Trouble in Sudden Falls: A Sudden Falls Romance (14 page)

A glance at her watch showed that it was after 9:30. He might very well be in bed already. Yet another reason not to go knocking… except she missed him. It had been several days since the craziness in the basement and she was feeling a little lonely.

Resolutely, she gathered the mail from the small mailbox at the side of the house and let herself in the front door, sorting out the junk mail addressed to her parents and the water bill. She almost missed the letter with her name on it and might have tossed it along with the junk if it hadn’t fallen to the floor.

The upper left corner of the envelope was completely blank and the postmark was smudged beyond decryption, but the envelope was greeting-card-sized and addressed to her in neat, block—and totally unfamiliar—handwriting.

“Hmm, mystery mail,” she said with a bit more energy than she’d felt since she locked the door at her store. She dangled her coat from the hat rack by the door as her tennis shoes hit the floor by the landing of the stairs. Even as she stepped toward her father’s office, she ripped open the envelope. After, tossing the junk mail into the wastepaper basket, and her keys onto the surface of the desk, she slid a single sheet of paper out and unfolded it, curious as to who could have sent it. There were so few people outside of Sudden Falls who knew she was back in Sudden Falls. And she couldn’t imagine anyone from the town sending her a friendly greeting.

Your life is at stake.

Well. Not so much of a friendly greeting after all.

Her hands began shaking before she even read the next line. She flipped the letter over to look at the back, as if there might be some clue as to its origin. Nothing but the back of a white sheet of paper. The envelope offered no more clues than it had offered moments before she opened it.

Her heart hammering, she continued to read.

Go back to where you came from.

A concerned friend.

To say that it was creepy was an understatement. Her hands trembled to the point that she nearly dropped the letter as she collapsed into the chair behind the desk. Maddie had left D.C. because this sort of thing happened all the time. Except there, she’d known the cause. Her ex-husband. She didn’t think she could blame Darren for this, as much as she’d like to. It was possible of course, but pretty unlikely.

After she sicced her lawyer—bearing a restraining order— on him, he’d shown no interest in her coming back. Besides, he had the chubby tart to keep him entertained.

With everything that had happened to postpone the opening of the store, it was much more likely that it was sent by someone who didn’t want her back in Sudden Falls.

Which didn’t exactly narrow the list of suspects much.

Maddie was 99% sure it wasn’t Emma. Her new assistant was having a great time working at the store and Maddie was convinced that Emma really didn’t care for the more responsibility-driven aspects of running the store.

While the Mayor had been tough on her at the council meeting, he was only doing his job. Why should she expect preferential treatment because someone made an administrative mistake? And besides, she
had
received preferential treatment in the form of an accelerated inspection because of Eli’s influence.

Who else could it be? Someone she’d pissed off in high school? Sadly, that list was too long to even contemplate. Someone who still wanted to get even for Lisbet? That was probably seventy-five percent of the town.

Her stomach churned up to a rolling boil. She closed the letter back up—she couldn’t continue to hold onto it as much as her hands were rattling anyway—and put it back into the envelope, taking care to touch it as little as possible, in case she had cause to call the police later.

That she knew that from experience depressed her all the more.

Tossing the envelope into the drawer in her dad’s desk, she looked out the window at the dark house next door. How odd that she continued to think of this as her father’s desk and her father’s office, when it was hers now.

At least for the next five and a half months.

Maddie had boxed up all his papers and put them into storage for her mother to deal with when she returned later this spring. Not that her dad would ever use his papers again. All that remained were the records pertaining to the store.

A light in the kitchen next door came on. The refrigerator light, as it turned out, which illuminated Eli in silhouette as he chugged milk straight from the carton. Wearing sweatpants and no shirt, he looked so warm and sexy and… safe.
Unsanitary
, but safe.

She wanted to go next door. All thoughts of their time in the basement, the trauma of three years ago, their bet, and a million other reasons she should simply go to bed left her.

She wanted to feel safe again.

Which was odd because Eli had been many things to her, but rarely safe. For her emotional well-being or her sanity. But tonight she needed… someone.

After sliding her feet into a pair of winter Birkenstocks, she walked across her side yard and up the porch steps before opening Eli’s front door and letting herself in.

Eli turned toward her, already sliding his arms into a flannel shirt. “Hey. What are you doing over here?”

“I got a weird letter in the mail. And I…” She felt a backlog of tears build up behind her eyes and she blinked valiantly to make them go away. She doubted he was fooled by her nonchalant shrug. “I didn’t want to be alone.” Her voice cracked. Even a blind man could see she was drowning here.

Eli’s concern showed plainly in his expression as he crossed the room and pulled her into a bear hug without saying anything. She buried her nose against the still-exposed skin of his chest and breathed in the clean, male scent of him.

God, he smelled good.

For the first time in a long time she felt warm. In his arms, she knew that this was exactly what she needed, which made her tears really start to flow. His warm hand stroked her back as the other cupped her neck, allowing her to bury her face farther into his strong, firm chest and sniffle on his shirt.

“I don’t know why this is hitting me so hard.” She hiccuped, so glad that she’d given in and come over.

Even if she might come to regret it later.

“Well, you’ve been under a lot of pressure lately. It’s okay. I’m sure it was a prank.” He continued to hold her tight and rub her back. “What did the letter say exactly?”

Maddie tried to remember the exact wording, thinking that she should have brought the note along with her. She leaned back far enough that she could give him the general gist of it.

His eyes softened as he saw her face. He brushed the pad of one thumb under her eye, catching the tears hovering there. “It’s definitely weird, but I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Probably someone giving you a hard time.” He breathed deeply into her hair. “I know what will take your mind off this.”

Maddie looked up into his face. The quirk in his eyebrow suggested he was up to no good. “Yeah? What’s that?”

“You accept the inevitable and forfeit the bet.” He winked.

For a moment, she flashed back to three days earlier in the basement of the store. That made her feel warm and tingly in a way that was dangerous. That memory was immediately followed by her humiliation from a few years before. Maybe she shouldn’t have come after all.

She rolled her eyes, striving for unaffected with a slight bit of exasperation. “You wish. Any other ideas?”

He brushed a lock of hair back from her cheek, and she spent a full moment wondering whether he was about to kiss her. “There’s a Cary Grant marathon on TV,” he said as her heart plummeted in some odd mixture of relief and disappointment. “Think that’ll make you feel better?”

She nodded, feeling silly for even contemplating him making a real pass at her. At least Eli knew her well. There was nothing that Cary Grant—and chocolate, of course—couldn’t fix.

“C’mon,” he said, grabbing her by the hand and dragging her into the living room. They settled into his very comfortable, cushy leather sofa. Eli clicked the remote and the room was illuminated by the antics of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in
His Girl Friday
.

“We’ve been in worse jams than this, haven’t we, Hildy?” Eli said.

She looked over at him and found herself grinning. “No.” She took a deep breath and settled back into the couch. “And no fair quoting a movie we’re watching… Particularly when the quote is coming up in a couple of scenes.”

“I was trying to make it easy on you.”

“Uh huh.” He looked so warm and stable sitting at the end of the couch and she found herself wishing for the courage to crawl back into his arms. Which…was kind of weird. She wasn’t clingy. She had a tendency to let others take over which she was trying to break herself of, but she’d never played damsel in distress, and was fairly annoyed that she was doing it now. Or at least wanting to.

God, my life is a mess.

“You’re gonna be okay, you know.”

“I know.” She sighed. “It’s probably PMS.” Better to admit to PMS than a renewed crush. Those tended to be a lot more embarrassing.

“Come over here, you big crybaby.”

She probably should have taken offense, except for the affection and tenderness in his voice. “I’m not crying,” she insisted, then sniffed.
Well, not at this second anyway.

She was weak.
Weak, weak, weakweakweak
. And right now she needed his strength. Since it was exactly what she wanted anyway, she did as he suggested and crawled down the length of his couch until she’d propped herself up against his side, slightly stiff, wondering how close she could get without getting burned.

He was the sun and she might be Icarus.

He dropped his crossed ankles onto the coffee table in front of them and then tucked her in beside him even closer.
Oh, hell.
She gave up resisting and rested her head on his chest.

This felt…
perfect
. So what if her wings melted off?

She began to relax for the first time in weeks—maybe months. She hadn’t been sleeping very well since she got back to town. Even though Emma had been a huge help, Maddie didn’t know how she’d be able to pull everything together before the opening date she’d already committed to. A TV News camera crew from Cincinnati would be out next week and she wanted everything to be perfect.

She felt herself nod into a doze a couple of times, before startling awake again. Eli’s hand cupped the side of her neck and he stroked her nape with his thumb. Between her exhaustion and the rhythm of his thumb, it didn’t take long before she was out cold.

Sometime later, Eli nudged her. The room was dark and the movie was well over. “Maddie. Wake up.” His voice floated over her softly in the quiet room.

She tried to crawl deeper into the warmth of his chest and he chuckled. The vibration through his soft shirt woke her enough to realize where she was. Not enough, necessarily, to get up and move, but enough to know she wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

He stroked his hand along her back and it felt so good. It had been…
forever
since she’d been touched. She lifted her head and looked up at him. Their eyes caught and she could hear his breath hitch in his throat. Which was fine, since she’d stopped breathing some time before. So much so that she was feeling dizzy and would likely pass out soon. However, she couldn’t find it in herself to mind or to take enough brain activity away from the deep blue pools of his eyes to worry about it.

He moved in closer and she finally sucked in air. She could smell the faint, warm fragrance of his aftershave and something else that was Eli alone. Eli eased another inch closer and she felt their eyes weld together. Nothing in the universe could make her unlock her gaze from his.

She refused to meet him halfway. After his rejection, there was no way she would risk misinterpreting his signs.

Finally, he closed the last inch and their lips met. She realized instantly that letting him kiss her was not a step in the direction of getting him out of her system. His lips were warm and soft and tender and everything she could have ever hoped for. She’d never known a kiss that could set her entire body on fire with sexual tingles while still being so gentle.

She pressed her lips more firmly against his and kissed him harder. Eli’s tongue raked along her lower lip before plunging between her teeth to stroke her tongue.

The moment his tongue met hers, all reason abandoned her as she dedicated herself to following a course of simply
going for it.
To hell with her fear of rejection. To hell with the bet. This was Eli and she’d never felt this much.

Her breathing became so fast she feared hyperventilation. Eli’s breath also puffed like a bellows. His hand moved steadily up her spine from her waist to shoulders and back down again, this time to palm and squeeze her hip. Her fingers dug into his collar, struggling to get closer. She wrapped her other arm around his neck.

Aware that things were spiraling out of control, Maddie stopped caring. She was in a place where she refused to analyze what was happening.

Mostly, at least. There was still a voice in the back of her head yelling about what a disastrous mistake this was. She told the voice to shut up and slid her fingers through the silky hairs at the back of his neck.

Eli’s big palm smoothed up the sides of her ribcage and she prayed that he’d touch her and ease the ache in her chest. He evidently got her mental message because his hand came around to cup the fullness of her breast.

This was everything she never knew she’d always wanted.

She whimpered when his thumb stroked over her nipple. The pleasure was so intense, she didn’t even know if she could take it.

Eli groaned and tightened his arms enough that he lifted her into his lap. Their faces were much closer together. Her breasts fit perfectly along his chest and she could feel the evidence that he was equally affected against her hip.

He
did
want her. Maddie sighed with the realization. She held on with every last desperate gasp of breath as he removed his lips from hers. Unwilling to let him go, she whimpered until his mouth met the sensitive skin at the side of her neck. She could feel the nibbles against her throat throughout her entire body.