Sensual Confessions Part 14

"Good thing you asked," she said. "I have an eight-o'clock appointment. Will that be a problem for you?"

He didn't want to tell her he usually didn't get up before eight. So instead he lied. "No, that won't be a problem. Will you need to stop somewhere for breakfast before you get to the office?"

She shook her head. "No, I usually prepare my own breakfast."

He nodded, thinking it would be nice, since he was driving her into the office, if she invited him to join her for breakfast. When time pa.s.sed and she didn't issue an invitation, he figured he wouldn't be getting one.

When he came to another traffic light he glanced over at her and saw she'd closed her eyes again. Evidently, she hadn't gotten any more sleep last night than he had.

At that moment, he couldn't help but wonder just what kind of relations.h.i.+p she had with her parents. She'd mentioned that they had attended Luke and Mac's wedding, but then so had more than five hundred other people. Besides, he had spent his time checking out the single women and not older married couples.

However, he did recall seeing Sam's brother, although the two of them hadn't been officially introduced. What he had seen was the way the man had watched Peyton every chance he got. He wasn't the only one who'd noticed. Of course, Wyatt and Tanner had been checking Peyton out for themselves, had picked up on his territorial actions and figured it was best to keep their distance. Sam's brother didn't look like a person anyone would want to tangle with over a woman.

When he made the turn into the complex, he noticed Sam's eyes were open and she glanced around. "We're home already?"

A hot, tingling sensation shot through his midsection with her response. She made it sound as if they were a couple who were going to the same place, to eat together, tangle between the sheets and eventually fall asleep together. It was hard to explain, but playing house with her didn't sound so bad.

"Yes, we're almost there," he said, "just as soon as we get through Security."

A short while later, as they drove toward the area where their town houses were located, slowing down almost to a crawl for the speed b.u.mps, Blade glanced over at her. "You aren't planning on going back out any more tonight, are you?"

"No, I'm in. I need to get all the sleep I can."

So did he, but he had a feeling sleep wouldn't come easily again tonight.

"Thanks for bringing me home, Blade, and you didn't have to walk me to the door."

He came and stood beside her, much too close for her peace of mind. "Yes, I did. And I'm going to check out the inside, as well," he said in that throaty voice that gave her goose b.u.mps.

"Do you really think that's necessary?" she couldn't help but say as she worked her key into the lock.

"Considering everything that's happened today, yes, I do."

She decided not to argue with him. Instead, after opening the door she moved aside to let him enter first. She walked in behind him and closed the door, watching as he moved around checking the rooms downstairs. She had tossed her purse on the table when he walked into her kitchen and dining-room area. When he returned and headed up the stairs, she felt a tightening in her stomach. She wasn't sure how she felt about him being in her bedroom. That was really invading her personal s.p.a.ce. Kicking off her heels, she quickly moved to follow him.

"Really, Blade, is all this necessary?"

He barely glanced over his shoulder. "You asked me that before and I told you that it was."

When they made it to the landing he glanced around. "Did you know the design of your town house is identical to mine?"

"I figured it would be."

He kept walking, looking into the bedrooms he pa.s.sed. "How do you like having a sauna?" he asked.

"It's nice." Then she frowned. "If someone is in here, then our talking out loud has taken away the element of surprise. I hope you know that."

Instead of responding he shrugged his muscular shoulders and kept walking. When he got to her bedroom he paused in the doorway and glanced around. She couldn't help wondering what he was thinking, with all the shades of pink and gray. She loved the decor of her bedroom and had bought the furnis.h.i.+ngs using the money from the first case she'd won. All the pieces of her furniture, including her California-king-size four-poster bed, had been hand crafted by a furniture designer out of North Carolina named Dwight Chesley.

"Nice bedroom."

She looked up at Blade. "Thanks, but I'm sure if you've seen one, you've seen them all," she said, making light of his compliment.

"For some reason this one is different."

She forced herself not to say it was probably the first bed belonging to a woman that he hadn't been in, but decided not to do so. It was getting late and she was tired. The day had been overwhelming to say the least.

Instead she said, "Now that you've satisfied your curiosity, I'll walk you to the door." And instead of waiting for him to move, she began walking back down the hall and then down the stairs. He didn't immediately follow her and she could only a.s.sume that he felt the need to check out her master bath, as well. When he finally joined her downstairs, she was waiting beside the front door.

"I input my phone number on your landline under B," B," he said. "Hand me your cell phone for a second." he said. "Hand me your cell phone for a second."

Rolling her eyes, she moved to the sofa to get it out of her purse, and walked back over and handed it to him. She watched as he entered his name and phone numbers-both for his cell phone and landline-into her BlackBerry. He then handed it back to her.

"Now I need your numbers," he said, taking his phone out the pocket of his jacket. She gave them to him and moments later he returned his own BlackBerry to his pocket.

He met her gaze. "I guess I don't have to tell you to be careful opening the door for anyone you really don't know."

She forced her eyes not to roll. "No, you don't have to tell me, although you've done it anyway."

He frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. "You like having a smart mouth, don't you?"

"I don't know. Do I?"

His frown deepened. "Keep it up and I'm going to get p.i.s.sed."

She couldn't help but inwardly smile at that. "Mmm, what else is new, Blade? Same place-" she looked at her watch "-and almost the same time. Seems like your mood is a repeat of last night."

When she saw anger flicker in his eyes, she drew in a deep breath and then said, "Look, sorry I brought up anything about last night. I'm not in a good mood right now. I'm tired, sleepy, aggravated and-"

"Trying to make the best of a difficult situation."

She was. And the fact that he knew it almost was too much for her. All day she'd tried being strong, but now she felt vulnerable. Knowing there was someone out there who wanted to do her harm had her stomach in knots, and it had taken everything she had to fight back her fears. She was a Di Meglio, she had come from a long line of Italians and Africans who were mighty and invincible. Brave to a fault. Not a coward among them and she was determined not to be the first.

"If you want to get to the office by eight, then we need to leave here no later than seven-thirty," he said.

She nodded. "I'll be ready. And I'm doing breakfast if you'd like to drop in. It will be ready around six-thirty."

"Thanks, but fair warning. I'm not a morning person, Sam."

She shook her head and glanced down as a chuckle erupted from her throat. She glanced back up at him and smiled. "Neither am I, but I can do a good job at faking it."

The smile that touched his lips-those incredible lips-she thought, was refres.h.i.+ng. His eyes held hers for the longest time and then he reached out and touched her cheeks. The fingertips touching her skin felt warm, soothing...caring. She inhaled deeply at the thought that there was a slight possibility that he did care. He might not want to, but he did anyway. Otherwise, he would not be here now. She couldn't help but find that interesting.

"Try to get some rest," he said. He leaned closer and brushed a kiss across her lips and whispered, "Good night."

"Good night, Blade."

When she opened the door to let him out, a private security patrol car was driving by, making its rounds. Seeing the patrol car made her feel safe and secure. As she watched Blade walk down her steps and head next door to his own place, she suddenly felt so terribly lonely.

Blade pulled off his jacket and tossed it aside, then picked up the phone to retrieve his messages after seeing the light blinking. He checked the first number and saw the call had been from Alex. He hit the speed-dial b.u.t.ton to return the call.

"Alex, this is Blade. Did you try reaching me?"

"You're not picking up on your cell phone. What's up with that?"

Blade pulled in a deep breath. "I was in a meeting," he said, thinking of the time he'd spent in Sam's office while Detective Adams had asked her questions. "What's going on?"

"I never got the chance to thank you for helping out at A.C.'s birthday party last month."

A.C. was the nickname for Alex and Christy's daughter, Alexandria Christina, who had turned two last month. Alex and Christy had asked him to be the cameraman at the party when the one they'd hired became ill. Blade hadn't minded filling in, since it had been better than playing lifeguard at the kiddy pool as he'd done the previous year.

Blade smiled. "No problem, although I wouldn't want to do it again anytime soon."

Alex chuckled. "Does that mean I can't pa.s.s your name on to Sir Drake? His daughter will be celebrating her first birthday soon and I'm sure they'll want a bunch of pictures."

"Hey, don't do me any favors."

Alex laughed. "Will we see you this weekend at Jake and Diamond's party?"

Blade rubbed a hand over his face. In his haste to volunteer as Sam's bodyguard, he'd forgotten all about the fact that he was supposed to return to Houston this weekend for the party Jake and Diamond were hosting for Rasheed. He would have to think of what to do about Sam while he was gone. He couldn't talk her into going to the ranch with Mac and Luke, since they'd made plans to attend the party in Houston, as well. The Madarises liked to party, and enjoyed any excuse for a family gathering.

"Yes, I plan to come."

"I'll see you then, and again thanks for taking care of the pictures at A.C.'s party. You took some real good shots and all of them came out great. I owe you one for agreeing to do it on such short notice," Alex said, regaining Blade's attention.

"I might be collecting on that IOU sooner than you think," he said. "A woman I know is getting flowers."

Alex laughed. "And?"

"She doesn't know who's sending them."

"I'm sure they aren't coming from you. And I can't imagine you getting jealous about someone sending a woman you're messing around with flowers, since jealousy isn't one of your attributes. Sounds like she has a secret admirer. Why do you care? What's the problem?"

He glanced out the window at the lake. It was just beginning to get dark and there was a breeze in the air that was stirring the waters. "The problem is that her secret admirer threatened to kill her."

"d.a.m.n. That doesn't sound good. Who is this woman?"

"Samari Di Meglio. She's one of Mac's law partners."

"I've met Sam. A nice person. She's also a looker."

Blade smiled. Since he knew just how much Alex loved and adored his wife, he knew his comment was nothing more than a compliment. "Yes, she is."

"Call me tomorrow so we can talk about it. And by the way, in case you hadn't heard, Mama Laverne dreamed about fish again."

Blade rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. "What's going on with her? Why can't she have normal dreams like everybody else?"

Alex laughed. "Depends on what you consider normal dreams. h.e.l.l, I would hate for her to start having any of yours."

Blade couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of that, and quickly concluded that Alex was right. He would hate for the old gal to start having any of his dreams. They would turn her gray hair grayer. h.e.l.l, she just might wake up the next morning completely bald.

"And just so you know, all eyes are on Clayton and Syneda."

Blade almost got weak in the knees at that announcement. "I hope you're bulls.h.i.+tting me, Alex."

"Sorry, but I'm not."

Blade shook his head. Clayton and Syneda, the attorneys in the family, and a power couple if there ever was one, already had a daughter, eight-year-old Remington, who was definitely a handful, and that was putting it mildly. The thought of adding another child to their already chaotic household was a bit much.

Moments after his conversation with Alex ended, Blade returned calls to his brothers Slade and Jantzen. Both wanted to give him the scoop about the stork possibly visiting Clayton and Syneda again, just in case he hadn't heard.

It was close to eleven when he finally headed upstairs to take a shower and try to get some sleep. He'd seen security patrolling the area when he'd left Sam's place, and he felt good about it. He also felt good that he was right next door if she needed him.

Sometime tomorrow he would call and talk to Alex and tell him what he knew. Alex was a former FBI agent who owned a private investigation firm and was good at what he did. h.e.l.l, Alex wasn't just good. His ability to solve cases was legendary.

If anyone could find out who the person was behind the threat to Sam's life there was no doubt in Blade's mind it was Alex.

Chapter 16.

Daylight was just beginning to break when Sam finished her shower. After toweling dry she slipped into her robe to go downstairs to start a pot of coffee.

Even after all the drama of yesterday, she had been able to get some sleep. She was certain the gla.s.s of wine she'd had before finally going upstairs to shower and dress for bed had helped.

As strange as it seemed, she had felt a measure of comfort knowing Blade had been in her bedroom. The man had a way of being a part of her fantasies whether she wanted him to be or not.

With the coffee brewing she was about to head back upstairs, when she remembered she had left her purse on the sofa, and that when Blade had returned her BlackBerry after inputting his phone number, she'd noticed that she had missed a call. She had totally forgotten about it until now.

Taking her BlackBerry from her purse, she saw the missed call had come from Peyton's private number at the office. Sam pressed the b.u.t.ton to listen.

"Sam, this is Peyton. After you guys left I hung back to get some work done and happened to be here when your eight-o'clock appointment called to cancel. I thought I'd let you know so you wouldn't get up so early to come into the office. After everything that happened today, you need your rest. In fact, if you want to just take the whole day off and chill, then do so. Mac and I can handle things here. Love you. Bye."

After Sam ended the voice-mail message she breathed a deep sigh. She wished she'd checked her messages last night and then she wouldn't be up so early this morning. Oh, well, since she was already up, she might as well stay up, and she just might take Peyton's advice and work from home today and get some rest.

Then she remembered Blade. It was too late to call and let him know about her change in plans. He would be knocking on her door for breakfast in about a half hour. Since she was up, she might as well prepare breakfast as planned. Besides, she was hungry. All the activity in her dreams last night had made her ravenous.