Chance Encounter Read online

  Chance.

  All thoughts of sleep vanished, replaced by images of comforting him, holding him close, somehow making him accept the fact that for once, she could help him. Even if that help came only in the form of comfort.

  She was just outside his office door before she heard his low, quiet voice say, “Yes, everyone’s safe.”

  “And Ally,” came Lucy’s voice from the speakerphone on his desk. “How’s my Ally?”

  Chance was leaning on his desk, arms crossed, staring out the windows into the dark night. Every inch of his body looked tense and taut as steel. As if he sensed her, he turned to the door. Their gazes met and locked. “Ally’s okay,” he said, staring at her. Absorbing her.

  “And you?” Lucy asked, blissfully unaware of the tension now shimmering in the room. “I know you too damn well, Chance. You’ll be the one out there where it’s not safe.”

  Chance didn’t break eye contact with Ally. “I’ll be fine. I have to go, but I’ll call you first thing in the morning, okay?”

  “Fine. But Chance?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I love you, as if you were my own son. I just wanted you to know that.”

  CHANCE TURNED AWAY from the window and grabbed the phone. With his throat suddenly tight, so tight he could barely speak much less breathe, he was eternally grateful for the dark room.

  “Say it,” Lucy said in his ear. “You don’t have to tell me you love me back, just say you know I love you, and that you believe it.”

  His eyes burned, and it wasn’t from inhaling smoke for hours. “Lucy.”

  Her voice softened. “Hon, I know damn well you’ve never let your own family close enough to tell you how they feel, so let me tell you tonight of all nights, when things are as bad as they can get. Everyone needs that, needs to know they’re loved.”

  He hadn’t ever believed that, until now, but he couldn’t speak past the football-size lump in his throat. He was painfully aware of Ally watching him.

  “Chance? I’m going to keep telling you, do you hear me?”

  “Hard to miss it,” he managed gruffly. “You’re shouting.”

  Although he knew Ally could no longer hear Lucy’s side of the conversation, he saw her smile. It was a bit ragged, as was she from the night’s events, and more than anything, he wanted to hold her. “I’ve really got to go.”

  “Okay, you don’t want to talk mushy, I understand. But I meant what I said.” Lucy’s voice was full of warmth and affection. “Goodnight, Chance.”

  “Goodnight…and Lucy?” He waited until the last possible second to say it. “I love you, too.”

  He hung up and stared at the phone for a long moment before lifting his head. Ally was still there, silhouetted in the dark, open doorway. She was filthy, smelled like smoke, was pale as a ghost, and she’d never looked more beautiful to him. He wanted her, probably more than he’d ever wanted anyone, but that wasn’t what scared him now, as he’d felt that need before, with other women. It was how badly he wanted to bury his face in her hair, wanted her to hold him, while together they rode out this terrible, haunting sense of…aloneness.

  That was entirely new.

  “You okay?” she asked, her voice soft and somehow comforting in the dark.

  “You should be in bed.” Another image he didn’t need, her in a bed, all tangled in the silky sheets, hair spread over the pillow, lips soft and inviting…

  “I’m going soon.”

  Good. Great. He’d be picturing that for the rest of the night. “Tired of the big, bad wilderness yet?”

  “I miss the city,” she admitted. “But I’m not tired of Wyoming.”

  Which wouldn’t hold her here. He knew that.

  “And to be honest…”

  No, don’t be honest, he wanted to say. Don’t open up to me. Don’t make me care any more than I already do.

  “In the month before I came…” Her eyes flickered with embarrassment. “I managed to mess things up. I…lost my job when they accused me of stealing.”

  “You wouldn’t do that.”

  “No,” she agreed softly. “I wouldn’t. But Thomas didn’t have such qualms, and—”

  “Thomas?”

  “My very ex-boyfriend. He stole some classics and let me take the blame. Luckily he’s the one that ended up in prison.”

  Chance was surprised at the hot white surge of fury that caused within him. “Doesn’t sound like a good enough punishment to me.”

  To his surprise, she laughed. “It worked for me, once I got Lucy’s letter asking me to come to Wyoming.”

  He gave in to the curiosity he’d been fighting. “Jo says your family calls a lot. Are you supporting all of them?”

  “Does Jo always tell you about other people’s private messages?”

  “When she’s worried about a friend.”

  Now it was Ally’s turn to grimace. “She doesn’t consider me a friend.”

  It surprised him, the look of hurt. And knowing he’d put most of it there made him uncomfortable. “I know that at first the staff wasn’t exactly welcoming, but I also know that’s changed.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Look, you work hard, you’re good to everyone, and you genuinely care about this place and what we’re doing. Any of them would do just about anything for you, you’ve got to know that.”

  She stared at him, her eyes suspiciously bright, and he groaned out loud.

  But she quickly lifted a hand. “No, I’m okay. Really.” She sniffed and shot him an embarrassed laugh. “But they like me? They really like me?” She swiped at a tear. “I like them, too, very much. And despite not wanting to…” She moved toward him now, oh God, right toward him, with a soft, warm light in her gaze. “I like you, too, Chance. A lot.”

  He didn’t want to know this, and yet in a sick way, he did want to know it. Sleep, he decided. He needed sleep. That was all it was, just plain exhaustion.

  Halfway convinced, he straightened away from the desk, but all that did was bring him into closer contact with the woman he couldn’t get out of his head.

  Sweet and fiery. Shy yet sexy. Smart as hell, but somewhat naive. Adventurous. Ally was all those things, and every one of them drove him crazy.

  “You know all about me,” she whispered, lifting a hand to his jaw. “But you never talk about yourself.”

  Her touch set his body on fire. “Not everyone is an open book.”

  She didn’t take the bait and back off. Antsy Ally was learning to stand up for herself, and damn if that wasn’t arousing all in itself.

  “You’re not afraid of a little conversation, are you?” she murmured, dancing her fingers across his skin.

  He might have laughed at that open dare, but she was still watching him so intently. Curiously. She really wanted to know about him.

  “Tell me about you, about your family,” she pressed.

  “I have one,” he said.

  “Ooh, three whole words about yourself.”

  “Very funny.” He grabbed her hand so she couldn’t touch him. “You already know everything. My parents are world travelers. They live in Las Vegas now. And I have two older brothers. Remember?”

  “Yes… So you’re the baby of the family.” She smiled at that. “Hard to imagine. Do you see them often?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “Are you sure you’re not tired? Because you look tired.”

  “Why not?” she repeated patiently.

  “They’re busy.”

  “Would you be there for them if they needed you?”

  “You mean would I send them money for a summer wardrobe?” He laughed when she rolled her eyes. “No. But yeah, I’d be there if they needed me.”

  “And what about the friend who died? Were you married to her?”

  “No.” When she continued to look at him questioningly, without censure or morbid curiosity, just a genuine need to know about him, he sighed. “Tina and I were young and stupid, and thought we wer