Love And Lies

by Dawn Stewardson

  Trying to ignore both her erratic pulse and the fluttering around her heart, she racked her brain for something to say. Something that would sound as if she didn’t find his presence the slightest bit disturbing.

  “The message,” she finally said. “Who was it from?”

  “Desmond Curtis. While we were downstairs I asked him about borrowing something.”

  “Borrowing what?”

  Cade reached under his sweater and took out a gun he’d had tucked in his waistband.

  She stared at it as he set it on the coffee table. It was matte black and evil-looking, but she certainly wasn’t unhappy to see it.

  “A Browning semiautomatic,” he said. “Thirteen rounds in the magazine.”

  “Ah.” She wasn’t unhappy about that, either. Even with a limited knowledge of guns, she knew rounds were bullets.

  “It belongs to a friend of Desmond’s.”

  She nodded, her gaze still on the gun, wondering if Cade really did believe they were safe in this room. Then, without consciously thinking about it, she looked toward the dark balcony.

  Cade rose, silently crossed the room and switched off the lights. Then he walked over to the French doors and stood staring out into the moonlight.

  “Nothing there,” he finally said, turning and starting back toward her. “And the gun is just insurance. I really do think we’re okay at the moment. So why don’t you try to relax?” He sat down beside her again without turning the lights back on.

  “Yes,” she managed. “Relaxing would be a nice change.” But it was the last thing she could do. They might be okay at the moment, but sitting in the moonlight with him was definitely not conducive to relaxing.

  Her gaze met his, which reminded her that was something she should avoid. Even in only the moonlight, those warm gray eyes of his were magnetic. Or maybe it was everything about him that was magnetic. And like any magnet, the closer he got the harder it was to resist his pull.

  They simply sat in silence for a minute, and then he rested his hand on her thigh. She almost turned to liquid on the spot, and when he began to trace tiny circles with his thumb things got worse. Her pulse started beating a thousand times a second, and a hundred tiny fires ignited inside her.

  When she looked at his face again he was eyeing her intently. And his expression was telling her things he’d never said aloud. Things she’d give anything to hear him say.

  Or maybe it was only her imagination at work again. After all, she’d misread his expressions before, had misread him before. In fact, she’d misread him constantly. Throughout the entire trial, she’d assumed he was falling for her—until he’d made it clear he hadn’t been.

  “Tomorrow’s our last day together,” he said quietly. “Once the jury’s dismissed, everyone will go their separate ways.”

  She nodded, afraid to open her mouth. Afraid of what that look of desire she was imagining in his eyes might make her say. “Like ships that pass in the night,” she finally risked.

  “Exactly,” he agreed, beginning to move his thumb slowly up and down a few inches of her thigh.

  It was definitely not the caress of a friend. It was a caress that made her so hot she had to mount a major effort to keep from squirming. Then, without a word, he abruptly stood up and started across the room. For one horrible second she thought he was walking out on her again. Then she realized he wasn’t heading for the door.

  He reached the bed, which left him with no farther to walk, so he began pacing the floor at the end of it. She watched him, watched the way moon shadows were painting the planes and angles of his face until her fingers began to itch with wanting to trace them.

  “Look,” he finally said, “I know this is just about the worst timing in the history of the world, but there’s not much I can do about it.”

  “Do about what?”

  He didn’t answer, simply looked at her. Even from across the room the pull between them was too strong to resist.

  She rose and walked over to him. “Do about what?” she repeated softly.

  He still didn’t answer. He simply wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. The kiss was as gentle as spring rain, yet it sent shock waves all the way to her toes. His lips possessed. His tongue teased. His hands smoothed their way down her back, pressing every inch of her body against his.

  It made nerve endings she hadn’t even known existed tingle with need, and it made her intensely aware they were standing right beside the bed. Then, far too soon, he eased away a little. Only his arms, looped around her waist, maintained contact.

  She gazed silently up at him, resisting the temptation to run her fingers along his chiseled jaw. She was feeling so shaky she knew it would be dangerous to attempt the slightest movement. “I thought,” she whispered, “you just wanted to be friends.”

  “Yeah,” he said, his wry smile almost making her knees give out. “That’s what I thought, too. It’s what I kept telling myself, at any rate.”

  “Why?” she asked, then managed to stop herself before she asked what utter lunacy had prompted him to do that.

  He shrugged. “Because I’m an idiot.”

  “No…the real reason, Cade. Be honest.”

  “All right,” he said slowly. “Because you remind me of my ex-wife.”

  Talia wasn’t sure how long she stood simply looking at Cade and listening to the alarm bells going off in her head.

  She’d finally found the man people had always told her existed. The one who made a room light up for her. merely by walking into it. But now that she had, he was turning into a classic textbook case—right before her very eyes.

  Was he really one of those men who repeatedly fell for the same type of woman? A type with whom, for some reason buried deep in his psyche, he could never sustain a healthy relationship?

  She prayed he wasn’t, but there was only one way to find out. “How do I remind you of your ex-wife?”

  “Well…mostly because you’re so gorgeous.”

  Mostly because she was so gorgeous? She listened to the explanation echo around in her head for a second, wanting to be sure she’d heard him right. Because that certainly didn’t sound like an insurmountable psychological problem.

  And the fact it didn’t made her feel as if somebody had just popped the cork of a magnum of champagne and was pouring all the bubbles directly into her bloodstream. Hold on a minute, an imaginary voice warned her. Make sure you’ve got this straight.

  Half-afraid to, she asked, “That’s it? It’s mostly just because you think I’m pretty, and so’s she, that I remind you of her?”

  “Not pretty. Gorgeous.”

  “Ah, well, thank you. But you’re sure there’s nothing more…serious?”

  “Why are you making this sound unimportant when it’s not?”

  “Well, it isn’t exactly the—”

  “Dammit, Talia, it’s important to me. My marriage broke up because Marilyn was screwing around on me. And a lot of the problem was her looks. Guys were constantly coming on to her, and if she hadn’t looked the way she does…Well, you’re the psychologist here. You must understand what I’m saying.”

  She was so immensely relieved she could feel laughter building up inside her. She tried with all her might to hold it in, told herself this definitely wasn’t the time for her sense of humor to surface.

  Then she told herself that laughing at something someone else considered important was a terrible thing to do. And it would make Cade angry. But she just couldn’t help herself.

  “What?” he said, looking thoroughly annoyed. “Talia, it’s not funny. What the hell kind of psychologist are you? I tell you something personal and you laugh at me? What—”

  Before he could get any more upset she cradled his face between her hands, drew it down to hers and kissed him. He didn’t seem very happy about that at first, so she put a little body language into it—which helped a lot.

  When his body language started talking back, she waited until it was saying he’d forgo
tten all about being angry with her. Then she drew her lips away from his a fraction of an inch and murmured, “I’m sorry I laughed, but I wasn’t laughing at you. I swear I wasn’t.”

  He grinned at her. “It’s okay. I haven’t heard you laugh in almost two days, and I’ve missed it.”

  “Oh, Cade, I haven’t felt like laughing in almost two days. I was thinking my sense of humor had taken off on vacation without letting me know.”

  “But you felt like laughing at me. I still—”

  “Shh,” she whispered, pressing her fingers to his lips. “I wasn’t laughing at you. It was only that when you said I was like your wife…well, I was just so darned relieved it turned out not to be anything really serious. Because I thought you didn’t like me and—”

  “You thought I didn’t like you?” He leaned closer again and began nuzzling his way down her neck, his hot moist kisses stoking the fires he’d already ignited.

  “I’m absolutely insane about you,” he whispered, his breath fanning the flames.

  “Oh, well, I guess it wasn’t exactly that I thought you didn’t like me. I just didn’t think you were interested. I thought—”

  He covered her lips with his once more and got down to some really serious kissing. Kissing that left no doubt just how interested he was. Deep passionate kissing that made her breathless with desire.

  She ran her hands under his sweater tangling her fingers in his chest hair and making him groan. He broke their kiss long enough to tug the sweater over his head. Then he pulled hers off and quickly removed her bra.

  “Oh, God,” he murmured cupping her breasts and grazing her nipples with his thumbs, driving her wild with his touch. “I can’t believe how much time I wasted being a fool.”

  Before she could point out that people should always try to make up for lost time they ended up on the bed.

  “You know what?” he whispered as they struggled out of the rest of their clothes.

  “What?”

  “If Harlan knocks on that damn door and interrupts us I don’t want you telling me I can’t kill him, because I’m going to.”

  “You know what?”

  “What?”

  “I’ll help you.”

  Cade laughed—that wonderful, quiet, sexy laugh— and she laughed with him, because her heart had stopped aching and was almost bursting with happiness. She was in love with Cade and he was…well, maybe he hadn’t said love, but he’d said he was absolutely insane about her, and that would do just fine.

  Suddenly the world seemed like a whole lot better place. At least this little corner of it. They were locked away in her room, safe from evil. And she knew what Cade had said before no longer held true. Tomorrow, once the jury was dismissed, they wouldn’t all be going their separate ways. She and Cade…

  He started trailing his fingers down her naked body, which drove the rest of that thought completely out of her mind. Tomorrow didn’t matter at the moment. All that mattered was here and now.

  “Talia?” Cade whispered against her neck, the warmth of his breath making her shiver. “You’re okay with this? You’re not so worried about everything that…”

  She almost started laughing again—partly because there was too much happiness inside her to contain, partly at the absurdity of his timing. They were already lying on the bed without a stitch of clothing between them. But he was so sweet to ask, even though the answer was obvious, that she simply kissed him— starting at his forehead and working her way down his face, his neck, his chest, down to his hard belly. With a groan he grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her up to kiss her mouth once more.

  “Take it easy,” he whispered. “I want it to last. I want it to be good for you.”

  She wanted it to be good, too, but there wasn’t the faintest chance it wouldn’t be. The way he was fondling her breasts was making her mad with wanting him. And the throbbing ache inside her had grown so intense that if he made it last much longer she was going to die.

  “Cade?”

  “What?”

  She tried to go on, but he’d started kissing her breasts, teasing her nipples with his tongue, and it was making her so breathless she couldn’t speak.

  Then he slid his hand across her stomach, down to where the throbbing was worst, and rationality began to slip away.

  “Cade,” she whispered desperately, her body moving against his touch, “if it doesn’t last, couldn’t we just start over?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The first fingers of dawn poked in through the balcony’s French doors and transformed Talia’s hair into spun gold.

  Cade lay absently stroking it, thinking he’d never been so happy. He’d be content just to lie here with her forever the way they were—half-asleep and completely in love.

  Loving her all through the night, talking with her while she lay in his arms, had made him so damn…well, happy wasn’t a big enough word. Not even close to what he was feeling.

  By straining his brain, he finally dredged up euphoric. That was an improvement, although it still didn’t capture the full-to-bursting feeling that had him lying here grinning idiotically.

  He closed his eyes and simply breathed in her scent. As always, it brought to mind the freshness of sea air…cool sand…moonlight. And the scent of love had been added now.

  He was never going to let her get out of this bed. Never going to let her shower away the scent of their night together.

  “Cade?” she whispered.

  “Mmm?” He could feel her smiling against his chest.

  “I was right, wasn’t I? Starting over worked just fine, didn’t it?”

  “Well, it seemed to work just fine the first three times,” he teased, “but I think we’d better grab a little sleep before we try for four.”

  “Really? You’re getting tired of me already?”

  “Not tired of you, just worried you’re going to kill me.”

  She laughed quietly, but began to move provocatively against him. And even though he was aching, he felt a fresh stirring of arousal. He lazily caressed her breast, loving the tiny moan of pleasure she gave him in response.

  “I guess an hour or two of sleep wouldn’t be a bad idea,” she finally whispered. “If you ended up dead in my bed people would talk.”

  “I think that’s a good point.” Cuddling her against him, he went back to stroking her hair. But the words kill and dead lingered in his thoughts, and reality began intruding on their perfection.

  Reality wasn’t going to allow them to stay right here forever. But even though he was going to have to let her out of this bed, he wasn’t letting her out of his sight. Not until after the jury was dismissed and they were safely off Jermain Island.

  Hell, he might not let her out of his sight even after they were back in Charleston. He might just stick to her like glue for the rest of his life.

  Sometime during the night thoughts of marriage had begun drifting through his mind. And he felt certain that if he and Talia married it would be the forever kind of thing.

  They’d talked a little about his ex-wife. And the more they’d talked, the more convinced he’d grown that Talia was nothing like Marilyn when it came to men. Talia was a one-man woman. And from now on he’d be doing everything possible to be that man.

  He glanced at the clock radio, saw it wasn’t yet six and wondered if Harlan had learned anything from his decoding. Probably not, he decided. In fact, definitely not. If he had, he’d have been banging on the door.

  “What are you thinking about?” Talia murmured.

  “Harlan.”

  “You were supposed to say me,” she said, giving him a tiny poke in the ribs.

  “Okay, it was you. In a way at least. I was thinking how glad I was Harlan didn’t interrupt us during the night.”

  That made her laugh again, and her laugh made him smile. She had the greatest laugh in the world. “The truth is,” she told him, “you were wondering if Harlan got that message translated, weren’t you? And if he fo
und the clue he was looking for.”

  “Yeah, I was. But I’m sure he didn’t. If he’d come up with anything, he’d have interrupted.”

  “You don’t think…”

  “What?”

  She shrugged. “If he did figure things out, you don’t think he might try something on his own, do you?”

  “No, he thinks the three of us are in this together, remember?”

  “Maybe. But I doubt he’s entirely sure he should trust us. He kept holding things back last night.”

  “What things? We know everything, don’t we?”

  “Well, enough I guess. But remember how, at first, he said there was no way he could figure out who the mole was? Then he admitted there might be. And even then, he didn’t really tell us any details until after he’d heard from Houdini.”

  “Yeah, I see what you’re getting at. So maybe I’d better check on what’s happening.” Reluctantly Cade rolled out of bed, pulled on his clothes, then unlocked the connecting door.

  When he walked into the other room, Harlan was curled up asleep on his bed. He was fully dressed, sneakers and all, and his laptop was still on. There was no data on the screen, though.

  Curiously Cade clicked the mouse to bring up what Harlan had been working on.

  NO CLUE! NO CLUE! NO CLUE! appeared, followed by DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!

  He stood staring at the screen for a minute, thinking how disappointed Harlan must have been at not finding anything. Then he grabbed some clean clothes, scribbled a note and went back into Talia’s room.

  She propped herself on one elbow and looked at him. The sheet was demurely pulled up around her bare shoulders, but he had no trouble visualizing what was beneath it.

  “Well?” she finally said.

  “Well, Harlan’s asleep and he didn’t figure out who the mole is.”

  “If he’s asleep how do you know?”

  “I snooped on his computer,” he told her, tossing, his clean clothes onto one of the love seats. “Then I left a note saying we were going out for a morning walk. That we’d meet him back here about eight-thirty so we could all go talk to Bud.”