"aw, hell, it's already too late for you, isn't it?"

it had been too late for noah the moment he'd met claire-and she'd taken a swing at him in that chicago alley.

"what are you doing?" now real concern was in drake's voice. "don't let her push you too far."

but how far was too far?

"reporters were at the towers most of the day, trying to get to her. they even asked me if she was involved in the death of a certain senator colby harrison." drake's brows rose. "seems he died in d.c., right during your recent little visit there with the tempting claire."

noah fired another fast glance at the bedroom door. "when she was sixteen, claire's boyfriend killed her parents. he put a gun to claire's head, and he was going to kill her, too."

"what?"

"that boyfriend was ethan harrison, senator harrison's younger son. instead of just admitting that he had one screwed-up kid, the senator tried to paint claire as a seductress who'd led the boy down the wrong path."

drake rocked back on his heels. "she said her past was blood and death."

"it is." her future wouldn't be. "the senator harassed her for years, and now she's free of him."

drake absorbed that, then muttered, "free, right at the same time you two hook up."

noah didn't let his expression change. "sometimes, that's how fate works."

"don't be cute, noah...did you do it?"

"if i had, then i wouldn't be so worried about keeping a watch on claire." he did not want claire overhearing this conversation. "before she moved in here at the towers, someone trashed her hotel room at the hamlet. that asshole ethan harrison, he's been watching her-from prison. he's got a pi on her. ethan had photos of her, recent damn photos, all over his cell."

"so that's where you went on your little trip."

"i needed to see him with my own eyes. needed to talk to him."

drake assessed him. "you were measuring your enemy."

it was the way they'd worked when they were in the military. know your enemy. learn his weaknesses. exploit them.

take out that enemy.

"he's as obsessed with her now as he was nine years ago." actually, the guy might even be more obsessed. time should have made the bastard let her go.

the bedroom door squeaked open. "noah?" claire slipped out of the darkness and into the light of the main room. a smile swept over her face. the smile that he loved. the one that started with her lips, that flashed her dimples, and made her eyes shine.

every muscle in his body locked down.

"i don't think he's the only one obsessed," drake said, voice low. "i'm telling you...watch yourself. because you're headed for an implosion." then drake raised his voice as he drawled, "i'll be seeing you again soon, claire kramer."

then he left them.

noah drank in the sight of claire.

"how was your trip?" claire asked him as she crept toward him. a few seconds later, she stood in front of him. her hands lifted, then hesitated.

he didn't want claire to hesitate when it came to touching him. he started to reach for her, but noah locked his muscles down. he wanted the next move to be hers.

after a moment, she pressed herself against him. hugged him. it only lasted a moment, but he felt the impact of that embrace rock through his whole body.

"i'm glad you're back." her words were faint as she drew back. she put her hands behind her. stared up at him with those big blues that always seemed to make him a little weak.

i missed you, claire.

when he'd never missed anyone, not until her.

this wasn't about just repaying some debt anymore. wasn't about trying to fix the hole in claire's life that her sister's death had left behind.

it was about more.

"did you finish your business?" claire asked him.

he put his hand on her cheek. like touching silk. "not yet," he told her. "but i will, soon."

her breath caught as she stared up at him. "noah?"

"i need you." so badly that his whole body seemed to be burning. he hadn't been able to get back to her fast enough. she'd been the only thing he could think about on the flight home.

she wore a dark robe. her hands lifted. unbelted that robe. it fell at her feet.

claire took his hand. she led him back to the bedroom. the woman had no idea just how close to pouncing on her he truly was.

he should be careful with her. after their last time together, she was probably sore.

"i want you." her voice was pure sin, like a stroke right over his aroused cock.

his control was shredding. every second with her ripped it a bit more.

"i want to give you pleasure," claire told him as she stared up into his eyes. "teach me how?"

right then, he couldn't. he could only push her back onto the bed. part her thighs. see the perfect pink flesh that waited. "this gives me pleasure." he put his mouth on her and feasted.

she bucked beneath him. arched. her taste drove him insane.

get her ready. take her.

when her nails raked down his back, noah rose. he positioned his cock right at the entrance to her body. he'd put on a condom, pausing just those few seconds-one day i'll have all of her-and he drove deep into her.

only then, only then, the frantic tension left his body. the fear. the fury. the lethal combination that seeing ethan harrison had roused within him.

claire will tease and she will flirt, but she won't sleep with you...she can't. claire knows she belongs to me.

ethan was so wrong.

noah thrust harder into claire. she whispered his name. her sex squeezed around him. so hot and tight and wet. perfect for him.

she climaxed, crying out and her sex clenched him even tighter.

noah's thrusts became faster then. deeper. the bed shook beneath them. the headboard thudded into the wall. he didn't care.

nothing could have stopped him at that moment.

he plunged into her. lost sight of everything but claire.

and when he came, he roared her name.

mine. always.

noah would do anything necessary in order to protect what was his.

they'd taken claire away.

ethan harrison paced the length of his cell, rage pouring through his veins. all of his pictures were gone. the pictures that let him see claire. that let him feel her.

those pictures were important.

he needed them.

i need claire.

that bastard noah york didn't scare him. after what he'd survived in prison, nothing scared him.

his father had thought that he kept ethan safe from the other inmates. but when the lights went out, when the guards turned their backs...you had to protect yourself. he'd gotten very good at protecting himself.

and now...his father was dead.

the funeral would be in a few days. that gave him so little time.

it was a good thing he'd been plotting his escape for nine years. all of the plans were already in place. soon...very soon...

i'll see you again, claire.

and it wouldn't just be a thin photograph that he touched. he'd have the real deal in his arms once again.

no one will take you from me.

chapter six

"they're burying the senator today."

when noah made that announcement, claire's fingers stilled over the computer keyboard. she'd been staying with him at york towers for the last few days. sleeping in his bed at night, working by his side during the day.

drake had vanished.

the reporters had stayed close.

but not as close as noah.

noah cleared his throat and said, "and they're letting ethan go to the funeral."

she looked up. they weren't in the suite now. instead, they were working in one of the offices downstairs. they'd spent the morning going over blueprints for the washington restaurant addition. talking marketing. pr. noah wanted to open the roof-top restaurant with a bang on new year's eve. throw a huge party and-

"claire."

she swallowed and focused on him. she'd already known that ethan was being allowed to attend the funeral.

"you're wearing a mask, claire. talk to me." he caught her hands. pulled claire to her feet.

"what do you want me to say?" there wasn't anything to say. she wasn't going to pretend some sort of grief for the senator's death. it was wrong, but she felt relief now that he was being buried.

he can't hurt me anymore.

"i want you to talk to me." the words were hard, but his hands were light on her. "claire, it's me. i won't judge anything you say. just...talk to me."

"i'm scared." there. she'd said it.

his hold tightened on her.

"i saw on the news that the alabama governor was granting some sort of special release for ethan." a temporary hardship release or some other kind of bull. "i don't like knowing that he's out there, free, not even for a second." she wanted him locked away behind as many bars as possible.

"he won't touch you."

his gruff words sounded like a vow, but noah didn't understand. "that's what my parents told me, too." she pulled away from him. headed to the nearby window. stared out at the city. "they told me i'd be safe. that ethan wouldn't hurt me again. that i could just walk away from him."

behind her, noah swore.

"i wasn't safe. even with a restraining order on him, he came after me. he killed them, and he found me."

he'd told her that when he first found her on the dock. been so proud.

"he watched me in that courtroom. watched me like he owned me." she'd been sixteen. so terrified. "and when i left the courthouse each day, there'd be people outside, yelling at me. calling me so many names. there'd be spray paint on my house. people were believing his story. i thought..." this was the part that twisted her insides, but saying it out loud...i have to do it. "i thought ethan was going to get away with what he'd done."

noah's hands wrapped around her shoulders. he turned her around and forced claire to face him. "he didn't."

"i thought he was, though, and i knew if he got free, he'd come after me." she looked down at her wrists. covered by her long sleeves. always covered so carefully. "so i took the razor." a hard smile lifted her lips. "i made sure i cut myself just the right way, and i waited to die in the same house that my parents had died in."

his hold on her was bruising.

"i know it was weak," she said, voice husky, "but i was sixteen, and so scared, and death was better than having to see him again."

he yanked her against his chest. she could feel the mad drumming of his heart.

his scent wrapped around her. his arms held her close. she felt safe there, in his embrace. once, she'd thought that she'd never be safe.

"you won't see him again," noah promised her. "he's going back to jail."

but one day, ethan would get out, for good. in five years, eight months, and seven days. yes, she knew exactly how much time he had left to serve.

"sara found you, didn't she?" noah asked her.

claire pulled away from him, just a little bit. "she came home early." her big sister. older by four years. "she saved me. she got there in time." her lips trembled as she thought of sara's recent death...and how she'd just been minutes too late to save the one person in this world that she loved. "i couldn't do the same for her."

claire had lost everyone that she loved.

so much pain. sometimes, she felt as if it were choking her.

his lips brushed against her forehead. "we're getting the fuck out of here," he said.

claire blinked. "what?"

"i've got a place in the hamptons. we're going to the beach. you're going to drink wine with me, and you're going to relax on that beach-even if it is getting a bit cold now-and you're not going to think about death, senator harrison, or that asshole ethan." he tipped up her chin. "you're only going to think about me. got it? me...and you...and the way we can make each other feel."

"but...the washington hotel, the restaurant-"

"will still be there when we come back. we're leaving, claire. because you're alive, i'm alive, and the rest of the world can just screw off."

he hated funerals. particularly this funeral.

the overdone mourning. all the fake tears. the talk about the "good" man that had been taken too soon.

such bullshit.

drake archer shifted beneath the hanging branches of the old oak tree. spanish moss clung to the sprawling branches, and the moss blew lightly in the faint breeze.

it was a packed funeral, but drake had expected nothing less. old senators, law enforcement personnel, reporters...and, of course, just the curious had turned out for this event.

it's like a freaking circus show.

noah hadn't asked drake to attend the funeral. after he'd left new york, drake had actually planned to just head back to biloxi, but the funeral in fairview had been too close for him to pass up. maybe he was just curious, too.

or maybe i'm a suspicious bastard, and i wanted to see ethan harrison with my own eyes.