Fevered Hearts (12 page)

“What happens when you can walk and take care of Ivy in every way again? I’m on the outside.”

“Maybe not.”

“What does that mean?”

“I think Ivy might want more from you.”

Ward’s features shivered. “I won’t be a stand-in husband forever. I’ll want more eventually.”

“I know that. I expect it.”

“And you’ll let me walk away when it’s time, having healed your wounds with Ivy.”

“I hope you don’t walk away, Ward.”

He stared at him for a long minute. “Do you want me to have feelings for your wife?”

“I think you already do.”

Ward sighed and scrubbed his face again. When had he last slept? He looked awful. “All right, fair enough. I’m too tired to figure all of that out right now. But I want to talk to you about letting Ivy know about the threat against her.”

Liam was shaking his head before the words were out. “No.”

“Why not? She has a right to know.”

Liam tossed a glance at the kitchen, afraid she was overhearing their conversation. She passed by the doorway, carrying a stack of plates to the table.

“We’ll tell her after we’ve handled it. I want to get this under control first.”

“Keeping her in the dark isn’t the right answer.”

“I don’t want her to be afraid of going to the grocery store or dropping mail in the box,” Liam said tightly. Ward was right. She was an intelligent woman who needed to know the dangers they were all facing.

“I don’t want that either. But God, Liam, you must see—”

“I see. I’ll talk to her.”

“Dinner’s ready,” Ivy sang from the doorway. The golden light behind her silhouetted her curvy figure and gleamed on the crown of her head.

“Be right there, baby,” Liam said with a smile he didn’t feel reach his eyes.

She playfully wiggled her hips and spun back to the kitchen.

Ward and Liam locked gazes.

“We don’t say anything tonight. If it’s a burden to take her to work, I’ll ask my dad—”

Ward threw himself to his feet. “Christ, is that what you think this is about?” He practically yelled and Ivy came back to the doorway.

They could say no more. Liam pushed off toward the kitchen. The year-long frustration to get out of this chair lodged in the pit of his stomach. He had to get up, and soon. Take care of his wife. Take care of the business.

Get control of that sexy fucking man who got under his skin like a splinter in the wild—one he couldn’t get out. Determination filled Liam. Tomorrow at therapy, he was going to do it—demand to use the parallel bars to walk.

Chapter Eight

Ivy met Liam at the door. She was so fresh and pretty, looking so much like she had before his accident that his heart flexed. She moved aside to allow him entrance and closed the door behind him.

Her gaze dropped to his lap and the small bouquet of the daisies she loved that lay across his legs.

With a small smile, he held them out to her. As she buried her nose in the petals, pink infused her cheeks. All of a sudden he felt the change in their relationship. Some of the strain had fallen away—at last.

He wheeled close and tugged her down. Why hadn’t he held her this way several times a day for the past year? He was an idiot, but no more.

She looped an arm around his neck and pressed her lips to his. The kiss they shared was sweet and filled with promise, as was the look in her eyes when she pulled back.

“They’re beautiful. What’s the occasion?”

“Do I need a reason to bring my wife flowers?”

“You rarely did before…”

He hooked his finger under her jaw and lifted her head to meet his gaze. “This is a new chapter in our marriage, Ivy. I promise to do things better this time around.”

She made a quiet noise in her throat. Her eyes brightened with unshed tears.

He dipped his head to see her better. “Are those happy tears?”

“Yes.” She sniffed.

“Then I’ve been making the right choices again? For us?”

“Yes, Liam. You agreeing to therapy was a huge step that made me so happy. Even if it doesn’t improve your situation entirely, at least you’ll know. And you already have better control of your hands.”

“That I do.” He skimmed a forefinger over her delicate jaw to where her heart beat frantically in her throat. “I love that you’re proud of me again. And that we’re on the right track with our marriage.”

She captured his hand before he slipped it into her cleavage. “What about having Ward with us? Does it hurt you at all? Do you regret asking him into our bedroom?”

He shook his head. “Absolutely not. Seeing you pleasured—and him too—is a gift. What about you? Are you feeling safe in our relationship with Ward around? You don’t feel I’m giving you away, do you?”

“Not at all. The two of you make me feel…” She wiggled as if made restless by their talk.

Liam cupped her breasts and rubbed his thumbs back and forth over her nipples. They hardened at his touch.

This time she stopped him with her words. “There’s something bothering me, though.”

He stared at her. “What’s that? You know you can tell me anything.”

She dropped her gaze to her twisting fingers. “The activists. What else can they do to us?”

He wound his arms around her, yanking her closer. “We’ll keep everyone safe, baby.”

Would she believe him? She’d put her trust in him for much longer than he deserved. He prayed the advances he was making in taking his life back translated to being capable in her eyes again. Even from a wheelchair, he could shoot if it came to that.

“The activists are out of hand. I appreciate their passion for saving the forests but they aren’t totally educated on the good we do either,” she said.

“I know. Nobody will change their minds either. But Ward and I are on top of things now. It will be over in a little while and then we’ll only have one thing to concentrate on.”

She withdrew to meet his gaze. “What’s that?”

“You.”

She kissed him, deeply enough to rouse an ache inside. “I want you, Liam. But there’s something else worrying me.”

“Tell me.”

“Ward’s father’s funeral. He shouldn’t go alone. Would you mind if I go with him for support?”

“Ward!”

He swung to see Ivy jogging up the sidewalk of Juls’ house, that luxurious hair swirling around her shoulders. “What are you doing here?”

She moved close enough to grab and kiss. But he felt too hollow to reach out right now, as if a stiff wind would crumble him. He couldn’t lose it in front of her.

Taking his hand, she looked into his eyes. “I’ll go with you to the funeral. I wanted you to know that you aren’t alone.”

Stunned, he blinked. “You don’t need to. I need to be with Juls anyway.”

She worried her lower lip. “If you don’t want me to, that’s fine. But Liam agreed I should come with you. He’ll be there with his father and some of the workers.”

Ward’s chest burned with emotion. Having her there would maybe help him keep it together, but for some reason he needed to close this chapter of his life by himself. He squeezed her hand, aware of how small she was compared to him.

“You come with Liam and his father, okay? I promise to let you soothe me later.”

A small smile played around her lips. “If you’re sure.”

“I am. Now get on back to Liam. I have to take care of a few last-minute things.”

She stroked the back of his knuckles with her thumb. “If you need me…”

“I know you’re there. That means more to me than you can ever know, Ivy.”

Ward jammed his finger into the doorbell. A James Bond theme sounded beyond the front door. Before Juls could answer, he used his key to enter the house.

When he walked in, she stormed into the entryway, a towel wrapped around her frame and one piled on her head.

“What are you doing ringing the bell, you ass?” Her dark eyes snapped.

“Apparently pissing you off. I just wanted to see if you’d changed the song recently.”

“If you’d come home, you’d know.” With that, she whirled on her heel and took off up the stairs again.

Today their father would be buried. Ward had come home to get cleaned up, change into his one good suit and be there for his sister.

She tossed a look over her shoulder. “Been at the Mattsons’? I’d ask Ivy, but she’s been missing the knitting group meetings.” Her surly tone struck Ward wrong. His fatigue and stress shot to the surface along with instant anger.

He closed the distance, snagged her shoulder and wheeled her around to face him on the landing. The towel on her head toppled off and her dark hair snaked across her shoulders in wet tendrils. “As a matter of fact, Juls, yes. I’m staying there. Helping Liam. Helping Ivy. Because I care about them.”

“And what else? I heard a rumor yesterday that you were seen hugging Ivy in front of the courthouse.”

Hell. The bailiff or someone had seen them and was now spreading rumors. He’d shelter Ivy as long as he could, but how long before the truth did get out and hurt Ivy?

His phone buzzed against his thigh. He dug it from his jeans in time for it to stop. But a quick press of a button revealed who the caller had been—the mysterious caller who’d warned him to get to his office.

“Fuck. Not today,” he ground out. Of all times to screw with the timber companies, his father’s funeral was far from optimal. All the crews and most of the county would be attending, which meant the offices and the jobsites would all be left vulnerable for attack. He’d spoken with Jacobs and discovered he didn’t know anything about the threats. But the man was willing to look out for suspicious vehicles around the worksites. Whoever had destroyed the equipment wouldn’t be against doing something on property that didn’t belong to Mattson or Bose.

Add that to the list of things gone wrong. Death threats, a business in jeopardy, affair with my best friend’s wife, desperate love for said best friend, father to bury and pissed-off sister.

At the moment, Ward couldn’t conjure the memories of a happy time. Fleetingly, he’d known the warmth of love while lying between Liam and Ivy in their big bed, but even that had thorns.

He couldn’t make love to Liam.

Once dressed and beside Juls, who looked slender and pale in a black dress, Ward cast his worries away for the chance to say goodbye to his father. The day was a blur—church service, hands shaken, rings of lipstick on his cheek, scalding coffee, refusing plates of casserole brought by the kind neighbors. At the end of the day, he only remembered the look Ivy had given him and the embrace from Liam.

Maybe that was everything he needed, after all.

The brilliant late spring sun sliced through the windshield of the vehicle she’d borrowed from her father-in-law. She really needed Liam or Ward to reconnect her car battery. She knew one of them had done it, and their reasons were sound. If activists were going far enough to destroy Mattson Hardwoods property, they could take things further. But right now, both Liam and Ward had a lot of weight on their shoulders. She didn’t want to add to it by asking for a car repair.

She had a lot to consider too. Tears filled her eyes and she blamed them on the light. But that wasn’t it, not really.

Rumors of Ivy and Ward were all over the courthouse, her name whispered in every break room corner, in every women’s restroom.

And Tony had done it. He was the only person who’d seen her with him.

Well, at least today Tony hadn’t come on to her. Instead, he’d sat rigidly at her side, anger rolling off him in waves. He didn’t need to voice that he was pissed off because she didn’t want him and had turned to another man.

She knew by the black shadows in his eyes.

Unable to sit through more court proceedings next to the man, she’d begged off with the excuse of an upset stomach. It wasn’t even a lie. No, not really.

Her life was not really a lot of things right now, and one of them had to do with knowing where she stood with her lover.

She couldn’t get Ward out of her head today. Every muscled inch of his body lingered in her memory. She clamped her fingers into fists around the steering wheel.

I need him.

Where would he be at this time of day? Liam was in the office—he’d know.

When she came to a stop sign, she shot off a quick text to her husband.

He’s in the field. Up on the ridge.

Her heart seized.

In the field, Liam had said.

In danger, her heart shouted. Something tragic might happen to Ward, as it had to Liam.

Ivy lay on the gas and the SUV peeled out. Thank God that her father-in-law had dropped off the vehicle for her to borrow. Her chest burned with terror. The last time a man she’d cared about had been in the woods, he’d come back broken. Liam might not have died that day, but he’d been dead inside for a long time. He was only just now traveling the long, twisted road back to her.

The vehicle crested the first hill leading to the ridge, and the sun was there, blinding her even with her sunglasses. She let off the gas until she was able to see.

Obstacles. Everything was standing in her way, including the sun. Branches fell out of the sky, bailiffs fucked with her mind and livelihood. Now the sun was a glaring barrier, keeping her from getting to Ward faster.

The massive trunks of trees lined the roads, reminding her how deadly the woods could be to a logger. To a man. To her man.

“No.” The quiet cry burst from her. She tore off her sunglasses.

Where was he on the ridge? The long back of the mountain stretched for miles. Long miles that would separate her from Ward.

Liam had been hurt up there a year ago.

No, no, no!

At every dirt logging road branching off the main muddy path, she paused to stare. Equipment and trucks parked nearby would point to Ward’s location. She could text Liam for particulars, but maybe he didn’t want to hear that she was going up there to find Ward. Maybe that was going too far in Liam’s book.

Her husband had set up these strange rules. The trouble was that they were hardly spoken. Where were the lines drawn? She could allow Ward to share her body but not her heart? She’d never asked Liam what happened if she fell for Ward heart and soul, but he’d sent Ward to her for comfort after his father’s funeral. Surely he would accept her having feelings for the man.

Tremors claimed her. She stiffened her jaw to keep her teeth from chattering. Too well she recalled the drive to the hospital after Liam’s accident, when her teeth and jaw had hurt from being smacked together.

Through a break in the trees, she spotted it. Ward’s dilapidated pickup was parked on the side of the road, tilting downward at an angle toward the ditch. Relief surged through her veins, making her feel weak and wrung-out.

Breathing heavily, she stopped behind the truck. The big boot prints belonged to Ward, sunk deep into the thick mud of the ditch. For a moment, she thought he must have broken down at long last, but a second later, she heard the rustle of brush and a saw gearing up.

Frantic fear leapt in her soul. His was the only truck around. Was he alone? Logging alone?

She shoved off her heels and the short hose she wore under her pants and dropped them on the passenger’s seat. Then tearing barefoot out into the mud, she started screaming.

Not just screaming, but shrieking.

For a moment, she wondered who that could be, why that woman sounded so petrified. But then she felt the spittle forming on her lips and knew the sounds were coming from her.

“Ward! Ward!”

The saw continued to drone, wood cracking as the tree came loose.

Another saw was fired up somewhere to her right. Maybe he wasn’t alone, after all?

“Warrrrrrrd!” Her long scream fell into the idle time between the two saws.

One saw shut off.

“Ivy!” He came barreling out of the trees, leaping over logs and downed brush. A fierce expression blazed on his rugged features.

“Ward!” This time her cry was muted, a whisper dying on the breeze and her lips as she realized he was all right. Her knees sagged.

“Oh my God. Ivy, hold on to that tree. You’re swaying!” He launched himself at an alarming pace through the last ten feet of trees. He vaulted over the ditch and his boots thudded beside her.

He snagged her before she fell over.

Stars burst behind her vision. She dragged a deep breath through her lungs and they seared in response. Had she been holding her breath between shouts? Her mind revolved, but she anchored herself to the scents of pine and man.

Ward plucked her off her feet into his arms. “Jesus, sweetheart, what is it? Is it Liam?”

Confusion and guilt warred in her fogged mind, but she finally found that guilt won. Ward thought she was bringing bad news.