Chapter 16
The Jeep bounced and jerked through the deep, wet sand. Lucy kept looking over at Thad’s grim but focused profile. He had to fight his way at a snail’s pace. The windshield wipers were at top speed and water ran off them. Lucy gripped the door handle and checked on Sophie, who looked up every time the Jeep lifted her off the seat. Her dolls and a vivid imagination kept her oblivious to the severity of the storm.
Ahead, a stream of water coursed across the road. Thad didn’t slow, he took it on without preamble. The Jeep sank into the depression and threw all of them up off their seats. Lucy came down hard on her butt. Water splashed high on every side of their car.
Sophie started crying.
The dolls she’d been holding had dropped to the floor, her mouth was an open frown and tears sprouted from her frightened eyes.
“It’s all right, sweetie,” Lucy said. “The road is just a little wet from the rain.” Boy, was that an understatement.
Straining to reach the nearest doll, Lucy handed it to the girl. “We’re almost home.”
Quieting, Sophie took the doll and then bent forward to retrieve her other doll.
Crisis averted, Lucy faced forward. The Jeep handled the conditions amazingly well. Dips and washed-out portions of road didn’t stop them.
Finally, through torrents of rain, Lucy spotted the lights of the beach house.
“We’re home, Sophie,” Lucy said with as much animation as she could muster.
“Yay!” Sophie dropped her dolls and looked out the window, not possibly seeing much through the rain.
Thad drove onto the long driveway, maneuvering two mini floods streaming across and bouncing them across washed-out holes.
At last the Jeep came to a stop. They’d made it.
Lucy helped Sophie with her tote and Thad waited for them to climb the stairs first. They all ran for the door. The rain was incessant. A bolt of lightning flashed at the same time an explosion of thunder boomed. Sophie started crying. Thad opened the door, and Lucy gently pushed Sophie inside.
Dripping wet, Lucy unzipped Sophie’s jacket, trying not to laugh at her adorable, crying face. “You’re all right.”
Her cries eased up, but she still wore a cute pout.
Lucy took off her hat and ruffled her hair. “Shower time.”
After Lucy sent Sophie to change into pajamas, she came back down to the second level. Thad stood by the back windows, the television tuned to a news channel. The storm was going to intensify tonight, turning to snow by morning.
She went over to him, daring to slip her arm around him. He warmed her by putting his around her while they watched the rain in the lights over the pool. The ocean wasn’t visible through the darkness.
“Darcy called,” he said. “We lost cell service but I called him from the landline.”
Darcy was staying at Kate’s estate. Had something happened? She moved out from under his arm and faced him as he turned from the window. “Why?”
“A man met Wade Thomas at his house and then followed him.” He explained what happened.
Who would do that? Who would risk being caught? Someone who wasn’t afraid. That’s why Thad stood here staring out the window. He wanted to go back to the estate, and it looked like the weather would stop him.
“What was his warning?” she asked.
“You and your friend better stop interfering,” Thad summarized. “Darcy found out the chief is in trouble financially just like Layne and Jaden.” Thad shook his head incredulously with a long sigh.
And then he’d gone to check out Wade. “How would the chief be involved?” Lucy asked.
“I don’t know. None of this makes sense. I don’t think Cam is involved, but Jaden could have taken money from Cam and the person who contacted Layne. He’s vulnerable, and someone with the right resources would be able to find that out.” Cam had.
So, Cam was just a coincidence? He hadn’t met her on purpose to try and get close to Kate? He didn’t strike her as the sniper type anyway. He was crazy enough to stalk women but not smart enough to use his sniper abilities to attempt to kill a presidential candidate. She had to agree with Thad. “Who was the man who attacked Darcy?” she asked.
“Darcy is pretty sure his name is Andrew Lindeman. We think Wade hired him.”
A gunman? Someone to do the serious threatening? “Could he be the shooter?”
“I think he’s the one who paid Layne to kidnap Sophie and Jaden to allow the shooter access to the estate. I don’t think he’s the shooter.”
“Why not?” Thad walked away from the window and stopped in front of the TV. “Whoever is behind this must be very rich and powerful,” he said. More powerful than Wade. “It’s more than a lone shooter.”
“You mean like some sort of network?”
He looked back at her. “Or organization, yes.”
She could see how that was possible. It did seem that there were several involved. Jaden. The chief of police. And now this Andrew Lindeman character.
“I need to get back to the estate.”
Seeing Thad looking out the window again, she went to stand beside him. “You and Darcy have been friends a long time, haven’t you?”
“Yes, since the academy.” He turned to her, curiosity over why she’d asked in his eyes.
“Your mother is safe, Thad. You’re not the only one who can protect her.”
He blinked, his tension easing. “Thanks for reminding me.”
He did know Darcy was capable of protecting Kate. He had no reason to worry other than not being in control himself. He needed to let go of some of that control.
One of the security agents had told Lucy all about Darcy, his divorce and the way he’d rescued Avery. Thad hadn’t told her, and she now wondered if the reason why was because watching his best friend fall in love made him take a closer look at his own love life.
“Kate said he met someone and that she’s staying at the estate with him,” she said.
“Yes.” Again, he wore that curious look.
“They’re really serious.” Handsome man meets beautiful damsel...sounded familiar.
Thad didn’t respond. He must have contemplated whether the same could happen to him as had happened with Darcy. And it made him uncomfortable...because he did have feelings for Lucy.
“I knew someone who fell in love like that,” she said.
When Thad started to move away, she put her hand on his arm, stopping him. “She was in a bad car accident and had to go through extensive physical therapy.”
Thad lifted his eyebrows, clearly expecting another one of her stories.
“She had to work at walking again. Her legs were injured the most. It nearly crippled her. There was a man who’d gotten in a climbing accident. He was seeing the same physical therapist. Once their appointments were back-to-back. My friend was finishing up and he arrived early for his session. They met and it was instant love.”
“You’re making this up.”
She smiled, moving to stand in front of him and placing her hands on his chest. “She waited until he finished and they hobbled to a nearby café. They spent hours there just talking and then shared a cab when they left. She took him to her house and he ended up moving in a week later. They were married six months after that.”
“That’s sweet,” he said.
“It’s a true story.” She gave his chest a pat with one hand.
His mouth and eyes changed into an affectionate but derisive frown. “Sure it is.”
“It is.” This was one time she hadn’t made it up. “I embellished a little.”
“Which parts? All of it?”
“No, when I said they hobbled. I knew you didn’t believe me so I told the story the way I would tell any other that wasn’t true.”
“Ah.” He nodded, charmed.
“They both had a cane.”
“A cane. Right.”
“I went to college with the woman. Duke University. Her name is Annie Baker. His name is Max Timon. They live in Virginia. Look them up.”
He just looked at her, sort of believing.
“Your friend Darcy reminds me a lot of them.”
“Darcy was just divorced. Was your friend divorced?”
“No, but the man she’d been seeing broke up with her after the accident. The same happened with Max. His girlfriend left him. Some people find it that way.” Sometimes she wondered if she’d found it that way. If Thad were open to the possibility, she’d think she had.
“Darcy isn’t in love. He thinks he is but he isn’t.”
Lucy lowered her hands from him. “You’re too stubborn to believe it.”
“I’m stubborn?”
Did he think she was? “Yes. You refuse to take a chance on love. Even if you find it, you may pass it by because you’re too stubborn to change the way you think.” A little frustration came into her tone. This weekend was only missing that—Thad’s flexibility on love.
“How do you know that?” he challenged.
“I...” What could she say? That after last night she thought they had a real shot at forever? “I can tell. You and I...”
When she didn’t finish, he went white. “You’re not implying...” He pointed to her and himself a few times. “You and I...”
“Have fallen in love?” She shook her head. “No.”
“What are you saying, then?”
“You wouldn’t give it a chance even if we are starting to fall for each other.” There. She’d said it. “It isn’t casual enough for you.”
He didn’t deny that, and being right about him stung.
“Can you really say you don’t feel anything for me?” she asked.
She watched him go rigid and wanted to take the question back. Amazing, the chameleon change in him. Most of the time he was Thad, the man who upheld the law, the man of stealth and intelligence. And then he was Thad, the man who shied away from love, the ideology of marriage. Commitment? No problem. Marriage? Another story. What he didn’t see was that commitment required love, too, and he was holding back too much to allow love to grow. He was doing that with her, right now. If he allowed what had begun between them to grow, he’d see that what Darcy had with Avery was possible for him, too.
There was something else that threatened his ability to love. And her name was Sophie Cambridge. Sophie melted every barrier he’d erected to protect himself against anticipated failures. He based too much on the past and on what happened to other people, not himself. The temptation to break him of that tantalized Lucy. The cost to her heart was what stopped her. For now.
* * *
About two hours ago, Sophie came down in her pajamas and the birthday party had begun. Thad had brought down her presents, and she had just finished opening them. He and Lucy had picked up a few more before coming here. The living room was a mess, wrapping paper and boxes on the floor and cake plates on the ottoman. He forgot about why he shouldn’t enjoy this. He just would, and when the weekend was over, he’d deal with the fallout then, if there was any.
The ugly thought came that there may not be any if Sophie was put into another foster home. If she stayed with Lucy, the entire situation changed, and he couldn’t go there.
Sophie’s eyes drooped, but she doggedly persevered in her play. Lucy laughed softly at the sight, adoration at its purest.
It was getting late. Thad went to the window to check the weather. The rain had turned to snow, slanting at an angle with the force of the wind. The beach house had been built solid, all out of stone and concrete. He could hear the wind every once in a while and that fact told him how powerful the storm was. No hurricane by any stretch, but enough to strand them here for a day or two.
“It’s time for bed, Sophie,” Lucy said. “We’ll bring your presents up to your room.”
Sophie didn’t protest. She was practically falling asleep sitting up. It was after ten and it had been a big day—she’d sleep a long time.
“I’ll bring her presents up,” Thad said.
Lucy looked at him. “You want to stay up with me?”
Was she deliberately tempting him? “Yes.” He didn’t care about what would happen after they left Carova. He had a strong desire to spend time with Lucy alone. He wasn’t going to deny himself that.
After bringing the presents up, paying special attention to the dollhouse and positioning it so that Sophie would see it if she woke, Thad went downstairs to get ready for Lucy.
He turned off the television and turned on the stereo, finding an easy listening station, idly wondering if they’d lose electricity. He’d done a check of all the systems here, as his mother had strategically sent him to do. He knew her real agenda—for him and Lucy to end up together. She didn’t need him to come here and get the house ready. She could have sent servants to do that. Granted, a servant could be in disguise, but all of their servants had been employed by the Winston family for years. They had very low turnover because they were paid well and had benefits.
Going into the kitchen, he took a bottle of sauvignon from the wine holder and began to uncork it. All the while, conflicting motives churned in him. Seduce Lucy. Block Lucy from his heart. Seduce Lucy. Block Lucy.
He couldn’t delude himself. Lucy did attract him and he wanted to be involved with her. Would she be willing? When he’d met her, she had been actively seeking husband and family. Would she forego that to be with him? At least put it off?
She had Sophie now. That changed the game, for her and for him. Sophie challenged his conviction. He vowed never to bring children into a dysfunctional family. But how could he look at Sophie and still call it dysfunction? That unsettled him.
He poured Lucy a glass of wine and then himself some eighteen-year-old Glenmorangie into a Scotch tumbler, followed by a splash of water. He rarely drank, but for some reason tonight felt like a celebration, and making it home through the storm had nothing to do with it. Lucy had everything to do with it. Last night. This morning. And, yes, even their conversation. Except, he couldn’t pinpoint why. How could her challenging his beliefs feel good? Maybe it was the love she spoke of. Maybe it was the fairy tale. Was he beginning to believe in the fairy tale? No. He refused to do that.
He looked to his left when he heard Lucy come down the stairs. She appeared around the wall and his course was set. She wore jeans and a long-sleeved cream-colored knit shirt and socks. Not the nightgown that had captivated him before, but nothing could hide her beauty. Her dark hair fell over her shoulders and her trim hips swayed as she approached.
Seduce Lucy.
Passing the leather sectional, he met her in the open area between the entry and the great room. She took the glass of wine and looked down at his tumbler.
“A manly drink, huh?”
“One thing I got from my dad,” he said. One of few.
Her light green eyes sparkled with appeal. “Did you get the art of seduction from him, too?”
She couldn’t have asked a more digging question. How had she targeted him so accurately? His father had been a master with women. Did Lucy think he bore some similarities? He may not be unfaithful to the women he chose to develop relationships with, but he didn’t settle for just one. It put him in check.
“I didn’t mean...” Lucy began to apologize for implying he treated women the same as his father had.
“No.” He stopped her. “You’re right. We still haven’t finished our conversation from this morning.” He should never have considered continuing this with her without doing so.
Lucy sipped her wine, drilling him with her eyes. She was such a perceptive woman. Smart. With a funny streak.
“You want me to agree to a relationship with you for as long as you remain interested and then we go our separate ways.”
She stated the fact, and not in a savory way.
“It may not be me who becomes disinterested,” he said.
She strolled closer to the living room, looking through the window at the rain turning to snow.
He moved to face her. “And we may not go our separate ways.”
Facing him, she sipped, her clever eyes making him feel as if she was way ahead of him. “You have it in your head that no relationship lasts, so one of us will initiate the separation. It will just be a question of time. Months. Years. But it will come.”
He did believe that, but only because he didn’t believe he’d find the real thing, the genuine article. True love. Plenty of people took chances on it, but very few found it. That was just reality. And he was very much a realist. He wouldn’t be a crime scene investigator if he weren’t. Having hope that everything would be all right in his line of work was dangerous. Everything was not all right if he was needed. If he was called to a scene, it meant someone had been gravely hurt or killed. Not all right. No fantasy there. Only reality.
“No marriage. No kids,” he said. She had to understand that’s the way he intended to live before any intimacy continued.
If that angered her, she covered it well. Putting her wineglass down on the credenza behind one side of the sectional, she went to him and slid her hands up his chest. With her body pressed to his, she tipped her head back.
“You can have this weekend,” she murmured. “After that, you can’t have me anymore unless you can be with me unconditionally.”
With no conditions placed upon her that she could expect no marriage and no children with him. He inwardly went cold. Unconditional meant he had to be open to marriage and children with her—if their relationship progressed to that point. He could agree and still never marry her or have kids with her, but that would be dishonest and cruel. If he couldn’t be open to giving her all she needed, then he shouldn’t be with her at all.
Rising up onto her toes, she put her lips to his, eyes open and full of sultry shrewdness. “One weekend.”
“Lucy...” She flipped on a sexual switch in him.
“After that, it ends unless there are no conditions,” she insisted. “You don’t have to decide now. You can decide when we get back to the estate. No conditions. You put aside your doomsday attitude and accept what we have, as is. No projections of the future, marriage or no marriage, children or no children.”
He loved that she’d used the word doomsday, and then not. She had him figured out and that unnerved him. Why was she giving him the weekend? To cast a spell on him? She’d already begun to do that.
“And if the relationship progresses to something serious enough to move in together, what then?” he asked.
“You have to be open to marrying me. Someday. I require marriage. If not with you, then someone.”
“You’re asking me to change the way I view marriage.”
“Yes. I am.”
He wasn’t sure he could do that. A haunting voice inside his head echoed, Yet. She eased away from him, and he thought she’d changed her mind. But instead, she lifted her shirt off and dropped it to the floor. “This weekend and then we decide what to do from there.” She removed her bra and it fell on top of her shirt. “Agreed?”
Thad stared at her hard nipples, perched on round, creamy flesh that begged to be touched with his mouth. “Agreed.”
Smiling her victory, Lucy removed her jeans in a striptease, slowly inching them down over her hips, lifting one slender leg out of one side, and then the other. Her underwear came next.
He put down his tumbler and went to her. Taking her against him, he kissed her. She lifted one leg beside his still fully clothed side. He ran his hands down her body, over her rear. Both of them kissed each other, seeking, hungry for more. She unbuttoned his thin flannel shirt and spread her hands on his chest. He shrugged out of the shirt.
Lucy planted wet kisses all over his chest. He watched her as he unbuttoned his jeans. She crouched and took over removing his pants, his erection jutting free. Both naked now, Thad held her against him for a long, deep kiss. All that mattered was her. This. Getting inside her.
Lifting her so that she wrapped her legs around him, he walked around the sectional, Lucy still kissing him, her hands on each side of his face. There were two leaf-yellow leather ottomans centered between the section and two multicolored striped chairs. Any flat surface would do.
He lowered her onto them, making sure her butt was on the edge. Then he braced himself by his hands on either side of her and his feet on the wood floor. She opened her legs. The sight made him groan and he couldn’t prolong the penetration. Muscles straining, he sank deep into her. She held on to his biceps as he thrust back and forth. He sucked her breasts and then rose up to look at her, at their joining. It was strenuous work maintaining this position, but the angle was gripping.
Beneath him, Lucy arched and met his hips with hers. She was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen. Wind spattered wet, heavy snow against the windows. Soft music played along with their breathing.
Putting his weight on her, he pumped into her, grabbing the end of the ottoman to leverage harder thrusts. He found her G-spot that way. She rasped ecstatic moans that escalated to a shout. He kissed her to keep her quieter, feeling her body tremble in orgasm.
With her limp and satisfied, he coaxed her up off the ottoman. She wrapped her arms around him, demanding a kiss. He gave her a deep one before turning her to face the ottoman.
“Get down onto it,” he said gruffly.
Finally, she understood he wanted her on her hands and knees on the two big, square ottomans. Kneeling between her legs from behind, he held her hips and probed her opening, sliding in smooth and slick. Holding her hips still, he thrust deep and slow at first, until he heard her respond, aroused again. Then he thrust in hard. Pulled back. Thrust in hard again. Faster and faster. Skin slapped skin.
If he could get her out of his system, this would be the way. She grunted with the repeated impacts and put one hand on the sectional for balance.
Changing his angle just a bit, he continued the driving pace. He couldn’t quiet her cries this time. She came with a sound that echoed in the room. A few more thrusts and an unending wave of pleasure engulfed him.
* * *
Lucy lay awake long after that bronco ride on the living-room ottoman. His hard pounding had sent her through the roof with a million rockets shooting off, but what had that been all about? Luckily, Sophie hadn’t woken. The urgency with which he’d made love to her could have been due to his current certainty that he would never be able to be with her unconditionally. Well, if there was one goal she had this weekend, it was to teach him that love didn’t end. After he left this beach house, he’d never be able to forget her.
That was the theory, anyway.
He lay beside her asleep. They were in his room now, farther away from Sophie’s but close enough in case she needed them. She curled against him. It was still snowing outside. They’d be stranded for at least another day. While Sophie was engrossed in all her new presents, she planned on sneaking Thad into dark nooks and crannies of the house for quick reminders of how good it was between with them.
More and more, Lucy was convinced they had the makings of a lasting love, the kind Thad didn’t believe in. Yet.
Pulling the covers all the way off him, she climbed onto him. He stirred, beginning to wake. This was how she wanted him, unsuspecting, waking slowly to her loving.
When his eyes fluttered open, she leaned over and kissed him softly.
He moaned and his hand came up, fingers sinking into her hair. He held her to his mouth, falling into the slowness just the way she planned.
Lucy didn’t hold back. She kissed and touched to convey the way she felt. Unvarnished, unguarded. Genuine. She truly felt there was something real going on between them. Why didn’t, or wouldn’t, he accept that? She didn’t know. But she did know that if her opening to him didn’t reach him, nothing would.
She kissed him all over his body, slowly gliding her hands as she went. His neck, his chest, his stomach. She trailed her tongue up and down his hardness. When she finished, she stretched on top of him. His hands went to her back, her breasts mashed to his chest. Looking into his eyes, letting him see all, she kissed him purposefully.
When he could take no more, he rolled her onto her back.
She let him part her legs and push into her. When he stayed deep inside her without moving, she inwardly cheered. Taking her lead, he spent time kissing and touching her. Beginning with her mouth, he traveled downward, treating her to the same pleasure. Endless moments of sensation tickled her, full of meaning, more than they’d shared so far. She could feel it. He slid back and forth a few times, gentle and slow, and then slid completely out of her to kiss the lower regions of her body.
Back up to her mouth, he pushed into her with more force. When he began thrusting harder, she stopped him.
“I want it slow,” she murmured.
A low groan rumbled from inside him, but he slowed his pace. Taking her hands in his, he gripped her and pinned her to the mattress while he moved with excruciating slowness. He watched their joining and then looked into her eyes.
Intense pleasure built up, circling in her groin and spreading. He thrust hard once and withdrew, thrust again.
It was too incredible to slow him down. She tried to stifle a cry, turning her head and shutting her eyes to the intense feeling.
Thad rammed into her without mercy. “Lucy,” he groaned. “I...can’t...”
“Do it.” All that mattered was his hardness in her. “Do it.”
With a low growl, he rose up onto his hands and let loose, pounding her hard and deep. Lifting her legs, she opened her knees, held them with her hands to keep them wide so that she could take all he had to give. From there it was a matter of seconds and the world flew away.
Lying flat with him collapsed on top of her, both of them recovering, she realized what had just happened.
“Damn it,” she complained. “I wanted it slow.”
He chuckled low and intimate into her ear. “No, you didn’t.”
She smiled with wicked appeal. Thad hadn’t actively tried to purge her. They just couldn’t get enough of each other.
Unconditional, Lucy reminded herself. After this weekend, he could not place any conditions on their relationship. In that, she could not compromise.