The Danforths: Marc, Tanya & Abe: The Laws of Passion / Terms of Surrender / Shocking the Senator. Leanne Banks
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hell now. There had to be a way out of this.
“Your brother is a smart man who’s been in a terrible bind. But I have an idea for something that might end your family’s terror right here. Will you listen?”
Marc sat up in his chair and looked from Dana to Steve and back again. “I’ll listen.”
Steve spent the next hour outlining a plan for him and Dana to investigate the whereabouts of Escalante and then for them to participate in a sting designed to capture the man and put an end to the blackmail once and for all. Marc wasn’t positive the plan would work. But he figured it was worth a shot. After all, he was the one family member that now had nothing to lose.
It was two a.m. when he and Dana left the FBI office and climbed back into her car. “Does this car really belong to you?” he inquired as he stifled a yawn.
“It’s a Bureau vehicle,” she told him. “It has a few modifications over the standard issue. It’ll do sixty in eight seconds flat. There are airbags across the front and on all doors.”
She smiled as they buckled up. “And it’s also equipped with a transmitter and GPS positioner that will work in a radius of up to three hundred miles.”
“Terrific.” Marc was becoming more irritable by the second. Regardless of being warned by her boss to obey Dana’s instructions at the risk of his life, he was tired and still furious that Dana had lied to him. Oh, he knew it was her job, but still…
“Where are we headed?” he scowled.
“To your farm. Now that I know for sure you’re not involved with the cartel, I’m convinced they have no reason to take you out…yet. They need you alive, temporarily, to use as a hold over Ian. So we should be fairly safe at your home for a while.”
Dana backed out of the garage and headed down the river road in the general direction of the farm. “Besides, you look like you’re about to drop. We’ll be able to form a clearer strategy after you get a good night’s sleep.”
Marc stewed in silence for the entire forty-five minutes it took them to travel what should’ve been a twenty-minute trip. Evidently, she was never going to drive in a straight line to any destination.
When they arrived, she pulled in behind the barn and they got out as she locked the doors. “I’ll check your SUV for bugs and tracking devices in the morning. We may need to use it as part of the sting.”
“Swell.” He grabbed her arm and swung her around to face him. “You owe me something. You’ve admitted you lied, and I want to know how many of the things you told me were true and what was just part of the game.”
In the clear light of a full moon, he saw her face flush with anger and her hands ball into fists. “I told you…it was all part of the job.”
She tried to jerk herself free from his grasp, but he tightened his grip. “No dice, sister. That’s not going to cut it anymore. I want to know who you are—underneath the tough special agent.”
“Don’t make a huge mistake before we even get started, Danforth. You’re asleep on you feet. It’ll all look better in the morning.”
“Maybe so, sugar. But I’m still going to want answers.”
She was right. It was a mistake to take out all his frustrations on her. But what the hell? He’d been dying to get his hands on her since the first instant she’d spoken his name in that spun-sugar voice of hers. And now he could feel her muscled upper arm flexing under his hand.
He wanted to touch her skin without the clothes. He wanted to see what she looked like standing naked before him. He wanted…
“Take your hand off me.” She slipped her keys into her pocket with her free hand. “And don’t call me sugar.” She turned her body away from him and jerked on her arm again.
“Oh. Excuse me. I meant Special Agent Sugar.” The wave of tenderness he felt was a complete surprise. But the wave of passion that pushed it aside with an erotic shove was nothing new. He’d been plagued by those sexy urges for most of this very long evening.
In one fell swoop, Marc swung her off her feet and into his arms. “Aw, the hell with it.” He forgot his irritation and forgot the rules of decency along with it. “Let’s just find out what’s real and what’s not—right now.”
Four
“Marcus?” The look on Dana’s face had to be pure amazement. Not so much because he’d physically assaulted her—they both knew she could’ve defended herself against him with little trouble.
No, she looked—self conscious. A bit frightened by her own lack of resistance, perhaps. Or maybe she was simply amazed because she’d let things get out of control. He wondered if she was feeling concerned by his actions…or if she felt as stunned by her own reactions as he did.
Lost in the sensual moment, Marc forgot everything as his blood heated and pulsed. He forgot about being arrested. He forgot she was an FBI agent. He surprisingly managed to even forget that he’d sworn off women forever.
“Dana.” Desire roughened his voice as they stared into each other’s eyes. He tried again. “Please….”
Never before had she heard anyone say her name in quite that same raspy, pleading kind of voice. The sound sent licks of fire spiraling down her spine. She shivered in the flames, without really understanding why.
She would give anything to hear him say her name that way once more. But instinct made her afraid to ask for what she wanted. Afraid to break the spell. She wasn’t frightened of him—only of herself.
A soft uncertain noise sounded in her ears, and she realized it came from her own throat. It surprised her, the same way she’d been amazed when she placed a hand against his chest to balance herself and found his heart beating as rapidly as her own.
Finding her throat suddenly dry, she swallowed hard. His eyes dropped to her mouth, and she knew in an instant what would come next. He lowered his head the few inches separating their mouths and grazed his lips against hers.
Soft. The thought registered with surprise. The texture of his mouth felt like velvet—so soft, so exotic.
Dana couldn’t exactly remember when she’d last kissed a man—if she ever really had. But she did know for sure that it could not have been like this.
For all its gentleness, there was a deep demand in Marcus’s kiss. Hunger and passion were buried under the guise of a tender touch. She was certain about his desires because the drugging insistence of them was pulling the same responses from her own body.
A breathless whimper rumbled deep and escaped her lips, amazing her yet again with such wanton responses to him. As if with a life of their own, her fingers began to knead the cotton of his shirt. The navy-blue pullover bunched as she flexed her hand.
She wished she had the nerve and the time to rip his shirt all the way off so she could run her fingers through the hair on his chest. The vision of him shirtless was as clear to her now as it had been a few hours ago when he’d first stepped from his shower. And she felt every bit as desperate to touch that hair-covered flesh—to slide her palms over his work-hardened muscles…as she had then.
Marcus eased one of his hands away, slowly letting her slide down the full length of him, without ever breaking the kiss. She felt his stiffened flesh pressing against her belly, right through both their slacks.
When he tenderly placed his hands on her face and kneaded her jaw, she opened for him. His tongue caressed her lips, seducing its way past them to find her teeth. She opened wider yet and gingerly touched his tongue with hers.
Intoxicating and sweet. Like nothing she’d ever experienced before.
Marcus anchored a fist in her hair and slid the other hand down her back. Endlessly, his palm inched a heated path down her spine, finally coming to rest on her hip.
Deepening