Lisa Scottoline - Daddy's Girl

"Yes you can, and you will." He closed her hand around the envelope, and Nat couldn't deny the effect of his touch. "Pay me back whenever. Now, I have one last item in your going-away kit. Hold on." He turned away, dug in the bag, and handed her another envelope. "This is a one-way ticket to Miami, on a train that leaves early tomorrow from Wilmington. It's the earliest I can get you out of here. I'd fly you, but you need ID for that. I'll take you to the Wilmington station tomorrow morning."

"No. If I accept a ticket from you, you're an accomplice. You're aiding and abetting."

"I can't think of anybody I'd rather do that to. With. Whatever." His gaze was direct and even, meeting Nat somewhere in the middle of the space between them, which she could sense growing smaller by the second.

"Angus, I can't do that to you."

"Just go, and we'll see what to do next."

"Why Miami?"

"Because it's as far away as possible and I have a good friend there, a great criminal lawyer."

"I'll get away on my own."

"You have to take this, for me. For us."

Us? Nat didn't know what to say.

"We have a chance if you get through this. I'm being selfish here."

Nat's heart quickened and before she could protest, Angus leaned over and kissed her softly, his beard still cold as it brushed against her cheek. He explored her mouth, and she kissed him back, tasting his warmth until he pulled away and met her eye with frank desire.

"I love you, I do," Angus whispered.

Nat fell speechless, feeling everything at once.

"I want you to be safe and sound, away from here. I don't know it it's legally right or wrong, I only know that I love you and want you safe." He leaned down and kissed her again, his blue eyes still open, clear as sky, and Nat kissed him back, eyes open, too, exposing herself to him. Their gaze and kiss connected them, one to the other, and she knew in her heart that even though it was too soon, she was stone crazy about the man.

"Angus, I-" Nat began to say, but he kissed her again, more urgently, probing, and she felt herself enveloped in his scratchy sweater.

"I knew it would be like this," Angus murmured, stroking her face, then cupping the back of her shorn head, pulling her mouth to his again.

Nat surrendered to the feeling, enjoying the sweetness. He kissed her again and his hands traveled down her back to her hips. He picked her up in both hands and gentled her onto his lap, easing them both backward onto the bed. She found herself climbing onto him, straddling him in her jeans, in a way she hadn't done ever before, and his arms gripped her waist, pulling her down onto him. He kissed her deeply, and she wanted to wrap herself around him in every way, feel herself take him inside, and when she couldn't stand it any longer, he seemed to know and began to take off his sweater, laughing when he got it stuck on his head. "Help!"

"It's caught on your beard." Nat laughed with him and helped, and when Angus's face finally reappeared, flushed with effort, she looked into his eyes and touched his beard with wonderment, running her fingertips over its reddish gold strands, feeling its softness and coarseness at the same time. He yanked off his T-shirt, revealing a thick, muscular chest covered with dark gold hair and a long ponytail snaking over the bulge of his shoulder.

Nat stirred at the sight of such a natural man, kissing him deeply as he put his hands under her sweater and guided it upward, smiling with pleasure as she pulled it over her head and let it fall away.

"My poor baby," Angus said suddenly, and Nat saw his face change, Then she remembered, ashamed. Her chest. The scratches. Her hands flew to cover herself, but he caught her hands and kissed them.

"No, it's okay. Let me see," he said, his eyes troubled, and he gentled her hands apart and eyed Buford's handiwork.

"Let me make it better," he murmured, while he kissed each scratch, then sent a shiver down her spine as he placed his hands warmly on her shoulders and slid down the straps of her bra. He reached around and unfastened the bra, and she wriggled out of it and tossed it aside, both of them giggling as if they were children at play. He pulled her close to him, and she felt the strength in his shoulders and back as they kissed again, harder and with need, and everything changed, darkening and deepening, as soon as skin met skin and his chest pressed against hers.

Angus lifted her in his arms and laid her back on the bed, quickly unbuttoning her jeans, pulling down her zipper, and tugging her pants off, then standing over her and sliding her panties down. Nat shuddered with arousal as he put his hands behind her knees and slid her to the edge of the bed, and then they suddenly stopped being children at play and became again adults, a woman and a man.

About to love each other.

Afterward they lay happily together in the dark, and Nat rested her head on Angus's chest, playing with the ends of his hair. "I've never slept with a ponytail before," she said.

"I match my dog, you know."

"What do you mean?" Nat was remembering the obedience school diploma on his wall.

"She's a rescue dog, part Afghan, part golden retriever. She looks like a wacky lion." Angus sounded completely relaxed. "My ponytail is exactly the length of her tail."

"I don't want to know how you measured that."

"No, you don't. Everybody thinks my hair is a political statement, but it's just to match Miss Sally." Angus cradled Nat closer. "God, you are so little. How does so much woman fit into such a tiny package?"

Giving new meaning to Gnat.

“I love your body."

Nat smiled, too shy to say that she loved his, too. It turned her on that he was so much stronger and bigger. He made love outside the rules. She mentally replayed her favorite scene, and it almost brought her to another orgasm. Nat had just learned that she was a total sexist in bed, which is the kind of thing you realize when you sleep with a caveman.

"God, that was great. Don't you think?"

Nat liked a Cro-Magnon who needed reassurance. "We both get As."

Angus laughed softly. "I knew it would be terrific. I called it."

Nat shifted happily on his chest. "So how premeditated was this seduction?"

"Not very. To be honest, it usually takes more than a toothbrush to get a woman into bed."

"But you brought a condom." Nat lifted her head to see him grinning in the dark.

"Correction. I brought three condoms."

"You're an optimist."

"Oh yeah? Talk to me in twenty minutes."

Nat laughed, and Angus hugged her close.

"You know why it was so great?" he asked.

"No. Why?"

"Because it's love."

Nat hesitated. "You think?"

"I know. I told you, straight up. I love you."

"It doesn't feel too soon to you?"

"It's an emotional reaction, Natalie. You can't time it or analyze it. Yes, of course, it will grow and blah blah blah, but it's there right now. The important part, the wow. That's love."

The wow. Nat soaked in the words. She knew what he meant. Had she ever felt the wow with Hank?

"It's okay if you don't know it yet, but you love me, too." Angus sighed. "I swear, I am so tired. It must be the meds they gave me. You must be exhausted, too."

"I am," Nat said, but she was already planning her next move.

"Don't worry. Everything's going to be all right."

"Let's sleep now. We're both tired."

"I'll get you out of here in the morning, and you'll be safe."

No way. "Okay, you've convinced me." Nat had wanted to tell him about the floor plan and her new theory, but the less he knew, the better, for his sake.

"I already set my cell to wake us up," Angus said. "We can't miss the train. You need anything?"

"Hush, now."

"Me, too," Angus said. His furry chest rose with a deep breath, and in the next minute, she heard his breathing even into slumber.