Ally fought an impulse to cry and bit the inside of her cheek instead.
“I suppose you blame me for that as well, don't you?”
Rob sighed. “You asked. I'm just telling you what happened.”
“Well, thanks, I'll see you around.”
She pressed her foot on the gas and roared out of the parking lot. A stupid thing to do in front of the sheriff, but she had to get away. As she drove, she wondered about Jackson. Had he left because of her? He'd known where she was headed, but he hadn't bothered to keep in touch. Was that why? Had he been too busy getting shot at?
Tears stung at her eyes as the familiar tree-lined streets unrolled around her until she found herself parked in her mother's driveway. She stared at the single-story ranch house and groaned. It needed painting both inside and out, the floors required refinishing, and the plumbing was a disaster. Her plans to run in, sell the house, and get out had taken a big hit. In the current market, there was no way the house would ever sell.
Ally got out of the truck and headed for the peeling front door. An all-too-familiar burning sensation gripped her stomach, and she struggled to force it down. There was no way she'd allow her mother's unwelcome legacy to defeat her. And, if she was honest, she hadn't come back for the house or for her mom. She'd come back to face the people she'd hurt, which was way more frightening than she could ever have imagined.
Â
Rob Ward watched Ally's dented green truck screech out of the parking lot and head out of town. In her pink T-shirt and cutoff jeans, she'd looked way too thin and pale for his liking. His memories of her were warmer, her skin tanned all over from the California sun, her cheeks sunburned and her dark hair held back in a long braid.
He smiled slowly as he headed back into his office. Whether they realized it or not, the homeowners association had done him a favor. Rob had wanted Ally's attention and now he'd gotten it. Her expression when she realized she'd come after him and he hadn't been hounding her after all had been priceless. Rob's grin faded as he shut the door to his office and sat down.
Why the hell had she contacted him? He'd half hoped she would and yet had half dreaded it. Okay, so she'd looked tired, but he still wanted her. Wanted those long legs wrapped around his hips while he fucked her stupid. His cock stirred at the image, and he smoothed his palm over his impatient shaft.
He still had no idea why she'd come back to sell her deceased mother's house. It wasn't as if they'd ever been close. He frowned as he remembered the scandal of her departure, Susan Evans's death that had followed, and Ally's mother's defiant disregard for everyone in the town. Was there something at her mother's house Ally wanted? Surely she didn't need the money. From what he read in the tabloids, she earned more in a year modeling than he would probably make in a lifetime.
And why the hell was she driving that ancient truck? Something wasn't right. He glanced down at his brown uniform pants, which were now tented. He thought she'd ripped his heart out when she'd run out on him, but time had shown him that wasn't true. He'd moved on, hadn't he? Fucked other women, eventually made things right with Jackson, created a new life and career for himself. . .
So why did he care whether Ally was back or not? Because she was unfinished business and she knew how he felt about that. She'd probably say it was because he'd never gotten over being dumped, and maybe she had a point.
But it was a lot more complicated than that. He'd missed her, and not just for the sex. She was right. She'd been a part of him for too long for it just to be about that.
He turned on his computer. Yeah, it was definitely time to seek closure with Ally. He'd been semihard ever since he heard she was back, and that wasn't good for a man. Sure, there were plenty of women who'd be glad to help him out with his problem, but now his dreams were all of Ally, of her on her knees begging his forgiveness before he gave in and fucked her.
And there was Jackson to consider. How the hell would he feel about Ally's return? Her scathing comment about his forgiving Jackson and not her stung. Why was it so much more difficult to forgive Ally than his oldest friend? Jackson had betrayed him as well.
Rob pretended to check his e-mail, but he wasn't really in the mood. It had taken him a long time to even consider trusting Jackson again. Would he be able to start afresh with Ally? The idea was tantalizing and too damned attractive to ignore. Whatever happened, the next few weeks were sure going to be interesting.
2
R
ob pressed the yellowing plastic bell on Ally's battered front door and waited. As a kid, he'd simply jumped over the rickety fence, run through the backyard and into the kitchenâuntil he'd figured out that Ally didn't like him being anywhere near her mom. It wasn't until they were teenagers that he realized Ruth Kendal was an addict who had no compunction about stealing and lying to get her drugs of choice. But by then, he'd been glad to stay outside.
There was no sound inside the house, so he knocked instead. Eventually, the door opened to reveal Ally, with a paintbrush in her hand and an aggrieved expression.
“What?”
“You have paint on your cheek.” Before she could reply, he stepped inside and shut the door behind him. “It's in your hair too.”
“Thanks.”
She balanced the paintbrush carefully on the windowsill and crossed her arms over her chest.
“What do you want?”
He ignored her, his attention having drifted to the stacks of boxes that filled the hallway, dining room, and as far as he could see. Last evening, on a whim, he'd pulled the old files for the Susan Evans case. Unconfirmed reports had placed Susan, the dead girl, in this house on the night of her death.
After the judge decided there wasn't enough evidence to obtain a search warrant, Ruth Kendal had refused to let anyone on her property even for an unofficial search. A quick verdict of suicide on the teenager had shut the case right down. The investigator in him yearned to take a closer look at the boxes. He'd always wondered whether his gut instinct about that night had been right, and now he was finally in a position to find out.
“What's with all the boxes?”
Ally shrugged and the spaghetti strap of her worn black top fell down. Rob's fingers twitched as he resisted the urge to fix it for her.
“All my mom's work.”
“Why?”
“How should I know? You saw her more than I did in the last ten years.”
“Yeah, but . . .”
Rob turned around, noticing the dirt and the smell of neglect, the torn drapes and netting, the filthy carpet.
“I didn't realize she'd let things get this bad.”
“Neither did I.”
Ally picked up the paintbrush and went down the hallway toward the kitchen. Rob followed her, inhaling the scent of fresh paint. To his relief, the kitchen looked a lot better than the other rooms. He nodded at the gleaming sink and scrubbed linoleum.
“Did you do this?”
“Yeah, after the bathroom it was the first room I cleaned.” She shuddered. “It's not great, but at least it's sanitary.” She swung around to look at him and leaned back against the sink. “So, what do you want?”
She wore frayed denim shorts that showed off the endless length of her legs, and her feet were bare. Drips of white paint splattered her from head to toe.
“I came to update you on your nuisance reports.”
“Really?” She stared pointedly at his khaki shorts and black T-shirt. “You don't exactly look official.”
“I'm just on my way in to work. I thought I'd drop by and give you the news firsthand.” He shifted his gaze to the door. “If I'm bothering you, I can come back later.”
“And disturb me all over again? Did you find out who was responsible?”
“No, but we're going to increase our patrols in this area, and I've asked the local Neighborhood Watch organization to put you on their at-risk list.”
She clasped her hands to her chest. “Oh, wow, I feel so much safer now. You know that most of the people who live here hate me, right? Do you really think they're going to waste their precious time worrying about graffiti on my walls or broken glass?”
“If I ask them to, yeah.”
“Oh, right, because if the town's star quarterback, homecoming king, sheriff, and jilted wonder guy forgives me, everyone else will too? Get real.”
Anger churned in his gut, but he tamped it down and took two steps closer to her.
“I haven't forgiven you.”
“Exactly, and they'll understand that. In fact, they probably think that scaring me away is good for the town and good for you.”
Determined not to let her rile him, Rob took a deep breath. “Now it's your turn.”
“To what?”
“To talk to me.”
“You haven't caught anyone yet.”
He closed the gap between them and stared down into her defiant face. “That's not what our agreement was.”
She smiled. “Are you sure? Did you write it down?”
He cupped her chin. “No, did you?”
Her breathing was as fast as his, and the tips of her breasts grazed the front of his T-shirt. He inhaled her familiar butterscotch scent and let it flow through him. It reminded him of the past. She licked her lips, and he was instantly hard.
“Rob, I really do want to sit down with you and clear the air.”
“Clear the air? Sure. Then let's fuck.”
Her eyes widened but she didn't look away. “I'm covered in paint, you hate me, and yet you still want to fuck me.”
“Yeah, I'm a man. That about sums it up.”
He bent his head and took her mouth in a hard, unforgiving kiss, then winced as she bit his lip and pulled away.
“I didn't say you could kiss me.”
“I didn't ask.”
She retreated to the sink, her nipples now showing through the thin fabric of her top. He waited while she looked him over; doing nothing to hide his erection, he let her see it and think about it thrusting between her legs.
“I don't hate you, Ally. But I don't understand why you did what you did. You fucked up four lives. Was it really worth it?”
She rinsed out her mug in the sink. “I had to leave. I was too young and too stupid to know how to do it any other way.”
“Hell, you could've just talked to me, told me how you felt.”
“And would you've listened? You weren't real good at that back when we dated.”
“At least you could've tried.”
She moved restlessly to the newly painted window, presenting him with her back.
“What do you want, Rob? An apology? Because I'm quite happy to give you one.” She hesitated. “In fact, it's one of the reasons I came back.”
He smiled, even though he knew she couldn't see his face. “I told you what I want.”
She turned slowly to face him. “To fuck me. Why on earth would you want to do that? Is that your perverted idea of revenge?”
He shrugged. “Maybe.”
“You know that makes no sense, right?”
He kept on staring at her. Hell, he knew that, but until he got rid of this itch to have her, he couldn't move on, couldn't let go.
“And why, exactly, would I let a man who hates me make love to me?”
Rob leaned back against the wall. “You fucked me over big-time.”
“So you're going to fuck me right back?”
“Works for me. And I know you, Ally. I know what you want in a man.” Rob caught something on his radio, which he always carried with him, and glanced down at it. “I've got to go. I'm on duty in ten minutes. I'll keep you informed about the troublemakers, and you let me know about the sex.”
She looked away from him, her arms folded over her breasts. “Go away, Rob. I have a lot to do.”
“I can see that.” He glanced around the room again. “How come you don't get someone in to do it for you?”
“I can't afford it. In fact, I might have to get myself a job to cover the costs. I didn't realize how much my mom had let it go.”
Her blunt statement made him pause.
“You're a supermodelâof course you can afford it.”
“Not anymore. I haven't walked a runway or shot a fashion spread for years.”
“But you had savings, right? And a manager and a modeling agency to protect your ass?”
“
Had,
yeah. Not anymore. They all dropped me.”
He continued to stare at her. “Why?”
She walked away from him, back toward the front door, her posture rigid and her chin in the air. “That's none of your business.”
“I suppose it isn't, but I'm still asking.”
Ally flung open the door, flooding the dirty hallway with sunlight.
“Good-bye, Sheriff. Come back when you have something useful to say.”
He stopped next to her, his shoes lined up with her bare feet so that she had to look up at him to see his face.
“I'll come back when you decide about the sex.”
She sighed. “I don't need to decide anything. I just want to talk things through with you properly, not have sex.”
He slid his hand in her hair and kissed her, ravaging her mouth until her whole body pressed against his.
“You still want me.”
She licked her now-swollen lips. “I don't.”
“Liar.” He kissed her again, pulling her tight against his erection and rocking into her. “You still taste the same, you know. You still turn me on.”
She turned her face away from him. “So what? It doesn't mean I have to do anything about it.”
“That's true, but I'm not giving up. I'll even help you out with the house, if you want.”
“Why?”
“I told you why.”
“Rob, there are probably hundreds of women in this town who would jump at the chance to fuck you. Why are you so fixated on having me?”
He drew back a little, propped his hand on the door frame above her head, and considered her. She was tall for a woman, just under six foot in her bare feet, only three inches shorter than him.
“Because you'll be gone soon?” He thought he saw a flash of disappointment in her eyes, but she quickly masked it. “What, you thought I was going to make you a big speech about still being in love with you and wanting you back? I haven't been pining for you for ten years.”
“Then why do you still want me?”
“Because we used to burn up the sheets, and I can give you what you really need.”
She angled her head to one side. “What's wrong, Rob? Are you trying to recapture your youth because you can't get it up anymore?”
He took her hand and placed it over the swell of his cock. “Does that feel like I have a problem to you?”
She wrenched her hand away and tried to turn toward the door.
“As I said, I have a lot to do, so can you go now?”
“Run out of insults for the day, have you?” He blew her a kiss. “It's okay. I know you'll come around.”
He stepped back as the door slammed in his face and strolled back to his truck. All things considered, that had gone well. Was it wrong that her anger simply turned him on more? And, dammit, he was turned on and so was she. Had their relationship always been like that?
He stopped walking. No, she'd adored him, would've done anything he asked until he'd scared her into running. He'd been so sure he knew her, but had he ever really bothered to listen to her opinions? And now she wanted to clear the air, whatever the hell that meant.
He frowned as he started the engine. The idea of asking her to fuck him to make amends had come out of nowhere. It wasn't really about the fucking anyway; surely she knew that? He'd expected her to turn him down flat, but there had been a hint of interest behind her denial that had turned him on and kept him insisting that was what he wanted.
Rob wanted to bang his head on the steering wheel. Ten minutes with Ally and he was already behaving like a teenager. And he didn't need that right now. He had to meet Jackson, who was due back from a training course today, and tell him about the return of the town's infamous black sheep.
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Through a crack in the dirt-encrusted net curtain, Ally watched Rob leave. His arrogance continued to take her breath away. He thought she'd be good for a quick fuck while she was in town, did he? The trouble was, her hormones agreed with him. She hadn't had sex with a real person for over a year, and she was slowly dying of frustration.
Rob, of course, had always been able to turn her on, and nothing had changed there. He'd ruled her world when she was a senior in high school and he was a college sophomore. She wanted him big-time, and somehow her body still trusted him to make it good for her. She picked up her paintbrush and retreated to the kitchen. He kissed like a godâthat slight hint of power, of menace, of compulsion she always craved was still there. It made her want to do what he said, when he said it, and not regret a single thing.