Charmed and Dangerous by Lori Wilde Page B

guilt, he felt responsible for what had happened. He had known Shriver had a spellbinding effect on women. He had also recognized Cassie was gullible and yet he’d enlisted her anyway. He’d used her hunger for excitement to fulfill his own needs.
    Man, it hurt when your selfish decisions came back to bite your butt.
    “No more using sex as a weapon,” he agreed.
    Maddie looked surprised at his capitulation. “Thank you. Now could you, um, cover up?” She waved a hand at his naked chest.
    Grinning, he slowly leaned over, making sure she got an extra good view of his muscles and plucked his shirt off the bed.
    “Any other rules I should be aware of?” He might as well know what her rules were so he could systematically set about breaking them.
    “That’s all for now, but you should prepare yourself for future rules as they arise.”
    He slipped on the shirt but didn’t move to do up the buttons. He could tell she was still struggling hard against her desire to look at him. You couldn’t deny it. They had sexual chemistry, no matter how unwanted it might be on both their parts.
    “I can’t promise you anything. I’ll be fair with you, but that’s all I can offer. Take it or leave it.”
    “I suppose I’ll have to take it.” She hopped up from the chair and edged toward the door, giving him a wide berth.
    Good. He’d rattled her at last.
    “Wait just a minute.” He reached out and touched her elbow. She sucked in an audible breath.
    “Yes?” her voice was soft, but her skin was softer.
    “I have a few ground rules of my own.”
    “Oh?”
    “When it comes to this investigation, you have to obey me without question.”
    “I can’t agree to that.”
    “Then I can’t take you along.”
    “But what if you tell me to do something detrimental to either Cassie or myself?”
    “I’m afraid you’re just going to have to trust me,” he said, feeling her muscles tense beneath his touch.
    “Trusting a stranger isn’t my strong suit.”
    “Mine either, kiddo.” He thrust his hands deep in the pockets of his trousers. “But for the foreseeable future, I’d say we’re stuck with each other.”

Chapter
    FIVE
    W HERE ARE WE going?” Maddie shouted an hour later as she sat in the passenger seat of the no-frills subcompact car David had rented.
    The bargain basement vehicle didn’t have air conditioning so they had all four windows rolled down. Her hair lashed her face like a hundred tiny whips. Her skin stung and she felt as if she was sitting in a NASA wind tunnel.
    “To see Shriver’s fence,” David answered.
    “Who is that?” she asked, battling valiantly to smooth her hair down.
    “Name’s Cory Philpot. He was raised in New York high society. He and Shriver have known each other for years,” David hollered.
    Maddie was still feeling unnerved from their encounter in his motel room. She thought about the way David had used his bare chest as a weapon of intimidation. How he’d speared his knee to the wall between her spread legs. How he’d pinned her arms over her head.
    Her stomach went quivery all over again.
    He seemed much larger than he actually was. Even though his body wasn’t the least bit bulky, he had a bearish quality about him. Maybe it was the wide shoulders or the broad chest. Maybe it was the way he managed to come off gruff and cuddly all at the same time.
    Or maybe it was his uncommon combination of brute strength, cocky self-confidence, dogged determination and pure animal magnetism. He was deeply intense at times, while at other moments he seemed cynical and flippant. She liked the contrast but she did not know why.
    Usually, she went for quiet, brainy guys who analyzed everything to death just as she did. She’d only been in love once and that had been during her senior year in high school.
    Lance was a wild, reckless guy who ditched her for being too cautious. He’d even had the audacity to ask her why she couldn’t be more like Cassie. Imagine! She’d told herself