He’d compromised, accepting temp office workers from Eddie’s vast and surprisingly talented working pool when his office manager needed the extra help, which she usually did. But up until now, that had been about the extent of it.
So, no, he told the officer, he didn’t know Eddie’s regular habits enough to know if the burglars had been watching him. He didn’t know Eddie’s enemies-only that given his various corporations and their successes, he was sure to have them. And, no, he didn’t know why Eddie had sent him a note if he was going to be out of town. As he said, when it came to his father’s life, he knew very little.
The police hauled the four perps out of the house and into the backs of two different squad cars.
Tessa was being questioned, too, by a woman cop, and was nodding vigorously. Then she pointed at Reilly, and followed it with a look that changed considerably when she saw him looking right back at her. She went from cool and calm to flustered and blushing.
She could have been thinking any number of things, but he figured there were two things in particular that might put that look on her face.
Two kisses.
He’d lost it with her, and if he was being honest, which he nearly always was, it had been more than just the lip-locking. Somewhere in the dark of the night he’d shown her a little something of himself, something he liked to keep hidden.
One thing his work had always shown him, first in the military and then in the CIA, was how important it was to keep the real Reilly deep within where no one could touch him; not a commanding officer, not the enemy, no one.
Tessa, whether she knew it or not, had seen glimpses of the man he hadn’t shown anyone in years. If ever. Sure, he’d hugged and kissed and touched more than his share of women, but none as innocently as he just had with her. And none had left him in the morning with this vague uneasy knowledge that he’d like more.
Wrong place, wrong time, wrong woman.
Well, maybe wrong place, wrong time, but he couldn’t help feeling she was right. Which is why he needed the hell out.
She was looking at him again and still talking. What the hell did the woman have to say that it could possibly take so long? Her eyes were shuttered a bit as she spoke now, watching him watch her. Shuttered and a bit wary.
Maybe she was no more thrilled than he was to have this face-to-face in-the-light-of-day thing. In fact, she looked downright embarrassed.
Because of what they’d done? Because of what, for one night, they’d been to each other? They could just go their own separate ways, and forget all about this last long night from hell. He’d go to his office, and she’d go to… wherever she belonged.
And that was a good thing, a very good thing.
WHEN REILLY FINALLY got home, to the house on the top of the bluff in South Pasadena where he could see for miles and miles and no one could see him, he stripped-all the way to the skin this time. He took a long, hot shower, ate, and then headed for bed, hitting play on his message machine as he did.
“Reilly.”
Naked, Reilly stopped in the middle of his bedroom and looked at the machine.
“Just had a call from the cops.”
His father, of course. How like him not to bother to identify himself.
“Christ, did they really wreck the place? I hope you managed to save my Beemer, and that they didn’t take her out for any joyrides,” Eddie said, laughing softly.
That was Eddie. Everything was all one big joke, including life.
“Anyway…I hear you took care of Tessa. She’s special, isn’t she? Such a sweet kid.”
Reilly would give her the sweet part. Sweet and…hot. He was still scorching from their last connection.
But kid? He had no idea how he’d ever thought it.
“I’m glad you were there for her.”
Would Eddie still be so glad if he’d seen how Reilly had nearly devoured her in the servant’s bed? Or how about in the kitchen, pressed there against the wall with his hand up her shirt? Just the thought of that little scene revved his exhausted engines all over again. If the police hadn’t come when they had-
“She’s the best temp I have,” Eddie continued. “Anyway, I’m coming home early, tomorrow morning.”
Well, wonders never cease, Eddie was actually going to take this seriously enough to cut short something fun. Amazing.
“Anyway, son, I just wanted to thank you.”
Reilly didn’t want to be thanked. He wanted to be left alone.
“Means a lot, that you took care of me like that,” Eddie said into the room.
“I’m just glad you were there. She’s one of my favorite employees.”
If that wasn’t a load of crap. They both knew damn well that as long as the employees were female, they were all Eddie’s favorites.
“Call me. You know my cell.”
Reilly closed his eyes. He meant to drift off, he’d long ago taught himself to clear his mind and sleep at will.
Only today his mind wouldn’t clear and sleep evaded him.
Instead, he pictured mossy wet eyes and lips that tasted like heaven-when they were kissing him, that is, and not talking.
6
TESSA WENT HOME to her little apartment, trying not to think. She didn’t want to remember facing those burglars and she didn’t want to remember meeting Reilly. And she really didn’t want to remember what she’d done with him, because to have lusted like that so quickly, so…fiery, was just damn uncomfortable in the light of day.
Being just outside downtown Los Angeles, she had a lovely view of the city line, complete with smog to the south and the Angeles Crest Mountains to the north.
She parked beneath the carport and felt smug about getting a covered spot-normally she was forced to park in the blazing hot sun. But normally she wasn’t coming home at ten in the morning on a Saturday either.
She got out of her VW but instead of seeing her place, she saw Eddie’s. She remembered how Reilly had looked standing outside the house, his dark hair gleaming beneath the sunrise, his face not giving away much of anything. He’d stood there with easy confidence and a relaxed air, even though she knew damn well he wasn’t relaxed.
They hadn’t said goodbye.
Her building was red brick with white trim, and being mid-spring, the small yard was out in full bloom. Since her sister, Carolyn, who was in charge of the landscaping for the place, hadn’t yet mowed, Tessa sank in up to her ankles as she crossed the small lawn to her front door. Two-B, home sweet home, where there were no nasty- tempered burglars, no guns, no small gray cots and no tall, dark and wildly magnificent strangers who kissed so well she lost brain cells every time she thought about it.
She sighed and fished through her purse for her keys. Everything seemed so normal here, so quiet, it was hard to believe what the last twenty-four hours had held.
Her sister popped out of apartment One-B so fast Tessa dropped her keys.
“So did you forget my phone number?” Carolyn asked very politely, tossing back her long, dark-blond hair.
Oh boy, the queen of the Delacantro household was ticked. “No, I didn’t forget your phone number.”
Eyes that matched her own flashed at her and Tessa sighed. Carolyn thought of Tessa as her little chick, and
