Deception (14 page)

Tess rolled to her side and caressed his cheek. “Make love to me, Alex.”

He looked at her, at the love shining in her eyes and the snow covering her hair and shoulders. “Are you sure?” Damn, he hated to ask, because he was so
flippin’
close, but he wouldn’t do it if she wasn’t ready.

“Inside,” she said.

With little effort Alex stood and brushed off the snow. He pulled Tess up and brushed the snow off her as well. They ran to the house, laughing, Othello trudging after them.

***

He clenched his hands at his sides and tried to control his erratic breathing. Fuck.

He wanted to race over there and finish what he’d started all those months ago.

Watching them roll around in the snow, doing indecent things in
public
, just about killed him. He needed to end this soon. It’d been two months since he’d touched her, felt her soft skin, smelled that fruity scent of her hair. Two hellish months of watching her and seeing Juran plastered to her side.

He’d made an error in grabbing her at the apartment. Now Juran knew he was near. His gaze went to the window of their house. They were inside now. Fucking. His heart skipped a beat and his dick stood at the thought. He didn’t want Juran shoving it in her.
He
wanted to shove it in her and hear her scream.

He swore and ran a shaky hand through his hair. This was all fucked up. It’d started out as a perfect opportunity to get to Juran, exact some revenge for super-prick ruining a very nice thing he had going. Now all he could think about, all he could concentrate on, was super-prick’s wife.

Eliminate Juran. That was his first priority. The little wife would be the spoils of war.

The plan was simple, but right now Juran and Tess were still fucking and he couldn’t stand that thought. He pulled his phone out of his front pants pocket, grimacing when the strain on his zipper rubbed against his hard cock.

He dialed and watched the house.

***

Alex pushed Tess against the wall, pinned her with his hips and kissed her throat while unzipping her jacket. She arched her neck and closed her eyes, her breath ragged gasps. He yanked his coat off, then stripped his shirt. Tess fumbled with her own coat and kicked her boots off at the same time. Her cold hands ran up and down his bare chest. Cold against hot. Very erotic.

He ground his hips into her and she pushed back, wanting more than the feeling of her jeans rubbing against her.

“Ignore it,” Alex said, pulling away, then coming back for another ground-tilting kiss.

“Ignore what?” She grabbed his head between her hands, much like he’d done outside.

“The phone.”

“Oh.” She reached for his fly and unzipped and unbuttoned. Cold hands met tight, hot skin. Alex hissed and dropped his forehead to hers. His hand covered hers as she rubbed him. He looked to be in pain, but she knew ecstasy on her husband’s face when she saw it. His eyes tightly closed, he moaned. Somewhere in the distance the phone stopped ringing.

Alex grabbed her wrist. “Stop. Pl—please.”

Tess smiled, trailing her fingers up his stomach and across his chest. The muscles underneath jumped and flexed.

Heat pooled low in her stomach. Her underwear got wet and her knees shook. He looked delectable, edible with his tousled hair, bare chest and wet jeans just barely hanging on his slim hips.

“How do you want it, Tessie? Against the wall or in bed?”

Her knees nearly buckled at the huskiness in his voice. “I need to feel you on top of me, skin to skin.” She placed an open-mouthed kiss on first one tiny nipple, then the other.

“Then we need to hurry to the bed.”

Hand in hand they walked through the kitchen. The phone began ringing again. Alex picked up the receiver, opened the desk drawer, threw it in and slammed the drawer shut.

She laughed. “What if that was important?”

“
Nothing’s
as important as this.”

They made it to the bedroom in record time, pulling and pushing their clothes off, ripping when it became too difficult to work the fastenings. Tess lay on her back and Alex covered her from chest to toes, his erection brushing her thigh.

“Tell me again.”

She didn’t need to ask what he meant. “I love you.”

He entered her. “Again.”

She found his hands and entwined their fingers. “I love you.”

He thrust, touching her very soul and then some. “Again.”

“I…love…you.”

Her world spiraled out of control, bright lights flashing behind her eyelids, the room tilting and swaying with each thrust of his hips until there was nothing but intense feeling centered at her very core. Alex groaned as he came.

“I love you, Tessie.”

***

He snapped his phone shut and cursed.
Damn, fuck, shit
. Super-prick asshole picked up the phone, then threw it. He heard it clatter, then nothing but Tess’s laugh. They mocked him, laughed at him while they fucked each other blind.

***

“What time are you leaving?” Tess put her head on Alex’s shoulder, too worn out to move any other body parts. His arm came up and over and pulled her closer so she could snuggle against him.

“I don’t want to go.”

“I want you to.”

“I don’t want to leave you alone.”

“It’s just one beer at a bar with Tony and the guys. I’ll be fine.” She
would
be fine. She couldn’t allow what happened in Alex’s apartment rule her life forever. He was concerned and she was scared, but at the same time, she knew this was something she had to do.

“I don’t like it,” he said.

“Please, Alex. For me. Let me do this.”

His arm tightened around her shoulder and the muscle in his jaw ticked. “Just until he’s caught, Tess. Then you can be alone all you want. Within reason.”

“He may never be caught.” It was something she’d been thinking about in all the weeks since and something she knew she had to overcome. “I promise I won’t leave the house.” She would bake because baking was the one thing that calmed her, centered her, made her think her life was normal.

“You won’t leave?”

She crossed her heart with her finger. “Nope. And I’ll keep Othello by my side at all times.”

He groaned and rubbed his eyes. “Okay, fine.”

She smiled and kissed his shoulder. “I love you.”

The corner of his mouth lifted. “Oh, sure, butter me up.” He leaned down and kissed her nose. “I love you too. I’m sorry I’m so overprotective, I just… I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you.”

Tess shut the mixer off and reached for a pan. Alex had been gone a half hour and so far nothing bad had happened. With each tick of the clock, her confidence grew and her sense of independence doubled, even if she jumped at every noise and looked over her shoulder at every creak and groan of the house. Even if she wouldn’t allow Othello to so much as wander into the other room.

Othello watched her from his post in the corner with a resigned expression and the radio played softly in the background. Alex had checked all the locks on the doors and windows before leaving. He’d put the phone back on the hook and given her a twenty-minute lecture. She withstood it because she understood his fear and when he’d left, she’d double-checked the doors and windows herself.

She searched the cabinets for her restaurant-sized tub of chocolate chips only to find the container empty.

“Damn it, Alex.” She needed to make three chocolate-chip cheesecakes for tomorrow, and Alex had eaten all of her chips. She eyed the phone. Debated calling Alex. He could probably stop on the way home, but that would mean she’d be up late making cheesecake and she had other plans for later tonight that involved her husband and a certain wall they hadn’t gotten to earlier.

The store was just a few blocks away. All she needed were a few bags of chips. Plus, didn’t she need to do this? Hadn’t she been telling herself she needed to push past this fear? To get over her attack?

She grabbed her purse and caught Othello’s accusing glare from the corner of the room. “I know, I know. I promised. But I need chocolate chips.”

Othello licked his lips and settled back down, obviously not believing a word she said.

Tess grabbed her keys and headed out the front door. The cold air hit her hard and she smiled at the memory of Alex’s shocked expression when she’d nailed him with the snowball. She’d never had such good aim before and probably never would again.

She closed the front door firmly, turned to lock it and heard the crunch of snow and ice behind her. Heart beating loudly, she turned around and smacked into a hard chest.

Chapter Sixteen

Roger’s gaze flickered over Tess, then to the front door, where Othello stood on the other side barking.

“What’re you doing here, Rog?” Her heart struggled to return to normal as she tried to stuff the panic back inside her.

“Just checking on you.”

Checking? Since when did Roger start caring about them? With shaking legs she stepped around him and headed toward the van, her curiosity taking a backseat to her need to get to the store and back before Alex discovered her AWOL. “Checking on us, huh? Well, all’s well here.”

Roger shoved his hands in his pants pockets as he walked beside her. “Where’s Alex?”

“Out with the guys.” She unlocked the driver’s side door. In the dim light of the lamppost, Roger looked pale, his skin drawn tight over high cheekbones. Several days’ worth of stubble covered his chin and cheeks, and his usually impeccable blond hair was mussed and greasy. When Shannon had married him, Roger had been an extremely good-looking man, but over the years his attractiveness had faded.

He jingled the change in his pocket and shifted. Ignoring the inner voice screaming at her to get to the store, she touched the sleeve of his dark coat.

“Everything okay, Roger?”

***

“Hey Juran, you’ll get a kick out of this.”

Alex sipped his beer, his gaze traveling over the guys grouped in a tight circle. Someone brushed past him and jostled his elbow. Loud laughter and voices joined U2 singing “Bloody Sunday”. Tess had been right. He’d needed to get out, to reconnect with these men.

A well-stacked blonde walked past in a form-fitting tank top and hip-hugger pants. A few of the guys whistled their appreciation. She flipped her long hair over her shoulder and sent them a come-hither look. The unmarried, unattached males—and some of the married ones as well—ribbed each other and laughed. Alex rolled his eyes and sipped his beer. Idiots.

The blonde sauntered away and everyone’s attention drifted back to the conversation.

Alex pulled his cell phone from his coat pocket and checked the display. No missed calls. He placed it on the bar next to his beer.

“Anyway,” Harrison said, tearing his eyes away from the blonde. “Got this call today. You’ll never believe this. This’ll make you think twice about returning to patrol. A woman called 911 saying there’s a man—” he took a swig of beer and held his hand out in a wait-a-minute motion, “—a man walking down the street, not wearing—get this—” He paused for effect. Someone snickered, everyone waited. “Not wearing gloves and a hat.”

Stunned silence followed, quickly replaced with loud laughter.

“What’d you do?” someone asked.

Harrison chuckled and wiped his eyes. “Hell, I had to check it out. Last time I ignored a stupid call like that, the idiot was an escaped mental patient taking a Sunday stroll down the damn street.”

Tony pushed his way between Alex and Upton, turning his back on the others. “How’s Tess?”

“Better.”

“She’s a fighter. She’ll survive.”

“Yeah.” Though there had been times when Alex had wondered. Maybe Tess was right. They couldn’t let one man run their lives. Besides, it’d been weeks since the attack and they’d heard nothing from this guy. Maybe it had been random, a case of Tess being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

So how’d he know her name? How’d he know about the “present” left on the doorstep?

***

Roger ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “Fine. Everything’s fine.” He laughed, the sound hollow, causing his breath to billow into a small cloud, then disappear into the cold night. “Alex doing okay?”

“Getting better.”
And soon he’ll be back to work
. “How’s Shannon?”

He studied the lettering on the van advertising Tess’s Temptations. “Okay, I guess. You know how she gets right before she has a baby.” His gaze flickered to her, then darted away.

She hated looks like that. Pity looks from people who didn’t know what to say to her.

“Alex remember anything else?” he asked.

Tess refrained from looking at her watch. She
really
needed to get to the store and she couldn’t figure out why Roger was here. “It’s coming back to him slowly.”

Even in the dark, she felt the penetrating intensity of his gaze. What had Shannon said that night she took her to the doctor? Something about Roger acting funny. Tess could see why her sister was concerned. Tension surrounded Roger and once again Tess wondered if he was cheating on Shannon.

Then again, she wasn’t the only one affected by Alex’s shooting. His fellow officers had to deal with it in their own way, Roger included. Even though they weren’t close, they were family, and Roger was probably having a hard time handling it.

“He’s remembering more?” Roger asked. “What do the doctors say about that?”

Tess looked at her watch again. If she didn’t get out of here, she’d have much bigger problems. She opened the van door and put her foot on the running board. “They didn’t say much. Just to give it time, that full memory should return soon. I really have to go, Roger. I need to stop at the store and get back to my cheesecakes.”

Roger grabbed her wrist in a bruising hold. “Wait.”

***

“Damn, Juran, just call her already. You’ve been looking at the phone like an alcoholic looks at a bottle of scotch.” Tony shook his head. “Man, you got it bad.”