Chapter One

by Judith Rochelle

  The first climax came so swiftly she was completely unprepared for the spasms that rocketed through her. Quinn rode her through it, easing her with his tongue and his clever fingers. She was panting when the last quiver died away. When he looked up at her the fire she felt in her body was reflected in his eyes.

  He gave her no time to recover, his hands and mouth returning to their teasing, tormenting actions. And it started again, roaring up from deep inside her womb, spreading out through her body, his tongue flicking the throbbing bundle of muscles at the top of her sex, finding the source of her pleasure and pushing her higher.

  The tension built inside of her, pulsing, throbbing, the blood in her veins thrumming in her ears. She was rising to a crest, pulled toward a precipice that her body strained to reach.

  When he suddenly pulled away the absence of his heat shocked her. “Quinn?” she quavered, wondering what was wrong.

  But then he was over her, guiding himself into her, the thickness of him filling her. He stretched her beyond belief, her intimate muscles gripping him like a hot, wet fist.

  When he was fully inside her, he bent his head and captured one of her nipples in his mouth. He worried it with his teeth, soothed it with his tongue, tugged on it with his lips until she was sure she’d climax just from that alone. When the sensation became almost unbearable he moved to the other nipple and gave it the same attention.

  Kate was strung tight as a bow, every fiber of her body screaming for release. But even as she strained toward him, one thought came out of nowhere and flashed in her mind—this was right.

  This was not an accident of fate. This was where she belonged.

  ****

  What the hell am I doing here?

  The sudden flash of reality was almost like a dousing of cold water for Quinn.

  For one thing, he hadn’t even thought about sex for so long he was afraid he’d forgotten how. He and his good right hand had become very close friends during his self-imposed solitude. And loneliness. Let’s not forget that. But this woman...this waif...she pulled feelings out of him he didn’t know still existed. And made him want things he thought were gone from his life.

  And sweet Jesus, for another thing, he’d just met her. Somehow he got caught up in helping her. That didn’t give him a license to have incredible sex with her. In fact, it was probably the stupidest thing he could do. But it just seemed so...right. Yeah, that was it. It was right. Almost as if Lisa was hovering somewhere nearby, giving him a shove, pushing him out of his comfort zone and telling him to quit playing dead. That was the presence he’d felt. That was what had impelled him into this muddle of a mess.

  He could almost hear her voice. “You’re supposed to do this, Quinn. It’s time now and she’s the right one.”

  And with that he hardened again inside her and every nerve in his body snapped.

  He had to grit his teeth to maintain any semblance of control. She felt like the purest silk around him, so tight he worried at first he’d hurt her. Then her muscles clamped down on him and he forgot to worry. Sweat popped out on his forehead. He wanted this to last forever.

  He paid homage to her nipples, little rosebuds that plumped in his mouth. She strained against him, so responsive that he could have suckled her forever. But his body argued with him, demanding movement, begging for release.

  At last he began a steady rhythm in and out, his hips rolling and thrusting. His body was on fire with need, his lungs burning for air.

  When he felt the familiar tingling and tightening in his spine he thrust harder and faster, Kate matching his every move. He felt her climax grip her only a moment before his erupted, spasms that milked him as they tumbled together over the crest into a space filled with bursting fireworks.

  The last thought Quinn had before his body exploded into hers was that this was where he belonged.

  Chapter Seven

  They lay gasping for breath in a tangle of limbs, Quinn’s heart thundering against hers. Long minutes passed before either of them could speak. Finally he shifted his head to look at her.

  “Please tell me you’re not sorry.”

  Her smile came from deep inside of her. “Not even a little bit.” Then the smile faded. “So what does that make me, falling into bed with a complete stranger?”

  He traced her lips with his tongue, teasing her mouth, then locked his gaze onto hers. His eyes had darkened to a rich ebony. “Do you believe in fate? That things happen the way they do for a reason?”

  She swallowed before answering him, her heart still beating erratically. “I used to. Then fate played some very nasty tricks on me so I decided it was all a vicious rumor.”

  “Me, too,” he told her. “But last night changed my mind again. I almost didn’t stop when I saw you, but my conscience—or something—kicked me in the butt. If I’d just driven on home we wouldn’t be here together like this. I think some master puppeteer is pulling our strings, Kate. I don’t know what your story is, but I can tell you mine is far from pretty. Maybe we were sent to heal each other.”

  She turned her face away, unwilling to meet his eyes. “My story would send you running for your life. You wouldn’t stick around long enough to do any healing. This was great but—”

  “Great?” he exploded. “It was a damn sight more than great. Look at me.”

  But she couldn’t. She’d hug the memory of the night to her for a long time. “Quinn, you don’t need the kind of trouble I’m dragging along with me. And I need to get out of here before you get sucked into it.”

  He feathered kisses over her face, then brushed her hair back, tucking it behind her ears.

  “Listen to me.” He cupped her chin and turned her face so she was forced to meet his penetrating gaze. “I look in your eyes and I see such terror it frightens me. No one should be that afraid of anything. You tell me your parents are dead, and you have no one. Whatever you’re running from, you can’t keep doing it alone. You’re not alone anymore. So, let me help you. Please.”

  She wrested her chin away and tucked her face against his broad chest, loving the feel of the soft curls against her cheek. Oh, God, could she do this? If it was a mistake, it meant her life. And maybe Quinn’s.

  But what they had shared was...magical. So special she couldn’t find words to describe it. And she wanted so desperately to hang onto him, to have him ‘fix’ this, so she could get her life back. With him, if it was meant to be.

  “Kate?” he urged, kissing her jaw line, his warm hand cradling her still tingling breasts. “I’ve lived with emptiness for a long time. I want to see where this thing goes, what we have together. But in order to do that, we have to take care of whatever’s wrong here.”

  What can I lose? I can only be dead once, right?

  “All right.” She touched her lips to his briefly. “But first I need a shower and coffee.”

  He held her so tightly she could barely breathe. “Good. We can do that.” Then, as if repeating it to himself, “We can do that.”

  ****

  Kate insisted on showering in the bathroom she’d used the night before.

  “I want you to move your things into my room,” Quinn insisted.

  “I will, but this way we can both shower at the same time.”

  He hardened as images of them in his big shower danced in his mind.

  As if she read his thoughts, Kate grinned. “We can save that for later.” Then her face sobered. “If you want me to tell you my story, I have to do it before my courage leaves me. So let’s be quick, okay?”

  He thought about the feel of her, next to him and around him, as he lathered and rinsed. She was a totally unexpected intrusion, but not an unwelcome one. Far from it.

  He wasn’t a big believer in ghosts, but he’d swear to anyone that Lisa was looking over his shoulder, telling him not to lose this opportunity. That it was time to wake up again. Join the living. God knows Jake and Nick had been after him long enough to forget about what they called “all this isolation s
hit” and get on with his life. But they hadn’t felt the pain he had, or his keen sense of loss. The feeling that life had permanently stopped for him.

  “I don’t know what I even have left to give anyone,” he said, as if Lisa could hear him. “What we had was perfect. How can you improve on that?”

  “Try,” a voice whispered.

  He looked around the bathroom, stunned, as if expecting to see his dead wife sitting on the edge of the bathtub.

  “You’re losing it,” he muttered, but maybe it was just the sound of that high wall he’d built around himself crumbling.

  All he knew was Kate had dropped into his life for some unexplained reason and he didn’t want to let her go. He’d find out whatever trouble she was in and help her take care of it. Whatever it was surely wouldn’t be any worse than what he’d been through before. After four years of pain and isolation he actually had a purpose. A reason to get on with his life.

  Dressed in his usual black jeans and T-shirt, he started the coffee maker in the kitchen and poured two glasses of juice. He heard Kate moving around in the bathroom, the door finally opening. When she came into the kitchen, she was still carrying her tote.

  He quirked an eyebrow at her with an uneasy feeling. Was she leaving?

  “Going somewhere?”

  She shook her head, her face pale but determined, the fear even more evident in her eyes.

  “No. I have some show and tell in here. But first, could I have some of that heavenly-smelling coffee?”

  “And juice.” He handed her a glass.

  He’d thought they’d sit at the counter on the bar stools, but it didn’t seem a place conducive to the kind of talk they were about to have, nor did the dining table. Instead, he carried their mugs into the living room area and motioned for her to follow him.

  She sat gingerly on the edge of the big couch, placing the tote bag on the floor between her feet. Her hand shook slightly as she picked up her mug, but the set of her jaw told him she was going to tell him what he wanted to know.

  But when she did, even he was unprepared for the story that she laid out for him.

  ****

  Kate sipped at her coffee, giving herself time to pull her thoughts together. Her body still glowed from their lovemaking and her nerves, for once, weren’t jangling like cowbells.

  Letting her eyes roam around, she took her first good look at Quinn’s house. The great room was obviously the center of it, with bedroom wings on either side. Sunlight poured in through massive windows, reflecting off the polished wood floor and the granite countertops. She stood for a moment, mesmerized at the simple beauty of the place. It was a home built for family and joy, not for solitude and pain.

  How could she bring the dirt of her life into this? She’d seen pain in Quinn’s eyes. He had his own history of disaster. How could she dump hers on his head?

  Then she remembered the feel of his arms around her, the warmth of his kisses, the incredible sensation as he filled her and filled her. Just because it happened so fast didn’t make it any less meaningful. Sometimes life came at you that way. Certainly she’d been unprepared for the shock of Peter’s words that night. The man she’d been so confident was going to help her put her life together, not order her death.

  Now here was the balancing equation, the emotional sanctuary. The solidness of a man who, although they’d just met, had a presence that fairly shouted one word.

  Safe!

  A feeling he’d surrounded her with from the beginning. She had to trust her instincts.

  And she knew she’d made her choice.

  Nervously, she settled herself on the couch, the tote bag with the money and the flash drive nestled between her feet.

  “It’s not a nice story,” she began, “and I warn you, it’s pretty bizarre. You may want to toss me back where you found me when you hear it. You may not even believe me.”

  “Whatever it is, we’ll deal with it together. Nothing much scares me anymore.”

  She exhaled a long breath. “Okay. The first thing you need to know is my name’s really Kathryn Holt. But she’s a person I’ll never go back to being.”

  Quinn’s fingers tightened around his mug. “And the reason?” he asked.

  “Let’s start with the law firm my father and uncle founded. Holt and Holt to begin with, then Holt, Fleming & Associates when Peter came on board. It all begins there.”

  Staring into her coffee mug, refusing to look at his face, she chose her words carefully. She’d thought to give him the bare bones version, but once she got started the words tumbled out, nearly falling over themselves in their haste to be heard. She began with the law firm, Peter’s arrival on the scene, her parents’ death, the depression she’d fallen into, and Peter’s almost seamless assumption of control of her life.

  When she told him about going to the office that night and the conversation she overheard, her voice shook, but she swallowed hard and got through it. She left nothing out, including the flight from Tampa, and everything that had happened since then.

  When she finished, her body shivering as she remembered every frightening detail, she was almost afraid to look at him. When he didn’t say anything, she wondered if she’d made a mistake. Had turned him off with her bizarre story. Or given him a mess he was trying to crawl out of.

  But then Quinn reached over and pulled her against him, brushing a kiss against her forehead.

  “Did you hear everything I said?” she asked in a small voice.

  “Yes. I heard. All of it.”

  “But?”

  “No buts.” He sat her away from him so he could look directly at her face. “Let’s take one thing at a time. I gotta tell you, what you did took guts. More guts than most people ever think of having. You are unbelievably brave and resourceful. There aren’t a hundred people who could have done what you did.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to toss me back out in the road?” She tried to inject a little humor into the situation, but the fear running through her system must have colored her tone of voice.

  “Far from it. I told you to trust me and you can.” He hugged her. “You don’t have to do it alone anymore, darlin’.”

  Darlin’. The word warmed her and eased some of the tension. But it only made her previous choices look that much worse.

  “I can’t believe what a fool I was about Peter.” She twisted her lips in a grimace. “I really thought he cared about me. When he insisted the doctor give me something for my so-called depression, I was such an idiot I just kept blindly popping pills in my mouth. I was probably so spaced out on drugs the Unabomber could have taken over my life and I wouldn’t have noticed.”

  Quinn looked thoughtful. “How much do you know about the operation of the law firm?”

  She shrugged. “Not much. My dad pretty much kept business away from the family and Peter never discussed it. Why?”

  “Because there has to be a reason why he wants you dead. There’s something there they want to hide, something they’re afraid you’ll find out, and that made getting rid of you necessary. So we have to find out what that is.”

  “I’m telling you.” She dragged her fingers through her hair. “I never even met any of the clients. Dad was very careful to keep all of that separate. And Peter was even more secretive.”

  “The first sign that something isn’t kosher,” he told her. “But that also doesn’t tell me why they’d send people to hunt you down. Not that aggressively.”

  She took in a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Okay. There’s something else I have to tell you. Give you.” Reaching into her tote bag, she unzipped the fanny pack and took out the flash drive, holding it in the palm of her hand. She was trembling, knowing that if she’d misjudged this whole situation she was as good as dead.

  Quinn lifted an eyebrow. “What’s that?”

  She explained what she’d heard Peter and Miguel discussing, how she’d spotted it and taken it as some kind of insurance or protection for herself.


  “But I haven’t even had a chance to see what’s on it,” she told him.

  Quinn’s face hardened and his eyes turned almost black. “If what you heard is correct, this could hold every record of their entire law firm operation, whatever that operation is. Jesus, Kate. This thing is dynamite.”

  Without saying a word she dropped it into his hand. “You take it. Maybe you’ll know what to do with it.”

  He blew out a breath, looking at her and recognizing the ultimate gesture of trust. “I won’t do anything to put you in danger. I promise you. But we’ve got to figure out what to do or we’ll never get rid of these people.”

  She nodded. “I know,” she said, her voice reflecting her misery.

  “First things first. You can’t just walk around with this. We have to lock it up until we can find out what the hell is going on. What the law firm is really all about.”

  “But where? I can’t put it in a safety deposit box. I don’t dare trust it that far away from me.”

  He held out his hand. “Come with me. I have just the answer.”

  But she resisted when he tugged at her. “I have one more thing to show you that also needs safekeeping.”

  Her hands shook as she took out the fanny pack and showed him its contents. His eyes narrowed. He glanced from the money to her and back to the money.

  “Whose is it?” he asked, his voice flat.

  “It’s mine. Honestly.” Quickly, she explained all about it. “But I had to deposit the check and take money out twice. I think that’s how they almost caught me.”

  “Okay.” He stood up, pulled her into his arms, and kissed her breathless. As if sensing her uncertainty, his lips on hers were a silent promise. Then he set her away from him. “No more of that or we won’t get anything done.”

  He led her into the closet in his bedroom, pulled out a drawer in one of the dressers and revealed a safe sunken into the floor.

  “Take whatever you think you might need for walking around money. You can always get more. Whatever you buy you’ll pay cash for. I’ll put the rest in here.”

  She grabbed a handful of bills before handing the rest over to Quinn, watching as he stored everything away.