“Where are you going?” Olivia asked.
“First, do a little more research. Then I need to get another car. I have to assume that the guys watching Travis’s house will be on the lookout for my current one.”
“How long will you be gone?”
“Why don’t we meet back here tomorrow morning? Meanwhile, I’ll be in Beltsville.”
“Why Beltsville?”
“That’s where the Decorah Security office is located.” He reached into a pocket and pulled out a business card, which he set on the end table. “If you need to reach me, the number is on here. The phones are manned 24/7.”
“Okay.” She cleared her throat. “What if we can’t do what you asked?”
“I’ll have to come up with something else,” he answered.
The words weren’t reassuring.
When he left, both Travis and Olivia stood, stumbling toward each other and meeting in the middle of the room. Perhaps they hadn’t realized the kind of tension they’d been under. It had started when Travis knocked the detective unconscious, and had continued during their desperate maneuvers to get him to believe their wild story. Now that they were alone, the strain of the past few hours came crashing down around them.
When he reached for her, she flung herself into his embrace. As he pulled her close, she molded her body to his.
They clung together, relief flooding through them. The detective had bought their story—then gone off to do some prep. Alone at last, they held onto each other, rocking slightly, each leaning onto the other for support.
Olivia marveled at how mortal the man in her arms felt. With her eyes closed, she had the perfect illusion that he was as legitimate as anyone else. More so—to her.
He walked her backwards, maneuvering her around the table, and taking her down to the sofa so that she lay on her back, still with her eyes closed so as not to break the spell. Her body had turned molten, and she knew Travis could feel it. When she raised her face, he lowered his head and his lips came down hard on hers, then softened as he began to kiss her with the same urgency she felt. And he had the advantage that he could reach the back of her body as easily as he could the front. His hands stroked up and down her back and clasped her bottom, pulling her more tightly against himself.
When his hands moved to her front, caressing her breasts, she felt her heat level shoot up. She wasn’t undressed. He had to be touching her through two layers of fabric, her bra and her T-shirt, but it was like he was caressing her naked skin. He found her hardened nipples, stroking across them in a maddening rhythm that turned her center liquid. When he took them between his thumbs and fingers, she gasped in need.
“I want ...”
“I know.”
One hand slipped under her jeans, stroking through the slick folds of her sex, coming up to find her point of greatest sensation, then sliding down again to press against her entrance. Two fingers slipped inside, and she felt herself clench around him. He pushed in and out of her, while the heel of his hand pressed against her center, and she was helpless to do anything but move against him. He held her to him, keeping her grounded as she came undone in a blaze of sensation that shuddered through her whole body and made her struggle for oxygen.
She clung to him, eyes still closed, coming back to earth.
What he’d given her had been glorious. More than she had ever expected in her life. Yet she couldn’t help craving more. She didn’t say it, but she knew he picked up her thoughts.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“It is what it is,” he answered.
“But we’re going to change the parameters,” she vowed. “Deepen our bond so you can come with me when I leave.”
Inside her head, she heard him make a snorting sound. “Damned if I know how.”
Ignoring the obvious, she pressed on. “We’re going to try something that none of the other couples needed to do, even if we don’t quite know how. But think about it. Yesterday, we didn’t know how to pick up a piece of paper without touching it. Or make a thunderbolt, or whatever you want to call them.”
“But we were trying for some kind of physical effect. This is different. I’m not...physical.”
They were both silent for long moments, contemplating the detective’s request.
Travis had said he didn’t know how to accomplish it, but he was the one who suggested, “Let’s start with—I was out in the darkness, and I was drawn to you. Getting to you should have been impossible, but somehow, we accomplished it.”
“You’re the one who did it,” she pointed out. “Somehow you connected to me when I wasn’t expecting it, when I was afraid of it.” She dragged in a breath and let it out.
“And now that we’ve gotten this far, we can both try to make this new thing happen.”
