The country had outside enemies that would love to get their hands on our progress reports, not to mention everyone seemed to be in competition to see who could get there first.
The buzz that the US was the front-runner was pretty well hush- hush in the last few years, and the soviets and the Chinese were thought to have caught up.
More recently, the truth has been rearing its head, and we were being revealed as top dog. With that kind of Intel, everyone wanted a piece of the action, and if my contact was right and this guy had been dealing with this on such a high level, then we better hope he didn't have anything to lose on him when he lost his life.
It still didn't explain what he was doing here though, and what were his ties to the FBI?
The MIB hadn't shown up in town looking for their missing comrade, so it was anybody's guess what was really going on.
My phone rang as I was perusing my reports and listening to my man singing in the shower, I was just about to join him too.
"Spalding here."
"Shania, don't hang up..."
I looked towards the bathroom door as if Donovan was gonna come charging through any second.
"Dorian, why are you calling me?"
"Why wouldn't I, we were about to be married remember? Even though you seem to have forgotten how close we were. It didn't take you long to fuck the first swinging dick to come along did it?"
"I wouldn't even dignify that with an answer now I have to go, don't call me again."
I went to hang up the phone.
"That's not why I'm calling, I know you and the cop are nosing around in my case cut it out, this has nothing to do with you."
"You do know what I do for a living right...?
"I don't give a shit, I'm telling you and pretty boy to stay out of it. We've got it covered, we don't need a third rate small town cop and his piece of ass messing things up."
Had I been seriously going to marry this prick, and why the hell was I letting his venom get to me?
"Who's that?" Oh shit, I hadn't heard the shower turn off and now it was too late. Donovan was standing next to me wrapped in a towel drying his hair.
"I...." I didn't finish the sentence because he took the phone from me.
"Carter is that you, do me a favor, I don't know what you want and I don't care, don't call my woman again, whatever you need to say to her you can say it to me in the future we clear?"
He stopped to listen to whatever Dorian was saying on the other end.
"Not interested in your bullshit lies boy, just stay the fuck away from what's mine before I forget I wear a badge, that's your final warning." He hung up the phone and kept it. When he turned his eyes to me, I actually scooted back on the bed.
"Which part of stay the fuck away from him didn't you get?"
"Donovan, I didn't know it was him."
He pulled my phone screen up and turned it to me, it said Dorian Carter.
"I didn't read it, just answered. How was I supposed to know he was calling, I haven't spoken to him in months?”
He just pulled me to him and kissed the living daylights out of me before turning away.
"Tomorrow you're getting a new number, what did that fucker want?"
"To warn us off the case." No way was I telling him what Dorian had said; he'd lose his mind for sure then.
"Fuck him, get dressed, we're going out to dinner."
Boy he was really pissed, all because I talked to Dorian for two minutes and it wasn't even my idea, it's not like I knew that idiot was on the phone?
"Okay why are you mad at me? It's not like I told him to call me, or like I wanted to talk to him...."
"I don't want you to have anything to do with him don't you get it...."
"You're being unreasonable I didn't know he was the one calling...."
"Let me spell this out for you, you almost married that prick, he had his hands on you, no you didn't give him what's mine, but he came too fucking close and I hate his fucking guts...." He stormed out after that.
All I could do was stare open mouthed; what the hell was that?
DONOVAN
I know I owe her an apology or an explanation or some shit, but I had none.
I don't know why just the thought of this guy makes me insane, but it does. I'll just make it up to her later.
For now, I held her hand in mine as we headed to dinner. I'm still gonna have a word with Carter though, because apparently he didn't get the message.
She was off limits, all the way off. No phone calls, no contact whatsoever. I didn't want him even breathing the same air as her.
I’m pretty sure he’d said more than she was letting on, but I wasn’t going to push. I didn’t want to take my anger out on her, she was right; she hadn’t made the call. Him I’d like to beat in the face with a rock.
Chapter 22
SHANIA
Wow who would've thought the great Donovan Chase would be so possessive over little old me? It’s probably not the most feminist stance to take, but I must confess to feeling extremely powerful. Even though he’d acted like a lunatic.
I mean this is the guy every girl wanted in high school, and even now the same was true of every woman in our little town.
To think that he felt that kind of passionate love for me, was almost too good to be true. He seems to think that I’m so much more than I truly am.
I know my worth, where my talents lay. I also know I’m no raving beauty, but the way he looks at me, wow, he’s almost convinced me in the last week or so that I’m worthy of those looks.
I’ve been a tomboy all my life, never was the girlie type, but he makes me want to go the extra mile.
As an investigator, I study people a lot it’s what I do. My study of this Donovan, not my brothers’ friend, not the guy I’ve been in love with from a distance, but the one who had claimed me as his own, has revealed something to me about me.
I’ve come to realize that he sees me, not as I see myself, but as some sort of ideal. It’s too complicated to put into words, but as best as I can tell, while I’ve been watching him all these years, thinking him out of my reach, he’s been feeling the same about me.
It’s a very heady feeling that, knowing that the object of all your girlish dreams and fantasies returned those feelings.
But this is a new element in our budding relationship. I’ve seen him mad at others, but this was the first time he’s been mad at me.
I’m surprised that there were no butterflies of worry parading in my tummy, but that could be because of his own actions.
He held my hand the whole way to the restaurant. Every once in awhile, he'd raise our joined hands and kiss my fingers sending shivers down my spine.
His behavior made me feel special and just a little out of my element. He’d been so passionate before when he told me I wasn't allowed to have any contact with Dorian. I don’t think I ever expected that kind of passion directed towards me.
The look in his eyes, and the power in his hands when he’d picked me up from the bed, so much heat outside the bedroom.
That little show of force had also proved something I'd suspected since we embarked on our physical relationship; my man was holding back on me. I'll have to do something about that later, after he calmed down maybe.
We went to a different place this time, this one a little outside the town limits.
It felt strange and somewhat surreal to be here with him like this. As fast as things seemed to be moving between us, it still hit me at odd moments during the day that this was really happening.
Even with the murder investigation and the whole Dorian thing, it seemed like we were moving full steam ahead, he wasn’t letting anything stand in the way of our love.
My life too had been full of twists and turns here lately. When I’d returned home to lick my wounds, I never expected this.
Though I'd been hurt by Dorian's betrayal, I can't say I was totally devastated.
That just goes to show what a colossal mistak
e marrying him would've been.
But to have gone from that straight into Donovan's bed seemed...I don't know, I can't express what I feel. It's like hanging on by a nail over a precipice, only to be saved at the very last second.
"You cold princess?" He frowned across the table at me in concern. I think my thoughts had made me shiver a little and he caught it.
Damn, having a man like him that focused on you is extremely exhilarating, even if he was just asking a simple question like the one he'd asked.
"A little, don't worry about it though the AC's just really high in here."
"Come here." I blushed as I moved around the table to sit on the other side of the booth right next to him.
He took his jacket off and wrapped me in it, and immediately the heat from his body warmed mine.
His arm coming around me had me melting into his side, and when he kissed the top of my head, I'd never felt so cherished by anyone in my life.
"Sorry, I went all caveman on you back there, baby. But you've got to know how I feel about you.
I can't say I fully understand it myself. I just know that I have this insane urge to bundle you up and keep you all to myself.
It doesn't matter who it is. Carter or whoever, the thought of anyone getting close to you bothers the hell out of me; do you understand that?"
I took my time answering him. I didn't want to just spout empty, meaningless platitudes.
"I think so-I mean I guess-I wouldn't be too happy if one of your many exes tried getting close to you; it's just that, in my heart I know he means nothing to me, no one else ever could, so I take it for granted that you know this."
"It's good to hear; doesn't mean I'm going to react any different the next time something like this happens though." He squeezed my shoulder and grinned down at me.
"Hey you two, fancy running into you here." Our impending kiss was interrupted by a couple of our friends who seem to have had the same idea as us.
Angela came over to our table with her husband Jack in tow. Right behind them was Jennifer More and some other girl whose name evaded me, since she'd been a couple years ahead of us in school.
"You remember Jennifer don't you Shania and this is Darla, she was a few years ahead of us."
"Hi, nice to see you again Jen, nice meeting you Darla, would you guys like to join us?" I made the offer but I wasn't really feeling it.
If I remember correctly, Jennifer was one of the masses who thought gaining Donovan's attention would be the highlight of their lives.
That might've been back in high school, but I wasn't sure much had changed since then, from the look in her eyes.
"Hello lieutenant, how're things down at the station? I heard you guys found a body down at the cove, that must've been something huh."
Darla seemed more excited at the prospect of a corpse than getting into Donovan’s pants, which made me want to laugh.
"No, you two enjoy your meal we've had ours. You have to forgive Darla, she's training with me at the coroner's office, so right now she's into all things macabre." Angela made light of the other woman's inquiry.
"So little Shania, how long are you home for this time?"
I blushed and looked at Donovan before answering Jack's question.
"Oh ho, so it's like that is it? Angie hinted but I didn't quite catch on, well it's about time you two got it together, took you long enough."
That just made me blush harder and Donovan pulled me even closer to him, as he and Jack talked shop, while us girls caught up. Before long the waitress came over and the others said their goodbyes.
We made small talk over our appetizers, laughing easily together. The tension of a few hours ago was long forgotten, or so I hoped. I didn’t want that snake Dorian taking another second away from us.
"Jen still has the hots for you." I made a face at him. I guess I can understand a little of what he’d felt with the phone call. I too had the urge to scratch the other woman’s eyes out.
"If I'd wanted Jennifer Moore I would've gone there a long time ago, not interested; not then and definitely not now. I think we have more important things to think about than her anyway."
“Oh yeah, like what?" I relaxed back against him enjoying this easy mood between us.
"Like our wedding, our future." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a little light blue box that every woman in the world knew.
My heart picked up speed and my knees shook under the table. It was one thing to talk about marriage in an aesthetic way, and quite another to be faced with the reality. He opened the box and blew me away.
"Oh hell Donovan, I'm surprised this thing fit in that little box." I wonder how many women reacted this way to their engagement, but the man had seriously thrown me.
"Do you like it?"
"Like it, I love it." He took it out and I held my shaking hand out to him so he could put it on my finger.
It was a perfect fit, and for some silly reason that made my eyes fill up with tears. It felt like I'd always been waiting for this moment without even realizing it. Like this moment was the beginning of the best part of my life yet.
Donovan just kept rubbing his finger over the ring as he looked at it in its place.
"You'll never take this off; not for any reason under the sun." His voice had a ring of finality to it and I knew that this was another one of his dictates. He’s got a few where I’m concerned.
I squeezed his hand to let him know I got it; that's when he finally looked at me and it was too much.
How had I missed this all these years, how could I not have seen? It had to have been there, but somehow I'd always thought it was only me, that the attraction was one sided.
What I saw in his eyes just then said I was wrong. I hope to one day be worthy of all that love I saw in him for me.
DONOVAN
Dinner was a blur after I gave her the ring. I just wanted to get out of there and get her alone, but the night had to be one to remember.
So I decided to let her at least finish her dinner before taking her home and violating her.
We spoke softly of things to come, things I always hoped for but never believed possible not for the two of us anyway.
I couldn't believe I was actually sitting here with her like this, discussing our wedding of all things; my little girl, the girl of my heart; life truly is stranger than fiction.
For years, I'd believed her out of reach; she'd been too young in the beginning when I first felt those stirrings of lust and need for her.
Those feelings had grown into a young man's love, but still she was not for me.
Always, I worried what my friends her brothers would say, how would they react to the truth of my feelings for their younger sister? A sister they were all so protective of.
Then she'd gone away and I'd thought her lost forever, and though the dream had never died, I'd put it on the back burner; something to take out and look at every once in a while, or on a long lonely night when memories of her plagued me.
Now here she was, mine, finally. I just wanted to bundle her up and keep her with me always. Was that so bad?
"Are you done?" She looked up from her dessert plate, where she'd just taken the last bite of some sinful chocolate concoction.
She must've seen the hunger in my eyes, because her face flushed and she trembled just slightly. I couldn't resist leaning over and taking her lips for a long drawn out kiss, audience be damned.
"Hmmm, you taste amazing baby; let's get out of here shall we?"
I summoned the waiter for the check and dropped some cash on the table before taking her hand and practically dragging her from the booth.
Once again, I found myself trapping her against my car in a parking lot, but I didn't care, I couldn't wait to get my hands on her.
We kissed there in the shadows up against my car, our mouths fused together as though we'd never part.
I pressed my growing hardness against her middle, my hands trapped in her hair as I prayed for control
.
"Let's get out of here before they call the cops." I grinned down at her dazed face and stole one last kiss before seating her.
It's as I was getting into the driver's side that I felt eyes on me. Trying not to be too obvious, I made a casual sweep of our surroundings.
There, beneath the streetlight across the way, a lone figure shrouded in a hooded jacket, hands stuffed into pockets.
It was hard to tell if it was male or female. The height and stature gave nothing away, who was it and why were they watching us so intently?’
Had I been alone, I would've approached, but not with her in the car; it didn't matter that she'd been in more precarious situations with her work that was then.
With me, she wouldn't be allowed to place herself in danger no matter how brave and strong she might think she is.
It's always going to be my place to protect her and keep her safe. I'm sure in the future we'd butt heads over the issue, but not tonight, tonight was about our new beginnings.
Tomorrow will be time enough for me to figure out the mystery of who our admirer is.
Chapter 23
I got us home in as much of a hurry as I could without breaking the law. My little tease kept me primed the whole way with her hand resting seemingly innocently on my thigh.
That was until she started running her fingertips up and down my thigh and over to my steel hard rod.
"You're asking for it princess."
"Ooh, sounds promising." Since when had she become such a tease?
Each day I learned more and more about this woman who'd owned my heart for so long, and the more that was revealed the more in love with her I became.
"We're here, now put up or shut up." I teased her as I exited the car and came around to her side to let her out.
My frisky little lover jumped into my arms and wrapped her legs around my waist, her lips like a heat seeking missile, latched onto mine as we devoured each other in my driveway.
"Inside." I was fighting with my zipper with one hand while holding her up with the other and sucking her tongue deep into my mouth.
The Homecoming Page 12