To Love, Honor and Defend

by Beth Cornelison

  As she reached the ninth floor, Libby heard a door a few floors above her open and close. She grinned wryly. Someone else had tired of waiting on the decrepit elevator.

  The heavy, low-pitched thud of a man’s footsteps joined the clack of her own shoes on the concrete steps. An uneasy jitter crawled up her spine. She was so isolated in the stairwell….

  She pushed the nagging sensation aside, blaming Stan for making her too jumpy. Pausing at the seventh floor, she shifted her briefcase from one hand to the other. When she stopped, the heavier footsteps fell silent, too.

  Libby furrowed her brow. Odd.

  She started down the next flight. The man’s footsteps resumed.

  A prick of alarm nudged her to a faster pace. The person behind her matched her speed.

  Don’t panic. Clamping down on the swirl of jitters that skittered through her, she leaned over the railing to look up. “Stan? Is that you?”

  No answer.

  “Hello? Who’s there?”

  Silence.

  She slowly took a few more steps. The thuds echoed her progress, but she saw no one.

  “You’re not funny, Stan!” She picked up her pace, wishing she’d accepted his offer of an escort.

  The rasp of labored breathing wheezed behind her, growing louder—the ominous hiss of a viper waiting to strike.

  Libby took the steps as quickly as she could without tripping. Her briefcase slapped her legs. Her heartbeat matched the frantic rhythm of her feet. Her pursuer kept time.

  “I’m gonna get you, bitch!” His hoarse voice scratched through her like shards of ice, chilling her to the marrow. She swallowed the whimper that swelled in her throat.

  Stay calm. Think.

  With a sweaty hand, she clutched her pepper spray, flicked off the safety catch. Racing to the fifth floor, she mentally prepared for an attack. No one would hear if she screamed.

  She was alone. On her own.

  She could head for the lobby instead of the garage, but the night watchman’s desk was down several long corridors.

  No. She’d parked right across from the stairs. Much closer.

  If she could just reach her car and get inside…

  His footsteps sounded closer. Oh God, no!

  Move faster! Panic hovered in her chest.

  She had to keep her head.

  Turning at the third floor, her heel snagged. She stumbled. Her hip smacked the steel bar. Pain snaked down her leg, and she yelped. The misstep cost her valuable seconds. Ignoring the throb in her hip, she plowed on.

  He was gaining on her.

  Breathing raggedly, Libby bolted down the next set of stairs. It was him—the crazy who’d sent threats on blue paper. Her gut told her so.

  Terror clambered up her throat, choking her. The heat of his breath scorched her neck, but when she turned, no one was there.

  Don’t look. Just run.

  Second floor. First. Faster!

  Libby slammed through the door at garage level. Steel bands of terror strangled her lungs. A white-hot sting speared her hip as she sprinted across the deserted parking area. Gasping in pain and panic, she frantically mashed the remote to unlock her Camry. The headlights flashed on, blinding her briefly as she neared the driver’s side.

  Her fingers fumbled with the ignition key. Cursing the shadows that cast the parking lot in darkness, she groped for the door. She jerked the handle of her Camry. The door didn’t budge. Her head swam dizzily, and her hands shook as she tried the remote again.

  Metal screeched, followed by an echoing boom. The stairwell door. He’d reached the garage. She sensed her stalker zeroing in on her, heard the shuffle of feet on concrete….

  Please, please! Finally her door lock clicked off with a snick. Her knees wobbled with relief. Snatching the door open, she threw her briefcase inside.

  She smelled him first.

  The unmistakable scents of male sweat, deodorant soap and pine. An instant later, a large hand closed around her arm.

  “Lib—”

  She gasped and jerked against the man’s grip. Spun. Raised the can of pepper spray.

  With lightning speed, he knocked the vial from her hand. She screamed. Fought. Flailed at him with her fists.

  He clamped a hand over her mouth. His long, hard body pinned her against the side of her car.

  Still, she struggled, but her captor was an immovable wall of muscle.

  The prosecutor in her cut through the haze of fear. Look at his face. Make a mental picture so you can give a description.

  Assuming she got away.

  Her stubborn will rejected the voice of doubt. She would get away. No way would she become a statistic.

  Fighting his hold on her mouth, she angled her head. The light from her Camry spilled through the open door and illuminated his chiseled jaw, raven hair and laser-blue eyes.

  A face she knew. Intimately.

  “Hello, Libby,” Cal drawled. “Long time no see.”

  Libby’s face, already pale with fright, blanched a shade whiter. Cal frowned and eased his grip on her arm. Something had her spooked. Badly. She’d bolted through the door from the stairs as if she had the hounds of hell on her heels.

  “Are you all right, Lib?”

  The bedroom-brown eyes he remembered were now bright with fear and glanced nervously around the empty parking garage. But was she looking for someone to help her or searching for whatever demon had had her racing for her car?

  The idea that she could be afraid of him gnawed his gut. No matter how much he hated what she’d done to his life, the years she’d stolen from him, the job he’d lost, he wasn’t the kind of man who’d harm a woman. In all the months they’d spent together, hadn’t she at least learned that about him?

  “Mmmr wwrm,” she mumbled from under his hand.

  His scowl deepened, and he nailed her with a no-nonsense glare. “I’ll let go of your mouth if you promise not to scream again. That last screech busted my ears.”

  Her dark eyes flashed indignantly.

  Oh, yes, he remembered her stubborn pride. A steel will ran through her, equal to her passion. And her compassion.

  He needed to reach her tender heart and her inordinate sense of responsibility today. She was his last hope, his only hope. Besides, she owed him.

  Slowly he pulled his hand away, keeping a wary eye on her.

  “How dare you scare me like that! What were you thinking? You deserve a face full of pepper spray for that stunt! Of all the—”

  She swung at him.

  But twenty-four months in prison had sharpened his reflexes, taught him to be quick on his feet and have eyes in the back of his head. He easily blocked her fist and pinned her wrist to the car. “Whoa! Settle down. What stunt are you talking about?”

  She rolled her eyes then turned an icy glare on him. “On the stairs? The ‘I’m gonna get you, bitch’ crack? Following me, hiding from me, purposely freaking me out?”

  The stairs? He thought about the terror that had filled her face when she’d burst through the garage door and run for her car. Unease jerked a knot in his gut. He cut a sharp glance to the stairs then back to Libby. “Someone followed you on the stairs? Did they hurt you?”

  What had she said about a comment using the term bitch? His disquiet ratcheted up a notch.

  She yanked her arm from his grip and righted her silk blouse. The soft fabric clung to her curves and made no secret of the feminine body beneath. “You’re not funny. What were you trying to prove?”

  “It wasn’t me.”

  “Yeah, right.” As she moved to climb into her Camry, he grabbed her arm and brought her dark eyes back to his. She pressed her lips in a thin line of irritation.

  “I’ve been over there in my truck waiting for you for over an hour.” With a hitch of his head, he directed her gaze to his dilapidated Chevy.

  Suspicion narrowed her eyes but soon gave way to the pale, shaken look she’d worn when he’d first approached her. “You weren’t just on the stair
s? You swear?”

  He snorted. “Not that my word has ever carried any weight with you, but…yeah, I swear.” He felt the shudder that raced through her, and his chest tightened. Releasing her arm, he cast another look toward the stairwell door. “Want me to go check it out? See if anybody’s in there?”

  Stiffly she shook her head and sank onto the front seat. “I’m sure whoever was there is long gone now.”

  Her cheeks had regained most of their color. She pulled her lips into a pinched frown and raised her chin. “If I find out you’re lying, I won’t hesitate to have you hauled in for harassing an officer of the court.”

  Clenching his teeth, he fought down the rise of bile that rose in his throat. The last thing he needed was to give his parole officer an excuse to send him back to prison. “I thought you’d already done that. Isn’t that what the last two years of my life have been about? Your revenge for my leaving you to marry Renee?”

  Her eyes flickered with shock, and her lips parted in protest. “I didn’t—”

  “Trust me, marriage to Renee was a punishment in itself. Ally’s the only good thing to come from that mistake.”

  Libby’s expression softened a degree at the mention of Ally. Maybe his mission wasn’t a lost cause.

  As quickly as the tenderness appeared, it dissipated, replaced with hard-edged anger. “Your prison time had nothing to do with us and everything to do with the fact that you attacked a man!”

  “My actions were justified! Was I supposed to stand back and let him beat the hell out of that woman?”

  Libby threw her hands up and shook her head.

  She jabbed a well-manicured finger in his chest and drilled him with a stony glare. He remembered that stare from the courtroom two years ago. Cold. Flat. Void of emotion. “Save it. It’s over, and I won’t debate this with you.”

  She tried to close her door, and he blocked it. “Hang on. There’s something else we need to discuss.”

  With a trace of suspicion still coloring her expression, she tipped her head. “What?”

  Cal straightened and met her eyes. This was it. Everything he cared about rode on convincing Libby to go along with his plan. Drawing a deep breath, he plunged in. “I need your help.”

  She scoffed. “My help? Why?”

  He crouched down to her eye level. When he braced a hand on the headrest by her cheek and leaned toward her, she stiffened. He moved close enough to smell the subtle musk scent of her perfume, close enough to feel her breath on his face, close enough to hear the sexy catch in her breath. His own pulse scrambled from the proximity.

  Damn! She still affected him. Mesmerized him. Tortured him.

  “Because the way I see it, you owe me.”

  She frowned and rolled her shoulders, clearly struggling to keep her cool. “I don’t owe you squat, Walters.”

  He tensed as if she’d kicked him in the teeth. He’d expected this reaction from her, but that didn’t make it easier to take. Curling his fingers into fists, he plowed on, struggling to rein in his temper. It wouldn’t serve his cause to blow up at her now, put her on the defensive.

  “Look me in the eye and tell me you didn’t have anything to do with your office’s hardball negotiation on my plea agreement. Tell me that during my sentencing you didn’t once think about how I hurt you when I married Renee.”

  Surprise flitted across her sculpted, heaven-sent face.

  “Yeah,” he whispered. “I know I hurt you. And I’m sorry.”

  She knitted her brow and turned away, but not before he glimpsed the pain in her eyes. Taking her chin in his hand, he angled her face toward him, felt her tremble.

  The wall of her defenses came up in her eyes. The cold, blank prosecutor look returned. “What do you want, Cal?”

  “I want my daughter. I want custody of Ally, but my prison record and my being a single father work against me.”

  “You want me to take your case? Is that it? Sorry, I don’t do custody cases, but I’ll be happy to recommend someone—”

  “I have a lawyer.”

  She huffed. “Then why do you need me?”

  “Respectability. Stability. Image.”

  Her face darkened. “I don’t follow.”

  But the wary glint in her gaze said she did understand. The fluttering pulse at her throat gave away her panic.

  “Hear me out, Libby.” He ran his thumb along the line of her jaw, and heat flared in her eyes.

  Good. He still affected her, too. He tugged his mouth sideways in a satisfied grin.

  “You see, Renee’s got a bum for a boyfriend and a new drug habit. She’s neglecting Ally. I want to make a home for my daughter, a better one than the hellhole she lives in now. You can help give me that edge.”

  She was already shaking her head. But he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Libby was his last chance.

  “I want you to marry me, Lib. I need a wife.”

  Chapter 2

  “This is insane! You can’t be serious.” Libby paced across the black-and-white-tile floor of her kitchen and sent Cal a dubious look.

  “I’m dead serious.” The penetrating blue of his returned gaze echoed his resolve. He’d sprawled casually in one of her antique ladder-back chairs, making himself at home. As if he thought he belonged in her kitchen. As if five years and so much painful history hadn’t come between them.

  While they waited for the pot of coffee she’d started, he propped a booted foot on another chair and watched her pace. Jewel, her gray cat, rubbed against Cal’s leg, and he reached down to scratch her head while clucking his tongue. His calm repose stood in sharp contrast to the jitters dancing along Libby’s nerves.

  If Cal’s crazy proposal weren’t enough, she still heard the hiss of her stalker’s voice echoing in her head. She shivered. Had Cal not been in the garage, would the creep have caught her? Killed her?

  The sooner she dealt with Cal, the sooner she could get rid of him and report her stalker’s latest stunt to the police.

  “I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t serious.”

  When Cal spoke, she snapped her gaze to his.

  Cal. In her kitchen again after all these years. And back in her life, if he had his way.

  Seeing his long, muscular legs stretched out comfortably at her table filled Libby with a déjà vu that swirled like warm honey in her blood. The sight was so familiar. So inviting.

  So…wrong.

  She shook her head briskly, clearing it of cozy memories and renewing her protest. “No. There are so many reasons why it’s a bad idea, that—”

  “Name one.” He dropped his boot to the floor and stood. Moving to the gurgling coffeemaker, Cal poured himself a cup then leveled a challenging gaze on her as he sipped.

  “It’s just…wrong. It’s—”

  “Why?” He stepped closer to her, and her pulse scrambled. “Why is it so wrong?”

  Angling her head to meet his gaze, she noticed the thin, pale scar on his square chin, nearly hidden in his bristly black stubble. She remembered that scar, remembered tracing it with her tongue in the heat of lovemaking. Catching her breath, she averted her eyes, struggled to calm her runaway heartbeat. “Because I…I—”

  She couldn’t think straight with all his raw male sensuality towering over her and the pine scent of his cologne teasing her senses. Rather than let him corner her, either with his body or his arguments, Libby ducked away, rubbing her arms.

  “Are you sure you’re all right? You were pretty shaken up earlier, and you still seem…edgy.”

  The concern in his tone unnerved her as much as the lingering thoughts of the man on the stairs. “I’m fine. Really.”

  She didn’t want to discuss her stalker with Cal. That was her problem. She’d deal with it in her own way.

  As she crossed the room, she turned the tables, wanting, needing to stay in control of this discussion. “Why marry me? Surely you have plenty of other women you could choose from.”

  “No one else has your power and prest
ige in court,” he said. “Which I’ll need to counter my prison record. And no one else owes me like you do.”

  Her spine stiffened. “I owe you nothing! Get that through your thick skull.”

  His smoldering stare closed the distance between them. Pitching his voice low, he said, “No one else got under my skin the way you did. We were good together, Lib. You know that. Not even prison could make me forget the way we burned up the sheets.”

  His husky tone slid over her like a lover’s callused hand, rough yet gentle. Her skin tingled in response. Grasping for control, she swallowed the hitch in her breath and crossed her arms over her sensitized breasts so he wouldn’t see how his words had affected her.

  Her traitorous body’s reaction to him was just one more reason why she couldn’t afford to let him back in her life. Sure the sex had been good. Mind-blowing even. But the last thing she needed was another broken heart thanks to Cal Walters.

  “You’re crazier than I thought if you believe for a second that I’d ever sleep with you again.”

  He arched a dark eyebrow. “You sure about that? Your eyes are telling me you remember just how good it was between us. I’ll bet that chemistry is still there.”

  He gave her an impudent grin, and she gritted her teeth.

  “That’s not lust, hotshot. It’s shock. I can’t believe you have the gall to ask anything of me considering our past.” Drawing on her practiced courtroom control, she marched across the kitchen to him, her shoulders back. “We had great chemistry in bed. I’ll give you that. But sex wasn’t enough to save our relationship when you found out Renee was pregnant. You stood right here in my kitchen and told me it was over without so much as blinking. ‘See ya later, Libby. It’s been real. Gotta go marry someone else now.’” She gave a jerky wave, her hurt and anger coiled inside her, ready to spring.

  A muscle in Cal’s jaw twitched. “It didn’t happen like that. You make it sound like I cheated on you. I never—”

  Libby lifted a palm to stop him. “I know you were faithful, that it was over with Renee long before you met me. I’ve never questioned that. But one day everything was great, and the next you came by for five minutes to pick up your things and break my heart. Just boom, you’re gone.”