by Jane Graves
He lowered himself to his forearms and plunged inside her in one smooth, forceful stroke. The rest of her words caught in her throat, the feeling so intense that for a moment she couldn’t catch a breath. He withdrew slowly, then thrust again, groaning with pleasure.
“Ah, Val, you feel so good.…”
Flames were already building inside her again, and his words were like a hot breeze, stirring them into a frenzy. With every stroke, she felt herself moving toward a climax again.
“Now I remember,” he said, a note of wonder in his voice. “God, I remember.…”
She knew what he was talking about. Exactly. She knew he remembered what it had felt like to do this so many years ago. He remembered how incredible it had been. And all of it paled in comparison to what they were feeling now.
“This is better,” she whispered. “So much better …”
“Yes.”
Then she did start to beg—pleading with him to move harder, faster.…
“That’s right, baby,” he whispered against her ear. “Tell me what you want. Tell me.”
She did. She told him with her voice and her hands and her legs wrapped tightly around him exactly what she wanted, and it all came down to him. Just him. Just having him falling into her with such blinding intensity, wanting her so much, needing her so much. The room began to blur around her, the pressure inside her building until she couldn’t stand it any longer. She cried out his name, begging all over again.
Then all at once something contracted inside her, then exploded in a sunburst of sensation. She gasped, and Alex thrust harder, then fell forward and clung to her with a fierce groan. She wrapped her legs tightly around him, pulling him deep inside her, holding on as hot waves of pure ecstasy swept over both of them. And even as the sensations subsided, still she held on to him, relishing the weight of him against her, his hot breath against her neck, the brush of his hair against her cheek. God, how she loved every bit of it.
She kissed his shoulder, then slid her palms in long, sweeping strokes down his back. And when she finally found her breath again, she circled her arms around his neck, met his lips, and kissed him long and hard. When she finally pulled away and opened her eyes, she found him staring down at her.
“Thanks,” she whispered. “I needed that.”
He chuckled a little. “You and me both, sweetheart.”
They smiled at each other a moment more. Then, slowly, his smile faded. “I was so afraid of doing the wrong thing. You don’t know how much.”
She brushed a lock of hair away from his forehead. “It couldn’t have been more right.”
He shifted over, lay down beside her, and pulled her into his arms. In that moment, she had a twinge of that frightening feeling she’d had every time in her life when she’d opened herself up to somebody else, that feeling that she was utterly exposed, utterly defenseless. Only now, as she lay in Alex’s arms, that feeling died away, replaced by a sense of warmth. Of contentment. Of trust.
If she’d been tired before, she was exhausted now, but it was a pleasant kind of exhaustion that seeped all the way to her bones. Alex stroked her arm, her hip, her thigh, in slow, relaxing strokes.
“I want you to know something else,” he said.
“Yes?”
“When you wake up in the morning …”
“Yes?”
“I’ll be here.”
chapter twenty-four
When Alex woke the next morning, Val was snuggled right up against his back, her hand draped over his hip, one of her legs tangled up between his. Her breasts were resting against his back and her warm breath fanned his neck. The room was fairly bright, and he wondered what time it was. Then he decided that he didn’t care. He just lay there motionless, savoring the feeling of her body pressed so snugly against his, and after a while, her rhythmic breathing almost put him back to sleep again.
Then he heard his cell phone ringing.
He sat up and slid out of bed, leaving Val sleeping. He went into the kitchen, where he’d left his phone on the counter. He looked at the caller ID.
Dave.
He hit the talk button. “Dave? What’s up?”
“I was just wondering what was going on there.”
Alex sank onto one of the dinette chairs. “Did that deputy contact Henderson yet?”
“Not that I know of. What’s happening on your end?”
“I’m still working on a lead. It may take a while longer. What does the investigation look like right now?”
“There’s not much of one. Crime scene evidence, of course, but Henderson’s not looking for any other suspects. Especially since you were found in Reichert’s house.”
“That couldn’t be helped.”
“I don’t suppose you’re ready to tell me the whole story.”
“No, I’m not. The less you know, the better.”
“Alex? How long is this going to go on?”
Alex rubbed his hand over his face, then exhaled. “As long as it needs to.”
“There’s got to be an end to this. Sooner or later you’re going to have to—”
“Have to what? Hand myself over so they can go through the motions of a trial, then toss me in prison for the next twenty years?”
Dave was silent.
“If I don’t find out the truth,” Alex said, “nobody else is going to. I’m not stopping until I prove I didn’t do this. I don’t give a damn how long it takes.”
“What do you mean? Days?”
Alex didn’t respond.
“Weeks? Months?”
“I said I don’t care how long it takes.”
“And if you don’t find the evidence you need? What then?”
“Dave. Get this straight. I’m not letting anyone throw me in a prison cell for a crime I didn’t commit. Ever.”
There was a long silence. Then his brother’s voice, touched with disbelief. “Are you telling me that you may not come back at all?”
When Alex said nothing, Dave let out a long breath. “I had no idea you were considering this.”
“It’s not my first choice.”
“Millner. You know he’s good. If it comes to it, I’m sure he can—”
“Will you shut the hell up about Millner? He’s an attorney, not a goddamned miracle worker. Unless I can find more evidence, I’m a dead man.”
There was a long silence, a silence that echoed the truth. Dave knew he was right. The enormity of the situation was starting to come down on both of them, and it was something that neither of them wanted to face.
“What about Val?” Dave asked.
Alex’s heart skipped. “What about her?”
“She’s accused of breaking and entering. With no priors, if she’d just stuck around and confessed to that charge, she probably would have gotten probation. That’s all. So why is she with you?”
“Because she’s a target. Reichert tried to shoot her once. He could very well do it again.”
“I don’t think he’ll bother her anymore. Days have passed and the authorities haven’t come after him. He’ll figure he’s in the clear, that she hasn’t told the cops anything to incriminate him. He won’t risk adding another murder to the list if it’s not necessary.”
Alex hadn’t considered that. What his brother was saying was probably true.
“She’s better off here,” Dave went on. “A good attorney might be able to work his way around the fact that she was with you in the Reichert house. But if you two are caught together now, the prosecution will go to the mat. Aiding and abetting a felon, accessory after the fact—all that. There’s no telling what might happen to her.”
Dave was right. Why hadn’t he thought about that before?
“What’s going on between you two?” Dave asked.
“It’s none of your business, so don’t even go there.”
“I don’t have to. You just did.”
Alex dropped his head to his hand with a sigh of disgust.
“If the time com
es,” Dave said, “will you be able to let her go?”
Let her go? The very words made Alex sick. Until this minute, he hadn’t even allowed himself to think about that.
“We’re safe where we are right now,” he told Dave. “And something could happen very soon to turn this all around.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
Alex was silent.
“If you don’t find what you’re looking for, what are you going to do? Run forever? And take Val with you?”
“Get off it, Dave.”
“I know you’re under a lot of pressure, and you probably haven’t thought this through,” Dave said carefully. “Otherwise I know you’d never even think of doing something like that to her.”
Dave DeMarco. The voice of reason. Damn it.
Alex bowed his head, suddenly feeling like shit. With everything going on, he just hadn’t stopped to think about all the implications of what he was doing. For the first time, he was starting to see the danger Val faced just by being with him.
“Dave?”
“Yeah?”
Alex cradled the phone against his shoulder and rubbed his temples. “I’m not saying this is going to happen, but if I send Val back, will you help her? Talk to Millner? Get him to defend her?”
“Of course I will.”
“Tell him to pull out all the stops. I don’t want her serving time. Not one minute of it.”
“I’ll take care of her, Alex. I promise.”
“I still haven’t decided what to do.”
“I know. I’m here, though, if you need me.”
All at once, Alex felt as if the phone he held was the only thing connecting him to the world as he used to know it. He thought about his job, his family, his life. All of that could be gone if he couldn’t find a way to prove his innocence.
And Val would be gone, too.
“I don’t know when I’ll see you again,” he told Dave. “Tell the family—” He stopped short, his throat suddenly tight. “Tell everybody that I love them.”
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d said that word, and he knew just how surprised his brother was to hear it.
“I’ll tell them,” Dave said. “Call me if anything’s happening, will you?”
“Yeah. I will.”
Alex hit the button to disconnect the call, then tossed the cell phone onto the table. He’d told Dave the truth. He wasn’t going to stop until he found a way to prove his innocence. But had he made a mistake in letting Val become involved?
He went back to the bedroom, stopping at the doorway. Val was still asleep. Minutes ticked by as he stood there and watched her. He played the events of the past few days over in his mind, and slowly he realized that somewhere in the middle of all of it, something drastic had happened. It was more than just desire, more than just wanting her in his bed, more than just the physical pull he’d always felt whenever he was around her. Never in his life had he felt this overwhelming urge to hold a woman, to protect her, to be the one she depended on. He’d never envisioned his life taking such a fundamental turn, and the feeling staggered him. For the first time in his life, he could see a woman as part of his future.
Only he might not have a future to offer her.
When he hung up the phone with Dave, he thought he had a decision to make. There was no decision. She’d never be safe as long as she was with him, and if the worst happened and Reichert got away with murder, what kind of life could he offer her?
He walked to the bed and sat down beside Val. She stirred a little, then blinked her eyes open and smiled.
“Alex.”
He took her hand in his.
“Did I hear the phone ring?” she asked.
“Yeah. Dave called.”
Her eyes opened wider. “What did he want?”
“Just checking up.”
“Anything new back in Tolosa?”
“No.”
“The investigation?”
“Nothing new.”
Alex stared down at her. Even with her hair mussed, her eyes heavy, and a pillow crease running across her left cheek, no woman on earth had ever looked more beautiful to him.
She rose up on one elbow. “Looks like we need to find another way to get that house bugged, doesn’t it?”
“Val, listen to me. We have to be realistic about this. Getting into that house is going to be harder now, and it may take time. A lot of time. We may have to stake out the place for days before we get another opportunity to get inside. And Rick said Reichert comes to the ranch only for the hunts. If he leaves this time before we can get the place bugged, we may have a long wait before he shows up again.”
“I know.”
“No. I don’t think you understand how long this could go on. And there’s always the possibility that we may never get the evidence we’re looking for.”
“You’re the one who doesn’t understand,” Val said softly, settling back against the pillow. “I don’t care if it takes a lifetime.”
Alex heard her words, but it was a moment before he understood the magnitude of what she was saying. She was telling him that she was willing to give up everything.
For him.
He thought about how she’d stood in the bedroom of that ranch house last night and let that man touch her because she didn’t want to blow her cover, because she thought it might be their only shot at getting those bugs planted. That she didn’t get the job done only told him how horrified she’d been and how frantic she’d been to get out of that house when she finally had the opportunity.
Have you gotten it through your head yet, DeMarco? Did it have to come to this before you finally figured it out?
She could have stayed in Tolosa, faced the breaking-and-entering charge, and ended up with not much more than a slap on the wrist. Yes, at the time Reichert might still have been a danger to her, but she had her eyes open and she could have stayed out of his way. When it came right down to it, she was here for only one reason.
Because she wanted to help him.
But Dave was right. Every moment she spent with him dragged her deeper into a situation that was only going to hurt her. How could he let that happen?
Accessory after the fact. Aiding and abetting a felon.
This was his problem. Not hers. But if they were caught, those were exactly the charges she’d be facing.
“Let’s go to the ranch right now,” Val said, sitting up. “Find out if the hunting party is still there.”
He put his hand against her shoulder and eased her back down. “Tonight. After dark.”
“But—”
“It’s too dangerous in broad daylight. We can check things out later tonight, see who’s still there, then try to come up with a new plan to get into the house.”
Val thought about that for a moment. “Maybe you’re right.” She smiled. “We’ll go tonight.”
Alex nodded, feeling a flood of guilt. He’d just lied to Val. She wasn’t going to the ranch tonight. He was going. Alone.
From here on out, his neck was going to be the only one on the line. And Dave was right about where Val belonged. Once he told her that he was leaving, he intended to do everything in his power to persuade her to return to Tolosa. Then he’d move heaven and earth to prove his innocence so he could go home to her again. And if he couldn’t …
If he couldn’t, he’d lose her forever.
Val glanced at the bedside clock. “It’s only ten-thirty now. We have a lot of time until tonight. What do you suggest we do in the meantime?”
Alex lowered his head and kissed her—a slow, deep, deliberate kiss that let her know exactly what he had in mind for the next several hours.
“Good suggestion,” she murmured.
As he stretched out beside her and took her in his arms again, he tried to put the future out of his mind, but still Dave’s words kept drifting around inside his head, refusing to go away.
If the time comes, will you be able to let her go?
He dreade
d the very thought of it, because he knew the minute he told Val what he’d decided to do, she’d be hurt. Angry. She’d look at him as if he’d betrayed her, and there wouldn’t be a damned thing he could do about it.
And he’d lied to her about something else. His decision to wait until tonight to return to the ranch had nothing to do with the danger involved. It had to do with buying time. Time to be with Val.
Just in case it was the last time he ever saw her.
Alex and Val spent the afternoon in the cabin, the hours passing in a hazy cloud of pure pleasure. Occasionally Alex would have a lucid moment when he thought about what was coming that night, but then Val would touch him and he’d drift back into oblivion all over again.
The day slipped away. Evening came.
“We’ve got a little while until we have to go to the ranch,” Val said, tracing her fingertips over his chest. “Since it’s nearly dark, let’s get out of this cabin. Go down by the lake. Enjoy the oppressive heat. Sit on the dock and make out.”
Alex smiled. “Sounds good.”
They threw on some clothes, then left the cabin by the back door and headed down a short wooded path toward the lake. It was still again tonight. Not tranquil or calm, but a strained kind of stillness, as if something dark were on the verge of bursting right through it. Not a flutter of a breeze made its way through the trees, and the brutal heat of the day had barely melted away. It was one of those nights that seemed to ooze tension.
Or maybe the tension was coming from inside him.
They stood on the end of the dock, staring out over the lake. Val glanced up at him.
“You’re frowning.”
“Am I?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t mean to be.”
He forced himself to smile, even though he hardly felt like it. The closer it came to the time Val would expect to go to the ranch, the more stressed he felt.
“Suppose it could get any hotter out here?” Alex asked.
“Only if the sun went supernova.”
“Nothing like summer in Texas.”
“You said you didn’t have a swim team at your school,” Val said. “But can you swim?”
