Shadow Fire (Shadow Riders 7)

“I knew the investigation Val and Dario started here in the States had to be connected to what I was doing in Barcelona, but it didn’t make sense that someone had identified me. You were already very protective. I thought if I could discover who had been the person to send the photograph to Santoro from Barcelona, then I’d be able to figure out how they managed to find out I was onto the freighters and the crime family in New York.”

“But you had planned to tell me . . .” He paused. “Eventally.”

Her breath left her lungs in a long rush. He wasn’t in the least bit happy with her. “I planned to tell you right away, Elie. I did tell you right away.”

CHAPTER TEN

Elie studied Brielle’s face with that curious melting sensation he was becoming familiar with in his chest. All soft, all feminine with her long sweeping lashes, and beautifully shaped lips, yet she had a backbone of steel. He admired and respected her. They needed shadow riders, and by all accounts, she was an extremely good one, but on a keyboard, she had a gift that surpassed anything he’d ever seen. She was a treasure for many, many reasons and she clearly had no idea.

“Your idea of telling me immediately and mine are clearly two different things,” he informed her, keeping his tone casual. She didn’t need to know how hard he was falling for her yet. Not until he could figure out what she was holding back from him. She’d been growing more and more restless the last two weeks, although he’d felt they’d grown close.

Elie didn’t yet know exactly what his wife needed from him, other than reassurance that he wasn’t going anywhere. He didn’t think words were going to convince her so much as showing her. He needed to figure out the things she needed and give them to her. For the first time in his life, he’d tasted real terror when he’d seen the two teams of assassins storming his home with the sole purpose of killing his wife.

He had prepared for an attack on the house, but that didn’t mean there weren’t weak spots in his defenses. Stefano’s family had gone over and over the security to find any holes, but there was always some point of entry they might have missed. It had never occurred to him he would be like Stefano was with Francesca, wanting—no, needing—to wrap Brielle up in a cocoon of safety, especially so quickly. He only knew he didn’t like the fact that she’d been in danger and he hadn’t been there to protect her, nor had the precautions necessary to ensure she would stay protected.

“I’m sorry, Elie.” Brielle did look remorseful when she put down the second half of her sandwich and widened her vivid green eyes at him.

Her long lashes fluttered and his cock reacted with a hard jerk. The flames from the fireplace flickered and danced on the walls and spread across the hardwood floors so they gleamed lighter in places. The flames created shadows throughout the room so that moving slightly in any direction, just shifting in his chair, would connect the two of them together. It was dangerous to do so when he was already in a heightened state of desire for her.

“I do things in a certain order,” she added, a little frown appearing, drawing her eyebrows closer together.

He loved watching the various expressions on her face as she puzzled things out. She fascinated him as no other woman had ever done.

“I have a pattern in the way I do things, Elie, and I suppose I follow it meticulously. When I hunt for information, it’s intuitive more than brilliant. I’m not super smart. Quite a few riders have psychic gifts. I believe I have a psychic talent that allows me to hunt for the information I need and that’s what makes me good on a keyboard, but I also have to follow where it leads me.”

He wanted to lean forward and kiss her earnest little face. Mon Dieu, but she was beautiful. His heart felt almost too big for his chest. His cock certainly pushed too hard against the confines of his trousers.

“I’m not sure how that would stop you from telling me your photograph was there along with ours, Brielle.”

Brielle chewed on the side of her bottom lip, one of the habits he was coming to know that indicated she was very nervous. “You, Val and Dario were here in the United States. That meant the source, whoever sent your photographs, was here. The reason was also here in the States. I put my photo out of my mind because it didn’t matter while I was working on uncovering who had provided the pictures of each of you. Someone had taken them and sent them to someone else before they were given to Dino Colombo. Once I found out Carlo Santoro had sent them to Dino Colombo, then I backtracked the photographs to the origins. I wanted to know who provided them.”

That did make sense to him. He could see the way her mind would work, and there was the underlying ring of truth there, but on the other hand, he also heard one small note that was off. She might not even be aware of it, but she was uncomfortable and had been from the moment they had begun talking about her investigation.

“Brielle.” He dropped his voice another octave. He had his own gifts. “Look at me. Not around the room. Look at me.” He waited until her eyes met his and then he held her gaze. There was trepidation there. Yeah. He was right. She felt guilty. His little woman. He definitely was falling in love fast. He hadn’t known he was capable of the real thing. He hadn’t even known what the hell it was.

“Are you certain that’s the only reason you didn’t tell me about the photograph?”

He got the lash flutter. The lip bite. Her gaze didn’t shift away, but she swallowed hard. “I don’t know. I may have thought about it for a minute and discarded the idea.”

They had promised each other honesty and she was giving that to him. “I came in when you had my photograph up. Had you just found the file? Were the other pictures right under it?”

She nodded her head slowly.

“We were talking about it right when you found it, before you had really started your investigation, and then I went downstairs to make us sandwiches.”

She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue and nodded again.

“You don’t consider that a lie?”

Fire flashed in her eyes. “Absolutely not. I may have omitted telling you, but I didn’t lie. And I had every intention of telling you later and I did, as soon as I tracked down the origins of all the photos. I could have waited until way later, but I didn’t. You omit telling me all kinds of things, so don’t you dare be self-righteous with me about that, Elie. If you get to do things in our marriage, then so do I.”

Her chin went up and he couldn’t stop himself this time. He leaned over, framed her face with his large hands to hold her still and used his teeth, nipping her soft skin until she yelped, her eyes darkening with a mixture of desire and temper. His tongue soothed the bite and then he kissed it before pulling back.

“I’m not certain now is the best time to defy me, mon petit jouet sexuel. We’re alone for the night. Locked in. You committed several indiscretions we have yet to discuss, not to mention I was away from you and men determined to kidnap you came to our home. I didn’t like the way that made me feel.”

At his soft-spoken declaration and him putting her on notice by calling her his little sexual toy, goose bumps rose immediately, and beneath her blouse, her nipples peaked. He had been thinking she needed more than his gentler lovemaking, although she was very responsive every time he touched her. The restlessness she tried to hide was coming from need. From a craving. Just the way she responded to his voice, the way he called her his toy indicating they were about to play a very intense game, meant he was on the right track.

He straightened and indicated her sandwich. “Eat.”