by Mary Calmes
“Can I have one too?” Sam wanted to know.
Apparently frou-frou food was lost on my people.
Back at the loft, we found that Chilly had completely eviscerated a throw pillow. He was still pouncing on the poor thing, and did his frozen statue impression when Sam yelled.
“He can still see you.” Hannah wrinkled her little nose at her cat.
“Chilly and Pa are both naughty.”
“Why am I naughty?” I asked her.
“I don’t know, Daddy said.”
I looked over at Sam.
“You know what you did.”
I went to make sandwiches while Sam had a talk with the cat.
After everyone ate except me—I had actually enjoyed my meal— we all sat down to watch a Pixar movie. The bug one was Hannah’s favorite, and it was her turn to pick.
Sam suggested they go get the pillows off their beds and we could all lie on the floor. As they flew off, he stretched out and patted the space beside him.
“Oh hell no.”
“Why not?”
“My ass is still throbbing from the pounding you gave me earlier.
I’ll lie on the couch.”
“Like I’m gonna attack you in front of my kids.”
“Your kids?”
“Our kids, whatever. You knew what the fuck I meant.”
I lifted my eyebrow.
“Fuck.”
“Sam.”
“Sorry, sorry,” he mumbled. “Two days hanging out with other cops, it just comes right back.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Our kids.”
“Good,” I chuckled. “And no, I don’t think you will attack me in front of them.”
“Then c’mere.”
But I still didn’t trust him.
“And throbbing is good,” he informed me. “Throbbing isn’t pain, throbbing just reminds your ass who it belongs to.”
“Is that right?”
The grunt was a yes.
He looked good, all languid and sexy on the thick rug, his eyes heavy-lidded as he stared up at me.
“I want to talk about the gunman in our hotel room.”
“It’s a long story.”
“I took a nap; I can stay up late and hear it.”
He patted the rug again.
I stepped over him, standing, gazing down at the man who had been it for me from the moment he’d walked into my life.
His hands slid up the back of my calves. “Sit down.”
I sank over him, straddling his abdomen, and he immediately pushed me back so my ass settled over his groin.
The rumble of happiness coupled with his hands sliding under my thighs, first gently and then with more pressure, made me squirm.
“Don’t do that,” he said sharply.
“Don’t do what?” I asked, swiveling my hips, showing off how loose they were, how flexible my body was.
“Stop.”
I dragged my crease over his hardening length and squeaked when he grabbed me tight.
“All I can think about right now are those dimples in your ass,” he said, his voice a husky whisper. “So stop teasing me before I eat you.”
“Oh please eat me,” I begged.
His eyes were molten as the kids charged back into the room.
I bent over him, a hand flat on the floor on each side of his head, and kissed him. He opened beneath me, and I felt his erection straining against his zipper as my tongue checked his tonsils.
“Ewww.” Kola sounded grossed out.
The heat of the man was searing through my clothes, my skin, and I bucked against him involuntarily.
“Oh you’re gonna pay.” Sam’s breathless growl made me smile as I broke the kiss.
He caught my bottom lip in his teeth, the nibbling gentle but firm, and I sighed because the man’s dominance was something I never tired of.
“I want to talk to you,” I told him when I was allowed to sit up.
“I’ll make you a deal.” He smiled wickedly.
I was in so much trouble.
I COULDN’T sleep, and I had no idea how Sam could, so I kept poking him when he nodded off.
“I’m awake,” he said defensively, and I worked hard not to smile.
Whenever I caught the man doing something he considered weak—like falling asleep when he was tired because regular humans might need rest but never him—he got snarly. Like how dare I accuse him of needing to close his eyes when he so obviously didn’t?
“So the gunman, he works for this guy we now know kidnapped the witness.”
“No, basically the dead gunman, Tishman, he worked for Christian Salcedo, who is the one being blackmailed by our witness, Andrew Turner.”
“So you were right.”
He nodded. “I was right; Turner has something big on Salcedo, so Salcedo took him from WITSEC to keep him from testifying.”
“But don’t the bad guys usually just shoot the good guys to keep them from talking?”
“Normally yes, but in this case, as I told you last week, Turner’s not actually a good guy, and he has Salcedo running scared.”
“So then what?”
“Well, now we’re kind of at a standstill. We can’t reach out to Salcedo because what Turner knows about his operation will put him in jail, but whatever Turner has as his ace is keeping Salcedo on a tight leash.”
“So this Salcedo, he’s sort of screwed either way. He helps you, he goes to jail, he keeps hiding Turner, he goes to jail.”
“Yep.”
“But he’s running the risk of going to prison forever because he took Turner.”
Sam nodded.
“Do you think Turner is with Salcedo now, wherever that is?”
“Yeah, I think Salcedo moved Turner after we almost caught up with him in Phoenix.”
“But how did Salcedo know that you were going to Phoenix?”
He made a face but only for a second. Anyone but me would have missed it, but I knew every expression the man made.
“Sam?”
He looked at the ceiling.
“Ohmygod, what?”
His eyes were back on me. “My boss has a theory, and it’s a pretty good one actually.”
I waited.
“Just to catch you up, Salcedo was the guy who got away back when I was running down that drug cartel in Columbia.”
“You never said anyone got away.”
“Didn’t I?”
“Sam!”
“Fuck,” he growled, throwing off the sheet covering him and charging across the room to the window.
I gasped, and he spun around to face me. “Salcedo was a member of the cartel you busted?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“And because he was the last man standing and because we never caught him, he moved up in the organization.”
“And? C’mon, this is like pulling teeth. Is your informant in Phoenix the one who ID’d Turner?”
“Yeah, or was.”
“Was?”
“He’s dead.”
“Oh. So someone knew that he got the information to you that Turner was alive and well.”
“You’re very good at this,” he said irritably.
“I’ve had years of practice.” I was snide as I rolled off the bed.
“Jory—”
“And now, all of a sudden, out of the blue, Dr. Kevin Dwyer shows up.”
His shoulders slumped.
“Isn’t that strange.” I stared holes in him.
“Okay,” he began, moving toward me. “My boss thinks I—”
“You’re gonna use Kevin to catch Salcedo and Turner,” I said, putting up my hand.
He stopped. “Yeah.”
“So Kevin is connected to Salcedo.”
“We think so, yes. The connection is hidden. I don’t know how they know each other, but Kevin was the only one who knew when we were moving on the cartel… I drank a lot back then, and I thought I could trust the guy I was fucking.�
�
I was processing.
“So yeah, it follows that my informant made contact with me, they found out, and then suddenly Kevin’s back in town.”
“But these people must have followed you and seen me and the kids, and this guy Salcedo still thought that sending Kevin here was a good idea? He must have believed that he could tempt you away from your family.”
“Salcedo must have seen me with Kevin in Columbia all those years ago. That’s the last he’s probably seen of me.”
“What about his hit man in Phoenix?”
“That guy was sent to my room after me. I doubt Salcedo has checked up on me at all. He just heard that my guy reached out to me and he put Kevin into play. Kevin’s the only person Salcedo knows who knows me.”
“So you’re saying what?”
“That it’s doubtful that Salcedo has any idea about you or the kids.”
“But Kevin knows now.”
“Which is why you’re here and not at home.”
“So you weren’t worried about us because of Phoenix, you’re worried because of Kevin.”
“Yes.”
“How do you think Kevin got the job at County?”
“How did he just show up, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
“I think he’s probably working there for free. Sanchez and Ryan are checking on it now. Kowalski and Dorsey are tailing Kevin, and White and some guys from Chicago PD are sitting on all the bugs in his apartment.”
“Okay.” I took that all in.
“So what?”
I wasn’t sure what he meant.
“What are you thinking?”
“Just that this Salcedo guy must have really thought that Kevin Dwyer had you wrapped around his finger.”
“Please, please, do not get your brain running on this. Whatever anyone else thinks is crap. The important part is what I know and what I believe.”
“And so what? What precisely is the play here?”
“I’m not following.”
“Do you have to convince Kevin that you want him so he will lead you to Salcedo? Is that what you’re supposed to do? Are you supposed to romance him so you can get into his home and check around? How far do you have to take it?”
He was scowling.
“Just tell me.”
“You’re getting all this from watching TV, right?”
“Don’t patronize me!”
“I’m not, just tell me what you think I’ll be doing!” he said, his voice rising as he took a step forward.
I took one back. “You’ll start by showing up at his work and saying that you have to see him.”
He kept coming.
“Then you’ll tell him that you’ve been thinking about him and you can’t stop,” I said even as my eyes raked all over his body. I looked at him the way I knew Kevin Dwyer had and would. Beautiful man, beautiful body. Even the scars only added to his allure.
“Is that what I’ll say?”
I took a shaky breath, having walked myself back into the wall.
Sam stopped in front of me, not crowding me, just standing, staring down into my eyes.
“Sam? What will you have to do?”
“I dunno,” he said, but his eyes weren’t posing a question, they were deviant and hot. “What should I do to catch Salcedo? Turner?
How far could I take it?”
My mouth was dry, there was a lump in my throat, and I was having trouble breathing.
“Jory?”
“Kiss him?”
“I should kiss him?”
Oh God, what was I supposed to say? “What does your boss want you to do?”
“My boss?”
“Yeah.”
“Well,” he said, lifting his hand to take hold of my chin, his thumb sliding over my bottom lip, “my boss, because he’s kind of brilliant, doesn’t want to see my Valentino impression. Instead, he wants Kevin’s place bugged—which we did already—wants him followed everywhere he goes, and wants me and the rest of my guys to basically put the fear of God into him and see how long it takes before he fuckin’ cracks.”
It took me a second.
He rolled his eyes.
“Sam!”
“Really? You think US Marshals sex people up?”
It sounded really dumb when he put it like that.
“We shoot people! We put them in jail or we protect them. We do not run sophisticated con operations where we have sex to get state secrets. That’s the CIA!”
“Sam!”
The noise he made was pure unadulterated disgust.
“I thought that—”
“I only kiss you, idiot.”
I scowled at him.
He let out a breath and then I got the grin I loved, the evil one, the one that made his eyes glitter. “And besides, ya know, my seduction skills are kinda rusty, ’cause now I just hafta snap my fingers to get laid.”
He saw my eyes go murderous, and started laughing at the same time he grabbed me, wrapping me up in arms bulky with muscle.
“Sam!”
“I only hold you down, I only fuck you, and I only ever sleep with you in my arms. I’m not James Bond, ya know; I don’t go undercover and get laid to a Hans Zimmer soundtrack.” He was still smiling, but his eyes were locked on mine and pleading. “Baby, Salcedo made a mistake sending Kevin, and we’re gonna exploit that.”
I nodded because I couldn’t speak.
“And now I understand that Kevin Dwyer never had any feelings for me at all. Everything he ever said, everything he told me he felt, was a lie.”
“No,” I told him. “He might have been in a bad position, Sam, but I saw how he looked at you, and that was real.”
But Sam wasn’t buying it; I could see it on his face. He had made up his mind and that was it. No matter what Kevin Dwyer ever did, ever said, Sam had passed judgment on him, and it was done.
I needed to get my hands on him, to hug him, hold him, but he was so much stronger than me, so much bigger, and that fact, that he was all about power and control, was the biggest turn-on ever.
“I think you’re wrong about Kevin. I think he might be back here under Salcedo’s orders, but I have no doubt that his feelings were real all those years ago, and I’ll bet, if you’re up to it, that he would love to have you back.”
“As if I give a damn. That day I went out to talk to him in the hall, do you wanna know what I said?”
I was dying to know. “It’s none of my business.”
“I think it is.”
I nodded so he would go ahead.
“He told me he wanted to see me.”
Of course he had.
“And I told him I was married and I had a family and that he was not part of my life anymore. I wished him the best and I walked away.”
It was so cold, so final, and if I had been in Kevin’s place, it would have killed me. “I said the same thing to you when you charged back into my life after three years away.”
“No,” he assured me. “You told me you didn’t think it would work, but that was only because you were scared I would hurt you again. You didn’t have a life yet, you didn’t have a husband or kids.
There’s a big difference.”
Yes, there was.
“And I always knew I was the one for you, always. There was never a doubt in my mind.”
“No?”
“No.” He shook his head. “It was why I couldn’t be the guy anyone else needed, because I was already the one that you needed.”
My heart felt like it was going to swell out of my chest.
“Say something.”
I squinted so I wouldn’t cry. “So your guys are gonna bug Kevin’s house?”
“Like I said, it’s done already,” he said, his grip loosening so I could get my arms free and wrap them around his neck.
“Sam.”
“Yes?”
I swallowed hard. “You know how much you love me?”
“Yeah.”
“I l
ove you the same.”
He kissed me then, hand on the back of my head, holding me still as his mouth opened mine, wanting in.
I returned the passion, the yearning, the deep, throbbing want, pressing tight against him, moaning as my tongue stroked over his in our familiar dance. We parted at the same time, because there was heat building, but more than that, a sort of breathless anticipation of emotion.
“It’s always been… us,” he said quickly.
“Yes,” I agreed. I licked over his bottom lip, suckled it, bit it softly until he moaned deep. “It has.”
“So?
“So.”
“Kiss me some more.”
“I’m very possessive.”
“I know, it’s good.”
I kissed him so he’d know it wasn’t going to change.
Chapter Eleven
SAM got home on Friday night and was stunned when he heard all the noise.
“What?”
“Lemme get this straight,” he said, scowling at me. “I could be in mortal danger here, people could be trying to kill me, but Dane and Aja still let their kids visit?”
“For one,” I began, crossing my arms and mirroring him, “if your kids are safe—and they are—then so are theirs, and hello, Aja needs to get laid.”
“Oh for the love of God,” he groaned, “why the hell did I need to hear that?”
“Because it’s true! She needed a date night!”
He was still stunned as he was swarmed by children that came flying in from the other room: Kola and Hannah, followed quickly by Robert, who was the same age as Hannah, and Gentry, who had just turned two. He put up his hands for Sam, who whisked him up in his arms and hugged him.
Gen was adorable, with Dane’s eyes and Aja’s cheekbones; Robert had gotten his mother’s honey brown eyes and long lashes but had Dane’s features, his nose and his jaw. I told Aja often that the girls would be waiting in line for her boys.
“We’ll see who gets by Mama.”
I was betting not many. Just thinking about having Aja Harcourt as a mother-in-law would be terrifying. She was smart and gorgeous.
Good luck trying to live up to that!
My plan had been to make dinner, but Regina called and said that she had made lasagna and would we like to come over. I explained about Robert and Gentry, and since she had not seen them since right before school started, she was excited to have them.
