The Guarded Widow (10 page)

“Olivia, you don’t even have your coat on yet. It’s cold out here,” he stated, more than happy to reach around her to help her with it. “You know, I had a great time tonight.”

She laughed, nervously. “I did too. Although I must admit, I hadn’t expected to enjoy myself, so thank you.”

Tall oak trees lined the edge of the macadam and fallen leaves crinkled underfoot as they walked a little farther. When they stopped along the side of the parking lot, Thad turned to look at her.

“Let me walk you to your car,” he said in a quiet tone.

“Oh, I’m fine,” she returned quickly. “I’m all the way over on the far edge of the parking lot. I’m perfectly fine.”

“Okay,” Thad replied, then skillfully angled his head to lean in and kiss her goodnight. Caught off guard, she stood very still for a moment as he stepped back ever so slightly and ran his hands up and down the sleeves of her coat.

“I want to see you again, Olivia.”

His hands stopped to rest lightly upon her shoulders. “May I call you? Maddy had already given me your telephone number.”

Olivia stepped back in an attempt to widen the distance between them.

“Yes, I look forward to your call. Good night, Thad” she replied, briskly walking away. Once she reached her SUV she slowed down and looked back. Thad had already made it to his car and was about to pull out of the parking lot. So she paused to lean against her car, breathing an audible sigh of relief.

“I’m so glad that’s over,” she said aloud, relaxing against the car.

The sudden sound of crunching gravel and approaching footsteps had her tensing. Frightened, she spun around to look toward the back of the SUV and saw Gavin slowly walking toward her, as if he was stalking his prey.

“It didn’t look to me like you were too upset by the outcome of your date,” he drawled, watching her with a narrowed gaze.

“You just scared me, Gavin,” she said, struggling to resume normal breathing again.

He stopped in front of her, keeping his hands balled into fists inside his coat pockets.

“You know Olivia, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you enjoyed yourself tonight.” His voice became lower, sounded threatening. “Your date certainly did.”

He deliberately moved forward, intending to completely block her path so there would be no way around him. “From my perspective, it looked like he couldn’t keep his eyes or hands to himself.”

Olivia had heard enough. Completely aware that he was creating a warm delicious sensation in her belly, she stubbornly angled her chin to better evaluate him. Then she looked him square in the face and asked, “Gavin, are you drunk?”

“Not at all,” he replied, watching her intently.

“Then what do you want? Why are you here? Am I supposed to believe it was just a coincidence that you were at Mulligan’s. I’m allowed to go out on a date without notifying the police. I don’t need a chaperone,” she stated in a raspy voice.

The way he was standing there, silently watching her, made her feel like it was difficult to even form words correctly.

Then his arm reached out fast, dragging her up against him. He immediately sank his free hand into her hair and marveled at the softness, as he tugged her head back to look into his eyes.

“I was making sure this blind date of yours wasn’t the same man who’s been trying to hurt you,” he growled out.

His mouth, only inches from hers, made it extremely difficult to think, breathe, or speak.

Somehow she managed to murmur, “I’m unharmed. Now you should let go of me.”

He only tightened his grip. “Did you enjoy your good night kiss, Olivia?”

Flustered, she pushed against him. “I guess. I don’t know.”

“Well, you’re going to know if you enjoy this one,” Gavin promised and savagely brought his mouth down to meet hers.

Finally, was the only thought which passed through her clouded mind. His body was firm and demanding, just like his mouth. As he pushed her up against the driver side door of the SUV, Olivia rose up on her toes and wrapped hers arms around his neck.

He smelled of leather and cologne. He tasted like beer. Her lips parted and met his urgent demands.

Gavin sensed when her desire for him heightened because she softly moaned low in her throat before deepening the kiss. The searing heat which threatened to devour him, poured into Olivia.

For a split second Gavin thought, I must be losing my mind. Then he didn’t care. He slid his hands down and inside her coat to run his hands over her thin blouse. He needed to feel her, to finally touch her. She tasted of wine and her body, her curvy responsive body, was more than welcoming to his touch.

Her reaction to him was so intense he realized he desperately needed to stop now, while he still could, before he dragged her into the backseat of the SUV. He ended the kiss abruptly, by pushing her away. Then he just stared at her. Her hazel eyes were sensually half closed, dark with desire, while her lips looked swollen, from the demanding assault of his mouth.

Gavin grinned with deliberate malice.

“Your date didn’t kiss you like that,” he informed her.

It took a moment for his words to register, but when they did, Olivia went off. Irate, she raised her chin to glare at him as she hissed, “You’re unbelievable, Gavin Rafferty!”

She pushed him away with all of her strength. “Back off!”

He barely moved.

Olivia reached into her pocket and took out her keys with hands unsteady from anger and kindled desire. She unlocked the car door and climbed in behind the steering wheel. “Stay away from me! Don’t ever come near me again.” She slammed her car door closed and then reopened it. “And don’t you dare try to follow me home, Rafferty!”

As Gavin watched her tirade, he fought back the indescribable urge to drag her back out of the car.

“I don’t need too,” he stated, smugly. “I know your sister’s waiting for you at the house.”

That made her even angrier so she slammed the door again. With an arrogant smirk, Gavin rapped against the window anyway.

“What?” she shouted loudly, glaring at him through the glass.

“I’ll be coming by your house tomorrow afternoon,” he stated, firmly. “I have some questions to ask you about…”

There was no way in hell she was going to give him the satisfaction of completing his sentence. So Olivia started her car, flashed him a hateful smile, and gunned out of the parking lot.

He watched her speed away, pleased with himself. I’ll be the only man she’s thinking about tonight, he thought with a cocky grin.

It wasn’t until much later, when he was tossing and turning in his own bed, that Gavin realized how great a toll such a kiss had cost him. Beyond frustrated he wondered, now what in the hell am I going to do? He ended up climbing out of bed, hoping a stiff drink could help take the edge off of his unquenched thirst for Olivia Jones.

She’d slept fitfully and it was all Gavin Rafferty’s fault. He had dominated her thoughts and dreams throughout most of the night. After returning home last evening and finding Maddy sound asleep on the family room couch, Olivia had released a huge sigh of relief. Definitely not ready to divulge the evening’s sordid details, she escaped to the sanctuary of her bedroom, anxious to forget the kiss ever happened. But as much as she wished it hadn’t, it had.

Once Olivia had finally succumbed to a few precious hours of restless sleep, she’d woken early, as was her habit, and lay in the silent morning stillness, hoping she’d fall back to sleep. She didn’t. Finally she gave up and wandered into the kitchen to brew a wickedly strong pot of coffee, all the while berating herself.

What in the world was I thinking? He is the most arrogant, insulting man I’ve ever met. So then why, oh why, did I enjoy that blasted kiss so much?

Frustrated, she switched on the coffee maker.

The man had made her head swim and her body had responded so quickly that now she’d been forced to remember what’s been missing in her life these last two years. It was never, ever like that with Tom though, she honestly admitted. I’d enjoyed sex, but I’d never felt completely consumed by a painful physical need for it, especially after just one kiss. Although, she thought begrudgingly, that was one very intense, demanding kiss. Shaking her head, trying to erase it from her memory, she opened the refrigerator in search of the eggs.

Her efforts to forget him were pointless, having already replayed the passionate encounter over and over in her sleep deprived mind at least a hundred times since arriving home. I wasn’t even able to fall asleep because he had me so riled up. I need to forget about it, she decided and started cracking eggs into a small glass mixing bowl.

But she knew what the problem was.

From now on, every time I have to look at him, I’ll always remember what his touch felt like, she conceded in defeat. For she knew she’d never be able to forget that kiss, it was burned into her memory, forever.

Maddy groggily made her way into the kitchen, yawning. She shuffled along quietly, and then paused in the hallway to observe Olivia who was beating scrambled eggs with a vengeance.

“I take it you didn’t enjoy your date with Thad last night?” Maddy asked casually, slowly walking over to help herself to the coffee.

Olivia poured the thoroughly beaten eggs into a heated pan. “Actually, I did have fun. I liked Thad.”

“Really?” Maddy asked, arching a brow. She leaned over to carefully sip her nearly overflowing mug of steaming, hot coffee.

“Why do you sound so surprised?” Olivia asked, annoyed because her sister could usually read her so easily.

“Well, first of all, you didn’t even wake me up to share your night with me. Then, you were just beating those eggs as though you were furious. It seems to me you were taking out your frustrations on them.”

Olivia sighed, realizing she really needed to unload the details of her evening on someone.

“I need to talk this out so I can get over him and move on,” she gushed.

Narrowing her eyes with concern, Maddy automatically assumed she must have uncharacteristically slept with Thad Wolfe. “Slow down, Olivia! What did you do? What’re you talking about?”

Olivia watched as trickles of a light rain streaked down the sliding glass door, and then groaned aloud.

“Okay, I think I’m attracted to Gavin Rafferty. Well, I don’t think it. After last night, I absolutely know it, without a doubt.”

Maddy’s eyes widened as she studied Olivia. Relief flooded through her, that her prior assumption was incorrect. But then she gaped at her sister, wearing a confused expression.

“Did you ever meet up with Thad?”

Waving her hand in the air, as though the memory of the man she’d met on the blind date was a pesky insect, Olivia conversationally said, “Oh yeah! Thad was a nice enough guy and I had fun. It wasn’t a terrible experience.”

Maddy chugged the remainder of the coffee in her mug and decided she was definitely going to need more caffeine.

“Then I don’t understand. If you went out with Thad, how did you end up running into Gavin Rafferty?”

Wow, that is an entirely too accurate description of last night, Olivia mused before going on to explain meeting up with Thad Wolfe at the restaurant. She described how shocked she’d been when she saw Gavin sitting at the bar in Mulligan’s and told Maddy how he’d intended to keep an eye on her. That supposedly, he was concerned for her safety.

Then she detailed the brief exchange which had instigated their heated embrace in Mulligan’s parking lot and his rude abrasive behavior afterward.

Maddy listened intently, nodding her head in silence. When her sister fell silent she curiously asked, “You’re really starting to fall for this guy, huh?”

Olivia bit off the response a bit too quickly. “No! No! Well maybe. I guess I am, for some stupid reason that I’m totally unable to comprehend. I mean, I’m not blind, Maddy. He’s gorgeous, but there’s something there that I can’t quite put my finger on. There’s something else which seems to draw my attention to him. I don’t know. I mean here I am a widow with four kids. What could a single good-looking cop, who could have any choice of beautiful young women, possibly see in me?” She sighed wearily. “I guess I’m just tired and blabbering in exhaustion. Actually, he said he was going to stop by later today, but I don’t want to see him.”

Maddy knowingly smiled at her. “This must really tick you off.”

“Yes!” Olivia admitted in exasperation, casting her hands in the air to accentuate her words. “Yes, it certainly does.”

“Well, I’m willing to bet you a thousand bucks, due to the story you just told, that Gavin probably feels just as confused as you do this morning,” Maddy said, smiling slyly as Olivia’s eyes widened in surprise. “And knowing Gavin Rafferty, he’s probably just as pissed off about it as you are,” she concluded with a hearty chuckle, snatching a forkful of scrambled eggs off the serving platter.

Maddy surreptitiously watched over the brim of her coffee mug as Olivia finished cooking Sunday breakfast for her sleeping sons, wondering what her sister was going to do, if and when, Officer Rafferty truly shows up.