Chapter 25
Lincoln called ahead for the valet, who had the Mercedes waiting for them.
He drove around town long enough to make sure no one had followed, on the off chance that someone had made the connection between Lincoln Kerr and Jim Spencer the manny.
Then they dropped Eddie off at Marley’s and raced to her house.
Which…was still standing.
The relief made her lightheaded, until she walked inside. Then her breath caught in her chest. It looked as if a horde of hyperactive toddlers had torn through the house.
Every single item had been moved, tossed somewhere else, or crushed underfoot. She bent down to pick up one of Eddie’s toy trucks, which was now missing two wheels and a front end.
“I’ll buy him a new one,” Lincoln murmured next to her. “Everything they fucked up, I’ll fix.”
“They?”
“Whoever it was. Probably Tanaka’s people.” He looked pale and almost ill, but he wasn’t her primary concern right now.
“How did he know I live here? How does he know about me at all? Did he figure out who I was at the Kona Queen?” Panic made her heart thump.
“Hey, one step at a time. We’ll figure this out. I’ll replace everything.”
She whirled on him. “Are you going to replace our sense of security?”
“Yes. I’ll put in an alarm system. It’ll be done by tomorrow if I call my team right now. I’ll buy the house next door and move some bodyguards in. Whatever it takes.”
His guilt was written in those tense lines along his mouth. She understood, she did. But she was also furious.
“Lincoln, there are some things you just can’t fix with money. Anyway, this isn’t your fault. It’s mine!”
“Yours?” He looked shocked as he picked up a fallen surfboard and set it back in its corner. Thank God, her favorite Arakawa Firecat was unscathed. “You can’t blame yourself for what these criminals did.”
“Of course I can! I can’t ever just stick to the basics and stay out of trouble.
Look at this place! I should just burn it down myself!
It’d be easier than trying to put all this shit back.
Put that down!” She stopped him as he picked up a handful of Legos that were scattered across the room like little land mines.
“Just leave it. We’re here for one reason only, remember? ”
He scrubbed a hand through his hair, looking so miserable that her heart went out to him. “I’m so damn sorry for all this, Zara. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
“How? No.” She held up a hand. “That’s not the point now.”
He nodded, then shoved his hands in the pockets of his trousers. “You’re probably wishing you’d never met me right about now.”
She considered that possibility, extending the moment until she saw him wince.
“No,” she finally said. “I’m not blaming you for this, and I don’t indulge in regret. I’d rather put my energy toward solving problems. Now come on, let’s see if we can find that good luck charm in Mia’s room.”
They picked their way through the mess, which she tried not to look at too closely.
What a disaster. She wasn’t the tidiest person in general, but this was too much even for her.
Mia’s room looked as if a family of squirrels had moved in and tried to make nests out of all her clothes.
Her school books were splayed on the floor, her laptop was teetering on the edge of her desk.
Zara waded through the knee-deep layer of clothes and slid the laptop to a safer spot. She gazed at the shambles before her.
“To be honest, this is just a few degrees more chaotic than Mia’s usual mess.”
“Really?” Lincoln, who hovered in the doorway, wore a shell-shocked expression. He’d probably never seen a messy house in his life. He probably had an army of housekeepers who kept everything in order. Wasn’t he a clean freak before all this?
“I’m just going to call her. This is ridiculous.
” She pulled out her phone and dialed Mia’s number.
No answer. She tried again, and once again got her voicemail.
“Mia, call me back right away. You know you’re supposed to answer no matter what’s going on, that’s part of the deal of you having a phone. Right away, you hear me?”
She tucked her phone back into her pocket and turned to look at Lincoln. “Thoughts? Ideas? Want to dive in, or should we consider a plan B?”
He looked from her to the disorder of Mia’s room, noting the curtain that divided her space from Eddie’s. “What’s behind there?”
“That’s where Eddie sleeps.” Suddenly, she felt deeply self-conscious.
“I know, she should have her own room. But we’re lucky to have this place.
My Dad bought it with legit money, so they didn’t seize it along with everything else.
And Mia and Eddie are used to it, so I didn’t want to move them.
It’s a little small for all of us, but we make it work and—”
He stepped forward, nearly tripping on Mia’s gaming console, and took her face in both his hands. “Stop. You don’t have to explain. I think you’re incredible.”
She stared into those deep green eyes and lost her breath. “You do?” she whispered.
“I do. I’ve never met anyone like you. And I really, really want to kiss you right now, but I feel like I’ve brought nothing but trouble into your life and I don’t want to—”
She saved him from his conundrum by kissing him herself. With those firm, determined curves, his mouth had been tempting her ever since the last time they’d kissed.
The way he instantly laid claim to her lips made her melt against him. She lost herself in the way their bodies fit together, the warm hardness of his chest and thighs. Maybe he had brought trouble, but she’d never been afraid of trouble. She just liked to choose her own flavor.
“How’s that for trouble?” she murmured against his lips.
“Dangerous.” He nipped her lower lip. “Practically criminal.” He growled, deep in his throat, a sound that ricocheted through her, leaving fire in its wake. Could a girl really get turned on by a voice? If it was Lincoln’s—deep, gruff, stern—a girl definitely could.
A hand slid up her back, then down to the waistband of her denim shorts.
He found the gap between her shorts and her breezy oversized button-down, then splayed his palm against her bare skin.
She shivered with pleasure. He stroked gently, taking his time, just feeling her, enjoying the contact, exploring the shape of her waist. You relax, his touch seemed to say. I got this. I got you.
Her eyelids fluttered closed. God, it had been so long since she’d felt taken care of like this.
Maybe she never had, come to think of it.
She’d always been the one shouldering the load when it came to her family.
Sure, she took a lighthearted approach to it, but it all still weighed on her.
Was her dad going to be okay in prison? Was Mia going to survive the bullying?
Was Eddie going to fall out of the wrong tree one of these days?
Would she ever manage to finish online law school?
But none of that mattered now. In this moment, all she knew was that heat was gathering in her belly and her skin prickled with desire.
“Would it be weird to have sex at a crime scene?” she whispered.
“All I heard was ‘have sex.’” He moved his hands to her ass and pulled her against his crotch and his fully hard erection. “Were there other words in there?”
“Nothing important. Come here.” She took him by the hand and tugged him across the narrow hallway to her own room. She was on fire for Lincoln and barely registered the mess in here. It didn’t matter. The bed hadn’t been touched.
They tumbled onto it, with Zara on top, splayed over his strong body. She wanted to climb him like a monkey, straddle him like a rodeo bull. But first—“Stay right there,” she ordered him.
She climbed off him and ran to the front door to make sure it was locked.
She didn’t know how the intruders had gotten in.
As far as she could tell, they’d just walked right in.
All the windows were closed and locked, and, to her untrained eye, there were no signs of forced entry.
Maybe she’d left the door unlocked; it wouldn’t be the first time.
With the door locked and double-checked, she danced back through the sea of clutter to her bedroom, where Lincoln was taking off his “manny” style leather sneakers. He set them to the side, lined up like proper little soldiers.
She laughed as she waltzed toward him. “This place must be blowing your mind. You like things orderly, don’t you?”
“It’s generally more efficient.” He squinted up at her with a slight grin. “Haven’t you heard?”
“Is it? I’ll have to look into that. Is that important to you, efficiency?”
She straddled his thighs, pinning him to her bed. Her feather-light comforter, Costco’s finest, settled under her weight.
“In some situations.” His eyes went dark and almost feral. “In others, I like to take my time.”
Oooh. A shudder of anticipation traveled through her. She liked this kind of foreplay, the verbal teasing, the promise, the flirt. “You know, before I suggested this ‘manny’ situation, I looked you up and read an article about you.”
“What’d you find out? It was probably all bullshit.”
She scooted her hips forward until she felt the heat of his erection through his clothes. “You don’t read what they write about you?”
“My chief of staff does. If it’s something important, he’ll pass it on.”
“Well, this piece says you’re a germaphobe and a neat freak and that you’re obsessed with extending your lifespan. It made you sound a little…odd.” She rotated her hips, sighing as she brushed against the penis trapped behind his clothes. Time to free the damn thing. She tugged down his zipper.
“Is that a problem? Me being odd?”
“Apparently not. My body seems fine with it so far.” She dimpled a smile at him.
He reached for her shoulders and drew her down against him. He kissed his way across her neck and then to the dip below her collarbone.
Her heart rate sped up. He must feel it under his mouth, but he made no comment.
“I don’t deny any of that. It’s mostly true. Or at least it was.”
“You’re not like that anymore? You do seem a little freaked out by the state of this place. Which is normal, anyone would be.”
“I was freaked out that I put you at risk. I don’t care how messy your house is. You’re raising two kids without any help. When would you have time to clean your house?”
Good question. She was already wondering when she’d get a chance to clean this new mess on top of the previously existing one.
“And your longevity obsession? They said you take all these supplements and are always trying new cutting-edge discoveries to make you live longer. But I haven’t seen you take a single thing like that.”
“That’s because I had it all wrong.” He flipped her over, so he was now braced over her. Wow, he was strong, even stronger than he looked. Those supplements must be doing something.
Breathless, she smiled up at him. “What do you mean?”
“Living longer doesn’t mean much if you’re not who and where you want to be.”
Her heart just about flipped over. “Which is where, for you?”
He didn’t answer, just moved against her, drilling her with his hot gaze. Did he mean…did he really mean…?
She couldn’t even finish the thought before someone interrupted.
“Oh good, you’re here, honeybee.”
With a yelp, she tumbled off the bed and onto the floor, from where she stared up at her father with a surreal sense of shock.
“You, whoever you are,“ he said to Lincoln, “press pause, please. I need to talk to my kid.”