“It’s early. They won’t be up for an hour or two, at least.” His tongue moved slowly down to her shoulder. Her skin bloomed with heat, and an ache of desire grew deep within her. Her body remembered how good it felt to have him moving inside her last night. Her hips surged toward him without any input from her brain.
“Oh, I don’t know. I…think…”
“Stop thinking.” His lips closed over her nipple, pulling gently. Her body arched like a drawn bow. Grinning wickedly, he made good on his promise from the previous night. His lips roamed across her ribs, brushed the soft underside of her breast. His hot breath traveled across the sensitive skin of her belly. She squirmed as his lips trailed lower. She reached for him, only to have him move away from her.
“Just relax. Enjoy.” He pushed the sheet firmly away, moved his mouth down her rib cage. “I’m dying to taste you.”
Sliding still lower, he licked the tender hollow next to her hipbone. Taking his time, letting the anticipation build, he tasted the length of her legs, brushed his mouth along her calves, lingered on the spot behind her knee, found patches of skin that she’d never even been aware of before he touched them. Her body writhed, wanting more as his lips moved up along the inside of her quivering thighs. With a groan of his own, he obliged her with one long stroke of his tongue right up through her center. He lifted his head and stared into her eyes. He licked his lips, and a hungry moan reverberated from deep inside him.
Circling his arms under her thighs, he spread her legs wider and lowered his mouth to her again. Her heart raced and hammered in her ears. Her hips jerked and rocked. Waves of pleasure rolled through her body as he laved her with his lips and tongue. Her hands clenched the sheets. Every muscle in her body contracted. She couldn’t breathe. Then the release washed over her, flowing through her body from the inside out, making her ache to have him inside her.
He moved over her—and stopped. Pain creased his face. “Sorry. Bad position.”
He rolled to his side, pulling her leg over his hip and piercing her to the hilt with one hard thrust.
She wrapped her arms around him and watched his face contort with his struggle for control. He threaded his fingers with hers as they found the rhythm together. Their bodies, slippery with sweat, slid against each other effortlessly, lost in the gradually building pleasure. His lips covered hers in a deep kiss as she reached the crest, muffling her cries with his mouth. He exploded within her in a final deep thrust and collapsed on top of her with a breathless moan.
He pressed his forehead to hers. His heart slammed against her rib cage as his body gave a final shudder. Bodies limp and tangled, she looked up into his deep, brown eyes, wishing they could stay in bed all day. He certainly knew how to drive all rational thought from her mind. She knew the kids would come looking for her soon.
“I should probably sneak upstairs and shower.” A wave of relief rushed through her. Before last night, she’d thought she’d never make love again. She’d been afraid she’d never give herself the chance.
Not only did she do it, she enjoyed it. More than she had even thought possible.
Their legs were still intertwined. She was not yet ready to break the physical bond between them. She realized how much she had missed this intimate, primal connection, the feel of her man’s hard body against hers, the synchronized beating of two hearts. For the first time in as long as she could remember, her body was warm inside and out, her muscles loose and slack. She felt like all the tension had been driven from her body.
“I could help you.” He nuzzled her neck, moved his lips against her jaw. “I may have missed a few spots.”
She smiled. “Then I wouldn’t get downstairs before lunch.” Her voice was reluctant, but firm.
“Probably not.” With a sigh of regret, he released her and rolled onto his back. Putting his arm behind his head, he watched her walk around the room naked, gathering her clothes. She felt his gaze on her and glanced over her shoulder at him. Her heart skipped a beat at the hunger that still shone in his eyes.
She pulled on her jeans and shirt, stuffed her bra in her pocket, and leaned over to kiss him softly before quietly opening the door a crack and checking the hallway. She slipped out and crossed the hall silently. Both of the kids’ doors were still closed when she tiptoed upstairs, but she heard the rustling of bedding from Ben’s room indicating he’d be up soon. A wave of guilt passed over her, but she pushed it aside. What had happened between her and Jack was beautiful, and she refused to feel any shame for taking one night for herself. Beth turned on the shower and looked at herself in the mirror while she waited for the water to heat.
She looked younger this morning, and she felt incredible. She’d slept, all night. Well, almost all night. She smiled to herself. Stepping beneath the hot spray, she let the scalding water flow over her body, wishing for a long moment that she had taken Jack up on his offer. His hands were magic on her flesh, and she couldn’t think about his mouth without a wave of heat blooming through her center. Her thighs tightened and her skin tingled just thinking about his activities this morning.
She lathered her body and washed her hair. Maybe she would buy some scented shower gel. She felt like smelling nice. For the first time in years, she felt sensual. Her problems seemed so far away, less potent all of a sudden. He had seen all her scars, the secrets of her violent past had been stripped naked, and he still wanted her.
Twenty minutes later Beth entered the kitchen. The kids were eating cereal at the table. She gave them each a kiss on the head. A glance out the French doors revealed Sean and his men unloading equipment from a utility van. She greeted Mrs. Harris and accepted a cup of coffee.
She carried her coffee to the study, knocked on the closed door, and opened it to peer through the crack. Holding the cordless phone against his ear, Jack waved her in. She pulled the door closed behind her. As she rounded the desk, Jack pulled her to his side, wrapping one arm around her hips and pulling her down onto his lap. Desire flared in his eyes. Unbelievable. He’d made love to her less than an hour before.
“Hey, Wes. This is Jack. Give me a call back. It’s important.” He punched the end button on the phone and set it on the desk. “Wes is my former partner. I’m going to ask him to come up here. I’d like you to tell him everything. He can help us.”
Panic lodged in her throat. Talking to Jack was one thing. Spilling her guts to a strange cop was quite another. “I don’t know if I want to do that.”
Jack stroked her arm. “It’s OK. I trust Wes completely. You can, too.”
Her chest felt tight; her lungs constricted.
Jack frowned. “Hey, take it easy. If you can’t do it, we’ll think of something else.”
Keeping her eyes on his face, she drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. Jack wouldn’t force her. It was her decision.
Her eyes locked with his. Neither of them had made any admissions of love, but she knew her own heart. And she finally decided to trust it.
“I can do it.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Jack pulled open the front door just as Wes reached for the doorbell. Henry had announced his former partner’s arrival as soon as the Crown Vic turned into the drive.
“How are you doing, Henry?” Wes stepped over the threshold. He thumped on Henry’s side as the dog circled his legs like a gigantic tabby cat. “Hey, Jack. Sorry it took me so long to get up here.”
“It’s only been a few days.” Jack led his friend down the hall.
“Yeah, but you said this was important.” Wes followed, trying not to step on Henry’s prancing feet. “He hasn’t changed.”
Jack entered the study and shut the door behind them. “Look, Wes. I appreciate you driving all the way up here. I didn’t want to do this anywhere near the station. Other than you, I don’t know who I can trust.” Too wound up to sit, Jack leaned a hip on his desk. “I have some information for you, but you have to promise to keep the source confidential.”
“You got
it,” Wes answered without hesitation.
“OK. What do you know about Richard Baker?”
Wes looked thoughtful. He rubbed his fingers on his chin. “Congressman Richard Baker?” When Jack nodded, he continued, “Rumor has it he’s being groomed for higher office. He was big in the news last fall when his wife went missing. She had some mental illness. Nobody ever did find her. I looked over the bare facts of her disappearance a couple of months ago. Had a Jane Doe in the morgue that fit her general description. Baker came down to the morgue and viewed the body. It wasn’t her. Why? What do you know about him?”
Jack paused. “I know where she is.”
Wes straightened in his chair.
“I’ve spoken with her.” Jack gave him Beth’s version of her marital history.
Wes stared at him. His mouth hung open. “Shit. That’s some story. Be difficult to prove, though. She doesn’t have a copy of the DVD?”
“No.”
“Too bad. Would’ve made good leverage.” Wes scratched his chin. “Does she have any proof Baker faked the suicide attempt?”
“No.”
Wes fell back in his chair, his shrewd black eyes fixed on Jack. “Jack, even if I believed every word, I can’t investigate a congressman without hard evidence. It’s her word against his. The guy has powerful friends. He’s the Republican Party’s new golden boy. Some people say he’ll be president someday. People are going to get pissed if I start digging around in his private life. I’ll end up back in a patrol car. I’ll be directing traffic for the next fifteen Thanksgiving Day parades. You know I hate standing out in the cold, Jack. His father plays golf with the governor, for Christ’s sake.”
“He’s dirty, Wes.”
Wes waved a hand in the air. “He’s a politician. They’re all dirty.”
“You’re becoming awfully cynical.”
“Comes with the territory.”
“I want you to meet her,” Jack said.
“She’s here?” Wes asked incredulously. “Elizabeth Baker is here?”
“Yeah, she’s here. She’s my new caretaker.” Jack paced back to the window, turned his back to Wes. He knew his face was giving up too much, especially to Wes. He took several deep breaths.
“Let me guess. Beth Ann Markham.” When Jack nodded, Wes sat back in the desk chair and tapped a pencil on the desk.
“Somebody tried to run her off a cliff. With Beth’s accident and the disappearance of a local woman, I’ve been keeping everyone close to home.” Jack walked to the window and stared out across the lawn.
“I heard about your missing waitress. She fits the Killer’s victim profile.”
“Yes, she does. Feds haven’t made it official, but that’s what they’re thinking, too. I got that feeling in the pit of my stomach standing out there at the scene.”
They were both silent for a minute. Wes would never doubt Jack’s gut.
“Anyway, back to Beth. I want you to meet her.” Jack led his shocked friend from the room.
Beth and the kids were sitting at the kitchen table playing an ancient game of Scrabble they’d found in one of the closets.
Wes stopped and gaped at Beth.
Beth met Wes’s scrutiny with a direct stare. Ben appeared to sense the tension in the room and shifted closer to his mother. Katie shrank backward. Her tiny hands began to shake. Jack’s heart tightened. He moved around the table and scooped her up.
“This is Wes. He’s my friend. He’s going to help us.”
She settled down, leaning on Jack’s chest, except her lower lip still trembled a bit.
When Wes sat down in one of the kitchen chairs, Jack knew they’d won him over. Wes was as much of a sucker for scared kids as Jack.
Jack nudged Ben and nodded toward Katie. Reluctantly Ben took his sister by the hand and led her out of the kitchen.
“OK, Wes, what do you want to ask her?” Jack leaned his elbows on the table, reached for Beth’s hand, and covered it with his.
Wes stared at their joined hands for a second, then blew out the breath he’d been holding. “I’m in.”
“Thank you,” Beth said.
Wes flushed. “Don’t get too excited. This’ll take some time. I don’t know who I can trust. Probably no one. These are very powerful people. I’ll call you if I come up with anything.” There was nothing left to say. Wes excused himself and politely said good-bye before heading out the door. Jack followed him to his car.
“I’ve got to get this guy, Wes. I won’t let him hurt her again.” Jack clenched his jaw in frustration. “I’m pretty sure I’m in love with her.”
“No shit. I already figured that out for myself. I’ll do some sniffing around, see if there’s any dirt under the congressman’s manicured nails. Don’t hold your breath, though. If there were anything really juicy, some political rival would probably have found it by now.” With a wave, Wes drove off.
With some regret, Jack wondered if he’d put his friend’s life at risk, too. He shook off the guilt and returned to the house. Wes was a cop. Getting creeps off the street was what he did.
Beth was still in the kitchen, sitting at the table, staring at its pocked surface. Her shoulders were bowed against the weight of her memories, her expression bleak. While Jack couldn’t remove her burden, at least he could share the load.
“Hey.” Jack squatted down in front of her, lifting her chin with his hand and looking into her sad eyes. “Wes is a good guy. He’ll help us.”
She nodded, as if speaking took too much effort at this point and she didn’t have the energy.
“I have one more favor to ask. You need to level with Chief O’Connell, too. After your accident and Mary Ann’s disappearance, Mike’s going to run background checks on everyone in the town. It’s only a matter of time before he finds out your name isn’t Markham. He’s a smart cop. We have a better chance of getting his cooperation if we approach him with the information.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Think fast. You’re a newcomer to Westbury. If you were a man, no doubt he’d already have you in for questioning.”
Jack’s eyes blinked in the pale gray of predawn. Beth stirred against his chest. She was warm and soft and naked. What was a man to do?
He slid a palm up to her breast, then stroked her creamy skin lightly all the way down to the curve of her hip. One sleepy moan, and his heart kicked into a gallop. When her back arched under his hand, his dick twitched toward her like a divining rod seeking water.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she smiled up at him with complete confidence. His chest ached, and he needed to be joined with her as much as he needed air to breathe. His hand slipped around her hip and between her legs.
She’d woken up soft and wet for him.
Desire coursed through his belly. His erection pressed against her thigh, and his balls cheered it on.
He rolled her onto her back, parted her legs, and covered her. To mate, to claim, to brand her as his. He slid into her tight heat. Her legs shifted and wrapped around his waist, letting him burrow deeper. He’d slept with a number of women in his lifetime, but being inside Beth was like having an electric current run from the tip of his dick to the base of his spine.
He lowered his head and claimed her sweet mouth. Her tongue answered his in a mating dance that mimicked their bodies.
The tension built, clenching his muscles from the arches of his feet all the way up to his eyeballs. She started to tighten; then his hands were grasping her ass and he was pumping harder, faster, sliding her up the bed beneath him as her heat clamped down on him from base to tip. Just before the top of his head blew off he came in a freight-train roar of sensation that robbed his lungs of air and his head of blood flow.
He nearly passed out from the intensity and literally collapsed onto Beth’s body.
Holy Christ. What just happened to him?
Exhausted, drained of every ounce of tension, his body went limp. Breathing hard, he rolled off Beth and dragged her to his c
hest. He lay in the pale morning light, speechless, as his lungs caught up and his head stopped spinning. Beth’s fingertips stroked his biceps. A heaviness settled over him.
Beth stroked Jack’s chest as it rose and fell evenly. While he was exhausted from their lovemaking—no wonder considering the Olympic effort he’d put into the event—she felt charged up, as if he’d somehow transferred all his energy to her. There was no way she’d be able to go back to sleep now. She needed to move. She slid out from under his arm and left the warmth of his bed. After dressing quickly, she let herself out of the silent house and strode toward the barn. She’d stay close to the house and keep the ride short, but if she didn’t get out of the house, she’d go mad.
Twenty minutes later, Beth adjusted her seat in the creaking saddle. Mist hung over the meadow, like smoke, in the gray dawn. Dampness muffled the sound of Lucy’s hooves as she ambled across the field toward the forest path. A soft sucking sound accompanied each hoof as it lifted from the soggy ground. Beth held the mare to a walk, lulled by the gentle swaying of the horse’s back.
Her early morning ride was all the solitary time she had each day, since she and the kids hadn’t left the estate since the accident. It had been nearly two weeks since Wes’s visit, and they’d heard nothing from him. There’d been no sign of the black sedan. Jack theorized that Richard’s men were holding back because of the increased police and federal agent presence in the area due to the waitress’s disappearance. Beth knew it was only a matter of time before Richard’s men came back to finish the job. They were out there, waiting for an opportunity.
There’d been no sign of Mary Ann Spencer, either. Beth felt as if her world were hanging in a state of limbo. All of these terrible events were hovering over her, over the whole town, like a storm gathering force.
The clean scent of pine filled her nose as they neared the forest path. The trail changed from soggy grass to a thick carpet of pine needles, and Lucy’s hoofbeats were reduced to a faint rustle.
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