Killing Fear

THIRTY-SIX

Will hadn’t planned on returning to Robin’s that night. It was after two in the morning when he found himself in her building.

Chief Causey had called off all police surveillance in light of Glenn’s flight to Mexico. With the budget crunch, the overtime was already stretching their thin resources even thinner. And while Will understood the chief’s decision, he sensed that Glenn would return sooner rather than later. Will was relieved to see that Mario had kept one of his men on Robin’s loft.

He tapped lightly on the door, exhaustion weighing heavy on his heart and mind. How was he going to explain to Robin what happened with Diana? How could he tell her that his ex-girlfriend planned to kill her because of some twisted obsession? How could he admit he never suspected while he dated and worked with Diana that she was capable of cold-blooded murder?

How was he going to explain the D.A.’s decision about prosecution?

Robin answered the door moments later. She wore a paint-smeared smock and held a brush in one hand. Her nose had a dab of blue on the tip. He couldn’t help but smile.

“You’re painting.”

“Yes. I feel alive.” She leaned forward and kissed Will. “When was the last time you slept?”

“I don’t remember. I have six hours before I have to go back.”

She crossed the room to her studio space, recapped her paints, and pulled off her smock. He followed closely, needing to hold her. His lips touched hers and he caught her breath with his mouth, pulling her into a sizzling kiss. A kiss that reached deep inside him. A kiss that meant more than a prelude to sex. A kiss that said I love you, you’re mine, I’ll never let you go.

He pulled back, then went in at the opposite angle. Robin wrapped her arms around his neck, melting in his arms. He was home. Wherever Robin lived was home to him now. It didn’t scare him, it didn’t send him running for the door, instead it gave him a sense of love, hope, and the future that he’d never had before.

If Robin had doubted Will before, she didn’t now. How could she when he devoured her with such passion?

He scooped her up in his arms and carried her around the partition to her bed. He put her down, lying down beside her, his hands in her hair, his mouth delicately touching her lips. The quiet emotion sang to her soul. She sighed blissfully.

Sex between them had always been rough and tumble. Even the other night, after seven years, they devoured each other as though starved. Tonight was different: Will set a slow pace, an intimate approach that she’d never experienced with him before.

His mouth trailed down to her neck where he planted small, wet kisses along the sensitive curve of her throat. She was torn between pushing him to go faster and harder or urging him to keep drawing out the pleasure. She wore a tank top, and his tongue played with the tops of her breasts, riding the edge of her shirt, dipping long licks down, making her moan in anticipation.

“Will,” she gasped, reaching down to pull off her top.

“Let me.” He grabbed the bottom of her shirt in his fists and slid his hands up her body, his mouth following the path of the shirt as he removed it, landing once again on her mouth.

Robin wrapped her arms around his neck and pinned him to her, their embrace hot, deep, slow. Her hands rumpled his hair, moved down to his shirt, and she yanked it up.

“I need to feel your body against mine,” she told him. “I want you naked. Now.”

“Patience, sweetheart.”

His kiss stopped her from arguing, and he pulled off his shirt quickly, his body hot to the touch, his chest rippling with barely controlled passion. She wanted him, like this, pelvis to pelvis, chest to chest, lips to lips, all night. She sensed he held back, and she urged him to move faster.

He leaned up, looked down at her face. He was as flushed as she. “I am going to make love to you, Robin. Slowly. Not one inch of your skin will be untouched, un-kissed, unloved. I will show you I love you.”

“I know you-”

“Shh. Let me do this for us, Robin.”

She nodded, unable to speak as he leaned forward, in anticipation of another breathless kiss. Instead, he moved down to her breasts. His mouth claimed one while his hand squeezed the other. No small caress was this, he focused his entire attention on her chest until her skin glistened and she gasped. Then he switched, his hand fondling her now-sensitive nipple while his mouth worked on the other. Her hands kneaded his head, his shoulders, everywhere she could reach. She reveled in the heat his body generated, in how he made her feel.

His tongue left a hot, wet trail from her chest to her navel. He popped open her jeans and slid them down her hips, pulling them off with her panties, his mouth skimming over her most sensitive area, just enough to make her shiver in excited anticipation. “Will,” she breathed, unsure if she’d spoken aloud or not.

Then her jeans were off and on the floor, and Will was kissing her feet. He moved up, so slowly, so patiently. She’d never seen Will patient, not in bed. She loved their fast and furious lovemaking, but this was so much more intimate, more meticulous and loving, that he took her breath away.

Lightly, he bit her calf. Nibbles, followed by deep kisses. She gasped, involuntarily spread her legs when he licked under her knees, then his bites moved up her inner thigh, skipping over her very wet spot, and down the other inner thigh.

“You’re torturing me,” she gasped.

“I’m loving you,” he said, then spread her legs and devoured her.

She arched her back, not expecting the orgasm to hit her so quickly. She held on to Will as she came down, but he didn’t let up, bringing her back up fast.

“All’s fair,” she moaned and pushed him off her and rose to her knees.

Will loved so much about Robin, including her love of getting physical in bed, but seeing her naked, kneeling on her bed in front of him, her hands on his shoulders, satisfied expression mischievous, gave him a rush. It had been all he could do to hold back and not penetrate her. Holding back with this sexy woman was a challenge, but one that obviously pleased both of them by the look on Robin’s face, and the heat spreading through Will’s body, pooling hard between his legs.

She unbuttoned his jeans and pushed them down, freeing him. He tried to push off his pants, but she held his hand, took his fingers and put them in her mouth, one by one. In and out. His thumb. His index finger. His middle finger. Once she got to his pinky he was shaking and more than ready to bury himself in her.

Then she took the other hand and did the exact same thing until he had to close his eyes. But the sensation of her mouth on his fingers alone was just as stimulating as watching her.

She pushed him down. With his jeans half off he couldn’t easily move, and she apparently liked that because she smiled at him. “Let’s see how you like it,” she murmured.

“I like it,” he answered and she laughed, then slid her mouth on his quivering dick.

Just like she did for each of his fingers, she did it again, only longer, deeper, with her hands on his ass, brushing against his balls until he couldn’t hold back.

“Robin,” he cried, his hands fisting in the blankets as he came.

She rose, a goddess in the soft light of her bedroom, her dark red hair wild around her face, her chest heaving, her body wet and sexy from exertion.

“Now,” she said, “we’re both ready to go slow.” She pulled off his jeans and laid on top of him. His arms wrapped around her and he kissed her. First slow and easy, then faster, more urgent.

Will rolled Robin over so he was on top, spread her legs, and slowly sank himself into her.

Robin sucked in her breath, her entire body on fire as Will filled her. They lay there without moving, wholly connected, mouth to mouth, chest to chest, thighs to thighs. Even their feet touched and she had never felt so completely wrapped in love, had never felt so desirable. He covered every inch of her body, she didn’t know where she ended and he began.

Slowly, he began to move within her. Patiently. As if they had all the time in the world. This was making love, this was intimacy. She looked into Will’s eyes, so dark smoky blue now in his passion that they looked black as night. He stared at her, his lips only inches from hers, his body rigid with forced restraint.

She moved her body to match his rhythm and quickly, too quickly, they both neared their peak. Her eyes drooped and Will kissed her. “Look at me, Robin.” She opened her eyes as her orgasm rushed toward the finish line.

“I love you,” he said, then fell on top of her as they rode each other over the edge.

Will pulled Robin to him and they lay spooned together in her disheveled bed.

“I had to see you,” Will whispered in her ear.

She squeezed his arm, which was draped over her bare stomach. “I’m glad.”

“I don’t want to lose you.”

“You’re not going to. We talked about this earlier.”

His chin touched the top of her head. Something else was going on here.

“What’s wrong?” She tried to turn to face him, but he held her firm against him.

“I like holding you, Robin. You feel good here in my arms.”

“Tell me what’s bothering you.”

“Where do I start?”

She ran her hand up and down his forearm. He’d looked so tired when he came in earlier. “Sleep. You can tell me later.”

“I arrested Diana Cresson tonight.”

“The criminalist?”

“She killed Jim.” Will’s voice cracked at the end.

“Oh God.” That meant…“Theodore Glenn didn’t kill Anna. You were right.” All these years she had blamed the wrong person. It didn’t make Glenn less guilty, it just meant he hadn’t killed her friend Anna. She didn’t know what to think, how to feel about this.

“I didn’t want to be right, Robin. Not about this. I wanted to believe Glenn killed Jim because it would have been easier. But Diana-she worked for Jim. She was his friend, his colleague.”

“She was not his friend,” Robin said. “The woman must be unbalanced to do something as awful as that.”

“She is as sane as you and I, Robin, only her idea of right and wrong are warped.”

Will swallowed, continued. “I’ve always been honest with you about my past relationships. I’ve dated a lot of women. I guess-hell, I don’t know. I screwed up somewhere. I never knew how to keep a relationship going. I was never in it for the long haul. My marriage fell apart because I was really married to my job. So after Wendy, I dated a lot, never got serious. Never, until you.”

“I don’t need to know about your past, Will,” she said. And she didn’t. As far as she was concerned, what was happening now was what was important, not the past. “I haven’t been a saint.”

“Hear me out. Please.” He swallowed again. “No relationship lasted more than a couple months with me. Not after Wendy. I dated Diana. And let the relationship fade away like everything else. The job always came first for me. I liked Diana, but it didn’t click.”

He squeezed her tight and his voice cracked. “It’s my fault, Robin. She planned on killing you. I don’t know what I would have done then.”

Robin absorbed the information. “Me? Why? I never did anything to her.”

“I always prided myself on being discreet in my relationships, but with you-God, Robin, I thought about you all the time. Frank knew about our relationship and he had a big mouth. Dillon Kincaid, a forensic psychiatrist we consulted in this case, believes Diana had a fixation on me, and when I left her to focus on the job in her mind that was acceptable. Then I started seeing you. She viewed all women as inferior. But us, together, seemed to set her off.”

“Did she-did she tell you this?”

“No, but her interview was convoluted. She was on the verge of confessing when she lawyered up. I have to tell you, Robin, they’re going to cut a deal with her. We have her on Jim’s murder-she used a gun she’d processed earlier this week in a gang shooting, and there’s trace evidence that the Sheriff’s Department will likely be able to tie to her. They are going to send some people to search her house in the morning-we felt it would be cleaner if they served the warrant.”

“What kind of deal?”

“They’re not going to try her for Anna’s murder.”

“I don’t understand,” Robin said slowly.

“The D.A. is going to offer her a deal-she confesses to Jim Gage’s murder, waives her right to trial, and she’ll be given life without parole in a federal penitentiary. Agent Vigo is working out the details on that right now. It’s tricky, but they think they can cut it.”

“Why is it tricky?”

“If we bring her to trial for Anna’s murder, every case she ever processed will be under scrutiny. Hundreds of violent predators will file an appeal, and many will win. She planted evidence. We don’t have the time or resources to fight all those cases. But if we can keep it in-house, have her plead out, seal the records, we won’t face such an onslaught.”

Robin didn’t know what to say. Intellectually, it made sense, but emotionally she wanted justice for Anna.

“There’re some huge political considerations…”

“Politics?” Robin slid away from Will, rolled over and faced him. “She’s getting away with Anna’s murder because of politics?”

“She’s not getting away with anything. Please try to understand. Don’t you see that every single one of her cases is going to be called into question? Hundreds of convicted criminals-murderers, child molesters-are going to claim they were framed or that the evidence was tainted because she handled it. We may already have that problem, but the D.A. is working an agreement with the Feds to review all case evidence that Diana Cresson handled. We need time. None of us believe that she contaminated any other crime scenes-Anna’s murder was personal. But try telling that to a jury.”

“It’s not fair.” Robin’s bottom lip trembled. Will touched it with his thumb.

“You’re right. None of this is fair. I wish I had a better answer for you. I wish that bastard Glenn was in prison. I wish I had seen Diana for what she was years ago. I wish I had figured it out before Jim ended up dead.”

She reached for him, rubbed his shoulder. “I’m sorry. I know you’ve done everything you can.”

Robin wished Anna could be avenged, that her killer would go to prison for killing her. But she would be satisfied that Diana Cresson went to prison, period. At least she knew what really happened. That would have to do.

Will pulled her back to him, flesh against flesh. “When you walked out, I tried to replace you, but you are irreplaceable. I was miserable and didn’t know it until I saw you again, saw what I had so callously tossed aside. I didn’t know what we had until it was gone, Robin.”

“And we have it back.” She kissed him.

“God, yes.” He kissed her again, his hands fisting in her tangled hair. “Yes, Robin, we have it back, in spades.”

“I love you so much, Will Hooper. And we’ll get through this. I promise.”

“I should be saying that to you.”

“You have. In words and deeds.” She cuddled into his chest. “You need sleep.”

He rolled over on top of her. “I want you more.”