Never again. She and Dylan were friends. Nothing more.
The trouble was, she feared they weren’t even that after what had happened. And judging by his aloofness, she was right.
One of her worst fears had been realized. Julie had lost her best friend.
The truth haunted her for the next few hours as she went to the courthouse and filed for temporary custody. When she returned to the empty hotel room and crawled into the shower, she let the tears come.
They blurred her vision as she stood beneath the scalding spray and prayed for everything to be all right. If only she could erase the past forty-eight hours. She should have listened to Dylan and gone into hiding. Thomas would be with her and the night with Dylan would never have happened.
She would have her best friend back.
She needed her friend back.
Julie slumped against the tiled wall of the shower. Hot water sluiced over her shoulders, streamed down her back and buttocks to race in swirling rivulets across the white marble basin and disappear down the drain.
If only she could disappear as easily, she thought. But she couldn’t, nor could she erase her one night with Dylan. Even now, with the water prickling her sensitive skin, she could still feel his hands, his mouth...
God, what had she done?
She’d ruined everything, and all for a night of pleasure.
But it had been more. Dylan made her feel whole, complete. He eased her troubled soul and gave her a sort of peace she’d been searching for, yet unable to find. Dylan didn’t just rouse her hormones. He stirred something much deeper...something much more threatening to her sanity.
Crazy. She was imagining things to soothe her conscience. To excuse her actions. She’d messed up, plain and simple.
All the way around.
Her thoughts went to Thomas and her tears spilled over again. With a trembling hand, she turned the chrome shower knob. The water slowed to a dribble, then stopped.
Minutes later, Julie wrapped herself in a white terry-cloth bathrobe and walked into the bedroom. It was late afternoon and the sun was setting. She headed over to the sliding doors, pushed one panel of glass aside and stepped out onto the balcony. Orange edged the Dallas skyline.
It was a beautiful sight. One she would have appreciated if her thoughts hadn’t been in such chaos. Despite the warm temperature, a chill worked its way through her and she wrapped her arms around her chest.
A drop of water slid down her cheek from her wet hair, which hung in dripping tendrils around her face. Staring at the street below, she watched the cars race back and forth. The world moved on as if nothing had happened.
As if all was calm and Julie’s heart wasn’t breaking.
Thomas. She thought of him, his smiling face and his chubby arms and legs. She ached to feel his warmth and smell his baby scent.
She’d never been a baby person. Never oohed and ahhed over other people’s children. She liked kids, but they were a bit of an unknown entity. After all, she’d been an only child with no younger siblings. She’d never been around babies. While the news of her impending pregnancy had been wonderful, she’d been frightened as well as overjoyed.
Would she be a good mother?
Her fears had been fed by the fact that she didn’t have a normal pregnancy. There’d been no trips to the ice-cream shop to indulge special cravings. No shopping sprees at the local mall. Her life had centered solely around survival.
The pregnancy had been stressful and the actual birth even more so. But the moment she’d stared down at her child, all her fears had faded away. She’d felt such pure happiness, unlike anything she’d ever experienced before. And peace. Despite the uncertainty of her existence, she’d been calm. She’d known just how to touch him, to hold him, to kiss him.
She’d been a mother, with all its worries and responsibilities, and all its joys.
Joy. That’s what Thomas gave her. What she wanted to give back to him.
Instead, she’d shown him nothing but danger and peril. And now Sebastian had him.
Julie was so lost in her worries that she didn’t hear the footsteps behind her. She heard only his voice, low and husky and so very disconcerting, and a ripple of awareness wafted through her.
“Are you all right?”
She closed her eyes. Yes! her mind screamed. Now that you’re here. But she could only nod her head. She would make it. She had to make it.
She hugged her arms tighter to dispel the chills. If only they would go away and she could pull herself together.
Dylan came up behind her, as if her thoughts had lured him closer, but he didn’t touch her.
He wouldn’t touch her.
Not ever, ever again.
“I have temporary custody,” she told him.
“Good. Everything’s set up with the Feds. They’re already watching Sebastian’s place in San Antonio. If he goes home, we’ll know, and if he tries to leave the country, we’ll know.”
“So what do we do now?”
“We go back to San Antonio and we wait.”
She shook her head and shivered. It was cold. Too cold. “I don’t think I can. I have to do something. I have to find him.”
“And do what? You don’t know where he’s at, and even if you manage to find him on your own, you’ll only put Thomas’s life in greater danger. If you show up gunning for Sebastian without any backup, chances are he’ll kill you. And then he’ll have no use for Thomas.”
“Thomas is his son.”
“Yes, and that might make a difference.”
She remembered the coldness in Sebastian’s eyes, the way he’d held the knife at her throat. “It won’t make any difference.” She drew in a deep breath and walked to the window. “God, I hate this. I hate him.”
“You don’t hate anybody, Julie. You can’t. It’ll eat you up inside.” He moved beside her, as if oblivious to the tremors that racked her body. “All we can do is wait and let the Feds do their job.”
“I know.” She touched his hand, but he pulled away and her shivers grew worse. “I’m sorry.”
“Would you stop saying that? I don’t want your apologies.” His voice grew gruff, his eyes dark and stormy. “I want you.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want you to want me.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I want my friend back.”
“That’s not possible. I know you want me, Julie.” His voice was so calm, so sure, chipping at the barrier she tried desperately to erect between them. “I can see it every time I look at you. If you can tell me it’s not true and mean it, I’ll never bring the subject up again. You can forget that night.”
“But you won’t.”
“I can’t. I don’t want to. And I don’t think you want to, either.” His lips were so close to her ear now, too close for comfort.
And comfort was all that she wanted from him.
“That night shouldn’t have happened. There’s too much in my past for this to work. And the future... It’s all too crazy.”
“You’re thinking too much. Sometimes you have to trust your instincts.”
“Me? Are you kidding? I failed Instinct 101, remember? I thought I married a man who loved me, when in reality he only loved himself.”
“You were barely eighteen when you met him. You didn’t know what love was.”
“And now I do?”
“I think you do.” Their gazes locked and she knew what he was talking about. As much as it thrilled her, it also filled her with a sense of panic and fear.
“Can’t you just hold me?” She shook her head as the tears spilled over. “Can’t you just hold me and tell me everything will be okay? Can’t you just be my friend? That’s what I need right now.” She put her back to him and gave in to the tears burning in her eyes. “If you could just be my friend.”
A few seconds later, she felt his chest, strong and warm, at her back. “Is that what you want? What you really want?”
She nodded
.
“Okay,” he replied, his voice gruff, tinged with a thread of sadness that niggled at something deep inside her. He tilted her chin to capture her gaze with his own, his eyes flashing blue fire in the waning sunlight. “I’m your friend.”
“Thank you,” she said as she slid her arms around him. He pulled her close and Julie relished the feeling.
Dylan’s warmth chased away the chills and filled her with a sense of comfort unlike anything she’d ever felt before.
She wasn’t sure when her feelings changed. She only knew that the warmth quickly turned to something more as he stroked his hand up and down her back. It was meant to be soothing, but her heart hammered and her nerves buzzed and need flowered deep in her belly.
She realized then that Dylan could never go back to being just a friend.
She wouldn’t settle for it because she wanted more.
She wanted everything where this man was concerned.
“I’m so sorry,” she murmured, the enormity of her feelings overwhelming her in that instant.
“I’m tired of hearing that. You’re not putting my life in danger. I’m here willingly. I—”
“That’s not what I mean.” She pulled away and stared up into his eyes. “I’m sorry for everything. All along, it was you and I didn’t see it.”
“What do you mean?”
“You were the one, Dylan. Not Sebastian. Never Sebastian. I just didn’t see it. I was so stupid, I didn’t see the truth. Deep down, I felt it though, but I didn’t trust my feelings. Not then and not now.”
“Forget the past. It’s over and done with. There’s just now. Today.”
“Tonight,” she corrected as she loosened her belt and let the robe fall open.
When his fingers found her taut nipples, she relaxed against him, forgetting everything except his feverish touch.
“The past is past,” he repeated again, making everything seem so simple.
It wasn’t. Nothing about her life was simple anymore, and Dylan made things all the more complicated. But his presence was so overwhelming, the attraction between them so magnetic, she knew she could forget, at least for the moment.
“The past is past,” she echoed, taking a deep breath.
Dylan’s attention focused on the rise and fall of her chest. “Are you okay?” he asked, the question lighting his eyes. “You look flushed. Are you hot?”
She’d been cold before, but now she felt as if she were burning. She could only nod, and her breath caught when he reached out to trail his finger up her bare thigh to the hemline bunched near her hips.
Dylan’s gaze held hers as he slipped the robe off her shoulders, trailed his hands down her arms to her waist. She felt herself throb when he brushed the thin material of her panties.
“Yes, it definitely is hot out here,” he murmured.
With his fingers he tugged her lace panties down. They slid over her legs, past her ankles, then he tossed them on the floor beside her.
“A little cooler?” he asked, heat spiraling from the deep blue depths of his eyes, making her burn hotter.
She shook her head.
He lifted her into his arms and walked back into the hotel room. Easing her down onto the bed, he knelt in front of her parted legs. Bending her knees, he spread his hands on the insides of her thighs and urged them open to his smoldering gaze. His hands slid higher....
When he touched her moist heat, parted the sensitive flesh and slipped a finger inside, she felt the air rush from her lungs. Her limbs turned to liquid. She tilted her head back, a low moan escaping her lips.
“It’s hot in here, too,” he said, pushing deeper, caressing, stoking the fire that burned inside her. When he leaned down and touched his lips to the inside of one knee, letting his tongue follow the same path as his hand, higher, higher, she wound her fingers in his hair.
“Please,” she cried, needing to feel the heat of his mouth.
“I thought you just wanted me to hold you,” he reminded her, his lips a steady vibration on her smooth flesh. The sensation sent white-hot flames shooting through her veins.
“I do.” Her gaze locked with his for a long moment and she knew he needed to hear the words again. The truth she’d been denying for so long. “I want that and more.”
He grinned before dipping his head again. His mouth found her and she cried out, holding him to her as he flicked his tongue over the swollen flesh. Julie tossed her head from side to side, eager for the rapture only he could give her. She bucked against him, racing toward the blinding light. Then suddenly, without warning, her flight halted.
Dylan pulled away.
After several moments, she opened her eyes to find him poised above her, intense, watchful.
“Almost?” he asked, trailing one finger over her bottom lip. She tasted herself on him and felt the heat inside her flame hotter.
“Yes...” she breathed.
He smiled, his voice husky as he whispered, “Good, then you’re ready for me, sweetheart. We’re going to take this ride together.”
She didn’t even realize that he’d shed his jeans, not until she felt the tip of his erection graze the throbbing warmth between her legs. Instantly, she became aware of the bare muscles of his legs as he settled between hers, the soft silky hair of his thighs tantalizing her sensitive flesh.
Instinctively, she opened herself. Indeed, she was ready for him, desperate for him, in fact.
He moved his hands beneath her to cup her buttocks and lift. Then he drove into her, filling her, winding the tense coil within her tighter, until she cried out mindlessly. She grasped his hips, rising to meet him, taking him deeper and deeper, spinning closer to cataclysmic release.
He stared at her throughout every movement, and she found herself drawn into the stormy depths of his eyes, caught in a violent upheaval of emotion as intense as nature’s most awesome storm. She even saw streaks of lightning, heard deafening cracks of thunder, until with one lifting thrust they both exploded.
“Together,” she breathed moments later, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, needing his strength to quiet the thundering of her heart.
Slowly, the storm calmed and she descended, surrounded by a multitude of brilliant colors—fiery red, soothing blue and of course, warm silvery gray. Peace drifted over, Dylan filled her, and the chaos of her life faded away for a few precious moments.
* * *
I—I CAN’T FIND him, boss.” Mikey’s nervous voice carried over Luke Silva’s cellular phone. “I’m sorry. I’ve been watching Garrett and the woman, hoping Cooper will show up. He hasn’t. Neither has Pendleton. It’s like they’ve given up.”
Luke sat in the back of his limousine on his way to a charity walk being held down on the San Antonio Riverwalk. He was a major sponsor so he had to make an appearance.
Appearance was important in his line of work. Not that it was everything. He did his philanthropic part to keep the higher ups in the San Antonio Police Department happy, but he didn’t let it get in the way of business.
Nothing interfered with Luke’s business.
“What do I do?” Mikey’s voice came over the line.
“Sit tight and keep watching.”
“That’s it?”
“For now. Maybe Pendleton will show up. I don’t think Cooper will just let the woman go.” Then again, maybe he was banking on the woman coming to him. Wasn’t that why he’d stolen the child? “Sit tight and keep watching.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sir. That was respect. Luke’s rightful due. What Cooper had failed to learn.
But Luke was going to teach him a lesson. Dylan Garrett and Julie Cooper, too.
It was just a matter of time.
CHAPTER TWELVE
HE WAS GOING to make her pay dearly for this.
Sebastian barely resisted the urge to grab the crying baby and shake it into silence. Forget crying. The child was wailing. Screaming.
A full twenty-four hours of near solid screaming. The onl
y time he quieted was while he ate or slept, and even that time was riddled with whimpers and whines.
Sebastian hadn’t had a quiet moment since he’d whisked this kid—Thomas—away. He hadn’t been able to think or plan. His temples throbbed and his fingers tightened on the handle of the carrier he’d picked up at the first store he’d come to. He couldn’t have the child rolling around on the front seat.
At the moment that wasn’t such a bad idea. Perhaps Thomas would be scared into quieting down. Lord knew no threats had been enough to accomplish such a feat. He’d talked and reprimanded until he was blue in the face, but Thomas had only stared up at him through a film of tears and continued to cry.
It surprised him that he felt no outpouring of love for this son of his. But that was Julie’s fault, too. How could he have any feelings when the baby was a stranger to him?
Yes, he was going to make Julie pay with nothing less than her life. She’d betrayed him by running off, put him through hell by taking the locket and stolen his chance to know his son.
He had to think—make plans. But how could he with this screaming kid.
“Quiet!” he ordered yet again, but the sound of his voice only seemed to make Thomas cry harder.
“It doesn’t matter,” he told the child. “You’ll shut up soon enough.” Once he found solitude. Safety.
And so he’d come here.
Sebastian stared at the ornate front door of the huge mansion cut into the hillside. Luke Silva had done quite nicely for himself.
Up until now.
It wouldn’t last. Sebastian fingered the locket stuffed in one of his pockets. The microchip embedded inside the piece of jewelry had enough information on it to incriminate not only J. B. Crowe, but his right-hand man, as well. Silva would soon wind up behind bars with his boss.
Blackmail. That was Sebastian’s motive. His trump to get what he wanted. To win the game.
But before he could really start playing, he had to eliminate Julie, and before he could do that, he had to think.
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