Happy New Year--Baby!

by Marie Ferrarella

  “Oh.” The word was surrounded with a moan. “Wait for that. I see. I see.”

  How could she feel both drugged and energized at the same time? Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound and yet lie there and absorb the luscious sensation of his mouth upon her? And yet, she did.

  Now, her body screamed. Now. And still he went on, making her mindless, making her eager.

  Making her his.

  She moved like accelerated poetry beneath him. His last shred of self-control was torn away. He had no choice left to him but to enter. To start the beginning of the end.

  Nicole felt his eyes on her. She opened hers, wanting to see what was within them before he took her. Was he making love to her or to just a body?

  Old fears died hard, she thought.

  Nicole could have cried when she saw herself mirrored in his eyes. At that moment, he belonged to her and she to him. Everything that had come before no longer mattered.

  Only this did.

  She arched, mutely accepting him. He sheathed himself in her.

  As one, they moved together to the summit. Two halves of a whole, searching for the same thing, eager to take one another there.

  They climbed higher, higher, the tempo increasing, until they reached the peak together.

  Nicole cried out his name, shuddering as the sensation echoed through her body. He gathered her closer to him, holding on to the moment.

  She sighed. She’d never known such peace, such exhilaration before. It was always going to be like this, she promised herself. Always.

  Chapter 13

  He watched Nicole as she stretched languidly on the bed, like a cat beneath a sun-drenched window waking from a restful sleep. Just looking made him ache for her all over again, even though they had made love only minutes ago.

  Dennis cupped her face in his hands, wishing he could somehow freeze-frame this moment forever. She looked up at him and made his heart twist within his chest.

  He brushed his lips over hers. “If you grin any harder, you’re going to split your face. Want to let me in on the joke?”

  She liked the way his eyes caressed her, liked absolutely everything about him. There wasn’t one thing she could point to as a fault. He was just too good to be true.

  As he had just demonstrated when he had made love with her.

  “No joke.” She settled against his chest. The warmth of his skin along her cheek soothed her. Nicole couldn’t remember when she had felt this safe, this protected. This wonderful. “It’s just that the night after you fixed my garbage disposal, I dreamed about you.”

  He struggled to hold on to the moment just a little longer. Reality and duty waited just beyond the fringe, but for this small island of time, she was his. “Oh? Good dream or bad dream?”

  She turned her head to look up into his eyes. Her own were dreamy, contented.

  “A sexy dream. A very sexy dream.” Barely touching his skin, Nicole began drawing tiny swirls along the light hairs on his chest, the path going lower and lower.

  She was unmanning him all over again. He couldn’t think when she was touching him like that. He caught her hand in his. “You didn’t answer my question.”

  The grin receded into a seductive smile. “Good dream,” she whispered.

  She stretched again, her body rubbing along his. She definitely did have feline tendencies, he thought.

  “It was the most erotic dream I’ve ever had.” Without warning, she flipped around so that she could rest her chin on his torso, her eyes teasing his. “And it doesn’t begin to compare to the real thing.” Very slowly, she drew herself up, her body sliding along his. Tempting him. Tempting her.

  Face-to-face, she feathered her fingers through his hair. “Tell me, do other women know what a great lover you are?”

  With the most serious expression he could manage, Dennis shook his head. “No, I was a monk until the day I met you.”

  It certainly felt that way. No other woman had made him feel things to this degree. It was like being cast from a three-dimensional world into one with four, full of colors and sounds he had never been aware of before.

  She took the information in stride. “Good, then I won’t have to kill anyone.” And then she became a temptress all over again. “I’d rather make love again anyway.”

  Her energy was incredible. And somehow, it managed to nudge his to the fore. He felt insatiable. “Not too tired?”

  “Not too tired,” Nicole echoed. She could be dead and not too tired for this. For him.

  Dennis pulled her into his arms, his mouth coming down quickly, as if he knew that the borrowed time he was on was almost up.

  Nicole had no idea what had brought about this change, from courtly, patient lover to rogue, but she liked it. She definitely liked it. She could feel her heart racing immediately as she greedily collected his kisses and reciprocated.

  A distant wail grew louder in strength and intensity, penetrating the burning haze around them.

  Dennis raised his head, listening. He looked down at the woman in his arms with heartfelt regret. “I think Erika or Ethan has other ideas for us.”

  Nicole sighed. Losing the shelter of his arms, she leaned back against the pillow to try to compose herself. Right now, the room was still spinning at a precarious speed.

  “Motherhood is wonderful.”

  He wondered if she was trying to convince herself or just be ironic.

  Nicole swung her legs over the side of the bed as she reached for her shorts. They had been discarded on the edge of the bed. But Dennis stopped her as he grabbed her wrist. Pulling her to him again, he kissed her with a level of passion that literally snatched her breath away. When he released her, she remained very still, searching his face for some explanation.

  It took a minute to find her tongue. And even then, she blew out a shaky breath first. “What brought that on?”

  “Nothing.” Rising on his side, he avoided her eyes. “I just wanted you to remember when you look back that you enjoyed it.”

  What a strange thing to say. She pushed her arms through her T-shirt, then pulled it over her head. Nicole drew her hair out, looking at him curiously.

  “Enjoyed it?” She laughed. Talk about understatements. “I don’t think Webster has come up with enough words in his dictionary to adequately describe what just happened here on that bed.”

  Dressed, she turned and fingered the rumpled comforter.

  He looked around for his shirt, then remembered that it was in the other room. Glancing at Nicole, he stopped. “What are you doing?”

  Her eyes were innocent when she looked up at him. “Checking for scorch marks. I would have bet anything that we came close to burning this up.”

  He laughed. “That wouldn’t be a bet that I would take.” The wail coming from the nursery had been increased by one. Both the twins were up, demanding attention. Dennis strode out of the room. “I’ll take Ethan, you take Erika.”

  Incredible. The man really was incredible. Nicole caught his hand, stopping him just short of the nursery. When he turned to look at her, she rose on her toes and lightly touched her lips to his. She was never going to get her fill of this man.

  “And all three of us take you.” If you’ll have us, she added silently.

  By now, it had settled into a familiar, comfortable routine. The twins were changed, fed and burped, then held and played with. Before long, their soft, long lashes were brushing against their cheeks as they drifted off to sleep again, also in unison.

  Nicole looked at Dennis. He was sitting in the rocking chair with Erika, looking exactly the way she had pictured the father of her children would look when she had fantasized about such things. Eons ago when she was still innocent.

  Did it get any better than this?

  Dennis saw her looking at him. There was love in her eyes. Another moment to hold on to when things were bleak, he thought. He got up and very carefully placed Erika in the crib.

  Crossing silently to Nicole, he looked
down at the sleeping infant in her arms. “I’ll put him to bed,” he offered. “Why don’t you go watch some television and relax?”

  “If I was any more relaxed,” she whispered, surrendering her son, “I would be pudding.” Rising, she tiptoed out of the room.

  Watching television had no appeal to her. She thought longingly of going back to bed with Dennis, but the next move was up to him. She had opened up the door to her heart and seduced him into entering. It was up to him to move in.

  Besides, she had work to do. The apartment was getting to look really cluttered. She hadn’t done any real cleaning since before she entered the hospital.

  And there was something she had been meaning to do for a long time now, she thought suddenly.

  When Dennis walked into the living room, he found it empty. Looking around, he saw Nicole out on the tiny patio. The storage closet door was open and she was taking boxes out of it, stacking them behind her.

  The storage closet, he thought suddenly like a man waking up from a prolonged coma. He’d never searched the storage closet.

  Dennis shoved his hands into his pockets and walked out onto the patio. Closing the screen door behind him, he peered into the top box. Inside were trophies rubbing against one another like passengers in an overcrowded subway car.

  “What are you doing?”

  She pulled out the last box. “Getting rid of a few things I should have tossed out before. Craig’s trophies.” They had no place in her life, especially now that Dennis was in it.

  Once she’d been so proud of Craig for winning. Now she looked at the collection as symbols of the beginning of the end. An end to an existence that had turned out to be a fantasy in her mind alone. She could look at the lot of them completely detached now, devoid of any feeling she had once had for the man.

  “They’re not worth anything, certainly not to me or my children. There’s no point in having them take up space.” Craig’s clothes had gone to charity, but these she was simply going to throw in the trash.

  Dennis picked up a trophy and examined it. It seemed a waste just to throw them away. “No other family members to send them to?”

  She shrugged. “None that I know of.”

  Alerted by a sudden buzzing noise next to her ear, Nicole ducked out of the way just in time as a bee circled her head.

  Attracted by Dennis’s blond hair, the bee moved on toward another target. “Watch out!” she cried, pulling on Dennis’s arm.

  He swung around, backing up against the stack of boxes. They went crashing down onto the patio. The trophies came spilling out, tumbling over one another, denting as they came in contact with the cement.

  “Hey, I’m sorry.”

  The bee had flown off to gather pollen from the honeysuckle vine that was climbing along the wall just beyond the patio. Nicole stooped down to gather up the trophies and throw them back into the boxes.

  “Nothing to be sorry about. They’re going into the trash anyway.”

  Dennis picked up the large trophy at his feet. The black felt on the bottom had come unglued and was partially hanging off the award. Curious, he examined it and found that the bottom was hollow. Slipping his finger inside, he felt around. The tip of his finger came in contact with something metallic that moved just out of his reach. He shook the trophy until the object fell out.

  It was a small, silver key. Dennis bent down and picked it up. “Nicole, what’s this?”

  She dumped the last of the trophies back into the boxes. Maybe she wouldn’t just put it in the Dumpster. Maybe they could be melted down for scrap metal. “What’s what?” she asked absently.

  “This.”

  Nicole turned around. Dennis was holding a key in the palm of his hand. She picked it up and inspected it. “Looks like a key to me. Where did you find it?”

  He nodded toward the trophy on the ground. “Inside that. The felt must have come off when it fell out of the box.” Obviously, Logan had hidden the key. Dennis could feel adrenaline revving up within his veins. “What do you think it’s the key to?”

  “I have no idea.” She turned it over in her hand. “Hey, wait, yes I do.” Maybe she was getting ahead of herself. “Or maybe I do,” she amended. “There was a bill in the mail the other day for a safety deposit box. Maybe this fits into it.”

  That had to be it. He’d been right all along. Logan had hidden the disk close to home.

  He filtered the excitement from his voice. “Safety deposit box?”

  She nodded. “I thought it was odd at the time. I didn’t even know Craig had one, and I can’t imagine what he would have kept in it. It’s not as if he had a will or an insurance policy to put away for safekeeping.” Her mouth hardened. “Craig Logan didn’t have anything to leave behind except grief.”

  She frowned, looking down at the key. “He must have hidden this the last time he was here. I remember he was out on the patio. He wouldn’t answer me when I asked what he was doing. Told me to go away. I thought he was just reliving past glory.” She was about to pocket it when Dennis took the key from her. Surprised, she looked at him quizzically. “What?”

  “Don’t you want to see if it fits the box?” When she looked at the key impassively, he added, “Aren’t you curious about it?”

  If it had to do with Craig, it meant one thing. “Anything connected to Craig could just mean trouble.”

  He played his cards very close to his chest. If he seemed unduly interested, it might arouse her suspicions. But he couldn’t just let the matter drop, either. “Maybe whatever is in the safety deposit box is what Standish was looking for.”

  Nicole caught her breath. It felt as if it had been jammed in her throat. She hadn’t thought about the break-in in days.

  “Do you think—?”

  “Worth a look.” He handed her back the key. “Where’s the bank?”

  She shook her head. “Not too far away. It’s a local bank.” She paused, closing her hand around the key. She could feel her heart accelerating. Nicole raised her eyes to his. “Dennis, I think I’m scared.”

  He placed his arm around her shoulders. “Don’t be. I’ll go with you.”

  That helped a great deal. Maybe it was foolish, given her track record, but she did feel safe when she was with him, as if nothing could ever hurt her again. “What if what we find does turn out to be what he was looking for when he tore up my apartment?”

  At least he didn’t have to lie about this. “We’ll take it to the proper authorities.”

  He followed her to the kitchen. Nicole went straight to the rack where she hung her keys. Just below it was the letter organizer. She took out all the envelopes stuffed into the slot marked Bills. Spreading them out on the kitchen table, she found the one from the bank.

  “Here, this is it.”

  Dennis noted the address. The bank was located on the outskirts of the outdoor shopping mall he’d passed Christmas morning when he had followed Nicole to Marlene’s house.

  “This is close to Marlene. Why don’t we take the twins to your sister and then go to the bank?” he suggested.

  She was going to ask why they didn’t just take the babies with them, but then realized that Dennis was right. She couldn’t very well go through whatever was inside the safety deposit box if her arms were full of babies.

  Nicole nodded. “All right.”

  “Go get them ready,” he instructed. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Where are you going?”

  He was already at the door. “There’s something I need to get.” He closed the door before she could ask him what it was.

  Once inside his apartment, he went straight to the bedroom and took his suitcase out of the closet. Turning the lock sideways, he lifted the false bottom. There was a small pistol and holster taped there. With practiced movements, he strapped the gun onto his calf, then carefully lowered his pant leg over it.

  He tapped out Winston’s telephone number on the keypad. Just as he figured, Winston’s answering machine picked up. />
  “Winston, it’s Lincoln. I think my hunch is paying off. I found a key to a safety deposit box inside one of Logan’s trophies. We’re going to the bank now. California Savings and Loan in Newport Beach on MacArthur. I’ll let you know if the disk is there. If it is, tell Sherwood a simple apology’ll do. Say, a full-page ad in the L.A. Times.”

  The smile on his face was grim. Hanging up, he returned to Nicole’s apartment. The holster’s strap was rubbing against his shin, chafing his conscience. He could almost hear the sands running out in the hourglass.

  Sally crossed her arms before her chest, a smug expression on her face. “I was wondering when you were going to get around to using me. Marlene’s not here and I’m taking care of Robby.”

  “Oh.” Nicole exchanged looks with Dennis. “Maybe we can—”

  There was no way he was going to allow her to take the twins with them. Something didn’t feel right, and he didn’t want to endanger the babies. If he could, he would have talked Nicole out of going with him as well, but that would really arouse her suspicions. He was stuck playing out the hand the way it was dealt.

  “Hey, did I say no?” Sally demanded. “Don’t put words in my mouth.” She took the baby carrier from Dennis. “Two more won’t make any difference to me.” She smiled at the infant in her arms. “Thinking of opening up my own day care center, I am.” She indicated the coffee table. “Just set her down there. I’ll take care of them.”

  Nicole set Erika’s carrier on the table, tucking the blanket around the infant carefully. She turned toward Sally.

  “Thanks. We’ll be back in half an hour or so.”

  “I’ll be here.” Accompanying them to the door, Sally looked Dennis up and down slowly. “Taking her out for a quick bite?”

  Amused despite the situation, Dennis grinned. “Running an errand,” he corrected.

  “I’m available nights, too.” Sally told him. “Why don’t you make an evening of it?”

  Nicole leaned over as she pretended to brush a kiss on the wrinkled cheek. “Don’t push it, Sally,” she hissed in her ear.