SIX

Six weeks later . . .

 

I WAS LATE FOR WORK again thanks to James, for the second time that week. Not that I cared when it meant getting two orgasms for lunch, but my coworkers tended to care, and I really needed to keep this job. James had basically kidnapped me and forced me to move in with him after what happened with Rudy Jackson, and now we were setting up house together. That meant more furniture, new curtains, and kickass rocking chairs for the front porch. Which meant I needed this job, so I could help contribute to the purchasing of said furniture and kickass rocking chairs.

Rushing in to the breakroom so I could take report, Jamila and Kari smirked at me when I entered. I ignored them and settled into my chair, then looked up. Right into the angry eyes of float nurse Donna Coletta.

Somebody kill me now!

“Sorry,” I said, flipping open my notebook.

“That’s twice you’ve done this to me,” she snapped.

I looked at her and cringed. She wasn’t just angry, she was furious.

“I got tied up unpacking,” I lied.

Everyone knew I’d landed the Casanova of Murfreesboro, even though he never was, and that I’d moved in with him within days. What no one knew, not even my girls, was that I’d been attacked and lost all my possessions in the process. To keep my name out of the papers, Pike taunted Rudy Jackson about being taken down by a woman until Jackson practically begged him to leave me out of it. So that meant no one knew I’d been attacked, or that my house had been ransacked and all my worldly possessions destroyed. I’d just told the girls it was a wild coincidence that my name matched the other dead Susan. So they didn’t know why I’d moved in with James, they only knew that we’d fallen fast for each other and I was still there. And it raised plenty of brows with the good folks of Murfreesboro, because good girls didn’t shack up with men in 1985 without a ring on their finger. But what James and I had went beyond mere shacking up. We were soul mates. Destined to be together forever. Ring or no ring. I was caught, and I was staying put, even if there were rumors that the only reason he’d moved me in was that I was pregnant. Which I wasn’t, thank God. I wanted kids. Wanted his kids. But a ring and a ceremony needed to come first or my poor father might lose his ever-loving mind.

“You got tied up or were tied up?” Jamila muttered under her breath.

Donna looked at Jamila then back and me and scowled. “I knew the rumors were true, that the only reason you’re in his house is that you’re a whore.”

I sucked in a breath at the insult. “That’s right,” I bit back. “I give good head.”

Kari, who’d been taking a sip of coffee during my remark, spewed it across the conference table. Coffee coated Donna’s files and the front of her white uniform before she could move out of the way.

Jamila, nonplussed by the coffee explosion, turned to me saying, “I thought it was because you were pregnant? That’s what I heard.”

“Keep up, that was last month,” I replied dryly.

Donna shoved back her chair and grabbed her files, heading for the sink in the kitchen area, throwing a barb over her shoulder as she went. “I’ve known James his whole life. You won’t last another month because James prefers women with morals.”

I rolled my eyes. I’d been insulted a few times in the past month, what with James being the most eligible bachelor in town. It seems many believed his player status, but it didn’t stop them from fantasizing about landing my man. Women who knew him, and apparently lusted after him from afar, now huddled together in coffee klatches dissecting ‘why Susan’ and not them.

“Looks like jealousy has a new color and it’s called Donna,” Kari snarked.

I rolled my lips and kept quiet. My girls had been over to James’s house multiple times. They saw how he treated me, and they loved him now. So much so that Jamila asked if his brother, Ken, was single.

I jumped when Donna slammed her files down in front of me.

“Room 3,” she began through gritted teeth. “Kidney stone.”

“Oh fun, a moaner for the night,” Kari sighed.

She wasn’t wrong. Men were worse than women when they were sick, and a man with a kidney stone carried on worse than a woman in labor.

“Room 7,” she went on, her tone growing angrier by the minute.

“Is there a reason she hates you so much?” Kari asked under her breath.

“No idea,” I replied without looking at her. “Maybe she’s one of those women Tonya told us about. The ones who want a piece of my hind end.”

Kari looked Donna over and smiled. “If she is, this’ll be an interestin’ work environment.”

She was right about that.

I trudged through the rest of the report with a single-minded focus: to get away from Donna. Once I’d accomplished that, I made rounds on my patients, checked for lab results, then settled in to update my charts. Thankfully, before I knew it, my shift was over and I was pulling in front of James’s home.

He’d had the day off, so he was waiting for me on the porch in one of the new rocking chairs we’d bought together, rocking leisurely with a beer in his hand as he studied the stars. He watched me intently when I climbed the steps, came straight to him, and climbed into his lap. His warm body bled into mine as I tucked my head into his neck and took a soothing breath.

“Rough night?” he asked in that deep, husky voice of his, his hand running through my hair in a calming touch.

I nodded, wrapping my arms around his waist, melting further into his body. Just being in his presence made the hectic night dissolve into a distant memory.

He grabbed my left hand and pulled it up to his mouth, tasting the skin on my wrist, causing my tired body to shiver in response. “Then marry me and have my babies instead. If you’re gonna be exhausted,” he whispered into my ear, “I’d rather it be me who wore you out.”

I froze, then pulled my head out of his neck in time to watch him slip a stunning, antique looking diamond ring onto my finger. I stared dumbfounded at the ring for a moment, then burst into tears of happiness.

“Are those good tears or bad tears?” His tone sounded cautious, and when I looked into his eyes, I could tell he was nervous. My hot as hell man, a badass S.W.A.T. team leader who didn’t even blink at danger, looked as if he wasn’t sure how I would answer, and that made me cry harder. That this passionate, unpredictable warrior supreme, who was loving, caring, and honorable, loved me was more than my poor heart could take, so I buried my face into his neck and cried more happy tears.

“Susan?” James asked hesitantly. “Is that a yes? ‘Cause, I gotta tell you, I’ll do whatever it takes to make you mine in every way. I love you, baby. More than anything. I’d fuckin’ bleed for you if need be.”

He loved me. He’d bleed for me. God, how I loved this man.

I nodded yes as my breath hitched, plastering myself further into his body. “Yes, I’ll marry you!”

“Thank Christ,” he answered huskily, then buried his own head into my neck, tightening his hold until we were one person instead of two. “Thank fuckin’ Christ.”

How he could ever doubt I’d say yes was beyond me. “Thank you for lovin’ me,” I said pulling back to look at my hot, sexy man.

His eyes gentled at the corners, then he placed both hands on my cheeks, his thumbs brushing away the tears spilling slowly, steadily down my face. “Baby, you gotta know, it’s the easiest thing I’ve done in my life.”

“I love you, too. So much, James. More than you’ll ever know.”

His eyes heated. “You’re caught now. I won’t ever let you go,” he growled. “Try it and see what happens. I’ll hunt you down, baby. To the ends of the earth.”

God. I get to love this man for the rest of my life.

I leaned in and brushed a kiss to his mouth, breathing across his lips, “How about huntin’ me down to the bedroom?” His eyes turned instantly from indigo to black in the dull light of the porch.

“You got it,” he returned, and then hunted me to the bedroom and proved once again why he was my wild man.

____________________________

One week later . . .

 

“No grand ballroom, Momma. James and I want a quiet ceremony here at the house.”

“Wait, you aren’t gettin’ married here in Nashville?”

“I’d be happy gettin’ married at the justice of the peace, but James insists I have my day. Said he wanted weddin’ pictures to line the walls of our house.”

“I suppose I can work with that. I’ll look around when we come down this weekend. Is there a gazebo or somethin’ we can decorate for the ceremony?”

I looked out the window into the stormy night at the red barn that sat close to the house. I had the night off while James had to work, so I was making the most of my time alone so I could become Mrs. James Trevor Mayson as soon as possible.

“There are two red barns on the property. One is close to the house, which would give us easy access for a reception. He stores hay and farm equipment in that one. We could clean it out easily, and since it’s red it would be the perfect color for a weddin’.”

“How many people do you think it can hold?” my mother asked.

Crack! A bolt of lightning shot across the sky, illuminating the yard and barn. The trees bowed and moaned with the approaching storm as I looked at the structure. “Probably a hundred comfortably, I’d think.”

“That could work if we keep the guest list small. What does his mother think?”

“Alice and James Sr. are out of town right now.”

My mother hesitated, her concern we were rushing into marriage clear in her question. “Have they even met you?”

James’s parents had been in Florida for the past month, visiting old friends, and we’d been too busy right after we became a couple to get together, so we hadn’t met yet. Though the chuckling I overheard when James called and talked to his father about me made it clear they were two peas in a pod. James hadn’t beat around the bush about our relationship, and his father had promptly said, “Can’t fight the boom, Son. Stake your claim.”

I’d rolled my eyes when James repeated the conversation, which landed me on my back and him staking his claim immediately.

“No, we haven’t met yet, Momma. But it isn’t going to stop me from marryin’ James. I’m not rushin’ into anything. I’m, well, I’m stakin’ my claim on my man. I love him, Momma. More than I thought it was possible to love a person. I want to be his. I want to have his babies and raise them to be men just like their father.”

She paused before asking, “You’re not,” in a whispered breath, “pregnant are you?”

Not this week, but with James anything was possible. He had a way of turning my head to mush. Fortunately for my scatterbrained mind, when he heard I got headaches on the pill, he demanded I don’t go back on them and took on the responsibility of protecting us with condoms.

“No, Momma. But even if I were, it would have no bearin’ on why I want to marry him.”

“Just checkin’, sweetheart. Your father’s had a little trouble acceptin’ that you’re marryin’ a man you just met. I’m afraid walkin’ a pregnant daughter down the aisle might be more than he could handle.”

I rolled my eyes. I’d had a Beaver Cleaver upbringing that I wouldn’t trade for anything, and I cherished my parents’ old-fashioned values, but I had a suspicion they’d never get over the fact that their baby girl had moved in with a man before getting married.

“I promise. Tell Daddy, no more surprises.”

A knock at the front door caught my attention, so I told my mother I’d talk to her tomorrow and hung up. Making my way toward the front door, I paused when I saw who was standing there. We hadn’t seen each other in a week, not since the night James proposed to me, so I’d forgotten about her hateful behavior. But now, staring at Donna Coletta’s anger-filled eyes through the divided light panes, it caused my hackles to rise.

Ripping open the door, I scanned her from head to toe. I’d only ever seen her free of makeup, and in her nurse’s uniform, so I had no idea how she cleaned up. Considering our uniforms were more like a sack than a dress, it could be hard to tell what anyone’s figure looked like.

The woman standing in front of me was anything but frumpy or ugly. She was slim, shapely, and her hair gleamed in the porch’s light. She was also dressed to entice any man in the vicinity.

Donna was decked out in a tight-fitting, off the shoulder red top and slim-fitting, acid-washed jeans, coupled with bright red spiked pumps that made her legs look a mile long. Her hair had been coiffed for maximum effect, her makeup heavy and sultry. She looked like she was on the prowl, and the fact she looked this way while showing up at James’s house confirmed my suspicion that she hated me because she had a thing for James.

I started to ask her what she wanted, but she pushed through the door without being asked to come in, and headed for the living room, shouting, “James?” as her perfume choked me.

“He’s not here,” I called out, following her into our living room.

“When will he be back?”

“He’s at work. Is there something I can help you with, Donna?”

He was supposed to drop in soon for his dinner break, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.

She ignored me and started walking through the house, looking around each room as if she were ready to buy the place. I should have insisted she leave right then, but I wanted to know what her game was.

“I see you’ve settled in. I can barely see anything left of James,” she sneered in my direction.

“And how would you know that?” I questioned.

If I found out James had dated this woman at any point, I’d strangle him for not telling me. We’d already had a discussion about previous relationships, and he’d never brought this woman up. Though I should point out, it was more like I asked and he coughed up what I wanted to know. But other than Jonathan—whom he’d already talked to—he didn’t want to know jack about anyone else because he said, and I quote, “It’s better I don’t know for their own safety.”

A look of superiority crawled across her face while I waited for her answer. “I told you last week, I practically grew up here. I’ve known James his whole life, unlike you.”

I took at her outfit again, considered the attitude pulsing off of her in waves, and knew then she didn’t just have a thing for James; she was in love with him.

“So you clearly think because you’ve known him longer, you have some sort of right to him, is that it?”

“Yes,” she hissed. “And I won’t let some slut walk in here and turn his head, just because she gives good head.”

I wanted to reach out and slug her, or claw her eyes out, but instead, I ran my hands through my hair to keep from touching her. Nothing would be gained by violence, except my extreme satisfaction at having ripped her poufy hair from her skinny body.

In the process of flipping my hair back, Donna caught sight of my engagement ring and froze. “Is that his grandmother’s engagement ring?” she asked, shocked.

I looked down at the stunning ring resting snuggly on my left hand and wondered how the hell she knew this about my ring. James had told me his grandmother Mayson had willed him her engagement ring when she died. The almost two-carat diamond had been her most prized possession since James Sr.’s father had died suddenly at the age of thirty-nine. James Sr. had been an only child who’d looked after his mother from an early age, causing him to grow up and take on the role of man of the house earlier than he should have. Knowing this about his dad left no doubt in my mind that he’d also instilled those same values into my James. Family meant everything to my man.

“How the hell do you know where my ring came from?”

Her eyes turned cold at my answer, and she lunged at me, trying to grab my hand and the ring that symbolized everything to me.

I shoved her back in shock. “Are you crazy?”

“I should have done somethin’ about you when I saw you rubbin’ all over him on the side of the road,” she shrieked, and my jaw dropped. She’d seen James kiss me when he changed my flat?

“Donna, I don’t know what’s goin’ on here,” I began calmly, hoping to reach her on some level other than anger. “But James loves me; we’re gettin’ married in two months. You need to deal with it now or lose his friendship forever. I know him well enough to know he won’t stand for you insultin’ me the way you’ve done tonight.”

“My father and James Sr. were in the Air Force together,” she snapped as if I hadn’t even spoken. “His parents and my parents are best friends. We have a connection. One a two-bit whore can’t come between. It’s you who are crazy if you think I’ll allow you to take him away from me.”

She was not to be believed.

“If your families are as close as you say, then your behavior here tonight will destroy that. So you have one minute to leave before I call James. I don’t think either one of us wants me to do that.”

Her face blanked at my threat; an eerie calm settling over her. Since she didn’t move to leave, I walked through the living room into the open kitchen and picked up the phone. Before I could dial the first number, she ripped the phone from my hand. When I lunged for the receiver, she cocked it back and slammed it into my head, causing stars to burst behind my eyes. I stumbled, stunned by the attack. She lunged without warning, ripping the phone from the wall in the process, and tried to wrap the cord around my neck. One of my hands managed to get between the cord and my throat, blocking her attempt to strangle me.

“You’re crazy,” I sputtered as I fought her.

She tightened her hold. “It’s your fault. All of it. You should have left town with your tail between your legs after I destroyed all your stuff. But instead, you’re livin’ my life.”

She’d been the one to destroy my house?

Totally, completely nuts.

For a brief second, I was hysterical that I once again found myself fighting for my life in James’s kitchen. I loved this kitchen. Dreamed of the meals I’d prepare here for James and our kids one day. And it pissed me off royally she was ruining that for me.

I don’t know where it came from, maybe some TV show or movie I’d once seen, but without a second thought I reared back my head and slammed it into her nose. Donna screamed on impact and let go of me. While she held her nose as blood poured from it like an open faucet, I untangled myself and ran for the back door and the cover of darkness.

She’d clearly come unhinged at the news James and I were getting married and had snapped. She had nothing to lose at this point after attacking me, and I knew with certainty she would kill me if she got the chance.

The keys to my car were in the bedroom and I’d have to go through her to get to them. I wasn’t about to get that close to her again, so my only chance was to hide until James came home. If I made a run for it, hoping to flag someone down on the road, I’d be putting myself in her line of sight.

The storm had kicked up while I’d argued with Donna. Flashes of light lit the night sky as rain pummeled the ground making my escape hazardous. I needed cover and a plan. Any order would work for me, so I dashed to the barn and slid through the door, barring it from the inside.

Once secured, I ran to the ladder that would take me up into the hayloft to hide. I swallowed a few times before grabbing a rung. I hated heights, and his hayloft was twenty feet or higher from the ground. James had just recently stacked hay, giving me little room to squeeze past, but I managed to hunker down behind a stack next to the edge so I could keep an eye out if Donna came inside.

Moments later, I heard the main door shake as if Donna tried to open it, then nothing. My breath came in great gulps as my heartbeat pounded in my ears, drowning out the sound of the storm. Closing my eyes, I sent out a silent prayer to God that James would come home earlier than expected, that he would somehow know that I was in trouble and come save me.

My prayers went unanswered when I heard glass break and the sound of Donna huffing and puffing her way through a window below.

“I know you’re in here, you stupid whore,” Donna shouted.

I covered my mouth to keep from answering.

Peering through the crack in the floor, I watched Donna pick up a pitchfork. With a hysterical madness in her eyes, she began searching the stalls, spearing anything bigger than a child with the sharp tines. Once she’d finished with the last stall, her eyes popped up to the hayloft.

I knew I could keep her from climbing the ladder if I had to, but eventually, one of us would tire or fall in the struggle. I needed a weapon or an escape. Looking behind me, I saw a small window about five feet off the floor and wondered how far a drop it would be if I attempted to escape through it.

“James is mine. I am his,”—Donna sang, her words chipper like a child reciting a rhyme—“and nothin’ will come between us. Not even some Nashville bimbo,” she giggled.

I looked through the crack and saw her standing below, looking up at my hiding spot. Our eyes met, and her mouth pulled into an evil grin. “Guess I’ll have to smoke you out,” Donna cackled, then grabbed a lantern from a hook.

“Oh, my God.” This whole place would go up like the finely aged tinder it was.

I struggled to pull myself out of the crouch I was in, pushing against the bales. My foot was caught between the two, so when I fell to the floor, I kicked out with my free leg against the tower of hay. The bales teetered to and fro as my foot freed, then they were gone, spilling over the edge. I watched in horror as the bales slammed into her back, pinning her to the ground. Then my face blanched with fear when the lantern exploded, fuel igniting as it spread across the floor. Fire burst to life in the scattered hay, and my stomach dropped. She’d managed to light the lantern.

The kerosene erupted into billowing flames within seconds, catching everything within reach on fire, including the bales Donna was lying under. In less than a breath, the jeans she wore caught fire, and she began to scream. I tripped on my way to the ladder, trying to get down to her so she wouldn’t burn to death, but this fire had a life of its own. It was like a dragon, sucking the air from the barn then spewing molten heat back out as it engulfed the floor. Before I could get my foot on the first rung of the ladder, the heat from below scorched my face.

Donna shrieked, as her whole body engulfed in flames, the nightmare playing out before me like a train wreck. I dove back into the bales, scrambling over them to the window as I tried to block out the smoke with my shirt. My eyes teared up from the suffocating mixture of fire, heat, and the horror I’d witnessed making it hard to see. Dirt and sweat clouded my vision as I climbed several bales to reach the window, but I didn’t hesitate to punch my foot through the panes. The fire seemed to grow exponentially with the added oxygen, crawling up the walls of the old barn. I could barely see through the gray, rising smoke of burning hay and timber, but the drop to the ground looked to be at least twenty feet, right into farm equipment with sharp edges that looked more like the maw of a monster waiting to impale me on its sharp teeth. I knew I’d end up staked if I tried to jump. Rain pummeled my face as I searched for something to grab hold of, hoping to climb down the side of the barn, away from certain death. There was a tree to the left of me with a large limb, but I couldn’t reach it. I was frantically looking for another way down when the floor beneath my feet began catch fire. My time had run out. I had to get out or die right along with Donna.

Out of options, I shimmied through the window and hung on with both arms bent on the windowsill. My booted feet were dug into the wall, anchoring me to the barn until I could attempt a safe jump, when I saw headlights bouncing at a fast clip up the driveway from the road. I watched James come to a sliding stop in front of the corral outside barn, then jump out of his truck, thundering, “Susan!”

I screamed at the top of my lungs as he ran toward the front of the barn, hoping he could hear my over the rain. He stopped when I called out his name and ran to the side where I was hanging. He froze momentarily at the sight of me, then shouted, “Hold on, baby,” before turning on his heel and running back the way he came.

I watched on a choking breath as he disappeared around the corner. A moment later I tracked him as he ran to his truck and climbed in. He backed it up quickly as I watched, then threw it into drive and barreled down on the barn at a high rate of speed. I turned in time to watch the truck punch through the wall, its headlights bouncing as flaming wood went flying, coming to a shuddering stop in the center of the barn. The fire snapped at the truck like a rabid dog as James bound out of it, but I lost sight of him when my feet slipped their hold on the wet surface of the barn, and I lost my footing, causing me to slide farther out the window.

I felt my fingers begin to slip as the dead weight of my body pulled me down. This was it. Donna would get her way. I’d never get to walk down the aisle. Never get to bear his children and watch them grow. Never get to say I love you again.

I whispered, “I love you,” to James as my fingers began to slip further, but milliseconds before they gave way, James appeared in the window and reached down, grabbing both of my wrists.

“Pull me up, pull me up. Please don’t let go of me,” I sobbed uncontrollably, scared his hands would slip in the pouring rain.

“Never,” James gritted out, his biceps bulging as he pulled me up an inch at a time through the window, “lettin’ go.”

I was in his arms for a brief second before he covered me with a blanket, threw me over his shoulder, and ran for our lives. There was a brief sensation of being airborne, then we landed soundly, James going to his knees only long enough to pick me up from what I saw was the bed of his truck, before jumping to the ground and running out the hole in the wall.

He put me down once we’d cleared the opening, then grabbed my hand and we continued running. Only, I remembered Donna when I saw her car parked next to mine, and stopped, pulling on his arm. “James! Donna Coletta’s in the barn.”

James stopped and looked at me, barking out “What?” then glanced back at the driveway and then barn. Pain masked his features when he took in the swelling flames, knowing, as I did, she couldn’t be helped. I grabbed his arm as he started to head back to the barn, but a flare of fire flashed brightly under his truck, blinding us both. He turned instantly and dove at me, taking us both to the ground as his truck exploded in a brilliant burst of flaming light. James curled his body around mine, tucking my head under his chin as hot debris rained down on us, hissing and snapping, then sizzling as the pouring rain smothered the flames. My ears rang from the explosion, my hearing muted. I could tell James was saying something from the rumble in his chest, so I looked up at him.

“Talk to me, Susan. Are you okay?”

I nodded, then shook my head and began to cry. How could I be all right with everything that had happened?

Burying my head in his neck, I held on as the tears flowed. I cried for Donna. Her parents. For James and his family, knowing they would all be hurt when they found out how twisted she’d become. They’d never recover from her death, but they’d also have to live with the fact that she tried to murder me. In essence, she’d sentenced them all to the repercussions of her madness.

James held me tightly as he watched what was left of his barn burn to the ground, rocking me gently as I shook. Once I was calm, I turned and looked at the burned-out shell. Surprisingly the explosion put out most of the fire, leaving behind smoldering beams and hay. The rain handled the rest.

“I need to call MFD so they can recover Donna’s body.”

I nodded as he rose to his feet, bringing me with him. I watched him closely to gauge his mood. If he and Donna were as close as she said they were, then the loss of a friend would be hard. Finding out exactly why she died, would be even worse.

I’d forgotten about the phone being destroyed, so when we entered the kitchen, James marched to it, growling, “What the fuck happened here?”

The receiver lay on the floor where I threw it after Donna tried to choke me, and her blood splattered the surface from her broken nose. I began to shake with the memories, but took a deep breath to control it, then uttered the words I dreaded saying. “Donna tried to kill me.”

James’s eyes narrowed, then he bit out, “Come again?” on a hiss filled with malice.

Reaching for the counter to steady myself, I explained the events that led up to the fire. “Donna was jealous of me, and she snapped when she saw my engagement ring. She tried to strangle me with the phone cord, so I head-butted her and took off for the barn. She followed me, and when I wouldn’t come down out of the hayloft, she intended to set a fire. I kicked a bale of hay on her by accident when I tried to escape, but she’d already lit the lantern. The barn went up instantly, and if not for you, I would be dead. I swear she tried to kill me, James. She admitted to following you. Was there the first time you kissed me. She even admitted she was the one who destroyed my house to scare me off.”

I expected him to ask a million questions, to interrogate me like the deputy he was, but instead, he turned and punched a hole in the kitchen wall, thundering, “Son of a bitch!” Then he punched the wall again, and again. I ran to him when it looked like he wouldn’t stop, grabbing his arm so he wouldn’t hurt himself. But the moment I touched him, he turned and yanked me into his arms, effectively cutting off my air with his tight hold. “I could have lost you. Christ, I could have lost you because of that bitch,” he snarled. “She’s hounded me for fuckin’ years with her insane belief we belonged together. But I never thought she’d go this far. Fuck me, I could have lost everything, and it would have been all my fault.”

I don’t know how it began. Maybe kissing his cheek, his neck, his lips in an effort to comfort him had an effect. All I know is it ended with James ripping my sopping jeans off to bury himself deep inside me. And I didn’t care. I needed him as much as he needed me.

He was out of control, wild. Pumping into me with a single-minded purpose as I held on. Our mouths were open on the other’s, exchanging breath, our eyes open so we wouldn’t miss a single moment. We climaxed as violently as the night had been, grunting words of love while we plummeted from the highest heights to crash back down to the reality of what we could have lost, and what was to come.

Wet heat slid down my leg when he withdrew from my body and lifted me into his arms, carrying me to our bedroom. He grabbed the phone on his bedside table, but never let go of my hand as I lay there panting, still needing the connection. When the dispatcher asked if medical attention was needed, James looked at me with angry eyes and said, “We have one fatality.”

“Was foul play involved?” a woman asked loudly down the line. James closed his eyes for a moment then opened them and looked at me. I shook my head. Her family didn’t need the additional grief. “No. It was an accident,” he lied. “Susan and a friend were in the barn during the storm. A bale of hay fell on top of the deceased, and she dropped a lantern she’d lit, setting herself and the barn on fire in the process. There was nothing anyone could do.”

“And the deceased’s name?”

“Donna Coletta.”

____________________________

James watched Dan Pike cover Donna’s body. He’d left Susan inside to rest because he didn’t want her to see what came next. Removing the body.

James stared at Donna’s body, and his jaw grew taut. From the time he was old enough to understand what it meant to be attracted to the opposite sex, James had known that Donna, the daughter of his parents’ best friends, had a crush on him. He’d never felt a lick of attraction for her and had tried to let her down easy every time she made advances on him. But as the years grew into a decade, it became apparent that Donna wouldn’t give up the ghost, even going as far as running into him by accident when he was out with another girl in high school. He’d had words with her parents, explained about her obsession, tried to get them to see that she needed medical help, but they’d laughed it off as youthful hormones that she’d eventually outgrow. She never did it seemed, even though James had started to believe she’d moved on when he’d come home from college to find she was dating someone. He’d been relieved instantly, and he’d forgotten about her crush over the next five years.

Taking in the burned-out shell of his barn, James realized Donna hadn’t gotten over him at all. She’d just taken her obsession to a new level; became a ticking time bomb that went off when she’d seen the evidence of his feelings on Susan’s ring finger.

Closing his eyes at the destruction in front him, James said a silent prayer of thanks to God that Susan was alive and well inside his house where she belonged.

“I got Susan’s statement, so why don’t you run it past me one more time from the beginning,” Pike asked.

James opened his eyes and retold the lie he and Susan had agreed on as they cleaned up the evidence of Donna’s attack. One that would shelter her parents from the truth: that their beloved daughter had died trying to kill his future wife. No good would come from them knowing. Her parents had lived in Murfreesboro most of their married life and had a good standing within the community. He couldn’t bring himself to add to their grief by accusing her of attempted murder.

“Donna and Susan had a disagreement last week because she was late for work. It bothered Donna, being a good friend with my family and all, so when she heard about our engagement, she came over to congratulate us and apologize for being rude. Susan had just ended a call with her mother about our wedding and mentioned to Donna that she wanted to get married in my barn. For some reason, only known to them, they thought checking out the size of the barn during the storm made complete sense.”

Pike’s solemn expression lifted just a hair and his lips twitched slightly, exactly as James had hoped. Men didn’t understand women, so inserting a bit of levity into the situation made sense to Pike. Why question what they were doing inside the barn in the middle of a storm, because when have men ever understood a woman’s reasoning?

“And then what happened?”

James sighed and bowed his head. It grated on him to cast Susan in a light that made her look anything but the intelligent woman she was. “I’d just loaded bales into the loft. I’d told Susan some of them were unstable, that I hadn’t had time to secure them, but she must not have heard me because she climbed up the ladder, heading to the loft. One of the bales fell when she reached the top, pinning Donna.”

“And the lanterns?”

James shrugged, “Storm took the power out. It happens a lot, so I’d hung several lanterns on hooks inside the barn. Susan climbed to the loft, hoping her lantern would disperse more light so they could see. Donna had lit one as well, and when the bale fell, she dropped it, and it exploded on the floor, igniting the barn.”

Pike looked at what was left of his truck. “And your truck?”

“Came home on my dinner break. Susan was hangin’ out the window to avoid the flames. I tried the door, but somethin’ had lodged against it durin’ the fire, so I used my truck to clear a path.”

“Risky. It might have exploded on impact,” Pike pointed out.

“I’d just filled up, so I knew I had time before the gas was hot enough to explode.”

“Still risky.”

“What would you have done?”

“I’d have risked it,” he agreed.

“Damn straight, you would,” James growled. “It was both of us gettin’ out of there alive or neither. I wouldn’t have wanted to live without her in my life.”

Pike looked back at the barn shaking his head, then mumbled, “Fuckin’ tragic.”

“Tragic,” James echoed. “In more ways than one.” What he didn’t say was that he wouldn’t shed any tears that Susan had survived when Donna hadn’t. If you laid a hand on what was his, it was as good as a death sentence in his eyes. He’d mourn for her parents. He’d mourn for what Susan had gone through, how scared she must have been, but he would not feel one ounce of guilt that Donna had perished when the alternative was him standing over Susan’s grave.

____________________________

Six weeks later . . .

 

I stared out the kitchen window at the leveled ground where the old barn used to stand. Even with the ashes gone and the ground ready for new construction, I knew that night would always be with me. And in a way that was blessed, instead of cursed.

Two arms circled me from behind, then James kissed the pulse on my neck. “What’cha doin’?” he asked softly in my ear.

I shivered per usual any time he was close, then leaned my head against his shoulder. “Staring at the ashes of our past while thinking about our new beginning,” I answered, then pulled his hand to my belly as tears began to spill down my face. “Asher if it’s a boy. Or Ashlyn if it’s a girl, so we’ll never forget how blessed we are.”

James froze for a millisecond then buried his face in my neck and drew me in tighter against his body. “Asher James,” he finally growled, his voice hitching slightly on the James. “Told you already, baby. I want four boys. If you give me girls, I’ll end up killin’ someone.”

I giggled through my tears. “If you get to have all boys, then I get to lie and say we dated two months before you seduced me.”

James spun me around, capturing my face with his hands, his thumbs brushing the happy tears from my cheeks, then he leaned in and stated emphatically, “You’re not changin’ his birthdate.”

“No. I’ll never forget the night he was conceived, and how complete bliss could rise out of the ashes of that night.”

His eyes bled to indigo and nose flared as he drew in a deep, ragged breath. And then my wild man, my own personal Casanova of Murfreesboro, kissed me.