Benny smiled, lips curving up, but his eyes remained cold and dead. “David, do you have anywhere to go? Anywhere you want to run off to?”
David looked up, shocked. “Uh... no...”
Benny shrugged. Without a word he strolled out of the room, and the four shocked young people still at the table looked from one to the other, not a one of them sure how to break the silence.
Luke spoke first. “I came back because he was going to kill you for it. He knows I won’t leave without you.”
“What does that have to do with...”
Katie stepped in, “You won’t leave without David,” she said simply, as though Dani were a particularly slow child. “All he has to hold on to is David, who is not particularly inclined, I suspect, to go anywhere.”
David looked from one to the other, his eyes so cold and calculating that for a moment Dani forgot he was on her side. Kinda. “So, it’s my fault?”
“And what of you, Ms. Linnear?” Luke reached for the bottle and poured the dregs into his cup. “Which one of us are you bound to? Who holds your loyalties?”
“My family holds my loyalties, Mr. Milligan,” she said after a moment, her voice cool and unfriendly, “my family, my honor, and my self-interests. If you all stay, I am, at best, inconvenienced. If I leave... my family has long been dependent on this one for its fortunes, Mr. Milligan. We’ve suckled at the Rineheart teat for many years. It would be a devastation.”
Luke looked up at Jimmy for a long moment. Jimmy smiled and left. They were alone.
“What was that all about?” Katie asked.
“Just reminding him that he didn’t have to look up someone. The old man said we had the run of the place...” He stood, took the cup with one hand, and held out the other to Dani. “I for one am curious about the ‘no tape’ concession.”
Dani stood and smiled. “Give us a good head start and... knock twice when you get there, won’t you?”
“You’re blushing.” David observed, and pointed to her face.
“She’s engaged,” Katie said, and stood to grab another bottle off the rack behind them. “You ever heard of ‘blushing brides’?”
Luke leaned in and kissed Dani’s neck, just below the earlobe. His breath was hot against her neck, sending little ripples of awareness all the way down to her toes.
Oh, yes. She was supposed to be in love with him.
Funny how it had been nearly impossible to remember that when he’d ruined her entire rescue attempt.
He whispered quietly in her ear, “I need a computer,” and pulled the lobe into his mouth.
Damn, that felt good.
Wait... a computer?
Her mind turned to mush.
“NOT HERE,” DANI MUTTERED when her brain kicked into gear again. “Weren’t we on the way to the library?”
“The library. Of course...” Luke’s face was inches from her own, so close that she could fall into those eyes and get lost there forever. His hand, she noticed, was still creeping up inside her shirt.
“Will you cut that out?” She swatted his hand away, then grabbed it for safekeeping. “We’ll see you later...” she muttered in passing Katie, who looked as though she was trying not to laugh. David, she noticed, wasn’t happy in the least. Screw him. He deserves to be miserable. Stupid kid brother. Idiot.
“Should I have saved him some pizza?” Luke asked as she towed him out into the hallway, and she swatted at him, laughing, though she was still mad at him. Funny how she could be positively giddy in his arms, and still want to punch him in the face. All at the same time.
She shoved him through the library doorway, letting the door bang shut behind her. Hard. There wasn’t a person in the house who didn’t know where they were right now. Granted, they likely knew before she’d even gotten to the library. It just felt better this way. Like she was in control if she were the one to tell them, instead of having Benny’s spies doing all the work.
Luke half-stumbled, and righted himself in an instant, coming around to greet her, eyes wary, hands in a somewhat defensive stance. Tang Soo Do. Interesting.
Suddenly sparring with him sounded quite...fun. He seemed to think so too, for suddenly she was in his arms. She squeaked a little as he pulled her in and started kissing along her neck in the most blissful way.
Wait, why should he get all the fun?
“Why the hell did you come back?” Dani hissed while her hands found their way under his shirt. Her leg curled up behind his as he leaned her against the credenza. His hands lost no time in exploring her body as his mouth returned to her neck.
“Benny put word on the street that you marry or die,” he whispered back into her ear, and tore the back of her shirt free of her jeans. She was starting to regret dressing up for dinner. It seemed this would have been much easier in her shorts. His strong hands caressed and massaged and tore into her all at once as he pressed her more firmly into himself.
And most assuredly he was happy to see her.
Anger melted away, replaced by desire... and a trace of fear. Benny’s going to kill me? It didn’t compute. And it was hard to think when he touched her like that.
Dani shoved the question aside for a minute. He was there. She was there. They were alone. Who knew how long they had, and how many people were listening. If she was going to be humiliated about this later, she was going to at least take a moment to enjoy what he was doing.
Her body arched against his. Oh, hell yeah. She was lost in him, deeply entrenched in him. Her body didn’t know that this was all for show, and she wasn’t about to tell it otherwise. So what if he was only doing this to be able to talk in whispers, so that they could plan. So that they could figure out a better escape, because she apparently had been an idiot to not leave when he did earlier in the day. But even this was risky. After the recorded sex, it was impossible to say with any certainty that what they said wouldn’t be overheard. Was she truly safe?
Should she really be indulging in this right now?
But her body refused to be fooled. It knew primal lust and need, and it knew that she wanted him, more than anyone or anything. If she died tomorrow, at least she would have this tonight. So she allowed herself to enjoy the feeling of his chest under her hands, the muscles that rippled, the light scattering of coarse hair. She let herself breathe in his passion. Let his hands on her skin burn in pleasant ways, let his lips excite her passions. She moaned before she could stop herself.
“How do you know?” she whispered, trying to distance herself from the act, to pay attention to the life and death decisions they were discussing, but he was so... oh, yeah. He knew where to touch a girl...
“Randy told me,” Luke said between kisses, his lips against her ear. “Word gets out fast. Apparently even the good guys have an ear to the ground.”
“Or a mole!” It came out louder than she intended, and she covered by gripping him hard through his pants so that he was the one to moan. Her turn to whisper in his ear. “Tell me there’s someone inside we can trust.”