After last night, the need to make her completely his was fierce and instinctive, a deep, primitive desire that skittered on the edge of recklessness. For three years, despite the unspoken awareness between them, they’d respected the perimeters of her marriage vows, even if Anthony hadn’t. Josh was a man who strongly believed in commitment and the bonds of marriage, and would never have crossed those matrimonial boundaries.
Circumstances had changed. For both of them. Paige no longer belonged to a man who’d treated her as a possession, and there were no sacred vows or a friendship for Josh to betray.
Circumstances, as awful and devastating as they were, had brought them together, heightening emotions and desires they’d suppressed for too long. If Paige had her way, judging by the brief discussion they’d had that morning, he suspected she’d let last night become a distant memory. For him, forgetting wasn’t even a remote possibility, not after discovering the sweet, honeyed taste of her, the soft feel of her body pressed beneath his, the intimate sounds she made when he eased deep inside her…
Having her just for one night would never be enough. Even now, his body quickened with the recollection of how incredibly responsive she’d been to his touch, how hungry she’d been…how needy. He’d been just as greedy, if not more so, because he wanted more than just one night of pleasure-he wanted endless tomorrows, and a lifetime of giving her everything she’d been missing in her marriage to Anthony.
He had a job to do and would protect her with his life. But he wasn’t about to let her forget that he’d filled an emotional and physical void, wasn’t about to let her tuck the memory away and revert to simple friendship. He’d give her time to adjust to the change-she deserved at least that much-but in the meantime he refused to pretend that nothing had happened between them.
She didn’t hear him approach; he deliberately moved stealthily, determined to make her realize the kind of danger that would surround her. Moving up behind her, he grabbed her upper arm, wringing a startled gasp from her throat. She automatically jerked away and stumbled sideways, but his tenacious hold prevented her from landing on her bottom in the sand.
When she finally found her footing, she turned to face him. She didn’t appear grateful for his assistance, not when he was responsible for shaking her up. Instead, she glared, her eyes shooting bright green flames of anger.
“Dammit, Josh,” she hissed furiously, ineffectively tugging her arm from his grasp. “You could have warned me you were coming up behind me!”
He offered no leniency, nor did he let go of her. “Carranza or his men wouldn’t have given a warning.” His tone was as grim as the picture his words painted.
She hesitated for a moment, his meaning sinking past her indignant tirade. Then, she lifted her chin defiantly. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t sneak up on me that way.”
If he hadn’t been so intent on proving a point, he would have found her stubbornness amusing. But the situation was dire, her cooperation a necessity. “And I’d appreciate it if, in the future, you’d listen to my orders. I asked you to wait for me in the living room.”
She glanced back at the house, her mouth thinning in disdain. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not be in the house right now.”
He understood her aversion to the corruption filling her home, but she still needed to take precautions. “Fine. Next time tell me and either I, or another undercover officer, will escort you outside.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, her expression reflecting her displeasure. “I resent this situation, Josh,” she snapped.
He sighed wearily, and gave her a halfhearted smile. “No more than I do.” Both of them had been betrayed by a man they’d trusted, and that knowledge cut deeply. More gently, he suggested, “Come on, let’s go for a walk.”
They strolled along the beach, near the water’s edge where the wet sand made the going easier. Their walk was calming, peaceful, and just what they needed to release the stress of the past few hours.
“I’m having a hard time understanding what compelled Anthony to steal all that stuff,” Paige commented, the first to break the companionable silence that had settled between them. “I feel so violated and deceived, in so many ways.”
The pain and disillusionment lacing her voice grabbed at him, made him furious at himself because he’d been just as blind to Anthony’s traitorous activities. “I think I know how you feel.”
“Do you?” Her sharp, angry question was a search for answers. “How could I have lived with Anthony for three years, and never have known that I was married to a criminal?”
He glanced at Paige, resisting the urge to reach out and smooth away the frown lines between her brows. Touching her was becoming an obsession, and that was dangerous to his concentration. “Because you accept people at face value.”
A mirthless little laugh caught in her throat and carried on the breeze. “Yeah, well, the joke’s on me, isn’t it?”
“On all of us, actually.” He pushed the tips of his fingers into the front pocket of his jeans, keeping his stride along the beach as casual as Paige’s. “Nobody wants to think that a cop might be on the wrong side of the law.”
“So why did he do it?” she asked softly.
The answer to that question wasn’t as simple as he would have liked. Glancing out at the ocean, he thought about all the possible replies that came to mind-the same ones he’d been mulling over for the past three months-and grasped the most logical explanation. “How much do you know of Anthony’s past?”
She thought for a moment, then shrugged. “I know he’s an only child and both his parents are dead. Other than that, Anthony refused to talk about his past. And after a while, I stopped asking.” She gave him an odd look tinged with a deeper layer of suspicion. “Why? What does his past have to do with all this?”
Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. He tried to define his thoughts so they made sense to her. “You know I’ve known Anthony since we went through the Academy together.”
She nodded, her gaze avid and curious. “Yes.”
“When I met him, he was barely making ends meet. We became friends, and since he was living out of his VW Bug, I let him stay at my condo until he could afford a place of his own.”
Back then, Anthony had been unpretentious enough to appreciate the simplicity of having a roof over his head. Somewhere along the way he’d changed. “One night after a few beers, he started talking about how he was going to be rich one day because he hated being poor. He’d grown up in a low-income neighborhood and struggled to keep himself and his mother from starving or being evicted from their tiny apartment. From what he told me, he didn’t have an easy childhood.”
“I never knew. He refused to talk about his past.” She quietly digested what he’d told her, then asked, “Where was his father?”
“According to Anthony, his father left before he was born, and he lost his mother to pneumonia just before his eighteenth birthday. From there, he worked odd jobs, then joined the Academy, which is where I met him. I don’t know his initial reasons for joining the Academy, but it was apparent from the beginning that he loved the danger and excitement of the job.”
He rubbed at the back of his neck before continuing. “About a year after we were on the force, Anthony started buying things he really couldn’t afford. When I questioned him, he’d never give me a straight answer. I really didn’t think his finances were any of my business, and just assumed he’d established a hell of a whole lot of credit. This went on for years, and when he didn’t declare bankruptcy, I thought maybe he’d made some good investments that had paid off, but I never knew for sure.” He slanted her a curious look. “Didn’t you ever wonder how he was able to afford that prime piece of real estate you live in? The boat, the cars?”