He frowned. “Why are those people looking this way?”
The waitress brought glasses of ice water and took their order for wine. After she had gone, Emily also looked at the watchers. She grinned. “They are checking out the local eye candy.”
Now that comment baffled him. “Eye candy?”
“The hunka-hunka.”
“What?”
“You, dear. They are checking you out.”
He blinked. “What for?”
Laughing, she replied, “You don’t realize how attractive you are, Drake, do you? You are one good-looking dude.”
Oddly, Drake felt his face flush, felt the heat spread from his neck up to his cheeks, and scowled in his embarrassment. “No, I am not. It’s not right to say things that aren’t true.”
The hostess brought their wine and departed, and then Emily said, “It’s true. You are cute, gorgeous, handsome, eye candy, whatever you want to call it. You are totally ripped, your face is like the Marlborough Man’s, and your eyes are to die for.”
“I don’t know half of what you’re saying, but it all sounds insulting.”
“It’s not, Drake,” she said, her smile fading. “If you don’t believe me, then see the admiration in their faces.”
Sliding his eyes toward the women as he took a drink from his wine, Drake saw they did indeed stare at him with expressions of appreciation. “It doesn’t matter,” he muttered.
“I like that in you,” she said. “Very attractive, and you don’t even know it.”
As they ate the delicious steaks, Drake talked with Emily about her past boyfriends, and not at all about Toombs.
“I never quite fell in love with them,” she admitted. “I liked them a lot, but neither of them ever did it for me.”
“Why not?”
She shrugged. “Both were self-centered; it was all about them. I wasn’t that important to them either, so I finally had enough. I kicked Eric to the curb two years ago, and Don not long before Toombs started to stalk me.”
“And you haven’t heard anything from them since?”
“No. Why?”
“Just making sure they aren’t behind Toombs and his activities.”
“I doubt it.” Emily cut another piece of steak. “They wouldn’t share the spotlight with the likes of him.”
Drake paid for their meal and, as the restaurant filled up with patrons, he led her out the door. He tried to scan the crowd as they passed through it, and once outside, he wouldn’t let Emily cross the parking lot until he saw no sign of Toombs.
She had parked facing out as she usually did, thus they quickly entered the flow of traffic on the street. “Thank you for dinner,” she began.
A car pulled up on Drake’s side of the Ford, immediately catching his attention.
Drake recognized Toombs instantly.
And the gun in his hand.
“Down,” Drake screamed, lunging across the console at Emily.
She, too, must have seen what Drake had, perhaps even at the same moment. Her foot slammed down on the brake, and Drake tumbled sideways into the dash. His ribs caught painfully on the shifter lever, and he heard the explosion of the gunshot a fraction of a second later.
He struggled to straighten up as Emily accelerated and spun the wheel to the left. Tossed around like a cork on a wave, Drake fought to get himself upright and sit in his seat again. He looked to his right but didn’t see Toombs or his car.
“You really should have your seatbelt on,” Emily commented, her tone conversational.
“Where is he?”
“Chasing us.”
Spinning his shoulders around, Drake saw the car behind them, Toombs leaning out of the window, the gun still in his hand. Emily grabbed her purse and tossed it at Drake. “My phone and the Glock are in there. Grab them both.”
Obeying her, Drake set the gun on the console, then found her phone.
“Call Clem,” she ordered. “Tell him what’s going on.”
Drake hit Clem’s name on the speed dial, but the phone rang on the other end until Clem’s voice invited him to leave a message. “He’s not there.”
“Then dial nine-one-one.”
Glancing out the window, Drake saw that Emily drove fast, speeding down one street and then another, trying to outrun Toombs. She veered in and out of slower traffic, but Toombs hugged their rear bumper like a parasite. He dialed the numbers she gave him, then Emily took the phone from him.
“My name is Emily Winslow,” she said calmly into the phone. “I am being pursued by a stalker who has been after me for months.”
Drake tried to keep an eye on what Toombs was doing as Emily gave the person on the other end of the phone the details of what has been happened. “Please get officers on us,” she said. “I am driving a Ford Taurus, and my pursuer, named Jonas Toombs, is in a green Chevy Malibu. Yes, I’ll pull over when the police show up.”
Drake heard the person tell her to stay on the line, and Emily answered a few more questions. She certainly has a cool head under pressure. Then Emily looked over at him. She dropped her eyes to the gun, then back up into his. He got the message.
Picking up the Glock, he switched the safety off as he had seen Emily do.
“Sorry, I think I’m losing you,” Emily said, then clicked the phone off. “Drake, shoot that motherfucker.”
Drake leaned out his window, the gun in his right hand. It was awkward to point back at Toombs, so he switched the Glock to his left hand. Toombs vehicle swerved toward his side of the car, and Drake squeezed the trigger four times.
Despite not being left-handed, every bullet struck Toombs’ car. One hit the grill, and steam poured out from under the hood. Two shattered the windshield, and the fourth buried itself in the metal of the hood itself. The green car swerved, and Toombs suddenly braked to avoid crashing for the second time.
Emily sped on, leaving the stalker behind, then made several random left and right turns before slowing down. “Why is there never a cop around when you need one?” she asked dryly.
“Who was that on the phone?”
“Emergency operator,” Emily replied. “You need police, fire, or medical people, you call nine-one-one and tell them your emergency. But I guess we solved the problem ourselves before the cops could find us.”
“Why didn’t they come?”
“I have no idea,” she answered. “But they won’t like it that you shot his car to shit.”
“You told me to.”
“Oh, I know. I shouldn’t have made it sound like that. I meant that using a gun in public is not exactly the way they like us to handle things.”
Drake snorted. “Then they should have chased him down and caught him. We had to defend ourselves. I had to defend you.”
Emily eyed him sidelong, then returned her attention to her driving. “That was some pretty awesome shooting, by the way. You handled that gun like a pro.”
Setting the Glock down on the console, Drake gazed back for any sign of Toombs. “I got lucky.”
Chapter Eleven
Still shaken by the encounter with Toombs, Emily sat with Drake in the living room, watching an old John Wayne movie. Only half her mind was on the show; the other half bounced between Toombs and Drake kissing her. The sun had set, and dusk crept in. Every twenty minutes or so, Drake got up to check the street outside.
“Nothing,” he commented, returning to his chair.
“No, I expect he’s licking his wounds and getting himself another car.”
“So, you think he won’t show tonight?” he asked, sending her an odd look at her indifferent tone.
“I can’t say,” she answered with a sigh. “Nothing he does is either normal or predictable.”
Drake returned his attention to the television where John Wayne fired a Gatling gun from a raft upwards at the bad guys on a cliff. Thinking again of his kissing her, and how much she had liked it, Emily tried to examine her feelings. I like him; he’s not at all like Eric or Don. I know he lik
es me, too, but where could this go? Could it go further? Should it go further?
Recalling how she felt her need for sex rise when Drake kissed her, how good it felt to be held tightly to him, Emily wondered about taking him to bed. She wanted him, desperately wanted him, and knew by the way he responded when they kissed that his feelings were mutual. But should I sleep with him? He’s a dragon.
Trying to ignore the tingling in her loins, her growing lust, Emily speculated about what might happen once Toombs was arrested and jailed. Without the need to protect her, or repay his alleged debt, Drake would then leave. What then? They stay friends? Start dating? Drake needed a job. Thus, he would eventually find work.
I don’t want him to leave.
“I’m not leaving.”
In her confused thoughts, Emily hadn’t realized she had spoken aloud. Drake watched her closely, no doubt with no little confusion. “I guess I don’t want you to leave even after Toombs is caught,” she said, slightly embarrassed, “but I suppose you’ll have to.”
Drake stood up, and she thought he intended to peer through the window again. Instead, he dropped to his knees beside her chair. He picked up her hand and brought it to his mouth to kiss. First, her knuckles, then he turned it over to press his lips to her palm.
“I don’t want to leave you,” he whispered. “Not ever.”
Wild joy and terrible fear clashed within her. I think I’m falling in love with him. But what can come from that? “I’m scared.”
Strangely, he knew what she meant. “I am, too.”
Leaning forward, Emily kissed him, her hands to either side of his face, tasting his lips, the faint musk of him, the wine he had drunk. She opened her mouth under the pressure of his tongue, her need for him escalating. She throbbed with need, the craving to be filled by him, and soon, her panties grew damp.
Pulling from her, Drake abruptly stood. His strong hands in hers drew her to her feet; his mouth possessed her again. Her arms around his neck, Emily pressed every inch of her body against his from her thighs to her breasts. By the hard bulge in his crotch, his lust had also grown. Emily rubbed her pelvis against that swelling. She was on fire.
Drake broke their kiss to pick her up in his arms. Relaxing her head against his shoulder, Emily didn’t drop her arms from around his neck. He turned sideways to carry her through the door of her bedroom and lowered her to the bed. The room’s only illumination came from the moon outside the window.
He undressed her as she lay on her back looking up at his shadow looming over her. Gentle yet strong, his touch sent delicious shivers through her, every nerve ending quivering with desire. When he had her fully naked, Drake sat beside her on the bed.
“You are so beautiful.”
Emily stroked her finger up and down his arm. “I want you so badly.”
He rested his hand lightly on her stomach, then caressed her skin in long, slow sweeps. Ever so carefully, as though fearing he might break her, Drake dipped his hand between her legs. Emily moaned as his fingers played with her button. Moisture gushed from her, wetting his hand, telling him exactly how much she desired him.
As he continued to tease her, Emily thought she’d go crazy with lust, with need. She thrashed under the pleasure his talented fingers wrought, and she almost lost it. Forcing the orgasm back, needing him in her before she climaxed, she gasped, “Get naked. Please.”
Obediently, Drake stood and quickly undressed. Breathing hard, Emily watched his body gleam in the faint moonlight, saw the length of his shaft sticking straight out from his body. She reached for it, grasping its velvety iron, unable to wrap her fingers around it.
“Take it slow,” she whispered, fully aware of how much it would hurt if Drake simply plunged in.
Yet she knew as he lay down beside her that she could trust him to not harm her even in his lovemaking. “You won’t hurt me?”
“Never,” he whispered, then his mouth closed on hers.
His thumb teased her nipples, first one, then the other, teasing her flesh, making her moan. She spread her legs, needing him to take her, possess her, craved to have him inside her. He rolled on top of her and probed the entrance to her with his shaft head. Emily almost exploded again.
Slowly, he pushed harder, using small thrusts to work his way in. Her cave walls stretched, expanded with a sensation that was both pleasure as well as pain. He thrust in deeper, and this time, Emily could not hold back her orgasm. She cried aloud as her throbbing mound undulated, contracting, her body shuddering under its intensity.
Drake used her climax to push his way in further, his tongue in her mouth, his plunging rod moving faster as he took her, invaded her body. Her nails digging into his back, Emily clutched him to her, her spread legs seizing him around his thighs.
Faster, he thrust, driving himself in all the way. His soft, breathy moans filled her ear as he took his mouth from hers, and his hands under her butt lifted her. This new angle again brought the pleasure-pain as she was stretched to the max. He glided in and out on her lubricating juices, and her climax neared, climbing higher.
Almost sobbing with the sheer ecstasy, Emily didn’t try to halt this second orgasm but rode it as it crested within her. She throbbed as Drake plunged in and out, possessing her, making her his. She felt him stiffen as he climaxed, a long low groan escaping his throat as he spasmed, still thrusting inside her.
Then he relaxed, his forehead on the pillow beside her. Emily let her tired legs fall away from his but was in no hurry to have him roll off of her body. She held him close, scenting the odor of the mingled sweat, of sex, her arms still clasping him around his shoulders.
Far too soon for her, Drake did pull from her and lay beside her with his arm over her waist. Though it was rather early to go to bed, Emily felt sleep approaching. Snuggling against him, she felt him cover them both with the extra blanket at the foot of the bed.
Wrapped safely, protected, in his arms, Emily drifted into slumber.
Waking in the night, Emily found Drake was no longer beside her. For a moment, she panicked, fearing that Toombs had done something to him, spirited him away, maybe, and killed him. The clock on the table beside the bed informed her it was shortly after one in the morning.
Naked, her juices and Drake’s semen dried on her thighs, Emily got up and padded silently down the hall to the living room. Drake was also still naked, standing off to the side of the window, staring out.
“He’s here.”
Keeping her body near the wall, Emily looked out the other window. Toombs sat in a car unfamiliar to her, its engine idling. “It didn’t take him long to get another ride,” she murmured.
“Is he planning something?” Drake asked, his voice low. “He doesn’t usually keep the engine running as he sits there.”
“Maybe he’s cold,” Emily suggested, “and needs the heater.”
“Maybe it’s time to warm him up permanently,” Drake replied harshly. “I am getting very tired of him.”
When Drake made to turn off the alarm, Emily stopped him. “No. If you set fire to him, it might spread. He’s parked too close to another car. Think of the kids in that house.”
Drake paused, then nodded. “You’re right; I can’t risk that.”
“Maybe we can find a way to lure him into the open,” Emily said, watching Toombs. “Get him away from houses and cars, then blast him.”
Feeling Drake’s eyes on her, she glanced across the darkened room and found he had turned his head toward her. “So, you agree he must be killed?”
“If I were a good and proper citizen, I’d say no.” Emily looked back at the idling car, the shadow inside it. “He should be tried and convicted. But too much can go wrong with a guy like him. He needs to be put down like a rabid dog.”
As though Toombs heard her, the engine suddenly raced, the emissions from the tailpipe curling up to vanish into the night. Emily gaped. “He couldn’t have heard me,” she snapped, watching as he drove fast toward her house. “Could he?”
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“Emily, get down!”
Drake’s warning came a fraction too late. At the same moment Emily started to drop below the window, Toombs opened fire. Glass shattered, fragments slicing into her naked body. Something hard struck her upper left arm, jerking her backward, but for an instant, she felt no pain. Then Toombs roared past the house and was gone.
Weakness spread throughout her body. Emily grew cold, and the living room spun around her. I’m going into shock. As though from a distance, she felt Drake catch her before she fell and lower her to the carpet.
She must have passed out briefly, for the next thing she knew, her arm burned with a red-hot fire. Emily cried out, opening her eyes and finding Drake kneeling beside her. He wrapped her bleeding arm, anxiety clear in his blue eyes. She glanced around, feeling the cool night air washing over her from the shattered window.
“The alarm,” she gasped, trying to sit up, but Drake’s strong hand pinned her down. “The cops will come.”
“Will they bring medical help?”
“I don’t know.” Emily’s mind cleared, even if her arm hurt like hell. “You better get dressed.”
“What about you?”
“Help me to a chair.”
A distant wailing came clear through the broken window as the police responded to the alarm coming from her house. Drake picked her up from the floor, and Emily tried not to cry out at the pain the movement brought. Sweat trickled down her temples and between her breasts. He sat her in the chair and cocked his head, listening to the sirens.
“Just wrap me in a blanket,” Emily said. “I’m cold.”
Drake nodded, then vanished down the hallway. He returned a moment later, still naked, with the blanket they had covered themselves with after making love. Tenderly, he wrapped her, carefully tucking it around her injured arm.
“Get dressed,” she said, feeling sick, dizzy. “They’re almost here.”
He managed to get his jeans on just as two cruisers pulled to the curb out front, their lights flashing brightly in the darkness.
“No doubt, this’ll wake the neighbors,” Emily said, trying to smile.
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