Any minute now, Miranda Stalworth told herself for the fourteenth time in as many minutes. She glanced at her watch again before lowering her loosely bound hands back down to her lap and gave her captor another pleading look.
"Don't worry," he murmured through the bandanna tied around the bottom half of his face. His low, soothing drawl reassured her. "It's all part of the skit."
He adjusted her again across his well-muscled thighs as he rode the bay mare across a flat expanse of desert, trailing the other three men. His arms held fast to the reins with her fit securely in between. It wasn't the first time she caught herself leaning into him, breathing in his clean, earthy scent.
She looked again to her watch and then back into his crystalline blue eyes to receive a nod and a wink in return. A blush climbed above the makeshift gag he'd tied around her mouth as she remembered the moment just off the train when he'd encouraged her to play along, and then asked if any of her binds were too tight.
Of course, she'd told him they were all right, even though the rope around her ankles dug into the flesh above her sandals. She didn't want to seem like a spoilsport.
Everyone on the train was having such a good time imagining themselves in an old-time robbery as the masked bandits climbed aboard the creeping locomotive. Most of the people even cheered at their remarkable stunts, the way they jumped off their moving horses while keeping realistic-looking pistols in their grips.
The hold-up wasn't a surprise to anyone but her. In fact, most people looked forward to it and the excitement on the tour built to a crescendo when the robbers finally arrived. Though if she knew she was going to be kidnapped, she'd have worn something a little sturdier than her white linen pantsuit and pink silk camisole.
Any minute now--Good heaven's, his eyes were blue ... so clear and blue, a girl could get lost in them.
He focused on her, shifted her closer. He seemed to read the direction of her thoughts as he smiled, the corners of his eyes wrinkling a bit for a moment before his gaze turned serious--too serious for Miranda's liking--as he spoke again.
"Don't worry. Nothing is going to happen to you. Got that?"
She nodded, wondering why his tone had turned earnest, and why she suddenly felt an awful churning in her stomach. Looking ahead of the horse, she saw the rest of the bandits disappear into what looked to be an old copper mine.
Okay, enough was enough. She lifted her hands and slid the rolled-up bandanna from her mouth. "I have to tell you, in the beginning this was fun, but now I have to ask how much longer this whole kidnapping is going to take? I hope there's a car inside waiting to take me back to the station, because I have an appointment later this afternoon."
He slowed the horse as he reached up and gently pulled the gag back up. "Don't do that, Miranda. You're going to have to play along."
He spoke so low and calm she almost missed the fact that he used her name. Almost. Her eyes snapped to his as she opened her mouth beneath the fabric, but he silenced her with a finger and the shake of his head as they moved out of the sun and into the shadow of the mine.
It wasn't only the air that gave her a chill.
"Hurry up, Steel!" she heard a voice from ahead of them, the gravely screech pierced through her spine like an ice pick. There was something wrong. Definitely wrong.
Her eyes darted from the dark opening ahead and then back to his, watching as they clouded over, and the calm she'd felt in his arms vanished.
All of the sudden, Miranda couldn't catch her breath and the gag was suffocating.
"Don't panic." He put his large hand over hers. "And don't scream."
)
On a wild west tourist train, Miranda Stalworth volunteers to be kidnapped by the fake outlaws she believes are performing their usual skit. She couldn't be more wrong. These men are not actors playing a part. By the time she realizes the truth, it's too late. Enmeshed in the center of a black-market slave ring, her only hope is to trust the promise of the blue-eyed outlaw with the familiar smile. On his first undercover field assignment, Agent Ian McKenna, vows to protect the lovely heiress--just like he would anyone else. The only problem is, she isn't anyone else. She's the one woman he could never get out of his mind. By pretending to be one of the bad guys, he'll risk everything to save her--even his own life. But the true test of his strength comes when he realizes it isn't only his life at stake, but his heart as well.
