Susan Mallery - Living On The Edge

Awareness.

Of her. The scent of her skin, the way she moved. In the blink of an eye she went from someone he had to protect to a woman.

Dammit all to hell, he thought grimly. This was not allowed. He didn’t get involved with clients. Not ever.

“I got you some clothes,” he said and retraced his steps to the kitchen.

He heard her follow. When she’d cleared the control room, he hit the remote to reset the security system, then stopped by the package.

“One of my men came by with it,” he told her.

She looked confused. “I don’t understand.”

“What’s so complicated? I sent one of my guys to your place to get you some things.”

“A man was in my condo?”

She sounded more surprised than outraged. Tanner pushed the package toward her.

“I doubt he spent a lot of time in your underwear drawer. You’ve been wearing what you have on for days. I thought you’d like something clean.”

“I do. Thank you. I’m just not sure…How did he get in? What if Christopher is watching the building?”

“I’m guessing your ex had someone there. Don’t worry. No one saw Angel.”

“And how did he get in?”

Tanner shrugged. “He has his ways. Go on—” he pointed to her room “—take a shower, change your clothes. Then we’ll eat. I have a lot of questions I need to ask you about your ex-husband.”

“Sure. Okay.” She picked up the package, then smiled. “Thanks.”

With that, she walked down the hall. Tanner waited until she disappeared before heading into the control room. He watched the small red dot move on the screen. When it eased from the bedroom to the bathroom, he had to force himself to keep his attention on work and not on the thought of a naked woman stepping into the shower.

A three-hour nap and a shower had gone a long way to perking up Madison. The guy Tanner had sent to her house had brought back the basics—jeans, T-shirts, a couple of nightgowns and a few toiletries. She tried not to freak out at the thought of a strange man going through her underwear drawer and reminded herself that after all she’d been through, having a stranger grabbing bras and panties was the least of her problems.

After washing out the panties and bra she’d been wearing for the past ten days, she dried her hair. As she put away her blow-dryer, she realized she could smell something cooking. The delicious scent of tomato sauce and garlic had her mouth watering and her stomach growling. She felt like a cartoon animal floating along on the smell as she followed the scent down the hall and into the kitchen.

Tanner stood at the stove. He turned as she entered and smiled. She wasn’t sure what shocked her more—that he was cooking or the smile itself. Both were unexpected, although the curve of his mouth made her uneasy in ways she couldn’t define.

“Nothing fancy,” he told her. “Spaghetti, meat sauce and a salad.”

Her stomach growled again. She suddenly felt faint with hunger. “At this point I’d eat anything.”

He jerked his head toward the table. “Then have a seat.”

The round table had already been set with place mats, napkins and flatware. She settled in a chair just as he brought over a large bowl of pasta and another of salad.

“What do you want to drink?” he asked. “We have all the basics.”

“Just water,” she answered, as her stomach tightened in anticipation of food.

“Dig in,” he told her.

She decided to take him at his word. She scooped up a large serving of the meat-covered pasta and dumped it on her plate. Salad could wait—right now she wanted something substantial.

The first bite was heavenly. The perfect blend of spices, the tender yet firm pasta. She couldn’t chew fast enough.

Tanner returned with a bottle of water and set it next to her plate. She nodded her thanks but didn’t stop eating. It was only after she’d finished the serving of pasta and reached for the salad that she glanced at him.

“Sorry to be such a pig.”

“Don’t sweat it.” He took the seat opposite hers and served himself some pasta. “Why didn’t you eat while you were kidnapped? Did you think a hunger strike would get their attention?”

She shrugged, choosing not to read any criticism into his words. “I never planned on avoiding food. For the first couple of days I was too scared to eat. Every time I tried, it wouldn’t stay down. Eventually I was able to handle very small portions. A half a slice of toast in the morning. A cup of soup in the afternoon. Some people eat more when they’re stressed—I eat less. Those people didn’t believe me when I told them. They threatened to feed me themselves, using force, but it never came to that.”

He studied her as she spoke. She would love to know what he was thinking, but then again, maybe not. Tanner had made it clear she wasn’t his favorite person on the planet. Why hear more of the same?

They ate in silence. She had two servings of salad and three of pasta. When she’d finished, she leaned back in her chair and sighed.

“Better?” he asked.

She nodded. “Much. Thanks for cooking. You did a great job.”

He smiled again. “Yeah, I can boil up pasta better than almost anyone.”

The humor intrigued her. So far, her host had been all business. The smile softened his expression and added light to his eyes. It almost made him approachable. He was still dangerous, but it was nice to know there was a regular person under all that killer edge.

“I have some questions,” he said. “I want to get as much information on your ex-husband as possible. The more you tell me, the more it will help with the investigation.”

“Absolutely. I’ll tell you everything.”

The smile faded as if it had never existed and the warrior returned. He grabbed a notepad from the counter.

“Start at the beginning,” he said. “Where did you and Hilliard meet?”

“My father brought Christopher home for dinner one evening,” Madison said. “They’d met at a conference. Christopher was very impressive. His parents had been killed while he was still in graduate school, but he’d managed to get his Ph.D. and run the family firm at the same time. My father admired his talent, his work ethic.”

Tanner scribbled some notes. “What did you admire?”

“Excuse me?”

“You married the guy. You must have liked something you saw.”

Right. Of course. Madison considered the question and wondered how to answer it. For her, those days were a lifetime ago. Maybe someone else’s lifetime.

“I was a different person back then,” she said slowly. Tension filled her body. Rather than sit and feel awkward, she stood and began to clear the table. “Different things impressed me. Christopher was smart and charming and sophisticated. He swept me off my feet. We were engaged two months after we met, and married three months after that. I didn’t get to know the real man until sometime later.”

“Who is the real man?”

Nothing in Tanner’s voice gave away what he was thinking. Madison rinsed the dishes and loaded the dishwasher as she tried to form an answer.

How could she explain what was only a feeling?

“He has a dark side. He likes to gamble. He could drop a million dollars at a table and not even blink. He also has a temper. He can fly into a rage without warning.” She was careful to speak without actually dwelling on the past. She didn’t want to disappear into those memories.

“People tended to cross him only one time. He made sure they didn’t do it twice,” she said.

“Interesting, but not exactly the characteristics of someone willing to kidnap or kill.”

She dried her hands on a towel and faced him. “You don’t believe me?”