Why couldn’t someone want her, love her, enough to make her their priority?
Okay, Ally had to come first for Cal. She was his child. But just once, Libby wanted to be someone’s most important person. Someone cherished above all else and not shuffled off when a new boyfriend came to live with them, as her mother used to do. Not the girlfriend tossed aside when an old lover needed a father for her baby.
The elevator bell dinged as the doors slid open. Libby stepped inside with clipped strides, her briefcase slapping at her legs.
Cal followed her into the empty car and stood right in front of her, crowding her. His warm, masculine scent surrounded her, making it difficult to breathe. Reminding her of the searing brand of his lips on hers just a few days earlier at their wedding.
“I understand now that you couldn’t have had anything to do with my case. Because of our history. But at the time, with everything that was crashing down on me, I assumed the worst. I’m sorry.” He loomed over her, his gaze probing hers. “Considering the circumstances—”
“Circumstances shouldn’t matter. You should have known. After what we’d had together, you should have known.” She paused, her chest aching. “But then, maybe I misunderstood what we’d had. You sure found it easy enough to walk away when the time came.”
He dropped his chin to his chest and mumbled an expletive.
Libby reached around Cal to jab the lobby button, careful not to touch him in the process. Avoiding him was difficult considering the expanse of his chest and the way he’d wedged himself right up against her.
Her arm brushed the soft cotton of his shirt and the solid wall of muscle beneath. The heady rush the simple contact created irritated her immeasurably. How could she be so hurt and still want him as much as her next breath?
The elevator lurched into motion, rattling slowly down while Cal’s hard stare gave her the sensation of falling into a bottomless, icy-blue pool.
With a quick twist, he turned and slapped the stop button. The elevator jerked to a halt. “Libby, you know leaving you wasn’t easy for me. It was something I felt I had to do. For Ally. But I hated hurting you.”
She pulled herself to her full height and returned a steady glare. “I know nothing of the sort. Our breakup was abrupt and clinical. You cut me out of your life like I was a diseased growth and left me with nothing. Not even a decent goodbye.”
“Because I was dying inside. If I didn’t made the break clean and quick, I didn’t think I’d be able to do it at all,” he said, his voice pitched low.
Her breath backed up in her lungs, and the discomfiting sense of being trapped closed around her. She reached for the button panel to send the elevator back on its way down, but he snagged her arm with a callused hand. His fingers circled her wrist, scorching her with his touch.
So many nights she’d dreamed of having that hand on her skin again. Stroking. Soothing.
Arousing.
“Libby, I—”
A loud, metallic screech interrupted Cal as the elevator car tipped to one side. The movement threw them both off balance.
Libby stumbled backward and ended up sandwiched between Cal and the wall.
He whistled between his teeth. “That didn’t sound good.”
Pushing him away, Libby edged toward the control panel and the emergency phone. “Master of the understatement. This stupid elevator gets stuck on a regular basis, and I don’t cherish the thought of spending the night in here.”
The lit number over the door said they were at the second floor. She jabbed the door-open button, praying the doors would move with the car at the awkward tilt.
Nothing.
Trying the phone next, she scowled at Cal. “The phone’s dead. Just had to stop the car, didn’t you?”
“Hey, you’re with a firefighter, remember? I’ll get us out of h—”
The elevator shifted again, and Libby grabbed Cal’s arm with a gasp.
The shriek of grinding metal rent the small compartment.
And the elevator started to free-fall.
Chapter 9
A scream ripped from Libby’s throat. She grabbed wildly for something solid to hold on to. And found Cal.
She just had time to throw her arms around his thick chest when the car crashed in the basement with a bone-jarring jolt. Together they sprawled on the floor, Cal somehow managing to twist under her enough to cushion her fall.
The air whooshed from her lungs with the impact. The lights flickered out with a static crackle and pop.
Stunned and breathless, Libby lay paralyzed, trying to orient herself in the darkness.
Then silent blackness enveloped them. Like a tomb.
Like her mother’s closet.
A frisson of panic skittered through her like a mouse, scratching, gnawing.
Below her, Cal muttered a curse. His hands slid over her slowly. Carefully. “Talk to me, Lib. Are you all right?”
“I—I think so. I—” She tried to scoot off him, and her muscles protested. “Ooh,” she moaned before she could catch herself.
“What? Are you hurt?” Worry laced Cal’s voice, and she blinked back the tears that even that much concern from him brought to her eyes.
She backed gingerly away from his hold, testing her arms and legs, her head. “I’m fine. Just…sore. How ’bout you?”
She heard him sigh his relief. Heard him move, though the darkness hid him.
“I’m good. At least, as good as you can be after plummeting a couple floors.”
A chill chased down her spine when she thought of what could have happened to them. She hugged herself and moaned. “Oh, God, I always knew this elevator was unreliable, but…I never dreamed it could be dangerous. I use it every day. I…”
Cal stirred again, and when he spoke his voice came from farther above her, indicating he’d stood. “So if you know a good lawyer, I suppose you could sue the manufacturer.”
She frowned at him, even though she knew he’d not see it. “You’re not funny. Besides, this elevator is original equipment. The building’s, like, seventy years old.”
His only response came in the form of muffled grunts and the slight rumble of metal. The elevator shuddered slightly, and Libby gasped. “What are you doing!”
“Trying to pry the doors open. But they’re jammed.”
Libby swallowed hard, forcing down the ill ease that shimmied through her. “Do you mean we’re…trapped?”
“It’s looking more likely every second.”
In an instant, the darkness shrank in around her, and the floor seemed to tilt under her. A hollow rushing sound filled her ears as blood whooshed through her head, leaving her dizzy.
Cal grunted again, obviously giving the doors another shot. “So do you have a cell phone or a flashlight or set of tools in that briefcase? Anything that will help us get out of here?”
“M-my cell phone.” Her hopes rose then sank just as quickly. “But I can’t get a s-signal in the elevator. I’ve t-tried before.”
He grunted. “Anything else?”
“A p-protein bar that was…supposed to have been my lunch.”
Deep breaths. Don’t lose control.
In the suffocating blackness, Cal huffed and moved again, this time shifting nearer to her, patting the walls.
“Think you can boost me high enough to reach the emergency door on the ceiling?”
And you can stay in there until you can learn some respect!
Libby twitched, hearing the voice from her past. It sounded so real, so close.
“Lib? Think you can give me a hand up?”
“I—”
A creak filtered through the blackness. A quiet sound. But it reverberated in Libby’s ears like a shout.
Like the snick of a closet door lock.
“No!” She scrambled across the floor, groping along the wall. Not again. Not again! Hand over hand, she felt her way up the smooth door, searching for an opening, the doorknob, escape. But found nothing.
�
��No! Let me out!” A sob hitched in her throat, a bubble of hysteria rising to choke her. “Please don’t! Let me out!”
The darkness pressed in on her. The air grew too dense to breathe. She struggled to draw oxygen into her lungs, terrified she’d die before her mother found her.
“Libby?”
A large hand closed over her shoulder, and she flinched.
“Whoa, easy there, Counselor. Calm down.” The rich, honeyed voice slid over her like a familiar blanket, warming, soothing.
“Cal?” She barely recognized the wobbling voice as her own.
“Yeah, I’m right here.” A second hand touched her face, smoothed her hair then drew her against a wide chest. “How about you? Where’d you go just then?”
Trembling with the memories that still seemed too near, she nestled closer to the warmth and strength of his body. “Locked in. Don’t like it…in here. I can’t…breathe.”
“Hey, Lib, don’t hyperventilate on me. Try to breathe slowly. Deep breaths.”
Deep breaths. Don’t lose control.
She tried to calm the ragged gulps, but the blackness clawed at her, crushed her. Her lungs ached. Her head throbbed. A violent tremor raced through her body.
“C-can’t breathe…c-can’t…scared. So scared.”
Cal’s arms wrapped tighter around her, pulled her to sit on the floor. “Geez, Louise. Are you claustrophobic?”
“Only…when t-trapped.”
“Ah, Libby. We won’t be in here for long. I bet there are people working to get us out right now.” He chafed his hands up and down the goosebumps on her arms. “Come on. Slow, deep breaths for me.”
She tried. Really tried. But the dark walls hissed to her, You can rot in there for all I care!
A door slammed, and then not even his yelling answered her cries for help.
“No,” she moaned into the soft shirt at her cheek. “He left me. Now I’ll never get out.” A sinking dismay tangled with the icy fear that sliced to her soul.
“Who left you? What are you talking about, Lib?”
“I’m going to die in here.”
The hands holding her shook her gently. “No! Nobody is going to die. Trust me to take care of you, okay?”
Tears filled her eyes and spilled, warm and wet, onto her face. “Hold me,” she squeaked. “Just hold me.”
Cal eased her back until she was reclining against the muscled bed of his chest. His arms surrounded her while his hands stroked—her hair, her nape, her arms.
“Close your eyes, Libby.”
She did.
“Now, think of…an open field. Think about the meadow we found that day we went driving into Arkansas. Remember? It was spring, and little blue and yellow flowers were blooming everywhere.”
She knew the field he meant and conjured it in her mind. The fragrant scent of clover and honeysuckle had perfumed the air. She’d lain down in the tall grass to watch the clouds, and before long he’d joined her, holding her and nibbling her neck.
She drew a deep, if shaky, breath, wanting to smell those blossoms again. Needing to recapture the peace and joy she’d known that day.
“We stayed until the sun set,” she whispered, her heart giving a bittersweet pinch.
“Yeah, we did.” Cal shifted until he fully cradled her body with his own. “Missed our reservation for dinner in Little Rock. But the colors, the beauty of the little meadow was so great, we didn’t care. It was a little piece of paradise.” He smoothed his hands down her spine, rubbed her back. “You told me that was the first time you’d ever made love outside.”
He slid a callused hand under the neck of her blouse, and the gentle scrape of his work-toughened hands against her skin, kneading her shoulders, stirred a heady pleasure in her blood. A prickle of apprehension tickled her brain, but the drugging balm of his hands clouded her thoughts. There was something here she should beware of, but when Cal strummed her body with his caress, all other thoughts fled.
A purr rumbled from her throat, and he answered with a low growl of his own.
“That’s it. Relax. You’re safe.”
She sank deeper into the lull of his voice and clung to the sweet escape he offered. Slowly, he eased the tension from her body with hypnotic strokes, murmured reassurances.
When she shifted her weight, wanting to crawl further into the blissful calm he offered, she encountered a bulge. The hard ridge rubbed the juncture of her thighs when she angled her hips toward him. The friction of her body’s softest spot against his hardness jarred her system, put all her nerve endings on red alert. Libby strained forward again, not thinking of anything but the beguiling thrill of his body grazing hers.
The hot, moist pressure of his mouth suckled her throat, intoxicating her senses, and she arched her neck to receive more.
Cal worked his kisses along the line of her jaw then captured her mouth. She drew as eagerly on his lips as he did on hers, both feasting like starving peasants on the bounty of each other’s kiss. The tender assault of his mouth felt like a home-coming. She’d missed this, missed him, so much. Their lovemaking had always been more about bonding, about a union of bodies and souls, than about sex. She refused to acknowledge the nagging voice that said this time it was all wrong.
Cal skimmed a hand up to unclasp her bra, and when her breasts were freed, she moved across his chest, savoring the rasp of his shirt on her nipples.
Quickly, her clothing was pushed aside, and he closed his mouth over the sensitive peak, tweaking the tight bud with his tongue, his teeth. The rush of sensation, the pulse-pounding ecstasy that rocketed through her as he nipped her breasts left her gasping for air.
“Cal…”
He seized her by the hips and ground his steely length along her cleft. Stroking. Exciting. Building the sweet torment inside her. “That’s it, Libby. That’s it.” He swept his tongue inside her mouth and groaned. “Waited so long…for this.”
She grew impatient. Her body wept for him, needed him inside her. With clumsy hands, she grappled with his jeans, fighting the button, while he inhaled her with his kiss. Desperation became a pounding in her brain, her whole body pulsing and clamoring for completion.
Bam, bam, bam.
“Dammit! Not now!” he growled through his teeth.
Bam, bam, bam!
“Please, Cal! Please now!”
He grabbed her hands, pushing them away. “Libby, stop. Listen! We have to stop. They’re here.”
Her desire-muddled mind couldn’t make sense of anything except that Cal was pushing her away. He turned, denying her the climax her body craved, the moment when her soul and his united in sweet release.
Pain arrowed through her, lodging in her chest. “Why?”
His flurry of movement beside her stilled, and he scraped a finger down her cheek, a gesture wholly at odds with the cruelty of his abrupt dismissal of her.
“Later, honey. I promise,” he murmured and kissed her nose. “We’ll finish this at home. Right now, we have company.”
Only then did she recognize the pounding above them as someone banging from the other side of the elevator doors.
“Hello?” a deep voice called. “Anyone in there?”
Cal tweaked her chin. “I believe the cavalry has arrived.”
With a mighty screech of protesting metal, the firefighter pried the doors open enough to shine a flashlight into the darkened elevator cab. “Hey! Is anyone hurt in there?”
Cal recognized the voice and stifled a groan. Peabody. Biggest gossip in the department. Worse than any woman he’d ever met. By morning, every firehouse in the city would know one of their former colleagues had been trapped in an elevator at the courthouse.
And how he’d filled his time waiting for the rescue squad. Surely there was no mistaking the reason for their rumpled clothes, flushed faces and swollen lips.
Irritation mixed with the ache of unfulfilled desire, wrenching inside Cal like the crowbar Peabody used to jimmy open the doors. “No serious injuries. N
ice of you guys to show up, Peabody. What took so long?”
The beam of the flashlight swung right into his eyes, blinding him. Cal squinted and raised an arm to shield his eyes. “Hey! Watch it, man!”
“Cal? Cal Walters? Is that you?” Humor infused Peabody’s tone. “Leave it to you to get into a mess like this!”
Peabody chuckled, and Cal gritted his teeth. “How ’bout less talking and more muscle on that door, huh? My wife is pretty freaked out by small, dark spaces.”
The flashlight beam swung over to Libby. “We’ll have you out of there in a jiffy, ma’am. Hang on.”
Libby cleared her throat. “Thank you.”
Even with the extra measures to steady her voice, Libby sounded shaky to Cal. Flustered.
Hell. He couldn’t blame her. If not for Peabody’s rotten timing, he’d be buried deep in Libby’s sweet body right now. The heat they’d created, the urgency vibrating in Libby’s body, had rocked him to the core. If he’d had any doubts before whether Libby still wanted him, he didn’t now.
Her hands-off rule was nothing more than a shield, something to hide behind. Another attempt to control him and their relationship. But having seen her my-way-or-the-highway dictate for what it was, he had every intention of turning things around on her. They would finish what they had started today. And when they did, Libby would want it as much as he did.
Cal finger-combed his hair and moved to add his muscle to the effort of prying open the stuck door. Soon he and Peabody had created an opening wide enough for Libby and himself to slip through. In addition to Peabody, Riley Sinclair and a couple other men he didn’t know clustered around, ready to assist.
“Cal Walters. I should have known,” chuckled Riley, who’d completed the firefighting academy with him and served as Cal’s best man—for both weddings. “Man, trouble just follows you!”
Cal kept a steadying hand on Libby’s arm until he was sure she had her balance and composure back.
“Stupid elevator,” Libby grumbled, casting a scathing glance back at the wreckage. “It’s been giving us problems for months. Someone gets stuck on a regular basis.” She shook her head and dusted invisible dirt off her skirt. “Figures I’d be the one in it when it finally gave way.”
To Love, Honor and Defend Page 12
