No, he hadn’t left her. He was standing in front of the window staring out into the darkness.
Still naked, buttocks tight, shoulders back, and legs slightly parted.
“What are you looking at?” She raised herself on one arm. “Is it getting light?”
“No.” He looked over his shoulder. “Not for another hour or so.” He smiled. “I was just putting space between us, so that I could give you a little rest. But you didn’t doze long.”
Because she had grown so accustomed to his body next to her, in her, that it had disturbed her not to have him there. During those last hours, the sexual intensity had been unremitting, and they had not been able to get enough of each other. She had never known that animal wildness and mindless need. The various forms of exotic play he’d used to bring her to the edge of sexual madness had been fantastic and exhausting. She had never responded to anyone as she had Cameron. Even now, looking at him, she felt a heaviness and swelling in her breasts and a deep throbbing where his hands had brought her to climax so many times before he’d allowed himself to thrust inside her.
Madness, indeed. She drew a shaky breath and sat up on the couch. “I’ve got to get back to the house.”
“We have time.” He looked away from her again. “You didn’t let me share your mind. I wanted very badly to do that, Catherine. Were you that much afraid of me?”
“No, you were taking enough. You didn’t need to take that, too.”
“I would have given, not taken, Catherine. I could have taken anyway, but I didn’t want you to throw it back at me later. I’m trying hard. You don’t know how hard.” He turned and strolled toward her. “Let me show you that I can give. I want you again.”
She could see that. She looked away from him and got to her feet and turned to gather her clothes. “No, it’s over. I’m a woman with responsibilities. I don’t go creeping into a house at daybreak. Particularly not when my son is in that house.”
“I’ll be quick.” He was behind her and reached around to cup her breasts. “You want me, too.”
“Yes.” And if she stood here and let him touch and rub against her, she would give in to that need. She had been helpless before Cameron’s skill and her own sexual attraction toward him all night. It had to end. She stepped away from him. “But I don’t always do what I want.” She felt his gaze on her as she headed quickly toward the tiny bathroom at the back of the summerhouse. She closed the door and leaned against it. She’d give herself a few minutes before she washed and started to dress. God, she wanted to open the door and go out there and begin that sexual rhapsody all over again.
She wouldn’t do it.
Cameron was dangerous to her in too many ways.
She stepped to the vanity and began to run the water. It was over. Leave him and become Catherine Ling again.
Ten minutes later, she braced herself, opened the door, and came out of the bathroom. Cameron was sitting on the couch, still naked, gazing at her without expression.
“You’re still barefoot,” he said. “Your shoes are under the couch. I saw them a minute ago. You’d better put them on before you leave. Bare feet aren’t suitable for creeping into houses either. Much worse than the idea of coming in at the crack of dawn.”
“I was just coming out to get them.”
“I’ll do it.” He got up and picked up her shoes and brought them to her. “What sensible shoes.” He knelt down and picked up her foot and slipped them into the flat. “You have wonderful, shapely feet. I didn’t pay enough attention to them tonight. The feet have a number of pleasure zones.” His fingers moved teasingly on her instep as he put her other foot into the mate. “Next time.”
She didn’t answer as she turned toward the door. “You’ll let me know when you hear anything about Kadmus?”
“Of course; nothing has changed in that direction. I’ll do my job. You’ll do your job. Erin will be saved. Kadmus will die.” He was suddenly beside her and whirling her back against the door. His eyes were glittering, and he was no longer without expression. Anger. Frustration. Desire. Yes, definitely desire. “But everything has changed with us, hasn’t it, Catherine?” His voice was hoarse and clipped. “You can walk away, but you’re not going to forget me. You’re going to remember everything I did to you and with you. You’re going to know that every time I look at you, I’m going to remember the taste of your breasts and want to take them out and hold them. You’ll know that if I get a chance, no matter where we are, in a car or a room or even in a ditch, I’ll do what I did tonight. I knew I wasn’t going to have another chance for hours alone with you. But I’ll make do.” His lips covered her own, savage, open, taking, giving. “And you’ll want it and take me. Because neither one of us can help what we’re feeling.” He turned away. “Now go and be a good mother to Luke, a good friend to Hu Chang, Venable’s best agent. In the end, we’ll be together, and you’ll be just mine. I’ll try to stay away from you for a while so that I can look at you without showing how I’m feeling.” He added tightly, “Which probably won’t happen.”
“Cameron. I don’t—” There wasn’t anything to say, and the atmosphere was too charged. She had to get away from him. She turned, opened the door, and flew down the walk toward the house. She tried desperately to remember the code she’d been given for the back door.
Yes, that was it. She keyed in the numbers, and the door swung open.
She was inside in the darkness of the foyer.
She tried to catch her breath as she started for the staircase down the hall. She was passing the library, where she’d watched Luke and Hu Chang play chess all those hours ago. It seemed a century. She felt changed. Her body felt … riper. She had the odd sensation that Cameron was still with her, a part of her.
It would go away. It had to go away. She would wake in a few hours, and she would have a hell of a lot of erotic memories but not this feeling of being possessed.
But what if it didn’t go away?
* * *
Brasden received a phone call just as they were getting off the private jet at the airport in San Francisco. “Keep questioning him. He might have been paid to keep silent about Ling’s destination.” He hung up and turned to Kadmus. “Nagle found the taxi driver who picked up Sullivan, Ling, Hu Chang, and some kid at an airport north of the city. He took them to a destination in Chinatown. But he was told to let them out in front of a restaurant, and he saw them walking down the street as he was driving away.”
“No address?”
Brasden shook his head. “But a general location. Nagle is questioning everyone on the street and trying to pin it down. It’s reasonable that Ling would choose a safe house in an Asian neighborhood. She grew up in Hong Kong and must have local contacts.”
“Or maybe she’s trying to throw a red herring into the mix,” Kadmus said. “Who is to say she didn’t leave Chinatown after that taxi let them out?” He frowned. “A kid?”
“There was a kid that got on that helicopter on the mountain. There were several reports.”
“I thought maybe it was one of Erin’s village charity cases who she wanted to hide away from me. But she could have dropped him in Hong Kong. Why take him with her to the U.S.?”
Brasden was looking at the dossiers on his phone. “Catherine Ling has an eleven-year-old son, Luke.”
Kadmus chuckled. “And she would definitely take him out of my reach if she could. I’d gut the little son of a bitch. I’m just wondering why the hell he was with them on that mountain.” He shrugged. “But that doesn’t matter right now. He’s with her here in San Francisco, and that opens all kinds of possibilities. Erin Sullivan has a soft heart toward children. Maternal love would be a powerful weapon where Ling is concerned. I can use the kid.” He strode toward the car waiting by the hangar. “Find him.”
“I will.” Brasden strolled after him. “But there’s an order to these things. The kid will be with his mother, and we know she’s with Richard Cameron. After all, he’s your prime target. We’ll continue looking for the blue Mercedes Cameron used. When we find it, everything may come together. I would have thought you’d have learned that after all these years, Kadmus.”