“Careful,” Seth warned.
“What careful?”
“That’s very loaded language.”
“I was merely stating a fact,” Darby pointed out.
“Quality of life can be enhanced by increased job opportunities. And improving the economy will increase job opportunities—”
“That’s not a certainty.”
“It’s a very high-percentage probability.”
Her irritation inched upward. “Noise pollution and compromises to public safety are not a high-percentage probability. They are a certainty.”
“Loaded language again,” he warned.
“More facts,” she countered.
“Do you want to take money out of the pockets of ranchers, and therefore food out of the mouths of their children?”
Now that was over the top. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“If you can use loaded language, so can I.”
“Starving children, Seth? Really?”
“I can also link my standpoint to motherhood, apple pie and puppies.”
Okay, he wasn’t the only one who could take his argument to ridiculous lengths. “Trains kill puppies.”
“Oh, you’re going to have to back that one up with statistics.”
Darby rocked to her feet and moved to her computer table. Surely she could validate the argument. She heard Seth move up behind her.
“Finding anything?” he asked, his deep voice in her left ear.
“Give me a minute.” She scrolled through the results.
“Doesn’t look promising.”
He was right. There were apparently no documented cases of trains killing puppies.
“Well, for sure they kill mothers,” said Darby.
“Maybe if the villain ties her to the railroad tracks.”
Darby turned, keeping a straight face. “We can’t discount that happening.”
“I bet those horrible trains squish apple pies, as well.” He smirked.
She shook her head. “We seem to have gotten off track.”
“Pun intended?”
“Not really,” she admitted.
“You’re right,” he agreed, surprising her. “This isn’t helping.”
She searched his expression for sarcasm. But he looked genuinely regretful. He also looked handsome, and so irredeemably sexy that her hormones sang in response to his nearness. She could feel her heartbeats grow deeper and a flush of heat race its way along her skin.
“We kind of blew that, didn’t we?” he observed.
“You want to take it from the top?”
Though she hadn’t admitted it to Seth, she was growing quite worried about the mood of the town. She didn’t want any more fights or vandalism, and she accepted the wisdom of her and Seth’s setting an example.
“Sure,” he agreed, easing ever so slightly forward. “Let’s take it from the top.”
Her gaze found its way to his lips, and her voice turned husky as she spoke. “I respect your right to disagree with me.”
“And I respect your right to disagree with me.” The back of his hand brushed lightly against hers.
She swallowed, but forced herself to keep going. “I know you want what’s best for Lyndon City.”
“That’s good,” he intoned. His hand brushed hers again, and her brain started to cloud. “I know you love puppies.”
“I do love puppies,” she agreed, meeting his darkening eyes.
“I love warm brandy,” he returned.
“Chocolate chip cookies,” she breathed.
“Midnight swims.” The palm of his hand came to rest on her hip.
She knew she should move away. It was crazy to simply stand here and let him touch her. But instead, she added to his last sentence. “On hot, summer nights.”
His head slanted sideways, leaning in. “Naked,” he whispered.
“Uh-oh.”
“With you.” His mouth came down on hers.
He tasted astonishingly familiar, intense, compelling. He shifted his body, meeting hers from thigh to chest. His arms settled around her waist, while hers snaked around his neck, tightening.
She tipped her head back, opening her mouth, letting the sweep of his tongue send ripples of desire along her limbs. She welcomed the invasion of his kiss, her skin rising up in goose bumps, her nipples tightening with pent-up desire.
Their kisses went on and on. Her spine arched backward. Her fingers tangled in his short hair. His hand slid up her rib cage, skimming the side of her breast, then palming its fullness and closing in on her hard nipple.
“You’re gorgeous,” he breathed. “So soft, so smooth.”
She was also very much out of her mind. She knew she should put a stop to this right now. She had no business melting in the arms of her enemy. But she didn’t have it in her to stop. She didn’t have it in her to say no.
His kisses were mind-blowing. His hands were nothing short of magic. And she’d dreamed about this for so many nights. Surely she could simply enjoy the intense sensations a little while longer. How much could it hurt?
His hand slipped under her tank top, calluses teasing her sensitized skin. His hands were warm and strong, firm and sure. His fingertips found the thin lace of her bra, zeroing in on her nipple, and a primal groan formed deep in his throat.
His breathing was deep. He gathered the hem of her top, bunching it. She raised her arms, allowing him to peel it off. He stared hotly at her white bra for a long, still moment. Then he smoothed back her hair, captured her lips with his, and kissed her all over again.
She clung to him, burying her face in the crook of his neck, inhaling his spicy scent as the air currents swirled across her bare back. He snapped her bra open, tossing it aside. He shrugged out of his jacket and made short work of the buttons on his dress shirt.
Then they were skin to skin, her breasts pressed up against his chest, heat, friction and moisture rising between them. He smoothed his palms along her bare back, kneading her muscles with the heels of his hands. He kissed the arc of her shoulder, working his way along the curve of her neck, back to her mouth, devouring her with deep, long kisses.
She explored his bared torso, the six-pack of his abs, the definition of his pecs, the breadth of his shoulders, bunched steel under her fingers. She stretched up to kiss his neck, tasting the salt tang, suckling his heated skin, while her hands stroked the expanse of his back.
He lifted her, perching her on the table, stepping between her thighs. His head bent to draw one nipple into his mouth. The heat and moisture made her gasp. His tongue was rough and sure. She arched for him, gripping his shoulders, as he stroked her sensitized skin. Waves of desire built within her, peaking to crests, meeting between her thighs.
She dragged oxygen into her lungs, inarticulate moans rising from the tension in her chest. Her thighs tightened around him as she pressed herself against his aroused body.
“Seth,” she gasped.
He lifted his head, eyes smoke-blue, glazed with arousal. He seemed to blink her into focus. His hands gripped the table on either side of her.
“If it’s a no,” he rasped, “better tell me now.”
“It’s not a no,” she managed. She lifted her hand to his cheek. It was trembling slightly from the effects of her passion.
She stroked his strong jawline, tunneled her fingers into his hair. “You’re not…” She didn’t know how to finish the sentence. He kept surprising her. He wasn’t what she expected.
“Neither are you,” he said softly.
Then he met her lips, gently at first, then hotter and deeper, starting the raw, ravaging kisses all over again.
His hand skimmed her stomach, moving to her waistband, releasing the button of her slacks and dragging down
the zipper, stripping them off. His fingertips caressed her bare hips, her thighs, moving to the apex, until he met her moisture.
He lingered there, and she arched her spine. He pressed his fingers inside, bracing her bottom with his free hand, moving in and out until she squirmed against the tabletop, biting her bottom lip.
Something banged in the yard outside. The sound was followed by shrieks and giggles.
Seth jerked back, eyes wide as he stared down at her.
“Do not stop,” Darby ground out from between clenched teeth. “Don’t you dare stop.”
“Yes, ma’am.” His hand continued its motion.
She let her arousal build as high as she dared.
“Now,” she cried out. And it was her turn to grip the edge of the table as he shucked his own pants and retrieved a condom from his pocket.
He was gorgeous naked, tough, toned, tanned and glorious. Their gazes locked together as he stepped forward.
For a split second, sanity took a toehold inside Darby’s brain. Marta’s cool tones echoed through her memory.
She moistened her lips, struggling to find her voice. “Would this be a good time to ask you to cancel the railroad?”
Seth’s mouth flexed in a crooked smile, and he grasped her thighs, easing them farther apart as his thumbs slid up their slickness, meeting in the middle. “Would this be a good time to ask you to endorse the railroad?”
She gasped in a breath, and her hips reflexively bucked. “Yes.”
He bracketed her hips and slid her to him, holding her precariously on the edge of the table. “Then let’s both let each other off the hook.”
He bent to her lips in an openmouthed kiss, simultaneously sinking inside her. She wrapped her arms around him, sliding their moist bodies tight together. Her ankles locked as his rhythm started, his hand cupping her bottom, stretching her body, hitting every erotic nerve ending she possessed.
“Seth,” she gasped.
“Darby,” he groaned in return.
Sensation inched its way through her body, slow-motion intensity buzzing from her core to her limbs to her fingers and toes.
“This is—” she gasped, feeling as though she was losing her grip on reality. “It can’t—”
“I know.” His voice was guttural between kisses. “It’s nothing to do with anything else. We can’t use it against each other.”
“We can’t,” she agreed.
His pace increased, slamming fireworks to every corner of her body. A roaring started in her ears. Orange sparks turned to a glow behind her eyes. Her world contracted to Seth, his heat, his scent, his shallow breaths, to where their bodies joined.
She struggled to stay silent. There were other people in the building. But she lost the battle, crying out as lightning jolts of pleasure flashed through her body, convulsing her around Seth.
He covered her mouth with his own, absorbing her cries. Then his body shuddered with completion, and he squeezed her to him, lifting her right off the table, gasping her name over and over in her ear.
* * *
Seth blinked the world back into focus, gazing dazedly into Darby’s beautiful face. He couldn’t believe he’d done it. He couldn’t believe they’d done it. He’d all but torn off their clothes, making frantic love to her in the middle of her office, in the middle of the day, in what was essentially a public building. They hadn’t even locked the damn door.
“That—” Darby sucked in a few gasping breaths “—may not have been a good idea.”
The jury was still out for Seth. It was likely a very bad idea, but he couldn’t deny that he felt fantastic. His world felt completely centered for the first time in months.
“I know I feel a lot less tense and antsy,” he told her, gently easing her down to rest on the table.
“I guess I do, too,” she agreed, her luminous green eyes gazing up into his. “At least for the moment.”
He couldn’t bring himself to let her go, so he tightened his arms around her and kept their bodies firmly locked. He didn’t want to lose any of the sensations wafting through his brain: her warm, supple limbs, the sweet scent of her hair, the exotic taste of her skin.
He kissed the closest spot, the top of her head, while his fingertips stroked the length of her back. “You know, I think we might have hit on something here.”
She didn’t push him away. In fact, her body seemed to soften around him. He reveled in the stolen moments, even as reality percolated its way back into his brain.
“How so?” she asked softly against his chest.
“I don’t feel like fighting,” he observed. “Do you feel like fighting?”
She gave a weak laugh. “My brain went blank about fifteen minutes ago.”
Seth couldn’t help but like the sound of that. Because, for sure, she’d blown every circuit in his own brain. He couldn’t remember ever wanting a woman this way. He sure didn’t remember sex completely blotting out all time, space and reason.
“Darby—” he stroked her hair back “—I can understand why you’d prefer to maintain the peace and tranquility of Lyndon Valley.”
She stilled, silent for a dozen heartbeats. “Seth,” she said softly, and there was a thread of a smile in her voice. “I understand why you think the train is a good idea.”
She tipped her head back to look up at him.
He smiled. “There you have it.”
“Have what?”
“The next time we’re scheduled to debate in public, let’s do this first.”
“You mean rock each other’s world?”
“If you want to put it that way.”
She laughed, dropping her forehead to rest against his chest. “You’re out of your mind.”
“It’s the only thing we’ve found that works.”
She shook her head against him, pulling back. “You don’t particularly like me, really.”
Something contracted inside Seth’s chest, leaving him feeling hollow, regretful. “I like you, Darby,” he told her softly. “I disagree with you, and I’m a little intimidated by you. But I like you just fine.”
“I don’t intimidate you,” she stated with conviction.
How wrong she was there.
Then curiosity crept into her tone. “How do I intimidate you?”
The air was cooling their damp skin. Sounds from outside, a voice, a bird, the wind, began to filter into the room.
“You’re smart,” Seth told her, easing slightly away. “You’re feisty. If I dare to make one wrong move, you pounce like a puma.”
He reached to the floor, handing her the bra and tank top.
“You intimidate me back,” she told him. “You’re a brick wall. And if I’m not careful, I’ll break myself against you.”
She took the clothing he handed her, shrugging into the white, lacy bra.
His brain took a snapshot of the acutely sexy picture, filing it away for later. She was beyond incredible, all smooth, honey-toned skin, mussed hair, swollen lips.
She pulled the tank top over her head and slid down from the table.
Seth stepped into his pants, while she did the same.
He supposed it was way too much to hope that she’d make love with him ever again. This had been a misstep, a momentary anomaly. Mind-blowing sex notwithstanding, they couldn’t afford to trust each other.
They were about to step back into their corners and come out swinging. If he was lucky, if Lyndon City was really lucky, they’d find a way to pull their punches.
* * *
Darby lay in bed alone that night debating the merits of Seth’s proposition. On the one hand, she could have a lot more great sex with him. On the other hand, it was inappropriate to mix a physical relationship up in their dispute.
She knew what wa
s right. But she also knew what she wanted. And she dozed off to the memory of Seth’s sure hands caressing every inch of her body.
A booming sound awoke her. Her feet hit the floor before she’d even identified the sound.
It boomed again.
“What the hell?” Darby asked to the empty room.
It sounded like a twelve-gauge shotgun. And it was close, maybe fifty yards away.
An air horn pierced the darkness, long and shrill.
Darby gave her head a little shake, allowing for the possibility that she was dreaming. If she was, she really did prefer those dreams that centered around an illicit relationship with Seth.
Two more booms sounded, followed by another air horn blast.
It was obvious they weren’t hitting the inn. If somebody wanted to shoot up Sierra Hotel, a shotgun was a colossally stupid choice of weapon.
Voices stirred up in the other bedrooms.
Darby moved to the door and pulled it open.
“Everybody stay down,” she called down the hallway. “Stay in your rooms.”
“You need help?” came a voice she recognized as Shelley, an L.A. police officer.
“Call 911.”
“Those were gunshots,” someone called back.
“I don’t think they’re aiming at us,” Darby returned. “But stay down, okay?”
A number of voices called back in agreement.
Darby pulled on a pair of runners, making her way carefully to the front foyer in a pair of soft blue shorts and a yellow tank top. The horn continued to sound, and the shotgun blasts stayed intermittent. But they seemed to be getting closer.
The sounds were coming from the north, where there was a strip of woods beyond the lawn. Whoever it was could be hiding there.
She eased the front door open a few inches.
“Police are on their way,” called a voice over the rail.
“Thanks,” Darby called back. “Stay away from the windows.”
“We are.”
Darby heard a voice, then another. Whoops and hollers combined with swearwords.
Darby mentally cataloged her guests, wondering if any of them might possibly be an assassination target. She didn’t think so, but any one of them could be involved in espionage or counterintelligence without her knowing it.
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