by Lisa Childs
But even with the scars, he was still beautiful—all straining muscles. She rubbed against him.
He unclasped her bra and pushed down the cups until it fell away from her. Her nipples rubbed against his chest until he pushed her back. Then his tongue rubbed over her nipples, teasing them.
Heat pooled between her legs. “Gage...”
“It’s been so long,” he murmured. “I’m not going to last.”
But he took his time with her. He pulled off her panties and made sure she was ready for him, his fingers moving in and out of her. She shuddered as she came.
It had been a long time. She hadn’t been with anyone since him. She’d told Richard she wanted to wait for their wedding night. But she knew now—even if she’d still believed Gage dead—that she wouldn’t have been able to make love with him. She hadn’t loved him.
She’d loved only Gage.
He pushed her back onto the mattress and parted her legs. Then he was there, nudging against her core. She arched and stretched, trying to take all of him. She bit her lip as he thrust inside her.
He tensed. “Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head. “No, it’s just been a while.”
His brow furrowed, and he stared down at her with surprise. And hope.
“There’s been no one since you,” she told him.
“You don’t have to lie to me,” he said.
“I only did that once,” she said. “When I told you I never loved you. That was the only lie I’ve ever told you.”
He closed his eyes as if overwhelmed and murmured her name. “Megan...”
He’d said he wasn’t the same man he’d been. But he felt the same to her—felt as perfect as he always had—as if they’d been made for each other.
She moved beneath him, the tension building tightly inside her as the passion—the passion she’d only felt with him—overwhelmed her.
He moved slowly, sliding in and out of her while he kissed her lips. And her neck. And her shoulder. As he kissed her, he touched her. He teased her breasts with his fingers, making the nipples tighten and tingle.
“Gage...” She was so close—to losing her mind.
Then he moved his hand between them, flicking his thumb over the most sensitive part of her. And she came, screaming his name.
His body tensed, shuddering, as he filled her. He moved so that he dropped onto the bed next to her.
She shuddered in the aftermath of the orgasm. Because she felt cold suddenly—separate—where a moment ago they had been so close they’d felt like one.
Then his arm slid under her shoulders, and he rolled her up against him. His other hand reached across his body to wrap around hers, his palm against her hip.
“Gage?” she whispered. She peered up at his face. His eyes, those beautiful green eyes, were closed. And his jaw, shadowed with stubble a few shades darker than his hair, was clenched yet but not nearly as rigidly as it was when he was awake.
She suspected that after what he’d been through during those long months he’d been missing, this was as at rest as Gage ever was anymore. So she didn’t have the heart to wake him up—to tell him what the rhinestones on her dress really were.
Megan settled her head on Gage’s shoulder. She knew she was still in danger because of that damn dress. But here—in his arms—she felt safe. Her only wish was that everyone else was, too.
* * *
The mother of men who routinely put their lives on the line to protect others, Penny had spent more than her share of time in hospital waiting rooms. She’d never paced the floor over a man who hadn’t been a relative. Nick didn’t count. She hadn’t given birth to him, but he was her son, same as Logan and Parker and Cooper. The Kozminskis, Milek and Garek, were her boys, too. They all waited with her, their eyes full of concern for her. And confusion.
They had no idea why she was so upset. Neither did she. It wasn’t as if she knew Woodrow Lynch that well. They’d met a little over a year ago, but he lived in Chicago and she in River City. They’d never even been out on a date.
He’d never asked. But if he had, she wasn’t sure she would have accepted. She hadn’t wanted to be in this position again. She hadn’t wanted to love a man that she risked losing because of what he did, of who he was.
She’d never had the chance to pace a waiting room for her husband. He’d died before he’d ever made it to the hospital, like Derek Nielsen had. So she’d been spared this nightmare of waiting, of worrying.
Losing her husband had been fast, like ripping off a Band-Aid. That could be why it hadn’t hurt like this. And even though she’d forgiven him his betrayal, she’d never completely trusted him again, not enough to love him freely anymore.
Not that she loved Woodrow Lynch. She couldn’t. She hardly knew him. Sure, he was a great father. That was obvious with how much his girls loved him. Ellen wasn’t pacing like she was. She was too weak from morning sickness. She slumped in a chair with her husband’s arm around her shoulders. They’d brought their kids to her mother-in-law earlier, when Gage had turned them away from the chapel.
It wasn’t just family in the waiting room, though—his and hers. All of Woodrow’s agents had come to hospital, too. They not only respected their boss, they loved him.
No agent loved him more than Nicholas Rus did. Actually, it was Nicholas Payne now. He had finally done what she’d asked. He’d taken his father’s name. And he’d given his new son Woodrow’s name. Nick stepped into her path so that she had to stop pacing. But the minute she stopped, the fear caught her, overwhelming her. Nick’s arms closed around, holding her as she fell apart.
She couldn’t lose Woodrow—just as she’d realized she loved him, too.
Chapter 23
Something soft brushed against Gage’s chin and his neck and his chest. He opened his eyes and glanced down to find Megan’s head on his shoulder. His heart swelled in his chest, love overwhelming him. He loved this, loved waking with her in his arms. This was how they used to sleep whenever he had convinced her to stay over at his place. It had always felt so natural to him—so right—to sleep with her in his arms, her head on his chest.
Maybe that was why he’d struggled so hard to sleep since his escape. It hadn’t been because of the nightmares but because she hadn’t been with him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d fallen asleep so quickly or slept so soundly. Glancing at his watch, he realized that it had only been a couple of hours. That much uninterrupted sleep was a big deal for him.
He couldn’t get used to it, though, couldn’t get used to having her back in his arms. Even if she wanted to be with him again, he wouldn’t let her make that sacrifice. Because he loved her, he couldn’t put her through life with a man as broken as he was now.
It wasn’t as if she really wanted to be with him again. She had just been through a lot today and had needed someone. He’d been there for her.
Where had Richard gone?
Had he made it out of the chapel alive? Had everyone else? Gage reached for his phone, which was in the pocket of the tuxedo jacket lying on the floor on her side of the bed. So he had to roll across her. His body tensed as she stirred beneath him. He wanted to bury himself inside her, wanted to feel as close to her as he had just those couple of hours ago.
Her thick lashes fluttered just before she opened her eyes and stared up at him. At first she looked surprised, like she hadn’t expected to find him in bed with her. He studied her, waiting for disappointment. After all, he wasn’t the man she had really wanted, the one she had agreed to marry.
Why had she agreed to marry Richard?
She’d admitted they’d never had the passion that she and Gage had. That passion flared now in her eyes, and her skin flushed. She reached up and linked her arms around his neck, pulling his head down for a kiss.
Like before, he couldn’t resist her, not with her naked body lying warm and soft beneath his. She was already wet and ready for him, so he slid inside her. She lifted her legs and locked t
hem around his waist, matching his rhythm as he thrust inside her.
She moaned then screamed his name as she came. Her inner muscles clutched at him as her body shuddered with release. The tension that had been gripping him snapped, and he joined her in ecstasy.
He tried to pull back, but she held on to him, as if unwilling to release him. Being connected with her was all that he’d remembered: so right, so humbling...
Love filled his heart, and he wanted to tell her how he felt. But it wasn’t fair. He couldn’t ask her to take a risk on a man like him, one who’d been so damaged not just physically but mentally as well.
He drew in a steadying breath and pulled away from her. He grabbed up his jacket from the floor and found his phone. Seeing the dark screen, he cursed. The cell jammer had drained his battery. Fortunately, a charger had been left next to the bed. He plugged it in.
“It’s so dead that it’s going to take a couple of minutes before I can get it to power up,” he said. “Then I’ll call Nick and find out what all happened at the chapel.”
She nodded then drew in an unsteady breath. “That’s good. I need to tell you something before you talk to Nick.”
“What?” he asked. Somehow he didn’t think she was going to profess her love for him.
“I know why the gunmen showed up at the church.”
He tensed. There was something about her tone that raised his suspicions. He and Woodrow had been blaming each other for the gunmen showing up at the church. But what if it had been because of her?
“Why?” he asked. “Why did they want you so badly?” Not that he could blame them. He wanted her badly, too, so badly that even after making love with her twice, he wanted her again. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” she said with a trace of defensiveness. “It wasn’t really me they wanted.”
“I heard—”
She pressed her fingers across her lips. “They didn’t want me. They wanted my dress.”
He snorted. “That thing?”
She had looked beautiful in it. But she would look beautiful in a gunnysack as well. The dress itself had been ostentatious and gaudy, not something she would have chosen to wear at all.
“Yes, that thing,” she said. “I thought the rhinestones were tacky.”
“Then why did you pick it?”
“I didn’t pick it,” she said. “Richard did.”
His stomach knotted with anger. Gage never would have told her what to wear, especially not for her wedding day. All he would have wanted was for her to be comfortable and happy.
“And those rhinestones,” she said. “They’re not rhinestones at all.”
“What are they?”
“Diamonds.”
He snorted again. “Yeah, right.”
“How do you think I broke that glass cabinet in Penny’s closet?” she asked.
“Kicked it—hit it, I don’t know,” he admitted.
“With the rhinestones.”
“But rhinestones...” Then he realized she was right. Only diamonds could have cut the glass. He cursed. “What the hell—how did they get there?”
He glanced through the open bedroom door to where the dress lay on the hardwood floor of the living room. It sparkled in the late afternoon sun shining through the skylight above it. There were a lot of rhinestones sewn into the heavy fabric. If they were all diamonds, a fortune lay there.
No wonder the gunmen had laid siege to the church. The risk they’d faced would have been worth it had they gotten the dress. But to get the dress, they would have had to get Megan, too.
He’d managed to protect her at the chapel. But she was still in danger because she had the dress. He had to keep her safe. So he reached for her again, wanting to wrap his arms around her and hold her close so no one could get her.
But she pulled away from him. Taking a sheet with her as she left the bed where they had made love, she wrapped it around herself. She could be shy like that, even after they’d made love. He suspected there was something more to her wanting to cover up.
She felt exposed. Or foolish.
* * *
She had been such a fool. Would Gage ever forgive her for all the mistakes she’d made? Instead of trusting him, she had trusted the wrong man, and it had nearly cost her life as well as the lives of other people she cared about.
“Is your phone charged yet?” she asked. She needed to know for certain that her father was all right and that the Paynes were, too. Nikki had risked her life taking Megan’s place. But fortunately she hadn’t taken her dress.
If she had...
Who knew what the gunmen and Andrea would have done to her? Of course given Andrea’s disposition, she might have hurt Nikki anyway, just out of spite.
Gage glanced at his cell and nodded. “It’s charged enough to power up now.” But he didn’t reach for it. “Are you going to tell me how the diamonds got on your gown?”
His green eyes were narrowed with suspicion as he stared at her.
And Megan shivered. “I didn’t put them there,” she assured him.
He sighed. “Richard...”
She nodded. “It has to be. He had the dress designed. He found the seamstress. It had to be him.”
“How the hell would he have gotten his hands on that many diamonds?” Gage mused aloud. “Unless he stole them...”
“He must have,” she agreed.
“The danger is not from who you think.” Gage muttered the words.
She shivered again. “What?”
“Those were D’s last words,” Gage said. Regret flashed in his green eyes.
“He died.”
Gage nodded. “He said he knew that I would be the one—” He cleared his throat. “That if he died, I’d be the one.”
“I’m sure you had no choice,” she said.
“Like the guy who was trying to bring you upstairs to the chapel.”
She narrowed her eyes and studied his face. Was he worried about what she’d think? He was nothing like the men he’d killed. “You had no choice,” she said again. “He would have killed me.”
Gage nodded and released a ragged sigh. “Yes, he would have.”
“And D must have realized he’d given you no choice, either,” she said. “Or he wouldn’t have given you a warning.”
“That was a warning,” Gage agreed.
“It must have been about Richard.”
A muscle twitched along Gage’s tightly clenched jaw, and he nodded. “It must have been. So they knew each other.”
“And I didn’t know him at all,” she said. “He’s not at all who I thought he was...” She’d thought him a harmless nerd, not a thief.
But what if that wasn’t all he was? What if he was a killer, too?
* * *
“Never thought I’d see you in a wedding dress,” Logan remarked as he joined Nikki in the corner of the hospital waiting room.
She glanced down at the gown, surprised she was still wearing it. She had forgotten all about it. “I never thought I’d wear this dress, either,” she admitted. But despite her reservations, it had brought her luck.
If she had switched dresses with Megan, she doubted she would have gotten out of the chapel alive. Because she’d figured out where the diamonds Derek wanted were.
Those weren’t rhinestones on the real bride’s wedding gown. “Where are Gage and Megan?” she asked.
Logan glanced around the waiting room. “I don’t know.”
“I couldn’t reach him on his cell phone,” Nick said as he joined them.
Nikki looked around for her mom, whom Nick had been comforting earlier.
“Ellen told the hospital that it was fine for Penny to go see Woodrow.” They had only been allowing family members back since he’d come out of surgery. They’d gotten out the bullet, but he’d lost so much blood that it was still touch and go. He might not make it.
Regret struck Nikki’s heart. If only she’d taken down Andrea earlier...
But Andrea wasn’t a threat anymore. Richard Boersman was, though.
“We need to get a hold of Gage,” Nikki said.
“Yeah,” Nick agreed. “He would want to be here. And of course Megan needs to be here, too. She doesn’t even know about her dad.”
Nikki shook her head. “They can’t come here. They’re still in danger.”
“We rounded up everyone at the church,” Logan said. “How could they still be in danger?”
“The danger is not from who you think,” Nick murmured.
And Nikki shivered. “I will never get used to you having that same freaky sixth sense Mom has.”
“It’s not that,” Nick said. “Gage said those were the escaped convict’s last words.”
“He warned him.” She wasn’t surprised. While the guy had obviously had no qualms about killing, he’d also had a warped sense of honor, too. If not for him, Nikki would be dead. His wife would have killed her when she’d stormed into the chapel after he’d untied her.
If only he hadn’t untied her...
“So Gage knows she’s not safe yet,” Nikki said.
“That’s why he got Megan out of there,” Nick said. “He got her to the safe house.”
Nikki expelled a breath of relief. “That’s good.” But it wasn’t enough. “We still need to talk to him. Warn him about Richard.”
“Richard?” Logan repeated the name.
“The groom,” Nikki said. “Didn’t you meet him at the church?”
Logan shook his head.
“You didn’t see another guy in a tuxedo? Short, nerdy-looking guy?” she asked.
Parker stepped up and shook his head. “There was no one wearing a tuxedo but Woodrow.”
And he’d been lying on the floor, bleeding. Nikki shuddered as she remembered. She’d been so busy consoling her mother and worrying about Chief Special Agent Lynch that she hadn’t even thought to look for Richard.
“Gage was wearing a tux, too,” Nick said. “But nobody else that we saw inside the church.”
Nikki cursed. “He must have gotten away.” Or worse yet, he’d followed Gage and Megan. “Until we catch him, Megan isn’t safe.”
She had what he wanted. His diamonds.