But much more mesmerizing was the woman who opened the door and walked out to greet him. Dressed in the same mint green dress he’d seen her in earlier, she looked beautiful. Nothing about her had changed, and yet everything was different. Once, she would’ve ran into his arms and, perhaps, he might’ve twirled her around, but now she was right in front and still a world apart.
Pain echoed in his heart but he ignored it. She wasn’t his anymore.
She came to a stop a few feet away. “Hi.”
“Hello.” What the hell did one do in such a situation? Riley shifted on his feet. “Beautiful house.”
“Yeah, it is.” She cast a glance at the garden. “Why don’t you come in? I saw you from the camera.”
“Yeah, the state of the art security is impressive.”
“Jason needs it and, frankly, I am happy to live here for now. At least no one can get in, and that gives me a lot of peace.”
They walked into the house and, as expected, he was impressed by the sheer opulence of the place. If he could’ve given her all this, would she have waited for him? Riley was aghast at his own thoughts. She wasn’t the sort of woman who went for a guy just because he was rich. He had his chance and he blew it. She was with someone else now, and that guy, no matter how much Riley hated him, probably deserved her.
She led him into a living room and he sat on the couch. “Coffee?”
“Sure.”
She went into the kitchen and came back a while later. “It’s coming.”
He laughed. “This guy’s got a housekeeper.”
She met his gaze and smiled. “And two part-time maids, a chauffeur, and two gardeners. There is any army of people around to make life comfortable.”
He shook his head. “I can’t even imagine this life. It’s pretty…fabulous, I suppose.”
She shrugged and took a seat opposite him. “One could get used to it easily enough, but that’s not why you’re here. What bring you to this place, Riley?”
A matronly woman brought in a tray and he waited until she left it on the table. Tania poured him a cup.
He took it from her hand. “I told the gang I was coming to meet you, that I could convince you to come with me, and they would have you.”
She gasped and her hand stilled on the pot. After gazing into his eyes for a moment, she picked up the pot and poured herself a cup. “You lied to them. Why?”
It gladdened his heart to know that she trusted him at least that much. It wasn’t much, but it was something. He was grateful she didn’t think too badly of him anymore. “Obviously because if I hadn’t, they wouldn’t have let me get out of that building alive.”
“So you did it to save your hide?”
“Of course.” He took a sip. “Why else?”
“If that was your sole reason, why are you telling me this? You should’ve skipped town, left them behind, and started elsewhere.” He didn’t say anything. The woman was too sharp, and there wasn’t much that he could slide by her without her picking up on it. “But you didn’t do that. You came here to warn me.”
He made no attempt to deny it. Of course, he wanted to tell her to be careful. They were fixated on her and though he tried to dissuade them, it didn’t work. She wasn’t safe in this town, not now, and, perhaps, never. “They want you. For some reason, they have decided you’re a threat to their security, and until they find you...and either get rid of you or make sure that you don’t talk, they aren’t going to back out.”
“I don’t have any evidence or proof of their wrongdoing. If I did, I would’ve gone to the police by now.”
“That’s what I tried to tell them.”
She sipped her coffee as if she didn’t have a care in the world. He wanted her to pack her bags and leave this town, perhaps this country. But maybe she didn’t want to go away from her new boyfriend. A hot lance of jealousy pierced his heart. He wanted to smash the cup on the ground and stomp on it. A scream spiraled to his throat but he swallowed it. There was no point getting worked up on this issue. She’d chosen her path and it was time for him to choose his. All he wanted was to make sure she was okay.
“They are not going to leave me alone.”
“No, they won’t.”
“What do you suggest I do?”
He sipped his coffee. It was bloody delicious. The asshole probably flew in the beans from Spain or some other exotic location. Why would she want to leave a suave, successful man like him and hang out with a gangster? That’s what he’d become. He’d sought adventure and instead he got crime. It was his fault for trusting the wrong people, and he would be damned if she paid the price for it. “You should leave this town.”
“And what about you?”
He shrugged. What the hell could he do? “I would have to move away also, find a new place, and start all over again. It’s the only thing that would keep us safe.”
She leaned back, the cup held in her hand. “There is another option.”
“What?”
“We could work together to expose the gang. Why should they disrupt our lives? They get away clean – without any damage – and that’s not acceptable to me. Alone, I can’t do much, but if you’re with me, we can get the evidence we need to show to the police that they rigged the warehouse.”
His mouth gaped open as he stared at her. The woman sure had guts. What she said was true, and it made sense, but would she really have the courage to do it? Did he want her to do it? It was dangerous, risky. They could get hurt, killed even. No way did he want to put her in that much danger.
“How are you so sure that I’m not working for them?”
“You would’ve grabbed me in the morning if you were,” she answered.
“There were too many witnesses,” he said.
Her smile lit her face. “Is that what you told them? Did they buy it? You’re smart. In any case, I know that’s why you didn’t do it. Even you’re not that good an actor, Riley.”
He didn’t have much to do now. After telling her to get out of this town, there wasn’t much ] he could add. He put the cup on the table and stood. “Thanks for the coffee. I’m going to leave the town, and I suggest that you do the same.”
He didn’t want to leave her, but he had to. She belonged to someone else, and he didn’t have any more rights on her. Their relationship frizzled out a long time ago, and he needed to accept that fact before it drove him crazy. He would never see her again. Never.
Chapter Eight
Conflicted and confused: those two states described the state of her mind to an accurate degree. Ever since she met Riley, she pretty much felt the same way and now her feelings were even more jumbled up. She’d spent too much time hating Riley and now she discovered he wasn’t that man who she tried so hard to blame for all the wrong things in her life.
Seeing him walk towards the door, she was reminded of the time when she spent hours crying because he wasn’t with her, because he wasn’t the man she thought he was. He was more than she’d assumed.
“Riley,” she said. “Wait.”
He turned to look at her. Was it hope that flitted across his eyes? Did he want to stay with her? “These people…this gang of yours, they have screwed up our lives.”
“Yeah, they have.”
“If we go away, if we’re the ones who get out of town then they would think we’re scared and that we fled. They might look for us for a while, but since we won’t be a threat, they would forget about us eventually.”
He shrugged. “Yeah! I suppose so.”
“But nothing would happen to them.”
“What do you mean?”
She stood and walked over to where he stood. “They’re the ones who blew up that warehouse. They nearly killed me, and even you might’ve died in that place. Had we been inside…” She shuddered. It was a thought that crossed her mind a number of times before. “So why should I flee? Why should you do the same? Instead of turning our backs on them, we should face them.”
A smile lifted hi
s lips. “What do you intend to do? Confront them? That’s not going to achieve much.”
“They are blackmailing you, aren’t they?” she guessed. It made sense. They must want something from him, and mainly that was to get her. In order to issue a command, they must believe that they held some leverage over him. “What is it?”
Looking surprised, he folded his arms across his chest. Some of the earlier cockiness that endeared him to her was reflected in his eyes. “It’s not something I can’t handle.”
“What is it?” she demanded. “Come on. It won’t hurt to let me know.”
He bit his lip as he considered her words. “Fine. If you must know, I was the one who initiated the contact with Xavier. All the initial papers that were sent to him have my signatures, so, obviously, if the police start an insurance fraud investigation, I’ll go down along with others, but there isn’t much proof against them.”
“And they want you to bring me in so they can question me or kill me, and if you don’t, they might release those documents to the police.”
He shook his head. “They issued that threat, but, of course, I’m not worried about it. How can they get me in trouble while keeping themselves clean? They won’t do it.”
“What if we do something that would get them into a pile of shit?”
He cocked an eyebrow, perhaps responding to the cold tone in her voice. “What do you mean?”
“Why should we run? Why should we hide? They are the ones who started this mess, and they should go to jail for it. I intend to see that they do, and I want you to help me. Together, we can uncover evidence that links them to this plot to blow up the warehouse.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“I am dead serious.”
He stared at her as if she said something incredibly stupid. Sure, on the face of it, the idea was terrible. How could they take on the might of a criminal organization? But stranger things happened, and she was willing to give it a try. “You intend to do this alone.”
She shook her head. “No, I want to do this with you. Together, we’re strong. You know them and you can figure out where those weaknesses are. If we search their records, if we go deep down, we will find something that will link them to the explosion and then we can go to the police.”
“They don’t trust me enough to give me access to their records.”
She tapped her foot on the floor. “They will when you hand me over. Then they won’t have a choice but to include you in their inner rank.”
He exploded. She saw the color that flushed in his cheeks, and the gleam of anger that sparkled in his eyes. “Have you lost your mind?”
“I haven’t, actually. It’s the only thing that will allow you to access to their inner sanctum and without it, we won’t get anywhere.”
“And you would risk your life? Have you gone mad?”
“I wouldn’t risk my life because you would keep me safe. I trust you, Riley.”
Now she could see the flabbergasted expression on his face. He wanted to take her in his arms, but he was hesitant to do so. She didn’t blame him. In their own way, both of them went to hell but now they were back – and everything would be good once more.
“It’s a stupid plan.”
“It’s not.” She took another step forward. Her heart pounded so loud she was sure he could hear it. Sweat beaded on her forehead. “I would tell them that if something happens to me, a friend of mine would give certain information to the police. And I would assure them that all I want is to stay safe, and if they let me go, I’ll get right out of town. They won’t let me go immediately. Of course, they would keep me prisoner for a few days and, in that time, you can ferret out all the relevant information. Then you can go to the police and rescue me.”
“What if you’re wrong? They could kill you right away.”
“Would they do that?”
He walked over to the window and glanced out. She could see the wheels in his mind turn as he pondered over her plan. “I don’t know…I think they won’t. They would want to make sure that what you said was true.”
“I would tell them that I’d secretly followed you and took pictures of your meeting with others, and that if that information is released, they will be connected to you and since your name is on those papers…” She was brainstorming without giving it much thought. Sure, the plan was raw and it wasn’t perfect, but if he agreed with her, it would fall into place.
“It might just work.” He nodded. Turning back to face her, he ran a hand over her jaw. “But what would your boyfriend say to all that? Surely, he wouldn’t want you to face this mess.”
A smile flitted over lips. “What boyfriend?”
He blinked his eyes. “The one who…that Jason guy…”
“He is not my boyfriend.”
“Huh?”
“He owns this place and he is a friend. We did date for a while, but that was a long time ago, and we’ve moved on since then. So yeah…he is not my boyfriend.”
“Not your boyfriend? As in you guys are not…” He shook his head.
She mimicked his action. “No, he is not.” Silence reigned in the room. She didn’t know what to say, and it was obvious that he was at a loss for words.
“So are you…I mean, do you…what is…?”
She sucked in a deep breath of air. It was time to bare her soul. “I love you, Riley. I don’t know how or when…but I fell in love with you and when I thought that you’d betrayed me, my heart broke into a million pieces.”
“I never betrayed you.” His voice was surprisingly heavy, almost as if he was resisting the urge to cry. “I didn’t know what they planned. Yes, I suspected that they were up to something not quite kosher, but since I didn’t have proof, I wasn’t sure what to tell you. That was the only mistake I made. Other than that, everything we did, everything I said, was straight from the heart.”
She didn’t take her eyes off him but neither did she move towards him. There was a lot that she needed to hear. “And?”
“And I love you, of course.”
She sputtered out a laugh. “That should’ve been said first, you idiot.”
“Oh!” He rubbed his jaw. “I can’t think straight. Tania, I love you…and there are no other words that describe how I feel about you.”
She didn’t know which one of them made the first move. Maybe it was her. Maybe it was him. But soon they were in each other’s arms, and their lips were fused together in a kiss. His tongue delved inside her mouth to taste the recesses of her mouth, and she felt the familiar waves of pleasure and desire zigzag through her veins. It was exactly what she needed, what she’d craved for all these days.
He lifted her off her feet and carried her to the couch, but she pushed his shoulder. He raised his head. “What?”
“Upstairs, bed. Maids, remember.”
He swore. “Damn it. Where is your room?”
“Upstairs on the right.” She giggled at his flabbergasted expression. It seemed so long ago that she tasted him, felt his skin ripple under her fingers, or squealed as he pounded into her, but still she didn’t feel shy or self-conscious. Instead, she was eager, determined.
He let her go and, hand in hand, they raced up the stairs. She opened the door and they stumbled inside her room. She fell on the bed and he joined her. Immediately, his hands captured hers and his mouth clung to her with a desperation that matched hers.
It was far too long, and they couldn’t wait any longer. A fountain of lust spiraled up her spine, and wild sensations gripped her in their fiery embrace. Arousal was instantaneous, strong. Beads of moisture gathered in her pussy and stuck to her panties as he continued to plunder her mouth.
Finally, he lifted his head and stared down at her. “This is it. We’re together, forever.”
“Of course." She ran a hand over his cheek. “We are together.”
There was no need to say anything else. He sat and took off his shirt. She enjoyed the way the muscles rippled on his back. He’d lost a
little bit of weight, but, still, his body was as sleek and hard as she remembered. After he took off his clothes, he stood still for a moment as if he was allowing her to burn the memory of his body in her mind.
She feasted her eyes on his wide shoulders, his chest, and the long line of dark hair that swept down to the curls that guarded his cock. Moisture leaked down her thighs, and she pressed her legs together in an attempt to control the flow. She’d lost him and that made her miserable – but now they were with each other and nothing else mattered.
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