Deathscape (31 page)

He woke as she stirred. Blinked slowly. “Everything okay?”

“
I’m freezing.”

He pushed to his feet and came over to the bed. Waited. When she didn’t object, he slipped in beside her and took her into his arms.

This was nice. Okay, way more than nice. He tightened his hold on her, and she burrowed into his heat.

He kissed her forehead. Then the bridge of her nose. Then dipped his head lower to her mouth.

His lips were warm and gentle. And exactly what she needed. Heat suffused her as he caressed her lips with his own, then increased the pressure just a little until she opened up and let him in.

The heat built with every stroke of his tongue, then raced across her skin as he moved his hands over her body. It wasn’t the kind of sexy seduction splashed across the silver screen by Hollywood. They were new to each other, unsure, awkward. They were both fully dressed.

Heck, she was dressed for the Iditarod.

Not for long. Because soon the heat became too much, and she reached for the hem of her sweater. He helped to remove it. Then the long-sleeved cotton shirt under that. He hesitated at the plain cotton bra.

She stifled a groan as he stared at her chest. Her first sexual encounter in years, and she was wearing grandma thermal underwear. He didn’t look appalled. In fact, his gaze heated.

He claimed her lips again, his hand moving to her breast, outlining the bra, then cupping her gently. He trailed kisses down her neck, to the top of her breasts, his hands hesitating on the material as he fought with himself.

He looked up with a tortured look in his eyes. “You need rest.”

“
I need you,” she said simply, and that was all the encouragement he needed.

The bra disappeared in the next second, and his seeking lips wrapped around her nipple. He nudged, nibbled, drew on the tight bud until her back arched, pleasure zinging through her, more heat gathering at the core of her.

She was falling for him, and she was helpless to stop it.

She was half out of her mind by the time he kissed his way down her abdomen. He stripped away her pants, trailing kisses down her legs, then up. She was more than ready for him, grabbing his shoulders and trying to urge him up, wanting him to line up their bodies at last.

“
I don’t have protection,” he said in a strangled whisper.

Neither did she. It’d been forever since she’d been with a man. She groaned in frustration, shutting her eyes tightly. But her eyelids flew wide open when he touched his mouth to her core. He grabbed her legs by the ankles, pushed her knees up, opened her to him.

By the time she thought of protesting, she was flying high on pleasure, threshing her head on the pillow, calling out his name.

Pleasure broke like a cresting wave as she called his name on a sob, and she sank into utter bliss, the whole world disappearing around them.

When she slowly returned to reality, he came up next to her and held her.

“
I don’t know how to be normal,” he whispered into her hair.

“
I’m okay with outstanding. Which this was, by the way.” She smiled against his chest.

He pulled back enough to look into her eyes. “You know what I mean.”

She did. He meant in life, in general. “Well, don’t look at me for pointers.”

She was smiling, but he stayed serious.

“
I want this,” he said. “I want you. For more than tonight. I’m the worst person to take a chance on, but I want you to anyway. I’m going to try my best. I swear.”

“
Yes,” she said.

~~~***~~~

Epilogue

Spring came early and warm, the trees budding into a profusion of leaves. Ashley went to New York with Maddie and Jack and had a show opening that was the talk of the town. She sold half her paintings that first night and all the rest by the end of the week. She’d been uneasy with the travel but not scared. Having survived a second trip under the ice, having survived a serial killer, having faced her fears at last had changed something.

While in New York, as a surprise gift to Maddie, Jack had taken them to see a Disney musical. And, with a minimum of squirming, he sat through the long show of princess ballerinas in pastel tutus bouncing around the stage. After that, Maddie was pretty much in love with him.

When they returned home to Broslin, he also had a surprise for Ashley.

“
Where are we going?” she asked as he led them out back, after making sure everyone was bundled up.

“
A hike through the woods.”

He took her hand.

Maddie bounded down the path in front of them in the twilight. Since she stopped to examine every ant and funny-looking leaf, she didn’t get too far ahead.

Unease spread through Ashley. “We’re not going back there, are we?”

Jack looked at her. “Trust me.”

And she found that she did, so she followed him to the boulder by the creek. The hole in the ground was piled high with large, flat packages. Her macabre paintings wrapped in construction paper—she knew without him having to say anything.

“
How about a bonfire?” he asked.

She looked at the heap and nodded, while Maddie squealed in the kind of frenzied delight only six-year-olds could produce. Ashley could barely catch her to press a kiss to the top of her head.

Jack took care of everything but let her throw the match. And as the paper, then the oil in the paint caught on fire, she realized she’d needed to do that.

Maddie skipped around the fire, tossing old acorns into the flames. Jack went around and picked up whatever police tape still clung to branches here and there and burned those. Then he came to stand behind her and folded his arms around her. “Are you okay?”

“
I haven’t…
seen
anything lately.” She stared into the flames, feeling a tremendous weight lift with the smoke.

“
You know my theory,” he said quietly next to her ear. “When you were in that coma, you knew you hadn’t been able to save Dylan. Guilt held you back. Maybe part of you that wasn’t ready to return, wasn’t ready to let go of Dylan, didn’t. And in this in-between place, with unresolved emotions, others entering the place could connect with you. Others who weren’t ready to go screamed out against the unfairness.”

She thought about that for a long minute. “And this time I did choose life. I chose it fully. Dylan was there. He wanted me to come back.”

“
I’m glad. But I would have brought you back even if you resisted.” He nipped her ear.

Love welled up in her heart.

These past weeks had been crazy. Jack had stopped by often, and spent the night when he could. All his darkness was falling away from him, and, as attracted as she’d been to the old Jack, the new one simply took her breath away. When they were together, she felt more alive than she could remember ever feeling.

They were good for each other. They were healing together.

He held her, and they stayed like that, gazing at the bonfire and Maddie, who buzzed around it like a mad hornet, now making airplane noises.

When the fire died down, leaving nothing but ashes, Jack filled up the hole with dirt. The ground lay flat again, no sign of all that had happened there in the middle of winter. By summer, grass and weeds would grow over the scar in the earth, would make it as if nothing bad had ever happened there.

They walked back to the house, Maddie running up ahead again, excited because she had a play date with a little girl who lived across the road. A nice family with three kids had bought the farmhouse there. So Ashley and Jack walked Maddie over there, chatted for a few minutes, then came back home. Jack put on coffee.

“
Any plans for later?” he asked.

“
I think I’m going to paint.”

“
A landscape?”

She’d gone back to those again. “I think I’ll paint you,” she said on impulse. She’d been wanting to paint him for a while now.

“
I have a better idea,” he said as he came over to her and nuzzled her neck. “Let’s do naked things.”

“
I could paint you naked.”

The wolfish smile he shot her took her breath away. “I love you.”

Her heart skipped a beat. She reached up to unbutton his shirt, pulled it away from his skin. And smiled. She appreciated his body, both as an artist and as a woman. She felt happy with him. Happy and free.

When he was bare on top, he reached for her sweater and tugged it up, over her head.

“
Hey,” she protested without heat. “Customarily, the artist stays clothed.”

“
I strip, you strip.” He laid down the law.

“
Fine, if that’s the kind of tit-for-tat guy you want to be.”

Mirth lit up his eyes. “Actually, I’d prefer more tit than tat,” he said and snatched her bra away. His gaze filled with naked heat.

Pleasure tingled down her spine.

She reached for the buttons on his jeans, tugged his pants down, waited until he kicked them away, then reciprocated. She hooked a brazen finger into his boxer shorts. “These definitely have to go. The color clashes with the background I’m thinking about painting.”

“
I’m supportive of your art. You know that. I wouldn’t want to mess up anything.”

He stood still as she pulled his boxer shorts down inch by inch, kissing his body along the way as she squatted in front of him. He was hard and thick with wanting her, and it felt pretty amazing to be wanted with such unabashed need.

But he had his hands on her, pulling her up, before she could think too much about that. “My turn.”

Her knees nearly gave out as he stripped her naked, drawing his long, seeking fingers over her hip bones and thighs, leaving kisses in their wake.

When she was sure she couldn’t take more, he straightened and caught her up in his arms, heading off to the bedroom with her. “On second thought… I believe artists study their subjects before the actual painting process. I think we need a little more up-close studying.”

She wasn’t about to argue with him.

Not when the way he made love to her was art in itself.

He spoiled her rotten in bed. She tried to do the same to him, a resolution difficult to keep when she felt like her brain was melting.

Every touch, every kiss, every look took her higher, her body swimming in pleasure even as emotions filled her heart to the brim.

“
I want you,” he whispered in a hoarse voice, his muscles tensing. And he filled her, both body and heart, to bursting. “I want you now and forever.”

She clung to him as the waves of pleasure crested.

“
I love you. You have me,” she told him.

“
Forever?” He pulled back a little to watch her face for the answer.

Now he wanted to be detail oriented? Now, when her brain and body were in shambles? “Forever. Obsessed cop.”

“
Loopy artist.” The smile he flashed took her breath away. “
My
loopy artist.” And then his lips descended on hers.

---

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Captain Bing’s story is next.
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Acknowledgements

My sincere thanks to Linda and Toni for a fabulous edit, Kim Killion for the amazing cover, A.G. Devitt for his contribution to the novel, and my wonderful Facebook friends for reading the early version and giving me feedback. Thank you!!!