“I hate to be unoriginal,” Tory murmured, “but that was so good.”

Reese chuckled and moved Tory’s hair aside to kiss her neck.

“Sorry it was so fast. I can’t seem to wait these days.”

“It wasn’t too fast.” Tory turned onto her back and cupped Reese’s jaw. “I don’t want slow and easy. I want to feel you everywhere at once, as deep inside as you can get. I need that too.” She kissed her. “Slow and easy will come when we’re both ready.”

“I need you all the time.”

“I’m not complaining.”

“Being away from you shook me up,” Reese said, her expression distant. “I was too busy all the time to really think about it, but nothing felt right. Inside. You and Reggie, you’re my reason for everything.”

“Before you had us, being a marine was everything.” Tory draped her leg over Reese’s and curled closer. “You wouldn’t have come here fi ve years ago if you hadn’t been looking for something else you needed.

I like to think it was us.”

“Believe me, it was.”

“Maybe it was so hard over there because you expected to feel the way you did about being a marine before you had us. I bet lots of the other marines felt just like you, being away from their families. You just never had any practice at it before.”

• 186 •

Winds of Fortune

“I don’t think my father ever felt the way I did,” Reese said fl atly.

“You can’t be sure of that, but if it matters, maybe you should ask Kate.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m not him.” Reese pulled Tory on top of her and kissed her. “Maybe I’m not the marine I thought I was, but I’m so much more because of you.”

“Darling, you are a fi ne marine. And a wonderful lover. And a great mother. And a perfect partner.” Tory kissed Reese’s throat, then her breast, then down the center of her abdomen. She rubbed her cheek against Reese’s lower belly. “I adore you.”

Reese combed her fi ngers through Tory’s hair and lifted her hips to guide Tory between her thighs. “Take me slow and easy this time.”

“I’d love to,” Tory whispered, brushing her lips over Reese’s clitoris.

Reese closed her eyes and sighed as Tory drew her between her lips. Light as bright as rocket fl ares burst behind her eyelids as Tory tongued her, and the heat spreading through her belly and thighs was like the desert, scorching her. But this time she burned not with uncertainty and apprehension, but with the sure and certain knowledge of who she was and where she belonged.

Reese’s cell phone rang, and Reese cursed. She was seconds from orgasm. When she tried to twist and reach for it, Tory pressed a hand against her belly and held her down, relentlessly teasing her with her mouth and tongue.

“Baby,” Reese moaned as the phone continued to ring and the pressure became so intense her stomach spasmed. She was so close and she needed the release so badly. The phone kept ringing. “Baby I should…” Tory pushed down on her stomach and entered her with her other hand and Reese went rigid. In the next breath, she came.

When Reese opened her eyes, her face was pillowed against Tory’s breasts. She didn’t remember Tory moving, didn’t remember Tory pulling her into her arms. She didn’t remember starting to cry.

“It’s all right, darling,” Tory soothed, stroking Reese’s face. “I promise, everything is all right.”

“I love you.”

“Mmm, I know. That’s my everything.”

“The phone—I should check…”

• 187 •

RADCLY fFE

“I know.” Tory leaned across Reese for the phone. With one arm around Reese’s shoulders, she handed it to her.

Still trembling from her orgasm, Reese checked the last number.

“It’s Bri.”

“Delegate. I’m not done with you yet.”

Grinning, Reese called back. “Conlon.” Listening, she tensed and sat up. “I’ll be right there.”

“What is it?” Tory asked as Reese disconnected and stood up.

“Are you on call tonight?”

“No, Nita. Why?”

Reese grabbed her pants and pulled them on. “Because I might need someone to give an offi cial time of death. Bri’s got medics working on someone right now.”

“Do you want me to come with you?” Tory got out of bed and pulled on her robe.

“No. Go ahead and get the baby. It might take a while to sort this out. I’ll call Nita if I need her.”

Tory kissed Reese. “You okay?”

“A lot better than I was an hour ago.” Reese kissed her again and hurried toward the hall. “You should go ahead and have dinner. I love you.”

“Be careful.” Tory sank down on the side of the bed, her body still craving Reese’s touch. Despite missing her already, her heart felt lighter.

Reese had cried— something she almost never did. Tory couldn’t help but feel that these tears were just what they both needed.

❖

“So?” Deo said. “What do you think?”

“I want to marry your aunt,” Nita said, after savoring another bite of fra diavlo. “God, this is good.”

Deo laughed. “Told you.”

“I defi nitely made the right choice.”

“You mean dinner over wild sex with me?” Deo teased.

Nita pretended to look thoughtful. “Well, I don’t suppose there are many women who could…cook like this.”

“That’s cruel.” Deo reached across the table and took Nita’s hand.

• 188 •

RADCLY fFE

dashing off her fi ndings, she handed it back. “Do you need me for anything else here, Sheriff?”

“No. The rest of it will have to wait until they get him to Hyannis.

Thanks for coming out.”

“No problem. I’m sorry it turned out the way it did.”

“Me too.” Reese guided Nita up the muddy slope with a hand on her elbow. “You need a ride home?”

“That would be great. Thanks.” Nita sluiced water from her face with both hands. Her clothes were soaked, and her silk blouse clung to her in cold sheets.

“I’ll have Bri drive you.” Reese lifted up the yellow crime scene tape which Bri and Allie had hastily erected around the scene when they answered the call. “I’ve got a jacket in the car. You must be freezing.”

“I’ll take you up on tha—” Nita fell silent as Deo materialized from the small crowd of onlookers that had gathered outside the tape while she had been working. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought you might need a ride,” Deo said. “This weather is getting worse by the second.”

“According to all reports,” Reese said, “we’re looking at a lot worse in the next fi ve days. Big storm coming up the coast.”

“Bad for fi shing,” Deo said, glancing out toward the harbor before moving closer to Nita. “My truck’s just up the street.”

Nita turned to Reese. “Thanks, Sheriff, but your offi cer doesn’t need to taxi me anywhere. Deo can take me home.”

“All right. Thanks again.” Reese touched her cap and headed back down to the scene.

“How long have you been here?” Nita asked, aware of people watching her as she made her way up the beach.

“A few minutes.” Deo slipped her arm around Nita’s waist. “By the time I got to my truck it was really coming down, and I knew you were walking. Do you mind?”

“I wish you hadn’t seen this. Are you all right?”

“Yes.”

“No bad memories?”

Deo hesitated. “I don’t remember all that much.” She opened the Defender for Nita and held the door as she climbed in, then went around and got behind the wheel. “I remember people shouting and I remember being cold. So cold that I thought I’d never get warm.”

• 194 •

Winds of Fortune

Nita slid as close as she could and put her hand on Deo’s thigh.

“You’re cold now, too. And soaked.”

“I’m used to it.” Deo started the truck and pulled out onto Commercial Street. “The lights were in my eyes, red and blue and white fl ashes, and I couldn’t see anyone clearly, just shapes. It almost seemed as if I might be dreaming. I hoped I was. One of those bad dreams that feels so real while you’re having it, and then you wake up and you’re so happy it was just a dream.” She took a shaky breath. “But I didn’t wake up. Gabe was gone and everything changed.”

“I’m sorry. So sorry,” Nita murmured, stroking Deo’s hand where she clenched the steering wheel.

“Thanks,” Deo said roughly, grasping Nita’s hand and threading her fi ngers through Nita’s. “My condo is right around the corner. It might be July, but I think a fi re would be nice right about now.” She glanced at Nita. “After a hot shower.”

Nita’s stomach quivered and she forgot about being cautious. The specter of death, so fi nal, so brutal, still hovered around her. She was cold and sad and Deo offered her heat and a moment’s forgetting. It was enough.

“Yes.” She leaned across the space between them and kissed Deo’s neck. “That sounds perfect.”

❖

“First things fi rst,” Deo said, closing the door to her condo. She pointed across the living room, which was furnished with a tan sofa, matching chair, and a low glass table in front of a slate stone fi replace.

“The bedroom is up those stairs—fi rst door on the right. You can take your clothes off in there.”

Nita raised an eyebrow.

“Your wet clothes.” Deo pulled her own dripping polo shirt from her jeans. “I’ll bring you something dry. You can shower in my bathroom up there. I’ll use the one down here.”

“If you take that shirt off now,” Nita warned, “neither one of us is getting a shower.”

Deo hesitated, her shirt pulled high enough to expose her stomach and the curve of her breasts. “That sounds like a dare.”

“No,” Nita murmured, smoothing her palm over Deo’s stomach.

• 195 •

RADCLY fFE

“That’s a promise. God, I love your body.”

Deo shivered as Nita continued to caress her. “Nita. I’m wound up like a top.”

“Really.” Nita wrapped her arms around Deo’s neck and kissed her. They were both soaked, but the heat of Deo’s mouth and the promise of her touch warmed her all the way through. When Deo ran both hands down her back and then cupped her ass, she felt herself surge dangerously toward the boiling point. She didn’t want it to be that way, fast and furious and desperate. Not tonight. Not for this one night.