“I need you.” Reaching forward, he pulled roughly at the thin material of the bikini, ripping it off. She laughed and stepped closer. Kissing her hard, he reached down, freeing his erection. He dug his hands into the ample breasts that she pressed against him, thinking about how she was much larger than his baby girl but satisfying all the same.
Remembering how LadyBug had gone at it with the cop on the patio as he’d watched, her passionate expression as the fed had thrust into her from behind, Locke spun Candace around and pushed her up against the rail, ripping the bikini bottoms off and bending her over, pushing inside where she was already hot and ready for him. Apparently she didn’t need much finesse, which was good. He didn’t want to seduce her, after all, he wanted to screw her.
Candace’s cries of release and enjoyment blurred for him as he closed his eyes, reliving the sight of LadyBug’s ripe mouth formed in passionate cries. He jack-hammered himself into Candace’s tight heat, his breath ragged with the memory. He let all of his anger and frustration pound into the body in front of him and he was barely conscious of the young woman, who was no doubt putting on one of her best performances.
All he wanted to do was release what he’d felt watching someone else have the only woman he’d really wanted for the last five years. As his climax blasted through him, he yelled out over the water, one name repeating through his mind as the pleasure drained him: LadyBug.
SAGE CLOSED THE DOOR behind her with a heavy sigh, sagging back against it. God, that was hard. Walking away when all she really wanted was to be with him again. Trying to pretend his pulling away from her didn’t matter. Facing the night alone.
It mattered. But he couldn’t know that. She’d been saved by the fact that he couldn’t see the shock of loss she knew must have shown on her face. She was grateful she’d had a few moments to compose herself before she’d faced him.
She hadn’t expected it either, the rush of emotions that had swamped her when he’d held her so tightly against him after they’d peaked, his heart thudding strongly against the hollow of her back, his face pressed into her neck. Even if Ian didn’t mean it in an emotional way, how he’d held her meant something. To her, anyway.
But she’d seen the regret in his expression when she did face him—it was clear he wasn’t feeling anything more than that. Not that she had expected more. She knew the score; he’d been straight with her. She knew he was sorry about losing control and she tried to find some satisfaction in that. It’s what she’d wanted, right? To make him lose control? To keep him off balance?
Somehow it didn’t help all that much. He’d lost control, but he’d gotten it back quickly. She hovered on the edge of losing something much more threatening.
Walking to the shower, she shook off the sense of hurt and loneliness. She couldn’t expect him to love her—or even to like her, for that matter. But she could make him want her. She’d driven him to the edge and a tingle formed at the base of her spine when she realized she wanted to do it again.
If all she could have was his body, she could live with that. She had to remember what was important. As long as her freedom was part of the package. Three more days to go. Three days to be with Ian. Three days to find Locke. Turning a hot stream of water on full blast, she stepped under it and let it wash over her. Three days until her life could begin all over again.
“I DIDN’T EXPECT YOU BACK so soon.”
“Yeah, sorry for the late call. I just don’t want to waste time and thought you might have found something.”
EJ nodded and grabbed two beers from the fridge, eyeing Ian speculatively as he stood in the middle of the kitchen pacing like a caged animal.
“Millie’s sound asleep, but let’s go outside, just in case. I gave her the shorthand version this afternoon. I don’t want her getting concerned.”
“Sure. She looks great. The wedding is soon?”
EJ nodded, and Ian thought he saw his friend’s features tense slightly. “Six months.”
“Sounds like she’s neck-deep in preparations and trying to pull you down, too. Did you try to convince her to elope?”
EJ snorted. “Like that would ever happen. This is going to be the event of the year. Damn it, Ian, I think she has white horses or some insane thing like that lined up.”
Ian barked out a laugh and put a sympathetic hand on EJ’s shoulder.
“I’m here for you, man. We’ll have a rockin’ bachelor party—best man duties and all. No white horses, I promise.”
EJ sighed. “Thanks. Where’s Sage?”
“Home.”
“You just left her there?”
“I locked her room. From the outside.”
“Jesus, Ian. That’s kind of a shitty thing to do.”
Ian narrowed his gaze, irked at the response. “What would you know about it, Ethan? You think she’s a goddamn hero.”
EJ cocked his head, appearing unbothered by Ian’s outburst. “No, I don’t think that and you know it. But she’s not hacking anymore and she needs someone to help her get a new start. That really should be your job, right?”
“No, my job is to try to keep her out of trouble and to arrest her if she breaks the law again.”
EJ shrugged. “She is trying to help, after all. There’s no reason to bark at her all the time. You have to admit she’s a pretty little thing and kind of sweet. That red hair—”
Ian might have growled, but he wasn’t sure, as the next moment EJ burst into knowing laughter, setting his beer down on the table.
“I thought so.”
Ian did growl this time. “You thought what?”
“You’re completely gone for her, aren’t you?”
“Hardly. She’s in my custody. Off-limits.”
“Right. But desire, love, all those messy emotions don’t usually play by the rules, my friend. And she is a beautiful woman. Smart, too.”
“I don’t love her, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
EJ nodded, pursing his lips thoughtfully. “Okay. You’ve slept with her, though?”
Ian looked away but nodded. He and EJ had known each other too long for him to lie about it.
“I would hate to be you, man, when you go back there. You sleep with a woman and then lock her in her room and leave? She didn’t strike me as one to take something like that easily.”
“It’s not like that. She won’t care. We have an…arrangement.”
EJ’s expression cooled a little.
“I never knew you to use a woman like that, Ian. Especially one you’re supposed to be protecting.”
The barb hit, and it stuck in a very sore spot. He wasn’t about to let this conversation go any further. Leaving his beer on the table, he met EJ’s gaze head-on.
“I’m not protecting her. I protect society from her.”
“It goes both ways and you know it.”
He did know it and he chose to ignore it. This wasn’t the conversation he’d come here for. “Did you find anything more on the disk?”
EJ’s eyebrows arched at the cool dismissal the change of subject signaled. “As a matter of fact, yeah.”
“What?”
“Bread crumbs. Locke left a path of clues for Sage—little bits of information that were coded into the notations, things that don’t mean much to me but might make sense to her.”
“A location? Where to find him?”
“Maybe. You’re going to have to let her look through it.”
Ian nodded. “Okay. We’ll do it tomorrow.”
“You mentioned earlier today there was something else you wanted to talk to me about?”
Ian blinked, trying to remember. “Oh, yeah. I wanted to ask you to think about joining HotWires.”
EJ was clearly surprised, and it showed.
“The NPD team? But I’m not a cop.”
“You worked for DOJ. You have investigative skills, background. And you have computer skills. I don’t need just any cop, I need cops who can do the stuff you do at a keyboard.”
>
“Well, yeah, but my work for the Justice Department was a while ago.”
Ian moved forward. “You’re a good lawyer and you’re a magician, EJ, as a programmer. Your experience with fraud investigation would be valuable to the team. You know how to look at code in a ways other people don’t even think about, and I need that. I know you’ve been restless with the family business for a few years now. This could be a good change.”
“Maybe. But I do have family obligations. They’d be pretty ticked if I quit. And to be honest, they’ve needed me here since Dad died. I don’t know how I could work two positions. I could still freelance for you, like I’m doing now. I’m always happy to help.”
Ian shook his head, knowing he was putting EJ in a tough spot, but he wanted to push it. He knew his friend, and not only would EJ be an excellent addition to the team, Ian knew he hadn’t been happy in the family business for a long time.
“I want you full-time. You were a lot happier when you worked for DOJ. You could do some good work here, EJ. Your skills are going to waste. Your dad’s been gone for a while, the company is on its feet now….”
EJ still seemed to be processing what Ian was asking, and nodded. “Can I think about it? I don’t think Millie will be thrilled with the idea, but I’ll run it by her. I need to at least do that, since my decision would affect her, too.”
“Okay, but you need to decide quickly. I want to get the team up and running.”
EJ nodded, standing, and the two men walked to the back door. Ian stopped in the doorway, looking back at his friend.
“For what it’s worth, EJ, I’m not using her. Not like you think.”
“Then what are you doing?”
Ian shook his head, looking out into the dark front yard, the fragrant flowers on the porch reminding him of Sage’s scent. “Damned if I know.”
EJ refrained from further comment, though his eyes seemed to soften a bit. He put his hand out, and Ian shook it firmly.
“You’ll let me know soon about the job?”
“Yeah. See you tomorrow.”
WHEN HE RETURNED TO THE house, Ian didn’t even bother turning on the lights but went directly upstairs. He unlocked Sage’s door when he passed by her room on the way to his own. Everything was silent; she must have been sleeping for hours now. She wouldn’t have even known he’d locked it.
In a way he felt let down. He was exhausted but wired from no sleep and too much tension and would have felt better if she’d been waiting for him on the other side of the door, spitting mad and spoiling for a fight. He stood outside the door for a moment, shaking his head in self-derision. He wanted her again. Wanted nothing more than to open that door and slip into her bed and her body, emptying himself until there was nothing left. And he knew if he did that, he’d be lost.
7
SAGE FELT IAN’S GAZE burning into her skin as she tried to concentrate on the screen. In spite of their passionate lovemaking the night before and the relaxed conversation that had existed for a few precious moments during supper, he was back to watching her as if she was apt to bolt away at any moment. She just tried to ignore him as she worked, but his presence and those looming looks were difficult to block out.
Ian was reading through a report he’d received on Locke—she’d been asking him a question and had seen the e-mail attachment pop up on his computer. She knew the report wouldn’t offer up much. Locke was careful.
Her fingers tapped the keyboard. At first it felt awkward—it had been a while since she’d sat at a computer—but soon her hands flew over the keys and the excitement of it thrilled her. She glanced over her shoulder at Ian. Not that she could let on about how good it felt, especially given the situation and the subject matter. Locke had indeed left her coded messages, broken up like parts of a puzzle and scattered through his notations, and she was trying to put them all together.
EJ had described them as “bread crumbs,” just as in the fairy tale, and that’s exactly how it was. But she felt as if this particular path was going to lead her farther into the woods instead of safely back home. She wrinkled her brow, focusing on the task at hand.
“I’ve got it—the first one anyway. He is giving me locations, but I think they are clues, not the place where he actually is. He wants me to figure it out, to hack my way to him. Typical.”
“Where is it?” Ian was immediately at her side, scrutinizing the screen.
Sage bit her lip, taking a deep breath. The first location was a set of map coordinates that she plugged into a GPS site, recognizing the place immediately. It was a secluded spot where she and Locke had once made love. Where they had first made love. She didn’t want to share that information with Ian, particularly.
“It’s a small, deserted island on the Intracoastal.”
“Do you think he has set up shop there?”
She shook her head. “No, it’s wild land. I’ll have to figure out the other ones to get a whole picture. He’s not just going to come out and tell me where he is, Ian. Locke is never that direct. Besides, he knows someone else could hack the code and find him, so these are just clues not actual locations. It’s probably a triangulation or a puzzle of some kind.”
Ian sighed heavily and paced to the other side of the room. EJ had left them alone, needing to go in to the office for a few hours, and Sage had been chipping away at the code since he’d left.
“How long will it take you to decipher the others?”
“Hopefully not long. EJ did the hard part, finding all the pieces. If he got them all, it’s just a matter of decoding and figuring out what he’s trying to tell me.”
“We don’t have much time. If he plans on setting this virus loose in two days, we need to find him fast.”
Sage didn’t respond but just tapped at the keys more furiously, grumping. She was getting hungry, but Ian never seemed to think about sleep or food—those were afterthoughts. Work was his main priority.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were a robot or something.”
He stood by the window and turned to look at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You never stop. You are so focused on work, you don’t even stop to go to the bathroom or eat. Don’t you ever just get tired?”
“We’re working against the clock here, Sage. I can’t afford to get tired.” He ran a hand over his face, seeming to struggle to remain patient, and then set his hands on his hips, regarding her. “Are you hungry?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll get something. You keep working.”
“Are you going out?”
Maybe her tone was a little too hopeful, because his eyes narrowed and suspicion entered his gaze again. He shook his head. “No. I’m sure EJ has something. Just keep at it. I’ll be in the kitchen.”
Sage’s shoulders slumped and all of a sudden the fun of working through the clues faded. She couldn’t quite make sense of the moods running rampant over her. That morning, when Ian had told her she was going to be able to work on the code, she’d been excited but nervous. She’d wondered if she’d even be able to do the basics anymore, but that was no problem. It had come back quickly.
And it had been fun, until Ian’s glares and hovering had gotten on her nerves, and then she’d just wanted to be done. That was frustrating. But while EJ had done the grunt work of finding all the encrypted nuggets of code, putting them back together was not only tedious but it gave her time to think, to remember things about her past that were better forgotten.
Locke was playing games with her, toying with her yet again, leading her along like some hapless child. And to be reminded of their affair, of the things they’d done on that island and elsewhere, was deflating. And she’d been down long enough—she wanted to rise up. It wasn’t going to be easy, though, from the looks of it.
Being sandwiched between her past broken up to bits on the screen and Ian’s harsh attitude toward her in the present was getting to her. He hadn’t so much as touched her or even acknowledge
d what had happened between them since they’d awakened that morning.
Though she hated to admit it, it made her feel cheap. And that made her angry—she didn’t expect wine and roses, but some acknowledgement that she was a human being would be nice. When she’d made a sarcastic comment about it not being necessary to lock her in her room at night, he’d just looked away. The dismissal had hurt as much as his blatant distrust.
So she had two men dorking around with her, and both of them held her future in the balance. Instead of gaining more control over her life, she just seemed to be spinning more out of control.
She attacked the keyboard with a fury, her fingers flying and her concentration so intense she didn’t even notice Ian setting a plate down at her side.
“Here. Take a break.”
She looked at the fruits, cheese and crackers arranged on the china plate and the sparkling, cold glass of iced tea with the little wedge of lemon and mint. He’d fixed this—for her?
All of her irritation was washed away in her overemotional response to so small a gesture. Sure, he was only feeding her because she complained, and it wasn’t that big of a deal, but…God, what was wrong with her today? She felt her eyes sting and wiped her hand across them, hoping he didn’t see.
But he did. As usual, Ian saw everything.
“What’s wrong? I know it’s more of a snack than a lunch, but it will have to do until—”
Sage shook her head, turning around quickly to interrupt. “No, it’s lovely. Really. I guess I’m just a little tense. And this was so nice of you. It almost looks too pretty to eat, you went through such trouble to fix it all so nicely—”
Ian stared at her as if she was losing her mind, which she very well might be. “It’s just fruit, Sage.”
Fascination Page 9
