Guardian Angel by Linda Wisdom

down at her. He dismounted and walked over to her.
    "Do you realize how long you've been gone?" he snarled.
    She looked around and finally noticed the deepening shadows that heralded dusk. "No, but I'm sure you'll tell me," she replied indifferently. She started when something was tossed into her lap.
    "Mavis was afraid you might be hungry," he explained. "Personally . . ."
    "As far as you were concerned, I could starve?" she finished on a sardonic note, opening the paper bag to find a thick roast beef sandwich and a small thermos of coffee.
    Jared squatted down on his heels and watched her hun grily demolish the sandwich.
    "The cameras will be installed by tomorrow," he said quietly. "I had a long talk with Dena too."
    "Oh?"
    "She told me about your budget meeting with Walt."
    "Really?"
    Jared's features hardened at the monosyllables he was receiving. "Why didn't you tell me about the trouble he was giving you?"
    Alex finished the last of her sandwich and faced him with cold eyes. "It was my problem and I preferred to handle it my way," she said stubbornly.
    "And because you refused to tell me, you lost."
    "I wouldn't have if this hadn't come up," she argued.
    Jared reached out and gripped her wrist, always marvel ing how much power was in the delicate bone structure. "You make me so damn mad!" he gritted.
    "Welcome to the club!" Alex snatched her hand away as if his touch burned her and scrambled to her feet. A moment later she was on her horse urging her back to the house.
    Alex was conscious of Jared following her every step of the way back to the barn. Her imagination even told her that it was his warm breath on her nape instead of the cold wind blowing around her.
    When she reached the barn, only her sense of responsi bility forced her to stay and unsaddle her horse.
    A steel viselike hand grabbed her shoulder and wrenched her around. "You sure picked the right way to try to break your neck." Jared's eyes shot sparks. As he stared down at her mutinous features, something else took over. "Damn you," he groaned before his mouth closed over hers.
    Jared's other hand clasped her neck, pulling her head back as far as it would go. His body had pressed her back until they were molded perfectly together against one of the stalls.
    Alex's own arms slid around his waist and pressed her palms fiat against the slight curve of his buttocks.
    "Jared." Her whisper was lost among the rough posses sion of his tongue. She could feel his hardening length against her pliant softness.
    In reply, he moved his hips suggestively against hers. His hands had unbuttoned her shirt and torn apart the fragile, lacy bra so that his lips could drift down to cover the pulsing coral-tipped nipple. Alex cried out, feeling the pull of his lips all the way down to the center of her body. Her hands were equally busy sliding under the rough denim of his jeans even as her sane half spoke out loud.
    "Someone could come in," she gasped as Jared's teeth bit down gently on the nipple, then pulled on the sensi tized skin.
    "Tim drove Rashid into Santa Barbara," he rasped. "I can't wait for you, Alex, not anymore."
    Alex was in a daze as Jared took her hand and pulled her down the length of the barn to a ladder then pushed her up it. When she reached the top, she stumbled until his hands steadied her and spun her around to fall against him.
    "This is crazy." She took deep breaths but only inhaled the musky scent of his skin mixed with the earthier fra grance of horseflesh and perspiration.
    "No crazier than we'd be if we tried to walk away from each other right now," he informed her in a rough voice.
    Jared swiftly unbuttoned his shirt and dropped it on the hay. Alex's shirt soon followed. He pulled back slightly to feast his eyes on her rapidly heaving breasts. The dark, blazing lights in the green orbs sent a tightening ache throughout her body and tautened the nipples until they stood out, silently begging for his touch.
    "I want to see all of you, Alex." Jared's