She laughed softly. “I really am a mess.”
“Ah-ah. A beautiful mess.”
Dropping her head back, Kate closed her eyes and let the streaming water wash away the suds. As they ran in rivulets down her body, Derek caught them and rubbed them into her skin, adding body wash as he began to clean every inch of her.
Every single inch.
She had to put her hands behind her and brace herself against the tiled wall when he washed her breasts, followed by her midriff and waist. It was a good thing she had; her knees almost buckled when one big, strong hand moved between her thighs.
“Oh, God,” she groaned, seduced by the warmth of his touch, the pounding of the water, the steam all around them, and the scent of soap and man filling every breath. She was completely lost to sensation, and the best one was moving higher up her legs.
He reached her hot core and slid his fingers inside. Kate let out a tiny scream. She arched toward his touch, and he responded by circling his thumb over her clit in slow, steady strokes. She shook. Quivered. Quaked. Could barely breathe. When he moved down and replaced his thumb with his mouth, licking at her delicately, she exploded. Wave after wave of release flowed through her to wash away every ache and replace it with pure satisfaction.
Derek immediately slid up her wet body, putting his hands on either side of hers against the wall. “I need you now, Kate. Are you protected?”
She managed to nod, still not down from the heights. But her focus returned when he lifted one of her thighs and nudged close, making a place for himself…the very place she’d wanted him to be since the day they met.
He didn’t claim her gently. Derek had prepared her well, and with a hungry, guttural groan, he drove into her in one smooth thrust that touched her very core.
“Oh, Derek, yes!” she cried.
“I’ve wanted you…needed you…”
“I know. Me too.”
Then words faded, and their innate desire took over. Drawing out slowly, he came back into her, again, and again. She held onto him, digging her nails in his shoulders. He had her by the hips, pressing her against the wall as took her, imprinted himself on her, claimed her body and soul.
She heard his groans as he neared the end of his control. “Yes,” she whispered, her hips arching toward him, wanting him…needing him…craving him.
“Oh, God,” he groaned, his whole body going stiff.
She felt him pulsing deep inside her, and just that deep, powerful sensation was enough to send her over the top again too.
Derek didn’t pull away immediately. He simply continued to hold her, still inside her as they both panted and tried to regain their equilibrium.
“Kate?” he finally said when they could both breathe again.
“Yes?”
“I told you I’d come after you.”
Yes, he had. She smiled up at him, twining her arms around his neck.
“And you even did it up against a wall.
Waking in an unfamiliar bed, it took a second for Derek to get his bearings. Bright morning light was shining in his eyes, which was unusual since he rarely rose much later than dawn. He blinked, and then felt a warm body shifting under the covers beside him.
Oh. Kate. Beautiful, sensual, perfect Kate.
He rolled onto his side, looking at her sleeping face. Her red hair was strewn all over the pillow in tangled waves; she hadn’t even brushed it last night and it had dried during her sleep. Her soft lips were slightly parted; she breathed easily. Her face was flushed with color, and she looked more relaxed than he’d ever seen her. He hoped he’d had something to do with that.
Although he would have liked to spend the whole day in this bed, exploring every inch of that soft, silky body, he knew the real world would crash in soon. Reaching for his phone to check the time, he realized it was completely dead. After last night, that wasn’t a surprise.
“Can’t borrow yours, either, can I?” he whispered with a soft laugh. Kate’s phone, of course, was somewhere in the swamp, maybe being used as a life raft for a weary frog.
Trying not to wake her, he slid out from under the covers and headed for the bathroom. It was a mess. Their clothes remained where they’d fallen, along with damp towels. They hadn’t picked up a thing after their hot—oh, so damn hot—shower. After they’d dried off, he’d carried her to bed, and they’d gone to sleep. Waking up once, they’d had slow, lazy, sleepy sex, the kind that seemed like an erotic dream, and then slept like the dead again.
He wished he could lather, rinse, and repeat every moment since they’d gotten back here. But that wasn’t an option. Not today. Not when everything had to be hitting the news, and the school was now a major crime scene. They might even have already started finding and hauling up victims.
There would be no bodies, other than poor Anderson’s, as mangled as it was. But perhaps divers would find skeletal remains. That would lead to DNA testing, weeks of waiting, frightened families, and lots of blame-sharing, name-calling, and lawsuits.
God, he dreaded it.
Having no other clothes, he pulled on his mud-covered pants, trying to brush off what had dried into a powdery crust. Not bothering with his shirt, he went hunting for both a clock and a landline. Had his phone been working, he suspected it would be blowing up with messages this morning.
He found the kitchen and saw the time on the microwave, showing it was after ten. Derek frowned. He hadn’t slept this late in years. His phone wouldn’t just be blowing up if it were on, it would probably have been incinerated.
Spying a coffeemaker, and needing caffeine badly, he made himself a cup. He was about to grab a sugar bowl from a pantry shelf when he saw a new, unopened box of raw sugar. He’d had coffee with Kate before and knew she didn’t use it.
“Expected a frequent visitor, huh?” he said with a low chuckle.
Liking that she’d bought the sugar for him, and what that implied, Derek went looking for a working phone. Finding none in the kitchen, he wandered into her living room. It was neat, but pretty impersonal. That wasn’t surprising; she’d told him it was a furnished rental.
The only thing she’d done to make it her own was to place several framed pictures on a coffee table. Every one of them showed the smiling face of a teenage boy. Kate was in a few.
The siblings looked alike. They looked happy.
The pictures made him ache for her all over again.
“Keep sleeping, honey,” he mumbled, knowing the nightmare would really begin again once she opened her eyes. Not just the memory of what had happened last night, but, with the latest developments, she would almost certainly have to deal with her parents again. Considering they sounded like fucking assholes, he knew she wouldn’t look forward to it.
Having no luck with the phone, he thought of one more possible location. Kate had mentioned using the spare bedroom as a home office. Although he doubted she had a line in there but not the kitchen, he ducked into it anyway.
If there had been a bed in here, she’d had it removed. The small room was now filled with a put-together boxed desk like you’d get at an office supply store. A filing cabinet stood beside it. Computer and printer. No phone.
What really caught his eye were the things she’d hung up in here. There were no pictures of her brother. This room was all about Kate’s professional life.
“Holy shit,” he muttered when he saw the framed diplomas on the walls. NYU—a double major. Harvard Medical—Summa cum Laude. At least five awards of distinction. Framed photo of Kate giving a commencement speech. A plaque of appreciation from the U.S. Army. There was even a letter of commendation from the damned Surgeon General.
His mood, pretty good considering how they’d spent the previous evening, immediately darkened. Everything he’d known about Kate, but hadn’t really considered much, crashed in.
“What the hell am I doing here?”
For the past couple of weeks, he and Kate Lincoln had been on the same page. They’d had the same goal, shar
ed the same strategies, and had worked in unison. Their focus on the investigation had made them complete equals.
Now the case was over. Real life was about to reclaim them. Reclaim her.
Jesus Christ, she was so out of his league.
“Hey,” a soft, sleepy voice murmured behind him.
He turned slowly, still rocked by the realization that they were as mismatched as a candle and a Cadillac.
“Good morning,” he said, hearing the stiffness in his tone but unable to help it.
Apparently not noticing, she smiled and stepped close, wrapping her arms around his waist. After a tiny hesitation, Derek relaxed, inhaled to catch her warm, sultry, morning-after-sex scent. He ran his fingers through her tangled hair, wanting to kiss her, wanting to carry her back to bed, but unable to think of anything except those degrees that filled a wall, while he hadn’t managed to bring home even one in his entire life.
She was a brilliant, educated, connected, wealthy doctor.
He was a dark, haunted, rough, often-angry high-school dropout.
This was going nowhere. No. Where. He might have fallen in love with her, but there was no way she would ever feel the same. How could she?
“How long have you been up?”
“Not long. I hope you don’t mind that I helped myself to coffee. I was hunting for a landline—my phone’s dead.”
Nodding, she stepped away. “And mine’s buried in mud.” Walking over to her desk, she opened a drawer and pulled out another cell phone. “It’s a business one. I rarely use it, but you’re welcome to.”
“Believe me, I’d rather not. I don’t want to find out what’s going on out there this morning, but I know I have to.”
“Of course you do. While you do that, I’m going to take another shower.” She lifted a long strand of twisting, twirling, kinky hair. “There’s no way I’ll get a brush through this.”
Watching her go, Derek turned on the phone, glad it didn’t need to be charged. His first call was to the office. Julia picked up her private line immediately.
“It’s me,” he said.
“It’s about time! Where are you?”
Her voice was almost a screech. It woke up whatever few brain cells were still asleep in his head.
“I’ve been trying to reach you all morning!”
“Phone was dead.”
“Why the hell didn’t you charge it?”
His tone even, he said, “Because I didn’t have the charger.”
“Well why not?”
He blew out a hard breath. “Because I spent the night at Kate’s.”
Silence. Then, “Ahhh. Of course you did.”
Hearing the humor in her voice, and knowing she would eventually say, I told you so, he cut her off. “What’s going on?”
“Oh, just the usual. Calls from Gabe every twenty minutes asking where you are. Updates on how many state divers are out looking for bodies. National news descending.”
“Sounds about right.”
“Oh, and a half-dozen calls from Taylor Kirby, who has been trying to reach Kate. I guess she heard the news.”
“Kate lost her phone last night.”
“You sure you didn’t coordinate that no-phone plan?”
He wished. He also wished the plan had continued all day.
Talking fast, as always, Julie brought him up to speed on what else she knew. She concluded by saying, “Oh, Gabe asked me to tell you a boy named Eli has been looking for you.”
Eli. His young helper. Derek hadn’t thought much last night about how this was going to affect the students. Suspecting the term would end early, and the boys would be sent home, he hoped he got a chance to speak to Eli again. He owed the boy thanks. He also wanted to be sure Eli didn’t blame himself for what had happened to his teacher.
“The police also want to talk to you and Kate again.”
“I figured. We’ll head up there shortly.”
Finishing the call, Derek went looking for Kate, finding her drying her hair. The tangles were gone, the strands silky. His skin tingled as he thought about how it had felt spread all over his naked body last night.
He wondered if it ever would be again.
Probably not. Now that he’d been slapped in the face with how different they were, how impossible it would be for them to have any kind of future, he knew this would end soon.
Honestly, he’d like to stretch their time together out as long as he could. He hadn’t felt this way about a woman before in his life, and Derek liked the feeling. But, for that very same reason, he knew he couldn’t hold on too long, or too tightly.
He didn’t like losing. He didn’t always react well to it. So it was probably better to cut his losses and let her go now, rather than falling even harder as he waited for the inevitable.
She must have seen his expression in the mirror, because her voice was quietly concerned as she asked, “What’s wrong, Derek?”
He shrugged. Walking behind her, he grabbed the rest of his clothes.
“Talk to me.”
“Nothing. We need to get up to Fenton.”
She lowered her hair dryer, and her brush. Facing him, hugging a silky bathrobe around her body, she pierced him with a stare. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what changed between last night and this morning. Did you really think I didn’t notice your mood?”
He pulled his shirt on and tucked it in, then re-looped his belt.
Kate kicked his boots out of the way before he could bend down to get them. “Say it. Just say it. It’s not like I haven’t figured it out already.”
“You have, huh?”
Her chin went up. “You regret what happened between us.”
He shook his head. He wasn’t a good enough liar to convince her of that. “No, I don’t. It was great, and I’ll never forget it.”
Struggling to keep his expression impassive, he made himself shut up, watching as his words sunk in. The tiniest twitch of her mouth was the only indication that she’d gotten the message he had intentionally sent.
It was great. It was once. Now it’s over.
She blinked twice, stared hard, stood straight. But Kate said nothing. She didn’t get angry, didn’t shed a tear. Instead, with that calm, cool, Kate reserve, she nodded and walked into the bedroom.
Message received. Interlude over.
He wanted to punch a wall. Or himself.
They finished dressing in silence. That silence lasted throughout the ride to Fenton, right up until they pulled into the parking lot and saw the dozens of police, forensics, and medical examiner vehicles. Not unexpectedly, the first few news vans had arrived. As word spread, they’d almost certainly be joined by teams from national networks.
“Oh, God,” she whispered.
“I’ll ask Gabe to keep your name out of it as much as possible,” he said, knowing what worried her. The last thing a grieving family member needed was to deal with the press before they’d even buried a body. Not that it was likely Kate would have one to bury.
“Thank you.”
“Wait, let me come around and try to shield you from the cameras.”
Going to the passenger door, he saw she had twisted to grab an envelope off the back seat. “I meant to give you this last night, before things got so…strange.”
That was one word for it. “What is it?”
“It’s all the information Julia gathered for you, plus everything I was able to find out.” She shrugged. “I don’t suppose it matters much now, or that it will even be relevant to Slate. But maybe the police will find it useful.”
“Why don’t you hold on to it, then?” he suggested.
Though still aloof, Kate did allow him to take her hand and help her out of the car. She also let him shield her from view as they entered the school. But once they were inside, there wasn’t much he could do to serve as a barrier between her and the cops waiting to hear about every minute of last night.
A detective he didn’t know led Kate to one room. D
erek was shown to another. They exchanged one long look during which they both asked questions and answered them, and then went to their separate interviews.
Fortunately, Gabe was the one who came in to talk to him. “About time.”
“Phone trouble.”
“Uh-huh.”
The questions were a repeat of last night’s, but, after some sleep and some thought, Derek was able to provide more detail. He explained why he’d been undercover at Fenton, and everything he’d found out. It didn’t take long.
“Okay, I guess that’s it for now,” Gabe said as he closed his folder and stood. “You know the drill. Don’t leave town and all that.”
“Sure.”
Before leaving the room, Gabe said, “Did Julia tell you about the kid askin’ for you?”
“Yes. I’m going to look for him as soon as we’re done here.”
“Be my guest. I think you’ll have some time—Kate’s not going to get through her chat quite as fast. She’s gonna have to go back six months and explain every step she’s taken since.”
Funny that Gabe assumed he would be waiting for Kate. Derek’s bike wasn’t too far away, he could hoof it over there and leave. Just go, with a clean, hard break.
There was no way he would actually do it.
As he’d sat here shifting with impatience, wondering how she was doing, he’d replayed their conversation from this morning. Damn, he’d really screwed the pooch. He’d let his anger and his disappointment get the better of him and had reacted without giving it enough thought.
His opinion hadn’t changed. She was way out of his league. But he definitely could have handled the situation better. Despite the fact that he’d done the right thing, he owed her a real explanation. Knowing how smart and level-headed she was, she’d see his point and come to the same realization.
It would still be clean, but it would be mutual. And she wouldn’t be left wondering.
Leaving the small guidance office the police had been using for some of their interviews, he wandered down the hall toward the administrative lounge. Last night, he’d held Kate in there while she slept. Today, she was having to reveal everything she’d gone through to strangers.
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