“No.” Reese shook her head, pulling her closer. “You’re my life, Tor.”

“And you’re mine,” Tory whispered, raising her head and finding Reese’s mouth. “I love you.”

Reese groaned softly, arching her hips as Tory stroked a particularly sensitive spot just below her navel. “Don’t we both have to work this afternoon?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Then I think, Doctor King, that you should remove your hand.”

“We have to shower, don’t we?”

Reese just grinned.

Tory leaned back into Reese’s arms, sighing as Reese reached around her and smoothed warm lather over her breasts and abdomen with both hands. “I never want to leave here.”

Reese chuckled, holding a full breast in one hand as she ran the other down the prominent slope of Tory’s belly. “The baby is growing.”

“It’s really starting to show,” Tory murmured, her eyes still closed. “Do you mind?”

“You have to ask?” Reese’s voice was husky as she brushed her fingers softly through the downy hair at the base of Tory’s abdomen. “It’s wonderful. And incredibly sexy.”

Tory laughed softly, covering the exploring hand with her own. “I wouldn’t have believed it, but I actually feel sexy—in a different way than before, but good.”

“How?” Reese asked.

“I feel like I’m bursting with something so powerful—life, love—I guess. I look at you and I want you to touch it, touch me, some place deep inside.”

“I love you,” Reese groaned. Tory’s soft skin against her breasts and abdomen was like flame to tinder. She was burning, pulsing with excitement. “Take my hand…take me to those places.”

“Hold me.”

“Always.”

Tory drew Reese’s fingers between her legs, parting the delicate folds that enclosed her most sensitive places. She led her to the warm pools of her desire, drawing Reese’s fingertips gently inside and then upward, until they rested against the undersurface of her clitoris. Her legs were trembling, her breath shallow and fast. “Feel how heavy? How full?”

“Yes,” Reese gasped, her head pounding with the effort it took to let Tory guide her. “Beautiful.”

Tory pushed against Reese’s hand, moaning softly. Then, slowly, she drew her lover inside, resting her weight in the bend of Reese’s body as she was filled. “Ah, so good. You feel so good there.”

Reese closed her eyes tightly, holding very still as she pressed her mouth to Tory’s neck, letting the warm water that cascaded from Tory’s skin run between her lips. Nothing ever made her feel quite so humble or so privileged as when she was inside Tory’s body. Hoarsely, she whispered, “I want to stay here forever.”

“You can.” Fine ripples cascaded through the muscles enclosing Reese’s fingers. Tory tightened involuntarily and the pressure immediately pulsed into her clitoris. She jerked, and Reese’s palm brushed over the swollen shaft. She gave a small cry and arched in Reese’s arms.

“What is it?”

“I want to come.”

Reese gently bit the tender skin below Tory’s jaw. “Can you stand?”

“Yes.”

When Tory reached behind and braced both palms against Reese’s thighs, Reese let the hand that had been encircling Tory’s middle drift lower until she could stroke her. Tory was already too close to tease, and Reese started the circular motion that she knew would make her come.

“I love you, Tor,” Reese breathed when Tory trembled in her arms.

“Can you feel it?” Tory asked urgently as she began to come.

“Yes,” Reese gasped, trying so carefully to go slow, trying to draw out the pleasure as Tory climaxed in her hands.

“Ah,” Tory sighed as she slowly relaxed into Reese’s embrace. “God, you spoil me.”

Reese laughed a bit shakily. She tended to stop breathing every time Tory orgasmed, and her legs had gotten so weak, she’d been worried for a moment that she was going to take them both down. “Believe me, it’s my pleasure.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

That afternoon, Bri and Reese were silent as Reese drove the cruiser west on Bradford. She slowed as they approached the site of the fire two days before. A deep red Durango SUV was parked on the shoulder across the street from the police barricades that had been erected around the property.

“There’s someone walking around back there,” Bri observed.

“Yep, I see them.” Reese pulled up behind Durango.

The two of them crossed the street shoulder to shoulder and circled around to the rear of the burned out shell.

“Sheriff’s department,” Reese announced as she and Bri walked around one of the yellow and blue saw-horses and approached the stranger who was standing in the doorway of the burned out building. “This is a restricted area.”

“I’m an insurance investigator, officers,” a mellifluous tenor voice responded.

Reese raised an eyebrow, surveying the emerald green eyes, flawless lightly-tanned complexion, and the hint of red hair obscured by a baseball cap. “You have ID?”

“Sure.” Moving closer, the stranger reached into a back pocket with one hand and swept off the hat with the other. Thick luxurious, crimson hair cascaded to shoulder level, and the strikingly beautiful woman smiled. Extending a hand with a leather bi-fold ID case in it, she said, “Ashley Walker.”

Reese studied the photo ID on the private investigator’s license. Satisfied, she handed it back. Neutrally, she observed, “Ordinarily, Ms. Walker, it’s wise for a private investigator to check in with the local authorities.”

Ashley swept her eyes from Reese to Bri and back again. The two law-enforcement agents were disarmingly similar with their dark good looks and nearly-matching brilliant blue eyes. The older one was slightly taller and a little more muscular, but in the dark, there wouldn’t be much difference between the two. She smiled slowly. “My apologies. I meant to let you know I was in town, but when I drove by and saw the state of this building, I thought I’d better get a few photographs before it fell down or your town engineers pulled it down.”

“Step outside the barricade, please,” Reese recommended in a tone which implied it was more than a request.

“Fine,” Ashley replied. “I didn’t get your name?”

“Deputy Sheriff Reese Conlon. This is Officer Parker.”

“Pleasure.”

“What’s your investigation about, Ms. Walker?” Bri questioned evenly. “Who are you working for?”

“Just a routine insurance claim.” Unperturbed by the mildly suspicious expression on the young officer’s face, Ashley produced her wallet, opened it, and slid a business card from an inside pocket. Handing it to Bri, she said, “That’s my office address, cell phone number, and pager. Anytime you want to reach me, Officer Parker, for any reason, please feel free.”

“Finished up here, then?” Reese asked as the three of them turned and began to walk back toward their vehicles.

“I thought I’d stay in town for a while until the fire marshal’s report was complete.”

“If you need access to the site, once it’s been cleared, let us know,” Reese advised.

Ashley rested her hand on the handle of her SUV, hitched one hip against the door, and observed them both with a small grin. “Oh, I’ll be sure to do that.”

Then she stepped into her Durango, started the engine, and drove away with a small wave in their direction.

Bri watched the red truck turn right and disappear around the bend toward Herring Cove. Part of her was irritated at the cocky self-confidence of the private investigator, but she found that the woman’s flippant grin stayed with her. “Is that normal?”

“An insurance investigation? Pretty much all the time when there’s loss of property.” Reese opened the driver’s-side door of the cruiser and slid in while Bri walked around the other side and got in as well. “It isn’t usual to have a PI run the investigation though. Usually it’s one of the insurance company’s claim representatives.”

“So what do you think?”

“I think we ought to take a very careful look at the fire marshal’s report, and I think you’re going to have some interviews to do.”

Reese met Bri several hours later, and they drove into the center of town together for dinner. As they walked toward a small sandwich shop on the pier at Commercial and Standish, Reese asked, “Get anything from the interviews?”

“Maybe,” Bri replied cautiously. “The manager of the condominium next door says he thought he saw lights flickering in the restaurant a couple of times late at night in the past few weeks.”

“And he didn’t bother to call us?” Reese remarked in disgust.

Bri shrugged. “Said he thought it was probably just kids and didn’t pay much attention.”

“I suppose we’re lucky he mentioned it to you at all.” Reese was next in line at the order window and put in her request for fish and chips and soda. “I don’t suppose he saw a vehicle?”

“Nope. But it fits with our theory that someone’s been using the place. If so, they’re going to be looking for new digs. I thought maybe we could start keeping an eye on some of the other abandoned places around town.”

“Good idea.”

After they had both ordered, they moved away to await their dinner.

“There was something else,” Bri confided.

Reese raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“I talked to maybe a dozen people this evening, up and down the cul-de-sacs off Bradford and along Route 6 toward the Provincetown Inn. At least half told me that I was the second police officer to interview them since the fire.”

“Interesting. Hold on for a second,” Reese added as their number was called. She and Bri collected their food and drinks and walked out of earshot of the tourists and other diners to a small picnic table on Macmillan Wharf. “I don’t suppose you got a description of the new member of our force, did you?”

“Yep.” Bri grinned. “Red hair, green eyes, late twenties. Female.”

“Thorough, isn’t she?”

“Would you say that’s SOP for an insurance claim?” Bri asked.

“No, I wouldn’t.” Reese regarded her dinner absently. Something was off, and the fact that it involved something as dangerous as the possibility of arson bothered her a good deal. “It looks like we need to pay a visit to Ms. Walker.”

“Fortunately,” Bri said, patting her chest pocket, “I have all her numbers.”

“When you give report to the night shift, make sure you give them the addresses of these places and remind them to do a pass-by several times during the shift.”

“Got it.” Bri felt a sudden let-down as she realized that her time with Reese was coming to an end. It was five minutes to midnight, and they were on their way back to the Sheriff’s department to sign out. In another few minutes, Reese would go home and she would be alone. It was Saturday night, she had just finished an exciting shift at work, and she had no one to share it with.

She could go home with Reese, but the small spare bedroom with its single bed seemed too lonely to contemplate. Carre would be out somewhere with friends, probably having a glass of wine and talking about school, or a film she had just seen, or some project she was involved in. Bri’s heart ached as she wondered if Carre would be thinking about her. I should call her. But she said not to—that she would call me when she was ready. She said she wanted a little time to think. Think about what? Think about whether she still loves me? Think about whether she still wants to be with me? Think—

“Bri?”

Bri jumped. They were sitting in front of the Sheriff’s department. The engine was off and the night was very quiet. She had no idea how long she had been staring unseeing through the windshield.

“Yeah?” she said hoarsely.

“You okay?”

Bri nodded and swallowed hard. “Yeah. Fine.”

“I saw Caroline this morning.”

Bri closed her eyes.

“Have you straightened things out with her?” Reese asked gently.

“Not yet.” Bri didn’t want to talk about it. Just thinking about it made her hurt so much inside she was afraid she would cry. She especially didn’t want to discuss what had happened with Reese. She had a sudden sick feeling in her stomach. Christ, does she know about Allie?

Thankfully it was too dark in the car for Reese to see her shamed blush. The thought of Reese knowing about the way she had fucked up was almost as bad as Carre’s tears. She felt like dying.

“You need to do that, Bri,” Reese said evenly as she opened the door of the cruiser.

“Yeah, I know,” Bri replied softly, all the while wondering how to even begin.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

When Reese and Bri walked into the office, Lewis, one of the summer recruits who had been hired to work the swing shift, looked up from the dispatch counter and nodded perfunctorily. “There are messages for both of you on the spindle.”