Chapter Thirteen
Lauren stared out the window of the guest room. She wasn’t standing directly in front of it, though. Cameron’s orders. He’d also told her to keep the curtains shut, which she had, but she could still look out through the small gap on the side where the curtains met the wall. She could see part of the ranch and her parents’ old house.
It was a view she’d seen a lot as a kid since Gabriel’s place had once belonged to their grandparents.
She’d come here plenty of times and stayed in the rambling big house. Had actually stayed in this very room even though in those days it had been her gran’s sewing room. But this was a first for her to stand at the window and keep watch for hired guns.
And Evelyn.
Everyone was on the lookout for the woman. For the thugs, too. But the ranch had over a thousand acres. That made it nearly impossible to watch every part of it. The gunmen could take advantage of that. Maybe Evelyn, too.
Since that only caused Lauren to feel more depressed, she turned her attention to the makeshift bed on the floor where the boys were sleeping. Dara and Merilee had volunteered to sleep in the nursery with them, but Lauren had thought it was safer for them to be on the second floor. Plus, she hadn’t wanted them near her. That way, if something went wrong, she could grab them and try to escape.
At least Mark and Allen hadn’t been hurt when the gunmen had attacked the cruiser. In fact, Mark had said the men hadn’t even seemed interested in them. The goons had rammed into the cruiser, running it off the road. When that happened, they’d opened the door, dragged out Evelyn and put the woman in their SUV before they sped away.
Lauren had no idea if Evelyn was still alive or if this had been some ruse to make it look as if she’d been taken. Either was possible. Heck, the judge could have even helped her do this so she could escape.
Lauren sank down on the floor not far from the boys, and she leaned the back of her head against the bed. Her body needed sleep, but her mind was still racing too much for that to happen. Maybe, though, she’d be able to get in a nap since they would likely be moving to the safe house in the morning. That would bring a whole new set of worries since they’d have to take the boys out in the open, but maybe once they were in place, there’d be some peace of mind, too.
All of their suspects and the hired guns knew the location of the ranch. They almost certainly knew Cameron, the boys and she were in Gabriel’s house. That was why they had to move, and Lauren only wished they didn’t have to go through the long night before that happened.
She’d left the door open, so she had no trouble hearing someone walking toward the bedroom. It was Cameron. Not a surprise. He’d been checking on them and giving her updates every half hour or so. Since he’d been keeping his footsteps light—hard to do with cowboy boots on a wood floor—he probably hoped that he would find her asleep. At least the boys were, and that was enough for now.
Even though the lights were all off, there was still enough illumination coming from downstairs that she could see his weary expression. Of course, that weary expression was on a very hot face, so she saw that, as well. As she usually did when she had eyes on Cameron, she felt that tug in her belly. Felt it lower, too. But she figured they were both way too tired for tugs or kisses.
“Anything on Evelyn?” she whispered. Best to get her mind on something else other than Cameron’s face.
He shook his head, went to her and sank down next to her on the floor. Not touching her exactly, but he sat close enough for her to catch his scent. He’d showered, probably because he’d had blood on his shirt from the earlier attack. Now he was not only wearing clean clothes, he also smelled like soap and the leather from his boots.
That didn’t help the tug.
Normally, she wouldn’t have considered those scents a turn-on, but her body suddenly seemed very interested in that combination.
“There’s been no ransom demand,” Cameron said. “And she hasn’t turned up dead. Judge Olsen thinks we’re behind it, of course. I think Evelyn wants to play the victim card because she thinks it might stop her from being arrested. It won’t,” Cameron assured her.
Good. Well, maybe good. If Evelyn was guilty, Lauren definitely wanted her in jail, but the truth was, the woman could be a pawn in all of this. A pawn who could now be in grave danger if those thugs weren’t actually working for her.
“Gabriel did find out more on the cooked books that Julia claims she found,” Cameron went on. “There’s definitely some money missing from the accounts. Not a lot, considering the company has over ten million in assets.” He turned to her. “Did you know it was worth that much?”
She nodded. “Isaac is the heir to all of that.”
He stayed quiet a moment, a muscle flexing in his cheek. “I’d give away every penny to keep him safe.”
So would she—along with every cent in her own personal accounts. But even that wouldn’t ensure he was safe. Those thugs could still come after them.
“How much money was missing?” she asked.
“About thirty grand. Enough to fund the attacks and then some.”
Yes, it was. “I’m guessing Duane is saying he’s innocent, that he didn’t take it?”
He nodded, but his forehead bunched up when he looked down at her. Not her face. But her shoulder. Cameron mumbled some profanity, reached out and unbuttoned her shirt. Since this didn’t seem to be his version of hasty foreplay, Lauren figured he was checking her wound.
“I meant to change the bandage for you,” he said, peeling it back and having a look at it.
She’d already had a look, and while the sight of it turned her stomach, it wasn’t serious. “I changed it after my shower,” she told him. “Jodi gave me some antibiotic cream to use on it.”
He made a sound, sort of a disapproving grunt. Maybe because the wound turned his stomach, too. Or maybe he thought the home doctoring wasn’t nearly enough.
Since he was examining her, Lauren did the same to him. She eased back the bandage on his forehead and had a look. It was clean but would probably leave a scar. It would just give him some more character on his face.
As if Cameron needed more of that.
“You’re scowling,” he pointed out. “Does the cut look that bad?”
She lowered her gaze, making eye contact with him, and Lauren wasn’t sure what he saw, but the corner of his mouth lifted for a moment. “Oh, that,” he said.
Yes, that. She looked away, but it didn’t help. She was already caught up in the moment. Lauren would have liked to blame it on spent adrenaline and the fact that she didn’t know if she was going to live long enough to see another day. Realizing something like that had a way of making every moment seem as if it might be her last. But she couldn’t lie to herself. What she was feeling had to do with the attraction and nothing else.
“I kissed you in this room once,” he said, glancing around.
He had, and she was a little surprised he remembered. She’d been seventeen then. Her grandparents had already passed away and Gabriel had moved in. Lauren had come to get her gran’s sewing machine so she could mend the seam on her favorite shirt. Cameron had walked with her there so he could help her carry it back to her house.
“Apparently, a chore like that was fuel for a kiss back then,” she joked.
“Breathing was fuel for a kiss,” he joked back.
Except it was the truth. Still was. And that caused Lauren to sigh.
She should just get up, move away from him and keep watch again. There were so many reasons for her not to be with him. She didn’t want it to cloud her mind. She shouldn’t jump into that kind of intimacy until she was certain of her feelings for him. Plus, the boys were in the room.
But those good reasons turned to dust when Cameron leaned in and kissed her.
Despite his being so close, she hadn’t seen the kiss coming, but Lauren had no trouble feeling it. One touch from his mouth, and the heat trickled through her. Head to toe.
He lingered a moment, deepening the kiss, before he pulled back and looked at her. Maybe to gauge her reaction. It must have gauged well because it caused him to give that hot half smile again.
“I guess breathing is still a fuel,” he said, his voice low. Husky. A Texas drawl that pulled her right in.
Lauren figured either walking out or staying would be the wrong thing to do. Staying would lead to sex. Walking out would no doubt give her plenty of regrets. That was why she slid her hand around the back of Cameron’s neck and pulled him to her for another kiss.
And she made sure it was plenty long and deep.
Enough to rid them of the breath that was apparently fueling some of this. Of course, the kiss did its own share of fueling, too.
“Give yourself some time. Think about it before you do anything,” she said.
Cameron looked up at her, and she had no trouble seeing the surprise on his face. Lauren figured that surprise increased a lot more when she got to her feet and headed for the door.
* * *
CAMERON WASN’T SURE what was going on in Lauren’s head, but he sure as heck knew what was going on in the rest of her. That’d been heat he’d seen in her eyes. Plenty of it. And the heat had been in her kiss, too.
So why was she leaving?
The simple answer to that was she wasn’t, and he would make certain of that. He got up as fast as he could and hurried to her. She’d already made it into the hall by the time he caught up with her, but she was just standing there—as if trying to figure out what to do.
“Is this about having second thoughts?” he asked.
A soft breath left her mouth. “No. Second thoughts happened hours ago. I’m on third and fourth thoughts now.”
Yeah, he’d been there, done that. And all those doubts hadn’t solved a thing. He still wanted Lauren, and she felt the same way about him. Cameron proved that in a really stupid way. He hooked his arm around her waist, hauled her to him and kissed her.
Obviously, if Lauren needed some thinking time, this was not the way to go about it. So he didn’t kiss her for long. Just enough to rid her of more of her breath. And he stepped back. Cameron figured she was either about to chew him out or—
She went with the or.
She took hold of the front of his shirt, gathering it up in her hand as she pulled him closer. Lauren kissed him, and this time it wasn’t a kiss to prove anything. It was scalding hot and meant to send them straight to bed.
Cameron responded, all right. He put his arms around her, dragging her right against him. Not that it took much effort. Lauren was already headed in that direction. Her breasts landed on his chest while the kiss raged on.
Cameron did his own version of raging. He slid his hand beneath her top, touching the bare skin on her stomach. It was hard to think, but he forced himself to remember the gunshot wound on her shoulder. He didn’t want to hurt her.
If the injury was bothering her, Lauren showed no signs of it. She also showed no signs of the timid teenager who’d become his lover over ten years ago. No. This was a woman’s kiss. A woman’s touch. And this woman apparently knew exactly what she wanted.
She wanted him.
Lauren turned him, putting his back to the wall, holding him in place while she made the kiss even deeper. Cameron did more touching, too, sliding his hands into the cups of her bra. She must have liked that because she made a sound of pleasure. It wasn’t loud, but it gave him another reminder.
They were in the hall of her brother’s house. Gabriel or the others could come walking up at any second.
Cameron silently cursed and started maneuvering her back into the bedroom so he could shut the door. Of course, there was a problem here, too. The babies. Yeah, they were asleep, but if much more moaning and grappling went on, Lauren and he could wake them.
When he stopped kissing her, Lauren looked to see what’d caught his attention. She glanced at the boys. Then, back at Cameron. All the while she was nibbling on her bottom lip. Maybe she was realizing the logistics of having sex wasn’t going to be easy.
But it wasn’t impossible.
Cameron looped his arm around her and got her moving. He grabbed the baby monitor along the way but put it on the counter as soon as they were in the adjoining bathroom. Lauren was the one who shut the door, and she immediately launched into another kiss.
The overhead light was off, and Cameron kept it that way, though there was a night-light by the sink. It was just enough for him to see the heat and the determined look in her eyes.
He was still having doubts about whether this should happen or not, but the longer the kiss went on, the more the doubts faded. Soon, he quit thinking and went with it. He pulled Lauren back to him, and this time he had more than kissing on his mind. Well, more than just kissing her mouth anyway.
She made another of those pleasure sounds when Cameron pushed up her top and kissed her breasts through the lace cups of her bra. It was good, but it got a whole lot better when he opened the front clip. That way, he could kiss her without the thin layer of fabric between them. She must have liked that, as well, because she fisted her hand in his hair and held on.
As he went lower.
Cameron got in some kisses to her stomach. Got her unzipped, as well, but Lauren seemed to want to kick up the pace. She achieved that by sliding her hand down into the waist of his jeans.
Yeah, she was kicking this up, all right.
He got rock-hard. And desperate to have her. Not exactly a good combination when he needed to make sure he didn’t hurt her while he also listened to the baby monitor.
“Please tell me you have a condom,” she said.
“Wallet, back pocket,” he managed to answer.
She went after it, doing some clever touching along the way. It felt more like foreplay than looking for something they needed for safe sex. Of course, there were a lot of other “unsafe” things about this, but Cameron chose not to think about that right now. That probably had plenty to do with Lauren unzipping him.
Since there wasn’t exactly anywhere else to go, Cameron lowered her to the floor. His back landed on the hard tile, but he barely noticed.
That was because Lauren landed on him.
Straddling him, she took out the condom and tossed his wallet aside.
Cameron did a little tossing, too. Even though he liked seeing Lauren on top of him, he had to move her to get her out of those jeans. Not easy to do. The bathroom wasn’t that big, and Lauren wasn’t making things easier because she was fighting to get his jeans off, too.
Everything suddenly felt way too urgent, and it was taking an eternity to rid them of their clothes. Cameron finally managed it, and Lauren moved back on top again. It was the best position so that her shoulder didn’t get hurt, though he certainly didn’t see any trace of pain on her face.
But he did see the pleasure.
Cameron was certain there was plenty of that on his face, too, because he was feeling a whole lot of it in his body. The feeling went up significantly when she got the condom on him and took him inside her.
Lauren went still, as if savoring this for a moment, and in the milky light, she made eye contact with him. It was as if the past ten years just vanished. They were young lovers again before the tragedy that had torn them apart. The ache came. The reminder of just how much he’d lost that night.
And then it was gone.
Because Lauren started to move. That rid him of the ache but created a different kind of one. His need to pleasure her. The need for release.
He caught on to her hips, guiding the movement that was taking him in and out of her. Not that she needed any guidance. Lauren was doing just fine on her own. Better than fine, actually. She was taking them both to the only place that either of them wanted to go.
She put her hands on his chest, anchoring herself while she leaned down and kissed him. Her mouth was still on his when she pushed against him one last time and shattered. That was all Cameron needed, and with the taste of her roaring through him, he gave in to the release and went with her.