Angels and Outlaws. Lori Wilde

looked as if he owned the world and everything in it.

      Including her.

      Hell, it had even stopped raining.

      He wasn’t at all like the well-bred, well-dressed men she normally hung out with. Cass’s breath escaped her lungs in a sharp, inexplicable gasp. A shiver slipped down her spine and she had no idea if it was due to the danger she was in or to the man heading for her.

      His face was rugged, chiseled. His mouth determined. His eyes incisive. He was the sort of man who made a woman feel safe.

       Since when have you ever opted for safe?

      Uncontrollably, her gaze fell to the street. Since now. Her knees weakened.

      “Look at me, Cass,” Sam, the sexy detective, commanded.

      The fire trucks were a swirl of red, the crowd a muddle of melted faces. Her fingers cramped from holding on to the wall and she felt as if she was coming unraveled at the seams.

      “Look at me.”

      Slowly, she raised her chin and met his eyes.

      “Atta girl. Hold on. I’m almost there.”

      She’d never been attracted to rough-hewn, macho types before. Give her suave and debonair any day. Except right now, she was mighty glad to have him.

      To distract herself she imagined him in a tuxedo at one of Isaac Vincent’s exclusive parties, drinking champagne and making idle chitchat with supermodels and fashion designers.

      Cass was creative, but no matter how hard she tried that was one image that refused to be conjured. This guy belonged at a bar called O’Malley’s or MacDougall’s with a mug of warm beer in front of him and a knot of buddies chalking pool cues and making off- color jokes about the waitresses.

      But she could see him as a proud Scottish pirate at the bow of his sailing ship gazing out at the new land he was about to pillage. Suddenly, in her mind’s eye, she was a maiden in that faraway land being captured by her conqueror and made to service him in so many shameful, pleasurable ways.

      A vision of their entwined bodies muscled out her fear. She pictured Sam’s heavy, potent hands caressing her heated skin with tender urgency…his clever gunmetal gray eyes assembling secret knowledge about her body. He noted what his touch did to her, what made her arch her back, what caused her to moan. In an intense and surreal flash of awareness Cass saw his hard-muscled body covering hers, guiding her to a fevered pitch time and time again.

      A warm tingle gripped her and her mouth filled with moisture.

      Was she perverted? Or was this a perfectly natural response to hovering on the verge of death? Perhaps it was preferable that one’s last thoughts should be centered on a marvelous sexual fantasy rather than the gruesome alternative.

      By the time Sam reached her they were both breathing hard and when his eyes met hers, she could have sworn it was the devil himself peering deep into her.

      The air around her solidified with a thick, masculine heat and Cass fought off the urge to squirm.

      “Take my hand.”

      She hesitated. Not because she didn’t want to be rescued, but for a split second there, she didn’t know which was more treacherous. Touching him or staying out here on the ledge.

      His grip was hot and reassuring. She looked him in the eyes. His smile was tight, the outline of his lips white. He’d made the trip down the rain slick ledge look easy, but it was not.

      Her legs, strained by the high heels, the cold wet wind and a big dose of fear, quivered precariously.

      “One step at a time.”

      “I can’t.”

      “Yes, you can.”

      A fireman on the street hollered something up at them through a bullhorn, but Cass couldn’t hear anything except the voice inside her head telling her that it was all over, that she was going to die and she better make the best of the short time she had left.

      What would Sam do if she asked him to kiss her?

      “Ignore the guy with the bullhorn,” Sam said. “Listen to me. I’ll get you out of this.”

      She looked down and immediately swooned. Her knees crumpled and if Sam hadn’t had his fingers locked tightly around her wrist she would have been lost.

      “Close your eyes.”

      “What!”

      “Close your eyes and listen to me.”

      But she couldn’t. She was too panicked, too scared to trust a man she didn’t know. She kept looking down and down and down.

      Her vision swirled. She cried out and grabbed for Sam’s shirt.

      “Cass, no,” he shouted. “You’ll knock me off balance.”

      But his warning came too late.

      Together they tumbled off the ledge.

      HER BUTT WAS IN HAS PALM.

      Something very akin to excitement stirred his blood, accelerated his breathing, hummed his heartbeat.

      They’d fallen eight stories locked in each other’s arms and the only thing Sam could think about was Cass Richards’s butt.

      That cute butt saved him from his fear of heights, from his fear of falling, from darn near the fear of everything.

      Her skirt was hiked up and his palm was splayed across her bare bottom. Lord love her, she was wearing a thong.

      And it was the softest, sweetest bottom he’d ever held. She was a slender woman, not supermodel slim, but not fleshy either.

      Except for that glorious fanny. It was full and kneadable and splendid.

      And his body responded in a solely masculine way. Talk about unprofessional.

      They landed, with a tight controlled bounce, on the giant airbag the fire department had inflated underneath the eighth floor office. They were positioned squarely in the middle—a textbook landing—and still a good ten feet off the ground and Sam’s hand was on Cass’s delectable backside.

      It was a sensation he knew he’d remember for the rest of his life.

      “Get your hand off my ass,” she snapped, and rolled away from him.

      So much for pleasant dreams.

      “Sorry,” he said, but he wasn’t the least bit contrite.

      He deserved some small compensation for battling his dread fear of heights in order to rescue her. She had no idea how much that little trip had cost him. How hard he’d had to fake his bravery in order to force himself out onto that ledge.

      Or how much landing alive in the airbag with her meant to him. He’d faced his fear and in doing so he’d saved her life.

      Well, okay, technically the fire department had saved her, but if he hadn’t told the receptionist to call the fire department they both would have been wearing halos and playing harps by now.

      Or the way your mind is working, wearing horns and dancing with pitchforks.

      Right.

      A fireman was already at the edge of the airbag, reaching out, helping her slide off. By the time Sam worked his way to the edge, Cass was standing on the street, surrounded by reporters, looking like a princess holding court.

      Sam rolled his eyes.

      He should have known. Once upon a time he’d been married to a prima donna princess for nine, very long, miserable months. He knew far too well how the species operated.

      No one gave him a second look and he found himself pushed back with the rest of the crowd, inconsequential as froth on a mug of beer. She was the consummate PR professional, making opportunity