A Man Worth Remembering Read online

  “What are you planning to, um, do?” she asked.

  That dark eyebrow went up a notch more. “What do you think I’m planning to do?”

  A few answers came to mind, incredibly satisfying answers, but he didn’t wait for her to voice them. Nor did Gabe wait for her to brace herself for the erotic onslaught. He kissed the bare skin just below the edge of her white lacy panties. Slowly. Thoroughly. He nipped the tender flesh with his teeth. Leigh gasped and caught onto his shoulders.

  And he didn’t stop there.

  Adding considerable breath, Gabe moved his mouth across the front of her panties. Where he lingered, and kissed, a while. Before making his way to her stomach. He circled her navel with his tongue.

  “Did I make my intentions clear?” he asked.

  She nodded, the movement of her head jerky and frantic. “Definitely.”

  “I thought so.”

  He reached out and slid his hand around the back of her neck—capturing her and her breath. Everything went still and hazy. Except for his face. His mouth came to hers.

  Gabe took everything she offered him. Everything. The kiss wasn’t gentle, nor did she want it to be. It carried with it the years of want. Need. And desire. Leigh let herself be swept away.

  He didn’t stop or even slow down. Gabe, too, seemed to know exactly what would happen here, and he wouldn’t ask for permission. He took those scorching kisses to her cheek. Her throat. His mouth moved over her as if he knew every secret she’d ever had. Maybe he did. Maybe that was part of the magic created between them.

  Despite the horror of the day, and the uncertainty of their future, this was right.

  Leigh pulled off his T-shirt and slid her hand down his bare chest. She felt the tight muscles, his warm skin, the rapid thump of his heart. It beat to the same rhythm as hers. And the memories of them together came flooding back.

  The eager touches.

  The long kisses.

  Need that just wouldn’t go away.

  “Still want to talk?” he asked.

  Leigh curved her arm around him. “No way.”

  GOOD. Gabe wasn’t exactly in the mood for conversation either. Maybe later. Much, much later.

  He snapped Leigh to him so he could feast on her mouth. He took. And took. But soon that wasn’t enough.

  “More,” he demanded.

  The slow, eating hunger that had always been there had a new urgency. This time he’d do something about it.

  She fought with his jeans as he fought with her clothes. By default he won since her loose dress wasn’t much of a barrier. He pulled it over her head and sent it flying across the room. Gabe took one look at her and nearly lost his breath.

  Leigh sat there in front of him. Naked, except for the flimsy lace bra and panties. He could see right through those. And she was perfect. Absolutely perfect. The subtle scent of her arousal, and his, stirred around them.

  “Do you remember how it was between us?” he asked.

  The corner of her mouth lifted. “Remind me.”

  Oh, he planned to do that all right. That and more. Gabe slid his hand from the base of her throat to her bra. He opened the clasp and pushed the swatch of lace from her breasts. He didn’t waste any time before he touched her.

  A low sound rumbled in her chest. She grabbed onto his shoulders and pulled him even closer. “You’re very good at this,” Leigh let him know.

  Gabe slid his fingers over her breasts. She felt like warm, wet silk. “We were always good at this.”

  “Really?” Her breath hitched when he captured her nipple between his thumb and forefinger. He gave it a gentle pinch. “Because I’m thinking this isn’t a we kind of accomplishment here. You’re the one who’s doing the touching and kissing in all the right places. And trust me, you are very, very good at it.”

  He took her hand and placed it on his chest. “You’re welcome to do all the touching and kissing you want.”

  She did. Somehow, Gabe knew she would. She watched his face while she ran her hand down his stomach. It was distracting, along with feeling damn good.

  While he still had a little self-control left, he lowered his head and sampled her breasts. When his mouth closed over her nipple, she arched against him. Seeking more. And finding it.

  It didn’t, however, stop the downward progress of her hand.

  She eased her nimble fingers right over the front of his jeans. Hell. That little maneuver caused him to see double, but he had no trouble seeing her wicked little smile.

  “You’re right,” she assured him. “We are very good at this. Let’s see just how good we can get.”

  The woman caught on too damn fast. He cursed and crushed his mouth to hers while she fumbled with his jeans. She finally succeeded in getting them unzipped. Leigh pushed them off his hips and slid her hand inside his boxer shorts.

  Gabe managed a hoarse groan when she wrapped her fingers around him. What was left of his self-control shattered into a million pieces. He had to have her—now. He latched onto her hips and stripped off her panties.

  He eased her back onto the soft mattress, ridding himself of the jeans and boxers along the way. Naked, he joined her on the bed.

  “Now,” she insisted.

  Gabe very much wanted now, but he also needed to touch her. He needed to watch her respond to him in the most basic way. He slid his hands across her lower stomach and drew back her leg slightly so he could caress the inside of her thigh with his fingertips.

  Leigh moaned. Her eyelids fluttered and threatened to close, but somehow she kept her focus on him.

  “Gabe.” It was a plea. And more.

  He gave her back everything she’d just given him with that promise he saw in her eyes. “Leigh. You’re mine, understand? You’ll always be mine.”

  He wasn’t even sure she heard him, and there was no time for him to repeat it. Repositioning her, Gabe moved his hand and eased into that slick soft heat.

  Leigh caught onto his shoulders and brought him even closer so they could complete the union. Her body adjusted, too.

  She met his powerful thrusts, creating a rhythm between them that was unique but at the same time as old as time. He gave her exactly what she needed to coax her to fulfillment.

  Friction. Pressure. Thrust after penetrating thrust.

  He moved in and out, across the sensitive bud of flesh and deeply inside so that every inch of her body felt him.

  Gabe felt her need rise and surged, coiling until it was no longer insistent but necessary. She said his name and added a mumbled plea, a primitive demand for completion. Driving faster, harder, deeper, he gave her what they both demanded. What they both needed.

  When he could go no higher and take no more, Gabe did the only thing he could do. He surrendered. And took her with him.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Leigh lay in his arms. Happy. Content. Peaceful. She was afraid to speak for fear of breaking the spell. She wanted to hold on to as much of the moment as she could.

  One perfect moment. Well, several of them, actually. That thought made her smile. Yes, there were definite advantages to being naked in Gabe’s arm. And having him naked in hers.

  “Please tell me you’re not having second thoughts,” Gabe mumbled.

  “No second thoughts.”

  “Good.” He reached over, slid his fingers into her hair and pulled her mouth to his for another taste.

  Leigh made a shameless sound of satisfaction and ran her tongue over her bottom lip to savor the kiss. “Since you kissed me in the clinic, I’ve always wondered about having sex with you—again. How it would be.” She paused long enough to push his hair off his forehead. “And now I know.”

  “Not so fast.” He gave his head a shake and eased right into his Texas drawl. “We didn’t have sex, mi vida. We made love.”

  “And the difference is?”

  “The people involved.”

  Leigh blinked. It wasn’t an answer she’d expected, but it was certainly one she’d wante
d. There was absolutely nothing about this that was ordinary.

  He pulled her to him and kissed her again, a reminder of what was at stake here. Not that she needed such reminders. The reminder was there. It was something almost tangible between them. Emotion barely masked with a slick coating of fire. Nor was it likely to go away anytime soon. Everything they’d been through, all the disappointments and danger, hadn’t been able to diminish it.

  “You’re thinking too much,” he mumbled as if reading her thoughts.

  Yes, she was. She didn’t want to think about the challenges still facing them. Leigh didn’t want reality intruding on this moment. Their moment. Gabe’s and hers. Still, in the back of her mind, there was the doubt. The one question that she just couldn’t seem to shut out.

  What now?

  Leigh settled deeper into Gabe’s arms, knowing they had only a few more minutes before they had to get up. Since they hadn’t been able to find anything on her computer, they’d need to get back to Philip’s and get ready for the trip to Corpus Christi. She prayed Gabe’s father would be as thorough with those security arrangements. She didn’t want to take any more chances with her son’s life.

  She closed her eyes, and the image of Houston came to mind. Houston taking a nap on the quilt in the family room. She smiled at the serene memory.

  But her smile soon faded.

  Another picture slowly overshadowed that peaceful one. An image of murky darkness. Raw smells. And sounds that chilled her to the bone.

  Leigh gasped.

  “What’s wrong?” Gabe asked.

  She felt him move, probably so he could see her face, but Leigh wasn’t able to answer him. The memories came flooding back in a jumbled heap. And the heap wasn’t pleasant.

  “The gun jammed,” she heard herself say. But she didn’t actually see a gun. It was the sound. That click. Followed by muffled profanity.

  “What gun, Leigh?”

  She forced her eyes to open to stop the speeding images, and she saw Gabe. As comforting as that was, it didn’t soothe the storm inside her. “At the lake where I was supposed to meet you. I remember the gun jammed.”

  He studied her eyes for a moment. “Who tried to kill you? Do you know who Dayton’s accomplice is?”

  She shook her head to both questions. “I don’t know.” As painful as it was, Leigh closed her eyes again and let the images come. And they came all right. It was a deluge of everything that she thought she’d forgotten. “When I got to the lake, I could see a car down the shore. I thought it was yours. I parked behind it, but when I stepped out, I heard a shot and felt something graze my head.”

  Gabe cursed. It was no doubt as hard for him to hear this as it was for Leigh to relive it. “And then what happened?” he asked.

  “I fell, and that’s when I heard the click. The gun jammed.”

  He got to a sitting position and put his head against the backboard. “So, you’re alive because the gun jammed.”

  That made her lucky. But it hadn’t felt much like luck at the time.

  “I must have passed out,” she continued, trying to pick through everything and explain what had happened. “When I came to, I was already in the water. And you know the rest.”

  “Some of it,” he corrected. He mumbled something under his breath. “I guess you called me because I thought I could help you find out who was making those computer inquiries. Or maybe because of those weapons that had surfaced. Too bad I didn’t get to that bridge a couple of minutes sooner. I might—”

  “I didn’t call you just because I needed your help.”

  The next image that came into her head wasn’t one of darkness and jammed guns. It was her making that phone call to Gabe.

  “I called you from a pay phone so I could tell you about Houston.” Leigh went on. “I’d planned to tell you everything. But then I thought someone was watching me. I got scared and rattled off that part about you meeting me. And that part about Houston. I knew you wouldn’t know what it meant, but I didn’t have time to explain.”

  He didn’t say anything, but when Leigh looked at him she understood why. The news had touched him as much as it’d touched her. She’d planned to tell Gabe about his son. It was almost two years late, but there was some comfort in knowing she’d tried to do the right thing.

  “Thank you,” he whispered.

  She nodded, not trusting her voice.

  Gabe rubbed his hands over his face. “What else do you remember?”

  Leigh sifted through the images, sounds and thoughts that were still going through her head. “Everything, I think.”

  “Everything?”

  “Yes.”

  Leigh was almost afraid that the mere admission would make the memories go away again. But it didn’t. She tested herself. She remembered her childhood. The first time Gabe had kissed her in the French Quarter. She even remembered the bed on the back porch at Aunt Martha’s.

  The sheets had been white. They had smelled of fresh peaches and rain.

  She remembered Gabe’s parents, the easy way they had welcomed her into the Sanchez family. She remembered giving birth to Houston. Holding him. Nursing him. And she even remembered the incredible guilt she’d felt because she believed the only way to keep her son safe was to stay in hiding.

  “It’s all there,” she let him know. The happiness. The sadness. Her life.

  Gabe hesitated a moment before he pulled her back into his arms. “Good.”

  He might have said more, might have even discussed where they would go from there, but the phone rang, taking away the rest of the moment.

  “That’ll be my father.” He reached for the phone. “The house is probably ready.”

  Ready, as in they’d have to leave. She got off the bed and started to dress. It was just as well. Leigh was anxious to get back to Houston. Besides, she hoped there would be other times—in the very near future—when Gabe and she would make love again.

  “Hell,” Gabe said only moments after answering the phone.

  Leigh stopped, her arm just partway through the sleeve of her dress. “What’s wrong?”

  Gabe didn’t answer her, but she knew from his expression that something horrible had happened. He motioned for her to move closer to the phone.

  “Please, God,” she prayed. “Don’t let anything be wrong with Houston.”

  With that prayer still fresh on her lips, Leigh leaned closer to the phone and heard something that turned her world upside down.

  “I WANT TO END THIS quickly,” the mechanical voice continued. It was so distorted, Gabe couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. It didn’t matter. The greeting had been more than enough for Gabe to know this person meant business.

  I have your son. And the others. They’ll die if you don’t do as I tell you.

  Leigh had no doubt heard that part. Her gasp let Gabe know she didn’t handle the news any better than he had.

  “Who is this?” Gabe didn’t figure he’d get an answer to that question, and he was right.

  “Leigh should have been dead now. Put her on the phone. I need to speak to her.”

  “You’ll speak to me,” Gabe insisted. “What the hell do you want?”

  “Put Leigh on the phone. I hate to be dramatic, but if you don’t, your son will die right now.”

  He hadn’t thought anything could scare him more, but that did it. Cursing the fact that he didn’t have a choice, Gabe slowly passed the phone to Leigh. “This…person has Houston.”

  He watched the terror pass through her eyes. “How can that be?” She grabbed the phone. “What have you done with my son?” she yelled.

  Gabe pressed his face close to hers so he could hear the person’s response. It was a response that didn’t give him much comfort. “The boy’s safe. For now. Please help me keep it that way.”

  “Start talking,” Leigh demanded.

  “I have all four of them. Your son, Jenkins, your brother and the woman. They can’t identify me. None have seen my face. All of
them will be perfectly safe if you do as I say.”

  Leigh caught onto Gabe’s hand and met his gaze. “What do you want me to do?” she asked the caller.

  “I’ll exchange you for your son. I promise to make it quick and painless, not like at the lake. Meet me at your brother’s house. Park the car at the end of the road by the mailbox, put your hands on your head and walk toward the house. I’m giving you exactly one hour, Leigh. If you’re even one minute late, I’ll kill them all. And this time, I can promise you that the gun won’t jam.”

  Because Gabe was so close to her, he saw the pulse jump in her throat. She almost managed to suppress the groan. Almost. But the groan was warranted. It was about a thirty- to forty-minute drive back to Philip’s, and that was only if they drove as fast as they could. That gave them precious little time.

  Still, when she spoke, Leigh kept the fear that Gabe knew she felt out of her voice. “Using my son wasn’t smart. In fact, I’d say that was about the biggest mistake you could make.”

  “No, you made the mistake. By the way, if you’re thinking about bringing Agent Sanchez with you, think again. If I see him within ten miles of this place, every one of you will die. Now, let me speak to him.”

  Leigh handed him the phone, but she didn’t listen to the conversation. She hurriedly began to change her clothes, grabbing a pair of jeans and a shirt from the closet. With the phone cradled against his ear, Gabe dressed as well while the kidnapper rattled off yet more instructions. Instructions that would supposedly save his son.

  And get his wife killed.

  Gabe listened carefully, dissecting each word and each step of his orders. Before he could try to buy them some more time, however, the caller hung up.

  He didn’t waste any time with more profanity. “I’m supposed to leave now to find Philip,” he relayed to Leigh. “He’s tied up somewhere out in the middle of nowhere with an explosive device strapped to him. If I’m not there in an hour, he dies.”