Hot Secrets (18 page)

“You’re being an asshole,” she said. “Demanding and demanding.
You don’t get to demand. You ask, Royce.”

His eyes darkened, glinting dangerously. “You want me to ask?”
He skimmed his thumb over her panties. “How about this? Will you
come for me, Lauren? Right here, in your office?” He slid his
fingers under her panties and she gasped at the pleasure. “Does he
make you wet like this?”

“Stop it, Royce,” she gasped as his fingers pushed inside her.
“Stop.”

He reached up and tugged down her blouse, exposing her bra and
then her nipple, before leaning down and licking it. “Not until you
say you’re mine.”

“I’m not saying that. I won’t ever be yours if you’re this big
of an asshole.”

“I’m just making sure you know who is supposed to be fucking
you.”

She arched against his fingers, unable to stop herself. “I hate
how you’re acting.” She buried her face in his shoulder. “I hate
that you’re doing… this.” Her body clenched around his fingers,
pleasure rushing through her, defying her words.

The fingers of his other hand tangled into her hair, forcing her
gaze to his, her mouth a breath from his. He stroked her clit with
his thumb, pumping inside her. “I hate the idea of him doing this
to you.”

“He can’t do this to me.”

“Why?” he all but growled.

There was something in his voice, in his words, a vulnerability
that defied his demands, that reached into her and drew a response.
“Because he’s not you, Royce.”

He kissed her, hard and demanding, a fierce claiming that had
her moaning and giving into her need for him. Everything blurred
then turning to shades of pleasure. She couldn’t get enough of him,
she couldn’t even remember where she was. Only that she helped him
shove his pants down, welcomed him ripping away her panties, and
whimpered when his cock pressed into her.

He thrust into her, lifted her off the desk, and pulled her down
on him. She clung to him, hungered for him like she had never
another man, and yes, she came for him, just like he wanted her
to.

He shook with his release and then set her on the desk, burying
his face in her neck. Emotions rolled over Lauren and she didn’t
know what she was feeling. “Let me up,” she said, shoving on his
shoulders. “I need up. Someone could walk in.”

He lifted his head and looked like he would refuse, a moment
before he pulled a tissue from the box on her desk, handed it to
her, and pulled out of her.

Lauren quickly gave him her back to clean up. She snatched her
panties, shoved them in her desk drawer and fixed her shirt. She
turned to find him standing close, hands pressed in his
pockets.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I don’t know what the hell came
over me. I don’t want anyone else to touch you and I’m pretty sure
I just screwed this up in every possible way.”

The raw vulnerability in him she’d sensed minutes before reached
out to her, “I don’t want Roger. I don’t want anyone else, but if
you act like that again,” she hesitated, “I might come but I won’t
like it.”

His lips turned up slowly. ”You won’t like it?”

“Okay, I might like it, but I won’t be happy I liked it.”

He bit back a broader smile. “Do I dare believe that comment
means you forgive me?”

“Yes but”

He was holding her before she could add “Don’t go caveman on me
again.”

“Never?” he teased.

She brushed her fingers over his. “Maybe later tonight, but not
after that.”

He chuckled. “I can’t wait.”

And neither could she. It was time to face the very real
possibility that she’d gone and exposed herself to more than a
dangerous monster trying to kill her. She’d exposed her heart.
Lauren was falling in love with Royce.

Chapter
Seventeen

It was near midnight and Royce lay in his bed, Lauren snuggled
to his side sleeping, something he couldn’t seem to manage. Three
days had passed, and despite his caveman behavior at her office, as
Lauren often called it, or perhaps because of it, she’d changed,
let down her guard with him. She finally seemed to get how much he
was invested in what was going on with them. Any happiness he might
have arrived at from that was diminished by the torment of knowing
that he was failing to protect her, proven by the fact that every
day came with another calendar sheet delivered by what seemingly
was a damn ghost. One had been stuffed in a lunch bag from a
delivery to her office, but no one at the restaurant claimed to
have put it there. One had been on his truck window despite the
video footage that showed nothing. The final one had been left with
the security desk at her building, delivered by a little old lady
who disappeared, and was never seen again. And every single
delivery was a taunt that said “I can get to her whenever I want
to” and Royce knew it.

His cell phone started to vibrate on the bedside table and he
grabbed it, certain a call at this hour wasn’t good. Lauren’s head
popped up. ”What time is it?”

“Late,” he said, answering the call that the ID identified as
Bill Smith, the Senator’s staff security person.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, not bothering with ‘hello.’ He
untwined himself from Lauren to sit up, anticipating trouble and
heading to his closet.

“Senator Reynolds’ house is on fire.”

Royce stopped in his tracks. “How?”

“I’m not there yet but I’m being told it’s obvious arson.”

Holy hell. “Is everyone okay?”

“The senator certainly is, enough so that he’s yelling at me and
telling me I need to get my ass over here and start doing my job.
He wants you there. That’s an order.”

An order. Right. He didn’t even work for the man. “I’ll be there
in a few minutes.” He ended the call and dialed Luke, managing to
get his pants on while it rang. “Get over here, dressed, and ready
to leave. And get Blake down here to stay with Lauren.” He didn’t
wait for a reply, ending the call and reaching for shirt and
pulling it over his head.

“What’s happening?” Lauren asked, on her knees now and clutching
the blanket. “What’s wrong? Is everyone okay?”

Damn, he didn’t want to tell her this. He grabbed his boots and
headed for the bed. “No one is hurt.” He sat down next to her.
“Everyone is completely fine.” He quickly put on his boots and ran
his hands down his pants.

“But? I hear the ‘but’. What is going on?”

“I’m going to repeat this to make sure I’m making myself clear.
Everyone is okay but there has been a fire at your father’s
house.”

“What? How? Oh, God. I have to get over there.” She shoved away
the blanket and he shackled her arm.

“No,” he said. “You need to stay here. I need to know you’re
safe so I can deal with your father.”

“Why do you need to deal with my father? He’s
my
father.” She frowned. “Why did he call you?”

“That was Bill, his security guy.”

“I don’t understand. Why did Bill call
you
?”

He wasn’t going to lie to her. He hadn’t done so before now, and
doing so would only make her think worse of him later. “It’s
complicated. Too complicated to explain at this moment. I know
you’re worried but everyone is safe. It’s you who might not be if
you’re there, in the middle of all the chaos, where you’re an easy
target.”

“I don’t understand what’s going on.” She shook her head. “I…
what aren’t you telling me?”

“I promise you that I will explain everything when I get back.”
He caressed her cheek. “Please, baby. I’m begging you here. No
caveman routine. No demands.
I’m asking
.
Let me deal with this without worrying about you.”

“I don’t want to stay here.”

“I know. And I wouldn’t ask you to, not under these
circumstances, if I didn’t really feel like it was important.”

She considered him a long moment. “Fine. Yes. But only if you
call me when you get there. I want to know you’ve seen my father
with your own two eyes and that he’s really okay.”

“I will.” He leaned in and kissed her, and his gut clenched. He
hesitated, knowing this was the wrong time to tell her how he felt,
but afraid not to. She was going to find out about his deal with
her father tonight, he just knew it, and she was going to hate
him.

Knocking sounded front the front door and he silently cursed. “I
have to go.” He kissed her again and took off for the other room,
forcing himself to leave her.

***

Lauren walked to the living room, shoving her arms
in her red silk robe, only to come face to face with Blake. He
stood by the couch, fully dressed, his long hair wild and loose
around his shoulders, his eyes blurry with barely escaped
sleep.

They stared at each other several beats, before he
said, “Not the best circumstances to get to know each other, but
I’ve always found the best way to get past niceties and awkward
shit is food.” He motioned to the kitchen. “Want to go raid the
fridge with me?”

She sighed, surprised and relieved at how easily
he’d torn away the tension. “There’s leftover pizza but I get the
cheese slices.”

He grinned, his brown eyes friendly, warm.
”Deal.”

A few minutes later they sat at the coffee table,
eating cold pizza and drinking soda, both of them with their cell
phones lying on the table. “How’s your arm?” he asked.

“Much better. It’s going to scar but I can live with
that.” She dropped a piece of crust into the box. “Do you think the
same person set the fire?”

“Yes.” He sucked down some drink.

“You don’t candy coat things, I see.”

“Nope.” He reached for another slice of pizza.

“Aren’t you ATF or ex-ATF? Shouldn’t you be at the
fire?”

“I don’t know the people involved the way Royce and
Luke do.”

“You mean my father.”

“And the suspects.”

“What suspects.” Her stomach fell to her feet. “You
mean you think this involves me, don’t you?”

He moved the empty pizza box. “Don’t you?”

She swallowed hard. “I… I didn’t know we thought
the fire was intentional.”

“It was.”

The phone in the kitchen rang and Lauren started to
get up. “It’s not him,” Blake said. “He never answers that phone or
calls it. I don’t know why he has the damn thing.” He reached under
the coffee table and pulled out a deck of cards. “You’re not going
to sleep. We might as well play.”

“I wish he’d call.”

“He’ll call,” Blake said. “But once you get on a
scene things tend to get crazy.”

“What if he’s wrong and my father is hurt?”

He grabbed his phone. “I’ll call Luke if it will
make you feel better.”

“Thank you. Thank you, Blake.”

Luke answered almost immediately and Blake quickly
told Lauren, “Your father is fine. He’s currently yelling at Royce,
which is why he hasn’t called us.” He chatted with Luke a moment
and then hung up. “Before you ask, I have no idea why your father
is yelling at Royce. But yelling means he’s alive and kicking and
isn’t that all that really matters?”

“What if his house had been burned down because of
me? What if someone would have died?”

“Those things didn’t happen.” He studied her a long
moment. “Take it from me, Lauren. ‘What if’ will eat you alive.
Don’t do that to yourself.”

He was talking about what happened to his fiancée;
she knew he was.

He grabbed the cards. “Since we don’t have ‘Old
Maid,’ how about ‘Go Fish’?”

“Go Fish,” she said. “That’s a walk down childhood
lane. I’m in.” She’d do anything to keep from climbing the walls.
“Let me go put on some coffee first.”

Lauren headed to the kitchen and quickly started to
load the coffee pot, realizing just how comfortable she was here,
how at home she felt in Royce’s place. He felt right. They felt
right. She flipped the pot on and promised herself she wasn’t going
to read into what was happening tonight, or his promise to tell her
everything, that inferred he’d been keeping something from her.

The phone on the wall rang again about the time that
she reached for two coffee mugs in the cabinet, and it hit her that
it was the middle of the night. Who called at a time like this? Her
nerves prickled, worry filling her. When she would have headed back
to the living room, she just stood there, waiting on the machine,
certain the ticking clock had found her. The beep sounded and a
voice came on the line instead.

“Royce, sugar,” a female purred. “Donna here. Where
have you been, baby? Call me so we can do dinner or whatever else
you want to do.” Lauren clenched the cups, feeling her chest
tighten with emotion, a flashback of finding Roger in bed with
another woman turning into an image of Royce with another
woman.

“She’s no one, Lauren,” Blake said from behind
her.

She whirled around to face him. “That didn’t sound
like no one.”

“She didn’t even rate his cell phone number.”

“So that’s why he has a land line? For women.”

“He was single and he had no interest in long term.
You changed that, Lauren. You know you did. You’re upset tonight.
Don’t make this something it’s not.”

She didn’t know what she felt or what she thought. She only
knew that everything was spinning out of control, that she had no
control. She’d done what she’d never done in her life. She’d given
it all away.

She pushed off the counter and walked towards him.
“I’m going to my father’s house.” He blocked the exit. “Move,
Blake. I’m sick of you Walker brothers pushing me around.”

“He is crazy about you.”

She wasn’t going to cry.
She was not going to cry.
Her chin lifted. “You can take
me where I want to go or I can call a cab. Your choice.”

He scrubbed his hair. “Oh, well hell. He’s going to
take my head for this, but I’ll take you.”

***

The first thing Lauren saw when they rounded the
neighborhood corner were fire trucks, the next was her father’s
house still looking normal and in one piece. She let out a breath
of relief, especially since Blake had been desperately trying to
warn Royce and Luke that they were on their way, and he couldn’t
seem reach either of them.