Chapter 25
Twenty-Five
Brian was almost asleep when the door between their adjoining rooms opened and Carly tiptoed in. Amused, he whispered, “What are you doing?”
“I thought you were sleeping.” She slid into bed with him. “Zoe kicked me out.”
Brian laughed softly as he pulled her tight against him. “Why? Did she find out you snore?”
Carly poked him. “I do not!”
He laughed and nibbled on her neck. “I was missing you anyway.”
She wrapped her arms around him. “Oh, yeah?”
“Uh huh. I’ve gotten used to sleeping with you.”
“I know,” Carly said as she kissed him. “Me, too. She told me to go sleep with my fiancé. She guaranteed me—and I’m quoting here—that her morality won’t go to hell in a handbasket, and she won’t tell her mother we slept together on the trip.”
Brian’s laughter echoed through both of them. “She’s so funny.”
“She also said she never gets a hotel bed all to herself. Apparently, she has to share with Lilly when they travel.”
“I always had to share a bed with Sam. He used to kick the shit out of me—I think on purpose.” He paused before he added, “Jeez, I haven’t thought about that in years.”
Carly caressed his face. “It’s amazing how it can still hurt so badly, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. Like I told Zoe today, it doesn’t hurt every day anymore. But when it does . . .”
“It takes you by surprise.”
“Yes.” He worked a hand under the T-shirt she had worn to sleep in and rubbed her back. “I had the best time with her today. With both of you.”
“I used to imagine spending a day with the two of you. I’ve wondered how it would feel to see you with her, but when I came upon the two of you holding hands . . . It was overwhelming.”
“I felt an immediate bond with her.”
“I think it’s safe to say the feeling is mutual. She said, and again I’m quoting, that you’re a ‘hottie.’”
He snorted with laughter. “She has great taste in men, just like her Auntie Carly.”
“Mmm,” Carly said, getting into the back rub. “Lower.”
He tugged at her shirt, eased it over her head, and tossed it on the floor. “That’s better.”
He felt her relax under his hands as he worked out the kinks that had gathered in her neck and shoulders over the last few stressful days.
“Go to sleep,” he said, leaning over to kiss her cheek.
“Brian?”
“What, honey?”
“Will you make love with me?”
“Anytime you want.”
“How about now?”
“With Zoe right next door?”
Carly turned over and reached for him. “I can be quiet. I’ve had a lot of practice.”
Brian smiled, and the feel of her breasts against his chest made him tremble with desire, just as it had when he was eighteen. “That’s very funny.”
She clutched his shoulders. “We haven’t made love in days. Do I need to be worried?”
“Of course not.” He smoothed the curls off her face. “I’m sorry, honey. I’ve just had so much on my mind. This thing with Zoe and everything with the case.”
“I know. And even though you’ve been so great about it, I’m still afraid it’s put up a wall between us. There’s a crazy man after me, but I wasn’t truly afraid until the other night when I had a couple of hours to wonder what I’d do if you never came home again. After you found out.”
He touched his lips to hers. “Where else would I have gone? You’re home for me, Carly. It took me half my life to realize that, so you won’t be getting rid of me any time soon.”
Combing her fingers through his hair, she devoured him with a kiss that left him weak with need. “Love me, Brian.”
“I do. You know I do.”
“Show me.”
“Turn over,” he whispered.
“Why?” she asked nervously.
He nudged her onto her belly. “Just do it.”
She glanced at him over her shoulder. “What are you going to do?”
He brushed his lips over her ear and dragged a finger slowly down her backbone. “Trust me?”
She trembled. “Of course I do.”
“Then let me show you something new.”
“There’s more?”
His laughter was soft and easy, just like the movement of his hands on her back. He massaged her shoulders until he felt her tension drain away.
“Feels good,” she whispered.
“Yes, you do,” he said as he worked his way to her lower back.
Hooking his fingers into the waistband of her bikini panties, he pulled them down slowly.
When he reached her feet, he tossed the panties and his boxers to the floor.
He started the massage again with her feet and then moved to her calves.
“Brian.”
“Yeah?”
“When do we get to the sex part?”
He laughed. “In a minute. I promise.”
Inhaling a deep, frustrated breath, she rested her face on the pillow but watched him out of the corner of one eye.
His fingers coasted over her inner thighs, causing her to tense. “Relax, honey.”
“I’m trying, but you’re making me nuts.”
“Good,” he whispered against her ear, sending a shiver through her. “That’s the point.” Only his weight partially on top of her kept her from launching off the bed when he buried his fingers in her wet heat.
She groaned and pushed back against his hand.
He kept it up until her thighs began to tremble and she clutched him from within.
Moving swiftly, he withdrew his fingers, raised her to her knees, and entered her from behind just as she climaxed with a restrained cry.
He gripped her hips and pumped hard all the while biting his lip to keep from coming too soon.
When he felt her spasms begin to subside, he reached around to coax her up again.
“Oh,” she gasped as he continued the relentless pace. “Brian.”
His lips were pressed to her back, his fingers sliding over her most sensitive place, and his concentration was so intense he didn’t dare try to speak for fear of losing control.
Instead, he pushed harder and deeper and was soon rewarded by another soft cry of completion.
Cupping her breasts, he went deep one last time and lost himself in her. “Carly.”
As he landed half on her, half off, he was panting, sweaty, and so depleted he could only rest his head on her back and gulp for air. “Everything okay down there?” he finally asked.
“Mmm,” she purred.
“Was that a good mmm?”
“Mmm.”
He smiled. “So we agree new things are good?”
This time she added a nod to go with her “Mmm hmm.”
He reached up to lace his fingers through hers.
“Bri?”
Taking a page from her book, he said, “Hmm?”
“Can we do that again sometime when I don’t have to be quiet?”
With his cheek pressed to her back, he laughed. “Definitely.”
Michael got home after midnight and moved quietly through the house so he wouldn’t disturb Mary Ann.
She hadn’t slept much since they found out about Zoe.
He hadn’t slept so well himself, but it wasn’t just because of Zoe.
The pressure to solve this case sat on his shoulders like a thousand-pound weight he carried with him twenty-four hours a day.
They had spent three hours grilling Luke McInnis and had searched every inch of his house without finding a thing that tied him to any of the crimes.
Either Luke was one cool customer, or he was innocent.
They’d had no choice but to release him when they had failed to crack him.
Michael hated that he was so desperate to solve this case that he had actually begun to hope it was Luke—a kid his sons had grown up with.
He opened a beer and sat in the dark living room.
So many thoughts spiraled through his mind.
No wonder he couldn’t sleep. Not only was he obsessed with the case, but he was also worried about Brian and Carly, concerned about Mary Ann, curious about his granddaughter, and missing Sam more than he had in a long time.
And that Zoe had been born on Sam’s birthday. Incredible.
A sniffling sound came from the end of the hallway.
His poor Mary Ann. She was heartbroken—again—and that bothered him more than anything else.
With one big swallow he downed the rest of the beer and got up.
He left the empty bottle in the kitchen and picked up the 9 millimeter handgun he kept close to him at all times these days.
Tugging off his tie, he unbuttoned his white uniform shirt on his way down the hall.
“Hey, babe,” he said from the doorway. He left the light on in the hallway so he could see her.
She pushed the hair from her face and sat up against the headboard. “You’re so late.”
He put the gun in the bedside table drawer, sat on the edge of the bed, and kicked off his shoes. “I left you a message earlier that it was going to be a long night. Did you get it?”
“When I got home from dinner with Carol.”
“How’d that go?”
Mary Ann shrugged. “She feels terrible, of course. She said she begged Carly to tell Brian she was pregnant, but when Carly chose not to, she and Steve had to respect her decision. We should be two mothers focused on throwing together a wedding that’s fifteen years overdue.
Instead, we spent the whole night talking about the granddaughter we share—a granddaughter she’s gotten to love and care for, and I never knew I had.
It’s hard not to resent Carol for that. I keep telling myself it wasn’t her fault, but that doesn’t make it any easier to hear what a great kid Zoe is. ”
He wiped the tears from her face and brought her hand to his lips. “I hate to see you so upset. What can I do for you?”
“You’re doing it.”
“Oh, I can do better than that.” He quickly shed the rest of his uniform into a pile on the floor and got in bed. “Come here.”
She curled up against him and released a deep rattling breath. “I want to be so mad with Carly, but I can’t quite seem to get there.”
“She’s crazy about that boy of ours, and her devotion to him has never wavered, even during all the years he was gone,” Michael reminded her. “She made a huge sacrifice for him. Maybe it wasn’t what was best for us, but it was best for him. You have to know that.”
“I do know that, Michael. I think that’s why I can’t seem to stay mad with her. She suffered as much as anyone after the accident.”
“Maybe even more so.”