Half Moon Hill (37 page)

And before Anna could even answer, Tessa chimed in from one of the easy chairs, where she sat with coffee and a book on parenting she’d bought to give Rachel. “Oh, don’t worry, I
know
someone invited her—my brother.”

“Oh!” Amy said happily. Yet then she must have remembered again that Anna hadn’t come. “But then . . .”

Anna briefly shut her eyes, feeling like a horrible person—before exiting from between the two tall shelves. She looked to Tessa. “I’m so sorry if I let Jeremy down. I meant to get in touch with him. I just . . .”

Amy and Tessa both looked at her—not with any sort of accusation in their eyes, but she still felt a bit on the spot.

“I fell asleep.”

Amy balked. “That early? On the Fourth of July?” Though she went on, letting Anna off the hook. “But between here and your house, you work so much, so I guess it’s understandable.”

Just then, the bookstore door opened, admitting Cara Collins, a teenage girl Amy was friendly with, so she turned her attention to her. “Cara—hi! The books you ordered came in yesterday—let me get them for you.” And as Amy and Cara stood chatting near the counter, it gave Anna a chance to speak with Tessa privately.

She lowered her voice to say, “Again, I’m so sorry, and . . . I didn’t really fall asleep. It was . . . Duke. We’re back on again, I guess you could say. At least for now.”

And to her surprise, Tessa smiled and shook her head. “That’s okay. Jeremy’s a big boy, and though I do like the idea of you two together . . . when I saw you with Duke the night you came over, well . . .”

Anna let her eyes open a bit wider. “Well what?”

Tessa’s face took on a dreamy, romantic look. “I just thought I saw something special there, that’s all. So maybe it’s meant to be. You know, destiny in Destiny.”

And Anna didn’t know whether to be happy or sad. She wanted Duke to be her destiny—but she knew he didn’t feel the same way, or that he wouldn’t let himself.

Or . . . would he?

Because weren’t things getting better between them all the time? And wasn’t he seeming more like a man in control of himself, a man who was beating his demons?

Anna tried not to think too hard about any of this—all the time—because she didn’t want to get hurt again. But for just this one moment, she let Tessa’s words lift her heart and she allowed herself to believe:
Maybe he’ll love me back.

T
hat night on the way home, she stopped to pick up ingredients to make a pizza, thinking it would be a fun twist on dinner for her and Duke. When she arrived home, she found another note on the counter about fishing, though, and figured dinner could wait. It was a wonderfully mild summer evening, so she decided to change into shorts and join Duke by the lake. Maybe she could even learn to fish. Not that she had much interest in fishing, but she was sure if she was doing it with Duke, she’d end up enjoying it.

Duke had mentioned that the path he took to the lake led directly from the cabin, so she followed the same old trail there through the woods, enjoying the walk—the sights, the smells. The woods themselves felt so different to her than on the first day she’d met Duke—like a friendlier place, a place she’d truly connected with. Because of him.

Reaching the cabin, she knocked—just to make sure he wasn’t inside. No answer, as she’d expected. But the last time she’d been here it had been dark, and she’d been upset—and now, she felt the urge to go back inside. Maybe it was because of Cathy and Robert—being in the very spot where they’d made love would make her feel more connected to them, as well. Just like the other night on the swing. Or maybe it was about Duke, too. Maybe she wanted to see again where he’d chosen to live for a while.

Pushing the thick door open, she stepped into the dim interior, took in the scent of old wood, looked around and tried to imagine actually living here. Duke kept it tidy—his sleeping bag was neatly arranged, his few dishes clean and resting on a small dish towel beside the chipped white porcelain sink.

That was when she spotted the picture on the wall—the same faded one she’d seen while letting Duke take care of her twisted ankle nearly two months ago. But now it held much more interest for her, so she made a beeline toward it.

And as she looked closely and understood what it was, she gasped. Robert.

Just as Cathy had described, he sat in a small boat, billowing trees behind him. And though time had badly damaged the photo, she could make out medium hair, confident eyes, and a smile that held a hint of vulnerability. His shirt was open at the neck, his hair slightly longer than she’d have expected for the era. And she could see instantly how Cathy had fallen in love with him. She even found herself reaching out her hand to touch the glass overtop the picture—some effort to be closer to them still.

Then she noticed something she hadn’t on her first visit. Two more nails, set at the right height and an even distance, making her think all three pictures Cathy had given him had once hung here. But the other two were gone. And this one had been left behind? Something about it made her stomach pinch.

Just then, the cabin’s door opened and she looked up to see Duke step in.

“Whoa—Daisy,” he said, clearly taken aback.

She still touched the picture frame even as she looked at him. “I’m sorry—I came out to see you and . . .”

“Whatcha lookin’ at—that old picture? I’ve wondered about that guy.”

“I—I can tell you about him,” she said, still overcome with emotion.

Which was when he noticed that part. “You okay, baby?”

She nodded. But then sat down in one of the old kitchen chairs. He pulled the other one out and joined her. And then she told him all about Cathy and Robert—everything she could remember from Cathy’s diary.

She concluded by saying, “And I don’t know how it ends up yet. And I could rush ahead and read the rest, sure, but . . . there’s something that makes me want to stretch it out and just sort of . . . enjoy that time along with her, make it last. In case it doesn’t.” Then she stopped, shook her head. She probably seemed silly. “How crazy is that, to be worried for someone who . . . who already found out the answer a long time ago and isn’t even alive anymore?”

“It’s not crazy,” he said. “Exactly.” He gave her a grin, a quick wink.

“I just . . . want to find out she had a happy life, that’s all.”

But then Duke reacted as . . . well, as she would expect
most
people to. “You shouldn’t let it get to you so much, though. It’s just an old diary—whatever happened then doesn’t matter anymore.”

The assumption made her open her eyes a little wider. “Doesn’t it? I mean . . . a life is a life. No matter when it happened—it still matters. To me anyway.” She stopped, sighed. “You think I’m a goofball.”

“No, I actually think it’s . . . a real nice quality about you.”

She blinked. “That I’m a goofball?”

He let out a laugh. “No—that you . . . you have this ability to . . . what’s the word—empathize? You empathize with people. You get what they’re going through better than most people, I think. And that’s nice.”

She peeked up at him from beneath softly lowered eyelids, both shocked and pleased to learn he saw that in her.

“Now what’d you come out here for?” he asked her then. “I missed that part.”

“Oh—I was just going to . . . watch you fish or something. Since it’s such a nice night.” She gave her head a gentle, self-deprecating shake. Suddenly, she felt as vulnerable as Robert’s smile looked in the picture.

“Well, I’m done already and just carried my gear back up. Caught a few, too. And it’s getting dark anyway.” She nodded and he asked, “You ready to head back to the house?”

And she smiled. Just to be reminded that Duke was staying with her at the house again. And . . . maybe he would for a long while yet. Tessa’s words echoed in her ear.
I thought I saw something special there.

Though Duke carried a string of four fish in one hand, he held Anna’s hand with the other as they walked. Maybe she was still emotional about seeing Robert’s picture or something, but she found herself savoring every moment, every step. It struck her that—whether or not your time with someone was limited, you should do that—soak it up, enjoy it for all it was worth, every day, every hour. And so she focused on little things like the warmth of his hand in hers. And the way she simply liked feeling him next to her as they decided to make the pizza tonight and grill the fish tomorrow. And how the walk through the lush, dark green forest as night fell was sweeter because she was sharing it with him.

And when they were about halfway up the path, Anna experienced the powerful compulsion to kiss him. So she stopped walking, released his hand, curled her fingers into his shoulders, and lifted her mouth passionately to his.

And there was no talking, from either of them—just heat.

At some point, Duke dropped the fish he carried. And then his hands were on her ass, through her shorts—and then
inside
the shorts. And all she knew was that she needed him in her, the same way his tongue was inside her mouth at the moment. She wanted it to make her forget every worry, every fear—for anyone. She wanted it to take away anything and everything but that moment.

They struggled out of their clothes, the noise of their labored breath adding to the cacophony of night sounds building around them. Darkness descended rapidly, but a sliver of moonlight angled through the trees to help her see his beautiful, hard-muscled body. She ran her palms down his chest, stomach—then took that hardest part of him into her hand.

A groan left him, but he tried to bury it at the nape of her neck, where he kissed her. And then his mouth was on her breast—kissing, sucking—and then he was lowering her to the ground with him.

Despite her past life as a city girl, Anna didn’t spare even a thought for what might be beneath her or around her in the dark as Duke parted her legs with his strong hands and lowered an openmouthed tongue kiss directly between her thighs. As the pleasure assaulted her, she closed her eyes, let her body move in the rhythm it wanted to, and felt like some kind of wild beast in the woods. Just as she’d once thought him.

But then she opened her eyes, caught sight of the moon up through the branches, then lowered her gaze to the man who was making her feel so good. She whispered his name—his
real
name. “David . . . oh God, David.” It was the first time she’d dared to call him that since they’d gotten back together and it hadn’t been a conscious decision; it had just happened.

In response, he looked up at her, and though it was hard to see each other’s eyes in the darkness, she felt the connection. Felt his fingers dig into her ass a little deeper, felt his ministrations go deeper as well. She cried out and gave herself over to the sensations completely—and the next thing she knew, she was whimpering and sobbing as a powerful orgasm rocked her from head to toe.

As he eased up over her body, kissing her breast, her neck, her mouth, this time she tasted the remnants of his affection on his lips, and she thrust her fingers into his hair and kissed him back for all she was worth. He made her feel wild, and free, and hungry for every adventure.

And then he was turning her body over, murmuring, “On your hands and knees, Daisy,” and she was happy to oblige, her knees digging into hard dirt for the best possible reason she could imagine.

“I’m gonna take you hard,” he rasped then, his hands exploring her back, hips, rear, all from behind.

“Please,” she managed to say through the harsh need spreading even more frantically through her now. “Please—hurry.”

The words extracted a low groan from him—just before he thrust his perfect erection inside her. Another cry escaped her throat as well. And as he moved in her that way, she thought it was the closest she’d ever come to experiencing heaven. The night was glorious, the air was sweet, the forest seemed to hold them, cradle them, surround them. And the man was . . . perfect. She never would have dreamed Duke Dawson could be her perfect man, but as she’d already learned so many times, life held a lot of surprises, and thank God this was one of the good ones.

When he came in her, she realized that—no,
that
was heaven. The sharing of that moment with him, of knowing she’d taken him there. As they gently collapsed to the forest floor, his arms closed around her waist and his kiss came on her shoulder.

She wanted to tell him she loved him; she almost needed for him to know. But even now she understood it was the sort of thing that might send Duke running, and . . . well, it just wasn’t the right time. She wasn’t sure when the right time would
be
, but it wasn’t now. Now was just about the heaven of it all.

As they put their clothes back on, she heard a distant noise, the shushing of a bush or tree branches. And she assumed it was a deer until she was zipping her shorts and Duke said, “Shhh—hear that?” The sound came again. Something large in the woods. And closer now than before.

They stayed still, frozen in place—and then the beam of a flashlight moved past them, and she heard the voice of her oldest brother. “Somebody back here?”

Trying to hold in her gasp, she looked to Duke and whispered, “Mike!”

“Shit,” he murmured. Then his breath was on her ear, his voice barely audible. “You don’t want him to find out about us, right?”

Anna’s heart beat a mile a minute. She knew Duke still wanted his presence here to be a secret. And if Mike
were
to find out about them, this wouldn’t be the ideal way. “Not like this,” she replied.

Then he wrapped her hand in his and said, “Come on—let’s get outta here, Daisy.” And they took off running through the woods in the dark, and Anna had no idea where they were going, but she didn’t even care.

“We must make ourselves as invisible as possible.”

Gaston Leroux,
The Phantom of the Opera

Twenty-two

D
uke led Anna toward the only place he could think of to get away from her brother right now—they ran hand in hand toward the edge of the lake. As they burst from the trees into the clearing on the bank, he flipped over the old rowboat that rested on the grass facedown and pushed it into the water.