by Bonnie Vanak
What is going on here?
Chapter 16
His mother called while they were driving back to the inn. Richard Kimball had returned an hour after they’d left, rushed upstairs and abruptly left.
“He was in such a hurry he left his camera. I’ll have to ship it back to him,” Fiona said.
“Hold off on that.” The camera could prove useful if Kimball had taken photos of the house.
Next he called the listing agent for the Jacobs house. When he finished that conversation, he hung up, even more puzzled.
“She didn’t find my wallet.”
Meg glanced at his seat. “Probably because you’re sitting on it. You have a cute butt, by the way.”
He grinned. “Thank you, ma’am. I appreciate you squeezing it so tight last night.”
Loving the becoming blush on her face, he wished they’d had more time together. More time, under less stressful circumstances.
“The agent did tell me if I left my wallet there, someone might have taken it. She called the sheriff because someone broke in last night and removed all the security cameras from the house.”
A little gasp from Meg. “Did they take anything else?”
“Just the cameras. And the monitors and recording tape.”
It was a good thing he’d disabled the cameras before they broke in last night. “Damn,” he muttered, remembering.
“What?”
“I disabled the security cameras by spraying them with black paint, but if Kimball took the video recorder, we’re on it from our more legitimate visit with the Realtor.”
“Is that a problem?”
“Maybe.” He didn’t like that Kimball now had proof they were there. He didn’t like that he didn’t know why Kimball was interested in the cameras. If the man worked for Prescott, why would he take all the cameras? Was he looking for the evidence that Randall Jacobs had poisoned Meg’s grandmother?
His instincts warned that evidence was too convenient. Why the hell would Jacobs hide evidence that would point to him as the one who killed Letticia Taylor? Why wouldn’t Jacobs simply destroy it?
She abruptly changed the subject. “How’s Betsy doing?”
Cooper’s chest tightened. “Not good. I asked Mom to call the vet while we were gone. She didn’t seem interested in food this morning. And she was lying down.”
“Oh no.” Meg placed her palm on her arm. “I’m sorry, Cooper. I hope she’ll be all right.”
The light pressure of her touch felt damn good, made him feel less burdened. “I hope so, too, but we have to prepare for the worst. She’s thirty years old. Pretty old for a horse.”
When they arrived at the inn, the vet’s pickup was parked in the drive. Meg climbed out of the truck and headed straight for the barn.
Hanging back for a moment, Cooper studied his lover. Late-afternoon sunlight gleamed in her hair, picking out the honey highlights. All natural. Cooper grinned, shoving his hands into his pockets. He knew this for certain now.
He knew several things about Meg now. Far from a snobby socialite, Meg was warm and caring, and her love of animals equaled his own.
Man, he was getting in deep. What had started out as an assignment had deepened into something real and lasting. But where did Meg fit in with his family? They needed him.
Family came first, always. He felt the familiar rise of grief threaten to swallow him and pushed it back. Hadn’t cried once over Brie’s death; he refused to do so now. He hung back, admiring the gentle sway of Meg’s rounded hips, the confident stride. Every bone in his body raged to take her hand, march her back to the cottage and make fierce love to her. And that was his problem. He wanted her so badly he shook with the need of it. Meg didn’t need an out-of-control man who reminded her of her ex. She needed gentle loving. Someone to cherish her, hold her tight, whisper how beautiful she looked with those sleepy green eyes and her kiss-swollen mouth, branded from his touch...
Not for a night or two, but a lifetime.
Sex had always been a relief for him, a way to blow off the pressure-cooker keg that boiled when he was downrange or returned from a grueling op. He wanted right now, here’s the bed, plenty of mind-blowing orgasms and then see-ya-later. The women in his life had been like fireflies, sparkling and pretty, but gone the next day.
Settling down for apple pie and soft brown hair spread over his pillow in the morning and a gold band around his finger, no way. He had plenty of apple pie baked by his mom and he disliked wearing rings, thank you very much.
She’s not from your world. She’s not going to stay around, and neither are you, he grimly reminded himself. He needed an icy dose of reality on his ever-throbbing groin, which seemed to think only of how delicious Meg tasted beneath his mouth and how her breasts felt soft and inviting against him.
Once all this was over and Meg was cleared, she would drift back to Palm Beach and five-star hotels and her Jimmy’s shoes world. And he’d remain here, wondering what the hell to do with his life once the inn got straightened out and he was no longer needed.
The realization hit him like a kick to the shins. Cooper leaned against the fence. For years, the adrenaline thrills kept his heart pumping, his purpose steady. And then a bullet killed his sister and Cooper’s black-and-white view of the world. Family came first.
But Meg was right. Farm life bored him. What the hell was he going to do? He couldn’t see packing up and leaving for a security job that would drag his sorry butt out of the country, away from his family. Hadn’t he done that enough over the years?
For a few moments, he stared at the sweep of horse pasture and Adela kicking up her heels as she trotted around the fence. It was good to see the rescue finally relaxing and enjoying herself.
Cooper knew he was avoiding the inevitable. Just couldn’t face it. Please, not yet.
But he knew if Betsy’s time had come, he had to do the right thing. He, Brie and Derek made a promise long ago when they were kids and their parents gave them their first horses.
Never let the animal suffer, even if it means you have to suffer the heartache of losing them.
Meg emerged from the barn and beckoned to him. Cooper stiffened his spine. It never got easier. And this was going to be the most difficult case of all...
Tears shimmered in Meg’s eyes when she greeted him at the barn door. Cooper squeezed her shoulder. “I know.”
No words needed. He went into the barn to his sister, brother and mother, who looked stricken. Coop hugged his sister and mother.
“Figured you wanted alone time with her. We’ll be outside,” Derek said, his voice husky. “Don’t blame yourself, Coop. You did your best.”
He knew what Betsy meant to Brie. Hell, they all did.
Cooper watched his brother escort Fiona and Aimee, and then he stepped into the stall. A dull roar sounded in his ears as the vet droned on. “Old age.”
“Not eating.”
“She’s in pain.”
Kneeling down, he stroked Betsy. “It will be easy. Don’t worry. I always promised Brie I would take good care of you.”
And he’d kept that promise, even to the point of ending Betsy’s suffering.
It was over with quickly. When the vet had administered the medicine and taken away the horse for cremation, Cooper sat on the same storage bin where he’d kept Brie’s tack. All her riding gear, and her battered straw cowboy hat she’d loved to wear while riding Betsy.
Meg stood by the stall, looking at him.
“I need to be alone a moment,” he told her.
She didn’t leave. When he finally raised his dull gaze to hers, he saw tears swimming in her green eyes.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Cooper.”
Then there were no words, just her outstretched arms. She sat on the storage box b
eside him and hugged him, refusing to let go, refusing to leave, even as he tried to pull away from her grip.
Cooper still could not release all he’d felt over the past six months. Pain at his sister’s death and the unfairness of losing her forever.
Pain at failing to keep her safe and keep her favorite horse alive and thriving.
“You did the right thing,” Meg whispered, stroking his head. “Maybe she never rallied because she knew Brie was waiting for her, and she longed to be with her. They’re together now at last, riding in heaven.”
Digging into his jeans, he withdrew the angel pin Brie gave him long ago. Cooper palmed it. “Brie gave this to me before my first deployment. Said it would keep me safe. I’ve kept it since.”
“You loved your sister very much.” Meg closed her hand over his. “You don’t need a token to remind you of her love, what she meant to you. She’s walking beside you, always.”
She touched his chest. “She is here with you, in your heart.”
Cooper tucked away the little angel. Couldn’t let it go, not now, not when he felt brittle, ready to shatter. Meg hugged him, her arms tight around him, her cheek soft against his.
Around another woman, he’d never get this close while feeling so sorrowful. But Meg was safe, like a warm fire on a bitter cold night, a cocoon of warm understanding.
Finally he lifted his head. No tears from him, but Meg’s eyes were wet.
Smiling, she dug a blue bandanna out of her jacket. “I brought this. I always brought what Gran said was a ‘crying towel’ when one of my pets had to be put down. It didn’t matter how long we’d had them, how sick they were. It hurt each time, like losing a friend.”
He took the bandanna from her and gently mopped away her tears.
They walked outside and paused by the fence, watching the horses. Cooper shoved his hands into his jacket pockets.
“I feel like part of my purpose is gone now.”
Adela trotted over and poked her nose over the railing.
Meg stroked the mare’s neck. “Here’s your purpose, Cooper. She needs you, much as your mom and Aimee do. She needs your devotion and your love. She’s had so little of any kind of love.”
Despite his intense grief, he managed a smile. “How did you get so smart, Princess?”
Meg looked troubled. “Because I know what it feels like to be loved and love in return, and then be so desperate for it that you’ll almost do anything to get it back from someone, even if they are incapable of loving you back.”
Cooper framed her heart-shaped face with his big, work-scarred hands. And then he kissed her. Couldn’t help it, she looked so lost and sad, he wanted to kiss away all her sorrow, chase away his own grief and replace it with something pure and solid and pleasurable.
His blood surged hot and thick at the touch of her soft mouth, and how pliant it became beneath the hard pressure of his own. Cooper took her into his arms and deepened the kiss, needing more to ease the grief that had held him prisoner for a long time.
He hadn’t ever felt this way about a woman, and every bone in his body said she was the kind of woman you kept in your life.
Hell, he wasn’t sure what tomorrow would bring, but for now, he wanted her badly. And judging from the way she kissed him back, she wanted him equally.
When he finally broke the kiss, he stroked a thumb down her cheek. “Thanks,” he said, his voice husky.
She smiled.
Arm in arm, they went back to the cottage. Meg said nothing, but led him into the bedroom. He felt the need clawing at him, the desire to take all the sorrow and push it aside for a little while.
And he wasn’t certain if she was ready for the kind of passion he intended to show her.
* * *
Meg knew what he wanted.
Wildness flashed in his eyes. No tenderness. She didn’t want any, either.
This was about forging new bonds of the flesh and forgetting. Not slow, gentle lovemaking.
Buttons snapped off with explosive violence as he tore off his shirt. Breathing heavily, she stared, then her eager hands fumbled with her own clothing. Cooper cupped the back of her head, tunneling his fingers through her thick hair. His mouth devoured hers, tongue dipping past her seeking lips, to claim. The passionate kiss hinted of ownership and desperate need, and she responded with need of her own.
Cooper’s hand dropped to his jeans; she heard the rasp of a zipper. Meg wriggled out of her jeans and tore off her panties, arching against him as he lifted her against the bedroom wall.
Nudging her legs open, he stood between them and cupped her naked bottom, breathing deeply and staring into her eyes.
Meg bit back a moan as he positioned himself strategically. He took her with one upward thrust. The hot, hard length of him pushed inside her, nearly to her womb. Meg cried out and arched upward. He rained tiny kisses over her face, her eyelids, her mouth. This was what she’d missed in her life: real undiluted passion, two bodies melding as one, merging together, chasing away the loneliness inside her. Here was where she belonged.
Her arms slid around his neck as she drew him closer, seeking his mouth. He kissed her and began moving again, his naked flesh slapping against hers. Never had she felt anything this primitive, the warm smoothness of his member sliding in and out of her, her leaden limbs trembling as she wrapped them around his moving hips.
Shifting, he angled his thrusts, sliding against the most sensitive part of her. Meg’s fingers dug into his shoulders.
Feeling her climax approach, she bent her head and bit him on the shoulder, teeth sinking into the hard muscles past his shirt. Cooper pushed into her so hard she gasped. She flew apart, convulsing around him. Cooper looked at her, veins bulging in his neck, his nostrils flared as ragged breaths filled the air. He groaned as his body convulsed and he pumped deep within her.
Trembling, their breathing ragged, they remained motionless a minute. Then he let her down. She slid down the wall in a boneless, shaking heap. With a hungry look she watched him smooth back his disheveled hair.
And then he glanced down with a look of dismay. “Oh, hell,” he said mildly. “I forgot the condom.” Darkness flared in his eyes as he swept her with a possessive look.
Faint disappointment filled her. “It’s okay. We’re safe.”
She picked up her jeans with a shaky hand. “I couldn’t see bringing a defenseless baby into the world, not when Prescott didn’t care about anyone else except himself. He didn’t care about making me happy or ask me what I wanted, so I made sure I couldn’t get pregnant...at least while I was with him.”
Wanting only to forget that bitter memory, she turned. Cooper turned her back to him. He placed a gentle hand on her chin, forcing her to look up at him.
“That’s the past, Meg. I care about you. I want to know what makes you happy.”
Cupping her face, he kissed her, his mouth sweet and subtle as his lips slid over hers. The jeans dropped to the floor as she kissed him back, wanting to believe him.
Wanting to know that for the first time in her life, someone else truly did care about what she wanted, not what she could give them.
Chapter 17
The next day was a Saturday, and with Aimee off from school, Cooper suggested a picnic to a local waterfall he and Aimee loved. Meg readily agreed.
Cooper had started to incorporate her into his family life, a life she always longed to have. She finally felt as if she belonged to someone and had found a niche in the world.
All these years of ignoring her own needs in favor of what someone else wanted had evaporated beneath the power of his kisses. Cooper had showered her with devout attention. A blush heated her cheeks as she remembered exactly how much attention he’d paid, especially to certain erogenous zones.
Humming, she went into the kitchen
and began making chicken salad for the picnic. Chocolate chip cookies sounded perfect as well, a sweet snack as a reward for a long hike.
Meg carefully mixed the ingredients, making sure to not even touch the jar containing snack nuts Fiona had set aside for guests. Aimee was highly allergic to peanuts. Cooper had nicknamed his kid sister Peanut so no one in the family would ever forget it.
Jenny stopped by for a minute and shyly offered to help. She sent the housekeeper into the pantry to get the oil needed for the batter, instructing her to make certain it was corn oil. Meg wondered about the housekeeper. With her timid manner and look of a frightened rabbit, she couldn’t see Jenny as the one who had torn up her sweater. Or done anything else malicious.
The woman’s gaze fell upon the healing bruises on Meg’s arm. “Can I ask you something?”
Meg studied the recipe. “Sure.”
“Did someone...hurt you?”
Startled, she glanced up into the woman’s solemn face. “Why do you ask?”
Jenny turned red.
“Hello there!”
One of the guests, Cathy Murphy, poked her head into the kitchen. Jenny glanced at the woman, mumbled about finishing cleaning the upstairs and left.
Cathy glanced at the housekeeper as she walked away. “Sorry to disturb, but I’m looking for Mrs. Johnson. I need to speak with her about us staying one more night.”
The woman’s twitched. “What are you baking?”
“Chocolate chip cookies for a picnic with Cooper and Aimee.” Meg dried her hands on a towel. “I believe Fiona is in her office. Want me to get her?”
“Would you mind terribly?”
She found Fiona, left her with Cathy and returned to baking. Meg finished making the batter and then checked the oven. As she greased the cookie sheet, frantic barking sounded outside.
She looked at the window. The cookie sheet dropped to the counter with a loud clatter.
Racing out the kitchen door, she ran toward the pasture, where Sophie raced alongside the fence, barking at her friend Adela. Aimee was nowhere in sight.
