Harper Allen - Shotgun Daddy

“Then you’re off this case.” She held his gaze, hoping she was half as good as he was at concealing tenseness. “I hired you, and if you force me to, I can fire you.”

His expression hardened. “Like I said earlier, handovers never go according to plan. If one of those thugs gets spooked, all hell could break loose within a matter of seconds.”

“And me not showing up could be the very thing that spooks them,” Caro countered. “I mean it, Gabe. I go along on the handover or you’re off the negotiation. I owe Jess that much.”

“No offense, Riggs, but I can’t say I’m sorry Caro’s finally seen the light.” Dixon turned to Kanin. “You’ve got, what, Larry—ten men available? Couldn’t we wait until they spring Jess and then surround the scumbags?”

Kanin nodded judiciously. “I think it’s—”

“You win.”

Ignoring everyone else, Gabe covered the few feet between him and Caro with a stride. She looked up into his face as his grip bit into her shoulders, and felt a moment’s apprehension at the spark of anger in his gaze.

“But you knew you would, didn’t you, princess,” he said, his tone pitched for her ears only. “From the moment we first met you’ve counted on always getting what you want from me—whether it’s a ride to Aspen, one last hostage negotiating job, or going against my instincts and taking you along on a handover.”

His smile was tight. “You should know that I’ve got a limit where you’re concerned, Caro. Do you get me, princess?”

He was so close to her that as he spoke the warmth of his breath touched the corners of Caro’s lips. The apprehension she’d been feeling was cancelled out by another emotion.

Gabe Riggs didn’t answer to any man anymore, she realized shakily. Where once his power had seemed kept on a firm leash, sometime during his self-imposed isolation that leash had been gnawed through and discarded forever.

He was more dangerous than she’d thought. And she was less able to resist his dangerous appeal than she’d so rashly promised herself she would be.

She felt herself sway an infinitesimal distance toward him. The air around them seemed suddenly heavy. Slow heat suffused her and she felt the warmth of faint color touch her cheeks.

“I get you, Gabriel,” she said, her tone as barely audible as his had been. “But how am I going to know when you’ve reached that limit?”

The amber eyes watching her blinked. The hard grip on her shoulders slid fractionally down her arms and then stopped. Today when she’d confronted him under the merciless desert sun, the man hadn’t seemed to notice the temperature or to be bothered by her unexpected appearance, she thought—but Gabe Riggs was bothered now.

And she could tell by just looking at him that he was feeling the same sudden heat that she was.

He released her.

“You won’t. You’ll just know when you’ve pushed me past it,” he said tonelessly. He turned away, his jaw rigid.

“The clock’s ticking, princess. Let’s go save the man you’re going to marry.”

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