“Do you want snow?”
She shrugged. “Not really. I’m a California girl now. I like sun, sand, surf. Snow is not something I’m looking forward to. I like being warm.”
“I can keep you warm.” He leaned into her and she giggled. “I’ll be your big teddy bear.”
“I’m going to hold you to that,” she chuckled. “It’s a date. Give me details and I’ll drive down the night before.”
“Do you have any time off?”
“The week before I’ll be really busy, but I have a couple days. I’ll be on call though. I’ll have to bring my computer with me just in case they need me. We’ll start filming the day before New Years.”
“Ouch,” he cringed at her schedule. Well he could still make it work. He had Wi-Fi and plenty of room. She could do any conference calls she needed to do from his home. Maybe he could get her to stay a little longer, but he wouldn’t push it—yet.
They had three good weeks to get to know each other which meant he was going to have to make trips to Freeport to see her. He wanted to get to know her better, but he also wanted to make sure she would be comfortable enough with him not to change her mind on coming to stay with him. He would have told her she could book a room at the B&B but even for a small town they were already filled up at both of the B&Bs in town so she wouldn’t be able to get a room this late no matter what.
Dinner had been a nearly two hour event for them. He would admit he could have stayed there with her all night, but they were occupying a table that he was sure the wait staff would rather give to somebody else. He paid the bill even though Bethany offered to go Dutch. “I don’t do Dutch,” he had nearly growled those words. She had given a surprised apology. He couldn’t imagine why anybody would do that kind of date unless they were looking for an easy out. He thought things had been going well, but maybe he had been wrong.
He walked her to her car. She was once again parked a little too far off and the parking light overhead was out on this spot. She should have parked closer to the restaurant, but for the time they had dinner set he could see why she hadn’t. He was lucky to get the spot he found when he arrived and he had arrived a good ten minutes before her. They had offered to show him to a table but he had wanted to wait on Bethany. He didn’t want to be sitting by himself waiting if she wasn’t going to show up. It would be easier to walk out the front door than to do the shame walk through the restaurant.
“So,” they said at the same time.
“Sorry,” she smiled and held up her hand. “You go first.”
He should have gone first. He wanted to because his brain was telling him if she was going to walk away he wanted to be the one to do it first, but he yielded to her. “Ladies first,” he said with a low, non humorous tone.
“Okay. I would like to do this again tomorrow. May I come to you? Maybe you can show me what Shadow Ridge has that Freeport doesn’t.”
He felt his shoulders relax. “A beach for one thing,” he chuckled. “Yeah, I’d like that. I have to work.”
“Me too. But how about if I come midday and we just spend a few hours together? I can work around your schedule and if something happens and you need to leave me I can take my car so I won’t be in your way.”
“I don’t leave women by the roadside,” he winked. Leaving a woman middle of the date felt a lot like leaving her on the roadside. “I’ll be on call. I may have to excuse myself for a little while. But you know it doesn’t make sense to waste fuel. I think we can make it work.”
The bright smile on her lips reached her eyes too. “Good.” She stepped closer to him. For once he wished his stomach wasn’t in the way but it didn’t seem to stop her from making contact. She was wearing heels so she didn’t have to do the tiptoe thing to reach his lips. She wasn’t short so he figured she wouldn’t have had to do that even if she were in flats. “Perfect actually,” she whispered against his lips before brushing them with her own smooth, plump flesh.
He couldn’t stop himself. He wrapped one arm around her small body and pulled her closer to him while his hand fisted her hair and his mouth deepened their tango. Her tongue danced with his, hungrily exploring just as much as he was exploring hers. All sorts of emotions rushed through him, but the most notable were the ones that had his erection pressing hard against the fabric of his boxer briefs and his pants. God he wanted this woman in a way that being in public most definitely wouldn’t allow without getting them both arrested.
“Wahoo! Kiss that woman!” Some rowdy kids yelled from across the parking lot.
“Get her a sandwich when you’re done.” Another one added. He pulled back and growled possessively, angrily. Bethany placed the palm of her hand on his cheek.
“I’ve heard worse. Let it go. Don’t own their stupidity.”
He still felt the need to defend her, much like she had defended him not once, but twice. “Bethany,” he lowered his eyes to the ground. Why didn’t she want him to stand up for her? Did she think he couldn’t do it? “I can take care of myself.”
“Oh I’m sure,” she looped her arms around his neck which made her lean against his body more. “I don’t doubt it. But if you go over there while you’re angry you’ll end up breaking those kids. I’ll have to bail you out of jail, find a few million dollars and pay for you to have safety in some foreign country that won’t extradite you.”
He laughed. “What?”
“Well it got a laugh out of you didn’t it?” She shrugged. “The movie we’re about to shoot has that in it…woman saving her man by paying loads of money that she has to steal, beg and borrow, just to get him out of the country. I guess that’s kind of stuck on my mind right now. Besides, I don’t want you to do anything. Save it for when something happens that could really hurt me. Words might hurt, but only if you let them.”
“Wow,” he looked at her realizing one of the things he hadn’t took note of before—this was a strong woman who knew her worth. Maybe that’s why he was drawn to her last night. She carried herself in a way that told him she would not be broken, in a way that told him she was strong and would survive whatever somebody tried to throw her way.
“Now, forget about them and kiss me some more.” She went back in for the kiss that took his libido from sleeping on anger to raging with rekindled desire. He backed her up against her car. He heard the door lock initiate and he pulled back a little.
“Forget it. It locks on its own but it won’t arm the alarm.” She pulled his head back down and started kissing him again.
Did he want her to have this control? No. He wanted it. He wanted to own her pleasure. He removed his lips from hers, tangled his fingers in her soft tresses and pulled her head back.
“Oh,” she moaned.
He chuckled and his lips went in to ravish her neck, sucking, kissing, and licking as he worked his way down to her partially uncovered shoulder. He could hear her panting with desire. He could feel her hips thrusting forward toward him. He knew he was setting her on fire sexually and he liked that. Something about knowing that even he, as big as he was, could do this to her had him surging to life with pride.
He used his foot to kick her legs as far apart as her skirt would allow. He slipped his leg as far between them as he could. What he really wanted to do was hike her skirt up and get to know that warm area better. Was she wet for him? Judging from the motion of her body, the breathless pants emanating from her, he would say yes. He had done this to her.
Another soft needy moan escaped her as he worked his way back up her neck to her jaw line and then her mouth. He took another long, wanton taste of her mouth before putting a hair of distance between them. She moaned in protest. “If I keep going I will get you naked and both of us arrested,” his voice was so low he barely recognized it for himself. No woman had ever made him want to strip in public and risk losing his career because he got arrested for public indecency.
She straightened up and ran her fingers through her hair to straighten the portions he had messed up. �
��Good point. With my job it would probably get plastered on every tabloid from here to London.”
How could he have forgotten about that risk? Maybe he forgot because she wasn’t a celebrity. But given the job she had, the film that was getting ready to shoot in Boston he should have known she might come under the spotlight. She had last night. That guy with the camera couldn’t have been there for the poker match. While there was media coverage of the event from the outside it was mostly local with a few guys who would come from some of the surrounding cities and states just to get a couple shots, but that guy seemed to have hung out the entire night just waiting for her.
“Wow,” she looked at him, her lips swollen from their kiss and her cheeks flaming red from the passion they had just shared. “You are such a good kisser, Miles.”
He winked at her. “I think you had a lot to do with that, beautiful.” He helped steady her as she stepped away from her car and unlocked the door again. He opened the door for her and saw to her getting inside the car. “Be careful driving home. Call me to let me know you made it.”
She chuckled. “I’ll be home before you. How about if you call me to let me know you made it.”
That wasn’t a question it was a request. Well this vixen surely did like to take control. He would have to admit he liked her more for that.
He agreed to her request and took a step back to close her door. He watched as she drove away and then he went to his own truck he got in and headed for home. “Best night of your life, Miles.” He would say it was definitely better than the night he won millions in a Vegas poker tournament. It was better because of her.
Chapter Three
“Are you crazy!?” Kelly, in all her vocal rage, still hung the crystal dove ornament on the tree she had been decorating apparently since before the sun came up.
“No. I’m not crazy. He’s a nice guy.”
“You can’t go stay with him not even for one night. He could be a serial killer.”
Bethany laughed. “He’s a cop—the sheriff, Kel. He’s not going to kill me. I’ll be fine.”
Kelly huffed. “That’s what they all say.” Kelly shoved one hand across her forehead trying to knock fallen side swept bangs out of her face. Her red defiant hair fell right back into place. “Don’t you watch any of those crime shows? I’m not talking the fiction shows. I’m talking the real life ones.”
“No, Kelly. I don’t have time to watch television.” She didn’t even have cable in her house. Thankfully Donavan, her nephew, didn’t like to watch television either. When he wasn’t out playing with the new horse with the handler, Steven McKay, he was riding his bike. When he wasn’t riding his bike he was climbing trees that had her mother screaming at him to come down from there. And when he wasn’t doing that he had his nose in a science book. The kid was very much interested in all things science and could devour any book that gave him a factual account of things she didn’t understand but found intriguing whenever he would sit down and talk about what he learned for the day. She would admit the family dinners were one of the best things about being back.
She had talked to her direct boss, Kyle Winters, to see if he could find her somebody in the science field who she could maybe let Donavan talk with and Kyle had arranged for Donavan to spend the summer at a science camp. Donavan was so excited when she told him that she didn’t think he would even be able to finish his dinner. He was literally jumping up and down in the kitchen. Her mother seemed to think that was a good and bad idea. “It’s good because he’ll learn something and use his summer wisely,” she had said. “It’s bad because I’ll be alone.”
She would be alone because Bethany would be working promotions on the movie that should be releasing by next fall. Donovan would only be gone a month and then he would be back, but her mother was lonely. “Steven’s here,” she had said. Her mother had snorted as she watched Donovan run out the room to grab a notepad. He said he needed to write down all the questions he wanted answered.
“He likes you, Mom.”
Her mother had given her the sullen “I’ll never marry again,” look. Bethany figured she would. She had seen how her mom was with Steven. Those looks she gave him as they sat on the porch and Steven worked with his shirt sleeves rolled up had told her that her mother had a thing for him even if she didn’t want to admit it yet.
“Seriously, what if he kills you? You could like die. Then you’d be sorry.”
Bethany fell on the floor laughing so hard she toppled over on her back, clutching her stomach.
“I’m serious!”
Bethany tried to sober, but it wasn’t easy. “I can’t be sorry if I’m dead.”
Kelly glared at her. “I don’t like this guy.”
“You don’t know this guy.” Bethany shook her head. “Anyway, I have to go. I should have been working, but I have spent most of my time sitting here listening to you complain about Miles. I’m going now.”
“Bethy.”
“Bethany,” she said with a short hint of anger in her tone.
“Sorry. Just…be careful okay. Give me the number to where you’ll be staying and when you’ll be back and if anything happens to you I’ll call the FBI.”
Bethany started laughing again. “Oh dear, you are crazy. Bye, crazy lady.” She shook her head. She hadn’t felt unsafe accepting Miles’ invitation, but maybe Kelly had a point. Maybe it was too soon to be staying at his place for Christmas. She wasn’t sure, but she would see how the next couple weeks went before she started making plans to change her mind. She had three weeks, but the planner side of her didn’t like to wait until the last moment. If she felt uncomfortable—even a small hint of uncomfortable—she would cancel.
She did manage to get a couple hours of work in before getting another shower and pulling on some casual clothes. Jeans that hugged her soft curves, a fitted knitted sweater because it was cool but not cold, and a pair of knee high low heeled boots that she loved to wear as her standard walking around town boots in L.A. She pushed her hair up in a classy up-do that wasn’t too formal but wasn’t messy casual either and she hit the road. When she pulled up outside the station she parked two cars back from a Deputy car and walked down to Miles’ location. She felt a little nervous about walking into the station just to meet her day-date, but he hadn’t come out and she wasn’t sure if she should have called him to let him know she was outside or just go in and let him know.
The thought that she could have called didn’t occur to her until she opened the door. Leaving now to make the call would make her look stupid seeing as though the front receptionist and the deputy at the back corner desk had both turned their attention to her.
“May I help you?” The silver haired woman with the lines etched around her eyes and in her face looked at her as if she were a foreigner from another country invading their space. Her scrutinizing eyes didn’t make Bethany nervous. Instead, she put her work persona back on and remembered that she had gone into the trenches in a male dominated field and came out the victor in more battles than one.
“I’m Bethany Tillman. I’m here to see Miles Vanderbilt.”
“Oh,” the woman’s mouth twisted to the left as if she was upset that she was there. Or more like she seemed upset that she was there for Miles. The woman looked too old for him, but that didn’t mean anything. She had seen many of old women go after younger men. Miles was thirty-nine so she would suppose he wasn’t super young, but he wasn’t old either. At least she didn’t think he was as old as the woman at the desk. Then again, the woman could have just spent one too many days in the sun. For all she knew the aged look could have been sun induced and not age induced.
She watched the woman pick up the phone and hit a rectangular gray button. Silence dominated the room until she spoke. “There is a Bethany Tillman here to see you.”
Bethany thought she might have to wait a while and if she did she would prefer to wait outside where the air might be cool but it still felt warmer than in here given the hostility r
olling off the woman. Then again, she was a shark in business and she would not let anybody send her running—not ever.
“Bethany,” Miles took steady strides toward her and when he reached her he pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry. I was tied up in paperwork. I should have met you at your car.”
Was he ashamed of her? No, that couldn’t have been right since he was the one who pursued her in the first place.
“Let me introduce you to everybody. Over there is Kevin Banks. He’s one of the deputies here—a good one.” He smiled and Kevin extended a warm hello to which Bethany returned with a smile on her face.
“And this over here is Hillary Smith-Dyson-Grant.” He chuckled. “She breaks hearts.”
Hillary laughed. It was the first hint of friendliness Bethany had seen from the woman since she walked in. “Hello,” she nodded with the most cordial smile she could provide.”
“I break more than hearts,” the woman glared at her. “Don’t hurt him. He’s a good man.”
“Hill,” he shook his head. “Be nice.”
“It’s okay, Miles. My friend Kel seems to think you’re going to kill me and find an untraceable way to dispose of my body.”
“What? She knows I’m the sheriff right?”
Bethany nodded. “She trusts cops even less.” She nodded. “Just so you know if you even think you can kill me and get away with it she has the FBI on speed dial.”
“He would never do anything like that.” Hillary seemed indignant to her now.
Bethany shrugged. “And I would never intentionally break his heart. But until our respective friends get to know the other half of Bethany plus Miles then I think everybody will be suspicious. Just so you know,” she smiled once again. “I rather like this guy.”
Hillary looked her over, smiled and nodded more cordially this time. “Sorry about that. I just feel the need to keep him safe.”
Bethany smiled, nodded and took the steps forward to extend her hand and shake Hillary’s hand. “The fact that he has good people looking out for him just reassures me he’s the good guy I already think he is.” Hillary gave her a warmer smile before releasing her hand.
Shadow Ridge Page 4
