Cold feet (18 page)

Caleb's mouth fell open. He obviously hadn't expected what she'd just done. But she didn't regret it. The appreciation on his face was worth it.

"Beautiful," he whispered. Then, after a brief silence, he added, "Throw on a robe and come over here."

The pounding of Madison's heart seemed to tap out,
Hurry over there...hurry over there...not every girl gets to be with a man like Caleb...don't miss out.
But she'd promised herself she'd make good decisions. She had a six-year-old to think about.

"I know this will probably punch a big hole in my sexy siren act," she said, "but I have no birth control. I haven't been with anybody since Danny."

"I bought some when we stopped for gas."

"You knew it might come to this
tonight?
" she asked, feeling slightly indignant.

He chuckled softly. "On some level."

She said nothing. She was thinking.
Make good decisions, avoid emotional upset, take no risks? Or go to Caleb?

Somehow, making good decisions and avoiding unnecessary risk had never seemed so hopelessly unappealing. "You come over here," she said.

"I'm on my way." He hung up, and then it was too late to change her mind.

Suddenly far too nervous to remain as she was, Madison put on her bra and got her robe. She was just tying it when Caleb knocked.

That didn't take long.
She wondered if she had the nerve to answer. She walked down the hall, backed away, bit her knuckle and, when he knocked again, finally opened the door.

He loomed above her, his face shadowed, the moon directly behind him. For the first time, she found his height a little intimidating. Or maybe it was the intensity of his expression. It seemed to suggest they'd gone too far to turn back now, even though they weren't even touching.

What am I doing?
she asked herself. But she didn't wonder long. She stood back in silent invitation for him to enter, and the moment she closed the door, he slipped his hands inside her robe and around her waist, staring into her eyes as he drew her up against his hard length. He kissed her neck, curled one hand around her bottom, and she couldn't wait for his lips to find her mouth and his hands to seek all the places that begged to be touched.

"Caleb?"

"Hmm?" He sounded distracted as he pushed her robe off her shoulders and gazed down at what his hands revealed.

"If you're used to being with really experienced women, I'm not sure I--"

He caressed her lace-covered breasts, and she sucked in a quick breath. "You don't have anything to worry about," he said.

Lowering his head, he kissed the indentation beneath her collarbone, his breath hot, his lips barely grazing her skin. Then his hands sought the clasp of her bra, and Madison squeezed her eyes closed, waiting expectantly for that moment when he'd slip off her bra and actually touch her. But he didn't immediately do so.

She opened her eyes to look up at him. "What is it?" she asked, every nerve taut. She thought she might die if he backed out now.

"I want to go slow, but I don't think I have enough control right now." Surprise echoed through his voice. "I've never wanted anyone so much."

She was shaking; surely that told him how she felt. "I'm already burning from the inside out, Caleb. And I want you to burn, too. Burn for me."

What had started out slow now moved very fast. "We'll do it again--slower--afterward, okay?" he promised. "Tell me I'll have another chance."

Madison would have told him almost anything. She murmured something and he said, "I know you might hate me for this later, Maddy, but I have to have you."

Madison smiled at the sound of her childhood name on his lips. "Why would I hate you?"

He didn't answer. He kicked her robe aside and removed her bra, leaving it where it landed. Her panties soon followed. Scooping her into his arms, he started toward the back of the house, but her bedroom seemed too far away. She made him stop so she could remove his clothes--his shirt, his pants, everything. And when she pressed against him, both of them fully naked, and felt him shaking like she was, she knew they weren't going to make it another foot. Arching into him, she breathed, "Take me now, Caleb. Right now."

She didn't need to ask twice. He waited only long enough to put on a condom before leaning her against the wall in the dark hallway and burying himself inside her. She cried out, clenching her hands in his hair. She felt herself stretch almost painfully to accept him, yet she wanted to draw him deeper, cling to him, lock her legs around him.

He lifted her and bore the bulk of her weight between him and the wall as he began to move, and the way he looked at her, the way he kissed her, made her feel as though more than their bodies touched.

Suddenly, Caleb was the
only
thing that mattered. Almost immediately Madison felt a spiraling sensation inside her, something she hadn't experienced for a long, long time. She couldn't believe Caleb had the power to arouse her like this, so easily, so completely. But when she felt her body tense and that first wave roll through her, she cried out his name, determined that he wouldn't retain any more control than she had, and took him with her.

A moment later, they were breathing heavily, their hearts thudding in unison, their skin slick with sweat.

Caleb's eyes were closed, his forehead resting against hers. With his large body pressing her into the wall, Madison felt completely safe. And content..."That was incredible, Maddy," he whispered.

She could have said the same thing. But she was too busy reveling in the feel of him against her, inside her, everywhere.

He gathered her in his arms, as if to carry her to the bedroom, but before they'd moved an inch, he straightened. "Uh-oh."

Madison blinked up at him. "Uh-oh" wasn't what she'd expected.

"What is it?" she asked, suddenly a little self-conscious about her wild abandon.

He kissed her on the shoulder and gently lowered her to her feet. "Hurry and get dressed. Someone's here."

It took a few seconds for that piece of information to register, but when she listened, Madison could hear a car's engine. "Not now!"

She started to collect her clothes, but Caleb moved more quickly. He handed them to her on his way to the bathroom. She heard the toilet flush, then he reappeared and thrust his legs into his pants.

"I'll see who it is," he said.

"This late, it's got to be Johnny," she told him. "And--and you can't answer my door. It'll be too obvious that I'm...that we're...I don't want him to say anything to Danny or Brianna."

"I'll go out the back and walk around, as if I'm coming from the cottage," he said. "Keep your doors locked until I know it's safe."

"Okay." Hearing the back door close, she hurried to her room and pulled on some sweats so she could go to the kitchen and look out at the drive. What she saw when she got there was a new Ford Explorer. A short man with a neatly trimmed goatee and a stocky build had gotten out. It wasn't Johnny. It was Tye.

What was Tye doing here? He hadn't been over since she'd moved in and needed his help to set up her new television. Taking a moment to slow the pounding of her heart, she went to the door and threw it open. "Tye? What's going on?"

"Who the hell is this?" her brother said, jerking his head toward Caleb, who'd met him in the drive.

Madison didn't dare glance in Caleb's direction, afraid the look in her eyes would give away the fact that they'd just made love--or the fact that she wanted to make love with him again. "It's Caleb Trovato."

"Who's Caleb Trovato?"

"My, um, renter," she said, even though calling Caleb her renter suddenly seemed a remote term for a man she now knew more intimately than any other, except Danny.

"You didn't tell me you'd taken in a renter."

"I didn't think about it. The last time we talked, it was just after we'd moved Dad's grave, and I, um, had a lot on my mind." Her throat suddenly dry, she swallowed. "What are you doing here, anyway?" she asked, hoping to deflect his attention.

Tye shot Caleb a look that said he could leave, but Caleb propped his hands on his hips and stood his ground.

Madison's cheeks began to burn as she felt Caleb watching her. Falling into bed with a man she'd known only two weeks wasn't characteristic of her. She focused on her brother to avoid Caleb's possessive glance. "Is something wrong?"

"Isn't that Dad's truck?" he asked, motioning to the blue Ford parked in the drive.

She looked over to see the Ford sitting dark and empty as it had for the past few years, and felt an eerie chill down her spine. She didn't want her father's truck there, parked in the middle of the new life she was trying to build. But she liked the fact that she could overcome her fears enough to lend it to Caleb. That said something. "Yes. I'm borrowing it," she said, to keep things simple.

"Borrowing it," he repeated. "After all the time it's been locked up in that garage."

"Anything wrong with that?"

"I guess not," he said, but he didn't sound happy about it. "Have you heard from Sharon?" he asked.

"Sharon?" She could smell Caleb's cologne on her skin as she raised a hand to scratch her forehead, and quickly lowered her arm. "Don't you know where she is?"

"I can't find her."

"As in, something might have happened to her or--"

"Nothing happened," he interrupted irritably. "She left, that's all."

"But why?"

He waved a hand toward Caleb. "Can't you tell him to go home?"

"He is home," she said, but because she was afraid of what Tye might say or do, she asked Caleb for a few moments alone. "I'll call you later," she told him.

Despite the darkness where Caleb stood, she could see that his mouth formed a grim line. He didn't answer. He just turned and walked away, and she was grateful for the space. She needed a chance to handle Tye on her own.

"Are you sleeping with that guy?" he asked as soon as she let him in.

Madison would bet the truth was written all over her face. Her body still tingled from Caleb's touch, but she said, "That's none of your business, Tye."

He followed her down the hall to the living room, prowling around once they got there as though he had too much pent-up energy.

"Do you want to tell me what's going on with Sharon?" she asked.

"We're having a little trouble at home," he admitted. "But it isn't anything we can't work out--if I could just find her."

Madison walked over and closed the shutters on the window that looked toward the cottage, as if she could separate Caleb from her regular life that easily. He was fantasy. Tye was part of reality. "Did she file for separation?" she asked.

He picked up the paper flower bouquet Brianna had made her for Mother's Day. "I don't know. I think she's trying to get a restraining order. I tell you, she's lost it. She's gone nuts or something."

"What about the kids?"

He put the arrangement back on the table. "She took them with her."

"When?"

"Yesterday morning. I thought she'd be home by now. But I haven't heard from her."

Madison sat in her overstuffed chair, still trying to recover from what had happened just before Tye arrived. How had she gone from "I'm not going to get involved with you" to hot, sweaty sex with Caleb in such a short time? "Have you called her parents?"

"I've tried. They won't talk to me. She told them I attacked her." He shook his head in disgust.

Madison couldn't picture her easygoing sister-in-law obsessing over something that wasn't true. "
Did
you attack her, Tye?"

He whirled to face her, his eyebrows knotted. "I can't believe you asked me that! Of course not."

She remembered how aloof and difficult he'd been as a teenager, and hated the fact that she didn't quite believe him. Somehow she doubted Sharon would take the kids and disappear without a good reason. Sharon had always talked as though she really loved Tye. "So where do you think she is?"

"I told you, I don't know. She's imagining things." He walked to the window and peered out through a crack in the shutters.

Madison could feel his pensive mood from across the room. Finally, he turned to face her. "I don't like that guy," he said.

He was talking about Caleb, but Madison didn't want to discuss Caleb with him, so changed the subject. "Have you seen Johnny lately?"

"No, have you?"

"This morning. He's living in my mother's garage."

He moved away from the window. "I never dreamed the old bitch would let him do that."

"She hasn't
let
him. She doesn't even know he's there. And don't call her an old bitch. She has her shortcomings, but she's not as bad as you think."

"She's worse," he muttered.

Madison chose to ignore that comment. "Anyway, Johnny can't stay there for long. She's selling the house and, judging by the number of interested parties, I think it's going to move very fast."

"Why would anyone want that place?"

"It's a prime piece of real estate."

Tye's forehead creased in consternation. "Isn't your mother terrified that once she moves the police will find some evidence that'll finally prove Ellis really did kill all those women? Then she won't be able to play the persecuted wife of a falsely accused man."

Madison threw a lap blanket over her legs, feeling a little chilled. "She believes Dad's innocent. You know that."

He rubbed his neck, disgusted or upset in some new way. "But surely she's found that box in the crawl space by now."

Madison thought for a moment that her heart had stopped beating.

"Madison?" he said when she didn't respond.

"How do you know about that box?" she breathed.

He paused, then said, "I'm the one who put it there."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

S
O MANY THOUGHTS
converged in Madison's mind that at first she could only stare at her half brother. "What are you saying?" she asked when she'd recovered her voice.

"Nothing earth-shattering," Tye said with a shrug. "I found that stuff out in the workshop the day Dad died."