The Marriage Contract(55)

“I’m glad.” The naked relief in his voice made her feel both better and worse.

“Good night, Papa.” She walked out of his office and closed the door softly behind her. Once she was alone, the worry that had been plaguing her every waking moment since Teague left her sight rose up with a vengeance. They’d shared short phone calls every night, but that did little to reassure her that he was taking care of himself. He sounded as tired as she felt, which wasn’t comforting in the least. She dialed him before she could talk herself out of it.

“Hey, angel.”

“Hello.” She walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, closing it almost before she registered its contents. The quiet sound of his breathing soothed her, but not nearly as much as the feel of his arms around her did. She needed that—desperately. Words rose before she could think better of them. “I wrapped things up earlier than anticipated. Can I see you tonight?”

“How soon can you be to my place?”

Relief made her knees a little shaky. “An hour.”

“I’ll meet you there.”

“See you then.” She hung up, the giddy feeling rising through her enough to make her wonder why she hadn’t suggested this before. In the insanity of their lives, how safe she felt in Teague’s presence was a glowing constant. It didn’t seem to matter how briefly she’d known him, because he looked at her with those dark eyes and she felt like nothing bad in the world could touch her.

That feeling was dangerous, to be frank, but she couldn’t resist hurrying to her room and throwing some choice clothing into an overnight bag. She paused, considering her closet. Tonight, they would escape from the real world for a while. Her hands hovered over the lingerie she’d bought the other day with him in mind, but she reluctantly put it back into the drawer. As much as she wanted the reprieve that came from their physical relationship, they both needed something else right now. Comfort. She’d stop on the way over and pick up some food and a few movies. Tonight was as close to an escape as they were allowed, and she intended to make the most of it.

The real world would have to wait until morning.





Teague wasn’t prepared for what the sight of Callie would do to him. He opened the door to find her standing there, her cheeks rosy from the cold, her hair windblown, and her eyes drinking him in the same way he couldn’t help but drink her in. “I missed you.”

Her smile was like the sun peeking out from behind the clouds. “I missed you, too.”

He kissed her, because going another moment without doing so was unacceptable. She melted against him at the first brushing of lips, her arms sliding around his neck. He nipped her bottom lip, and then soothed the spot with his tongue, the taste of her going straight to his head. “You’d better come in before we do something to scandalize the neighbors.”

“God forbid.”

He led her into the apartment, pausing only to lock the door. “You look good.” And she did, wearing a white sundress with red flowers on it. Her blond hair had an artful curl to it, but there were still faint circles under her eyes that were a mirror to his. She held a bulging bag over each shoulder, and when he tried to take them from her, she slipped past him down the hallway.

“You’re lying, but thank you.” She set one of the bags down on the floor near the wall and put the other one on the kitchen counter. Then she turned back to face him, her blue eyes narrowing. Her fingers hovered an inch from his face, tracing the pattern of his bruise. It had faded to a truly impressive yellow-green tint that made his mother shake her head every time she looked at him. Callie motioned to his torso. “How are your ribs? I suppose it’s too much to hope that you’ve followed the doctor’s orders to take things slowly.”

There was comfort in starting this night with a conversation similar to the ones they’d had the last few nights. “It depends on your definition of slowly.” He laughed when she scowled. “Ah, angel, I’m mostly joking. I’ve managed to go a whole five days without fighting or doing anything else that would injure me further.” Mostly because Carrigan and threatened his life if he left the house, and Sloan and Keira basically pounced on him if he got within ten feet of the front door. He’d had to conduct his investigation to find Brendan’s killer via Devlin and Liam. The former he would have liked to avoid including despite the work being low-risk, but his youngest brother had insisted.

They hadn’t found much conclusive, but two of the strippers who worked at Tit for Tat were sure they saw a woman who wasn’t an employee leaving through the back door with blood on her. On one hand, it would no doubt reassure both James’s and Teague’s conscience that it didn’t seem to be a case of self-defense that came about from some runaway. On the other hand, it made it a hell of a lot harder to track the woman down. Two of the three strippers said she was wearing a bright red wig, and he couldn’t exactly search Boston for a woman with “a body to kill for.”