“No.” Merrick paled a little. “I didn’t think it was necessary.”
“Well, from now on, it is. I can’t afford to have my name dragged through the mud again.”
Again? Since Joe had spent hours pouring through Kent’s file, he thought that reference might be for his messy divorce from Gail. It appeared to have cost Kent a client or two. And a small fortune.
After delivering a terse goodbye, Kent turned and stormed out. He paused when he spotted Joe and gave him only a dismissive glance. Kent might have done the same to Katelyn if she hadn’t buried her face against Joe’s neck.
Definitely not good.
“I thought you said he wouldn’t recognize you?” Joe whispered when Kent was out of earshot.
She shook her head. “He didn’t.”
Which, of course, didn’t answer his question at all.
“Why are you here?” Merrick asked. He was staring at them through the now fully opened door.
“We’d like to talk to you.” Joe made sure he grinned. Katelyn did her part by sliding her body against his. Well, it was a little more than just a slide. She hooked her fingers onto his belt—and into the waist of his pants. “We have great news.”
Merrick mumbled something indistinguishable, sighed and shoved both his hands through his hair. “Give me a couple of minutes.” And to make sure he had that time to himself, he shut the door.
Joe clicked off his communicator, checked to make sure hers was off as well and looked down at her. “Put your hands in my pants this time, and I’ll take you where you stand.”
Katelyn didn’t look quite as shocked as he’d hoped. In fact, she didn’t look shocked at all. She looked, well, interested. And disgusted with herself for showing that interest.
Joe knew exactly how she felt.
“We’re in trouble here, Rico.” She added a shake of her head to his disgusted expression. “Because I swear that sounded more like foreplay than a threat.”
He fought, hard, to hold on to what little composure he had left. “I really didn’t need to hear that, okay?”
“You’re right.” Another headshake. She huffed and glanced at Merrick’s closed door. Like Joe, she was probably hoping the man would open it. Soon. It might save Katelyn and him both from doing something he’d almost certainly regret.
“Besides, it’s just all this forced intimacy that’s making us think like this,” she mumbled. She even repeated a slightly different variation of it as if trying to convince herself.
Again, Joe knew exactly how she felt.
“We just have to remember that the kissing and touching are fake,” she concluded.
But Joe wasn’t ready to conclude things just yet. He had one point of contention left. “Including the part where you put your hand in my pants?”
“Would I do something like that just for amusement?” But she waved him off. “Don’t answer that. For our own sanity, let’s just say everything, and I mean everything, we’ve done for the past couple of days has been an act.”
It was the right thing to say. The right thing, period. She’d given them both a much-needed out. That’s why Joe couldn’t understand why he didn’t take that out.
Instead, he slid his hand around the back of her neck and dragged her to him. Not that he had to drag her far.
She was already so close he could almost taste her.
So that’s exactly what he decided to do. He lowered his head and took her mouth as if it were his for the taking.
THE JOLT WAS INSTANT.
No cool, gentle touch of lips. Not this. This was all fire. All pleasure. All silk and heat. Not that Katelyn expected anything less from Joe, and that made it all the more dangerous.
Did it stop her?
No.
One jolt from his mouth and she was beyond a place where reason and stopping made sense. Instead, she took. She let him claim. Ravage. And just when she thought it couldn’t possibly get any better, or worse, he upped the ante with the mating of their tongues. The intimate joining of their mouths. The warmth of their bodies sliding against each other, practically fighting to get closer, to touch more.
To feel more.
It was as close to sex as they could get without clothing removal.
He made a sound. A groan of breath that was male through and through. And possibly the most erotic sound she’d ever heard.
Katelyn felt the world tilt on its axis.
This was wrong. So wrong. But everything about it seemed right.
She forced herself to back off. And she almost lost that battle. Somehow though, she got her mouth to move from his. It took another moment before she got it to speak.
“That wasn’t for show,” she informed him. A really dumb thing to say, but what the heck? It was hard to beat the mother of all dumb things—that kiss.
“I figured that out by myself.” He ran his tongue over his bottom lip. “We can’t do it again though because it…felt better than it should have.”
You bet it did. And not only that. It felt better than it should have while they were standing only yards away from a murder suspect.
A suspect who opened the door.
Chapter Eight
Katelyn put on the best fake smile she could manage, and while easing her right hand to her slide holster, she flashed her engagement ring at Merrick.
“Joe and I are getting married.” She added some excitement to her tone, as well, and she didn’t totally have to fake that part. There was excitement racing through her all right, and it wasn’t all related to that kiss Joe had just laid on her. There was something downright spooky about the way Merrick was acting.
Was the man about to go psycho on them?
Joe must have considered that as well because he too adjusted his position so it would be easier for him to get to his weapon.
“Congratulations are in order,” Merrick finally said after a silence that was too long and much too uncomfortable. “Come this way. We’ll celebrate.”
Katelyn didn’t relax yet. Hopefully, celebrating was all he had in mind. She stayed side by side with Joe as they started down the hall toward the reception area.
“Say, wasn’t that Dr. Allen Kent who just left your office?” Joe asked, sounding remarkably casual.
There was nothing casual, however, about Merrick’s response. From over his shoulder, he gave Joe a chilly, “Yes.”
Katelyn ignored the frosty tone since they needed more info from him than that solo affirmative. “Wow. He’s practically a local celebrity. I’m in therapy, you know. In fact, my therapist thinks I’ve gone off the deep end by getting engaged to Joe. But I know it’s the right thing to do. That’s why we don’t want to wait.” She paused only long enough to draw breath. “Wonder what Dr. Kent would have to say about that?”
It was a weak attempt to get Merrick to open up. And an unsuccessful one. He didn’t say a word about therapy or Dr. Kent. But his silence told her loads. That shouting session with Kent had upset him, no doubt about it, but he was keeping it inside for the most part. No fists through walls. No profanity. A still-waters-run-deep kind of person.
So how would a man like that kill?
Would he gun down happy brides and grooms because his own fiancée had crushed his hopes of having an equally happy life? If so, how could Joe and she stop him from trying to kill again?
As those questions ran through her head, Merrick paused at one of the doors. Knocked once. And opened it. Bruce Donovan was seated at a desk littered with computers and other equipment.
“We need champagne,” Merrick advised him. “Meet us in reception.”
Katelyn’s gaze connected with Donovan’s. His disapproving gaze. Definitely not a still-waters kind of guy. She made a mental note not to sample the champagne in case he decided to poison it.
“Something tells me they’ve done this before,” Joe muttered to her as they watched Merrick assemble an impromptu celebration.
Their host motioned for the four other clients and the r
eceptionist to join them. They did. The clients put their questionnaires aside. Donovan appeared with the champagne and a stack of plastic fluted glasses. Merrick popped the cork and began to pour.
“So a lot of your matched couples get engaged?” Joe asked Merrick.
He lifted a shoulder. “Some.”
Katelyn pressed for more. “I’ll bet you keep press releases and such of your success stories.”
“Not really.” And with that, Merrick stepped away to pour more champagne.
“Okay, what’s wrong with this picture?” Joe whispered to her. He slipped his arm around her and launched into a mock cuddling session so they could continue their discussion without being overheard.
“The clients,” Katelyn immediately offered. “I was alone in here the day I did my questionnaire. How about you?”
“Me and one very old guy.”
These people weren’t old or even socially desperate-looking. They were young and practically buzzing with energy.
Katelyn bit off a groan. “They don’t appear to be drunk or high so that probably means they read the article in the newspaper.”
“Adrenaline junkies,” Joe added.
A moment later, one of the female clients confirmed that. Katelyn heard her talking almost breathlessly about the possible link to the sniper. Isn’t it soooo scary?
Great. Sickos. Just what they didn’t need to blend with the rifle-firing sicko they already had. However, it did give Katelyn something else to consider. The shootings had perhaps boosted business. A business that had recently been sagging. Merrick couldn’t have been unhappy about that particular side effect, but was he smart enough, calculating enough, to have known it would happen?
Because Katelyn had her attention on the group, she didn’t miss the nudge Donovan gave his boss. Merrick turned, aiming his gaze in the direction of the reception doorway.
The still waters became a little turbulent.
Katelyn followed his narrowed gaze to a tall, attractive brunette. A woman she recognized because she’d studied her file and accompanying photos.
Fiona Shipley.
“I see her,” Joe whispered.
“Just the person we’ve been looking for.”
From the look on Merrick’s face, he didn’t feel the same. He handed off the champagne bottle to Donovan, whispered something terse and then stormed straight for the woman. Fortunately, one of the other clients stopped him, but that diversion wouldn’t last long. Katelyn could tell from the look in Merrick’s eyes that one way or another, he intended to get Fiona out of here.
“We’ll intervene and talk to her,” Joe insisted.
“Something tells me she won’t go for the let’s-be-gal-pals ploy. You need to put some moves on her before Merrick whisks her away.”
Joe’s eyebrow lifted. “Moves?”
She nodded. “Trust me, you’ve got some good ones.” Great ones, in fact. The kiss had proven that.
He didn’t seem flattered. “I don’t guess Fiona will consider those moves bottom-feeding gestures since I just announced my engagement to you?”
“Let’s hope not. You occupy Fiona, and I’ll take care of Merrick. Maybe I can put him in a more talkative mood and learn the names of any recently engaged Perfect Match couples.”
Joe caught her arm when she tried to step away. “Please tell me you’re not going to try to rile him enough so he’ll come after you.”
Katelyn tried to look offended. “You think I’d do that?”
“Yeah, I do,” he said without hesitation.
If it wouldn’t have blown the lovebird facade, she would have scowled at him. “Are you saying divide and conquer’s not a good idea?”
Several muscles stirred in his jaw, a definite sign he agreed with her plan but probably wouldn’t approve of her methods. “You’ve got ten minutes max,” he finally said. “Get everything you can from him. I’ll do the same to Fiona. Just don’t shake things up too much, okay?”
This time, it was Katelyn who stopped. “I’ll say the same to you. Fiona’s the one with a hostile history, not Merrick.”
In fact, this divide and conquer investigative approach suddenly didn’t seem like a good idea. Even more, Katelyn didn’t want to explore why it occurred to her that it wasn’t good.
Judas.
She was worried about Joe.
A man who could clearly take care of himself.
“Are you about to quote regulations about approaching a potentially violent suspect without proper backup?” Joe asked.
“You wish.”
He stared at her several long seconds, and cursed. “It’s about that kiss?”
She nodded. “Probably.”
But when she repeated that to herself, it didn’t seem so much like a probably as a definitely.
Praying she was wrong, Katelyn turned to head Merrick off at the pass.
JOE MADE IT to Fiona before Merrick did. Thanks to Katelyn. She latched on to Merrick and somehow brought him to a stop. God knows what she was saying to him, but she seemed to have captured his attention.
Fiona offered him a tentative smile when Joe approached her. The smile vanished when she glanced in Katelyn and Merrick’s direction.
“Joe Farrell.” He extended his hand, and she shook it. Not a delicate grip, either. She could probably hold her own in an arm wrestling competition.
“Fiona Shipley.” She slid her gaze over him and up. “I haven’t seen you in here before.”
It was almost certainly a lie. She’d been watching the place the night of the icebreaker.
She moved slightly to the side, probably so she could keep her eye on Merrick. He did the same, angling his body so he could watch Katelyn. Since she was the only redhead in the room, she made a great visual target. The skirt helped, too. She had the best pair of legs in the room.
Maybe the world.
And maybe he was still recovering from the effects of that kiss, because everything about her suddenly seemed damn incredible. Thankfully, she’d probably do something to rile him before the night was over. That would get his mind back where it belonged.
“So you know everyone here?” Joe asked Fiona. Not exactly chitchat, either. It was an opening to bring the subject around to Merrick, the man who was glancing in her direction as much as she was glancing in his.
“No. Just Bruce and Addison.”
Joe skipped right past the Bruce part and went for the jugular. “Merrick’s a friend of yours?”
She gave an unnecessary adjustment to her gold hoop earring. “Something like that.”
In other words, nothing like that. She was either Merrick’s former, present or even wannabe lover. With the way she kept eyeing Katelyn, it was highly likely that it wasn’t the latter.
Interesting.
“How about you?” she asked. “Are you a new client, or are you with someone?”
“I’m with my fiancée, Kate.” He pointed to Katelyn but made sure he only showed minimal interest in the woman whom he’d supposedly asked to be his wife. “Old flames reunited thanks to Perfect Match. Things happened pretty fast between us.”
And he let Fiona fill in the blanks. Maybe she’d think he was having second thoughts. Or maybe she’d just think he was a bottom-feeder. Either way, she didn’t seem turned off with the idea of an engaged man chatting her up. But then, maybe she was trying to make Merrick jealous. Or something. There were a lot of dynamics going on in the room, and not all of them were limited to Merrick and Fiona. Some of them were obviously happening between Katelyn and him.
Since Joe could feel his self-imposed time limit ticking away, he took a pen from the receptionist’s desk and passed it to Fiona. He discreetly put out his hand, palm up. “In case things don’t work out with Addison, or Kate, why don’t you give me a number where I can reach you? I’d like to give you a call sometime.”
That got Fiona’s attention. Man, did it. She gave him several more once-overs, not exactly carnal ones, either. There was some disgust. Some loat
hing. Even a hot flash of anger in her eyes. That’s why it surprised Joe when she scribbled some numbers on his hand.
That was it. No sultry invitations, no warm goodbyes. No explanations as to why she’d give a man her number when she obviously disliked him.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to speak with Addison.” Fiona tossed the pen back on the desk and stepped away.
Merrick moved toward Fiona at the same time he left Katelyn and walked toward her. Merrick said something. Something harsh, judging from the way she reacted. She looked as if the man had slapped her. Then, she angled her eyes in Katelyn and Joe’s direction. Merrick’s gaze followed.
Oh, yeah. Merrick was definitely suspicious of them, and their latest round of unofficial questioning had probably made it worse.
Fiona gave Merrick a not-so-friendly glower, turned on her heel and headed for the door. Merrick aimed a similar facial expression at them and went in the opposite direction toward his office.
“Should we follow one of them?” Katelyn asked in a whisper.
“Not with that camera looming over us. We’ve already peaked their interest too much for one night.” Way too much. “Did you learn anything new?”
“No. He’s not flirtatious or chatty like Donovan.” Katelyn glanced around the room. “Speaking of the devil, where is he?”
“He left not long after you started talking to Merrick.”
She made a sound to indicate she didn’t care for that. Neither did Joe.
“Maybe we should follow him instead?” she suggested.
“He went in the same direction as Merrick. Besides, we have this.” Making sure he was out of camera angle, Joe flashed the number that Fiona had given him.
She blinked. “You got her number that fast?”
“Maybe. It could be a fake.”
“Yeah, right. It’s not a fake.”
Joe wasn’t sure if he should be complimented by that, but unfortunately it felt like a compliment.
“So what’s the deal between Merrick and her?” Katelyn asked. “Are they involved?”
“That’d be my guess. It’s also my guess that one or both isn’t too happy about that.”
Veiled Intentions Page 8