The Missing

by Shiloh Walker

  “Why didn’t you just hit him?” Cullen asked, his voice cold and flat as he turned to face Taige. “He needs it.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t need the headache.” She frowned at him. “What are you doing here?”

  Lifting a brow, he replied, “I’m looking for you.”

  “Why?”

  “Unfinished business.” His voice softened as he looked her over from head and toe, and Taige had to suppress a shiver. Nearly a hundred degrees and so damn muggy breathing was a chore, and he could make her shiver with just a look.

  Then she focused on what he had said, and she felt something dig at her heart. “We don’t have any unfinished business, Cullen.” Damn, he wasn’t going to try to pay her or something, was he? A niggling suspicion wormed through her, and she narrowed her eyes at him. “I don’t want any money from you.”

  A reluctant grin tugged at the corners of his lips as he shook his head. “I’m not here to pay you.” That hard, sexy mouth of his flattened out into a thin line, and his eyes scanned the parking lot. He held his hand out to her and murmured, “We need to talk.”

  Taige really, really didn’t want to touch him. She’d worked hard to avoid doing just that as much as possible in the few hours she’d spent with him last month, but there had been a good excuse for avoiding physical contact. Now? There was no logical reason for refusing to put her hand in his. Other than the fact that she really didn’t want to touch him.

  “Scared of me, Taige? Or just pissed at me?”

  Yes. No. In that order. But was Taige going to tell him that? Oh, hell, no. She took a deep breath to steady herself and then reached out, placed her hand in his. Instinctively, she braced herself for the onslaught of memory flashes that came with physical contact, and just as quickly, Taige forced herself to relax. She hadn’t ever been able to pick up anything concrete from Cullen, and now wasn’t any different. When she lowered her mental shields, she caught a few faint flickers, but none of them were solid. None of them of were defined.

  “Where to?” she asked and hoped he didn’t notice the way her voice shook just a little.

  THEY ended up at an oyster house that Cullen remembered from his summers there. The red and white striped awning hadn’t changed, and the restaurant still had the best salad bar and excellent fried oysters. Too bad he had next to no appetite. He sat pushing the food around on his plate and wondering why he’d thought getting a bite to eat would break the tension.

  “Where’s Jillian?”

  He looked up to see that Taige had eaten about as much as he had: next to nothing. Her eyes glimmered against the warm gold of her skin, framed by long, spiky lashes. Cullen’s mouth went dry as he stared at her. Seeing her had the same effect on him as it had twelve years ago: hot need and a tenderness that turned his bones to mush. He was torn between wanting to pull her against him so he could cuddle her close and wanting to strip away her clothes so he fuck her brains out.

  Only with Taige had he ever experienced anything besides lust. She hadn’t been the first girl he’d slept with, but she’d been the first girl to really matter to him. The first one he’d loved. The only one he’d loved.

  “Cullen?”

  He blinked and realized she’d asked him about Jillian. And was still waiting for an answer. “With my dad.”

  “How is she doing?”

  Shrugging restlessly, he leaned back from the table and crossed his arms over his chest. “She has good days. Some not so good. Nights are hard on her. She doesn’t want to be left alone.” He grimaced and added, “Hard on me, too, because I have a hard time leaving her alone.”

  At that, Taige lifted a brow. Her mouth, soft and kissable, bowed upward in a gentle smile. “Then why are you here? You need to be home with her. She needs you right now.”

  Cullen pushed his plate out of the way and then leaned forward, reached out, and caught her hand. He laced their fingers and said, “I’ll be honest; a huge part of me needs just that. But . . . she needs to feel safe more. There’s only one thing I can do to give her that.”

  “Ahhhh.” Understanding came into her eyes, and she squeezed his hand, gently, and then pulled back. She didn’t like him touching her. It was almost impossible to miss that. She’d hesitated before putting her hand in his earlier. As soon as she could, she’d pulled away, and now she was doing it again, all the while giving him a false, bright smile. The smile faded from her face, and she said, “You need to understand that nothing you can do is going to help her nightmares. Nothing you do can undo what happened. Even if he’d been there that day, and you killed him then, she’d still have a hard time. The only thing that works is time.”

  “Putting that degree in psychology to good use, aren’t you?” he asked grimly.

  Now both brows arched. “How did you know about that?”

  Lifting one shoulder in a shrug, Cullen said, “There’s nothing you’ve done in the past twelve years that I don’t know about. If it’s public knowledge, I found out about it. What wasn’t public, I learned through all those dreams.” He paused and then softly added, “You trust me more in those dreams than you do now.”

  Taige shook her head. “It doesn’t have anything to do with trust. I do trust you.”

  “As far as you trust anybody?” he said ruefully.

  “More than I trust anybody,” she corrected. With a scowl, she demanded, “What in the hell do you care what I’ve been up to the past twelve years?”

  The look on his face did bad, bad things to her insides, Taige decided. There was a lambent, lazy look in his eyes, and her skin heated under the warmth of his gaze. She knew that if they were someplace private, he’d probably be trying to do more than look. There were twelve years between them, but those years might as well not have existed, thanks to the dreams that had kept them connected. She knew him better now than she had when they had been together, knew when he was mad, when he worried—when he wanted.

  And now he wanted—oh man, did he want. She hadn’t ever had a man look at her quite the same way Cullen did. His lids drooped low over his eyes, and he murmured, “You know why I care, Taige. You might not let yourself see it, but you do know.”

  Averting her eyes, she asked quietly, “Why are you here, Cullen? Exactly what do you want from me now?” I found your daughter. I gave you my heart, my soul, my body. I don’t have too much left to give you.

  She kept that latter part quiet, although she suspected he already knew most of that, just like she knew that if he asked, she’d probably give herself up to him all over again.

  “Your help.”

  “Help with what?”

  Bracing his elbows on the table, Cullen leaned forward. His blue green eyes pinned her in place, and she couldn’t have looked away from him if she had to.

  Softly, he said, “Finding him.”

  CULLEN stood on the step just behind Taige as she unlocked the door. She’d left her hair down, and he wanted to lean forward and bury his face in it, feel the soft, wild curls and just breathe her in.

  Instead, he tucked his hands in his pockets, and when she finally opened the door, he held back until she gave him an impatient look and demanded, “Are you coming inside or what?”

  He took the two stairs at once and ended up standing so close, he could hear the soft, shaky sound of her breathing. “What are the other choices?” he asked before he could stop himself.

  “Huh?”

  “Coming inside . . . or what? What does the ‘or what’ entail?”

  She dropped her gaze and moved away, shoving the door wide open and stalking inside. Her booted feet made muffled thuds on the wooden floor as she crossed it, not turning back to him until she had put a good five feet in between them. “Don’t go getting cute, Cullen. I said I’d try to find him. Nothing else.”

  “With me.”

  She gave him a frown.

  He clarified and said, “You’re going to try finding him with me. I’m not being left behind on this.”

  Taige shook her he
ad and stomped into the living room. Cullen followed and rested a shoulder against the arched doorway, watching her as she sat down and started unlacing her boots. They were black, thick-soled boots like a soldier might wear, and they should have looked ridiculous on her. Instead, they suited her. Or rather, they suited the woman Taige had made herself into. She’d gone from a girl with no particular goal in life beyond getting through each day to a dedicated warrior. The promise of the woman he’d glimpsed in her before either of them had even been old enough to consider themselves adults had come to life, and she was more than he’d ever thought she could be. And he’d always thought she could become a great deal.

  The cost had been damn high for her, though. She’d risked her life, her sanity, her heart, time and again. Whatever the cost to her, she’d done what she had to do, and she’d done it alone. Not this time. This time, he’d be with her. When it was over, he had every intention of keeping her. If she’d let him.

  “Cullen, you have no idea what you’re asking. Besides, Jillian needs you.”

  “And I told you that Jillian needs to feel safe. She won’t be able to do that while he’s out there.” He moved over to her, hunkering down in front of her and taking her other foot, loosening the laces and slowly pulling the boot away. Taking both boots, he set them aside and then focused on Taige’s face. “I’m going with you on this.”

  She cocked a brow. If he didn’t know her, he wouldn’t have seen through her bravado as she said, “Exactly how are you supposed to help me? Got any law enforcement experience? Got a permit for a gun? Do you have eyes in the back of your head, or have you suddenly become psychic?”

  “I don’t need a gun, or law enforcement training to watch your back, Taige.” Unable to resist, he placed his hands on her knees and squeezed gently. “I saw you that morning after I told you about Jillian. You were all but helpless. You need somebody with you.”

  “I’ll get somebody from the task force.”

  “And if it takes a while?” He cocked his head, studying her. “I’m willing to hire you, pay whatever you want for as long as it takes. You freelance for them, so you can take however much time you need on this. Can anybody else?”

  She glared at him. “And you’ll take all that time away from your daughter?”

  Cullen shook his head. “No. I’m not going to disappear from her life until we find him.”

  “So you plan on taking breaks from watching my back?” You went and got catty on me, sugar, he thought. But he couldn’t really blame her. “No. I plan on making sure you take breaks and take care of yourself.” Slowly, he slid his hands to the outside of her thighs and watched her pupils flare as he started to rub his hands up and down, edging higher and higher. “You could come home with me. Spend some time with Jillian. She could use somebody in her life who knows what she is dealing with. Somebody who understands her.”

  Her gray eyes narrowed and flashed hot. “That’s low. Using that girl to get to me.”

  “No. It’s a fact. What would be low would be if I used her to get close to you so I could seduce you back into my bed.” Leaning in, he stopped just a breath away from her mouth before he added, “I plan on seducing you before the night is up, just so you know. I’m going to fuck you blind, until you can’t see or hear or feel anything but me. Then I’m going to make love to you, soft and slow. Then I’m going to start all over again. You’ll welcome me back into your bed, Taige, and sooner or later, you’ll welcome me back into your life.”

  Taige’s breath hitched, and her eyes widened. He felt the reaction in her body, even though he never once looked away from her face. Her body temperature seemed to spike, and the heat coming off of her set his already hot blood to boiling. The scent of her seemed to grow stronger, and blood tinted her cheeks a dusky pink.

  “You sound awful damn sure of yourself,” she said. Her voice was husky and rough, unsteady. The sound of it reminded him of the way she moaned when he was inside her, soft, broken little moans that spurred him on.

  He dipped his head and licked her lower lip. Then he nuzzled her neck and murmured, “Any reason I shouldn’t be sure of myself? You going to kick me out?” He leaned back and studied her face. “Might serve me right, and if you tell me to go now, I will. But that doesn’t mean I’m giving up.”

  Taige looked away, her hair falling to shield her face from him. “I’m not going to be your plaything again. If you need somebody to warm your bed, look elsewhere.”

  Cullen laughed and reached up, fisting a hand in the soft, sexy curls framing her face. Gently, he tugged her head around to face him. “You were never a plaything, Taige. And if all I wanted was a willing woman in my bed, I could find one. But I don’t want any woman, Taige. I want you. I always have.”

  Slowly, he lowered his head and covered her lips with his. He licked the seam of her lips and coaxed her to open them for him. She did, slowly, almost reluctantly, and Cullen groaned as the taste of her hit his system. He hadn’t ever had a woman who tasted as sweet as Taige. Never needed another woman like he needed her. She was like a drug: hot, potent, and devastating.

  When she kissed him back, he felt it in every pore of his body. His skin felt too tight, too hot, too small, and he burned for more. He skimmed his other hand up her body and rested it just under the curve of her jaw. She felt so hot under his hand, so silken soft. It didn’t seem possible that she was truly as soft as she had seemed in memories, in dreams, but she was.

  He needed more.

  Slowly, he straightened up and waited until her eyes met his before he ran his hand down the placket of buttons on her shirt. It was simple white cotton, veeing down in the front where six plain buttons held it closed. It ended right where the waistband of her jeans began. The shirt had driven him nuts over the past few hours, because every time she moved, he caught glimpses of smooth golden flesh. It was demure enough, not dipping low enough at the neckline to give him even a glimpse of her breasts, but the body underneath it was curved, sleekly strong, and he remembered all too well the way she had fit against him.

  He freed the first button, holding her gaze all the while. He’d stop, for now, if she told him to. It might take a two-hour swim in the Gulf before the fire inside him cooled, but he’d stop. Yet as he moved on to the second, then third button, Taige sat in front of him, frozen. Her hands were on the couch beside her, arms locked as though she had to brace her weight to keep from sinking backward. The shirt parted as he freed the last of the buttons, and he lifted his hands to smooth it down her shoulders.

  As the shirt fell away, he stared at her nearly bare torso. Her bra was simple and white, no lace, no frills, nothing but a soft sheen that glowed against her skin and cupped her breasts lovingly. She reached behind her back, but he caught her wrists in his hands, bringing them back around, and eased them to her sides. Then, still staring into her eyes, he reached around and freed the clasp of her bra.

  She shivered as he stripped the bra away and tossed it over the back of the couch. He cupped her breasts in his hands, ran his thumbs over the already stiff peaks, and watched as her head tipped back. One of those soft, sexy little moans escaped her throat, and he gritted his teeth and tried to rein his hunger in. Dipping his head, he skimmed his lips over her throat, down the delicate line of her collarbone. He pressed his lips to the plump upper curve of her breast, savoring the warm, sweet taste of her. She tasted of soap, the ocean, and Taige. Her nipples were stiff, swollen, a warm, rosy brown, shades darker than the smooth slope of her breasts. Taking one in his mouth, he bit down gently.

  Arching up against him, she cupped a hand around his nape, holding him close. Damn, her taste. She was hot and sweet under his mouth but it wasn’t enough. Cullen was dying on the inside and had been for years. This was the most alive he had felt since he’d chased her away from him, but still, he needed more. Damn it, he had to have more. He slid his hands down her sides, his fingers digging into the curve of her hips. Slowly, he tugged her forward as he trailed a line of kisses dow
n her belly. Soft skin and muscle rippled under his touch, and when he slid his fingers inside her waistband, she jerked.