Well, all my best bruises are out of sight. Theyre so brilliantly colorful at this point that Id love to show em off...but Im afraid I wont do a strip search without a warrant, even for you, Sheriff. She hesitated. Of course if you brought a warrant...?
Damn. No. But if you give me a second, Ill try to think up some charges
She chuckled. Well, in the meantime, you like your coffee black or prettied up?
Blackd be greatbut I dont want you going to any trouble.
Nonsense, Im freezing and could use something hot to drink myself. Come on inand no, you dont have to take off your boots. This floors seen snow before.
He stomped in behind her, shrugging off his jacket and placing it on a hook, next to where she hung hers. Under the outer gear, she was wearing a red turtleneck sweater over jeans and thick socks. Practical, comfortable clothes, but the loose cut of her jeans still showed off the curve of her fanny, and the sweater faithfully outlined ripe, firm breasts.
He was only watching herhe told himselfto judge if she were really as recovered from the car accident as she made out. Her movements seemed a little careful and deliberate to him, and he noticed she unconsciously pressed a palm to her ribs, as if the bruises there were still giving her trouble. Still, she was obviously getting around okay... which made it all too easy to shift his eyes to body parts that had nothing to do with any judicious, altruistic motives.
Forcefully he cut his attention to safer territory, while she bustled around finding mugs and coffee. It wasnt hard to inhale her place in a single gulp.
The main floor was all open space, with the kitchen two steps up from the great room. The kitchen had brick walls, with an old-fashioned baking oven built into one. A vanilla-colored counter served as her table. Pots hung from a metal turnstile overhead, and spaghetti sauce simmered on the stove, the scent hot and spicy. Somehow he didnt think it came from opening a jar.
Below, the great room had one stone wall with a fireplace carved inwhere a huge fire now roared, splashing sparks up the chimney. Two sets of double glass doors led to a wraparound cedar patio, with a view of secluded woods and a sharp ravine.
Maggie obviously liked blue. Furniture clustered in the rooms center, blue couches, blue chairs, and a thick plush blue carpet made for bare feet. Nothing looked too pricey or overly color-coordinated...more like she just plain loved blue, and had chosen comfortable furniture big enough to curl up in.
She came up behind him, carrying two steaming mugs. You might as well just tell me that you think the place is splendiferous. Youll hurt my feelings if you dont.
I think its beyond splendiferous. The whole place has a great hideaway feeling.
Good boy. She grinned. Built it myself. Or thats the story I tell. The truth is more like I couldnt possibly have handled the chimney or window fittings or plumbing. But I designed it, did the stonework and even the roof, so I figure I should get the lions share of the credit.
You wont get any argument out of me. Im impressed. Seriously.
Well, I almost killed myself tackling the roof...got my feminist knickers in a twist trying to play Superwoman, when I should have had the brains to call for help. But thats water over the dam. She took a fast sip from a royal blue mug, and then motioned with it Come on, Ill show you the rest. There isnt much. Just a sleeping loft upstairs and my office and a storage room...
The storage room combined laundry with a squared-off space for sports gearshe was an experienced skier and climber both, judging from the sturdiness of her equipmentand she had a shop section with tools serious enough to make a man drool. Her office, by contrast, was pure female. A fancy high-tech computer setup was back-dropped by girl stuff everywherescented candles and bowls of potpourri, a hanging lamp with a fringy shade, doodads and plants and pictures all fighting for the same space.
I take it you work from your home here? he asked.
Yeah. I do technical writing for Mytron, Inc.theyre out of Boulder. I put together brochures and manuals for them, that sort of thing. Once every few weeksat least once a monthI drive to Boulder and stay overnight, do the face-to-face meetings kind of thing. Otherwise all I really need are the phone, fax and modem to make the telecommuting style work just fine. And Ill show you the loft, but only if you promise to blind your eyes.
He had to chuckle. Trust me, Ive seen messy before.
Uh-huh. Ive heard big claims like that before. But Im talking bad messy. Im talking disgrace. Im talking my sister is ashamed to know me, its so bad.
An open staircase led up, where a waist-high balcony viewed the stone fireplace below. The room was a cluttered mess, so much so that Andys first thought was Good, not too likely shed had men sleeping over recently.
She whipped a bra out of sight, kicked a scrap of something pink under the bed, kept him chuckling, but a second and more serious thought had already followed the first...for all her apparent pep and lively spirit, shed had some rough nights since the accident. Her queen-size bed had a white down comforter over salmon sheets. The sheets werent just rumpled but untucked and pulled out, as if her dreams had been wild and troubled.
It was her architecture and design she was showing off, though, so he played along. The slanted roof had a skylight. The floor was carpeted with an Oriental rug that looked ankle-deep, but it was tricky to tell the pattern with the clothes and papers and books she had piled all over. The adjoining bathroom was big enough to have a square tub and a sit-down counter space. Her scent pervaded the bath. Soft, not sweet, not a scent he knew or could pin down, but distinctive and evocative. Like her.
So how long have you lived here? he asked.
Almost four years now. Grew up in Colorado Springs, got the job at Mytron in Boulder when I graduated from school. But I really like country life, and my sister lived here, and when her husband was diagnosed with cancer about then...well. Shes my family and they needed some help. It took a while to convince Mytron that I could do the job via telecommuting, but once I could see that was going to work out, I started looking at land to build a place. I really love the area.
I was born and raised here, but I love it, too. Think Im addicted to the mountains, and I cant imagine living in a place where buildings close you in. As they climbed back down the loft stairs, Andy again noticed the slight limp in her right leg. But a shadow moving on her porch snapped his cops eyes in that ditection...at least for a second. Um, I believe youve got a deer on your patio.
Yeah. Horace. Hes a voyeuraround this time of day, he usually shows up for a handout and peeks in my windows at the same time. He was in love last fall. God, there is no worse doofus than a buck in love. Brought Martha up to the patio to meet me. But I havent seen her since, think the love affair must have gone sour, and hes gone back to peeking in my windows again.
Andy scratched his chin. Im not sure theres a charge for a sexually deviant deer.
Its okay. I dont think Horace is highly motivated to reform anyway. The only neighbor who gives me real fits is Cleopatrashes a raccoon, and I swear she steals anything that isnt nailed down or padlocked. You want a refill on that coffee?
Thanks, but I really should be going. Andy figured hed stayed long enough for an uninvited visitor. Never heard a name like Cleopatra for a raccoon before.
Well, it seemed to fit. Honestly, if you saw her, youd fall for her. All the guys do. She turns up pregnant every spring. I think its in the eyes. Shes got that fatal allure kind of thing.
Maggie? She made him chuckle again, imagining a raccoon with fatal allure. But they were ambling through the kitchen toward his coat. Andy considered he only had a few minutes left to get in anything serious, and Maggie cocked her head curiously when she heard the change in his tone.
Youre pretty isolated on this stretch of road. You really getting around okay since the accident?
Yeah. Really. Just fine.
How about wheels?
Well, I have to get around to car shopping. A fate worse than death, if you ask me...but Im fine for now anyway. Colin brought in some fresh groceries, and this time of year Ive always got a stocked freezer because theres always at least one blizzard before Christmas. My sis has a car I could borrow if I had to. Really, Im fine.
You want some company car shopping?
Shed paused to stir her spaghetti pot, glanced up. Frankly, I wouldnt ask that of my worst enemy, Andy...but if you mean it...sure.
Yeah, I mean it. The doc clear you to be out and around?
The doc ordered me to sack on the couch for a couple of days. Ive rested until Im blue in the face, she said dryly.
So rested that the memory came back that was bothering you so much? You remember the accident now?
It was the first time he saw that upbeat smile of hers falter. The shadows darkening her eyes made him think of that rumpled, torn-up bed. No, she admitted quietly. Its like that whole twenty-four hours before the accident was just wiped off my map.
He unhitched his leather jacket from the hook, burrowed into it, but his eyes stayed honed on her face. It still just happened a few days ago.
I know. And the doc must have told me a dozen times that its really common. Its just... Andy, you dont know me. But Im just not a person who folds in a crisis. I do rescue work. I hiked the Appalachian Trail alone when I was a kid. Im no wimp. And especially since the accident wasnt my fault, I just dont understand why I cant make those memories come back unless something else serious happened.
She was so frustrated, she didnt seem to realize she was waving her spaghetti spoon around, spattering bits of red on her brick-tiled floor. Andyd told himselfseveral times nowthat it was time he left. But he instinctively stepped back into the kitchen to remove the lethal weapon from her hand. I dont know what youre worried that something else could be. You think you held up the local liquor store earlier that day?
She had to know he was teasing, but he still couldnt win that smile back. Heck. Maybe I did.
And maybe cows fly. Youre right that I dont know you, Maggie. Not well. Not yet, anyway. But offhand, Id say the communitys safe from your thieving, murderous ways. No offense. But Id bet the bank you dont even hit the aspiring criminal ranks near any of the seven deadly sins.
Hey, I speed, she said defensively.
Well, hell. Lets cuff you right now and send you up the river.
Darn it, Andy. Cut it out. Youre making me feel better.
Um...that was kind of the idea. In fact, seems to me if speedings enough to give you a guilt attackwhether you can remember the specifics or notI think you can safely rest your mind that you didnt rob any banks that day.
Okay, okay, I admit I really doubt I did anything like that either, she said wryly, but then she sighed. Only I keep waking up from these dreams. Nothing there. No substance. But my hearts pounding and my hands are sweaty. And the whole feeling just tastes like guilt, like I must have done something really wrong.
Andy was standing close enough to touch her, but he never intended to. His hand just somehow lifted to her cheek. The thing was, she seemed so troubled about that little twenty-four-hour memory lapse, when everything about her came across as strong and honest. She was a woman who damn near reeked integrity. He just wanted to communicate empathy, reassurance, and words alone didnt seem to be getting the job done. Possibly, conceivably, there were a few other small factors motivating his need to touch her, too.
Like the little swish in her behind when she walked. And the mischief in her humor. And her naming a deer Horace. And that elusive, evocative scent she wore. And the way being near her had his rusty hormones kicking up an unsettling tizzy, when that hadnt happened to Andy in a dogs age. He didnt lack for female company and he wasnt particularly waryhell, every matchmaker in town had been throwing single women at him since the divorce. But leaping for an impulse just wasnt his way. He was too old to be impressed by a cute tush, and the kind of attraction that mattered took both time and seriously testing the compatibility waters before risking a bunch of grief that wasnt worth it.
So it was way too soon to even think about touching her.
And way out of line to be thinking about kissing her.
But once his palm touched her cheek, she lifted her face. Something was there. An expression that made him feel heart-punched, a connection in her luminous eyes that made his thumb instinctively stroke the edge of her jaw. She didnt move. She met his eyes, with all the wariness of a doe edgy with a buck in her territory. But she watched him on that long, long trip when he was bending down. And her lips were parted by the time hed traveled the distance to hers.
Soft. She tasted soft and warm and tremulous. Both times hed met her, shed come across with that Im-sturdy, I-can-take-care-of-myself routine. He believed it. It was probably why hed taken to her so damned impossibly fast. But that wasnt how she kissed.
Itd been so long since he kissed anyone he figured hed forgotten how. Real quickly he realized that past experience wasnt going to rescue him from this problem anyway. This wasnt like any other kiss. She wasnt like any other woman.
His lips touched down, traced hers, in a testing questing kiss that she seemed to answer in the same language. It was like discovering a field of wildflowers in a snowstorm. Magic where it couldnt be. A time-out from reality that made no particular sense. He could smell her spaghetti sauce bubbling. Feel her kitchen lights glaring. His life was going fine, he wasnt all that lonely. Until he kissed her.
Her hand lifted, clutched at the folds of his leather jacket. Not pushing him away, just holding on. And that wooing, whisper-soft kiss kept coming on, like a spell being woven from her textures, her scents, the way her mouth fit his like she belonged to him, like hed been missing her all this time and hadnt known.
He didnt try deepening the kiss. Didnt want to. But he kept thinking there had to be a catch. He kept waiting for the goofy, crazy feeling of a soul connection to disappear, for some common sense to give him a whack upside the head. Only it didnt. And she responded with the same wary, winsome, tremulous honesty, as if her sanity had been ransomed by that hushed, soft kiss the same as his had.
He got around to lifting his head. Eventually. She got around to opening her eyes. Eventually. They stared at each other like such a couple of shell-shocked teenagers that he had to smile. Eventually.