for my stuff.” She laughed at herself, but it was a sad sound, and Duke rose from his chair and crossed over to Nora. He took her hands into his, and squeezed.
“Home is everything,” Duke said. “I didn’t realize how important it was until my parents died, and it was gone. So, yeah, I understand exactly what you’re feeling.”
She swallowed, trying to extract her hands from his, but Duke didn’t let go.
“I also finally figured out what makes you tick.”
“You don’t know me-” she began.
“On the contrary. Do you realize that every decision you make is always about someone else? From turning FBI informant to raising your sister to joining the FBI.”
“That’s not true-”
“Would you have stayed with Lorraine as long as you did if Quin wasn’t in the picture?” he interrupted.
“Probably not, but-”
“And why are you here in Sacramento? Because of your sister?”
“Family. You said it yourself, home is everything. Quin’s my only family, why are you picking on me?” That came out wrong. She sounded immature and stupid, and it wasn’t what she meant, but she didn’t like how Duke Rogan had a way of looking at her as if he knew her better than she knew herself.
“You have a beautiful house, but you’re never here to enjoy it. You work fourteen hour days, seven days a week. I don’t think you’ve ever put yourself first, or factored in your dreams ahead of Quin or your partner or your boss or the damn FBI. It’s never, ‘What does Nora want?’ It’s always, ‘What does someone else need?’ What do you do for fun? Do you like to swim in that incredible pool out back? Do you like skiing? Camping? Going to amusement parks?”
Tears sprang to her eyes, and she blinked them back, averting her gaze.
“Oh, sweetheart, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it. Just that I want you so much, Nora, but even more than that, I want you to be happy.”
“I’ve never been to Disneyland,” she said softly. “I can’t believe I’m upset about it.”
Nora should have anticipated Duke’s kiss, but it surprised her nonetheless when his lips touched hers.
It was light, airy, for only a moment. Then he pressed his solid body against hers, his hands wrapped around her waist to hold her against him, and he took the kiss from warm to scorching in seconds.
The heat radiated from his body, his mouth claimed hers, hard and intense, sending a lightning bolt through her nerves. Her hand went up to his face, touched it, and he shivered against her.
The kiss was all she could think of, her mouth drawing in his tongue, his taste and scent wrapping around her senses so she couldn’t think. She was on fire, a good fire, a yearning and need for Duke that she’d kept simmering on the back burner for far too long. The fear was still there, but she pushed it aside as her hands reached into his hair and a moan escaped her throat.
He pulled his mouth from hers, kissed her jawline, her ear, and whispered, “I’ve wanted to kiss you for years.” He feathered kisses on her face. “I should go.”
She nodded her agreement. It was a lie. And he knew it.
He kissed her, held her chin in his palm. “Next time I’m going to stay.”
Her knees buckled as a hot wave of anticipation jolted her. He smiled, as if he knew what he’d done to her.
“I’m going to go before I find it too hard to leave. Set your alarm, and I’ll see you bright and early tomorrow morning at FBI headquarters.”
Nora was speechless. She followed Duke to the front door. Her voice seemed to have disappeared. She cleared her throat.
“Tomorrow,” she whispered.
He turned and stared at her, a deadly serious half smile on his face. “Sweet dreams, Nora.” But his tone was anything but sweet. It was spicy and held the promise of his words,
Then he left.
She locked the door behind him, set her alarm, and stood there, calming her racing heart, still feeling his lips on hers, his mouth hot and seeking, his hand on her chin.
There was no going back. She’d tasted the forbidden fruit, and she wanted more.
It wasn’t Duke Rogan who was forbidden; it was anyone who tried to get too close. He was dangerous to her carefully arranged life, her quiet home, her peace. She’d built everything around her with care: her friendships, her relationship with Quin, her career. Someone like Duke could throw it all off balance. Though with someone like Duke, she almost didn’t care if he turned her life upside down.
Still, she was terrified of losing herself, losing everything she’d worked hard to achieve. But mostly she was scared that the wall that kept her from getting too close to anyone or anything would melt under the laser blue gaze of Duke Rogan.
While her sister Quin had made a point to date many men as often as possible-all smart, professional, attractive, eligible bachelors-Nora’s sister’s relationships were fleeting. Quin never put her heart on the line, therefore she couldn’t be hurt. But neither was she happy-though she’d never admit that.
Nora was the opposite. She’d been involved with very few men since Andy Keene. She had always put everything on the line-and each time, the relationship had ended badly. Nora liked her present life. She longed to come home at the end of a busy day. She loved sitting on her deck and reading until the last sunlight disappeared.
If she wanted to have cereal for dinner or cold pizza for breakfast, she could, without commentary or criticism.
She was content.
But contentment was lonely.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Nora walked into FBI headquarters before eight in the morning while talking to Agent Nathan Dunn of the Lake Tahoe satellite office on her cell.
“It was dark when we finally made it last night,” he told her. “We had a warrant to deliver, and it ended up being a testy situation. Payne’s place was locked up tight and we had no indication that anyone was in immediate danger.”
“The man is dead,” Nora said bluntly. “We confirmed that he left his Auburn residence at oh seven hundred on Saturday, and his intended destination was his house in Lake Tahoe. The medical examiner confirmed that he wasn’t killed at the research lab, so yeah, I think we have probable cause to enter his house. Do it and call me right back.” She hung up, not giving him a chance to argue. Technically, she wasn’t his supervisor. He and his partner worked independently, running the Lake Tahoe office. But she’d worked with them many times over the years, and she was the acting SSA of the domestic terrorism squad while Nolan Cassidy was at Quantico. She had no problem using the little authority she had if it got the information faster.
The tight rules and regulations that Nora worked under day in and day out were beginning to annoy her. For once she wished she had the freedom to act when she knew damn well something was up. If Payne hadn’t been killed at his vacation house, they needed to know that ASAP. If he had been, they needed their evidence response team on-site immediately. And while Dunn was a competent agent, too many times he and others had their heads knocked around by the U.S. attorney’s office for overstepping procedural boundaries. And with the recent electoral changes, nearly every U.S. attorney had been replaced. No one quite knew what to expect from the new people, and thus were doubly sensitive.
But a man was dead and an anarchist group apparently had a psycho in charge, which made almost everything Nora had learned since becoming an agent fifteen years ago irrelevant. She had to go way back for lessons in this kind of aberrant psychology, to the two years she had lived under the same roof with Cameron Lovitz. His powerful personality had convinced her mother that breaking into a nuclear power plant was a good idea.
