Star Witness - By Mallory Kane Page 0,35

body. Through their wet clothes, she felt the heat of his body envelop her. A shudder, equal parts cold, fear and desire, shook her.

“Dani?” he whispered.

She went still. Did he want her to move? She hoped not, because she didn’t want to leave the heat of his body. She was soaked, and while April in New Orleans could hardly be called cold, even in the rain, she felt chilled to the bone.

As she waited to see what he was going to say, she concentrated on the feel of him pressed against her. Warmth wasn’t all she needed from him now. She greedily soaked up the feelings of safety, comfort and a deep, rich yearning she’d never felt before.

He was silent and still for a long moment. His breath had calmed, and she could feel his heart beating fast but steadily against her back. Or at least she imagined she could.

He lowered his head and whispered in her ear, “How the hell did you do that?” She felt his lips graze the sensitive skin of her ear, and her insides quivered with longing. It took her a moment to figure out what he was talking about.

“Oh, the lock,” she muttered; then deliberately, she turned her head so that her mouth was close to his. “I picked it,” she whispered.

He made a small noise like a gasp as her mouth brushed his. “You what?”

“Picked the lock. Granddad gave me his lock-pick kit when I was ten. He said, ‘You never know when you might need to get through a door.’”

She felt his chest rumble with laughter. “That’s illegal.”

“So sue me,” she said lightly, then turned in his arms, rose on her tiptoes and kissed him. It was a tentative brushing of lips against lips, but it sent desire arrowing through her, all the way down to her toes.

Harte lifted his head slightly, and Dani moved with him, straining upward, keeping her mouth against his. For a moment that seemed suspended outside of time, he didn’t move, and then she felt him relent. It was a subtle relaxing of his tense muscles, a tiny dip of his head as he took the kiss to the next level. She felt his tongue touch her mouth, felt his arm slide from her shoulders down her back to pull her even closer...

She lifted her head to meet his deeper kiss, just as an odd sound broke through the steady drumbeat of the rain.

Harte stiffened—he’d heard it too.

Her heart skipped a beat. “Do I hear shouting?” she breathed.

He nodded. “Right outside the door,” Harte whispered as the noise suddenly stopped. He straightened slowly, his hand still around her waist. “Move away—without a sound.”

She opened her eyes for the first time and met a solid wall of darkness. She held out her hands in front of her, trying to keep her balance. Total darkness was so disorienting. She felt as though a single misstep would send her tumbling into a bottomless pit. She wanted to close her eyes again. She wanted to be back in Harte’s arms.

Finally, slowly, she became aware of a faint lessening of the total dark. She searched, making herself dizzy, until she found its source—small windows set high in the walls of the warehouse. At last, she had something she could look at to maintain her balance. She took one cautious step, then another. She braced herself, not wanting to crash into something.

By her fourth step, she’d nearly convinced herself that she could see vague shadows in the darkness. Whether they were real or figments of her imagination, being able to focus on something made her feel better.

Then her fingers touched something. She gasped. “There’s something here,” she whispered to Harte.

“Keep going, slowly,” he whispered back. “What does it feel like?”

“Paper?” she said, but that wasn’t quite right. It was too hard. “No. Plastic?” she guessed.

She started to take another step, but Harte laid a hand on her shoulder from behind.

“Wait,” he said, stopping.

“What is it?”

“Shh.”

She held her breath, but didn’t hear anything. “You heard them, didn’t you?” she whispered.

She felt Harte shake his head. “Not yet. But they will be here soon,” he said grimly.

“Maybe they doubled back to look at the building. We don’t know how many doors there are.” She paused. “Or if they’re all locked.”

Suddenly, the door they’d come through rattled. The men were trying to force it open. Then a ferocious pounding filled the air. They were kicking the metal door.

“Keep going,” he said. “We need to get away