Shadow Ridge (4 page)

He nodded. “Bad time to start a relationship.”

She laughed. “Truth?” He nodded. “We didn’t actually date—date. You know we worked around each other. He was the actor, I was the peacemaker. I had a lot of interaction with him but we had never gone on a date. Vegas happened and the next thing I know he’s asking me to marry him and I’m standing in front of Elvis getting married. Elvis!” She shook her head. “I wish I could say I was drunk…but I don’t drink.”

“You were just lost.”

“Don’t make excuses for me, Miles. I know an idiot when I see one and I was an idiot. I can’t even blame a young age on it. But I feel much wiser now. I won’t make the same mistake again.”

They started talking and the conversation was getting
well until some tall dark haired guy broke the flow.

“Hey Greg. Why is it that you seem to be everywhere?” She shook her head. “Boston is northwest in case you forgot.”

He laughed. “Filming doesn’t start until after Christmas. I have some time. Plus my brother is going to come up. I wanted to see what this Freeport is all about. You talked about it so much. Maybe while I’m here we can go out.”

“Sorry, Greg. I’m taken.” She pointed over to him and Miles felt a sense of pride that she had openly declared their dating to whoever this guy was.

“Well when you breakup with him then…”

She laughed. “The only way he’s getting rid of me is if he breaks up with me. This guy has made me laugh more in twenty minutes than I’ve laug
hed all year.”

“Wow,” he no
dded as he looked over to Miles. Miles could see him sizing him up. “Well he must be nice. You turned down Rick who has what the ladies call a hot body for a guy who needs some work.”

“Hey,” she nearly growled.

“I’m just saying. If you turn down the man who has what all the ladies want for this guy then he must strike your fancy.”

“Rick’s ego is big enough to fill two football stadiums. Who wants that?”

“About twenty of the ladies working his latest movie set.”

“Let me rephrase that, what sane, self respecting, self sufficient woman wants that.”

He laughed. “True.” Greg looked over at Miles. “Treat her right. You hurt her and I’m calling in the boys and we’ll kick your behind back to the south side of Freeport.”

“He’s not from the south side of Freeport. And he’s a law officer, Greg.”

Greg shrugged. “I don’t care. Anybody hurts you again and I’m taking care of it. Boss man has been good to me and he thinks of you like a daughter so he’ll put up bail money.”

She laughed and shook her head.
Her boss was two steps above Jeff even though she worked with Jeff quite frequently—so much so that sometimes she had to remind him that she did not answer to him. Miles wasn’t sure he liked this guy at all, but he seemed like he cared about Bethany and good friends were always a plus to have— although it would be nice if he weren’t a man who looked like he spent three hours a day in the gym.

“Good friends are hard to come by, Bethany.” Miles looked at the taller muscular man before him. He had more muscle and more height so Miles was sure he could try to give him a fight. Although he wouldn’t guarantee that would be enough for him to win it.
Being overweight did not mean he was devoid of combat skills. He knew how to take care of himself. And despite his appearance he was in relatively good shape. He didn’t have trouble going on foot to get a criminal…well, he hadn’t had to do that in a while, but he knew if he had to he could do it. “Hold on to them as long as you can.”

She looked in his eyes and he could see her smile there. Greg shook his hand and gave them a
farewell salute before walking away from them.

“What are you doing for Christmas?”

She shrugged. “Nothing. We don’t celebrate. I’ve never done anything for it…other than send Carman a present.”

The sullen look on her face told him she would spend another Christmas mo
urning her sister. “Spend it with me.”

“Really? Doing what exactly?”

“I have to be on call, but you could stay the night—in a guest room if you’d like, and wake up to Christmas lights, trees and a really good breakfast. I make the world’s best pancakes.”

“Oh now that’s just ridiculous. You haven’t had every pancake in the world.”

He laughed. “Are you sure about that?”

“Positive. But yeah, I’d like that. So what do you do on Christmas morning other than pancakes?”

“It depends, but sometimes I go down to the main part of town and watch the snowball fights. Sometimes I play with the kids out there and take few hits for the fun of it. Everybody comes out to test out their new toys by the ten o’clock hour so downtown is usually busy. Of course there isn’t any snow this year.”

“Yet,” she patted his hand. “It’s still early.
We have three weeks until Christmas you know, so there’s still time.”

“Do you want snow?”

She shrugged. “Not really. I’m a California girl now. I like sun, sand, surf. Snow is not something I’m looking forward to. I like being warm.”

“I can keep you warm.” He leaned into her and she giggled. “I’ll be your big teddy
bear.”

“I’m going to hold you to that,” she chuckled. “It’s a date. Give me details and I’ll drive down the night before.”

“Do you have any time off?”

“The week before I’ll be really busy, but I have a couple days. I’
ll be on call though. I’ll have to bring my computer with me just in case they need me. We’ll start filming the day before New Years.”

“Ouch,” he cringed at her schedule. Well he could still make it work. He had
Wi-Fi and plenty of room. She could do any conference calls she needed to do from his home. Maybe he could get her to stay a little longer, but he wouldn’t push it—yet.

They had three good weeks to get to know each other which meant he was going to have to make trips to Freeport to see her. He wanted to get to know her better, but he also wanted to make sure she would be comfortable enough with him not to change her mind on coming to stay with him. He would have told her she could book a room at the B&B but even for a small town they were already filled up at both of the B&Bs in town so she wouldn’t be able to get a room this late no matter what.

Dinner had been a nearly two hour event for them. He would admit he could have stayed there with her all night, but they were occupying a table that he was sure the wait staff would rather give to somebody else. He paid the bill even though Bethany offered to go Dutch. “I don’t do Dutch,” he had nearly growled those words. She had given a surprised apology. He couldn’t imagine why anybody would do that kind of date unless they were looking for an easy out. He thought things had been going well, but maybe he had been wrong.

He walked her to her car. She was once again parked a little too far off and the parking light overhead was out on this
spot. She should have parked closer to the restaurant, but for the time they had dinner set he could see why she hadn’t. He was lucky to get the spot he found when he arrived and he had arrived a good ten minutes before her. They had offered to show him to a table but he had wanted to wait on Bethany. He didn’t want to be sitting by himself waiting if she wasn’t going to show up. It would be easier to walk out the front door than to do the shame walk through the restaurant.

“So,” they said at the same time.

“Sorry,” she smiled and held up her hand. “You go first.”

He should have gone first. He wanted to because his brain was telling him if she was going to walk away he wanted to be the one to do it first, but he yielded to her. “Ladies first,” he said with a low, non
humorous tone.

“Okay. I would like to do this again tomorrow.
May I come to you? Maybe you can show me what Shadow Ridge has that Freeport doesn’t.”

He felt his shoulders relax. “A beach for one thing,” he chuckled. “Yeah, I’d like that. I have to work.”

“Me too. But how about if I come midday and we just spend a few hours together? I can work around your schedule and if something happens and you need to leave me I can take my car so I won’t be in your way.”

“I don’t leave women by the roadside,” he winked. Leaving a woman middle of the date felt a lot like
leaving her on the roadside. “I’ll be on call. I may have to excuse myself for a little while. But you know it doesn’t make sense to waste fuel. I think we can make it work.”

The bright smile on her lips reached her eyes too. “Good.” She stepped closer to him. For once he wished his stomach wasn’t in the way but it didn’t seem to stop her from making contact. She was weari
ng heels so she didn’t have to do the tiptoe thing to reach his lips. She wasn’t short so he figured she wouldn’t have had to do that even if she were in flats. “Perfect actually,” she whispered against his lips before brushing them with her own smooth, plump flesh.

He couldn’t stop himself. He wrapped one arm around her small body and pulled her closer to him while his hand fisted her hair and his mouth deepened their tango. Her tongue danced with his, hungrily exploring just as much as he was exploring hers. All sorts of emotions rushed through him, but the most
notable were the ones that had his erection pressing hard against the fabric of his boxer briefs and his pants. God he wanted this woman in a way that being in public most definitely wouldn’t allow without getting them both arrested.

“
Wahoo! Kiss that woman!” Some rowdy kids yelled from across the parking lot.

“Get her a
sandwich when you’re done.” Another one added. He pulled back and growled possessively, angrily. Bethany placed the palm of her hand on his cheek.

“I’ve heard worse. Let it go. Don’t own their stupidity.”

He still felt the need to defend her, much like she had defended him not once, but twice. “Bethany,” he lowered his eyes to the ground. Why didn’t she want him to stand up for her? Did she think he couldn’t do it? “I can take care of myself.”

“Oh I’m sure,” she looped her arms around his neck which made her lean against his body more. “I don’t doubt it. But if you go over there while you’re angry you’ll end up breaking those kids. I’ll have to bail you out of jail, find a few million dollars and pay for you to have safety in some foreign country that won’t extradite you.”

He laughed. “What?”

“Well it got a laugh out of you didn’t it?” She shrugged. “The movie we’re about to shoot has that in it…woman saving her man by paying loads of money that she has to steal
, beg and borrow, just to get him out of the country. I guess that’s kind of stuck on my mind right now. Besides, I don’t want you to do anything. Save it for when something happens that could really hurt me. Words might hurt, but only if you let them.”

“Wow,” he looked at her realizing one of the things he hadn’t took note of before—this was a strong woman who knew her worth. Maybe that’s why he was drawn to her last night
. She carried herself in a way that told him she would not be broken, in a way that told him she was strong and would survive whatever somebody tried to throw her way.

“Now, forget about them and kiss me some more.” She went back in for the kiss that took his libido from sleeping on anger to raging with rekindled desire.
He backed her up against her car. He heard the door lock initiate and he pulled back a little.

“Forget it. It locks on its own but it won’t arm the alarm.” She pulled his head back down and started kissing him again.

Did he want her to have this control? No. He wanted it. He wanted to own her pleasure. He removed his lips from hers, tangled his fingers in her soft tresses and pulled her head back.

“Oh,” she moaned.

He chuckled and his lips went in to ravish her neck, sucking, kissing, and licking as he worked his way down to her partially uncovered shoulder. He could hear her panting with desire. He could feel her hips thrusting forward toward him. He knew he was setting her on fire sexually and he liked that. Something about knowing that even he, as big as he was, could do this to her had him surging to life with pride.

He used his foot to kick her legs as far apart as her skirt would allow. He slipped his leg as
far between them as he could. What he really wanted to do was hike her skirt up and get to know that warm area better. Was she wet for him? Judging from the motion of her body, the breathless pants emanating from her, he would say yes. He had done this to her.

Another soft needy moan escaped her as he worked his way back up her neck to her jaw line a
nd then her mouth. He took another long, wanton taste of her mouth before putting a hair of distance between them. She moaned in protest. “If I keep going I will get you naked and both of us arrested,” his voice was so low he barely recognized it for himself. No woman had ever made him want to strip in public and risk losing his career because he got arrested for public indecency.

She straightened up and ran her fingers
through her hair to straighten the portions he had messed up. “Good point. With my job it would probably get plastered on every tabloid from here to London.”

How could he ha
ve forgotten about that risk? Maybe he forgot because she wasn’t a celebrity. But given the job she had, the film that was getting ready to shoot in Boston he should have known she might come under the spotlight. She had last night. That guy with the camera couldn’t have been there for the poker match. While there was media coverage of the event from the outside it was mostly local with a few guys who would come from some of the surrounding cities and states just to get a couple shots, but that guy seemed to have hung out the entire night just waiting for her.