Читать книгу The Chance - Робин Карр, Robyn Carr - Страница 11

Five

Eric felt the impulse to run away, something he hadn’t felt in many years. He wasn’t even sure how many years. This time it was for an entirely different reason—for once he wasn’t afraid of being trapped, he was afraid Laine wouldn’t give him a chance. He was afraid she’d come to her senses. That fear was torturously coupled with his overwhelming desire for her, and his willingness to take any risk to make it happen. It was undeniable. He wanted her. It was so new and hot, he didn’t even recognize the emotions.

His last girlfriend, Cara, had not inspired these feelings in him, not at all. He’d been fond of her. More than fond, really—she was adorable. Cute and funny. When they were together, which hadn’t been too often even when they lived together, they enjoyed each other. They had good sex and he’d been tremendously grateful for that. And when she’d told him they were over, he had barely grieved. It felt a lot like saying goodbye to a friend at the train station. Like, “Good luck, be safe, stay in touch if you can, take care of yourself, I’ll be thinking of you.” Even then he knew that the thought of her wouldn’t keep him awake at night. She was a sweet girl. He’d been lucky to have two nice years with her. He was all too aware Cara had never created a fierce hunger in him. They were like roommates with privileges, excellent privileges. Eric had thought that’s what it was supposed to be like.

But now, he ached for Laine.

All through the afternoon he did what he did best—buried himself in an engine and just let his mind argue with itself. He could do the noble thing and let this relationship end before it began because it was destined to be a disaster. Well, that was if Laine wanted him as much as he wanted her. She was the law, he was the reformed criminal. She came from an educated, mucky-muck Boston family. He came from a lower-middle-class background in which only his brother-in-law had attended college. She wanted to soar from great heights, he liked his feet firmly planted on the ground. And yet he was drawn to her like a moth to a flame.

Eric’s instincts told him it was a dangerous prospect to want someone with the kind of hunger he felt for Laine. It couldn’t work. He tried like bloody hell to turn back, to call her and say, “Look, let’s not be stupid here, we are not going to last through the weekend and we both know it. Let’s cut our losses.”

Instead, he asked Manny to keep the station open for Saturday evening, asked Norm to open Sunday morning, asked Justin to work with Norm.

“My mom usually needs me Sunday mornings. I have to take her to church,” Justin said.

Eric grinned. “You? Church?”

“My mother, church. Didn’t you hear me?”

“Jeez, I just got very excited,” Eric said. “Any chance you pick up pointers while you’re taking your mother to church?”

“Yeah. I don’t pick my nose in public anymore.”

Eric frowned. “Progress,” he said. “Norm can probably handle things in the morning. I won’t be too late.”

Well, look at me, he thought to himself. Trying to talk myself into running for my life before two perfectly innocent people get hurt, but instead I get people to cover for me in the morning like I’m already invited to spend the night. If she’s half as smart as I think she is, she’ll nip this idea in the bud.

He went to his motel to shower, shave and change clothes. At exactly six, he knocked on Laine’s door. She opened the door and just looked at him for a long moment. She looked at him like she hadn’t been expecting him. Then she pulled him inside, kicked the door closed and jumped into his arms. He lifted her off the floor and went after her mouth. Everything he thought about all day long was gone. He leaned back against the closed door and held her against him; he loved that strong, muscled, supple little body in his arms. Had they said hello? They hadn’t even said hello....

He held her tight, his hand running over her butt, his lips urging hers open, his tongue penetrating... He was getting ideas, which preceded getting hard by about three seconds. Her breathing was already rapid and somewhat labored and he was dizzy. He leaned his head back, breaking the lip-lock for a second. “Whoa,” he whispered.

“Double whoa,” she said. “You smell good.”

“You smell even better,” he said.

“I lit the fire upstairs.”

“I love a woman with a plan,” he said, kissing her again. Long and wet and deep and luxurious. She was delicious. She was willing. She was his.

“I didn’t have a plan,” she said. “I didn’t know I was going to do that. I’m not sorry. Let’s just go upstairs. Huh, Eric?”

“What about those fragile dumplings...?”

“Screw the dumplings—they’ll be fine. After we’re fine...”

He slid an arm under her knees and carried her up the stairs. “We’re crazy, you know,” he pointed out to her. “No way this works....”

“This is going to work just fine,” she said, unbuttoning the top button of his shirt. Then the second. Then she had to stop because he was wearing a heavy sweater over his shirt.

“I should’ve known you were a woman who had no trouble asking for what you want.”

“If you have other ideas, you better speak up,” she said.

He stopped in the middle of the staircase. Holding her with one arm, one foot on the next rising step, he rested her bottom on his raised thigh. “All I can say is thank you.” Then he took her lips again. “I’ve been thinking about your mouth all day.”

“Just my mouth?” she said, smiling against his lips.

“If I let myself think about anything else, I might’ve had an injury. How fast can you get naked?”

“Faster than you, I bet.”

He raced up those stairs like lightning.

He put her on her bed and she was up on her knees, shoving his jacket off his shoulders, lifting his sweater by the hem, over his head. He took care of the shirt he wore, disregarding buttons and pulling it over his head. Then he pulled off her sweater and she flopped back on the bed, kicking off her pants.

There he stood in his jeans and boots, looking down at her. “Ho, boy,” he said. “You’re gorgeous. And you’re very fast.”

“Come on, Eric. I showed you mine. Show me yours.”

He sat on the bed and worked off his boots first. “Patience.”

“I don’t have that,” she informed him.

He pulled a couple of foil packages out of his pocket, tossed them on the bedside table, then slid down the jeans. He put a knee on the bed and let her have a look.

“Holy guacamole,” she said. Then she opened her arms and he filled them.

He rolled with her so they were on their sides, locked together with their lips while he slowly caressed her breasts and back and belly. When his fingers moved lower, she grabbed his wrist. “Eric, suit up. The second you touch me, I’m gone. I’ll be way ahead of you.”

He grinned at her and gave her lower lip a gentle nip. “The first time, anyway. I can catch up, no worries.”

Eric wasn’t always great at following orders; he didn’t get the condom right away, as she instructed. He’d spent all day trying not to think about this and the last few minutes praying he wouldn’t be too fast. That became a nonissue right away. He slid a slow, easy finger into her, his thumb brushing against her clitoris, and she went off like a firecracker, clenching and throbbing and drenching him in liquid heat. “God,” he said. “Beautiful. Beautiful.” And then he kept her going for a long, long time until she collapsed beside him, flat on her back, spent. He kissed her cheek. “Can you do that again?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered weakly.

“If you give me two things, I can die a happy man.”

“Name ’em,” she said, her eyes still closed.

“Let me have a little taste, then do that when I’m inside. Let me watch your eyes while I’m there. Blow my mind. Kill me. I’m on a hair trigger.”

Her eyes opened a slit, but they sparkled. Her lips curved in a smile. She opened her legs for him.

He slid down her body, stopping to make sure her peaked nipples got the attention they deserved, then he went farther. He kissed the inside of her thighs, but quickly. He was anxious. He was ravenous. He was ready to explode. He gave her a few licks with a gentle tongue, then a little rougher, thoroughly enjoying her moaning and wiggling against him.

He went back to her mouth. “More later,” he promised. “Laine, you’re the sweetest thing I’ve ever had on my tongue and I want you so bad, I think I might pass out. Tell me what you want. You can have anything you want. You own me right now.”

“Just get inside me, Eric. Before I climb on you and just take the choice away from you.”

He didn’t make her wait—he slid in slowly, luxuriated for a moment, then began to move. He grabbed her hands in one of his, stretched them over her head and moved faster, then harder, then deeper and harder. She bit his shoulder, groaned, and let him have it, throwing another climax at him. So fierce, so tight, so powerful, he let it all go with a loud moan. She was unstoppable; she was hot as lava. He came until his brain was empty and she was a limp pile of moist flesh beneath him.

“My God,” she said.

“Yeah,” he concurred in a weak breath.

He held his weight off her until he could catch his breath, then with his arms gently cradling her, he rolled them onto their sides again. He kept his mouth on hers, just pressing his lips and tongue against her lips and tongue, holding her against him for as long as he could—he didn’t want to leave her body. He thought it was very probably the best sexual experience of his life. He certainly couldn’t remember anything to compare it to. He wanted to say something emotional, intimate. Something memorable. But all he could come up with was “Are you okay?”

“No,” she said. “All my bones melted.”

He chuckled. “A-plus?”

“Don’t get full of yourself. And don’t stop trying. God, Eric. Have you always been a sex god?”

He raised up on one elbow and looked down at her. He shook his head. “I think I can honestly say, you bring out the best in me.”

“Whew. In a few minutes, I’ll think about those dumplings....”

“Screw the dumplings. I can just live on you.”

“You’ll get very thin,” she said with a smile.

“I’ll be fine. I think we need to do that again. Right away. Before we forget how that works. Damn, baby, we were very good. I think we found what we have in common.”

* * *

They made love again, then showered together and that was just another opportunity to enjoy each other’s bodies. Then they were going to dress to go downstairs to eat but were sidetracked by the bed. By the time they got to the kitchen they were weak with hunger and drunk on sex. Eric had never made love so much in one evening in his life.

They didn’t get to the dumplings until 11:00 p.m. Laine told him she thought they were probably her best ever, but the taste and texture barely registered with Eric. The only thing he could taste was Laine and he didn’t want to forget it for a second.

They sat on the floor in the great room, in front of the fire, trays on their laps, knees almost touching. While they ate, they talked. “This is a completely inappropriate question,” Laine said, “but will you tell me about all your lovers?”

“No,” he said with a laugh. “There haven’t been very many. I told you, my last girlfriend was a cute little computer nerd and we lived together for almost two years. She was special in a hundred ways, but we both knew we were temporary from the start and she dumped me last summer for someone more her type.”

“How do you know when you’re temporary?” she asked.

“You tell me, Laine. You’re not married or engaged or serious—and I can’t believe every man in America doesn’t want you for his very own. And you’re here while on leave—you’ll go back to the Bureau. You won’t work out of Thunder Point, I know that. I just refuse to think about it right now. Want to tell me about your men?”

She just shook her head. “My professional life didn’t leave a lot of room for that. I was in a few relationships, short-term, with guys whose lives were just like mine, which meant high pressure, bad hours, temporary assignments, traveling a lot. But your life is different—one business, one address, not so much uncertainty.”

“I found my love mostly in cars,” he said with a shrug. “I’m not a ladies’ man. I like women, but I was busy. Busy trying to rebuild myself. Ten years is a long time to be out of circulation.”

“You said five years....”

“Five in jail, five on parole. Ten years under a microscope. I didn’t test the rules, not even a little bit. And I was nervous about forming attachments.”

“But when you were young, before jail...”

“I was a fuck-around idiot. There’s nothing more to tell about that.”

“There’s a daughter.”

His eyes actually got a little dreamy. She couldn’t help but smile as he talked. “I got so lucky there. And after hearing those scary words one time—‘I think I might be pregnant’—I was very careful. I’m sure she’s the only one, and what a miracle. Wait till you get to know her better. I can’t believe I was a part of creating her. You won’t believe how great she is.”

“Well, Gina’s pretty great, so...”

“I must have a guardian angel after all,” he said. “What are we going to do after we finish dinner?”

“What do you want to do?”

“I want to go back to bed. I want to sleep with you tonight, but that’s your call. I can put on my boots and jacket and head home. I’m just saying, I’m yours tonight.”

“Then you wash, I’ll dry, then we’ll snuggle in.”

“I like that idea.”

When they were back in bed, they whispered to each other, telling little bits of their lives. It was true, they seemed to have little in common, and yet Laine hadn’t felt this compatible with another human being in her adult life.

At three in the morning, Laine woke and reached for him and his side of the bed was empty. “Eric?”

He sat down on the edge of the bed. “Shhh. Go back to sleep. I didn’t want to wake you—I was going to leave a note. My phone went. I have to go tow someone....”

“I didn’t hear the phone,” she said.

“It was on vibrate and I heard it bouncing around the nightstand. The number on the side of the truck, the number the cops have, it’s my cell number. I got a text, wanna see?”

She liked that he wasn’t private about it, hiding his text messages. She shook her head. “What’s up?”

“Big mess on Freemont Bridge near Bandon. The cops threw out stop sticks to disable a car they were chasing and ended up blowing out tires on three civilian cars that weren’t being pursued. My job is going to be easier than theirs. They’re going to have some very annoying paperwork. I texted that I was on my way.”

“Did their man get away?” she asked.

“I have no idea. I can come back. It’s up to you.”

“How long will you be?”

“That depends on how many tow trucks respond. It could be a few hours.”

“You should call me. It’s the only way I’ll know you can’t stop thinking of me.” Then she smiled just as she closed her eyes sleepily.

He kissed her forehead. “I have a feeling you’re going to be under my skin for a very long time,” he said.

* * *

Eric jogged to his station, where he covered his decent clothes with a work coverall and changed out his boots into lace-up, steel-toed work boots. Because he wasn’t sure of the terrain around the bridge, he opted for his flatbed side puller with the nine-thousand-pound hydraulic winch. If he found a car off the road or down an incline, he could get it on the truck. If all he needed to do was tow, he could manage that easily.

Lots of flashing lights along the bridge greeted him. He shone his overhead beams on the scene and got out to investigate. There were two state police cruisers along with a couple of local cop cars from a town south of the bridge. And because this was pretty close to his territory, Mac McCain was there. Eric saw two cars with flats along the side of the bridge and then, predictably, down the hill on the near side of the bridge, a large SUV flipped on its side. The driver must have lost control when the tires were spiked by the stop sticks.

He approached Mac first. “Injuries?”

Mac shook his head. “Guy and his wife in the SUV are a little shook up and she has a couple of bruises, but they exited the vehicle without incident. They’re over there, moaning and groaning about the car.”

“And the bad guy?”

“Who knows?” Mac said. “The Keystone Kops over there thought they had him. I think he pulled off the road into some trees or something and when they came peeling down to the bridge, he turned around and headed in the other direction. Stolen car. We’ll probably find it abandoned before very long.” He grinned. “All these state troopers and sheriff’s department crew look like they’re feeling pretty smug, don’t they? That’s relief you see—so glad they didn’t fuck this up. Can you get that SUV? We have another wrecker coming.”

“I got it. Where do you want that SUV to go?”

“That’s between you and the owner. We’re not impounding anything.”

“Well, let’s see what they want.”

Eric made his way over to a couple standing by the side of the road. He touched the brim of his hat. “Folks? Rough night, I see. I’m here to get your car up that hill. I haven’t looked at it yet, but it’s probably going to need four new tires and since it took a slide, I’d recommend an axel and frame check. It needs to get up on the lift and the undercarriage should be checked to make sure it’s safe. And someone should look at the body for damage. I can handle all of that in Thunder Point. Where are you folks headed?”

The man sucked noisily on a mint. “Home from a visit in Sacramento. We’re almost home. Eugene.”

Eric nodded. “I had a business in Eugene for years,” he said. “Well, I can’t take the car all the way to Eugene for you, but there are good shops in Bandon, North Bend, Coquille or Thunder Point. There’s a motel in Thunder Point—not fancy, but clean and nice. And I can take care of the car tomorrow. I can send someone for the right tires, take a look at your undercarriage, brakes and other essentials. I can even do the body work, but you might want to get closer to home for that, once the car is drivable. If so, I can get you some pictures for your damages report.” Then he ducked slightly to see the woman’s face. She was looking down but lifted her face briefly. “You want someone to look at that, ma’am?”

She just shook her head. “I’m okay.”

“Is the police department going to pony up for the repairs?” the man asked, an obvious edge to his voice.

“You’ll have to work that out with them. Why don’t I get this car up the hill while you talk to that man over there,” he said. He indicated to Mac and pulled some gloves out of his pocket. Then he lifted the brim of his hat to look at the man. “Let’s just get you back on the road.”

“You’re kind of cheerful for the middle of the night,” the man said sourly. “Big commission here?” he suggested.

Eric smiled. He was cheerful all right and it had nothing to do with the money he’d make on this tow. “I’m on call to local and county police. As a matter of fact, they woke me up from a very good dream. Now if you’ll talk over where you want me to take your vehicle and move to the other side of the road, I’ll get to work. By the time you decide where you’re spending the rest of the night, I’ll have her loaded on the rig.”

He positioned and braced the wrecker at the side of the road. Using a large flashlight, he moved cautiously down the hill. It wasn’t too rocky; he wedged a boulder out of the way. Examining the car, he found some surprising things. Only one tire was flat and though it was dark, it didn’t appear to be a puncture. There were plenty of scratches and dents, with a small amount of fuel leaking on the ground and dripping into the creek. The chances were excellent that the tank had been nearly empty, but Eric had an industrial-strength fire extinguisher handy on the chance of a spark. The car was lying on the driver’s side, so he pointed the flashlight inside the passenger’s open door and looked inside.