Thankfully, the sun had set, and this wretched day was coming to an end. West needed to rest. He played a good game, but she could see the pain in his eyes, in the way he moved a little slower now, and when his brows crowded sharply together at the slightest jostle of his injured arm. Why did he try to hide it from her? What was the point? She could always see through him, even before she’d pursued a career in human behavior. She didn’t need a degree to know he was a terrible liar.
She’d have to deal with him later. Until then, the plan was to let the water wrinkle her skin and unknot her muscles. She skimmed her arms over the water’s steamy surface and let her legs tip against the tub’s side.
A set of quick knocks rattled the bathroom door. “Tina?” West asked.
She forced her eyes open. Unbelievable. “What happened now?”
She hated the unintentional bite in her voice. It wasn’t his fault she was so tense, but surely he could see she was barely holding herself together. She needed this break. A moment to relieve the tension.
“Everything’s fine,” he called back.
“Then why are you knocking?” She hoisted herself from the water. That didn’t make any sense. “Never mind. I’m coming. Just a minute.” Tina wrapped a giant towel around her heated skin and padded quickly across the room. She opened the door with one hand and supported her towel with the other. “Are you sick?” She looked at his bandaged arm. The blood hadn’t come through since he’d last changed the gauze.
His eyes met hers with a look of shock. “I didn’t mean to interrupt,” he rushed. “I just know how the last couple days have gone for us, and I figured we should talk before something else went wrong. I’m making coffee and maybe some food if you think you can eat. When you’re finished.”
“We should talk?” Tina didn’t like the sound of that. In her experience, arranged talks usually ended in bad news, hurt feelings or a fight. The exact opposite of how she’d wanted to spend whatever quiet time the day would give them. “Let me get dressed.”
West seemed to notice then that he’d literally pulled her out of the bath for this. His gaze dropped from her eyes to her exposed shoulders, then skimmed her neck and collarbone, where drops of water were beginning to cool her flushed skin. He didn’t stop there. He continued to take her in, head to toe, without apology, and she widened the door several inches to give him a better view. Too bad he was so determined to be a gentleman.
His eyes returned to hers with an expression she’d seen on him many times before. The look was heated, raw and sexy as hell. Desire painted his skin and tensed his frame. He was clearly struggling not to reach for her, when all she wanted in that moment was to be touched by him.
“West.” He’d rejected her advances last night, but he hadn’t looked at her like this in years. She pushed the door open wide. Cool air rushed into the room, tightening her skin into gooseflesh and drawing her closer to the heat of him. Surely he felt it, too. Whatever this thing was that crackled and burned in the air between them. It wasn’t just attraction. Not just chemistry. She’d had those things before. This was different. Palpable. Indescribable. Powerful. If this was all in her head, then she was in serious trouble because it felt 100 percent real to her. Like she and West had never truly been apart, as if their bond had never been broken, only stretched by distance and the hands of time.
And it was snapping back with bone-jarring intensity.
She set a hand on his chest and marveled at the pounding of his heart beneath her fingertips. He felt it, too.
Confliction pursed his lips and lined his brow as she traced a slow path over his shoulder, enjoying the feel of chiseled muscle beneath her fingers, watching closely for signs she’d gone too far.
Desire darkened West’s eyes. He dropped his head forward, pressing his forehead to hers and wrapping her in the strength of his body, as if he thought she might disappear.
She inhaled the scent of his cologne, intoxicated by the moment. West was everywhere. His hands on her skin. His heart next to hers. She tipped her head back, savoring the moment she’d waited so long for. “Tell me this is real,” she whispered breathlessly.
“This,” he whispered back, tugging her closer and gripping her tight, “this is everything.” His voice was velvet on her aching heart, and his hold arched her back sensually.
The towel lost its grip, but didn’t fall. Much like Tina, it was captured in the moment, held tight by the press of their bodies.
She moved her gaze to his lips, longing to feel them on her, to watch them trace paths over her skin and pull moans from her core. “Kiss me.” She stared into his stormy eyes. “I don’t need a protector right now,” she whispered. “I don’t need a gentleman or a sheriff. I need you.”
West pulled back an inch, emotion warring in his eyes.
“Please.” The anticipation of rejection scorched her cheeks and knotted in her stomach. Was this really where she was now? Begging for physical comforts from a man she’d never stopped loving, one who couldn’t even decide if he wanted to kiss her?
She dropped her chin and slid her arms away from his neck. Better to catch the towel before it fell completely and she died naked of humiliation.
West wrapped strong fingers around her wrists and returned them to his shoulders. Her towel loosened further, but his hot blue eyes never left hers. “You’re sure about this?”
“Yes.”
He lowered his mouth to hers, vanquishing the fear of rejection on impact. His kiss warmed her soul. It filled her with nostalgia for what they had and new hope for what they could become, if he still wanted her when the nightmares were over.
He broke the kiss far too soon with a growl and a pant. Tina’s towel fell, and she was glad to be rid of it. There was no time to watch him toil over whether or not this was the right thing to do. She needed him. Now. She shoved his T-shirt upward, away from her. Over his head. The moment it hit the floor, his hands were back on her body, lifting her off the ground and onto the countertop. Her legs wrapped his waist on instinct and locked against his back. The new position pressed her fully against the length of him. She curled her fingers in his hair and dissolved into the effects of his divine and practiced attention.
Finally, in the moment she needed it most, West devoured her in hungry head-to-toe kisses until there was nothing left for her to do but fall apart in his hands.
* * *
WEST CREPT OUT of the bedroom where he’d held Tina until she was soundly asleep. Making love to her had been the last thing on his mind when he’d knocked on the bathroom door. He’d only been thinking of losing her again. He’d wanted to let her know that he had something to tell her, and that they should talk before they were interrupted by a new catastrophe.
He shuffled to the kitchen and poured a glass of ice water. He rolled it against his forehead before gulping it down. That woman made it impossible to keep his hands off her. His will was strong enough to survive three brothers, a war and every criminal in the county, but she looked at him sideways, and he was putty. Never mind when she asked for something. As if he could tell her no. As if resistance was possible. It had nearly killed him to step away the last time she’d confronted him with her desire. At least then she’d had her clothes on.
He poured another glass and tried to remember he was only human. Sure, he’d promised her he’d behave like a professional until Carl was caught and her life was right-side up again, but she’d said please. Please. He finished the second glass of water and set the empty cup in the sink. He leaned over the counter, bracing his hands and hanging his head in shame.
Deeply satisfied shame.
She was going to be doubly pissed when he told her what he’d been trying to tell her. It was his fault her mom was in the wind.
“Everything okay?” Tina stood in the hallway wearing nothing but his T-shirt. Her hands curled around the corner of the kitchen wall as if she
wasn’t sure she should come in.
West tried not to stare at the way his shirt slid off her shoulder, revealing the creamy expanse of skin along her collarbone and dusting the ivory flesh of her thighs with its hem. “I thought you were sleeping.”
“I was until you left. Did something happen?”
“No. I’m going to make some coffee, review the files on Carl and see if I can think of something we missed. Can I pour you a mug?”
Tina shook her head. “Just water for me. I’m hoping to fall back asleep soon.” She dragged a palm across his bare abdomen on her way to the cupboard for a glass.
His muscles tightened with recent memories of similar caresses. “We have to talk,” he blurted. Not exactly how he wanted the unfortunate conversation to begin, but if he didn’t tell her soon, and she touched him like that again, they’d be back in bed and he’d be in deeper trouble.
Tina froze. The cup stopped inches from her bee-stung lips, still pink and full from the tug of his teeth and brush of his stubble. A playful smile curved her cheeks. “Are you breaking up with me?”
He took the cup from her and set it aside. “This is serious.”
Her mouth pulled down at the corners. “Please don’t look so guilty. I know you think you took advantage of me, but you didn’t. I’m a big girl, and I asked for it.”
The gleam in her eye nearly derailed his concentration. “It’s not that.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
Her eyes went soft and round. Her hands traced the curves of her sides with uncertainty. “I know I’m different now. Older, but I thought I did okay in there.” A bashful smile lifted her cheek.
“Stop.” Images of all Tina’s new curves sprang back to mind. That little smile didn’t help, either. “You’ve got to stop talking to me about your body, or I’m putting you over my shoulder, and we’re going back to bed. Then I’ll never get to say what I’m trying to say.”
She gave his shoulder a long look. “Okay. What’s this about?”
“Your dad. You know what? Maybe we should sit down.” West led her to the couch and started at the beginning. He laid it all bare from the arrest to the hearing. “I pushed for the maximum sentence. I did it because I blamed him for you leaving. I blamed him for hurting you. I knew you hated him, but I hadn’t understood until then.” He swallowed a brick of anger wedging in his throat. Could feel his temper slipping at the memory of what that monster had put Tina through. “I knew things were bad at your house, but I had no idea until I read his file. Once I knew, I made sure his charges stuck. I volunteered as a character witness. I personally delivered the files to the prosecutor and pretty well offered your father up on a silver platter to be sure he got the worst he could get.” West gave her his most pleading look and prayed for the right words to make her understand. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I finally understood why you’d wanted to leave so badly, and even if it was years too late and you were already gone, I wanted to protect you like I should have all along.”
Tina blinked, but didn’t speak. She relaxed against the couch.
“I’ve felt awful ever since,” West said. “He was on trial for the bar fight, but my help had made it more like he was being charged with dozens of crimes all at once. His history of violence left the jury beyond words. They gave him the maximum sentence for what he did to that guy at the bar. The victory I felt disappeared once he was led away. That wasn’t how our courts should work. Your dad’s trial was unfair because his own sheriff had a finger on the scales. I think that’s why I didn’t visit your mom.” He dared another look in her direction.
Tina looked as if he’d slapped her.
“Say something.” Yell. Scream. Anything. He deserved it, and he could take it.
“You let me confess my deepest family secrets to you yesterday, and you already knew? You’d read his file with all our bloody details. Literally. And you let me go on. Do you know how hard that was for me? I’ve never told anyone about the things I went through.”
West rolled her complaint around a few times. “You’re not mad because I had a hand in your dad’s extensive sentence or your mom’s flight? You’re mad I didn’t interrupt you yesterday and blurt out that I already knew the things you were telling me?”
She crossed her arms.
“I wanted to hear them from you. I want to hear everything you have to say. If this is going to work—” he motioned from his chest to hers “—then you’re going to have to keep talking, Tina. You have to let me in, all the time, not just when you’ve had a decade to think it over.”
“Me?” She poked her chest. “Me! What about you? You just finished confessing a secret of your own. Why? Is it because we had sex?”
His jaw dropped. Was she out of her ever-loving mind? “You think I’m trying to pay you off with secrets for sex?” Maybe her dad had messed her up more deeply than he’d realized. “I don’t want anything from you.”
Tina’s cheeks went white. Her arms dropped limply to her sides.
He recognized the misunderstanding at once and closed the distance between them. He wrapped her in his arms, despite a mild protest on her part before she returned his embrace with fervor and tears. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I knew you were back in town the minute you got here, and that’s when I should’ve come to you with the truth. I told myself I was respecting your boundaries by not showing up on your doorstep. You were the one who’d left, and you didn’t look me up when you came back. I assumed you didn’t want to see me, and I let that be my excuse for not knocking on your door.” He cupped her face in his hands and stared into her distrusting eyes. “Please don’t let what happened between us today confuse you. That was done out of love.”
She looped her arms around his neck and buried her face into the curve of his neck.
“Come on.” He kept her tight against his side as he led her back to his room.
She climbed into bed and rolled away without a word.
The steady throb of pain from his gunshot wound was nothing compared to the iron fist squeezing his heart. West hit the lights on his way out, reminding himself to breathe. He’d just gotten her back, and he wasn’t ready to lose her again.
He never would be.
Chapter Sixteen
West jogged through the house toward his ringing phone and snatched it off the kitchen countertop. Blake’s face lit the screen. It had been hours since West had received any new leads, and West was beginning to feel the grip of fear in his gut. “Tell me you’ve got good news,” West said. His muscles tensed in anticipation of the answer. They’d had a lot of news these past two days, but none of it had been good, and West needed a break, or at least a viable lead to keep his mind off the angry woman in his bed.
“I’m not sure if it’s good news,” Blake answered, “but I’m at the hospital with the OD victim, and he’s awake.”
“He lived?” Maybe West’s luck was starting to turn around after all. Tucker’s pulse was barely existent when the EMTs loaded him into the ambulance. “Is he coherent? Talking?”
“He’s something,” Blake said.
“Well, what’s that supposed to mean?” West ground his teeth. “Did he make a statement or not?”
“He’s not talking.”
West lifted a hand in exasperation. “Then make him talk.”
“Can’t. I showed him my badge, and he demanded I arrest Carl Morgan for trying to kill him. When I asked about his own role in the shootings and kidnapping, he shut down and asked for a lawyer.”
“Of course.” West had never met a criminal who wouldn’t drop their demands in a heartbeat to cover their own ass. “Try getting the information another way. Refocus on Carl as a killer. We can arrest Tucker later. Right now we just need to know where that baby is.”
“No can do,” Blake said. “He’s refusing to speak witho
ut the lawyer, and for the record, I tried to make him talk, but he pushed the little help button at his bedside and told the nurse I was harassing him. I got kicked out by a woman in scrubs with little bears on them.”
“Try again.”
“She’s guarding his door. There’s nothing I can do now but wait. The federal public defender will be here first thing in the morning.”
West swore. So much for administering the Garrett charm. He rolled his head between his shoulders. Blake had always been a bit of a battering ram, but he normally got things done that way. Cole was the sweet talker, but West suspected calling him in wouldn’t make a difference on Tucker. That guy was done talking to law enforcement tonight. “Maybe Cole can distract the nurse and you can get another shot at our accomplice.”
Tina crept into view. She’d traded his T-shirt for soft cotton pants and a sweater. She’d been in West’s room for several hours. Had she not been able to sleep, or had the phone woken her? “Let me talk to him.”
West pulled the phone from his ear. “Blake?”
“Tucker,” she corrected, apparently having eavesdropped on the conversation. “He’ll talk to me. I know him, and being involved in this must be killing him. It’s not who he is. He’s sensitive and overthinking. He’s not a bully. Far from it.”
West pressed the phone back to his ear. “Did you hear that?”
“Yeah. Get her over here,” Blake said.
West disconnected and pocketed the phone. He stepped closer to Tina, longing to pull her back into his arms.
She stepped away with a deep frown, as if she could read his mind. “You should get dressed. I’ll grab my coat and shoes.”
* * *
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