When he got there, she was no place to be seen and he breathed a sigh of relief as he realized she’d probably gone inside and locked the doors behind her.
He went up to the door and softly knocked. “Georgina, it’s me.”
She opened the door and before he could take a step inside she fell into his arms, sobbing and shaking. “It was him,” she finally managed to gasp into the front of Alexander’s shirt. “It was Bob. He wanted to add me to his collection.”
Alexander tightened his arms around her and moved them both deeper into the living room, stunned by two things. He was surprised that Bob had confronted Georgina in a way that was not his normal mode of attack.
But equally as surprising was the fact that in all the years he’d known her, he had never seen Georgina cry. Bob had gotten pieces of her past and now he’d gotten her tears. For those facts alone, if Alexander ever got the chance, he’d kill the man.
Chapter Eight
Georgina finally moved out of Alex’s arms, deep sobs slowing as she sank down on the sofa. She raised her hands to her face and angrily swiped away the tears. She’d not only been terrified, she’d been stupid and the result had nearly been devastating.
She was aware of Alex sinking down next to her, his body warmth radiating out as the scent of his familiar cologne began to slowly calm her.
Dropping her hands to her lap, she turned to face him. “I was so stupid,” she said angrily. “I fell for a ruse and I should have known better.”
“Tell me what happened.” His voice was soft and when he reached for one of her hands, she allowed the contact, needing the warmth of his touch.
“I was asleep on the sofa and I woke up and heard a baby crying. It was such a plaintive wail and it sounded like it was coming from just outside my front door. I was still half asleep, but I decided I needed to check it out. I opened the door, stepped out on the porch and that’s when he grabbed me.” A new sob escaped her as she thought of that moment when strong arms had wrapped around her and a voice had whispered in her ear.
“The minute he grabbed me, he whispered that I would be the queen of his collection.” She shuddered and Alexander squeezed her hand more tightly.
“Were you able to get any kind of description of him?”
She shook her head. “He had on a ski mask so I couldn’t make out any facial features, but he was tall and very strong. If you hadn’t come along when you did, he would have had me. I fought against him, but eventually he would have won the fight.”
Alex frowned. “I wonder why he didn’t take you like the others? With some sort of tranquilizer?”
“He said I was special, that I deserved special treatment because we’d shared so much.” Once again a shiver rippled through her as she thought of how close she’d been to disappearing, of becoming the eighth person in his den.
“Dammit, we should have seen this coming,” Alex said. “I should have known he’d come after you.”
She disengaged her hand from his and gazed at him curiously. “Why are you here? Did you have any idea that I might be in trouble?”
“No, I was just driving around for a while before going home and you were on my mind so I decided to drive by your house.”
“Your timing was impeccable,” she replied and then released a tremulous sigh. “I’ve been through a lot of things in my life, but I don’t think I’ve ever been as scared as when he grabbed me.”
Alex stood and gazed down at her. “Pack your bags. You’re coming home with me.”
“Okay,” she replied, obviously surprising him if the look on his face was any indication. She stood. “I might be hardheaded, Alex, but I’m no fool. I feel the target on my head and I’m not about to make it easy for him by staying here all alone. I’ll be right back with my bags.”
She left the living room and went into her bedroom, where she pulled a suitcase from the closet and began to fill it with enough clothing to last a week or so. After that time they’d have to figure out what to do next where she was concerned.
She didn’t particularly like the idea of spending time with Alex in the house they had once called home together, but she liked the alternative less.
She didn’t have a security system here. She would be vulnerable to another attack if she stayed, and the next time she might not be so lucky.
As she left the bedroom and went into the bathroom to gather up toiletries, she told herself she would rather put up with the memories that being in that house with Alex would evoke than be Bob’s next victim.
Within twenty minutes Alex was carrying the big suitcase out her front door and she followed behind with a smaller overnight bag.
She didn’t feel completely safe until she was in his car and he was behind the wheel and pulling away from the curb. Over and over again, Bob’s voice played in her head. “He spoke to me, but his voice was more a guttural growl than a real voice. I’m not sure I’d recognize it again if I heard him speaking normally.”
“I hope you never get close enough to him to hear his voice again unless he’s in handcuffs,” Alex replied, his voice bearing the deep rumble of a papa bear protecting a cub. “I don’t want you talking to him anymore.”
She stared at him in surprise. His chiseled features were taut with tension in the glow from the dashboard. “Don’t be silly. Of course I intend to talk to him again.”
“Georgina, he got to you today. He got deep into your head.” Alex didn’t try to mask the deep worry in his voice.
“I know. You’re right,” she replied, knowing that to try to lie to him would be foolish, given what he’d heard on the phone conversation and her reaction afterward.
“I was afraid I’d lost you, that he’d pushed you too far over the edge.”
She frowned and stared out the passenger window, remembering the traumatic conversation with Bob. “For a minute he did, he cast me back to a place I never wanted to revisit. But I just needed some time away from it all. I would have been fine by morning.”
He didn’t say anything and she had a feeling he didn’t quite believe her. But she would have been fine. She would have been ready to face her job once again. After all, the job was the only thing she’d ever really trusted.
For the remainder of the drive, they were silent. She had no idea what was going on in Alex’s head, but her head was filled with the feel of those strong arms around her, the low hiss of words meant to terrify and the scent of evil that had swelled in the air.
She’d fought him. She’d fought hard, but he’d been so much stronger, and if he’d had only another minute or two, he would have overwhelmed her and carried her away.
God, would she ever be warm again? The intimate contact with the killer and imagining what might have happened had Alex not come along had iced her insides to arctic levels.
A new tension, along with gratitude, filled her as they reached the house and Alex punched the button to raise the garage door.
She was walking back into her past by coming here. It was a past that had been filled with happiness, passion and ultimately the pain of self-realization. Still, she knew she’d be safe here. The house had a security system and an armed and dangerous Alex, who would never let danger come close to her again.
“I’ll just put your bags in the guest room,” he said as they walked out of the garage and into the kitchen. Georgina followed behind him, stunned to see that the kitchen looked exactly the same way it had on the day she’d walked away.
Nothing had changed and as she walked into the living room she realized nothing had changed there either. He hadn’t redone the decor or bought new furniture. He hadn’t even taken down their wedding picture that sat on the bookcase next to his criminal investigation books.
She followed him down the hallway to the second bedroom where he placed her suitcase and smaller bag on the floo
r. “You know where everything is and if you can’t find something just let me know. How about I put on some coffee?”
“Actually, what I’d like most right now is a long hot bath and then sleep.” She didn’t want to sit at the table and rehash the night’s events. She just wanted to get warm and feel safe.
She wanted to sleep without dreams, suffer no nightmares of Bob or her childhood and wake up ready to tackle the job once again. The job would keep her sane.
“Why don’t we just say goodnight now,” she continued. “It’s already getting late and we can talk in the morning on the way to work.”
He hesitated a moment and then nodded. “Okay, then I guess I’ll just tell you good-night now and see you in the morning.”
“Good night, Alex. And thanks for being at the right place at the right time.”
“My pleasure,” he replied with a smile.
She closed the bedroom door, as if to ward off the way his smile made her feel just a little shaky, just a little more vulnerable than she already felt.
She pulled her suitcase up on the bed and opened it, quickly hanging what needed to be hung and then throwing her underwear into one of the empty drawers in the dresser.
Don’t think, she commanded herself. Don’t think about what might have happened if Alex hadn’t appeared in the night. Don’t think about the distant past and all the pain. Just breathe and keep your head empty of all thoughts.
She grabbed her nightshirt, a pair of panties and her toiletry bag and went across the hall into the guest bathroom. There was another full bath in the master suite so she knew there was no reason for Alex to interrupt her.
She started the water in the tub and then began to undress, eager to get off the blouse and slacks that he’d touched. She wanted to scrub away any skin that had touched his. She felt him everywhere on her and she just wanted to scrub him off.
With the tub filled, she turned off the water and stepped into the heated depths. She sank down so that the hot water surrounded her to the shoulders, hoping to heat the inner core of ice that remained inside her.
Closing her eyes, she willed herself to relax, but her thoughts worked against her. How had he found out where she lived? Probably the same way he’d found out her cell phone number. There had to be a mole somewhere in the department. But it was difficult to believe that anyone in the agency would want to see the kidnapping or death of another agent.
As far as she knew she’d made no enemies in her five years as an FBI agent. Granted, she wasn’t close to anyone, but she’d always gone out of her way to be pleasant to everyone she worked with.
Don’t think, she told herself once again. She wouldn’t be worth anything in the morning if she didn’t relax and get a good night’s sleep. And she wanted to be on her game the next day for she was certain that Bob would contact her again. He’d revel in the fact that he had gotten so close to her.
She shivered and realized the hot water wasn’t working, that the core of ice inside her remained. It took only a few minutes for her to use the minty scented soap and scrub herself clean. She sank completely under and then rose up and stepped out of the tub and grabbed a fluffy towel from the cabinet.
When dried, she pulled on her nightgown and panties, finger-combed her damp hair and then left the bathroom and scurried back across the hall. The house was silent and dark, letting her know that Alex had already gone to bed.
It felt strange to be getting into the bed in the guest room. She’d never slept in here before. She’d decorated the room in deep rich browns and tans and had thought it looked quite inviting at the time. But at this moment she only felt cold, afraid and lonely.
“Don’t even think about it,” she muttered to herself as she punched her pillow. She shouldn’t even think about the fact that Alex was just down the hall, that he’d been the one person who had always been able to warm her and make her feel safe and secure.
Going to him now would be one of the biggest mistakes she would ever make in her life. It would definitely give him the wrong impression.
Of course, she could make sure he didn’t get the wrong impression. She could tell him that she just needed him for one night, wanted him to hold her and make love to her to banish everything else from her mind.
She would be using him for this night to drive from her mind everything that had happened in the last twelve hours, but as long as she was up front with him about it, then surely he couldn’t hold it against her.
She knew she was making a mistake when she got out of the bed. She knew it was a mistake as she made her way down the darkened hallway.
She hesitated in front of his closed bedroom door, knowing that if she knocked there would be no going back. While she could justify this night in her mind, she would never be able to take it back.
Once she knocked on the door, she knew he’d invite her into his bed and she knew they would make love. But before that happened she had to let him know that it was just tonight, not a new beginning for them, not a second chance, just a single moment of need that would never again be repeated.
She raised her hand and, drawing a deep breath, she knocked on the door.
* * *
AT FIRST ALEXANDER THOUGHT he’d only imagined the faint knock on his door because he wanted her to come to him. It was only when he heard a second, louder knock that he responded. “Come in,” he called, his heart pounding a little faster.
His door opened, and in the faint moonlight casting in through his windows he could see her silhouette in the doorway. “Did I wake you?” she asked.
“No, I’m not even close to being asleep,” he replied. “Did you need something?” His voice sounded slightly hoarse to his own ears as his blood rushed through his body.
“I need you.”
Her voice sounded stark and his heart pressed painfully tight against his chest. “You’ve got me, Georgina. Whenever you need me, you’ve always had me.”
She remained standing, as if weighing her options. “It’s just for tonight, Alex. I’m using you. I’m only inviting myself into your bed for tonight, not back into your life in any meaningful way.”
Although it wasn’t what he wanted to hear, he wanted her badly enough to agree to any terms she’d set into place. “So you just want to take advantage of me for a single night,” he said with a forced lightness.
“That’s about the size of it,” she replied.
“Then what are you waiting for?”
She flew across the room and landed on top of him like a long-legged nymph seeking home. Despite everything that had happened through the long day, he laughed with the sheer joy of holding her in his arms once again.
As she crawled beneath the sheets to join him, it was as if the past two years without her had only been a bad dream and now she was back where she belonged.
They lay side by side, facing each other and in the moonlight her eyes glowed with the fire of want, of need.
He reached for her and she filled his arms as their lips met in a fiery kiss. Alexander had two years of desire built up inside him and he gave her that emotion by delving his tongue to dance with hers.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself half on his chest as their mouths remained melded together. Someplace in the back of his mind he knew she was giving him no more than her body. She’d always been generous with that, but she’d never been able to achieve any real intimacy with him outside of the bedroom. He would never really have her heart. She kept that so closely guarded.
He shoved this thought away as he focused on the here and now. These moments of this night were all he had and he wanted to savor each and every one.
She slid her hands up and down his naked chest and pulled her mouth from his to nuzzle into the hollow of his throat. His hands glided down her back to the edge of her nightshirt. He was already
fully erect, ready to tear her nightshirt over her head, pull her panties off and take her as he’d never taken her before.
But he didn’t do any of those things. He knew it was important that he let her set the pace, nonverbally telling him what she needed and when. It was a lack of control that had driven her to his bed. He knew instinctively that he needed to allow her to be in total control now.
She sat up and pulled her nightshirt over her head and tossed it to the floor, then straddled him and leaned forward to kiss him again, her bare breasts against his bare chest.
The contact was immensely pleasurable as she plied his mouth with heat and hunger and her nipples pebbled hard against his skin.
The only thing keeping them from complete intimate contact was his boxers and her panties, but she seemed in no hurry to take them off as her lips once again trailed from his mouth, down his jawline and then over his chest.
He was in a dream that he hoped would never end, a dream he’d had a thousand times since the day she’d left him. She sat up and he reached to cup her breasts, paying special attention to her hard nipples, and was rewarded by a low, deep moan that escaped her lips.
He wanted her moaning. He wanted to make it impossible for her to ever want another man. She was all he’d ever wanted, all he’d ever needed and he loved her as he would never love another woman.
She rolled off him just long enough for her to remove her panties and at the same time he quickly shimmied down his boxers and kicked them off.
When she straddled him once again, all he could think about was burying himself in her, possessing her completely for the length of time he could control himself, for the length of time she’d allow him.
As if reading his thoughts, she grasped his hard length and then guided him into her. As she sank down, she once again moaned with pleasure.
He tensed, trying to maintain control as her tight moistness surrounded him. She looked beautiful in the moonlight and he had to close his eyes to focus on not letting go too soon.
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