Natural-Born Protector / Saved by the Monarch (6 page)

“I told you last night, I’m not looking for anything lasting,” he said. “I’d say for right now, for this moment, we’re perfect for each other.”

It was she who leaned forward for the kiss, a kiss that answered any doubts he might have entertained. As he pulled her closer to him she wrapped her arms around his neck. His tongue danced with hers and his desire grew more intense.

He located the source of that dizzying scent just behind her ear and along the slender column of her throat. He ran his mouth across her skin, nipping with his teeth as she gasped with delight.

She finally pulled away from him. He immediately dropped his hands to his sides, unsure if she wanted to continue and unwilling to pressure her in any way.

“I have to know that this won’t change anything between us,” she said. “You’re my only friend here in town, and I need a friend.”

“You’ve got one,” Hank replied and he meant it. Hell, at the moment he’d agree to almost anything to get her into the bedroom.

She stood suddenly and held out her hand to him. Hank’s heart jumped into his throat as he also rose and took her hand in his.

Without saying a word she led him down the hall to a bedroom with a double bed. The only light in the room was from a dim lamp on the nightstand and the play of light and shadow created an intimate aura.

Someplace in the back of his mind he knew what was happening, that somehow fate had brought together two people in need. Melody was reeling from the death of her sister and he had been alone long enough to feel an aching loneliness that begged for the comfort of a warm, willing body next to his.

He reached for her and she came back into his arms. He thought he felt a hint of desperation as she molded herself against him, as if she were seeking to warm a place in herself that had been cold for a very long time.

He kissed her again, this time softly, tenderly, wishing to find that place inside her and heat it. At the same time his fingers moved to the zipper of her sundress. He moved the zipper down only an inch or so, then paused and waited to see if she’d call a halt to things.

When she didn’t, he unzipped the dress all the way down. His hands found the warm skin of her back and he splayed his fingers against it, loving the way it felt.

She moved her hands up beneath his T-shirt, her fingers cool as they explored the width of his back. Still their kiss continued, growing less tender and more urgent.

Her dress slipped from her shoulders and she allowed it to fall to the floor. At the same time Hank stepped back from her and pulled his T-shirt over his head.

For a long moment they stared at each other. She looked hot in her white bikini pants and lacy bra. Her nipples were taut against the lace and her lips were swollen from his kisses.

“Are you sure you want to go on?” he asked, his voice thick with desire. As difficult as it would be, if she
wanted to call a halt to things, he’d get dressed again and leave without thinking any less of her.

In answer to his question she got into the bed and opened her arms to him. A sizzling electricity shot through him as pulled a condom from his pocket then shucked off his jeans and joined her beneath the sheets, the foil package on the nightstand.

Once again they were in each other’s arms, kissing with a hunger that chased every other thought out of his head. He told himself that in his present state of mind it wouldn’t have mattered who he held in his arms, that all he needed was the release of having sex with any woman.

But deep inside he knew that wasn’t true. It wasn’t just her feminine scent and her physical attractiveness that made him want her. Rather it was a combination of that and her unwavering loyalty to the memory of her sister, the gentle way she’d brushed Maddie’s hair and her laughter as they’d strung cheese down their chins while eating pizza.

Her body was hot against his and he relished the heat and the smoothness of her skin as they clung together. Within minutes the last of their clothes were gone and they began to explore each other with hands and mouths.

Hank wanted to take her fast and furious, not giving himself time to think, time to breathe, but with a surprising sense of command she set the pace…slow and leisurely and excruciatingly intense.

Her mouth moved down his jaw and neck, down to his chest and he gasped as every muscle in his body tensed. The silky strands of her hair teased him at the same time her warm lips tortured him.

He was only willing to be a passive participant for so long. He wanted to taste her skin, to hear soft breathless moans escape from her lips.

He rolled her over on her back, taking command of the situation. His hands cupped her breasts, thumbs grazing over the tips, and she mewled with pleasure.

He captured one of her nipples in his mouth, sucking and rolling his tongue around it. She tangled her hands in his hair, pulled him closer, closer still, as if afraid he might stop.

His blood surged thick and hot as his hand moved down her stomach and touched her intimately. Gasping, she tightened her hands in his hair. When his fingers began to move against her, rubbing in a rhythmic pattern, she arched her hips up to meet his touch.

His excitement rose as she writhed and moaned with pleasure. Every muscle in her body tensed as her moans grew louder, higher pitched and then she cried out and shuddered.

Gasping breaths followed as she reached to encircle his hardness with her hand. He closed his eyes, not wanting to look into hers, not wanting to emotionally connect in any way. He wanted to keep this all about the sex, all about the simple act of physical release. He didn’t want to want Melody. He just wanted to want the warmth of her body, the uncomplicated sex act without baggage.

He gasped again as she stroked the length of him and he throbbed, barely maintaining control. As if she knew how precariously close he was to losing it, she removed her hand from him and instead reached across him to pick up the foil packet from the nightstand.

He took it from her, knowing that if she touched him again he’d explode. It took only seconds to pull on the condom then he crouched above her, between her thighs and entered her.

Her midnight-blue eyes drew him in as their gazes locked. In that moment the deep, painful loneliness that had plagued him for the past two years ebbed and for just a moment an edge of happiness fluttered inside his chest.

With that flutter came a crashing sense of guilt and he slammed his eyes closed and gave himself to the physical sensations her wet warmth evoked in him.

Her fingers clutched at his back as he plunged into her and all civility fell away as he took her with hunger and demand.

Meeting him thrust for thrust, she was wild and abandoned beneath him, raking her fingers first across his back and then grabbing his buttocks to pull him in deeper, harder.

The tension inside him built to impossible heights and the last of his control slipped away at the same time she cried out and tensed beneath him. Knowing she’d climaxed, he allowed himself to let go, a hoarse groan escaping him as his release crashed through him.

He collapsed to the side of her, his heart pounding more ferociously than he could ever remember. His breaths began to slow at the same time as Melody’s and within minutes their breathing had returned to normal.

She rolled over to her side and looked at him. He knew he should say something, but an awkward silence grew between them. She finally broke it. “Are you okay?” she asked softly.

He smiled. “I’d say I’m more than okay. What about you?”

She returned his smile. “I’m more than okay.” Her smile fell slightly as she continued to hold his gaze. “This was probably a mistake, wasn’t it?”

“Why do you say that?”

She sat up and clutched the sheet to her chest, a frown dancing between her eyebrows. “I need you as a friend and as a support in trying to find Lainie’s killer. I don’t want things to get weird between us, Hank.”

“Things won’t get weird,” he assured her, but even as he spoke the words he felt the need to get up, to escape from those dark, drowning eyes of hers, eyes so unlike the woman whose memory was burned into his heart.

Melody leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, her lips soft and pleasurable against his skin. “I’ll be right back.”

She slid out of bed and he watched her as she walked across the room, her naked skin looking smooth and touchable in the soft lighting. She disappeared out of the bedroom and he heard the closing of the bathroom door in the master bedroom.

Instantly he was up and out of the bed. He grabbed his clothes and dashed into the bathroom across the hall—the bathroom where Lainie had been killed. It took him only minutes to clean up and get dressed, then he went out to the living room and waited for Melody to find him.

A few moments later she came into the living room clad in the same robe she’d been wearing when she’d come to his apartment after receiving the disturbing
phone call. The material clung to her naked curves, and with her hair tousled and her lips still slightly swollen she looked so hot he felt a stirring of new desire.

He didn’t want to just run out the door, but again the need to escape from her presence was nearly overwhelming. “Thanks for the pizza party,” he said. “And for being so nice to my daughter.”

Melody smiled. “It’s easy to be nice to Maddie. She’s a beautiful, charming little girl. If I made a short pot of coffee, would you drink a cup with me?”

He opened his mouth to decline but before the words came out, the window just behind Melody exploded.

A
short, sharp scream burst from Melody as she flung herself forward, away from the shattering glass. Hank caught her in his arms and pulled her behind him as if to shield her from any danger that might come barreling through the window.

The crash of glass was followed by utter silence. On the floor just inside the window was a midsize red brick. Seconds ticked by and neither of them moved, then Hank stepped forward and grabbed the brick.

“Somebody definitely wants to get your attention,” he said and held up the brick so she could see the words painted in bold black letters on one side.

GO HOME.

A streak of ice walked up her back, creating a shiver as she wrapped her arms around herself. Any
glowing warmth that had been created by making love with Hank vanquished beneath the chill that possessed her now.

“Get dressed,” Hank said flatly, his midnight-blue eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. “I’m going to call the sheriff.”

Melody nodded and went back to the bedroom. Her clothes were scattered around the room. In a daze, she got dressed, and by the time she was fully clad the initial shock had worn off.

She was obviously making somebody very nervous with her questions and probing. But who? She was no closer now to finding out the identity of Lainie’s murderer than she’d been the minute she’d arrived in town. What was she missing? Who had she made so nervous?

By the time she returned to the living room Hank was pacing in front of the sofa, his handsome features set in cold sternness. “Zack should be here in a few minutes,” he said. “It’s too late to get a glass place out here tonight so I called Dalton. He’s going to bring over some plywood so we can secure the window for the rest of the night.”

“Thanks,” she said.

He smiled, the gesture not quite reaching his eyes. “You sure know how to show a guy a good time. Pizza, sex and danger, one hell of a night.”

She smiled. “I wouldn’t mind repeating the first two, but I could do without the danger part.”

This time he didn’t return her smile. “Anonymous phone calls are one thing. Those are usually made by cowards who shy away from any real confrontation. But this is a definite escalation.”

At that moment Zack West arrived. It took him only minutes to assess the situation. He frowned as Hank showed him the brick, then Zack turned his attention to her. “What cages have you been rattling since you’ve been in town?”

“All I’ve been doing is asking questions of some of Lainie’s friends and acquaintances,” she replied.

“She got a threatening phone call last night,” Hank said. “Somebody told her to get out of town.”

“And the caller ID?” Zack asked.

“Anonymous, of course,” Melody said.

“Of course,” he replied. He swiped a hand through his dark hair and frowned again. “I’m sure whoever threw that brick through the window is long gone. I’ll check around outside but I doubt I’ll find anything. I’ll write up a report of both this incident and the phone call. If anything else happens contact me immediately. Unfortunately, there isn’t much else I can do.”

Melody certainly hadn’t expected anything else. As Hank walked Zack to the door, she went into the kitchen and got a broom to clean up as much of the broken glass as possible.

It’s just a broken window, she thought. It wasn’t like she’d been personally attacked. Hank had said it was an escalation, but as far as she was concerned bricks through the window were in the same category as anonymous callers.

“Where’s your vacuum?” Hank asked when Zack had left.

“In the hall closet,” she replied.

For the next few minutes they worked together, she
sweeping and he vacuuming. It was impossible to talk above the roar of the vacuum.

It was after two in the morning when Dalton finished putting the plywood in the window and he and Hank left. Melody returned to her bedroom and changed into her nightgown, then crawled into the bed that still smelled of Hank.

As she lay there in the darkness of the night she thought of making love with Hank. It had been amazing. He’d been a demanding but thoughtful lover, taking her over the edge not once, but twice, before allowing himself his release.

She’d felt safe in his arms, connected enough that the terrible void Lainie’s death had left had been momentarily filled.

But now, alone in the deep of night, the pain of loss was nearly overwhelming. She imagined that it was what a mother felt when she lost a child, for in many ways Lainie had been her child.

The thought of never seeing Lainie again, of never answering the phone and hearing the sound of her voice, constricted Melody’s heart so painfully she was crying before she knew it.

The sobs ripped from someplace deep inside her and it was as if each tear that fell tore away a piece of her aching heart.

She buried her face in her pillow and didn’t attempt to stop the sobs, but rather let them consume her. She cried for all the things she’d never again share with her sister. She wept for all the experiences and dreams shared but not fulfilled.

When night falls, monsters creep out of the shadows and one of those monsters had crept out of the darkness and stolen Lainie…from Melody.

“I’ll get you,” she whispered. “Somehow, someway I’ll find out who you are and make you pay.” No broken window or threatening phone calls were going to scare her away. She was going to find out who killed Lainie. With this driving need burning in her heart, she finally fell asleep.

She awoke early, with thoughts of Hank flitting around in her head. His clean, slightly spicy cologne still hung faintly on the sheets.

If she hadn’t felt such a horrifying emptiness, would she have tumbled into bed with him so easily? Somehow she doubted it. But she’d been so incredibly physically attracted to him…and lonely. And if she looked deep inside herself, she knew she’d see more than just a little bit of fear.

She didn’t know how to live without Lainie. Her sister had filled her hours even after Melody had moved to Chicago. Worrying about Lainie, thinking about Lainie, had become such a habit and she had nothing to take the place of that habit.

For a few minutes the night before, when she’d been in Hank’s arms, she’d forgotten her heartache. The loneliness had disappeared and she’d been filled with him.

But this morning, with the bright sunshine streaking through the window, came the knowledge that falling into bed with Hank had been a dumb thing to do.

As she pulled herself out of bed and went into the bathroom in the master bedroom, she hoped that things wouldn’t be awkward when she saw him again.

It was after nine by the time she’d showered and sat at the table with her first cup of coffee. Mike was supposed to return sometime this morning to finish painting the wall in the living room. Melody had arranged for a local charity to come that afternoon to get some of the boxes of clothing she’d packed and the furniture from Lainie’s bedroom.

She had yet to go into the bathroom where Lainie had been killed, although she knew that sooner or later she was going to have to pack up whatever items were in there. But the idea of going in there, of standing in the last place that Lainie had stood alive, horrified her.

“Not today,” she told herself as she got up to pour herself another cup of coffee. She still had to call somebody about replacing the glass in the living room, then later tonight she wanted to make a trip to the video store. She’d called the store earlier in the week to find out James O’Donnell’s schedule. It was Friday and she knew James would be working. He was the only loose end on her short list of suspects.

A knock on the door pulled her out of her chair. She answered to find Hank’s mother, Susan. “I hope I’m not intruding,” she said.

“Not at all. I was just having some coffee.” Melody opened the door wider to allow her to step inside. “Would you like to join me?”

“That would be nice,” Susan agreed.

As Melody led the way to the kitchen she wondered what Hank’s mother was doing here. She was amused to realize that she felt like a guilty teenager caught by a disapproving mother.

Susan sat at the table and Melody poured her a cup of coffee, then joined her there. “I just wanted you to be aware of how much Maddie loved your sister,” she began.

Melody’s heart squeezed tight and she realized the tears of the night before hadn’t emptied the well of her sorrow. “Lainie was special,” she replied.

Susan nodded, her graying hair sparkling in the sunshine coming in through the nearby window. “When Hank and Maddie moved here, Maddie wasn’t just a little girl mourning the loss of her mother. She was also mourning the loss of a lifestyle and, more important, the absence of her father.”

Susan paused to sip the coffee and then set the cup down and continued. “Physically, Hank was there, but emotionally he withdrew from everything when Rebecca died, including his daughter.”

She leaned back in the chair and a wistful smile played on her lips. “There was magic with Hank and Rebecca. They’d been high school sweethearts and there was no question that they were meant to be together.” The smile fell away. “When Rebecca died something died inside Hank. For a while, I didn’t think he’d ever laugh again for the rest of his life. But when he moved in here and met Lainie I saw sparks of life returning to him. She made him laugh.”

Melody smiled. “For all the problems Lainie had, a sense of humor was one of her strong suits.”

Susan took a sip of her coffee once again and eyed Melody over the rim of the cup. “I see more than a spark of life in his eyes when he’s around you.”

“We’re just friends,” Melody said quickly. “He’s
helping me get through some things, but it’s nothing more than that.” She didn’t want Hank’s mother to think that Hank and Maddie had any real place in her life, nor she in theirs. “I’m returning to Chicago as soon as I get things straightened out here.”

Susan’s smile faltered slightly. “That’s too bad. Maddie has grown quite fond of you.”

“I’m still calling her Madeline because she doesn’t know yet if we’re going to be friends or not,” Melody said with a small laugh.

“That little scamp,” Susan replied, her love for her granddaughter obvious in her tone. “Hank tells me you’re a teacher.”

Melody nodded. “And I love it.”

“You want children of your own?”

Melody leaned back in her seat, feeling as if she were being interviewed for a potential job. “Someday. I’m in no hurry. When I meet the right man and we decide together that it’s time to start a family.”

Susan drained her coffee cup and stood. “Well, I’ve taken up enough of your time. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you giving Maddie some of your time. I worry about her, you know. I love the role of grandma, but she seems to need more than I can give her in that role. I’m afraid Hank will never let go of his grief and have another real relationship with a woman who can give Maddie what she needs.”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine,” Melody said, although she had no idea if that was the case or not. “Hank seems like a great guy. Eventually he’ll find that woman he can have magic with again.”

“I hope so,” Susan said fervently. “I just want to see my son and my granddaughter happy again.”

When Susan had left, Melody washed the cups and put them into the dishwasher and thought about magic. There hadn’t been time in her life for magic with a man. She’d hoped that she’d eventually meet somebody in Chicago who would be special to her, but there hadn’t been time.

She’d been so busy unpacking, settling in and starting the new job, so busy maintaining contact with Lainie and making sure that she was doing okay without Melody that dating had seemed like a far-fetched idea and finding somebody special virtually impossible.

Maybe that’s why she had connected so quickly with Hank, because she’d sensed the grief that was still very much a part of his soul, and the grief inside her had recognized his.

One thing was clear. From what Susan had said, Hank definitely wasn’t the man to provide magic. To him, she was nothing more than a momentary respite from his pain and he was nothing more than that to her.

The rest of the morning flew by. Mike arrived and began painting and the two men from Cotter Creek Charity Services came to take away the items from Lainie’s bedroom.

With each piece of furniture that went out the door, Melody felt her heart tearing into little pieces. It was the final goodbye to her sister.

After the men left, her phone rang. She grabbed it to hear Hank’s voice. “Maddie has insisted that we go out to eat at the café this evening and I thought you could
be our guest. You know, kind of a payback for the pizza party last night.”

“That isn’t necessary,” she replied, having every intention of declining the offer.

“Please come,” he said. “Maddie will be so disappointed if you don’t. Besides, you have to eat dinner somewhere, it might as well be while enjoying our company.”

“All right,” she heard herself saying despite her intentions to the contrary.

“Great, we’ll pick you up around six. Will that work?”

“Perfect, but I have a request. Could we stop by the video store on the way to the café? There’s a movie I’d like to rent.”

Her words were followed by a long moment of silence. “I’d thought that after last night you might have changed your mind about doing any more investigating.”

“A little brick through a window isn’t going to stop me,” she said with unexpected forcefulness. She drew a deep breath then continued. “Besides, James O’Donnell is the only person I have left on my list to talk to.”

“Are you expecting a confession?”

“Of course not.” But his question made her wonder just what she hoped to gain. “But maybe I’ll see something in his eyes that will be guilt, or maybe he’ll know something about somebody who might have been responsible.”

“I’ll take you into the video store to talk to this guy on one condition,” Hank said. “When you’re finished talking to him, you put it all behind you for the duration of our dinner.”

“Deal,” she agreed.

The afternoon flew by. The man from the glass shop
arrived to replace the broken window, Mike finished up the painting and before she knew it, it was time to get ready for the evening ahead.