Fair Game (38 page)

It was Ashley’s turn to stare. She was silent for several moments, then said softly, “He left after he rescued me at my father’s cabin. I woke up in my house and he was gone, no note, no message, nothing. I waited until I realized that he wasn’t going to call me, and then I came here.” She stopped and then added, “I had no idea he had left his job.”

“Why do you want to see him?” Rourke asked bluntly.

“I love him, Captain,” Ashley said simply. “I’ve only just begun to realize that he doesn’t believe that.”

Rourke met her gaze, then looked away. He had seen her pictures, but in person her impact was considerable; she had much of her old man’s charm. Rourke could understand what had grabbed Martin, made him risk so much, and at the same time he felt a twinge of envy for the younger man for having won a woman like this.

“I think he has some idea that he won’t fit into your life now that the crisis is over and you’re safe,” Rourke finally said, sighing. “I think that because I helped to give him that idea.”

“I see,” Ashley said slowly. She stood. “Captain Rourke, I must find him. Do you have any suggestion where I might start?”

Rourke thought about it. “When Tim was a kid, his father used to take him and his brother Mike and their sister to a summer house on the Jersey shore every year. Mike finally bought the place after his father died, for his own kids. He lets Tim use it for vacations or just when he wants to get away. I’d bet money Tim’s there.”

“Do you have the address?” Ashley asked.

Rourke held up a stained finger and consulted a notebook on his desk. He gave her the information, and she turned to go.

“Miss Fair?” Rourke called after her. “Good luck. I think that I misjudged you.”

“We’re all guilty of that sometimes, Captain,” Ashley said quietly, and left.

Rourke turned in his swivel chair, thought for a moment, and then grinned.

* * * *

Martin was sitting on the back porch of his brother’s beach house, staring out at the inlet and smoking, when he heard a knock on the front screen. He got up, stubbing out his cigarette, and padded barefoot to the door.

He halted when he saw Ashley.

“Hi,” she said. “May I come in?”

Martin stepped aside to let her pass. He was naked to the waist, wearing a threadbare pair of denim cutoffs and the red-gold blush of a new tan.

“Taking a vacation?” Ashley asked, looking around the room, which was furnished with rattan and bright printed curtains, rag rugs.

“Not exactly,” Martin replied, deciding not to lie about it. “I’m unemployed.”

“So I heard,” Ashley said, turning to look at him. “I’ve just been to see your Captain Rourke. He was most informative. You might have said that you lost your job because of me.”

“I didn’t lose it. I quit.”

“I bet the police would take you back. You’re a hero.”

Martin snorted. “You’re always a hero when the bad guy dies.” He paused. “How’s Meg?”
 

“Not good. I still can’t believe the assassin was that man she was seeing. I don’t know if she’ll ever get over it.” She stopped, then added, “She really cared for him.”

“Yeah,” Martin replied thoughtfully, remembering the scene at the cottage. “And I think it was mutual. Strange, huh?”

“Maybe not so strange,” Ashley murmured. “People get together under all sorts of circumstances.”

She looked at him and he glanced away. She pointed to the porch. “Were you sitting outside?”

He nodded, not meeting her eyes.

“Let’s go back there. I’d like to talk to you.”

They went out onto the porch, which was really a redwood deck with an aluminum overhang, and Ashley noticed the pile of butts in the large glass ashtray on the railing.

He’d been sitting there smoking for a long time.

Ashley dropped into a canvas chair and Martin sat on the railing, leaning toward her with his forearms on his knees. He was looking at a spot in the air over her left shoulder.

“Tim, why did you leave me like that?” she asked, getting directly to the point. “I woke up and you were gone, and I’ve heard nothing from you since.”

“I was trying to let you off the hook,” he said quietly.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

He shrugged. “Look at you,” he said, gesturing to her suit, the high heels. “Look at me. It would never work.”

“I am looking at you, I’m remembering how it was to touch you, and how your hands and mouth felt on my body,” she said softly.

He swallowed hard, his sapphire eyes darkening.

“Did you think that’s all it was?” she asked him.

“I thought you were scared and needed somebody,” he said. “I was there.”

“Jim was there. He was there all the time. I needed you then and I still do.”

Martin didn’t answer.

Ashley got up and stood next to him. “Tim, listen to me. All of what you saw, the house in Harrisburg, the dinners and galas, it was my father’s life, and it’s over now. Sylvia can go on with it, but I don’t have to anymore. I had left it before when I went to school, and then to work, but I got involved again for Dad’s campaign. My obligation to that is finished. I’m a lawyer; I have a job. I’ll go back to my apartment in Georgetown and go to work each day like you and everyone else.” She moved closer, her breath fanning his cheek. “I can get a different job, whatever it takes. I can move, or you can. We’ll work out the details if we want to be together. After all we’ve been through, do you really want to throw in the towel now?”

He turned and looked down at her.

She reached up to touch his face, her eyes glittering with unshed tears.

“I don’t want to miss you all my life,” she whispered. “Don’t you love me, Tim?”

“God, yes,” he said, turning his head to kiss her palm. “Why do you think I was running?”

Ashley closed her eyes, and tears coursed down her face. He pulled her into his arms and felt the wetness on her cheeks against his bare skin.

“Tim, please believe me,” she murmured. “I don’t care if you’re a cop or a train conductor or a clerk. I just want you.”

He kissed her, running his hands up her back under her jacket, unhooking her bra. He turned her in his arms, cupping her breasts in his hands and pressing his mouth to the nape of her neck. Ashley gasped, leaning into him, and then they both jumped at a sudden barrage of whistles and catcalls from a passing speedboat.

“I guess we’d better go inside,” Ashley said shakily, stepping away from him.

He picked her up and carried her into the house.

– THE END –

I am Doreen Owens Malek, author of over forty books and lifelong fan of romantic fiction. I live in PA with my husband and college student daughter, a mini dachshund and a sun conyer parrot. I would like to tell you a little about myself.

I came to writing by a circuitous route, starting out as an avid reader of
Jane Eyre
and
Wuthering Heights
and
Gone With the Wind
and
Rebecca
, and any other similarly themed books I could find. I first worked as a teacher and then graduated from law school when I desired a more lucrative and independent career. I had always been discouraged from pursuing a writing career by the volatile nature of the business and the relatively poor chance for success. But the realization that I needed a focus for the future encouraged me to do what I had always wanted to do. I sold my fledgling novel to the first editor who read it, and I have been writing ever since. I have written all types of books for all types of people, but my favorite literary pursuit is and always has been romance. Nothing is as rewarding as hearing from my readers, so please use my website to communicate your thoughts and criticisms, as I am always eager to learn from you. 

A romance novel rarely disappoints me: in an uncertain world filled with tragedy and sadness, reading about an appealing woman finding a strong man to love her and share her life is the perfect escape. I like to read and write stories in which the main characters overcome obstacles to get together, and then stay together because their mutual devotion cannot be denied no matter what else is happening around them. They always HELP each other and reinforce the quaint but enduring notion that love conquers all—at least in the fictional universe of my imagination. So pull up a chair and take down a book—or pick up a Kindle—and join me in a world where the heroes are tough and headstrong but never boorish and the heroines are feminine and sympathetic but never helpless.

Happy reading!
— Doreen Owens Malek

NEW RELEASES BY

DOREEN OWENS MALEK

www.doreenowensmalek.com

Brand new, never published

Contemporary Romance

AMANDA’S BLUE MARINE

Available for digital download

at Amazon.com, and in print at

www.doreenowensmalek.com

Reissue of the enormously popular

A MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE (1989),

available for digital download at Amazon.com

Look for

ANOTHER MARRIAGE

OF CONVENIENCE,

the sequel to the above title, available

for digital download later in 2012.

Also available for digital

download at Amazon.com,

MARRIAGE IN NAME ONLY

best seller from 1995.

MARCH 2012 RELEASES

Payback Marriage
(Original title,
Bright River
, 1987):
Jack Chabrol had never forgotten his first love, Jessica, the woman who had abandoned him ten years earlier without a word. Now he was back in their hometown, bent on revenge. His scheme to pay Jessica back for the hurt she had caused him would only bring them together once more. Can they find again the passion that alluded them when they were young?

The Harder they Fall
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Helene Danforth falls in love with her late fiancé’s brother, a maverick who stirs her passion while challenging her whole past experience of life

Men of Intrigue: A Trilogy:
750 pages of romance reading entertainment!

Amanda’s Blue Marine
(Contemporary Romance): When Amanda Redfield, an assistant district attorney from a wealthy Philadelphia family, is harassed by a mysterious stalker, she meets Brendan Kelly, the detective assigned to her case. Smart and capable but deeply troubled, Kelly protects Amanda while he works to find her tormentor, but his disturbing presence and rogue behavior disrupt Amanda’s settled life. She is helplessly drawn to the sexy and charming but barely controlled cop. As their passion grows she must choose between her privileged past and an uncertain future with a man who is spiraling out of control. How she draws on her wits and resources to rescue Kelly as surely as he once rescued her makes for a powerful and satisfying love story.