The Object of His Protection - Brenda Jackson [47]
After he had time to fully think about it, he had called himself all kinds of fool for saying what he had to her. She definitely deserved an apology and an explanation—if she would only return to listen.
His breath caught when he heard a car door slam and automatically he moved to the door. If it was Charlene, she would knock since he hadn’t yet given her a key. His heart began racing when he heard footsteps moving up his walkway and he knew it was Charlene. It just had to be.
Too eager to wait for her knock, he opened the door and there she stood, utterly beautiful in the moonlight with a startled look on her face. “Sorry,” he said softly. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
She shrugged. “No harm done.”
His gaze caressed her face before he stepped aside, allowing her entrance. Hoping she was there to stay and hadn’t just come to pick up her things. “If you’re hungry we can order out,” he said.
She walked into the foyer and turned around after placing her shoulder bag on the table. “Thanks, but I’m not hungry. I took in a movie and grabbed a couple of hot dogs while I was there.”
“Oh.” So that’s where she had gone. “Well, if you’ve got some time I’d appreciate it if we talked.”
She placed her hands in her back pocket and tilted her head back to meet his gaze. “What about?”
“What I didn’t want to talk about earlier.”
Her gaze lowered to the floor. “You don’t have to do that.”
“Yes, I do.” And he honestly knew that he did. He could feel the strain between them, the distance. He didn’t want that. He wanted things the way they were last night. He wanted the closeness.
“All right, then. Talk.”
“Can we sit down in the living room?”
She shrugged again. “Sure. Why not?”
He watched as she went to sit on the sofa, folding her legs beneath her. With his heart still racing nonstop, he took the chair across from her, when what he really wanted to do was reach out and pull her into his lap and kiss her. But he knew he couldn’t do that. He had screwed up and had to backpedal. Get back into her good graces. Literally, he had to do something he had never done with a woman before—bare his soul.
He was a private person. No other woman had ever reached beyond that area of “do not enter” with him. But Charlene had invaded his space. In just a short period of time she had gotten totally and completely under his skin. And last night he had gotten under hers in the most intimate way. He had been inside her, places where no other man had ever gone. He had branded her with his markings all over her body and didn’t regret doing so. And if given the opportunity he wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.
“First, I want to apologize for lashing out at you earlier, Charlene. I had no right to do that. You deserve to know what’s going on with the investigation, every aspect of it.”
He paused a moment before continuing. “What I’m about to tell you is something I haven’t told anyone yet, especially the Braddocks. But I will eventually tell them because they too have a right to know. I took this case before knowing it myself. While I was investigating, my mother’s name come up as the last person the congressman spoke with. My mother says she honestly doesn’t know why he called her and I believe her. But something I do know is that the two of them had a history.”
“What sort of history?” she asked quietly.
He was silent for a moment and then he said, “My mother and Congressman Braddock had an affair many years ago, before I was born and before she married my father. She was young, inexperienced and thought she was in love, and yes, he was a married man at the time. However, it’s my understanding that he and his wife, Evelyn, were going through some things. That does not excuse his behavior or my mother’s.”
Charlene