She crawled faster. When she got halfway, she paused to listen for clues, but silence reigned. As quietly as she could and holding her breath, she continued past the point where she’d left Reilly. She could see another access panel up ahead, but still couldn’t hear a single sign of life. When she got to it, she could see this was where Reilly had dropped down. He’d muscled off the cover and left a gaping hole revealing what looked like a pristine tiled guest bathroom.

Speaking of which, after a long night, she needed one badly. Stomach growling as well, she carefully lowered her head into the opening. Yep, a bathroom. She reversed her position and stuck her feet through, thinking if she could just keep a good hold on the edge, she could lower herself down the entire length of her body, and hopefully reduce her fall by a full five feet, three inches.

Okay, five feet two.

She slid through, her dress snagging up around her hips as she hung there by her fingers, praying she really was the only one in the room, otherwise she was presenting quite the picture.

She took one last peek over her shoulder, and had just enough time to realize it was still a long fall when her fingers gave way.

She crumpled to the floor with a crash-landing that wasn’t the quiet one she’d hoped for. Quick as she could, she leaped to her feet and took a quick inventory.

No broken bones, just a sore butt. Good thing for her extra padding then. She was still missing a shoe, but she could live with that. Because she had to, she made use of the facilities, and then looked around her for something, anything, to use to protect herself. Silver tile, silver towels with gold bows, silver gilt around the mirrors and a bar of silver soap in the shape of a sea-shell. She needed…ah-ha. On the back of the toilet, she grabbed up one of two long silver candlestick holders, tossing aside the pretty ivory candle.

She hefted the thing in her hand like a weapon and was gratified by the weight.

What she wasn’t gratified by was the sick pit in her stomach. How many times had her big brother tried to teach her self-defense? How many times had she ended up on the mat laughing with Rafe shaking his head in disgust. She wasn’t laughing now, and with all her might she wished he was here.

Tiptoeing to the door, she cracked it open and peeked out. Nothing. She stepped out of the bathroom, brandishing the candlestick out in front of her as if she knew what she was doing.

Up ahead, she could see the vast living room, and beyond that, the kitchen. Then she caught a flash of movement in there and plastered herself against the wall, nearly hyperventilating.

With her pulse at a full marathon rate, she scooted her way down the hallway to the opening of the living room. No one. She moved toward the sliding glass door.

On the other side, in the kitchen before the island, facing away from her, Reilly suddenly appeared. Then he bent down, momentarily disappearing from her view, and when he came up again, there was a gun in his hand.

An involuntary gasp escaped her, and gun out, he whirled. For one dizzy moment all she could see was the muzzle pointed right at her. Before she could blink, he’d uncocked it, or whatever one did when one didn’t intend to shoot after all, and was standing before her, jerking her out of the living room, into the kitchen and around the corner. His laser beam eyes demanded answers but when she opened her mouth he put a hand to it, just as her thug came around the corner, still wearing his jeans and dirty thermal shirt.

When he saw them he raised an arm with a knife.

Reilly shoved her down and kicked the knife out of the guy’s hands with chilling ease, adding another well-placed kick to his stomach.

The guy doubled over, then fell to his knees, mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water before he flopped all the way to the floor.

Reilly stood over him. “What are you after?”

The guy offered a snide but interesting suggestion on what Reilly could do to himself. Reilly grabbed him by the hair and calmly lifted, then let his head hit the floor.

Given the squeal of pain this invoked, it was a hard hit.

“What are you after?” Reilly asked again.

“We were just going to mess up the place, that’s all.”

“Why?”

The guy apparently hesitated too long for the impatient Reilly, and got another head bump on the floor.

“Ouch! Stop!”

“Then talk.”

“Okay, look, we were hired to steal his stuff and mess the place up, that’s all.”

Reilly looked unimpressed. “Keep talking.”

“But we just thought since he was going to be gone, we’d camp out and live here for a few days. You know, really trash it in style.”

“Who’s paying you?”

He closed his eyes. “I don’t know.”

Reilly stood up. The guy on the floor kicked out to trip him.

Tessa cried out a warning and huddled back against the wall, but Reilly didn’t need her help. He did some sort of karate chop to the guy’s throat and out he went like a light.

There was a coil of rope on the counter and a knife. “Where did those come from?” she whispered.

“From our captors.” Reilly efficiently and quickly tied him up, and when he was done, he nodded curtly to Tessa. “Nice to know you can follow directions.”

“I…” Stunned by what she’d just seen, she just stared at him.

He gave her that long-suffering sigh she seemed to cause. “Call it in.”

“What?”

“I got all four of them,” he said with that eerie calm knack for understating. “Call 9-1-1.”

She started to stand but her knees were knocking together. From her perch on the cold tile floor she could see the other side of the island now, where two men lay bound and gagged.

“The fourth is in the foyer, also prone.” He moved back into the kitchen and picked up the phone on the wall, then shook his head with disgust. “They cut the lines. Come on-”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her up. For a moment, one very weak moment, she let her hands come to rest on his bare pecs but she resisted the urge to put her head down and beg for comfort because she’d just realized something more than a little unsettling.

Reilly Ledger was not hiding himself behind his tough, rough, dangerously edgy exterior. He was that tough, rough, dangerously edgy exterior.

Standing there, with the bad guys at his feet, he glanced around. Coolly. “Need my cell phone,” he said. “Stay.” He left for a moment, and came back with an armful of clothes that he dropped and started to pull on. A black T-shirt. Black jeans, from which he took out a cell phone and called 9-1-1 while he slid his feet into black athletic shoes.

As he talked to dispatch, he shoved his gun-the one he’d retrieved from one of the men on the floor-into his waistband. She tried not to think about that, that he carried a weapon on him, but she could do little else. She heard a half-hysterical giggle and was surprised to find it had come from her.

“Hey.” He clicked off the phone and looked at her, now fully dressed.

How was it he looked even more devastatingly dangerous fully dressed?

“You okay?”

A question from the man so miserly with words. She started to nod her head, then slowly shook it instead. Overwhelmed by the entire night’s events, by his utter calmness, by everything, she did as she’d wanted to moments ago. She set her head on his chest and hung on for all she was worth.

“Tess-”

She lifted her head. “I’m sorry. I just need…” Their mouths were a fraction of an inch apart. God, he was gorgeous. She was sure he’d hate that, but- “I really need a hug.”

His arms encircled her.

“Thank you,” she whispered, something warm and gushy happening to her insides at his touch. He did that for her, made her feel so secure that she could move on from the fright.

And move on she did. What was it that made her so suddenly, ridiculously turned-on? The danger? The shocking violence Reilly had just displayed? There had to be something sick in that, she decided, but it didn’t take away from the fact that her nipples had hardened and her thighs tightened.

Maybe it was the embrace itself. Or maybe it was simply Reilly’s presence, or the fact that she already knew how good he kissed, how delicious his touch was, but being with him made her feel…she glanced at the restrained bad guys…safe.

It was true. Reilly, for all his brooding intensity, made her feel safe, so she had no idea, no idea at all, why she shivered.

His arms tightened around her. Mouth still so close to hers she could feel his warm breath, he said, “Don’t go into shock now.”

“No.”

His eyes roamed her face, settling on her lips. His arms were banded tightly around her. “You’re still shaking.”

“I think…I think the adrenaline is getting to me.”

“What do you mean?”

“I think…I want you. I want you a lot.”

With a groan, his eyes became slumberous and…hot, definitely hot. “Tess-” One large hand palmed the back of her head and he slowly changed the angle of his head. Their noses brushed, but not their lips, not quite. Feeling a little desperate, a little like this was her last shot because the police were coming and then it’d be over, she closed the slight gap between them and laid one on him.

She expected to have to coax him out of his contained, tight control, as she had last time, but his mouth opened to hers immediately, and he fed her a hot kiss, holding her to him as if she was the very air he required. He was certainly hers. She lost herself in the sounds of their ravaging kiss, in the feel of his hands running up and down her back, squeezing her bottom, gliding her against the enticing bulge now firmly behind the buttons on his Levi’s.

Don’t stop, was her only coherent thought, and as if he’d heard her, he turned, pressing her against the wall, protecting her from view of any of the men bound on the floor. He slid his hand over her breast. His fingers teased her nipple and the sensation dissolved her bones. But then he pulled his mouth back slightly, breathing harder than when he’d fought the bad guys.