by Addison Fox
“Mark. The guy you met yesterday. He’s my partner, and he and I were working this case of a girl who went missing after she ran away from the projects, likely kidnapped.”
As Derek wove the details—a young girl, snatched from her impoverished existence by an international crime lord—she began to get a picture in her mind of exactly what he dealt with day to day in his job. How did anyone handle that? And certainly not for a number of years. How would a person bear up under that sort of strain? And the hopeless reminder of how depraved human beings could be?
“How’d you get her case? Isn’t that the jurisdiction of the LAPD?”
“The case fell into our jurisdiction because all signs pointed toward him taking her across international borders.”
“Human trafficking.”
He nodded. “Unfortunately, yes.”
“So why aren’t you on the case now?”
The wall she’d observed repeatedly began its descent, and rather than take it personally, Landry used the opportunity to push back. “Oh no. You did that too many times already. I ask for details and you poker up. Why won’t you realize I can help you?”
As he’d spoken, their hands had entwined without her even realizing it until he stared down where they were joined. “I can’t taint you with this. Or with my failure.”
“Excuse me?”
Of all the things he might have said, the idea that he saw himself as a failure was the very last thing she expected. “How did you possibly fail?”
“I was pulled off the case for shooting the suspected kidnapper.”
“So?”
His gaze never wavered, but she didn’t miss the hard bob of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed. “I was put on a leave of absence. I’m not allowed to work the case any longer. That’s a pretty big failure in my book.”
“So how do you know about what happened today?”
“Mark’s been feeding me details on the sly, and I keep sending him things to look into or different insights I’ve gleaned from other cases. I can’t give this up. I won’t give it up. I owe it to Rena to see it through.”
While she admired his focus and desire to bring the child home, she struggled with his partner’s role in things. “Can’t Mark work this on his own?”
“He’s been working—”
When Derek stopped midcomment, Landry saw some of her questions reflected in his gaze.
“Of course he can work it on his own. And he does. Is.”
“But?”
“He’s a good agent, but not the strongest agent we have.”
“And if he stays partnered with you he looks better?”
Landry let the question hang there, curious to see what conclusions he might draw.
She’d observed his partner the day they were at headquarters and hadn’t been impressed. Thinking back on it, it wasn’t simply his strange gaze or slightly odd comments. There had been something more.
“We were assigned together a few years ago. He’d had a big case come in and was riding high on that. My old partner had just transferred to another office. The window of opportunity was open and we clicked well enough.”
“Well enough?”
“Well, sure. He’s a bit hotheaded and I don’t always agree with his leaps in logic, but Mark’s a good man. He cares about his cases and goes the extra mile.”
The man she’d met didn’t strike her as the extra mile sort, but Landry held her tongue. She figured she’d planted enough seeds and would give Derek some time to work things through in his mind. “Do you need to go back to LA?”
“Not tonight. I’ll head in tomorrow and meet Mark for lunch. He said they got another note from the kidnapper, this time with more concrete details on where he’s keeping her.”
Landry knew she was out of her depth, but the pieces didn’t fit for her. “I thought you shot him?”
“Wounded him.”
“So now he’s out and sending notes on his victim’s whereabouts?” Something struck her as off about that sort of behavior, but she reminded herself that she wasn’t a criminal. She’d heard internet jokes for years that they weren’t all that smart, and this latest run of evidence pointed once more to that very fact.
“The lab results are somewhat inconclusive, but they match the MO on the previous notes. And the bastard skipped out on his bail two weeks ago, completely in the wind.”
The depth of his knowledge on the latest details in the case only reinforced the fact that he’d been working it on the side. “Is this what had you so upset earlier?”
“Landry...I—”
“Because I’d like to know.”
“I couldn’t talk about it with you.”
“Why?”
He dropped her hands. “I failed at this. You think I want to broadcast that?”
“From where I’m sitting, you failed at nothing. You have a criminal who’s eluded you despite what is obviously all your time, effort and energy. How is that failure?”
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain it to me.”
The same bleak expression she’d seen that morning after their ride once again covered his face in harsh lines. Pain so raw and so deep she wondered if it had a bottom seemed to well up and spill over. “I am my job. I live these cases, determined to bring justice to those who aren’t capable of getting it for themselves.”
“No doubt one of the many reasons my aunt thinks so well of you.”
“I let this girl down. I missed something in the clues and I failed her when I had the chance to take down her kidnapper.”
“But you just walked me through it. The man lured you and Mark to that old warehouse and Rena wasn’t there.”
“She had to be close.”
Landry stood, unable to sit still while he paced like a caged animal. “You’ve lost perspective on this.”
Derek stopped at that, all the leashed fury she’d seen in his large frame suddenly provided with a target. “You know nothing about it.”
“Oh, no?” Like staring into a mirror, Landry saw her own pain and anger and swirling fury reflected right back at her.
Like hell she didn’t know.
“You think I don’t know what it’s like to live, day in and day out, determined to make the world better and never seeing it happen?”
“I—”
“Let me finish.” She kept her hands at her sides, fisted tight for fear she might walk up and slap him if she didn’t. “You think somehow because you acted quickly and made the only freaking decision you possibly could under the circumstances that somehow you’ve failed?
“I live with that every day. If I’d only followed my parents’ wishes. If I’d only tried harder to have a relationship with my dad. If I’d only read the signs and understood what was happening around me instead of burying my head in the sand like some clueless society girl, I might have been able to step in and save my father!”
Chapter 10
Sometimes the most important things came into clarity when you stopped looking so hard.
Derek could only stare at the volcano erupting before him, his earlier thought at dinner coalescing into reality. He thought he knew grief—and he thought he’d sensed the depths of Landry’s pain—but he obviously knew nothing. She’d hidden it so well and so deep, now that it was out, there was no putting it back where it had lain hidden.
“You can’t possibly think you’re responsible for your father’s death.”
“Me. My brothers. My mother. We all are. There was a threat lurking here beneath our noses and we all missed it.”
“You can’t know that.”
“How can’t I know that? There was no struggle in his office, he was shot at point-blank range and the security cameras were off for a maintenan
ce upgrade. My father knew his killer.”
“Yes, he did.” There was no way you could add up that series of facts and believe anything else. “But it still doesn’t mean you were responsible.”
“Funny you can assume that logic about me yet can’t apply it to yourself.”
Derek saw how neatly she’d boxed him in. “Rena’s my job.”
“And Reginald was my father. It’s not about logic or reason, Derek. It’s about emotion and that’s why it’s so hard to let go.”
She moved closer, and the light scent of honeysuckle he’d noticed during dinner tickled his senses with its sweet overtones. He’d believed the scent had carried from the gardens, but with Landry so near he now knew the sweet scent was her. Fresh and airy, it suited her to a T.
And when she moved closer still, he took another deep breath, filling his lungs with the rich, clean bouquet.
“If I let go, there won’t be anything left.”
“Or if you let go, you can finally reach for something new.”
Her lips pressed to his jaw, and she trailed a line of tender kisses over hard bone. The moment was both tender and erotic, especially when she flicked her tongue over the edge of his chin before continuing a path toward the other side of his face. “Tell me you want me.”
“You know I do.”
“Tell me there’s no one else.”
“There’s no one—” He broke off, her words like a pinball in his mind. “No one else? Of course there’s no one else.”
A light blush worked its way up her cheeks, but her gaze stayed level. Determined. “I just wanted to make sure. You...you mentioned someone named Sarah the other day. At lunch.”
“Ah.”
He stilled, the urge to brush it off warring with the need to be honest. She’d had the guts to ask, and he at least owed it to her to tell her the truth. “Sarah was my fiancée. We’ve been broken up for a few months now. Another casualty, along with my day job, of Rena’s case.”
“Oh.”
Derek hesitated, then went with instinct. He traced the line of her jaw, his fingers mimicking the same play of her lips mere moments before. “Turns out in the end Sarah didn’t want to be a glorified cop’s wife.”
“That’s what she said?”
“In pretty much those words. And, as it turns out, I’m happy being a glorified cop. Or I at least want to be with someone who will support me for as long as I want to be one.”
“Why do people want to change the ones they’re with?”
Head bent, he pressed his lips to hers, murmuring against their sweet softness. “I have no idea.”
“I think—” She broke off, her breath mingling with his before she kissed him fully.
“You think what?”
He felt her smile as it spread against his lips. “I think you talk too much.”
Her hands settled at the back of his neck, pulling him closer and deepening the kiss. He allowed himself to be dragged along, into the sweet abyss of need and desire and something incredibly soft and warm that he’d never felt before.
The swirling vortex was all-consuming, and in moments, the sexy banter and lingering kisses had turned urgent. Greedy. And oh, so enticing.
With careful steps, he walked them backward toward the love seat in her sitting room, pulling her on top of him when he felt the plump cushions at the backs of his legs. He fell into the pillows, rewarded with even more softness when her breasts crushed against his chest.
The careful dance they’d maintained between them vanished as the rush of the moment overtook them both. A rich, carnal craving settled into his veins, and Derek felt himself going under, a drowning man without breath who needed only the woman in his arms to sustain him.
An abstract image of a siren on a rock floated through his mind. If the siren was anything like Landry, no wonder sailors crashed to their doom. He’d follow this woman anywhere. And he was fast coming to believe he’d do anything to possess her.
Just as earlier, her hands were like a brand against his skin. Fires flared high everywhere she touched, and he felt the world melting away as Landry Adair became his entire focus.
She had the material of his shirt up and over his head before moving into a seated position on his lap, her hands on his shoulders. “Those are some awfully impressive muscles.”
The thin blouse she wore was in his hands and up over her head before she could blink. He took in the strong lines of her body and the shape of her full breasts where they spilled over the silky cups of her bra. “Likewise, Ms. Adair.”
A sexy, bewitching smile spread across her lips. “I do believe we’ve got a mutual admiration society going on here.”
He leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to her chest, flicking his tongue over the generous flesh of her breast. “What I feel is considerably deeper than admiration.”
At her sharp intake of breath, he continued his exploration, tracing a path down the silky edge of her bra with his tongue. Her hands stayed firmly positioned on his shoulders. Every time he hit a particularly sweet spot, her palm flexed against muscle like a telegraph of her pleasure.
And when he finally slipped one silky cup beneath her breast and took a nipple into his mouth, he was rewarded with a hard cry of pleasure that filled the air between them.
“Derek.” His name floated on the air before her head fell back, her eyes closed as she took pleasure in the moment. The soft light of the lamp beside the bed sheened her skin in a golden glow, and Derek let the moment spin out, the sweetest taste of her on his lips.
His hands stayed firm across her back, holding her in place as he worked the sensitive flesh between his lips. His fingers drifted to the clasp of her bra, anxious to have no barrier between them.
The silky material fell between them and Landry was bared, naked to his gaze. “You’re so beautiful.”
The words exhaled on a reverent hush as he gave himself a moment to simply look at her.
“Who’s complaining about my willpower around doughnuts now?”
A light tease suffused her husky words and he found himself captivated by her sultry gaze. The bright blue of her eyes had turned a vivid indigo, the darkness of her pupils wide with desire.
But it was something else—something that hovered beneath the desire—where he saw the question.
Am I enough?
Anger, honed to a fine point, lit him up inside. What had her family done to her? While her brothers had suffered through the obvious expectations of their father, she was left to her mother’s endless criticism.
How could a woman so vibrant—so caring and aware of others—believe she was somehow lacking?
“You’re gorgeous, Landry. Inside and out. Nothing will change that. Ever.”
He bent his head and took her lips with his, slipping his tongue into her warm mouth. Her tongue tangled with his, drawing him in with the warmest welcome.
It might take time, but he was going to convince this woman of her worth. He believed she knew it—somewhere deep inside her there was a light Patsy and Reginald Adair hadn’t been able to snuff out—but he also knew it would take time.
And he was more than up to the task.
Long, lush moments spun out between them, growing more urgent with each passing second. Their touches grew more frantic and their breathing more urgent as they pushed each other onward.
He shifted beneath her, the hot heat of her core driving him wild with the need to make her fully his. And when she reached between them, her hands slipping beneath the waistband of his jeans, Derek knew the deepest satisfaction as her hand brushed against his hard body.
“Well, what have we here, Mr. Winchester?” That teasing note was back, and he fought the groan as her fingers closed around him.
He pressed his forehead to hers and closed h
is eyes, the wash of pleasure so immense he needed a moment to get himself in check. But when the hints of laughter faded, replaced with a quiet urgency, he knew he was lost.
“Please, Derek. Let me.”
He took her mouth once more, his only answer to the warm, willing, generous woman in his arms. His body was already strung out, pushed to the limit with the desperate need for release, but still she urged him on.
“Landry—” He broke off, unsure of himself. He wanted her. With madness that ran so deep he didn’t know if he’d ever recover. But he’d also just shared the realities of his life.
Rena.
His forced leave of absence.
His ruined engagement.
All were realities that weren’t going to go away if they made love.
“Landry—” He held her still, one hand on her shoulders while the other covered her hand. “Wait.”
“Hmmm?” Confusion lit her features as she slowly recognized he had stopped her. “Derek?”
An apology was already springing to his lips when the room plunged into inky blackness.
* * *
Landry willed herself to surface from the sexual haze that consumed her. Derek had been so willing—so into the moment—before he halted it.
And now the lights were out?
Despite the fact that her brain was still trying to assimilate all the facts, the irony wasn’t lost on her.
Abstractly, she realized the position they were still in and removed her hand from beneath his. His sharp intake of breath as her fingers slid along his length gave her a grim sort of satisfaction.
Why had he stopped her?
She lifted off his lap, her movements stiff as her body still struggled with abandoned desire. Her slacks were unbuttoned and her blouse had disappeared somewhere. She kept one hand on the cushions, reaching for the drawer in the small end table at the edge of the couch.
Her hand closed around a lighter and she pulled out the cool metal, flicking the starter. She focused on the flash of warm light and ignored the heavy cadence of both their breaths. Within moments, the small, fragrant candle she kept on the end table flared to life, illuminating them both in the glow.