by Carol Arens
“There might be an opening for that job.” Trace ruffled the boy’s hair. “For now we’ve got to get you and your sister out of here.”
“I don’t know anyone in town we could turn to.” Lilleth squeezed her eyes shut, thinking. She opened them and shook her head.
“They’ll be safe with Mrs. Murphy,” Trace said.
She began to object, but Trace shook his head, clearly set in his decision.
“Auntie...” Jess stood beside Trace, stretching as tall as he could. “Uncle Alden is that scared of ghosts. The last place he’ll go is the mental hospital.”
“What about the staff?” She wasn’t convinced. “They might find the children.”
“Maybe, but it’s the best we can do. And it looks like another blizzard getting ready to blow. They won’t stir from their own cozy fires.”
“We’ll be closer to Mama there, Auntie.” Jess tugged on her sleeve, looking hopeful.
“I can’t see that there’s a choice, really,” she admitted. Even though she didn’t like having the children there, the asylum would probably be the safest place for them.
“Let’s pack some food and get going. Hanispree might figure out that I was delaying him for a purpose. He could show up here.”
Within moments they were rushing through the woods. Lilleth’s palms burned, and so did her knees, but it helped that Trace carried Mary.
With half an ounce of luck, they would get to their destination before the heavy snow set in.
They did, but just barely. The walk back to town would be more of a challenge.
When they ushered the children into Mrs. Murphy’s room, she clapped her knobbed and slender hands.
“Why, it’s children! How I’ve missed seeing little ones.” She motioned Jess forward. “Are you happy, young man? Even though you, too, have passed before your time?”
“Yes, ma’am, me and my sister both are happy as larks.” He sat beside her on the bed. “We’d be obliged if we could spend some time with you, though. Our regular granny is busy on heavenly errands for a while.”
Lilleth nearly gasped. She had been trying all the way here to figure out what to tell Mrs. Murphy. Her nephew was a clever little boy. Trace arched his brows and gave Jess an approving nod.
“That would be lovely.” The elderly woman hugged Jess with a frail arm. “It’s nice that you feel so warm and solid.”
“That’s one thing that surprised me about passing over.” He leaned into her hug. “The warmth, even the cat’s warm.”
After an hour of settling in and seeing to the other inmates, Trace clutched Lilleth’s hand and led her down the dark hall toward the back of the building.
She winced and he let go.
“I bruised them a little when I fell, is all.” Near the back door she stopped and glanced up the stairway. “Maybe they moved her back.”
Trace shook his head. “I already checked.”
“I’m scared, Trace.” She didn’t want to say those words. In a small way they admitted defeat.
“Don’t worry—we’ll find Bethany.”
Snow fell in earnest now, blowing sideways and in circles.
“Maybe we ought to stay here.”
“You can. Maybe you ought to tend to the children.”
“What about you?”
“I need to be where I can see what Hanispree is up to. Chances are, he’ll remain in town.”
“I’m staying with you, then.”
Lilleth breathed in the cold, fresh scent of ice and pines.
“Hold on to me, then, Lils. This is going to be some blower.” Trace drew her in tighter.
“Say it again,” she said.
“Hold on to me.”
“Not that...”
Chapter Fourteen
“Lils?”
Maybe he had misheard, with the wind blowing in his ears.
“Lils,” he repeated, trying the endearment out cautiously.
Wonder to beat all, she smiled at him. Even though her teeth chattered with the cold, there was no mistaking that she wanted him to use the forbidden name.
He’d like to take a moment to enjoy it, to consider what it meant, but the storm grew worse by the minute and her pretty lips shivered.
Too bad he didn’t have time to kiss them warm and rosy. Evidence pointed to the fact that she might allow it.
“Let’s get you back to the library before you freeze solid,” he said.
“Alden and Perryman might find us there.” He’d never seen fear in Lilleth’s eyes before and he didn’t now. Still, the concern he read in them was not uncalled for.
“That pair of tenderfeet? The farthest they’ll venture is the hearth in the hotel lobby.”
Frost-tipped curls peeking out from under her fur cap nodded against his coat sleeve. She tried to walk at the urgent pace he set, but her skirt had become sodden to the knees and dragged like a weight behind her.
He scooped her up. It felt good to have her in his arms. To protect her. This was what he’d wanted from the first time he’d rescued her from a gossip’s tongue, way back when.
Wind howled about his head. It blew his hat off. Snow stuck to his face and crusted his eyelashes.
“Almost home, Lils. There’s the end of the path up ahead.” He said it with more confidence than he felt. With the snow swirling from every direction at once, he couldn’t be sure he was even on the trail.
“It’s a lucky thing we got the children to Mrs. Murphy when we did.” Lils’s voice shook. He felt her shivering under her damp coat.
As numb as his lips were, he doubted that they looked as blue as hers did.
“I think I see the back door.”
“Praise heaven...” Her teeth clacked.
He did praise heaven a moment later, coming inside and closing the door on the wind. He set Lils on her feet, then knelt beside the fireplace, piling on kindling and logs. He poked and prodded until a single flame burst into full-blown fire.
Two thumps sounded, then one more. Lils’s hat and gloves hitting the floor, he reckoned. Glancing behind, he watched her try to unbutton her coat. With her fingers looking as brittle as blue porcelain, all they could do was tremble against the wet wool.
“Come over here to the fire, Lils.”
He stretched his hand toward her. She stepped forward, grasped it, then settled down beside him.
“Land sakes, but aren’t we a p-pair of i-icicles.”
“Let me get those.” Even though his fingers were not blue, they were numb, clumsy as an oaf’s. The buttons felt like silver dollars that he was trying to push though dime-size holes.
This task would be impossible until his hands were warmer. He reached toward the flames at the same time Lils did. In unison, they shivered in their damp outerwear.
“Why are you letting me call you Lils?”
Damn! He hadn’t intended to blurt that out. His plan had been to heat her up first, in front of the fireplace with a few kisses.
“I’ve decided to forgive you.” She arched a dark auburn brow at him. “There is no reason we cannot be friends.”
“Humph.” With his fingers warmed, he reached for her coat and slipped the buttons free. “I can think of one.”
He slid the wet wool off her shoulders and tossed it somewhere. Removing his own coat, he pitched it in the same direction.
“And what would that be?” She knew what it was. The knowledge flared in her eyes along with the reflection of the snapping blaze.
He didn’t speak, couldn’t really. Not with his heart in his throat and his fingers moving toward the bodice of her dress.
The buttons parted so smoothly that he feared she would think he was accomplished at undressing ladies.
He had never be
en that man and now he knew why. There was only one woman for him. Not time, not distance, not even years of living a full and successful life had made him forget her.
He looked into her eyes and she held his gaze.
“You want to be my lover,” Lils whispered, answering her own question.
He shook his head.
“No, Lils, I want to be your husband.” He traced her jaw with one knuckle, then her throat. He rubbed the lace of her corset between his thumb and finger and felt the heat of her breast. “I’ll be your lover, the father of your children. I’ll be the man who never goes away.”
“This is something for another time. I can’t think about this now...not until my sister is safe.”
“You’re wrong, Lils. This is our time. We can’t do a damn thing to help her in this storm—but Hanispree can’t hurt her, either.”
Trace leaned forward and kissed Lilleth. “This is our time.”
She nodded, then kissed him back. “We shouldn’t waste it.”
She unbuttoned his shirt, then pushed it off his arms, trailing her fingers slowly over his skin, pausing at the muscle of his forearm and the bone at his wrist.
Baring her chest to the lapping heat of the flames, he traced the shape of her, from the full outer curves of her breasts, to the inner swell, then up her throat, where her pulse shimmied in her neck.
She touched the jagged L shape of his scar with the tip of her finger, silent for a long moment.
He squeezed her hand, but she winced.
“From the fall?” He kissed her palm, then lay it gently over his heart. “Will you marry me, Lils?”
“I told you a long time ago.” Tears glittered in the corners of her eyes. “I will marry you and only you.”
“Tonight. As soon as the snow quits.” It had to be now. “Before something happens and someone snatches you away from me again.”
“No one will ever do that, Trace. I’m older now. I would fight for you.” She nodded, as though settling something in her mind. “I will marry you just as soon as my sister can stand up for me.”
Lilleth leaned forward and pressed her breasts to his chest. A pair of hot circles branded his heart just as the scar had done over the years. But the scar had been cold, a reminder of loss.
Lils, crushing her body to the old wound, singed him with another brand. This one erased the past. Oddly, his elation at this moment was greater for having lived the loss.
Only one thing stood between him and his fantasy come to life.
A few pieces of clammy clothing.
In four swings of the pendulum on the mantel he had tossed away his trousers, long johns and socks.
Lilleth made even quicker work of her skirt, numerous underthings and boots.
She knelt across from him, looking like a mythical nymph...a goddess, bare and glorious. Her gaze took him in from shoulder to knee. It ignited a blaze across his flesh and kindled it deep in muscle and bone.
“I always figured you’d grow to be a beautiful woman, Lils, but you are so much more.” He watched the fire warm her skin while he memorized each curve and hollow. “You make it hard for a man to breathe.”
“And you make it impossible for a woman to have a respectable thought.”
He caressed her bare shoulders, then pressed her back until she lay against the hearth rug.
Heat shimmered in her eyes. It sparked in her hair where it tumbled on the rug, wild and enticing. She made him feel feral in a way that he never had, as if he were a beast about to claim his mate.
He straddled her hips, his weight settling hot against her belly. Firelight licked her skin. It flushed her cheeks, her throat and the swell of her chest. It fondled her everyplace that he was about to.
He wanted to jump upon her all at once, to devour her, but this was a moment to be savored.
First, he tasted the curve of her waist.... He stroked the flare of her hip with his tongue and smoothed the fine goose bumps that had risen under his mouth with his hand.
An hour ago the storm had seemed a curse that fought and delayed them, but not any longer. Howling wind and whiteout snow would insure that every soul in Riverwalk stayed indoors. It gave them a precious bit of time before life returned, with a sister to be rescued and villains crushed.
For now, the only reality was his mouth showing her why grown men cried when she sang a love song.
* * *
The storm battered the front window, shook it until it nearly broke. At the same time it rattled the front door on its hinges.
With one touch, Trace did the same to her. His fingers moved over her skin, caressing, nuzzling, then settling down to explore that tender spot that had never been explored.
“I’ve always loved you,” she whispered, rising to meet his mouth on her throat. “Even when I didn’t want to.”
“Good to know.” He lifted up to smile down at her, and gently pinched her bottom. “I hope you always love me even when you don’t want to.”
He turned his attention to the swell of her chest, nibbling and pebbling her flesh with his tongue and teeth. She felt wicked and wonderful all at once. As though she had made herself into a delectable meal and allowed him to feast upon her.
“Trace?”
“Umm?” he answered, sounding husky.
“There’s something I used to imagine when you were sitting at your desk.” Her breathing came quicker now because his mouth was nibbling a lazy trail down her belly.
“Umm?” He paused.
“It’s wicked. You’ll be scandalized.”
“Nothing between us will ever be wicked.”
That couldn’t be true when just the musky scent of his skin drove her to envision things that made her tremble.
“Sometimes, when you sit at your desk, I imagine that I am your book. You open me up, then—”
Just like that, before she could finish speaking, he stood up, his muscular thighs bunching and stretching while he lifted her.
With a sweep of his arm, he cleared the desk. Pens and ink bottles plinked on the floor.
He set her bare bottom on the polished wood and spread her thighs with big, firm hands.
“You’re right, Lils. This might be a little bit wicked.”
He touched his erection to her curls, then pressed the tip past her nether lips. Inch by slow inch he thrust into her. Squeeze by slow squeeze, she enfolded him.
His breathing sounded ragged.
“I love you, Lils,” he said, leaning in close to her lips, but not quite kissing them. “Never anyone but you.”
Cupping one hand under her buttocks, he climbed upon the table and slid her over the smooth surface without losing the precious contact of their joined bodies. He pressed her flat against the desk.
He drove into her and she met him. She owned him...or did he own her? She couldn’t think, or breathe, or speak. With each thrust of his hips he made old heartaches disappear. The future dawned in an explosion of fireworks that shimmered in red and gold behind her eyelids.
“You weren’t the only one who fantasized about what could happen on this desk,” Trace panted, while she felt the library fall slowly back into place.
“I wouldn’t have guessed that a common book could lead to what we did.” She trailed her fingers through his damp hair and rejoiced in the huff of his moist breath against her neck.
“Not any common book, Lils. You are my love story.”
* * *
“You are a pea-brain, Perryman!” Alden shouted into the wind blowing stinging ice at his face. “You’ve gotten us lost in a blizzard.”
“Never claimed to be a scout.” Perryman looked down his razorlike nose and blinked his obsidian eyes. “Hotel’s probably a little farther on.”
“It had better be,” Alden grumbled. �
��I paid you good money to get me those children and all you’ve got is us lost in a storm. You are a bungler.”
He no longer cared if he hurt the fool’s feelings or not. The man was an idiot. An apology later on and they would be friends again. It didn’t even have to be sincere. Perryman was a dog in many ways, an insect-munching canine who welcomed the slightest show of approval from his master.
That was a pleasing thought. Alden Hanispree...the Master. And very soon he would be wealthy to go with it. Wealth would give him power; power would draw people to fawn over him. They’d be drooling all over themselves just to do what he wanted, no matter what it was.
All he needed was the brats. Now that he’d found them it would be a simple matter to get them back. Give that sister of Bethany’s over to Perryman and he would no longer have to worry about her interfering.
Maybe he’d send Bethany a little gift from Perryman, just to let her know the easy times were over.
“Look!” Perryman shouted, only inches from Alden’s ear. “There’s a building ahead.”
“You colossal moron!” He would have slapped Perryman’s face with his glove, but the cold blow would have stung his own hand. “That’s my insane asylum. You know I can’t go there.”
“You’re the moron if you’d rather stay out here and freeze to death.”
“Take me back to town.”
“See those chimneys with the smoke coming out? I’m going there to get warm.”
“You’re going to get possessed, is what. You know those fires are kindled by ghosts.”
“Warm is warm, my mother always said.”
“Your mother left you while you were still at her teat.”
Perryman shrugged. “Someone’s mother had to say it, because it only makes sense.”
“Come back here!” he shouted, but the fool turned his back and walked away.
“Stay here and die or face the ghouls,” Perryman called over his shoulder.
“You’ll pay for this!”
And he would, dearly. But for now Alden had no choice but to follow.
* * *
Lilleth stared down at six foot two inches of naked male sprawled midway down the staircase. Half an hour earlier he had been fondling her and she had been teasing him while they descended from the bedroom to the kitchen to get a bite of supper. Suddenly, desire had taken them over, completely and utterly. His kisses and her response had been too powerful to resist, and a deeper hunger than mere food had tumbled them down upon the middle step.