by Alison Paige
Joe dropped his arm. “You think it’s one of your campers.”
“Yeah. I do.”
“How many of those kids have camera cell phones?”
“None.” She looked up from her tallying. “They’re underprivileged. Some are lucky they have shoes, but the ones that might are told to leave any kind of electronic devices at home.”
“Right.” Joe slouched deeper into the cup-style chair, his arms nearly level with his shoulders on the chair arms. The waves of his black shiny hair brushed his shoulders. His hands dangled over the edges, big and strong, the knuckles of his right hand beginning to bruise from the punch.
He wasn’t smiling. He looked dangerous. He looked like an ad for hard liquor with a promise of harder sex. Shadows edged his jaw, his rough beard stubble long overdue for a morning shave. His eyes dark, unflinching, watched her, made her breath catch. She dropped her gaze to his mouth, his top lip a perfect plump bow, a small slash of scar at the corner, his bottom a tempting mate.
He kissed with those lips. Kate couldn’t help the thought. He pressed them to his lover’s lips and made her moan into his mouth. Those lips had tasted a woman’s breast, suckled her tender nipples, parted for his tongue to pass through and drive her mad. All that tightly leashed strength, all that reined emotion, could turn to passion, to heat.
Kate licked her lips and caught his eyes following, drawn to the spot. His dark brows wrinkled. He wasn’t pleased, but he didn’t look away.
“Why’d you ask about cell phones?” she said.
His gaze flicked from her mouth to her eyes. “The stalker used a cell phone to take one of the photos.”
“How do you know?”
“I know.”
Kate slapped the ledger closed and shoved it back into the bottom drawer. “Maybe one of the kids snuck a phone in then.”
“And a printer?” One of Joe’s brows swooped higher than the other. “It’s not a camper, Kate. It’s not a kid. It’s serious.”
Kate grabbed the receipt and stood. Joe’s gaze made a quick trip down her body and back, as if on reflex. She forced a smile and ignored the flutter in her belly.
“Well, thank you.” She walked around her desk past Joe to the file cabinets lining the back wall.
“Kate.”
“I appreciate your opinion, Mr. Garity. But this is really a personal matter.”
“I’m a cop.”
“My family and I are handling it. We don’t need a sales—” She turned around, hand on the file cabinet. “You’re a what?”
Joe pushed from his chair, his movements sluggish, as though dreading the explanation. He came around, crossing the room to her. “I’m a cop. Retired.”
“But you said…why would you…”
“I’m here to help.”
The pieces clicked together. “The notes. They hired you because of those stupid love notes and photos,” Kate said. “Bill and Clayton, they knew I’d be pissed so they made you lie.”
“The stalker might’ve bolted if he heard cop.” Joe propped his hands on his hips. “You ask me, it’s a bad idea to keep the target in the dark. You needed to know.”
“What, you’re some sort of PI now? That’s why you’re here? That’s why you’ve been following me around?” She laughed, disgusted with herself. “I’m such an idiot.”
“Come again?”
“Nothing.” She smiled and shook her head, shoving the file drawer closed.
How’d she let herself think things would be different with Joe? She wasn’t any different. That comfortable connection she’d thought she felt with him was only Joe sticking close to uncover her secret admirer. She couldn’t blame him though.
She wasn’t the relationship type. Never had been. But she was okay with that. Men wanted her and she enjoyed what they had to offer. Heck, half the time it was Kate cutting things short, moving on when she’d had her fill of a guy. They got over it fast enough. But Joe somehow made her forget herself, the self she’d learned to accept long ago. What was it about him?
She needed to clear away the silly romantic fantasies he made flitter through her brain. She needed to force herself to think of him the way she did every other guy she’d been hot for.
“You’re a cop,” she said.
He folded his arms across his chest, muscles stretching the sleeves of the cotton tee. “Was.”
“You punch all your suspects in the nose?”
“No. I…” Joe looked away for a moment. His jaw tightened. He exhaled then met her gaze. “No. Never.”
“So what happened with Frank?”
Joe hesitated, then said, “Lost my perspective.” His voice was lower, softer, twice as intimate. His dark eyes held hers, told her things he hadn’t.
He wanted her. Those midnight eyes shimmered with masculine hunger. She could tell his thoughts had gone far past easy flirtation, a casual touch, a kiss. Everything female inside her roused, a primal awareness. He stared at her as though he wanted her naked beneath him and the idea sent a flush of warm shivers through her body.
Her gaze dropped to his mouth, the intriguing slash of his scar. He wanted her. The knowledge filled her with feminine confidence. This was it, what she needed, to see him the same as she did any man. It’s who she was, what she was good at. She’d been holding back and it’d messed with her head. She wouldn’t hold back anymore.
Strong, male, Joe was all that she needed. Her body wanted his, wanted the hard unyielding feel of him, on her and in her. That’s all. Nothing more. No emotions beyond the want of him.
She closed the small distance between them, licked her lips, anticipation thrumming through her veins.
“Kate,” he said, a warning so soft and weak it was meant to be ignored.
She flicked her gaze to his, rose to her tiptoes, her hands finding the rough waistband of his jeans for balance. “Remember what I said about me and flirting?”
“You know what you’re doing?” he asked, his arms still knotted across his belly, his voice a low rough whisper.
Kate leaned in, her breasts brushing against his chest and flicked her tongue over the scar on his lip. “I know.”
As though released from a spell, Joe’s stoic body came to life in a fluid rush of movement. His arms opened, his mouth taking hers, covering her lips with his moist heat. One hand slipped around her back, the other fell to her hip, and his whole body pushed her backward to the file cabinets, his hand cushioning her back when they hit.
His hard muscled frame pressed into her, from the firm swell of his chest to the stone line of his sex along her belly. She welcomed him, eager, circling an arm over his shoulder, the other under his arm and around his back. She pulled him closer, tighter, opened her legs to nestle his body where she wanted him most.
His hips rocked the swell of his sex against her, his mouth stealing her breath, drawing her deeper and deeper into his kiss. Heat swirled through her body and mind, pooling like liquid fire between her legs, her heart a thundering clamor in her ears. She breathed him in, the scent of his cologne, the musky aroma of the man. His taste salted her lips, warmed along her tongue and down her throat like an exotic liqueur.
Joe shifted his weight, dropped his mouth to her neck behind her ear. His hand smoothed up from her hip catching under her blouse, palm rough and warm along the flesh of her ribs. His thumb stroked her, the very tip brushing the bottom swell of her breast through her bra.
Her breath caught and Joe crushed against her, imprinting the feel of his stiff cock along her belly. His thumb stroked again, and again, moving higher each time until it teased over the firm tent of her nipple. He pressed his hips into her, his hand taking the full weight of her breast into his palm, squeezing, molding the sensitive flesh.
Kate’s breaths came ragged from her lungs, her fingers digging into the hard muscles of his back. His kisses on her neck turned to nibbles, then to bites, not breaking the skin but scraping, tasting, sending jolt after jolt of sensation trembling through her body.<
br />
He pulled back, brushing the rough stubble of beard along her cheek and found her lips just as his fingers pinched the tender pucker of her nipple through her bra. She moaned into his mouth, her body liquefying.
“You two almost fuckin’ done or you need another minute?”
Clayton. Kate jerked back, gasped.
Joe growled, “Give us twenty.”
Chapter Five
“So…what’d he say?” Ginny asked, absently brushing the same spot on Wizard’s rump for the last five minutes.
Kate shrugged. “Nothing.”
“Nothing? You two practically boink each other right there in your office and he hasn’t said anything? I can’t believe it.”
“Believe it.” Kate smoothed a hand down the back of the mare’s front leg, pinching the hollow above her fetlock. Wizard’s ankle crooked on reflex and Kate leaned into her, lifted, so the horse bent her knee and curled her leg back for Kate to clean out her hoof.
“Wow, guess I was wrong,” Ginny said. “Thought he really liked you. Guess he was just taking what was offered. Y’know, like a free candy dish.”
Kate glanced up at her.
“Oh. No offense,” Ginny said. “I mean, you’re great. He’d be lucky to have you. But you’d think if he was interested in anything more he’d have come talk to you, sent out some feelers. Y’know, ask how you’re feeling about what happened, what comes next, what you both want out of this. Normal stuff.”
Kate let Wizard’s foot drop and she straightened. “We really haven’t had a chance.”
“It’s been three days. You avoiding him?”
“I’ve been busy.” Kate shooed Ginny out of the way so she could clean Wizard’s back hoof. “We haven’t been alone.”
“In three days?” Ginny backed up and leaned against the wall on the other side of the stable aisle. She bent her leg, propping her Timberland hiking boot knee high, sole flat against the wall. “Trust me. If he was interested in starting something he’d find a way to get you alone.”
The same thought had been swimming around in Kate’s head for the last few days. Never mind that she hadn’t made any attempts to talk to Joe either. Why should she? She knew how the conversation would go. She’d had it plenty enough times before.
“There’s nothing to say. It didn’t mean anything. We just got carried away.” The words rattled out of Kate like a platitude. It wasn’t the first time she’d said them, certainly not the first time she’d heard them. And for some reason she couldn’t stomach hearing them from Joe.
So maybe she had been avoiding him. Kate dropped Wizard’s back hoof and straightened with a casual glance down the long aisle of the stable. Wheelbarrows dotted the wide corridor. The campers were cleaning stalls.
Sunshine’s stall was the farthest down, toward the ring end of the stable, and as Kate watched, Joe stepped out from the stall, pitchfork overflowing with dung and straw. Dumb luck made him glance her way.
Distance and the afternoon sun shining bright cast his features in shadows, but she could see his nod, knew he’d smiled. Her belly fluttered and Kate turned away without so much as a wave.
“I don’t know how you do it,” Ginny said while Kate lifted Wizard’s other back foot. “I’ve never been good at the catch-and-release thing. Besides, Joe’s a pretty hot fish to be throwing back.”
“Some fish aren’t made for captivity.”
“How can you tell?”
He’s male. “I don’t attract any other kind,” Kate said, matter-of-fact, dropping Wizard’s foot. She backed up and smoothed her hand down the back of Wizard’s front leg to clean her last hoof.
“Uh, Kate…”
Kate looked at Ginny who’d pushed away from the wall. She stood with the tips of her fingers dipped into the front pockets of her cut-off jean shorts, her ice-blonde hair in pigtails beneath a red bandana. Her “hundred-percent genuine cowgirl” T-shirt hugged so tight over her breasts and around her small ribs, reading it seemed an invasion of her privacy.
She was smiling, her head tilted to the side, her hip bouncing just enough to jiggle the parts of her that looked best in motion. Kate knew that look and followed her gaze. Her heart skipped.
Joe was striding down the long corridor toward them, his arms swinging easy at his sides. The sleeves of his black Western shirt were rolled to his elbows, exposing thick muscled forearms brushed with dark hairs to match the wavy silk strands on his head.
The first few pearl-like snaps at the dress collar were open, a small patch of tanned male chest peeking from underneath. The bottoms of his jeans bunched over his sneakers and he sported a three-inch silver belt buckle above his groin. She knew Joe had gone back to Sherman’s Feed Store. Apparently it wasn’t all business.
“What do you do if the fish jumps back in the boat?” Ginny asked.
Kate dropped Wizard’s foot and swallowed the cotton-ball feel at the back of her throat. “I don’t know. It’s never happened.”
“Well, grab a net,” Ginny mumbled through her smile-locked teeth. “Hi, Joe.”
“Hey, peanut.”
Ginny’s smile brightened. “You’re lookin’ good enough to ride in those cowboy clothes.”
“That right?” He winked at her, his smile a gentle curve of his lips. His gaze slid to Kate and his expression warmed. “Kate.”
“Hey. Um, nice duds.” She cringed at the comment, wishing she’d stuck with “Hey.”
Joe looked back to Ginny. “Give us a second, hon?”
“Sure.” Ginny glanced at Kate as though double-checking she wanted the privacy and then back to Joe. “Don’t forget to lock the door this time.”
Joe’s face flushed, not much but enough to show he wasn’t completely unaffected. He waited until Ginny had sashayed far enough away then turned to Kate.
“You gonna tell me?” He hooked his thumbs on the back pockets of his jeans.
“Tell you what?”
“Your first time.”
Seriously? Kate shut her mouth and turned to collect the grooming supplies scattered around Wizard’s feet. “What are you, eight? I’m busy, Joe. Go play with the other kids.”
She could hear him shuffling along behind her into the tack room. She could feel his presence over every part of her body. And the urge to lean back into his hard chest, let him wrap his arms around her, let him kiss her, touch her…was damn annoying.
She didn’t expect a testament to his undying love. But an indication that he didn’t think of her as a free candy dish would’ve been nice. Why did she care? She never had before.
“Gimme a break, dollface. I’m tryin’ here.”
“My first time? That’s the best you could come up with? Forget it.” She shoved the brushes into their coffee-can nooks on the wall and dropped the hoof pick into the bucket with the others.
“Right.” He exhaled loud, almost a sigh. “Time’s up. You had your space, but enough’s enough. It’s not safe.” There was a gruffness in his voice, a frustration that wasn’t there a moment ago, as though he’d suddenly lost patience—or hope.
Kate spun on her heel, caught his flinch. “Fine. You wanna know about my first time? I was thirteen.” She gathered the tack she’d need for her ride. “He was fourteen. We did it in the backseat of my father’s limo on the way to school. I loved him and I thought he loved me. He didn’t. He fucked my best friend two days later and told me not to cry about it. After all, didn’t I know? I’m the kind of girl boys want, but not to keep.”
She pushed past him before he could find words, the saddle and pad cradled over her arms, bridle draped over the velvet seat. Joe had to stumble out of the way to keep from getting the horn jabbed into his gut. Kate didn’t care. She hated that she’d told him that story. But more than that, she hated that the story was true.
It’d happened years ago. She was over it. But retelling the story was like a fresh stab to her heart. She didn’t want to be that girl anymore. She wanted to be the kind of girl boys kept.
&nb
sp; “You going somewhere?” Joe asked as she slung the saddle and pad to Wizard’s back.
“Guess.”
“Where ya going?” Clayton asked, coming from the office behind her.
“To the beach. Any more stupid questions from the male population on this farm?” God she must be getting close to her period. She felt bitchy.
“Wait for me.” Joe headed toward the other end of the stable at a jog.
“Hey. It’s not the kiddy trail, buddy,” she called after him. Joe didn’t answer, didn’t stop. Screw it. He was on his own.
“You gonna wait for him?” Clayton asked.
Kate slipped the halter off the big mare’s head and fitted the bridle in her mouth and over her ears. “Use your powers of observation and tell me what you think.”
“Listen, Kate.” Clayton took the reins while she tightened the girth around Wizard’s belly. “I’m a founding member of the Garity’s-an-ass club, but whoever’s been sending you those notes and pictures is a couple crayons short of a box. You shouldn’t be alone. Not so far out. Not ’til we know more.”
“The safest place for me is on this horse’s back.” She snagged the reins from his hand. “I can outride anyone. I need to get out of here, Clay. I need to…get away from him.”
Tears stung her eyes. She blinked and looked away, doing her best to keep them from falling.
“You got your cell?”
Kate tapped the credit-card thin phone in her breast pocket, then led Wizard the few feet out of the stable.
Clayton followed and waited as she mounted. “There’s a storm coming.”
“It won’t rain on me,” she said. “Wouldn’t dare.”
“Where is she?”
“She needs some space, Garity. Kate knows these woods better than anyone and she can stick to a saddle like nobody’s business. She’ll be fine.” Clayton hadn’t even looked up from the computer at Kate’s desk.
Joe took another step farther into the office, Sunshine’s reins in his hands. If it weren’t for the horse standing outside the door he’d be crowding over Clayton, getting what he needed out of him more efficiently. “How do I find her?”