Flawless Danger (The Spencer & Sione #1) (46 page)

As soon as he put his lips on hers, something strange claimed her, and for a moment, she felt like the sad girl sitting on the bench in front of the reflecting pool, and all she wanted was for him to be the man she’d thought he was, the man who would protect her and take care of her.

She felt his hands moving up and down her back, and when he slipped his tongue into her mouth, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to push him away. She heard a soft slam. Then another slam seconds later and then a third slam.

Breaking the kiss, Ben stepped back a bit, withdrawing his embrace. “Well, sweet girl, sounds like we might have some visitors.”

The words were barely out of Ben’s mouth when there was a wild, desperate banging on the front door.

“Spencer!” It was a muffled, demanding cry. “Spencer! Are you in there!”

“Well, well, well,” Ben said. “Your hero is here, sweet girl.”

Panic and relief surging through her, Spencer froze, afraid to believe what she’d heard, afraid she was just wishing and hoping and praying John had come. Looking toward the opened door leading into the living room, Spencer turned from Ben, anxious to let John know she was there and alive and grateful to God that he had come to rescue her.

“Not so fast, sweet girl.” Ben grabbed her and pulled her back to him.

Trembling, she gazed up at him, waiting, wondering what his final words to her would be, unsure what she wanted to hear.

“You still owe me,” Ben said. “And you will pay for your mistakes. I won’t let you get away with what you did to me. But, fortunately for you, right now is not the best time for vengeance.”

Spencer stared at him, hoping there was some defiance in her gaze and not the fear she felt, the trepidation caused by the amused malice in his dark eyes.

“So, here is what’s going to happen. I’m going to get out of here. After Sione breaks that door down and comes rushing in here to save you, he’ll probably ask you what happened, and I don’t really care what you tell him. I’m sure a treacherous, deceptive bitch like you will think of a good lie. But keep my name out of it. Don’t tell anyone that I was here or what I did to Fong. Don’t make problems for me, and I won’t make problems for you, sweet girl.”

San Ignacio, Belize

Location Unknown

“Spencer ...”

She felt a hand close over hers, fingers slipping between her fingers. At once, everything within her started to lift. Trembling and dizzy with relief and happiness, Spencer tilted her head back to look up at him.

“John ...” she whispered back, afraid it might not really be him, but then he put his arm around her, helping her up from the mattress where she’d collapsed after Ben had fled the small, humid room, escaping through the window.

Exhausted and horrified, she’d been left to deal with Ben’s threats and taunts, lingering in the stale, hot air like evil spirits.
 

You still owe me … you will pay for your mistakes … you won’t get away with what you did to me.

When John pulled her close to him, all the terror and tribulation vanished. Crying, Spencer pressed her face against his chest and then wrapped her arms around him.

“It’s okay.” John rubbed a hand up and down her back, kissing the top of her head, soothing her. “You’re going to be okay ... you’re safe, okay … I’m here now ...”

San Ignacio, Belize

Belizean Banyan Resort – Owner’s Casita

Humming to herself, Spencer removed a carafe of fresh pineapple juice from the sub-zero refrigerator and took it to the island in the center of the kitchen. Still humming, she pirouetted across the sun-dappled kitchen to the row of overhead cabinets near the sink and got two glasses.

It was a gorgeous morning. Abundant sunlight flooded the kitchen, a warm, golden glow, brightening every corner, gleaming across every surface, and bringing a smile to her face.

Sometimes, she couldn’t believe how lucky she was. Blessed was what her sister Shady would tell her. And she did feel her current happiness was due to divine intervention. Whatever it was, she was thankful and delightfully surprised.

If anyone had told her she would be standing in this kitchen, happy and content, she would have thought they were out of their mind. Here she was, six months later, happy and content.

The one thing she’d never wanted was the reason for her current state of mind. Love. Falling in love, specifically. She’d been afraid of it and had vowed not to do it. And yet love had claimed her and she was glad. Now she and John were together, and she was starting to believe forever was possible for them. She was starting to believe happily ever after wasn’t just a silly fairytale; fantasy was a reality for her.

Six months had given them time to get to know each other, exploring and examining each other from as many different angles as possible and gaining new perspectives based on what they’d learned.

Being open and vulnerable, sharing elements of her life she usually tried to forget, had been daunting. John had been more willing to expose himself, but at times the ability proved difficult and frustrating for him, as well.

They’d persevered and discussed a myriad of topics from their early childhood to their favorite colors. In between, they spoke about their hopes, dreams, likes, and dislikes. The result was a greater appreciation of each other’s emotions, motives, preferences, and overall outlook on life. There was also a more profound understanding of how they each dealt with issues, problems, and obstacles. And they’d figured out what annoyed and irritated them about each other.

John didn’t like her independent streak or her sparks of self-reliance. She couldn’t stand his “hero” tendencies and his need to rescue people from problems of their own making.

Being together all this time hadn’t been just love and scorching hot sex and spooning on the couch. They were both strong-willed and opinionated, and their disagreements could be as fiery and ferocious as their lovemaking.

Despite the occasional heated discussion, Spencer loved him more than she ever thought she could, maybe even more than she should. She was determined to make the relationship last forever no matter what she had to do.

The only threat to their happiness was maybe their own secrets. There were things John hadn’t told her about himself, though he’d hinted at a past life he wasn’t proud of. She could never tell John about the “dating.” He wouldn’t understand and he wouldn’t forgive her. They had an unspoken agreement not to discuss these secrets because they’d decided the past didn’t matter.

But Ben still had the power to destroy her life. Ben knew things about her that she never wanted John to find out. John wouldn’t find out as long as Spencer kept her mouth shut about what had happened in the small, humid room.

Don’t make problems for me, and I won’t make problems for you, sweet girl.

After the horror of the small, humid room, Spencer had been thoroughly interrogated by John’s cousins, D.J. and Jared, the San Ignacio detective, who had joined John on his quest to rescue her.

Spencer wasn’t sure if they believed her story, but she’d stuck to it. She had been kidnapped by Tommy Fong, though she wasn’t sure why. And she had no idea who had killed Fong because she’d been locked in the small, humid room when he was being burned alive.

Spencer poured pineapple juice into a glass. It felt like forever since she’d seen Ben, since he’d walked out of the tiny, hot room and out of her life. She still thought about him—probably more than she should have.

She never knew what might spark a memory of him. Sometimes it would be a stray breeze slanting across her nose, carrying the smell of allspice, the formation of a puffy white cloud, or the dark sensual beauty of a black orchid. Suddenly, she would remember the tall, handsome man with the sly, hypnotic smile. She would wonder how those fantasies she had of him had turned into nightmares. Ben wasn’t gone for good, though, she was sure of that.

You still owe me …

Her debt was still outstanding. But, she could make the payment. She had the damn envelope Ben had forced her to find. It was still in the blue Birkin, hidden at the bottom where she’d put it that night, so many months ago, when she’d left the resort to deliver the envelope to Ben.

A week after the kidnapping ordeal, John had told her about finding the purse and how it was, to him, the most compelling proof that something bad had happened to her.

She stared at the pineapple juice, a sudden sense of unease settling over her. Sometimes, she had the feeling that her suffering wouldn’t end once she gave Ben the envelope and he gave her the damning video. She worried that following their unholy exchange, whenever it happened, something worse would happen to her, something far more terrifying.

And Ben would be the architect of that terror.

You will pay for your mistakes … you won’t get away with what you did to me.

It wasn’t just a threat. It was a promise.

Arms circled her waist from the back, interrupting thoughts she had no business indulging in anyway, and seconds later, Spencer felt lips on her neck, brushing across her skin. Giggling, she looked up over her shoulder.

John smiled at her, his handsome face and those mesmerizing hazel eyes taking her breath away, driving all errant thoughts of Ben from her mind.

“Good morning.” He lowered his head to kiss her lips, then the tip of her nose, and then both cheeks.

Smiling back at him, she turned in his embrace, facing him as he brought his mouth back to hers for a kiss that sent jolts of pleasure through her limbs, spiraling down her arms to her fingertips and swirling through her legs to her toes. John hoisted her up and onto the island; it wasn’t direct eye contact, but she didn’t have to break her neck looking up at him.

“So, what are your plans for the day?”

“Well, the girls have ballet,” she said, wrapping her arms loosely around his neck and clasping her hands together. “And then I have to take them to the dentist. That should be fun.”

John made a face.

“But, after that, I promised them I would show them how to make paper dolls.”

While John went to work, most of her day was spent with his second cousins; she loved her caramel fairies as though they were her own daughters, and sometimes when they were out and about running errands, she would allow herself to pretend they were her little girls. It was a fantasy she didn’t indulge in very often, and when she did, she didn’t wallow in it for too long.

“Well, before you turn into Mary Poppins,” John said, smiling, “I have something I want to give you.”

“What?”

“Just a second,” he said and then left the kitchen. He returned holding a plastic container, which contained the lush, white bloom of a flower.

“This is beautiful,” she said, smiling. “What kind of flower is this?”

“Frangipani,” he said, opening the container lid. “It grows on the island where I grew up, and the tradition is that a woman is supposed to wear the flower behind her right ear if she is single, and if she puts the flower behind her left ear, it means she is taken.” He removed the frangipani bloom and then gave it to her, resting it in her palm.

Spencer looked at the flower and then at him.

He said, “So, I have been thinking a lot about me and you, and what’s going on between us, and I know what I am hoping, but I would like you to think about us, and maybe you can let me know what you think with this flower …”

Giggling a little, she said, “Okay …”

“But don’t put it on right now,” he said. “Just think about me and you, and then you won’t have to say anything, you can just wear the flower, and whether it’s behind your left ear or your right ear, I’ll know how you feel.”

“How do you feel, John?” she asked. “About us?”

“Well, let’s just say that …” He put one arm around her, then the other. “I’m hoping that I’ll see the flower behind your left ear.”

“Well, you don’t have to hope,” Spencer said, putting the flower behind her left ear.

Smiling, he said, “Are you sure that’s how you feel?”

Nodding, Spencer wrapped her arms around his neck, kissed him, and then said, “I’m taken.”

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MORE BY RACHEL WOODS

She made a mistake with a devious stranger.

After a disastrous setback, Spencer Edwards feels she has no choice but to use her beauty to manipulate and deceive. But when she tries her tricks on the charismatic businessman Ben Chang, she awakens a dangerous side of him, and her mistake could cost her everything.

He made a mistake with a familiar enemy.

After years of trying to escape his past, Sione Tuiali’i is now a respected resort owner. But, when a tryst with a stranger turns out to have been orchestrated by Ben Chang, he is forced to contend with a bitter enemy who has the potential to expose the one mistake that haunt him.

But, some mistakes are worth making.

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