Chapter 12
“Wait!” Brittni called out, as she stumbled a little in her stupidly high heels as she turned. “I forgot my phone!”
Mike watched her toddle back into the cheap restaurant. For a moment, he considered just driving away. Tonight had been a success in many ways. He was now relaxed and ready to settle in for the long wait for his prey to arrive. Did he really need the stupid wench now?
“Why not?” he grumbled and ducked into the stolen sedan. “Maybe she’ll come in handy as a distraction.” Then he grinned. “Or a shield if the bullets start flying.”
Tapping his finger against the steering wheel, he waited for the bitch to come back out.
Agent Brittany Andrews hurried back into the restaurant, the ridiculously high heels she’d chosen for this mission fighting her every step of the way.
Thankfully, she arrived just in time. The waitress was just beginning to clear their table. “Stop!” she called out, startling the waitress.
The exhausted woman turned and looked at Brittany, an irritated expression in her eyes. “What’s up?” the waitress asked, pushing a limp wisp of hair out of her eyes.
Brittany could see the exhaustion and lack of exuberance for life in the older woman’s features. “I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but I need you to leave all of the plates and glasses on the table.” She looked around, then decided to risk her cover. “An FBI agent is going to arrive in a few minutes to collect everything. Just leave the stuff on the–” She stopped as Dean walked through the back of the restaurant. “He’s here now. Just let him do his thing and everything will be fine.”
With that, Brittany walked out of the restaurant, flipping her phone back to “ditz” mode. After entering her special code, all of the special features on her phone were again hidden so if she lost it, or if Mike, the bastard, stole it somehow, he wouldn’t notice all of the text messages she’d sent off to her team over the past few hours.
Without another word, she rushed out through the front door, confident that Dean would handle the DNA sample from the glass and cutlery. Before she pushed out through the door again, she paused, took a deep breath, then forced the ditz persona back in place.
“I need to go back to my place,” Raven whispered, the darkness and Tim’s warmth surrounding her.
His arms tightened around her waist and he pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “Why?”
She smiled and pressed against him, loving the sound of his groan. “Because you keep ruining my underwear.”
Tim laughed softly and she rolled over, looking up at his features that were lit only by the moonlight streaming in through the open windows. “Say it again.”
He knew exactly what she needed to hear. “I love you,” he assured her, his hand moving over her bare stomach. “I love how you put so much of yourself into your work. I love the way you see the world through rose colored glasses. I love your determination to help your clients find something that’s so elusive.”
Raven cupped his face with her hands, enjoying the soft scruff from his beard. “How?” she whispered.
Tim stared into Raven’s eyes, trying to figure out where to start. How could he explain a complete reversal of everything he’d told her at the beginning of their relationship?
“I thought I was in love with Bailey in college.” As soon as he’d blurted that out, he knew that they were the wrong way to start.
Instantly, Raven tensed and started to pull away. “Don’t,” he urged, sliding his hands over her back. “Please, let me explain.”
Raven stopped, but she remained stiff and unsure. “Go on.” But before he could speak, she put a hand over his mouth. “And before you say something more about loving another woman while holding me, naked, in your bed, let me warn you that your approach might be vulnerable to various negative interpretations.”
He chuckled, then pulled her hand away from his mouth and kissed her palm before placing her hand back on his chest. “I thought I was in love with Bailey. But it was just a puppy dog crush. We were friends and, back then I really was a nerdy geek. I was tall and awkward and still finding my way in the world. Bailey was beautiful and popular, extroverted and was always smiling. We’d stay up late at night talking about everything. She was my first female friend and, although there was no sexual attraction, in my nerdy, logical mind, I translated my warm feelings of friendship for Bailey into emotions that I’d only heard of, but never felt.”
Raven tilted her head slightly, considering his words. Then she nodded her approval. “Better. Continue.”
He nipped her shoulder as punishment for her command, then kissed it to soothe the spot. “Be quiet, woman. I’m baring my soul to you,” he growled playfully. “The least you could do is be appropriately awed by my honesty.”
She laughed and snuggled closer, sliding her leg over his hip. “Okay, proceed. Continue with your vulnerability.”
He swatted her bare butt lightly, making her laugh.
“As I was saying, I didn’t understand what love felt like,” he said again, kissing her lightly. “Until you came into my life.”
“And then?”
“Then you shocked my logical world with your feelings and determination to find someone for me to fall in love with.”
She glowered at him. “That sounds more like an admonishment than something sweet and wonderful.”
He slid his hand down over the part of her anatomy that had just been spanked, causing Raven to gasp and squirm against him.
“My confusion about my feelings is not up for debate, woman. I was smitten. From the first moment I met you, the wild desire I felt for you was illogical. You turned my world upside down and I didn’t like it. You made me feel things that I didn’t understand and in my world, understanding is everything. Logic and comprehension of every detail of a chemical reaction is how I make sense of the world.” He sighed and rolled them over so she was straddling his hips. “It wasn’t until just after we made love in my office and I saw those folders with other women’s details that I realized that you were the one I’d fallen for. And even then, I didn’t label the feeling as love. It took your absence from my world to shock me into understanding.” He sat up and took one nipple into his mouth, sucking and teasing the tip until she was gasping. “And then you didn’t respond to my messages.” He nipped lightly at the tip before soothing it with more kisses before switching to the other, holding her hips in place so she couldn’t get away. “It drove me nuts, woman!”
“I’m sorry,” Raven replied, closing her eyes and shifting against him. But he held her hips firmly, not allowing her to find relief. “I was a coward,” she admitted again. Opening her eyes, she looked down at him, bracing her hands on his shoulders so that her breasts hovered over his mouth, enticing him to do more. “I was so overwhelmed after we had sex…” she laughed when she felt another swat against her bottom. “Made love…in your office. That’s when I realized that I was in love with you.” She shifted again, moving lower. Raven grabbed a condom from the pile where he’d dumped them earlier and moved so that she could hold onto his shaft with one hand. “And then I remembered my role in your life.”
“I wasn’t your client by that point,” he growled, taking the condom from her and rolling the protection over his shaft. “I was your lover.” Then Tim rolled her over so that she was on her back again as he slid into her heat.
Raven sighed as he filled her body with his, rolling her hips to accommodate him and grabbing onto his shoulders. “Right. Whatever.” She bit her lip, enjoying the way he nibbled at her neck, but it wasn’t enough. “If I tell you I love you again, will you move?”
He chuckled, but pulled away from her neck. “Try it.”
Raven lifted her hands, cupping his cheeks. “I love you,” she told him with intense sincerity. “I love you and I won’t ever run away from you again.”
“Good.” He started thrusting, slowly at first. “And you’ll marry me?”
She bit her lip, shifting her hips, lifting them higher to meet his next thrust. “Yes.”
“And you’ll move in with me today?”
“Yes,” she gasped, wrapping her legs around his waist, lifting her hips to meet his next thrusts. There was a long pause as he thrust deeper, bringing both of them closer and closer to that peak. Then he said, “I want kids, Raven.”
“Might be one on the way already,” she told him, thinking of the period that should have come a few days ago. Then there was no more talking as both of them climaxed, shuddering and crying out with pleasure as they clung to each other.
When it was over, Tim collapsed for a moment before he sat up, nearly jumping off the bed. He grabbed tissues, then tossed the condom into the garbage can before turning back to stare at her.
Raven was still sated from that round of bliss and beamed up at him. But when she saw his stunned expression, she roused enough to sit up. “Are you okay?”
“Repeat what you just said!” Tim growled.
Raven looked at him, noticed that he was already half aroused again. How was that possible? Raven wasn’t sure, but she was eager to experiment with her lover’s…no, her fiancé’s randy sex drive.
“What did you want me to repeat?” she asked, grabbing a pillow, hugging it against her body.
“That part about…” he waved his hand in the air, but the gesture didn’t clarify anything. “The children part.”
Raven relaxed. “Oh. That part.” She stuffed another pillow behind her back, smothering a yawn. “Well, I’m a couple of days late.”
There was a long silence as Tim stared down at her. “You’re…?”
Raven shrugged. “I don’t know yet, Tim,” she replied with a soft voice. “I’m figuring this out, just like you are.” She reached for his hand and he took it, tightening his fingers around hers. She tugged him closer and Tim sat down on the bed beside her. “I might know a bit more about love than you,” she teased, sliding her finger down his chest. “But when it comes to babies, you and I are tied on lack of knowledge.”
He lowered his eyes, then pulled the pillow out of the way so that he could look at her belly. When he looked into her eyes again, there was hope and excitement. “We should have waited until we were married for a few years before starting a family.”
Raven shrugged. “I don’t even know if I’m pregnant,” she warned him. “It’s early days. And I’m only two days late.”
Once again, he eyed her belly and Raven was pretty sure he was trying to see through the layers of her body so that he could view the tiny cells that might eventually form a baby.
She touched his shoulder. “I’m not sure, Tim. I’ll take a pregnancy test in the morning.”
He nodded, then slipped back into the bed, pulling her into his arms. Raven rested her cheek against his chest, listening to the rapid beat of his heart.
“I’d love it if you were pregnant, Raven,” he finally said.
She smiled and kissed his chest. “Me too.”