Sole Witness (22 page)

“Are you crazy? Stupid? What the hell were you
thinking? You could’ve been killed! What if the killer would’ve followed you
back here? You could be dead right now. Dead! Think about that.”

“I know,” she mumbled miserably. “I have been
thinking about that.”

“I told you to stay inside, Lori. For a reason.
Safety. Did you think about that?”

“Davis, you’re hurting me.”

His fingers flew from her skin as though scalded.

She was pale. Thin. Wide-eyed. Her shoulders shook,
but were unblemished. He hadn’t bruised her.

What the hell was he doing? Had he actually shaken
her?

He’d never lost control like that in his life. Just
the thought of losing her made him lose his freaking mind. She’d only now come
back into his life.

Of all the stupid chances to take. What would he
have done? What could he have done?

Absolutely nothing, that’s what. He’d have come home
and she’d have been dead. He’d have fallen apart. Wrecked. He couldn’t even
handle the ‘what if’s.

“Start at the beginning,” he managed, his voice a
husky whisper. He struggled to keep his maelstrom of emotion from showing in
his eyes.

“I know it’s stupid. I shouldn’t have gone. I’m
sorry. I just couldn’t stay in this house any more.” She bit her lower lip and
gazed at him, her eyes large and soulful.

“Why not? It was safe. I brought you here to keep
you safe.”

“I know. I just thought I’d be gone for a second.
Maybe buy a book.”

“You went gallivanting around where you could be
seen just because you were bored and didn’t like any of my books?” Davis
roared.

Letting Lori stay was a massive tactical error. She
couldn’t be trusted to keep herself out of danger, and he couldn’t be trusted
to safeguard his heart. He didn’t need this kind of stress.

She hung her head. “I just wanted to run on the
beach. Feel the sand under my toes. But there was this car. Everywhere. The
same car. I think. Almost ran me down.”

He dragged in a deep breath. “What color?”

“Red.”

Davis didn’t believe in coincidence.

“Somehow she found you, then. Damn. Do you realize
that ignoring my advice could’ve led her straight to my door? That instead of
you standing there in nothing but my towel, I might’ve come home to find a dead
body in my bathtub?”

Lori took in a shallow, hitching breath and threw
her trembling arms around his neck.

“I do know. That’s why I called. I needed you. I
knew you would make me feel better just by being here. By being so strong.
Warm. Safe. By just being you.”

Davis wrapped his arms around her waist and squeezed
her to him. He was the biggest jerk in the world. Here she was, terrified out
of her mind, and all he could think about was his own desperate fear of losing
her.

He nudged her chin upward and claimed her mouth with
his own. His hands found the curve of her rear underneath the soft, moist towel
and pressed her closer against his body.

Without breaking the kiss, he lifted her up and she
wrapped her long legs around his torso.

Lori murmured something unintelligible. She shoved
his suit jacket from his shoulders. Frantic fingers fumbled at the buttons of
his suit.

The towel tumbled forgotten to the floor.

Davis clutched her to him and took three long
strides toward the bedroom before reality crashed through his passion-clouded
thoughts.

This wasn’t right.

If he’d felt like he took advantage of her
yesterday, then what the hell was he doing now? He wanted this woman. Really,
really wanted her. In more than the physical sense. She was never going to
believe it if all he did was jump her every time he saw her.

Besides, he needed her to want him, too. He wanted
her to need Davis the man, not just a few hours distraction from an
increasingly harrowing couple of days.

The last thing he wanted was intimacy of
convenience, some brief fling that would end the same moment the danger lifted
and Lori returned to her senses.

With gentle hands, Davis lifted her down and broke
the kiss.

He placed his palm against one side of her face, the
curve of her famous cheekbones pressing against his hot skin.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, confusion lining her
eyes. “Don’t you want me?”

This was going to be the hardest conversation of his
life.

“I do want you,” he corrected. “I can’t look at you
without wanting you. But why do you want me?”

“What do you mean? I told you. I knew you’d make me
feel better. Come on.” She grabbed the sides of his shirt in her fists and
pulled his face toward hers.

Any other time, this beautiful supermodel forcing
her attention on him would rate as his favorite erotic dream come true.

What was his problem?

He was a man. Men liked sex. Men prided themselves
on their ability to compartmentalize, to enjoy no-strings encounters like this
one. Then why did it hurt so bad that her attraction was merely physical?

That the only reason she wanted him was because he
was a man, he was there, and he could make her forget for a while. Wasn’t sex
without emotional baggage what he wanted?

It should have been. But it wasn’t.

“Why are you offering your body if you’re not
offering your heart?” he whispered.

Fire flashed in her eyes. She dropped his shirt.

“You don’t want my heart,” Lori answered flatly. “It
didn’t come up in the conversation last night, did it? You had no qualms about
tearing up the sheets then.”

Ouch. Davis felt like she’d sucker-punched him in
the gut.

She was right, of course. Or at least, that’s how it
would seem to her.

He hadn’t exactly declared his undying love and
proclaimed the moment an early wedding night, or any romantic slush like that.
He’d lost all brainpower and taken her right there on the edge of his bed,
conversation about relationships the furthest thing from his mind.

When Davis didn’t respond right away, Lori shrugged
and wiggled away from the wall.

She crossed back toward the bathroom and retrieved her
towel from the floor. When she’d finished rewrapping her body, she spoke.

“I don’t know what your problem is. I was a model. I
know men want my body. You’re a man and my body is right here. When did you
become a Catholic schoolboy?”

Anger seared Davis’s spine.

“Give me a break. No man wants a pity f– Nobody
wants to make love just because it’s convenient, because their partner was
bored and had nothing else to do, no one else to choose from.”

“Oh yeah?” Lori arched an eyebrow. “That’s all I was
to you.”

“What? When? Last night?”

“No. Twelve years ago. You can’t tell me you didn’t
screw me out of convenience and teenage hormones.”

“That’s not true. Don’t cheapen it.”

“Don’t cheapen what? The backseat of your parents’
car? Give me a break.”

His parents’ car had been totally convenient, he
could hardly deny that.

But even then, Lori had been fun and beautiful and
funny.

He’d fallen in love with her from their first date.
And the night she meant, the night she’d lost her virginity… he’d lost his,
too. From that moment on, there’d been no one but her in his heart.

How had it gone so wrong?

“Lori, listen to me. I… like you too much for a one
night stand.”

“Work on your math skills, Hamilton. Even if we’re
only counting recent history, one plus one is still two.”

“You know what I mean.”

She smirked. “Do I? I don’t think I know you at
all.”

He threw up his hands in exasperation. “Maybe not.
You don’t even know yourself.”

Her smirk vanished. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you underestimate yourself with every
breath you take. You’ve got all these unfulfilled dreams, yada yada yada, and
whose fault is that?”

“Yours?” Lori muttered, scowling.

“Yours, sweetheart. You know the old saying. Whether
you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

“Whatever.” She turned up her nose and stalked into
the bathroom. The door slammed shut behind her.

Davis closed his eyes and banged the back of his
head against the wall.

So much for romance.

Had he done the right thing? Should he have taken
what she offered, despite the fact that for her it was nothing but two
consenting adults indulging a basic human desire?

No. If he let himself become any more attached to
her, she’d rip his heart from his chest when she left him, and walked back out
of his life. Permanently.

Davis hung his head and sighed. He was getting way
too old for unrequited love.

Shaking his head at his own runaway emotion, he
finished unbuttoning his shirt and headed for the bedroom alone this time. When
Lori got out of the bathroom, he could use a shower himself. A cold one.

On the foot of the bed lay a grubby, wrinkled
newspaper.

“Alien Spacecraft Terrorizes Town, Impregnating
Women,” blared across the top. The side column proclaimed, “Giant Yeti Returns
to Vegas.”

He picked it up and stared at the cover.

The Weekly World News. Unbelievable. Lori hated that
paper. Said it was a waste of trees. Which meant… which meant… She’d bought it
for him because she liked him, too.

Wanted to surprise him. Make him happy.

Davis threw the paper back onto the bed and rubbed
his temples.

Despite their argument in the hallway, he’d been the
one to underestimate her. If it weren’t for his big mouth, they could be in
here making love.

Ah, hell.

*          *          *

Lori blew her nose and stared at
herself in the steam-edged mirror.

Even discounting her puffy eyes
and splotchy cheeks, she knew her features weren’t truly beautiful.

Cheekbones too pronounced, nose a
little skinny, uneven eyebrows, one ear sticking out further than the other.
Her confidence is what sold her, her agent had admitted. Men wanted to be with
a confident woman, and women wanted to be one.

What had gone wrong?

Granted, she hadn’t been
confident. She’d been scared. Terrified. All she’d wanted was Davis, positive
he’d make her feel better.

Instead, she was humiliated.
Rejected. Unwanted.

Had she been too clingy? Too
needy? Or was the root of the problem more fundamental than that? Maybe one
taste of her had been all he’d needed to remind himself that he’d never wanted
her to begin with.

After all, he’d dumped her quick
enough for Juliana Ross, cheerleader extraordinaire.

She’d thought it wouldn’t last.
That Davis would break it off with Juliana any moment and they’d get back
together to live happily ever after. But that February, he hadn’t sent her a
Valentine. He’d sent her a damn Save the Date card.

Ripped the date right out of her
calendar is what she did.

Lori turned from her tortured
reflection and picked up her clothes, dressing quickly. She opened the bathroom
door a few inches and peeked through the crack. No Davis.

Maybe she’d been wrong about him
from the start.

He really might prefer to have a
society-type girl on his arm, one with fake hair, fake nails, fake boobs, and
fake friends. Lori could never be that for him. She bit her nails too much for
them to do much growing.

And once her hair went gray, she
planned to leave it that way. Who cared what the neighbors said.

She eased the door open a little
further and stepped out into the hallway.

The bedroom light shone through
the crack under the door. That’s fine. She didn’t want anything in that
bedroom. Not the bed, and not Davis. She’d been stupid to think he felt for her
even a fraction of what she felt for him.

Picking his suit jacket up from
the floor, Lori trudged into the kitchen. She tossed his jacket over one of the
barstools and got a pot of coffee going.

What she really needed was a
glass of wine. Maybe a bottle. Even better, some chocolate. She should’ve
bought some at the convenience store, rather than that stupid newspaper.

Lori halfheartedly searched
through the kitchen, opening and closing cabinet doors and peering inside. No
wine. No chocolate. Barely any coffee mugs. Definitely a bachelor pad.

She poured herself a cup of
coffee and nearly came out of her skin when Davis appeared behind her and
touched the small of her back.

“Want a cup?” she asked, hoping
he wouldn’t notice the uncertainty in her voice.

His eyes were inscrutable. “I
don’t want to take advantage of you.”