Exhausted from lack of sleep and worry, Eliza walked beside Brandon down Main Street the next morning. They’d searched most of last night for David. They hadn’t found the ranch truck. They’d asked for him at hotels and restaurants. It was as if he’d vanished, left town. Eliza almost hoped that was the case, although her gut kept warning her that it was far more serious than that.
Their last stop had been the police station. He hadn’t been arrested, and there had been no incidents reported the night before. It was too soon to report him missing.
Eliza no longer thought David had been with another woman all this time. Jillian might be telling the truth. He hadn’t gone home with her. He’d gone somewhere else. But where?
“Maybe he went gambling,” Brandon commented, his long strides gobbling up twice as much ground as hers.
Gambling? What was he thinking? “David gambles?” He was a professional sports journalist. He ran in the same elite circle as her. Until more recently, he didn’t have any hang-ups. He wasn’t addicted to anything. And he’d have to be to go gambling in the middle of the night.
Brandon turned to give her a funny look, like he wasn’t surprised she didn’t know but was testing her. “You didn’t know he gambled?”
“No.” He’d gambled in Vegas when they’d gotten married, but that was normal. This new side of him didn’t mesh. Or maybe it did. She hadn’t really known David all that well. Theirs wasn’t exactly a close marriage.
“He’s asked me to bail him out more than once,” Brandon said. “He’s asked me a lot since he married you.”
There was that hint of blame again. “Are you saying I drove him to his reckless ways?”
“Haven’t you noticed him gone a lot?”
“I thought he was out drinking.” He had, but he’d also been gambling. If he lost more than he won, she could see how he’d accumulate some bad debt. The worst kind of debt. It wasn’t as though he couldn’t pay his credit cards. He couldn’t pay gangsters. That explained his fear when they’d first arrived at Brandon’s ranch, the way he’d looked over his shoulder, the car at the top of the hill.
Brandon met her eyes, and they shared the gravity of David’s situation. She felt so helpless. What could they do? They’d done all they could until some sign of David, or David himself, showed up.
The waiting was killing her. David was missing, and she couldn’t control her desire for his brother.
Brandon put his hand on her lower back and guided her to the other side of the street at a crosswalk. The turreted entrance of a café faced the corner, its doors open.
“What are we doing?” she asked.
“We have to eat something,” he said as they reached the café.
Her stomach was empty, and she was lethargic from lack of food. And worry about David. But she wasn’t sure she could eat.
He told the hostess there’d be two for breakfast and she followed him to a table. A woman with her husband and two kids watched them. One of the waitresses did, too, leaning over to another worker to say something. That one’s eyes rounded as she carried pitchers of tea and water into the kitchen.
Sitting across from Brandon, Eliza dismissed the unwanted attention and looked at him over a vase of dainty white carnations. “You said David went to you when he needed money.”
“He did. But not this time.”
“Why do you suppose he didn’t? And don’t say it was because of me.” She wasn’t going to put up with that anymore.
“Maybe he found someone else to turn to.”
Someone else to bail him out? Why would he do that? Because of her relationship with Brandon?
Eliza turned her head, only vaguely aware of the semibusy café’s polished wood floors and white crown molding. She had no relationship with Brandon. He’d made it clear he didn’t want one, years ago and even now. If she went running from love after that, then he was the reason.
Unless she and Brandon were both letting too much of their past influence what was happening with David.
“Maybe it wasn’t gambling that made him run,” she said to Brandon.
“What else could it be?”
“Maybe he thinks you can’t help him.” If he was in that much danger...
“I can help him. No matter what kind of trouble he’s in. He just didn’t feel like he could because he married you.”
“That wouldn’t have stopped him.” Even as she said it she wasn’t sure it was true. She and Brandon had dated in high school. If it had ended there, then she’d be more confident. Kissing him and feeling it all the way to her toes sort of negated any argument.
Still, she couldn’t give up the possibility that David was in deeper than either of them had estimated so far. “Have you been after him to stop gambling? You helped him financially, but have you ever urged him to stop?”
“Of course.”
And he hadn’t. A waitress came to their table, and Brandon ordered coffee and breakfast. Eliza waved her off with a shake of her head.
“She’ll have oatmeal.”
She targeted him with her eyes as the waitress left.
“It’s the best thing for an upset stomach. Nice and bland. And you have to eat something.”
Eliza saw the worker whose eyes had widened pointing toward them. The woman beside her started toward them. Her short, straight and graying hair was mannish, and her black-rimmed glasses magnified bright blue eyes. She wore a red apron like the other staff members, her apple frame stretching the material tight around her middle.
“Good morning, Brandon,” she greeted as she reached the table.
“Morning, Candace.”
Brandon knew her? He smiled up at the woman with a familiarity that proved he did. Eliza wouldn’t have thought he had any kind of popularity in town.
“It’s not often we see you here this time of day. Leaving the ranch to your manager today?”
“Trevor is the best worker I’ve ever hired.”
“You saved him by giving him that job. His divorce just about ruined him. That dragon he married took everything. Poison, that woman is.”
“He’s seeing a girl from town now.”
Eliza could only gape at Brandon. This was not the Brandon of her teenage years. He was socializing as though he enjoyed it.
“No.” Candace breathed her delight, eating up the gossip. “Who?”
“Ted’s oldest girl. Charlene.”
“Oh, she’s a pretty one. Saving herself for the right one, too.”
Brandon didn’t cover his wince.
“Had her heart broken by a real rake.” Candace nodded. “She and Trevor will be good together.”
Did two people have to get their hearts broken to be good for each other?
“He’s going to ask her to marry him this fall.”
Candace beamed. “I was hoping he’d come around. You’re a good man, Mr. Reed. Trevor wouldn’t be where he is right now without you.”
He chuckled while Eliza gaped at him some more. “You’re exaggerating, but thanks.” He registered Eliza’s fascination and he noticed her surprise. She could tell.
“I hear you’ve been looking for your brother.”
Eliza looked at Candace with Brandon. “Have you seen him?”
“Not since yesterday morning.” To Brandon she said, “He was with a woman. A college girl named Naomi Peterson. She’s getting her master’s over at Darby.”
David had found another woman to spend his time with. Eliza had to take a few seconds to recover from the blow. Not just one woman, but two. When Jillian refused him, he’d gone out in the middle of the night and found another. He refused to be at the ranch with her and Brandon. At least she and Brandon didn’t have to go to the police. David was fine. Just fine.
“Where did you see him?” she asked Candace, concealing her anger.
Candace kept her eyes on Brandon as though nervous over Eliza’s reaction to what she was about to say. “They came in for breakfast. They were...you know...real cozy. And it was late morning, like about this time.”
“Did they leave together?” Brandon asked.
“They left the restaurant together. I don’t know where they went from here. I didn’t think to ask, either.” She glanced warily at Eliza.
Funny how Eliza didn’t care that David was with yet another woman. “Do you know where Naomi lives?”
“No, sorry.”
The woman was genuine enough. Eliza wasn’t going to calm her by explaining the state of her marriage, though.
On one of the televisions hanging from the walls of the café, a news program switched to Melinda Grayson’s kidnapping. The anchorwoman announced a video had been released from her captor, and the screen showed a brief clip of her pleading for her life.
All three of them stopped to watch.
Melinda was disheveled, hair a mess, bruised and scared.
“Please, let me go,” she sobbed one final time. And then whoever filmed her ended the clip. No demands had been made. It was as though her captor were taunting authorities. Maybe whoever it was got a thrill over doing so. Eliza felt ill imagining what horrors the woman was suffering. Minutes must seem like hours and days like months.
“That poor woman,” Candace said. “Did you hear she was kidnapped?”
“Who would film her that way?” Eliza asked.
“A sicko.”
“Has there been a demand for ransom?” Brandon asked.
“Not yet.” A woman two tables away waved to get Candace’s attention. “Duty calls. Good luck on finding your brother, Mr. Reed.”
“Thanks.”
With that she went to the other table, glancing frequently at the television. A news anchor reported there were still no leads to Melinda’s whereabouts.
“Why do you think she was kidnapped?” Eliza asked.
“Hard to say. She’s a popular professor. Who would be against her?”
Jillian’s harsh words came to mind. “Didn’t Jillian go to Darby?”
Brandon shot a look her way. “She disagreed with Melinda’s thinking, but is that enough to kidnap her?”
And film her being miserable? “Maybe she wants to make a public statement.”
“By turning to violence?”
“She yelled and pounded on your door after you broke up with her.”
“She wasn’t expecting it, that’s all. I should have waited until the next day to do that.”
“When it’s time to run, it’s time to run, right?”
“You would know more about that than me.”
Did he really believe that? Seeing the passion in his eyes, she knew he did.
“You could make any girl run, Brandon.”
Stormy anger flared in the radiance of his dark eyes, shadowed by a tensing brow. “Some of them should.”
Did he mean her? She should run from him? She’d already done that, to save her heart. But why did she get the feeling he was referring to something else entirely?
* * *
Against Eliza’s wishes, Brandon took her with him to track down Naomi and, hopefully, David. It seemed like his brother was all right, but Branson needed to be sure. He couldn’t shake the nagging instinct that told him something was wrong.
Near the Darby campus, they waited in the parking lot of a plain, square brick apartment building with metal-framed windows. It was old and in need of a face-lift. The lines of the parking spaces were badly faded, and weeds grew from cracks in the lesser-traveled areas. Brandon had found Naomi through her Facebook page. One of her posts mentioned this apartment building. She should be more careful.
He spotted her get out of a car and head for the building as he walked beside Eliza. Her words still bothered him. He could make any girl run. She couldn’t have stabbed closer to what he held inside if she tried. He hadn’t made any woman run. Eliza held the only record for that one. He did try very hard not to, however. Priority number one with women was not making them feel like running. The first red flag was when he felt cornered, as he had with Jillian.
He’d felt the same with Eliza back when he was eighteen. She’d been his first lesson. The woman he married would complement him so perfectly, there’d be no conflict, no waters disturbed in the relationship. No stubbornness. No arguments. No insecurities whatsoever.
He glanced over at Eliza in her capri jeans and silky soft green top that brought out the green in her eyes. And no need to be the center of attention instead of the object of a man’s love.
Gaining ground on the woman as she reached a narrow, uneven sidewalk leading to the front entrance, he called, “Naomi Peterson?”
The woman slowed long enough to look back but didn’t stop walking.
“I’m Brandon Reed, and this is Eliza Reed.”
“I’m David’s wife,” Eliza informed the woman.
That made her stop and turn. Brandon watched how she visibly stiffened and stared in fear at Eliza. Then she pivoted. “I’m running late.” She walked faster up the sidewalk.
Brandon went after her. “Wait.”
“I don’t have time.” She half walked, half jogged to the apartment entrance.
“We know you were with David yesterday morning,” Eliza said from behind him. “We just need to know where he is now.”
With her hand on the door handle, the woman hesitated and glanced over her shoulder.
“He hasn’t contacted us,” Brandon said. “We’re concerned.”
After hesitating a bit longer, Naomi said, “He dropped me off here after we had breakfast. I haven’t seen him since.” Her gaze shifted to Eliza. If it was after breakfast, then she must have spent the night before with him. From a little after 1:00 a.m. onward.
“What time did you have breakfast?” Brandon asked.
“Late. Around ten.”
“Do you know where he was going?” Eliza asked.
“No. It was just one of those nights. I didn’t care if I ever saw him again. We had fun, and that was it. He went his way and I went mine.” She spoke to Brandon, giving Eliza only a brief glance, nervous about what she might do after discovering another woman had slept with her husband.
“Where did you meet him?” Brandon could see it was easier for her to talk to him than Eliza.
“At the Vengeance Hotel. I attended a wedding reception there. He was getting a room. I went with him for a drink. The bar was closing, so we took a couple more to his room.” Again she sent Eliza an uncomfortable glance. “Do you think something happened to him?” she asked.
“We’re not sure.” He put his hand on Eliza’s back and guided her to turn around. They weren’t going to get any more information out of her. “Thank you for talking to us.”
Eliza looked back at the woman, who stood there for a few seconds longer watching them, no doubt wondering what that was all about and why Eliza hadn’t gone after her for sleeping with her husband. She was holding up rather well, more interested in David’s whereabouts than his infidelity. David had been with Jillian when they’d found him and then had taken another woman to bed. He’d been on a quest. Determined to find someone to cheat on her with. And aside from crying last night, it didn’t bother her all that much. His lack of respect had hurt her more than anything. Or was it her mistake in marrying him that had upset her?
Brandon avoided analyzing that any further as he walked beside her toward his truck. Her arm brushed against his and almost directed his attention to a more scandalous place.
“Why do you think Jillian was with David last night?” she asked.
David might have slept with her if she’d let him, but Jillian had gone with him for other reasons. Eliza had picked up on the undercurrents, too.
“Not to spend the night with him,” he answered.
“She said David was on his way into the party. What happened to change his mind?”
“Maybe Jillian told the truth. He might have asked if I was there with you.”
Her profile turned down with a disgruntled pinch at the corner of her mouth. She disliked their undeniable physical attraction as much as he did. And she didn’t want to believe that was why David hadn’t come inside.
“David must know something about her that she doesn’t want anyone to find out,” he said.
She lifted her head to look at him. “Or something she doesn’t want you to know.”
Jillian did seem desperate to have him. Any negative detail getting out about her might be horrifying. “Then maybe it’s nothing. Whatever she stopped him from saying was probably nothing.” Insignificant gossip.
At his truck, Eliza faced him. He hadn’t expected her to do that, and now he stood too close to her. The mood changed in an instant. Her eyes drank in his upper torso and then his face.
“She seemed really tense,” she said, sounding mechanical, as though she forced herself to say it to keep from doing something naughty.
“She didn’t want to go with David.” Putting on his sunglasses, he looked down her body and back up again, envisioning her legs where they didn’t belong right now. Around him. Long and slender. Firm. Just the way he remembered.
“But felt she had no other choice.” Her breathy reply wasn’t in response to his perusal. His sunglasses had hidden that, but she still picked up on it.
“No,” he managed to say. How would her butt feel in his hands with her legs anchored to his hips?
“She scares me.”
Luckily that snapped him back to attention. He opened the door for her. “She won’t try anything.”
And if she did, he’d be ready.
* * *
Eliza tried calling David’s cell phone again, more to dull her awareness of Brandon than anything else. The call went straight to voice mail. It was after eleven. She’d changed into her pajamas, a pair of silky white pants and a short-sleeved shirt that Brandon had spent several agonizing seconds taking in with a hungry look.
Now he reclined on the sofa, his bare feet up on the big coffee table, jeans cupping his crotch and black T-shirt tucked in. Feet had never been sexy to her, but his sure were. There wasn’t an inch of him that wouldn’t turn her on. She was convinced.
Giving up on the phone, she dropped it onto the coffee table. “He isn’t coming back.”
He must have left her here. She’d tried calling their home number and looked up their credit cards to see if he’d charged an airline ticket. If he had bought a ticket, he hadn’t used credit. Was he with another woman? The college girl? Or was he in trouble, as she had originally thought?
Brandon had called Jillian earlier. She didn’t answer at first but later that night she did. She still hadn’t seen David, and he hadn’t called her.
Brandon stood up. “You should try and get some rest.”
His brown eyes were shadowed and grim, and his mouth was in a flat line. It had been a stressful day for both of them.
She wouldn’t be able to sleep, but she nodded. She’d go to the guest room and turn on the television. Maybe that would settle her mind enough.
As she started toward the hall, a sound stopped her. Something outside. Some scraping and then a crash. Something, or someone, was on the patio.
Brandon went to the back double doors and peered through the glass. He had no blinds on them. Why bother with so much remote isolation surrounding him? He flipped on the light.
Eliza moved around the kitchen table and stood close behind him. A squirrel was chewing on the edge of the wood railing. It had knocked a flowerpot onto the patio floor. She breathed her relief. All her thoughts of gangsters and David had her edgy.
As she turned to go to bed, her bare foot slipped on the cool tile floor. Brandon caught her around the waist. Her hand came against one of the chairs, and it tipped over with her unsteady weight. Brandon tried to keep her from falling but she tripped over the legs of the fallen chair.
She brought him down with her. He let go of her waist as he tried to avoid crashing on top of her. She landed painfully on the toppled chair. Holding her side where the seat had dug into her flesh, she grimaced.
Above her, Brandon straddled her with a chuckle. “Are you all right?” He stood up.
She rose to her knees, which put her face right in front of his crotch.
Brandon took hold of her arms and lifted her. She put her hands on his forearms, unable to answer. Being so close to his man parts had flustered her.
“Are you okay?” he repeated.
She could only stare up at him.
Still smiling, the first levity of the day, he lifted her pajama top and inspected her ribs. They were a little red but otherwise unscathed. Eliza watched his hands on her, one curved around her bare waist and the other caressing the reddened skin with his thumb. Instant heat washed any and all negative tension away. If he moved his hand up he’d find her bare breasts.
It was unreasonable how much she craved him to do it. Her nipples hardened with the thought.
His hands stilled.
She lifted her head. He was staring down at the very thing that ached for him. Her top button had come free in her fall and gave him a great view. All that was left to the imagination were her nipples, and their jutting only made that more erotic.
She watched his impassioned face. Then his eyes met hers and a moment of question passed between them. Something beyond control took over. She saw it in him and felt it inside her. There was no stopping this.
He moved his hands up.
Her skin tingled, and drugging passion intensified. When his hands cupped her, she thought she’d erupt with sensation. How could something so wrong feel so right? She didn’t understand it and didn’t have the wherewithal to try now. She only knew that Brandon had been her one and only true love. He hadn’t reciprocated when they were teenagers, but he was now. That’s all that mattered to her in this moment, this moment that could vanish any second. She held on to it.
She ran her hands down his arms and then under the hem of his shirt, racing further out of control with the feel of his six-pack abs. This was nothing like what she remembered. This was new. He was all man to her touch. His chest. His shoulders. Back down to his abs and around to his lower back.
He unbuttoned her pajama top. Thumbed her nipples. And then she met his eyes. The wrongness of this remained just far enough away. She tipped her chin up as he lowered his mouth to hers. Gentle. Maybe hesitant. Wrong but, oh, so right.
When she moved her arms up over his shoulders, he lifted her and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He carried her up the stairs. She had never been up here and didn’t pay much attention. Instead, she kissed his mouth and jaw and cheeks, loving how his eyes watched where he was going and how his gruff breathing revealed his passion.
In his large bedroom, he put her gently onto the mattress. She removed her pajamas while he undressed. He had his boxers off before she had her underwear off and came down onto the mattress to slide them down her legs himself.
On his hands and knees, he looked down at her, from her legs to her hips to her breasts and at last her face, where he hesitated. She vibrated with yearning, felt him doing the same. And yet...
David was gone. Her marriage was over. Soon it would be nonexistent. But David was Brandon’s brother.
Brandon lowered himself down onto her, his breath sighing out of him as he put his head beside hers.
He couldn’t do it. She couldn’t do it.
“Why does this keep happening?” she asked.
He lifted his head without replying. He didn’t understand it, either. His hand was beside her face and he caressed her cheek.
“I thought you didn’t like party girls,” she teased. Best to lean toward humor.
“You’re not a party girl anymore.”
When had he drawn that conclusion? The heat lingering between them stirred in her. His voice was low and deep. His body warm and hard. Eyes windows to the struggle he shared with her.
David would always be his brother, so even if she were no longer married to him, there would be a barrier between them. He’d never be able to be with her like this. Make love to her. Over and over. Daily. Maybe that wouldn’t even be enough.
Eliza ached for him. No other man could make her ache the way Brandon did.
David would be hurt if anything happened between them now. He was already hurt.
Bittersweet regret made the ache deeper. She saw a mirror image of it in Brandon’s eyes. They couldn’t have each other. And beyond the physical, they lived completely different lives. Eliza couldn’t picture herself tucked away on his ranch any more than he could picture himself traveling to all her events, thrown into the throng of social frivolity. And yet they hungered for each other. The tastiest steak, the most succulent crab, the richest chocolate, none compared to the delicacy of having Brandon.
This was the last time she’d feel him against her. His caressing fingers, his legs entwined with hers, his stomach, his erection.
Eliza lifted her head to kiss him. One last kiss.
He kissed her back. She arched upward for more, a rush of desire numbing her thoughts. He kissed her harder. She sought a deeper mating with her tongue. He accommodated, holding her head for the devouring.
She parted her knees, so hot for him she couldn’t stop it. She couldn’t stop the inevitable.
“Eliza,” he rasped, caution flying away.
“Just do it, Brandon. Please.” She squeezed his rear, urging him to satisfy this gnawing hunger.
His hips moved in answer.
She moaned in unbearable pleasure as he probed into her soft, warm opening. Slid deliciously inside. He groaned with her and pulled back for another incredible stroke.
Eliza arched her body, electrified with mindless sensation. She came apart from the most powerful, instantaneous orgasm she’d ever experienced, pulsing deep and endlessly. Sensations didn’t abate as he continued to move, nowhere near finished.
Carried away in the aftermath, Eliza was powerless against the swell of adoration and love that consumed her. His face, strong jaw and impassioned eyes, breathing with her, his mouth coming down for a searching kiss.
It restarted her. Having not come completely down from her pleasure, she was urged onto a new wave. She kissed him back, meeting his tongue and taking each of his slow and tortuous penetrations in rhythm.
The next slide was harder. And the next after that. Her flames reignited into a roar. One hard slide after another fueled the inferno to white-hot intensity.
“Brandon.” She was out of her mind with lust.
He began pumping faster, gruff sounds coming from him.
“Brandon,” she rasped again, raising her arms above her head.
He took one of her nipples into his mouth and then kissed her sternum. The side of one breast received his loving next and then the other. One more sweet caress of her other nipple and then he resumed his hard thrusts. Her breasts jiggled with each impact. Her thighs were high and wide. And he saw it all.
Watching him enjoy her body sent her over the edge. Closing her eyes, she peaked with an incredible explosion.
Her release brought on his own. She was his instrument, and he’d just played her beautifully. Groaning, he finished and collapsed onto her.
She caught her breath with him, still throbbing from him. Had anything ever felt this good? Eliza stayed on the soft billowy cloud of ecstasy for a while.
Brandon’s fingers were in her hair. She reached to run hers through his. He turned his head and planted a kiss on her neck. She smiled with the sweet gesture.
Then the throbbing eased, and her breathing became normal. She opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. Brandon’s bedroom ceiling.
She felt Brandon’s body tense about the same time.
As quickly as the animalistic quenching of pure physical lust had overtaken them, shame took its place.
Brandon’s head lifted. She caught a quick glimpse of his eyes before she had to look away and he moved off her. Rolling to the edge of the bed, he stood. While he dressed, her need to be gone from there burgeoned. As soon as he went to the bathroom and closed the door, she rose, dressed and went down to the guest room.
Once there, she showered and donned a different pair of pajamas and lay in bed with the television on, hoping the distraction would ease her into sleep. Instead, guilt burdened her. What David would think. How hurt he’d be. And even that didn’t cover her emotions. It was the total disregard for another person that got to her most. Didn’t she care about anyone but herself? Was sex more important that David’s feelings?
Then the kindling of rightness began a slow blossoming. Guilt faded. It didn’t go completely away, but the truth emerged. Making love with Brandon had been the product of rightness, of what they’d shared in their youth. That was why it had been so explosive. Disconcerting it was so explosive. She couldn’t even wrap her brain around it.
She and David had married on impulse. He didn’t love her any more than she loved him. Even without the history between her and Brandon, their marriage would have ended anyway. It may have lasted awhile longer, maybe even years. But the truth wouldn’t change. They hadn’t loved each other. They’d married out of convenience. He was thinking he could continue his wild ways; she would have at least the semblance of love.
Eliza was a one-love woman. She would never love anyone the way she loved Brandon. So why not marry a close second? Was she supposed to live her life single? Waiting for another love like that to come along? What if it never did? The thought of growing old alone saddened her. It always had, ever since she’d left Vengeance.
Being alone didn’t scare Brandon. He preferred being alone. She was glad there’d be no chance for them to make something of what had happened tonight.
He hadn’t changed. He’d keep running until someday it would dawn on him that he was an old man and he was still alone. Needlessly.
What had made him so dogged? So afraid of love?