Strong, Sleek and Sinful

by Lorie O'Clare

  “I don’t know if I was in a hurry, but I was obviously not paying attention to how fast I was going. I’ve been driving all night,” she admitted, aching to take his hat off. It was as bad as if he wore dark sunglasses late at night. “I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention.”

  His lips pressed into a thin line, and a moment of silence passed before his deep baritone brushed over her again, causing every hair on her body to stand at attention and her insides to tighten, creating a heat she was sure he must be able to notice.

  “I find it hard to believe a special agent with the FBI wasn’t paying attention,” he accused. “Why are you here, Kylie?”

  His cold words were a stab to her heart. He didn’t want her here. She could barely answer from the lump that threatened to close her throat. Worse yet, she didn’t know how to answer. And if she did, her voice would crack, her leg would give out, or something else would happen to make this moment turn from bad to worse.

  As a warm breeze wrapped around her, a damp sweat spread over her body and her heart pattered furiously in her chest. Lately panic attacks were hitting her without warning. The psychiatrist she’d been forced to visit after being shot told her they were possibly a reaction to the medication she’d been on in the hospital. Not to mention, being shot was a traumatic experience, not only physically but also emotionally. Everyone handled it differently.

  Kylie wasn’t sure she agreed either of those was the reason for her sudden erratic emotions. “I have some time off,” she heard herself say.

  “So passing through again?”

  Maybe it was for the best that she not even make it into town before learning she wasn’t wanted here. If she continued with this conversation she would break down, right here on the side of the interstate in the dark. Stability would return to her in time. And her own mental counseling told her that once she put closure where closure belonged and understood if there was anything between her and Perry, she would have better control of her emotions. As before, she would be able to keep them in check, under lock and key.

  First, though, she feared, she needed to get that key back, because someone had stolen her heart.

  “Let me get my driver’s license. You need to write your ticket.” She couldn’t take him standing there, not moving, his dark, cold manner eating her alive. “I promise not to speed again.”

  He didn’t stop her, or comment, when she turned her back on him and leaned into her car. When the muscles in her outer thigh, around the mending wound, quivered as she shifted her weight, she braced herself, putting her hand on her opened door. Perry didn’t say anything, or stop her from getting her purse and registration out of her car.

  An emptiness consumed her when he took her information and returned to his car. He didn’t tell her to wait in her car or follow him to his. She saw his partner sitting in the passenger seat, although she didn’t take time to note his reaction to her being here. She’d never had time to know Carl Ramos, but more than likely he would know something about her. At least Perry’s opinion of her being here when he returned to his patrol car.

  Kylie felt as though she floated without direction all of a sudden. While recovering and then after spending time with her parents, she knew without a doubt she would return here. All that was on her mind throughout her recovery was seeing Perry. Maybe she should have exerted the effort to pick up the phone and call him. Why had she thought returning here would be like it was in movies, with the two of them running into each other’s arms and promising to be together forever?

  Forever didn’t exist for her.

  Although it seemed like forever, barely eight minutes passed before Perry returned, handing her personal information back to her, and a small clipboard for her to sign for the speeding ticket. Her hand was so damp and she was so shaken, she doubted the signature was legible. It didn’t matter. He tore her copy for her, handed it to her with his gloved hand, without bending down to see her better as she sat in her car. Another plus, tears threatened to fall and a pending pity party would release soon enough.

  “You didn’t say how long you would be here,” he said, his tone still flat, unwelcoming, while he stood outside her car door.

  With her window down, the temperature inside her car rose drastically. Sweat beaded over her flesh under her clothes, adding to her discomfort.

  “I … I’m not sure,” she said, admitting to herself it was the truth. In spite of her two months off, did she really want to stay where she wasn’t wanted? There wasn’t any point in going to the interview. She couldn’t stay here, or work here. This was Perry’s town. If she wasn’t welcome, she wasn’t welcome.

  “Where are you headed?”

  That much was a simple answer. “I have reservations at the Holiday Inn.”

  “I’ll follow you there.”

  Kylie turned to look up at him, confused why he would suggest doing so. But he’d turned already, returning to his car.

  Way too aware of his headlights beaming in her rearview mirror, Kylie was so sick to her stomach when she pulled into the hotel parking lot she couldn’t think what to do. Her luggage was in the trunk. But should she haul all of it in?

  Perry parked at the edge of the parking lot, not getting out of his car, and possibly doing paperwork. He watched her when she walked into the lobby and checked in, and Kylie felt his eyes boring into her backside when she moved her car in front of her motel room door. Did he want to see how much luggage she’d brought? That would clue him in on how long she planned on staying here.

  He didn’t approach her, didn’t offer to help with her luggage, and didn’t pull out of the parking lot when she finally decided on her overnight bag and laptop, then disappeared into her room and closed her door. Like she would be able to sleep with him sitting out there.

  After pacing the room for fifteen minutes, sitting on the edge of the king-sized bed when her leg started throbbing and peeking out the closed curtain half a dozen times to see him still sitting there, she finally opted for a hot bath. When she got out, still nervous and feeling more out of sorts than she had when she climbed into the hot water, Perry’s patrol car was gone.

  A part of her left with him. Kylie climbed into the too-large bed, cuddling into a fetal position, and let the tears fall.

  On Wednesday, Kylie had been in Mission Hills for two days. Her laptop was online, available for instant messages, but none came. Her cell was fully charged, and she got several phone calls. None of them were from Perry. She’d forced herself to go to the mall, trepidation over running into one of his nieces bringing on another of her annoying panic attacks. But when she saw no one she knew, even when she drove to the grocery store and purchased a few things to eat in her motel room to give herself a break from restaurant food, the overwhelming emptiness threatened to consume her.

  Perry couldn’t make his message clearer if he yelled it in her face. He was no longer interested. No matter the intimate words they had shared on the phone a couple months ago before she lost service and spent two months in the jungle, enough time had apparently passed that he no longer felt that way.

  “So what to do now?” she asked her reflection, standing with her hair in a towel and her bathrobe hanging over her naked body. She’d lost a lot of weight. “That appointment is this afternoon. You go or cancel.”

  Her reflection stared back at her dumbly, not answering. She shifted her attention to the phone in the room and the phone book she’d put underneath it when she’d ordered delivery the other day. Maybe she was just more bullheaded than most, but this wasn’t enough closure. It could be that she was more of a masochist than she cared to admit. She needed to be yelled at in the face to get the truth to sink in. And there was only one way to make that happen.

  Sitting on the edge of the bed with the phone book, she flipped through it, surprised but pleased that Megan Vetter, Perry’s sister, was listed in the book. Using her cell phone, while a small part of her insisted that seven thirty in the morning wasn’t the best time to call
a household with children when they were probably all scurrying to get ready for school, Kylie dialed the number before she lost her nerve.

  She had no idea where the powerful special agent, with nerves of steel, had disappeared. But she wasn’t anywhere near while the phone rang once, twice, and a breathless girl answered with a cheery hello.

  “Hi,” Kylie said, licking her dry lips. “Is Megan there?”

  “Who is this?”

  “This is Kylie.”

  Silence. Kylie waited it out.

  “Kylie who?” the girl asked.

  Kylie sucked in a breath. “Kylie Donovan.”

  “I knew you weren’t a college student and you insisted you were. You lied to me.” Dani hung up on her.

  “Crap,” Kylie said, hanging up on her end and dropping her head into her hands. Her towel fell forward, twisted around her hair, and weighed heavy as it hung to the floor.

  Her cell phone rang and she struggled to untangle the towel, then tossed it on the bed as she grabbed her cell and stared at the name on her phone. She’d never deleted Dani’s cell phone number and it was calling her now. Apparently the teenager felt she had a right to chew Kylie out more.

  “Hello,” Kylie said, and headed to the bathroom for her brush before her hair dried in a tangled mess.

  “Why did you lie? And you left without even saying goodbye? Do you have any idea how badly you hurt my uncle?”

  “Dani, I came back here for him. But he won’t come see me. Do you have any idea—”

  “You came back here for him?” Dani interrupted.

  Kylie swallowed, realizing she was dumping everything she had held in the last few days on the teenager, or at least was ready to until she’d been interrupted. “Yes,” she admitted.

  “Then why are you calling here?”

  “Dani, he knows I’m here. He knows what hotel I’m at and what room I’m in, and since the night I arrived he hasn’t sought me out. He talked to me the night I arrived and he was so cold to me. I thought I could talk to all of you. If it is true that he isn’t interested, I’ll leave.”

  “You need to tell my uncle that. He’s stubborn but not stupid. I have to go. The bus is here. Bye-bye.” Dani hung up without waiting for Kylie to tell her goodbye.

  It took a teenager telling her what she knew all along. Kylie dressed quickly, keeping it simple with a pair of jeans and a sleeveless blouse, and left her hotel before she lost her nerve.

  It was already hot outside but she wasn’t ready to show off her scar yet by wearing shorts. Hiding in her room wouldn’t resolve anything. She had an appointment at four o’clock this afternoon. Time was running out on determining her future.

  A calm came over her as she pulled into Perry’s driveway. One way or another, very soon she would be able to lay out plans for her future, maybe even the rest of her life. No more riding in limbo. No more hiding and trembling. Her resolve returned to her as if a dam had broken inside her, returning her confidence and determination. She’d gotten this far in life reaching out and taking what she wanted. There was something else she wanted, and now was the time to take it.

  Kylie parked her car, turned off the engine, and got out. His Jeep wasn’t in the driveway. She looked at her watch: eight AM. He either had left for the day or wasn’t home yet. She hoped it was the latter. It would suck if she had to break and enter and wait for him for eight hours. Kylie smiled, imagining a concerned neighbor calling Dispatch to inform them that the good cop Lieutenant Perry’s home was being broken into.

  Testing the doorknob on the back door where he’d entered with Kylie before, she wasn’t surprised that it was locked. The garage was locked, too, as was the front door. Kylie would have been surprised to learn otherwise, but checking helped her kill time. She walked around to her car again, glancing at her cell phone to see the time. Fifteen minutes had passed. If he worked the night shift, he would be here in less than half an hour.

  Unless he had someone else in his life now and possibly would go to her house.

  Kylie kicked the thought out of her head. The connection they had was too strong. From the moment they’d met up until her leaving, the feelings between them were so intense they created charged currents in the air. It was more than a sexual attraction. At least she knew it was for her. More than once while she was in the hospital, the last thing she could have done was made love, yet she still craved being with him. Too many times she wanted to call him. And she’d chickened out.

  Her chickenshit days were over.

  Kylie leaned against the back of her Toyota, crossing one leg over the other, and watched large green leaves rustle in the trees, as a warm breeze seemed to bring everything around her to life. Why was she just now noticing how gorgeous this part of the country was?

  Eight fifteen passed, then eight twenty. She studied her fingernails, the way her shoes looked on her feet. She stared up and down the quiet street. Maybe he did work the day shift, even though he’d worked the night shift a couple days ago. She would give him five more minutes.

  She heard the engine before she saw his Jeep. Perry came around the corner slowly, their eyes locking immediately. Her stomach twisted into so many knots she couldn’t breathe. But nor could she take her eyes off his. Perry wasn’t wearing a hat any longer. He didn’t have on sunglasses. She locked gazes with his, drowning in that dark, commanding stare that never left hers.

  He parked behind her car. She wouldn’t be able to leave until he moved it. Was that a good sign?

  Kylie dragged in a deep breath, which got stuck around the lump in her throat. Perry turned off his car but then sat there, staring at her, his long fingers wrapped around his steering wheel. She’d come this far. She wouldn’t go any farther. Perry would get out of his Jeep and come to her. She wouldn’t walk to him.

  Maybe he read her mind. When he stepped out of the car, his uniform clinging to him as if he’d sweated a lot during his shift, or for some reason had been wet, she couldn’t help dropping her gaze and appreciating the bulging muscle easily viewed through the taut material.

  If anything, his dark hair seemed a bit longer, with slight curls covering his ears and looking sexy as hell. His green eyes were so intense they stole her breath, but his slow, quiet way he stalked her reminded Kylie of a predator moving in on his prey. It was almost too much. She felt her wounded leg quiver and worried if she stared much longer she’d drool down her jaw while her legs gave out and turned her into a puddle of pent-up desire at his feet.

  Perry stopped within a few feet of her, crossing his arms over his chest and taking his time letting his gaze travel over her. Kylie’s skin prickled. There wasn’t disapproval on his face. If anything, his relaxed features looked less guarded than they did the night she drove into town.

  “Did Dani call you?” She broke the silence.

  “Nope.”

  Kylie nodded. He wasn’t going to make this easy. But then she already knew not a damn thing about Perry Flynn was easy. “I need some answers, Perry.”

  His green eyes darkened, causing her insides to tremble with nervous anticipation.

  “I need a shower.” He jingled his keys in his hand. “And I haven’t eaten since yesterday. We can talk in a bit.”

  Perry started to the door and she walked as far as her car door, not sure whether she was invited inside or not. But when he unlocked his door, he stood to the side, looking her way. Kylie did her best not to limp toward him.

  “What happened to you?” he asked from behind her, closing the door and then following her into his kitchen.

  Obviously her limp was more noticeable than she wished. “I got shot.”

  “Where?”

  She didn’t know if he meant where as in where had she been when she got shot or where on her body. She placed her hand gently over her outer thigh just below her right hip. “Right here while I was in Nicaragua.”

  “How bad was it?”

  “I was in the hospital for two weeks.” She wasn’t sure if telling hi
m more would open up the conversation or simply make her appear the damaged goods she felt like she was half the time now.

  When he didn’t say anything and she turned around, he lifted his gaze to her face. Kylie wasn’t sure whether he was looking where her injuries were or somewhere else.

  “I’m going to take a shower. Make yourself at home.” He walked through his house, leaving her standing in the kitchen.

  And he had told her to make herself at home.

  Half an hour later, when Kylie heard the water turn off in the shower, she had bacon ready, coffee brewed, and toast buttered. Since she didn’t know how he liked his eggs, she held off on making them, but the carton sat on his counter. She wiped the counter and turned when he appeared from the other room, his hair almost black from being damp, and wearing only boxers.

  She was sure her admiration was written all over her face.

  “You made me breakfast?” He sounded impressed.

  She forced her gaze from his rippling chest muscles to his face. “You said to make myself at home.” She pointed to the eggs. “I don’t know how you like your eggs.”

  “Kylie, why are you here?” The look he gave her made it appear he’d been torturing himself trying to learn the answer.

  Maybe she wasn’t the only one enduring a personal hell.

  She put the washcloth on the counter and rubbed her hands down her jeans. It was time for reckoning, laying her cards on the table and seeing where it got her. No more waiting. No more praying things would work out to her advantage without her making an effort to make it happen.

  “I’m afraid I left something here when I left a few months ago.”

  “What was that?”

  Her mouth was suddenly too dry when she lost herself in those sensual dark eyes of his. “My heart,” she whispered.

  She couldn’t breathe when he simply studied her, not saying anything for a moment and not moving from where he stood damn near naked several feet away from her.

  “So what will you do? Get it and leave again?”