.

of hers. “You’d only be a hindrance.”

      Ready to crawl back to bed, Ray turned to Eli and, seeing his relief, added, “I’m putting my foot down on this, Eli. If you want me, you’ll have to send her home.”

      She gave him the easy out, taking the blame fully on herself, but Eli didn’t look grateful. No, instead, he looked . . . hot.

      His hazel eyes seemed to smolder in the evening light until Ray felt unsettled and uncertain and ready to bolt.

      She never ran, damn him, and definitely not from a man. She thrust her chin up. “Make up your mind, Eli.”

      His gaze dipped to her mouth, lingered, before he turned to face Jane. “I’m sorry, Jane. But I need her help.”

      Jane gave one more pitiful sob, flinging herself into Eli’s arms and nearly smothering him with a long, drawn-out kiss. Ray couldn’t be sure, but she thought tongues might have been involved. Standing there watching that kiss, she felt like a voyeur, and worse, she felt pathetic. She wanted to walk away, yet her feet remained glued to the floor.

      Eli didn’t fight Jane. He merely waited her out. When Jane finally pulled away, he flattened a large hand on her back and started her toward the door.

      “Go back to your hotel, Jane. I’ll call you when I get home.”

      “Please be careful, Eli.”

      Prodded by some evil imp, Ray called out, “I’ll take real good care of him, Jane, don’t you worry none.”

      Jane started sobbing again.

      Ray could hear Eli’s strained reassurances. Deciding that she’d gotten into enough mischief for the night, she started down the hall. Just as she reached her room, she heard the front door close. She stepped inside and quietly closed her door, leaning back against it. Eli’s footsteps sounded softly on the carpeting, then stopped outside her door. Ray held her breath.

      “Good night, Ray,” she heard him whisper, his tone laced with amusement. Then he went on to his room.

      Ray turned out the light and crawled into her bed. She curled into a ball on her side and tucked her hands beneath her cheek. Her thoughts were jumbled and confused. She wasn’t certain what to make of her feelings because it had been so long since she’d felt anything like them. She was appalled that this could happen, that she would let it happen, but she had.

      For the first time in a very long time, she was interested in a man. She actually felt desire.

      What rotten timing.

      Chapter Three

      Eli was already up and dressed when Ray came into the kitchen the next morning. It was early, only six o’clock, and the sun had just begun to rise. Ray yawned as she sauntered in and casually seated herself at the table.

      She still wore that damned provocative shirt, but now she had on loose matching shorts, too.

      It didn’t help.

      The army green, mannish getup should have looked ridiculous. It didn’t. With her trim healthy body, a burlap sack would be sexy.

      “Coffee?” His voice emerged as a low rumble. He’d awakened with thoughts of Ray on his mind, which had caused his morning erection to linger. Now, with her here in the flesh looking sleepy and tender, his dominant male instincts surged.

      “Yeah, that’d be terrific.” She yawned again. Assuming he’d serve her, assuming he could ignore the provocative way she dressed, she lounged back in her chair.

      Her legs were sleek with muscles, smooth and straight. Her shoulders were toned, proud. She showed a lot of skin and all of it looked creamy enough to kiss. When she’d first appeared last night, he’d been hit with such a wave of lust it had almost staggered him.

      Throughout the long night, his thoughts had centered on her, and when he had managed to sleep, he’d dreamed of her. Restlessness had driven him from his bed nearly an hour ago.

      He handed Ray the coffee, then settled himself across from her. Unwilling to alarm her or put her on guard, he tried to be casual, too, but damn, he’d never known a woman so completely comfortable in her own skin.

      Her short, midnight hair stuck out at very odd angles, and her eyes were alert but puffy from sleep, the lids heavy. Her cheeks were flushed, one of them bearing a small crease from her pillow. She obviously hadn’t suffered the same distractions he had.

      He propped his head up on an elbow and smiled at her. “You don’t look like you could take on a rescue right now.”

      Sipping the hot coffee, she peeked at him over the rim of the cup and shrugged. “It isn’t necessary that I do any rescuing right now, is it?”

      “And when it is necessary?” he asked, doing his best to keep his gaze on her face rather than the sleep-warmed skin of her upper breasts, revealed by the low neck of the undershirt.

      She paused in the middle of a drink, then gulped down a good portion before plunking the mug onto the tabletop. “What’s the matter, Eli, getting cold feet? Your fiancée convince you I wasn’t right for the job?”

      Her comment gave him the perfect opportunity to clear up at least one misunderstanding. She’d run off to bed last night, taking away his chance then. Which was maybe a good thing, because the way he’d felt last night, he’d have ended up kissing her before she reached her room, and Ray being Ray, she might have crippled him for it.

      “Contrary to what Jane might say, she’s not my fiancée. She was just being possessive.” He grinned, remembering Jane’s expression. “You made quite a grand entrance last night. Really took her by surprise.”

      Ray snorted in doubt. “Not a fiancée, yet she came all the way from Kentucky to declare herself, to offer up her body and her undying love?”

      Beneath the sarcasm, Eli could hear Ray’s genuine curiosity. And the way she didn’t quite meet his eyes was telling. He knew her question wasn’t just to pass the time and that pleased him, especially since she had been so careful to remain impersonal. “Jane has a business office here, also. She probably had a meeting to attend and decided to kill two birds with one stone. Actually, she travels a lot more than I do. We generally don’t see each other all that often.”

      “Then how did the two of you ever get together?”

      Briefly, Eli considered teasing her about the forbidden nature of her personal question, but he didn’t want to discourage her. It’d give him leverage when he got around to asking his own questions.

      But he also wasn’t willing to go into detail, sensing that Ray would find too many differences in their backgrounds. “With each of us in the department store industry, we have similar interests.”

      Ray’s dark eyes were enigmatic and unconvinced. But as if she’d belatedly recalled her rules, she said “Whatever.” She had one arm crossed over her stomach, the other holding her cup. “You have anything for breakfast? I’m starved.”

      Her outspoken manner and brazen attitude delighted him. She was so different from other women he’d known. Hell, she was different from the men he’d known, too. “Tell you what. Why don’t you get dressed and we can go out for breakfast?”

      She shook her head. “No, I’d rather eat here. We still need to get you some clothes, and you need to gather up some cash and book our flights into southern Texas this afternoon.”

      “Cash?”

      “To pay off the informants. It’ll be cheaper than the ransom would have been, but it’s going to cost you.” She gave him a suggested amount to have on hand, her sharp gaze waiting for any resistance. It was less than he’d anticipated paying, so he didn’t argue.

      “After we land in Texas, we’ll meet up with a friend of mine who’ll fly us into Mataya in the morning. We may have to spend one night there depending on how