Watch Me (Last Stand #3)(90)
Author: Brenda Novak

She lifted his hand to the soft flesh of her breast, and he felt his body instantly react. It was all he could do not to back her up against the wall.

“You’re going to get hurt, and then you’re going to blame me,” he said.

Her voice held a mocking note. “What makes you so sure you won’t be the one to get hurt this time?”

He knew better than to rise to the challenge, but his libido demanded a different answer. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” he said and snapped off his light.

Owen was breathing hard as he stared at the blood spatter on his passenger window. Karen’s death wasn’t supposed to go like this. He’d hoped to take her out into the forest, where he could shoot her without worrying about being seen or heard. Instead, he’d made a mess in his truck.

Checking to make sure the vehicle ahead of them hadn’t seen them spin out and stopped to help, he got back on the road. He definitely didn’t want to be straddling the highway when the next driver came up behind him. Not with a dead woman slumped in his passenger seat.

He glanced at Karen. Boy, had she surprised him. He’d never expected her to be so strong. She was almost as strong as Sheridan. But he’d been lucky in one regard: he was pretty sure the incident had gone unobserved.

Problem was, the bullet had traveled through her chest and lodged in his seat. How was he going to explain that?

He told himself he’d think of something. First things first. Stay organized. And that meant he had to dispose of the body before he got distracted by other concerns.

Giving the truck enough gas to come up to a reasonable speed, he laid the gun in his lap as he tried to decide where to dump the body. He had a shovel. He could go someplace and dig a shallow grave. But that would take a lot of time. The night he’d tried to bury Sheridan was too fresh in his mind. Digging was harder than he’d realized for a man who wasn’t used to physical labor. And he had so much to do. He had to clean his truck, hide that bullet hole in the seat and invent some kind of excuse for Karen’s disappearance—all before his wife began to wonder where he was.

He needed a place where he could get rid of the body fast without worrying about being observed. A place where it wouldn’t be found until he could cover his tracks.

He smiled as the obvious occurred to him. Now that Sheridan was staying in town, Cain’s focus was on her. Which meant Owen could dump Karen in the cellar of Cain’s old cabin and leave her there until Lucy fell asleep tonight. He had a key; Cain had given it to him years ago.

Yes, that would work. Later, he could get “called to the office.” As the town’s only doctor, he was on duty 24/7. His wife had quit trying to keep track of him at night.

The darkness embraced Sheridan seconds before Cain’s arms went around her and his mouth crushed hers. He kissed her with soft, pliable lips, meeting her tongue with his as his hands slipped up the back of her shirt. “You think you’re tough, huh?” He sounded breathless as he kissed her neck, cupped her br**sts.

She caught his bottom lip between her teeth. “I’m as tough as you are.”

He laughed. “I don’t doubt it. Should we go up to the futon?”

“No.” She liked it right here, where it was so dark neither of them could see. There was something erotic about such absolute blackness, about darkness so thick it felt tangible. She could throw her head back and cast all reservations aside because she didn’t have to worry about giving too much away.

“This is no place for a nice girl.”

“I think I’ve already proved I’m not so nice.”

“You don’t mind getting messy?”

“I like messy.” Her hands were under his shirt, too. She closed her eyes as she swept her fingers over his flat stomach, traced his pectoral muscles and explored the ropey muscles of his neck and shoulders.

He pulled his shirt off, and she didn’t bother using her fingers anymore. She used her mouth.

“You make me so hot,” he whispered.

She moved lower, which became the trigger that threw everything into fast-forward. They couldn’t get naked fast enough, couldn’t touch enough, couldn’t get close enough. He paused only when their clothes were off, and he was lifting her onto him. She sensed a strange hesitation, a desire to say something. But she didn’t want to let him think, didn’t want to let herself think, either. Wrapping her legs around him, she pulled him inside her.

“That’s what I want,” he said.

“I want it, too,” she whispered. But then it hit her: Birth control.

“Cain?” she gasped.

His face was buried in her shoulder while he supported her weight. “What?”

“What about a condom?”

He stopped, but the way he squeezed her bottom told her it hadn’t been easy for him. “Don’t you have anything in your purse?”

“No.”

“Do we really need it?”

She thought he was joking. “Unless we’re willing to risk a baby, we do.”

She’d said it flippantly, but he remained serious. “Would you trust me that much?”

Sheridan stiffened in surprise. “What did you say?”

“You heard me.”

“We’ve been over this. We’re talking about a lifelong commitment, Cain. I’d want to keep the baby.”

“I understand that.” His chest rose and fell as he recovered his breath. “I won’t leave you high and dry. You know that, don’t you?”

She clung to his shoulders. “But you already got stuck with this problem once. You don’t want to do it again.”

“This isn’t the same.”

“How’s it different?”

He touched her forehead with his own. “I was lying when I said you don’t matter to me.” He hesitated, as if his next words were difficult, but that made them sound all the more sincere. “I’m in love with you.”

Sheridan didn’t know how to react. It was the last thing she’d expected to hear. “Cain…”

“I tried to warn you.”

“You told me I was going to be hurt.”

“You probably will be hurt. I make a terrible husband.”

“It’s been eleven years since you were married. And you were so young. How can you say that?”

“Because it’s true.”

“At least you’re good in bed,” she teased. “We’ll always have that.”