He tossed the paper back on the bed. ‘Looks like I didn’t have to, doesn’t it?’ He forced a grin, and nodded to the photo. ‘I clean up real nice, don’t you think?’
She only glared at him.
‘Aren’t you at least happy for the cranes? I’d hoped you would be.’
She ignored the question, feeling like her heart would explode in her chest. ‘You didn’t kill him, did you? Beranger.’
‘Of course I didn’t kill him! For fuck sake, Val, how can you even think such a thing? And this sale, well it’s been a battle between Beranger and me for months now. It was a done deal long before he disappeared. I finalised it last night and authorised them to make it public. I was going to tell you after dinner. I was going to celebrate with you, but then,’ He nodded to the bed. ‘We got a little side tracked and land deals were the last thing on my mind. ‘He shoved his way into his jeans. ‘I have no idea what happened to the man. He had lots of enemies, you know that.’
Val didn’t apologise, but she couldn’t deny the relief that nearly took her breath away. ‘The article says you’re heir to a big fortune out east.’ She stopped mid pace and jammed her finger at the paper still lying on the bed next to him. ‘Is that true?’
He ran a hand through his hair and cursed under his breath. ‘Last time I checked what my parents did 36 years ago in a fit of passion wasn’t a crime. In fact …’ he fell into step and paced next to her. ‘I’m still trying to figure out just what my crime is, and why you’re so upset.’
As he reached for her, she shoved him away. ‘You made love to me, and you … you … you made my family care about you, and you ... you … you made love to me! Or at least I thought you did.’ She gestured at the paper. ‘But men like you and Beranger fuck people all the time, don’t you? So why should my family and I be any different? You wined us and dined us, and I let you, even though I knew, I knew something wasn’t right. But how the hell could I have guessed that we were just the entertainment for a bored rich boy?’
He winced as though she had slapped him and his voice was suddenly cold. ‘I have never been bored, Val, and I don’t need to use people for my entertainment.’ He pulled on his boots. ‘I wasn’t trying to hide anything from you. You never asked, and I just assumed that you liked me for me.’ He stood and walked to the door. ‘I never met to hurt you or your family,’ he said. ‘I like your family, and, well I thought it was obvious how I feel about you. I’m sorry for any misunderstanding between us. Really sorry.’ Then he turned and let himself out.
‘It’s not like him to leave without saying good-bye,’ Aunt Rose said as they pulled away from the hotel and headed for the outskirts of Boise. She looked down at the copy of the paper in her lap. It was complimentary, so by the time the three women met for breakfast, Hawk’s true identity was common knowledge. ‘Course he’s a pretty important man. I guess he probably got called away unexpectedly. Rich business men are like that, always off on important business.’
Val did her best to keep the conversation away from Hawk. She even resorted to finding the whiniest country station she could and cranking it. The newspaper, along with all of her other gossip magazines, kept Aunt Rose occupied, and Sally was busy texting, no doubt sharing with her husband how they had met the rich and famous Daniel, Hawk, Mercer. They were easy, she thought, Aunt Rose and Sally. They were content to believe that some rich high roller actually had time for them, actually had anything for them that wouldn’t get him something in return. And really, Val wasn’t fooling herself. Her family had nothing to offer someone like Hawk Mercer, and she certainly didn’t. She was nobody and not likely to ever be anybody, and it had never mattered as long as she could spend time with her birds. She certainly wasn’t the kind of woman Daniel Mercer would want to take home to meet his folks.
So that meant he had to have latched on to them for the entertainment factor. And for some stupid-assed reason, that made her more angry than anything. OK, so they might not be up to his snooty-snoot standards, but they were still her family, damn it, and they deserved to be treated with a little respect.
When they pulled in to a truck stop to refuel the car just across the Oregon state line, Val went in to browse while a friendly woman dressed in a brown cover-all filled her tank. It was hard to enjoy the wander about when the last few wanders-about in truck stops had been done with Hawk sneaking a grope at every opportunity. She forced her thoughts away from his absence and browsed the books and CDs thinking maybe some romance for Aunt Rose might be a good idea. She was trying to decide between The Pirate Captain’s Virgin Stowaway, and The Billionaire’s Chamber Maid when Sally grabbed her by the arm and dragged her back behind the display of cleaning shammies and waxes for 18-wheelers.
‘Enough of this,’ she hissed. ‘I want to know what happened with you and Hawk, what really happened.’
Val squared her shoulders. ‘Daniel Mercer happened, that’s what happened.’
Sally blinked.’ ‘What?’
Val shot a quick glance over at the magazine rack to make sure Aunt Rose was still well occupied. ‘Oh come on, Sally, a rich guy disguised as a biker suddenly wanting to ride shot-gun with us?’ She made an inclusive gesture. ‘I call it slumming for fun, that’s what I call it.’
Sally shook her head and gave Val her disappointed mother’s look. ‘Here all this time I thought you were the smart one in the family. Was the man ever anything but kind to us?’
Val tried to keep her lower lip from quivering.
‘He only agreed to join us because Aunt Rose was so concerned about us traveling alone.’ She raised a hand. ‘I know, I know, she’s a bit neurotic, but it’s not like either of us has cornered the market on the well-balanced psyche, is it?’ She gave Val’s arm an affectionate stroke. ‘Hawk was good for us, Val. Good for all of us, and he didn’t ask anything in return. He’s no more responsible for his birth and his family than we are, is he?’
Val figured the Billionaire’s Chamber Maid was a bit too close to home, so, as they headed out across Oregon, they were regaled with tales of bodice ripping pirates. This time the atmosphere in the car was more laid back when the bodice ripping began. There were giggles and rude remarks and a general running commentary for the duration. Lunch was a leisurely picnic shared at a rest area just before they reached the Columbia River. Val figured if she had to feel like she’d just had her heart ripped out, then there were worse places to be, and worse people to be with.
Chapter Ten
THEY DROVE ALONG I84 and the Columbia River Gorge in the late afternoon sun.
‘The sign says Multnomah Falls,’ Aunt Rose said, pointing out the window, then down at the atlas she had open on her lap. ‘Harry told me about that place. He says it’s really beautiful. He says it’s worth seeing. I think we should stop.’
‘Now?’ Val shot her aunt a glance from behind the steering wheel. ‘But I thought you’d be anxious to get to Harry’s.’
‘I’ve heard it’s really spectacular,’ Sally piped up from the back. ‘And there’s a lovely gift shop. I might find something for the kids there.’
‘Harry says there’s a nice view of the falls from the big solarium in the restaurant,’ Aunt Rose added. ‘He says the food’s really good. My Harry has a very discerning palate.’ Aunt Rose rubbed her stomach. ‘I could eat.’
‘But we just ate,’ Val said.
‘Picnics aren’t real meals, are they? Besides my legs ache from being all cramped up in the car.’ Aunt Rose massaged one knee. ‘The exercise would do us good.’
‘I agree,’ Sally said. ‘We should definitely stop.’
Val knew there was no use arguing, so she pulled into the parking lot off I84, where the falls already dominated the skyline. It was better than a truck stop, she thought, especially since truck stops held painful memories at the moment. A little balm for the soul from the natural world couldn’t hurt.
From the viewing deck above the lodge, Aunt Rose pointed to the foot bridge that crossed further up the
river and gave a lovely view of both falls and the pool below. ‘Shall we?’ She trotted off up the footpath toward the bridge. Val was more than a little surprised, since Aunt Rose wasn’t noted for anything that involved a lot of footwork. Sure enough, by the time they reached the bridge, the woman was doing her share of heavy breathing, but strangely she didn’t complain or even reach for her inhaler.
The bridge was crowded with people making their way back down the steep path from the top as the late afternoon light faded. The view was breath taking, and romantic, which did little to ease Val’s aching emptiness. How could she feel such pain for someone she’d known such a short time? The light breeze bathed the viewers in a bracing mist from the lower fall as they all raised their heads to view the top of the neck-cricking upper fall, ooohing and awing their appreciation.
‘It’s the highest waterfall in Oregon.’ A familiar voice came soft and humid against her ear.
‘Six hundred and twenty feet. Fed by underground springs on Larch Mountain. That and spring run off.’ Hawk moved in closer and folded his arms around her making her feel weak-kneed and giddy.
‘That huge boulder down there in the pool, it weighs 400 tons and fell from the face of the cliff in 1995.’ He nipped her earlobe. ‘Can you imagine the splash?’
She tried to laugh, but couldn’t quite manage it, and the sudden mist in front of her eyes had nothing to do with the waterfall. ‘So what are you, a tour guide now?’
‘Can be, if I need to be.’ He tightened his embrace. ‘Wanna see the top?’
‘Of course she wants to see the top,’ Aunt Rose said. ‘Mind you, Harry’ll be here in an hour and a half, and I’ll be starving by then, so if you two poke around up there, we’ll eat without you, don’t think we won’t.’
‘Harry? Harry’s coming?’ Val asked.
‘Just in case you two get side-tracked. I’m too old to hitchhike, and Sally won’t show a little cheesecake to anyone but her Ben, so how else are we going to get on to Portland.’ Aunt Rose stood on her toes and gave Hawk a kiss on his cheek, then she did the same to Val, offering her a smile that was almost tender.
‘Come on, Sally,’ she said, shooing her niece back down the path toward the lodge. ‘Let’s find that gift shop.’
For a second Hawk and Val stood watching the two women saunter down the path like ladies of the manor, then they turned and headed toward the top of the falls in silence, getting curious looks from the mass exodus heading the other way. At last he spoke. ‘I’m sorry, Val. I’m sorry for running out like I did this morning, but I was angry. I admit, I should have told you I was the spoilt little rich boy. I’m sure it was a shock to find out from the paper.’ He reached for her hand, but she pulled it away.
‘I don’t care how rich you are. What I care about is that you manipulated all of us, and now you’ve got my aunt and my cousin manipulating me.’ She jerked her head in the direction Aunt Rose and Sally had disappeared. ‘I can only assume you were all in this together.’
‘Oh come on, Val, I couldn’t have manipulated them if I’d wanted to. Your aunt would have seen through it with her eyes closed.’ Hawk grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the way, forcing a smile and a nod to a handful of Chinese tourists who passed them on their way down. When they were out of hearing distance he turned his attention back to her, speaking in a forced whisper as they continued their ascent. ‘Sally flat out said on the phone that Aunt Rose wouldn’t have let me near you if –’
‘Wait a minute,’ she turned on him, ‘Sally has your cell number too?’
‘Yes. Both she and Aunt Rose.’
‘Oh that’s just perfect!’ She headed off up the trail at a fast trot. ‘You give my cousin and my aunt your cell phone number but can’t be bothered to give it to me, the woman you’re fucking! That’s just great!’
‘The woman I’m fucking never asked for my number, damn it!’ he said, practically running to catch up with her.
A couple coming down with a toddler papoosed on the father’s shoulders gave them a wide berth and hurried on past.
Hawk caught up with her and grabbed her arm forcing her to walk next to him. ‘Do you think Aunt Rose would have let me anywhere near you in Gruid if she hadn’t interrogated me to within an inch of my life first?’
‘What?’
‘Did you really think she’d hang out in the hotel room watching Sleepless in Seattle for the millionth time while you went missing for most of the night? You really don’t give your family much credit, do you? Would you slow the fuck down! This is not a footrace, and you’re missing the views.’ He pulled her to a stop as they rounded the next hairpin curve overlooking the broad expanse of the Columbia River, now bronzing in the fading light. It was shouldered on the Washington side by shaggy forested bluffs. To their left Upper Multnomah Fall spilled noisily over the breast of Larch Mountain into the abyss they couldn’t see the bottom of for the growth of evergreens rising up around them.
‘Christ, Val, why do you have to make it so hard? Why can’t you just let things be what they are?’ He lifted her chin and forced her to meet his gaze. ‘I followed you to Oregon. That wasn’t my plan, you know? I was heading for New Mexico. But I followed you to Oregon, and now that I have, now that I know you, I’ll follow you back to Missouri if I have to.’ He chuckled softly and stepped back. ‘That makes me sound like a stalker, doesn’t it?’
This time, she let him take her hand as they turned back up the path. ‘So I was the only one who didn’t know what was going on?’ she asked.
‘You were pretty oblivious.’
‘Was that all an act, then – Sally and Aunt Rose thinking you were a cannibal biker who killed Beranger?’
‘Oh they thought that all right. They didn’t know anything about us until Aunt Rose saw me kissing you by Bill’s truck at the truck stop. The woman has eagle eyes. Then while you were over at Mike’s garage, Aunt Rose gave me the royal once-over. When she was convinced I wasn’t going to kill you and eat you, she ordered me to take you to see those silly birds you were always going on about.’ He glanced at her and offered her a mischievous smile. ‘That’s what I had in mind anyway, but I think she’d have been after me with the Walther if I’d tried it without her blessing.’
‘She told you about that, did she?’
‘She told me about a lot of things. Val, my point is that they both love you and want you happy. And they’re hoping, and I’m certainly hoping that your happiness will at least in part involve me.’
Suddenly they found themselves on the viewing platform at the top of the falls, surprisingly invisible from below. ‘Oh my God!’ She spoke over the roar of the falls, as they took in the dizzying view of the Columbia River and the world beneath that now looked miniature and toy-like.
She leaned out over the metal railing into nothingness. Her insides quivered low in her pelvic girdle and her stomach flip-flopped. ‘You feel that?’ she breathed, as he moved in behind her and slid his arms around her waist. ‘I love that feeling of almost falling, almost flying, you know, the way it feels to be up so high and looking down. I wonder if that’s what birds feel. I dream about that sometimes, flying like they fly.’
‘Oh yes, I feel it,’ he said, ‘But that’s not nearly all I’m feeling, Val, not nearly.’ He started by nibbling the nape of her neck, and as he moved in close enough that she could feel the tight undulation of his groin, the delirious free-falling sensation intensified until she shuddered and quivered against him, feeling goose flesh tickle up her spine. She guided his hand down inside her tank top to her breasts, cupping him to her until her nipple caressed his fingertips and he gasped against her ear. ‘God woman, I wouldn’t trade this. I wouldn’t trade this for the best thing any bird might feel.’
She wore a light summer skirt, and though easy access hadn’t been her plan at the beginning of the day, she was certainly happy for it now as his fingers scrunched the fabric until they made contact with bare skin, and the squirmy falling, flying feeling was joi
ned by the thrum of ravenous arousal. She shifted her hips and opened her stance, taking care to rake herself hard against him as she did so. He gave a low belly-grunt in response, and she caught her breath in a little whimper as his hand slid over the crotch of her panties teasing the landscape below to full, humid attention. He thumbed the rise of her clit and drew a heavy finger up the length of her pout, pressing the soft gusset deep along the folds of her until he found her hole, wet and grasping. Then he wriggled and burrowed into it, fabric and all, making her squirm and bear down until the fabric was drenched and clinging. ‘You’re so soft and warm,’ he whispered against her nape. ‘And you smell like honey, hot and sticky and so ready.’
She heard his fly open, but as she reached around behind to grasp his heavy smoothness, he pushed her hand a way with a tight groan. ‘Don’t do that. I’m so full I’m not sure I can control myself and I don’t want to come in your hand. I want to come inside you.’
She heard the rattle of the condom wrapper as the hand stroking her through her panties at last slipped the crotch aside. She pulled a tight breath and rubbed herself against the flat of his palm.
‘Grab the rail.’ His voice came in tight staccato bursts. ‘That’s it. That’s my girl. Push your butt back. Open your legs for me.’
She did as he commanded, feeling the giddy clench of the height as she looked over the edge of the fall. The cool caress of evening air bathed her bottom as he lifted her skirt up over her hips, worried her panties until they were uselessly stretched over one butt cheek then he shoved into her with a trembling moan. ‘Oh God,’ he breathed. ‘Oh my God.’ Then he pushed in close, and she could tell by his gasp that they both felt the vertigo of the view into nothingness. The tingling gripping sensation was made all the more exquisite because it culminated in the place that already buzzed with excitement, the place where his cock pushed into her cunt.
Traded Innocence Page 21