She was falling in love with him. The truth poured over her like that breeze and the urge to weep again burned behind her eyelids.
She pushed it away for now, quite certain she would have plenty of time to fret about that stunning truth later, after he left. For now, she needed to focus on the reason he had come to her.
“I understand you want to protect your daughter, Brodie. You absolutely have earned that right. You’ve done everything you can to give her the life she had before.” She paused, choosing her words carefully. “But don’t you think that after everything she’s been through, Taryn has also earned the right to have a hand on the rudder of her destiny?”
He stared at her and then closed his eyes, pulling her closer. She wanted to run from these feelings inside her, from this soft and subtle binding of their hearts.
“Damn it. Why do you have to be so smart about everything?”
Oh, if he only knew. She had been so very, very foolish about so many things. She should have said no that very first night he had come to her here to ask for her help with Taryn. She had known somehow that if she agreed, everything would change. All her careful barriers would tumble down and she would become vulnerable once more to pain and heartbreak and life.
The world she had created here in Hope’s Crossing—safe and serene, comfortable—would drift away now like fall-turned leaves caught in the current.
She was falling in love with Brodie Thorne and she knew it would not end well for her.
Despite that knowledge singing through her mind, when he lowered his head to kiss her she didn’t have the requisite strength to step away. All she could do was lean into him and savor the sense of rightness that defied all sense.
The kiss began as merely a soft brush of his mouth against hers, easy and slow, like a quiet rain just before dawn. The sheer sweetness destroyed the last of her defenses and she was helpless to pull away when he leaned his hips against the edge of the deep windowsill, his long legs stretched out on either side of her, and pulled her closer so her mouth was perfectly on level with his.
Lightning flashed behind him. Would she ever view a Hope’s Crossing thunderstorm in exactly the same way, or would that burst of atmospheric energy forever remind her of this moment, in her apartment with Brodie’s arms around her and his mouth teasing and tasting each inch of hers until her thoughts were tangled and her knees were weak?
They kissed there for a long time while the wet breeze drifted in and the rain pattered down outside the window and the lightning slowed to only occasional flares.
Some annoying little part of her mind cautioned her they needed to stop before things went too far but as the kiss deepened and Brodie’s mouth licked and teased hers, the rest of her decided to ignore the warning for now.
She didn’t protest when he tugged her to the sofa and pulled her down beside him, his body male and solid and wonderful next to hers. She was too busy relishing the solid strength of him, the delicious heat.
Nor did she think to object when his mouth trailed delectable kisses across the curve of her cheekbone and down the length of her neck, his breath warm and erotic against her skin.
By the time his fingers began to play at the buttons of her shirt, that voice of warning had quieted to barely discernable whimpers. This was Brodie. She was falling in love with him and being here with him while the rain whispered against the window seemed exactly right.
Twelve
So much for his good intentions.
Brodie had assured himself in those few moments he was waiting for her outside in that little garden that he had come only to seek Evie’s help. He trusted her—sometimes he was astonished at how much.
His grand plan had been only to ask her to help him convince Taryn of the foolishness of her wish to testify.
However, when she had stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him, offering that generous comfort he was beginning to depend on, he had been unable to resist her. What man could? Evie Blanchard was soft and beautiful and giving.
He wanted her so fiercely he couldn’t think around it. He had never known this kind of hunger, to want everything from a woman. Always before, he would try to maintain some sort of control over himself but this reckless abandon with Evie was completely unexpected.
He wanted everything. To taste and touch and explore every part of her until he learned just what brought her the most pleasure...
Her skin was warm and tasted like wildflowers as he trailed his mouth from her lips to her cheek, then down the long, silky column of her throat. She wore a pale green shirt that made her exotically tilted eyes look vibrant and mysterious. She closed them halfway as he brushed his mouth at that sexy little spot where neck met shoulder, then moved his lips to her shoulder, all while his fingers were busy working the top button of her shirt.
Even though he was more aroused than he’d ever been in his life, he wanted to spend all night exploring these secret little places, like here, the hollow just above her collarbone.
He pressed his mouth there...then froze when she suddenly hissed in a breath and tried to move her shoulder away.
He frowned, easing up on his elbow. “Did I hurt you?”
Her eyes were huge, dazed. “Sorry?”
“You caught your breath there with a sort of whimper. And it wasn’t a do-that-again sort of whimper.”
“Sorry.” She cleared the huskiness out of her voice. “I, uh, didn’t even realize I had.”
Did she have any idea how powerfully arousing he found it that she hadn’t been aware of her own subconscious reaction?
“I hurt you.” He drew back farther and pushed the collar of her shirt aside so he could see in the low light from the bead-covered lamp beside the sofa. He frowned at the apple-size, vivid black-and-purple bruise on her shoulder.
“What did you do?” he exclaimed. As soon as the words were out, he remembered that scene with Taryn the week before, that horrible moment when his daughter had lashed out in anger and frustration, throwing the free weight at Evie. It had struck her cheek, he remembered, then landed on her shoulder before falling to the ground.
“Taryn did that to you, didn’t she?”
Evie stared at him, her eyes still aroused and unfocused. She shifted her gaze to her shoulder and then back to him. “Yes. It looks worse than it feels.”
“Liar.” He had seen the way she winced when he kissed her there. She was hurt because of his daughter, and here he was pawing her like a horny teenager.
He sat up. “I completely forgot about what happened in therapy Thursday. I’m sorry, Evie. I guess Charlie’s hearing thrust it completely from my mind.”
With each passing second, she seemed to be gathering her composure around her until she gave a heavy sigh and eased away from him. He could do nothing but watch as she rose from the sofa and moved to the easy chair adjacent to the couch, where she perched on the edge of the cushion, her fingers intertwined as if in prayer. He could almost see each of her defenses snap back into place.
Right now, with his body still throbbing and his nerves still humming, he sincerely wished he were the sort of guy who could have ignored that wince of pain and taken what they both wanted.
“Don’t worry about it,” she murmured. “It’s no big deal.”
He wanted to grab her to go back to the wild heat between them but she was too much in control now. The moment was gone. Damn it.
“Evie,” he began, not sure what he wanted to say to her, but she shook her head.
“Don’t. We’ve got to stop doing this, Brodie.”
“Why? We’re both adults. Neither of us is involved with someone else right now. We’ve got this heat that seems to spontaneously combust whenever we’re together. We can’t just ignore it.”
“You might not be able to but I can.”
He fr
owned. “Why do we have to?”
Jacques padded over to her—apparently done giving them the privacy Brodie was suddenly grateful for—and Evie dug her hands in the dog’s short, wiry fur for a moment before she spoke. “You probably can’t understand this because you have lived here all your life,” she went on, without waiting for an answer, “but... I need Hope’s Crossing. I can’t explain it very well, but this has become my home. I’ve found peace here. I have friends here and a life I love. But what happens if we give in to that heat and what we both want and make love?”
“I don’t know, other than I have no doubt it would be incredible.”
She closed her eyes briefly. When she opened them, they were distant. “I know it would be. But it wouldn’t last, Brodie. How could it? We’re far too different. This heat is not enough. When things between us ended, as I have no doubt they would, where would I be? I wouldn’t be able to stay here in this place I love. I would have to leave Hope’s Crossing and I would hate that.”
“You’re really choosing a town over what we could have?”
She shook her head. “That’s a little too simplistic, don’t you think? I’m choosing to protect myself.”
How could he argue with that? She was right. They were very different people. What had he once thought about her? Color and chaos, passion and heat. He already had a brain full of chaos and had struggled like hell as an adult to contain it. As drawn as he was to her, as much as his body ached for her, Evie could threaten everything he had worked so hard to overcome. Was he willing to pay the cost?
“So that’s it,” he said.
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I,” he said roughly.
“I’ll still try to talk to Taryn for you in the morning,” she said.
He was so messed up, it took him a minute to register what she meant and then he remembered. Right. That was the whole reason he had come here, to convince her to help him talk Taryn out of speaking at Charlie Beaumont’s sentencing hearing.
“Don’t,” he said. “If she wants to speak, I won’t stop her. Like you said, she’s earned it.”
Her lovely features softened and she opened her mouth to speak but he couldn’t stay here any longer, not with this ache of hunger in his gut.
“Sorry I bothered you about Taryn and...everything else.”
“Brodie...”
He decided it would be wiser not to look at her right now or he would waver. “And thank you for your hard work with Taryn. You’ve done far more than I asked. I’ll have my assistant send a check tomorrow to the Layla Parker fund, doubling the amount we talked about.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she murmured.
“But I’m going to anyway,” he answered. “Good night, Evie.”
He headed for the door, but not before he heard her whispered goodbye behind him.
* * *
A sleepless night following a long, arduous weekend, following an even longer week did not make a good combination.
Evie was gritty-eyed and exhausted the next morning when she arrived at the house for her last day with Taryn. She half feared she would see Brodie and wondered what she would possibly say after last night, but only Taryn’s new therapist was in evidence.
Stephanie Kramer was young and clever and bubbled with energy. Already, she and Taryn seemed to have a rapport. A recent graduate from P.T. school, Stephanie had just finished her internship. Though she was taking a position at a clinic in Denver, they didn’t need her until after Christmas, which made her perfect for the job of Taryn’s full-time P.T. aide.
Everything would work out great, Evie knew, and Taryn could continue on her road to recovery.
One part of her was deeply relieved to turn over the responsibility to someone competent who would provide exactly what Taryn needed. At the same time, Evie was more than a little disconcerted by how sorry she was to put this time behind her.
She would miss Taryn. The lump that had been hovering in her throat all morning swelled a little bigger. Oh, this was exactly what she’d been afraid of when Brodie had dragged her into this. Deep in her heart, she had known she would struggle to walk away after all their hard work, to turn over both the responsibility and the satisfaction of the girl’s progress to someone else.
She couldn’t alter course now. For heaven’s sake, her replacement had already been hired. She couldn’t just suddenly announce, Oh, excuse me, I’ve changed my mind. Go on about your business now.
Anyway, she wouldn’t do that even if she could, especially after last night with Brodie. She needed to make a clean break before it became not simply difficult but utterly impossible to walk away.
“I guess that’s everything. We’ve been through it all several times. I showed you the pool exercises, what we’ve been doing in here on the equipment and the schedule of other therapists who come in and out. Do you have any more questions?”
Stephanie shook her dark ponytail. “I don’t think so. Your notes are amazingly clear. If I do have questions, I can always call you, right?”
“Yes. Of course. My cell number is right at the top of the notes and if you can’t reach me there, you can always find me at the bead store in town.”
“Great. I’m superexcited about this. We’re going to have so much fun.”
She would do a wonderful job, Evie told herself. “Make sure you bring Taryn into the store often so we can bead.”
“I’d like to make something for... Hannah.” Taryn spoke from the mat, where she was brushing a delighted Jacques and working her arm and shoulder muscles in the process.
“That is an excellent idea. Hannah will love it.”
“Can... Jacques still come to visit me?” she asked.
“I’m sure we can work something out.” Evie couldn’t ignore the yearning in Taryn’s eyes as she gazed at the dog. “Maybe your grandmother could bring him out to spend an afternoon with you. And of course you can always visit him at the store whenever you come in.”
“I’ll miss him.” Taryn sighed a little and shifted on the mat.
“You’ll still see him. Don’t worry.”
Evie grabbed the box containing some beads, a book, a sweater—the last of her own things that had slowly migrated to the Thorne home over the course of her time here.
“I guess that’s it.”
“Thank...you.” Taryn looked almost teary-eyed and that lump in Evie’s own throat expanded.
“You’re welcome, honey.”
Unable to leave with just a wave and goodbye, Evie set the box back down, then knelt on the mat beside Taryn. She folded the girl in her arms, thinking she already felt more sturdy and less fragile than she had nearly a month ago when she had first come home from the care center. Much to Evie’s delight, Taryn returned the hug with a strength that hadn’t been there even a week ago.
“You’ve rocked, Taryn,” she murmured. “Don’t ever forget you did it all yourself.”
Taryn shook her head and sniffled a little. After a moment, Evie made herself rise to her feet and take Jacques’s leash and walk out the door.
Mrs. Olafson met her at the door with a bag in her hand. “These are some of those oatmeal cookies you liked so well,” she said rather gruffly, and Evie couldn’t help hugging her as well.
“Thank you, for what you did for our girl,” Mrs. O. said.
It wasn’t me, she wanted to protest once more but she decided to let it rest for once. Some part of Taryn’s recovery was because of her. Yes, the girl had done the work but Evie had guided her path and she would forever be proud of that.
Jacques whimpered a little as he climbed into the backseat of her vehicle.
“I know, bud. I’m sad about it, too,” she said.
The dog continued to whine all the way down the hill, as if he understood they wouldn’t b
e back. Hot tears burned in Evie’s eyes but she blinked hard to keep them from taking over. After the short drive through town, she pulled up to her spot behind String Fever but Jacques was still whimpering.
Evie turned around and looked at her dog, who looked so morose, then she shifted her gaze to Woodrose Mountain, solid and peaceful in the afternoon sunlight.
Suddenly she knew what she had to do. It hurt like the devil but that didn’t change the fact that it was the right thing to do for everyone involved.
Except her.
“Stay here,” she murmured to the dog. She rolled down both windows so he had plenty of air, then hurried into her apartment before she could change her mind. She dumped the contents of the box she had just brought from Brodie’s house on the sofa and filled it with what she needed, then hurried back down the stairs, her chest tight and achy.
Brodie probably wouldn’t like it, she thought as she drove back up the hill, but a little healthy annoyance wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Maybe if he was upset with her, he would be less likely to come around with more of those seductive, soul-stealing kisses. Not that he would after last night, but a contingency plan was always a good thing.
Mrs. O. looked surprised to see her when she rang the doorbell, Jacques padding along beside her. “Did you forget something?”
“Sort of.” She headed back to the therapy room, biting her lip hard to keep from sobbing out loud. This hurt more than she would ever have imagined but in her heart, she knew it was the right thing.
Taryn was still on the mat, her legs balanced on a small ball. She looked up, shocked, when Evie came back into the room with Jacques.
“Hi, again!”
Evie drew in a ragged breath that seemed to sear away the lining of her lungs. “Would you like to keep Jacques?”
Taryn’s eyes widened and she stared at Evie and then the dog. “What? You mean...all the time?”
She nodded, clenching her hand on the leash so hard she could feel her nails digging into flesh. “Though he’s been very understanding about it and I do try to walk him as often as I can, it’s really not fair to a big dog like Jacques to keep him in just a small second-floor apartment and that little garden spot behind String Fever. It was never meant to be a permanent arrangement anyway. I was only supposed to be fostering him until I could find a good home for him. I think I finally have.”
Country Bride Page 39
