Unmasking Kelsey by Kay Hooper Page B

irresistible power he had channeled into that starkly intimate kiss had blasted through the barriers her rational mind had tried to erect. She knew now; that was why she had cried.
    She lifted her head and looked up at him, wishing there was more light so she could see him clearly. “I know what I’m saying. And I know what broke.”
    “Elizabeth—”
    “Me. I broke. So I guess I do want that scrapbook full of memories after all.”
    He was very still for a timeless moment, then cursed under his breath and got out of the carjerkily. He stood leaning against the side of the vehicle, silent and stiff.
    She got out of the car more slowly, standing by the open door and gazing at him. “Just do me a favor, huh?” Her voice was soft, casual. “Don’t send me any roses with the Dear Jane letter, okay? I hate to see roses cut.” He wasn’t looking at her, and she couldn’t read his expression.
    “You don’t think much of me, do you?” he asked flatly.
    Elizabeth stepped toward him. “You’re wrong, you know,” she told him. “So wrong. It’s just that I know you won’t be able to stay for long.”
    “Because I don’t fit.” His voice was remote.
    “Is it so simple? No. But it would take more than any woman to hold you, Kelsey.”
    He drew a deep breath, but it didn’t ease the tight pain in his chest, or stop the shaking inside him. “Forget it,” he said in a hard tone that didn’t quite hide the strain. “I don’t want a sacrificial victim, Elizabeth. You think I could stand being with you
knowing
you were just waiting forme to walk out because you were looking at endings? No. No, I won’t do it.”
    “If that’s the way I made it sound, then I’m sorry.” Her voice was still quiet, reflective. “You said yourself you’d be in my bed before the weekend was over.”
    “Because you belong to me.” He couldn’t stop the words.
    “I know.”
    Kelsey turned toward her jerkily. “Then why the hell are you talking like this?” he demanded.
    She reached up to touch his face lightly, feeling his jaw tighten. “I belong to you. But you don’t belong to me.” Her hand fell to her side. “I left my car across the road. I’ll go home now. And let you do your job.”
    He stood for a long time where she’d left him, staring blindly at nothing. When he finally pushed away from the car and started back through the woods to meet Derek, he felt stiff and sore, and his chest was still hurting. When he reached the spot where his partner waited, he knelt downbeside him and asked in a very tranquil voice, “See anything?”
    “Nothing unexpected.” Derek sent him a sidelong look, then turned his eyes ahead again. “The lady go home?”
    “Yes.”
    After a moment, Derek suggested, “Maybe we’d better hit the road too. There’s no way we can go into this place blind and hope to accomplish anything. Agreed?”
    “Agreed.” Kelsey sounded disinterested.
    Derek didn’t say another word until they reached the motel, and then he said only, “My room, if you don’t mind.”
    Kelsey went with him to his room without protest or question, and sat in the chair by the window once they were inside. “Something on your mind?”
    “You might say so.” Derek sat on his bed, weighing his options and not entirely happy with any of them. Still, he didn’t have much choice. Either he found a way to release some of the pressure building up inside Kelsey, or else he waitedfor the man to blow apart on his own—and who or what might get caught in that explosion?
    “Well?” Kelsey was expressionless, but he was pale and still and coiled tightly.
    Derek kept his voice level and impersonal. “I heard a story not so long ago that might interest you. It’s about a kid who got involved in a dangerous business. A kid who went undercover for the first time, and had to watch without expression while his father’s body was thrown off a freighter. I’ve wondered about that kid. I’ve wondered how he managed to get