A Dangerous Liaison Part Five (4 page)
Read A Dangerous Liaison Part Five Online
Authors: Melanie Brooks
Petra
I was back on the beach. The waves crashing behind me. The sand cool and wet under my feet. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I should be happy –that’s how I usually felt in the dream – at least at first. But I had instead a feeling that I’d lost something I’d never be able to get back. It was so intense I gagged.
Then I blinked and suddenly he was there. The man from my dreams. Before I knew what was happening I was in his arms.
He leaned forward and gently kissed my neck, sending a shiver down my body. Then our lips met. I kissed him wildly, while his hands ran along my back, and under my blouse. Then I was pulling at his shirt, my fingers finding hot skin and hard muscle underneath. I slipped my hand up his torso and let my palm rest on his chest, feeling his heartbeat through my arm.
***
I was awake. I blinked, my eyes squinting against the early morning sunlight. When I saw the white Venetian blinds that I’d bought last fall, and the tatty pine bedside table with my purse and FBI badge on top of it, my heart sank. I was in my bed, back in my apartment in New York. I’d had my dream again. I sighed. Were they ever going to stop? Usually I’d reach for the pen and pad and try to recapture what I dreamt. Maybe remember my dream man’s face. But I didn’t have the heart to try – not this time.
I might as well admit I was never going to find peace. I was never going to find the man from my dreams. Or stop dreaming about him. A feeling of hopelessness made my stomach clench, and I curled myself up into a fetal position, pulling the covers over me and squeezing my eyes shut tight. My chest ached. I didn’t know why. Some part of my mind nagged at me, telling me it was important. But how could it be? How could anything be important?
“Hey, are you okay?”
I froze. The voice was coming from behind me. It was strangely familiar. I felt as if I knew its owner very well. Like a kindred spirit.
It couldn’t be, could it?
I twisted around in the bed and caught my breath. Alec Reader’s smiling face was beaming back at me. He looked happy and relaxed, although a frown line appeared between his eyes when I didn’t reply. He ran his hand over my shoulder. I shivered.
“Are you okay, Petra?”
My jaw felt loose. As I stared at Alec’s face it all came back to me.
He’d taken the bomb into St Peter’s. He’d sacrificed himself. I’d heard the explosion. Cooper had told me he was dead. No one could have survived the explosion – half of the Cathedral had been destroyed.
“How…?” I said.
He gripped both of my shoulders, tenderly, his eyes softening.
“It’s okay, Petra. You’ve not been well. You’ve lost your memory. The doctors said it will come back in a few weeks.”
“You’re dead.”
It was all I could muster.
He smiled. “Obviously I’m not dead, Petra.”
I reached out and pushed against his chest. He was solid enough. Too solid for a dream. Maybe this
was
real.
“But how?”
“I was lucky. A beam fell over me. It protected me from the worst of the blast. I got out virtually unscathed.”
I looked around, bewildered
“But how did we get here.”
“We flew back courtesy of the FBI.” His voice was tender.
I gulped.
I couldn’t remember anything after Cooper told me Alec was dead.
“I caught up with you and Cooper,” said Alec, frowning deeply now. “To be honest I wanted to kill that son of a bitch, but I didn’t. In the end I decided that would do more harm than good.”
“What did you do?” I said, suddenly nervous.
The corners of his mouth turned up. “I just gave him a little mental shove. It was easy, really. I got inside his mind and untwisted it a bit – made him see the error of his ways.”
“So he’s turned himself in?” I said, not able to keep the harshness out of my voice as I remembered what Cooper had done to all the cadets and tried to do to Alec and me.
Alec slid his hand along my neck up to my ear and tucked a lock of hair behind it. His touch made me relax a little – but I had to know what had happened to Cooper. I could stomach him not getting what he deserved.
“Don’t tell me he’s still working for the FBI,” I said, barely controlling my voice. “Alec, he has to be punished for what he did.”
Alec kissed me gently on the forehead and then on the lips.
“I know, Petra, I know he does. But what happened wasn’t all Cooper’s fault. We’re to blame as well.”
I met Alec’s gaze, feeling a spark of anger twist my stomach. I wasn’t willing to take
any
blame for what Cooper had done.
Alec’s eyes were calmer than I’d ever seen them. It was as if he’d gone through some terrible trial and come out the other side – changed.
“We created him,” he said.
“What?”
“You know we did, Petra. At least I did.”
I opened my mouth. Alec shook his head and put a finger gently on my lips.
“No, Petra. It’s true. It might have been an accident but I did kill Cooper’s father. If it hadn’t been for that his life might have taken a completely different direction.”
I sighed. “It wasn’t just losing his father, Alec. He was pathologically obsessed with me. I never realized how much until St. Peter’s, when you were bargaining with him.”
Alec nodded.
“He was a victim just as much as anyone else, Petra.”
I felt another surge of anger and indignation.
“But he still has to pay, Alec. He can’t just get off scot-free. What about the families of the people he killed?”
Alec shook his head again.
“He didn’t get off scot-free, Petra. For one thing, he doesn’t work for the FBI anymore.”
“What did you do?” I said, not sure whether to be curious or angry.
Alec smiled.
“Like I said, Petra I got inside his mind and gave him a push. Rearranged the deck chairs, so to speak. Cooper resigned from the FBI. He’s going to live in a nice quiet college town and take up teaching. He has a talent for it.”
I gaped.
“But…”
Alec put his mouth over my open lips and pushed his tongue against mine. I could feel his pecs against my breasts, and his hardness against my tummy. I kissed him back as if nothing else mattered. Because it didn’t.
Alec was probably right. Cooper had done some terrible things but he was, in a way, a victim as well. Maybe I’d never quite see it like Alec did, but perhaps in time I’d accept it.
Alec leaned forward and kissed me on the forehead.
“Jesus,” I said, pushing him away suddenly, and reaching for my chest. “What about that defibrillator?”
Alec smiled. “You deactivated it.”
“What?”
“I’m not the only one with an ability, Petra.”
He was kissing me on the cheek now, and caressing my neck with his hand. I wanted him badly, but I pushed him away again, holding him at arm’s length.
He sighed but his lips were still upturned.
“You did it, Petra. Don’t ask me to explain it. I’m not sure I can.”
He kissed me on the lips, and ran his hand along my belly downwards until his fingers lightly touched my clit. I broke away from his lips, craning my neck back and moaning. I’d waited so long for this moment; now that it was here it hardly seemed real. Alec whispered in my ear.
“I want to make love to you now.” I felt a hot flush surge through me. I knew why he’d said it like that. We’d had sex before, in Rome. But it had been different. We hadn’t truly known who we were then and what we meant to each other. But we did now. We were linked and always would be in a way no one else could understand.
Alec’s fingers ran over my breast and my nipple sprung up. His thigh slid between my legs, pushing them apart. My hands dug into his back as if I wanted to hold onto him forever. But I had no reason to worry. Somehow I knew that Alec was here to stay. I’d found my dream man in the real world, and had my last dream.
THE END
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Until recently Melanie Brooks was an emergency room doctor. She only wrote when she had a spare moment, but she’s recently taken a sabbatical from medicine to devote more of her time to writing. She likes to write contemporary erotic romance novels. Writing is her passion, and she hopes you will feel for her characters, to laugh and cry along with them, as she has done.
Melanie draws her characters and the situations they find themselves in from her life as a doctor, but adds plenty of spice. Her books are fun and exciting, so get ready for a roller-coaster ride.
Melanie believes that each day is a gift. She loves to write, spend time with her family and on the beach near where she lives, walking her dog. She believes each day is for living to the full.