Love by Association

She was in over her head.

But she couldn’t stop now. Not when she was getting somewhere. Getting close. Not when she didn’t trust her own department to take the Smyth information and run with it. Not when she didn’t know who she couldn’t trust.

His hand stilled. “That sounds ominous.”

Finally words came to her. “You don’t trust people, Colin. You’ve said so, several times.” Several times the night before, alone. “It’s a bit daunting, to...care so much so quickly. Only to have you add in the fact that the guy you’re suddenly besotted with isn’t big on trusting, and you start to see the potential for disaster.” She smiled to soften the words. To give them a Johnson-like quality.

“You’re besotted with me?” He was grinning, too.

“I was, for a second there....” With a quick kiss, Chantel sat up. Taking the sheet with her, she started to stand. His hand on her elbow held her in place. She turned to look at him.

“I promise you that if I ever feel cause to doubt you, I will be cognizant of my challenges in the trust department and give you the benefit of the doubt.”

The intense look in those deep blue eyes as he held her gaze unblinkingly spoke straight to Chantel’s heart.

Yeah, she was in deep shit.

* * *

COLIN’S WAY, WHEN things felt like they were spiraling out of control, was to take action.

So he had trust issues—for good reasons. He also had instincts that were well honed, that had led him well time and time again over the past decade.

Promise me that if there ever comes a time when you’re unsure about me, you give me the benefit of the doubt.

He’d made the promise. But wasn’t sure, even as he’d done so, that he’d be able to keep it. He still wasn’t sure.

He’d once trusted David Smyth Sr., as much as he’d trusted his own father. He’d had total faith in law enforcement. In the legal system that he now knew was as much about the best argument as it was about following the law. He’d trusted more than one woman with thoughts of a future together...

Promise me that if there ever comes a time when you’re unsure about me, you give me the benefit of the doubt.

Why had she asked that of him? Had it really been as she’d said? That she was afraid of being so tied up with a man who had trust issues?

Or was she hiding something?

There was another glitch in the Japan deal. He got the call Sunday afternoon and would be on a flight later that night. Might be gone for a couple of days or more. His administrative assistant could clear his schedule.

Julie, who was used to his occasional and often unplanned absences, would be fine.

Chantel was the problem. He didn’t want to lose a second of the time he had with her.

And he didn’t want to leave town—feeling like his life was in an upheaval. He could call her—tell her he had to see her that afternoon. Get in a couple of hours with her after brunch before heading to the airport.

Or he could work toward making certain that information Julie had leaked, and the suppositions Chantel was consequently drawing, were not going to blow up in their faces, that the women would be protected while he was out of the country.

He chose the latter, of course, which was why he was sitting at a table at the country club, nursing a bottle of beer, with James Morrison across from him, doing the same.

James wasn’t much of a drinker, something Colin had always liked about him. His unwillingness to give up self-control and awareness. Ever.

He’d asked the man, ten years his senior, how things were going, and had received a shrug in response.

“I have a difficult question to ask you,” Colin said, leaning in to keep their conversation private. He’d chosen a table by the window, overlooking the tenth green and two tables away from the nearest customer in the half-filled room. But most of the men and women present knew one another—at least by sight and name—and Colin didn’t want to appear as though he and James were open to anyone joining them.

Morrison’s brow furrowed as he nodded.

“I need you to trust that I’m going somewhere with this question.”

“Of course.” James didn’t hurry him or lose his sense of calm.

“It’s come to my attention that Leslie has been...hurt...”

Morrison raised his hand, shaking his head. “Let me stop you right there,” he said, his expression clearing. “You’ve heard the rumors, and while I respect that you’ve come to me rather than indulging in them—which I’d expect from you, by the way, to come to me rather than indulge—I’m also a bit surprised you’d have to ask.”

“I’m not asking you if you abuse your wife, James.” Colin needed to make that clear. “I put no credence in the rumors whatsoever and have done what I can to squelch them.”