Back in the Bedroom Read online

  She got out of her VW but instead of seeing her place, she saw Eddie’s. She remembered how Reilly had looked standing outside the house, his dark hair gleaming beneath the sunrise, his face not giving away much of anything. He’d stood there with easy confidence and a relaxed air, even though she knew damn well he wasn’t relaxed.

  They hadn’t said goodbye.

  Her building was red brick with white trim, and being mid-spring, the small yard was out in full bloom. Since her sister, Carolyn, who was in charge of the landscaping for the place, hadn’t yet mowed, Tessa sank in up to her ankles as she crossed the small lawn to her front door. Two-B, home sweet home, where there were no nasty-tempered burglars, no guns, no small gray cots and no tall, dark and wildly magnificent strangers who kissed so well she lost brain cells every time she thought about it.

  She sighed and fished through her purse for her keys. Everything seemed so normal here, so quiet, it was hard to believe what the last twenty-four hours had held.

  Her sister popped out of apartment One-B so fast Tessa dropped her keys.

  “So did you forget my phone number?” Carolyn asked very politely, tossing back her long, dark-blond hair.

  Oh boy, the queen of the Delacantro household was ticked. “No, I didn’t forget your phone number.”

  Eyes that matched her own flashed at her and Tessa sighed. Carolyn thought of Tessa as her little chick, and she really hated it when her little chick didn’t toe the line. “Then maybe you got swept off your feet by a wild hunk of a man who held you prisoner all night long,” she suggested. “Maybe that’s why you didn’t call me to join you at your boss’s fancy house.”

  A half-hysterical laugh bubbled out of Tessa. “You know, that’s just close enough to the truth to be scary. Except—” She opened her apartment door, not surprised when her sister followed her inside.

  Her sister always came in uninvited, ate her ice cream uninvited, felt obligated to tell Tessa she was wrong on a regular basis uninvited…and Tessa loved her anyway.

  She tossed her purse and keys into the wicker basket on the floor where she put everything she didn’t want to lose, sank to her couch, and sighed in pleasure. God, it felt like it’d been a year since she’d been home.

  “Except…what?” her sister asked.

  “Well, while he was a rather wild hunk, he didn’t hold me prisoner all night long. Four other guys did that.”

  Carolyn laughed.

  Tessa didn’t.

  And slowly Carolyn’s smile faded. She eyed Tessa’s sundress, a bit dusty from her crawl through Eddie’s attic. “You wore that yesterday.”

  “Yep.”

  “You never repeat clothes.”

  “Nope.”

  “Tessa…where’s your left shoe?”

  “Oh. I forgot to go back for it.” Her apartment consisted of the “great” room—kitchen, living room and dining room all in one—and a small bedroom and bathroom. Since she favored bright colors, the place was full of them, from the blue-and-green couch she sat on to the sunshine-yellow kitchen table and matching chairs she’d painted herself, to the plants she had thriving in every corner. On the walls were Rafe’s photographs—some abstract, some of their family, some of the places he’d traveled to far and wide. She sank deeper into the couch, kicked off her one shoe and put her feet up. “I’m starving.”

  Carolyn was still staring at her. Slowly she came to the couch, hunkered down near Tessa and took her hand. “Honey, you’re scaring me.”

  “I know how you feel about cooking, but I swear I’ll be your best friend if you could whip me up some toast and an egg or something. Even PB and J would be great.”

  Carolyn didn’t budge. “Are you hurt?”

  “Do I look hurt?”

  “Your dress has a tear—” She fingered a rip at the seam over Tessa’s collarbone. Then her eyes went hot, and she reached out and touched Tessa’s throat. Her extremely bruised throat. “Oh my God. Baby, you’re—”

  “It’s okay.”

  “I’m calling the police.”

  Tessa caught her hand and brought it up to her cheek, turning her face into it. “I’m okay.”

  With her other hand, Carolyn stroked Tessa’s hair off her face. “Are you sure? What happened? Tell me everything.”

  “This is the worst of it,” she said of the bruises. “I promise.”

  “So you weren’t—”

  “No one touched me.” Well, no one that she hadn’t wanted to.

  “Spill, damn it. Tell me right now or I’m calling Rafe.”

  Their brother was the oldest of the three of them and even more protective than Carolyn. When his sisters had first started dating, it’d nearly killed him. Eventually, he’d gotten used to it, but only by pretending they were still virgins.

  If Rafe thought she’d been hurt, nothing would stop him from exacting revenge. “I was supposed to watch Eddie’s house this weekend.”

  “Yes,” her sister said impatiently. “The boss’s house in the La Canada hills with all its riches and finery. What happened, Tessa?”

  “When I let myself in, I interrupted a burglary in progress.”

  Carolyn’s mouth fell open. “Oh my God.”

  “Before I could get out of the house, one of them grabbed me and locked me in a room so he could finish what he’d started, which was stealing from Eddie.”

  Carolyn wrapped her arms around Tessa. “He grabbed you?”

  “Luckily, all he wanted was me out of his way. Eddie’s son had also been shoved into this room, so I wasn’t alone.”

  “Eddie has a son? Is he okay?”

  “He’s not a little kid, he’s…all grown up.” Really grown up.

  “So the two of you were together, locked in a room? All night long?”

  She tried not to squirm because Carolyn could read a squirm at thirty miles. “Yes.”

  “Tell me he’s a nice guy, Tessa.”

  Her sister looked so distraught, so worried, she managed a smile. And though “nice” wasn’t quite the word she would have used to describe Reilly Ledger, she said, “He’s a very nice guy.”

  Her sister studied her for a long moment. “You must have been terrified.”

  How to explain that with Reilly her terror had taken a back seat to other things, such as a lust she was embarrassed about now.

  “How did you get out?”

  Good. A question she could answer. “We waited for dawn, then crawled up through an attic access. Eddie’s son beat the crap out of the bad guys and called the cops.”

  Carolyn’s eyes were huge. “Does Eddie’s son have a name?”

  “Reilly.”

  “And he was good to you.”

  “Very,” she said simply.

  “Well, then.” Carolyn squeezed Tessa again. “I want to hug him, too.”

  “He’s not really the huggable type.” She hugged her sister back because, now that it was over, things other than fear were beginning to make themselves known. Embarrassment, exhaustion, hunger… “You know what I really want?”

  “What, baby?” said Carolyn, stroking her hair. “Anything. You want me to go burn something for you?”

  Tessa let out a little laugh and burrowed in closer. “Yes. But while you do that, I want a long, hot shower. I’m going to go wash it all out of my system.” She pulled free and headed toward her bedroom. “Lots of butter on the toast, okay? And can you try to scramble an egg? I have cheese you could add to it—”

  “I’ll get it.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered, a little too close to tears. All her life she’d fought her two siblings for her independence, for liberation from “baby” status, but at the moment, she felt just shaky enough to be grateful for the way they loved to smother her.

  As she stripped and stepped into the steam and hot water, nearly whimpering in gratitude at how it felt on her bruised, tired body, she wondered what Reilly was doing right now.

  The man had a serious back-off attitude. She sincerely doubted he