by Kristi Gold
Valerie would never forget his incredible skill either, she thought when he made the first gentle pass of his tongue over her sensitive flesh. Never forget the heady feeling of being totally at his command, everything bared to him without reservation. He knew exactly where to center his attention, precisely how much pressure to apply to keep her balanced on the threshold of coming apart before he backed off ever-so-slightly. Just when she thought she might actually go insane with the need for completion, he did it again, teasing her into a mindless fervor, only this time he grew more insistent with his competent mouth.
When the demands of her body began to take over, Valerie gripped Gavin’s hand tightly, her erratic heartbeat echoing in her ears. And with the glide of his finger inside her, the deep pull of his lips, the climax barreled down on her with such force her whole body jerked.
His name left her mouth in a harsh whisper, her breath following in a series of ragged pants. A steady stream of tremors continued long after her respiration returned to normal, and she wondered if she would ever recover.
Gavin released her hand and left her, bringing Valerie back around to the here and now. She opened her eyes to find him taking care with a condom before coming back to her. He lifted her legs and pulled her knees to his chest, then joined his body to hers with a deep thrust. He emitted so much power, so much strength, so much raw sexuality that Valerie could only watch him in awe. Watch his dark gaze connect with hers. Watch the glow of the flames play across his beautiful face.
Then suddenly he completely withdrew from her. “This isn’t what I want.”
An edge of panic threatened to destroy her blissful mood. “What’s wrong?”
“I want to be closer to you,” he said as he held out his hand.
“I want you close to me.”
Valerie experienced another bout of persistent tears, but she blinked them back as she’d learned to do so well. She could cry later, after he was asleep and unaware that she wept for what they could never have together. “I’m all for being closer.”
Gavin whispered, “Come here,” then guided her to the makeshift bed on the floor before the fire. He laid her back gently, then moved atop her. Without hesitating, he guided himself inside her again, this time wrapping her securely in his hold, kissing her softly, touching her with such gentleness that Valerie feared she might cry whether she cared to or not.
But Gavin soon turned her attention to him as he used his hands and his own body to bring her back into the realm of pure sensation. Valerie had often heard women talk behind their hands about being consumed by passion in the arms of a lover, and before now she’d always scoffed. Because of Gavin, she understood that completely, due to her absolute conversion into a truly carnal being.
He had no qualms about taking their lovemaking to a wilder level and letting it be known that his sole aim was to lift her right over the edge with him. Driven by her newfound sense of daring, her need to please him as he’d pleased her, Valerie mustered all her strength and rolled until she was seated on top of him.
Gavin tangled his hands in her hair as his look of surprise melted into a half smile. “Oh, yeah.”
She responded with her own, “Oh, yeah,” and a suggestive shift of her hips. He lifted toward her again and again, their bodies damp and slick from their efforts and their hands in constant motion over each other. After a time, Valerie picked up the pace, saw Gavin’s eyes go nearly black, felt his frame growing rigid beneath her. With another hard upward thrust of his hips, she climaxed, and so did he.
Valerie collapsed against Gavin’s chest, her arms limp at his sides and her cheek resting near his shoulder. He tightened his hold on her, one hand gently cradling her head, the other caressing her back. They stayed that way for a long while, content to hold each other, touch each other. She had never known such peace, had never experienced such contentment, and she didn’t want it to end.
But end it must, that much she realized. Still, she had more than a few memories to carry home with her and maybe, just maybe, that would be enough. It would have to be enough. What other choice did she have?
Gavin lifted her head and kissed her with the sweet, sweet tenderness she’d come to know so well in his arms. “As much as I like the floor,” he said, “I think we should go to bed now.”
She allowed him to help her up, their arms wrapped around each other’s waists as he guided her into his bedroom, then into his bed, where she took the spot she’d occupied for the past several nights.
When he went into the bathroom, Valerie rolled to her side, facing the window so he wouldn’t see how much he had affected her. She clamped her hand over her mouth to muffle the sobs and tugged the covers up to her shoulders to drive away the cold, but neither worked. She willed herself to stop crying with the last of her declining control.
Gavin returned a brief time later and settled against her back, the way he had on those nights when she’d been racked with fever and out of her mind. Tonight she didn’t have a fever—at least not the kind brought about by the flu. But she must be out of her mind for not blurting out the truth before he had changed her mind with his declaration.
First thing tomorrow she would tell him. In the morning, in the harsh light of day.
After a time the sound of Gavin’s steady breathing, the loosening of his physical hold on her, told her that he’d fallen asleep. She memorized this moment and accepted that with the dawn came the end of her temporary paradise. And even though he wouldn’t be able to hear her, she whispered what was first and foremost on her mind and in her heart. “I love you, too, Gavin.”
In a not-quite-awake haze Gavin opened his eyes to find Valerie had rolled away from him onto her back, one arm raised above her head on the pillow, the other draped across her abdomen. The faint light filtering through the window washed her features in a muted glow, a face that he wanted to see every morning and every night from this point forward. While she slept, he continued to watch her, immersed in the absolute need to protect her from anything and everything. He loved her more than he could say, wanted her more than anything he’d ever wanted in his lifetime. Quietly he inched closer and buried his face in her hair, driven by the need to touch her. If he had his way, they’d stay in bed all day long, with no interruptions. They could have their little talk, and if luck prevailed, she would tell him she loved him, too. Provided she did love him. His instincts kept telling him that was true. But then, his instincts hadn’t always come through for him, particularly when it came to matters of the heart.
The shrill ring of the phone thrust Gavin into reality and away from her. Yet he still kept one hand on her arm as he rolled over and snatched up the receiver from the nightstand. For some illogical reason he worried that if he let her out of his sight even for a few moments, he might never see her again.
He barked out an irritable, “What?” on the heels of his frustration.
“Sorry to bother you, Sheriff, but this is Bill Rhodes down at the garage. I have something you need to take a look at. It has to do with the waitress’s car. I found it when I put it up on the rack.”
Gavin shot a look at Val, who was inspecting his overhead fan, her eyes still clouded with sleep. “Is it bad?”
“Oh, yeah, you could say that. That’s why you need to get down here ASAP.”
So much for staying in bed all day. “It can’t wait until tomorrow?”
“No, it can’t. And I don’t think it’s a good idea to discuss it on the phone.”
None of this made much sense, but Bill Rhodes wasn’t the type to make that kind of a request unless it was serious. “Give me ten minutes.” He hung up the phone, deciding that it would be best to check out the problem first, before he let Val in on it. Considering the way she looked right now—totally content for the first time since he’d known her—he decided it could wait.
“I’ve got to go,” he said as he pushed off the bed. “Some business I need to take care of.”
She sat up, hugging the covers to her
like a security blanket. “What about our talk, Gavin?”
He pulled a set of clean clothes from the closet. “We’ll talk when I get back.”
“I promised Manny I’d work the Sunday lunch shift.”
He set his clothes aside on the bureau, rounded the bed and kissed her softly. “I shouldn’t be gone that long,” he said before heading into the bathroom for a quick shower.
At least he hoped it wouldn’t take long. When he returned, Gavin planned to listen to Val’s confessions, let her get it off her chest—whatever it was—and make love to her again. And again. He would make it perfectly clear that he loved her and he wanted to be with her permanently. Nothing she could do or say would ever change that. Nothing.
Ten
As she sat in the kitchen and watched the time grow closer to her shift at the diner, Valerie decided that Gavin probably wouldn’t make it back for their heart-to-heart before she had to go into work. Fate, for some unknown reason, was preventing her from finally baring her soul. But then, fate probably knew that when she did finally come clean, that could be the end of her time with the sheriff.
She tapped her foot beneath the dinette table for a few minutes before deciding she needed to prepare for the inevitable departure. Scooting the chair back, she trudged down the hall and, once inside the bedroom, pulled the boxes from the closet and her bag from beneath the bed. She opened the top drawer, removed her keepsake chest and withdrew the faded letter that she’d discovered in the small wooden chest, along with the pendant, following her grandmother’s death.
If you have possession of this letter, that means I have long since passed from this earth and you are my descendant. I rely on you now to seek the truth, and please know that what I have done in my past, I did so because I had no choice.
Many years ago I resided in Royal, Texas, yet I was charged with crimes I did not commit. You will discover my story in a diary, along with a map indicating the place where I hid the stolen gold, located in my father’s house beneath a floorboard in the small closet in the parlor. You will also find with the gold the answers to what happened the night I confronted my father’s killer, the town’s revered mayor. You must place my pendant over the exact heart on the map, then look for the willow tree bearing the initials J.G. and B.W. There you will find the treasure, buried at the base of the tree, right beneath the symbol of our love.
Godspeed,
Jessica Baker/Jessamine Golden
Valerie pocketed both letters to show them to Gavin later and put the heart pendant around her neck. Oddly none of it seemed to matter anymore. Not in light of Gavin’s declaration last night that kept playing over and over in her mind like a favorite song.
I love you, Valerie…
But would his love be enough to take them past her deception? Would he understand why she had done what she’d done? Why she had kept the truth from him? She had no choice but to find out as soon as they were together again.
On that thought, she took out her own journal to write what could be the final chapter of her life with Gavin.
Well, I’ve been through a lot since my last writing. Gavin took care of me when I had the flu, took me to a wedding, bought me my very own Christmas tree and told me he loved me. I want to hope that his love will be strong enough to lead him to acceptance. I want to believe that I can have a future with this man who is so strong and honorable and easy to love. But after I tell him everything, he might not want me. Still, I will continue to hope until all hope is gone.
In the back room of the headquarters of the Texas Cattleman’s Club, Gavin was surrounded by four men who pretended to concentrate on the business at hand. But he could see the pity in their eyes and he could almost read their minds. Poor guy. He’s been suckered by a woman. They would be right.
Regardless, decisions had to be made over what to do next. For that reason he slid the plastic bag containing the gun into the middle of the conference room table. “Bill Rhodes found this taped to the wheel well in Valerie’s car. It’s a thirty-eight. The serial number’s been filed off, but it’s a match to the gun that killed Durmorr.”
Tom leaned forward, his hands clasped tightly together. “Then you’re thinking Valerie killed him?”
Gavin wasn’t sure what to think. But Valerie Raines in the role of murderer was unthinkable. “She could have been set up. Someone could have planted the gun.”
The whole lot of them looked skeptical, but Gavin wasn’t willing to give up on her just yet. There had to be a logical explanation.
“What else do we know about her?” Mark asked.
“I had Vincente expedite a background check through the police department computers while I was at Rhodes’s garage with the forensics team, just to see if anything turned up.” A report which Gavin deliberately hadn’t seen yet. “Did you get it, Jake?”
“I picked it up on my way here.” Jake’s uneasy demeanor as he withdrew the report from his pocket led Gavin to believe he might not want to know the content.
“Last known residence is St. Louis,” Jake began. “She was raised by her grandmother from the age of seven after being abandoned by her mother. The grandmother passed away last year. She graduated from college and she’s been working on a master’s degree in social work while serving as a counselor at a youth center.”
At least she’d been truthful about her grandmother, Gavin thought, even though he didn’t understand why she hadn’t told him more details about her education. Of course, that would have blown her waitress cover. “What else?”
“Her mother is Carla Raines and she’s currently incarcerated in a prison in Indiana serving a life sentence,” Jake continued.
Gavin swallowed hard. “On what charge?”
“Murder charges,” Jake said, confirming Gavin’s suspicions. “Seems she was involved in a convenience-store robbery. The clerk was shot and killed, although they don’t think she pulled the trigger. But she was definitely there.”
Dammit! Why hadn’t Val told him that? Easy. He might have assumed that old adage that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree—or at least she would have thought that. With good reason, considering their conversations about his intolerance to crime. She still didn’t have the right to deceive him. And with any luck, that was the end of the secrets, at least when it came to her history. “Is that it?”
Jake tugged at his tie. “No, and you’re not going to like it.”
Gavin braced for the worst possible scenario. “Spill it.”
“She has a juvenile record. It’s sealed, so we don’t know what kind of crime she committed.”
Even though this was looking real bad for Val, Gavin still couldn’t imagine her hurting anyone. But then, he obviously didn’t know her at all or what she might be capable of. For several nights she’d been in his bed, in his home, all the while lying to him. Pretending to care about him. What else had she lied about?
Tom cleared his throat, a sure sign of his discomfort. “Do you have any reason to believe she had a connection with Durmorr?”
Oh, yeah, Gavin did. “She said she had a couple of run-ins with him. They also lived at the motor court at the same time.”
“Then maybe this was some sort of revenge thing,” Connor offered. “Maybe he got rough and she decided to defend herself.”
“If that had been the case, then why didn’t she come forward?” Tom asked. “When we found Durmorr’s body, we didn’t see any sign of anyone else around.”
Now Gavin had to reveal another piece of incriminating evidence he’d discovered when he’d returned to the house to confront her only to find she’d already left for work. “I came upon this in a box.” He fished through his jacket, pulled out the black cap etched with the initials S.L.Y.C. and tossed it next to the gun.
They all leaned over to take a look before Tom said, “That’s the cap from the surveillance tape at the museum. The woman who stole the map was wearing it.”
“Borrowed the map,” Gavin said, earning a few more looks fr
om his colleagues. “She did return it.” Now he sounded like a lovesick idiot defending his lady to the end, despite what she might have done.
“She probably made a copy,” Jake said.
“She did,” Gavin admitted. “I found it in her room. And that leads me to believe she’s looking for the gold.” Motivated by greed, he’d guess, like most criminals. But was it greed or had she just grown tired of being without? It didn’t matter. She’d still lied to him about it.
“We all know that Durmorr probably murdered Devlin because of that gold,” Connor added. “Which means Valerie could be involved in that, as well.”
Gavin didn’t even want to think about that possibility. “Or it could be she connected with Durmorr after that.” Still hanging on to hope, Sheriff, their expressions seemed to say. And in a way Gavin was. He wanted this nightmare to end with the knowledge that Valerie had been set up to take a fall for the real killer, even if she had been searching for buried treasure. But he still held more evidence that could nail her to the wall.
Gavin lifted the cap for inspection. “There are a few stray hairs caught in the back clasp. I’ll have them compared to the ones found on Devlin’s body, at least microscopically for the time being. We’ll have to get a court order to run the DNA, which shouldn’t be a problem.”
“And if they prove to be hers?” Mark asked.
“Then it looks like we have our killer.” And Gavin would have to arrest the woman he had fallen in love with. As stupid as it seemed, he still loved her—or at least loved the woman he’d thought her to be. He couldn’t make himself believe the worst until he was absolutely forced to do that.
