Guarding Kelsey ((Books We Love Romantic Suspense)) (23 page)

She wouldn’t give him the chance. If only for this short time they had together, she wanted to have all of Wolf, with nothing held back.

She matched his steady rhythm,
and then
escalated the pace.
The
lovemaking
became a tug of war, a battle of wills that Kelsey refused to lose.
In the end, sheer feminine tenacity won out over macho stubbornness.
Release came quickly and with violent intensity.
Nothing in her life had ever felt so right.
She had consciously controlled her emotions for most of her life.
Being out of control had its definite good points.

“You’ll pay for that,” he muttered against her ear in a voice still husky with passion.
A voice that warmed her to the core.
A voice she wanted whispering in her ear every night.

“Only if I’m lucky.”
She was so in love with him, it hurt.
She wanted to tell him, but the words died on her lips as he pressed a kiss against her mouth.

Perhaps it was just as well that she didn't tell him.
A confession now would only make both of them uncomfortable. She had time, although not much.
He was so sure that their different backgrounds would never allow them to find common ground.
There had to be a way to convince him that she would be happy in any world that included him.

Chapter
Ten

Wolf cradled Kelsey in his arms.
Better than letting her hands roam free.
He had all the will power of a five year old in a candy shop.
Only last night, he had sworn to stay focused on the case.
Less than twenty four hours later, he was coming down off another incredible rush of adrenalin and testosterone.
Not to mention an emotional high he didn’t want
to
explore.
Kelsey touched him in a way that made him think about forever.

Foolish dreams.
The divorce rate among cops was higher than in any other profession, even when the couples had things in common.
Right now, she saw her money as an albatross.
But how long would it be before the fear and uncertainty of her situation dissolved and she felt comfortable in her own surroundings again?

He knew better than to get involved when her emotions and perceptions were clouded by the frightening circumstances of her situation.
He should have put on the brakes no matter how tantalizingly persuasive her offer.

“Stop it,” Kelsey said out of the blue.

“What am I doing?”

“Feeling guilty.”

“This is not professional police work at its best.”

She snuggled closer and splayed her finger over his chest.
“You mean, you can do better than that?
I can’t wait.”

“Do you think you can be serious for ten
minutes?
”

“If you promise to remember that you are on vacation and not on duty.
At least you better not be.
I’d hate to think this was your normal method of coercing witnesses.”

“Fair enough.
We won’t discuss the case.”
He clasped his fingers around her errant hand before she derailed his train of thought again.
“Tell me about your family.”

“You’ve
already met most of them. E
xcept my
grandparents
and my cousin
.”

Yes, he had, and other than her little brother, he didn’t trust
a single one in the bunch.
“Tell me about him
?”

“Richie
.
Bet you can’t guess who the
y were named after.
Only he’s not like my father
.”

“What do you mean?”

"He's okay I guess. We used to be closer but he had trouble dealing with my father's success compared to his
father’s.”

He turned to his side and gazed into her misty eyes. “In what way?”

“I never felt any resentment when we were younger.
Until my dad died, and left everything to me
…Well,
let
’
s just say
he was not
happy.”

* * *

What made that young man think he was
e
ntitled to any part of Kelsey's inheritance and how far would he go
to get
his
hands on it?
Did Daniel have trouble dealing with his brother’s success as well?
If Kelsey did go through with her plan to sell off everything, how much income would he lose?

“Have they come around at all?”

“Oh, yeah, but only because they needed money.”

“Nice,” he grumbled before he could stop himself.
Regardless of his feeling, they were her family, and she obviously felt a deep sadness at the estrangement. He couldn’t understand why. “What about your grandparents?”

“My grandparents.” Kelsey’s voice rang with genuine affection.
“How they ended up in our family, I’ll never know.
Fifty years and they are still devoted to each other.”

“You support them?”

“No. They won’t take money from me.
They worked hard and they saved.
And now they’re enjoying retirement in an adult community in Florida.”

Luckily for Kelsey, she had true and loving role models in her grandparents.
“They sound like great people.”

“They are.”

They also happened to be beneficiaries if something happened to Kelsey.
While the older couple might or might not be as perfect as Kelsey believed, to his cynical mind they were still suspects, although they were at the bottom of the list.
Hell, Kelsey’s life was like an episode of Mystery Theater.
Everyone had something to gain with her out of the way.
And she made it very easy with her unconditional belief in them.
She might know their faults, but she wouldn’t consider that they might harm her.

To convince her, he would need irrefutable evidence, which meant catching someone in the act, while making sure she was in no danger.
Not an easy feat in the best of circumstances.

She grinned at him.
“This is the most talkative you’ve been since we’ve met.
Except when you were interrogating me.
Conversation is so much nicer.”

How could a woman who had lived th
r
ough so many tragic events, still be so naive?
He should be relieved that she didn’t read more into his questions than friendly interest.
If she knew the truth, she might shut down.

“Shall we head outside?”

“Why?” she asked.

Why?
Because the longer he stayed there with her in his arms, the less he wanted to leave the comfort of the bed. Because falling for her wasn’t part of his master plan, and now he didn’t know how to figure it into the equation.
“We had a deal.”

She slid her silky smooth leg between his.
“What deal is that?”

“The one where I show you how to use the gun.”

“I’d rather play with the handcuffs instead.”

Me too,
he thought just before grasping her hand and hauling her off the bed. Much safer to venture into the great outdoors where layers of clothes would cover her delectable charms.

* * *

Wolf and Kelsey returned to his
house
well after eleven at night, to her delight and his grumbling.
Kelsey grinned.
He hadn’t been grumbling earlier.
His mood only changed when he arrived at his home to find an envelope waiting for him.
He didn’t open it, but she got the impression he knew what was inside, and he didn’t plan to review the contents with her.

“Is that about the Harrison case?” she asked.

His fingers tightened around the manila envelope. “No.
Just some paper work from Martinez.”

“Would you like something to eat?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Coffee?”

“No thanks.”

She would have offered herself next but Wolf had left his sense of humor back at the
farmhouse
. “I guess I’ll go to bed.”

“No thanks,” he mumbled absently.

She let out an indignant sigh. “I didn’t invite you.”

“What?”
He shook his head and focused on her face. “I’m sorry.
My mind is on something else.”

“I can tell.”
She rested her hand on his shoulder and pressed a light kiss on his cheek.
“I had a great day. Thank you.”

“Any time.”

A sad smile tugged at her mouth.
She might as well press the memory of the day into the scrapbook of her heart because she wasn’t likely to get another one this wonderful.
Not while the case remained open and probably, not once it ended either.

* * *

Wolf checked the bedroom to make sure Kelsey was asleep.
Her blonde hair fanned across the cocoa brown pillow like a shimmering halo.
Her usual sleeping wear, a pair of grey sweats, were draped over the desk chair.
The thought of her snuggled in his sheets wearing nothing at all caused a tightening in his groin.
Damn, she could get to him even in an unconscious state.
He tucked the bedspread around her and backed away from the bed before he did something really stupid, like join her.

After making himself a strong cup of coffee, he sat down with the file of information Martinez had left for him.
Before he had come to know Kelsey, reading through the pages of her life had been part of the job.
Nothing more.
No different than the hundreds of cases he had worked on in his career.
Now, as he leafed through the papers about her family, he couldn’t shake his sense of guilt.

Martinez had
earmarked
the reports he thought most significant.
If America was built on credit, then Kelsey’s family formed the cornerstone of the country.
Each member of the Carlyle family had maxed out several credit accounts. Her mother was no better. Hell, half the country could claim the same thing. But her cousin
was
not only at the limit but in collections with several creditors. He scanned the report on her ex-husband.
The no-good bastard was serving time for passing bad checks so he couldn’t be behind the threats, but Wolf almost wished the scumbag
were
responsible.