Dangerous Pursuit (The Protectors) Read Free Page A

little exchange with this gentleman. Trouble, ma’am?”
    His silver-bright eyes took an inventory of her features and left a heated trail where they roamed. He catalogued and assessed, all in a minute’s time.
    Samantha blushed. She waved her clutch purse in front of her face as if she were flushed because of the heat, not the stranger before her. She knew she should say something in reply to his question, but she kept wondering what the result of his appraisal was. She couldn’t tell by his closed look.
    One of his dark eyebrows rose. “Ma’am?”
    This heat must be affecting her brain. She couldn’t seem to form a simple answer as she returned his bold survey, cataloguing his features as roughly hewn and bronze, assessing his appearance as rugged and earthy.
    The clerk behind the desk said something to the man, drawing his intense gaze from her and breaking his hypnotic hold. He answered in what Samantha supposed was Portuguese. But then for all she knew it could be Spanish.
    She clutched her purse to her chest and finally said, “I don’t speak Portuguese, and I’m trying to find my brother, who was staying here.”
    The stranger’s gaze shifted back to her, and she felt warm again. His look was penetratingly disconcerting, as though it could cut right through to the heart of a person.
    “What’s your brother’s name?”
    “Mark Prince.”
    “I’ll see what I can find out," his gaze swerved to her left hand, “Miss Prince.”
    For the next few minutes Samantha tried to follow the conversation but found her mind instead drawn to the man questioning the young clerk. His voice was deep and rich with a slightly husky timbre. He had broad shoulders and a muscular torso that tapered down to a narrow waist and slim hips. He was tall, with a self-confidence that Samantha didn’t see in many people. It was conveyed in how he walked, talked, carried himself.
    “I’m sorry, but your brother isn’t here.” 
    She was so absorbed in her study of the man that it took a few seconds for Samantha to realize he was talking to her in English. She blinked, wishing she had been listening to what he had said, not how he had said it. 
    “Your brother isn’t here,” he repeated.
    By the sparkling gleam in the stranger’s eye, Samantha could tell he knew why she hadn’t been paying attention, and it had had nothing to do with her concern for her brother’s welfare. “He was staying here last week. When did he check out?” She really wasn’t surprised that her brother wasn’t there. She had come to the hotel because it was a starting point for her in her search.
    More words were exchanged between the men before he turned to her and said, “He didn’t check out.”
    “I thought you said Mark isn’t here.”
    He smiled, a slow uplifting of the corners of his mouth that could only be described as sexy. “He isn’t. It seems your brother skipped out on paying his bill a week ago.”
    Shock stole her next words. But her shock quickly receded to be replaced by the fear that she had been fighting to control ever since her brother had called. Mark would never do that. Unless…
    “Did he take his things with him?” Samantha asked, feeling as though the expansive lobby were rapidly moving in on her.
    “No, this man put them in a back storeroom.”
    “Please ask him if I may have them.”
    The stranger spoke to the man, then said to Samantha, “For the price of your brother’s hotel bill.”
    “How much?” Samantha asked warily. When he mentioned a ridiculously high amount, she exclaimed, “For this place?”
    “I think he’s throwing in some for his trouble. It really isn’t all that much in American dollars. It just sounds like a lot in Brazilian currency.”
    “Very well.” Samantha withdrew her wallet and counted out the money, practically slamming it down on the counter. She was frustrated, confused, tired, hot, and getting absolutely nowhere.
    “Anything else, Miss Prince?”
    She looked up at the