With Roses Come Thorns

When she first laid eyes on Dallas, she didn't know whether she wanted to run into his arms or slap his face.

But then again he had often stirred conflicting emotions in her even in all the years they had known each other.

She knew he expected her to answer his greeting but she didn't feel like giving him what he wanted. Too much had happened between them when they last shared space to just be casual about him finding her.

Because she had been so damned careful to cover her tracks and yet he had found her which mean that others might also as well. Not to mention that if he'd found her then he'd certainly been looking and she hadn't wanted him to expend that energy.

"Well aren't you going to answer me?"

She hedged, nibbling on her lip. She shifted the weight of her posture and got up on her feet, brushing her hands as much of a challenge as to clean them.

"Why…I already said everything I had to say…and so did you."

He looked around her at her surroundings.

"So when did you get into gardening"

She lifted her chin up.

'It's work and it doesn't put me on the front page of the newspaper or even on the map."

He smiled at that, even though she hadn't meant to be funny. She studied him standing there in his dark pants and his button up shirt. He had probably flown into San Francisco and then rented a car to drive up to find her.

"Why di d you leave?"

She had expected that question and she had her answer.

"You know why…I told you or I tried to but you cut me off at every point. If you didn't want the answers to those questions, you shouldn't have asked."

"Rodrigo's out on bail…"

She widened her eyes at that and tried not to react.

"But he wasn't supposed to be given bail."

Dallas sighed.

"He got another high priced lawyer to his ticket and the judge bent, and gave him $2 million to post which of course he did the same day."

She folded her arms.

"So is that why you came to find me to tell me that?"

He grimaced.

"He's back with his crew and he doesn't have to do or say much to get any one of them to take you out."

She took a deep breath.

"He'd have to find me first."

"I found you, didn't I?"

Oh he had her there most definitely. Because he was right, if he could find her, so could Rodrigo.

"Why do you care Dallas…according to you, he and I were lovers."

She saw him wince at those words probably without realizing it but he'd been the one to throw that in her face before she left…before she could tell him. Now he could go straight to hell as far as she cared.

"Weren't you?"

She glared at him feeling so many emotions fill her at once, she didn't know how to separate them.

"Get out….go back to L.A"

He didn't budge.

"I can't…not unless you come with me."

She just looked at him as if he'd gone out of his mind.

"Go to hell Dallas," she said, turning around to leave.

He moved to grab her arm and she flinched.

"Get your hands off of me."

He backed away and she just stood there, her body rigid before him.

"They're off Reese…"

She just stared at him because there had been a time when she loved having his callused hands running over her body, cupping her breasts as he kissed the back of her neck, sliding in between her thighs, rubbing where it made her want to scream…just the memory of how it felt to be touched by him made her body tingle in the places most ready for him. But she bit her lip to push those sensations, those stirrings of want away from her.

All they had brought her in the end was heartache and another part of her remembered that part of it. A pang hit her deep inside her chest and settled in the pit of her stomach at how his words thrown out in anger had torn up inside of her.

It had robbed her of the words she had wanted to tell him and so she had left him instead.

"Okay…you said your piece…I get it…I'll have to keep looking over my shoulder for longer. I've been doing that anyway."

Dallas shook his head.

"No that's not enough…If you don't come with me, I'm staying here with you…until they find some way to revoke his bail and lock him up until the trial."

God, she had tried to forget about when Rodrigo and his band of thugs would get their day in court. The defense attorney no doubt would be searching for ways to get his clients acquitted…and might in fact be using her to help him. If he could prove that she in her capacity as a freelancing agent for the federal government had entrapped him by luring him into bed.

Brock had warned her about that before she'd taken off…in that way of his that she hadn't trusted because he knew the truth…and she knew that but he hadn't shared it with anyone else. Because then it would put his ass in a sling with his bosses, and he had been looking at a promotion into the management ranks with this assignment.

"When will that be?"

She knew that they would be talking about weeks or months rather than days because nothing proceeded quickly in the federal justice system, certainly not justice.

He shook his head.

"Could be a while…he's got contacts everywhere and they'll be giving him a place to disappear under the radar and still look for you."

She shrugged.

"Maybe he wants to bust your ass Dallas."

He narrowed his eyes.

"That'd be easier than him being after yours but maybe he's not happy that his bedmate betrayed him."

She almost flinched at his terminology describing her and Rodrigo but she wasn't about to let him see that he had gotten underneath her skin. They had worked together for years in investigations and had been pretty close friends…until he had decided to deliver on Brock's request for a favor to borrow their skills because Rodrigo and his men had breached a database and had gotten access to the files of their undercover operatives in narcotics and trafficking.

They had proven that by slicing the throat of a female operative that had been in deep cover with Rodrigo's inner circle and her body turned up in the truck of a burned out car with that of another agent who had been driving the car after a clandestine meeting with her that had been anything but that.

So she had been the one hired by the feds to replace her and it hadn't taken her long to get inside.

"I don't need your help," she said, "You made it clear what you thought of what you believe that I did. I tried to tell you that you're wrong but didn't get very far…that's fine but what would be better is if you turned around and walked right out of here."

He planted his feet firmly and had no intention of doing that.

"You'd be signing off your life if you did that," Dallas said, "I can't let you do that. We've been friends for so long."

She had to choke back the laughter that comment had drawn, which wasn't based on finding it humorous.

"Dallas…It wasn't enough in the end was it?"

No, because she had submitted her resignation papers from his firm and she had meant every word and hadn't hesitated when she had signed them.

Before walking right out of the building for the last time just before she packed up and left later that night.

"I still care about you and I'm not leaving you up here to get picked off by Rodrigo or his men…so I'm staying if you won't come back with me."

She just sighed, remembering how stubborn he was and how he didn't like to back down from anything and neither did she so this standoff, well it could last except she really had to go back to work.

"I'm not going with you and you're not staying…in fact I've got work to do."

He smiled.

"I talked with Adela, really nice lady, wears that interesting hat…well she's the manager of this place right?"

She looked at him warily.

"Yeah…she is…so what?"

He looked directly at her, and she almost got drawn into his brown eyes but no, she was smarter than he took her for obviously.

"I applied for a job and she's agreed."

Reese's mouth fell open.

"You didn't just…"

He smiled.

"Oh yes I did…I'm going to be hoisting some bags of manure mix over in the side yard."

She just stood there trying to process that news.

"Fitting really that you should be working with manure," she said.

Dallas' lips quirked slightly.

"You would know darling…"

He just stood there and damn if he didn't look a bit smug. Yeah he was there to watch her back until they roped up Rodrigo on some technicality and put him behind bars until they could do the job permanently but she knew he had ulterior motives…not that she cared.

He watched her, thinking that she looked upset right now but she'd get over it. She had no choice because he wasn't about to let anything happened to her, and he knew she was too stubborn to go back to L.A. with him.

In fact he was counting on it.

He thought it had been all about protecting her but when he had first seen her, an image had flashed in front of him of one lazy night when she had returned from another late day with Rodrigo and instead of going into her own bed, she had snuck out in the moonless night, crossing the grassy expanse of the estate down the narrow winding staircases to where his bungalow sat.

As soon as he'd opened the door, it was she who had nearly jumped him, wrapping her arms around him and grinding her body against his burgeoning erection sealed by a couple layers of fabric between them. He had taken her right in the living area, after they had ripped off their clothes while locked in a kiss, before sinking onto the rug where she had positioned herself over him and sheathed herself with his erection, sliding slowly and deliciously down until he had sunken as deep in her pussy as he could and then she had ridden him. Her breasts, pale and soft swaying in front of him, their rosy tips tantalizing his mouth…as he settled his hands on her hips to adjust the tempo…where they rode each other.

It had been so hot…so incredibly sensual the way her face looked, as she built to her climax and he approached his own…she grabbed him hungrily and kissed him to seal off herself from screaming as he held her waist when she finally arched her head back, as his ejaculate filled her, branding her with heat.

He had held her afterward as she panted against him, their bodies drenched with moisture and remained connected by flesh, for a moment that seemed timeless. Neither wanting to be the first to withdraw.

It had been reckless, he remembered now thinking back because they weren't supposed to fraternize as employees of Rodrigo and they certainly weren't supposed to have known each other beforehand but all that time spent close together yet not so close in an environment where the tension remained so thick and fraught with danger. But what had long simmered between them, hidden by their carefully woven friendship had just exploded.

And after a few interludes, they weren't as careful as they should have been to avoid exposure…but they hadn't gotten caught not during the entire assignment. Except that Reese had just changed. She had bedded Rodrigo according to Brock and other handlers and nearly screwed up the whole case. It didn't make a whole lot of sense but then again, emotions had been tightly wound and nerves taut and well she had wound up being investigated for entrapment by the defense attorneys.

What had gotten inside of her to cause her to bed such a thug, he had asked himself a hundred or so times. Still no answer and he had tried to get one out of her and had gotten nowhere…just her written resignation.

But now she needed his protection, whether she wanted it or not and one way or other she would get it whether he had to drag her kicking and screaming.

Somehow he didn't think it would come to that.