It Takes Two (24 page)

“If you didn’t do anything wrong, then there’s nothing to worry about,” the security officer said. “Let me check on a few things.”

He resumed typing. Shane sat quietly. And Isabelle started nibbling on her thumbnail.

It wasn’t nerves about the necklace. That would get cleared up. It was the jumble of emotions swirling through her in general that made her feel so restless. Shane was leaving and he seemed so
calm
about it. Yes, that’s what it was.

She shot him an annoyed glance. He didn’t look her way.

For months she’d tried the break-up thing and instead of agreeing to give her time and space, he’d sung to her and started a petition and brought a carnival to Trudy’s for her.

Now though, now that he knew everything, he was on his way home before even getting to the cabin.

And while that did make the most sense, it also annoyed the crap out of her.

Where was the big talker now?

“The necklace is not a part of the store’s inventory,” the guard finally said.

Yeah, they knew that. Obviously.

“So we can go.” Isabelle started to stand.

“Just a minute.”

She sighed and sank back onto her seat.

“Does this necklace belong to you?”

Isabelle glanced at Shane. Finally he made a move. He shifted to put both feet on the floor. “It was given to us.”

“Uh-huh. It was a gift?”

“It’s a favor,” Shane said smoothly.

“For the owner of the necklace?”

“Sort of.”

The guard gave him a
yeah, right
look and reached for his phone. Ten minutes later, the local cop strolled in.

“Hey, Larry,” he greeted the security guard.

“Hi, Kyle.”

“What’s up?”

“Stolen necklace.” Larry held the necklace up.

Kyle’s eyebrows rose. “You guys sell those here?”

“Nope.” He pointed at Shane and Isabelle.

Kyle looked at Shane and Isabelle. “Hi, folks.”

Shane gave him a nod. “Officer.”

“I’m Kyle Henson. Want to tell me what’s going on?” Kyle asked Shane.

Isabelle sat back in her chair, crossed her legs, crossed her arms and waited for Shane to explain the situation in a way a cop would understand. At least, that’s what she hoped he was going to do.

Shane leaned forward to prop his forearms on his thighs. “It’s a game. The necklace is a knock-off of an expensive piece owned by a guy named Henry Licthberg. The game is a way to make our vacation a little more fun.”

How long had he known? Isabelle wondered. And had he enjoyed it at all?

Officer Henson leaned back against the edge of Larry’s desk. “Tell me about this game.”

“Big Time is a company that stages murder mysteries, extreme adventures, treasure hunts, that kind of stuff,” Shane said. “That’s all this is. We’re in the middle of one of their games.

The cop just looked at him for several seconds. Then he pushed up off the desk. “We’re going to have to check that out.”

“Of course.”

“We’re going to keep the necklace,” he added.

“Please do. I’d rather not see it again, to be honest,” Shane said.

“We’ll run it and see if your story is legit, if the necklace is missing, if we can get a hold of Big Time. We have some work to do.”

“And you’d like us to stick around,” Shane said.

Officer Henson nodded. “I can hold you in a cell for the time it’ll take to track all this down. But I ran your name and badge number on my way over. I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt if you promise to stay in town.”

Shane sighed and pushed to his feet. “We can do that.”

It was already after seven anyway. They’d been traveling for twelve hours. A motel was sounding damned good right then, actually.

“Great” Isabelle said, getting quickly to her feet.

“I’d recommend the motel down on Third Street,” Henson said. “And keep your phone on.”

“Got it.” Shane turned and opened the office door, gesturing for Isabelle to go ahead of him.

When the door shut behind them Shane said, “Can we just not talk until we’re at least in the car?”

Isabelle pressed her lips together. Damn.

Chapter Nine

It looked like Shane’s plan to leave their vacation early was not going to work out.

Isabelle tried not to smile too big about that.

Smiling didn’t make sense. She should be relieved he was going to leave. That’s what she’d been going for since Vegas. Where had this big give-her-space gesture been a few months ago?

But as she settled into the car next to him and took a deep breath, she admitted that this whole I’d-better-leave-you-alone thing kind of sucked.

“How long have you known it was a game?” she asked, finally breaking the weird silence that had been going on since he’d come back into the gift shop from his phone call.

Shane glanced at her as they pulled up to a stop sign. “Since Michael called me about the necklace in Mitchell.”

“And you went along with it. Why?” she asked.

“I thought it was sweet.”

“Sweet?” she repeated. “How is this sweet?”

“You set it up to make this trip more fun for me.”

“I didn’t set it up. Emma did.”

“Oh.”

Yeah, oh. The gesture that was so sweet wasn’t even from her.

She felt a heaviness in her chest. “But I guess that doesn’t matter. It’s still not enough.”

“Enough?”

She looked at him. “To get you to stay.”

He huffed out a breath, his expression pained. “I thought you didn’t want me to stay.”

“I thought we were going to figure out if we can make this work.”

“I don’t think a cabin far from home is the way to do that after all.”

The heaviness grew. The guy who had rented a cotton candy machine for her only a few days ago was leaving her in the morning. She was losing him.

“So you’ll go home and…what?”

“Give you space. To figure out how you’re going to deal with everything, the adjustments, what you want and need help with, and what you don’t.”

“And then I’m going to let you know and…then what?”

“We’ll see if there’s a place for me in your plan and adjustments.”

It sounded good, but the heaviness in her chest wouldn’t go away. “You’ll be there? When I’m ready?”

He took a deep breath. “I want to say yes. But that’s probably not fair. I
want
to be there when you’re ready but…what if it takes three years? Or you meet someone who gets this and is happy to stay home on Saturday night?”

She actually felt a little sick at the idea.

Shane pulled up in front of the motel and they got out and headed in to register. The clerk didn’t ask if they wanted more than one room and Shane didn’t ask for two.

That was fine with Isabelle, of course. They might not be sleeping here anyway. They might be allowed to leave town yet tonight.

Which would mean they could still get to the cabin. Which would mean that Shane would still be on schedule for leaving.

“You’ve been quiet,” she finally commented as Shane tossed their bags in the corner of the room and she slumped down on the end of one of the beds.

“I’ve been thinking,” he said without looking at her.

“Is that a good thing?”

“Maybe. I’ve been thinking about how mad I am that you didn’t tell me about everything that was going on with you. That you were content to give up rather than work on it. And then I realized, trust has to be earned. You didn’t trust me enough to be honest and that’s on both of us.”

“Oh, Shane, I—”

“It occurred to me that there’s one very important way I need to earn your trust. We both need to know that I can do this.”

“Do what?”

He turned to look at her. “Make love to you.”

Her breath caught at the look in his eyes. It was that determined look she’d seen a lot lately but it was also hot and…almost mischievous. Her heart rate picked up and she wet her lips.

“I think we’re in triple digits there, big guy.”

He shook his head. “We’ve had hot, amazing, better-than-I-ever-had sex in the triple digits. But you’ve been too distracted by making it wild to make it really about love.”

She swallowed and crossed her arms. “And what about you? What were you feeling all those times?” Did she want the answer to that question?

“I thought love,” he said, moving closer. “But how could it be love when I didn’t know everything I needed to know, when I wasn’t meeting every need you had, physically and emotionally?”

He moved even closer, stopping right in front of her, toe to toe.

Her breathing hitched a little. It was nuts. She’d been as close to him as two people could possibly get. She’d been this close to him hundreds of times, but this felt different somehow. Almost like it was new.

“It’s always been so good, Shane,” she said, putting as much feeling into the words as she could. She loved him. She loved sex with him.

“It is good,” he agreed. “Very good. Amazing, even. But I think it can be better.”

His words made a shiver of heat sizzle through her, but she tried to put some attitude into her response. She hesitated to give him too much power here—like being able to turn her on with just a few words. She raised an eyebrow. “Better than the time with the ice cream sandwiches?”

He narrowed his eyes. “That was damned good.”

“But you think it can be better?”

He took her chin between his thumb and first finger and looked into her eyes in a way he never had before. Like he knew exactly what he was searching for, but wanted to see it. He held her face, and her gaze, in a way that kept her from hiding anything.

“We’ve had your sex. And it’s been awesome. Ice cream sandwiches, strawberry pie, banana pudding—all awesome. But we haven’t had
my
sex.”

She thought about smiling but there was something about the way he said it that made her tingle down deep.

“We haven’t?”

“You’ve been in control.”

“You’ve been there. You’ve—”

“Been thinking that I’m the luckiest son of a bitch in the world. Having a woman like you want me so much that she’s constantly working on ways to give me the ultimate pleasure is addicting.”

She swallowed hard again. “That’s what I’ve been doing,” she said sincerely. “I do want you.”

“I know. And I’ve been selfishly going along, enjoying the ride. But I want you so much that I want to work on giving
you
the ultimate pleasure too.”

Her mouth went dry. Wow. If the tone in his voice and the look in his eyes was any indication, this was going to be good. Really good. Maybe too good.

“You do,” she told him.

“Oh, babe,” he said, his voice dropping to a delicious huskiness. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

He dragged his finger from the center of her chin, down her throat, then leaned in and captured her lips with his.

The kiss was different too.

Usually Shane was enthusiastic, passionate, hot, but yeah, he followed her lead.

Now he was in control. She could feel it. And it made her shiver with desire. And trepidation. She needed some control. She didn’t know how to let go completely.

When he pulled back, he studied her for a moment, then said, “Take your clothes off.”

Well, there was nothing to protest there. She stood and stripped quickly, her body responding to the way he watched her. She loved how it was so obvious even on his face how much he wanted her. His breathing changed, the way he stood changed, the way he curled and uncurled his fist like his hand was aching to touch her changed.

She started forward. The countertop next to the TV looked pretty steady. She could just shimmy up there and—

“No.”

She looked at him. “What?”

“No. Bed.” He pointed to the mattress.

She lifted an eyebrow.

“Isabelle.” He pointed at the bed again.

Damn, she hadn’t brought any edible body lotion or toys. She’d told him this would be a vanilla-sex trip and she’d meant it. At the time. He’d reminded her, though, that missionary was considered pretty vanilla and he was right when he said that wasn’t her favorite position. Not enough control for her.

She was going to have to get creative now.

Dirty talk had never let her down.

“I want your mouth on me, Shane,” she said, stepping toward him, her hand going to her breast. “I want you to lick—”

“Bed. Now.” He even snapped his fingers before pointing this time.

And damn if that didn’t give her a little thrill.

She took a deep breath. Okay, she’d play. Shane could hardly help being commanding, and it did something to her. Even when she was in charge, he was right there with her, heightening things, encouraging her, his words and hands and even the way he let her have complete free reign over his body making her hotter and bolder and feeling as possessed by him, as filled by him, as marked by him as if he’d had her tied up and at his mercy.