Officer in Pursuit (17 page)

Her gown was lily-white and fitted,
with wide lace straps that formed an elegant v-neck, leaving her
arms bare. Her hair was mostly down and wavy, carefully arranged
and decorated with jewels that resembled the lights strung
everywhere.

The best part, though, was how happy
she and Liam looked to see each other. Kerry couldn’t remember the
last time she’d seen two people look so joyful. To her immense
relief, she wasn’t jealous. Any jealousy she might’ve felt was
drowned out by sheer happiness.

Over the past few months, she’d often
felt ashamed of the pangs of envy she’d sometimes suffered when
she’d seen Liam and Alicia, or Sasha and Henry, together. There’d
been times when she’d caught them exchanging secret looks or
whispers, and she’d wondered what it might be like to have that
kind of intimacy with someone, to really be in love.

Now, though, those feelings were gone:
she was truly happy on Alicia and Liam’s behalf, like a good friend
would be. It was such a relief, and the wedding was so beautiful,
that her eyes stung as the ceremony commenced.

By the time Liam and Alicia were
declared man and wife, she couldn’t help it anymore – she shed a
single, sorrowless tear and smiled.

* * * * *

“Champagne?” Grey appeared at Kerry’s
side, holding two crystal flutes filled with pale gold liquid that
teemed with tiny bubbles.

Kerry smiled and accepted one of the
glasses. Its stem was delicate between her fingers, its contents
crisp and sparkling.

“You look so good in that dress,” Grey
said, dodging a caterer who swept past him, carrying a tray of
shrimp to the other side of the reception tent that’d been set up
on Wisteria’s lawn. “Blue is your color.”

Heat crept into Kerry’s cheeks, which
was kind of absurd considering what they’d done the night
before.

Thinking about it now seemed to fill
her with bubbles, like the champagne. She felt faintly giddy as
everything inside her drew up tight, teased by pleasure at the
memory of the night before.

A part of her was still shocked that
she’d worked up the courage to initiate a sexual encounter with
Grey. She credited her boldness to the fact that she’d simply been
so fed up with being afraid, so angry that she was living a
half-life out of fear, that she’d been desperate to really live for
once. Just like she hadn’t been willing to abandon her home out of
cowardice, she hadn’t been able to deny what she’d been longing to
do with Grey for months: get close to him, physically and
otherwise.

“Thanks,” she said, “but I didn’t
choose it, Alicia did.”

“Well I like it. Not so much as I like
what’s underneath, but still.”

She definitely blushed this time.
Taking another sip of her champagne, she was suddenly overcome with
the memory of what it’d been like to wake up beside him that
morning, in her bed. It had been bittersweet – mostly sweet,
because she was still buzzing with exhilaration, even
now.

A little bitter though too, because
eventually she’d have to discover what the future would be like now
that things had changed between her and Grey – where to go from
here. She didn’t have any delusions about Grey wanting to sweep in
and rescue her from her psycho ex-husband, be her knight in shining
armor. She didn’t expect him to do that, and didn’t want to drag
him into the mess in any case.

He deserved better than that. She’d
just wanted one night – one night of indulgence, one night of
pretending she could be like everyone else and share something
intimate with someone worth loving. She just hadn’t anticipated how
badly she’d crave more when that night was over.

“Hey.” Grey drained the last of his
champagne and set the glass down on a nearby tray. “How about a
dance?”

He was moving toward her before she
could reply, placing a hand on her waist.

A frisson zipped down her spine,
making her erupt in goose bumps beneath her bridesmaid dress. She
let him escort her to the dance floor at the far end of the tent,
let him guide her in a circle in time to the music.

They were so close that he kept her
warm, dispelling the light chill of the October afternoon. It was
cooler than usual, but it hadn’t rained – beyond the tent’s canopy,
the sky was a pearl-like shade of grey.

Grey drew her close, so their bodies
were pressed together. Kerry knew Sasha was probably nearby and was
bound to see, would probably comment on it later.

She didn’t care. Right now, all she
could think about was Grey. Maybe they could have one more night
together. A night to take things as far as they’d longed to the
night before – do everything, at least once. She yearned for it,
just like she yearned for the music to never end. She didn’t want
it to change to a fast song, one that would put an end to the way
they were dancing, so slow and close together.

It did end though, and when an
impossibly fast-paced song started up, she suggested that she and
Grey grab something to eat from the buffet.

“Sure,” he said, “I’m a crap dancer
anyway.”

“I don’t think you were crap.” Far
from it – she’d loved dancing with him.

He waved a hand toward the dance
floor. “Anyone can dance to a song that slow – it’s all about
getting real close and seeing how much you can get away with,
friction-wise. A song like this, though…” The beat was pulsing so
hard Kerry could feel it in her breastbone. “I kind of have a hard
time telling my feet apart. Between me and you, I think all my
muscle gets in my way.”

She grinned. “Wow, what a great
excuse. Since you want to skip the fast ones, I’ll just pretend I’m
a great dancer.”

“I bet you are. Your hips are very
mobile.”

She almost dropped the buffet plate
she’d just picked up. “Grey! Watch what you say. Everyone’s …
here.”

His elbow brushed hers as he lifted
steamed crab legs from a dish with a pair of silver tongs. “So?
Everyone who knows us knows I’m into you. And personally, I can’t
wait until they realize we’re sleeping together.”

She glanced from side to side to see
if anyone was paying any attention to them.

No one was.

“Technically,” she said, her voice
whisper-quiet, “we’re not.”

He shot her a sideways look. “We’ll
fix that tonight.”

Her heart leapt, and all of a sudden,
as she doled out pea and cucumber salad onto her plate, she was hot
and tingling all over. “Will we?”

“If you can turn me down now, I wasn’t
as amazing last night as I thought.”

She hastily grabbed a few crab legs
and some steamed potatoes. “You were.”

“Do you want to go to my place or
yours, then? After we stop at the drug store on our way out of
here.”

“I chose last night, so it’s up to you
this time.”

“Great. We’ll go to my house, and I’ll
show you my personal dungeon.”

She nearly dropped her plate. “You
mean like—”

“Just kidding.” He grinned, looking
way too pleased with himself for having shocked her.

“You know, I wouldn’t have thought
you’d get that joke, just a few days ago,” he said. “But you’re not
as straight-laced as you seem at first. I realize that
now.”

They settled at a table a few yards
from the dance floor, one that was empty save for a satin clutch
someone had left on its surface. “Okay, that’s enough of this kind
of talk,” she said. “You’re going to shock someone’s
great-great-aunt into a heart attack.”

He unrolled his silverware and took a
bite of potatoes, saying nothing more about dungeons or trips to
the drug store. Instead, they ate in silence for a minute, and then
he reached under the table, laying a hand lightly above her
knee.

She couldn’t help but think of what it
would be like to finally, really have sex with him. She was aching
for it already. Despite her worries about the future and how hard
it would be to relegate this kind of intimacy with him to her past,
she couldn’t deny the sheer force of her physical
desire.

She’d never craved anyone like this
before, and it was a rush – one she’d pay the price for later to
revel in now. It was a bittersweet sort of freedom she’d never
allowed herself before.

“Want to go for a walk?” Grey asked
when they’d finished eating.

“It’s raining,” Kerry said, looking
past the crowd and out at the plantation grounds. A fine mist was
finally coming down.

“No it’s not. Or if it is, it can’t be
that bad. I see someone standing by the house, and she’s not
running for cover.”

Kerry craned her neck to look in the
direction he was gazing, and for a split second, what he’d said and
what it meant didn’t register.

Then it did.

“That woman in white, by the porch?”
she asked. “Is that who you’re talking about?”

“Yeah.”

Kerry’s heart sank, sending a tidal
wave of alarm washing over her. The woman was terribly familiar in
her long white dress, with her dark hair untouched by the rain.
Untouched by everything, even the passage of time – more than a
century.

Elizabeth.

“Oh no,” she breathed, not wanting to
accept that Grey could see her too. “Shit.”

Grey had never seen Elizabeth before.
But now that he’d gotten closer to Kerry, suddenly he could see the
ghost that everyone considered a harbinger of life-threatening
danger.

What had she done?

* * * * *

Kerry felt like an invader in Grey’s
home, an intruder contaminating him with her problems, the danger
that might’ve followed her from Kentucky. The royal blue skirts of
her bridesmaid dress shimmered beneath the kitchen lights, and she
felt out of place in the beautiful gown.

The reception had gone on late into
the evening. It was after dark now, and her excitement over the
night was diminished, once more, by fear.

“What’s wrong?” Grey asked. “It’s like
you’ve been walking around on eggshells for the past several
hours.”

She looked up at him – his handsome
face, his dark eyes, which immediately locked with hers. “I’m
dragging you into my troubles. I’m endangering you.”

His expression made it clear he
thought she was being melodramatic. Oh, how she wished that were
true. “Hey, you haven’t dragged me into anything. I came willingly
– pun intended.”

She couldn’t laugh. Her good humor was
locked up inside her, bound by horror over what she’d
done.

“I mean it. If my ex-husband has found
me – and I think he has – you’re in just as much danger as I am. He
was always so jealous, so possessive. He’d flip out if he thought I
was seeing anyone.”

“I think it’s a big leap to assume
that since someone slashed your tires, it had to be him. Anyway, I
don’t care. Honestly, I thought last night was worth dying for, and
I haven’t even been inside you yet – not really.”

“That’s not funny. And it’s not that
big of a leap. You know that old paper I found on my
porch?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I think that was how he tracked
me down. I think that was him letting me know he knew where I was.”
Realizing that Grey could see Elizabeth had set the wheels turning
in Kerry’s head, and she’d come up with a scarily possible idea of
how her ex might’ve tracked her down.

“Really?”

“Think about it – no one’s bothered me
for three years. Then hell rains down on this county all summer,
pushing it into the national media. I steered clear of the
reporters, but that picture… I never knew about it. And the caption
beneath it identified me by name. The article mentioned that I work
at Wisteria.”

Grey frowned. “So you think he was
just waiting all this time, and headed down here as soon as he
heard your name in connection with the fire at
Wisteria?”

“Yes! It’s exactly the kind of thing
he’d do. You know, I haven’t told anyone where I’m living. Not even
my own parents or sisters. And I don’t do social media, or anything
that might attract unwanted attention… I clean rooms at a bed and
breakfast, and nobody notices the people who clean. I was
invisible, and it was perfect, until the fire.”

Her voice cracked, but she held Grey’s
gaze without wavering, willing him to understand the importance of
what she was saying.

“It’s like I said last night,” he
replied, “if he really has come here, he’s walking into a trap. I
won’t let him hurt you. Jeremy and the police won’t let him hurt
you – it’ll be all right.”

“I appreciate you trying to make me
feel better, but burying my head in the sand won’t do any good.
Anyway, I’ve been worried about myself for the past three years – I
never stopped worrying. It’s just that now, I’m worried about you
too.”

Grey’s expression hardened, and for
the first time during the conversation, Kerry dared to hope he was
taking her seriously. “He doesn’t have any claim to you. And if he
shows up and needs someone to drive that point home, I’ll be glad
to do it.”