Free Earth Angel by Linda Cajio

He could feel the most intimate part of her …
    “You’re breaking your promise to explain,” he said, desperate to shatter the sensual spell.
    “So what?”
    “Catherine, don’t play games with me,” he said wearily. “Clearly, you’re the Earth Angel doing her little bit to save the world and thumb your nose at your family, all at the same time. Now what little bit did you do tonight in that building?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Catherine.”
    “I never got a chance to do anything! You came along too fast. Okay?”
    He wasn’t that stupid, and it annoyed him that
she
thought he’d buy her story. At least she hadn’t denied she was the Earth Angel. He would have felt even more insulted if she had.
    “If you don’t tell me,” he said, “I swear I’ll dragyou back into the refinery and stand over you until you fix whatever you’ve done.”
    She twisted her head to look at him. “Are you nuts? There are guards all over the place! I was lucky to get in and out of there once. And Miles, I don’t think you want to be caught with the Earth Angel. Or haven’t you thought about that yet?”
    He admitted to himself that he hadn’t. He also admitted he wouldn’t even want to begin to explain his presence, or hers, to brawny security guards. “All right. We won’t go back in. Just tell me what you’ve done, and I’ll see it’s corrected, somehow.”
    She snorted. “I told you I didn’t do anything!”
    He sensed he wouldn’t get any information from her. She was too ready to be a martyr for the cause. Her first two escapades had been embarrassing but harmless. It looked like he would have to trust that this one was the same.
    He remembered his overwhelming concern that morning when he’d thought she was alone and ill. Fury shot through him as he realized she must have been damming up that creek, not lying feverish in her bed. There he’d been feeling all … She had played him for a fool. Unfortunately, a deserted field in the dark was no place to force a confession. He had to have one answer, though.
    “Just tell me why, Catherine.”
    “Why what?”
    “Why you are doing this?”
    “Why am I doing what?”
    Something snapped inside him at her evasion. He was all too aware of the softness of her body and his need to have the upper hand with her, at least once. Muttering a curse under his breath, he pulled her to her feet and strode toward his car,keeping his arms wrapped tightly around her. Her feet dragged and stumbled, but he didn’t stop.
    “Miles, what are you doing?” she snapped, struggling against him.
    “Taking you home.”
    They reached the two cars parked off the road by a pillar of the freeway overpass. He frowned at both of them, then made a decision. With one hand, he loosened his tie and whipped it off, somehow managing to keep Catherine pinned to his side. He used the strip of silk to tie her wrists together, both of them fighting all the way. Roping a two-ton Brahma bull had to be easier, he thought.
    “I promise I won’t run away again,” she said when he was finally done.
    “I suspect that promise is as good as the one about explaining everything once we got away from the plant.” A devil rose up in him, and he pulled her closer. Raising her bound arms, he looped them around his neck. Her body pressed intimately against the length of his. He grinned. “This has great possibilities.”
    “Do you feel all nice and macho now?” she asked, glaring at him.
    He backed her against his car. “Don’t tempt me, Catherine.”
    Her gaze never wavered. Even in the darkness he could sense the challenge radiating out of her. That coupled with the feel of her body against his was almost too much for his willpower. She would kill a weak man, and she damn near broke him. He sensed their anger would quickly turn to passion for both of them if he so much as kissed her now. But afterward, she would absolve herself with the excuse that he’d overwhelmed her by being “macho.”He wanted