Seeing Red Read online

  Summer sank beneath the water to wet her hair. She sat up, poured shampoo into her hand and worked on getting the smell of smoke out of her hair. She dunked again and stayed under a moment to let the shampoo rinse out.

  Suddenly a hand snaked around her arm and hauled her up. Blinking water out of her eyes, she stared into Joe’s.

  “What are you doing?” he demanded.

  “Um, washing my hair?”

  “Oh.” He let go of her. “Right.”

  She stared at him, seeing the fierce angst on his face. “What did you think I was trying to—”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Jesus, Joe, I’m not that distraught over your second rejection.”

  Looking taut enough to splinter into pieces, he dropped his chin to his chest. His genuine distress tore at her, and she touched his strong, square jaw. “I’m really okay, you know.”

  “Yeah.” He slowly backed away.

  “Is my touch that bad?”

  “Try that good.” He stared into her eyes, his own glittering with all he felt. The unspoken promise was there. He’d catch her if she fell. He’d be there for whatever she needed, and it caught her defenseless and choked her up. Joe Walker was the real deal, as real as a man could get, and much too much for her to handle.

  As if he could read her mind, he surged to his feet. “You might be able to be blasé about this,” he said, his gaze sweeping over her. “But I sure as hell can’t be.”

  “Joe.”

  “Your mom called. I told her I’d stay with you until dawn.”

  Dawn. There were a lot of hours between now and then.

  “Finish your bath. Then get into bed and try to sleep.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’ll be in the living room if you need me.”

  His message was clear. Don’t need me.

  The scream shot through Joe like shredded shrapnel. He jerked out of sleep and right off the couch, landing face first on the floor.

  With the last echoes of Summer’s terrified cry echoing in his head, he leapt to his feet in the pitch black living room of her cottage. “Red?”

  Only a gasping breath answered him. He rushed toward the sound, tripped over what felt like a cement pipe against his shins, and once again landed flat on his face. Something tumbled down after him, smacking him on the back of the head, making him see stars.

  A light flickered on.

  He’d tripped over the end table, upending the lamp, which had hit him in the head. The pain spreading outward to every inch of his body, he flopped to his back and groaned. Summer stood in the doorway next to the light switch. Her face was pale, her eyes huge in her face as she held on to the doorjamb like a lifeline.

  “You okay?” she asked.

  “I was going to ask you that question. Before your furniture beat the crap out of me.” With another groan, he rubbed the back of his head and staggered to his feet. “I was trying to rescue you.”

  “That’s okay, the demons were all in my head.”

  “A nightmare?”

  Eyes still filled with the remembered horror, she nodded.

  Everything within him softened in sympathy and understanding. He knew the dreams, knew how haunting they could be. He started toward her, manfully not whimpering at the cracking, stinging pain in his shins and the base of his skull.

  “I was back there.” Her breath hitched. “I couldn’t get out. I could hear my dad. Screaming—” Covering her mouth with a shaking hand, she looked away.

  She wore only a soft white camisole and hot-pink bikini panties, but even in the low light of the lamp he could see the goose bumps raised on her flesh. Miles of sleek, smooth, bronzed flesh.

  Down boy, he thought, and did the only thing he could. He reached for her. She met him halfway, curling into him, burying her face in the crook of his neck. Wrapping his arms around her, he absorbed her tremors and stroked a hand down her hair, down her back. “Just a dream,” he murmured, and pressed his lips to her temple.

  “The flames were biting at me.”

  There weren’t words to take those memories away so he just held her as tight as he could, stroking his hands up and down her quivering body. Later he couldn’t name the moment when things shifted from him giving the comfort, to him losing control of the embrace entirely, but it might have been when he felt her lips against his throat.

  And then the tip of her tongue.

  “Red.” He anchored his hands to a neutral position by fisting them in her hair.

  She did the same to him, then lifted her head, lined up their mouths and took his. And just like that, he sank into her. He couldn’t help it. There they were, with him wearing only his opened jeans and her in her barely there camisole and panties, naked flesh brushing naked flesh, mouths fused, sharing breath, sharing that soulful connection he’d never been able to find in anyone else. It felt like a homecoming.

  Still kissing him, she slipped her hand into his jeans, humming with approval when she wrapped her fingers around the biggest erection he’d ever had.

  He put his hands on her shoulders, skimming her straps down. Then he lifted his mouth from hers to watch as he tugged the thin material away from her. Her breasts bounced free, and her nipples hardened for him. “You take my breath,” he murmured, and bent to taste her.

  She gasped but kept her eyes open. Progress. He looked up at her in the lamp’s glow and felt his heart clench.

  She still had her hands in his pants, and she stroked him, squeezing lightly. “Slow down,” he warned. “Or I’ll lose it before we start.”

  She didn’t slow down.

  To make them even, he slipped his hands into the back of her panties, playing his fingers between her thighs in the creamy heat he found there. Not enough. He dropped to his knees and put his mouth low on her softly rounded stomach, right next to the belly button ring that was going to highlight his fantasies for many nights to come. God, she was the sexiest thing he’d ever seen. And the tastiest. He nibbled his way lower.

  After that he never remembered who dragged whom to the carpet, or who found the condom, or even who tore off whose clothing, but when he finally sank into her glorious body so wet and ready for him, he felt…engrossed. And not just physically. She captured him heart and soul, and as he leaned over her, touching her face, kissing her mouth, looking into her fathomless eyes so full of emotion for him, he hoped to God she felt the same way.

  Chapter 11

  As the sun came up, Joe drove from Summer’s cottage back to the fire site. His eyes were gritty from lack of sleep and the already warm air didn’t help.

  After he and Summer had given each other rug burns to be remembered, he’d carried her to bed and had then proceeded to watch her sleep for the next few hours. It hadn’t been her light snoring that kept him awake, but the woman herself.

  He’d lain there with no covers—seemed she was also a bit of a blanket hog—staring up at the shadows on the ceiling, reliving the night. The fire. The fear. The adrenaline. Then Summer slowly stripping out of her clothes as the bath filled up, standing there in a stark white sports bra and panties, looking long and willowy and curvy.

  And irresistible.

  He’d pictured it thousands of times, her naked in his arms, her fiery hair draping his body as she sank down on him, taking him deep inside her. The reality of her doing just that had blown the fantasy out of the water.

  She was leaving today.

  He wasn’t a complete fool. He knew enough about her to understand that what had happened between them wouldn’t get in her way.

  Fine. So be it. When she was gone, he could get back to some semblance of normalcy, without wondering each day if she’d send one of her soulful smiles his way. Yep. Her leaving would free up a lot of mental time and energy.

  He pulled into the parking lot of the burned-out Creative Interiors II and showed his badge to the officer who’d been there all night guarding the scene. Kenny pulled up right after him. All around were a crew of f