Midnight Kiss (22 page)

She cried out as her body shook apart against him. In case there was anyone nearby, he covered her cries with his mouth and drank them down.

She was still trembling when she fisted her hands in his jacket and pushed him an inch away.

“Think you can manage the trip back to the hotel?” he asked.

“Yes. I feel much better.” The white gleam of her smile glowed in the moonlight.

“Me, too.”

O
NCE THEY WERE ALL REARRANGED
and decent, Noah took her hand and they strolled slowly through the tunnel and out into the moonlight.

“That was…” Elise shook her head.

He couldn’t help but grin. “Yeah.”

“I’m beginning to wonder if you can even perform in a horizontal position.”

“We’ll have to see.”

“Someday I might even get you to take off your shoes. Or pants.”

“If you’re lucky.”

She giggled again, which only made him grin harder. Jeez, they were like a couple of teenagers together instead of thirtysomething adults. A snowflake touched her nose. He felt the sting of one on his cheek. And suddenly the sky was filled with swirling glitter.

“Wow,” Elise breathed. She whispered “wow” again when the first fireworks exploded over the buildings of downtown. A flash of red, then a blue flower. Car
horns everywhere blared and honked. Elise and Noah raised their faces to the snow to watch the fireworks explode.

“Well, Noah James,” she said to the sky. “You’re pretty damn good.”

“I have the power of the federal government behind me. I pulled a few strings.”

“Very impressive.”

He pulled her into her arms and pressed a careful kiss to her red lips. “Happy New Year, Elise.”

“Happy New Year, Noah.”

T
HEY MANAGED TO MAKE
their nine-o’clock meeting, but only because the meeting was moved to a less formal location: Elise’s bed.

She sat cross-legged in her underwear, winding the hem of her T-shirt around a finger. “It’s 280 thousand dollars, Noah. It doesn’t matter. Why can’t you just let it go?”

He shrugged his broad, naked shoulders and went back to typing on his laptop. Whatever her frustration with him, the man was a gorgeous specimen of male flesh. Neither bulging with muscles nor wiry and lean. He was just…solid. And every small movement showed a shadow or curve of strength in his chest or arm or thigh. Her mouth rose in a half smile at the small peek of crisp hair and tan skin revealed between the top of the rumpled sheet and the leg of his white boxer briefs.

She wanted to toss that laptop away and throw herself into his arms. But Noah was frowning at the computer screen, his dark eyebrows drawn together in a crumpled line. He was grumpy when he was working.

Elise sighed and flipped onto her back to stare at the ceiling. “Tell me again.”

“There’s money trickling out
somewhere.
There are discrepancies in the bank’s internal accounts. Small
adjustments made here and there…the tiniest percentages. But I can’t find how the money is getting out. Even Tex can’t detect the outflow. Where is it going?”

“Over what time period?” she pressed.

Noah grunted. “Years. A dozen years.”

“Two-hundred eighty thousand over a dozen years? You’re kidding me, right? That’s twenty thousand a year.”

“Twenty-three thousand.”

“That wouldn’t even allow John Castle to support a mistress. Or not a very high-end one, at any rate.”

“You gave me until Monday.”

“And we’re here, aren’t we?”

He glanced at her over the top of his laptop, his eyes crinkling in a brief smile. “We definitely are.” Then he went back to his numbers.

Her gut burned faintly with anxiety and she pressed her hand to it to try to rub it away. “I just…”

Ten seconds passed. He didn’t seem to notice that she’d spoken, and Elise was relieved. But her relief snapped away when she glanced over to find him watching her again.

“What?” he asked.

She rubbed her face. “I don’t know. I just…I don’t want them to be bad people.”

“The Castles?”

“Yes.”

“You like the old lady that much?”

“I don’t know.” She rubbed her eyes too hard and saw stars. “This job has been so straightforward. It’s working out. I feel like we did something good.”

“We’re never the bad guys, Elise.”

“I know that! But, God, I get tired of feeling like
we are. The Castles made mistakes. They screwed up. They lost their life’s work. They almost lost people’s jobs and savings. But I don’t think they’re criminals, because I just don’t want them to be.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. It’s been a hard year. I’m glad it’s over.”

His hand touched her knee and squeezed. “I heard about your dad. I’m so sorry.”

Her throat tightened, but she swallowed the tears. The year had been bad, and her dad’s death had been a big part of that. Still, even though she missed him every single day, she would be okay. She reached for Noah’s hand and took the comfort he offered. “Thank you.”

“And maybe you’re right,” he said softly. “There’s no proof they’re criminals. If I can just find the damn money, maybe we’ll discover a happier truth. Now where the hell did the money go?”

“Maybe it never left,” she said flippantly. “Did you check all the desks?”

“I’ll make Tex do that tomorrow morning.” His hand tightened around hers. “I’ll wrap it up as quickly as I can, and I’ll try for a happy ending, but no promises.”

No promises. Did he mean…? “I understand,” she said. “Sure. It’s no big deal.”

“Elise.” He shoved the laptop to the side and leaned toward her. “I wasn’t talking about us.”

“Maybe not, but how else are we supposed to leave this? We live two thousand miles apart. We’ve been on, what? One date?”

“Seriously? One date? We’ve had sex four times in a week.”

“Well, most of that was in the past twelve hours.”

“You’re damn right. That alone is a good reason not to let you throw this away.”

She sat up. “I’m not trying to throw it away!”

“You’d damn well better not be!”

Fear and love and panic suddenly welled from her chest like a wound. “How are we supposed to date?” she said softly, worried that her heart was breaking right in that moment.
“How?”

“Elise.” His hands, those hands she’d wanted for so long, they closed over her arms and pulled her closer until she straddled his legs. When she looked away, he touched her cheek to bring her eyes to his. “I don’t know about you, but I’ve wasted two years. Two long years.”

She had, too. Elise nodded, afraid to speak. She was so bad at this. How could he admit so much without being afraid? She would’ve walked away before confessing how lonely she’d been. For him. Even when she was supposed to have been in love with Evan, she’d been lonely.

“We’ll manage it. I’ll fly to D.C. You’ll fly to Denver. Vacations. Email. The phone.”

“Noah…”

“Listen to me, damn it. This is good. I am not leaving this to chance. And Jesus, I moved to Denver to get away from you, I can damn well move back to get close again.”

Her trembling heart stopped beating. Her knees tightened against his hips. “You did what?”

Noah grimaced and collapsed against the pillows. “Nothing. Forget that.”

“Forget it? Noah…why would you—”

“You were in love with someone else, and I wanted this thing between us to be over. That’s all. I just wanted it to stop.”

Her heart was a ball of pain in her chest. “But it didn’t,” she whispered. “It never stopped.”

“No.”

Why did he like her so much? She was too hard, too tough, too afraid to bend. But she bent now. She leaned into him and pressed her mouth to his bare chest, breathing out her pain into his skin.

She thought of the countless hours they’d spent together. She’d watched the way he moved, admired his decisiveness, eavesdropped on his conversations with others, noticed the small kindnesses he didn’t want others to see.

“Noah.” She kissed her way up to his chest, pressed her mouth to his thumping heart. “I love you.”

His heart jumped beneath his ribs.

“Don’t say anything back. Please. I just wanted to tell you.” The weight left her as suddenly as it had come. She’d done it. Something brave and right.

She felt his hands slide gently into her hair. He eased her up and sat up himself so their faces were only inches apart. “Don’t tell me what to do, Elise.”

“I didn’t say it so you’d say it back.”

“Too bad.” He kissed her so softly that tears sprang to her eyes. “I love you,” he murmured. “I’ve loved you for so damn long.”

She couldn’t say a word. The fear was back, but it was soaring on wings inside her, gliding in big looping swoops that left her breathless. So Elise kissed him hard and pushed him down so she could press into him. She swept off her shirt and shoved his shorts down,
desperate to fill herself up with something more than this awful hope. He was ready for her, but he stopped her hand when she reached for him.

“Shh. Slow down.”

But she couldn’t. She was going to break if she didn’t have him now. She was going to break and sob and confess everything she felt, and that scared the hell out of her.

She met his eyes. “Please,” she rasped.

He held her gaze for a long moment before his face softened. Then he reached blindly for the box of condoms next to the bed.

Thank God.

T
HE WORRY IN HER EYES
was killing him. She needed something from him, and Noah was determined to give it to her. Her body rose above him, her waist curving into flared hips. Her breasts firm and proud and peaked by surprisingly dark nipples.

He wanted to turn her over and worship her body, lavish long hours of attention on every bit of flesh. But he did nothing more than hold her hips as she rose above him. Then he was sliding inside her, the tightness enough to make Noah’s vision fade to a brief moment of black.

When his brain began processing images again, they were images of Elise. Elise rising above him, her lips parted, eyes closed. He should’ve been spent by this point. He’d come once this morning and twice last night, but there was something in her skin that soaked into him like a drug. Every time he touched her he was starving. Now her breasts rose on every frantic breath
she drew. She arched to pull him deeper. He rocked his hips and watched her gasp.

That little high-pitched break invaded her every breath, and primal satisfaction filled each hollow space inside him. He owned this secret of hers now. This tiny clue to the puzzle of her body.

She put her hand to his chest, her muscles trembling as her body curved forward. “Oh, Noah.”

“Yes,” he ground out past his clenched teeth.

And then she was crying out, a ragged, desperate sound, and Noah gave up with a groan.

He was still shuddering when she collapsed onto his chest, her hair sweeping the scent of her across his cheek. Their skin slipped with sweat. Their chests rose and fell in warring rhythm.

Noah was finally spent. He was sure of it. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t even draw a deep enough breath.

Heaven.

He was just starting to doze off when his brain shifted. Something clicked into place. An idea fell free.

Noah’s eyes popped open. “Maybe the money never left,” he said.

“Mmm,” Elise murmured, her body still dead weight on top of him.

He slid her off as gently as he could, but she protested with an outraged cry when she landed on her face. “Sorry,” he said as he reached for his computer.

“Are you going right back to
work?
”

“I just thought of something.”

“You’re thinking right now? What are you, Superman?”

“Man of steel,” he said as he paged through his
notes.
Maybe the money never left.
Maybe. His eyes slid over the numbers, looking for an answer. “Hit the showers, sidekick,” he said to a limp Elise. She didn’t move so he gave her a friendly smack, thoroughly enjoying the way her body shot half a foot off the bed in response.

“Hey!”

“Get in the shower. We’re going to the bank.”

“You’re insane.”

Maybe he was, because the sight of Elise rubbing her pink ass as she walked toward the bathroom made him grin like a madman. Maybe he wasn’t spent after all.

E
LISE CROSSED HER FINGERS
behind her back as Noah looked up from his computer, triumph gleaming in his eyes.

Please don’t let it be Mrs. Castle. Please don’t let it be Mrs. Castle.

“Well,” he said, letting that one word hang between them.

“What?” She crossed her fingers so hard that the tips went numb.

“I’m sorry to say it was old lady Castle after all.”

“No,” she whispered. She didn’t know why she was so damn invested in this woman. It wasn’t like she was going to be the kindly old grandmother Elise had never had.

Elise set her strangled fingers free and crossed her arms instead. “I can’t believe it. You were right.”

“I’m sorry,” Noah said, leaning forward with a look of patently false worry on his face. “Could you speak up? I don’t think I heard you correctly.”

She glared at him, then tossed a look over her shoulder to be sure none of the other team members stood in the doorway. “I said you were right.”

“Wow. That feels… That feels really good.”

“You’re being mean.”

“Aw.” His smug look brightened into a real smile. “Would it make you feel better if I told you she wasn’t stealing the money?”

Her breath left her lungs in a rush. “She wasn’t?” Elise squeaked, ridiculously relieved at his words.

“Come here.”

She edged around his desk, fighting the urge to sit down on his lap and look over the numbers with him.

“You remember my interview with John Castle? He said he’d started taking over some of his mother’s responsibilities back in 1998. She’d started ‘making a few mistakes,’ as he put it.”

“I remember. He was the one who steered the bank toward higher-risk loans.” She rested a hand on Noah’s shoulder, then leaned her hip lightly into his arm. Her body tingled every place it touched his.

“It was so long ago, that I didn’t bother pressing him on what his mother’s mistakes were. I figured he’d cleaned up behind her.”

“He hadn’t?”

“I think he missed some errors. The same ones I missed.”

Elise fought the urge to punch his shoulder.
“What?”
she demanded.

“During the nineties, Platte Regional Bank offered two options for sweep accounts.”

“Okay.” Business checking accounts were prohibited from earning interest, but a sweep account allowed
businesses to sweep their money into an interest-bearing account each night.

Noah tapped the computer screen. “The first account options swept the funds into an international money market. But the second option…” He glanced up at her. “The second option was an internal sweep that moved the funds into one of the banks high-yield interest accounts.”

She still didn’t get it. “And?”

“Every internal sweep account she set up during the first six months of 1998 was paying FDIC insurance to the wrong place.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Nope.”

“So the money these people were supposedly embezzling…it was actually money set aside for FDIC premiums?”

“Yes.”

Oh, this was too good to be true. “And…it’s all still there?”

He shot her a grudging look that was as adorable as it was irritating. “Yes. She recorded the correct administrative account, but when she set up the electronic transfer, she input the wrong account number. An unused slush fund. It’s all still there. That’s how I found it. When you mentioned that the money might still be in the bank, I pulled up accounts with balances that might work.”

“Ha!”

“But I was still right,” he countered. “The money was definitely missing.”

Elise slapped his shoulder, then stifled a squeal when
he wrapped his arm around her waist and turned her toward him. “They weren’t bad guys!”