by Lori Foster
With sudden clarity, Regina knew he hadn’t seen the photo. No, being typically male, he’d only noted the silly books and condoms. “No.”
“No, what? You weren’t planning anything with me?”
She shook her head, felt silly for going mute, and managed to say again, “No.”
His smile turned smug. “I didn’t really think so. After all, those condoms are smalls.” And totally deadpan, “They’d never fit.”
Regina’s heart jumped into her throat. She licked suddenly dry lips. “No?”
He shook his head. “I’m just an average man, Regina.”
“There’s nothing average about you.”
His slow smile nearly melted her heart. “Maybe you should wait until we’ve made love to make that judgment.”
A tidal wave of awareness nearly took out her knees. They were in her bedroom, right next to her unmade bed. Her heart gave a hard thump, then tripped into double time.
Riley stepped closer, a grin playing about his mouth. “Such a pretty blush, Red.” He looked at her bed, gave a small shake of his head, and all teasing evaporated. “So tell me, Red. What have you been planning, and with whom?”
No never. Not in a million years. “The books are just…curiosity.”
“Curiosity about sex?”
It wasn’t easy, but she gave a cavalier shrug. “About…variety.” She knew about sex. She even knew about pleasure. But things didn’t always go right, no matter how she tried. With an airy wave of her hand, she explained, “I bought the books and condoms months ago, when I was engaged.”
“Engaged?”
His thunderous expression surprised her. “Yes.”
“You were in love with someone?”
He said that like an accusation, confusing her even more. Because he looked so red in the face, she decided to admit the truth. “No, I didn’t love him. I thought I could love him, and I loved the idea of being married and starting a family….”
He’d grown so rigid, she rushed on to explain. “The engagement ended almost as soon as it began. I realized what a stupid move it was, and he made it plain he didn’t love me and likely never would. I think he just used the engagement as a sham, a way to…”
“Get you into bed?”
It sounded so stupid, and she’d been so gullible, that she only shrugged. “The, um, condoms have never been opened. I just haven’t had the nerve to throw them out. I didn’t want anyone to see them in my garbage.”
Slowly, Riley relaxed. His frown smoothed out, replaced by a tender expression that seemed so incongruous to the hard man he could be. “Wouldn’t be proper, huh?”
“It’s private, that’s all.”
He started to say more, but Butch gave an impatient howl from the kitchen.
Riley glanced that way, then back at her. “I’ll get him.” He touched her chin, lifted her face and pressed his mouth to hers for several heart-stopping moments. “You better get dressed before I forget my dubious code of honor and the fact that we have a lot to get done in the next couple of hours.” He turned and went through the door.
The second he disappeared, Regina jerked the drawer open, took out the framed photograph and looked around for a good place to hide it. She’d just lifted her mattress, ready to shove it beneath, when Riley stepped back in with a wriggling Butch in his arms. He drew up short when he saw her, then his brows came down.
His gaze went from her guilty face to her hand, which she quickly stuck behind her back. “All right, Red. What are you up to now?”
CHAPTER FIVE
RILEY WATCHED AS Regina jerked the framed photo behind her back. Green eyes wide and innocent, she said, “It’s nothing.”
“Right.” He strode forward, watched her quickly back up and move around the bed to the other side, and his suspicions grew. He set the dog on the mattress. Butch ran to Regina, came up on his hind legs and begged to be held.
Without taking her gaze off Riley, she caught the dog up one-handed. “If you’ll leave, I’ll get dressed.”
Riley crossed his arms over his chest, not about to oblige her. “I’m damn curious, Red, what’s worth hiding from me when I already saw the dirty books and rubbers.”
Her jaw firmed. “They’re not dirty books, they’re educational.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And it’s none of your business.”
“Someone is trying to hurt you. Everything is my business.”
Her cheeks colored. “This is…personal. Nothing that anyone else would care about.”
“You don’t trust me.”
“Of course I do.”
“Then let me see.”
“Riley.”
She wailed his name, making him smile. Stalking her, he started around the bed. She took one step back, then planted her feet and glared. Butch licked her chin in commiseration. Absently, she patted his back.
She was such an affectionate woman, so soft and gentle. It didn’t take much to make her blush—a smile from him, a touch and her cheeks turned pink. The more he was with her the more he wanted her, and the more he wanted to know all her secrets. She’d kept parts of herself away from him, her engagement, her insecurities…but no more.
He stopped right in front of her and held out his hand.
She shook her head in exasperation. “This is stupid.”
Riley waited.
Finally, with no graciousness, she slapped the picture frame into his hand. His curiosity keen, Riley turned it over, and was met with the charismatic smile on Senator Welling’s face. Riley decided it must be the photo she took in the park, given the fountain beside him and the large trees behind him. Regina had written at the bottom of the photo, Senator Xavier Welling, along with the date of the photo.
The senator was easily in his mid-fifties. He was tall, gray-haired and aristocratic. In order to always make a good public appearance, he’d kept in shape. He had no paunch and his shoulders were still wide from his college football days.
Riley saw red. Through stiff lips, he said, “You keep a picture of the senator beside your bed?” And then with jealousy pricking his temper, he added, “Next to the goddamned Kama Sutra?”
Regina drew herself up. “Don’t raise your voice to me.”
It wasn’t easy, but Riley reined in his temper. He tossed the picture onto the bed. “What the hell does it mean?”
“What does what mean?”
“Don’t look so confused, Red. You’ve got his picture in your nightstand drawer, next to your bed, with books on sex and a load of rubbers.” Hell, just saying it made him madder. “You got the hots for him?”
She gasped so hard, Butch started to howl again. She absently stroked him. “Of course not. He’s a wonderful, respectable man with a wife he loves and a family he cherishes.”
“Don’t make me puke. He’s a politician, first and foremost.”
Regina went on tiptoes to poke him in the chest. “Yes, he’s a politician. A wonderful senator. He’s fought hard for the health and safety of children. He supports local law enforcement. He’s won numerous awards and honors for leadership and—”
Riley turned his back on her. “Jesus, you’re besotted.”
Using her free hand, she caught the back of his shirt. “I am not,” she all but shouted. “Senator Welling is an inspiration. I admire him, just as I admire his family and his aspirations and his beliefs.” And then, in a smaller voice filled with vulnerability, she said, “I admire everything he stands for.”
Riley turned to stare at her, something in her tone touching deep inside him. “Just what does he stand for, Regina?”
Still disgruntled, Regina chewed her lip, not looking at him. “Family. Community. Everything that’s good. When you see him campaigning with his wife and kids, you just know that’s how it should be, all of them smiling, happy, secure.” She lifted her gaze to meet Riley’s. “I see them together and I know it can happen, because it’s right there, live, real.”
Riley didn’t know how real a
politician’s public persona might be, but he could tell Regina believed in it. When she’d talked of her family, she’d done so with very little emotion. He’d found that strange, but hadn’t pondered it long, not when most of his thoughts centered on carnal activities.
Feeling like a complete bastard, Riley pulled her into his arms. Butch wiggled until he was up between their faces, making sure no kissing would occur. But Riley felt content just to hold her. At least for now.
“I’m sorry.”
Against his chest, she murmured, “For what?”
“For prying. And for not understanding.” Keeping one hand on Butch so he wouldn’t fall, Riley stroked Regina’s back. He wished he could touch her bare silky skin again, but he didn’t dare. It had been a close thing in the kitchen, his control severely tested. Only the fact that he knew damn good and well she wasn’t thinking straight had kept him from laying her across the kitchen table. She’d been ready, damn it, whether she wanted to admit it or not.
“I guess it’s okay,” she said while rubbing her cheek against him, setting him on fire again. “It’s not a secret that I admire the senator and what he stands for.”
“Looks can be deceiving, you know.”
She shook her head. “Being a politician does not automatically make him a fraud, Riley.”
“No. But the world is filled with cheats and liars, people you’d bet on in a pinch, who turn out to be more unscrupulous than you ever could have imagined.”
Leaning back, she looked at him thoughtfully. “Have you known people like that?”
He skirted that question by stating the obvious. “I’m a cop, Red. I see the worst of mankind all the time.”
Her hand smoothed over his chest. She couldn’t know how the innocent touch inflamed him. If she did, she wouldn’t now be looking at him with so much understanding. “You deal with that element of life. But Senator Welling is just the opposite. He’s part of the good team, Riley.”
Riley wanted to shake her for her naiveté. He knew firsthand how difficult it was to read the people you cared about. Blind trust was never a good thing, but since he wanted it from Regina, he didn’t say so.
Riley tucked a long curl behind her ear. “Can I ask you something, honey?”
She laughed.
“What?” He held her away so he could better see her face.
“You’re so funny, Riley. Demanding one minute, requesting the next.”
“I’m glad you’re amused.” He smiled, too. “So is it all right?”
“Sure. At this rate, I won’t have any secrets left at all.”
That’d suit him just fine. He intended to make her his, but never again would he be made the fool. Knowing everything about her would be a safeguard against unhappy surprises.
He released her and she sat on the bed. Butch circled her lap, then nudged his way beneath her housecoat so he could curl up against her stomach. She tucked him in before looking at Riley in inquiry.
Riley settled himself beside her. “Who footed the bill when your parents died?” If she’d been the only one responsible, it’d help explain her need for doing things right, to always be prepared and proper.
She appeared confused by the question. “I did what I could, but I didn’t have enough money to make a huge difference in their care. What I had to give wasn’t enough, so instead I spent days researching ways to get them the help they needed. It’s wasn’t easy. That’s one of the things about Senator Welling. His health benefit programs would have done my parents a world of good.”
Riley did not want to talk about the damned senator. “What about your brother? Did he help out?”
“I told you, he’s just like them. I had to loan him money to buy a suit so he’d have something decent to wear to the funerals.”
Damn, that meant she alone had had the burden of her parents’ care. “Loan—or give?”
She shrugged, which was all the answer Riley needed. “What about your fiancé? What happened there?”
Hedging that question, she asked, “Just who is the reporter here, Riley? Me or you?”
With a straight face, Riley said, “I just wondered if he could possibly be the one bothering you now.” He spoke the truth, but it wasn’t the only reason he asked. Possessiveness had a lot to do with his interest, too.
“Oh. No, he didn’t help with my parents. Our engagement was after their deaths. And, no, it’s not him.”
“How do you know for sure?”
She untangled a grouchy Butch from her lap and pushed to her feet. “Trust me. He has no reason to hold a grudge.”
Riley took the dog from her. He immediately rooted underneath Riley’s shirt, circled into a small ball, and sighed himself back to sleep. Riley looked down at the lump where his flat abdomen used to be, shook his head, and put one hand over the dog. “Men see things differently than women. Maybe your take on the breakup isn’t the same as his.”
Regina rubbed her head. “It’s not. But that has nothing to do with anything.”
Her reluctance to talk about the other man couldn’t have been more plain. It nettled Riley. “So who did the breaking up, you or him?”
“I did, but he didn’t mind.”
“How could he not mind? That doesn’t make any sense. If he’d asked you to marry him—”
“He didn’t want me, all right?” She threw up her hands. “There. Happy? He called me a prude and said I was unappealing. He wanted me to change myself and I can’t do that, and he said that no man would want me, especially in bed, and so I left. End of story.”
Stunned speechless, Riley watched her storm out of the room.
For long minutes after, he remained on the bed, soothing Butch who had gone a little frantic at Regina’s raised voice. He’d crawled up Riley’s chest, grumbling and growling, then poked his head out the neck of the shirt, just beneath Riley’s chin. “Her fiancé sounds like a complete ass, doesn’t he, Butch?”
Butch whined.
“I wonder, is that why she bought the books? Had she already realized that things weren’t going well between them? Not that I’m sorry to hear it, because if she hadn’t, she might have married him.”
Butch whined a little louder.
“I agree.” Riley had to take off his shirt to get Butch free. “Does she still love the guy, do you think?”
Butch had no answer.
When Riley entered the kitchen, Regina was on the phone with her editor, explaining about the glass. She didn’t look at Riley, and after she hung up, she went past him to the living room.
“I won’t be going in today at all. Most of the work I need to do for the rest of my assignment can be handled on the phone and typed up on my computer.” She paused. “Is it okay if I bring my computer?”
Riley followed behind her, cautious of her new mood. “You can bring anything you want.”
“Thank you.” She pulled out a phone book from the closet and carried it back to the kitchen.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking up numbers for glass replacement. I want this fixed before the evening.”
Riley followed her. “I’ll take care of that.”
“You said that half an hour ago.”
“This time I mean it.” He wrested the book out of her hands and plunked Butch into her arms. The poor dog had been passed around a lot that morning. “Go shower and pack whatever clothes you need right away. I’ll call for the door replacement, take you to my place, then come back here and get your computer and any other stuff you need. All right?”
“I am not helpless.”
“Far from it.” He tried a smile that she didn’t return. “C’mon, Red. You look stressed and tired and I want to take care of you just a little, okay?”
She stared up at him for long moments. “I’ll finish up my work on this current piece today.”
The swift change of topic threw him. “Great.”
“That means tomorrow, or even later tonight, I can start my interview on you.”
&n
bsp; His smile slipped a little, but he managed to hang on to it. “Okay.”
“I have so many questions, it might take a few…days.”
His smile felt like a grimace. “I did agree.”
“Yes, you did.” She handed Butch back to him. “Can you keep an eye on him while I shower and dress? Thank you.”
Both Riley and Butch watched her leave yet again, her walk a little more sassy this time. Oh, she wanted payback with the interrogation, he could tell. Riley wondered how many answers he could give without telling things he never wanted to reveal? It’d be tricky, but he could handle it.
If all else failed, he’d distract her with a kiss—and more. After all, he’d given her fair warning of what to expect. And still she’d agreed.
That thought brought back his smile in full force. In the end, he’d get what he wanted most: Regina. That made the rest worthwhile.
*
“WELL, THIS ANSWERS one question, doesn’t it?” Regina stated.
Riley had parked his truck behind her Escort in his allotted garage space, then joined her. She stood between the car and the opened door, staring at his apartment.
Unlike most women Riley knew, Regina hadn’t lingered in the shower. Butch, unwilling to wait in the kitchen while Riley cleaned up the glass, had howled endlessly until Regina stuck her head out the bathroom door and asked Riley to hand him to her. Butch had curled up on a towel and slept while she quickly showered and dressed in white slacks and a sleeveless cotton sweater and sandals. With her long red hair restrained in a French braid, minimal makeup and small earrings, she looked classy and sexy combined.
A large satchel with files and notes from her current project was slung over her arm. Riley hadn’t realized that she gathered so much info just for one story. And since she’d told him her current article was about the silly talent show held by a local television station in the mall, he was doubly surprised.
They’d both driven so Regina would have her car handy. Not that he wanted her out driving around alone until he figured out what was going on. But neither did he want her to feel trapped or overly dependent on him. He knew she would rebel over that and he’d lose her before he could get her used to being with him.