Laura and the Lawman

by Shelley Cooper

  “Michael.”

  He turned his head. As she had been all day, she was smiling at him.

  “Thank you so much. I can’t recall when I’ve had such a wonderful time. I will never forget this day.”

  The pleasure he saw in Ruby’s eyes was an honest pleasure. He saw something else, too, an emotion that made his heart pound and stole the breath from his lungs. In the depths of Ruby’s beautiful green eyes was a feeling she didn’t bother to hide. Desire. Desire for him.

  He felt the sudden, urgent need to explain. “After this week…well, things are going to be happening. From here on in, Ruby, no matter what, I want you to know…” He broke off and looked away.

  “What is it you want me to know, Michael?” she asked softly.

  What could he say? That he never meant to hurt her? That he hoped her only involvement with Joseph was a romantic one? That he prayed with every fiber of his being that she wouldn’t wind up in jail?

  He gave an impatient shake of his head. He’d already said too much. Way too much. He wouldn’t be crossing any more lines this day.

  “Nothing.”

  “Look at me, Michael.”

  When he complied, she reached out a hand and placed it on his shoulder. “What would you say if I told you I understand perfectly? That you don’t need to explain any further.”

  He swallowed convulsively. Taking her hand from his shoulder, he turned it palm up and kissed her life line. His voice husky, he told her, “I’d say it was a nice thought, but that it was impossible.”

  She seemed to peer straight through his eyes and into his soul. “Is it, Michael? Is it really?”

  It was getting harder and harder for him to breathe. He wished she would tell him whatever it was that she really wanted to say, instead of giving him all these cryptic messages.

  “What do you want from me, Ruby?”

  Her smile was so gentle it nearly broke his heart.

  “So many things, I can’t put them all into words. But right now, Michael, what I really want is for you to kiss me.”

  Chapter 13

  B lood roared into his ears, and heat washed over him. His heart thundered. He had no power, and no will, to resist. This, Antonio admitted, was what he’d really wanted when he’d asked Ruby to go for a plane ride. Incredibly, it seemed to be what she had wanted, too.

  He reached out for her, and something jerked him back into his seat. Looking down, he saw that his seat belt was still fastened. With an impatient growl, he clawed at the buckle. Out of the corner of one eye, he saw Ruby struggling with her own seat belt. A minute later he had hauled her sideways into his lap, her arms were around his neck, and that glorious, wondrous, miraculous mouth of hers was pressed to his.

  Nothing in his life had ever felt so good.

  Nothing had ever tasted so delicious.

  Nothing had ever seemed so right.

  With a soft sigh Ruby curled her fingers into his hair and opened her mouth to him. In that instant the kiss bypassed friendly exploration and zoomed straight to mind-blowing passion. All Antonio could do was clutch at her arms and try to hold on.

  His tongue tangled with hers, and he felt himself trembling. Every time she touched him, his entire body threatened to shake apart like a plane approaching Mach five. One thing was certain, he wasn’t at the controls here.

  Ruby proved she was, when, after removing her mouth from his, she managed in their cramped quarters to turn and face him, and to plant her knees on either side of him on the seat. With their gazes locked together, she slowly lowered her body so that her thighs rested atop his. From that position she slid forward until her breasts pressed into his chest and the warmth of her sex met the ridge of his arousal. Even clothed as they both were, the sensation was incredible.

  Then she began moving against him.

  Antonio gave a low groan. “Keep that up, sweetheart, and I won’t be responsible for myself.”

  “Touch me, Michael,” she murmured. “I want to feel your hands on me.”

  “Just try and stop me.”

  He cupped her bottom and pulled her even tighter against him. Moaning her pleasure, Ruby dropped her head back, and he took advantage of the opportunity to kiss and nip at her jaw and exposed neck. He grabbed her shirttail in his fists and shoved his hands up underneath. The skin of her back was hot, almost feverish. His mouth moved to the hollow of her throat as he slid his hands over her.

  He had just unclasped the hook of her bra, when she reached back and took hold of his wrists. With a pressure that wouldn’t be denied, she pulled his hands from her skin and leaned back far enough so that he couldn’t reach that tantalizing mouth of hers. Heaven help him, she wasn’t going to stop now, was she?

  “Don’t,” he protested, his chest heaving.

  Breathing heavily, her eyes still dark with passion, Ruby held his hands firmly to his sides. “Before we go any further, Michael, I need you to answer a question. Can you do that for me?”

  He was so aroused he could barely think. The smell of her was in his nostrils, the taste of her on his mouth, the feel of her on his fingertips, and she was choosing now, of all times, for a question and answer session?

  “Do I have a choice?”

  Her smile was understanding. “You do want to make love to me, don’t you?”

  She might have control of his arms, but he still was in charge of the rest of his body. In answer he raised his hips and pressed his arousal up against her. She rewarded the motion by giving a soft gasp.

  “What do you think?” he said.

  “I think,” she announced, her voice not quite steady, “that before we go any further I should tell you something.”

  She scrambled off his lap and moved to the passenger seat. “And I think the only way I’ll be able to get the words out is if I sit over here. I need to clear the air, Michael. I want total honesty between us before we make love.”

  Antonio felt like she’d tossed a bucket of cold water on him. While his arousal still throbbed painfully, the overwhelming urge to sink his flesh into hers died. He didn’t want Ruby unburdening her soul to him. He didn’t want her dragging reality into this precious, fleeting, vanishing time.

  But it was already too late. Reality had reared its ugly head. He knew, no matter how badly he wanted to, that he couldn’t make love to her. There was Joseph, not to mention Ruby’s as yet unknown involvement in his illegal activities. Both were significant factors that, in the strength of his desire for her, Antonio had conveniently forgotten.

  Lacing his hands in his lap, he stared out the windshield and fought for control.

  “You don’t have to tell me anything,” he said in a low voice. “I don’t want you to tell me anything. There will be no lovemaking, Ruby. I’m sorry I lost my head. Again. You’re a beautiful woman, but you belong to another man. I won’t cross that barrier.”

  “I’m not Joseph’s woman.”

  The words were said so softly that at first he imagined he’d heard them. Whirling in his seat, he faced her.

  “What did you say?”

  Eyes gleaming like emeralds, she repeated, “I’m not Joseph’s woman.”

  His heart slammed so hard in his chest, Antonio thought it might actually break free of his rib cage. “I…I don’t understand.”

  “My relationship with Joseph is a sham, part of my job description. He’s gay, Michael, and he doesn’t want anyone to know. I am not now, nor have I ever been, his lover.”

  Relief coursed through him, along with a purely male satisfaction. She had never been intimate with Joseph. That she’d actually told him about Joseph being gay, thereby risking her job, said a lot. It said she trusted him.

  His relief and his satisfaction were short-lived. Unfortunately, he still had no idea whether or not she knew about the drugs or how heavily involved she was in their distribution. She’d said she wanted to clear the air. If she confessed her involvement, what would he do?

  Antonio drew a deep breath. He’d do what h
e had to do. There was no other choice. Too many innocent lives were at risk. Gazing at Ruby now, and seeing how earnestly she stared at him, it seemed a lifetime ago that she had been in his arms.

  “I assume, since you’re still sitting over there, that there’s more you want to tell me?” It cost him dearly to utter the words.

  “Yes, Michael,” she said, nodding, “there’s more.” She drew a deep breath. “I’m a cop. I’m working undercover on this case, the same way you are.”

  For one endless moment, his mind went blank. She knew he was a cop. She said she herself was one. Everything suddenly fell into place. All the contradictions about her that had driven him crazy from the beginning suddenly made sense. How had he never seen it?

  “You should see your face,” she said.

  “That comical, huh?”

  “No.” Her smile was understanding. “That wonderful.”

  “You really are a cop?”

  A glimmer of amusement lit her eyes. “I really am. You can phone my contact officer if you want confirmation. Better yet, why don’t you call your own contact officer? He’ll tell you the same thing.”

  “What do you know about Joseph’s drug dealings?”

  “Just what you know. That he’s using the vans to receive and distribute them. I spoke to my contact officer before you picked me up. One of the vans made an unscheduled stop on the way back to Pittsburgh.”

  “Drugs?”

  She nodded. “They’ll pick up the supplier when the rest of the arrests are made.”

  Meaning as soon as they figured out who was going to receive them. Things were starting to wrap up.

  “What’s your name?” he demanded. “Your real name.”

  “Laura. Laura Langley.”

  Laura. It suited her so much better than Ruby.

  “Have you known the whole time?” he asked. “About me being a cop, I mean.”

  She shook her head. “I just found out last night.”

  That explained her unexpected change in attitude toward him. “Why didn’t you say anything before now?”

  “Because I was ordered not to tell you. For both of our safety.”

  “But you did tell me.”

  “I had to.”

  “Why?”

  She bit her lip. “I had to let you know you were making love to Laura, not Ruby.”

  He stared at her for the space of a heartbeat. “Are you trying to get me to change my mind?”

  “No. Just warning you that you don’t know anything about Laura.”

  He saw the uncertainty in her eyes and understood. She was wondering who he was really attracted to.

  “When you kissed me, Laura, who were you kissing? Me? Or Michael?”

  “You, of course,” she replied without hesitation.

  He spread his arms. “But you don’t know me. Not really.”

  She thrust her chin out in the now-familiar gesture that he found so endearing. “Yes, I do.”

  “Then tell me, Laura. Who am I?”

  “You’re a man who worried himself so sick over a couple of abandoned puppies, you called the shelter every day until you learned they were adopted.”

  He blinked his surprise. “How do you know that?”

  “Because I called them, too.”

  “What else do you know?”

  She smiled. “That you love puzzles. That you love to laugh even more. That, no matter how hard you try to hide it, you’re just a sentimental softy. That you’ll go tearing all over town after a woman you’re not even sure you like when she appears to be missing. I don’t think any of those things were make-believe. I know none of them were Michael.”

  Antonio let out a long breath. Until that moment he hadn’t realized he’d been feeling his own doubts about Laura’s attraction to him.

  “And I know you, Laura. You’re everything Ruby is not. First of all, you’re incredibly intelligent. And you’re a total failure at being an incorrigible flirt. Your enjoyment of food, from a McDonald’s hamburger to filet mignon, is downright hedonistic. You love anything old, to the point where you will jump out of a still-moving truck and ruin your clothes just to examine it. You’re much more comfortable wearing jeans and going barefoot than you are wearing a suit and heels. You’re moved to tears by old love letters.”

  He paused to draw breath. “Most important, and I want you to listen closely to this, I could turn down Ruby O’Toole’s advances without a second thought. But I could never say no to Laura Langley.”

  Her lower lip quivered, and he thought he glimpsed a hint of tears in the corners of her eyes.

  “You’re not going to cry on me, are you?”

  She burst out laughing.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You are. Who’d believe that an undercover cop would be so horrified over a couple of tears?”

  “That’s because they’re your tears, Laura.”

  She sobered immediately. The look on her face had his heartbeat accelerating.

  “You keep talking to me like that, and I’m going to be in a puddle at your feet.”

  “I’d rather have you in my arms.” He reached out for her, and she came willingly.

  “This is much better,” he said with satisfaction when she was back in his lap and her arms were around his neck.

  “Hmm,” she murmured. “There’s only one problem.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I still don’t know your name.” Her grin was pure impudence as she ran a finger down his cheek. “I mean, if I’m going to make love with a man, the least I should know is his name. Don’t you agree?”

  He tightened his arms around her as his chest grew thick with need. “Didn’t your contact officer tell you?”

  She shook her head. “Like I said, he was concerned about our safety. He figured the less we both knew, the better off we’d be. The only reason he told me you were a cop was because I bullied him into it.”

  “Laura Langley, bully,” he teased. “I bet you were a terror on the school playground.”

  “You better believe it.”

  He leaned forward and kissed her pert nose. “My name is Antonio Garibaldi.”

  “Antonio,” she said slowly, as if savoring the taste of it on her tongue. “That’s much better than Michael. Do you know how hard you made this job for me, Antonio? How was I supposed to concentrate, when this very attractive, exceedingly annoying ex-con kept distracting me?”

  A thousand questions revolved around in his brain. How? What? Who? Why? Ignoring them—the answers could come later, much later—he pressed a kiss to her forehead, than trailed his lips down the side of her face.

  “No harder than you made it for me.” He bit her earlobe and felt her tremble. “I have never wanted a woman the way I want you, Laura. You feel so good in my arms.”

  “I want you, too, Antonio. Desperately.”

  “Say it again,” he demanded.

  “What?”

  “My name. Say it again.”

  “Antonio.”

  He closed his eyes. “You don’t know how good it feels to hear my name on your lips.”

  “Antonio,” she repeated. “Antonio, Antonio, Antonio—”

  He smothered the words with his mouth.

  “You want to go somewhere a little more comfortable?” he asked between kisses.

  Her fingers tangled in the hair at the nape of his neck. “Where’s the closest hotel?”

  “About five miles down the road.”

  “I don’t think I can wait that long.”

  He groaned. “Neither can I.”

  She glanced over the seat. “Looks like there’s room back there.”

  Antonio followed her gaze. Apparently Jack had hauled something recently, because the two rear seats had been removed. It would be a tight squeeze, but then he wanted to get as close to Laura as was humanly possible.

  By mutual, unspoken consent, they tumbled into the back in a tangle of arms and legs. He ended up on his side, propped up on one el
bow, looking down at Laura, who lay flat on her back. He thought he could easily just look at her like this forever.

  “You’re so beautiful.”

  She swallowed and looked as if she might cry again. “You really think so?”

  Reaching out a hand, he brushed the hair off her forehead. “I really think so,” he said seriously.

  “Know what I think?”

  “What?”

  Her arms circled around his neck and pulled his head down. “I think you talk too much. I think it’s time you showed me some action.”

  He chuckled. “You do, huh?”

  “Oh, yes,” she breathed, tilting her head so that her mouth was just millimeters from his. “I do.”

  “In that case…”

  Silence reigned as their mouths clung together. Fevered fingers tore at buttons and zippers, then caressed the skin they had revealed. Clothing was removed and tossed carelessly aside. Soft sighs, low gasps and murmured words of encouragement floated on the air.

  When they were both naked, Antonio lowered his mouth to her breasts. Using his tongue and his teeth, he teased her nipples to turgid arousal. Arching beneath him, Laura cried out and clutched at his shoulders.

  “Please,” she said.

  He gazed down into green eyes that were glazed with passion and felt an answering need. At that moment he wanted nothing more than to slide his length inside her tightness and lose himself to the passion she made him feel.

  “Not yet, sweetheart. Not yet.”

  Needing to make sure she was ready for him, he ran one hand up the inside of her thigh and watched her eyes glaze over. She opened her legs for him, and his fingers sought and found the soft folds of skin that were the core of her femininity. She was so wet. Wet for him. It was all he could do to control himself.

  Moving his fingers against her, he watched as her passion built. To his surprise it gave him immense pleasure just to pleasure her. Eyes closed, body tensed, she strained against his touch. Without warning she reached out a hand to grasp his arm.

  “Wait,” she cried, opening her eyes and struggling up onto her elbows. “I’m not ready.”

  He thought she was feeling shy about losing control in front of him. “Let it go, sweetheart,” he encouraged, his fingers still moving. “Let it go.”