by Gayle Wilson
“Not quite, but…the first few chapters have certainly been interesting.”
“Does that mean you’ll keep reading?”
“You should know by now that I finish what I start.”
“Finish? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“It’s whatever you want it to be.”
“Then…I guess I want this to be more than a Christmas visit.”
“Is that something like a summer romance?”
“I think it might be.”
“You don’t have to worry about that. We don’t have many of those up here.”
“Summer romances?”
“Summers. Actually—”
He stopped to look down at the puppy, who was sitting at their feet, soulful eyes staring up at the man he’d obviously picked out as the object of his deepest affections. The stern lines of Sean’s face relaxed into the smile she was beginning to value for its rarity before he turned back to her. It faded as he looked straight into her eyes.
“I don’t make commitments lightly, Jenna. Once made, I don’t take them lightly. You should have figured that out by now.”
She nodded when he paused, her heart crowding her throat again as it had at the precinct.
“I wouldn’t have asked you up here if you weren’t important to me. But…I come with a lot of baggage, including two kids who were traumatized by their mother’s death before they were old enough to understand the concept of evil. I don’t intend for that to ever happen to them again. Not if I can help it. That said—” He swallowed, the movement strong enough to be visible down the strong brown column of his throat. “That said, I still want something for me. I guess I believe, selfish bastard that I am, that I deserve it.”
She waited again, but he didn’t go on. “And the something you want…?”
“Is you. Whatever part of your life you’ll let me have in mine.”
Her eyes stung again, but she ignored the burn. This was too important to risk screwing it up. And despite all her training, she wasn’t quite sure how to avoid that.
He hadn’t asked any of the conventional questions. And he’d made no promises. No declaration other than that he wanted her. And for right now that was enough. More than enough.
“Yes,” she said, stretching to put her cold lips against the warmth of his.
“Yes, what?” He whispered the words around her kiss.
“Whatever you want. Because that’s what I want, too.”
Buddy barked, somehow managing to imbue the sound with authority. A real dog’s bark. The first he’d made since they’d picked him out of the cage.
They turned to look down at him. He was standing now, still staring up at them expectantly. Eyes shining in the light from the porch, tail wagging, he seemed to be celebrating that he once again had their full attention.
“Okay, dopey,” Sean said. “You win. You can sleep in the bathroom. There’s nothing you can hurt in there.”
Buddy barked again, apparently in complete agreement with the plan. Sean laughed, the sound unexpected and, like the rare smile, incredibly appealing.
“Let’s go get the kids, all three of them, to bed,” he said, putting his arm around her waist to urge her toward the front door.
She leaned against his side as they walked up the low steps together, about to tuck Makaela’s children in for the night. And although the feeling was almost as unexpected as Sean’s laughter, Jenna discovered that there was something incredibly appealing about that prospect, too.
ISBN: 978-1-4603-6241-9
THE INQUISITOR
Copyright © 2006 by Mona Gay Thomas.
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