by BJ Daniels
He rushed at her, knocking her off balance. She fell back into the side of the pickup as her purse was wrenched from her grasp. A cry escaped her lips. She heard Chase slam his door and take off running past her after the mugger.
Santa sprinted across the street to the alley, her purse under his arm, with Chase in hot pursuit.
Marni leaned against the truck, her legs trembling, her pulse a drum inside her head. The sound of them running died away into the night. Cold and darkness closed in. Snowflakes fell in a white sheet of silence, cocooning her. She suddenly felt incredibly alone.
Chase. She had only a moment to fear for him before she heard it. Movement. Followed by an unerring icy awareness that the sound had come from under the wooden stairs. In the black hole of blackness beneath them. The same place the Santa mugger had hidden.
She looked but could see nothing, falling snow and night cloaking whatever hid there, as she felt for the door handle behind her, thinking she might have a chance to get inside the pickup before—
Something emerged from under the stairs, furtive, menacing, seizing her as effectively as hands around her throat.
She froze for that split second. Unable to move. To speak. To breathe. Something too large, too odd-shaped to be human moved quickly through the snow and darkness. And she knew it was coming for her.
CHASE SPRINTED after the mugger, his leg aching with the slamming movement. It was an ache he ignored. Cold anger fueled his body. He closed the distance between himself and the Santa. A mugger in Bozeman. In his neighborhood. He’d only heard of such a thing here one other time.
Santa had almost reached the end of the alley. A little closer and Chase could grab the guy’s red suit. The mugger turned and Chase saw the eyes looking out of the white fake beard.
The memory came back in a sharp fast burst. Chase felt a jolt. A clear shot of memory. The truck barreling down on him and his father. The sound of the engine wound up. Streetlights reflecting off the windshield. The feel of the air, cold. The smell of snow. And the face behind the truck’s steering wheel. Chase let out an oath as he saw the driver’s face—the same face as the Santa in front of him.
Just then the Santa mugger flung Marni’s purse hard at Chase’s head. Chase didn’t see it coming, didn’t even know what it was until it hit him in the face, momentarily blinding him. It slowed him just enough. The Santa rounded the corner, ducked between two parked cars and disappeared into a crowd of people returning from the Stroll.
Chase stopped, leaning over to catch his breath, the memory still sharp and clear. The face of the hit-and-run driver. The face of the Santa. A man who used to work for Calloway Ranches. Monte Decker.
MARNI FUMBLED for the door handle, found it and pulled. Too late. The huge object came out of the snowstorm at her. Marni looked up it in surprise and confusion, shocked by its size, by its face. Good God, it was the Nutcracker. The giant toy threw itself at her, slamming her against the pickup, knocking the breath from her lungs as it tried to pin her there.
She struggled against its superior strength and size. The pressure lessened for just a moment and she thought it would run off. Then she realized that wasn’t what it had in mind.
A hysterical scream jammed in her throat as she saw what it pulled from inside its costume and now held in its gloved hand. The knife blade glittered silver in the snowfall as it lunged at her.
Marni screamed.
CHASE HAD JUST bent down to pick up Marni’s purse from the snow when he heard her scream.
He ran, the pain in his leg, the fire in his lungs, forgotten. Through the falling snow he could make out a shape. Huge. Misshapen. It stood over something lying on the ground beside his pickup.
My God! Marni He didn’t realize until later that he yelled. A shriek filled with anguish and fear. A war cry.
The strange figure scurried away into the snow and darkness behind the store. Chase flung himself to his knees in the snow at Marni’s side and pulled her to him, feeling her warm blood soak through his mittens.
“Marni,” he cried, a silent prayer racing through his head. Please, God, don’t let her die.
“Chase,” she whispered.
He heard a door open across the street. “Get an ambulance,” he yelled. “Hurry.”
Chapter Seventeen
Chase paced the floor of the hospital waiting room, too anxious to sit. He couldn’t believe he’d been so stupid as to let a mugger trick him and draw him away from Marni so the killer could get that close to her. He cursed his stupidity, paced and prayed. When the doctor finally stuck his head out from the emergency room, Chase nearly pounced on him.
“Is she all right?” he demanded. ‘Tell me she’s all right.”
“She’s fine,” the doctor said quickly. “The wound is superficial. The maternity form she was wearing saved her from serious injury. She was very lucky.”
“Can I take her home?” Chase asked, forgetting that just hours ago he hadn’t wanted to be in the apartment with her, hadn’t trusted himself.
“She’s as anxious as you are to get out of here,” the doctor told him. “I assume you’ve already talked with the police.”
Chase nodded. The police had an APB out for Monte Decker and his unknown accomplice. “They’ve questioned Marni?”
“I believe they want her to make a formal statement later,” the doctor said and pushed open the emergency-room door.
Chase saw Marni sitting on one of the gurneys, a white bandage showing through the slash in her maternity top. In the trash was her maternity form. She saw him and got to her feet, a tentative smile on her face. He shrugged off his coat as he walked toward her.
“Just a flesh wound,” she said, sounding as relieved as he felt.
He draped his coat over her shoulders. “Let’s get out of here. I called us a cab.”
The cab was waiting outside the hospital when they came out. Chase opened the door for her and slid in beside her. He put his arm around her, not surprised how natural it felt when she curled against him.
“Are you cold?” he asked, feeling her tremble as the cab pulled away.
She shook her head, but still he pulled her closer.
“No reason to be cold,” he said, holding her, looking out into the darkness, still filled with rage at the person who’d done this to her. “Or afraid. I called the ranch and told them you lost your baby. You’re safe now.” He hoped.
MARNI SNUGGLED against him, needing the feel of his arm around her, his warmth soaking into her. She felt as if Sam had been real. Had been her child. And Chase’s.
Chase carried her up the stairs, against her protests, and into the bedroom where he placed her on the bed with the greatest of care. He stood for a moment as if he didn’t know what to do.
“Chase,” she said quietly when he started to leave.
He turned to look at her, his gaze locking with hers. “It’s late,” he said, but didn’t move, didn’t stop staring into her eyes. “It, wouldn’t work.”
Her heart began to pound in anticipation. “What wouldn’t work?” she whispered, hoping they were talking about the same thing and that he was dead wrong.
“If we made love it wouldn’t change anything.”
She started to tell him that she didn’t care, but he cut her off.
“Making love to you would be a huge mistake,” he said, moving closer. “I’d regret it. But worse, you’d regret it.”
“I’d never regret it”
He shook his head. “You know when you look at me like that, what it does to me?”
“No,” she answered truthfully. She only knew what his look did to her.
“And those nightclothes of yours…”
“My nightclothes?” she asked in surprise. Surely he wasn’t talking about her flannel nightgown and chenille robe?
“Do you have any idea how sexy you look in them?”
She laughed, having no idea what he was talking about.
“Oh, yeah,” he said, brushing a lock of her
hair back from her face as he sat down on the edge of the bed next to her. “And when you sit there like that, all innocent, wide-eyed and trusting—” He let out a sigh as he brushed his bare knuckles across the skin of her cheek. “You’re asking too much, Marni.”
“What am I asking, Chase?” she whispered, her heart pounding at the look in his eyes.
“You’re asking me to surrender my heart. I can’t do it. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you from the moment we met.”
“Not surrender,” Marni said, bringing his fingers to her lips. “Just open it a little.”
He cupped her face in his hands. “When I’m around you, I want to open myself up to you.” He drew her to him. “Your mouth makes me crazy to kiss you. And when I look into your eyes—” He kissed her, his lips, his tongue, seeking, searching, demanding.
She gave herself to him, opening her lips to let him inside to explore, to lay claim to her. He took her mouth with an intimacy that both shocked and excited her.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, wanting to give as much as to receive. She hoped enthusiasm would make up for her lack of experience.
He pulled back to look into her face. “If we do this, it won’t be making love,” he said softly.
She smiled. “I want you, Chase. I’ve never wanted anyone like I want you.”
She watched him unbutton her top and slide it off her shoulders to expose the jogging bra she wore underneath. She wished she were the kind of woman who wore skimpy, lacy underthings.
But to her surprise, he let out a sigh of pleasure. She followed his gaze to her breasts, and saw that her nipples strained against the stretchy material of the bra. He ran a thumb over one taut nipple, making her shudder.
He kissed her again, this time with a fever that sent her pulse skyrocketing. She felt his hands cup her bottom and she let out a sigh of pleasure of her own.
He pulled back to look at her, his blue eyes dark and serious. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t hurt me,” she said, not sure if they were talking about her flesh wound or her heart. Then she did something totally out of character. She drew the bra over her head, exposing her bare breasts to his eyes, to his mouth, to his hands.
She felt a jolt, the tremor centering deep inside her as he tasted, touched and teased her nipples into hard, aching nubs. “Please, Chase,” she pleaded, reaching for the buttons of his shirt, fumbling them open until she could lay her palms against the silken hardness of his chest. She could feel his heart hammering beneath her hands. She slid his shirt over his broad shoulders to let it drop behind him.
They sat like that for a long moment. Breathing, hearts pounding, just looking at each other. “Stop me now, Marni.”
She shook her head. “I can’t do that.”
He slid off the bed to pull her to her feet. She melted against the warm strength of him as he tugged off her jeans. He smiled as he watched her fumble with the buttons of his jeans, then reached down to help her. As he slid out of them, out of everything, she felt his maleness against her. For one moment, she felt a sudden panic. Then she looked into his eyes and her heart filled with such love for him, she told herself nothing mattered but this moment.
She drew him down for a kiss, surprised at herself and a little embarrassed. Amusement flickered in his blue gaze. He lifted her into his arms and took her to the bed.
“Marni,” he whispered as he lowered her to the mattress and lay down beside her. He ran his fingers across her lips, down her throat, over her breast. His eyes followed his fingers, then flicked back to meet her gaze when she moaned softly. “I want you so much it hurts.”
She nodded, feeling her shyness come back as he pulled off her panties. To her surprise, he bent down to kiss the aching spot between her thighs. She cried out with pleasure.
“Please, Chase,” she pleaded again, needing to feel him deep within her.
He slid back up her body, now slick with a fine sheen of perspiration.
“Marni, you have done this before, haven’t you?” he said, looking into her eyes.
She kissed him in answer. He touched her and she opened to him, feeling both pressure and pleasure. Then he was inside her and she thought she might explode with all the sensations.
He took her with such gentleness, with slow, loving concern. And the sensations soared as high as the mountain peaks that circled the valley, as high as her hopes. Breathlessly, she held tight to him, letting him take her with him, knowing no matter what he’d said, he was making love to her.
LONG AFTER he’d felt the tremors in her subside, he held her, the heat of their bodies still melding them together as he imprinted the sensation of her skin in his mind.
He moved away from her slowly. Pushing himself up on one elbow, he looked down into her face, shocked by the feelings inside him.
Tears ran down her cheeks. She licked at them as they touched her lips. And smiled up at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded, more angry with himself than her. He should never had made love to her. He thought he’d known the risk he was taking with his heart. He’d been dead wrong.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Like hell it doesn’t. You know I would never have made love to you if I’d known.”
She smiled as she looked up at him. “Yes, I know.”
He swung off the bed and pulled on his jeans, feeling too naked, too vulnerable. What had made him think he could do this and not feel anything? Even if this hadn’t been her first time….
“Chase,” she said, touching his bare back. “I don’t regret it. I’ll never regret it.”
He looked at her, all the anger running out of him at the sight of her. “Why me, Marni?”
She took his hand and pulled him down onto the bed. He felt himself lean toward her kiss, unable to resist. He let himself enjoy her lips against his, her bare breasts brushing against his bare chest.
When she pulled back, he looked into her eyes and quit lying to himself. Those feelings he had for this woman. He couldn’t keep telling himself they weren’t love. Love.
He swore softly under his breath as he let her coax him back into the bed. He lay with her, still wearing his jeans as if they were protective armor. She snuggled into the crook of his arm and he pulled her to him. He could feel her breath on his chest. His heart ached just beneath the spot.
“I love you, Chase,” she whispered.
“Go to sleep,” he said as he pulled her to him. “We have a big day tomorrow.”
Chapter Eighteen
Christmas Eve
Marni woke to warmth—and pounding. She opened her eyes, her first sensation Chase’s body spooned around hers, his arms still holding her. She snuggled against him, breathing in the scent of him, memorizing again the feel of him. Then the pounding broke through her pleasant haze.
“Chase,” Marni said, sitting up a little.
He didn’t open his eyes, just pulled her closer against him. “Mmm, Marni.”
“Chase, there’s someone at the door.”
He sat up then, blinking away sleep. “Don’t move.” He jumped up to pull on his jeans and hurried to the door.
“Raine,” she heard Chase say in surprise.
“It’s the baby,” Raine cried. “I have to get to the hospital but my car won’t start….”
“Don’t worry,” Chase said. “We’ll get you there. Sit down. Let me get dressed. It won’t take a moment.”
Marni flew out of bed, searching frantically for her clothing. She was half-dressed when Chase came back into the room.
“One of the neighbors, a college student, she’s—”
“Having a baby. I heard. Give me your keys and I’ll start the pickup.”
Chase tossed her the keys. “She looks scared.”
Marni smiled, realizing that he was hoping she’d help with Raine. “You know me,” she said.
He smiled back. “Yeah, I do.”
When she came out
of the bedroom, Raine was perched on the edge of the couch, leaning back, holding her swollen stomach in obvious pain.
“Has your water broken yet?” Marni asked, going to the young woman.
Raine shook her head. Marni took her hand and smiled. “I’m Marni McCumber. Everything is going to be fine.”
“I remember you from the store yesterday.” She frowned. “Weren’t you pregnant though?”
“It’s a long story,” Marni said. “How far apart are your contractions?”
“I don’t know. I just woke up to all this pain and I knew it was the baby coming.”
Marni waited until Raine got through her next contraction before she said, “I’m going to start the truck. I’ve watched my sisters-in-law do this a half-dozen times. There’s nothing to it.”
Raine smiled. “Right.”
Marni had the pickup running and warming up as Chase brought Raine down the stairs. Marni slid over to the middle to let Raine into the passenger side. Chase got behind the wheel and drove through the deserted early-morning streets. He talked, telling stories about house building, of all things. Marni doubted Raine was listening but Marni loved Chase’s attempt to distract the young woman from her contractions, which were steadily getting closer together.
Once at the hospital, Raine was rushed to a birthing room, while Chase filled out forms. When he finished, he asked if he could do anything to help with her bill.
“It’s been paid by the adoptive parents,” the woman said.
“She’s giving her baby up for adoption?” Marni asked in surprise as they moved to a waiting area.
“She’s unmarried, has just started college and only has a part-time job that barely supports her, let alone her and a baby,” Chase said.
“What about the baby’s father?”
“He’s not much older than she is and not ready for this kind of responsibility, emotionally or financially,” Chase said. “Raine knows she’s too young to be a single mother. It wouldn’t be fair to her or her baby.”