Harlequin Intrigue May 2021--Box Set 2 of 2

by Carol Ericson

  She could feel the movement of his lips, the warmth of his breath, as he whispered into her ear. “No cameras anywhere. Only the listening devices that were there before. No one came back while we were gone, but with that big window there and the lights on in here, we can’t be sure no one is watching.”

  Lianna tried to relax, to act. The idea that someone might be watching through the window was beyond disturbing, but what really bothered her was that her mind wasn’t on that alone. It was on the fact she was sitting on Reece’s lap. She could feel his body heat underneath her, the tension in his thighs under hers. The thing that shuddered through her was not close enough to fear as it should be.

  He eased her off effortlessly and gently, and she had to be about fifty different shades of red. But he went about eating the spaghetti as though this were all normal. Because he was good at this. At acting and being someone else.

  Which she didn’t understand, because he hadn’t done that in the beginning. He hadn’t put on this act with her. The only thing he’d pretended, as far as she could tell, was the nature photography.

  But tonight he chatted and ate as if he was, well, Todd Part II. She should have been weirded out, but instead she was almost...relieved. If he could pretend to be someone like Todd...didn’t that mean he really hadn’t been pretending up until now?

  They finished dinner and Reece made some condescending remark about letting her handle cleanup. He disappeared again and she tackled the dinner dishes. There was only one window in the kitchen and it was over the sink, but it only had a half blind. Someone could be out there watching her. Someone could...

  She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Reece wouldn’t have left her alone if she was in immediate danger. Even for all his acting tonight, she knew that. Believed that.

  Trust your gut. She was definitely out of practice when it came to that, but Reece was making it easier. Shay and the whole group of people working to help her made it easier. She didn’t even know what to call their group, but she trusted them. With her son. With her grandfather. Basically, her life.

  Doubts crept in, because she’d trusted wrongly before, but she just kept repeating Shay’s advice. Trust your gut. Her gut knew, despite the doubts, she was doing the only thing she could think to do. If it didn’t work...

  Well, she’d cross that bridge when she came to it.

  She went through her normal routine, double-checking doors. She stayed as far away from the windows as she could, and she felt way more tense than usual. Also, there wasn’t a baby monitor attached to her hip, none of Henry’s snores making the house seem less isolated.

  At another time, she might have enjoyed the quiet and the solitude. A vacation of sorts. But with danger lurking, the last thing she wanted to do was be separated from her son.

  This is the best thing you can do to keep him safe.

  She had to believe that. Had to.

  Reece had left the door to the hallway on her side unlocked and open. Lianna had half expected him to disappear to his old attic room, but that didn’t make sense, did it? Not that much about this did.

  She moved to her room, the tension that already held her muscles tight and her breathing shallow not dissipating any. Because now what?

  Her room door was open and Reece was sitting at her desk, tapping away on a laptop she didn’t recognize. It was strange to see him here in her room. This had always been her room. A girl’s space and then a woman’s. Even Henry didn’t care to spend much time here.

  But there was a very large man at her desk who somehow didn’t look as out of place as he should.

  “Sorry to invade your space,” he said, standing up, and though the move was completely smooth and very operative-like, there was a sense that he was...uncomfortable. Awkward. Because here they didn’t have to worry about listening devices anymore, so he was just...Reece. Normal Reece.

  “I don’t want you sleeping alone.”

  * * *

  WELL, THAT HAD come out all wrong. Or maybe there was no right way to say it when he could still feel the way she’d settled into his lap. Warm, perfect curves, that scent of citrus about her. The way her cheeks kept flushing an irresistible shade of pink.

  “Sorry. That’s not what I...” He cleared his throat. It hadn’t been easy to pretend to be some self-absorbed moron out there, knowing people could be watching, but it was harder to pretend everything away when it was just...them. No listening devices. Curtains closed. Here he could be himself, and he could be honest.

  And you have to keep her safe.

  Safe didn’t always equal honesty, but she was here. She hadn’t let him handle this...though that still irritated him. But her plan was good and he’d keep her safe.

  “The thing is, they didn’t break in while we were gone,” Reece said. He didn’t believe honesty was the best policy here, but apparently the truth was coming out anyway. “They didn’t set up cameras or listening devices when no one was here, and they could have. They aren’t waiting around for information.”

  Understanding dawned on her face and the way she went a little pale. “They just want me.”

  “That’s my theory. Now, you don’t have to worry tonight. Elsie patched into your cameras—outside and in the hallway there. Someone will be watching around the clock, but I think we should stick close. Like same-room close.”

  Lianna nodded.

  “Lucky for us both, I can sleep almost anywhere, so the floor will be fine,” he said, trying to sound...casual. About sleeping in the same room. Which was casual and about the mission.

  Lianna blinked and looked at her bed. It was perfectly made, as she’d no doubt left it. Color rose in her cheeks again, but she turned away from him.

  Reece took the opportunity to finish the video call he’d been making on the laptop.

  “It’s so weird being here without Henry,” Lianna said, unnecessarily plumping a pillow on the bed.

  “Hi, Mom.”

  She whirled around at the sound of Henry’s voice. Eyes filling a little when she saw Henry on the screen. “Hi, baby.” Without another thought, she was standing next to Reece, bent over so she could be close to the screen.

  Reece nudged her into the chair and settled himself against the desk as Henry babbled happily.

  “We had pizza for dinner. Then ice cream sundaes for dessert. Gramps read me the dumbest joke book. Hi, Reece! When are you guys coming back?”

  Reece slid a look at Lianna. She smiled brightly and spoke calmly to Henry, assuring him they’d all be back together soon. Yet he could see that under the desk, she was twisting her fingers together, worrying.

  There was no way to take the worry away, especially after they’d finished the call with Henry and spoken to Shay and Elsie, finding out there was absolutely no new information.

  She still had a placid look on her face when the call ended, but her hands betrayed her, so he put his over hers. “When the mission is more frustrating than you want it to be, you just take it one step at a time. So next step? A good night’s sleep.”

  “That sounds very practical,” she said, and he knew she was trying to sound accepting rather than scathing, but she didn’t quite make it.

  Why did that make him smile?

  But she looked down at his hands on hers, and her expression changed. Which he didn’t have time to dwell on because she turned her hands in his so they were palm to palm, and that...short-circuited his brain.

  He couldn’t have said why. It was a simple touch, friendly at best, but... Well, when had he ever had much of that in his life? Any of that in his life?

  “Why weren’t you like that out there in the beginning?” she asked, and her gaze rose from their hands—still joined—to his eyes. She studied him, blue eyes dark and assessing. As if she could see through him. Understand him. In all the ways he didn’t.

  “Like what?” he as
ked through a too-tight throat.

  “Pushy. Overconfident. It would have made sense.”

  “No. It wouldn’t have.”

  “I was fooled by one man. I’m sure—”

  “You’re thinking like someone who goes off one set of facts and makes all their decisions. I’m a trained operative. My job isn’t just to go off the information I have. It’s to observe and assess. This place was so neat and tidy. Cozy and like a home. The perfect kind you see on TV. Then there you were, and you...you were so competent.”

  She wrinkled her nose as if that was an insult rather than the compliment he meant it to be.

  “When I asked why your name wasn’t Young like the history of this house, you gave me this look and demanded to know if I had a personal question to ask about that. You didn’t strike me as the type of woman who would be pushed around.”

  “And yet...”

  “No ‘and yet.’ You’re not. Maybe you made a mistake in trusting Todd Kade, but here you are. Fighting back. For your son. For yourself. Don’t pretend like one mistake makes you someone you aren’t.”

  She inhaled sharply, then let the breath go. Her hands squeezed his and she got to her feet. But she didn’t move away, or take her hands out of his grasp. She stood there, right in front of him, holding his hands. “I’m starting to think you might be good for me, Reece Montgomery.”

  “Last night you said you couldn’t trust yourself,” he reminded her, because this felt like...dangerous ground. Lianna’s hands in his. Some unknown battle light in her eyes.

  She nodded, a little sadly. “I’m still working on that. It’s strange but something about...well, you and your group. You trusted my plan. You’re here, and I know you would have preferred to handle it alone. But you all trusted me, and it made it easier to trust you. The easier that is, the more I seem to realize...I can trust myself. Or at least try to.”

  She moved closer, or leaned closer. Somehow she was closer and there was a buzzing in his head he didn’t know how to stop. Everything inside of him was focused on her. This moment. The mission disappeared. Everything disappeared except her.

  “Last night you said you don’t know what this is,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.

  He couldn’t pretend not to know what she meant. “I don’t. I...”

  “It’s only because you never had it. No one ever gave you a reason to have it. A lot of people failed you when you were most vulnerable.”

  Uncomfortable with that word, with her sympathy that he felt drifted a little too close to pity, he shrugged. “I survived.” He pulled his hands from hers, but she only reached up and placed a palm to his cheek.

  “But survival doesn’t give you a chance to care or be cared for.” She moved closer, angling her mouth toward his. There was still a wariness there. Doubts, maybe. But her hand was on his face and his heart beat so hard in his chest it felt like a war was raging inside his rib cage. One that would leave him bloody and broken.

  He’d never been able to avoid the real kind of war. Why would he be able to avoid this?

  “I’m not sure danger and secrets is a great reason for caring about someone, but—”

  “You’re the only reason.” Which seemed to destroy all the reason he’d been clinging to. All the sense. All his control. He closed the distance between them, pulling her against his chest.

  And took all the things he didn’t understand.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Reece kissed her like a starving man, and Lianna felt that she was perfectly amenable to being consumed by this. His arms banded around her so that it would have taken some serious work to escape.

  She didn’t want to escape. She wanted to give in to something.

  You did this once before and look how that turned out.

  But that little voice in her head wasn’t as loud as it used to be, and Reece’s hands smoothing over her back, molding her to the hard lines of his body, seemed to eradicate it completely.

  At worst, mistakes had to be repeated to learn a lesson. Or so she told herself, because nothing about opening herself up to Reece felt like a mistake.

  The kiss spun out, deep and consuming, his heart pounding as hard against her hand on his chest as hers was pounding inside her own.

  The hands on her back pulled the hem of her shirt up, slowly revealing skin to the heated air around them. It wasn’t cold, and still she shivered as she lifted her arms and let him pull the shirt over her head.

  His eyes were dark and intense, but there was vulnerability under all that fierceness. He didn’t understand it, and he’d probably never admit to being vulnerable. But she saw it. Wanted to protect it.

  She could be good for Reece, just like he’d been good for her. She slid her hands under his T-shirt, pushing it up and out of the way until he discarded it like he’d discarded hers.

  He was pure muscle, scarred skin. She ran her hands over the scars, stomach cramping at the things he must have seen. Endured.

  There was a flicker of something on his face. Not embarrassment, but maybe discomfort. Or fear. So she leaned forward and pressed her mouth to one of his scars, to prove they only made him more beautiful. More...him.

  Then she stretched up on her toes and pressed her mouth to his, wrapping her arms around his neck. She wanted to pour all the confusing, exhilarating emotion inside of her into him. Fill him with it. Until he understood, somehow, something she couldn’t have articulated in words.

  The kiss went wild, bigger and brighter than she’d ever known. They tugged at each other’s pants, undressing the rest of the way, outside world and danger forgotten. He laid her on the bed and still there was such control in him, leashing back a desperation she could see in his eyes, feel in his kiss. He didn’t seem to know how to let out. So she’d have to show him.

  His body covered her like it had been made to. He touched her like he’d known how for years. Every kiss took her deeper and deeper into something she wasn’t sure she understood. So she held on for dear life. As pleasure ebbed into pleasure, wave crashed into wave, and hope bloomed as pure and simple as if she’d never been hurt, she didn’t want to think. She didn’t want to worry. For this brief moment in time, she wanted to feel and savor and enjoy.

  It was a joy, to be with someone like this. To be with Reece like this. To feel him inside of her, to hold him as he joined her over that edge of bliss.

  They stayed there, tangled together, until she dozed off, spent and exhausted and...happy.

  When she woke up with the morning sunlight streaming on her face, Reece wasn’t in bed with her. She knew he’d slept there for a while because she’d woken up once in the dark and nuzzled closer to him. His arm had come around her, holding her tight.

  But now he was up and dressed, bustling around the room. It was...almost as nice as waking up to him. Him moving about, doing things, as if he belonged here. She found she wanted him to belong here even knowing she had no idea how that would work.

  Maybe you could have discussed that before... Lianna blinked at the sudden realization. This wasn’t so simple as wanting to take care of someone who’d never had that. It wasn’t as simple as liking him. This deep, tangled and inconvenient giving in to something she hadn’t planned was...something more. Was it love?

  No. No, she wasn’t being this stupid again. She’d thought she’d fallen in love with Todd at first sight. A week wasn’t much better. Especially a week where she’d been threatened. That meant she wasn’t thinking clearly.

  But she didn’t feel muddled. She didn’t find that she was talking herself into things like she had with Todd—so desperate for a love that didn’t come with the strings of family.

  She sat up in bed, frustrated with her own feelings. She didn’t have to figure out everything right this second. Yes, they’d slept together, and it had been...wonderful. That didn’t mean she needed to immediatel
y know exactly what she felt and exactly what they were going to do about it.

  Reece looked up, seeming unsurprised she was awake. “We’ll want to drop some hints this morning,” he said briskly. “That you know something you aren’t telling me. Over breakfast, I’m thinking. You’ll say something along the lines of wanting to open the inn, wanting Henry to come home, and I’ll be dismissive. We can spend the rest of the morning away from the listening devices. Come back at lunch and I’ll escalate the pressure. Bit by bit. We’ll give it a day or two, and if they still don’t act, I’ll really explode. If you have to make something up, we’ll figure it out beforehand.”

  She didn’t know what to say to all that. He had plans. He was ready to face the day. She was...naked. She held the sheet up to her chest and tried to follow...any of what he’d said.

  Breakfast. Pretending she knew something. Trying to draw someone out to...what? Demand information from her? Try to kidnap her?

  This was your idea, remember?

  She swallowed. This was the plan, the focus. Last night was the...well, distraction. She had to change gears as quickly as he had.

  But when she looked at him again, he was standing at the end of the bed just staring at her. She might have felt self-conscious, naked with only a sheet held up to her chest, but she recognized that stare. It was the same look he’d given her in the hallway when he’d said he didn’t know what this was. There was just so much inside this man that he didn’t know how to let out, and she found that her doubts paled in the face of that.

  She wanted to help him. She wanted...everything.

  “I don’t know how to do this,” he said, as if each word was dragged across shattered glass.

  Lianna felt her own throat tighten up. It felt too close to a goodbye, and she didn’t want... Would he walk away because he didn’t understand? Because it was too much for him? Would she? When she had a son to think of far above her own feelings.