Every Breath She Takes (16 page)

“No,” he said flatly. “No, I can’t. I need a sound, logical explanation. Come on, Lauren,” he growled, turning to face her squarely. “Give me something I can work with.”

She bit back a laugh. How
logical
would he find her visions? How
sound
would he think her motivation for traveling thousands of miles to babysit a woman she didn’t even know? How
understandable
would he find it that she looked at practically all of his male employees and guests as potential murderers? Could he “work” with that? She doubted it. She doubted it severely.

Experience had taught her no one wanted to hear this stuff. When the visions had come back in her second year of university, she’d told her dorm mate Patty Steen about them one evening when they’d both had too much cheap red wine to drink. It had been such a relief to get that off her chest. She’d slept like a baby until the next morning, when she found that her roommate had packed up her stuff and gone to stay with her boyfriend. God, even Hal hadn’t wanted to hear it. Fortunately for her, he’d had no choice but to believe her story, for he’d been the uniformed constable whose sleeve she’d tugged on all those years ago.

“That hard to think of something I might swallow?” With an impatient noise, he brushed past her, heading for the door.

“I had a premonition, dammit.”

Her words arrested him. He turned slowly. “A premonition?”

“Yeah, a bad feeling about Marlena riding out today.”

His eyebrows shot up. “But why? She wouldn’t have been alone. She had Brady with her.”

“I know. But remember the day she almost killed herself flying down that ridge? We were
all
with her that day, and she could easily have killed herself.”

“She was high as a kite that day, which won’t happen again,” he said, looking unconvinced. “I flushed her pills, remember?”

“I know, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling. Besides, it’s not exactly impossible for her to get more. Unlikely, yes. Impossible, no.”

He let his breath out in a gust. “Hell, is that all? Christ, Lauren, I imagined all kinds of scenarios…”

“I think I’ve just heard a few of them,” she said dryly.

“Well, you could have just flat out told me.”

His forehead had smoothed, but his posture still looked a little stiff. She gave him an exaggerated eye-roll. “Yeah, right. You’d have laughed it off, then seduced me into staying.”

A glint of humor lit his eyes, and his lips curved upward, making her catch her breath. “Okay, maybe you have a point there.”

“Besides which, you’d think I’m a flake.”

He snorted. “I’d hardly brand you a flake over a little premonition. I’ve never met a woman yet who didn’t think she had a leg up on men in that department. Which, of course, they generally do.”

His shoulders were starting to lose that stiffness, warmth slowly replacing doubt in his eyes now. It wouldn’t take much to fan that warmth into something hotter. Not much at all.

“It’s true, we are more intuitive,” she said, drawing her tongue over her upper lip. “In fact, I’m having a premonition right now.”

“Is that so?” She felt his gaze on her mouth like a touch.

“Absolutely. I was thinking that if I were to turn around and walk out of here and back to my cabin, you’d follow me.”

This time his smile was slow and lazy, lighting her up from the inside out. “How very perceptive of you, Miz Townsend.”

She didn’t get far. Cal caught her outside the house, spun her into his arms, and kissed her thoroughly in the crisp night air. Lauren melted against him. Dear Lord, where did it come from, this dizzying excitement? Maybe he breathed it into her, infused
it with his mouth, his hands. Euphoria popping along her nerve endings like champagne bubbles, she twisted loose and dashed away. His muffled oath made her laugh, but when she heard his feet pounding behind her, she put on another burst of speed.

He caught her again on the porch of the cabin, his momentum carrying them up against the door.

“Gotcha!” he growled before dipping his head to kiss her again, hard. She thrilled to his taste, which was familiar, yet strange with the tobacco and whiskey influences. His hands took full advantage of having her pinned against the door, roaming her body wildly. Desire thrummed in her blood. It was heaven, but it wasn’t enough.
Too many clothes. Too vertical. Too public
. Reaching behind her, she twisted the knob and they all but fell inside. Cal kicked the door shut and dragged her back into his arms. When neither could breathe anymore, he released her.

“Whoa, we better slow this down,” he rasped, running his hands up and down her arms from shoulder to elbow.

“Slow down? Why?” She pressed close, nipping at his chin.

His laugh rumbled through her. “I seem to remember promising slow and thorough this afternoon.”

“How about fast and reckless? You offered me that too, I believe, about a minute after we met.” She caught the lobe of his ear between her teeth and bit gently. “Remember?”

His answer was a feral growl as he crushed her against the inside of the door. He kissed her with a ferocity that shocked, then excited. Only when he eased away from her to rake her dress open did she realize he’d managed to untie it. He palmed her breasts, abrading them gloriously through the lace of her bra. Her gratified sigh ended on a sharp gasp as he roughly swept the cups aside. Then his fierce, hot mouth was suckling at her.

She tried to hold it together, closed her eyes against the carnal picture of his head at her breast, but that only served to drag her further into the inner world of sensation. She needed him inside her,
right now
.

She dragged his head back up for another soul-searing kiss, sliding a hand down between them to skim the hardness straining against his jeans. Using both hands now, she tugged his belt free, slid his zipper down. His sex sprang into her hand, ready. Somebody groaned, but she wasn’t sure if it was him or her.

“Now, Cal. Right now. I can’t wait any—”

He cut off her words with another kiss, pressing her hard into the door as he raked her panties down. She stepped out of them when they settled at her feet. Then he lifted her until she felt his erection nudging her.

“Wrap your legs around me,” he commanded hoarsely.

She complied, knowing that was all it would take to get him inside her. The shock of the joining stilled them briefly, then he surged against her, his movements edged with the same ferocity as his kisses. All she could think was,
I did this. I made him crazy like this.
Then all thought was gone, her world dissolved in a powerful climax that carried him over the edge with her.

Cal inhaled deeply. She smelled so good. Felt good too. Her body was limp as she clung to him, trembling. She was growing heavier by the minute, but he didn’t want to let her go.

He didn’t want to open his eyes either and see his self-disgust reflected back at him. Christ, what was he thinking? He’d nailed her against the goddamn wall like a common streetwalker.

No, correction—the hooker he’d turned to after his first scared weeks in Calgary he’d treated with more respect. Of course, at thirty to his sixteen, she’d been more mother than lover. But the point was, he liked to think he treated all women with respect, even the rodeo Annies who’d tussled over him.

She wriggled, reminding him he was still crushing her poor spine against the door.
Way to go, Romeo.
Groaning, he set her back on her feet, pulling the edges of her dress together. He tried
to read her face, but her eyes were just a glint, the only light in the room spilling in from the sentinel light outside.

“Oh, hell, I’m sorry, Lauren,” he said, adjusting his own clothing, wishing there were some more discreet way to do it. “I didn’t mean for it to happen like that.”

“Me either. That’s the first time I’ve ever forgotten.”

Cal’s mind was blank. “Forgotten?”

“The condom. I’ve never forgotten before.”

Oh Jesus. Oh God. Oh no.

“Don’t worry, I’ve been doing a little mental math.” She traced a delicate finger over his lower lip, seemingly oblivious to the shock detonating in his consciousness. “We’re safe.”

He pushed her hand down. “Oh Jesus, I forgot the condom.”

“It’s okay, really.” She looked at him oddly. “I may not have finished med school, but I
was
paying attention while I was there. I doubt I could get pregnant at this point in my cycle if I tried.”

“You’re sure?”

“As sure as I can be.”

Well, that was something, at least. Now the rest of it. “You don’t have to worry about disease,” he blurted, taking a step back out of her reach. “I mean, after Marlena…Well, you might be thinking…” He shoved a hand through his hair. Geez, he was no good at this. “What I mean is, I got checked when she left. I’m clean.”

A pause, then: “And since?”

“And since, nothing.”

Silence for a moment. “Nothing, as in…?”

“As in no action. After messing up so badly with my marriage, I sorta benched myself.” His lips twisted wryly. “I guess the rust is showing, huh?”

She laughed softly. “Mine too. We should have had this talk the first night. For the record, I’m ‘clean’ too. I don’t make a habit of sleeping with men on my holidays.”

Her answer resonated with a truth he’d already known. Well, part of him knew it, even as he’d speculated about the probable pastimes of pretty erotica writers. “Well, I’m glad you made an exception on this holiday.”

A shadow moved in her eyes. What was it? Anxiety?

She wrapped her arms around herself, which he supposed was as good a way to secure the dress as any without tying that belt again. He was hoping to get it off her entirely very shortly.

“I know I probably haven’t given you the best impression,” she said, “but it’s true. I’ve never had a casual partner, and I’ve never had sex before without a condom. Not even with—well, not ever.”

Not even with…who? Someone significant.
Someone who’s none of your business, Taggart.
He pushed the thought away. “I believe you.”

“Good,” she said.

“So,” he said.

An awkward silence fell between them. He laughed, shaking his head. “Man, I am so lousy at this.”

She moved toward him and he took her in his arms again. God, but she felt good. Lean and athletic, but soft in the right places.

“You’re not doing so bad.” She tipped her head back to meet his eyes. “But I do have one question.”

“What’s that?”

“If you hadn’t yet realized we’d forgotten the condom, what were you apologizing for?”

He blinked. “That’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”

“Not to me.”

She was touching his face now, making it hard to think. “You don’t think what I did just now was just a little…barbaric?”

She laughed, a low, musical sound. “Cal, honey, you were an
animal
. And I loved every minute of it. The only thing that remains to be seen is what kind of animal?” She pressed close
again. “I was sort of hoping you’re the water-loving type so I could talk you into that big antique tub with me.”

She touched her mouth to his chin, but he didn’t lower his head to give her the kiss she was angling for.

An
animal?
Like his prize bull? Like the stallions he kept?
A weight seemed to land on his chest, squeezing it.

Chrissakes, Taggart, grow up.
That was always the way of it. And a good thing too. He had little else to offer a woman.

Besides, that’s the way it was
supposed
to be with Lauren. Wasn’t that why he picked her? Honest sex with no strings. And wasn’t Lauren-in-the-water exactly the subject of his fantasy this morning?

Damn right it was. He pushed the confusing stuff to the back of his mind and bent to kiss her slowly, thoroughly.

“Lead the way to that tub of yours, sweetheart. I’ll do my best impersonation of an otter.”

Sometime after two o’clock, Cal jolted awake. Lauren’s bed. Lauren’s cabin. He’d been going to rest his eyes for just a minute before leaving, but he must have fallen asleep. But what had woken him?

Cold
, he realized, as a crop of goose bumps rose on his arms. Odd for August.