B. G. McCarthy - A Thief At Heart

by A Thief At Heart (lit)

  He let her find her pleasure. She found it quickly, coming against his mouth with a lusty cry of his name that almost sent him over the edge.

  Robin.

  She’d called him Robin.

  He raised himself up so he hovered over her. She looked up at him, dazed and panting, her hair fanned on the pillow, her deep forest eyes searching his, her arms reaching for him. She touched his cheek and he closed his eyes in pleasure, a longing so profound it made him shake.

  “Oh... my...” she said. “Thank you...” He kissed away the words before he groped for the condoms.

  His big hands were clumsy on the foil packet.

  “Let me,” she said. She opened the tiny packet and slid the rubber dam slowly over him. He was so primed he had to grit his teeth to keep from thrusting against her hand. With a low groan, Robbie settled her down on the bed beside him again, stroking her breasts, her soft skin, until she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him down to her.

  His tongue plunged between her lips, echoing the movement of his hips as he pressed himself into her body, burying himself to the hilt. He revelled in the tight, velvety feel of her surrounding him. Her legs wrapped around his waist, taking him inside her like a clenched fist. He thrust against her and she took him soaring to the peak far quicker than he’d have liked, but he knew they’d take it slower next time.

  They had all night.

  ~ * ~

  Riley woke up at eleven. Eleven! Normally she was awake with the birds. Come to think of it she had been but he’d waylaid her with some rather interesting propositions.

  Rob was spooned against her, snoring slightly in her ear, one arm over her waist. He muttered something and flopped back onto his back, still deeply asleep.

  Riley couldn’t help but watch him. He looked so sweet, so boyish with his dark, tousled hair and his slightly parted mouth.

  The man made lovemaking into a fine art. She flushed thinking about it. It had been their first date, for goodness sake. They’d spent the entire night doing things that she’d never have dreamed of doing even after months of dating and not unless she’d convinced herself she was halfway in love with the guy. Sex was supposed to be sacred, to mean something.

  Was she in love with him already?

  Oh, God, she was in trouble. She knew this was going nowhere, didn’t she?

  Riley got quickly out of the bed and used the bathroom as quietly as possible, slipped into some clean clothes and headed for the kitchen. She’d told Mary she’d call.

  A part of her hoped Mary wasn’t going to be home because she didn’t know what she was going to say. “It’s about time,” admonished the irascible Mary.

  “Sorry, Mary... I... uh... slept in.”

  “Interesting. Did Robert show up?”

  “You sent him here, didn’t you?”

  “I was worried about you. Anyway, he said he wanted to see you. What was that about?”

  “Nothing much...”

  Riley had tucked the phone under her chin as she poured water in the coffee pot. Thank goodness the power had come on. She needed the jolt of caffeine so she could think clearly. “He’s still here. It stormed too hard for him to leave. Did Todd ever show up? I know you were worried.”

  “That’s a swift change of subject,” Mary said.

  “No, not at all.”

  “I won’t pry.”

  “Ha!”

  “I still want him for Belinda.”

  What an awful thing to say, thought Riley, cringing. It was almost obscene.

  She’d known that, though, when she’d let it happen. That he’d never be hers, not really. Robbie was about as far from belonging to her for real as the frigging sun.

  Mary sighed. “Todd never showed up. I don’t know what’s with that boy. His secretary called this morning. He had made some important appointments. Belinda has gone into the dealership today to make sure everything is running smoothly.”

  “Belinda?”

  “I know what you’re thinking. But she came home last night and she was the one who offered to help out.”

  Wonders will never cease. “That’s great, Mary.”

  “At least I can count on one of my grandchildren.”

  “He’ll show up.”

  “Probably as drunk as a coot,” Mary spat out. Riley could hear the undertone of concern that belied the harsh words. There was also another edge. Like she was exhausted or in pain. She couldn’t seem to form all of her words completely. It was like the old woman had reverted back to the first days of her stroke.

  “Do you need me there?” Riley asked.

  “Of course not. What could you do? Help me kick Todd around the block?”

  “Are you unwell?”

  “Tired, is all I am. Just tired.”

  “Any weakness in your limbs, Mary? Headache?”

  “No. I’m not about to have another stroke, dammit. I won’t allow that. I always feel funny after I take those damned orange pills.”

  “Not the Altace? I can call your doctor from here and see if--”

  “I’m hanging up now. That ham-handed bitch you hired is going to help Alice give me a bath. Lord, I love an audience. My breasts look like tennis balls in the bottom of tube socks.” The call ended with Mary’s usual abruptness.

  She looked up just as Rob came down the stairs. From his damp hair and smooth jaw, he’d showered and shaved--just as he’d promised he would after scratching her with his heavy beard last night. He was buttoning his shirt over the sexiest torso she’d seen in thirty-odd years of living. The grin he gave her could have melted the iron will of a nun.

  Riley sighed.

  “Was that Mary?” he asked.

  Riley swallowed hard and nodded. “Power’s back on. There’s some coffee ready. I guess the shower was hot enough, was it?”

  “It was fine.”

  He started to move towards her, but she felt awkward and stepped over to the fridge. What they’d done in the light of a kerosene lamp last night seemed so unreal now that watery daylight was streaming like melted butter through the windows.

  “I’m really short on food. I hope you don’t mind cold cereal and bananas. I planned only to feed myself.”

  “Don’t apologize. It’ll be fine. Is something bothering you? Is everything okay with Mary?”

  “Mary’s not quite herself. But then she’s very much herself.”

  Rob nodded. “I think I get that concept. What about you? Are you yourself?”

  “Yes. Maybe I’m getting back to being myself.”

  “After last night? You mean I was sleeping with some other chick? The wild chick who never sees the light of day?”

  “Chick? You know, Rob, some of the things you say are weird. Like a man educated at fine prep-schools couldn’t possibly ever think of saying.”

  “I watch a lot of Sylvester Stallone movies. I read Mickey Spillane books.”

  Riley smiled. “I guess that says it all.”

  “Are you having regrets about what happened?”

  Riley set the milk jug on the table with more force than she’d intended. She didn’t know what to say in answer to such a direct question. She found the box of Special K. “Are you having regrets, Rob?”

  “I might have known you’d answer a question with a question. And the answer is no. I wanted it to happen. Maybe I willed you to come to me.”

  “I heard a noise outside.” It seemed so lame now. Thinking about it now she knew she had heard something weird.

  He took the cereal box from her hand. He tipped up her chin so she had to meet his eyes. “We have to talk about this--”

  Talk. Since when did men want to talk? “We both know how things are with us, Robert. We know where this is going.”

  “I like it a lot better when you call me Robbie.”

  She frowned up into his dark eyes. God, how she wished she could see into those eyes. Despite the things he said to her they seemed always to be shuttered. “I knew another Robbie once. He was
my first love. And I really can’t call it love because it was over before it ever began, the story of my life where love’s concerned. What happened last night will not be misconstrued in any way. I’m not going to let this hurt me the way it did with the first Robbie...”

  He visibly flinched. “Riley, I--”

  She stopped his words by pulling away first. “Could we just eat? I’d really like it if you could stay long enough to go over the information you found about my sister with me. Some of it’s a little confusing.”

  “I’d be happy to do that.”

  “Good. What if we start with the school records you’ve found. How do you think I should proceed on those leads?”

  They worked though the afternoon. Robert’s cell phone had some kind of Internet capability and he was able to get her a little more information about Grace, but when Riley called the town hall in Oregon about the boarding house where Grace may have lived in the mid-eighties, they were told that the old lady who had owned it had died childless a few years previous. There were no records of her tenants.

  What had seemed so promising a lead was gone in a blink. Riley waited for that familiar black pall to cover her. Instead she looked up and saw the man beside her, his eyes encouraging, his voice steady--someone to depend on after so many years of having no one but herself.

  She just wanted Rob to hold her, to snuggle in his strong arms, press her ear to the steady, calm beat of his heart and have him help her forget there was a troubling world out there beyond this cabin.

  She couldn’t let herself do that. She couldn’t let herself believe it was possible. She could not take that chance. She didn’t dare start counting on him, relying on his help. She couldn’t take the risk of relying on anyone.

  She had been hearing Rob’s stomach growl after his insubstantial breakfast since midmorning. “Want to grab something to eat in town?” he asked setting his pen down on the coffee table.

  Riley shook her head. “No, but I think that you should go somewhere and get something to eat. Canned vegetable soup isn’t going to be enough for you.”

  “Meaning that I should go now?”

  “You need to get back to Vancouver, don’t you? You never meant to stay here in the first place.”

  “You mean you want me out of your hair?”

  Riley stiffened her shoulders and lifted her chin. “I think I should get back to what I intended; a solitary holiday in the woods. I need to think about some things.”

  “About what just happened with us?”

  “Maybe.”

  “To talk yourself out of it, you mean.”

  She bristled at that. “Don’t put words in my mouth. We know what this is. I know what you want and it’s not me, Robert.”

  He gave her a long, hard look.

  She swallowed audibly. “I’m sure that the oil delivery truck and the telephone people will be here any minute.”

  “And we wouldn’t want them to catch us in a compromising position, would we?” he said quietly. “I can take a hint. Call me if you need to.”

  “Thanks.” She pretended to be busy with her papers as he slipped on his jacket and found his helmet. Watching him prepare to go away made her feel crazy inside, like she was losing him for good. How did you lose something that was never--would never be--yours in the first place? Nevertheless, she wanted to grab him around the waist and never let him get out the door.

  It was ridiculous.

  “See you, Riley. I had a good time.”

  She nodded, her throat thick. Her stomach lurched as he shut the door. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for the sound of his bike driving away, her throat thick as if she might cry.

  Twelve

  The sound of a motorcycle roaring to life never came.

  Maybe he was standing out there just waiting for her to relent.

  Maybe he...

  She laid her hand on the knob, making a sudden decision, something totally out of her character these days. She was going to ask him to stay with her at the cabin until they could get things straight between them, hang all her fears about the future. He was worth it, dammit.

  The door opened almost bonking her in the nose.

  “Why are you back?” she asked.

  Rob looked decidedly perturbed. “My bike seems to be gone.”

  “Gone?” she repeated. “Did someone steal it?”

  “Not exactly. The part of the driveway I parked it on--” Thick black eyebrows met over his noble nose. “--doesn’t appear to be there anymore. I think I found the source of the crash you heard last night.”

  ~ * ~

  It had to be fate.

  Riley’s first thought was that God was either very much against her or very much in her corner. The second thought she had was she just had to kiss his beautiful mouth.

  They never even made it upstairs to the bed. She didn’t care that they were about to make love on the floor of the living room. For that brief glimmer in time Riley didn’t think about anything but what Robbie could make her feel.

  His face was rapt above her, so fierce and splendid in his need to please her. The cords of his neck were drawn taut, the muscles of his chest quivering beneath her hands. She tore open his shirt under the leather jacket and brushed her fingers over his small flat nipples, making him shudder, then stroked down the long length of his beautifully-cut torso. He jerked as her fingers glanced lower over his bare belly above the top button of his pants, then he stilled her hand.

  “No... just you,” Robbie said. He lifted her head slightly and fused his hot, sweet mouth over hers.

  She felt dazed by his ardor, the indisputable claim his body staked for hers. Wetness flowed between her legs and her nipples went diamond hard. He gave another seductive, surrendering groan, his heart thumping an erratic rhythm beneath her palm he slid his tongue between her teeth, eagerly sweeping her mouth.

  Riley forgot what sanity used to feel like. His lips trailed across her cheek to press kisses down the curve of her neck. She looped her fingers in the thick, dark hair at his nape and pulled him closer, wishing that she could absorb him through her skin.

  Robbie moaned something against her neck, words almost lost to her in the sublime sensation of his mouth pressing kisses over her collar bone, his rough-tipped fingers caressing the curve of her back and waist.

  “I know this thing with us is going too fast for you, Riley. I’ll make it work this time. I promise.”

  She couldn’t answer him. The words confused her. This time?

  She arched as his large hands moulded the curve of her breast though her shirt and bra. She wanted his mouth on her nipple to relieve the ache that bloomed deep in her breast.

  Robbie read her mind, pulling her tee shirt upwards, helping her yank it over her head. He looked down at her breasts, swollen and spilling up over the cups of her white bra. “You’re a miracle, Riley Jane Turner,” he whispered as he quickly divested her of the rest of her clothes. He, by contrast, remained clad completely in his leather gear and open denim shirt. It was undeniably erotic.

  Riley’s eyes drifted closed. She felt her toes curling up as his tongue tasted the slope of her jaw, attentively tonguing and teasing the tender, ticklish spots behind her ear. He massaged the front of her thigh, skimming over the jut of her pelvic bone, fingers smoothing across the slight swell of her tummy, then stopping short to grasp her hip and bring her flush against him. The leather of his pants was body-warmed and smooth against her bare skin. She wrapped a leg around his leather-covered hip.

  She could feel a furnace-like heat emanating within the solid wall of his chest, his body surrounding her like a steel blanket. His lips smouldered against hers, sliding downward, his jaw smoother today against her skin, though strands of her hair still caught in the beard bristles.

  He lowered his dark head and licked her sensitized nipple, opening his hot, eager mouth over the puckered areola. She inhaled as he nipped with guarded teeth, causing an even deeper, enthralling heat to blossom be
tween her thighs. As he suckled her, his hand smoothed down her belly, his fingers finally sliding down. “Oh, God... you’re so ready,” he rasped, stroking the moistness between her legs.

  Those words, further avid attention to her breast and three slow, deep stokes of his fingers were enough to set them both aflame. A low groan of desire rumbled from Robbie’s throat and Riley’s climax burst in a glorious surge of heat. She shuddered in his arms, crying out, her face pressed against his shoulder, her fingers grasping his upper arms as the delicious tremors drained her energy and coherent thought.

  ~ * ~

  Rob awoke with a start, stark naked and sprawled on the bed. He checked his watch. It was four and his empty belly raged like a caged beast. Riley was not on the bed beside him. His boots, his leathers and his shirt and underwear lay on the floor in a trail from the door. Looking at the clothes and remembering made him groan.

  He sat up, pushing his hair back from his face. He hadn’t told her who he was. He’d come back in the house to tell her the truth after looking for his bike, but then she’d kissed him. One taste of that honeyed mouth was all it took to undo his resolve. Again.

  He quickly got dressed, wishing he had some other clothes, and went down to the kitchen. She wasn’t there. There was a note on the table telling him that she’d gone into town to buy food.

  Rob sighed and dropped the note back on the tabletop. Since he was up he might as well see if he could find his bike in the ravine. Hopefully the damned thing hadn’t slid down too far. It might almost be funny, but that bike was one of his favourites. Plunder. The spoils of a private war on narco-terrorism he had helped to fight. It had belonged to a biker from Alberta.

  It took him a good hour to climb down, then out of the wet and muddy ravine. While he was there he went through the leather bag of essentials he kept locked in the bike. His gun was still there in its hidden chamber--he’d thought it best to bring it--deciding that it was better to slip it into his jacket pocket and take it into the house. No sense leaving it in the bike, just in case he had to get help to drag it out of the ravine.