Every Breath She Takes (6 page)

He must have loved her very much.

Or not at all.

“Why’d you let her come back?”

He shrugged. “She’s got trouble, needs a place to stay.”

“And she felt she’d be safe with you?”

He shot her a glance. “Safe as a woman like Marlena
can
be. Safer than in Calgary, with a loan shark on her trail.”

God, could that be how Marlena was going to die? At the hands of a loan shark’s thug? Then she realized Cal was still talking and forced her attention back to his words.

“Seems like she breezed through her divorce settlement a trifle faster than expected.”

“I see,” she said, but her mind was whirling with questions.

He laughed. “No you don’t. You’re wondering why in hell I’d tolerate her under my roof after everything that happened. And you’d be right to question my sanity.”

Okay, maybe she had been wondering that. “So why did you let her stay?”

“I don’t rightly know.” He shrugged, that eloquent lift of his shoulders she was becoming so familiar with. “I guess ’cause I used to love her once. And she hasn’t had it as easy as it might seem.”

His words arrowed right under her defenses. “I guess I can appreciate that.”

“Well then.” He lifted his hat and mopped his brow with the sleeve of his shirt, then replaced the hat. “What say we pick it up? I’m starved.”

Just like that, the subject was closed. She’d been lucky to get that much out of him, but there was so much more she wanted to know. The problem was, did she want to know it for the investigation or did she want to know it because she wanted to know him?

“Yeah, let’s go,” she said, urging Buck forward.

Cal cursed silently as he trailed the small procession. Whiskey and women. He didn’t know which was worse. They could both loosen a man’s tongue and make a fool out of him. He’d certainly made a fool of himself with Lauren. Looking into those blue eyes, he’d told her the whole sordid story of his lousy marriage. For the life of him, he still didn’t know why.

Not for sympathy, that’s for damn sure. It had taken a long time before people stopped looking at him with that infuriating, mute pity. He never wanted to see it again.

So why had he spilled his guts?

Because you want to know her
, he answered himself.
Because you want her to know you.

“Jesus,” he breathed. For a moment, the idea scared him spitless. The woman was making him think things he hadn’t thought about in a long, long time.

Better to just think about sex. That was safer. No opening up required. No having the skin peeled off your heart while it was still beating.

Then again, what did he know about women like Lauren anyway? Yes, she was attracted to him. Yes, she’d flirted with him a little. But that didn’t mean she was prepared to fall in bed with him. His experience thus far in life had been gleaned from rodeo groupies. All they’d cared about—besides how long he could last on a twisting ton of malevolent animal—was how long he could last between the sheets. Mind you, that had been enough for him. Hell, he’d gone and married a rodeo Annie, hadn’t he?

Brady’s shout brought Cal’s head up. He scanned the terrain ahead as it sloped to the valley floor, spotting the problem immediately. Marlena was hurtling down the ridge, pushing her mount recklessly. Exultant laughter rose up to goad him.

“Dammit, Marlena!” At his command, Sienna sprang forward. Lauren’s face was a blur as he raced past her. Likewise Brady’s. Reaching the steepest part of the slope, he eased up, letting Sienna pick her path. The mare, God love her, hardly slowed.

He caught Marlena a minute later. Snatching the sorrel’s reins, he brought both horses to a dust-churning halt. He was so mad, his sides heaved almost as deeply as the horses’. Marlena glowed with excitement, but her mount’s eyes rolled.

Seeing red, Cal gripped one of her wrists. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“What’s it look like I was doing?”

“It looked like you were trying to kill yourself. Which is fine by me, as long as you don’t drag one of my horses into it.”

“Cool down, Cal. I was just having some fun.”

“Find something else to amuse you!” Jesus, she was a piece of work. He dropped her wrist before the desire to squeeze it way, way too hard got the better of him.

Scowling, Marlena rubbed her wrist. “What’s your problem? These mustangs are as sure-footed as goats, and you know it.”

“Yeah, and I’d like to keep ’em that way. That was just plain stupid.” Behind him, he heard Brady and Lauren ride up. “You will
not
endanger one of my horses again. Got it?”

She glowered back at him. There was a time when all that temper would have turned him on. Now it left him stone cold. “I mean it, Marlena. Push that mare again, and you’ll
walk
home.”

“You wouldn’t do that!”

“So help me God, I’d like to do a lot worse, so don’t push me.” He turned to Brady. “Take the lead, son.” With a hard look at Marlena, he added, “And try to keep your date under control.”

“Sorry, Cal,” Brady muttered before urging his mount forward with alacrity.

After a last baleful look, Marlena fell in behind Brady. Lauren, however, made no move. She just sat there in the saddle, looking at him.

“You coming?” he growled.

Her answer was to urge Buck after Marlena. Taking a deep breath, he took up the rear again. This could be a long trip.

To Lauren’s relief, the rest of the ride was quiet. They reached the log cabin by late afternoon. Nestled at the base of a scrub-dotted slope, the structure looked like it had been there forever. In fact, according to Cal, it was some seventy years old. Its age certainly showed, but it had been carefully tended.

Marlena made herself at home immediately, dragging ready-made sandwiches and cold salads out of the refrigerator. The four of them sat at the kitchen table and tucked into the food. As Lauren worked on her sandwich, it struck her that it was little wonder Marlena seemed so at home. She and Cal had probably laughed here, fought here, made love here. Her stomach clenched, and she put the sandwich down.

She stole a look at Cal. His face was shuttered. What was going on behind that cool expression? He glanced up then, catching her studying him.

“I see you left room for dessert,” he said, eyeing her partially eaten sandwich. “Can I offer you some of Delia’s apple pie?”

Lauren’s appetite had fled. Not even the prospect of Delia’s pastry could resuscitate it. “No, thanks, but did I see a shower in the bathroom? I wouldn’t mind washing the trail dust off.”

“Sure, help yourself.”

“What about me?” Marlena protested.

“Guests first.” Cal didn’t even glance sideways at Marlena.

Lauren wasted no time heading for the bathroom.

“Hey, save some hot water for me and Brady,” Marlena called.

Lauren winced as she closed the door. Marlena and Brady showering together. That should go over well with Cal.

She showered in record time. The old showerhead emitted a bare trickle, but it was hot. It sluiced away the dust, but couldn’t touch her tension. Dressing quickly, she returned to the kitchen only to find it deserted. For an instant, dread rose up, closing her throat.
Marlena
. Had she gone out?

She laid a hand on her chest to hold down the panic while her mind raced. The time of day was certainly right. In her vision, the sinking sun had provided an obscenely beautiful backdrop for the murder, turning the foothills into a smoky bruise on the delicate pink horizon. Had she found the victim only to lose her? She knew nothing about this Brady guy. Nothing! Well, other than that he was local, was prepared to pay for the privilege of being with Marlena, and generally had the right body type, height, and gait to be the killer. How could she have been so stupid?

Lauren was on the point of rushing out into the dusk when a sound arrested her. Marlena’s laugh, seductive and clear, from the front bedroom. Limp with relief, Lauren sank down at the kitchen table and sent a quick thank-you skyward.

The next moment she heard a masculine growl and a crashing sound, followed by a feminine squeal. Flushing, Lauren leapt up and fled to the porch, the screen door banging shut behind her.

“At it already, are they?”

She jumped at Cal’s voice, which came from the vicinity of her feet. She looked down to see him sitting on the steps.

“Never mind. I can hear for myself.” He stood. “How about a walk? If we climb that ridge, sunset’ll make it worthwhile.”

She weighed her options.

One, she could go back inside and try not to think about the fact that Marlena might be sowing the seeds for her own demise.

Two, she could shake Cal off and leave him to brood alone to the accompaniment of the noisy lovers.

Or three, she could walk with him, try to distract him, maybe even defuse the rage he must be feeling. Divorced or not, with that history, he had to be pissed.

“Sure, I’d love a walk,” she heard herself say.

Wordlessly they set off. When after a few minutes Cal still hadn’t spoken, Lauren took the lead.

“Tell me about these foothills.”

He obliged readily enough, naming the peaks that rose in the distance. He told her how the meadow looked in spring and how the now dry streambed could swell in a flash flood. To her relief, he wasn’t the tangle of angry emotion she’d expected.

On the other hand, he had a very good poker face, she thought, as they reached the top of the ridge and stopped. The streambed wound away from them far below, and the sun was a fiery ball dipping toward the horizon. “It’s beautiful,” she said.

“Hmmm.”

She glanced at him then. Expecting to see his poker face, her heart took a bounding leap. There was nothing inscrutable about his expression just now. He was looking at her hungrily.

Suddenly he was too close, too immediate, too tempting.

“Lauren, I think I have to kiss you. Now’s the time to dodge if you don’t want me to.”

His husky words electrified her. She should protest,
would
protest, but the seconds ticked by. In that short span, her imagination slipped its leash. Already she imagined what his lips would feel like, how they’d taste. When his hard hand cupped her face, an involuntary shiver raced up her spine, but she made no objection. Then his lips were on hers.

It wasn’t what she expected. Instead of hot demand, there was testing, tasting. He shaped her lips with his, tilting his head this way and that, as though searching for the best angle. Her heart pounding, she conceded they were all good. But she wanted more. Abandoning any pretense that she didn’t want this, hadn’t thought about it since the first moment she’d laid eyes on him, she caught his head and really kissed him.

Finally,
finally
, he kissed her the way his eyes had promised these past days. His mouth was dark and male and sinful, and she gloried in the taste of him.

It was like being hauled up into the funnel of a tornado, she thought dazedly. His mouth robbed her of breath, seeming to pull the very essence from her. His hard hands flashed over her, heating her flesh and making her head spin. Mindlessly, she arched into him, welcoming him. With another deep-throated sound, he ground himself against her. Already her insides were liquefying, readying to accept him. It was madness, but she prayed it would never end.

He splayed a hand inside the open vee of her shirt to explore the hollows of her collarbones. She made a small protesting sound when he abandoned her mouth, but it turned into a sigh as his lips found the leaping pulse at the base of her throat. All she could think was how good that hot mouth felt, how it might feel on her breasts. Then it was back on her mouth, kissing her even more urgently than before.

Anywhere
, she thought. He could touch her anywhere with that talented mouth, those clever hands. She’d do anything as long as he didn’t stop. On a surge of raw lust, she caught his lower lip between her teeth and bit. His growl thrilled her, but then he flexed a powerful thumb against her throat.

Something about his action, the pressure on her neck, penetrated the fever of Lauren’s arousal. Marlena! That was it. She was supposed to be safeguarding a would-be murder victim, not losing herself in this sweet, sensual fog. This was why she’d resolved not to get involved with Cal.