First Impressions Read online

  “Tell me what’s happened,” he said, ignoring her comment.

  “It’s just that…I mean…” Sniffing, she moved slightly away from him and looked around. “Where are we?”

  “The well house,” he said.

  Blinking, she looked about her. A flashlight was pointed at the ceiling. The building, eighteenth century, and quite pretty, had once been the smokehouse to the plantation, so it had no windows. In the corner, inside an ugly plywood closet, were the tanks and pump necessary for piping well water to the house and the outside spigots. The rest of the small building had been used for storage, and it had always been filled to capacity. She saw that now it was clean and had what looked to be a mattress and blankets on the floor.

  “The men used it,” Jared said as he lit a fat candle and turned the flashlight off. He was sitting just inches from her on the mattress. “They were taking a chance that you’d find them, but a lock’s been installed and…” Trailing off, he shrugged and looked away.

  Outside, the rain began to sprinkle, making a pleasing noise when it hit the tin roof of the building. Eden wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I better get back inside. Melissa will—”

  Jared caught her arm. “You’re not going anywhere until you tell me everything that’s been going on.”

  “Nothing,” she said. “I need to get back inside. Melissa might need me.”

  “I think that girl needs to be turned over somebody’s knee.”

  Eden smiled at him in the candlelight. “That’s no longer done. Besides, Melissa is a grown woman.”

  “She’s a little girl in a woman’s body,” Jared said, unsmiling, “and you let her stay a child. You ought to—”

  At that, Eden’s tears started again. She put her hands over her face and began to cry harder than before.

  Stretching out on the mattress beside her, Jared pulled her into his arms. “Ssssh, baby, be quiet. I’m here,” he whispered, stroking her hair.

  The rain came down on the roof, isolating them in the beautiful old building. She clung to him, plastering her body against his. She so needed the comfort of another human being. She was sick of trying to be strong, of trying to be everything to everybody. She was worn out from being strong.

  The harder the rain came down, and the harder she cried, the closer she wanted to be to the warmth of his body. He pulled her to him, but when her leg moved over his, he pulled back. “I can’t do this,” he said, his voice husky. “I can’t hold you and not do anything else.”

  “It’s okay,” Eden said, her tears beginning to dry. “It’s okay.”

  “I…” Jared began, but when he looked at Eden it was as though he’d made a decision. In the next moment, he was beside her, and pulled her into his arms.

  “Yes,” she murmured, her arms around him. “Yes.”

  He put his hand in her hair, clasped the back of her head, and turned her face to his. For a second he looked into her eyes, then put his lips on hers. He was tentative at first, giving her one last chance to back out, but her arms tightened about his neck, and his kiss deepened.

  Eden knew that never in her life had she needed anyone as much as she needed this man at that moment. Lightning showed through the holes in the old walls of the little building, and in the next moment a clap of thunder echoed around them, making her move closer to Jared.

  His hand went under her sweatshirt. She hadn’t bothered with a bra, and when his hand touched her breast, she moaned under his lips.

  After that, he didn’t hold back. Within seconds, he had her shirt off and he was caressing her with his warm hands. His lips were on her neck and moving downward. It seemed that it had been forever since she’d been in a man’s arms. Forever since she’d—

  She cut off her thought and for a moment she pulled back to look at the man who was kissing her. His eyes were half closed and his lips were full and soft. He’s in love with me, she thought. The Jared McBride she’d met such a short time ago was gone, and in his place was a man who had no defenses, no pretenses. What she was seeing was not covered under a mask of lies.

  He opened his eyes to look at her, and in an instant, that guarded look was back. It was the face of a man who had been hurt and needed to protect himself. Like me, Eden thought. Pain beyond bearing.

  Jared seemed to sense that something was different, and he started to roll away, his eyes hard, guarded, covered.

  But she put her hand on his shoulder. He hesitated for a moment, then he looked back at her. She was on her side, naked from the waist up, her jeans unzipped and pulled low on her hips. She saw the desire in his eyes, and she saw the deep feeling there. She knew that if she had any sense, she’d stop this here and now, before it went any further, but she didn’t. Smiling in invitation, she rolled onto her back and opened her arms to him.

  There was a moment of hesitation from Jared, then with a small smile, he went to her and slipped the jeans down over her hips, giving a low laugh when he saw that she was wearing no underwear. She laughed too, then he turned slightly away from her. “Oh, no, you don’t,” she said. “I want to see the hand I’m being dealt.”

  He laughed, and when he disrobed in what had to be less than a quarter of a second, they laughed together. He stretched out beside her, and even though she could see and feel his rampant desire for her, he lay still so she could look at his body. Years of exercise had kept him in trim fit, but there were many scars on his body. She traced one with her fingertips and looked at him in question.

  “Knife,” he said, then kissed her neck.

  Her hands on his back found another scar. “Bullet,” he said.

  There was another scar down by his hip. “You don’t want to know,” he said, then he put his mouth on hers and there was no more talking.

  They made love for hours on the old mattress. There was the first frantic meeting of bodies, a bit awkward, but wonderfully pleasurable, and when they came together, Eden nearly laughed with the joy of it.

  Jared collapsed on her, and for a second she thought he’d gone to sleep. She dug her heels into the mattress, then heaved him over onto his back and stretched herself out full length on top of him. “Come on, old man, you have work to do.”

  “No,” he said, eyes closed. “I’m too tired. I want to sleep. I am an old man and I’ll never be able to do this twice in one night.”

  “In that case…” Eden said as she made to roll off of him.

  But his hand caught her and pulled her back on top of him. His eyes were still closed. “Maybe I could,” he said tiredly. “Maybe you could bring me back to life.”

  “Me? And how would I do that?” Her hand moved downward.

  “That’s a start. I have a couple of other scars that you haven’t found.”

  “Oh?” Her hand went lower. “Here? No, I feel nothing. What about here? No, no scars. What about here?”

  Jared gasped as her hand closed over him. “Keep looking,” he said huskily.

  An hour later, they fell back on the mattress, not touching. Their skin glowed with sweat. The rain was slowing down, and at last Eden felt sleepy.

  Rolling onto his side away from her, Jared reached under a cardboard box and withdrew a bottle of wine and two paper cups and filled them. “No sleeping,” he said.

  Eden turned onto her side, facing him, pulled her legs up a bit and closed her eyes.

  Jared pulled a blanket over her, then held out the cup of wine. “You’re going to sit up and talk to me.”

  “In the morning,” she murmured.

  “Do you know the reading-out I got when I was pulled off your case?” he asked. “I was told that if I’d just talked to you more and—”

  She opened one eye. “And what?”

  “Drooled over you less,” he said, tight-lipped.

  “I like that,” she said sleepily. “Not many men have drooled over me.”

  “You can’t lie to me, Palmer, I’ve read your file, remember? As far as I can tell a whole lot of men have ‘drooled’ over y