Sweet Talk

by Jackie Merritt

  He smiled. He was already a happy man from being in this rustic cabin with her. From being alone with her. From possessing the gift of sight and having her sitting a few short feet away from him so he could look at her to his heart’s content.

  He’d wondered before, but the question had never been quite as defined as it was now: was he in love with Valerie Fairchild?

  Chapter Ten

  Val’s inner clock told her it was nearing midnight. More awake than not, only slightly drowsy, she felt lazy and loose, almost boneless, without any of the muscular kinks and tension that had tied her in knots for so many years. The sensation of total relaxation, at least in her body, was amazing, and she wished she could capture the feeling and take it back to Rumor with her.

  The cabin always had been pure magic for her, but tonight it was especially noticeable. It was the brandy, of course. She wasn’t so tipsy that she didn’t know the reason for her uncommon insouciance. Why, she was actually talking to a man, and doing it without watching every word. She had even been nice to him. First, she’d felt guilty about hogging the heat by the fire. Then she’d gotten up to tote her bed pillows over to the blankets, and, finally, she’d said it was all right for him to sit next to her—if he was chilly where he was, of course.

  Reed had transferred himself from the chair to the blanket-covered floor so fast he got a bit dizzy, but he wasn’t going to hem and haw and miss this golden opportunity.

  Thus, they were sprawled on the blankets and pillows—heads at opposite ends of the makeshift bed—and absorbing the warmth Reed kept alive and thriving by feeding the flames from the wood box.

  “I’ll probably stay awake all night,” Val murmured.

  Reed loved the sound of her voice at this late hour. It had a dreamy quality he’d never heard before tonight. He liked thinking the dreaminess might have something to do with him, though his rational mind told him to be grateful he’d brought the brandy with him.

  “I’ll stay awake for certain,” he said quietly. “It wouldn’t be good to let the fire die out.”

  “I love listening to the storm.” Val smiled softly, looking into the fire, barely aware of Reed’s eyes on her. “Even though it sounds as though it’s throwing all of its weight against the cabin.”

  The storm was raging with such strength that the cabin actually shook from the onslaught.

  “Maybe it’s huffing and puffing and blowing my house down,” Val mused. She sent a glance to Reed. “Do you suppose?”

  He smiled. Each time he’d gotten up to refresh their drinks he had turned off one more light. None were burning now. Val hadn’t noticed—or hadn’t cared—as the bonfire in the fireplace threw an enormous amount of light. Reed loved watching her in the dancing firelight, loved that they had removed their shoes and her stocking-clad feet were close enough to touch, should he extend his hand a mere few inches. Her clothing was loose—dark fleece pants and a sweater. Hardly garments to raise a man’s libido, but they did. The way she ran her fingers through her hair every so often did an incredible amount of damage to his decision to keep his hands to himself until he knew in his soul that she would not object to a kiss or a caress.

  But he was so aware of her lying next to him that it was an effort for him to think of anything else. Telling himself to stay cool, to be thankful for the gains he’d already made tonight, was getting harder to do.

  “Christmas is just around the corner,” Val said in that slow, dreamy tone. “Your family probably goes all out for Christmas.”

  “Always,” he replied. “You have Jinni this year, and the Cantrells. You could have a big family affair, if you all choose to.”

  “None of us have talked about it, but it would be nice if we all got together. If Guy is convicted, though, the Cantrells aren’t apt to be in a festive mood.” She wiped away a tear, alarming Reed.

  He quickly got away from that subject by asking, “What do you usually do for Christmas?”

  A dozen lonely Christmases passed through Val’s mind. “One year I…went on a cruise,” she said in a wispy little voice.

  “A Christmas cruise? That was probably fun.”

  It had been horrible. She’d been the only person without a partner, or at least the only solo traveler she’d been able to spot. Everyone else on the ship had been with a spouse, a friend or a group of friends. She’d been glad when it was over.

  “It was…okay. Tell me about your Christmases.”

  Reed described Christmas at the Kingsley Ranch, a day that had been traditionally and emotionally similar year after year for as far back as his memory reached.

  “You had a wonderful life,” Val said when he’d finished.

  “I have a wonderful life, Val.” And you could be part of it, a very big part of it. “I’m getting the impression that… Maybe I’d better not say that.”

  She turned her face from the fire and looked at him. “I know what you were going to say. You’re getting the impression that my life wasn’t nearly as great as yours, and you know something? You’re right. But do you want to hear about it? Do you really want to know me that well? How depressing for you.” She looked at the fire again.

  “Knowing you is all I want right now, Val. I would consider knowing everything about you as the greatest Christmas gift anyone could give me.”

  “How sad.”

  She sounded sad. Reed sat up. “It can’t be that bad,” he said quietly.

  “Oh, but it is. Believe me, you don’t want to know the sordid details.”

  Reed felt as though his heart skipped a beat. He’d suspected some deep, dark secret from the past haunting and hounding Val, but it was still a shock to hear from her own lips that he’d been right. He almost backed away from the topic, because hearing about something that was still causing her pain would cause him pain.

  And yet, whatever it was should be talked about. He would never really know her until he knew all of her, the good with the bad, the bad with the good.

  “Tell me about it, Val.”

  She sent him a glance. “No, I don’t think so. Let’s talk about something else. How come a man with your background is Rumor’s fire chief?”

  “Val, I don’t want to talk about me. I want to talk about you.” Reed inched closer to her, moving across the blanket until he was almost sitting next to her. He couldn’t stop himself, and he raised his hand and gently brushed her fire-warmed cheek with his fingertips. He was astonished that she didn’t back off, or tell him in no uncertain terms to get away from her.

  Instead she looked at him with that dreamy cast in her beautiful aqua-blue eyes and he wondered if he weren’t dreaming. He moved very slowly until he was leaning over her, then he lowered his head to brush her lips with his.

  She sighed, a soft little sound that touched the core of him. “Val,” he whispered, and then kissed her the way he’d been aching to do.

  Being kissed like that did things to Val that she had forgotten existed. She knew he had her on some kind of pedestal, a symbol of purity and feminine perfection, and she didn’t belong there. Breathless when he finally broke the kiss, she whispered, “There were men…quite a few men…when I was a young woman.”

  Reed nuzzled her ear and the curve of her throat. “You’re still a young woman.”

  “I guess,” she conceded. “But I’m not a wild young woman…and I was, Reed, I was.”

  He raised his head to look at her. “There’s been nothing wild about you since you’ve lived in Rumor, Val. I would have heard about it and so would everyone else.”

  “It all took place ages ago.” Memories paraded through Val’s mind. Not all were discomfiting or regrettable, but many were. Far too many, to be honest, and then there was that one awful day.

  “I was a silly girl,” she said in a husky whisper. She knew she should stop talking, but she couldn’t seem to shut up. She felt something brewing within her, caused by only God knew what. The storm? This man’s steadfast persistence? His kiss, his nearness? The brandy? She d
idn’t believe she was intoxicated, but she couldn’t deny an unusual and not unpleasant light-headedness.

  But why should that cause her to feel an urgency to reveal old tales, some of which she hadn’t even told Jinni?

  “Look at me,” she whispered, and Reed gladly complied. He was handsome, she realized as she studied his face—sensuously handsome. His eyes in particular conveyed both masculinity and sensitivity. Why wouldn’t he have a truckload of women on his heels? And he wanted her? My Lord, why? And for how long?

  She would not accept a one-night stand, and maybe that was the driving force behind her need to talk about herself. If he was still interested when he knew it all, maybe there was a chance that she wouldn’t grow old all by herself.

  “Doesn’t what I said about other men bother you?” she asked.

  “Do you want it to bother me?” Reed probed the depths of her eyes in the shadowy firelight. He’d rather make love than talk, but Val was undergoing some sort of transition tonight, and while she had let him kiss her once—albeit a thorough and extremely arousing kiss—she seemed to want conversation more than kisses.

  And maybe conversation would open the door to a real relationship for them. He couldn’t risk losing the gains he’d made on this stormy night by persuading her through touch and passion to kiss now and talk later.

  “Not in a bad way, but doesn’t a remark like that arouse your curiosity?”

  It aroused something, Reed acknowledged to himself. Everything about her aroused him, and if she just happened to glance at the front of his pants, she would see the result of his sitting so close to her.

  “Yes,” he said, only because he sensed that was the answer she wanted to hear from him. “Just let me stretch out and get comfortable, then I’d like to hear anything you’re willing to tell me.”

  Val immediately sank into the past and was barely aware of Reed moving the pillows from the other end of the blanket next to the ones she was using, and then lying down beside her. He lay on his side, facing her, and she was so engrossed in her own thoughts she didn’t feel his eyes on her.

  Reed waited for her to begin, and tortured himself by inhaling her scent and thinking erotic thoughts about the two of them. Then, too, there was this. He’d always liked women, and women liked him. He knew he had a reputation, but gossip had never bothered him or slowed him down an iota. If Val had had a long string of lovers in her “wild” youth, she would be no worse—or better—than him. So, no, he wasn’t curious about her past. He frankly didn’t care how many guys she’d slept with before him—if they ever got around to making love, that is.

  But he would listen to her confession—that’s what seemed to be going on—console her and then get back to the two of them. He would be patient if it killed him.

  “No one ever cared what I did,” Val began. “My parents were gone more than they were home, and even when they were there, I wasn’t. They sent me to private schools, usually out-of-state schools. Jinni, too, but she was five years older, and I barely knew her. By the time I was old enough to want to know her, she’d gone off to college.

  “I always had plenty of money to spend. I think Mother and Dad believed that an unending supply of money made up for their complete indifference to their daughters. Anyhow, I was running wild at fourteen. Even younger, in some things. But when I discovered boys life started to be fun. I brought them home and sneaked them past the servants. At first we played computer games or listened to music, but it wasn’t long before we started fooling around. Experimenting with…sex.”

  Reed felt a sinking sensation. She had started her story way back when, and even he hadn’t been experimenting with sex at fourteen. He’d been what? Sixteen or seventeen? Actually, he’d been several years behind many of his friends. The boys’ locker room, where the football team suited up before games and showered afterward, had rung with brags and boasts of who was doing what with whom. He’d had nothing to brag about until after the Junior prom, but he, unlike most of the guys, said nothing about the girl or about losing his virginity that night. He’d figured it was no one else’s business, and he wasn’t going to trash the sweet, pretty girl he’d escorted to the prom by talking about what they’d done in his car after the dance.

  Val’s voice penetrated his fleeting memories of his own youthful indiscretions, and he heard her say, “After college I sort of…drifted. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and with so much money pouring into my personal bank account I really didn’t have to do anything.

  “But then one day I was with a friend, shopping, when we spotted a new pet store. I never passed one up, and we went in. The first thing I saw was a large help-wanted sign. While we played with the adorable puppies and kittens they had for sale, I asked about the job. It didn’t pay much, but the hours were flexible and it seemed like the perfect job for a person like me who had always loved animals. They hired me on the spot, and I began working there the following day.”

  Val took a long, shaky breath. She knew what she was doing, opening that tightly locked door, freeing her secret demons, even helping them to escape. But it was as though the dam had sprung a leak and could no longer hold back the water. Something told her to lay it all at Reed’s feet and then see his reaction. He would probably run so fast his heels would kick up dust…or snow.

  In a way she felt as though she were talking to a therapist, but at the same time she knew she wasn’t. The therapists she’d dealt with hadn’t been real people to her, and Reed was. In fact, Reed was the most real person she’d ever known. Maybe she was baring her soul to him for a quite logical reason: if he decided to hang around and do nice things like sending her flowers after he knew her history, then she might be able to let herself really like him.

  But she had reached the hard part of her story—although none of it had been easy—and she turned her face away from him toward the fire, symbolically separating them.

  “I worked off and on at the pet shop for about a month and got along fine with my boss, who didn’t mind if I came in late or called in sick when I wasn’t. She said I was a natural with animals, and she liked me, I guess. Anyhow, I noticed a…a thirty-something man coming in quite often. At first just once in a while and then nearly every time I was there. He never bought anything, but he played with the puppies and wasn’t unpleasant, although he rarely looked directly at me or said anything. I asked Dora, the owner, about him, and she didn’t know who I was talking about, but he always made me…uncomfortable, and few people did.”

  Reed felt tension developing in his system. He didn’t like the direction that Val’s story was taking. Something bad had happened to her, and she was leading up to it. He wanted to stop her from telling him about it, but how could he? She was finally talking to him, acknowledging his existence, treating him like a human being instead of some annoying entity she would prefer to have disappear.

  And she had kissed him back…for a second time. Oh yes, that first kiss counted, the one he’d surprised her with the day he’d brought in the kittens for her inspection. She wasn’t completely immune to him, though she would like him to believe she was. Until tonight. Actually, wasn’t this storm a blessing in disguise?

  “I…I was alone in the shop one day,” Val said tremulously. “It was early…I had opened that morning. I was putting out food and water for the pets, and the bell on the door announced a customer. I turned to see who it was, to say good morning…and it was him…that guy who’d been making me feel so odd. He…he took a gun out of his jacket pocket and waved it in front of my face….” She began to sob quietly, little hiccups of anguish that nearly undid Reed.

  He reached for her without hesitation and brought her head to his chest. “My God…my God,” he whispered hoarsely. “I knew from what you were saying that something bad happened, but I never could have imagined something like that.”

  She wanted to snuggle into his arms, to accept his comfort and forget everything else. But he still hadn’t heard it all, and he had to.


  “He…he—” She tried to say it, but it was still so horrible when she let it come to the forefront of her mind that she just stammered.

  “Val, say it.” Reed was so choked up he could hardly speak himself. He was pretty sure of what she was having such trouble saying, but he couldn’t put the words in her mouth. He gently stroked her hair and realized how close he was to bawling like a baby. “Say it, darlin’, you can tell me anything,” he whispered.

  “He…beat me…and threatened worse.”

  Reed held her while she wept. Then, when she could talk again, he listened.

  “He locked the door, then nailed it shut…and he kept me in the shop for sixteen hours. I learned later…much later…after it was all over and I was able to digest simple facts again…that Dora had come by, and when her key wouldn’t open the door she called the police. I guess a small army of policemen was outside the place for most of the day before he…he finally gave himself up. They…took me to the hospital.”

  Reed pressed his lips to the top of her head. “My heart is broken,” he whispered. “I’m broken. Val, I’m so sorry.”

  Val heard his words and realized how completely he understood what she’d told him. Broken was exactly what she’d been, and there would forever be a part of her that remained in shards.

  But she hadn’t expected him to grasp her agony so acutely.

  “You mustn’t dwell on it,” she said huskily. “He’s in prison and I went through years of therapy with excellent professionals. I…I’m fine now. I went back to school and became a veterinarian. I found Rumor and left New York, and I—I’m probably as happy as most people.”

  Most people didn’t hide from the opposite sex, but Reed thought better of pointing that out. He nestled her more closely against him and gently rubbed her back.

  “I care for you,” he whispered softly. “You must know that.”