Murphy's Law (6 page)

She wasn’t going to escape Murphy’s keen
senses for long. The thought of trusting and confiding in someone again
terrified her. Especially a man who stirred emotions in her she couldn’t even
begin to understand.

How on Earth was she going to get
through the next few days without being forced to bare her soul?

* * * *

Sara woke up with a start. She opened
her eyes to complete darkness, except for flashes of lightning through the
window. At first she thought Abby had woken her, but her daughter slept
peacefully next to her, her breathing soft and steady.

Awake now, Sara pulled the quilt over
Abby’s shoulders and pressed a kiss to her cheek. The bedside clock read two
AM. Her head pulsed. A couple more of Murphy’s aspirin would help.

Carefully, she slipped out of bed and
from the room without waking Abby. Her bare feet padded silently across the
wood floor as she headed toward the bathroom. A low, guttural moan broke the
silence and stopped her dead in her tracks. Frozen, she waited. This time it came
as a grunt and low mumbling from Murphy’s room. The torment in his voice drew
her to his closed door. Before she realized what she was doing, she’d opened
the door and stepped inside.

In the darkness she made out Murphy’s
form lying prone, across the bed. She stood transfixed inside the door, staring
at the man sprawled amongst the sheets.

His body twitched, fists clenched on his
pillow. Drawn to him, she moved silently to the side of the bed and reached out
a hand to touch his shoulder, thinking only to wake him from his dream. She’d
had more than her share of nightmares in her lifetime and wished she’d had
someone to wake her from their torment. His skin was slick with sweat, his
muscles bunched beneath her hand. Then he trembled.

“Mur--”

His hand whipped out and clamped around
her throat in a vise-like grip. Sara wrapped her hands around his forearms and
squeezed as she was thrown onto the bed and crushed beneath the weight of his
body.

Lightning flashed and she saw a lethal
coldness in his eyes that made her wish she hadn’t come into his room. He
looked through her, trapped in his past. She’d become a part of his dream and
she hoped like hell he woke up soon because she couldn’t breathe. She clawed at
his arms, but his grip didn’t loosen.

“Never again,” he growled in a voice
that didn’t belong to him. The cold, lifeless voice was edged with steel and
Sara felt its punch clear to her bones.

Futilely, she pulled at Murphy’s hands.
Wake
up, Murphy
.

She tried to speak, but the pressure on
her voice box prevented her. Gasping for air, she writhed beneath him. He was
solid muscle from head to toe. Until he decided to let her go she was his
prisoner. It wasn’t until he shifted that she realized he was completely naked
on top of her.

Dots danced in front of her eyes as his
hand tightened on her throat. She did the only thing she could think of.
Straining against his hand, she pressed her lips to Murphy’s.

He stilled on top of her and his grip
tightened before slowly relaxing. His lips were firm against hers and beaded
with perspiration. His body, coiled tight with restrained tension and control,
both scared and excited her. What would happen if he unleashed that control?
She deepened the kiss and marveled in the tiny tremors rocking through her and
stirring long hidden desires.

Murphy represented her deepest, darkest
secrets. She couldn’t stop the need to explore what lay between them in the
darkness of his room. Fire raced through her veins, searching for an escape and
consuming her with every beat of her heart. Though he wasn’t kissing her back
and lay rigid on top of her, Sara felt alive. Her fingers dug into his forearms
as she sank her teeth into his lower lip and got more than she bargained for
when he crushed his lips to hers with a hunger that inflamed her. She had
awakened the beast.

The hand circling her neck loosened and
now rested lightly on her collar bone as he ravaged her mouth in ways that made
her wonder if he would ravage her body with the same intensity. Conscious
thought fled when he shifted and slid a hand over her ribcage beneath her
shirt, his calloused hand rough against her sensitive skin. Aroused by the rasp
of his hands, she circled his neck with her arms and furrowed her fingers in
his silky hair, dampened from his dream. She had never been this responsive or
turned on by Kent. So this was what she’d been missing. She’d had no idea a
man’s kiss could send her up in flames.

Murphy cupped her breast and she cried
out in pleasure. She arched into him as fires consumed her until she could no
longer put two words together. God help her, she had never felt anything like
this and she wanted more. Untangling her hands from his hair, she skimmed them
down his taut back, feathering over the uneven scars covering his flesh and
creating a maelstrom of emotions inside her. She clung to him, torn by the need
to protect him and have him. What had he lost for these scars?

Murphy tore his mouth from hers and
stared down at her with hungry eyes. Her toes curled from the heat of his
stare. Then, just as quickly, the heat was gone and all emotion was masked,
turning him into a distant stranger once more. It doused the flames licking
inside her.

“What the hell are you doing here?”
Murphy demanded in a low, gravelly voice that belied his expression. He wasn’t
as immune as he’d like to be.

“I--” Sara cleared her throat. “You were
dreaming and I came to wake you.” She swallowed and winced. Murphy’s mouth
thinned into a tight line. He reached over her head and snapped on the bedside
lamp. Soft light filled the room and Sara blinked to adjust, feeling her cheeks
flush because of Murphy’s nudity.

Although she still suffered the effects
of his kisses, she wasn’t ready for him to see her like this. She had acted
completely out of character and it embarrassed her. She never responded so
boldly in bed, nor had she been so close to losing control of mind and body.

Sara dropped her chin in a vain attempt
to prevent him from seeing the bruises she could feel forming around her neck,
but Murphy gently cupped her chin so he could turn her head to the side. He
drew in a sharp breath and she closed her eyes against the anger radiating from
him. She knew it wasn’t directed toward her.

“You shouldn’t have come in here,” he
said in a voice so low she almost didn’t hear him. She didn’t know if he was
referring to what he’d done or what they’d done. Maybe both. Either way, she
didn’t regret it and she wasn’t going to let him.

Sara turned to face him, meeting his
eyes without flinching. The more Murphy felt, the more he withdrew and the colder
he became. What made him this way? She wanted the passionate, unbridled man
back. She wanted the man with heat in his eyes and hunger in his kisses.

She reached up and cupped his cheek with
her hand. “I’m okay. I’m fine now. I should have called to you from the door
instead of walking in on you. I’m sorry.”

She’d thought only to soothe him, but he
drew back with an angry expression.

“Dammit, Sara, you’re not fine. I hurt
you. I could have snapped your neck and you’re sorry? Why the hell are you
always apologizing?”

His words cut straight through her
defenses and stung because he was right. She had gotten into the habit of
apologizing for everything she did. It had become normal for her to constantly
try and be something she wasn’t, in order to please. Even after separating
herself from the ones she was trying to impress.

Long buried anger churned inside her as
Murphy’s accusation brought old haunts close to the surface.

“I apologized for overstepping my
bounds, coming into your room, but you know what? I’m not sorry. I’m glad I
came in here. I’m glad I got a glimpse of the man you try so hard to hide
beneath that scowl and harsh words. I want to see that man again, Murphy. I
want him to set me on fire with his kisses and make me forget what brought me
here. I want him to show me what I’ve been missing all my life and I want to
know where he got those scars and what they cost him. How’s that for an
apology?” She pushed his chest, knowing the only way she could leave was if he
let her. “Get off me so I can leave.”

He didn’t prevent her escape. He rolled
off her and pulled the sheet up to his waist while she adjusted her clothes and
sent him a haughty glare before stalking from the room. She slammed the door
behind her and felt marginally better.

Damn that man for slapping her in the
face with her own past. How could he sum up all her mistakes in one simple
sentence? He couldn’t know she’d tried everything in her power, including
becoming a different person, to make the Benchleys accept her. Damn the man for
being so perceptive.

Sara stalked to bed.

Chapter
6

I want you to set me on fire with your
kisses
…

Sara’s words echoed through Murphy’s
head long after she slammed the door behind her. He raked a hand through his
hair and cursed his body’s prolonged response to her. He didn’t remember her
coming into his room, or grabbing onto her, and that scared the hell out of
him. He would never consciously hurt her, but when he was trapped in the past
he couldn’t be responsible for what he did.

In his nightmare, it had been an Islamic
Party of Azbakastan guard sneaking into his cage to interrogate him for
information he would die before giving up. Special Forces made for good
hostages and were considered cream of the crop, so they received
special
treatment. In his case, nine months in a six-by-six-foot cage moved from
location to location in order to prevent rescue.

He’d endured unconventional
interrogation methods that should have killed him and for nine months he fought
against his captors, holding onto the Ranger creed and trusting his comrades
would do the same. They wouldn’t leave him behind, and they didn’t, but it took
them almost a year to locate him. It wasn’t until the ninth month, when the IPT
broke him and that his career ended…

Murphy cursed and flung the sheets off
the bed. He swung his legs over the side and glared at the door. He had been
doing all right until Sara Sheldon showed up on his doorstep and sent him
hurtling into the past, reminding him of what he’d lost. She needed protection
and he’d almost killed her.

Murphy stood and paced to the door, then
back to his bed. Images of light bruising around Sara’s neck haunted him. It
shouldn’t have happened and he had to make sure it didn’t happen again. If it
meant installing a padlock on his door, then he would do it. He couldn’t
control what he did in sleep and that loss of control scared him more than nine
months in a cage without knowing if his team would find him. There had been
compassion in Sara’s eyes when she cupped his cheek. She would try to help him
again. He had every intention of stopping her, because he didn’t need her help.

His mother and sisters had tried and he
wasn’t up for another female trying to fix him. Some things couldn’t be
forgiven and what he’d done in that cage could never be. He hadn’t told his mom
or sisters what he’d gone through, but they had seen the scars and tried to
erase them for him, not knowing he didn’t want to. The scars were a reminder of
his failure as a Ranger and as his father’s son. If his dad had lived to see
him now, he would be disappointed. His dad deserved better than what Murphy
offered.

Dropping down onto the bed, he cradled
his head in his hands and closed his eyes against the cold hard reality of what
he’d lost in those nine months. His temples began to ache in the familiar way
they did when he was forced to face the events that led him to a solitary life
in the mountains.

Until Sara and Abby Sheldon showed up.

Waking up to Sara’s soft kiss had fired
his blood. It still smoldered. Tasting her innocence and hesitancy had been an
aphrodisiac like never before. Feeling her softness beneath him had almost
seduced him into showing her what she was missing, as she so honestly put it.

Dammit, he wasn’t the man to find
herself with. She would regret it afterward and he had already hurt her enough.
He wouldn’t add sleeping with her to his list of wrong doings. She was
searching for something, but he wasn’t the one to help her find it. He had
located her daughter and gotten them out of the danger zone. When the road
cleared, he would buy and put on four tires and escort her out of town the back
way so no one would see her. Then he would wave her off and hope she found what
she was looking for. Afterward, he would return to his life of solitude and be
happy they were gone.

And somehow try and forget how right she
felt in his arms.

* * * *

“Where are you going?” Sara shut the
door to the dryer and propped a plastic clothesbasket on her hip as she watched
Murphy shrug into a parka.

He zipped it up without looking at her
or answering the question. They had been avoiding each other the past
twenty-four hours the best they could, given the close quarters. Neither spoke
about what happened in Murphy’s bedroom and she took care to cover her bruises
with turtlenecks. Although July, it felt more like fall most days so it wasn’t
unusual for her to be dressed this way. She didn’t want Abby to see the
bruising around her neck or Murphy to be reminded of that night, so she kept it
covered.

“To check the road,” Murphy finally
answered.

“But it’s only just stopped raining. Do
you think it’s open already?”

“No.”

“Then why bother?”

Murphy turned to her. His eyes snagged
on her turtleneck sweater and narrowed before lifting to meet hers. Guilt
flashed before he masked it. She started to smooth it over, but he sent her a
warning look so she snapped her mouth shut.

“I won’t be long,” he said.

Sara nodded, hating the tension between
them. She wasn’t angry with him for what he’d done. Although she didn’t fully
understand it, she didn’t blame him. Murphy wouldn’t intentionally hurt her;
she didn’t want him berating himself over it. Where did he go in his tortured
dreams at night?

Murphy reached out and tugged the collar
of her shirt down to reveal her bruises. His mouth thinned and a muscle jumped
along his jaw. Why did he torment himself like this? She started to pull away,
but his fingers on her skin stopped her. Tenderly, he traced the bruises,
leaving goose bumps in his wake.

Mesmerized, she waited. His touch
caressed her skin and her breath hitched.

“Dammit, Sara, you shouldn’t have gone
in,” he murmured.

The torment in his voice shook her. She
knew Abby couldn’t see them from where she sat at the kitchen table having a
glass of milk and a peanut butter sandwich, so Sara reached up and touched
Murphy’s sleeve. Murphy hadn’t forgiven himself for hurting her. He may never
admit it but he was a noble man, maybe the first one she had ever met. The men
in her life had been lots of things but honorable wasn’t one of them. If it had
been the Benchleys, they would have had her apologizing for provoking them…as
she had with Murphy. She remembered too well how he had reacted to that.

If only he knew the physical bruises
hurt much less than the emotional. She could handle a few surface bruises. The
inner ones never seemed to heal. Studying the scar on his face, she wondered if
it were true for Murphy too.

“How about a truce?” she asked and
watched Murphy’s eyes narrow. “I agree not to go into your room without
knocking first and you trust me when I say you didn’t hurt me.”

The hand smoothing the bruises on her
neck stilled.

“No. You stay out of my room, no matter
what you hear, and I won’t hurt you again.” His voice sounded as if he were
chewing on glass.

“Why can’t you forgive yourself? I’m
fine, no harm done.”

Murphy’s expression darkened like a
thundercloud. “You don’t get it, do you? I could have killed you, Sara. I’m a
very dangerous man.”

Sara shook her head. “No, Murphy, the
man chasing me is dangerous. You are different because you can’t forgive
yourself for a few bruises. That makes you a good man in my eyes. You saved my
daughter’s life and have taken us into your home, so don’t tell me that you’re
dangerous, because I don’t believe it.”

Murphy’s hand dropped from her neck and
he glowered at her. He jerked the door open. “You’re a poor judge of character.
You should be more careful.” The door closed quietly behind him.

Sara let out a long, shaky breath. He
was right. She was a poor judge of character. Her former husband was proof of
that. Had she misjudged Murphy? She refused to believe Murphy was like them.
His actions were at odds with his words. He had been asleep when he grabbed
her, so how could she be wrong about him? He hadn’t awakened until she kissed
him. Then he’d been responsible for his actions. Sara shuddered in memory of
those telling actions, her body remembering just how responsible he’d been.

No, she didn’t believe it. The only way
to know for sure was to find out where Murphy went in his dreams. The key lay
in his nightmares and, she suspected, in his scars.

Question was, did she really want to
know?

* * * *

Murphy drew fresh air into his lungs and
let it out slowly. The skies were cloudy but it had finally stopped raining. He
didn’t need to check the road. It washed out every time it rained and usually
took days to dry up, but he was going stir crazy in the cabin with Sara
underfoot.

They had done a fairly good job of
steering clear of each other since the night he almost made love to her. Every
time he turned around she was there with her honey blond hair and sky blue eyes
that always seemed to be watching him. She covered herself with jeans and
turtlenecks but they didn’t hide the pure, sensual woman beneath. If anything,
they enhanced the fact and it drove him nuts. He’d never been one to act on
impulse, but damn if he didn’t want to finish what they’d started.

He wasn’t the only dangerous one on the
mountain. Sara Sheldon presented a danger that could very well level him. She
was soft and attentive and compassionate by nature. The last thing he needed.
He needed his privacy back.

The door behind him opened.

Murphy groaned inwardly and turned
around to see Sara and Abby standing in the doorway. Abby wore a jacket, hat
and gloves over her flowered pants and shirt, and Sara had put on his extra
parka. The cuffs were rolled three times and she swam in it, but she didn’t
seem to care as she smiled at him and stepped outside, closing the door behind
them.

“Mind if we tag along?” she asked. “We
could use some fresh air.”

Yeah, he could relate. He didn’t want
them to come along because he needed time alone. One look at the hopeful smile
on the little girl’s face and he knew his time alone had just been annihilated.

“Please,” Sara added with a pretty smile
that made him curse beneath his breath.

Walking away he said, “Don’t fall
behind.”

Sara fell into step beside him and Abby
ran to keep up, but neither complained nor seemed to mind. Murphy glanced down
at the girl and received a sunny smile in return. The next thing he knew, he
had checked his stride and slowed down to a near crawl to accommodate her short
legs. They wouldn’t reach the road until dinnertime at this pace.

They walked in silence down the two tracks
leading to his cabin. Once he had to latch onto the girl’s collar to prevent
her from falling on her bottom and getting all wet. Upright again, the girl
held tight to his hand. Murphy tried to shake her off, but she smiled up at him
and held tight. Scowling, he tried to think about something else. Impossible
with Sara smiling at him. She looked just as happy to be outdoors.

Abby trotted happily between them, one
tiny hand in Sara’s and the other in Murphy’s. She didn’t seem to notice the
tension between them as they walked down the rough path.

“Have you lived here long?” Sara asked
moments later.

“No.”

Her face fell. Damn, he’d disappointed
her, but he didn’t want to know this woman. He had a feeling once he crossed
that line there would be no going back. Sara Sheldon would leave her mark on
any man lucky enough to get close to her.

“You were right,” she said quietly after
a long stretch of silence.

Murphy remained silent, not wanting to
hear any more. He didn’t want to be right and he certainly didn’t want to know
the details.

“I have a history of misjudging men and
I’m not proud of it.”

“You misjudged Abby’s father,” he heard
himself say.

Sara nodded, staring straight ahead. “I
was young and impressionable and naive. Broke, I dropped out of college to work
two lame jobs in order to make ends meet. I was paying tuition and trying to
keep my mom in the nursing home she insisted was the only decent one in
Chicago, and sinking fast. The nursing home bills were killing me, but I
managed to keep her there. Although I ate a lot of tuna and canned soup and
lived in a…well, let’s just say I wasn’t living in a mansion.

“That’s when Kent walked into my life
and swept me off my feet. Literally. He whisked me away to a castle in the sky
and promised me the world. He paid my student loans and swore I’d never have to
work again. I believed him and we married a week later.” Sara let out a low,
harsh laugh. “Well, the white horse and carriage turned into a pumpkin after
midnight and Cinderella lost her glass slipper when the family found out about
their youngest son’s marriage to a girl from the wrong side of town.

“Little did I know, Kent had a flair for
doing spontaneous things just to piss off his family. He’d really done it by
bringing me home, and I got caught in the crossfire. That family made my life
hell. It’s a mistake I’ll never rectify and I have to live with that.”

Murphy heard the bitterness and regret
in her voice and knew he’d just been given the edited version of the story.
Much more had happened to Sara. Though he didn’t want to get involved, he
wanted to know.