Fatal Series 01 - Fatal Affair

other things to do—”
    She tilted her face to kiss him. “I was exactly where I needed to be. Where I wanted to be.” Glancing up at him, she found him staring out the window. “Can I ask you something?” she said tentatively, not sure if this was the best time. But she needed to know. For some reason, she had to know more.
    “Sure you can.”
    “What you said about growing up in Lowell with your grandmother…”
    “What about it?”
    “If you lived in a one-bedroom apartment, where did you sleep?”
    “The sofa pulled out to a bed.”
    She bit her bottom lip in an attempt to deal with the sudden need to weep. Her every emotion seemed to be hovering just below the surface, and it wouldn’t take much for the floodgates to swing open. “Where did you keep your stuff?”
    “I didn’t have a lot of stuff, but what I had I kept in the hall closet.”
    Her heart cracked right in half. “That’s why you’re so particular about the things you have now, isn’t it? And I’ve made fun of you for that. I’m so sorry, Nick.”
    “Don’t be sorry, babe. You’re right to razz me. You lighten me up, and I need that.”
    “I had no idea…”
    “How could you? But it doesn’t bother me at all when you tease me about being anal. I swear it doesn’t, so please don’t stop.” He tipped up her chin and flashed the cajoling smile she couldn’t resist. “Please?”
    She returned his smile with a pout. “If it doesn’t bother you, that takes some of the fun out of it.”
    He laughed. “I love you, Samantha Holland, and all your crazy twisted logic.”
    Wanting to give him absolutely everything he’d ever been denied, but satisfied for now to hear him laugh, Sam closed her eyes and pressed her lips to his neck. “I love you, too.”

Chapter 36
    The cab came to a stop in front of the Willard Intercontinental Hotel, two blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.
    “The O’Connors reserved the ballroom, and the food here is amazing,” Nick said, hoping to convince her to stay for a while.
    “I really need to get to work.”
    “I know. I’m just being selfish wanting you with me.”
    Sam studied him. “Let me check in with HQ. Maybe I can stay for a few minutes.”
    Nick watched her while she talked on the phone and wished he could take her home to decorate the Christmas tree he planned to buy. He’d never bothered with a tree before, but this year he wanted the bother. This year, everything was different.
    “I’ll be there shortly,” Sam said as she ended the call. “I’m only a couple of blocks away at the Willard.”
    “So you can come in?” Nick asked when she had returned her phone to her coat pocket.
    She hesitated, but only for a second. “Sure. There’s not much else I can do until we get a sighting of one of them.”
    Before they entered the hotel, Sam rested her hand on his arm to stop him. “You know it’s going to be like this, right?”
    “Like what?”
    “I’ll want to be with you, especially on a day like this, but I’ll need to be somewhere else a lot of the time.”
    Nick smiled, touched by the hint of vulnerability he detected. “I know what I’m signing on for, babe.”
    “Do you? Do you really?”
    Something in her tone and the expression on her face told him this too had been a problem in her marriage. He leaned in to kiss her. “I really do. I’m sorry you can’t spend the day with me, but I understand you have a job to do, and in this case, I have a vested interest in you getting it done.”
    “Okay,” she said with a sigh of relief.
    “I’m never going to hassle you over your work, Sam,” he said as he guided her inside with an arm around her shoulders.
    “Never say never. It has a way of screwing up plans, vacations, meals, sleep…”
    “I’ll do my best to understand, but I’ll always be sorry to see you go.”
    She looked up at him, a small smile illuminating her beautiful face. “I want to be with you today.”
    “I know, and that counts for a lot.”
    They checked their coats and wandered into the elegant ballroom where Graham and Laine greeted each guest as they entered the room.
    Nick embraced them both.
    “You did a beautiful job, Nick,” Laine said, grasping his hands.
    “Thank you.” Nick had such admiration for the aura of dignity the older woman projected even in the darkest hours of her life.
    “No, thank you , for everything this week. I don’t know what we would’ve done without you.”
    “It was no