Hidden Summit (16 page)

“Please,” she whispered against
his mouth.

“Not yet.” And then he entered
her slowly, so slowly. He held very still because when he was inside her
like this he wanted time to stop. This felt natural and right to him, to be
cocooned with the one woman in his life he loved with all his heart and
mind. Loved.

He dipped his head and gave her
nipple a lick, then a tug. And he moved, very slowly and deeply. And she
said exactly what he expected her to say. “More. Come on,
harder.”

He chuckled. “Not yet. I want
you to let it build. Slow and easy. Try to lie still and let me get you
there, from the inside, let it build.”

And she groaned. She couldn’t do
it. She tried moving her hips against him, but he wasn’t allowing it. He
held her still and took his time, pumping, kissing, sucking.

It wasn’t long before she began
to lose control and pant, squirm, dig her heels into the mattress and lift
against him, slam against him.

“Okay, baby,” he said. “I guess
it’s time....” He covered her mouth, accepted her tongue into his, grabbed
her hips, fixed the friction just right and pounded into her, fast and
rhythmic, hard and even, deep and perfect. And she rose, cried out against
his mouth, wrapped her legs around him to hold him and erupted into a liquid
heat that sent him out of his mind, clenching in the most delicious spasms.
He tried to wait her out, let her finish before he gave it up, but he could
only do so much, and he went off like a rocket, a beautiful
rocket.

“God,” he said. “God.
Les…”

She eventually collapsed beneath
him, panting. He buried his face in her neck and tried to even his
breathing, but it was as if he’d run a sprint.

She played with the hair at his
temples while she floated back to earth; he liked that part. When he could
finally lift his head, he looked into her hot, dark eyes and said, “Do you
have any idea how much I love you?”

She smiled at him and said, “I
think I do. About as much as I love you.”

He smoothed back her hair.
“We’re going to be all right, Les. We’ll just get through the next few weeks
and then we’ll get on with our lives. New lives for both of us.”

“Here?” she asked.

He gave a little shrug. “This is
as good a place as any. And if the time comes, we can take care of your
parents.” He grinned. “The fun couple.”

She was momentarily stunned into
silence. “You’d do that for me?” she asked in a whisper.

“I’d do anything for
you.”

Conner spent the
weekend. He went back to his cabin for a change of clothes, but had all day
Sunday with her. They went to a movie and brought home Thai food Sunday
night, watched the sky turn lavender again and went to bed together.
Early.

When Conner lay beside Leslie,
he found it difficult to sleep. She felt so good against him, and he didn’t
want to miss a second of it. Everything in his life had changed in the past
couple of months. Everything he
wanted
for his life had
changed.

Witnessing a brutal crime was a
helluva way to have an epiphany, but that’s probably where the changes
began. When it had first happened, his resentment for his circumstance had
been so enormous it had almost been suffocating. When his store had burned
down, when the threat had come, hatred had risen up in him, and he’d felt
like killing someone himself. When the D.A. had decided the most reasonable
and safe thing to do was separate him from his sister and nephews for at
least a few months, it had felt like a small death.

Slowly his perspective began to
change. It was so slight at first he’d barely noticed, and he certainly
hadn’t understood what was happening to him. He understood now. He’d been a
slave to his business; there hadn’t been room for much else. It hadn’t been
unusual for him to put in sixteen-hour days. When he had spent time with
Katie and the boys, he’d often done so during a work break. He’d leave work
to go to their preschool program or T-ball game or birthday party and then
go back to the store to clean up, to lock up. He would have dinner with them
and then go back to the store. He had rarely taken days off; he’d even built
the boys’ race car beds at the store in the stockroom and then delivered
them in one of his trucks. It had been all about filling up the days and
making things work.

When he’d lost the store, the
shock almost broke him. He’d had nowhere to go, nothing to do. When Katie
and the boys had moved away to their own hiding place, he hadn’t been sure
he’d ever sleep at night again. “Just a few months,” he’d told her. “Just to
be safe, and then we’ll get it all back the way it was.”

Now he realized he didn’t want
it the way it had been. He wanted to be able to give quality time to the
people he loved. He wanted to teach the boys to fish, to camp, if he could
even remember how himself. And while he’d always told himself he’d be okay
with the idea of not living within a couple of blocks of them, he hadn’t
really accepted it. Not really. Now he knew that would be okay. He also knew
that he’d make even more time for them under such circumstances. He would
visit; he would bring them to him.

He wasn’t going to work himself
to death anymore, either. Hard work was good, all work was destructive. He
wasn’t sure what he was going to do when this current mess was behind him,
but there were lots of options. He could be happy working on bathrooms and
kitchens for a long time to come. He could buy or build a hardware store in
the area, though it wouldn’t be the same kind. He could order parts,
fixtures and accessories for Paul, but there was no market around here for a
store full of high-end, custom items. But for other hardware from lumber to
nails—that might actually work.

He dozed off amid thoughts of a
life in which work was balanced with fun and relaxation. The sun was coming
up as he opened his eyes again, still in possession of the woman who had
helped change his perspective, whether she knew it or not. He pulled her
tighter against him, spooning her, and kissed her neck and
shoulder.

“It’s very early,” he whispered.
“I should sneak out of here and head for my cabin, then to work.”

“Hmm,” she hummed. Complaint was
clear in her murmur.

“You know I’d like to stay in
bed forever. And you know we can’t.”

“I know,” she said.

And then the phone rang. She
turned in his arms and gave him a startled look. Who would call her house so
early in the morning? She reached over him and grabbed the cordless on the
bedside table. She muttered a sleepy hello.

“Sorry to call so early, Leslie.
This is Brie. Is there any chance Conner is there?”

“Right here,” she said, passing
the phone to him. “It’s Brie.”

“Brie?” he said into the phone.
“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing wrong, Conner. Max
called just a few minutes ago and got us all out of bed. They’re going to
want you in Sacramento soon to prep you before the trial. You should be
there in a week at the outside. Get there by next Monday
morning.”

He sat up and rubbed a hand over
his goatee. “How long is that going to take?”

“A couple of days to prep, tops.
You’ll be put up in a hotel and you will have protection, so don’t worry
about that. I don’t know when they’ll put you on the stand—whenever it’s
most strategic, I imagine. What I’m saying is, I don’t know how long you’ll
be stuck in Sacramento. But you should be there in a week at the outside.
Which gives you a little less than a week to see your sister and get to
Sacramento.”

“I should go directly from my
sister’s to Sacramento?” he asked.

“That’s the best idea, I think.
Then you won’t raise any eyebrows in Virgin River. And another piece of
information you’ve probably been wondering about—your biker is safe. All
good. He works in a Harley dealership and there are a lot of group rides out
of that shop. He’s clean as a whistle.”

“Not a hit man, huh?”

“Doesn’t appear to be, no. Now,
can I suggest you pack and tell your boss you have a family emergency back
in Colorado?”

“And what am I going to say it
is?”

“Just tell him you’re not real
comfortable talking about it right now as you don’t have all the details,
but you’ll stay in touch and be back as soon as possible. If it seems safe
and appropriate, I could have a word with Paul.”

“Please, if you can,” he said.
“I want the job, if I can still have it after the trial. And do this for me,
Brie. Check on Leslie.”

“Certainly. Tell her if she
needs anything at all, call me.”

“I already have.”

“Then say your goodbyes and get
going. It’ll soon be over, Conner.”

Of course Conner had
known that he’d be headed to Katie’s home soon, but not quite this soon.
He’d already purchased a ticket for a departure a week from now, but he’d
wisely chosen a refundable one that, for a fee, could be changed to a
different flight, just in the event something like this came up.

Thank God it was only five in
the morning. That gave him a little time.

He put the phone back on the
bedside table and rolled over, pressing Leslie down into the bed. “In a
couple of hours I’m going to drive to the job site to tell Dan I have to
leave town. Then I’m going to drive out to the office to tell Paul. Then I’m
going back to the cabin to check flights and pack up. I’ll call you when I
get to Katie’s.”

“And now?”

“Now, I want to love you one
more time before I go.”

“Please, don’t act like it could
be the last time. I don’t want to be afraid.”

His eyes bored into hers. “It’s
not,
Les.
It’s
not
—don’t even think that way. It’s just an inconvenient piece of business
that has to be handled. That’s all it is.”

She ran her fingers through the
short hair at his temples. “Serious business,” she whispered.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Just
kiss me.” And with that, he devoured her with one of his possessive
kisses.

An hour and a half later, his
hair still damp from his shower, he was standing at her front door, with
Leslie pressed tightly against him. “I’ll talk to you later. Tonight, if I
don’t have any problems getting flights changed and make it to the East
Coast. But if you don’t hear from me tonight, don’t worry—I’ll call first
thing in the morning.”

“I hope you find out your sister
is in a good place,” she said.

“I’m sure you’re perfectly safe,
Les, but don’t take anything for granted. Lock your doors and pay attention
to what’s going on around you.” He put a kiss on her nose. “I love
you.”

“I love you more,” she said,
letting him go very reluctantly. “Come back to me soon.”

There were things
Conner had not thought to ask Brie, like when, if ever, they could share the
truth of this situation with close, trusted friends. When Conner told Dan
there was an emergency back home in Colorado, true to his character, Dan
said, “Oh, man! Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I just have to get home right
away. Sorry to leave you without any help here.”

“Don’t worry about that, buddy.
I’ll snag some crew off another project and pull ’em over here. Won’t be as
talented as you, but family comes first.”

“Sorry for the
inconvenience.”

“Don’t say another word. You
have my home number, right? Because if things get hairy or you need help,
call me first. I’ll do whatever I can.”

He’d only known Dan since early
March and it was now late May, yet this was as close as he’d felt to a
friend in a long, long time. One more reason not to be owned by a business
that left no time for quality friendship. He wished he could say how much it
meant to him. He settled for, “Thanks.”

“It’s what friends do,” he said.
“Travel safe. Don’t get in a hurry and wreck or something. Just let someone
know you’re okay.”

“I’ll let Les know when I get
there. I’ll probably call her tonight if I can.”

Then there was Paul. “Oh, jeez,
Conner, that’s too bad. You okay for cash? Need an advance or loan or
anything?”

He was speechless for a moment.
He hadn’t even said why he had to leave without notice, yet his boss was
offering him money. What was to prevent him from taking advantage of that
offer, accepting a tidy little wad and never coming back? “No, I’m good.
Sorry to take off like this, but—”

“Hey, if you were going fishing
I’d dock your pay, but you gotta take care of your people. If you run into a
problem, call me. I can always find some way to help out. If you get on the
road and decide you were a little hasty and you do need some cash, I can
wire you money. Don’t stand on ceremony.”

“That’s terrific of you. I have
enough money, but thanks.”

“I hope you get things worked
out.”

“I’ll do that as fast as I
can.”

“I’m not worried about how long
it takes you—I’ll hold your job for you. Just make sure you don’t come back
here too hastily. Settle things. Family business can get complicated—I know
that.”