by BETH KERY
“Hanging out with me, when you’re so used to slinking around in the shadows.”
He faced forward again, his stride never breaking. “I’m just doing my job, ma’am.”
“Did you already know the layout of these woods? Before you came to Camp Durand to . . . you know. Follow me?”
“My job is to watch over you as best I can while the camp is under way,” he corrected shortly. “And the answer is yes. A few of us who work in Durand security are trained for the estate. We provide security during a lot of company functions here. We need to know every square inch of the property.”
“Do you like it?” He turned his chin over his shoulder again. “Your job. Do you like working in Durand security?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Not very chatty, are you?” she said under her breath, jogging to keep up with his long-legged pace. He must have noticed, because he slowed.
“It’s a good company. Mr. Fall is a good boss, even though he’s not my direct boss.”
“Kehoe is, right?”
“Mr. Hintzen is my department head. Mr. Kehoe is only my supervisor while I’m here at camp.”
“When Dylan isn’t overriding his orders?” Rigo gave her an impassive glance over his shoulder that seemed like an affirmation. “You don’t like him, do you?”
“Who?”
“Kehoe,” Alice said breathlessly as they emerged from the woods into the sunny meadow.
“It’s not my place to like or dislike him.”
“You don’t.”
She assumed she was right when he didn’t argue.
She was curious about the man who had been lurking around all this time, watching her. He seemed to shy away from questions about his assigned mission, though. Undeterred, she jogged up next to him.
“What do you think of Bang?”
He looked a little startled.
“What do I think of bang?”
“Yeah. You know, the goat from Camp Wildwood. Do you think Kehoe will come down hard on kids if they sneak over there?”
“Why are you asking me?”
“Because you’re a Camp Durand manager in addition to watching over me. You hang around Kehoe and the others all the time. You must have some inside scoop.”
He seemed to consider this for a moment as they walked.
“No. Mr. Kehoe has a pretty tolerant attitude about it. Kids have been stealing and returning that statue for years.”
“That’s what I thought,” Alice said as they entered the woods again. A moment later, they broke the tree line and trudged up the steep slope of the side yard of the castle.
He halted at the edge of the stone terrace and nodded toward the patio doors. “They’re open. He’s in the den.”
“Thanks. Nice getting to know you,” she added drolly, because getting to know Rigo was like familiarizing yourself with a walking rock.
“You aren’t easy to guard,” he stated bluntly.
“I’ll try to be easier, now that we’re such good friends.”
“Don’t be too easy. You’re observant. Quick. Those aren’t things you should change.”
Maybe she was wrong about the rock thing, because the stone gave her a small smile before he turned away.
ALICE pulled up short ten feet away from Dylan’s den when the door whipped open. Thad stalked out, looking tense and preoccupied. He halted upon seeing her, seeming as startled as she was.
“Alice.”
“Thad. What are you doing here?”
She heard a solid tread on the wood floor.
“He was just leaving,” Dylan said as he crossed the threshold. “I’m going to see him out. Go on in and make yourself comfortable, Alice.” Before Alice could think of anything to say, she was staring at both men’s retreating backs.
Dylan returned a moment later, shutting the door quietly behind him. Her heart jumped when he locked it.
Alice watched him over her shoulder as he approached and went behind his desk. He was dressed for work at the office. He wore a dark gray suit that was perfectly tailored to his tall muscular frame. His dark hair was groomed immaculately, the hairline at his nape crisply trimmed. Had he gotten his hair cut today? When he’d escorted her from the castle early this morning, his thick, lustrous hair had been mussed and wild from her delving fingers, his jaw and lip shadowed with whiskers. He’d smelled of spice and outdoor air and sex.
She was a little intimidated by the reappearance of the business mogul. Her stomach felt tight and hollow. She’d chosen to sit in one of the leather chairs in front of the massive desk. While she waited, she’d noticed his discarded glasses on the blotter along with several reports opened to various pages, as though he’d been comparing numbers. It suddenly struck as he sat why she felt anxious. The situation had reminded her of her nerve-wracking interview with him last spring.
“Why did you ask Thad to come up here? Did you threaten him again?”
“I’m more concerned about what threat he poses to us, to be honest,” he replied dryly. He noticed her mutinous glance. “He’s admitted to following you at times without your knowledge, Alice.”
“I told you he’s infatuated with me. It doesn’t make him a bad guy,” she said, uncomfortable with the information despite her continued defense of Thad.
“Do you ever see Schaefer talking privately or behaving suspiciously in any way with anyone on this list?”
Her pique of irritation evaporated as she leaned forward to better see the piece of paper Dylan had shoved toward her. “I don’t even know who some of these people are,” she said, confused. “Who’s Meg Everett?”
“She was a good friend of Lynn Durand’s. She still lives in Morgantown. Her husband, Rob, is a Durand exec.”
“Oh, this is the list. The one you were telling me about last night, the list of people who could potentially have hired Cunningham and Stout, were around at the time of the kidnapping, and possibly knew our whereabouts on that day?”
He nodded. She peered again at the list.
“Why would Thad be talking to Meg Everett? Or Sidney Gates?” she asked incredulously, re-skimming the list. Some of the people she recognized as camp employees, but most of the names made no sense in regard to association with Thad.
“You’re under the impression that Thad doesn’t know Sidney personally?”
She shrugged and tossed the now memorized list back on the blotter. “I don’t know.” It bothered her, hearing about this secretive side of Thad. “Although he obviously knows who Sidney is, given what he told me the other night about Sidney objecting to you becoming CEO of Durand. And he seemed to recognize Sidney at the party.”
He nodded, watching her from beneath his lowered brow like a hawk. “Because Sidney says he’s never met Schaefer. Sidney was talking to you the other night at the Alumni Dinner. You looked upset. What did he say?”
“Is that why you asked me to come up here early?” she asked, bewildered.
“I’d like an answer.”
She sighed. “He was saying some stuff about Alan and Lynn Durand. Just about how they had trouble getting pregnant, and how much it upset Lynn.” Dylan looked especially somber. “It was fine. I wasn’t upset,” Alice lied. “He doesn’t seem to think I’m so fragile that I can’t hear about the Durands. In fact, he thinks I should see him on a professional basis and talk about Alan and Lynn more.”
“He said that?” Dylan asked very quietly.
“Yes. Not because he thinks I’m a potential resident for the local insane asylum. Because he thinks it’d be healthy for me. Helpful. Don’t you?” she asked, confused by his manner. Was he actually suspicious of Sidney now?
He didn’t speak for several seconds, his gaze fixed on his desk.
“Yes, I suppose I do,” he finally replied. He lifted one hand and gave her a beckoning gesture. “Come here.”
“What?” she asked, taken off guard by his request.
“Come. Here,” he repeated, quietly but succinctly.
&nb
sp; She rose from her chair, her pulse starting to throb at her throat. Sunlight glowed through the partially closed blinds on the windows behind his desk.
She came up next to him. Holding her stare, he rolled back the large leather wingback desk chair in which he sat. She gulped at the vision of male power he made, the strength of his chest, shoulders, and thighs evident beneath his tailored suit. Her gaze lingered on his gray and white silk tie and the crisp, snowy dress shirt beneath it. She recalled how on the day of her interview, she’d had a vivid, shockingly inappropriate fantasy of unbuttoning his shirt and sliding her hand against dense, ridged muscles gloved by smooth, warm skin. Her glance lowered further still.
Had she gleaned somehow even back then, what their future held?
“What is it?” she asked uncertainly, jerking her gaze off his crotch.
“I hadn’t realized until yesterday that you’d had such a clear memory of Lynn that night in the hall,” he said. “Of the bracelet.” He reached into his top desk drawer and withdrew a dark red velvet box. He handed it to her.
Alice opened the box, and there it was: the bracelet in waking reality.
She swallowed thickly and touched it. It was like a cuff, but it was supple and flexible. Delicate vines and leaves surrounded it, but intertwined in the webwork of finely wrought gold were interspersed . . .
“Sunflowers,” she murmured. “They turn their faces to the sun. I remember . . .”
“What?” Dylan asked when she faded off.
“Someone telling me that. Her, I think.”
She met his stare, her eyes burning. Miraculously, she’d been granted another tidbit of memory.
“There are more of her things, besides the bracelet and the pearls. They’re yours anytime you want them.”
“The pearls you gave me the other night? They were hers?” He nodded once. “I wasn’t sure if you were ready to know then. I am now.”
She studied the bracelet intently, trying to keep him from seeing the tears that had swelled in her eyes. She cleared her throat. “I thought you gave them to me to make me look like a rich heiress or something,” she mumbled.
“What?” he asked, clearly confused.
She sniffed. “It’s not important. I didn’t really believe that anyway,” she said honestly. “Just my insecurity talking.”
“Do you want me to put it on you?” he asked after a pause.
“Please.” She handed him the exquisite bracelet and set the box down on the desk. She extended her arm, and he fastened the bracelet around her wrist. Alice lifted her hand and let the ambient sunlight flicker among the vines. She looked at Dylan and beamed. “You’re happy?” he asked quietly.
“Very,” she said. It was impossible to stop grinning, even though her eyes still brimmed with tears.
He reached for her hand. “Come here,” he said again.
She kicked off her flip-flops and straddled his legs, her bare knees pressing against the soft leather seat. She came down in his lap, facing him. He opened his hands on her ass and scooted her closer on his thighs. He enfolded her into his arms. She hugged him back tight, her chin resting on his shoulder. She felt so full of something: Gratitude. Wonder. Joy.
“I love you,” she said in a hoarse, congested whisper.
He put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back several inches. She resisted the urge to hide her face and damp cheeks in his neck.
“You don’t have to say that because I gave you the bracelet. It wasn’t even mine to give. It belonged to Lynn, so it now belongs to you.”
She gave a ragged laugh and rolled her eyes. “Give me some credit. That’s not why I’m saying it.”
A small smile tilted his mouth. His eyes shone. Her heart seemed to squeeze in her chest. Her admission had made him happy. It had made her happy, too, despite her former anxiety about it.
“I’ve felt it for a while.” She shrugged. “I just . . . didn’t know if—”
“You could trust it?” he asked calmly, lifting his hand and cupping the side of her head.
She bit her lower lip, her gaze cast downward. “I didn’t know how to say it,” she admitted. “I’ve never said it before.” He delved his fingers into her hair. Her eyelids flickered in contentment when he massaged her scalp. “Was it . . . was it hard for you?” she asked.
“To tell you I love you?”
Her heavy eyelids sprang open at the sound of his deep, rich voice uttering those words.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“At first. I’ve told you before I’ve never been much of a romantic. But at some point, it starts to feel like denying the sky is blue.”
She just nodded, her throat too constricted to think for a moment. “I don’t know what it means, exactly.”
“You don’t have to sign a contract because you say you love someone, Alice.”
She laughed. “I know. I mean . . . I guess I do, anyway. Lately, it doesn’t feel like I know much of anything anymore.” Her gaze ran over his face. “We have such a complicated, long history. And at the same time . . . everything feels so new,” she confessed. He probably had no idea what she was talking about. Alice wasn’t sure she did.
His thumb swept over her cheek softly.
“We’ll do it just like we’re going to do everything else. One day at a time.”
She nodded, recognizing she was staring at him with hope in her eyes. He noticed, and his expression turned sober. He cupped the back of her head and brought her to him. His kiss started out tender, but emotion frothed in her. She kissed him back feverishly, her tongue tangling with his. She slid her hands against the solid wall of his chest, relishing his hardness and the steady beat of his heart. Beneath her, she felt him stiffen. She ground her hips down against his crotch in order to feel him better. Her fingers found the knot of his tie. She broke their kiss, gasping, and jerked, hearing the hiss of silk as she loosened it.
“There’s no time. We have to leave for the hospital in a few minutes,” she said against his mouth.
“Then why are you undressing me?”
She blinked in surprise when she glanced down. She’d not only loosened his tie but had the first two buttons of his shirt unfastened and was working on the third.
“Because I want to touch you,” she replied honestly, wasting no time in sending her hand in the opened placket of his shirt. She caressed dense muscle and crisp hair. When she found a small, erect nipple and rubbed it, his mouth went hard. He abruptly grabbed the hand stuck in his shirt and lifted it over her head along with her other wrist. He whipped her T-shirt off over her head and arms in a second flat, tossing it on the floor. Her sports bra soon followed.
“Only a fool doesn’t make time for this,” he stated gruffly, caressing her appreciative nipples too briefly before he turned his focus to unfastening her shorts.
“Do you really think it’s wise?” Alice asked, coming up on her knees to assist him as he jerked her shorts down over her ass.
“Who said it had anything to do with wisdom? Stand up for a second.”
She scooted awkwardly back on his thighs, her breasts swaying at the movement. He growled softly and leaned forward, halting her progress by cupping her breasts in his hands, his thumbs running over her nipples.
“God, your breasts,” he muttered, his mouth slanting like he’d just been stabbed by sexual hunger. Alice knew exactly what it felt like. It must have been a result of all the emotion that’d been bursting out of her, but she suddenly felt desperate. She moaned and arched her back shamelessly, willing him to touch her more. He gave her what she wanted momentarily, molding her breasts to his hands and gently pinching and rubbing her nipples until they were distended and stiff. He lifted the globes and let them fall, only to catch them again as they bounced softly. Another moan vibrated her throat. He glanced up at the sound, his eyes shiny with lust.
“Stand up and slip out of your shorts.”
She stood and shoved her shorts and panties down her legs. She straightened, now na
ked. Dylan was in the process of hastily unfastening his belt and pants. He hooked his thumbs beneath his boxer briefs and stretched the waistband over his erection. Lifting his hips, he pushed his clothing down to his thighs, sat and reached for her in a seamless, hasty movement. Alice once again straddled him in the chair, her breathing coming in choppy bursts.
He fisted his cock, stroking it as he guided her over him.
A moment later, she stared blindly out the window clutching his shoulders as he throbbed deep inside her. He urged her with his hands. Air popped out of her lungs as she began to rise and fall over him.
“That’s right,” he told her, his gaze glittering as he watched her. Still setting the pace with one hand cupping her ass, he ran a palm along the curve of her hip to her waist and along the side of her body. He caressed her neck and brushed her cheek. “So beautiful. You’re glowing, Alice” he muttered, seemingly transfixed.
“Dylan,” she whispered, laid wide open to him. He cradled a breast and whisked his fingertips over the crest. She whimpered in pleasure, her hips moving faster.
He caught her to him, his hands at her lower back. He impaled her and kept her fixed in place. She cried out when he took a nipple into his mouth, sucking her hotly. She squirmed in his lap. His greed excited her. He was hurting her a little with his brisk suck, but pleasuring her a lot. Her nails bit into dense shoulder muscles. She pushed, desperate to feel the friction of his cock.
He grunted and lifted his mouth for a moment. He grabbed her wrists and drew them to the small of her back. Alice arched her back, bobbing her hips subtly to get friction on her clit. He firmed his grip on both of her wrists and slapped her bottom.
“Why do you always have to be so bad?” he wondered before he spread his hand on her hip and applied pressure, stifling her wriggling. He’d said “bad” but the edge of lust in his tone made it sound like he’d said “good.” He sucked her other breast into his mouth, lashing the nipple with his tongue. Alice moaned uncontrollably. Her spine curved as she offered herself to him again.
His thick shaft filling her was driving her mad. It applied an indirect pressure on her clit. It was impossible not to try to shift her hips, but he held her fast. A sweat broke out on her chest and upper lip, the fever in her seeking an outlet. He continued to torture her breasts and sensitive nipples with his tongue and fingertips.
