Because You Love Me ; Journey to My Heart

by Terra Little

  “Hmph.” Johnson sucked his teeth for several seconds. “Now, why would I find that interesting, Agent?”

  “I don’t know, Johnson. Maybe you wouldn’t. Maybe I was wrong. If so, then I’m sorry I wasted your time,” Cooper said and dropped the headset back into its cradle on the wall. Ten minutes later he was back in his car, headed to his office. Mission accomplished, he thought as he glanced at his watch and pulled out into afternoon traffic. Now let the chips fall where they may.

  * * *

  Later that night, when Olivia Carrington’s name flashed across his cell’s screen, he couldn’t help thinking: and so it begins...

  He touched a button to accept her incoming call and put the phone to his ear. “Cooper Talbot.”

  “It’s Olivia Carrington, Agent Talbot. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

  “When has that ever stopped you?” Cooper drawled as he unlocked the door to his house and stepped inside, out of the rain. “In any case, no, you haven’t caught me at a bad time. I’m actually just getting in from a date, so if you were hoping to catch me in a good mood, this is probably as good as it’s going to get. What’s up?” He scooped up his mail in the small entry foyer and dropped his briefcase on the couch as he passed through the living room.

  “A date, huh?” Olivia purred in his ear. His cock went on full alert. “Is she there with you now?”

  In the kitchen, he stuck his head inside the refrigerator and emerged a few seconds later with a cold beer in his hand. “If she was, you wouldn’t be.”

  “No, I guess not, huh?” She giggled devilishly. “Well, at least tell me if you kissed her good-night or not.”

  “A gentleman never kisses and tells. You should know that, Miss Carrington.” But he chuckled into his bottle anyway, enjoying this. “But if you must know, yes, I kissed her.”

  “Oh.”

  He tipped the bottle up and drank deeply, smothering a belch. “Oh?”

  “Yes, oh. Does she kiss better than I do?”

  Cooper almost choked on a mouthful of beer. “Are you serious right now, Olivia?” he asked when he could talk.

  “Yes, Coop, I am. Is it okay if I call you Coop?”

  “No, it’s not, and none of your business. What did you say you wanted again?”

  “Oh, so you’re going to be like that?”

  “Yes, I’m going to be like that.”

  “Then she probably doesn’t,” Olivia decided and Cooper roared with laughter. “It’s only eleven o’clock. Why are you home from a date so early?”

  “It’s almost midnight here, it’s a weeknight and some of us have to go to work in the morning. Do you usually stay out all night on a date?”

  “Well, now that depends on the date, doesn’t it? What are you wearing right now?”

  He looked down at his jeans, Nikes and blue short-sleeved polo shirt. They had gone bowling. “Uh, jeans and a shirt. Why?”

  “Because it explains why you’re home so early, without your date, and therefore without a good story to tell the guys tomorrow at the watercooler.”

  Actually, it didn’t, but he wasn’t about to disabuse the lunatic woman on the other end of the phone call of her stereotypical notions about him. She seemed to be enjoying her perception of him as an overgrown, clueless nerd and he wasn’t in the mood right now to square off again with her about it. “Whatever, Olivia.”

  “Okay. Don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.”

  “Are you going to tell me why you called or...?”

  “Yes, I’m going to tell you why I called, Cooper. You’re awfully uptight, which is probably because—”

  “Today, Olivia,” Cooper cut in, rolling his eyes to the vaulted ceiling.

  “All right, fine. You’ve probably already heard, but your prosecuting attorney called Shannon today to set up a meeting. From what I gathered, she saw your tape and apparently read your notes, and now she wants her to view an in-person lineup and sit for a formal interview, under oath. She thinks Shannon’s sworn testimony could help nudge the grand jury toward an indictment when the time comes. I suppose Shannon has you to thank for that?”

  “Not really, no,” Cooper said, setting his half-empty beer bottle down slowly on the kitchen counter and then leaning back against it. He tucked his cell between his head and shoulder and crossed both his arms and his ankles. “This is news to me. Has she agreed to the meeting?”

  Olivia chuckled incredulously. “Does she really have a choice? I mean, look what happened the last time she tried to duck you people. She’s still too traumatized from that experience to even think about refusing. Honestly, are you trying to push her to the brink of insanity?”

  He wasn’t touching that question with a long-handled spoon; instead he asked one of his own. “When are they meeting?”

  “I’m not sure—maybe next week sometime. They’re flying her to Knoxville. Coach, of course,” she drawled disgustedly. “Anyway, I was just wondering if you were aware of the mess that you caused.”

  “No, I wasn’t, but thanks for letting me know. Are you going with her?”

  She was silent for several seconds. “I don’t know,” she finally admitted. “I hadn’t really thought about it. It seems like she’d be better off bringing along her attorney, even if they didn’t exactly hit it off the first time they met. I think Shannon wants me to come along, though, in case they need a referee.”

  “Hmph.”

  “Hmph?” she parroted. “What does that mean, hmph?”

  “Nothing. Just...hmph. Have you ever been to Knoxville, Miss Carrington?”

  “No, but then again it’s not exactly on my bucket list of places to visit before I die. Why, am I missing something?”

  “Only the best barbecue you’ve ever tasted and some of the greatest country-music house bands in the world. I’m just saying...it’s something to think about.”

  “Mmm...maybe.”

  “Maybe,” he replied and picked up his beer.

  “Well, I guess I’ll say good night, then.”

  “Good night, Olivia.”

  “Good night, Coop.”

  “I could’ve sworn that I told you not to call me Coop.”

  She smiled and hung up the phone.

  Chapter 8

  “Is that everything?”

  “I think so,” Olivia said, shuffling through the stack of file folders in her hand. When she came to the last one, she peeked up at her MacBook’s screen and cocked a brow at her sister. “Wait, are you sure you’re okay with me turning down the McMillan case?”

  “God, yes.” Elise rolled her eyes to the sky. “Debra McMillan is a nutcase. Do you remember how she behaved the last time we took on a case of hers?”

  How could Olivia forget? Phone calls at all hours of the night. Spontaneous drop-ins at the most inconvenient times imaginable. Outrageous demands and ridiculous temper tantrums. And that had only been the first week.

  “Back then we were just starting out and we needed the money,” Elise continued. Behind her, the view of a sunny, cloudless sky and the calm water below it went on as far as the eye could see. While Olivia was surrounded by paperwork, Elise was in the middle of the ocean, sailing on her wealthy husband’s luxury yacht. “That’s nowhere near the case now, so...” She waved a flippant hand at the camera. “I say let someone else prove that her third husband faked his own death. If the poor guy is still alive, which we both know could very well be the case, he’s probably lying on a beach somewhere, sipping daiquiris and soaking up the sun. And really, after being married to the woman for ten years, hasn’t he earned a little peace and quiet?”

  “Yes, but I don’t think she wants him back so much as she wants back the five million dollars that her accountant hasn’t been able to account for since just before the poor idiot kicked the bucket. And honestly, I can’t really say that I blame her.”


  “Well, if you ask me—and you did—he’s earned every red cent. Run, man! Run like the wind!” Elise turned and shouted to the wind in question. Turning back to the camera, she said, “You know, someone should find him and warn him that she’s coming for him.”

  Chuckling, Olivia set the stack of files aside, took off her glasses, dropped them on the tabletop and then reached for her coffee mug. “I’m inclined to agree,” she said, relaxing back in her chair and sipping the hot liquid carefully as she eyed a laughing Elise over the rim. “It won’t be me, though, because for the first time in months I have a little downtime ahead of me and I plan to enjoy every minute of it.”

  “Where’s your strange friend these days?”

  Now it was Olivia’s turn to roll her eyes to the ceiling. “If by strange, you mean Shannon, then I’m happy to report that she’s settling into her new apartment very nicely and she likes her new job. So far, so good.”

  “Any news on the break-in at her old apartment?”

  “None yet, and she doesn’t seem too worried about it.”

  “And that doesn’t strike you as a little odd?”

  “Of course it does, but how she chooses to handle the situation is her business. Besides, she’s probably too preoccupied with the fallout from her latest run-in with the FBI to concentrate on much of anything else right now.”

  “What about you? You’ve been a little preoccupied with the fallout from your latest run-in with the FBI, too. Have you decided if you’re going to sleep with the fallout or...?”

  “Uh, no.” Olivia rolled her eyes at the camera. “And I’m not preoccupied. You of all people should know that Cooper Talbot would hardly be the first man that I’ve ever slept with. I’ve played this game before, you know, so please spare me the lecture.”

  “I’m not trying to lecture you. I’m just saying, maybe this Cooper Talbot guy is exactly what you need right now. Hasn’t it been a while since...?” She paused to wriggle her eyebrows suggestively. “Well, you know.”

  “Cooper Talbot couldn’t be any more not what I need right now, if he tried.”

  “You said he was a great kisser.”

  “Yes, and the price of gas is up by a dollar this week. What’s your point?”

  “Weeelll,” Elise drawled in a tone that put Olivia on alert instantly.

  “Oh, God, here we go,” she murmured, dropping her head in her hand and shaking it sadly.

  “Now that you mention it,” Elise continued as she sat up on her lounging chaise and pulled her MacBook closer. “I took the liberty of looking up your Cooper Talbot,” she explained as her fingers began flying over her keyboard.

  “He’s not my Cooper Tal—”

  “Here’s what I have so far.”

  “Elise—”

  “He’s forty and single, no kids, and you’re right, he does appear to be a nerd, or at least he used to be. He graduated from Columbia with a law degree, as well as a graduate degree in psychology, when he was twenty-two, and then worked as a public defender for a few years before joining the FBI fifteen years ago. Since then—and here’s the part I really like—he’s written a dozen post-secondary textbooks on criminology—most of which either have or are being used in college classrooms around the country—and one highly successful true-crime book about the—”

  “The Charleston Child Abductions,” Olivia supplied, referring to the year-long reign of terror that a child abductor and murderer had subjected the city of Charleston, South Carolina, to between the summer of 2005 and the fall of 2006. A total of eighteen children, ranging in ages from seven to sixteen, had been abducted and never seen or heard from again, and a suspect hadn’t been arrested in the case until early 2010. The resulting trial was televised, capturing the country’s attention and holding it raptly right up until the defendant had been found guilty and sentenced to death by lethal injection. “Yes, I know.”

  “Dr. Cooper Talbot was a profiler on the case.”

  “I know that, too.”

  “I read somewhere that his input was instrumental in narrowing down the suspects.”

  Olivia sighed. “Yes, I think I heard that.”

  “His book was on the New York Times bestseller list for weeks,” Elise chirped. “And even more importantly, did you happen to notice that the brother is fiiine?”

  Olivia blushed to the roots of her hair, just as she did every time Cooper Talbot crossed her mind, which he seemed to be doing quite often lately. Nearly a week had passed since they’d spoken last, and in that time she’d caught herself trying to think up excuses to call him more often than she cared to admit. Found herself wondering where he was and what he was doing at odd hours of the day, and constantly checking her cell for missed calls, just in case. Of course she wasn’t about to admit any of that to Elise, though. She recognized the signs of Cupid Fever, otherwise known as married people’s tendency to match-make for their single family members and friends, often with disastrous results, and didn’t want any part of it.

  Thankfully Elise didn’t seem to notice her flaming face.

  “I mean, I know that he’s the antithesis of everything you’ve ever stood for where men are concerned, but still. As hard as you’ve been working this past year, you deserve a little rest and relaxation. What would be so wrong with getting a little of both with Cooper Talbot—I’m sorry, Doctor Cooper Talbot? From what you’ve told me, I think he’s made it pretty obvious that he’s interested. The question is, are you?”

  Olivia thought about the question long after she’d hung up with Elise and sent Harriet home for the day. Alone in the house, she fixed herself a simple dinner, poured herself a glass of Chardonnay, and took both her plate and her glass with her out onto the screened-in deck at the back of the house to enjoy.

  Later, in her bedroom, she put on Bach’s Cello Suite no. 1 in G Major, lit scented candles, set them around the perimeter of her spa tub and drew herself a frothy bubble bath. A second glass of wine in hand, she soaked and sipped until it was well after midnight, the water was cold and it was time for bed.

  And all the while Cooper Talbot’s liquid-brown eyes and picture-perfect smile occupied her thoughts.

  It wasn’t like she’d never had an affair before, because God knew she had. Of the two of them, she had always been the adventurer, the explorer. Elise was the one who preferred the company of a good book and a mug of chamomile tea over the excitement of breaking rules and pushing limits. Growing up, those were Olivia’s domains, and she had not only excelled in them but she had owned them. As far as she was concerned, an affair between two single, consenting adults wasn’t exactly front-page news. Instead, when done right, it could be exciting and rejuvenating—just what the doctor ordered when a pleasant but temporary distraction from everyday life was called for.

  It had taken Elise thirty-plus years to discover what Olivia had known since her senior year in high school—that sex really was better than chocolate. Elise’s response to the discovery had been to marry the first guy who finally succeeded in rocking her world, which was typical Elise. But Olivia was content to live her life on her own terms, and nowhere in the contract was there room for any such nonsense. Elise was right: it had been a while since she’d been on a date, much less been kissed senseless by an attractive man, but she wasn’t so sure that getting any more involved with Cooper than she already was would be the right move.

  Aside from the glaring discrepancies between the men that she was typically attracted to and Cooper Talbot, there was something about the man that made her hesitant to let her guard down. Flirting with him was one thing, but sleeping with him was something else altogether. For one thing he was an FBI agent and there were times when Carrington Consulting wasn’t exactly a poster firm for law and order. There were times when successfully closing a case required one or both of them to operate in a gray area, times when it was necessary to engage in the kinds of back
-room deals that could only be made in secret and under the cover of darkness. Times when, in the interest of plausible deniability, even Harriet was kept out of the loop.

  The last thing either she or Elise needed was a hyper-vigilant, uber-intelligent G-man in their midst, no matter how surprisingly strong his grip was or how deliciously nimble his tongue. If Carrington Consulting somehow found itself in a professional jam because of him, the means wouldn’t even begin to justify the undoubtedly disastrous end.

  Olivia was and had always been a bit of a free spirit, but one thing she’d never been was a fool, especially not where matters of the heart were concerned.

  Self-control, she decided as she finished up her bedtime routine and left the bathroom, was the name of the game and, except for the time back in high school when she’d almost eloped with her first love, she wasn’t unfamiliar with the concept, not completely, anyway. Possibly a refresher course was in order, she thought as she visualized Cooper’s broad shoulders, taut butt and long legs, but she wasn’t overly concerned about failing, because...

  “Everything is under control,” she assured herself, crawling into bed and burrowing into a cave of six-hundred-thread-count-sheet-and-down-filled-duvet heaven. Her head had no sooner hit the pillow before the wine, the quiet and the bubble bath began working their magic and she was drifting off.

  Five minutes later her cell phone rang somewhere in the room and her head popped up from the depths of her pillow. Half asleep, her eyes darted around her dark bedroom frantically, until she spotted lights flashing on her nightstand and cursed under her breath. In her line of work, late-night calls usually brought either bad news or an important break in a case. Either way, not answering wasn’t an option.

  She cleared her throat of all remnants of sleep and put the phone to her ear. “Olivia Carrington.”