BEVERLY BARTON – Wanted: Father for Her Baby: Keeping Baby Secret / Five Brothers and a Baby / Expecting Brand's Baby (страница 13)
“I see.”
No, she didn’t. She didn’t see, didn’t understand. And she hated him. It was all there in her eyes, in the cold, distant expression.
“Leenie…”
“The FBI has its own agenda and if Andrew gets lost in the shuffle, too bad. He’s just one baby out of hundreds, right? What difference does it make if they lose him as long as they save all the others?”
“That’s not the way it is.” Frank held out his hands to her.
“Yes, it is. You don’t have a problem going along with Special Agent Moran’s plans, do you? You see the big picture, whereas I see only the little picture. Andrew. My son is all that matters to me. Call me selfish and uncaring of other people’s feelings, but all I want is my baby! And if Andrew meant a damn thing to you, he would be all that mattered to you.”
“Leenie, give Frank a break,” Kate said. “His hands are tied. Moran is in charge and no matter how much Frank and I would like to rush in and grab this baby—be he Andrew or not—we can’t. We won’t. If we did, we might not only jeopardize the child’s life, but we would definitely jeopardize the bureau’s operation that is on the verge of—”
“To hell with the bureau’s operation. I want my baby! And I’m going to get him.” She glowered at Frank. “With or without your help.”
Frank glanced at Kate. God help them, Leenie was irrational.
When Leenie ran into her bedroom, Frank turned to Kate. “What do I do now?”
“Be patient and understanding.”
“Should I go in there and—”
“No, leave her alone. Let her calm down. I’ll check on her in a little while.”
Two minutes later Leenie came barreling out of her bedroom. Wearing a black winter coat and carrying her black shoulder bag, she stormed past Kate and Frank on her mad dash to the front door.
“Where are you going?” Frank called to her.
“Where do you think? I’m going to Memphis!”
Frank groaned. Damn it! She’d completely lost it. She wasn’t thinking straight. She had no idea where Moran was or where the meeting tomorrow would take place.
“Leenie, come back,” he told her when she yanked open the front door.
Ignoring him completely, she rushed outside. Frank ran after her, catching up with her on the sidewalk. When he grabbed her arm, she turned on him, a snarl on her lips and maternal rage shining in her eyes.
“Don’t do this,” he said. “Slim, pull yourself together. You have no idea where to go in Memphis. And Moran is not going to tell you or me or Kate. Whether we like it or not, all we can do is wait.”
“No, dammit, no!” She hurled herself at him, her fists pounding against his chest. “I want my baby. I want Andrew.”
He allowed her to vent her anger, frustration and fear by pummeling him repeatedly. When her blows became nothing more than unsteady, weak strikes, he grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. She sank into him. Exhausted. Soul weary. He held her with a fierce protective strength, wanting nothing more in life than to ease her pain.
“We’ll get him back,” Frank said.
Burrowing against him, her head on his shoulder, she clung to him. And after several minutes, she lifted her head just enough to gaze into his eyes. He hadn’t realized he’d gotten emotional until she reached up, caressed the side of his face and then wiped away a lone tear from his cheek.
Chapter Six
Making love should always be this wonderful, this intense. Every fiber of her being felt Frank’s touch. What had begun with soft gentleness quickly progressed to ravaging hunger. She needed him—wanted him—as a woman wants only that one special man. For her, Frank Latimer was that man.
His mouth was hot and demanding. His tongue probed, then plunged. The kiss consumed her, possessed her. Her body surrendered to the pleasure, reveling in the luscious abandonment. How long had she waited to be with him again? It seemed like forever. Frank was special, different from any other man she’d ever known. They fit together so perfectly and had from the first time they’d made love, as if they were old lovers who had long ago memorized every inch of each other’s bodies. He had touched her physically and emotionally on a level she’d never experienced.
He rose up and over her, his big naked body magnificent, his erection projecting outward boldly. As he settled between her thighs, she caressed his sex. He shuddered. She smiled, loving the power she possessed to arouse him unbearably. He allowed her to pet him for a few moments, then eased out of her grasp and probed her body, seeking entrance. Opening herself up to his invasion, she cried out when he entered her, the sensation so satisfying. She loved the feel of him inside her. Big. Hard. Hot.
She looked up at him. He tossed back his head and closed his eyes. Instinctively she lifted herself and wrapped her legs around his hips, bringing him deeper inside her, increasing his pleasure and hers. He groaned. She sighed.
“I can’t get enough of you, Slim.” He whispered the words as he nuzzled her ear.
“I know the feeling.” She kissed his neck.
He withdrew, then plunged deep and hard, burying himself completely inside her. He alternated deep thrusts with heated kisses and damp, demanding forays to her breasts. She tingled from inside out, on fire for him. The tension inside her built gradually, increasing with each earthy, erotic word he spoke. His grunts and moans mingled with an occasional, barely discernable graphic phrase. He told her what he wanted and what he was going to do to her. She responded with incoherent mumbles and escalating desire.
The urges inside her grew in intensity.
What was that ringing noise? she wondered. And where was it coming from? Hadn’t she unplugged the phone in her bedroom as she usually did when she and Frank were together? Go away, she wanted to scream. Leave us alone. We’ve waited such a long time to be together again.
The ringing continued.
Leenie’s eyelids popped open. She groaned when she realized she’d been asleep and only dreaming of being with Frank. It had seemed so real, so breathtakingly real.
Suddenly the telephone stopped ringing. Groggy, her mouth dry as cotton, her head filled with cobwebs, she forced herself into a sitting position. She still wore the clothes she’d had on the evening before, including her shoes.
What time was it? How long had she been asleep? Leenie glanced at the lighted digital clock on the bedside table—7:40 a.m.
As she slid her feet off the bed and onto the floor, yesterday’s events flooded her memory. She and Frank had argued about rescuing Andrew. She had been damned and determined to go to Memphis, totally irrational, uncaring that she wouldn’t have known where to go once she arrived there.
She had taken her frustration and rage out on Frank. She had actually hit him. Repeatedly. And he’d just stood there and let her vent, let her pound his chest with her fists. How could she have done such a thing? She’d never been a violent person.
She vaguely remembered him lifting her up into his arms and carrying her back into the house and…What had happened next? He had laid her on this bed, then Kate had sat with her, talking softly, assuring her that everything possible would be done to bring Andrew home. And then someone gave her an injection? Who? Had Frank called a doctor? Why couldn’t she remember clearly?
An insistent rapping on the closed door drew Leenie’s attention. “Yes?”
“May I come in?” Kate Malone asked.
“Yes, please.” She needed to ask Kate some questions and find out what had happened to her yesterday evening.
Looking like morning sunshine in her brown dress slacks and gold sweater set, her long blond hair neatly restrained in a loose bun at her neck, Kate entered the bedroom. “How are you feeling this morning?”
“Like I’ve been drugged.”
“You were.”
Leenie lifted a questioning eyebrow.
Kate smiled. “Forgive us?”
“What are you asking forgiveness for?” Leenie asked.
“You were hysterical, then emotionally wiped out. We couldn’t get you to stop crying, so Frank and I agreed that you needed a doctor. We phoned Haley Wilson and she arranged for her physician to make a house call.”
“It was Haley’s doctor who came to the house? I guess that’s the reason I didn’t recognize him.”
“She tried your doctor first, but he was out of town.”
“What did Haley’s doctor give me—an elephant tranquilizer?”
Kate chuckled. “Are you that hungover?”
Leenie rubbed either side of her forehead with her fingertips. “I feel as if I’ve been run down by a Mack truck.”
“Despite that fact, are we forgiven?”
Somehow Leenie managed to get up. When Kate came toward her, she nodded. “You’re forgiven. And I’m okay. I don’t need any help. However, I do need a shower.” She glanced down at herself. “And I need a change of clothes.”
“We thought it best to just let you—”
“We? You and Haley? Or you and Frank?”
“All three of us.”
“Where is Frank?”
“That was him on the phone. I tried to get to it before the ringing woke you, but—”
“Frank isn’t here?”