Page 74 of Happily Ever After

Refugees

Raphael Mirabaud

I wasn’t planning on seducing her in someone else’s house.

Really, I wasn’t.

Why are you laughing?

Raphael was kneeling by the doorknob of the back door of a dark house, holding some metal wires in his teeth while he inserted others in the knob. He’d gotten the lockpicks from another envelope in the glove compartment. The damn lock was sticky.

“I’m sure this is illegal,” Flicka whispered to Raphael and looked around in the dark. “This is breaking and entering, and it’s totally illegal. We should sleep in the car.”

That back seat wasn’t big enough for a Pekingese. He should have specified to Vonlanthen they needed a Land Rover because they might need to camp in it.

He said, “We’re not breaking anything.” One of the picks poked histongue when he talked. “And we’re not here to steal anything, either.”

Flicka clutched his priest shirt more tightly around her. “I’m fine with curling up in the car to sleep. I do a lot of yoga. I canreallycurl up.”

“I can’t,” Raphael growled through clenched teeth and tried not to impale his tongue on that wire. The wintry wind cut right through his slacks and tee shirt. His fingers crampedaround the picks as he tried not to shake from the cold, but he needed to get Flicka inside where it was warmer. That silk dress was literally made out of spider webs, and she had only his shirt to keep her warm. His exhausted fingers slipped on the steel wires he was jiggling in the doorknob. “Besides, this is better. The police won’t see our car parked behind the shed, and if we’re rested, we’lldrive more safely later.”

“I don’t like this at all,” she said.

The knob clicked, and the door swung inward, thank all the angels. “There it is. Let’s go in.”

Flicka tiptoed in.

Raphael listened to the air in the house, but nothing moved. No dogs. No people. And no alarms blared at their entry.

The house was cool, but it felt much warmer on his arms and hands than the frigid air outside.She’d be okay in here.

He pressed the door closed and relocked it. “We shouldn’t turn on the lights. The owners are probably away for Christmas, so the neighbors might call the police if they saw lights.”

Flicka stared into the dark. Moonlight streamed in through the window above the kitchen sink, glanced off the clean counters, and brushed her bright blond hair that fell in soft curls aroundher face. “Okay, no lights.”

He couldn’t help himself. Now that they were in the house, they were safe, at least for a little while.

Raphael grabbed Flicka’s hand and spun her into his arms. Her slender body curved against his strong one, and he sank his fingers into her soft tresses bound up in a bun and pulled her head back so he could kiss her.

His mouth crashed down on hers, his lips takingevery moment and movement of hers, and he wrapped his arm more firmly around her back to feel that she was safe, she was with him, and they were finally together.

The last few days had been torture for him, but he hadn’t allowed himself to think about anything except the job he had to do to get her back.

Anything.He would have doneanything.

Luckily, his plan had worked.

His backup plan hadbeen an all-out air and sea assault, and he would have led the suicide mission if it meant Flicka would walk free.

Her fingers tightened on his tee shirt, pulling him closer, and she kissed him back. Her petal-like lips and the softness of her curves in his hands were driving him crazy, and he crowded her against a wall to kiss her more thoroughly. His tongue caressed hers as his hand slippeddown to her hip.

She broke off the kiss, panting. “I am not going to screw you in a house we broke into, no matter how much adrenaline turns me on.”

He chuckled softly, almost gasping because his body was primed to rip their clothes away and take her right there. “I concur. At least one of us needs to stay alert in case they come home or the neighbors send the police.”

She laid her cheek onhis shoulder, and Raphael’s heart swelled. This is what he’d imagined his life would be like when his wife was pregnant with their child: holding her body close to his and running his cheek over the silk of her hair.

Okay, he hadn’t imagined running away from the police and escaping from his wife’s ex-husband, but this moment—holding her, sheltering her—thishad been what he’d imagined when he’dthought that he might have a family someday. He hadn’t been able to do this with Gretchen. She’d pushed him away every time he’d tried.