Make Me Melt(53)

He gave a huff of disbelieving laughter. “Caroline, she had a gun. She would have killed you.”

“But she didn’t.”

“And she won’t get another chance,” Jason vowed. “Officers are on their way to her residence right now to gather information. You’re not leaving my sight until we figure out if she acted alone, or if she had an accomplice.”

“My guess is that she acted alone,” Caroline said. “She was a grief-stricken mother who had lost her daughter through a fluke of nature. She had to blame someone, so she fixed her rage on my father. And when she failed to kill him, she refocused her anger on me.”

Jason bent his head to hers, his thumbs stroking her jaw, his fingers warm on her neck. “I never want to go through anything like that again,” he murmured. “When I think what might have happened— I love you, Caroline. I think I fell in love with you that night when you were sixteen.”

And then there was no more opportunity to talk as his mouth came down over hers in a kiss so sweet and so perfect that Caroline felt it all the way to her toes. Uncaring of the medical personnel who walked past, and of Deputy Black, who rounded the corner and then hastily retreated, Caroline kissed him back with all the love she had in her heart—all the love she’d been holding for him since that long-ago summer night.





15


CAROLINE LAY IN bed at the beach house in Santa Cruz, and listened to the distant crash of the waves against the shore. A week had passed since Marisola Perez had tried to kill her, and she still had a difficult time believing that the nightmare was finally over.

Her father was safe.

She was safe.

Jason had spent most of that day at the courthouse in San Francisco, where her father normally presided, as a different judge listened to preliminary findings on the case. Marisola had spent several days in a psychiatric unit, while doctors determined if she was well enough to stand trial. She’d made her first court appearance that day, and Caroline was grateful that she didn’t have to appear. She would, eventually, but not today.

Rolling to her side, she picked up the bedside clock. It was still early, barely nine o’clock, and she knew that Jason was on his way from San Francisco to join her for the weekend.

Now she heard his footsteps on the staircase, and she waited, breathless, as he made his way down the hallway. When he finally pushed the bedroom door open, she sat up.

“Hey,” he said, silhouetted against the light in the hallway. “Are you okay?”

“Absolutely okay,” she assured him. “Just waiting for you.”

She knew he could see her clearly. She wore pale blue baby-doll pajamas with satin straps. The top plunged low in the front and left little to the imagination. Leaving the door ajar, he walked over to the bed, and it wasn’t until he stood directly by her side that she could see the smolder in his eyes.

Without taking his eyes from her, he dragged his shirttail out of his waistband and slowly began unfastening the buttons. Peeling the shirt from his body, he fisted his hand in the material of his undershirt and dragged it over his head in one fluid movement.

Caroline’s heart lodged in her throat. Shirtless, Jason Cooper was the embodiment of every fantasy she’d ever had. She made no move to touch him when his hands fell to his belt, and he deftly unbuckled it before opening the clasp of his jeans. Slowly, as if he enjoyed tormenting her, he drew his zipper down and then pushed his jeans down the length of his body, toeing his shoes off at the same time, until he stood before her wearing nothing more than his boxer briefs.

“Come here,” Caroline whispered and hooked one finger into the waistband of his shorts. She drew him onto the bed, feeling the hot jut of his arousal against the back of her fingers.

He eased himself down on the bed beside her, propping his head on one hand. Reaching out with his free hand, he traced a single finger down her cleavage.


“How was your day?” he asked.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you over at the courthouse and wondering how it was going. What happened?”

“I think Ms. Perez understands just how wrong her actions were,” he said quietly. “She’s very remorseful.”

“Poor woman.”

“Don’t you feel sorry for her,” Jason commanded. “She made her own choices, and she has nobody to blame but herself. Other people have lost children without resorting to attempted murder as a coping mechanism.”

“So it’s pretty clear that she acted alone?” Caroline asked.

“She enlisted the help of her brother for the break-in here,” he said. “It was her brother who disabled the electrical and actually broke in. But she was here, too. For what it’s worth, I think her brother was an unwilling accomplice, and I don’t think he had any idea of just how far his sister was willing to go to settle the score.”

“Wow,” Caroline breathed, hardly able to comprehend it all. “So her daughter gets admitted for a routine appendectomy, but nobody knows she has an underlying heart condition. She has a bad reaction to the anesthesia, and dies on the table. They resuscitate her, but she’s brain-dead, and after a few days, Marisola has to make the decision to remove her daughter from life support. Worse, when she files a medical malpractice case, the judge finds on behalf of the hospital.”

“Yes.”