by Karin Tabke
“It was a mistake.”
He laughed, the sound soft and throaty. The percussion of it ran along her cheeks, making her hotter.
“I don’t think so. Sex like that is never a mistake.”
She pulled away. “I wouldn’t know.”
He moved back and sat up. He made himself a sandwich and she watched him. He was addictive, and if she wasn’t careful, she just might overdose on the man and die, or wish she had when he betrayed her.
Frankie grabbed her wineglass and took a hearty gulp.
Reese chewed slowly, a contemplative look on his face.
“I’ve never wanted to keep a woman to myself like I do you.”
Her heart flipped, then flopped at his confession. She knew for a man like Reese it was a huge confession. “I’m flattered.” Was he being honest or just stringing her along? She eyed him cryptically. She didn’t know for sure, but she liked to think that maybe there was some truth to his words regardless of his motives.
She finished the wine and set her glass in the open basket. “We should get going back to the house.”
When she moved to stand, Reese grabbed her hand and pulled her down to him. “Relax, and come here for a minute.”
Reese watched her eyes widen like a frightened doe. “I won’t hurt you, Frankie,” he whispered. She swallowed and he inwardly cringed. Lying had always come easy to him while undercover. Not so easy this time.
She nodded. “I want to believe you.”
“Try.”
She nodded again. “No sex.”
He grinned. “Let’s play it by ear.”
This time she grinned and pulled away and stood. “Sure.”
The climb up the trail was considerably more work than the climb down, especially in damp, sandy jeans. Reese couldn’t wait to get a real shower and into dry clothes.
“Let’s go into the main house,” Frankie said. “We can clean up and I have a few more ideas for shots.”
“Don’t I get a break?”
“Stop whining.”
As they crested the path to the back of the house, Reese slowed his step.
“Let’s be careful,” he said.
“No one knows where I am. I didn’t tell anyone.” Besides, Connie and Unk had already gone through the house, and those that needed to know, knew the compound was impregnable.
“Would anyone suspect?”
“No.” Except her mother, and she didn’t count. Lucia would never work against her only child.
Reese scanned the dark stone walls of the shadowy house. Despite sitting on the edge of the ocean, where sunlight bathed it daily, the house sat dark and brooding on a high bluff. In the darkness large windows along the east side absorbed the moonlight, their glass foreboding. High stone walls surrounded the property, and surveillance cameras watched from strategic placement among the tall Monterey pine. So why wasn’t he hearing an electric hum?
His suspicion rose. “When was the last time anyone from the family was here?”
He watched a shadow fall over Frankie’s face. “I’m not sure. I know Anthony and his mother have been here and my uncle. I don’t know when the Wilsons left.”
They made their way toward the back of the house, where Frankie pushed the top of a large rock near a sliding glass door. A lid slowly opened, exposing a coded box. She pressed in a code that slid back to reveal a panel. “That’s odd.”
Reese stepped closer to look at the panel of LED numbers and letters along with several colored buttons and program dials. Very sophisticated. “The alarm isn’t set,” she said. Which meant Connie, Unk, or the Wilsons forgot to set it.
“Let me go in and check out the house first.”
“No, let me set the sensors. It’ll let me know from here if there are any bodies in the house.”
“Bodies?”
“Not dead, the sensors pick up body heat.”
She fiddled with a few dials, entered a code. “Nothing, not even a squirrel.”
“Could it be the sensors aren’t working?”
“Anything is possible. Let’s go in. Do you have your gun?”
Reese raised a brow. “I don’t normally —”
“Knock it off. Do you have it?”
He nodded and pulled it from the picnic basket.
“Good, let’s get going.”
Although it had been closed for almost two weeks, the dark house smelled musty, old. Frankie shivered. Like death. Although as a child the house scared her, since she’d outgrown her childhood fears, she had always felt safe. Now she felt like an outsider. She knew her father loved the place — she had too — but now she found it sad and depressing and would always think of her father’s harsh words spoken in his library. “You are dead to me.”
Reese touched her shoulder, jolting her out of her daydream. “What happened here?”
She smiled sadly and turned on the light to the large mudroom. “My father loved this house. He preferred to run business from here than in the San Francisco offices.” She led the way into the cavernous kitchen. Copper pans hung from black wrought-iron hangers, stainless steel appliances gleamed under the soft dusk light. A large chopping block table with a wide stainless steel sink dominated the middle of the room. The faint scent of garlic and fresh herbs permeated the room. “Father loved to eat.”
“I love to eat.”
His words sent shivers stampeding across her skin as she remembered his mouth on her that morning. Had it been just this morning when she woke to find him so aroused in her bedroom? Had it been just this morning when he sent her off into space after he put his mouth between her thighs and made a meal out of her? Her body flushed hot. Mentally she shook herself, pushing all thoughts of Reese and his seduction away. She needed to concentrate; her life depended on it.
Frankie showed Reese the alarm setup, and in the process reset all of the preliminary alarms and activated the cameras.
After an extensive search of the house, it was obvious there were no unwelcome guests. No Winstons. Not even a squirrel. Where the caretakers were, she had no clue. She couldn’t blame Mrs. Winston if she quit after the horrible shouting match she overheard between Frankie and her father. But still, it wasn’t like them to abandon the grounds.
“Let’s get our clothes from the truck and clean up,” Frankie said.
Reese grinned his wolfish grin. “Show me the way.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Frankie showed Reese to a room next to her old room. They agreed to meet in the hallway in twenty minutes. They would pack everything except their new toothbrushes and put them into the SUV, then they would get to work.
She took the quickest shower of her life, wanting to get on with business. She slipped on a pair of black hip-hugger terry cloth jogging pants and a white-button down terry midriff. Camera in hand, she paced the hallway outside Reese’s door.
She stared when his door opened and he stepped out of the room, showered, shaved, and clad in a white-button down chambray shirt tucked into very tight acid-washed 501s. Damn, he looked good enough to eat.
Frankie hiked her camera bag over her shoulder and said, “First we’re going to do some recon.”
He cocked a brow.
“Don’t play coy. You know that word.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but she turned and told him not to waste his breath.
Reese followed her down the wide staircase and then down to the north wing to her father’s office. She quietly opened the heavy oak office door, then leaned back against the paneled plane. Rich aromatic cigar smoke lingered in the room. Her father loved a good cigar, and the ones he smoked didn’t bother her, not like some of the cheap ones she’d smelled. The light scent of fine brandy mingled with the cigar aroma made her eyes fill with tears. She loved her father. And she missed him. He wasn’t the poster child for Dads “R” Us, but he was her father and in his way she knew he loved her.
Swiping a tear from her cheek, Frankie took a big breath and resolved to find the document. She glanced at Reese
, who stood silent in the doorway. She was grateful for his silence.
Setting her camera bag down on the desk, she moved to stand behind her father’s massive mahogany and brass desk. Sliding a hand along the smooth edge, she blinked back another onslaught of tears. She looked up to find Reese had not moved, but his eyes were soft in understanding. “I need your help,” she said.
“Anything.”
She smiled and swiped her moist eyes. “I must find my father’s will. It’s paramount to my family’s survival.”
Reese nodded.
“This desk and office has all kinds of false bottoms in the drawers and side panels. I want to be careful and not destroy anything.” Taking a deep breath, she asked Reese point-blank. “If you were a will, and didn’t want anyone to find you, where would you hide?”
“How about in plain sight?”
“Good idea, and something my father would do.”
“If you don’t mind me asking, is there no one in your family who has a copy?”
“The one my brother’s waving around is bogus.”
Reese nodded. “What does your brother stand to lose if the new will turns up?”
“Skin, this house.” Father had told her since she was the only one who appreciated it, the house should rightfully go to her. But that was a long time ago.
“Are you kidding me, Frankie?”
Her head snapped back at his incredulous tone. “Kidding you how?”
“Here we’ve been tossing around names of people who’d like to see you as fertilizer and you drop this on me? Anthony gets your magazine and this house, which would go for what? Fifteen, twenty mil? Are you that blind, or just dumb?”
Standing straight up, she clenched her hands, strode into his space, then jabbed an index finger in his chest. “Look here, mister, I’m neither blind nor stupid, and for what it’s worth, you don’t know my brother, I do, and despite the fact he’s a spoiled mama’s boy, and despite what he stands to lose, and despite the obvious, in my heart I don’t believe he’s out to kill me.” Taking a deep breath, Frankie continued, “And if, and that’s a big if, Anthony is behind this, my uncle would skin him alive strip by strip and throw them all into the bay for the sharks to eat, and don’t think Anthony doesn’t know it!”
Reese shook his head and wiped his hand across his face. “You know what? Let’s for the sake of argument say everyone, including me, wants a piece of you. Now what do you do?”
“Tell you all to get fucked.”
Reese grinned. “I’ll get fucked all right, but first, I’ll help you. Now, did Daddy have a favorite piece of furniture or book or toy he might slip this elusive will into?”
“He spent most of his time here, but his favorite place in the house was the atrium.”
“Do you think he hid it in a tree?”
“No, smart-ass, it’s here in this house, and even though I’m sure his widow and my uncle have gone through it, I can feel it’s here, I just don’t know where.”
“And how many other people do you think will figure out it’s here?”
“Everyone knows this place has the tightest security money can buy. Besides, if they were going to come look, they already would have. If we get company, we’ll know the minute someone tries to come onto the property.”
“I suggest after we do what we have to do here, we find somewhere else to go for a few days and lie low.”
“That was my plan.”
Reese reached out and touched her shoulder. “It’s going to be okay, Frankie.”
She nodded, her damp hair falling across her eyes. She swiped it away. She wanted to believe him, to wake up and have the nightmare be over. His fingers pressed reassuringly against her skin. She felt a little crack in her shell and thought how nice it would be to trust him. “I know.” And she planned to make it okay, with or without Reese.
He sensed her discomfort, so he looked around the room. “His office is as good a place as any to start.”
They dug in. After almost two hours of pulling out books, files, furniture, and paintings, they came up empty.
Frankie sat down in her father’s studded black leather chair and blew her hair out of her face. “I give up.” She felt dusty, dirty, and disappointed. Damn! She so badly wanted something to go right.
Reese squatted down in front of her. “Who would have a copy?”
“If anyone, Aldo Geppi, and he’s dead.”
“Nice family you have.”
“Leave me alone.”
He stood. “Let’s go check out the atrium.”
Frankie grabbed her camera. “Plan on showing some skin, it’s a great place to get in some shots. But first I want to get some out by the pool. The night lighting is incredible.”
“I see how it is. I’m just skin, bones, and muscles to you.”
She smiled despite her fatigue, her body suddenly revving up at the opportunity to see Reese undress again. “Carpe diem, baby.” And she swept past him.
“I’d like to seize something else.”
As they opened the door from the kitchen to the back of the house, Frankie stopped, her feet planted on the threshold. “It’s raining.”
“I can see that.”
Not wasting any time, Frankie closed the door and locked it, then grabbed Reese’s hand and pulled him behind her. “Follow me.”
As they wound their way back to the front of the house and then down a long, dark hallway to the south wing, Frankie smiled in front of a set of large double doors.
“Here’s the next best thing.” She opened the doors to reveal an indoor forest, complete with waterfall and swimming lagoon.
Reese smiled and entered the atrium-solarium-pool room.
“My favorite place on the entire estate. My father’s too. From the time I was a little girl I could always find him out here reading.” She pointed to an old cane-back recliner propped up against the steamy glass wall. “He would sit out here and smoke a cigar and feed the birds. Anyone who wanted to see him had to put up with the humidity and the birds flying around.”
Reese looked at the palms and ficus growing naturally from the mounds of earth lining the deep blue water of the lagoon. The waterfall made soft, soothing sounds.
Frankie looked up to the glass ceiling and tall trees. “The birds are up there somewhere. There are open vents for them to come and go. They’re quiet now because it’s nighttime.”
Reese knelt down and trailed his hand through the water. “It’s warm.” He grinned up at her and stood, unbuttoning his shirt.
“Not so fast, cowboy. I want to set this up just right.”
She slid her father’s chair out from the wall, pulled out the swing arm, and set her equipment on it.
“I’m thinking of you naked under the waterfall. No, no, wait. In your jeans, shirt unbuttoned, water sluicing over your shoulders and down your chest.”
Reese kicked off his boots and socks, then unbuttoned his shirt. Frankie nodded and attached the appropriate lens. She turned on several sunlamps. With the rain hitting the windows, clouding them up, and the angle of the sunlamps, a sultry feeling took over the room. The humidity was high, the temperature higher, and Frankie warmed up to her work. She pushed away thoughts of her father, and people trying to kill her.
Reese stepped into the shallow pool and waded toward the eight-foot waterfall.
“Hey,” Frankie called.
Reese turned and quirked a dark brow.
“I want you to warm up. Imagine you’re undressing your fantasy woman. I want to see it in your eyes, feel it through my lens.”
He scooped up a handful of the warm water and splashed it across his chest. Soaked, the white fabric clung to him like a second skin. “Since my fantasy woman is standing in front of me, let me show you.” He stepped closer.
She smiled and focused the lens. “Tell me, Reese. Tell me what you want to do to me.”
He smiled slowly, a shameless gleam in his eyes. “Lots of things, but first?” His hot gaze dipped to her
breasts, then slowly back to her lens. “First, I’d splash you with water and watch your nipples harden under your shirt.” He flicked water at her, and she jumped back.
“Careful of the camera.” She grinned but moved closer. Her nipples didn’t need water to stiffen. She felt the tingle beneath her bra. His gaze dropped to her chest again.
“Looks like I didn’t need water.”
Slowly she shook her head, keeping her eye to the lens. “Closer.” Her voice squeaked, and she flushed. She sounded like a schoolgirl.
Reese reached out an index finger and traced a circle in the air several inches from her right nipple. “Then I’d trace your tits with a wet finger, and feel you get harder under my fingertip.” He stopped a foot from her, and even though the room was steamy, she felt his body heat across the space.
“Next I’d unbutton your shirt, button by button, while I licked and sucked your lips. With my free hand I’d grab your ass and thrust your hips against my hard-on.”
His hand lowered to the rising mound beneath his unbuttoned pants. His breath hitched when he touched himself, and Frankie caught her breath. His long, tan fingers splayed across his groin and his hips rocked ever so slightly.
“You’d drop to your knees, wanting to spring me, but I’d pull you back up and slide your shirt off. It would float away on the water, your bra would follow. Then I’d take you under the waterfall, letting the warm water slide over your tits. I’d suck on them at the same time.” He moved backward toward the falls, his eyes never leaving her lens. “You’d tell me how much you loved my body and wanted to touch, but I wouldn’t let you.”
“Why not?”
“Because that, my sweet Francesca, would be giving you what you want, and I can’t allow that.”
“You’re mean.”
“You have no idea how mean I can be.” He slapped his hands together, the sharp crack startling her. “I think I’d like to punish you.”
“Punish me?”
“Yes, punish.”
“Why?”
He smiled and backed closer into the waterfall. “Because you’re spoiled and deserve it.”
“I’ve never been spanked by anyone, not even my father. What makes you think you’re man enough?”