Safeguarding Kelly(8)
Author: Zoe Dawson

 

Fifteen minutes later with her address logged, he found out Marianne was indeed Crouch’s wife, but the name he went under was Jack Traeger. They had been married for ten years and had two adolescent sons. She had no idea he was in the Coast Guard. She thought he was a civilian doctor. She, of course, had been devastated at his death, but she also didn’t know Lieutenant Thompson, nor had any idea who would want to kill him. But, with this information coming to light, he had to suspect that maybe Diane Crouch had a hand in her husband’s death. He would tell Davis this information in the morning.

 

The elevator dinged, and Jason looked up. The door slid open, and Kelly came through. She started down the hall toward Talbot’s desk. Her curvaceous hips swayed, drawing his gaze to the cute khaki shorts with fireflies embroidered on them and white eyelet lace just below the hem that ended midthigh, exposing a good amount of bare, supple skin—which looked smooth and silky to the touch—all the way down to her slim ankles. She was tall. More generous in places, but with a curvy beauty that only added to her lean, healthy look. The kind of woman with a figure a man could spend hours getting to know every slope and valley of. It had been clear to him, back in Kodiak, Kelly liked control and normally wouldn’t let her passions get the best of her, except when it came to him. The way she watched him when he was at the gym or in the pool had been obvious. He had to wonder now if she resented him.

 

It hadn’t taken much for him to slip under her spell.

 

Out of respect for her position and his, he’d tried to keep his distance and ignore her, but it had been damn near impossible. She’d fueled some of his most erotic dreams.

 

Bending at the waist, she rifled through the documents on her inbox, her long, slender fingers skimming along the files quickly, but with a grace and expertise that made Jason imagine the way those soft, adept hands of hers had felt stroking and caressing his body. She pulled a file and opened it, grabbing up a pen.

 

He took a breath. She froze and spun. “Jason,” she said breathlessly. “What are you doing here?”

 

“Working. I got Crouch’s stuff and wanted to go through it.”

 

She looked away and said, “I came to add some things to my notes.”

 

The movement swirled her long black hair around her face and shoulders like a cloud of silk. Her dark lashes were at half-mast over her smoky silver eyes, and her sexy mouth pulled into a grimace.

 

In profile, he marveled at her beauty, the way the white frilly blouse she had on lay against her full breasts, the ruffles just above the waistband of her shorts, the back of the shirt covering her firm backside.

 

He was halfway out of his seat, and he came around the desk, leaning his butt against the wood.

 

“How is the case going?” she asked.

 

He folded his arms across his chest and said, “I just found out he’s a bigamist. He has another wife tucked away in Chula Vista. He has two teenaged girls with his wife of fifteen years, Diane, and two young sons with his wife Marianne of ten years. Neither of them was aware of the other, at least as far as I know. I’m going back to Diane tomorrow to tell her the news. Marianne took it badly, but with dignity.”

 

The surprise and distress on Kelly’s face as she turned back to him made him want to comfort her.

 

“That must have been a terrible blow to find out the news that her husband is dead, but to also find out he’s married to someone else as well must have been devastating,” she said, looking up at him.

 

He straightened, the closeness of her wrecking his senses. Because of his height she had to tilt her head back, and he glanced straight down, his gaze caressing the hollow of her throat, the light playing with tantalizing shadows on her golden skin.

 

“Crouch is a dog,” Jason said. “He’s indeed dead and can’t take responsibility for his actions. That leaves it to me to destroy two families.” It wasn’t lost on him that he couldn’t do that in his own situation with his own father. Secrets had kept them safe in Crouch’s case, but it was, in essence, a false safe. Crouch’s two families weren’t safe now. They were exposed, and the grief was now double because of Crouch’s actions. He had been spared the pain and embarrassment of his secrets and the impact it would make on his families.

 

“I’m sorry, Jason. That must be very hard to deal with. Any leads on suspects?”

 

“No, nothing. Davis and I will have to check out the wives to make sure they didn’t have anything to do with it. Both of the women deny knowing Lieutenant Thompson. God forbid he was working on a third wife.”

 

“Austin and Derrick were working on Thompson?”

 

“Yeah, and we haven’t debriefed yet. We’ll compare notes.” An awkward silence settled between them. “Kelly—”

 

“No, Jason.” She took a step back as if the physical distance would stop him from speaking.

 

“No what? You don’t even know what I’m going to say.”

 

“I know what you want and it’s just not going to happen. Let it go and we’ll just remain as we are.” Her confident words belied the deeper, darker pain in her eyes. A telltale sign that maybe, hopefully, she wasn’t finding this any easier than he was.

 

He exhaled a ragged breath, his jaw clenched. She was being so stubborn about this. All he wanted was a bit of time with her to talk. She was ready to bolt, instead of facing what was still between them. He felt it and so did she. He was taking another shot and even though he expected her reaction, it still hurt him.

 

“Kelly, for the love of God, please just wait.” He snagged her arm, the fabric of the shirt soft against his palm, the heat of her body permeating the cloth. She gasped at his touch and halted, her body still except for the trembling he could feel where he held her.

 

She looked down at where he touched her, then up to his face with a wariness that hurt, too. Her gaze narrowed with a please-don’t-go-there warning. The kind of look that was used to ward off an emotional conversation.

 

“I’m just asking to get reacquainted.”

 

She sighed, her unwillingness to hear what he had to say very obvious in the tense set of her shoulders and the way her hands had curled into fists.

 

“I know this isn’t something you want to hear, but I’m saying it anyway.” He swallowed to ease the sudden dryness in his mouth. “There was something special between us and you left without a goodbye—”

 

“Nothing has changed, Jason. We still have the violation of the UCMJ between us.”

 

“I know that,” he bit out. “But things have changed. I’m a warrant officer now.”