Distinguished Service & Every Move You Make (Uniformly Hot!) (29 page)

“Whoa there, bud. You don’t want to fall on me.”

And he did fall, straight to his knees.

Zach climbed out of the hole and advanced on the man, pulling him to his feet by the front of his shirt. He jerked him closer so he wouldn’t have to speak in more than a whisper. “Touch my girl again and you’ll regret the day you were born.”

* * *

A
HALF
HOUR
LATER
Mariah sat brushing the last of the dirt off the oblong metal container that looked like a regular run-of-the-mill toolbox.

The instant Zach and her father had turned the tables on Gawlick and his hired muscle, everything had changed. Instead of her and Hughie being tied up, the other guys were. She eyed where the sun was beginning to edge around her truck to where they sat. Gawlick moved his legs as if he’d been burned by the sunlight slanting against his legs.

“Well, don’t just sit there,” Hughie said from behind her. “Open the damn thing.”

She did. With a swift flick of her hand, she released the two rusty latches and popped open the lid. Beside her, Zach went still and she could hear her father drawing a deep breath behind her.

Sitting at the bottom of the box was a handful of pictures and a small velvet bag. Mariah reached for the pictures. Zach picked up the bag.

“This must be Ellie,” she whispered, very gently handling the sepia shots of a woman in various poses. There were maybe ten of them all told, none larger than the palm of her hand. But it was the last one that captured her attention. While Ellie had been pretty in all the pictures, in this one she stood smiling up at a man. Jock? She turned the photo over to find the back blank, no indication of who the man was. She stared at the couple again. It had to be Jock. The way Ellie was looking at him, it couldn’t be anyone else.

Zach emptied the contents of the small velvet bag into his open hand. But it wasn’t the items Mariah was so much interested in as the man himself. Was the way Ellie had looked at Jock the way she looked at Zach? Oh, sure, she had pictures of herself. The odd shot over the years at school graduations and birthday parties. A few of her with her former boyfriends. But in none of them had she looked particularly happy. She appeared more interested in figuring out a way to either duck the camera or break it altogether.

She carefully put the photos back into the box.

“What’s in the bag?” Hughie asked, supporting his weight with his hands on his knees as he peered over Zach’s shoulder.

“Wedding rings.”

Mariah gazed at the two perfect pieces of gold shining in his palm and reached out a shaky hand to touch them. They seemed a richer shade of gold than she’d ever seen. Thick and unpolished and the most beautiful things she’d ever seen. She picked up the larger of the two bands. Inscribed inside was “Ellie-7-2-1899.” She tilted the other where it still rested in Zach’s hand. It read “Jock,” with the same date.

She rocked back on her heels, staring out at the vast land surrounding them.

“Jock’s Treasure,” Zach murmured.

Jock’s Treasure hadn’t been bars of gold, or bags of diamonds, or deeds to land. Jock’s true treasure had been Ellie.

* * *

“W
HAT
ARE
YOU
DOING
?” Mariah whispered.

It was near dusk, usually her favorite time of the day, when the sky turned into a living copy of the watercolors displayed in the window of the store next to the P.I. office. Tonight the sky was especially beautiful with smears of purple and orange tingeing the wispy clouds on the horizon.

She stood in the gravel driveway of the ranch house watching as Zach closed the bed of her truck. They’d returned there shortly after they’d retrieved Jock’s Treasure and the county sheriff had arrived on the scene to take over custody of Denton Gawlick and his hired help. The metal box was in the kitchen, her father looking for false bottoms and secret compartments, unconvinced that a story that had survived for so many years had yielded nothing but a couple of unused wedding bands and a handful of old photographs.

Zach slid his hands into his jeans pockets. “I thought you and I might go for a ride.”

Mariah raised her brows. “A ride? Haven’t we done enough traveling already today?”

She stepped toward the truck bed and he sidestepped her, preventing her from seeing what he’d been doing inside. “Nope.” He gestured toward the house with a nod of his head. “I figure I couldn’t wait until Hughie, um, went to bed.”

She frowned. “Hughie hasn’t been going to bed for at least the past couple of nights. Hughie has been sneaking out to meet Miss Winona.”

Zach’s brows rose high on his forehead. “How did you find out?”

“You mean you knew?”

“Yeah. I ran into him that first morning outside your room. I thought he was just getting up and that there was going to be hell to pay, but it turned out he was just getting in.”

Mariah silently considered him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I thought you said you knew.”

“Yeah. I figured it out. This morning.”

“Oh.” He took one hand out of his pocket and rubbed the back of his neck. “I promised I wouldn’t say anything to you, or to anyone else for that matter.”

“Don’t you think I had a right to know?”

“I think it was important that I honor my word.”

Honor his word. Mariah’s heart beat loudly in her chest.

“So what do you say? Are you up for a ride?”

Mariah swallowed thickly and faced the horizon. Any excuse to stay outside and watch the remainder of the sunset was a good one. That this was Zach’s last night in Hoffland, that she would be driving him to Hobby first thing in the morning…well, she refused to think about that for fear she might cry.

Her. Mariah Clayborn. Cry. But she wouldn’t just cry. The emotion dammed up in her chest felt suspiciously like a deluge just waiting to happen whenever she thought of Zach’s leaving. She had a feeling if she gave herself up to tears she’d end up bawling.

She blinked and looked over her shoulder toward the house.

“Hughie already knows about my plans.”

“Oh? Seems like you and Hughie are sharing an awful lot lately.”

Zach grinned. “Does that bother you?”

“No.” Yes.

But she wasn’t about to launch into all the reasons that made sense. Not right now. Not when her chariot in the shape of her rusty old pickup truck awaited. So what if it would turn back into old Nelly at midnight? That her prince would disappear without even leaving a glass shoe behind in the morning?

She frowned, wondering just where all these strange thoughts were coming from. She wasn’t the “and they lived happily ever after” type. She preferred action flicks over romantic comedies. And yes, while she admitted to tearing up during the occasional Hallmark commercial, well, that was between her and the TV.

Besides, she had but to remember her three exes and their quicksilver engagements to other women to know that she wasn’t the only one who didn’t look at her as Cinderella material. Obviously neither did men. She was little sister or friend material, not lover or wife.

She rolled her eyes to stare at the sky above her. God, was she really setting up all the makings of a pity party? Oh, poor Mariah Clayborn. She’ll never find herself a man to settle down with.

So what?

She was happy with her life. Happy with who she was. More importantly, she couldn’t change if she’d wanted to. Twenty-six years had gone into making the package that was her. And she was proud of every one of them.

She eyed Zach in a new light. He hadn’t moved from the position he’d been in when he’d blocked her passage. The light evening breeze brought his scent to her. Of fresh lime and one-hundred-percent pure Zach Letterman.

She smiled, wanting this last night more than anything. “Bring it on, cowboy.”

15

Z
ACH
PULLED
TO
A
STOP
only a couple of miles behind the ranch. He’d had to drive carefully since he’d covered this ground on the back of a horse the day before when he’d been out with Hughie. He’d spotted an area that was perfect for what he had in mind. A tall oak tree rose out from the ground on a small rise. Mariah looked at the scene now, and the waning sunset behind them, unusually quiet on the ride out, though she had sat smack-dab next to him, her side pressed to his, her arm entwined with his, her hand resting none too innocently on his jean-clad thigh.

He switched off the engine, silence wrapping them in an immediate intimacy.

Mariah cleared her throat. “I, um, hope you didn’t come all this way hoping to do something in the truck.”

He cocked a brow. “Oh?”

She twisted her lips. “Let’s just say that I’ve been there, and, well, it’s not fun.”

He opened the door. She attempted to free herself to climb out the other side, but he held on to her hand, hauling her out after him on the driver’s side instead. She gasped and he caught her up in his arms, then allowed her to slide slowly down the length of his body, letting her in on the fact that he was already partially aroused.

She smiled up at him. “You’re a sneaky devil.”

“And you’re beautiful.”

Mariah dropped her gaze and he forced her attention back up to him.

“You still don’t get it, do you?” he asked.

“Get, um, what?”

Zach considered telling her, but decided it would probably be better to show her. “Come on.”

“Zach, I…” She gasped again when he tugged her hand, dragging her after him. He stopped at the bed gate and opened it.

“I hope you’re not planning on doing anything in there, either,” she whispered.

“Picky tonight, aren’t we?”

She shrugged but refused to meet his gaze.

“Here.” He handed her a wicker basket that was a little on the heavy side. She had to think fast or risk dropping it. “I was thinking we could find a spot under the tree over there.”

He waited to see if she’d object to that, complain of dripping sap or something equally lame, but she didn’t. He inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, took out a thick wool blanket and a small cooler, then followed after her.

Silently she helped him stretch out the blanket then position the items they’d carried within arm’s length. He kicked off his shoes and sat down on the blanket. After a long pause, she followed suit.

Zach leaned back, supporting himself on his elbows as he took in the sunset. “Ah. I knew the view would be incredible from here.”

Mariah appeared to finally notice which way they were facing and her face brightened as she stretched out next to him. The sun was just sinking down over the horizon, leaving myriad colors in its wake. “Incredible.”

The instant she was captivated by nature’s display, Zach allowed himself to become captivated with her. “Mmm, it is.”

She slowly turned her head, his voice likely tipping her off to what he’d been referring to. “You’re a charmer.”

“And you don’t know how to take a compliment.”

“Maybe it’s because I haven’t gotten a whole lot of them.”

He gently tucked a stray strand of hair back from her face. “I don’t believe that.”

“You wouldn’t.”

He chuckled softly then turned his attention back to the sky.

Mariah was tenser than he’d ever seen her. He wanted more than anything to stretch out on top of her, to take advantage of every last minute they had together. But he sensed that she wasn’t ready yet. And even accepted that maybe she wouldn’t be tonight.

And he knew why. Like him, her mind was on tomorrow morning.

He absently rubbed his chin. He had yet to tell her that he’d already asked Hughie to drive him to the airport. After tonight…well, he didn’t think he’d be able to handle a long drive in the truck with her. Not and still get on the plane. And he had to get on that plane.

Of course, it would only be minimally better riding with Hughie. He’d come to care about the big guy; he’d never bonded with another man like that. In a way he’d never had a chance to bond with his own father. And Hughie hadn’t been nearly as successful at hiding his disappointment at Zach’s leaving as Mariah was.

“What in the hell do you mean, you’re leaving?” he said when Zach had quietly asked him to drive him to the airport. “I was just getting used to having you around the place. Thought you might like to stick around for a while. Like forever.”

Subtle Hughie was not. But that’s part of what made Hughie Hughie.

As for the forever part, that had taken him aback like few things he’d encountered in his life. Forever right now was a bunch of plans on a chalkboard. He’d mentally prepared himself for the changes necessary to adapting to life in Texas, but for a
fixed
period of time. He’d had no idea something would happen to him, more specifically
someone,
who would make him want to stay.

“You know,” he said to Mariah, who hadn’t budged an inch next to him. They weren’t touching physically, but he felt her presence as fully as if she were under his skin. “I’d really love to crawl inside your head right now and see what’s going on.”

Mariah kept her eyes focused on the horizon as the colors faded slowly to black, the bright quarter moon rising from the east not strong enough to light the sky yet. “It would be a pretty dull visit because there’s nothing going on,” she said.

“Bull. I can hear the click-click of your thoughts from here.”

“Oh?” That got her attention. She rolled onto her side and propped her head on her hand. “So tell me, Letterman, what am I thinking?”

She was reverting to calling him by his family name. Not a good sign. “You’re probably thinking about what happened today. About Gawlick. Jock and Ellie. Claude Ray might rate a second or two, as well.”

Mariah focused on the wool blanket. “I’m just thankful they found the wedding dress, undamaged and unsold at the downtown pawnshop.” She made a face. “I can’t believe it was sold for twenty-five bucks.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I hear it told that Jock’s Treasure was a complete bust.”

Finally, a smile from her. “Yeah, it was, wasn’t it?”

“Oh, I don’t know.”

Her gaze snapped to his face. “What do you mean? The only things in the box were the pictures and the rings.”

“Mmm-hmm. The thing is the box wasn’t all that was down there.”

She scrambled to sit up. “What are you talking about?”

Zach leaned forward and took something out of the wicker basket. Mariah blinked at it, saying nothing for a long moment. “A rock?”

“But is it just a rock?” Zach murmured, using every ounce of restraint he had to keep from tackling her to the blanket and kissing the skeptical expression from her face. He handed it to her. “Awfully light, don’t you think? For a rock of that size.”

Mariah frowned, weighing the rock in her hands. As he knew she would, she turned it over, immediately locating the piece he’d worked loose when he’d noticed the rock was a little on the light side. She took out the U.S. savings bonds dating back to the late 1800s, gasping as she shuffled through the thick pile.

“A veritable fortune,” he said when she blinked at him.

“You weren’t…I mean…”

“Planning to keep it? No. I just thought you’d like to see it before I hand it over to the authorities.”

She was quiet for a long moment. “Maybe some kind of memorial could be built with the money. You know, to commemorate Jock’s love for Ellie.”

Zach’s heart contracted so tightly it took his breath away.

Mariah
took his breath away.

He put the rock back in the basket, then leaned forward for a chaste kiss to her nose that turned out to be anything but chaste. Mainly because Mariah tilted her head, her lashes fluttering closed against her cheeks, her mouth budding open to accept the attention meant for her nose.

Zach groaned, his self-control flying out the window. He moved the rock out of the way and hauled her against his length. Well, there were no windows out here in the middle of the Texas plains, and that knowledge made his restraint flee, leaving him with a truckload of lust and one incredible woman capable of handling it.

Mariah sighed and melted against him, soft against his hard. This moment, when they first kissed, when the simple action was full of promise but no pressure, was one of the few times when Mariah shed her Texas cowgirl bravado, seemingly content to be just herself, not who she thought she should be, or who she thought she was.

Zach slipped a hand up to trap a tight-tipped breast in his palm, drinking in her soft moan as she pressed her pelvis more insistently against his growing arousal.

Things quickly escalated from there. Hands caressed and stroked and probed, limbs entwined, and breathing grew ragged. Damn, but she was the most incredible woman he’d ever met. She embodied everything that was appealing in the opposite sex without any of the props that usually detracted from that appeal. She was salt of the earth with eyes and hair the color of rich Texas soil, skin the color of golden sunshine and a smile that could make a blind man shield his eyes. But it was her heart, her zest for life, her tentativeness and her boldness, her confidence with a gun and skill with a horse, and her passionate responsiveness to him that absolutely took his breath away.

Zach could have continued kissing her for hours. Stroking her, touching her, feeling her. But she gently pulled back, her husky, quiet laugh filling his ears.

“Whoa,” she whispered.

With the sun’s rays no longer competing with the moon, the crescent burned bright in the big sky, bathing Mariah’s features in soft light.

Zach smiled at her, his hand caressing her bare arm just below the sleeve of her T-shirt. “Yes, I’d say that about covers it.”

She restlessly licked her lips then tangled her hand in the front of his shirt. “You know, I still have a beef with you.”

He examined her face, feature by feature. From her full, unpainted, irresistibly ripe lips, to her strong yet so delicately formed chin, then up to her dark, dark eyes fringed with lashes that needed no mascara. “What’s that?”

“Our deal.”

“Mmm,” he responded. “You mean the part where you wanted me to school you in sexiness.”

She nodded almost imperceptibly, her attention on where her hand was fisted in the front of his shirt.

He kissed first one side of her mouth, then the other. “Mariah, if you were any sexier, you’d be the death of me.”

Her deep brown eyes shifted until she was staring at him. “Then why are you leaving?”

Good God. Zach felt as if someone had poured mercury down his throat. It coated and pooled in his stomach, making him feel ill and hot at the same time.

They hadn’t discussed that particular topic, his leaving. He presumed it was because they both had known that he would, no matter how much he wished things were different.

He threaded his fingers through the hair above her ear and held tight, then rested his forehead against hers. Too close to see her, he closed his eyes, breathing deeply of her scent.

Damn it, this type of thing just didn’t happen. You didn’t meet someone one day, then want to abandon everything you’d worked for, planned for, the next. It didn’t make any sense. It was too reckless. Too untrustworthy. Too fast.

But he and Mariah, well, they didn’t have the luxury of time. He’d barely gotten any sleep the night before, thinking about everything. Thinking about her. Thinking about his feelings for her. He’d toyed with the idea of asking her to come back to Indiana with him. Or to consider making a go at a long-distance relationship. He could fly down to Houston every other weekend, and she could fly up to Indiana on alternating weeks.

But even that idea had seemed impossible to him.

He heard her deep swallow. “Never mind. Forget I said that,” she whispered.

He opened his eyes and pulled back just enough to see her close her eyes.

“God, I couldn’t sound more desperate, could I?” she moaned.

He smoothed her hair back with gentle passes of his hands, then held her face in his palms. “Oh, Mariah. You don’t have a clue, do you? You have no idea what you’ve done to me. What you’re still doing to me.”

Her eyes loomed full of hope and longing.

“Do you want to know why I haven’t taken the initiative to teach you how to be sexy? Because you’re already sexier than any ten women combined. Hell, Mar, I’m coming to think that your exes didn’t leave you because you weren’t enough for them. They left because you were too much.”

A frown marred her soft brow.

“I want you so much I hurt with it,” he whispered urgently, needing her to understand. “And at the same time a small voice is telling me that I don’t deserve you. The problem is, I don’t know if there is a man out there alive who deserves you. Hell, just thinking of you with someone else who might be more deserving ties my stomach into knots.”

She tried to wriggle from his grasp, but he refused her the freedom.

“In fact, I’ve been tied into knots ever since I first met you. You’re honest. Gentle.
Real.
” He dropped his hands to her shoulders and held her fast. “And you’re the sexiest damn woman I’ve ever met in my life.”

Her bottom lip began to tremble. Zach groaned and leaned forward to kiss her.

“And you don’t believe a single thing I’m saying, do you?”

She didn’t answer with words. Rather she put her arms around his neck and launched a sensual assault on him, filling his senses with everything that was wild, wonderful Mariah Clayborn.

Her tongue dove and darted and dueled as she restlessly moved her head from side to side, her breathing quickly growing ragged. Her hands fluttered against his chest, his stomach. Then she boldly grasped his erection, first through his jeans, then when that appeared not to be enough, she fumbled with his zipper, not giving in until the night air caressed his pulsing arousal along with her fingers.

Zach tugged on the hem of her T-shirt, forcing her to stop her attentions briefly while he pulled it over her head. Next came her bra and jeans and panties, leaving her gloriously bare under the loving rays of the moon.