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He was totally floored when she took his offering and moved her body well into his personal space. With one hand holding her elbow, he very carefully reached around her and wrapped his other arm behind her back. She allowed the overture and leaned into him, letting him absorb her weight. Lust, a deep primitive hunger, hit him hard, his senses deluged with her softness and her sweet smell. The fact that she’d accepted the overture and was willingly in his arms was adding a new dimension to his need. He quickly realized that this was the way that he wanted her; he wanted her willing. He wanted her to want to be in his embrace. He admitted to himself, he’d always wanted her that way.
But even with the heady feel of her so close, he was quickly calculating why she’d chosen to take refuge in his arms. After all, she still saw him as an adversary, and for her to have picked him as the safer bet meant that she for damn sure must be upset about something. Her eyes continued to dart between him and whatever or whoever was lurking behind him.
Caught off guard by the eroticism of having her in his embrace, Zach was only subliminally aware that giving her his protection was inducing pleasure in his bloodstream. He didn’t want her to feel fear or to actually need protection, but being the man protecting her was an intoxicating experience.
With the scent of her body going directly to his head, he glanced behind him but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. A Federal Express truck came to a halt a few doors down. Two women who he vaguely recognized were coming from the beauty salon. Frank Whitaker’s boy hoisted himself into a muddy farm truck and drove off. Nothing out of the ordinary and yet something had put unease in her eyes.
The thought left his mind as her silky skin slid under his fingers. But she was already pulling away, already acting as if he were the enemy again. And he guessed that to her, he still was.
Still, he didn’t care for that moment of panic he’d seen. She was usually too confident, too determined to have behaved the way she had. It was an anomaly that he didn’t understand and one he didn’t care for. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine,” her voice had lost some of its strength and she had moved away enough to put that slight space between them again.
“You sure?” he questioned again, not entirely believing her.
He felt it the moment her complete attention returned to him and with it, her truculence.
“I’m fine. What do you want?”
“Nothing. Just being neighborly.”
Katie puffed out an unbelieving snort of laughter. “Right. Since when?”
Zach lifted a finger to run it down the side of her face but she reared back from him. “We’re not enemies, Katie.”
She lifted one finely arched eyebrow in disbelief. “Aren’t we?”
“We don’t have to be.”
“Really?” she asked, mistrust and sarcasm in her tone.
“We shouldn’t be enemies; I’m Hannah’s brother.”
“Yep, I can’t argue with that.”
Zach didn’t want to continue in this vein. He could see she had put up a protective shield between them that he wouldn’t be able to break through any time soon, so he changed the subject. “You need a ride back home?”
She studied him for a moment and he could see a slight hint of surprise on her face. “No, I’ve got the truck.”
He ran his eyes over her once more, the delicate curves of her body a temptation he needed to get away from before he did something incredibly stupid. “See ‘ya round then.”
He turned and walked away, leaving her on the sidewalk staring after him.
****
Katie headed back to school and the next few weeks slipped quietly by. She focused on her grade point average, studying more than she’d ever done in her life. She breathed a sigh of relief when she finished her last final and headed home to Redwood Falls for the long winter break.
She spent an hour or so catching up with her mom and had just
started settling into her bedroom when there was a rap on her door. She looked up as Josh stuck his head inside. “Hey.”
She smiled back, pleased to see him. “Hey.” She’d missed him a lot since she’d left for school.
“Getting settled?” He asked her now.
“Yeah.”
“I’m glad you’re home,” he said in his deep voice.
“Thanks. So am I.”
“You got a few minutes?”
“Sure. Come on in.” Katie closed the top drawer of her dresser and sat down in the middle of her bed, getting comfortable.
Josh snagged the chair in front of the desk and sat down, straddling it backwards. “Did your tests go okay?”
“Yeah, I think. I’m not panicking or anything.”
“Good,” he answered distractedly.
Katie watched him, the pensive tone of his voice worrying her a bit. Josh knew all of her deepest secrets; he’d been there for her when she couldn’t stand the thought of burdening her parents with what she’d gone through. “What’s up?”
“I hate to lay all this on you the minute you get home, but it can’t wait.”
“Okay?” She prompted him with a sinking feeling. She knew this was going to be bad … she knew it was going to be about a subject she didn’t want to discuss.
Josh’s shoulders stiffened. “You already know it was too close for comfort when Mandy Thompson escaped from Jesse Whitaker before he could rape her. It’s too damn bad it wasn’t enough to prosecute him for.” As Josh made that announcement, guilt rose up within Katie. Yeah, she already knew all that. She also knew that if she’d had enough courage to go to the police after Jesse had hurt her, then the sheriff’s daughter never would have been caught in the situation she’d been in. The guilt Katie felt was so strong she felt almost sick with it. She nodded her head as Josh continued, “You know he’s been dating Rebecca Sutty.” Katie nodded again. “She came to me yesterday and told me that she’s scared shitless. He’s physically hurting her, Katie. She’s scared he’s going to kill her. I realize that Rebecca’s a bitch, but nobody deserves what he’s dishing out.”
