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  She grasped for his shoulders to steady herself, groaning when her damp fissure rested against his painfully hard erection.

  For one long moment their breathing stopped. Their gazes locked as they teetered on the edge of a precipice that, once passed, would mean no going back.

  “Are you sure?” he murmured. “Are you sure I won’t hurt—”

  She pressed her fingers against his lips. “The baby will be fine.” Her gaze shifted to his mouth. “And I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.”

  Her whispered words were Adam’s unraveling.

  She leaned away from him until her fingers barely touched behind his neck, giving him a clear view of her luscious body where it was bared down to the dress bunched around her waist. Her breasts were tight and round, her nipples puckered and damp from his attentions. Then she shifted her hips and all coherent thought scattered to the four winds.

  Cupping her bottom in his hands, Adam gently, slowly lifted her, then brought her down on his arousal inch by torturous inch, pausing to give her time to accommodate him, plunging ahead once her gasps stopped. Then, finally, he was completely surrounded by everything that was Eva, the sensations ripping through him the closest he had come to heaven.

  Slowly, he moved them toward the bed a few feet away and lay her down on the sheets. He thrust deeply inside her and she threw her head back and moaned, a sound that wove around him, beckoned to him in a way he was unable to resist.

  Grasping her hips, he thrust into her again, then again, and yet again, each plunge heightening the emotions pulsing though him. Pushing them up, further and further, taking him to the brink of climax, then slowly, bringing them back down as he evened the rhythm of their lovemaking.

  Releasing his hold on the pliant flesh of her hips, he flattened his hands across her abdomen, then brought his thumbs together at her navel. She stilled, her breathing ragged, her stomach muscles contracting beneath his touch. She watched him through the dark fringe of her lashes as he slid his thumbs downward. He halted at the spot between belly button and the dark dusky triangle below. He reminded himself of the special meaning of what lay beneath her silky, slightly rounded flesh. How he yearned at that moment that the life growing within her was a result of their lovemaking, hers and his.

  Eva shifted restlessly and he continued his downward path until his thumbs rested against her slick, tangled hair.

  She gasped and stopped moving. Adam shifted his hips slightly to the right, then to the left, parting her soft folds until she was exposed to him, pink and engorged. He pressed a thumb purposefully down on the silky nub, slowly rubbing it in small circles.

  Eva arched her back and dissolved with a series of shudders and gasps, her climax rippling through her. Her spasms traveled from her to him, where Adam had stilled, but kept up the caress of his thumb, drawing her moment out, carrying her along. But instead of the orchestrating role he expected to play, her slick, sleek muscles tightened around him. And the pleasure at having brought her to orgasm swept through him. He surged into her, deeper, and yet deeper again, following on the heels of her climax. Energy quaked through him, robbing him of breath, of movement, for a moment that seemed to stretch into eternity.

  Eva dropped back to the sheets, her rosy skin glistening with perspiration, the muted light from the lamp in the corner imprinting her abdomen with the shadow of an iron post. Adam eased his body from the taut, straight position that had allowed the wondrous sensations to rip through him.

  For long moments, he stayed motionless, wanting to put into words what he felt, yet fearing no words could do his emotions justice. Instead, he watched Eva, waiting for her to catch her breath, anticipating the moment when she would come back to him for more. And she did. The ceiling fan stirred her dark, damp hair as she looked at him, need burning deep in her eyes.

  Adam groaned as he hardened all over again, urged on by the tightening of her muscles.

  This time there was no controlled manipulation, no conscious effort to please. Instead, when Adam thrust into her, his movements growing faster and harder, Eva’s moans coming louder and sweeter, it was in a selfish quest for fulfillment only complete surrender to his emotions could give. And when the white light that had filled him at the onset of their lovemaking began showing shoots of wild, vivid reds, Adam knew it would be unlike anything he had ever experienced before…or would likely experience again.

  His muscles grew rigid, the thunder of climax clutching his entire body. Adam gripped her hips, holding her still, absorbing her pleasure, communicating his own to her.

  Slowly, the shock waves ebbed. Adam slid his hands up her glistening body, extending her arms, then joined his fingers with hers above her head.

  “I love you,” he murmured. He thought his saying the words should surprise him, but he was helpless to do anything but let the truth show. Wonder at the freedom with which it filled him. No matter how vain the words.

  Releasing one of her hands, he smoothed the tangled hair from her face. It was impossible to believe there was a greater sight than her serene, ethereal smile, something sweeter than the emotion-filled kiss she gave him.

  “I love you more,” she murmured.

  Her eyes were too bright, too luminous. Adam followed the trail of a tear as it slid down her cheek. A profound, answering sadness tore through his chest. He rested his palm against her face and wiped the dampness away, wishing he could say something to ease her pain…to ease his own. But nothing could reverse the knowledge that despite all they had shared, all that bound them together, they might never be together like this again.

  11

  ADAM LAY AWAKE into the wee hours of the morning, unable to give himself over to the forgetfulness sleep might offer. Eva was curled against him, her warmth welcome despite the sultry, heavy heat of the night. He caressed her bare arm, amazed that he wanted to wake her yet again and indulge in her sweet, hot body. Marvel in the emotions he now knew she felt for him as strongly as he felt them for her. But after endless hours of passionate exploration, he suspected she needed rest, evidenced by her soft snores.

  Turning his head to look at her in the dim light of her moon, he pushed the hair back from her damp face, then pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. Oh but she tasted good. He kept his lips against her skin for long moments, then closed his eyes, thinking that a life filled with nights like this were a very tempting proposition indeed.

  An hour or so before, he’d heard a car pull up, and listened as Eva’s parents, grandmother and brother made their way into the house, their voices quiet, spurts of laughter floating to him on the thick night air.

  Now the house was silent but for the ticking of a large grandfather clock in the main foyer and the hushed whirl of the ceiling fan. Adam shifted Eva slightly to remove his arm where it had begun to fall asleep. Her soft, unconscious objection surprised him, as did her sigh when he cuddled her close again.

  Adam had never been needed before. Not in this way. Not by a woman who seemed to need no one. And for a man who had never needed anyone himself, he found it all too easy to need Eva and everything she offered. Everything he’d never had. Love. Family. Commitment.

  With his free hand, he rubbed his forehead. He wasn’t surprised by how easily he had become a part of Eva and her family’s lives in just a few days. It was part and parcel of his job. But it was amazing that they had become so much a part of his.

  Still, he seriously had to question the solidity of such a statement. The past four days were unlike any he’d ever experienced in many ways. Both wonderful and daunting. But could he trust the peace he found here when everything about the time loomed surreal and isolated? As if part of a disjointed dream that couldn’t possibly be real?

  He supposed the source for his doubts sprouted from the deception on which so much of what he felt now was built. His accepting Eva’s offer when he was already playing the role of Adam the socially challenged accountant. His attraction to her when he should have kept her at arm’s lengt
h. The ingenuous way members of her family had welcomed him, leaving him feeling a part of them no matter how much he resisted.

  And most puzzling, the longing deep within him to protect and love the child Eva carried even though it wasn’t his. Lord, but he recognized that his yearning might even be because the child wasn’t his, due in part to his own parentless upbringing. And due even more to his all-encompassing love for Eva.

  Movement in the hall caught his attention. Adam picked up the clock from the bedside table and squinted at it. Four-thirty. He knew Tolly wasn’t going in to work today because a storm was due to roll in later that morning. Still, the man could have his own internal alarm that made him get up at the same hour every morning. Adam put the clock back down and gently repositioned Eva so he could get up, this time ignoring her soft protests. After the ransacking of Eva’s room, then the theft of her laptop, Adam couldn’t allow himself to trust that the early-morning sounds came from Tolly or anyone else in the house.

  Slipping into the itchy polyester slacks that had marked his time here, he stood up and zipped them, then silently headed in the direction of the door.

  The sharp report of what he immediately identified as a gunshot ripped through the night.

  “Damn.”

  Throwing open the door, Adam distantly registered Eva’s calling out to him even as he tore down the hall, then the steps, emerging onto the front porch to make out two dark silhouettes standing some ten feet apart in the yard.

  “Don’t you move, you stinkin’ thief!” Adam recognized Tolly’s heavily accented voice. Adam discerned him as the figure closer to him. He descended the stairs, the grass cool and damp beneath his bare feet.

  Tolly Mavros was holding a gun.

  “What in the hell are you doing,” Adam asked, reaching out and snatching the firearm from Tolly’s hands. A quick look verified that it was indeed his own gun, missing from Eva’s room the day before. “This is mine. How did you get it?”

  Tolly waved at him impatiently. “When I saw it on the floor of Eva’s room after the break-in, I thought maybe the intruder left it behind.” He shrugged irritably. “So I took it.”

  Adam grimaced. It seemed Tolly had seen far more than Eva’s divorce papers. He remembered how the wily Greek had clutched a bunched up towel in his hands throughout the aftermath of the break-in. Only, the towel hadn’t been all he’d been holding.

  “You stick with oysters and I’ll take care of any shooting that needs to be done, okay?” Adam said. It rankled that Tolly had taken the gun right out from under his own nose. The reminder of just how far he’d let his guard down bothered him.

  The figure ten feet away started to move. Adam aimed the weapon at him, refocusing on the matter at hand.

  “Oh no you don’t, buddy,” he said. “You’re not going anywhere. Maybe Tolly here couldn’t hit you, but rest assured, I’ve got very good aim.”

  He stepped closer to the dark figure, the light from the full moon reflecting off the fishing lures hooked above the rim of the hat the person wore. As on the two other occasions he’d seen the suspect—first at the rest area, then at the warehouse the day before—he had never gotten a good look at his face.

  Adam stopped and waved the gun. “Take the hat off.”

  “Shoot him,” Tolly said, appearing at his side. He jostled Adam’s arm with his elbow. “Shoot the son of a bitch.”

  Adam fought a smile. Good thing he’d taken the pistol away from the hotheaded man.

  The suspect slipped off the hat, crumpling it in his shaking hands.

  “Oliver!” Eva gasped from somewhere behind him.

  “Pinney.” Adam sighed.

  Now that the hat was off, it wasn’t difficult to recognize the wiry-haired accountant who had launched Adam’s entire investigation when the high-strung man had spilled more than he’d intended in John Weckworth’s office four weeks ago.

  “Now that you know who I am, who are you?” Pinney whimpered.

  “Field Agent Grayson of the FBI.” Adam grimaced, then dropped his gun to his side. “Well, I suppose I should be relieved your body isn’t polluting a river somewhere, Pinney,” he said. “But right now I can’t help feeling disappointed that we can’t get Sheffert for conspiracy to murder.”

  “That’s not funny, Mr…. Agent Grayson,” Pinney said in his whiny little voice.

  “Agent Grayson? FBI?” Tolly repeated. He looked over his shoulder at where Adam guessed Eva was. “What the hell is going on here? What is he talking about?”

  Adam shook his head, keeping his focus on Pinney. How had this real geek ever summoned the guts to do what he’d done over the past four days?

  “Then change my mind, Pinney,” Adam said. “And you can start with why you staged your own disappearance.”

  “I…I had to go underground. I told you Sheffert would have me filed away permanently.”

  Adam narrowed his eyes. “We told you we’d protect you.”

  “Protect me? You call making me stay on that job until I got evidence, protecting me?”

  “Yes, I do. Because once you produced the evidence, Sheffert would never be a worry to you again.”

  Eva finally moved into view on the other side of Adam, her arms wrapped around her upper body. “That’s why you were so nervous around the office. It wasn’t just the audit….”

  Pinney’s finger shook as he pointed it at her. “You would be, too, if you knew your life was in danger.”

  Two figures rushed from the trees bordering the yard. Adam reached out to prevent Tolly from charging them. “They’re with me,” he said.

  The two agents grabbed Pinney’s arms and cuffed him despite his high-pitched protests.

  “Where in the hell were you guys?” Adam asked, sliding the pistol barrel first into the back waistband of his slacks. “Looks like I had better backup in Tolly here than you two.”

  Eva’s father hmmphed.

  “Get a grip, Grayson,” one of the agents said. “We were keeping an eye on the situation. The suspect didn’t get any closer than he is now before this old man shot out of the house and started firing. We were assessing the situation before deciding how to proceed.”

  Eva slipped her hand into the crook of Adam’s arm. He wondered at the warmth that filled him even in the midst of the present situation.

  “Yes, well, Pinney had better thank somebody that Tolly isn’t a good shot.”

  “You need me,” Pinney whined.

  “Uh-uh. Not anymore I don’t. Last night we found the files you were after.” Adam rubbed his chin. “Of course, the case would be stronger if we had you to testify that you set up the accounts for Sheffert. If, indeed, that is the case.”

  Eva squeezed his arm. “What are you saying?”

  Adam glanced at her, loving the way the light of her moon played on her enchanting face. “Oh, just that after thinking about the files we reviewed last night, I suspect Sheffert might not be the only one involved in this. Pinney might not be the innocent victim he pretends, but a coconspirator. And if he hadn’t cracked when the FBI questioned him during the open audit, he would never have needed to cover the tracks he’d laid out leading to Sheffert and to others in the office that were involved.” He watched Pinney’s chin drop to his chest. “That’s why he disappeared. That’s why we also found the safe in Sheffert’s office open long after he’d already left for the weekend. He hadn’t left it open for Alice to put disks away, but rather to give her and Pinney access to the safe and the disks so they could clean them up.

  “But when you got to the disks before they did, Pinney knew he needed to get them back before anyone got a look at them.”

  Eva pulled her hair away from her face with her free hand. “Alice? You think she’s in on this, too? But how can you be so sure Pinney’s involved, and not a victim, like he said?”

  “I’m not, but all accountants have their own little ways of doing things,” Adam told her, “leaving the equivalent of fingerprints all over the ledgers they create by
the way they enter the data, manipulate it. Having been stuck in Pinney’s office for the past three weeks, I got all too familiar with the way our friend here does business. And after seeing the ghost ledgers and the way he hid them in a computer game, I knew he was actively, earnestly involved. A partner, not a victim.

  “At any rate, if I’m wrong about my assumptions, we’ll find out soon enough. Pinney cracks wide open under pressure, so I’m sure he’ll tell us all what we need to know.”

  He looked at her meaningfully, longingly. “What matters now is that it’s over.”

  “Oh.” Eva whispered the one-word response, then slowly took her hand from his arm as if realizing it didn’t belong there.

  Suddenly, she looked all too vulnerable, and all too hurt. It’s over. Adam realized that his comment could easily apply to their own tentative relationship. He had to use every shred of control he had, not to reach out to reassure her. Because the simple fact was, the statement did apply to their unconventional relationship as well.

  “I thought Adam was a stockbroker,” Eva’s mother said, breaking the awkward silence.

  THE PERVASIVE RESIGNATION that claimed every one of Eva’s muscles helped her deal with the barrage of questions with feigned calm. In truth, she wanted to be with Adam, who had stayed out front with the two other agents, while she ushered her baffled family into the house to face the tedious task of explaining everything to them.

  “Here, have some tea,” her mother said, placing a generous cup in front of her. Eva leaned her head against her hand and smiled. Why was it that even at the worst of times, her mother always somehow managed to put something on the table?

  “You knew this Adam, he was an undercover agent?” her father asked, sipping on his own Greek coffee in a tiny porcelain cup.

  “No. Yes. I found out yesterday afternoon.”

  “And he’s not your husband.”