Innocent in Death (In Death, #24)

by J.D. Robb

He saw her coming. Knowing she’d be late, he’d chosen the table with that in mind. He loved watching her walk into a room, carelessly long strides, those cop’s eyes seeing every detail. And in the simple jacket and pants she, in his eyes, outshone every woman in the room. When their eyes met, he got to his feet.

When his lips curved more fully, her heart actually bumped her ribs. He could still do that to her, chase her heart to a gallop, stop her breath, melt her bones. And do all of that just with a look.

I thought, there is the most compelling woman in the room. And she belongs to me.” He laid a hand briefly over hers. “Thanks for tonight.”

Still, guys never get tired of sex.” Roarke patted her ass. “Indeed we don’t.” She split-screened Mirri and Lissette. Opposite types, physically, she thought. “For some, sex is ice cream, and they want a nice variety.” Roarke only smiled. “I’ve settled on my single flavor.”

“She’s having a mood.” Hands in his pockets, Roarke frowned at the front door. A damned uncharacteristic mood, he thought. “Magdelana’s in town. We’re having lunch today. Apparently, Eve doesn’t like it.”

“No?” Watching him, Magdelana traced a scarlet nail around the rim of her glass. “She must be quite a woman.” “She is, yes. A remarkable woman.” “She’d have to be. Would I like her?” For the first time he laughed. “No. Not a bit.” “What a thing to say.” She slapped playfully at his arm. “I’m sure I would. We have you in common to start.” “You don’t.” His gaze was cool and clear. “I’m not who I was.”

You should know, Maggie, before you say or do anything that would embarrass you, that I’m completely in love with my wife.”

“If you knew her, you’d understand Eve is no one’s mark. Regardless, I wouldn’t betray her for anything. Or anyone.”

“You know, Ms. Purcell, I’m at absolute capacity in the friend department. You’ll have to apply elsewhere. As for Roarke and his business, that’s his deal. As for you, let’s get this straight: You don’t look stupid, so I don’t believe you think you’re the first of Roarke’s discarded skirts to swing back this way. You don’t worry me. In fact, you don’t much interest me. So if that’s all?”

“The man is just never wrong is he? I don’t like you.” “Aw.”

“Just one thing? He didn’t discard me. I discarded him. And since you don’t look stupid either, you know that makes all the difference.”

“Couldn’t wait to rub my face in that one. I bet you’re just dancing a jig that Maggie’s in town. Well, you can—” “On the contrary,” he interrupted with absolute calm. “I couldn’t be less pleased. I’d like a moment of your time.”

“I love you, absolutely. Nothing’s simple about it, but it’s complete. You never kissed me good-bye this morning.” He leaned down, brushed his lips over hers.

You’re not just the center of my world, Eve.” He kissed her brow, her temples, her lips.

“You’re

the whole ...

When she started to snarl, he caught her face in his hands and kissed her—long, slow, and deep. “I love that mouth,” he murmured, “especially when it’s about to be sarcastic.

Peabody gave it to her, then cleared her throat. “Rough night?” “Life’s full of rough nights.” “Look, if you want to talk about it or just spew, that’s what partners are for.” “There’s a woman.” “No possible way.”

“Let me say first that in my personal, and my professional opinion, Roarke loves you to the point where there isn’t room for anyone else. And I agree, being unfaithful to you isn’t his way. Not only because of that love, but because he respects you—and himself—far too much.

“We were in this fancy restaurant. Business dinner, and I was late. Caught this case, and I didn’t change, so I was, you know. And then she said his name. He looked over, and she was an eyeful. Red dress, blonde. It was there, just for an instant, it was there in his eyes. He doesn’t look at anyone but me like that, but he looked at her. Just for a second. Not even a second, half a heartbeat. But it was there. I saw it.”

He didn’t know, couldn’t tell how it would be, and that stymied him. She wasn’t a predictable woman, he thought, but he knew her. Her moods, the rhythm of them, her gestures, her tones.

She surfaced to a murmur of voices, to light brushing, almost a tickling over her face. And she scented him. Even before her head cleared enough for her to recognize the rhythm and tone of his voice, she scented Roarke.

“Maybe by knowing it’s not always going to balance, and being married to someone who gets that. A lot of cops…There can be friction in the personal area,” she amended, “because the job means you put in long hours, inconvenient hours that mess up schedules. You miss dinners or dates or whatever.”

“Lapping into personal life is part of it, that’s all. It’s just the job. It’s tough for a civilian to deal, day after day. In my opinion, cops are mostly a bad bet in the personal arena. But some make it work. It works, I guess, when the civilian gets it. When the civilian respects and values the job, or at least understands it. I got lucky there.” She shifted her gaze to where Roarke stood behind the range of cameras.

“I got lucky.”

She thought, but didn’t say, what a moment it had been when Eve’s gaze had shifted away, when the emotion had swarmed into her eyes on her claim that she’d gotten lucky. Thirty-percent share? Nadine thought. Her ass. That single moment was going to blow the ratings out of the stratosphere.

“You said ‘I got lucky.’ The correct statement, darling Eve, is ‘We got lucky.’” He kissed her again, softly. “We.”

They simply fit, all the complex and ragged edges of both of them, simply fit. One to the other, to make each whole.

“No. No. I don’t want to be here right now.” Carefully, she picked up her jacket. “I don’t want to be with you right now. Because I can’t fight right now. I can’t think. I’ve got nothing. So you’ll win, if that’s what you need, because I’ve got nothing.”

“No. No, I don’t believe you’d betray me with her. I don’t believe you’d cheat on me. But I’m afraid, and I’m sick in my heart that you might look at her, then at me. And regret.”

“Dallas? Gossip is an ugly and insidious form of entertainment. Maybe that’s why people can’t resist it. A good cop knows it has its uses, just as a good cop knows it’s often twisted and pummeled into a different shape for the purpose of the purveyor. You’re a good cop.”

As for earlier, I appreciate the sentiment. Let’s leave it there.”

“If I’d known about that vid they aired this morning, I’d have been tempted to hunt down the operator, the reporter, the producer, whoever I needed to find, and do them some bodily harm. I’d have rather kicked ass than feel humiliated publicly, then have to walk into that bull pen and feel it all over again.”

“No word from her, then?” “No. And don’t you saddle your high horse and think to ride it here. I did nothing to cause this.” The hurled ball of fury merely bounced off Summerset’s composure. “And nothing to prevent it.” “Prevent what?” Roarke whirled. Here, at least, was a target for the rage. “My wife’s sudden turn into an unreasonable, jealous mass of moods?” “Your wife’s astute reaction to the manipulations of a clever woman. Which you’d recognize if you weren’t so hellbent on being right.”

“You looked at her.” He stared, and for a moment those molten blue eyes were simply astonished. “Well, as I haven’t been struck blind in the last day or two, I’ve looked at any number of women. Castrate me.” “Don’t diminish my feelings, my instincts, or what I know. Don’t you make a joke of this or of me. You looked at her, and for a second, the first time you saw her again, you gave her what’s supposed to be mine.” “You’re wrong.” “I’m not!” She shoved up now so they were eye to eye. “I’m a fucking trained observer, and I know your face, I know your eyes. I know what I saw.”

“She wasn’t yours,” Eve murmured, and something inside her un-knotted. “You never thought of her as yours.” “Did you think otherwise?”

“I never considered it. She’d done to me, and that was that. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of it. I should add here, leaping forward a number of years, that I’d planned to hunt you down if you didn’t come home within another hour. Hunt you down, drag you back. I never considered not going after you.”

“I had that hole in me, that empty space. I could have lived my life with it, content enough. I wasn’t an unhappy man.” He kept his eyes on hers as his thumb brushed lightly over the back of her hand. “Then, one day I felt something—a prickle at the back of my neck, a heat at the base of my spine. And standing at a memorial for the dead, I turned, and there you were.” He turned her hand over, interlocking fingers. “There you were, and it all shifted under my feet. You were everything I shouldn’t have, shouldn’t want or need. A cop for Jesus’ sake, with eyes that looked right into me.”

“A cop wearing a bad gray suit and a coat that didn’t even fit. From that moment, the hole inside me began to fill. I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t stop what rooted there, or what grew. “She put it in me, you filled it. Can you understand that’s part of this—the connection you worry about? Can you understand that whatever it was I felt for her it’s nothing. It’s so pale, so thin and weak compared to what I feel for you.”

“She was part of my life. You are my life. If I have a regret, it’s that even for an instant you could think otherwise. Or that I allowed you to.”

They ate in bed, sitting crosslegged, the plates between them. She shoveled in eggs as if they were going to be banned within the hour. There was color back in her face, he noted. And those shadows, those hints of wounds behind her eyes were gone. Then she aimed them at him, and he saw there was something else in them.

“And you’re not going to tell me she didn’t make a move on you. At least test the waters.” “The waters,” he said, “were not receptive.” “If they had been, I’d have drowned her in them already.” “Darling, that’s so…you.”

“Awww.” Peabody stopped in the doorway. “Sorry. Hi. Nice to see you.” And she was grinning from ear to ear. “Don’t take off the coat, we’re going. I’ll see you later,” she said to Roarke, then found her mouth caught by his. “Awww,” Peabody repeated. “Later, Lieutenant. Good morning, Peabody, McNab.”

“We’re just happy. Things are good, right?” “Keep going,” she told McNab, then slowed just a little. “Let’s just close this up with me saying I appreciate the ear, and the faith and the support.” “That’s what friends do, and partners.” “Yeah, but thanks.” She hesitated as they started down the stairs. “You go on out with McNab. I’m right behind you.” But she paused, taking her coat off the newel where Summerset would have replaced it for her. She looked at him as she put it on. “He’s okay. We’re okay. She’s not going to be a problem for him anymore.” “Or for you?” “Or for me.” “I’m very glad to hear it.” “I know you are. Appreciate it.”

He was getting out of a car when she was half a block away. Tall and rangy, long black coat billowing in the wind. As the car cruised off—he’d have arranged that so they could drive home together—he turned. Just as he’d done the very first time. Turned as if he sensed her, knew she was there, and latched those wild blue eyes on her face.

Just like the first time, the very first time, something inside her leaped. It wasn’t her style, it wasn’t her way, but there were times, she thought, you just went with the moment. She strode right up to him, gripped the front of his coat in her fists and took his mouth with hers. Strong and hot and real. He drew her in. He always drew her in. So they stood, drenched in the heat of the kiss while the cold blew around them, and New York’s irritable traffic bitched and complained. “There she is,” he murmured. “Yeah, here I am.” She drew back. “You’ve got a great mouth, ace. I happen to know your hands are pretty damn good, too. Get us in.”

“You’ll never understand her, or me. You’ll never understand what we have. More pity for you, you’ll never have it. You’re not capable. So here’s how this plays now. Listen carefully: You’ll never step foot in my home again, or in any of my other properties or businesses—which includes every hotel, transportation system, shop, restaurant, and so forth that I own or have majority interest in. There are quite a number of them.”

“Again, listen carefully. I’d crush you like a bug for causing my wife one single moment of pain. Believe it. Fear it.”

“Son of a bitch,” she said. On cue, Magdelana spun around, her face full of passion and shock. “Oh, God. Oh…it’s not what it looks like.” “Bet.” Eve strode in. Actually, Roarke thought, it was more of a swagger. He had a moment to admire it, before Eve rammed her fist in his face. “Fuck me.” His head snapped back, and he tasted blood. Magdelana cried out, but even the deaf would have caught the suppressed laughter in the sound. “Roarke! Oh, my God, you’re bleeding. Please, let me just—”

“Don’t look now,” Eve said cheerfully. “But he’s not the only one.” She decked Magdelana with a straight-armed jab. “Bitch,” Eve added as Magdelana’s eyes rolled back and she fell, unconscious, to the floor. Roarke looked down. “Well, now, fuck us all.” “You’re going to want to get that mess out of my house.” With this, Eve strode out again.