Page 23 of Untouchable

When there were things he didn’t know, his world would start to spin out of control. And when things were out of control, he would have to resort to methods that were distasteful, unpleasant in order to gain the upper hand.

He preferred not to have to do so.

He would if he had to though. It was the reason he was sitting here now. He was willing to do what other men couldn’t. Wouldn’t.

And he never let weaker qualities like guilt or fear or morality get in his way.

6

Kelly hadn’t intendedto get quite so concussed.

The blow she’d taken to the head had been a bit harder than she had discussed with Jack Martin, the private investigator her mother had been working with. She’d contacted Jack that morning about what she needed to happen this evening. It was necessary for her to get roughed up a little, or else Caleb would never have believed the attack was real. But Kelly had been expecting a minor knock on the head. Her concussion was supposed to be an act.

She hadn’t had to fake much of anything.

When her head had collided violently with the side of her car, Kelly had been temporarily dazed, then dizzy and disoriented. She had nearly vomited for real, right on Caleb’s shiny black shoes.

The headache that followed had almost leveled her.

So she couldn’t have resisted much, even if she’d wanted to, when Caleb picked her up to carry her in his arms.

It was what she needed, what she’d been hoping for, but it was almost unbearable. To be totally dependent on someone—on Caleb Marshall—even for the short walk to his car. She’dlearned a long time ago not to depend on anyone, even people she should be able to trust.

It might have been the worst part of the entire evening, being gently cradled in Caleb’s arms.

Except for the real concussion, everything was going according to plan. She’d needed a shortcut to get in closer proximity to Caleb and slip beyond the superficial sexual attraction. No matter how much of an arrogant ass he was, he was also a man. And men like him wanted to be warriors, to feel like heroes.

So she’d given him a battle to rush into.

Shifting uncomfortably in the passenger seat, Kelly wanted to be proud of herself. Wanted to congratulate herself on a job well done. Caleb had played right into her hands. Not because he was an idiot or easily duped, but because she knew men well enough to plan effective tactics.

She wanted to be proud, but she couldn’t. Even being in the same car as Caleb was akin to torture. He still looked, felt, smelled like someone she wanted, no matter what her rational mind kept telling her. But she used her old mental strategy to push all of what she felt for him into a tight little knot in her heart, hiding it behind her walls along with her real self, keeping it safe and out of sight.

She shielded the parts of her soul that could still be hurt and made herself into a weapon. The only weapon she had.

As she slumped beside Caleb in his car, she forced herself to focus on her pounding head and let her body become perfectly limp, noticing that her neckline was riding low and that her hair was slipping out of her braid.

All of that was good. All of that was necessary.

She was starting to rehearse her next steps when she felt her belly start to churn in a frightening way.

She straightened her back a little and took long, deep breaths—praying that she wouldn’t throw up in the lush interior of Caleb’s Mercedes. It might drive home the reality of her weakness, but it wasn’t exactly sexy.

“You okay?” he asked softly, his eyes darting over to her.

She’d had her eyes closed for most of the drive, but now she looked over at his handsome face in the dim light. “Yeah,” she breathed, hoping she was speaking the truth.

“You need me to pull over?”

“No,” she replied weakly, relieved when the wave of nausea passed. “I’m fine.”

He shook his head as if he was annoyed by something.

She didn’t know what it was, but it angered her that anything so minor she might have done would have annoyed him.Him.As if he had a right to be annoyed with anyone else in the world.

When Caleb pulled up in front of a big house on sprawling grounds, she let him help her out of the car. He’d taken her to his palatial estate outside the city instead of to his city apartment, but she didn’t know why he’d made the choice.

She didn’t struggle when he swung her up once more in his arms. She even let her head loll against his shoulder, although the pleasant, male scent of him was as troubling as any blow to the head.