Trust Me (15 page)

He laughed again, surprised at her and pleased at her
playfulness. “I guess if it means a lot to you, we can talk about it later.”

“Hey if you haven’t read Fifty Shades, how do you know
about the handcuffs?”

He smirked. “Everyone knows about the handcuffs.”

She looked up at him. “Can I tell you something?”

“Yeah, of course.”

“I love how you talk dirty, it gets me really hot.”

He gave her a knowing look. “I noticed.”

She looked at him questioningly while she tilted her
head to one side. “Just wondering when we can do this again?”

He turned serious as he said, “I hate to break the
mood, but I’m in serious shit if I get caught sleeping with you.” He ran his
hand through his wet hair showing his frustration.

She let out a deep breath. “I was afraid you were
going to say something like that.”

He put his hand gently on her cheek trying to give her
some reassurance. “Nothing’s changed since this afternoon.  We still have
to get this investigation settled.”

She opened her mouth to speak but he interrupted her
by placing his finger on her mouth. “Shhh...”  He squeezed her more
tightly holding her even more closely, adding, “Let's not ruin this moment by
talking about it. There will be plenty of time to talk later.  Right now I
think we should get you back upstairs before you freeze to death, okay?”

“Okay.” 

They walked up the steps out of the pool holding
hands.  Donovan spotted the towel she had brought, picked it up and began
to dry her off with tender care.  Alaina was touched by the intimacy of
this act. She took the towel from him, deciding to return the favor, and began
to towel him dry.  As she slowly massaged his body with the towel, she
noticed that Donovan was beginning to become aroused again under her
ministrations.

She looked at him half smiling and whispered, “Are you
insatiable, Mr. Prentice?”

“It appears Ms. Simmons that I can't get enough of
you.  Unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to remain unsatisfied. If
we don't go back upstairs we may be discovered by McAllister.” He bent over,
retrieved the boxer shorts he had carelessly tossed aside earlier and put them
on.

Alaina picked up her robe from the lounge chair,
wrapping it around her chilled body.  She hadn't forgotten about Lynn
McAllister or the implications of what they had done tonight being discovered.
Had Lynn stumbled upon them this evening, Donovan's entire career could have
been destroyed. Alaina knew that if any member of the Bureau discovered that
their relationship had gone past a professional one, Donovan could lose
everything.

She opened her mouth to speak, but Donovan interrupted
her, “Alaina, we'll talk
later,
right now I think it's
best if we get upstairs.  Why don't you head up, I'll follow you in about
fifteen minutes.” He bent down and kissed her passionately and Alaina returned
his kiss with equal intensity. Regretfully, Donovan pulled his mouth away from
hers and added, “The only thing I regret is not being able to share your bed
the rest of the night.”  He put his hands on her shoulders, turned her
gently around, and swatted her on the bottom as he said, “Go now, before I
throw you down on the pool deck.”

Alaina threw him a look over her shoulder before
saying, “You know that sounds kind of appealing.”  Leaving him with that last
saucy comment to think on, she made a hasty retreat back to her room, wondering
as she went, if she'd find sleep this night.

Donovan stood watched her retreating back wishing and
he could follow her up to her room instead of returning to his.  He sat down
on one of the lounge chairs and waited for the appropriate amount of time to
elapse before he returned to his room.  The last thing he needed was to
risk waking up McAllister.  He put his face in his hands, thinking about
the evening's events.

His actions over the last few days had been
reprehensible, inexcusable and completely out of character.  He had almost
made love to Alaina in Washington, but they had been interrupted by his cell
phone. He had thought the phone call had saved him from temporary madness. 
Unfortunately it appeared that there was nothing temporary about his feelings
for her.  Originally he had believed he could use the sexual tension
between them to throw her off balance, but the ploy had backfired; his own
feelings had taken over.  He had fooled himself into believing he could
control his attraction to her, but he had miscalculated its depth.

She was a suspect in terrorist activities, yet he
didn't seem to care.  He was certain now after seeing her reaction to the
file that she couldn't be guilty of anything, despite the circumstantial
evidence he possessed to the contrary.  Her devastation when she had
looked at that file had been too real.  He was certain she wasn’t faking,
but that didn’t change the fact that he didn’t have anything to prove her
innocence and until he did he should maintain a professional distance. 
What was wrong with him that he was disregarding his common sense?  Was he
becoming obsessed?  He had sex with a suspect and his only concern now, if
he was honest with himself, was when he could do it again.  There was
nothing left of his objectivity as far as Alaina was concerned, and he
certainly didn’t know how he was going to function effectively as an agent on
this case. He realized he needed desperately to prove her innocence to the
Bureau.

Alaina closed the door of her bedroom behind her,
walking over to the bathroom she towel dried her hair as best as she could, not
wanting to risk waking Lynn with the sound of her hair dryer.  She took
off her damp robe, putting back on the oversized t-shirt she had been wearing
earlier.  Crawling underneath the covers, she contemplated the
unbelievable events that had just occurred, or were they so unbelievable? 
It seemed since their first meeting in the drugstore, their making love to each
other had been inevitable. She had it bad for that FBI agent, and she couldn’t
deny it any longer.  She had fallen for him. Everything had happen so
fast.  She had never felt anything so powerful before. Her feelings were
overshadowed with the awareness that Donovan had compromised his professional
ethics and risked his career by becoming involved in a physical relationship
with her.  She couldn't help but feel guilty about the position he was in
even though they were each equally responsible for their own actions.  Yet
clearly Donovan could lose his entire career because of his involvement with
her.  She grimly realized that a future with Donovan might never be
possible.

Maybe she was just jumping ahead of
herself,
Donovan certainly hadn't made any protestations of undying love. In fact he had
really said nothing at all, except that he wanted to have sex with her
again.  He had seemed just as moved from their experience as she had, or
maybe she was just seeing what she wanted to see in his eyes.  She
certainly wasn't naive enough to believe he was in love with her just because
they had sex.  It was just that the depth of the experience had gone
beyond the mere physical aspect of making
love,
it had
been a deeply emotional for her.   She assumed it had been the same
for Donovan.  Was she wrong?  Just hours ago she had been completely
convinced he was the last person she should trust, but now she was on the verge
of trusting him with everything.   He had deceived her on many occasions,
but her instincts kept pushing her towards trusting him despite his previous
actions.  Was it was possible she was confusing sex and love? Damn Donovan
Prentice, she hadn't felt this unsure of herself since she was twenty.

She was no longer concerned with the possibility of
Donovan having ulterior motives in his pursuit of her.  After all they
were on the same side now since she had accepted her father's guilt after being
confronted with the evidence.  It was certainly painful to be faced with
that kind of information about her father, but it was clear to her now she had
never really known Tom Simmons or what truly motivated him.  She intended
to help Donovan in any way she could to convict the OAS members involved in the
bombing.  It was the only thing she could do to atone for the actions of
her father. 

Bright sunshine poured through the window of Donovan's
room, rudely interrupting his sleep.  He was instantly awake, never having
actually attained a deep sleep during the night.  The previous evening had
been restless, he had spent most of the night tossing and turning trying to
decide what he was going to do next.  Despite the glaring sunshine, things
didn't look the least bit brighter this morning.  His conscience told him
he should resign from this case, he had definitely lost his objectivity, and it
had become impossible for him to think of Alaina as a suspect.  Leaving
the case was the only solution, but if he did that he would no longer be able
to protect her, and that seemed unthinkable.

Coffee, he needed coffee, maybe a dose of caffeine
would get his thoughts on track.  He tossed aside the sheet, pulling on a
white t-shirt and jeans. Bare footed he headed toward the stairs, noticing as
he went Alaina's door was closed indicating she was still sleeping.  He
checked his watch, it was early, only six o'clock, he wasn't surprised she
wasn't up yet; at least she had been able to sleep after last night's events he
thought ruefully.  When he reached the kitchen he was surprised to find
McAllister was already there and making coffee.

She looked up as he entered.  
“Coffee,
Prentice?
  Hope you take it black, there's no cream.”

“Coffee sounds great” He enviously noted that
McAllister looked well rested. “Is there anything to eat here or are we going to
have to pick up a few things?  It's been my experience that the Bureau
usually forgets to stock the house with food.”

“Well, your experience is correct, there's nothing to
eat,” she said as she poured them both a cup a coffee, giving gave him a
sideways glance she said, “Actually, Prentice, I'm surprised to see you up so
early, I thought you might be tired after your late night swim.”

So much for being discreet, Donovan thought. “I
apologize if I disturbed your sleep last night McAllister.”

She stared at him directly raising her brows. “If that
was your idea of quiet you’re in big trouble,” she said leaving no doubt that
she was aware of what he and Alaina had been doing the previous night. 
McAllister turned directly towards him, giving him a hard look. “Look Prentice,
I don't know what the hell you think
you're
doing, but
it better stop or I'm going to have to report you to headquarters.  You
know, I never thought you were capable of this type of unprofessional conduct.”

Though McAllister was holding all of the cards,
Donovan wasn't about to apologize for his behavior. “It won't happen again, you
have my word.”

“Your word?
  And what's that worth?  Before last night
I would’ve trusted anything you said, but now I'm not so sure.  Do you
want to tell me what's going on?  Are you trying to manipulate information
out of this woman?  Last time I looked at the Bureau's procedure manual,
sleeping with someone was not a recommended method for questioning a suspect.”

Donovan resented having to explain his behavior to
anyone, but under the circumstances, he didn't think he had a choice. “I can
assure you it wasn't a method of questioning.”

“You mean you're so hot for this woman you couldn't
keep your pants on?    Professionally speaking, I think that
might be worse than trying to manipulate her.”

 McAllister’s anger was evident. Nothing Donovan
could say would dissipate it.  The
problem with
McAllister’s accusations were
that he couldn't deny them.  He was
as she said, hot for Alaina.  His continued silence seemed to only annoy
her further.

“Prentice help me here, you've got to start explaining
yourself or I'm going to have to report you.  Are you planning on
resigning from this case?”

Donovan regarded her intently as he expelled a
frustrated sigh, “I wasn't planning on resigning even though I've thought about
it.  I know it's what I should do, but I can't.  I've been on this
investigation for two years. I can't just drop it now.  No one knows this
case like I do.  If I quit, its success would be at risk.”

“Don't you think your actions last night might prevent
you from succeeding?”  McAllister demanded.  The sarcasm apparent in
her voice as she asked, “Did it not occur to you perhaps that's what she
wanted?”

Actually, the thought hadn't occurred to him, he
trusted her now. “You're right of course if you insist I will resign.”

McAllister glared at him, completely frustrated with
his attitude and his refusal to explain himself.  “We've worked together
many times, you've always been an excellent agent, and your conduct has always
been above reproach.  But if you don't start explaining some of your
actions, I'm going to be forced to report you.  I don't want to do that, I
really want to trust you, Donovan, but you're making this difficult for
me.  You realize that if I don't report you, I'm jeopardizing my
professional integrity as well?”

Donovan sighed. He wondered if this mess could
possibly get any worse. “I know I'm asking a lot.   I had no
intention of putting your career in danger as well as mine.  I certainly
didn't plan any of this, but you need to understand, I have to stay on this
case.”