Deadly Affair: SCVC Taskforce World Novella (SCVC Taskforce Romantic Suspense Series Book 5) (13 page)

The words came out as a croak, her mouth so dry it hurt. “Like I got slammed in the back of the head and then stabbed in the leg.”

Cooper poured her a glass of water, holding it up to her parched lips. “Funny, ’cuz you did. But Lopez is in jail, Father Bailey is alright and you get credit for solving Givens’ cold case before he even got started with it.”

She smiled around the straw, sucking in a few tentative sips, testing her stomach. It was more than empty, but she didn’t want to push her luck where the baby was concerned.

The baby!

“Oh my god. I need…I need to talk to the doctor.”

Frozen in terror at the possibility of having lost the baby, she couldn’t even bring herself to say the words aloud. Both of her hands went to her lower abdomen and she rubbed it instinctively.

Cooper set the glass on the nightstand. “The baby is fine, Celina. You lost a lot of blood and you have a concussion, but the doctor believes you’ll both make a full recovery.”

Celina leaned back against her pillow, closing her eyes.
Thank God.
Everything was going to be okay. She and the baby would both be fine. Slowly, she opened her eyes, finding Cooper’s face.

Oh, crud. He knew about the baby. “How mad are you?”

He cupped her hands between his, his strong fingers gently caressing her skin. “Mad? Why would I be mad? I’m a little…blown away, I guess. Why didn’t you tell me?”

The tenderness in his tone combined with the gentle way he was holding her hands caused tears to spring to her eyes. Seeing her tears, he immediately moved to the edge of the bed, gathering her in his arms.

“Hey, now, don’t cry. It’ll be alright.”

“I know it will be,” she sniffed, wiping her nose on the front of his shirt. “It’s just, that I’ve been so worried about telling you. I was afraid you’d be upset.”

Using his thumbs, he wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Celina, listen to me. I love you. You and Owen? You’re everything to me. And now you’ve given me the chance to share that love with another child. I only wish you would have told me.”

“I’m so sorry, Cooper. I was planning on telling you last night, and, well, you see how well that turned out.”

“Yeah, not our best night for sure.”

“Are you really okay with us having a baby?”

Cooper placed a hand over her stomach, staring at it reverently. “I’m not going to lie. When the doctor first told me you and the
baby
would be fine, I was stunned and a little hurt that you hadn’t told me.” She opened her mouth to speak, but he firmly pressed a finger over her lips. “But while you were out, I had a lot of time to think things through.”

Her stomach fluttered. “And…?”

His lips curved into a smile. “I want to grow old with you, Celina. I want to raise our kids until we kick them out of the house, then I want to be that doddering old couple who sits on the front porch and yells at children who step on their lawn. I want you, Celina, and I want this baby.
Our
baby.”

Tears choked the back of her throat. All her fears for not telling him in the first place fell away and she felt foolish for having kept it from him. She should have known better. Cooper was a good man. And he would be a good father to their unborn child.

Not good.
Great
.

“So,” he tapped her on the end of her nose, eyes sparkling mischievously. “is there anything else I need to know about? Any more secrets you’re keeping?”

Celina shook her head, a ghost of a smile playing on her lips. “Nope, that’s the only bombshell I have up my sleeve.”

“Good. Because I have a proposition for you.”

Celina arched an eyebrow. “I believe I’ve already been thoroughly propositioned by you on more than one occasion, so I have to confess, I’m curious.”

“Last night I had an agenda of my own that we never got around to. And then when everything happened and I thought I might lose you…” He swallowed, emotions choking his voice. “Well, let’s just say, it puts things in a whole different perspective.”

Her breath caught as he reached into his shirt pocket, withdrawing a red velvet box.

“I know this isn’t the most romantic place for this, but I tried that route and look how that turned out. So I’m going with the flow, which has always worked better with us anyway. I love you, will you marry me, and let’s be honest, we never really do anything the traditional, proper way, so why start now?”

When he opened the box, Celina gasped. A princess cut diamond winked at her.

As tears of joy slipped down her cheeks, he pulled it from the box and held it over her ring finger, a question in his eyes. “Celina Davenport, my one and only love. You brow beat me into a relationship and I’ll be damned if it wasn’t the best beating I’ve ever taken. You are my match in every way that matters, and other than Owen and any more children we may have, there isn’t anyone else I would rather share my life with. Would you do me the honor of marrying me?”

Heart in her throat, Celina nodded. “Yes, Cooper Harris, you big old Beast.” She laughed, wiping happy tears away as he slipped the ring on her finger. “I’ll marry you.”

He grinned, cupping her cheeks in his hands. “I love you, Celina.” He pressed a kiss to one side of her mouth. “Here.” He moved to the other side of her mouth. “Now.” Hovering above her mouth, she could feel his breath fanning across her lips, making her shiver in anticipation. “And always.”

Drawing her close, he settled his lips over hers, sealing the deal with a kiss.

Turn the page for a sneak page at the next SCVC Taskforce novel

DEADLY ATTRACTION

coming November 2016!

Excerpt from

Deadly Attraction

SCVC Taskforce

Book 5

The woman who answered the door wasn’t at all what Mitch expected.

Her brown hair was forced into a clip on top of her head, a couple pieces of hay sticking out of it and random strands stuck to her neck. Her face was devoid of makeup and sporting a healthy smear of dirt on her cheek. She clutched the edges of a worn plaid robe close to her neck, her short fingernails showing traces of caked mud. Beneath the hem of the robe stretched sexy bare legs, slender ankles, and Barbie-pink toenails.

Mitch fought to take his eyes off her shapely calves and bring them back up to her face. “Is Dr. Collins home?”

The porch light gave her face a subtle yellow glow. He couldn’t be sure about the color of her eyes. They looked brown one moment, then flashed a hint of green the next as she glanced behind him as if she expected the boogeyman to be in the shadows.

Maybe she did.

“I’m Dr. Collins. What is this about?”

“
You’re
Emma Collins?”

Those eyes of hers flashed again, but she replied evenly. “Dr. Emma Collins, yes. And you are?”

Damn. Definitely not what he expected a forensic psychologist to look like. Shouldn’t she be…older? More buttoned-up with a bun and glasses?

Maybe that was just his librarian fantasy getting in the way.

Mitch flashed his ID and she glanced at it. “Agent Mitch Holden. National Intelligence. Currently on loan to the Southern California Violent Crimes Taskforce. May I come in?”

She was a good six inches shorter than him, her focus swinging up to return to his face. “I’m not in the habit of letting strange men into my house, Agent Holden, so no, you may not. Not until you tell me what this is about.”

Brown. Her eyes were definitely brown with specks of green in them. The specks caught the light like a cat’s eyes.

Get it together, Holden. Quit analyzing the woman’s eyes and get down to business.
“Chris Goodsman escaped a transport out of the Hills today.”

Her face blanched. “What?”

She obviously hadn’t heard the news yet. “Victor Dupé asked me to get you to a safe house. He’s been trying to reach you, but with the wildfires and all, landlines have been overloaded and some of the local cell towers aren’t working.”

The mention of Dupé seemed to wipe away her hesitation about letting a strange man into her house. She stepped back and motioned him in, her pretty eyes once more scanning the shadows over his shoulder.

Two Labs, one black and one white, rushed Mitch, sniffing and wagging their tails.

“Hope you’re not allergic,” Collins said, closing the door behind her.

“Nah.” Cold noses met his fingers. They, too, had a dirt on their faces and hay in their short coats. “My brother and I always had dogs growing up.”

Collins snapped her fingers and the Labs retreated, heads down, tails still wagging. They flanked her, one on each side like bodyguards. She absently petted their heads, the V of her robe falling open enough for him to see tan skin and freckles dancing across her collarbone. “How did Chris escape?”

Chris. Sounded funny for the doctor to refer to the actor—a man she’d labeled a sociopath—by his first name. “The transport van was run off the road. Goodsman escaped, the driver was killed, another guard’s in serious condition. I don’t know all the details, but I’m sure Dupé can fill you in when he meets us at the safe house.”

Her nose wrinkled. “Have you been drinking?”

Shit. “Not enough to affect my reasoning or judgment skills, Dr. Collins. I assure you, I can keep you safe.”

Pushing off the door, she headed for the kitchen, a brightly lit room off to his left. “I’ll make you some coffee.”

Coffee sounded good. The tone in her voice—like she was reprimanding a kid about skipping school or not washing behind his ears—didn’t. “I had two sips of whiskey, that’s all, before I got the call to come protect you.”

He found himself following her into the kitchen, his gaze drawn to her ass as she reached up to grab a bag of coffee from a rough pine cabinet. “The holidays are hard on all of us,” she said.

So now she was presuming to know he hated Christmas and the emotional shitstorm it brought on? Yeah, maybe he did feel that way, but it was still annoying that she seemed to see right through him.

One of the Labs nuzzled his fingertips. Gritting his teeth, Mitch did his usual trick when someone probed into his personal life—turned the tables on them. “How is it hard on you? Your boyfriend dump you right before Christmas or something?”

She paused in pouring water into the coffee maker, but her face was serene when she glanced over at him. “Touchy subject, I take it?”

Guilt over lashing out at her clawed its way into his chest. Jesus, what was wrong with him? He was here to get her to a safe house, nothing more. Then it was back to a few last hours of vacation filled with moping and a twelve pack. Mac could keep his scotch. “Yes, actually, it is.”

She nodded and finished pouring the water, hit the switch. “Sorry. I’m sure this isn’t what you had planned for your Saturday night.”

It wasn’t what she’d planned either. Once more, he chastised himself for being so defensive over nothing. For being rude. “Look, I appreciate the coffee and the chitchat, but you need to pack a bag so we can get out of here.”

“I’m going to shower and get dressed.” She walked by him toward the living room and the stairs. “Help yourself to the cookies in the Snoopy jar on the counter.”

She was halfway up the stairs when she turned back and caught him ogling her ass. That same serene look crossed her features before she motioned at the door. “There’s a shotgun above the door, locked and loaded. Just in case.”

Huh. Interesting. A handsome Remington rested on hooks over the front door exactly like she claimed. He also noticed for the first time that there wasn’t a Christmas decoration of any kind inside the house.

No menorah or kinara either.

Was she atheist or some other religion? Did she simply hate the holidays as much as he did?

He tipped his head at her. “Good to know.”

“FYI, I also have a couple of weapons upstairs.”

Was she warning him or letting him know she didn’t need his protection? Either way, he found it cute. “Do you know how to use them?”

One of her dainty eyebrows arched. “Better help yourself to that coffee, Agent Holden. I’ll be back shortly.”

“We really need to get on the road.”

“If Chris is coming after me, I’d rather not smell like a barn when I have to confront him.”

She did smell. “You have livestock?”

“Horses. My practice involves therapy animals. You ride?”

He grinned. “Just motorcycles, ma’am.”

She glanced at his black boots. “A similar type of therapy I’m told. No motorcycle tonight, though, huh?”

He hadn’t trusted himself on his bike. Too tempting to flee town, just him and his demons, and ride like hell. “Not tonight.”

“Too bad,” she said, disappearing up the stairs, the Labs on her heels, before he could ask why.

Coming November 2016!

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Deadly Affair
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