Rarities Unlimited 03 - Die in Plain Sight

murdered,” Lacey cut in starkly.
    “What?”
    “She said my—my—she thinks whoever painted that picture did—did it.”
    “Judas bleeding Priest.”
    Ian picked up Lacey, took her into their bedroom, and kicked the door shut. He set her on the bed before he went into the bathroom for a cold washcloth. When he came back out, he gathered her close and put the cloth against her hot tear-wet cheeks. Then he held her until she was calm again.
    “Damn,” she said. “I don’t know where that came from.”
    He kissed her red nose. “Hearts are unpredictable things.”
    She smiled crookedly and settled against his weapon harness. “Yeah, so I’ve heard.” And I’m going to lose my heart to this gentle warrior if I don’t watch out.
    “Ready to tell me the whole story?” he asked. “Or do you want to wait for me to pour some really expensive champagne?”
    “Champagne?” She laughed raggedly. “Oh, damn, you do know how to appeal to my sense of the absurd. Please, pull the cork.”
    Ian went to the small refrigerator and pulled out the champagne that the hotel kept stocking for them as though it was mineral water. He ripped off the “Compliments of the Hotel” card, pulled the cork, and licked the champagne that bubbled over his knuckles.
    Lacey looked up as he came to the bedside. Her hair was wild, her eyes were huge and dark, her cheeks were both flushed and pale, and her lips trembled. But her hand was steady when she accepted a glass of champagne, and her spine was as straight as the line of her chin.
    “To the truth,” she said, and touched her glass to his.
    He hesitated. “Even if it makes you cry?”
    “Dirty little secrets don’t go away. They just grow up to be dirty big ones.” Lacey took a long breath. “And if that woman was murdered, she deserves better than lies.”
    “Justice?”
    “You say that like you don’t believe in it.”
    Ian smiled rather grimly. “Oh, I believe in it. I just know that it’s never free.”
    She smiled a sad, lopsided kind of smile. “I look at the Death Suite and I can’t help thinking that a lot of paying has been done and there’s damn little justice to show for it.”
    “To justice,” Ian said, touching his glass to hers.
    She waited until he took a small sip, then she set aside her glass, stood up, and put her arms around him in a hug. “Thank you.”
    He inhaled the heat and faint perfume of her hair. “For what?”
    “For not making me feel like an idiot. For believing me. For comforting me. For being an all-around wonderful man.”
    “That’s because you’re an all-around wonderful woman.”
    She laughed softly against his chest. “I’m going to miss you when you leave with Susa tomorrow.” Way too much. Lacey’s smile faded. “Does your work bring you this way often?” Then, quickly, “Damn, I didn’t mean to say that.”
    He held on when she tried to push away. “Lacey, what we have is too good to ignore.” He tipped up her chin and kissed her slowly. “I’m not going to let go. How about you?”
    “I don’t want to let go.”
    “Then we’ll find a way.”
    They held each other for a long time, until she shifted and felt the hardness beneath his gentleness. Then she smiled and went to work on the weapon harness that was no longer alien to her.
    “We don’t have to.” He kissed her hair. “I can see how tired you are. The last few days have been hell on you.”
    “Then bring me a little heaven.”
    He threaded his fingers into her hair and tilted her head back. The smoky desire in her eyes almost brought him to his knees. “I don’t deserve you,” he said.
    “Too late to wriggle out of it now,” she said. “I’ve got you and I’m not letting go until you beg for mercy.”
    “Beg, huh?”
    “Beg.”
    “Hands and knees?”
    “More like on your back.” She pulled off the weapon harness and pushed him onto the bed. “Hands behind your head.”
    His smile was slow and hot as he put his hands behind his head. “Gonna cuff me?”
    “Nope. Gonna trust you.”
    She straddled him in a soft rush of fabric and perfume. Breathing kisses over his face, she undid his shirt. When she drew her open mouth down his neck and across his chest, his breath hitched. When she nuzzled through the thatch of hair to lick and tease a tight male nipple, he made a sound deep in his throat. For hushed, sultry minutes she stroked and petted and tasted. He tried to tell her how much he enjoyed it, but the words kept coming