Only By Your Touch (29 page)

She pointed. “That one, above the sink. Then, a bit later, at the front window in the dining area.”

“Hmm. I didn’t see any footprints out back. That isn’t always significant, though. We’ve had no rain for a while. The earth may be packed down pretty hard.”

“I know what I heard. Someone tried to break in.”

Trying not to be obvious, Chloe inched toward the dividing wall between the living room and kitchen, where the wall phone was located. Even though she knew he would be on her before she could dial, she felt safer.

“To your knowledge, is there anyone who might want to frighten you?”

She stared incredulously into his blue eyes. He was mad, she thought. It was the only explanation. A normal adult male didn’t do things like this.

“No,” she forced out.

“Are you aware of anyone who might want to harm you?”

“No,” she said faintly, wanting him to end this pointless charade.

“Did you happen to look out either window and see anyone?”

“No. I was afraid to. I’ve always heard that’s unwise.”

He nodded. “If the burglar is a man, it tells him you’re probably home alone.” He clipped his notebook over his belt. “I know you’ve been badly frightened, but chances are it was only teenagers. Over summer vacation, they get bored and look for trouble. As we move toward August, they get more creative. We always have a rash of incidents the last month or so of summer.”

Teenagers? Chloe didn’t believe it for a minute.

“Unfortunately, it’s difficult to collar youngsters. They usually live in the neighborhood, and they strike and run, jumping fences and crossing yards to get back home. Most of the time, they’re long gone before an officer arrives on the scene.” He smiled again, his eyes gleaming at her. “Just in case it wasn’t teenagers, however, you’ll want to be extra cautious. Make sure all your doors and windows are secured before you retire tonight and that you have a phone near at hand. As an added precaution, I’ll call the department and have someone patrol the neighborhood every hour or so.”

“That will greatly reassure me,” Chloe said, barely able to keep the outrage from her voice. “Good night, Deputy Schuck.”

“Good night.” He turned and moved to the door. After opening it, he glanced back over his shoulder. “If you have any more trouble, please, don’t hesitate to call. To that end, you really should hang up that phone. If you should forget and go to bed with it still off the hook, your extensions won’t work.”

After he stepped outside and closed the door, Chloe just stood there for a moment, trembling so violently
she couldn’t trust her legs. She braced a hand on the wall to steady herself. She was so glad he had left.
So
glad. Her gaze caught on the dangling phone. She grabbed the cord with a shaking hand and dropped the receiver back in its cradle. Then, locking her knees so her legs wouldn’t buckle, she started toward the door.

She’d taken only a step when it swung open again. Bobby Lee smiled as he came back inside. He pushed the portal closed behind him and drove the dead bolt home. Chloe’s whole body went rigid.

“Thank you. Conversation over, all nice and tidy.” He inclined his head at the telephone. “I asked the dispatcher to stay on the line and listen to our exchange.”

Knotting her hand over the ends of the bedspread, she asked, “What do you want, Bobby Lee?”

“Just to revisit an issue. You look scared half to death. There’s really no need to be. I’m here. No one else can bother you now. Only me.”

Chloe grabbed for the phone.

“Please, don’t,” he said. “You can’t possibly dial the number and make a connection before I stop you. All you’ll do is piss me off.”

Chloe froze with her hand clenched over the receiver. “Get out! I mean it, Bobby Lee. Get out of my house right now.”

“Shh. You don’t want to wake your little boy. He might come out to see what’s wrong. Better to leave your child out of this, don’t you think?”

Quaking with fright, Chloe drew her hand from the telephone. “Just leave, Bobby Lee. You can’t possibly believe you can get away with this. I’ll report you and file charges. Your career in law enforcement will be destroyed.”

“Nah.” He took another step toward her, his body
relaxed, his smile cajoling. “I took precautions. You can file charges all you want, and no one’s going to believe you.” He gestured at the telephone. “When I asked the dispatcher to stay on the line, I explained how we dated once—and how bent out of shape you were when I didn’t want to see you again. Women can be so vindictive when they get their noses out of joint. A law officer is an easy target for false accusations. We can’t be too careful.”

Chloe could only stare at him.

“The dispatcher heard me tell you good night and leave the house. All by the book, no hint of a problem. If you start making wild accusations now, no one’s going to buy it.” He winked at her. “If you’re thinking of fighting me, please reconsider. You don’t want your little boy to get hurt, do you, Chloe?”

Jeremy. Oh, dear God.
Chloe was too frightened now to speak. She shook her head.

“There’s my girl.” He took another step closer. “My sensible Chloe.”

He stopped just far enough away that she couldn’t kick him or knee him in the groin. “So,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “Let’s start this little party off right, shall we? Drop the bedspread and take off the shirt. I’ve been dying to get a look at that body. You’ve got gorgeous tits. Has anyone told you that?”

Chloe’s head went dizzy. For a horrible moment, she thought she might faint. “I won’t do this,” she said weakly.

“Sure you will. Ever the good little mother. You’re going to do this, sweet cheeks. If you don’t, I’ll bash your son’s brains in. Then I’ll have you the way I’d really like to. We all have our sexual fantasies, don’t we? My secret fantasy has always been to take a woman—no holds barred, no limits, doing anything I want. Afterwards, I’ll strangle you. I’ll be extremely
careful to leave no DNA evidence to incriminate me, of course.

“Tomorrow when I hear the news, I’ll go white and shake. ‘I was there just a few minutes before it happened,’ I’ll say. ‘Dear God, the intruder must have been lurking outside.” ’ He shrugged. “Easy. So very easy, Chloe. I have a spotless record. I’ve been a deputy for almost twenty years. Who’s going to suspect me? You’ve been seeing Ben Longtree, who’s already killed once. He’ll be the prime suspect. If it comes down to that, I’ll plant evidence to make sure they nail him. Nice and tidy, no trouble for me.”

He really is insane,
she thought stupidly. She could try to scratch him, she thought—if he gave her a chance. He was trained to overpower people effortlessly. She’d seen him squeeze a drunk’s neck once, paralyzing the man by merely pressing on a nerve.

“Your choice,” he went on softly. “Cooperation and plenty of foreplay, followed by civilized sex. We can have a nice evening between two consenting adults, with you going out of your way to please me. Or we can go the other route—no cooperation and plenty of foreplay, followed by extremely uncivilized sex. Either way, I’m going to have you. Call it a score to settle—or unfinished business. I’ve wanted you ever since we first met. I always get what I want.”

“Do you?” She dampened her lips, her stomach rolling with fear. “Always?”

“Always, one way or another. And I will get away with it, Chloe. I’m a cop. I know all the little tricks, and I’ve covered myself.”

For all of two heartbeats, Chloe sent up silent prayers that Ben would show up. But then cold reality settled in. He wouldn’t come until his mother was asleep, and there was no telling how long that might take. She was on her own.

“I much prefer the civilized version,” she managed to say. Then she forced a smile. “It’s sort of—exciting, actually. I’ve never known a man who refused to take no for an answer.”

It wasn’t what he expected her to say. She saw the surprise in his expression—and an awful, sick delight.

“It’s going on midnight. Are you off duty now? I just happen to have some champagne. If we’re going to do this, we may as well go the whole nine yards and have fun.” Dropping the bedspread was the hardest thing Chloe had ever done in her life, but she unclenched her hand and let it slip to the floor. With a swing of her hips, she went to the kitchen, showing off her legs to best advantage en route. As she opened the refrigerator, she made sure to bend over just far enough to tantalize him. “You amaze me, Bobby Lee. I figured with you being a cop—well, you know—that the missionary position with a few unimaginative variations would be your entire repertoire.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw that he’d followed her into the room—and that he was ogling the backs of her thighs.

“Most men today are so—” She frowned, then shrugged and smiled. “I don’t know.
Tame,
I suppose is the word. I’d heard so many stories about Ben Longtree being dangerous that I hoped he might be different. He turned out to be the biggest dud of all.”

She pulled out the unopened bottle of champagne that Ben had left at her house. “Can you get the glasses? Top shelf, to your right.”

He hesitated. Then, after glancing around, undoubtedly to check the nearby surfaces for anything she might use as a weapon, he opened the cupboard door, grabbed two goblets, and set them on the counter.

When he faced her again, he said, “Lose the shirt.”

Chloe assumed what she hoped was a sultry smile.
“But it’ll be so much better with some anticipation.” She inched up the hem of the T-shirt, stopping just short of anything really interesting. “After all your work and planning to make this happen, you should enjoy it.”

He smoothed a hand over his fly, and she knew she had him. “Do that again, only higher,” he said softly.

“No rush.” She managed another smile. “I’ve surprised you, haven’t I? You had me pegged as the straight and narrow type. Shame, shame, Bobby Lee. You never know what a woman’s capable of until you really get to know her.”
Or have her cornered.
“Take me, for instance.” She dug at the foil with a fingernail and walked toward him, keeping her eyes fixed on his. “You’ve told me your fantasy. Can I tell you mine?”

His eyes darkened. “Sure,” he said gruffly.

“I’ve always—” She pushed out a laugh. “I can’t. It’s too embarrassing.”

“Don’t be embarrassed. Fantasies are perfectly normal.”

His wasn’t. Chloe scratched frantically at the stupid foil. The edge clung to the glass as if it had been glued down. “I, um—well. Oh, no, I really can’t. It’s just too,
too
wild.”

“Tell me.”

She changed the angle of her attack on the foil and finally managed to tear it a bit.
A fantasy
. Please, God, she needed a ready-made fantasy—something imaginative and erotic enough to excite him. She glimpsed the table behind him. “I’ve always fantasized about—”
What?
Her brain went blank. “Well, you know, about being taken. And not just anywhere. I imagine it happening on a table. No rules, no stops, just being devoured by a man. A sexy smorgasbord, of sorts, and I’m the main course.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed. “That sounds promising.”

She worked to catch the tuft of foil between her fingers and finally ripped it away. She dropped the wrapping on the floor.
Close
. She needed to be very close. “Well, there’s the catch, you see. You want me to please you tonight, and in my fantasy, I have to be utterly helpless.” She laughed and bent her head, pretending to be mortified while she examined the wire doohickey to figure out how it worked. Roger had always opened the champagne. “I could never just—do all the stuff I imagine of my own free will, so I fantasize that he ties me down and gags me. That way I’m completely at his mercy. He just—you know—does whatever he wants, and I can enjoy it with no sense of guilt.”

“That can be arranged.”

Yeah, I just bet it can
. Chloe pressed her thumb against the wire release, then glanced up with what she prayed was a completely incredulous expression on her face. “You’d do that?”
Why wouldn’t the wire come free?
“With bonds and everything?”

“Sure.” His voice had gone gravelly and thick. “It’s my fantasy, too, in a way. I never thought about doing it on a table, but what the hell? It works.”

“Oh, Bobby Lee,” she said in a breathy voice. “Just thinking about it turns me on. I can’t believe you’ll really do it for me. What’ll you tie me up with? I don’t have any rope.”

“Belts will work. You’ve got several. I’ve seen you wear them at work.”

She pushed frantically on the wire.
Please, God.
“Belts?”

“I can loop them around your wrists and ankles, then knot the ends around the legs of the table. You’ll
be snubbed down so tight all you’ll be able to move is your head.”

Chloe’s stomach lurched, but she managed to keep smiling. She aimed the neck of the bottle at his face and pushed on the wire with all her might. Nothing happened. Sweat trickled down her spine. Ben had made this look so easy. “When I’m tied up, what’s the first thing you’ll do?” She stepped a little closer. “Tell me,” she whispered. “I want details.”

“I’ll do anything I want,” he said throatily. “That’s your fantasy, isn’t it?”

“Oh,
yes.
”

“And I’ll do it as long as I want. You’ll be spread-eagle and naked. I’ll gag you with a kitchen towel so you can’t scream, and I’ll do absolutely anything I want. Everything you ever imagined, and a lot more.”