She hated that her hand wasn’t quite steady as she accepted it. If he hadn’t mentioned the patrol, she would have been fine.
“And don’t go wandering around outside, okay?”
Her tension eased. She even managed to smile back at him. “Yes, sir. I promise. Thank you, Detective.”
She closed and locked the door behind him. “I think it’s going to be all right,” she murmured turning, only to find Zach watching her with an intensity she was beginning to recognize all too well. She leaned back against the door. “What?”
“Now all you have to do is worry about the danger in here.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Willa wondered if there was another man alive, other than Zach Denton, who knew how to make a lady feel both priceless and in trouble. As she slipped the business card into her breast pocket, she shook her head. “You know I should go back. Starla took things extremely well, and I think we’re going to be okay again, but I should go back.”
“You heard Pruitt.”
“We have mall security. The guard could walk me to my car after we close. Then it would only be—Zach, I can’t think straight when you look at me like that.”
“I don’t want you to think straight. It’s been a long hellacious day for both of us, and I’m tired of probing questions, and threats and nightmares…. Come upstairs with me.”
Four little words and he started the fever in her all over again. “Let me at least call the store?”
“Call. Then come upstairs.”
By the time she reached the phone, punched in the numbers and glanced over her shoulder, he was gone. Seconds later she heard the elevator rising. Watching the car go up, she shook her head in bemusement, wondering if it was eagerness or his desire to give her privacy that had made him go.
Her conversation with Starla took several minutes. Her assistant reassured her that everything was fine at the store, that, of course, they could lock up without “the boss.” More interested in the meeting with Detective Pruitt, the younger woman asked countless questions. As for canceling her date with Roger, she sounded frustrated by the man’s lack of reaction.
“He just said ‘I see’ and hung up on me,” she reported, exasperated. “If he thinks I’m lying about having to work, all he has to do is walk down this way and see I’m still here.”
For her part, Willa didn’t like his reaction at all. She had Starla promise to ask one of the guards on night shift to be sure to keep an eye on all the staff as they left the building. “And see that he’s nearby when you go to your car, too. Promise?”
Not only did her assistant comply, but she added that she would be spending the night at her parents’ house. She explained that she’d already been in touch with them and they would be expecting her. “I just don’t feel comfortable going back to the apartment alone, knowing he’s headed there, too.”
Much relieved, Willa gave her Zach’s number, warning her not to share it with anyone, and also Detective Pruitt’s at home, in case of an emergency. She ended the call a short time later, confident that she couldn’t have done more if she was at the store herself.
As she climbed the stairs, she drew out the pins holding her long hair in a French twist, only then realizing how the formal style had been adding to the tension building at the base of her neck. It felt wonderful to shake her hair free, and she was smiling as she reached the doorway of Zach’s bedroom.
“Stop there.”
Already in bed, he sat against the pillows and headboard, the sheet pulled up to his hips. The welcome in his eyes and the intent sent a tingling warmth through her body.
“What?” she asked softly.
“I just want to look at you.”
“What a coincidence.” For him, she combed her fingers through her hair, lifting it off her shoulders before shaking it into a less tame style. “I like to look at you, too.”
“The call go okay?”
“Everything’s fine.” She removed the waist-length strand of gold and pearls, laying it and the pins on the counter to her left. Suddenly she realized that neither of them had eaten in hours. “Hungry?”
“Starved.”
“Want me to make us something?”
“Later. Unbutton the dress.”
She did, slowly. Then she let it hang open, knowing he could catch glimpses of the matching lingerie she wore beneath as she released the fastenings on her cuffs. When she finished, she eased the dress off her shoulders, slipped it down her arms and laid it neatly over the chair on her right.
With a smile tugging at her mouth, she murmured, “More?”
He sighed. “That would be nice.”
Next, she hooked her thumbs into the elastic waist of her half-slip and pushed it over her hips. She bent at the waist, knowing it would give him an optimum view of her lace demibra, and as the slip puddled around her feet, she stepped out of the satin ring and gracefully picked it up.
“Pretty, isn’t it?” she murmured, setting the garment over the dress.
“Pretty lethal. Would you mind turning around?”
Laughing throatily, she did a slow pirouette, knowing what it would do to him to see the minimum of lace that made up her briefs and the garter that held up her lace-edged stockings. He’d opened the drapes on her left just enough for the afternoon light to peek through the sheers and illuminate her fair skin and the rich blue hues in her lingerie. “Okay?”
He shook his head. “I think you’d better come here.”
She let the pull of his gaze draw her, stepping out of her heels in the last second before kneeling on the bed. Tossing her hair over one shoulder, she approached him on all fours like a stalking cat. She understood what he wanted, the escape and release from the darkness and fears that constantly pulled him into the shadows. He needed play. Fantasy.
“What seems to be the problem?” she purred.
“You. You were too far away.”
“Is this better?” she asked, straddling him, but staying up on her knees.
“Much.” He hooked an arm around her waist and buried his face between her breasts, only to moan as he nuzzled her. “How can you smell more delicious than you look?”
“All you’re smelling is me and vanilla cream soap.”
“Must be the combination.” He traced the décolletage of her bra with his lips. “Because until now I never had this craving for sweets.”
“Interesting. Still—” she moistened her lips as his breath seared through the lace and made her nipple tauten and ache “—you don’t want to draw any hasty conclusions.”
“You’re right. I should take my time and make sure.”
He did, opening his mouth over her, while he cupped and caressed her with his hand. Willa watched, finding that it was as seductive as feeling, to see the contrast of his romantically dark hair teasing her pale skin, the working of the muscles in his cheeks as he explored and caressed her, his strong fingers restless yet worshiping. As he bestowed the same attention on her other breast, he released the front closure of her bra. Willa leaned closer, slid her fingers into his hair and stroked her pelvis against his muscular chest.
She smiled, not surprised at the deep-throated rumble that rose in his throat, and arched back when he began trailing a path of steamy kisses and love bites down her body. He encouraged her by shifting his hold to her hips. Bent like a bow, she felt her bra slip down her arms, then sighed as he slowly released the first garter and suspensefully moved on to the other three.
“Whispers,” he murmured against her taut body.
“Hmm?”
“I’d forgotten the wonderful sounds between a man and woman. The whispers of lace against cotton…male skin against female skin…metal against metal,” he added smiling as he slipped hooks from eyes and finally removed the garter belt. Tossing it aside, he suddenly rolled her beneath him. “Do you hear it? Perfect orchestral synergy. Listen.”
He drew his hand down her body igniting a current of awareness that made her breath catch
when he reached the lace between her thighs.
“That’s the most beautiful sound of all. Your pleasure.”
With his back to the only light entering the shadow-filled room, he looked threatening, invincible as he loomed over her.
But it wasn’t his physical size and power alone that made Willa’s heart begin thudding with an unexpected panic. It was the mysterious, new strength she sensed thriving and building inside him. The strength that even when crippled and beaten had made it possible for him to survive through all he had. The same strength that now appeared as concentration and confidence in his eyes, and would soon become breathtaking demand and sensitivity in his touch. The strength that was evolving a violently angry, achingly brooding man into a devastatingly tender and generous lover, a caring man.
Suddenly Willa realized the magnitude of what she’d done. She was as responsible for creating this Zachary Denton as if she’d breathed the breath of life into him, as if she’d followed him to the edge of hell and fought Satan himself for his soul. Oh, yes, she knew why she was afraid.
No longer was this about sex and passion, nor did it bear even a faint similarity to any law of compassion she thought she’d ascribed to. It was about tomorrow, and all the tomorrows after that. It was about surrender and vulnerability. It was about dreams and fate…and destiny. Theirs.
She shut her eyes against the truth so poignant and clear, against the sharp pain that stabbed her heart. It was too much to hope that he missed it.
“What’s wrong?”
She couldn’t tell him.
To her amazement he murmured, “I understand,” and stroked his cheek against her thigh.
The man was too much. Didn’t he see? Already he was too much for her. “You tried to warn me. I thought I was listening.”
“You’re suddenly afraid of it all, the power of what’s happening between us. The depth of it. Me.”
She refused to cry because it wasn’t fair to him, but she couldn’t keep the fear out of her voice. “I don’t want to fall in love with you,” she whispered. “I can’t afford to feel that much again. I thought I was as strong as you. Stronger. I thought I could survive this. But you…this…it’s devouring me.”
It was a terrible honesty. It would have hurt any weaker man. But to her amazement Zach simply raised himself above her and framed her face in his hands.
“You have to.”
“Zach…”
“You pulled me out of the darkness. Now I belong to you. And you belong to me.”
Just as if he’d chiseled the words on a stone tablet, he made them the truth with his kiss, absorbing her cry of protest and willing her to accept his heart in return. She couldn’t have explained it any other way. And realizing she couldn’t deny the truth, either, she wrapped her arms around him and clung fast.
This time he was the one to lead the way from darkness and terror, and the ride was breathtaking. An escape to freedom, she thought at one point as he moved down the bed again to finish undressing her.
She reveled in the clean freshness of the cool air buffeting her bared body. Then came a different pleasure as Zach began to cocoon her in his heat, inflaming her with his hands and mouth, until he had her writhing against the already twisted bedding, feverish in anticipation. The instant she felt his breath on her thigh, hers locked in her throat. Then as he whispered hoarse words of encouragement and adoration, he closed his mouth over her, and raced her to a release she thought impossible.
She hadn’t begun to recover, wasn’t sure she would ever regain control of her body again when he rolled onto his back and drew her over him. She thought she was exhausted, drained, and yet the moment she looked into his eyes, heard him whisper, “Willa,” like a prayer, she knew she wanted him inside her as badly as he wanted to be there.
The sensations were strong, almost painful as she sheathed him. He felt it, too; she saw it in the veins swelling at his temples and along his neck. Then, his hold on her hips bruising, he showed her what he wanted.
The pace and energy turned her still-quaking body into a mass of excruciating need. With a sob aching in her throat, she gave him the wild ride that drove him deeper and deeper into her. At the very instant she knew she would tear apart, a hoarse cry ripped from him and she felt his pulsating release echo through her. Or was it hers again? Dazed and totally depleted, she slumped against him. And long after he wrapped his arms tightly around her, his body continued to spasm in hers, hers around his.
It didn’t surprise Zach that they slept. They’d needed the emotional break as much as the physical one. But what did come as a stunning revelation as he opened his eyes and read the illuminated numbers on the night-table clock, was the hour.
“Past nine o’clock. Do you believe it?”
He stretched and turned on the light to consider Willa. She still lay on top of him and even tousled and squinting, looked heartbreakingly lovely to him.
“I believe it. It was the comfortable blanket I had,” he teased, running a finger down her model-straight nose. But remembering the relentless and compelling urgency with which he’d driven them both, he sobered. “You okay, sweetheart?” He loved how tenderness made her eyes shimmer.
“Mmm. Despite my shaky start, I think I’ll make it. But,” she added, sitting up, “only if I find something to eat. I’m starving.”
With a speed and energy that exhausted him all over again, as well as pinched his ego, she began stretching, and then rummaged through the sheets for her things. Greedy, he caught her wrist and tugged her back down.
“Where’s the fire, fair maiden?”
She laughed softly. “It’s been over twelve hours since we ate. Aren’t you hungry?”
“I’m not sure. Looking at you makes me forget.”
The smile died and Willa hid her face in the mat of hair covering his chest. “Zach…you can say the most beautiful things. What you said to Detective Pruitt about me…? I cherish that, too.”
“You make them easy to say.” He stroked her cheek as she sat up again, but the reminder of Pruitt cast an unignorable shadow over the joy they’d been discovering with each other.
Why hadn’t they heard from the cop?
Studying him, Willa asked, “Did I actually hear Detective Pruitt tell us that he was going to talk to Judith tonight?”
“He damn well should,” Zach muttered, scowling. “We’ve done everything but hand her to him on a platter.”
“I wish he would call.” She gave him a sympathetic look. “You haven’t made much progress writing today, have you?”
She couldn’t know what an understatement she’d made. But rather than admit that, he sat up to press a kiss to her forehead. “You think I’m going to complain about that after what we shared?”
Knowing if she continued to look at him like that, he was going to keep her in bed for the rest of the night, he sighed. “Maybe you’d better see if there’s anything edible in either of the refrigerators.”
“I know we have eggs and bacon left from what I brought over this morning,” she told him, slipping off the bed and heading for the bathroom. “So we can always have another omelet. Oh, blast.” She whirled around. “Zach, can I borrow a shirt until morning?”
Her naturalness and beauty made his mouth go dry. “Nope,” he barely managed, and had to swallow. “In fact, I think you should come back to bed.”
Murmuring her thoughts about insatiable men, she went to his walk-in closet and came out barely wearing a blue dress shirt. It, like the suits it matched, hadn’t been touched in ages. The thing definitely looked better on her.
“Okay,” he said, changing his mind, “you can borrow that one—under the condition you don’t button it.”
She flicked the tails at him as she disappeared into the bathroom, and Zach slumped back against the pillows feeling much the same heady emotions he had when he’d downed his first beer. Only with Willa’s help, the high could last a whole bunch longer.
Sweet heaven, I could get used to
this.
The phone rang, wiping off the dreamy grin he knew was on his face, and he reached for the cordless unit beside him.
It was Pruitt. And the detective wasted no time in getting to the point. “You two okay over there?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Your ex-wife is dead…and both Sachs and Elias are nowhere to be found.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
She’d heard the phone, but fought the urge to dash out and find out who was calling. Besides, she knew…and suddenly she wasn’t sure she wanted to know what he had to say.
Instead, she took her time freshening up. Zach needed the privacy, she told herself.
But minutes later, as she faced herself in the mirror and buttoned his shirt, she also had to face what she was doing. She hadn’t rushed out because she wasn’t ready to leave this oasis she and Zach had found for a few blissful hours.
Something had happened. She could feel that, too. Would it end everything?
As soon as she opened the door and saw him sitting on the edge of the bed with the phone in his hands, the fear vanished. She rushed to him and sank to the carpet between his knees. “What?” she whispered, taking the handset from him. She placed it on the table without taking her eyes off his dazed face. “What’s happened?”
“Judith is dead. He strangled her.”
Willa gripped his hands, but she didn’t make any empty expressions of sympathy. They both knew that unlike the people Judith had hurt, she’d deserved her fate. On behalf of the innocent, Willa asked, “Which one?”
“They don’t know yet. They can’t locate either Elias or Sacks.”
Why couldn’t they? This was Vilary, for pity’s sake, not New York City! She didn’t resist when Zach drew her into his arms. Whether he was offering his strength or asking for her comfort, it felt good. “They’ll find him,” she said for both of their benefits.
“Yeah. But will it be soon enough?”
They couldn’t afford to think like that. She struggled to focus on what could be explained. “When did they find Judith?”
Watching for Willa Page 19
