Agent in Training (8 page)

She moaned with pleasure, signaling he was doing something right—a first with her.

The woman felt incredible and tasted even better. His head reeled and, his body came to life.

He inhaled, taking in her light flowery scent, pulling her closer. His tongue, tangling with hers, demanded more.

With his free hand, he reached down and cupped her bottom, drawing her up against his arousal––a groan escaped his throat.

Her hand slid down his stomach into his jeans and caressed him intimately.

Losing control, he pushed her up against the wall and rained wild, wet kisses over her delicious neck, then moved lower.

He pushed her T-shirt up and was amazed when he caught his first glimpse of her full breasts. They were incredible. Perfectly shaped, firm yet soft, large but in no way enhanced. Most of the woman he’d been with had work done there, but Shiloh was real and that was such a turn on.

He leaned down and licked her nipple, then brought it into his mouth. Her hands trailed through his hair, holding him to her. She moaned with pleasure as he sucked, drawing her deeply in, his tongue swirling around the tip.

Nick slid a hand inside her panties and was amazed to find, as his fingers played inside her, how slick, hot and ready she was.

A chirping noise penetrated his passion-induced brain, a noise that seemed to get louder and more annoying by the second.

Shiloh pushed at him, her eyes narrowing.

“What is that?” he rasped.

“Oh God. It’s my cell phone.”

She pushed away, then shoved him hard when he wouldn’t let go and raced to get to her purse. She pulled out her phone. The instant she did, it stopped chirping. After she punched in a sequence of buttons, her face paled.

“I have to go.”

She ran for the bedroom, leaving him standing alone.

Nick clenched his teeth, looking down at the front of his pants.
Damn
. What was he going to do with this? How could she just leave him in this state?

A few minutes later, Shiloh came back fully dressed, jumping into her second sneaker. She glanced his way. “I have to leave. I’ve called for a taxi. You can stay here or not. It’s your choice.”

“But, what—”

She raced out, not giving him a chance to finish.

Nick walked into the living room. Should he follow her?

No
. She wouldn’t appreciate that, and frankly, he needed distance right now.

Maybe it was best she got the call. This could have been the biggest mistake of his life if they’d continued. She might have expected some kind of commitment from him and he wasn’t going to give her that—ever. He was a free agent, and that was the way he liked it.

CHAPTER TEN

As Oak Haven loomed in the distance, Shiloh prayed her father was all right. She’d been told from day one, if the hospital ever called her it would be an emergency.

All kinds of horrible images came to mind. He could have wandered off, or gotten into a scuffle with another patient. He might have fallen down and hit his head or broken a hip. They’d never give her bad news over the phone.

She’d taken a cab to Ryan’s to pick up her car, then drove like a maniac to get there.

“Just let him be alright… Please, God.”

She pulled her Lexus into guest parking and quickly got out.

With her stomach in knots, she rushed to the side entrance and punched in her code. Inside, she raced for the elevator where she was met by a tall, reed-thin security officer.

“The hospital called. Something about my father, Ben Templar.”

“Do you have your card key?”

Shiloh dug through her purse and found the plastic card and handed it to him. While she waited for the elevator doors to open she thought about how fragile her father was. Anything could send him over the edge.

The doors opened and the security guard handed the card back to her. She rode to the fifth floor, her heart racing at a dangerous speed. If something happened to her father, she’d never forgive herself. After all, it was her fault he was here.

When the elevator doors opened, she dashed down the hall to the nurse’s station, searching for someone she knew. A young nurse sat at the circular desk, writing in a patient’s file.

“I’m Ben Templar’s daughter. They called me. Is something wrong?” Shiloh heard her heart pounding in her ears as she waited for the nurse to tell her something—anything to relieve her fears.

The nurse’s face changed from complete indifference to annoyance. “Yes. He’s been almost too much for us to handle tonight. We had no choice but to sedate him.”

Shiloh swallowed hard over the lump in her throat. “Why? What happened?”

“He was hysterical. Something about a man in his room, trying to smother him.”

Shiloh’s blood ran cold. “Did he say anything else? Did security see anyone?”

The nurse rolled her eyes. “No,” she said in a huff. “You do know that Alzheimer’s patients are sometimes delusional, right?”

“Yes, but I told security a man had snuck onto the grounds a few weeks ago and had upset my father, and that I wanted him watched more closely,” Shiloh said, purposely using a harsh, authoritative tone.

“We’re a hospital, Ms. Templar, not a maximum-security prison. We don’t have the resources to watch him every second. So unless you want to hire a private-care nurse to be with him around the clock, we can’t do any more than what we’re doing.”

Shiloh’s blood pressure soared. “Okay. Can I see him?”

“Of course. But don’t wake him. We’d hate to have to put him in restraints.”

Shiloh mentally calmed herself. How could they consider doing something like that to a man in his condition? First thing in the morning she was going to start looking for another facility for her father, even if she had to pound the pavement from one nursing home to the next. Clearly this wasn’t the best place for him.

They didn’t seem to care about him at all. Caring Heart, in Seattle, had been a Godsend, but obviously this facility was not up to those standards. She’d thought she’d done her research and found the best possible place, but now she realized she was wrong. If worst came to worst, she’d take him back to Seattle, and fly there on weekends to see him.

Quietly, she slipped into his room and noticed, even in sleep, her father’s face appeared troubled.

Tears blurred her vision as she stared down at him.

“Oh, Daddy, I’m so sorry for placing you in this awful situation. I promise I’ll find you a home that will care for you as well as Caring Heart did.”

She lightly brushed his cheek. “Did you imagine that man?” Somehow she didn’t think so. She sensed this imaginary guy was the same one who had torn up her apartment—the same one who’d sent the pictures.

But who was he? And why did he have it in for her and her father?

Shiloh dropped into the chair next to his bed and closed her eyes. Her life was such a mess. And to add to it, she’d almost slept with a man she could hardly stand to be in the same room with. Not to mention the fact that he was a subordinate and it was against regulations, and to add a cherry to the top of the calamity, he was way too young.

Though his hands and mouth hadn’t felt immature or restrictive in any way as they’d worked their magic on her body. The heat of his fingers inside her still had that part of her body yearning for more. His mouth, sucking at her breast was burned into her memory.

Nicholas definitely knew how to please a woman. She’d never experienced such overwhelming desire. Nothing like the almost ho-hum feelings she’d had with men before. A minute or two more in his expert hands and she would have had an amazing orgasm—no question about it. He’d had her so close to ecstasy she hadn’t even heard her phone at first, and even then she hadn’t wanted to stop… until her father’s face flashed in her mind, like a beacon in a storm. The image had been like a bucket of ice water pelting her system, instantly squelching any passion.
Thank God
!

What was she going to say to Nicholas the next time she saw him? Would he treat her differently? Would he expect to continue where they’d left off?

She sighed. The stress of the day left her completely exhausted.

Why had she allowed her body to overrule her common sense? Clearly, desire was a strong force, but it had been foolish to get sexually involved with Nicholas Trent. Now she was going to have to tell him it had all been a big mistake and could never happen again. Blame it on the alcohol, or a momentary weakness on her part. She trusted he’d understand, and not cause a problem. She had enough to deal with right now without moving him higher on the list.

Nick closed the folder on his desk and rubbed his eyes. He rose to put the file into the cabinet. He was sick of paperwork. Would he ever get assigned a real case again?

“Hey Trent, you hear the one about the blond surfer-boy and the Ice Princess?” Gary Freeman leaned against his desk, arms crossed over his chest, a stupid grin playing on his lips.

Nick scowled. “No. You trying to get at something, Freeman?”

“What would I be trying to get at? But now that you mention it, a friend over at the Washington Police Department said you were at the director’s apartment the night she had that break-in. What’s going on? Are you Templar’s boy-toy now?”

Nick’s stomach knotted, and he fought to keep his temper in check. All he needed on his record was an altercation with another agent.

Freeman continued. “There’s nothing wrong with getting a little inside action, mind you. After all, she does have a nice rack.”

“You’re a creep, Freeman. Don’t you have a hole you could go crawl into?”

“No, but apparently you do. How is it, anyway? Is the director as hard-assed in bed as she is everywhere else? Do you jump and pump when she tells you to?”

“Go to hell, asshole.” Nick had to escape before he pounded this guy’s head into the ground.

He stalked out of the office and stormed to the elevator, fuming. He slammed his palm on the down button and the doors instantly opened. He couldn’t believe Freeman would have the balls to come straight out and say what he did. Boy-toy? Yeah, right.

Instead of the elevator going straight down as expected, it went up and stopped on the eighth floor. The doors slid open and Shiloh stepped inside, her eyes on the brochure in her hand. When she looked up and saw him, her face paled.

“Director,” he acknowledged, though he really hadn’t wanted to. He’d been trying to avoid her all week and had done a pretty good job… until now. With rumors circulating about them, he’d definitely have to try harder.

“Agent Trent,” she responded, then turned to look at the elevator doors.

What the hell? Was she ignoring
him
? Was she upset he hadn’t called her after their night together?
Women
. You never knew what they were thinking, and to reason with one was virtually impossible.

The author that wrote the book
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
had obviously been a genius. Women were definitely from outer space as far as he was concerned, and he sure as hell didn’t understand their alien dialect.

Freeman’s words came crashing back to anger him further. Did everyone think something was going on between him and Shiloh? Well, there wasn’t. Nothing had happened. Not really.

Nick shook his head in disgust. What kind of respect would he get from his fellow agents after Freeman got through with him? Why had he even taken her to her apartment? It was just plain stupid. But it was too late to second-guess his actions now and in the end he’d done the right thing even though it violated all his rules concerning women. Especially women bosses.

“Were the WPD able to find who that print belonged to?” Nick wasn’t sure why he asked, but for some reason, he wanted to know.

“No, not yet.” She hadn’t even bothered to turn and look at him.

Nick balled his fist in anger. Her attitude pissed him off, especially now that he was going to be linked sexually to her around the water cooler. Was she embarrassed about their almost-night together, or was she just being a hard ass as usual?

Either way, he didn’t like being dismissed so easily. After all, he’d touched her in places where probably no normal man had gone before. At least now he knew why. But for some stupid reason he’d thought that because he had been with her intimately, she’d be different around him now.

No such luck.

“Did you tell them about the threatening pictures?”

She swung around and glared at him. “Listen, Trent. I’ll deal with my life; you deal with yours, all right?”

“Whoa, I’m just asking a question. Obviously it’s a sore subject with you, but then again, what isn’t?”

“I don’t need your concern. I’ve been taking care of myself longer than you’ve been out of diapers.”

Nick narrowed his eyes at her. “You didn’t seem to think I was too young the other night when I had my hand down your pants.”

Her face reddened, and she raised her hand and slapped him hard across the cheek.

Nick stepped back, surprised.

“Oh, God. I’m so sorry, Nicholas. That was very unprofessional. I haven’t been sleeping well. I know that’s no excuse, but I—”

The elevator doors opened and Nick made a beeline to exit. “Forget about it.”

He didn’t bother to stop and look back, but continued across the hall to the revolving door, making another exit.

No woman had ever hit him before. Had he deserved the wallop he had just received? That comment had cut way below the belt. Literally.

Maybe he did.

Hell, if he’d been able to keep his cool with Freeman, a disgusting creep, why had he deliberately tried to start something with her? His boss? Because he was angry about what could happen next. If Shiloh thought she was having a bad day now, wait until she found out about the rumors—rumors that could destroy both their careers if the wrong person heard them.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Shiloh hated herself. How could she have slapped Nicholas? Obviously, she needed to get some rest, because she wasn’t using her best judgment any longer.