Kissing Under the Mistletoe

Her eyes filled with tears even as a wide smile split her face. Just as she laughed through every orgasm, she did the same now while teardrops rolled down her cheeks. After he kissed each of them away, she whispered one word against his mouth.

"Forever."

Chapter Twenty-two

A ringing cell phone woke them up. Rafe pulled Brooke closer, intent on ignoring anything that wasn’t warm and soft and smelling like chocolate in his arms, but the damned thing kept buzzing again and again.

She finally murmured against his shoulder, "Sounds like it’s pretty important."

By the fifth time it rang, he’d begun to think the same thing. Worried that something had happened to his siblings or his parents, he kissed Brooke on the forehead, then eased out of her bed. Through the window, he could see that the sun was high in the sky, and her bedside clock said it was past noon. They hadn’t slept more than a handful of hours after working all night long, but every hour in bed with Brooke was worth at least two without her.

She loved him.

The memory of the way she’d said those three incredible words to him just hours ago—and how he’d, amazingly, said them right back—had him wanting to toss his phone out into the lake so that the two of them could be left alone in their cozy little world together.

He grabbed his jeans from the chair in the corner of Brooke’s bedroom, and his cell fell onto the carpet. Ben’s name staring up at him from the screen froze Rafe in place. If there hadn’t been anything of note to report, his colleague would have sent an email or left a voice mail.

Clearly, five calls in a row meant Ben needed to reach Rafe immediately.

"Rafe?" Brooke was sitting up in bed now, the covers bunched up around her waist, her hair tangled from their lovemaking. "Is it your family? Is everything okay?"

"It’s the office. I’ll take the call out in the living room so that you can get back to sleep." Before he left, he gave her one more lingering kiss, one that stunned him all over again with its sweetness.

Her eyes were hazy with more than sleepiness by the time he made himself move away from the bed. He yanked on his jeans and closed the bedroom door behind him.

His gut twisted tight as he dialed Ben back. Was this how his clients felt when they saw his name come up on their phones, calling with the bad news they’d been praying he wouldn’t give them? He’d always tried to be sensitive about it, but now he wondered if he’d ever been anywhere close to sensitive enough.

When Ben picked up, Rafe said, "I want to know what you’ve got on Delacorte, but—" He lowered his voice and moved farther from the bedroom. "—I already know everything I need to know about Brooke. You can shred whatever you’ve got on her."

He knew now that there wasn’t a damn thing she could have done to make him stop loving her. He’d been crazy to tell Ben to do a background on her in the first place, almost as if he’d been looking for a way to sabotage his own happiness.

"I’ve already emailed you the document I put together, so if you don’t want to read the background on Brooke, you should skip page ten," Ben told him. "I’ll take care of destroying the hard copies here."

"Good. Now tell me what you found on her partner."

Ben quickly outlined the details of what he’d learned about Cord Delacorte. Rafe cursed. It wasn’t good. He badly wanted to get on his Ducati, blast into Seattle, and tear the guy’s heart out with his bare hands. Later, Rafe promised himself, he’d do exactly that. But first he’d need to give Brooke the bad news, and console her over it.

After thanking his colleague for doing excellent work, there was one more thing Rafe needed to take care of. "I want you to become a full partner in the firm, Ben. How does that sound to you?"

"Good. Really good."

"I do have one condition, though, and it’s an important one." It was funny how clear it all was now. "I don’t want us investigating anymore cheaters. I know it’s a huge part of our business and we do help people who need it, but I think it’s time we let our competitors in on those cases."

"You’ve got my complete agreement on that," Ben said, and then, "Getting away for a while has been good, hasn’t it?"

Getting away had definitely been good, but falling in love with Brooke had been what made him see things in a new light. Light he hadn’t been able to see in a very long time.

"Everything’s going well here. No rush coming back, boss."

"Partner," he reminded Ben with a grin as he hung up.

Unfortunately, his smile fell away as soon as he downloaded the information Ben had emailed onto his cell phone. Rafe had just finished reading through the first nine pages when Brooke emerged from the bedroom.

She was gorgeous in a silky blue robe that barely skimmed her thighs. "You should still be in bed sleeping," he told her.

Of course, he loved the way she walked straight into his arms and lifted her mouth to his for a kiss. It would be so easy to celebrate what they’d found with each other and forget for a little while longer what Ben had told him about her business partner. But Rafe didn’t want any darkness in her life at all, which meant he needed her to know what was going on. As soon as he reassured her that everything was going to be okay, he would head out to rectify the situation with her soon-to-be ex-partner. And he wouldn’t feel the least bit bad about using his fists for at least part of the "rectifying."