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But he couldn’t escape the claim he had just made. As the words came from his lips, the knowledge wrapped around his heart. She was his, even if he couldn’t have her. He had seen the pain in her eyes, the sexuality that tormented her, the ache that shadowed her eyes. And so much more. He saw the need to be touched, to be held, to let go and share the passion, the heat that built within her.
“Do you love her, Jared?” his mother asked again, her voice firm now, demanding.
He stared back at her, meeting her gaze with a determination of his own.
Did he love her? He sighed with weary acceptance. Yeah, he loved her, more than he had thought it possible to love a woman.
“More than you know,” he finally said, his own need echoing through his body. “More than you could ever know, Mother. ”
For a moment compassion filled her eyes. She had waited years for him to find the one woman he felt he could spend the rest of his life with, and settle down into a relationship that fulfilled him, as much as her marriage to his father had fulfilled her.
“Then you have a choice to make,” she said gently. “All her life Kimberly has been forced to choose, and always it’s been a choice that’s ripped another wound in her soul. Can you ask her to add your heart and your needs to her burden?”
He stared back at her, restraining the fury erupting inside him. Swallowing tightly, he shook his head with a rough, negative movement. He couldn’t force her to make such a choice, and they both knew it. But he didn’t know if he could force himself to let her go, either.
Carl Stanton had a lot to pay for. It had been the nasty divorce with his wife that had spurred the first of the rumors. Kia Stanton had wanted out of that marriage, and when Carl had refused, she had let the first rumor free. But Kia was no longer associated with the membership there, so how had the rumors of his and Kimberly’s membership leaked out? Even more worrisome though, was the threat that his father’s previous association would be revealed as well.
“Does Madison know about Father’s connection to The Club?” he asked her then. “Is this causing you problems?”
He would kill the bastard if he had dared to abuse the petite, fragile woman that Jared knew his mother was.
She smiled mirthlessly. “You forget Jared; this is a marriage of convenience. But as far as I know, Daniel hasn’t heard any rumors he shouldn’t have. But if he did, it would serve him no good. He can’t harm me with it. But that isn’t the point. What will you do now?”
What else could he do?
“Let her go,” he whispered bitterly. “The only thing I can do. ”
Chapter Four
She could have been a spy, Kimberly thought, but the additional training didn’t go hand in hand with enforced chastity. There was always modeling, but Kimberly always thought that doing without pizza and losing that extra fifteen pounds that tormented her would have just been too painful. And being a rich man’s mistress was just out of the question; there was only so much shopping one could do before it became rather boring. Besides, just like being a spy, it would require the loss of her virginity. Everything else was just boring, so she joined the Police Academy instead, going from there to several security agencies that specialized in protection.
The work wasn’t really abnormally dangerous, and she got to wear a gun. She liked that part. Especially when the assignments required her to be in close proximity to arrogant men with more testosterone than good sense. Those assignments were few and far between thankfully, but occasionally they reared their ugly heads. Then there were those assignments that just sucked. The ones that she knew were going to test her patience and her training. This was one of them.
She stared back at her boss and one of her dearest friends, dumbfounded, restraining her disbelieving laughter. This one was just too bizarre to be real.
“Could you repeat that?” she asked carefully, certain she had to have heard wrong.
Richard Decker’s thick gray brows snapped into an instant frown.
“You heard me, Kimberly,” he said with careful emphasis. “You will be assigned to Raddington’s team, despite the alert that your welfare could be on the line as well. You will stick close to Raddington, and the team will surround you for the duration of time it takes to ascertain if the threat is real or imagined. You’ll head out to the Raddington Farm tonight, and you will stay there until this assignment is over. ”
Kimberly stood stiffly before him, breathing in carefully through her nose as she gritted her teeth with the effort it took to restrain her sarcastic reply. This was a farce if she had ever heard of one. How in the hell had it happened?
“Richard, I don’t believe this is a good idea…”
“It isn’t your place to make that determination,” he said coolly. “The order has come down from the Capitol itself. There is no other option. ”
Another deep breath. Deep breaths, she reminded herself. She could control the explosion building at the top of her head; all she had to do was breathe. At least, that’s what that arrogant, soft-spoken martial arts expert had told her.
“Then I’ll resign. ” It wasn’t a threat. It wouldn’t be the first time she had resigned from an agency, and she doubted it would be the last.
“You could do that. ” Decker nodded his head slowly, watching her dispassionately as she stood before him. “You’re a big girl, Kimberly, you can do whatever you want to. If you want to keep running. Or, you can face the fact that there will be times you’ll have to knuckle down and accept the inevitable. Especially if your father is chosen as the vice presidential hopeful in the next election as is rumored. ”
So the rumors were true. Just what she needed.
“I don’t consider it running…”
“Well I do, dammit,” he growled. “I put my ass on the line to hire you, if you remember correctly. I didn’t think I was bringing on a damned quitter. ”
