The Heart Heist (27 page)

It was closed and the lights appeared to be off. Gary felt a confusing and powerful disappointment.
This, this I care about
. Yes, the sexual urges he'd been suppressing for a week were pounding through his body now with unrelenting force.

A long, long run and a cold, cold shower. Gary sighed with disgust as he let the door fall closed again. What a thing to need on a day like today.

~~~

A whiff of air sighed through Kerrin's open bedroom window. It did little to break the dry heat wave that persisted through the dark hours of the desert night. Kerrin had thrown off her quilt and lay unsleeping beneath the light, percale sheet.

Where was Gary, she wondered? Nobody had seen him the rest of that afternoon. She supposed he was checking into a cheap little motel in Ensenada by this time. She wondered: had the fact of his friend's death hit him somewhere along the way? Was he even then lying as sleepless as herself in some flea-bitten motel room, completely alone? Kerrin curled into a ball. She didn't like to think about Gary being alone and unhappy.

Another puff of air stirred the curtains behind her. At the same time the fine hairs on the nape of her neck stood to attention. She stared at the sliding closet door, directly opposite the open window.

No. There was no one else in the room. Her mind was playing tricks on her. And she wasn't going to turn her head to check because she didn't have to.
There was no one else in her bedroom.

After a full five minutes of this torture, she allowed herself to turn.

Gary wasn't in Ensenada. He'd taken over her grandmother's rocking chair, looking like a Turkish pasha. One knee crossed indolently over the other and his hands draped over the scrolled armrests. A stray moonbeam arrowed a focused gleam through his dark eyes.

Rising onto her elbows, Kerrin gazed back at him. He sat so still, one could almost think him a statue. This statue, however, spoke.

"If you're still offering that...commodity we were discussing the other day, I might be in the market to buy." His voice was a low, intimate murmur, nothing to penetrate her bedroom walls.

A shiver ran over Kerrin's skin. She knew what he meant. His intent gaze and leashed tension told her he was serious. But there was something else going on besides pure sexual craving, something he was trying very hard to disguise.

"I thought I made myself clear, Gary. That's not for sale."

Gary somehow went even more immobile.

"It's a gift," Kerrin explained. "Free and clear."

"I...see." But she wondered if he did, if he could accept such an unprecedented thing.

Then in one lithe movement, he rose from the chair. Kerrin had never seen anyone get up from a rocking chair and leave it perfectly unmoving, but Gary did. She was so fascinated by the phenomenon that he already had his shirt off before she knew what was happening.

The last time Kerrin had seen Gary without his shirt had been in that hotel room in Bishop and then she'd only caught a brief, frightened glimpse. Now moonlight gleamed over his essentially masculine form; the smooth circles of strength over his shoulders, the T crossing in the center of his chest.

Muscles rippled under the skin of his forearms as he worked open his jeans, then under his shoulders as he pushed them down.

The balance of power in the room took a decisive shift. Kerrin drew herself up to a sitting position, unconsciously edging away from him. Without his clothes, Gary was pure male strength, pure sex.

But whatever stop-sign messages Kerrin was sending out, Gary wasn't paying attention. Grasping the sheet, he pulled it away like an impatient child tearing through wrapping paper.

Kerrin's remaining courage slipped away in the blink of an eye. She gathered her knees in to jump off the bed. Gary was ahead of her. He pounced with the speed and agility of a mountain cat. Kerrin found herself rolled under his weight, her hands pinned above her head on the pillow.

There wasn't time for the terror to rise in her throat before his mouth was upon hers. She struggled and he held her still, his mouth fierce. He fought that terror back like some sword-wielding warrior. His kisses were hard, they were soft, and they were everything in between; anything he could use to win the battle.

He won. She finally melted, crying softly into his mouth, nothing left but desire. His hands let go of hers and then travelled down her body, caressing, encouraging, expert. By the time he got to the hem of her nightie, Kerrin was thoroughly heated.

All the same, things moved with astonishing speed. Suddenly Kerrin's nightgown was gone. Her panties disappeared. And then Gary's hard body was settling between her legs, the rough curls on his legs scratching her inner thighs. He was doing things to her breasts and her mouth and her neck that made it hard to pay attention to what was going on further down. Still Kerrin instinctively tried to close her knees. She found Gary blocking the way.

Her incipient panic almost broke through.

"Good," he murmured against her lips. He made a noise between a sigh and a whimper. "That's so good."

His praise went right through her, as did the deep longing in his voice. Then he moved against her...in such a way that instead of panicking, Kerrin suddenly wanted to echo the sentiment.
Good.
She grasped onto his shoulders. He reached up and took hold of her hands there.

With calm deliberation, he once again raised both hands over her head. Holding them there with a steely grip, he reached down with his free hand and fit himself to her body. His eyes were close upon her, filled with primitive determination.

And yet there was uncertainty there as well, a silent request for permission. She must have given it, for the uncertainty changed to gratitude.

He took care of the matter of her virginity with a perfect economy of time and motion. All the while he kept his gaze trained steadily upon her. The mask he'd been wearing disappeared, letting a chain of emotions chase over his face; wonder, fear, relief, pain. It all boiled down to one raw, tormented need.

An overwhelming desire to fill that need rose within her. She let every part of her body relax, opened it all up to him, softened and surrendered.

Suddenly releasing her hands, Gary closed his eyes and lowered over her, allowing her to wrap him in her arms.

"Heaven. Sweet
soft
heaven," he muttered. And as his hard, taut body shuddered deeply, Kerrin could feel the wetness of tears on the cheek that pressed against hers.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Kerrin hadn't known it was possible to feel this powerful, this utterly female. She lay on her bed in the darkness, idly running a hand through Gary's thick, silky hair. His eyes were closed and he lay to her side, his arms wrapped around her waist. One leg was thrown with casual possessiveness over hers and his nose pushed up under her jaw. He tugged her closer around the waist.

"Not quite how you imagined your first time would be, huh?" he ventured, his voice gravelly.

Craning her head, she looked down at his face. She used her free hand to brush more of the moisture from under his eyes. His brows flinched.

"Well, let me think about that." A new, knowing smile came over Kerrin's face. "Did I ever imagine finding a dark and brooding knight standing in my midnight bedroom. One who, with tender, urgent need, ravishes me most fully? Nope." Shaking her head, Kerrin pursed her lips. "Can't say anything like that was ever one of my fantasies."

Gary opened an eye and glanced up at her, checking her playful sarcasm for holes. Then he closed his eye again and chuckled. "You're the dizziest dame I ever met."

"Lucky for you."

"Yeah." He pressed his face closer against her neck. "Lucky for me." He nuzzled her gently. "What are the chances I could talk you into coming home with me?"

"I'd say, pretty damn good."

"Your parents -- ?"

Kerrin released a short laugh. "You don't need to worry about my parents." She smiled at the peculiar look he gave her. "They don't believe in interfering with their children's decisions or privacy. It's like a religious tenet with them."

Unconvinced, Gary rolled away from her and sat up on the edge of the bed. He switched on the lamp. "That doesn't mean they're going to like your decisions."

Kerrin pulled the sheet over her breasts and frowned as Gary stood and reached for his clothes. "Gary, my parents like you. Both of them do."

Again, a peculiar look came over his face as he pulled up his jeans. He fastened the buttons, regarding her closely. "Kerrin," he asked quietly, "how does your father know who I am?"

Her heart froze in her chest. All she could do was stare at him with wide, frightened eyes.

Placing his hands on his hips, he persisted. "Did you tell him?"

Kerrin swallowed nervously. She'd never wanted to divulge her source in discovering the DWP was planning to send a felon to her town, not to anybody.

His expression visibly gentled. "It's all right if you did. I just need to know."

"No, I didn't tell him." Kerrin was surprised to hear herself answer, but she couldn't lie to Gary. She cleared the hoarseness from her throat. "My Dad is the one who told me. About you."

Gary's gentle expression turned blank. Carefully, he asked, "Then who told him?"

"I don't know."

"You didn't ask?"

Kerrin gave him a severe look. "That thing about privacy, well it works two ways."

Releasing a deeply frustrated sigh, Gary half turned away, running a hand through his hair. "Shit."

His one-word statement was remarkably expressive. Kerrin wrapped the sheet more closely around her body. "My dad isn't going to give away your identity. He hasn't by now, you know that."

"No, of course not," Gary murmured, more than half to himself. He rubbed his chin as he stared out her window. "That wouldn't be to his advantage. That would only end up revealing his own identity."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Gary's agitation and his odd questions were making her wish she were dressed.

Gary turned to regard her closely. "Last night someone took a shot at me. Someone who knew where to find me, just outside the DWP facility."

A terrible fear iced through Kerrin. "Oh, my God," she breathed. Gary could have been killed! Then, belatedly, she realized what he was trying to tell her. "Oh no." She raised eyes full of indignation. "Absolutely not. Put that idea right out of your head, Gary Sullivan. My father did not shoot at you!"

Giving a noncommittal shrug, Gary reached for his shirt. "Does he have a gun?"

Kerrin narrowed her eyes. "Naturally."

Gary paused with one arm in his sleeve. "Naturally?" His voice cracked on the word.

"We have several guns in the house. It's isolated up here and you never know what kind of wildlife might come down from the mountains." She nodded toward her dresser. "I have a small revolver in there myself."

Gary's shirt dropped to the floor. "You have a gun?"

"Isn't that what I just said?" She crossed her arms over the sheets. "But don't worry, I know how to use it." She winced, though, having said this. It was her father who'd taught her how.

"You know how to -- ? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to keep guns in the house?" Gary's dark eyes were opened so wide she could see the whites all the way around them.

"Only if you're not careful with them. But I'm starting to see what you mean." Kerrin eyed him wryly. "It could have gotten rather awkward if I'd thought you were a real intruder."

Gary groaned and rubbed a hand down his face. "I don't even want to think about it. You know you never could have got to that damn dresser in time."

"Luckily."

"And even if you had," Gary went on, ignoring her interruption. "Just about any real intruder would have been able to overpower you. Then you'd have the gun trained against you." He leaned over her, caging her against the headboard with his hands. "Darling, I don't want to think about what a bullet would do to you. It's not a pretty sight."

Kerrin looked up at him. "You've seen it?"

He turned his face to the side, shutting his eyes. "Once or twice."

Lightly, she touched his jaw. "Gary, my father did not shoot at you."

She waited for his gaze to come back to her. His eyes were dark brown swirled with red.

"He wouldn't do that," she went on calmly. "It's just not in him. Besides, he genuinely
likes
you." She paused, her eyes searching his hard face. "Do you believe me?"

He waited a long moment and then nodded. "All right, I believe you." He leaned forward and brushed a quick kiss on her lips. "To tell you the truth, the thought of him shooting anybody doesn't make a lot of sense to me either." His brows drew down as he continued to meet Kerrin's eyes. "But that leaves me with a small problem."

"What's that?"

"Who did shoot at me?"

"I don't know." Kerrin threw her arms around his neck. "But I wish they wouldn't do that. Oh, Gary, I don't want anything to happen to you!"

For an instant he hesitated, as though shocked. And then he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. He pulled her so close that his heart seemed to be thudding, hard and fast, right inside her own chest. "I don't want anything to happen to you, either," she thought she heard him whisper.

~~~

Kerrin was silent on the drive over to Gary's house. Stealing glances in her direction, Gary could see her chewing at her bottom lip as she stared into the darkness. Probably worrying about who'd used the rifle on him. He was amazed that she took it so personally, with such deep concern for his well-being. He took that concern of hers and stored it in the safe place where he kept the other novel presents Kerrin kept giving him. He was going to need them over the next ten years.

A frown lowered his brows as he stared at the dashed yellow line on the pavement leaping toward the car. He should have been thinking about those ten years earlier -- about an hour earlier. He still couldn't believe how incredibly stupid he'd acted. Never in his life had he put a woman at so much risk, and that he'd messed up so badly with Kerrin drove him nearly crazy with shame.