“I almost bought this place instead of the one you’re living in,” he told Leonora as he opened the door on the passenger side. “It was a real steal. Glad I picked the other one, though.”
“Me, too.” She scrambled up onto the seat. “I’m not sure I’d want to be living this close to a guy who sells unidentifiable stuff out of unlabeled bottles.”
“Location is everything in real estate.”
The thought of her having old golden-eyes as her neighbor was more disturbing to him than Thomas wanted to admit, and not just because of the unidentified powder in the blue bottles.
He got behind the wheel and checked the road. He could see the white line now. The fog had thinned out, at least for a while. They could make it back to Wing Cove.
There was a distinct chill in the vehicle. He shoved the key into the ignition and fired up the heater.
“That,” he said, pulling out onto the pavement, “was a little close.”
She folded her arms and gazed straight ahead through the windshield. “Well, what can you expect? We’re still new at this detective business. I’m sure we’ll get the hang of it sooner or later.”
Chapter Ten
He brought the car to a halt in her driveway a short time later and switched off the engine. She was very conscious of him sitting there close beside her in the front seat. It was comforting, not to mention extremely reassuring, to have him nearby. There was something solid and substantial about Thomas. She was, she realized, reluctant to let him go.
“I can’t believe we did that,” she said.
“It was a different sort of outing for me, too.” There was no inflection in his words. “When it comes to entertainment, I usually prefer to go down to the hardware store and look at screwdrivers.”
“We could have been arrested.”
“Doubt it.”
She turned her head quickly to look at him. “If Alex had caught us inside his house he would have been perfectly within his rights to call the cops.”
“Sure. But then he would have had to explain that weird mirror, which he obviously swiped from Mirror House. And something tells me he wouldn’t want Ed Stovall going through his cupboards and maybe taking a few samples, the way we did.”
She caught her breath. “You don’t really think Alex is selling drugs, do you?”
“Who knows what the hell that guy is selling? Even if it’s just powdered sugar, he won’t want the word to get out that he’s a complete con. No, I don’t think he’d have called the cops.”
She exhaled slowly. “Nevertheless, in hindsight, it was probably not the brightest thing either of us has ever done.”
“On a scale of one to ten, I’d give it a two.”
“You’ve done dumber stuff?”
“Sure.” He pondered that briefly. “I’d have to rate my marriage as a one. Definitely a dumb thing to do. But, then, I was a lot younger back then. Youth is always a good excuse. Doesn’t work so well these days.”
She nodded. “The only thing that I’ve ever done that was dumber than breaking into that house was get engaged to Professor Kyle Delling.”
“What happened to the engagement?”
“I came home from work one afternoon and found him in my bed with Meredith.”
Thomas winced. “Ouch.”
“She set it up, of course. Called me at the library that day. Told me there was an emergency and that I had to come home immediately. Timed it so that when I walked through my front door, she and Kyle were between the sheets.”
“Why did she do that? Sheer cruelty?”
“Not in her mind. She felt that she had done me a huge favor by showing me that Kyle was weak and couldn’t be trusted.” She rubbed her arms briskly. “But I’m not sure it was a fair test.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I’ve never met the man who was able to resist Meredith.” She summoned up a bright little smile and opened the door. “You know something? Either I got a little too cold running around out there in the fog or my nerves are acting up. Either way, I think I could use a medicinal glass of wine. Care for some of the same tonic?”
“Sure.”
He already had the truck door open, the keys in his pocket.
Relief flooded through her. He wasn’t going to leave her alone with her frazzled nerves just yet. They were partners, after all.
“The fog is getting bad again. You might as well stay for dinner.” She tried to make the invitation sound offhand. “No sense risking your neck trying to drive until this stuff lifts a little.”
“You’ve got a deal.”
She waited for him to walk around the front of the car and join her. They went up the front steps together. It was dark now. She paused to sort keys in her palm with the aid of the porch light.
“Here we go.” She let them into the front hall and switched on a lamp.
She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror when she went to hang up her coat and suppressed a small groan. Not exactly a ravishing sight, she thought. Tendrils of hair had come free of the twist. Behind the lenses of her glasses her eyes had a stark, strained quality, and her cheeks looked hollow. The dark, cable-knit sweater she wore did nothing to brighten the reflection.
Thomas shrugged out of his jacket and came to stand behind her. Their eyes met in the mirror. Unlike her, he looked terrific, she thought. Hard and tough and totally in control. She had to fight an irresistible urge to turn and put her head down on his chest.
His hands closed over her shoulders. “Take it easy. You’re just feeling the aftershock of the adrenaline. It’ll fade.”
“I know.”
The weight of his hands was not having the calming, soothing effect he probably intended. Little sparks of excitement were snapping across her nerve endings. Energy hummed through her.
She suddenly wanted to do a lot more than just put her head down on his shoulder. She looked at his mouth in the mirror and wondered what it would be like to kiss him.
Wondered how his mouth would feel on other parts of her body.
Wondered how his big, competent hands would feel on her breasts.
Her thighs.
Wondered if he was thinking similar thoughts.
Adrenaline. This is all nerves and adrenaline. Get hold of yourself, woman.
“I’ll pour the wine,” she said quickly.
She rushed into the old-fashioned kitchen, opened the cupboard, grabbed a bottle of red and went feverishly to work with a corkscrew.
By the time she got back to the living room Thomas had the fire going.
She handed one of the glasses to him. When he took it from her, his knuckles lightly grazed hers. Another jolt of electricity sparked along her overstimulated nerve endings. She pulled away so fast she nearly dropped her glass.
“You okay?” Thomas asked, sounding concerned now.
“Just a little tense.” She took a healthy swallow of wine and looked around, searching for something mundane and normal. “Did you buy this place furnished?”
“No.” He frowned. “I rented the furniture. What’s the matter? You don’t like it? There wasn’t a lot of choice. The company had three basic packages. I had to pick one.”
“It’s fine. Just fine.” She took another sip of wine. “Some of the pieces are rather large like I said. The bed barely fits.” Oh, damn, what on earth had made her mention a bed? “But the sofa is great. Really.”
“Yeah, the bed is kind of large, isn’t it?” he said thoughtfully. “I noticed that when they delivered the furniture. Guess I was thinking of myself when I picked it out. I like my beds big.”
She could not think of any reasonable rejoinder to that comment. She told herself the smartest thing she could do right now was keep her mouth shut.
They stood in front of the fire for a while.
She gazed into the leaping flames and forced herself to concentrate on more important things. Alex’s tinted contact lenses and the strange mirror and the little vials in the cupboard came t
o mind.
“What in heaven’s name is Alex doing out there?” she asked eventually, when she was sure that the subject of big beds had been forgotten.
“Hard to tell what kind of game he’s playing. But he’s in this right up to his yellow contacts, I’m sure of it.”
She hesitated. “He said he moved here a little over a year ago. That means he was in Wing Cove when Bethany died.”
Thomas thought about that. “As far as I know he and Bethany never even met. I’m damn sure she wasn’t going to him for stress counseling and she wasn’t taking any of that nutritional supplement he’s selling. Deke would have been aware of it. Trust me. He looked after Bethany.”
“Looked after her?”
“She was so lost in her work most of the time that she needed a guardian or a keeper more than she needed a husband.”
“I know what you mean. I’ve met a couple of truly brilliant types who fit that description. They could give you a mathematical explanation for the origin of matter, but they couldn’t match their socks.”
Thomas nodded. “That was Bethany. Deke did everything for her when it came to the regular stuff of ordinary life. He kept track of her dental appointments, shopped for groceries, bought her new clothes when she needed them. Everything.”
“Hmm. Think maybe that was a problem for Deke?”
“What do you mean?”
“Remember I told you that part of his depression might stem from some unresolved issues in his marriage?”
“So?”
“So, just speculating wildly here, but what if he married Bethany because the guardian job appealed to the knight-in-shining-armor side of his nature? What if, eventually, playing keeper all the time lost some of its allure? What if they were having trouble in the marriage and before they could work things out, she died?”
Thomas looked into the flames. “I liked Bethany, but I know I couldn’t have been happy married to her. She never did anything for Deke as far as I could tell. I’m not sure how much she really cared for him, deep down. She was content to let him take care of her and admire her brilliance. I used to wonder if she really loved him or if she just found him convenient.”
“Mind if I ask you what happened to your marriage?” she said softly.
“It ended.”
The complete lack of inflection spoke volumes.
“Sorry,” she said.
He swallowed more wine. “We were married for four years before she left me for my business partner.”
“Aaargh.”
“Yeah. That sums it up pretty accurately. Aaargh. But life goes on.”
“Yes.”
“You know, when my parents got divorced, I told myself I probably wouldn’t ever get married. And if I did marry, I sure as hell wouldn’t have any kids.”
“Because you never wanted to take the risk of putting them through the trauma of divorce?” she asked.
“Yeah. Turns out I should have stuck with my initial decision not to marry. But at least there weren’t any kids to get hurt when I did end up in a divorce court. I got singed, but no one else got badly burned. I learned my lesson.”
Time to change the subject again, she thought. It was depressing to listen to him talk so coolly about how he never intended to remarry or become a father.
“Getting back to the problem of Alex Rhodes,” she said very deliberately. “I think I’ve got an idea.”
“What?”
“I could sign up for some stress counseling.”
“Don’t,” Thomas said flatly, “even think about it.”
“You’re not being logical here, Thomas.”
“Rhodes wasn’t offering stress counseling. He wants to get you into bed.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know it.”
“Thomas, be reasonable. We need a lead. Alex is a lead.”
“Maybe, but you’re not going to be the one to follow it.”
Anger flared, startling her with its intensity. “Damn it, no one voted you the boss of this operation. I’m willing to discuss things with you, but in the end, we’re equal partners. I make my own decisions.”
“Listen up,” he said, his voice low and rough. “The last woman who had a connection with me and who later went out with Alex Rhodes is dead. Remember?”
Icy fingers slithered down her spine. “Meredith.”
“Yeah. Meredith. No offense, but we both know that she was a lot more capable of dealing with a guy like Rhodes than you will ever be.”
For some reason, probably because she was already tense and on edge, that observation did offend her. A lot. The worst part was that she knew that he was right. Meredith had been much more qualified to handle dangerous men. She knew it, but she didn’t like it and she was not going to admit it.
She whirled around and strode toward the kitchen. “I’ll get dinner going. That fog will probably lift soon and I’m sure you’ll want to get home to Wrench as soon as possible.”
“Hell.” He came after her, halting in the doorway of the kitchen. “You’re mad, aren’t you?”
“I really don’t want to talk about it.”
“And they say men are the ones who don’t do a good job of communicating.”
She jerked open the freezer drawer and removed the package of frozen soybeans. “There’s no need to reduce this to the personal.”
He was very still in the doorway. “In case you haven’t noticed, this thing between us has already become personal. Real personal. At least on my side.”
“No, I hadn’t noticed.”
He left the doorway without warning. Before she realized his intentions, he was only inches away, looming over her, enveloping her in an invisible force field.
“Thomas?”
He slammed his half-empty wineglass down on the counter beside her so hard she wondered that it didn’t shatter. He caught her face between his hands. She could feel the work-roughened skin of his palms against her throat.
“This is what I mean by personal,” he said into her mouth.
He kissed her before she could catch her breath. Her fully charged nerve endings exploded on contact. The resulting flash of lightning was so hot she was amazed it didn’t fry the frozen soybeans she held in her left hand.
Definitely personal, she thought. More personal than anything she could remember experiencing in a very long time. Maybe in her entire life.
He pushed her back until the edge of the counter pressed against her spine. He moved one leg between hers. His mouth shifted, deepening the kiss. She was melting faster than the contents of the open freezer drawer.
All she cared about was heat. Lots of it. She lived for heat. She needed it. Craved it. She wanted to go up in flames. She had been so cold for so long she wasn’t sure she would ever be able to get enough of the red-hot energy Thomas was generating.
She heard a soft plop and was vaguely aware that she had dropped the package of soybeans back into the freezer. She wrapped her arms around Thomas, seeking escape from the cold draft.
He muttered something unintelligible and kicked the freezer drawer shut with one booted foot. Then he put a strong, muscular arm around her lower back just above her hips and cradled her head in his other hand. His mouth slid down her throat. She shoved her fingers into his hair. She shivered, but not because she was still cold.
His hands shifted again, closing snugly around her waist. He gripped. Lifted. And then her feet were no longer touching the floor. She thought that he intended to carry her back out into the front room. Instead, he set her on the edge of the counter and moved between her thighs. His mouth never left her body.
He was making love to her right there in the kitchen. As if he just couldn’t wait to get her to a bed. No one had ever been in this much of a hurry before. She had never been so eager, either. It was unbelievable. It was also almost unbearably erotic.
Recklessly, she tightened her thighs around him. He got his hands under her sweater. And then they were on her bare breasts.
What had happened to her bra? Somehow he had gotten it unfastened without her even being aware of it.
The man really was very good with his hands. She couldn’t wait to see what else he could do with them.
Her blood beat more heavily in her veins and the fire got hotter.
Without warning, it all came to a crashing halt.
Thomas went very still, as if he had hit a wall. Bemused, she opened her eyes and found him watching her with grim intensity.
“Do you,” he said with grave precision, “happen to have anything handy that would be useful in a situation such as this?”
She blinked, trying to reorient herself. “Such as?”
“Condoms.”
“Oh.” Reality slammed through her. She felt herself flush. “No, I don’t.”
“Pills?”
“No.” She was probably an embarrassing shade of pink by now. “I certainly didn’t anticipate needing anything here in Wing Cove.”
No need to tell him that she hadn’t needed anything since her engagement had been abruptly terminated.
“I came prepared to pop a couple of locks today.” He gave her a rueful, sexy smile and leaned his forehead against hers. “I didn’t come prepared for this kind of excitement.”
“Oh.” She couldn’t think of anything intelligent to say. She was badly rattled and she knew it.
He straightened and took a step back. “Well, as neither one of us appears to be what you’d call farsighted or visionary, I think we’d better concentrate on dinner, don’t you?”
She managed to resist a terrible impulse to grab him by the collar and scream something idiotic along the lines of, You can’t stop now. I’m hot enough to thaw the contents of that freezer.
Thankfully, common sense prevailed. Of course they had to call a halt. Good grief, what on earth was she thinking? This wasn’t love or romance. This was lust. Triggered, no doubt, by the adrenaline overload they had both experienced this afternoon.
“Dinner. Yes. This is crazy.” She took a deep breath and realized she was still sitting on the kitchen counter. “Not to mention extremely unsanitary.”
“Maybe. But it does settle one burning hypothetical question.”
She shoved several wild tendrils of hair behind her ears and hopped down from the counter.