A sharp ping woke Katie Sara. Groggy, she propped herself up on her elbows. At the bottom of the bed, Chia stood, stretched, yawned, then turned in a tight circle and lay down again.
Katie Sara strained, but heard only the sound of darkness. Her head had barely touched the pillow when the sound came again. Another quick tap against her window. What in the world?
Tossing back the bedcovers, her hand hesitated on the lamp switch. Better to leave it off. It took a whole two seconds to regret that decision, sucking in her breath when she stubbed her toe on a table she’d bought on her shopping trip with Rhonda.
She hobbled to the window and knelt. Her stomach took that crazy plunge, the one just before the roller coaster started down the long incline. Bathed in moonlight, his dark hair tousled, Reiner stared up at her, that famous million-dollar arm poised to toss another pebble.
She raised her window and leaned out. “What are you doing?” she whispered.
His chest constricted. The woman left him speechless. Everything he’d planned to say, all the pretty words, the smooth speech died on his lips. That gorgeous hair tumbled around her, moon-kissed and gleaming. He wanted to ravage her.
“Come on down, Ace.” He grinned up at her.
“You have got to be kidding.”
“Nope.”
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Not that I know of.”
Two doors away, a dog started barking.
“Be quiet,” she hissed. “You’ll wake the neighbors.”
“Come on down, and I won’t have to talk so loud.”
“Loudly.”
“Huh?”
“Never mind. Reiner, it’s...” She craned her neck to check the clock on her nightstand. “It’s almost midnight.”
“So?”
She only stared at him.
“Live dangerously, Katie Sara. Come play with me.”
She laughed, and he thought for sure he’d died and gone straight to Heaven. The sound wrapped around him, inside him, zipped south, and left him hurting and hungry.
This woman was a much greater threat than the girl who’d ridden out of town with his heart.
“I want to show you somethin’.”
“I’ll bet you do.”
Sweat popped on his brow. He swiped at it. “I—”
“I’m not dressed.”
“In that case, let me come up. You can do the showin’, and I’ll do the lookin’.”
Even separated by two-stories, he felt the heat.
Then she stood. Holy crow! Her nightgown looked like something out of those old Westerns. Like that dress she’d had on last night which should have been the benchmark for modesty. For strait-laced. But somehow on her, it hadn’t been.
Neither was this nightgown. The moon turned the fabric practically transparent. It outlined every curve, every line of that delicious body and made him want to get down on all fours and howl.
“Reiner?”
He made a strangled attempt to answer her and had to settle for, “Hmmm?”
“Are you okay?”
“I will be if you come out to play with me. I’ll be good. Promise.” He crossed his heart. “I really do have somethin’ to show you.”
“You know, maybe you should go see if Gina’s free.”
His curse blackened the air.
She started to lower the window.
“Wait. I’m sorry. Katie Sara, why would I want to do that?”
She knelt again to lean out. “Seems to me you had a good time playing with her last night.”
“I did not!” He raked both hands through his hair and prayed to God he was telling the truth. “Nothin’ happened last night. I’d had too much to drink, so she drove me home. After she dropped me off, she took my car to her place. That’s it. End of story.”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes, really, Ms. Sarcastic.”
“That’s not what I heard. I heard the two of you hit it off pretty well. That you were all over each other.”
“We were not!”
She didn’t say anything.
He used the side of his shoe to scrape some mulch from her flowerbed, then used his other foot to shift it back. “Okay, so maybe she got a little...attentive...and maybe I...let her. You really pissed me off, okay?”
After a second’s hesitation, his head snapped up. “How do you know what happened at The Hole in the Wall?”
“Barnie told me this morning when I stopped for gas.”
He slapped his forehead. “Barnie. I knew he looked familiar when he came in, but I couldn’t place him.” Those darker-than-night blue eyes glinted up at her. “He tattled on me?”
“Not intentionally!” Katie Sara couldn’t let Barnie be branded a gossip. “I mentioned I saw your car at Gina’s shop when I stopped by there with Rhonda to pick up her brush—”
“Spare me the details. I get the picture.”
“Oh, I don’t think you do. You see, I went in with Rhonda. Just to say hi to Gina.”
Reiner went very still.
“After all, it’s been a long time.”
Reiner’s heart pounded in his throat.
“Silly me. I worried we wouldn’t have anything to talk about. Nothing in common.” Her voice became ominously quiet. “No shared interests. No shared experiences.”
Reiner’s heart stopped pounding. Stopped beating. “Ace—”
“Would you believe, I worried for nothing?” She went on as though he hadn’t spoken. “We actually had shared something.”
Even at that distance, with only the moonlight to illuminate her face, he read the pain. “No, Katie Sara, you didn’t.”
Suddenly certain, suddenly desperate that she be certain, he said, “Last night...Gina did not share with me what you and I had.” Voice husky, he said, “No one ever has. You’ve got to believe me.”
She gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head, then stood.
He groaned, long and loud.
“What’s wrong?”
“You’re killin’ me.”
“What?”
Gritting his teeth, he jammed his hands into his front pockets and prayed for strength. “Will you please put on some clothes and come down? You...ah... Well, hell, Katie Sara, with the moonlight and all, I can see right through that nightie of yours, and it’s a real turn-on.”
She squealed and wrapped her arms around herself, turning her back to him. Not a bad view either, he noticed miserably before she disappeared.
He waited a few heartbeats. “Katie Sara?”
No answer.
He called to her again. Still nothing.
Well, if that didn’t just— Cursing himself for stupidity, he meandered around to the front of her house and plopped down on the wide front steps.
He had all night. He’d wait right here and see what happened. Maybe she’d come out to play after all.
And if she did? Could he keep his hands off that body like he’d promised? His mouth off hers? Would she be safe from the big bad wolf? But then, he hadn’t actually promised not to touch, had he? Only that he’d be good. Oh, and he would be.
Problem was, she’d come home. Wanted home. And there was the rub. He didn’t. Settling down wasn’t for him. Not yet. He had too much living still to do.
One look at the cozy little nest she’d claimed for herself left no doubt about where her head was. White picket fence, front porch swing, roses climbing up the side of the house. And inside? No doubt, knickknacks were strewn all over the place like at Auntie Belham’s.
His stomach clenched with a feeling he either couldn’t or didn’t want to name. He thought of his house. It was big, beautiful and decorated by a stranger.
He’d bet his last nickel that every dust catcher in Katie Sara’s place had sentimental value. She’d either bought or found it somewhere special or had it given to her by someone she loved.
The front door opened, and a sliver of light spilled onto the porch. “What do you want?”
She’d changed into jeans that clung to her like second skin and a little cotton top with a bazillion buttons down the front. Modern day armor. He couldn’t help but admire her foresight. Smart lady. She wasn’t taking any chances.
But the change of clothes didn’t help. He still hurt. Still wanted her so badly he could barely keep from tossing her on the ground and claiming her right then and there in her front yard. His Katie Sara, his mind screamed. Didn’t she remember how good it had been between them? How perfectly they’d fit together? Those nights when—
“Reiner?”
“Yeah?”
“What do you want to show me?”
He cocked his head and looked up at her from his seat on the steps, his legs outstretched and one arm wrapped around the railing. “You know, I go to my share of movies, and it seems to me we got this all wrong. Shouldn’t there have been some mushy scene where you got all leaky-eyed when we met again and wrapped yourself around me? Practically threw yourself in my bed?”
Though she wanted to do exactly that, she torpedoed the notion. “Get real.”
God, from the minute she’d laid eyes on him again, heck, had heard he was in Paradox, she’d been unable to think of anything else. Shoot, that wasn’t being totally honest. Ever since the night her mother had loaded her in the backseat and driven her away from Reiner, she’d dreamed of a reunion.
But too much had happened. Too much he’d despise her for, too much she despised herself for. Too much she couldn’t undo and couldn’t make right. She had to remember that. There was no future for Reiner and herself. Only a past.
With an athlete’s agility, he uncoiled and rose in a single, fluid motion. When his hand swallowed hers, she gasped and jerked away from the heat, breathing deeply.
“Sorry.” But she tucked her hands into her jeans pockets just the same.
If he was disappointed, he said nothing. Without a word, he tipped his head toward the street.
Halfway down the walk, she spotted it. His Harley. On the back of it, arms wrapped around Reiner, cheek pressed against him, the wind whipping her hair, the world had been hers at seventeen. Never in her life had she felt more alive, more free, more secure.
Her throat closed, and she ached for what once was, for their innocence. The love, the passion they’d shared.
Reiner held up a helmet, the one he’d bought for her seventeenth birthday. She’d always left it at his house, on the motorcycle. Her mother would have had a conniption fit if she’d known Katie Sara was flying around town on the back of Reiner’s Harley. Surprisingly, no one had ever mentioned it to her. They probably assumed she knew.
He’d called her Ace and had hand-painted the Ace of Hearts on her helmet. He said she aced everything she ever did. What a joke! If he only knew!
“Want to see if it still fits?” He held the helmet out to her. “Take a spin?”
“Now?”
“Why not?”
Why not, indeed. The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. Would one ride hurt? She knew she played with fire. A ride with Reiner was a ride on the wild side. Never simple. Never dull. Never tame.
Never painless.
A headache threatened.
“If I go with you, it doesn’t mean anything.”
“Right.”
“It doesn’t mean I have anything whatsoever to say to you.”
“Understood.”
“It certainly doesn’t mean now you’ve had Gina whatever-her-latest-name-is as an appetizer, that I intend to be your second course.”
“Gina—” He shut his mouth, figuring silence was his best tact.
“If I go, it’s only because I’m wide awake in the middle of the night. Some juvenile delinquent...” She nailed him with those beautiful, deep green eyes. “Threw boulders at my bedroom window.”
“Boulders? Tiny little—”
Her brows shot up.
“Oh, for...” He raised his hands in an I-give-up gesture. “Okay, okay.”
“And,” she said, “because I do love this thing.”
Reiner all but whimpered as she caressed his big black bike, ran a small hand over the seat, slender fingers over the handlebars. He envied the machine. How sick was that?
“But it’s late.”
“I know, but maybe it’s not too late.”
Her mouth went dry at the words’ implication.
He straddled the machine and crooked a finger.
She swallowed. “I have to work tomorrow.”
“Sex.”
“Sex education. Big difference.”
“You have to do research, don’t you?”
“Maybe I already have.”
“Oh, baby. Hop on and hold tight.”
“One ride,” she insisted. “A short one.”
As she pulled on the helmet and threw her leg over the Harley’s seat, warning bells clanged. She’d promised to keep her distance from him, both physically and emotionally. She had to in order to survive. This sure wasn’t going to get it done.
Snug against his back, up tight and personal with all that hard, lean muscle, she looked for a place to put her arms, her hands. Sighing, she wrapped them around him and decided she could do without sleep tonight.
Katie Sara hadn’t been his first, and there’d sure as hell been women since. But no other had ever rocked his soul. Only shy seventeen-year-old Katie Sara who’d scared him half to death when he realized she was a virgin. Katie Sara, who’d excited him, humbled him, honored him, and then abandoned him.
And now this older Katie Sara stole his breath with a look.
Bottom line, the lady was in his blood. Maybe it was time to find out if it was fatal or if there was an antidote.
They rode down the center of Main Street, past darkened storefronts, then he opened it up and headed north on Route 19. Several miles out of town, he slowed, turning onto the dirt road where they’d first made love.
Her tensing muscles told him she remembered. They came to an open, grassy area surrounded by oaks heavy with Spanish moss. In the filtered moonlight, the scene looked like a movie set.
The bike idled beneath them. Reiner unsnapped his helmet, removed it, and ran his fingers through his hair. Setting the kickstand, he killed the ignition and reached around to help Katie Sara off.
“Reiner, I’m not sure this is a good idea.”
Laying a hand along the side of her face, he whispered, “Nothin’ will happen that you don’t want, sugar. I found the beast all fueled up at Auntie Belham’s, and I knew where to find Paradox’s most gorgeous lady, tucked away in her tower. Seemed a shame to waste such a beautiful night.”
“Waste not, want not.”
“Oh, I want,” he growled, staring at the long, slender neck exposed when Katie Sara scooped up her hair. “I want plenty.”
From his saddlebag, he retrieved a rolled-up blanket.
“Just happened to have that, did you?”
“Hey, I was a Boy Scout.”
She elbowed him. “You were not!”
He chuckled, feeling lighter and better than he had in ages. “Could have been if I’d wanted to.”
“You were too busy hitting on the Girl Scouts.”
“Yeah, there was that. All those tidy, little green uniforms.” He grinned and spread the blanket. Sitting down, he patted the spot beside him. “Sit with me. Nothing funny. Promise.”
She eyed him suspiciously, then gave in to the night, the moonlight, the peace and quiet of the moment. Gazing at the stars, she sighed. “I’d forgotten how different the sky is here. Away from city lights, you can really see it.”
“The man in the moon seems to be smilin’ tonight, like he knows some private joke.”
She lay back to study the stars and pointed. “Look at that cloud scudding past the moon. It’s shaped like a unicorn.”
“Uh-uh. A feisty stallion with a raised front leg. Probably lookin’ for his mare.”
Katie Sara mumbled something and rose up on one elbow. He knelt, resting a hand on her arm. “No. Don’t. I’ll behave.”
She studied him a second, then dropped back on the blanket. Reiner dropped down beside her, too aware of the heat where their bodies touched.
At first the silence was so complete, it almost hurt his ears. Then came the deep call of a frog, answered by another, then the buzz of one, two, a dozen cicadas. Trees rustled in the summer breeze. Night sounds. Nature sounds. The smell of damp earth, of fresh air, of freedom whispered over them.
“There’s a plane,” he said. “Wonder where it’s headed?”
“Somewhere fun. Maybe Disneyland.”
He smiled in the dark. “Do you ever look at an airplane and picture the people up there, sittin’ in it? Wonder about their lives? Where they’re goin’ and why?”
“Yes.”
“Remember how you used to insist that someday you’d travel to every single capital city—just so you could say you’d done it?”
They laughed.
His throat tightened; his voice grew husky. “Do you remember this?”
He kissed her, and the world tilted on its axis. Her fingers fisted in his shirt. The years vanished right along with his good intentions. In a move as old as time, he wrapped her in his arms and drew her against him, her body warm and supple and oh, so, right.
Her mouth tasted sweeter now, fuller. The touch of her lips on his sent fire chasing straight to his belly. When their tongues touched, he almost lost it like some wet-behind-the-ears fourteen-year-old. The woman unmanned him with a touch—and he doubted she even knew it.
If he was smart, he’d keep it that way. If she ever discovered the power she wielded, he was dog-meat.
His hand slid to the front of her blouse and ran smack-dab into her first line of defense. The battalion of buttons. He groaned.
She nibbled his ear; her tongue...Ah!
Fingers trailed beneath the fabric of her blouse and found room to maneuver without undoing those hellish buttons. He forgot about them as he explored the silky skin of her stomach, the tops of her breasts.
Kissing her mouth, her neck, he worked the catch of her bra and released it, splaying his hands over heaven!
Her hands slid beneath his shirt, slid it up and over his head. Her fingers trailed over his shoulders, down his back, along his torso.
When he thought he’d surely die, he toed off his shoes, unzipped his jeans, and slid out of them. Then he undid the snap of Katie Sara’s jeans and slid the zipper down, kissing her smooth, flat stomach. He ran his tongue over, into her belly button. His fingers slipped beneath the elastic of her silken panties.
“What are you doing?” She jerked upright, clipping his chin with her knee.
He rolled onto his back and rubbed his chin. Ahhh. Fifteen- yard penalty! “What do you mean, what am I doin’?”
Working his jaw, he decided nothing was broken. He looked up as she hooked her bra, then watched her straighten her blouse, her green eyes blazing.
Fudge!
“Seems to me, sugar, the two of us were gettin’ ready to make love.”
“No.”
“What’s wrong with you?” He pulled back to study her.
“What’s wrong with me? You were doing this same thing with Gina last night. And it had—has—nothing to do with love. Lust. L-u-s-t. Can’t do it.”
“Oh, for...” He fell back onto the blanket.
“No, Reiner. I don’t play football.” She leaned down, put her finger under his bruised chin, and narrowed her eyes. “Unfortunately, that’s how you see all this. Today’s my turn, home field advantage. Tomorrow, you play an away game—back to Gina—or somebody else.” She snorted. “I don’t think so, Mr. Quarterback. I’m an only child. That whole sharing thing always seemed wrong to me. I never did get the hang of it. What’s mine is mine.” She threw his shirt at him.
“We’re beginnin’ to sound like a broken record, Ace. I told you. Nothing happened last night.”
“Nothing?”
He blushed and, even in the moonlight, she spotted it. “Ah-ha! The truth will out.”
“The truth will—” With a groan, he tucked an arm under his head to pillow it, then reached for her hand, but she pulled away. “Please, Ace, don’t do this.” It was as close to begging as he’d come since the backseat of his dad’s car, and it had been Katie Sara that time, too.
None of the other girls he’d dated needed much encouragement. Once he got their engines running, they were good to go. But not Ace. Oh, no. She was always shifting that mind of hers from drive into park. And dang if it didn’t always mean trouble...and frustration...for him.
“You’re sendin’ out real mixed signals here, Katie Sara.”
“No, I’m not.” She pushed her hair from her face and sighed. “All right, maybe I am.”
His heart did a sixty-yard dash in record time.
“But you caught me off-guard. It won’t happen again, Reiner.”
Takedown on the twenty-yard line.
“What we had is in the past.” She laid a hand on his bare chest, then jerked it away as if burned. “We have no future.”
“Bull!”
“Put on your pants.”
“Maybe I don’t want to.”
“Up to you. It’ll be uncomfortable riding a Harley like that, though. I’ve heard of hanging loose, but...” She searched for her second shoe. “Take me home, Reiner.”
“Sure. Of course.” He rolled to his feet and grabbed up his clothes. “Pull yourself together there. Give me a minute, then I’ll take you back to the nunnery.”
Stuffing his legs into the pants and jamming his arms into the shirt, he growled, “I need to take a walk.” He headed into the darkness, leaving her with the cicadas for company.
When he returned, she stood right where he’d left her, arms folded across her chest, all buttoned up, prim and proper.
“What happened, Katie Sara?”
“I grew up.”
His hand slashed the air. “I don’t mean this. Tonight. What happened twelve years ago? Why’d you leave without a word? You never called. Never wrote.”
Her chest rose and fell with her rapid breathing. A tree threw shadows across her face, but he didn’t need to see her expression to feel her distress.
“Please, don’t ask,” she whispered.
“I think I have a right to know.”
Her answer shocked him. “I agree. You do. And I will tell you, but not tonight. I can’t.” She walked to the bike. “I need to go home. Please.”
Without another word, he whipped the blanket from the ground, shook it, and wadded it up before cramming it in the saddlebag.
The moon lost itself behind the clouds on the ride home. Still, the drive through the inky black sliced only by his solitary headlamp wasn’t half as dark as his heart. He pulled up in front of her house, tipped the bike so she could dismount, and without so much as a backward glance, roared off into the night, waking every dog in the neighborhood.
Their barks pummeled Katie Sara as the screen door slapped shut behind her. Why hadn’t she told him? It had to be done; it could all be over with now. But he’d surprised her tonight. She’d been unprepared. And yet hadn’t she had twelve years to prepare?
Half-blinded by tears, she struggled up the stairs, knowing she’d sleep no more tonight.
The humid night air whipped his face, and he urged the bike faster and faster. A cat ran out between two parked cars. He swerved automatically, tires squealing, and nearly dumped the Harley. Good job, Broderick. Make mincemeat out of yourself.
Stupid!
Throttling down, he cruised the side streets of Paradox. Lights were on in a few houses—insomnia, a good movie or book, worries over money, maybe, or a big day coming up. Other than that, it was him, his Harley, and the barking dogs.
All in all, good thing he’d done this tonight. He’d gotten it out of his system. For a few minutes there, he’d thought... But, no. Just a good old-fashioned case of lust—for a cold fish—and now he was free to move on. Thank you, Jesus.
He rolled down the streets, past Gina’s house, past his red ’Vette, and eventually to his own house.
His empty, soulless house.