to remind her to think, take her time, be sensible. She lifted the glass pie plate off the rack and set it on top of the stove, then switched off the timer and the oven heat.
“I meant to go straight back to Heron’s Cove,” she said quietly. “I wanted to give you a chance to get some rest, but I can still go.”
“Isn’t the Sharpe house gutted by now?”
“Mostly gutted.”
“You slept here last night.”
“Because of the whiskey,” she said.
Colin took the pot holders from her and set them on the counter. “Thank you for the pie.” He slipped his arms around her. “We can talk about your new Russian friend later. Let me decide if I need rest. I slept some on my flights.”
“But not last night—”
“Not much in recent days.”
Steam rose from the pie, sweet juice from the cooked apples, sugar and cinnamon oozing over the crimped edges of the browned crust. Emma eased her arms along his sides and around to his back, her physical attraction to him as strong, as immediate, as the first time he had touched her a little more than a month ago.
“It’s been a long month,” she said. “If you want to talk, I can put on coffee and cut the pie.”
“I’m good with Fin’s whiskey and warming up my cold bed with you. We can save the pie for tomorrow.” Colin drew her closer to him. “I don’t need to talk about what happened. I’m here. I’m with you. The rest can wait.”
“I’m not hiding anything from you. I just can’t talk about everything that involves my family’s work.”
He touched his lips to hers, just a breath of a kiss. “No talking, no thinking. Not tonight.” He ran his fingers into her hair and smiled. “No sleeping on a mat in Heron’s Cove, either.”
She smiled back at him. “Where, then?”
“With me.”
“You’re in pain, aren’t you? These bastards—”
“I don’t want to think about them. I want to think about you.”
Her heartbeat quickened. “I should carry you upstairs tonight.”
He gave a small laugh. “Sweetheart, the day I can’t carry you up to bed…”
“You rugged undercover types,” Emma said, slipping from his embrace. “I’ll finish up here and meet you upstairs. Don’t fall asleep on me.”
She reached for the faucet, but in one swift move, he swept an arm around her and lifted her off her feet, then up and over his shoulder, potato-sack style. She knew several different maneuvers to get herself back onto the floor in one piece but used none of them as he headed for the stairs. Not that her maneuvers would have worked, anyway. He was strong, in good shape and determined, despite his ordeal.
He didn’t put her down at the top of the stairs. In a few more strides, he had her in his bedroom. It was pitch-dark, the shades pulled, not so much as a night-light on. She had hastily made the bed that morning, but Colin kept any remarks to himself as he ripped back the duvet, just as she had pictured, dreamed about, in the weeks since he’d left Rock Point.
“The sheets will be cold,” she said.
“Not for long.” He wasn’t breathing hard at all as he laid her on the bed. He grinned and gave a mock shudder. “Damn. It is cold.”
“Are you sure about this? You need time to decompress and reintegrate—”
“Exactly.” He fell with her onto the bed, his mouth finding hers. “Nothing’s changed, Emma. Nothing. I want you now as much as I did when I carried you up here the first time.”
“That’s good,” she whispered, her throat tight with emotion and a rush of desire.
Her shirt went first, then his, joining the blankets on the floor. Emma inhaled sharply when he skimmed his hands over her bare breasts, then caught a nipple between his lips. She sank deep into the bed, already warm from their presence. He licked, tasted, teased, even as he smoothed his palms down her sides, over her hips.
Her pulse raced; her skin was on fire.
In another two seconds, he had her jeans off, and she raked at his, until finally they, too, were gone, cast onto the floor.
He came to her, as ready as she was. She’d dreamed of this moment, ached for it, hoped for it. He was her soul mate in the only way she understood soul mates.
“Emma,” he whispered, “stop thinking.”
She could hear the amusement in his tone and drew her arms around him, coursed her palms up his back. “No more thinking. Promise. It’s good to have you here.”
“Glad you put that pie in the oven?”
The man was irresistible, impossible. She smiled, tried to answer, but he shifted position on top of her, eased himself between her legs, and she found that she couldn’t speak. Instead she drew him into her, closing her eyes, lying back, taking in the heat and hardness of him. He thrust deeply and went still, as if to give them both the chance to absorb that this was real, that they were together again, making love on a dark autumn night. Then he drove into her again, and she was lost.
Only later, when her heartbeat had calmed and the cool air chilled her overheated skin, did anything resembling a thought work its way into her consciousness, and it was a good thought. She didn’t want to be anywhere else but where she was right now.
She realized there was only one pillow left on the bed, and they were sharing it, facing each other. Colin kissed her on the forehead but didn’t say a word.
* * *
Colin ended up on the outer edge of the bed, with Emma asleep in the crook of his arm. The milky light of dawn brought out the honey tones of her hair, and he noticed her black lashes against her creamy skin. He’d slept, but not a lot. She was right about the need for decompression and reintegration. They were as important to his work as training, preparation, reports, analysis, experience and instinct. Fatigue bred mistakes. Mental and physical exhaustion put not just his own life in danger but other people’s lives, and it jeopardized the mission. It led to burnout and it frayed relationships.
The problem was, he seldom recognized when he was past the point of no return. His ability to push through exhaustion and fear was part of what made him good at undercover work, but he also knew that it made reentry into his home life—his real life—tricky, even difficult.
What made it even harder was his distaste for lies and deception.
His bruises ached, but not as much as before making love to Emma. Pain wasn’t what had awakened him and kept him awake. His instincts had. He trusted them, and they were hammering at him now, telling him that Emma’s Russian jeweler and her warning about a Russian collection weren’t just some obscure Sharpe matter.
He pictured Pete Horner’s supercilious smile. “I see you’re back from the dead.”
Back, but determined to finish the job he had started when he set out from Maine last month. He wanted Horner, Yuri and Boris in custody. He wanted to find out how they planned to get weapons now that Colin’s stash was no longer an option. Did they have other contacts in Vladimir Bulgov’s old network—access to the same stockpiles of Soviet-era weapons?
When had Horner and his Russian colleagues discovered their turncoat undercover agent had jumped into the Intracoastal? Had they searched for him? Had they tried to go back to the rented house but realized it was crawling with feds?
Had they figured out he wasn’t a turncoat after all?
Were they the type to seek revenge? Did they still think they could force him to help them?
Who was their buyer?
Colin