Winter's Heat (10 page)

Winter closed her eyes tightly as his words seeped in. She knew she had to get a grip if she was going to pull through this and pushing Eric away was not gonna help matters.

Right then and there she made a conscience choice to replace every moment of terror she’d spent at Randy’s hands with her absolute and unshakeable love for Eric.

Sighing, she found herself easily accepting the sure strength of his body against her own again. And when his arms instinctively closed fully around her, she felt the pull exhaustion move through her as she finally let go of all the negative emotions of tonight’s trauma.

Sensing the change in her, Eric turned to unlock the door and guided her inside the familiar surroundings of his home. His goal was to just get her inside and make her as comfortable as possible.

While he typed in the code of the security system, Winter stood looking around the familiar entryway she hadn’t seen in two weeks. As her eyes were caught by the hallway mirror, the sight of her own reflection in the dimly lit foyer shocked her.

At first she didn’t even recognize the reflection of her slightly swollen tear streaked face. It was like watching another version of herself as she reached up and touched her face to connect with what she was seeing. The sight made tonight’s episode all too real along with the aches and pains she’d gained while she’d fought with Randy. She quickly turned away not wanting to give it anymore thought and walked in the direction of the dining room.

Soon after walking into the room, she knew something was up. She slowly made her way around the elegantly set up table staring intently at the detail display before her.

The beautifully carved table she had cleaned countless times was set up with a beautiful floral arrangement of vividly colored flowers whose delicate scent gently teased and soothed her. Slowly reaching out to touch the soft petals of the perfect blooms, her eyes fell on the delicate crystal wine glasses set for two with unlit candles strategically placed beside them.

Tears filled her eyes as she figured out what the romantic setting meant.

She was seeing Eric’s plans that had fallen through. Wiping the tears now tracking down her cheeks, she ran her hand over cream colored table cloth.

Oh Eric.

She wished so much in that moment that she would have come here straight from the airport. The ending to this night would have been so different if she had.

Except for one thing…Cheri. Would Cheri’s fate have been any different? Her heart hurt at the thought. There was no way she would ever know. That question would haunt her for some time to come.

Eric came up behind her and soothingly rubbed a hand on the tense muscles of her back in comfort. He could feel the tension and sense the shift in her thoughts as they both stood looking at the elegantly set table before them.

“
It’s gonna be okay, sweetheart.” He said trying to put her at ease.

“
I want to believe that so badly right now…”She said trying to find the words to express all the jumbled up emotions she was feeling.

“
Don’t do that to yourself. The most important thing is that you’re safe now.” He said trying to not let her follow the destructive train of thought.

“
I know.” She sighed running her hand over her brow.

“
I just need to get—
oh hell.
I didn’t bring any clothes with me…” Winter was once again reminded of the pressing need for a hot shower, plenty of soap and possibly some gasoline to burn the clothes she still wore. It had felt so good to get out of that apartment that she hadn’t thought to grab any extra clothes.

“
Don’t worry sweetheart, I’ll take care of it. Go make yourself comfortable and I’ll see you in a little bit.” He said walking with her to the foot of the stairs.

“
Thank you baby.” Placing a heartfelt kiss on his cheek, she turned and made her way up the stairs.

A few minutes later upstairs in the bathroom, Winter finally leaned back against the warm tiles of the shower stall as hot water rained down all over her. She had never appreciated the soothing healing touch of water more than this moment. The last thirty minutes of standing under spray and washing every part of her body countless times had been a big help and went a long way in making her feel normal again.

Knowing she couldn’t stay in there all night, she regretfully turned the still hot water off. Once that was done, she stepped out into the spacious shower and grabbed for a towel off the rack. Running the towel over her long mass of black corkscrew curls, she brushed her fingertips over the faint bruises she saw appearing on her upper arms. She shivered again with the realization of how close she had come to her life being changed as she knew it. She’d been so sure she could handle the situation with Randy because he hadn’t appeared to that strong or threatening.

If Eric hadn’t
…. Winter immediately shook off the thought.

Moving to the sink, she noticed a black robe neatly folded on the cool surface of the counter. Picking it up she shook it out and held the soft lightweight material up against her bare skin. It was Eric’s. Glancing at the closed bathroom door, she wondered when Eric had come in to sit it there on the counter. Had he seen her through glass of the shower? The thought made her warm all over as she instantly remembered the first time they’d made love.

Moving to slide the dark material over her naked curves, she wondered what she was going to do for clothes in the mean time. She couldn’t stay here without a stitch of clothes to her name and she immediately shot down the idea of going back to the apartment to get some.

Maybe she could buy something at one of the local discount stores in the meantime. But that thought was shot down as
a
quick mental picture showed her purse where she’d left it…on her dresser also back at the apartment.

It looked like she would have no other choice but to go back there sooner than she wanted to.

On that note, she opened the bathroom door and walked out into the now darkened bedroom. Approaching the bed, she turned on the bedside lamp and was surprised to see her purse sitting on the neatly made bed as if waiting on her to come and claim it.

She couldn’t help but smile at Eric’s thoughtfulness as she sat down to search her purse for her cell phone. Trust Eric to think ten steps ahead. It was one of the many things she admired about him.

Hearing a knock on the bedroom door, she called out, “Come in.”

Eric walked in to see Winter sitting in the middle of bed pulling items out of her purse. His eyes immediately ran over the damp curls framing her cleanly scrubbed face and tracked down to the over sized robe he’d brought in earlier as it fell off the smooth satiny brown skin of one of her shoulders. He remembered going into the bathroom earlier to lay the robe on the counter and had come face to face with a rerun of his fantasy come to life. It made him remember the first time they’d made love and he’d had to make himself turn and walk away from the temptation of her water slick curves.

Things were so different between now and then.

Tracking every moment of her elegant hands, he tried to keep his focus off of what he knew to be underneath the silky material molded to her lush body. Instead, he tried to focus on the situation at hand. He’d just finished talking to Det. Jefferies while he was downstairs and the latest news on locating Randy was not promising.

“
What are you looking for sweetheart?” He moved to stand beside the bed and continued to watch her dump the contents of her purse on the bedspread in obvious frustration.

“
I thought I put my phone in my purse, but I guess I left it back at the apartment too.” When she didn’t see it anywhere in the small pile she’d dumped out, she quickly checked the side pockets of the purse in a last ditch effort.

“
You can just use one of my phones, but first I need to talk to you about something.” The mattress dipped as he lowered his large frame onto the edge of the mattress in front of her.

“
Something like what?” The caution she heard in his voice snagged her full attention and had her putting aside her purse as she gave him her full attention.

“
Det. Jefferies called a few minutes ago and he gave me a quick update. They’re trying to track Randy through Cheri’s ATM card. It seems he used it about a half an hour ago.” He reached out to take her hand in comfort as he saw fear cross her face. He hated to be the one to take away the little bit of peace that she’d found.

“
What does that mean? Do you think he’ll come after me?” No matter how hard she tried, Winter could feel fear trying to creep its way back in.

Eric heard the slight tremor in her voice and decided right then and there not to tell her about what else he’d found out about Randy Ellis. She already had firsthand knowledge that the man was dangerous and that was enough. Instead he pulled her in his arms to call an end to the panic he saw building.

“
The police have some of their best people on this and it’s only a matter of time before he’s caught.” He assured her leaving out what else he himself had done.

“
I just can’t believe this is all happening. It’s like a bad episode of some cop show and I wish I could just change the channel.” She said putting her arms tightly around him and burrowing into his warmth.

“
I’m not gonna let anything happen to you, okay?” He said kissing her brow.

“
Okay.” Her quiet affirmation humbled him.

He was so use to his clients automatically putting their confidence in him to get the job done that he realized that lately he’d begun to take it for granted. But now Winter was the one he was protecting and it meant a great deal to him to have her so readily place her trust in him.

With that in mind, he tried to will the molten fire of arousal coursing through his body to cool down at the feel of her soft weight of her breasts pressing against his chest.

He wanted to be near her to comfort her, but he knew he was in jeopardy of losing his grip on control when he felt her fingers lightly stroking the small of his back through the cotton material of his shirt. Helplessly he was once again reminded that the only thing separating him from the touch of her smooth skin was the flimsy material of robe he’d given her earlier.

Closing he eyes, he willed his body to relax and not give into the desire she was unknowing stirring up within him. He knew she was in no condition to even go there right now.

****

Winter just wanted to stay exactly where she was at the moment: safely within Eric’s arms. She’d had enough of the outside world for the day and all she wanted was to curl up and sleep leaving all her problems behind.

She’d never seen herself as a victim and now she hated the fact that the role had been forced upon her. But thanks to Eric, she was slowly but surely taking some of her power back.

The strength and heat coming from him had her relaxing fully into him as her eyes grew heavy with exhaustion. She told herself that there would be plenty of time to worry about what she was going to do tomorrow. But right now she just wanted the simple pleasure of knowing that Eric would be there to protect her from harm.

Before long, Eric was carefully tucking Winter’s sleep relaxed body under the cool weight of a sheet. For a moment, he stood there checking to make sure she was fully asleep and then forced himself to leave the room.

Closing the door quietly behind him, he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes as he allowed himself to wonder into the dangerous territory of imagining what it would have been like if the night had gone differently.

Right about now they would have been just finishing up the gourmet dinner he had so carefully planned for her. During which, he had planned on telling her how much he loved her and sliding his ring on her pretty little finger and asking her to become his wife.

Afterwards, he’d wanted to finish up the evening by making love to her until they both fell into sweet exhaustion. Now because of the attack, none of that was going to happen.

At least not yet. He had never been one to accept defeat easily.

Shrugging his big shoulders, he pushed off the wall and walked the rest of the way to a guest bedroom two doors down. He resigned himself to the reality of tonight and mentally prepared himself for tomorrow.

He made mental note to make sure he cleared his schedule until things were back to normal. Protecting Winter and catching Randy were the only things he could focus on right now. With that settled, he called it a night himself.

****

A few hours later, Winter awoke with a racing heart to a dark room and strange sounds. Gripping the covers, her eyes ran wildly around the dark shadows of the room dreading what they might find. Taking a shaky, but calming breath, she sat up and swung her legs onto the floor to stand facing the bedroom window.

Just as she was about to investigate what was going on, something smashed into the glass hard making it vibrate from the impact.

Gasping, she scrambled across the bed and quickly ran out of the room. Her feet were way ahead of her as she slammed into hallway yelling Eric’s name. Spying an open bedroom door, she ran to it and pushed the door closed behind her. Looking quickly around, she heard the running water of the shower and took off in the direction of the brightly lit bathroom.