“For once the talk won’t be about me,” she said.
Meeting her eyes as she smiled at him, he thought he could look at her for hours and not get tired of the sight. She returned to her salad, almost finished with her meal, like him. The anticipation of going home with her permeated his senses. God, he loved her.
And it hit him.
He was in love with her. How did he feel about that? His mind reeled. Should he be more careful? What if she couldn’t overcome her skeletons enough to accept him? To open her heart fully to him? What a cruel twist of fate that would be. For the first time ever, he’d found a woman he truly felt could go the distance and she might not feel the same.
But he wasn’t going to give up. She was coming around. Her forgiveness over his going to the victims’ officer proved it. She had feelings for him, she just hadn’t let them loose yet. And he had some ideas on how to prod her along. Some intimate ideas.
“Let’s go home,” he said, his passion coming out in his tone.
She met his eyes and he caught a flash of response. Locked with him in silent communication, heat brewing between them, she nodded. A surge of satisfaction coursed through him. He hoped she didn’t tear his heart out when this was all said and done.
Chapter 11
A tortuously sweet anxiety kept Lily’s pulse heavy as she led Wes up the stairs. The house was quiet. At the top of the stairs, she walked slowly toward her room, wondering if she should stop and drag him with her. She was still upset that he’d gone behind her back with the victims’ officer, but that didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. She could see that now. He hadn’t meant to hurt her. He was only being what he’d always been. Careful with her and her well-being. That’s what made her keep falling in love with him. How could she stay mad?
He took her hand when she started for her bedroom door. With a tug, she landed against him and met the intensity of his eyes. There was no mistaking his intent and the only answer in her heart was “yes.”
She slid her arms around his shoulders, smiling her love. He kissed her and their passion erupted. He backed her into his bedroom and fell with her onto the bed.
She pulled his shirt up and he unbuttoned hers. He unclasped her bra and she threw it over the side of the bed. He got up to get out of his jeans and watched her shimmy out of hers while still on the bed. He pulled her underwear off and lay on top of her, holding himself up with his hands on the mattress. Both of them breathed heavy.
He didn’t wait and she didn’t want him to. He pushed into her with one smooth motion. Sensation burst into a ball of flame that spread from there. She couldn’t get enough air, couldn’t kiss him enough. She moaned.
He pulled back and slid inside, going slowly and not pulling back again until he was as deep as he could get. He did that several more times, torturing her with a maelstrom of sensation.
“Wes,” she breathed. She felt hot and sweaty and shivery. The sensations made her tremble.
He groaned and began to move faster, impaling her with hard thrusts now. Her body jerked with each delicious pounding. Reaching above her head, she braced herself against the headboard, giving his thrusts more force.
She cried out her pleasure. He kissed her, taking the sounds into his mouth.
“Lily,” he breathed her name as she had his.
“Oh, God.” She was swept away on a tide of mind-numbing ecstasy.
Abandoning the headboard, she reached around him and grabbed his butt. She moved with him as he ground his hips against hers with each wet slide. He looked down at her, at her breasts as they jostled with his loving, and then lower. When he looked back up at her, he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her. She ran her fingers into his hair, and then let her hands fall to the mattress, closing her eyes.
“Look at me,” he whispered.
She opened her eyes and met the heat of his while he pushed into her and withdrew. Another sound burst from her as a powerful release followed, endlessly pulsing. He groaned, going deep one last time and holding himself there as his orgasm joined hers.
“Lily.” He kissed her cheek, her mouth. “I want you forever.”
I want you forever, too. The words were in her throat, nearly making it to her tongue, but she stopped herself. This was the most gritty sex she’d had in more than fifteen years. She felt a little vulnerable, a little uncertain.
Wes lay on her, catching his breath along with her. It was an erotic feeling, lying beneath him with her knees still parted. Naked. Exposed.
Lifting his head, breathing more calmly now, he pressed a tender kiss to her mouth and then looked down at her.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I know. It was like that for me, too.”
Powerful. Frightening.
“It’s okay, Lily.”
Was it?
He kissed her again and rolled to her side, pulling her back against him. They spooned. The sweetness of it warmed her. This was like nothing she’d experienced before. The urgency had some resemblance, but in all her wild encounters, none had held such poignancy. Relaxing in his arms, she let herself fall onto a cloud of love.
May waited for her mom to pick her up in front of the school, standing beside Levi. He made her feel so good. And everyone was starting to notice how much he liked her.
Yesterday, a girl on the cheerleading team had said hi to her. Today, she hadn’t noticed any mean looks. How great it would be to have people start liking her!
“You think your mom will let me take you to dinner this Friday?” Levi asked.
“I don’t know.” She was grounded until then. “I can ask her.” Maybe in her distraction she’d say yes.
“Text me when you find out.”
“Okay.”
He leaned toward her and her heart went like a rabbit when she felt him kiss her. Right in front of everybody!
But this morning her mom was acting different. And she was pretty sure it was because of Wes. They’d gone out to dinner or something and May heard them go into Wes’s room together.
She swallowed all the heat swelling inside her and looked up into Levi’s fantastic eyes. He smiled down at her.
“Wanna text all night?” he asked.
“Sure.” She laughed and hoped it didn’t sound too much like a girlish giggle.
She loved texting him. He was witty and cool.
“It sucks that you’re grounded. I can’t wait to take you out,” Levi said. “I don’t want to wait ’til Friday.”
“Me neither.”
“I gotta go. I’m supposed to drop some groceries off at my grandma’s. But I’ll text you as soon as I’m home, ’kay?”
“’Kay.” She beamed.
He turned and walked away. She headed for the street, looking for her mom in Wes’s Jeep. She wasn’t here yet. A man standing outside a car caught her attention. Was he looking at her?
She couldn’t see him from here. Was he a senior? His car was old and dented on the driver’s door and the white paint was dull. She didn’t know what kind of car it was. She stopped at the curb and waited for her mom.
The man didn’t move. He was definitely looking at her. What for?
Spotting Wes’s Jeep, she felt better. The guy gave her the creeps.
Getting into the Jeep, she shut the door.
“Hey, sweetie,” her mom said. She looked really happy today.
“Hey. Did you and Wes make up?”
“What do you mean?”
“He said he made a mistake…and you’re…I don’t know…glowing.”
Lily laughed briefly. “We aren’t kids anymore, May.”
“You did make up with him,” May teased.
Her mom just kept smiling. May looked out the back window. The strange man had gotten into his car and now he had turned and driven the other way down the street. She’d see if he was there again tomorrow. If he was, she’d tell her mom. She faced forward and bolstered her nerve to ask her mom about Levi.
“Yes?”
“Is it okay if I go out with Levi this Friday? He wants to take me to dinner.”
Her mom looked at her dubiously.
“I promise that’s all we’ll do. I’m not lying this time. I swear.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“I’m supposed to tell him tonight.”
“Is he going to call you?”
“Text.” All night! That just tickled her insides.
“Then tell him I have to think about it. He can wait a day.”
May wanted to groan. She didn’t want to wait. But she kept her mouth shut. Her mom might not let her go if she pushed too much.
The next day Lily still didn’t know if she would let May go out with Levi. She handed a young woman her stack of books and saw Finn walk into the library. It was the middle of the afternoon. Was he here for a book or to see her? She was surprised when he came to stand at the counter.
“Hello, Lily.”
“Finn?”
“I just wanted to stop by and tell you how glad I am that you and Wes are hitting it off.”
Really?
“I didn’t get a chance to tell you that the day before yesterday. When I said I’d heard a lot about you, I didn’t mean…”
“It’s okay. I’m used to it. It’s nice of you to stop by and—”
“No. What I meant is that Wes has told me nothing but good things about you.”
Oh. She perked up. “Really?”
“Yes. I mean, I’ve heard all the rumors like everyone else.” He rolled his eyes. “How can you avoid it?” Then he smiled like a doctor who’d had a lot of face-to-face time with his patients. “But what he’s told me about you just goes to show what a waste of energy all that is.”
Lily felt her smile grow big. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. I hope you and Wes make it as a couple. He’s been alone too long. I’d like to see him happy.”
A woman appeared behind Finn, checking out a rack of audio books located near the front counter. Finn saw her and went still. Lily wondered if he knew the woman.
She disappeared around the end of the rack and walked away, heading to another part of the library.
Finn turned away and faced Lily again.
“Someone you know?”
“Someone I haven’t seen in years. Rachel Grant’s cousin Carly.”
“Oh, yeah. Bonnie Gene introduced me to Rachel once. How do you know her?”
“We went to school together.” He got a faraway look, one tinged with what Lily could only call bitterness. “I’m glad she didn’t see me.”
“Don’t want it getting back to Rachel that you’re here, huh?” she teased. Clearly Rachel was a high-school love that he hadn’t for gotten.
“I’d rather not have to deal with the drama.”
Lily laughed lightly. “One of those, huh?”
He smiled, but it was full of derision. “I’ll get out of your hair now. I just wanted to stop by and make sure you didn’t misinterpret what I said.”
“It’s no trouble. Thanks for stopping by. I really appreciate it.” Was it just her or were more and more people in town beginning to warm up to her?
Finn left and a few minutes later Wes came strolling in.
Lily shook her head, more from delight than amazement. “You just can’t stay away from libraries, can you?”
“Only this one.”
“It’s a little early for dinner,” she teased.
“I thought I’d make dinner for you tonight.”
“It would be nice to see my daughter.”
“Your dad, too.”
That dimmed her spirit some. “He’d be happier having dinner with his nurse.”
Wes chuckled. “Actually, I came here for a work-related reason.”
There went the rest of her spirit. “Oh.”
“But I’m not above using it for an excuse to see you.” She smiled.
“Someone came forward today about the flowers,” he said, growing serious. “A boy who lives in Karen Hathaway’s neighborhood. He said she offered to pay him to buy the flowers and have them delivered to you.”
What kind of person would put a kid up to that sort of thing? A disturbed one, that’s for sure. The boy had probably carried his burden around, especially if he’d learned of the vandalized truck and the fire. “Did you confront Karen about it yet?”
He nodded. “And she confessed to the vandalism when I pressed her. She said finding out that you’d moved back upset her. It caused her to fight with her husband, even though when I questioned him he took her side. Just like the first time I talked to him.”
“Jealousy can be so ugly.”
“She denied trying to set the library on fire, though.”
Lily stared at him as the implications of that sank in. “Do you believe her?”
“Yes. Sending flowers with a cryptic message and vandalizing someone’s property are benign compared to trying to hurt someone.”
Or worse. “Do you think whoever started the fire intended for me to die?”
“It had to cross their mind as a possibility. Yes, I think whoever started it was hoping you’d be trapped inside. Otherwise, why the library? They could have started your house on fire, but they singled you out. Your daughter and your dad would have been in the house. You were alone in the library. Somebody is mad as hell at you.”
And Lily could think of only one person who had reason to be mad at her.
“Is there anyone else in town who might have the motive to hurt you?”
Lily shook her head. But then again…
“There are a lot of people who don’t like me,” she said.
“Yeah, but enough to start a building on fire?”
Lily turned, rubbing her arms. She felt sick to her stomach. “The victims’ officer said Brandon moved to North Carolina.”
“Yes, and I checked. He did move there.”
She faced him again. What was going on?
“We don’t have much to go on. The arsonist used a rock wrapped with rayon cloth, probably from a blouse. There’s nowhere around here that sells that kind of thing, so the arsonist probably already had it with them when they came to throw it through the window.”
Which could support the idea that Brandon had come from North Carolina, rayon cloth in tow.
“If it was Gates, I doubt he would have brought anything from his house or the house of any his relatives. Too much of a risk. If it was him, he probably bought the material, like a shirt, and picked up the rock on the way.”
“It was him, wasn’t it?” Lily felt numb inside. Was he going to try to hurt her again?
Wes sighed. “We don’t know. I have someone checking to see if he left town. And let’s not discount the possibility that it’s someone in Honey Creek. Karen could be lying, too.”
Maybe. But Lily wasn’t comforted. She was going to start watching her back.
“What will happen to her?” Lily asked.
“She’ll probably be fined and be forced to pay restitution and maybe serve some community service. She’ll have to pay for your truck repair.”
She nodded. Fair enough.
“I’ve got to go talk to Eileen Curtis now. What time do you get off?”
“I have to go pick up May from school.”
“I’ll meet you at home then.”
Home. There was that word again. “Okay.” She was warm and tingly everywhere.
He stepped closer, leaning in to kiss her. He moved his mouth over hers in a subtle but sexy caress, enflaming her in an instant. When he lifted his head, she was breathless and hot all over.
“Don’t go anywhere else. Pick May up and go home, okay?”
She nodded, wanting him to kiss her again.
“I won’t be long,” he said.
He turned and left and Lily put her fingers over her lips, more in love than ever.
Wes walked into Curtis Real Estate and waited in the entry for Eile
en to get off the phone. Several minutes later, she did and appeared in the doorway of her office.
“Sheriff.” She sounded surprised. “Come in.”
He went into her office and sat in a chair before her desk. She sat behind it, watching him warily. There was a vase of yellow roses on the desk and everything was tidy. Pictures on the wall were Mediterranean. Elegant. Didn’t fit the profile of a killer.
But he had a job to do.
“I know your name isn’t really Eileen Curtis,” he said, knowing it would feel like a bomb dropping on her refined new world.
Her back stiffened, straightening her posture while her lips parted slightly. He saw her chest rise and fall faster.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re real name is Tina Mueller. You left Atlanta after your stepfather was killed.”
“That isn’t my name.”
He didn’t argue with her. “I’m here to ask you where you were the night Mark Walsh was murdered.”
“Wh-what…I don’t understand. You think I killed him? Is that why you came here the last time?”
Last time he’d asked her about the first time Walsh had supposedly died. He hadn’t asked her where she was when he was actually killed because he didn’t want her to think she was a suspect. But the time was right now.
“I’m here to ask you some questions.”
“I didn’t kill anyone.”
“You’re wanted for murder in Atlanta.”
“I am not.”
“Eileen Curtis isn’t, but Tina Mueller is.”
“I told you, that isn’t my name.”
“Then you shouldn’t have any problem answering my questions.”
She didn’t say anything and he wondered if she was contemplating whether to get a lawyer.
“Did Mark Walsh arrange for you to take over the identity of Eileen Curtis?”
Wes had spoken with her ex-husband over the phone and he’d never suspected a thing. She’d protected her identity very well. It only convinced Wes all the more how much she valued her freedom and her new way of life. But if she killed Walsh…
Still, she remained silent.
“Did he?” he pressed.
“I told you, I never met him.”
The Librarian’s Secret Scandal Page 17