by Livia Quinn
Luc shouted, “Where’s our goal line stand, people?”
Del laughed. She couldn’t remember when she’d had so much fun.
“Okay,” Luc was intense when he gathered his team in the huddle. “They’ll be watching for that trick play from last time so this time I’m going to fake it to Del and throw to Mitch. Mitch you go out in front of Mack and then back over to the other side. On Four.”
Luc called off names of states, meteorology terms and Navy commands before he finally hut-hutted, taking forever to actually snap the ball on “four”. He even had Bruce muttering, “Call the friggin’ play already.”
Del laughed. When Bruce finally did snap it, Luc held it close to his body. Turning to her he pretended to hand it off. She took off as if she was cradling the football but when she looked over at Mitch, his eyes were wide. Mack had read the play, had seen an opening in their line.
Time slowed. She reversed direction, watching Mack as he headed toward Luc. She was a hair ahead of him, but he was already running full speed. She heard Luc’s mother shouting, “No, Mack.”
He probably thought she was saying “Go, Mack,” and Del remembered with a brilliant shot of clarity that Mack didn’t know about Luc’s shoulder. It was as if she’d been injected with epinephrine. She came even with him just as he left the ground aiming at Luc’s upper body and she pushed off, throwing her shoulder toward his midsection. She made contact and felt the shock through her shoulder and ribs but heard a grunt from Mack as they flew another four feet and rolled to a stop.
They lay there looking at the sky. Her ears buzzed and she felt footfalls as everyone rushed toward them. She heard Mack panting as she tried to catch her own breath. Someone brushed her hair back from her eyes.
Luc called, “Del.”
Mack asked, “Are you okay?” He grunted as he rose and bent over offering her his hand. She let him help her up, brushing grass and specs of dirt off her shirt and jeans.
Bruce walked up and said, “Little lady if you’re tired of being a cop, I think I can get you a try-out with my old team.” His eyes twinkled.
Sam said, “I wouldn’t want to be a perp if she was after me.”
Mitch said, “That was jazzed, Ms. Burke. Do you have to chase bad guys down for real?”
“Occasionally,” Del said, shifting her eyes to Luc.
Mack still looked concerned, and impressed.
“Del. Are you all right?” Luc was beside her, running his hands over her shoulders, her arms. Then he put his fist on his hip and said, “What the h— devil do you think you were doing? You could have been hurt.”
She turned, fire spitting from her gut and shining from her eyes. “I? Could have been hurt? What about you Mr. Macho? He was aiming for you.” She poked a finger into his chest.
They looked over at Mack who had a puzzled expression on his face.
“Mack doesn’t know about your shoulder. I’m sure you could take a hit if your shoulder didn’t have a hairline fracture. What kind of an idiot plays football two days after being in the hospital anyway?”
She huffed and started toward the house.
“I’m sorry, Luc, ” Mack said. “I didn’t know.”
“No, Mack, it’s not your fault. I just didn’t think—Y’all go on and play or take a break or—whatever.” He ran off to find Del.
*
“Del.” He called her name but didn’t get a response. Alicia came from the kitchen wiping her hands and nodding her head toward the back of the house.
She mouthed silently, In the kitchen.
She was standing at the refrigerator gulping the last of a bottle of flavored water. Her eyes slanted over toward him and she slammed the empty container into the trash. He walked toward her but she dashed around the counter avoiding him. He made several starts around the other end trying to grab her then bent over grabbing his left shoulder, “Owww.” He groaned.
“Don’t believe it for a minute, Del,” Samantha said from the door. “It’s an old trick. He’s fine.”
Luc rose. “It was worth a try.” He sighed, “Come on, sweetheart. Let me show you how much I appreciate your protecting me from more visits with Dr. Spencer.” He could tell he’d gotten through to her.
“Okay, on one condition.”
“Anything.” He hesitated. “Wel—”
“No more sports until that shoulder is completely healed. I think that concussion messed with your head.”
“Okay, let’s go deliver the bad news. They won’t have a chance without me.”
Samantha snorted.
When they walked out onto the porch the game was already going. “I see they were really worried about me,” Luc said and Del laughed at his downcast expression. He grinned at her. At a shout from the field they looked over to see Mitch catching a long bullet pass from his Aunt Chaz who’d swapped sides.
“Looks like they’re limpin’ along without ‘cha.” Del pinched his cheek.
*
By 3:00 some of the players had gone to the sidelines to help the referees, and the kids had lost interest. Sam called the game an official tie and ordered everyone to the kitchen to get dessert and cold drinks.
Del noticed Samantha was practically pacing the porch, wringing her hands. She’d sit for a while then when Victoria and Sam walked to the table near her, she approached them but seemed to change her mind. Mack and his brother sat across from Victoria and Sam as they caught him up on what he’d missed the last few months.
Del tried to get Samantha to sit down with her and Luc. Luc held his plate up in her direction. “Would you like some sweet potato pie, Samantha? I’ll be glad to split this with you. It’s grre—”
She stopped him with a violent shake of her head. Sucking in several uneven breaths, she let it out with a whoosh, announcing, “I’m pregnant.”
Our conversation on the porch halted.
Samantha looked like she was about to faint. Del rose and walked toward her. Her eyes looked big and uncertain as she looked at her parents and Mack and said again louder, “There, I said it. I’m pregnant.”
Then she burst into tears and threw herself on, well, more like over Del’s shoulder as her parents and others surrounded them. Luc patted his sister’s back and looked at Del. “I’ll have to rethink my judgment of which sister can create the most impactful drama.”
“Shut up, Luc,” said Samantha over Del’s shoulder as her mother put both hands on her shoulders and turned her into her arms.
“My baby girl,” Victoria said and smiled at Samantha. “This is one happy day.”
Mack stood, obviously sensing his reunion with the family might have diluted some of Samantha’s joy, or made her rethink her announcement because of his unexpected homecoming. He said, “Let’s toast the newest Larue.” Dozens of hands big and small raised Styrofoam cups of whatever they were drinking to toast the next addition to their family.
“The Civies welcome the next team member.”
“Hey, she’ll get to pick her own side.”
“Who says it will be a girl?”
“Really? I mean, really?”
CHAPTER 26
“What a day!” Luc said leaning his head back on the headrest as Delilah’s car rode smoothly through the darkness. He pointed suddenly, “See the deer?”
Breaking for a doe and her fawn she asked, “Was that a typical family reunion?”
“For us, yeah.” He laughed. “Strong personalities equal drama.”
“True, but it’s the good kind. Never boring, and full of love.”
“What about your family?”
Del hoped the darkness hid her tension but Luc said, “I’m sorry. If you don’t want to talk about it—”
“No. It’s okay. Today was great, Luc. Your family, the ‘drama’, it was…” she searched for the right word… “rich, and…satisfying. Honestly, if I could have designed a perfect day, I couldn’t have come anywhere close to this one.”
“So why do I feel your unhappiness, sweeth
eart?”
Her brief talk with Victoria had cracked the wall of the dam holding her emotions back. “It’s hard to put into words. Maybe because I haven’t figured it all out.” She glanced over at him, his expression open as he allowed her time to get her thoughts together. “It’s ironic really. It hit me while I was talking with your mother—she’s so easy to talk to—I haven’t been to a family event or a holiday dinner with my family in over four years.”
“Because of what happened to Thomas?”
Her breath came out in a burst. “It’s strange to hear people call my brother ‘Thomas’. Each time my respect for him grows when I see how much he means to others. But to me he’s just Tommy, my big brother.”
“And I haven’t even been to his church since he became a priest.” She met Luc’s eyes expecting to see… condemnation? “He’s been unhappy with me since Mother’s Day. No, that’s not true. Ever since he got out of rehab and started living his new life, I’ve avoided conversations that would end up in an argument.”
“Mother and I…well, I worked on Mother’s Day and then ‘made it up’ to her by taking her to dinner at a very noisy restaurant.”
Luc pointed to the parking lot of the welcome center. “Pull over there behind the building, Del.”
She guided the car into the vacant travel center parking lot and Luc walked around to open her door. He wiped the tears from her cheeks gently with his fingers and brought her into his chest. She hadn’t even known she’d been crying. With one arm around his neck and the other around his waist, she buried her face in the comforting strength of his body as the damn broke and her emotions stormed through. He tightened his hold and whispered, “It’s okay, baby, I’ve got you. Let it come.”
An embarrassing span of time went by, but when Delilah lifted her head from his chest to look up into the face that was beginning to mean so much to her, she felt an easing of the uncertainty and pain that had gripped her heart for so long. Luc had lifted part of that burden without even knowing any of the details; just by accepting and trusting her.
Luc took Del’s keys locking the door and smiled. Taking her hand he led her down a moonlit path toward a small pond at the edge of the rest area. Near a concrete bench in the shadows, he spread his jacket on the ground, “Let’s sit a minute.”
The sound of trickling water splashing over rocks and down to the pond, brought a sense of peace, the quiet darkness enveloping them. She settled next to him, her head resting against his chest. He gathered her hair and laid it over one shoulder so he could look down at her. “Your hair looks like light from the moon spun into pure silk. Now, why don’t you tell me what’s got you so distressed, honey?”
Del looked into his beautiful face, illuminated by the full moon, his generous nature making it easy for her to share her worries. She was falling for him, may have already fallen, she considered.
“I don’t want to push—”
“I do—what I can figure out at least.”
“Well, maybe together…” he whispered. He just held her for another long minute as if to give her courage, squeezing her tightly. “Luc, your shoulder.”
“It’s okay. This feels right.”
It did. Compassionate and kind; who knew those were two of his sexiest qualities? She sighed, “I loved everything about your family reunion, but I found myself feeling guilty giving them what I haven’t been able to give my own family. And I don’t know how to fix it.”
“Is it just the situation with Thomas? You mentioned Mother’s Day…”
“It all goes back to when Tommy was shot. My mom tried to keep me from going to the academy. She very nearly screwed it up for me; I think because she suspected my motive at the time.”
“Del—”
“I know you don’t think I’m capable of revenge, Luc. But I am! If that bastard wasn’t dead…” she blew out a breath.
“Maybe you were once, but you’re not that person anymore, Del. You’re a good cop, anyone can see that. My kids see it. You haven’t talked to your mother about all of this since then?”
“No, and it just gets bigger and bigger, in my mind at least. My dad keeps trying to smooth things over between us, get us to ‘go shopping’. That would just be too…awkward.”
She turned to Luc. His big hand smoothed the hair she’d tumbled into disarray in her agitation. “I’ve hurt my parents, my brother, and for what? Because I can’t picture a different family dinner, one where my brother isn’t whole? No, I didn’t mean that. I—ahh, I’m screwed up.”
He stroked her hair.
“I hesitate to tell you this story because you may stop thinking of me as a manly man…” he chuckled. “Like you, I had worried on a problem until I couldn’t see anything but a bad outcome. Even before my last chance to re-up, I was thinking of getting out of the service. It wasn’t that I wasn’t good at command, but I didn’t love it, like the Commander.
“One of my buddies told me about a thriving teen center in his hometown up north, and I thought why couldn’t that work here? I saw the old gym downtown and couldn’t shake the feeling that the place had potential, and we could make a difference in kids’ lives. I even talked to Buffy to make sure I’d have a job, but I still kept putting it off, re-upped one more time because I couldn’t bear to disappoint Mom.”
Del knew how much Victoria’s opinion meant to him. He was the closest of the six to her. “What happened?”
“Well, like I said, I’d about decided she might disown me, or at the very least not speak to me unless I went through to retirement.”
Apparently the memory was a good one. He smiled. Del punched him on the leg. “Don’t keep me in suspense.”
He looked down at her, “Well, you’ve met my mother. How would think she reacted?”
Del had the advantage of the conversation with Victoria, hearing the fear and worry in her voice when she remembered living through Luc and Sam’s deployments. “I think I know. She told me today about wanting you both home and safe.”
He breathed out a sigh. “I was expecting recriminations, orders…instead, I got tears and ‘Oh, my God, Luc, I thought you’d never come to your senses.’” He huffed and shook his head, looking at Del with a women! who-can-figure-them look.
“Then she yelled, ‘Sam! Where are you?’ Dad came running in from his office and suddenly, I was forgotten, invisible. Old news, just that quick. She put her hands on my father’s cheeks and said, ‘One down, one to go’ just before she burst into tears. They both made me promise not to tell Samantha.”
His gaze drifted away and his teeth clenched. “Now, I can’t help but think I should have given her that choice.”
Del frowned, her cop instincts pinging, but Luc said, “So take it from me, the projections, false expectations, the positive energy lost in worrying are much worse than the any possible outcome. Remember, Del, they are family. They’ve always got your back.”
*
Sitting on the ground so close to him, his solid strength and kindness bolstering her, she was suddenly conscious of his heat, the muscles in his legs bunching against her own. In the half-light of the moon, his glossy hair held glints of the moon but his eyes were hidden in shadow. Had she turned him off with her selfish tale? Did he no longer desire her?
“Feel better?” he asked as if he could hear her thoughts.
“I do, thanks for…”
His face materialized in front of her own while his hand went to the button on her blouse. “I’m thinking I should do more to take your mind off these heavy issues. You’re much too preoccupied with things that are going to work themselves out.” He slipped the first button through the hole, then the second, leaning in to kiss the exposed expanse of skin, making his way down her torso with each button. She felt the humid air cool the moist places left behind by his lips and tongue. Then his tongue dipped into her bra cup and flicked a nipple, making it peak. She moaned.
“If that’s good then this will be better,” he said as he nudged the cup below h
er breast and took it into his warm mouth, paying it the utmost attention. She moaned again.
“Sshh,” he said, “someone might hear you.”
Of course his intention with that had been to get her to fantasize about their being caught. She pictured the sight as he pushed the hem of her skirt up high on her thighs, exposing her damp center to the breeze. She crooked an eyebrow at him glancing pointedly at the empty parking lot.
“You’re just making my point, that you need to chill. Now lay back and let me love you…”
Lay back and let me love you. His words made her feel protected and precious. An alien feeling since she was usually the one doing the protecting. She relaxed and let him explore, his fingers trailing down her body, easing her shirt aside so he could play between her thighs where the dampness had gathered. Her hips flexed when his hand covered her core, rubbing the sensitive flesh and while he was doing that, he covered her mouth with his, his tongue sliding across hers.
He drew back briefly, collecting the wet dewy moisture on his fingers, his eyes alight with passion. “Open for me, baby,” he said and waited until his words made it through the sensual haze he was creating with his hand and his lips. He put one muscular thigh across her body and pressed her legs further apart, baring her to the night air and giving him full access to her.
It was erotic, and exciting, and a little naughty, this making love in a public place, where they might be seen. A smile curved her lips when she thought about a law officer’s response to such a scene. Her smile widened then turned to a sigh as two fingers entered her. She arched up crying out, the sound cut off by his mouth coming down on hers. Her hand went to his chest; she ripped at the buttons of his shirt, “Luc, your shirt. I want—” he stroked her steady and deep, helping her divest him of his shirt except on the one arm.
His broad muscular chest was magnificent in the light of the moon, like a charcoal image done by a master. “Stop,” she said. His breaths were audible as he paused. She rose to her knees facing him. “I want to feel your skin under my hands.” He knelt there and allowed her hands to drink him in, as a blind person would, reading the shape and texture, the silent surface to the steely muscles underneath. She placed a kiss on one oh-so-marvelous pec then the tip of her tongue trailed across his nipple. Hearing the hiss of his breath, her lips curved against the nub and tugged it gently.
