Love me to death

I don’t regret the killing of Morton.

Mallory hadn’t pulled the trigger. The reason Morton had been lured to D.C. was so the senator could kill him.

Lucy realized suddenly that she didn’t want to see Senator Paxton. What he’d done was wrong, but she couldn’t confront him, nor could she tell anyone what she believed in her heart. That he was guilty of murder.

She couldn’t even hate him for it.

She scribbled a note and put the box on his chair, then left out the escape door, the exit that led directly to the hall from the senator’s office. She didn’t look back.

Senator Paxton stepped into his office.

“Lucy, it’s-”

He heard the click of his side door and frowned. He almost went after her, but saw something on his chair.

Heart racing, he picked up the small white box. It couldn’t be … He removed the lid and stared at the gold locket, tears rolling down his cheeks. Monique.

Monique’s mother had died of cancer when she was still young, and Paxton had raised Monique on his own. Not very well, however. He loved her more than anything, but he’d been so wrapped up in his career that he hadn’t paid enough attention to her. He hadn’t been involved in her day-to-day life. He’d been a distant father, so distant he hadn’t known that she was traveling a hundred miles nearly every weekend to visit her boyfriend-Adam Scott.

He’d loved her, but didn’t realize how important she was to him until she disappeared.

For years he’d believed she ran away, and he blamed her, then himself. He wanted her back so he could beg her forgiveness for his substantial failings as a dad. Until six years ago when he learned what really happened to her. Roger Morton had leveraged that information, as well as the financial information, in exchange for leniency. Senator Paxton had supported the plea agreement because he had to know the truth.

All that time he searched for her, she’d been dead.

He opened the locket. Inside on the right was Monique on her sixteenth birthday, her smile bright and beautiful. On the left was a picture of him holding her the day she was born.

There was a piece of paper on his chair. He picked it up, then sat down heavily, still holding Monique’s locket, a groan of agony and grief coming deep from his lungs.

Several minutes later, he unfolded the note.

This belongs to you.

FORTY-SIX

Lucy relaxed for the first time in … forever. She curled up in front of Sean’s fireplace Thursday morning. He’d asked if she wanted a fire, considering what happened on the farm only one week ago, but that hadn’t made her scared of fire any more than what happened six years ago made her scared of men.

Sean slid next to her and handed her a cup of hot coffee. He wore sweatpants and no shirt. She was bundled in her warmest pajamas and had a blanket.

She tilted her head back to kiss him. “I could get used to this pampering.”

“Go right ahead.” Sean returned her kiss.

She sighed. “Patrick is coming back tomorrow.”

“So?”

She frowned and stared at her coffee.

“Lucy, talk to me.”

“He’s my brother.”

“Really? And he’s my partner.”

“Exactly.”

“Exactly … what?”

She leaned forward and put her mug on the table, then turned around and straddled Sean’s lap. She kissed him passionately, her hands on his chest. He responded by pulling her close to him, his hands moving up the back of her pajama top, his rough palms on her bare skin.

She broke the kiss a minute later, flushed and smiling. “That’s what.”

It took Sean a minute, but then he got it. Sort of. “You don’t want your brother to know we’re sleeping together?”

“I think that’ll be hard to hide, considering that Dillon and Kate know that I spent all week here. It’s just that-I really want to do this right.”

“I thought I was doing it right,” Sean said with a sexy grin, his hands moving down her pajama bottoms.

She rolled her eyes, then laughed when he tickled her.

“I love to hear you laugh, Lucy. You don’t do it enough.”

“Then you’ll have something to shoot for, won’t you?”

“You want to go slow. I understand.”

“Not too slow. But I can’t just move in here, and not only because Patrick is living here. Though that is one reason. You’re getting your new office off the ground, and already you’re delayed because the last two weeks you were handling my mess.”

Sean frowned. “That wasn’t your mess. If you think for a minute that I didn’t want-”

She shook her head. “No, that’s not what I meant. I know this business is important to you. To prove to your brother you can do it, but even more to prove it to yourself. I not only respect that, I understand it. I feel like I have to constantly prove to my family that I’ve grown up, that I am capable of making my own decisions, that I am stronger than they give me credit for. They’ve been shielding me for a long time, trying to protect me, and I love them for it, but I am finally getting my own life. I have the FBI interview in three weeks. That’s about me, not Dillon or Patrick or any of my family. I have to succeed or fail on my own merits.”

“You’ll succeed.” Sean ran his fingers along her cheek.

She kissed him, her chest swelling with his confidence in her. “So I want you to focus on your business, and I’m going to focus on my interview. If everything goes as planned, I’ll be at Quantico before the end of the year. That’s twenty-one weeks of training, and-”

“Shh.” He put a finger to her lips. “I understand. Lucy, I’m not going anywhere. You’re the best thing that has happened to me. You make me a better person. I want you in my life, but I understand about taking it a step at a time. Step one.” He kissed her. “We learned that we like each other.” He smiled. “Step two.” He unbuttoned the top button of her pajamas. “We discovered that we are attracted to each other.” He unbuttoned the next button. “Very attracted.”

His fingers skimmed down her bare chest to the third button, which he undid.

“Step three.” He undid the fourth and final button. “We have fun together. You have a life important to you. I have a life important to me. Those lives are compatible.” He kissed first one breast, then the other. Lucy drew in her breath and held it.

“Step four,” Sean said, his voice gruff, “we are extremely compatible in bed.”

“We’re not in bed,” Lucy whispered.

“No, we’re not. We need to go to step five.”

“Which is?”

“How compatible are we on the couch?” He smiled and kissed her, and she leaned against him, her now-bare chest pressed firmly against his.

“I hope we pass,” she whispered in his ear.

“I believe in second chances.” He held her face in his hands and she stared at him, feeling the deep affection pouring from him to her. Her heart skipped a beat.