by Nikki Duncan
Rose had done the same to Aidan, and because of how deeply he’d grown to trust her it had taken him too long to see the user beneath the surface. Manipulation came naturally to some people, while being the manipulated fell as easily to others. Aidan didn’t want to think he’d been played by Lana, that she had used trickery to get her way with him, to lure him into falling for her. He wanted to believe in her honesty and willingness to do the right thing even if it meant losing an exclusive.
He just couldn’t be certain without proof.
“You’re thinking awfully hard for a man who’s supposed to be resting.”
Aidan looked to the door where Dr. H stood with a hint of smile playing on his lips and a newspaper neatly folded in his hand. The man was another example of someone who’d been betrayed and used on every possible level. Dr. H’s guarded approach to life was understandable. Ava was a big part of his willingness to release some of his anger and bitterness, and it was her influence on him that had him revealing small smiles more often and with more people.
“It’s the only place I can get five minutes of peace to actually think.” Even between all the nurses coming in and out he was finding the confinement oddly relaxing, though he knew himself well enough to know he’d be bored before tomorrow. If it took that long. “That’s been especially true these last few days.”
“Days you’ve spent keeping Lana as close as your gun.”
Dr. H laughed as he claimed the chair Liam had vacated a short time ago. Unlike Liam, who’d kicked back to relax, Dr. H sat more on the edge of the seat as if he was ready to move at a hint of trouble. He’d accepted Ava as a fed, and he was becoming more comfortable with the rest of the team, but it would take more than a few dinners or beers at a backyard cookout to dissolve his trust issues with government employees.
“Because letting her out of view landed her ass in danger.”
“It’s an ass you’re rather fond of.”
Aidan’s face tensed in what he was sure was an impressive scowl. He didn’t give a lot of thought to Lana’s ass—other attributes on her appealed to him more—but he didn’t like the idea that another man had noticed her body. And though it sounded ridiculous even in his own mind, it was a truth he couldn’t ignore. He was jealous because she did appeal to him.
Physically.
Intellectually.
Emotionally.
“Being fond of her doesn’t make her a good choice.”
“An argument I made myself when I was falling for Ava.” Dr. H eased back a little in the chair. “The truth of the matter is that too few women come into our lives we can trust enough with our secrets. Lana is one of those women.”
“You would trust a journalist with your secrets?”
“I already have. And she proved to me yesterday just how far she would go to protect them.”
Aidan went back to the scene in Dr. Grayson’s office in his mind. He’d been unable to speak, but aware of everything until Lana had done something. Ava had called Dr. H, Lana had used a pressure point to knock him out and then he’d woken up in the hospital. What had she been hiding? How had she protected Dr. H?
“Why did they call you yesterday? Did you do something to me?”
“I have a…gift.” H shrugged, but didn’t hesitate or hedge in his answers. “I pulled the worst of the toxins from your body so you could breathe more easily.”
“Pulled…from me… I don’t understand.”
Dr. H stared, silent. Seconds ticked away until finally he spoke with an edge that warned Aidan to temper any response. He was trusting a government man with a serious secret. It was a big step for him. “You’ve accepted Ava as an empath with the ability to read people or situations.”
“Yes.”
“My abilities go a little beyond hers. I can see an ailment in someone and pull it from them.”
“That’s…amazing.” And an angle that would make him a huge story for Lana. Yet he said she’d proven herself capable of protecting secrets. “And Lana knows?”
“She discovered it when she was digging into Eston White.”
“But she didn’t mention Whitestone as Eston White in her article.” She’d instead played up the corrupt government agency angle.
“Knowing what my life would become if people found out what I can do, she held that back.” Saying nothing more, Dr. H dropped the morning’s newspaper in Aidan’s lap and left.
A Killing Touch by Lana Quinn
Four people were killed and three others were hospitalized when a local doctor gave in to greed. With a pharmaceutical agency promising millions of dollars for a miracle cream that cured allergies, Dr. Grayson, a holistic practitioner, was driven to conducting a private study.
Aidan read the rest of Lana’s story where she mentioned each victim in an honoring way. She was truthful about Dr. Grayson in a way that while everyone knew he’d done horrible things they’d also know he was simply a man who’d been corrupted by money. He had started and lived most of his life with the intention of helping others. Since being arrested, he’d admitted where he’d gone wrong and was accepting his punishment.
Pride swelled in Aidan with each word read. She didn’t put Maria or Jayleen on display by name or intimation. She didn’t suggest that the case had begun as a tip from her. She didn’t mention how closely she’d come to death, and she didn’t mention Aidan by name or reveal the hospital he was in. She took every step to protect the people who had been involved and who could be victimized by the fallout.
Each carefully placed word added power. Power she used to deliver the message that she was nothing like Rose. She couldn’t have argued for herself more poignantly if she’d been given a spot on a national news show.
Aidan realized well before the last words how much she held back from her stories, and the message he found between the slightly blurred lines of ink was translucent.
She cared.
She cared about the people she met along the path of her career.
She cared about doing the right thing.
But did that mean he could trust himself with her? Did her scruples make her less dangerous? Or more dangerous?
Lana halted in her steps a few feet from her apartment and stared at the man standing on a ladder’s top rung. Her mouth went dry. Her heart stuttered as her brain raced.
Aidan was wiring a tiny security camera that currently dangled from the wall. He’d abandoned his jacket, gun and badge so he was simply a man in a T-shirt. Though she’d barely managed to satisfy herself with the updates she got from Kieralyn and Ava, she’d restrained herself from visiting him in the hospital or tracking him down in the last week he’d been out.
Writing her story, she’d found herself working harder than any time before to make it special. She’d considered handing it over to another journalist at her paper, hoping to prove to Aidan that she didn’t only care about her career. When she’d voiced the thought, Kieralyn had informed her that the best way to prove herself was to be herself.
“You’ve never stepped back from doing what’s right,” Kieralyn had said as she sat at Lana’s kitchen table. “You have a talent for focusing on the details that matter most while protecting anyone who could be hurt if you give away too much.”
Protecting the privacy of her sources and people touched by her stories was a lesson she’d learned from her father. Living up to the expectation he’d bred into her was how she slept at night. It’s what had kept her from crumbling in the face of Aidan’s distrust and her irrational desire for him to change his view of her.
Pride was what had kept her from going after him, because what she wanted more than anything was for him to view her as an equal he could trust blindly. It was something he would have to come to on his own, and she’d hoped he would reach out to her when he did.
Now, here she stood, watching him install a security camera on her home. The depth of how much she’d missed him, missed baiting him into an argument, struck. Buoyed with the hope her friends had told h
er to hold on to, Lana moved forward. Her cheeks stretched more with each step as her smile grew.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Shit!” Aidan jerked, pulling on the camera wire and losing his balance. He toppled off the ladder and bounced off the bushes behind him before rolling to the grass with a grunt.
“Oh my God!” Lana rushed to him, half crawling the last few feet. “Are you okay?” She ran her hands over him, checking for any signs of injury. “Can you move?”
Staring up at her with an unexpected grin, he whispered, “Only my lips. So I’m hoping you’ll kiss me since you just scared me off a ladder.”
She laughed, but she was no fool. The man she loved was playing and smiling. He had just asked her for a kiss. Bending down, she brushed her lips against his gently. “Are you really okay?”
He didn’t answer, but instead wrapped his arms around her and rolled her beneath him.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” She kissed him again as her blood thrummed with happiness. “What are you doing here? Why are you putting a camera over my door?”
“Helping you with your story, I realized something.” He kissed her, lingering only a moment. “You tend to attract trouble.”
“No more than you.”
“I have more training than you.” He stood and pulled her up with him. “But, rather than ask you to choose a safer job, something you would never do, I decided to install some security for you.”
“Because you want to know who’s tried to kill me next time?”
Aidan tugged her close, so close she felt his arousal pressing against her. He brushed his thumb across her cheek. “I’d rather no one tried to kill you again. I don’t like seeing you in a hospital bed. I sure as hell don’t want to see you in a coffin.”
“Wow.” She batted her lashes dramatically. “You have such a pretty way of saying you love me.”
“I didn’t say I loved you. I said I didn’t want to see you hurt or dead.”
“Fine.” The man found an argument in everything. She wasn’t in the mood to argue, so she stepped away and picked up the bag she’d dropped in her hurry to reach him. “Have fun installing your cameras.”
She glanced over her shoulder as she unlocked the door. He hadn’t moved to follow her, yet it didn’t upset her. It didn’t hurt that he denied loving her, because she knew the truth. She’d felt it in his tenderness. Still, she wasn’t going to fight him or push him into anything he didn’t want. If he wanted to be with her he would have to man up and say so.
Lana was surprised when the closing door bounced back. Aidan had crossed the distance between them and blocked the door in a blink. Then he was inside with the door closed and locked behind him.
His eyes blazed with desire. Her skin heated with the excitement of his passion.
He grabbed her, spun her so her back pressed against the door. Holding her still with his hands on her hips, he kissed her. Hard and deep. Long and searching. It was nothing as fleeting as their kisses outside had been. His butterscotch scent wrapped with a layer of yearning and set her senses soaring. She hadn’t given much thought to how intensely he incited her every sense when he touched her.
The flowers in a nearby vase smelled richer. Her skin tingled with urgency and vibrated where he touched. His mouth claiming hers tasted of his morning coffee. His hurried breathing swept past her eardrums like caresses that notched her arousal higher and higher.
He leaned back, panting. “You drive me to distraction, Lana Quinn.”
“You’re not easy to ignore, Aidan Burgess.” Taking advantage of the inches between them, she flattened her hands on his chest, flicking his nipples through his T-shirt. “Why are we being so formal?”
“I couldn’t really say. Guess I’m floundering a little here.”
She lifted an eyebrow and slid her hands to his waist to untuck his shirt. “Then allow me to point the way.”
Needing no more encouragement, he stripped. Lana had only a brief moment to absorb the visual pleasure of his nudity. He stepped to her and when she expected him to begin undressing her, he instead turned her to face the wall, placing her hands on the wall just below shoulder height. Gripping her hips gently, he eased her back a couple of steps so she was bent low with her legs spread.
Her sex clenched between her thighs. Arousal pooled in her thong. “Aidan.”
“You should wear skirts more often.”
“Maybe I will, if you give me more reasons to.”
“I will.” Proving his point, he flicked the long skirt she’d chosen that morning over her hips. A low groan rumbled from behind her. A feather soft caress of his fingertips swept over the curve of her ass.
Her arousal rose again. Her belly knotted.
“I always remember you’re sexy, but still seem to forget just how sexy.”
“Uh-huh.” She closed her eyes and delighted in the pleasure he awakened.
He slid his fingers over her ass and down the backs of her legs. His fingers danced at her knees, weakening her ability to stand without shaking. A warm breath she didn’t expect heated her sex. She cried out when a pulse later he used his teeth to pull her soaked thong away from her body.
Her hips bucked. His touch had her vowing to wear skirts much more often.
His mouth was only gone long enough to strip the barrier away. When he returned, he swept away the evidence of her arousal. The single swipe that barely touched her clit stroked deep inside and had her ready to orgasm.
She fought the desire, wanting him inside her when she went over the edge.
He clearly had other ideas. He licked, nipped, swiped and teased her clit until her legs shook so hard he had to use his hands to hold her steady. Still she resisted, which only seemed to make him more determined to carry her to orgasm.
She resisted his teasing. Her resistance teased him. Teasing and resisting. Resisting and teasing. It was a game they’d never played, and it was one she delighted in. His playful side made an appearance. His caresses became more intimate, or maybe it was just that her body became more and more aware.
Aidan pulled back. Lana cried out and popped her hips back, trying to follow him. His mouth wasn’t there, and she missed it. She wanted his mouth on her pussy and his hands on her breasts.
A brush of air on her ass was barely a warning. His teeth nipped into her ass cheek and then he proceeded to nibble his way up to her hip. Then he paid the other cheek the same attention. He gave “kiss my ass” a whole new meaning.
Every muscle in her arms and shoulders, her legs and back, burned. Lana curved her back, unwilling to change her position and miss out on whatever pleasure he had in mind next. Then he was standing behind her with his hands at her hips for support.
He leaned down and kissed the tender spot just behind her ear. “You’re mine, Lana.”
“Okay.” She probably could have argued his ownership claims if her brain wasn’t shutting down. The only thing she could process clearly was the desperate desire to have him thrust home and bury himself inside.
Her pussy trembled. As if he heard the pulsing plea, he gripped her hips tighter and thrust. Proving how well they suited each other, he slipped directly home.
In all her years of having sex she’d never given a partner as much control as she was turning over to Aidan. She always demanded that she be an equal partner and she was always equally naked. She’d struggled with his inability to trust her, but only now realized she herself had trust issues. Except with Aidan.
A wash of excitement swarmed her. The tingles covering her skin rushed faster. The scent of their arousal hitting the air with the soft slapping of their bodies as Aidan thrust and withdrew, thrust and withdrew, heightened her yearning.
Her tensed muscles trembled and with the flood of her orgasm they released their tension until she felt soft and pliant.
She was vaguely aware of Aidan lifting her off her feet and carrying her to her room where he undressed her and eased her onto the bed before going to
the bathroom. Her head was still buzzing when he returned with a damp washcloth to clean her up. It was another intimacy she’d never allowed a man, but again it seemed so natural with Aidan.
She was more gone than she’d thought, but until he was ready to accept her feelings she would keep the depth of them to herself. Instead, she settled for curling into him when he got into bed behind her.
Darkness was settling when she finally broke the silence. “Aidan.”
“Yeah?”
“Thank you for the cameras. For not asking me to change.”
He kissed her neck and lingered long enough that she felt his lips curl into a smile. “You’re welcome.”
“Are you really okay with who and what I am?” She should just let their issues vanish if he was willing, but a perverse part of her wanted to know that they wouldn’t be rising back up to bite her when she dropped her guard all the way.
Aidan pulled away and sat up. Lana did the same so they were both braced against the headboard and facing each other. She had an instinct to cover herself with a sheet, but didn’t want even that barrier between them.
“I can’t say that I like how involved you get in your stories. How they have a tendency to put you in danger.”
She bit back the argument that tapped its way to the tip of her tongue.
“I’m the same way with my work, so I understand your drive,” he continued. “We’ll always argue and we’ll say hurtful things we don’t mean.” He fiddled with her hair and sighed so deep his chest shook. “I also know that I feel like I’ve been in the wrong place, just trying to make it right.”
“Me too.”
“You’ve changed that, Lana. With you at my side, I think I’m finally in the right place at the right time with the right person.”
His weighty words whispered with unspoken meaning. Her heart bounced with eagerness. She wanted to tell him she felt exactly the same way, but until he said everything he had to say she was afraid to reveal too much.