Forbidden Fantasies Bundle(216)

Mostly, though, he wanted Christie. If things were different, he’d like to take her to his hometown, show her around. She’d like it there, in the mountains. So would Milo. That dog wouldn’t know what to do when he saw some of those homegrown squirrels.

Christie shifted on the bed, her arm moving closer to her pillow. It ached, wanting her. Knowing that it might be years before he could come out of hiding. That it might be forever.

Just his luck he’d finally found someone he could love, when there was no hope of doing a damn thing about it.

“Hey.”

He smiled at the soft, fuzzy voice, still half in sleep. “Hey, yourself.”

“What time is it?”

“Almost eight.”

“In the morning, right?”

He nodded. “There’s someone here who wants to see you.”

She sniffed and fought a yawn. “Can it wait till I brush my teeth?”

“I don’t think he cares.” Boone turned and patted his leg. Milo, tail wagging hard, came down the hall, his nails clacking on the hardwood.

Christie sat up, her smile so beautiful it made Boone’s chest hurt, and when Milo jumped onto the bed, she hugged him so hard he almost fell right back down again.

Boone had to leave, to turn away from her. She’d come on out when she was ready, and they’d take off. He’d called Larry to find out where he was with the IRS business, but he’d only gotten the machine. Seth was going to stop by later, after they’d finished their search at Dan Paterson’s house.

Kate had called an hour ago. Dan’s place was a suburban one-story in Santa Monica, and the preliminary search hadn’t turned up squat. No electronics, no mention of Christie, nothing. They’d all agreed that made no sense, so they were digging deeper.

As he passed the living room, his gaze went to the bare patch Seth had cut out of the carpet. If they couldn’t make the replacement seamless, they’d take out the whole damn thing and put in a new one. That wouldn’t happen until tomorrow, though. First things first, but damn, Boone wanted to get Christie back to her rightful life as soon as possible.

Already, they’d removed most of the surveillance equipment. He wanted Seth to go through the house again, though, to make sure nothing was left behind. Then he wanted to change her locks and replace the bedroom window. They’d found the crawl space, where Dan had waited to spring his trap. He’d had earphones and a small monitor down there, which Seth had taken with him. Before he’d left, they’d nailed the access doors shut both inside and outside the house.

Everything was coming together, and once her finances were back in order, she’d be fine. She could work again, have her friends back in her life, see her parents. Her nightmare would be over.

“Boone?”

He turned to see her standing by the bathroom door, holding a bundle of clean clothes. “Yeah?”

“How about whipping me up one of your wonder shakes for breakfast.”

He grinned. “No cookies? No ice cream?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Perish the thought. And double up on that wheat germ, would you?” She laughed as she closed the door behind her.

His smile faded as he went into the kitchen. For the thousandth time, he cursed the bastards who’d stolen his life, and swore, once more, that he’d have his revenge.



CHRISTIE STOOD IN THE SHOWER with the water hitting her in all the right places. She should have felt great. So much had gone right last night. Yeah, finding out the bastard was Dan was disturbing on a lot of levels, but the bottom line was, it was over. No more hiding in the corners. No more terror at the sound of a ringing phone. But…

No more Boone.

She hadn’t known him long enough to feel this crappy about losing him.

He was going to leave, and she was going to have…what? Yeah, her life back. Hopefully her money back. No job, but that was okay, because she could get another job. A better job. And she’d have her friends again. So, yes, it would all be good. Great. Empty.

Maybe it was for the best. Clearly her choice in men sucked. When she thought about Dan…Jesus. As she washed her hair, she considered her relationship with him. He hadn’t seemed weird. In fact, he’d seemed really normal, except for all the questions. That should have tipped her off, right? Him wanting to know everything about her family, about her work? But he was a psychologist, for God’s sake. It made no sense.

She didn’t want to think about it anymore. What she needed most was to sleep for a month, to gain back her strength and her perspective.



WHEN SHE GOT TO THE KITCHEN, Boone was at the table staring at the wall, holding a big tumbler of breakfast smoothie and idly playing with Milo. Aside from his ugly bruises, which ironically, made him look even more ruggedly handsome, he seemed deflated. As if now that the thrill of the hunt was over, he had no rudder, no purpose. She understood that, a little more acutely than she wished.