Читать книгу Best of Desire - Оливия Гейтс - Страница 28

Seven

“Jericho,” she cried, “Nikki’s gone. Nikki! Nikki baby, come to Mommy.”

She jumped to her feet as yet one more howl sounded out, sending shivers down her spine. That one seemed closer than the one before, she thought frantically. How many of the blasted things were out there?

“Damn dog,” Jericho muttered, scrambling to his feet as Daisy began to walk a fast, frenetic circle around the fire. She peered into the woods, struggling to see past the encroaching dark, straining to hear the slightest sound, the faintest yip. But there was nothing. It was as if the forest had swallowed up her dog.

“Where is she?” Daisy sent a quick, panicked look at Jericho. “She must have wandered off when I wasn’t looking. Oh, God, how could I have been so careless? Nikki!”

Before he could say anything, Daisy rushed off blindly into the tree line, pushed by a driving sense of urgency. If there were coyotes close by, Nikki would be helpless. Nothing more than a snack to an animal three times her size.

With her heart in her throat, Daisy shoved through low-hanging pine branches, hardly noticing when the limbs and needles poked at her. “Nikki! Come here, girl!”

“Daisy, damn it!” His shout followed her into the brush but didn’t stop her.

Her gaze swept the darkness, checking every shadow. Beside herself with worry now, she called the dog to her again and then listened for an answering bark that never came. The farther she got from the river, the more terrified she became. Nikki wouldn’t have strayed this far. But she might have gone another way. How would Daisy find her? They should go to the lodge. Get a search party. Flashlights. Something. But she couldn’t leave without Nikki, so Jericho would have to go for help alone.

She’d wait here. She’d keep looking. She had to find the little dog that was her last remaining link to the brother she’d lost. Visions of Nikki hurt, or worse, filled her mind and strangled the breath in her lungs. Her imagination was running at full steam so she screamed when a hand came down on her arm and spun her around.

“Stop,” he ground out, holding onto her upper arms. “You’re not going to find the damn dog running through the woods like a crazy woman. Hell, you don’t even know where you are. How can you find her if you’re lost, too?”

“I’ll find her. I’ll just keep looking until I do. I can’t lose her,” she said, her voice hardly more than a whisper. “She’s all I have. She’s my family. She’s…”

He gave her a hard shake to get her attention, then released her and stepped back. “You go running off like that in the dark and you’re going to end up at the bottom of a ravine. You don’t know these woods.”

“No, but you do,” Daisy said, grabbing hold of his shirt with both hands. “Find her, Jericho. Please find her.”

Clearly disgusted, he said, “I’m going to. But you’re going back to camp.” He turned her around, pointed her at their campsite and gave her a gentle shove. “Go back now and wait by the fire or I’ll be looking for you and the stupid dog.”

She wanted to argue. Wanted to tell him that she wouldn’t be sent off to wait for the big strong man to come to her rescue. But even as she started to speak, Daisy realized he was right. She’d only slow him down. He knew these woods. This was his territory and she’d only make his search that much more difficult if she insisted on going along.

So for Nikki’s sake, she’d do what he said. She’d sit down and she’d wait. “Okay. Okay, I will. But find her, Jericho. She must be so scared…”

Muttering darkly under his breath, he jerked his head at her, silently telling her to go back. Then he moved off without so much as a whisper of sound and disappeared into the deep shadows of the forest.

Daisy shivered and walked back to the campsite. She waited, but she couldn’t sit. How could she? She was alone by a campfire, and Jericho was off moving through the darkness in silence and Nikki… If anything happened to her dog…

Daisy continued to pace in tight, worried circles around the perimeter of the campfire, her mind racing, her heart pounding. The coyotes howled again and she wondered if they were hungry. If they’d already spotted a tiny poodle snack. If Jericho would never find the little dog because she’d already been…

“She’s fine.” Jericho’s voice broke into Daisy’s thoughts and she whirled around to face him.

He stepped into the firelight and held a trembling Nikki against his chest in one huge hand.

“You found her!” Daisy raced to him, scooped up her dog, murmuring soothing sounds and sighs as Jericho watched her with a bemused expression on his face. “Where was she?”

Nikki’s tiny pink tongue swiped Daisy’s face in gratitude just before the little dog sent Jericho a look of complete canine adoration.

“Cowering under a rock,” he said, with a shake of his head. “She was shaking so hard, the leaves on the bush beside her were trembling. Quite the ferocious little watchdog you’ve got there.”

“You’re making fun of her, but you saved her. Poor baby, alone in the woods.” She looked at him, her heart in her eyes and felt something inside her tremble as violently as Nikki was. “Thank you for finding her. I was so scared.”

“It’s fine. She’s fine.”

“I don’t know what I would have done if anything had happened to her.”

“Nothing did.”

“Because of you. My hero.”

He stopped, frowned and told her succinctly, “I’m nobody’s hero.”

But he was, Daisy thought as she watched him walk down to the river, effectively closing himself off. Jericho King might be a reluctant hero, Daisy told herself, but that didn’t change the facts. He was a man to count on. A man to admire.

The perfect man to be the father of her child.

* * *

He woke up with both Daisy and the dog curled up into him again and this time, it was even more difficult to ignore the warmth of her curvy body pressed up against his. Now he knew what she tasted like. Now he knew what it was like to hold her, to feel her surrender herself. And now he was being haunted by those memories. Which only made him more determined to ignore the feelings, the temptations racing through him.

She was now officially his employee and he wouldn’t take advantage of the situation. A man had to have rules of conduct for himself, or he was nothing. Besides, he wasn’t the kind of man to allow a woman into his life and Daisy was in no way the one-night-stand kind of female. She had “commitment” stamped all over her. All he had to do was look into her eyes and he could practically see a white picket fence and 2.5 kids—not to mention her idiot dog.

Jericho eased away from her, despite the reluctance nagging at him. He wasn’t going to step into a bear trap and he wasn’t going to indulge himself and hurt her. So he’d just keep his distance whatever it took and hope that she got over this whim of hers to live on the mountain.

“Daisy!” His voice was sharper than it should have been, but even as he thought that, he figured it was just as well. He didn’t want her getting attached to him because nothing good would come of it.

“Huh? What?” She rolled over, the dog yipped and shot up to all four feet while Daisy was still blinking sleep out of her eyes. “What’s going on? It’s dark.”

“Almost dawn,” he corrected, giving one quick look at the already-lightening sky. “Time to get moving.”

“Right,” she said, nodding as she pushed herself into a sitting position. “I’ll fix breakfast and then we can—”

“We’re going now,” he told her. No more cozy meals, just the two of them over a dancing fire. “There’s trail mix in my pack. You can eat on the way.”

“Ooh, yummy,” she murmured dryly, scrubbing both hands over her face. “Why the hurry?”

He looked down at her. Eyes slumberous, hair tangled and falling about her face, lips full and all too tempting. She was the damn hurry, he thought angrily. Being alone with her was turning into a lesson in torture. One he, thankfully, didn’t have to put up with. He’d just get her back to the lodge, let her settle in and from now on, he’d make sure he was never alone with her. Safer all the way around.

His body didn’t agree, but it would just have to find a way to deal with disappointment.

“Test is over,” he said shortly, going down on one knee to stuff supplies into his pack. “Time to get back to work.”

“Okay…” She pushed to her feet and Nikki trotted to Jericho’s side, sat beside him and leaned against his thigh. “I’ll just…”

He paused in his packing, shot her a look and nodded. “Fine. Go take care of things, but hurry it up.”

While Daisy stepped into the forest for some privacy, Jericho looked down at the little dog snuggling in close to him. “You and your mistress are turning out to be a real pain in the ass.” When the dog only huffed out a contented sigh, Jericho scowled at it. “You’re not going to get to me though, either of you.”

* * *

“Anyone want seconds?” Daisy asked, lifting the cast-iron skillet temptingly.

Firelight danced across her features, highlighting her grin and making her look more beautiful than Jericho had ever seen her.

“Count me in,” Max Stuben, CEO of a furniture dynasty, spoke up, holding his plate out. “Daisy, after seeing what you can do over a campfire, I have half a mind to go home and shoot my chef.”

She laughed, delighted, then said, “A little extreme, Max, but I appreciate the compliment. Jericho and I like to keep our clients happy, don’t we?”

When she looked up at him, Jericho couldn’t help smiling back. Damned if the woman hadn’t charmed every one of his clients.

Harry Morrison, bank president, added, “I’m impressed with how well you handle yourself out on the trail, Daisy. Why, if my wife were here, she’d be complaining about everything. You seem to love it.”

Jericho slid a glance to watch her reaction. She was the least likely woman ever to enjoy being on the mountain, yet she seemed to be doing just that.

“Well, at King Adventure, we really go out of our way to make sure all of our employees are capable of doing everything we ask of our clients. Isn’t that right, Jericho?” She looked over at him, a wide smile still on her face.

“That’s right,” he said, remembering her own tests and how determined she had been to win.

“And maybe,” Daisy said to Harry, “your wife wouldn’t complain as much if she felt more support.”

Chagrined, Harry just shrugged off the comment and Jericho had to hand it to her. She’d very nicely defended a woman she’d never met.

“When you’re finished there, we’ll clean up and sack out,” Jericho said. “We’ll be getting an early start in the morning.”

“Slave driver,” Max muttered good-naturedly.

“You have no idea,” Daisy said with a laugh. Then she picked up a few things and carried them down to the water’s edge.

Jericho followed after her and when he stopped by her side, she said, “I think it’s going well, don’t you?”

“Yeah, it is. How are you doing?”

“Great!” When he just looked at her, though, she shrugged and said, “Okay, I admit, I don’t love the trail as much as you do, but I can do this.”

“You don’t have to, you know. You can work at the lodge without making these trips.”

She scrubbed at one of the plates and when it was clean to her satisfaction, she set it on a towel and picked up the next one. “I want to show you that I can do this.”

“You don’t have anything left to prove, Daisy.”

“Maybe,” she said, “but it’s important to me to carry my own weight.”

“You treat these guys any better and they’re going to be trying to hire you away.”

She laughed a little. “Max already offered to back me in opening my own restaurant. But I think he was kidding.”

Frowning, Jericho glanced back at the men sitting beside the fire. “I’m not so sure.”

Daisy stood up and laid one hand on his forearm. “No worries, Jericho. I’m exactly where I want to be.”

She picked up the clean dishes and walked toward camp, leaving Jericho staring after her. The problem here was, Daisy was exactly where he wanted to be, too.

* * *

Only two weeks had passed, and Jericho was a man possessed. He spent most days doing everything he could to avoid being around Daisy. But it seemed that no matter what, she found a way to be near him. Her scent clung to the air of the main house. Every breath he drew reminded him of her.

Her laughter rang out and his ears were attuned for the sound, even from rooms away. The meals she prepared were raved about and even their clients, the fussy lawyers and busy bureaucrats, were charmed by her.

He couldn’t even escape her at night. His dreams were full of her. And the knowledge that her room was only three doors down the hall from his plagued his mind constantly.

Her dog wasn’t helping the situation any, either. Ever since he’d found the little thing that last night in the forest, the poodle had officially adopted him. He could hardly take a step without watching first where he set his boot, afraid he’d crush the damn thing. He’d taken plenty of ribbing about his newfound friend from the other guys, too. Hell, he’d often thought about getting a dog himself, but his plans hadn’t included a dog so small it could sit on the palm of his hand.

“Is there a reason you look like you want to bite through a brick?”

Jericho came up out of his dark thoughts with a fierce scowl on his face. He turned on his old friend and said, “This is all your fault, you know.”

“What’d I do?” Sam argued, his own features twisting up into a frown.

“You brought Daisy here. You’re the one who offered her the damn job.” Of course Jericho was the one who had hired her, but that was beside the point. “She doesn’t belong and she never will and pretending otherwise is just making a bad situation worse.”

Sam’s features cleared up and a smile tugged at his mouth. “She’s getting to you, isn’t she?”

“Hell, no, she’s not,” he lied. Damned if he’d admit to Sam what he couldn’t admit to himself. “She’s just a distraction is all.”

“She is that,” Sam agreed and opened a stall door to pour feed for one of the horses. When he was finished, he stepped back, closed the stall again and walked to the next one. “A pretty woman’s always a distraction. And one that can cook, too?” He whistled, low and long, shaking his head for emphasis. “Well, that woman’s a treasure to a man who isn’t too stupid to see what’s right in front of him.”

Jericho stared at his friend’s back hard enough to bore holes right through his body. “Now I’m stupid?”

“Didn’t say that, but won’t argue the point, you being the boss and all.”

“Thanks very much,” Jericho muttered and shot a look toward the main house. The barn doors were open, watery winter sunlight slanting across the neatly swept stone floor. Inside the house, Daisy would be bustling around the kitchen preparing lunch for the employees. She was probably singing, he told himself, in that slightly off-key voice of hers. His insides stirred at the thought, and he told himself he was in bad shape.

“You’re the one making yourself miserable, you know,” Sam told him casually as he continued making his rounds down the row of horse stalls. “Nobody else here has a problem with her. She’s doing a good job and she’s nice on top of it.”

“Nice.”

Sam shot him a look. “Yeah, nice. You might want to try it.”

Oh, that was the problem, Jericho thought, shoving both hands into his jeans pockets. He wanted to be more than nice to her. He wanted her under him, over him. He wanted to slide his hands over those luscious curves, look down into her whiskey eyes and see his own desire-ravaged face reflected back at him. And he wanted it now.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he muttered and stalked out of the barn. What he needed, he told himself, was a hard hike up the mountain. Maybe a night or two on his own. Get his mind clear. Get his sense of control and order back. Get the hell away from Daisy Saxon before she drove him completely crazy.

* * *

Daisy was worried.

Jericho had been gone for two nights already and, with no signs of coming back, he was about to make it three. He’d disappeared up the mountain with hardly more than a word to her or anyone else. Sam didn’t know where he’d gone—or he simply wasn’t saying—and the other guys were just as clueless.

They didn’t seem concerned either. They only said that Jericho did this from time to time and she shouldn’t worry herself over it. But how could she not?

She’d become accustomed to seeing him every day. To hearing him move around the house. To knowing that he was right down the hall from her every night. Without him there, something vital was missing. Even Nikki was moping around the house as if she’d lost her best friend.

The house was closed up for the night. There were no clients at the moment and the other employees lived in a separate log home on the other side of the compound. She and Nikki were alone and though she wasn’t scared, she was uneasy. Wrapping her arms around her middle, she shivered in her short cotton nightgown and stared out her bedroom window at the moonlit darkness beyond the glass.

“Where are you?” she murmured.

How long was he going to stay out there on his own? Why was he gone? She’d so hoped they’d made a connection on their two days in the woods together. She remembered with perfect clarity that deep, lingering kiss that still had her waking up in the middle of the night with her body aching and her heartbeat racing.

How could he just leave? Doesn’t he care if people worry?

Behind her on the bed, Nikki whined in sympathy.

But Daisy didn’t want sympathy. She wanted Jericho. Home. Where he belonged. Funny, but she hadn’t even realized until this moment that she’d already begun to think of this place as home. Strange how quickly she’d acclimated to being here. To this way of life. So completely different from life in the city, living on the mountain was slower yet so much more…fundamental. Here, everyone worked together to make sure life moved as it should. The employees at the camp were a family and she’d slid into their company so easily, she’d come to rely on all of them.

But when the head of their family was missing…

“Darn it, where are you?”

Chewing at her bottom lip, she ignored the growing chill in the room and wondered what it would be like here when the snow came. Would she still be here? Would Jericho still be avoiding her? Or would she be pregnant and already gone from this place?

The thought of that sent a curl of regret unspooling at the pit of her stomach. She’d never planned to stay here forever. But now that she’d been here a while, become a part of things, the thought of leaving left her feeling…empty.

But she would have her child, she reminded herself. She wouldn’t be alone anymore.

She would have her own family again.

“If he ever comes back,” she muttered.

Behind her, Nikki suddenly jumped onto all fours and let out a yip of excitement. Daisy turned to look at her dog, then swung around to gaze out the window again. Jericho, bathed in moonlight, stepped from the tree line and walked across the wide yard, stopping directly in front of the house.

Nikki leaped off the bed, hit the wood floor and skidded, her short nails clacking against the oak planks as she raced for the closed bedroom door.

But Daisy wasn’t watching her dog. Instead, her gaze was locked on the man standing in the yard. Moonlight stretched his shadow across the grass and outlined him in a pearly light that seemed otherworldly. In the stillness, he tipped his head back, looked up at her window and met her gaze. Heat sizzled through her and a part of her was amazed that she could feel such an intense reaction from the man at such a distance. She lifted one hand and laid her palm against the cold windowpane as if she could touch him if she concentrated hard enough. And in that instant, something of her thoughts must have transmitted themselves to him because his features went hard and taut and a moment later, he was stalking toward the house with purposeful strides.

Daisy whirled around, grabbed up her robe from the end of her bed and pulled it on as she raced across the room. She threw the door open and Nikki burst free, flying down the hall and then the stairs, headed for the front door. The little dog got there just as Jericho opened it and when he stopped on the threshold, Nikki went up on her hind legs and waved her forepaws at him in celebration.

Daisy stood at the top of the stairs, breath caught in her chest as she watched him bend down, scoop up the dog and stoically accept Nikki’s kisses.

“She missed me,” he said, his voice low and rough.

“She’s not the only one,” Daisy told him. Her earlier frustrations and worry and anger were forgotten now in the rush of heat swimming through her system. Just looking at him made her knees weak. Locking her gaze with his fed her fantasies and sent her pulse rate into a gallop.

His mouth went straight and grim. He set the dog on the floor then closed the front door behind him.

“Why did you leave?”

“To get some distance from you.” His eyes were stormy, dark, and flashed with emotions that shifted too quickly for her to make sense of them.

“How’s that working for you?”

One corner of his amazing mouth lifted briefly. “Not well.”

“I’m glad.”

“You shouldn’t be,” he said and dropped his pack beside the door. Shrugging out of his jacket, he tossed it at the hall tree and didn’t seem to care when it missed and fell to the floor.

Daisy’s insides twisted as she drew one long, shaky breath. She hadn’t expected this, she thought wildly. Hadn’t thought that he would be the one to come to her. She’d expected to have to seduce him into bed. But looking into his eyes left her little doubt that Jericho King was a man on a mission.

And lucky her, she was that mission. She felt it. She sensed it in the very air surrounding them. It was bristling with tension, with a sexual energy and heat that was strong enough to light a dozen homes through a cold, dark winter.

She laid one hand on the banister and held on as she watched him walk slowly toward the staircase.

“I knew you were going to be trouble,” he said tightly. “The minute I saw you, I knew.”

“Is that right?”

“Tried to get rid of you, remember? Tried to talk you out of staying.”

“You did,” she agreed.

“But when you wouldn’t listen, I decided to just ignore you,” he admitted, taking the steps with a deliberate slowness. “Finally went out on the mountain just to get some space. Clear my head. Thought I could put you out of my mind, but you wouldn’t go. You stayed.”

Heat pooled in her belly then dipped lower, warming her through and setting up a tingling ache that throbbed at her center.

“I think about you even when I know I shouldn’t,” he told her as he came closer.

“I’ve been thinking about you, too,” she told him and her heartbeat fluttered unsteadily. “And you were gone so long, I was worried about you.”

He snorted. “You should be worried about you.”

“You don’t scare me.” She lifted her chin and tossed her hair back from her face. The fire in his eyes glinted at her as he moved steadily closer. Daisy took a breath and held it, not sure she’d be able to draw another. He was big and powerful and looked just a little dangerous and, oh, her entire being was quaking with banked eagerness.

When he stopped on the step just below her, their eyes were level and he said softly, “I should, Daisy. I should scare the hell outta you.”

She studied him for a long moment and saw past the desire and the heat in his eyes to the shadows lurking deep within. Shaking her head, she reached out to cup his cheek in her palm and whispered, “You’re no danger to me, Jericho King.”

He covered her hand with his own. “No,” he agreed, “but I can’t say the same for your virtue.”

Daisy laughed, but the sound was cut off as Jericho grabbed her and slammed her close to his chest. Her head fell back and her eyes were linked with his when she nodded slowly, telling him silently that she wanted him as badly as he did her. Then she said, “My virtue isn’t an issue. My need for you is.”

“Thank God,” he muttered and tossed her over one shoulder.

She yelped in surprise, but Jericho paid no attention. He’d damn near killed himself getting back to the lodge while the moon was still high. He’d wanted her to himself. He’d finally accepted that he wasn’t going to get any peace until he’d satisfied his body inside hers. And tonight was the night. He slipped one hand beneath her nightgown and caressed her panty-covered behind as he hit the landing and started down the hall for his room.

“No more waiting,” he told her. “No more thinking and dreaming about this. Tonight, I’m going to make you scream my name until you’re hoarse.”

She shivered and a tiny moan escaped her throat.

His own body tightened at the images racing through his mind and he hurried his steps. The little dog nipped along at his heels, but he couldn’t have cared less. He reached his bedroom, walked across the wide space and tossed Daisy onto the mattress. She bounced, settled in atop the handmade quilt and then stared up at him through wide, whiskey-colored eyes.

He tore his clothes off, telling her, “I even stopped to bathe in the river so I wouldn’t have to waste time with a damn shower once I got home.”

She grinned and pushed herself up onto her elbows.

“Must have been cold.”

He shook his head. “Didn’t feel a thing.”

Then he was on the bed with her, pushing her nightgown up and over her head, baring her luscious breasts to his gaze, to his touch. He bent over her, took first one nipple then the other into his mouth, licking, nibbling, sucking, and felt her fingers thread through his hair, holding him in place.

His hands moved over her skin, fingers dipping below the elastic band of her panties, a tiny scrap of white lace.

With one quick move, he snapped that band and tugged the lace free of her body. Then he touched her, covering her heat with the palm of his hand, feeling her body arch into him and listening to the soft sighs of expectation sliding from her lips.

“Jericho…”

“First time’s going to be hot and hard, baby,” he muttered against her breast. “I’ve been waiting for you too long.”

“Yes,” she said and met his gaze when he lifted his head. “Now, please. Fill me. I need you so much.”

He didn’t need to hear more. Jericho shifted position, knelt between her legs, then parted her thighs. He stroked her most sensitive skin with the tips of his fingers until she was writhing helplessly beneath him. “Jericho, now…”

“Almost,” he told her, watching her squirm, watching a passion-induced haze slide over her eyes.

Then, when he was satisfied that she was on the teetering brink of completion, he pushed his body into hers.

She gasped, lifting her hips to accommodate him, and he took advantage of her move, sliding ever deeper inside her. Her tight, hot body surrounded his and he groaned aloud at the sweeping satisfaction of finally being exactly where he’d dreamed of being.

This was all he had craved. This was what he needed above all else. Daisy. With her hot welcome, with her warm sighs and the soft ease of her lush body.

He levered himself over her, hands on either side of her head, and their eyes met and locked as he pumped himself into her. Plunging, claiming, again and again, his hips rocked against hers.

Her arms came around his neck, she locked her legs around his waist and pulled him deeper, tighter on every thrust. Breath mingled, mouths met and tongues twisted.

And when at last she tore her mouth from his and screamed his name, Jericho shouted in victory and allowed his body to explode into a pleasure so profound, it left him shattered.