Fatal Series 01 - Fatal Affair

had a son, you also think he might’ve been gay.”
    “Just a vibe we’ve picked up on the investigation. Nothing concrete. I’ve told you my gut says it was a woman he’d wronged, but then Freddie goes and ruins that by pointing out that it could’ve just as easily been a love affair gone wrong with a guy.”
    Nick shook his head. “I can’t imagine it. There was never anything, anything in almost twenty years of close friendship that would make me doubt his orientation. Nothing, Sam. He was a skirt-chasing hound.”
    “So I’ve discovered. But he wouldn’t be the first guy to use that as a front to hide his real life.”
    “I suppose.”
    “You’re upset. I’m sorry.”
    He shrugged. “It’s just…you think you know someone, really know them, only to find out they had all these secrets. He had a son. A child. And in twenty years, he never mentions that to his closest friend? It’s disappointing at the very least.”
    It was also a betrayal, she imagined. That the family he’d considered his own—his only—had kept something of this magnitude from him.
    As if he could read her thoughts, he said, “Did they think I’d tell anyone?”
    “You shouldn’t take this personally, Nick. It won’t do you any good.”
    “How else should I take it?”
    Looping an arm around him, she bent to press her lips to his chest and felt the strong, steady beat of his heart. “I’m sorry this is hurting you. I hate that.”
    He enfolded her in his arms. “It goes down easier coming from you.” Tilting her chin, he fused his mouth to hers.
    “I should go,” she said when they resurfaced.
    “Stay with me. Sleep with me. I need you, Samantha.” He dropped soft, wet kisses on her face and neck. “I need you.”
    “You’re playing dirty.”
    “I’m not playing.”
    Something other than pain settled in her gut, something warm and sweet. This was a whole new kind of powerlessness, and it felt good. Really good. She let her hand slide over the defined chest, the ripped abdomen and below. Finding him hard and ready, her lips followed the path her hand had taken. His gasps of pleasure, his total surrender, told her she had succeeded in taking his mind off the pain and grief, which made everything that was wrong about this feel right.

    They began the next day the same way they finished the one before.
    As her body hummed with rippling aftershocks, she pressed her lips to his shoulder. “This is getting out of hand.”
    “We’ve got six years of lost time to make up for.”
    His lips moving against her neck made her tremble. “I need to go soon,” she said. “I have to shower and change and get to the airport.”
    “I’m taking the staff to Richmond today to see John,” he said with a deep sigh. “I’d rather be going with you.”
    “I wish you could.” She reached up to caress his face and found the stubble on his jaw to be crazy sexy. Replacing her hand with her lips, she said, “I forgot to tell you my news.”
    “What news?”
    “I made lieutenant.”
    His face lit up with pleasure. “That’s awesome, Sam! Congratulations.”
    “It won’t be official for a week or so.” For a moment, she thought about telling him how it happened but decided against it. “And my dad is marrying one of his nurses.”
    “Wow. Do you like her?”
    “Yeah. A lot.”
    “Where’s your mother?”
    “She lives in Florida with some guy she hooked up with when I was in high school. They ran off together the day after I graduated. Nearly killed my dad. He had no idea.”
    “Ouch. That sucks. I’m sorry.”
    “Yeah, I guess I should be grateful that she stuck around long enough to get me through school, but it wasn’t like she was there for me or anything.”
    “I saw my mother three times when I was in high school.”
    Sam cursed herself for being insensitive. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to complain.”
    He shrugged. “It was what it was.”
    “At least you had your grandmother.”
    “And she was a real treat,” he said with a bitter chuckle.
    Intrigued, she shifted so she could see him. “She wasn’t good to you?”
    “She did what she could, but she always made it clear that I was a burden to her, that I was keeping her from traveling and enjoying her retirement.” He paused, focused on her fingers. “When I was about ten, I heard her talking to my dad—her son. She said she’d done enough, and it was time for him to step up and take over, that he was an adult now and there was no