Trust Me (26 page)

Alaina remarked on the unusual tidiness of the
offices.  “Are you guys all neat freaks or something? I've never seen such
immaculate work spaces.”

He couldn't help but be amused by her
observation.  He smiled at her as he answered, “Everything is pristine
because it's Bureau policy, which was established strictly for security
reasons.  So many of the documents we're dealing with are confidential, so
it's essential that nothing be left unattended. At the end of the day
everything is locked away securely.  So although many of us are slobs
we're not allowed to show it at work.”

“So are you a slob or are you a neat freak?” she
asked, amazed they could have been so intimate yet she still knew so little
about him.

“Which do you think?” he asked, curious about her
opinion.

“Hmmm, if I were to take a guess I’d say you're a neat
freak. You're too in control of everything to allow any type of mess.”

“Guilty as charged Counselor.
  I guess we’d better get started going through
your father's papers. I hope you're prepared to stay up all night.” 

“Sure no problem, I've been doing that the last couple
of weeks anyway.”

A worried frown appeared on Donovan's brow. 
“Haven't you been sleeping?”  He was very concerned about her, she looked
tired, and from what she just said, it seemed she hadn't been getting enough
rest.  Maybe having her help him, he thought, wasn’t such a good idea
after all.

Alaina shook her head.  “No it's not that at all,
I've just had a lot of work to do at the office, you know I lost so much time
when we were at the safe house together.”  She hadn't wanted to be
reminded of the time they had spent together, the memory was too intimate.

“Still, the amount of time you're putting in is a bit
excessive don't you think?  After all you were only gone for a few days.”
It was selfish, but he was hoping her lack of sleep was because of him. He'd
like to think she had been just as miserable as he had been the last couple of
weeks.

“You sound just like Elise. Actually the reason she
was with me tonight was to drag me out of the office, she thought I had been
working too hard as well.”

“I think Elise and I are both right, but it looks as
if I'm going to contribute to you not getting enough sleep tonight if you help
me with these files.”  His concern for her health was growing.  “Are
you sure you're up to working?”

“Donovan relax, it's what I was planning on doing
anyway.”

“All right, I'll get the boxes of files.  Why
don't you have a seat at my desk?”  Donovan went over to a large storage
cabinet in the corner of his office, and pulling a key from his pocket he
opened the cabinet and began removing boxes; there were five of them in
total.  He stacked them by the desk, pulled out a file from the cabinet,
and handing it to her he said, “This is the inventory of the boxes, it lists
the files they contain.  You might want to go through it before you decide
where you want to start looking.”

Alaina took the file from him. Perusing the list, she
didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. There were correspondence files,
receipts, accounting ledgers and several files marked miscellaneous.  She
looked back up at Donovan, who was already opening up one of the boxes and
removing the contents. “Do you want to start with the accounting records first?
They usually reveal one's most intimate secrets.”

Donovan smiled in agreement. “I was just going to suggest
you start there; great minds think alike.”

“Okay then, let's get started,” she said in her most
professional manner, but her thoughts were not strictly on the business at
hand.  Alaina was having serious doubts she would be able to concentrate
on their work. Sitting across from Donovan was disconcerting to say the
least.  She knew what it was like to be touched by him, to make love to
him, and that knowledge was causing her a great deal of distraction.  The
worst part was she recognized she wasn't alone. Alaina felt sure he was just as
affected as she was, and this knowledge disturbed her even more.  One
wrong move and they could easily be making love on his office floor, despite
her knowing he had burned her with his lies too many times.  How was she ever
going to get through this night with him?

The disciplined professional in her managed to
triumph, at least temporarily, allowing her to diligently read through her
father's documents.  For the next several hours she and Donovan worked
together in silence, both unsure of what they were hoping to find.  It
seemed like they had been immersed in accounting records for hours when Alaina
noticed discrepancies between the receipts and the ledgers.

 “Donovan,” she said causing him to look up from
his desk, “I think I found something interesting.  I've been comparing the
receipts to the ledgers, and they don't match.  It seems my father was
taking out more money than was required for each receipt item.”

“You think this is a simple case of you father
embezzling from the OAS?” His attention was fixed on her.

“Well, if he wasn't embezzling, somebody was, but it
does appear as if this unfinished case is just about money.”

“How much money do you think we're talking about?”

“I think I need a calculator to give you the exact
figure, roughly I'd say over the past several years it probably adds up to a
couple of million dollars.”

Donovan shook his head in disbelief.  “I've been
so caught in the political motivations of this group, the idea there could be
stolen money involved never occurred to me.” he paused before continuing, “I
was sure there was something missing. It always bothered me that your father
had chosen to place his documents in a private institution when he must have
known they would be subject to subpoena, despite the restrictions placed on
them.”

“I still don't get it, all the information is here,
why wouldn't he have destroyed it?  It seems he placed all the
incriminating evidence in the archives.” Alaina was perplexed, because she
couldn't understand what her father's reasoning had been.

“I'm not sure I understand either, but for some reason
your father intentionally hid this information in plain sight.  He might
have thought it was the best hiding place or maybe he wanted it to be
found.  We may never know, but what we do know is that we're looking for
missing money.  I suspect whoever broke into your house tonight must think
you have it.”

“I think your suspicions are right.  This whole
thing is driving me crazy, it seems like the more information we uncover the
less we know.”  She was really beginning to feel frustrated.  Was she
never going to be able to get back to her normal life?

“Try not to let it upset you, sometimes cases are like
that. It's what makes them interesting.  Believe it or not, with what you've
uncovered we've made a great deal of progress.  Eventually everything will
fall into place, it always does.”

His words soothed her fears. Assuring her the case
would be solved, Donovan made it seem like it was just a matter of time. 
She realized she was falling into the trap of trusting him again.  It was
the easiest thing to do, he was always so calm, in control, and confident in
any situation it seemed only natural to rely on him.  She had complete
trust in the FBI agent, but she didn’t trust the man.

Suddenly Donovan's voice broke into Alaina's thoughts.
“Alaina, don't worry, I'll make sure this case is solved and nothing happens to
you.  I care too much to let anything happen to you.” His voice carried
the depth of his feelings for her making it hard for her to doubt his
sincerity.

 Alaina knew no matter how much she wanted to
have faith in him she couldn't afford to stop doubting his feelings. 
“Stop it Donovan, I don't want to hear how you care about me.  You've lied
to me too many times.  I've said this all before and I don't think it
needs to be discussed any further.”

Donovan had hoped the last couple of weeks might have
given her time to calm down, much to his chagrin she sounded just as angry as
before.  “I can't help it if our relationship started on a
deception.  I was undercover and you were I might add, for very good
reasons, under suspicion.  How was I supposed to tell you the truth after
I knew you were innocent?  What was I supposed to say? 
Oh by the
way darling I used to think you were a terrorist. 
 Yeah, I think
that would have gone over very well, I'm sure you would have forgiven me.”

“Well I guess we’ll never know what I would’ve done,
will we?”

“Don’t you realize that I risked my whole career for you?
How can you doubt my feelings?”

Alaina was determined not to listen to him. 
“Don't you get it?  I don't want to hear anything you have to say unless
it's related to this investigation.  Otherwise you are out of my life.”

“I'm out of your life? I don’t think so! I can feel
how much you want me.”

She was infuriated by the audacity of his remark, but
more so because he had hit too close to the truth, although she'd die before
admitting it. “That is in your stupid head!”

Donovan's voice suddenly became very quiet and sensual
as he said, “It’s in my head? Why don't we put that theory to the test?”

He leaned over in his chair, pulling her closer as he
did so.  His lips found hers and slowly he kissed her, his mouth nipping
at her lower lip.  Erotically teasing her, his tongue worked its familiar
magic, moving inside her mouth, playing with her own tongue.  Donovan was
making love to her mouth, knowing he had to prove in this kiss not only all of
his feelings for her but hers for him.  She felt his hard muscular chest
press against her breasts.  Alaina felt her nipples tighten in response
immediately. She must be a total tramp to respond to him like that so
quickly.  What had she been thinking letting him get close?  She moaned
against his mouth with all the pent up passion of the last two weeks despite
her determination to remain aloof.  He lifted in her onto the desk in a
sitting position.  He moved between her legs as he continued to kiss
her.  She had missed this so much; the feel of him, the smell of
him.   He moved his mouth to her cheek and his teeth grazed her jaw
and then moved lower to her neck searching out sensitive zones she didn’t even
know she had.  He slowly unbuttoned her blouse while he continued to
nuzzle at her neck.  He pushed it from her shoulders letting it slide down
her arms like a lover’s caress.  She tilted her head back to give him
better access to her neck as she held on to his shoulders.  She gasped as
she felt a small bite at her neck that sent tingling awareness through the rest
of her body.   One of his hands found her breast and tweaked her
nipple through her lacy bra.  She groaned and arched her back seeking his
touch, letting his hands once again master her body.

“Lean back and put your hands on the desk,” he ordered
in a low husky voice.  She did as he asked without hesitating.  She
knew that whatever he had planned she was going to love it.

He moved in close between her legs.  Although
they were both still clothed she felt his stiff erection pressing against her
damp panties.  She wrapped her legs around his waist and ground against
his hard length. He continued to play with her nipples through her lacy bra,
but made no move to remove it.  She wanted to feel him closer.  Why
wasn’t he taking it off?  She started to reach behind herself to remove
the offending article, but he stopped her.

“No leave it on,” he said stilling her hands with his.

“Why?”

“Just do it,” he directed.

He brought his hands back to her nipples and continued
to stimulate them through her bra.  The lace was scratchy as he rubbed her
with his fingers.  She looked down and could see her nipples were getting
red and hard.  The added abrasion of the fabric was contributing to her
further arousal.  He lowered his head to her nipples and sucked it into
his mouth through the lace. She whimpered.  It felt so good and it had
been too long since he had touched her.  When she thought she couldn’t
take the sucking and the biting anymore he shifted and started on the other
nipple.  She could feel her pussy dripping through her panties onto the
desk.

She cried out, “Oh God, I need you.

He put his hand on her thigh stroking her soft
flesh.  Then he used both hands to spread her legs further.  He
slipped a finger into her soft folds through her underwear and stroked in and
out.

 “God,” he said, “you’re always so wet for
me.  How long did you think you could keep this from me?”

He lowered his zipper on his jeans and freed his
straining erection.  His cock stood proud and ready for her.  She licked
her lips at the sight of it.

“Please Donovan, put it in me,” she begged.

He dragged her panties off and tossed them to the
floor.  He held his cock by the base but instead of entering her. He began
to move it up and down her wet folds and across her clit.  She arched her
hips against him trying to get him to enter her, but he continued to rub
himself on the outside of her vagina.

“I need you inside me,” she demanded, frustrated with
his teasing.