by Karen Foley
She let him hold her for a minute before she pulled away. “What about you? Will Buck be upset that you took off like that today?”
“He probably doesn’t even know.”
“What if he finds out that you gave the blueprint to the Bureau of Mine Safety?”
“Don’t worry about me.”
He didn’t want to tell her that his job with the Black River Mines was just a cover. Or that until today, he hadn’t been able to figure out how Buck could be accessing the mines without anyone knowing. But thanks to Lacey, he finally knew.
Buck had done a good job concealing whatever illegal mining he was doing. The tunnels extended through the mountains for miles. Only someone involved in the scheme could pinpoint the precise location of the illegal activity. He wanted to tell Lacey the truth, but he’d maintain his secret until he had the irrefutable proof he needed.
* * *
DESPITE THE WARMTH of the evening, Lacey leaned into Cole and savored the heat and strength of his body. His fingers absently stroked her upper arm. Lacey thought she could easily spend every night just like this. But she knew that couldn’t happen.
Too soon, she would return home and Cole would remain in Black Stone Gap. Despite telling herself it was for the best, she found the thought left her feeling depressed. But she couldn’t stay in Kentucky. Even if she had the fortitude to accept what he did for a living, she had her own career to think about back in New England. She loved her job, and she was pretty sure she wouldn’t find anything similar in Kentucky.
“So what happens tomorrow?” she asked carefully. “You’ve just started a new job, and I still need to test STAR. How are you going to drive me to West Virginia if you’re working?”
He blew out a hard breath. “I’ll take care of it. Why don’t we plan on heading out on Wednesday morning?”
“I’m not sure. I’ll finish up with Carr and the others tomorrow, and then give my boss a call and see what he wants me to do. He has the final say.” She gave a soft laugh, and then groaned and covered her face with her hands. “I still can’t believe I stole that blueprint. You should have seen me—I felt like a spy stealing top secret documents. What if he had caught me in the act?”
Cole hugged her briefly. “He didn’t. He may still have no idea that the document is missing, and even when he does realize, I doubt he’ll suspect you.” He hesitated as if debating his next words. “I hope I’m wrong about the closed mines, but I don’t think I am. But I want you to know that not all mining operations are corrupt. Your GPS unit could still make a difference.”
“I know it will make a difference. What if I told you that I first became involved with StarPoint Technologies because of a miner?”
“I’d say that I’m trying very hard to suppress my jealousy.”
“There’s no need to be jealous. He died a long time ago.”
Cole sobered instantly. “I’m sorry. Tell me about him, and how you got involved in the GPS business.”
Lacey swallowed and looked down at her hands, wondering how much to share with him. She hadn’t talked about her father to anyone in years. Even her mother never spoke about him, as if the memories were still too painful. But a man like Cole would understand. She took a deep breath.
“My father was killed in a coal mining accident when I was eight years old. His body was never recovered.”
There was a shocked silence. “You’re kidding.”
“I wish I was.”
“Which mine was it?”
“The Spruce River mine in West Virginia. They lost eight men in a tunnel collapse. They survived the initial event and at first the owners were optimistic that they could rescue all the men. But after a week, when two more cave-ins occurred, they discontinued the rescue effort and sealed the mine. I can still remember…” She gave herself a mental shake, unwilling to dredge up those old memories. “Anyway, after that, my mom and I moved to New Hampshire and we’ve been there ever since.”
Cole shook his head, his expression one of dismay. “Wow. I can’t believe you lost your dad in that accident. I remember studying that disaster in school.”
“I still have nightmares sometimes,” she confessed. “About him being alive in the pitch-dark, knowing that nobody would be coming to save him.”
Cole’s arm tightened around her. “That’s why you prefer to keep the lights on.”
Lacey nodded. “Logically, I know that he couldn’t have survived, and that he was already gone when they stopped the rescue efforts, but sometimes at night…I wonder.”
“So you devoted your life to developing a tool that would prevent another tragedy.”
“Well, maybe not my life,” Lacey replied, “but the last five years, anyway. I was really hoping to field-test STAR while I was here in Black Stone Gap. Even though we’re developing the unit for NASA, I can’t help but think of all the other applications it could be used for.”
“I’ll make sure you get your unit tested,” Cole promised. “It won’t be here in Black Stone Gap, but you’ll have your test results.”
“I feel like my whole life has led to this,” she said. “If STAR can save even one miner’s life, then all the years of research and lab work will have been worth it.” She raised her eyes to his. “Maybe I’ll even be able to sleep without the light on.”
“Speaking of which, it’s been a long day.” Without giving her time to object, he stood up and pulled her to her feet. “Time for bed.”
The combination of cool sheets and warm, hard Cole sounded like the perfect antidote to the long day she’d spent worrying about him. She wanted nothing more than to feel his arms around her. She followed him to the loft area. Her room was only dimly lit from the hallway until Cole flipped on the small bedside lamp. In the soft light, his expression was inscrutable. Lacey stood by the bed and waited for him to touch her, to pull her close and slide his hands beneath the edge of her bathrobe and over her bare skin.
Instead, he leaned over the bed and held the blankets up. “C’mon,” he said. “In you go.”
Lacey was too surprised to protest. She didn’t even remove the robe. Obediently, she slid beneath the covers and watched as he pulled them over her, tucking them neatly at her sides.
“Aren’t you—”
“Try and get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.” He turned toward the door.
“Cole…”
“I’ll be downstairs if you need me. Get some rest.”
He left. He pulled the door almost completely shut behind him, leaving a crack of light to spill in from the hallway. Lacey lay still for a moment and wondered what had just happened. She had been so sure he was going to make love to her, or at the very least spend the night in the same bed with her, even if it was just to sleep.
With a small sigh, she shifted onto her side and bunched the pillow beneath her cheek and thought about the events of the day. Cole had driven all the way to Roanoke, Virginia and back. Of course he was exhausted. The man hadn’t gotten much sleep since he’d met her.
Tomorrow she would wrap up with the search-and-rescue team. They had their GPS units, and although she suspected they knew perfectly well how to use them, she’d agreed to spend one more day with them. On Wednesday, she and Cole would drive to West Virginia to test STAR. Lacey expected she would need two days to conduct the field test. She would stay in the area long enough to do the follow-up analysis, and then she would return home.
Home.
She thought about how, in the space of just a few short days, she’d begun to think of Cole’s house as home. He hadn’t actually asked her to stay in Kentucky, and she wasn’t sure what she would do even if he did. She’d never intended to stay. So why did she feel so let down because Cole had opted to sleep in a different room? And if she couldn’t get through one night without him, how in the world was she going to get through all the nights to come?
* * *
COLE STOOD IN the doorway of Lacey’s bedroom and watched her sleep. Her hair fanned out on
the pillow behind her, and she slept with her hands tucked beneath her cheek, like a child.
With a sigh, he looked down at the small glass he held in his hand, and then tossed back the remnants of the bourbon he’d been nursing. He told himself he should just go back downstairs and go to bed.
It had taken all his willpower not to climb into bed with her earlier that night. He’d just wanted to hold her; to reassure both her and himself that she was safe. But he knew from experience there was no such thing as just holding Lacey Delaney. It seemed whenever they touched something flared, hot and urgent. He had no illusions that if he climbed into that bed with her, he’d have to make love to her. He was incapable of keeping his hands off her. But at some point during the past several days, what he felt for Lacey Delaney had changed. Maybe in the beginning it had been about sex, but not anymore. He was falling for her, and falling hard. When she’d told him about her father, he’d been floored. He still had trouble getting his head around the fact that she came from a coal mining family. That her father had died in the tunnels. No wonder she was so determined to test the prototype.
He’d been shocked by the revelation of her background. Given her innate elegance and conservative nature, he’d been certain she came from wealth and privilege. At least, he amended silently, she was conservative outside the bedroom. The things she did to him when they were alone together completely blew his mind. She’d rocked his world in ways he couldn’t even comprehend. But she’d also forced him to face some hard truths of his own.
He’d come back to Black Stone Gap for just one reason—to shut down Buck’s mining operations. He held Buck personally responsible for the accident that had killed his friend, Drake Wilson, some five years earlier. He wanted answers. He needed to know why Drake had been working a part of the mines that should have been closed. Buck insisted that Drake had gone into the closed area without permission, but Cole had his doubts. And, of course, there was the part he himself had played in Drake’s death.
He rubbed a hand across his eyes, recalling the events of that day. Drake had been trapped in a small cavern as a result of a cave-in. Cole had been so certain his plan to drill a vertical shaft alongside the cavern, and then tunnel horizontally to where Drake was trapped, would work. Instead, the drilling had triggered another cave-in, and Drake had been killed.
After the initial investigations were over and Buck had been cleared of any wrongdoing, Cole had left Black Stone Gap. He hadn’t planned on coming back until he’d received a phone call from his former professor Stu Zollweg.
But meeting Lacey Delaney had never been part of the plan. As he watched her sleep, she murmured incoherently and then turned onto her stomach and kicked the blanket aside with one leg. At some point, she’d removed his bathrobe and it lay crumpled on the floor. By the light from the bedside lamp he could see her perfect rear, smooth and round beneath a pair of pale blue panties.
“Jesus,” he muttered, all thoughts of maintaining his distance completely gone. He turned to leave before he could act on his desire to join her, but was stopped short when he heard his name.
At first he thought he had imagined it. He looked back at the bed. Lacey had raised herself up on one elbow. Now she pushed her hair back from her face and peered sleepily at him.
“Cole?” Her voice was husky.
“Yeah, it’s me. I didn’t mean to wake you. Go back to sleep.”
“I was dreaming. Cole…” She sank back down against the pillows and extended a hand to him. “Come here.”
There was no mistaking her meaning, and Cole made a swift rationalization. He was, after all, just a man. No one could blame him for succumbing to such a sweet invitation. And it didn’t have to be about sex. He would just hold her. He could do that. Couldn’t he?
With a soft groan, he swiftly crossed the room, setting his empty glass down on the bedside table. He stood beside her, suddenly hesitant. She was all smooth, bare skin and tempting softness.
“Lacey…”
“Come here.”
He gave a soft, self-deprecating laugh. “I am so toast.” He wore a pair of loose pajama bottoms and nothing else, and the thin material tented over his arousal. He slid in beside her, gratified when she wrapped her arms around him and entwined her legs with his own. Her skin was warm and silky against his.
“I’m just going to hold you, okay?” His voice sounded gravelly with the effort it took to keep his rampant desire under control.
“Okay,” she agreed breathlessly, skating her lips along his collarbone, “just so long as you’re inside me while you’re doing that.”
“Lacey…” Her name came out on an agonized groan. “I’m trying to do the right thing here, and you’re killing me.”
She pulled back enough to search his face in the darkness. “Then do the right thing and make love to me.” She traced a finger around the whorl of his ear. “I wanted you to earlier. Why did you leave?”
Cole blew out his breath. “Trust me, it wasn’t easy. But you need to get some sleep, and I don’t want you to think that I’m only interested in sex.” Unable to help himself, he splayed his fingers against her back, feeling the thrust of her shoulder blades and the smooth bumps of her spine. She was both supple and soft, her skin like satin beneath his questing hand.
She made a soft murmuring sound of pleasure and arched against him, rubbing herself sensuously against his bare chest. “Mmm. You feel so good.” Her hands roamed across his back and traced a random path over bone and muscle until they encountered the fabric of his pants. The elastic waistband stretched easily beneath her questing fingers, and then her hands were inside, smoothing over his buttocks and grasping them, urging him closer. “You feel really good.”
Cole gave a laugh that sounded more like a groan. “Lacey, sweetheart, I’m not sure—”
“I am.” The words were whispered on a husky note, even as she slid one hand over his hip and around to the front, where his erection strained upward. She grasped him lightly, her fingers exploring the thick rise of his flesh. “Please, Cole…”
With a soft groan of defeat, he bent his head and pressed his lips to the tender skin beneath her ear. He slid his hand down her back to the sweet curve of her bottom, and cupped one cheek, kneading gently. “Okay,” he whispered, “but only because you insist and it would be rude for me to refuse.”
“Spoken like a true Southern gentleman.”
“I aim to please.”
“Then prove it.” Her voice was warm with laughter.
“With pleasure.” It became harder to speak as her hand began to stroke him, and his breathing grew more rapid. “Easy, baby. I’ve got something to prove, remember?”
She gave a soft laugh, and then her hands were pushing his pants down over his hips, freeing his arousal to bump enticingly against her stomach. She gasped when he kicked the fabric free of his legs and rose over her, pushing her gently back against the mattress.
“God, I want you,” he rasped. He searched her face, seeing desire and something else reflected in her eyes. Something he didn’t dare to identify. Hope flared inside him once more. He hesitated, wondering if he dared risk another rejection. He’d already told her he wanted more than just a temporary relationship. Maybe he’d do better to just take what she was willing to give him and bide his time.
She parted her legs beneath him and arched her hips, rubbing herself against him. He groaned and lowered his head to press searing kisses along her jaw and down the slender length of her throat. “It was all I could do not to come up here after you’d gone to bed. I want you so much, Lacey.”
Her arms drew him down closer and she rained soft, moist kisses over his face. “I want you, too.”
He lowered his head and nibbled gently at the corner of her mouth, then traced his tongue lightly along its contours. When she murmured her assent, he dipped his head lower and blazed a trail of molten kisses along the column of her neck and lower still to the fragile line of her collarbone.
He sli
d a finger beneath the slender strap of her bra and drew it down over her shoulder, pulling the lacy cup with it. He lifted his head and watched in utter fascination as her nipple contracted into a tight bud.
Glancing up at her face, he saw she was watching him through heavy-lidded eyes. Her lips were parted and her breath came unevenly. He smiled and then dipped his head, swirling his tongue around the hard nub, reveling in its texture. She gasped when he drew it into his mouth and suckled her. He cupped her other breast through the thin fabric of her bra, pinching the nipple until it stood tightly erect.
She was rolling her hips now, arching restlessly against him, and it was all he could do not to tear her panties from her and claim her; to plunge himself into her slick heat and make her his own. He slid a hand beneath the silky fabric. She was wet. He inserted first one finger into her tight depths, and then another, gratified when she moaned and thrust her hips against his palm.
“Oh, man,” he breathed against her breast, “I don’t think I can wait…” He reared back and dragged her panties down the length of her legs. “Here, roll over.”
“What?” Her voice was thick with pleasure.
“Roll over.”
“Okay.” She turned onto her stomach and gave him a seductive look. “Like this?”
“Well, actually more like this…” He raised her hips upward and shoved the pillows beneath her. “Yeah, just like that.”
He leaned back on his heels to admire her perfect rear in the moonlight, unable to resist smoothing his hands over her buttocks. She lay with her face against the mattress, and her hands curled into the sheets. He loved the way her slender back flared into the womanly curves of her hips, loved the way she responded when he nudged her thighs apart, affording him a clear view of her feminine center.
He stroked her from behind, first with his hand and then with the tip of his engorged shaft, while she clutched at the sheets and writhed against him. When she rose up on her elbows and looked back at him, he thought he’d never seen anything as erotic or beautiful.
