Eileen Nauman - Dare To Love

Angry with Boyce and disgruntled by rampant feelings Matt thought had died within him long ago, he quietly left the room. But not before shedding his own jacket and placing it across Kai’s shoulders in an effort to keep her warm.

* * *

FORTY MINUTES LATER Matt reentered the room with another blanket and a small sack of supplies. Exhaustion shadowed his gray eyes as he covered her with the blanket. Guilt plunged through him. She had curled up into a tight fetal position for protection. Tucking the blanket around her body, he felt the pulse at the base of her neck again. This time it wasn’t so jumpy. That was a good sign.

As gently as possible, Matt brought her arm up to examine it. There had been no reason to mar her flesh. Her skin was smooth, reminding him of the velvet quality of a ripe peach. Reaching down, he pulled out a bottle of antiseptic, some cotton and gauze from the sack at his feet.

Kai moaned. She had felt someone’s hand on her lower arm. Nausea brought her back to consciousness. Drowsily she forced open her eyes. She looked up only to meet his concerned pewter gaze. A rush of warmth flowed through her, and immediately Kai relaxed. She was safe with him. Though she opened her mouth to speak, only a croak came out.

His gaze grew more intense as he studied her in those heart-stopping seconds. “Water?”

Kai gave a weak nod of her head. Why did her body feel as if she’d been in an accident? She was vaguely aware of Taylor as he changed his position and gently gathered her into his arms. Kai’s head lolled against the hard, well-muscled wall of his chest. She felt as if she had sawdust in place of her bones.

“You’re weak,” he cautioned her, supporting her so that he could maneuver the paper cup to her parted lips.

Kai was conscious of his strong, slow heartbeat. It gave her a sense of stability. Eagerly she consumed four cups of water before her thirst was quenched. She felt his hand tremble as he awkwardly caressed her hair in a gesture meant to give her some comfort. Her mind told her she should remain on guard, and she stiffened in his embrace. He smelled of rain, and that combined with the masculine scent of his body was like a perfume to her reawakening senses. She saw the corners of his sensual mouth curve slightly upward.

“More?”

His voice vibrated through her, telling Kai this man was different from his companions. She groped to understand why he was being kind. And yet, he was her captor.

“N-no.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Awful….”

He carefully placed her back on the bed. “They shot you up with too much of the drug,” he said as he briskly placed the blankets over her once again. He lifted her arm and rested it across his thigh so that he could cleanse the rope wound.

Kai licked her lips and forced her jigsaw thoughts into some semblance of order. “Please, what’s going on here? Where am I?”

She stared up at him, her vision continuing to improve. His face was somewhat narrow. There was an intensity to his handsomeness. It showed in his well-placed cheekbones, which gave his face breadth. She saw his mouth tighten when she asked the questions. His nose had been broken, her nurse’s observation told her—at least twice. He glanced up briefly from his duties, and Kai detected a haunted expression in his eyes before he veiled it. She tensed then.

Matt froze, realizing he must have hurt her. “Sorry,” he said gruffly, “but these cuts have to be cleaned.”

Kai avoided his stare. “I’ll try to be braver.”

“For being Susan Easton, you sure aren’t the society witch I thought you’d be.”

“Susan?”

“Yeah. You’re Susan Easton. Or has the drug erased your memory, too?” he taunted.

“N-no. I’m not Susan. I’m Kai Easton. Susan is my half sister.”

He reared back, surprise mirrored in his expression. Then, just as suddenly, the flicker of shock was gone, and only that gray, opaque stare remained.

“Susan Easton has red hair, she is five feet seven inches tall and weighs one hundred twenty pounds. And she jogs that same route every day, seven days a week. Boyce has been keeping track of her movements for three weeks now…. He couldn’t have made that kind of mistake.” An then Matt pulled out a black-and-white photo from the pocket of his shirt. It was a poor, partly blurred photo of Susan jogging in one of her tailored outfits. He held it near Kai’s face. “You do look similar with your hair pulled back by a sweatband,” he groused, shoving the photo into his pocket once more.

“Susan didn’t jog today because it’s raining. And I just got home on leave yesterday. I borrowed one of her outfits because I forgot to pack mine.”

Matt combed his long, strong-looking fingers through his hair. “If you’re telling the truth…dammit.”

Kai would have burst out laughing if the situation hadn’t been so serious. “Did you kidnap the wrong woman?” she managed dryly.

He shrugged his broad shoulders. “It doesn’t really matter,” he muttered. “You’re an Easton. Susan just happened to be our target because she was the most visible.” Then regret came to his eyes. “You’re the physical-therapist nurse.”

“Yes.”

Ruefully Matt shook his head. “For all your red hair and freckles, you sure as hell don’t have any Irish luck, lady.”

Kai grimaced, watching as he babied the lacerations around her wrists with antiseptic. “Believe me, ever since my father remarried, my luck’s gone down the tube.” She bit back any more of a response, realizing how quickly and intimately they had established a rapport. Kai withdrew her wrist. He raised his chin, staring at her. In that fleeting second he appeared…different. Kai could easily imagine him in a military uniform or in a business suit. Everything about him shouted that he was a man who was above the act he had taken part in.

“You haven’t answered my questions. What’s going to happen to me?” she asked, her voice hoarse.

“We’ve kidnapped you for money.”

“My father will pay it. Any amount.”

“Four million?”

Kai drew in a sharp breath. “Four—”

“You’re worth it,” he muttered cryptically, reclaiming her wrist.

Anger tinged her drugged state. “But why? I’m just a nurse! I’m a U.S. naval officer who lives in Bethesda, Maryland. This doesn’t make sense, Mr.—”

“Matt Taylor’s the name.”

Her look was scathing. “Is that your real name?” What kidnapper would stupidly give her his real name? She could relay that vital information to the police once they freed her.

“That’s as close as you’re going to get.”

“At least you have some manners, even if you do have to resort to lying.”

His look made her feel as if she’d just been shot.

“Look, Kai, the game we’re playing with each other is necessary. I’m sorry we kidnapped you and not your sister.”

Suddenly Kai sobbed. It was unlike her to be overemotional. She had been a nurse for almost six years after winning her navy commission out of college. She loved her work and her patients. But this was too much. They had wanted Susan—not her. Her lips parted as tears rolled helplessly from her eyes. “I—I’ve never hurt anyone. At least not intentionally. And neither has Susan.” Well, that was a bald-faced lie. Susan effectively cut up everyone with her royally bred tongue. When she was in one of her shrewish moods, she made everyone who didn’t come up—or down—to her standards feel like a case of the urban blight. And Frank’s perverse moods made Susan’s look like the pranks of a child in kindergarten.

Kai turned her head toward the wall, trying to escape the mortification of crying in front of her captor. She felt Matt Taylor’s fingers come to rest on her chin, gently drawing her head back toward him to meet his gaze. She stared up into his anguished gray eyes.