Divorced, Desperate and Deceived

by Christie Craig

  She tried to recall what Luke had said when he’d answered the phone, but her mind was in post-orgasm mode and she hadn’t taken in much of the conversation. “What did Jason say?”

  “He said he wanted to help, but that he wanted to talk to you first.”

  “And you said?” Then she remembered. “You didn’t say anything, did you?”

  “No. I hung up. He could have traced us.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed, her mind still finding it hard to focus. Luke was standing there without a stitch of clothing. “Couldn’t I just have told him I was okay?”

  “Maybe, but I didn’t want to chance it. This is almost over. Calvin will send in some people. We’ll get out of this in one piece. We just have to play it cool and by the book.”

  She stared at him, her mind starting to process. “So why did you tell me that it was a wrong number?”

  He let out a gulp of air. “Because I knew we’d be having this conversation, and I didn’t want to have this conversation.”

  “So you lied?”

  “No,” he insisted. “Okay, I did. But then I told the truth.”

  “Why?” she asked.

  “I already told you!” There was a hint of frustration to his voice. “I knew we’d end up talking about this and—”

  “No, I meant why did you tell me the truth?”

  He closed his eyes. When he opened them, he reached out and brushed a strand of wet hair from her cheek. “Because as soon as I lied to you, it felt wrong.”

  “Lying is always wrong,” she pointed out, confused, her emotions running all over the place. It had to be the orgasm—normally she did a much better job of focusing.

  “True.” He moved a step nearer. “But this felt really wrong. And I don’t want anything wrong between us. Actually, I’d prefer nothing between us.” He glanced down at the towel.

  She didn’t say anything, because she wasn’t sure what to say.

  He moved closer, his natural scent filling her next breath, and moving his hand under her chin he tilted her head back so she would look at him. “You know what I want?”

  “What?” she asked, but she was pretty sure she knew, because she was almost back to wanting it, too. The fact that he’d lied and then corrected it meant something. She wasn’t sure what, but right now it didn’t feel all bad.

  “I want to forget about this conversation. I want to spend the next few hours being with you. Not thinking about calls or trials or any of the ugliness we’ve dealt with today, or any of the crap I’ve dealt with during the last four years of my undercover work and relocation. I just want to be with you. You think that’s possible?”

  Reaching up, she ran her fingers through his hair, which was still damp and curled up at the ends. “I think it might be possible.”

  He smiled and dropped his forehead against hers. “In that case, would it be wrong of me to say that, although you look lovely in that towel, I happen to know that you look even better without it?”

  “It wouldn’t be wrong,” she said. “But it would be rude.” She gave him an amused grin.

  “Being rude I can handle.”

  He pulled the towel free and tossed it to Goodwill. The puppy raced to the terrycloth, latched his teeth into the soft material and shook it back and forth as if it were a chew toy. The next thing Kathy knew, she and Luke were on the sofa bed, facing each other, his mouth on hers. His solid body was pressed against hers. The light spray of hair across his chest teased her nipples. His hands caressed the sides of her breasts, and then moved over her back, following the arch of her spine. His palms cupped her bottom and ever so lightly rocked her pelvis against his.

  She felt him, hot and hard against her thigh. Each time he brought her against him, his sex would slip between her legs, lighting a want, a need, a desire to take him inside her body. She felt herself grow moist again between her legs, and her need to be touched was almost painful.

  “What do you like?” he whispered, kissing her again.

  “This,” she managed to say. “I like this.” Then, remembering not to just lie there, she brought her hands up and brushed them over his chest. “What do you like?”

  “Let me show you.”

  He rolled her onto her back and started his descent: her neck, her breasts and…lower. Slow. Easy. Wet. His lips and his tongue made an erotic, mind-spinning trail of butterfly kisses down her abdomen. He got between her thighs and placed a moist kiss on the tender skin inside each leg. Then he brushed his lips over her center, back and forth, never too fast, never too slow. When his tongue touched her there, moved against her, just like that, the world started spinning. It shattered into a starburst of pleasure. The next thing she knew, Luke held her in his arms, kissing her as she floated down to earth.

  When he pulled back, he wore the cockiest of smiles. “Now aren’t you totally, completely pissed at yourself right now?”

  “For what?” she managed to ask. Had she done something wrong?

  “For wasting all this time. We could have been doing this for the last two and a half years!”

  She grinned. “Yeah, that was pretty dumb, wasn’t it?”

  He bundled her closer, and his chest moved with laughter. “Do you have any idea how much I love being with you?”

  Love? The word caused the slightest wiggle of fear, but she pushed it back. Forcing herself to laugh, she said, “Don’t you think it’s time I reciprocate?”

  “You must have read my mind.” He reached over and dropped a foil package in her hand. “Mind helping a fellow out?”

  “Not at all,” she replied.

  Feeling a little brazen, she pushed him down on the mattress, got up on her knees and straddled his upper thighs. His sex proudly saluted the ceiling. She couldn’t help staring as she opened the foil package—or tried to open it. With her distraction, it took a while.

  Luke didn’t complain. He folded his arms behind his head, which accented his muscular arms and torso, and stared at her in all her nakedness. Not that this bothered her. She kind of liked staring at him, too. Oddly, she couldn’t remember enjoying Tom being naked. Sex had been an undercover exercise.

  At last, she slipped the condom from its package. She’d just placed the cool rubber on the tip of him when she recalled one of the discussions she’d had with Lacy and Sue—about the most sensitive points on a man’s penis. Oh yeah, she remembered. Sue and Lacy had laughed themselves silly when she had brought out a curved banana for demonstration. She had to admit, this was much more exciting.

  Pulling the condom away from his sex, she slowly ran her finger up the back of his shaft, tracing a blue vein. After twirling her finger around the head, she followed its cleft. Then she repeated the process, slower. She heard Luke moan, felt the moisture collect on the tip. Softly, she rolled the condom down his erection and used her other hand to caress his balls.

  She didn’t expect him to flip her over so quickly, but she wasn’t complaining, especially when he settled on top of her. His weight felt right. Perfect, actually. Everything felt perfect as he entered her, stretched her, filled her.

  There were no awkward moves, no tenuous adaptation to a rhythm they both understood. They moved together as if in a dance they’d practiced together forever: slow at first, then faster. He brushed the hair from her face and gazed into her eyes. Kathy Callahan had never felt so complete, so whole, or so beautiful.

  Jason and Chase caught up with Turner right before he pulled off in order to tell him about the stolen cell phone. Turner didn’t appear happy that Jason had collected the information, nor that he’d already made the first call.

  “Give me the number,” Turner said, frowning, standing outside his cruiser.

  Jason handed over the paper where he’d jotted down the number that Johnson gave him. “I suggest you give him an hour. If we call him back right now, we’ll piss him off. If we piss him off, he’s more likely to hurt Kathy.”

  Turner shook his head. “Do you really think she’s being held hostage? T
rue, I know she…she doesn’t seem the type to be in on the drugs. However, considering what Cary saw, what Johnson said about her yanking the guy’s ear and saying he wouldn’t hurt her, and what we discovered about her past, it’s not looking too good.”

  Jason looked up at the dark sky and remembered what he’d read about Kathy witnessing her father’s death. He factored in all he knew about her. She loved her son. She was about as loyal a friend as anyone could be to both Lacy and Sue. The fact that she was standoffish with him and Chase—well, it now made complete sense. And her being in on anything illegal, that didn’t compute.

  Grabbing his keys from his pocket, he looked back at Turner. “If she’s helping this guy, it’s because she has a reason. A good reason. She’s not into anything illegal.”

  “Maybe, but if she’s helping him, that’s illegal. And I don’t like it any more than you two do, but I’m just calling it like I see it. Kathy Callahan is in a heap of trouble.”

  Chase and Jason watched Turner get in his car and drive away. Then Chase looked at Jason. “He’s not the only one who’s going to see things like that. We’ve got to get to the bottom of this, or Kathy could really be up shit creek.”

  “Why don’t we go talk to Bradley’s landlady? Maybe she’ll give us something that might help.” Jason rocked on his heels, trying to think.

  Chase started to their car. “That’s not a bad idea. Sure can’t hurt.”

  Joey leaned back in his seat, ignoring Foster’s rambling monologue about his ex-wives, and looked up through the window at the stars. In less than five minutes they would be at the second location, and God only knew what would happen then. Even Foster seemed on edge, or at least that might explain his constant jabbering.

  While Joey’s gaze watched the sky, a bright diamondlike streak shot across the blackness and faded into the horizon. It had moved too fast for an airplane. It had to have been a…Damn, he’d never seen a shooting star before. Thrilled, he almost turned around to tell Foster but caught himself. Men like Foster didn’t give a damn about any shooting star.

  “She caught me with the woman in the parking lot of the grocery store,” Foster was saying. “And I told her, ‘When you learn to suck dick that good, I’ll stop seeing her.’ So that’s when I divorced wife number three.” The trooper chuckled. “What about you? Got a woman waiting on you?”

  “No.” Joey looked back at the sky, vaguely remembering the singsong rhyme about making a wish on a shooting star. Wasn’t it supposed to be good luck?

  “You aren’t much of a talker, are you?”

  “No.”

  He remembered the conversations he’d had with Donald after the man died and wondered if they counted. Then he remembered talking with Lola. She’d been easy to talk to. He’d loved the way her accent lent a playfulness to her tone. Yoey—that was how his name had sounded, rolling off her tongue. A smile tickled his lips, and he thought again about going to see her.

  Maybe tomorrow. If he had a tomorrow.

  His focus remained on the sky until something crashed against the windshield.

  Foster slammed on his brakes. “Shit!” The trooper jumped, and he must have hit the wipers, because a swishing sound immediately followed the crash, and then a thud, and then the wipers’ motor started grinding.

  Joey looked at the driver’s side of the windshield. A bat lay trapped there, its wing pinned under the wiper. From all appearances, the animal was dead.

  Dead? Joey’s mind shot immediately to the bird that had slammed against the car less than an hour before Donald collapsed, and his heart skipped a beat. The dark sky seemed to grow darker, and he hoped the star had been meant to bring good luck. He also hoped like hell the luck was meant for him and not the dead bat trapped against the windshield.

  Luke rolled onto his side, not wanting to drop his 200 pounds on top of Kathy. The moment he landed, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against him. He felt her breathing against his chest. Those quick wispy gasps matched his own.

  He’d been lucky she’d been fast, or God help him, he would have gotten to the top of mountain without her. It had been too damn long since he’d been with a woman. It had—

  The thought had no sooner flashed in his head than he recognized the lie. His abstinence wasn’t what had made him climb so fast and high. Abstinence wasn’t what made the journey so damn special. It was her. All her. Kathy Callahan.

  “I…didn’t know,” she said, and rested her hand against his chest.

  “Didn’t know what?” he managed to ask.

  “That sex was…could be like that.”

  “That wasn’t sex.” He brushed his lips against her cheek.

  “What was it?” she asked, and he couldn’t believe he heard insecurity in her voice. Didn’t she know she’d blown him away? He didn’t have a clue what that asshole of an ex had said to her to make her feel this way, but the guy had to have been dumber than a pet rock dropped on its head.

  “That,” he said, “was heaven on earth.” He cupped her chin in his hand so she’d look him in the eyes and know he meant business. “That was two and a half years plus of prep work, two and a half years plus of teasing, flirting, of two people who are meant to…” He almost said love each other, but her previous speech echoed in his head. “To be together. You were everything I thought you’d be and more.”

  She smiled her half-shy, half-playful smile. “So you really imagined how it would be?”

  “Oh, hell yeah. During those cold showers that weren’t really cold showers, you were there—or here.” He touched his head. “Doing all sorts of naughty things.”

  “You’re bad.” She pressed a palm to his chest.

  “I’m bad? You fantasized about me.” He pulled her hips against his, loving how she fit against him. “Admit it.”

  The shy portion of her smile grew stronger. “Okay, maybe a little.”

  He saw the lie in her eyes and almost laughed. “And…?”

  “And what?”

  “And did I live up to your expectations?”

  She blinked, staring at him seriously. “Almost,” she admitted—and then she started giggling. “I’m joking!”

  “You think that’s funny?” He rolled on top of her, snatched both her hands in one of his and held them above her head. When he stared down at her, he noticed her cheeks and chest were red. “You’re chafed.” He passed a hand over his face stubble. “Sorry.”

  She sighed. “Don’t be. It was perfect. You were perfect.” Wiggling her hand free, she brushed a palm over his jaw. “Thank you.”

  “No. Thank you.”

  The feel of her soft touch, the feel of her body beneath his, it all had things stirring again. Luke looked into her eyes, saw the way the gold and green flecks seemed to meld together and he said, “I was right.”

  She looked surprised. “Right about what?”

  Right about what? That she was so damn perfect for him. That sex with her would ruin him for any other woman. He’d been right about so many things, but he wasn’t allowed to say them.

  “Your eyes change colors when you have sex,” he said instead. Then he leaned in and kissed her.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Joey, gloves on and gun in hand, trailed behind Foster. His gut felt like one tight knot. He kept thinking about that shooting star and hoped like hell luck had him in its sights. Don’t let them be here. Don’t let them be here. He repeated the words over and over in his head like a prayer. And, hey…maybe he was praying.

  In spite of the fact that they were supposed to sneak up on the cabin, Foster never stopped his nervous, low-toned yapping. Joey tried to tune him out, tired of hearing about the man’s sexual conquests.

  “What you want to bet I’ll have her on her knees in front of me, unzipping my pants, within two days?”

  Joey didn’t care who Foster had in front of him. Damn! His foot came down hard on a rock and jarred his broken toe.

  “You see, I know the magic word for all those Lati
nas.”

  His attention was wrenched from his throbbing toe, and his gut knotted even tighter. Was Foster talking about Lola? Joey imagined that sweet face with those exotic eyes. God help the man if he was talking about Lola.

  “The magic word is Immigration. All I gotta do is say it real slow, point out that I know her brother-in-law is working as an illegal at that concrete company, and I’ll have that roach coach babe between my legs anytime I want. Hell, I might have had her today if you hadn’t parked your ass there.”

  Suddenly, Foster backed up—right into the end of Joey’s gun. The temptation to pull the trigger was strong.

  “Well, shit,” Foster said in low voice. “We got those mother fuckers! Look, there’s the blue Dodge Charger. And you thought Luke Hunter was good. Not as good as I am.”

  Before he nerved up to pull the trigger, Joey realized Foster had his phone out and was making a call.

  Luke felt himself growing hard again, felt Kathy’s sweet body moving against his. But the thought that he only had one more condom made him rein in his desires. He ended the kiss and brushed her hair from her eyes.

  “Sex makes me hungry,” he said. “Was there anything else in the cabinet?”

  She chuckled. “You can have the prunes.”

  “Funny.”

  “Yeah, I thought it was.”

  The most adorable smile lit her expression, and his chest swelled. Leaving, even for the trial, was going to be hell. Not that he had an option. But he’d be back, and he hoped like hell she understood that.

  “Actually, I think I saw some pineapple, and I don’t think we ate all the crackers,” she continued. The dog, which had been sleeping in the corner of the room, suddenly jumped up and barked. “I think Goodwill’s hungry, too.”

  Luke shook his head. “Why? He ate half my foot just a bit ago.” When Kathy laughed, he suggested, “Why don’t you grab the food? I’m going to make a pit stop.” He motioned to the bathroom. With some food in his belly, maybe he could figure out how to broach the subject of the future. Their future. It had taken him this long to win her over. No way in hell was he giving her up.