by Linda Conrad
There should be a couple of bends in the road up ahead where the packed caliche wound around the edge of a deep arroyo off to his left. He blinked and stared into the star-filled night, trying to judge how far.
At the distant edge of his headlight beams and seemingly right in the middle of the road, he caught the shadow of a mesquite tree. That told him the first bend in the road was coming up. Downshifting enough to take the curve on four wheels, Jericho held his breath waiting for the second curve.
“Jericho, watch out!”
Rosie must’ve seen the hulking outlines in the road a second before he did. A half dozen cattle had wandered out onto the caliche and were lying around soaking up the day’s lingering warmth. Son of a bitch!
Jericho jerked on the wheel and went right, knowing the arroyo was to the left. And hoping against hope to miss any more of the cattle that might be off to that side.
The minute the pickup was off-road, it skidded in the sandy dirt and he lost control. The truck did a one-eighty all by itself. He hung on to the wheel anyway, stepped lightly on the brake and prayed for a clear path.
But tonight they were not going to be so lucky. Out of the darkness loomed a hefty-sized cactus. Dead ahead.
He slammed down on the brake, holding out his right arm in a vain attempt to keep Rosie backed into her seat. But it was too little, too late as the truck’s momentum pushed them forward.
In the next instant, he heard his front bumper crunching against the cactus, and the truck came to an abrupt halt, though his body was still violently jolting in the seat. He vaguely heard the air bags deploy—immediately after his head smacked hard against the driver’s-side window.
Then it was suddenly all over. Pain shot through his temple and everything faded to black.
Chapter 12
R osie fought her way around the deflating passenger air bag, coughing at the dust in the air and battling with her seat belt. She scrambled over the center console to reach Jericho’s side. His moans, coming from behind the driver’s wheel, meant he must be alive. She was okay, so he should be all right. He just had to be.
Everything had gone so quiet. The truck’s engine was still running, but it had stopped whining. When she reached Jericho, his inert body took the breath from her lungs with fear. She quickly checked him over and placed her ear to his chest. He wasn’t conscious, but he also wasn’t bleeding. His breathing seemed heavy but nevertheless steady. Thank heaven.
Just then she heard another noise that sent chills running down her spine. Leaning over, she turned off the engine, listening intently. Yes, it was the other truck, and it was getting closer.
She tried to keep her head. What should she do? Run into the night and hide? But what about Jericho? She would never, ever leave him here, and there was no way she could carry or drag him away in time.
Without really thinking it all the way through, but minus a moment to consider, Rosie unbuckled Jericho’s seat belt. That left her room to undo the safety cover on his holster. She carefully lifted his service weapon from its place, and tried to remember everything she’d learned from him about guns.
Stepping out of the pickup, she faced the road the same way they’d come and listened as the other truck’s engine noise got louder and louder.
“Jericho?” she whispered, turning her face to him and silently begging him to wake up and take over for her.
But his soft moan told her that wasn’t to be.
Standing in what she hoped was relative safety behind the pickup’s open door, and holding Jericho’s gun with both hands, Rosie pointed it in the direction of the oncoming engine noise. In the next instant, headlights caught her in their glare as the huge truck navigated the first curve. Petrified, but determined to save both Jericho and herself, she aimed right above the headlights and held her breath.
Hold off, she cautioned herself. Let them get a little closer. That’s what Jericho would do.
But Rosie could see that the truck was already slowing and turning more directly toward her as they no doubt had seen Jericho’s headlights off the road. There wasn’t going to be enough time for perfect shots.
She fired. But must’ve missed them. They were still coming. Firing once again, she heard a ping and knew that this time she’d at least hit the body of the truck.
That ended up being her last shot because right then the driver apparently caught sight of the cattle in the road. To avoid Rosie’s bullets coming from his right and to miss colliding with ten tons of cow dead ahead, the driver dragged his wheel hard to his left.
For a moment or two more, Rosie could see headlights bumping off the road away from her. And then all of a sudden they disappeared. Disappeared!
After a crashing noise that sounded truly terrible to her ears, another unholy silence filled the air. Then, at last, Jericho called her name. She turned and scrambled back to his side.
“Who was doing the shooting?” he asked weakly as he shook his head and fought to untangle his own deflated air bag.
She heaved a deep sigh, so glad he was conscious and seemingly okay that she almost wept. “Me.” Holding out his gun to show him, she began to shake. “Are you injured badly? What hurts?”
He gave her a curious look, took the gun and then turned to stare out the window past the cactus. “I’m okay. Where’s the other truck?”
“I don’t know. After they spotted the cows, the driver went off on the other side of the road. Then I heard a crash.”
“The arroyo is over that way,” Jericho said darkly. “It was pretty damned steep and rough down in that spot the last time I saw it.”
“Do you think they’re still alive?”
Once again, Jericho’s answer scared her. “It doesn’t matter right now. We have to get out of here. This is still San Javier County. We’re in danger every moment we stay here.
“I wonder if my pickup will still run,” he added as he put his gun back in the holster, buckled his seat belt and straightened up in his seat.
“I turned it off,” she told him. “And the motor was still going then.”
He cranked the ignition and it roared to life. “Buckle up again, sweetheart. We’re getting out of here. Only this time at a slightly safer speed.”
“But shouldn’t we check on…whoever that was? Maybe they need help.”
“I’m real proud of the way you stood up to those bozos,” Jericho said as he put the truck into Reverse and eased backward. “But you don’t go sticking your hand in the hole, wondering if the rattlesnakes are doing okay. If they’re still alive, that’s the last place you should go. If they’re not…Well, we’ll call the sheriff in the next county and let him find out. Just as soon as we make it there safely ourselves.”
Jericho listened from the bedroom of their suite at the bed-and-breakfast as water began running behind the closed bathroom door. Rosie was preparing to take her shower while he tried to sort through his emotions. It had been a very long night so far.
Thankfully, the sheriff in this county was an old friend and had been ready and willing to help. A crew of deputies was dispatched to Gage’s Arroyo in the middle of the night to search for survivors. But when they’d found the smashed monster truck at the bottom of the dry arroyo bed, the driver and any passengers had been missing. The questions now seemed centered on whether any survivors had left the scene under their own power or had been thrown clear in the crash. A better search of the area would have to wait until daylight.
Meanwhile, Jericho could hardly arouse any real interest in those bastards. It was Rosie and his feelings toward her that had been hogging all his thoughts.
His old friend Sam Trenton, the sheriff of this county, had seen how beat up and tired he and Rosie had looked after all the questions were answered to the best of their abilities. Sam had called around and found them this one lone vacant suite in an entire county full of summer tourists who’d come for an arts-and-crafts festival.
Driving for a few hours to Esperanza had been out of the question
. The pickup would run, but the tires were completely shot, the air bags needed to be replaced, the right front fender was crumpled and the headlight broken.
And the two of them needed rest.
From behind the bathroom door, the sound of running water changed over to the stronger noise of shower spray. Jericho sat down on the edge of the bed to consider what was going to happen when Rosie came out of the bathroom and they found themselves exhausted and alone together in a room with only a king-size bed and a sitting room with one tiny sofa.
His life had changed forever in one intense moment back there on that dark road. Gone was the guy he had once been, the one who’d wanted nothing more out of his life than a bachelor’s existence. In his place was a man who would give anything to trade in his old ways for a chance at one red-hot lady who couldn’t remember her baby’s father. A lady who also easily remembered her weapons’ training and thought nothing of wielding a weapon when backed into a corner.
For the last couple of hours, while he’d been checked over in a local clinic and had taken his own shower, he’d found himself thinking not about bad guys but about how best to remodel his cabin. How to change the house he’d built into a real home.
He looked over to the bathroom door. She was there—just on the other side. The only woman he’d ever met for whom he would gladly give up the rest of his life.
For her and for her child. He’d been thinking of her little one, too. More than anything, he wanted to be that child’s father. He would make a great dad. He’d had the best example in the world.
For some reason, Jericho discovered he wasn’t afraid of Rosie leaving him. Always before, when he’d come close to a serious relationship with a woman, he would call a halt to things sooner rather than later. Mostly due to his worrying about how long it would last before the woman up and left. Maybe that kind of thing was a legacy from his damned mother.
But not this time. If Rosie hadn’t left him unconscious in the truck to save herself, and she certainly had not, he was positive she would never leave him at all. Not once she fully committed.
So that was what he was sitting here thinking about. How to go about making her want to stay as much as he wanted to keep her. But as usual, whenever he thought of her, the testosterone took over and he quit using his brain altogether.
In fact, right this minute his pulse pounded with need and his senses were on overdrive just knowing she was naked on the other side of that door.
Then with no warning, the door opened and Rosie stood on the threshold to the bedroom wearing nothing but a towel. Like a zombie he stumbled toward her with his arms outstretched.
Those brilliant sapphire eyes of hers swam with need, but she held out one arm to fend off his advance. “Jericho, wait. We have to think this through. I may be a terrible person. At the very least, I’m probably a thief. And obviously I slept with someone who didn’t care enough about me to look when I went missing.”
“You are my fantasy.” It was all he could think to say. “The one I’ve waited for all my life.” He took another step closer.
She backed into the bathroom. “But getting involved with me might bring you lots more trouble. Someone is still after me.”
“Too late,” he murmured. “I’m already involved. You stayed. You stayed and I don’t care who or what you were before. I’ll find a way to protect you from anything.
“And what’s more,” he added with a deep breath. “I hope we never find out who you were.”
Her eyes went wide and she dropped the towel, holding out her arms to beckon him closer. It was all the invitation he would ever want.
She was stunning and he was breathless as he dragged her into his arms and pushed them both up against the bathroom counter. He slanted his mouth over hers and stroked her waiting tongue with his own.
Kissing like this, with him half dressed and her totally naked was pure torture. But also pure pleasure. His senses soared as he touched her everywhere. He craved her like a thirsty man craved drink.
Bringing a hand up to caress her breast, he reveled in the soft, weighty feel of it in his palm. She had such fabulous breasts. The joy of touching them intensified. His blood fired as he bent his head and took one rosy tip into his mouth.
She moaned and bucked against his hips. It was such a luxurious gift to hear her moaning under his touches and kisses. He spent another indulgent moment in licking and sucking her deep into his mouth, while at the same time letting his other hand slip easily between her legs to cup her.
Another moan came from her parted lips, and he lifted his head to kiss her again. To swallow her little sounds of pleasure and to push his tongue deep inside her, mimicking what he wanted them to be doing in other ways. He held her tight and felt himself growing harder.
Jericho wanted this to happen, more than he’d ever thought possible. But he also wanted to go slow. To draw out every precious moment—for both of them.
Nibbling his way down the satiny column of her neck, he found her so sweet-smelling and fresh after her shower, and so compelling with her moist skin and soft moans that it nearly threw him off. He steeled himself against a too-soon ending to all this intimacy.
Rosie felt damned good under his hands, and he wanted her to experience something so special with him that she would never forget it. He needed to become familiar with every inch of her body. It seemed imperative to learn everything that she liked. What turned her on. What brought out those tiny mewling sounds of pleasure. What caused her to jump and shove her hips hard up against him, begging for more.
His fingers sought the nub to her core and rubbed there gently. Testing, exploring. Finally, teasing and tormenting.
“Jericho.” His name came out like a whispered prayer. He was so turned on he almost missed that she was starting to come.
Crying out, she buried her hands in his hair and hung on. Her breathing came in short pants. He pulsed with anticipation next to her and gave an instant’s thought to slowing her down just to bring her up again.
But in the next moment, when her body went taut and she jerked against him with a whimper, he knew this was so much better. To be able to watch her come apart in his arms was the ultimate pleasure. He’d done it once before but this time was even sweeter. This time there would be another and, he hoped, even another chance to make this happen. They had the time and he definitely had the desire.
Rosie trembled, clutching at him as he lifted her chin and kissed her. Kept on kissing her and touching her and rubbing up against her until she groaned again and reached down for his zipper.
“Please, don’t leave me again,” she whispered hoarsely as she fumbled with the button on his jeans. “Please.”
He heard all the words she didn’t say. Come inside me. Become one with me. This is meant to be. I will never leave you.
Helping her out, he slid out of his boots and shed his jeans while she leaned her bottom against the bathroom counter and watched him from under heavy lids. Then he was there. All for her.
Lifting her hips, he filled her. Pushing deep. Her head leaned back on a moan and her hips jerked forward, shoving him ever deeper.
She gripped his shoulders as he thrust once…twice…until his head was literally spinning. Her internal muscles tightened around him, clenching and stroking. Her body pulled at him, drawing him, locking them together in a primitive way and making sure he stayed with her.
Oh, he would stay with her, all right. Stilling, he looked down at her beautiful face, with her eyelids half-closed and with an expression that said she was lost in sensation. Her lips were parted and her breathing shallow.
Breathing deeply himself, he smelled sex, exotic and compelling. Both masculine and feminine shades of lust combined within the scent and drove him mad.
There was no time left. As much as he would’ve liked to go on forever, when she rubbed her hips to his again, he was undone.
He belted his arm around her waist and pulled her hard against him, thrusting again. The next few
moments whizzed by in a blur of thrusts—deeper, deeper, again and again.
Higher and higher, lost and crazed, his muscles tensed and strained as he fought to hold on. He heard her scream, then curse something unintelligible as she twisted and lurched. She plastered herself to him, seeming to want the melding of the two of them into one entity.
That was all he needed. His climax surged through him like an earthquake. His whole body shook with the force. He braced his trembling legs and went along for the ride.
Bending nearly in two, he brought his mouth down on her neck, nipping and grazing and loving the sweetness and softness of her. One last thrust and his head came up as he gasped for breath.
Talk about your life-changing experiences.
He picked her up in his arms and headed for the bed. All he wanted now was another few hours. Or maybe, a whole lifetime of feeling this damned good.
Chapter 13
R osie stretched out beside Jericho’s sleeping body. Only moments before he’d laid her down on the bed and crawled in after her. Feeling limp and sated, she was amazed that her body still pulsed with pleasure. Surely there had never been anything in her previous life to compare to him and the things they’d done.
From that very first moment when he’d echoed her thoughts and said he hoped they never uncovered her past, she’d been all his. Forever. Whatever he wanted. For however long he wanted.
Still, at the beginning she’d felt compelled to tell him she loved him. That he was the only one there would ever be from this moment on. It had seemed so important to say the actual words. But quickly she’d come to the conclusion that words didn’t matter.
He’d been such a master at telling her everything he was feeling without words. She’d felt his need throbbing inside her. She’d known his thoughts, begging her to never leave him as he’d worked hard to make sure she was fulfilled before taking his own pleasure.
For this short time with him, she’d forgotten all about her fears and the tension of having people after her. And now she wanted to find a way of forgetting them for good. To let Jericho become her permanent protector, so that together they could conquer all the bad things in the world.