“Good, because I’d hate to have her smack me come morning because she thought I’d seduced her little darling.” He maneuvered Rachel over to the couch until the back of her knees connected with the edge, and she dropped down onto the cushions.
She laughed as her skirt flew up to reveal a lacy froth of petticoats, a hint of stocking and the tantalizing glimpse of a slender foot in a black leather shoe.
“It seems like the TV is turning you into a twenty-first century woman. So tell me what kind of shows you’ve been watching to turn you into this wild child,” Jared demanded, leaning over her with a hand planted on the cushions on either side of her hips.
Rachel didn’t look overwhelmed or act wary at his closeness. She placed her hand against the soft cotton of his shirt as if she couldn’t stop herself from touching him, which was true. She didn’t think she ever wanted to stop touching him.
“I gather they are called soap operas.”
Jared laughed. “Soap operas, huh? I’ve heard they’re pretty hot. If I’d known they were giving out these kind of ideas I would have started watching them a long time ago. But I’m happier that you’ve been watching them.” He reached for, and found, the pins holding up the remnants of her loose knot, and tossed them to the floor. Her hair immediately spilled down her back in loose waves. She blushed hotly. He paused, fearing the worst. Was she having second thoughts about him? He sure hoped not, because he didn’t want to even think about losing her. But he didn’t want to move so fast she’d feel uncomfortable with him. “What’s wrong?”
“In my day…” she hesitated, as if she needed to choose her words carefully “…only a woman’s husband saw her with her hair down.”
Jared combed his fingers through the heavy mass, watching the strands wrap around his fingers as if they were alive. He saw glints of gold and bronze among the toffee-brown color.
“I can understand why. There’s something so sexy about a woman with her long hair hanging loose like this,” he mused.
She blushed again, but didn’t discourage him from playing with a stray curl.
Jared suddenly had a vision of a naked Rachel with only her hair, and him, wrapped around her.
“You don’t think I’m too forward?” she asked in a hesitant whisper.
“Trust me, you’re not even close.” He kissed the curve of her ear. He liked the idea of them stretched out on the couch with her lying in his arms. Any other time when he’d cuddled with a woman like this, it usually ended up with both of them tearing each other’s clothes off because they didn’t want to take the time to make it to the bed. “In fact, feel free to be as forward as you’d like. Do whatever you want with me. Kissing me the way you did was very—” he punctuated the word with a light kiss “—very nice. You can kiss me all you want. Feel free to take advantage of me.”
He fervently hoped she would, but he sensed she wasn’t ready to go much further. Plus he was enjoying seeing this new side to her.
There had to be a way to keep her in human form all the time.
For a man who didn’t believe in commitment, he was putting on a good act—owning a home, having truck payments, a dog and even a woman who had become an important part of his life. The downside was that he only had Rachel after sundown. She disappeared at sunrise and he only had memories.
A complication like that could put a strain on any relationship.
Rachel hadn’t smiled and laughed so much for more than one hundred years. She knew if she thought about it, she would realize it was even longer than that. Caleb only laughed when he’d drunk too much whiskey or humiliated someone. She hadn’t laughed for the pure joy of it until now.
She wanted to thank Jared for making her aware of her surroundings. In a way, he made her feel alive.
The hours of daylight no longer saddened her as they used to. She still hated that she had no form, but now she had something, someone, to watch during those hours. Even seeing Jared’s distant figure when she hovered by a window was better than what she’d had before. Sometimes a tiny voice whispered inside her head that he could still turn out to be like Caleb, but she banished the thoughts the moment they cropped up. Maybe she was too eager to have someone care for her the way Jared seemed to. Maybe she was being foolish. But for once, she was going to take what was offered, and perhaps her life would be restored to her.
She knew Maya enjoyed having household tasks to perform again. The older woman learned to use the washing and drying machines that Jared brought to the house. Rachel smiled at Maya’s scorn for the latter, saying that clothing drying in the fresh air was much better, but she admitted it would be nice for cold and rainy days.
Rachel wondered if they would still be here when winter came.
For more years than she could count she had prayed to be released from her hellish nonexistence. She understood why Maya prayed to her ancient gods on Rachel’s behalf. The woman had hated Caleb and felt Rachel’s death was senseless. At first, Rachel had railed against the fate that would have her existing in such a way for so many years, but her feelings about her situation had changed when Jared moved into the house.
Now she prayed she would find the key and have the chance to become fully mortal again. Maya had said that with the key would come the treasure. For a long time, Rachel had thought the two were one and the same, until Maya explained they were separate yet connected. Rachel still didn’t fully understand what the older woman meant, but she knew Maya would never do anything to hurt her. Rachel could only put her trust in Maya’s words and believe that everything would turn out all right.
She knew that Caleb distrusted banks and once said he’d made sure he would have funds even if the bank failed. Over the years she had seen treasure hunters go through the house and barn in search of booty, but no one found anything but an occasional skunk or field mouse.
She didn’t wish for the treasure for herself. She hadn’t grown up with much money and never felt the need for it. She sensed Jared had spent a great deal of cash working on the house and property, and he would probably need even more for future work. She also had an idea that he didn’t make a lot as a police detective, though he never acted as if money meant very much to him.
Jared had helped her so much. She wanted the chance to help him. She wanted to give him something. She only wished she could give him herself.
“What are you thinking about?” His whisper brought her back to the present. She was curled up on the couch with his arms wrapped around her. Not once had he groped her breast in a rough manner or suggested they go upstairs. He seemed content for them to just sit here in this manner. He had called it cuddling. She liked the description.
“I am thinking about how nice this is,” she said softly, moving just enough to rest her cheek against the hollow between his collarbone and shoulder. She frowned when she felt a faint ridge under the fabric. She used her fingertips to trace what she knew was a scar. How had she missed this the times she’d seen him with his shirt off? How had he been hurt?
“Knife wound,” he explained, guessing her unspoken question. “Kid on too much speed.”
“He was fast?”
Jared chuckled. “Speed’s also a pretty potent drug. Very nasty stuff.”
She slid the flat of her hand down and along his side, where she felt the imprint of a puckered wound.
“Gunshot. The suspect didn’t want to be taken into custody,” he continued. “He tried to tell us he had no idea why he was being arrested. The trouble was, the gun he used to shoot me was the same gun he’d used to shoot his boss. That was a slam-dunk conviction.”
“It appears guns are just as deadly now as they were in my time,” she murmured, saddened at the idea that he’d suffered pain. She’d seen him bruised and battered, but she saw this as different. Beatings had a better chance of healing than a bullet wound or knife wound, which could easily become infected. She was relieved he had survived these life-threatening injuries.
“The lieutenant prefers I wear a vest
, but I don’t like the way they feel, so I only wear one when absolutely necessary.”
“A vest?” She pictured one of the fancy embroidered vests Caleb wore under his suit coats.
Jared chuckled. “Another newfangled gadget,” he teased. “It’s a special garment made of dense material that can stop most bullets. Unless you get shot in the head. Then you’re out of luck,” he said with dark humor.
Rachel looked up. Her eyes were shadowed with concern. “You lead a dangerous life.”
“I do pretty good,” he said lightly. “Of course, I didn’t realize that idiots who might be running a meth lab would want to tangle with me.”
Her forehead crinkled in thought. “What is a meth lab?”
“Meth is methamphetamine. It’s a very bad drug that too many people are hooked on.” He continued combing her hair with his fingers. “It speeds up your heart rate, alters your perception of the world around you, makes you do really stupid things. And it kills,” he said softly. “Too many lives are destroyed by it.”
“Then you will have to stop them, won’t you?” she said, with confidence in his abilities.
Jared threw back his head and laughed. “Sweetheart, if only it was that easy.” He hugged her tightly. “But thank you for thinking I can do it.”
Rachel thought of the lights she’d seen in the distance. And then there were the far off voices she’d sometimes heard in the middle of the night. She shivered inwardly as she recalled the men who’d come to burn down the barn. And worried they might return and do worse. She thought back to that night men had left a beaten and battered Jared in the house.
If that hadn’t happened, and she hadn’t felt the need to care for him, would she have shown herself to him or would she have made sure to hide herself away all these nights?
Before, it had been easy to keep her presence in the house a secret. She never worried about the teenagers, who only stayed for a few hours at most. But Jared lived here.
She was relieved her secret was out. And even more relieved that Jared finally understood.
But she still had a small worry that refused to go away. She felt conflicted, because each morning she turned into something that essentially didn’t exist. When the sun peeked over the distant mountains she felt a disorienting sensation flow through her body, right before she was sucked into a nebulous state that allowed her to see the world as if from a blurred distance.
She had a sudden vision of Jared with silver hair, lines carved deep beside his sharp, intelligent eyes. She knew his laughter would still be rich and full. The time would come when he would walk slower, but his mind would never falter. She knew it as surely as if she’d seen into the future.
Except she also saw herself standing near the older Jared Stryker, looking the same as she did tonight.
Unthinking, she buried her face in the curve of his neck. She inhaled the musky scent of shower-fresh skin and Jared himself.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, sensing her distress. His arms tightened around her.
She shook her head. She didn’t want to tell him that she was afraid of the future. Afraid of losing him.
“You smell nice,” she told him.
“Rachel, what’s wrong?” He shook her gently.
She lifted herself up and placed her fingertips against his lips. “I am sure that Maya left us an excellent dinner, but could we sit here for a little while longer?” Her eyes pleaded with him not to ask her again.
“Sure.” She breathed a sigh of relief at his reply. “We can sit here just as long as you like.”
Rachel rested her head back against his chest, listening to the slow, steady thump of his heartbeat.
If she didn’t allow her imagination to run away with her, she wouldn’t imagine the steady heartbeat was counting down his days.
Jared knew that Rachel was lying to him, but he couldn’t imagine why. Something had upset her, but she refused to tell him what or even admit that she was upset.
He found in talking to her that, while her education had ended more than a hundred years ago, she was eager to learn as much as possible, and picked up new concepts very quickly. She was fascinated with television and enjoyed the books he chose for her at the library. She had told him that during the nights after he went to bed, she would curl up on the couch in the family room with a book or take it to her room to read. Until she began the first history book Jared left her, she had no idea she had so much to catch up on. So many historical events had happened, and there were so many new words for her to learn.
She told him it wasn’t just her clothing that was out of date. She herself was an antique.
She asked Jared about things she couldn’t understand. Some, he readily explained. Others, he had trouble talking about, and muttered that they were women’s issues. He teased her, saying her mind was a sponge that absorbed everything.
Later in the evening Rachel warmed up their dinner. They carried their plates into the family room, where she sat on the couch while Jared sat on the floor near her feet. With the evening still warm he’d kept the French doors open to allow fresh air into the house.
Rachel looked down at Jared. She hadn’t realized she could develop such deep feelings for a man, thought Caleb had forced all emotion out of her. She’d felt dead inside for the longest time, and now she felt incredibly alive. She was perceptive enough to know that what she felt for Jared had nothing to do with gratitude. Her feelings were much more complex, touching a chord deep within her.
Except she knew she was powerless to pursue such feelings, which had her blushing every time she thought about them.
She couldn’t recall any happy memories from her marriage to Caleb. It had been as if once he’d attained his goal of making her his wife, he didn’t need to bother to charm her any longer. All he’d cared to do was remind her of her place and tell her that she was nothing more than a possession, just like the horses in his corrals.
She recalled the morning of her wedding day, when Mrs. Davis had come into her bedroom to speak with her privately. Her adoptive mother didn’t look at her once as she explained that men had disgusting urges that women could not understand and shouldn’t bother to try. Rachel should just accept it was something women were created to bear. And if God saw her as a willing and obedient wife, she would be blessed with children.
Obviously, Rachel had been neither willing nor obedient enough. Instead, she had been punished.
Jared looked up at her. “What are you thinking?” His grin made her insides flip-flop. “You can’t tell me you’re not thinking of something because I can hear the gears whirring inside your head.”
“I do not have gears in my head,” she said primly, but a small smile escaped. “I was just thinking how nice this is, sitting here together. What were you thinking of?”
He looked down at his empty plate. “I was wondering how much of my beer Maya used in this stew.” He shook his head in disbelief. “Using perfectly good beer in food.”
“She always believed that beer or whiskey was good when cooking meat.” Rachel hesitantly touched the collar of his shirt, hoping he wouldn’t notice she’d given in to temptation. If he did, he gave no indication.
“So she did the cooking even back then?” he asked.
Rachel hesitated. “No, Caleb preferred someone else to do the cooking.”
Jared’s jaw hardened at the inference that the man didn’t consider Maya’s heritage good enough for him. He wondered why Caleb had allowed the woman in the house if he had felt that way. “I get what you mean.”
Rachel shook her head. Caleb’s notions of what was proper and what wasn’t had always bothered her.
Rachel shook her head. “I think Caleb did not want Maya doing any of the cooking because deep down he was afraid she might poison him. He knew she hated him.”
“Then why did he keep her on?”
“Because he could,” she said simply. “Caleb didn’t believe in explaining his reasons for anything. I know Maya’s son wor
ked in the barn. He was able to tame horses others were afraid to approach. And I think, in the beginning of our marriage, Caleb was willing to do anything to keep me happy, which was how I was able to keep her as my personal maid.”
“The guy was scum,” Jared muttered, standing up. He took her plate out of her hands. “You sit here. I’ll load the dishwasher.”
“It is easier to wash the dishes than put them in that machine,” she protested.
“Not the way I see it.” He disappeared into the kitchen. Harley was fast on his heels in hopes of snagging some leftovers.
Rachel got off the couch and walked over to the open French doors, making sure to stand a few inches back from them. She could hear the sounds of the night and inhale the heady fragrance of jasmine coming from the bushes Jared had planted for her. For a moment she fancied that her world was the way it should be. The way she wanted it to be. That she was a normal woman living in a normal world.
Without thinking, she stepped forward with the intention of going outside. The moment her foot reached the doorway she felt the barrier.
For the briefest of seconds furious thoughts flew through her head. It’s not fair! Jared made this for me! I should be able to do this for him!
But she was still rudely pushed backward. This time she didn’t fall, but her feet skidded a little. She threw her hands out to the sides to help keep her balance.
Tears pricked her eyelids. She could have sworn that the resistance in the doorway had been less than she’d encountered before.
Or perhaps it was wishful thinking on her part.
“Rachel?” A hand touched her shoulder. She looked up.
“I tried to go outside,” she murmured. “Is that not silly? After all these years, that I would still try something like that?”
Jared wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close against him.
“There’s got to be a way,” he murmured, cupping the back of her neck with his palm as if warming her skin with his touch. He gently rubbed her neck. “We’ll find it, Rachel. I promise we will.”
After the Midnight Hour Page 17
