A Little Harmless Submission 6 (13 page)

He was looking at the screen. “It’s asking if you want to save the document.”

Crap
. Didn’t she shut it down? It had made the shutdown sound. “I’ll take care of it.” Before he could figure out what it was—or at least she hoped so—she stepped in front of him. The document was there, waiting to be saved. She saved it then shut down the computer. “I’ll just grab my purse.”

“And an overnight bag. I don’t want to have to come back into Honolulu tonight.”

She raised one eyebrow and crossed her arms beneath her breasts. “What happens if I say no?”

He gave her a sardonic look. “I think we just covered that.”

Chapter Nine

By the time they were clearing the dishes, Rome was doing his best not to crawl up the wall. It wasn’t easy. Not with her in his house. He had a lot of little toys he wanted to use on her, and knowing they were just a few steps away, well, it was almost too much to take. He had been systematically touching her, trying to gain her trust in that area. He’d never known such a jumpy woman. Every little brush of his hand had seemed to get easier for her to take as the evening wore on and harder on him. He winced at the word choice. There was a good chance he would end up passing out from lack of oxygen to his brain.

He set his plate on the counter with a definite clink.

“You don’t have to do this,” he said, slipping a finger down her arm. She shivered but smiled at him.

“You cooked. Rule in the Callahan house was that the person who cooked didn’t clean up.” She turned the water on and started rinsing off the plates.

He leaned against the counter and watched her. It scared him how much this seemed normal, as if they had been doing it for years. Standing in the kitchen, the sounds of water hitting the sink, and watching her.

Rome cleared the lump that had formed in his throat. “And I take it you did most of the cooking?”

She chuckled, and he tried not to cross his eyes. God, even something as simple as a chuckle had him wanting to howl. Worse, it made him think of the way she sounded when she moaned his name. Dammit, where was his control? She was talking about her childhood, and he was thinking about just how much fun it would be to bend her over the counter and take her from behind.

She shook her head. “How very chauvinistic of you, Detective Carino.”

“It’s just hard to see Big John puttering around the kitchen.”

She glanced at him, amusement dancing in her eyes. “My father was an excellent cook. I know how to make a soufflé thanks to him. Mom was one of the worst cooks put on this earth. Her meatloaf was considered a toxic hazard.”

She was talking about her father on a personal level, something he had yet to hear from her. The few times she’d mentioned her father, it had been in the context of work.

“Your parents had a good marriage.” She looked up at him, surprise lighting her eyes. “I could hear it in your voice.”

“They did. There were a lot of people who thought they didn’t have a good marriage. But, they…clicked. They were so independent, but when they were together, you could see it. With Dad’s job, he was gone a lot, but they never seemed to have anything beyond the usual marital problems. Both of them had high stress jobs but they seemed to make it work.”

“Your mother wasn’t an FBI agent, right? What did she do?”

“Heart surgeon. She was considered one of the best in the country at the time. Still. You mention Selena Gutierrez Callahan in some circles and they know her name. A lot of her papers are still studied at the top med schools.”

He heard the pride in her voice and noted it was different than when she talked about her father. “But you didn’t go that way.”

She shrugged. “Not my thing. Too icky.”

He ignored the fact that she was an FBI agent, and she saw lots of icky things. He wanted to know more about her parents, about the people who raised her. “Then your mother died.”

She looked away and put his dish in the dishwasher.

“Maria?”

She looked up at him.

“What happened to your mother?”

She sighed. “They kept it out of the papers, but…one of Dad’s old cases. He escaped from a maximum security prison.”

“And?”

She didn’t say anything at first. He was almost afraid she wouldn’t tell him, but he waited and was rewarded. “He broke in the house and killed my mother. After that, Dad was never the same. He always saw it as his fault.”

“Where were you?”

“One of the reasons Dad blamed himself. We were at a hockey game. We stayed overnight in Vancouver then came back the next morning. It was something we did a lot because he was gone so much.”

“You two found her?”

She nodded. “The next morning. Symthson was waiting for us.”

“
Jesus
.” Just the thought of the scene she’d seen at the age of twelve sent chills racing through him. And he knew the Symthson case, knew the man had been a sadistic killer. He raped and tortured his victims before he finally killed them. “Your father killed him?”

“It was him or us. No choice.”

She said it matter of factly, and that was probably the only way she could deal with it. Seeing something like that would be horrible for an adult, but for her, it must have been horrific. He didn’t really know what to say. As a cop, he had handled all kinds of grief from victims, but this was different. It had never been so personal before. He barely knew her, but he felt the pain of her past as if he had known her at the time. He couldn’t even fathom what it must have been like for the two of them. Her father had been a proud man. To have lost his wife in such a way would have been almost too much to handle. Before he could think of something to say, she broke the silence.

“I think we need to cross-check all those officers on the cases. Something might click. And we need to look at Lisa’s altercation. It might be a red herring, but you never know.”

Her movements were brisk and economical, but he sensed the fragility beneath them. He slid his hand down her spine, and she looked up at him with a smile. It reached her eyes, lighting her up from within. He was beginning to realize that he really didn’t understand her. Three days earlier, he had judged her to be cold, but just this little glimpse into her background told him just how fragile she was. The hard exterior was there, but beneath it he knew there was a soft woman lurking.

“Yeah, why don’t we do that?”

She turned off the water and walked into the living room, and he followed her. Rome had a strange feeling that he would be doing this for a lot longer than either of them expected.

· · · · ·

Maria looked over the next report, then rubbed her eyes. The words were blurring together, and she couldn’t seem to make them make sense.

“What’s the matter?” Rome asked.

She glanced up at him and then back down at the report. “Just starting to get a headache.”

He smiled as he set down his papers and laptop and then slid onto the couch beside her.

“Turn.”

She realized she’d played into his hands, but she wasn’t going to fight it. Not when the reward was so wonderful. He settled his hands on her shoulders and started to rub her aching muscles.

“You sit bent over too much. I bet it has something to do with your height.”

She closed her eyes and relaxed fractionally. “How do you know that?”

“I have a younger sister almost as tall as you. When she was younger, she always hunched, but my mom always griped at her about it. When she’s tired, like you are, she resorts to it.”

Maria’s aching muscles relaxed under his ministrations.

“Why don’t we take a break?” he asked.

“What kind of break?”

“A hot bath. I’ve got this huge tub, and you could take advantage of it. Soak away some of these aches.”

“What would you be doing?”

He chuckled. “I’ll stay out here and work.”

That smacked of special treatment, and she could feel her spine stiffen. “That’s okay.”

He leaned forward to press his mouth on the side of her neck. “Maria, no one doubts you’re a top rate agent, at least not me. But you’ve been working on fumes since you arrived on Oahu. You need to take a moment, gather your thoughts. It might even lead to a breakthrough.”

She wanted to fight him. In the years she had been an agent, and basically since her mother died, she had always done her share. It was her way. Her father couldn’t handle everything himself, and he’d needed her. She’d had no choice when she entered the FBI. Any kind of slacking on her part would make her stand out in a bad way. She was not the kind of woman who sat by and let others do work. But even as she thought it, she knew she was already losing the battle. Inch by inch, she eased back against him as he spoke.

“Okay. Let me get my toiletry bag.”

He stood then held out his hand. She looked at it for a second. She was unaccustomed to such behavior. Rome might be a tough cop and an even tougher Dom, but he had the manners of a gentleman. It was as if he treasured her in some way she couldn’t comprehend. She didn’t think she would ever get used to him. She took his hand and let him help her up. He brushed his mouth over hers, humming as he did it. The vibrations tickled her lips and sent tiny little pulses of heat dancing through her blood. Then he was moving away.

“I’ll start the water. Takes a while to get hot.”

She watched him walk away, allowing her gaze to slip down his back. The jeans he’d slipped on earlier were worn and fit like an old ball glove. She sighed, partly because she couldn’t figure out how she ended up with such a delicious man, and partly because of his behavior. She knew he had been an infantry sergeant when he was in the Marines. He had fought, killed, and had several shootings under his belt as a cop. Not to mention he liked to order her around. She shivered at the thought and forced herself to get her bag. There was something so wonderful about the makeup of Rome Carino. Just when she thought she knew him, he surprised her. She wasn’t so sure she liked it. She found her bag just inside the door where she had left it.

As she walked to the bathroom, she thought of her earlier behavior. She never told anyone about her mother’s death. It was just easier to let people think her mother died in some kind of accident or of cancer. She’d learned long ago that allowing people to believe in that was easier than explaining what happened. With Rome, though, she seemed not to have any issues. His silence hadn’t hurt. In fact, just the small touch to her back did more than any words of condolences had done in the last sixteen years.

She stepped into the bathroom and realized he wasn’t kidding. She hadn’t been in there before and was mesmerized by it. Even the bathroom in her house back in the DC area wasn’t this wonderful. Light grey ceramic tile on the floor, red accents, a double sink vanity, and then there was the tub. It sat next to a wide ceiling-to-floor window. It was a claw foot and about three times the size of any other she had ever seen.

“Where did you get that?”

He smiled at her, and she tried to keep her heart from falling down at his feet. He had one of those smiles that lit up his whole face, including his eyes. There probably wasn’t a woman alive that could resist that smile. To keep herself busy, she placed her bag on the counter.

“It came with the house. It was the one thing that sold me. That and the kitchen.”

He was pouring in some kind of oil. It was lightly scented but not flowery, thank goodness. She really hated anything that reminded her of a garden. Instead it was almost masculine in the scent.

“Come here,” he said and held out his hand.

She did so without hesitation. Maria saw no reason to resist him. Even if she wanted to, she didn’t think she could. She was tired, and with the cozy warmth of the moist heat of the bathroom surrounding her, she allowed her entire body to relax. He tugged on the waistline of her jeans and pulled her in between his legs. She smiled when he slipped the button open and then tugged down the zipper.

“I thought you said you’d go back to work.”

He sighed. “I did, didn’t I? And if I see you naked, that isn’t going to happen.”

He looked so unhappy, she couldn’t resist touching him. She leaned down and cupped his face in both of her hands and gave him a simple kiss, barely brushing her lips against his. When she pulled back, he looked a little stunned.

“Rome?”

He said nothing as he looked at her. She resisted the urge to fidget, just barely.

“Is there something wrong?”

He shook his head. “No, love, there isn’t anything wrong. I’ll leave you to your bath.” He walked to the door then stopped, looking back at her. “Call if you need anything.”

She nodded and watched, perplexed when he shut the door and left her. What was that about? She sighed, knowing she wouldn’t be able to figure it out. She didn’t know the romantic nature of men. Fighting them, or beside them, that was easy. But trying to understand how their minds worked, that was just not her strong suit—not on this level. Hell, she didn’t understand what she was feeling, or how to deal with it. She decided she would be able to think better after a long, hot bath, just as Rome had suggested. She tugged off her clothes and sunk chin deep into the scented water, glad that for once she had followed some good advice.

· · · · ·

“Anything going on tonight?” Rome asked Micah over the phone. He could hear the muffled music in the background telling Rome that Micah was up in his office.

“Nope. Actually kind of quiet after your performance last night.”

Rome rolled his eyes. “I didn’t perform anywhere. I just laid the groundwork to catch someone’s attention. Did you have any problems with your employees today? Anyone call in sick?”

“No, like I said, a quiet night. I thought I would see you both here tonight.”

He bit down on his irritation. “We’ll be there tomorrow night. I figured it would be odd if we showed up tonight.”

Micah chuckled. “Yeah. Sure, tell yourself that.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You just didn’t want anyone looking at your new plaything.”

“She isn’t a plaything. I thought we went over this earlier today.”