“It might be a big mistake for me to be here with you, all the time,” he whispered.
“No,” she said, her voice almost too low to be heard. “I don’t think so.”
“Think carefully, Tina. Are you sure this is what you want?”
“I’m sure.” Need stirred inside her, deep down, unfamiliar and too long denied. “I want you to stay, Tom.”
He watched her for a moment, then nodded slowly. He let her hands go, but not before kissing them again, his mouth lingering in her palm. “Then I’ll stay.” His eyes flared once, hot with need, then he added, “In the spare bedroom.”
“All right.” Her chest felt tight and she was out of breath. “I’ll show you where it is.”
She was surprised at the disappointment gnawing at her as they walked up the stairs. But it was better this way, she assured herself. She had intended this to be merely a business proposal. She hadn’t been prepared for the desire that had sparked between them just now. Which only went to show how naive and unsophisticated she was.
She stopped at the door to the guest bedroom and stepped aside. “Here it is,” she said, her voice too bright.
Tom stood in the doorway for a moment, then turned to her. “It’s much more comfortable than the hotel,” he finally said. “Thank you.”
“It’s a fair trade. I won’t have to be alone and you won’t be spending all your money.” She was speaking too fast again.
But he didn’t seem to notice. He shoved his hands into his pockets and took a step away from her. “I’ll say good night, then, Tina.”
The hallway seemed suddenly too small and too narrow. She was far too close to Tom, close enough that she could feel the heat of his body, smell the faint, clean smell of him. “Good night,” she said, her heart pounding.
He turned to face her, and she could read the hot spark of need in his eyes. But he merely said, “Get a good night’s sleep, and don’t worry.”
“Thank you,” she said. She began to back toward her own room. “There are extra toothbrushes in the closet in the bathroom, and towels, too. Take whatever you need. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She turned and practically ran to her room, closing the door carefully behind her. She leaned against it for a moment, trembling. What he must be thinking of her! She had made a total fool of herself. And then she’d run to hide in her bedroom.
She needed the night to settle herself. Turning back to the door, she listened carefully and heard Tom downstairs. He was probably turning off the lights and locking the house, she thought with a stab of guilt. She should have done that herself. But she’d been so shaken by what had gone unspoken between them that she’d hidden in her bedroom instead.
And she had no intention of facing Tom again tonight. So while he was downstairs, she slipped into the bathroom. When she finished washing her face, she hurried back to her bedroom and closed the door again. She’d be much better equipped to face Tom in the morning, when she was rested.
Tom waited in the kitchen as he listened to Tina moving around above him. There was no way he was going back up those stairs until she was in her room, with the door shut and the lights out. She hadn’t intended to offer him a sexual invitation when she asked him to move in with her. He knew that perfectly well. Tina was too innocent, too inexperienced. He was willing to bet she hadn’t even thought of that aspect of her proposal.
But when he looked at her and saw the longing in her eyes, the need that she was too inexperienced to hide, all he’d wanted to do was sweep her into his arms and carry her to bed. It had taken all his strength to step away from her. And when they had stood in the doorway of her guestroom and he saw the awareness in her eyes, he had known it was a mistake for him to stay.
He’d also known he had no choice. If Tina was in danger because of him, he had to stay. And even though sleeping in her house with only a thin wall separating them would be the torture of the damned, he wouldn’t leave her alone.
Finally she stopped moving around. He walked to the bottom of the stairs and looked at the closed door to her room. No light escaped from the crack at the bottom of the door. Presumably Tina wouldn’t be coming out of her room again tonight. It was safe to go into his.
But as he tossed and turned on the bed, he couldn’t forget Tina’s face as they’d stood in the doorway of this room. Need had fought with fear in the deep-blue depths of her eyes. She’d tried to hide the fear, but it was there. And he vowed to find out why.
Chapter 12
After Tina left for work the next day, Tom moved his meager possessions out of the hotel and into Tina’s house. Then he sat down in the living room and called the police station. He asked for Stone Richardson, then waited on the line.
A few minutes later he heard, “Richardson here.”
“Detective, it’s Tom Flynt,” he said.
“How’re you doing, Flynt?” the detective said. “Have anything new for me?”
“I haven’t remembered anything more, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m calling to tell you that I’ve moved.”
Stone grunted and Tom heard the rustling of paper on the other end of the phone. “Okay. Give me your new address.”
Tom repeated Tina’s address, and there was dead silence on the line. Finally Stone said carefully, “Isn’t that Tina White’s address?”
“Yes, it is.” Tom tried to keep his voice level and unemotional. “She was concerned about the prowlers that have bothered her, and asked me to move in with her so she’d feel more secure.”
“That so?” Tom heard the disbelief in the detective’s voice. “I’m not sure how wise that was, Flynt.”
He wasn’t sure, either. “She didn’t feel safe, living here by herself.”
“We could have increased the patrols around her house.”
“I’m sure she’d appreciate that, but the police can’t sit outside her house twenty-four hours a day.”
“And she thought it would be safer to have you living in the house?”
Tom knew exactly what Richardson was thinking. Tina had to be nuts to trust him. It was what Tina should have been thinking, too. But she did trust him, and he would die himself before he let anything happen to her. “That’s what she thought. I didn’t call to discuss the propriety of the arrangement, Richardson. I just wanted to make sure you have my most current address.”
“Good thing you did.” Tom could hear him writing something. “I’ll let Detective Jones know, too. He’ll want to keep tabs on you.”
“Thank you. I’ll keep in touch if I remember anything.”
“You do that, Flynt.”
Tom hung up the phone and stared out the window. Tension hummed down his nerves and a sense of urgency tugged at him. He opened the back door and walked down to the place where the police had found the footprints.
He tried to force himself to focus, to wrestle his memories back where they belonged. But they stubbornly refused to return. He had no idea what the footprints meant, or who they might have belonged to.
He spent the rest of the day working around Tina’s house, trying to make it more secure. He wasn’t sure how he knew what to do, but found that if he stopped trying to remember, his fingers flew as if they had their own memory. By the time Tina was due to return home, he was fairly certain no one could get into the house easily and without giving plenty of warning.
His heart leaped when he heard the crunch of her tires on the driveway that night. When she walked in the door, he saw a hesitant expectancy in her eyes that made his pulse trip once, then begin to pound.
“Hi, Tom,” she said, and her voice was breathless.
“Hi yourself.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. If he hadn’t, he would have grabbed her. “How was work?”
“Fine.” She clutched her purse in front of her like a shield. “Did you, ah, move your things into the house today?”
“Everything’s here. Not that there was much to move.”
She nodded just a little too vigorousl
y. “That’s good. Did you find everything you needed?”
“It’s okay, Tina,” he said, walking to her and taking her hands. They were ice cold. “I’m just as nervous about this as you are. Are you having second thoughts?”
She hesitated just a moment, then gave one jerky nod of her head. “Not about you, Tom,” she hurried to say. “It’s just that I’ve lived alone since my mother died and I’m not sure how it’s going to feel to have someone else in the house with me.”
He shifted her hands so their palms were pressing together. “I don’t know if I’m used to living alone. I think I might be,” he said thoughtfully. “It felt right when I was by myself. But I really don’t know. So it’s going to be new for both of us.” He pressed her hands gently, then let her go. “And I want you to know that I intend to stay in my own bedroom.” He paused, then added in a low voice, “Unless you have other ideas.”
She looked down at her feet. “I don’t know what I want,” she murmured, and he could hardly hear her. “So I guess that would be best.”
His heart moved at the confusion in her face. “I’m not putting any pressure on you, Tina. As far as I’m concerned, I’m here because you’re concerned about the prowler. All right?”
She looked up and nodded. “All right.”
There was a shadow in her eyes that looked a lot like disappointment, and his heart leaped again. But he had made a promise and he intended to keep it. As much as he wanted to make love with her, he wasn’t going to push Tina into bed with him.
“Come on into the kitchen,” he said, deliberately changing the subject. “Have something to eat and tell me what happened at the hospital today.”
He caught a glimpse of the clock as they sat down at the kitchen table. “You’re home early tonight, aren’t you?”
She shook her head, and he thought there was a faint wash of color on her cheeks. “No, I just left on time. I usually get caught up with paperwork and end up staying later.”
He wondered if she’d left early because she knew he would be waiting at the house. Squashing the flutter of hope, he said casually, “I’m glad you were able to get away on time.”
She seemed to relax as they talked, and he leaned back in his chair, enjoying her animation and the quiet comfort of the evening. He wished he could sit here every evening when she got home from work, talking to her and watching her across the table.
Her eyes sparkling, she asked him what he’d done today. But just as he began to tell her about his move and his conversation with Stone Richardson, he heard a noise outside the window.
Without stopping to think, he raced for the back door. He reached instinctively for something on his left side, but his hand came away empty. Fumbling with the locked door, he burst outside into the night.
A dark figure retreated, running through Tina’s yard and disappearing into the shadows behind the garage. He raced after him, but by the time he reached the back of the garage, the intruder had disappeared.
He hesitated for a moment. All of his instincts told him to pursue the prowler. He might be hiding in the shadows in a neighboring yard. But he looked back at the house and saw Tina standing in the door, silhouetted against the light from the kitchen.
Running back to her, he called, “Get into the house and out of the light!”
She moved away from the door, but not far enough. Slamming the door closed, he whirled to face her. “What were you doing in the door like that? You were a perfect target.”
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.” She stared at him, her eyes wide pools of fear. “What’s wrong, Tom? Why are you looking at me like that?”
The terror he’d felt for her was fading, along with the burst of anger. “I’m sorry, Tina. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. But when I turned around and saw you standing there, my heart almost stopped. I was terrified that the prowler would shoot you.”
“Oh,” she said faintly.
But fear lingered in her eyes. He reached for her hand, and was surprised when she flinched away from him. “Tina?”
She swallowed once, painfully, and he watched the ripple of muscles in her throat. Then she slowly reached for him. “I’m sorry, Tom. I didn’t understand.” She gripped his hand tightly. “I’ll be more careful.”
Her hand was cold, and he could feel her trembling in his grip. “You weren’t frightened of the prowler, were you?” he asked slowly. “You were scared because I yelled at you.”
She shrugged, trying to make it a casual gesture. She didn’t succeed. “I guess I have delicate sensibilities,” she said lightly. “I’ll have to harden up.”
He pulled her slowly toward him. When he enveloped her in his arms, he could feel the tension quivering in every muscle of her body. “I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he murmured, stroking her back. “I was afraid you would get hurt.”
“I know,” she mumbled into his shirt. “I was just acting stupid.”
But there was more to it than that. Now he was determined to find out everything about Tina. Something had happened to her, and he wanted to know what it was. He wanted to make sure that no one ever hurt her again.
She sighed and relaxed in his arms, and desire swept over him. But he kept it banked. Now wasn’t the time. Finally he held her away from him and looked into her eyes. “Are you okay now? I have to call the police.”
She nodded. “I’m fine. And I already called them, as soon as I saw you running through the yard.”
Once again, he heard tires crunching on her driveway, and a door slammed in the front of the house. “Here they are,” he said, and let her go. He wanted to hold onto her, to wrap his arms around her and protect her from whatever demons had frightened her. But she moved away from him toward the door. Reluctantly, he followed her. He wanted to catch whoever was terrorizing her, but right now, Tina herself was more important.
The police stayed for a long time, questioning both of them. Tina became indignant when she realized that the officers were skeptical of Tom’s story of an intruder running away. “I saw him, too, Officer,” she said to the one taking notes, her voice frosty. “He wasn’t a figment of Mr. Flynt’s imagination.”
The officer nodded, but Tom could see the doubt in his face. Finally he snapped his notebook shut. “We’re going to take a look around the house. I’m sure he’s long gone, but we’ll want to be sure. And we’ll patrol the area every half hour or so tonight. Please don’t get alarmed if you hear us outside.”
“Thank you, Officer.” Tina’s voice was prim, but Tom saw the fury banked in her eyes. He grabbed her hand when the policemen stood up to leave, and squeezed when she started to say something else.
She gave him a startled look, but by then the policemen were out the door. As soon as it was closed, she spun around to face him.
“They thought you’d made the whole thing up,” she said, furious. “I could tell. Why did you stop me from saying something to them?”
“Because it wouldn’t have done any good. They would only have figured that you were part of whatever is going on.”
“How do you know that?”
How did he know that? “I don’t know,” he said slowly. “I don’t know where that came from. But it’s true.”
The fury disappeared from her eyes as he watched her. “You seem to know an awful lot about law enforcement.”
“I think the Grand Springs police have noticed that, too,” he said dryly. “And that’s why they’re so suspicious.”
She watched him for a moment, then tucked her hand through his arm. “That’s too bad,” she said lightly. “They should be spending their time trying to find the man who killed the Steeles instead of suspecting you.”
He covered her hand with his, feeling her satiny skin and delicate bones. Tina looked so fragile, but there was steel beneath her soft exterior. The prowler and his own dilemma faded from his mind as he looked down at her. Suddenly, all he wanted was to explore every facet of her, to know everything about her.
“Tina,” he mur
mured, and her eyes darkened as she stared up at him.
“What?” she whispered.
He bent to kiss her, and felt her instantaneous response. Fire leaped in his blood, cutting through the darkness inside him until there was nothing but Tina. He felt himself falling, losing control, and forced himself to open his eyes.
“Tina,” he gasped, as he tore himself away from her.
Her eyes fluttered open and he saw her passion there, a passion that he had awakened in her. For a moment of madness, he could think only of kissing her again, of covering her body with his and making her his own. The drumbeat of desire pounded in his blood and in his head, and he drew her closer. Then he closed his eyes and loosened his hold on her.
“We can’t,” he said, his voice low and tortured. All the reasons why he couldn’t touch Tina came roaring back to him. And now there was one more—he was afraid that if he touched her again, he wouldn’t ever be able to let her go. And he had no right to make that promise to her.
She didn’t move away from him, but he felt her jolt back to reality. “You’re right,” she said, disappointment lacing her voice like velvet seduction.
He opened his eyes and saw the frustration in her face and bent down to kiss her. “Sweetheart, I don’t want to make love with you because you’re frightened. When we make love, I want it to be because it’s what we both want and need.”
She lowered her head so that he couldn’t see her eyes anymore. “I know.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Go on to bed. I’m going to take another look around the house.”
At that, her head flew up and she searched his face. “You’ll be careful, won’t you?”
“Absolutely.” He would be more careful than he ever had in his life. Because if the prowler got past him, Tina was unprotected.
“All right. But I’ll be listening for you to come back inside.”
“I’m not going to do anything stupid, Tina. Believe me.”
A Thanksgiving To Remember Page 14
