by Donna Fasano
His lips whispered from her mouth to her jaw, and she pulled back her head so he could move unhindered. She slid her hand down his uniformed chest, the heat emanating from his body, the pounding of his heart sending wave after wave of chills coursing across her skin.
Her heartbeat, too, was thudding wildly against her ribs.
His hands slipped upward, leaving behind a trail of fire, and she felt the terry-cloth robe slip off her shoulders. Jason loosened his hold on her just enough for the robe to fall to the floor. And when his fingertips came into contact with the thin satin of her nightgown, she heard a small, throaty groan escape from deep in his chest as he murmured her name.
The rich, deep tone of his voice caused his chest to vibrate beneath her palm, and she took a slow, shaky inhalation. He smelled so warm, so male, so mouth-wateringly wonderful. And he made her feel sheltered, secure, as if she were tucked into a safe haven. And at this moment in time it was the security he offered her that attracted her more than anything else.
Yes, she'd admired him before tonight. She'd found him handsome. She'd dreamed of his kiss. But she'd fought the magnetism that tugged and pulled and drew her to him, because he'd sent signals that he simply wasn't ready.
However, being in his arms, his teeth nipping at her earlobe, Katie surrendered to her desire to feel, to taste, to touch—surrendered to the hunger that had been pent up for far too long.
Sliding her hands up and over his massive shoulders, she pulled herself closer to him, reveling in the feel of his lips on her neck, the sound of his breathing in her ear. She weaved her fingers into the glistening chestnut hair at the back of his head, and with the barest pressure, guided his mouth once more to hers.
His lips were hot and moist, yet the intensity of the kiss ebbed. The urgency of only a moment before was replaced with a soft, slow, gentle exploration, and she was happy to allow this more languid investigation.
But then his hands slid around her, his thumbs grazing the underside of her breasts. The slippery fabric of her gown heightened the sensation, and her nipples budded to life. She'd meant to allow him all the time he needed to slowly explore this new and unknown connection they'd made, but suddenly she was quickly becoming lost to her building demand, lost to her smoldering need, her own overwhelming desire to play an active part in what was happening.
He lifted the weight of her breasts in his palms, kneading them gently, rolling the pad of his thumb over her sensitive nipples. She moaned, aware of the pressure of his erection against the flat of her stomach.
Heat sparked down low, between her thighs, and she felt herself go damp. She wanted him, she wanted him desperately.
But there were still police officers in the house. She needed to stop this.
"Jason," she whispered against his open mouth.
She took his face between her hands intending to plant a kiss on his lips that would define every nuance of emotion raging through her. But when she looked into his sky blue eyes, the expression she read there stopped her cold.
It was as if she'd awakened him from some kind of sensual hypnotic trance when she had spoken his name. And now the doubt, and yes, guilt, permeating his gaze nearly turned her stomach. She felt horrible that she might have caused him to lose control and touch her in a way he now clearly regretted.
Katie let her palms slip from his face, and she stepped away from him.
"I'm sorry," she murmured. She dipped her gaze, meaning to look away from him, only to see her breasts pointing obscenely through her satin nightgown. She reached down to snatch up the robe to cover herself. "I never meant to—"
"Katie."
She straightened, the robe forgotten, and dragged her gaze to his face. His guilt seemed to have abated just a bit, but she couldn't even begin to guess what emotion now took its place.
"It's pretty obvious that we need to talk," he told her, his voice sounding rusty and grating. "But—" he glanced over his shoulder at the closed bedroom door "—right now I... ah, I have to go see what's going on out there. I have a job to do. I'm still on the clock."
Katie simply nodded her understanding.
"I'll stay here with Gina, if you don't mind," she told him.
Jason closed the door, and Katie was left to sort out her thoughts alone. Easing herself down onto the edge of the bed, she tucked the blanket around the toddler's shoulders.
The little girl had been so frightened when she'd awakened in Katie's arms. And when they had heard the back door crash open, Gina had screamed loudly enough to make Katie's eardrums ring. Katie had tried to calm the child, but she'd been terrified herself.
Katie could truthfully say she was no longer afraid of whomever had been trying to enter the house. How could she be with all these policemen prowling about the property? However, she couldn't deny the apprehension that ate away at her stomach like tiny mice gnawing on a wedge of cheese—apprehension regarding what Jason might say to her when this was all over.
* * *
Jason couldn't believe what he was hearing. He'd come out into the living room where the guys had congregated to discuss the clues they had found—clues left by the intruder who had frightened Katie and his daughter and broken into his house. But what Sam and Mike and Danny were hinting at simply wasn't possible.
"Are you sure?" he couldn't help but ask.
"Look," Sam said, "Katie told me that the man was short. Or rather, his shadow was short. And that he was carrying some kind of weapon. Something that threw a long, thin shadow against the shade. Like a stick, she called it."
"And I checked out the soil under the window," Mike said. "There were footprints all along the house, leading up to the back door. The prints came up to the house from the backyard and then led back out into the backyard. They were too small to be made by a man. A boy maybe... or a teenaged girl. A light weight, for sure."
Young Danny cleared his throat. "I talked to your neighbor. The one directly across the street. And he says that a couple of dogs started barking and he looked out the window just in time to see..."
"What, Danny?" Jason asked. "What exactly did Oliver see?"
"He says he saw—" Danny's upper lip broke out in a sweat. "A woman," the young man was finally able to say. "He saw a woman running behind your house. In a housecoat." His Adam's apple bobbed nervously. "And she was carrying a broom. He claims it was your mother-in-law."
"What? You're kidding me, right? That makes no sense."
Jason tried to hide the disbelief, but he simply couldn't. They had tried to tell him that they suspected Ellen was the intruder, but he hadn't been able to even entertain the suggestion until they had spelled out the facts they had gathered.
The evidence was strong. But this whole scenario was just impossible. Why would Ellen do such a thing?
Then he looked at Sam. "You said there was one thing that Katie said. Something that didn't add up."
Sam nodded. "Katie mentioned that the 'man' she saw silhouetted on the window shade had a hat on. You know, a toboggan-type hat. She said the tie—the hat string—was dangling down."
"Yeah," Danny added excitedly, "but, see, the neighbor swears that your...your mother-in-law wasn't wearing any kind of hat. Only a light-colored housecoat that flapped out as she ran in the direction of her own backyard."
"It's dark," Jason was quick to point out. "I don't even see how Oliver can be sure it was Ellen."
"Well—" Sam was the cop who had the most seniority of the group, so it was only natural for him to be the bearer of bad news. "While you were in there with Katie, the three of us conducted a little test. I sent Danny to your backyard, and Mike and I went to your neighbor's front step." The man's tone lowered an octave. "The streetlight illuminated the area between the houses enough that we could see him. No problem."
"Okay, so what about the hat that Katie saw and Oliver didn't?"
Jason felt helpless against the mounting evidence, and he knew his voice sounded a bit frantic as he queried his co-workers. His mind was
reeling with the idea that Ellen might try to break into his house. What purpose would she have for doing such a thing? Why hadn't she knocked on the damned door? She knew that Katie and Gina were home. Yet, she also knew that he was working tonight and would be away from the house.
No, way! he told himself. Don't even think it. Oliver must be mistaken.
But Danny said the neighbor had been certain. And now that Jason thought about it, he remembered that he'd bought Ellen a pale yellow robe for Christmas last year.
The robe that she loved and wore often. The thought passed, unexpected, yet clear as daylight, through his mind. Then another piece of information filtered into his foggy brain—Ellen had a key to his house. That would answer the question about the back door being open when the other officers arrived. There had been no forced entry.
Now he felt more confused than ever. He ran his fingers through his hair as he awaited an answer.
Mike and Sam only shrugged and shook their heads.
"Has anyone talked to her?" Jason asked the three of them.
Danny looked away, hitching his pants and focusing on everything except Jason. Mike looked at Sam to deliver the consensus they had evidently come to.
"Well, Jason, look. It's like this—" Sam reached around to hitch up his pants "—we thought you'd want to be the one to do that."
"Her house is pitch-black," Danny chimed in helpfully.
That piece of news was more telling than all the other evidence that had been gathered up to this point. Jason knew his father-in-law might sleep like the dead, but Ellen, in direct contrast, was a light sleeper. If something untoward was happening on their residential street, Ellen was the first to know about it. She was constantly keeping an eye on neighbors' houses whenever she was at home. The fact that three police cars were parked out front, lights flashing, officers prowling around the property, and Ellen hadn't come over to see what was happening, was extremely significant indeed.
"Okay, okay," Jason said, his mind whirling so fast that he felt more than a little distracted. What the hell was happening? He'd never experienced anything remotely like this before. And if he were to find out Ellen had been the intruder, what was he supposed to do? Arrest his own mother-in-law?
Was she losing her mind? Could she have been sleep-walking? He was really grasping for wild-ass answers now.
"Hey, man," Danny said, "we think it might be her, but we don't know for sure."
Jason looked at the trooper-in-training and knew that he was only trying to be supportive. Danny was attempting to offer him a little hope in a pretty hopeless situation.
"I mean," the young man said, "she might not even be awake over there."
"Oh, she's awake all right," Jason commented dryly. "I'd bet my pension on it."
He heaved a sigh as he crossed the grassy expanse of yard between his house and that of his in-laws. Why in the world would Ellen want to barge into his house? There had to be some logical explanation.
And then it hit him. All the pieces fit together in a hammer-heavy puzzle that struck such a blow that his forward momentum stopped completely. He stood in Jack and Ellen's driveway, hands on his hips, his head shaking slowly as Katie's words floated up from the back of him mind.
"They're afraid of losing their place in your family," Katie had told him. "Afraid your feelings for them might diminish if you were to become involved with another woman."
Jason remembered with clarity how cute Katie had looked as she'd forced herself to be honest in that terribly awkward moment. Her face had flamed when she'd said the words she felt he so needed to hear.
He remembered telling Katie that he'd talk to Jack and Ellen regarding their concerns. But he hadn't. He'd put it off and put it off, reluctant to bring up such an uncomfortable topic with his in-laws. And this was where his procrastination had gotten him.
Oh, there was a logical explanation for Ellen's behavior tonight. Logical... and malicious.
His gut told him that Ellen had intended to frighten Katie—frighten her to the point where she'd be too scared to work for him, frighten her to the point that she'd go away.
Anger simmered inside of him. How dare she try to throw Katie into a panic. And Gina... His little girl had probably been scared to death.
The strong, protective instinct inside him made him grind his teeth together. He'd never said a cross word to Ellen or Jack. Not in all the years that he'd been married to their daughter. Not in the months since Marie had died. But he had a few for them now.
He stared up at their front door, and out of the corner of his eye he saw the curtain at the picture window move ever so slightly. He'd been right. Ellen was awake. And now she was forewarned of his imminent visit.
His ire seemed to grow with each step he took. He mounted the concrete steps and rapped on the door.
Ellen didn't answer right away. He suspected she wanted him to think she was sleeping. He knocked on the door again, this time just a little sharper.
The door opened while he still had his knuckles drawn back.
"Jason—" her voice was breathy "—what is it? Is everything all right?"
She tried to make the question seem full of concern and guileless, but the fact that her eyes were wide, her gaze darting about and full of nervous tension, gave her away the instant he looked at her.
"Everything's fine, Ellen," he told her sternly, "now."
Looking at the woman, he could see how Katie could have mistaken the shadow of Ellen's neatly coiffed hair as a toboggan hat. And if the moonlight had slanted at the right angle, her dangling earrings could have looked like short strings.
"Oh?" She didn't open the screen door, and she didn't ask him inside. Normally, she wouldn't have hesitated. She glanced over her shoulder into the dark recesses of the house before returning her eyes to him.
"We need to talk, Ellen." The angry fire burning deep in his gut flamed even hotter. "I need to come in."
"You know you're welcome anytime, Jason," she said.
A nervous smile flitted across her lips. "But it's late. And Jack's sleeping."
"Well, maybe we need to wake him."
"Oh, no," she exclaimed. "Please don't, Jason—"
"Look, Ellen. I know it was you. Oliver saw you. He watched you run across the backyard in your housecoat—with a broom." His mouth set in a grim line as he waited for some response from her. But she remained stubbornly silent, and that only infuriated him more.
He reached out and pulled open the screen door. "And I'll just bet that if I were to go back into your laundry room, I'd find that broom and a pair of shoes that are still damp from the grass."
"Please, Jason!" She stepped in front of him in an effort to block him from entering the house. "I don't know what you're talking about."
But he saw the tears welling in his mother-in-law's eyes. Telltale tears that proved her guilt.
As a policeman, Jason witnessed female angst often. Usually the sight of a weeping woman conjured compassion and concern in him. But Ellen's guilty tears only made him resentful. Resentful and furious.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about," he said. "I know what you did. And I think I know why you did it."
Her eyes widened a fraction, belying her surprise, but instantly she tried to hide the reaction. After a tense, silent moment, Ellen blinked once, twice, her hands knotted in front of her.
"If you know what I did—" her words came slowly, haltingly, and were spoken in an ever-so-soft tone "—and you know why I did it—" she swallowed "—then you must understand—"
"That's just it, Ellen," he cut in viciously. "I don't understand. Because there's no excuse good enough to explain why you'd scare the wits out of my little girl."
"But, Jason, I never meant to frighten Gina." Ellen's wide eyes grew even wider. "You have to believe me. I love her. I'd never harm her in any way. I knew she would be asleep."
His mother-in-law's shoulders quaked as she cried openly now. But it was as though his heart had turned to a litt
le lump of granite, so little did her tears affect the anger boiling in his belly.
He never permitted anger to play a part in his work as a cop. The most basic training and all his years of on-the-job experience were proof that a police officer couldn't effectively protect and serve the public if he allowed his personal feelings to invade his attitude or affect his performance.
But now he realized that his personal feelings were encroaching into every aspect of his job here. He was so angry at Ellen, in fact, that he began to worry that he might say or do something he might deeply regret later.
"Please say you believe me," Ellen went on. "I didn't mean to hurt Gina. I thought she'd be asleep. I didn't even realize she was awake and crying until I unlocked the back door. Once the door was open, I heard her. And I saw that woman running out of the kitchen..."
Then he watched his mother-in-law's eyes grow hard.
"She was the one who—"
Jason cut her words to the quick with an upraised hand. "I'm too angry to talk about Katie tonight," he told her curtly. "I'm just too damned angry."
At that moment, Jack trudged into the small foyer. His hair was sticking up at the back of his head and absently scratched his chest through his white t-shirt. He squinted, bleary-eyed, at them.
"What is it, Jason?" he asked, groggily. "Is Gina sick or something?"
Ignoring her husband completely, Ellen reached out and placed her fingers on the sleeve of Jason's uniform. "Please don't be angry. You have to see why she needs to go."
Jason gritted his teeth, pulling his arm away from the woman's touch. "I told you, I don't want to discuss that right now. But I will tell you this. Katie deserves an apology. And she damn well better get it."
Ellen's face fell, while her husband's expression continued to display his utter bewilderment.
"Will somebody tell me what's going on here?" Jack asked.
"I'll let Ellen have the honor of explaining," Jason said. Then he looked at his mother-in-law. "I can fix this. I'll tell the other officers that there was some kind of misunderstanding on your part." His eyes narrowed. "But this better not happen ever again. And I mean never."
