Secret Surrogate Read online

  Lucas did some storming of his own, and he easily caught up with her. He grabbed her arm, not delicately, either, and gently but firmly pushed her to the side of another car.

  “You’re not going anywhere. At least not until the police arrive. And even then, you’re not going after that SUV, understand?”

  She wanted to argue. Mercy, did she want to argue. Kylie wanted to lash out. To scream. “That driver could have killed us,” she pointed out.

  “Yeah. Believe me, I know. And that’s the reason you’re not going anywhere near him or her.”

  The anger and the frustration nearly got the best of her. She kicked not one rock but two. It didn’t help. But that was a lot to ask of mere rock kicking.

  “The cops should be here soon,” Lucas told her. He got her moving back toward the clinic. “I want you to wait inside.”

  Inside. Where it was presumably safe.

  Well, safer anyway. Maybe there was no place where the baby and she would be truly safe. A disturbing realization. One that hit her almost as hard as the fear, the adrenaline and the anger. And it made her understand just how little control she had in all of this. But she did have some control, and it was time for her to use it.

  “I’ll do it,” she heard herself say.

  Probably because he was surveying the parking lot and because he was thinking about that SUV, he tossed her a puzzled glance. “You’ll do what?”

  She said the words quickly, before she could do something stupid and change her mind. “Accept your offer of protective custody.”

  With his breath still gusting, he nodded. “Good.”

  Not exactly the word she would have used. More like excruciating.

  “That SUV helped make up your mind, huh?” Lucas asked.

  “That, and you pulled a Kevin Costner. You put your life on the line. For the baby,” she quickly added.

  He made a sound that could have meant anything. Kylie understood that ambivalence. On the one hand, staying with Lucas would make her feel safer. As safe as she could feel under the circumstances, anyway. But on the other hand, it would make her feel…

  That was it.

  The end of the sentence.

  Staying with Lucas, being around him, would make her feel. And Kylie was positive neither of them would care for the outcome of that.

  LUCAS TIGHTENED the last screw that held the tiny security alarm to the living room window. He immediately tested the device, nodding at the shrill, piercing noise before he turned it off and activated it. Hopefully, it would be sufficient to alert them if anyone tried to break into the house through this particular window.

  He grabbed his tool box and went down the hall to tackle the last room. Along the way, he stopped to check on Kylie, who was installing the same type of security devices on the windows in the guest room.

  She obviously didn’t see or hear him because while she worked, she danced to the beat of the music coming through the tiny green headphones of the portable CD player she had clipped to the waist of her pants. For a pregnant woman, she certainly had some agile, almost seductive moves. Like a belly dancer.

  Okay.

  So, maybe that belly dancer part was his imagination—which seemed to be active lately.

  Since they’d returned from the clinic, she’d changed her clothes because the others had gotten dirty in the fall onto the easement. She now wore gray pants and an emerald green shirt. Not some formless baggy outfit, either. The clothes clung to her, including her pregnant belly. Which for some men might have been a turnoff.

  For him, it had the opposite effect.

  It was as if his body seemed to know that her stomach carried his own precious cargo. That in turn became some kind of weird aphrodisiac.

  And that made him one sick puppy.

  Perhaps sensing he was there, gawking at her, she glanced over her shoulder and stopped swaying. With a screwdriver still in her hand, she pulled off her headphones.

  “Success. I think,” Kylie volunteered. As he’d done, she tested the security alarm when she’d finished the installation, and the sound momentarily stabbed through the room. “Yep. It works.”

  Though she quickly turned off the alarm, she didn’t take her attention away from the window. Lucas followed her gaze. It wasn’t on the window itself, but rather outside.

  “Anything wrong?” Alarmed, Lucas practically dropped the toolbox, drew his gun from his shoulder holster and hurried across the room.

  “Finn just dropped off his two Dobermans,” Kylie informed him.

  Lucas confirmed that when he spotted Finn by the barn. And, yep, there were the Dobermans, complete with what appeared to be a sack with a month’s worth of premium dog food and two equally premium stainless steel food bowls. Except these bowls were more the size of radial tires.

  Lending his pets was a huge sacrifice for Finn, since Lucas knew his friend treated the two canines, Sherlock and Watson, like pampered children. It would be a sacrifice for the dogs, as well, because they’d be sleeping in the barn and not inside Finn’s sprawling house on the edge of town.

  “I can’t believe you’re doing this. You don’t even like those dogs,” Kylie pointed out.

  It was true. They snarled and growled at him any time Lucas got within ten feet of them. But hopefully they’d react the same way if an intruder approached.

  “It’s temporary,” Lucas explained, aware that he was using that word a lot lately. Kylie’s protective custody was temporary. The security alarms on the windows were temporary. Now, he only hoped his lust for his houseguest fell into that same temporary category.

  Finn waved and climbed back into his car. Lucas re-holstered his Glock and went to retrieve his toolbox. One room to go, and then the house would be secured. Well, as secure as he could make it. Now, he had to hope that it was enough.

  He opened the door to what he’d once called the “spare room,” and he heard Kylie padding along behind him. Padding, because she’d removed her shoes and was now wearing a pair of thick gray socks. He debated whether he should just close the door and create some kind of diversion so she wouldn’t see what was inside. But he debated too long.

  “Oh,” Kylie said, looking over his shoulder. “This is the nursery.” She made the comment sound cheery enough, but it didn’t fool him. Seeing this had to be difficult for her. A reminder of what would happen after she gave birth—when she would no longer be in the picture.

  “You chose a good room,” she continued. She brushed past him so she could enter. “It’s right next to yours so you can hear the baby when he or she cries.” She pointed to the shrub-like tree just outside the window. “That mountain laurel is beautiful when it blooms. All those fragrant purple flowers. The baby will love that.”

  Her gaze eased over the crib that was still in its box. Ditto for the changing table. The only functional piece of furniture was his grandmother’s rocking chair. She ran her fingers over the chair arm and gave it a gentle push so that it rocked slightly.

  “I can install this last security alarm myself,” he told her. And to prove it, and so they could hurry up and get out of there, Lucas got to work on the window.

  “You still have a lot to do in this room. To get it ready, I mean.”

  “Yeah.” He almost left it at that, but he didn’t want her to get the wrong idea—that he was dreading the preparations for the baby or that the preparations weren’t a priority. They were. “The intake counselor at the clinic told me that, uh, it was best if I waited until closer to the delivery date.”

  In case something went wrong with the pregnancy. Ironic. Because a lot was going wrong.

  She sank into the chair and began to rock. “You know I want to go with you tomorrow for that meeting with Tiffany Smith.”

  “I know. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.” He figured Kylie wouldn’t let things end there.

  She didn’t.

  “Tiffany is my informant, Lucas.”

  It was a good argument, but it wouldn’t work
. “And you think this somehow negates the fact that you’d be in danger if you go to a meeting in a public place with an informant you’re not even sure you can trust?” Satisfied that he’d delivered the best argument he could, and equally satisfied that he hadn’t convinced Kylie—he turned on his electric screwdriver to secure the alarm in place.

  She waited until the whirring noise of the screwdriver had stopped before she continued. “I think my presence at that meeting might encourage Tiffany to talk. After all, she didn’t have any trouble chatting up a storm when we met at the surrogacy clinic. She might not be so willing to tell you things that she’d tell me.”

  Lucas gave her a flat look. “Nice try. Not gonna work, though.”

  Kylie returned that look. “We could bring one of the deputies or maybe Sheriff Knight with us. For extra protection. That way, I’d be safe.”

  “Sheriff Knight’s going with me, since he’s the one who made contact with Ms. Smith.” Lucas engaged the alarm and stooped down to put the screwdriver back in the toolbox. “One of the deputies is staying here with you, while the other mans the office. See? Everything’s taken care of, so there’s no need for you to try to work things out.”

  The rocking stopped, and Kylie eased up from the chair. He could see the battle brewing in her eyes. “And at no point during your planning did you think to discuss this with me?”

  Lucas tapped his chin and pretended to think about it. “No. Because I never had any intention of letting you go to that meeting.”

  “I’m a trained law enforcement officer,” she quickly pointed out.

  “You’re pregnant.”

  That earned him a glare and a really loud huff. “Last I heard, pregnancy and PMS don’t affect a woman’s aim.”

  “Oh, no. You’re not going to drag me into a male-female argument. This isn’t about your gender. It’s about your being more vulnerable.” He turned, planning to make a hasty exit, but she caught onto his arm and pulled him back around.

  Not the best idea she’d ever had. Lucas would bet the ranch on it.

  Because lately, anytime they touched, sparks flew. Heck, who was he kidding? Every time they breathed, they created not just sparks but flames.

  “The sooner we get to the bottom of what’s happening, the sooner this case will be closed, and the sooner I’ll be less vulnerable,” Kylie said. There was a slight quiver in her voice, proving his theory about sparks and flames. “And the sooner this case is closed, the sooner I can leave your protective custody.”

  She was right on the money. But for some reason, that last part didn’t sit well with him. Maybe because he was no longer anxious for her to leave. Or maybe because he was aroused beyond belief just by being this close to her.

  Or maybe it was because he was just an idiot.

  “Our living arrangements are getting to you already?” he asked.

  “Of course. And it’s not a guess that it’s getting to you, as well.”

  He saw her pulse on her neck pick up speed. Like her voice, it was practically trembling. Strange, because Kylie usually wasn’t the trembling sort, and that little tremble fascinated him. He frowned, rethought that. Lately, everything about her fascinated him.

  The part of his brain that was still functioning logically knew nothing good could come of this attraction. Nothing good other than great sex, anyway. Which suddenly felt much more important than the nothing-good-could-come-of-this part.

  He changed his mind a couple of times about what to say. “You look…”

  “Best not to finish that,” she interrupted.

  Yeah. But he finished it anyway. “Interested.”

  “Interested?” she repeated. “That’s an interesting word.”

  Lucas pushed for an answer. “Are you?”

  She made a vague motion toward the door, as if she were indicating that she was about to leave. But she didn’t leave. Instead, she huffed, an indication that she didn’t have any more willpower than he did. “I’m human.”

  It was an odd response. Well, odd if he hadn’t seen the underlying response in her expression. Yes, she was human. So, was he. And Lucas had never been more aware of that than he was now.

  She angled her head slightly. Studied him. Her hair shifted, sliding over her neck and the top of her shoulder. If she’d looked even a little bit frightened, he would have stepped back. But that wasn’t an expression of fear.

  It was something much more dangerous.

  “You look…” But she didn’t finish.

  Lucas supplied the answer that was already on the tip of his tongue. “Interested?”

  She shook her head and mumbled some profanity. “Hot. Really, really hot.”

  He almost laughed. And he tried to force his mouth to stay closed so he wouldn’t say something stupid like, “Kiss me.” Or, “Have sex with me.” In fact, his mouth was suddenly thinking of all kinds of inappropriate suggestions.

  “You look really, really hot to me, too,” he confessed.

  She stiffened a little, as if surprised. “Strange.”

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s not hot in here.”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “Oh yes, it is.”

  Her mouth quivered, threatening to smile. Lucas could feel his own mouth doing the same. But while this little mouth conflict and word war were somewhat amusing, the rest of him felt anything but amused.

  He felt…ready.

  And she obviously sensed that readiness. Her gaze eased to his. Eye contact. And she held his gaze for several seconds before hers slid over his body.

  “I think I might be trying to figure out what to do with you,” she admitted.

  The blood rushed to his head. And to other parts of him. “You think?”

  “Okay. I know I’m trying to figure it out. Trust me, anything we figure out together right now would be a mistake,” Kylie whispered, her voice laced with frustration. “You’d regret it. I’d regret it.”

  He couldn’t disagree with any of that. In addition, Lucas thought of plenty of reasons why he should back away. The danger. The uncertainty. Their past.

  None of those things stopped him.

  Before he could talk himself out of it, Lucas reached out and did the very thing he’d believed he would never do. He curved his hand around the back of her neck and hauled Kylie to him. Against him. Pressed her breasts against his chest.

  The battle continued.

  She looked up at him. Moistened her lips. Probably not a come-on, but it had that effect on him. Of course, at this point anything except a no would have been a come-on.

  Breath met breath. And he caught her scent. Something warm, inviting and feminine. It fired his blood and sent his body into a claim-and-possess mode. Even then, he could have stopped.

  But he didn’t.

  Instead, he leaned in and braced himself. Lucas soon realized he couldn’t possibly have braced himself enough.

  He took her mouth as if he owned it. The taste of her exploded through him. It was a taste he hadn’t even known he’d craved until now. And he was certain that one taste wouldn’t be nearly enough. Oh, man.

  Her touch didn’t help things, either. She slid her fingers along his biceps. A sensual, slow caress. And that wasn’t all. Moving, she brushed her hip against the front of his pants. Yep. There it was. The striking match. It revved his body up another notch—as if he needed any such enticement. Kylie alone was all the enticement he needed.

  He roughly caught her hair with one hand, kept the other on the back of her neck and drew her tightly against him. Until he could feel every silky soft inch of her. Including her stomach.

  His lips pressed hard against hers. Taking. Not a soft gentle kiss of comfort, either. There was no comfort in the sensual moves of their mouths. This was all white-hot heat, fueled by raw emotion.

  He suddenly wanted more. A lot more. Kylie obviously did, too. She fell into the rhythm of the kiss. And into the rhythm of their bodies as they adjusted. Fighting to get closer. Needing each oth
er in only a way that lovers could need each other.

  She slid her leg along the outside of his. Lucas upped the ante. He locked onto the back of her knee and positioned it so that it hugged his hip. It brought the centers of their bodies into as much direct contact as they could have, given that she was pregnant. She was soft in every place that he was hard. And that made them the perfect fit.

  Lucas moved against her as she moved against him. The kiss didn’t stop. Nothing stopped. Except maybe his breath. But he didn’t care if he ever drew breath again. Suddenly, this seemed to be everything he had ever wanted.

  And that was exactly why it had to stop.

  He repeated that. Twice. It still took every ounce of his willpower to do what he knew he had to do. He couldn’t let this lead to sex. He just couldn’t.

  “There,” he said forcing himself away from her.

  “There,” she repeated. She sounded as if she’d just completed a marathon. Fast breath. Equally fast pulse. And she had a wild, unfocused—and yes, aroused—look about her.

  “Does that prove I’m human, too?” he asked.

  “No.” She pulled in several quick breaths. “It just proves we’re both interested. And stupid.”

  Man, was she ever right. That interest was testing the limits of his jeans. And with the flames still burning through him, Lucas desperately wanted to reach out and pull her back into his arms. If he pushed it, just a little, it would lead to sex.

  And even through the lust haze, he knew that would be a really bad idea.

  Lucas forced himself to consider the consequences. They could dismiss a kiss, but sex was a whole different matter. Sex with Kylie would change everything. As it was, they had a thin, tenuous agreement: protective custody for the sake of the baby. Sex would rock that agreement to the core and confuse and distract them at a time when they needed no more confusion, no more distractions.

  She turned away from him and focused her attention on the picture of the crib that was pasted on the front of the huge box. “This pregnancy really has my hormones going crazy.”