She could feel her eyes widen in surprise. “That was actually HIM, then? The one you say is so evil?”
“Yes,” he answered grimly and looked around. “I want you to stay close to me.”
There it was again. Words of concern. A woman might think he cared.
“Do you think he’s following us?” Sara asked. “And, come to think of it, how did he know that we’d be here?”
“Precisely what I want Gavin to try and find out,” Lucas answered as they made their way to baggage claim. “There’s a snitch somewhere. Caldwell would be my first guess.”
“Mine, too,” Sara admitted, “but he was down the hall in the billiard room when we were talking to Mr. Smith. I checked before I closed the door.”
“How about your friend Michael, then? Did you tell him we were going?”
“Yes. Why?” When he didn’t answer, she arched an eyebrow. “You can’t suspect Michael! He’s my friend. I thought someone should know where I was going…” Her voice trailed off as Lucas’s mouth set in a grim line.
“Just in case I threw you into frigid Canadian waters and your body was never recovered?” He grabbed one of their suitcases with more force than necessary and nearly hit another passenger. “Sorry,” he said and grasped the next case more carefully and set it down. “Don’t you trust me, Sara?”
Ah, the sound of the hurt-little-boy. The Losers had used that, too. But she found it disconcerting to gaze into his intent amber eyes and looked down.
His hand caught and tilted her chin upward, forcing her to look at him although his touch was gentle. “Don’t you?”
“I…I want to,” she said.
“Then why don’t you?” When she was silent, he sighed. “If it’s about what happened last night—between us—you needn’t worry. I won’t let it happen again.”
Not exactly what I wanted to hear.
“It’s what you need to hear,” her subconscious prodded her.
“Iknowthat.”
“Do you?”
“Oh, shut up!”Then another thought rolled onto the heels of the last. Maybe he really doesn’t find me desirable! Maybe he was just doing what it took so he wouldn’t have a hysterical female on his hands! Now, that makes me mad.She tossed her chin out of his reach.
“Michael has his own suspicions about you, too.” For a moment, she thought she saw his pupils change shape and his jaw elongated. She blinked. No, he looked normal. She must really be tired. Lucas cleared his throat, only it sounded a little like a growl.
“Your friend and I may have to have a little talk,” he said as he picked up the luggage and they proceeded toward car rentals. “But for now, maybe the things I can show you will help convince you that I’m not the bad guy. Come on.”
She was quiet as they headed out of Logan and he turned north on I-93 and then west on I-95. She needed some time to assemble her disjointed thoughts. She knew she was attracted to Lucas and she should be grateful that he had, once more, made it clear that this was to be platonic. He was exactly the type of man that was dangerous for her. Yet her traitorous body was already reacting to being in the close quarters of the Saturn coupe they’d rented. Watching his strong hands on the steering wheel as he wove in and out of crowded Boston traffic reminded her of what else his hands and fingers were capable of.Like kneading my buttocks and pressing my belly against a really hard erection.She groaned and quickly changed the sound into clearing her throat.
“Where are we going?” she asked as the small car finally turned off the freeway and headed northwest on S-225. Goddess, but her voice was shaky.
“Westford,” he answered.
“What’s there?”
He grinned. “Didn’t I tell you you’d have to wait to find out?”
She wrinkled her nose at him, determined to control her lustful fantasies, and settled back to enjoy the ride. April in the Massachusetts countryside was beautiful. The grass was turning a lush green and trees were sprouting new buds of spring, whichreminded her that Beltane was not too far away. She wondered if they would find the Spear by then.
Lucas drove into the tiny town and parked on Depot Street. “This is what I wanted you to see,” he said as they got out of the car.
Sara looked up at a huge rock ledge. Etched into the stone was a six-foot carving of a knight with chain mail and a coat of arms. The hilt of the sword was placed over his heart and the coat of arms depicted a brooch, a crescent, a five-pointed star and a ship.
“It’s awesome,” she said.
Lucas nodded. “The type of helmet the knight wears is typical of the mid-1300s. And stone effigies were often made in the British Isles during that time also.”
