Her gaze dropped to his lips. Involuntarily she licked her own, wanting to feel his against hers one more time. How many one-more-times were there in life?
Never enough, she was sure.
He stopped close to her, so close she could feel his body heat brush against her own, could see the thick lashes that framed his dark eyes, could smell the tangy masculine scent that was his alone. The scent that she would recognize anywhere, anytime. Something melted deep within her and she took a step closer.
She was like a moth attracted to flame. She knew she'd get burned, but she couldn’t help herself. She had to touch that heat.
“You’re in big trouble, little lady,” he growled.
Exhilaration spread to every cell in her body as his rough voice caressed her senses. Challenged, she flashed a haughty look and poked his chest with her forefinger.
“I’m not a little lady. I’m five foot nine.”
He captured the finger and drew it to his mouth. Nipping it gently, he soothed the tip with his tongue. Brianna’s legs grew wobbly. Slowly she inched closer to brace herself against his greater strength.
“From six-five you’re not so big.” He planted a hot, damp kiss in the palm of her hand, his fingers lacing with hers as he let their hands drop. Bringing them up behind her, he urged her the last few inches until her breasts pressed against his chest, her belly snuggled against his, her thighs felt the strength of his.
“But definitely a lady.” Leaning over, he brushed his lips light against hers.
“Jake, you can’t just come into my classroom like this and disrupt everything.”
“Excuse me, Teacher, but I merely walked in and stood in the rear. I never said a word.” His free hand wandered up to encircle her neck, his fingers gentle against her nape. His other arched her more firmly against him, holding her a willing captive.
“I…”
It was true. He'd done nothing but show up. All the disruption had been caused by her own reaction to seeing him.
She was having trouble thinking. Pressed up against him so intimately, she was having trouble even breathing, let alone coming up with the fortitude to push him away.
His hand tilted her jaw, exposing her throat. With a soft groan, he lowered his mouth to that silky skin, kissing her, licking her, blowing gently on the damp skin. He was seducing her in her own classroom!
Brianna shivered and shifted even closer, her free hand surrounding his waist, slipping beneath his sweater to press against his hot skin. Her breasts tingled with desire; heat pooled deep within her. Her legs remained wobbly, unable to support her weight.
“Why didn’t you call me last night?” he asked.
She blinked, tried to back away, but was caught fast by his arm.
“I told you to call me if anything happened. How do you think I felt hearing from Don this morning that there’d been another break-in? And this one happened when you were there!”
“There’s no need for you to get involved.”
Disappointment raged through her. Had he only come because of last night’s attempted break-in, out of some overextended sense of duty?
“Besides, there wasn’t anything you could have done that the policeman on duty last night didn’t do. I spent the rest of the night with the Bensons.”
“I sure as hell could have done something. Exactly what I’m going to do now,” he said, releasing her and turning to the lecture desk. “This all your stuff?”
The sudden change was unexpected. Brianna nodded.
“Where do you want it?” He gathered up the stack of papers and folders.
“In my office, but I can manage.”
She reached for them, but he was already heading toward the back of the hall. Snagging his jacket en route, he waited for her by the door.
“Jake, I can manage,” she repeated.
“Sure, you’ve done a great job so far. Let’s go. We’ve got a long ride ahead of us.”
“What are you talking about?” She almost had to skip to keep up with his longer stride. Throwing on her coat, she dodged a group of students and followed him from the lecture hall to her office.
He dumped her papers on her desk and turned to take her arm. “Let’s go.”
She dug in her heels and pulled Jake to a stop.
“Wait a darn minute. Just what do you think you’re doing? And where do you think we’re going?”
“I’m taking you out of Texarkana for a couple of days. It’s too dangerous for you to stay around while some crook keeps breaking into your house.”
“I’m not going with you. I was going to stay with Sandy for a couple of days—”
“Yeah, Don told me he had you arrange to stay somewhere else. Call and cancel.”
“I haven’t arranged it yet, but I—”
“Good, then there’s no problem. Need anything from here?”
“Hold it! I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Her mind boggled at the notion. Spend several days alone with Jake, no one else around? No matter how much the idea appealed, it would be emotional suicide. Yet a tiny portion of her couldn’t resist just hearing what he had to say. Nothing more.
“Where?” she asked.
That slow, seductive smile he gave so sparingly tilted the corners of his lips. Her heart caught fire. She’d walk through fire for those smiles.
“I have a place up in the Winding Stairs Mountains a couple of hours from here. We’ll stay the weekend there. That’ll give Don and his men a chance to follow up on some leads and stake out your house without your being around.”
“What leads?”
“We caught a break. You have a new mama in your complex. She’d just put baby to sleep when she heard the breaking glass. She looked out the window and caught a glimpse of the intruder. She was even able to give us a partial description of his car. We’ll get him, Brie. We just need time.”
“Then I’ll be fine at home.”
“Until then, you’re coming with me.”
He tugged gently and she went with him. Her thoughts churning, Brianna tried to decide the best course of action. The
prudent
course of action, not what her heart clamored for.
“We can’t leave for the weekend. It’s only Thursday,” she protested, trying frantically to come up with convincing reasons his plan would never work. She had to be calm and rational about it all and come up with a sound reason to stay as far from him as possible.
“That was your last class, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. What about your work?”
“I’m taking a few days’ vacation. I haven’t had one in years so they owe me.”
She was intrigued. “Why not?”
“Why not what?” He glanced down at her as they reached his car. “Will your car be all right here over the weekend?”
She looked around. “If I were leaving it here for the weekend, it would be, but—”
“Get into the car.” He hustled her into his four-wheel-drive Jeep, leaned so close she thought he was going to kiss her again.
“I’m not sure this is such a good idea,” she whispered.
“I’ll keep you safe,” he promised.
“Will you?”
He hadn’t before. She’d been so hurt. And he didn’t even have a clue. It was probably a good thing he didn’t know how he affected her. Could she stand to have her heart broken a second time?
Forty-five minutes later, they were heading toward Oklahoma. Two suitcases in the back seat contained their clothes. Brianna had her briefcase containing two journals she wanted to read, but Jake had refused to let her take any other work.
They were well beyond the city limits before Brianna allowed the enormity of the situation to hit her fully. She was going away for the weekend with the man she loved.
Yet from his point of view, he was merely protecting her from an unknown intruder. When the man was caught, Jake would say goodbye and she’d once again be on her own.
Until then—she had three days at least, maybe more. She could store up a lifetime of memories in three days. She'd have to. It was unlikely an opportunity like this would come again.
Smiling suddenly, she knew she could have resisted. She had other options. Jase would come stay with her. Josh would have had her at the ranch. It wasn’t that long a drive into Texarkana from the ranch that she couldn’t have done it every day for a while. Or she could have stayed with Sandy.
The real reason she agreed to Jake’s demands to go with him was that she wanted to. It was that simple.
This time she knew there was no future for them. She was no longer the starry-eyed woman who had believed in happy endings. She wouldn’t be caught unaware as she had been two years ago when he stopped calling. Now she knew she’d have to save up memories and be prepared to say goodbye when they returned.
The sparkling snow reflected the sun's rays until Brianna wondered how Jake could see to drive. She donned dark glasses and looked out the side window. The fields along the road were pristine and empty beneath their snowy covering. In the distance, she saw a small herd of cattle, but they had not trampled the snow near the road. For a moment, she was transported back to her childhood. She and her brothers had loved the snow, made snow angels, built forts, had rousing snowball fights. As the youngest, she'd rarely won the snowball fights, but she never stopped trying.
She tried to remember the last snowball fight. It had to be just before her parents had been killed. It seemed as if Jase had changed overnight after that.
Of course, he would have had to. He'd been responsible for her and Josh.
Funny, she’d never thought about it much before. How hard that must have been for him. He’d only been a kid himself.
“Worried about something?” Jake asked with a quick glance in her direction.
She turned, jolted back to the present. “No, just remembering when I was a kid and the fun my brothers and I had in the snow. Doesn’t seeing all this make you want to get out and play?”
He shrugged. “I like some things in the snow. Skiing, snowmobiling. What do you mean by play?”
“Play in the snow itself. I loved making snow angels when I was little. My mom would come out and judge whose were the best. I always won.” Brianna smiled in reminiscence. “Maybe because it was the only thing I could win. My brothers never gave an inch. And since they're both older, I didn’t have a chance.”
“They watch out for you,” he said neutrally.
“Well, Jase sure did. He worked hard to keep me and Josh with him after my folks died. But Josh, too, started bossing me around after Mom and Dad were gone. Guess they took their responsibilities very seriously.”
“Jase is your older brother, right?”
“Yes. He was just a kid himself when Mom and Dad died. The judge waited until he was eighteen and then granted him custody of us until we came of age. But Josh was bossier.”
Jake darted her a quick glance and remained silent. He said nothing. He knew how bossy her brother was, and how strongly Josh felt about protecting his sister.
Jake almost gave in to the temptation to tell her, as well, but the urge passed. It was old news. And Josh hadn’t said anything untrue. Jake wasn’t the man for Brianna. Josh had made that clear, but it would not have influenced Jake a bit if he hadn’t agreed with the man. He had known Brianna had a crush on him. He had relished feeling special to such a warm and loving woman. But his way of life wasn’t suitable for such a gentle woman, nor his background. She deserved much more. And Josh had known it.
“…sisters?” she said.
“What?” He’d missed the first part of her question while brooding on what had happened two years ago.
“I asked if you had any brothers or sisters? You never mentioned any when…before. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have any.”
“I don’t.” His reply was clipped. He didn’t want to talk about families.
Brianna studied Jake as he drove. He seemed lost in thought. When they’d been dating, he had sometimes been preoccupied, usually with a case he was working on. At that time, she'd felt comfortable enough to ask what he was thinking.
Not now. She longed to know what he’d been doing the past two years. She wondered about the crimes he’d investigated. Wondered when he became a detective. She didn't even know what division he worked in, though she suspected burglary since he seemed to know all about her case.
More than anything, she wondered what he thought they'd accomplish by leaving Texarkana for a long weekend. Was it merely to keep her safe while the rest of the force searched for the burglar? Or was there more to it?
“I missed you these past years,” she said bravely. “Did you miss me?”
He nodded once, briefly.
Her throat ached as she held back the words demanding to know why he’d stopped calling, why he hadn’t responded to her calls.
“Where exactly are we going?” she asked instead.
“My place.”
“I didn’t know you had a place in the mountains. Where?”
“Not too far from the state park. I’ve had the land for a long time. A couple of summers ago, I built a small cabin. Some of the guys from work helped. Now I let them use it when I’m not coming up.”
“I can’t wait to see it.”
“It’s not much, just a couple of rooms. But the view's nice.”
He was proud of the cabin. It wasn't much, but it was all his. He'd designed it, built it with help, and furnished it. He'd spent a couple of weeks right after it was built just sitting on the porch and staring at the view. Building it helped him forget about Brianna.
Sitting on the porch gave him unlimited time to remember her.
It was growing dark when he turned onto the narrow road leading to his place. Five minutes later, he pulled to a halt before a small log cabin. The wide front porch was well sheltered from the snow, which drifted considerably deeper in the yard than it had back in Texarkana.
At least it wasn't too deep he couldn't pull into the small drive.
Brianna’s eyes darted everywhere as she took in the building, then the fantastic view.
“Jake, this is beautiful.” Her voice was hushed as she gazed in delight at the scene. “You must come up here every chance you get.”
“I don’t get up that much.” Building it had been a way to keep the memories at bay. But once he had completed the work, staying at the cabin proved lonely. It reminded him too much of things that he couldn’t have.