AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sometime before dawn, Fletch rolled off the bed, pulled on his jeans and began to methodically search the mill house. He was thorough and quiet, she’d give him that. She watched him through hooded eyes with a mixture of interest, amusement and outrage with a tinge of sadness. The sadness came both from wondering if the sex had been just a ruse and knowing they could never be. But never once did he even come close to finding the hidden safe or the treasure on which she rested her weary head.
As the sun finally began to emerge in the east, Claire heard him head out of the house and down to the barn. She slipped out of bed, groaning as the ache in her sex made itself known. Gingerly, she moved to the window and watched as he went toward the barn. He stopped long enough to pull on his cowboy boots and sweater, which was a damn shame as she wouldn’t have minded getting to watch him move without his shirt on, his muscles rippling in the morning light. He fed and watered the horses, ensuring their silent cooperation, and began to search the barn. Finding nothing, he mucked out their stalls. He must be feeling at least a little bit guilty—most likely more from searching her home than how he’d ravaged her body repeatedly throughout the night.
As far as Claire was concerned, he needn’t have felt guilty about either. She heard a vehicle on the drive and saw an unfamiliar car pull up. Unknown to her, but apparently not to him. He slipped into the passenger side front seat and closed the door behind him as the car pulled away. As she walked back to the bed, she spotted a note he must have written:
Claire,
Last night was amazing. I’ll call you later.
Sleep as much as you can. I’ll feed, water, and muck the stalls before I go.
We need to talk. I think we need to clear the air between us.
Fletch
She crawled back into bed, snuggling into the covers and cuddling her treasure-hiding pillow close. He could talk until he was blue in the face. She’d made a promise to Poppi and as the poem said, she had miles to go before she slept. She yawned.
Although maybe a few more hours of sleep wouldn’t hurt.
CHAPTER12
CLAIRE
The second time she woke, the sun was high in the sky. Claire stretched, hoping some of the ache would be gone, but no such luck. She had to give him credit, he’d been as good as his word. There were few parts of her body that didn’t feel the excess from the night before. She stepped into her shower, glad once again that she had opted to spend for the steam option.
Claire leaned her head against the tile, letting the water cascade over her body as the steam opened up her pores and let the excesses of the night before seep out. The water felt good as she closed her eyes and remembered the way his big, callused hands had felt on her skin as he played her body like Yo-Yo Ma played the cello. And her body responded in the same way by making sweet and haunting music.
She could easily recall his hands cupping her breasts, fingers tugging and pinching her nipples and clit before soothing the ache with his mouth and tongue. God, the man knew how to kiss, how to caress and how to fuck. He was positively addictive. She knew she should have resisted him, found some way to refuse him when he’d pulled her beneath him for the umpteenth time, but she hadn’t. Even this morning there was a sensual hum that flowed through her body—one she’d never felt before and might not ever feel again.
She toweled off her body, wrapping the towel around her hair and slathering on moisturizer before starting to pull on a pair of leggings and discovering the beard burn he’d left on the sensitive flesh at the top of her thighs and just above her sex. Instead, she opted for comfy pajama pants and a soft cashmere, slouchy sweater that she’d found at a vintage clothing store. Normally in the mornings she was up with the sun and trotting down the stairs. Fletch seeing to her horses’ needs had allowed her to sleep in.
Removing the necklace from its temporary hiding place, she started to move down her stairs with her usual spring in her step, but her body said, ‘No. Just no.’ It had a point. She probably shouldn’t have tried to make up for all the sex she hadn’t had in a very long time all in one night. Once downstairs, despite the protests of her body that it needed coffee, she slipped the Grenadine Necklace in the safe in the hidden compartment of the desk that looked out over her pasture.
Claire brewed a large mug of coffee, adding a large dollop of heavy cream before walking to her kitchen table and sitting down. She considered getting up and making breakfast, but that sounded like an awful lot of trouble, even though she knew she should feed her body, especially after last night’s excesses. How was it that he had seemed to move easily and without any residual stiffness or discomfort? Although, she supposed, he was the one with the battering ram between his legs and she was the one he’d used it on, but dear, god had it felt fantastic.
Getting involved with Fletch, even seeing him again, was dangerous. She was certain he knew she was the thief behind the heists. He hadn’t worked out all the pieces yet, and didn’t know how to prove it, but she knew he would be relentless in his pursuit of bringing her to justice. But still he called to her in a way no man had done before, and she was beginning to want to answer that call, regardless of the consequences.
As she’d done so many times since he’d passed, she wished Poppi was here for her to talk to. He had raised her to be open and forthright with him about her feelings, needs, and desires. Many a night they’d sat up in front of the fire, drinking tea with honey until the sun came up. She couldn’t drink hot tea with honey anymore; it reminded her too much of him and ripped the scar of her grief open so that it would weep once more.
What would he have thought of Fletch? She was certain as a man he would have liked him. The way he’d made love to her, she knew he had to be able to ride a horse with the best of them. To Claire, there was little that was as sexy as a man who could handle a horse with sensitivity and strength, making the horse their partner in whatever endeavor they were undertaking.
But Poppi would caution her to decide what was truly important to her before spending any more time with Fletch. She had long ago been able to return the jewelry he had stolen to those to whom it truly belonged. The insurance company had paid out millions—thus the size of the bounty on her head—but they’d also raked in all those insurance premiums over the years, and those from whom Poppi had stolen had been paid by the insurance company. It was a balancing of the scales she could justify and live with, but she very much doubted that Fletch would see it the same way.
Once she’d restored the jewelry Poppi had stolen, she’d begun to research, find, and recover other pieces. What had started out as a sacred duty to honor her grandfather had become something of a lark, which in turn had become her own holy grail.
Until now, no one had ever guessed that she even knew about the thefts, much less had been the one who perpetrated them. And while Fletch mightknow,there wasn’t a damn thing he couldprove. Understanding her own weakness, she vowed to avoid Fletch at all costs. It would be far too easy to give into the temptation he offered to walk the straight and narrow line.
Claire heard another vehicle coming up her drive. Glancing at the clock, she grinned. Mia, as always, was right on time. She got up and put a pod of Mia’s favorite coffee in her Keurig drizzling honey into the mug to have it at the ready as Mia came through the door.
“Have you lost your fucking mind? Oh no, that’s it. You lost your mind fucking a man who is trying to collect the bounty on your head.”
“Good morning to you, too,” said Claire as she sat back down in the kitchen chair, “and yes, I had a lovely time fucking the delectable Mr. Fletcher. Thanks so much for asking. Apparently, I was more out of practice than I thought, not because he had any complaints but because I don’t think there’s enough ibuprofen in the world to take away all my aches and pains. But it was so much fun getting them.”
“Seriously, Claire. I’m glad you had a good time, but he’s got his people doing a deep dive on you.”
“I thought you’d scrubbed anything that might point a finger at us.”
“I did, too. What I wasn’t counting on was Carter Hall.”
