Page 73 of Lay Down the Law

“I’m fine.” She blinked, and another tear rolled down her cheek. “I never cry like this….”

“Honey, if I hurt you—”

“No, it’s just…”

“Something I said?”

She shook her head.

Nick suppressed the swirl of panic in his gut. “Why are you crying?”

“I don’t know. I just…am.”

Like that made any sense. “All right.” It seemed like the right thing to say, but he didn’t have a clue what was going on. “Look, Erin, if I said something, or hurt you in any—”

She choked out a laugh and raised her eyes to his. “You didn’t hurt me, Nick.”

He stared at her, not understanding.

“You made me feel. I mean, you really made me feel…incredible. What we just shared…it was like magic. Not just the physical part, but…all of it. It moved me. That’s never happened to me before.”

A more powerful wave of panic surged through him. This wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have. Not when his own emotions were so close to the surface he could feel them tightening around his throat like a noose. Not when she looked so fragile and sexy snuggled up against him, her cheeks flushed, her eyes teary.

She wiped at her tears. “I can’t believe I’m…losing it like this just because we—”

“Had sex,” he finished quickly.

“Right.” She nodded vigorously. “We did. Have sex, I mean.”

Silence reigned for a moment, then Nick felt the laugh in his chest break free. When Erin looked up at him and smiled, he laughed harder. Then she was laughing with him, a soft, musical sound that made him feel more alive than he’d felt in years. He laughed until tears streamed from his own eyes, and he felt giddy and weak.

When their laughter had dwindled to an occasional giggle, he cradled her against him and brushed his lips across her temple. “It blew my mind, too, McNeal,” he said.

“I’m really glad I’m not the only one who noticed.” She dazzled him with another smile. “I’d forgotten how powerful…sex can be.”

“Maybe we’re just out of practice.”

“You know, Nick, we could probably spend the next couple of hours…you know…getting back into the swing of things.”

He chuckled. Simultaneously, a wave of affection washed over him. Another more powerful emotion hit him in the gut like a fist. For a moment his throat was so tight he couldn’t speak. Not because Erin was the first lover he’d taken since Rita, he realized with a start, but because of the way he felt about the woman he now held in his arms.

“What about you, McNeal?” he asked in a low voice.

“What about me?”

He smiled when she tensed. “Who was the jerk who convinced you a man who cares about you could never accept your being a cop?”

“What makes you think—”

“You, Erin. You’ve told me in a hundred different ways since I’ve known you.”

For a moment he thought she wouldn’t answer. He told himself it didn’t matter that she preferred not to share her past with him. He certainly didn’t have a claim on her. But he wanted to know what made her tick. Even more, he wanted to know what had made her so cautious.

She smiled, but to Nick it looked uncomfortable. “His name is Warren Prentice, upwardly mobile assistant district attorney extraordinaire.”

“I remember the name from my days in Chicago,” he said.

“I was a rookie. Fresh out of the academy. Warren prosecuted a case I made the bust on. We worked together and ended up getting…involved. He was older. Ambitious. Slick as oil. On his way to the top in a major way.”