He was empty inside. No, not completely empty. There seemed to be room for his hate and anger—and even some irrational shame—over what had happened to him. But anything good and decent had died during those grim days and miserable nights of his incarceration.
He would hurt her. He didn’t want to but he knew himself well enough to know it was inevitable. He couldn’t do it to her—she was coping with enough pain right now.
He shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from reaching for her, good intentions be damned. “I think I’ll take Belle for a run on the beach. We can both use it after four days on the road.”
She looked as if she would like to go along but right now he needed distance from her to rebuild his self-control, so he refrained from issuing an invitation.
“I’ll be done in an hour or so. If you’re hungry by then, we can wander out and see what we can find to eat.”
He’d heard the nightlife on Key West was wild and woolly. He wasn’t much of a drinker but maybe if he got good and smashed he might be able to forget the night before and the healing peace he had known so briefly in her arms.
He was still feeling vaguely unsettled after he’d changed into a T-shirt and the one pair of jogging shorts he’d brought along.
Belle was beside herself with joy, anticipating exactly what was coming. She panted with glee and raced circles around him as they headed out toward the water.
They had made good time from Jacksonville that day. Hunter had predicted they would be in Key West by sunset and, sure enough, the sun was just beginning its slow slide into the sea as he set a hard pace for himself through the hard-packed sand close to the waves.
Lord, he loved this. Euphoria churned through his veins with every step, every thud of his jogging shoes in the sand.
Of all the things he had missed during his three years of incarceration, the freedom to take off and run whenever the mood hit him had been up there close to the top of his list. Exercise had certainly been encouraged for inmates. Corrections officers figured it worked off aggression better expended in sweat and exertion than on each other. But Hunter found little satisfaction running around a prison-yard track like a rat in a cage.
He did it anyway, along with weight lifting to keep his body in shape. But every time he would run inside those razor wire–tipped walls, he would dream of a moment like this, of stretching his legs as far as they would go and heading off into the sunset.
The ocean was a new twist. Usually his prison fantasies involved taking off into the mountains surrounding his home in Little Cottonwood Canyon, the sharp tang of sage surrounding him and the clear, high air burning his lungs while Belle chased after ground squirrels and pikas.
This was a heaven he wouldn’t even have let himself dream about two months ago—water lapping at the sand, the warm sea breeze kissing his skin, the sun slipping toward the Gulf of Mexico in a fiery show of orange and purple.
Hunter enjoyed the sunset on the go, unwilling to stop even for something so spectacular, not with the endorphin high pumping through his system.
With Belle chasing the waves excitedly and shorebirds crying overhead, it was a moment of pure, stunning joy. The euphoria almost made up for his four days on the road, of trying—and obviously failing spectacularly—to keep his hands off Kate.
He ran for a long time, until his lungs ached and the sun dipped into the water. As he headed back up the beach toward their rented cottages, his mind traveled of its own will to the woman who waited there.
Small and lovely and vulnerable, she made a dangerous package, one he found entirely too appealing. He just had to do his best to resist her, no matter what it took.
His resolve was tested unexpectedly about a quarter mile from their lodging. The sun was now only a rim above the waves but he still had enough light to see a solitary figure on the beach staring out to sea, arms wrapped around her knees.
He knew instantly it was Kate.
Even if he hadn’t recognized the sunlit warmth of her hair or that slender, elegant stretch of neck, he would have known it was her by Belle’s joyful reaction. The dog raced to her side and leaped and writhed to see her as if they had been separated for months and hadn’t just spent the last three days in almost constant company.
Kate hugged Belle to her and even from a dozen yards away he could hear her low laughter. It slid around and through him like a thin, silvery ribbon.
He stopped there in the sand, his muscles twitching and his heart still pounding from the run.
Still sitting in the sand, she swiveled a little to face him, a small smile of welcome on her face.
Coming home. That’s what he felt like when he saw her, like some part of him that had been adrift for too long at last had a place to rest.
He stared at her as a stunning realization hit him with the jolt of a thousand watts of electricity.
He was in love with her.
These last few days on this trip—hell, for the whole five years he had known her—he had done his best to convince himself this
thing
between them was only physical attraction. Pheromone to pheromone, yin to yang.
Standing here with the tropical breeze cooling the sweat on his body and the sea a soft wash of colors behind him, he forced himself finally to face the truth he had been running from.
They shared an attraction, certainly. A constant, insidious heat that made him aware of her every sigh, her every breath.
But he could no longer deny the truth. This was far more than a mere physical attraction. He was in love with Kate Spencer, of the healer’s spirit and the troubled past and the haunted eyes.
He loved her laughter and he loved her courage and he loved the way she gathered stray chicks around her like a lonely mother hen.
The realization horrified him. For a long moment, he could do nothing but stand there in the sand trying to catch his breath with his solar plexus tight and quivering as if he’d just taken a hard hit with one of those vicious billy clubs a couple of the guards at the Point of the Mountain took great delight in wielding against someone who had once been one of their own.
“How was your run?” she asked.
He cleared his throat, hoping she would attribute his sudden breathlessness to the exercise.
“Good. It’s a beautiful place for a workout.”
She lifted her face to the warm air. “I’d forgotten how much I love the sea,” she said with a soft smile. “Since I moved to Utah I’ve come to love the wildness—the primitive strength—of the Rockies. But the ocean feeds my soul.”
He should leave, he thought with an edge of desperation. Right now, run as fast as he could away from her. Instead, he found himself moving closer. He knew it was foolish but still he found himself sitting beside her in the sand, though he maintained what he hoped was a safe distance between them.
“Why did you leave Florida? I’m sure you could have gone somewhere closer to med school. What took you to the University of Utah?”
Her brow furrowed as she considered his question. “I don’t know that I have a firm answer to that. Not one that makes any sense, anyway. I was accepted to three different medical schools—Vanderbilt, Tulane and the University of Utah. I was really close to going to Vanderbilt but somehow the mountains called to me. Somewhere deep in my soul were memories of aspens and pines and blue sky. I used to think it was some lingering remnant of a previous life.”
Her small laugh contained little humor. “I guess it was. That first time I went back to Liberty with Gage and Wyatt, they drove me to Lynn’s house, on my grandfather’s ranch where we all lived for the first three years of my life. I can remember looking up at the green-and-gray mountains surrounding the ranch and feeling this deep connection, this missing piece of my life clicking back into place.”
She was quiet as the first stars started peeking out of the twilight sky. “I didn’t know why until this last month or so but I suppose I left Florida looking for that missing piece of myself. For my family.”
“And you found them.”
“Right, even though technically, they found me. Anyway, Utah is home now and was before the McKinnons ever found me but a part of my soul will always hunger for the ocean. I suppose this is one of those painful times I have to give up one thing I love in order to get something else I love.”
“The ocean will always be here waiting whenever you come back.”
She gave a little laugh. “You’re right. I really don’t have to choose, do I?”
“Not right now anyway. Right now you can just enjoy it.”
They sat for several moments in silence, Belle flopped onto the sand beside them, while the waves lapped at the shore and the stars continued to pop out like silver sequins.
“I’m sorry I disturbed your run,” she said after a moment.
“We were heading back anyway. I haven’t quite got my running legs back.”
Her gaze shifted to his legs and he was unnerved to see color rise on her cheeks. The brief moment of peace suddenly seemed charged with tension, awareness.
Hunter cleared his throat. He had to get out of here before he did something stupid.
He rose, shaking sand off. “I, uh, need to shower and then we can find somewhere to eat if you’re up for it.” Somewhere crowded and noisy and raucous where he wouldn’t have to be alone with her.
She nodded, her color still high. “Okay.”
“You want to stay here a little longer?”
“No. I think I’m ready to go back.”
He helped her to her feet but quickly released her hand as they walked up the deep white sand toward their cottages. He couldn’t risk prolonged physical contact right now, not with this thick emotion swirling through him.
He needed space and distance from her. Too bad he couldn’t swim out to some isolated offshore cay and stay there for a week or two, until she returned to Utah and her residency.
Chapter 12
H
ow did a woman with very little experience seduce the man she loved?
Kate blew out a breath, for once wishing she’d taken more time away from medical textbooks in the last few years to gain a little practical knowledge.
She knew how to discourage a man, to slip away from wandering hands and to gently divert a man’s attention until he didn’t even realize he had been brushed off.
That she could do in her sleep. The opposite—letting a man know she wanted more—was a little harder to figure out. How did she do it without coming across as easy or desperate or both?
The trouble was, she only had about fifteen minutes to figure it out before Hunter finished showering and changing from his jogging clothes. Fifteen minutes to turn herself from bland to bombshell.
It was a daunting prospect.
Kate stood in her cheerful rented cottage, a ceiling fan spinning lazily overhead as she studied the pitiful offerings from her suitcase spread out across her tropical bedspread.
She might have had a fighting chance if she had brought along something slinky and sultry, an outfit sure to turn her petite, almost boyish figure into something that cried out
ba-da-bing.
Okay, that would take more than a sexy outfit to accomplish. Still, it would be nice to have something to work with here.
When she had packed in those early morning hours after the wedding—what seemed a lifetime ago—she had opted for travel casual, clothes picked more for comfort than for their sex appeal.
The only thing she’d brought along that was even remotely interesting was the simple, no-frills black dress she’d picked up before her Guatemala trip, mostly because it was guaranteed not to wrinkle.
With a snap of her wrists she shook it, relieved when she found the short-sleeved tunic dress lived up to its hype and was ready for a night on the town. At least she had the foresight to include a pair of flat black sandals to go with it—wouldn’t she have looked lovely with her little black dress and high-tops?—but she was afraid she still looked like some kind of granola lover.
The only thing she had for accessories was a handmade Mayan jade
mariposa
necklace-and-earring set she’d bought at a village market in Guatemala. No problem. At least it would match the butterflies in her stomach.
Kate blew out a breath, slipped into the dress and went to work on her hair and makeup, something she rarely fussed with. Anticipation curled through her as she piled her hair onto her head, wishing she had time for something a little more elegant, then quickly applied eye shadow, mascara and the sexiest shade of lipstick she owned. Her color was high enough she decided she didn’t need blush.
Sultry.
That’s what she was going for here. Maybe Hunter would be swept away by the hot, uninhibited tropical nights. She could always dream, couldn’t she?
One would hope that after four days in his constant company, she could read the man a little better but he was still a mystery, a study in contrasts. There had been that odd, jittery moment on the beach earlier when he had gazed at her with an intense light in his midnight eyes that left her shaky and breathless.
But then he barely touched her. She hadn’t missed how quickly he had released her hand after helping her from the sand. That hadn’t been the only example. All day, he’d gone out of his way to avoid even the most accidental of touches.
Maybe the reason for his distance was something other than revulsion. She thought of the expression in those eyes and pressed a hand to her stomach through the black cotton at the nerves jumping there.
She had to believe Hunter wasn’t completely unaffected by her. He had certainly been interested enough the night before, even when she had been teary and emotional.
She was just finishing up when a knock sounded at the door. Blotting her lipstick, Kate took time for one quick look in the mirror. Not bad for travel chic.
Ready or not, Hunter Bradshaw.
“Just a minute,” she called, then slipped into the sandals and hurried to the door.
When she opened the door, the butterflies in her stomach turned into stampeding rhinos. He stood on the other side wearing khakis and a navy-blue golf shirt, his wet hair gleaming silvery black in the porch light. He smelled divine, that sexy, cedary male aftershave that transported her instantly to the night before, trailing kisses up his neck.
For just a moment, she thought his eyes turned hot and hungry as he looked at her in her little black travel dress, but he blinked and the moment was gone.
She tried to smile a greeting but was fairly certain her facial muscles had suddenly gone Botox-numb on her, along with everything else.
“Where’s Belle?” It was the only thought her brain could grab hold of.
“Enjoying a minute to herself, I think. She was sound asleep in her crate when I left.”
She continued to stand there like an idiot and only realized it when he cleared his throat. “Are you ready?” he asked.
Oh yes,
she wanted to say but she swallowed the fervent declaration. “I think so,” she said instead. “Oh wait. I forgot.”
Kate grabbed the jade butterfly necklace and earrings off the dresser. To her dismay, her hands that could suture a gaping wound with tiny, delicate stitches fumbled with something as simple as inserting the earrings in her ears, but she finally managed it.
She picked up the necklace and reached her arms behind her neck to fasten it, then she happened to glance at Hunter. She found him staring at her, his eyes slightly unfocused and his respiration rate most definitely accelerated.
Hmmm. Maybe this whole seduction business wasn’t as tough as she feared. She took a deep breath and decided to try the only thing she could come up with at short notice.
“I can’t quite work the clasp,” she murmured after a moment. “Would you mind helping me?”
He froze, a trapped look in his eyes, then she saw his throat work. “I’m not very good with jewelry thingies. You look fine without the necklace.”
“I’d really like to wear it, though.”
After a few heartbeats, the trapped look gave way to resignation. He took the necklace from her and moved behind her. She obliged by tipping her head forward, pulling the stray tendrils of hair that always managed to slip from her updo out of the way.
Just who was seducing whom here?
Kate wondered as Hunter went to work on the necklace. She was painfully aware of him, of his just-showered scent and his crisp, clean clothes and his fingers warm and strong against her skin.
A shiver slid down her spine at his touch and she closed her eyes and leaned her head back until it rested against his shoulder.
His fingers at her nape stilled and she could feel the quick rise and fall of his chest. “What are you doing, Kate?” he asked, his voice low.
Hot color soaked her cheeks. She couldn’t come up with anything but the truth, so she straightened and turned to face him. “I was hoping to seduce you, but I’m obviously not very good at it.”
His short laugh was raw, unamused. “I wouldn’t say that.”
That sounded promising. “No?”
“If you leaned any closer, you would find out exactly how you affect me.”
Her gaze locked with his. “Is that an invitation?”
A muscle flexed in his jaw. “Dammit, Kate. This isn’t a good idea.”
“Why not?”
He groaned. “A hundred reasons. If I were a smart man I would have turned around the moment I walked in the door and found you in that dress. I have no self-control where you’re concerned.”
“Good,” she murmured, then stepped forward again, her arms entwined around his neck as she kissed him.
He stayed unmoving for perhaps ten seconds, then he groaned and dragged her against him.
He must have shaved again after his shower. That sexy dark shadow she had seen him grow by evening over the last few days was gone and his skin smelled of that delicious aftershave.
His kiss was edged by the same wild desperation of the night before. This time it didn’t unnerve her, it only fueled her own desire.
“Make love to me again Hunter. Please.”
He closed his eyes as if praying for strength. When he opened them, they were dark, aroused. “All day I’ve tried to convince myself what a mistake that would be, no matter how much I might want it.”
She pressed her mouth to his carotid artery, to the pulse she could see pumping just below the skin. “Did it work?”
“What do you think? I’m not very persuasive, I guess. Right now making love to you seems like the best idea in the world.”
“I’m glad we see eye to eye,” she murmured and kissed him again.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Kate.”
He wasn’t talking about the kind of fleeting physical pain she had experienced the night before. She sensed it, could almost feel a phantom spasm from the impending heartache.
“You won’t,” she lied, lifting her chin. “I can take care of myself.”
He didn’t look convinced so she kissed him again, pouring all the emotions she couldn’t say into her kiss, her touch.
The dress she had selected with such care quickly ended up piled on the floor. Busy helping him out of his clothes, Kate left it there, grateful for the wonders of wrinkle-free cloth.
As inevitable as the tide, they came together, unspoken emotions simmering below the surface. This time there was no anger, no fear, only this wild, edgy heat.
“Are you still sore?” Hunter asked just before he entered her.
Kate thought about denying it but honesty compelled her to nod. “Maybe a little. Don’t worry about it, though.”
She should have known he would. The kind of man who rode his silver SUV to the rescue of any damsel in distress who needed him would die before he hurt his woman.
Not his woman, she reminded herself. His lover. For now, that would have to be enough.
After a moment’s consideration, Hunter rolled onto his back, pulling her atop him. Kate gasped as he guided her onto his arousal.
“You have a little better control this way.” His voice was raspy, deep. “If anything hurts, you can stop.”
Nice theory, but she knew she couldn’t have stopped even if a hurricane suddenly blew across the Key.
Kate twisted her fingers around his, setting an erotically slow pace. With each deep thrust inside her, she had to clamp down on the words of love fluttering in her throat like trapped birds.
Heat and love and desire braided through her, tighter and tighter, binding her to this strong, beautiful man with the shadows in his eyes.
At last, just when she was sure she couldn’t endure another moment, he reached a finger to the junction of their bodies and touched her. With a wild cry, she soared free. He watched her, his eyes hot and dark, then he gripped her fingers again and with one more powerful surge, joined her.
Much later, when every muscle burned with a pleasant exhaustion, she lay nestled in the crook of his shoulder, her arm spread across the hard muscles of chest.
“We didn’t get dinner.”
She laughed at the woeful note in his voice and raised up a little so she could see his face better.
“If not for the last hour or so I would have said some smart remark about food being the only thing you think about.”
To her shock, he grinned. Hunter Bradshaw actually grinned, a slow, sexy smile that made her just about forget her name. As she looked at him sprawled there in the bed of her rented cottage, she felt as if she’d just been handed the world.
“I think about plenty of things. Food. Sex. Food. Sex. I’m a man of many interests.”
Oh, she wanted to hold on tight and never let this lighthearted man go. If she had helped him, even a little, to allow some goodness back into his life she thought it would almost be worth the heartache she knew waited for her back in Utah.
“How about pizza?” she suggested. “I’m sure Ruben and Violet could suggest a decent place that delivers.”
He agreed and called the small resort’s owners at the front office. They recommended a place not far from their lodging that delivered delicious pizza. After some debate, they decided to be adventurous and ordered something billed as a Caribbean pie, with grilled chicken, pineapples and peppers on a plum sauce instead of the traditional tomato.
“We have half an hour before they deliver,” Hunter said after he hung up.
She curled a hand across that hard chest, loving the way his pulse skipped a little at her touch. “Time management is a very important skill for medical residents. You’d be surprised what I can accomplish in half an hour.”
He lifted her fist to his mouth and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Somehow I don’t think anything you do could surprise me, Dr. Spencer.”
“There’s always a first time,” she said with a sly smile, then proceeded to demonstrate.
He couldn’t get enough of her.
After the pizza arrived and was quickly consumed, they took a shower together and made love again, this time slow and easy, with a tenderness that terrified him as much as it seduced him.
He would have been happy to stay there all night—hell, if he died in Kate’s bed, he wasn’t sure he would mind—but Belle had been stuck in her crate all evening.
Kate insisted on going with him and said she was eager to see Key West again, so while he retrieved Belle from his own room, Kate once more put on that sexy short black dress.
She was waiting for him on the porch of her cottage when he brought the dog out on her leash.
Even at 11:00 p.m. on a Wednesday night, the Key West nightlife was jumping. Live music blared from a half-dozen bars as they made their slow way down Duval Street, and the area was thronged with tourists.
It reminded him of a law-enforcement conference he’d attended in New Orleans just after he’d earned his gold shield. A couple of veteran detectives had dragged him down to the French Quarter with them and the rowdy party mood there had been the same.
This kind of crowd made the short hairs on the back of a cop’s neck stand up. It could turn unpredictable in an instant.
He found himself scanning the crowd for any lawbreakers. When he realized it, he ordered himself to cut it out. He wasn’t a cop anymore. He wasn’t
anything,
just an ex-con in love with a woman who deserved far better than him.