Dad.
He broke first. “You need to take a step away from your current situation, Etain, so you can see it more clearly. Stay with Parker if you don’t want to stay here, or better yet, get out of the city for a while.”
She nearly laughed but she was afraid it’d sound hysterical rather than amused. Knowing the captain, he’d have her locked up for her own good if she started talking about magic and Elves and the gift she was losing control of.
“You’ve made your point. I’m hanging up now.”
She handed the phone to Cathal, following it by gathering up the sketches and rolling them, using a rubber band to keep them that way. She rose to her feet and Cathal did the same behind her, his arms going around her waist, holding her to his body.
Wonderful lips found her neck, making pleasure shiver through her with soft kisses and small, sucking bites. “Think about me while I’m off being your errand boy?”
She tilted her head to give him better access. “Errand boy? I’ve got you starring in the role of well-hung cabana boy.”
Heat coiled in her belly as she remembered the last time she’d been here, and just what he’d done to and for her during a late night session in the hot tub. Her nipples went hard and tight, ache spreading outward from those center points of desire when he pulled her shirt from the waistband of her jeans then pushed beneath it, firm possessive hands stroking her abdomen before moving upward, forcing her bra ahead of them so he could cup naked flesh.
She needed this. She wanted to lose herself in him, in what they’d found together despite the reason for his first seeking her out.
She moaned and felt his smile against her neck. “I think I can do cabana boy to your sex goddess.”
“Sex goddess. I like the sound of that. Bring on the worshipers.”
That gained her the sharp, quick feel of teeth. “One worshiper, Etain.”
“At the risk of ruining the mood…”
“Don’t say his name.”
“We’re still pretending we’re a normal couple?”
Cathal grimaced at the irony of the pretense a short while later as he handed the drawings to Etain’s father, knowing he’d pay a visit to his own before returning home.
“She should see a doctor to make sure there’s no damage,” the captain said, both hands on the rolled sketches, as if keeping them there was necessary to his self-control.
“I’ll mention it to her.” And then, because he knew the estrangement hurt her, and her involvement with him only added to it he said, “I’m not my father or uncle.”
“You made my daughter an accessory to murder.”
It would always come back to that, though he wasn’t foolish enough to respond and incriminate himself, his family, or her.
“Good night,” he said, turning away.
“If you really love her, you’d get out of her life and stay out of it.”
“That’s not possible.” He didn’t slow or look back, and in his car, he called ahead, to let his father know he intended to visit.
When he arrived, they went to his father’s office, the only place in the house where his father would speak freely.
“What brings you here? I’m surprised you’re not with Etain.” His father poured himself a drink. Cathal declined the silent offer of one.
“She’s at my place. You’ve heard about what happened in Oakland?”
“Hard not to. It’s the only thing on the news.”
“There was a survivor.”
“Dead now, according to the news.”
“I was in the ICU when it happened.”
“The cops asked for Etain’s help?”
“Yes. I dropped the sketches off at her father’s place a few minutes ago.”
“Who’d have thought my son would be making nice with Captain Chevenier. We go back a ways, he and I. When he was still a green cop he thought he’d make his bones by catching me in a sting operation. It didn’t go well for him, though I’ve got no hard feelings toward him, neither does your uncle.”
Cathal felt sure the same couldn’t be said for Etain’s father. “You know anything the cops don’t about the hit in Oakland?”
“That my son, now interested in joining the family business asking? Or my son, who’s involved with a cop’s daughter?”
“Etain knew some of the people who got killed. She intends to ask questions, to do what she can to find answers.”
“Could be dangerous to her health.”
“Any more dangerous than getting involved with the Dunnes?”
His father shrugged.
Cathal pressed, “You know anything about the bar invasion, Dad?”
His father took a long drink from the glass in his hand, finally saying, “Drugs would be my guess. I can’t say more than that, Cathal.”
His father’s eyebrows lifted. “No. I’ll even swear it if that’ll make you feel better.”
Cathal believed him. “One other thing, Dad, I’m going to marry her.”
“I figured that might be in the cards. What about Eamon? I could have him taken out of the picture, permanently. Call it a wedding gift.”
The offer chilled him, but not in the way it once would have. It’d be his father who ended up dead if he tried it, maybe his uncle as well.
“Stay out of it. The same way I stay out of your affairs.”
He meant it literally, felt the anger rise on behalf of his mother, though for all he knew, she turned a blind eye to the existence of her husband’s mistresses, women who came and went and didn’t enjoy the same wealth or status she did.
His father lifted his glass in silent acknowledgement of the threat. Cathal rose. “I’ll see myself out.”
“No.” His father set the drink down and accompanied Cathal to the door, surprising him by saying, “I’ll make some inquiries. I’ve got a vested interest now, in keeping the mother of my future grandchildren from getting hurt.”
A quick hug followed, and then he went home, walking in to find Etain stretched out on the couch, vulnerable in sleep and stirring feelings of protectiveness as well as possessiveness, the depth of which he wouldn’t have thought possible days ago.
He lifted her into his arms, catching sight of the drawing of a green Dragon rising from a dark blue lake, and smiling, until thoughts of one fantasy creature led to another. Elf. He forced it away, along with his fears for the future.
Etain woke as he placed her on the bed, her eyes going from slumberous to dark molten pools of desire as he slowly unbuttoned her shirt, parting it, hands moving next to the front clasp of her bra.
“You’re overdressed for a cabana boy.”
He opened the bra, pushing it away to reveal hardened nipples. “Any decent cabana boy will tell you the best tips come from seeing to other’s needs first.”