A Little Harmless Fantasy (15 page)

“What if we don’t want to eat that, Maura?” he
called out.

“You can feed yourself, Zeke,” she said, but didn’t
turn around.

He didn’t follow but Rory did.

He grabbed her by the arm. “Slow down, love. You sure do eat up
the ground with those long legs.”

“What’s the use of walking slowly when you know what you
want?”

He shook his head and his lips twitched. “To enjoy the
journey?”

She rolled her eyes as she stepped into line to wait to give her
order.

“So, you don’t eat all the healthy stuff?”

“I watch what I eat but I have been blessed with good genes.
Zee’s father had all kinds of issues.”

“But he didn’t die because of that. He died in a bomb,
right?”

Rory looked surprised that she knew. She tried not to take offense to
it, and she really shouldn’t. Rory and Zeke had known each
other for so long. She was pretty sure that Zeke rarely got involved
with women the way he had with her. Their relationship was different
for him…for her. They always seemed to have that connection,
the ability to call each other in the middle of the night just to
talk.

“What is going on in your head?” he asked.

She shook herself out of the funk. “What do you mean?”

“Zeke said that you have a computer in there,” he said
smiling at her. She usually hated when people talked about her
intelligence that way. But when Zeke did, it didn’t bother her.
And, apparently, it included Rory now.

“When I get tired, I can’t keep my thoughts organized.
I’m trying to do that right now.”

“Ah,” he said, but she knew he knew she was lying.

This was their first night in Hawaii and she didn’t want to
ruin it with sad thoughts or regrets. Living in the moment…that’s
what she told Jillian she would do. And dammit for once in her life,
she would.

“Ready for the best thing on this island next to pineapple and
malassadas?” she asked.

Rory studied her for a second then grinned. “Bring it on.”

* * * *

Rory finished off his second pork ball and realized that Maura had
just finished eating one.

The sweet, savory taste lingered in his mouth as he tried to figure
out just what went into the delicacy. When he had left Ireland, he
had discovered an entire world of different tasting food. Granted, he
did have a soft place in his heart for bangers and mash, but a lot of
their food was really bland. Thanks to the job, he and Zee had
travelled the world over. They’d eaten in dives starving dogs
would avoid and five star restaurants that had served presidents and
kings. He was always intrigued in the way to cook things up, how they
were made up. It was one of the reasons he had been good at making
bombs once upon a time. It was all about what went into it and the
execution…just different ingredients.

When he licked his last finger, he nodded. “You’re right.
Those are heaven. I need to figure out how to make them.”

Zee looked at them from across the table as he ate his salad. “You
two are disgusting.”

“You’re just jealous, Zee,” Rory said, but his mind
went back to the treat they had just eaten. “I’ll have to
play with it a little, but I think I can figure it out.”

Maura smiled. “Then, I will do anything for you if you can. I
love those things but I have yet to find a place in Miami that makes
them this way.”

“Hmm,” he said. “Just what would I get in return
for making you these?”

She frowned and then again, he was reminded how literally she took
everything. “I could clean your house.”

“No.” Zeke said. “You are not cleaning our house.
You don’t know how to clean.”

She glanced at him and was going to open her mouth but something
caught her eye. Rory followed her line of vision and saw a tall man
striding down the row toward them. Waist length hair and strong
Native American features of his face made him look fierce. Maura
squealed and jumped up and ran toward him. He opened his arms and
caught her in a big hug.

Rory couldn’t hear the man’s voice but he caught the
smile and was on his feet before he knew what he was doing.

Zee caught him, wrapping his fingers around his forearm to stop him.
“Slow down, love. It’s just the owner of Rough ‘n
Ready.”

He glanced at Zee.

“Who?” he asked looking back at the man holding his
woman.

His woman? Shit
. That was not smart to be thinking. He looked
at Zee again and noticed the way he was studying him. “What?”

Zee shrugged. “I don’t know if I ever saw you freak out
over a woman before.”

Rory knew what he was talking about, but he ignored it. If he argued
with Zee it would make him more suspicious. It was bad enough it took
every ounce of his control.

“So, he owns the club. Does he have to paw all over her?”

Zee’s face went blank, then he laughed. “Oh, my, God.
You’re jealous.”

“I’m not jealous.” He knew he sounded desperate as
he counted backwards from ten. The man was still touching her and
Rory’s fingers curled into the palms of his hands. Zee was
still chuckling and with more than a little desperation, he said,
“Conner wouldn’t be happy if we didn’t protect
her.”

“Sure, love, you keep telling yourself that. Some day you might
just believe it.”

Rory tossed Zee a furious glanced and headed off to Maura. He tried
not to look so intent on reaching her, but something pushed him
forward. He watched as Maura took a seat next to a rather largely
pregnant woman. Zee caught up to him.

“That’s Micah’s wife, Dee. He is very happily
married, so you don’t have to worry about them.”

“He wasn’t one of the Dom’s she was involved with?”

Why did that matter? It had never bothered him before but for some
reason he couldn’t get the idea out of his head that this man
had touched her. From the look he was giving Rory, he knew that he
was being sized up.

“No. We met him when we had to came over on one of Conner’s
old cases.”

He nodded as they finally caught up to the trio. “Micah, how’s
everything?” Zee asked.

The man was tall—taller than either Zee or him and that was
saying a lot. He continued to stand behind his wife’s chair. He
didn’t appear to be doing anything but Rory sensed that the man
continued to scan the area looking for threats. No matter.

“Everything’s going well, except that someone had a need
to come get some frozen yogurt.”

The diminutive brunette smiled up at them then glanced at her
husband.

“Stop looming like the Grim Reaper, Micah, and sit.”

His lips twitched before doing what his wife ordered.

She turned her attention back to them. “I think I met you at
the wedding.”

Then he did remember meeting them. She hadn’t been as pregnant
then.

“Yes. We did. I’m Rory McAlister and this is Zeke
O’Brian.”

“Oh, I know Zeke well since he turned me into the feds.”

Zee shook his head. “I didn’t turn you into the feds.
Just into Conner.”

She laughed then turned back to Maura. “So, I like the blonde
hair.”

And they had been dismissed. He had an idea that the woman was a sub
with a husband who ran a BDSM club and the fact that he screamed Dom
just by his actions. But she really did run things in her own way.

“Yeah, and yours is completely brunette now. I don’t know
why you would have changed it before.”

She laughed and he watched as Micah turned his head slightly, his
expression softening a bit.

“So, you boys here for a vacation?” she asked.

He would usually take offense at being called a boy, but he had a
feeling Dee Ross didn’t mean anything by it.

“Yeah.”

Then, her and Maura started talking.

“Are you here because of Peterson?” Micah asked.

Zee nodded. “In a way. I don’t think we have anything to
worry about, really. We turned everything over to the FBI, they took
it from there. We aren’t even mentioned in any of the papers.
They conducted their own investigation. Conner just thought it best
if we were removed from the situation at least during the beginning
of the trial. Plus, he was worried about other things,” he said
looking over at Maura.

Micah followed his line of vision and nodded in understanding. “What
flavor did you say you wanted, babe?”

“Chocolate. But I can get it.”

“No, you sit. You remember what the doc said about staying off
your feet as much as possible. Maura?”

“Vanilla, waffle cone.”

He signaled with his head and they followed him.

“She’s not looking very good.”

It wasn’t an accusation but it still felt that way. He bit back
the retort, but apparently Ross picked up on his feelings.

“And don’t be getting upset with me. It’s just an
observation. Since everything that went down with Conner, I know that
she has been on edge. Dee said she sensed it in her voice when they
would talk. She’s been a little worried about Maura. Running
the office by herself is hard.”

“I’m there and I hate to have to keep pointing this out,
but I’m partners with Conner,” Zee said. Rory sensed he
was mildly irritated.

Ross sighed as he stepped in line. “I get that, but you know
that girl. She’s so focused on not letting Conner down. The
fact that she’s changing hair color is a sure sign.”

Rory frowned at him. “What are you talking about?”

Ross eyed him. “Dee has said in the past that Maura changes her
hair color when she is upset.”

Zee nodded. “I picked up on it, but at least she didn’t
go dark. When Conner and Jillian were in that mess, she died it
black. That wasn’t pretty.”

He glanced back at the table and smiled when he watched her throw her
head back and laugh.

“Does Conner know?” Ross asked.

He had to pull his attention away from Maura to concentrate on Ross.
He found the Dom watching him without an expression on his face.

“What?”

“No, he doesn’t know,” Zee said. “And we
would rather not have to deal with that.”

Ross crossed his arms and stared them down. Rory had dealt with more
bastards than he wanted to remember, but at the moment, most of them
paled in comparison to Micah Ross.

“There is one thing I want both of you to understand. I love my
wife.”

“Nice to know,” Rory said, sarcasm dripping from his
words.

“My wife has a soft spot in her heart for Maura. I do too.”

“And, what does this mean to me?” Rory asked, not able to
keep the sneer out of his voice.

“This means that if you hurt her in any way, Dee will give me
permission to beat the shit out of you.”

He glanced at the woman again. She was very petite and small boned.
She had one of the sweetest faces. He turned back to face Ross.

“She’s too sweet.”

Micah snorted. “You got that off the what fifteen minutes total
you’ve spent with her?” Rory opened his mouth but Micah
stopped him. “Sweet Dee is the daughter of Tony Rizzoli. Yeah,
that’s right. And, she hid for years, all the while learning
how to defend herself. The only thing she got from that bastard of a
father was that you mess with one of her family—either one of
your choosing or blood—she will happily order me to hurt them.
Ask Zeke here.”

He glanced at Zee and he nodded.

“Your problem is that you don’t see women as a threat,”
Ross said. “You make too many misconceptions.”

“And you figured that out after fifteen minutes in my
presence?”

Instead of getting mad, Ross smiled. “Hey, just trying to help
out. And I’m good at reading people. Part of my former life as
a bounty hunter. Just remember that women aren’t as helpless as
you think.”

Rory was irritated but he did his best to hide it. “Yeah, and
how did you come to that observation?”

“Who’s standing in line waiting to get yogurt and who’s
sitting at a table talking?”

Rory laughed. “You have a point there.”

* * * *

Maura held her hand on Dee’s stomach and giggled when she felt
another kick against her palm.

“Wow, you have a future soccer player in there, woman,”
she said.

“You don’t have to tell me. All night long, every night.
I’m blaming Micah because he’s so damned tall.”

She sat back and smiled at Dee. It was hard to remember her as the
young woman her brother had hunted for years. When her father put a
hit out on her, Dee didn’t just give up. She survived and now,
she was getting rewarded. A woman who was married to Micah Ross and
had the man knee deep in love with her was one lucky woman.

“You look so happy.”

Her smile widened. “I am happy. I never thought I would be, but
I am. Before Hawaii, I’d move within a year.”

“Yeah, I know,” Maura said, wryly. “I am pretty
familiar with your disappearing act.”

Dee threw back her head and laughed.

“Sure, you think it’s funny. I had to deal with Conner.
You know how many times we almost got to you? There was a time in
Chicago…I thought Conner was going to come unglued.”

“Well, I guess I can’t complain too much. I found my
brother thanks to that little excursion. And I think because you came
in here with big, bad Zeke, you got to hook up with him. So, I think
you kind of owe me.”

Maura laughed. “You would say that.”

“Well, I have to say, you have more energy than I do,”
Dee said as she glanced toward the men standing in line.

“What are you talking about?”

Dee looked at her, one eyebrow raised. “Oh, please, woman. They
look like they were ready to eat you alive. Plus, that Rory, he
wasn’t too happy with Micah manhandling you that way.”

Maura snorted trying to ignore the way her heart did flip-flop when
she thought about it. Sure, they were playing, but there was nothing
permanent. “That pregnancy of yours is starting to mess with
your head.”

Dee leaned forward, her smile fading. “You better know what
you’re doing, Maura.”