Digging Deeper (41 page)
Authors: Barbara Elsborg
“Bit spicy.” She panted.
“It’s not supposed to be. What did you do to it?”
“I thought I’d add—”
“Flick, throw the dressing away and follow the recipe.”
“Maybe I could add sugar.”
“Fine and then we’ll throw it away.”
It didn’t go unnoticed by Flick that she had produced one item while the others, including Kirsten who had spent much of the time cleaning, had covered the work surfaces with bowls of interesting-looking food. Beck had salmon steaks marinating, chicken cooking and
hors d’oeuvres
sitting on a tray, ready to be heated. A bowl of tiger shrimp waited in the fridge and he’d made a tomato and horseradish dip and a fresh fruit salad. Flick was in awe.
At ten to twelve Josh and Kirsten went off to have lunch with her parents and Flick bolted upstairs to get changed.
Beck cleaned the kitchen and loaded the dishwasher. There was a lovely view out of the window. The garden seemed endless because it looked out onto open fields and down toward the reservoir. He could live here. He needed to persuade Flick to take the place off the market. From his home in York Beck had a view of a concrete yard. He’d tried to brighten it up with a few potted plants but this vista made him realize what he’d been missing. He turned as Flick walked into the room, his breath caught in his throat and he knew what else he’d been missing.
“Come here,” he said and held out his arms.
She wore a dark blue sundress that looked suspiciously restrained, and when she moved into his arms Beck realized it had no back. His fingers slipped down her bare skin.
“Thanks for doing all this,” she said.
“Thank me properly later. They’ve just arrived.”
———
“Why is the house on the market?” Stef demanded as she strode into the hall.
“It’s too big for me. I doubt you’ll ever come back and Kirsten and Josh will be getting their own place soon.” Flick was trying to get Stef to introduce her to Drew and his parents but Stef ignored her eye signals.
“You should have asked me. It’s half my house.”
Beck squeezed Flick’s hand and she bit back the response on her lips.
Drew’s parents, Nancy and Donald Westinghouse, were kind and friendly. They’d bought chilled champagne and Flick wondered if Stef would announce her “great news” before they drank but she didn’t. Drew clearly worshipped the ground Stef walked on and Flick was glad to see that Stef was kind to him.
Flick was on her best behavior. She didn’t say much. She listened. Nancy and Donald had more money than they knew what to do with. They had homes all over the place. They took cruises and went skiing and loved Europe. Drew would work for his father’s company once he’d finished at Cambridge. Flick uttered a silent prayer Stef didn’t mess this up.
When they’d finished eating, Stef tapped on her glass with a spoon and smiled as everyone stopped talking.
Please don’t be pregnant
, Flick pleaded and wondered if that was the thought burning in the minds of Nancy and Donald.
“I’m really glad you’ve had the chance to meet Flick. I wish you had the chance to get to know how great she is. After our Mum and Dad died, it was Flick who held everything together. She’s gone without things so that I could have them. Whenever I asked for money, she always gave it me. She’s done brain-numbing jobs just so that I could avoid having a student loan. She’s looked after my hamster even though she’s scared to death of her and I don’t think I’ve often said thanks.”
Actually Stef hadn’t said any of that.
“We wanted to tell all of you our news at the same time,” Stef began. “Drew’s asked me to marry him and I said yes.”
Thank you, God.
There was a lot of kissing and hugging.
“Congratulations,” Flick told her sister.
“Is that it? No lecture on finishing my degree, getting a job?”
“So long as you take the hamster, whatever you do is fine,” Flick said.
“We’re going to live in America.”
“Lovely. I’ll get a passport.”
When Flick went into the kitchen to make coffee, Stef pounced. “I thought you and he weren’t together?”
“Did you?”
“By the way, you owe me an Armani sweater. I found the one you’d shrunk. It was my favorite.”
Of course it was. “Did you bring any of my clothes back?” Flick asked.
“No.”
“Then we’re more than even, Stef.”
Flick breathed a sigh of relief when they left. She relaxed against Beck as they waved goodbye. Stef would join Drew’s family for the rest of their whistle-stop tour of England. They still had to do London and Wales. They’d given themselves four days. Flick doubted she’d see Stef before the end of September.
Beck closed the door.
“At last.” He groaned and pulled Flick into his arms. “I thought they’d never go. I can’t believe how much I want you.”
“Want me where?”
“Anywhere. Everywhere. The stairs look pretty good right now.”
“You’re incorrigible.”
“And you’re beautiful.”
She looked at him.
He took a deep breath. “I should have told you that before. I should have told you the first time I saw you, when you were dancing with that sheep. I should have pulled you into my arms and made you dance with me.”
He moved his hands up her legs under her dress and suddenly stopped. “You’re not wearing underwear,” he said in a hoarse voice.
“Couldn’t find any clean pants,” she whispered.
“Thank God I didn’t know that before.”
“You don’t have to know everything about me.”
Beck unfastened her dress. It dropped away to leave her naked except for her shoes.
“Yes, I do,” he said. “And I should warn you that in my line of work, processing and analyzing what I find, takes longer than the initial discovery.”
By the time they reached Flick’s bed, Beck was naked too. Between the pair of them they spent several hours discovering, processing and analyzing. Only exhaustion caused them to stop. It was quite a while before they talked in complete sentences.
“I could live here with you. Share the mortgage and commute,” he said.
“No.”
“Am I moving too quickly?”
“It’s not that. You’d have to use the A59. Go past where my parents died. I’d worry every time you drove on it.”
“So do you want to come and live with me?” Beck offered.
“Do you have a mansion with a swimming pool and a helicopter pad?”
“No, a little house but I’ll buy a paddling pool, particularly if you like skinny dipping. The yard isn’t overlooked.”
“I still need persuading.” Flick smiled and Beck began to kiss her neck.
“The whole place needs repainting and I think you’re the woman to do it.”
“Do you share your house with any pets?”
“My Doberman, Satan, and my two boa constrictors, Squeeze and Throttle.”
Flick laughed and Beck caught her smile with his mouth. She felt herself dissolving in his arms. He dropped his head to her breast and she groaned.
“So what do you say?” Beck asked. “Only I don’t think I can live without you.”
“You’re a dangerous man.” Flick sighed. “I’m not sure I’d be safe with you. Your students have told me about this book you’re writing. You appear to have a rather warped mind, Professor Beckett.”
“In what way?”
“Full of murder, torture and grisly secrets. Is there room for me?”
“Since you frequently make me mad enough to commit murder and I’d actually like to tie you up right now and do grisly things to your body, I think the answer is yes. There’s plenty of room for you.”
“I might be up for a bit of bondage.”
“How tight can I tie you?” Beck growled.
“No, I meant I’m going to tie you.”
He laughed and then the smile died. “Flick, I…I love you,” he whispered.
She started to speak and he put his finger on her lips.
“Let me talk. I didn’t recognize what I felt. I didn’t think it could happen so quickly. I can’t believe I’ve found you. I’ve spent all my life digging holes, looking through broken and discarded things, hoping to come across something exceptional, a special treasure and all that time what I was really looking for, was you. I could never find anything more special.”
“I love you,” she said. “I loved you from the moment you saved me from that manic sheep and if you promise to send Satan to the pound and the snakes to the zoo, I’d love to live with you, love to love you.”
Beck ran his fingers over her lips. “I was kidding about the pets.”
“Good.”
“You are exactly what I’ve been looking for all these years.”
“Someone whose name begins with X?”
He groaned. “That was Giles. I don’t care what your name is. I only care about you. I want you in my life.”
Flick smiled.
“I’ll never find anything more precious or more important,” he said in a quiet voice.
Flick basked in the comment for a moment.
“I take it that will be true unless you discover the skull of the missing link,” she pointed out.
“Goes without saying.” Beck ducked as Flick threw the pillow.
She didn’t miss.
Barbara Elsborg lives in West Yorkshire in the north of England. She always wanted to be a spy, but having confessed to everyone without them even resorting to torture, she decided it was not for her. Vulcanology scorched her feet. A morbid fear of sharks put paid to marine biology. So instead, she spent several years successfully selling cyanide.
After dragging up two rotten, ungrateful children and frustrating her sexy, devoted, wonderful husband (who can now stop twisting her arm), she finally has time to conduct an affair with an electrifying plugged-in male—her laptop.
Her books feature quirky heroines and bad boys, and she hopes they are as much fun to read as they are to write.
Barbara welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her
author bio page
at
www.cerridwenpress.com
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Barbara Elsborg
If you’re in the mood for something spicier (and are over 18), check out Barbara’s erotic romances at Ellora’s Cave Publishing (
www.ellorascave.com
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Cerridwen, the Celtic goddess of wisdom, was the muse who brought inspiration to storytellers and those in the creative arts. Cerridwen Press encompasses the best and most innovative stories in all genres of today’s fiction. Visit our site and discover the newest titles by talented authors who still get inspired—much like the ancient storytellers did,
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