Authors: Elle Saint James
Tags: #Romance
“I can’t imagine what an immigration officer wants all the way out here in these parts.” Her spine went rigid with panic. They’d ask about Marisol, and she’d have to decide whether to lie about her presence inside.
“We’re looking for a woman named Ava Campbell. Do you know where she is?”
They’re looking for me?
Ava relaxed a notch. Her grip loosened around the shotgun. She lowered the weapon to one side, and studied them each once more. Still gorgeous.
“I’m not saying that I do or don’t know her. But what do you all want with this Ava Campbell anyway?” she asked.
Declan drilled her with a livid glare hot enough to melt iron into liquid steel. “None of your business. Do you know her or not?”
“Maybe I do. And maybe I don’t.” She wasn’t about to volunteer any information on her identity until she knew exactly why they were here. Gorgeous or not, one of them might whip out tax papers and declare that she owed big money to the government or something. They’d haul her off to jail until it was sorted out and she was vindicated, but what would happen to Marisol and her son in the meantime?
The blond man named Troy chuckled once, seemingly at her uninformative response. Declan, however, took a step forward and continued up the wide whitewashed stairs so fast, Ava couldn’t lift her weapon to threaten or even fend him off. He hit the top stair, towered within six inches of her spot, and stopped. She was riveted to the place where her sandals touched the floor.
Bending his head down until she thought he might kiss her forehead, he said, “I’ve driven quite a long distance today. It’s late, and I’m exceedingly tired. My mood isn’t the best, so if I were you I’d change your hostile, uncommunicative attitude to one a little more helpful, Miss—” He stopped speaking as if suddenly realizing she hadn’t given up her name yet. He sucked in a deep breath. Between grated teeth, he exhaled and asked grudgingly, “What is your name?”
“None of your business. Get off of my porch.” Ava was being contrary. The truth was this incredibly gorgeous man smelled even better than he looked, and her panties moistened with every breath she inhaled of his scent.
A sexy, lingering, masculine cologne clung to him like the faintest whisper of campfire smoke on the wind at dusk. She tilted her head back to stare more fully at the light blue-gray color of his eyes and nearly swooned. The intense expression he wore only magnified the arousal she already experienced.
His flaring nostrils and sensuous mouth—unquestionably created solely for kissing—made her weak in the knees. Another pulse of desire clenched her pussy walls and another gush of fluid saturated the cotton of her underwear. Was he moving closer? Was he about to kiss her?
Ava heard the steady clomp of more footsteps on the stairs as she faced off with Declan and tried not to leap into his arms and kiss his sexy lips off. Troy stepped close, forming the third side of their sudden human triangle.
“Listen. We’ve obviously gotten off on the wrong foot here. What my associate is trying to say is, would you please help us?”
Troy had a completely different clean, masculine scent, but it was no less exciting and pervasive to her libido. She turned slightly in his direction. Dimples dented his cheeks when he spoke, and she was a fool for that attribute. She didn’t know where these two were from, but she wanted to go there and live with them.
Mesmerized by the dimples in his face, Ava responded without thinking. In a barely audible tone, she said, “I’m Ava Campbell.”
Troy’s eyes widened. He and Declan shared a glance. Troy was on the side of her gun arm. He suddenly grabbed the weapon in her hand and pulled it away from her and out of her subsequent reach.
“Wait a minute,” she said and reached for her weapon. Troy held it away.
Without further warning, they each wrapped a hand around her upper arms and started leading her down the stairs. Declan started reciting something every American should know by heart even if they’d never spent any amount of time in front of a television.
“Ava Campbell. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, a legal representative will be appointed to you by the court…”
Declan had a difficult time keeping a straight face as he recited the Miranda warning. They hauled the angelically beautiful woman down her own front porch steps and headed toward their SUV. Her intoxicating scent wrapped round him as they moved and made ungentlemanly thoughts conjure in his head.
They weren’t really here to arrest Ava Campbell. They didn’t have the authority anyway. They just wanted to ask her a question and didn’t want her to disappear into her home. If she barricaded herself inside, it would be game over for their simple questions regarding a photo. They didn’t have an official warrant to enter her premises. And they just wanted her to look at the picture so they could be on their way.
He’d done a thorough background check on Ava Campbell before coming today. She was clean. No arrest record, issues with the law, or so much as a parking ticket marred her past.
The favor he was executing for a very good friend took monstrous time and patience. Unfortunately, his reserves were low in both of those categories. Moving her away from her front door was merely a strong-arm tactic to gain the information they sought since she seemed so unwilling to even identify herself initially.
In fact, Declan didn’t want to be here at all, but when he’d called Clayton Forrester at the Double Rider Men’s Club property to tell him they’d swing by and take care of this next time through the Midwest, Clay had persuaded him to stop anyway.
“You’re already right there, Declan! Just go check this name out. It won’t take you ten minutes.”
He’d huffed. “Unless it’s her. That will take quite a lot longer.”
“No, it won’t. If Ava Campbell is the woman in the photo, then it can’t be Jake’s witness. Right? And then you’re both off the hook. You won’t have to look for any further possibilities. Your huge, generous favor for me could end today.”
That had been the overriding reason he’d agreed to extend this long-assed trip a little bit longer against his better judgment. He wanted to be done with it. The list they had was seemingly endless. They’d already checked out over a fourth of the possibilities with no luck.
The woman they pushed along was hardly bigger than a mite. Slim, short, but curvy in all the important places, she smelled mostly flowery, but there was also a succulent undercurrent of fried chicken in the air around her. Of course, maybe he was just hungry. They’d skipped dinner to come out here, and fried chicken
was
his favorite.
He also thought he smelled the faint scent of her arousal. Likely that was simply his horny, vivid imagination running out of control. Her shoulder-length blonde hair looked soft and silky. He had the sudden urge to bury his face in her golden locks and let the strands brush and rub all over his face. He did have a preference for blondes of late. Especially since his evil, grasping, gold-digging ex-wife was a brunette. But now was not the time to entertain sexual thoughts about his temporary captive or memories over his past relationship failure.
Hauling her away from her front porch and pretending to arrest her served a purpose. He wanted to do this expediently. When they’d driven up, he’d seen the shotgun first thing. But he wasn’t going to be thwarted by a slip of a female holding a weapon nearly as tall as she was.
He and Troy had used this fake arrest bit a hundred times before. People started yammering about anything and everything just to keep from being thrust into the backseat of an official-looking vehicle. Ava Campbell was no different in this respect.
“Now wait just a gall-darn minute. You can’t arrest me. I haven’t done anything.”
Troy laughed. “They never volunteer to remain silent, do they, Declan?”
“Nope.” Without any warning the two of them stopped on the far side of the SUV, twirled her around, and pinned her gently against the side panel of their rented vehicle.
They didn’t touch her any more than necessary to keep her from running, but Declan really wanted to. Her flashing blue eyes and beautiful face made him want to talk her into their bed after this issue with the photo was resolved. She was perfect for them in looks
and
spirit. And he liked the hint of her Southern accent, too.
Declan shook off his sudden lust, and they both moved close enough that she would have to shove them aside to get away. “Plus, I never said you were arrested, sweetheart. I said you had the right to remain silent. People never listen closely enough.”
Her brows furrowed. “You tricked me.”
“So? Why wouldn’t you identify yourself?” he asked.
Her gaze narrowed as if she didn’t want to answer his question. “I have my own reasons, thank you very much. What do you want?”
Declan didn’t move away. “We’d simply like for you to look at a photo.”
Her eyebrows drew together in question. “What photo?”
He pulled a folded piece of paper from his inner jacket pocket and handed it to her. “Do you recognize the person in this picture?”
She looked at the sheet like he tried to make her take hold of a writhing, venomous snake. He pushed it even closer. She grabbed it with two fingers.
What the hell is she afraid of
?
Holding it aloft, she didn’t make a move to open it.
“Go ahead. Take a look,” Declan prompted.
Troy leaned away and opened her shotgun. “Loaded,” he said, sounding surprised. He removed the shotgun shells and shoved them into his pocket.
Declan had assumed the weapon was loaded the whole time. She didn’t look like the type to wave a gun without ensuring she could blast it at whatever enemy came her way. His level of respect for her inched up a notch along with his libido.
Ava finally unfolded the paper and stared at it. He expected her to be confused or dismissive after seeing the photo. That’s what they’d encountered so far from every other woman they’d asked.
Instead, she sounded shocked. “Where did you get this?” she demanded in a hard tone.
He wasn’t really in the mood to share, but that was only because he was dead tired, really hungry, and suddenly so horny he hoped he could hide his visceral reaction to being so close to her. He should have ignored Clay and taken some needed downtime before agreeing to come here today and help with this favor.
He responded with a little more anger in his tone than intended. “It was taken by a security surveillance camera outside of a bank in Denver almost a year ago. Do you know who it is or not?”
She blinked a couple of times and turned that beautiful blue-eyed gaze on him. “Yes. I do. It’s me.”
“What? Are you certain?” He was so surprised by her unexpected answer, he did a double take, looking at the photo and back at her. “Take a closer look. We need to be sure.”
“It’s absolutely me,” she said again. “I recognize my dress. That was the day I got an important business loan.” Her gaze lifted to his again. The unfathomable depths of her azure eyes mesmerized him. His cock pulsed in his pants. Declan was suddenly tired of trying to hide his response to her nearness. He wanted her with all he was worth.
Definitely should have had some downtime before coming on this trip. When a person was so spent they want to fuck a beautiful stranger five minutes after meeting them, it was long past time for a break.
Troy asked, “Would you be willing to testify to that in a court of law?”
She shrugged. Declan even loved her shoulder movements. “I guess so, but I still want to know why you have a picture of me. What is all this about? What do you want from me?” she asked quietly.
I want to make you scream in orgasm while you ride my cock and Troy fucks your ass. Jesus. I need to calm the fuck down.
She resumed studying the picture. Declan studied her. He didn’t have a suitable answer to her question. Certainly not one he could share out loud.
“Nothing. If this is your picture, then we don’t need anything.”
But I want you.
Declan stepped back to give her room to leave, but he hated to move away from the subtle flowery scent of her. His cock pulsed once more as if in retaliation for his moving out of her sensory range. “Sorry to have bothered you.”
Troy also stepped away. “Yes. Sorry to have taken up your time.”
“What? That’s it? You two scared the crap out of me, and now you’re leaving?” She didn’t move away from their vehicle. “Who did you think it was?”
Declan shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, now that we know it’s you. It can’t be anyone else, right?”
She glanced at the grainy photo again. “It’s me, all right. I was signing the final loan paperwork to get my bed-and-breakfast started up.” The second part she said more to herself than to them. “I can’t imagine why anyone would care about that.”
“The grainy aspect of the picture made it look like it might be someone else.”
“So?”
Declan didn’t want to explain. He’d never felt compelled to before, but perhaps they should. “Someone saw this picture and thought it was a woman who is supposed to be dead. We were just checking to ensure it wasn’t the other woman.”