by Nikki Duncan
“No.” The machines were on the other side of the floor and he wasn’t leaving Lana unprotected for a moment. “Though I will give you a few minutes alone with your daughter.”
He stopped at the end of Lana’s bed and rested his hand on her foot. It was a completely non-intimate touch, yet he couldn’t walk out the door without feeling her—even through the hospital covers. “Five minutes. Then you’re going back to sleep.”
“Did I miss you being assigned as my keeper?” Her gaze darted between him and her father, asking Aidan to keep her secrets. Her biting tone contrasted the softness of her gaze though the underlying bite wasn’t as strong as he’d grown to expect.
“The appointment came while you were sleeping.” A drug-induced sleep. He pinched her toes gently. “Five minutes.”
He passed Director Quinn, who pulled the door closed behind him. The confrontation was instant.
“I want an explanation. What’s Lana working on?”
Lana wouldn’t appreciate him telling her dad about her story, but Aidan couldn’t ignore the man’s superiority when it came to the case. He was surprised to find himself downplaying her role. “She came to us with a potential case. Said a series of deaths seemed to be more than coincidental. We’re looking into it.”
“That’s the story that landed her here?”
“I believe so, though until I have a chance to talk with her, to find out what she did or who she talked to yesterday I won’t know how she came to the killer’s attention.”
The fight Aidan had witnessed in Lana shot through the director. His whole body went rigid. “This was an attempt on her life?”
“I can’t rule it out.” Aidan quickly and quietly shared the facts as he knew them. “I assure you, sir, Lana is safe with me.”
“I’m familiar with your record, as well as how you perform when you’re personally involved.”
Aidan said nothing in response to the reference to the story that had landed the FBI in the news seven years earlier. The story that had gotten Aidan investigated and almost cost him his job and the promotion to the Specialized Crimes Unit. Losing his job would have been the lowest cost he paid on that earlier case. He wouldn’t pay the same price twice.
“I don’t think I have to say what your life will be like if she’s not.”
“Mildly stated, hell would be a heaven, I’m sure.” If anything happened to Lana, and the threat no doubt extended to her personal life, a transfer to Siberia without proper gear would be too soft a punishment. And then he’d have to worry about Director Quinn.
“How do you intend to keep her safe?”
He hadn’t formulated a plan, especially not one Lana would go along with. “You have a strong-willed daughter.”
“She’ll make it hard for you. That doesn’t change my expectations.”
“No. Though I hope your insight into her will earn me a little…wiggle room. She’s impossible to predict.”
“If you’re asking if I care what tactics you use, the answer is no.” The director hesitated while a nurse passed, shaking her head in a way that broadcast her clear dislike that the visitation hours were being blatantly ignored. “Her unpredictability will only make your job more challenging.”
That was one way of putting it. If she scented a bloody story Lana turned into the supposed heroines of horror movies. She’d blindly descend the basement steps if it meant finding a killer. That she’d take the same risks for her friends, and that Kieralyn has essentially taken a similar risk for her, spoke volumes he tried not to think about.
She evoked loyalty and she’d shown it for Kieralyn. He hoped her moral fibers reached wider, but he couldn’t afford to trust her too much. A story run too soon, or with the wrong slant… Too much was at risk.
The risks that kept him from trusting her were the same ones that drove him closer. Only by staying close could he hope to know what she was learning. Hope to keep her out of the way of his investigation. Hope to keep her out of danger. It was that risk that had him going back into her hospital room when her father led her mother away for the rest of the night.
Aidan wouldn’t put it past Lana to remove her own IV and check herself out of the hospital against doctor recommendations the moment he turned his back. If she got that chance, she wouldn’t waste it.
Her eyes were closed when he stepped back into her room. Grateful she’d fallen back to sleep so quickly, Aidan headed to the couch and stretched out as much as possible. Stakeouts in cars had taught him to sleep in snatches and not think about comfort. Things like the gun holstered at his back rarely registered.
Lana’s light breathing lulled him. Just as he gave in to the exhaustion suddenly clinging to him, just as he allowed his eyes to drift, her breathing changed. Air puffed in and out of her in pants. She twisted on the small bed as if a bad dream gripped her.
With the idea of her pain choking him, Aidan rose and moved to her side. “Lana.” He stroked a hand along her side, hoping to calm her quickly. “You’re safe. It’s okay.”
Her twisting stopped, but her breathing didn’t settle. A moan slipped through her lips. Her undamaged hand grabbed his and halted his soothing stroke. Her nails dug into the flesh of his palm as another whimpering moan escaped.
The sounds were similar to the ones she made during orgasm. The power of her grip was similar too. The arousing memory dimmed in the sight of her suffering.
Aidan slipped onto the bed and settled at her back. She curled into him, her beautifully rounded buttocks rubbing his dick. She pulled his arm over her waist and settled their tangled hands between her breasts. Grinding his teeth against the drive to claim her, he rolled his eyes back and dropped his lids.
She frustrated him and scared him. She called to him, evoking loyalty and a need to protect just as she did from others. She made him care for her, which was dangerous.
If he could care enough to worry over her comfort, if he could respect her, he ran the risk of liking her. If he could actually like Lana and that mingled with the passion she aroused in him then he was in jeopardy of feeling more. Feeling emotions that would twist his life with Lana’s more than it already was wasn’t safe.
They would fight. They would split. Her father would come after him. Aidan couldn’t take that chance with his job. His life.
No. He’d keep Lana close enough to protect her until they’d solved this case. Then they had to go separate ways.
Lana woke with Aidan’s hand in hers and tucked securely between their chests. The sky was lightening with pre-dawn and though it didn’t offer much relief from the darkness it gave her enough light to see that the pustules on her arm were almost gone. Better, she had enough light to see the face of the man curled before her.
The shadows that had bruised his eyes during her parents’ visit had been smoothed away with sleep. The harshness that creased his mouth and eyes when he addressed her had relaxed. Careful not to wake him, she eased up on one arm, the arm he held and that didn’t have an IV stuck in it, and reached for the water pitcher on the bedside table. After washing the cotton out of her mouth—and hopefully minimizing what had to be awesome morning breath—she settled back into the pillow and took advantage of the rare chance to study Aidan when his guards were down.
Whatever issues he had with journalists, and by extension her, he’d set them aside when she was attacked. She didn’t have to be aware of every moment that had passed, but she recognized the facts. He’d battled back the urge to pursue her attacker, the killer, and had instead stayed to take care of her. He’d stood strong when her dad caught them making out and he hadn’t left her alone for a moment.
He was confusing and damn if she didn’t find it to be part of the attraction.
She brushed a chunk of hair off his forehead, allowing her thumb to linger long enough to feel his skin against hers. Her fingers flirted with his ear and the side of his neck. He arched into her touch, making her smile.
He could claim to be unaffected, had claimed it for mont
hs, but his body spoke the truth as loudly as hers did when he touched her. He would likely want to avoid her more than ever now that he’d met her father. No doubt partially from a chat with her dad warning Aidan against anything causing her pain. Every man who’d met her dad, the few who’d made it that far or happened to be around during a visit, heard the same speech.
“You surprise me,” she whispered, half wanting him to know how she felt and half not. Her thumb worked small circles along the edge of his face as she moved her hand down to the edge of his T-shirt.
“Do you like surprises?” he asked without having given indication he was awake.
“I used to say no.”
“And now?” He still didn’t open his eyes or move.
Her smile widened. “I’m beginning to think some surprises are okay.”
Whatever response she’d expected, it hadn’t been the silence that greeted her. And the silence stretched on. The steady rise and fall of his breaths indicated he’d gone back to sleep. She chuckled. Not such a good surprise, but maybe an understandable one given how long he’d probably been awake to play bodyguard.
Lana was flipped to her back with Aidan sprawled on top of her. The suddenness and stealth of the move stole her breath as much as the feel of his body on hers. Careful of her IV, he shifted so her arm wasn’t pinned. Then he arrested her mouth with a kiss that tasted a bit like desperation. Or regret.
His lips crushed hers while his tongue sought entry. Denial and resistance were futile, and she wasn’t interested in wasting energy on either one. She opened for him and shifted her legs until he moved to lie between her thighs rather than straddling her.
Hunger ballooned, lifting her toward an ecstasy she knew would come. Returning the fever of his kiss, Lana reached for the T-shirt that had come untucked during sleep. Dragging at the hem, she pulled it up. With a rumble in his chest he levered off her long enough to jerk the shirt over his head and toss it aside.
Built and broad without being overly muscular, he kept himself in great shape. A shape she loved to feel. Loved to see naked. She flattened her hands on his shoulders, reveling in him. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”
“Why not?” He asked for her opinion, but he didn’t hesitate in returning to his explorations of her.
“Someone could come in.”
“They were in to check on you fifteen minutes ago.” Nibbling at the cord of her neck while his fingers danced along her side, Aidan notched her arousal higher. “We have almost an hour before they come back around.”
“In that case…” Lana reached for the waist of his jeans and pulled his belt loose.
Aidan reached to his back, unholstered his gun and slid it beneath her pillow. She hesitated a moment, reminded of the stark reality of why she was in the hospital. And why he’d refused to leave her side. He was hunting a killer. She’d captured that killer’s attention. He expected her to be targeted again.
“Lana.” Aidan tenderly kissed her mouth. First one corner. “You’re not a job.” Then the other. “I want to be with you.”
She stared into the truth rippling from his eyes. She didn’t doubt the time would come for him to walk away. When casual sex turned to commitment he’d leave, because that’s where their ultimate goals differed. She wanted marriage and kids. He lived for the FBI, and after growing up with her father, seeing the force of his dedication, she wasn’t going to marry a man like that. Future probabilities aside, she didn’t doubt Aidan’s sincerity of the moment. Neither did she waste any of it.
“I know.” She returned his kisses and shrugged. “Just had a passing pause.”
To prove that she was still with him, she popped loose the button of his pants. He needed no other encouragement to unzip. Clearly determined to surprise her again, he turned her to her side so she was facing away from him and they were both facing the door. She thought he just wanted to untie the hospital gown. She thought wrong.
Rather than strip her and go for quick sex, Aidan released the tie at her neck. Folding the thin fabric back, he caressed her neck and shoulders and upper back. Using his mouth and hands, he coated her with desire as warm and thick as if he’d spread candle wax over her.
Her muscles turned to jelly.
Her core tightened.
He untied the next set of strings.
Lana’s scalp tingled with the goose pimples she was sure were dancing along her spine. Just as he’d slowly loved her upper back he loved her mid back. The brushes of his fingers and lips along her spine were torments of anticipation. Each caress sped her blood, heightened her temperature.
Full darkness engulfed her as her eyes drifted closed, her lids suddenly too heavy with desire to stay open. She arched into him, begging with her body. He maintained his sedate pace, slowly driving her higher and higher as he edged closer to the next strap.
He surprised her again when rather than untying it as he had the others, he slid his tongue beneath the fabric and along her skin until he’d lifted the strap’s end. With the tip pinched between his teeth, he tugged.
His fingers split the gown fully open while his mouth continued its exploration. Her hips jerked up and down, and her thighs rubbed against each other with each flexing pulse. Thirst and hunger coiled in her fevered muscles.
“Aidan.”
“I know, Lana.” He stretched out behind her, pulling her back to his front. His erection nestled intimately against her. If anyone walked in they would know what was going on, but they wouldn’t see anything. Aidan’s protective streak excited her. Tingling all over, quivering inside, she rubbed against him.
Allowing aggression to lead, Aidan lifted her top leg and dropped it on his. With her spread for him, he grabbed her hips in a bruising grip and drove into her. Grunting lowly, he pumped. In and out. Over and over. Hard then harder. His hands held her still while his hips set the momentum.
Heat centered in her lower back, spiraling from her spine in a slow spread until she was consumed. The rhythmic glide of Aidan deep in her core, striking the heart of passion with each thrust, coalesced into a ball of fire. Aidan thrust again, this time bending over and placing a hot kiss on her back. The warmth spread through her while he held her body locked against his as orgasm gripped them.
Lana buried her face in the pillow and released the groan rolling from the depths of her chest. Whatever had Aidan staying at her side, his job or personal desire, she would enjoy it while it lasted.
Chapter Nine
“My legs aren’t broken, Aidan.”
“Nope.”
“I can walk.” Lana crossed her arms and huffed. Her only success at the moment was to push her breasts closer to the top of her blouse, giving him an enhanced view of her cleavage as he rolled her wheelchair toward the hospital exit.
“Sorry, babe. Hospital policy is that you get wheeled to the exit.”
“I had an allergic reaction. Nothing was broken.”
“An allergic reaction that could’ve killed you.” He rubbed his thumb briefly against her neck, realizing it was another of many quick touches he’d stolen since bringing her into the hospital. Even when her parents had come back with a change of clothes and her house keys he’d struggled to distance himself. “You’ll follow procedure a little longer.”
“The hospital’s or yours?”
“You don’t miss a beat.”
“Answer the question.”
“Both.” His thumb rubbed circles on her shoulder. “I promised to keep you safe. Besides, we need to figure out how you came to the killer’s attention.”
“I’m not even out of the hospital and your mind is back on the case.”
“As if I could forget what landed you here.” He slowed at the automatic doors, waiting for them to fully open. Just outside, Tyler leaned against his car while Liam leaned against Aidan’s.
“Did you have to call your team?”
“I needed my car, so I called my brother.”
“It’s never that easy with you,” she argued, bu
t her words lacked spirit.
He wasn’t sure if she had relinquished some control or if she was simply waiting until they didn’t have an audience. Neither scenario held promise, but he’d bet on the latter. Shoving aside the worry, he rolled her outside and engaged the brakes on the wheelchair.
With the flair of a professional driver, Liam opened the passenger side door of Aidan’s car. When he extended a hand for her and she accepted it with a smile, an unfamiliar anger flashed in Aidan. She held his brother’s hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and rather than offer arguments or smart remarks, she smiled and thanked him sweetly as she slipped into the seat.
Taking over for Liam, Aidan closed the door himself and turned to round the car. Liam stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. Aidan turned his head to meet eyes identical to his. “What?”
“We found fingerprints on her door. When we find a suspect we’ll have them to compare.”
“Great.”
“There was also a reporter here when we arrived. Rose Stevens.” The left side of Liam’s lip snarled up. “She mistook me for you.”
“You get anything out of her?”
“Said she heard there’d been an attack. That it was similar to the West Little Havana homeless woman.”
“As usual she’s doing a piss poor job of checking her facts.”
“Because no one will talk to her.”
“Did you?”
“Only to tell her I didn’t know anything about a homeless woman in West Little Havana or an attack related to her.” Liam smiled. “Both statements are technically true.”
“Right.” Aidan moved to round the car.
“Hey.” Liam stopped him again.
“What?”
Liam jerked his head toward Lana waiting in the car. “Be nice. She cares more than she lets on.”
Aidan turned fully toward Liam and stepped closer. “I didn’t realize she needed you to speak for her. Or that you were more concerned with her than your own brother.”
“You know better than that. And if you’d open your eyes to really look at her, you’d see how vulnerable she is right now.”