Star Bright (30 page)

“I’d rather stay here with you,” she told him. A part of her wanted to tack on,
Just, please, understand that I’m not ready for any kind of intimacy yet.
But another part of her knew the words weren’t necessary, so she refused to say them aloud.

“Done, then.” His firm mouth tipped into a crooked grin. “I’ll love havin’ you here.”

An hour later, Parker forced himself to stand aside while Rainie tried to unlock the front door of her duplex. Her hand was shaking so badly that she kept missing the keyhole. When he could bear it no longer, he wrested the key from her quivering fingertips and disengaged the lock for her.

As the door swung inward, she clutched his wrist. “Parker, wait.”

He angled a questioning look at her.

“He, um . . .” Her face lost color, and she moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “Seattle is only nine hours away. If he’s found out where I am, he could be . . .” She cast a dread-filled glance at the door. “He could be in there waiting.”

A surge of purely masculine pride almost made Parker bristle. Didn’t she realize that he could whistle “Dixie” while he kicked Danning’s ass? She had absolutely no reason to feel afraid. But when he searched her haunted gaze and recalled all the horrific events that she’d recounted to him earlier that day, he couldn’t blame her for being terrified.

“No worries,” he said. “You stay out here on the porch while I check the house.”

“No!” Her grasp on his wrist grew more frantic. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

Parker wrested his arm from her grip and cupped her chin in his hand. Her skin felt as soft as duckling down beneath his fingertips, and her small oval face was, without question, one of the loveliest he’d ever seen. “Nothin’ is goin’ to happen to me, honey. Get that cemented in your mind. I know how to handle myself in a fight.”

“He won’t fight fair,” she informed him shakily.

Parker chuckled. “And you think I will? I’m a country boy, darlin’. My dad taught me never to pick a fight, but if someone else starts it, I’ll finish it, one way or another, even if I have to pick up an equalizer.”

As he entered the small living room, she remained on the porch, wringing her hands. After returning from the kitchen, Parker saw her darting quick looks over her shoulder, as if she feared that Danning might sneak up behind her. His heart ached for her. How must it feel to be that frightened of another human being? As a child, Parker supposed he must have felt at a disadvantage physically, but it had been so many years ago that he could no longer remember it clearly. He’d also been blessed with a fabulous, caring father who had insisted that Parker learn to defend himself at a very young age. Even Samantha had been required to learn how to take care of herself. With his daughter, Frank had focused on different fighting strategies than he had with his boys, but the result had been the same. Despite her diminutive stature, Sam had learned how to protect herself. Those skills had saved her bacon in a fracas more than once as an adult.

After checking the bedroom, Parker called, “All clear.”

At the summons, Rainie hurried into the house and closed the door. Resting a shoulder against the doorjamb, Parker watched as she engaged the dead bolt and a chain guard.

“What are you doin’?” he asked.

She whirled to face him. Circles underscored her large, hazel eyes, and her soft mouth was chalk white. “He could be out there.” She clasped her hands at her slender waist. “I don’t want him sneaking in on us.”

In that moment, Parker wished he could take her in his arms and promise her that Danning would never hurt her again. But he’d already made that vow earlier. He had a hunch it would do no good to offer the same assurance twice. What she needed was a crash course in self-defense. As it was, she was completely dependent upon him to protect her. As certain as Parker was that he could do that, he also understood that it had to make her feel horribly insecure. She needed to believe in
herself.

He beckoned her into the bedroom. “The sooner you pack, the sooner we can get out of here.”

From her closet, she hauled a large suitcase that was almost as big as she was. As she began filling it with clothes and toiletries, she smiled faintly. “This reminds me of the day I packed to leave the ship. My hands were shaking then, too. I was so afraid I would bump into Peter as I disembarked and that he would recognize me.” She plucked something black from a pocket of the suitcase. “My Elvira wig.”

“Your what?”

She shook out the synthetic strands and tugged the net cap over her sun-streaked curls, instantly transforming herself into a vamp. The fake tresses were long, pitch-black, and as straight as a bullet on a windless day. “Voilà, I’m now a mistress of darkness.”

Parker couldn’t help but gape. “My God, the change is amazin’.”

She shrugged. “It was even better with the full disguise. I looked like a totally different person. As it happened, I did see Peter as I left the ship. He walked right by me.”

“You must have been scared half out of your wits.”

She nodded as she doffed the wig and pushed at her tousled curls. “The whole week was a nightmare. I told housekeeping that I was seasick and took my meals in my cabin. Janet sneaked me extra food so I could leave most of the room-service meals untouched. People can’t eat much when they’re nauseated, and I didn’t want to raise any red flags.”

“Not everyone has friends who love them that much.” Parker trailed his gaze over her sweet face. It didn’t surprise him that she had inspired such loyalty in a girlfriend. Almost from the first, he’d felt drawn to her, and with that feeling had come a strong sense of protectiveness that no other woman had ever elicited within him. There was just something about her that had always tugged at his heart. “You’re a very lucky lady.”

She tucked the wig back into the suitcase. “Someday I hope to be there for Maggie and Janet like they were for me.” She glanced up, fixing him with those expressive hazel eyes that revealed her every emotion. “I’ll be there for you, too, if you ever need me.”

“That’s a promise I’ll hold you to,” he replied, his voice going thick. She was so incredibly dear, this woman, and with every passing day, as he came to know her better, he only loved her more. “It was very brave, you know.”

She threw him a startled look.

“Findin’ the courage to do what you did,” he explained. “It took a lot of guts.”

“I’m not brave, Parker. I did what I had to do to stay alive. That’s desperation, not courage.” She folded a cotton top and placed it in the suitcase. “My dad used to say I had a lot of gumption, but I lost it somewhere along the way.”

She sounded so dejected that Parker couldn’t let that comment pass. “You haven’t lost it, honey. You’ve only tucked it away somewhere. Remember what I said about givin’ yourself some time to heal? In a few months, you’ll have as much spunk as you ever did.”

She only smiled sadly and shrugged again, the gesture saying more clearly than words that she didn’t believe him. In that moment, Parker vowed to find a way to restore her self-confidence.

While she finished packing, he stepped over to her bed and plucked a snoozing Thomas from her pillow. The tom immediately began purring. Parker cradled the battle-scarred feline in the crook of one arm to free a hand so he could give the cat scratches behind the ears.

As Rainie latched the suitcase, she suddenly got a concerned look on her face. “Oh,
no
.”

“What?” he asked.

“I don’t have a cat carrier.”

“One of those cages, you mean?” Parker snuggled the cat closer. He hated to stuff the poor fellow into one of those tiny boxes. It seemed cruel to him.

“How can we transport Thomas without one? Most cats don’t like cars.”

“Why don’t they like cars?”

“I don’t know. I’m no expert. I only know that people usually put them in carriers to travel.”

Parker cocked his head to study the tomcat’s face. “We could run into town and buy one, I reckon.”

“Mojo is locked in your bathroom,” she reminded him. “Going to town will take an extra hour. If we’re gone too long, he’ll wake up and chew on your vanity cabinet and mopboards.”

Parker considered the problem. “We could put Thomas in my toolbox,” he suggested.

Her expression went from concerned to horrified. “We can’t do that. It’d be mean.”

He half expected her to wrest the cat from his arms. “Sweetheart, my toolbox is five feet long, two feet deep, and two feet high. I can remove most of the tools and toss in a saddle blanket for him to lie on. It’ll be a lot nicer than one of those damned cat carriers. It’s not airtight. He’ll be safe and comfortable in there. It’s only a thirty-minute ride.”

She considered the suggestion. “Are you sure he’ll be able to breathe in there?”

“Positive.”

Nervous fingers toying with the tiny pearl buttons on her pink knit top, she finally nodded. “All right. That’ll probably work.”

The toolbox turned out to be every bit as big as Parker had claimed. “My goodness,” Rainie exclaimed, “I think I could curl up for a nap in there.”

“I told you it was roomy.”

Parker removed most of the stuff from inside the box to make space for her pet, and then placed a folded saddle blanket over the remaining contents to create a soft surface. To get Thomas inside was a feat in itself and took both of them to pull it off. Rainie had to join Parker in the bed of the truck, hold the lid of the box open, and be ready to slam it closed the moment Parker slipped Thomas inside. To Rainie’s surprise, the cat stopped squalling the moment she shut the lid. She imagined him sitting in there, terrified and unable to see in the darkness.

“Done,” Parker pronounced. Placing a hand on the side of the truck bed, he vaulted over it to the ground in one fluid motion that made Rainie envy his strength and agility. “Let’s roll so he doesn’t have to be cooped up in there for very long.”

Problem. Rainie had climbed up into the bed of the truck without any trouble, but climbing back down didn’t look as simple. Like most ranch vehicles, Parker’s truck was jacked up to keep it from high-centering in muddy fields. She walked to the lowered tailgate, looking for hand- and footholds. Just when she’d picked out a pathway of descent, Parker came around and held up his arms to swing her to the ground.

“You’re kidding. Right?” She looked askance at his outstretched hands. She’d never been swung down from a high perch, and she wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about trying it now. “I can manage by myself.”

“Don’t be a goose. Just jump. I’ll catch you.”

“What if you don’t?”

“I will. I promise. Just jump.”

Rainie remembered that cliff he’d been talking about earlier.
Trust.
She took a deep breath, inched forward until the balls of her feet rested on the edge of the tailgate, and then fell back, reluctant to take the leap. “I can’t.”

He gave her an exasperated look. “It’s only four feet down, honey.”

“It looks like a mile to me.”

He started to laugh. And then, before she could guess what he meant to do, he caught her around the knees and bodily plucked her from the tailgate. Rainie shrieked and grabbed for handholds, her easiest target his head. His Stetson went flying. Her hands knotted in his thick black hair.

“Don’t drop me!” she cried.

He was laughing so hard now that he could barely talk. In a muffled voice, he said, “Drop you? And go bald before I’m forty? Turn loose of my hair, woman, so I can put you down.”

Rainie saw that his face was pressed against the juncture of her thighs. She tried to unclench her fists, but her fingers refused to relax. The warm huff of his expelled breath sifted through her skirt, steamy against her skin. He suddenly went still. She guessed that he had just realized where his nose was buried. Rainie was mortified, but not so mortified that she could let go and risk toppling over backward.

He finally loosened his hold on her enough to let her body slide the length of his within the supportive circle of his arms. When her feet touched the ground, he didn’t release her. His expression was devoid of laughter now. His eyes had gone serious and shiny. With a start, she registered that her fingers were still knotted in his hair. She quickly lowered her hands to his shoulders, but somehow that was even worse. Feeling all that warm, hard muscle and flesh under her palms made her heart skitter and her stomach flutter. She could also detect the steely ridge of his arousal pressing against her belly.

Smiling slightly, he loosened one arm from around her to smooth a flyaway strand of curly hair from her eyes. “Safe landing, just like I promised.”

Except that Rainie didn’t feel safe. She’d seen that look in a man’s eyes before and knew what had put it there. “Parker, I—”

He angled a finger across her lips. “Shh,” he whispered. “Don’t say it.”

“But I need to make it clear that—”

“It’s already clear.” He dropped his arms to his sides and moved back a step to slam the tailgate closed and fetch his hat. Motioning at the truck, he said, “You ready to roll?”

Rainie turned away, her heart still slamming like a kettle-drum. Once inside the truck, she could think of nothing to say. Fortunately Parker had never been at a loss for words.