Secret Agent Boyfriend (10 page)

“You’d get a different answer if you asked Whit. Especially since it’s his wife my mother did actually go after. But no, I don’t think she killed my father.” Carson held up a hand. “Don’t get me wrong, she’s got the chops for attempted murder as Elizabeth can well tell you, but she didn’t have it in her for my father.”

“That’s an awfully big leap. From a possible scenario of playing the scorned wife, ready to take down the mistress and not the husband, too?”

Carson shrugged. “The best I can tell you, it’s not my mother. She and my father had a loveless existence, but it was founded on great love. Hers far more so than his.”

“Sounds like you, Landry and Whit have spent your lives paying for it.”

“Oh, I don’t know.” The congenial light fled Carson’s eyes, replaced with something more somber and solemn. “I’d like to think we’ve learned from their mistakes and are bound and determined not to repeat them.”

Cycles were tough to break—Derek had seen that proven true in the course of his job more often than not—but he had to admit that if anyone was capable of breaking out, it was the Adair children. Both Whit and Carson had found strong women to share their lives with. And Landry—

He stopped short, his thoughts drifting to the memory of her hand in his, their fingers linked.

She would definitely break the cycle, of that he had no doubt. She was a bright, vibrant woman, beautiful inside and out. Any man would be lucky to have her. To make a life and build a family with her.

“Why don’t I let you get back to it, then.” Carson stood and extended his hand. Derek appreciated the gesture and took the proverbial olive branch, satisfied he and Carson Adair had crossed some sort of unspoken chasm.

After Carson left, Derek allowed his gaze to drift back to the computer screen. A dark shadow still smudged the center of the image, proof someone had been in the stables and then erased the evidence. A nameless, faceless threat, determined to bring irreparable harm to Landry and all she held dear.

He’d protect her. He knew that with a bone-deep conviction that he didn’t question. But recognizing that he’d need to walk away from her when this was all over?

His phone buzzed in his pocket, shattering the morass of thoughts. With a glance at the readout, his responsibilities came crashing back. Responsibilities he’d taken on before Landry Adair came into his life and responsibilities that would be there long after he left her.

He slid his finger along the glass. “Mark? What’s going on?”

* * *

Landry paced her bedroom, the roller coaster of the day weighing heavy on her mind. Although the danger that started the day was vastly different from the danger that ended it, she had no illusions of just how much trouble she was in.

Death threats were one thing, but a man who managed to get under a woman’s defenses and strip her bare was something else entirely.

Damn it
, how had he managed to do it?

Derek Winchester was hell on a woman’s good sense.

He’d said he was going to spend another couple of hours in the security center before heading to bed. It had been a couple of hours and she hadn’t stopped thinking of him since.

Should she go?

Should she stay?

She glanced at the clock, the readout ensuring it was too late to suddenly arrive in the security room as a curious observer. No, a woman who went hunting for a man this late at night had one thing on her mind.

When her body responded in a wave of tingles that centered at her core, she knew the late-night jaunt through the ranch had better be something she was prepared to see all the way through. Not because Derek would expect it, but because she did.

No, she mused. He wouldn’t expect anything at all. Derek Winchester was 100 percent gentleman.

The light knock on her door broke into her thoughts, but it was the whispered “Landry” that had her heart beating double time.

“Derek.” She opened the door, delight quickly turning to concern as she ushered him in. “What’s wrong?”

Lines carved hard grooves into his lean cheeks and she wrapped an arm around his as she walked him toward her small sitting room. “What happened?”

“Rena.”

A hard chill gripped her at that single word. A woman’s name. How could she have been so stupid?

They hadn’t discussed their pasts or their relationships. He’d mentioned someone named Sarah at the Farmers Market and spoke of her as though she was a part of his past, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone else.

Someone who even now waited for him to come home to her.

A hard metallic taste swam in her mouth, nausea threatening the contents of her stomach. She’d allowed her imagination to make something out of nothing.

Forcing a calm she didn’t feel, she gestured him toward her sitting area. “What’s happened?”

“Rena’s—” He scrubbed at his face, his dark eyes going even darker with the tinted circles beneath them. “She’s my case. Or was my case. My last one before I had to take a leave of absence.”

Unease whipped through her like a summer storm. Here he was, genuinely in pain, and she was too busy working up a good old-fashioned date with the green-eyed monster. Settling them both on the couch, she worked on coaxing the story out of him. “Tell me about her.”

“She’s young. Just fourteen.”

Derek’s words struck like freezing rain, and her guilt only grew deeper. Fourteen years old? And part of an FBI case?

She still remembered fourteen. The carefree days, even with an often-unsettled home life. Time split between the mansion in San Diego and Adair Acres, pulled back and forth like a pawn in the demise of a marriage. Despite the frustration of living under the rule of Reginald and Patsy Adair, she’d been safe. Protected. She’d known it then and understood it now.

“After I left the Secret Service, your aunt helped me find my way into the Bureau. Missing persons.”

“That must be difficult work.” They had spoken briefly about his job on their ride to the fund-raiser in San Diego, but he’d limited his comments and she hadn’t probed. “Rewarding, but difficult.”

“Mark. The guy you met yesterday. He’s my partner, and he and I were working this case of a girl who went missing after she ran away from the projects, likely kidnapped.”

As Derek wove the details—a young girl, snatched from her impoverished existence by an international crime lord—she began to get a picture in her mind of exactly what he dealt with day to day in his job. How did anyone handle that? And certainly not for a number of years. How would a person bear up under that sort of strain? And the hopeless reminder of how depraved human beings could be?

“How’d you get her case? Isn’t that the jurisdiction of the LAPD?”

“The case fell into our jurisdiction because all signs pointed toward him taking her across international borders.”

“Human trafficking.”

He nodded. “Unfortunately, yes.”

“So why aren’t you on the case now?”

The wall she’d observed repeatedly began its descent, and rather than take it personally, Landry used the opportunity to push back. “Oh no. You did that too many times already. I ask for details and you poker up. Why won’t you realize I can help you?”

As he’d spoken, their hands had entwined without her even realizing it until he stared down where they were joined. “I can’t taint you with this. Or with my failure.”

“Excuse me?”

Of all the things he might have said, the idea that he saw himself as a failure was the very last thing she expected. “How did you possibly fail?”

“I was pulled off the case for shooting the suspected kidnapper.”

“So?”

His gaze never wavered, but she didn’t miss the hard bob of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed. “I was put on a leave of absence. I’m not allowed to work the case any longer. That’s a pretty big failure in my book.”

“So how do you know about what happened today?”

“Mark’s been feeding me details on the sly, and I keep sending him things to look into or different insights I’ve gleaned from other cases. I can’t give this up. I won’t give it up. I owe it to Rena to see it through.”

While she admired his focus and desire to bring the child home, she struggled with his partner’s role in things. “Can’t Mark work this on his own?”

“He’s been working—”

When Derek stopped midcomment, Landry saw some of her questions reflected in his gaze.

“Of course he can work it on his own. And he does. Is.”

“But?”

“He’s a good agent, but not the strongest agent we have.”

“And if he stays partnered with you he looks better?”

Landry let the question hang there, curious to see what conclusions he might draw.

She’d observed his partner the day they were at headquarters and hadn’t been impressed. Thinking back on it, it wasn’t simply his strange gaze or slightly odd comments. There had been something more.

“We were assigned together a few years ago. He’d had a big case come in and was riding high on that. My old partner had just transferred to another office. The window of opportunity was open and we clicked well enough.”

“Well enough?”

“Well, sure. He’s a bit hotheaded and I don’t always agree with his leaps in logic, but Mark’s a good man. He cares about his cases and goes the extra mile.”

The man she’d met didn’t strike her as the extra mile sort, but Landry held her tongue. She figured she’d planted enough seeds and would give Derek some time to work things through in his mind. “Do you need to go back to LA?”

“Not tonight. I’ll head in tomorrow and meet Mark for lunch. He said they got another note from the kidnapper, this time with more concrete details on where he’s keeping her.”

Landry knew she was out of her depth, but the pieces didn’t fit for her. “I thought you shot him?”

“Wounded him.”

“So now he’s out and sending notes on his victim’s whereabouts?” Something struck her as off about that sort of behavior, but she reminded herself that she wasn’t a criminal. She’d heard internet jokes for years that they weren’t all that smart, and this latest run of evidence pointed once more to that very fact.

“The lab results are somewhat inconclusive, but they match the MO on the previous notes. And the bastard skipped out on his bail two weeks ago, completely in the wind.”

The depth of his knowledge on the latest details in the case only reinforced the fact that he’d been working it on the side. “Is this what had you so upset earlier?”

“Landry...I—”

“Because I’d like to know.”

“I couldn’t talk about it with you.”

“Why?”

He dropped her hands. “I failed at this. You think I want to broadcast that?”

“From where I’m sitting, you failed at nothing. You have a criminal who’s eluded you despite what is obviously all your time, effort and energy. How is that failure?”

“You don’t understand.”

“Then explain it to me.”

The same bleak expression she’d seen that morning after their ride once again covered his face in harsh lines. Pain so raw and so deep she wondered if it had a bottom seemed to well up and spill over. “I am my job. I live these cases, determined to bring justice to those who aren’t capable of getting it for themselves.”

“No doubt one of the many reasons my aunt thinks so well of you.”

“I let this girl down. I missed something in the clues and I failed her when I had the chance to take down her kidnapper.”

“But you just walked me through it. The man lured you and Mark to that old warehouse and Rena wasn’t there.”

“She had to be close.”

Landry stood, unable to sit still while he paced like a caged animal. “You’ve lost perspective on this.”

Derek stopped at that, all the leashed fury she’d seen in his large frame suddenly provided with a target. “You know nothing about it.”

“Oh, no?” Like staring into a mirror, Landry saw her own pain and anger and swirling fury reflected right back at her.

Like hell she didn’t know.

“You think I don’t know what it’s like to live, day in and day out, determined to make the world better and never seeing it happen?”

“I—”

“Let me finish.” She kept her hands at her sides, fisted tight for fear she might walk up and slap him if she didn’t. “You think somehow because you acted quickly and made the only freaking decision you possibly could under the circumstances that somehow you’ve failed?

“I live with that every day. If I’d only followed my parents’ wishes. If I’d only tried harder to have a relationship with my dad. If I’d only read the signs and understood what was happening around me instead of burying my head in the sand like some clueless society girl, I might have been able to step in and save my father!”

Chapter 10

S
ometimes the most important things came into clarity when you stopped looking so hard
.

Derek could only stare at the volcano erupting before him, his earlier thought at dinner coalescing into reality. He thought he knew grief—and he thought he’d sensed the depths of Landry’s pain—but he obviously knew nothing. She’d hidden it so well and so deep, now that it was out, there was no putting it back where it had lain hidden.

“You can’t possibly think you’re responsible for your father’s death.”

“Me. My brothers. My mother. We all are. There was a threat lurking here beneath our noses and we all missed it.”

“You can’t know that.”

“How can’t I know that? There was no struggle in his office, he was shot at point-blank range and the security cameras were off for a maintenance upgrade. My father knew his killer.”

“Yes, he did.” There was no way you could add up that series of facts and believe anything else. “But it still doesn’t mean you were responsible.”

“Funny you can assume that logic about me yet can’t apply it to yourself.”

Derek saw how neatly she’d boxed him in. “Rena’s my job.”

“And Reginald was my father. It’s not about logic or reason, Derek. It’s about emotion and that’s why it’s so hard to let go.”

She moved closer, and the light scent of honeysuckle he’d noticed during dinner tickled his senses with its sweet overtones. He’d believed the scent had carried from the gardens, but with Landry so near he now knew the sweet scent was her. Fresh and airy, it suited her to a T.

And when she moved closer still, he took another deep breath, filling his lungs with the rich, clean bouquet.

“If I let go, there won’t be anything left.”

“Or if you let go, you can finally reach for something new.”

Her lips pressed to his jaw, and she trailed a line of tender kisses over hard bone. The moment was both tender and erotic, especially when she flicked her tongue over the edge of his chin before continuing a path toward the other side of his face. “Tell me you want me.”

“You know I do.”

“Tell me there’s no one else.”

“There’s no one—” He broke off, her words like a pinball in his mind. “No one else? Of course there’s no one else.”

A light blush worked its way up her cheeks, but her gaze stayed level. Determined. “I just wanted to make sure. You...you mentioned someone named Sarah the other day. At lunch.”

“Ah.”

He stilled, the urge to brush it off warring with the need to be honest. She’d had the guts to ask, and he at least owed it to her to tell her the truth. “Sarah was my fiancée. We’ve been broken up for a few months now. Another casualty, along with my day job, of Rena’s case.”

“Oh.”

Derek hesitated, then went with instinct. He traced the line of her jaw, his fingers mimicking the same play of her lips mere moments before. “Turns out in the end Sarah didn’t want to be a glorified cop’s wife.”

“That’s what she said?”

“In pretty much those words. And, as it turns out, I’m happy being a glorified cop. Or I at least want to be with someone who will support me for as long as I want to be one.”

“Why do people want to change the ones they’re with?”

Head bent, he pressed his lips to hers, murmuring against their sweet softness. “I have no idea.”

“I think—” She broke off, her breath mingling with his before she kissed him fully.

“You think what?”

He felt her smile as it spread against his lips. “I think you talk too much.”

Her hands settled at the back of his neck, pulling him closer and deepening the kiss. He allowed himself to be dragged along, into the sweet abyss of need and desire and something incredibly soft and warm that he’d never felt before.

The swirling vortex was all-consuming, and in moments, the sexy banter and lingering kisses had turned urgent. Greedy. And oh, so enticing.

With careful steps, he walked them backward toward the love seat in her sitting room, pulling her on top of him when he felt the plump cushions at the backs of his legs. He fell into the pillows, rewarded with even more softness when her breasts crushed against his chest.

The careful dance they’d maintained between them vanished as the rush of the moment overtook them both. A rich, carnal craving settled into his veins, and Derek felt himself going under, a drowning man without breath who needed only the woman in his arms to sustain him.

An abstract image of a siren on a rock floated through his mind. If the siren was anything like Landry, no wonder sailors crashed to their doom. He’d follow this woman anywhere. And he was fast coming to believe he’d do anything to possess her.

Just as earlier, her hands were like a brand against his skin. Fires flared high everywhere she touched, and he felt the world melting away as Landry Adair became his entire focus.

She had the material of his shirt up and over his head before moving into a seated position on his lap, her hands on his shoulders. “Those are some awfully impressive muscles.”

The thin blouse she wore was in his hands and up over her head before she could blink. He took in the strong lines of her body and the shape of her full breasts where they spilled over the silky cups of her bra. “Likewise, Ms. Adair.”

A sexy, bewitching smile spread across her lips. “I do believe we’ve got a mutual admiration society going on here.”

He leaned forward and pressed a light kiss to her chest, flicking his tongue over the generous flesh of her breast. “What I feel is considerably deeper than admiration.”

At her sharp intake of breath, he continued his exploration, tracing a path down the silky edge of her bra with his tongue. Her hands stayed firmly positioned on his shoulders. Every time he hit a particularly sweet spot, her palm flexed against muscle like a telegraph of her pleasure.

And when he finally slipped one silky cup beneath her breast and took a nipple into his mouth, he was rewarded with a hard cry of pleasure that filled the air between them.

“Derek.” His name floated on the air before her head fell back, her eyes closed as she took pleasure in the moment. The soft light of the lamp beside the bed sheened her skin in a golden glow, and Derek let the moment spin out, the sweetest taste of her on his lips.

His hands stayed firm across her back, holding her in place as he worked the sensitive flesh between his lips. His fingers drifted to the clasp of her bra, anxious to have no barrier between them.

The silky material fell between them and Landry was bared, naked to his gaze. “You’re so beautiful.”

The words exhaled on a reverent hush as he gave himself a moment to simply look at her.

“Who’s complaining about my willpower around doughnuts now?”

A light tease suffused her husky words and he found himself captivated by her sultry gaze. The bright blue of her eyes had turned a vivid indigo, the darkness of her pupils wide with desire.

But it was something else—something that hovered beneath the desire—where he saw the question.

Am I enough?

Anger, honed to a fine point, lit him up inside. What had her family done to her? While her brothers had suffered through the obvious expectations of their father, she was left to her mother’s endless criticism.

How could a woman so vibrant—so caring and aware of others—believe she was somehow lacking?

“You’re gorgeous, Landry. Inside and out. Nothing will change that. Ever.”

He bent his head and took her lips with his, slipping his tongue into her warm mouth. Her tongue tangled with his, drawing him in with the warmest welcome.

It might take time, but he was going to convince this woman of her worth. He believed she knew it—somewhere deep inside her there was a light Patsy and Reginald Adair hadn’t been able to snuff out—but he also knew it would take time.

And he was more than up to the task.

Long, lush moments spun out between them, growing more urgent with each passing second. Their touches grew more frantic and their breathing more urgent as they pushed each other onward.

He shifted beneath her, the hot heat of her core driving him wild with the need to make her fully his. And when she reached between them, her hands slipping beneath the waistband of his jeans, Derek knew the deepest satisfaction as her hand brushed against his hard body.

“Well, what have we here, Mr. Winchester?” That teasing note was back, and he fought the groan as her fingers closed around him.

He pressed his forehead to hers and closed his eyes, the wash of pleasure so immense he needed a moment to get himself in check. But when the hints of laughter faded, replaced with a quiet urgency, he knew he was lost.

“Please, Derek. Let me.”

He took her mouth once more, his only answer to the warm, willing, generous woman in his arms. His body was already strung out, pushed to the limit with the desperate need for release, but still she urged him on.

“Landry—” He broke off, unsure of himself. He wanted her. With madness that ran so deep he didn’t know if he’d ever recover. But he’d also just shared the realities of his life.

Rena.

His forced leave of absence.

His ruined engagement.

All were realities that weren’t going to go away if they made love.

“Landry—” He held her still, one hand on her shoulders while the other covered her hand. “Wait.”

“Hmmm?” Confusion lit her features as she slowly recognized he had stopped her. “Derek?”

An apology was already springing to his lips when the room plunged into inky blackness.

* * *

Landry willed herself to surface from the sexual haze that consumed her. Derek had been so willing—so into the moment—before he halted it.

And now the lights were out?

Despite the fact that her brain was still trying to assimilate all the facts, the irony wasn’t lost on her.

Abstractly, she realized the position they were still in and removed her hand from beneath his. His sharp intake of breath as her fingers slid along his length gave her a grim sort of satisfaction.

Why had he stopped her?

She lifted off his lap, her movements stiff as her body still struggled with abandoned desire. Her slacks were unbuttoned and her blouse had disappeared somewhere. She kept one hand on the cushions, reaching for the drawer in the small end table at the edge of the couch.

Her hand closed around a lighter and she pulled out the cool metal, flicking the starter. She focused on the flash of warm light and ignored the heavy cadence of both their breaths. Within moments, the small, fragrant candle she kept on the end table flared to life, illuminating them both in the glow.

She ignored Derek and went to work righting herself. Her blouse was in a heap beside the couch and she slipped it on, regretting the lack of bra but unwilling to spend any more time naked before his gaze.

“I’m going to go down and see what this is about.”

“I’m going with you.”

“Suit yourself.”

“Landry—” His hand closed over her forearm and he pulled her close.

“Yes?”

“I want you. I might be a clumsy ass with equally clumsy timing, but know that as sure as we’re both standing here. I want you.”

She nodded around the hard lump that welled in her throat, but didn’t trust herself to speak.

And then there were no words because Derek had her in his arms, his mouth fused to hers, those same sparks flaring to life as if they’d never been dulled.

When he finally lifted his head long moments later, his voice was husky, stamped with need. “I want you.”

He dropped her hand and made quick work of finding his T-shirt and zipping up his jeans. She moved equally quickly, sliding her blouse over her head and fluffing her hair into some semblance of order. She could only hope whoever they ran into in the hallway saw her messy hair and blamed it on bed head instead of passionate kisses on her love seat.

Derek grabbed the squat candle from the end table. “Let’s go see what this is about.”

They wove their way through her wing, toward the large staircase to the first floor. Landry heard a sharp cry from the direction of the kitchen and picked up her pace. She called out so as not to surprise anyone. “Kathleen?”

“Miss Landry?” Another sharp cry added to the question and Landry raced for the swinging door into the oversize kitchen that was Kathleen’s domain.

She gasped and dropped to her knees. “Kathleen! What happened?” Several plates lay shattered a few feet away from their cook’s supine figure, her leg trapped underneath her at a funny angle.

“I tripped.” The older woman tried to move and another heavy cry fell from her lips.

“Shhh. Shhh now.” Landry took her hand, grateful when Derek dropped to his haunches on Kathleen’s other side.

“You’re going to be okay.” His voice was calm and quiet as he set the candle down next to her. “I’m going to leave this here and I’m going to call for help.”

He already had his cell phone out of his back pocket and was dialing as he crossed to the far side of the kitchen.

“I was just putting some things away. That’s all. Just a few last-minute things before bed.”

Landry sat down and wrapped her arms around the woman as she let her talk. She crooned nonsense words, trying to calm Kathleen’s obvious shock as she babbled about putting away dishes from the night’s dinner.

“I know. I know. You like a clean kitchen before you go to bed.”

Voices echoed outside the kitchen door as Carson and Georgia came in, followed closely by Whit and Elizabeth. “What?”

Landry shot her brother a dark look and waved them in. “The blackout scared Kathleen and she tripped.”

Her sisters-in-law went to work immediately, Georgia picking up the shattered plates while Elizabeth crossed to the pantry to grab a broom. Whit followed his wife, beating her to the broom and dustpan. “I don’t think so, babe.”

“I’m pregnant, not disabled,” Elizabeth said, obviously disgruntled.

“Let him spoil you, sweetheart.” Kathleen waved a hand from the floor before trying to move again.

Landry held her still but figured her ability to key into what was happening in the room was a good sign.