Mary Wine (4 page)

* * * * *

“You are a pathetic excuse for an associate. Just how much trouble could it possibly be to convince one girl to sell a piece of worthless forest land?”

Clark Huntley ran a hand over his head, searching for hair to pull, but he’d lost it all some time ago. At the moment he would gladly deal with the ravages of age instead of the man in front of him.

“This is Benton County; people are attached to their land. Roshelle Everitt is planning on rebuilding. That’s the end of it. Nothing short of death is going to change her mind.”

A very cold smile appeared on his companion’s face. Clark felt his blood run cold as he watched it spread all the way into the man’s eyes. “Now you just hold it right there! No land can be that important! The girl won’t sell, so you and I are finished! Right here and now!”

Those cold eyes raked over him before the man pulled his gloves out of his pocket and pushed his fingers into them. He stood for a moment and regarded the small law office. It wasn’t grand by any means. Simple and neat. Family portraits hung on one wall and a law degree was proudly displayed on the opposite one. His eyes traveled the length of each wall before returning to him. Clark felt a chill swept his frame as he met those icy depths.

“I agree. You have absolutely no use.”

* * * * *

Just as the afternoon sun was giving way to evening, Roshelle signed her name to the work order that would see the final end to her grandmother’s house. A rather hefty workman nodded approval at her before he wandered down the hillside and got back into his truck.

She would rebuild. Something drove her to that action. Roshelle wasn’t sure just what it was. She just couldn’t shake the feeling that something wanted to drive her off of this point on the globe.

Not something…
Him
.

Turning her attention away from the charred remains of the house, she focused her eyes in the direction of the top of the mountain. It was almost as if the tree-studded landscape held the answer to her mental dilemma.

It was strange that the only good memory she held of that day her house burned was of shutting
him
out of her mind. Nothing else seemed to be embedded inside her brain, but she clearly recalled the precise probing of her thoughts.

This was ridiculous! There was not a witch living up the hill! Yanking her jacket off the passenger seat of her car, she sent the door closed with a shove.

If she could walk up that mountain when she was a child, she could just do it again today. Because
he
better get used to the idea of having a neighbor. Roshelle wasn’t selling her land!

Twilight descended but Roshelle kept moving. The dark didn’t bother her. No, having her thoughts invaded did!

She stopped at the summit. The mountains rose up further in front of her but this was the highest point she could see from back on her grandmother’s land. A wide smile split her face. There! So much for childhood fears! She wasn’t a pillar of stone nor was she turning into a frog.

There was never any dream specter. She was in shock, pure and simple. It was the traumatic backslide resulting from injuring another human being. Instead of worrying so much about her dreams, she should apply her concern to hoping that the guy wasn’t planning on suing her.

“You’re trespassing.”

He
formed from nothing but darkness. His hand snaked around her throat and pulled her back against a solid wall of flesh. Her fingers dug into that hand, frantically trying to pull it away.

Jared hadn’t noticed how petite she was. Her head barely reached his collarbone. Controlling his grip, he stood firm as she struggled in panic.

Considering her emotions, Jared found his suspicions crumbling. There was too much innocence inside her. Locking his arm over her waist, he continued to hold their bodies together. It intensified his link and he was just enjoying it far too much.

Her body fit into his. He let his eyes slide down the smooth column of her throat and over the mounds of her breasts. Releasing her throat, he trailed his fingers over her neck and smiled. His body jumped with anticipation as he filled his lungs with her scent.

She couldn’t panic. Roshelle repeated it over and over. Her body wouldn’t obey. She was shaking like a leaf in a windstorm. His body burned along every millimeter of her back. He didn’t allow her even the smallest gaps between their bodies, instead she was pressed to him. Her eyes suddenly widened as her back felt the very clear evidence of his arousal. The thick erection seemed to set off a pulse of sensation deep inside her body.

“You shouldn’t be here,” Jared whispered his words in her ear. He lowered his head further in search of her scent. “But I’m not complaining.”

That hand stroked over her neck again in a smooth motion that made her belly clench. Roshelle renewed her attempts for escape but he held her firmly against him. Her rapid breathing pulled his smell deep inside her. Heat pooled in her abdomen as his hand moved back up her neck. A single finger traced the contours of her lips.

“Stop that!” Rage gave her the ability to snap out of panic’s grip. Just what did
he
think he was doing? “Let me go!”

“No.” He whispered the word a millimeter from her ear. His breath hit her skin and she shivered in response. Her entire body seemed to have become a network of receptors that were screaming in unison.

Jared stroked a hand over her neck again. Her body quivered in his hands and he grinned. There was something intense about her reaction to him. His staff throbbed as he let his lips gently nip the side of her neck.

“You can’t just handle me.”

“Maybe you should stay on your own property, because I’ve wanted to handle you since we met.”

Oh sweet Jesus! It hadn’t been a dream.
He
wasn’t a dream.

No, the solid steel of his body confirmed that this wasn’t some dream-spun creature. The strength he held her with was extreme. He wasn’t hurting her, instead he was scorching her skin with his mouth. His lips made a trail down her neck as he bit and lingered over each touch. Her body seemed to explode with heat as she listened to the tiny moan that escaped her own lips.

Turning her body, Jared wrapped his hand over the back of her head. His mouth sought hers and settled over her lips. She gasped in shock and he seized the opportunity to explore her mouth.

She was being invaded. On every level. Roshelle couldn’t seem to remember where her body began and his ended. He moved in and around her in so many ways. The way his lips took command of hers just seemed a natural progression of their joined souls. She pushed against him but the solid steel of his chest remained firmly rooted in place.

He lingered over her mouth. Tasting and exploring the satin of her lips. There was a spicy scent that came from her skin and Jared trailed his lips down her neck as he searched for its source. She tasted better than she felt. His body was surging forward with impatience and demands.

Her clothing was a barrier. Jared wasn’t in the mood to be stopped by anything. The snap of a button as he popped it free hit his ears. He curled his fingers into the thin cotton of her blouse and hesitated. The extreme tide of emotions her body sparked left him off balance as he considered her passion-drugged face.

Her body shuttered as his hand cupped her breast. His thumb brushed across her nipple and it rose to stiff attention. A second button popped free and then a third. The night air graced her skin a second before his hand cupped her bared breast. Pleasure rose from the contact as another moan escaped her. This time it was more of a whimper as she struggled against her need for that touch. How could her body need
his
touch?

Yet somehow she did. Her back arched and her hips thrust forward as she balanced on the edge of desire. She felt each finger as it gripped her and the harshness of the thumb that passed over her nipple again.

He bent her back over his arm. Her breast rose up in tempting display as Jared fit his aching sex into the notch of her thighs. Her body shivered and he stroked a firm hand down her neck again. It wasn’t about wanting to handle her. He needed to touch her. Taste her, sink into her body and touch the essence of her that he could smell on her skin.

“Oh, God.” Roshelle felt her body shatter as he captured her nipple with his mouth. She couldn’t feel the ground beneath her feet as his tongue circled the nub and lapped over its peak. Pleasure spiked through her so intensely, it bordered on pain. She clung to his biceps and marveled at the tightly corded muscles her fingers found.

Her hips thrust towards him, making Jared curse. His sex throbbed with need as her scent rose hot and spicy from her core. The need to tear into her clothing rode him hard. He gritted his teeth as his eyes caught the tight little bud of her nipple. She was still bent over his arm, oblivious to her helplessness. He could impale her body with her back against a tree and she’d never be able to stop him.

But he wasn’t an animal even if his body was raging with primal need. Catching the side of her shirt, Jared pulled it across her breast as he took a last taste of her lips. Her frame shuddered as she regained her composure. Cupping her face, he stared into her wide eyes.

“I’ve enjoyed your visit. Feel free to come back, Roshelle.”

A second later, she stood alone.

Her eyes flew open as she frantically searched for him. Every shadow could have been him. She could still feel the man so very keenly. There was no way for her to condense the stimulus into a single point of location.

But he had released her. Roshelle sent her eyes over the dark forest again. Where was
he
?
She shook her head trying to force her brain to resume logical functions. Her emotions rolled dangerously and she turned on her heel in retreat. The need for escape pounded through her bloodstream.

Jared watched her go with half-closed eyes. The curve of her hips was sultry. Her taste clung to his lips as he set his shoulders firmly into the trunk of a tree. He lingered over their link even as distance made it harder to hold. She was struggling against his mental hold just as determinedly as she had against his body.

The corners of his mouth twitched up slightly before he released her. It really was a pity she was a civilian. Bending over, he snagged her jacket from the forest floor. The garment had droped from her fingers and she seemed to not think it worth stopping her escape to retrieve. Her scent clung to the fabric. His body tensed as desire sent another demand along his nerves.

If she found the courage to come back up his mountain, Jared wouldn’t let her leave it quite so quickly. Turning back up the mountain, he climbed back towards his world.

* * * * *

The next two days gave her little time to consider anything other than her patients. As far as the medical center was concerned, it was a two hundred percent increase in workload. The nurses grumbled. Roshelle silently prayed in thanksgiving.

While she focused on her patients there was no time to think about
him
.

While Fate might have been feeling kind, it wasn’t completely forgiving.
He
floated across her mind every time she closed her eyes. The deep rasp of his voice was rooted inside her head.

“Well, it’s about time this place quieted down.” A nurse ambled past with a loaded supply cart. She raised her eyes up and raked them over Roshelle. “A good night’s rest should be prescribed for you, Doctor.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” There was no way Roshelle was going anywhere near her bed before total exhaustion forced her to.

Besides, she needed a new jacket. She needed a lot of new things. Her belongings currently consisted of what she’d had stored in her locker at the medical center. Her one and only jacket was lying up on that mountainside.

It could just stay there.
He
wasn’t a rude boy any longer. Roshelle wasn’t even sure
he
was real. But she certainly wasn’t going back up there to find out!

Fine. She was a coward. In big, bold capital letters. It was an easier than dealing with
him
.

Roshelle’s cell phone began to chime for attention the second she slid her key into the car ignition.

“Listen very carefully….” While the phrase itself was almost comical due to its abundant use in television melodramas, the tone that delivered it forced a shiver to rise along her backbone.

No late-night movie actor had ever been able to instill absolute terror using nothing more than his voice. The phone line disconnected almost before her brain finished processing the information that she was issued.

Roshelle sat with the tiny bit of technology clutched between frozen fingers. She had to get help, she needed to call…

No one!

The man on the other end of the line was brutally explicit on just what would happen if Roshelle involved anyone else.

It was a joke. A horrible, sick prank. Roshelle snapped to attention and forced a new line of numbers into the phone. She would just call…and Christina would answer and that would be the end of it.

“Really, Doctor, I did expect better from a person of your intelligence level. However, proof can be provided.”

The slight sounds of the phone being handed off came across the line. “Speak to her,” drifted next, but it was not spoken into the phone itself but instead to someone in the vicinity of the unit.

Someone hissed a reply back but it came across as nothing but muffled sounds.

“Your friend is very stubborn, but we will break her.”

The chilling certainty of the man’s ability to do just that seemed to be conveyed in the arctic tone of his voice.

“No!” Several people in the parking lot turned their attention towards her apparent distress. Forcing her voice to mask her growing terror required tremendous amounts of will.

“That won’t be necessary.”

“Twelve hours.”

This time the silence of the disconnected line was as startling as a gunshot. Her fingers fumbled as she tried to turn the key in the ignition. There was so much to do and she only had twelve hours, really only four because it was already one in the afternoon.

The obstacle that had been placed in front of her seemed almost too steep to scale, but she would. Christina was the only true family that she had.

If they wanted her land that bad they could just have it!