Yolanda stared at him, face unreadable.Her lips parted…
And his cell phone rang.
Infuriated impatience tore through him.He snatched the device from his jacket pocket, refusing to take his eyes from Yolanda’s.“Detective Thomas,” he snapped.
“Detective,” a familiar voice said on the other end.“This is Sydney City Dispatch.Your sister’s left a message for you.”
Peter’s heart slammed into his chest and for a moment everything felt frozen.“Yes?”
“It’s in a private residence in McMahon’s Point,” Dispatch said.“Detective Huddart from North Sydney Command is waiting for you there.”
Regan tried not to feel the luxury surrounding her.The stolen Jag purred north along the freeway, eating up the miles like an animal on the trail of prey both sweet and fast.The leather seat hugged her hips and back, the cool air-conditioned air kissed her bare limbs and cheeks and the mellow sounds of Miles Davis emanated from the speakers with such deep clarity her skin rippled with shivers.If she closed her eyes, it would be too easy to imagine she was heading to a secluded resort up the coast for a relaxing weekend away with her sultry, new lover.
But she couldn’t close her eyes.Not when Declan looked so pale.She frowned at him.“You need help.”
He grinned, looking far too at ease behind the wheel of the stolen sports car, despite the pallor to his skin and the sheen of sweat on his forehead.“What kind of help?”
“You’re not well.You need to see a doctor.”
Declan chuckled.“And what kind of doctor would you be having me see, love?An animal doctor?”
Regan glared at him, a faint blush heating her cheeks.“So, it’s perfectly okay for you to risk your life to keep me safe, but when I make an educated statement you make fun of me?”She turned back to the window, watching low, rolling hills pass beside her in a green blur.“I don’t like you, Declan O’Connell.”
Declan chuckled again.“Yes you do.”
Regan ignored him.Well, tried to.Her body was way too attuned to his presence, her heart too entangled with his.The blush in her cheeks growing hotter, she turned from the window and cocked an eyebrow at him.“So, your plan is to keep driving north until we get to where?Queensland?Will you see a doctor then?”
“Love, a doctor would run screaming from the room if he took a look at me.You know that.You’ve done it yourself a few times already.”
“Declan, youlookterrible.”
It was a lie.He looked gorgeous.As dangerously sensual as ever.The clothes he’d “borrowed” this time suited him, the expensive, black designer jeans, black leather boots and a black polo shirt seemingly made for him.If it weren’t for the sweaty forehead and pale skin she’d have thought him as healthy as ever.
Declan laughed.“You really know how to make a man feel good about himself, do you know that?”
She narrowed her eyes.The laugh was loud and totally at ease.But it also seemed controlled.Like he was holding it for some reason.“You’re being stupid,” she stated.“I spend every day working with animals in pain.I know you’re trying to hide it from me.”
Another laugh burst from Declan’s lips, this one louder.“So, you’ve finally admitted what I am.Guess it was a vet you were talking about taking me to, after all.”
Regan gaped at him.She wanted to slap him.Or hold him.“Watch it,” she snapped, “or I’ll be asking him to neuter you.”
Declan laughed again, the rich sound a perfect foil to the bluesy trumpet tones wafting from the car’s sound system.“I’ve never met anyone like you, Regan Thomas.”He gave her a cheeky grin.“Are all Australian women as prickly as you?”
“Only ones abducted by Irish werewolves with a hero complex.”She cocked an eyebrow at him.“You know, you’re not doing much to dispel the old Irish stereotype here.”
“And what stereotype would that be?That all Irishmen are amazing lovers?”
Regan felt her cheeks fill with heat.She rolled her eyes—both at Declan’s statement and the way her pussy fluttered and pulse quickened at the thought of his sexual prowess.“No,” she shot back, forcing her rapacious response away.She wasnotin love with him, damn it!She wasn’t.“The stereotype that deals with an Irishman’s intelligence.”She folded her arms and tilted her chin.“Not getting medical care is just plain stupid.”
“Aah,thatstereotype.Just be calling me Paddy then, love.”
Regan threw up her hands, exasperated to screaming point.She turned to her window and watched the eucalypts blur by.What did she do now?Knock him out the same way he had her?
She shot him a surreptitious look.
She’d laid out more than one male in her life—Peter had copped more than one punch to the jaw as they were growing up—but something told her Declan’s jaw wouldn’t succumb to mere human physics.Besides, she knew how he drove.There wasn’t a chance in hell he was doing less than ninety miles an hour at the moment.She wanted him to get medical care—notput them both in an ER.She needed a different tactic.
Letting her lips curl into a seductive smile, she leant toward him, flitting her palm up his thigh.“I can think of another reason to pull over.”
