Undercover Lovers (31 page)

“
I love you, Trina,” he
breathed the words, a harsh vow she couldn’t possibly comprehend.
But that wasn’t the point. The point was knowing he’d accepted it.
And that it would never, ever change.

***

Trina lay in the circle of
Cade’s arms, his breath warm and soothing against her neck. For the
better part of an hour, he’d been resting behind her as if
everything in the world were finally at rights while she stared out
into the shadows of the cabin, her mind whirring with thoughts she
couldn’t stop.

Even in sleep, his strength,
his very character, made her feel safe, but she still couldn’t
lower her guard. She stared at the door, waiting, worrying that
she’d somehow been followed. That they might have tracked her, that
she’d brought death to his door. But no one would knock on this
door mere feet from where they lay. Because, from what Cade had
told her over the last year, no one even knew this cabin had been
built. This was his special place, the land purchased with the old
cabin already built by a former recluse he knew from the military.
That had been part of the reason he’d accepted the job in Marketta,
only two hours drive from this small piece of heaven. He didn’t get
up here as often as he’d like, either, so no one would think to
find him here. Which made it safe as it could be.

That’s why he loved it so
much.

He told her once that he’d
spent months up here alone after his time in Afghanistan. Trying to
find some peace. She remembered asking him if he’d ever found it.
His steady gaze, full of something she’d been too afraid to
decipher, locked on her face and he simply said, “Not
yet.”

She’d felt the same way
tonight when he’d said he loved her. Overwhelmed. Undeserving. A
fraud. She hadn’t known what to say at all, and to make it worse,
he seemed to have enjoyed making her speechless. The smile across
his face, God, she’d never seen anything more amazing. She knew,
looking down at him from her perch on his lap, that this was the
man he was before the war. Still intense, but open. Comfortable in
his skin. The kind of man who knew exactly who he was and what his
place was in the world.

How did you not kiss a man
like that until neither of you could stay upright any longer?
Simple. You didn’t. She’d held him while they touched, caressed and
just savored the intimacy of being together. Finally spent, he’d
drifted off. Leaving her to spoon herself against him and think.
Think about how very close it all had come to being a completely
different night. If Frank had had his way, she’d have been
brutalized and probably beaten to within an inch of her life. Shana
would be dragged back to Marketta to pay with her blood for her
betrayal.

Cade would be
dead.

She swallowed now, the fear
that had ridden her still strong enough to form a knot in her
throat and try to strangle her. If she hadn’t remembered every
conversation they’d ever had—played them over and over again in her
mind when the longing to be with him got too strong—she’d never
have found her way up here. Even then, it had been freak cosmic
luck she’d made it in one piece because coming had been an act of
sheer, unadulterated panic.

She’d had to come. Anything
to prove to herself that what Frank had told her, words he’d
enjoyed almost as much as his sucker punch when she’d walked into
his bar, wasn’t true.

Her hands tightened on his
arms around her now. Cade still didn’t know. He had no idea that
Frank knew the truth about Shana’s escape. That the contract on
Cade’s life had the entire band of bikers and several of his fellow
officers searching high and low all over Marketta for him. That the
small house he rented had already burned to cinders after an
explosion that had rocked more than the ground where she stood.
Watching that house burn, knowing he was supposed to be in it, her
entire world shattered.

She didn’t care about Frank
Carter or the cut bleeding down her side.

Wheels of Pain
didn’t exist.

The missing buyer meant less
than nothing.

The only thing that mattered
was making sure Cade Evigan was still alive. If he wasn’t in town,
in his house, then he had to be at the cabin. That was what she
told herself, again and again, racing against the road itself and
anything else foolish enough to get in her way. To get to him, to
find him in these dense woods, she’d followed the vague markers
he’d mentioned. Two miles north of the junction. The little hill
beneath the highest peak in the skyline. The sun rose right across
his bedroom window, which meant it had to be on the east face of
the mountain. Her heart was in her throat when she’d actually found
the log home. She’d had to choke back tears at his cranky,
oblivious cursing because of her desperate knock.

And when he’d actually
opened the door?

She hadn’t fallen from blood
loss. The relief, God, the soul-filling relief at seeing his dark
scowl and that swirl of hair that fell over his forehead… There
were no words. None at all.

Truly, the last thing she’d
expected when she’d joined this operation was to uncover the love
of her life. To find a man with more integrity than he realized.
One who thought he’d lost his worth in a war he no longer
understood. It meant everything to her that she’d helped him smile
again. That she’d been able to lessen his loneliness, because he’d
done the same for her. That and so much more.

Cade restored her faith that
there were still decent people in the world. Two years undercover
with
Wheels of Pain
had tarnished that penny almost all the way through, but he’d
come along and she could breathe again. He reminded her that
she
was still a decent
person despite the things she’d seen and done on this assignment.
He was worth loving down to the bottom of her soul. Worth
protecting, with her life if need be.

All she had to do now was
keep him in the cabin for another twelve hours, if not more. By
that time, Daniel should have gotten her message and roused the
hornets’ nest. DEA agents would be flooding Marketta along with the
state police, ripping the place apart. With any luck, he’d have
whatever it was that Shana took, but if he didn’t, they could still
arrest most of the
Pain
bikers for assault on a federal agent and the attempted murder
of a police officer. If Cade could be safe here until all that
happened, she’d be his seducer, his damsel in distress, his
anything-he-wanted. Anything at all, so long as Frank Carter had no
chance to upgrade his
attempted
into a
confirmed
.

Cade shifted, pulling her
tighter against him, breathing deeply at her nape. Even asleep, he
was so damn happy to have her with him. Would things have gone
differently for him if she hadn’t been here when he came to
Marketta? If she hadn’t given into her selfish desire for him, time
and time again? He’d had opportunities to leave. To put Frank
Carter and his band of rapists and killers in the rearview mirror,
but he hadn’t gone. Because of her? Maybe. And now that maybe might
just get him killed.

No. Not if she had anything
to say about it. She might be trapped in a corner until backup
arrived, but she wasn’t without resources. Wasn’t without hope.
They’d both survived for a reason. They’d finally come together the
way they should have from the beginning. On equal footing. Not the
cop versus the convict. Not the agent with too many secrets and the
man with too many regrets.

She lifted his heavy hand to
her lips, pressing a determined kiss to his open palm. He wouldn’t
remember that she’d done it. Wouldn’t hear her whispers as she made
promises she wasn’t sure she could keep. Well, most of them anyway.
Things like leaving DEA to settle down with only a few guns and a
Ducati to feed her wild side if he’d let her stay with him.
Offering him a family, if he was ready for one, or they could wait.
Whichever.  She even promised to do his laundry every now and
then. So long as he didn’t expect her to put it away. But in the
midst of her imaginings about a happily ever after she seriously
doubted she deserved, one promise was real. One promise was a vow,
never to be broken.

“
I love you too, Cade. And I
swear to you, I’ll kill every single one of those bastards before I
let them hurt you.”

The only question left, as
she finally fell into troubled sleep, was whether or not she should
tell him the rest of the truth.

If there were two things
Cade knew about the sleeping woman spread out across his bed like a
flat sheet, it was that she was still keeping something from him
and that she had an absolutely fantastic ass.

He leaned back in his chair,
drinking his coffee and watching her over the rim of his mug,
trying to decide which one was of highest importance to
him.

From this angle, he had to
go with the latter.

Sometime in the night, she’d
mostly shrugged out of his shirt, which she hadn’t bothered to
button either, so her lightly tanned shoulders were bare. The shirt
draped her back, rucked up here and there until the hem just made
it over the curve of her butt. She had one knee drawn up, the other
straight, which created the most intriguing shadow where her thighs
met. He’d spent twenty minutes already, deciding his approach and
not coming to any solid conclusions. Either he was going to walk up
to the side of the bed and run his fingers along the crease at the
very bottom of one succulent cheek or he was going to climb up the
foot of the bed and investigate that shadow. With his
tongue.

Decisions,
decisions.

“
Stop looking at my ass.”
The grumble from under the pillow was grouchy, yes, but that didn’t
bother him nearly as much as the hand trying to pull the shirt hem
further down her body.

“
Can’t.”

“
Why not?”

He didn’t bother to stifle
the chuckle that rose up his chest as her attempts to snag the
shirt end turned into a flapping fight to get her fingers free from
the loose cuff of the sleeve. Didn’t she realize when she arched to
reach back, she was lifting up and giving him a view that could
make an atheist believe in God? “It’s a male imperative. Man sees
the Promised Land, nothing short of death is keeping him from
staring at it.”

Her inelegant snort relayed
her opinion of that right quick. She gave a slow shimmy of her hips
for him though, before rolling onto her back and righting the folds
of her shirt into some semblance of order. Unfortunately for him,
that meant tucking the tails between her legs and killing his
excellent view.

Ah well. He went back to
drinking his coffee, content to watch as she maneuvered herself
into a sitting position against the headboard. Finger combing her
hair did almost nothing for it, the black masses swirling down and
around her shoulders. He let her get comfortable, still enjoying
the simple fact that she was there. Especially since she was
probably going to be pissed off in the next couple of
minutes.

“
So.” He refreshed his mug
with the rich brew he could practically see her nose twitching for.
“Which bastards were you talking about?”

Slim black brows rose in
question, her gaze darting to his for a whole second before
skittering away. “Wh-what?”

A deep draught of the
coffee, even if it burned the hell out of his tongue. What was a
little burn in his mouth compared to the inferno in his gut at the
knowledge that she was still lying to him? “You know, last night.
When you were telling me you loved me, offering me your firstborn
and years of freshly pressed laundry.
Those
bastards.”

Her mouth pursed, but she
still didn’t look at him. Just crossed her arms under the breasts
she’d let him lick and suck and nibble all he wanted. Too bad the
buttons were done up, he could have gone for more Peek-A-Boo. “You
heard that, huh?”

He would have heard her
whispered declaration if he were dead. “I never miss an offer for
laundry.”

The corner of her mouth
twitched. “You’re such an ass.”

She had no idea. “Do me a
favor, Tee. Just tell me what’s really going on. I know you’re
still keeping something from me.” And she’d better tell him what it
was while he was still willing to let the omissions go.

He got a nervous glance for
that comment. Good, then she caught the subtext. “Or
else?”

“
Or else I’ll find another
way to get the answers out of you.” They still had a condom left.
The prospect of making her beg him to use it made this secret
keeping thing infinitely less irritating.

The feminine harrumph just
made him smile.

For some reason, her face
flushed and her mouth fell open.

“
What?” If he didn’t know
better, he’d think she was blushing. Because he’d
smiled?

“
Nothing.” Her teeth clicked
together. “But I think I liked you better when you were hard
up.”

“
Don’t worry, I’m sure
you’ll get me back there soon enough. ‘Til then, talk.”

She finally glared at him,
her gaze heating up with temper. “About what?”