You Can't Hide (49 page)

He stood rigid, then slowly turned so that he finally looked at her and not the window.

“Sometimes what, Tess?” he asked quietly.

She was ashamed of what she was about to say, but needed him to understand. “Sometimes when I see him, so afraid and tortured, I think it would be better if he just died. And sometimes…” She looked away. “Sometimes I think about being the one to do it. And I’m never certain if it would be because I’m being merciful or vengeful.

“I held his fate in my hands in that courtroom, Aidan, and I spared him, because he wasn’t competent to stand trial and the law says he can’t be convicted of his crimes. But I saw what he did, and
dammit
-” Her voice broke and she resolutely steadied it. “I saw the eyes of the mothers of the children. And the wife of the cop he strangled. And I hated Harold Green. But I did what I needed to do.” She closed her eyes, sending the tears down her cheeks. “And given the same circumstances, I’d do it again.”

Aidan stood there, her tears wrenching at his heart. She was a woman who did the right thing when it was the hardest thing. Once he’d thought her cold, but now he knew that she cared too much and only her iron will hid that from others, allowing her to do her job. That he could understand, having to do one’s job when it ripped at the heart. They had a great deal more in common than he’d originally believed. And somewhere deep in his bruised heart, something bloomed. For now, he’d let it be simple respect.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t understand.” He sat next to her. “Don’t cry anymore, please.”

She gritted her teeth on a sob. “I can’t stop seeing that woman’s face in my mind-Sylvia Arness. She should be going to parties and going to classes, but she’s dead.”

He wiped her wet cheeks with his thumb. “Because some sick bastard knows this is the best way to you. We won’t let him win, Tess.” The sob broke loose and he pul ed her into his arms, rubbing his hands on her back, kissing her as her weeping grew more intense, until the only way he knew to stop it was with his mouth.

He pul ed her face from his chest and covered her mouth with his, hard and insistent. For a few seconds she struggled, then surged to her knees, returning the kiss with a desperate, bruising force, her hands on his chest, her fingers threading through his hair there. Her fingertips teased his nipples, yanking a growl from his throat.

He lunged from the bed, jerking her to her feet, working the buttons of the shirt she wore, swearing when they wouldn’t budge from their holes, finally ripping until buttons flew and her breasts were filling his hands. Her hands were busy at his waist and suddenly his pants were around his ankles and he kicked them away. She shoved his shorts down next, leaving him naked, while his shirt was still draped over her shoulders. He started to push it away, but stopped, startled when she switched on the light.

184

Karen Rose

[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

Her hair was tousled from his hands, her lips swol en from his mouth and her cheeks streaked from her tears. But her eyes burned and he trembled where he stood.

“I didn’t get to see you last night,” she said. “I want to see you.” She pushed him to the bed and straddled his waist, leaning over him to press his hands to the pillow beside his head when he reached for her. “No,” she whispered. “Tonight it’s mine. Let me.”

The air trapped in his lungs, he nodded, understanding that this was about control. Her life had been slowly taken apart, piece by piece, pounded to rubble. This was hers. She slid down his chest, her mouth busily kissing its way south and his hips arched in reflexive response. She stopped, her lips a breath away from his twitching cock and he groaned her name. “Tess.”

“Sshh. Let me.” Her fingertips traced the length of him, making him flinch. “Let me.” Then her tongue fol owed the path her fingers had taken and he groaned again.

“Please.” He arched helplessly. Begging her. “Please.”

But nothing happened and he finally lifted on his elbows to look down at her. She was examining him intently, her expression curiously analytical. Turning only her head, she met his eyes, her mouth unsmiling. “I’ve never done this before.”

His body froze.
Don’t stop. Please don’t change your mind,
he thought frantically. She licked her lips. “Tell me if I do something you don’t like.”

Thank you, God,
he thought, then he couldn’t think at all because her mouth closed over him, hot and wet and so damn good. He closed his eyes and let himself feel. Let himself be drawn away from the ugliness of reality to all that mattered-this woman and the unspeakable pleasure that had him catching his breath, arching his hips higher, harder. He clasped his hands around her head and showed her how he liked it then let them drop with a groan as she picked up the rhythm without losing a beat.

His groan set her body on fire. She’d brought him pleasure and spiked her own. Shivers and tingles raced across her skin and the hot throbbing between her legs was unbearable. She wanted, no,
needed
like she’d never needed before. It had never been like this, never this frantic race to completion, never this craving to be filled. Sex had always been something she just did. Enjoyable, but not necessary.

Being with this man was necessary. Making him groan was more imperative than taking her next breath so she changed her angle, increased the pressure of her mouth, and gently cupped him in the palm of her hand.

With a strangled cry his magnificent body arched and froze, leaving him supported by only his heels and the back of his head. Pleased, feeling powerful and utterly female, she released him and pushed him back to the mattress. Straddling him, she dropped kisses up his body. His hands gripped her rear, kneading convulsively.

His eyes opened and stole her breath. “Let me have you now.” Not waiting for her answer he rol ed them and in one hard stroke was inside her, filling her to bursting. Her cry mixed with his groan and he held her eyes as he held his body rigidly still. “I didn’t want to want you,” he said hoarsely, his thrusts punctuating every other word. “I didn’t want to care about you. But I do. Understand that.”

“I understand.” She arched, murmuring wordless sounds of pleasure as he kissed her throat. Then he opened his mouth over her scar, sucking hard, and she understood he sought to leave his own mark over the one she despised. Her pounding heart squeezed painful y. “Aidan.”

The pleasure became intense, too intense. Sensation began to coil, her muscles contracting around him and his thrusts became harder, faster, the coil inside her tighter and tighter, her grip on his hands tighter and tighter and she was afraid. Afraid that she’d never get there and terrified of what would happen if she did.

“Let it happen,” he breathed in her ear as if he’d read her very thoughts. “Let go. Let me see you. Feel you. Please, Tess.”

“Aidan.” It was a whimper, a plea, then finally, finally exultation as the coil suddenly sprang free, sending fire through her body. She jerked against him and moaned, dimly aware that he’d

185

Karen Rose

[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

found his own release, his body going stiff, his head thrown back in a wracking ecstasy that was utterly silent.

His weight dropped onto her, their hands still joined. Their bodies still joined. Her chest hurt. Her throat hurt. She felt more incredible than she’d ever felt in her life. “Oh.”

His chest heaved once. It might have been a laugh.

They lay like that for what seemed like forever until he released her hands, pushed himself on his elbows and looked down at her, his face sober. “I didn’t mean for this to happen like this tonight.”

She blinked. “What?”

“I didn’t mean to go so hard, so fast. I’d planned to seduce you slowly, but after what you did… There was no way.”

She smiled, kissed his stubbled chin. “I guess I was being uncooperative again.”

He didn’t smile back. “Why did you do it?”

“You mean…? You know.” She couldn’t finish, her cheeks heating, her eyes skittering away.

“You must think I’m silly, not to be able to say it.”

“I think it was the most incredible thing ever I’ve felt,” he said quietly. She tried not to beam. “Really?”

His mouth turned up in an indulgent smile. “Really. So why, Tess? Why with me?”

“I never wanted to before,” she answered truthful y. “Then with you, last night…” She sighed.

“I’m not going to be coy. I know I’m attractive. I know men look at me. But Phillip gave my confidence a beating. You made me feel beautiful. Desirable. I wanted you to feel the same way.”

She shrugged, awkward. “You can’t understand.”

He looked down at her, his gaze intense in the low light of his bedside lamp. “You don’t know what I understand, Tess.” With that he reached up and snapped off the light and drew the blankets over them. In the darkness he rol ed them so that her cheek was pressed against his chest, his arms around her, the solid beat of his heart in her ear. Her breathing became slow and deep and she was almost asleep when he spoke again, his voice vibrating against her cheek. “After that day… when I found the third girl… I came home and Shelley pounced. I was so devastated and she used that to try to talk me into leaving the force.”

She brushed the coarse hair on his chest with her fingertips, glad the woman wasn’t here. She’d slap her face. “That was selfish.”

His laugh was harsh. “At the end I had no idea what I’d seen in her at the beginning. Al I know is that I was so hollowed out… so angry… I wanted to strike her. I had my hand in the air and-I stopped myself midswing. Then I gave her an ultimatum. Ask me about working for her stepfather again and I’d leave. And I meant it.”

He was quiet a long time. Finally she asked, “Did you? Leave?”

“Not then. She got better for a little while and I honestly thought we could make it work out. I didn’t leave until the day you testified in court. At Green’s trial. I was so furious with you… I’d taken the day off to go to court. After all of the cops got up and walked out of the courtroom to protest you, I went home. I needed someone that day and Shelley should have been the one.”

A sense of foreboding crept into her heart. “And?”

“And I walked in on her and another man. In our bed.”

She drew a breath and said the only thing that came to mind. The same thing he’d said to her the night before. “How tacky.”

His chuckle was grim. “Touchй. She saw me standing there. He was… busy. To this day I don’t think he knew I was there. But she sure as hell did. She just looked at me over his shoulder. Raised her eyebrows. And that was all. I walked away and never went back. Kristen went back for my clothes when she wasn’t home. I’d brought her to see this place because I wanted to buy it, but she’d turned her nose up at it. So two weeks later I bought this house, threw down some roots. She threw down her own. She’l marry him in a few weeks. He works for Daddy and she got her house on the North Shore.” He sighed. “So now you know it all.”

“Thank you for trusting me.”

186

Karen Rose

[Suspense 5]

You Can't Hide

His grin flashed. “Thank you for… you know. It was damn good for a beginner.”

Her eyes widened. “You said it was the best you’d ever had.”

“I wasn’t lying. It just seems that being your first try, there’s nowhere to go but up.”

Her lips twitched. “Or down, as it were. Go to sleep, Aidan. It will be morning soon.”

Friday, March 17, 7:30 A.M.

“That bitch.” Joanna stood in front of the television, her mouth open, her fists on her hips. Tess Ciccotelli filled the screen, her face by turns nervous, sad, and artful y sincere. Then the camera panned back. “She’s talking to Lynne Pope.”

Keith looked up from his morning paper with a frown. “Jo, stop this now. She’s not going to give you your story. Get over it and move on.”

She glared at him over her shoulder. “Thank you, Mr. Supportive.”

“Grow up, Jo.” He folded his paper. “I got a call yesterday afternoon from a bank in Atlanta. They want me to start working for them first of next month. It’s a huge opportunity. Jo, I want to go home. I thought if you had a reason to go it would change your mind.”

“You have a reason to go,” she said angrily. “It’s your career. Your life.”

“Which I thought was yours, too,” he said quietly. “I haven’t given them an answer yet. I’m going to get dressed for work now. We can talk about it tonight.”

She watched him go, furious. She didn’t want to talk about it. She was staying and getting that damn byline if it was the last damn thing she did. She turned toward the kitchen when a photo on the TV screen caught her eye.

“Sylvia Arness was shot point-blank with a high-caliber weapon. Police are currently investigating. Witnesses say they heard the gunshot and found the body. Pinned to the woman’s coat was a note reading ‘Be judged by the company you keep.’ Police refuse to comment on the meaning of the message. We’l keep you informed…”

Slowly Joanna sat down at her computer and clicked until she brought up the photos she’d taken of Ciccotelli Wednesday afternoon. There was the wineshop, the sweater store, the florist, the shoe store…
Here it is
. The dead woman in a single frame with Ciccotelli. They’d barely spoken for a moment. And now the woman was dead. A chill ran down her spine.
My God.
Her stomach clenching, she paged back until she came to the wineshop, another thought connecting. She compared the grainy photo on page four of today’s
Bulletin
with her own photo. “Marge Hooper, fifty-three, a victim of a robbery at her wineshop,” the
Bulletin
’s caption read. It was the same woman.

She paged through the rest of her photos, her lungs holding the same breath. The doorman was in her pictures, too.
Three dead.
All pictures she had taken. She thought back to the missing photo paper. Someone had been in her files. Her blood went cold.
Call the police, Jo. Now.
She realized her hand was trembling as she reached for the phone and jumped like she’d been shot herself when it suddenly rang. “Hello?”

“Miss Carmichael? My name is Dr. Kelsey Chin from the Women’s Clinic in Lexington, Kentucky. I understand you called yesterday.”