Holiday in Death (In Death #7)(11)

She felt his fingers dig into her hips, lifting her, spreading her, taking her. Her own helpless moan echoed as he urged her up again. And flying, there was nothing left inside her but the driving need to mate.

She reached for him, panting his name as her hands slid off his shoulders, around his back, as her legs lifted to hook around his waist.

He glided into her, one smooth stroke of homecoming. His body shuddered once as she tightened around him, trapped him as she was trapped. His mouth crushed down on hers, feeding there as her hips began to pump.

Fast and hard, with their eyes on each other now. Thrust, retreat, and thrust, breathing each other’s air. Closer, still closer with the good, solid slap of flesh against flesh.

She watched his eyes go opaque an instant before he rammed himself home. Her body erupted, shattered beneath his. When he lowered his head, pressed his face to her throat, she once more turned hers into his hair. Once more breathed in his scent.

“It’s good to be home,” he murmured.

She had her shower, her glass of wine, then what she considered the ultimate in decadence: dinner in bed with her husband.

“Tell me about it.” He waited until she’d relaxed, until she’d eaten. Now he poured her another glass of wine and watched the shadows come back into her eyes.

“I don’t want to bring my work home.”

“Why not?” He smiled, refilled his own glass. “I do.”

“It’s different.”

“Eve.” He skimmed a finger over the slight dent in her chin. “We are, both of us, very much defined by what we do for a living. You don’t — you can’t leave your work outside the door any more than I can. It’s inside you.”

She leaned back against the pillows, looked up through the sky window at the dark winter sky. And told him.

“It was cruel,” she said at length. “But that’s not it, really. I’ve seen things that were more cruel. She was innocent — there was something about her space, her walk, about her face, I don’t know, but she had an innocence. I know that’s not really it, either. Innocence is often destroyed. I know what it’s like — not to be innocent; I don’t remember being innocent. But I know what it’s like to be destroyed.”

She cursed under her breath and set the wine aside.

“Eve.” He took her hand, waiting until she turned her gaze to his. “A rape-murder might not be the best way for you to get back into active duty.”

“I might have passed on it.” It shamed her to admit it, enough that she looked away again. “If I’d known, I’m not sure I would have taken the call.”

“You can still pass it to someone else in your division. No one would blame you for it.”

“I’d blame me. I’ve seen her now. I know her now.” Eve closed her eyes, but only for a moment. “She’s mine now. I can’t turn my back on that.”

Eve pushed at her hair, ordered herself to focus. “She looked so surprised and happy when she opened the door. Like a kid might. Oh boy, a present. You know?”

“Yes.”

“The way the bastard looked at the camera before he went in. The big smile, the cagey little wink. And after, doing his victory dance into the elevator.”

Her eyes fired up as she spoke of it, as she shoved herself straighter in the bed. Not just cop’s eyes now, Roarke thought. But the avenging angel.

“There was no passion, just sheer delight.” She closed her eyes again, bringing that image back, clearly, and when she opened them again, the fire was banked, smoldering deep. “It made me sick.”

Annoyed with herself, she picked up the wine again, sipped once. “I had to tell the parents. I had to watch their faces when I did. And Vandoren, watching him go to pieces, seeing him try to understand that his world had just fallen apart. She was a nice woman, a nice simple woman who was happy in her life, about to get engaged, and she opens the door to someone who’s symbolically a figure of innocence. Now she’s dead.”

Because he knew her, he took her hand, unballing the fist she’d made. “It doesn’t make you less of a cop because it touches you.”

“Too many of them touch you and the edges get blurred. You get closer to the limit, to the time you know you’re not going to be able to face another of the dead.”

“Did it ever occur to you to take a break?” When her brows drew together, he only smiled. “No, of course not. You’ll face the next, Eve, because that’s what you do. That’s who you are.”

“I might be facing one sooner than I’d like.” She linked fingers with the hand that held hers. “Was she the one, Roarke? His true love? Or are there eleven more?”

CHAPTER THREE

Eve circled the parking deck at the sky mall a second time. And ground her teeth.

“Why aren’t these people at work? Why don’t they have lives?”

“For some,” Peabody said solemnly, “shopping is life.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Eve passed a section where cars were stacked like poker chips, six high in their slots. “Screw this.” She whipped the wheel, threaded through the stacks, skinning by bumpers close enough to have Peabody closing one eye. “You know, you can buy anything you want right on screen in the privacy of your own home. I don’t get this.”