“I see.”
She drew in a breath, and shook her head. “No, you don’t. I lived in terror all my life that he would kill my mother.” She closed her eyes. “Once, I got brave, and tried to stop him.”
“With almost fatal results,” he added.
Her eyes were huge. “You know?”
“Catelow is a very small town, Merissa,” he pointed out. “Yes. I know.” His expression hardened. “If I’d been here then, he’d never have touched either of you.”
Her face lightened, and her eyes widened. “He would have been afraid of you.”
He searched her eyes. “Are you? Afraid of me?”
She swallowed. “Not so much anymore,” she said. “A little, maybe.”
His face softened. “A little?”
She shifted on the seat. “Not in the way you mean. You...confuse me. You make me uncomfortable. But not in any way I’ve felt before....”
While she was talking, he unfastened his seat belt, and hers, and moved closer. “Uncomfortable?” he asked, propping his hand on the door beside her ear.
“A...little,” she stammered. He was very close. She could smell the spicy cologne he wore, feel the heat from his body. His lips were at her forehead. “Just...a little,” she amended.
He laughed softly. “Just a little?”
She struggled to keep her breathing steady, but it was a losing battle. One of his hands came up and rested against her cheek. His thumb worked at her soft lips, parting them very gently.
“I like making you...uncomfortable,” he whispered as his head bent. “Just a little.”
His chiseled mouth traced her lips, teasing them apart very tenderly, so that he didn’t frighten her. She was very nervous. Her hand came up to touch his, and it was ice-cold. He didn’t need a program to know that she wasn’t used to having a man this close. It made him feel more protective than ever.
“Easy, now,” he whispered, and his lips parted hers so that he could ease between them. “Easy...does it.”
His mouth moved down onto hers. It was unfamiliar. It was disconcerting. But after a minute, it became more familiar, more comfortable. Very soon, her lips relaxed. Her body relaxed.
She liked it.
He drew her closer, but slowly, gently. He wrapped her up against him like fragile treasure and worked on her mouth until he made her hungry for him.
She reached up, around his neck, and clung to him quite suddenly as the hunger flashed in her like lightning. She kissed him back with the same urgency that he kissed her.
But very soon, it became clear that he was going to have to start undressing her or stop kissing her. It had been a very long dry spell.
He drew back, flattered that he had to uncouple her hands from his neck and ease her away from him.
He smiled gently at her embarrassment. “Don’t worry. It’s all perfectly natural.”
“It...is?”
“Yes. It is.” He brushed back her hair, loving the feel of it. “We should go inside.”
She swallowed. She could still taste him on her lips. He tasted of coffee and mint. She smiled slowly. “I guess so.”
He chuckled. He got out and helped her down. He held her hand all the way into the restaurant.
CHAPTER FOUR
“WHY DID YOU change your mind about where we ate?” Merissa asked when they were halfway through huge plates of chicken lo mein, which they discovered was a mutual favorite. “I mean, I’m not complaining, I love Chinese food. But why?”
“Same reason I hired a man to sweep my truck for bugs,” he said heavily. “It seems I hired the bad guy to put in a surveillance system for me.”
“Oh, my gosh!” she exclaimed.
“I’m usually more careful,” he said with a smile. “But I had no idea he was that close. You see, your premonition was right on the money. You really do have a gift.”
“I hate having it,” she replied.
“This time, it might save my life,” he said. “I’m grateful.”
She grimaced. “I was so afraid, turning up at your door in a snowstorm.” She laughed. “But I felt I had to tell you.”
“If you hadn’t, I’d be in a world of trouble right now,” he pointed out. “I had no idea that I was even a target after so long.”
“You wouldn’t have been, I think, except for the politician running for federal office,” she said. “He’s trying to get rid of any embarrassing loose ends before the campaign heats up. Imagine what his adversaries could do with information like his friendship with a drug cartel.”
“Yes.”
“This man you hired, to look for the bugs your adversary placed,” she began. “There’s a woman. She’s in very great danger.” She bit her lip.
“She’s a photojournalist covering a war in Africa,” he supplied, not even uneasy now about her gifts.
She nodded. “An unexpected thing will save her life,” she said slowly. “A necklace, of all things.”
“She’ll be all right?” he asked, concerned.
“She won’t die,” she amended.
That sounded ominous.
She drew in a breath. “Someone told a lie. It’s what separates them. He believed it.” She sipped hot tea. “It was said to protect her, but instead it destroyed her happiness.” She looked up at him. “She loves him so much,” she said heavily. “It’s a shame.”
He wondered if he should tell Rourke.
“Don’t,” she said, as if she’d read the thought. “Don’t say anything to him. Things are at a crossroads right now. If he acts too soon, she could die. Everything is connected. We live in a silver web of activity, binding all that lives on the earth.” She laughed again. “I sound like a tree hugger. Well, I am a tree hugger. But we’re much more connected than people think.”
“A butterfly flaps its wings and there’s a typhoon?” he teased.
“Something like that, yes.”
He leaned back in his chair and studied her warmly. “You’re amazing,” he said. “I’ve never known anybody like you in my whole life.”
“I hope that’s a compliment.”
“It truly is,” he confessed. He smiled. “And tonight is a beginning. Isn’t it?”
She started to say something. Her eyes grew opaque. She lost color. Her green eyes were terrified when they met his. “We have to go home. Right now! Please!”
He didn’t bother to ask what was wrong. It was enough that she knew something was urgent. He got up and paid the check and then led her out to the truck.
“At my house or yours?” he asked as he started it.
“Mine. And please, hurry!” she said. “It may be too late already!”
He didn’t spare the engine.
They pulled up in front of Merissa’s cabin and ran onto the porch. Merissa worked her key in the lock, fumbled and finally opened it.
“Mom!” she called frantically. “Mom!”
There