Drake, p.6
Drake, page 6
Cassie looped hers through his and walked beside him to the corner. “Stars, huh?
“Gotta be the best show in town with these big skies.”
“So I’ve heard,” Cassie smiled up into Drake’s eyes, ready to take a chance on this man.
Chapter 5
Drake held the door for Cassie to climb into his truck. Once he’d settled into the driver’s seat, he pulled out onto Main Street. “You’ve lived here your whole life; where’s the best place to stargaze?”
Cassie grinned. “As teens, we used to get together at the bluffs overlooking the river to watch the Perseid meteor shower.” She gave him the directions and leaned back in her seat.
“A teen hangout. Hopefully, not on a school night.” Drake shot a glance in her direction. “Let me guess…when you hung out here, alcohol was involved.”
With a shrug, Cassie nodded. “There might have been a party or two there. It was the favorite necking site until Deputy Barron started making it a regular stop on his weekend night shift. After that, the teens rotated hangout sites to keep the sheriff’s department guessing.”
“Now that you’re part of the sheriff’s department, are you policing the fresh batch of teens?”
She nodded, a grin spreading across her face. “It helps keep the teen pregnancy rate down and breaks up the parties before anyone gets so drunk they’ll fall off a cliff. The parents like it.”
Drake chuckled. “I’m sure the teens aren’t as appreciative.”
“Not at all. But then I’m not doing this job to make friends. I want the people of my community to be safe and live long, healthy lives.”
“You care about them.”
“I do. So many of them are like family. Especially since I lost my folks.”
“Do you have a strong support network of friends?” he asked.
She nodded. “I grew up with what we called our band of sisters. The six of us went through grade, middle and high school together. We were there for each other when we had our first crushes, first breakups, a couple of weddings, a miscarriage and divorces.”
“Do all six of you still live here?”
Cassie glanced away, her sad face reflected in the window. “All but one.”
“Where did she end up?”
“Los Angeles. She followed her boyfriend out to Hollywood. He was set on becoming the next big movie star.”
“And did he?”
“No. He’s done a couple of commercials, but no big breakthroughs. The last I heard, he was a valet at a high-end hotel.”
“And your friend?” He glanced at Cassie in time to see her grimace.
“I don’t know where she is. She phoned her mother four months ago, saying she was coming home for good.” Cassie stared out the front windshield. “She never made it.”
“What do you mean?”
“She disappeared. I’ve been searching for her ever since. She’s listed on the missing persons database, but nothing has come up. Even her car has disappeared. I think her boyfriend did something, but the LAPD confirmed his alibi for the night she left their apartment. He was in San Francisco that night with several friends.”
“No way to trace credit cards?”
Cassie gave a humorless laugh. “We’ve tried everything. “I think she would’ve used cash. Her boyfriend was abusive. We subpoenaed her bank records. She withdrew all of her money the day before she called her mother. She was preparing to run and probably didn’t want to leave a trail of credit card receipts.”
Drake nodded. “Which makes it even harder to trace her.”
“Exactly,” Cassie said. “If she hadn’t called her mother and said she was coming home, I would’ve suspected her of going into hiding. But she wouldn’t have gotten her mother’s hopes up if she hadn’t planned on coming home.”
“Unless she determined coming home would put her family in danger…?”
“That’s a possibility,” Cassie said. “But she would’ve found a way to tell her folks she’d changed her mind.”
“Is your missing friend part of the reason you’re so determined to discover the identity of the woman we found behind the wall?”
Cassie nodded. “I know how my friend Penny’s mother has grieved for her daughter, praying she’d come home safe and sound. I would want to know, once and for all, what had happened to my loved one. It gives closure.”
“Good point.” He drove on in silence.
Cassie guided him to the spot and waited until the truck rolled to a stop and he’d shut off the engine before she smiled and asked, “What do you think?”
He pushed open his door and climbed down. Before he could round the front of the truck, Cassie was out, meeting him in front.
Drake stared out across the sky bathed in indigo, a million stars providing enough illumination he could see the bluffs, the river below and the mountains surrounding them.
“Wow,” he said.
She laughed. “This place at night has always had that effect on me.” Cassie leaned her back against his truck’s hood and stared at the stars. “I lived in Missoula through most of the years I attended college. The city lights make it hard to see the stars. Sometimes at night, I would drive away from Missoula until the city lights faded and I could see the stars again. It reminded me of here.”
As Cassie spoke, Drake panned his surroundings, the blanket of stars above, and finally, let his gaze settle on the woman beside him.
She raised her face to the heavens as if bathing in the starlight, letting its radiance wash over her.
And it did, giving her skin a blue glow that emphasized her inner radiance.
“Beautiful,” she whispered.
“Yes,” he agreed. “Won’t your neck get sore tilted back like that?”
She straightened and rubbed the back of her neck. “A couple of lounge chairs would be nice about now.”
“I don’t have any lounge chairs.” Drake rounded to the side of the truck, opened the back door and pulled out the sleeping bag he kept rolled up behind the seat for emergencies. “I could spread this out on the ground.”
“Perfect,” she said with a grin. “How about spreading it out in the back of the truck? I’d rather not tempt the snakes to cuddle up beside us.”
“Good point.” Drake untied the strings, unrolled the bag, unzipped it and shook it out. He lowered the tailgate, climbed into the back of the truck and spread out the bag.
Cassie hiked her bottom up onto the tailgate and swung her legs around. “Is there room for two?”
“There is.” He waited for her to settle on the sleeping bag and dropped down beside her, lacing his hands behind his head. “Better?”
“Much.” She stared up at the stars. “The Perseid meteor shower is in the fall, but I can usually spot a shooting star on any given clear night. Sometimes, I’ll spot the International Space Station shining brightly overhead.”
Drake sighed and drank in the silence and vastness of the night. “I don’t need to see meteors, space stations or the rings of Saturn. Just lying here fills me with a peace I haven’t felt in a long time.”
“It is nice to escape the chaos of everyday life.”
“Agreed,” he said. “What chaos follows you?”
“The feeling that I’m not doing enough to find my friend. Having a cold case to resolve to give a family answers. Figuring out how to help my brother manage a ranch now that we’re the older generation.”
“It’s a heavy burden you carry,” he said.
She snorted softly. “I’m sure it all sounds like first-world problems compared to the stress and lingering nightmares of battles with people shooting at you, lobbing grenades and dropping bombs on you from airplanes.”
“While in the battles, it’s just another day on the job. Only there’s a constant sense of urgency. You have to keep moving. Your life depends on it.
“Back here, it’s more about appearances, rules and restraint. We’re forced to assimilate into a society that will never understand what we’ve lived through. Most civilians have never had a buddy blown to shreds in front of them or had one bleed out in their arms.”
“No, most of us haven’t experienced that,” Cassie whispered.
“I was glad Hank called to ask me to come work with other men like me. The men of the team working the demo are all prior military, spec ops. We speak the same language and know things.” Drake stared up at the vast blanket of stars filling the sky. It could have made him feel smaller…alone. But it didn’t. With his team nearby… “It’s like coming home.”
Cassie scooted closer and rested her head against his shoulder.
“Cold?” he asked.
“A little,” she said, pressing her body closer.
He lowered his arm, letting it curl around her.
For a long time, he lay still, looking up at the stars, barely aware of their shining glory when all he could think about was the woman whose body fit against him like a glove.
His groin tightened, and heat burned through his veins. He had to tell himself it was too soon for a lot of things. They’d only just met.
If he was lucky, he might score a kiss. But he wouldn’t push for more. He sensed that the time had to be right, and she had to make the first move.
It took a strong woman to be a sheriff’s deputy. Drake wouldn’t want anything less. If it meant proving to her he wasn’t an asshole like her last boyfriend, he’d do it. If it meant waiting until she was ready…he knew she would be worth the wait. She loved deeply and cared about the people of her community.
His arm tightened around her, then he loosened his hold, giving her freedom to move.
Cassie turned on her side and laid her hand on his chest. “What are you thinking about?”
“Kissing you.” The words left his mouth before he could stop them. “But don’t worry. I promise not to take advantage of you.”
She pushed up onto her elbow, her brow furrowing. “Seriously? Do I have to make all the moves?” Then she leaned over him and pressed her lips to his.
The heat in his veins flared, yet he held back, wanting to give her the lead.
She pressed her lips to his for a long moment and then leaned back, her frown deepening. “I take it you’re not feeling it.”
“Oh, baby, I’m feeling it, all right,” he said with a laugh. “I just don’t want to make any sudden moves and scare you with just how much I want to kiss you back.”
Her lips curved in a sexy smile. “I don’t scare easily.” She lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes. “You really want to kiss me?”
He nodded, holding back with every ounce of control he could muster. “And some.”
Her brow dipped. “Then what are you waiting for? A written invitation? First kisses are an experiment in compatibility. If the kiss doesn’t do it for you, you might need to be just friends. After your response to my kiss…you’re dangerously hovering in the friend zone.”
“Is that so?” He laughed. “Challenge accepted.”
Drake reached for her, cupped her cheeks in the palms of his hands and took her lips in a kiss so tender, it almost hurt him to hold back.
When Cassie opened to him, her tongue meeting his, Drake couldn’t hold back another second. He rolled her onto her back and came down over her, crushing her mouth with his.
Her hands moved over his shoulders and around to his chest, inching lower to the waistband of his jeans. Knotting her fists in the jersey fabric, she tugged the shirt out and slipped her fingers beneath it to press against bare skin.
Drake’s breath lodged in his lungs.
Everywhere she touched burst into flaming synapses, sending electricity shooting through his body, stoking the fire coiling in his loins. He hardened so fast that he had to adjust his jeans with one hand while leaning on the other and lengthening the kiss that only got better with each stroke of her tongue.
By the time he raised his head, he was so turned on, he was afraid he’d lose control and take their kissing experiment to the next level. He dragged in several deep breaths before he could push air past his vocal cords. “Still in the friend zone?”
Her eyes flared, catching the light from the star-studded heavens. “Nowhere near,” she said, her voice husky and breathless.
“Every cell in my body is screaming for me to take you hard and fast.”
Her tongue swept over her bottom lip. “Are you listening?” she whispered.
“Sweet Jesus, I can hear nothing else but the caveman pounding his chest.” He leaned down, pressing his forehead to hers. “The gentleman in me is struggling to be heard. It’s too soon. We need time to get to know each other.”
She gripped his shirt. “Seriously? Stop listening to the gentleman inside and go with the caveman.” She planted her lips on his. “That kiss…wow. It brought out the cavewoman in me.”
He grinned. “Good. I didn’t want to be confined to a friend zone.”
Her fingers tightened in his shirt. “You’re not focusing.”
“I’m not?” He chuckled. “Where were we?”
“Bring back the caveman.”
He shook his head. “Too soon.”
Her frown deepened. “What if we get to know each other and we’re back in the friend zone? We will have missed out on that wild, passionate ride with lust. Life is short. You could be hit by a bus tomorrow, and you will have missed out on what could be the best sex of your life.”
“Is that so?” He kissed the tip of her nose and her right eyelid. “I like your confidence.”
She growled. “You’re not listening.”
“I’m listening. I’m just not going to make love with you our first night under the stars.”
Cassie flopped back against the sleeping bag. “You’re not going to change your mind?”
He shook his head. “No. You deserve better.”
“I deserve what I want,” she muttered. “And up until now, I wanted you.” She sat up. “If we’re not going to take advantage of a sky full of stars and make mad, passionate love, you might as well take me back to my car. I need a cold shower and a good night’s sleep to get over this blatant rejection.”
He sat up beside her and turned her face toward him. “Can I take you out for dinner tomorrow night?”
She stared at him through slitted eyes. “Will there be stargazing afterward?”
He nodded. “If you’d like.”
“Will we only be kissing?” She lifted her chin as if in challenge.
His lips curled into a bone-melting smile. “If you’d like,” he said.
“What if I want more?” she demanded.
“Then I’ll come prepared, unlike tonight.”
Her eyes opened wide. “Is that it? You’re not prepared?” She threw back her head. “Thank the Lord. I thought there was something wrong with me.”
All humor left his face, and only the serious SEAL looked at her now. “Sweetheart, there is nothing wrong with you. In fact, there’s everything so right with you, I can’t fuck it up.” He slipped out of the truck bed and stood, holding out both hands.
She eased to the end of the tailgate and let him lift her, holding her body against his as she slid slowly to the ground.
When her pelvis rubbed over his engorged staff, her eyes widened. “Are you going to be all right waiting until tomorrow?”
He nodded. “Nothing a cold shower won’t cure.”
“I could do something to relieve the…pressure.” She cupped the front of his jeans and squeezed gently.
Drake groaned and almost lost it then. He captured her wrist in his hand and pulled her away. “Tomorrow.”
She stared up into his eyes. “Promise me something.”
“Anything,” he said, brushing his lips across her forehead.
She leaned into him. “Don’t get hit by a bus.”
Chapter 6
Cassie barely slept that night, her body burning with a need she’d never experienced before. A cold shower did nothing to cool the fire, and a walk outside in the night, under the stars, only served as a reminder of what had almost happened in the back of Drake’s truck.
Up before dawn, she fed the animals, mucked two stalls and led the horses out to pasture for the day. She didn’t feel like eating and wasn’t in the mood to talk with her brother. What would she say when he asked what was wrong?
I’m horny as hell, and the man I’m lusting after turned me down.
She shook her head, grabbed her keys and headed for the door.
Before she could turn the door handle, Richard appeared at the entrance, scrubbing a hand through his hair and yawning. “Leaving so early? I thought this was your day off?”
She forced herself to turn and look as normal as possible. “It is. But I want to spend some time on the computers today.”
“Looking for the identity of the woman in the hidden room?” he asked.
She nodded. “I’ve already fed the animals and cleaned Misty and Thunder’s stalls. I won’t be home for dinner and will likely be late, so don’t worry about me.”
Richard frowned. “You were out late last night. Is there something you’d like to tell me?”
She shook her head, giving him an innocent, wide-eyed look. “No.”
“Would I trust him?” he asked.
She refused to answer.
Her brother’s lips twisted. “I get it. Mind your own damned business.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket, dug inside and pulled out a foil packet. “If you aren’t going to give me all the details, how will I know where to look for the body?” He took her hand and pressed the condom into her palm. “At least use some protection.”
“Richard!” Cassie’s cheeks burned.
“I’m a guy. I know what other guys are after. Not all of them are considerate enough to protect themselves, much less the woman.” He tipped his head toward the door. “If you need me to come pick you up, day or night, I’m a phone call away.”
Her cheeks still burning, Cassie’s eyes filled. “Thanks.” Then she dove for the door and spun up gravel and dust racing out of the yard in her SUV.
