More Than a Mission - Caridad Pineiro [61]
Dani had been inconsolable for days and then the grief had turned to anger. Anger at the police who couldn’t find the killers and later, at all the bureaucrats who had seemed so intent on covering up anything to do with her parents’ deaths. Maybe even anger at herself for not being there to stop it, Lizzy thought.
“Lizzy?” Aidan asked and placed his fist beneath her chin, applying gentle pressure so that he could read her face.
“Sometimes you’re alone even when you’re surrounded by people.”
He cursed beneath his breath, slipped his hand to the nape of her neck to draw her close for a kiss. “I’m sorry,” he whispered afterward. “For everything,” he said and Lizzy got the weird sense he wasn’t just talking about her parents.
Chapter 21
He didn’t know how many times they made love that night. He had run out of condoms and Lizzy had supplied some more.
Enough times that he was sore. Dead tired. Exhausted.
Thoroughly satisfied. Totally confused.
Rolling onto his side, he propped his head up with one hand and glanced at her as she lay sprawled on her back beside him. A rumbly and all too regular noise came from her.
She was a snorer.
How long had it been since he’d spent enough time with a woman to know something like that?
Too long.
That had to be the explanation for his abandon. For the feelings he was having toward her. Walker could surely explain how it was transference or some other such psychological issue.
It certainly couldn’t be love.
Her eyelids drifted open slowly and as she saw him there, a broad welcoming smile erupted on her face. “G’mornin’,” she said, her voice husky.
He shifted over, dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “G’mornin’. Do you have any plans for today?”
A tired sigh escaped her. “Some errands to run in town before work. And you?”
“I’m supposed to meet a friend,” he lied since he couldn’t risk her going with him. Not when he had to report in and possibly go back to investigating her. Back to proving she was a killer.
She glanced at her wristwatch and grimaced. “I guess we should get going.”
“I guess we should,” he replied, but made no motion other than to shift closer, until he could lay his hand beneath the sheets on the indentation between her hip and waist.
“That’s not going to get me moving.”
“No? Then how about this?” He slipped his hand downward, parted her thighs and found the tender bud tucked between them.
“Oh. O-o-h. That might work,” she answered and gripped his shoulders with her hands, urging him over her.
“I thought so.”
Inside the hotel suite, Walker and Lucia were waiting for him.
He shot a quick look at his watch. Barely eight o’clock. “What’s up?” he asked as he strolled in and then plopped himself on the couch next to Lucia.
“Besides you? All night?” Lucia teased and Aidan blushed as it occurred to him what Lucia might have seen during her surveillance.
Walker silenced her banter with a harsh glare and a sharp slash of his hand.
“Is this mission compromised, Spaulding?” Walker asked, clearly all about business this morning.
Aidan was not about to let the other man dictate to him as he seemed so fond of doing. He had always found Walker to be a fairly easygoing kind of guy, but he’d been anything but during this assignment. Not to mention that Walker chastising him for his arguably less than professional interest in Lizzy was kind of hypocritical to the max.
“Jealous? Not getting any from the doc?” Aidan shot back, referring to Walker’s ongoing affair with the royal physician.
Walker was on his feet in a second, fists clenched at his sides. When he took a step toward him, Aidan rose, picked up his chin and stepped right up to him, spoiling for a fight.
They were of a like height and similar build. He knew he could hold his own, but this little show was accomplishing nothing. “I did what I had to for information,” he said from behind gritted teeth, trying to defuse the situation.
“Was