Really bad.
That still didn’t stop him.
Forcing any of those really bad doubts aside, Gage went to her, and in the same motion he hauled her into his arms.
“What are you doing?” she asked. Her voice was all breath and filled with more of those signals that yelled for him to take her now.
So, that’s what Gage did.
“I’m dealing with what you started earlier in the SUV,” he let her know.
Yeah, it was stupid to finish something that would only lead to more stupidity, but Gage was about a mile beyond being able to put on the brakes.
He put his mouth to hers and kissed her.
There was a lot of emotion built up inside him. He hadn’t realized just how much. But he had realized, too many times to count, what Lynette did to him. Not just to his mouth. But to his entire body and mind.
She didn’t stop him. She kissed him as if this was the first and last kiss she’d ever have. It was always like that with them. Life and death. Now or never.
Especially the now part.
The kiss fired up an urgency that Gage hadn’t felt, well, since the last time they’d had one of these fiery kissing sessions. And he decided—what the heck. He might as well do this right.
He put her back against the wall so he could run his hands down her body. First her sides, then her breasts. Touching her made him crazy, but Lynette upped the ante by grinding her body against his. Sex to sex.
The woman knew how to make him crazy, too.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” Lynette mumbled and then coiled her arms around him and dived back in for kissing, round three.
Gage couldn’t agree more. They shouldn’t be doing this. They had way too much to do than to be French-kissing against the wall.
That still didn’t stop him.
But another thought at least caused him to slow down. “Are you okay? I mean, will this hurt the baby?”
She shook her head. “It won’t hurt the baby,” she assured him.
The words had barely left her mouth when Lynette pulled him back to her for another kiss. And Gage knew things were going to get way out of hand, especially after he shoved up her dress and located the flimsy lace panel on the front of her panties.
She went limp, the opposite of his reaction, and she made a sound mixed with both immense pleasure and hesitation. Yep, even through the fiery haze in his head and body, he heard the hesitation.
Gage pulled back a little, but he kept his hand in place. He touched her with his fingers through the lace.
“We have to think this through,” she said. It would have been a good suggestion if she hadn’t sounded on the verge of a climax and if she hadn’t moved against his fingers, seeking his touch. “My head’s not on straight right now.”
Nothing was straight, he wanted to tell her.
Gage kept touching her, and he watched her eyelids flutter down. She made that sound again. The sound that heated every inch of his body that wasn’t already scalding hot.
“You’re a really good kisser, and I haven’t had sex in a long time.” She punctuated that with a breathy moan and ground her body against his fingers.
He touched her again. Kissed her, too.
Then stopped.
“How long of a time?” he risked asking.
She looked at him, but Gage caused her eyes to haze over again by sliding his hand into her panties and touching her the way he wanted. Naked skin to naked skin. Judging from her reaction, she wanted it, too. So Gage slid his fingers into that wet, slick heat.
“Ten years,” she whispered.
He was so caught up in sending her straight to a slippery climax that it took a few seconds for that to register. It didn’t register well.
“Ten years?” he repeated. Gage stopped touching her.
But Lynette put his hand right back where it’d been.
“Don’t read anything into it,” she grumbled.
“Ten years as in when we were together?” he pressed. “That was the last time you had sex?”
She didn’t answer verbally, but everything about her face and body language said yes.
“Oh, man.” He paused. “Oh, man!” And that was all Gage could get out for several moments. “How the hell could I not read anything into that?” he asked. “Am I the only man you’ve ever been with?”
Lynette tried to move away from him, but Gage held her in place. Probably not the brightest idea he’d ever had with his erection between them.
“Don’t read anything into it,” she repeated. “It just took me a long time to get over you, that’s all.”
He looked at her face, flushed with arousal, her nipples that were drawn tight and puckered against her flimsy white lace bra. And her swollen lips from their kissing assault. She looked like sex. Smelled like it, too. And it was crystal clear what she wanted him to do.
“But you got over me?” he challenged.
She looked him straight in the eyes. “I did.”
A different set of emotions roared through him. Bad ones that sent his blood boiling in a different way. “Tell me that lie again, Lynette, and I’ll strip off those panties and take you where you stand. I’ll be gentle with you because of the baby, but I will take you.”
Her chin came up. “It’s true. I got over you.”
He might have believed her. If she hadn’t made that hot shivery sound when his breath hit against her mouth.
Gage stared at her, sizing her up as he’d done with the enemy. But she wasn’t the enemy. She was his ex-wife, and no matter what she said, Lynette hadn’t gotten over him.
Hell.
There was no way he could ignore that. No way to stop without doing something to finish this.
He’d already broken all the rules anyway.
So, Gage slid his hand down her belly and back into her panties. He didn’t kiss her, because he wanted to see her eyes. And he wanted her to see him.
For starters. He touched her. He’d given Lynette her first orgasm. Maybe her only orgasms. And he was in a crazy mind to do it again.
“Gage,” she whispered.
If it’d been a warning, he would have backed out of this. It wasn’t one. Far from it. She lifted herself, wrapping her legs around his waist. No more talk that they shouldn’t do this. No more anything except her moving into the strokes of his fingers.
Gage wanted to be inside her. And he considered it. But there was going to be enough hell to pay without this becoming full-blown sex against the wall.
Lynette said his name again. And shattered into a thousand little pieces. Gage gathered her in his arms, gave her a moment to catch her breath and then took her to the bed.
Not for sex.
Though his body reminded him of how uncomfortable he was right now.
Still, he had to get some things straight.
“You’ve gotten over me,” he repeated, but it wasn’t a question. The next one wouldn’t be, either. “You haven’t had sex with another man in ten years. Now, what the devil am I supposed to do with that information?”
She sat up, fixed her clothes and glared at him. Yeah, it was a glare all right. “You’re to do nothing with it.”
It didn’t take long for Gage to figure out why they were having this conversation and not putting this bed to better use.
“This is about your father threatening to kill me,” Gage tossed out there.
“It’s not a threat. He will kill you.”
“Not if I kill him first.”
She grabbed on to both his arms and got right in his face. But this time, there was no hazy passion glazing her eyes. “And then what? You’re arrested and put on death row for killing a state senator?”
Gage didn’t even consider that a possibility. “It doesn’t have to go down that way. I could force his hand. I doubt it would take much since he already wants me dead.”
“And then you’ve stooped to his level. I won’t let you do that for me.”
“Then how about I
do it for the baby?” he fired back.
“No!” And Lynette didn’t whisper it, either. “We do this the right way. We find the evidence to stop him, and we use the justice system to put him in jail for the rest of his life.”
“And what if we can’t do that?” Gage didn’t have to add more because they were both thinking that, with her father around, their baby wouldn’t be safe.
“If it comes down to that, then I’ll goad him into a fight,” Lynette countered. “I’ll be the one to kill him.”
Gage said a curse word that was so bad that she blinked. “No way will I let you do that. And for the record, it is my fight.”
He would have said more, cursed more, but the house phone rang, the sound shooting through the room.
“This discussion isn’t over,” he warned her. Gage snatched up the phone. “What?”
“Having fun?” It was Mason, and he could no doubt tell from Gage’s tone that he’d interrupted something.
“Not yet.”
“Well, I don’t think the fun stuff will start anytime soon.”
Gage groaned. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m on my way to the guesthouse with the computer so you can watch Grayson’s interviews with Nicole, Patrick and Ford.” Mason paused. “If the interviews actually happen, that is. You aren’t going to believe what they’re trying to do to Lynette.”
Chapter Nine
Lynette hurried from the shower. Getting the mud and muck off her had felt more like a necessity than a guilty pleasure while Gage and Mason were setting up the equipment so they could watch the interviews. Each second she’d stayed in the steamy hot water, she’d thought of nothing else other than what Mason had told Gage.
You aren’t going to believe what they’re trying to do to Lynette.
Lynette would believe it because she’d been dealing with them her entire life. She figured all three—Nicole, Patrick and her father—were capable of pretty much anything, and the only thing she could do was shower, ditch the dirty dress she’d been wearing all morning and try to brace herself for the worst.
She found a pair of sweatpants and a denim shirt in the closet and made a mental note to have someone pick her up some clothes and underwear from her house. Her hair was a mess, but clean now, so she combed it with her fingers and made her way back into the living room where she discovered the interview was already in progress.
On the laptop screen, Nicole, Patrick and her father were in an interrogation room at the sheriff’s office, all seated at a metal gray table. Grayson was across from them. And behind the three suspects were six lawyers.
“Why are they all in the same room?” she asked Mason. “Shouldn’t Grayson be interviewing them separately?”
“He took their initial statements separately, but the three insisted on doing this interview together. Since they haven’t been charged with anything, Grayson agreed to accommodate them. Especially since he’s trying to defuse something.”
“Defuse what?” And Lynette was almost afraid to hear the answer.
Gage got up from the sofa the moment she came in and stepped in front of the screen. He caught on to her arm. “It’s not good,” he started. “Nicole and your father are trying to have you committed to an asylum.”
She was just tired and angry enough to laugh. “Again?” But she couldn’t quite choke back those horrible memories of being there. Gage must have seen that in her eyes.
“I’m not going to let that happen,” he assured her.
“Neither am I,” she let him know with confidence she didn’t totally feel. She tipped her head to the laptop screen. “Can they hear us?”
Gage shook his head. “But Mason can text Grayson any question you want him to ask them.”
“Good. Then text and ask how they’re planning to have me sent back to that place when I’m not insane.”
Lynette figured that would prompt a back to that place? question from Mason, but he didn’t react. Which meant Gage had either filled him in or Nicole and her father had. It was an embarrassing secret, like being a battered spouse, but she figured she’d kept it hidden long enough.
“Your father and Patrick have yet to say a word,” Gage explained. “They’ve let their lawyers do the talking. Nicole, however, has been a regular chatterbox. She says she has documentation to prove you’re mentally unstable.”
Her stomach tightened. “It’s a lie.”
“I know,” Gage said.
Mason made a sound of agreement. “Our brother’s wife Darcy is a hotshot lawyer. We’ve already got her on this.”
Yes, but it could take days, weeks even, and it would embroil Gage’s family even deeper in this. “I’ll call my father and tell him to back off.”
Gage gave her a flat look. “You think that’ll help?”
“No. But it’ll infuriate him that I’m not begging Nicole and him to play nice.”
The corner of Gage’s mouth lifted. But then it faded. “Don’t call him. I don’t want to give him any reason to send another hit man after you.”
She shook her head. “We’re not even sure he’s behind this.” Lynette pointed to the screen again where Nicole was babbling on and on about how unstable Lynette was, that Grayson was a fool to believe anything she said.
“Nicole must think I found something on her when I was digging in those old files,” Lynette commented.
“Did you?” Mason asked.
“No,” she said with plenty of regret. She wished she’d found a mountain of evidence. “So, how do I stop her?”
Gage ran his hand down her arm. “We let Darcy take care of the commitment papers. She said as a minimum she could request an independent medical evaluation for you. That could take days.”
“Do we have days?” Lynette asked.
Gage didn’t lie—something she appreciated. He just shrugged.
So, that took care of her, temporarily, but it didn’t take care of the others. “In the meantime, your family is in danger.”
“Don’t worry about the family,” Mason assured. “We’ve got all the spouses and the kids covered.”
“You’re sure?” she pressed. “Because my father and those other two vipers next to him are dangerous. And clever. My father made my mother’s murder look like an accident, and I’m sure he can do it again.”
Again, Mason didn’t look even slightly surprised. “Can we prove it yet?”
“No,” Lynette answered. “And trust me, if I could I would trade myself for that confession. That way, at least he’d see the inside of a jail for what he did.”
“And you’d be dead,” Gage reminded her. “Not going to happen.” His hand slid from her arm to her stomach.
That’s when Lynette realized that Mason was watching them. His left eyebrow slid up.
“Lynette’s pregnant with my baby,” Gage admitted. “But no one can know.”
Mason made a hmm sound. “I knew you two were back together.”
“We’re not.” Again, said in unison.
“It’s a long story about the pregnancy,” Gage added.
“I know how babies are made,” Mason joked, and turned back to the screen.
“Not this baby,” Lynette mumbled.
The joking mood vanished. Her father, Patrick and their respective lawyers all stood and exited the interrogation room. So much for Grayson getting them to say anything incriminating.
But Nicole didn’t budge. She stayed put, and maybe that meant she was going to give them something. Anything. At this point, Lynette would take a crumb of information if it put them on the right track.
“Lynette’s on a vendetta to prove I’m a criminal,” Nicole continued.
She huffed, paced, folded her arms over her ample chest. Everything about Nicole screamed that she was a kept woman—the surgical enhancements, the perfect hairstyle, manicure and expensive wardrobe. But Lynette knew Nicole was no dummy. And she wasn’t always loyal to Ford. Over the years, the two had fallen out too many times to count. If that happened n
ow, if Nicole and her father ended up on opposite sides, then it could work in their favor.
“I’m going to stop Lynette before she ruins my reputation beyond repair,” Nicole continued. She aimed a determined look at Grayson. “If you don’t abide by that court order, I’ll have your badge.”
Then she exited, her lawyers trailing along behind her.
“What court order?” Lynette asked.
Neither Gage nor Mason jumped to answer. Which meant this was bad.
Gage stepped closer to her again. “Grayson has twenty-four hours to escort you to the mental health facility for evaluation.”
Oh, God. “And admittance,” Lynette supplied.
“Darcy’s working on it,” Mason reminded her.
Gage continued, “Nicole pulled strings to get that court order. And Darcy’s checking into that, too.” He lifted her chin, forced eye contact. “There’s no way you’re going back,” he repeated.
Mason turned off the laptop and stuffed it and the equipment into a bag. “I’ve got to get back to the office and help out Grayson with the investigation. You can handle things here?”
Gage nodded. “When the safe house is ready, I’m moving Lynette.”
“Sounds good to me,” Mason drawled. He slung the equipment bag over his shoulder and headed to the door. “They can’t serve that court order if they can’t find her.”
The court order was the least of her worries, but it was a worry.
“Any news on that second hit man?” she asked Gage.
“Not much. I suspect he came with Freddie Denton. Maybe in a backup car. I have someone checking into that.”
Yes, no telling how many wheels were turning to try to figure who was behind this and what he or she would do next. After the stunt Nicole had just pulled, the woman was now at the top of her suspect list. Of course, it didn’t mean that her father hadn’t put Nicole up to doing this.
It made Lynette angry and light-headed just thinking about it, and she headed back to the bedroom in search of some socks. She located a pair in the top dresser drawer.
Gage stayed in the doorway, his shoulder propped against the jamb. Lynette sank down on the foot of the bed. The memory bed. And here she was again in the same room, same bed.
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