Flash Burned

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  For David. I pray you found peace, my brother.

  prologue

  I felt the chill at my ankles, swirling around my calves and thighs, moving upward to my stomach, where it seeped inside and slithered through me, to my heart. A frigid force that gripped me, constricting tightly so that I couldn’t breathe properly.

  With my hands bound above my head, I partially dangled from the exposed rafter of an entryway into the shell of a room that had no drywalling. I knew I shouldn’t panic. I’d be rescued soon. They’d come for me. Dane, Amano. They’d never let anything happen to me. Ever.

  Dane because he loved me fiercely. Amano because it was his job. Because he was loyal to Dane. And maybe, too, because he felt protective of me regardless of the paycheck attached to being my bodyguard.

  On bare tiptoes, I struggled against the restrictive bindings around my wrists and secured to the beam. I’d kicked off my heels in an attempt to escape the man who’d kidnapped me and brought me to this half-constructed house in a secluded box canyon of Sedona, Arizona—where the gorgeous striated red-rock formations could unwittingly prove deadly with their lack of cell service. So that even for those brief few moments when I’d had my phone in hand there hadn’t been a single fucking bar to put a call through.

  I continued to remind myself I’d be free soon. That Vale Hilliard wouldn’t do anything more than hold me hostage, bloody my face a bit, and rip my blouse open. That he wouldn’t get the chance to do to me the things he’d threatened.

  I didn’t wait patiently. Couldn’t. The mere thought of his hands on my body made me scream and want to kick at him.

  But this time, he wasn’t on his knees behind me, holding my calves steady, keeping my assault at bay.

  He wasn’t even there.

  Yet I wasn’t alone.

  As I wrested against his silk tie, slowly working my wrists free, I heard the quick-paced rattle that sounded deceptively like a sprinkler quenching a plush summer lawn. There was a second rattle, not quite moving in time with the other so that it was distinct enough to tell me the first had a friend. Then there was a third. A fourth.

  My heart leapt into my throat. Fear seized me. I’d faced a diamondback before. At the moment, it was not something I had the constitution to deal with again.

  I shot a look over my shoulder and watched in horror as they lay in wait, coiled and hissing. But they were just the beginning of my worries. Scurrying across the plywood floor, scrambling in my direction, were dozens of scorpions. All of varying sizes. Some fire red. Some opaque. Some black.

  “Oh, God,” I barely squeaked out. My pulse raged and tears burned my eyes. Insidious words tormented my mind.

  … if you ruin my negotiations with Dane, I’ll not only leave you here alone, tied up, but I’ll fill this house with everything that terrifies you.

  That would be rattlesnakes and scorpions. I’d encountered both in Phoenix, when I was a kid, then again at 10,000 Lux, where they’d been planted for me. I’d been stung before. There was only one other more excruciatingly agonizing sensation than a baby scorpion pumping venom into my system because it didn’t know when to stop—losing Dane, as I once had.

  Fuck!

  I would attempt to climb the two-by-four in front of me, but scorpions could climb, too.

  My breathing was now so erratic, it nearly eclipsed the tails going off more enthusiastically. As though the snakes sensed the panic in their prey and enjoyed my suffering before closing in for the kill.

  I was trapped. I had no defense. No shoes on my feet to stomp on the scorpions, no way to flee the rattlers, now uncoiling and slithering toward me.

  Fat drops rolled down my flushed cheeks. I choked on a sob. I couldn’t even scream anymore; my throat had closed up.

  Dane and Amano would be devastated they’d failed me.

  Dane.

  More tears flowed. I’d promised him I’d do whatever he asked in order to stay safe. I knew this would rip him apart.

  But I had absolutely no escape against this particular attack. I couldn’t get my hands through the slightly loosened sash that secured me and get the hell out of there. Terror consumed me.

  As the danger rushed forward and the revulsion clawed at me, I pushed out one last bloodcurdling scream.

  “Dane!”

  chapter 1

  I woke with a start and sat bolt upright, the chill still holding me hostage, despite the warmth emitted from the blaze in the hearth. I shoved perspiration-dampened, plump dark-brown curls from my face as my heavy breaths echoed in the quiet bedroom.

  Heart thundering, pulse raging.

  My gaze flashed to the empty side of the California king Dane and I shared. To the tall windows in his creekside house. To the clock on the nightstand next to me.

  A little after three in the morning.

  I barely had time to process the nightmare I’d just had—the vicious game Vale Hilliard continued to play in my mind—when Dane barreled through the double doors to our room.

  “Ari.” His emerald eyes were wild and filled with alarm.

  “I’m okay,” I quickly assured him, though I couldn’t slow my breathing.

  When he saw I was unharmed, he purposely schooled his hard features into softer angles. I’d witnessed his attempt to calm himself in front of me, to not be so enraged looking over what had happened in that canyon, and to not put me on-edge over the action he’d taken when he’d seen the blood on my face, my wrists bound to the rafters.

  There’d been no snakes or scorpions. But I had been in Vale’s clutches. That had shredded Dane.

  “Ari,” he repeated in a low tone. “What happened?”

  “Nightmare. I woke myself. I’m all right.”

  I watched him try to loosen his stone jaw, with no luck. I must have screamed aloud, not just in my sleep. And it haunted him, the way the memory of that day in the half-constructed house did. The way it had torn us apart until we couldn’t stand another second of the pain and I’d come to him here, making him swear we’d never be at anyone’s mercy again. That we’d never be away from each other.

  The latter was a necessity. We were fated, each desperately needing what the other offered. The former wasn’t exactly a vow easy to make when the affluent Dane Bax was about to open the most exclusive hotel on the continent—and his former investors still wanted a piece of the pie.

  I inhaled deeply, let out a long stream of air. Tried to steady myself, in hopes of wiping that guilt-ridden and tormented expression from his devilishly handsome face. “You just … You weren’t here.”

  I’d felt his absence at the onset of the nightmare. Perhaps that was why, this time, I’d been left alone in the house, instead of Vale being there—threatening and sinister, but eventually defeated by Dane.

  Not tonight. I’d been on my own, my most menacing fears unleashed. Including a missing Dane, who was supposed to rescue me.

  He crossed the room in long strides and sat o
n the bed. The mattress dipped with his sturdy weight and it caused me to lean toward him. I clasped one of his rock-hard biceps to stable myself. And because he was too damn tempting.

  His shirt had been tossed aside long ago, when he’d made love to me before we’d curled together and I’d drifted off to sleep, naked in his arms. I’d discovered from the very first night I’d spent in his bed that nothing compared to having his heat and commanding presence surrounding me. All those muscles. He would envelop me from behind, creating a cocoon of bliss and safety.

  So much so that when he slipped away in the middle of the night I sensed it subconsciously.

  “You didn’t mention you had work,” I said as he gently stroked my hair.

  “Something occurred to me, and I had to speak with Nikolai. Different time zone in Moscow. It couldn’t wait and I didn’t want to wake him later on.”

  I nodded. Dane and his legitimate investors were doing everything in their power to bring down the more corrupt members of a poli-econ secret society they belonged to, and I knew that was significant enough to weigh heavily on everyone’s mind, day and night. Regardless of time zones.

  “I understand.” I shifted closer to him and he pulled me into his strong embrace.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

  “No, it’s okay. I have to get past all of this, find some way to stop freaking out every time you’re not right here with me.”

  Granted, it wasn’t as though I could seek professional help for this particular ailment. I couldn’t exactly explain to a shrink that my boyfriend was part of a descendant Bavarian Illuminati faction that had turned dark and dangerous with insatiable greed. And he and some of the others fought desperately to extricate themselves from the oath they’d taken long before things had gone awry. Because, now, the actions of the corrupt members crept toward deadly—as I knew personally. Making time of the essence.

  “Ari,” he said against my temple. “I love you. There’s nothing I want to protect more than you.”

  My fingers grazed his tight jaw. “I know. But there’s something else that’s important to remain focused on, Dane. 10,000 Lux. It’s your vision, your dream. Everything you’ve been fighting for—something that means the world to me, too.”

  With an agitated sigh, he untangled himself and stood. He turned toward the windows and stared out into the inky night, jamming his hands into the pockets of his loose, pewter-colored pants. Frustration and anger rolled off him in waves.

  I climbed out of bed and, from behind, wrapped my arms around him. One hand splayed over the corrugated grooves of his abdomen, the other flattened against his hard pectoral ledge. He was too magnificently built not to touch. Six-foot-three, broad shouldered, tanned and toned, with lush, strategically mussed black hair and beautiful, mesmerizing green eyes.

  I leaned into him, my bare breasts pressing to his heavily muscled back. I kissed his warm skin as his hands covered mine. The chill abated.

  “I know you’re doing everything you can to save the Lux,” I said. “You, Ethan, Qadir, and Nikolai. Even Amano.”

  Amano had been head of security for Dane’s father. Though Dane’s parents had died in a plane crash when he was just a month old, Amano had stayed on at the family estate in Philadelphia where Dane’s aunt had raised him.

  The others were part of the small, generational secret society Dane had broken sacred rules to tell me about. For my own good, and because I’d insisted on knowing everything he was embroiled in.

  Getting involved with a mysterious billionaire had posed a huge risk from the start, but it’d proven inevitable from the moment I’d laid eyes on Dane.

  “We’re not far from the launch of the Lux,” I said. “A little over a month. Everything’s going as planned. No more mishaps. Clearly, the botching of Vale’s ransom attempt, combined with whatever it is you and the others have done to stand your ground, is working.”

  It was two days before Thanksgiving. The grand opening of 10,000 Lux was scheduled for New Year’s Eve, with a jaw-dropping list of celebrities, global political and financial leaders, and other VIPs who had already RSVP’d to the event of the decade. The Lux was the height of opulence, and memberships were costly and exclusive. In high demand.

  It had been seven or so weeks since I’d been kidnapped, a pawn to get Dane to reinstate the original investment team. Since then, we’d been blessed with smooth sailing—with the exception of my occasional nightmares, which left Dane tense with fury and remorseful that I’d been caught in the crossfire.

  He said, “We’ve come to a silent truce. But I won’t take any chances.”

  That meant I still had a bodyguard. The six-foot-six, solidly built, dark-haired, mid-fifties, incredibly formidable Amano. A man wholly dedicated to his charge.

  “I know everything will turn out fine, exactly as you want it.” Dane was a perfectionist, and powerful enough to get what he wanted. “The only thing wrong at the moment is that I’m naked and you’re not inside me.”

  He growled. A low, carnal sound that sent heat ribboning through me in the most alluring way.

  He unraveled my arms from him and shoved off his pants. Lacing his fingers with mine, he led us to the bed. He climbed in first and held the covers up as I slipped in beside him.

  We snuggled in the luxurious sateen bedding, facing each other.

  Dane swept a curl from my temple. His touch was tender, though his eyes blazed.

  “Believe me,” he said in his rich, intimate voice. “It didn’t go unnoticed that you were naked.”

  I smiled. “I know.” My fingertips grazed his erection before wrapping around the base. Sliding my hand slowly up and down his thick shaft caused him to let out another seductive, sexy noise. Excitement flared low in my belly.

  His lips tangled with mine. Sensuous, tongueless kisses that drew me in, so that I forgot all about snakes and scorpions and scary extortion plots.

  I sighed contentedly against Dane’s lips. “You make everything fade away, dissolve into the background.”

  “Good,” he murmured as he gently tugged at the corner of my mouth with his.

  I pulled in a long breath, loving the smell of him. Male heat, a hint of sandalwood, and the enticing scent I could only describe as raw virility. Maybe that didn’t qualify as a fragrance, but it exuded from him, encapsulating his masculinity and power.

  I breathed him in, feeling a heady rush from the intoxicating aroma. All that strength and confidence. The dark, intense beauty of him. Everything about this man permeated my senses and left me burning for his talented touch, his stirring kisses.

  “Make love to me,” I whispered.

  “Any way you want it, baby.”

  Ah, decisions …

  He had a healthy sexual appetite and a clever repertoire. I was certain that even after several months together he still hadn’t done to me everything he wanted.

  But as my hand continued to pump, I had a change of plans.

  “On your back,” I quietly ordered.

  He crooked a brow.

  Okay, so he was the commanding one in the relationship. Dane had never once denied me anything, though. And now was no exception. I released him and he did as I asked.

  I straddled his waist, my hands gliding over muscles that flexed beneath my fingertips. He clasped my hips and raised me slightly, easing me back.

  “Not yet,” I said, resisting him, though every fiber of my being ached to feel him thrusting deep. I had something else in mind. “You know how much I love your body.”

  “And you know I’m not complaining about that. But once you get me going…”

  “Yeah,” I said, leaning forward and nipping his lower lip. “It gets all hot and sweaty between us.”

  I kissed him long and leisurely, our tongues twisting. His grip on my hips tightened. Our kiss deepened, turning provocative and passionate. I threaded my fingers through his silken hair and let him take the lead. Until I was restless and returning to my deviated plan.

&nb
sp; Dragging my mouth from his, I kissed my way over his jaw and down the thick cords of his neck. My hands continued to caress his chest as I moved lower. He relinquished his hold on me and I licked one of his small nipples. Bit it affectionately, making his hips jerk. Then I ran my tongue along his abs, tasting him, admiring all the ridges and warm flesh.

  “Ari,” he muttered sexily. His hands plowed through my hair, lifting the strands up and away from my shoulders and face. His cock nudged my opening.

  I grinned coyly. “I told you … not yet.”

  Shifting lower, I kissed my way downward, over his pelvis. My lips brushed along him, from base to tip.

  “You little tease,” he ground out.

  “I think you can handle it.”

  “Don’t be so sure. Once you get started like this, it’s not easy for me to stop.”

  I slid my tongue along the grooved underside of his smooth head, then closed my lips over him, suckling softly at first while my fist pumped again, unrushed.

  “Christ, Ari.” He sighed. “Baby.”

  Flicking my tongue over the indentation caused a bead of pre-cum to form and I licked it up. Then I took him deep and sucked hard.

  His hips bucked. His fingers tightened the strands he held before he caught himself and loosened them. “Ari. You’re pushing me to the edge.”

  I loved how he responded to everything I did to him.

  My fingers unfurled and I slid my hand down to gently massage his sac, carefully rolling his balls as I took him in as far as I could again.

  “Just like that,” he said in a strained voice.

  I worked him in the way that made his breath come in sharp pulls. My tongue caressing, my teeth ever so lightly scraping on occasion, my mouth suckling.

  “That’s it, baby.” He groaned. “You do it just right. You could make me come in a heartbeat.”

  I knew he wouldn’t, though. There were times when I’d get him off like this, but since I’d gone on the pill and we didn’t need a condom, he preferred to come inside me. It was what I wanted, too. Needing to feel all of him, including his release deep in my core. From the first time I’d experienced the rush of heat and moisture, I’d been forever addicted.