Strangers in the Night Read online

  She blinked. The biscuits were a golden brown, perfectly risen. She had a good hand with biscuits, or so Pops had always said. She took a deep breath and, using a dish cloth, took the hot pan out of the oven and set it on a cooling rack.

  “Why does Vargas think you’re a witch?”

  That brought her to earth with a thud. The change in his tone was subtle, but there: He was the sheriff, and he wanted to know if anyone in his county was practicing witchcraft.

  “Several reasons, I suppose.” She turned to face him, her expression cool and unreadable. “I live alone out in the woods, I seldom go into town, I don’t socialize. The witch rumor started when I was in fourth grade, I think.”

  “Fourth grade, huh?” He leaned against the cabinet, blue gaze sharp on her face. “I guess he’d been watching too many Bewitched reruns.”

  She lifted one eyebrow and waited.

  “So you don’t cast spells, or dance naked in the moonlight, or anything like that?”

  “I’m not a witch,” she said plainly. “I’ve never cast a spell, though I might dance naked in the moonlight, if the notion took me.”

  “Do tell.” The gaze warmed, and moved slowly down her body. “Call me if you need a dancing partner. ”

  “I’ll do that.”

  He looked up, met her eyes, and as simply as that, there was no longer any need for caution.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked, moving closer, stroking one finger up her bare arm.

  “No.”

  “So the biscuits and beef stew can wait?”

  “They can.”

  He took the dishcloth and set the pan of stew off the eye. “Will you go to bed with me, then, Lilah Jones?”

  “I Will.”

  6

  Lilah lit the lamp in her bedroom and turned it low. The storm and heavy rain made the room as dark as night, lit briefly by the flashes of lightning. Jackson seemed to fill the small room, his shoulders throwing a huge shadow over the wall. His aura, visible even in the low light, pulsated with that deep, clear red again, the color of passion and sensuality.

  He began unbuttoning his shirt, and she turned back the bedcovers, neatly folding the quilt and plumping the pillows. Her bed looked small, she thought, though it was a double. It was certainly too small for him. Perhaps she should see about getting a larger one, though she wasn’t certain how long he would use hers. That was the problem with the flashes of precognition; they told her facts, but not circumstances. She knew only that Jackson would be her lover, and her love. She had no idea if he would love her in return, if they would be together forever or only this one time.

  “You look nervous.” Despite the sharpness of his desire, which she could plainly see, his voice was quiet. His shirt was unbuttoned but he hadn’t yet removed it. Instead he was watching her, his cop’s eyes seeing too much.

  “I am,” she admitted.

  “If you don’t want to do this, just say so. No hard feelings—well, except for one place,” he said wryly.

  “I do want to do this. That’s why I’m nervous.” Looking him in the eye, she unfastened her shorts and let them drop, then began unbuttoning her shirt. “I’ve never been so … attracted to anyone before. I’m always cautious, but—” She shook her head. “I don’t want to be cautious with you.”

  He shrugged the shirt off and let it drop to the floor. Lamplight gleamed on his shoulders, delineating the smooth, powerful muscles, and the broad chest shadowed with dark hair. Lilah inhaled deeply through her nose, feeling the warmth of arousal spread through her. She forgot what she was doing, just stood there looking at him, greedily drinking in the sight of her man undressing.

  He sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned forward to pull off his boots. Now she could admire the deep furrow of his spine, the rippling muscles in his back. Her heartbeat picked up in speed, and she got even warmer.

  The boots thunked on the wooden floor. He stood and unfastened his pants, let them drop, and pushed down his shorts. Totally naked, he stepped out of the circle of clothing and turned to face her.

  Oh, my.

  She must have said the words aloud, breathing them in hunger and lust and maybe even some bit of fear, because he laughed as he came to her, brushing aside her stalled hands and finishing the job of unbuttoning her shirt. He put his hands inside the shirt and smoothed them over her shoulders and down her arms, slipping the shirt off so easily she scarcely knew when it left. She wasn’t paying attention to her clothing anyway, only to the jutting penis that brushed her belly when he moved.

  She wrapped her hands around it, lightly stroking, exploring, delighting in the heat and hardness and textures, so different from her own body. Now it was he who sucked in a breath, his eyes closing as he stilled for a moment. Then he moved even closer, pushing his hands inside her panties and gripping the globes of her bottom as he pulled her to him. She had to release his penis and she made a sound of… disappointment? Impatience? Both. But there was reward in the pressure of his hard, hairy chest on her breasts, in the rasping sensation to her nipples. Her entire body seemed to go boneless, melting into him, curving to fit his contours.

  His breathing was ragged. “Let’s get you naked so I can look at you,” he muttered, releasing her bottom long enough to push her panties down her thighs. She wiggled until they dropped to her feet, and his breathing caught on a groan.

  “God! You’re a natural-born tease, aren’t you?” He pulled her up on her toes, welding her to him.

  “Am I?” She had never thought about teasing a man before, never wanted to; but if what she was doing was teasing him, then that was only fair, because she was driving herself crazy, too. The feel of their bare bodies brushing together was so delicious she wanted to moan. She kept moving against him, rubbing her nipples against his chest and turning them into hard, aching peaks.

  He stroked his hands over her bottom and back, his hands so hot and rough she wanted to purr. Then one hand went lower, curving under her bottom, and his fingers dipped between her legs. She gasped, arching into him as an almost electric sensation sparked through her. One finger explored deeper, slipping a little way into her. A soft, wild noise erupted from her throat, and she all but climbed him, one leg wrapping around him as she levered herself up so he could have better access.

  Panting, she buried her face in his throat, clinging for dear life while she waited in agony for him to deepen the caress. Slowly, so slowly, that big finger pressed deeper and she rocked under the impact. That wild little noise sounded again, and her hips surged, trying to take more of his finger. Pleasure and tension coiled in her, tighter and tighter, until it was pain and something more, something beyond anything she had imagined.

  “Not yet,” he said urgently. “Don’t come yet.” He turned and half-fell with her onto the bed, cradling her against the full impact of his weight as he landed on top of her. With a twist of his hips he settled between her thighs, and his erection prodded at her folds, briefly seeking her entrance before finding it and pressing inward. Her entire body contracted, tightening around that thick intrusion, though she couldn’t tell whether her body’s reaction was in welcome or an effort to limit the depth of his penetration.

  His hips recoiled, his buttocks tightened, and he pushed deeper, deeper, until her inner resistance was gone and in one long slide he was all the way inside her.

  She would have screamed, but her lungs were compressed with shock and she could barely breathe, much less scream. Her vision blurred and darkened. She hadn’t realized…. His penis felt almost unbearably hot inside her, burning and stretching her. She ached deep inside, where he was.

  He lifted up on his elbows, panting, the expression in his blue eyes both incredulous and ferociously intent. “Lilah … God, I can’t believe this—Are you a virgin?”

  “Not now.” Desperately she clutched his buttocks, her back arching as she tried to take him deeper. “Please. Oh, God, Jackson, please!” She bucked her hips at him, her head thrown back as she wrestled w