Chapter 8 Overdue Encounter #4
“Make mine black.” Bear couldn’t have cared less about the coffee, but he liked that his upcoming encounter with April would be alone.
She smirked at him. “You didn’t even ask what we’re celebrating.”
“What are we celebrating?” He was impatient to see April.
For reasons that made no sense to him, Kaya burst into delighted laughter. “I think April would rather be the one to tell you.” She trotted down the hallway, still laughing.
Mystified, Bear stepped inside the morgue. The door eased shut and locked behind him.
April looked up from her work, hastily tugging off her goggles and headlamp at the sight of him.
She’d been bent over a microscope when he’d entered, probably looking at more bones, body tissue, or other gruesome stuff.
It was far from a romantic scene, yet it beckoned him closer.
She was a siren’s call he was helpless to resist.
“Am I interrupting something?” He remained by the door, waiting for her to give him a cue on how to proceed.
“Not at all.” Her words came out in a breathless tumble. “I’m working.” She waved nervously at whatever she’d been observing under the microscope. “There’s been a development in the case. I was debating whether to call you…” Her voice dwindled shyly.
“No need, since I’m already here.” He would never tire of watching her lithe figure, the brisk energy in her movements, or the lovely curve of her cheekbones. She was so dedicated to her work. So animated. So alive.
“Yes, you’re here,” she repeated in the same breathless voice. “I have news. Adriel called the Heart Lake PD with an interesting tale that resulted in an urgent call to the judge.”
His heart pounded with elation. “That was fast!”
“You knew,” she accused, smiling widely.
“Yep.” He shared the details of his conversation with Benjie Haywood with her.
She looked amazed. “Thanks to you, a search warrant for Verity Haywood’s car is forthcoming. Kaya insisted it was worthy of a coffee run.”
“Coffee,” he drawled, taking a step toward her. “No offense, but coffee feels inadequate to me.” A search warrant of that magnitude had the potential to crack this case wide open. At the rate the investigation was going, the police might have his sister’s killer in custody by nightfall.
“What else would you suggest besides coffee?” April set her goggles and headlamp on her desk, looking beautifully flustered.
He drank in the color staining her cheekbones, longing to feel their warmth against his lips. That he would never be good enough for a woman like her suddenly eluded him. It felt like a now-or-never moment as he closed the distance between them.
He held out his arms to her, leaving the next move up to her. “For starters, I’d like to thank you properly for all your hard work leading up to this.” They wouldn’t be where they were on the case without her.
He knew he was crossing lines that couldn’t be uncrossed and hoped he wasn’t ruining anything between them.
She looked stunned, paled a little, and stepped into his embrace. The trust glowing in her eyes, along with her soft, pleading voice thoroughly entranced him. “Bear, I—”
He dipped his head over hers and gently seamed their mouths together.
She melted into him. Her warmth melded with his warmth. Her soft curves molded against his harder frame. Her sweetness and generosity overflowed into his loneliness and emptiness, filling him to the brimming point.
Their first kiss was so much more than a first kiss. It was a thousand unspoken confessions and a thousand answering promises. It was hope for the future wrapped in a moment that didn’t require words.
Since he was the one who’d been married before, he didn’t rush what was happening. He didn’t have to. The delicious angst of their kiss rose to excruciating heights the second she slid her arms around his neck.
“Bear,” she sighed against his lips.
“Yeah?”
“You know how I asked you to be patient with me?”
“Yep.”
“That’s not what I really want.”
“Neither do I.” With a husky laugh, he quit holding back and captured her lips again. This time, he deepened the kiss, and his entire world exploded.
They might as well have been standing inside a volcano. Guys like him weren’t big on feelings — neither discussing them nor analyzing them, but he as sure as all get-out had never experienced this many of them before. Not all at once. Not this powerful.
“I’m in love with you, April.” Maybe it was too soon to say stuff like that, but it was true.
He didn’t know what tomorrow held, whether he’d be loving her as a free man or if the Haywoods and their legal team would succeed in slapping a murder charge on him.
Either way, April deserved to know the truth.
“I’ve loved you for a very long time. Mostly in my dreams.”
She made a sound that could’ve been a laugh or a sob or some combination of the two. It was a sound that nearly brought him to his knees. “Are you serious?” She sounded adorably unsure of herself.
“Yep.”
“Oh, Bear!” She leaned in to kiss him again. “I’ve loved you for a very long time, too. It’s why I’m still single.” She gave another one of her laugh-sobs. “No other man has ever measured up to you.”
“You’re no longer single.” Her words made him feel ten feet tall. He tipped his forehead against hers. “All that measuring up stuff sounds like a lot to live up to. Hope I don’t disappoint you.”
“Hardly,” she scoffed, touching her lips to his again and sending him back to heaven. “The kind of brother and uncle you are, the kind of councilman who led his people for so many years, the kind of business owner you are, the man of faith that you are — that’s who I want in my life.”
He kissed her lingeringly. “I’m all yours.”
A squeal of delight pierced the air behind him, telling him that his niece had returned and discovered April in his arms. The squeal was followed by a muted thud.
He pivoted with April and found Kaya hovering anxiously over the cardboard box containing their three cups of coffee. It must have slipped from her grasp onto the desk. One of the lids had popped off, splashing coffee over the rim.
Bear hugged April again before letting her go and immediately wanted to snatch her back into his arms.
They stood there, gazing longingly into each other’s eyes.
“I should go,” Kaya mumbled.
“That’s unnecessary,” April protested in a dreamy voice. “We were just…” She swayed toward Bear.
“Yeah, I should go,” Kaya repeated. “That way you guys can get back to whatever…um...” She returned the lid to the open cup of coffee and hurried toward the door with it clutched in her hands. “Okay, I’m gone.”