“You think I’m easy?” Nathan grinned.
He liked her a lot. For the first time ever, he was the one playing hard to get and enjoying every second of it. The girl laughed. Then she spun on her heel and headed for the door. Nathan skipped ahead and skidded to a halt in front of her.
“Because if you did,” he said, “you’d be right.”
Her smile was every bit as pretty as the rest of her.
“Let me grab my stuff, and I’ll meet you out front,” she said.
She slid her fingers inside the band of his shorts. Pulling it back, she released. The elastic snapped his skin. It stung a little, and he liked it.
She was waiting for him by the doors, a black backpack slung over her shoulder.
“Your place?” he asked, already looking forward to stripping off her clothes and getting down to it.
“Yours.”
“Okay.”
They made small talk on their way across campus. What’s your major? It was a weak pickup line, but he didn’t need to pull out the heavy guns for this one. He had already caught the pass and was streaking toward the end zone. She was coming back to his place, which made her a sure thing.
Back at the house, his roommates were scarce—studying or attending classes, he didn’t see another soul on his way to the staircase. He swept his hand toward the stairs in a deferential gesture, allowing her to go first. It made him look like a gentleman and girls liked that sort of thing. Plus he got to watch her tight ass all the way upstairs.
Apparently, she wasn’t much for small talk either. They wasted no time in his room. She dropped the backpack to the floor. He grabbed the hem of her fleece and pulled it over her head. Seconds later, she was in her bra, panties, and nothing else. Nathan’s mouth slid over her collarbone and down to the swell of her breast.
Her breath caught. Her fingers knotted in his hair. She groaned and arched her back. She unhooked her bra and let it fall to the floor. Looping one hand around her waist, he groped for his cell phone. Grabbing it, he angled back catching her in the camera’s lens.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her breath coming fast and ragged.
Nathan clicked a few candid shots. Her gorgeous round breasts filling the frame.
“You’re too beautiful not to remember.” The tired line didn’t soften the expression on her face.
“No pictures.”
“No problem,” he said, and made a show of deleting it from his phone’s camera roll. He didn’t care. The local copies had already been synched to the cloud along with the rest of his collection. Mollified, she slid a hand behind his neck. His lips met hers. She tasted like strawberries.
“What’s your name?” he asked, figuring he should at least pretend to care as he stripped off her remaining clothes.
“Does it matter?”
Not one to belabor the point, Nathan entered her. Her ripe breasts bounced with each thrust. Her head tipped back, a groan of pleasure escaped her lips. She was insanely hot. Nathan cupped a breast in his hand, closed his eyes and enjoyed the ride.
Afterward, totally spent, Nathan collapsed on the bed—chest heaving and a satisfied smile on his face. She nuzzled in close to his side. With all the speed and suddenness of a light switch turning off, Nathan fell asleep.
Chapter 8
A winter storm blew in off the sound. Rain beat against the windows. Marissa stretched and rolled her chair away from the desk, her eyes burning from hours of trying her hardest to decipher financial data she didn’t begin to understand. When Marissa was first hired, Elizabeth Holt had been fully aware of her background and limitations, but Evan assumed she possessed a level of business acumen that equipped her for the kind of in-depth analysis he needed. Either she was going to have to scale the steep learning curve in record time, or she was going to fail.
She needed help.
Her phone buzzed. The message was from her youngest daughter, Kelly.
Logan’s dropping me off at your place after dinner. I’ll see you later. XO
Despite the stress headache throbbing in the back of her brain, Marissa smiled. Kelly had been expelled from Renton High for fighting. She had moved in with Marissa’s ex-husband, Logan, and was back in school. She never thought she’d miss coming home to the earsplitting music Kelly listened to, or getting the daily dose of teenage attitude, but she did. Especially with all the challenges inherent in Brooke’s recovery, Kelly’s absence was sorely felt.
“Now that’s something you haven’t been doing enough of lately.”
Marissa looked up to find Seth standing in her office door.
“What’s that?”
“Smiling,” he said and strolled in. He perched on the edge of her desk and looked down at her, his warm gaze soft.
“It’s Kelly. She’s heading over to see Brooke.”
“Hey, about the argument this morning…”
Marissa shook her head. “Let’s just forget it, okay?”
Seth reached for her hand and held it. His warm thumb stroked her palm, and the strain of the past few days eased. With everything that was going on at work and at home, it was so easy to forget that they were in a new relationship.
“If Kelly’s heading over, how about dinner tonight? Just the two of us?”
“Evan wants me to do some research into donation models. I should probably keep working,” she said.
For all the good it would do her.
Seth raised her palm to his lips and kissed it. The warmth of his lips slid through her—a sweet temptation to call it a night.
“Brooke will be fine for a few hours, and work will still be here in the morning. Didn’t you once say there was more to life than work? I figure we should at least explore the possibility that you might be right. Come on. I promise not to keep you out late.”
He was right. A few hours away from the stress of everyday life would do them both a world of good.
“Okay, as long as you promise to be a good boy.”
Seth’s lips parted in a rare smile of his own.
“I make no such promises, Ms. Rooney.”
He tugged on her hand. She grabbed her purse and coat.
“I’ll meet you at the elevators,” she said.
Marissa stopped at the restroom. Peering into the mirror, she applied a fresh coat of lipstick. She tucked the lipstick back in her purse and couldn’t resist checking her phone. No messages.
Brooke would probably be relieved she wasn’t rushing home to hover. It wasn’t that she meant to smother Brooke, but after everything they’d been through, it was impossible not to worry. The horror of Brooke’s disappearance was fresh in their minds. Even Kelly, who was still adjusting to her new school, and should be at Logan’s doing homework, was spending the evening with them.
Marissa met her gaze in the mirror.
“It’s okay to be happy,” she told her reflection. “Go have a good time. You’ve earned it.”
The door to the restroom opened, and an older woman entered, giving her an odd look.
“I don’t usually talk to myself,” Marissa explained.
“You only have to worry if the mirror talks back.” The older women grinned, and Marissa laughed.
Slinging her coat over her shoulders, she met Seth outside the elevators.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Nothing,” Marissa shook her head. “I’m just glad we’re doing this.”
“Me too.”
They stepped to the back of the elevator. Seth reached for her hand and she leaned into him. He kissed the top of her hair as they rode to the ground floor in companionable silence.
The wind howled through the downtown corridor. Rain slashed down from the black sky. Traffic lights swayed on the guide wires as they hurried down the street toward Collin’s Pub. Half gasping, half laughing, they burst through the door. Marissa smoothed her windblown hair back into place as the hostess showed them to a booth.
Seth slid onto the bench across from her, and for th
e first time ever, it felt like they were just a normal couple out on a date. They ordered drinks—a glass of Pinot Noir for her and a club soda for him. Marissa immediately regretted her decision. It was easy to forget he was a recovering alcoholic. She called to the waitress, but Seth pushed her concerns aside.
“It’s fine,” he said.
Marissa picked up the menu and studied the choices. After picking at her salad for lunch, she was in the mood for something hearty. She glanced over at Seth, who was staring at her.
“What?” she asked. She ran her hand self-consciously over her hair.
“You’re beautiful,” he said.
Simple and heartfelt, the comment startled her. She couldn’t remember the last time a man had told her she was beautiful. She grinned.
“You’re just saying that because I’m sleeping with you.”
“And you’re deflecting. I mean it, Marissa. I’m a very lucky man to have found you.”
The waitress returned with their drinks, and they ordered. She picked up her glass.
“You’re sure you don’t mind?”
“Positive.”
Marissa sipped her wine. The taste of ripe berries and cinnamon elicited thoughts of warm summer nights. She could imagine the two of them side by side, watching the sun go down. She reached for Seth’s hand and gazed contentedly at their fingers intertwined on the tabletop.
The intense beginning of their relationship had forced them to skip over the courtship phase, where you actually spent time getting to know each other. Some couples were so in tune, they finished each other’s sentences, and while she knew Seth was a good man, half the time she had no idea what he was thinking or feeling.
“What?” Seth leaned across the table and propped his chin on his fist, admiring her in the flickering candlelight. Marissa laughed.
“You look like a smitten teenager.”
“That’s not a bad thing.”
“It’s not,” she agreed. “We should do this more often.”
“You mean go out on a date like normal people?”
“Exactly. Get you out of the office, and you’re quite the romantic. Who knew?” Marissa took another sip of wine. “Speaking of the foundation, I think it’s in trouble.”
“Look who spoiled the night with shop talk,” Seth said. Marissa opened her mouth to protest but Seth brushed away her worry. “It’s fine. I was just savoring the irony of the situation. For once it’s not me obsessing about work. So what’s bothering you?”
“Evan let Jessica go. She was doing a good job. It’s about money.”
“Money? Wasn’t Elizabeth Holt loaded?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know how much of her fortune she earmarked for the foundation.”
Seth tipped his head to one side and shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry too much. Evan’s a smart guy. He’ll figure it out.”
“You think so?”
“You don’t?”
“He just seems young, you know?”
That made Seth smile. “He’s only a few years younger than you.”
“I know, but he seems inexperienced.”
“It’s a brave new world, Marissa. We’re all learning.”
“No kidding,” Marissa said with a half grin. In her current position, she was scaling an uphill learning curve without anyone to help her.
“Try not to worry about the foundation. You’ve got enough on your mind.”
“Like Becky and her missing baby,” she said.
“And Brooke. The past few months have been hellacious. You can’t carry all that stress on your shoulders. It will wear you down.”
“How do you deal with it?”
“I drink. Or used to,” Seth joked, saluting her with his club soda, but Marissa didn’t laugh. “I was trained as a police officer. Dealing with stress is part of the job. Now how about we knock off the shop talk? Real life will be waiting for us soon enough.”
“Deal,” she said and settled back into the booth. Her phone buzzed.
“Don’t look,” Seth said, reaching for her hand.
“You know I have to.”
Marissa made a face and picked up her phone.
She felt the blood drain from her cheeks as she read the text. Frantic, she gathered her things and slid out of the booth.
“What?” Seth asked.
“We’ve got to go.”
#
Seth sped along the rain-slick streets south on Interstate 5 toward Renton. Marissa tried calling Brooke’s cell, but there was no answer. She tried calling Kelly, but she wasn’t picking up either. Her pulse raced as panic streaked down the well-worn pathways inside her brain.
If she had just gone home instead of out with Seth, she’d already be there.
“Should we call nine-one-one?”
Seth glanced at the clock.
“We’re a couple of minutes away. Let’s get there first. Assess the situation.”
Spoken like a cop.
Suddenly Marissa was thrust back into that terrifying place where Brooke was in trouble, and there wasn’t a damned thing she could do to help. All of the awful things that had happened to Brooke flashed through her brain in slow motion as the streetlights flew by. How she was beaten. Raped. Starved of insulin. Almost died.
Seth reached out to take her hand, but she jerked away, fingers balled into fists so tight, her nails dug painful crescents into her palms.
“Can’t you go faster?”
“Easy, Marissa. It’s going to be all right.”
Marissa covered her eyes. This couldn’t be happening again. Not to Brooke. She’d been through too much already. They all had.
Seth pulled into the driveway. Marissa flew from the car without closing the door.
“Brooke? Kelly?”
“Back here,” Kelly yelled.
She found Kelly in the cramped laundry room, standing on top of the dryer. Half hanging out of the window, Kelly shone the flashlight out into the stormy night. Rain poured through the open window. Wind blew back Kelly’s hair.
“Brooke,” she screamed.
Marissa’s heart dropped. She clambered up on the washing machine beside her daughter. Cold air filled her lungs. Caught in the yellow beam of the flashlight, Brooke sat hunched on the roof against the wall of the house, wrapped up in a ball underneath the lip of the eave. Arms clenched like steel bands around her knees, she rocked back and forth in the driving rain without responding. Almost catatonic.
“How did she get out there?”
“I don’t know. When I got here, she was gone. I ran through the house looking for her, and then I saw the open window.”
“How long has she been out there?”
Kelly shook her head. Outside, Seth was calling Brooke’s name. If Brooke heard him, she gave no sign. He climbed onto the slanted roof. Slowly he rose to his feet and eased his way toward Brooke’s hunched figure. His boots clanged on the tin as he angled his weight forward, working his way up the pitched slope.
A gust of wind struck him full on, and he flung his arms wide like a stumbling drunk trying to regain his balance. The scream caught in Marissa’s throat. She covered her mouth with her shaking hand. She couldn’t watch. She couldn’t look away.
“Oh shit,” Kelly breathed.
Was it a flashback or stress that had driven Brooke out on the roof on a night like tonight? It was crazy dangerous, with the thick rivulets of rain teeming onto the ground ten feet below. Wind shrieked like a demon through the trees. One slip, one misstep, could send them tumbling off the edge.
Seth eased close to Brooke. Did she see him? Hear him calling to her? Or was she so caught up in her own nightmare she couldn’t recognize the danger she was in?
Within a foot or two of her daughter now, Seth reached out. Arms extended. Fingers reaching. Pleading. In an instant, Brooke saw him. Quick as a cat, she sprang to her feet, evading his grasp. Like a wild thing, she raced across the roof, not seeing. Not caring. Until she reached the edge.
“No,” Maris
sa screamed.
Seth lunged. Grabbed her shirt. Hauled her back. They crashed onto the roof and Seth pinned her down. She thrashed in Seth’s arms, fighting to get free.
Brooke’s scream pierced Marissa’s heart.
“Oh God,” Marissa said.
She pulled her phone from her coat pocket. Fingers shaking so badly, she could barely dial. Barely think.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Seth said.
“Don’t touch me, you fucking freak!” Brooke screamed.
But Seth held on tight, refusing to loosen his grip.
Panic roared inside Marissa’s mind. She strained to hear the 911 operator. Kelly pushed past her and clambered out the window onto the roof. Marissa made a grab for her, but she was already gone. Inch by agonizing inch, Kelly eased across the roof toward her sister.
“What’s the nature of your emergency?” the operator asked.
Marissa caught her breath. Forced herself to speak. “My daughter needs help.”
Kelly’s boots slid on the tin. Marissa cried out and dropped the phone. Somehow Kelly caught herself and kept moving forward.
Rain lashed Marissa’s face as she leaned out the window, but she hardly felt it. Her lips moved in a silent prayer.
“Brooke,” Kelly called.
Seth released his hold on Brooke as Kelly knelt beside them. She wrapped her arms around her sister, holding her. Brooke was crying, and Kelly was comforting her, while Seth stood up beyond Brooke’s field of vision, protecting both her girls.
The wail of the sirens approaching drowned out everything else as Kelly guided Brooke to the window. Cold. Wet. Shaking.
Marissa helped both girls through. Finally able to breathe again, she wrapped her arms around her daughters and guided them down the hallway toward Brooke’s bedroom. Warm blankets were bundled around their shoulders.
Firemen were at the door. Marissa didn’t hear them knock. Seth answered, speaking to them in muted tones. Murmurs travelled down the hallway. She didn’t hear them leave.
All that mattered was that the girls were here. Safe.
Seth stood in the doorway with a wounded look on his face. Marissa went to him as Kelly huddled with Brooke on the bed.
“It’s not you. It must have been a flashback. She thought you were—”
Dark Harvest (A Holt Foundation Story Book 2) Page 6