Cavanaugh on Duty(31)

Rather than pull away or withdraw into himself, Esteban realized that he had slipped his arm around her and had actually pulled her to him, acting like a longtime lover instead of a stranger who had paused to dally but should have already begun to move along on his way to the rest of his life.

He didn’t want to move along to the rest of his life. He liked it where he was and wanted to remain a little longer. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?

“I think I could grow to like Cavanaugh weddings,” he confessed as he stared up at the ceiling.

He felt her quiver slightly beside him. He thought at first that she was cold, but then he realized that she was trying to contain her laughter. Unsuccessful, she finally allowed the sound to burst out as she gave full vent to it, laughing so hard that her very sides shook and tears came to her eyes.

Raising up on her elbow, Kari looked down at the man who had completely rocked her world. Doing her best to catch her breath, she struggled to form words.

It took another minute before she could finally tell him, “I’ll be sure to tell Uncle Andrew that you said that.”

Her eyes were bright with laughter, and the tips of her hair teased his chest in sync with her laughter. It aroused him all over again—something he hadn’t believed was possible, at least not so soon. It had certainly never happened to him before. Not like this, not this strong.

Reaching up for her face, he threaded his fingers through her hair, cupped the back of her head and said, “Later. Tell him later,” just before he brought her face back down to his level and kissed her again.

She more than willingly agreed, silently saying yes in her head because her lips were otherwise occupied at the moment.





Chapter 15



The sound crept into her consciousness slowly, growing identifiable by degrees.

Initially, all Kari was aware of was the passion that was burning yet another fiery path through her, just as deep, just as intense, as the first one. All she wanted, all she could focus on, was attaining that incredible, ultimate high that they had generated together earlier. The pursuit of that caused her to block out everything else in her surroundings.

Which was why the sound of the cell phones, each with its own unique ring, didn’t register with her at first. Outside noises, a passing car racing by the complex, all these were distractions she was actively keeping at arm’s length.

All she wanted was to keep making glorious, teeth-jarring love with Esteban.

But the ringing continued, insistent, demanding, scratching its way through the barriers she’d set up. By the fourth time around, Kari recognized it for what it was. Reality, knocking the foundations out from underneath paradise.

With a sigh, she lifted her head, drawing her lips away from his, and looked into Esteban’s blue eyes. She saw regret there, mingling with resignation. It mirrored her own.

“It’s not my imagination, is it?” she asked with a sigh. “You hear it, too.”

Shifting her body to the side so that it no longer covered his, Esteban raised himself up on his elbow and glanced at the floor from his vantage point. He didn’t see his cell phone.

“Sounds like our phones are ringing,” he confirmed, although, for the life of him, he didn’t know where either device was currently located.

Just loud enough to be heard, both ringtones sounded too faint to be in the same room with them.

Having no choice, Esteban got up. Kari shifted and turned so that she was facing the bedroom doorway and watched the man who had just made incredible love to her leave the room. She knew he was going to look for the cell phones. Despite the possible gravity of the situation—she could only think of one reason why both phones were ringing at the same time—she couldn’t help allowing her mind to wander for a moment, lost in utter admiration.

Any way you looked at it, the man had an absolutely gorgeous body.

“Mine’s in my purse,” she called out, remaining where she was. “By the front door.”

Her purse had been the first thing she’d dropped the second she was inside his apartment. Any remaining barriers had been completely incinerated at that moment.

Within a few seconds, Esteban was walking back into the room, just as magnificently uninhibited as when he had gone out.

He held her purse with its ringing phone out to her even as he was answering his own.

“Fernandez,” he said, then listened to the voice on the other end of the persistent call.

Sitting up on the bed, Kari had taken her own phone out and announced to her caller, “Cavelli-Cavanaugh.” The moment she finished saying her full name, the voice on the other end of her phone began talking. “Okay...be right there,” she promised.

She ended her call at the same time that Esteban finished his. She could tell by his expression that the calls had been identical, apprising them that a fourth body had been found.

So much for hopes that the serial killer was finished.

She sighed, shaking her head. “Talk about bad timing.”

“You talking about us or the call?” Esteban asked her, wondering if she was having regrets about hooking up with him. He was willing to take the blame if she was, even though he hadn’t pressed it. But he was the scoundrel and she was the princess in this setting, so the blame naturally fell to him.

Kari thought of being facetious and saying, “Both,” but then decided, for once in her life, to play it straight. To stop constructing protective walls around the most vulnerable part of her heart. So she told him the truth. That she was sorry they’d been interrupted. “I was talking about just the call.”

He looked at her for a second, and she thought he was going to say something. But if he was, he apparently changed his mind. Instead of talking, he caught her by her shoulders again and kissed her.

The contact was fast and hard, and maybe she was wrong, but she could have sworn there was a promise there. A promise that tonight wasn’t isolated. That there would be another time for them.

Just not now.

Collecting herself, she squared her shoulders and declared, “Okay, let’s get to it. We’ve got a body waiting for us.”

He rolled his eyes at her as he threw on a pair of jeans and put on another pullover. “I don’t think it’s going anyplace.”

Question is, she thought as she slipped her dress back on, are we?

* * *

“Wow, you really didn’t have to dress up for me,” the M.E. said, whistling when he looked up and saw Kari heading toward him. He was in the latest victim’s living room, examining a body that was still faintly warm.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t,” she said. “My father got married today,” she told him, then amended, “I mean yesterday.”

“Right, sorry I missed that,” the medical examiner said. “But someone had to stay on duty and hold down the fort.” His gaze swept over her slowly, scrutinizing her outfit. “Looks like it must have been some party,” he surmised.

Something stirred within Esteban, a protective instinct that rose to the surface in light of the look of discomfort on Kari’s face.

“Never mind that,” he snapped. “What can you tell us about the body?”

The M.E. looked surprised to hear Kari’s partner say anything at all. “He’s dead.”

“Besides the obvious,” Kari pressed impatiently.

“That Hal Rockwell was a damn fine judge,” a deep, solemn voice said behind her.

Kari turned around to see who was talking. The voice had sounded familiar, but she’d dismissed her first impression because she knew she had to be mistaken.

Except that she wasn’t.

“Blake?” she asked uncertainly, looking at the tall, dark-haired man walking toward her. Blake Kincannon was a judge, one of the two who had married into the Cavanaugh family. Blake was married to Greer, another one of the Chief of D’s nieces. As far as major crimes went, this one had just taken a quantum leap.

The next moment, she saw Greer coming to join her husband. Dressed in jeans and a light blue windbreaker, the detective filled them in on what she’d learned from talking to the victim’s live-in housekeeper, Amanda Foster. Returning from visiting her sister, it was Amanda who had discovered the judge’s body and called the police.

Greer and Blake had attended the wedding earlier, although the couple had left before she and Esteban had. Kari nodded at them now, and if the woman noticed that she was still wearing her dress from the reception, Greer tactfully gave no indication of it.

“A few dozen more Cavanaughs and we can recreate Uncle Sean’s wedding,” Greer commented dryly.

“No disrespect intended, but what are you doing here?” Kari asked the couple. “Does the Chief think we need reinforcements?” If so, she could understand why Greer was here, but why send the judge, as well?

“After the housekeeper found him, she was so panic-stricken that she called Blake before she even called the police,” Greer told her.