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Trust Me
Caroline Cross
She had trusted him wtih her heart and been devestated. Now she had to trust him with her life. Lilah Cantrell: She couldn't imagine anything worse than being held in a Third World prison. Until she set eyes on Dominic Steele–the very first man who'd stirred her desires and broken her heart.Dominic Steele: The ex-U.S. Navy Seal turned bodyguard-for-hire tried to keep his rescue mission strictly professional, but Lilah–and the memories of their shared history–awakened his long-dormant protective instincts…and passion. Could their newfound trust, born of desperation, sustain them once they reached safety? Or was that when the real danger would begin?
Trust Me
Caroline Cross
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
This is a book about second chances.
I owe mine to two terrific editors, Julie Barrett and
Melissa Jeglinski. Thanks for giving me the chance to
write this book and for always making me look better.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
One
The shriek of the bolt being drawn in the cell block door shattered the sultry afternoon silence.
Lilah jerked her head up. For a second, she remained frozen. Then she scrambled upright, scooted to the far edge of the thin mat that served as her bed and pressed herself back against the rough concrete wall. She braced herself as the door at the end of the corridor crashed open.
Against a dim spill of light, a pair of jail guards staggered into sight. A man hung limply between them. His head lolled. His feet trailed in the dust. As the guards dragged him forward, Lilah stared at tanned, muscular arms, the hard biceps stretching the sleeves of a faded olive T-shirt. At inky hair that gleamed even in the murky illumination. At the trickle of blood beading at the edge of a determined mouth.
With a long-suffering grunt, the jailers hoisted their burden a little higher. The prisoner’s head tilted sideways, allowing her a quick view of a straight blade of a nose and the strong clean line of a cheekbone.
All of which abruptly seemed familiar.
Her heart leapt even as her mind reeled. No. It can’t be. What would the love of her reckless youth, the masculine yardstick against whom she’d once measured all others, the man who at times still invaded her sleep and hijacked her dreams—what would he be doing here, in the farthest reaches of the Caribbean, in remote San Timoteo, at one of El Presidente’s private jails?
Her mind must’ve snapped. It was the only explanation that made sense, Lilah decided. She’d tried to be brave, to hold on and be strong, but finally she’d lost it. What’s worse, she was hallucinating.
And yet….
The guards dumped the newcomer onto the adjoining cell’s concrete floor. One of them lingered long enough to give their newest captive a vicious kick to the ribs, then exited, slamming first the cell door and then the corridor door behind him.
Every nerve in Lilah’s body screamed for action. Yet the harsh lessons of the past month had reinforced her innate sense of caution. Ignoring the pounding of her heart, she forced herself to stay where she was, to wait for the sounds of the bolt slamming home and her captors’ footsteps receding. Then, unable to remain still another instant, she launched herself off the bed and across the cell.
She reached the unyielding metal bars, her gaze locked on her fellow prisoner’s face as she slid to her knees. Her pulse thrummed wildly in her ears as she studied the straight eyebrows, the strong chin and the killer cheekbones.
This close, there could be no doubt. The years may have added width to his shoulders, heft to his muscles, a few character lines to his handsome face, but it was him.
Dominic Devlin Steele.
Stunned, she tried to think. What on earth could he be doing here? Was it sheer coincidence? An incredible twist of fate?
That hardly seemed probable. Yet the only other explanation was that he was here deliberately, and the only person likely to orchestrate that would be her grandmother. Try as she might, Lilah couldn’t imagine a world where Abigail Anson Clarke Cantrell Trayburne Sommers’s path would cross Dominic Steele’s.
Much less why he’d agree to put himself in harm’s way for her.
Then she realized none of it mattered. After a month of fear, loneliness and growing desperation, it was simply wonderful to see a familiar face. Even his.
Especially his.
She reached through the bars. “Dominic? It’s me. Lilah. Lilah Cantrell.” Fingers trembling, she touched her hand to his cheek.
On some marginal level, she registered that his skin was reassuringly warm. That the faint prickle of his beard against her palm tickled. And that nearly a decade had done nothing to dim the hot little thrill of pleasure that touching him brought her.
But mostly her focus was all on the fact that he was far, far too still. “I can’t believe it’s really you. That you’re here, of all places. The thing is, you need to wake up. Wake up and talk to me. Or at least stop being so still. Please?”
He didn’t stir. Biting her bottom lip, she tried to decide what to do now, only to have panic flood her when she realized she didn’t have a clue. Her fright gave birth to a lump in her throat and the next thing she knew, she had to press her lips together to muffle a sudden sob.
Her weakness shamed her. So what if seeing someone—anything—familiar emphasized how demoralizing the past month’s incarceration had been? So what if she’d begun to lose hope that she’d ever see home again? Or that, as hard as she’d tried to convince herself it didn’t matter, she’d started to wonder whether she’d even be missed?
She was a Cantrell. Ever since she could remember she’d been warned against the dangers of self-indulgence, the perils of losing control.
More to the point, you aren’t the one lying bruised and unconscious on a dirty floor. She should be focused on how to aid Dominic, not kneeling and wringing her hands like a vapid heroine in a B movie. She could just imagine what Gran would say. “For heaven’s sake, child!” the familiar, autocratic voice declared impatiently in her head. “Quit your sniveling and at least try to live up to your family name!”
Like a dash of cold water, imagining her grandmother’s disdain steadied her. Swallowing hard, Lilah took a deep breath to force back the tidal wave of emotion that had so nearly swamped her. To her relief, the tightness in her throat eased and her hands quit shaking. Heartened, she wasted no time turning her attention back to Dominic.
First things first, she decided. She’d do her best to see if she could pinpoint where he was injured; then she’d worry about what to do about it.
She set about examining him. Careful to keep her touch as light as a kiss of sunlight, she skimmed her fingertips over those areas of his head and face that she could reach through the bars, checking for knots or blood or anything else that seemed out of place. Next came his neck and throat. Then she cautiously probed the side of him nearest to her, checking each rib, the long valley of his spine, the solid curves of arm and shoulder.
Nothing. Except for the heart-stopping discovery that he was all taut skin and steely muscle, exactly the way she remembered, she remained as clueless as she’d been minutes earlier about his possible injuries.
She fought the return of despair. “Come on, Nicky,” she whispered, her old pet name for him inadvertently slipping off her tongue as she rubbed the skin-warmed cotton of his shirt beneath her fingertips. “Quit playing around. I need you. I really, really need you. Wake up. Please please please wake up—”
“Jeez, Li. Chill.”
“Oh!” Her gaze jerked to Dominic’s face and she found herself staring into a pair of familiar grass-green eyes. “You’re awake!”
“Yeah.” He remained motionless, simply staring at her for several long seconds. Then he gingerly lifted his head an inch off the ground, gave it a slight, tentative shake and winced. “Lucky me.” He squeezed his eyes shut again, as if even the cell’s shadowy light was more than he could tolerate.
Lilah felt a fresh stab of alarm. What if he had a concussion or a skull fracture? Or—she recalled the boot to the side he’d taken and shuddered—broken ribs or a fractured spleen? Heaven help them both, he could have internal bleeding and not even know it. Her throat dry, she swallowed. “Where does it hurt?”
“Where doesn’t it?” he muttered. “Still—” he lifted an admonishing finger “—I’ve survived worse, so don’t go getting your panties in a twist, okay?” With a resigned-sounding sigh, he opened his eyes, raised himself up on his elbow and reached out to lay one large, warm hand over hers where it clutched the bars. “Trust me. I’m all right. I just need a minute.”
Trust me. The words washed over her, an echo from their past. How many times had he said just that, after daring her to do something dangerous, forbidden, but oh so tantalizing? How many times had she gazed into those fabulous eyes and lost a battle with temptation?
How many times had his touch made her brain fog while her body had come alive with desire?
Enough to remember him forever.
He released her hand unexpectedly to roll onto his side, breaking her wild thoughts. Grimacing, he flexed his jaw and touched an exploratory fingertip to his cut lip. He scrubbed the blood away with the back of his hand. Then, in one lithe move, he climbed to his feet.
Frozen in place, fighting to appear calm, she watched him take stock. His big muscular body bunched and flexed as he swiveled his head, rolled his shoulders, bounced lightly to test thighs, calves and knees. He rubbed briefly at a spot above his left pectoral and then sent her a pleased look. “Good news, princess. I think I’m gonna live.”
Princess. The intimate nickname, uttered in that casual, coolly amused tone of voice, felt like a slap to the face. Suddenly aware that she was still kneeling at his feet like some obedient harem girl, she scrambled up.
Oblivious to her, he took a slow look around, making a complete revolution as he took note of the solitary barred window set high in the far wall, the worn, wafer-thin woven pads atop the concrete slab ledges that passed for beds, the grate-covered holes that comprised the Third World bathroom facilities.
He gave a soundless whistle. “Man. You really must’ve pissed off the wrong person. I’ve seen prisons more cheerful than this.” His gaze swung back to her. For a second, something almost dangerous gleamed in his eyes and then his teeth flashed white, destroying that impression. “Wait. My mistake. This is a prison.”
He was making a joke. A joke. Here she’d been terrified out of her wits, afraid he might be irreparably injured, utterly overcome at seeing him again—and he was poking fun at their surroundings.
She stiffened. Humiliation warred with indignation, and indignation won. Not that she intended to let on. No way would she risk what little dignity she still possessed by letting on that he could still get to her.
Besides, she had bigger fish to fry, since his little inventory of his working body parts, coupled with his critique of the accommodations, had given her time to think.
“Your being here isn’t a coincidence, is it?” she said, recalling his first words to her and his utter lack of surprise at her presence in a desolate jail cell in an obscure little island country a million miles from home. “As a matter of fact,” she went on, ignoring his penetrating eyes to glance pointedly at the bruise starting to darken one strong cheekbone and the lip still oozing blood, “you deliberately did something to get yourself thrown in here because you knew this was where I was being held.”
Silence. Then his battered mouth quirked. “Score one for the rich girl.”
For a second, she had a powerful urge to hit him. Not that she had a hope of reaching him, but still….
Horrified, she took a firm grip on the bars that separated them, reminding herself yet again that she was a Cantrell and as such she would not, could not, lose her temper. Especially not now, when there was so much she burned to know. “How did you find me? How did you even know I was here in the first place? Did my grandmother send you? And why would you come? Why would you put yourself at risk like this?”
Logic insisted his presence simply couldn’t be a coincidence, but she still couldn’t seem to make sense of it.
After all, even ignoring the astronomical odds against him and her grandmother connecting, it had been ten years since his and Lilah’s last encounter. Ten years since she’d told him he’d better go and he’d looked at her with the same sort of nonchalant expression that currently graced his face. Ten years since he’d crushed her heart with a careless shrug and the comment that it was “her loss” before stalking out of her life forever.
Even now, the memory hurt. It made the past seem not so very long ago. As did the infuriating way he was currently considering her, so unruffled, so superior, so—so male. “Explain what you’re doing here. Now.”
“Tell you what, Li.” As cool as a wolf in winter, he padded over, braced his big hands above hers on the bars and leaned forward, his sheer size and proximity making her stomach tumble. “Do us both a favor, sweetheart. Take a deep breath, shut your pretty mouth and I’ll tell you everything I know.”
Two
Denver, Colorado
Five days earlier
“Hey.” Dominic ducked his head into his older brother’s spacious office at Steele Security headquarters. “You got a minute?”
Gabriel, who was seated at his granite-topped desk, glanced up, then resumed sorting through a stack of paperwork. “Sure. Come on in.”
Dom strolled across the flagstone floor. Like all the offices in the ultramodern, low-slung building tucked away in the city’s warehouse district, this one boasted a wall of glass that looked out on an interior courtyard. Today, as befitted January in the Rockies, the outside world was a brilliant sea of white, courtesy of the foot of fresh snow that had fallen overnight. “Taggart says we’re turning down a case.” After Gabe, Taggart was number two in the Steele brothers birth order hierarchy.
“That’s right.” Gabe’s tone was matter-of-fact. “The client’s coming in at two. I’m going to recommend she contact Allied.”
He stopped, rocking back on the heels of his Italian leather boots. “Why?”
“We don’t have the manpower.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Nope.” Gabe made a quick notation on a page and set it to one side. “Taggart thinks he may finally have a lead on the elusive Ms. Bowen. Josh is going to be tied up with the Romero trial in Seattle for at least two weeks, and everyone else is either hip deep in the Dallas industrial espionage case or working the economic summit in London. That leaves me, and as much as I wouldn’t mind some field work, I’m needed here at the moment.”
Dominic studied his brother. To an outsider, Gabe would no doubt appear calm and dispassionate, an image deliberately encouraged by his choice of attire—a starched white shirt, rep tie and severe charcoal suit that just happened to be polar opposites of Dom’s own laid-back black slacks and green linen shirt. Only someone who knew him well—like a brother—would be likely to notice the sudden tension lining his mouth and shadowing his eyes.
But then, both Gabe and Taggart were wound pretty tight; Dom had long ago concluded that his two older brothers had spent way too much time in the line of duty—no doubt at the old man’s command—and had missed out on hanging loose and living a little.
Not him. Dom had decided early on that life was too short to spend his time all stressed out worrying about things that might never happen and bracing for every possible disaster. Besides, somebody had to keep Steele One and Steele Two from imploding, and while Taggart was most likely a lost cause, Dom still had hopes for Gabe.
His esteemed older brother just needed an occasional reminder that the world wouldn’t end if he enjoyed himself once in a while. Or—he thought as he planted himself in one of the luxe leather chairs facing Gabe’s desk—didn’t try to stand in the way of somebody else enjoying himself.
“Okay, so everybody’s busy,” Dom said, stretching out his long legs. “What’s that make me? The invisible man?”
Gabe frowned down at the paper before him. “You’re still recovering. It’s only been two months since the shooting. You need more time.”
“No, I don’t. I feel fine. Hell, I feel more than fine. What with physical therapy, working on my house and all the time I’ve spent out on the course at Fort Carson, I’m in the best shape of my life. For sure I’m in better shape than some desk-riding cowboys I know.”
Gabe stoically ignored the insult. “Forget it.”
Dom considered his brother’s dismissive tone and reminded himself he was no longer the brash, hell-raising teenager who’d once felt compelled to challenge Gabe’s “I’m-four-years-older-than-you” authority.
Okay, so his big brother had founded Steele Security and been the driving force in establishing its reputation as a top-notch organization that could handle anything from high-profile protection to undercover investigations to locating missing persons. But Dom, along with Gabe, Taggart and two more of the nine Steele brothers, had since contributed to the company’s growing prestige and were now full partners in the enterprise.
As such, he got a say in things, whether Gabe liked it or not. “I don’t think I want to forget about it,” he said evenly.
