by Mary Brady
He reached for her and she took a quick step back.
“Wait there,” she told him and started a slow deliberate strut away from him.
“Are you trying to make me crazy?”
“Ooh, the corporate mogul being forced to cool his—um—jets. Maybe this will help?” She reached for the tail of her shirt, stripped it deliberately over her head, and dropped it on the floor behind her as she continued in a slow strut down the hallway toward her bedroom. A few more steps and she stopped. Her jeans she shimmied down and left on the floor where they had dropped and then she resumed her saunter. Without turning, she reached behind her and unhooked her bra. That she dangled from her fingertips and let drag on the wooden floor of the hallway as she walked toward her room. In the doorway she let it go.
“You’re killing me here.” His voice was low and dangerous with an underlying growl.
“I just want to make sure you can find your way to me,” she said as she disappeared inside. “Wouldn’t want the big-city guy to get lost in the Wild West.”
His chuckle was a delectable threat.
“You can come now.” She waved her panties out the door. “This way.”
She had no idea he was so close until he snatched the panties off her fingertip, and reached in to grab her wrist. He held her naked body against him with one hand while he shed his clothing with the other. He moved faster than she ever imagined a one-armed man with a naked woman pressed against him could.
“There are some things that are very similar in the big city and in the Wild West.” He dipped his head, she thought he was going to kiss her lips but he reached lower and caught her nipple in his mouth taking a deep drag. She dug her fingers into his dark hair and rode the sensations while he moved to her other breast and then down her belly.
Nothing was more right than this.
“The bed, Reed.” Her voice came out in a whispered pant. “I want you…to take me to…bed not…in the doorway.”
“Too big city for you?”
“Too confined.”
“I like the Wild West more and more all the time.”
“You’re sure?”
He took half a step back and she was rewarded with the sight of everything she imagined he might be and more. If he had glistened with oil or been deeply tanned, he could not have looked better, and she had absolutely no doubt he could satisfy her every need.
“I can take you in the bed, but not to the bed. The doctor told me not to lift anything heavy for a few days,” he said, interrupting her ogle.
“I guess I can’t take offense at that.” She circled the tip of his eager penis with her finger. “Under the circumstances.”
He grabbed her hand and lifted her fingers to his lips. “None intended.”
She turned her palm to his and led him to the bed. “I don’t want to be the reason you have to see the doctor tomorrow.”
She flicked on the bedside lamp, tossed two of her extra pillows lengthwise down the far side of her double bed, and motioned for him to lie down. He lay on his side and grinned up at her as she slid in beside him.
Propped up on one elbow, he began exploring her body with his other hand.
“You’re beautiful,” he said and then pressed his lips to hers.
Abby used her tongue lovingly to stroke his. She reveled in the feeling of doing something for herself, totally for herself, not worrying about the world.
She slid her hand on Reed’s hip and down the sleek muscles of his thigh, then up to the swell of his butt. She caressed everything she could reach that didn’t involve a bandage.
When he dipped in with his fingers, she gasped at the exquisite feeling and then leaned over and grabbed a condom, any condom, from her bedside table, ripped the package open and slid the condom in place.
He leaned in and kissed her, but when he started to move over her, she stopped him and pushed him onto his side. “I’m afraid you might hurt something. I’ve got a better idea.”
She faced him and stretched out to fit against the length of his body. Lifting her top leg over his she shifted until he was poised to enter her. She stared into his eyes as she tucked her body against him, taking all of him inside her.
He filled her. She could never want more than him.
“How’s that?” The strained words squeaked out of her throat.
He didn’t answer, but rocked back and then forward, staring at her until she smiled. With his free hand, he teased her breasts and nipples with his fingers.
He smiled and then kissed her lips and then her nape and murmured something unintelligible at the dip at the base of her neck.
She dropped her head back and sighed. “Yeah, me, too.”
Satisfied she wouldn’t accidentally hurt him, Abby added her own rhythm. The combination quickly absorbed her.
She let the feelings of pure desire, pure pleasure capture her. She tingled body and soul for this man. She wanted what he would give her, and she trusted him to give her everything she needed.
He moved inside her and she rode the thrill to the brink and then forced herself back. Reed seemed to be with her every step of the way, and when she leaned away to look into his face, he gave her a smoky smile.
Reed Maxwell could take care of himself in bed. Liberation.
It had been so long— No, it had been never. She had never felt so free to feel her own pleasure. She reached around and pressed him farther inside her and he sucked in a quick breath at the added sensation.
She grinned and he thrust deeper.
A sudden demanding, entirely pleasing kind of discontent seized Abby and she moved faster.
“Reed?”
“Go ahead, Abby. Go ahead.”
She let the explosion take her. Rushes, exquisite pulsations rocked her and Reed obliged her until he bucked against her one final time.
Then they clung to each other breathing hard, neither wanting to relinquish the moment.
“Mmm,” she said after a while as she nuzzled the fine hair of his chest. “Mmm yourself.”
She reached up and flicked off the lamp.
In the blink of darkness that followed it was as if she had, by some mysterious force, flipped another kind of switch. This time when they made love, their desperate need surprised her, but took her even higher than their initial coupling.
Abby wondered how often they could do this in one night and silently hoped they weren’t finished yet.
After a while, Reed went to the bathroom and when he returned, they lay side by side, facing each other.
He groaned in the darkness.
“Reed?”
In answer, he groaned again.
“What’s the matter?”
“I think I’m going to faint.”
She scrambled to her knees, and flicked on the bedside lamp. “Tell me.” She started feeling the area around the wound.
“Abby.”
“How bad do you feel? Is it the pain?”
“It’s the hunger.”
She stopped her probing and sat back. “After what we just did? Twice?”
“After, I didn’t eat since an early lunch and I don’t have any food in the apartment.”
She scowled at him. “That was pretty lame, bucko.”
“You can make me better by letting me have some of your food.”
“I probably should just skin ya and pin yer hide to the barn door fer scarin’ me like that.”
“You Western folk are pretty harsh.” He ran a finger over her lips and she leaned forward and gave him a lingering kiss on the mouth.
“Maybe I’ll make us both some food. I’ve got some bread and cheese and some nice fresh tomatoes. Grilled cheese?”
“Soon?”
She smiled.
“Soon as I find something to put on.” She pointed a finger at him. “And, yes, I am going to put clothes on.”
“That’s no fun.”
She slid on her robe. “You can wait here or come down and help. You are the injured hero after al
l.”
He climbed off the bed and crossed the room to where she stood. “I’m conflicted.”
“About what?”
“Now I’m hungry in more ways than one.”
“Hmm. I’m a trauma nurse. We adapt quickly to changing situations.”
He slid his hands inside her robe and pulled her to him. She pressed against him and when he entered her where she stood, she put one leg around his buttocks and pressed him closer, taking as much of him inside as she could get, feeling the pressure of him filling her, stirring her quickly to arousal again.
“Can we try the green fluorescent one this time?” she whispered in his ear and then took a nibble of the lobe.
“I think the green one might be better with a black light.”
“It won’t see much light, will it?”
“Harsh and demanding,” he said as he moved inside her. “And we better get that green one, or any of them, I don’t care as long as it’s soon.”
REED LET THE DROWSINESS flow through him. Beside him Abby breathed softly. She had satisfied his appetite in more ways than one, many times, and he couldn’t help wanting her again, forever.
Could he and Abby have a forever? When he tried to picture her in his world, he saw an exquisite flower withering on the stem because it had been cut away from the roots that fed it. He didn’t doubt she could hold her own among the people of his world, but he couldn’t figure out why she would want to do so.
The mountains and the wide openness of this countryside fed her soul. She had said that that day they had hiked to the waterfall. He had felt the privilege of being allowed a glimpse of how beautiful she was on the inside. He wasn’t sure the controlled temperatures and atmosphere of his world could feed her soul in the same way.
He propped himself up on his elbow. Right now, he had her in her world. He touched her breast, pressed his palm against her nipple, and when the bud tightened, she moaned softly.
“I love you, Abby Fairbanks,” he whispered even though he knew he didn’t have the right, but he knew there had never been anyone like Abby in his life, never would be.
Would he have to harm Nurse Fairbanks? He had to leave and if Kyle was Jesse’s son—he had to bring the boy back to Chicago to his other grandmother. He would have to rip apart one woman’s existence to mend another’s.
The DNA sample from Kyle was stashed in the pocket of his pants, which were lying on the floor, and seemed to be calling out to him.
Traitor.
To whom?
To his brother, his mother, Kyle?
Abby?
A NEW MORNING. ABBY PACED her kitchen while Reed slept upstairs in her bed. She hoped she hadn’t broken her own heart to have sex, glorious sex, better than she had ever had in her life sex, I’m going to want it every day for the rest of my life sex with Reed Maxwell.
Reed Maxwell might not be the enemy, but he could actually take Kyle away. His was a world totally different than what Kyle was used to. She got a stark image of Kyle looking around at everything new again and completely unknown. Kyle wouldn’t remember the move from Denver.
She did. She remembered the final act that had sent her fleeing with her family. At the trial, the resident doctor who had administered the incorrect dose of medication to the woman had turned and pointed at her as the wrongdoer. The hospital, because it had deep pockets, had taken the financial hit and to mollify the family had fired her.
All during the trial reporters had hounded her until Kyle cried in her arms. After the verdict that said she was guilty of the mistake—that’s what they called it, a tragic mistake—she ran for the last time, home, when she packed up her family and left the city.
Reed wasn’t the enemy. Her wounded psyche was. She had trapped herself in this tiny part of the universe. Maybe she could leave? Maybe she could move to Chicago? He hadn’t asked but she was sure he would. He had whispered he loved her when he thought she was asleep.
She shivered as she paced through to the living room and back to the kitchen. She had checked on word from or about Lena, but there was still nothing.
Wednesday, 6:00 a.m. the clock on her stove said. Two more days to work this week and she had to be at the clinic in two hours. She had showered and pulled her damp hair into a limp ponytail. Time for coffee. While the pot brewed she paced some more. Then she remembered Reed saying that maybe his “nice landlady” would wash his pants. She knew he wouldn’t even blink if she said no and maybe that’s why she wanted to wash his clothes for him.
Quietly she nabbed the rude shirt and pants from the floor of her room. When she pressed her nose into the shirt, all she smelled was him, no smoke. She sniffed again. The two of them had been so delightfully wanton. She hadn’t ever been wanton before. Wanted to be again soon.
In the laundry room she started the machine filling and added the detergent. Automatically she checked the pockets of his pants. Good thing, too. She found the key to his rental car, some change, a small plastic bag and a vinyl glove. She put the small handful of things on the counter beside the washing machine and put the clothing in the washer.
It wasn’t until she closed the lid that she picked up the glove that had partially obscured the contents of the plastic bag. Sealed inside the bag was a pair of cotton-tipped swabs.
It was an odd thing for Reed to have.
It looked like a throat culture or a—DNA sample.
Her sun crashed into her earth.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
WITHOUT EVEN ASKING, Reed planned to check Kyle’s paternity.
When he had the proof, real proof, not just an anecdotal picture, he could use his money and influence to take Kyle away any time it pleased him.
She wiped at the tears and sat down at the kitchen table. She had to think of Kyle. He loved Reed. If she fought for custody, it would only break Kyle’s heart. If couched in the right way, maybe she could get Kyle to want to go to Chicago. She could even go with him, if it came to keeping peace and tranquillity in the boy’s world.
Lena would be destroyed.
Abby’s mind whirled and grasped for solutions. Maybe if she relented, Reed’s family would only seek temporary custody until Lena got out of the army.
Whatever was going to happen to Kyle, it was best if she had a hand in administering it. She would see that the boy was protected from any sudden frightening changes and allowed to have as much power and input as possible.
She slipped on her work clothes from the laundry room, grabbed her purse and let herself inside the garage.
Once she was in her SUV, she called her mother.
“What the hell, Abby. It’s early.” Her mother’s voice croaked over the phone.
“Mom.” She had to swallow to loosen the tightness.
“Abby, what’s wrong?”
“I need a favor.”
“What’s the favor?” her mother asked cautiously.
“I need you, Mom. I need you to keep Kyle close today. I need you to keep him away from—” she drew in a breath for the courage she was going to need “—away from Reed.”
“What’s going on?”
“Mom, I failed Lena.”
“Now what are you talking about, honey? Wait. Wait.
Wait, Abby. I hear a great big again in your voice, and I just want to get something perfectly clear. You have never failed Lena. You have never been responsible for Lena. Lena is. She is responsible for getting pregnant, for the drugs, for whatever and everything she’s done.”
“It’s just that—”
“It’s just that you can’t let go. And speaking of feeling responsible, since you got me up before hell thawed, you’re going to listen to me, so hear me this time. You did not make your father leave.”
Abby inhaled sharply. “What makes you think I—”
“You don’t think asking a million times after your father left how you could get him to come back wasn’t a clue? You still think it’s your fault, don’t you?”
Abby had thought she had made he
r father leave, but that was in the past, wasn’t it? She remembered his face as he glared at her and then turned and walked out the door as if it had all happened in just that moment. The pain was real and still strong enough to make her heart ache and her six-year-old hands tremble.
“You’re right, Mother.” But she wasn’t six anymore and she wasn’t responsible for the actions of any adult, her father, Lena, Jesse, Reed, her mother, no adult except herself. But she had to learn to let go like her mother said.
“Damn straight I’m right. Now, just lighten up and live your life the best that you can. That’s all any of us can do.”
Now her mother was reading her mind. “Mom, I just need you to keep a close eye on Kyle today.”
“This has something to do with Jesse being Kyle’s father, doesn’t it?”
“It does.”
“Well, Lena sure as hell is responsible for not telling Jesse he was Kyle’s father, if that’s the case, but I’m not sure it makes a difference who his father is, in the long run, since Jesse has never cared one way or the other.”
“It might, Mom. Lena’s unit is way overdue and Jesse has been declared missing in Utah.”
“Why do you do that, Abby? Why?” Her mother sounded more exasperated than angry.
“Keep stuff from you?”
Her mother scoffed. “My God, honey. Why do you keep stuff all to yourself? Why do you think you’ve got to take the troubles of the world on, by yourself, and not share the load?”
“I thought you liked that about me.”
“I understand that’s what you do, but I’m not sure I ever liked it. Now tell me about Lena and Jesse.”
Abby explained about Lena’s squad not having checked in and Jesse being officially declared missing by the state of Utah, and finding the DNA swab.
“They wouldn’t take Kyle to Chicago, would they?
He’s so settled here.” Her mother spoke with fear in her tone. “They wouldn’t take a little boy away from his family.”