The Fall of Shane MacKade

by Nora Roberts

  “We could make it personal.” He glanced over his shoulder, saw that the pool table was free. “You up for a bet?”

  “Depends on the type of bet.”

  “How about a game of pool, a friendly wager?”

  “Pool?” Her brows drew together. “I don’t know the rules.”

  Even better, he thought. “I’ll explain them. You’re supposed to be a quick study. Anybody smart enough to have a bunch of initials after their name should be able to learn a simple game.”

  “All right. What’s the bet?”

  “I win, we go out to my truck and neck. I’m really hankering for a taste of you.”

  She took a slow breath, made sure her eyes stayed cool. “And if I win?”

  “What’s your pleasure?”

  She considered, then smiled. “When I move my equipment over to the farm, you’ll help me with my project, on a purely professional level.”

  “Sure.” With the confidence of a veteran hustler, he rose and led her over to the table. “Since you’re a beginner, I’ll spot you two balls.”

  “That’s generous,” she said, without having a clue whether it was or not.

  Being a fair man, and one who rarely lost at this particular game, he explained the procedure carefully. That also gave him the opportunity to snuggle up behind her, his mouth at her ear as he gave her instructions on how to hold and use the cue.

  “You want control,” he told her, sniffing her hair. “But you don’t want to force it. Keep the stroke smooth.”

  She tried to ignore the fact that her bottom was snug against him and, following his guiding hands, struck the cue ball.

  “Nice,” he murmured. “You’ve got good form. And great ears.” He nipped at one before she straightened. But when she turned, rather than backing away, he set his hands comfortably on her hips. “Why don’t we pretend we played and just go neck?”

  “A bet’s a bet. Back off, farm boy.”

  “I can wait,” he said cheerfully. He could already imagine wrapping himself around her and steaming up the windows in the truck. “You want to break?”

  “I’ll leave that to you.” She stepped away, chalked her cue as he did.

  The rules were simple enough, she mused. You were either solid or striped, depending on which type of ball you managed to sink first. Then you just kept sinking them, avoiding the black eight ball. If you hit that in before the rest were dispatched—unless you struck it with another ball first—you lost.

  Otherwise, whoever sank all their balls first, then the eight, won.

  She watched Shane lean over the table, long legs, long arms, big hands. The look of him distracted her enough that she didn’t see how he broke the triangle of balls, but she did see the results. Three balls thumped into pockets, and he called solids.

  Lips pursed, she studied his technique, the speed and direction of balls rolling over the green felt. She’d seen the game played, of course. There was a billiard table in the country club where her parents had a membership. But she’d never paid much attention.

  It was obviously simple geometry and applied physics, she decided. Quick calculations, a steady hand and a good eye were all that was required.

  Shane pocketed another two balls before he glanced at her. Her brow was furrowed, her head cocked. It was interesting to watch her think, he mused. It would be even more interesting to watch her feel. But it wasn’t quite fair to run the table on her when she hadn’t even had a chance to shoot.

  To balance the scales a bit, he attempted a nearly impossible shot. He nearly made it, but his ball kissed the corner of the pocket and rolled clear.

  “You’re up, Doc.”

  He moved around the table to help her with her stance, but she shrugged him away. “I’d rather do it myself.”

  “Fine.” He smiled at her with affection, and superiority. “You should go for the one with the yellow stripe. It’s a clean shot into the side pocket.”

  “I see it.” Muttering to herself, she leaned over the table, took careful aim, squinting a bit to keep the balls in focus, and sent it in.

  “Nice.” Genuinely pleased, he walked back to their table to fetch the beer. “You even left your cue ball in good position for the next shot. If you—”

  She lifted her head, aimed a bland look in his direction. “Do you mind?”

  “Hey.” He lifted a hand, palm out. “Just trying to help. You go on ahead.”

  He did cluck his tongue a bit as she set up for a bank shot. Couldn’t the woman see her three ball was clear? He lifted his beer to hide his grin. At this rate, he was going to have her exactly where he wanted in five minutes.

  Then his mouth dropped open. She banked the ball against the side and sent it at a clean angle into the corner pocket. She didn’t so much as smile, never glanced up, but went directly back to work.

  A few customers roused themselves to wander over to watch, and to kibitz. They might have been as invisible as her ghosts.

  She played systematically, pausing only briefly between shots, with her brows knit and her eyes unfocused, as she circled the table. He forgot the beer that was dangling from his fingers, suffered the elbow nudges and comments from onlookers as she quickly, quietly, and without a hitch, cleaned house.

  To add insult to injury, she used one of his own balls, the one he could—and should—have sent home when he was feeling sorry for her, to knock the eight ball into the pocket and trounce him at his own game.

  Lips pursed, she straightened, scanned the table. “Is that it?”

  There were hoots of laughter. Several men patted her shoulder and offered to buy her a beer. Shane merely propped his cue on the table.

  “Is this how you worked your way through college? Hustling pool?”

  Flushed with success now that the work was done, she beamed at him. “No, I had numerous scholarships, and a generous college fund. I’ve never played pool before in my life.”

  “I’ll be damned.” He dipped his hands in his pockets, studying her. “You ran the table. That wasn’t luck, beginner’s or otherwise.”

  “No, it wasn’t. It was science. The game is based on angles and velocity, isn’t it?” Delighted with the fresh knowledge, she ran a hand through her hair. “Want to play again? I could spot you two balls this time.”

  He started to swear, but couldn’t resist the laugh. “What the hell! We’ll go for two out of three.”

  Chapter 7

  “So we played pool.” Rebecca was busily adjusting one of her cameras in Shane’s kitchen while Regan looked on. “He’s really very good. We ended up closing the place down.”

  Regan waited a moment, tugged her ear as if to clear it. “You played pool—at Duff’s.”

  “Uh-huh. We were just going to play one game, then it was two out of three, and three out of five, and so forth. It’s great fun. But I couldn’t let all those men buy me beers. I’d have been flat on my face.”

  “Men were buying you beer.”

  “Well, they wanted to, but I’m not much of a drinker.” Lips pursed, Rebecca stepped back to check the positioning. “Shane was awfully good-natured about it all. A lot of people get annoyed when you beat them at their own game.”

  “Excuse me.” Regan held up a hand. “You beat Shane—that’s Shane MacKade—at pool.”

  “Seven out of ten—I think. Do you know how to work this coffeemaker?”

  Leave the woman alone for a few days and look what she gets into, Regan thought. “She can’t make coffee, but she can beat Shane at pool. The only person I’ve ever known to beat Shane is Rafe—and nobody beats Rafe.”

  “Bet I could.” Smug, Rebecca flashed a grin. “I’m a natural. Charlie Dodd said so.”

  “Charlie Dodd?” Measuring out coffee, Regan laughed. “You hung out with Charlie Dodd and the boys at Duff’s, playing pool? What in the world were you doing there?”

  “Celebrating Miranda’s birth. Anyway, since I won the bet, Shane has to help me with my project. He’s not terribly happy
about it. He has a definite block about anything supernatural.”

  Curiouser and curiouser, Regan mused. “One minor detail.”

  “Hmm?”

  “What if you’d lost the bet?”

  “I’d have necked with him in his truck.”

  Regan splashed the water she’d been pouring into the coffeemaker all over the counter. “Good Lord, Rebecca, what has happened to you?”

  A smile ghosting around her mouth, Rebecca looked dreamily out the window. “I might have enjoyed it.”

  “I’ve no doubt you would have.” After blowing out a breath, Regan mopped up the spill and started again. “Honey, I don’t want to interfere in your life, but Shane… He’s very smooth with women—and he doesn’t tend to take relationships seriously.”

  Rebecca caught herself dreaming, and stopped. “I know. Don’t worry about me. I’ve been sheltered and secluded, but I’m not stupid.” She leaned over to coo at the baby napping in his carrier. “I think I’m handling Shane very well, all in all. I may have an affair with him.”

  “You may have an affair with him,” Regan repeated slowly. “Am I having some sort of out-of-body experience?”

  “I hope you’ll give me all the details, if you are.”

  Regan rubbed a hand over her face, told herself to be rational. But it was Rebecca, she thought, who was always rational. “You may have an affair, with Shane. That’s Shane MacKade. My brother-in-law.”

  “Um-hmm…” Unable to resist, Rebecca skimmed a fingertip over Jason’s soft, round cheek. “I’m still considering it. But he’s very attractive, and, I’m sure, very skilled.” The fingertip wasn’t enough, so she bent to touch her lips lightly to the same lovely spot. “If I’m going to have an affair, it should be with someone I like, respect and have some affection for, don’t you agree?”

  “Well, yes, in the general scheme of things, but…”

  Rebecca straightened and grinned. “And if he’s gorgeous and clever in bed, so much the better. A terrific face and body aren’t everything, of course, but they are a nice bonus. I’d theorize that the stronger the physical attraction, the better the sex.”

  The coffeepot was gurgling away before Regan found the words. “Rebecca, making love with a man isn’t an experiment, or a science project.”

  “In a way it is.” Then she laughed and crossed over to take Regan by the shoulders. There seemed to be no way to explain, even to Regan, what it was like to feel this way. Free and able and attractive. “Stop worrying about me, Mama. I’m all grown up now.”

  “Yes, obviously.”

  “I want to explore possibilities, Regan. I’ve done what I was told, what was expected of me, for so long. Forever. I need to do what I want.” With a little sigh, she took a turn around the kitchen. “That’s what this is all about. Why do you think I chose the paranormal as a hobby? A first-year psych student could figure it out. All of my life has been so abnormal, and at the same time so tediously normal. I was abnormal.”

  “That’s not true.” Regan’s voice was sharp and annoyed, and made Rebecca smile.

  “You always did stand up for me, even against myself. But it is true. It’s not normal for a seven-year-old to do calculus, Regan, or to be able to discuss the political ramifications of the Crimean War with historians, in French. I’m not even sure what normal behavior is for a seven-year-old, except in theory, because I never was one.”

  Before Regan could speak, she shook her head and hurried on. “I was pushed into everything so young. You can’t know what it’s like to go to school year-round, year after year. Even when I was at home, there were tutors and projects, assignments, and before I knew it my whole life was study, work, lecture.” She lifted her hands, let them fall. “Earn a degree, earn another, then go home alone.”

  “I didn’t know you were so unhappy,” Regan murmured.

  “I’ve been miserable all my life.” Rebecca closed her eyes. “Oh, that sounds so pathetic. It’s not fair, I suppose. I’ve had tremendous advantages. Education, money, respect, opportunities. But advantages can trap you, Regan. Just as disadvantages can. It seems petty to complain about them, but I am. Now I’m doing something about it, finally.” With a kind of triumph, she drew in a deep, greedy breath. “I’m doing something no one expects from me, something to give my stuffy, straight-arrow colleagues a marvelous chance to gossip. And something that fascinates me.”

  “I’m all for it.” But Regan was worried as she opened cupboards for mugs. “I think it’s wonderful that you’ve taken time for yourself, that you have an interest in something most people consider out of the ordinary.”

  Rebecca accepted the mug of coffee. “But?”

  “But Shane doesn’t come under the heading of Hobby. He’s the sweetest man I know, but he could hurt you.”

  Rebecca mulled it over as she sipped. “It’s a possibility. But even that would be an experience. I’ve never been close enough to a man to be hurt by one.”

  She moved over to the window to look out. She could see him, in the field, riding a tractor. Just as she’d imagined. No, it wasn’t a tractor, she remembered. A baler. He’d be making hay.

  “I love looking at him,” she murmured.

  “None of them are hard on the eyes,” Regan commented as she joined Rebecca at the window. “And none of them are easy on the heart.” She laid a hand on Rebecca’s shoulder. “Just be careful.”

  But Rebecca felt she’d been careful too long already.

  She couldn’t even cook. Shane had never known anyone who was incapable of doing more at a stove than heating up a can of soup. And even that, for Rebecca, was a project of monumental proportions.

  He didn’t mind her being there. He’d talked himself into that. He liked her company, was certain he would eventually charm her into bed, but he hated her reasons for moving in.

  Her equipment was everywhere—in the kitchen, the living room, in the guest room. He couldn’t walk through his own house without facing a camera.

  It baffled him that an obviously intelligent woman actually believed she was going to take videos of ghosts.

  Still, there were some advantages. If he cooked, she cheerfully did the clearing-up. And it wasn’t a hardship to come in from the fields or the barn and find her at the kitchen table, making her notes on her little laptop computer.

  She claimed she felt most at home in the kitchen—though she didn’t know a skillet from a saucepan—so she spent most of her time there.

  He’d gotten through the first night, though it was true that he’d done a great deal of tossing and turning at the idea that she was just down the hall. And if he’d been gritty-eyed and cranky the next morning, he’d worked it off by the time he finished the milking and came in to cook breakfast.

  And she came down for breakfast, he reflected. Though she didn’t eat much—barely, in his opinion, enough to sustain life. But she drank coffee, shared the morning paper with him, asked questions. Lord, the woman was full of questions.

  Still, it was pleasant to have company over the first meal of the day. Someone who looked good, smelled good, had something to say for herself. The problem was, he found himself thinking about how she had looked, had smelled, what she had said, when he went out to work.

  He couldn’t remember another woman hanging in his mind quite so long, or quite so strongly. That was something that could worry a man, if he let it.

  Shane MacKade didn’t like to worry. And he wasn’t used to thinking about a woman who didn’t seem to be giving him the same amount of attention.

  It was simply a matter of adjustment—or so he told himself. She was a guest in his home now, and a man didn’t take advantage of a guest. Which was why he wanted her out again as soon as possible—so that he could.

  And if he just didn’t think overmuch about how pretty she looked, tapping away at her keyboard, those little round glasses perched on her nose, the eyes behind them dark with concentration, her long, narrow feet crossed neatly at the ankles, he didn’t suff
er.

  But, damn it, how was he supposed to not think about it?

  When he banged a pot for the third time, Rebecca tipped down her glasses and peered at him over them. “Shane, I don’t want you to feel that you have to cook for me.”

  “You’re not going to do it,” he muttered.

  “I can dial the telephone. Why don’t I order something and have it delivered?”

  He turned then, his eyes bland. “You’re not in New York now, sweetie. Nobody delivers out here.”

  “Oh.” She let out a little sigh, took off her glasses. There was tension radiating from him. Then again, there was always something radiating from him. He was the most…alive, she decided…man she’d ever come across.

  And right now he seemed terribly tense. Probably a cow problem. Sympathetic, she rose to go over and rub his shoulders. “You’ve had a rough one. It must be tiring working in the fields like that, hours on end, then dealing with the stock.”

  “It’s easier on a decent night’s sleep,” he said through gritted teeth. Her bony hands were only tensing muscles that already ached.

  “You’re awfully tight. Why don’t you sit down? I’ll open a can of something, make sandwiches.”

  “I don’t want a sandwich.”

  “It’s the best I can do.”

  He spun around, caught her. “I want you.”

  Her heart lurched, did a quick, nervous jig in her throat before she managed to swallow it. “Yes, I believe we’ve established that.” She didn’t gulp audibly, didn’t tremble noticeably. The temper in his eyes was easier to face than the passion beneath it. “You also agreed to a professional atmosphere.”

  “I know what I agreed to.” His eyes, green and stormy, bored into hers. “I don’t have to like it.”

  “No, you don’t. Has it occurred to you that you’re angry because I’m not reacting in the manner you’re accustomed to having women react?”

  “We’re not talking about women. We’re talking about you. You and me, here and now.”

  “We’re talking about sex,” she answered, and gave his arms a squeeze before backing away. “And I’m considering it.”

  “Considering it?” He could have throttled her. “What, like considering whether to have chicken or fish for dinner? Nobody’s that cold-blooded.”

  “It’s sensible. Deal with it.” With a jerk of her shoulder, she went back to the table and sat.

  Deal with it? he thought, boiling over. “Is that right? So you’ll let me know when you’ve finished considering and come to a conclusion?”

  “You’ll be the first,” she told him, and slipped on her glasses.

  He battled back temper. It was a hard war to win, for a MacKade. Cold-blooded reason was what she understood, he decided. So he’d give it to her, and hoped she choked on it.

  “You know, now that I’m considering, it occurs to me that you may be a little cool for my taste, and definitely bony. I like a warmer, softer sort.”

  She felt her jaw clench, then deliberately relaxed it. “A good try, farm boy. Uninterest, insult and challenge. I’m sure it works a good percentage of the time.” She made herself smile at him. “But you’re going to have to do better with me.”

  “Right now, I’ll do better without you.” Since he obviously wasn’t going to win where he was, he strode to the door and out. All he needed was to decide which one of his brothers to go pick a fight with.

  Rebecca let out a long breath and took her glasses off so that she could rub her hands over her face. That, she thought, had been a close one. How could she have known that the barely controlled fury, the frazzled desire, that absolutely innate arrogance of his, would be so exciting, so endearing?

  She’d almost given in. The instant he whirled around and grabbed her, she might have thrown any lingering doubts to the winds. But…

  There would have been no way to control any part of the situation, with him in that volatile mood. She would have been taken. And as glorious as that sounded in theory, she was afraid of the fact.

  If he only knew she was waiting now only to settle her own nerves and to be certain he was calm. She knew that when Shane was calm, and amused, he would be a delightful and tender lover. Edgy and needy, he’d be demanding, impatient.

  So they would both wait until the moment was right.

  She sat back, her eyes closed. It was peaceful now, with that whirlwind Shane could create around him gone. She missed it, a little, even as she reveled in the quiet. She found it so easy to relax here, in this room, in this house. Even the creak of the boards settling at night was comforting.