“You know, guys, I haven’t known him long at all,” Kelly said.
Serena flashed a glance at Jennifer, who gave a knowing smile.
“What was that all about?” Kelly demanded.
“Nothing,” Serena said.
Abby calmly placed a piece of parsley on a platter. “It means, dear, that they’re both certain you’ve already slept with the man. And that it’s not such a bad thing, because they believe they’ve acquired excellent instincts over the years and they think he’s okay. Therefore, you’re all right.”
“Mother!” Jennifer protested.
Abby turned to give them all her sweet smile. “Am I wrong?” she demanded.
Jennifer and Serena were silent.
Abby looked at Kelly. “They’re still a little wet behind the ears. I, on the other hand, have been around a long time. From what I’ve seen, I like the boy. I tend to be among the paranoid myself, since I’ve had to learn a few hard lessons during my journey through the years. But look at him out there, fitting right in with Conar and Liam, two fellows who have known each other for ages. And there’s your boy, holding his own. Hang on to him, Kelly.”
Kelly shook her head, smiling. “Abby, he’s really not mine to hang on to. This is a working arrangement. And a short one at that. I think the video is slated to finish in five days. Budgets, you know. Then…well, hell, I don’t know what I’m doing, but he’ll go back to his world.”
“And just what is his world?” Abby persisted.
“Well, he teaches. And dances on a professional circuit of some kind.”
“I see,” Abby said, studying Kelly. “Still, hang on to him, dear.”
“He’s just a nice guy.”
Serena spun around, leaning against the sink, studying Kelly. “Hmm. But you have this glow about you now. Doesn’t she, Jen?”
Jennifer whispered something to Serena and Kelly was pretty sure that Jen said, “Freshly fucked glow, huh?”
“Jennifer!” Abby remonstrated. “There’s never a need to use trucker language!”
“I didn’t!” Jennifer said.
“Jennifer, my hearing is excellent.”
“Excellent! Selective is more like it, Mom!”
Kelly groaned. “I’ll take those platters out so the guys can start filling them up.”
“Kelly,” Abby said, “don’t let those two gooses get to you. That one is a keeper.”
“But not really mine to keep.”
“Let’s leave her alone, shall we?” Serena inquired. “Just so long as he’s with her now, when all this is going on.”
“Well, that’s something we all agree on!” Abby said.
“Great. Good. Then maybe we could have dinner and talk about everything in the world but me and whether I’m having sex or not!” Kelly exclaimed.
“Sure,” Serena said, smiling slightly.
“We’d never dream of asking for details,” Jennifer said.
“Not in mixed company,” Serena agreed.
“No. We’ll do it later,” Jennifer assured her.
“I think I hear a baby crying,” Kelly said.
“Mine?” Serena asked.
“One of mine?” Jennifer demanded.
They looked at each other, then both started out of the kitchen. Kelly winked at Abby, who grinned and winked back.
They did talk about Kelly’s situation, but even then, not until they were picking up the plates after dessert. Then Serena said, “Kelly, I don’t like you at that house alone.”
“I’m not alone,” she protested, “I have Sam.”
“Sam is a dog. You know that I adore him, but…I don’t like you being alone.”
“Serena, I’ve lived alone for a long time.”
“I can stay out there,” Doug said softly.
Kelly tried not to blush.
“I think you should both stay here tonight,” Serena said.
“Serena, I have to go home! Besides, I can’t very well move in for the rest of my life,” Kelly said.
“Tonight, you should just stay here,” Serena said.
“I can’t leave Sam in the house alone, and Doug has said that he’ll stay. You’ve got a crowded house right now, Serena.”
“Hey, we’re heading out,” Jennifer said. “Collecting the kids, the creatures, and heading on out.”
“Am I a kid or a creature?” Abby asked.
“Sorry, Mom,” Jennifer said.
“Serena, it just wouldn’t make sense—”
“It would make perfect sense. Doug is heading out with Liam first thing in the morning,” Serena said.
Startled, Kelly looked at O’Casey. “You are? Where are you two off to? Golf?” she asked.
He didn’t exactly answer her, but she didn’t realize that until later. “I’ll go to your house and get Sam, if that’s all right with you.”
“Perfect!” Serena said.
“Serena, I don’t have anything with me—”
“Oh, as if you can’t wear my clothes!”
“Actually, it doesn’t sound like such a bad idea,” O’Casey said.
Kelly was more than a little surprised and certainly puzzled by his agreement. She had thought that he’d want to be alone—with just her. But in the frenzy to get Jennifer, the twins, her little boy, her dogs and her mom out, Doug also disappeared.
Alone in the entry with Liam and Serena, Kelly stared at them, frowning. “Okay, where is O’Casey?”
“He went to get Sam.”
“How?”
“I gave him the key I keep here,” Serena said.
“But Serena—”
“But Kelly!” Liam said firmly. “You’re better off here.”
“Don’t worry. You have connecting guest rooms,” Serena said.
“That’s not the point.”
“I’ll bet it is.”
“I can’t move in with you!”
“Just for tonight,” Liam told her. “Your fellow and I are leaving early.”
“And I should be afraid in the morning, in broad daylight?”
“We never know when we should be afraid, do we?” Liam asked. He kissed Serena lightly on the lips. “Mind if I go on up?”
She smiled, shaking her head. “Check on the baby, huh?”
“Absolutely,” he said, and headed up the stairs.
Kelly stared at Serena. “I’m a big girl. And I won’t be idiotically afraid if you people don’t make me so!”
“We people love you. What? Is it a horror to stay at my house?”
Kelly shook her head. “Of course not. It’s just that I’ll have to go on living on my own. I don’t want to get to the point where I’m afraid in my own home.”
“Look, it’s just for tonight, okay?”
“Sure you don’t want to come to Florida with me?” Kelly asked.
“Oh, you’ll be fine in Florida,” Serena said with a wave of her hand.
“Oh?” Kelly inquired politely.
“Well, he’ll watch after you. Doug, I mean. And since he was a cop—”
“What?”
“He was a cop. He never told you?”
“No, but I should have figured. All the signs were there.”
“Well, it’s a good thing. Why are you angry?” Serena asked.
“I’m not angry.”
“Yes, you are. Anyway, it means he can protect you. And the fact that you’re going to be protected shouldn’t make you angry.”
“It doesn’t!”
“But you are angry.”
“I’m not. And the fact that he was a cop doesn’t really mean anything now.”
Serena shrugged. “Well, yes and no. At least he can legally be armed.”
“As an ex-cop?”
“Well, of course not. He’s a licensed private investigator, just like Liam.”
“What?”
“You didn’t know that, either?”
“No, and how did you know it?”
“Well, Liam looked him up, of course!”
Kelly really should have figured. She didn’t know why she was so angry herself. As Serena said, wasn’t it a good thing?
Yes. And no. Because she had the odd feeling that he was only with her—that he had only taken the job—because her situation intrigued him! His instincts had kicked in. She was a possible case. No wonder he was seeing culprits wherever he looked! She should have known! He had such an edge.
There was a knock at the door. She heard Sam woofing. Serena stepped past her, opening the front door.
“Sam!”
He was ready to jump. He loved Serena. “Down, boy, I’ll give you love on your own level, how’s that?” Serena asked, hunkering down. She scratched and petted Sam, and he accepted her affection but then bounded past her to Kelly. Kelly lowered herself to the dog’s level as well, staring over Sam at O’Casey.
He knew right away that something was wrong, but he didn’t say anything, listening instead as Serena said she’d show him his room.
“Come on, boy, we’re heading to our room,” Kelly said.
O’Casey gave her the slightest hike of a brow. Serena didn’t even notice the expression. Kelly went up the stairs ahead of them. She had, at times, stayed with Serena before, when she had a flight and either Serena or Liam were giving her a ride to the airport. She went straight to her own space, entered the room with Sam and made a point of locking the door.
In the room, she paced. Fifteen minutes later, she heard the connecting door open. O’Casey entered, closed it and leaned against it, crossing his arms over his chest. “All right. What?”
“You’re a cop!” she spat out.
He frowned. “Was a cop. What’s wrong with that?”
“You never told me.”
“You never asked.”
“And,” she informed him, “you have a private investigator’s license!”
“Yeah.”
“You never told me that, either.”
“You never asked.”
“Who the hell asks a dance teacher if he’s a P.I. on the side?” she demanded.
“What difference does it make?” he asked her.
She shook her head. “I’m not a person to you,” she said at last. “I’m…I’m a curiosity, a possible piece of excitement!”
“Well, actually, you’re very exciting,” he murmured.
“That’s not what I mean and you know it.”
“Look, I never meant to keep anything from you. You never asked and the subject never came up.” He hesitated. “Honestly, I didn’t know that you didn’t know. Your manager, Ally Bassett, knew. Shannon O’Casey, my brother’s wife and the head of the studio, apparently told Ally that I’d been a cop. I just assumed you knew.”
“Well, it makes me very uncomfortable.”
“Are you aware that you’re shouting?” he asked, his eyes narrowing.
“I am not.”
“You’ll wake the baby,” he warned her.
“No, I won’t. Sam and I are going to sleep now.”
“Fine.”
To her surprise, he didn’t push the matter at all. He turned, exited the room and closed the door softly behind him.
Sam whined, thudding his stump of a tail nervously on the floor.
“We don’t need him,” Kelly told the dog. But we do! she thought. No! Everything she had said tonight was true. Everything she had felt. Being in a music video had never really meant anything to him, she could tell. She had read that clearly about him. He had only taken on the job because he’d been told about the threats made against her.
“Sleep, Sam. We’re going to sleep.”
She shimmied out of her black knit dress and into one of the long old T-shirts Serena kept in the drawer for her, then crawled into bed. She lay wide awake, staring at the ceiling. Sam crawled up by her feet.
“You are the best protection in the world, you know,” she told him softly. “And the best friend.” And he was, of course. But…he wasn’t a man. He wasn’t O’Casey. He didn’t have the amazing combination of muscles and grace, toughness and elegance, and…
Face it, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d actually had what could be called a relationship. The right person just hadn’t come along. She didn’t go to bars and she didn’t go bowling. And she hadn’t had sex in…forever.
She winced, not ready to cast aside pride and forgive him. She had been taken. Subtly. And it hurt. And she didn’t want to hurt more than she was already hurting.
She closed her eyes, wishing that the door would open again. That he would just burst in, ask no questions, scoop her up, hold her, touch her, excite her. But he wouldn’t. He was O’Casey.
She could get up herself, but she’d rather die. And in a way, she felt like she was dying.
Then, to her amazement, the door opened. He was still in his dress pants, but shirtless. She could see the way the moonlight glowed on his chest and shoulders. He walked over to the bed, looked down at her. She could see his features, could read the taut form of his body.
Sam whined and wagged his tail. “It’s all right, Sam,” he said softly.
“It is?” Kelly inquired.
“Look, no commitment, no involvement. That’s what you said you wanted, right?”
“I—”
“You pushed it today. Now it’s my turn, my room. Sam can stay here.”
“What?”
She was amazed when he did reach down and scoop her up, covers and all, dislodging Sam, who didn’t seem to mind readjusting.
“All right, now. You’ve really got some nerve. I didn’t pick you up!”
“You can’t pick me up, that’s the only difference.”
“I beg to differ!”
“Shut up.”
“What!”
“Sorry. Don’t make so much noise. You’ll wake the baby, remember?”
“You really do have a bloody nerve.”
“So do you,” he replied. “It was all right for you to strip to a robe in my hotel, so I guess I can be a bit on the aggressive side.”
With that he turned and walked to the connecting door. “’Night, Sam,” he said, and closed the door with his foot. Inside he asked, “Any objections?”
“No. Not as long as the lines are drawn and we know each other for who we are.”
“And do we?” he asked.
“I think so.”
“I don’t. I’m beginning to think that I don’t really know you at all.”
“But it doesn’t matter, does it?”
“Not if that’s the way you want it.”
She bit her lip, ready to protest, but her heart was already thundering. She could feel his warmth, both the sensuality and security of his arms. And she didn’t want to return to a room without him. She didn’t want to let him go, didn’t want to stop feeling everything that was racing through her. Without speaking, she reached up and threaded her fingers into his hair, drawing his lips to her. Her kiss was angry, almost violent.
“So, no objections?” he queried softly.
“What if I did?
“They’d be rather hypocritical, but…no objections?”
Objections? Was he mad?
Somehow she managed a modicum of dignity in her reply. “I don’t intend to say a word.”
“Well, actually, I like my women to make a little noise,” he murmured.
The next thing she knew was the feel of the mattress at her back and the man above her. And in the darkness, she didn’t dwell on fact, fear or anger. Only on him.
Lance Morton sat in his own car that night, heedless of the fact that he had parked right in front of Kelly’s house. He really didn’t drink a lot. Nor, considering the fact that he was in the business he was—suddenly finding success and being offered all kinds of pills, booze and women—was he a pill-popper or a womanizer.
Tonight, though, he just sat there in his rental car, staring at the house and finding that he was angry. He was the rock star, for God’s sake! Didn’t she have any idea how many groupies he could have with
the snap of his fingers? No. There was so much she just didn’t seem to realize.
He had waited before, thinking that she’d come home and he’d make his presence very well known. He’d apologize, assure her that he never meant to say a word about the night before. But she hadn’t come home.
Then the dance teacher had shown up, the overgrown tackle. Lance had made sure the guy didn’t see him. He’d slunk down almost to the floor.
Doug O’Casey had gone into her house—with a key! He’d come out with the dog and left again. It was then that Lance had driven his car even closer. Then he had broken out the beer.
Time passed. Eventually a cop car came around. He slunk deep down into his seat again, making it appear as if the car was empty. The cruiser went on by and Lance straightened. At last he looked at his watch and swore at the hour.
He twisted the key in the ignition, bringing the car to life. The last thing he needed or wanted was to be arrested for having open booze in his car. But as he drove down the street, he thought about what he had seen.
The dog was gone. The house was really empty.
He jerked to a halt, turned the car around and drove back.
CHAPTER 16
Harvey Sumter looked like hell. His hair, what there was of it, was all but standing on end. He’d had a transplant at some time in his life, but it hadn’t taken well. Now, as he entered, his fingers rose to his head. The man was, literally, all but tearing his hair out. He had a scruffy growth of beard, and the orange uniform he had been given to wear seemed to hang on his body.
His attorney was present, as was Detective Olsen, an old-timer who had been around the block a dozen times. He had seen the dregs of humanity, yet managed to come out of it all with something of a heart left and certainly a soul. He respected the work of technicians and scientists, but knew that it was a cop’s perseverance and gut instinct that could bring in the suspect to make the forensics work. He had looked Doug over with an eagle eye and seemed to accept Liam’s word that he was licensed and had a legitimate interest in the situation.
When Harvey Sumter was brought into the interview room with the single table and four chairs, the guard intended to leave the man’s shackles on his wrists. Liam asked that they be taken off. The guard took a look at the men in the room, then shrugged and did so.