Loving Night: Dream Catcher Series ~ Book 2 (2 page)

“When you were in Pennsylvania and
I was here without you, part of my soul was missing, sweetheart. We were both
miserable.” He kissed her very lightly. “I don’t want us to go through that
again.” Another kiss. “And I don’t want you to be afraid, or lonely, or
overwhelmed. I’ll figure out my career; there has to be another way. Leaving
you isn’t worth it.”

Stephanie tightened her arms around
him. What he said sounded wonderful. But she knew what she had seen, and her gift
was rarely wrong. She returned his kisses and kept quiet.

~
~ ~ ~ ~

Despite the confident words, Chaz
knew that his decision was far from being made the moment Roy invited Chaz to
join him and Steve McDaniels for lunch. They talked nearly the entire hour
about Chaz’s future. Roy had promised to respect Chaz’s decision; so much for the
promise of “no pressure.” Steve made assurances that Chaz was perfect for the
job and complimented him on his natural ability to focus on the big picture.
He’d proven that in his undercover roles as well as in his current position as
a senior analyst. The conversation irritated Chaz. Regardless of this meeting, Roy
had given him the entire week to consider his answer. He was determined to take
every minute of it.

He was seriously tempted to tell
them to forget the idea; but, as everyone kept pointing out, being the leader
of an undercover team could only benefit him later in his career. His best
friend, and fellow FBI agent, Sylvia was constantly saying that he wasn’t paying
enough attention to professional opportunities. Chaz had never given the future
much consideration. He hadn’t thought beyond being an undercover agent until he
met Stephanie. She was the first person to make him feel like his life was
incomplete.

Did she really think it was okay
for their relationship for him to be away from home whenever the FBI needed
him? The assignment to Erie had lasted for almost a year; Chaz couldn’t imagine
being without his wife and child for that long. That wouldn’t be fair to anyone.

That evening, when Chaz stepped
through the garage door into his house, he held a single long-stem yellow rose
and a thank you card. Stephanie wouldn’t be home for at least another hour. He
put the rose in a bud vase on the kitchen table, propped the card against it,
and set candles on either side. Next, he pulled out the good china they used
when entertaining and set the table. With that done, he washed his hands, put
water on to boil for pasta, and pulled out vegetables he would add to the cream
sauce: mushrooms, artichokes, and black olives. Somewhere in the freezer were
strips of grilled chicken that were left over from a meal he’d prepared a week
or so ago. When he heard the garage door lifting, he poured two glasses of
sparkling cider and leaned against the counter to greet his wife as she stepped
from the mud room into the kitchen. Her bright smile as she glanced around the
room made his heart skip a beat. He would never get used to the way her smile
lit up a room or her eyes shined with love for him.

Without a word, she dropped her
purse and briefcase on the floor and slowly walked toward him. She stopped mere
inches away and gave a half smile before thoroughly kissing his lips. He only
had to bend slightly since her 5’8” height matched nicely against his 6’2”
frame.

“Dinner smells great. I hope you’re
the dessert,” she whispered against his mouth. The next kiss was another taste
of what they would share later.

“Do you know what I would do to you
if I wasn’t holding these glasses?”

“Don’t get my imagination going,”
she laughed. “I skipped lunch, so I’m starving.” She took a glass of cider from
him and swallowed a healthy amount before sighing and licking her lips
suggestively. A giggle escaped when her husband groaned. “On second thought,
I’ll be thinking of all the ways to finish this discussion later,” she informed
him as she deliberately sashayed towards the half bath in the nearby hall to freshen
up before eating.

As the couple settled at the table,
Stephanie began talking about her work day. She’d only been employed at Renito Investments
Solutions for a few weeks but was already in love with her job. Not only was
she still working as an investments advisor, she would be deconstructing
portfolios established by other companies, updating them, and offering new
suggestions more in line with the clients’ current objectives. It was a dream
job that she couldn’t imagine getting bored with in the foreseeable future.

“Unless a dream tells you
otherwise,” Chaz joked.

“Very funny.” She moved a mushroom
around in the cream sauce on her plate. “You do realize that I have tons of
dreams about me, you, us, my friends, right? I mean, all of them aren’t
significant—just snatches of disconnected scenes—but they happen all the time.
I don’t remember many of them, but I wake up with residual impressions. I think
that’s what drives my instincts.” She speared the mushroom and lifted it to her
mouth.

Silence filled the space between
them for a while. Chaz understood that his wife was giving him a chance to
bring up the subject of the decision he needed to make about his career. He
wasn’t ready. He needed more time to find a way to express his feelings so that
everyone would accept that his choice was final.

“Déjà vu,” he heard her whisper as
she raised the goblet of cider to her lips. It was her way of putting him at
ease.

Whatever was going on, life was
playing out the way it was meant to. 

When Chaz was ready to reveal his
decision, he sent a formal email to Roy expressing his appreciation for being
considered for the promotion but explaining that, at this point in his life,
his career desire was to gain additional experience in his current role as an
analyst. After careful consideration, this determination is the one that most
accurately reflected the balance between the many significant areas of his
life. He also stated that he had given much thought to the trajectory of his
career and was hopeful that there would continue to be some way in which he
could serve the FBI’s motto of Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity.

His phone rang within five minutes
of clicking the send button on that message.

“You do realize that you’re passing
on a much-coveted opportunity, right?” his boss stated without preamble.

“Yes.” Chaz sighed. “I honestly am
grateful that you and Steve have so much faith in me, but undercover work isn’t
what I want to do any longer—not in any capacity.”

“I don’t have any choice but to
accept your decision; but for the record, this feels like you’re threatening to
leave my team altogether. That’s not what I want.”

“Me, either,” he admitted with a
smile. “I kinda like it here.”

“Steve will be disappointed.” Roy
let out a long dramatic sigh. “Other people will be disappointed also. Expect
some fallout as soon as word travels up.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

Chaz’s supervisor ended the call
without another word. As he returned the phone to its cradle, Chaz thought
about a conversation he’d had a couple of months earlier where he was not so
nicely pressured. It was a scene Stephanie had dreamed about right before he
returned to Erie to testify against Evan Moseley. It seems that he had an
aggressive fan club of colleagues determined to pull him back into a role he no
longer planned on playing. Despite what he’d said to his boss, he would
consider leaving the Bureau rather than be forced to take a job he didn’t want.

There was no way he would willingly
leave his family or unnecessarily risk Stephanie’s psychic well-being. There
was no way he wanted her to experience the horror and helplessness of seeing
him shot and not knowing whether he would make it home alive. The time she did,
she had physically felt the pain and emotions of what was happening to him—so
strong was the psychic link between them.  It would kill him to put her through
any more trauma.

When he’d told her the night before
that he was going to turn down the promotion, he had seen the flicker of relief
in her eyes. While she would never ask him to decline a job because of her, she
didn’t want them to be apart any more than he did. He lifted the photo of her
that he kept on his desk and ran a finger across her cheek and down her neck.
He would do anything to keep that happy glow on her face and look of love in
her eyes.

Chaz knew immediately when the
gossip mill had churned his decision out to other areas. The day was filled
with people making random stops by his cubicle to ask whether he’d lost his
mind. Some noticed the photograph on his desk and speculated and teased about
the great undercover agent being roped by a beautiful smile. He didn’t expect
anyone to understand and didn’t bother to explain beyond saying that he wanted
something different for his career.

Of course, that led to speculation
that maybe he had inside knowledge of something coming that none of his peers
would know. Maybe he was being groomed for a new position being created. It was
possible, the rumors said, since he had such an impressive reputation and was
seemingly well-liked by everyone. After all, the success of his undercover work
made him the golden boy.

Chaz let it all roll off his back
with a cryptic smile and a shrug. Let them think what they wanted. There were
very few people whose opinions mattered.

~
~ ~ ~ ~

All afternoon, he wondered when the
boom was going to come down from Sylvia. He knew his good friend was at work
today. When she didn’t call or come by his desk, he realized that she was going
to wait until they got home so that she could scream as loudly as she felt he
deserved.

With a sigh, he drove home hoping
that she would make her appearance sooner rather than later. Maybe she would
even be waiting when he pulled into his garage and they could get the
confrontation over before Stephanie came home from work. No such luck. His wife
came into the house with a smile and a warm hug and asked about his day. They
talked about everything from their jobs to the pregnancy, ate dinner and
cleaned the kitchen, and were finally relaxing in the livingroom before the
dreaded knock on the door came. Or maybe, it was more like pounding.

“Perhaps I should leave you two alone,”
Stephanie offered with a laugh. Sylvia was someone she tried not to spend any
more time around than was absolutely necessary.

“Don’t you dare!”

He kissed his wife’s forehead and
went to answer the door.

“Are you totally insane?!” Sylvia nearly
shrieked as she followed Chaz through the foyer and into the livingroom. “How
can you pass up an opportunity like that? Do you know how incredible it is to
be offered a Team Leader position at only 34 years old? Do you understand the
depth of experience this will give you for a future management position? I get
it—you don’t want to leave your lovely lady.” She rolled her eyes in
Stephanie’s direction as Chaz returned to his seat beside her. “But there is
plenty of time for whatever life the two of you want to build.” She looks fully
at Stephanie now. “How old are you—twenty-seven, twenty-eight?” She didn’t wait
for a response. Instead she plopped onto the loveseat touching the right corner
of the sofa. “Did you think this through, Chaz? Why didn’t you talk to anyone
about it before you made such a stupid decision?” Sylvia slumped against the
back of the loveseat with an exasperated growl.

Stephanie ducked her head slightly
in an attempt to hide her tiny smile. Sylvia didn’t think that Stephanie, as a
civilian, was smart enough or strong enough to be the person he should have
consulted about this opportunity.

Chaz leaned forward with his elbows
on his knees but his head lifted so that he could look his friend in the eyes.

“I know what I’m doing, Syl.”

“Do you?” She crossed her arms and
leaned toward him. Her long black ponytail swung as she shook her head. “It
doesn’t look like that way. You’ve been in law enforcement for a long time—a
decade, Chaz! Now, all of a sudden, you stop going undercover as a field agent
and won’t even take a supervisory role where you won’t be in any danger? That’s
not smart. That’s career suicide!”

“Quit being so dramatic.” Chaz chuckled
before leaning back and reaching for Stephanie’s hand in a gesture designed to
reassure her that Sylvia wouldn’t cause him to change his mind. The move didn’t
go unnoticed.

Sylvia closed her eyes and shook
her head as if she was silently counting to give herself a chance to calm down.
But, when she opened her eyes, they held more fire than previously.

“DO NOT do this, Chaz,” she said in
a warning tone. “You’re so in love that you aren’t looking at the long-term
implications. Law enforcement is your only career. It’s what you’ve done since
finishing college and you worked hard to become a Special Agent.” She paused
when she realized she was not getting through to her former partner.

“Chaz, I get that you want the
whole suburban family lifestyle. Hell, I wanted it too; I simply found a way to
have it without damaging my professional reputation. Just take the job for a
couple of years and you’ll be able to write your own ticket. You don’t have to
give anything up. You want a career and a family—fine. She’s young enough that you
can get married and she can have kids in three or four years without any
trouble. You’ll have it all.”

Chaz turned his head to look at his
wife, who only a few people knew he had already married, with such tenderness
that Stephanie couldn’t help but smile. Her fingers closed more tightly around
his as his thumb softly stroked her wrist. He didn’t miss the way Sylvia’s
brows scrunched before her eyes widened.

“Are you serious?!” Sylvia screamed
as realization hit her and she jumped to her feet. She threw her hands in the
air before linking her fingers together on top of her head and staring at Chaz
with a look of horror. “She’s pregnant? You have to be kidding me!” She turned
her eyes to Stephanie and scanned her from head to toe: slightly fuller face,
rounder breasts, thickening middle.

“What did you do?” she challenged
viciously. “Did you get pregnant on purpose so that you could manipulate him
into doing anything you want? You planned this so that he would choose you over
his job? Hasn’t he already given up enough for you?” By the time her tirade
ended she was shouting and Chaz was standing protectively between the two
women.

“You know what, Syl? It seems like
you’re the only woman who’s trying to tell me what to do. And I’ve warned you
about talking to Stephanie like this.”

She took a step back at his barely
controlled anger. Her hands dropped to her sides and curled into fists. She
defiantly narrowed her eyes and calmly asked, “What are you saying, partner?”

“I’m saying …” he hesitated and
took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. “I’m saying that this is the
very last time you will disrespect my wife. What we do with planning our family
is none of your business. But if you want to be a part of my life with
Stephanie—because yes, I am choosing her over everything else in this world—you
won’t ever raise your voice at her, criticize her, gossip about her, or
disrespect her in any way. I’ve told you before, no one is more important than
Stephanie.” His voice softened with sympathy. “Not even you, Syl.”

“Chaz—”

He shook his head to cut her off.

“Wife?” she asked quietly,
obviously hurt that this man who was her friend had left her out of such an
important event. She swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded.

“No one knows, so I’d appreciate
you not telling anyone.”

“Sure.” She glanced at the woman
still seated on the sofa and bit back whatever she was going to say. “I guess
I’ll see you at work.” Without saying goodbye, she turned and walked to the
front door. It closed with a solid thunk.

“I’m sorry, Chaz,” Stephanie said
softly as she rose and wrapped her arms around his waist. Likewise, his wrapped
around her shoulders and pulled her snug against him.

“Why, sweetheart? You didn’t do
anything wrong.” He kissed her forehead. “Let there be no doubt about where my
loyalty lies. You have changed my life for the better and I would give my life
for you. I only want people around that will support what we’re building.
Sylvia is going to have to choose whether or not she is truly our friend. And
this was her last warning.”

They stood in the livingroom for a
long time before Stephanie stepped away and held both of her husband’s hands in
hers and gave him a bold smile.

“I know a way to make you feel
better,” she teased as she started walking backward to the stairs, pulling him
along.

“Oh yeah?”

“Mmm hmm. We haven’t played
Scrabble in a long time. I figured out a sexy little twist that you’re going to
love.” At his raised eyebrow, she elaborated. “Have you ever played Strip
Scrabble?”

His laughter echoed up the stairs
and along the hallway.

“Only you would think of a way to
make a word game sexy.”

“Oh yeah, all of the words have to
be sexual.” She smiled as she reached the top step.

“Really?”

“Yep.” She giggled. “I’ve got a few
juicy words in mind. You’re going to lose your clothes a lot faster than I
will.”

“Are you sure about that?” He
started pulling her blouse out of the waistband of her slacks.

“No cheating, Chaz!”

“No ridiculous Scrabble game that
you’re making up as you go along.” His lips brushed hers. “I don’t need any
help taking off your clothes and I’m pretty sure you won’t resist.” He undid the
top three buttons and bent down to kiss the top of a breast.

“Fine,” she pouted. “Despite what
you think Strip Scrabble really is a game. But, if you don’t want to play …”
Stephanie’s hands moved to her husband’s waist and began unbuckling his belt.

By the time they reached the
bedroom door, Stephanie was stepping out of her pants and Chaz was dropping
kisses across her neck and breasts, lightly nipping her flesh with his teeth.
He laughed when she moaned. Both of them were wearing shirts fully unbuttoned
and hanging off their shoulders by the time her legs bumped against the
mattress. She gently pushed him away and began removing each piece of her
clothing slowly: blouse, bra, panties. All the while, she watched him do the
same.

She crawled backwards onto the bed,
never taking her eyes off the beautiful man who owned her heart.

Chaz kissed an ankle and continued
kissing and nibbling all the way up her leg and over her abdomen before closing
his lips firmly around a puckered nipple. Stephanie’s nails moving lightly over
his shoulder and back made his nerves tingle. He thought about the night they
had introduced whipped cream and caramel syrup into their foreplay. As great as
that had been, nothing tasted as good as his woman, nothing set him on fire
like she did. He supported himself on his elbows to keep his full weight from
crushing her as he stared down into her eyes.