Haynes, K. R. - The Light in Her Eyes [In Her Eyes] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by K. R. Haynes

  Sensing his need to say something to her, Chloe broke away from their kiss and gazed up at him expectantly, waiting for Randall to say what was on his mind.

  “Chloe,” he murmured to her as he swept some sweat-damp locks away from her face with both of his hands. “You may not remember us. You may never remember what we once had together. I promise you here and now to always show you what we once meant to each other.” He kissed the inside of her hand he held within his. Chloe couldn’t help but gaze up at him speechlessly as Jon added on, “You are and always will be my precious one, my only one, Chloe.”

  “What did you just say?” she said to him, her voice barely there from all the emotion swirling around in her heart.

  “You want me to repeat the whole damn thing?” Randall shook his head at her. “Don’t you ever listen to anything I say, woman?”

  “Yes, I heard you. It’s the last bit I want you to repeat for me, please.”

  He proceeded to torture her with his lips, and kissed his way up the column of her neck, causing her to shiver against him. He whispered his words against her skin. “I said, my precious one, my only one.”

  Tears threatened to fall from her eyes. Yet she didn’t say anything. She just stared up at him. “What, precious? What did I just say to get such a quiet reaction from you?” Randall asked her.

  She didn’t care anymore if her tears fell or not. Turning around in the bath so she could cradle his face in both her hands, Chloe straddled his thighs. She took his lips with hers, kissing him soundly until she found the right words to say to him.

  “It was you,” she said softly to him before kissing his lips again. “This whole time it was you.” Her tears ran freely down her cheeks.

  His eyes locked onto hers as he raised an eyebrow up at her. “Me? What about me, precious?”

  “It was your voice I heard. Every year on my birthday I heard your voice, heard your words.” Taking a deep breath, she continued on. “‘My precious one, my only one.’ I would hear you whisper those words to me. I just didn’t know, at the time, those beautiful words came from you.”

  “Is that a bad thing, Chloe, knowing that I once said those words to you on your sixteenth birthday? Is it a bad thing that I whispered those same words to you now, lover?”

  “No, it’s not a bad thing at all. It’s a good thing actually.” She smiled up at him with a watery gaze. Chloe could still barely believe it. She had found him. After all this time she had found the man behind the voice, the man behind the words she treasured so close to her heart. She had found him. She had finally found him.

  The man behind the most beautiful words she had ever heard, words she treasured so dearly, came from a man whose warm embrace gave her more strength and love than any other person she had ever known. Right here in her arms now lay everything she had ever wanted in life and in love.

  Jon Randall. The man she had given her heart to a long time ago and from whom she had never gotten it back nor wanted it back. Her heart was his. Always would be his. But the love she held for him now was a wasted love. Because the devotion and the passion she held deep in her heart and soul for him would only be ripped from the confines of her being when the bastard targeting her finally made good on the promise to kill her.

  In the arms of her lover, Chloe found love, peace, and happiness. She even felt cherished and safe with him. She also found the man responsible for those beautiful words that tormented her every year on her birthday, an exquisite torment she longed to have more of and one she could endure for the rest of her lifetime, but it was all for nothing. Some sick bastard would decide when her time on this earth would end.

  In the arms of the man she loved with her whole heart and soul, her life would end with her death. The bastard targeting her would make sure of that and choose when her life ended. Chloe had no control and no way to stop the inevitable. It would happen, her death. It was a certainty. And it would kill Randall if he ever knew how much she loved him.

  She might have found the man behind those beautiful words. But it was all too late for them both now.

  More tears escaped from her eyes as she crushed her lips to his. Chloe practically crawled on top of Randall’s lap to feast upon his lips. Her hands moved frantically over his body. She needed some way to savour the taste of him. She needed a way to remember what his skin felt like beneath her hands and capture it all to memory so when the one targeting her took her away from Randall, the bastard couldn’t take away this one moment from her. She refused to let the sick bastard take away the feeling of being in Randall’s arms or how his lips moved beneath her own.

  Or what it had once felt like to be loved and to belong to a man who owned every part of her being and held her future in his hands and in his heart.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Shaking his head at the reaction he had managed to stir within Chloe from his spoken heartfelt message to her, Randall still couldn’t make any sense of it. She seemed to go into some kind of frenzy upon hearing his words. Unsure how to help calm her down, Randall slapped her still-red ass emerging from the bathwater as she tackled him once again.

  Chloe stopped.

  Her hazel eyes darted around the room. Cupping her face in his hands, he leaned into her. “Take a deep breath for me, precious.” Waiting for her to do as commanded, Randall stared into her eyes. When she took a deep breath he urged her to take another one, then another. Finally her eyes settled on his and her breathing calmed. Brushing his lips across her forehead, Chloe’s eyes fluttered closed and she clasped against him.

  “Rest now, precious,” he whispered quietly to her, cradling her dozing body against him. After a few long moments holding her close to him, Randall slowly rose from the cooling bathwater, lifting Chloe with him. Grabbing a towel from the rack, he carried her into the bedroom and laid her down on the bed. Without disturbing her while she slept, Randall began drying her damp skin with the towel he brought in with him.

  After tucking Chloe into bed to sleep, he kissed her cheek before taking a few minutes to watch her sleep. She seemed so peaceful in sleep and looked so beautiful with her caramel locks spilling over the white satin pillowcases. Her ivory skin glowed, hints of a pink hue dusting it from the warm bath they had just shared.

  Drying himself off, Randall left Chloe sleeping soundly in the bedroom and quietly padded naked down the hallway to fetch his jeans from the lounge floor. Once redressed and with a beer in hand, he pulled out a stool at the breakfast bar in the kitchen and sat down. Taking a sip of the cooling amber liquid, he let his mind wonder momentarily, at what the future may hold for him and Chloe.

  The thought of losing her was not an option. This scumbag targeting her was going to learn that lesson quick smart. Flipping open his phone, Randall scrolled through his contacts list until he found Mick’s number and dialled it.

  Mick answered the phone on the third ring. “Hey, bro, what’s up?”

  “Are you able to come over, Mick? There are things I need to discuss with you, but not over the phone.”

  “Absolutely, mate. I can be there in forty.”

  “Make it twenty, Mick,” Randall demanded to his old friend.

  “Oh, shit, things that good, huh?” Mick asked.

  “Yep, that good,” Randall said, knowing his tone pitched the urgency of the matter at hand.

  “No worries, bro. I’m leaving now, see you in twenty.”

  Flipping the phone closed, Randall clipped it to his jeans and took out another beer from the fridge for Mick. Sitting back down on the stool, he was in two minds in whether to call Mary J or not. He needed to find out if she could “babysit” Chloe for a couple of days. He decided to wait until Mick arrived to get his opinion on the matter. Although, Randall had a feeling that his old mate would give Mary J a glowing recommendation.

  Right on twenty minutes, Mick parked his big arse of a truck in the driveway. Opening the front door, Randall waited for him to amble up the front steps. “Hey, Mick, thanks for coming over.
” He clapped Mick on the back of the shoulder when he walked past him and headed on inside. “Hope I wasn’t disturbing anything when I called.”

  Mick just grunted, not giving away anything.

  Walking into the kitchen, Randall took his seat again. Mick popped the top of the beer left out for him. Leaning his hip against the kitchen bench he stared across the room at Randall. “So, mate, what’s up? It sounded pretty urgent. Has the sick fuck made another move on your sweet thing or something?”

  Clearing his throat, Randall took a quick swig of his beer before answering the question. “Yeah, he left her another message.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yep, and the thing that pisses me off the most is the bastard’s stepping up his game, too, Mick.”

  “How’s he managing that?”

  “The latest message left for Chloe, well, let’s just say it wasn’t good, Mick. Not good at all.”

  Randall watched as Mick’s eyes roamed around the room. “Where is gorgeous by the way?”

  “Sleeping.” Well, Randall hoped she was still asleep. Chloe needed the rest. He had been hard on her this morning and the rest would do her good.

  “So what’s the plan? I take it you need me to help you get this fucker, right?”

  “Yeah, and I also need you to watch her while I’m on call in a couple of days’ time. Chloe won’t like it but too bad.”

  “Done. Don’t worry about her, mate. I’ll make sure your gorgeous is safe as houses while you’re working.” Taking another swig of his beer and swallowing the cooling liquid down, Mick cautiously asked him, “So level with me here, mate. What are we are looking at?”

  “Not sure yet. All the evidence or what little we have been able to retrieve has come back clean. No prints or no fibres to identify the bastard targeting her. I’m having all the evidence retested though to be sure.” Randall pushed back on the stool and walked over to the bin, dropping his empty bottle into the trash. He began to pace as he spoke. “What I can’t get my head around is why someone’s targeting Chloe to begin with. Plus he knows about me, Mick. He knows that she’s my lover and that I’m a cop on active duty.”

  “So we have a stalker on our hands then. Experienced one, do you think?”

  “Perhaps. Shit, I don’t know.” Running his hands through his dark-blond hair, Randall raked his brain for the answers that weren’t there. “Shit.”

  “What if the stalker targeting Chloe is only targeting her because she’s an easy target?” Holding up his hand to stop Randall from speaking, Mick said to him, “Let me finish, mate.” With a nod of his head, Mick continued. “Chloe could be a secondary mark because she can’t defend herself. Maybe this bastard is biding his time till he can get his hands on the real target. Have you thought about that scenario, Randall?”

  “Who the bloody hell is the real target then if it isn’t her? She has no family here. She only has a handful of friends if that.”

  “And she has you, mate. She has you.”

  “Yeah, she does.” Randall smirked to himself, remembering how he had taken Chloe up against the wall only hours ago. “Hey, wait up. Are you suggesting that this bastard is only targeting Chloe because of me?”

  “It’s highly possible mate, highly possible indeed. We should definitely consider this as a possible angle before we go about dismissing it out of hand.”

  Randall paced, his mind working overtime at the suggestion that Chloe wasn’t the main target, he was. Shit, her life could be in danger because of his stupid arse? Fuck. He needed to think logically for a minute. If he indeed was the main target and Chloe had only become a target because she was an easy mark then this bastard would have to know about their past relationship. That would be the only reason why someone would start targeting her on the night he pulled her over.

  Chloe had to have been followed that night. The bastard must have seen their reaction toward each other, even though there was no outward recognition on Chloe’s part except for in her eyes. That begs the question, how close had the stalker gotten to her?

  Close enough to see the flash of recognition in her eyes?

  Did that mean the bastard knew about her memory loss as well?

  Hell, was there even a link between his job and her stalker?

  Fuck.

  Man, his head was killing him just from thinking about all the hows and whys of it all. He rummaged around loudly through the kitchen drawers, searching for something that would ease the ever-present ache behind his eyes. Randall heard the soft, sleepy feminine voice that made him stop and smile at hearing the sound.

  “God, can’t a woman get some sleep around here? Why the hell are you making so much goddamn…ahh, noise?” Chloe seemed to stumble in her rant as she entered the room. Randall sure hoped she had thrown some clothes on before coming to find him. The last thing he wanted was for her to flaunt her nudity to his old mate. “Oh, hey there, Mick, sorry, I didn’t know you were here.”

  Turning slowly to face her, Randall didn’t bother to hide the slight smirk curving at his lips at the sight of Chloe, standing half naked dressed in only his shirt and nothing else. Hell, the sinful little minx had only managed to do up a couple of the buttons on the front of the shirt she had thrown on. Randall could feel his cock stirring in his jeans at the sight of her. Her gaze drifted over his naked torso, making his dick even harder. Then of course she had to taunt him with her little pink tongue. He watched as it slithered and danced across her oh-so-kissable lips.

  “Well, hello, gorgeous. Sleep well?” Mick drawled to her as Chloe stalked across the kitchen floor to where Randall stood watching her.

  “Well, I did until someone woke me up, not mentioning any names, Jon.” Chloe turned and winked at Mick before directing her attention back to Randall. “What in god’s name are you looking for anyway?”

  “Headache. Need some pills. Do you know where they live?” he asked her before brushing his lips against hers.

  “I’ve got some in my purse. I’ll get them for you if you promise not to wake me up again.”

  “I can’t promise you that, precious. Not when I have needs that only you can take care of,” he said with a sly smile gracing his lips.

  Chloe blushed at his words and the unsubtle meaning behind them. She all but bolted out of the room before Mick could comment or see her blushing. Reaching up for a glass and filling it up with water, Randall waited for Chloe to return with the pills he needed.

  When she came marching back into the room moments later, Chloe had all the buttons on the shirt done up and had thrown on some sweatpants for good measure as well. Hell, she looked damn cute with that sleepy look still adorning her face and her hair all messed up, and it made his cock even harder. Groaning inwardly, Randall accepted the pills Chloe popped into his hand, throwing them in his mouth and chasing them down with the water.

  Dumping the empty glass in the sink he tugged Chloe into his side. His hand lingered on her hip, showing his old mate his ownership of her. “Are either of you two hungry? Because I know I sure am.”

  “Yeah, I could do with a snack, mate.”

  “How about you, precious, are you hungry?”

  Chloe turned slightly in his embrace and laid a hand on his bare chest. “How about I make us all something to eat and then we can all go sit in the lounge room and discuss whatever it is you were discussing before,” Chloe suggested to him.

  “Sounds good to me, gorgeous,” Mick answered.

  Randall wasn’t so sure he wanted Chloe involved in this conversation he had going on with Mick. She was too fragile, too delicate. She definitely didn’t need to hear the ins and outs on how they were going to catch the one after her. However, if Chloe was a secondary target then her thoughts on who knew about them when they were teenagers would be invaluable. Also her input on who knew about her memory loss could help figure out who was behind all this.

  “Fine,” he grumbled to her. “Sounds good.”

  Leaning down, Randall traced the shell of her
ear with his lips, while caressing her still-red ass with his spare hand, whispering his warning into her ear, “Don’t go getting any ideas about going after this bastard by yourself, little girl. Or your ass will be mine.” Chloe shivered against him at hearing his words. Good.

  Slapping her playfully on the ass, Randall left Chloe to fix some food for them all. Grabbing a couple of beers from the fridge, he handed one over to Mick while saying to him, “Let’s head into the lounge room and continue our discussion in there.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chloe nearly died when she walked into the kitchen and discovered Mick was in there talking to Randall. She hadn’t even known he was coming over. Hell, they were both lucky she was partially dressed when she walked into the room. Christ, she would have died of embarrassment if she had walked in on them all nude.

  The only reason she had awoken was all the crashing coming from the kitchen. Of course it had turned out to be Randall searching noisily in the cupboard drawers looking for something to take for his headache and not an intruder.

  Pulling out some fixings for sandwiches from the fridge, Chloe tried to keep an ear on what the two blokes were discussing in the lounge room. She could only make out bits and pieces as they both kept their voices fairly low. Well, most of the time. Obviously Randall didn’t like the way the conversation was going at the moment. His voice became louder and more irritable the further the conversation went.

  Grabbing a bag of crisps from the cupboard above her, Chloe decided it was time to calm the situation down before they both got into some kind of fistfight. That certainly wasn’t something she wanted to have to clean up after they were done belting the shit out of each other.