about her? Something just didn't sit right. And he decided to find out what it was.

  * * *

  "This is your place?" Dana was thoroughly amazed.

  She couldn't remember the last time anything had been a real surprise—well, if she didn't count her strange thoughts about kissing Marcus earlier.

  Kissing? Was that what she'd wanted to do with him? In reality, she'd had no idea of where her lusting might lead. Having only just read and heard about most of that sexual stuff, she'd never experienced very much of it first-hand. So the image of kissing a man she'd just met was odd.

  "Yes. This is home. I can't tell you how grateful I am to see it again," he told her, while trying to conceal a sigh.

  She shook off the images of putting her lips to his and looked through the windshield at the one-story ranch house, surrounded by grass and sitting in the middle of several acres of fenced land. It was much smaller than the house she'd imagined he would live in. And it was certainly smaller than the Danforth family's mansion, Crofthaven.

  As she drove down the paved driveway, past fences and a few grazing animals, she tried to judge the house's size. With clean lines and stucco exterior, it seemed very suburban for a rich-man's son. It was probably a three or four bedroom home and it looked fairly new.

  Really, she had no business thinking of a three-bedroom house as small. Although not a mansion; compared to the rat-infested twelve-by-twelve room in Atlanta where she'd grown up, this place would qualify as a castle.

  "What do you do with all this space?" She'd checked out the sea of grass that was the front yard, enclosed by both chain-link fence and pretty white-wood fence posts, and now saw a building in the distance that might be a garage or a barn in back of the main house.

  He chuckled at her question. "It's not much, I know. But it's a farm. My farm."

  "You mean you grow stuff here? Like fruit and vegetables that come out of the ground? Really?"

  She pulled up in front of the house and stopped. Turning to see why he hadn't answered her yet, Dana was shocked by the wide grin on his face. It made him look so appealing that she nearly threw herself into his arms.

  He chuckled, and she straightened her spine.

  "I've got a couple of peach trees," he said cheerfully. "So I guess that qualifies as fruit. Last summer I grew tomatoes and zucchini and tried growing one stalk of corn. Maybe you could count those as vegetables."

  Again he chuckled, but this time it seemed more like he was laughing at himself. "Mostly I raise a few sheep and some chickens. It's not a very big operation but I'm happy here." He opened his door and, unfolding his tall frame from the front seat, he stepped out and stretched.

  "Oh. Farm animals," she said, with what she figured was a truly stupid look on her face.

  Everything she knew about farming you could put in a teacup. A small one. She never figured that a rich guy like this would like living the country life. All of a sudden her investigator's instincts kicked in.

  In the long haul, she never trusted what she saw at first glance. And over her lifetime, she'd come to realize that rich people couldn't be trusted if it was a question of making money. So this whole domestic scene made her wary and nervous. What was he really doing way out here in the boondocks?

  Dana slipped the key from the ignition and carefully got out of the car. The sunset was casting shadows against the house and shrubbery. Nervous and wondering who else might be around, she turned to lock the car and immediately heard a crazy commotion behind her.

  Before she could turn back to see what was going on, Marcus yelled, "Dana! Watch out!"

  She swiveled, pulled her revolver out of its holster and grasped it firmly in her hand before she made the full turn.

  "No! For God's sake, Dana. Don't shoot him."

  The next thing she knew, she was flat on the ground, staring up at a ferocious set of snarling teeth.

  * * *

  Two

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  "Laddie, heel!" Marcus shouted. "Get off of her, you big lummox."

  Dana rolled out from under the collie and got to her feet. She checked her weapon and reholstered it while the oversize dog sat on his haunches, wagging his tail and breathing hard.

  "I'm sorry about that," Marcus quickly told her. "Are you hurt?"

  "I'm fine. What made him jump me that way? Is he a guard dog? I've never heard of anyone using a collie for that kind of thing."

  "Laddie? No. He's a big wimp. But he's good with the sheep." Marcus bent low to rub the dog's head and gave him a quick hug. "Did you miss me, boy?"

  Marcus stood and turned back to Dana. "He's really just a big puppy. I've tried to train him not to jump up on visitors, but obviously we have some more work to do."

  She lowered her chin and nodded once. "Right. Well, no harm done."

  He took a second to study her again. Dana was much more than just a bodyguard. Marc was sure of it.

  "That was some quick action with the gun, slick," he chided her. "Where'd you learn to draw like that?"

  Dana adjusted her jacket down over the holster again before she answered. "Would you believe anyone can do that with a lot of practice?"

  He narrowed his eyes at her.

  "No? I guess you wouldn't," she sighed. "Let's just say that handling weapons is one of my many talents."

  "Uh-huh. And driving is another one of your many talents?" The minute he said it, his mind wandered off to what other kind of talents she might possess. Or which ones he could bring out in her … if he had a chance to do all the things with her that he'd been imagining.

  "I learned to drive that way in bodyguard training. It's a good thing to know if you anticipate a potential kidnapping."

  That stopped the images. "Do you anticipate a kidnapping?"

  She shook her head. "It's not something a bodyguard can ever ignore. But in this case, I think that an execution-style killing might be more likely. Either way, we'll be prepared." She headed toward the front door.

  Man. Talk about throwing a wet blanket on his ardor. "I'll open up the house for you and give you a quick tour, but then I have to see to the animals," he finally managed after swallowing hard a couple of times.

  Her eyes widened and her brows shot up. "You take care of them yourself?"

  "Sure I do. Who else?" He suddenly thought back on the last couple of days. "Well, there is my neighbor who looks after them if I'm gone. He's a full-time farmer, not a hobby farmer like most of the rest of us around here."

  "I need to stay with you while you tend your animals," she told him. "If you want to do that before you clean up, then I'll go with you. What exactly do you have to do?"

  She was too much, this tough cookie with curly soft hair and a spine made of steel. Intelligent and athletic to be sure. But she also had a tiny hint of softness behind those big brown eyes.

  "You'll see." Marc unbuttoned the top button on his shirt and threw his jacket over the little bench beside the front door.

  Then he turned to Laddie. "Come on boy. Time to work for your supper."

  As they walked toward the sheep pasture, he began to wonder about Dan
a and her background. "Have you ever had a pet to take care of?"

  "Never. I don't have time for such things."

  "Not even when you were a kid?"

  She looked away and hesitated, apparently trying to decide how much of herself she was willing to reveal.

  At last she gave in and shrugged her shoulders. "Where I was raised, animals were too much of a luxury. I knew a couple of kids from the block who had dogs." Her eyes were dark and stormy. "But my father always used to say pets were a waste of money and that their families would be better off eating them rather than feeding them."

  Marc winced at the thought. "Where were you raised?"

  "Somewhere far removed from where you were brought up," she replied with sarcastic fervor. "Not all of us are lucky enough to have mansions and luxuries while we're growing up. The place where we lived was smaller than one of your guest bathrooms, I'm sure."

  "Hey. Take it easy. I didn't mean to insult you. It's just that the thought of eating a pet is a little hard for me. I have enough trouble thinking that someday I'll have to sell off some of my sheep. So far, all I've managed to do is have a man come in to shear them in the spring."

  "My father … thought about things a lot differently than your average man." A couple of beats went by in silence. "So, you think of your sheep as pets?" she asked with an abrupt change of topic.

  "I try not to, but sometimes it isn't easy to treat them like a business proposition, either."

  They'd arrived at the gate between pasture and pen. Marc swung open the gate and whistled for Laddie to get around behind the small herd and begin moving them toward the pen.

  "Come on," he urged her. "I'll show you how to set out their feed. And then you can learn how to clean out a chicken coop. Won't that be fun?"

  She threw him such an incredulous look that he had to laugh. Wherever she'd grown up, she certainly hadn't been raised on a farm.

  But the surprise was that she was willing to get her hands dirty. She dug right into the chores. He'd never met a woman quite like her.

  Dana was so far removed from the last woman in his life that it was almost a joke. Nothing, however, about that miserable affair had been a bit funny.

  * * *

  Dana took the last dish from Marcus, dried it and put it in the cabinet. She turned and watched him clean the counters. He was such an intense kind of guy that this domestic scene seemed slightly off.

  While he'd been in the shower, she'd done a cursory search of the house. No one else was here at the moment and, judging by the absence of anyone else's personal effects, he lived alone. She hadn't had the time to go through his papers or files, but she'd noted that his answering machine had an even dozen messages blinking.

  She wanted to find out more about him, before she did anymore digging. "Whatever made you decide to live on a hobby farm?"

  When he turned to her with a slightly embarrassed smile, she felt a lump forming in her throat. She couldn't figure out why the handsome and outgoing man's sudden red flush should bother her so much. But she felt her own pink-tinged blush rushing up from her chest and spreading over her neck and face.

  He looked good enough to eat for dessert. His hair was still wet from the shower and had darkened to a deep coffee color. He'd changed into a pair of jeans. No shirt. No shoes. Just a worn pair of work jeans.

  His well-earned muscles rippled with the slight sheen of sweat, making her want to touch him—to learn the ins and outs of every crevice on his body. He was the first man that had ever made her tremble at the sight of a bare chest.

  But she couldn't allow herself to dwell on his formidable body, she chided herself. He was her suspect and a potential informer. She had to play this smart.

  "I don't quite know how to answer you," he replied. "I work hard at my job and don't have many hobbies … anymore. I bought this place a couple of years ago because I thought it would make a good place to raise a family."

  He hung up his dish towel and sat on a stool at the kitchen counter. "About a year ago I … uh … changed my mind about the family. But then I thought the place seemed lonely without youngsters around, so I bought a few lambs. And here we are—a real working farm."

  "You don't mind the work?"

  "Not at all. It relaxes me. I've found I love to work the ground and care for the animals. It's so basic. So elemental and idyllic. And a small place like this doesn't take much time."

  She hung up her own towel. "I like working my body hard too. When I'm concentrating on the work, the rest of the world disappears. It's quite powerful."

  "Exactly." Marc tried not to react to her words, but the image of her working her powerful body while on top of his body just wouldn't go away.

  The silence between them was tense for a minute.

  Finally, Dana broke the ice. "I checked your security system while you were in the shower. It's a fairly good system. It should keep you safe."

  He couldn't help but chuckle. "I had it installed when I moved in, but I keep forgetting to set the darn thing."

  "Not while I'm on the case, you won't."

  "Will you be staying here with me?" It hadn't occurred to him that this was a twenty-four hour a day job.

  "Of course. Kidnappers and assassins don't exactly operate in broad daylight or when it's convenient for you."

  "But I'm going to be … uh … searching for evidence to prove my innocence." He didn't want anyone around if he had to break into someone's office looking for evidence.

  "Not a problem. I'll be right there with you."

  "But…"

  She didn't let him finish his sentence, but waved him off instead. "That's my job. I intend to keep you alive until the trial. And I don't care what it takes."

  He thought she was the most adorable "tough guy" he'd ever laid eyes on. If he was really in more danger than merely being framed, he couldn't have picked a better person to watch over him.

  "Do you receive mail out here?" she asked.

  "No. I have everything sent to my office."

  "That's good. It might take them a little while to figure out where you live. We have some time."

  "Time? Time for what?" Now if that wasn't a leading question, he didn't know what was. But he knew exactly where he wanted it to lead.

  "To prepare ourselves for an attack … more than just the alarm system. Do you own any weapons?"

  "Guns? No way. I've always figured that in case of a break in, I'd probably get shot with my own gun."

  "How about Laddie? Will he bark if someone comes around to let us know there's danger?"

  "Hmm." He thought of the overgrown, fluffy puppy and grinned. "Maybe. If we can keep him out of the house. He likes to sleep on the suede sofa. And he's a pretty heavy sleeper, too."

  Dana threw her hands on her hips and grimaced. "For crying out loud. Haven't you ever considered the possibility of a kidnapping before? You're a wealthy and intelligent man, Marcus. That sort of thing can easily happen if you don't pay attention."

  An unwelcome memory snuck up and jabbed him. "Yeah, I know that. One of my cousins disappeared a few years back. Victoria was a pain in the neck when we were kids, but she had turned into quite a beautiful teenager. The family figured when she was missing for a while that it was a kidnapping, but no ransom demand was ever made."

  "Disappeared? Was she ever found?"

  He slowly shook his head. "Maybe she just ran away from home. But I doubt it. She didn't seem unhappy." Marc stood and stretched. "I guess I have been a little careless. But somehow you just don't think things like that can ever happen to you."

  "Well then, I'd like to suggest that we spend no more time here at your farm than we have to. I'll go out in a while and move my car out of sight. I'll put it into the barn next to your SUV for the night. And we'll keep the drapes drawn and lights dim. Tomorrow we can make other arrangements. All right?"

  "Yes, I guess so. I do have the animals to worry about, however. But maybe I can ask my neighbor to keep an eye on them again."
br />   "Good idea. And I think you should let your answering machine pick up all your calls from now on." Dana stood and shook the kinks out of her arms and legs.

  She looked like a raw bundle of energy packaged into a long and beautiful body. The very air around her shivered with the powerful and electric vibes she threw off. Man, would he like to capture a little of that energy. She seemed so vital and sensual.

  Marc couldn't remember lusting after a woman the way he'd been lusting after Dana … not since … way back as a horny teenager. He'd been aroused since the first moment he'd seen her standing in the parking lot.

  "By the way," she interrupted his thoughts. "When I was checking your security, I noticed that you had a few phone messages on your answering machine. Maybe you should listen to them so you can clear the machine for more."

  "I imagine that's my family wondering how I'm holding up after my unfortunate incarceration."

  "You have a big family, don't you?"

  "Enormous. There were five kids in my immediate family. And my aunt and uncle have four kids … plus a great guy they took in, who seems like just another brother now."

  He headed toward the den, but kept talking over his shoulder. "A couple of months ago we found out about an adult sister that none of us had known anything about. And just lately we've had a rash of weddings and engagements, adding spouses and potential spouses, with kids and babies coming along faster than you can think."

  "Whew! How do keep them all straight?" She tagged behind him down the hall.

  "It's easy when you're born into it. I'm not sure how all the newcomers are going to get along with everyone else, though." Marc flipped on the light in the den and went to his desk. "Do you have any siblings? Or were you lucky enough to be an only child?"

  Dana wasn't sure how to answer that. Just how much of herself did she dare lay open to him? Strangely enough, she really wanted to tell him the truth about herself.

  This wasn't a deep undercover operation. She'd been on several of those in the past. But her boss was convinced that Marcus was truly just a pawn of the drug cartel's and not a major player in their operation.