He dropped a kiss on her lips and backed away. “Tonight, you and me after dinner.”
She let go a shuddering breath and crossed her legs holding in the heat rising from the center of her body.
Chapter 29
“Looked like that was a successful night then.” Adam held her hand as they walked down the race between the paddocks toward his house.
“Yes, it was thankfully. People can be pretty nice if you give them a chance. A couple brought in get well cards for Papa and asked me to pass on messages to him. I don’t think it’s ruined my reputation locally anyway.” She sighed. “Just the review in the Sydney papers which is going to be impossible to fix. I’ll have to suck that one up and move on.”
“It annoys you, doesn’t it?” Even in the darkness of the night he could see the anger wafting off of her.
“Of course it does. I go from having the best restaurant in Australia to getting a zero out of five stars. Course it’s going to piss me off.” Lena groaned. “I should let it go but I can’t, sorry. Not yet anyway.”
“Understandable. How about a nightcap before I show you how much you mean to me.” Adam pulled her up the steps to the back door and leaned her against the wall. The light shone on her face, showing him the flush to her cheeks and the brightness of her eyes. Did his words bring about that change in her or was it the annoyance of the bad review?
“How about a quick shower if you don’t mind. I swear all I can smell is garlic and olive oil.”
Afterwards, Lena lay back against the pillows and the tears trickled down her cheeks. She tried to stifle her sobs. Adam moved against her, placed an arm around her stomach and pulled her close.
“What is it, what’s wrong? Did I hurt you?” The floodgates opened and Lena cried out and gripped his arm.
What have I done? “Oh honey, come here.” He rolled onto his side and gathered her close, tucking her head against his neck, running his hand down her back. Lena tucked her leg through his and got as close to Adam as she could, the need for comfort stronger than ever before. They lay together until she cried herself out and her nerves settled.
When she was quiet, Adam kissed her hair. “Ready to talk about it now?”
Lena sniffed and swallowed a final hiccup. “It’s stupid.”
“No, it’s not. Not if it got you that upset. Now tell me what’s wrong.” He pushed her back so he could look into her eyes. They were red from crying and he could see the dark shadows underneath from lack of sleep.
“It’s not fair.” She glanced at him and dropped her gaze. He knew where this was going and he had to make some decisions fast. “Here we are in bed having great sex and Simon is lying in the ground. His family are all alone, it sucks. It’s so wrong and I’ll never understand it.”
Not this. “Yeah well…”
“No! It’s not yeah well, Adam.” She sat bolt upright, glaring down at him. “I think you guys could have done more to protect him. You, and Papa, and the authorities. He didn’t do anything wrong, I don’t care what the courts said. He was a nice guy.” She gripped the sheet and pulled it up over her knees, leaving her breasts uncovered. “I don’t mean to tell you how to do your job but seriously, you should have done more to save him when you had the chance.”
She dropped her head to her knees and Adam trailed his fingers up the curve of her spine. “We did. We did the best we could for him and I know it was hard at the time. I’m pretty sure he’d thank us for it.”
Lena turned on him swiftly, fire in her eyes. “You bastard. How can he thank you when he’s dead? What a horrible thing to say.”
“He’s not dead, Lena.” He waited for her reaction and wasn’t disappointed. Her body tensed and goose bumps broke out under his fingertips. It took a thunderous few seconds for her to turn and look down at him, her face frozen in disbelief. She shook her head, her mouth opening and shutting but not producing a sound.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have told you. I can’t bear to see you like this anymore. Listen and let me tell you what happened but on your life, this information does not leave this room nor will we talk about it again, understand? Just nod your head.”
He saw a miniscule movement of her jaw. “Fine. We knew there was more to the story than he was saying when we were trying to get him a retrial, so I put the pressure on him. He wouldn’t talk unless we gave him and his family protection. That’s when things got interesting, shall we say.” He ran his finger tip down to the dip in her back, resting it in the hollow. “I called an acquaintance in the federal police only to be told they were already monitoring his family. We met, Jeremy and I, to discuss what we could do for Simon to break the case without letting onto the syndicate what we were doing.” Adam felt her relax as he spoke. “Seems that my girlfriend was using the bank as well as using me, to launder the money for her father’s businesses.”
I was an idiot. He gave a snort. “My reputation was the last thing I was worried about regardless of what my father thought. We arranged a murder to cover Simon and his family’s moved to protective custody. It was the only way we could do it because this case is so deadly serious and they have eyes everywhere. Even his wife didn’t know it was a set up.”
Lena turned and slapped her hand down hard on
