“No! I may be bloody, but I’m not beaten.”
Shannon nodded. She was happy to hear it. A man without spirit wasn’t much of a man. “Good. But speaking of bloody, that’s just what you are. Why don’t you go wash up while...”
Suddenly, the room was cloaked in darkness.
“Buttons! Turn that light back on right now,” Shannon ordered.
Rick laughed. “A cat that turns lights off and on? You’re kidding, right?”
The lights in the kitchen came back on. Buttons was sitting on the counter near the switch looking smug.
“You keep that up and you won’t get any treats,” Shannon threatened. The lights promptly went out again. “I mean it, fuzzball! This is no time to show off your little fetish.”
“The Christmas lights in the living room are out, too,” Rick told her, still chuckling. “Maybe it really is a power failure this time.”
Shannon put down her beer glass and glanced out the kitchen window over the sink. “It’s possible, but my neighbors in that direction have lights. I wonder if the houses across the street do? Let’s look out the front.”
She started out of the kitchen and stumbled. Rick grabbed her, keeping her upright. “You okay?”
“Cats! Phil just sideswiped me.”
Rick held her hand as she led them through the darkness to the front picture window. Colorful lights were twinkling merrily back at them from across the street.
“Probably just overloaded a circuit,” Rick muttered. “Where’s your fuse box?”
“In the garage. It’s this—”
A thumping noise stopped her in midsentence.
“Was that one of your cats?” Rick asked.
Shannon tightened her grip on his hand. “I don’t think so. They can’t get in the garage and that’s where that noise came from.”
Another thump sounded eerily loud in the quiet room. No doubt about it. They were no longer alone in the house.
Chapter Thirteen
“D
o you have a flashlight?” Rick asked softly.
“You can’t go in there.” Shannon tugged on his hand, trying to hold him back. “I’ll call the police and we’ll wait for them to arrive.”
Her urgent whispers didn’t deter him. “I’ve had enough police for one day.”
“It’s a different police station.”
“No.”
Shannon pinched his wrist in frustration. “What if they’re armed burglars?”
“After the day I’ve had, I’m in the right mood to tangle with them,” Rick assured her calmly. “Besides, with all the noise they’ve made, I don’t think they’re professional thieves. But if we argue long enough, maybe they’ll escape.”
“Wait here till I get the flashlight.”
The room was dark but Rick’s eyes had adjusted to the dim light and he watched her silhouetted form moving through the house. Shannon was back in a moment with a huge flashlight.
“What is that? A secret weapon?”
She handed him the long black wand. “Solid metal.”
He liked the weight of the instrument. Almost as good as a baseball bat. “How many ways into the garage?”
“Three,” Shannon replied. “One door from the kitchen, the other in the backyard and the last from the driveway.”
Rick nodded. “Stay here.”
“No way. In every movie I’ve seen, the woman gets it as soon as she’s separated from the guy. Besides, there’s an easy way out of this mess.”
Shannon grabbed their coats from the hall entry closet and picked up her ring of keys from a nearby table.
“That’s your plan?” Rick asked, taking his coat. “We run away?”
“No. I have an automatic garage-door opener in the car,” she explained patiently. “If we take a flying run at the hill with the car we can run them down.”
Rick was shocked. “Run them down!”
“Well, I don’t mean hit them, exactly. Just scare them into running away. It’s almost Christmas. We don’t want them to spend it in jail.”
“We don’t?”
“May I remind you of your own recent incarceration?”
“Oh. Right.” He followed her outside. “In that case, why don’t we just open the garage door and let them leave.”
Shannon frowned. “If that’s what they want to do, they’ll do it when they hear me start the car. If not, then I’ll sure scare them into wanting to leave. Besides, my plan makes more sense than yours. Walking into a dark garage unarmed is dangerous.”
He was facing one determined woman. “Just in case your plan doesn’t work, I’ll wait here on the porch. Hit that door opener before you make your run,” Rick suggested. “Otherwise, you might wreck your own garage.”
“Oh, ye of little faith.”
If her car even made it up that icy hill, Rick was ready to follow it into the garage. The garage door was rumbling upward as Shannon gunned the engine of her car and pressed the gas pedal to the floor. As she hit the icy driveway, the rear end slipped sideways but she straightened the wheels, correcting them just enough to enter the wide opening without a scratch.
The brakes squealed as she slammed her foot on the pedal, the dry pavement allowing her to lurch to a sudden halt. Two men stood frozen against the back wall, like deer caught in her headlights. Their empty hands were held high over their heads in surrender. Rick had been right; these were definitely not pros.
He came running into the garage as Shannon got out of the car. “What are you doing in my garage?” she demanded of the intruders.
The pair were clad in similar dark clothing. Both were also dark-haired and appeared to be in their early twenties. “Don’t shoot,” the tallest one pleaded. “We’re not armed.”
Shannon almost laughed. She hadn’t given them even the slightest indication she was armed, herself. Still, it didn’t seem wise to clue them in to that fact. She looked around the garage. Boxes were everywhere, their contents upended.
“This place is a mess!” Shannon exclaimed. The men looked sheepish, but the woman facing them was furious, more for their interruption of a promising evening than anything else. “What were you after?”
“Listen, lady, we didn’t mean any harm.”
Rick found the fuse box and flipped some switches. The garage was instantly flooded with light. “Tell us what you were after or we’re calling the police,” he threatened.
“No! Don’t do that!” The tall one looked at the ground and shuffled his feet. “We...we were just looking for Arnies.”
“What?” Shannon cried.
“We followed you home,” the short one admitted quickly. “From Lyon’s. We thought you might have the spiders stored here. Our kids want them real bad.”
“You were going to steal the shipment?” Rick asked softly.
“No, no,” they both hastened to assure him. “We only wanted five,” the tall one replied. “Two for my kids and three for his.”
“Just five, huh?” Shannon shook with frustration. “Well, I don’t have
any
blasted Arnies,” she screamed. “In fact, I wish I’d never even heard of the damn things!”
“Uh, guys, I suggest you leave,” Rick told them. “Before she
really
loses her temper and takes it out on you.”
The men skirted the other side of the car, staying far away from her. Rick spoke with them briefly before they ran down the hill into the street. Shannon didn’t notice; she was busy rummaging around in her things.
Rick returned to the garage, found the switch and brought the door rumbling down. “Shannon, it’s freezing out here. We can clean this up later.”
“If I ever get my hands on the man who invented those Arnies, I’m going to strangle him. Those spiders have been nothing but grief.”
Rick took her keys and let them into the house, ushering her into the kitchen. “Still hungry?”
“No! What I need is a drink!” Shannon exclaimed, grabbing a bottle of Irish whiskey and two small, long-stemmed cordial glasses from a cupboard. “Join me?”
Rick laughed. “Of course,” he answered, though it hadn’t really been a question. Shannon was passionately furious and he found her anger exciting.
They adjourned to the living room, where Shannon touched a button near the fireplace mantel. Flames leapt to life, licking realistic-looking ceramic logs. She then poured a small whiskey for each of them and put the glasses on a low, glass-top coffee table, then settled in on the couch.
Shannon took a long sip of her drink. It had a warming effect she could feel from her head all the way down to the very tips of her toes.
“Arnies!” she said hotly, still fuming. “I’d like to take one of those toy spiders and rip its rubbery legs off one by one, and then make the inventor eat them.”
Rick had a seat beside her and sipped at his own glass. He could think of better ways of letting her vent the heady emotions running through her. He suddenly turned toward her and covered her mouth with his own. To his delight, Shannon wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back.
Still, when he lifted his head, Shannon seemed stunned by the kiss. “Rick! What was that for?”
“Took your mind off spiders, didn’t it?”
And everything else. The kiss had been sensual, erotic and mind-shattering. Shannon was quite willing to admit to herself that seducing Rick had been her original intention for this evening. Maybe it still was. But now that it seemed quite clear he had ideas of his own in that direction, she wasn’t sure she knew how to deal with him anymore.
To be honest, she was scared. It had been a long time since she had gotten this close to a man, especially a man she actually cared about. And she did care about Rick. A lot. That scared her, too. Still, the thought of making love with him made her insides tingle.
Combined with the heat of the fire, Rick’s body close to hers and the smoldering desire she felt for him deep inside, she was suddenly much too hot for the wool suit she was wearing.
“Would you excuse me for a moment?” she said. “I think I’ll go change.”
“Into something more comfortable?” Rick asked.
“Rick!” she chastised. But this time, he did not look away or apologize for the wicked sparkle in his eyes. “I’m too warm, that’s all.”
“I can well imagine.”
Shannon turned and went upstairs, suddenly feeling as if she had created a monster. Just who was seducing whom?
“Relax,” she urged herself quietly. “He won’t bite.”
At least not hard. The thought made her insides tingle again and yet gave her a fit of the giggles at the same time. She poked through her closet and drawers, trying to find the right look. Finally, she settled on an oversize, cream-colored cotton sweater with gray piping over a pair of ribbed gray cotton spandex leggings and gray suede ballet slippers.
Shannon looked in the mirror and nodded, satisfied. She was comfortable, but not in a take-me-I’m-yours way. It was rather a soft, cuddly, let’s-see-what-happens sort of way.
When she returned to the living room, however, Rick gave her a look that made it clear his mind wasn’t on what she was wearing. In fact, she suddenly felt completely naked.
As she sat down nervously beside him, Rick settled himself more comfortably against the back of the couch. He then reached over and gently stroked her copper-red hair.
“I don’t think I’ve had the opportunity to tell you what a stunningly beautiful woman you are, Shannon.”
“Compared to Angela? Hah!”
“In the first place, the only one who’s comparing you to Angela is you,” Rick assured her. He ran his fingertip along the line of her jaw. “Even then, you’re miles ahead. She only thinks she’s smart. You really are. And you have a good heart.”
Shannon rolled her eyes. “Oh, yes. Inner beauty.”
“Don’t sell it short. You saw some of Angela’s inner ugliness earlier today, and you can’t tell me it doesn’t mar her seemingly perfect features.”
She thought of that murderous glare Angela had given her that afternoon in Bayer’s toy department. “Well, I suppose that’s true, but—”
Rick touched her lips with his fingers. “Your warmth and caring show on your face the same way.” He turned toward her slightly. She had her legs tucked up underneath her, and he put his hand on the curve of her hip. “And if you’ll excuse me for being blunt, Shannon, you have the kind of body that men dream about. I certainly did last night.”
Shannon could no longer look him in the eyes, so strong was the passion she saw there. “I dreamed about you, too.”
“Did you?” Rick touched her cheek, and softly urged her to look at him again. “Mine started like this.”
Rick kissed her, just once, and so gently it felt like a mere whisper of a touch on her sensitive lips. His eyes were open, gazing deeply into hers, as if to reassure himself that this was not a dream. Then he dipped his head and kissed her again, more forcefully, his sore lip forgotten now as he communicated a tiny bit of the raging need he felt for her.
Shannon met it with a need of her own. She was surprised by the ferocity of her feelings, even a little frightened of them, but they would not be denied. Her mouth opened to his and she felt the velvety smoothness of his tongue glide between her lips, tasting of strong Irish whiskey, almost as potent as his own, sheer masculine tang.
They were both left momentarily breathless by the power of their mutual desire, and their lips parted, but even this slight respite was too much for them to bear. Rick’s tongue plunged into her mouth again, dueling with hers, and at the same time he pulled her legs around over his so that she was almost sitting in his lap.
The position afforded him access to all her curves, and he plundered them without mercy, running his hand along the warm length of her thigh and up under her sweater to the even more tempting heat of her bare skin. Shannon groaned with pleasure at his touch, and entwined her fingers in his hair, encouraging him to explore further.
But Rick needed no such encouragement. His fingertips sought and found the catch to her bra and released it deftly. Her breasts came free and he cherished their sweet weight and softness in the palm of his hand.
“Shannon,” he whispered, his voice a low moan of need and desire. “I want you. Now. If that isn’t what you had in mind, you’d better—”
Shannon cut him off by putting both hands on his face and pulling him back into her embrace, the thrust of her tongue against his leaving him in no doubt. Just in case, she let him up for air and met his passionate gaze with the emerald fire of her own.