by Cindy Dees
He groaned into the pillow as his entire being exploded into her. Sloane surged up against him, slapping her hand over her mouth as she, too, cried out uncontrollably. She shuddered violently against him and around him, wringing forth the very last dregs of pleasure from him before they both collapsed against the now hot sheets.
He was a very fit guy, but this woman did him in. At least she had the good grace to be limp and panting beside him. He gathered Sloane against his chest, her head resting on his shoulder.
“I’m not sure how to judge who won that challenge,” he murmured.
“Hmm. I can’t say, either. We’ll have to try again and see who can be more quiet next time.”
His chest vibrated with silent laughter. He muttered into her hair, “I like the way you think.”
“I like the way you make love,” she replied.
He bent his head down to kiss her, enjoying the leisurely way she kissed him back, well satisfied. He knew the feeling. No woman had ever made him feel like this. It was as if he’d found his other half, and between the two of them, they were...home. A family.
Aww, hell. He’d gone and gotten ahead of himself again. The last thing she would want to hear was that he wanted forever with her, complete with the whole white picket fence and domestic bliss thing in a small town. Sloane would run screaming, just like she had in high school, when she’d run away to the big city.
Besides. It wasn’t like they could do this again when they got back to real life and Roaring Springs. Not until her blasted ex-husband was slapped with a permanent restraining order, or maybe even put behind bars for a good long time to come. If that jerk had ordered a hit on Sloane...
Liam couldn’t even finish the thought. Flashes of the violence he would perpetrate on Ivan Durant were all that came to mind.
Sloane’s mouth was sliding across his chest again, and the tip of her tongue was darting out to taste his skin in the most provocative way. The vixen was teasing him! So. She thought she could win round two, did she? They’d see about that...
Chapter 14
Sloane woke up abruptly, startled by something. Disoriented for a moment, she looked around a dim motel room. The wan light of dawn seeped in around the curtains, gray and muted, as if it was still snowing outside. She snuggled deeper into the cocoon of warmth encircling her. She registered a strong, relaxed arm around her shoulders, and warm, naked man chest under her cheek.
Liam.
Snowstorm.
They’d stopped at a motel when she’d been too scared to continue home to Roaring Springs last night. Always considerate, he was. Well, not always. He was a considerate lover, but he also had the capacity to be quite the demanding lover, too, as it turned out.
After the second time they’d made love, they’d declared it a tie and had to go for a third round of mind-blowing sex to declare the winner. She was a little sore this morning, but in the best possible way.
And he’d won the bet. Although she personally thought she’d gotten the best end of the bargain after a third round of orgasms ripped through her until she was a mass of quivering nerves and mindless cries.
A rustle of sound made her turn her head. Chloe rolled over, flinging a blanket off in the process. Poor Little Bug. She really had a time of it at the Durants’ house. Rage bubbled up yet again that those horrible people would let their own granddaughter scream herself hoarse without once going in to comfort her. What monsters! No wonder Ivan was such a heartless bastard. He’d been raised by Carol and Niall.
She rolled over carefully, trying not to disturb Liam, and eased out of bed. She found his discarded T-shirt on the floor and pulled it over her head. Then she tiptoed over to the crib and gently pulled the blanket up over Chloe, who was sprawled on her stomach in the complete abandon of baby sleep.
She smiled down at her daughter with love overflowing her heart. She glanced back at the bed and jumped in surprise. Liam lay on his side, watching her.
Silently, he lifted the blankets in invitation, and she slipped back in beside him. He gathered her in his arms tenderly. “You’re a hell of a mother. Chloe’s one lucky tyke to have you.”
He pushed a stray lock of hair off her face and just looked at her, studying her face intently.
“What?” she finally whispered. She wasn’t used to anyone scrutinizing her like this.
“I’m memorizing your face. You’re so damned beautiful I sometimes don’t believe you’re real.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but he laid a finger on her lips. “Get used to me telling you you’re beautiful. I plan to keep doing it for as long as you’ll let me.”
She blinked at him, shocked. Just how long did she plan to let him into her bed? She low-key loved the idea of repeating last night for a very long time to come. Except, ideally with Chloe in another room far enough away so noise was not an issue.
If only Ivan were out of the picture for good—
She cut off that thought before it could go one inch further. She might despise her ex, but she wished him no bodily harm. After all, he was Chloe’s father. And Sloane, of all people, knew what it was like to grow up without her parents. Sure, Russ and Mara Colton had loved her and Fox and done their level best to raise her and her brother as if they were their own children. But Sloane had still felt the gap in her heart. The loss had never gone away. Never really been filled.
She would never wish that upon her own child.
“What’s on your mind?” Liam murmured against her temple. “You went so still and serious.”
Nor could she ask Liam to replace Ivan. Chloe was not Liam’s responsibility and she wouldn’t foist her baby, no matter how adorable she might be, on anyone else. Chloe was her responsibility and hers alone.
Sloane shrugged, dodging Liam’s question, and then distracted him by tilting her chin up to capture his mouth with hers. She poured all the gratitude and passion she could not express out loud into the slide of her lips across his, into the little sighs of pleasure that slipped out of her throat.
Not slow on the uptake, Liam kissed her back, letting the sexual energy build between them once more. Eyeing the crib beyond her, he rolled her onto her back and slowly, gently made love to her one last time before this stolen tryst ended.
He was so sweet, so tender with her, that tears leaked from her eyes before they finally climaxed together, their mouths clamped against each other’s shoulders to muffle the sweet agony of their release.
She dozed in Liam’s arms until Chloe awoke, a little before 7:00 a.m. While Liam dressed and went out in search of something to eat, she gave Chloe a bath.
Liam returned with plastic grocery bags of snacks from a gas station down the street and volunteered to watch Chloe while Sloane grabbed a quick shower. The hot water felt amazing pounding her tired muscles, and she emerged from the shower feeling like a new woman.
Liam took his turn in the shower, and they all carefully dried their hair with the blow dryer mounted on the wall. In cold weather like this, wet hair could cause dangerous hypothermia in a matter of seconds.
“Ready to continue the journey home?” he finally asked.
She took a deep breath, not relishing hazardous roads in the high mountains between here and Roaring Springs.
“I promise, I’ll take it slow and be as careful as it’s humanly possible to be,” Liam said quietly. “I would never do anything to risk your safety or Chloe’s. And I am a cop. I’ve had all kinds of advanced driving training. It’ll be okay.”
Sloane startled herself by having to dash tears away from her eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m not usually this emotional.”
Liam grinned and chucked her chin. “You’re authorized after the twenty-four hours you’ve just had. Let’s get you home and get those cameras out of your house.”
“Amen.”
While Chloe chowed down on dry Cheerios and blueberrie
s in the back seat, they set out. The roads were still awful, but in the light of day, Liam could at least see where he was going. And he did, indeed, crawl along at a pace conservative enough even for her. The chains on his tires were a godsend, and his heavy truck gripped the road wonderfully.
It took almost two more hours for Roaring Springs to come into view as they topped one last ridge. Sloane sighed in relief as Liam finally turned onto her street and parked in her driveway.
While she carried Chloe in and got her settled in a pile of toys in the living room, Liam headed upstairs. He emerged in a few minutes with wires protruding from his fist. He held his hand out to her, obviously interested in giving her something, and laid three small cameras in her palm. She poked at them in distaste.
“They’re smaller than I expected,” she commented.
“They’re state-of-the-art. Expensive. Rahm Zogby said they cost thousands of dollars apiece.”
Sloane frowned. “How could Ivan afford gear like this? He’s broke. As in, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.”
“Are his parents giving him money?” Liam suggested.
She shook her head. “Niall is furious over the gambling and has cut him off, last I heard. As far as I know, all the proceeds of the Durant investments in Ivan’s name are being put into a trust fund he can’t access for several years. Ivan was livid when he found out.” She remembered his towering rage well. It had been the night he destroyed her mother’s china. Sloane had been certain he would turn his fury on her and Chloe next.
“Poor, abused trust fund baby,” Liam retorted.
Yeah. Right. Sloane pulled a wry face. “I was no dummy. I took the full divorce settlement amount in a lump sum, and I’ve invested it so it will grow over time. Chloe will never want for anything.”
“Ivan had to hate that.”
Sloane snorted. “He tried to borrow money from me before we’d even left the accountant’s office. As if I would let him touch Chloe’s legacy. I told him no, of course.”
“How did he react to that?” Liam asked. He sounded as if he was asking in his capacity as a police detective.
“He threw a tantrum. Threatened me. Accused me of intentionally ruining him. The usual.”
“Any witnesses?” he asked hopefully.
“Not that I’m aware of. He did it in a parking lot where it was just the two of us.”
“Damn. If nothing else, I have to give the man credit for covering his tracks.”
Sloane replied quickly, “He’s smart. Very smart. You’d do well not to underestimate him. Lord knows, I don’t.”
“Speaking of which,” Liam responded, “I need to head down to the police station and write up a report on our little visit with the Durants and how they weren’t caring properly for their grandchild.”
“I really appreciate your help, Liam—”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the hall bathroom, closing the door behind them. He drew her into his arms and kissed her urgently. She arched up against him with equal ardor. This was probably the last time they were going to get to do this until the mess with her personal hater was cleared up.
How was she supposed to keep her hands off Liam? Keep her mouth off him, hold her body apart from his, her arms empty of his comforting warmth? A sobbing breath escaped her.
“Be strong, sweetheart. Think of Chloe. This is the right thing for her. For both of you.”
“But it’s not fair to you!” she wailed against his chest.
“I’ve waited this long for you. I can wait a little longer.”
His words were quiet. Simple. Uttered matter-of-factly. But they resonated all the way down to the bottom of her soul.
“Are you sure?” she whispered achingly.
“Positive.”
He kissed her hard and then stepped back abruptly, as if to stay with her like this any longer was too painful for him to bear.
She knew the feeling.
He turned and swept out of the bathroom. Out of her house. Out of her life.
Damn whomever was out to get her and his or her stupid private investigators, anyway, interfering in her life and threatening her custody of Chloe. If she weren’t a kind and decent person, she would be sorely tempted to off the guy herself.
* * *
The house felt depressingly empty with Liam gone. Heck, her life felt empty with Liam gone. He was smart and funny and put her at ease like no one she’d ever been around, except maybe her brother. Russ and Mara had been busy people with a big family of their own and a resort empire to build. She’d been a quiet kid who didn’t ask for much, and in retrospect, easy to ignore. She’d stayed out of trouble, done her schoolwork and faded into the background of the loud, boisterous Colton clan.
Most of her five cousins, whom she thought of more as brothers and sisters than cousins, were all big, dynamic personalities who’d loudly challenged her desire to curl up in a ball in the corner of life and had ended up driving her deeper into her emotional shell.
Liam was different. He saw into her corner. He joined her there, no pressure, no demands. And he’d gently coaxed her out. He made her want to live a full life; he made her believe she could find love and laughter and passion and fulfillment with him.
She’d thought she could find all those things with Ivan, too. But in fairness to herself, Ivan had put up a hell of a false front while they’d dated and first been married. It had only been later, when his gambling started to put him under severe financial pressure and she’d dropped the bombshell that she was pregnant, that the facade had crumbled.
Looking back, she had to believe he was a bit of a sociopath, without the skills to navigate relationships or the empathy to relate to others. He acted like a man who had carefully memorized a set of rules for behavior so he could pass for a normal person. But when she’d really gotten to know him, he’d been empty inside, only capable of loving himself. He’d also been fundamentally dishonest, violently egocentric and devoid of any remorse for hurting the people around him.
Liam was none of those things.
In Ivan’s defense, she could see why he’d been drawn to her. She’d been as shut down emotionally as he was, going through the motions of living without really engaging with anyone around her. He must have thought she would be perfect for him. Until she had a baby, discovered what real love was and learned just how deeply she was capable of feeling it.
Thank God Liam had come along and woken her up inside as a woman, the same way Chloe had woken her up as a mother. Who knew where she might have ended up without him?
Maybe that was why she felt his absence so keenly now. For the first time in pretty much ever, she had intense, amazing feelings for a man. She actually felt giddy when she thought about being with him. Cripes. She probably should have gone through this all-absorbing crush phase in about the sixth grade. But hey. Better late than never.
Except she was beginning to suspect this was more than a crush. Much more. It was as if her entire being revolved around him when it wasn’t revolving around Chloe. What was Liam doing now? Had he eaten properly when he got home? Was he safe? Who was he talking to?
More importantly, was he thinking about her? Did he miss her, too? Did he love her at least a little?
God, she hoped so.
Chapter 15
Liam walked into the No Doze Café and looked around. He’d beat Daria Bloom to their meeting, so he ordered a cup of coffee and sat down to wait for her. He opened the thick file he’d gotten from the Denver Police Department on the disappearance of April Thomas. The part that alarmed him most was a receipt for a gas purchase April had made the day she supposedly headed for Roaring Springs. The highway she’d been traveling when she’d stopped for gas led straight from Denver to Roaring Springs with no other major cities in between.
For all the world, it appeared that the young woman had, indeed, come to
Roaring Springs. And then she’d never been seen again.
Daria came in on a hard gust of wind and swirling snow. She grabbed a fast cup of coffee and joined him at the booth in the corner. He’d chosen it because no one else was sitting nearby and they could talk freely.
“What have you got for me, Liam?” she asked without preamble, her gaze glued to the police file on the table in front of him.
He pushed the file over to her. “This is a copy I made for you of the Denver PD file on April Thomas.”
“Quick overview?” Daria asked as she opened the thick file to browse it.
“Check out this receipt.” He flipped to the photocopy of the gas chit.
Dari looked down at it for a moment and then back up at him. Her gaze was stark. “She made it here, then. And disappeared. Is it possible we’ve got a serial killer on our hands?”
Liam nodded grimly. “Maybe.”
“We’ve got to keep this under wraps for now. Let me talk to the sheriff. We’re going to have to reopen the Bianca Rouge case, but I’d like to do that as quietly as we can. The fewer people who know we’re looking into it, the better.”
Liam added, “Best not to spook the killer if he or she is still in this area. We’re going to need every advantage we can muster. We’ve got a careful, intelligent, self-disciplined criminal on our hands.”
“Pretty much a worst case scenario.”
Liam leaned forward to murmur low, “Maybe we should wait to call the FBI back in. If our killer is local, he or she will spot FBI agents roaming around town and could go to ground.”
Daria grimaced. “I have to call the FBI guys in Denver and let them know what’s happening, but I’ll ask them to hold off descending upon Roaring Springs for now.”
Liam said, “I’ll go through that file again and call you if I spot any new leads or I have any brainstorms on how to proceed.”
“Ditto. And thanks.”
He met Daria’s dark, worried stare with one of his own. It was up to them to keep any more young women from dying. If they, indeed, had a serial killer on their hands, it would be a race against time to identify the killer and catch him or her.
