Look Again: A Novella (Echo Platoon Book 1) Page 5

  He cut her a searching look. “No problem.” Then he led her back to his car, and sped her safely home. For a change, they didn’t speak, except to discuss the wild turkeys that hobbled across the road, forcing them to slow down.

  “You don’t see that every day,” Tyler observed.

  As he pulled into her driveway, slowing in front of her house, Katie turned her body to face him. “I had such a nice time,” she assured him, both longing for and dreading a parting kiss.

  He sent her a wry smile. “I’m supposed to bring Bronco home with me,” he reminded her.

  “Oh, that’s right.” They both climbed out of the car to cross the dark yard when suddenly Tyler flashed out a hand and seized her wrist.

  Startled, Katie looked over to find him staring at her front door.

  “I thought you left the light on,” he observed.

  Yes, she had, but now her porch stood in darkness. However, there was still enough light for her to see that her window pane had been shattered all over again. “No!” she cried, racing for the door.

  Even with his painful prosthesis, Tyler managed to catch her elbow as she mounted the steps. “Call your uncle,” he said in a calm voice that helped to dissipate her horror. “I’ll go inside and check things out.”

  “Find Goldie,” she called after him. The fear that her pregnant dog had been hurt by the intruder made her movements less than competent as she fumbled for her cell phone and dialed her uncle’s number. What if the intruder had a gun? Could Tyler hold his own against him?

  Waiting for her uncle to answer, Katie watched through her windows as Tyler went from room to room flipping on the lights. Her uncle’s voicemail answered, and Katie left a succinct message asking him to call her right back. Suddenly, there was Tyler, stepping through her door with a broom.

  “You can come in,” he stated. “Goldie’s okay. He bribed her with a meaty bone. But brace yourself. The intruder tore up your window seat in the parlor.”

  Bewildered as to why, Katie sidestepped the glass Tyler started sweeping and entered her home with a held breath.

  The formal parlor had been the coup de grace of her renovation project. Expensive crown molding accented the pale yellow walls. Her furniture was a tasteful blend of modern and Victorian. A working clock from 1912 ticked over her whitewashed mantle. Nothing had been disturbed except the window seat. The cushions had been ripped off and tossed onto the floor. Someone had taken a hatchet to the wood beneath, pulling up and breaking off several planks to reveal the empty space below.

  Katie clapped a hand over her mouth to stifle her dismay. If it wasn’t enough that she would have to replace the window in her door a second time, now she would have to make repairs to the window seat. “What on earth?” she cried as Tyler came up behind her. “What—what was he looking for?”

  “My guess is money,” he suggested.

  “Money?” She whirled around to look at him.

  “Think about it. The former owner went to jail for embezzling his client’s money. What if he hid it in this house thinking he could find it again when he got out?”

  Just then her cell phone rang, and she took the call, telling her uncle what had happened, and suggesting Tyler’s theory. “He’ll be right over,” she relayed, putting her phone away.

  Tyler offered her a sympathetic hug “Better finish sweeping up,” he said, turning away.

  Katie found Goldie lying in the kitchen gnawing on an oversized knuckle bone.

  “You don’t need this,” she sternly informed the dog. Tossing the bone into the trash, she threw herself down at the kitchen table until Goldie wandered over and gazed into her eyes, steadying her erratic heartbeat.

  Chapter Five

  Tyler saw the sheriff back to his car. The man had arrived in a timely-enough fashion, but then he wouldn’t leave. After listening to Tyler’s theory, he had called a number of individuals to gather reports on the former owner. Dale Roberts had stolen over thirty-thousand dollars of the investment money his clients had entrusted to him. Only twelve thousand of that sum had ever been recovered, making Tyler’s theory a viable one.

  Roberts had been convicted in 1983 and served eight years of a fifteen year sentence only to end up right back in jail for failing to report to his parole officer. Since then, he’d committed a rash of crimes that kept him incarcerated, including fraud and grand larceny. A recent phone call to the state police confirmed he’d just been paroled again in April.

  “Shouldn’t take us long to find him,” the sheriff said, speaking out of his lowered car window as he snapped on his seatbelt. “I’ve got the shoe molds and a couple of good fingerprints. We’ll get him on breaking and entering this time.”

  Tyler watched the patrol car roll away. Sensing someone’s eyes on him, he looked over to find all the dogs in the kennels standing alertly in their pens. Their gazes seemed to be fixed on the porch. Tyler swung around to find Katie standing by the pile of swept glass, hugging herself. The porch light, now back on, turned her chestnut hair to amber. Drawn to her like a moth to flame, Tyler climbed the steps and searched her pallid face. Her eyes reflected lingering shock. She appeared to be trembling.

  “You all right?” he asked her.

  She started to nod then changed her mind and shook her head, no. It was all he could do not to reach for her and enfold her in his arms, offering the reassurance she so obviously needed. But her skittishness earlier that night and the story of what had happened to her in college kept him in check.

  “Would you…like for me to stay?” he asked haltingly.

  “Please,” she said without the least hesitation. With that, she stepped right up to him and threw her arms around his waist. He could feel tremors running up and down her spine. He could also smell a delicious hint of gardenia, dryer sheets, and woman. My God, how long had it been since he’d inhaled that subtle and arousing scent?

  It took every ounce of discipline to return her embrace without openly caressing her. She wouldn’t welcome his advances—not tonight, maybe not ever.

  “Okay,” she said, stepping back and visibly collecting herself. “Why don’t we watch a movie? I doubt I could sleep right now.”

  The movie turned out to be an action adventure flick. By the time it was over, the night’s fright had retreated and Katie declared herself ready to go to bed.

  “I have a guest room,” she said, canceling out his stubborn little hope that she would ask him to sleep with her.

  “I guess Bronco’s okay in the kennel?” he asked, thinking he might at least get to sleep with the dog.

  “I’ll bring him in if you like.”

  “Sure, if it’s not too much trouble.”

  “Not at all.”

  He trailed her outside, taking the opportunity to reconnoiter the yard and make certain the intruder wasn’t still lurking about. But lightning bugs and cicadas were all that he saw and heard.

  Bronco greeted him with enthusiasm, flanking his side as he followed Katie back into the house. She led them to a room on the second level, immediately adjacent to what he guessed was the master suite.

  “Nice,” he said taking in the contemporary décor and café-au-lait colored walls. Bronco found a braided rug on the floor, circled it twice and lay down.

  “The bathroom is right across the hall,” she said, pointing it out. “Do you need anything else?”

  Just you, he thought, surprised by how quickly his attraction for her had heated to full-blown desire. “No, I’m good.”

  “All right. Well, if you change your mind, I’m right next door. You might hear me get up at night. I’m not the best sleeper.”

  “Me neither.” He grimaced at the understatement.

  “Goodnight.” Sending him a shy smile, she turned away, calling for Goldie to join her in her bedroom, and closing the door behind her.

  Tyler reconnoitered the room, inspecting knickknacks and framed photographs, including one of her smiling parents. She had told him tonight that they were on a
world cruise. The queen-sized bed looked inviting with its downy white comforter. He went across the hall and prepared for bed, brushing his teeth with a finger. Then he returned to the room, freed his aching stump from the hated prosthesis, and slipped into bed.

  Snapping off the light, he pricked his ears over Bronco’s steady breathing to the silence coming from the other room. If Katie wasn’t sleeping, she was sure being quiet. He closed his eyes and willed himself to sleep, but his body thrummed with awareness. He was still too-keyed up to lose consciousness. An hour passed, then another. He rolled over and groaned into his pillow. Why were nights so impossibly endless?

  Suddenly he heard Katie’s doorknob turn. Stealthy footfalls sounded outside of the guestroom door, which he’d left intentionally cracked. Her approach had him holding his breath and wondering what she wanted.

  “Tyler?” She whispered his name so quietly that if he were sleeping—and anyone other than a trained SEAL—it wouldn’t have awakened him.

  He sat up abruptly as she pushed his door farther open, and Bronco did likewise.

  “Are you awake?” she asked earnestly.

  “I think so,” he said with a smile.

  She just stood there, dressed in a short teddy that made his pulse accelerate and his internal temperature rise.

  “Everything okay?” he asked.

  “I can’t sleep,” she admitted, hands fisted at her sides.

  Welcome to my world, he thought.

  “I was thinking—” She cut herself off.

  “That maybe you’d sleep better over here?” he suggested, praying he was right.

  “Exactly. I mean, just…sleep in the same bed.”

  No way was he going to sleep a wink with her shapely body lying next to his. “Sure,” he said, tossing back the covers and scooting over to make room for her.

  “Thank you.” With a pat on the head for Bronco, she wriggled into the space he’d made, sighing with relief then turned onto her side to gaze at him in the dark. He could just make out the whites of her eyes and the curve of her nose by the moonlight slipping through the window sheers. “Goodnight,” she said, closing her eyes.

  “’Night.” He lay flat on his back, fighting the awareness of her proximity as it clawed at him. He’d never been more painfully conscious of his missing foot. Did it make him any less of a man in her eyes?

  Minute by agonizing minute, the night ticked by. The dog started snoring. Tyler’s long-neglected manhood throbbed with the need to be stroked. But that was wishful thinking.

  Suddenly, Katie squirmed closer, rolled into his body and threw a leg over his. Tyler froze, the breath wedged in his lungs, his heart thudding. Did she even know what she was doing? Her foot was touching his appended ankle. He was afraid to speak, to wake her up if she was sleeping. Besides, he could feel the weight of one full breast resting on his chest and it felt exquisite.

  “Do you think I could have a tiny kiss?”

  Her soft question almost stopped his heart. “Uh, sure,” he said, having to pull his shoulder out from under her head in order to come up on one elbow. Her cat-like eyes caught and held the starlight. He leaned over her, only too willing to indulge in a kiss. His heart thudded in anticipation.

  Ducking his head, he planted a chaste and tender kiss on her lips.

  Her fingers slid into his hair, curled into it, and pulled his head down to do it again. There was nothing chaste or tender about the second kiss. She met it with a willingness to participate that curled his toes. Desire swept through him with hurricane force. He tamped it down, striving for restraint.

  At last she pulled back. “That was nice,” she said, sounding faintly surprised. “I don’t know why but I’m not at all tense with you.”

  Implying that she locked up around other men?

  “Maybe because you knew me before?” he suggested. For himself, he’d practically forgotten about his missing foot. If she didn’t seem to notice, what did it matter?

  “That must be it. Do you think we could try it again?”

  His stomach clenched with desire. “Sure.” And then he kissed her again, concentrating on just the luscious taste and texture of her mouth, doing his best to ignore the breasts pushed against him.

  Nice was not the word he would have used to describe the sultry, languorous twining of their tongues. Naughty came much closer. It was all he could do to hold himself in check.

  Katie seized his wrist, drawing his hand to one of her breasts in a silent command to caress her.

  Second base, Tyler thought, telling himself he’d be content to stay right here, kneading Katie’s fullness through the filmy material of her teddy. He thumbed a stiffened nipple, and she broke the kiss with a gasp.

  Out the corner of his eye, Tyler saw Bronco get up and slip through the open door. Apparently, they had wrecked his slumber. Either that, or they’d given him ideas and he was off to visit Goldie. How certain was Katie that the labradoodle had fathered Goldie’s pups?

  “I’ve never honestly enjoyed intimacy since that night in college,” Katie admitted, recapturing Tyler’s attention.

  “We can stop now if you want.” Disappointed, he started to draw his hand away.

  “Oh, no.” She pressed it back and sealed her lips over his. “Don’t stop,” she inserted between kisses. “I’m enjoying it immensely.”

  So was he. He was enjoying it so much he was afraid she’d want to stop before he got to third base. With rising hope, he gathered the material of her teddy and lifted it up the length of her body, revealing creaming looking skin, supple muscles, and bodacious curves. “Christ, you’re beautiful,” he exclaimed.

  To his gratification, she raised her arms and arched her back invitingly. Encouraged, Tyler stripped off his boxers, which was all he had on. She watched every move, her fascination only fanning his arousal.

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” she purred, touching her breasts in an unconsciously erotic gesture.

  “Let me do that.” Tyler lowered his head to lap at a taut nipple. Her hum of pleasure had him moving to the other one. And then he moved slowly and implacably down the length of her body, worshiping her with his mouth. “You just tell me if you want me to stop.”

  “Please don’t stop,” she begged.

  He felt himself smiling. He kissed her hip bones and the insides of her quivering thighs, inhaling her perfume until it left him giddy. “You smell so good,” he muttered.

  As he moved his mouth to the apex of her thighs, she spread them in invitation, gazing down the length of her body at him.

  “That’s beautiful,” she said on a note of wonder. A second later her head fell back in delight. “Oh, Tyler.”

  She will not regret this, Tyler vowed. He devoted himself to the mission at hand—to bring her more pleasure than she’d ever known in her life. He lavished her with all the skill he could muster, listening to her ragged breathing to determine what pleased her most.

  Goosebumps played tag up the backs of her thighs. She trembled and moaned. Tyler slid a finger into her slippery heat.

  “Yes,” she cried, sounding at the verge of orgasm.

  He added a second digit, preparing her for what was to come.

  “Oh!” She lifted her hips, driving his fingers deeper.

  He could feel her convulsing, feel the rush of moisture coating him. He pushed to his knees reaching for his condom in the wallet beside the bed. He had a little trouble balancing on the mattress with only one foot to brace him, but he didn’t topple over.

  With reawakening confidence and certainty that she wouldn’t put a halt to things now, he stretched himself over her, centering his sex between her thighs. As she pulled his head down for a kiss, he sank into her with a groan of ecstasy. Her body welcomed him. Christ, it had been so long since he’d lost himself in a woman’s softness. Katie’s tender embrace and the way her body moved with his felt like home.

  He wanted to wallow in the sweetness of the moment, to retreat and then surge into her ag
ain and again like waves rolling onto shore. However, it wasn’t long before rapture overwhelmed him and he gave into it, groaning with ultimate surcease as he buried his face against Katie’s neck.

  Oh, man. That was…amazing.

  When he’d caught his breath, he raised his head to look down at her. She returned his gaze with a dreamy-looking smile. “How was that?” he asked.

  “Perfect,” she replied.

  He had to agree. It had been surprisingly, overwhelmingly perfect. In fact, he found himself looking forward to doing it again.

  “Now I think I can sleep,” she said, dashing that prospect.

  He dropped a quick kiss on her lips. “Be right back,” he said, experiencing his first awkward moment as he hopped naked across the room and out into the hall to discard the condom and wash up.

  By the time he rejoined Katie, her rhythmic breathing told him she’d already fallen asleep. He got carefully back into the bed, willed his half-aroused member to subside, and closed his eyes. Within seconds, he was snoring.

  Chapter Six

  Katie browsed the aisle of bird feeders at the hardware store with a smile of contentment. It had been a week since she and Tyler had first shared a bed together and, since then, a night hadn’t gone by that he wasn’t next to her. They both slept like rocks after indulging in highly satisfying lovemaking.

  I’m in deep, she admitted to herself. Yet the acknowledgement didn’t fill her with panic because she suspected that Tyler felt the same way about her. He hadn’t said as much but he’d gone from morosely depressed to smiling and optimistic in the course of seven days.

  Their trip to Gordonsville to visit his parents had helped with that, too. While Tyler’s mother Lauren hadn’t fully recognized her son, she’d perked up at the sight of Bronco, whom Tyler had brought along for the visit.

  “Who’s this?” she’d asked, stretching out a manicured hand to stroke the dog.

  Barely sixty-five years old and still beautiful, Lauren Rexall radiated with a warmth and kindness that Bronco seemed to recognize at once. Katie fully understood Tyler’s heartbreak over his mother’s dementia.