Elusive Echoes (12 page)

Emotions he couldn't define, didn't
understand, were slamming Sean like a jackhammer, accompanied by
body-engulfing cold and the taste of bile in his throat. Her pain
became his. How had she stood it? "Did they—the men—did they—hurt
you?" The words felt like they were being ripped from his throat.
He wanted to pull her back into his embrace but he sensed the
distancing had been intentional.

After a moment, Mel surprised him by sliding
an arm across his chest and up to cup his neck. "I love you for a
lot of reasons, Sean. Just now, I love you so very much for caring
about that." Her fingers flexed briefly. "No. No one hurt me, no
one touched me. Not—like that."

He eased out the breath he'd been holding.
Maybe they hadn't physically hurt her. But Sean recognized the
mental and emotional scars left over from those years.

"The day I turned eighteen, I left. I was
almost broke. Nick never let Denny or me have any money. But once,
when I was fifteen, we stayed in a town so he could run a long-term
con. I got a job at McDonald's. He never knew, and I was able to
hide the money I made. I knew I had to get away. It wasn't enough,
wasn't nearly enough. And then I found out Grandma Tilly had died
just a few months before I left. I was alone."

Sean's breath caught again.
She hadn't needed to be alone. If she had called him, he would have
found her. But she hadn't called him. And she had left DeVayne when
she was eighteen, yet she hadn't returned to Orson's Folly until
she was twenty-one. "Where did you go? Why didn't you come back
here?"
Why didn't you call me?

"As soon as I found out
Grandma Tilly was gone, I
couldn't
come back here. I felt—dirty. I didn't want you to
see me."

"No, Mel," he whispered. Every word stabbed
like another knife in his soul.

"I went to Las Vegas. Found work as a
cocktail waitress." She shivered. "The customers all wanted so much
more than drinks."

Sean's heart seemed to hover between beats.
He wasn't sure it would start again. He couldn't talk. The question
he most wanted to ask was stuck in his throat.

She sighed heavily. "And because I didn't
let them cop their feels and wouldn't go home with anyone after
hours, I kept my job but my tips weren't very good."

The band around Sean's lungs loosened. But
he wasn't certain the damage to his heart would ever heal. Had he
really thought he wanted to know the sources of her shadows?

With a tiny sigh, Mel continued speaking
softly. "Then I got a huge break. I found out Grandma Tilly had
left me her estate. She was very smart, though, and put it in trust
for me until I was twenty-one. It wasn't much but it was mine. Nick
either hadn't known about it or knew he couldn't touch it."

"Who held the trust?"

Mel pulled in a long breath. "Your dad," she
whispered. "He tracked me down in Las Vegas and told me about it.
Told me Grandma Tilly would have wanted me to come home. And I
decided I needed to . . . I wanted to come home."

"I remember Dad's trip right
before you came back," murmured Sean. He'd thought Justin had gone
looking for Ryan. When his father had refused to answer any of
Sean's questions about the trip, he'd assumed it hadn't gone well.
Sean smiled into the darkness.
You made
sure she came home, didn't you, Dad?

Mel shrugged. "Sandy had just bought
Valentine's when I pulled into town, and I answered her ad for a
bartender."

Sean lay still. Mel's hand on his neck
heated skin that had chilled. She'd lived a horrendous life for
eight years. No wonder she had shadows. He dragged a hand over his
mouth, ending at his jaw and rubbed his chin. Her reaction when she
thought she saw her half-brother now made perfect sense.

"You're wrong about one thing." Sean tried
to temper the rawness he heard in his voice. "I don't care who
donated the biology, your real father was and always will be Todd
Mitchell."

Mel hugged him then,
tightly, as if she never wanted to let go. And he sure as heck knew
he didn't want her to. No more than he intended to let
her
go.

He trailed his fingertips along her arm
where it lay across his chest. After a brief hesitation, he slid
his hand to her waist. He'd meant it as a simple caress, a gesture
of comfort. But her skin was so soft, so heated. For a moment she
stiffened in surprise. Then she seemed to melt into him. Love and
desire surged, knotted together, and tore through his system until
nothing else occupied Sean's mind except his awareness of Mel at
the most visceral level.

****

Mel couldn't recall a time when she hadn't
yearned for his touch. She knew she should back off, give Sean time
to take in her disclosures about her life on the road. Her body
overrode her mind, and Mel relaxed against him as she came alive
with each gentle stroke of his warm hands.

Desire twined through her, blossomed, and
pushed out reason. She knew only his hands on her skin, his mouth
on her lips, his tongue meeting hers. Oh, he always had known how
to kiss her like she was the only woman in the world.

****

He'd known. Sean had known waiting for Mel
would be a reward in itself.

"Sean. . ." Melanie sighed.
"I don't want to
sleep
."

"I know," he murmured against her lips. He
didn't want to sleep either. One hand reached to his wallet on the
nightstand and his erotic fantasy slammed against stark,
eye-opening reality.

He'd never replaced the condom he'd given to
Ricky.

Gulping for air, Sean fell back against the
pillows. He snagged her hands to still her caresses. "Stop. Please
stop." He was so close to the edge, very soon he wouldn't care
about responsibility. He trembled with the effort to push back his
desire.

The moon was setting and they were in almost
complete darkness. But he sensed her looking at him with
confusion.

The words wouldn't form, hung up on his
frustration. After a few deep breaths, he was able to speak. "I
can't do this. We can't do this. Not now." He pulled her closer,
although it was sheer torture.

A little cry of distress seemed to be wrung
from her throat and she began to tremble in his arms. "You always
put the brakes on. I thought—I thought it would be different this
time."

"Mel." He spoke through gritting teeth. "I
don't have any protection. I don't have a condom."

Her body began to shake more violently and
it took him a second to realize that she was now laughing.

"I've waited most of my life for this moment
and it's all falling apart over a stupid piece of latex?" More
laughter bubbled forth.

"Something like that," he ground out.

She moved from his arms with a groan, sat on
the edge of the bed and turned on the light.

"Where are you going? Do you have something
here?" If she said yes, he'd wonder later why.

She chuckled. "Hardly. There's been no need.
I'm going for my best friend in times like this. Snickers."

He laughed out loud. Chocolate. She wanted
chocolate. Given his level of frustration, he should feel profound
disappointment. Instead, he felt intense relief.

She looked in his direction. Her voice was
tinged with laughter. "And later today, you and I are going to
invest in the biggest box of condoms they sell."

Now probably wasn't the time to tell her he
already had one of those. He'd make it a point to shove a condom or
several in his wallet when he got home. That was his last coherent
thought as she leaned over him and her mouth closed over his in a
sizzling kiss. Sensation slammed upon sensation. Heat, then chills.
Emotion welled, and love pushed itself into the mix. The alarm
clock next to the bed began to scream. With almost simultaneous
precision, the smell of brewing coffee filled the room.

Mel retreated, slapping a hand across the
top of the clock. She stood up and stretched. With a husky little
laugh, she walked to her kitchenette.

He watched her go with a lot of regret. For
the first time he could remember, Sean cursed the chores that were
calling him from a warm bed.

****

"You should have stayed and gotten some
sleep. I would have gone back for you." Sean checked Lacey's cinch
then gave Mel a boost into the saddle and checked the stirrup
length.

Mel stifled a yawn. "I want to be here. I
like helping." She sent him a slow smile. "Besides, I kinda-sorta
like hanging out with you."

Warmth spread on a direct current from her
smile to his heart. "Kinda-sorta, huh?" She'd told him that once
when they were kids; by his estimation with the information he had
now, just about the same time she'd decided they should be lovers.
His lips twitched into a smile and with a soft chuckle, he swung
his leg over the back of a large-boned chestnut filly. Ginger was a
little more skittish than he would have liked for this ride but she
desperately needed the exercise. Hopefully she'd calm down on the
trail. He'd only had her in the stable for a little over a
month.

"Feel up to a ride all the way out to the
Fords? We can look at his Jeep." He grinned at her. "And if you
wimp out on the ride over, maybe Liv'll truck you back here."

"Not likely. I'm not a wimp." Mel smiled
sweetly. "But in the event my rear ends up sore after this ride,
you have my permission to kiss it." She urged Lacey forward.

Sean stared after her, temporarily struck
dumb, and realized that had become a recurrent malady of late. He
nudged Ginger into a brisk walk to catch up with Mel and Lacey.

It was warm for October and the sun was
strong. They weren't on the trail long before Mel pulled up to take
off her denim jacket. The simple pale blue polo shirt she wore
beneath hugged her body and enticing curves pushed against the
fabric as she moved. Sean's nerves tied themselves in knots.

A sudden breeze stirred the grass at the
side of the trail and Ginger spooked sideways, bumping Lacey. The
older horse, by far the more passive of the two, balked and hung
back, allowing Ginger to take the lead. Sean turned to check on
Mel, smiling in approval when he saw she was patting Lacey's neck
and talking to her in a reassuring tone.

Another breeze rustled the grass and this
time Ginger laid back her ears and snorted. She half-reared,
kicking out at the grass and nearly unseating Sean. It took him a
few minutes to get the filly under control. That would teach him to
let himself get distracted.

"Why is she so nervous?" asked Mel when she
pulled alongside him.

"She hasn't had a lot of training and what
she had's been half-poor." Sean firmly pulled Ginger back onto the
trail. "Someone probably took it in their head to beat her down
because they thought she was too frisky."

He stroked the nervous filly's neck. Every
good horse trainer knew kindness and patience won the game.

****

When they arrived at the Ford place, Colt
was in the yard. He had his head under the hood of a red Jeep, but
he stood as they drew near.

"Mel. McGee." He nodded at each of them.
"Nice day for a ride."

Mel stared at the Jeep, a reserved
expression on her face. Sean slid off Ginger and tethered her to
the fence. He turned to help Mel off her mount, but Colt was
already there, large dark hands spanning Mel's slender waist,
catching her as she slid from Lacey's back, and setting her safely
on the ground. It took Sean a few seconds to realize his jaw was
clenched with jealous territoriality.

He let out a long, slow
breath.
Get a grip, man
.

Mel walked around the Jeep once, her face
completely unreadable. "It's obviously in great shape. So why are
you selling it for so little?"

Sean stiffened, but Colt merely shrugged.
"It's taking up space here. And I knocked a couple hundred off
because you're a friend." He shrugged. "You can pay more if you
insist but I'd cut any friend a deal."

Dang, he was smooth. No wonder he often won
at Friday night poker. Sean watched Mel closely, trying to
determine if she was suspicious. She was still hard to read; he
didn't think so. Opening the door, she sat on the driver's seat,
finally cracking a smile.

"Feels pretty good sitting here."

Colt handed Mel the key. "Go ahead and start
her up, take a drive if you want."

Mel started the engine, listened for a
minute, then eased the Jeep into first gear and inched forward. She
pulled the brake and turned off the engine.

Colt raised an eyebrow. "Not going to drive
it?"

"I wouldn't have the faintest idea what to
look for on a test drive, so I'm just going to trust you."

Colt's lips twitched. Finally, he broke into
one of his rare smiles and glanced in Sean's direction. "You're
right. She's definitely not one you want car shopping on her
own."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Mel handed
the key back to Colt.

"Sean was telling me about some of the ads
you were considering."

"Oh, he was, was he?" She angled a
speculative look at Sean. Turning to Colt, she smiled so sweetly,
she could put the guy in a diabetic coma. "I'd very much like to
buy the Jeep. Sean said you might be able to help me get it to my
place?"

Colt nodded. "Sure. Tomorrow about noon okay
with you?"

"Perfect."

"Sean!"

He turned toward the call coming from the
barn, grinning when he recognized the willowy figure and straight,
waist-length brown hair of Olivia Ford moving in their
direction.

"I'm sorry I missed you yesterday." She
bounced into his arms and kissed him on the cheek, then stepped
back. "Glad you came back." She turned around. "Hi, Mel."