If she ever got out of here, she’d listen to Carolyn. Always.

He had one hand propped up against the wall as he contemplated her with an enigmatic expression that was probably supposed to be polite, not terrifying.

But he didn’t have the facial features for polite, not with those shocking light eyes and harsh frown. “What are you doing here?”

She tried not to stare, but it wasn’t every day she was so up close and personal to a nearly naked man while shaking in fear. In fact, she was hardly ever this close to a nearly naked man, scared or otherwise. “I’m watching the house for the weekend,” she said. “But…Eddie?”

A short, rough laugh escaped him at that, a sound that had nothing to do with mirth. “No.”

Her heart was flinging itself against her ribs so hard it was amazing they hadn’t all cracked. “Um…” She swallowed hard. “Eddie’s brother? Eddie’s…twin brother?”

His go-to-hell eyes frosted over. “No. I’m Reilly.” Body taut with tension, arms crossed now-which delineated his hard contours in interesting ways, not that she was noticing-he let out a breath. “His son.”

Eddie had told her he had a son, but by the indulgent smile on his face when he’d mentioned him, Tessa had imagined a little boy, certainly someone far younger than thirtyish and not quite so mind-bogglingly magnificent. “But-” She let out a sound of pure confusion and eyed the window. The place had been built on a hill, and naturally, she was hillside and at least forty feet up.

She looked at Reilly again. His stance implied strength and an innate confidence she could only dream of. There was no doubt, this man was in complete control of himself, even injured and half-naked.

Apparently unconcerned with that nakedness, he moved toward her. She flinched back against the door, but he kept coming, and took the hand she’d unconsciously held to her still-raw and aching throat.

Slowly but inexorably he pulled her hand up and stared at what he’d exposed.

Impossibly, his eyes hardened even more. “They hurt you, too.” He ran a finger over her skin then lifted his gaze to hers. “You were to watch the house for Eddie?”

“Yes.”

He made a rough sound. “That figures.”

“Figures how?”

“He favors the young and innocent.”

The words “young and innocent” came out as if those were the most irritating traits a person could have. How many times had she been told she looked ten years younger than her twenty-six? Plenty. So she looked young, big deal. Did people always have to use the word innocent when describing her?

She really resented the hell out of that.

“You interrupted them,” he guessed, and grimaced with what actually might have been concern. Then he took her other hand as well, the one she’d been cradling to her belly because her wrist still hurt, and turned it over to expose the mottled bruising already appearing there. He lifted his gaze and held hers for a long moment. “Where else did they get you?”

“Nowhere.”

Still holding her wrist, he looked her over thoroughly, and she let him because she didn’t feel up to doing anything else.

Besides, he had the air of a man well used to being in charge, the kind of man others would look to in a crisis. The kind of man that would be annoying in everyday life because of it.

Alpha male at its finest. And she preferred beta men. This guy didn’t appear to have a sensitive, compassionate bone in his body. He certainly didn’t feel the need to charm and cajole, or make everyone smile around him as his father did. He simply didn’t have the same easy warmth and charisma.

And in truth, he actually seemed far more dangerous than the thug who’d thrown her in here. She wondered how anyone had ever managed to hurt him, because all that carefully restrained strength was intimidating as hell. He must have been ambushed, and she doubted he’d gone down easily.

And yet the way he was looking her over for unseen injuries softened something inside her, just a little, at least until he touched the back of his head again and cursed, which made her jump. “You’re bleeding,” she said inanely.

“Yeah, that’s what happens when you take a heavy, ridiculously overpriced vase to the head.”

He had been ambushed. “Sit down. Please-”

“I’m fine.”

Well, he was indeed pretty darn fine, but wasn’t it just like a man not to admit when he was hurt. She turned back to the door and wriggled the handle again. It still didn’t give. At least her legs had stopped shaking. “Maybe we can somehow stop him, before he cleans Eddie out-”

“Are you kidding? No one can clean Eddie out, he’s got more money than God.”

“Well, we can’t just stand here.” She leaned against the door in frustration. This place was her responsibility this weekend and she took that responsibility seriously. “That guy said his job was to mess this place up. Maybe we can bang on the door, make nuisances of ourselves, until he comes back down here. Then one of us can distract him while the other-”

“You’re as crazy as Eddie.” He rubbed the back of his neck and let out a mirthless laugh. “And here’s a news flash. There’s four of them, all apparently intent on getting good old Dad’s toys, of which he has many.”

“Four?”

“I took two of them out and was working on the third when the last one knocked me on the head from behind.” He gritted his teeth, his jaw tight. “I’d have gotten him, too, but they caught me distracted.”

Tessa’s mouth had fallen open. There’d been four of them. And he’d taken out three.

By himself.

She eyed his bare chest only inches from her nose and tried not to ogle. “So you’re the martial arts expert the guy was grumbling about.”

He nodded.

“What happened to your clothes?”

He looked away. “When I hit the floor, they found my gun.”

“Your…gun.”

“And then they strip-searched me for more weapons.”

She could only stare at him. She’d imagined him dangerous. Edgy. But…armed? “Wow.”

He ground his teeth but didn’t say anything else.

“Four,” she repeated softly.

“And now two of them are armed,” he said. “Courtesy of moi. So even if we could distract them and bring them back this way, it’s not the wisest move. Unless you’re wearing a bulletproof vest…? No?” he asked when she shook her head. “See, bad move.” Gingerly, as if he had a headache, which he no doubt did, he sank back to the cot.

“Who would do this?”

He lifted a shoulder. “Your guess is as good as mine. Eddie certainly has plenty of enemies.”

How was that possible? The Eddie she knew wouldn’t harm a fly. “So we’re just going to stand here and wait for them to decide we’re not exactly an asset?”

“I’m not going to stand.” He lay back, put his feet up, and closed his eyes.

She stared at him. “You’re not serious.”

He drew in a deep breath, and, as if they were attached to his body by strings, her eyes followed the motion of his broad chest rising and falling, followed the way his six-pack belly caved in, and how his knit boxers lovingly cupped his…package.

And, oh my, what a package.

A little shocked at herself, she turned her back on him. “I can’t believe this.” She took a good look around the small, spartan room. There was nothing in it but the cot, and yet the rest of the house was so absolutely beautifully done. It was strange. “Where are we anyway?”

“The servants’ quarters.”

She turned around to look at him, but he hadn’t budged nor opened his eyes. “Did you grow up here?”

“No.”

“Did you-”

“How many more questions do you figure you have, because I’d like to sleep off this headache.”

She’d been manhandled, terrified and trapped, and she could deal with that. But it would have been nice if it’d happened with a warmer, more compassionate man, a man who put others’ needs and fears ahead of his own need for a nap.

Certainly someone more in touch with his own emotions.

In other words, this man’s polar opposite. “You shouldn’t go to sleep,” she said, unable to just ignore him. She had a feeling he could be fully dressed and she still wouldn’t be able to ignore him. “You could be concussed.”

He didn’t answer. His body took up the entire cot and more, a good portion of his long legs were hanging off the cot. His wide shoulders barely fit onto the thin mattress.

But what if she’d wanted to lie down? What then? She’d have to be snuggled right up against all that bare sinewy flesh.

Not that he’d even care, as he appeared to not have given her a second thought. Wasn’t that ever so flattering? “Are you really going to sleep?”

“Shhh.”

Unbelievable. She watched him breathe slowly and evenly for another moment before letting out a frustrated sigh. “Fine. Sleep.” Without a care to her own possible fears and pain. Wasn’t that just like an alpha?

She eyed the room again. The window was still too small, with no fire escape or way to climb down. Interestingly enough though, there appeared to be an attic access in the ceiling, a decent-sized one, too. Not that she could reach it alone, but they had to get out. Maybe if he helped- “Reilly?”

He let out a long-suffering sigh. “What?”

“I have another option than sleep.”

He opened his eyes, the look in them blatantly sexual. “Oh, yeah?”

Oh boy, definitely alpha. Extremely alpha. So why his low, husky tone and those suggestive words made her body tingle, she hadn’t a clue.

“What did you have in mind?” His voice dripped an earthy sensuality.

“Uh…” Oddly enough, the only thing she had in mind right now was X-rated. “I forgot.”

His gaze ran over her from head to toe, flared with heat, shocking her, before he closed his eyes. “Okay, then.”

Okay, then.

2

REILLY DRIFTED off pleasantly, to a place where his head didn’t hurt and he was wearing clothes-

“Reilly.” This extremely loud whisper was accompanied by a shove at his shoulder.

She was ba-a-ack. His father’s latest fling, the petite pixie with the shoulder-length brown hair and mossy-green eyes that flashed her every thought for the world to see.

Was she even of legal age?

“Reilly?”

He had no idea why she bothered to whisper, when she was doing it so loudly she could have woken the dead.

“I think you should wake up now,” she said, and added another teeth-rattling shake. “Come on. Get up and count to ten or something.”

Honest to God, the woman talked more than any woman he’d ever met.

“Just to make sure you don’t go into a coma.” Another shake. “It’s only been five minutes but I can’t remember how long you’re supposed to let someone with a bleeding head injury sleep.”

“I’m not in a coma,” he said with his eyes still closed. It wasn’t really sleep he was interested in, but a way to pass the time other than looking at the oddly sweet and sexy Tessa. “And my head is no longer bleeding.”

“I still don’t think you should sleep.”

All those years in the army and then the CIA, one thing had stuck with him-how to catch quality Zs in five short little minutes. He’d rather have had longer than five minutes. Say the whole night, so the time would have passed painlessly, but slowly he opened his eyes, staring into her wide green ones. “I’m fine.”

“How many fingers am I holding up?” She wriggled three in front of his nose.

He grabbed them. “I’m fine,” he repeated.

“Fine enough to go up the attic access in the ceiling? I think it has good escape potential.”

In the meager but adequate light he took in her slight little form bending over him, her hand on his chest. Not that he minded a woman’s fingers on him, but his head felt like it was going to roll right off his shoulders. And if she shoved him one more time, yet again jarring his head, he was going to roll her pretty little body beneath his to hold her still. “Escape potential,” he repeated, and she smiled at him and nodded.

“All you have to do is climb up. Then shimmy your way through whatever is up there, and drop down through another access in another room. Voilà, escape. I know you said you didn’t grow up here, but you could probably find a phone, right?”

He’d had his cell on him, before he’d made the mistake of actually coming here to see Eddie. Before he’d knocked out three of the four idiots, then realized too late there was one more idiot behind him. Suddenly, he’d seen stars from the hit with a vase probably worth enough to feed a small country.

Which made him the idiot.

And to think, all he’d wanted was to tell his father to knock it off, to stop sending sexy little temps to his office and to stop sending him messages to come visit.