by Desiree Holt
“Start right away,” he ordered, after telling him what he wanted. “This is a priority. Call someone else in if you have to, but I want something back by the time I call tomorrow morning.”
Finished, he closed the laptop and set it aside.
“I’m going to pack everything away in some sort of order,” he told Lindsey. “That way we can find something quickly if we have to. I want you to lie down and rest before supper.”
She wanted to tell him he didn’t have to keep pretending such concern for her but just shook her head instead. “I can’t rest. I’m too wound up. My head is spinning. Let me check my messages on my cell phone and then walk down to see the horses. That always makes me feel better.”
“Okay,” he agreed. “We’ll just turn in early tonight, then and get some sleep.”
He better understand that sleep is all we’ll be getting.
To distract herself, she clicked through her cell messages. Unprepared for one that jumped out at her, she dropping the phone and bit off a scream. She barely heard Nick pick up the phone from where she dropped it or the curse he muttered under his breath. All she could think of was the message.
I’m still watching you. You can’t get away.
Nick barely caught her as she crumpled in his arms.
****
She was floating, suspended somewhere, weightless. If she kept her eyes closed, she was sure she could stay this way forever.
“Lindsey?”
The voice sounded far away, familiar, warm. She reached for it, but it was so elusive. “Lindsey, honey, can you hear me?”
She felt something wet and cold on her head and hands rubbing at her wrists. The same voice was shouting, “Mary? Mary, can you come up here?”
Lindsey stirred at that, the floating feeling dissipating, and forced her eyes open. She turned her head and realized she was lying on her bed. “Nick?”
“Right here, honey.”
Then Mary’s voice. “Ruben, go downstairs and get me the phone number for the doctor.”
Lindsey looked over Nick’s shoulder to see both Ruben and Mary standing behind him. “No doctor. Please. I’m okay.” She tried to sit up.
“Uh-uh.” Nick pushed her back onto the pillows. “No getting up for you right now.”
“No doctor, Mary,” she repeated. She closed her eyes again, and then pushed them open. “I just feel really stupid. I never faint.”
“I never should have told you to go through all that old stuff.” Mary wrung her hands. “It’s too much for you, niña. Better burned and forgotten.”
“No, you’re wrong,” Lindsey told her. The memory of the text message swept into her brain, and her pulse skipped. “And it wasn’t the boxes we were going through that did this. I got a message on my cell phone from the stalker, and it startled me.”
“I’d say startled is not the word, little one,” Ruben said. “You fainted, and you look like hell.”
“Gee, thanks, Ruben.” She tried to grin. “Compliments always make me feel better.”
“Hold on a minute, Lindsey.” Nick stood up from where he sat on the edge of the bed. “I need to make a call.”
He moved to a corner of the room, and Lindsey heard him punch in a number. He spoke quietly for a few minutes, then hung up and came back to sit beside her.
Mary had gone into the bathroom to wet the cloth again and now hovered nervously beside the bed.
“She’ll be okay,” Nick told the older woman. “I’ll get her into bed. But maybe you could make her some strong tea?”
“Strong tea with a shot of whiskey,” Mary agreed. “She needs to get some color back.”
“That’ll be good. Just yell when it’s ready, and I’ll come get it.”
Nick shooed everyone out of the room, then lifted Lindsey off the bed and stripped off her clothes. She wanted to protest but couldn’t find the strength. He found her sleep shirt from the previous night and pulled it gently over her head. “I’ll go check on that tea and bring it right up to you. And I want you to drink it all.”
“All right.” She bit her lip, uncomfortable at what she was about to ask him. She didn’t want to send him mixed signals. She sure didn’t want to seem so needy. But more than that, at this moment, she didn’t want to be alone. “Will you stay up here with me?”
“Sure.” He kissed her forehead. “Count on it.”
He sat with her while she drank the tea laced with whiskey, then made her lie down, stretching out beside her. At first she thought about pushing him away. The problem was, she also wanted him next to her. Wanted his warmth and the safety of his body. Wanted to feel what he made her feel.
Okay, I’m a fool and a sucker, but right now I don’t care.
Nick began to stroke her, his hand caressing first her shoulders, then her arm. Light, feathery touches. Then, pausing only a moment as if waiting for her to stop him, he eased up the nightshirt and cupped one breast. She loved the warm, rough feel of his hands and the brush of his thumb over her nipple. Right now, in spite of her inner conflict, she needed this to take away the fear she couldn’t seem to push away. She nestled her head into him and gave herself over to the sensations cascading through her.
Nick nipped the lobe of one ear, then stroked it with his tongue. He paused a moment, as if waiting for her to stop him, but when she arched herself against him, he continued exploring her body. Pressed against him, she could feel the heavy thickness of his cock even through the fabric of his jeans. Without thinking, she eased her hand out from beneath the covers, released the snap on his pants and drew down the zipper. His grip on her tightened when she slid her hand inside his boxers and closed her fingers around his shaft.
The moment she tightened her grip and began to stroke her fingers up and down, he sucked in a breath. “You’d better mean business, darlin’, or else you can stop now.”
“I mean it,” she assured hm. At least the need for physical satisfaction. And for something to take away the terror of my nightmares.
“Then let’s give you better access.”
He drew back the covers, and before she could organize her brain, he had stripped both of them and tossed their clothing to the side. Then, as if desperate to tear down the barrier she was throwing up between them, he rolled her onto her back, spread her legs wide, and slowly began to lick every inch of her hungry, pulsing sex. He stroked her wet flesh with his tongue, teased her clit with light nips of his teeth, and placed a row of sucking kisses on the lips of her sex.
Immediately, heat surged through her and her pulse accelerated. Her need for him shot into high gear. When he thrust his tongue inside her, she nearly jackknifed, the sensation was so erotic.
“Yes,” she hissed as she pressed her feet to the mattress and tried to lift herself to him. But then she nearly lost her mind when he coated one finger with her juices and painted the tight pucker of her rear opening.
“One of these nights, I’m going to fuck you here,” he told her in a gravelly voice. “Then you’ll really belong to me.”
“Yes. Whatever.” She tossed her head back and forth, so aroused, so on the edge, she would have let him do anything. She tried to twist her body and reach for his shaft, but he kept her pinned in place.
“No. This is for you. For us.”
Then, abruptly, he slid his hands beneath her buttocks, lifted her, and drove inside her.
“Oh, god,” she cried and locked her ankles at the small of his back.
There was no further buildup, no slow strokes and hot kisses as he pounded into her. This was hot, hard sex as he drove into her again and again.
Sliding one hand between them, he found her clit and tugged on it until she screamed with need. At the moment she thought she would lose her mind if he didn’t at last bring her to orgasm, he thrust once, twice, three times, hard and fast, and they exploded together. The spasms shook them so hard she was afraid her bones would crack, but she hung on tightly and rode out the storm with him, consumed by the shattering climax.
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As the last shudders subsided, she lowered her legs, and Nick eased himself from her body. He pulled her against him, curling his hot, hard frame around her, not saying a word, just holding her.
Finally, he kissed her on the cheek then eased the covers over her. “I’m going downstairs to take care of some things. I want to make some more calls and not disturb you while I do it.” He kissed her again. “Try to sleep a little, okay?”
She wanted to ask him if he was going to call Stacy, but she didn’t want to know. Instead, she lay there, still trying to catch her breath and slow her racing heart. Thinking about the frantic almost desperate coupling that had just happened and wondering what was driving them. Surely it was a mistake on her part when another woman hovered in the background, yet she’d needed that intense connection. The locking together of their bodies.
But what had driven Nick? And what message had it sent to either of them.
Her head hurt from thinking so she closed her eyes, trying to shut out everything, and actually slept for a long dreamless time. She awoke when she felt the mattress dip beside her.
“Better?” Nick was leaning over her, his arms braced on either side of her.
Her immediate reaction was to push him away, but she was too exhausted, despite the nap, to get into a discussion of what was going on.
“No dreams. That’s always good.” She pushed herself up and shoved her hair back from her face. “What time is it?”
“Almost six. Think you could eat some supper? Mary made her famous enchiladas.”
Lindsey forced a smile. “I’m always hungry for those.”
He made no mention of the explosive sex they’d had. Instead, he studied her face, as if searching for answers there.
“How about if I bring a tray up here for both of us?” he asked at last.
“Absolutely not.” She swung her legs over the side of the bed. “I’m not an invalid. I had a little fainting spell is all, and I’m fine. Let me wash my face and throw on some clothes.”
She was surprised to discover she was ravenous. The aftermath of shock, Nick pointed out.
“No more photos tonight,” he decreed. “Tomorrow is plenty of time to get back to them, and you need a clear head to do it.”
“The message on my cell,” she began.
“I’ve got the guys working on it,” he told her. “I’ve got the phone so you won’t have to even look at it until tomorrow. Then we’ll get you a new one.”
“A new phone? But how will I get my messages?”
“You can always call the office or use a code to tap into the answering machine. So let’s call it a day.”
After dinner, Nick made sure she got into bed again, then left her long enough to take a last turn around the outside with Ruben, checking to make sure all the alarm panels were set. Lindsey left the bedside lamp on and was staring at the ceiling, trying to sort out the jumbled thoughts in her mind, when he came back into the room.
“Give me a minute to shower, okay?”
“Yes. Of course.”
He frowned at her, then shrugged and headed for the bathroom.
She would have had his things moved to another room, but that would bring too many questions from too many people that she didn’t want to answer right now. When he slid into bed next to her, he smelled of soap and toothpaste and his own musky scent.
For a moment, she was tempted to nestle against him, but the memory of that phone call was still too fresh. The sex earlier she could chalk up to therapeutic, a cure for the nightmares. She just couldn’t do it again, not with this between them.
He started to say something but shook his head and picked up the television remote.
They spent the evening watching an old movie on television. Finally, Nick turned off the television and reached for her.
“I’m very tired tonight, Nick. Today exhausted me.”
He spooned against her, one arm circling her, and brushed a kiss against her cheek.
“Lindsey, whatever’s bothering you will have to come out. If tonight’s not the right time, okay. For now, let’s just get a good night’s sleep.”
She tried to relax, but long after Nick fell asleep, she lay in the dark, the moonlight shining through the window illuminating the two photos of her parents, the old and the new. A terrible dread settled over her as she thought about the Pandora’s Box they were about to open…and what could fly out.
Chapter Thirteen
Nick was already up, showered and dressed, and drinking coffee when Lindsey made it downstairs in the morning. She was glad she’d had the space to herself to dress and get her scrambled brain working after the highly charged emotion of the previous day. Not to mention the frantic, desperate sex.
“You sure you want to go into the office today?” he asked.
“Of course.” She lifted her chin. “It’s Monday, and I have work to do.”
A half hour later, Nick piloted the truck through Interstate traffic as they drove to the office. “I’m hoping my techs found something in the documents I emailed them. They scanned in each of the photos we emailed them. We’ve got some pretty sophisticated recognition software, so if these faces ever showed up anywhere, we can find them.”
Lindsey fidgeted with the clasp on her seat belt. “One minute I want to find the answers,” she told him, “and the next I’m almost afraid to.”
He reached over and touched her hand. “Whatever we find, don’t you think it’s better than not knowing? Especially if there’s a chance it leads us to your stalker and we get that monkey off your back.”
“This is all so hard for me to absorb. First I didn’t have a past. Now it’s possible someone from it is out to get me.” She shivered. “What did you find out about the text message?”
“Bad news. It was sent from a throwaway cell phone. Completely untraceable. Whoever is doing this is smart and covers his tracks well. The phone is a dead end, just as this person knew it would be.”
“What will you be doing today?” she wanted to know.
“Sticking to you like glue.” He slid a glance at her. “You don’t leave my sight.”
Which could prove uncomfortable rather than reassuring, considering the current state of her emotions where this man was concerned.
The office was humming when they got there. Brianna was on the phone talking while typing on the computer. Through the open door to the workroom, Lindsey could see Mark bent over the drafting table, furiously intent on what he was doing. There was a stack of messages for her on the corner of Bri’s desk that she picked up and leafed through as she walked into her office.
“I’ll be in the apartment,” Nick told her. “I have calls to make, and I want to boot up my laptop.”
“Fine.” She turned away with her messages still in her hand, ordering herself to focus on work.
Thirty minutes later, Nick was back at her desk. “Okay, you need to make some changes here. For the moment, no new clients.”
“Wait a minute,” she protested.
“Just for the here and now,” he added. “The office is still checking everything, including what we found in those boxes. But we don’t know who’s coming out of the woodwork, and your stalker could easily pose as a new client to get closer to you.”
Lindsey felt the blood leave her face. “You’re kidding, right?”
Nick shook his head. “Not one bit. The guys at Guardian are still running those photos, but there are a lot of databases to go through. Then, if they get a hit, we have to use a computer aging process to see what that person or persons would look like today. Until we can do that, I don’t want any strangers having access to you.”
“Oh.” Lindsey put down her pen and leaned back in her chair, rubbing her forehead. “I see what you mean. That makes sense.”
“You’re busy with ongoing work anyway, right?”
She nodded. “Yes, and I can use the time to finish that.”
Nick rested a hip on one corner of the desk. “As a matter of fact
, I’m thinking you should plan to take a little time off.”
“Time off?” Startled, she waved her hands at the files on her desk. “But—”
“Not much. But when we get a lead on where those photos were taken, I’ll want to go there and check things out myself.” He grinned. “And I know for damn sure you’ll want to go with me.”
“Yes, you’re right.” She tried to give him an answering smile, but her mouth couldn’t quite manage it. “Although I’m still terrified of what we might find.”
He leaned forward and reached for her chin, tilting her face up. “Whatever we find, I’d be right there with you, okay?”
As casually as possible, she took his wrist and moved his hand away, trying to ignore the confused look on his face. “Okay.”
He opened his mouth to say something else, shook his head, and walked back into the apartment. At noon, he came to fetch her for lunch. “I ordered a pizza. Again, I don’t want anyone to know your lunch plans, so Tony is going to pick it up on the way over. He’s bringing me some information.”
“Oh, Nick.” A thread of excitement wiggled through her. “Do you think he’s got something?”
“Looks like it. But let’s wait until he gets here and we check it out.”
Following Nick’s instruction, she was deliberately vague with Brianna and Mark about her lunch plans. She locked the office as soon as they’d left and headed into the apartment. Tony had just arrived with the pizza.
“You must be the most expensive delivery man around,” Lindsey kidded him.
“No joke.” He grinned. “You should see my hourly rates.”
“Have you got something for us?” Her voice was eager as she pulled plates and glasses out of the cupboards.
“I do, but let’s not let the pizza get cold. We can talk while we eat.” When they were settled at the table, he opened his briefcase and took out a folder. “Let’s look at the newspaper first, the one the clipping was from. That was a little easier.”
“You mean that was a real publication?” Lindsey tried to tamp down her excitement.
Tony nodded. “The Beach Recorder was—-repeat was—-a weekly newspaper that served all the oceanside communities on about a twenty mile stretch of Route 1A in Maine. Bar Harbor was the central point, and the coverage spread out from there in both directions. They covered mostly society stuff, local activities, things like that.”