But his attention kept going back to Danielle.
How the hell could he possibly want her this much?
She lay on her side, breathing peacefully. However, her left hand was clenched into a fist, so sleep obviously hadn’t afforded her the opportunity to relax completely. Still, the tenseness didn’t detract from her looks. She was certainly beautiful. He’d thought so the first time he laid eyes on her, and he thought so now.
The fatigue was starting to catch up with him, too, and he scrubbed his hand over his face, hoping that would help. It didn’t. But he continued to make notes and then his summary of the incident. He had to include the part about finding the pictures of Ben Parrish with members of a crime family. There was no way to get around that.
His eyelids were suddenly heavy, and Colin closed his eyes for just a minute. He immediately thought of Danielle and knew this would turn into some raunchy fantasy about her. And he was right. That early incident of the near sex had left him primed and ready, and he didn’t think a cold shower would help this time.
He felt the movement on the bed and looked down. Danielle was awake, and she was crawling her way to him. At first, he thought it was part of that raunchy fantasy going through his head, but nope, she was coming straight toward him. Maybe so she could resume their spooning position.
But Colin had something else in mind.
Something he was sure he’d regret.
He grabbed her and pulled her into his lap. She landed exactly where he wanted her, with her legs apart and straddling him. Before either one of them could protest or say why this shouldn’t be happening, he kissed her.
She had just started to say her usual foreplay mmm, but he caught that sound with his mouth.
Danielle didn’t resist, which told him they were both going to do something stupid. Fun and satisfying, yes.
But stupid.
The timing was all wrong. Heck, everything about it was wrong. But that only made him want her more. It reminded him of the days when they’d dragged each other to the floor or the most readily available surface, even though they should have been on their way out the door to work.
Danielle and he had made quickies into an art form.
He kissed her hard. Too hard. He always felt rough and clumsy when it came to her. But she never seemed to mind. In fact, she seemed to get off on it, and today was no different. She returned the kiss, and it was just as hot and hungry as the one he was giving her.
This wouldn’t last. The fire was already too hot, and he’d been four months without her. He wanted to promise that he’d do better by her next time, but in the back of his mind, he wondered if this was a gift that he wouldn’t get again. That nearly caused him to slow down.
Then, she pressed her breasts against him and kissed his neck. Oh, man.
He was a goner.
He shoved down her top, unhooked her bra and nearly died when her breasts spilled out into his hands. Her position was perfect for him to taste her nipples. He remembered that taste, and it went straight to his head. And his groin.
He became hard as a rock.
Danielle noticed. She always did, and she moved against him, pressing her sex against the hardness of his. After he got his eyes uncrossed, he shoved up her skirt and stripped off her panties.
She did her part. Danielle unzipped him and freed him from his boxers. Colin tried to brace himself for what was coming next, but he couldn’t brace himself against the avalanche of sensations and emotions.
With her mouth on his and her fingers wound into his hair, she lowered herself onto him, taking him inside her. She paused, just a moment, and she pulled back from the kiss and looked at him.
She smiled.
And Colin knew there’d be plenty of things about this experience that he would catalog and remember, but that smile would be at the top of his list.
Then, she moved, and the moment was lost. But a new moment began, and Colin caught on to her hips and guided the thrusts that would send them both flying. First, though, they’d both go crazy.
With each thrust, they moved faster. Harder. But they moved together. The friction and the movement brought them closer to the edge. But somehow, the fire just kept building. It kept getting hotter.
Until the primal need was too much for either of them to take.
Danielle came in a flash. She wasn’t a screamer. In fact, she hardly made a sound, but he felt her orgasm ripple through her. To every part of her. And it was those ripples and that hazy, satisfied smile of hers that pulled him in right along with her.
Colin kissed that smile to see how it would taste, and he let Danielle take him with her.
WHAT THE HECK HAD SHE DONE?
That was Danielle’s first thought, but it was quickly followed by the realization that she didn’t regret this, no matter how much she told herself that she should. But she was also aware enough to know that this could complicate things beyond belief. Still, she was going to pull a Scarlett O’Hara and think about this tomorrow, after Luke was safely home with his parents.
And after she’d told Colin about the baby.
If he was still speaking to her after she’d taken so long to tell him, then she’d try to make some sense of what all of this might mean.
Her position on his lap made it so they were right in each other’s faces. For sex, that’d been great. But now, it seemed beyond awkward so Danielle eased away and got off the bed. She located her panties on the floor and headed to the bathroom so she could freshen up.
Colin got up, as well, and fixed his clothes. What he didn’t do was say a word. Neither did she. Danielle had intended to give him the silent treatment, but she honestly didn’t know what to say. This might have been great sex, but it certainly wasn’t leading to a reconciliation.
She closed the bathroom door and decided to take a quick shower. It was crazy, but she didn’t really want to wash Colin’s scent off her.
Definitely crazy.
In a few hours, she’d need to get Luke back to his parents. She’d have to debrief the child and make sure he wasn’t experiencing severe mental trauma, as well as have him examined by a doctor for any physical harm. She would also need to talk with the parents and encourage them to make an appointment with a therapist for the whole family, not just Luke. As Colin had said, she would need to be a hundred percent, and she didn’t feel anywhere close to that at the moment.
Danielle stripped down, stepped into the shower and quickly washed in case Colin or Bobby needed to use the bathroom. When she dressed and went back into the bedroom, she found Colin sitting in the chair in the corner, and he was making notes again.
He stopped writing. Looked at her. Obviously waiting for her to say something about what had just happened. However, before she could say anything, she heard Bobby calling out to them.
Colin jumped up from the chair and opened the bedroom door. Bobby was already in the living room, and he was carrying the eavesdropping equipment in his hand.
“Sorry to bother you, but you really need to hear this. And I didn’t want to waste time with you getting downstairs.” Bobby spared them a questioning glance, but he looked away and put the equipment on the coffee table. “Boyd’s talking to Nicky Wayne again, and it doesn’t sound good.”
Both Colin and she walked closer, and it didn’t take long, just a couple of seconds, for Danielle to realize that Bobby was right. This didn’t sound good. Boyd was obviously agitated.
“No, I’m not calming down,” Boyd snapped. “Jerry Ortiz has been shot. And he’s dead.”
Oh, mercy. He knew.
“How did he find out about Jerry?” Colin asked.
Bobby shook his head. “From what I can determine, Nicky Wayne told him. I don’t know how Nicky found out, though.”
Any number of ways. After all, when Colin and she had left the Parrish house, an ambulance had been on the way. That would have alerted people, and in a small town like Kenner City, it was very hard to keep a secret.
“
Didn’t you hear me?” Boyd continued. “They killed him. No. I’m not doing that.”
Whatever Nicky said to Boyd obviously didn’t get him to change his mind or calm him down because Boyd ended that call, and within seconds Colin’s phone rang.
“Yes, Boyd?” Colin answered, putting the call on speaker.
The first thing Danielle heard wasn’t Boyd, but Luke. It sounded as if he was crying. Oh, God. What was going on?
“You failed to mention to me that Jerry Ortiz was killed while you were at Ben Parrish’s house,” Boyd said to Colin. This certainly wasn’t the cocky tone they’d been dealing with over the past two days. Boyd sounded on the verge of a meltdown.
“I didn’t know you’d be interested,” Colin calmly answered.
“Well, I am. Why’d you kill him?”
“I didn’t. Another agent had to shoot him because he had someone from the crime lab at gunpoint.”
“Parrish’s wife,” Boyd spat out.
Luke’s sobs got louder.
“I need to speak to Luke,” Danielle whispered, tugging at Colin’s shirtsleeve. With Boyd’s short fuse and obvious agitation, she didn’t want Luke’s crying to set the man off.
“How’s Luke?” Colin calmly asked, though there was nothing calm about his body language. His jaw was so tight she was surprised he could speak.
“The kid’s upset because I made him stop playing his video game when I made some calls. All those beeps and noises were driving me crazy.”
“He’s crying,” Colin supplied. “Dr. Connolly is here, and she should talk to him.”
“No. No more talking. I want out of here. You’ve got thirty minutes.”
Colin didn’t groan out loud, but she saw that silent groan in his expression. “Thirty minutes isn’t enough time.”
“Well, that’s all the time you’re getting. No games, Colin. No attempts to gun me down the way you did Jerry. Get the helicopter and the money up here now! Or it’ll be Luke who pays the price.”
Chapter Fourteen
This was not how Colin wanted things to go down.
Even though Boyd had already hung up, Colin handed the phone to Danielle. “Try to get Boyd to talk to you. While you’re doing that, I’ll call for the helicopter and money.”
She nodded and took the phone. It would take a miracle for her to keep both Boyd and Luke calm, but if anyone could do it, it was Danielle.
While she made the call, Colin used Bobby’s cell to phone his office so they could dispatch a secure call to Tom Ryan. The agent answered on the first ring.
“We have a problem,” Colin started. “I need the chopper and money ASAP. Boyd learned that Jerry was killed, and he’s panicking. I have to get the hostage out of there.” He swallowed hard. “Boyd only gave me thirty minutes.”
“That’s not enough time.”
“Yeah. I know. How soon can you make everything happen?”
“An hour. Maybe forty-five minutes if everything falls into place.”
“Make everything fall into place, and get some men down here for backup,” Colin insisted. Tom sprang into action. Colin heard him tell someone to dispatch the chopper.
“Danielle’s on the phone with Boyd now,” Colin explained when Tom came back on the line. “I’m hoping she can stabilize the situation with the boy, and then I can get Boyd to accept that we need more time.”
But Colin didn’t hear Tom’s response because it was at that moment that Danielle said something that grabbed his complete attention.
“What do you mean Luke’s missing?” she asked Boyd.
“Hold on a sec,” Colin told Tom, and he stepped closer so he could hear what was going on.
Danielle put the phone on speaker. “The kid’s hiding or something,” Boyd snarled. “So help me, God, he’d better come out now, or he’ll regret it.”
“Luke’s probably scared,” Danielle said. “He’s just a little boy, and he knows something is terribly wrong. He can’t help his response.”
“Well, he’d better damn well help it. I’m not playing around here—”
“I know,” Danielle interrupted. She was trembling, but that didn’t come through in her voice. “Just stay calm.” She paused, glanced at Colin. “Maybe I can come closer to the estate, maybe onto the porch, and that way I can call out to Luke. He might come to me.”
Now, it was Boyd’s turn to pause. “You’d do that?”
Hell, no, she wouldn’t. Colin started to grab the phone and tell Boyd that Danielle wouldn’t be making a trip to the estate, but Tom’s voice interrupted him.
“Having Danielle go makes sense,” Tom said. He’d obviously been able to hear the other conversation since it was on speaker.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Colin snapped, and since he didn’t want Boyd to listen in on this argument, he moved to the bedroom and lowered his voice. “Going up to the estate could be beyond dangerous for her.”
“Colin, you’re thinking like Danielle’s husband and not like an agent. Luke could be hurt if Boyd finds him. You just said you had to get the hostage out of there.”
“Yeah. But I didn’t mean by sending in Danielle.”
Tom mumbled some profanity. “You and Danielle have made several trips to the estate, and Boyd hasn’t hurt either of you.”
It was a lousy argument. One that wouldn’t work. Boyd was armed, dangerous and desperate. “She’s not going up there. End of discussion. I’ll get back on the line with Boyd and make him calm down. Just get me that chopper and the account number for the ransom. And get Dylan or somebody down here now. I want backup I can trust.”
“I already have agents and a SWAT team on the way,” Tom assured him. “Dylan should be there in less than ten minutes. He was up there trying to clear out a tunnel.”
Colin latched right on to that. “Any luck with that?”
“Some. He managed to get one of the barricade doors open on the tunnel that leads to the back of the estate house, but we haven’t had a chance to check for explosives. We certainly can’t risk sending a SWAT team through there. Don’t worry, Colin. We’ll sort all of this out and get you some backup.”
But he was worrying. Colin hung up and went back into the living room to take the cell phone from Danielle.
But she wasn’t there.
Bobby was standing in the room, looking poleaxed, and he pointed to the open door. “She left.”
Hell!
Colin raced to the door, but Danielle obviously had a head start. She was already making her way up the steps, and Boyd was there. Standing in the doorway. Waiting for her. Boyd was armed, but didn’t aim his gun at her.
For now, anyway.
Colin put his right hand on the gun tucked in the back waist of his pants, and he hurried up the hill. But Boyd stepped from the doorway when he spotted him. Now, Boyd aimed his gun. At Colin.
“Don’t come any closer,” Boyd yelled. “The doc is the only one I want up here. You just concentrate on getting me that money and helicopter.”
Danielle looked back at him and gave him what she probably meant to be a reassuring nod. It didn’t work. The only thing that would reassure him at this point was for her to go back into the guesthouse.
“I’ll try to find Luke,” Danielle said. She cupped her hands around her mouth and called out to the little boy. “It’s me, Dr. Connolly. Luke, I need to talk to you.”
If the child answered, Colin couldn’t hear him, and to make matters worse, the cell phone in his hand rang. From the caller ID, he could see that it was the Kenner County Crime Unit. There sure as hell better not be more bad news because he already had enough.
“Agent Forester,” he answered. Even though it was only drizzling, it was heavy enough for him to have to wipe the rain from his face.
“Colin, this is Callie. Tom just called and said Danielle was thinking about going to the estate so she could talk with Boyd.”
“It’s true. She’s already there.”
“Oh, God.” And Callie repeated th
at several times. Judging from her tone and choice of refrain, this sounded like a lot more than just concern for a friend. “You have to get her out. Now. It’s too dangerous for her.”
“I know. I’m about to talk to Boyd.”
“Do whatever it takes to get her out. Danielle shouldn’t be doing this in her condition.” Callie stopped and cursed. Other than some static, there was no other sound for several moments. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Everything inside him went still.
“Her condition?” Colin questioned.
Callie didn’t answer right away, and even though this conversation had become critical, Colin kept his attention nailed to Danielle and Boyd. She was still calling out Luke’s name.
“Danielle wouldn’t have wanted you to find out this way,” Callie continued. Another long pause. “But she’s pregnant.”
“Pregnant?”
Danielle was pregnant?
That knocked the breath out of him.
Hell. Everything suddenly started to make sense. Her dizzy spells. The slight weight gain. The secret he’d overheard her mention to Callie. He’d known something was wrong, but he’d never suspected this.
Pregnant!
“Colin?” Callie questioned. “Are you still there?”
“Oh, I’m here, all right,” he managed to say. “It’s my baby?” But he already knew the answer.
It was his.
“Yes,” Callie verified. “She’s nearly four months. She said it happened just about the time you guys broke up.”
No more stillness inside him. It took every ounce of his resolve not to crush the phone in his hand.
How could Danielle have done this to him?
How could she have not told him that he was going to be a father?
How!
Colin groaned and pressed the phone so hard against his ear that he would have a bruise. He didn’t care. The pain stopped him from yelling at Danielle. But the desire to yell at her didn’t last long.
She’s Positive Page 14