Absolute Pleasure

by Jamie Denton

  “Hey! You can’t go in there!” Jeri went after Sunny and grabbed a handful of Sunny’s blazer when they reached the midway point in the corridor near his office. “You’re not allowed back here.”

  Sunny whipped out her ID. “Special Agent MacGregor,” she snapped at the girl. “FBI. And I suggest you get your hands off me.”

  “But you can’t go in there,” Jeri wailed, blocking Sunny’s path.

  “Where is he?” Sunny demanded.

  She wasn’t being fair taking her frustration out on Jeri when she was ticked off at him. He tossed the report aside and left the cubicle.

  Relief crossed Jeri’s face when he approached.

  “Duncan,” Sunny insisted when Jeri didn’t answer. “Where is he?”

  “It’s all right, Jeri,” he said.

  Sunny spun around at the sound of his voice. The tension of the last eight days drained out of him at the relief in her eyes when she finally saw him. She rushed toward him and plastered herself against him, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist as if she were holding on for dear life. He hung on to her just as tightly.

  “You look like hell, Fibbie,” Lucy’s brusque voice came from somewhere behind him.

  “It’s been a long week,” Sunny said, her words muffled against his shirt.

  “A hell of a long week,” he said.

  “I’ll say,” Lucy complained. “If your attitude doesn’t improve, you’re going to end up with a strike on your hands every time Fibbie goes out of town.”

  Sunny tipped her head back to look at him. “Have you been a grouch?”

  “That’s not the word we’ve been using,” Lucy said, then stormed off in a huff, taking Jeri with her.

  Duncan led Sunny into his office and closed the door, then hauled her up against him to kiss her so soundly she couldn’t possibly mistake how much he wanted her. Her arms slipped around his neck, and her mouth went soft and hot beneath his.

  Reluctantly, he ended the kiss, but refused to loosen his hold on her. Whatever remnants of dread he’d been harboring, vanished when he caught a glimpse of longing in her gaze. “Missed me, did you?” he teased her.

  She smiled, slow and easy. “Maybe a little.”

  “I could tell.” he said dryly. He drew in a deep breath. “Does this mean I stand a chance of getting laid again?”

  She pulled her arms from around his neck and stepped away from him. “We’ll have to see.” She leveled him with a stern look. “You’ll increase your chances if you tell me why you didn’t ID Specht when we were at Hope’s.”

  His dread returned. “Maybe you should sit down,” he suggested.

  Skepticism crossed her features and it took her a moment longer than he was comfortable with waiting for her to occupy chair behind his desk. “Would you feel more comfortable if I surrendered my weapon?”

  If her lips hadn’t twitched, he might’ve taken her seriously. He moved to sit on the edge of the desk in front of her. “I was going to tell you,” he said in his defense, “but when you said you were flying down to New Orleans, I made the decision not to say anything until I could confirm my suspicions.”

  She leaned back in the chair and crossed her legs. “An ID would’ve helped. You didn’t know what we had, I could’ve been chasing more shadows.”

  “I had a hunch and I played it. I was right,” he said unapologetically. “Specht’s off the streets. That’s what you wanted.”

  Her eyes widened. “So you were the anonymous tip we received.”

  He shook his head. “It wasn’t me.”

  “We got him,” she said, changing the subject. “He didn’t have any of the stolen property on him. And he wouldn’t give it up during the confession, either. I’m sorry, Duncan. I tried. Georgia tried. If we do get a line on the goods, I’ll do what I can to be sure you get it all back.”

  He shrugged. “I know you will.” She looked at him suspiciously. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  He smiled at her, but remained tight-lipped. She claimed to be a whiz at solving puzzles, so he waited for her to figure it out on her own.

  “You are aware of the penalty for perjury,” she reminded him.

  “That only applies in court, and I’m not under oath.”

  “My court, my rules.” She gave him a tolerant look. “What are you hiding? I’ve had a really crappy day. My flight was delayed, the traffic horrendous, and if you haven’t noticed, I’m not in a very good mood.”

  He reached for her and she came willingly. “That’s because you need to get laid,” he said, nuzzling the tender spot between her shoulder and neck.

  “Oh, God, do I ever.” She let out a sigh and sagged against him. “You have no idea how lonely a hotel room can be in the middle of the night. Eight long nights.”

  “Quiet, too, I bet.”

  “Shhh.” She giggled “Someone might hear you.”

  “The twenty-third floor probably heard you.”

  He loved her so much it hurt, deep in his chest. He’d been miserable the time they were apart, but he blamed most of his misery on his fear for her safety and the uncertainty of her reaction when she found out he could’ve identified Specht. He’d breathed a whole lot easier once he’d heard she’d had Specht in custody.

  “So why were you in such a hurry to get back to D.C.?” she asked, pulling back to look at him.

  “Since I’m no longer at risk of having to sleep alone again tonight, I didn’t come back home. I went to Hoboken.”

  She smacked her hand on his thigh. The pieces finally fell into place for her as she suddenly realized who was responsible for the anonymous tip. “Specht’s grandmother!”

  “I bet they call you Sunny because you’re so bright.”

  “As the morning sun,” she smiled at him. “How’d you finally convince her to turn in her own grandson?”

  “Finally? Hey, it took time to find her,” he said dryly. “She was my hunch, and before you ask, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you following me thinking I was going after Specht myself. He used to talk about her, so when I heard that line he’d said to Hope, everything clicked.”

  Sunny frowned. “I’ve got you under my skin?”

  “Je t’ai sous le peau,” he said. “Sinatra recorded it in the sixties.”

  She rolled her eyes. “And Frankie was from Hoboken, New Jersey. Bet it’s not a stretch that ol’ blue eyes is Grandmere’s favorite singer.”

  “Aveline Glennuad is Specht’s maternal grandmother. I don’t know what happened to Specht’s mother, and I don’t think even the grandmother knows for certain. Specht’s old man would send his son to the grandmother for visits.” He shrugged. “No one really knows why, maybe guilt. But she’s the gentler influence you were talking about when you profiled him.”

  “Well, Georgia is going to be thrilled when she finds out she was right. She kept insisting Specht was from New York, but she couldn’t prove it.” She let out a sigh and her hold on him tightened. “You know what? I don’t want to talk, think or hear about this case another second.” She wiggled closer, and smiled when her hip brushed against the ridge of his penis. “Oooh, take me home now and we can talk about the first thing that comes up. I…”

  She frowned suddenly. “Wait a minute. How did you know we didn’t find any of the stolen goods on Specht?”

  He chuckled and reached behind him for a piece of paper. “I was wondering when you’d figure that out. And to think I called you bright.”

  “I’m tired, I have an excuse.” She pulled her arms from around his neck and took the paper from him. “What is this?”

  “Your evidence.” He set his hands on her waist. “That’s the address of a storage facility in New Jersey. Specht was sending his take to his grandmother. I don’t know if she had any idea of the value or not. That’s something you’ll to figure out.”

  Moisture instantly brightened her gaze. “Duncan, you can’t do this,” she said, her voice suddenly tight. “Your fees? That’s a lot of money.”<
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  “Worried about your future?” He said the words teasingly, but God help him, he was dead serious.

  “No.” She glared at him. “Yours.”

  He tugged her to him and wrapped his arms around her. “I don’t see much difference. Do you?”

  A smiled brushed her mouth. “Not really,” she answered, sounding a tad smug. “Eventually.”

  He wasn’t thrilled with the disclaimer, but if that was all she was willing to commit to at the moment, so be it. Not that he was too worried. She never had been able to resist him for long.

  “Without the stolen property, you’ll have a tougher time getting a conviction. I’ll still collect my fees, it’ll just take longer while the Bureau catalogs the evidence,” he finished with a shrug. The way he saw it, everybody won. The clients saved a bundle, the claimants’ stolen property would eventually be returned to them, he’d collect his fee and Sunny would have the evidence necessary to keep Specht behind bars for a lot of years.

  She tucked the note in her blazer. The smile faded from her lips as she pulled a black velvet box from her pocket and handed it to him.

  Curious, he plucked the box from her trembling hand and opened it. “A key chain?”

  She nodded and reached back into her pocket. “I thought it’d come in handy—” she slowly opened her hand “—for these.”

  One by one, he took a key from her hand and silently placed each key to her condo, mailbox and Jeep on the key ring. He knew what her decision meant, and understood the trust she placed in him. His heart squeezed in his chest.

  “When I was in New Orleans and we had Specht, I realized my defining moment hadn’t really occurred all those years ago,” she said. “It hadn’t even happened until Chicago, with you. I figured I might need a little help unlocking those doors you were talking about every once in a while, so you should have your own set of keys.”

  “Thank you. It’s exactly what I’ve been wanting,” he said, before kissing her tenderly. He would move heaven and earth to keep her safe, and would love her just as fiercely for as long as she’d let him. Forever sounded like a good place to start.

  He gently set her away from him. “Now don’t get too excited.” He slid open the bottom drawer of his desk and grinned at her. “I picked you up a little welcome-home present.”

  Her eyes widened as she stared down at the package wrapped in pink-and-white-striped paper with a fat matching bow. “Uh-oh,” she said, pulling the box from the drawer. Wariness filled her gaze. “I should probably be nervous, shouldn’t I?”

  “You trust me, don’t you?”

  His question had the desired effect. Color tinged her cheeks. “Yes,” she said, but she didn’t sound all that convincing.

  “Go ahead. Open it.”

  She caught her bottom lip caught between her teeth. With a great deal of apprehension, she slowly peeled away the bright paper. “Oh, my,” she whispered, tentatively fingering the top-of-the-line shower massage. “I think we need to go home.” She lifted her gaze to his. “Now.” A sinful smile slowly curved her lips. “You know what I’m sayin’?”

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-7063-7

  ABSOLUTE PLEASURE

  Copyright © 2004 by Jamie Ann Denton.

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  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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