Cal didn’t answer and Roman was glad. Let the man wonder why they might think Kaelyn had been on her way to see his current wife.
* * *
Roman accompanied Kendra to her shop the next morning and she struggled with heightened awareness of his presence. She couldn’t afford to be away from her business for too long, and with the threat of someone attacking them, she had little choice other than to bring him. Raelyn was a fast learner, but she wasn’t ready to run the store by herself and Kendra didn’t like the idea of allowing one of her clerks to do it. Still early, Kendra finished prepping the shop for opening and had time to spare. She felt fidgety without anything to do but look at Roman. He sat at her antique desk, doing something on her computer. She went to the office door and leaned against the door frame. Sunlight streaming in from the back window hit his dark hair and made him squint slightly, creasing the skin at the corners and making his eyes sparkle. He wore dark blue jeans with a short-sleeved white button-up. More than once she’d stopped and ogled his muscular arms and the sight of him in the sunlight.
Magnetism brought her closer. She sat on the edge of her desk. “Doing detective work?”
He looked from her butt on up to her face. “Reading about Petra.”
Not working? His interest in such an ancient historic site surprised her and allured him to her even more than she already was with him. “Are you planning your next vacation?”
“I might go there someday.”
He liked to travel. She didn’t know why but she wouldn’t have thought a man like him would enjoy things like that. He absorbed himself in his work.
“Where have you been?” she asked.
“Rome. Yucatán. Cotswolds.”
His deep voice with all his love of the mentioned places enriched the sound and made her heart do a peculiar little lurch. He liked historic places. Aside from selling Christmas ornaments, some of her favorite pieces she collected for her shop were antiques. “You travel a lot. Cotswolds.” She looked heavenward. “I’ve wanted to go there for such a long time.”
Pushing back the chair, he stood, and she caught the amused glint in his gorgeous eyes. “When I’m not working, that’s what I do.”
“You travel to historic places?” She’d always wanted to travel like that but not alone. Roman was much different. He must enjoy being alone, or not mind it. She didn’t mind being alone, but vacations were different. It was always nicer to share the fun.
“Sometimes I wish I would have majored in history in college.” He moved a step closer.
He loved history but would he have been happy working in that capacity? Vacationing to historic places and learning about history and earning a living with it were poles apart.
“You seem surprised,” he said in her silence.
“That you like history or that you don’t realize DAI was your calling in life and not anything else?”
Now he was the one surprised. She could see she’d made him ponder what life would have been like without DAI.
“I don’t just like history. When I discover new things I feel the way my dad probably feels when he writes.”
It made him feel good. Interests did that to people. That didn’t mean it was his calling in life. The whole point of leisure time was to relax and enjoy.
“If you had gone into some profession relating to history, whether it’s a curator at a museum or a school or university professor, you would have missed out on your career as a detective. And think of all those vacations you took that wouldn’t have meant as much if you worked every day in history.”
“Seeing those places live isn’t the same as learning about them from a book or a television program.”
“No, but it still wouldn’t have been as special.” He confounded her. “Why can’t you see how valuable you are as a detective?”
“I do. I help a lot of people overcome loss. I’m good at solving crimes. It’s just...such a...morbid profession.”
So he didn’t like the grimness of it. “What a relief you don’t get off on murder.” She didn’t know any other way to respond other than with teasing. When he sent her a sarcastic look, she said, “What do you feel when you’re working a case, when you get to that point when you know you’re going to solve it and the victim will be vindicated and the family set on their path to moving on?”
“Great. Pumped up.”
“Don’t you think that’s how you’re supposed to feel when you’re doing what you were meant to do?” She pointed her finger at his chest, his hard, broad chest.
He started to grin. “I like it when you get sassy.”
“I’m not getting sassy. I’m just trying to make you understand that you’re already doing what you were called to do.”
He looked down at her awhile, still seeming to enjoy this talk. “Like you? Were you called to open a Christmas shop?”
Kendra put her hands on the desk on each side of her hips and stretched a little. No one had ever asked her that and she had never thought it over. Reminded of her rough childhood and teen years, she knew that was the only thing that had driven her to open a shop like hers.
“I don’t think I was called to do anything,” she finally said. “I wanted cheer in my life. What’s more cheerful than Christmas?”
He moved a step closer and his nearness stirred her senses.
“I like your version better than mine.”
He’d rather not believe he was meant to be the elite detective he was? That sounded like denial to her, and learning she’d fallen into her work the same way he believed he’d fallen into his somehow made him connect to her, as though he’d discovered something he hadn’t expected about her, something he liked. Kendra felt the prick of warning that he connected for the wrong reason. He needed to connect with himself before he could connect with anyone else.
His gray eyes had warmed and she didn’t want to look away. When he trailed his finger over her mouth, the warning fled and in its place came delightful fire.
“What are you doing?” she asked, fighting for control.
“I’m going to kiss you.” His hand slid into her hair and tipped her head back.
Now? He was going to kiss her right now? Her breath hitched and the fire roared hotter with anticipation. He drew out the moment as though intentionally arousing her first.
At last, he lowered his mouth to hers and began with a soft touch that gradually built into something much more demanding. She slid her hands up his chest and then down his biceps, satisfying a mounting desire.
She parted her lips and he gave her more. He moved over her mouth and they devoured each other. Then he broke away and kissed her neck, sucking her skin. She felt his heated breath and his hands going down her back to her butt. Scooting her to the edge of the desk, he pressed against her and kissed her again.
This quickly escalated beyond control. Kendra wouldn’t have stopped him even if she could. Even as the thought came, his warm kiss chased any doubt away.
Going on instinct, she let go and gave in to temptation. She pulled his shirt up. She longed to see his bare chest. He broke away long enough to finish taking it off.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked.
“Absolutely not.” She found his mouth again for more kissing, feeling his deep chuckle vibrate against her skin.
“Me, neither.” He tugged at the buttons of her shirt. She’d worn a skirt today so that would give him easy access. “It feels right, though.”
“Yes.” It felt so right.
She leaned back to help him with her shirt and he went to the office door and shut it. She tossed her shirt to the floor on top of his. He came back to her and stood still for a few seconds looking at her breasts.
“I knew they were beautiful,” he said.
She had on a lacy bra that he reached forward to unclasp, giving her a fleeting sense of vulnerability. She felt re
sistance building—that maybe this was a mistake—but Roman bent to take one of her nipples into his mouth. She was gone then.
He undid his jeans and she couldn’t wait to find out if all this hot attraction meant the sex would be mind-blowing.
She slid off her underwear and he pushed the hem of her skirt up. From there she stopped thinking. She only felt. She tipped her head back to the unbearable pleasure. He made quick, hard work of it, catapulting them both to an incredible plane of pure ecstasy.
When coherency returned, she gradually felt the vulnerability build again, this time without passion to stave it off. While Roman fastened his jeans, she slipped her underwear back on and finished dressing with her back to him.
He stepped closer and planted a soft kiss to her neck, melting her and easing a rising panic attack. She’d never felt more loss of control in her life, and it terrified her.
Facing him, she saw his eyes soft in the aftermath, no more hardness of the reality that made him so pessimistic. She saw the man he tried hard to bury, a man who craved to live the way others did, others he mocked for living on a cloud of what he’d labelled denial, but was really a cloud of happiness. People should steal every moment of happiness they could in this life. Life was scary, but no one had to live under its dark spell all the time.
“I’m late opening up.” She went to the door, opened it, and saw two customers waiting at the door. Smoothing her hair and fighting to gather herself, she forged ahead. A busy day at work was exactly what she needed right now.
* * *
Kendra finally gave up trying to sleep and got up off the bed. She hadn’t invited Roman in here to sleep and he hadn’t asked. After their quickie yesterday morning, they hadn’t spoken much to each other. She’d indeed had a busy day at the shop and he’d worked in her office. The drive back to the hotel had been awkward to say the least.
She thought about how good they were together all day and the thoughts didn’t stop when she turned off the bedroom light. She’d tingled a few times, but mostly she was in awe. She couldn’t believe such a wonder had happened to her. She had never felt like that with any man. No man had turned her on so much that she’d come apart so fast. He set her on fire. How was that possible? She didn’t feel she could trust him emotionally and that hadn’t mattered in the heat of the moment. How did he see her as a woman? Things went too far too fast for her, and she sensed he felt the same.
They’d conversed about what to have for dinner, ate dinner, and then she’d run off to the bedroom. She sensed his tension as much as she felt hers. He probably didn’t know what to make of what happened any more than she did. Had he ever had an experience like that with a woman?
Dressing in sweatpants and a sleeveless shirt, she left the bedroom. Out in the living room, she saw Roman sleeping with the covers at his waist, revealing that chest she had the pleasure of touching.
She needed to take a walk or something. The hotel had a bar and it wasn’t late enough for them to be closed. She could go down and get a cold soda or some tea. She wouldn’t leave the building. That could be dangerous. Slipping into some sandals, she took her wallet and a room key, and left the room. In the hall, she headed for the elevators. Another door opened behind her. She glanced back and saw a man leave the room next to Roman’s. She thought twice about going into the elevator. Was it coincidental this man had come from the room right next to the one she’d just left?
Reaching the elevators, she pressed the button and pretended to wait. The man appeared next to her. She covertly checked him out. Around six feet, short clipped medium brown hair under a baseball cap. Dark eyes. He wore a sweatshirt and black jeans. Heavy-duty boots. He looked ready for combat.
When she looked up, he turned his head. Smothering her alarm, she smiled a little and nodded once in greeting. He didn’t return any gesture.
She feigned looking into her purse. Finding the room key Roman had given her, she held on to it and said, “Darn it,” then moved behind the man and started back down the hall.
A glance back confirmed that he followed, face set with evil intent.
With a shriek, she bolted into a run, lifting the card key out of her purse. At Roman’s hotel door, she pounded and yelled “Roman!” as she inserted the card.
The man reached her as the green light blinked on. She pushed the door open as the man grabbed her by the arm and brought her back up against him. He held a gun to her head.
Kendra dropped her purse but still held on to the card key, squeezing her eyes shut for a second, fighting stark fear.
“You aren’t going to get another warning,” the man said.
Roman’s room door opened and he appeared, shirtless and barefoot and in jeans. He held his own weapon, a big black pistol aimed at the man’s head.
He stepped out into the hall. “Let her go before I drop you.”
“Go back to Wyoming or somebody’s going to get hurt,” the man said.
The man began backing down the hall. Would he force her to go with him? Kendra stared at Roman, wishing she could will him to rescue her, make this man let her go.
“Who hired you?” Roman asked, following.
“Stay where you are.”
“Who hired you?” Roman repeated.
The man scoffed, as though thinking, as if I’d tell you. “I was sent to deliver a warning, that’s all. Next time, you won’t see me coming. Stop your investigation.”
“Or you’re going to start shooting at us?” Roman mocked, moving forward again. “I’ve been threatened by guys like you before, and I’m the one who’s still standing.”
“You don’t know who you’re dealing with. Listen to me. This is your last warning.”
Kendra saw they were almost to the elevators.
“I am listening. Now you listen to me. Tell whoever hired you I hope they’re ready to go to prison, because that’s where I’m going to send them.”
The man stopped at the door to the stairs.
“Overconfidence will get you killed, mister. I’ve done what I came to do. You’ve been warned.” With that, the man shoved Kendra hard. She fell into Roman.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He set her aside and ran for the stairwell. Kendra followed cautiously. She saw him leap down the stairs after the man. She stepped down, peering over the railing. She heard footsteps running down the stairs but didn’t see anything.
Then gunshots reverberated in the open space and against the cold concrete walls. Who shot at whom? Concern for Roman made her run down to the next level, then the next. Finally, on the main level, she caught sight of Roman bursting through a side door. She carefully inched up to the door and peered outside. Roman ran across the parking lot, chasing the other man.
He disappeared out of the range of the lights. Three more shots rang out, and then silence followed. Kendra went to the side door and waited.
A few minutes later, Roman appeared under the parking lot lights again. He jogged toward her, looking around and behind him. He slowed as he reached her.
“He got away,” he said, barely winded. “I would have kept chasing him but I didn’t want to leave you alone.”
She ran her hand over her forehead, noticing her hand trembling.
Roman took her hand and held it in both of his. “What were you doing outside the room?”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“So you decided to go for a walk?” His tone grew edgier.
“No. I was going to get a soda.”
“Why couldn’t you sleep?”
She looked down at his bare chest, and then back up at his face, which smoothed as he understood. “It took me a while to fall asleep, too.” He moved back, still holding her hand. “Come on. Let’s go back to the room.” He glanced around them before walking with her to the hotel entrance.
They
went into the lobby, where the sound of sirens preceded a police car, and then two more. Police officers scurried out of their vehicles and entered the lobby. Roman and Kendra stepped onto an elevator.
“He came out of the room right next to ours,” she said.
An officer’s head turned sharply toward her. “We need to get in there.”
On their floor, they walked down the hall. Her purse still lay where she dropped it. She picked it up and inserted the card key into the room door.
Roman found his phone and Kendra waited while he called Cal. Cal would inform police what had happened and make arrangements for them to let him and Kendra into the room next to theirs.
Kendra went with him into the hall, where police stood with a hotel manager, who opened the stranger’s room for them.
“Detective Cooper?” one of the cops asked.
“Yes.”
“Officer Wellman. You can go on in.”
“Thanks.” He entered ahead of Kendra, his gun now in a hip holster.
Kendra saw nothing in the room except surveillance equipment, a laptop and some kind of device.
“What is that?”
“It’s used to pick up sounds. He’s been listening to us.”
They hadn’t spoken about the case in the room since before they’d begun the disinterment process. Was the stranger trying to keep Kaelyn’s murder from being solved or Deidra’s?
Or both...?
Chapter 14
In order to catch the mayor’s wife alone, Kendra and Roman followed her to her hair salon and waited until she finished before intercepting her in the parking lot. An older version of Melody, she dressed in an expensive, olive-colored pantsuit and held her matching purse at her elbow, forearm up and hand bent down. Her dark hair was stiff and perfectly styled. Dark red lipstick ruined otherwise fine skin for a woman in her late sixties and big sunglasses hid eyes Kendra had seen were gray and lined with heavy makeup.
Today, the rain had abated to give them a break with clear blue skies and warmer weather. Kendra had opted for a blue spaghetti-strap sundress and sandals. Roman wore tan pants with a black short-sleeved button-up. He’d shaved this morning but a faint stubble had formed by late afternoon.
Hometown Detective (Cold Case Detectives Book 6) Page 14