A Fine Specimen (21 page)

He didn’t appear to be a
womanizer, which was a relief. But according to station-house scuttlebutt,
there hadn’t been a woman in his life for a long time, which was odd in a man
as attractive as Alex.

It looked like he’d more
or less written off having a stable relationship in his life.

In a way, Caitlin could
understand him. Just like he never spoke about the future, he rarely mentioned
the past. But from her interviews with the cops, she’d pieced together a tragic
picture of a neglected, even abused youngster who’d adopted toughness as a
shell until it became his defining characteristic. Breaking through that shell
was impossible. She was breaking her own heart instead.

She had no idea what
Alex’s feelings were about their affair. Maybe he didn’t have feelings. Maybe
he didn’t even realize they were
having
an affair. Maybe he hadn’t
thought about it at all. Maybe he was just enjoying their time together,
assuming it would be over when she moved out. Maybe she was presuming too much,
staying on. Maybe she should have looked for another hotel right away instead
of accepting his invitation, maybe…

A noise behind her made
her whirl around.

“Whoa,” Alex said,
pushing her hand away from the region of his groin. “Take it easy and point
that knife somewhere else. I like my private parts right where they are.”

Caitlin was always off balance
when she was jerked out of her thoughts. And she was always off balance around
Alex anyway. He was too close for her to be able to collect her thoughts.
“Alex?”

“Right here.”

Alex reached past her to
turn the radio off. There was a sudden silence in the kitchen and Caitlin
realized that he’d turned the TV in the living room off too.

Alex always smelled so
good, Caitlin realized as he moved even closer to her. Even at the end of the
day, when everyone else smelled of the emotions they’d experienced, Alex still
smelled good, as if he could control that too.

Caitlin had read
somewhere that males in a fight could smell each other’s fear. Alex wouldn’t
ever smell of fear, he’d smell of himself. And win.

He put his arm around
her and looked into her eyes. His gaze was fierce and penetrating. Caitlin
couldn’t even begin to imagine what he was thinking, except that whatever it
was, it was intense. His dark eyes were slightly narrowed and his mouth was
drawn into a tight line.

“Alex?” she asked again.
“Anything wrong?”

“No,” he said and put
his mouth on hers.

Caitlin breathed in
shakily, her nose next to his cheek. Alex’s kisses were always different,
taking her completely by surprise each time.

Sometimes he was so
passionate she felt seared to her bone marrow. This one was sweet, hot, deep.
Sweet enough to drown in, hot enough to ignite her, deep enough so she could
never find her way out again.

Alex’s mouth moved on
hers and Caitlin felt a wave of desire move in her bloodstream.

Alex tasted of beer and
himself as he took the kiss ever deeper. He was holding her head in both hands,
his fingers burrowed in her hair. He was connected to her only by the kiss, by
his mouth on hers, his hands in her hair, and she wanted to be closer to him
than that. She arched up against him, drowning in his kiss, moving ever closer,
feeling her muscles go lax…

And heard a soft
boing
.

They broke apart and
stared at Alex’s heavy, needle-sharp knife quivering in the hardwood floor a
hair away from his bare foot. A touch to the right and it would have skewered
it.

He looked up and smiled
into her eyes, a hot, secret smile just for her. He shook his head slowly.
“You’re a dangerous woman, Caitlin Summers,” he said.

Alex was sweating.
Danger on the horizon.

He was trying to keep
his cool, but it was hard. It was Saturday and he and Caitlin were looking at
their fifth apartment of the day. All the other apartments they’d viewed had
been reasonably attractive, reasonably well maintained and reasonably priced.

Shit, the last one had
been in a nice neighborhood, in a pretty apartment complex with a pool, spa and
gym and wasn’t expensive. The real problem was that it was all the way across
town from his house. At least an hour’s drive away.

It had taken him a sweaty
half hour to talk Caitlin out of it. He’d had to become increasingly inventive
in finding excuses to reject everything they saw and he could tell that the
real estate agent was getting annoyed.

The agent was a tall,
tough-looking lady with big hair an improbable shade of red. Her name was Karen
Lowden and she and Caitlin had hit it off immediately. By the second house,
they were calling each other by their first names and now, by the fifth, you’d
think they were lifelong buddies.

At first Karen had addressed
both of them, thinking they were looking for an apartment to share. Alex had
felt a pang in his chest when Caitlin had made it clear that she would be
living alone. After Alex found one problem after another with the apartments
they viewed, Karen totally ignored him and spoke only to Caitlin.

Why the fuck was Caitlin
so hell-bent on finding herself an apartment? They were doing just fine the way
they were. Weren’t they? He didn’t have any complaints and he hadn’t heard any
from her.

Why did she want to move
out? Was she waiting for him to say something? It wasn’t as if he hadn’t
thought of it, because he had. He had a feeling that if he asked Caitlin to
stay, she would.

Or maybe she wouldn’t.
Who knew? What did he know about these things? Nothing.

He didn’t want to find
out. And anyway, asking her to stay would somehow formalize the arrangement,
which he wasn’t sure he wanted to do. He wanted the situation to remain exactly
as it was, for as long as possible, because it was just
fine
the way it
was.

They could both walk out
of the arrangement at any moment though he knew that right now, he’d rather
have root canal work on every single tooth in his head than to see Caitlin walk
out of his home. She seemed perfectly happy too. They were doing just fine. Why
the fuck fix it if it wasn’t broken?

Alex wasn’t dumb. He
knew there was a time limit on their time together. Caitlin was, by any measure
or definition, a “good girl”. If she lived with a man for any stretch of time,
she would start thinking marriage. And she would have every right to.

She had so much to
offer. She was kindhearted, gentle and mind-blowingly beautiful without a shred
of vanity. She was very smart—probably smarter than he was—and she kept him on
his toes. She had a wry sense of humor which was enchanting. She cooked like a
dream. She had a fascinating mind and he loved to hear her take on things. Even
her messiness was charming.

Alex knew—because
everyone made a point of telling him, over and over again—that he’d been easier
to get along with at work lately, something everyone attributed to Caitlin’s
influence on him. And they were right. He was feeling more relaxed than he had
in years.

Caitlin Summers would
make someone a delightful wife someday.

But not him.

Alex had never thought
much about marriage. The few times marriage had flashed across his mind, his
reaction was—
no fucking way
. He couldn’t see himself as anyone’s
husband. What could he possibly know about happily ever after? About making a
marriage work?

Alex had always made a
point of never asking about people’s backgrounds, because he wasn’t prepared to
reciprocate. But Caitlin had volunteered the fact that, though her father had
died at a young age, her parents had had a happy marriage. Alex couldn’t even
begin to imagine a happy marriage. The whole concept was foreign to him.

Happy for a
lifetime
with someone? What the fuck was that about? It was a minor miracle that he’d
managed to be happy for a full week with Caitlin. How on earth could anyone
manage a fucking lifetime?

His parents’ marriage had
been made in hell and he’d spent his entire childhood and adolescence watching
up close and personal how badly two people could damage each other and everyone
around them. No happy families in Riverhead.

His own relationships
never lasted more than a month or two at the most, he’d seen to that. The
instant the woman got that faraway, I-want-a-ring-and-a-fancy-wedding look in
her eye, he cut loose.

It didn’t happen often,
thank God, because he usually chose his women carefully. They expected nothing
but a good—though short—time from him and that was exactly what they got. No
more, no less.

Caitlin had somehow
blindsided him, sneaking up on him while he wasn’t paying attention, and now it
was too late. She was under his skin and the thought of losing her gave him a
cold feeling in his gut.

Too bad, because right
now it looked like she was going to walk.

She was ooh-ing and
ah-ing over what the agent called the “crown molding”. So what was so fucking
great about a little stucco work around the upper walls?

Caitlin had smiled with
delight at the Jacuzzi in the pale-rose-and-cream bathroom.

The agent was ecstatic.
A trickle of sweat ran down his back and his chest felt too tight.

The apartment was in the
center of town, had slightly more room than the average apartment in that price
range and was right next to a bus stop. It was in a new building and the
previous owner had stated her willingness to leave the brand-new blue-and-white
kitchen appliances and a collection of thriving houseplants.

It was perfect.

Alex hated it.

“Say,” he said in a
conversational tone. “Wasn’t a murder committed here a little over a year ago?
I’m sure I read this address in the report. It was right in this building. In
this apartment, if I’m not mistaken.” He gave an exaggerated shudder. “It’s
enough to give you the willies.”

“Alex, please…” Caitlin
murmured.

“No, officer—” Karen
Lowden began, her strong jaw muscles working.

Alex turned to the
red-haired woman and bared his teeth in what could be called a smile. Just.

“That would be ‘Lieutenant’,”
he said, narrowing his eyes.

“
Lieutenant
.”
Karen drew a deep breath and lowered her voice. “Lieutenant, there has never,
ever
,”
her voice was rising again, “been a murder here. I can guarantee it!”

She turned to Caitlin, clearly
the reasonable one of the two.

“You can rest assured on
that account, Caitlin. This building was constructed in 2005 and the only
tenant this apartment has ever had was Helen Montgomery. Mrs. Montgomery was a
high school teacher who moved away when she retired to live with her daughter.
She moved to Billings, Montana,” Karen added, as if that were further proof of
the irreproachable pedigree of the previous owner.

“Nice place, Billings,”
Alex said as he ambled toward the bedroom. Might as well torture himself with
the thought of Caitlin sleeping there instead of in
his
bedroom, where
she belonged. “Low crime rate. Not like Baylorville. ’Specially in this area of
town.”

The real estate agent
shot Caitlin a can’t-you-do-something-about-him look and hurried after Alex in
an effort at damage control. She probably felt her commission retreating every
time he opened his mouth. Damn straight.

Karen shouldered past
Alex and made for the wall closets.

“You see, Caitlin,” she determinedly
pulled open the louvered doors of the walk-in closet, “there’s plenty of
storage space. That’s really important if you want a neat and uncluttered
living area.”

The agent ignored Alex’s
loud snort.

“You see how large the
closets are? That’s such a plus nowadays when many apartments skimp on that
sort of thing.”

Alex peered in. “Perfect
place for an intruder to hide,” he said pleasantly. “Lots of head room.”

“If you
please
,
Lieutenant.” Karen Lowden’s voice was a touch above absolute zero. “Now,
Caitlin, as I was saying—”

“I’ll take it,” Caitlin
blurted.

“Good!” Karen Lowden
said.

“You’ll
what
?”
Alex asked at the same time.

“When would it be
available?” Caitlin asked.

“Look, Caitlin, maybe
you want to think it over—”

Karen pretended he wasn’t
speaking. “Right away. When would you like to move in?”

“Now wait a min—” He
tried to keep a calm voice.

“Tomorrow.” Caitlin
said. “If Sunday will work. I’m starting a new job on Monday and I want to be
settled in.”

“Tomorrow it is.” Karen
opened a purse large enough to be an apartment itself and hauled out some
papers and a Montblanc pen. “Just sign this lease and the apartment’s yours!”

Alex tried to block Caitlin
with his body but she was nimble and quick. A minute later the lease was
signed.

He didn’t have any moves
left, short of picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder.

Check and mate.

Alex gave up. “I’ll help
you move,” he said on a sigh.