The Crime of Love 1 Read online

  “Ignore it,” I begged, pushing my hips up to meet his hand and he nodded, burying his face in my neck again, his teeth nipping at me playfully.

  But the phone kept ringing, and with a growl he sat up and grabbed it off the end of the bed where he’d left it. “Fuck. I knew it. Gray.”

  I didn’t know what that meant, but it didn’t sound good. The sight of the name on his phone’s readout had clearly shattered the mood anyway, and I sat up, hastily pulling the halter up over my chest and tugging my skirt back into place.

  Mac stood up and paced away as he answered, his face set in grimly determined lines. “It’s me.”

  To distract myself, I grabbed the remote control from the bedside table and clicked on the television. When I switched away from the motel info channel, I sat up straight, my mouth hanging open.

  There I was on the screen, my latest college ID photo plastered for the world to see. A headline above it read: MEDIA HEIRESS MISSING.

  Mac had turned around when he heard my shocked gasp, and his eyes widened when he realized what he was seeing. I muted the sound and flipped through the local channels quickly—the story was on every single one; my father pleading into the cameras for my abductor to release me.

  “I’m here,” Mac said gruffly, returning his attention to the call.

  I couldn’t hear the voice on the other end of the line very well, but his angry tone was clear enough. “I have to call you back,” Mac said abruptly, and ended the call.

  I turned on the sound again, and we watched together as a reporter on yet another channel thrust a microphone at Dad. “My only daughter, Paige Ashley Thompson, had been kidnapped,” he said. He looked shaken, so much older than I had ever seen him look. But where was my mother? Maybe she was shielding Teddy from the media circus—he’d be terrified by the throng of people gathered in the driveway with their cameras and lights and shouted questions. That or she didn’t even know I was missing since they barely talked to one another these days without an attorney present. “These are trying times and I’ve dealt with difficulty before, but nothing like this. I urge anyone who knows anything about Paige to please let the authorities know. And I want everyone to know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do just to get her home safely.”

  “Kirk said this would be kept quiet,” Mac said softly, disbelieving. “Shit’s hitting the fan.”

  I swallowed hard, my heart pounding, terrified all over again. I didn’t know how much Mac had heard of my conversation with my dad when I called him from the pay phone. Mac could be in serious danger, all because I didn’t follow his instructions and called my dad. I know calling my dad was the right thing to do at the time, but now…I found myself on the verge of tears. If the police found him, he’d be locked up, and if Kirk found him… Oh God.

  Without warning, Mac tapped at his phone, his jaw set in that same grim line. When someone answered, he said, “Gray, listen. We’ve done business many times before and have a good working relationship. But this case is different. Special circumstances. Some things happened that…long story short, the deal is off. Not bringing her to Kirk. And yeah, yeah, I no we agreed, no tracks, no emotional involvement. But it is what it is.” There was a long back and forth between them. Obviously, whoever this Gray was, he tried to change Mac’s mind.

  “Can’t give you more details, Gray,” he added. “Tell Kirk the deal is off. The girl is mine.”

  I wrapped my arms around my knees to keep from shaking, and shivered when Mac held the phone away from his ear.

  I could hear the voice on the other end very clearly this time, a menacing, icy voice. “I hope you realize the consequences of your actions, you little shit. You’ll pay for this, Ryan. With your life.”

  Chapter Five

  Mac tossed the phone on the bed as I stared at him in horror. Before I could say a word, he gave me a long, fretful glance. “Gotta get you home.”

  My mouth hung wide open. My lips still felt tender and slightly bruised from his kisses. “Did someone just threaten to kill you?”

  “It’s exactly why you need to be far, far away from here, and from me,” Mac argued, raking both hands through his hair. I’d already messed it up when we kissing, and now his hair was sticking up in seventeen directions.

  I stood up and grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the bed. “Let’s think about this. The last thing we should do is panic.”

  He sat down next to me, but his shoulders were squared off as if he was expecting a blow, and I longed to soothe the tension in his firmly set jaw. “Thinking is exactly what I’m doing. Shit’s hitting the fan, we gotta get you safe now.”

  I buried my face in my hands, shaking my head. “I want to help. I don’t want to be responsible if something happens to you.”

  “You can’t help me, Paige. And I’m not going to be responsible if something happens to you!” Mac insisted, and pulled me close. I let myself relax into the heat of his body, glad for the reassuring strength of his arms around me. It was hard to believe that just minutes ago we’d been about to make love, completely oblivious to anything but the dizzying pleasure building between us.

  “But if you take me home, won’t they be expecting that? Even waiting for you there? Can we just think this through, please?” I asked after a moment.

  Mac was staring at the TV, where my father was now being interviewed by another reporter. Picking up the remote, I turned it off.

  “There’s nothing to think about,” he argued. He stood up again, pacing back and forth like a caged animal. “The police are crawling all over your neighborhood now—there’s no safer place in the world to take you. Kirk wouldn’t try anything. You need to go to the police and go home.”

  “But what about you?” Sickening visions of Mac driving off into a hail of gunfire raced through my head.

  “Don’t worry about me. It’s not the first time, it’s not the last.”

  I shook my head, stunned, as my eyes filled with tears. Maybe Mac wasn’t exactly a card-carrying Boy Scout, but he hadn’t signed up to lose his life, not over this, not over me.

  He kneeled in front of me then, taking my hands in his, and waited until I looked him in the eye. “Angel eyes, you know this is the right thing to do.”

  “For me, maybe,” I said softly.

  “Yes, for you.” He stood up, pulling me to my feet. “That’s what this is about.”

  As if there was no “right” thing for him. As if he didn’t deserve a better ending than finding himself facing the business end of some criminal boss’s gun.

  Still, when I realized he was cleaning up the forgotten food from our meal as if he was getting ready to leave, I grabbed his arm. “You don’t want to wait till morning?” I said, trying to buy more time.

  “You can sleep in the car,” he said, stuffing trash into the waste can. “Driving after dark is safer—less chances to be seen. I’ll try to drop you off somewhere where I can get away safely.”

  There was no arguing with him. I went into the bathroom to clean up and take a minute to myself, but the image of my father pleading into the camera for my safe return was playing on an endless loop in my head. I knew my family was worried. The whole situation was a mess, and yet I couldn’t forget the way Mac had kissed me, or the look of surprised wonder in his eyes when he realized I wanted him too. Had no one else ever made him feel wanted? Hadn’t anyone taken the time to be with him rather than just use him?

  After splashing cold water on my face and combing my fingers through my hair, I emerged to find him ready to go, his duffel bag slung over one arm.

  “It’s for the best, Paige,” he said carefully, and I nodded. But surprisingly, a large part of me didn’t really believe that.

  I followed him to the door and gasped when he opened it—just three feet away stood a uniformed police officer, the snub gray nose of his gun trained directly on Mac.

  “It’s okay, miss,” he said, cocking his head to one side. “Step right over here. You’re safe now, more help is on the
way.”

  Mac was frozen in place, his hands in midair. I took a step forward, unsure of what to do, and then the cop started talking again. “You’re going to jail for this, buddy, for more years than you want to count. Kidnapping the heiress to a media empire? Not your smartest move let me tell you. Keep those hands up! Over this way, miss.”

  I think it was the nasty little smirk that convinced me to move. Without another thought, I took another step—and then used my right leg to kick him as hard as I could in the groin. He doubled over with a grunt of pain, dropping his gun, which Mac snatched quickly from the ground.

  “Help me,” I hissed at Mac, who was gaping at me like I’d sprouted antlers and a tail.

  Dropping his duffel bag, he leaned down and between us, we wrestled the cop into the room. I kicked the door shut behind me and ran to the bathroom for a washcloth—the cop was still groaning, but he was getting a few choice words in between grunts.

  I was just about to stuff the washcloth into his mouth when he barked out, “The other units—,” and Mac leaned over him, swinging at the cop’s temple with all his strength behind it. The cop gurgled something incomprehensible and collapsed into a heap on the floor.

  For a moment, we were both frozen, staring at the awkward bulk of khaki uniform on the floor, his hands between his legs and a giant purple shiner forming beside one eye. “Paige, what the fuck just happened?” Mac said, and stared at me with a combination of guilt and horror.

  Something very close to hysteria was bubbling inside me like carbonation, and I bit back a helpless laugh. “It…just kind of happened.”

  “Christ, you’re even feistier than I thought. This has consequences. There may not be a way back,” Mac said, even as he dropped to his knees, patting the officer’s side for his handcuffs.

  “I know. That’s why I did it,” I said. I was shaking all over thanks to adrenaline, and it was going to take me down in a minute if I didn’t get it together.

  “Why?” He had the cop turned on his side and was handcuffing his wrists together while I watched.

  “Because…because I pictured you stuck in some jail cell for the rest of your life and it was just too much,” I said, and Mac shook his head with an incredulous smile.

  Then he tossed the cop’s walkie-talkie on the bed once he’d turned it off. “If there are really more cops on the way…”

  I nodded. We pushed and pulled the unconscious officer into the bathroom, where I gently stuffed the washcloth into his slack mouth and Mac cuffed him to the sink. He shut the bathroom door behind us, and took my hand.

  “We need a place to lay low before we figure this thing out. Good thing one of my good friends has a place nearby.”

  “Where are we heading?”

  “Vegas, baby.”

  ~

  I had climbed into the front seat beside Mac when we left the motel, and he didn’t argue. He was making steady progress toward Las Vegas on the dark roads, and every once in a while I would lay my hand on his. Each time, he smiled at me, squeezing my fingers gently. Once bringing them to his mouth to kiss them softly.

  I must have dozed off, though, because one moment I was staring at the black ribbon of highway and the next Mac was standing outside the passenger door, gently tapping my shoulder. “Wake up,” he whispered, and I stretched, yawning.

  “Where are we?”

  “Just outside the city limits.” He helped me out of the car, and steered me straight toward a room—I guess he’d checked in while I was still asleep. I was so drowsy it took me a minute to realize he was wearing thick, black glasses and a baseball cap.

  “That’s some disguise,” I said once we were inside, and Mac smirked at me.

  “Better than nothing.” He took them off and laid them on the desk, gesturing at the two queen beds. He wasn’t looking at me when he said, “Think really hard if you want to share a bed with me this time.”

  I toed off my sandals and took a step closer to him. The air in the room was suddenly electric with tension. “Why?”

  He looked straight at me, and I could see the desire in his eyes. “Because if I’m in bed with you, your legs won’t carry you very far from the cops the next morning.”

  Up until now, my life had been quite monotone. I’d never been one for one-night stands but there was something about this man that I couldn’t have resisted if I’d tried. He was dark, broody and it fascinated me. I took another step closer, and rubbed my knee against his thigh. “I’ve never fucked a criminal before.”

  He took me by the shoulders, bending down to let his words whisper against my lips. “Well, then you don’t know what you’ve been missing. But you’ll find out soon enough.”

  “I can hardly wait.” And then I kissed him, reaching up to thread my fingers through his hair.

  I swear he growled a low, needy sound that thundered through me as he crushed me against him. I melted into him, letting him pick me up and carry me to the bed as heat curled into a flame in my core. Whatever happened to him next—whatever happened to us next—I wanted this.

  “It’s not too late,” he whispered in my ear, desire flooding his beautiful blue eyes.

  “For what?”

  “You can still go home even though you’d face a few charges,” Mac said as he lay me down on the bed and balanced his hard body above me.

  “Screw going home,” I insisted, and took his face in my hands. “Now shut up and kiss me.”

  I could feel his laugh vibrating against my mouth, and tilted my hips up to grind against his. His laugh turned into another growl, and I could tell playtime was over.

  Gripping me firmly by the shoulders, he brought his mouth down hard, crushing my soft lips to his. He groaned when my tongue met his, exploring him with equal passion.

  “Mac, I…”

  “Shhh,” he whispered, his hands sliding under my top and along the skin of my back as he pulled me closer to him. We kissed until we were both breathless, one kiss feeding into the next. I wanted him so much I was trembling with need, running my hands all over every inch of him I could reach.

  I moaned, rubbing my slight frame against him. He tore his mouth from mine, running a hot trail of kisses to my ear.

  “So fucking sensitive,” he groaned. My hands slid over his chest, rubbing his skin through the T-shirt.

  “Don’t stop.” My voice came out ragged, breathless, and from his grunts and moans, I could tell Mac was unraveling fast.

  Impatiently, I pushed him off me and reached for the hem of his T-shirt, tugging at it. “Don’t be in a rush, angel eyes,” Mac whispered, even though he shrugged off the shirt and threw it somewhere.

  “I’ll try,” I answered, spreading my palms over his gloriously firm chest. It was as tan as the rest of him, sparse, dark hair arrowed down between his pecs. I ran one finger over a broad, flat nipple and smiled when he groaned.

  “Put your arms around my neck,” he grunted, sliding his hands under my bottom and scooping me up. I complied, my legs encircling his waist. My fingers stroked his hair as I nuzzled his neck, leaving wet kisses against his jaw.

  “My turn,” he said, his tone full of promise. I sat up and let him untie the halter top of my dress, and blushed when he pushed it down to reveal my bare breasts. His gaze lingered on them hungrily.

  And then he was bending forward, using his tongue to trace the contour of one nipple, and I shivered with how good it felt. Shamelessly thrusting my chest toward him, wanting more, I wound one bare leg around his, tugging him closer. The denim rasped against my bare skin. “I need to…get those jeans off you.” My voice broke halfway through as he started to suck, and I lost track of what I was trying to say. The only thought in my head was more.

  “Won’t be long now.” Mac’s words vibrated against the damp skin of my breast, and I couldn’t help myself, I pulled his head closer. He wasn’t doing anything I hadn’t experienced before, but somehow it was so different, every sensation an electric current arcing through me. I groaned when he su
cked harder, writhing underneath him.

  “Please, Mac,” I begged, torn between pushing him away so I could get the rest of his clothes off and keeping him there forever to lavish my breasts.

  In answer, he slid a hand up one of my thighs, his fingertips awakening new parts of me. When he cupped his hand around my ass, I lifted up and let him tug off my panties. My dress went over my head a moment later, and then I was lying there completely bare to him, breathing hard and so aroused, I knew I was already wet.

  “A little something to keep in mind,” he said gruffly, his eyes huge and dark with need. As he moved lower and lower, starting at my throat, he left a hot trail of kisses and nipping teasing bites all the way back to my breasts. I shuddered with each new wave of sensation, wriggling beneath him until he took my wrists in one hand and pinned them over my head. “Just know that if we proceed, you’ll belong to me…forever.” It was nothing but a gruff murmur, yet it went through me like a lightning strike, and I moaned out loud.

  His mouth moved softly over my bare belly and each hipbone, his tongue trailing feelings of fire in its wake, and when he moved lower, I opened my legs, knowing what he wanted—and wanting it just as badly. He wasted no time in bringing his mouth to my core. When he spread open the slick folds with one hand, I shook with pure lust. He placed my legs onto his shoulders, hands splayed out on my buttocks so he could bury his face completely in me.

  His five o’clock shadow was rough and hot on the inside of my thighs, and I spread my legs wider, waiting for the moment when he would slide his tongue through the dark, wet center of me. I bucked when it came, my hips arching helplessly into his mouth, and I could feel his smile against my thigh.

  “Oh God, Mac,” I moaned, my fingers twisting in his hair.

  “Don’t stop,” I pleaded as he used his mouth on me, lovingly exploring each fold and the sensitive core, dancing away from where I really wanted it until he couldn’t stop my squirming anymore.