Desert Exposure (19 page)

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A man of his word, Rachel thought as she rolled onto her side and rested a gentle hand on Michael’s chest. Honest to a fault, but she already knew that. She felt the rise and fall of each breath. They were face to face. He had one arm bent to shade his face even though the room was in pitch black. The sheet and blanket were tossed back toward the bottom of the bed, exposing his naked chest, and yet he radiated heat.

A tiny pinpoint of light shone through a hole Michael had drilled in the panel that covered the window. The sun must be up. Reaching out to turn on the lamp, she changed her mind.
Enjoy the moment.

There was no clock in the room. Grandpa always said he used nature. Best clock ever. Thinking of Grandpa, she recalled Michael’s questions of last night. His thoughtful and reassuring words, the way he hadn’t tried to take advantage of her moment of weakness, told her a lot about him. She knew he was as attracted to her as she was to him. There’s no denying chemistry like that. She smiled, and then thought about getting up to find her watch but it was so nice and warm lying next to him.

She could fake being asleep, throw a leg over his, and press her body up against him. Maybe squirm a bit. But he’d know that wasn’t an accident. She gently lifted the sheet and pursed her lips. It was too dark in the room to see him properly. She knew he wore only a pair of Grandpa’s old gray sweatpants and her fingers inched to roam his naked chest and abdomen.

“Like what you see?” he murmured.

Rachel pulled in a sharp intake of air and dropped the sheet like it was a hot potato fresh from the oven. She swallowed hard. Then she laughed. “Yeah, very much.”

He reached out and lazily pulled her against his chest, and then she did squirm against him. She soon found a comfortable position and nestled into the hard shape of his body. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head.

“We had quite a night,” he said, and yawned loudly. “I feel like I’ve been up and down that highway fifty times in twenty four hours.”

“Yeah, me too.”

His hand strayed down over the curve of her hip, and he started to stroke the base of her spine. She murmured her approval and he continued with long leisurely strokes. Then his movements stilled, and he capped her butt with one hand. “No panties?” He fanned her mouth with hot breath and nibbled at her lips.

“I was hoping to get lucky.” She sensed his grin in the dark. And then his long fingers massaged back up her spine, caressing each bump, one at a time. Heat surged through her belly and she was wet and wanting. She ran a hand over his chest, feeling the muscles, and traced the soft hair that ran down toward the top of his sweats.

“Oops, what do we have here?” she asked, as her hand grazed his erection.

He laughed and pulled her underneath him. He settled over her, the length of his body covering her, the heat of his desire pulsing against her thigh. He pulled her over-sized t-shirt over her head, fingers finding her hot wet flesh, and his mouth met hers in a deep kiss. He explored, finding the places that excited her most. She nuzzled his neck, and licked his chest, and then traced his jawbone to his ear. He moaned against her mouth, capturing her lips with his, his tongue stroking hers. Then he licked all the way from her chin to her breasts.

“Oh,” she said, on a quick intake of air, as first one breast was lavished with attention and then the other. He took the nipple into his mouth sucking gently, teasing, and licking until her head spun with desire, and her body heated from within and that heat expanded outward.

She arched to meet him. Her nipples tightened and hardened and her skin tingled with awareness. She wanted him now, and reached to pull down those damn sweats. He beat her to it, peeling them down and then kicking them off, releasing his member heavy with heat. In one swift movement he pressed that wonderful heat between her thighs, and then he drew back, searching her face in the dark.

“Yes,” she moaned. “Oh, yes…now.”

“No,” he said, and traced his tongue down over her abdomen to her mound. “Not yet.” He dropped kisses over her lower abdomen and licked the sensitive skin, and blew small breaths over the licked spots until she squirmed and thought she’d scream.

Then when she couldn’t hold out a moment longer, he parted her slick flesh and licked her clit until she was sure she saw stars. She moaned and moved against his mouth until she felt like she’d split apart, and then she shattered coming all around him, and she did see stars.

He grabbed his wallet. Took out a condom and she hoped it was still good.

He brought her down gently from her star-filled orgasm, and then he thrust inside of her, moving rhythmically as she gripped the back of his waist with her legs and urged him deeper. And to her surprise she came again as he groaned his release and collapsed against her chest, their breath and sweat intermingled, limbs and bed linens akimbo.

Afterward they lay spent for a few minutes until he rolled off her, and her hand reached out to splay across his chest, seeking warmth and contact.

He reached up and moved the damp hair from her forehead. “Unbelievable.”

“Perfect.” She snuggled against him. “Absolute perfection. Want to sleep some more?”

“Five minutes of cuddle time,” he said, and dropped kisses down the side of her neck and nuzzled her shoulder. Then he pulled the sheet up around their shoulders. “We need to get up, and check in with Stanton. Plus, we have to figure out what we’re doing next.”

She didn’t want to think about the events of the day before. It was such a violation, it felt like she’d been harmed in addition to her house being trashed. But if anyone could make sense of it, it would be Michael. She felt so sure of him, so sure of herself when they were together. And they hardly knew each other. How could that be? He eased up onto one elbow, watching her in the dark. She needed to see those tell-all eyes, and switched on the lamp.

He blinked hard. “Now that’s cruel.”

“I know, and I’m sorry. But it’s daylight outside and nobody will see the light. And I can’t stand any more evasions. I need to see you. To see what you’re really saying.”

He nodded, and then grimaced. “I’m here for you, Rachel. I swear I’ll do everything to protect you. And I’m sure the trashing of your house is a warning to get you to back off, nothing more.”

She concentrated on what he’d said, and frowned. “What do you mean, ‘back off’?”

“I think they think you’re on to them.”

The pulse at the side of her neck beat harder. “Um, ‘they’ being, well, who exactly?”

“I promise I’ll tell you what I can, but only after I speak with Stanton.” Michael sat up against the pillows, the sheet falling to cover him from waist down, his expression serious.

She looked at his gorgeous body in the lamplight, and wanted him again. Her entire body felt like it was lit from within, and every nerve ending buzzed. Her lips trembled at the memory of their lovemaking. She rubbed her lips together, moistening them, and moved forward.

“Ah, no you don’t,” he said, and threw his legs over the side of the bed and eased into a sitting position. “No kisses. Nope, can’t go there.”

He was right, they had work to do. She scooted closer, rubbed a hand over his back, enjoying the ripple of muscle from her touch.

“I know,” she murmured. “There’s a lot to plan.”

His feet hit the floor with a thud. “You can stay in for ten more minutes if you want. Stretch out,” he said, keeping his back to her and reaching for his discarded sweats. “If you don’t mind, I’ll make a couple of calls.”

She didn’t mind at all. She’d snuggle up and enjoy the view for as long as possible.

Chapter Ten

“Okay, buddy,” Michael said to Ralph, slapped at his thigh a couple of times with one hand, and dragged a chair along the back verandah. “We’re on watch. We have to protect the little lady.”

He’d barely gotten his backside into the chair when Ralph barked once, and then jumped into his lap causing him to almost drop his cell phone. He juggled with it for a second, appreciating the fact that he had good reflexes, and then jabbed at the numbers for the department in Indio. He hit send and glanced up as Rachel sauntered out onto the verandah, wrapped only in a large towel. She stretched and yawned, then turned on the water in the outdoor shower, dropped the towel, and stepped behind the canvas curtain. He’d figured he wouldn’t be overheard from this end of the verandah, and now with the water running he was certain of that, although he wondered if he could put two coherent thoughts together after seeing her casual disrobing, well, towel dropping.

A voice at the department said something. He shook his head, and refocused.

“Detective Delaney here,” he said to the cop on desk duty. He hadn’t quite caught the name, but anyway he wasn’t in the mood for small talk. “Put me through to the chief, ASAP.”

Michael pressed the cell phone to his ear with one hand and raised the binoculars to his eyes, sweeping the terrain. He studied the shower. Shaking off the memory of the curve of Rachel’s spine took extreme effort. That creamy skin, the roundness of her small ass.

“He’ll be one minute,” the guy on desk duty said, rudely popping the bubble of Michael’s daydream.

“Thanks.” Michael gazed through the binoculars still centered on the shower. As if sensing his scrutiny, Rachel peeped out between the folds of the two heavy shower curtains, and a whirl of steam rose up behind her pink naked shoulder.

“Pervert,” she said, and grinned.

He dropped the binoculars, letting them come to rest against his chest and hang there by the strap. “All safe,” he said loudly, and tried to focus on the tune playing in his ear while he waited for the chief to come on the line.

“I knew it would be.” Wet hair dripped water down her face, and she gave him the sexiest of grins. “There’s tons of hot water. Feel free to come in, if you want.” Then she stuck a naked leg through the join in the curtains, and moved it up and down.

He raised a hand, and forced a smile, as his body leaped into action. Damn. He pointed to his cell phone. “I’d take you up on that, but I have to check in.”

“Your loss,” she said, and drew the curtain closed.

He looked from phone, to curtain, and back again. Then he shook his head.
Nah, can’t do it.
He scanned the sea and both side yards.
Where the hell is the chief
? He looked around again, then took his gun out of the holster and placed it on the top of the small table in front of him.

“Delaney,” the chief said, his voice booming. “What’s up?”

In a low voice, speaking fast, Michael explained his predicament, but continually scanned the area around the cabin.

“You want back-up?”

“Not yet. Don’t want to scare our man off. I need to flush him out.”

“Yeah, yeah…but the girl…innocent…got to protect her.”

“I don’t think the grandfather is up to anything devious.”

The Chief snorted. “We’ll see.”

“I’d like to view his file.”

“You want access to Henry Copeland’s case file?” the chief asked, irritation evident in his voice.

“Yes.” Michael hoped he didn’t have to explain all over again.

“The man’s a damn troublemaker. If the granddaughter is anything like him, she’s a reckless fool. Anyway, I don’t want you getting caught up in another case.” He huffed loudly. “I’ve got a team on that already. You’ll lose momentum. Don’t want you sidetracked.”

“Hear me out, okay? There’s a good chance Henry’s, Rachel’s, and my cases are connected. I think one or both of them captured something on film that will help me to flush out the Suarez brothers.”

He heard the chief mutter something, a curse word probably, and he knew not to ask him to repeat what he’d said. Then he heard a chair scrape.
Be patient
. You had to learn patience to work in the field. You could spend days on surveillance, on a hunch, and not see a glimmer of evidence that you should even be there. Then everything would break loose. Yeah, he could wait out the blustering Chief of the Indio P.D.

Finally, after much hemming and hawing, the chief agreed that his case, and Rachel’s, and Henry’s, might be co-mingled. Michael ended the call, and let out a puff of air, relieved, and somewhat satisfied, with his results. He’d gained permission to access the file, and to disclose to Deputy Stanton of the Almagro PD, the exact details of his undercover assignment, although the chief had given him all kinds of hell on the latter.

No problem, he could deal with the egos of the chiefs of two small town departments. He’d dealt with worse. Now all he had to do was convince Dave to come on board. He looked around. Steam rose from the shower curtain, and as much as Michael itched to go in there and soap both of them up, and maybe make love again, he couldn’t.

“It wouldn’t be safe,” he explained to Ralph, who cocked his head to one side and listened. The dog’s black eyes twinkled and he bared his teeth in a smile, like he understood. Michael ruffled the dog’s head, realizing he had become attached to the little guy. “We have to get each other’s backs. Besides, someone has to protect you.” He raised the binoculars, scanned the entire area, and then dialed Stanton’s number.

“Dave, Michael Delaney here,” he said, and then cleared his throat. “Find anything from the break in?”

“Not a damn thing.”

“Figured it would be that way,” Michael said.