Target in Jeopardy

by Carla Cassidy

  “So, what are we going to do about this?” His eyes bored into hers.

  “I don’t know...” She barely got the words out of her mouth when his lips crashed down on hers. The kiss fired a welcomed heat through her. She opened her mouth to allow him entry. The tip of his tongue first touched her lower lip and then entered to dance with hers.

  Oh, she wanted this man. She wanted him in her bed, his naked body moving against hers. Her body... Good grief, how could he want her when she was so huge?

  She pulled her lips away from his. “Dallas, I want you. I want you to make love to me, but I don’t look the same as I did the last time we were together.” She looked down at her belly. “I’m fat, and I’ll understand if that’s a big turnoff for you.”

  His gaze burned into her. “Oh, Avery, you aren’t fat, you’re pregnant with my children. I find you and your body incredibly beautiful.”

  Her heart fluttered at his words...wonderful words that only made her desire for him grow more intense. Surely they could both be adults about this. Surely they could explore the crazy desire between them and still make healthy and good decisions about their children and their relationship.

  She got up from the sofa and held out her hand to him. “Please, Dallas, please come and make love to me. I want you so badly.”

  He remained seated for a long moment, his gaze locked with hers. Finally, he rose and took her hand. Without another word spoken they walked down the hallway to her bedroom.

  Lulu padded after them, but once Avery and Dallas crossed the threshold she closed the door, leaving the poodle in the hallway.

  Once again they kissed, a searing kiss that, for her, sealed the very rightness of what they were about to share. This couldn’t be wrong... It just couldn’t be.

  When the kiss ended she stepped back from him. Her fingers trembled as she began to unbutton the pale pink blouse she wore. She’d managed to unfasten the second button when he moved closer and gently pushed her hands away.

  His gaze was like a hot caress as he finished unbuttoning her blouse and then gently pushed it off her shoulders. It fell to the floor, a pool of discarded pink cotton. He then pulled his polo shirt over his head and tossed it to a corner.

  Oh my, she had forgotten the muscled perfection of his chest. But that chest was right in front of her and she couldn’t help the way her hands ached to roam freely over the warm, firm skin.

  Instead, she moved to one side of the bed. She quickly took off her maternity jeans and then slid beneath the bedsheet wearing only a pair of silk panties and bra. Twilight drifted through the nearby window, painting Dallas in shades of rich gold and faint purple light.

  She watched hungrily as he unfastened his jeans and stepped out of them. Then, clad only in a pair of black boxers, he got into the bed with her.

  Immediately, he pulled her into his arms for another kiss. His near-naked body was so wonderfully warm against hers and the fever of want grew higher and higher inside her. She’d been thinking so much about the night they had shared her desire to repeat the experience was overwhelming.

  The kiss lingered and then he moved his lips down the side of her throat. A moan issued from her at the slow slide of his mouth. His hands cupped her bra-covered breasts. She could feel the heat of his palms through the material and her nipples hardened in response.

  She caressed his broad back in turn, enjoying the play of his firm muscles beneath the skin. His scent enticed her. Everything about him at this moment brought all her senses enormous pleasure.

  He reached behind her and unfastened her bra. She rose up slightly to aid him as he plucked it off her and tossed it to the same corner where he’d thrown his polo shirt. Then his hands were back on her bare breasts. His thumbs teased and tormented her nipples and she gasped at the sweet sensations that raced through her.

  “Avery,” he murmured against her skin. “You are so beautiful.” He kissed her down her pregnant stomach and stopped at the edge of her panties. He then continued back up her stomach and to her breasts once again.

  She tangled her hands in his hair as intense pleasure continued to course through her. The last time she had made love with a man, it had been with Dallas, and she felt as if she’d been just waiting, her body yearning for him and only him ever since.

  It didn’t matter what happened tomorrow. Somehow, some way they’d figure it out. Tonight, right at this place in time, she didn’t want to think about what was rational or right. She didn’t want to worry about recriminations or regrets. She just wanted to be in this moment with him and their desire for each other.

  Once again he kissed slowly down her stomach. Inch by inch he worked his way to the edge of her panties, only this time when he reached them, he tugged at them to take them off her. She raised her hips to help him, wanting...needing him to touch her as intimately as a man could touch a woman.

  Her heart felt as if it was going to explode out of her chest. In this moment she couldn’t imagine ever making love to another man. Dallas was the only one she would ever want.

  She plucked at his boxers, wanting him as naked as she was. He got the message, for he quickly got out of them. She reached down and took him into her hand. He was hard, but his skin was velvety soft.

  He gasped as she moved her hand up and down his length. He moaned deep and low in the back of his throat, and she loved that sound, loved knowing she was giving him pleasure.

  He allowed her to stroke him only a brief time and then he pushed her hand away and instead began to caress her at her very core.

  She moved her hips up and down to meet each of his touches, any rational thought that might have been left leaving her mind as she gave herself to the mind-blowing sensations that rushed through her.

  Wave after wave of sweet pleasure swept over her, through her, each time bringing her closer and closer to a pinnacle she desperately wanted to reach. And then she was there, shuddering with unbelievable sensations as she cried out his name.

  “I need you now, Dallas. I need you to take me now.”

  He hovered over her, but hesitated. His eyes gleamed in the near darkness of the room. “I’m good, Avery. I—I don’t need this. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You won’t hurt me,” she said. “I promise you won’t hurt anyone. I want you, Dallas. I want you inside me.”

  He closed his eyes and for a moment she thought he was going to roll off her. But when he looked at her again it was as he slowly entered her. He kept himself off her stomach but angled to allow their intimacy.

  She hissed with pleasure as he began to stroke in and out of her. Her hands roved over his shoulders and then locked on his bulging biceps, loving the feel of his warm skin beneath her palms.

  She thrust her hips to meet his strokes and soon they were moving in a fever pitch. Their breaths became pants and she felt herself climbing up to that precipice once again.

  They reached it together. As he spilled into her, she cried out with her own release. He held himself poised above her for a long moment and in the dim light she could see the rapt expression on his face.

  He lowered his head for one last, lingering kiss and then rolled off to her side. “Wow,” he said softly.

  “Double wow,” she replied. Sex with him seven and a half months ago had been amazing, but this love-making had been even better. She giggled suddenly. “We sound like a couple of teenagers who have never had sex before.”

  He raised up on one elbow and stroked his hand over her belly. “I think this proves we’ve had sex before.” He placed his lips close to her stomach. “Everyone okay in there?”

  Avery giggled once again. “Trust me, everyone is just fine.” Once again he stroked his hand back and forth on her stomach as if caressing the babies inside.

  “If you keep that up, you’ll put me right to sleep,” she said.

  He caressed her stomach one last
time, and in the semidarkness she saw the smile on his face fade. She sensed that he was about to say something that would ruin the moment. And the last thing she wanted to talk about at this time was that he thought what had just happened was a mistake.

  Before that could happen, she rolled away from him and got off the bed. “I’ll be back,” she murmured, and then went into her bathroom.

  She cleaned up and pulled on her long nightgown and a lightweight robe. Even after that her heart was still beating an unnatural rhythm.

  You can’t be in love with him, she told her reflection in the mirror. Loving Dallas would definitely be a complication in their coparenting relationship. She refused to be in love with him, but at the moment she felt closer to him than any other man who had ever been in her life.

  It wasn’t that she was falling in love with Dallas; it was just that there was no question she loved making love with him. Her body definitely liked his and she told herself there was nothing wrong with that. What they had just shared changed nothing between them.

  She left her bathroom to find Dallas standing at the foot of the bed. He’d pulled on his jeans, but must have been interrupted by a phone call, for he had his cell pressed to his ear.

  “No...no, I can’t,” he said to whoever was on the other end. “No, I’ve got Avery to think about.”

  “What’s going on?” Avery asked. She wouldn’t have asked if she hadn’t heard her name.

  “Hang on, Donovan,” he said into the phone, then turned to her. “There’s a lost little boy out on the Miller ranch, but they can find him without me.”

  “No,” she replied. “You go on, I’ll be just fine here.”

  She could see how torn he was from the deep frown that etched across his forehead. “Please, Dallas,” she pressed. “Search and rescue, that’s what you do. Now go and help bring that little boy home.”

  He hesitated only a moment and then spoke into the phone once again. “Okay, Donovan, I’ll be out there as soon as I can get geared up. Yeah...Okay, then I’ll meet you there.”

  He clicked off and tossed the phone on the bed, and then pulled his shirt over his head. “Are you sure you’ll be okay here?”

  “I’ll be fine,” she assured him. “I’ve got the alarm system and I have no plans to open the door to anyone.”

  He grabbed his phone and tucked it into his back pocket. Together they left the bedroom and went back into the living room, where he collected his keys and his gun off one of the end tables.

  He turned back to her at the front door. “Make sure you reset the alarm, and call 911 if anything happens.”

  “Nothing is going to happen,” she insisted. “I feel completely safe in the house. It’s only when I’m out of it that I feel at risk. Now go.”

  Once he was gone she reset the alarm system and then walked over to the sofa and sank down into the cushions. Lulu immediately danced at her feet and whined, as if upset she’d been ignored for so long.

  Avery picked her up and placed her on the sofa at her side. Lulu put her head on Avery’s thigh and gazed up at her as if seeking answers to questions that Avery didn’t have. Questions like what her real feelings were where Dallas was concerned.

  Since her brother’s death, she had been so certain she didn’t want a real relationship with a man in her life. But Breanna’s words suddenly played in her mind, reminding her that Zeke wouldn’t have wanted her to spend her life alone. He would have wished love for her.

  Now, as she looked into her future, she wasn’t so sure that being without a man, a soul mate, was what she wanted, and her change of heart was all about Dallas.

  But it had been only a little bit earlier in the evening that he had told her about his wife and his decision never to marry again. He’d had his soul mate and so surely he couldn’t be Avery’s.

  At the moment she couldn’t trust any of her feelings. Her life was in turmoil. She had threats hanging over her head, and the desire to help catch a serial killer. Her hormones were probably all crazy. The last thing she needed to do right now was trust her own judgment about anything.

  She leaned her head back and closed her eyes as her brain replayed in slow motion what she and Dallas had just shared. He had satiated her, but with his scent lingering on her skin and her lips imprinted with his, she wanted him all over again.

  And that scared her. Because despite everything she had just told herself, she now realized her biggest challenge was going to be stopping herself from falling in love with her babies’ father.

  Chapter 9

  Donovan and Forrest were waiting for Dallas when he arrived on horseback at the Miller ranch. Dallas had gone to his place and saddled up his horse, Scout. He’d grabbed the gear used for search and rescue and then ridden to the Miller place, which wasn’t far from the Colton ranch. Forrest was also on horseback and Donovan was in a truck. There were other neighbors who had come to help, as well.

  David and Holly Miller were frantic. With a total of five children, they hadn’t noticed when their seven-year-old had slipped out of the house. Michael, the missing little boy, had told his brother that he was going out to find some blackberries.

  Darkness had fallen and Michael hadn’t returned. The family had already checked the entire house and the barn, but there was no sign of him.

  “As far as I know there aren’t any blackberry bushes on the property,” David said worriedly.

  “Then what would make him go look for them?” Donovan asked.

  “It has to be because of the book I read to him last night before bedtime,” Holly said tearfully. “It was about a magic land behind a blackberry bush.” She began to cry again and her husband threw an arm around her shoulders. “I should have never read him that book. This is all my fault.”

  David pulled his slender wife against his side. “Honey, you couldn’t have known what Michael would do.”

  “Please, just find him,” she cried. “He’s out there all alone in the night, and he’s afraid of the dark.”

  Dallas felt gutted as he imagined the horror he would feel if one of his twins went missing. He couldn’t imagine what Holly and David were going through. He hoped like hell nothing tragic had happened to the boy.

  It took only a few minutes for the men to organize a plan and then they left the house. Dallas got back on Scout, settled into his saddle and pulled out his high-powered flashlight. At least they were lucky in that the moon was full and bright, and spilled down some illumination over the landscape.

  “Michael,” Dallas called, as Scout walked slowly away from the house toward the pasture in the distance.

  On either side of him Dallas could see the flashlights and hear the cries of the other searchers as they called the little boy’s name. They all moved slowly, wanting to make sure that each and every part of the property was checked out.

  Thankfully, there was no reason to believe that the child had been abducted. Holly and David hadn’t seen anyone lurking around their house and Michael had indicated to his brother that he was leaving the house.

  So where did a little boy go to look for blackberry bushes? How far could he have walked? Far enough to lose his bearings and get lost? Dallas guessed that’s probably what had happened. Hopefully, Michael would hear them calling for him and answer.

  Minutes ticked by...long minutes that eventually turned into half an hour and then an hour. They passed several outbuildings, and checked them thoroughly, but no little boy was found inside.

  There was nothing worse than a missing child. The event could galvanize a community, and as time went on more and more people joined the search. The flashlights of the searchers looked like dozens of fireflies lighting the night.

  Dallas had just ridden near a ravine that led to a dry streambed when he thought he heard a faint cry. He drew Scout to a halt and listened. Had it been an animal he’d heard? He couldn’t be sure.


  He urged Scout closer to the edge. “Michael,” he shouted once again.

  “It’s me. I’m down here,” a faint little voice replied. “Somebody help me!”

  Dallas released a deep sigh of relief. He called Donovan on his cell phone. “I found him. He’s down in a ravine.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “He’s talking so I think he’s fine,” Dallas replied.

  “I’ll send some men your way and I’ll head back to the house to let his parents know,” Donovan replied. He had told David and Holly to remain at the house while the more professional search and rescue team were working. Besides if Michael wound up back at the house on his own, he might want his mommy and daddy there.

  “Help me,” Michael yelled again. “Is somebody up there?”

  “I’m here, buddy,” Dallas replied. He pocketed his phone, dismounted and led Scout closer. “Michael, my name is Dallas and I’m here to help you. Can you come up?”

  “I can’t. I hurt my ankle. I—I can’t stand up. It hurts.” The sound of the boy’s weeping rose up from the ravine.

  “It’s okay, Michael. Don’t cry. I’ll come down and get you,” Dallas replied. “We’ll get you back to your mom and dad in no time. They’ve been very worried about you.”

  Dallas turned to Scout and from the saddlebag pulled the first aid kit he carried when doing search and rescues. He opened it and pulled out a roll of elastic wrap. He had no idea how badly Michael had hurt his ankle, but Dallas intended to wrap it before he brought the boy up.

  Although the ravine sides were fairly steep, there was no need for any special equipment to get down to the bottom. Gripping his flashlight firmly, Dallas began his descent. His feet nearly slid out from beneath him as loose stones and dirt clods rolled downward.

  When he reached the bottom, he shone his flashlight toward a small figure seated on the ground—a blond little boy with big blue eyes that wept great big tears.