She moved over him to unsnap his jeans—slid down to the floor—bringing him with her.
But he stilled her hand. “Not yet. It’s been too long for me. Let’s get you there first because I guarantee it won’t take long for me.”
So they rolled. Hands groped. Fingers took turns finding curves, hard muscle, and degrees of soft flesh.
She ran her hands along powerful shoulders, lean abs and down across the scars on his chest. At her touch, Keegan heard him suck in a breath. But she only smiled at the ugly ridges and leaned in to spread kisses along the jagged edges.
But when it got too much, he switched their positions and took the time to break contact long enough to help her wriggle out of her jeans. She jerked her sweater up. He tugged it off—threw it against the wall.
Her lace panties became airborne.
Their mouths fused together like molten metal. Immediate, adept fingers flicked the front clasp of her bra, toyed with a breast. He took a peak into his mouth, suckled. His tongue slicked warm and wet over the other.
All that creamy flesh made him want to savor each bite until he put his lips to better use and skimmed down skin already slippery damp.
He sampled belly and then nibbled thigh.
A thin slice of ginger-colored hair drew him inward. Wild hunger drove him to taste all of her. He put his tongue to work, back and forth, in and out.
And when she moaned his name triumph soared through him like the sweetest concert he’d ever heard. Their eyes locked. He watched desire build in layers until she fractured into ripples of blue crashing waves.
Then his fingers spanned the searing heat. He noted desire blossoming again in her eyes, the way it turned them a deeper sapphire before glazing over, completely doused in pleasure.
Once more they rolled.
This time she came out on top. She covered his mouth. Once more he felt her body yield to his. It still awed him he could do that to her.
She leaned over him, glided her tongue along his neck, over the tattoos on his arms, his once-wounded chest, and the rippled muscle of his belly. When she reached the waist of his jeans, she finally worked down the zipper. Cord lifted his hips and watched as she slid off his pants, then boxers.
The minute both went flying through the air, she straddled him. A nibble and bite along his torso had him groaning in urgent need. She brought him into her, slick and hot. They rocked, bucked. And with that, he grabbed her hips, doubled his effort and took them both into the blissful curl of release.
Loose and lithe she whooshed out, “I’ll move in a minute as soon as I find an ounce of strength.”
When she collapsed on top of him, he confessed, “I can’t feel my legs.”
“The floor has to be hard.”
He busted out laughing. “Oh, baby, I guarantee you it isn’t the floor. You drained me. Wow!”
She started to move but he held her in place. “Not yet.” He nuzzled her neck then let that curtain of copper hair drape across his chest. “I want to stay like this a minute more.”
“Why? So you can break up with me?” Her eyes danced with a generous mix of amusement tinged with a hint of resentment beginning to take shape. “Told you I’d be the one to get you into bed.”
“Hmm, I must’ve missed the bed part. No. That thing earlier—I do need to talk to you—later. Right this minute I want to say thank you.”
“What?” Her head popped up and she realized he wasn’t joking. “You want to thank me? You asshole—”
When she started to move, he held her in place, calmly rubbed her back. “Just listen to me for one second, will you? Because of you, this bad place I’ve been in for so long has lifted.”
She immediately softened. “Really? You think so? For real? You feel better about things?”
“Yeah, I’m coming back to myself—I feel better because of you, Keegan. Not because of pills or talking to a shrink either.” He stroked her hair, placed a kiss on her forehead. “You made me want to live, really live, not just exist, not just take up space somewhere, but live.”
For a few moments, she couldn’t speak. She ran her hand down his cheek and told him, “And you made me a better person.”
That’s the last thing he expected her to say. “Me? How so?”
“You made me see what I want.”
“What do you want?”
“You—in my bed.”
Later, they were still bundled together between the sheets when Cord glanced down at Keegan’s left shoulder and noticed the dainty little splat of color there. No more than three inches long, it decorated her skin in bright red and blue-green. He ran his index finger over the outline. “What do we have here?”
“Oh, that. I call her Ariel.”
“You didn’t tell me you were such a badass. It’s a mermaid. The first time I saw you, I thought you looked like one.”
She leaned over his chest. “It’s the red hair.”
“Mmm, I love having my hands in all this.” To prove it, he combed his fingers through the locks.
But then she abruptly sat up like she’d just thought of something, breaking the moment. “Okay. Spill. What was bothering you when you first got here? Whatever it was, it put you in that dark place again even briefly, didn’t it?”
He told her about Robby Mack.
“He’s out? But…how can that be? He killed six people,” she reasoned, tossing him a look of pure horror at the knowledge.
“The state of Virginia labeled him crazy because of several psych evaluations. As a result, he got a pass to some place called Camp Sandhurst. I didn’t want you on his radar.”
“Ah. I see. I mean so little to you that giving me up isn’t a problem. You can do it, just like that.” She snapped her fingers.
Suddenly, he reversed their positions, covering her body with his. “That’s not true. I’m trying to keep him away from you.”
“See, you’re doing it again. It isn’t up to you to protect me, Cord. That’s Ethan’s job. Besides, don’t you think that’s for me to decide? You don’t even know he’s headed here. He could be anywhere.”
Okay, so maybe Ethan had recognized her stubborn streak long before he had. Right now though, this minute, the last thing he wanted was to bring Robby into the picture or to think about Ethan and Scott’s warning.
Instead, he twirled a lock of her hair between his lean fingers. “That isn’t all. A guy showed up this afternoon out at the farm claiming to be my father.”
“What?” When she realized he was serious, she tossed back her head and howled with laughter.
“You’re taking this a helluva lot better than I did.”
“Oh, Cord, when you have issues, you don’t mess around. Do you ever do anything half-assed?”
That had him chuckling. “Come to think of it, I guess I don’t.”
He stayed for supper. They ate vegetable tacos laden with red and green peppers, avocado, cilantro, and plenty of lettuce and tomato.
As he chomped into one, he wanted to know, “How do you make these things so tasty?”
“It’s a Fanning state secret.”
“You really grew up eating nothing but vegetables? Come on, in your rebellious teen years, didn’t you ever sneak a hamburger? Ever eat a tuna sandwich?”
She tossed him a grin and shook her head. “It isn’t that unbelievable. My grandparents worked around fish all the time. I didn’t look at it as food for humans. I guess they made a conscious choice and I followed. I always thought it was odd though that granddad’s best friend was a fisherman who made his living netting fish.”
“I wished I could’ve gotten to know him, your grandmother, too.”
“They’d have both loved you.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because you show such a keen interest in the wildlife. Hey, after we eat, what do you say we go release Haggerty back into Smuggler’s Bay?”
His eyebrows rose in surprise. “It isn’t too soon?”
“Not at all.”
>
“Haggerty’s able to eat?”
“Oh, yeah. In fact, the sooner we get him back where he belongs, the sooner he’ll forget his ordeal and go right back to swimming for Monterey Bay and chowing down on jellyfish.”
“Okay, then let’s do it.” He pushed back from the table, stood up. “I gotta see Haggerty in action.”
Russ and Pete helped them muscle the reptile onto a plastic tarp they used as a bottom before wrapping him up in the netted sling for transport to the truck. It took all four of them to load the net into the flatbed of the pickup.
Cord got comfortable behind the wheel while Keegan settled in beside him. They started off down the street toward the bay, bringing Haggerty closer toward his freedom.
Once they drove to the wharf, they still had to get Haggerty out of the bed of the truck and down to the sand. For that, the four of them got the turtle into a square tub. Dragging the container wasn’t an option. So Keegan and Cord took one end, Russ and Pete the other. And together they carried the bin the rest of the way.
They plodded through the sand, until they got to the water’s edge.
It was nearing sunset, in Keegan’s mind, a perfect time to release.
They set down the tub, struggled to lift up Haggerty out of the container, and then placed him on the beach where he immediately waddled the distance to what was left of the damp shoreline, probably no more than three feet.
Cord grabbed his camera phone and hit video. “Who says turtles are slow? Look at him go! What an awesome sight!”
Flippers pushed Haggerty forward until he reached the water. Once he hit the surf though, he began to drift into the tides. It didn’t take long before he was far enough out to paddle. Soon, he picked up speed and that’s when Haggerty took off for real, swimming for all it was worth.
All four of them watched as Haggerty disappeared into the waters of Smuggler’s Bay, never even coming up for air.
Pete and Russ exchanged looks but it was Pete who stated, “Bet that big boy is in Monterey by tomorrow night.” He slapped Russ on the back and nodded his head toward Cord. “Want me to take your truck back to the center?”
For an answer, Cord dug in his pocket. “Sure. We’ll walk back.” He tossed the keys to Pete who caught them in the air.
“Well, I gotta go clean up and go see Betty. She’s holding supper for me.” When Russ continued to stand there looking out at the bay, Pete took him by the arm. “You’ve still got pens to clean.”
“What’s the rush? Look at that sunset!”
But Pete shook his head and whispered, “You ever heard of being a third wheel, Russell?”
“Sure I have but—” Finally getting the hint, Russ grinned. “Uh, see you guys later. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Keegan waved them off and plopped down where she stood. Cord though kept a watchful eye on the tides for another couple of minutes until finally he realized Haggerty was gone and dropped down beside her.
“My first release,” Cord puffed out. “Is it always this exhilarating? I’m not sure what I expected. It’s kind of sad, but then joyous at the same time that we did something that made him all better so he could live.”
Keegan simply smiled at his enthusiasm. The man had a way of putting things that made her heart zing. He probably didn’t even see the parallel between Haggerty and himself. They’d both been given major second chances.
“Yes, there’s always that little twinge of sadness to have to say so long, but right there with it is the moment you know you did something right to get them here. I remember my first.”
“Tell me.”
“I must’ve been no more than six when granddad and gran released a sea otter I’d grown fond of, right here on this very beach. That day I watched Ariel wiggle out to sea and was too young to know the joy she must’ve felt at getting back into the water.”
“Ariel? I’m seeing a pattern here.”
“I was six. I’d made my grandparents sit through The Little Mermaid at least a dozen times before the sea otter ever came to the center. The night they released her, I cried my eyes out until they both explained to me that Ariel needed to go home, back to her family in order to be happy.”
She turned to meet his eyes. “How did you do it, Cord?”
“Do what?”
“How did you go through so much of your life all alone? At such an early age, too?”
“I had no choice, Keegan. No one bothers to ask a kid if they want to get dumped into the system and grow up in all these different homes.”
She laid a hand on his cheek. “But if this Gabe Bennett is telling the truth, if he’s your father, whether or not you accept him as such, that’s a choice.”
“It’s a little too late for—”
“Don’t say that. It’s not. It’s never too late. Don’t close yourself off from family when it’s offered, Cord. That would be incredibly immature. And you are many things but immature isn’t one of them. Impulsive, yes, but—” She stopped when she realized how she sounded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it to sound preachy.”
He planted his hands in the sand and leaned back on them for support, finished watching the sun dip into the water. “Yeah, but the guy could be the world’s biggest liar. What if—”
“That’s why we’ll check out his story.” She let the subject drop then because he seemed a little blue about it. They sat there on the beach, both pensive, enjoying the sun setting into a glimmering sheen of ocean while the tides danced in and out around them.
All at once, he pulled her to him, ran his long fingers through the braid she’d so painstakingly worked on not an hour earlier when they’d finally decided to crawl out of bed for food. He raked the tresses so they loosened and draped around her shoulders. “God, I love having my hands in your hair.”
“Show me again.”
And when they got back to the house, he did.
Cord spent the night.
And the next morning after breakfast, they finally made their way over to the Cody house.
In the living room they went over Gabe Bennett’s story with both Hayden and Ethan to get their take.
“It’s easy enough to check,” Ethan reasoned.
“But why would the guy bother to come all the way to Pelican Pointe with a made-up story like this one? What would he have to gain?” Hayden wanted to know.
“And how’d he know Cord’s date of birth and the birthmark thing along with all that other stuff if he isn’t the real deal?” Keegan pointed out. “I mean who would make up that part about prison and murder.”
Her gaze shifted to Cord. “Maybe that’s the reason you were never adopted. No one wanted to take a chance on offspring that had a murderer for a father. Think about it. That had to be a stigma the boy could never shake. Gabe wasn’t cleared until a decade ago.”
“Sounds like something people might use to factor into their decision when looking at the boy they select for adoption,” Hayden agreed.
“It makes sense. The child’s history, his background, would definitely come into play if people looked into it, especially if they were considering making him a permanent member of their family. You have to admit there’s an element of authenticity to Gabe’s story,” Keegan proffered. “He knew personal deets no one else would. I didn’t even know about the birthmark on his back until—” She caught herself and smiled. “Well, until very recently.”
Cord grinned and picked up her hand, gave it a kiss.
“The birthmark does look a lot like the state of California. The man got that right,” Keegan said, her lips curving widely in Cord’s direction.
“You’re kidding? Uh, could I see that?” Hayden asked.
But Ethan rolled his eyes and stated, “Could we focus here? That too, is easy enough to come by. You ever been in an online chat room, Cord? You ever get wound up, and reveal personal details like that about yourself to a total stranger? Say, on a dating site of any kind?”
“Not that I remember. And I haven
’t dated in a really long time, until now.”
“Still, it could be some kind of Internet scam. Happens all the time. People unload personal info in cyberspace like it was the safest thing in the world.”
While Ethan ticked off every online con he knew about, Keegan studied the funny look on Cord’s face. “What are you not telling us, Cord?”
He met her eyes. How did she always seem to pick up on little nuggets everyone else missed?
“He looked like me.”
“What? How so?”
“Same build. Same eyes. Same hair coloring but graying at the temples.”
“Well, that is interesting.” And something he’d left out entirely—until now. “Ethan, how soon will you be able to check this guy out?”
“I can do a criminal background check on him in five minutes.”
“Then let’s do it,” Cord suggested. “After all this time, I need to know.”
And it was a long fifteen minutes later before Cord had his answers.
Chapter 17 Book 3
Cord decided a trip to Fresno made the most sense. After the way he had practically thrown the guy off the property it was the least he could do. He needed to meet the man again and it had to be face-to-face, man-to-man.
Keegan had agreed to go with him, mainly because he didn’t want to do this alone. He’d done enough in his life by himself. He wanted, no, he needed her there with him for what might prove to be a heart-wrenching process.
They spent the trip talking about the circumstances that had brought Cord roundabout to Pelican Pointe and how his father had been a mere three hours away the entire time.
“What are the odds of that, Cord? I mean, six months ago you’d never even heard of our little town, didn’t even plan on coming back to California at all to live. And now—”
“And now I’m on the way to talk to the father I’d given up on two decades earlier. Since I was ten years old, I figured no one wanted me. Now I know why. Those families probably looked at me and said, ‘no way am I taking a chance on a kid whose father murdered his wife.’”
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