Before Sunrise (15 page)

“Have you eaten?”

“No time,” he murmured.

“We have pizza,” she said. “Drake brought it. He said you'd be hungry and you wouldn't feel like going out.”

He turned his head and looked at her. “Did you encourage him to think that?” he mused.

She smiled. “I knew you'd be tired,” she said. “Joseph, sit with Daddy while I fix his supper, okay?”

“Okay, Bee-bee,” Joseph murmured. He crawled up next to Cortez and patted his chest. “Hello, Daddy!”

“Hello, son.” He pulled the child into his arms and kissed him lazily. “Have you been a good boy?”

“Been good boy,” Joseph agreed, smiling widely.

Watching them together, Phoebe was amazed. She'd never been able to picture Cortez with a child, but he was a natural at parenting. He loved the little boy, and it showed. The feeling was obviously mutual; anyone could see how much Joseph loved his father.

Cortez felt her scrutiny and glanced at her with a grin. “Didn't know I had it in me, did you?” he murmured dryly.

“I haven't said a word,” she protested.

She opened the pizza box and took out two hot slices of pizza, lobbing them onto a paper plate. “What do you want to drink?”

“Do we have a beer?” he murmured.

“You drink beer?”

“Once in a while, when I'm really wired,” he confessed, throwing his legs off the bed. “It's been a long day.”

“Yes, it has,” Phoebe agreed as she handed him the plate and the beer from the minibar.

She climbed back onto the bed with Joseph while Cortez sat at the desk and ate his pizza. “The so-called schoolteacher who came to see me this morning was an impostor,” she said.

The beer stopped at his lips. “What?”

“I backtracked her to the elementary school, but the woman I asked for was a stranger. She's never been to our school. They don't know who the woman was.” She grimaced. “She asked where we got our effigy figure and mentioned a recent robbery at a big museum in New York. She actually told me that the figure looked like one that was stolen.”

He scowled. “Did she say anything else?”

“No, but I traced the art dealer who sold us the effigy figure a month ago, too. He had a bogus business card. There's no such gallery and no such person.” She hesitated. “I told her I'd know the dealer anywhere if I saw him again.”

He put the beer bottle down hard.

“I know, it was a stupid thing to do,” she confessed. “But at the time I thought she was a schoolteacher. She even said she wanted to talk to him about buying some pieces to exhibit in the school.” She brushed back her hair nervously, feeling like a prize idiot. She was scared, and it showed.

“You couldn't have known,” he said softly. “Come here.”

She went to him and he pulled her down onto his lap and bent to kiss her gently. “We all make mistakes. Even big shot FBI agents like me,” he added with a warm smile.

She smiled back and bent to kiss him back, enjoying the sudden intimacy of their relationship. She already felt as if she were part of him.

“Bee-bee kissing Daddy!” Joseph laughed.

Phoebe lifted her head and grimaced. “Little pitchers…” she mused, glancing at the laughing child.

“…have big ears,” Cortez murmured. “And even bigger eyes.”

She got up and went back to Joseph. He hugged her and kissed her cheek. “I kiss Bee-bee, too!” he laughed.

She kissed him as well, hugging him close. “You heartbreaker,” she accused.

Cortez chuckled at the byplay as he finished his food. “I'm going to have a quick shower, if you can handle
Joseph,” he told Phoebe, loosening his long hair from its neat ponytail.

“I certainly can,” she assured him. “I'm reading stories about the Cherokee to him.”

He gave her a hard look. “Comanche stories would be more appropriate.”

“Don't have any,” she replied with a sigh. “This isn't exactly Comanche territory,” she added ruefully.

He smiled. “Point taken. I won't be long.”

He took off everything but his slacks on his way into the bathroom, and Phoebe did her best not to stare when the shirt came off. He had an amazing physique, muscular and tanned and sexy. His broad chest was lightly covered with hair.

He noticed her rapt look and turned toward her with an eyebrow lifted.

She needed an excuse to be gaping at him. She cleared her throat. “We were taught that Native Americans didn't have hair on their faces or chests.”

“My great-grandfather was Spanish,” he reminded her with a wry smile.

“I forgot.”

He studied her almost hungrily, with black eyes that coveted her trim figure under the neat jeans and long-sleeved, yellow V-neck sweater. It matched her blond
fairness. “You look pretty good yourself, Phoebe,” he said quietly.

She flushed and laughed self-consciously. “Pull the other one.”

He moved toward her, reaching down to lift her up off the bed and into his arms. “You don't have an ego at all, do you?” he asked huskily. “You're devastating, Phoebe,” he added, his eyes dropping to her mouth. “Irresistible, in fact.”

She opened her mouth to speak and his lips came down to cover it, teasing her lips apart even as he caught her hands and smoothed them into the hair over his chest.

“Daddy kissing Bee-bee!” Joseph piped up.

Cortez let Phoebe go at once, laughing uproariously. “So much for privacy,” he mused, moving away. “Wrong time, wrong place.”

Phoebe watched him go with a frantically beating heart. It was the first time she'd touched him like that, and her body throbbed with unexpected needs and longings.

“Story, Bee-bee!” Joseph said insistently, sitting in the middle of the bed with the storybook Phoebe had been reading from. The print was extra-large, a good thing because her reading glasses were back on her desk at work.

She plopped back down on the bed. “Right,” she
said, smiling as she gathered him up onto her lap. “Come here and we'll finish this up!”

 

T
HERE WAS A CARTOON MOVIE
on, which Phoebe watched with Joseph while Cortez worked at his laptop computer on the Internet. He didn't speak, but his hands were busy. Phoebe found herself watching him covertly while he worked. His long, thick black hair was loose and clean. He was wearing a black T-shirt with black sweatpants and bare feet. He looked very sexy.

Joseph dozed off and Phoebe tucked him gently into bed, lying down beside him while Cortez continued with his work.

There was a light tap on the door much later. Cortez opened it and Tina stuck her head in.

“Sorry I'm late, there was a crowd!” she whispered, glancing past him to Phoebe and Joseph. “I can take Joseph back with me…”

“Joseph and Phoebe will be staying in here,” Cortez said quietly. “I've got some things to discuss with Phoebe. Joseph can bunk down with her in the second bed.”

Tina gave him a curious look. “Something's happened, hasn't it?” she asked worriedly.

“Yes,” he replied. “You lock your door and if you hear
anything out of the ordinary, you bang on that wall as hard as you can. Got that?”

She grimaced. “Drake said something was going on, but he wouldn't tell me what. You're not going to, either, are you?”

“I can't, honey.” He smiled. “Did you have a good time?”

Her eyes were dreamy. “Yes. He's really nice.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “What about the policeman in Asheville?” he teased.

She grimaced. “Ouch!”

“Sorry,” he replied. “Don't sweat it. You're single.”

“Yes, I am,” she said uneasily, and with a covert glance at Phoebe, who didn't see it. “But Drake and I are just friends,” she added quickly.

“Of course,” he agreed.

She peered past him and waved at Phoebe, who waved back. “Does she know she's staying with you tonight?” she whispered to Cortez, because Phoebe was watching the movie and not paying much attention to the conversation.

“Not yet,” he confessed with a chuckle. “But she'll be fine. I'll loan her a T-shirt.”

Grinning, Tina said good-night and went back into her own room.

 

W
HEN THE MOVIE WAS OVER
, Phoebe got up and turned off the television. She glanced over at Joseph, who was sleeping soundly in Cortez's double bed. “I suppose I should go to bed,” she began, oddly reluctant to leave.

Cortez left the computer and got up to tower over her. “I told Tina I'm keeping you in here tonight. You can have the other bed. I've got an extra T-shirt.” He smiled gently. “Considering the difference in our sizes, it should reach down to your knees.”

She searched his black eyes quietly. “What do you know that I don't?”

“Drake remembered seeing a black SUV parked at the end of your driveway the day he taught you to shoot,” he said.

“Yes,” she replied at once. “I meant to mention it, but the man inside was looking at a map. I assumed he was a lost tourist.”

“The murder suspect drives a dark SUV, Phoebe,” he replied. “And you're the last person who spoke with the murder victim.”

She whistled softly. “Oh, boy.”

“It could be worse,” he said. “But you've got plenty of protection, as it happens.”

“I shouldn't have mentioned the art dealer to that
bogus teacher,” she said miserably. “Or told her that I could pick him out of a crowd.”

“Curious that she'd mention a robbery to you,” he replied, eyes narrowing in thought. “Maybe she was in league with the pothunter and now they're having differences of opinion. She might have meant for you to give his name to the authorities and implicate him.”

“No honor among thieves?” she wondered.

“It depends on how much money's at stake, from my experience,” he told her. “If he's a thief, he might also be a murderer. Maybe she's involved and she doesn't want to be charged an accessory to murder. Life in prison wouldn't appeal to many women.”

“Truly.”

He went to the dresser, opened a drawer and pulled out a clean black T-shirt. He handed it to Phoebe. “I've got a little more work to do. Why don't you climb in with Joseph and try to get some sleep?”

“Is the alarm clock set?” she wondered.

He nodded. “I'll make sure you get to work on time,” he promised

“Thanks.”

She went into the bathroom and had a quick shower before she dried her hair with the motel hair dryer and pulled the tee shirt over her clean body. It was so big that
it swallowed her, looking more like a casual oversized dress than a shirt. She laughed as she gathered up her clothes and went back into the other room.

Cortez was still concentrating on the computer screen. She gave him a hungry glance before she climbed in beside Joseph and pulled the covers over them both. The child curled naturally into her arms, his soft breath calming as she closed her own eyes.

Something woke her in the early hours of the morning. Joseph was sleeping on his belly on the far side of the bed. Cortez was sitting on the edge next to Phoebe, brooding as he looked down at her in the semidarkness of the room.

She rolled onto her back and looked up at him drowsily. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

“There's been another attack,” he said quietly. “I have to leave. I'm going to go next door and get Tina to come in here with you while I'm away.”

“Who's been injured this time?” she asked.

“We don't know yet. It's over at the Bennett construction site.” He leaned over her and brushed back her hair gently. “Call Drake and get him to drive you to work. I don't want you going there alone.”

“All right,” she promised. She reached up to his cheek and stroked it, loving the smell of his clean body in
the black T-shirt that matched the one she was wearing. “You be careful,” she added huskily.

He drew in a long breath and leaned down to put his mouth ravenously against hers. She melted into him at once, her arms linking around his neck as she opened her lips, inviting a deeper intimacy.

He had vague regrets for the innocence she'd lost because he'd betrayed her, but perhaps it wasn't so bad that she was experienced. Their first time wouldn't cause her any discomfort.

With that in mind, his hands slid under the T-shirt and pushed it out of his way as he brought her closer. He paused to strip off his T-shirt before he kissed her again and drew her bare breasts against his naked chest in an agony of pleasure.

“Jeremiah,” she exclaimed, shaken at the contact.

His big, lean hands slid up and down her bare back, smoothing her closer as he built the kiss hungrily. “I love the way your breasts feel against me,” he bit off against her mouth.