by Kim Redford
“I don’t feel safe.”
“I’ll confront the guy and take care of it.”
“You’ll what?” She looked at him with blue eyes gone wide. “What about his rifle?”
“I’ll take a pistol.” He realized that hadn’t reassured her. It’d alarmed her even more. “He probably isn’t armed in the first place.”
“But what if he is?”
“Here’s what we’re going to do.” He couldn’t waste any more time with talk. Either the guy was down in his car with binoculars, or he was on foot sneaking up, or worst-case scenario, he really did have them in his sights. One way or another, Shane had to stop it. “We’re going to stay in the shadows as much as possible while we move up to the house. I’ll turn off the lights and get you inside, where you’ll lock all the doors.”
“Where will you be?”
“My truck’s parked outside the garage. I’ll run to it and drive down to the road without my headlights. If he’s in his vehicle, I’ve got him. If not, he’s in the wind and there’s nothing else I can do tonight.”
“I hate that plan. It puts you in danger.” She glared at him with chin jutting forward. “Here’s my plan. We’re going inside the house, locking all the doors, and calling the sheriff.”
“No. I want a look at this guy if possible. And I want his license plate number. After that, I’ll call Sheriff Calhoun.”
“No way am I letting you go down there alone.” She gripped the edge of the hot tub, frowning at him in determination.
He rubbed his forehead, frustrated as all get-out. She wasn’t going to make this easy for him. “Arguing about this is giving that guy the edge.”
“You’re right.”
“I am?”
“You’re exactly right.” She bit her lower lip and narrowed her eyes. “I’ve been running way too long. We don’t know anything right now, but we have a chance to find out something. Let’s go.”
He grasped her hand and eased her out of the water. They knelt beside the hot tub, fingers clasped as they held hands.
“I’m of two minds.” He looked about, gauging distances and objects for concealment. “We walk back up to the house as if everything is normal, or we make a dash and kill the lights.”
“Let’s don’t alert him that we know the car is there.”
“We take a chance either way, so I’m okay with a normal but quick walk.”
He stood up, raised her to her feet, kissed her lips, and wrapped an arm around her waist. As they moved toward the house at a fast clip, he felt like they had a target on their backs the whole way, so he positioned her slightly in front of him to give her a little protection with his body.
When she slid open the patio door, he doused the lights and followed her. He quickly locked the doors and pulled the drapes. Only then did he notice he’d been holding his breath. He gulped in air as he focused on his surroundings. So far, all appeared as usual.
“What a relief.” She glanced around as if expecting to see intruders jump out of hiding everywhere.
“If we had time, I’d check all the rooms in the house,” he said, easing her forward. “As it is, let’s get to the truck.”
She clasped his hand. “I’m ready.”
“Are you sure you won’t stay inside?”
“Don’t even go there.”
So he didn’t. Instead, he grabbed his car keys off the entry table, threaded their fingers together, and led her through the house. Once outside, he opened his truck’s passenger door, wincing when the inside light came on, but it only lasted a millisecond before she was in the seat and he shut the door. He rounded the hood, slipped inside, and started the engine. It sounded way too loud in the stillness of the night.
“I don’t need headlights,” he said. “I can find my way anywhere on this ranch.”
She nodded in reply, reaching over to squeeze his hand on the steering wheel before she grasped the edges of her seat.
He headed down the drive fast, hoping no unwary nighttime critter picked that moment to venture onto the lane. Moonlight glinted off white fence slats as he barreled past them going as fast as was safe. He hit the cattle guard and winced at the loud click-clack as the truck rattled over the metal pipes. He made a sharp left onto Wildcat Road and hit his bright lights.
Nothing. He looked in every direction. Still nothing. Maybe he could yet find something. He parked across the road from where he’d seen the vehicle, grabbed his Maglite from the console, and jumped out of his pickup. He jogged across the road and still came up empty.
Eden joined him, wrapping an arm around his waist as she shivered against him.
“You’re still wet,” he said as he continued looking around them. “It’s too cold for you to be out here.”
“I’m okay.” She leaned harder into him. “See anything?”
“Nothing except what you’d expect to see on the side of the road. You?”
“Not a thing.”
He cast the bright light back and forth, hunting for something—anything—that would give them a clue to the stranger. “It’s as if he’s phantom.”
“No. We both saw that car parked here.”
He walked along the road in one direction, shining the light on the ground ahead of him, then started back the other way. Eden stayed right with him. There had to be some sign the guy had been here a few minutes earlier. He needed that something.
“Wait!” She walked ahead a few feet and pointed downward. “Shine the light here.”
He joined her, focused the light beam past the gravel shoulder, and saw a partial shoe imprint in a bare patch of dirt.
“Yes!” She knelt beside the print, pointing with a fingertip. “Look. It’s the same type of shoe sole we saw at the fence. Isn’t it?”
“Looks like it.” He handed her the flashlight while he pulled out his phone and snapped several shots of the print and the surrounding area.
She stood up, putting a hand on one hip. “But we still don’t know much more than we did, do we?”
“We know he’s upping his game.” Shane felt his sense of elation quickly overwhelmed by apprehension as he looked up the hill at his ranch house. If the stalker was willing to sabotage a fence and endanger horses, what was he willing to do to someone’s home? Or to the people who lived there?
“Do you think he’s building up to something?”
“I’d guess so or trying to spook you.”
“Make me feel vulnerable?”
“Don’t go there. If he’s trying to get at you, he doesn’t know a thing about Wildcat Bluff County. We take care of our own.”
She hugged her stomach with both arms, visibly shivering. “Maybe I ought to leave the county. I won’t take a chance on endangering you, Jack, Ken, or anybody else that might get caught in the crossfire of Graham’s games—if it is my ex.”
Shane clasped her hand, tugging her closer. “Come on. There’s not any more we can do here tonight. You need to get out of those wet clothes and get warmed up.”
“You’re wet, too.”
“Yeah, but I run hot.”
“So true.” She grinned up at him, changing the dynamics of the night.
“Let’s get back to the house.” As much as he wanted to forget their problem and focus on her, he couldn’t do it. He had to make sure she was safe and his home was safe.
Once she was in his truck, he drove between the white fences, taking his time with his headlights on. No need to rush now. Whatever was done was done. He just had to make sure there were no surprises waiting for them.
“When we get home,” he said in a calm voice so as not to alarm her, “I want you to stay in the truck while I check out the house.”
“You think he’s been up there?”
“It’s possible. We were outside a while.”
“I won’t let you go int
o danger alone,” she said quietly but firmly. “We’ll check out the house together. I’ll carry the Maglite. You get your pistol. We’re not going into a situation vulnerable again.”
He wanted to argue with her, but truth be told, he wanted her with him at all times. Only then would he know for a fact that she was safe. One good thing, he knew this property like the back of his hand. If anything had been disturbed, he figured he’d notice it.
He parked outside the garage again, then unlocked the glove compartment and slipped out his pistol. Eden wielded the heavy Maglite. Together, they each stepped out of their side of the truck. He hurried up to the building and flipped on the outside lights, illuminating the area. Everything looked normal, so they went into the garage. Everything checked out okay there, too, so they moved into the house. Room by room, closet by closet, cabinet by cabinet, under beds, inside bathtubs, behind drapes, they left no area untouched that could hide an intruder or his handiwork. Everything appeared normal, but he locked up behind them to make sure the house was secure.
Finally, they had only his suite over the garages left to search. She was visibly shivering by now, and he was cold, too. He squeezed her fingers. “You okay? Only my space left to go.”
“Let’s do it.” She threw open the door so hard it hit the wall and bounced back.
“Hey, I’ve got to live here.” He joked to relieve the tension because he didn’t expect to find any danger in the house now.
“Then tell me there’s going to be a long, hot shower at the end of this search,” she replied.
He just gave her a quick nod as he eased into the large room, glad he didn’t have to flip on lights to see that it was completely empty, since two lamps still burned beside his bed. He checked the closets, then the bathroom tub, cabinets, and under the double sinks. He walked out, locked his pistol in a special cabinet, and flipped the lock on the door to his suite.
“All clear.” He turned to her, flashing a big grin that echoed the relief rushing through him.
“Good.”
“Give me a moment to text Sheriff Calhoun and send him the photos.” He quickly started the process.
“Take your time.” She tossed the flashlight onto the seat of a chair. She walked into the bathroom, dropping her cutoffs to the floor with a wet plop, followed by her T-shirt. She glanced back at him with a sly smile before she turned on the shower and stepped inside the glass enclosure.
Chapter 22
Eden stood in Shane’s shower, rubbing at the goose bumps on her arms to try and warm up as she gazed at the chrome shower panel. When he’d redesigned his bathroom, he’d obviously gone upscale with travertine shower walls and floor, as well as a super-gizmo waterfall shower, massage jets, handheld showerhead, and maybe more stuff in a high-tech design. Another panel held liquid soap, shampoo, and conditioner in several fragrances with Morning’s Glory labels on them. A teak stool with a stack of gray and black washcloths nestled in one corner of the extra-large shower.
After a few stabs and twists with her fingers, she had a gentle, warm rainfall that cascaded over her body. She raised her face to feel the soft massage on her skin, luxuriating in the sensual delight.
“See you figured out how to get that contraption to work,” Shane said as he opened the clear glass door, appearing somewhere between naughty imp and hot cowboy with no clothes to cover up his assets.
No sneaking a peek for her. She was way beyond that subterfuge. She looked him over head to toe, appreciating every bit of him from his muscular broad shoulders to his high-arch feet.
“Like what you see?” He closed the door behind him, keeping the steam inside the enclosed area.
“Uh-huh.” She felt words escape her as she traced her lower lip with the tip of her tongue, imagining tasting him.
He didn’t move toward her. He simply returned the compliment, looking her over as she’d looked at him, only his appreciation was much more physically obvious.
“I might need more instruction,” she said with a teasing lilt in her voice.
“In what?” Still he didn’t move, as if now that he had her cornered, he could toy with her as long as he wanted before he decided to slake his desire—along with her passion.
“Looks like you’ve got a pretty complicated arrangement.” She put a hand on the shower panel but kept her gaze on him.
“Not as complicated as you’d think, once you get the hang of it.”
“And you’ve got the hang of it?”
“If I don’t, I’m sure you’ll show me.”
“What if I forget something?”
“You’ll remind me.” And still he didn’t move, now appearing to savor the moment or commit it to memory. Maybe both.
“I’m still feeling a little chilly.”
“Bet I can warm you up.” He smiled, a quick twist of his lips before he went serious again.
She returned his smile, hers also brief and taut. “I can heat up the water.” She glanced at the shower panel.
“Not on your life.” Finally, he moved, stepping forward, clasping her wrists, raising her arms to either side of her face, and securing them against the wall with his strong hands. He smiled again, this time with a satisfied, possessive look in his eyes.
“Is this how you take a shower?” she asked, teasing and taunting him as she wiggled in his grasp. She didn’t want to get away, but she did want to get her hands on his hot body.
“No. This is how I make love to you.”
And he lowered his face and kissed her, slowly at first, then with mounting urgency as his need and her need escalated with each touch of lips to lips, tongue to tongue until she pushed away from the wall, wanting, needing, craving body-to-body contact. Still he didn’t release her. Instead, he trailed kisses down her long neck to the hollow of her throat, where he paused to continue his torment, until he stroked upward with his tongue to her earlobe and lightly bit then licked her delicate skin.
She moaned, trying to pull her hands free, but he was too strong as he continued downward, tracing her sensitive flesh with his lips until he reached her breasts, where he caught a nipple in his mouth. She gasped when he sucked and kissed and tongued until she was writhing in his grasp, so hot and achy that the warm water from the shower felt cool against her skin.
Finally, he pressed them body to body, slipping in between her thighs, and looked at her with dark eyes. “Did I forget anything?”
She leaned forward as much as his hands on her wrists would allow and pressed her lips softly to his mouth. She felt gentle toward him—a blossoming of her own feelings even as she recognized that he was giving her a great gift. Love. Vulnerability. Respect. They were all priceless and only to be given, perhaps, once in a lifetime. She wanted to tell him all of those feelings, but she had no voice, no words, no ability to convey the depth of what she felt at this moment in time. Instead, she smiled up at him, letting him know with the look in her eyes that she belonged to him just as he belonged to her.
He placed her hands around the back of his neck as he returned her kiss. She pushed her fingers into his hair as she finally got her wish to explore him as he’d explored her. She traced the hard muscles of his broad shoulders with her fingertips, tracing around to the line of russet hair in the middle of his chest, teasing his nipples into hard tips with both hands as she felt her core grow hotter and damper against the hardness between her thighs.
“Yes,” she finally whispered, “you forgot to put out my fire.”
He groaned, jerked her hard against him, but then stepped back. “What kind of a firefighter does that make me?”
“One who needs to try a little harder?”
“Let me get some equipment and I’ll get to work.”
She leaned back against the wall, legs suddenly weak as she watched him in a long mirror over the counter. He opened a drawer, took out a foil packet, ripped it open, and put on
the condom. When he turned back, he was obviously as ready as he was ever going to be. She beckoned him back into the shower, feeling shakier with escalating emotion.
He shut the glass door behind him before he picked up the handheld shower with one hand and a bottle of soap with the other.
“That’s not the equipment I had in mind.” She sounded a little testy, knew it, and didn’t care. She wanted him and she wanted him now.
“You’ve got a choice.” He gave her a mischievous look as he tossed the bottle up and down.
“I suggest you put out the fire, then clean up afterward.” She snatched the bottle of soap out of his hand and put it back on the shelf.
“Sure?” He replaced the handheld showerhead. “I can do more than one thing at a time.”
She couldn’t keep from chuckling as she realized he was being intentionally incorrigible. “Later. Right now, all I want is you.” She reached up, clasped his shoulders, and raised one leg around his hips.
He said not another teasing word as he grasped her butt, lifted her up, and impaled her in one smooth motion.
She said not another word either as she rode him, feeling him thrust harder, faster, deeper as the gentle rain of the shower cascaded over them, enveloping their bodies in heat and steam and moisture. She dug her nails into his back, unable to get close enough as she bit his shoulder, neck, earlobe, moaning, clinging, gyrating against him.
He pushed her back against the wall, and she held on tight, her legs wrapped around his waist as he plunged into her with greater force. Soon, she no longer knew where he ended and she began as they propelled each other toward fulfillment. She kissed him, delving deep into his mouth as she fanned their flames to new heights, higher and higher, until their bodies fused in one final moment of utter ecstasy.
And then she was gasping, clinging, crying as she clung to him because he’d taken her to a place she’d never been before and a place she feared she would never be again. Had he always had this ability to complete her? Was that why she’d risked everything for that one midnight with him? Had she always known he was the one and yet he couldn’t be because she was leaving and he was staying? Despite it all, here she was, back in his arms again. And she wanted nothing so much as to stay here forever.
