No Desire Denied Page 11

  Curious, he squatted down and tried to get a better look at what she was doing. “Can I help?”

  Her first response was a grunt, followed by, “I think I’ve got it.”

  Stone scraped against stone. Then Nell turned, sat on her heels and set a small metal box on the stone floor. When she opened it, Reid saw that it was divided in three sections with folded sheets of colored paper in each one.

  “It was Adair who thought of it.” Nell explained her sister’s plan. “To make it even more adventurous, we would all meet in Piper’s room and then climb down from her balcony. Hers was closest to the ground.”

  As he listened, Reid was just as fascinated by the story as he was by the play of shadows and muted light on her face. She had a gift with words that drew vivid pictures of the three sisters climbing down the balcony, then racing through the gardens to bury their deepest and most heartfelt desires in the stones. He’d been touched when she’d told him that the box had originally been their mother’s jewelry box. Amused when he’d learned that they’d each used a different color of paper to guard their privacy and that her color had turned out to be pink.

  “Some of my goals were pretty frivolous,” she admitted with a wry smile. “One of my early ones was to just be taller than my sisters.”

  “When did you achieve it?” Reid asked.

  “Six years later. Of course, I was hoping for an overnight change. At twelve, I was wishing I’d set my sights higher. My sisters didn’t offer much of a challenge in the height department.”

  Reid laughed. “With siblings it’s always about competition and pecking order.”

  “Even with triplets?”

  “Especially with triplets.”

  After glancing at the slips in her palm, she handed one of them to Reid. “I’m going to use the box again and tap into the power of the stones.”

  And it was going to work. Whatever doubts she’d had, whatever nerves plagued her had begun to fade the moment her fingers first brushed against her mother’s jewelry box. There was a power here that had never failed her.

  While he leaned toward the mouth of the arch to maximize the light, she glanced down at the folded pieces of pink paper she’d written her sexual fantasy on. They were easy to identify because all the other goals were written on small single sheets. She’d filled two large pieces of paper with her plans for Reid, and over the years she’d expanded them a lot.

  “‘My goal is to find Eleanor’s sapphire necklace before sundown tomorrow,’” Reid read aloud. Then he refolded the slip of paper and passed it to her. “You’re being more specific with your time frame, I see.”

  “A lesson learned the hard way.” She placed the goal on the top of the pile.

  “You really believe that putting that into the box and tucking it into the stones is going to help you find the necklace?”

  “I know it is. There’s a power here.” Positive of that, she placed the second slip of paper she’d brought on the top of her pile and closed the lid.

  “Don’t I get to read that one?”

  “I’ll tell you all about it.” Just as soon as I get it buried. She slid the box into its niche and replaced the stones. Then, still on her knees, she faced him. “That final piece of paper was a sexual fantasy I wrote about you on the night our parents married.”

  “Nell—”

  She stopped him by placing a hand over his lips. “Let me finish. I knew even then that you would be a reluctant lover, so I wrote about seducing you. I’d never before imagined myself in that kind of role, but with you it was easy. Let me turn that fantasy into reality. Just one night—no harm, no foul.”

  When he said nothing, she moved her hand to his shoulder, then down his arm and closed them around his fingers. Triumph thrilled her when his fingers gripped hers hard. “I’ve waited so long to touch you, and it’s the perfect time. Once we find the necklace and everyone’s safe, we’ll go our separate ways. End of story.”

  “Life doesn’t work like a story line, Nell. Shit happens.”

  “I’m a big girl. I can handle shit.” She raised his hand to her mouth, kissed their linked fingers. Then she placed her free hand on his chest. His heart was beating as hard as hers. “My story line in my fantasy is all about enjoying each other for as long as we can.”

  With his free hand, he simply took a strand of her hair. “People leave.”

  “Of course they do.” There was no mistaking the flash of pain she’d seen in his eyes. Odd that she’d never thought of Reid as being vulnerable. But it occurred to her that he might be just as afraid of being hurt as he was of hurting her.

  Her instinct was to soothe. “People walk in and out of our lives all the time. I lost my mother before I could even remember her. Adair and Piper missed her terribly. But they at least had the memory of her. I don’t. You and I can have each other now. I’d rather live with the memory of that than with regret, wouldn’t you?”

  Regrets. Reid was sure he’d have them. He already knew he wanted to give her more than she was asking for. More than he was capable of giving her. “You win.”

  When he leaned toward her, she placed a firm hand on his chest. “We have to find a better place for me to seduce you. We don’t want the legend kicking in.” Rising, she tugged him with her and stepped out of the stone arch. “In my fantasy, I started my seduction very slowly. Just a stolen kiss in the gardens. Come on. I’ll show you.”

  “I can’t wait.” He’d been wanting to kiss her ever since they’d left the castle. Ever since the last time he’d kissed her. For seven long years.

  Forever.

  In one quick move, he pushed her into the shadows at the side of the arch and caged her against the stones. Her eyes darkened; her breath caught. He could have sworn he felt her body melting into his until every soft, round curve fit perfectly.

  “Wait. In my fantasy, I’m supposed to be the seductress.”

  “You’ve done your job.” He streaked his hands up her sides and thrust his fingers into her hair and crushed her lips with his. The low purr in her throat shot fire straight to his loins. The desire he’d felt for her, already consuming, became even more raw, more impatient, more primitive. Undeniable. It beat in his blood, in his mind, until he couldn’t think. He could only want. Take.

  He inched them farther into the shadows, but she slowed his progress by fisting her hands in his hair to keep his mouth on hers. Gone was the slow, gentle seduction she’d begun beneath the arch. Her tongue met his, tangling, tasting, testing. Her hands were just as demanding, tugging his shirt free from his pants so she could run her hands up his back.

  And those nails. Each scrape, each little stab fanned the flames she’d ignited with her story. He couldn’t stop touching her. She was stronger than he’d imagined and more agile. She moved against him, not in submission but in aggression. Give me more, she seemed to demand. As if there were something he was holding back.

  He wasn’t. He couldn’t. He thought he’d known all the variations of desire before, but it had never sliced at his control this way. As he dragged her closer, he thought that maybe she was all he’d ever wanted—the softness, the fire. When she was pressed against him like this, it was easy to block out the past, the future, and think only of now. Of having her right now.

  Nell told herself she had to think. She had to breathe. But the searing heat he created was burning her seduction plans with the ferocity of a wildfire. When he tore away his mouth to run kisses over her face, her throat, she dragged in a breath and willed the oxygen to her brain. She needed a new plan.

  “Wait.”

  “Nell....” His grip on her tightened. “You want me to stop?”

  “No. I just want you to let me show you another fantasy I’ve dreamed of.” The night air filled her lungs, and the sound of her ragged breathing mingled with his was erotic, tempting. “I’ve dreamed so often of doing this.” She pulled his belt free. “And this.” She unsnapped his jeans and tugged down the zipper. “And finally this.” Sh
e freed him and wrapped her hand around him. The instant she did, she revised the rest of her plan because she simply couldn’t wait another moment. “Now you can kiss me again.”

  The instant his mouth crushed hers, she did her best to melt into him. Her body had never felt this alive. She could even feel her blood racing through her veins. There was so much to absorb—every hard angle and plane of his body. The roughness of his hands as he gripped her hips to pull her closer. The sharp, unyielding press of the rocks at her back. Each separate sensation brought its own unique thrill.

  He tore his mouth from hers to run his lips over her face as if he was determined to absorb every texture through the sense of taste alone. Then he kissed her again with a thorough, feverish fury as if he were looking for some flavor that she might deny him.

  She denied him nothing. He was showing her more than anyone ever had, opening doors she hadn’t known existed. And he could give her more. More than she’d ever imagined. The very thought that he might take her here and now, with such urgent need and desperation, sent her own desires spiraling. She raced her mouth down his neck, sank her teeth into the curve of his shoulder. The flavors were amazing. Addicting.

  Now. The word hammered in her blood, pounded in her mind, as she dragged her mouth free of his. The cool night air eased her burning lungs as he dealt with her clothes. She thought she’d never felt anything more erotic than the slide of her dress over her arms and head. Once free of it, she wrapped her arms and legs around him.

  They’d waited too long. A lifetime. He lifted her hips; she wrapped her legs around him.

  “Now.”

  When she said the word, fresh needs exploded inside of him. Reid could see her eyes in the muted light, needed to see them as the last of his control shredded. He plunged into her. She surrounded him. For a moment, neither of them moved.

  If he could have, he would have held on to the moment forever. But she’d weakened him when she’d begun to strip him. Unable to resist, he began to move, quickly, fiercely. The sultry sound of her moans fanned the flames as she matched him thrust for thrust until he knew nothing else, wanted nothing else. He swore once without knowing what he cursed. Then savagely he increased the pace. Faster and faster, harder and harder, they raced into the vortex of a storm—a place where neither of them had ever been. Then they shattered.

  * * *

  SANITY SLIPPED IN SLOWLY. Reid had no idea how long he’d stood there, pressing her into the stone arch as bits and pieces of reality trickled in. She was still wrapped tightly around him, her head on his shoulder. His breath was still coming in gasps. His heart was still hammering against his chest. He still couldn’t think clearly.

  And he was trembling.

  No woman had ever made him tremble before. Somehow he found the strength to angle his head so that he could look at her. Her eyes were open, dazed. A fresh wave of desire shot through him. He felt himself grow hard again inside her.

  Good Lord, he needed a moment. Just a moment, he told himself. Or he was going to take her again like a madman.

  Murmuring his name, Nell ran her hand down his back. There’d been something in his eyes when he’d looked at her—vulnerability. It had her nestling closer. The gesture flooded him with warmth.

  “It wasn’t exactly what I’d planned.”

  “I’ll take it. Gladly.” Reid tipped her chin up. “Are you all right? I wasn’t careful.”

  She smiled at him. “Neither was I.”

  “I wasn’t careful about something else. Protection.”

  She cupped his face in her hands. “I have it covered.”

  His body jerked, pressing her hard into the side of the arch. The pinging sound registered in her brain at the same instant that she felt the sting on her cheek. Reid pivoted, holding her tightly against him as he sprinted into the stone arch. Then she was on the ground, his body on top of hers and her breath whooshed out.

  “Don’t move,” he said.

  Not a possibility. She could barely drag in a breath. Her mind was racing to process what had just happened—the jerk of Reid’s body, the sound like stone hitting stone.

  “What happened?” she asked.

  “Someone took a shot at us.” He’d lifted his head and was staring beyond them through the other end of the tunnel at the wooded hillside behind the stone arch. Her lover was gone and the Secret Service agent was back.

  “The floodlights don’t spill in this far,” he was saying, “so I think we’re safe for the moment. Stay put.”

  When he moved, she gripped his shoulders and held tight. “You shouldn’t leave again. You said we were safe here.”

  “Cell phone,” he said. “I’m calling Daryl. He can douse the floodlights.”

  That was when she realized that her hand was wet. Sticky. When she saw the dark color, fear fluttered in her throat like a trapped bird. “He...hit you.”

  “A scratch.” Without bothering to check the wound, he spoke into his cell. “Daryl, we’ve got a problem. We’re in the stone arch. Someone took a shot at us a couple of seconds ago. He nicked my upper arm, but Nell’s fine. I figure the shooter was in the hills behind the arch. About twenty-five feet up and maybe fifty feet to the right.”

  The floodlights went out.

  “Thanks. We were beneath the stones for five to ten minutes, and when we stepped out, we lingered at the side of the arch for a minute or so.”

  Lingered.

  She could only seem to process one word at a time. From the moment she’d felt Reid’s blood, it was as if her brain had been frozen. As he outlined to Daryl what had happened, reality sank in. While they’d made love, someone—a sniper—had taken aim at Reid and shot him.

  A wave of dizziness struck her.

  They’d lingered.

  To fulfill her fantasy. Her fault. They’d made love right out in the open when someone was threatening to kill off her family. And Reid. Her fault again. She tightened her grip on him and held on for dear life.

  “Relax,” he murmured, pulling off her hands. Then he shifted so that he could keep an eye on both entrances. “Daryl will be here in a moment, and we’ll get you safely back to the castle.”

  But it wasn’t her safety that had been threatened. She’d put her subplot in front of her plot, and it had nearly cost Reid his life.

  10

  “WHOEVER IT WAS, they’re a damn good shot.” Daryl studied the extra whiteboard he’d dragged into the main parlor from Adair’s office. On it he’d sketched the clearing, the stone arch and the hillside beyond. He pointed to the place where he thought the sniper had taken his shot. “I bet he was standing right here.”

  Reid’s mind flashed back to the instant he’d felt the fiery sensation sear the side of his shoulder. He remembered that, and the icy stab of fear that had pierced right to his core—and then nothing until he was standing by Nell midway beneath the stone arch. Even now, he had no recollection of how he’d gotten her there.

  That was a first for him. He took a sip of the brandy Daryl had poured him after Vi had tended to the scratch the bullet had left.

  A bullet meant for Nell.

  In the bright lights of the kitchen with Vi and Nell, he’d seen how tired Nell had looked. There’d been dark circles beneath her eyes, and for the first time he’d glimpsed fear in them. His fault. He’d never treated a woman with less care. And he’d never been this careless on a job.

  Vi had agreed with his assessment of Nell’s exhaustion, because she’d hurried her niece upstairs, so that she could shower and change and get some rest. The dog had gone with the women.

  In the parlor, Daryl drew his finger down to where he’d sketched the stone arch. “If you were here, you would have been out of range of the floodlights. I’ll bet he was wearing night vision goggles.”

  “Which means he’s either a pro or he’s had military training,” Reid said.

  “Agreed.”

  Reid wanted badly to pace off his nerves. Another first for him. He never paced.

/>   “While Vi was patching you up, I updated Sheriff Skinner. He’s got a man stationed there right now to guard the area.”

  “At first light, I want to search for the bullet.”

  Daryl met his eyes. “My thoughts exactly. It might shed some light on who we’re dealing with.” Then he tapped on the sketch again. “By then, Skinner will have volunteers patrolling the hillside and searching for any casing. He said he’d have no trouble getting the manpower. Edie’s a popular woman in Glen Loch, and no one wants trouble at her granddaughter’s wedding rehearsal. Everyone in town’s grateful for the economic boost that this wedding business has given the local community.”

  “Nell is not going to want to stay inside the castle,” Reid said. “She’s determined to find the necklace, and I’m worried about the number of strangers who will be here tomorrow.”

  “With the extra manpower Skinner is mustering up, we ought to be able to handle it. I’ll print up copies of the police artist’s sketch that Duncan sent us so Skinner can distribute them to his volunteers. Not that it will help much since he was wearing sunglasses and a beard. That reporter from the Times will be here at ten to interview Vi and shadow her for the rest of the day. I’ll stick with them. Vi has two appointments with prospective clients, and the wedding rehearsal starts at four. That will involve less than a dozen people, and none of them will be strangers. I’ll also have a man at my office check more deeply into Gwendolen Campbell’s known acquaintances. He can take another look at Deanna Lewis’s circle. Someone with a military background might pop up.”

  Reid could hear the clock ticking in his head. “I never should have agreed to take her out there tonight. I let her convince me that they wouldn’t want to eliminate her until she’d found the necklace. I’ve never been this off my game.”

  Daryl turned to him. “You’re not off your game. The shooter didn’t want to hit Nell. He wanted to hit you.”

  Reid stared at him. The man was right. And he should have realized it sooner. He was definitely off his game. That had to stop.

  “What did we miss?” Nell asked as she and Vi joined them.