Laura felt chill bumps rise on her skin, and she shivered. “Are there blankets for the beds?”
“There should be. In the closet. And it’s not beds. It’s bed.”
“Pardon?” She finished diapering Elmer and dug in his bag for a warm pair of pajamas to put over what he already wore.
“There’s only one bed.”
“One!”
“That’s right. And for tonight, anyway, we’ll be sharing.”
Chapter 9
Heart thumping, Laura swung her gaze toward Max, though in the darkness, she couldn’t see his face. “Whoa. Think again, hotshot.”
He grunted. “No arguments. I’m in charge, remember? We’ll huddle together and surround Elmer to keep him and ourselves warm. Share body heat.”
Max turned, taking the flashlight, and headed for the closet.
Hugging Elmer against her chest, she scoffed. “And I suppose you think we should be naked to get the most benefit from each other’s body heat?”
In the dim glow of the flashlight, she saw him pause as he tugged a blanket from the closet shelf. “Now there’s an idea worth exploring.”
The seductive timbre of his voice fired a slow burn deep inside her. Memories of his kiss flickered though her thoughts again. She bit her lip, recalling the possessive heat of his mouth, the light scrape of his stubbled chin and the alluring taste of his lips. In her belly, an unwelcome desire coiled, and she cleared the tension from her throat before answering. “Get real, Caldwell. I’d sooner eat raw squid.”
“Some people consider squid a delicacy.”
“And I’m sure you have legions of women who’d love to cuddle naked under the sheets with you, but I’m not one of them.” She hoped her tone sounded convincing. Even as she denied her interest in him, an image of his naked body, welcoming her into his bed, flashed through her mind. A shot of pure lust streaked through her on its heels, leaving her trembling from more than the chilly draft that burrowed to the bone.
“Fine. Keep your clothes on. But we will share the bed, and we will get close. I, for one, have no intention of freezing my butt off because you’re squeamish about getting close to a man.”
“I’m not—” No sense denying it. She was nervous about snuggling up to Max, even if her reasons weren’t the ones that he thought. As much as a physical relationship with a hunk like Max appealed to her, she couldn’t be casual about sex. She was no prude, but for her, sex meant emotion, love…vulnerability. And that was exactly where her association with Max couldn’t go. She had no use for a broken heart when Elmer’s custody mess was resolved.
Elmer whimpered and wiggled against her. The poor fella had to be as cold as she was. Setting him back in his carrier, she tucked the thin blanket around him then draped Max’s coat on top, covering him up to his chin.
She blew in her hands to warm them, cupped her palms around the baby’s ears, then repeated the process.
Max dropped the blanket on the bed and turned toward her.
“Want first dibs on the bathroom?”
He pointed with the flashlight beam to the door on the far wall. She considered his offer, but also considered all sorts of crawly things that could be in there, in the dark, lurking. She shuddered. “Why don’t you go first and make sure it’s…safe. I’ll be fixing Elmer his bedtime bottle.”
In the beam of the flashlight, she saw Max shrug as he headed off to the bathroom. After tucking the blanket around Elmer, she dug in his diaper bag for some formula. “Are you hungry, sweetie? How about a yummy bottle?”
While she poured Elmer’s formula, her penlight in her teeth again, she listened to Max getting ready for bed. She heard him brushing his teeth, an occasional bump or clatter. Typical sounds in an atypical situation.
To a bystander, they probably looked like a family—husband, wife and baby. That impression could serve them well for cover. Who would suspect anything out of the ordinary about their happy little family unit?
Their happy little family….
She suppressed the pang that thought unleashed. She hadn’t been part of a family, a real family, in years. Twenty years.
“Okay.” Max’s voice made her jump.
“On oo at.”
He plucked the penlight from her lips. His fingers touched her lips again. More heated prickles. She groaned. How would she make it through a whole night huddled close to him?
“Did you say something?” His voice held a note of humor.
“I said, don’t do that! You scared me silly sneaking up on me like that!”
“I wasn’t sneaking. And the bathroom is safe. All clear. No monsters or bogeymen. And I saved our only flush for you.”
“Pardon?”
“No water tonight. Remember? The water in the toilet’s tank will give us only one flush, so I saved it for you. I didn’t really need to go, so I’ll wait ’til morning.”
“Oh, uh…thanks.” She screwed the top on Elmer’s bottle and handed it to Max. “Here. You start him eating. Good luck with it, too. He’s not likely to enjoy his dinner cold.”
He handed her the bigger flashlight, and she excused herself to the bathroom. Door closed, she shone the light around, examining the fixtures. Nothing fancy, but nice nonetheless. An old-fashioned claw-footed tub sat off to one side, renovated to include a showerhead and wraparound shower curtain. The toilet and pedestal sink were modern and in good condition. Plush dark green towels hung neatly on the rack, and she wondered if they’d been left out or whether Max had hung them up. She finished her business in short order and made her way to the bed again through the dark.
Max handed her Elmer, who fussed between sips of his cold bottle. She leaned over to give the baby’s head a soft kiss. The heavenly, unique scent of baby filled her nose, and she smiled. When she glanced up, Max stared at her with a peculiar expression.
“What?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. I…nothing.”
Turning toward the bed, he spread the extra blanket and folded back the covers. He sat on the edge of the bed to take off his shoes then padded in sock feet over to the door where he locked them in for the night. From beside the door, he picked up his rifle, presumably the one he’d brought from his house, and carried it over to the side of the bed.
The gun served as a stark reminder that, even at this remote cabin, the Rialto henchmen could find them. And then what? Laura hated even to consider the possibility. She wasn’t ready to die.
“When did you bring that in?” she asked as he checked that the rifle was loaded. She shivered again, but not from the cold. The pop of gunfire, smell of gunpowder and heat of flying bullets were too fresh in her memory.
“I got them from the car after I checked on the generator. Would you hand me the diaper bag?”
She did, and from a front pocket, he pulled out the handgun and set it on the nightstand.
With a short, humorless laugh, she shook her head. “You must love this. Getting to be Mr. Macho Action Hero…playing with your guns, the car chases…like in the he-man movies.”
He raised his head slowly, and even in the dim glow of the flashlight, his dark gaze cut through her. His face was set in hard, stern lines. “I assure you that none of this is fun for me. Someone I love is lying in a hospital in New Orleans, fighting for her life, and I’m not there for her. I’m in charge of a baby, without a clue how to take care of him. I’ve got men from the wrong side of the law after me, trying to take the baby. It’s the middle of Pee Wee football season, and I’ve disappeared without a word to my team. I’ve imposed on the guys at the fire station to cover for me without warning. And I’m stuck in a cold cabin with a woman who has a big mouth and a mountain of attitude. Trust me, sweetheart, this is far from my fantasy.”
He stared at her mutely, his jaw tight for a moment before huffing and dropping his gaze to the gun.
“I…I’m sorry,” she whispered hoarsely. “I only meant…never mind.” Why did she keep baiting him like that? He’d shown her kindness, to
lerance and selflessness, even under the difficult circumstances. She’d returned suspicion, sarcasm. Desertion. He didn’t deserve it.
She made a silent pledge to herself, to Max, to try to do better, to lose the “attitude.” She could keep him at arm’s length without being sarcastic, couldn’t she?
Sighing, she carried Elmer to the other side of the bed and crawled under the covers. The sheets were crisp and cold and held the faint scent of laundry detergent. Turning on her side, with her back to Max, she settled Elmer in the crook of her arm, holding his bottle so he could finish drinking. The bed shifted, squeaked as Max climbed under the covers.
“Laura.”
The intimacy of her name from his lips, spoken in the still darkness, drifted over her, warmed her like a favorite old bathrobe. It felt good, comfortable.
“Yes?”
“I…shouldn’t have laid into you like that. I apologize.”
“No. Don’t apologize. Everything you said was the truth. You were being honest and—”
The creak of the bed gave the only warning before he slid his arm around her. She jumped when he touched her and tensed her body.
Touching was so…personal. As much as she liked touching Max, keeping certain boundaries was more important. Dangerous emotions followed too closely on the heels of touching.
“Easy,” he crooned into her ear and pressed his long, muscled frame close behind her. “Just relax.”
Relax? Yeah, right!
“This would probably work better for Elmer’s sake if you put him between us.”
Yes. Between them was good. Very good.
“Right.” She scooted a hand under Elmer, who whined when his dinner was taken from him. With some maneuvering and Max’s help with the baby, she rolled to face Max. They repositioned Elmer on the bed between them, and she gave the infant his bottle once more. Elmer gave a tiny, contented sigh as he latched on.
The bed dipped slightly as Max moved closer. He wound his arm around her waist again, anchoring her body close, and tugged the covers over their heads.
The darkness wrapped around her like a shroud, and she fought down a swell of panic. Though she couldn’t see him, she felt Max’s breath as a warm caress on her cheek. His presence gave her a measure of comfort. She sensed his presence deep in her marrow, in a way she couldn’t describe. Just as she’d felt a void without him, a vulnerability, when she’d seen the Rialto goon at the diner, she knew a certain completion, a security with him beside her.
She focused on him, rather than on the dark. She smelled his toothpaste, a lingering hint of his cologne, and what she could only call his man scent. Sweat. Testosterone. Sex appeal.
For all that sharing the bed with him created an awkwardness, it also seemed…right. Destined.
Stop it.
She huffed her frustration with herself. Imagining any connection or kindred relationship with Max was pure craziness, a sure setup for a big letdown later. He’d made his feelings about her clear. She was an intruder, unwelcome on his mission to save Elmer. Untrustworthy. Inconvenient. With an attitude.
“Warmer?” His hand rubbed her arm.
“Mmm. Better.”
“You have another bottle ready for when he wakes up?”
“Um. No. I’ll fix a couple when Elmer gets his midnight snack.”
He grunted. “Hope they sell formula at the general store at the foot of the mountain. Next closest grocery store is probably twenty miles.”
She remained silent for several minutes, listening to Max breathe and Elmer suckle his bottle, while her thoughts tumbled over each other. She tried to focus on the sounds and scents that were Elmer’s rather than Max’s. The baby powder smell of the clean diaper, the milky-sweet aroma of the formula and the tiny, contented sighs that were so precious she had to smile.
Then a demon doubt stole into her mind. “Max?”
“Hmm.”
“He will be all right. Won’t he?”
“Who?”
“Elmer.” She swallowed the emotion that clogged her throat. “Promise me that he’s going to be okay. That all this isn’t for nothing.”
His hand glided over her shoulder, along the curve of her throat and settled on her cheek. His warm touch both comforted her and stirred a wild flutter in her chest. An odd combination, yet unmistakable.
“He’ll be fine. With both of us defending him, caring for him, how could he lose?”
Sunlight filtered through the cabin’s shuttered windows, rousing Max from a light sleep. The twittering of birds heralded the morning, and the warm, curvy body snuggled under his arm reminded him of the night just past.
Sleeping beside Laura had been an exercise of pure frustration. Most of the night, while she and Elmer had slept, Max had lain awake, his nerves stretched tight, unbearably aware of her every breath and the fresh, soap-scrubbed scent of her skin. He’d gritted his teeth to endure the soft tickle when her unruly gold mane had brushed his arm, his cheek. Even now the thick riot of whiskey-colored curls spread across her pillow, spilled over her face and teased his cheek. The aroma of strawberries taunted him. Her wild hair intrigued him, and seeing it rumpled from sleep was a powerful turn-on.
But then, having her feminine body snuggled against his had kept him aroused all night. He’d thought sharing the bed was a good idea. For Elmer’s sake. He’d thought having Elmer between them would serve as a sufficient buffer.
He’d been wrong.
The long, sleepless hours of the night had been torture.
He had a new appreciation for mules goaded to walk by a carrot dangled before them. For the child allowed only to window-shop at a candy store and for the quarterback whose fourth down sneak play falls inches shy of the goal line.
The taunting memory of her unexpected kiss in the car only deepened his frustration.
Not bad.
Man oh man, how he ached to kiss her senseless, to blot any hint of not bad from her mind with a heavy dose of damn good, of mind-numbing, of incredibly satisfying.
Elmer wiggled, grunted and, like an attentive mother, Laura immediately stirred. Her eyelids fluttered open, and she peered down at the baby. But with a snuffle and a sigh, Elmer nestled in, drifting back to sleep.
Elmer had only wakened twice in the night. Each time he’d drunk a full bottle of formula, had gotten a dry diaper, and had easily returned to sleep. Lucky kid.
Laura’s gaze rose slowly from the baby to Max’s face. When she found him watching her, a sexy pink blush stained her cheeks. Her lush lips twitched, pulled into a groggy smile. Desire, as thick and sweet as syrup on pancakes, flowed through his veins. Her mouth begged to be kissed.
“Good mornin’.” The sleepy, provocative rasp in her voice was his undoing. He’d show her a good morning!
Sweeping wisps of wavy, gold hair behind her ear, he captured her chin with his fingers and seized her mouth with his. She gasped her surprise but made no attempt to break free. Her capitulation encouraged him, fanned his arousal. Slowly, her lips came to life under his, responding with an equal enthusiasm and shattering hunger.
Careful not to squash Elmer, he shifted his body onto hers, pressing her into the mattress with his weight. He angled his mouth to more fully possess hers, and she looped her arms around his neck.
Their teeth clicked. Their tongues parried and lunged. Their lips ravaged and plundered. He felt himself sinking into a mindless abyss of pure sensation. His body throbbed with need and drowned in a scorching, sweet oblivion.
He savored the intoxicating taste of her lips, reveled in the gentle suction of her mouth and lost himself in the erotic grinding of her hips against his rock-hard groin.
When he covered her breast with his hand, her nipple beaded and thrust against his palm. A fresh, fiery surge of lust streaked through him, and he groaned. He wouldn’t be satisfied until he was buried deep inside her. With his tongue, he imitated the primitive coupling his body ached for. Then, gentling the kiss, he traced her lips with feather-light strokes.<
br />
Laura sighed her pleasure, and he sealed their mouths again. She flirted with his lips, giving him nibbling kisses until he caught her lip in his teeth and tugged lightly. She moaned and surrendered to him with an openmouthed kiss, full of heat and wanting.
His body was on fire. His hunger for her consumed him with hot, licking flames.
Until Elmer released a piercing wail.
The baby’s cry brought Max crashing down to earth, dousing his overheated desire with cold reality.
What the hell was he doing?
He rolled off Laura faster than a guilty teenager caught necking in his parents’ living room. Had they somehow crushed Elmer in their frenzy? He leaned across Laura and discovered that Elmer wasn’t squashed, but only awake, wet and hungry.
She lifted the baby onto her chest, and his whimpers subsided as he snuggled against her. Laura cuddled him close while sucking in deep breaths that told him she hadn’t quite regained her composure. When she licked her lips, Max’s gaze flew to the swollen evidence of his rough kisses.
Propping up on one arm, he raked his free hand through his hair and sighed. “Sorry about that. I…lost my head for a little while.”
Her turquoise gaze darted up to meet his.
“You just looked so beautiful…all rumpled and sleepy and—”
“No, don’t apologize. I wasn’t thinking clearly, either.” She flashed him a sheepish grin. “Just got carried away for a minute.”
He bit the inside of his cheek. He couldn’t kiss her again, no matter how much he wanted her. He had to keep his focus on Elmer. Still, an urgent need for her approval battered his soul.
He struggled to keep his expression bland—for his pride’s sake. “Just the same, it was…not bad.”
“Mmm-hmm, not bad.” She sat up, holding Elmer against her chest and patting the baby’s back.
She’d slipped into the maternal role like changing shoes. Her loving concern for Elmer seemed always at the ready. That was good. Elmer needed, deserved that attention. And he wasn’t, wasn’t jealous of his nephew.
In Protective Custody Page 11