by Addison Fox
It was the perfect time.
* * *
DONOVAN PULLED BELLAMY close for a kiss, the motion achingly beautiful. Hadn’t he dreamed of doing this for the past week? Every time he looked at her, he imagined her in his arms. He saw himself peeling off her clothing, piece by piece, until there was nothing between them. And then, once they were both naked, satisfying this hunger that had gripped him and refused to let go.
She’d been so brave. He saw the toll the sitting and waiting had taken, yet she’d remained hopeful. Focused on the future and their ability to find whoever was behind the attacks on her. It had only been today, after she’d finished up on the computer, that he’d finally seen the cracks.
And he had more than a few cracks of his own.
He wanted her. He knew there were consequences to taking this leap but heaven help him, he couldn’t walk away.
“Donovan?”
“Hmm?” He kissed her again.
“Stop thinking and take me to bed.”
He lifted his head then and stared down at her, a seductive smile lighting her up from the inside. “You’re sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure. I want you. And I want to make love with you. Let’s take what’s between us and not worry about anything else.”
Had he ever met anyone so generous? Or wanted a woman more?
All the questions that had swirled around his life for the past week—heck, for the past thirty-one years—seemed to fade in the face of her. She was warm and generous and she took him as he was. That was a gift beyond measure and he swore to himself he wouldn’t squander it.
Her home was small and he was grateful for that when they arrived at her bedroom a short while later. They’d stripped each other along the way, a path of shirts and pants and a sexy bra forming a trail from the kitchen to the bedroom. And after he laid her down on the bed, her arms extending to pull him close, he sank into her, reveling in the play of skin against skin, the full press of her breasts against his chest a delicious torment.
Slipping a hand between them, he found the waistband of her panties, the last piece of clothing to come off. The warm heat of her covered his hand and he played with her sensitive flesh, gratified by the sexy moans that spilled from her throat and the gentle writhing of her legs where they pressed to his hips. She was amazing. Warm. Responsive. And as in the moment as he was.
Long, glorious moments spun out between them as the dying afternoon light spilled into the room. They had all they needed there, just the two of them, as their touches grew more urgent. As fewer words were exchanged. As soft sighs expanded, growing longer before cresting on a gentle breath.
They didn’t need anything else, Donovan realized as he jumped up on a rush and raced for his discarded jeans. Her light giggle had followed him out of the room as he ran for protection and her smile was pure and golden when she opened her arms for him and welcomed him back to the bed.
Welcome.
The thought struck hard as he rejoined her, making quick work of the condom before fitting himself to her body.
She was the warmest, softest welcome and it nearly killed him to go slow and take his time. To make the moments last between the two of them, as powerful as a tornado, as delicate as spun sugar.
The demands of her body pulled against him as he moved inside of her, her delicate inner walls indicating her release was nearly upon her. He added a firm touch to pull her along, gratified when she crested mere moments before he followed her.
Pure pleasure suffused his body as he wrapped himself up in her. And as he rode out wave after wave, he knew nothing in his life would ever be the same.
Bellamy had changed him.
And he had no desire to go back to the way he’d been.
* * *
JENSEN FITTED THE small hunting cabin at the edge of the LSP property with a strip of explosive. He fashioned the claylike material around the needed wires and then worked backward toward the detonation device.
His father had kept this place, private land adjacent to LSP, as a small getaway right in the heart of the Hill Country. How apropos that a place used to destroy God’s creatures had become a human hunting ground, as well.
He’d waited for this, carefully mapping out how he’d secure Bellamy Reeves’s arrival at the cabin. In the end, he had no idea it would be so easy as snatching her sister as an incentive to come without a fuss.
Maggie Corgan was hot, but damn, the woman was a sad sack. She’d been moping around Whisperwood like a bored prom queen and it had been easy enough to grab her and bring her here. He’d made a point to run into her in town and made a fuss about some details they’d found at LSP on Bellamy’s car. Despite the holiday, the woman had practically jumped into his passenger seat, anxious to find the details that would exonerate her sister.
The chloroformed cloth had knocked her out just after they passed the gated entrance to LSP property and she’d been asleep ever since.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” Sally’s voice echoed from the small front room slash kitchen, her tone growing increasingly naggy and whiny as they got closer to finishing this. He’d seriously misjudged her. He thought he had a partner in his efforts to secure his future—and he was paying her off well enough for that partnership—but she’d gotten increasingly worried over the past few days. She wouldn’t stop asking him if he knew how to handle things and she was convinced his old man was going to make a magical recovery from his blood poisoning.
What good was it to own a pharmaceutical company if you couldn’t co-op a few of the products for your own use? The chloroform fell into that category. So did the experimental drug he’d used on his father. That had been the easy part.
Setting up Bellamy Reeves to take the fall while he initiated his “brother” Donovan into the family? Now that took real planning.
“It’s fine, Sally. I’ve got it all under control.”
“You said that a week ago and since then I’ve fielded daily calls from the police nosing around. You’re lucky I know my rights. They can’t get in without a search warrant and so far they can’t get one.”
“Good.”
“So far, Jensen. It’s only a matter of time if I keep blocking.”
“The problem will be gone by then and you’ll be long gone. Calm down.”
She gave him a side-eye but marched back into the front room. He was glad to see her go. The nagging was driving him crazy. They said men looked for women like their mothers, and in that respect he had to agree. His mother might have been a passive soul, but she knew her place and didn’t harp and harangue every chance she got.
No, Jensen thought with no small measure of glee. His mother had taken notes. Detailed notes she’d left behind for him to find and pore over. She’d not mentioned Donovan Colton by name but it had been easy enough to note the Christmas date and the reference to Sutton’s latest “bastard left in the stables across town like a discarded piece of trash.”
He’d read that passage more than once, pleased to know his father was oblivious to the brat’s existence. It would make it that much easier to ensure Donovan Colton never got a piece of the Taylor inheritance.
Jensen snipped an extra length of wire and tested the hold. It was only a matter of time until Bellamy Reeves showed up, her knight in shining armor in tow.
And then Donovan Colton would understand, once and for all, what a discarded piece of trash he really was.
* * *
DONOVAN LEVERED HIS hands behind his head and watched as Bellamy flitted around the room. She was full of nervous energy post-sex that he found incredibly adorable and he was enjoying just watching her. Especially since he felt like every muscle in his body had just had the best, most effective workout. It was a treat to lay back and watch her beautiful frame and whip-quick energy light up the room.
“Maybe I should have gotten a tree? I know I didn’t want one, but it’d have been nice to have the color. And the smell. I love that fresh tree smell.”
“We can still get one if you’d like one.”
She stopped midpace, a hand going to her hip. “You wouldn’t mind doing that?”
“Not at all. Let’s do it.”
She glanced own, her eyes widening. “But we’re naked.”
“So we’ll get dressed and then get naked later.”
“Later?”
He smiled at the slight squeak in her voice. “I’d like that, if you would.”
Bellamy crossed to the bed, her nervous energy fading as a soft smile spread across her face. “I’d like that, too. Even as crazy and scary as this time has been, I wouldn’t change it.”
“Me, either.” Donovan reached for her and pulled her close, nestling her against his chest. “Not one single second.”
She pressed her lips against his skin before lifting her head. “I’m glad you’re here.”
“Me, too.” He tickled her before rolling her over on her back. “Let’s go buy a tree.”
“Now?”
“Maybe in an hour.”
And then he proceeded to show her just what he could do with an hour.
* * *
BELLAMY PRACTICALLY DANCED through the kitchen, gathering up her purse and her phone where they still lay on the counter. She couldn’t believe what a difference an afternoon could make in her spirits and her attitude. She’d spent the morning morose and frustrated and had spent the afternoon in Donovan’s arms.
And what an amazing afternoon it had been.
Catching herself before a sigh escaped her lips and already imagining the cartoon hearts that were floating above her head, she took her phone firmly in hand and hit the home screen out of habit. A text from her sister showed up, followed by a phone number she didn’t recognize, along with a voice mail prompt.
She’d been waiting for insurance to call her back about her car and had to catch herself a good ten seconds into the voice mail before she realized the message wasn’t from her insurance company at all.
A muffled voice, disguised with some sort of filter, echoed against her ear. “Come to the LSP grounds alone if you want to bring your sister home.”
She fumbled the phone and listened to the message once more, a desperate sense of urgency forcing her into action, as the message also outlined an appointed time and meeting place. She had to leave. She had to get to Maggie.
Why hadn’t she tried harder to talk to her this week? Instead of being persistent and trying to win her sister back, all she’d done was curl into her usual shell and get angry. It was always someone else’s fault. She was never the one to blame.
And where had it gotten her?
With Maggie’s life in danger, all because of her.
Donovan’s voice rumbled from the hallway, where he talked to Alex, and Bellamy quickly cataloged what to do. Tell him where she was going and put Maggie’s life at risk? Or take his car and go alone?
This was about her. For reasons she still didn’t understand, she’d been targeted by someone inside LSP and all that had ensued was directed at her.
She needed to be the one to fix it.
Her hand closed over Donovan’s keys, where they lay on the counter near her purse. She had them in hand, their heft and weight firm in her palm. She would do this. She’d face this nameless threat and handle it. She had to.
The door beckoned but Bellamy stilled, her resolve wavering.
She could do this. She could do anything she set her mind to.
But she could also use the help. Qualified help from an expert trained in crisis and criminal behavior.
“Donovan!” He and Alex came running the moment she screamed.
And as man and dog rounded the corner into her kitchen, Bellamy took solace that she’d not have to act alone.
* * *
THE NERVOUS ENERGY that had carried her from the house to the drive to the far end of LSP’s property faded as Bellamy caught sight of Sally Borne in the distance. “She’s behind all this?”
Bellamy supposed it wasn’t all that big a revelation, yet somehow she hadn’t seen Sally at the heart of everything. A lackey, maybe, taking orders from the inside, but not as a mastermind behind what had happened to her or the decision to throttle drug production.
The disguised tones on her voice mail hadn’t suggested a woman, either, yet Bellamy couldn’t argue with the tall, feminine form traipsing and tromping around outside the small hideaway bordering the edge of the LSP property. It was a hunting cabin, as she recalled. Something Sutton Taylor had used for years as a place to let off steam on the weekends.
“She looks mad,” Donovan whispered in her ear as he lowered night vision goggles. “A plan unraveling?”
“Or a crazy person at the end of her rope.”
“That, too.” Donovan took her hand in his and squeezed. “We’ll take her down and we’ll get Maggie back.”
“You seem awfully sure about this.”
“It’s my job to be sure. It’s also my job to pin criminals in their dens so we can haul them in.”
His certainty helped, as did the knowledge that he had been through something like this before. All she could think of was that Maggie was inside the cabin, but Donovan had a broader purview. He knew how to manage an op and he also knew how to take down a criminal.
And he also had backup setting themselves up in the distance. The two of them hadn’t walked into this alone, despite the clear warning on the voice mail to do so.
She’d trusted Donovan to do the right thing, but knew it wasn’t going to be easy. They’d gotten in but they still needed to get out.
“I don’t believe it’s Sally. She was unpleasant and dismissed me from the company without giving me the opportunity to defend myself, but I didn’t take her for a kidnapper and a killer.”
“Maybe she got in over her head,” Donovan suggested.
“Or maybe you did.” The voice was low and quiet in the winter night, but the click of a cocked gun was unmistakable.
* * *
HOW HAD HE allowed himself to get so distracted?
That thought pounded through Donovan’s mind as he covered the remaining ground from the LSP property to the cabin in the woods. He was responsible for keeping Bellamy safe and there was no way he could do that with a loaded gun at his back.
He hadn’t seen his assailant’s face, but had to give Bellamy points for gut instinct. She couldn’t believe Sally Borne was responsible for what had unfolded, and she wasn’t. Sally was in this up to her eyeballs, but she wasn’t the mastermind.
Donovan toyed with turning on his assailant, but the proximity made it nearly impossible to get an upper hand. If he was by himself, he’d make the move and worry about any possible consequences in the fight, but with Bellamy by his side, it put her at too much risk. Which only reinforced why she belonged home in the first place.
He’d done his best to convince her to stay behind, but nothing had swayed her.
Including the promise that he’d bring Maggie home.
So he’d listened and believed they could keep her safe anyway, buying into her BS that LSP would only negotiate with her. He’d trusted that Archer and his backup fanning the perimeter would be enough and that he could keep her safe, no matter what.
Now he wasn’t so sure.
“Come in, come in.” The gun pressed to his back as the jerk marching behind them pushed them inside the front door of the cabin. “We’re going to have a family reunion.”
Bellamy had stiffened each time the man behind them spoke, but it was only once they were inside the door that she whirled on him. “Jensen Taylor. You’re behind all of this?”
&nb
sp; Jensen?
Donovan’s mind raced over his memories of Jensen Taylor. The paunchy man before him was a genuine surprise and he realized that any of the articles he’d read on the father had limited information about the son.
And old pictures.
Taylor had been a popular, good-looking guy, more than able to get his fair share of dates. But the man that stared back at them had changed. The degree of crazy in his eyes was concerning, but it was something more. He was in his midthirties, but he was already soft, his body doughy and neglected. If it weren’t for the gun and Bellamy’s close presence, Donovan would have immediately taken his chance at overpowering the man.
“Who were you expecting?” Jensen sneered.
Bellamy shook her head. “I’m not sure but certainly not the heir to the company.”
“That’s exactly why I’m involved,” Jensen said. “I need to make sure I stay that way.”
“Stay what way? You’re Sutton’s son. You already sit in on board meetings and you’ve got a big position inside LSP.”
“It’s not big enough. Nor is running distribution a sign that I’m being groomed for the CEO’s spot. I decided I need to set up my own plan for upward mobility.”
“So you fixed the prices of vaccines?” Bellamy practically spat out the words, her gray eyes nearly black in the soft lighting of the room. “And then tried to blame it on me.”
“I did blame it on you. It’s just my luck that my little brother over here showed up to play knight in shining armor. He kept rescuing you instead of letting you take the fall.”
“Your brother?” Bellamy whispered, her gaze colliding with Donovan’s. He saw the awareness there and the subtle agreement that he’d been right with his theory about Sutton Taylor’s infidelities.
The question was, how did they all get out of there before his big brother imploded?
* * *
BELLAMY KEPT HER gaze on Maggie, willing her sister to wake up. She was tied to a chair, her head lolling at a strange angle from where she’d been knocked out. She wanted to go to her, but Jensen’s insistence on keeping the gun cocked and pointed directly at her and Donovan had her staying in place.