When she got inside the apartment she rushed into his bedroom and stripped out of her jeans, sweater, and shoes. The terry cloth robe lay across the rumpled sheets and she jerked the robe back on. She was just settling back into the bed when she heard the distant open and close of the front door of the apartment. The feel of the soft robe on her naked skin made her shudder. The last thing she wanted was to be bare skinned around a man who would likely kill her if he found out she knew his dirty secrets. But he’d sense something was off if she was suddenly wearing clothes.

The creak of the stairs from Wes’s footsteps shot her heart into her throat. She couldn’t breathe. Her head pounded hard against her skull and behind her eyes. Despite the cool sheets against her legs, her body was hot with building panic.

Please God, please, she silently prayed, her hands clenched into fists on the blankets and her eyes squeezed shut.

Relax, have to relax. She tried to calm down, focusing on counting her breaths, but knowing he was coming made her body rigid. Every muscle coiled tight and was ready to snap.

The bedroom door eased open with a slight squeak on the metal hinges. Wes entered the room as silent as a cat. Her ears strained to pick up on the sounds of him rustling as he kicked off his shoes and slid out of his clothes. The covers were pulled back and the bed dipped as he joined her. She flinched out of sheer instinct when he grabbed her, hauling her back against his body.

“Callie?” he whispered, voice full of concern. “Are you awake?”

She wanted to lie, but she couldn’t. He sensed she was awake.

“I heard you come in.” That was the truth. He tugged her so she lay flat on her back.

“You’re trembling. Are you cold? I can warm you up.” His voice was husky, soft, so perfectly seductive. So dangerous. One hand parted her robe a few inches, and he stroked a fingertip along her collarbone as he leaned over her, studying her.

“I couldn’t sleep while you were gone.” Not a lie.

“Well,” he said, chuckling, “since we’re both awake…” He trailed off as he dipped his head to kiss her.

She couldn’t bear it. The second he touched her, she wanted him, even knowing the monster that he was. Her body betrayed her, warming up to him. Have to get free, get away. She flung herself off the bed, ducking from his reaching arms.

Her sudden flight from his arms apparently confused him. “Are you sore after sex in the bathtub?” He sat up and shoved the covers back. He’d put on a pair of black cotton pajama bottoms, but his chest was bare, smooth, and too enticing. If only he wasn’t…She shuddered again.

“Yes, I’m sore.” It took her a minute to remember what he’d asked. It was a lie though. She wasn’t sore.

His eyes narrowed. “You can’t lie to me, darling. I can read you like a book. Why are you running from me?” His tone was soft, seductive, but she heard the note of worry there. Why would he worry about her? Unless he was already guessing she’d found him out.

“I…uh…” Her mind blanked. She couldn’t think of a darn thing, not when looking into his eyes and seeing that cobalt so dark now they seemed almost obsidian.

“Don’t run. You won’t like it when I catch you,” he cautioned, but her instincts overrode everything else and she bolted for the door. She’d get a taxi, ride to a hotel, and call Fenn for help. He could wire her money. She’d pay him back if she could just get away.

She was fast. All those years of running on the ranch trails for exercise paid off. She was out of the apartment and sprinting to the elevator, hands clutching the robe tight about her body. When she got inside she slammed her finger onto the first-floor button and then hit the close button. Wes was running toward her, but the elevator was already closing. An instant before he reached her, the doors sealed shut. She held her thumb on the close button, praying it wouldn’t open. For several seconds nothing happened.

Then the doors slid back open.

Callie opened her mouth to scream but Wes lunged inside and muffled her with a hand over her mouth as he shoved her back against the wall of the elevator. He didn’t hurt her, but the impact knocked the wind out of her and he shoved one thigh between hers, using his full weight to pin her helpless. Immobilized and silenced, she watched as he let the doors close and then he pressed the emergency stop button.

She was sealed inside an enclosed space at midnight with a mad man…Tears blurred her vision and she blinked rapidly. Wes watched her eyes, studying the tears as they traveled down her cheeks and bumped into the hand he held over her mouth.

“What is the matter with you?” he growled. “Don’t ever run from me like that. If you want to play that game, we do it my way. Not like this.” He still looked confused, but angry, too.

Callie shut her eyes. Was he going to kill her now? How long would it take him to figure out that she’d seen his underworld dealings with Dimitri tonight?

The hand on her mouth dropped away and settled on her shoulder. “Darling, talk to me. You’re scaring me,” he said.

When she opened her eyes, she looked up at him. “Please don’t kill me. I won’t tell anyone what I saw, I swear.”

“What? What are you talking about?” He fisted his other hand in her hair and tugged lightly, urging her to tilt her head back. His hips were still pressed to hers, keeping her prisoner against the elevator wall.

“I saw you and Dimitri,” she confessed. There was no use hiding it now. He’d probably torture it out of her if she tried to stay quiet.

“You did?” His lips pursed into a tight line as he seemed to wait for her to say more.

“What exactly did you see?” he demanded.

Callie was ashamed of herself in that moment more than she’d ever been ashamed in her life. There was no way she could avoid telling him what she’d seen. She was terrified and there was no natural bravado in her to give her strength and defiance. She’d let this man into her body and her heart. Any damage, emotional or physical, was enough to scare her senseless.

“What did you see?” he repeated, surprisingly patient, and that only scared her more.

“I saw you beating up that man and taking something from him. It’s drugs, isn’t it? You’re involved with the Russian mob or something, right?” She swallowed, but her throat was cracked because it was so dry.

To her horror Wes burst out laughing. “Oh, Callie, darling. I think I adore you. Drugs? Russian mob? I’ll have to tell Dimitri that. He’ll find it amusing, I’m sure.” Wes pressed a kiss to her lips and she didn’t fight him. Now she was the one confused. He wasn’t acting like a man who’d been found out, or a man who was going to kill her for knowing about his drug involvement.

“But…that’s what you were doing, right?” Her voice shook as the words came out clipped.

He stroked her throat, a devious smirk on his sensual lips. “Oh no. Nothing like that. I don’t touch drugs and I have no mob involvement. You were really frightened of me, weren’t you?” His fingers found her pulse, which still beat wildly. She licked her lips and nodded.

“I’m still scared. I don’t know what you were doing. I know what I saw though. That man was in a trunk…and you punched him.”

Wes raised one hand for her to see his bruised and bloodied knuckles. “I hit the wall next to him, not him. And he is the bad man, not me.” As he spoke he slowly slid the bathrobe off her shoulders and pulled her forward a few inches to let the robe drop to the floor. Callie fisted her hands and smacked his chest, trying to push him away. She needed answers. But he had other ideas. His hands cupped her ass cheeks, giving them a hard squeeze. Callie hissed in outrage, but he silenced her with a deep, penetrating kiss.

Before she could even muster up a proper defense, he was jerking his pajama bottoms down and kicking her legs apart. His kiss was too potent. The erotic way his tongue played with her mouth, demanding surrender, made her wet and throbbing between her thighs. He grasped her right leg behind her knee and tucked her leg over his hip and began to work his way inside her. Through the haze of lust, she knew she needed him to explain what she’d seen…after they’d sated the wildness rising between them like an unstoppable force.