by Brenda Novak
And she had to admit, regardless of his identity, she’d never met a handsomer man.
LUCKY WOKE UP to silence. The wind had died down, the television was off and it was dark—so dark that she couldn’t tell whether Mike was still in the room.
Squinting to see in the glimmer of light that crept in from the parking lot, she rose up on one elbow and leaned toward the other bed.
“Is something wrong?” he said.
She jumped at the sound of his voice. He was still there, all right. On the near side. So close she could reach out and touch him.
The idea of touching him made her heart pound, and she immediately slid away. “No.”
“I shut off the TV. I hope you don’t mind. You were tossing and turning and didn’t seem to be sleeping well.”
“That’s fine,” she said. “What time is it?”
“Nearly two.”
“Is the storm over?”
“I think so, but it’ll be a while before the roads are clear enough to travel.”
“We can probably go home in the morning, though, huh?”
“Probably.”
There was nothing left to do but sleep some more—except, for some strange reason, Lucky was tingling all over. She knew she couldn’t lie still, so she decided to get up.
“Where are you going?” Mike asked when the bed creaked.
“My muscles are a little tense. I think I’ll take a hot shower.”
He didn’t say anything, so she slipped into the bathroom and closed the door.
MIKE LISTENED as Lucky turned on the water. He pictured her taking off her T-shirt and sweats, pictured her dropping them carelessly on the floor and stepping beneath the hot spray. He could see the water sliding over her head and shoulders and rolling down between the breasts he’d kissed last night—
His body reacted so strongly, he cut off his thoughts. Since awakening almost an hour ago, he’d finally understood what had upset him about last night. It wasn’t Lucky so much as it was him. He felt he hadn’t done her justice. She was a beautiful woman who’d waited a long time to make love with a man. She’d offered to make love with him, and he’d taken her virginity as though it was nothing. He wanted to go back and do it right, wanted to show her what her body could feel beneath the right touch. That was the real reason he hadn’t been able to leave town, wasn’t it? The real reason he’d gotten himself snowed in and stayed in her motel room when he could have rented his own? He’d been looking for an opportunity to amend the recent past. But she was so intent on keeping her distance, she wouldn’t even let her fingers brush against his when he’d handed her that sack of food yesterday.
Still, there had to be some reason she’d trusted him in the first place….
Getting up, he decided there was nothing he could do but take the same risk she’d taken. If she rejected him, she rejected him. If she didn’t, they could try to live last night over again. Then maybe he wouldn’t feel he owed her anything and he’d be able to put her powerful attraction behind him once and for all.
LUCKY FROZE when she heard the door open. She was sure she’d locked it, but the lock wasn’t hard to unfasten, even from the outside. A fingernail or coin could open it easily enough and, evidently, Mike had used something because she felt fairly certain he was standing inside the bathroom. All doubt about that disappeared when the door closed and the lights went out.
He was definitely in the bathroom.
“Mike?” she said, wishing her voice didn’t sound so thin.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
She hovered closer to the far corner of the tub, although she knew he couldn’t see her. It was so dark, neither of them could see anything. “I—I’ll be out in a minute if you’d like the shower.”
He didn’t answer.
“Are you still there?”
“Yes.”
She was relieved to realize he hadn’t moved from the door. “What is it you want?”
There was a long pause, but he finally responded. “You.”
Her…Lucky’s heart jumped into her throat. That was exactly what she’d suspected.
“Tell me now if you want me to leave,” he said.
The thick darkness, heavy with steam, made her feel slightly disoriented, slightly out of touch with her normal faculties. She had to be disoriented. She couldn’t say anything. She wasn’t even breathing.
“Silence means I stay,” he told her, as though wanting to be perfectly clear.
Her mind raced and she bit her lip. She had to speak now if she wanted to avoid a repeat of last night, but she could think of only one word. She wasn’t sure if that was because he’d just said it or because it was what she really wanted, but “stay” seemed to echo through her head. And then it was too late. She heard him pull the shower curtain aside and felt his hands move slowly around her waist.
He hadn’t been presumptuous enough to take off his clothes, she noticed, but his mouth found hers in the dark, and he kissed her gently. Like a young boy might kiss a girl on a first date. His second kiss was even better—like that kiss she’d observed in the barn. It was real. She was living it.
He didn’t say anything more after that, but his touch, even his kiss, asked a question: Will you let me try again, Lucky? Let me try again. Trust me one more time….
Lucky told herself she was crazy, but he’d melted her resistance by telling her he wanted her, and she could hardly think while he was pulling her bottom lip into his mouth. A warm sensation swept through her as his tongue met hers. Her first taste of him almost made her knees buckle. She felt hot, languid and fluttery all at once.
He didn’t seem to care that he was getting soaked. He kissed her more deeply, and she swayed against him, slowly letting go of last night, of everything that had happened before this moment—until he started sliding his hand up and over her rib cage. Then she stopped him.
“I won’t hurt you,” he whispered above the hiss of the water. “Relax.”
“I don’t think we should—”
“Shh,” he interrupted. “I’ll take good care of you this time, Lucky, I promise.”
In the dark, enclosed space, she could almost convince herself that this was a dream. Just another of the many dreams she’d had about Mike Hill. Only his hands and lips felt better than she could ever have imagined, much better than before. He used the water sluicing over her body, his hands, his mouth. At some point his clothes came off—she wasn’t sure exactly when because her mind seemed to be floating instead of functioning correctly. The crinkle of a wrapper told her he’d come prepared, so she didn’t worry when he lifted her up and, much more carefully than last night, eased himself inside her.
“Are you okay?” he whispered.
She could feel the muscles bunching in his arms and shoulders as he bore her weight, understood he was holding back.
“I’m fine,” she said, although she’d never been happier in her life, and felt him relax a little.
He began to move, slowly, almost leisurely at first, so she could feel every exquisite sensation. Then everything seemed to swirl together and run hotter, higher, faster. She was spinning and spinning and spinning, until, finally, she shuddered against him.
“That’s it,” he coaxed, chuckling as she went limp. “That’s what I wanted.”
She clung to him even after he set her on her feet; she felt so weak she feared she might slip right down the drain. The experience had already surpassed all her expectations, but he wasn’t finished yet. After she’d had a few seconds to recover, he said, “Again.”
“No, it’s your turn.”
He ignored her and went back to kissing her—and stroking her. This time it took only seconds until every nerve in her body tensed and seemed to cry out his name in bone-melting pleasure.
“Did you like that?” he murmured, pressing his forehead against hers as they caught their breath.
“It was…good.”
“Then let’s do it again.”
“What about
you?”
“Shh.” He nibbled at the corner of her lip, and she didn’t argue further. Mike held her to him as though she might disappear completely if he let go. She sensed that he was giving her something of himself he hadn’t given before. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it went far beyond the physical. And it made a huge difference.
“Enough,” she said hoarsely when she was so sensitive she couldn’t take any more.
Mike let the water pound onto them both for a minute, burying their heads in the spray. Then he traced a bead of water down her neck to the tip of her breast and started moving again. But this time it was his turn, and Lucky knew she’d never again feel as powerful as she did right now. She wrapped her legs around his hips, drawing him even deeper inside her, and he groaned in absolute abandon.
CHAPTER EIGHT
EVEN BEFORE MIKE OPENED his eyes the next morning, he felt a smile across his face. Every muscle complained when he tried to move, but he didn’t mind. It was a good kind of complaint. And he knew that, this time, he didn’t have anything to feel bad about as far as Lucky was concerned.
Lucky…He pictured her clinging to him in the shower last night and felt a fresh wave of desire stir low in his belly. Then he realized that her soft body wasn’t curled against him, as it had been from the moment they’d dried off and fallen into bed.
Forcing his eyelids open, he glanced around the room. The storm was over, and he was hungry. He knew those two things right away. But he didn’t know where Lucky was. He couldn’t see her inside the bathroom. He couldn’t see any of her stuff.
He pushed into a sitting position. She was gone. Where and how, he couldn’t say, but he knew she wasn’t coming back.
It was better this way, he told himself when he felt a sharp stab of disappointment. He would’ve liked to make love to her one more time. She was so warm, honest and unbridled in her responses, he found it almost intoxicating. But he would’ve wanted to buy her breakfast, and being seen around town with Lucky Caldwell would not be a good thing. Better to leave well enough alone. He felt satisfied—or mostly so; he hoped she felt the same. Now he could move on.
But twenty minutes later, as he sat at Jerry’s Diner and had breakfast alone, he couldn’t quite relegate what had happened at the motel to the past. He felt cheated that she’d disappeared so quickly and kept wondering what she might have ordered at breakfast, what she might have said. Sipping his coffee, he remembered her head on his shoulder and her hand sliding possessively over his chest as they were falling asleep, and couldn’t help admitting that she really had left too soon.
LUCKY CLEARED HER THROAT to gain the attention of the dark-haired man sitting in the office of Booker T. and Son’s Automotive Repair.
He swiveled in his chair and looked up at her. He was on the phone and had a toddler in his lap, a little boy who’d been drawing on sheet after sheet of paper with a black marker. “Be right with you,” he said, patiently batting away the child’s attempt to scribble on his face.
She nodded and shifted her belongings. He directed the child’s hand to more paper before going back to his conversation.
“I can’t. The tow truck’s out already, Harvey. I sent Chase over to help Helen Dobbs get her Suburban out of the ditch ten minutes ago…Who knows?” He chuckled. “Drove right into it, I guess…But she’s lived next to that ditch for twenty years…You bet. I’ll call you when he gets back.” He hung up, capped the marker and stuck it in a cup with some pens before letting the little boy, who’d started agitating to get down, wriggle to the floor.
“Can I help you?” he said, unzipping his black leather jacket.
Lucky smiled, feeling awkward for appearing out of nowhere with such an unusual request. But Dundee, Idaho, didn’t have any taxis. “Cute kid,” she said to ease into the conversation. “Is he yours?”
“Yes. This is Troy. He’s helping me at work today because his mommy’s home feeling nauseous.”
“Looks like he knows his way around.”
Troy had already opened one of the desk drawers and was pulling out a big bag of sunflower seeds. “Seeds? Seeds, Daddy? Troy eat seeds?”
“Not right now. Your mother wasn’t too pleased when I let you get hold of them last time.” A sheepish expression stole over the man’s face. “He swallowed quite a few of the shells.” Taking the bag of seeds away, he set it up high, on a filing cabinet that already held a number of items that looked as though they’d been strategically placed out of reach of the child’s chubby hands.
“It’s nice that you own your own business and can help your wife out.” She watched Troy toddle through the office, searching for another distraction, and caught her breath when he headed straight for the space heater humming in the corner. Fortunately, his father intercepted him and turned him in the other direction before he could get too close.
“I like having Troy with me," he said.
“I won’t take up much of your time,” she said. “I was just wondering if you might know someone I could hire to give me a ride out to White Rock Road.”
He stood and glanced out the front window, and she knew he was looking for her car. “Are you broken down somewhere or—”
She explained about the storm and getting stuck and how she’d had to catch a ride into town because she didn’t have any food, water or heat.
“But White Rock Road…The only thing out there is High Hill Ranch.”
Mike’s ranch…But Lucky wasn’t going to think of Mike. Last night had been too overwhelming to even try to catalogue it emotionally. She’d felt closer to him than anyone else in her whole life and knew she’d always treasure the memory, but last night was over. Now she had to get back to real life. “Actually there’s a house next door. I own it.”
His eyebrows lifted. “That must make you Red Caldwell’s daughter.”
Obviously she was so notorious that even this complete stranger had heard of her. “Yes, well, no matter what you’ve been told about me, I don’t cavort with the devil, chant incantations over a bubbling cauldron or fly on a broomstick at night.”
His lips twisted into a wry grin. “That’s too bad.”
“Why?”
“I like a good hell-raiser.”
His comment caught her off guard, and she chuckled. “You’re not among the self-righteous?”
“There’s never been anything righteous about me. Ask anyone.” He offered her his hand. “I’m Booker Robinson.”
From the way he treated his son and—she guessed—his wife, she doubted Booker was half as bad as he made himself sound. Still, she appreciated his efforts to make her comfortable and liked him instantly.
“Where were you six years ago?” she muttered. “I might’ve been able to stand this place.”
He stopped his son from climbing into the trash. “I think I was just getting out of prison.”
Another surprise. “Seriously?”
He shrugged. “I did some dumb things when I was younger. Fortunately, I’ve learned what’s truly important in life.”
His eyes followed Troy, and she knew what he held dear. “A real education sometimes takes a while.”
He shoved his dark hair out of his eyes. “Exactly.”
“What made you settle in Dundee?”
“My grandmother used to live here, and—” he seemed to consider his surroundings “—somehow it’s home.”
Maybe someday she’d find a home, too—but it wasn’t in all the cities she’d traveled to so far, and it most certainly wasn’t here.
With a quick movement, he scooped Troy into his arms and grabbed a set of keys off a hook near the door. “Let me tell Delbert I’m leaving. I’ll give you a ride myself.”
Lucky raised a hand to stop him. “I can’t go home just yet. I need to make a few calls and buy some groceries.”
“So you’re going to Finley’s?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s several blocks from here.”
“I don’t mind the walk. I only stopped
in because your business is one of the few that’s open today, and I didn’t want to miss you if you decided to close early.”
“I see. Well, you said you needed to make some calls. Why don’t you use my phone while I talk to Delbert? We’ll stop by Finley’s on the way to your place.” He waved her past him to the desk, then stuck his head into the garage and hollered, “Delbert, can you come here for a second? I’m going to need you to watch the office.”
Lucky recognized Delbert Dibbs the moment she saw him through the inside window. She was surprised to find him working here, or anywhere, really. A couple of years older than she was, he had a mental disability that had always come between him and a normal life. He used to ramble aimlessly around town, as shabby and lean as a stray cat.
He looked greasy now, but happy as he hurried to the door, a huge rottweiler at his heels. “Bruiser and I like to watch the front. We can even baby-sit Troy for you, if you want. We’d never let anything happen to Troy, would we, boy?” he said to the dog.
The dog showed his agreement by wagging his tail and letting his tongue loll.
Troy clapped his hands and reached for Delbert. “D’bert! Hi, D’bert, hi!”
Delbert frowned at his blackened hands. “Sorry, Troy. I’m too dirty to hold you right now, but we’ll play blocks tonight, okay?”
“I’m taking Troy with me,” Booker said as Troy changed his focus to the dog.
“Dog!” he said, his eyes going round as he pointed.
Booker squatted so Troy could pet Bruiser while he continued to speak to Delbert. “Just check the front every once in a while to see if anyone’s waiting.”
Delbert seemed to notice Lucky, standing behind Booker and holding the phone, for the first time. “Hey, do I know you?”
Lucky smiled, and since she hadn’t dialed yet, pressed the disconnect button. “I used to live here a long time ago. It’s good to see you again, Delbert. You seem to be doing well.”
