Lasting Pride (Pride Series Romance Novels) (9 page)

While showering, she remembered the kiss and his warm mouth. It was a “
knock your socks off”
kind of kiss. She hadn’t had one of those in… well, ever. At least she couldn’t remember any at this time. His mouth had been hot and the passion that had come from him had almost been blinding.

After her shower, she crawled between the satin sheets and quickly fell asleep thinking of him.

An hour later, she walked into his room to wake him and check on him. When she walked in, she was shocked to see his large bed empty. There was a soft light coming from under the bathroom door. The first thing that flashed in her mind was fear that he’d passed out on the bathroom floor. Rushing into the large room, she looked around and she saw him. Lying in the large jacuzzi tub with it’s jets still on and she could see steam rising from the water. His head was rested against a pillowed head rest and his eyes were closed, he looked completely relaxed and wonderfully naked.

Walking over, she took in her fill of him. The man had some great muscles, she could see the bruises running up and down his side that he must have landed on.

He was resting so that his left shoulder and arm were dangling out of the water, keeping his stitches dry. Her eyes ran down his chest and enjoyed the view of his pecks. His stomach was tight and she could just make out a very sexy six pack. His sandy blond hair ran in a light trail, pulling her eyes downwards. Noticing that he was hard all over, she smiled. Then, she moved down to his thighs, which were very muscular and covered with a light coating of blond hair. He was too tall for the bathtub so his feet hung off the ends, resting on the ledge of the tub.

Looking back to his face, she watched his dark eyelashes. How was it, that this man was lucky enough to get very long eyelashes? She was cursed with short thin ones.

His face looked totally relaxed. Walking closer to him, she sat on the edge of the tub.

“Damn it Ric, you should know better than to fall asleep in this thing.” When he opened his eyes, she saw him focus, then she noticed the wicked look in his eyes. She tried to pull away, but he was too quick. Before she knew it, she was crushed to his wet body. Her sleeping t-shirt and shorts were soaking wet. Her hair, which had just dried from her own shower, was wet and in her eyes now.

“I was just dreaming of you and this,” his mouth was on hers again. This time, the passion was undeniable. He held her head to his with his right hand as she tried to get away. “Mmmm, you taste so good,” he tried to pull her closer.

“Stop it, Ric! You’re going to get your shoulder wet.” She pulled back and tried to hold him at bay, when he let her go, she tried to pull herself out of the large tub and almost fell on her head. Thank goodness he’d reached over and helped to steady her.

“Now, what am I going to wear to bed?” She mumbled to herself as she looked down at her wet clothes. She stood in front of the large mirror and watched him pull himself out of the tub as he laughed at her.

“Nothing,” he gave her a wicked smile, “You know, I sleep in nothing too. Maybe we should do it together?” He walked over and grabbed a towel and, after tossing her one, started to dry himself off.

“
Oh, thank you kind sir, for that more than generous offer. But, I’ll pass… tonight.” She walked out of the room, slipping on the wet tile as she tried to dry herself off.

T
he next morning after dropping Rob off at her office, he ran a half dozen errands that he’d needed to take care of. When he walked into his gallery just after one, he was surprised to see his sister leaning against the front counter talking to Kimberly.

“Katie, what are you doing here?” he asked, as she rushed towards him. She stopped cold, halfway across the room.

“Oh my god! What happened to you?” She rushed the rest of the way to his side.

He knew what she saw. The bruising had spread throughout the night. His whole forehead looked like he’d bashed it against the wall. But, he was thankful she couldn’t see his shoulder and hip. He’d even winced at the colors he saw in the mirror that morning. He was stiff and sore all over.

“I had a little run in with a car,” he smiled, “The car won.”

“When did this happen?” she asked as he tried to pull her towards the stairs. He nodded to Kimberly who looked very concerned as well.

“I’m fine,” he assured her before pulling his sister up the stairs. “It happened last night. I was going to call you, but I had company over,” he said climbing the stairs with her in tow.

“Company?” she stopped on the top stair and smiled. “Anyone I know?” His sister was always one to hear and spread the latest gossip.

“Not that kind of company. Although I wouldn’t mind…” he saw his sister’s eager face. “Never mind. It was just a friend who had to wake me every hour for the concussion.”

“Oh! Ric, a concussion.” She ran over to him again and grabbed his head in her hands and looked closer at his forehead. “You have stitches too. Did you call mom or dad?”

“No, why would I?”

“Well, to tell them what happened. They would be frantic.”

“Katie, I’m a big boy. If I need them, I’ll call them. Besides Dad is still in Alaska and Mom, well. I think she’s…” his mind flashed to an image of Dante Cardone. “I think she’s still in Italy.”

“Oh, well. I’m here now. I can take care of you.”

“No! Please!” He said a little too eagerly. “I can care for myself. Besides, the last time you saw fit to take ‘
care’
of me, I remember ending up in the hospital with food poisoning.”

“It wasn’t my fault that the chicken you had in your fridge was bad. My chicken soup was perfect. If you had bought good chicken…” she took a big breath. “Let’s not rehash the past.”

“Yes, let’s not,” he smiled at her as he sat behind his desk. “So, what brings you to Portland?”

“Well, it’s spring break this week and the rest of my friends are on the beach somewhere, but I just wanted to come visit my big brother.”

“Who are you and what have you done with my sister?”

“Oh, okay! I’m worried about Mom. Do you know I called her at her hotel the other day and a man answered. A very
Italian
sounding man! Did I mention it was almost midnight there? Ric,” she got up and started pacing in front of his desk as she rambled on. “What is a very Italian man doing in Mom’s hotel at midnight? I hung up immediately, I didn’t know what to do. You just
have
to do something.”

“Are you sure you had the right number?” He leaned back in his chair. His sister always worked herself into these little episodes. Most of the time, she would call and he could talk her down, but this time she’d actually flown across the states to vent.

“Of course I got the right number. It’s programmed in my phone. She always stays at the same place, you know that.” She leaned on his desk.  “What did she say to you the last time you called her? Did she mention Dad?”

“No, when I called…” He was interrupted by his phone. Holding his finger up he motioned for his sister to sit and wait.

“Ric Derby,” he answered his phone. “Send her up please.” He knew that his smile got huge, but he didn’t care. He saw his sister’s eye brows raise in question. Then, Roberta walked into his office and he saw that she too wore a Cheshire grin.

“Hello,” Rob walked into the room. “I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

His sister stood and looked at the woman who had Ric grinning like a school boy.

“Rob, this is my sister Katie. Katie this is detective Roberta Stanton. Rob is handling the case of my break-in.”

“Hello, it’s nice to meet you. Ric has told me so much about you. Spring break?” Rob asked.

Katie smiled and nodded her head. “Thank you for taking care of my brother last night.”

Ric looked at his sister. The little brat knew too much, so he jumped in.

“Have you eaten lunch yet?” His question was aimed at Rob, but his sister piped in.

“Oh, what a wonderful idea. I’m starved. Roberta would you care to join us? I’d love to hear all about how you became a detective.” His sister reached over and took Rob’s arm, then started steering her towards the stairs.

It was several hours later when Roberta let herself into her apartment. Jack came and rubbed himself all over her boots, no doubt wanting his dinner.

Instantly her senses went on alert. Something wasn’t right. Pulling her service weapon out, she checked the place over. Nothing. Holstering her weapon, she stood in the middle of the room and scanned her living space. What could have caused her to be on alert? She wasn’t one to freak at the smallest things. She’d been alone for most of her life and wasn’t a girl who jumped at shadows. Something was out of place in her apartment. Jack, the cat seemed to think nothing was amiss, except for the lack of food in his bowl. Walking over, she started to get him a can of wet food, when she saw it.

Something strange sat on her kitchen counter, right next to her answering machine. Walking over she picked up the small pin. Rolling it over in her hand, she knew for a fact that she’d never seen this pin before. It looked like a quarter, but on the back was affixed a small pin. The shinny silver front had a symbol that she’d only seen once before in her life. Rushing to her closet, she pulled out a box from the top shelf. It took some maneuvering, but finally the box sprung free from its spot wedged between two boxes of old shoes. Sitting down on the edge of the bed, she opened the box that held the last memories of her father.

Digging around, she was beginning to think she’d lost it, when her fingers touched the small disc. Running her thumb over her father’s medallion, she held the matching pair side by side.

Someone had been in her apartment. Who had it been? What did this mean? Why had they left this here? So many other questions ran through her mind.

When Jack jumped up in her lap and rubbed his face on hers, she set the medallions down next to the box and went to feed the starving, ten pound feline.

Rob was having one of those days she wished she’d stayed in bed. It seemed like nothing was going right. She not only wished she had stayed in bed, she wished that everyone would just leave her alone.

Jack, had tripped her when she’d gotten out of bed. She’d ended up on the floor in a tangled pile, which he had taken as the perfect opportunity to come and lay on her chest, demanding more food. Then, her water heater pilot light had gone out, which of course, she hadn’t noticed until after she’d gotten naked and wet. She had just tolerated the cold shower, rather than running outside to relight it.

On her drive into work, her car had acted up as well. It sputtered and back fired when she’d parked in the garage. Which had caused several people, who had been entering the building, to look over and watch her exit her car.

But, the icing on the cake had been when she’d walked in and seen Dante Cardone sitting at her desk. She didn’t want to deal with him right now. She had the two matching medallions tucked in her pocket and she needed to do some research. Marching over to her desk, she tried to ignore the headache that was slowly building behind her eyes.

“Mr. Cardone, is there something I can do for you?” She sat down and silently wished away the stacks of paperwork which were piled so high on her desk that they were leaning.

“Hello again, Detective,” she noticed he deepened his accent when he spoke to her. “Your partner told me I could wait here for you. Yes, I would like to open a report to have this,” he tapped a folder that was sitting on her desk, “officially reported as stolen. My insurance agent informed me that I needed a police report. It appears that my… that Mr. Derby and The Blue Spot are willing to work on trying to fix this matter and it appears that this might have something to do with the theft and murder at his gallery.”

“You could have filled out this report with my partner.” She waited as he shifted in his seat uncomfortably.

“Yes, well. I wanted to take a chance that you were on duty.” He smiled at her and she realized that he actually looked more like Katie than Ric.

“Is there any chance we could go somewhere? Lunch maybe?”

“Are you asking me to lunch for a professional reason or a personal one?” She was getting irritated now because she could see that he actually thought he was getting somewhere with her.

He shifted gears again and tried to pour on his charm by smiling smoothly and leaning closer. She continued to look at him, not taking his bait and waited it out.

She had always loved playing the game. She could usually read people; guilty people usually didn’t look you in your eyes. People, who had something to hide, would look, but then quickly turn away. People who had nothing to hide could stare you down, most of the time. Dante Cardone had something to hide.