Searching for Cate by Marie Ferrarella Read Free Book Online

hands with her hair, bringing her mouth to his. She felt his breath on her lips as he promised, “You will.”
    Everything inside of her was turning to the consistency of oatmeal. “I mean, like soon.”
    Amusement etched itself into his features. “I’ll be quick, I promise.”
    Any kind of resolve she might have been able to muster on short notice evaporated like icicles in the hot August sun. She had never been able to resist Lukas, not even from the very first. And then she’d been armed with determination, resolved not to allow herself to fall for the tall, dark, handsome surgeon. As if she had any say in the matter, even then.
    They’d met under the most dire of circumstances. She’d burst into the hospital E.R., accompanying a man she’d shot not fifteen minutes earlier. He’d been the grief-stricken parent of a young girl who had overdosed on drugs she’d gotten from someone dealing at the mall. Extremists had tapped into his grief, making use of his knowledge of demolitions. Only timing and a huge amount of luck had allowed her and her former partner to partially foil his plot to blow up the mall.
    She’d arrived at the hospital determined to bring herwounded “suspect” to justice. Lukas was only concerned with saving his life.
    All in all, it hadn’t been the best setting for love to take root, but it had. Strongly. But then, she hadn’t counted on the determination of a man like Lukas. Despite their years of marriage, she could feel her head beginning to spin, her pulse beginning to race as his lips roamed over her shoulders. God, she hoped that would never change.
    â€œJust not too quick,” she cautioned.
    Stripping off the pajama bottoms that had just barely been clinging to his hips, Lukas caught her up in his arms.
    â€œYour wish is my command,” he told her just before he brought his mouth down on hers.
    And made the world disappear.

Chapter 6
    T he moment she got behind the wheel of her vehicle, Lydia transformed. She was no longer Lydia Graywolf, the proud, contented and very much in love wife of a prominent cardiac surgeon. She was Special Agent Lydia Wakefield Graywolf, a dedicated operative who had given her all to the bureau.
    At times, she found the system restrictive, the regulations frustratingly binding. But when she came right down to it, no better system existed within the country, certainly not outside it. And until a better one did, she was determined to remain working for the bureau in one capacity or another. That meant being a field operative, and she wanted nothing to change that. Not yet.
    Again, a pang of guilt slipped through her. She banked it down.
    Not now, she told herself sternly. There was timeenough for that later, when she was a hundred percent certain.
    Lydia glanced at her watch. Silver-banded, blue-faced, it had been a gift from Lukas on their first wedding anniversary. The irony of it was, without knowing his choice, she’d bought a similar one for him.
    Just showed that they thought alike, she mused. Kindred spirits that had found each other.
    She wasn’t late—yet—but she certainly wasn’t going to be early the way she wanted to be, either.
    Pressing down on the accelerator, Lydia gunned her engine. She made her way from Bedford to Santa Ana taking surface streets. The Santa Ana Freeway was a bear at this hour of the morning. Traffic was known to come to a dead stop with a fair amount of regularity. She didn’t have the patience for that this morning.
    Lately, there was very little patience to draw on.
    Periodically, Lydia glanced up in the rearview mirror, keeping an eye out for any policeman who might have a quota to fill. Luck was with her. She managed to fly through a number of amber traffic lights before they turned red and kept her from getting to the office on time. Any hope of getting there early died the second Lukas had kissed her that morning.
    No, she