by R. C. Ryan
“That’s some imagination you have, cowboy.”
He lowered his face to press his mouth to the hair at her temple. “Oh, lady, you have no idea the things I’ve imagined.”
His hands tightened at her waist and he pulled her against him.
When she lifted her head to protest, he cut off her words with a kiss that rocked them both back on their heels.
She came up for air. “Reed…”
“Shh.” He kissed her again, lingering over her mouth. “Oh, baby, how I needed this.”
He slid his hands along her arms and lifted them to his neck. When she didn’t pull away, he moved his open palms down her arms, down her back, drawing her even closer. And then, while his mouth moved over hers, taking her on a slow, sensual ride, his hands trailed her sides until they encountered the swell of her breasts. His thumbs found her nipples already hard through the fabric of her dress.
He swallowed her little gasp of surprise. When she stiffened and tried to pull away, his kiss gentled, as did his touch, until she sighed and relaxed in his arms.
She drew in a long, deep breath. “You should probably go.”
“Yeah.” He nuzzled the corner of her eye, her cheek, before lowering his mouth to the sensitive hollow of her neck. “Or I could stay.”
She involuntarily shuddered at the press of his lips to her tender flesh. “That’s not a good—”
“Have mercy. Think of that long drive back to my ranch.” His hands were roaming again, finding all kinds of interesting places to touch. To tease. Until he had her, and himself, thoroughly aroused.
“I’m not ready…”
“I am. Red, I’m so hot, I’m practically going up in flames.”
“I know. I am, too. But I’m just not ready for…” She put a hand to his chest and backed up a step. “I need some space. I can’t think when you’re this close.”
“Neither can I. But we don’t need to think. Why can’t we just go with our feelings?”
With her chest heaving, she took another step back, and then another. “I did that once.” Her eyes misted and she blinked furiously. “And I learned a very important lesson. There are always consequences to acting on our feelings without thinking.”
The sight of her fighting tears was a splash of ice water.
He gathered her close and pressed his forehead to hers. “Sorry. I know better. But you’re killing me, Red.”
In response she merely held on and dragged in deep, calming breaths while he did the same.
When the trembling passion had cooled enough, Reed touched a hand to her cheek in an achingly sweet gesture. “You know I want you. That isn’t going to change. But I’m glad you had the brain tonight. I guess one of us needed to be sensible.”
She managed a weak smile. “You don’t make it easy.”
“Good. I’d hate to think this was one-sided.” He plucked his hat from the table. “Since I can’t stay the night, I’d better leave while I can still walk.”
“I’ll go downstairs with you.” She led the way and opened the door to the shop.
In the doorway he turned and gathered her close. Against her ear he whispered, “Whenever you find it in your heart to let me in, I’ll be waiting. Good night, Ally.”
He brushed a kiss over her cheek.
She surprised him by drawing him close and giving him a hard, hungry kiss before stepping back.
He shook his head while keeping his eyes steady on hers. “I’ve never been a patient man. Like I said. You’re killing me, Red.”
Without a backward glance he strode away.
As he did, he had the strangest sensation that he was being watched. Not just by Ally, but by another pair of eyes.
He made a slow turn. There seemed to be no one around, but the feeling persisted.
He heard the door to the shop close. Heard the lock being thrown.
Still feeling prickly, he climbed into his truck and drove away.
Ally turned the key and stood very still, watching as the taillights on Reed’s truck receded along Main Street.
Turning away, she switched off the lights as she climbed the stairs.
In her apartment she paused in front of the framed photographs she’d arranged on the wall.
She wasn’t surprised that Reed had noticed the absence of Rick in all the pictures. Reed noticed so many things that others might overlook. Since she’d first met him, he displayed a rare sensitivity that she found endearing.
Endearing. What an odd term to describe a tall, handsome, rugged cowboy. But Reed Malloy was so much more than that. He was so natural and easy with Kyle. He never seemed self-conscious when he played with her son. Or when he read him a story. He didn’t appear to be like so many men who tried to amuse a child just to impress someone. Reed made her little boy laugh in a way she’d never seen before. And wasn’t he the same with her? Natural and easy. Though they were doing ordinary things, like having a sandwich at D & B’s Diner, or ice cream at I’s, the fact that she and Kyle were doing them with Reed made them feel like special events. With Reed, everything was more fun. Even the most mundane, everyday things she’d always taken for granted.
She wished with all her heart she could invite him to stay. It hurt to send him away. But she had to guard her son. Herself. She touched a hand to her chest. Her heart. More than anything she needed to protect herself from making a rash decision that could do more damage.
Hadn’t there already been enough? She was a mother. No matter how overwhelmed she might feel, she needed to be calm and disciplined and sensible. Kyle deserved it. She deserved it.
She thought about her own mother. Strangers probably thought Dee Stone was one tough cookie. After all, as Archer had said, his sister left home at sixteen with the first cowboy who offered her a ride out of town, and never looked back. But if Dee’s life as a girl in Glacier Ridge had been difficult, her life afterward had become a nightmare. When her cowboy left her in Oklahoma, she’d had neither a job nor a place to stay. The owner of an all-night diner had taken pity on the girl and offered her a job flipping burgers by day, washing dishes by night, and allowed her to sleep in a back room until she saved enough for a room in town. She’d made her way across the country doing the jobs nobody else wanted, and an encounter with a handsome, smooth-talking real estate salesman in Maryland convinced her she’d found her happy ending.
Six months later the salesman was gone, and so was all the money she’d saved up to buy her dream home. But she’d been left with something unexpected. A daughter. Ally smiled at the memory. She’d grown up without a father, but she’d had the best mother in the world. The two of them had faced life head-on, and her mother had faced her impending death the same way. With courage and grit. And she’d left her only child with happy memories, a strength of will, and a hunger for family.
That hunger had made Ally vulnerable. But she couldn’t blame Rick for her own weakness. He’d made it clear that he was already wedded to the military life. There was no room for the demands of a family.
She turned off the lights as she passed from the tiny living room to the kitchen. She paused to check on Kyle before making her way to her own bedroom. Once there, she undressed and opened the window, allowing the curtains to flutter inward on a fresh breeze.
It would be unbearably humid in Virginia, but here in Montana, with the air blowing down from the hills, it was as cool and clean as a mountain stream. She breathed deeply before settling herself in bed. Leaning toward the night table, she turned off the light and lay in the darkness.
Thoughts of Reed had her smiling. There was just something about him. He made her feel she’d made the right choice moving clear across the country. Even though her connection to her uncle had been largely unsuccessful, so far, she could feel some of her doubts and insecurities slipping away when she was with Reed. He made her believe in herself. Believe that she could make this town her forever home. And make this little business successful enough to provide a life for herself and her son. When
she was with Reed, she truly felt she could trust him.
Trust. It wasn’t something she would ever again give lightly. She’d trusted one man with her heart, and he’d trampled it. Still, Reed seemed different. Better. But she knew it would take more than just a feeling before she would trust fully. She knew, too, that she was older, and hopefully wiser. But did wisdom really come with age? And how would she know, really know, without risking more pain? That wasn’t something she would allow herself to think about.
Instead, she thought about how she felt in Reed’s arms. Oh, the man knew how to make a woman feel special. He had all the right moves. Which could mean only that he’d had plenty of experience.
She lay perfectly still, reliving each heart-stopping kiss. Each whispered word. Each mind-numbing touch of those work-roughened hands. How she wished she could simply give in to the passion and enjoy what he was offering.
She was just beginning to doze when she heard something. A light thud, as though something had fallen off a dresser onto the floor.
Her eyes snapped open and she was surprised to see a flickering light beside her bed.
A light?
She sat up and tried to make sense of what she was seeing.
Fire. A flame that had already caught the edge of her sheet and was now snaking along the foot of the bed.
In one quick motion she was out of her bed and snatching up her cell phone. She pressed speed dial as she raced headlong toward Kyle’s room.
When she heard a distorted voice, she shouted, “There’s a fire at Ally’s Attic. Hurry. Fire!”
Chapter Fourteen
Reed was nearly home, though it wasn’t at all where he wanted to be. He’d spent the long ride with the windows wide open, hoping the chilly night air would help clear his mind. It wasn’t working. All he could think of was Ally. All he could taste was her. All he could see was the way she’d looked in that unguarded moment when she’d blinked back tears.
He didn’t need to know the details to know she’d been hurt. He hated that fact, but he couldn’t undo what had already been done. All he could do going forward was to be patient and to understand that she needed to work things out in her own time.
For him, this was all uncharted territory. Ally may be a beautiful, funny, talented woman, but he’d known plenty of other women who fit that description. Ally had something else. Something unique. She was ambitious. Fearless and driven to make her own way. But she was also a mother. That would make her doubly cautious, in order to keep her son safe from the pain of her past. And that meant that he had to respect whatever boundaries she set.
He swore and slapped a flat palm on the steering wheel. His damnable sense of honor was becoming a liability. This wasn’t how he’d seen himself spending the night.
When his phone rang, he glanced at the caller ID and a smile touched his mouth. She was calling to say she’d changed her mind.
“Yeah? Ally?”
He could hear her voice, high-pitched, distorted, yelling something he couldn’t understand.
“Ally? What’s…?”
He caught one word before the line went dead.
Fire.
With screeching tires he braked and spun the wheel, turning the speeding truck in the opposite direction. With one hand he dialed Eugene Graystoke’s number while he floored the accelerator and drove like a madman toward town.
“Sheriff’s office.” Eugene’s voice sounded sleep-roughened.
“There’s a fire at Ally’s Attic. She and her son live upstairs.”
“I’m on it.” With those words, the line went dead.
Reed wasn’t much for prayer, but in his mind he was already storming heaven to keep two very special people safe.
“Kyle.”
Smoke had Ally coughing furiously as she raced into her son’s room.
She was forced to disentangle the little boy from his bed linens before hauling him into her arms and heading for the stairs.
Every downward step felt like a mile-long hiking trail, while behind her she could hear the crackle of flames as they fed on draperies and rugs and bed linens, growing hotter and higher with every minute.
Though Kyle stirred, she could tell he was befuddled and not completely awake yet.
Once down, she fumbled with the locked door, ready to kick a bare foot through the glass if it didn’t open. After several frantic moments the door gave and she made a dash out into the cool night air. From inside she could hear the smoke alarms going off one by one as the fire gained strength.
Within minutes she looked up at the sound of a police siren drawing near.
Sheriff Graystoke was out of his SUV and racing toward her.
He put an arm around her shoulders. “Reed called me. Is he here?”
“No.” She felt her legs trembling and wondered how much longer she could stand while holding Kyle to her chest.
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know. I dialed the first number my finger found in the dark. My only concern was getting Kyle out safely.”
“I notified the fire department volunteers. Do you know how the fire started? The stove? A cigarette?”
“No. No. I heard something drop. I guess it came through the open window.”
“It? What do you mean?”
“It seemed to be a torch of some kind that landed beside my bed.”
Eugene Graystoke was staring at her as if she’d gone mad. “Are you saying you were firebombed?”
Ally tried to wrap her mind around something so alien to her. “I don’t…”
There was a terrible sound of screeching brakes. Reed’s voice cut through the night. “Thank heaven you’re both safe.”
Ally looked up to see Reed racing toward them.
Eugene’s face was as dark as a thundercloud. “Ms. Shaw just said the fire was started by a torch through an upper window.”
“A torch?” Reed was rocked back on his heels.
A single fire truck drove up, horn blasting, as cars and trucks began filling the street. Vehicle doors slammed. Men began milling about, hooking up hoses, shouting orders. A truck pulled up alongside the sheriff’s vehicle, and Gemma and Jeremy rushed over to Ally.
Gemma was pale as a ghost. “Are you okay?”
Before Ally could respond, the sheriff caught Gemma’s arm and rounded on her and Jeremy. “What are the two of you doing here?”
Jeremy swallowed twice before he was able to say, “We heard the fire siren and followed the truck.”
“Where were you?” Eugene’s eyes were narrowed in suspicion.
“We were sleeping in Jeremy’s truck.” Gemma’s hand snuck into the boy’s.
“We were parked over behind the jail, Sheriff.” Jeremy flushed. “We figured it’d be a safe, quiet place to spend the night.”
Gemma’s chin lifted. “You don’t think we did this, do you?”
“I don’t know what to think. All I know is, until I’ve conducted a thorough investigation, everyone’s a suspect.”
The sheriff turned to Ally. “Our fire force is made up of all volunteers. Right now, I need to join them and lend a hand.”
His head swiveled back to Gemma and Jeremy. “This isn’t over. I want to talk to both of you later.” With that terse statement, he strode away.
Reed took one look at Ally’s bare feet and night slip, and Kyle in his thin pajamas, his chubby arms hugging her neck with a death grip.
“Here.” He took the boy from her arms and led her toward his truck.
“But the sheriff…”
“Eugene will want to talk to you later. Right now he’ll be with the others, helping put out the fire.” He opened the passenger door and eased Ally inside before setting Kyle on her lap.
At once Ally hugged the shivering little boy close.
Gemma spoke to her through the open window. “Ally, I hope you believe Jeremy and I were asleep when this happened.”
Ally reached a hand to the girl. “I believe you, Gemma. And the sheriff wil
l, too, when he has time to get past this.” She looked beyond Gemma to Jeremy, standing behind with his hand on the girl’s shoulder. “You two need to get some sleep now. Tomorrow is soon enough to deal with all this.”
“Is the entire building burning?” Gemma asked softly.
Ally shrugged. “I don’t know. All I know is we were lucky to get out alive. I know you’re worried about your merchandise. Right now, I have no answers.”
Gemma nodded. “We’ll come back tomorrow and see if we can do anything to help.”
Ally watched as the two teens climbed into Jeremy’s rusting truck and drove slowly away.
Reed removed a blanket from the backseat and wrapped it around mother and son. Then he walked to the driver’s side to slide in beside them before gathering them into his arms.
Ally’s teeth were chattering. “I can’t stop shaking.”
“Shock. It’s a normal reaction when you realize what just happened and how much worse it could have been. Just hold on and breathe.”
Kyle looked over at Reed. “What happened? Why are we out here?”
“There’s a fire in your building, little buddy.”
The boy touched a hand to his mother’s cheek. “Is our ’partment going to burn down?”
His question had Ally’s heart contracting painfully. She pressed her mouth to his cheek. “I hope not. The firemen are up there now, trying to put it out.”
“If it burns, will we have to go back to Uncle Archer’s?”
Ally sucked in a breath. The fear and sorrow in Kyle’s voice matched the emotions swamping her. Everything she’d worked so hard to achieve was gone. Their situation was even worse than before. Now they were left with nothing.
“I don’t know, honey.” Her voice trembled, signaling that she was close to breaking down under the weight of all that had happened in such a short span. “I just don’t know.”
“I do.” Reed tightened his grasp, holding them firmly in the circle of his arms. “The two of you are coming home with me.”
