Hidden Threat (24 page)

Cali didn’t understand it. Did she saying something wrong? Was his job classified?

“Matthew, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. I understand if you’re not able to tell me.”

He looked down then. “No…no, it’s fine.” Matthew said, cautious as he placed his plate in the dishwasher.

Walking back over to her, he asked if she was finished. He was stalling and she knew it. She just didn’t know why.

Then casually, as if the last few minutes hadn’t happen, he said, “I was assigned to a special forces unit six months in and stayed with them until I came home.” He turned away from her. “I think I’m going to work in the study for a while before turning in. I’ll see you upstairs?”

It was phrased as a question, but he hadn’t waited for an answer before leaving her sitting in the room, trying to wrap her mind around what had exactly happened. Clearly he hadn’t wanted to talk about his past, but why? And the mask. That mask of professionalism, indifference, whatever it was had shown its ugly face again, causing Cali’s stomach to clench into knots.

As she stared at her food, the feeling in the pit of her stomach didn’t ease.

Getting up, she placed her own plate in the dishwasher and left the kitchen.

Before going upstairs, she stopped to look at the man bent over the small laptop computer in her father’s office. He still wore the blank look from a few minutes before, and she knew approaching him now while he was in work mode would not be for the best. She would wait until later tonight.

With that thought, she walked up the stairs.

***

Matthew stayed in the study for as long as he could justify. He knew his past would come up sooner or later. It wasn’t that he was ashamed of his time serving his country overseas; it was more that he didn’t know how she would respond to the information. The fear of her taking it badly and banishing him from her house, her life, was something he didn’t think he could handle. She was important to him. Even if she was only his for a short time, he didn’t want to make their time together any shorter than it already was. With a sigh, he powered down the computer and went upstairs.

There in his bed with a book on her lap sat Cali. Her hair pulled back away from her face, revealing the graceful curve of her neck and shoulders. The silk chemise rested softly over her body, showing the outline of her breasts, and he felt his body temperature rise.

He must have moved or made a sound because she looked up. Cali’s eyes held questions, and what he thought was concern. Any hope he had of her letting the subject drop faded, and he reluctantly made his way over to the other side of the bed, stripping to his boxers. Pushing the covers back, he slid in and leaned back against the headboard.

Cali marked her place and set the book on the nightstand before she turned back to Matthew and waited. He knew well enough what she was waiting for, what she wanted from him. It took a few minutes, but then he started.

“After my mom died, Jason and I spent a lot of time with my dad. Not that we hadn’t before,” he clarified, “but it was just…more.” He turned to her then, “He had started his security firm five years earlier. Jason remembers when he was a cop, but I was too young. To me, Dad was always the man in charge, the one with a plan.”

“When I turned ten, he bought me my first rifle,” Matthew smiled at the memory.

“We went hunting the weekend after my birthday, just the three of us.” His eyes locked with hers. “It was one of the best weekends of my young life.” Cali nodded and he continued, turning his head away slightly. “By my sixteenth birthday, I was helping my father with everything from paperwork to surveillance. If I wasn’t at school or doing homework, I was helping Dad.” 

She interrupted then, “Where was Jason? Was he helping your dad too?” 

Matthew shook his head. “No. Jason went to college at Dad’s insistence for four years and then joined the Marines. He wanted out of Chicago and felt that was the easiest way to do it, I suppose.”

“Is that why you joined? Because of Jason?”

Matthew smiled. “No.” He paused and reached for her hand. She took it and gave a squeeze of encouragement. “Do you remember me telling you about the friend I saw that night at the gala?” She nodded. “He owned another security firm and used to work on the force with my father. They were best friends, Charles and my dad.”

“Were?” Cali hadn’t missed the past tense.

“Hm,” he mumbled and then chuckled. “You’re making me get ahead of my story, Ms. Stanton.”

Cali laughed, and it felt good to break some of the tension. “Sorry.” 

He sighed. “When I graduated high school, I went off to college. As I mentioned before, it was sort of a requirement with my dad.” He smirked. “I graduated with a degree in business administration.” Seeing her eyebrow go up in question, he smiled. “I know it’s hard to believe, but yes I have a degree in business of all things.”

She laughed. She couldn’t help herself.

Now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow. “Go on,” she said, waiving dismissively with her free hand.

He gave a small snort. “After college, I was at a loss. I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I’d considered going to work for my dad; that was part of the reason I’d chosen that field of study. Joining the police force was another option. I was an excellent marksman and knew with my dad’s connections I’d have no trouble.” He hesitated. “That was part of the problem though. I was twenty-one and had never been away from home, never been out on my own.” He looked over at Cali. “Charles…well he helped me figure it out.” 

***

Matthew sat at his father’s desk going over the month’s receipts. He hated filling out expense sheets, but his dad hated it more, and if there was one thing his father was good at, it was delegation. The bell over the door rang, letting him know someone was here moments before he heard the approaching footsteps.

“Nathan?”

Seconds later, he saw the head of his father’s friend. “Hey, Charles.”

“Matthew,” he said, sounding surprised. “I didn’t expect to find you here on a Friday night. Don’t you have something better to do?” he joked.

He got the joke, but the sad thing was he really didn’t have a social life. He never really had. “No. Just going over some end-of-month financials.”

“Ah.”

Matthew waited for Charles to continue, but he didn’t. “Dad left about an hour ago. I think he was heading home. I don’t think he’s coming back in tonight.” Charles waved a dismissive hand. “That’s okay. I kind of wanted to talk to you anyway.”

This surprised Matthew. “Me? Why?”

Laughing, Charles took a seat in front of the desk. “Your dad told me you’re trying to decide what you’re going to do now that you’re out of school.” Matthew just nodded. “I think Dad’s hoping I stick around here. That way he’ll have someone to do all the dreaded paperwork that he hates.” Charles snorted. “True. But I’m not interested in what your dad wants. What do you want?”

***

“The next day I got a letter from Jason telling me about his latest mission. I’d received mail from him before. He sent something almost every week, but for some reason, it was different this time. I realized how happy he sounded because he was doing something he loved.”

Rubbing his hand absently on the blanket, he said, “So I started asking questions, talking to people. Talking to Jason, Charles…I tried to talk to my dad, but as soon as I mentioned the military, he shut me down.

“Two months later, the opportunity presented itself. I was at the firing range and ran into an army sergeant who was home on leave. He saw me shoot and asked me to have lunch with him. I agreed, and we ended up talking for three hours.” Matthew looked up at her again, “I guess you could say everything after that was history.”

Confused, Cali sat up a little more and looked at the man beside her. “Wait a minute. Your dad isn’t friends with Charles anymore because you talked to him about your future career?”

“No. That’s not quite all of it.” He shifted and then continued. “More that when I told Charles I was going to join the Army, he didn’t tell me not to.”

“Oh,” she said. Cali sat for a few minutes considering what Matthew had told her and wondered how his relationship with his father was now, considering his return several years before.

He watched as she processed all the information he’d told her. Then he waited, knowing Cali would not miss that he’d omitted the answer to the question that had led to this discussion in the first place. He wasn’t disappointed.

Her head came up quickly, and she turned her body so that it was totally facing him. And he had nowhere to hide.

“You said Special Forces earlier. So…” Her voice trailed off.

“It was a unit with five guys. Each one of us had a specialty, and we worked as a team.”

Cali waited, but he didn’t finish. Her next words came out softly. “What was your specialty?”

His eyes held hers as if waiting for her disapproval. “I was a sniper, Cali. It was my job to assassinate people.”

Matthew watched her face as several emotions crossed it. He didn’t recognize all of them, but he was sure he saw shock in there somewhere. There was nothing he could do. He knew she would not like how he’d spent nearly four years of his life. She was a doctor after all. It was her job to heal people.
What if she rejected me based on my past profession, on four little words? I am proud of my time in the army, but what if it cost me Cali?

Then her eyes cleared and focused upon him again. Matthew continued to watch, but instead of pulling away or closing herself off, she leaned in ever so slowly and pressed her lips to his.

The shock of her response held him still. The thought that he must be dreaming crossed his mind. She moved to straddle him, pulling him closer, and he realized that he was not imagining this.

She embraced him, holding him close as she pressed her hips down. Joy rose in his heart. Cali wasn’t upset. She wasn’t holding his past against him.

He couldn’t help his own response; he never could when it came to her. With fingers itching to touch her, he slid his palms up her bare thighs and under the silky material. Cali shivered, pulling him closer still.

As Cali leaned into his touch, her heart filled with so much emotion. She knew what it was like growing up without a mom, wanting to please the only parent you had left and failing.

Gently, he removed her nightgown, leaving her clad in only a thin scrap of silk and lace. Their eyes met, and the raw emotion she saw there sent a thrill of anticipation, heightening her senses. She wanted to show to him just how special to her he was, how important he’d become to her in such a short time. It caused an ache deep inside her to think of him not being part of her life. Cali arched her back into his roaming hands, parting her lips as the sensations flowed through her.

How I love this man.

It took a few seconds for the thought to register, but when it did, she knew it was true. Knew he’d been chipping away at her heart for days, weeks, and it was now his.

This newfound knowledge brought with it a renewed determination to show him what she couldn’t bring herself to say. She hastily removed the rest of the clothing separating them before pressing their naked chests together and demanding his attention with her mouth.

Reaching between them, she brought them together. She tilted her head back and closed her eyes tight, overcome with all the feelings flooding her at once. She loved this man—loved him as she had never loved another. She leaned forward, pouring all the emotions she felt into every movement of her body.

Communicating the love, the trust, the pure need she had for him through her hands, lips, and thighs.

Too soon, the desperate need for fulfillment surged through both of them. Cali could feel her release coming, and she wanted his mouth joined with hers when she did. Lips parting, her tongue only had to brush his mouth before it opened to her, gliding in harmony with their bodies.

Minutes later, she approached the crest and fell into sweet oblivion.

When Cali woke up Tuesday morning, she was alone. She stretched as her mind floated back to last night, and she smiled. She could still feel the ghost of his fingers across her skin.

Being alone didn’t send her into a state of panic this time. She knew he was probably downstairs somewhere in the house, but before she could join him, she needed a shower. Throwing the covers off, she slid her chemise back over her head and hurried to her bedroom.

The water was warm as it flowed over her skin, and she reflected on what she’d learned about Matthew last night. He’d expected her to react badly to what he’d said. She admitted that it shocked her at first. Matthew sneaking around a jungle or desert, waiting to kill someone wasn’t even close to what she’d been expecting.

But what struck her was the honest way in which he shared himself with her, causing the last safety net over her heart to fall away. The fact that he’d killed—killed who knows how many—didn’t matter to her. She knew him. Knew him well enough to know he’d done what he thought was right.

After breakfast, they said goodbye to Jessie and drove to work. Matthew walked her to her office. Lisa was already at her desk so their goodbye had to be formal, impersonal.

Cali’s first meeting of the day ran ten minutes late. Her second, twenty minutes.

They’d hoped for lunch together in her office, a bit of privacy where they could let their guard down for a short time, but it just wasn’t meant to be. Matthew had to meet Detective Martinez down at the station, and Cali’s backed up meeting schedule gave her only twenty minutes in which to scarf down the sandwich Lisa brought in to her.

The afternoon followed the morning’s lead with back-to-back appointments. The human resource manager had a long list of issues stemming from the extra security measures Matthew and Jason had put in place since her return. Cali hadn’t been sure exactly how much she should be sharing, so tact became an issue, which drew the meeting out longer than expected.

By the time Matthew arrived at her office door just after five, she was more than ready to go home. He walked in, looking as gorgeous as ever, but there was a hint of wariness in his eyes that hadn’t been there this morning. She was going to ask him about it, but Lisa breezed in carrying a stack of paperwork before the words formed.