by Marie Force
“This has been a lovely day,” Agnes said. “I haven’t been sailing in years.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I hope you’ll come again, even after Liana leaves.”
Agnes glanced up at him. “Are you so sure she’s going to leave?”
He shrugged. “There’s nothing for her here.”
“Oh, Travis. How can you say that? I think she’d give it all up if only you’d ask her to.”
“I don’t want her to do it for me. It has to be her decision, or one day she might resent me for it.”
“Maybe if she knew what would be waiting for her she might seriously consider it.”
“Maybe, but I still say she has to figure out what she wants to do with her life before she can figure out what she wants to do about me.”
“I was thirty-five when I had her,” Agnes shared. “I had given up on having children, and then I was pregnant. It was the most exciting time.” Shading her eyes from the sun, she looked up at him. “I remember how it felt when she came into my life. I can’t imagine what you’re feeling is all that different.”
“Probably not,” Travis conceded.
“You’re just what she needs, Travis.”
Travis laughed, surprised by the compliment. “Why do you say that?”
“Because you’re secure enough in your own skin to be the man who brings Liana McDermott to the dance. And you know how to have fun. You’ve shown her this week there’s more to life than work—something no one else has been able to do since she left home.”
Touched, Travis smiled. “David’s a lucky man. I like him. He’s easy to be around.”
“Yes, he is. In fact, I believe he’s over there asking my daughter for my hand in marriage.” Agnes cringed. “He’s old-fashioned that way.”
“That’s very sweet,” Travis said, amused by the blush that was so much like her daughter’s. “I’d like to have your wedding at North Point. It’d be my gift to you.”
Agnes gasped. “Travis! I could never! That’s too much!”
He stopped walking and looked down at her. “I’ve spent the last few years building that place and nurturing it and watching it grow. What good is all that work if I can’t occasionally do something I want to there?”
“I just . . . I don’t know what to say.”
“Say yes.”
She went up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “You’re a lovely young man, and I hope my daughter realizes how lucky she is to have met you.”
“Thank you,” he said, humbled. “So is that a yes?”
“I’ll say yes to having the wedding at North Point. We can fight about the details later.”
Travis laughed. “She’s your daughter, all right.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
He offered her his arm to walk her back. “As well you should.”
On the blanket, David took a drink from his bottle of beer and glanced over at Liana. “So, Liana, has your mother mentioned that I asked her to marry me?”
“Yes, she did.”
“And how do you feel about that?”
Liana reached over to put her hand on his arm, anxious to put the poor man out of his misery. “I want my mother to be happy. And you make her happy. It’ll give me a lot of peace of mind to know she has you when I can’t be here.”
“Thank you for that,” he said with visible relief. “She’s given me quite a run for my money.”
Liana laughed. “I have no doubt.”
David shook his head with amusement. “She’s worth it, though. Now that you finally know about us, we’re going to be married before the end of the year. She doesn’t need to be done with school to get married. I don’t want to give her all that time to change her mind.”
“That’s probably the best plan.”
“She’ll want you here for the wedding.”
“And I will be.”
He looked over to where Travis and Agnes were having an animated conversation. “She was under the impression you might be sticking around for a while.”
Liana glanced wistfully at Travis. “I have contracts. Legal obligations. I can’t just walk away without regard for the people I employ. They’re counting on me.”
“What about what you want?”
She shrugged.
“I know it’s not really my place . . .”
“You’re going to be my stepfather before too much longer. I want you to feel that you can speak freely to me.”
He smiled. “I’m doing my best to think of you as Agnes’s daughter and not the world-famous Liana McDermott.”
“I appreciate that.”
“You’re not at all what I expected, Liana. In fact, you’re a pleasant surprise. And what I was going to say is there’s no contract you can’t get out of, no legal obligation that can’t be dissolved if you want something else. Don’t let that stop you from doing what it takes to be happy. Take it from me—true love comes along once in a lifetime, twice if you’re lucky like I’ve been.”
“How do you know if it’s true love?”
“When he or she is all you think about, and every ounce of your energy goes toward getting through whatever you have to so you can get back to him or her again.”
Liana looked over at Travis, who had her mother on his arm as they walked along the shore together. By David’s definition, what she felt for Travis certainly qualified. She returned her attention to David. “I’m going to enjoy having you in my family.” She embarrassed him when she kissed his cheek. “I’m glad my mother finally told me about you.”
He laughed. “So am I. You have no idea how glad I am.”
Travis and Agnes rejoined them on the blanket.
“So, honey, Liana has given us her blessing.” David reached for the backpack he had brought with him to the beach. He withdrew a jeweler’s box and opened it to unveil a diamond ring. “Now you can take this without any reservations.”
Liana sighed and leaned back against Travis.
He looped an arm around her shoulders.
Agnes battled tears as David slid the ring onto her finger and kissed her.
“No getting out of it now,” David said, wiping away her tears.
Agnes swatted him. “I can’t believe you brought the ring with you to the beach!”
“I’ve had it with me every time I’ve seen you since I first asked you, just in case you changed your mind. I told you I wasn’t going to give up.”
“Congratulations, Mom.” Liana brushed at tears of her own. “It’s a gorgeous ring.”
Agnes reached out to hug her daughter. “Thank you, honey.”
“Well,” Travis said. “Looks like we have another wedding to plan.”
Beck was in his office setting up the patrol schedule for the next forty-eight hours when his personal cell phone rang.
“Peter Beck.”
“Mike Tripp here. What a blast from the past to get your message, man! It’s been what? Five, six years?”
Smiling, Beck sat back in his chair. “I’ve been meaning to call, but you know how it is. Time gets away.”
“I’ve been busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest myself,” Tripp said in his thick Brooklyn accent. When Beck worked for the FBI in New York City, he often crossed paths with the NYPD lieutenant who had since made captain. After they had caught up for a few minutes, Tripp said, “So listen, I checked into your friend Jessica Stone’s situation. The guy who’s been hassling her? Bad dude, man. Level three sex offender on parole.”
Beck’s smile faded, and his chest tightened with tension. “Why can’t you arrest him as a violator?”
“He keeps slipping through our fingers. We almost had him yesterday, but we lost him.”
Beck sat up straight as an arrow of fear shot through him. “What do you mean you lost him?”
“He disappeared into a crowd, and we haven’t been able to locate him. We’re looking though. As long as your friend is out of the city, she should be safe. He knows he’ll
be violating his parole if he steps one foot off Manhattan Island.”
“Can you fax me a picture of this guy?” Beck asked, giving him the number.
He stood watch over the fax machine as the mug shot came though. Thomas Spector was an average-looking white guy with beady eyes and a round, doughy face. Otherwise, there was nothing remarkable about him except for his rap sheet, which Tripp had included as page two of the fax.
Beck swallowed a sudden surge of panic as he scanned the sheet. “Is it possible to get daily reports until you locate him?”
“No problem. What’s the deal with you and this model, Beck?”
“She’s my. . .” My world, he wanted to say but didn’t. “We’re involved.”
Tripp let out a low whistle. “Lucky dog.”
Beck got up, locked his office, and headed for The Tower at a quick clip. “Yes, I am, and until you find Spector, she’ll be right here with me.” He’d tie her to the bed if he had to, but she wasn’t going anywhere.
“We’ll find him—hopefully off island so we can throw his ass back in jail where it belongs.”
Beck jogged across the parking lot, desperate to get to her. “That’d work for me. Keep me posted.”
“I will.”
In The Tower lobby, Beck pressed the up arrow to the elevator repeatedly. After an interminable wait, the elevator arrived and delivered him to the fifth floor. He knocked on her door, his heart beating hard with anxiety and dread and love—more love than he’d known it was possible to feel. “Jessie?” He pounded on the door. Without a second thought, he used his passkey to open the door. “Jessie?”
Running through the apartment, he discovered she wasn’t there.
He called the cell phone he had given her and got the automated voicemail message. Reaching for the walkie-talkie on his belt, he barked out orders to his staff to find her—immediately.
On the patio, he scanned the beach and boardwalk, but both were empty. His heart pounded with fear. Where the hell is she?
He took the elevator back down and was running to the clubhouse when he received word from one of his employees that Jessie was in the gym.
Weak with relief, Beck stopped, bent in half, and rested his hands on his knees as he fought to get himself under control. He had never been more afraid in his life. After several deep, calming breaths, he stood upright to find one of his men watching him.
“Everything okay?”
Beck nodded. “Thanks for the help. Go on back to work.”
With a brisk nod, the other man headed for the main gate.
Beck went into the clubhouse and made a beeline for the gym.
Alone in the small exercise room, Jessie was gathering up her belongings when he walked in. Her face was flushed from exertion, and Beck longed for a robe to throw over the tiny leotard she wore. He didn’t want anyone else to see her luscious body.
“I heard you were looking for me. Is everything all right?”
He crossed the room and scooped her up.
“Peter! I’m all sweaty.”
“Don’t care.”
“Put me down! I stink!”
“Just give me a minute, Jessie. One minute.”
She stopped fighting him and sank into his embrace. “Will you tell me what’s wrong? Your face is red, and you look all flustered. What’s going on?”
“Couldn’t find you. You weren’t at your place or on the beach. You didn’t answer your phone. I couldn’t find you.” It was all he could do not to weep at the sweet relief of having her back in his arms. “Scared me.”
“I’m right here.” She ran her fingers through his hair and dropped soft kisses on his jaw. “I’m here.”
Putting her down all of a sudden, he took her hand and half led, half dragged her into his office. He shut and locked the door.
She took a step back from him. “What’re you doing?”
“This.” He pinned her to the closed door and ravaged her mouth. Hooking his fingers under the straps to her leotard, he pulled the garment straight down to her knees.
As her breasts sprang free, Jessie gasped and tried to cover herself. “Not here,” she said urgently. “You’ve lost your mind!”
“Right here,” he insisted, dropping his shorts and lifting her. He impaled her on his erection before she could utter another word of protest.
Her pretty pink lips formed a surprised “Oh” as her blue eyes burned with desire. “This is crazy,” she said on a long exhale. “You’re crazy.”
“About you.” Gripping her bottom, he moved her up and down over his rigid length, her breasts dragging against his chest.
Her head fell back in surrender, and Beck took advantage of the opportunity to sink his teeth into her long, elegant neck while breathing in her earthy, feminine aroma. What she considered stink was sweet aphrodisiac to him. “I love you, Jessica,” he whispered. “I love you, love you, love you.”
With her fist buried in his hair and her other arm hooked tight around his neck, she rode him with abandon.
He pressed her against the wall and pounded into her until her breathing suddenly changed and her tight channel clutched his cock in a series of spasms that took his breath away. Muffling her cries with his lips, he surged into her, the climax seeming to come straight from his toes.
A full minute of silence and throbbing aftershocks later, Jessie let out a nervous laugh. “I’ll have to get lost more often.”
“Please don’t. You scared the hell out of me.”
“I’m so sorry. I had my iPod on. That’s why I didn’t hear the phone.”
Emotionally and physically spent, Beck sagged against her, supporting them both on shaking legs. “S’okay.”
“Did something happen?”
He suspected she already knew her stalker was a paroled sex offender, but she didn’t know the police had lost track of him. If Beck had his way, she’d never know that. “Nothing happened. I just couldn’t find you. Didn’t like it.”
She tightened her arms around him. “I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Beck closed his eyes to indulge in another personal first—a silent prayer of thanks.
Chapter Twenty-One
Travis left for the grocery store at seven o’clock, hoping to get out and back before the media gathered at their post outside the gate for another day of watching “Triana,” which was the silly code name they had given them. Only two photographers manned the gate, both of whom snapped photos of him leaving. Travis wondered how they could stand the boredom of waiting hours for people to do something interesting.
At the store, he stocked up on what they would need to hibernate in New Hampshire for a few days. He took the groceries to the checkout counter and glanced with trepidation at the tabloids, still finding it hard to believe he saw his own face looking back at him. Reaching for one of them, he winced at the huge front-page photo of him kissing Liana before Tom and Justine’s wedding. “Oh, she’s going to love that,” he muttered, tossing the paper onto the conveyer belt. “Nice move, North.”
He returned from the store and stashed the cold food in a cooler with ice and put it with the other grocery bags in the back of one of the North Point SUVs.
Beck pulled into the garage in his truck. “Are you guys ready?”
“Let me go get Liana. She’s moving slowly this morning. We’ll be right down.” He took the elevator to his condo and went into the bedroom. “Ready, sweetheart?”
“Uh huh,” Liana said with a big yawn as she zipped her bag.
“You brought some jeans and a sweater, right? It gets chilly up there at night, even in the summertime.”
“Uh huh.”
He hugged her. “Sorry we had to get up so early. I wanted to get out of here before the reporters showed up.”
“No problem,” she said, another huge yawn rattling through her.
“You can sleep in the car,” he said with a kiss to her forehead. He picked up their bags and whistled for Dash. They too
k the elevator to the garage, and Beck held the passenger door for the dog while Travis stowed their bags in the back of the SUV.
Travis opened the back door for Liana. “After you.”
She got in, and he followed.
“Why don’t you lay down, and then I’ll lay next to you,” Travis suggested.
When they were settled, Beck tossed a blanket over them.
The moment they were in the dark under the blanket, Liana was hit with a fit of the giggles. “This is so ridiculous.”
The absurdity of it also struck Travis, and they were both laughing by the time Beck started the car.
“You guys better cut it out or I’ll be laughing, too, and then all of this will have been for nothing when the reporters realize I’ve got other people with me.”
Travis fumbled around until he found her face with his hand and held her still so he could silence her giggles with a deep kiss.
“Oh, jeez,” Beck groaned when he heard them kissing. “I think I preferred the laughing.”
Travis laughed against her lips, but when he began to pull back from her, Liana wound her arm around his neck and held him in place.
“We’re through the gate with no one noticing,” Beck said. When he was greeted with silence, he said to no one in particular, “Thanks, Beck. That’s good news. We’re glad to hear we made a clean getaway.” Greeted by more silence, he sighed and mumbled, “I feel like I’m back in high school or something.”
Beck drove them off the island to a prearranged spot along Route 24 where another North Point employee waited for him in a second car. “All right, you two, time to come up for air.” He got out of the car and knocked on the back window. “You’re on your own.”
“Thanks, Beck,” Travis called. To Liana, he said, “Are you going to let me go?”
“Not yet.” She pushed her hands into the back pockets of his jeans and anchored him to her.
“What are you up to?” Travis’s amusement turned to desire when she skimmed her tongue over his ear. “Liana . . .”
“Want to know what else I’ve never done?” she whispered.
“I’m almost afraid to ask.”