Evidence of Trust (27 page)

Her hands clenched, tugged his hair, tried to pull him up. He moved in the opposite direction of her urging.

“Joel…I want…” Her body ached, throbbed. “I…need…you—”

“I know.” He continued his downward path, lips once again skimming her stomach until he reached the waistband of her pajama bottoms. After sliding the soft material down the length of her smooth legs, he eased back up, his fingers trailing along the inside of her thighs to delve in the curls between her legs.

He rose up to kiss her breathless as his hand drove her to the height of pleasure. She couldn’t take anymore, and in the next second begged him not to stop. The orgasm hit harder than she’d ever experienced, leaving her limp in the radiant aftermath.

“God, that was gorgeous,” she heard him whisper against her neck.

Embarrassment surged at her absolute abandon, until he lifted his head. The look in his eyes confirmed he’d loved it, and she decided she didn’t care. Not with him. And now it was her turn to drive him wild.

One push rolled him onto his back, and she dragged his arms up above his head. “Leave them there.”

As his fingers curled into the pillow, she scooted down to undo the button of his jeans. She took her time with the zipper, drawing the little metal tab down in a slow, deliberate caress. His stomach muscles contracted as he sucked in a breath, then released it with a low groan.

She grinned, enjoying the rush of power as she stripped the rest of his clothes off.

Talk about gorgeous
.

The man was all muscle. Her gaze dipped below his waist.
Hard
muscle, and she intended to explore every beautiful inch with her hands and her mouth.

She lifted her gaze to his. “Close your eyes.”

After a moment of hesitation, he complied.

“Don’t move.”

A furrow formed on his forehead. His fingers kept their tight grip on the pillow. “Okay.”

He was so used to being the one in control…this was going to be fun.

She rose up and started with a long, deep kiss on the lips. At the base of his neck, she paused to inhale his scent. Combined with the vanilla-scented body wash in the shower was his unique musky scent she would never get enough of.

“Mmm.” She let the sound vibrate against his skin and felt his pulse respond beneath her lips.

Moving on, she explored the hard planes and angles of his chest with her hands, then followed with little kisses, licks and nibbles. She hadn’t told him to be quiet, and each guttural moan she wrung from him brought a smile. His stomach muscles clenched tight beneath her lips and his whole body jerked as her hand closed around his steel-velvet length.

No more than her breath caressed the tip, and he startled her with a flurry of movement that landed her on her back with him poised over her.

“Hey,” she protested.

“You’ve got me ready to frickin’ explode, woman.”

“Sorry.”

“No you’re not.”

She was becoming a grinning fool. “You’re right, I’m not.”

He dropped his head to her chest in mock despair, but then became distracted by her breasts. His mouth closed over the tip of one while his hand massaged the other. Just like that, he was back in command.

This time when she reached the point of begging, he rolled on a condom and she opened for his possession. The feeling of him sliding inside her was so intense, her chest swelled with emotions she couldn’t voice.

She opened her eyes to find him watching her. The heat in his eyes nearly stopped her heart beating. Could he—

He bent his head to capture her lips in a slow, bone-melting kiss and slid his tongue against hers in time with each thrust of his hips. As tension built again, she moved with him and hung on for the wild ride. He dragged his mouth from hers, his ragged breath hot in her ear.

Sweat slicked their skin by the time they catapulted over the edge together.

As they caught their breath, his body pressed hers into the mattress, but she held him tight to her chest, relishing the feel of his solid weight.

Right then, in his arms, she had no thoughts past that moment, their coming together and the complete and utter peace he’d given her.

* * *

She woke to the unfamiliar sensation of being naked beneath the sheets. Delicious memory rushed back, and she rolled her head to the side, squinting her eyes against the bright sunlight to see if Joel was awake.

Her clothes were draped across the pillow where his head should’ve been. The faint aroma of coffee registered on her senses—not freshly brewed, but as if it’d been made by someone who’d slipped out of bed hours ago. A slight lift of her head confirmed Joel fully dressed and back at work amidst the files spread across the table.

She dropped back to the pillow, eyes squeezed shut against the sudden crush of disappointment that constricted her chest.

What had she expected? That he’d cuddle beside her? Wait for her to wake up so they could start the morning in each other’s arms?

That maybe, just maybe, he loved her, too?

Of course not. What she’d imagined in his eyes last night was nothing more than a fantasy her love-sick heart had cooked up to fool her head. She knew he was a bachelor. He’d warned her from the start he’d take whatever she gave, and when the time came, he’d move on to his next job.

And isn’t that exactly what
you
decided last night? You’d take what you could and damn the consequences?

True. But in the light of day, it was much harder to damn those consequences, especially when so much was riding on them. She’d lost her heart and now realized she did want to wake up in his arms. Every morning. And not just for a week or a month from now, but ten, twenty, even fifty years down the road.

You knew the score. Deal with it. And don’t make him feel bad for it.

She drew in a deep breath and let it back out as reality settled without sympathy. The one night was over, and it was tomorrow. Joel was already hard at work while she lay in bed. Time to deal with so much more than her aching heart.

She levered herself up on her elbows and forces a smile when Joel glanced up. “Good morning. What time is it?”

“Almost ten.”

Her eyes widened at the unexpected time and she immediately reached for her clothes. “Oh my God, why didn’t you wake me up?”

“Because you needed the sleep.”

She dragged on her top and then scooted to the edge of the mattress to pull on her bottoms. “I’ve got to get to the ranch.”

“The stable’s closed, Brittany. I already talked to Mark this morning.”

“I can still help with clean up. And I want to see Paelo and Gypsy.”

He pushed his chair back and walked toward her as she stood by the bed. He must’ve showered again. His hair was damp, and he’d shaved, too. He looked too damn good for her peace of mind and her racing pulse, yet she couldn’t help but meet his gaze.

It was cautious, guarded, yet she read a question in those brown depths she wasn’t prepared to answer.

“Casey trailered both horses to his dad’s place in Allenspark,” he told her. “They’ll be safe there until this is over.”

“I take it if you let Casey take the horses, you don’t think it’s him?”

“He’s on the list because sometimes it helps to see the whole picture.”

She nodded. When she started to move past him, he lightly caught her arm and finally gave voice to the question in his eyes. “You okay this morning?”

No. I may never be okay again
. “Yep, I’m fine.”

“I’m not talking about your head or shoulder, Brittany.”

“I know. And really, everything’s great.” She pasted on a bright smile. “No regrets.”

His gaze narrowed as his jaw clenched. Clearly, he didn’t believe her. Well, she couldn’t help that right now. The musky scent of sex lingered on her skin and she had to get away before she begged him to take her back to bed.

“I really need to use the bathroom.”

The moment he released her, she hurried to shut the door between them. God help her, she was going to have to pull it together before she went back out there.

A half-hour later, she felt much more in control as she faced Joel across the table to argue her case. “I want to go to the ranch.”

He shook his head. “I’ve got work to get done.”

“Exactly. But you aren’t going to catch this guy sitting here.” His jaw tightened at that statement and she pressed forward. “I’ll be surrounded by people all day at the ranch. It can’t get much safer than that.”

“Except we don’t know who it is yet.”

“You just said you trust Casey.”

“I do.”

“Then if he’s there all day with me, I’ll be fine. You can do whatever you need to do—meet with Aaron, go the station—and then pick me up later. I’ll be with someone the whole time.”

Resignation filled his expression. “I suppose you’re right.”

“I am, so let’s go.”

During the drive through Estes Park and up along Highway 7, Britt avoided conversation by pulling out her camera and scrolling through the pictures. Just before they reached Highlands, she came across the ones she’d taken of Joel as he stretched out the kinks from being bent over the crime scene up near Lawn Lake for so long.

The exhaustion on his face attested to how hard he’d been working to solve the case. She wanted to reach out and soothe the lines from his forehead.

Realizing she was staring at a picture of him while he sat two feet away from her in the driver’s seat, she flipped to the next one. Her stomach rebelled at the image of the bloody, mutilated elk, so she moved her thumb to the
delete
button.

Permanently delete this picture?

She hesitated as Joel turned into the ranch resort driveway. “I have some pictures from up at Lawn Lake on my camera. They’re of the scene while you, Randy and Dennis were all working. You want them? Otherwise, I’m going to delete them.”

He slowed for a family of five crossing the lane to one of the guest cabins. “I’ve already got all my pictures, but I can still take a look at them. I’ll get them off your card and give it back to you tonight.”

“Thanks.” She ejected the card and placed it in his outstretched palm.

She was still fiddling with the camera as he braked to a halt near the stables. Her first glance through the windshield brought a hand up to cover her whispered, “
Oh my God
.”

When she realized Joel had come around to open her door, she slowly got out of the truck. Yesterday at the hospital, Mitch had told her the barn was a total loss, but she hadn’t tried to imagine what it would look like.

Joel placed a hand on her shoulder as she stared beyond the ribbon of yellow crime-scene tape in disbelief. “You okay?”

She didn’t reply. Everything was black, except for a couple spots near the middle where thin, wispy tendrils floated lazily into the air. That lingering scent of smoke and the reek of smoldering hay brought back the nightmare of last night. She covered her nose and mouth as she stared at the ruins.

The entire right side had collapsed into a heap of blackened debris. On the left, the row of stalls was still discernible in the iron framework that had withstood the flames. Charred pieces of wood clung to the iron, and in other places, boards that had snapped under the collapse of the roof above stuck up from the pile in stark relief against the trees and blue sky.

Mark walked over to join them from the main corral. He gave her a quick hug and then stepped back. “I didn’t expect to see you here today. Shouldn’t you be resting?”

His gaze shifted to the stitches on her forehead. Her hair in a ponytail to keep it out of the way unfortunately made the multi-colored purple and green bruise that much more visible.

“I’m rested out,” she stated. “And if I’m not here, I’m sitting somewhere doing absolutely nothing. My head is fine, my shoulder is fine, and after everything that’s happened, I really want to help.”

He checked with Joel via a cocked eyebrow. Luckily, Joel did nothing more than shrug, and she suppressed her spurt of annoyance because she knew Mark was just concerned about her.

“Okay, then, you can work with Casey,” he conceded. “He’ll be back from his dad’s place soon. Joel told you about him keeping the horses, right? We thought that’d be the safest place for them right now.”

“That’s good. Thank you.”

“You guys are going to be here all day?” Joel asked. “I figured I’d be back about five.”

“I’ve got a meeting at four-thirty, but Casey will be here.”

He nodded, yet didn’t appear completely reassured.

“I will be fine,” Brittany insisted, despite her own reluctance to separate from him. “There are plenty of people around.”

“We won’t leave her alone,” Mark promised.

“Good.” His gaze transferred to hers. “I’ll see you later then. Be careful.”

Warmth deepened the golden flecks in his eyes. His voice held a note of intimacy that increased her pulse and squeezed her chest with emotion.

“I will.”

Joel hesitated one more moment before reaching out to brush his fingers against her arm. Sizzling awareness skimmed across her skin even after he lowered his hand and started for his truck. She fisted her hands to keep from reaching out for him as she watched him leave.