He stripped away her clothes, kissed her creamy skin. She felt so damned small beneath him, so delicate, so…fragile? But he couldn’t wait. He drove himself deep into her welcoming heat, felt her surge up against him, sea to his cliff, soft to his hard, in a sensual battle as old as time.
He marveled at the power of her as she took all of him, body and soul. Emma fragile? She was fire beneath him, storm, like a wild witch borne in from the sea. As they made fierce love there upon the stone, she took as much as he did, demanded as boldly, reached as deeply and when the climax came, she cried out, and clung to him so hard his ribs ached almost as much as his heart.
How on God’s earth was he ever going to let her go?
What other choice did he have?
He closed his eyes, remembering the magazine picture Veronica had flashed in front of him, the red satin, the polished smiles, the delicate stiletto heels.
A world where he was doomed to fail. But did he have to? Couldn’t he even learn to like the diamonds and satin if he were the lucky sonofabitch who got to peel them off of her at the end of the day?
Right, and then the two of you could dash off to the baby minder’s and pick up the kids.
Cold sweat broke out on Jared’s nape. Don’t be a fool, he told himself. Love her if you have to. But never forget that differences wider than the world will always keep you apart.
You might as well be the sea and Emma, the moon…
He looked at the scrap of horizon where the two bled together, moonshine and the water’s reflection…seeming to touch, but their joining not real. An illusion. Something no man could keep, hold. Like this time he and Emma shared.
“Emma, promise me something,” Jared said, feeling like a fool, unable to stop himself.
“Anything.”
Stay here with me. Make your life this castle. Turn your back on the craft you love and the children your heart longs to have….
For what? A man so selfish he’d take all that from her to keep her in his world?
No. Even he wasn’t that selfish.
“Jared?” She cupped his face in her palms, tipped her head in gentle query. He knew she left her handprints on his heart. “What is it?”
“Promise I’ll be able to sense you, feel you…after you’re gone. Here at the stone. Come back and haunt me.”
Her eyes filled with love and loss and longing. Impossibility an alchemy that made the moment all the sweeter.
“You already haunt me.” She kissed him gently on the lips. “You’ll be there, Jared. Every time I close my eyes. I’m counting on it.”
Jared’s throat burned. He climbed to his feet, turned his face into the wind for long, silent moments, the familiar lash of sea spray and isolation encasing his emotions as he shuttered the pain away.
When he’d hidden them deep enough, he turned to Emma, forcing a smile.
“Come along with you, then,” he said, extending his hand to pull her up. “It’s time we get up to the tower. Morning will come plenty early.”
He helped her dress and clothed himself, then tucked his jacket around her to keep her warm. He led her along the stone bridge, losing himself in the magic of this one night, how right it was. Perfect. Inevitable. Fleeting. She followed him across the stones as if she, too, had known where the footing lay from the dawn of time.
When they reached the cliff top, Jared paused, looking down into her face. A face a little too pale, eyes still a little red from the whiskey she’d drunk what seemed an eternity ago. He brushed her hair back tenderly. “We’ll be stopping at my office first, before we’re off to the tower.”
“Whatever work you’ve got left will still be there in the morning.”
Jared laughed, reaching past the ache to the amusement Emma so often inspired in him. “You think you’ve left any strength in me for work, woman? I’m half dead from having my way with you. We’ll be going after the paracebo I keep in my desk drawer.”
“Parace…? You mean, aspirin?” He saw her eyes go wide, her expression adorable. “Jared, did I, um…hurt you?”
“It’s not for me, treasure. It’s you who’ll be needing it. You’re going to have the devil of a headache come morning.”
He chuckled, running his thumb along the fullness of her kiss-stung lower lip. “It’s a rare fine birthday you had for yourself here in Scotland, Emma McDaniel. If you’re lucky, by tomorrow you won’t remember a thing.”
“Until I read about it in the morning papers,” Emma quipped wryly.
Jared’s jaw set, grim. “That’s one thing I can promise you won’t be happening. Not while I’m on watch.”
He drew her into the crook of his arm as they walked down the path toward the main camp, reveling in the weight of her, the warmth of her against him. He didn’t hear the footsteps in the shadows behind them. Didn’t see the white gleam of a hunter’s smile.
Chapter Nineteen
THE TRAILER DOOR STOOD open to the night, the metal panel thudding in a hollow rhythm against the structure’s outer wall. Jared eyed it in surprise. “I thought I locked that before we left for the pub.”
He felt Emma stiffen against him. “I’m sure you did. You dropped the keys and we both made a dive for them. We clunked heads and couldn’t stop laughing.”
She was right. Wariness stole through him. “It’s probably nothing,” he attempted to soothe her. “Kids bent on mischief.”
“Or someone trying to get the dirt on me.”
He bristled at the idea. “That’s breaking and entering. It’s against the law.”
“Only if you can prove it. Feeny and his buddies would tell you sometimes it’s worth taking a chance.”
Jared ground his teeth. “If those bastards so much as set foot on castle property, I’ll call the police.”
“Don’t be dragging the poor cops away from their coffee and donuts just yet.” Emma grimaced. “I’m probably just being paranoid. It’s not like we’ve got some front-page-worthy story we’re hiding around here. I mean, I think you’re plenty newsworthy, Butler, but the rest of the world would like it better if you were married or something.”
“Stay back until I see what’s going on,” he ordered as he stepped through the opened door into the dark trailer and fumbled for the light. He should have known she’d still follow right behind him.
Jared found the switch, the bulbs glaring to life, blinding him for a head-splitting instant. He heard Emma’s involuntary groan, could imagine what the flash had done for her whiskey-fogged head.
Jared scrubbed the back of his hand against his eyes to clear them. He heard Emma gasp.
“Davey?”
Jared’s sight popped into focus, zeroing in on the dispirited figure huddled at his desk. The rims of the boy’s eyes shone red, his face etched with silent misery. A misery deeper than any Jared had seen since the day Davey had told him about the stable job. What the hell? The boy had seemed fine at the pub. Almost…well, cheery, laughing and joking, basking in all the attention Emma gave him. Her influence had smoothed things out with the other kids, too, from what Jared had been able to see.
Last time Jared had seen him, Beth Murphy had been sliding into the seat beside the kid and Davey had looked like he’d won the lottery.
“Cheers, there, boyo.” Jared crossed the space between them. “What are you doing here so late?”
“Why can’t everybody just leave me alone?” Davey said bitterly. “You’re not supposed to be here. Why didn’t you just…just stay away, up in the tower with Emma? Shagging each other’s brains out like the rest of the normal people in this damned camp?”
Jared heard Emma’s breath catch. This edginess—it didn’t even sound like the Davey Jared knew. From the moment Emma had set foot on the site, Davey hadn’t been willing to tolerate any disrespect to her. And now he was sniping about sex in front of her with something near rage in his voice?
“Davey,” Emma said gently, disregarding his sharp words. “What’s the matter?”
The bo
y turned to her with a miserable groan. “Oh, God, Emma! I’m such…such a loser! The lads are right! I’m a stupid, dickless loser!”
“I don’t believe that for a minute, and neither does anybody who knows you.”
“You weren’t there…you didn’t see…I made such a mess of everything!”
“Just tell us what happened,” Jared soothed. “Start at the beginning.”
“She kissed me! Beth kissed me! Right on the mouth! In front of everybody!”
Had it been some sort of a dare? Some cruel joke that had shaken the boy so? Jared would find whoever was behind it and make them so damned sorry they’d never try a trick like that again. “Who put her up to—” Jared began but Emma cut him off.
“I thought you wanted Beth to kiss you.” Confusion rippled through Emma’s voice. “You were just too shy to kiss her yourself. That’s why I told her to try it.”
Suspicion raked Jared. “What the hell?”
Emma bristled, defensive. “Beth was moping in the bathroom, as miserable in love with Davey as he is with her! I told her that if he wouldn’t kiss her, maybe she should kiss him.”
“Ah, God save us,” Jared swore roundly. “Words of wisdom from a drunken fool!” She winced as if he’d slapped her. “I told you to keep the hell out of this.”
“I wasn’t too drunk to see what was right under my nose!” Emma raged back. “He’s in love with her. Didn’t you hear that?”
“Jesus! Love?” Jared kicked his desk in frustration. “He’s nineteen years old!”
“I do love her! I love her so much!” Davey turned to Jared, anguished wonder in his eyes. “Oh, God, Dr. Butler. I didn’t think there was a chance in hell she’d love me back.”
The words ground deep, echoing doubts Jared understood far too well.
“Then what’s wrong, Davey?” Emma broke in. “You’re not making any sense.”
“Haven’t you done enough damage here?” Jared snapped. “Why don’t you let me handle this?”
Emma faced him down, hands on hips. “You want me to sit here and watch you teach this amazing, wonderful boy how to shut himself off from life like you’ve done for so many years? Because it’s safer? Because you aren’t sure he’s strong enough? No way, Butler. Davey deserves better!”
“It’s not like I don’t have cause for concern. Can’t you see how upset he is?”
“Davey, you love Beth and she loves you back,” Emma said, ignoring Jared’s retort. “Do you have any idea what a miracle that is? How precious? You’re an amazing young man, David Harrison. With a huge heart brimming with passion for work that both you and Beth love.”
“She doesn’t…doesn’t know…who I am. If she did…she wouldn’t want me.”
“She does know you,” Emma insisted, touching Davey’s cheek. “She knows she can trust you. Knows you would never hurt her.”
“No!” Davey protested. “Nobody here really knows me. Not even Dr. Butler. I’ve made sure of that after what happened ten years ago. You don’t know what it was like, the way people looked at me. I couldn’t bear it if Beth ever looked at me that way. I’d want to die.”
Jared’s muscles clenched at the boy’s words. He was more aware than ever of the scars on Davey’s wrists, the life those wounds had almost cost him. “Davey, you’re the finest young man I’ve ever taught,” Jared said. “Just tell me what’s troubling you. We can work it out.” Christ, how bad could it be? And yet, whatever it was, it was eating Davey up inside. “Just tell me what happened that’s upsetting you so.”
“The accident. But it wasn’t an accident. He did it on purpose.”
“Who did what, Davey? I don’t understand.” Emma looked from Jared to Davey in confusion.
“Mum tried to stop him. But he beat her and—and I was so scared. I thought he’d killed her!”
Jared’s throat closed. Images flashed through him—the one time he’d met with Mrs. Harrison, the scars that marked her face. It was from an accident, Davey had later explained, obviously unnerved by them. Now Jared suspected that she hadn’t run into another car. She’d run into Davey’s father’s fists.
“Who hurt your mom?” Emma asked.
“My father. He…oh, God. Her face!”
Jared broke in. “You said your mother tried to stop him. From what?”
“He took the car…they were getting off work. People crowded on the corner at Fulsom Street, waiting for the light. When his boss walked out, my dad…he floored the accelerator and ran the car into the crowd to reach him. All those people, six hurt, eight dead.”
Jared couldn’t breathe. Headlines ten years old flashed into his mind, the sensational case that had horrified all of Britain.
“Your father was Ralph Dempsey?” Jared tried to wrap his head around it—studious, gentle Davey Harrison the son of the roaring monster who’d reveled in the carnage he’d caused, gloating before the cameras as he was dragged away.
“See?” Davey grieved. “Even after all these years you know who he was, what he did! In court, he said he was glad he did it! Hoped when I grew up I’d be man enough to…to stand up for myself and…do the same thing if some sodding rag head tried to rob me of the promotion I’d earned. I shouted that I never would hurt anybody like that, but he laughed in my face as they dragged him away. Said not to be so sure. I was his son. His blood would be in my veins forever.”
Davey paced the small space. “And he was right. The blood of a monster! Who beat my mum…and killed all those other people…people he didn’t even know…He didn’t care if they died, as long as—as his boss died, too.”
Jared ached for him. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”
“I didn’t want you to know. I didn’t want it to change the way you look at me. Have it make you sick at your stomach…every time you looked at me, thinking about all those bodies he left broken on the street.”
What the hell could Jared say? His stomach was churning, the thought of Davey carrying such a burden repulsive, unthinkable.
“That’s what I was afraid of,” Davey said, gazing, helpless, into Jared’s eyes. “The way you’re looking at me right now.”
“I just…I hate knowing you have to carry this with you. I want to fix it.”
“I did, too. Wanted to fix things for Mum. I tried to be perfect for her,” Davey continued, sorrowful. “I tried not to let him be…inside of me. That’s why I cut my wrists the first time…I was trying to get his…his blood out.” Davey’s voice cracked. “Stupid, wasn’t it?”
“I’m only glad you stopped yourself before it was too late.” If the brutal man hadn’t been killed in prison, Jared would have hunted Ralph Dempsey down and beaten him to death for leaving such a legacy for his wife and the boy Jared loved like his own.
“So now you know,” Davey said. “The whole awful truth. Can’t you just leave me alone?”
Davey made to leave but Emma cut the boy off, blocking the open door. She grabbed him by the arms, held on tight. “No,” she said. “I’m not going to leave you alone. I know exactly how you feel.”
“Sure you do.” A hopeless laugh rose from the boy’s throat. “I hate when people say that, as if—as if everybody in the world knows how it feels to have a father who did something so terrible you want to throw up every time you think of him.”
Jared waited for Emma to resort to any platitude she could think of to make the kid feel better, that poor baby sympathy shite that in the end proved simply worthless. Instead she looked into Davey’s face, her eyes suddenly grown old.
“Everybody in the world doesn’t know,” she said. “But I do. Just as sure as I know that you’re nothing like your father.”
Something in Emma’s voice stopped Jared cold. It was as if he were standing on the opposite side of a wall only Emma and Davey could see, cut off from their pain, their touch.
“What happened on that street corner is your father’s crime,” Emma insisted. “His anger. His fault. Not yours. You don’t have to pay for the rest of your lif
e for what that man did.”
“Right, Emma,” Davey scoffed, too caught in the claws of his own anguish to see pain in anyone else. “That’s what the counselor the court assigned me tried to say. Just add your bill to his. Maybe you can use all this angst crap in your next role.”
“Watch it, lad,” Jared cut in, brows lowering in warning. “She’s trying to help.”
Emma laid a hand on Jared’s arm. “No, Jared. Really, it’s okay. I don’t blame him for thinking I’m just bullshitting him, trying to make him feel better. But I’m not.”
“Then what—?” Jared started to ask, then stopped when Emma pressed her fingers to his lips to silence him. He surrendered and she gave him a heartbreaking smile.
“Davey, sit down,” she said, turning back to the boy, and indicated Jared’s chair. “I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone else in the world. Not once in my whole life.”
Davey sat as she asked. He peered up at her, held by the spell of her voice.
“It’s a secret my family discovered when I was sixteen. And Drew…you know, my ex-husband? He was at this…this class reunion thing when it…well…”
She hesitated, biting her lip.
“When it what?” Davey asked. Jared could feel the kid’s fragile hope.
“When the secret blew up in my family’s face.” Emma’s features tightened with pain, with old horror, the secrets that put the shadows in her eyes. “You know that my mom raised me alone.”
“Like me and Mum. We talked about it before.”
“That’s right.”
Davey was responding to Emma’s honesty. Jared could feel the boy hanging on her every word.
“She was just a kid herself when I was born,” Emma confided. “Everybody in Whitewater thought she’d gotten what she deserved. They labeled her the town slut. You know how nasty kids can be.”
Davey nodded, and Jared wondered what cruelties he’d endured at the hands of children after the crime his father had committed. Far more often than adults wanted to admit, the Lord Of The Flies gang won over a classroom’s better nature. The biological microcosm that proved only the strong survived.