The second she stepped through the back door, Lauren could feel that there was something off.
All the doors and windows were closed, but she could still sense a change in the air as she padded softly through the kitchen.
Her hair stood on end as if there was some kind of electric charge in the air and, suddenly, she knew exactly what was different.
“Marc?” She spun around just as she reached the door, her gaze falling on the man sitting on her sofa, reading a book in the dark.
He glanced up at the sound of his name, his eyes somehow glowing bright blue in the low light coming through the front windows. He closed the medical journal—which she was certain he couldn’t have been reading in such a low light—and placed it beside him on the couch, before standing up. Lauren forced a frown on her face and resisted the impulse to throw her arms around his shoulders by folding her arms over her chest. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.
“I needed to speak to you,” he responded, placing his arms behind his back and standing at attention, like a soldier. Which, Lauren mused, he pretty much was.
“About what?” she asked. “How you lied to me? Or how you slept with me even when you were supposed to be ‘protecting’ me.” She used air quotes and watched as his lips twitched the slightest bit in amusement.
It disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared.
“Actually,” he said, “I was sent to talk to you about the case.”
“Isn’t that witness tampering?” Lauren asked, her brows furrowed.
“Not exactly…” Marc said, then swept his arm toward the kitchen table. “Can we sit?”
“I’m good with standing.”
“Lauren.”
“Marc. If that’s even your real name.”
“You’re one to talk, Dr. Stanley,” Marc retorted. Lauren looked away at the sound of her birth name. “You changed it after what happened with Jack, didn’t you? After he…” Marc’s throat bobbed thickly and he looked down at the shiny black shoes on his feet. He looked so different in his professional, FBI-standard suit. But she could see the hint of his tattoos peeking out from behind his collar. “After he did what he did to you. So that you’d be hidden away. Not the best choice, in my opinion.”
“I thought it was good,” she admitted. “Close enough to my real name to make him think I hadn’t changed it at all, but then he’d see that it was different and move on. Maybe he’d be expecting me to pick an entirely new name. The WPP was supposed to keep me safe, anyway. They failed. Obviously.”
“In their defense, you didn’t go very far to get away from him,” Marc pointed out.
“I couldn’t,” Lauren huffed.
“Why not? Because you needed the view from a tiny ass beach house? You could have gotten that on the West Coast! Hell, you could have gotten that in goddamned Barcelona, if you wanted. And you could have continued to work in your field.”
“No, I couldn’t have,” Lauren repeated.
“Why not?!” Marc growled.
“Because I have too much here!” Lauren shouted back, surprising herself. “My mother lives two miles away and I never get to see her, but knowing that she’s there is enough comfort. Jack wouldn’t let me see her after we got married; not even when she got sick.” It was all pouring out now, along with her tears. “When I was finally freed of him, I wanted to run straight to her side, but I was advised against it. Because…because…” she broke off with a sob.
“Because he could find her,” Marc finished her thought. “And you were afraid that he’d kill her.”
“Terrified,” Lauren agreed. “So…so terrified. He has so many connections. He always has. I used to be impressed by it, you know? That he could get us into all the best restaurants and Broadway shows. He had even lined up a few fellowships for me just before…” She shook her head and turned away from Marc, walking into the kitchen. “Tea? Coffee?” she asked, hiding her face behind the refrigerator door. She hadn’t gone shopping much in the last week, but she had enough to scrounge up something for dinner. If worse came to worst, she could just order something for—
Her thoughts were cut off as she was suddenly pulled away from the fridge as a pair of lips landed on hers and her body pushed the door closed, Marc pressing her up against the appliance as his hands gripped her ass, then her thighs, lifting her up. Lauren didn’t waste any time in kissing him back, her lips gliding smoothly over his as she clutched at his shoulders, her fingers playing with the chain on which his FBI badge hung.
Suddenly, she broke away.
“Marc,” Lauren gasped. “We shouldn’t be doing this.”
“Tell me you don’t want it,” Marc husked back. “Tell me you don’t want me and I’ll back away right now. I’ll leave and you won’t see me again until the trial begins. I swear. But, Lauren, you have to tell me that you don’t want me. Otherwise, I…I won’t be able to let you go.” His grip tightened on her thighs and Lauren moaned, tugging at the ends of his hair with the tips of her fingers as she looked up into his eyes, which were the clearest blue she’d even seen; the most honest she’d ever seen from him.
She couldn’t say no.
Lauren surged back into him, reattaching their lips and allowing him to pull them away from the refrigerator and carry her toward the bedroom, where he slammed her against the closed door next. His lips didn’t leave hers until she was firmly held up by his hips, his hands stroking up her body to slide under her shirt and grasp her breasts. Lauren let out a deep, guttural moan as she felt his thumbs and forefingers squeeze her nipples, sending electricity right to her core.
Marc’s mouth abandoned hers for her throat, pressing sucking and biting kisses down to her collarbone as his hands continued their assault on her breasts, his arms slowly shoving the scrub top she was wearing up, higher and higher, until Lauren had no choice but to let go of his shoulders and raised her arms.
Marc had her shirt and bra off in practically one single move, before pressing his mouth to the center of her chest, right above where Lauren’s heart lay. “Mine,” she heard him sigh, no louder than a pin drop. His arms wrapped around her waist, then, his lips still pressed to her skin, he reached for the knob pressing into her lower back and turned it, forcing them to fall into the room together.