Legal Heat (28 page)

Cunningham. Of course. Did Steele know she had been in touch with the Cunninghams too?

James checked his watch and headed for the door. “I don’t know what’s going on in this city. Nothing unusual for six months and suddenly I have bodies all over the place.”

“What about Katy and Kowalski? Any leads?”

James shook his head. “She may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I have my doubts. The suspect got Kowalski on the first shot. He was dead before he hit the ground. The witnesses said a second shot was fired as Katy fell. Why did he shoot again unless she was a target?”

“Maybe he wasn’t sure he had hit Kowalski the first time.”

James dropped his coffee cup in the garbage can and pushed open the door. “We’ve put a team on her kids twenty-four seven and when she leaves the hospital, she’ll have protection until we have someone in custody.”

Emotion welled up in Mark’s throat and he gave James a tight nod.

“There’s something else,” James said. “The private investigator we caught in the club last week had pictures of Katy on her camera. Any ideas?”

Mark’s stomach clenched. It had to be Steele. First an investigator and now a murder attempt. Steele hadn’t just crossed the line; he was half way into the end zone. He desperately wanted to tell James his suspicions, but his ethical duty of confidentiality protected Steele unless he had hard evidence. Steele’s comments in the boardroom could just have been idle threats.

“Mark?”

He shook his head. “I have a faint suspicion, but it’s nothing I can discuss.”

James sighed. “Even a clue? Katy’s life may be in danger. The PI might be connected to the shooter.”

“I’ll follow up on it as soon as I can, but I don’t want to risk implicating an innocent man and find myself at the mercy of the Law Society.”

James looked over at Katy, asleep in bed. “She’s one in a million. Don’t fuck it up.”

“Thanks for the advice.”

“It wasn’t advice. It was an order.”

Chapter Sixteen

“You didn’t have to carry me. I can walk perfectly well.”

Katy clung to Mark’s neck as he carried her into his apartment. Over the threshold. Like newlyweds.

“You’re supposed to rest.” He locked the door with her still in his arms.

Katy looked around the bright, spacious penthouse. The minimalist décor didn’t suit him. Stiff brown and tan leather sectionals, wooden cube tables and geometric prints. A few artfully arranged sculptures dotted the shelves and a massive brown granite island gleamed in the kitchen. Cold and impersonal. Unlived in and unloved. Still the view took her breath away. His penthouse took up the entire top level of the building. Floor to ceiling windows showcased Coal Harbor and Stanley Park only a stone’s throw away. “It’s…nice.”

Mark huffed a laugh. “It was a show suite. I didn’t have time to buy furniture and decorate it myself, and I’m rarely here except to sleep.” He jerked his thumb toward a massive wooden double door at the far end of the open-plan living space. “The bedroom is down that way, which is where you’re going to be spending the next few days. I called your babysitter and she’ll bring Melissa and Justin whenever you feel up to seeing them.”

Katy swallowed past the lump in her throat. “You didn’t have to do this. I have friends who could have helped out.” His care and compassion, and his easy acceptance of her children touched her deeply.

“People work.” He settled her on a carved wooden bench in the hallway and removed her shoes.

“So do you.” She had recovered all her memories, save for the day before the shooting. But Dr. Watson had been optimistic it wouldn’t take long.

“You’ll discover one of the benefits of partnership is not having to answer to anyone for your time. I don’t have anything pressing this week…unless you sent over another court application behind my back.”

Katy blushed and shook her head. She didn’t want to think about work, or the case. She felt safe here. Hidden away from the world.

A wave of fatigue hit her. Maybe she wouldn’t fuss about lying down after all. But she would have to borrow a shirt from Mark. All she had to wear were her clothes from the hospital. Steven had refused to pack her a bag and had forbidden the children from bringing her clothes.

She looked down at the faded cotton shirt the nurse had given her from the charity box to replace the shirt and jacket the paramedics had cut off in the ambulance. Not a very good match for her suit skirt. If she hadn’t been so desperate to get out of the hospital, she might have taken Mark up on his offer to buy her something to wear.

“What’s this?” She brushed at a flaking, dark brown stain on her skirt. Where had it come from? She hadn’t noticed it at the hospital, but then she had dressed as quickly as she could in case Steven found out she was leaving.

“Blood.”

Katy startled at Mark’s gruff tone, and a shiver crept up her spine.

“Blood?” She didn’t deal well with the sight of blood. Steven had always been the one to fix up major cuts and scrapes.

“The gash on your head bled a lot. Martin bled on you. Your shoulder…” His voice cracked. “There was so much blood…I thought you were dead.”

Her gasp echoed in the quiet apartment. “Martin?”

“He didn’t make it.” Somehow she had known the answer, but hearing it brought a wave of emotion to the surface.

Oh God. I’m covered in a dead man’s blood.

“Get it off! Get it off!” she shrieked, pushing herself off the bench. She struggled with button in the back. “Mark, please, get it off me,” she begged.

He crossed the hallway in a heartbeat, ripped the button open and slid the skirt over her hips. Then he scooped her up and carried her into a huge marble bathroom, cradling her in his arms while he turned on the water.

Less than a minute later, stripped bare, she stood under the warm, soothing spray of his enormous shower. Mark undressed and slid in behind her, pulling her down onto his lap as he settled himself on the marble bench. Under the soothing cascade of warm water, he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair.

For the longest time, they didn’t move.

Katy closed her eyes and felt her tension ease under the pulsing beat of the shower and the steady beat of Mark’s heart against her back.

She shifted on the bench, wiggling to find a more comfortable position. Mark gave a sharp groan and pulled her closer, his erection pressing firmly against her bottom.

Raw need replaced fear. Dr. Watson hadn’t said anything about avoiding sex. She wiggled again, slowly this time, grinding herself against his shaft.

Mark unlocked his arms and slid her forward, away from him. “This wasn’t such a good idea,” he rasped.

He trickled soap down her back and massaged gently, taking care to avoid her shoulder. Katy breathed in the familiar sandalwood scent and looked back at him over her shoulder. “Were you at the courthouse when it happened?”

“Up.” He helped her stand and placed her hands against the glass wall of the shower. All business, he rubbed shampoo into her hair and massaged her scalp until her eyelids briefly slid closed.

“I got there just after you were shot.” He rinsed her hair and then ran his hand down her back to cup her bottom.

“And James? Is he involved because of Martin?”

He bent down and lathered her legs with long, firm strokes. “He asked his sergeant to take on the case as a favor to me.” He rubbed toward her inner thighs, and her insides tightened. She must be well on her way to recovery if all she could think about was sex.

“Mark?” Her voice was soft, questioning.

“No.” With a gruff bark, he shoved her legs together and pulled her back against his chest. Soapy hands smoothed over her stomach, around her ribs and across her hips. She lifted her arm, drawing his attention to her breasts.

A sharp pain quelled her arousal.

“My shoulder.” She pointed to the huge wad of bandages covering her left shoulder and upper arm. “Should I be in the shower?”

“Probably not, but Trixie is coming over later to change the dressing. Just keep it still.” He cupped her breasts, sliding his slippery fingers around them in a satin caress. How could anything feel so good? Her head dropped back against his shoulder and his fingers teased her nipples into hard buds. Katy groaned in frustration.

“You can’t say no and then touch me like that.”

“I can do anything I want. You’re too weak to fight me.”

She couldn’t help but smile at the teasing note in his voice. “I’m not that weak. I’m pretty sure I could—”

“And I like the little sounds you make.” He nuzzled her neck and pinched her nipples again. Desire sizzled through her and she moaned.

“God. Just like that,” he whispered in her ear. He rubbed her breasts again, but without the soap the friction aroused her even more.

Her eyelids slid closed. “I need…”

“You need to be thoroughly washed. They only sponged you down at the hospital and they didn’t get off all the blood.”

He lifted her knee and placed it on the bench. “Open for me, sugar.”

Katy parted her legs and his fingers slid through her wet folds, with a teasing, feather-light touch.

“Stop. Mark. You’re torturing me. Haven’t I been through enough?”

“So hot and wet.” His words, and the rough edge to his voice, sent her arousal soaring out of control.

Using her own moisture, he stroked his finger over her swollen clit. Katy struggled to stay still but her hips tilted, straining to his touch. She yearned for release and the mind-numbing pleasure of climax under his sensual fingers.

“Mark…” She leaned back and pressed herself against his hot, hard shaft.

“Okay, we’re done.” He turned off the shower and stepped outside.

“We’re done?” Water beaded off her heated skin and she shuddered with the ache of unfulfilled need. “I don’t want to be done.”

“Out.” He held up a fluffy towel and she stepped onto the bathmat—beige, like everything else.

“But…I need you,” she groaned.

He dried her completely and with a brusque efficiency that made her head spin. “You’re just out of the hospital. You need rest.”

“What was that in the shower?”

“Me being stupid.”

She huffed out a frustrated breath when he lifted her in his arms and carried her toward the bedroom. “I’m not broken.”

“You will be if I don’t put you to bed.” He pushed open the double doors to reveal a modern, low-rise bed with a massive padded leather headboard. Very masculine. Very bachelor. Very big for one person.

He threw back the blankets and settled her in the bed. Katy moaned with disappointment when he drew the sheet over her, covering her with excruciating gentleness.

If he noticed, he didn’t say. Instead he tucked the blankets around her, adding a thick feather comforter so heavy and warm her body melted into the mattress. The silk sheets slid decadently around her, and the slick touch on her sensitive flesh almost sent her over the edge.

“Don’t go,” she whispered as sleep overcame desire.

“I’m not going anywhere, sugar.” He climbed on the bed and put his arm around her, holding her tight as she drifted away.

Mark paced up and down the hallway outside his bedroom. Trixie had come and gone and Katy had fallen asleep after her dressing had been changed. He had managed to distract himself with work for a few hours, but he could no longer resist the pull of the beauty in his bed.

An unfamiliar peace had settled over him when he realized he would have her all to himself. Here nothing could come between them. He could indulge his desire to look after her. Protect her. Hold her.

He pushed open the door, stripped down to his underwear, and lay down on the bed beside her. He had done her no favors by allowing his needs to spill out of the courtroom and into their personal lives. But after almost losing her, he was glad he had taken the risk.

He drew back the covers and trailed his fingers between her breasts and over her stomach to her bare mound with only the lightest of touches. So beautiful. Her skin glowed in the moonlight streaming through the window. He circled each nipple, delighted when they pebbled beneath his touch. So responsive. Even in her sleep.

He should leave her alone. Let her rest. But his body refused to move.

She whimpered and he realized his fingers had been rolling and pinching her nipples of their own accord. He slid his hand between her legs and ran a finger along her folds. So wet. For him.

Trixie, with her usual lack of inhibition, had informed him he wouldn’t hurt Katy if he wanted to take advantage of having her captive in his apartment. But he had to be gentle.

Gentle.

It had been a long time, but he could do gentle.

Katy stirred and he leaned over and ran his tongue in light circles around her nipples before taking one in his mouth and sucking it into a hard peak.

She awakened with a gasp. “Oh God.”

“No, sugar, just me.”

Her eyes, when they focused on him, were half lidded with sleep and the stirring of arousal. “What are you doing?”