Lost in Bliss

Chapter Seven

Rafe didn’t miss the way Laura’s body went still, her muscles stiffening where just a moment before she’d been laughing with her friends. She changed the moment she became aware of them. It wasn’t the greeting he would prefer. Back when they were friends, when she would see him coming, her whole body would go soft and a welcoming smile would transform her face from something professional to an intimate visage, one only meant for someone close to her. He’d taken great pride in the fact that he’d only ever seen that look on her face for one other person.

“Hello, bella.”

She frowned at him. Even frowning, she was stunning. She looked only slightly out of place in her yellow heels. The rest of her outfit was charmingly Western. She had on a full cotton skirt, a yellow tank top, and a light denim jacket. It wasn’t far off from what many of the other women were wearing, yet Laura made it seem elegant.

Everything she did had an air of grace to it, even when she was bitching at him.

“I thought I asked you to stop calling me that.” He wasn’t going to let her push him. He gave her what he hoped was an easy smile. “And I asked you to stop calling me asshole. I doubt you’ve done that. Dance with me.” Her eyes widened, a look of horror crossing her face. “No.”

“Come on, baby. Don’t say no.” Cam crowded her, but she held her ground. Those heels were planted firmly in the grass beneath her.

“I can’t dance with you until you dance with him. I lost the coin flip.”

“Oh, that’s romantic.” She didn’t look impressed. Her hands found her hips, and those gorgeously full lips pursed. “Every woman in the world wants to be won by the flip of a coin.”

“We didn’t have time to play cards,” Rafe admitted. He was well aware that people were listening in. Oh, they were pretending to be doing other things, but they leaned over and then talked behind their hands. The citizens of Bliss seemed to be enjoying the show. Damn, he couldn’t get used to it. In DC, no one paid a bit of attention to what was going on around them. He tried to ignore it. “We weren’t sure how else to handle it, bella. You have to teach us.” Laura’s lips rose in a sarcastic grin. “See, that’s easy. Let me teach you how to handle a situation like this. You both turn around and walk out the way you came in. You get in your car and drive to Alamosa and get on a plane back to DC.” Cam sighed. “That’s not going to happen.” Cam ran a hand up her arm, and Rafe was satisfied with the way she shivered. She still responded to Cam. Would she respond to him?

Rafe reached out and took her hand. He looked down at it. Her hand was small in his, her skin fair against his olive tone. Her nails weren’t as long as she used to keep them, but they were still manicured and painted a pretty pink. “Come on and dance with me. We came all this way. We’ve looked for so long. Can’t you spare a moment of your time? Your fiancé is otherwise occupied, and I promise to behave.” He wouldn’t behave. He had no intention of not reminding her of everything they’d had, but he wasn’t going to announce it.

Her eyes strayed to where Wolf Meyer seemed to be having an argument with a small woman with steel-gray hair. She was giving the big man hell, and Rafe was glad to see it.

“Fine.” She pushed off of the picnic table she’d been leaning against. “One dance and that’s all.”

“With both of us,” Cam added quickly, pushing the advantage.

“It’s only fair. Otherwise, we’ll both dance with you here and now.”

There it was. Rafe’s heart soared. Her eyes had flared momentarily, and it wasn’t with disgust. When they had checked into the odd motel at the edge of town, they had decided it would be best to come at her together. She’d been turned on by sex with both of them. They needed to remind her of what they had to offer. “I’ll spare the world that sight. One dance, with both of you, and then you’ll go?”

She was going to be difficult to the end. Rafe decided to press his second advantage. It wasn’t really an advantage, but Rafe knew she wouldn’t be able to say no to them. “You know we can’t do that. We need to talk. It’s important, bella. De Sade is working again. He’s been quiet for years, but he’s back. I would do anything to spare you…”

She held up a hand, her face taking on a blank professional stare.

“How many?”

“One that we’ve found so far.” Rafe wasn’t so certain that the victim they had found was the only one. One thing was certain, De Sade was back in DC and on the hunt.

Her expression remained blank, but Rafe could see the way her pulse jumped in the vein in her neck. Her heart was pounding. Rafe had to stop himself from hauling her into his arms and promising her that it would be all right. “I didn’t see his face, Rafe. I went over all of this in the hospital with Joseph. De Sade wore a mask the whole time.

I would have given you a description if I’d just seen his face.” Cam’s hands fisted at his side. Rafe was pretty sure he was resisting the urge to touch her, too. “We don’t want to go over what happened to you again, baby. We want to go over your profile.” She shivered slightly. “I don’t have it anymore. I left everything behind.”

Rafe knew that well. He’d spent days going through everything in her apartment, trying to figure out if she’d left anything behind that would point to where she’d gone. He and Cam had sifted through her belongings, and finally, after a year of making sure her rent was paid and her place kept the same, they had been the ones to box her things up. Rafe was still paying for the storage shed where he kept her belongings and her furniture. He kept her very personal items in his own house, her pictures and keepsakes. He hadn’t been able to put them in the shed.

“We can talk about this later. In the morning, perhaps. This party isn’t the place to discuss it.”

Cam relaxed, his face opening up a bit. He hopped onto the picnic table. “What is this party anyway? Do ya’ll do this kind of thing often?”

Laura looked over the crowded fairgrounds with a fond smile.

“It’s a rite of summer around here. It’s called the Big Game Dinner.

When the rangers have to put down an animal, we process it and freeze the meat. Some of the locals hunt, too. It’s considered wrong around here if you just hunt for sport. We eat what we kill, whether it’s a bear or an elk or a deer or a squirrel.”

“Squirrel?” Rafe asked. He was pretty sure he didn’t want to try squirrel.

“Now, don’t you go talking bad about squirrel. My momma used to cook up some squirrel and rabbit, too.” Cam’s southern accent was suddenly thick.

Laura slid Cam a look as a laugh escaped her lips. “I bet you paired beer with squirrel.”

“Only Milwaukee’s finest goes with squirrel, baby.” Rafe felt a deep gratitude to his partner. Cam had gotten her laughing. “Come on, let’s dance while Cam walks around trying odd meats.”

He took her hand and started to lead her toward the dance floor.

“It’s all right, bella,” he said in what he hoped was his most soothing voice.

She was skittish about this. Laura walked beside him, but he could feel her reluctance. It wasn’t surprising after everything she had gone through. He pulled her into his arms just as someone changed the song. Before it had been a two-stepping country song, but now the music slid to something slow and sexy.

“Busybodies,” she said under her breath as she allowed him to put his arms around her. Her hands wound almost reluctantly around his neck.

He let it go. There was a lot he didn’t understand about this little town and Laura’s place in it. “Cam and I have been talking. We mishandled everything on the day you turned in your profile. We’re sorry.”

Her face was stony even as she swayed to the music. “I don’t know how to take that. Should I forgive and forget when it cost me my career?”

It had cost her much more. That little truth lay between them like a brick wall keeping them apart.

“No one wanted to believe that it could be one of us,” he said, wishing he had never opened the subject.

“I didn’t want to believe it, either.” He pulled her closer, loving the feel of her body against his. “I don’t want to fight. Can we have one night where I’m just happy to see you?”

She moved stiffly in his arms. “Tell me why you’re happy to see me and maybe we can talk.”

Rafe felt his eyebrows creep up his face. “What do you mean?” She stared at someplace past his shoulder. “I mean I want to know why you’ve been looking for me.”

Was she high? Had the altitude affected her brain? “Because that’s what people in love do, bella. They look for their loved ones when they disappear. Cam gave up his job to look full-time. We’ve done nothing but think about you and search for you.”

“You weren’t even in bed with me the morning after we had sex.” Relief flooded his system. That he could address. “We woke up early. We weren’t exactly sure how to handle it. It’s odd waking up in bed with a naked man.”

“It didn’t seem odd to me.”

At least there was a hint of a smile on her face. “Well, the way I was raised, it is definitely odd. My culture isn’t big on sharing.”

“I don’t think any culture is.”

“This town doesn’t seem to mind.”

“Ah, met Max and Rye, huh?” Her movements became more graceful as the music seemed to take over.

“And the sheriff, if I’m not mistaken. Tell me something, I can almost understand the twins. I’ve heard twins have deep connections.

But what about the sheriff? He seemed so normal to me.”

“That’s because you don’t know him. No one’s normal, Rafe.

Haven’t you figured that out yet? Here in Bliss, we don’t even try to be. We fit together because no one tries to fit in.” He doubted that seriously. Even in odd communities, there was a certain amount of fitting in. He couldn’t believe that Bliss was so different. But discussing Bliss with her seemed like a bad idea. He concentrated on his previous line of questioning. “So the sheriff is bisexual?”

Laura stopped in the middle of the dance floor and laughed.

Rafe felt himself flush. “No, then? Well, how am I supposed to know?”

She put her arms back around him. “I guess you aren’t. No, Nathan Wright isn’t bi. He’s totally hetero, just a little kinky. He and his partner, Zane, have been best friends since they were kids. When they fell in love with the same woman, they decided to share her. The sheriff says it’s the best of both worlds. He gets to hang with his best friend all the time, and he gets his girl. It works nicely for them, and here, no one blinks an eye.”

It sounded nice. Rafe just wasn’t sure if it would work.

“So that morning after we had sex…”

“Made love,” he corrected her. He wasn’t about to allow her to cheapen it.

Her blonde hair shook. “Whatever. That morning, the two of you couldn’t figure out how to share, so you left?” It had been so much more complex than that. “We went to breakfast to talk. It seemed like something we should do.” He and Cam had ordered breakfast, but neither had eaten it. They had stared at each other over the tabletop.

“And it never occurred to you that I should be in on that conversation?”

It hadn’t. It still didn’t. “It was between me and Cam.” He and Cam had sat in a little diner a block from her place and really talked. It had been an odd and stilted conversation that ended in a fight. Neither one had been willing to give her up, and neither one had really been willing to share. The entire idea had been foreign. It was fine for one hot night, but they had both wanted a lifetime with her. They had argued over how to proceed. Neither could stand the idea of the other winning. All of that had changed when she was taken. When she had been taken by the Marquis de Sade, Rafe and Cam had been inseparable. They had almost clung to each other.

Over time, they had begun to see less and less of each other as though their guilt had become a wall neither wanted to climb. He wondered what would become of the sheriff and his partner if something happened to their wife. Or to the brothers. He strangely doubted they would fall apart the way he and Cam had.

He’d missed Cam. He’d missed Cam as much as he’d missed Laura. The idea kicked him squarely in the balls. He didn’t have sexual feelings for Cam, but he did have feelings. Serious feelings.

What did that make him?

“It’s just guilt you know,” Laura said softly. “Some bad stuff happened to me, and you feel guilty about it. I’m okay now. You can stop worrying about me. I’m safe here.” It seemed to Rafe that she was gently giving him permission to go.

She had no idea what he was feeling. He pulled her into his body, thrusting his pelvis towards hers. “Does this feel like guilt, bella?”

He let his hands drift to her hips, pressing them together. His cock responded immediately. It grew long and hard. Rafe could feel it jump in his pants like it was a heat-seeking missile that had finally found a target.

Her gasp filled him with hope. It was the same breathy little sound she made when he touched her clit or sucked on her nipples. His cock hardened painfully. It had been on full alert since the moment they had found her, and being close, being able to touch her and breathe in her scent, wasn’t helping.

“I still want you. I never stopped wanting you.”

“I’ve changed,” she said, but she didn’t pull away.

“You couldn’t possibly change enough for me to stop wanting you.”

She bit into her bottom lip as her eyes turned down. “I’m a different person now. And I gained twenty pounds.” He chuckled. She was worried about that? “I can see that. It looks good on you. You were always too thin before. I had fully intended to fatten you up a bit. Why do you think I always ordered dessert for you?”

She laughed and leaned into him, her chest brushing his, making his cock twitch. “Jerk. I had to work twice as hard at the gym every time you did that.”

“I tried to tempt you away from that, too. You might not believe me, but I prefer you like this. You’re beautiful. Every inch of you calls to me. I didn’t come here out of guilt. I came out of desperation.

I’ve missed you so much.”

She turned her head up, and his lips were so close to hers. He could feel the breath coming from her body. Everything inside him stopped, as though frozen and waiting. He leaned over to press his mouth to hers.

“Hey, Laura, heard about the wedding.” A smiling couple danced around them. They were middle-aged and looked like the oddest couple. The man was expensively dressed, but the woman looked like she’d been cast as Annie Oakley. She wore all-white Western wear, with the exception of her shiny red boots and cowboy hat. The woman was the one who had spoken. Rafe kind of wanted to punch them both.

“I’ve reserved the diner for your reception. I don’t think you should hold it in a barn, dear. And Pastor Dennis said he would perform the ceremony, but you have to give him a couple of days’

notice because he gets feed deliveries every Thursday.”

“I am not getting married in The Feed Store Church, Stella,” Laura said flatly.

The woman named Stella simply gave her a bright smile. “I don’t see why not. Stef and Jen are. It’s lovely once you get rid of the smell.

Jen selected a very nice potpourri to mask that horsey smell. Why does feed smell like horses?”

“She could use the estate,” the older man interjected. “Stefan wouldn’t mind. He didn’t use the estate because it wasn’t Bliss-oriented enough. Oh, it would be lovely. Especially in the spring.” The minute that couple danced away, another took their place. A man in a cowboy hat danced with a tall, lovely brunette. She was dressed more chicly than the rest of the group.

“I’ve already got plans for your wedding dress! And I already have your measurements, so I can start working as soon as possible.

I’m seeing something fitted and very elegant. How do you feel about a satin sheath?” the brunette asked.

“I don’t feel any way about it, Brooke,” Laura said on an obviously frustrated sigh.

“Now Brooke, I had plans for you after this wedding business is over,” the cowboy replied, seemingly just as frustrated.

The brunette rolled her eyes. “That’s not happening, James. I told you once before, I am not going to be your one-night stand, and I have no intention of staying in Bliss. And you should be happy about it because both of my brothers would kick your ass if I played around with you.”

“They could try.” The man named James nodded Laura’s way.

“Congrats, Laura. You’re getting an amazing man in Wolf. I heard the town is going to throw you an engagement party next week.” Laura stopped in the middle of the dance floor. She fairly vibrated with frustration. “I am so done with this.” Rafe wanted to protest the loss of her closeness, but she was already leaving.

She turned and stomped toward the raised stage where there was a microphone and a DJ. The DJ, who appeared to be a teenage boy, and his twin brother stopped the music right in the middle of the song as though they had been planning for this particular eventuality. All heads turned Laura’s way.

“What the hell did you do?” Cam asked as he forced his way through the crowd.

“I don’t know. She said she was done with this.” Rafe was at a loss. “I was actually getting through to her.” Cam’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, I saw how you were getting through to her. You practically humped her leg.”

“I did not.”

“You were rubbing your penis all over her,” Cam complained.

“I was dancing with her.” And if dancing had happened to bring his penis in close contact with her body, then so be it.

“Well, you didn’t do it right. Now I don’t have a chance to rub my penis on her. How is that fair?”

Rafe was about to reply when Laura began to speak.

“Good evening, all you lovable busybodies,” Laura announced, looking perfectly comfortable taking the stage. She adjusted the microphone like a pro.

“Hey!” one of the cowboys, Rafe couldn’t remember if it was Max or Rye, called out. “Shouldn’t Wolf be up there with you if you have a big, formal announcement to make?”

“No, asshole,” Laura said and flushed suddenly. She looked back at the boys standing by the stereo. “I am so sorry to have cursed like that.”

One of the boys waved his hand. “We’ve heard them all.” The other nodded. “Yeah, we actually thought asshole was Max Harper’s name for a couple of years.”

“Bobby!” a woman’s shocked voice rang out.

“Sorry, mom.”

The crowd hooted, even Max.

“Well, I’m sorry, anyway. I do have an announcement to make. I would like to tell you all that you suck. I’m not engaged. I was trying to keep my pathetic single status under wraps, but I know you all believe that the truth will set us free.” Another loud cheer went up, and Rafe heard Cam breathe out. “There. Now Nell can start talking again. My little lie was the only thing that kept Nell and Henry from vocally protesting, so please enjoy.”

“Animals are people, too!” Nell yelled.

A collective groan went through the crowd. Laura gave them a jaunty salute, a wide smile on her face.

“She’s happy here,” Cam said, his lips spread in a wide grin.

Yes. She was happy. And he had to figure out how to get her to come home with him. Rafe realized he had his work cut out for him.

Laura winked at the Farley brothers and started down the steps. A hand came out to help her down the last step, and she looked into the eyes of Stefan Talbot.

“Congratulations on coming clean,” he said in that deep voice of his.

“Well, I didn’t have much of a choice,” Laura replied. “If I hadn’t, this town would have planned the whole wedding and sent me a bill.”

His lips quirked up in an affectionate smile. “You might be right about that. I’m afraid this whole town takes an active interest in you.

Nate has already called all of his old contacts at the DEA. He managed to get the details on those two feds sniffing around you.” She felt her stomach turn. This was exactly what she hadn’t wanted to happen. She didn’t want her two worlds to meet. She wanted her old world to go away and her new world to not ask any questions.

Stef put a steadying hand on her elbow. “Stop. I can see by the look in your eyes that you’re worried about Nate finding out about what happened in DC. Well, you should know that almost all of the men know.”

“They do?” Wolf had told her, but she hadn’t wanted to believe it.

Stef shook his head. “No one comes into my town to stay without a background check.”

There was a reason his fiancé called him the King of Bliss. Stef took his town seriously. “Well, I’m glad to know I passed the test.” His face lost its previous bright smile, but he continued to look at her with a softness in his eyes. “What happened to you wasn’t your fault. Not even the part where you got fired from the FBI. You didn’t realize that reporter was taping you, did you?” Shame filled her. She didn’t like to think about Jana. “No. Jana had been my friend for a long time. I was a bit surprised she sold me out the way she did. But it was my fault. I shouldn’t have talked about it.”

Stef patted her shoulder. “Well, I understand how hard it is to forgive yourself. I really do. Anyway, it was obvious to me that you needed a place to stay and maybe a second chance. Why do you think the cabin you’re in was so cheap?”

Laura stared at him for a moment, surprised he would even make the statement. “It was part of the deal I made with Bart Vickers. He needed someone to work the day shift at the gas station, and he just happened to own…damn, I’m stupid. You own it all, don’t you?”

His head tilted slightly in acknowledgement. “I have my fingers in just about every pie in this town. I’m Bart’s silent partner in the gas station, and I owned most of the cabins in the valley at the time. I’ve sold them off as needed. I like to take care of my family.” She knew she should be upset about the deception, but there was genuine love and compassion behind most of the things Stef Talbot did. “Well, I thank you. And I would like to buy my cabin. Now that everything’s out in the open, there are a couple of old bank accounts I can get into. I should be able to come pretty close to market value.” He nodded. “I’ll have my lawyer draw up the paperwork immediately. I am very glad to know you won’t be leaving us.” She was startled at the thought. “Why would I leave?” His shoulders moved up and down negligently. “It’s obvious to anyone who sees you with those two men that you have a past.”

“Yes, and that’s what it is—the past.” It wasn’t going any further. It didn’t matter that her libido had come back online for the first time in years. For five long and lonely years, she’d had nothing but her vibrator. Even that hadn’t gotten much use. At first, she’d tried because she wanted to make sure everything still worked. Her parts functioned, but her heart wasn’t in it. The only times she’d worked herself up to a froth had been when she thought about them. When she’d pictured Rafe’s handsome face working over her or the way Cam’s shoulders bunched as he climaxed, that was the only time she could really enjoy it.

“You know we found out a lot of things about those two,” Stef said, his voice all smooth and silky. “They appear to have spent an enormous amount of time and money searching for you.”

“They feel guilty.” But the words were starting to ring a little hollow.

Laura let her eyes seek them out. They stood together talking.

Rafe looked intent on what Cam was saying. They had always been an odd partnership. Rafe was the big-city hottie who understood fine wine and good clothes. Cam was a backwoods, gorgeous nerd who cared far more about his computer than when a wine was bottled. He liked beer and watched an enormous amount of science-fiction television. Yet they fit together. Somehow, someway, Rafe and Cam had become odd halves of a whole.

Once there had been three pieces to their little puzzle. Had they really missed her? For more than just simple guilt?

Stef’s voice broke through her thoughts. “They put their lives on hold. Can I ask you a question?”

She wanted to say no, but had a feeling Stef would press anyway.

“All right.”

“Did you love one of them?”

Tears clouded her eyes as she shook her head.

Stef nodded. “That’s what I thought. You loved both of them.” Her throat felt far too small. She couldn’t even manage a yes. She looked at them. Really looked at them. They were older. Rafe had lines across his forehead that hadn’t been there before. There was a little slump to Cam’s shoulders that she didn’t remember. She had missed them. God, she had missed them so much.

They started to walk toward her. She took a short step back, but the stage was behind her.

“You could run again.” Stef didn’t sound enthused about that choice.

“No.” She was done running. She had found her home.

“Then I want you to think about what you were looking for when you came to Bliss. You were looking for a second chance.” She had been looking for a place to hide. “They hurt me, Stef.

They just about killed me.”

She could have sworn his eyes misted for a moment before he spoke. “We do that sometimes. We do it to the people we love the most. We do it precisely because we love them. I know you’re scared.

In the end, this is all the time we have. I would take it if I were you. I would take it and milk it for every moment it’s worth, and if it all falls apart, at least you have a home now and people whom you can always count on. Holly will stand by you, and Nell will protest at their front doors if they hurt you again.”

She couldn’t help but laugh a little at the thought. She had never had friends the way she had them here. And she’d never loved the way she had with Rafe and Cam. What if she could have it all? Even if only for a few days?

Stef leaned in. “It’s better to hurt because you tried with every ounce of your soul than it is to regret not trying. My wife taught me that.”

“She isn’t your wife yet.” The wedding was still a few days away.

“Oh, but she is. I see now that she was always my wife. She’s the other half of my soul. The wedding is just a party. The marriage is already well under way. It was rocky in the beginning, but I wouldn’t change it.” Stef took a step back as Rafe and Cam walked up to them.

Cam strode up like an angry bull, his eyes assessing Stef the way he would a perp in an interrogation room. “What did you say to her?” Rafe was all about her. His hands found her shoulders. “Bella, you’re crying. Are you all right?”

Rafe’s hands on her felt wonderful, but she was worried that Cam was about to start a fight. She moved between them. “He was saying that I should dance with you. It’s only fair. I danced with Rafe.” Cam turned, his attention shifting from Stef to her in the blink of an eye. “What?”

He stared down at her like he couldn’t quite believe what she’d said. And his eyes weren’t exactly on her face. A little laugh escaped.

That was Cam. He wasn’t good at hiding what he felt or wanted. He’d never been able to play the games he needed to play to move up with the Bureau. Rafe had smoothed the way for him because they were friends. She loved the fact that Cam almost never had a mask on.

She reached out and took his hand. “I said I would like my dance now.”

He nodded. “Okay.”

She had to lead him to the dance floor. He shuffled behind her, an almost shy look on his face. She moved to the center and stepped close to him, putting her arms around his neck. His handsome face turned mulishly stubborn.

“If this is some trick, you should know that I’m not leaving. You can’t say that you gave me my dance and now I have to go. If you think that you can send me back to DC after one measly dance, then you don’t know me.”

She laid her head against his chest. It felt so good to hear the beat of his heart. “I know you, Cameron Briggs. I would have to get a tow truck to haul your ass out of town if you didn’t want to go. I just wanted to dance.”

Slowly, his arms came up and surrounded her. He clutched her like he was afraid she would slip away. “I missed you, baby. I missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too, bella.” Suddenly Rafe was right behind her.

He stepped in, and his arms circled her waist. He was careful to move in time with Cam, and soon they were swaying to the music. All three of them were dancing together, the men forming a protective circle around her.

“Well, that was fast. It didn’t take those two long to move in once the truth was out,” Holly said as she danced with Pastor Dennis, who ran the Feed Store Church.

She felt Rafe stiffen and start to move back.

Laura took a deep breath, thinking about Stef’s words, and let her hand drift around to Rafe’s waist to keep him close. He moved back in.

Pastor Dennis took it all with a smile on his face. “All good things flow from admitting the truth with an open heart.”

“Not all of them,” Holly grumbled.

“Crap, what happened with Caleb?” Laura tried to look around, but she couldn’t see the doctor.

Holly shrugged. “Same old, same old. I asked him if he wanted to go back to my place so we could talk, and he suddenly remembered some very important surgery he had scheduled. For tonight. Without a nurse. Or a hospital. I give up on him. I’m going to satisfy myself with my prison love letters.”

Holly gave her a sad smile as the pastor danced her away.

Poor Holly. Caleb was breaking her heart, and they had never even gone out. Would Holly be happier if she had at least gotten to be intimate with the man who hurt her? Would she regret it? Or would she do what Stef had said and forgive herself and be happy that at least she had tried?

“Did you come back for the case?” She didn’t pull her head from Cam’s chest. She simply asked the question and prayed they had the right answer.

Cam’s head touched the top of her own. “I don’t care about the case anymore. Don’t get me wrong. I want to kill him for what he did to you, but I’m here because I’m crazy about you, Laura Rosen or Niles, or whatever you call yourself.” Rafe breathed against her neck, the warmth reassuring. “We’re here for you, bella. Nothing else. We talked about the case because we thought it would force you to spend time with us. We’ve been looking for you for years because we don’t want to live without you.” Well, that was a pretty fine answer. Tears in her eyes, she stopped dancing, disentangled herself, and started toward the parking lot.

She’d gotten ten feet when she realized they weren’t following. She turned, and they looked like lost puppies.

“I’m going home. I thought we could talk better at my place. Do you want to come home with me?” It was as plainly as she could put it. She wanted them. Life was too short to not try. If it all went bad, she would always have Bliss. She and Holly could be nuns together.

Maybe Alexei had a friend in witness protection who needed some letter loving.

But before she tried that, she was going to have at least one more shot with the two who had gotten away.

They ran to catch up, each taking one of her hands as they walked into the night.