Into the Fury (BOSS, Inc. #1)(49)

Leaving Meg in her room under the protective eye of the security guard, Dirk walked the other three women to their rooms, alerted the guards on each floor, then came back up to Meg’s.

Thirty minutes later, they were all together in the lobby, ready to go to lunch. Meg ended up sitting next to Dirk in the long black stretch limo that comfortably seated nine. She told herself to ignore the way her heart was racing, ignore the hard shoulder and sinewy thigh pressing into hers. But she couldn’t ignore the look of burning intensity in Dirk’s hazel eyes.

The girls were chatting, laughing, excited to be out of what felt more like a prison than a luxury hotel. All Meg could think of was the man on the seat beside her.

“I wish it was just you and me in here,” Dirk said, low enough so no one else could hear. “I’d close the privacy panel, strip you naked, and tell the driver not to stop all night. I’d have you every way I could think of and start all over again.”

Oh, dear God! Meg could hardly breathe and her insides had gone completely liquid. “You shouldn’t talk like that, Dirk Reynolds. You’re supposed to be thinking about keeping us safe.”

“I think of that, Meg. No way would I let anyone hurt you.”

“Except you.”

“I wouldn’t hurt you, honey. I’d never do that.”

Her eyes stung. She couldn’t remember a man affecting her so strongly. “Not on purpose, but in the end that’s what would happen.”

“You don’t know that.”

Across the way, Val laughed at something Izzy said, and Dirk bent to whisper in her ear. “No more sleeping on the sofa. Tonight when I come to your room, I want to sleep in your bed.”

For too many reasons to count, that wasn’t going to happen.

Meg flashed him a teasing smile. “We’ll flip for it, macho man. Winner gets the bed. Loser sleeps on the sofa.”

Dirk groaned.

“We’re here!” Izzy clapped her hands excitedly as the car pulled up in front of the Mansion Restaurant, one of the most elegant dining rooms in Dallas. Outside the window, a white-coated valet hurried to open the limo door.

“I hope the food is still good,” Izzy said. “My sister Gina had the tortilla soup and the chicken tagliatelle pasta with pesto and sun-dried tomatoes. I had the lobster macaroni and cheese. Everything was amazing.”

“Pasta sounds fantastic,” Val said. “I’m starving.”

Dirk got out first, took a moment to check their surroundings; then Izzy scrambled to get out of the limo. As Carmen reached the door, a pair of long legs encased in black denim appeared in view.

“What the hell’s going on?” Ethan’s voice could have cut through nails.

Carmen tossed her thick black hair and smiled up at him. “Dirk—he is taking us to lunch,” she said as she climbed out, making Ethan’s scowl go even darker. “You are just in time to join us.”

As Meg slid out, she didn’t have to look to know where that scowl was directed. The knot that appeared in Ethan’s jaw when Val stepped out of the limo erased any doubt.

Meg glanced at Dirk and both of them grinned.





“You should have called,” Ethan said darkly. In concession to the heat, his shoulder holster was gone, his pistol clipped to the leather belt at his waist. Val could see the slight rise hidden beneath his T-shirt. She found it oddly comforting.

“When I got back to the hotel and you weren’t there, I was afraid something had happened,” he said. “I tried to call, but you didn’t pick up.”

She glanced down at the petite white leather handbag she carried. “I couldn’t fit the phone in my bag. I didn’t think I’d need it before we got back.”

His jaw tightened. “From now on, you keep it with you. Understood?”

“You could have called Dirk,” she argued. “Meg and I were with him when you left.”

He tossed a hard look over his shoulder. “I tried. Call went straight to voice mail.”

Dirk checked his cell as he moved the women toward the door. “Sorry. Looks like I let the battery go dead. Won’t happen again.”

Ethan’s eyes cut back to Val. “Like I said, if you were going to leave, you should have called. It’s my job to keep you safe.”

“I wouldn’t go off by myself. We just wanted to have lunch. Dirk agreed to take us.”

Ethan scrubbed a hand over his face. “Dirk’s a pushover. I would have said no.”

Val just smiled and sailed past him into the opulent restaurant. “That’s why I didn’t call.”

Ethan muttered a curse she couldn’t quite hear, but his mouth edged up as he stepped in behind her. He’d been worried about her. Aside from Mom and Pops, no one had worried about her since she was ten years old.

Last night she’d been nervous about Ethan staying in her suite, but after the private supper La Belle had provided, he had simply escorted her upstairs, thoroughly checked the suite, and left. Ten minutes later, he’d returned. He was being discreet. He didn’t want trouble with Beau and neither did she.

He’d arrived with laptop in hand. Once inside, he set up at the dining table and went to work answering his e-mail and checking in with his office. Val sat on the sofa in front of her own laptop, doing her best to concentrate on the Internet courses she had let lapse for the past few days.