Her mother inhaled sharply. “Your professor assaulted you?”
Leah nodded because her throat had gone dry. She dropped into her office chair and took a sip of cold coffee left over from the afternoon to dislodge the lump that had formed. Why had Professor Deering come forward now? And why would he destroy his reputation and career by turning himself in with such an incriminating confession?
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this? You let me believe you dropped out because it was too hard.”
“I didn’t want you to worry about me. You were already upset because Kenna had moved to L.A. and bought her burlesque troupe, and I thought something like this might send you off the deep end.” She was suddenly glad she was having this conversation with her mother over the phone instead of face-to-face. She didn’t think she’d have the guts to be so candid in person.
“Leah Hannah Parker, how dare you keep this information from me? I’m your mother! It’s not your job to protect me; it’s supposed to go the other way around. That awful, awful man had the nerve to harass you and then when you fought back he ran you out of law school? I have half a mind to drive to D.C. and give that slimeball a punch to the mouth!”
Leah was truly shocked. In fifty-five years Mae Parker had never missed a single day of church and had done enough good acts to earn her ticket to heaven decades ago. Never would Leah have thought her mother capable of threatening violence toward another person.
“Wow, Mom. I’m sorry, I didn’t realize . . . ”
“What, that it would make me angry? Had we known your father and I would have hired a lawyer to fight that snotty school from expelling you and protecting that predator.”
The realization that her parents would have had her back, that her mother supported her even now, was a shock to Leah. Had she unfairly judged them all these years when it had been her fault for providing incomplete information? Her eyes filled with tears and she dashed them away with the back of her hand. “Are you sure the letter says he turned himself in?”
Leah heard rustling in the background. “That’s what’s written. At the bottom here it says he’s agreed to pay each of his victims twenty thousand dollars in voluntary recompense. He left the checks and names with his lawyer before he turned himself into the police.”
Leah saw stars. Twenty thousand dollars! That would take care of at least a semester of school. What the hell could have inspired Professor Deering to have such an uncharacteristic change of heart? Her pulse skittered as one possibility presented itself: Ian. She shook her head, dismissing the idea. Ian was in a jungle somewhere hunting Sokolov, not running around the States settling scores for her.
She glanced up as a shadow fell across the reception desk. She hadn’t heard the door open, but the office lights were still on so someone probably thought they were open. Leah parted her lips to inform the person the office was closed and froze.
Ian Haugen stood on the other side of her desk looking as sexy as the day she’d met him on the side of a Scottish lane.
“I have to go, Mom,” she said and hung up before her mother could reply.
Leah’s eyes raked over him, scanning him for visible signs of injury. Dark shadows gave away his lack of sleep and his cheeks were slightly hollow, as if he hadn’t been eating well. Even with his hair damp from a recent shower and his uncharacteristically wrinkled t-shirt, worn jeans, and dirty work boots, he made every cell in her body sing. He looked so delectable after his long absence that she wanted to vault across the reception desk and wrap around him like a boa constrictor.
Instead she stiffened her spine and said with as much calm as she could muster, “What are you doing here?”
He took a step closer, his eyes shuttered and unreadable. He didn’t answer.
Her façade faltered. “Did you? Is he . . . ?”
“Dead.”
Relief swamped her. The man who’d counterbalanced her sweet dreams of Ian with sweaty 3 AM night terrors was finally gone. Never would he come after her or Ian again. Never would he harm another woman or betray another human being. His reign of terror had come to an end, just as Senator Roth’s had. “How long did it take you to find him?”
“A month.” He moved forward, stealthily, as if she were prey he was stalking. She let him round the desk and close the distance between them until she could feel the heat radiating off his body. “I came back to you as soon as I could.”
The phrase was ripe with meaning, but she didn’t dare let herself hope. She would not survive an in-person break up. Not with this man who owned her heart and didn’t even know it. “Why?”
“Why did I come back?”
She nodded.
He let the question settle between them and then he cupped her cheek in his hand. She fought the urge to turn her lips into his palm.
“Because I had unfinished business here.”
He had unfinished business. Her heart dived off a cliff and splattered. He’d come back to tie up loose ends with the FBI, to inform them they no longer had to waste resources hunting Sokolov. He’d doubtless made the quick detour to Hutch & Dorsey out of courtesy to let her know he was still alive.
She stepped back and let his hand fall, doing her best to mask her devastation. She would not show him how much he’d hurt her. She would not cry. “Well, I’m glad you’re alive. I’ve been worried about you. Thank you for your services, and I wish you the best in concluding your business dealings.”
She knew the tears were coming so she turned and started to walk away.
Ian grabbed her by the arm and spun her around to face him. His eyes were sparking with fury. “What the hell, Leah? That’s all you have to say to me? Thanks for your services?”
“Don’t you have business to attend to?” Despite her best efforts, a hot tear spilled down her cheek. “That’s what you came back here for, isn’t it?”
Ian ran the calloused pad of his thumb over the track the tear had left behind, his features softening. “You’re my unfinished business, Leah. I came back for you, and I’m not leaving this office without you. I love you, and I want you in my life. I want you today, tomorrow, and every day after that. You were all I could think about when I was gone. I was afraid that what we had wasn’t real, that once we were separated I would realize it had never been anything but infatuation. But I was wrong, because all I could think about every morning was waking up beside you, and all I could think about when I went to bed at night was being inside you.”
“But you live in Norway and I’m going to school here. It will never work.”
“Do you love me?”
“It won’t work.”
Ian tilted her chin so that her eyes met his. In an echo of Destiny’s earlier interrogation tactic he said, “Do. You. Love. Me?”
“Yes!” she cried.
His mouth came down on hers, hard and possessive. The kiss was crushing and desperate before it smoothed into something hot and sensuous. She threw her arms around his neck and pressed her body to his, reveling in the feel of him, the taste of him, the scent of him.
When the kiss ended she laid her cheek on his chest and murmured, “I’ve missed you so much.”
He drew back and said, “I’m going to open an American branch of Northern Wolf Services.”
She gaped at him. “You are?”
“Erik and I have played with the idea of opening a second branch for years, but it never seemed to move beyond the planning stages. Now seems the right time to expand, especially since the FBI is feeling so very grateful.”
“Where?”
“Philadelphia.” He leaned forward and nuzzled behind her ear. “But there’s a condition.”
She could barely think beyond the fact that all she wanted to do was drag him home and show him just how much she loved him. “What’s that?”
“You have to agree to marry me.”
That got her attention. “Did you just ask me to marry you?”
He reached into his jeans pocked and pul
led out a small red box. Leah watched in stunned amazement as he dropped to one knee. This intelligent, handsome, ruthless man was kneeling before her asking her to spend her life with him. The ring, a princess cut diamond in a white gold setting, sparkled underneath the fluorescent office lighting. “Leah Hannah Parker, will you be my wife?”
She dropped to her knees in front of him, took his face between her palms, and simply kissed him.
When she pulled back he grinned, and in that moment the shadows that routinely lurked in his eyes vanished. “Is that a yes?”
“That’s a hell yes!”
He plucked the ring from the box and slid it onto her finger. A look of satisfied possessiveness came over his face. “Now you belong to me.”
“And you belong to me.”
He kissed her again, softly, sweetly. And kneeling on the carpet of Hutch & Dorsey Law Offices, her arms wrapped around her Nordic fiancé, was how Leah’s how-I-met-my-husband story began with a spy, yellow rain boots, and a mint-green van.
And how it ended with a ring.
About The Author
Rachel Lovise
Rachel writes romance and has a particular love for twisty mysteries and quirky heroines.
Rachel was born and raised in Maine where she earned her BA in English and MA in Teaching. In her former lives she has worked on a dairy farm, schlepped curly fries, and taught middle school.
Rachel now lives in New York with her husband and three sons. Her dreams are to share her characters and stories with you, and to one day own a pet hedgehog.
www.rachellovise.com
Books In This Series
Northern Wolf Series
Northern Wolf Services, a Norwegian specialties firm, only hires the best of the best: Ian, a human tracker; Erik, a professional finder; Dag, the forensic accountant; Chani, the head of bodyguard services; and Anders and Mia, the operations and tech specialists.
Watch them fall in love and outwit danger in this heart-racing five book series.
FINDING LIES - BOOK #1
FINDING CROSS - BOOK #2
FINDING MONEY - BOOK #3
FINDING STARS - BOOK #4
FINDING LOVE - BOOK #5
Books By This Author
FINDING CROSS - Northern Wolf Series, Book #2
Allie Wynters is a cutthroat femme fatale spy who breaks hearts as easily as codes. When Uncle Sam inexplicably turns on her, Allie reaches out to the only mark she’s ever felt guilty for fooling.
It’s been three years but Erik has finally mended his heart—and pride—once shredded by the spirited Latina spy who left him tied in an Afghani desert. When Allie calls out of the blue for an extraction from the Philippines, he can't beleive his bad luck.
With past wounds re-opened and the tension between them sizzling, Erik and Allie travel from Sweden to China, piecing together the conspiracy that greenlighted her execution orders. Erik knows a future with the slippery CIA agent is impossible, so he vows that this time he’ll guard his heart, no matter what lies she tells.
Finding Lies Page 26
