Take Me Under (2 page)

1

Present day

W
EARING NOTHING BUT A TOWEL, THE COCONUT-SCENTED BODY LOTION
that she’d bought for the beach, and some splashy red polish on her toes, Reese Monroe walked into her new kitchen and took a split-second glance at the tall, muscular male standing with his back to her at the counter. Then she screamed bloody murder, terrified that the crazy-assed stalker she’d been hoping to ditch had followed her from Boston to Moss Beach. At the sound of her bloodcurdling scream, the dark-haired man instantly dropped the things in his arms, spun around, and held up his hands in a way that was obviously meant to put her at ease. But it wasn’t helping. Now that she could see his face, Reese was horrified to realize he wasn’t a stranger or stalker at all. Oh, God . . . she actually knew this guy!

She also knew this was one intruder who would never physically hurt her or intentionally try to frighten her. Still, her scream got louder, and he winced from the ear-piercing shriek.

Ben Hudson wasn’t only the local sheriff in the popular beach town—he was also her brother-in-law’s cousin and a friend of the family. And he was a great guy. The kind who danced with little blue-haired grannies at weddings and played touch football with all the kids at family get-togethers. Hard, tough, and probably a little mean when dealing with criminals, but the kind of man who would
never
harm a woman. He was also, hands down, the most gorgeous male Reese had ever laid eyes on. There wasn’t even a close second.

So she was no longer screaming from fear. Now she was screaming from pure, overwhelming embarrassment. When she’d pictured running into Ben now that they were both living in Moss Beach, it sure as hell hadn’t been looking like this, wrapped in a threadbare towel with her hair hanging in wet ropes around her freshly scrubbed face. She looked like a drowned rat and he looked . . . damn it, even better than the last time she’d seen him, which had been nearly six months ago. His brown, sun-streaked hair was a bit longer on top, as if he hadn’t had it cut in a while, and there was a glint in his green eyes that hadn’t been there when she’d run into him at Gary and Connie’s Christmas party. A sharp sense of anticipation, as if he was looking forward to something he wanted. A lot.

Knowing Ben, he probably had a hot date that night. Thanks to her brother-in-law, Gary, Reese was plenty aware of Ben’s wild reputation with women.

But what was he doing
here
, in her new home? She shook her head in confusion, wracking her brain for an answer, but her tired mind couldn’t come up with a single explanation that made any sense.

Before she could manage to stop screaming long enough to ask him, Reese caught his heavy-lidded gaze slipping down her barely covered body, and embarrassment got the better of her. Without a single word, she turned, fleeing toward her bedroom in the back of the small, cozy beach house she’d only just moved into earlier that day. Slamming the door behind her, she pressed her hands to the cool wood, panting from shock and a dizzying spike of adrenaline. God, what a ridiculous wuss she was! Yes, she had never found it easy to be around guys like Ben, preferring mellow betas who didn’t make her pulse race with nerves—but that didn’t mean she had to go running from him like a ninny. Damn it, at twenty-eight she should have more poise than that. More self-possession. At least enough to ask him to sit down and wait while she put on some clothes.

Maybe it was just the stress of the divorce and the move and the long drive from Boston to Florida taking its toll—not to mention the freak who had been screwing with her life the past few months. She knew she should probably cut herself some slack, but it was galling to think about how she’d just reacted. Reese had wanted to start over in a new place where she could rebuild her sense of security and confidence. Instead, she was hiding out in her room while the mouthwatering Ben Hudson was standing in her kitchen. Why he was there, she didn’t know. She hadn’t even gotten a good look at what he’d dropped on the kitchen counter. But she was never going to find out what he was up to until she went back out there and talked to him.

Taking a deep breath, she started to push away from the door when a soft knock sounded on the other side, making her jump. “Hey, you okay in there?” he asked, the husky timbre of his deep voice all but melting her on the spot. The slight Southern twang only cranked the sexy to a dangerous level. Really, the guy should come with a freaking warning or something.

Reese nodded in response to his question, realized he couldn’t see her, and managed a breathless, “Yeah . . . I’m okay.”

“I’m sorry I scared you, Reese. I didn’t expect you to be here. I saw your mom yesterday, when the movers were delivering your stuff, and she said you wouldn’t be making it to town until this evening.”

And so he’d taken it upon himself to spend what was probably his lunch hour breaking into her new home to hang out in her kitchen? This was like some kind of bizarre dream. And since when did Ben chat with her mother?

Wait a minute . . . He’d talked to her mother?
Well, crap
.

A horrible suspicion settled in her gut and her face burned. If her mother had put him up to this—whatever
this
was—Reese had little doubt she’d find herself headed for hell. A daughter who strangled her mother, even when it was deserved, was sure to burn for all eternity. Given the murderous rage pouring through her system, she’d probably end up so crispy she crackled.

“Reese?”

“I’m all right, Ben. I just . . . I need to get dressed,” she forced from a dry throat, hoping he’d get the hint and go away.

“Okay.” The low rumble easily filtered through the door. “I’ll be in the kitchen. We can talk when you’re ready.”

She winced, thinking she would rather face off against her ex again than make friendly conversation with this man. Not that she didn’t like Ben. He just flustered the hell out of her. She had no trouble talking to his too-cute-for-his-own-good younger brother, Michael, but when it came to Ben . . .
Whew
. It was crazy and embarrassing, but the few times she’d been around him in the past, she’d felt like a blushing virgin every time he looked at her. It was something in his eyes, or maybe the shape of his mouth. Something primitive and overwhelmingly sexual that made her breasts ache and her sex clench. Then there was that slow, deep drawl that stroked the surface of her skin, teasing everything womanly in her into a hot, frothing mass of nerves and need.

Her ex, Drew, had never managed to make her feel that way, even in the early stages of their relationship, when she’d thought they were crazy about each other. And by the end, Drew had merely treated her like a prop to wear on his arm to maintain a good public image, saving his sexual appetite for women he’d said—after she’d discovered him cheating—were not only more satisfying than Reese, but a hell of a lot more fun.

It’d been a huge blow to her ego. One she was still trying to pick up the pieces from, so that she could put herself back together again. Whenever she thought of the years she’d wasted with Drew Leighton, it made her want to scream . . . and curse . . . and take a baseball bat to his precious BMW. Better to focus on the fact that she’d finally broken away from the miserable jerk, ready to start living on her own terms.

And a woman living on her own terms doesn’t hide in her own home. Even one on the run from a sicko stalker. So get a freaking backbone!

Right. So Ben Hudson made her nervous. So what? She’d deal with it, and find out exactly what he was doing in
her
house.

Tossing the towel aside, Reese maneuvered her way through the stacks of moving boxes, and grabbed a clean pair of panties and jeans from the duffle bag she’d thrown on the foot of her mattress. She shimmied her legs into the denim, then grabbed a bra and her favorite black tank top. Ripping a brush through her damp hair, she took the time to slick on a little lip-gloss, then forced herself to go back out there. If she spent too much time getting ready, he’d think she was primping for him, and she was already embarrassed enough. No sense in piling more mortification on her shoulders.

When she came back into the kitchen, Reese found the hunky sheriff placing a carton of milk in the small refrigerator nestled in the far corner of the room. A quick glance at the dark granite countertop showed the plastic bags she’d missed before, and she realized he was putting away groceries. What on earth?

“I figured you’d be beat from the drive,” he offered in response to her unspoken question, placing another carton of milk in the refrigerator door, “so I stopped by the store and grabbed you a few things.”

“Did my mother put you up to this?” She crossed her arms over her chest, the defensive stance matching her tone.

Closing the refrigerator door, Ben turned to look at her. His green eyes narrowed the tiniest bit as he matched her stance, crossing his muscular arms over a wide chest covered in a black polo shirt that sported the local sheriff’s department logo on the upper left side. He leaned back against the counter, focusing on her with an unsettling intensity. One that went all the way down to her bones, making her shiver. She went hot and cold all at once, waiting for him to speak.

“Put me up to what?” he finally asked, the corner of his mouth twitching, almost as if he was fighting back a smile.

“Did she, um . . .” Crap. Reese suddenly realized how stupid she’d sound if she accused this man of letting her mother fix them up. He’d no doubt find the idea laughable. If she’d given herself a second to think about it, she’d have realized that he’d probably only brought her the groceries because he thought of her as something like a little sister. Someone he needed to look out for and help get back on her feet.

There was no way he could know about her stalker problem, because she’d intentionally kept the information from her family. Only a handful of people in Boston and the local police department who’d done the investigation were aware of what she’d been going through. But she had also recently been through a nasty divorce, and she knew Ben had probably heard plenty of gossip about
that
particular bit of news. Did he think the divorce had left her reeling and broken?

Aside from having a wicked reputation with women, Reese knew Ben had a thing about taking care of people who needed help. She was just going to have to make it clear to him that she
wasn’t
one of those people. The idea of him pitying her, or thinking she was a wreck because of Drew, made her cringe.

With a deep breath, she decided to get the conversation back on track. “Look, I appreciate the groceries, Ben, and I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but how did you get in? I locked the front door before I jumped in the shower.” And she’d checked it twice, just to be sure.

“I used the master key.” He gave an easy shrug. “I would have knocked, but like I said before, I didn’t think you were here yet.”

Her brow scrunched with confusion. “You have a master key to my house?” Weird. Was that some local sheriff thing? He got to carry that wicked-looking gun holstered under his arm, handcuffs,
and
a set of keys to all the local houses? And how rude would she sound if she demanded he hand over the key that unlocked
her
door?

Dragging her gaze away from his chest, where it seemed to have gotten stuck, she found him studying her expression, his dark brows drawn together in a frown. “Uh, yeah. Look, Reese, didn’t your mother tell you?”

She could sense from his tone that something bad was coming, and a knot formed in the pit of her stomach. “Tell me what?”

“I’m the landlord your mom signed the lease with. I own this place, as well as the one next door. That’s where I live now. Bought both beach houses last year, after winning the election.”

She blinked, certain she must have misheard him. “My mother rented this place for me . . . from
you
?”

“Yeah. That isn’t going to be a problem, is it?”

“No,” she lied, her calm tone belying the fact that she was definitely going to commit a deadly sin. Not even her undying love for the woman who had brought her into this world was going to keep her from wringing the lady’s neck.

What in God’s name had her mother been thinking? Reese had trusted her to find a pretty, peaceful place she could rent in the idyllic little beach town, while she still had her hands full in Boston, handling her scum-sucking ex and all that other nasty crap that had been crashing down on her. Just a few hours ago, sweet, beautiful, newly remarried Mom had been waiting on the doorstep of the picturesque beach house to greet a tired, travel-weary Reese when she arrived at her new home.

She’d thought the smile on her mom’s face had been because she was happy to see her middle daughter out from under an unhealthy marriage and getting on with her life. Thought she’d been thrilled to have her living in the same town, close at hand. But no. Now she knew the truth. That happy twinkle in her mom’s big blue eyes had been devious anticipation. All that’d been missing was the diaper and arrow, and the woman would have had the whole Cupid vibe down to a freaking T!