One Lucky Lady (12 page)

“The Goon Squad?” Pedro sounded like he was laughing.

“That would be Alex’s term, not mine. But it does seem appropriate. Those two had to have folded themselves into that little car. And I would be willing to bet neither of them had a visible neck.”

Once Pedro seemed calmer, he decided he better tell Pedro the rest. At least, right now, he was still too far away to kill Mac with his bare hands. He heard a rumor Pedro had done that once. According to rumor, Pedro killed a guy armed with an assault rifle with his bare hands. He didn’t know the details, but knew Pedro well enough to be certain it was very possible.

Mac listened to make sure the shower was still running and said, “We’ve got to figure out what’s going on fast.”

“No shit, Mac. Tell me something I don’t already know.”

Mac paused for a second then said, “There’s only one bed in this room!” Mac said too fast. He sounded panicked even to his own ears.

Pedro was quiet for about two seconds too long and Mac said a little thank you to God that Pedro was over eight hours away. Finally Pedro said, “Oh”. He was pretty sure Pedro was laughing again. He pulled the phone away to look at it. Again.

Mac put the phone back to his ear again. “Oh? I need something more than that, here. I want her more than I’ve ever wanted a woman in my life. If I stay with her, I’m afraid I’ll screw it up. Damn it, Pedro, I
love
her! She has got to be the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.” Mac whispered the last part because he heard Alex cut the shower off.

Pedro
was
laughing. “Mac, has she told you anything about Tom sleeping downstairs in the guest room.”

“No. Why?”
Why the hell would anyone in their right mind not be sleeping with Alex, and why would Pedro be bringing that up now?

“Tom was asleep in the guest room when he was shot. All his clothes, his toothbrush and shaving stuff, were in the closet and bathroom of the guest room. I wanted to ask Alex, but I really don’t know what to think.” Pedro paused. “I think I might have been wrong about their relationship. You’re going to have to ask her. She’ll tell you the truth. She really sucks at lying, so she tries to avoid it when she can, but she’s very good at omission. So you’ll have to ask her specific questions. Okay?”

Mac sighed. He didn’t want to talk to her about her relationship with her husband. Ever. He really
, really
didn’t want to know about their sleeping arrangements. “I’ll ask her.”

“I’ll call you tomorrow. I think I better hurry things along here. I’m going to go on the offensive and, uh…
question
my stalker.” Pedro hung up.

Mac knew that by question, Pedro meant he was going to beat the guy to within an inch of his life if he had to in order to get information out of the guy. Hell, Alex’s life was at stake. Mac was all for torture. He just wished he could be a part of it. Instead, he was in for his own form of torture tonight. He had to keep his hands off Alex until she was ready for him. He had to control himself, because she was too important to him to mess things up. He told her he wanted more than one night. Hell, he wanted
forever
.

Mac put the phone down just as Alex said, “Ask me what?”

Mac jumped. He hadn’t heard her open the door or walk across the room. He was putting bells on her shoes as soon as possible. He couldn’t keep jumping like some sort of teenage girl at a scary movie. It wasn’t manly.

Back to the problem at hand. Mac knew if he didn’t ask her about it, the question was just going to eat him up, but he also didn’t want to see her upset. He figured if she hadn’t said anything to either of them, then she had a pretty good reason for not wanting to talk about it. She hadn’t mentioned to either of them that Tom had been sleeping downstairs.

Alex had put on grey sweat pants and a black T shirt. Her nipples were pushing against the fabric doing very bad things to his brain. He didn’t think the woman ever wore a bra. Her face was pink probably from scrubbing it, her feet were bare with well worn blue polish on her toenails-well on at least half of her toenails-and she was the sexiest thing he had ever laid eyes on.

Mac pulled his eyes from her adorable toes, paused at her very tempting nipples and finally looked into her eyes. “Pedro said Tom was in the guest room.”

Mac was still sitting on the bed trying to look and sound as casual as possible. Alex sat down beside him, but didn’t look at him. It could either be because she was suddenly self-conscious or because he was only wearing underwear. He should probably really get up and put some pants on, but he needed to hear her answer.

“Tom was sleeping down there the night he was killed, yes.”

Mac really hated to press her, but…“Alex, Pedro knows there’s more to it than that. Honey, his clothes and all were in that room. He didn’t just sleep down there for one night.” He paused, but she was obviously not going to elaborate. “How long, Alex?”

Alex was way too quiet. Mac pulled her against him, his thigh and hip against hers, his hand on her hip, and repeated, “How long, Alex?”

“For the last month, but he slept in there a lot the first month we were in the house, too.” She was keeping her eyes glued to the floor.

“Why?” He had whispered it in her ear.

“I don’t know. The last month he said it was because of the case he was working on. The one involving the senator, I think. He said he was tossing and turning and he knew it would keep me awake. I never noticed him doing that though. I figured he just didn’t want to…” Alex stopped talking.

Mac was pretty sure he could fill in the blank. Tom was an idiot. “He just didn’t want to what, Alex? Wake you, bother you, sleep in the same bed with you…make love to you?” He felt her body tense on the last one.

“Alex, I don’t think you were the problem. No man in his right mind would leave you in a bed by yourself. With the way you look and the way you feel… and the way you…taste. Hell, it takes every bit of will power I have to stay out of your bed.” He could feel Alex relax a little.

Mac lifted her hips off the bed and rearranged himself so that he was sitting behind her, with her between his legs. He put his hands on her thighs and she relaxed back into him, but she still didn’t say anything.

“He never, uh, kissed me the way you did. I just figured it was because he wasn’t happy with me. I didn’t know…I told him…I was a…” Her body started shaking and he knew she was trying to keep from crying. He really didn’t know what to say to comfort her. He had a few ideas about Tom, but he couldn’t tell her. Not until she was more confident about the way she could make a man feel, more sure about herself.

“What did you tell him?” Mac was rubbing his palms along her legs now. He was afraid he already knew the answer to his question, but he wanted to hear her say it.

“I told him that I wouldn’t sleep with him until I was married to him.” Alex was crying now. He felt a tear hit his arm. “I told other guys that and they usually tried to convince me otherwise, then when they realized I was serious they would just call me horrible stuff and leave. Tom didn’t. He asked me to marry him the next week. Our marriage was a little rushed, but neither of us had family to invite, and neither of us could take time off work. So we were married at the courthouse.”

Mac was starting to get a really bad picture of Tom. He had to get in touch with Pedro again. But, right now, he was more concerned about Alex. “How was he after you were married?”

“He was always very polite and thoughtful. He left me alone for a while after the first time. He said he didn’t want to hurt me, but he touched me rarely after that.”

“Alex, that’s not normal.”

“I guess I really don’t know what normal is. I started to feel like something wasn’t right, but I didn’t have anyone I could ask.”

“What about someone at work?”

Alex was shaking her head. “The ER is like a soap opera. Once your sex life or lack of one is out there, it kind of takes on a life of its own.”

“Pedro?”

“I could have never talked to a man about this.” She swiped her hands over her cheeks to wipe away the tears. “I don’t know why I’m talking to you about this.” She tried to pull away from Mac but he wouldn’t let her go. His solid forearm across her abdomen pulled her back. He couldn’t believe she was telling him about this either, but he wasn’t about to stop her.

Mac put his lips to her neck and said hoarsely, “Honey, you have to be still.” Alex froze, feeling Mac hard against her back. Mac kept placing little kisses all along her neck. “Maybe it’s because you trust me.”

Alex nodded, and leaned back into Mac. The second his lips touched her neck again, her heart started pounding. Her body was getting all warm again. Maybe he was right. Nothing ever felt like this with Tom. Her body didn’t respond like this to Tom. Of course, Tom didn’t respond to her the way Mac did, either.

Mac said he didn’t want her to feel guilty and she really didn’t. Tom, she realized now, had actually been more of a roommate than a husband. Alex didn’t feel like she was doing anything wrong, actually it felt more right than anything she had ever done in her life.

Alex stood and turned to face Mac her eyes still a little red, but she was no longer crying. “I really don’t feel guilty. I don’t know why, but I have never felt the way I feel when you touch me.”

Mac groaned he really wanted to give her a little more time, but he figured she was probably feeling pretty vulnerable confessing that last little bit of information. It was all he needed to wash away that very tiny grain of guilt he had been feeling. He pulled her hips to him and put his face into her belly. She smelled so good that he wanted to taste her, hell, he had to taste her. He raised his head up to look at her. “Can I lift your shirt just a little, honey?” Alex’s green eyes were looking into his as she nodded, bringing her arms up to his shoulders. She brushed her thumb over the red scar from the knife, and heard him suck in a breath.

Alex watched the top of Mac’s dark head as he raised her shirt up above her navel. She sucked in a breath when he leaned in to kiss her there. She started shivering and her head fell back when he licked his way across to the bottom of her ribs and she ran her fingers up into his hair. She wanted to keep his mouth on her. She heard him say her name as he kissed from one side of her abdomen to the other. She felt like fire was running through her veins.

Mac moved his hands from her hips to her behind. He stopped to look up at her. When he pulled his head back her head came up to look at him again. “I want your shirt off. Please sweetheart.” His breathing sounded as ragged as hers.

Alex kept her eyes on his and leaned back a little in his arms. She could tell Mac was holding his breath as she grabbed the hem of the shirt. She started to pull up and there was a knock at the door. Alex straightened.

Mac groaned again and closed his eyes as he fell back on the bed. He opened them in time to see Alex trying to pull her shirt back down. Mac stood quickly and caught her hands. He worked her shirt up so that it was just below her breasts and pressed her back against the wall. “Don’t move. I expect you to look just like this when I come back around the corner.” Alex-unable to speak at the moment-just nodded.

Mac turned toward the door and Alex started to pull her shirt back down. Mac turned back to look at her and growled low.
Definitely a wolf
. She smiled at him, a smile that went all the way to her eyes, and she left her shirt as it was.

Mac went to the door, checked the peep hole, and opened it. It was the woman from downstairs. Buddy called her Bets. Her name was actually Betsy, he knew, and she was the reason Buddy was in the wheel chair. Buddy put his body between her and a bullet a couple of years ago.

Betsy was a granddaughter to someone who was the equivalent of the Godfather in Chicago. She saw the men who murdered her grandfather and was scheduled to testify against them in court. When the other witnesses all disappeared, she went into the witness protection program at the insistence of her father and brother. Apparently, someone knowing who was where in the US Marshall’s office was moonlighting for the mob. A hit man came after Betsy and almost took care of her, but Buddy jumped in front of her. In the chaos, Betsy took Buddy’s gun and shot the hit man just before he could put another bullet in Buddy. She testified against both the hit man and the men who murdered her grandfather in court. They were all sent away for at least life.

Buddy asked her to marry him while he was still in the hospital. Mac didn’t know the whole story because he had another witness in Baltimore, but knew Betsy had to talk him into it. Buddy didn’t think she would ever be happy with a man in a wheelchair, but he couldn’t convince her to leave him. Buddy told Mac he had tried everything from yelling at her to ignoring her and nothing worked. Mac hadn’t been invited to a wedding yet, so he assumed they were still engaged. He could tell by looking at them they were still in love.