Back at Grace’s apartment, Declan made a few calls. First to the local police headquarters, describing what had happened and how they had been misdirected.
The police headquarters said they’d look into the incident and get back to them.
Not holding out much hope, Declan placed a call to his new boss, Charlie.
He still struggled with calling the older woman by her first name. But the more he did, the better she liked it.
“Have you found Grace’s roommate?” Charlie asked.
“No, ma’am. I was wondering if you had any connections on the police force.”
“As a matter of fact, my late husband was a big proponent of the local Fraternal Order of Police. We donated a lot of money to the survivors of police officers lost in the line of duty.” She paused. “Why?”
Declan told her what had happened up to that point. “If you have any pull on the local police force, I could use a contact.”
“I’ll get one for you. I refuse to believe they lost the perp. There has to be a perfectly good explanation.”
“Let me know when you find it,” Declan said.
“What are you going to do next?” Charlie asked.
“I don’t like that an intruder made it into Grace and Riley’s apartment.”
“You aren’t going to leave Grace alone, are you?” Charlie asked.
“No. I’m staying with her tonight.”
“Do you want to stay at my place? I have an excellent and very expensive security system.”
Declan smiled. “I know. If things get even more dangerous for Grace, I might take you up on that offer.”
“Please do. I hate the idea of another innocent person being hurt.”
“Speaking of innocents, how are you?”
She snorted. “Like I’m an innocent. I’m staying put inside my wonderful security system until your guys arrive,” she said. “I did venture out long enough to express my condolences to the families of my bodyguards killed in the skirmish yesterday.”
“I’m sorry you had to go through that.”
“I’m sorrier it happened to such good people. Their families shouldn’t have had to suffer their loss. Those were good men, doing their jobs.”
“Any word on what they had in mind by kidnapping you?” Declan asked.
“The FBI questioned the guys they captured. They’re still not talking.” She sighed. “I’m a rich woman. They probably hoped for a sizable ransom.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me there?” Declan asked. Not that he wanted to abandon Grace and Riley. Not now that he had so much effort invested in their welfare. But Charlie had been attacked and her welfare was important to him as well. He could take Grace to her place and keep them all secure.
“No. I’m safe behind my walls,” Charlie said. “Your guys are on their way. They’ll arrive tomorrow.”
“Again, Charlie, thank you for having faith in me and my team.”
“I wouldn’t have offered to set up Declan’s Defenders if I didn’t believe you and your men were the ones to make it happen. Based on what you told me, you all made the right decision. Your commanders had to make the decisions they made, right or wrong. I’m sorry you had to leave the Marine Corps.” She laughed. “I’m sorry for you. I can’t say I’m sorry for me. If you hadn’t been released from the marines at the time you were, and if you hadn’t been on the street you were at the time you happened along, I might not be here today.” She paused. “I believe some things are meant to happen for a reason. Call it divine intervention, fate or dumb luck. I don’t care. I’m just glad you found me.”
Declan’s heart swelled. “And I’m glad you found me.” He pushed back his shoulders. “Thanks for taking a chance on me. I’ll do my best to prove I’m worthy of your trust.”
The older woman chuckled. “Sweetie, you already have. But wait... What do you think about the name I’ve coined for your group?”
“What was that?”
“Declan’s Defenders,” Charlie said. “I’m all for alliteration.”
“You should have named the organization after you. It was your idea.”
She chuckled. “And I might have, but I couldn’t come up with something satisfying that went with Charlie, other than Charlie’s Angels...and well...that wouldn’t do. So, unless you have an objection to it, Declan’s Defenders it is.”
“Thank you, Charlie. You’re an amazing woman.”
“I know. Now, bring Riley home safely.”
“Will do, ma’am—Charlie.” Declan ended the call and went in search of Grace.
The door to her bedroom was open, but she wasn’t there. He heard the sound of the shower through the bathroom door.
His groin tightened.
When he’d held Grace in his arms earlier, he’d felt something special. Yeah, he’d held women in his arms before, but Grace was different. She was strong, yet vulnerable. And her body fit perfectly against his. She wasn’t painfully thin like some women liked to be. The woman had curves and valleys and hips his mother would have called good for breeding.
As his thoughts turned to breeding, he let his imagination go down that path with Grace in mind.
Grace would bear beautiful children. Blond-haired, gray-eyed girls like their mother. They’d be kind, courageous and beautiful, just like Grace.
He didn’t realize he’d been standing, staring at the bathroom door until the water shut off and he heard the sound of the shower curtain rings sliding across the curtain rod.
Declan left her bedroom door and hurried back into the living room. Grace didn’t need to know he’d been having crazy daydreams about her babies. Babies whose lives he’d never be a part of.
When he’d been younger, before he’d joined Force Recon, he’d always thought he’d marry someday and have three or four children like his parents had. He liked kids and they liked him.
After so many deployments in which he’d gone into villages where innocent women and children were used as shields or forced to be weapons of war, he wasn’t as certain. After all he’d seen, all he’d done, how could he feel right about bringing children into a world so broken?
Yet he’d stood in Grace’s bedroom and thought about what it would be like to hold her baby in his arms. To make her pregnant with his child.
Declan groaned at the image conjured up of Grace naked in her bed, him driving deep inside her body, filling her with his seed.
And if wishes were horses...his mother would have said. Wishing got him nowhere. Action was what was needed. Inaction made him crazy. He stood in front of the boarded window overlooking the back side of her apartment complex. The drapes were drawn and a board stood in the way of his view, but he closed his eyes and imagined the trees he had seen earlier that day.
A soft hand touched his arm. “Hey. What are you thinking about?”
Declan flinched and took a step away. “Nothing.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.” She wrapped the tie of a silky powder-blue robe around her middle and cinched it. “You were frowning. I thought maybe you were in pain.”
He couldn’t tell her he was in pain because he was thinking about making love to her. Hell, if she looked down, she’d see the evidence in the swell beneath the fly of his jeans.
“Were you thinking about your team?” she asked.
“No.” At that moment, he was thinking about untying the blue robe and sweeping Grace up into his arms. He wanted to make mad, passionate love to the woman as he pressed her to the wall—the bed being too far away.
Declan took another step away.
Grace frowned and closed the gap. “Seriously, were you in pain?” She raised her hand to cup his cheek.
He grabbed her wrist and held it. “The only pain I’m in is when I touch you. Go to bed, Grace.” He let go of her hand and again moved a step away.
Her eyes flared and her cheeks grew pink. “You were thinking of me?”
“Yes. Now, do us both a favor. Go to your room alone, close the door and sleep.”
She shook her head. “I can’t.”
“What part can’t you do?”
Grace inhaled a deep breath and released it before she spoke. “After all that’s happened today, I can’t go into that room alone. We don’t know if the intruder escaped the police. He could come back. Logic tells me he wouldn’t dare try again. But deep down, I don’t trust that he’ll stay away.”
He started to reach for her, to pull her into his arms. He raised his hand halfway to her arm, stopped and let it fall back to his side. “I’m here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
“You’ll be in here, but I’ll be in the other room. What if he hurts you? I’d never know until it was too late.” She took another step closer. “It seems to me, we could protect each other. You know... I’ll have your back and you’ll have mine.”
Declan closed his eyes, his hands all over her naked back in his mind. “No can do,” he said.
She ran her tongue across her lips, making him exponentially hotter. “What if I leave the door open? Then at least I could hear if someone comes in.” Grace went to him and laid her hand on his chest. “I could help you.”
“I’m supposed to be helping you, not the other way around.” Placing his hands on her hips was his first mistake. Getting lost in the depths of her pretty gray eyes was his second. “Don’t you understand? I’m trying hard to keep my hands off you. And I’m failing miserably.”
She curled her fingers into his shirt and inhaled deeply, her breasts brushing against his chest. “Then quit trying so hard.” She leaned up on her toes and pressed her lips to his in a feather-soft kiss.
Declan groaned and his arms tightened around her middle. “Now you’ve gone and done it,” he said against her mouth. Then he claimed her in a breath-stealing kiss that started out hard, almost punishing. He wanted to chastise her for making him lose control. But as the kiss deepened, she opened to him, letting his tongue slide past her teeth to take her in a long, silky caress.
She raised her hands to clasp the back of his neck, pulling him closer. Her hips pressed against his, the evidence of his desire nudging against her belly.
A moan rose up her throat and warmed his mouth. She wrapped her calf around his and rubbed the apex of her thighs across his thigh.
Past any kind of restraint, and hopelessly in danger of losing complete control, Declan swept Grace up in his arms and held her against him. “Now’s the time to back out. Say the word and this ends here.” How he’d stop, he wasn’t sure. But he had to give her an out.
She cupped his cheek, her lips hovering over his. “I want you to hold me,” she said. “All night long.”
“Let’s be clear. Hold you only?” He shook his head. “Can’t promise you that.”
“Then let me make myself crystal clear.” She bracketed his face between her palms and stared into his eyes. “I want you to make love to me all night long.”
Still he hesitated. “You’re not concerned that we only just met?”
“I’ve never been more certain in my life.” Then she kissed him and pressed her body closer.
Clutching her to him, he strode into her room and stood beside her bed without breaking the connection. When at last they separated for air, he lowered her legs and let her slide down his body until her feet touched the ground.
Grace reached for the tie on her robe.
Declan brushed her hands away and loosened the knot.
She shrugged the silky robe from her shoulders and let it slide down her back and arms. It slipped over her body to land on the floor at her feet.
Beneath the robe, she wore a matching blue baby-doll nightgown that teased the tops of her thighs and left her legs completely exposed.
He groaned. “Do you even know what you’re doing to me?”
Her chuckle warmed his insides. “I have an idea.” She reached low and cupped the bulge of his straining erection through the denim of his jeans. Then she grasped the button and paused. “I should feel guilty for wanting this when Riley is on the run, but I can’t help it.”
“You can’t help it. I thought resisting kissing you was hard enough. This goes far beyond that.”
She pushed the button loose and slid the zipper downward in an agonizingly slow movement. Finally, his stiff erection sprang free of the confines of his jeans.
Grace’s mouth curved upward as she circled him with her warm, supple fingers. “We can’t do any more for Riley tonight, and I don’t want to be alone.” Her fingers tightened around him and slid to the base of his shaft. “Make love to me. Make me forget, if only for now. Tomorrow we’ll find Riley.”