Stalking Earth for epub

by Bonnie Vane

  “Emotional physical therapy, then. You can be such a downer, you know that?”

  Jack chuckled. “It’s in the big-brother code somewhere. Stating the obvious. Don’t forget to put the cover on when you leave. And don’t drink up all the wine in the cellar. I’ve got plans for that at Christmas.”

  “Don’t tell me you have a secret girlfriend?”

  “Hell no. You know how much I hate Christmas. I’ll need the wine to get through it.”

  “Poor Scroogey Jack. I’m going to have to give you some lumps of coal this year.”

  “At least, I could use those in the fireplace.”

  Blaine knew why Jack hated Christmas, but he didn’t like bringing it up. It could wait for another time. “I’ll tell Maxie you said hello,” he hinted.

  “Trying to get rid of me, eh?”

  “Hello. Jacuzzi, wine, sky gazing, remember?”

  “Okay, okay, I’ll let you get back to your ... nursing. I’m sure you make a very fine nursemaid.”

  Blaine rolled his eyes at Jack’s sarcasm and hurried back to join Maxie in the Jacuzzi. “Sorry about that, “ he apologized. “A business deal Jack lined up for us.”

  “I hope it’s a good one.”

  Blaine swallowed hard. “Guess so. But I don’t want to discuss business anymore. Let’s talk about you, instead.”

  “Me? Doesn’t sound like an exciting conversation.”

  “Tell me about your father. It must have been hard raising you all by himself. But he seems to have done a great job.”

  She stiffened. “This isn’t about that lawsuit again? Maybe Tanya was right.”

  “God no, this has nothing to do with the lawsuit.” No matter what he said, it always seemed to get her hackles up. “I sensed you and he have some issues. Takes one to know one. My father and I have always had a prickly relationship, too. Guess I feel like I’ve disappointed him.”

  Her expression softened. “Surely not? You have a lot of responsibility with the family business. Can’t imagine he’d allow that if didn’t trust you.”

  Blaine sighed. “He trusts me. To a point. I always believed Cash and Jack would carry on the business, and I could do something else. Maybe subconsciously I was trying to sabotage my work record so they’d want to get rid of me.”

  “What did you want to do instead?”

  “You’re going to laugh.”

  “Of course, I won’t laugh. You didn’t laugh when I told you I wanted to be a songwriter.”

  “You know I like books. But I don’t just like reading them. I like writing them.”

  “You’re an author?”

  “Not published. Yet. More of a hack, I guess.”

  “A lot of successful authors started out as ‘hacks.’ Besides, if you’re good, you’re good. Readers will find you.”

  “I’ve thought about writing under a pen name. That way Dad would never know. Or not at first.”

  “Does anyone else in your family know about your writing?”

  “Cash. He runs our IT department. And I made the mistake of working on one of my novels at work without removing the evidence.”

  “How did he react?”

  “He didn’t say much. Promised he wouldn’t tell Dad.”

  “Is it really that bad between you and your father?”

  “Not bad so much as it is—“

  “Prickly.”

  He laughed. “Right.” A sharp pain stabbed at the side of his head, and he started rubbing it. He must have closed his eyes without realizing, because before he knew it, Maxie was beside him. She gently pushed his hands away and started massaging his head and neck.

  “Did you ever get checked out for a concussion after the accident?”

  “Didn’t think I needed to. It’s just a little headache. Comes and goes.”

  “Is this helping?”

  He relaxed into her touch. Oh yeah. In more ways than one. “Mmm,” he replied, closing his eyes again.

  When he opened them, he wished he hadn’t. His head was tilted down, which meant he was staring right down her bikini top. With a full view of the soft, pale skin of her breasts that he suddenly longed to touch. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t push her this weekend, but his groin was having other ideas. He leaned over to capture her lips in a kiss, much deeper than the one he’d planted on her at the library.

  To his surprise, she kissed him back every bit as passionately. When they came up for air, he looked into her eyes with his unvoiced question, “Do you really want to do this?” What he saw in her eyes was all he needed, and he helped her out of the Jacuzzi and carried her into the house and toward the bedroom.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  With the light from the sunrise streaming in through the window, Maxie opened her eyes. Some vague thought poked at the back of her mind, and she frowned as she tried to remember what it was. Then she felt the warm, naked body next to her in the bed and suddenly everything from the night before came back in a flash. The hot tub, the kissing, and then ...

  Oh yes, then. She’d never imagined Blaine had it in him to be so tender, so considerate of her needs. She could tell from the moment he’d picked her up and she felt his erection through his swim trunks that he was primed and ready to go. Instead, he’d helped removed her bikini, then made sure she was comfortable in the bed. Mindful of her cast, he’d positioned his body in a way that avoided hurting her.

  Slowly, to the point of driving her crazy, he’d worked his way down her body with kisses and feather touches, hitting all her most sensitive spots. Her neck, her tummy, her inner thigh. And then, oh, then ...

  She’d never received oral sex before. Her former boyfriends were always happy to have her on the giving end, but never once had any of them reciprocated. My God, what she’d been missing. Maybe it wouldn’t have been this good with anyone else? She didn’t really care. And to think he’d taken care of her needs first before satisfying his own—that was a revelation.

  As the glow from the most amazing sex she’d ever had began to fade, she felt the doubts creep to the surface. Was she just another one of his conquests? It was hard to believe he’d have treated a conquest so tenderly. More of the slam-bam, thank-you-ma’am type of sex, more likely.

  And try as she might, the words of her father and Tanya continued to haunt her. No, make that taunt her. Was this all a ploy on the part of the Tannahill legal team to keep the company name out of the papers?

  She glanced at her bed partner, who was sleeping soundly, his chest rising ever-so-slightly with each breath. It had been dark last night, both outside in the Jacuzzi and also in bed, and she’d experienced his body more by feel than appearance. She drank in the sight of him, his lean, muscled frame and the fine, soft hairs making a little “V” down his chest as if pointing toward the treasures that lay hidden beneath the covers. Maybe she’d have to wait to get an eyeful of those treasures in the daylight, but they’d certainly felt impressive.

  Trying not to wake him, she eased out of bed, grabbed her crutches and headed into the bathroom to take a shower. She must have taken longer than she thought, because when she got out, he was no longer in the bedroom. Throwing on some clothes, she headed to the kitchen, where she was a little disappointed to find him dressed.

  He expertly flipped an omelet in a pan over the stove with his hand, turning the omelet to cook on the other side without it sliding out. Where had he learned to cook like that?

  He looked up as she approached, with a smile. “I hope you like western style omelets. I’ve got some hashed browns heating up in the toaster oven.”

  “Sounds delicious.” She sniffed the air. “Is that coffee I smell?”

  “Dark roast. You seemed like a dark roast kind of gal. Sugar and cream’s next to the pot over on the counter.”

  She sat the kitchen island, clutching the cup of coffee, grateful for the chance it gave her to collect her thoughts. She’d never been very good at morning after talk.

  He seemed to be avoiding the topic alto
gether. “Muffins or toast?”

  “Toast is fine.”

  He grabbed some slices of bread and popped them into the toaster. “Sorry we missed the sunrise. You have to be on the east side of the house to see it, but there’s a great view of the horizon through a clearing in the trees.”

  She smiled and sipped more of her coffee.

  After putting their plates in front of them, he munched in silence, and she was content to do the same.

  When they’d finished and he’d thrown the dishes in the dishwasher, they wandered to the den, each with a cup of fresh coffee. Finally, he said, “I can see the wheels turning in your head. You’re wondering if you made a mistake. Maybe wondering if this is just a one-night stand. A ploy to keep the lawyers happy.”

  She hugged the cup of coffee to her. “I’m not sure what to think.”

  He leaned back. “That’s honest. Kinda refreshing. Not what I’m used to from—”

  “Tanya?”

  He nodded. “Sometimes I feel like I’m her catnip toy.”

  Maxie chewed on her lip, remembering her thoughts at the bar about the women circling Blaine like he was catnip. It was getting a little eerie the way she and Blaine thought alike sometimes. “You think she’s after your money?”

  “Most women are.”

  “Well, I’m not.” Maxie twirled a strand of hair around her fingers. “I mean, I don’t care if you have money or not. That’s not high on my list of attractions in men.”

  “You’d be the first.” He tilted his head. “So what’s at the top of that vaunted list of yours?”

  “Respect.”

  “The ole r-e-s-p-e-c-t, huh? Not love?”

  “Love is a given. But if partners don’t respect each other, the relationship is doomed from the start.”

  “Guess I’ll grant you that. What’s number two on the list?”

  She grinned at him, “A nice ass.”

  His eyes widened, then he grinned back. “That’s rather cheeky of you.”

  With that, she grabbed a pillow next to her on her chair and threw it at him. “Puns are the lowest form of humor.”

  “Not at all. Slapstick is.”

  She shuddered. “I’ll grant you that.” The sun streaming in from the window warmed her back and made her want to curl up. Maybe with Blaine on the couch? She said, “What’s at the top of your list?”

  He shook his head. “I never made one. Sounds insane, I know. Suppose I’ve always gone with the flow. I’m called the Tannahill Terror for a reason.”

  She laughed at that. “I had no idea I was making love to the Tannahill Terror. Heavens forefend.” She put a hand over her heart.

  He put his coffee cup on the table next to the sofa and leaned forward. “I never realized how nice that sounds.”

  “Tannahill Terror?”

  “Making love. People toss that phrase around as a synonym for sex. But when it’s someone special, it means so much more than that.”

  The warmth from the sun paled in comparison to the warmth creeping up from her toes to her face. “You think I’m special? A meek little librarian like me?”

  “You were hardly meek last night.” He grinned. “The librarian part, I’ll grant you. The special part—that’s your courage, your spunkiness, your hidden talents. The whole package.”

  Maxie’s cellphone chimed that a text had arrived. She fished it out of her pocket and looked at the message. It was from Sidney. Maxie’s heart sank as she read his note. He wanted to take her away for a retreat next weekend to their favorite spot in Chincoteague, a romantic little B&B on the waterfront. A montage of the times the two had spent there filled her head with happy memories. A part of her really missed those weekend trips.

  Blaine pointed to the phone when she looked up, “I hope it’s not bad news.”

  She muted the phone and stuck it back in her pocket. “Not bad news. But I don’t have to deal with that right now. Let’s just enjoy the lovely view and company before the workaday world intrudes again tomorrow.”

  He got up to grab her coffee mug. “Ready for another go at the swing?”

  She jumped up. “Yes, but this time, I get to push you, crutches or no crutches.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  For once, Blaine didn’t mind going into work on a Monday morning as he stopped by his office at the Tannahill factory. For starters, he wasn’t going to stay long, just long enough to check on one order that he’d spearheaded the week before.

  The other reason was he was looking forward to picking up Maxie for another week of his library “punishment.” But he didn’t want to pick her up empty-handed, so he called around to the flower shops in town to see if they had a dozen long-stemmed red roses.

  He’d just gotten off the phone with the latest shop—none had the kind of flowers he wanted in stock—when his brother Cash strolled in. Cash put his hands on his hips. “A dozen red roses for Tanya? That’s a first.”

  Blaine cleared his throat. “Not Tanya. Maxie.”

  “The girl at the library? Oh man, you’re taking this apology thing to heart, aren’t you?” Then Cash stared at his brother a little harder. “On second thought, this has nothing to do with an apology, does it? As I said the other night, you are seriously smitten, little cub.”

  “Smitten. Always hated that word. Rhymes with mitten and kitten. Sounds so juvenile.”

  “Okaaaay. Let’s change tack. How about ‘you should really be careful’ on this one.”

  “If you mean all that legal stuff, the lawsuits, whatever, I don’t care.”

  “I mean the fact you’ve never been able to stick with one woman for more than a couple of months. And most are lucky if they last a week. How long do you think this one will last?”

  Blaine glared at Cash. “Maxie is different. I would never hurt her. Besides, you’re jealous because women aren’t crawling all over you.”

  “I could have any woman I wanted. If all I wanted was a shallow gold-digger. That’s never been my idea of companionship. Not like you, apparently.”

  “Maxie is nothing like that type. I tell you, she’s different. Special.” Blaine smiled as he recalled their night together and how he’d never felt as complete as he had at that moment.

  Cash softened his tone. “I hope you’re right, little brother. I hope it’s the real thing. Because I’d hate to see you hurt. Women have a way of doing that when you get too close.”

  Blaine regretted his crack about Cash being jealous. He knew the heartache his brother had gone through, and he shouldn’t have brought it up. But Cash was right. The only woman before Maxie that Blaine had gotten serious about was Chrissy, and look how well that turned out. She was getting married to his best friend on Saturday.

  Blaine propped his head on his hands. “Guess you heard about the Vegas gig. Special delivery to Gray Gem, the backstage tickets, the party.”

  “I heard. Thought you’d be turning handstands, not looking like you lost a winning lottery ticket.”

  “Remember when I told you Maxie plays the guitar?”

  Cash nodded.

  “She’s a songwriter, too. A damn good one. She’s taking part in a contest and wanted me to be there for moral support. And I told her I would. Guess what day it is? Just guess.”

  “Same day as the Gray Gem and Vegas. Ouch.” Cash winced. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m not sure. This Gray Gem event is once-in-a-lifetime.”

  “Yeah. And there may be other contests Maxie enters. If she’s as special as you say, she may understand. Just be honest and lay it all out on the table.”

  “I suppose you’re right.”

  “Honesty is the best policy, or so I’ve heard.”

  “Honesty has started a lot of wars.”

  “Solved them, too.”

  Someone down the hall called out Cash’s name, and Cash rolled his eyes. “Another computer disaster, no doubt. Someone forgot to plug in their machine. Or thinks their mouse is dead because it needs a new battery. Se
e why you need to be in IT? It’s never a dull moment.”

  Blaine grinned at Cash as his brother headed out the door. Then he picked up the phone and finally connected with a florist who had the type of roses he wanted. After carefully dictating the message for the card, he started whistling a Gray Gem tune, “Fortress of Love.”

  With the question of what he was going to tell Maxie still hanging in the air, he quickly changed his tune to “Everything’s coming up roses for me and you.” Then he stopped, realizing the song came from a musical that didn’t end happily.

  He shrugged it off. How could something as wonderful as their weekend together end in anything other than a happily ever after? Don’t answer that, his inner voices nagged at him. Don’t jinx the best thing that has happened to you in a long time. Maybe he should have ordered two dozen roses. He picked up the phone to call the florist back but hung up instead.

  Looking at the time, he saw he only had another half hour before he was due to pick up Maxie. Better work fast, if he was going to finish up that work order. Today was one day he didn’t want to be late to the library.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Maxie stood in front of the mirror, looking at herself in the red dress she’d put on. She’d only worn it once since she bought it, and that was to a party after she broke up with Sidney. She and Nellie had gone on a shopping excursion to help ease the pain, and it was Nellie who’d encouraged her to buy the dress.

  Was it too bold? Too slutty? Maxie shook her head. As far as she knew, there was no such thing as an official librarian “outfit.” If she wanted to wear a bright red dress with a slightly lower neckline than she ordinarily did, who’d care? Well, there was one person she hoped would care.

  A knock on the door had her scrambling to grab her crutches and hop her way to the front of the house. When she opened the door, she wished she hadn’t heard the knock. She could have used the “I was in the bathroom and didn’t hear you” excuse later.

  Her father charged into the house, leaving Maxie no choice but to follow along behind. She looked at his red face and frown of disapproval and knew it was going to be bad. “I have to leave for work soon, Dad. Can this wait? Or maybe you can call me later.”