Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
“What is wrong with me,” Marie muttered to herself as she headed back to the kitchen. “I should be happy he wants to leave.”
A quick look over her shoulder showed her nothing but an empty hallway. At least he hadn’t heard her talking to herself about him.
Marie leaned against the kitchen counter and twisted one of her earrings around and around.
The image of Isaac standing in her bedroom doorway, staring at her bed, was etched in her mind. There was something so right about him being there, which had to be wrong considering, until a few hours ago, she knew him as Samuel and never expected to see him again.
In the space of half a day, her life went from boring to her potentially being in danger.
She still wasn’t sure that she believed what was discussed in the Alliez boardroom.
That Alfredo Vargas could be after her. It was the stuff of action-adventure movies.
It wasn’t real life. However, no one in that room acted like it was all a joke.
Every single person there had been serious and hadn’t blinked when Isaac pulled her into his embrace.
“Everything is all clear.” Isaac announced as he strode in the room, smashing through her thoughts.
“Great. Good.” She saw the glass on the counter and grabbed it as if it was the answer to the question of life. “Here’s your water.”
“Thanks.” Isaac’s fingers brushed hers as he took it from her, warmth immediately sizzled through her veins.
Had he felt it too?
She couldn’t drag her attention from him. The way he tipped the glass up and drank the water down. Watching someone drink water shouldn’t be erotic, yet her blood heated and a kernel of desire blossomed deep in her belly.
Marie needed to do something. Something that didn’t involve her being so close to Isaac that in two steps she’d be pressed against his body.
What would he do if she followed through on her urge? If she closed the small gap and pressed her body against his, would he push her away? Or would he pull her close and capture her lips with his?
No, not happening.
Well it could, but she listened to the voice of reason, and instead of walking toward Isaac, she headed into her living room, ready to tackle one of the many boxes she still had to unpack.
“Do you want some help?” Isaac entered the space. His glass was gone, but his lips still glistened from the water he’d drunk.
“I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than help me.” Given that unpacking was one of the least favorite things she wanted to do, she should be pointing him toward a box.
“Not really,” he said.
“Don’t you have to get back to the office?” It was just after four, and the evening stretched before her long and lonely.
“By the time I get back there, I doubt there will be enough time to do anything useful. Besides, if they’ve discovered anything they would’ve called.”
Marie chewed her bottom lip. “Do you really think that I was the target? It just seems so out of left field that they knew where I was. What car I’d be getting into. And at what time.”
Isaac’s demeanor went from relaxed to tense in a matter of seconds, and Marie wished she hadn’t said anything. “Those are questions I can’t answer, but are ones I’ve thought about.”
That wasn’t comforting to Marie. The fact that Isaac had had the same thoughts as her only made what happened to her even more sinister.
“I don’t understand any of this,” she whispered, wishing that she could find the answers and put the whole episode behind her.
The reassuring feeling of Isaac’s arms closing around her appeased her frayed nerves a little. “We will find the answers,” Isaac crooned as he gently rubbed his hand up and down her back.
“How long will it take? I’ve got to start my job tomorrow. I don’t want to put any of my patients in danger.”
“I get that, and hopefully before you head to the office tomorrow, Cass and the team will have made some headway. In the meantime, is it okay if I ask you a few questions?”
Somehow she doubted the questions were about the weather. Or if she had any plans to do some redecorating to her home. They would be questions that wouldn’t be comfortable to answer, but necessary to ask.
“Sure. Can you ask and unpack at the same time?” Perhaps if her hands were busy she wouldn’t think too much about what was being asked.
The corner of his mouth lifted, and she found that even sexier than a full, wide lipped smile. “I think I can manage that.”
“Then let’s do this.” Marie reached for the scissors she’d been using to cut through the tape. She had the box open in seconds and went to hand it to Isaac, but saw that he was using a knife that wasn’t a pocket one, but also not a kitchen sized one.
Where had he been keeping that?
“In my pocket.” Isaac twisted his hand, and a second later the blade disappeared into the casing.
“Huh?”
“You asked where I kept my knife.”
Mortification swept through her, and her cheeks heated. “I asked that out loud? I didn’t think it?”
Isaac chuckled. “You sure did.”
“Well that’s not embarrassing, is it,” she said wryly, only to start laughing a second later.
Marie stood still as Isaac crossed the room to stand in front of her. One hand cupped her cheek, his thumb brushing across her flesh. “Don’t be embarrassed, I thought it was cute.”
“Cute? I’m not sure if that’s not a worse thing,” she murmured, unable to tear her gaze away from his.
The air around her electrified, and she shuffled a little so that the tips of her shoes pressed up against his.
Ever since she’d brushed her lips across his in San Carlion, she’d wondered what it would be like to have it last longer than the second it did.
She knew what it was like to be held in a comforting embrace from him.
What would it be like to be held passionately, as though if he let go he would cease to be.
Her thoughts were exaggerated and over the top, but she couldn’t stop them. “Kiss me,” she whispered, shocked at her forwardness.
His nostrils flared at her request and his other hand squeezed her waist. His brown eyes darkened until they were almost black. “Are you sure?”
“More than su—” Her words were cut off as Isaac’s mouth landed on hers.
Fire burned through her from his touch. She wrapped her arms around him, her fingers caressing the back of his neck. This was what she’d wanted to do all those months ago but had been too afraid to.
His tongue teased her bottom lip, and she opened for him. Their tongues dueled, and she pressed herself even closer. She couldn’t get enough of him, no matter how close she was, it didn’t seem close enough.
Vaguely she was aware that she was moving backward.
Was he taking her to her bedroom? She would be more than happy with that turn of events.
It wasn’t as though they were teenagers making out for the first time.
She was a thirty-seven-year-old divorced woman.
She had no idea how old Isaac was, but she suspected he was in his forties.
They both knew what they were doing.
The edge of the couch hitting the back of her legs registered, and soon she found herself splayed on her back, sinking into the soft cushions.
Isaac’s hard body was on top of her, and she moaned as his lips trailed across her jawline before he nibbled her earlobe.
A shiver of desire rippled through her, and she gripped the back of his shirt, attempting to tug it from the waistband of his trousers.
She’d just succeeded when Isaac stilled above her.
Had she moved too fast? Did he not want her to touch him?
It was then that the trill of a cellphone penetrated her desire fogged brain. Isaac moved away as he pulled the phone from his pocket.
“Warner,” he snapped out.
Marie sat up, tugging down her dress which had ridden halfway up her thighs.
Isaac had moved to the kitchen, and even though her apartment was open plan, she couldn’t hear what was being said.
Isaac had his back to her, and his voice was pitched low that all she heard was a slight murmur whenever he spoke.
Was the call about her attack? Had someone found something? He hadn’t even asked her any questions. They’d gone from opening boxes to kissing as if they were the only people alive.
“Okay, thanks.” She only heard that because Isaac had walked back into her living room.
He pocketed the phone and she met his gaze.
There was nothing on his face to give her any indication of what the conversation had been about.
She wouldn’t like to play poker with him, because she wouldn’t be able to tell if he had a good hand or a bad hand. That’s how expressionless his was.
Feeling at a disadvantage sitting on her couch while he stood over her, she got up and walked over to the box she’d opened before their kiss. “Can you tell me about that call?” she asked, hating that she almost sounded like she was pleading for him to give her a breadcrumb of acknowledgement.
Like her, Isaac opened his box, as if the kiss never happened. Was he regretting it? Marie pushed that thought away. There was no way he had regrets, not with the way his body had hardened against hers and the passion in his kiss.
“That was the office.” He pulled one of the items from the box and began to unroll the packaging around it.
“Cass lost the car the perps were in. She was tracking them through cameras, and there was an area where there wasn’t any surveillance.
It looks like they didn’t continue following that road, but turned off within that dead spot.
She did get a lock on the plates, but thinks they were probably stolen, so we can’t trace it through that avenue.
The one they’d left behind was a dead end as well. ”
Marie clutched the bowl she’d unwrapped to her chest. “So that’s it? There’s nothing more that can be done?”
“No. If I know Cass, she’s going to be triangulating that area where they disappeared and see if she can find it again.”
“You don’t sound convinced that she can do that.
What do you think about it all? And I want the truth, don’t say something just to make me feel better.
” The last thing she wanted from Isaac was to treat her as if she couldn’t take anything harsh.
After what he’d seen her do in San Carlion—the circumstances within which she was working—he’d know that she could deal with anything he had to say—good or bad.
“I wouldn’t do that to you. It doesn’t help anyone if you don’t know all the facts or what-ifs about things.
” Isaac put the vase down he’d unwrapped and closed the distance between them.
“Cass is amazing with her computer skills. She will do everything she can to find out who they were and if you were their real target.”
“How can she do that? Is she going to personally go and demand answers from them if she finds them?”
Isaac smirked, and she wanted to slap his chest. This wasn’t a joking matter, it was serious. “I doubt Irish would allow her to do that, but he’d go on her behalf.”
Marie’s mind whirled with the casual way he was answering her questions, as if it was a fait accompli that they were that invested in what happened to her. “Why?” she demanded.
“It’s simple. They’ll do it because they know you’re Yolanda’s daughter and,” he stroked a finger down her cheek, and tingles shot through her from the light contact, “because you’re important to me.”