PAROLED!

by Paula Detmer Riggs

  "God help me," he muttered against her throat. "I want to make it good for you, but—"

  She kissed his nipple and watched it harden. Her fingers stroked the line of his back, testing the change in texture from smooth to hair rough. Her hand dipped lower, molding over the tight, hard-packed muscle. He shuddered again, this time against her breast.

  His mouth wet the silk of her teddy as his tongue lapped first one nipple into a painful tightness, then the other. Pleasure ran like warm water along the midline of her belly to the exquisitely sensitive mound between her legs.

  His mouth was hot and wanting on her skin, alternately lapping and kissing her until she was engulfed in hot, flaming need.

  "You feel so good," Tyler murmured against her skin. "So good."

  He was nearly drowning in sensations. His muscles burned with the effort of holding back. His breathing was an agony clawing at his chest. Sweat beaded his forehead and dampened his torso.

  He wanted this night to last forever, but the hot pressure in his loins threatened even his powerful control. Bending again to take her mouth, he slipped his hands under the silky veil keeping her skin from his and slipped it over her head.

  Using his tongue, he tasted the salt around her nipples and the sweet moisture pearling beneath her breasts.

  Lost in the swirl of sensation and need, Cait let her fingers clutch at his neck, his hair, his shoulders. The heat of his body and the musk of his arousal were nearly driving her mad.

  She writhed desperately, driven by an insatiable need. She tried to speak, but the hot sweet need running through her made her breathless. Instead, with shaking fingers, she slid her hand along his hard flank to the velvety hardness pressed against her thigh.

  The sweet pressure of her fingers against his distended flesh undid him. Fiery need clawed into him until he was powerless to resist.

  He tried to tell her that he needed her so much it scared him, but the words were locked behind the tension in his throat. Instead, he lovingly spread her legs and positioned himself above the soft, quivering mound that was so eager to welcome him.

  She tossed her head from side to side on the pillow. Her eyes were closed, her lashes dark against her flushed cheeks, her lips parted and swollen from his. Her breath came in husky gasps.

  Bracing himself on his good arm, he eased into her as slowly as his screaming nerves would permit. He kept his own eyes open and riveted on her passion-softened features. As he filled her to his full length, his name trembled on her mouth so caressingly that it brought a lump to his throat.

  Her lashes fluttered open, and her passion-drenched gaze sought his face. He became a man enthralled, driven by the urge to mate. He held himself tightly within her, rocking back and forth to the rhythm of her small, eager responses.

  He was utterly sensitive to her, moving to her direction, subjecting his own body to hers. So fierce was his concentration that he knew a split second before she did when the tension burst inside her, sending her head arching backward and her nails raking his shoulders.

  Even as he cried out her name, he poured himself into her in a torrent of hot, desperate need that was at the same time incredibly sweet.

  Holding her, caressing her, he felt the aftershocks take her in gentle, shuddering spasms. As he bent to kiss her again, a feeling he didn't recognize surged through him, gentling him.

  He rolled to his back and folded her against his chest. With his good hand he pulled the sheet over their sweat-slicked bodies and rubbed his face against her soft, hot cheek.

  Cait snuggled closer, too spent for words. Beneath her cheek, his heart thudded in a powerful rhythm that even now had only slowed a few beats from its frantic, sex-driven pounding.

  The motion of his hand slowly running up and down her spine was seductive and soothing, as soothing as his deep, even breathing and the rich, potent scent of him still clinging to her skin.

  He didn't have to be a doctor to win her respect. Or rich. Or any of the things he thought women wanted. She smiled, but deep inside a small niggling thought took root and refused to be dislodged. What if he didn't win an acquittal? it prodded. What if the judge never changed his sentence? What then?

  She shivered so violently that Tyler's arms closed tightly around her. "Cold?" he murmured in a drowsy voice that brought tears to her eyes.

  "Mmm," she answered, snuggling closer. "Go to sleep, darling. We have three more hours."

  * * *

  Chapter 13

  « ^ »

  "Smells like a damn camp fire in here." Dante cast a critical look at the half-completed repairs and grimaced. "How can you stand it?"

  Tyler rested his sore forearm on the bar and shrugged. "You can get used to anything, if you have to."

  Dante's gaze came back to his face. "How long before the repairs are finished?"

  "Three, four days. By Tuesday for sure."

  Dante toyed with the half-full glass of beer in front of him. "Courthouse scuttlebutt says the county DA's gonna come down heavy on your buddy Bronsky. Breaking and entering, arson, attempted murder."

  "So I hear."

  "He talk to you about testifying?"

  "Yes, last night. I said I would."

  Dante's expression said that he'd expected as much. "Did you tell him about the attack outside Cait's office?"

  "No."

  "Might make a difference in proving motive."

  "Seems to me that's pretty much proven already." Tyler folded his shirtsleeve another turn. As he did, he saw the scrawling signature on his cast. Kelsey Caitlin McClane.

  Crystal had wanted to call their baby Caitlin. He had refused. Caitlin McClane aroused images of someone else in his mind. Images he had vowed on his wedding day to banish forever. Now, however, they were back to tantalize and torment him all over again.

  Dante reached over the bar to snag another fish taco. Because Tyler had spent all his free time with Cait and Kelsey, he and Dante hadn't had dinner for several months. Both men had missed the hours they'd spent together, though neither would admit it to the other.

  "You got a reason to be so generous toward a man who tried to burn you alive?"

  "I don't want Cait involved in any of this. She'd have to be if the DA started nosing deeper." Tyler slugged down half the contents of the drink he'd fixed earlier.

  "For God's sake, Ty—"

  Dante caught the swift, cold look Tyler was aiming his way and scowled. "I hope the lady knows how much you care about her," he muttered before washing down the taco with the rest of his beer.

  Without commenting, Tyler refilled Dante's glass.

  "How's Kelsey?" the attorney asked.

  "Good. She turns nine on Saturday."

  "So I've heard at least a dozen times." Dante took a hefty swallow before wiping the foam from his upper lip with his tongue.

  Tyler flexed his fingers against the plaster cast. The pain was minimal now, but the damn thing was beginning to itch. "I asked Shuffler last week for permission to attend the party tomorrow. The bastard still hasn't given me an answer."

  "Be patient, Ty. He doesn't have a valid reason to deny permission so he's just trying to make you sweat before he has to give in."

  Tyler glanced toward the door he kept open most of the time now in an attempt to air the place. From the looks of the deeply blue, cloudless sky, it was a glorious day outside, and it suddenly occurred to him that it was spring. The hills weren't yet green, but wildflowers were blooming.

  He found himself wondering if Cait would like to walk the hills with him someday soon. When he was free to ask her for a date without worrying, that is. When he was free to do a lot of things.

  "Jess, tell me the truth. Am I just kidding myself, thinking I might be able to practice medicine again? If we win in court, I mean?"

  Without seeming to, Dante studied Tyler's harsh profile in the mirror behind the bar. The past weeks had changed his friend. Mostly by tempering some of his bitterness, but in other ways, too. He didn't seem as rest
less. His eyes had more expression.

  "I don't know, Ty. And that's the truth. Cases like this depend too much on the human factor."

  Tyler's brows pulled into a frown. "What the hell does that mean?"

  "In a way, the licensing board is a lot like the parole board. Sometimes they have too much latitude in interpreting the facts and not enough sense to interpret them properly."

  "Meaning?"

  "Meaning that their personal biases can sometimes get in the way. We could go in there with irrefutable evidence proving that you were shafted by your ex-wife and still get one stubborn, opinionated jerk who's already made up his mind and refuses to change it under pain of death."

  "Like that bastard Shuffler."

  Dante nodded. He knew all about Ty's continual hassle with his parole officer and the reason behind it. "One thing I've learned, buddy," he murmured into his beer. "Life ain't always fair."

  Dante didn't so much as glance at the neatly pinned empty sleeve of his sweater. He didn't have to. Tyler knew exactly what he was thinking.

  Dante turned his glass around and around, trying to find a way to bring up a touchy subject. Push Tyler McClane too far and he withdrew to a place where not even God himself could reach him. And yet this was too important to bury. Finally he told himself that he had to risk Ty's wrath, no matter how icy he became.

  He took a quick swallow of beer before saying softly, "You're sleeping with Cait Fielding, aren't you?"

  "Is there a reason for that question?" Tyler's voice was clipped.

  "Yes, and don't bother to tell me to mind my own business. In case you've forgotten, getting you acquitted is my business."

  "So?"

  "Do you have any idea what Lamont would do to her if he knew?"

  "Kelsey's willing to testify. Hazel will corroborate her story. You don't need Cait's testimony."

  "The hell I don't. I'd sell my Mercedes for at least one more corroborating witness."

  "Cait's still a credible witness."

  "Like hell. Not if the two of you are sexually involved."

  Tyler walked to the end of the bar and poured himself a cup of stale coffee. It burned his throat and churned in his gut.

  It had been four days since he'd seen Cait. Four days since he'd held her and kissed her and listened to her quiet breathing in the healing silence of her bedroom.

  He missed her like hell. He thought about her almost constantly. Not even the hard physical labor he'd put in on the repairs helped. The worst times were at night. The loneliness crowded him badly then, just as it had in prison.

  "I think she's falling in love with me."

  When Dante blistered the air with a creative curse, Tyler realized to his chagrin that he'd spoken his thought aloud. "Yeah, I know," he said with a crooked grin. "The lady deserves a lot better."

  "I hope to hell the lady knows what she's taking on."

  Tyler thought about the soft, sweet passion in her eyes and wanted to groan in frustration. A fair number of women had wanted him, but none had ever made him feel as special and strong as Cait could with just a smile.

  That realization had him lying awake for the past three nights, wondering how he could find the strength to walk away from her if he lost in court again.

  Tyler drained his cup and set it on the sink before returning to his customary spot near the end of the long, scarred bar. Opposite, Dante watched him with brooding eyes.

  "How about the lady? How do you feel about her?"

  Tyler stared at the shallow groove worn in the wooden flooring behind the bar where countless guys like him had walked while tending to the customers out front. It wasn't a bad life for some guys. For him, it was just another kind of prison, one he wouldn't ask anyone to share.

  "Don't worry, Jess. Until I know if I have a future or not, I can't afford to feel anything."

  Dante sat without moving for an instant, his thoughts turning his eyes very dark and still. And then, with one swift movement of his strong hand, he lifted the glass to his mouth and drained it before slamming it onto the bar again.

  "Hit me again, buddy. I feel the need to get very, very drunk this afternoon."

  Tyler glanced at his unfinished drink. "You and me both," he said with a short laugh as he reached for Dante's glass.

  "Go ahead, McClane," called a voice from the doorway. "I would purely love to see you drunk on your ass. So would the parole board."

  Tyler stood motionless, watching Harvey Shuffler amble into the Horseshoe as though he owned the damn place. Dante muttered an obscene opinion of the fat man's sexual proclivities under his breath before swiveling to watch his swaggering approach.

  Tyler wholeheartedly agreed with his friend and looked forward to the day when he would be free to tell Shuffler to go to hell.

  "This is a surprise," Tyler said when Shuffler was close enough for him to smell the sweat staining the underarms of his limp white shirt.

  "Rules say I have to make occasional surprise visits to the parolees under my jurisdiction."

  "So they do." Tyler glanced at the bottles arrayed on glass shelves behind him. "You want a drink?"

  Shuffler glanced at the half-full glass near Tyler's loosely coiled fist. "Maybe I'll just finish this one," he said with a sly look. He lifted the glass and sniffed. A frown crossed his face before he took a tentative sip.

  "Tonic," he muttered with a sneer. "Damn sissy's drink."

  He slammed the drink to the bar and glared across its expanse at Tyler's carefully expressionless face.

  "Think you got me, don't you, McClane? Think you put one over on me, huh?"

  Tyler leaned against the counter and crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't think you know my attorney, Jess Dante."

  Shuffler's gaze touched Dante's face briefly before angling brazenly to Dante's empty sleeve. "You're the race driver, right?"

  "Ex-race driver."

  "I hear you scored McClane here a new trial. Promised the judge new evidence, right?"

  Dante raised one devil-black eyebrow. "That's privileged information."

  "Nothin's privileged when it comes to one of my parolees, counselor."

  "A matter of opinion, Shuffler."

  "Correction, counselor. It's a matter of law. Just like your buddy here, I'm an expert on the rules." Shuffler slanted Tyler a hooded glance. Tyler stared back at him without reacting.

  "Let me give you some advice, Shuffler," Dante said in a voice that was suddenly sharp and commanding. "Keep whatever you've heard about this case to yourself. And I mean all to yourself. Otherwise you just might be opening yourself up to a charge of obstructing justice."

  "Let me give you some advice, counselor. Don't count on this case ever getting to trial."

  Tyler heard a new confidence in Shuffler's voice and went cold inside. Nothing showed on his face, however, as he asked Shuffler if he'd like to take a look around. "As part of your inspection," he added.

  "Nah, I've gotten everything I needed this trip." He grinned to himself, as though he found his own words particularly amusing. Tyler fought a quick battle with his pride and lost.

  "What about Kelsey's party?"

  "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot," Shuffler replied readily, as though he had been expecting the question. "I've got your request on my desk. Been meaning to call you about it."

  Tyler waited, but inside his temper was prodding him.

  "Aren't you going to ask me what I decided?" Shuffler asked when it became obvious that Tyler wasn't going to speak.

  Tyler caught the warning look Dante sent him and managed to rein in his rage. "What have you decided?" he asked in a flat tone.

  Shuffler smirked. "Go ahead and go, McClane. Have a wonderful time."

  With a nod toward Dante and another smirking smile, Shuffler ambled off. A few seconds after he'd disappeared through the open door, Tyler heard the sound of a car being started in the parking lot, followed by the receding drone of a badly tuned motor.

  He and Dante exchanged looks. "Tha
t bastard was enjoying himself," Tyler muttered.

  Dante's eyes narrowed. "It's almost like he knows something we don't and can't wait to spring it on us. Or rather, on you."

  "He's bluffing."

  "I don't think so." Dante frowned. "Did you tell him that there were going to be other children at the party?"

  Tyler nodded. "Cait even gave me the names."

  "Who else is coming?"

  "Dr. O'Connor and Kelsey's regular baby-sitter."

  "No one else?"

  "As far as I know."

  Dante's mouth flattened. "I don't like it, Ty. That guy is trouble with a capital T."

  "Yeah, and he's all mine for another seven months at least."

  Dante drummed his fingers on the bar. In his eyes, the look of suspicion deepened. "How would you feel about missing the party this year?"

  Tyler's head came up, and his eyes slitted. "I've missed too many already."

  "Kelsey would understand."

  "No she wouldn't. Neither would Cait."

  Dante heard the warning in his friend's voice and backed off. It was becoming more and more apparent that Ty had a blind spot when it came to the two females, mother and daughter, who had become his family in every way but legally.

  Even as Dante turned the conversation to something else, he made a private vow to do some checking into Harvey Shuffler's comings and goings. Two could play that bastard's game.

  * * *

  It was already close to midnight. If he didn't leave now, he wouldn't get to Sutter Creek before dawn.

  "Sweetheart, have a heart. It's a long cold drive."

  "Just one more kiss."

  Tyler groaned, and Cait's mouth became fluid under his. He ran his tongue over her curving bottom lip. She tasted of the rich Beaujolais she'd had after dinner.

  He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, holding her tight, and buried his face in the curve of her neck. She buried her face against his shoulder and held on to him. She felt him smile against her skin.

  "I can't seem to get enough of you," he murmured. Trembling, she drew back and waited until he opened his eyes to look with fevered hunger into hers.

  "I wish you didn't have to go."

  "So do I." Tyler ran his hands through the thick, shimmering length of her hair, trying to repair the damage his fingers had so recently caused. "And right now, before I forget everything but making love to you."