By Request Collection April-June 2016. Оливия Гейтс
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“Funny.” She tipped her head back. “I mean. You’re still here. You’ve been generous, and I don’t mean just the check. Generous with yourself. Your time, your attention. I thought I’d show you paperwork, and take you for a tour. That would be that, and then we’d find out later whether Safe Haven made the grade. You were definitely a surprise.”
“I guess we were both caught off guard. You’re not who I pictured, either.”
“I’m just a hermit who’s found her calling.”
He huffed. “Not even close.”
She kissed him and there was no possibility his erection was going down a centimeter when he held her naked against him, when each kiss was better than the last.
When he finally pulled back, it was with great reluctance. “Your water’s getting cold.”
“There’s more where that came from.”
One more peck on the tip of her nose, and he moved out of her arms. “Go relax. Enjoy. Soak until you’re one big prune.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet…what an image.” She laughed and stuck a foot in the water.
He left the bathroom, closing the door behind him. He rested there for a minute, waiting for his cock to settle down.
As soon as he checked his phone and saw that he had three voice mails, he cooled off. Too anxious to wait and listen, he checked the list of incoming numbers. None from George or Christian, only business associates. The pressure in his chest eased. It wasn’t as if he was expecting the other shoe to drop at any second. He knew Annie was safe. So was his mother. No reason to think anyone, criminal or otherwise, was lurking in the shadows.
Only George knew Tucker had actually found Leanna and that they were in Montana. As far as Christian and Irene were concerned, they thought maybe Leanna had been located, no certainty there. He pondered for a moment, unable to recall if he’d told Irene he was in Montana. Shit. He couldn’t remember. He had a feeling he had told her, but she obviously hadn’t passed the information to Christian.
Restless, he picked up his iPad. The amount of work piling up and the panic he sensed in Darren’s email was enough to put a damper on his mood under normal circumstances. Now it barely provided a distraction.
This wasn’t like him. None of this. His original goal was met the moment he’d realized Annie was in fact Leanna Warner and found corroborating evidence. The next step should have been a phone call to the New York district attorney’s office and a return trip home.
He hadn’t even been gone that long, which made no sense. He felt as though he’d known Annie for weeks. Longer. The connection with her had been fast and deep, unlike anything he’d experienced before.
His unromantic soul had dismissed such a thing as possible. And yet here he was, having willingly put his life on hold. He’d written her a twenty-thousand-dollar personal check. That did not happen.
He’d been raised to be cautious not only with money but with his trust, his admiration, his affection. She’d broken through all his barriers with no apparent effort.
Looking at the bathroom door, imagining her soaking in the tub, eyes closed, the water lapping at her skin, he realized he wouldn’t have changed a thing. Not that there wasn’t more work to do, because now that he had her, he wasn’t about to lose her to false identities and an overeager D.A.
The thing with Christian wouldn’t be easy, though. Their relationship was already so muddled, and now with his mother pinning all her hopes for the future on winning her son back, Tucker had no idea what the outcome would be. It wouldn’t do him any good to keep beating himself up for being so intentionally blind to his brother’s connection to the embezzlement, but it was hard not to regret it. Not simply on his mother’s behalf, either. He would like to have a brother again, not a memory overshadowed with guilt.
Now, all the blinders had to come off. He hoped there were extenuating circumstances and that Christian would walk away from this debacle with his reputation intact. Maybe he and Annie had both been duped somehow, or Christian had been the one coerced by bookies. What a mess.
His gaze fell on his briefcase, the files for Leanna Warner locked safely inside. In a way, he had known Annie longer than a few days. He’d studied her past, learned who she’d been as a teenager. How honorably she’d conducted herself as an adult. He knew her better than he did Christian. Tucker wasn’t wrong about her. No doubt in his mind. The woman described in those files was exactly the one behind the bathroom door. Someone like her didn’t suddenly rip off charities.
She was, however, a woman to whom he’d promised a shoulder rub, and he was nothing if not a man of his word. He put away the iPad. The real world would suck them back in soon enough.
ANNIE’S IDEA OF HEAVEN was made complete when Tucker took off his clothes. She’d even made sympathetic noises when he complained about how cold the bathtub rim tiles were on his ass as he settled himself behind her, his legs in the water on either side of her arms.
But the true beauty of this moment of perfection didn’t hit until he began rubbing her neck. His technique was basic and effective. Mostly just hands on skin and pressing down on parts that hurt until they stopped hurting.
Eyes closed and body floating on a sea of endorphins, she moaned as she let him have his way. It surprised her to find she’d been running her hands up and down his legs, because she didn’t remember starting. It was nice, though. He had great calf muscles.
“Oh, right there,” she said, as his thumb went deep right next to her spine.
“You should get more massages.”
“I should also have my meals catered by Nobu, but that’s not going to happen, either.”
He sighed as his magic fingers continued, sometimes gently, sometimes with true commitment. “Did you grow up in New York?”
She nodded. “Queens.”
“Ah.”
“Lots of trains to the city.”
“Huh. Where did you develop your love of horses?”
“Books first. Then a pony at a birthday party. Don’t stop.”
And he didn’t, until he’d worked out a particularly stubborn knot at the edge of her scapula. When he was allowed to move at his own discretion again, he said, “And after the pony?”
“Central Park. They have stables. I started working there when I was sixteen.”
“Wasn’t that quite a commute?”
“For a guy from Dallas, you sure do know a lot about New York.”
“Practically the whole world knows about New York. But I’ve been there quite a few times, and the foundation works with a sanctuary in Watkins Glen. I also do business with several companies that have their headquarters in Manhattan.”
“Watkins Glen. I know that place.” She started to twist around but he urged her to stay facing forward. “They do a great job.”
“They do.”
“I worked at the stables so I could ride for free. I loved it. Loved them. I knew every inch of the bridle trail.”
He rested his hands on her shoulders. “I never asked about what you did before Safe Haven. Were you working with horses?”
She stilled, the euphoria of the last hour draining away, replaced with dread. “No. No horses. Just people. Who are much more complicated.” Squeezing his legs, she tilted her head up. “The water’s getting cold. What do you say we get warm in the shower, then crawl into that big king bed?”
His smile assured her that her distraction technique had worked. She felt sure he hadn’t been snooping outside of regular curiosity. If he tried to find her on the internet, he’d find nothing—which