Chapter 10
Deep in the night she shifted in the big bed. Instantly, his arms tugged her closer. Even while asleep he wanted her close.
Tears burned her eyes.
She didn’t want to miss a moment in his arms, moving even closer, her body pressed to his chest, her head on his shoulder. This night was so damn special. She was scared to fall asleep, then waking up to find it would be different. That everything would change. She relaxed her head against his hot skin and closed her eyes, feeling his strength from within.
“You okay?”
She kissed him gently. “I’m fine. Just afraid the time is going by too fast, and soon this will be over.”
His arms squeezed her gently. “This moment might be over, but we can create more moments.”
She smiled, shifting slightly so she could look up at him. His eyes were closed, and his breath was still heavy and deep. “Promise? Promise this won’t change in the morning?”
His lids opened enough that his slumber-warm eyes packed a powerful punch. She stared, mesmerized at the passion in him. “We came to this point on our own. What we make of it from here is ours to decide. Nobody else tells us what we can or cannot do. We have no reason to be sorry about this. We don’t answer to anyone else, just each other. He reached out and stroked her chin, his fingers soft, gentle, moving up her cheek to brush the hair off her forehead. “If you want this moment to continue, let’s make that happen.”
“And do you want it to continue?”
He leaned forward and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Absolutely.”
With a happy smile she snuggled back into his arms. He shifted down slightly. She rolled onto her back as he rose up over her. “Nobody said we were done now.”
And he slipped inside. On his knees he held her hips, pulled her tight, scooped her arms up over her shoulders and slowly started to move.
This wasn’t the heated coupling of before. It was a slow, gentle meeting of mind and body. Skin sliding over skin. Hot gazes locked on each other. Bodies twisting and shuddering as their need rippled through them.
“So special,” he murmured.
His words echoed in her mind. “I want to keep this feeling between us forever,” she whispered. “I don’t want to lose it.”
“And there’s no need to.” He outstretched his hand to cup her breasts. “I have no objection to spending every waking moment like this,” he said with a wicked grin.
She smiled and propped herself up on her elbows, her back arching in delight. “So damn good.”
Her words spurred him on until she was forced to hook her arms around his neck and hold on for the ride.
When she woke a second time, she was still curled up in his arms. She smiled. She didn’t want him to rush into anything. This was too important. She wanted a long time, not just a fun time. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep again.
But as she lay here, she was filled with a sense of disquiet. She frowned, lifted her head off the pillow.
Tyson’s arms tightened around her shoulders, his voice low against her ear as he whispered, “Stay still.”
Wide awake, she turned to meet his gaze as he listened intently. She couldn’t hear anything else, but she would trust his instincts any day.
When he slowly slipped from the bed and pulled on his jeans, taking a handgun from his holster, she realized this was a whole lot more than nothing. She had to get one of her own and fast. She didn’t want to be left behind in bed so she quickly dressed. He held up his hand and motioned for her to tuck up against the closet. Flat against the wall he sidled up to the bedroom door and pressed his ear to it. How could he hear anything? Maybe he didn’t as he made no motion to open the door.
Frowning, he stayed in that position. Then he shook his head and shrugged. He opened the door and stepped out.
She wanted to call him back. Did he know if the intruder had left?
Then the tension in his shoulders eased.
She didn’t get it. She was still too keyed up inside. She followed him from the room. Several steps behind, she watched and waited. But she couldn’t see anything. When he walked in a straight line to the living room window, she realized he’d seen something. She raced to his side, and he pointed out a note stuck on the outside of the window, close to where the slider opened. The writing was visible.
She bent down and read it.
I know what you’re doing.
She gasped and spun to look at Tyson. “What does that mean? Does he know we’re hunting him down? How could he possibly know that?”
Tyson’s face grim, he said, “He either heard or saw something he shouldn’t have. Or … he assumes we’re tracking him because he knows you’ve gone to the police. Again, we can’t know anything for sure.” He took a photo of the note and sent it to Ice. Then he hit a speed-dial number, and she listened as he talked to Levi.
“Any chance we had cameras on the roof? Or outside?” Tyson leaned his head toward the window as if looking at the roof, then his gaze cut toward her. He nodded. “Right. Check the feeds. Send me any faces you can capture that you can’t discount, and I’ll ask her about them.” Their conversation went on a little longer.
As she curled up in the corner of the couch, she realized it was already five in the morning, and her day had already started. She didn’t know where she would go from here, but the asshole obviously knew they were watching him. It also meant he had skills. Mad skills. And that completely changed everything. Who the hell did she know who could do something like this?
Tyson stood in front of her. “Ice is checking all the feeds to see if they can catch sight of him. He could’ve done this in a couple ways. One was coming down the roof. One was climbing up the fire escape, which wouldn’t have been all that hard.” He took a deep breath. “Even possibly shooting the message from a paintball gun. They are easy enough to adapt to shooting all kinds of missiles. Most aren’t terribly powerful, but they are definitely good enough to do this.”
She shot him a startled look, worked her way through the information and then nodded. “Still, it’s pretty ballsy. And not very stalkerlike. This seems like a different skill set.” She groaned. “So now what do we do?”
“You won’t like this part,” he said quietly. “We wait. Everybody is searching feeds, checking out names, going through your history.”
At that she straightened her back. “My history?”
“Yes, your history. He has intersected your life somewhere. Unfortunately it could be as simple as someone at your bank, at a friend’s party, or it could be something else. But we will find him.”
*
Waiting was not anything anybody wanted to do. Particularly him. He’d take action over inaction any day. From the defeated look on her face he realized, of course, she would too. He sat on the couch beside her, pulled her into his arms. “Can you sleep again, even though the night’s almost over?”
She laughed. “And how much sleep did I get after we turned out the lights?”
He grinned and dropped a kiss on her temple. “How about a run then?”
She turned and gave him a startled look, then frowned. “It depends how far you’re running these days.”
He chuckled. “Why don’t we do three miles, and see how you do without any sleep? Neither one of us will have much energy left. But I’m too keyed up to not have an outlet.”
She grinned. “Wouldn’t you rather go to the gym and have me kick your butt?”
“You probably could do that anywhere—no need for a gym—but, if you’d rather that over a run, I’m up for it.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to be inside. I would rather be outside with the wind in my hair and on my face. I hadn’t realized just how much I miss being outdoors. My job here entails me traveling from my apartment to my vehicle, my vehicle to my office and back again. If I get out in the field, I’m a happy camper. But it’s still not enough.”
“We’ll have to get you out more.”
“With all this going on, do you think it’s safe?”
He nodded. “I’ll be hooked up in the communication system, so they can hear us as we run.”
She nodded and scrambled off his lap. “Then I’ll get changed and have a shower when we come back.”
He watched as she disappeared. She seemed okay, unnerved a little bit, but that was another reason for going for a run. The exercise would be good for them both. He’d love to take care of the issue in another way, and, if it hadn’t been for this disturbance, the lovemaking would’ve ensued again, but that mood was gone. This was a better option for the moment. He glanced down at his jeans and T-shirt and realized they were hardly the best jogging choices, but at least he had his running shoes, and they were only doing three miles.
He got up and grabbed a couple water thermoses from her cupboard and filled them. By the time he turned around, she was in front of him, wearing leggings and a sports bra with a tank top. She pulled a pair of running shoes from the entryway closet, squatted down and tied them up. Then she bounced to her feet and did a couple stretches. She turned, gazed at him and said, “You ready to go?”
He nodded. “Absolutely.”
She gave him a look and said, “You’re not exactly dressed for a run.”
“I’ll be fine.”
She nodded and unlocked the door. Once outside on the street, she asked, “Which way?”
“No matter which way, we’re looking at a cement jungle. So pick your favorite route.”
“I haven’t got one. So any route will do.”
“I prefer back routes then.” He started to run at a slow jog to warm up. He took the first right, staying in the back corners. “My watch can give us distance.”
“Do you have one of those mileage apps on it? I had it on my old phone.”
“I do.”
For the first little bit they ran in silence. Shaking their arms, kicking their legs, and pushing off the unsettling start to their day. But they quickly settled into a rhythm.
She pointed out a park, saying, “It’s got a good set of fields in the back.”
They headed in that direction as he kept a watchful eye around them. He let her run ever-so-slightly ahead and matched his strides to hers. She might have dropped running on a regular basis, but she was no slouch when it came to fitness. He knew perfectly well she could probably outrun him. In many ways they were equally matched. And after last night, he realized they were a whole lot better matched than he had any right to expect. He was still stunned by the speed with which they’d come together and the absolute sense of rightness through it all. Worry still nagged at him, but he wanted to believe Tracy would be happy for him. It’d been two years. Surely that was long enough.
“I need to adjust my shoelace when we get to the park,” Kai said, her breath slow and steady. “The left one’s too tight.”
“We can stop now if you want.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m good.”
They crossed the street, enjoying the absence of traffic, and at the park they slowed to a walk. She pulled up to a bench, lifted her foot onto the seat and untied her shoe. She readjusted it, bounced in place a few times and turned with a smile. “Race you to the end of the field.” And just like that she jackrabbited to the left.
Unprepared for her move, he was given an instant handicap. “Hey,” he protested, racing behind her. “That’s cheating.”
Her laughter trilled behind her as she picked up speed. She was one of the few people who could just churn up energy. She was damn good at it, almost like watching a bullet fly forward. It was all he could do to keep up with her. But no way in hell would he let her beat him too badly.
With his lungs pumping, his feet pounding, he surged behind her, caught up to her and was almost ready to overtake her when she had another burst of speed and bolted past him again. He was a good ten steps behind when she hit the end of the park, bounced into the fence and turned to laugh at him. He made no attempt to slow his speed but bounced into the fence over her.
He braced himself just before he came up against her. With their bodies pressed tight together, he lowered his head and kissed her. Hot, sweaty and ravenous, he devoured her mouth with the heat he thought would be long spent. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her legs climbing his frame until he pulled his head back and said, “Whoa.”
He gently disentangled himself, feeling his blood pounding. Apparently, once his sex drive came back to life, there was just no shutting it off. He tried to cool down his mind, but his body refused to cooperate. He studied her, leaning against the fence, dealing with her own shock of withdrawal.
“I guess we are in a public place, aren’t we?” she asked, her voice calm, thoughtful.
“Yeah, we sure are.”
“Too bad. But now I think I need to run that off a little bit more.”
And she bolted past him again. Swearing and laughing, he raced behind her. And that was the way it went for the next several blocks. Finally he caught up to her. “We are well past three miles.”
She nodded. “I know. It just feels so damn good to get out here.”
They looked around, then took off again, and when they hit the corner where her apartment building was, they slowed their steps and walked to cool down.
“How about we go out for breakfast?”
“I’m in. Shower first.”
She turned her gaze to him. “Together?” Laughing, still chasing each other, he caught her once they were in the elevator. When the doors opened, she slipped out from under him, and he caught her again at the apartment door. By the time they made it inside, laughing, he called out a warning, “Don’t forget the cameras.”
Her laughter was shrill. She clapped a hand over her mouth. “Shower.” And she bolted toward the bathroom.
He went into the bedroom and closed the door where he stripped off his clothes and headed into the shower behind her. He could get used to this. In a big way.