What?
I got all four of them, he said with that eerie calm knack for understating. Call 9-1-1.
She started to stand but her knees were knocking together. From her perch on the cold tile floor she could see the other side of the island now, where two men lay bound and gagged.
The fourth is in the foyer, also prone. He moved back into the kitchen and picked up the phone on the wall, then shook his head with disgust. They cut the lines. Come on-
He grabbed her hand and pulled her up. For a moment, one very weak moment, she let her hands come to rest on his bare pecs but she resisted the urge to put her head down and beg for comfort because shed just realized something more than a little unsettling.
Reilly Ledger was not hiding himself behind his tough, rough, dangerously edgy exterior. He was that tough, rough, dangerously edgy exterior.
Standing there, with the bad guys at his feet, he glanced around. Coolly. Need my cell phone, he said. Stay. He left for a moment, and came back with an armful of clothes that he dropped and started to pull on. A black T-shirt. Black jeans, from which he took out a cell phone and called 9-1-1 while he slid his feet into black athletic shoes.
As he talked to dispatch, he shoved his gun-the one hed retrieved from one of the men on the floor-into his waistband. She tried not to think about that, that he carried a weapon on him, but she could do little else. She heard a half-hysterical giggle and was surprised to find it had come from her.
Hey. He clicked off the phone and looked at her, now fully dressed.
How was it he looked even more devastatingly dangerous fully dressed?
You okay?
A question from the man so miserly with words. She started to nod her head, then slowly shook it instead. Overwhelmed by the entire nights events, by his utter calmness, by everything, she did as shed wanted to moments ago. She set her head on his chest and hung on for all she was worth.
Tess-
She lifted her head. Im sorry. I just need Their mouths were a fraction of an inch apart. God, he was gorgeous. She was sure hed hate that, but- I really need a hug.
His arms encircled her.
Thank you, she whispered, something warm and gushy happening to her insides at his touch. He did that for her, made her feel so secure that she could move on from the fright.
And move on she did. What was it that made her so suddenly, ridiculously turned-on? The danger? The shocking violence Reilly had just displayed? There had to be something sick in that, she decided, but it didnt take away from the fact that her nipples had hardened and her thighs tightened.
Maybe it was the embrace itself. Or maybe it was simply Reillys presence, or the fact that she already knew how good he kissed, how delicious his touch was, but being with him made her feelshe glanced at the restrained bad guyssafe.
It was true. Reilly, for all his brooding intensity, made her feel safe, so she had no idea, no idea at all, why she shivered.
His arms tightened around her. Mouth still so close to hers she could feel his warm breath, he said, Dont go into shock now.
No.
His eyes roamed her face, settling on her lips. His arms were banded tightly around her. Youre still shaking.
I thinkI think the adrenaline is getting to me.
What do you mean?
I thinkI want you. I want you a lot.
With a groan, his eyes became slumberous andhot, definitely hot. Tess- One large hand palmed the back of her head and he slowly changed the angle of his head. Their noses brushed, but not their lips, not quite. Feeling a little desperate, a little like this was her last shot because the police were coming and then itd be over, she closed the slight gap between them and laid one on him.
She expected to have to coax him out of his contained, tight control, as she had last time, but his mouth opened to hers immediately, and he fed her a hot kiss, holding her to him as if she was the very air he required. He was certainly hers. She lost herself in the sounds of their ravaging kiss, in the feel of his hands running up and down her back, squeezing her bottom, gliding her against the enticing bulge now firmly behind the buttons on his Levis.
Dont stop, was her only coherent thought, and as if hed heard her, he turned, pressing her against the wall, protecting her from view of any of the men bound on the floor. He slid his hand over her breast. His fingers teased her nipple and the sensation dissolved her bones. But then he pulled his mouth back slightly, breathing harder than when hed fought the bad guys.
Shed done that to him, and the power that knowledge infused her with was shocking. Thatthat was some adrenaline rush.
Another pass of his thumb over her nipple. Yeah.
She would have slid to the floor if he hadnt been holding her up. She needed a bucket of ice water, something to bring back her temporarily vacationing sanity-
The sound of a siren coming closer did just the trick.
THE SUN FULLY ROSE as they all stood on Eddies driveway. In the bright L.A. sunshine, surrounded by officers, Reilly answered all the questions he could. Yes, he was Eddie Ledgers son. Yes, Eddie had known hed be coming by, because hed left Reilly a note-one of many in the past ten years since hed decided he wanted back in his sons life. No, the note hadnt specifically said to come by last night, just that hed wanted to talk.
Eddie always wanted to talk these days. The man had grown up, just ask him and hed be happy to tell you. Hed also be happy to tell you that Reilly needed to accept that they were a family, father and son. To prove it, he was constantly barging into his sons world with a wide smile and a full wallet, because he wasnt picky-hed buy his way into Reillys affections if he had to. He wanted Reilly to come to watch the Lakers with him, he wanted Reilly to hop on a plane to Barbados with him, he wantedso much Reilly had no idea how to take it.
Hed compromised, accepting temp office workers from Eddies vast and surprisingly talented working pool when his office manager needed the extra help, which she usually did. But up until now, that had been about the extent of it.
So, no, he told the officer, he didnt know Eddies regular habits enough to know if the burglars had been watching him. He didnt know Eddies enemies-only that given his various corporations and their successes, he was sure to have them. And, no, he didnt know why Eddie had sent him a note if he was going to be out of town. As he said, when it came to his fathers life, he knew very little.
The police hauled the four perps out of the house and into the backs of two different squad cars.
Tessa was being questioned, too, by a woman cop, and was nodding vigorously. Then she pointed at Reilly, and followed it with a look that changed considerably when she saw him looking right back at her. She went from cool and calm to flustered and blushing.
She could have been thinking any number of things, but he figured there were two things in particular that might put that look on her face.
Two kisses.
Hed lost it with her, and if he was being honest, which he nearly always was, it had been more than just the lip-locking. Somewhere in the dark of the night hed shown her a little something of himself, something he liked to keep hidden.
One thing his work had always shown him, first in the military and then in the CIA, was how important it was to keep the real Reilly deep within where no one could touch him; not a commanding officer, not the enemy, no one.
Tessa, whether she knew it or not, had seen glimpses of the man he hadnt shown anyone in years. If ever. Sure, hed hugged and kissed and touched more than his share of women, but none as innocently as he just had with her. And none had left him in the morning with this vague uneasy knowledge that hed like more.
Wrong place, wrong time, wrong woman.
Well, maybe wrong place, wrong time, but he couldnt help feeling she was right. Which is why he needed the hell out.
She was looking at him again and still talking. What the hell did the woman have to say that it could possibly take so long? Her eyes were shuttered a bit as she spoke now, watching him watch her. Shuttered and a bit wary.
Maybe she was no more thrilled than he was to have this face-to-face in-the-light-of-day thing. In fact, she looked downright embarrassed.
Because of what theyd done? Because of what, for one night, theyd been to each other? They could just go their own separate ways, and forget all about this last long night from hell. Hed go to his office, and shed go towherever she belonged.
And that was a good thing, a very good thing.
WHEN REILLY FINALLY got home, to the house on the top of the bluff in South Pasadena where he could see for miles and miles and no one could see him, he stripped-all the way to the skin this time. He took a long, hot shower, ate, and then headed for bed, hitting play on his message machine as he did.
Reilly.
Naked, Reilly stopped in the middle of his bedroom and looked at the machine.
Just had a call from the cops.
His father, of course. How like him not to bother to identify himself.
Christ, did they really wreck the place? I hope you managed to save my Beemer, and that they didnt take her out for any joyrides, Eddie said, laughing softly.
That was Eddie. Everything was all one big joke, including life.
AnywayI hear you took care of Tessa. Shes special, isnt she? Such a sweet kid.
Reilly would give her the sweet part. Sweet andhot. He was still scorching from their last connection.
But kid? He had no idea how hed ever thought it.
Im glad you were there for her.
Would Eddie still be so glad if hed seen how Reilly had nearly devoured her in the servants bed? Or how about in the kitchen, pressed there against the wall with his hand up her shirt? Just the thought of that little scene revved his exhausted engines all over again. If the police hadnt come when they had-
Shes the best temp I have, Eddie continued. Anyway, Im coming home early, tomorrow morning.
Well, wonders never cease, Eddie was actually going to take this seriously enough to cut short something fun. Amazing.
Anyway, son, I just wanted to thank you.
Reilly didnt want to be thanked. He wanted to be left alone.
Means a lot, that you took care of me like that, Eddie said into the room.
Yeah, like you always took care of me? Reilly lay on his bed and studied his open-beamed ceiling, wishing hed turned the volume off on the machine. I didnt do it for you, he said to the phone, as if Eddie could hear him.