Into Her Fire (Fantasy Heights) Read Online Free Page B

she left the booth and headed back toward the Menagerie, the rambling complex that housed the Zoo, the wardrobe department, and other group venues. She took one of the tunnels that ran underground through corridors of housekeeping, maintenance and storage rooms mixed with redundant business offices. She had never known of the tunnels’ existence until Jerod and Eric had used them to move her from one point on the resort to another without being seen.
    The tunnels had been there for a long time. Much longer than the resort had been Fantasy Heights, from the look of things. Heaven only knew what this property had been before it became a fantasy fulfillment resort. A different type of resort, she figured.
    Lost in speculation, she ran into someone as she rounded the final corner. Hands shot out to grab her elbows and hold her steady.
    Seeing her savior, she fought a frown. The man was only a few inches taller than she was. Dark-haired and a bit older, he had hawk wings for eyebrows over sharp black eyes, refined bone-structure and a cruel set to an otherwise sensual mouth. Handsome in a wicked sort of way.
    “I’m so sorry,” she told him.
    A smile and low chuckle robbed some harshness from his looks. Not a lot, but enough that she felt absolved when he said, “You’re fine. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
    “Neither was I. You’re not hurt?”
    “Not at all.”
    She hated to challenge him, but she did have responsibilities. Clients weren’t supposed to see the resort’s puppet strings like this. She did her best to be polite about it. “Are you just exploring? Or maybe I can help you find a venue?”
    The man watched her a moment with the strangest expression on his face, as if he were confused and trying not to laugh at the same time.
    Oh, lord, she thought. He was probably someone frightfully important, maybe even one of the Accord members, and she was making an ass of herself right now. She just knew it.
    His smile widened, and then he tamped it down. “I’m not lost. I’ve got an appointment across the quad, and it’s raining outside. I didn’t want to get my suit wet.”
    Now that he mentioned it, the suit really was something. Black as his eyes and made from the sort of summer-weight wool that cost the earth, tailored with extreme skill.
    “Vanity,” he said. “One of my many faults.”
    No deficit on charm, she decided, wishing she could borrow some. She had no idea how to retreat with any grace. “It’s a beautiful suit.”
    She invented several new degrees of crimson when his eyes took a meaningful trip south to her blue robe and the belt that wasn’t tied as tightly as it might have been. She glanced down and saw a two-inch wide strip of skin visible all the way down to the coral panties.
    While she was busy blushing half to death, the stranger let go of her arms to gently right the front of her robe. He wrapped the two ends of the belt around his hands. Looking back up into her eyes, he pulled the belt ends opposing directions, tying her up more securely.
    Her body responded with hot enthusiasm to the gesture’s overt message, and suddenly the ten-foot-wide corridor felt very small and intimate.
    The stranger, though, turned his face a bit to the side, his eyes still holding hers, but sending an easily understood message. He was attracted, but suspicious about something.
    Why, she wondered. And of what?
    He released the ends of her belt and let them slither free of his hands while he took two distinct steps backward. “I look forward to seeing you again, Miss Tate.”
    Oh, great. He knew her name, but she had no clue who he might be. And when had she become ‘Miss Tate’ with strangers? She much preferred the oh-so-objectifying ‘noob-let’ to that.
    Her stranger took off around the corner, then, and short of peering around the wall like a dork, she couldn’t watch him go.
    She sighed, shook her head, and closed her eyes. This place was crazy. And now she had to meet her mystery