Secret Desire

“Randy. This is Captain Luke. Where’s your mother?”

“She’s out back. Captain Luke, I have to make my first deliveries Monday.”

He was anxious to speak with Kate, and he hoped his impatience didn’t show, because getting the boy’s confidence was proving more difficult than he’d expected. “You’ve done well, Randy. I’m proud of you.”

“You are?”

“You bet I am,” he said truthfully. “And you’ll be a fine role model for the boys in your group.”

The small voice appeared uncertain. “I guess I have to try. They seem to like me.”

So that was it. All the blustering, preening and bad manners were a cover for insecurity. Maybe he’d have to spend more time with the child.

“Randy, of course the boys like you, and so do all of us officers.”

“You, too?”

He stared at the phone. “Son, the reason I insist you obey is because I want you to grow into a fine man, one people will admire and respect.”

“Like you?”

He hesitated, but only for a second. “I’d be pleased if you wanted to be like me.”

A long silence ensued, but he waited. “Gee. Okay. I’ll get my mom.”

“Luke. What a surprise. I wasn’t expecting you to call.”

“Cowan told me what happened. Did you get a good look at the man?”

She described the man who accosted her and added, “He wore glasses, but they might have been a disguise. Also, he wasn’t the man who locked Randy and me in the store. This one was older and rougher. Robbing my store wasn’t his priority. He was after my house keys.”

None of it made sense to him, and its strangeness increased his concern. “I want you to put alarms on your door and windows, but we’ll take about that when I get back. Is your garden fenced?”

She told him it was, and eagerness laced her voice when she added, “When are you coming back?”

Was she telling him she wanted to see him? Oh, hell, he had to stop thinking about her in that way. “I’m debating that right now. I have a feeling that hood knows me, and that he’s seen us together, because he gave me forty-five minutes to get way out of town. And he didn’t wait till dark to make his move. Did it occur to you that even though you closed more than an hour early, he was there waiting for you?”

He hadn’t reasoned it out before, and now a pain scissored his belly. Simple robbery wasn’t the man’s motive, and until he knew what the guy wanted he’d be handicapped in his efforts to catch him.

“Be careful, Kate. I…Look, I don’t want anything to happen to you and Randy. Keep him close to you this weekend. Kate—”

Her voice, soft and sweet, could tempt him to do things he didn’t want to do. “What is it, Luke?”

“I’ll call you when I get back there. Take good care.” A strange, indefinable emptiness suffused him, but he hung up without telling her he wanted to see her right then, that he feared for her well-being, and would go to any lengths to protect her.

“Is she okay?” Marcus asked when Luke joined him in the family room. It had been Amanda’s living room before Marcus renovated the house and added a wing.

“Yeah. She’s fine. I wish I could get a handle on this thing. She’s vulnerable, and it occurs to me that I’d better put a man on Randy.”

“Who’s Randy?”

“Her seven-year-old son. He’s wayward, and there’s no telling what he’ll get into.”

“Send him down here when school’s out. We’ll soften him up.”

“Thanks. We’ll see about that. Look, I think I’d better head out of here tomorrow morning. I don’t like anything about the report Kate and Cowan gave me. I’d better check on her.”

“Sure,” Marcus said, a grin easing over his face. “And give her a kiss for me while you’re at it.”

Luke rubbed the back of his neck, anxiety for Kate fighting for supremacy over his desire for her. “You’re getting rather fanciful.”

Marcus laughed. “Telling you like you told me, just like it is, brother. Get it together. Tell her you need her, and if she’s reluctant, drag out the famous LSH charisma and change her mind. Man, you’re supposed to be knock-’em-dead irresistible. You’re ruining your reputation.”

Luke’s left eyebrow arched. “I wouldn’t mind if you kept thoughts like that to yourself. I don’t need to hear this from you. I get enough of it from that gang I work with. Axel Strange is preoccupied with the subject of me and women.”

Marcus shrugged. “Forget about Axel. A loser. The guy reminds me of a bullfrog on a rainy night croaking for the hell of it.”

Worried as he was, Luke laughed. “Well said. See you in the morning.”

Now who could that be at eight o’clock Saturday morning, and where was Tex, the doorman? Remembering Luke’s words of caution the previous night, Kate opened the peephole. Anxiety, joy, fear, and eagerness battled for possession of her nerves, set her belly to churning and her heart thumping. She slipped the lock and threw open the door.

“Luke…Who…Where? I thought you were in North Carolina.” She sought to calm herself in the face of his nonchalance and in the absence of any obvious emotion on his part. From the expression in his eyes, she could have been a broom standing there.

“I asked you to call me if you needed me, but you didn’t. I had to see that you’re all right. It’s my job.”

Her joy at seeing him unexpectedly, at knowing he’d wrecked his weekend to see her, withered like wild dandelions beneath a shower of weed killer.

Her gaze caught the fist of his left hand, opening and closing in rapid succession as if he were keeping time or pumping air, and she looked back into his eyes, still casual and indifferent. If she had the nerve, she’d…

“I’ll bet you haven’t had breakfast, so why don’t you come on in and have some coffee?”

When his lips parted, she knew he intended to refuse. She hadn’t planned it, but then something in her reached out to him. She took his hand and tugged at it, displaying an aggressiveness that she knew surprised him.

“Come on. It’s Saturday, and you have the day off. You can afford to waste half an hour with me, and I make great Columbian coffee.”

He let her hold his hand as he followed her to the kitchen, and she doubted he would have gone so docilely if she hadn’t staggered him with her forwardness. The feel of his big hand in hers filled her head with intimate ideas about him, and fired her body like torched gasoline. He didn’t caress her fingers, merely let her hold his hand, so she had to release it.

He sipped the coffee without taking his gaze from her eyes. “I’m not in the habit of doing what I don’t want to do.”

Uh-oh. Here it comes, she thought. “I don’t understand,” she said, though she knew he hadn’t wanted to enter her apartment.

“I think you do. I had my reasons for speaking with you at your door. For both our sakes, don’t test my attraction to you. You may catch me when it’s at fever pitch, and the temptation to howl outweighs everything else.” He set the cup on the kitchen counter. “I’ll be in touch.”

She caught herself twisting her hands and stuck them behind her, praying he hadn’t noticed. Best to brazen it out. She laid back her shoulders, tossed her head and smiled.

“As far as I’m concerned, Luke, you’d have to do a lot to unravel your character. Besides, you can’t turn a Town Car into a Jeep.”

She couldn’t figure out the message in those fiery gray eyes, but his words settled it. “No, but you can trash it. Thanks for the coffee. I’ll find my way out.”