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The man she loves to hate
...is the only man she wants!
Stranded in Italy, Katie Whittaker is horrified when sexy security billionaire Jared Caine rescues her. After humiliatingly rejecting innocent Katie years before, he’s as complicated and brooding as ever. To protect Katie, Jared demands she stay at his luxury villa. But as sexual tension builds, will the temptation to finally succumb to their burning attraction be too much to resist?
USA TODAY bestselling author HEIDI RICE lives in London, England. She is married with two teenage sons—which gives her rather too much of an insight into the male psyche—and also works as a film journalist. She adores her job, which involves getting swept up in a world of high emotions, sensual excitement, funny, feisty women, sexy, tortured men and glamorous locations where laundry doesn’t exist. Once she turns off her computer she often does chores—usually involving laundry!
Also by Heidi Rice
Too Close for Comfort
One Night, So Pregnant!
Vows They Can’t Escape
The Virgin’s Shock Baby
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk.
Captive at Her Enemy’s Command
Heidi Rice
www.millsandboon.co.uk
ISBN: 978-1-474-07197-0
CAPTIVE AT HER ENEMY’S COMMAND
© 2018 Heidi Rice
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk
Version: 2020-03-02
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To Rob, thanks for the trip to Capri.
Best inspiration ever!
Contents
Cover
Back Cover Text
About the Author
Booklist
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
EPILOGUE
Extract
About the Publisher
PROLOGUE
THIS IS YOUR MOMENT. Don’t mess it up.
Katie Whittaker jammed her ear against the living room door, straining to hear Jared Caine’s voice through the wood as he talked on his cell phone. Her heartbeat thumped her throat in heavy staccato punches.
“Lloyd Whittaker’s arraignment hearing is tomorrow. I’ve got Danners and Ramirez escorting her to the courthouse to testify. She’s holding up okay. She’s not great at taking orders, but she’s pretty spunky for a kid whose old man beat up her sister right in front of her.”
A kid?
Heat exploded in her cheeks like a mushroom cloud—and her heart shrank in her chest.
She was nineteen. She wasn’t a kid. Not anymore. Not after what had happened two weeks ago.
A shudder reverberated down her spine at the memory of her sister Megan’s cries for help muffled by another door.
Don’t think about that now.
Megan was safe now in Italy with Dario De Rossi—the billionaire who had rescued her sister the night Lloyd Whittaker had gone rogue. The man Megan was going to marry.
Katie swallowed past the bubble of panic—and loneliness.
Megan deserved to be happy. Megan deserved to be the Whittaker sister having lots of hot sex on a private island in Italy with her handsome billionaire fiancé—because she’d stood up to their father, and taken the brunt of his anger, while Katie, as usual, had gotten off scot-free. Because, instead of busting down the door and saving Megan herself, Katie had run away and got Dario De Rossi to do the job for her.
Was that why Jared Caine—the security expert Dario had asked to look out for her—thought she was still a kid? Did he know what a coward she’d been?
Ever since their first meeting when Dario had introduced her to his friend Jared—and he’d clasped her fingers in a strong, unyielding grip that had sent five hundred volts of electrical energy zipping and zinging up her arm—she’d wanted him to like her. But everything she’d done to attract his attention, to get him to notice her, had backfired.
When she’d followed his instructions to the letter, he’d simply stopped coming around, leaving his men to watch over her. And, when she’d argued with his orders, instead of him realizing she was too old to be treated like a child he’d become even more detached, even more patronizing, listening patiently to all her concerns then telling her what to do anyway.
But tonight all that was going to change. She was going to show Jared she wasn’t that frightened kid who had run out on her own sister. She was going to show him the real Katie. Show him that she could be strong, smart and brave just like Megan. When she put her mind to it.
Panic wrestled with the mac and cheese she’d had for dinner.
All you have to do is show him who you really are.
She clasped the handle and willed herself to open the door.
“You know what you are, Katie? You’re just like your mother.”
Lloyd Whittaker’s oft-repeated observation whispered across her consciousness—insidious and destructive—and her fingers clenched on the polished glass handle.
It’s not true.
She was nothing like Alexis Whittaker. The woman who had let down everyone who loved her. Megan had told her as much over years and years, whenever Lloyd Whittaker had accused Katie of being reckless and stupid and shallow. And, anyway, they’d discovered two weeks ago that Lloyd Whittaker wasn’t even their biological father. He’d just pretended to be for years so he could steal money from their trust fund. So what did he know?
The latch clicked and Katie stepped into the room. The breath she’d been holding gushed out as Jared’s gaze rose from his cell phone. He stood in the window alcove, silhouetted by the street lamp outside, his tall, broad-shouldered frame on instant alert.
“Katherine? Is there a problem?” He tucked his cell phone into the back pocket of his pants. The intensity of his gaze as he studied her had warmth blooming in her stomach, and it gave her the courage to walk across the room.
She loved the way he looked at her, as if she was the only person he could see. The only person who mattered in that instant. No one had ever looked at her with that much concentration before. Not even Megan.
She forced herself to keep on going, her bare feet making no sound on the rug.
“Maybe,” she said, past lungs clamped in a vice.
“What is it?” She heard the concern. Need rolled through her and her heart pumped so fast she could hear it thundering in her ears.
He did care, behind that wall of detachment, that veneer of professionalism.
She didn’t stop until she reached the alcove—and stood close enough to him to absorb the harsh beauty of his rough-hewn features. She let her gaze drift over the intriguing scar which bisected his upper lip, the closely cropped US Marine-style hair, which made him look fierce enough to wipe out a Taliban stronghold single-handed, the sensual mouth that never quite cracked a smile and the defined muscles on his arms and shoulders stretching the seams of the tailored white shirt.
At five foot eight she had always felt too tall, but Jared Caine had to bend his head to meet her gaze. The evidence of his height sent the whisper of sensation shuddering downward. And the vice around her lungs tightened.
“Why don’t you ever call me Katie?” she asked.
His gaze remained steady, the blue of his irises so deep and true in the light from the street, she felt herself drowning in them. Every inch of her skin prickled with reaction. The awareness of him was so strong, the muscles in her belly liquefied.
A muscle twitched in the stubble on his cheek. And his gaze flicked down.
A startling heat swept through her, driven by the five hundred volts she remembered from the only time she’d been able to touch him. But they weren’t touching now. The brushed cotton of her sleep T-shirt rasped across her nipples like sandpaper and tightened them into hard, rigid peaks.
She crossed her arms over her chest, mortified that she hadn’t worn a bra. Could he see the effect he was having on her? Was that a good thing or a bad thing?
He gave a sigh. “Go to bed, Katherine,” he said at last, his voice gruff.
“I don’t want to go to bed. I want to stay here with you,” she said, getting fixated on his lips and the white scar that bisected the bow on top. What would it feel like to kiss him? To have him kiss her back? Anticipation made her feel almost giddy.
“That’s not a good idea.” His voice was so husky now she could feel it rumble between her legs, reverberating in the spot she stroked in bed at night while she was thinking about him.
“Why not?” Her heart fluttered in her chest when his brows lowered. She could smell him, soap and musk. The tense muscle in his cheek jerked.
“I think you know why.”
It was all the encouragement she needed. He wasn’t looking at her as if she was a kid anymore. Endorphins careered through her system, obliterating every thought but one.
Just do it, already. Kiss him.
Rising on tiptoes, she flung her arms around his neck. Her tender breasts flattened against rigid muscles as she pressed her lips to his.
Peppermint-flavored breath brushed her burning cheeks as he grunted a curse word. But his labored breathing yanked at the sweet spot between her legs. Greedy for more, she licked at the scar, and scraped her fingernails through the soft bristles of hair at his nape. His lips opened and her tongue delved into the recesses of his mouth. Harsh and insistent, she gathered his taste like a starving person—the delicious tang of peppermint and desire.
Big hands grasped her waist as reaction shuddered through him. And his long fingers fisted in the thin cotton of her T-shirt. Fierce joy blossomed inside her as his tongue tangled with hers—dominant and demanding. The vicious heat throbbed, making the sweet spot swell.
But before she could grab hold of the euphoria, before she could bask in the hot glow, he reared back and ripped his mouth away.
“Damn it, Katherine. Stop it.” Grasping her wrists in an iron grip, he thrust her hands down and shoved her back.
His crystal-blue eyes were like chips of ice in that lean, masculine face. “What kind of a game do you think you’re playing?” The harsh words slashed through the euphoria like a machete.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted out. “I thought...”
“What? That I wanted you to kiss me?” The sharp tone sliced to the bone. “I don’t.”
She hunched her shoulders. Dragging her wrists free of his grip, she clasped her arms around her waist, trying to hold the agony of his rejection inside. Why did everyone always reject her in the end? Why had she always been so unworthy of love?
She wanted to disappear. To fold herself up so small no one could ever see her again. Especially when the one question she’d never been able to ask before burst out of her mouth.
“Why not?”
He thrust his fingers through his hair, looking tense, and more agitated than she had ever seen him. “Because you’re just a kid,” he said, but his voice had softened. “And I don’t kiss kids.”
She forced her face up, her humiliation beyond bearing.
He looked shocked and angry and a strangled laugh burst out of her mouth—the hysteria going some way to mask the hurt.
She had wanted to get a reaction out of Jared Caine, and now she had. Unfortunately, it was the wrong one.
His eyebrow shot up his forehead. “You think this is funny?” he snapped.
It wasn’t—in fact it was easily one of the least funny moments of her entire life—but she could never let him know that.
“I think it’s hilarious,” she lied as she shoved her chin out and stiffened her spine, adopting the pose she had used so often before when sassing Lloyd Whittaker to disguise the pain of his rejections.
“You spoiled brat.” Caine’s face hardened. “You try a stunt like that again and I’ll put you over my knee and spank you myself. I don’t care whose damn sister you are.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” she shot back. “You’re not even any good at it.”
It wasn’t true, of course. For that brief moment of bliss his lips had felt so firm, so sure, so perfect.
Swinging round, she raced out of the room and slammed the door.
But, as fast as she ran, she couldn’t escape the misery spreading through her like a virus.
Hitting her bed, she shoved her head under her pillow to muffle the wrenching sobs that poured out.
She didn’t want him to hear her crying.
But as the anguish slammed into her full force, it brought with it the cruel punch of memory. And the sounds of her father’s ranting—the words he’d shouted at Megan while he’d beat her sister with a belt.
“You’re just like her, both of you. No loyalty, no respect. Both little whores.”
Katie curled in on herself, trying to hold back the images which had tormented her for two long weeks.
But they played in her mind like a horror movie: Megan’s broken body curled on the floor, her arms flung over her head, the vivid welts on her shoulder blades accompanied by their father’s taunts and the sickening thud of leather hitting bone.
Katie gulped in breaths, the sobs so violent they wracked her whole body.
But the sweet spot between her legs still ached to be touched, her lips still felt tender and her cheeks still stung from the rasp of Caine’s jaw.
And the hideous truth kept repeating inside her head, over and over and over again.
Lloyd Whittaker had been wrong about Megan, punishing her for something their mother had done, but he had always been right about her.
And now Jared Caine knew it too.
CHAPTER ONE
Five years later, the Amalfi Coast, Italy
PLEASE DON’T DIE...please don’t die.
Katie prayed for all she was worth, but the god of smartphone batteries wasn’t listening because the phone screen cut to black.
She whimpered and stopped walking—or rather hobbling—along the narrow farm road as it dawned on her that having had most of her worldly possessions snatched by a couple of teenage sneak thieves wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to her today.
The sun had sunk another inch toward the horizon, lengthening the shadows over the landscape of lemon and orange groves perched on the hillside.
She had been blown away by the wonder of the view at dawn that morning when she’d ventured down the deserted track on her second-hand Vespa to find a secluded cove to paint. But anxiety rose like a wave to add to her exhaustion now. In an hour, two at the most, it would be pitch-dark. And she would be stranded miles from the nearest town with no transport, no money, no means of communication, no luggage—she peered down at her bare legs and feet, covered in a layer of dirt that reached her knees—and no shoes.
Resisting the urge to hurl the offending phone—which hadn’t had a signal for hours—onto the rocks below, she shoved it into the pocket of her shorts.
How ironic that three months ago when she’d first arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport from New York with nothing but a backpack, the beautiful mahogany box of art supplies Megan had given her and her passport, the whole point had been to travel light. To support herself and spend some time on her own. To prove to herself and everyone else that she could be more than a serial screw-up or microcelebrity click bait.
On her first night in Paris, in a little hostel near the Bastille, she’d been terrified, but over the weeks and months since, she’d started to find something in Europe she’d never had in the US. Anonymity and hard work had finally given her the time and space she needed to grow up.
She’d made new friends—waiting tables in a brasserie in the Marais, making beds in a hotel near St Mark’s Square and hiking thirty miles on the Camino Real—but in the last month she had started to really appreciate her own company. She’d even managed to start earning real cash doing watercolor landscapes she posted each week to a gallery in Florence.
She hefted the box under her arm, which had begun to feel as if it weighed several tons about a mile and ten thousand blisters ago. At least she still had her paints.
But she’d discovered today she had a lot to learn about personal safety and not being an easy mark. If only she’d been less absorbed in her watercolor of the cove and more alert when Pinky and Perky had appeared from nowhere, maybe they wouldn’t have managed to hot-wire her scooter, wrestle her pack off her and then disappear in a cloud of dust and victorious whoops in the space of approximately twenty-five seconds.
How come I always have to learn everything the hard way?
She forced herself to keep going, even though her feet hurt from tiptoeing over the rocky path and her head was pounding as if someone had sideswiped her with her own pack. Probably because they had.
She tested the knot forming on her forehead with her fingertips.
If she ever caught up with Pinky and Perky, she was going to stab them both through the heart with a well-sharpened artist’s pencil. And then roast them like bacon.
The hum of an engine cut into her barbeque fantasies and a low-slung car appeared ahead of her, driving past the ruins of an old farmhouse. Or rather bouncing toward her on the uneven track.
Her breath gushed out, the wave of relief so extreme she felt nauseous. Maybe she could hitch a ride to Sorrento.
The sleek convertible was brand new and expensive. Apprehension cut off her optimism. What was this guy doing destroying his suspension on a farm track?
She brushed her hair over the bruising on her forehead and gripped the box in her arms, prepared to use it as a lethal weapon if her rescuer turned out to have the same moral compass as Pinky and Perky.
The car stopped a few yards ahead and a man stepped out. With the sun sinking, it was hard to make out more than a silhouette. But her heartbeat began to kick her ribs like a carthorse as he strolled toward her. His stride, leisurely and yet filled with purpose, looked familiar. And not in a good way.
Jared Caine? How the hell...?
The man stopped in front of her and his head dipped, as if he were checking her over.
The hum that started low in her abdomen was also disturbingly familiar.
It can’t be Caine. I must be hallucinating. Or seriously concussed. Or both.
“Hello, Katherine.” The deep voice, curt and businesslike, hauled her back to one of the lowest points in her life—even lower than this one, and that was saying something.
“What are you doing here?” she managed, still hoping she’d conjured him up from the depths of her sunstroke.
But then the shifting sunset glinted off the dark waves of his hair—no longer subdued by the buzz cut of five years ago—and cast a golden glow over his rugged features for the first time. A jolt of awareness hit her insides like a lightning strike, frying the tight knots of tension in her gut.
“Rescuing you,” he said, with only the barest hint of sarcasm. “Now, get in the car before you fall on your face.”
* * *
Jared Caine watched the horrified shock widen Katherine Whittaker’s emerald-green eyes as he searched her slender frame for any signs of injury.
She looked grubby and tired but otherwise okay—the sight of him more distressing than whatever had happened to have her sending her sister a garbled text about being in a spot of trouble hours ago.
It looked like more than a spot to him.
He forced himself to take a deep breath.
You’ve found her. She’s okay. Now all you have to do is get her on a plane back to New York and you can forget about her again.
The tension which had been grinding in the pit of his stomach since noon—and during the long hours of the afternoon, as he and a team of his men had combed the five square miles to where his IT guys had managed to triangulate her phone signal—began to ease. At least he’d found her before dark.
“I don’t need rescuing,” she said, her dazed expression hardening with animosity.
The fist which had been tightening around his throat for the last twenty minutes as he watched the sun head for the horizon thumped his larynx with a one-two punch.
“You’re kidding, right?” His gaze drifted over her, taking in the butt-hugging cut-offs, the dusty shirt, the tank top showing the subtle curve of her breasts, the filthy feet which... Where the heck were her shoes?
She planted one fist on her hip, the other one clinging to a carved wooden box that looked almost as heavy as she was. “No, I’m not kidding.”
She puffed with indignation, but the sweat-soaked hair stuck to her forehead stayed firmly in place. Unfortunately it did nothing to disguise her high cheekbones, the full, mobile mouth or the sunburnt patch on her nose. Or the exhaustion shadowing her mermaid-green eyes.