And then he turned and pulled her down in the swing beside him, never releasing the pressure of the hand cupping her shoulder. She laid her head against his shoulder and pulled her feet up into the swing. For the longest time the only sound in the night was the sound of tree frogs, crickets, and the long slow squeak of the swing.
“Sam.”
“Andrea.”
“You first,” Andrea said, touching her lips to the side of his neck as he squeezed her tightly for a moment.
“All right, but saying what I want to say is hard. And I want to do it at a time when you and I are still half sensible.”
“That may never be.” She adjusted her body so that her knees were resting on his thighs and her fingertips against his chest.
“I just want you to know that for the first time I can ever remember in my life, I’m happy. If I never feel this way again, I will have felt pure happiness once. And it’s because of Buck, and Otis, and Arcadia with its warm, funny people. But most of all, Chief Andrea Fleming, it’s because of you. Thank you.”
He watched as she looked up at him with tears glistening in her eyes. He knew he’d surprised her and that she didn’t know how to put what she was feeling into words. There was a great joy inside him and a great pain as well. For he’d only just now understood how empty his life had been and how badly he wanted it filled with the woman he held in his arms. And he was so afraid he’d blow it and scare her away.
“Sam, are you absolutely sure we can’t do wicked things in this swing?” She wanted never to move, think about tomorrow, or consider not having this man’s arms around her. She knew he had reason to have dark places inside him, and she wanted to fill them with light.
When his lips captured hers, she gave in to the delicious sensations he was creating with his tongue. He moved slowly, examining, touching every part of her mouth and face and neck, closing her eyes with feathery kisses that teased her into a state of churning desire. He was in no hurry, and he refused to allow her to increase the pace.
He pressed his body against her, the throbbing hardness of him setting her on fire anew. Beneath her shirt his fingertips were gently pulling at the taut, aroused nipples, trailing spots of fire across the top of her stomach and as far as he could go beneath the band of her skirt.
With a low whimpering sound she arched herself shamelessly against him, both arms wrapped tightly around him as he kissed her hungrily, desperately.
She shivered and forced herself to hold back the torrent of desire that desperately sought release. When he finally broke away, they were both breathing hard, and she could see the dark intensity furrowing the lines in his forehead. What was happening to Andrea was not what she had expected. She was caught up in desire, yes, but so much more.
And then he stood, lifting her as he rose, and carried her inside. The screen door slammed behind him.
“Tell me that you want me, Andrea.” His voice was so hoarse that it was barely audible. “I want to hear you say the words.”
He allowed her legs to slide down to the floor as he kissed her again and again, rocking back and forth against her until her body screamed for release and she couldn’t refuse any more.
“Yes. Yes, Sam. I don’t ever want you to go.”
All gentleness and patience was gone. They ripped the clothes from their bodies, and he lifted her, entering her as they fell back across the bed. Over and over he plunged into her, withdrew himself, assaulted her body with his lips and his hands, built her to a frenzy of need she’d never dreamed of, whispering little words that her mind recorded but did not separate into conscious thoughts. Then suddenly the explosion rocked her, and she cried out as she felt tears streaming down her face. He caught her buttocks with his hands and held her against him as he stiffened and moaned in his release.
He fell across her, and she lay beneath him, listening to the sounds of his breathing. Miraculously he was still inside her, as though her body had taken hold and refused to let him go. The sensation of oneness was like nothing she’d ever experienced, and when he made a motion to lift himself away, she reached out and held him there.
“I’m too heavy,” he protested, planting his lips on the tip of her ear.
“No. I like the way it feels, with you still inside me. Don’t move.”
And they lay ike that, joined still in the after-glow of something neither could explain. When he finally raised his head, she felt the sudden cooling of her body where the air-conditioning evaporated the perspiration. She shivered and lifted her head, pulling his lips down to hers.
There was a new gentleness, an awe, in his touch. “Swings are wonderful for lemonade and cookies, darlin’, but this—this is awesome.” He trailed his fingertips down her neck and caught her breast in his rough hand, creating an instant rippling effect.
She stretched and spread herself across him, yawning as she began to arrange their bodies for comfort.
“What are you doing, Andrea?”
“Just being close to you, Sam. I don’t want this night ever to end. I want to keep touching you, to be able to reach out and know you’re there.” She burrowed closer, sliding her leg across his body and threading her fingertips through the hair on his chest.
“But, darlin’, what about Buck?”
“He won’t be home tonight, Sam. You can stay with me.”
“Andrea! What will … people say?”
“You’re worried about my reputation, Sam? Come on, this isn’t something new to you. How many times have you stopped off for a few months and found a woman ready to welcome you into her bed?” She wasn’t accusing him. She wanted him to know that she was prepared to accept this night for what it was, as long as he did the same thing.
“Do you think I keep score?”
“No. I think you’re just what you said, a good lover, and I want to keep the facts straight. Don’t you see, Sam? I know all this will end, and I can’t let myself believe in anything more. That’s a different kind of honesty.”
“What would you say, Andrea, if I asked you to marry me?”
After a long silence, Andrea switched the lamp on beside her bed and allowed her eyes to drink in the beauty of the man beside her. The light gave a soft glow to his dark skin, outlining every muscle and curve in his long legs and torso. His lower body was lightly matted with dark hair that grew more dense, drawing her eyes to that most masculine part of him, now throbbing to life beneath her gaze.
“You’d better hurry and decide, Stormy. I can’t lie here much longer and look at you without touching you.”
She switched out the light. “Then don’t,” she whispered, and opened her arms. A moment later he was holding her so close that she couldn’t tell where she ended and he began. He moved over her, teasing her with his touches until she reached up and pulled him down to meet her arching body.
And then it was too late. Her mind used her body to block out the answer she didn’t have to give. All she was certain of was the present, and loving Sam. She didn’t want this night to end. Even if everybody in Arcadia knew Sam had stayed all night, she’d know that she’d been the most exquisitely loved fallen woman who ever wore a police uniform. “Oh, Sam,” she whispered, “I think that I want you to teach me—teach me how to run wild with you.”
She didn’t mean to fall asleep, but she did, waking to the feel of lips nuzzling her right breast. The lips moved around it, capturing the erect nipple greedily as if she were nursing a hungry child. For a moment she lay there enjoying the sensation, and then her own need to touch became too much, and she reached down, lifting his head to her lips.
She felt his callused fingertips trail up her leg, stopping at that part of her that had already melted in anticipation. How long had he been caressing her body before she woke? She was so ready that when he moved over her, she responded almost instantly.
“You’re wonderful,” she finally managed.
“You’re right,” he admitted lazily, kissing her ears, under her chin, and down her neck. �
�And better than toast anytime.”
“Toast? Good heavens, it is almost morning.” Her voice went wondrously soft. “We’ve practically spent the night together.”
“Now, don’t tell me you’ve never had a man hold you all night before.” There was a sudden difference in his voice, and she sensed that her answer was more important to the man beside her than he would have her know.
“No, I won’t tell you that, Sam. You know that I wasn’t a virgin. I’m sorry. I wish I had been. I wish it had been you … but it wasn’t.” She made a move to turn away, only to be caught in his arms in a hug so tight that she couldn’t breathe.
He kissed her until she relaxed and gave herself over to the security of his embrace. “Who hurt you, darlin’? Who made you think that you couldn’t trust anything you didn’t know?”
She hesitated a long time before answering. “I was twenty when I fell in love. It was my fault. He never promised me anything.”
“And he left you?”
“No, not exactly. He was a state patrolman, here in Arcadia temporarily. After six months he was transferred back to Atlanta. I followed him. He didn’t tell me. Oh, Sam, he was married all the time. His wife came to see me, and she was pregnant.”
“The son of—you should have killed him.”
“Oh, I wanted to. And I wanted to kill myself too. What I did was come back home where I belonged. Nobody ever knew but me—and now you.” There was a silence that seemed to go on to infinity. She’d never told anyone before, not even Buck.
The pain he felt for her was so deep that he almost couldn’t voice the words. “I’m sorry, Andrea.” Everything came clear now. No wonder she didn’t trust him. Every outsider who’d come into life had hurt her. He could understand her accepting him as some kind of one-night stand. She’d already had phony commitment. She couldn’t let herself believe him, and he couldn’t blame her.
But dammit, this was different. He was in love with her. After all this time, all the miles of wandering, he’d come to the one place where he could gladly spend the rest of his life—if he could make Andrea believe the truth.
It wouldn’t be easy, and he wasn’t sure he knew what to say. The pain and loneliness that had torn her apart had been so skillfully hidden that he wasn’t sure she knew how much they needed each other. Perhaps there were no words. Perhaps touching her gently, holding her close with his body would show her how he felt. He placed soft, sweet kisses across her face, catching the salty tears that rolled down her cheeks.
Sam caught her hand and turned her palm upright so that he could kiss the center, and then laid it across his heart so that she could gauge the depth of his feeling. No urgency directed his actions, only the silent promise of caring.
“Andrea?” Sam rolled over, turning her, capturing her body beneath his. In the darkness he traced the shape of her eyebrows, skimmed down her nose, and feathered his tongue across her collarbone. “I’m scared to death to say what I’m about to, and I’ll probably screw it up, but I love you, Stormy girl.”
“No!” Andrea tried to shove him away. His words took the breath out of her lungs, and she felt as if she were drowning. “No, don’t tell me that. I don’t want you to love me, Sam Farley. You can’t.”
“There’s not a whole lot I can do about it, darlin’. I didn’t set out to. It just sort of snuck up on me. To begin with, it seemed as if there were some kind of cloud that followed you everywhere you went, raining pure lust on me every time I got close to you.”
“Lust I can handle, Sam. I’m willing to admit, that same cloud is showering me with a healthy dose of the same thing. Otherwise, why would I let you spend the night when the whole town will have spread the news from here to the county seat by morning?”
His body was doing strange things as he felt the faint stirrings of movement beneath him. A stolen moment now and then wasn’t going to be enough for either of them, and sooner or later Andrea was going to believe it too.
“Andrea, I think you really ought to accept the fact that I’m going to stay here in Arcadia. I’m beginning to believe that it is possible to trust the people you live with. I’m going to make you trust me. But it’s more than that. You’re going to teach me how to belong.”
“But you don’t belong here, Sam. You think you trust me, but you don’t. If you did, you’d …” She couldn’t tell him that she knew he’d been arrested. She didn’t want his honesty now. She didn’t want to love Sam Farley.
“I’d tell you about having been in jail?”
She gasped. He must have been reading her mind. His fingertips were certainly reading her body, and she couldn’t tell whether her reaction was to the words or his touch.
“Yes,” she croaked hoarsely.
“I thought you probably knew about that. I was twenty, in the wrong place at the wrong time. It happened in a little town outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. A man pulled in, filled up with gas, and held up the service station. Another car came up, and the man ran out the back door and got away, on foot. I was hitchhiking—just passing through. One of those outsiders you talk about. They didn’t care about me, or that I was innocent.”
“Oh, Sam, I’m sorry. Sometimes good people do bad things. But all small towns aren’t bad.”
“I was broke, as usual, no way to post bail or hire a lawyer to prove I was innocent. I spent three months in jail. The attendant finally admitted that it wasn’t me, and the charges were eventually dropped. That was when I joined the marines.”
Andrea planted a kiss beneath Sam’s ear. “I feel so bad for you.”
“After I got out of the corps, I hit the road. My mother was sick. Construction was the only way I could make enough money to pay her bills. Besides, people on construction sites don’t care who you are.”
“I knew, and I’m so sorry, Sam.” Andrea whispered softly, running her fingers across his shoulder and down his chest to his nipple. She wanted to hold him, make things right. Reaching down, she kissed him, allowing herself to say with her lips what she couldn’t voice in words.
She moved across him until she was lying completely on top, then started to move up and down. Sam began to moan. He did none of the touching, simply allowed her to do what she wanted. And she wanted to make love to him, to take away the pain of his past. She didn’t know what would happen. But for one night, they’d belong to each other.
When she opened her eyes again, sunlight streamed across her bed, and Sam was gone. On his pillow was one red rose tied with a soft pink ribbon.
Nine
The fragrance of flowers touched the air for weeks after Sam had filled her house with balloons and her heart with love. Andrea smiled and stretched, awakening slowly to each morning saturated with memories of Sam.
For almost three weeks they’d been together for some time every day. This day was special, though, for today a fellow and his steady girl would attend the Fourth of July Founder’s Day Picnic. Sam was as excited as a child.
The phone rang. Sam.
“Hello.”
“Andrea, this is Lewis Kelly at the state-patrol headquarters over in Cottonboro. Hate to bother you today, since it’s the Fourth of July, but we need your help.”
Andrea left the dream she’d been floating through and came wide awake, sitting straight up in bed. “Good morning, Lewis. What can I do to help?”
“We’ve had a tip from the FBI that a stolen front-end loader is being moved down the interstate sometime today. It’s supposed to have been hidden somewhere in Meredith County. Now it’s headed for Miami and on to South America.”
“And you want me to go out and look for it?”
“No. We’ve been working with Ed Pinyon and Judge Thomas for the last month covering the county, but so far we haven’t found it. Can you and Buck cover the interstate between Cottonboro and Arcadia?”
Andrea took down the description of the equipment and alerted Buck. By the time she was dressed, Buck was on the phone telling Agnes that he and Andrea had business in Cotto
nboro and would keep in touch.
“Why did you tell her that?” Andrea asked as she pulled the car onto the highway.
“Well, if that equipment has been hidden around here and we haven’t seen it, it might be a good idea not to alert the culprit that we’re watching for it.”
“You mean you think somebody in Meredith County is involved?”
“I think there’s a good possibility.”
“But, Buck,” Andrea protested, “we know all these good people. We trust them. There can’t be a thief in Arcadia.”
“No matter how much you think you know somebody, Andy, you never really get inside their mind, and people do strange things sometimes under pressure.”
Good people. Sometimes good people do bad things. That’s what she’d told Sam when he’d told her about his arrest. Sam—she jerked her mind away from any thought of him. She couldn’t be distracted this morning.
For the next two hours they patrolled their section. “Not much traffic,” Buck observed as they reached the end of their assigned territory and made the turn back. “Guess folks are getting on over to Minor’s Lake to the picnic.”
It was after ten o’clock when Andrea heard the sirens. She and Buck had circled around to the south of Arcadia and had started back up the interstate, when flashing blue lights showed up in the distance. Andrea hit her own lights, and the gas pedal. The truck carrying the machinery wasn’t stopping. She quickly cut across the median and headed toward the hauler.
When the driver saw the police car coming straight for him, he hit the brakes and did a snake dance across the highway.
“Look out, Andrea, he’s lost it.”
Andrea hit the grassy median and whipped around the machine as it crashed into an abutment under the overpass with a metal-grinding thud. By the time she got her car turned around, the state patrol car in pursuit had stopped, and the officer was chasing the driver into the woods.
“Buck, you stay here and call the report in. I’ll help run down the driver.” Andrea unsnapped her gun and tore across the field in the direction of the officer.
Run Wild With Me Page 12
