CHAPTER TWO
What was it about women and high heels? Rick didn’t know but this one looked damn cute, even in a wedding dress. He watched her wobble up the driveway and would have helped, but he had a suitcase in one hand and a hunch they were both safer at a discreet distance—until she lost her balance.
He couldn’t prevent the fall, but he could cushion the blow and he dove forward, letting her crash on top of him instead of the solid ground. He took the hit with a hard grunt as his back made painful contact with the walkway step. He sucked in a ragged breath and was caught off guard by her fragrant, arousing scent.
Damn but she was something else. Even with the wind knocked out of him, he was aware of her, and not just because her soft flowing hair tickled his face. She was feminine and soft, everything a woman should be and yet this pink-haired enigma was uniquely herself.
“Are you okay?”
He wasn’t sure who asked the question first.
“Nothing bruised but my pride,” she admitted. “You?”
“I’ve taken harder spills sliding into second.”
“Baseball?”
“Softball against neighboring police departments.” The inane conversation did little to take his mind off the fact that he had her in his arms again. The desire licking at him grew stronger, something she couldn’t possibly feel with all that plush lace between them. But despite the dress, he could feel plenty and it was time to untangle their bodies before he made an ass of himself by kissing her senseless. “Think you can get off before you crush me?”
“Is that a veiled reference to my weight?” she asked.
Only a confident female could joke like that, cementing the impression that she wasn’t at all like other women. She rolled off to one side and he missed the light pressure against him.
He glanced over and stifled a laugh. Instead of an easy release, she’d tangled herself further in the dress. “You know what they say. If you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself.” He let out an exaggerated groan and rose to his feet. Then he bent down and lifted the fluffy white bundle into his arms.
“What are you doing?” She grabbed for his neck and held on tight.
His back had taken the brunt of the fall and he wasn’t about to risk a repeat episode. “Protecting my vital body parts from further injury.”
“Funny, you felt pretty intact to me.”
He sucked in a sharp breath. So much for the illusion of safety beneath the layered dress. He wanted her and she knew it.
A woman fresh from a broken engagement, one who affected him this strongly, was dangerous. She also was fun, something he just now realized he hadn’t had in a long while. Life had become routine. It was a sad commentary if he could consider his mother and her small female army of recruits routine. But Kendall wasn’t one of his mother’s women and he liked her more for it.
He strode up the walk, leaving the luggage behind and even managed the steps leading to the house with her in his arms. Without warning, the door opened wide. Pearl Robinson, the female renter of her aunt’s house and one half of an elderly couple living in sin, as Pearl was so fond of telling everyone in town, stood before them.
“Eldin, we have company,” Pearl called over her shoulder. She’d been with Eldin Wingate forever. She smoothed her gray hair back in a bun. “I was expecting Crystal’s niece, but not two of you.” Her gaze traveled over both Rick and the woman in his arms. “You’ve been holding out on us, Rick. And you’ve been holding out on your mother too. Why just this morning, she was lamenting her grandchildless fate.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m not surprised.”
Pearl glanced over her shoulder. “Eldin, get your lazy behind out here,” she yelled, since Eldin hadn’t arrived quick enough to suit her. “And hurry up before he drops her.”
“There’s no chance of that,” Rick whispered in Kendall’s ear, not so much to reassure her as to allow himself another heavenly whiff of her fragrant hair.
“But you won’t mind if I don’t take any chances. Just in case.” She gripped her small, soft hands tighter around his neck.
He liked the feeling.
“I’m coming, woman.” Pearl’s other half came up beside her, a tall man with white hair and all his own teeth. Or so he claimed. “What’s so important you couldn’t bring our guests inside—” He took one look at Rick and his words came to an abrupt halt.
“Hey, Eldin.” Rick resigned himself to the inevitable questions.
“Hot damn, Officer.”
“Didn’t I tell you?” Pearl asked, looking at her significant other. “That’s the reason I won’t be marrying you anytime soon.” She turned to Rick and Kendall. “We’re living in sin,” she said, lowering her voice, not that there was anyone else around to hear.
“Damn woman won’t marry me for the most assinine reason.”
“Eldin has a bad back and I refuse to marry a man who can’t carry me over the threshold. Did I tell you we’re living in sin?” She dropped her voice again.
As Kendall laughed, her breasts brushed against Rick’s chest and his body completely overheated. “Can we come in before I drop her?” he asked.
“Excuse my manners.” Pearl pushed Eldin back and they cleared a path. “You go on now, Rick, carry your bride over the threshold.”
He’d never live this down. Rick paced the inside of the stifling hot guest house behind Crystal Sutton’s main house. Eldin had brought them over so they could “get settled,” while Pearl had insisted she needed to go to town for some groceries.
“Groceries, my ass,” Rick muttered. She wanted to tell the world that she’d seen Rick Chandler carry his bride over the threshold. Never mind that there’d never been a ceremony or that the bride and supposed groom had just met. Pearl hadn’t been listening.
The tightness in Rick’s shoulders increased. All he could do was hope that when his mother heard the gossip, she’d put an end to the foolishness. Raina would know that Rick hadn’t married or eloped again. She knew better than to buy into unfounded stories. But the news would spread, everyone in town speculating about Rick Chandler and the lady in the wedding dress he’d carried over the threshold.
He groaned and for the first time considered moving to a huge city where he could be anonymous in a large crowd. He shook his head, knowing it would never happen. Despite the memories here, he loved his family, friends, and the small-town feel of Yorkshire Falls too much to leave. But a man could dream, couldn’t he?
He glanced at the closed bathroom door where Kendall had gone to change. His bride. He rolled his eyes at the absurdity and swiped a hand over his damp forehead. Damn but it was like a sauna in here. He’d have to make sure Kendall got over to the General Store and picked up an A.C. unit.
Where was she, anyway? She said she’d needed to change out of the gown but that had been over ten minutes ago. He strode to the bathroom door and rapped twice. “You okay in there?”
“Sort of,” came the muffled reply.
He jiggled the handle and found the door locked. He knocked once more. “Open up for me or I’m kicking the door down.” He hoped it wouldn’t come to that. His back and shoulder muscles remained sore from the dive onto the driveway.
The door creaked open wide. He stepped inside in time to see her lower herself back onto the closed toilet seat and hang her head low between her knees. “I am sooo dizzy.”
He glanced at her, concerned. “It’s no wonder with that damn dress cutting off your circulation. I thought you were going to get out of it.”
“I tried, but it’s hot in here and I couldn’t unbutton the dress on my own, so I sat down for a minute. Then I got to thinking about my aunt and all the years she spent here. I stood up, got dizzy again . . .” She managed a shrug.
She liked to ramble, something he’d learned from talking to her by the side of the road. Her thoughts jumped from topic to topic, but one thing stuck with him. Her pain. Rick had lost his father when he was fifteen. He’d been you
ng, but not young enough so he didn’t remember the man. He’d been a hands-on father, attended all his boys’ baseball games and back-to-school nights.
“I lost my father a while back. I can understand what you’re going through now,” he said, compelled to open up to this woman for reasons he didn’t understand. Reasons that made him wary. But he didn’t censor himself. “It was twenty years ago. I was fifteen,” he said, remembering. “But sometimes the pain is as fresh as if it were yesterday.”
Rick met Kendall’s moist gaze and his heart twisted with understanding. He hadn’t expected to connect with her on any level, especially not on the emotional one he normally walled off. He was surprised he understood this stranger, this woman, so well. “I’m sorry about your aunt.” He hadn’t said so earlier and meant to.
“Thanks.” Her voice held a rough timbre. “Same with your dad.”
He nodded. She and Crystal had obviously shared a special relationship. Family bonding was something else Rick could relate to. The Chandlers were closer than most, bonded by shared memories, both good and bad. With Kendall’s pain both new and raw, he found himself wanting to be the one to ease her anguish—and not because to serve and protect was in his job description.
He swallowed a groan. He’d been down this road once before and received a punch in the gut for his efforts. “Once you got light-headed, didn’t it dawn on you to call for help?” He directed them back to the problem at hand.
She tipped her head to the side. “Such a simple solution. Gee, why hadn’t I thought of that?”
He chuckled. “Too weak, huh?”
“Something like that. Help me?”
Her wide eyes got to him and he couldn’t resist her plea. “Where’s the best place to start?”
“Back buttons.” She hung her head forward, the pinkish red strands brushing against the stark white dress. When she felt better, he’d have to remember to ask her about the hair color, not that it mattered. He liked her anyway. And here he thought he preferred blondes, though he had to admit he hadn’t a clue what her real hair color was beneath the pink sheen.
He reached for the first pearlized button when the intimacy of the act struck him. He stood in the small bathroom undoing a bride’s dress. No memories rose to suffocate him since he and Jillian had eloped, Rick in uniform, Jillian in a maternity dress. At this point he was long over the hurt and way past the love. Last Rick had heard, Jillian and her husband were happily married with three kids, living in California. Done, gone, and forgotten except for the lessons learned, Rick thought.
Which was why this bride and the feelings she inspired shocked him. Though Kendall wasn’t his bride, that didn’t change the proprietary way she made him feel. The notion didn’t worry him as much as it would have if she was sticking around town.
Refocusing on his task, he released first one tiny button and then the next, revealing porcelainlike skin. She had a long graceful neck and an incredibly smooth back, one he wanted to kiss, as he trailed his tongue down her spine and tasted her, inch by delectable inch.
“Oh, that feels better already,” she said on a long exhale that bordered on orgasmic in tone.
If he wasn’t already damp from the heat, he’d have broken into a sweat. He leaned down, inches from acting out his fantasy, when she reached up and unwittingly swept some strands of hair off the back of her neck. Rick couldn’t resist temptation further. As he inhaled her fragrant scent, his lips whispered across her silken skin that was warm from the heat, damp from the humidity.
She trembled and let out a soft sigh, but she didn’t pull away nor did she deck him. All, Rick figured, a good sign that got even better when she turned her head and let her lips touch his.
His eyes closed as she answered his unspoken request, letting him taste her for the first time. Her mouth was warm, soft, and giving, feeding a hunger so strong it threatened to consume him. His heart hammered hard in his chest and his palms began to sweat, ridiculous for a nearly thirty-five-year-old man who’d kissed his share of women, but his reaction to this one had been intense from the start. He touched his tongue to her lips and fire leapt between them, the flames engulfing him from inside and out, but before he could seek entrance to her moist mouth, she broke the kiss.
She hung her head down and didn’t meet his gaze. “Sorry but it’s awkward.”
And here he thought she’d been willing. “You didn’t exactly say no,” he said, feeling as though he’d been punched in the gut.
She sat up straight, looked at him, and blinked in surprise. “I didn’t.” Her eyes opened wide as understanding dawned. “You thought I meant the kiss was awkward? Oh, no. The kiss was amazing.” An uneasy smile flirted across those lips. “But my position was awkward. Uncomfortable. Sort of like this conversation.” She shook her head and a flush rose to her cheeks. Then she grabbed the back of her neck and began a steady massaging of muscles that had obviously been twisted during the kiss.
Ridiculously relieved, he laughed before realizing how much he’d cared if she rejected him. “I’d offer to massage the kinks but I think we’d get in more trouble.”
“And as an officer of the law you need to stay clear of that kind of trouble?” Her eyes twinkled with mischief, her subtle meaning clear.
“Not during my off hours.” The words escaped before he could stop them.
She let out a laugh. “I do like you, Rick Chandler.”
“Feeling’s mutual, Ms. Sutton.” He grinned. Damn but he could get in deep with this woman. And wouldn’t that solve his current problem?
A relationship with Kendall would force his mother and the myriad women she sent after him to back off. Kendall’s unusual arrival would definitely spark gossip. The more wary women in town would steer clear until they knew whether Rick was involved with the newcomer, while the more brazen ones, like Lisa, needed a blatant, can’t-miss message. A message like Kendall, her pink hair, and wedding dress.
Not that he thought for one minute Kendall would go along with his insane idea to pretend they were involved in order to keep the women from Rick’s door. He didn’t even intend to suggest it, but he had to admit the plan had been a fun one while it lasted. “We still haven’t gotten you out of that dress,” he said at last.
“I’m right here waiting.”
He grit his teeth and finished the buttons on the dress with minimal fuss and conversation, focusing solely on his task and not the increasingly bared skin on her back.
He paused when his fingertips finally reached her waist. “How about I give you some privacy and you take things from here?” Because the next step would mean he’d be pulling down the top of the dress and revealing her bare breasts for view. It would mean he’d work the material lower, over her legs and then—
“That would probably be best.” Her voice stopped his daydream just in time.
“I’ll leave the door open.” He stepped toward the exit. “Yell if you need anything.”
“Will do.” She shot him a grateful smile.
“Good. Good.” Rick slipped out, escaping before he could indulge further in any need, be it his or hers.
The wedding gown hung from her waist as Kendall stared at her flushed reflection in the mirror. She wished she could blame the heat but knew her response to Rick’s lips on her flesh, his strong hands on her bare skin, was responsible.
She hadn’t expected him to kiss her, but the sexual tension humming between them couldn’t be missed. Neither could the bond created over understood grief. Add to that he’d been stripping her out of her gown, for God’s sake. How much more of an intimate act could there be? When his lips had touched her skin . . . her body shook now with the memory, her nipples puckering at the remembered sensation.
Kendall didn’t normally “do” brazen. But she’d needed to see his face and so she’d turned her head—and met his lips with hers. The kiss had rocked her world. He was so sexy he melted her insides with one look. So strong and sure he protected with a touch. He made her feel wanted.
And in doing so, he answered a need she hadn’t known still existed.
She’d always been the displaced child that no one wanted. And though Brian had desired her, he’d never given back emotionally. Their relationship had been a bargain. He’d gotten her the modeling jobs she needed to pay for her aunt’s care and she’d pretended to be his girlfriend to help him through a transition period after a breakup. Though their fake relationship had turned into a real one, she’d never connected with Brian.
Not like she had with Rick. One kiss and she’d felt more than a physical pull. Enclosed in the small bathroom with Rick had been a confinement of a different kind. A sensual kind. The kind she’d like to explore further. Why not? The surprising thought flashed through her mind.
So did the answers. She’d ended her engagement to Brian and a huge phase of her life just a few short hours ago. Though she hadn’t been in love with him, the whole ordeal had been traumatic. Though the dizziness had already passed, she splashed cold water on her face, then she shook her head and wrapped her icy, wet hands around the back of her neck for shock value.
She couldn’t be thinking clearly, not if she was tempted to indulge in a romantic interlude with a virtual stranger. Yet he felt like anything but. After all, she’d seen the desire in his eyes, felt the tremor in his calloused fingertips. Kendall wasn’t normally into affairs or quickies with men she barely knew, but Rick Chandler, his goodness and strength, his openness and giving, not to mention his sexiness, tested her resolve.
She changed out of the dress and reached for her casual clothes, leaving the bridal trappings on the floor in a discarded heap. The wedding was in her past. The open road awaited her in the future. Though it’d be wonderful to indulge in some T.L.C. and though Officer Rick Chandler might seem like the perfect man for the job, it wouldn’t be fair to him.
She couldn’t use him that way, no matter how good he made her feel. A man who lived in one place, who valued stability, and who was a family friend, was hardly the man to pick for an affair, assuming she was ready for one. Which she wasn’t, she assured herself.
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