Page 63 of Operation Protector
Colby felt as if the world around him had stopped. As if all the problems, all the tensions, had vanished, as if the evil that was Liz had been boxed up, unable to escape to do her damage. Some part of his mind knew it was temporary, that reality would come roaring back, but right now he didn’t care.
Right now, nothing mattered but the feel of Ali in his arms, and her lips against his, returning his kiss, stoking the fire, sending his heart hammering in his chest. It wasn’t just that she was the sweetest of heart and taste, or that she was doing so much for him and Grace, it was that she wasn’t faking this.
It was real, it was genuine, because he could feel it down to his very soul. She meant it, she wanted this, wanted him, and that quieted the part of him that hadn’t believed any woman ever would. The part that had thought maybe Liz was right about how…useless he was.
He felt her hands on his skin, realized his shirt had come—or been—untucked. He wondered if she could feel the pounding of his pulse. She must be able to, the way he could both hear and feel it in his ears. That touch, her fingers stroking across his abdomen nearly made him gasp out loud.
He knew he had to stop her, stop this. If for no other reason than there wasn’t time, not now. But he couldn’t, he just couldn’t, not yet. Not when he wanted to do the same to her, touch and stroke bare skin, more than he wanted his next breath. But if he did, he was afraid what little control he had left would snap.
Finally, somewhere, he found the strength to break the kiss.
“Ali,” he gasped out.
“You stopped,” she murmured.
“I didn’t want to. No way did I want to.”
“Then why—”
A buzzing sound interrupted her. For a moment Colby couldn’t move, even though he knew he had to, because he knew too well what that buzz meant. Then, reluctantly, he pulled the Foxworth phone out of his back pocket. He looked at the screen.
She’s on her way back.
He closed his eyes and let out a breath, then showed the screen to Ali. Her brow furrowed. “They were watching her? Foxworth?”
He nodded. “I told them what I was going to do, and they jumped right on it.” His teeth clenched for a moment before he could go on. “I have to go. I need to be gone before she gets here. If she sees my truck—”
“I know. I hate it, but I know.”
“Do you? Hate it, I mean?”
“That you have to leave…now? Just when we were—” She broke off and looked down, a rather endearingly shy expression on her face. An expression he was certain Liz Hollen had never worn in her life.
“Yes,” she went on, still looking down. “Yes, I hate it.”
“Good,” he said.
He gave her a final, ardent hug, then reluctantly pulled back. And when he started to gather up his tools and the packaging debris, she pitched in and helped him.
“I’ll go the back way, just in case,” he said, referring to the much more complicated path down some narrow lanesthat would eventually land him on the far side of Foxworth headquarters.
She was steadier now, and made a funny face at him. “I feel like a kid trying to hide from my parents.”
“I want to hear about them,” he said suddenly. “And about when you were a kid. I want to know everything.”
“Then we’ll trade. Because I want that, too.”
He winced inwardly at that. Because Liz had done so much damage there, too. But there was no time now, he had to get out of here, out of sight. For Grace’s sake, and right now nothing mattered—nothing could matter—more.
“Call me,” he said. “When they’re settled in next door. Maybe we can—” He cut himself off. “No, damn, we can’t. Because Cutter has to be here, in case Grace needs him.”
“I know.” He heard her take a long breath. “She has to come first, Colby. I know that. So we have to wait.”
“The last thing I want right now,” he growled out.
“Me, too. But if it’s real, it will keep.”
He stared at her for a moment. “It’s real,” he swore. “More real than anything I’ve ever felt. But I have to get out of here.”
