“Ahhh, I think I’d better let go,” he said ruefully. “Before you take another one of those deep breaths.”
“Why?” she asked, puzzlement evident in her voice.
Taking her hand, he slid it down from his waist to the rock hard bulge in his trousers. “That.”
“Ohhhhh,” she purred, gently squeezing him, her eyes hooded, her lips moist.
“Unless you want to bring me a new pair of pants, you need to stop that,” he growled, grabbing her hand and returning it to his waist. Holding it captive there, he closed his eyes. “Not that I really want you to stop, but the circumstances…”
“Aren’t ideal.”
“Hah, no. They’re not.”
“I really, really want you to come to the hotel, but I think it would be a bad idea.” She blurted out the words, as if she were afraid to say them.
He laughed, knowing she was right, wishing it were easy. “We’d never get dinner. Or drinks.”
She giggled and it lifted his heart. The wrenching tears had brought him to the brink of breaking down himself. Her horrible shame, so unwarranted, had been brutal to unmask.
Everything within him knew she needed time. But that was intellectual. The part of him that was male, primal, and in need wanted to push the matter, urge her to let him come over, hold her.
The images in his mind were erotic and brought him back to the painful brink.
“I’ll have Martha call you a cab.”
“Good idea.”
They stood together for a few more minutes, breathing hard like marathoners at the end of the race. “Think you’re ready?”
“I’d say for what, but that would just start this all over again, right?” He could hear the laughter, so he did the only thing he could. He tickled her.
“Oh, jeez,” she nearly shrieked. “Stop that!”
“Shhhh. Martha’s going to know exactly what we’re doing.”
“Don’t tickle me then,” she admonished, pulling away to put her clothes to rights.
“Not right now, maybe later,” he teased, happy to see her smile again.
Her phone was ringing as she got into the room. She picked it up and the front desk informed her that more flowers had arrived.
This time, they were sunflowers. Fat, gorgeous, and cheerful. The card read:
Save the last dance, too.
Spinning around the room in delight, she clutched the card to her chest. “This is nuts,” she exalted. “Crazy. Fabulous.”
Flopping down on the bed, she lay back, enjoying the sensation of arousal and delicious sensuality. His reaction to her was instant and amazing. And as always, her reaction to him was heated, wet, powerful. She nearly had an orgasm thinking about how good he’d felt pressed into her body, how marvelous and affirming it had been to hold him, see his muscles quiver as he struggled to hold back his desire for her.
“Ooooh,” she drew out the word, savoring the sensations. Tomorrow night, after the partner dinner, she would bring him back here. They would take their time. Enjoy each other, free of the past.
With that thought foremost in her mind, she fell deeply and completely asleep.
In the darkness, he watched. He could see the police cars now, tucked in with the commuters and the travelers. Their Pennsylvania plates and multiple antennas gave them away if you took the time to look. Parked between cars from Ontario and Georgia, the cop cars were conspicuous. So was the latest bodyguard.
The cops would be in the bar and the lobby lounge, watching for trouble. The private hired muscle would be on the floor where Torie was, probably in one of the sitting areas by the elevator.
Excellent.
He smiled. Time for a little fun.
Chapter Nineteen
“Jameson? Jameson? You in there?” Paul heard the pounding on his door, and went from the depth of sleep to instant, hyperaware wakefulness in the space of a heartbeat.
He struggled into jeans as he hurried to the door. “I’m here. That you, Tibbet?”
“Whaddya think, it’s a monkey?”
“Hey,” Paul complained, pulling open the door. “You’re the one who told me to check this shit out before whipping open the door.”
“Yeah,” Tibbet said, prowling into the house.
“What’s up?” He knew it wasn’t Torie. Tibbet would have said so immediately.
“Weird shit.”
“Huh?”
“Torie’s okay, but—”
“What happened?” Paul demanded, grabbing Tibbet’s arm to stop him in his tracks.
“You’re gonna want to let go,” Tibbet said through gritted teeth.
“Not till you tell me what happened.”
Tibbet shook him off, but started telling. “I had two watchers on the hotel. One in the parking lot, two in the lobby. I could only keep ’em on for a while. City’s busy tonight. We needed ’em, ya know?”
“Budget cuts suck.”
“Yeah, you know it.” Tibbet seemed relieved that Paul understood. His chief had nearly fried his ass about the cost of manpower.
“So it was time for them to switch around, not be so obvious, and parking lot guy checks in with central. He goes into the bar and next thing I know, I got a nine-one-one to the head over there for the other two to be picked up, intoxicated.”
“Drunk? On duty?”
“Somebody wanted it to look that way. Waitress says they were both drinking nothing. One had tonic and lime, the other, an O’Doul’s.”
“That’s the nonalcoholic beer, right?”
“Yeah. So suddenly both of ’em start getting silly. One of ’em’s singing with the band, the other guy’s picking fights and shit. My third guy walks into the middle of this.”
“Hence the nine-one-one.”
“Yeah. I roll over there, fast, calling your Torie, but can’t get her. She’s turned her phone off, by the way, but I didn’t know that. Freaked me out.”
“You didn’t call me?” Paul nearly shouted the words. Now he was upset, and pissed.
“Nothin’ to tell till I got there.”
“But she’s okay?”
“Sound asleep. But I had to call my team in because someone had used our kind of crime scene tape all over the hall, over the doors and exits. I think our boy didn’t know which room she was in. She’s not registered, so he couldn’t get her room number.”
Paul frowned. It didn’t make sense. “But your guys…”
“Were drugged. Someone slipped them something. Both of ’em are at the ER, puking up their guts, getting it out of their systems.”
“Oh, that’s nasty.”
“Yeah, stupid, too. Nothing like an out-of-control cop.”
Frightening thought, Paul decided.
“So you were able to call Torie?”
“Once I convinced the front desk clerk that I really was a cop. Seems a slightly built man, blond and brown-eyed, had come in earlier claiming to be a cop and asking for Torie’s room. You’d given me her friend Pam’s name. I asked for that and the clerk pulled it right up. Perky little twit called her for me.”
“You woke her up. What did you tell her?”
“Just that there had been an incident in the lobby, and I didn’t want her to worry if she heard about it. I told her to stay in her room, keep the curtains closed. That sort of thing.”
Paul let himself sit, let himself relax now that he knew Tibbet had talked to Torie. He looked at the clock. It was nearly three in the morning.
“I’m going off shift. If I don’t get some sleep, I won’t be fit to catch a one-legged man on a unicycle.”
Paul laughed. “Yeah. Thanks for letting me know.”
“Welcome. Had to come check on my guys over here, too. Sorry to wake you.”
“You’d have been sorrier if you hadn’t.”
It was Tibbet’s turn to laugh. “Figured.”