Lacy (The Doves of Primrose) (7 page)

There wasn’t a day that went by he didn’t wish that accident had never happened. It altered everything in his life and set the course for his future. He had never been able to break the co
nstraints of it, except when he was with Lacy. He tilted his head back and sighed, trying to keep up with the conversation they were having while his mind was spinning with the past. He was being rude and difficult and it was only half her fault. No, it was his fault, he can’t punish her for the way she feels about him.

His body tightened with her approach
; he dared not turn for he would grab hold of her and never let go. Her proximity was a burden for his burning body. He gritted his teeth and turned enough for her to get through the doorway. Looking down at her petite frame, he flexed his hands against his sides to keep from reaching for her. Her chest rose in labored breaths while she took two steps sideways, her dark eyes locked onto his hooded gaze. He couldn’t identify the emotion in them, only that he had seen it before, a long time ago. Her fragrance, natural and vibrant, was like a shot of whiskey.

He shifted straighter on a sharp intake of breath and found himself pinned against the door, her mouth locked onto his. A stroke of pure pleasure dashed through him as he tried to catch up with Lacy. She had gone from hating him to devouring him in a split second. Trying to steady himself in the whirlwind he reached for her hips and pulled her tighter to his body while his mouth opened over hers. But again he was subdued when his hands were braced in hers and pressed against the rough, weat
hered wood. Her lips tugged at his, her breasts pressed against his chest. He was completely turned on by her assertion. He let her take as much as she wanted, a willing participant. Her hands moved from his wrists to claw at his shirt and dig into his chest.

Hunger tremors shook his body, he couldn’t hold back any longer. He clamped onto her hips
, spinning her around and pressing her against the door, never losing contact with her lips. Her teeth caught his bottom lip, making him groan and notching his desire to a new height. Her hands were everywhere, as were his. He couldn’t touch her enough, couldn’t get close enough. He jerked her shirt from her shorts, spreading his hand over her searing flesh, moist with perspiration. He dragged his mouth across her cheek but as soon as her lips were free her body tightened.

“Stop!”

He vaguely made out the slight panic in her voice but continued kissing her neck. Her hand pounding on his shoulders and chest made him pull back. Even though the haze of desire was still clouding his brain he understood what she was trying to tell him. He stopped but didn’t let her go. She squirmed in his embrace.

“
It’s okay, Lace.” The hoarseness of his voice made her alarm escalate.

“Let me go!” The urgency and fear in her voice scared him. She strained hard to get away from him. He released her and took a step back. “God, Kyle! Get your hands off me.” She shoved him one last time before sidestepping out the door
. She raked a hand through her hair and he watched for a moment as she weaved through the moonlit lawn before taking after her.

“Hey!” He tried to catch up to her or get her to turn around, but she stubbornly trudged forward. He finally got close enough to snatch her elbow and make her turn around. Had he had any shame he would’ve just let her go, but he had seen enough of her back to last him a lifetime.

“Let go!” She jerked her arm free but he stopped her by holding her shoulders.

“Damn it, Lacy.” He drew in a breath trying to calm his ha
ywire senses. “You’re the one who started it.” He kept one hand on her, afraid she’d take off, and used his other to run down his face. “What was that?  No, just wait a minute.” She wouldn’t look him in the eye and he couldn’t let her go. That kiss was better than any other he had ever experienced. It had tipped his whole world off its axis. “What just happened in there?”

“Nothing.”
  She finally turned her sharp gaze to him. The pain and anguish streaming from it loosened his grip. He dropped his hands to his side and let her walk away.

Chapter 6

Hot tears streaked down Lacy’s face, blinding her as she rushed to the house. She didn’t want Kyle to stop her, she had to be alone. She had to get to her bedroom and its solitude. That stopped her in her tracks. She didn’t have a bedroom. Lauren was in her bedroom occupying its space. Lacy had moved her things out and packed her suitcase with most of her clothes. She wiped the tears away with the back of her fingers.

Standing at the front door looking through the glass she saw her suitcase at the bottom of the stairs waiting for her. She had planned to use one of the main-level rooms until the rest of the crew arrived but for some reason she couldn’t bring herself to go inside and move into an unfamiliar space. Her bedroom was sacred and familiar. There was only one other place she could find the peace she was looking for.

She slipped inside
, hoping no one was in the dining room or sitting room, especially Scarlett. She didn’t know if her friend was still here cleaning up or not, but if she saw Lacy like this she would demand answers and Lacy couldn’t talk about it, not when
she
didn’t have the answers for her behavior.

She picked her bag up and snuck back out,
tiptoed down the length of the porch and crept around the house praying that Kyle wasn’t anywhere around. She hoped he had returned to his room, or better yet, back to his own ranch. California would be even better, they could create a western scene there for his stupid movie. Why had she thought it was a good idea for him to be here, that his presence wouldn’t bother her? All she saw was the money and what she could do with it. She had been so distracted with Brice’s desertion she wasn’t in her right mind. Three months ago the prospect of two hundred thousand dollars was a miracle. She was broke and the B&B needed repairs she couldn’t afford.

Now she saw that she had courted danger and heartbreak.

The coast was clear so Lacy opened the side door to the barn and tossed her bag inside, closing it behind her. She would stay in the saddle room. There was a cot the hired man used to sleep on when her mother thought she could breed race horses. In Nebraska. Darla Weston wasn’t the most responsible person.

Lacy would bunk in here. She could do that and be fine. She ran smack into a cluster of spider webs when she stepped through the creaky door and instantly turned into a ninja, swinging and sputtering.
Stupid spider webs!

Sweeping the sticky film from her arms she took stock of the dusty, dark and dank space.  She made it to the center of the room and jerked the cord
, casting sparse light over the sheet-covered lumps spread around. The challenge of straightening this place up was a welcome prospect. She shoved what happened with Kyle in the back of her mind and went to work, pulling sheets and dragging furniture into place, dusting and sweeping. A nice swipe of the light bulb brought singed fingers and more light.

She needed food and a long shower. Who knew one could work up such a sweat cleaning? She’d rather be
dragged by wild horses over a field of sandburs than walk into her house and have to deal with all those people in it. Okay, so it was just the one person in there. Maybe she could get lucky, there was always the chance he would be suddenly struck with food poisoning or the plague, Lyme disease perhaps. She sat in the old rocking chair banished for its cracked seat thinking about sleep, but found she couldn’t tolerate going to bed covered with dirt and sweat in dusty sheets.

She felt like a thief crawling into her house through the side window kept open for the cross breeze. No one used this room much. Lacy figured it was because of the old painting of her great-
great-grandmother. It was huge, hanging from the ceiling to several inches from the floor. Even though she was a beautiful woman, she looked foreboding sitting stick straight with her hands folded in her lap and no smile on her lips. Or maybe it was the blue Great Dane next to her commanding most of the space in the portrait. Lacy was told his name had been Lucifer and he was a gift from her great-great-grandfather to keep his wife company in Boston while he was in Nebraska building their new home in the West. All Lacy knew for sure was that the portrait guarded the doorway to one of the secret passages. She had to admit that with the lamplight even she was slightly creeped out by the painting.

She looked through the cracked door, praying no one would see her eyeball. Once the coast was clear she stole up the stairs
, sticking close to the wall. She hoped she would blend with the wallpaper. When she got almost to the top, she twisted around to peek her head and nose over the floor through the railing then darted into the empty bathroom.

Even though she wanted to linger in the soothing hot spray, Lacy knew it was best to make it in and out without being seen. This was
ridiculous, she was a fugitive stealing showers in her own home. If she hadn’t attacked Kyle like some horny teenager, embarrassing herself to the ends of the earth, she wouldn’t have to do this. The thought of having to keep this up was exhausting and humbling. Three weeks was a long time to fake illness. Maybe she could claim a dead relative, except Kyle knew her mother was her only living relative. Although… no, she couldn’t tell people her mother was dead no matter how desperate the situation.

Lacy wrapped the blue cotton towel around her, realizing she didn’t remember to bring clean clothes with her. Her day just kept getting better. She couldn’t go into her room and get som
ething, the light was out and the door closed. Lauren had already gone to bed. What next? Maybe she could trip on a stair and tumble to the bottom.

She tiptoed out of the bathroom
, watching all the other doors for movement while making her way towards the stairs. She ran smack into a tall, warm body. Jerking back from the scare and the familiar “Hey,” she lost her hold on the towel.

“
Mother f--!!” She couldn’t finish her curse. Fear ripped through her paralleled with a streak of pure rage and she grabbed onto the only thing big enough to cover her. Kyle.

This day j
ust jumped to nightmare status.

She was panting and clutching Kyle like he was the last par
achute in a crashing airplane. His hands went to her shoulders then started to slide down her arms.

“Stop it! Don’t move!” she screamed and dug her fingers into his flesh.

He moved his hands into the air in surrender. “Okay! Geez, Lacy!”

He shifted and she was so panicked he was going to pull away she hugged closer if that were even possible. “I said, don’t move!”

“Well, what do you suggest I do?”

He was pissed? How dare
he! She was the one standing there naked and cowering, screaming like a little girl. If she were cool she would have just bent down, picked her towel up and tossed it over her shoulder with a smile then sauntered down the stairs. But she wasn’t cool. Her heart was a hummingbird in her chest and her skin was on fire from the embarrassment.

“Just a second,” she spoke into his
sweet-smelling shirt. What was she talking about? Her brain wasn’t about to put all the pieces together and come up with a solution to this problem.

“
Here.” Kyle shifted away.

“No!”

Her cry was too late, he had already picked up the crumpled towel and was holding it out to her with his eyes covered by his other hand. If she could think straight she wouldn’t be grinning at how cute he looked.

She wrapped herself back up and tucked the end in as tight as she could. “Thanks.”

He actually looked shocked when he uncovered his eyes. “You’re welcome.”

She tried to step around him, but was stopped by his voice speaking her name. A shiver rippled through her and it wasn’t the exposed skin.

He rubbed his chin with his hand. “About earlier.”

“There was no earlier.”

He raised an eyebrow and straightened. “I beg to differ.”

She tucked the towel again, looking away. “Differ all you like.”

“Excuse me? You’re the one who was all over me. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, and I like to think you did too, but…”

Lacy’s jaw dropped at the same rate her eyes narrowed.
“Oh my God, Kyle McClintock. That was nothing! Am I to think you’ve gotten so full of yourself that one measly kiss moved heaven and earth for me?”

Clearly he thought that it
had or he wouldn’t have that satisfied look about his face. “Oh, okay. I’m outta here.” She threw her hand up and pivoted on her bare foot making for the stairs.

“Where are you going?”

Wow!
By the way he said that he expected her to pick up where they left off and that was
not
happening. “Away from you.” She took two stairs.

“In your towel?
Don’t you have a room up here?” He advanced on the banister.

She kept moving. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

Lacy could have smacked herself in the head, she felt like a fourth grader, but she trudged those stairs to the bottom. When she arrived, the front door swung open and three people entered including the director who met her with an open mouth and wide eyes.

Lacy straightened her shoulders, lifted her head and looked him straight in the eye. “Mr. Chandler.” She nodded and waltzed out the front door with the towel flapping in the
breeze.

**********

Why did he have the feeling of being sucked up and spit out by a tornado for the second time in a matter of hours? Lacy had done it to him again. Kyle was stunned, confused, his head hurt and damn it, he was pissed off. This woman had the ability to churn his insides, flip him on his head and leave
him
feeling like the jackass. And yet he still couldn’t wait to see her again. That was the most aggravating part of this whole asinine situation.

He wanted to wrap her in his arms and hold on for dear life as she bucked and fought like she liked to do. If only he could do it long enough to tame her, not break her. Oh, for Pete’s sake
, now he was reliving his rodeo days. She had him comparing her to the wild horses he fought so hard to stay on top of. It was both the excitement and the possibility of holding on long enough to control the animal that had him addicted and coming back for more.

He slapped his forehead, almost too hard. Lacy was his addi
ction! How stupid could he be?

Kyle threw himself down on the bed and took great satisfa
ction in crossing his boots over the clean comforter. That’s all this was. He tucked his arm under his head as he reclined on the pillows and stared at the ceiling. With a huge sigh, he vowed to never let his emotions take over with Lacy again. She wasn’t the girl for him. He had once thought she was and then the possibility of it again surfaced coming back here, seeing her, kissing her. All the pieces seemed to fit, but now he realized he was just being an impatient child ramming them together no matter how misshapen they might be.

He and Lacy were not meant to be and she proved that to him by ripping his head off at every given opportunity. Kyle closed his eyes, praying for sleep to come and wipe out the memories of the day. It had been one hell of a homecoming and he hadn’t even seen his family yet. But try as he might, sleep wouldn’t take over.

He couldn’t forget the way her mouth slanted over his or her hands as they held him pressed against the barn door. That was by far the sexiest thing that had ever happened in his life and that was saying something. The heat of her skin as she leaned into him taking complete control of the wild kiss still coursed through his body. He rolled to his side, folding his hands under his pillow, hoping to dispel the sensation of her nakedness gliding beneath them after she lost her towel.

That moment couldn’t have be
en better if he had planned it.

He had simply wanted to talk to her about what happened by
the barn, but the moment she was in his arms and naked all he could think about was dragging her into his room and throwing her down on the bed.

His eyes flew open on a curse. After vowing to forget her, realizing that she was no good for him he found himself with a pe
rsistent erection, a racing heart and a desire deeper than any he had ever experienced. She was everything he wanted. He ground his teeth trying to dig that realization from his mind, but it wouldn’t leave. He couldn’t live without her and it wasn’t just sexual. He wished it was. That he could solve. He could have her and be done, but that wasn’t it. He didn’t want one night with her, he wanted every night with her, for the rest of his life. He would do anything for her if it meant he could spend the rest of his life with her.

Son of a bitch!

Kyle raked his hand through his hair, even jerking a few strands out. This wasn’t possible. They had only been in the same vicinity for half a day. He was playing it all up in his head. It was nostalgia, that’s all. It couldn’t be more. Lacy was a very beautiful woman and they had history. This was his first visit home and she held a significant memory for him. Yes, that was it!

Now how was he going to repeat that lie to
himself for the next three weeks? How was he going to keep his hands off her? Or worse, how was he going to keep her from throwing herself at him again?