Divorced, Desperate and Deceived

by Christie Craig

  Luke nodded and ended the call. Stay alive. He intended to do just that.

  Chapter Twenty-six

  He hung up and looked at Kathy while evaluating his paranoia.

  “Everything okay?” she asked.

  He wished like hell he knew. “We’re set to meet tomorrow at ten.” He looked out through the windows and reminded himself that no one had followed them. If they had, the shit would have already hit the fan. Setting his worry aside, he decided he wasn’t going to let his doubts eat at him—but he’d be a fool to ignore them completely. And he was no fool.

  He watched Kathy offer the puppy another cracker as she said, “He really needs some dog food.”

  “He’ll get plenty tomorrow,” Luke replied. The dog was lucky, because tomorrow he’d still be with Kathy. Luke knew without a doubt that they would whisk him to wherever the trial was being held. And since the trial might have to move, there was a chance of it being dragged out for weeks, maybe even months. That was a lot of time for Kathy to rebuild the barriers he’d just torn down.

  His gaze swept over her. “You know, I was wrong,” he said.

  “Wrong about what?”

  He grinned. “About you wearing my shirt.”

  She smiled that shy, seductive grin. “It’s not really your shirt. You stole it.”

  “Yup. And after seeing it on you, they’ll have to pry it out of my cold dead hands before I give it back. It’s going into my keepsakes drawer.”

  That earned him another eye roll. “You have a keepsakes drawer filled with women’s clothing—like underwear and such?”

  “Why? Are you offering to add to my collection?”

  “No!” Grinning, she raised one of her shoulders in a playful gesture that was so damn sexy he felt himself harden. “I couldn’t offer you any panties. I’m not wearing any.”

  “I know.” He ran a hand over his chest and grinned.

  Nope, she didn’t have a stitch on under that shirt. The shirttail hit midthigh, giving him plenty of leg to look at. Not that his gaze stayed on her legs, because every few minutes she’d shift those, and the shirttail would gape, offering him a peek at that perfectly waxed little triangle of red hair between her legs.

  She shifted and uncrossed her legs, as if his gaze had lingered too long. Not that he considered it a problem. He simply glanced upward, where an equally nice view waited; the top two buttons of the shirt remained undone, and when she shifted just right, he got a glimpse of her breasts. His mind flashed an image of Kathy in the shower, the water trickling down those mounds of soft flesh and beading on her nipples. His mouth watered to taste them again. Obviously, the pineapple and crackers had recharged his energy, because he was hard again and getting harder. Uncomfortably hard.

  Getting a glass of water, he readjusted himself. What he really wanted to do was remove his jeans, but he’d heard some women had rules about being naked before the guy. Something about a guy appearing too confident about her giving it up. Not that he was denying any such thing, because he felt damn confident she’d want to sleep with him again. Nevertheless, if following some dumb rule made her feel better about things, he’d be a by-the-book kind of guy.

  He drank the water, put his glass in the sink, then he went and pulled Kathy upright before wrapping his arms around her waist. She didn’t resist, but came to him in that soft, wanting way women do when they’re willing. Then she rested her head on the spot between his shoulder and his chest. Her head fit perfectly, too—just the way he envisioned her fitting into his life, Tommy included.

  He heard her sigh. It was the kind of sigh that usually meant a man could go ahead and take off his jeans. But before he got them both naked, they needed to talk.

  “Did you get enough to eat?” she asked. She rested her chin on his chest and stared at him.

  “It’ll hold me over,” he said, gazing into her eyes. “You?”

  “I’m hoping I’ll drop a pound.”

  “Don’t you dare,” he said. “You’re perfect.” He ran his hands down her sides to her waist, loving the soft curves that defined her shape.

  “Ahh, the things men will say to get a woman in bed.”

  He laughed. And then, though he hadn’t decided how to broach the subject of their future, the words just slipped out. “I think I’m in love with you, Kathy.”

  He knew he’d messed up by the slightest stiffening of her posture, and she blinked. “Don’t say that.”

  “Why not?” he asked. It was too late to take the words back.

  She swallowed and inched back. “Because…because it’s kind of soon, don’t you think?”

  “You call two years and, what is it, nine months too soon?” He spotted the fear in her eyes. “Don’t freak out.” He tugged her closer to him. “I’m not asking you to take my name and have my baby.” Although that idea appealed to him. “I’m just saying that…I want to give us a shot. That when the trial’s over I’ll be back, and I’d like it if I didn’t have to chase off a dozen or so men attempting to take my place.”

  “Like there’ll really be a lot of competition.” She grinned. It appeared forced but was still a start. If humor put her at ease, he didn’t mind.

  “Are you kidding me?” He pointed to his eye. “Are you forgetting the reason I got this? Those men were all over you. And so was that cop Cory or whatever his name was. He—”

  “Cary,” she corrected.

  “I don’t care what his name is. The point is, I saw the way he eyeballed you. It’s no secret that any one of those men would give their right eye and probably an extra limb to trade places with me right now. And since I’m going to be MIA for a while, I’d like a little assurance that you won’t fill my shoes.”

  She softened against him. “I don’t think your shoes are easy to fill.”

  He leaned down and kissed her. “You just keep thinking that.”

  She ended the kiss that he’d meant to lead somewhere. “The thing is, I…I don’t…I’m not sure I can…”

  Her words made no sense, but her expression spoke loud and clear. “We’ll take it slow, Kathy. As slow as you want.”

  She nodded. “Slow is good.”

  He started to go back in for a kiss, but she slipped a hand between their mouths. “How long do you think you’ll be gone?”

  “I don’t know. Could be a week or a month.”

  “That long?” she asked. Her brow creased, and he could tell she felt the same way he did.

  “Yeah. It’s going to be hell. I wish I could ask you to come with me, but I know the DA and the US Marshals wouldn’t agree.”

  She made a face. “I couldn’t go anyway. I have to work and…Damn!” She pulled back. “I haven’t even thought about work. I’ll bet I had eight deliveries to make this afternoon! I was supposed to deliver to a baby shower. And there was a convention at the Chambers. I was supposed to deliver fresh flowers for their vases. How could I have forgotten—?”

  “Hey.” He interrupted her by pressing his forehead against hers. “You sort of had a few other things to worry about.”

  “True, but still I should have remembered.”

  He shot her his best sexy smile. “What you wanna bet I can make you forget everything again?”

  She looked up and grinned. “You really are a bad boy, aren’t you, Mr. Hunter?”

  “Sweetheart, I’ll be anything you want—a bad boy, a rogue or even a pirate. You seem to fancy those in the naughty books you read.”

  She put a hand on his chest and gave him an accusing grin. “You’ve been checking out my books?”

  “It’s not like they were hidden. You kept a stack on the back of your toilet. I had to move them, and one just sort of fell open in my hands.”

  She shrugged. “Okay…but they aren’t naughty. They’re romance novels.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s my kind of romance. Naughty.”

  He picked her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and when the moist spot between her legs met his naked abdomen, he gro
aned and started moving to the bed. Their talk had lasted too damn long. It was time to move to the good stuff.

  Jason sat beside his wife, shooing the cats away as Sue read the pages in the true-crime book that told Kathy’s childhood story. Both he and Chase had debated telling their wives everything they’d learned, but then, because they were both afraid of what their wives would do after discovering they hadn’t been forthcoming, they’d decided to spill their guts.

  This time, however, they’d done it separately. After he and Chase phoned to tell Cary what they’d learned about Stan telling Claire to call the police, Jason took Sue back to their place. When he’d told Sue what he’d read about Kathy and her father, she’d immediately insisted on seeing. He knew it was going to be hard for her to read, but when his wife’s mind was made up, there was no changing it.

  Jason heard Sue’s breath catch, and knew she’d just gotten to the part about Kathy. She covered her mouth with her hand and tears filled her eyes, but she continued to read. He dropped his arm around her shoulders.

  She turned and pressed her face into his shoulder and sobbed. “That’s…terrible.” After a good cry, his shirt was a mess and she pulled back. “I don’t understand why Kathy never told us about this. Didn’t she trust us?”

  Jason cupped his wife’s chin in his hand. “Sue, it doesn’t have anything to do with how she felt about you guys. When bad things happen when you’re young…it does something to you. It messes with your head. Sometimes you think that if you don’t think or talk about it, it’ll go away.”

  “But something like that doesn’t go away,” she pointed out.

  “I know. But until a person wants to deal with it, it just feels safer not talking.”

  “You’re talking about yourself, too—what happened with your mom leaving?”

  He nodded. “And you, too. Remember how hard it was to tell me about your dad’s death?”

  She wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “I guess. But my God, this was…” She picked up the book. “I can’t imagine a kid seeing her dad shot over thirty times. And the way they described her hugging him. That was”—more tears flowed—“so awful!”

  “I know.” Jason pulled his petite wife, pregnant belly and all, into his lap, and he put the book to the side. “But what’s important is that she has you and Lacy now. And both of you excel at helping people you love get over things. Look what you did with Chase and me. You turned us into card-carrying, pussy-whipped husbands.”

  She hit him on the chest and smiled, but the smile didn’t linger. “You really believe Kathy is okay?”

  “I believe Stan Bradley was trying to protect her by getting her out of his house this morning. And I believe he’s probably still trying to protect her. From what you’ve told me, this guy has been knocking on Kathy’s door for a long time. A guy doesn’t keep coming back unless he cares. And if he feels anything for Kathy like what Chase and I feel for you and Lacy, then he’s going to do his best to keep her safe.”

  She nodded. “Please tell me that you don’t think she has anything to do with the whole drug thing.”

  “I never thought she was involved with anything illegal,” he pronounced.

  She touched his chin. “Have I told you how much I love you lately?”

  “It’s been a whole twelve hours. I’m having withdrawals,” he said, which caused her to kiss him. He pulled back, cupping her face in both palms. “I love you, woman. I was so scared today when you were at Kathy’s. You are my world. Nothing better ever happen to you.” His chest grew heavy with emotion, and he blinked the moisture from his eyes and dropped his hand to caress her belly. “You or this kid.”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I think she’s going to be a daddy’s girl.”

  “She? Yesterday it was a boy.”

  “I know, but now I think it’s going to be a girl. Is a girl okay?”

  “A girl’s fine. But I’m taking lessons from your grandpa on how to keep the boys away. I might even have to start a roach collection to make sure it works.”

  She grinned, thinking of her overprotective relative. “Wanna go to bed?”

  “To sleep?” he asked, and waggled his eyebrows.

  “Well, if you’re good, I’ll let you rub my back.”

  “Mmm. You know what happened the last time you let me rub your back?”

  “I think I remember,” she said. Then she got up, took him by the hand and led him into the bedroom.

  Kathy shot straight up in bed. All she could see was blood. Lots of blood. Her own scream had woken her up.

  “Hey!”

  A pair of strong arms embraced her. She almost screamed again, until she remembered who those arms belonged to. It wasn’t the cop trying to pull her away from her daddy, and it wasn’t one of the cops who’d shot him and kept shooting. It was Luke. She trusted Luke.

  “You have a bad dream?”

  “Yeah,” she said. “A dream. Just a dream.”

  She fell into him and blinked away the tears she hadn’t realized she was crying. Why was she dreaming about this now? The dreams had stopped. They’d stopped a long time ago.

  Then she remembered how seeing the blood and hearing the gunshots had taken her back. God, she hoped they weren’t here to stay. She couldn’t deal with that again.

  “You want to tell me about it?” Luke asked.

  She looked at him. “No. I don’t want to…talk. I’m fine.”

  He leaned in close. “You gotta work on those lying skills.”

  She shook her head and then pulled the sheet up around her breasts. Her gaze moved to the window, and she saw a sliver of sun spilling in. “What time is it?” she asked.

  He reached over and picked up the phone. “A little after five.”

  They had made love again last night, and it had been even better than the first time. She recalled waking up several times during the night, unaccustomed to sleeping with someone—and each time she stirred, she’d realized he was awake. “Did you even sleep?” she asked.

  “I did fine.”

  “Your lying skills are waning, too.”

  He grinned.

  “So you didn’t sleep?” she asked.

  His smiled widened. “Too busy peeking under the covers.” He ducked his head under the sheets.

  She yanked the sheet back and tucked it around her body. “Stop that!”

  “Killjoy,” he accused.

  She looked around the cabin. “Where’s Goodwill?”

  “Sleeping.” Luke pointed over to the kitchenette area, where the dog had fallen asleep on the rug. “He woke me three times to take him outside.”

  “You should have woken me. I’d have done it.”

  “We did okay. We had a long talk about him pissing on my shoe.”

  She smiled, and her chest filled with a warm wash of emotion as some of the sexier memories from last night filled her mind. But then she remembered that in a few hours they were going to meet with people who would separate them. And while he’d promised he would come back, which did take away a bit of the sting, that scared her. Was she ready to jump into a real relationship?

  We’ll take it slow, Kathy. As slow as you want it.

  His words took a lap around her head and heart. She hoped he meant them, because there was no telling how slow she’d need him to go. It was downright amazing that she was willing to try.

  “Where’s that head taking you now?” he asked.

  Realizing she’d been lost in thought, she looked up. “Uh, just thinking about you leaving.”

  “Why don’t you think about me coming back?”

  “Actually, I sort of was thinking about that, too.”

  The humor in his eyes faded. “Why do I get a feeling that you’re not having all positive thoughts?”

  “They’re positive,” she said. Then: “I’m just scared.”

  “Why?”

  When she didn’t answer, he ran a hand over her cheek. “What happened, Kathy? What happened that m
akes it so hard for you to trust?”

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  “Nothing happened.” Kathy started readjusting the sheet, mentally stuffing her dirty laundry into a virtual closet.

  “Bullshit.” He caught her face in his palm and forced her to look at him. “Your ex did a real number on you, didn’t he?”

  “Maybe. Okay, yes, he did a number on me.” She opened the door of the mental closet just a bit.

  “What did he do?”

  She hesitated, but he seemed so determined. “He left me,” she admitted.

  “How come I get a feeling there’s more to it?”

  She let go of a deep gulp of air and gave the door another nudge. “He left me for his secretary.”

  “And?”

  “Does there need to be more?”

  “There usually is.” He continued to stare at her.

  “She was older.” Kathy tightened the sheet around herself. “A lot older.”

  His gaze never wavered, as if he was waiting for more. She reached for the mental door handle and prepared to fling it wide.

  “You hear women complain about their husbands leaving them for younger, prettier models. And I’m not saying that wouldn’t hurt. But let them walk in my shoes. This woman was old, she was fat, she didn’t even have a big bank account…and yet he chose her over me.” Kathy’s throat grew tight, and for one second she wanted to pick up her laundry and toss it back in the closet.

  “He was an idiot,” Luke said. “A friggin’ idiot.”

  Something about his tone chased away her need to hide. “He called me from work and asked me to meet him for dinner. Our anniversary was in a week. I thought…I thought he was going to take me out on a romantic date. I went and bought some new lingerie. I got a babysitter for the entire night. Then I sat there with a pair of thong panties crawling up my ass while he told me that he loved a woman who was almost as old as my mother!”

  Kathy felt her stomach tremble. Oddly, it wasn’t so much from pain—that part had mostly subsided over the years—but just because she’d never, ever told anyone about it. Never aired her dirty laundry to anyone.

  She continued, “He said that I was a cold…fish in bed, and that I didn’t know how to…” Realizing what she was about to say, she closed her eyes.