Intimate Caresses (The Love and Danger Series) (19 page)

Nina fought the tears as she stepped barefoot out onto the sandy beach.  Brock looked marvelous in the dark slacks and white shirt.  Not a tie in sight as the three men stood by his side.  Nina’s white dress was gauzy and floated in the early evening wind while the waves of Lake Michigan flowed gently onto the shoreline.  A violinist serenaded the small group that included Colt, Sam, Hannah and Walker.  The minister smiled as Nina approached while Brock took her hand in his. 

“You look beautiful,” he whispered a moment before the minister began the ceremony. 

Nina shivered slightly, not because of the night air but because she was finally marrying the man of her dreams.  She couldn’t believe how much she loved this man and how perfect he was for her.  Not perfect though!  Not by any stretch of the imagination could she call this man perfect.  But he was perfect for her.  He challenged her mind, made her laugh when stress started getting to her and encouraged her professionally, pushing her to be more creative and thoughtful. 

He also drove her crazy when he played ball with his friends but she and Hannah had a system of mixing up a new martini or cocktail to get her through those games.  He made her watch football, which was interesting, but not one of her all-consuming
passions. 

And she loved him.  After all she’d gone through with her first marriage, she couldn’t believe she was stepping up and doing it again, but Brock made it all worthwhile. 

“Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedding husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, for richer, for poorer, till death do you part?” the minster asked. 

Nina looked up at Brock, her heart swelling with love for him.  “I do.”

The minister then turned to Brock and asked the same question.  Without hesitation, his deep voice replied, “I do.”

Rings were exchanged and blessed and then those magical words were spoken.  “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” 

With that, Brock pulled her into his arms and kissed her until she was clinging to him, shivering with the need he incited within her. 

There were chuckles and claps behind them and Brock finally released her.  Looking around, Nina blushed but still held onto her new husband. 

“You look gorgeous when you blush like that,” he whispered into her ear, which only caused the blush to deepen. 

After hearty congratulations and a few punches, everyone moved over to a beautiful buffet table that had been set up by one of Nina’s favorite restaurants.  All the food looked divine and Brock loaded up her plate to ensure that she ate enough.  But to tell the truth, Nina was so excited about the wedding
night, she had a hard time eating her wedding dinner.  As the sun slowly sank over the horizon, everyone relaxed, listened to the soft music and enjoyed the good food and specialty cocktails.  Brock had vetoed champagne while Nina had disallowed beer.  Their compromise was a series of specialty cocktails in smaller glasses that allowed everyone to try different types.  It was all in memory of the chocolate, peppermint martini that Brock had downed that night in the bar and Nina laughed as he tried each of the mini-cocktails. 

The night was a wonderful, relaxing moment in time that Nina would cherish forever.  Because she was sitting next to Brock and his good friends, men who had become like brothers to her as well as Hannah, who was more like a sister than just a friend. 

Hannah and Nina watched as Brock, Colt, Walker and Sam walked over to the drink table again.  With a signal to the waiter who was standing behind the table, he pulled out a large bucket of beers surrounded by ice. 

The men all moaned with relief and grabbed a bottle, guzzling down the brew as if it were some sort of nectar. 

Hannah and Nina laughed, delighted with their men.  “Wouldn’t trade them for a cat,” Hannah sighed happily, even though she had two of them.  And a dog now.  A puppy Sam had gotten her.  Well, he hadn’t really gotten her a puppy.  He’d gotten her cats a puppy.  And the puppy absolutely loved to chase her lazy cats around the house.  The cats were having a ball trying to torment the puppy as well so it was a win-win on the animal front. 

“Yeah,” Nina laughed, tilting her head as Brock winked at her as the four men leaned against the buffet table, enjoying their beers.  “We need to get Walker and Colt settled,” she said out loud.

Hannah shook her head.  “I doubt Walker will ever settle down.”

Nina was intrigued. 
“Why not?  He’s extremely handsome, if a bit quieter than the others.”

Hannah shook her head. “I don’t know all the details.  Sam keeps those things pretty tight to himself, but something happened to that big guy. 
Something really painful.”

Nina didn’t like that.  Walker was a gentle giant.  He was strong and powerful, but with a kind nature that he hid behind a gruff, angry-looking exterior.  “He needs someone in his life.”

Nina nodded.  “Know anyone who wants a gentle giant?” she asked.

Hannah shook her head, but smiled over at the guys.  “You know, you can leave anytime,” she said.

Those words sparked a heat inside of her and she looked at Brock, who must have known she was looking at him and his eyes flared hot.  Even from several feet away with only the light of the tiki torches on the perimeter of their beach party and the candles on the table, she could see his reaction. 

And she loved him.  Every huge, bulging muscle and annoyingly domineering particle of the man, she loved. 

“Go,” Hannah whispered, then laughed when Brock walked over and took her hand.  A moment later, they had disappeared into the night. 

I apologize for any errors in the football comments.  I love watching football, but honestly, I watch it because my husband and son like it.  I don’t know the positions or names as well as I should so I researched the information contained in this story on the Internet, which, we all know, isn’t always accurate.  I also interviewed several people, but again, they weren’t experts in the field so their information might be off.  If any of it is incorrect, let me know and I’ll fix it.  Otherwise, I will continue in my ignorance and just enjoy watching the game simply so I can be with my family.  Thanks in advance! 

1 part Godiva Chocolate
liqueur

1 part whipped cream vodka (I just discovered this!
  Yum!)

1 part cream

1 part Crème de Menthe

Crushed peppermint candies to rim the edge of the glass or sprinkle on top

Adjust the proportions to your liking – I sometimes put less vodka into the drink.  Mix all the ingredients (except for t
he crushed candies) into a shaker filled with ice, shake and pour into a martini glass.  If you want to use the crushed candies, pour water into a dish, dip the top of the glass into the water, then into the crushed candies, then pour the mix into the glass. 

Note:  You can mix up a larger batch of these and put into a container to store in your freezer but leave out the cream.  The main martini will be ready whenever you want a special drink and you don’t need to bring out all of the ingredients.  Just add the cream in when you are ready to drink it.  Otherwise, the cream will freeze while the liquor won’t – and it clumps.  Pretty disgusting – trust me (I learned that the hard way!). 

Noticing the papers fly past his desk, Sam looked up.  “Not gruesome enough for you?” he suggested sarcastically.  Sam was Walker’s partner and one of his best friends.  They’d been through a lot together and normally Walker was the epitome of stoic emotional reserve.  He rarely showed any reaction beyond a twitch of his lips for mild amusement, or a glare indicating to the world that he might be slightly irritated.

That hadn’t always been the case, Sam remembered.  Over a year ago, Walker had been one of the happiest men Sam had ever seen.  He’d been walking on cloud nine with a ring in his pocket.  Sam and Walker usually hung out with Colt and Brock, two other detectives and good friends, but for several months last year, Walker had been MIA for numerous events.  They’d all been prepared for Walker to join the ranks of the married and bored, but something happened, something Walker hadn’t confided about to Sam but which had changed his whole personality.  And whatever that “something” was, it had been eating at him ever since. 

Walker glanced across the room and forced his temper back down, trying to ignore the anger that was eating at him.  “Report was fine.”  He paced behind his desk, obviously trying to make a hard decision. 

Walker looked at the incident report that was now laying on the floor like a rejected butterfly.  He could either ignore it or fix the problem.  Everything in him was telling him to ignore it.  He didn’t need that kind of pain in his life.  Not again.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t very good at ignoring things.  It went against his whole personality. 

Besides, he was very good at fixing things – relentless at investigating problems and resolving the issue.  He didn’t give up until he’d discovered not only the source of the problem, but also the best way to address the cause so it didn’t occur again. 

But fixing this problem meant contacting her again. 

After their last meeting, Walker had sworn he would never speak to her again.

He paced back and forth several more times, trying to tell himself to ignore the situation.  But the report said she was in trouble. 

Damn!  He shouldn’t care!  She hadn’t cared!  She’d callously betrayed him in the most elemental way! 

He should just walk away.  Pretend like he’d never seen the report. 

He didn’t see Sam reach down and pick up the report.  Didn’t notice when his best friend skimmed through the information.  But when the paper flipped, Walker braced for the questions, praying that Sam hadn’t spotted the name on that list.

Unfortunately, the odds of Sam Jeffers not noticing, not picking up on the issue, were pretty slim.  Nonexistent, actually. 

“This is the latest incident report,” Sam mentioned, sitting back down in his chair, both of them ignoring the obnoxious squeak as the metal hinges protested his large frame. 

“I just get irritated sometimes,” Walker said, moving towards his partner, about to grab the report out of Sam’s hands.  Unfortunately, Sam and Walker were about the same size – both enormous men who topped most of their colleagues by about a head or more.  Sam’s six foot three inch frame matched Walker’s just about exactly - which meant that Walker couldn’t grab the report out of Sam’s hands.

“Isn’t that…” Sam said, his startled eyes glancing up at his partner.  “Didn’t you date a woman named Amy Rossi last year?”

Walker stepped away, picking up another file, pretending to read it.  “Yeah.  What of it?”

Sam looked down, reading the rest of the report.  “Looks like she’s in trouble,” he said,
then glanced back up at his friend, wondering why Walker wasn’t rushing out the door to help the woman. 

“We’re homicide,” Walker snapped back, not bothering to look up from the report he was pretending to read.  “Not our area.”  Amy was Walker’s business and not up for discussion with anyone.  Not even Sam.

Sam looked up at his friend, startled.  Tossing the report down on his desk, Sam leaned back, his mind sifting through the small details Walker had revealed over the past year.  “So you’re not going to even talk to her?” he asked.

Walker rubbed his hand over his face again.  Help Amy?  Hell, he didn’t know if he could even talk to her much less help her. 

But she was scared.  Scared enough to have gone to the police. 

His mind thought back to her soft, grey eyes with that strange, yellow circle right around the iris. 
And her freckles.  Damn, he’d loved those freckles, he thought.  She’d hated them but he’d just teased her, kissing all of them and pushing her clothes out of the way with his nose so he could find more….

Sam smothered a laugh when Walker cursed again, still pacing.  The two of them had gone through a lot over the years, so Sam knew that this was huge.  “She’s probably scared out of her mind.  She’d probably feel better if you looked at the issue and offered some advice.”

Walker turned to glare at Sam, trying to restrain himself from flying out of their office and speeding across town to talk to Amy.  She wouldn’t appreciate it anyway.  She’d already told him that he didn’t need to bother with any of her problems.  She’d point blank told him that she would take care of the problem a year ago.  She could damn well figure out how to deal with this problem now.

But he probably shouldn’t have let her deal with the “problem” a year ago.  He should have tried harder.  He should have convinced her….

“Hell,” he grumbled and grabbed his jacket. 

Sam watched, wondering what was going in his friend’s mind.  Obviously this was a pretty significant issue, but what the origin of that issue was, Sam couldn’t fathom.

Walker stormed out of the police station, his mind going a mile a minute as he tried to figure out what might be happening to Amy.  As he drove to the school where she was a teacher, he gripped the steering wheel as if it were a lifeline. 

He parked in the parking lot, irritated that he hadn’t gotten there earlier.  The school buses had already left, which meant the kids in her class wouldn’t be there as a distraction. 
Which meant more time to chit chat.  Amy loved to talk.  And there had been a time when he’d loved to listen to her.  He groaned, thinking about her melodic voice with her sweet, Texas accent.  There had been a point when he would sit back, with her soft, full breasts pressing against his naked chest, just listening to her talk while he closed his eyes, enjoying the sweet moments after he’d made love to her while his hands were free to touch her soft, silky skin and her breath would tickle his own.  He’d loved those moments with Amy.  Hell, he’d loved all of his moments with the woman!  Until that one time….

Taking a deep breath, he forced his physical reactions back under his own control.  That had been something that had initially bothered him about Amy.  From the moment they’d first looked at each other in a coffee shop, they had been drawn to each other and she’d always had complete control over his body.  With just one of her “looks”, he would be hard and aching, his mind went completely blank while his body reacted to Amy’s soft, lush figure.  One touch from her and he’d be crazy to be inside of her.  Nothing else had mattered but Amy.  Nothing had gotten through his consciousness when she’d been around. 

Of course, he’d been just as much in control of her body.  He smiled as he remembered how she would beg him for release, crawling up his body, her soft, wet mouth…

Dammit! 

With a growl of fury, he slammed the door to his pickup truck, walking up to the elementary school until he was standing at the doorway.  Showing his badge, he gained admittance and quickly explained his mission to the receptionist. 

When she gladly offered to show him the way towards Amy’s classroom, he responded, “I know how to get there,” with forced politeness.

He walked down the long hallway, aware of an unusual quiet that was never there when the rooms were filled with students.  He saw a few other teachers walking the hallways, finishing up their days.  But everything was mostly quiet, silent. 

Reaching the front of her doorway, Walker stopped.  He was frozen in place while his eyes took in her soft, brown curls, cut short now.  They used to glide down her back, but they now ended just under her chin.  He used to love touching her hair, running his fingers through the soft tresses.  But he had to grudgingly admit that the shorter style looked good, made her neck look long and elegant.  Then again, just about everything on Amy looked elegant.  She was one of those classy women that just exuded an aura of genteel politeness.  As a tough and tumble guy who had been awkward with his height and muscles as a teen, her soft, kind mannerisms had drawn him in just as much as her all-seeing eyes and her lush figure. 

He now realized that her whole demeanor was a fraud.  She might look sweet and polite, but underneath all that was a heart of stone.  A cold, calculating woman who thought only of herself. 

So why the hell was he here?  Why didn’t he just walk away, find something to occupy his mind while some other officer dealt with the investigation of her stalker? 

He didn’t have an answer.  Just as had happened in the past, Amy was the one woman he’d never been able to ignore.  Her sweet, grey eyes could get just about anything from him, even if she’d just been trying to get a smile.

Not this time, he told himself.  She’d lost his respect when she’d….No more.  He was in control.  He’d just figure out who was stalking her and get her out of his life again.  They were no longer
dating, she wasn’t in control of his body or his mind.  No way was he going to go down that same path again.  Not with her.  Not with any woman.  Never again would he ever trust another woman.  She’d cured him of that weakness a year ago.

She must have sensed his presence because her whole body froze.  Even her bouncy curls stopped moving and her pencil froze above the papers she’d been grading.  As if in slow motion, she turned and looked at him as he stood just outside her classroom doorway.

Amy knew something was wrong.  For the past five minutes, she’d felt that crazy feeling that had only occurred when Walker was near.  But he couldn’t possibly be here.  He’d dumped her when things got messy.  Left her and simply walked away. 

In the process of putting a smiley face on one of her student’s papers, her fingers stopped moving and she turned her head, her eyes lifting.  And then his presence hit her.  Or more to the
point, kicked her in the stomach.  She could barely breathe, couldn’t think.  Wanted to run screaming from the building and find safety somewhere. 

Impossible as it seemed, Walker was standing there, staring at her just as he’d done so many times in the past.  Her desperate heart wanted to burst out in tears, to rail at him and pound his chest with all the anger and the fury, the fear of being left without him and his strength all those months ago.  She wanted to scream at him and claw his eyes, wishing she had the power and courage to hurt him as much as his abandonment had hurt her. 

But that wasn’t polite.  And it might give him too much information about how much he’d wounded her.  She’d never let him know how much he’d gotten to her, how desperately she’d needed him.  So instead of reacting instinctively, she took a deep breath to calm her racing heart.  She suppressed every emotion, and forced herself to look at him calmly, hiding all her pain and anger.

Objectively, she had to admit that he looked…fabulous.  There was no other word to describe him.  He was so tall, so amazingly strong and even that rough growth of his beard didn’t detract from the raw maleness of his presence. 

No man, before she’d met him or after, ever had the same impact on her senses.  She’d seen him in the coffee shop and hadn’t been able to move.  It had been a Thursday morning, and by Saturday night she was in his bed, finding both the most exhilarating freedom and thorough capture with his touch.  She’d been shocked by him, fascinated and overwhelmed.  And for three and a half months, she’d basked in his attention, thrilled at his voice and shivered when he touched her. 

She took a deep breath, pushing all those memories aside. 
Never again.  He’d shown his true colors.  When things got tough, when the world didn’t go exactly the way Walker wanted it to, he simply left.  Strolled casually away and ignored the problem.  Wouldn’t even discuss it. 

No, she’d never put herself in that position again. 

But she could still be a lady about the situation.  She had no idea why he was….oh no!  Had that other officer said something?  There was camaraderie among police officers, but she’d specifically asked him not to say anything!

“What are you doing here?” she demanded. 

Walker wasn’t surprised by her outburst.  He’d been expecting it.  And was actually amused by her anger.  “Hello Amy.  I hear you’re in a bit of a bind.”

She stood up and shuffled her papers together, wanting him to get out of her classroom.  It was normally filled with twenty-five eight year olds, which could be slightly chaotic at times.  But nothing could compare to Walker’s presence.  He filled the room not only with his size and muscles but with…him!  He was simply too big, too overwhelming.  Everything about Walker screamed “I’m here!” and she wanted to ignore him.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” she said as she stuffed her papers into her school bag.  She could finish grading them at home, not wanting to be anywhere near him.  She’d been staying at school for safety, not wanting to leave without the rest of the teachers who usually left shortly after the end of the school day.  But Walker changed all that.  The greater danger was inside now, not out there.  So what if some crazy stalker was trying to get to her?  Walker in her classroom, or anywhere near her life, was more dangerous.