by Lori Foster
She glanced down at the dog. He had his tiny front paws crossed over Riley’s big foot with his head resting on them. His big brown eyes stared up at her trustingly. He was so shaken, he hadn’t even protested their intimacy.
“Do you really want to chance letting him outside to do his business again, knowing someone could be lurking there, that they might snatch him away or, worse, use him to upset you?”
She knew what he was saying, and her heart squeezed tight. “No.” In a protective rush, Regina scooped him up and hugged him to her breasts. He twisted and rubbed against her, luxuriating in the human attention. She needed the comforting contact as much as her dog did.
“Look at him,” Riley said, “he’s still shaking.”
Without removing her cheek from the dog’s neck, she said, “He always shakes and you know it.” She had a feeling Riley only used the dog as leverage, and still she had to admit he was right. She’d be heartsick if anything happened to him. He trusted her to keep him safe, to take care of him, and she intended to do just that.
“I have plenty of room.” Riley watched her with a sort of cautious regard. “You’ll be safer with me.”
Regina looked past him, through the kitchen doorway. The sun was on the rise, a crimson ball that reflected like fire on every sharp, jagged shard of glass littering her once secure home. She chewed her lip in indecision, but no other option came to her. If she went with him, it wouldn’t be just an agreement to share space, and she knew it. It’d be an agreement to start an affair.
Her heart pounding for an entirely different reason now, she glanced at Riley, drew a breath, and said, “All right.”
Riley encompassed both her and Butch in a bear hug.
Butch bit his nose.
Now that he’d gotten his way, Riley grinned like a rascal. “You really do look great in your pajamas and with your hair all loose and tangled.” He fingered one long curl. “Sexy as hell.”
Heat rushed up her neck to warm her face. She turned her back on Riley and set the dog down. “I didn’t even realize….”
“You were rattled, just as I said.”
Regina wanted to groan. She was still rattled. “I can’t believe I sat there in front of those men…”
“They thought you looked hot, too. I wonder if they think we’ve been sleeping together.”
She slanted him a sharp look. “You tried hard enough to give them that impression.”
“No choice. With them both eyeing you, I had to stake a claim.” Totally unrepentant, he kissed her ear again and squeezed her waist. “I didn’t want them getting any ideas about pursuing you.”
Feeling like a fool, Regina smoothed her hair and retied the belt of her robe. “I guess I ought to call work since it looks like I’ll be late.” She picked up the receiver.
“Go ahead.” Riley’s blue eyes twinkled with teasing. “While you do that, I think I’ll just go put the flashlight back in your nightstand—”
Regina whipped around so fast she almost fell. She grabbed Riley by the back of the shirt. “No.”
He cocked a brow. “No?”
She dropped her hands, dusting them nervously across her thighs. “That is, I’ll do it.” She snatched the flashlight away from him. “You should call about the door.”
“Right.” And then with feigned confusion, he said, “But I thought you were going to call work.”
The unholy grin gave him away, and her temper ignited. “You snooped in my drawer, didn’t you?”
“Snooped? Now why would I do that, Red? What are you hiding in there?”
Regina swatted at him, embarrassed, irritated. “You had no right.” In a snit, she went past him, stepping over the dog’s pen and marching toward her bedroom. Glass crunched beneath her slippers, but she barely noticed.
Riley was right on her heels. “The Kama Sutra, Red? That’s a little dated, isn’t it?” His teasing voice grated along her nerves. “But that other book…what was it called? Oh yeah. Getting the Most Pleasure in Bed. Now that’s current, right?”
Stopping beside her bed, Regina pointed an imperious finger at the door. “Get out.”
He didn’t budge. “And no less than a dozen rubbers. Woman, what have you been planning?” He stepped closer, forcing her to back up until her legs hit the side of the mattress. “More important, any chance you were planning it with me?”
With sudden clarity, Regina knew he hadn’t seen the photo. No, being typically male, he’d only noted the silly books and condoms. “No.”
“No, what? You weren’t planning anything with me?”
She shook her head, felt silly for going mute, and managed to say again, “No.”
His smile turned smug. “I didn’t really think so. After all, those condoms are smalls.” And totally deadpan, “They’d never fit.”
Regina’s heart jumped into her throat. She licked suddenly dry lips. “No?”
He shook his head. “I’m just an average man, Regina.”
“There’s nothing average about you.”
His slow smile nearly melted her heart. “Maybe you should wait until we’ve made love to make that judgment.”
A tidal wave of awareness nearly took out her knees. They were in her bedroom, right next to her unmade bed. Her heart gave a hard thump, then tripped into double time.
Riley stepped closer, a grin playing about his mouth. “Such a pretty blush, Red.” He looked at her bed, gave a small shake of his head, and all teasing evaporated. “So tell me, Red. What have you been planning, and with whom?”
No never. Not in a million years. “The books are just…curiosity.”
“Curiosity about sex?”
It wasn’t easy, but she gave a cavalier shrug. “About…variety.” She knew about sex. She even knew about pleasure. But things didn’t always go right, no matter how she tried. With an airy wave of her hand, she explained, “I bought the books and condoms months ago, when I was engaged.”
“Engaged?”
His thunderous expression surprised her. “Yes.”
“You were in love with someone?”
He said that like an accusation, confusing her even more. Because he looked so red in the face, she decided to admit the truth. “No, I didn’t love him. I thought I could love him, and I loved the idea of being married and starting a family….”
He’d grown so rigid, she rushed on to explain. “The engagement ended almost as soon as it began. I realized what a stupid move it was, and he made it plain he didn’t love me and likely never would. I think he just used the engagement as a sham, a way to…”
“Get you into bed?”
It sounded so stupid, and she’d been so gullible, that she only shrugged. “The, um, condoms have never been opened. I just haven’t had the nerve to throw them out. I didn’t want anyone to see them in my garbage.”
Slowly, Riley relaxed. His frown smoothed out, replaced by a tender expression that seemed so incongruous to the hard man he could be. “Wouldn’t be proper, huh?”
“It’s private, that’s all.”
He started to say more, but Butch gave an impatient howl from the kitchen.
Riley glanced that way, then back at her. “I’ll get him.” He touched her chin, lifted her face and pressed his mouth to hers for several heart-stopping moments. “You better get dressed before I forget my dubious code of honor and the fact that we have a lot to get done in the next couple of hours.” He turned and went through the door.
The second he disappeared, Regina jerked the drawer open, took out the framed photograph and looked around for a good place to hide it. She’d just lifted her mattress, ready to shove it beneath, when Riley stepped back in with a wriggling Butch in his arms. He drew up short when he saw her, then his brows came down.
His gaze went from her guilty face to her hand, which she quickly stuck behind her back. “All right, Red. What are you up to now?”
Chapter 5
RILEY WATCHED AS REGINA JERKED THE FRAMED photo behind her back. Green
eyes wide and innocent, she said, “It’s nothing.”
“Right.” He strode forward, watched her quickly back up and move around the bed to the other side, and his suspicions grew. He set the dog on the mattress. Butch ran to Regina, came up on his hind legs and begged to be held.
Without taking her gaze off Riley, she caught the dog up one-handed. “If you’ll leave, I’ll get dressed.”
Riley crossed his arms over his chest, not about to oblige her. “I’m damn curious, Red, what’s worth hiding from me when I already saw the dirty books and rubbers.”
Her jaw firmed. “They’re not dirty books, they’re educational.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And it’s none of your business.”
“Someone is trying to hurt you. Everything is my business.”
Her cheeks colored. “This is…personal. Nothing that anyone else would care about.”
“You don’t trust me.”
“Of course I do.”
“Then let me see.”
“Riley.”
She wailed his name, making him smile. Stalking her, he started around the bed. She took one step back, then planted her feet and glared. Butch licked her chin in commiseration. Absently, she patted his back.
She was such an affectionate woman, so soft and gentle. It didn’t take much to make her blush—a smile from him, a touch and her cheeks turned pink. The more he was with her the more he wanted her, and the more he wanted to know all her secrets. She’d kept parts of herself away from him, her engagement, her insecurities…but no more.
He stopped right in front of her and held out his hand.
She shook her head in exasperation. “This is stupid.”
Riley waited.
Finally, with no graciousness, she slapped the picture frame into his hand. His curiosity keen, Riley turned it over, and was met with the charismatic smile on Senator Welling’s face. Riley decided it must be the photo she took in the park, given the fountain beside him and the large trees behind him. Regina had written at the bottom of the photo, Senator Xavier Welling, along with the date of the photo.
The senator was easily in his mid-fifties. He was tall, gray-haired and aristocratic. In order to always make a good public appearance, he’d kept in shape. He had no paunch and his shoulders were still wide from his college football days.
Riley saw red. Through stiff lips, he said, “You keep a picture of the senator beside your bed?” And then with jealousy pricking his temper, he added, “Next to the goddamned Kama Sutra?”
Regina drew herself up. “Don’t raise your voice to me.”
It wasn’t easy, but Riley reined in his temper. He tossed the picture onto the bed. “What the hell does it mean?”
“What does what mean?”
“Don’t look so confused, Red. You’ve got his picture in your nightstand drawer, next to your bed, with books on sex and a load of rubbers.” Hell, just saying it made him madder. “You got the hots for him?”
She gasped so hard, Butch started to howl again. She absently stroked him. “Of course not. He’s a wonderful, respectable man with a wife he loves and a family he cherishes.”
“Don’t make me puke. He’s a politician, first and foremost.”
Regina went on tiptoes to poke him in the chest. “Yes, he’s a politician. A wonderful senator. He’s fought hard for the health and safety of children. He supports local law enforcement. He’s won numerous awards and honors for leadership and—”
Riley turned his back on her. “Jesus, you’re besotted.”
Using her free hand, she caught the back of his shirt. “I am not,” she all but shouted. “Senator Welling is an inspiration. I admire him, just as I admire his family and his aspirations and his beliefs.” And then, in a smaller voice filled with vulnerability, she said, “I admire everything he stands for.”
Riley turned to stare at her, something in her tone touching deep inside him. “Just what does he stand for, Regina?”
Still disgruntled, Regina chewed her lip, not looking at him. “Family. Community. Everything that’s good. When you see him campaigning with his wife and kids, you just know that’s how it should be, all of them smiling, happy, secure.” She lifted her gaze to meet Riley’s. “I see them together and I know it can happen, because it’s right there, live, real.”
Riley didn’t know how real a politician’s public persona might be, but he could tell Regina believed in it. When she’d talked of her family, she’d done so with very little emotion. He’d found that strange, but hadn’t pondered it long, not when most of his thoughts centered on carnal activities.
Feeling like a complete bastard, Riley pulled her into his arms. Butch wiggled until he was up between their faces, making sure no kissing would occur. But Riley felt content just to hold her. At least for now.
“I’m sorry.”
Against his chest, she murmured, “For what?”
“For prying. And for not understanding.” Keeping one hand on Butch so he wouldn’t fall, Riley stroked Regina’s back. He wished he could touch her bare silky skin again, but he didn’t dare. It had been a close thing in the kitchen, his control severely tested. Only the fact that he knew damn good and well she wasn’t thinking straight had kept him from laying her across the kitchen table. She’d been ready, damn it, whether she wanted to admit it or not.
“I guess it’s okay,” she said while rubbing her cheek against him, setting him on fire again. “It’s not a secret that I admire the senator and what he stands for.”
“Looks can be deceiving, you know.”
She shook her head. “Being a politician does not automatically make him a fraud, Riley.”
“No. But the world is filled with cheats and liars, people you’d bet on in a pinch, who turn out to be more unscrupulous than you ever could have imagined.”
Leaning back, she looked at him thoughtfully. “Have you known people like that?”
He skirted that question by stating the obvious. “I’m a cop, Red. I see the worst of mankind all the time.”
Her hand smoothed over his chest. She couldn’t know how the innocent touch inflamed him. If she did, she wouldn’t now be looking at him with so much understanding. “You deal with that element of life. But Senator Welling is just the opposite. He’s part of the good team, Riley.”
Riley wanted to shake her for her naïveté. He knew firsthand how difficult it was to read the people you cared about. Blind trust was never a good thing, but since he wanted it from Regina, he didn’t say so.
Riley tucked a long curl behind her ear. “Can I ask you something, honey?”
She laughed.
“What?” He held her away so he could better see her face.
“You’re so funny, Riley. Demanding one minute, requesting the next.”
“I’m glad you’re amused.” He smiled, too. “So is it all right?”
“Sure. At this rate, I won’t have any secrets left at all.”
That’d suit him just fine. He intended to make her his, but never again would he be made the fool. Knowing everything about her would be a safeguard against unhappy surprises.
He released her and she sat on the bed. Butch circled her lap, then nudged his way beneath her housecoat so he could curl up against her stomach. She tucked him in before looking at Riley in inquiry.
Riley settled himself beside her. “Who footed the bill when your parents died?” If she’d been the only one responsible, it’d help explain her need for doing things right, to always be prepared and proper.
She appeared confused by the question. “I did what I could, but I didn’t have enough money to make a huge difference in their care. What I had to give wasn’t enough, so instead I spent days researching ways to get them the help they needed. It wasn’t easy. That’s one of the things about Senator Welling. His health benefit programs would have done my parents a world of good.”
Riley did not want to talk about the damned senator. “What about your brother? Did he help out?”
>
“I told you, he’s just like them. I had to loan him money to buy a suit so he’d have something decent to wear to the funerals.”
Damn, that meant she alone had had the burden of her parents’ care. “Loan—or give?”
She shrugged, which was all the answer Riley needed. “What about your fiancé? What happened there?”
Hedging that question, she asked, “Just who is the reporter here, Riley? Me or you?”
With a straight face, Riley said, “I just wondered if he could possibly be the one bothering you now.” He spoke the truth, but it wasn’t the only reason he asked. Possessiveness had a lot to do with his interest, too.
“Oh. No, he didn’t help with my parents. Our engagement was after their deaths. And, no, it’s not him.”
“How do you know for sure?”
She untangled a grouchy Butch from her lap and pushed to her feet. “Trust me. He has no reason to hold a grudge.”
Riley took the dog from her. He immediately rooted underneath Riley’s shirt, circled into a small ball, and sighed himself back to sleep. Riley looked down at the lump where his flat abdomen used to be, shook his head, and put one hand over the dog. “Men see things differently than women. Maybe your take on the breakup isn’t the same as his.”
Regina rubbed her head. “It’s not. But that has nothing to do with anything.”
Her reluctance to talk about the other man couldn’t have been more plain. It nettled Riley. “So who did the breaking up, you or him?”
“I did, but he didn’t mind.”
“How could he not mind? That doesn’t make any sense. If he’d asked you to marry him—”
“He didn’t want me, all right?” She threw up her hands. “There. Happy? He called me a prude and said I was unappealing. He wanted me to change myself and I can’t do that, and he said that no man would want me, especially in bed, and so I left. End of story.”
Stunned speechless, Riley watched her storm out of the room.
For long minutes after, he remained on the bed, soothing Butch who had gone a little frantic at Regina’s raised voice. He’d crawled up Riley’s chest, grumbling and growling, then poked his head out the neck of the shirt, just beneath Riley’s chin. “Her fiancé sounds like a complete ass, doesn’t he, Butch?”