In Dark Waters (21 page)

Mitch couldn't take it anymore. Again, he started to drive faster and faster into her. She gripped his shoulders.

He exploded inside of her.

It didn't hit him until after the fact that he'd forgotten to put on a new condom. With Alexa or any other woman, he'd never made a mistake like this.

But the idea that Kelsey could be carrying his baby now didn't bother him in the least. In fact, it pleased him.

Later, Kelsey sat on the counter stool in the kitchen. Dressed in his oversized robe, her hair was still wet and her body thrummed with a delicious satisfaction. Mitch stood behind the counter, wearing only his jeans as he cracked a couple of eggs into a bowl. An omelet pan heated on the gas stove.

She pinched a bite of freshly grated mozzarella cheese. "And you cook, too. You are definitely a man after my heart."

He started to whisk the two eggs together. "That's the plan."

He spoke casually, but she sensed an underlying tension. Neither had spoken of tomorrows or the problems she'd yet to face.

"We forgot the condom during round two." The chances of a pregnancy now were slim to none and to her amazement, she felt a twinge of disappointment. The moment of sentimentality surprised her. She was practical to the bone when it came to this kind of thing.

"If you're worried about STDs, I'm clean."

And there was that, too. "So am I," she said.

"Then we've nothing to worry about except pregnancy."

She gulped. "We should okay on that front, too."

His expression was unreadable. "Okay."

God, this was all too serious. "Where'd you learn to cook?" she said.

He shrugged, accepting the change of conversation in stride. "If a man wants to eat well, he learns to cook."

"In all honesty, I've only mastered a few dishes," Kelsey said.

He poured the eggs into the hot pan and they started to sizzle. "Stick around town for a while and I'll teach you a couple of new dishes."

After they ate, they made love again before they fell asleep in each others' arms. Kelsey had never felt so content, so at peace.

"Bitch!" A figure stood in the woods outside of Mitch's house and watched Kelsey pass in front of a window. The fire should have killed her.

The arsonist stared down at trembling hands and drew in a deep breath. Too many things were going wrong. Donna's body had been found. And then Brenda Harris's. Chris. The fire.

"This has got to end now." The arsonist heard laughter and whirled around to find Donna Warren standing just yards away.

Donna had not returned for his usual taunting in several years. And now here she stood, her hard eyes' looking so much like Kelsey's, dancing with laughter.
"I told you I'd haunt you to your grave
."

The arsonist pressed trembling fists to an already pounding temple. The medicine was supposed to keep Donna away. "Get out of here!"

"I'm a bad penny. I always turn up when you least expect it."

"I won't let your brat ruin my life like you did. I won't!"

"She'll finish you off. My daughter will avenge me."

The arsonist glanced up at Kelsey's window. This would end tomorrow.

"What have I done?" Kelsey uttered the next morning when she woke up and stared at Mitch's empty side of the bed. His pillow still held the crease from his head. The sheets on his side were still warm.

Grateful he wasn't there, she rolled onto her back and dug her hands through her hair. The heavy scent of steam from his bathroom still hung in the air.

"Kelsey, remember the one thing you weren't going to do when you came back to Grant's Forge?"

Damn.

Her body still tingled from his touch and his scent still clung to her skin. And she realized to her utter displeasure, she wanted to make love to him again. Double, double damn.

Maybe she'd have been more levelheaded last night if she'd not made that stupid vow of celibacy years ago. If she'd gotten around to sleeping with more men, any man, she wouldn't have been one big hormone waiting to explode. Her feelings for Mitch weren't special. They were strictly biochemical. She'd had an itch and he'd scratched it.

It wasn't Mitch she was responding to so much. She was primed for any man. Right?

Who was she kidding? She still had a thing for Mitch. "You are a glutton for punishment."

She remembered all those years ago when they'd made love and she'd poured her heart out to him. And he'd stared down at her as if she'd suddenly grown a third eye. Love was the last thing he'd expected or wanted then.

And it was the last thing she wanted now. Love was not on her agenda. Love was a bad, bad thing that only caused pain.

Love.

She sighed. God help her, she was still in love with Mitch Garrett. "Kelsey, you are so, so sad," she said to herself, feeling the need to leave.

She glanced around the sun-filled room, noticed that the light made the area look all the more spartan. There was a desk by the window, a chair and a bureau. The furniture was simple, but very well made. Mahogany.

She rolled out of bed. Her feet touched bare wood. No rugs to warm the floor. Naked, she searched for her clothes. She found her panties under the bed and her dress thrown over a chair.

She finished dressing seconds before Mitch appeared in the doorway. Barefooted, he wore faded jeans and a white T-shirt tucked in at his lean waist. He'd shaved and combed back his damp hair off his face. He held two steaming mugs of coffee in his hands.

The sight of him made her insides turn to jelly.

He grinned as he saw her fumble with the buttons between her breasts. "I thought you'd sleep late."

She managed a smile. "I've never been one to sleep late." She finished fastening the buttons and glanced down. She'd accidentally skipped the third button. Swallowing a few choice words, she unfastened the top five buttons and started to refasten them.

He set down the mugs on the desk across from the bed. "I can help you with that."

"No!" Kelsey didn't mean to shout the word but if Mitch touched her, she'd be right back in that bed before she knew it.

"Are you sure?" he teased. "I don't have to go to work. We could stay in bed all day."

She glanced toward the rumpled sheets on the bed and then back to his blue eyes, which had darkened with desire.

So tempting.

Kelsey shook her head. "I really should go and check on Buddy. I know he's got to need a walk by now."

"Already taken care of."

Why did he have to be so efficient?

He moved a step toward her.

She retreated two. "Look, I really have to be getting back to town. I've got so much to do today."

He hesitated. "Like what?"

She dug her hands through her hair. "I've got to buy new clothes. I need a recharger for my cell phone. I never got one yesterday."

"All that can wait."

"No, it can't. I really need to get myself organized." She needed to get away from him!

His eyes narrowed. "What's wrong?"

Everything! "Nothing. I just need to get going."

"I thought after last night you might stick around for a while?"

She shrugged, trying to make the gesture look casual instead of stiff and jerky the way she felt. "I never stick around for very long."

"Kelsey, what we had last night was special." His voice had grown calm, steady as if he were talking to a jumper perched on the side of a building.

"It was great. Really great. No doubt about it. But let's not make it something it wasn't."

All traces of humor vanished from his face. His features hardened into granite. The loneliness that had stalked her for so many years squeezed her heart with a vengeance.

"Is this some kind of payback for eight years ago? Do you want me to feel the pain you felt then?" His voice was a low growl.

"No," she said genuinely surprised. "This had nothing to do with eight years ago."

"Oh, come on, Kelsey. It has everything to do with it."

"I just need to leave. There's no hidden agenda, no sick need to strike back."

"Then what is it?"

"I just need to get on with my life. I've got pictures to take, places to see." She wanted to sound a bit flip, but she sounded pathetic.

"You're full of it."

"Excuse me?"

"You're scared."

She narrowed her eyes. "I am not."

He moved a step closer to her. "You are running scared because for the first time in a long time you felt something."

"Don't confuse love with sexual satisfaction."

The edge of his lip curled up at the edge. "I've had enough sexual satisfaction in my life to know that last night was different. We have something special and I want you to stick around so we can find out what it is."

For a moment, her resolve softened. She wanted nothing more than to go to him and have him wrap his arms around her body. But she didn't. "I've seen too many men who'd declared their devotion to Donna and then, when the glow of sex faded, they took off."

"You are not Donna."

Unshed tears burned her throat. If she didn't get out of here soon, she'd lose it.

"Look, I don't need to be analyzed. I just need a ride to my car."

"Don't let your mother chase you away from the first bit of happiness you've had."

"My happiness is not dependent on you, Mitch Garrett. I'll have you know I've been plenty happy over the last eight years."

"You've been running so fast and so hard, you've never given yourself the chance to know whether you are happy or sad."

His words struck dangerously close to the truth. "Look, are you going to give Buddy and me a ride to town or do I have to call a cab?"

Frustration tightened every muscle in his body and he looked at her as if he wanted to shake sense into her. "All right. Ten minutes, downstairs." He strode out of the room.

She wrapped her arms around her chest and tipped her head back, trying to hold back the tears that now glistened in her eyes. One tear escaped and she savagely swiped it away.

"I am better off leaving. I am better off."

She silently chanted the words all the way into town as she sat next to Mitch in the front seat of his car. Buddy sat in her lap, content to sleep in her arms.

The wall between them seemed to grow thicker as they approached town. By the time they reached the scuba center, he reminded her of the cold, aloof sheriff that had pulled up at the quarry just a week ago.

One week. Had it only been only a week? She felt as if she'd lived a lifetime since then.

He put the car in Park. He walked around to the tailgate, opened it and removed the garbage bag full of Buddy's belongings. She climbed out of the car, holding the puppy close.

Mitch strode toward her and handed her the bag.

She reached for it.

He didn't let it loose. "Kelsey, this isn't over between us."

"Let's not go through this again."

"I'm not, right now. You're running scared and for now, I'll let you. But know that I am not giving up on us. What we have is too good to toss away."

Pain squeezed her heart. She opened her car door and summoned the nerve to look him in the eye. A steely resolve had replaced the anger.

And, in truth, it frightened her more.

She yanked the bag away. "Goodbye." She hurried into the scuba shop.

Mitch hesitated and then got into the car. He drove off, the wheels of his Suburban digging into the gravel.

The bells on the scuba shop door chimed over her head as she entered. She leaned against the glass door and squeezed her eyes tightly closed.

Buddy whimpered in her arms and glanced up at her. He licked her face.

She glared at the dog. "Don't you start with me, or I swear I'm going to crack."