Page 13 of Fire and Ice

Maia scooted pass him and, to Jack's annoyance, acted like nothing had happened. "I believe you were giving me the tour?"

Jack nodded curtly and said, "This over here is a weapons testing room."

Maia looked at him dubiously. "Good God, who the heck are you? Bruce Wayne?"

***

Maia pounded the sand as she ran along the rolling beach, trying to erase Jack's intoxicating kiss from her mind. In a moment of temporary insanity, she had let him kiss her—quite thoroughly. She had a feeling there would be more moments like that. It was difficult to resist him. The instant her body touched his, she melted. She was so screwed.

Jack's offer echoed in her head. "Like I said, you have free run of the place for as long as you need to lie low. Contrary to what you think, you do not have to sleep with me, which isn't to say I won't try to get you into my bed. I want to fuck you, but what I don't want is for you to sleep with me out of gratitude." He delivered the statement tersely and without the warmth she had seen in his eyes right before he kissed her.

Maia picked up her pace just as she felt some rumblings behind her. She saw a couple of beach walkers and other runners scrambling away. Just then an open-top Jeep Wrangler, with three very raucous occupants, sped by her, narrowly missing some folks a few feet in front of her.

One of them saw her and signaled for the driver to turn around.

From what Grace, Jack's housekeeper, had said, this was a very quiet town. Grace's sister ran a fine goods store. The town was probably just a one mile stretch of mom and pop shops.

Which made Maia think that these rough heads were outsiders like her.

The jeep skidded diagonally to a stop a few feet from her, the engine left running as all three riders jumped down and intercepted her.

Maia started calculating how she was going to play this: tough chick or damsel-in-distress?

"Hey darlin' ! Want some company?" The tallest of the three boomed by way of greeting.

"Oh look, she's nice and sweaty. I like sweaty," the bald one said with a leer.

"Aw Syd, stop scaring the girl," the third one, of average height with brown hair, said.

"Plea...Please....I don't want an...any trouble," Maia squeaked in a scared, shaky voice obviously going with option number two. "Leave me...me... alone."

Syd, the bald one, grabbed both her arms and pulled her back against his front. He leaned in and swiped his tongue along her neck to lick the sweat.

Ugh ... gross!

"Please...don't ..." Damn! She was this close to kicking his ass.

"Man, she's as sweet as honey. Bet her cunt is just as sweet."

Maia noticed a crowd forming behind the jeep. Spectators seemed to be fighting amongst themselves to take action against these bozos. Unfortunately, these three jerks looked scary as hell. One woman in the crowd yelled bravely, "Let her go, you assholes!"

The taller one moved forward, and let the back of his hand skim over her breast.

"No...no...no..." Shit, how much longer could she stand this, Maia wondered furiously. If she took these three down, her cover would be blown.

"What the fuck is going on here?" A loud voice thundered as the tires of a bike skidded to a halt, whipping up some sand.

The newcomer was tall, well over six feet. His thick corded muscles rippled beneath a tight white tee, his powerful-looking legs in khaki cargo shorts. He was wearing aviator shades and his thick brown hair was cut really short.

"Nothing, detective, just getting to know the locals," the tall guy said while backing away from her. Syd, released her too. In fact, all three men backed away.

The hot guy is a cop?

"Looks like harassment to me," Maia's rescuer snapped. "And you guys are stupid enough to do it in front of so many witnesses?" Then looking at her, he asked gently, "Are you all right, honey?"

Maia nodded, pretending to be too frightened to speak.

"You want to press charges?"

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