Paul set the phone down, finishing a call. Without pausing at the chairs, she walked around the desk. It was a little awkward, but it felt right, so she leaned down to kiss him on the mouth.
She wanted it to be a token of appreciation, a thank you. More intimate, perhaps, than the words, but no more than a happy acknowledgment of his kindness.
Within seconds, it turned into far more.
“Torie,” he murmured, sliding his hands into her hair and bringing her close. Without letting go, he stood and took her mouth in a searing kiss that rocked her to her shoes. “I missed you,” he said, breaking the kiss long enough to utter the words before diving back in, firing her senses with passionate kisses.
Striving for balance, she gripped his waist, swayed toward him. Just as their bodies met, the phone on the desk buzzed.
They whipped apart as if they’d been shocked.
“Jesus,” Paul gasped, nearly falling into his chair. He took a deep breath and pressed the button. “Yes?”
To Torie he sounded breathless, impatient.
“Sorry to disturb you, but Detective Tibbet is on his way up.”
“Thank you.” Paul was curt, and cut her off. Torie had moved to the other side of the desk, putting distance between them. Paul wasn’t interested in distance. He came around to stand in front of her, pull her to her feet.
“What was that?” He didn’t wait for her to speak. “Never mind. Come here.” He wrapped his arms around her, tucking her under his chin and holding on as if she were a lifeline and he a drowning man.
“Are you okay?” she managed to say, her face muffled into his shirt.
“No,” he said, and she could hear the unsteady beat of his heart. “Yes.”
“Which is it?” she asked, smiling. It felt good to be in his arms. There were things they had to talk about, but for the moment, it felt exactly right.
“Do you forgive me?”
“I think so. Maybe.”
“Then it’s both.”
“That’s a good lawyerlike answer,” she said with a lighter heart.
He laughed, and she felt as well as heard the rumble of it.
“Tibbet’s probably here.” She pulled back, looked at his face. “You have lipstick on your cheek.”
“Do I?” he said softly, gazing into her eyes. “I’ll have to do something about that.” He made no move to let her go.
“Thank you for the flowers.”
“Ah, is that what the kiss was for?”
She nodded, adding, “It was supposed to be a friendly gesture.”
“Back to the Truce-with-Torie?”
She nodded, unable to read the intense look in his dark eyes.
“Good. We’ll talk about that. In the meantime,” he said, lowering his head and pressing his lips to hers in a clinging, gentle touch. “We should talk about the past.”
Her senses were so fired up, so mixed up, she nearly missed what he’d said.
“What? The past?”
Paul closed his eyes. When he opened them, he looked sober, and Torie could see the traces of a sleepless night in his pallor.
“What is it Paul? What happened?” She put her hands on his face, keeping his gaze on hers, forcing him to face her.
“I had a visitor last night,” he said, letting her go when she began to struggle in his grasp.
“What do you mean? What kind of visitor?”
Paul took her hand, led her to where a counter held a coffee area and several bottles of water. Handing her a bottle and several napkins, he said, “You wore the lipstick. Help me get it off, will you?”
He wouldn’t say anything until she’d completed the task. It surprised her slightly when he took the damp cloth and dabbed at her cheek. “I transferred some right back to you, it appears,” he said, smiling. The smile was warm, open. Different.
The way he was looking at her made her want to shiver. It was as if he were looking through her, seeing something no one else saw. It scared her.
“You said the past. And that you had a visitor. What’s going on?”
He led her back to the chairs and they sat down. He continued to hold her hand. “Tibbet decided that perhaps your stalker would come after me. Since the mystery shooter tried for me once, and failed, he decided to stake out my place, lie in wait.”
“Tibbet?”
“Not personally, but when shots were fired, he was on scene pretty quick.”
“You were shot at?” Torie squeaked. “Again? Last night?” Oh, my God. Would it never end?
“Yeah, but they didn’t catch the guy. Problem is, it put our two culprits who messed with the computer systems in the clear as your stalker.”
“But Paul, someone shot at you. Again. At your home.” She could hardly take it in. The shots at the restaurant were surreal, almost impossible to take in as gunfire. But the fact that someone had deliberately tried to shoot into his home, kill him that way, rocked her.
“Yeah. It scared the crap out of me, I can tell you. One more inch to the right…” He stopped short. “Well.”
“Oh, my God, Paul.” She gripped his hands. He’d nearly been killed. With horrible words between them. “I’m so sorry. So very sorry.” He was in trouble, getting shot at because of her.
“I’m okay, Torie.”
“No, no. You’re not. Nothing’s okay about this.” She wrenched her hands from his and rushed to her feet, pacing the floor. “I should do what Todd did, go away, get away so no one gets hurt. I don’t want to be the reason one more person gets hurt.”
“You’re not the reason,” Paul said, coming up behind her, his hands resting lightly on her shoulders. “This guy’s nuts, Torie. Whoever he is, he’s responsible. Not you. You may be a catalyst, but he’s responsible for his actions.”
“I need to go. You—I can’t have you hurt, not because of me.”
He turned her gently, taking her once more into his arms. Wrapped tight, she still resisted. He had to let her go. She had to leave, protect him.
“No,” he murmured, kissing her hair. “We started this together, we’ll finish it together.”
His words took her back. She froze into immobility.
Started it?
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about what happened at the party, eleven years ago.”
“Nothing happened, Paul,” she protested, but her voice was shaking.
“That’s not true, Torie, and you know it.”
“I’m okay.”
“That’s not the issue, not right now. I’m not sure it’s true, either, but we’ll have to get into that later. Right now, it’s about who did it.”
She wrenched away from him, going to the table, leaning against it, her arms wrapped around her middle. “No one did anything.”
Paul closed his eyes, sighed. “Yes, Torie, they did. Someone violated your human rights, your dignity, and your privacy. Someone took your choices away from you, and they nearly did a whole lot more. Why nothing had happened to you when I got there, I don’t know, but it’s a bloody miracle you weren’t raped.”
Horror flowed through her. “You told Tibbet.”
Paul nodded. “I had to. He thinks this may go all the way back to that incident, the fraternity party. He believes that whoever started that may be the one who is still stalking you. He thinks that inciting incident may have led Todd’s killer to murder him, and that this guy is so obsessed with you, he drives off or hurts anyone he thinks is getting too close.”
From horror to betrayal, Torie was awash with emotions. She’d come to the office so confident, so full of energy, and it had all disappeared.
Was her life ever going to stop seesawing from one extreme to another? Where would the next blow fall? Her family? Her mother?
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she finally managed to get out.
“I know,” Paul said, starting to move toward her. When she flinched, he stopped. “I didn’t want to spring this on you. I didn’t want to tell Tibbet, but he knew, Torie. He knew something had happened. Something bad.”