Cries in the Night (24 page)

And he had spent plenty of time staring at hers, although her body wasn’t anywhere close to being perfect. But he had made her feel beautiful. It wasn’t just the words, but the way his eyes glowed with appreciation and how his hands caressed her with such tenderness that she felt treasured and very, very special.

How long would it last? Probably until another girl caught his eye. While that thought should have revolted her, it had been so long since she had felt so happy and satisfied, she pushed the thought aside. She knew he would eventually break her heart. Hopefully not today … or tomorrow … or next week.

The follow-up calls and official reports took the rest of her day. It was after six when she finally left her office and headed down to the parking lot. The rental car was much smaller than her Sportage and didn’t have four-wheel drive. However, the roads were in pretty good condition and the traffic kept her speed slow, so it didn’t take too long to get home. Her house was dark, and she tried to swallow back the fear that someone might be in there, waiting for her.

Rusty had replaced her window yesterday, and she hadn’t received a text alert from the alarm company, so she had no reason to believe the man, whoever he was, had come back.

It made her angry, furious even that this stranger had taken away her serenity and made her be afraid in her own home. It was her safe haven, and now it had been violated. The only time she wouldn’t be listening for every little sound and jumping at shadows was when Rusty was there.

Julie pulled into the garage and quickly moved from the car to the house, turning off the alarm and locking the back door, then hitting the garage door button. Cat came strolling out of the living room, and that was all the reassurance she needed that no one else was there. Otherwise, he would have been hiding in one of his secret places.

“Hey there, boy. Are you hungry? You ate all your kibble today.” She rattled on as if he understood while he twined around her ankles. “I think we both
deserve a treat tonight,” she told him as she took a can of cat food out of the cabinet and pulled back the tab. Cat reacted immediately, starting up a cross between a loud meow and an impatient howl. Wet food was such an unusual extravagance that he completely lost his cool and started begging shamelessly.

She dumped the food onto a saucer and set it next to his water dish, then added a scoop of dry kibble to the empty bowl. Now it was time to put together her own meal.

The knock on her door startled her so much that she dropped the can of tomato sauce she’d been holding.

“Julie, it’s me,” Rusty’s voice filtered through the door, and she hurried to open it, not trying to hide her relief and pleasure that he was here.

“I was just about to make spaghetti,” she told him. “Are you staying for dinner.”

His azure eyes twinkled. “I was hoping you’d ask.” He held up a bottle of wine and a box. “I stopped by Pino’s on the way here.”

“You’re going to make me fat, then dump me for a super model,” she teased.

“I can think of a couple ways to burn off the calories. And they’re completely healthy.”

“Oh. Are they really?”

“You’re looking pretty good, and I can’t remember when I felt better.”

She smiled. “Maybe Kim Kardashian and Pam Anderson should repackage their sex tapes as exercise DVDs.”

“They’ve got nothing on you.” He set the wine and the dessert box on the table, then pulled her into his arms. “I’ve been wanting this all day. Girl, I don’t know what you’ve done to me, but you’re all I can think about.

Julie melted against him, loving the way their bodies fit together and the way his lips were both soft and firm at the same time. It took all their self-control and growling stomachs to make them finally pull away.

“I can boil the water,” he offered after he stepped away.

She was glad to see that he was having as much trouble controlling his breathing as she was. “I make great spaghetti sauce. It’s my one culinary talent, but I’ll admit that I take a shortcut with the meatballs. I buy them by the bag from Costco, and they’re as good as homemade.” Julie took the bag out of the freezer and poured about a dozen into a bowl, then put them in the microwave to defrost.

They worked together in comfortable harmony, laughing and talking about their day. The conversation rarely lulled, and when it did, it wasn’t awkward.

He opened the wine and they sipped while they cooked, then finished the bottle off with the meal. After they cleaned the kitchen, they watched television for a little
while, but almost all the shows were repeats and much less interesting than the promise of what could happen in the bedroom.

They cuddled on the couch with her sitting on his lap. His hands had slipped under her sweater and with a talent whose source she didn’t want to question, he removed her bra and released her breasts to his caresses. It didn’t take much of that kind of playing for her to feel the moistness wet her panties. He nibbled her neck and her earlobe, then whispered, “Can I stay?”

She cupped his ruggedly beautiful face in her hands. “You don’t ever need to ask.”

“Yes, I do. I don’t want you to think I’m taking you for granted.”

“Shhh,” she breathed against his lips. “I know where you can take me … to bed.”

He didn’t need a second invitation, but swept her into his arms and carried her to her bedroom where he set her on her feet. Impatiently, they shed their own clothes until they were standing in front of each other, totally naked.

“My God, you have the body of a super hero,” she told him, constantly amazed by the rippling muscles, toned abs and impressive erection that was now standing at full alert. “They should make an action figure of you.”

“Anatomically correct?”

“No, I don’t particularly want to share that with the world,” she admitted.

He grinned, and his blue eyes smoldered. “Good. Because I don’t want to be shared.”

“Show me what you
do
want,” her voice was husky and she felt her knees grow weak as she read the desire in his eyes.

“I want you.”

He pulled her into his arms and they collapsed on the bed.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Smoke curled around the man’s face before it found its way out through the crack in the window. Calls crackled back and forth through the portable police scanner he had plugged into the lighter. Listening to the pulse of the city was more interesting than any radio station, and it was live twenty-four hours a day.

He took a final drag on his cigarette, flicked it out the partial opening, then hit the button to roll the window up. It was cold, too damn cold to be sitting in a car on a sleepy street in the middle of the night.

He should have been tired, but anger was a powerful motivator. It had kept him awake for the last week, staring at a small red brick bungalow. He thought it was an ugly house, old and square with a low gabled roof. There was a single car garage in the back with a narrow driveway leading to it. Wooden pillars formed the corners of a raised, almost square concrete porch. The multi-paned windows should have allowed him easy access to the interior of the house, but he hadn’t considered that she would install an alarm system. He knew, for certain, that it hadn’t been there a week and a half ago.

That had been an almost fatal miscalculation. He knew how long it took the Denver PD to respond to a home alarm, so he’d known he had plenty of time. But he hadn’t counted on that firefighter to storm up like a bat out of hell. Another miscalculation. It had to be his last. He was too close to the end to screw up again.

Headlights flashed in his rearview mirror as a car turned onto the quiet street. The man ducked down and the car didn’t slow down as it passed him. He peeked up over the dashboard in time to see the car turn into the drive, hesitate for a moment while the garage door rolled up, then continued inside. Only seconds later, a woman walked briskly out of the garage, unlocked the back door and hurried into the house. Lights flashed on in the kitchen, then in the living room. Draperies covered the windows, but he could see her silhouette as she moved through the house.

Only minutes later, another set of headlights turned onto the street, and the guy dropped down again. He knew without looking that it was a red SUV and that it turned into the driveway and parked in front of the garage.

The man sat up. Yes, he had been right. He watched as the firefighter got out of the SUV. The back door opened, allowing a wave of light to splash out. The
woman stood in the doorway. The firefighter took her in his arms and gave her a long, deep kiss, then they walked inside and shut the door behind them, blocking the rest of their passionate reunion from the man in the car’s view.

The man pounded the steering wheel. Fuck. The firefighter was there again. Ever since the man had staked out the house, the woman had not spent the night alone.

Slut.

Whore.

Bitch.

He knew the woman’s name was Julie Lawrence. It hadn’t been easy finding that out. It had been even more difficult to discover where she lived. She was well-protected in her police department cocoon. For the last week he had been following her, watching her, planning how and when to make a move on her.

The firefighter complicated things. He was big and strong, obviously in great physical condition. It would be a challenge to beat him in a fair fight. The man’s thick lips curled into a smile. Then he would just have to make sure to have an advantage should the two of them ever actually meet.

In a perfect world, the man preferred getting Julie alone. There were things that needed to be discussed. He wanted to make sure she knew just how much she had ruined his life … and just how much he hated her for it. He wanted to make her suffer as much as he had. She thought she was so high and mighty, rushing to the aid of every whiny woman or cowardly child, especially considering she couldn’t even take care of herself.

He had thought the snake was a good touch. It had been easy enough to pop the lock on her car door while she was in the grocery store and let the little guy loose on her floorboard. Too bad she hadn’t been going fifty-five when she found him. A crash at that speed would have done some major damage, maybe even killed her.

That thought made him frown. He didn’t really want her dead. That would be too easy. After all the anguish she had caused, she needed to live with the knowledge that she didn’t know jack shit about how to make a man happy … or how to make a marriage work. A woman had to know who the boss was in any relationship. Sometimes, it was a lesson not quickly learned.

If ever a woman deserved to be punished … it was Julie.

And it had to be soon. He was fucking tired of sitting out in the cold while she was inside a warm house with a goddamn firefighter, fucking his brains out. The man knew her routine. Now he needed a plan … and a place where the firefucker was unlikely to be.

An idea sparked in his brain. He could wait a few more days. This time there would be no miscalculations. This time she would get the lesson of her life … maybe her last. It would be risky, but once she understood how much damage she had caused, he really didn’t care what happened to him. He had nothing left to lose.

 

Inside the house, Julie collapsed on one of the dining chairs. “That was a tough one. A man decided he needed to discipline his step-son … with his fists. Apparently, the boy had admitted he was gay, and the man thought he could beat it out of him.”

“That’s grim,” Rusty agreed. “How old was the boy?”

“Sixteen. The mother sided with the step-dad, so now the boy is with Child Welfare. I doubt the foster system will be any more understanding or kind.” She leaned forward and rested her head on her arms on the table.

“Want a glass of wine?” Rusty asked.

“No, it’s too late.” She lifted her head enough to glance at the kitchen clock and noted it was two-thirty in the morning. “Actually, it’s too early. I hope that’s the last call tonight.”

He moved behind her and massaged her shoulders. “I wasn’t sure if I’d hear from you tonight.”

“Are you kidding?” Her head lolled forward as she felt the tension ease out of her. “And miss this?”

He leaned down and nibbled on the tender flesh of her exposed neck. His fingers threaded into her ponytail and he pulled off the elastic band, releasing her long dark hair to spill over her shoulders. “How about this? Did you miss this, too?”