by Desiree Holt
She felt her throat tighten. “Thank you. That’s a real compliment. I’ll try to be deserving of it.”
“Oh, you may not think it’s such an honor after a while,” he teased. Then sadness clouded his eyes again. “Jesus, Dana. I can’t imagine there’s somebody out there, right in this county, capable of doing things like this.” He took another long swallow of his drink.
Dana ran her finger around the rim of her glass, trying to decide if she should say what was on her mind. She could be all wrong—actually hoped she was—but she needed to know if she was seeing shadows where there weren’t any.
“Let me give you something different to sink your teeth into.” She stared into her glass. “I talked to some of the parents of the children who were killed. Ivy Winslow mentioned something so tonight while I was trying to keep myself from thinking about today I went back over all my notes. Cole, in all but two of the cases, clowns were involved.”
He frowned. “Clowns? Like party clowns?”
Dana nodded. “Children are drawn to them. They’re familiar. I’m wondering why no one tied it all together back then?” She paused and asked the question banging around in the back of her mind. “Was the sheriff covering up for someone else?”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Cole’s frown deepened. “I have no idea. It seems to me, if there’s a common thread in a situation like this, it only makes sense to follow it.” He stared at her. “God, what a terrible thing if it’s true and they missed it completely.”
“The only mention I could find was a note that either Jed Nickels or one of his deputies talked to the chamber and the rodeo association. They were the two organizations that dealt with the clowns. And that was just because they talked to everyone at each site. Not because they smelled something fishy.”
“And?”
“And it’s weird.” Dana wet her lips. “People couldn’t seem to agree if there were four clowns or five at any given event. Apparently not even the clowns. Most of them said four but a couple said five. But I guess no one figured clowns were likely suspects.”
“Even though the easiest thing for a predator is to camouflage himself with a costume and makeup and blend into the activity?”
“Uh huh.”
“What else?” Cole asked when she stopped suddenly.
“I probably should keep my mouth shut, but I have a lot of issues with the way Nickels handled the whole thing. Why clamp such a tight lid on it? Why not ask for outside help, like you’re doing? I mean, after two deaths, you’re looking for solutions, for help, for anything that will find this guy. So why, after two years of child rapes and murders, did Nickels do nothing?” She heard her voice rising and tried to temper it. “There’s a lot of whys in this case, Cole.”
Cole shrugged. “I think those are questions no one ever wanted to ask. Jed’s family goes back four generations, and he was like the elder statesman of the county, you know.”
Dana took a swallow of her soda. “I’ve seen that in other situations. One in Florida in particular. The sheriff ruled with a big smile and a heavy hand. No one ever thought to question him about his methods or why he handled that particular case the way he did. The killer turned out to be his own son.”
“That wouldn’t work here. Jed doesn’t have a son. Only daughters. Even if he did, those kids were just babies when all that happened. But Jesus, Dana. What if you’re right and he actually did cover up for someone?”
“Cole, what if it turns out this is the same man from twenty-five years ago? And now for some reason he’s moved to older girls.”
Cole blew out a long breath. “Hell, that makes just about every man in this county over the age of fifty a suspect.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “And it means you being here and digging up those old cases really did start him up again. It puts you in even greater danger.”
“Think about this,” she went on. “With that kind of predatory personality, how likely is it he’s just been dormant all this time? He’s had to find some other place to blow off that steam. Has anyone ever checked surrounding counties?”
“Probably not, but I’m sure as hell going to.”
“Leanne had problems with her truck at night and needed help,” Dana went on. “Shannon would have accepted a ride rather than walk all the way down that road.”
Cole raked his fingers through his hair. “It makes me sick to think it’s someone I know. You have no idea how much I hope you’re wrong, Dana.”
“Me, too.”
“Being here with you does me a lot of good.”
Her laugh was shaky. “Even if I did add to your bag of troubles?”
“Even if.” Cole rose from the couch and reached a hand to Dana to help her up. “I think we could both use some sleep.”
“You’re right.” She closed her laptop and stacked her papers.
Suddenly, it hit her fully she’d be sleeping under the same roof as this man. A man who pushed every one of her sexual hot buttons. Who starred in her erotic fantasies. She’d come to High Ridge hoping to get past her hang-ups. She just hadn’t expected it to happen quite this way. When she straightened, Cole was right behind her.
“Everything okay in your room?”
“Uh, yes.”
“Good. Well, I’m going to take a shower and get some sleep. Someone’s dropping your car off. I’ll probably be gone when you get up in the morning. I want to be at the office early.”
“Then, I guess, um, good night.” What was the matter with her that she was suddenly socially clumsy this way?
****
Cole stood under the shower, letting hot water wash away the stench and grime of the day. Dana puzzled him. There was something skittering beneath the taut professional surface.
Fear. Panic. Maybe both. Whatever it was, it wasn’t from something recent. An old wound that was festering perhaps or maybe a recent scab that had been torn away.
He thought about the few kisses they’d shared. Not mild by any means. Incendiary. But there again, something wasn’t right. Oh, she’d responded at first, but then quickly withdrew behind a wall he couldn’t breach.
He let his mind wander as he dried off and toweled his hair. Had she been raped? Had an abusive relationship? He dismissed either option out of hand. Those signs were different. He’d seen enough of them to know what to look for. He was just damn glad he hadn’t blurted out the details of his erotic dream.
He pulled on a pair of sweat pants, jerking them up over his hips, then grabbed his tooth brush and toothpaste. He stared at himself in the mirror while he brushed his teeth, but it wasn’t his image he was seeing.
Dana.
She devoted herself to finding answers for other unsolved crimes, hoping to ease the pain of her own life. And after all this time, something had happened to push her to confront her past. A failed relationship? More than one?
Something about this case triggered whatever she was hiding. He was convinced that at some time she’d been a victim herself. Was that what drove her? Was that why she was so interested in the old cases? If that was true, he wondered how she could stand to be in the same room with a man at all.
Hadn’t she had therapy of any kind to help her?
His last thought as he fell asleep was that, despite everything, Dana Moretti had gotten to him. Something was going on between them, and he wasn’t going to just let her walk away before he figured out what it was. If this thing between them was to move forward any more, he needed to find the answer. He also knew it wouldn’t be easy.
A scream woke him as abruptly as a flood of ice water. Cole sat straight up in bed, the hair standing up on his arms. Had he imagined it? No! There it was again.
Had someone broken in? Attacked Dana? He threw back the covers and ran to the room she was in, banging open the door. She was alone, but sitting straight up in bed, her body rigid, head thrown back, the scream still echoing in the air.
Cole took a deep breath and tried to calm his out-of-control heartbeat as he approac
hed the bed slowly. Her eyes were wild, unseeing, and the muscles in her neck stood out.
“Dana?” He lowered himself to the bed next to her, gently touching her shoulders. “Dana, honey? Wake up. You’re dreaming.”
When he touched her, she was clammy with sweat and ice cold. He wanted to pull her against his body, share his warmth, but he didn’t want to frighten her, either. As a Marine, he’d seen nightmares before and knew he had to be cautious. He shook her very lightly, repeating her name over and over. But when she opened her mouth to scream again, he was afraid he’d have to slap her to snap her out of it. He dug his fingers into her shoulders and shook her hard. Her head jerked forward then back again, and her eyes, unfocused, began to clear.
“Wha—Cole?” She blinked. “What happened? What are you doing here?”
“Darlin’, you were screaming the roof down.” He slid his hands over her exposed skin. “You’re covered with sweat, cold as ice, and shaking like a leaf. Let’s get you into a hot shower.”
“No. Please. I’m okay. Really.” She pushed against him weakly.
He pulled her to his body, stroking her back. “You are far from all right. Come on. You’ll feel better. Then you can tell me what it was all about.”
“I…I can do this myself.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed, but when she tried to stand, she nearly crumpled to the floor.
Cole lifted her in his arms and carried her to the bathroom, holding her against him while he turned on the shower and adjusted the spray. He hesitated a moment, then shut his mind to everything but necessity and stripped off both her sleep shirt and his sweats. He took one moment to admire her slim body and full breasts before pulling her into the shower with him.
As soon as the hot spray hit her, she came alive in his arms, struggling.
“Damn, Cole. That’s hot. And I can shower by myself.”
“Not this time,” he told her, holding her against him while the water beat down on them. “Consider it purely therapeutic.”
He stood there with her, letting the steam from the heat surround them until he felt her stiffen in his arms again.
“I’m naked,” she said and looked up at him with something like fear in her eyes.
He grinned. “That’s the usual procedure for showering.” He reached for the handle and turned off the water. “Come on. I think you’re warmed up enough now.”
He pulled a towel from a hook, dried her and wrapped her in it. He quickly wrapped another around his waist and knotted it at his hips before digging a T-shirt out of his drawer and slipping it over Dana’s head. Lifting her to the counter, he found another towel to wrap around her head and squeeze out most of the water.
“I think that’s the best we can do for now.” His voice was still soft. Calming. He tossed the towel over a bar, carried her back to bed, put her beneath the covers, and slid in next to her. She tried to push him away and sit up, but he kept his arms around her.
“Uh-uh. You need my body heat. It’s better than medicine after a nightmare.”
She stiffened again. “I can go back to sleep now. I’m fine.”
“Darlin’, you are many things, but at the moment, fine isn’t one of them. You have had a hellacious day, and your mind is fighting back. Just relax. Come on, Dana, let it go.”
They lay there for long minutes, his hand stroking the graceful line of her back, the smoothness of her skin. The swell of her hip. Her breasts pushed against him through the T-shirt, and he prayed his body would behave. But his cock seemed to have a mind of its own, swelling and pushing against her soft skin. He rolled her resisting body over so she faced away from him and spooned her against him, but his hot erection pressed against the crevice of her ass and she jumped as if scalded.
“Cole, I—”
“Shh, shh, shh. It’s okay. I won’t hurt you.” She lay there stiff as a board again.
Cole sighed. “I promise I’m not going to hurt you, Dana. Or force you to do anything you don’t want to. I just want to ease you back to sleep.”
“I don’t sleep with men in my bed.” Her voice sounded very small.
“Ever?” She was thirty-two years old, and he was pretty sure she wasn’t a virgin.
“Well…hardly ever.” She cleared her throat. “I have…issues.”
He waited a heartbeat for her to say more, but when she didn’t he asked, “Want to talk about it?”
Did she want to talk about it? Tell Cole about the dreams that never left her? That plagued her sleep? Hell, no.
Dana had been back in the barn in her dream, listening to Kylie scream. Feeling the man’s hands on her. Hurting her. When Cole woke her, she was a shivering mess, once again terrified by the horror that had haunted her for years. Her collapse was the only excuse she could find for letting him strip her naked and take her in the shower with his equally naked body. And for finding herself under the covers with him.
The T-shirt and towel weren’t a lot of protection. The heat of his body burned against hers through the fabric, her senses rioting at the contact. It startled her that she wasn’t afraid. Why didn’t her body clench and shrink from his as it usually did at this point? She desperately wanted to figure out why, for the first time in her life, she was responding to a man.
True, he was just holding her. He hadn’t made any overt sexual moves, but she was hyperaware of the very large cock pressed against her. Of his rock-hard body honed to perfection. Of his muscular legs pressed against hers. And she hadn’t panicked yet. Possibly…just possibly…Cole Landry could be the one to unlock that frozen part of her. Maybe.
And how was it possible, with all the death and destruction raining down around her, that her body chose now to wake up and demand attention?
Or was it because of that very death and destruction? Maybe she needed this—him—to wipe all of that away. Whatever it was, Cole Landry was the first man ever who didn’t frighten her. Whose presence gave her comfort and at the same time woke up every long-dormant hormone in her body.
Did she have the courage for this?
She wet her lips. “Cole?”
“What, darlin’?”
God, she loved the way he said that with his deep Texas drawl. It stirred something deep inside her. “I, um…it might be all right for you to…touch me.”
Please, please, please. I want to try this.
He chuckled softly, the sound vibrating against her. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I am touching you.”
“I know. I mean…you know…”
She felt him suck in a breath and let it out. “You mean like this?”
One hand slid beneath the T-shirt to cup her breast, very lightly at first. Then a thumb skimmed her nipple. Heat shot straight to her pussy with an intensity she’d waited all her life to feel. She heard a low moan and realized it came from her.
“Feel good?” he whispered. “Anytime you want me to stop you just tell me.”
She nodded, hardly able to speak for the riot of sensations racing through her. And prayed he’d keep doing what he was doing.
“I could make you feel really good.” He nipped the lobe of her ear. “You can trust me, Dana.”
“Yes.” The word was barely audible.
“I don’t know what ghosts you’re fighting, but maybe we can chase them away together. Close your eyes, darlin’. Block everything out but my hand.”
“O-okay.” She squeezed her eyes shut.
“Don’t tense. It’s all good, I promise. Feel my hand on your breast? You have wonderful breasts, Dana. And nipples I can’t wait to get my mouth around.” He pinched one lightly, and again she felt a dull throb pounding clear to that spot between her legs.
“Relax,” he murmured. “Just feel.”
He spent a long time on her breasts, telling her what he was doing. Playing with her nipples. Palming and rubbing the mounds of flesh. When he slid his hand to her stomach, she tensed again, but Cole continued to speak softly in her ear, soothing her, telling her in explicit erotic detail
what he was doing to her.
His hand was warm against her flesh, rubbing light circles, moving further down in small increments until she felt him between her thighs. Again she tensed and again he whispered and soothed. One finger slipped between the folds of her pussy, finding the hot button of her clit and brushing a fingertip over it. Back and forth. Back and forth. Each caress was like the whisk of a lightning bolt. His mouth worked its magic against her ear, her neck, her jaw line, while his finger continued to torment her.
He seemed to have endless patience, as though prepared to do this all night if necessary. The more he worked her clit, the more her anxiety faded, replaced by a tension of a different kind. She moved restlessly, unconsciously opening her legs to give him better access.
The lean finger moved between her labia to stroke up and down her wet slit, again slow. Slow and steady. She knew she was wet, as effortlessly as his finger moved, and to her, it was a real miracle. He lifted one of her legs, rested it on top of his, and resumed that deliberate stroke. And all the while, between nips and kisses, he kept up his erotic murmur in her ear.
“So soft.” His voice was husky. “And so wet. See how easily my finger moves against your hot flesh? Pretty soon, I’m going to slide it inside you. Feel those tight muscles clench around it. And when you’re ready, I’ll slide my cock inside there. God, I can’t wait. I could come just thinking about that.”
When at last he pushed that finger inside her, a small orgasm racked her body. Her muscles clenched, her pussy tightening on that finger. Cole’s soft chuckle of satisfaction vibrated against her.
“That’s it, darlin’. See how good this is?”
A second finger joined the first and she rode his hand, so enthralled by the exquisite feeling she didn’t want it to end. When it did, he moved back to her clit again, the bundle of nerves so swollen and sensitive that in seconds she felt a new hunger building within her. Again, he worked his magic, first teasing her clit until she was sure she couldn’t stand it and then sliding his fingers deep inside her. And again, a climax rocketed through her, knocking everything from her mind except the exquisite pleasure he was giving her.
