Lethal Temptation

by Kaylea Cross

  Maybe he was in her bed.

  She hurried to her room, but it was empty. She walked back to the stairs leading to the suite, wondering if he’d gone down to his place, then caught a slight movement out of the corner of her eye and whirled to face the kitchen.

  But it wasn’t a threat. Through the door to the back deck she saw Mason sitting out there on the top step, his back to her as he stared out into the yard, his arm around Ric. He was hunched over. Almost as if protecting himself from something.

  Her heart twisted. Even from this distance she could tell something was wrong. That he was hurting.

  She started toward him without conscious thought, needing to ease his suffering.

  MASON TURNED HIS head when Ric alerted him there was someone behind them. Avery opened the door and stepped out onto the deck. “Hey,” she murmured softly.

  “Hey.” He didn’t have it in him to get up and go to her right now. “Everything go all right?”

  “Yes. Sorry I took so long, we had to file the paperwork before I could come home.” She sat beside him, studying him with worried eyes. “I’d ask if you’re okay, but I can see you’re not.”

  He didn’t see the point in lying to her. He didn’t want to lie to her ever. “Yeah, not really.”

  She eased closer and wrapped her arms around his ribs, leaning into him. “Thinking about things you’d rather not remember?”

  He nodded, glad he didn’t have to explain. That she got it. “I fell asleep for a bit, then wished I hadn’t. Ric woke me up.” But not before he’d been transported back into his personal nightmare.

  His skin still crawled with the memory of his comrades’ terrified and agonized screams as they burned to death in that wreck. Nothing in the world would ever make him forget that sound. The sickening helplessness.

  She made a sympathetic sound and rested her head on his shoulder. “What can I do to help?”

  He placed his hands over hers where they rested over his sternum. “You’re already doing it.” Just having her close helped chase away the ghosts in his mind.

  Avery nestled closer and relaxed into him. Mason relaxed too, pulling in a deep, steadying breath. He was off-balance, unsure if he was ready for what he was feeling for her, because it was twice as intense and powerful as it had been with his ex, and he’d sworn he’d never make himself that vulnerable again.

  But every minute he spent with Avery, the potential cost became more worth the risk. He couldn’t shut off his feelings now anyway, it was too late. Until her, he’d doubted his ability to love. Or that he was worthy of being loved. Not anymore.

  The only thing he could do now was go forward and hope he didn’t fall off the cliff he was poised on and smash against the rocks waiting below.

  Slowly the restriction in his chest eased, making it easier to breathe again. The specter of his nightmare began to fade under the warmth of Avery’s concern and comfort.

  In those long minutes they spent together in the cool, damp air staring up at the night sky, she taught him the meaning of true intimacy. About being silent and comfortable together as she slowly broke down his inner walls with gentle and sincere affection.

  Overwhelmed by his feelings for her, Mason gathered her into his lap and tucked her head under his chin. She sighed and nestled into him, running her fingers over his chest and arm. He closed his eyes, absorbing the moment while the crickets sang softly around them.

  The sense of peace and acceptance he experienced in those moments with her stunned him. She was the only one who had ever been able to quiet his mind just by being close. Without a single word she’d calmed him, grounded him in the here and now instead of the past.

  He nuzzled her cheek, waiting for her to turn her face to his. The kiss was slow, tender. Unbelievably erotic. With only a single kiss she had him wound tight as a cable, his heart thundering against his ribs.

  Avery made him feel seen and accepted, baggage and all. She made him feel like he mattered. Like he still had something to offer.

  She made him feel like he was still worthy. Maybe even worthy of being loved.

  Mason inhaled, a painful pressure expanding his ribs. He would do fucking anything for her—except let her go. He just couldn’t.

  Because he was in love with her.

  It rocked him, but he couldn’t deny it was true. He needed her. Would never stop needing and wanting her.

  Without a word he gathered her up and stood, lifting her to his chest. She stroked the back of his hair, a gentle smile on her lips. He kissed them, drinking in the tenderness she offered, aware of how precious a gift it was.

  He carried her inside, nudged the door closed after Ric and strode down the hall to her room. This was her most private space and he wanted to explore this new, tender intimacy with her in more detail.

  Even as they undressed each other he felt the difference. The emotional shift inside him. This was no longer about the thrill of the conquest, of making her want him, or even the wielding of the control he enjoyed. It was about having this amazing, strong and caring woman surrender herself to him because she trusted him.

  That changed everything. Avery had changed everything.

  He was deep in unknown territory now. Whatever the future held, he just prayed he wouldn’t screw up and lose her forever.

  Chapter Eighteen

  A tall stack of blueberry pancakes and a side of crispy bacon had never looked so good to him.

  Mason poured syrup over them, his mouth watering. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so hungry for breakfast. Or the last time he’d been this happy. It felt like a literal weight had been lifted from his chest. The whole world seemed brighter, the horizon before him full of possibilities.

  All because of Avery.

  “Wow. That’s a lotta syrup,” she said from across the café table, voice dry.

  “I burned off a lot of calories last night. And this morning,” he added with a smug grin at her, enjoying the way her cheeks turned pink.

  “You did,” she conceded. “Guess I did too.”

  He stopped pouring to stare at her in disbelief. “You guess?”

  She grinned and took a sip of her coffee. “Okay, I did.”

  “Damn right.” He’d made sure of it. Twice. And he’d taken her out for a breakfast date this morning because he wanted to show her it wasn’t just sex he wanted. He wanted to spend more time with her with their clothes on too, and while he was still concerned about the threat hanging over her, installing those security cameras had eased his mind a lot.

  He dug into his pancakes, watching Avery as she ate her omelet, and thought about what he’d done to her last night. How intense it had been while he’d teased her clit with his tongue, her hand gripping the headboard above her because he’d ordered her not to let go of it.

  Watching her submit, her willingly putting herself into his hands, had been the biggest turn on. He’d kept teasing her, pushing her right to the edge before backing off, waiting until she broke and begged him to let her come before thrusting deep inside her.

  Even that hadn’t been enough. He’d draped her long legs over his shoulders and folded her up underneath him, desperate to get as deep as possible, wanting her eyes to be blind with pleasure, her entire body trembling when he finally let her come.

  Everything about last night had been a revelation. An awakening, like part of him had been asleep until now. They hadn’t talked more about their relationship yet, but he was going to bring it up soon. He wanted Avery, as much of her as she was willing to give him.

  Her expression changed suddenly. Tightened as she looked at something over his shoulder.

  Mason immediately turned, silently cursing as Ray walked in.

  The old timer stopped dead when he saw them together, his eyes widening. He clenched his jaw and stood there stiffly, his cheeks flushing.

  “Morning, Ray,” Avery murmured.

  Ray’s gaze jumped to her. He nodded once, then focused back on Mason. “Having a c
elebratory meal out, are you?”

  Jesus. He thought Avery had said Ray was all apologetic last night. “Just having pancakes,” Mason answered calmly, refusing to be baited.

  Ray stood there quivering with indignation for a moment, his whole face changing color, but the pain in his eyes was real. “Hope you choke on ‘em,” he said, and stormed back out.

  Avery sighed as people around the café began murmuring amongst themselves, shooting glances at them. “Want me to go talk to him?”

  “No. Let him be.” Guy had issues and clearly wasn’t handling the loss of the property well. Mason actually kind of felt bad for him. Even if he had tagged the Jeep. Mostly he just wanted this finalized and wrapped up. “No idea what the holdup is with the bank. I’ve submitted everything they asked for. It shouldn’t be taking this long.” Every day that passed without the sale being finalized made him worry that something had gone wrong.

  “I’m sure it’s just a red tape issue, and don’t forget it’s a small town. Things move slower here. The sale will go through, and then you’ll have more work than you know what to do with.”

  “Can’t wait. I’m doing up a marketing plan today and starting to source some supplies.”

  “I love that my man’s a go-getter.” Her lips curved as she chewed a mouthful of toast.

  My man. He loved how that sounded. It gave him an overpowering urge to reach across the table, take her face in his hands and kiss every inch of it right here in the middle of the restaurant. “You sure you have to go into work this morning?”

  She chuckled. “I’m sure. Why, you had something else in mind?”

  “Maybe.” He wanted to take her back home and savor her bite by bite.

  “Uh-huh, maybe.” Her eyes gleamed with humor, and interest. “But I have to get my ass in gear. Got bad guys to catch and files to finish. Including one on whoever busted up my windows, and hopefully find enough evidence to ID my psycho stalker.”

  There hadn’t been any further incidents at her place since, and with the security cameras installed he didn’t expect any. “I’ll have dinner waiting for you when you get home.”

  “See, I could really get used to this set up.”

  “Good.” He opened his mouth to broach the subject of their relationship, but she pulled out her phone to check it.

  “New file from the Billings PD. I gotta get going into the office.” She shoveled a few more bites into her mouth, then reached for her bag, but he grabbed her hand to stop her.

  “I got this.”

  “You sure?”

  “Positive. Go.”

  Smiling at him, she slid out of the booth. Mason caught her forearm and tugged her toward him. “See you when you get home,” he murmured.

  “You’ll get to see all of me when I get home,” she whispered back, then cupped the side of his face in her hand and leaned down to kiss him. Right there in the restaurant, in full view of everyone. Mason thought his heart would explode. “Bye,” she whispered.

  “Bye, angel eyes. Go get ‘em.”

  He watched through the window as she sauntered to her vehicle. Damn, he had to be the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet to be with her.

  She unlocked her door, saw him looking and blew a kiss. Mason pretended to catch it and press it to his lips. Then, waggling his eyebrows, he shaped the fingers of his left hand into a circle and thrust his right index finger in and out of it.

  Avery laughed and got in her car. Mason grinned, his heart full to bursting. Things were looking up. He just hoped he could win her heart, because she already owned his.

  ****

  Hours later near the end of the day, Avery still didn’t have a clue about who was harassing her. And that pissed her off.

  “What am I missing?” she muttered to herself, toggling between various screens on her computer as she reviewed all the evidence she’d gathered so far. Shannon Torbert had no arrest records, and neither Avery nor her Billings contact had come up with anything of use so far. Avery had to keep digging on her own.

  As part of her own investigation she’d made a list of every possible person she could think of who might consider her their enemy. Most of the cases she dealt with here were pretty mild, but there was a handful that might have the potential for trouble. If anything panned out, she would pass pertinent intel to the investigating detective handling her case in Billings.

  Including the Zinke file. Although Mr. Zinke was currently dealing with assault charges brought against him by her department. As he would have just as much of a grudge against Tate as he did her, it didn’t make much sense that he would be the one targeting her.

  Same for Ray. He’d been embarrassed and remorseful last night, and fairly civil to her this morning, before giving Mason that parting shot.

  Which left only a handful of others on her list, all from her time on the Billings force. And one name stuck out far more than the others.

  Going with her gut, she picked up the phone and called her contact in Billings. “Hey, when you’ve got five minutes, could I trouble you to send me a list of whoever’s visited Mike Radzat since his parole was denied?” It was the only lead that made any kind of sense to her. And since he was still locked up in prison, the only way he could get to her was through someone else. Who, though?

  “No problem. I’ll compile a list now and send it over.”

  “Great, thanks.” She hung up and reviewed her list again, growing more and more certain she was onto something with Radzat.

  “How’s it going, Sherlock?” Tate asked as he walked in.

  “Slowly. But I think I’ve got a promising thread to pull on now,” she said without looking up from her screen.

  “Yeah? What’ve you got?” He pulled a chair around to sit next to her and study her screen.

  She reviewed everything, explaining her theories.

  Tate nodded. “Yeah, I’m gonna agree that we can rule out Zinke and Ray for sure. Of the two of us, both of them would come after me, not you.”

  “Exactly. I’m thinking it has to be related to Radzat. With his parole denial, the timing is right.” A ding signaled an incoming email. “Here’s the list of who’s visited him.”

  She opened it and read the names. “Wow, seven women, huh? No guys.” She shook her head. “No way they’re all related to him. I don’t recognize a single name.”

  “It’s crazy to think there are women out there looking to hook up with a convict.”

  “Nuts,” she agreed, and called her contact back. “Thanks for the list. Any way I can get an image of these women? It’s related to a case I’m working on.”

  “Sure. Give me a few minutes.”

  Avery ran the women’s names in the meantime, and found nothing of interest in the database about them. Whoever they were, none of them had criminal records.

  “Can you run more background and credit card info on these three while I check out the other four?”

  “Sure.” He wrote down the names. “You guys are still coming over for dinner tonight, right?”

  She looked over at him, caught off guard. “What?”

  “The barbecue. My sister’s coming down to stay with us for a bit. Remember? Nina’s picking her up in an hour.”

  Shit, she’d completely forgotten Tala was coming from Kelowna today. “Yeah, we’ll be there.” She needed to remind Mason.

  “’Kay.” Tate’s hazel-green eyes lit with interest. “Anything you want to share before then?”

  Her face heated. She didn’t know exactly where she and Mason stood at the moment, and she wasn’t about to admit to Tate that they’d slept together. “Not really.”

  His expression turned serious. “Look, I just gotta say this, and then we’ll leave it alone. Mase is awesome in a lot of ways and I love the guy like a brother, but you need to know he comes with a certain amount of baggage that isn’t going to magically disappear. So just…you need to know that going in, that’s all.”

  “I know.” She was willing to deal with the bag
gage if it meant being in a committed relationship with him. The question was whether Mason would allow it.

  “Okay,” Tate said with a relieved smile. “Just looking out for my partner.”

  Thankfully she was spared any further awkward conversation by a new email hitting her inbox. “Got the images.”

  They studied them together. “These five could easily be the woman at the resort,” Tate said a minute later.

  “They could,” she agreed, analyzing their builds. The two remaining women had completely the wrong build to be her suspect.

  Tate squeezed her shoulder and rose. “I’ll start on these three now and get back to you. If you need anything else, holler.”

  “Thanks.” She loved and respected Tate for trying to protect her. But Mason was already deep under her skin and in her heart. It was too late to protect her now; if Mason dropped her it was going to hurt like hell.

  She expelled a breath and started digging deeper into her list of the remaining four female suspects, still preoccupied with Mason. The man had managed to turn her inside out in the matter of a week. As it was, she was going to have trouble keeping her hands off him in front of the others, and was a little worried that he would have no such compunction.

  After tonight, Avery had a feeling their secret wouldn’t be a secret for long.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Tala was glad she’d made the decision to come down here for a few days. Part of her job as big sister meant making sure her brother never got hurt again, so ever since Tate had told her about Nina, she’d been dying to meet his new lady.

  Today had taken any worries about Tate off her shoulders. Within fifteen minutes of Nina picking her up at the airport that afternoon, Tala decided her brother had chosen wisely. A few hours later, and she already loved Nina to pieces. How could she not?

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” Nina said to her with a happy smile, as she, Tala and Avery helped themselves to some nibbles at the coffee table in Tate’s cozy but rustic living room while he and Mason dealt with dinner.