CHAPTER 9
Libby awoke slowly, pulling herself away from the land of dreams and into reality. She cracked open one eyelid, noticing that the room was no longer pitch-black but held the deep gray of predawn. She knew Tony was still in the bed next to her, could still feel his warmth, could hear the throb of his deep, even breathing vibrating the bed.
She turned over cautiously to look at him. He slept on his back, his deep breathing attesting to the fact that he was sound asleep. She could see that she’d stolen the blankets from him at some time during the night as his legs were bare, sprawled apart in complete relaxation.
She knew she should get up or go back to sleep. She shouldn’t be lying here staring at him while he slept. But she couldn’t stop herself.
She’d known his legs were long, but she hadn’t expected them to be covered with such fine, dark hair. And she hadn’t anticipated the muscles that marked them with masculine shapeliness. The briefs he wore hugged him tightly, causing an intense heat to sweep through her as she moved her gaze upward. The T-shirt had ridden up his stomach, exposing the flat, tanned surface broken only by a narrow line of dark hair that disappeared into the top of his shorts.
If she reached out and touched him, would he awaken? By a mere touch on his stomach or thigh, would she stimulate a response she wasn’t prepared to handle? She knew instinctively that his skin would be warm and welcoming. She also knew with a certainty that if she touched him in invitation, he wouldn’t hesitate to take her. With men like Tony, love wasn’t necessary…and it certainly had not been love she’d seen radiating from his eyes when she’d stepped out of the bathroom the night before. It had been lust…uncomplicated, blatant desire.
She rolled back over on her side, away from him. She wouldn’t touch him. She wanted him, but she wasn’t sure she was prepared to settle for what little he had to give. She squeezed her eyes tightly closed, hoping sleep would come again and bring peaceful oblivion, steal away the heated, erotic thoughts that danced provocatively in her head….
Tony knew the exact moment when she fell back asleep. He felt her muscles ease into the mattress and her breathing resume a steady rhythm. He slowly allowed his own muscles to relax their tenseness. He’d awakened and instantly felt her gaze on him. It had taken all his control to maintain his aura of deep sleep. But he knew if he opened his eyes and saw her, he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from reaching out for her.
And God knew, he didn’t want to do that. If he was smart, he would not only get the hell out of this bed, but he’d get away from this woman, who was quickly gaining an obsessive status in his head. If he was smart, he’d run as far away from her as possible and never see her again. After all, this mystery was hers. She had the necklace. It was her problem.
He frowned, knowing that simply wasn’t true. Yes, she had the necklace, but there was no way he could walk away from her and let her deal alone with the powers of the New Republic of Man.
However, he knew if he made love to her, continued to get more deeply involved, they both would lose. He’d seen firsthand the destructive powers of love. He didn’t want to see Libby grow from a vibrant, strong woman to a shadow woman. He’d seen it happen to his mother, and he refused to allow it to happen to Libby. She deserved better than he had to give.
Another day or two and this mystery would be solved, and they would both return to their own lives. He could be strong for that length of time. He could fight his overwhelming desire to taste once again the sweetness of her lips, caress the shapely curves of her breasts.
She’d go back to her own life and she would eventually find someone who could give her all that she deserved, a man who wouldn’t shy away from her love. And he would continue on his solitary path. He closed his eyes, wondering why this thought filled him with such an overwhelming ache of sadness.
* * *
The next time Libby opened her eyes, the morning sunshine streamed through the partially opened curtains and she was alone in bed. She sat up, pushing her hair off her face and looked around curiously. It was obvious she was not only alone in the bed but also in the room.
She got out of bed, spying a note on the kitchen table. She scanned it quickly, unsurprised to discover that Tony had gone to the grocery store to pick up something for breakfast.
While he was gone, she quickly dressed and made the bed. She had just finished, when he returned, carrying a sack of groceries. “Ah, good, you’re up,” he said cheerfully. “I trust you slept okay.”
“Fine,” she answered, noting that the easy charm was back in his eyes, effectively hiding any deeper emotions he might have.
“I got sausage and eggs here,” he said, unpacking the groceries. “And coffee and milk. In fact, I got enough supplies for us to hole up here for today and tomorrow. Oh, and here’s a little something for you.” He tossed her a box of Twinkies.
“Thanks.” It was ridiculous really, how the fact that he’d bought her a box of the treats touched her. Most women received flowers from their male friends, but as Libby looked at the box of Twinkies, she realized they were more precious than a dozen roses could ever be.
She sat down at the kitchen table, watching as he efficiently sliced off the sausage and placed it in an old iron skillet he found in one of the rickety kitchen cabinets. As the sausage sizzled, he filled an aluminum coffeepot and got it perking on one of the burners. Within minutes a savory mixture of scents permeated the air.
Libby got up and crossed to the curtains, starting to pull them back all the way to allow the morning sun better entry.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Tony said softly. “We don’t know how thorough these men will be if they’re still looking for us. We don’t want to make it too easy on them.”
“Oh, of course,” Libby replied, pulling the curtains closed again. For a brief moment, she’d forgotten the men, the danger that still existed from them.
She sat back down at the table. “Do you really think we need to stay here for two days?”
Tony moved the perking coffee off the burner. “I don’t know, Libby. I’m functioning in the dark as much as you are. I just think if we give ourselves a little time, say about two days, then our odds are better at not encountering those men. Hopefully by that time those men will think we got lost, or went back to Kansas City or left the country.”
Libby nodded, wondering what they were going to do to wile away the next forty-eight hours in this tiny room. They couldn’t go outside and explore the area. There wasn’t a television—not even a radio—in the room. Just Tony, with his incredibly tight jeans, his evocative smile, his powerful maleness. It was definitely going to be a hellish two days.
“Sure you don’t want at least a piece of sausage?” he asked moments later as he joined her at the table.
She shook her head. “Just the coffee.” She took a sip and grimaced. “And I think one cup of it will be quite enough.”
“Bad, huh?” He shook his head ruefully. “I never could make it without the benefit of a machine. But I did remember to get some lunch meat for sandwiches and hot dogs for supper. At least we can’t mess those up with the antiquated cooking equipment.”
She nodded, smiling as she watched him eat. He ate with a natural gusto, as if each bite might be his last. He would probably make love with the same passion, the same intensity. A woman would be loved thoroughly, completely, by Tony Pandolinni.
Libby mentally shoved these thoughts out of her head, knowing they were ridiculous and nonproductive.
She got up from the table and went into the bathroom, taking a cool, wet cloth and running it lightly over her face. She picked up the necklace from the edge of the sink and carried it back to the table with her.
As Tony finished eating, she focused her attention on the locket in the center, opening it and staring at the empty space within. “There’s got to be something we’re missing,” she muttered. “Whatever is so important, it’s not the necklace itself, and it’s not what’s on the inside.” She looked up at Tony curiously. “What could it be?”
His brow wrinkled in thought. “I wish I knew.”
Libby nodded her agreement and shoved the necklace aside.
After Tony ate, she helped him with the dishes, finding it strangely intimate to stand next to him at the sink doing something as mundane as washing dishes. His broad shoulders bumped hers as they put the dishes in the cabinets, the contact creating an electric circuit throughout her entire body.
With the dishes put away, Libby wandered the room and Tony sat at the table, tapping his fingertips on the tabletop. “Didn’t you tell me that your father taught you to bluff at poker?” he asked suddenly.
She looked at him curiously and nodded. “Lots of times Vinnie and I would play cards to pass the time when business was slow at the shop.”
Tony got up and went to the sack of items he’d bought at the grocery store and pulled out a pack of brand-new playing cards. “I thought these might come in handy.”
Libby smiled eagerly, anxious to do something, anything to take her mind off the necklace and its danger, and Tony and a very different kind of danger. She sat down across from him at the table, watching as he unwrapped the cards and shuffled them with deft fingers. “We’ll see what kind of a bluff you can pull off,” he said, a twinkle of challenge in his eyes and a lazy smile of indulgence curving his lips upward.
An hour later, the indulgence was gone as he witnessed Libby’s skill. Her eyes glittered merrily as she won yet another hand. Tony was playing poorly, and he knew he was playing poorly, but he couldn’t concentrate on the cards in his hand. He couldn’t think of anything but her scent, which seemed to invade his brain. He couldn’t focus on anything except the memory of her mouth against his, hot and wild, sweet and hungry. He’d never wanted a woman with the intensity that he wanted Libby, and he feared the only way he would be able to get her out of his system was to make love to her, wildly, passionately and completely. Then, and only then, would he be able to stop thinking about her, stop wanting her, stop obsessing on what it would be like to possess her totally.
They stopped playing cards long enough to make sandwiches for lunch, then resumed the card games, moving to gin rummy, slapjack and even go fish.
It was after dinner that Libby shoved the cards away. “If we play one more game, I’m going to be sick,” she exclaimed.
Tony sighed, heartily agreeing. Still, the evening hours stretched before them, empty and tense. He got up and paced the room, trying to ignore the fact that suddenly everything she did seemed overtly sensual, a taunting turn-on. And the fact that she was oblivious to her effect on him only heightened that effect.
“I guess I’ll go shower,” she finally said, feeling a strange tension in the air. He nodded curtly, making her wonder if she had somehow done something to make him angry.
When she was gone and the sound of the shower filled the tiny cabin, Tony got up from the table and paced the room like a caged animal. He’d never done well at wasting time. He needed action, stimulation, something to take his mind off Libby.
He threw himself back into a chair at the table, feeling a foul mood descending around him, a foul mood that could only be lifted by an intense bout of lovemaking. He stared at the closed bathroom door, imagining her standing beneath the shower spray. He closed his eyes, seeing her body, lithe and wet, nipples distended from the stimulation of the shower spray. He saw himself, also naked, sweeping aside the flimsy shower curtain, joining her in the tiny enclosure. He’d soap her body, running the bar slowly, sensually down her neck, across each of her perfectly rounded breasts, down the flatness of her stomach and into the tangled curls of her center. He could hear her moans of pleasure, feel her wet heat surrounding him, taste the essence of her as his tongue followed his hand.
He shook his head, appalled to find himself standing at the door of the bathroom, his hand on the doorknob, his body fully aroused. Damn her…damn her for making him want her in a way he’d never wanted another woman. Damn her for complicating his life. He slammed his fist against the door in a rapid knock.
She threw open the door, her eyes startled, a towel barely covering the body he’d just been fantasizing about. “What? What is it?” she asked urgently.
“I’m going out,” he said, backing away from the swirling steam that drifted out of the bathroom, backing away from the sweet, clean scent of her. “I’ll be back later. Don’t open the door for anyone but me.”
Without waiting for an answer, he flew from the cabin, once outside breathing deeply of the crisp evening air, trying to regain control over his traitorous thoughts.
Libby finished her shower, then left the bathroom, shivering slightly as she remembered the blackness of Tony’s eyes when she had opened the bathroom door and found him standing there. For a moment, for just a brief moment, she had thought he was going to grab her in his arms, throw her on the bed and have his way with her. She smiled at this thought, knowing that in having his way with her he would please her, as well.
She went over to the window and peered out. Darkness was beginning to fall and she wished Tony would come back. She didn’t like the idea of being in this room all alone.
She got into bed, not knowing what else to do. She opened up the drawer in the dresser next to the bed and pulled out the only book the room boasted. This particular copy of the Bible looked like it had been read by hundreds and hundreds of people. The pages were yellowed, some torn, and she found herself wondering about the people who had rented this room before them. Had they been hiding? Or had some been lovers, come to find a night of pleasure in an off-the-tracks motel? She bet if these walls could talk, they would have hundreds of stories, slices of lives from people diverse and similar.
Where the hell was Tony? Where could he have gone? She jumped as she heard something outside the window. A thud, as if somebody had slipped and hit against it. She froze, tensed as she waited to hear if the sound would be repeated. Seconds ticked by…minutes…and still Libby didn’t relax. She suddenly had a feeling that there was somebody, something just outside the window.
She slid off the bed and sidled across the room, holding her breath as she clicked off the light, plunging the room into darkness. All she could see was the faint outline of the window in the blackness that surrounded her.
Still holding her breath, she moved to the window and lifted the corner of the curtain a fraction of an inch. She stifled a gasp as she saw the shadow of somebody standing near the corner of the building. She closed her eyes for a moment. Let it be Tony, she prayed, afraid to look again, but afraid not to. She opened her eyes and looked once again, fear welling up in her throat as she realized the shadow couldn’t be Tony, not unless he had grown an enormous potbelly since leaving the cabin.
She allowed the curtain to fall back closed, fighting off an overwhelming sense of hysteria. Who was out there, and where in the hell was Tony? In the darkness of the room, she carefully made her way over to the cabinets, opening a drawer and rummaging around until she felt the handle of a paring knife. She knew it wasn’t exactly a lethal weapon, but at least with it in her hand she didn’t feel completely helpless. She squeezed the knife handle, realizing her palms were sweaty. She moved back over to the door, waiting…praying for Tony to return.
* * *
Tony walked around the side of the cabin, immediately freezing as he saw somebody lurking in the shadows by the front door. He leaned down and eased his gun out, his adrenaline pumping through his veins, a welcome, familiar visitor.
He flattened himself against the rough wood of the cabin, narrowing his eyes as he watched the man, who seemed to be trying to look into the window. In an instant, Tony’s mind took note of several different things. The man was vastly overweight and was breathing heavily through his mouth. He also didn’t appear to have a gun or a weapon of any kind in his hands. Still, Tony knew better than to underestimate the man. If he was part of the group that was hunting them, he was dangerous and wouldn’t hesitate to kill to get what he wanted.
Realizing he’d have a better chance of sneaking up on the man from the other side of the cabin, Tony eased himself around the corner of the building. With the stealth of a wild animal, he snuck around the back of the building, moving carefully so no twig, no branch would crackle beneath his feet and give away his presence. At that moment, he had the element of surprise on his side.
He didn’t think anymore. He worked on instinct alone, allowing his years of police training to take over. He didn’t think again until he was directly behind the man, his gun stuck in his back. “Don’t move,” he breathed softly as the man froze. “Don’t move because I’m very nervous and you might make me shoot you.”
“For God’s sake, don’t shoot,” the man cried.
“Tony?” Libby’s frantic voice drifted out of the cabin door. “Tony, is that you?”
“It’s me, Libby. Open the door,” Tony instructed, wanting to get the intruder inside, where he didn’t have to watch his back.
Libby opened the door and turned on the interior light, its illumination spilling out to where Tony and the intruder stood. “Please don’t move too quickly,” Tony advised the fat stranger as he prodded him to go into the cabin.
Tony smiled at Libby, a dangerous glint in his eyes as he motioned for her to sit on the bed out of the way. “This gentleman seems to have an inordinate amount of interest in this room,” he said pleasantly as he motioned for the man to have a seat at the kitchen table. His pleasant tone did nothing to diminish the fact that he was in control, and there was a cold calculation in his eyes that Libby had never seen before.
As he faced the man, Tony’s gun didn’t waver, but pointed directly at the fat man’s belly. “Perhaps you’d like to tell us exactly why you are lurking around our room.”
“For God’s sake, man, put the gun away. I didn’t mean no harm,” the fat man replied, sweat running profusely down the sides of his ruddy face. “I was just supposed to find out if she was with you,” he said, jabbing a finger toward Libby.
“Why?” Tony asked, all pretense of pleasantry gone as he eyed the man coldly. “What do you want with her and who sent you here?”
“I don’t want nothing with her. I was just supposed to find out if she was with you. He told me he was sure you two were…you know…screwing around.”
“Bill,” Libby said flatly.
The fat man nodded vigorously. “I’m a private investigator. Bill Weatherby hired me to find you two.”
“How’d you find us?” Tony asked, the dangerous lights in his eyes diminished somewhat. He still held the gun out, somehow enjoying the man’s discomfort.
“I got a friend at the police department who overheard that you were here in Muddy Creek.” He shrugged his massive shoulders. “There’s only one motel around here, so you weren’t that hard to find.”
“You have ID?”
He nodded and reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a wallet. He flipped it open and held it out to Tony. Tony looked at the identification card, then thumbed through the rest of the documents in the wallet, satisfied that the man was indeed, who he said he was. He’d heard of the man before. Being in the same business, he knew most of the reputable and disreputable private dicks in the area. And what he knew about this particular man didn’t make him a model of the profession.
“What’s Bill paying for your report?” he asked.
“Five hundred a day plus expenses.”
Tony smiled. “I’ll make you a little deal.” The fat man sat forward eagerly. “You go back and tell Bill you couldn’t find us and I’ll let you live.” Tony’s voice was deceptively soft, but his eyes held the hard glint of a man who didn’t make empty promises. “You get the hell out of here and don’t tell a soul that this is where we are, and I’ll never bother you again. But if you tell one person that we are here, I’ll find you wherever you are, and I’ll make sure you never speak another word.”
The fat man’s face visibly paled. He cleared his throat several times. “Oh…as a professional courtesy, I won’t mention to anyone that you’re here,” he agreed.
Tony smiled tightly. “As a professional courtesy, I strongly recommend you get into your car and drive as fast as you can back to Kansas City. You’re lucky I didn’t put a bullet in your back when I saw you at the window.” Tony dropped his gun and motioned for the door.
The man moved with a speed that belied his bulky size, running out the door and disappearing into the darkness of the night.
“Should we leave here?” Libby asked as Tony shut the door and carefully locked it.
“I don’t think so. I still think we’re safe for the time being. It was luck and connections that allowed him to find us.” He eyed the paring knife she still held in her hand. “What were you going to do with that pigsticker? Tickle him?”
She smiled ruefully. “It’s the biggest knife in the drawer, but you’re right, it wouldn’t have done much against his protective layering.” Her smile faded. “Do you really think he’ll not tell anyone we’re here.”
Tony nodded. “He’s a sleaze. He loves money, but he values his life even more. He won’t tell.”
Libby put the knife back in the drawer, then sighed in disgust. “I can’t believe Bill hired that man. When will he quit?”
Tony eased himself down into a kitchen chair. Now that the adrenaline had fled his body, weariness took its place. “You picked a real winner to marry,” he observed.
Libby turned and looked at him. “Yes, it’s been my misfortune to be attracted to men who seem incapable of giving back real love.” She stared at him for a long moment, wondering if she hadn’t repeated the mistake.