Where You Least Expect It (12 page)

And it would indicate an utter trust in her that would complete the tentative bonds that tied them together.

She didn’t realize she’d tightly closed her eyes, praying for him to take that step, until he turned toward her, forcing her hand off his shoulder. He gazed at her in the dim light from the computer, his face drawn in hard, handsome lines. Sadness dwelled there, in his eyes, and seemed to reach out and tangle her in its vine-like tentacles.

He lifted a hand and so tenderly caressed the side of her face that tears flooded her eyes.

“I’ve been dead for so long now, Penelope, my heart felt like a leaden weight. Until you. Until you touched me with your magic fingers and coaxed it and me back to life.”

She dropped her gaze.

“I tried to keep you at arm’s length. I tried to block you out. But you wouldn’t let me.” His fingers slowly moved from her face to her hair. “I’d been living in a monochrome hell for the past
year, and you splashed your buckets of vivid color over it until I started to see things clearly again. More than just clearly. I started to see, period.” He rested his fingers at the back of her neck, his voice and words caressing her. “I started to see you.”

He leaned forward and brushed his warm lips against hers. “Stay with me tonight, Penelope.”

Pure, unadulterated need surged through her veins. How she wanted this man. Physically. Emotionally. Soulfully. She wanted him to possess her and in exchange to possess him. She wanted to feel his hard body moving gently over hers, filling her, stroking her. She wanted him to make love to her until nothing made sense, until everything made sense.

“Yes,” she breathed more than said, then opened her mouth to allow him in.

Within a heartbeat the tentative meeting of mouths transformed into a hungry assault between two battle-scarred warriors. She, the town outcast who had resigned herself to a life lived on the fringes, not participating, merely an observer. He, a man who had experienced so much sorrow that she couldn’t help but feel it whenever she looked at him, whenever he touched her.

He tugged on the cotton of her dress until he could pull it up over her head, mussing her hair so it hung in her face. She reached for his T-shirt and did the same, pressing her hot palms against the planes of his hard abdomen. Aidan restlessly smoothed his fingers over her face, brushing stray strands of hair back so he could kiss her again, even as she stepped out of her panties, and pushed his jeans down over his lean legs.

Then they were standing completely naked in front of each other, baring more than skin as each visually took the other in. Penelope gasped when he lightly touched her right breast, brushing the pad of his thumb over the aching tip. His manhood stood proud and thick and pulsing against his stomach. She reached for it, fascinated by his obvious want of her, desire for her. Moisture beaded the top and she pressed her fingers against it, then rubbed it over the thick knob and down the long, hard length. He made a deep sound in his throat, then caught her hand between them as he grasped her hips and pressed her to him.

Where their last time had been about the first flush of intimacy, this was about fundamental need. A reaching out not just of bodies, but of the very essence that made each of them who they were. Who they were apart, and who they became together.

Aidan edged her toward the bed and leaned down to pull the satiny bedspread from the mattress. It pooled at their feet with the mellowest of whispers. Then he swept Penelope up into his arms. She gasped and grasped his hard shoulders, allowing him to lay her across the bed.

She wasn’t a slip of a woman that could easily be picked up. Yet he laid her against the white sheets like that’s exactly what she was. And for a moment, a brief, precious moment, that’s what she felt like.

His hard body covered hers, his knee gently nudging hers apart, his arms braced on either side of her head as he held her gaze. He brushed her hair from her face, staring at the dark strands as if endlessly fascinated by them. Then he bent and kissed her, coaxing the sparks ricocheting around inside her into a full-out fire.

And beginning the journey to heaven and beyond…

T
wo hours later, Penelope seemed helpless to staunch the flow of tears streaming down her cheeks. Aidan gently withdrew from her, knowing the tears were of joy and pleasure even as he kissed them from her skin, tasting the salt on his tongue. He felt connected to Penelope in a way he had never expected to feel connected to another woman. The thought gladdened him, yet was also the cause for great concern.

It was somewhere past midnight now, and the only sounds were of Max’s chain collar as he scratched himself on the landing outside the door, and the hum of the computers. He gently wiped the wetness from Penelope’s sweet cheeks and bent down to kiss her again, so utterly consumed by his love for her that it was sometimes difficult to breathe.

She opened her eyes and lifted a hand to her face, appearing surprised to find tears there.

Aidan reluctantly rolled to lie next to her, both of them staring at the ceiling. He curled his fingers around hers, feeling the rasp of the ever-present leather tie around her wrist and its unidentified charm.

“I want you to leave town for the time being, Penelope.” His voice broke the silence. “Leave Old Orchard. Find someplace safe.”

She attempted to move her hand in automatic response and he tightened his grip.

“Where would I go?”

“I don’t know. To family, maybe?”

There was a long silence, then she whispered. “Outside Mavis, I don’t have any family.”

He turned his head to gaze at her, realizing they shared more than he had thought possible.

With the death of his aunt and uncle a few years ago, essentially he was also alone in the world.

Except for Davin.

Except for Penelope.

“Then, go as far as you can as fast as you can. Rent a motel room. Something, anything away from here.”

She didn’t say anything.

He realized he was brushing his thumb back and forth along the silky skin of her side. He pulled her hand up and pressed his lips against her knuckles, keeping them there for a long time.

“Promise me,” he said.

She didn’t say anything.

He moved her hand until it pressed against the side of his face.

“Promise me.”

“I can’t,” she said hoarsely.

They lay like that for a long time. Then he felt her move. She rolled to her side to face him, then tugged her hand away. He squinted at her in the dark, discerning that she was doing something with her bracelet.

“My mother gave this to me many years ago,” she said quietly, somberly. She held it up so that the charm dangled in front of him. “Do you know what that is?”

Aidan made out a round blue stone with a black dot in the middle of a white one, the stone edged with silver.

“It’s a Greek eye. It’s supposed to ward off all evil,” she whispered.

Before he knew her intention, she was tying it around his left wrist. “I want you to promise me you won’t take it off until this is over.”

He studied her in the dim light. The way her silky black hair kept sliding into her face and the way she easily tucked it back again.

“What’s going to protect you?” he asked.

She smiled at him, a flash of white in the darkness. “You.”

He started to pull away, but she stayed him with an arm around his waist, her leg across his.

“Tell me the rest, Aidan.”

They both knew that there was more to the story—only, he wasn’t sure he was up to sharing it. Given the raw state of his emotions after making love to Penelope for the past two hours, he was loath to let anything taint the sweet love that seemed to encircle them.

But no matter how hard he wished, he couldn’t hold at bay the darkness that lurked outside the room.

“Fourteen months ago my brother discovered that my son was his son. Fourteen months ago he killed Kathleen and framed me for the murder.”

His words were sharp and clear and caused Penelope to react and gasp in a way that made even him shudder.

The conflicting emotions that had ceaselessly roiled in his stomach until he’d opened himself up to Penelope bubbled to the surface again. So much hate. So much tragedy.

“DNA tests were run. My attorney, my best friend, called to tell me the police were coming to arrest me. So I got out of the house as soon as I could. I’ve been on the run ever since.”

He realized Penelope held on to his hand as if her life depended on it. As if, if she let go, he might disappear again.

“I moved from town to town. Never staying in one place for more than a week. Never knowing when Davin or the authorities might catch up with me. Never knowing if there was even a reason for me to be running at all. When I came home and found Kathleen…” He flexed his jaw so tightly his teeth ached. “She was my life. There really was no reason for me to go on.”

“But you did,” Penelope said softly.

“Yes. I did.” He stared at the shifting shadows on the ceiling as a car pulled into the parking lot outside. “Because beneath my self-loathing and grief was a single-minded desire to make Davin pay for what he’d done.”

She shivered again and he looked at her.

“No, not in the way you think. I don’t want to exact any personal revenge on him. I want to see him in prison for the rest of his life.” He fell silent for a long while, then said, “I searched for him at first. But there was no trace. No land deeds. Not even IRS records showing he’d worked anywhere. Nothing. The best I can figure is that he’s working under an alias…like me.”

“But he found you.”

“Yes, he found me. And his robbing the gas station and General Store is probably a pretty good indication of how he’s funded himself all this time.”

“While you went to work to support yourself.”

He nodded. “In the beginning I did dishes, bussed tables, even tended bar. All for cash. Until I came here and filled in the temporary position at St. Joe’s. I gave them a false social security number and was called on it two months ago. I told the principal that it had to be some sort of clerical error and that I’d look into straightening the matter out. There was no cause for him not to believe me. I’d already become a part of the community.”

The sheets rustled as she curled closer to his side. “Was it the picture of you in the paper that led Davin here?”

Her warmth seemed to seep through his skin and reach for his bones. “That’s my guess. He knew I’d done some teaching. And he’s as good with a computer as I am. Maybe even better. So as soon as the piece was listed on the Internet along with the picture, he probably had it in his hands.”

She gestured toward the computers on the desk. “Is that what you do? Search for information on him?”

He nodded. “Yes. It didn’t occur to me until yesterday to do a search on myself.”

Her smooth shoulder was within kissing distance. He pressed his lips against her smooth flesh and closed his eyes.

“So you think he’s followed you here to what… Finish the job?”

His eyes remained closed as he rubbed his nose against her silken skin. “That’s my best guess. He robbed the gas station hoping that Old Man Smythe’s word would be enough to pull me in. When it wasn’t, he hit the General Store, which clearly has a security camera, so the sheriff would have to arrest me then. And when he did…”

She made a soft strangled sound. “And when he did, sooner or later he’d link you to the previous crime. The murder of your wife.”

Aidan didn’t say anything. Didn’t have to. There it was. All laid out in eye-popping Technicolor.

He shifted her until she lay on her side away from him, then spooned against her back, squeezing her against him. Such a simple action with such a heart-pounding effect.

The phone on the bedside table rang.

Aidan’s throat tightened.

Penelope moved. “Maybe someone’s complaining about Max?” she asked, but with little conviction.

“Maybe.” He swung his legs over the side of his bed and reached for his jeans, letting the extension ring four times before snatching it up.

“Hello?”

“Oh, thank God you’re there!” Mrs. O’Malley’s voice rushed over the line. “Do you know where Penelope is? Mavis has been attacked….”

Yet again Penelope rode through the night in the passenger seat of a car staring at the town as if it were no longer familiar to her. Where before it had seemed strange, now it loomed ghostly, too many shadows for someone to hide in—too many shadows, period.

She shivered, and Aidan reached out his hand to take hers. “Are you all right?”

She nodded. “It’s not me I’m worried about.”

Aidan tightly gripped her hand. “I want you to take your grandmother and leave town. Now. Tonight.”

She shuddered again, the night seeming very cold even though the temperatures were in the balmy seventies.

“Promise me, Penelope,” he said sternly.

“Okay,” she whispered. “I promise.”

They drove the rest of the way across town to the bed-and-breakfast in silence, the streets deserted, the lights casting an unnatural glow against the building fronts, changing the color of the red brick to dark brown. Aidan finally pulled to a stop a block away from Mrs. O’Malley’s house.

“You’re not coming with me?” she asked, panicking.

“No. I can’t.”

He tried to take his hand from hers but she grasped it more tightly. “Where will you go?”

“Back to the motel. I…I just don’t think it’s a good idea to involve anyone any further in what’s happening. There’s no telling what Davin’s capable of. The farther away I stay from you all, the safer you’ll be.”

“You weren’t around Mavis and she was hurt.”

“That’s why I want you both to leave.”

“And Mrs. O’Malley?”

He looked as if she’d physically assaulted him. “Try to take her with you.”

Oh, God. “Oh, Aidan,” she said vehemently, flying across the seat and enveloping him in her arms. “You don’t have to do this alone.” She kissed his neck. “We can all leave town together.”

“And then what? Pray we don’t get a speeding ticket?” He shook his head. “No, Penelope. This is where this is going to end.”

She urgently searched his eyes. “Then, we’ll go to the sheriff. Before he links you with your real identity. Explain everything. He’ll believe us. He’ll help.”

Aidan’s gaze was steady on her. “Will he, Penelope?”

She didn’t know. Everything was all so confusing. The complicated past swirling to muddy the complicated present.

“No one else has. Why would he?”

She hated that he made sense. Hated that she was torn between needing to see to her grandmother and needing to help him. Hated that when he drove off, she might never see him again.

“Penelope,” he said.

A sob welled up from her throat.

“Penelope, look at me,” he said more firmly. He caught her face in his strong hands and forced her eyes parallel to his. “I want you to know something—”

She quickly put her hand over his mouth. “No! Don’t say anything now. Tell me later.” She slowly removed her hand, half afraid he might say it anyway. “Don’t you dare act like this is the last time we’ll see each other, do you hear me, Aidan Kendall?”

He caught her up in a fierce hug, and her tears fell freely down her face, scalding her cheeks, searing her chest.

He set her away from him. “Go,” he said, his gaze turned away from hers.

“Aidan.”

He reached across her and opened the door. “I said go, damn it. Before either of us says something we’ll regret.”

As if in slow motion, she slid over and got out of the car. She opened up the back to take Max and Spot out, and had barely closed the door when the tires of the car screamed against the asphalt in Aidan’s hurry to disappear into the night.

She stood there staring after him until he was gone from sight. Then she reached into her purse for a handful of tissues and mopped at the mess of her face.

Max whined and laid his head against her upper thigh. Spot rubbed against her opposite leg.

And Penelope had never felt more alone.

Five minutes later she rounded the corner to Mrs. O’Malley’s street and climbed the steps. The door immediately swung inward. “Oh, thank God you’re here!” Edith said, rushing out to take her arm. “I didn’t know what to do. Mavis just showed up at my door, barely able to keep herself upright, almost incoherent and saying that someone had broken into the house and knocked her lights out.”

Penelope tried to take in Edith’s words. Edith took her curious gaze as something else entirely.

“Your grandmother’s words, not mine.”

Penelope didn’t understand.

“Never mind. Come in, come in. I put her upstairs in one of the guest rooms. She refused to go to the hospital. Said that a good night’s sleep was the best prescription for whatever ailed you. But I was afraid she had a concussion and the sheriff agreed, and…”

Mrs. O’Malley’s words ran one into the next, but Penelope’s mind arrested when she stepped into the foyer to find Sheriff Cole Parker standing there, his hat in his hands, his expression flat.

“Where’s Aidan, Penelope?” he said, cutting Edith off. “Or should I say, Allen Dekker?”