Emily had been taken through a concealed door in the ladies’ room when she had accompanied Jansen’s second wife, who had pretended to be upset and ill.
That woman had been diseased, Risa knew. Risa had spent years seeing the manipulating evil that had filled Jansen’s second wife as well as Jansen.
“I think I’ll just stay out of the downstairs ladies’ room to be certain,” Risa told Micah. “I only need to be at the party a few hours; then I can leave. It’s just a hundred people, her best friends and their guests, so there shouldn’t be any surprises there.”
“And unless Orion is intimately acquainted with your grandmother, then we should have no problems,” Micah told her as he handled the vehicle through the early evening traffic crush.
“I rather doubt it,” she said as she watched the traffic nervously. It was running fast and aggressive as it usually did at this time of the day. If it had been up to Risa, she would have left earlier or later. She hadn’t considered the traffic, though, when they left. Her mind had been on other things.
Things such as the erection beneath Micah’s jeans, and the flash of a fantasy that had run through her mind. The same fantasy that had followed her into her dreams last night. Her on her knees, his rough, aroused voice telling her to take him into her mouth. How to pleasure him.
She almost shivered, only barely managed to restrain the urge. She wanted that. She wanted to experience everything she could experience with him while he was in her life. And yet there was still the fear. She’d already been with him once, she’d felt his possession, knew he wouldn’t hurt her, but the fear was still there, and it wasn’t that easy to push out of her head. Because with the fantasies, there was also a mix of the nightmares. They intruded at the worst possible times, reminded her that pain could very well await her.
And she still wasn’t certain whether Micah wanted her because he found her desirable or because he felt sorry for her. She knew a man could become hard and could even climax whether he truly desired a woman or not, according to the Internet research she had done the day before while Micah was talking to several members of his team in the kitchen.
One site on military personnel had even stated that adrenaline alone could cause a man to get an erection and after the erection was attained, finding release wasn’t that difficult.
“You’re thinking too hard?” Micah stated, a question in his voice.
Glancing over at him, she felt a flush mounting in her face before she turned quickly away from him.
“Just quiet,” she said, trying to cover her embarrassment.
She was sitting here thinking about his erections while he was driving her to her grandmother’s home. Obviously she had little or no self-control, despite the promise to herself that she would force herself to stop focusing on the needs that she couldn’t seem to halt.
It hadn’t been this bad before Micah, except in her sleep.
“Well now, if that isn’t a pretty blush,” he crooned, and the sound of his voice was like black velvet. Or black magic. Completely tempting and forbidden. “Maybe you’ll tell me what you were thinking about when I get you home this evening.”
Home. She cleared her throat and risked another glance at him. There was a hint of a smile at his lips. It made them look even more kissable than before.
“Maybe,” she said breathlessly, remembering how he had convinced her to sit in his lap earlier, and the results of it. “You may have a chance at convincing me.”
He chuckled. No sooner had the sound left his chest than he tensed. Risa saw his hands clenching on the steering wheel as the car jerked, nearly throwing them into the lane of traffic next to them.
His eyes jerked to the dash, then the road. His hands had a white-knuckled grip on the car as he cursed viciously.
“Hold on,” he growled, his voice still calm, the vehicle his attempts to steer it.
Risa felt her heart rise to her throat. It was obvious there was a problem. The car was shuddering, the steering wheel jerking in his grip as he attempted to steer onto the center median.
The car wasn’t wanting to be steered. The steering wheel kept jerking to the left as he attempted to pull it to the right. He jerked the gearshift down, tore the parking brake up. There was a scream of tires against the blacktop as the car seemed to jump partially into the opposite lane.
Micah was fighting the wheel as horns blared around him. A black SUV plowed into the side of the car, throwing it back into the lane, then onto the median.
Risa fought the screams rising in her throat as she heard the sound of glass shattering. Her hands were braced against the seat, her fingers digging into the cushioned side as they bumped over a dip a second before the car tilted.
Something hit the back, throwing her into the door as she wondered frantically where the air bags were. Their seat belts were latched securely but weren’t protecting Micah from the glass that flew around them as the front end hit a cement barrier and the windshield shattered.
“Micah!” she screamed out his name as the car rocked to a stop, smoke drifting from the engine as he slumped against the seat.
She reached for him, her hands almost touching him when her door was jerked open and hard hands reached for her.
She turned, expecting Nik or Travis, one of the men she had seen from Micah’s team. It was a stranger reaching for her. Dark glasses, dark hair. A vehicle was parked too close to the car, doors open as strong hands gripped her arm and pulled at her.
“Micah!” she screamed his name as hysteria began to take over.
She clutched at his arm, her nails digging into the leather of his jacket as she clawed for purchase and fought the hands trying to tear her from the vehicle.