The Detective’s Undoing Read online

  She was glorious under pressure, Cade thought, watching her and experiencing feelings so strong he nearly staggered. No matter what life threw at her, she held up, when anyone else might have given up. “What’s it going to be, Scott?”

  But the phone rang again, and Scott turned his back on them to answer it. Delia tugged Cade out of the office.

  They didn’t speak until they were outside the tall building, standing on a small patch of grass in front of the parking lot, staring into the hot humid day.

  “He’s not going to give up, is he?” Delia asked dully. She’d let go of Cade’s hand the moment they’d left Scott’s office, but he took it again now.

  “We scared him,” he said. “I doubt he’ll dare mess with you now.”

  “But what if he still looks better to the judge?”

  The vulnerability she’d never really allowed him to see before shone through now, and it tugged at him hard. “We make sure the judge knows about his debts. Today. We send him the information we have on Scott and let Scott sink himself. Besides, by the custody-hearing date, I’m hoping we’ll have proof you’re the heir and you’ll have your sisters and Ty to back you up. Come on, honey, let’s go surprise Jacob and take him out for his favorite pizza.”

  Delia went still at the endearment that had slipped so effortlessly off his tongue. She’d never liked it when a man called her such things. She’d never felt it honest, because in truth, she’d never allowed herself to be another man’s “honey” or anything remotely close.

  But hearing Cade’s deep warm voice call her “honey,” well, it seemed another matter entirely. And without meaning to, she looked up at him with all of her heart in her eyes.

  In response, he whispered her name as he softly touched her face, brushed her hair off her cheek.

  “I’ve been trying to keep this simple between us,” she said. “And yet what I feel for you isn’t simple at all.” His gaze met hers and she smiled bemusedly. “I don’t want to feel it, you don’t want to feel it, either, so why won’t it just go away and leave us alone?”

  His eyes were serious as he skimmed her jaw with one calloused palm. “I haven’t a clue. Come here, Delia.”

  They were completely alone in the tiny park. Her eyes never left his as she did what he asked and stepped closer.

  “This is one of the moments when maybe we could share strength. Sort of double it up. What do you think?”

  “Why do you need to be strong? This is my problem, right?”

  He shook his head. “No, you’re not alone, remember? Our problem. And I need your strength because just being with you makes me feel a bit weak. Help me out here, could you?”

  He was teasing her, of course. He didn’t need her strength—he was strong enough for the both of them—but he thought he could help, he wanted to help, and suddenly she knew she was going to let him. Without hesitation she curled her arms around his neck at the same moment he wrapped his around her waist. Slowly they drifted closer and closer, till they were in an embrace that was as necessary as breathing.

  “Damn, you feel good,” he whispered in her ear, and when she settled her hips against his, she felt him harden. Not thinking, only reacting to the bolt of heat spiraling through her, she pressed herself to him, eliciting a deep-throated groan that vibrated from his chest to hers.

  “Am I sharing enough strength?” she asked shakily, trying to laugh off all this unbearable heat between them, because if she didn’t, she might drown in it.

  He didn’t return the laugh, but nudged himself closer against her. She became lost in the feel of him, then the taste of him when he bent to take her mouth in a deep wet kiss that made her forget Jacob, forget Scott, forget that they were standing in a public place, locked in each other’s arms.

  However, reality intruded a few seconds later when a car raced by them. And the reality was, they were two people who couldn’t seem to stay away from each other and yet were not able to let go of the demons of their past enough to be together.

  For just a moment, a weak moment, pressed safe and warm against his lean muscular body, Delia couldn’t remember why he couldn’t be “the One,” and she thought maybe, just maybe, he’d forgotten why she couldn’t be, too.

  He broke off the kiss and let out a groan, dropping his forehead to hers as his chest jerked with his ragged breathing. “The more you share, the weaker I get,” he muttered in her ear.

  The power of that, of making this incredible male tremble, went straight to her head. She couldn’t hold back her satisfied little smile, and he had to return it.

  “In fact,” he said, his voice still rough with desire, “if you share any more, I am going to drop right here on the ground. We’d better go.” But he took another second to slide his big hands down her spine to briefly cup her bottom. “Before I forget that we’re standing out in public and drag you down to that bench over there.”

  Because she couldn’t help herself, she gave one last arch toward him, watching his eyes darken all the more. “Oh, that helps,” he muttered. “Delia—”

  “I know.” Suddenly cold, she pulled away. She’d nearly forgotten that he didn’t want this between them.

  Ignoring the heartache, she walked away from him and got into the car.

  Chapter 11

  “Tell us everything about your visit with Jacob,” Maddie demanded that next night.

  The three foster sisters were in the hot tub. Ty had just gone into the kitchen to muster up a snack.

  “Well, let’s see…” Delia leaned back against the warm tile to stare up into the cloudy night. An occasional snowflake fell, cooling her steaming skin, as she remembered the visit to Scott’s office and the subsequent letter she and Cade had drafted to the authorities, outlining Scott’s financial problems. She could only hope it worked. “He creamed me in basketball and then I creamed him in a serious card game of war.”

  “You probably cheated,” Zoe said, and Delia laughed.

  “I never cheat. You’re confusing me with you.”

  “You calling me a cheater?”

  “Girls, girls,” Maddie said with a dramatic sigh, and they all laughed again.

  “So was it heaven?” Maddie asked.

  “Yeah.” Delia smiled, though it was a bittersweet one. “Then hell when I had to leave him. He asked me when he could come back here and I promised him as soon as possible.”

  “How perfect,” Maddie said, smiling brilliantly. “He wants to come back to us.”

  “And not just for a visit.” Delia remembered how Jacob had stood there, hands jammed into his pockets, as he’d muttered something she couldn’t quite catch. When she’d asked him to repeat it, he’d gone red in the face but had looked right at her.

  “Maybe I could,” he’d said, “you know, come stay with you. Like…live there. Maybe. Sometime.”

  He’d spoken casually, but with his heart on his sleeve, and Delia’s chest had ached. “He wants to come live here,” she said.

  Zoe smiled in satisfaction at that. “He loves me.”

  Maddie splashed her sister. “He loved it here, with all of us. Oh, Dee, how wonderful! What did you tell him?”

  Delia remembered how she’d knelt before him, her hands on his shoulders, her heart in her throat. “It’s going to be up to the courts,” she’d said, her joy nearly overwhelming her. It had been all she could do not to give in to the tears burning her eyes. But crying right then would have only confused him. “You’re a very popular little boy, you know.”

  A smile had split his face. “I have options,” he said. “Edna told me that. I pick you, Delia.”

  “I wish it was that easy,” she managed. “But no matter what, you can come here as often as you want.”

  “With you and Maddie and Zoe?”

  She’d smiled. “Yes.”

  “And Ty?” She could tell he’d had fun listing all the people in his life, people he would grow to love and care about. People who were his family.

  “And Ty,” she sa