“What?” He glanced over his shoulder at the car’s fading taillights before looking at her. He rubbed his lips against hers and then he licked her lower lip, a slow, teasing little caress that set her nerve endings to blazing. “I’m pretty positive they won’t care if you and I decide to start dating. They wouldn’t even care if I kiss you on the street, Trinity. I promise.”
Then the arm he’d hooked around her waist tightened and his voice deepened to a rough growl as he asked, “Got anything else we should think about before you’ll say yes?”
That long, lean, powerful body of his was pressed tight to hers and she had to swallow a groan as that delicious heat settled right square in the middle of her belly.
Ignoring the wicked pleasure his touch caused, Trinity reached up and pressed her hands to his chest. “It’s not that, not exactly. It’s this … place. Everything. This town, everybody here seems to know you … do you really need the mess I can bring to your life?”
He pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth and then flicked his tongue against the seam of her lips, something that made her shudder, from head to toe. “Trinity, I think you are exactly what I need in my life.”
The intensity of his voice worried her, even as it made something in her heart start to tremble. It wasn’t just heat—she could almost handle the heat. She could almost handle the lust, and if she wasn’t already so hung up on him she might have just jumped on and ridden this crazy thing to the very end.
But this was a lot more than just heat. A lot more than just lust. That was what worried her. That was what scared her. That was what tempted her.
Because she was already so hung up on him, she wanted to make sure he realized what kind of a mess this could bring him. Lifting her hand, she pressed it to his cheek. “Noah … everybody in this town knows you … they like you. They admire you. You put me in the mix and it can cause you a whole different sort of problems.”
“So you’re worried about … what, my virtue?” His voice took on a teasing slant.
“Your virtue.” She laughed weakly. “Damn it, Noah. You’re treating this like a joke. You’re a damn preacher.”
“Again, no, I’m not. I used to be. I’m not treating it like a joke.” He stroked his hands down her arms, settled them on her hips. His thumbs stroked over her skin, and through her clothes she could feel it. Another innocent little touch that felt entirely too good. “However, even if I was a preacher, I have to tell you a little-known fact. Even preachers are allowed to date. I’ve seen it. With my own two eyes. I think they are even allowed to kiss. I think my dad might have even kissed my mom a lot.”
“You are, too, treating this like it’s a joke.” She rested her hands on his chest, flexing them, curling them into the cloth of his shirt and trying not to groan as she felt the minute trembling of his body against hers. The wall of his chest felt so warm. Solid, strong. So very, very good. “It’s a little more complicated than just your … virtue. I know you say you don’t care about people talking, but that talk will change entirely if the two of us are dating. You sure you want that mess? They’ll find out about me. About Micah’s dad. They’ll start to talk. It could hurt you.”
“If people talk, they talk. I already pointed out, it says more about them than it does about you, or me.” As he spoke, his thumb stroked across the skin just above the waistband of her jeans. “If a person’s past was going to define them for the rest of their lives, Trinity, I’d be in a lot of trouble.”
“Oh, really?” She stared up at him.
“Hmmm.” He dipped his head and rubbed his lips across hers. “You’re not the only one with a screwed-up past. We’ve all got secrets. We’ve all got ugliness behind us. I can promise you, the mess I’ve left behind me is a lot worse than yours.”
Trinity rolled her eyes. “Sure.”
He chuckled and dipped his head. Then he caught her lower lip between his, nipped it. “Now you’re the one treating this like it’s a joke. I can tell you stories that would make your eyes bug out, Trinity. I promise you. Go out with me, I’ll prove it.”
“Go out with you so you can make my eyes bug out. Wow. What a charming offer.” A laugh escaped her.
* * *
Noah couldn’t help it. While she was still laughing at him, he closed his mouth over hers. The need that had tormented him for so long threatened to drive him insane and all he wanted was to lose himself in her.
Spreading his hand out over the small of her back, he fisted the other in the golden silk of her hair as her laughter faded away and her mouth opened for him.
There was hunger here … and need.
It would be easy, he realized.
Too easy to get lost in her. In the sweetness of her kiss, the warm strength of her body.
She was lean and limber against him, all those curves pressed tight against him. He had to fight the urge to let his hands roam over all her, to learn every single inch, to learn her by touch, by sight, by taste. His cock pulsed against her belly and she kept moving against him. He had an overwhelming need to pin her against the nearest flat surface and just rock against her until he exploded.
Her chest moved in ragged, uneasy bursts against his own. The soft, sweet curve of her breasts pressed against him as she leaned in, wrapping her arms around his neck. The tight, hard points of her nipples scraped against him and he thought he was going to go out of his mind. A whole new sort of temptation—one he hadn’t had to deal with before. Not like this. Never like this, because he was pretty certain he hadn’t ever wanted like this …
All because of a kiss.
Her tongue moved against his, stroking along the curve of his lip before venturing into his mouth, and Noah felt the muscles in his legs start to tremble. On a ragged breath, he tore away from her and pressed his brow to hers.
“So. Again, I think I’ve made my case pretty clear. A date isn’t a bad idea. Does tomorrow at eight work for you?”
“Eight.” Her breath came out in a hitchy little start that drove him insane and her hands slid to his shoulders, kneading the skin there, her nails biting into his flesh in a way that drove him nuts. He wanted, needed, so much more.
Instead of giving in, he dipped his head and buried it against her neck.
“So you’ll go out with me?” he asked. Since he was there and since she smelled so very good, he rubbed his lips against her skin. Nice. Soft. She shivered when he opened his mouth and raked his teeth down her skin.
She groaned and leaned against him, baring her neck to him.
“So just to be clear, then,” he murmured. “We’re giving this a shot. Right?”
She swallowed. “Right.”
“Good. Because I really need to do this … one more time.”
“Do what…?”
“This.” He reached up and cupped her face, fingers spread wide as he angled her head back. “Just this … but just this once. Just once more.”
“Why only once?” she whispered as he slanted his mouth over hers.
“Because if I do it more than once, I think I’ll lose my mind.”
* * *
She’d already lost hers, she thought. The world might have shuddered under her feet.
This … this wasn’t just a kiss, she thought, dazed.
He took his time with it, tracing the line of her lips, as though he needed to learn each and every thing about her before he took the next step. Damn, oh, damn was she ready for that next step.
Her heart trembled in her chest and she pressed closer, tried to deepen the kiss, but Noah wasn’t having that. His hand dipped into her hair, twining the length around his fingers, and she groaned as he tugged her head back and held her still. Completely still, as he swept his tongue across her lower lip and finally, finally, pushed inside her mouth.
She opened for him, feeling herself quake.
Trinity was no stranger to seductions. She’d seduced, been seduced.
But his kisses were unlike anything she’d ever experienced, and as h
e took her mouth completely she thought she just might melt into a boneless puddle at his feet.
Nobody had ever kissed her like this.
Kissed her like he wanted her more than his next breath.
Kissed her like he couldn’t exist without her.
She’d been waiting to be kissed like this her entire life … and she’d never realized it until just now.
His tongue stroked over hers like he wanted to take the time to learn everything he could, in just that kiss. He didn’t take too much, didn’t push too hard, and there she was, desperate to push him for more, take more from him.
Her heart ached in her chest, threatened to break, and she didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry from the beauty of it.
All over a kiss … a simple kiss.
One that ended far too soon.
Noah pulled back and reached up, stroking a finger down her cheek. His gaze locked on hers.
“Noah.” She dropped her head down and rested it on his shoulder. “I have to tell you something.”
“If you try to back out of the date now, you’re going to see a grown man cry. I’m warning you.” His hand rested low on her hip, kneading her flesh, and it was just another little thing that seemed to be pushing her closer and closer to the edge.
A breathless chuckle escaped her and she shook her head. “No … no. I’m not backing out of the date. After all, I have to find out just what your sordid secrets are.” Slowly, she lifted her head and looked up at him. “I have to say this, though. I really wonder where in the world a preacher learned to kiss like that.”
The grin that lit his face held so much promise and heat, Trinity felt her heart stutter in her chest.
* * *
“So they finally found you.”
He stood off in the shadows, staring at the outline of the house. He kept his distance, not wanting to get too close.
From here, all he could see was the roof, but it didn’t matter.
He knew every inch of that house.
Every room.
Every floorboard.
Every bloodstain, even though the blood had been conscientiously caught on numerous sheets of plastic or cloth. Nothing left behind. Of course, they couldn’t leave behind any sign of the atrocities.
All his screams muffled behind cruel hands or vicious gags … or worse.
Lids drooped low, he resisted the urge to go closer, find a way to destroy the place until it was nothing but rock and rubble and ruin.
There was a soft murmur of voices, a boy’s sob. He glanced toward them and then moved deeper into the shadows, walking through them until he was closer to the old Frampton place. It perched on top of the hill, the outline of the trees behind it.
His gut twisted as he thought about the walks he’d taken through those trees. Including that last one. It had led to all of this.
He’d walked through those woods, thinking finally …
They’d told him one day he’d go into that house and emerge a man.
He’d gone into that house the last time a scared, nervous wreck of a boy and he’d emerged with a jagged bit of glass, clutched like a knife, in his hand and blood dripping from his fingers. All he could think about was leaving Madison and the Frampton place far behind.
The Frampton place. No … that’s not what it is anymore. It’s got a new owner.
Part of him wondered if that was enough to undo the stain. The evil that seemed to soak through the very core of the place.
Could a taint that ran so deep be removed by tearing down some walls? Slapping some fresh paint here and there? Would it be as easy as that to get that place a new start, keep the evil from repeating itself?
He didn’t know.
Part of him had known something would happen. Things could be hidden, but they’d never stay that way forever.
What was going to happen now?
Memories of screams, memories of a shamed and sick delight, slithered through the back of his mind. He would like to block it all out. If it was possible, he’d cut it all out.
But that would require excising his entire brain.
Or maybe the cancer that had caused this sickness.
Turning away from the house, he moved through the shadowy night and started to walk. It was close to ten, but there were still a lot of people around. As some saw him, they smiled. Or waved.
A child cut in front of him and he watched the boy, hair pale and soft, his face lit with a bright smile. The boy saw him and cut around him before darting on down the street toward Ali Holmes’ house.
That’s where they were staying. For now. But not much longer.
Soon they’d be back in that awful old place, trying to live in a house where nothing but evil had survived for a very long time.
The cancer had to be cut out.
But how did one cut out something that old, that deep?
Did he start with himself?
Or go back even further?
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The weight of the boards was a familiar one. One thing that Noah had missed since he’d expanded his dad’s handyman and light construction business into the general-contracting arena was the fact that he just didn’t get to work with his hands enough.
Today, he was going to do nothing but that. The weight of the boards, the smell of the wood, the feel of his tools in his hands, was welcome, even if he wished he was working almost any place but here.
Overhead, the sun beat down on his shoulders as he hauled another load of lumber from the truck. The heat was pretty familiar, too, although that wasn’t particularly welcome.
He didn’t much care for working on Saturday and this wasn’t a job he’d be invoicing anybody for … although knowing Trinity, he realized she’d want to know why. She seemed to be a little too thorough when it came to the office assistant department. But she wasn’t paying for this job.
Truck parked near the back door of her place, he made another trip outside and reached for his bottle of water. He had a small cooler full of them and he’d already gone through one bottle. It wasn’t even ten yet. He planned on spending the entire day out here if he had to … well, until about six or so, because he had a date.
A date.
The thought was enough to fill him with both nerves and excitement, and if he had any sense he’d stop thinking, because it wasn’t helping matters any. It didn’t matter.
He was going on a date with Trinity Ewing.
He’d actually figured it out. It was the only one that had mattered since high school. Once he’d sobered up, he’d made a halfhearted attempt to date, but it had been just that—halfhearted—and after the first four or five attempts had failed he’d just let it go.
Before that, it had been Lana.
“I think you’d like her,” he said softly, glancing toward the house as though Lana could hear him.
Whether it was her body they’d found or not, he’d finally found that bit of peace he’d been chasing after and it no longer hurt just to think about her.
Lana was gone. Sometime over the past few weeks, he’d done more than just acknowledge it. He’d accepted it.
She would have hated what he’d done with himself. She’d hate the shadowy echo that had been his life. If he ever saw her again, on this side of life or the other, he wanted to be able to look at her and see that smile.
She’d been the love of his boyhood, and whether or not they would have had a chance as adults he’d never know. It was time to stop wondering. Time to stop regretting and wishing and punishing himself.
Time to start living again.
He had one amazing chance at life already waiting in front of him; he wasn’t going to let it slip by him. Tipping his bottle of water toward the house, he murmured, “It’s time to say good-bye, baby.”
The wind brushed against him with a sigh. It was a fanciful thought that made him think maybe that it came from her … somebody long gone, reaching out to murmur to him, one last time.
“Need a han
d?”
At that voice, Noah lowered his bottle of water and watched as Caine Yoder came striding around the truck.
“Well, you’re a face I haven’t seen in a while. Where you been?” Noah stared at the man, eying him narrowly.
“Busy.”
Getting anything out of Caine was like trying to get water from a stone, something Noah was used to. But generally, the man was there whenever Noah gave him a call. Except over the past few weeks. Shoot, Caine was supposed to be helping out at the café, but he’d sent his second-in-charge down instead. Thom did a good enough job, but he didn’t move as fast as Caine did.
Brooding, Noah eyed Caine’s face. The man was about as easy to read as a brick wall. “Too busy to return a call about helping a friend?”
“I got you help,” Caine said shortly. “You have the men I usually work with out here helping, don’t you? Thom and his boys are moving things along at the café, aren’t they?”
Noah snorted. “I needed extra help and you know it. The boys do good work, but they won’t work past their set hours and sometimes I need the extra help. You’ve always been the one to pitch in when I needed it.”
“You going to gripe?” Caine’s brows ratcheted up over his eyes, sharp and blue. “Or are we going to get this finished?”
Noah raked his fingers across his chin, absently aware of the light growth of stubble there. Caine stood there, just waiting, not saying anything, not blinking an eye. He wouldn’t say anything, Noah knew. Of course, that meant he also probably wouldn’t ask anything, either.
That was a blessing. “We’re going to get it finished,” he said, tossing the water down and nodding toward the truck. “Between the two of us, maybe we can finally get it done.”
* * *
It took less than no time to get the supplies in, and once that was done Caine disappeared to get his gear. Noah settled in the narrow pantry, mentally blocking out everything that had happened, everything he’d seen, and focused on the job. Just the strips of lumber, the subfloor he’d already installed. Nothing mattered but the job.
Minutes had passed before he realized Caine wasn’t in there and looked up, saw the man’s shadow outside the door.
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