Layers Crossed (20 page)

What would she
do in this situation? What would Allie and Kendra advise me to
do?

Eric returned
before I had a chance to finish my thoughts. He brought two pillows
and a blanket, propped them at the side, and covered us both,
spooning me.

“Are you
tired?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Then sleep. I
know there’s a ton of questions running through your mind now, but
you need to rest.”

“How do you
know I have questions?”

“Because
you’re a PI and you can’t help it.” He kissed my shoulder blade.
“Don’t overthink it, Emma. Everything was wonderful, and hopefully
we’ll get some rest, and the morning will bring more of
wonderful.”

I snuggled
into his side, resting my head on his chest. His arm was wrapped
around me, holding me tightly. And before I closed my eyes I heard
Eric whisper, “Over seven billion people on Earth, and I had the
privilege of meeting you. A man cannot get luckier than that.”

I drifted out,
feeling pure love.

C
HAPTER
19

Eric

When the first
morning light hit my face, I squirmed. My muscles ached, and my
neck felt strained. I wasn’t sure what I had been thinking last
night when I wanted to be romantic and sleep with Emma in front of
the dying fireplace. Shifting, the soft skin against me momentarily
surprised me as I remembered every single detail from last night.
Emma’s slick folds, her silky skin, and her long legs wrapped
around my hips as she rode me all the way to a mutual climax.

Fuck!
This girl had me in the palm of her hand, and she didn’t even know
it.

My morning
need pulsed against Emma’s lower back as I realized how easily I
could take her again. One shift and I’d be inside her. But the
ranch chores had waited for me long enough. I tried to pull my
entwined body away without waking her – unsuccessfully.

“Don’t go.”
The hum of her plea spread through me, but I knew if I neglected my
horses for much longer, they’d make me regret it. I could almost
guarantee they were smarter than many humans, and if I didn’t give
them enough attention, I’d pay for it later.

“Sleep, Emma.
I have to go to town and do some work around the ranch.”

I lowered my
mouth to hers to taste her swollen lips in remorse. How could I
walk away from her? She opened up so willingly, letting me dip my
tongue inside her, tangling her fingers into my hair and moaning
softly.

Shit!
Why couldn’t I had asked George to help out for an extra day?

She murmured
against my skin, forcing me to lean further into her, wrapping her
into my arms. A few more seconds of this and I was sure I’d lose
myself inside her again. I shook away the thought and lifted her
off the floor, carrying her into my bedroom. As I lowered her to my
bed, kissing her once more on her lips, I said, “I promise we can
continue this later. If you need anything, my cell number’s on the
fridge.”

There was only
so much a man could take before losing control with a naked vixen
in his bed. But knowing that the sooner I got done with work, the
more time I’d get to spend with Emma. With the last ounce of free
will I had, I finally pulled away.

“Okay,” she
said, and closed her eyes.

I quickly
showered, got dressed, and not bothering to have breakfast, left
for the stables. The loud neighs greeting me vibrated through the
long corridor as I opened each stall to let the dozen out, leaving
Hansen behind.

“Feel like
going for a ride, buddy?”

His head
bopped up and down as if agreeing to my offer. I saddled him up and
before I knew it, we were cantering through the fields of grass,
right by the forest. There was nothing better than the feel of
Hansen’s strength, speed, power, and control. It felt as if he were
running for his life with his best friend and he never wanted the
joy ride to end. Passing the forest I slowed Hanson down to a trot.
Soon the rest of the herd caught up to us, following Hansen as
their leader, the way they normally did.

“So what are
we going to do with Emma?” I asked, smoothing my hand over his
velvety neck as if I were talking to a best friend. Hanson stopped
for a bite of grass, completely ignoring my question. Why was I so
confused about this? I knew deep down inside what I wanted – her,
for much longer than she was expecting to stay. Yet my childhood
memories tugged at my every instinct, preventing me from completely
committing to a woman of whom I knew I wasn’t worthy. I’d
eventually fail her the same way I’d failed every woman in my life:
Annabelle, my mother, and Claudia – yeah, I’d skipped the part
where I told Emma about the scouts’ camp being co-ed. I’d skipped
the part where I didn’t tell her how many girls the bastard had
raped right in front of us before we escaped into the woods. How
he’d raped each new girl every hour that we were gone, yelling out
that he’d keep going until we showed. It wasn’t until he threatened
to start shooting that Derek, Reeve and I decided to make our move.
Our move that was too late for every single victim of his, male and
female. But it was too late for Claudia as well, my
then-girlfriend.

Sometimes I
was certain I’d been cursed. I was meant to fail every single woman
in my life. The girls at camp, my sister Annabelle, my mother whom
I couldn’t even look in the eye when I thought about how I was
supposed to be the older brother who protected his sister. How
could I give Emma what she needed if I couldn’t protect her? And
here I’d agreed for her to find a fucking kidnapper for me.

Fucking
douchebag!

I shook my
head and got off Hansen, tying his reins to a tree, and removed a
brush from the saddlebags.

Sweat dripped
off my forehead as I pulled the bristles along the shimmering brown
coat, which shone in the sun as if it were cleaned every day. Maybe
that’s why he appealed to so many buyers. But Hansen was one of the
two horses I could never sell. We had a bond I couldn’t explain.
The male horse let out a neigh of appreciation.

“I know,
buddy. I’m sorry, I’ve been a bit busy.”

George
wouldn’t be here until this afternoon to clean them off. He was the
one who had taken care of my horses until now, feeding them,
attending to their exercise, and keeping the stables clean, but I
still loved to spend time with my dozen best friends who didn’t
mind hearing every complaint and story of a failed man. And George
had asked for this day off quite a while ago.

I let the
reins loose and slapped Hansen’s behind, letting him join the
others to roam around the fields. The beauty of owning so much land
was that you could pretty much do whatever you wanted with it,
especially since my bank account wasn’t exactly dying of hunger. My
grandfather had been smart enough to secretly sell part of the
crude under my farm, pumping the oil out in the forest, where no
one other than the buyer knew it even existed. The binding clauses
would ruin the investor’s corporation if word ever leaked out.

Sweat dripped
off my back. I pushed past the green shrubs that hid the private
lake beyond, needing to take a dip. I removed my clothes and
plunged into the crystal clear water, trying to sift through my
head the number of lies I’d told Emma that could ruin us. Lies
about the camp, about Annabelle and my cowardly ways, about the
millions of dollars my family had because of the oil underneath my
ranch. I guess she knew part of that secret, at least. And she’d
eventually find out about Claire as well – the girl who’d fixated
on me since high school. And since we were going to the summer fest
together, I couldn’t avoid her for long.
Fuck!
That could
definitely be a problem. I was beginning to lose track of all the
lies.

And if that
didn’t do it, I was sure that when Emma found out about her
brothers hiring me to take their spoiled little sister out of the
city, she’d order a supersonic flight back to New York.

An hour passed
before I heard the thumping of horse hooves in the distance and
wondered whether Hansen had come back already. Riding here was our
ritual, but he usually gave me more time than this. But when I saw
Emma saddled on one of my horses, trotting toward the shore, right
between the bushes, I froze. Did she have a death wish or
something?

“What are you
doing?” I asked, hastening my strokes toward the shore. She was
wearing another plaid shirt tied around her waist with the top
three buttons open, and her voluptuous cleavage spilled out. Emma
not only looked hot and enticing, but more beautiful and real than
many of the country girls around here often pretended to be. And
the way she wore that cowboy hat was as if she was born to do so.
It didn’t matter that the water was cold, I was getting hard for
her already. I jumped out and pulled my jeans on without bothering
to dry myself.

“We skipped
supper last night and you didn’t eat breakfast.” She pointed to the
basket sitting in her lap.

“You rode
Moose with that?” I asked. He was one of the few horses that no one
rode – simply because he wouldn’t let them. Emma stilled for a
moment, looking at me in a funny way as if I’d said something I
shouldn’t have.

“Yup. I
whistled, he came over, and so I saddled him up.”

“Emma, you
better get down. His name is Moose for a reason. He’s not to be
ridden.”

She squinted
her eyes, thinking for a moment about what I’d said.

“I beg to
differ, Eric. Moose here likes me. I have a feeling that me and
this gentle horse were meant to be in each other’s lives.” She
smoothed her hand along his neck. “And I think we’re going to be
good friends.”

Gentle? Is she
kidding me?

“How did you
find me? And I didn’t know you rode.” I reached for the basket that
was sitting in her lap as she slid off the horse and playfully
slapped his hindquarters. Most people would have tied the reins to
a branch, forcing the horse to wait, but Emma gave Moose the
freedom I would have. The kind of freedom he’d wanted since birth,
when he’d run away and joined a herd of wild moose. We’d found him
frolicking around with a newborn calf, and hence his name.

“I thought
last night would have given you a hint of how well I can ride.” The
look of satisfaction on her face was priceless. “And I didn’t find
you. Moose did.”

Yeah, I
wouldn’t put it past the beast, whom I could never sell because of
the temperament he displayed when shown off. And then after a
while, he’d gotten too old to sell. Plus I’d always thought there
was something special about him. He didn’t want to be touched by
many, and I guess reserved showing his calmer side to those he took
a liking to – which to this day had only been George, my horse
keeper, and Emma.

“And you
saddled him,” I repeated, still amazed.

“Why are you
so surprised? I’ve ridden my entire life. You know there are
training camps at the outskirts of New York, right?”

“Yeah, but I
never imagined you at one.”

“Sit and eat.
I have questions.” She spread a blanket out on the grass by the
lake and removed sandwiches, orange juice, and a box of
cookies.

“I have work,
Emma.”

“No, you
don’t. George came in. His plans got canceled, and he said he
couldn’t stay away from the horses.” She already had a mouth full
of an egg sandwich.

Yup, that was
George.

“Why did you
lie to me, Eric?” she asked bluntly, as I took my first bite.

I swallowed
through my throat, wondering which lie exactly was Emma referring
to, and tried to guess which one would be easiest for a private
investigator to figure out.

“Emma, I
didn’t want you to hear the gory details.”

“You need to
stop treating me like I’m made of tempered glass.”

“You’re
wrong.”

“Why, Eric?
Why am I wrong?”

I shook my
head. How could I tell her that I didn’t want to fail her the way I
had failed all the others? I didn’t want to seem like a weakling
Hobbit who avoided confrontation, and in turn had failed every
woman in his life up to this point.

“I failed
them, Emma. We shouldn’t have waited so long in those woods.”

She breathed
out, eyeing me. Whatever was going on in that head of hers, it had
to be big. It seemed she had a thousand thoughts running through
her mind.

“Are you
afraid you’ll fail me?” she whispered.

“I know I
will.”

I already
have.

“Well, you’re
wrong. See, there’s something you need to know about me, Eric. I’m
a private investigator.”

“Yeah, I
know.” Where was she going with this?

“So that
should give you a hint that I can’t be lied to. If I am, I will
find the truth. I’ve learned this a long time ago, but all truth
comes out eventually. And I’d rather hear it from the source – no
matter how bad.”

I took a long
swig of the juice she’d brought, wondering whether I could tell her
more. I wanted to, but I was afraid it would change the way she
felt about me.

“All right,
there’s more,” I sighed.

She didn’t
move.

“The crude I
told you about, I’m selling it under a different name and under
confidential clauses. I’m not sure whether I’m right on this, but I
think my grandfather had a fallout with Huntz’s family long ago. My
parents had never confirmed this, and there’s no way in hell I’d
ask them to, but I think my mother may have had a relationship with
Huntz. At least I think the two families wanted them to have one,
but it never worked out. It was supposed to mend the past. I don’t
quite know all the details, but it’s something that’s never been
openly spoken about in the family. I know there’s a deeper
connection there, I just can’t seem to find it. I thought if I
hired a professional, they could help me out. And that’s where you
came in.”