Evidence of Desire: Hero Series 3 (21 page)

“Nothing like you.” He bit her bottom lip then licked away the smarting he caused.

“I want you inside me. Now.” She demanded, no longer feeling playful. If Parker was her man than she had a right to take control and claim him when she needed him. Leaning back, she locked her ankles at the small of his back then spread her thighs wider, thankful for his powerful hands still holding her up. Bringing the crown of his member to her clit, she stroked herself with it, excited as the hot pearl droplet at the tip coated her there. Up and down her hand moved, manipulating and coating him with her cream.

“Baby, I can’t take much more.” His eyes were closed and his face was drawn tight.

“Oh, yes…” She pressed him right at her gate of pleasure and pressed down. Rocking her hips, she took him deeper. Her toes curled at the stretching and stroking sensation inside of her.

“That’s it.” He remained still and allowed her to keep the lead in the beginning.

Her only warning was the husky groan that came from him as he pulled all the way out then drove into her primed sex.

“More!” She didn’t want him to hold back, she needed his force and needed the unleashed power of his strokes. “Take me. I’m yours,” she goaded.

Parker’s hold was bracing as he circled her waist with his arms then began to slam into her harder.

Whatever he gave she took and gave him some of her own. This Sonya Watson wasn’t the neophyte young lady he’d once been married to, she was a woman and she planned to show him.

The sex was rough, demanding and quick. Both of them slaves to the pressure of release. When her second orgasm robbed her of sight and sound, she was attuned to the hot sensation of Parkers release.

His thrusts turned slow…steady pulling forth every tremor of delight.

“You provoke a man to insanity.” His voice was gruff and sexy.

“What do you think you do to me?”

His kiss was soft, but no less enticing as he walked them through the house and into the room. He lay down, keeping her on top of him.

She looked at the sky blue comforter beneath him and frowned. “You know we’re in the wrong room.”

“No we’re not. I plan to love you in every room of this house today. We hit up the kitchen, now we’ll do it in the guest bedroom.” He brought his thumb to her clit and began making seductive circles around it.

Pressing her knees wider she gave him more room to touch her as she rested lower on his hardening rod inside of her. “Then where?” she moaned.

“Maybe the shower…or I’ll bend you over the back of the couch and make you scream and your neighbors come knocking.”

“Not if I have you yelling first.” She stared down at him as she rose then lowered herself and took him all the way in.

The fingers of his free hand dug into her thigh as he let loose a string of naughty words. Hearing them shocked and excited her. Their relationship this time around was different and she was looking forward to getting to know Parker the man.

After hours of having sex, he and Sonya had reheated breakfast to satisfy their growling stomachs. They just curled up on the couch to watch a movie they’d streamed onto her television. It was almost seven o’clock at night when the phone rang.

Sonya glanced in the direction of her cell on the coffee table, but didn’t move from his chest. “Do I have to get that?”

He could hear the sleepiness of her voice. Soon this movie would be watching her. He stifled a yawn, him too. “Nope. On lazy Sundays you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

The insistent ringing continued.

“They probably will just call back.” She exhaled and lifted her upper body from him to peer at the display. She frowned as she reached for it.

As she picked it up, he could see that it was a number out of D.C.

He pressed the pause button. The action on the screen froze.

“Hello.” She listened for a moment. “It’s fine Agent Williams, you weren’t disturbing Parker and I.” She glanced at him and rolled her eyes.

Parker shook his head. It aggravated him that the Feds were spending time on surveillance of Sonya’s activities instead of using the man-hours to find the criminal behind it all.

“You did? Was it some computer glitch?” Her expression went annoyed to apprehensive as she listened. “I’m sorry—” her voice broke. “Can you repeat that again?”

He sat up, lowering his legs from the ottoman as he waiting to see what had upset her.

“Yes. Thank you. I will.”

“What’s up?” He barely waited the seconds it took her to press the call end button.

Her hands were shaking as she tried to place the phone back on the table. She missed and the device clattered against the side before falling with a soft thud to the carpet.

He grabbed her hand. “Sonya, talk to me.”

She glanced at him with water flooding her hazel eyes and ready to spill. “Someone’s trying to kill…me.” Her voice was low and squeaky like a mouse.

“What are you talking about? Why would they want to do that?”

When she closed her eyes, the ocean of tears raced down her cheeks. “I don’t know.” She shook her head, left to right, right to left, as if she were unable to stop.

Cupping her face, he tried to keep her steady and calm her. “Tell me what Agent Williams said.”

Sniffing, she opened her eyes and looked at him. “He said the break line on my car was cut.”

“Maybe it broke. Even newer model cars have manufacturing errors. There are recalls all the time.” He was saying the words more for his benefit then hers. The thought of the accident the other night even possibly causing Sonya’s death, especially deliberately, he didn’t know how to handle it. With the person responsible for it not before him, he felt angry and helpless.

“No. There was a thumb-size section removed from it. Whoever did it wanted to ensure the line was severed good.” More tears fell. “Williams thinks I know something. But, what?”

Dragging her into his arms he held her tight.

Each cry that shook her body tore at his heart. Not having the words that would take all of this away or make it easier for her, he continued to rub her back.

When she’d quieted down with a hiccup her and there, he said, “I’m moving in.”

She sat up and gazed at him, her face red and swollen from crying. “I can’t ask you to do that. Besides, Williams said instead of having a tag on me, they would actual assign an officer to me.”

“The FBI will do their job.” He took her hands in his. “And I’ll handle my responsibility. You. I need to know your safe.” He lifted one of her hands then placed a kiss along her knuckles. “Please, don’t fight me on this, Sonya.”

Holding his gaze, she nodded. “Okay.”

That one word relieved some of the pressure from his chest. “What do you want to do with your car?”

“I don’t want to get in it ever again.” She shivered. “I feel violated knowing someone was touching my car. Maybe even in it.” She placed a hand on her stomach and her face became ashen as if she was going to be sick.

“You don’t have to. In a minute I’ll call a tow truck company and have it taken to a dealership tomorrow. After I get off work I’ll go with you to get a new one.”

For the first time since the agent called there was a spark of light in her eyes. “You’d do that for me?”

He brushed her wild waves away from her face and tucked the strands behind her ear. “I’d do anything for you. Never forget that.”

Leaning into him, she kissed him. The touch of her lips to his was brief, but he was grateful for it.

“Write down where they took your car for me and what vehicle you think you want to get, so I’ll know what dealership to have it transported. While I’m talking to Triple A, you can call your insurance company now that there’s a full report of what happened.”

“I will.” She rose and left the room. Moments later she came out of her office with two sheets of paper and two pens. One set she handed to him while she went into the kitchen with her phone and the other paper.

Looking down at the paper, he saw she’d already written the information he needed. Before making his call, he closed his eyes and just breathed. There was a killer in the city who wanted to take Sonya’s life. He’d barely survived when she’d left him five years ago, but she’d still been a part of the world. If she was actually gone.

Fear like an icicle slid down his spine, a hard, painful shiver stole his breath.

He’d give his life for hers before he let that happen.

She had just re-entered his life, he couldn’t lose her.

~ML~

Three days later, Sonya was pulling into her driveway loving her new SUV. She’d had it since Monday night and had not stopped smiling over it. She tried not the think about why she’d had to get it, but looked on the bright side. This ride was an upgrade from her four-year-old car she’d purchased before driving down from D.C. to Charlotte to start at the Queen Metropolitan Museum. Parker had helped out a lot, negotiating with the salesmen and finance guy for the best deal. After they drove off the lot, she followed him to his house for a suitcase of clothes. He’d meant what he said about moving in with her.

In the three days he’d been at her house, she couldn’t believe how comfortable and right it felt. They were taking the relationship slow and not making any plans for the future, which was fine with her. She couldn’t deny that she was thrilled to have him back in her life. Tonight she’d planned to cook lasagna one of his favorite meals.

Getting the groceries for dinner out of the back she waved at Rogers the police officer assigned to watch her while the FBI and local police searched for a drug trafficking killer.

While she was trying to unlock the front door, her phone rang. Rushing inside before the call went to voicemail she set the bags down on the island.

“Hello.” Breathless, she’d barely caught it before the last note of the ring tone.

“Ms. Watson?” The voice of a woman questioned.

“Yes.” Sonya unloaded the bags onto the counter. “This is she.”

“I’m Cheryl, a nurse at Allegheny and we have a patient Erwin Watson who was referred here by one of our network physicians. We have you in the system as his emergency contact, is that correct?”

Sonya carefully set down the jar of tomato sauce on the counter top. “Yes. I’m his daughter.”

“Perfect. I’m not sure how far you are away, but there are some medical complications that have arose concerning your father and we will need you to speak with the doctor in person on the matter.”

“Has dad been hurt…is he dying?” With everything going on in her life, she didn’t need this on her plate too.

“I can’t go into details over the phone. He’s stable, but we do need you here. How soon can you manage it?”

Her knees felt weak. She gripped the edge of the island to keep herself up. “Late tonight or tomorrow morning depending on the flights.”

“I’ll inform the doctor.” The woman continued talking and relaying information about the floor, who the attending physician was as well as the number she could call to get updates if she needed them.

Sonya held onto as much of the information as she could. However by the time the call ended all she recalled was the name of the hospital.

Not putting the phone down, she knew there were calls she needed to make. She started with the most important one first.

~ML~

She had called him. Her voice was quivering but she let him know what she knew about the situation with her father.

“I know you just got there and probably can’t take any time, but—”

“Don’t concern yourself with that. I’m coming with you. You look for plane tickets and let me know the cost and what you find.” He instructed her to take down his credit card information.

“Parker, you don’t have to pay for my ticket. Matter fact, since I want you to come with me, I should be paying for yours.”

“Let me do this, sweetheart.” He set the last few cricket into a tarantula case then made sure he secured and locked it. He went back up the narrow hall that he and his staff used to manage the arachnid cages, tanks and enclosures. Most of the species of spiders they had were hunters. Some built webs for trapping other actual pounced on their prey. Either way, crickets were a delicacy to them.

“Okay. I have to call Charmagne then Agent Williams for permission. After that I’ll look at flight arrangements.”

“Keep me posted. I’ll message you in a few to let you know what time I’m leaving here.”

“Alright.” There was a pause. “Parker, thank you.”

“Thank you.” The call ended and he headed down toward the director’s office with a smile on his face. Even though they were headed to Pennsylvania for a serious situation, Sonya had leaned on him and that felt damn good.

A few minutes later, he was at the director’s office. “Is Mr. Kravers available?”

His secretary looked away from her computer, her expression grime. “He is, but Mr. Kravers has been in a mood all day. If it can wait I’d say come back tomorrow.”

“It can’t so I’ll have to face the dragon.” He thanked her for the concern and went in. “Mr. Kravers?”

The museum head was pacing his office ranting to himself. The older man’s words seemed random and disjointed and Parker couldn’t put any of it together to understand what the director was going on about.

“He’s an ambulance chaser. I can’t just wait around. Too much pressure. The board. Agents. Investigators creeping around me…the museum. Insurance…breathing down on me. It wasn’t supposed to—”

“Excuse me, Mr. Kravers.” Parker closed the door and moved deeper into the office as he tried to break into the man’s tirade.

The director stopped and finally looked at him. Although he didn’t appear to recognize him for a few seconds. “Um…Parker. Dr. Hayden.” He shoved his hands through his shiny hair.

Parker wasn’t sure if this was slick from product or sweat. The director was usually more meticulous about his appearance. However, Parker could understand that this man had to be under a tremendous amount of scrutiny and pressure with the investigation happening.

“What is it?”

“I have a family emergency and I need to leave for a few days. I should be back to work Monday.” It helped that Sonya was suspended at the moment. Otherwise it would seem suspect that both of them would have an unexpected situation that took them away from work. Not that Parker cared what the staff at the museum thought, but he knew Sonya was more private.

“Fine. Fine. These things happen. Is your staff capable of handling emergencies with those critters?” He straightened his tie and went behind his desk.

“Absolutely, or I wouldn’t have them working for me.”

“Good. Take your time then.” Mr. Kravers sat down.

Thanking him, Parker turned to walk out.

“Question, Dr. Hayden.”

Facing him again, Parker waited.

“Is it true you are married to Watson?”

“Was. Yes.” That was all the information he planned to share.

“Well, you two are in separate departments. The board doesn’t see that as a problem.”

“Good to know.” Parker left. Even if the board had seen fit to end his contract, which would land him with one hell of a severance pay, Parker wouldn’t blink twice about finding another job in the area. Discovery Place had already tried to temp him away. Whatever it took for him and Sonya to be together he was all in.

~ML~

Four days later, Sonya collapsed on her couch while Parker took their suitcases into the room. Her father had hemorrhaged in his small intestines for days before his neighbor found him passed out and feverish in the backcourt of their apartment complex. The hospital had stopped the bleeding and placed him on medication to help his body heal as well as put him on a boat load of antibiotics and vitamins to deal with several deficiencies and bacterial complications.

They’d needed her to sign off on forms for a mandatory admission into a substance about treatment program, too include some rehabilitation therapy. Her father, pale and sickly, had begged her for days not to put him in ‘prison’ as he referred to it. Promising and crying that he could stop. It had been Parker who had sat with her father and spoke to him man to man. Parker had convinced her father that if he planned to be around and apart of his grandchildren’s lives one day then he needed help.