Nowhere Safe

CHAPTER 26





A blade of sunlight slashed through barely parted drapes, sparking pain in Trish’s temple. Her head throbbed, but not as badly as yesterday.

She’d survive this–had survived worse headaches from hangovers. Aspirin would be nice.

A shot of Woodford Reserve would, too.

Her sleep-heavy gaze paused on a note propped against the lamp on her nightstand. White, not gray. Her pulse calmed.

Heidi’s scrawled handwriting told her to rest some more and she’d be in touch about lunch.

Trish pushed up to a sitting position and waited until stars stopped showering past her eyes and her head eased to a dull ache. She made the trek to the bathroom and cursed whoever had created mirrors.

God, she looked awful. A purplish welt decorated the side of her face at her hairline. She hadn’t blow-dried her hair after showering last night. Dragging a wiry brush through the tangle of black curls would be masochistic torture. Pass.

She washed her face and brushed her teeth. Changing from the bikini panties and sleeveless cut-off tank top that stopped just below her breasts would take more energy than she could muster. After carefully finger-combing her hair, she pulled on a short silk kimono and trudged down the hall. She threw a quick look at the front door, glad to see it bolted.

No boogieman coming in that way.

No sizzling blue eyes in the living room either.

She deliberated between being disappointed Josh had a late night appointment and relief he hadn’t returned to see her this morning as promised. This way she could regroup. Staying a step ahead of him when she was on top of her game was tough enough. Today she felt more like she’d been sidelined after getting hit by a two-hundred-pound tackle.

Trish sniffed the air.

Could it be? The rich aroma of fresh coffee beckoned her.

Bless Heidi who deserved a BFF award.

Trish shuffled to the kitchen, eyes drawn to the almost full pot. Yawning, Trish stretched and twisted then leaned her head against the cabinet and poured a cup of the steaming brew.

Staying home alone would do her good. She had to sort out her feelings about Josh and figure out how she was going to convince him to let her function without him hovering.

AA

Josh sat in a dark corner of the breakfast area just off of Trish’s kitchen where he’d closed all the blinds to prevent any snooping media from looking in. As a street urchin, dark areas had meant safety, so he gravitated to dark for relaxing as an adult.

This had been restful until Trish shuffled into the kitchen.

Josh almost dropped his mug of coffee. He’d heard her coming up the hall and hadn’t called out for fear of frightening her.

No chance of calling out now. He couldn’t breathe.

She had on a kimono. Sort of.

The thing was shorter than a miniskirt and gapped open and...

Air had locked in his lungs the minute all that exposed skin wandered into view. Where were her clothes? Not that he was complaining, but damn, the woman was practically stripped.

Finishing the job wouldn’t take much.

He’d volunteer.

When Heidi had let him in earlier, Josh had thought the breakfast area would be a safe zone to wait for Trish to wake up. No such thing as a safe zone with this woman. A red alarm light should flash before she entered a room to warn a man of imminent attack on his peace of mind.

Trish poured her coffee then paused to stretch and the kimono dropped down on one shoulder. Her skimpy shirt rode high, then higher, and she shifted until he had a nice view of her sweet bottom.

A perfect place for each hand.

He flexed his fingers, trying not to think about all that creamy skin so close.

His body clenched at the idea of touching so much softness. He let out the breath trapped in his lungs before he passed out. Now what was he going to do? The longer he sat here like a voyeur, the deeper in trouble he’d be as soon as she discovered him. But, man, was she hot. With her mussed hair and sleepy, half-awake look, she could have just rolled over from a draining night of lovemaking.

She yawned. Well, a yawn would have been all right, but not the torso-twisting stretch that followed. Now he had a nice side view. When she lifted her arms above her head and arched back, the slip of material she wore for a shirt skimmed closer to uncovering a handful of breast.

He remembered exactly what a handful of Trish had felt like.

Sitting here was getting damned uncomfortable.

If she extended her arms up another inch, both nipples would flip out below the taut edge of material.

A jackhammer pulse thrummed in his crotch. He tried to swallow, but couldn’t with his throat as parched as an Arizona butte in August. He gave the back door exit consideration. If he slipped out and walked around to the front then knocked, she’d never know he’d been in here the whole time.

Yeah, that might work.

Except for the dog. Heidi said a pet called Dazzle was in the backyard. Well, hell.

The doorbell chimed.

Trish turned her head toward the front door and frowned.

No, Trish, don’t answer the...

She abandoned her cup, heading for the front door.

And killing his chance for a clean getaway.

Damn. Josh jumped up, rushing after her. What the hell is she thinking? Half asleep, she wasn’t thinking. She had no idea who was at the door. Regardless, whoever kept ringing the doorbell was not going to see her dressed like that.

Her hand touched the knob.

“Don’t open that,” he ordered a step behind her.

She shrieked and swung around, falling backwards into the corner with her hand over her chest and snapped, “Where’d you come from?”

“Happy to see me, are you?” Josh reached the door and snatched it open to a grinning man who might as well have had MEDIA tattooed on his forehead.

“Go. Away,” Josh warned, “or I’ll have the police pick you up for trespassing.” He stopped short of slamming the door out of consideration for Trish, but shut and locked it. Then took a breath and looked over at her.

His gaze traveled down to her navel ring.

That pumped another jolt of happy juice into the erection he was trying his best to keep turned away from her.

Her lips were soft and plump, begging to be kissed and he wanted to accommodate her.

Josh closed his eyes. Try thinking like a man who’s here to protect her. Not some hound trying to get her flat on her back. He opened his eyes to find Trish still tucked in the corner, but she’d wrapped the kimono across her body and tied the belt.

What a shame.

She stared past him at the kitchen. “Where were you?”

Screwed, but not as much as I am now. “Sorry to scare you,” he said. “Heidi let me in. I was in the breakfast nook, off to the side, catching a few Zs.” Change the topic now. “How’re you feeling?”

“Oh, uh, fine.” She sidestepped toward the hall. “I’m, uh, going to go change. I’ll be right back.” She left the room. More like raced from the room.

Thank you, God, for small miracles.

If she’d stayed another minute, he’d have kissed her, starting at her navel.

He needed to get laid, but he hadn’t been interested in any women he could’ve actually had in a long while. The pisser was that he only wanted one woman right now. The one he had to keep his hands off of for any hope of remaining even marginally objective on this mission.

One benefit of scaring her half to death was that she hadn’t asked him where he’d gone last night.

Josh returned to the relative safety of the kitchen, still in a painful state of arousal. Had to deal with that first.

He thought about standing naked, chest high in snow. Thinking about that had worked in the past.

A minute went by.. Nope. Not helping so far. Superimposed on the snow was the image of Trish, clad in next to nothing.

Apparently the vision was permanently etched in his mind. Trish mere inches away and wearing less material than he used to clean his laptop screen.

He started writing computer code in his mind, which worked as well as counting sheep most nights. His body began to relax. When she came back out, he’d be ready. He’d have everything under control.

She’d just caught him off guard. Wouldn’t happen again.

AA

Trish dashed into her bedroom and shut the door. Her heart pounded against her chest. Josh had scared a year off her life, but that had nothing to do with her blood pressure shooting off the charts. She slumped to the bed.

Get a grip. He hadn’t even touched her this time.

None of her body was going to settle down with Josh still out there, alone, looking like ten shades of wonderful.

How did he do that this early in the morning?

She needed to get her head on straight. Last night her heart had said she could trust Josh, but she’d been shaken. Vulnerable. In the cold light of day, common sense and hard experience reasserted itself. Handsome men, especially those who came from money, and Josh obviously did, were nothing but dangerous. They all had hidden agendas. Hadn’t she learned that in the most brutal way imaginable?

She’d been so easy when she was younger. Some sexy guy with a flashy lifestyle would start flirting, buy her a few drinks and she’d follow him home. Not because she truly loved him, but because of her pitiful need to be loved.

The one who’d beaten her within an inch of her life hadn’t even had money. He’d just looked the part. But she’d been so drunk by the time he took her to a cheap hotel that she hadn’t even protested. Then his idea of rough sex involved her spending the next two weeks in a hospital.

Love was for family only. She was never going to be a pity case again. No man was worth risking the life she’d fought to rebuild.

She’d carved that belief into her stone-dead heart and embraced it daily...until Josh kissed her. Every time he touched her, he chipped a sliver of stone away.

If she let him, Josh could be the man to break through and get his hands on her heart. The thought scared her to her toes.

He’d awakened a longing to be with someone–with one kiss.

And she’d loved every minute his mouth had devoured hers.

No man had ever kissed her with so much passion. That’s when she knew she’d stepped into trouble. Maybe Josh was trustworthy and maybe not. The issue wasn’t that she couldn’t trust him, but that she couldn’t trust herself to make a wise decision.

Her conscience smacked her around, arguing she couldn’t keep grouping all men together. Zane was honorable. Ben was a great husband and father. Even Bunko was one of the good guys.

Why discount Josh so fast?

She didn’t have an answer.

Damned conscience.

Josh had stayed at her side the night police had shown up at ReSolution and he’d stepped in to protect her from being arrested last night.

He kept showing up when she least expected him and doing things that pecked at her heart, a constant tapping to let him in.

He made her want something more...something special.

Heidi had said it was time Trish recognized the strength everyone else saw within her, but that was the image Trish wanted them to see. She hadn’t fooled Josh. He’d seen past her bravado.

He’d offered a no-strings-attached arrangement.

Could she do that?

Just a little practice run spending time with a man her brother knew who would be gone in two weeks? Nothing too serious.

That could work in her one-minute-at-a-time life.

At some point she’d have to face the fallout from last night. Hiding up here was cowardly. She walked over to her closet and dug for an outfit that would boost her confidence. The day she left rehab she promised herself she’d face her fears and doubts head on. She hadn’t realized that would encompass a stalker and murder, but other women dealt with crisis and so would she.

Jeans? No. Dress clothes? No.

She looked at the peach dress that had a sexy swish to it. Wearing that downstairs might be dangerous.

I could have been killed right along with Charlie last night. How much more dangerous could it get? She didn’t want to wake up one day and find her life was over and she’d been too afraid to take a chance again.

Josh had been trustworthy thus far,so she would give him a little faith.

It wasn’t as if he’d been trying to jump her bones. What had he told her that first night when she said she wouldn’t sleep with him? I didn’t ask you to.

A man like Josh didn’t come along very often. Seize the damn day and start living again.

Decision made and feeling more in control, Trish dressed, freshened up with a dab of mascara and suffered through a quick hair brushing. A splash of her favorite cologne and she exited the bedroom, ready to face her fears.

Please don’t make me regret trusting you, Josh.