The Detective’s Undoing Read online

He thought she was part witch, part angel. He thought he might haul her off and have his merry way with her in the parking lot. He thought… Oh, hell. He thought he was in love with her. In love with a woman afraid of the word. “I think… I know I want you. Delia, I want you more than I want my next breath.”

  “I want you, too, but—”

  “The but,” he muttered. “There’s always a but.”

  “Sometimes there has to be.”

  “I don’t know why.”

  “Because this is complicated.”

  “There’s another word I don’t like.”

  Her expression saddened. “I’m not capable of uncomplicated unattached sex,” she said, and while he wanted to laugh, he couldn’t.

  He knew Delia would never give herself without love. But could she love? “What if it’s not just sex?” he asked.

  “It’s not anything more,” she said quickly. “It can’t be.”

  “Why?”

  “Why?” She let out a small laugh that didn’t fool either of them. “What a silly question.”

  “Not silly. Answer it.”

  “Okay,” she said slowly, obviously scrambling for thoughts. “It’s not more because…because I have too much going on, that’s why. I have my sisters, the ranch, Jacob—”

  “Excuses.” Gently he cupped her face. “All excuses.”

  “The truth,” she said firmly, but her rapidly rising and falling chest told him the real truth.

  She was afraid. He knew that, just as he knew he wasn’t ready to admit his own feelings to her.

  Didn’t know if he ever would be.

  Jacob called her just then, and Zoe was about to toss her bouquet, and for the rest of the evening, Delia made sure she was too busy to give Cade more than a glance, though glance she did, and often, in a way that made it clear to him she was unsettled and off balance.

  Well, good, he thought grimly.

  That made two of them.

  Delia knew that Cade hoped she would go to his room that night. She also knew that making love with him would be the most sensual erotic experience of her inexperienced life. He was amazingly in tune to her, and so damn sexy her knees went weak if he merely smiled.

  He’d opened his wounds for her, had made himself vulnerable. She knew he expected the same of her.

  She couldn’t do it. She’d never done it, bared her heart and soul completely, other than that time out by the river where she’d sobbed in his arms. Just thinking about it brought a flush to her face. Of course when she remembered what followed, of how he’d touched and kissed her as though she was the most precious woman on earth, that flush of shame turned into something else entirely. Her entire body tingled at the memory.

  Now, without further thought, she might have gone to Cade, might have followed her body’s cravings, if it hadn’t been for the phone call.

  It was Scott.

  “I’d like to see you before the judge’s ruling,” he said. He sounded surprisingly open and friendly.

  She was alone in the office. Zoe and Ty had stayed in Rawlings for their wedding night. Maddie, Edna and Jacob had already gone to bed, and Cade… She had no idea where Cade had gone, only knew that she wasn’t going to easily fall asleep when she remembered that last hungry all-consuming look he’d given her.

  Now Scott was on the phone, as pleasant as if they’d never had any harsh words between them. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” she said.

  “Please?” His voice softened even more. “I haven’t been as honest as I could, and I know that. I think we can work this out…”

  While she knew Scott hadn’t faced any job repercussions—yet—she had hopes that he would. Did Scott know they’d sent the judge a letter outlining their concerns about him as Jacob’s social worker?

  No, he didn’t know, she decided, or he never would have bothered to call her now. “Are you withdrawing your request for custody?”

  “I know how much Jacob means to you,” he said. “I’ve seen you with him.”

  “He’s my family. So have you, Scott? Have you withdrawn your request?”

  “You know, this is too important to discuss over the telephone.”

  He was right about that much.

  “We’re meeting the judge in two days,” he said urgently. “All I’m asking is that you come in one day early and meet with me. It’s your brother’s future, and yours. But if I’m asking too much…?”

  “No,” she said. “Of course not.”

  They agreed on a restaurant to meet the night before the judge’s ruling, which meant tomorrow night.

  So close, and yet an eternity away.

  For a long time after she hung up, Delia sat there alone in the dark office. She didn’t have to be alone. She could seek out Cade, open her heart and spill her worries. He’d welcome her.

  She could tell him everything, then ask him to come with her to L.A., and he would, she knew, without hesitation.

  But her old fierce independence reared its head. She had to remind herself she didn’t need him, though that was getting more and more difficult. In fact, it was almost a pretense now, because the truth was she did need him. Too much for her own comfort.

  She’d deal with that after Jacob, she promised herself. One way or another.

  Chapter 14

  Cade couldn’t believe it when he finally got Zoe to admit that Delia had left for Los Angeles to meet Scott. Alone.

  He’d thought they’d made strides in the trust department, but apparently he’d been wrong. She didn’t trust him, she didn’t need him. Didn’t that just about sum up the sorry existence he’d been living? He didn’t want to trust, either, and sure as hell didn’t want to need, but he did.

  And though he hadn’t imagined himself ready to say these things to a woman ever again, he thought maybe he was ready to say them now.

  To Delia.

  Only she didn’t want to hear them.

  Dammit, he’d blown everything. He should have told her sooner. He thought of little else on the long flight to California.

  When he finally caught up with her in the restaurant Zoe had named, sitting opposite Scott at a cozy little table as if they were fast friends, he had trouble keeping calm. Until he got closer and had a good look at them.

  Scott was grim-faced, Delia pale as a ghost.

  Uninvited, Cade grabbed a chair and sat at their table, without a thought to sensibilities and politeness. Never taking his eyes off Delia, he leaned forward and put her icy hand in his. “Hey.”

  Delia blinked him into focus and made a startled sound before surging to her feet.

  Standing, too, Cade reached for her shoulders, concerned at the way she was shaking. “Delia? Talk to me.”

  “Not here,” she said, closing her eyes briefly, then leveling them on Cade in that deliberately cool steady gaze he now knew meant she was struggling for control. “We’re out of here.”

  Her hand still on his, which gave him a tiny bit of comfort, she started to make her way to the door.

  Scott called after her and she paused.

  “What are you going to do?” he wanted to know.

  A look of fear and something deeper and darker flickered across her face, but then was gone. Delia lifted her chin. “I’m going to win without playing dirty,” she said, and then kept walking, head high, hips swaying gently.

  A haze of red fury settled across Cade’s vision. He wanted to demand answers, wanted to pound Scott for putting that look in her eyes, but he had a feeling Delia wouldn’t appreciate any caveman techniques.

  So he went with her silently, seething for her, at her, until they were standing on the sidewalk in the uncomfortably warm Los Angeles night.

  Delia fumbled through her purse. “My keys,” she muttered. “They’re…here.” Then calmly, she unlocked her rental car, and Cade might have thought she’d already forgotten Scott except for the tremor in her hands.

  “Delia.” He took the keys from her shaking fingers. “Talk to me.”