Sighing, he poured some coffee into one of the foam cups she’d put on the counter. “You’re not going to let me in, are you.”
She began to wash up. “What are you talking about?”
“You’re completely closed off. You’re not even giving me a chance.”
“This is a stressful time, Rick. We’ve already discussed it. I’d rather leave it for now, okay?”
He lifted his cup in a small salute. “You’re right. Everything will be different once Virgil’s out of the picture. Then you won’t need to worry about him anymore. He’ll be off somewhere, living his own life, and things around here will get back to normal.”
She felt relieved that he’d been willing to accept such a flimsy excuse. “Right. First things first.”
“Call me after work,” he said, and surprised her with a quick kiss on the mouth before gathering his briefcase. “Think about
As soon as he’d picked up his briefcase, grabbed his coffee and headed out, she wiped her mouth. She didn’t care if it was childish. Then she collected her keys and hurried to Pelican Bay.
When a stocky young C.O. came to get him from his cell, saying the chief deputy warden wanted a word with him, Virgil was told it had to do with the fight. Buzz believed it, but Virgil knew better.
“What’s the matter, man?” Buzz said. “If she was gonna put you in the SHU she would’ve done it already.”
Virgil realized he was scowling. It wasn’t that he was unhappy about seeing Peyton; it was that he wanted to see her too badly. He’d let himself fall into the very trap he’d been trying so hard to avoid.
“Tell her I’m busy,” he said in a last-ditch effort to save himself.
The C.O. brandished his extendable baton. “Get going, and do it n-now,” he stammered.
Had that been anything close to a believable threat, Virgil might’ve refused and let the poor kid go to the stress and trouble of physically removing him. Why not? There wasn’t anything this guy could do that would be worse than what Virgil had in store for himself. He might as well tear his heart out as fall for the chief deputy warden of Pelican Bay. Even if she thought she wanted him in return, it couldn’t last.
But this poor C.O. had to be a new hire. He was so scared Virgil couldn’t make him use his baton.
Cursing his own stupidity instead, he allowed the guard to shackle his hands and feet to a belly chain and moved out of the cell.
The trek through the prison took longer than Virgil expected—because once he knew he was going to let himself see her, he couldn’t wait.
When they finally reached an office that had the name Joseph Perry, Associate Warden, on the door, Peyton was sitting behind the desk. She wore a suit similar to the one she’d been wearing on Friday, and he felt his chest constrict as she looked up. He’d never seen such a beautiful woman….
She ordered the guard, Officer Dean, according to his nametag, to leave. Then Virgil understood why she’d sent such an inexperienced C.O.
“But…Chief Deputy,” Dean responded. “This man doesn’t have a good attitude.”
Virgil cocked an eyebrow at that. He considered himself to be on his best behavior. If he really wanted to, he could disarm the kid in a heartbeat, even with his shackles on.
Peyton gave him a look that indicated she’d handle it. “I’ve got someone else coming for him. In the meantime, I have an alarm box right here.” She pulled it out of her pocket. “Besides, I was a C.O. for years. I can handle him.”
Dean was only about two-thirds Virgil’s size, but he was still bigger than Peyton. He shot Virgil an uncertain glance before asking, “You’re sure you don’t want me to wait until—”
“I’m positive,” she broke in. “I want to make it easy for him to talk, if he chooses to do so. You understand.”
“Oh…” He nodded. “I get it.”
When he acquiesced, Virgil nearly grabbed him and told him that he should never, under any circumstances, leave her alone with any of the other cons, even if she insisted on it. In his view, having him do so today didn’t set a good precedent. Just because
“I hope you don’t do this with regular cons,” Virgil said after the boy had left.
“I’m not dying to be alone with any of the other inmates.” She came around the desk to lock the door.
“Who’s Joseph Perry and why are we in his office?”
“He’s one of the associate wardens. My office is outside the fence, so this was my best option, unless I wanted to use a conference room.”
“What if he comes back?”
“He won’t. He’s gone for the day. Let’s get you out of those for a minute.” She removed a key for his handcuffs and belly chain from her briefcase, but she wouldn’t catch his eye while using it. She seemed nervous. For some reason, he was, too.
“Why am I here?” he asked, his voice a low murmur.
“I need to show you a note Weston sent me, see what you think we should do.”
The scent of her perfume clouded his ability to think. He could remember it so clearly from when he was running his lips over her skin last Saturday. Which led to the memory of her smooth flesh against his in the bed, her breasts bare beneath him in the moonlight….
“What’d you say?” His body had reacted to his thoughts, left him hard, every muscle rigid.
When she raised her eyes to his, she must’ve realized that he was too busy drowning in desire to comprehend anything else, because she didn’t try to talk to him about the note.
“God, it’s good to see you on your feet,” she said, and then the shackles dropped and his hands were free to touch her.
Peyton couldn’t stop kissing Virgil. He was safe, for the moment, and in her arms, and that was all that mattered. She knew there were concerns, dangers, and that they were very real, but they floated somewhere beyond them, beyond that locked door.
“I want you,” he said, his hands already pulling her skirt.
She caught them. “We can’t. There isn’t time.”
“But I may never see you again.”
She gazed into his troubled eyes. “Don’t say that.” She couldn’t bear the thought of it. “You’re going to be fine. We’ll get through this.”
“Just let me touch you.”
Closing her eyes, she threw back her head as his fingers slipped beneath her panties and his lips moved down her throat. She had to say no before this went too far, but she wasn’t sure she could. She’d never felt anything this exquisite before. Her whole body ached for him—
But then he stepped back. “Why?” he asked, those blue eyes of his as piercing as ever. “Why me?”
He couldn’t trust anything, couldn’t accept even positive attention without examining it for danger. He’d been forced to defend himself for so long he didn’t know how to stop. He reminded Peyton of a wounded animal that both wanted attention and snarled at anyone who tried to provide it.
Cupping his cheek, she ran her thumb over his bottom lip. “Because you’re so much more than you know.”
His hands found what he wanted as he rested his forehead on her shoulder. “I’ll clean up my life,” he promised. “I can make something of myself. I swear it. Then I’ll take care of you.”
“You don’t have to take care of me. And you don’t have to convince me of your potential. I believe in you already. Just worry about protecting yourself so I can sleep at night while you’re in here.”
He kissed her gently, moving his tongue so leisurely against hers she got the impression he was memorizing the taste of her, savoring every second. And then his fingers grew more intimate and slid inside her.
Clenching her hands in his hair, she moaned into his mouth and felt his muscles tense. This was crazy, foolhardy; they had to stop. But her skirt was already up around her waist and with his free hand he was doing his best to unbutton her blouse.
“Virgil, if we’re caught—”
“I just want to see it,” he whispered.
“See what?”
