Elizabeth didn’t make excuses for Cassie’s behavior. None was needed. But she was gently letting Cassie know she was stepping beyond her bounds.

“I thought you seemed awful old for your age,” Mike teased her then. “Come on, ladies, I’m older than eight and I need a comfortable chair for visiting. Serena, don’t you and Mica have homemade cookies cooling?”

Serena moved to her husband, her arm wrapping around his waist as she reached up and kissed his cheek softly. “We do indeed,” she said with a smile before turning back to Elizabeth and Cassie. “Come on in and we’ll get you settled in and get some cookies. Cassie, do you like gingerbread?”

Serena ushered Cassie and Elizabeth into the house as Dash and Mike trailed behind. Dash couldn’t help but admire the other woman and how easily she helped Cassie and Elizabeth to feel comfortable.

“Thanks, buddy,” Dash breathed as they entered the house. “It’s been a long haul for them.”

“I can understand that.” Mike shook his head slowly. “Damn, Dash, I’ve had nightmares since you called, thinking about those two and what could have happened before you caught up with them. I don’t know how they survived.”

Dash knew he hadn’t slept much himself before finding Cassie and Elizabeth. And he was starting to feel it.

Dash grunted. “They don’t come close to my nightmares.”

“Come on into the study and we’ll talk.” Mike nodded down a long hallway off the garage entryway.

“I’ve been getting some reports together for you.”

Dash nodded. “Let me talk to Elizabeth first and I’ll be right there.”

He stepped into the living room. Cassie was sitting on her knees in front of the television by Mica, absorbed in the news report and interviews of the Feline Breeds. Elizabeth stood by the kitchen doorway, watching as Serena made coffee.

“Elizabeth.” He said her name softly, gaining her attention. She turned to him, her long hair swaying at her waist, her eyes dark and haunted. God, he hated that look, hated knowing that even now her fears assailed her. In one hand she gripped his service revolver, though she was careful to keep it behind her back so the girls couldn’t see it. She moved to him slowly, her deep blue eyes watching him carefully. She hadn’t relaxed her guard, hadn’t given in to her need to just rest since he had found her other than the few hours she had slept in the motel. She was still running on nerves and fear and it was making him crazy. She needed her rest. Something inside him demanded that she was too weak, too frail, for the hungers rising inside him.

“I need to talk to Mike for a bit, but I’ll be just down the hall.” He drew her back to the entryway, glancing at the revolver. “You want to keep it or you want me to hold it for you?”

She glanced back at Cassie then at the revolver. Dash watched as she licked her lips nervously before extending the weapon to him. When she raised her eyes, he wanted to howl in misery at the fear and insecurity he saw there.

“Elizabeth,” he whispered gently as he took the weapon with one hand, the other lifting to her cheek to touch her pale skin. Soft skin. Skin he wanted to spend the rest of his days learning the feel of. “I promise you. No one can track us here. No one will find us.”

She swallowed as she nodded faintly. But the shadows in her eyes didn’t lessen. Dash reached out beside him and extinguished the light in the entryway, dimming the area as she stared at him in shock.

“I want to kiss you,” he whispered as he backed her against the wall, pleased by the sudden flare of interest in her eyes.

Oh yes, he thought, she remembered how hot that last kiss had been, how good it felt. It made her eyes glitter with something other than fear.

“Do you know how soft your lips are?” He was careful to keep his voice from rumbling as he lowered his head to her. “How warm and sweet you tasted?”

Before she could answer he allowed his tongue to lick over her lips softly. Dash heard her breath catch, watched warm color flush her cheeks. He was hard and hurting, his cock throbbing imperatively as he fought to keep the caress light. If he kissed her as he wanted to, he feared he would never stop.

“Dash.” Her hands lifted to his chest as though to push him away. Her fingers curled against his shirt as her breasts began to rise and fall with her increased breathing.

“I could eat you up, Elizabeth,” he told her, allowing a small measure of his hunger to reflect in his voice.

“While I was in that damned drug-induced coma, my only link to the world was Cassie’s letters. And she talked about you. How pretty you were. How kind and good. Slowly, you ceased to be Cassie’s mother, though. I didn’t see a maternal figure, I saw a woman. A woman I needed to hold. To touch. I want to touch you real bad, Elizabeth. So bad my hands almost shake with it.”

He was taking a chance. It could be too soon to let her see just how hungry he was for her. But damn if he wasn’t tired of waiting, tired of needing alone. He wanted her to think about it. To think about him. To know it was coming.

“No.” She shook her head, her eyes flaring with a sense of female panic as he put his claim into words.

“Yes, Elizabeth.” Dash kept his voice low, but let it rumble with his arousal. “I lived for you and Cassie. But while I fought to live I dreamed, and it was this I dreamed of.”

His lips covered hers swiftly, his tongue taking advantage of her gasp and sweeping in commandingly. He had asked for the caress earlier that morning, now he demanded. He conquered, he licked and stroked her tongue and gloried in her instant, if hesitant, response. She was shy. Wary. She wouldn’t give in to the heat pulsing between them easily. But she was curious enough about it to allow the kiss. She leaned into him slightly, her body tense. She was determined to try to control it, to explain it before she would give in to it. For Dash, it was enough that he could feel the hunger inside her for now. The time would come later to explore it more fully. He allowed his lips to sip from her, his tongue to stroke hers, allowing the heat to build slowly. One hand gripped her hip as he held her to him, his chest cushioning her full breasts as they rose and fell harshly. Her shy tongue tangled with his as her hands splayed flat against the tight muscles of his abdomen. He was rapidly losing his mind in her kiss. The building sensations were sweeping through him, buzzing through his mind, his senses exploding with greedy lust until he heard Cassie. Her voice rose as she questioned Serena about the location of her mother.

Pulling away from her was one of the hardest things he had ever done in his life. But he did, reluctantly, forcing his eyes open, staring into the shocked depths of hers. Her breasts rose and fell swiftly, her nipples hard little points beneath the cloth of her blouse. Her hands gripped his shirt, her delicate nails piercing against his skin as though it was a lifeline, as she fought for breath. His hand framed her cheek, his thumb running over the slightly swollen curve of her lips. They were reddened, fuller now from his caress. Her eyelids looked heavy, her cheeks flushed and he could smell the essence of her need beginning to build. The slick juices would be preparing her, heating her sweet pussy, preparing the way for him. His cock throbbed heavily at that thought.

“Think about that, Elizabeth,” he growled. “And then ask yourself if you taste passion there, or betrayal.”

Before she could speak, Dash turned and stalked down the short hallway beside them, leaving Elizabeth staring in shock, in reluctant hunger. And, he hoped, some small measure of trust.

Elizabeth watched Dash walk away. She kept her back pressed to the wall, stilled an instinctive need to call him back to her, and watched his powerful body stalk into another room. Her hand rose slowly to her lips. They tingled, bursting with heat from the touch of his, her mouth filled with the taste of him.

She couldn’t seem to shake the mood the kiss had put her in. She returned to the kitchen, talked to Serena Toler, watched the kids play, and all the while she remembered Dash’s kiss. His touch. She thought about the way he had come out of the shower, pinning her to the bathroom door earlier that day. His cock had been fiery, rock-hard, pressing against her stomach insistently as he stared down at her, eyes glittering with hunger. Lust was too tame a word for what she saw in his gaze. Finally, Serena showed her and Cassie to their rooms. Dash had already brought in their clothes and placed them in the large bedroom. The queen-sized bed was turned down invitingly; the Victorian flowered quilt and matching sheets brought a pain of longing to her chest. For one brief second she was at home again. The home her parents had left her. The small two-story brick house she had lovingly decorated after her divorce from Dane, filled with sunshine and Cassie’s laughter, and a sense of roots. And Victorian flowered sheets and quilts on the bed. Pillows plumped. A little girl’s frilly bedroom with the canopied bed and white oak furniture. Her home. And it was gone now. Forever.

Taking a hard, shuddering breath, she opened her eyes. The guest room held heavy, dark furniture, comfortable and elegant with a thick forest-green carpeting as the rest of the house held. There was a small French door leading to the wrap-around balcony. A Queen Anne chair sat beside it.

“Come on, Cassie.” Elizabeth moved to the large tote Dash had brought in from the Hummer. “Let’s get ready for bed.”

She gathered the little girl’s gown and robe and knocked softly on the door that connected her room to Dash’s. When there was no answer she opened the door and entered it. Getting Cassie ready for bed wasn’t hard. The little girl was exhausted. She curled under the warm quilts of the bed half an hour later and settled right into sleep. Within minutes she had made one of the soft, mewling little sounds that always brought a smile to Elizabeth’s face. She shook her head at the sound. This new situation was so out of sync with the past two years that Elizabeth couldn’t settle down. The awareness of danger that had surrounded her for so long was no longer present. She sensed the change on every level of her being. As though with Dash’s arrival, there was now hope. How, she didn’t know. But she felt the sense of hope building around her even as she instinctively doubted it. How could anything change so quickly just from the presence of one man?

But why not? He had changed something in her as well. In the space of twenty-four hours he had made her realize she was more than just Cassie’s mother. She was a woman, too. And it had been a long time, a very long time, since she had felt that surge of feminine need and the thick, juicy arousal pooling between her thighs. Her pussy ached. It had never ached like this, even during Dane’s courtship of her. She hadn’t been on fire from a single kiss. She hadn’t wanted him so quickly or so heatedly as she suddenly realized she wanted Dash Sinclair.

Chapter Nine

Elizabeth watched Cassie the next afternoon with the Toler’s little girl, Mica, as they played in the backyard. They were throwing snowballs and romping through the snow, laughter echoing into the brightly lit kitchen where she sat with a cup of coffee.

Dash and Mike had left earlier for the study after explaining to Elizabeth that they were looking into safe houses for her and Cassie, as well as information on Grange. There had been an air of secretiveness between the two men, as though they were delving more deeply into both assignments than they were telling her. But it didn’t matter the questions she asked, she had learned no more than that. Not that the two men hadn’t answered all her questions. They had. It was just a feeling, a sense, that there was more.

She watched now as Cassie and Mica rolled in the snow, laughter and mock screams exchanged with the ferocity of little animals. Cassie had her teeth locked in Mica’s jacket as the other little girl laughed uncontrollably.

“Mica was so happy to have another little girl to play with. I’m glad you were able to make it so soon.”

Serena Toler sat down across from her, a steaming cup of coffee in her hand, careful not to block Elizabeth’s view of the girls.