Wolfe Watching (9 page)

Was she in love?

Giving a sharp shake of her head, as if to dislodge the ludicrous thought, she gathered the bedding and carried the bundle into the laundry room.

But the seemingly simple question was not so easily banished. Throughout the day, at odd, unexpected moments, it wormed its insidious way to the forefront of her consciousness, insisting she recognize its presence.

In love?

It was suddenly there while Tina was vacuuming the bedroom carpet.

In love?

It whispered through her mind while she was cleaning the bathroom.

In love?

It danced into her thoughts while she shoved the sofa back into place in the living room.

Love!

It finally ambushed her when she paused in her flurry of housework, clanging like a bell inside her mind as she stood irresolute in the kitchen, trying to decide whether she wanted soup or a sandwich for lunch.

Tina knew when she was beaten. Surrendering to the nagging persistence of her consciousness, she considered the euphoria-dousing question of love.

How could she be in love? Tina demanded of herself, dropping like a stone onto a chair. She hardly knew him.

Tina squirmed in the chair, suddenly uncomfortable with the fact that she had willingly made love with, slept with, a man she knew almost nothing about.

She didn’t even know what Eric did for a living, Tina reminded herself. All he had said was that he was on vacation leave; Eric had never specified from what type of employment he was on vacation. For all she knew, he could be anything from a corporate CEO to a cat burglar. Tina frowned, made even more uncomfortable by her last thought.

Did cat burglars take vacation leave? Tina wondered vaguely, the distracted thought indicative of her growing sense of unease with the subject matter.

Recognizing the mental ploy for what it was—an attempt to dodge the issue at hand—Tina determined that at the first opportunity she would question Eric directly about his employment. Then she sternly told herself to get it together and get to the point.

The point, of course, being: Was she in love?

Tina sighed, but forged ahead with the self-examination. She had been in love once, and what she was feeling now in no way resembled the feelings she had had for Glen Reber...at least not the feelings she had experienced after the intimacies of their wedding night.

Tina shuddered in remembrance.

Although it was true that there were similarities between the only two men she had ever been intimate with, Tina felt positive that those similarities were few and strictly superficial. Both men were physically attractive, even though, to her eyes, Eric was definitely the handsomer of the two. And they both possessed a certain charm and style.

But that was where the similarities ended. Tina knew from experience that Glen was shallow, unfaithful and often, deliberately cruel. Instinct, intuition, something, made her certain that Eric possessed the opposite qualities, that he was deep, abiding and gentle.

And Eric was one magnificent lover, the inner voice of satisfaction whispered.

Of course, again, Tina acknowledged the irrefutable fact that her only basis of comparison was her former husband. But, she thought, it sure didn’t take the intellect of a rocket scientist to arrive at a judgment concerning the differences between the two men in that regard.

While engaged in the intimacy of lovemaking, Glen Reber had proved to be selfish, demanding, ungiving and, when thwarted in any of his desires, sadistically inclined.

In sharp contrast, while making love, Eric had displayed a fiery passion, generating intense erotic excitement, while at the same time conveying a gentle caring, a tender concern and a genuine desire to give pleasure, as well as to receive it.

On reflection, Tina reversed her original assessment; in actual fact, there were no comparisons between the two men. To her regret, she knew that Glen’s charming persona was a sham, a mask he donned and discarded at will, to suit his purposes at any given moment.

On the other hand, Tina felt positive, to the very depths of her soul, that Eric’s charm, humor and caring style were not in the least surface facades, but were instead integral facets of his true personality.

And she trusted him implicitly.

Tina’s sudden realization of the extent of the trust she felt for Eric gave her the answer to her own question.

She
was
in love with Eric Wolfe.

But having the answer did not automatically ease the weight on Tina’s mind. She didn’t want to be in love—with Eric or any other man. She had allowed herself to be swept away once before by that emotional whirlwind. The aftereffects of disillusionment and pain were devastating, and not worth the transitory thrill of the brief, giddy ride.

So...what to do? Tina asked herself, frowning at the package of luncheon meat she held in her hand, and wondering when she had left her chair to walk to the fridge.

Heaving a despairing sigh, Tina shoved the package back into the fridge; she wasn’t hungry for a sandwich. Come to that, she mused, returning to the chair, after gnawing on her unpalatable emotional state, she wasn’t hungry, period.

What to do? The new question replaced the old in Tina’s mind, goading her into contemplation of her situation, and the options available to her.

She could stop seeing Eric, nip their tenuous relationship in the bud before it had sufficient time to blossom into something infinitely more serious, thus avoiding the possibility of being hurt again, more deeply than before.

Tina pondered the consideration for a moment, then shook her head. What would distancing herself from Eric prove? She would still love him, and the separation would very likely hurt as much as it eventually would if Eric turned out to be as false and insincere as Glen had been.

Getting restless, Tina deserted the chair to pace in a circle around the table. Another, less wrenching alternative would be to continue seeing Eric, but only contingent upon the understanding that their relationship reverted to one of platonic friendship.

Fat chance!

Tina grimaced at the immediate and derisive inner response, but was forced to accept the validity of it. All Eric had to do was look at her and she became all warm and squishy inside. All he had to do was smile at her and her resistance dissolved.

Well, so much for options, Tina thought, figuratively throwing up her hands in surrender. Besides, she didn’t want to stop seeing him, being with him, sleeping with him. Simply because she not only loved Eric, she
liked
him.

Even though Eric had not mentioned one word about either loving or liking her.

Tina soothed the sting of that painful truth with the rationale that men in general were always hesitant about revealing the depths of their emotions. It appeared to be a built-in species thing.

Feeling exhausted by her spate of introspection, Tina decided a shot of caffeine was in order. She had scooped the grounds into the basket and was in the process of running cold water into the glass pot when the doorbell rang.

Tina glanced at the dining room archway, then back at the pot, determining to ignore the summons. The bell rang again. Thinking it might be the mailman with something she had to sign for, she turned off the water, set the pot aside and took off at a trot for the door.

It wasn’t the mailman.

“Hungry?” Eric asked, brandishing a brightly patterned red-and-white cardboard bucket with one hand and a matching paper bag with the other.

“Yes,” Tina answered, her appetite restored by the sight of him. She raised her eyebrows as she stepped back to let him enter. “What have you brought?”

“Chicken wings, hot and spicy,” he said, giving her a lascivious grin, along with the bucket. “And mashed potatoes, gravy and biscuits.” He held the bag aloft.

Tina’s mouth watered and she groaned. “All low-cal, low-fat stuff,” she observed wryly.

“Aw, c’mon, live it up,” Eric said, handing the bag to her and shucking off his jacket.

“That’s easy for you to say,” she muttered, sweeping a glance over his lean body. “You don’t have to worry about every morsel you put in your mouth.”

“Maybe not, but I’ve got the solution to your problem.” He grinned again, more suggestively than before. “We can work it off with vigorous exercise this afternoon.” His expression left no doubt about the type of exercise he had in mind. “And if that doesn’t ease your cal and fat worries, you can have broiled fish and a salad for dinner.”

“I planned to, anyway,” Tina retorted, excitement flaring inside her as she led the way into the kitchen. “And it’s a good thing, too,” she said, prying the lid from the bucket and sniffing appreciatively at the spicy aroma wafting from inside. “This smells wonderful, like an automatic ten pounds to the hips.”

As it turned out, the food was tasty.

The afternoon exercise was delicious.

Although Tina still didn’t know what Eric did for a living, she did know he was well versed in the art of lovemaking.

She soothed her conscience and excused her lapse by assuring herself that a good opportunity really hadn’t presented itself; Eric had kept her rather distracted.

T
he opportunity was at hand.

Eric was replete, from the afternoon’s endeavors and from the enormous seafood dinner he had consumed. Relaxed, he lounged back in his chair and smiled at her over his coffee cup.

Tina seized the moment. “How much longer will you be on vacation?” she asked, casually lifting her own cup to her lips to blow on the steaming liquid.

“This week...officially,” Eric replied, readily enough. “But I could extend it another two weeks—” he smiled with obvious sensuality “—if I wanted to.”

“You have four weeks’ vacation a year!” Tina exclaimed, grateful for the opening he had given her. “What are you, the president of a bank or something?”

“Not hardly,” Eric drawled. “I work for the city.”

“Philadelphia?”

“Uh-huh.” He nodded.

“You must have some position.” Tina couldn’t imagine him in the role of a clerk, pushing papers behind some license-applications counter. “Appointed?”

“Naw, nothing so exalted.” Eric laughed. “I’m just a city employee, with the option of using my accrued vacation time all at once.”

Very likely because of his lean, muscular physique, Tina immediately thought of the waste management department, the hauling and lifting required in trash disposal.

No wonder he could eat like a racehorse and show not an inch of excess flesh, she mused. If, indeed, he was employed in the area of waste management.

Tina opened her mouth to ask point-blank, but Eric beat her into speech.

“More coffee?”

“Er...no, thank you.” Tina shifted mental gears. “I’m stuffed to the gills.”

“You ate the flounder’s gills?” Eric opened his eyes wide in feigned horror.

“No, you idiot,” Tina said, laughing. “The broiled flounder I ordered came sans gills.”

“I didn’t notice.” He grinned at her. “But I am relieved to hear it.”

“Of course you didn’t notice,” she gibed. “You were too busy inhaling two dozen steamed clams, a one-pound lobster tail, a baked potato, literally swimming in butter and sour cream, and a Caesar salad that looked large enough to feed a family of four.”

“Only if they were on a strict diet,” Eric protested in an injured tone.

Tina was helpless against the offended expression he pulled, and the laughter teasing her quivering lips. The question of his work went right out of her head. She didn’t notice its departure, because she was too caught up in the sheer joy she experienced just being with him.

When Eric flashed his wicked grin, Tina’s amusement escaped. They exited the restaurant laughing together, her cares forgotten, for tonight, at least.

* * *

That week alternately sped up or crawled by for Tina. When she was with Eric in the evening, the hours flew, seemingly contracting into mere moments. The opposite applied when she was away from him, minutes expanding into long hours.

Like greedy Midas, Tina and Eric hoarded their gold of hours; their favorite hiding place was Tina’s bed.

And there, with all the verve and enthusiasm of intrepid adventurers, they eagerly explored the alluring terrain of each other’s bodies, while probing the depths of their individual sensuality.

Tina had never before known such happiness, had never before basked in the unadulterated joy of just being alive.

Questions and doubts no longer picked with nervous little fingers at the fabric of her mind. Tina unhesitatingly admitted that she loved Eric with every particle of her being.

That is, she admitted it to
herself;
she had not murmured one word of love to him. Not because she was afraid to broach the subject; she wasn’t. She firmly believed that he was as much in love with her as she was with him. His actions, his attitude, the glow in his crystal blue eyes when he looked at her, all spoke in silent eloquence of his love for her. No, she was not in the least afraid to speak the words.

Tina was simply waiting for Eric to speak them first.

* * *

The jury was no longer out; the verdict was in and emblazoned on his mind like the legendary words carved inside crudely rendered hearts on countless tree trunks.

Eric Wolfe loved Christina Kranas.

While he sat perched on the edge of the chair at the window, watching the house across the street, Eric came to the acceptance of his love for Tina. It was Friday afternoon, one week to the day after his initial approach of her.

Was it really possible to fall in love in a week? Eric mused, stifling a yawn triggered by utter boredom. Must be, he reasoned, shifting to ease the numbness in his posterior. He was living proof of the possibility.

You ain’t quite right, Wolfe, Eric chided himself, stretching his long legs out in front of him. Only a slightly bent cop would be dumb enough to fall for a suspect.

But was Tina still a suspect? Did he believe...

No.
The denial leapt into Eric’s head before the question of her association with the drug dealers was fully formed. Eric wasn’t sure exactly when he had reached the conclusion that Tina was innocent of any involvement in the illegal operation, but the precise date and time didn’t matter.

He’d had a gut feeling about the veracity of the tip from his informant, and he now had the same gut feeling about Tina’s innocence.

Bottom line was, Eric trusted Tina, as well as loved her. He knew, unequivocally, that should the necessity arise he could trust her with his life.

Eric did not expect such a necessity to ever arise. He was capable of taking care of himself. And yet the rock-solid belief he now held that Tina would be there if he should need her assistance, regardless of the possible danger, was both comforting and exciting, for one thrilling reason.

Tina loved him.

Though she had not once mentioned the word
love
to him, Eric was as certain that Tina loved him as he was that the sun would continue to rise in the east.

He knew. How could he not know? Eric mused, sketching an image of Tina inside his mind, while keeping a sharp-eyed watch on the quiet street outside.

Tina had betrayed herself, her love, to him in a hundred ways, some barely noticeable, others so obvious they were soul-shattering...shattering
his
soul.

Tina had given the gift of herself, all of herself, to him in sweet and hot surrender. Eric treasured her gift, and her, and had offered the gift of himself in return.

Tina was his; he was hers. Her softness buffered his hardness. Her gentleness tempered his cynicism. The radiance in her lightened the darkness in him.

And the hardness, cynicism and darkness had been there, a living part of him, for a long time.

Eric shuddered, recalling the bitter hatred that had seared his mind, coloring his perception, on the day the minister intoned the service of burial over his father’s casket.

He had lived for years with the bitterness and hatred eating away at him like an acid toxin.

Tina’s very softness, her loving and laughter were Eric’s antidote, the remedy that made him feel whole again. And, from his new perspective, he saw himself as the protector of her softness, the rock-solid strength between Tina and the harmful, seamy side of the world.

They were made for each other.

Someday soon, hopefully very soon, Eric would feel free to speak the four words he would not allow himself to say aloud until this surveillance was over, and she knew exactly who he was, what he was. Until then, he held them close, in his mind, in his heart, keeping them pure, for her alone.

I love you, Tina.

Some cop he was. The derisive thought brought a whimsical smile to Eric’s compressed lips. He had spent more time loving Tina this week than watching the neighbors for continuing illegal developments.

Oh, well, it was his own time that he was squandering, he reminded himself.

Thing was, Eric didn’t consider the time squandered. He regarded it as time well spent on every hope and dream he had once held for the future.

There would undoubtedly be many more undercover stakeouts down the road for him, Eric knew. But there was only one Tina.

She came first. As Maddy had always been to Eric’s father, Tina was his top priority.

Love sure did strange things to folks.

The thought amused Eric, and he was still grinning some time later when the phone rang.

Since Eric had only given the number to two other people besides Cameron, the caller had to be either his boss or his love. Anticipation caused a tingle in the fingers that reached for the receiver.

“Eric?” The upbeat sound of Tina’s voice did a tap dance on his nervous system.

“You were expecting Kevin Costner?” Eric asked in a teasing drawl.

“What would I want with him, when I can have you?” Tina asked in a solemn, serious tone that stole his breath, liquefied his insides and made mush of his brain.

“Eric?” she prodded uncertainly when he didn’t respond for a couple of long seconds. “Did I say the wrong thing?”

“No, love,” he assured her, pulling his wits together. “You said exactly the right thing.”

“I meant it.”

“I know.” Eric grabbed for a steadying breath. “The knowing’s driving me nuts.”

“What do you mean?” Tina sounded confused, and a little worried. “I mean, why is it driving you nuts?”

“Because you’re there, and I’m here,” Eric said. “I’m missing you like hell.”

“I’m missing you, too.” Tina’s voice was throaty, soft, and misty sounding.

It went to Eric’s head, and his heart, and other vulnerable parts of his anatomy. Telling himself to lighten up before he started babbling his feelings to her like a love-struck teenager, he cleared his throat and said the first crazy thing that jumped into his head.

“You wanna have phone sex?”

Tina’s laughter sang along the wire to him, tickling his ear, and his fancy. “Heavens, no!” she exclaimed. “Maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but I prefer the genuine article.”

“Yeah, so do I,” he purred. “When?”

“You’re insatiable,” she accused, still laughing.

“Yeah,” he growled. “When?”

“Later tonight,” she promised, in a thrill-inducing whisper. “But first...” She hesitated; he jumped in.

“First?”

“I was wondering if you felt like going out for a while this evening.”

Things clicked in Eric’s mind, bits of information came together. It was Friday, the night Tina usually spent in the company of her friends.

“The tavern?” he asked, knowing the answer.

“Yes,” Tina answered, as expected. “Ted called me a little while ago to ask if I needed a lift tonight.” She gave a half laugh. “To tell the truth, until he called, I’d completely forgotten about meeting the gang tonight.”

Her admission pleased Eric very much. Enough to make him feel willing to share a portion of their time together with her friends.

“Okay. What time?”

There was a brief but telling silence. Eric smiled with tender understanding. Tina had expected him to balk at her suggestion of an outing.

“You want to go?” Tina’s voice conveyed her surprise.

Eric smiled. “Sure. Why not?”

“Well, I thought that—” Tina paused, as if gathering her thoughts “—I thought you might prefer to stay in.”

“A change of scenery couldn’t hurt,” Eric said in a slow drawl. “We haven’t been out of the house together since Monday evening.” He chuckled softly. “Hell, we’ve hardly been out of the bedroom since Monday evening.”

“I wasn’t bored.” Tina’s voice was so low he could barely hear it, and yet the message came through loud and clear. “Were you?”

“You know better than that.” Eric’s voice was also low, velvety with intimacy. “I loved every minute of it.” Then he turned the tables on her. “Didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Tina whispered. “That’s why I thought...” Her voice faded away.

“You thought correctly,” Eric said, filling in the void. “But we must eat, too, keep up our strength.” He paused for a reaction from her. When there was none, he continued. “I was assuming we were going to have dinner at the tavern.”

“We were.”

“Okay, then, we’ll go,” he said. “We can always come home early, you know.”

“Yes, I do know,” she agreed, in a purring tone that set his imagination on fire. “Suppose I swing by and pick you up after work? Say about six-thirty?”

“Or I could take the bike and meet you there,” he suggested, to save her the run out of her way.

“But then we couldn’t go home together,” she pointed out in a senses-stirring purr.

“True,” Eric said, not only taking her point, but running with it. “I’ll be ready and waiting.”

Agreeing to Tina’s suggestion was the easy part for Eric. Getting through the rest of the afternoon was the hard part. Not a damn thing was happening in or around the house across the street. But that no longer bothered or surprised him.

Eric’s familiar and trusted gut feeling had come back into play, and he had arrived at the conclusion that nothing was going to happen—not before the weekend. Instinct, or intuition, or something, had convinced him that whatever was going down over there was going down on Sundays.

Still, Eric watched, bored but diligent, until it was time to get himself ready for Tina.

* * *

All in all, the evening turned out to be rather enjoyable for Eric. Disarmed, so to speak, by the information his brother had provided about the members of the group, Eric felt more relaxed in their company, less constrained in joining in with the banter and harmless fun.

And he did have fun, more than he had allowed himself to indulge in for some length of time. He laughed at their jokes, even the lame ones, and even loosened up enough to offer a few dry witticisms of his own.

Yet, true to form, even as he relaxed and enjoyed, Eric dissected the reasons he had lowered his guard. First and foremost of these, of course, was the very fact of Cameron’s verbal report that from all he could gather, every member of the group was clean, in the legal sense.

The second reason was the confirmation of Eric’s initial perception of the members of the bunch being average, normal, genuinely nice people.

The third reason, and by far the most important to Eric, was the reflection on Tina’s character by her very association with them. A reflection of character that coincided with his own independently drawn conclusions.