Chapter 13
LANDON
He was done waiting.
That feeling of someone watching him had gone away, but in its place, he was worried that those eyes had found someone else.
Hayden must have seen a change in his posture or his expression. She moved her glass over a few inches and her husband took it and set it beside his own. She gave Boone a kiss and put her hand on Landon’s arm. “Come with me.”
He nodded.
Landon would bet on Hayden’s instincts as much as his own.
Together, they moved through the crowd and just before they reached the hallway, Lincoln Abe appeared at Landon’s elbow.
“What’s going on?”
Landon looked over at Abe. “Willa went to the restroom and she hasn’t come back.”
“Oh.” Abe continued to walk beside Landon. The firefighter reached into his pocket and pulled out a little tool that looked like a hook.
Abe must have seen Landon’s curious look.
“It opens doors with basic locks.”
Landon nodded. “Like bar restroom doors.”
Abe nodded. “Exactly.”
Once they were in the hall, Hayden jogged for the women’s restroom door. Landon kept himself at a steady pace. His instinct was to kick down the door and that wouldn’t help a lick if Willa was behind the door. Hayden had the right mindset; he’d take his cues from her.
Hayden knocked on the door. “Willa?” Nothing. “Willa? Are you in there?”
Hayden turned back to look at Landon. She shrugged. “I don’t hear her in there, but-”
“Abe? Can you open the door?”
“Sure.” The firefighter moved past Hayden and used the tool he’d taken out of his pocket. Slipping it between the door frame and the door, he made a few sawing movements before his hand stopped. “Got it hooked. Give me a second.”
Landon leaned his ear against the door. “Willa? Honey?” Landon didn’t care if someone heard him. This wasn’t the time to quibble over pet names. “Willa, Lincoln’s going to open the door. Can you tell me where you are?”
“Landon?”
Relief rolled through him like a tidal wave. “Yeah, Willa. It’s me. Are you near the door?”
Silence again and then a soft answer. “I moved away, but I can’t reach the lock.”
“No worries, sweetheart, just stay back, okay?”
He nodded at Lincoln who yanked on the tool. A soft click echoed in the hallway and Landon pushed the door open.
What he saw both broke his heart and made him seethe with anger. Willa was cowering in the restroom, her back against the tiled wall. Her face was streaked with tears, but she wasn’t crying at the moment.
As soon as she saw Landon, she opened her arms to him. “He’s here, Landon. That man is here!”
Landon found himself on his knees at Willa’s side and he pulled her tight against him.
Hayden put her hand out. “Keys.”
Landon didn’t say a word, he reached into his pocket and tossed his keys at Hayden. ‘It’s-”
“I saw it on the way in.”
Hayden rushed back out of the restroom, but Lincoln came closer giving Landon a look before he crouched down on the other side of Willa.
“Hey, Willa. It’s Lincoln.”
She turned her head slowly. “Mister Abe’s son.”
He nodded with a soft smile. “That’s right. I’m his son. I’m also a firefighter.’
She nodded. “I know.”
Lincoln looked at him and Landon nodded, speaking over her head as he held onto her. “Shock.”
“Are you okay If I check your vitals as best as I can?”
“Hmm?”
Landon smoothed her hair back from her face. “Let him check your vitals.”
He tried not to smile when she held out her arm to Lincoln. She’d certainly had her share of vitals taken in her life.
Lincoln checked her pulse and looked at her eyes.
He gave Willa a smile before looking at Landon. “I can only guess at her blood pressure, but otherwise I’d say she’s okay… but you should take her home. Whoever it is that she saw sent her into shock. Let’s get her out of here. If she gets worse, take her to the hospital or call for help.”
Landon nodded. “Thanks, Abe.”
He nodded. “I’m going to go hold open the back door and look for Hayden. When she’s here, I’ll let you know.”
“We’ll come out right after you.”
Landon waited until Lincoln had left the room. “Willa. I’d like to carry you out.”
Before she could speak, he tried to explain his thoughts.
“You’re in shock, honey. Lincoln couldn’t check your blood pressure, so my concern is that your pressure might drop when you stand up. I’ll be able to catch you, but it might be easier-”
“If you carry me.”
He nodded. “I wouldn’t mind getting a few romance points by carrying you in my arms. I want to hold you close, Willa. You had me scared there, and I want to hold you close to remind me that you’re right here.”
“Right now,” she drew in a breath, “I could use a little reassurance myself.”
She held out her arms to him and he swept her up before getting up on his feet.
“Now you’re showing off,” she told him, but she didn’t sound like she was really complaining.
“Is it working?”
“Do I think you’re my hero?”
He shrugged.
“I know you’re my hero, Landon.”
“Good,” he smiled at her, “because you’re mine, too.”
WILLA
She woke up in bed with her head on Landon’s chest.
His bare chest.
Her hand was on his belly.
No, belly wasn’t the right word. Landon didn’t have a belly. He had a washboard.
She smoothed her hand over that washboard and enjoyed the quick intake of breath and the groan that said he was awake.
“Hey,” he sounded exhausted, “you’re awake?’
“I have been for a few minutes.”
“Hmm, okay.” He moved a little and sat up with his back against the headboard.
Headboard?
“We’re at your house?”
He hummed an answer and helped her sit up so that he could tuck her up against his side. “It was closer. I hope you’re okay with that?”
“I doubt I was awake when it happened.”
He shook his head. “You fell asleep as soon as we were on smooth roads and I got to carry you inside.”
She looked down at herself and smiled. “This isn’t my shirt.”
He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. “No. I don’t have any of your clothes here, something we’re going to have to change soon. But I admit I was wondering what you’d look like in my clothes.”
Willa smiled at him. “I bet I look silly.”
His eyes darkened as he looked at her. “You look amazing. It doesn’t help that I know what you’re wearing under it.”
She blushed and looked away. “Wine stained bra.”
“I don’t care about the clothes, Willa. It’s all about you.”
He lifted the arm that wasn’t wrapped around her and brushed her hair back from her face.
“Talk to me, Willa. Tell me what happened.”
“I told you, Landon. I saw him. He was there tonight. In the crowd. He saw me too.” She pulled a deep breath into her lungs so she didn’t pass out in front of him. “I think he wanted me to see him.”
Landon shook his head. “How did he know where we were?”
“I can’t tell you that.” Her voice held an edge that reminded him of eight years ago when she tried to glare him away from her.
“I know. I know. It was more of a question I ask myself when I’m trying to figure things out.”
“I’m sorry, Lan-”
“Don’t be, honey. This isn’t easy for you. For either of us, but I wasn’t there when you needed me.”
She looked at him, her eyes narrowing. “Okay, you’re taking this hero thing too seriously. You couldn’t know.”
He frowned and she swore she saw tears in his eyes. “I had a feeling. It was like someone was watching me, but I pushed it away thinking that I was losing my mind. It must have been him.”
“Then he followed us?”
“I don’t know.” From the sound of his voice, he was taking the blame on himself.
“Stop, Landon. This wasn’t your fault, just like it wasn’t mine.”
The look he gave her said that he wasn’t ready to believe it.
“You know it just like I do. And I should know. I’ve had my share of therapy.”
He stayed silent and she moved closer.
“I thought, I hoped, that he would be dead by now. I wished for it, prayed for it. I didn’t want him around to hurt anyone ever again. I prayed that he’d be six feet under, preferably with someone’s knife in his chest.” She looked up at his face, reflexively. “Does that make me a horrible person?”
Landon cupped her face in his hands and kissed her softly. “Not in the least. He took your friend from you and nearly took your life.”
She brought her hands up under his, her fingertip tracing over the scar under her jaw.
She hadn’t told him about the woman in the bathroom, but that was just something that happened to her when she was out in public.
She wasn’t going to put that on him.
“We need to figure out what’s been going on around us. Who has been watching us. Have we been too predictable?”
“Predictable,” she echoed his words. “That’s what they tell people with stalkers. Predictability kills.”
“It’s not going to happen here, Willa. I’m not going to let it happen.”
She smiled at him, but in her head she argued with herself.
It didn’t matter that he wanted to protect her, things happened. Landon could lock her up in Fort Knox with the gold reserve and something could happen and boom, she’d be gone.
She had all the faith in him, but there were things that happened beyond anyone’s control.
Things that couldn’t be stopped.
That’s what she knew. There would always be things out of her control.
So she did something that put the control in her hands.
With her eyes on his, Willa pulled his shirt over her head and dropped it down to the floor.
“Willa.” His voice had softened, and his eyes had too. “Honey-”
“I wasn’t so upset about the wine spilling on my bra,” she told him and swallowed at the knot in her throat. “I hated the way that it felt on my skin. It felt a little too much like blood. I had to get it off.”
He nodded. “I don’t blame you.”
“I have come a long way from that night eight years ago.”
He drew in a breath and she watched his chest expand with that breath.
She got up on her knees and put her hands on his shoulders.
“Willa-”
His voice was thick with longing.
She felt it too.
“Let me do this, Landon, please.”
“Anything you want,” he sounded like he was in pain. “Anything.”
She straddled him, her knees by his hips.
When she sat down, she felt the heat of his thighs under hers. “It’s a little bit of a stretch.” She made the comment more to herself, but she heard him groan softly and tip his head back against the wall. She smiled a little and unsnapped her bra between her breasts.
When she shrugged it off, she leaned closer and trailed her hands down his chest.
His head lifted up from the wall and he was left staring.
“Willa.”
“I like the way you feel.”
His next breath was rough as her hands moved over his abs. She stopped just before she reached the waistband of his sleep pants.
Rising up on her knees, she moved her hand back up his chest, skating her palms over his nipples. He sucked in a breath through his teeth and closed his eyes.
Smiling to herself, she placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned in for a kiss.
He tensed at the first touchof her lips, but that only lasted a heartbeat. His eyes opened and closed again as she felt his hands on her back.
Sliding up to her shoulder blades, he deepened the kiss, groaning as his hands moved over her skin as if he couldn’t get enough.
She couldn’t either.
Her hands moved from his shoulders to his neck and up to his face, ruffled his hair before turning her head to get better access to his mouth.
When she pulled back, his eyes opened and he looked at her, confused, but curious as if he’d never seen her before.
She guessed that he never had, like this.
“Touch me, Landon. I want you to touch me. Everywhere.”
For a second he looked at her as if he wasn’t sure what she meant, but even she knew what that meant and when he brought his hands between them, she know that her whole life was about to change.
He cupped her breasts and just the touch of his skin against her nipples was enough to make her gasp.
“Perfect,” he was almost whispering as his thumbs swept over the tips. Her skin swelled and tightened, turning her nipples into tight, sensitive buds.
“It feels…”
“Tell me.” He sat up and leaned in, his eyes dark and hazy. “Tell me how it feels when I touch you.”
His fingers tightened on her nipples, adding pressure. Her thighs tightened against his and her hands grasped at the back of his head.
“I’ve never felt like this before.”
Her eyes closed for a moment as his fingers eased pressure and then added it again.
“You’ve never touched yourself?”
He pressed a kiss to her lips.
“N-no, I have, but… not like this, ah.”
Her nails dug into his scalp, only releasing it again when he leaned in closer.
His hands dropped away from her breasts, but before she could form the words to ask him to touch her again, he grabbed a hold of her butt and pulled her up onto his hips.
Her thighs stretched apart but that strain eased when she felt the ridge of his erection under her. Pressed high and tight against her sex.
“Oh.”
He smiled and gave her a kiss, and then he lifted her higher, dragging her against his abs until he could put his mouth on her.
His mouth.
Those lips.
His tongue.
All she could do was hold on to him.
She had no idea how long he bathed her nipples with his tongue or gently nipped at their tips with his teeth, but it was possibly the most glorious moment when he moved from one to the other, stopping between her breasts, and looking up into her eyes.
She felt the soft scratch of his beard against the insides of her breasts and her breastbone.
While the look in his eyes had her mesmerized.
“I love you.” “I love you.”
Willa sat stunned as he gave her a slow smile.
“I guess I didn’t have to worry that you felt it too.”
She shook her head. “No. No you didn’t.”
“Thank god.”
He leaned in and took her other breast into his mouth, lifting one hand from her backside to bring to the front and remind her what it was like to have him touch her. To have him make her feel beautiful.
“Gorgeous.” He dug his fingers into her backside and when she rocked back against his hand she felt something prod her from behind.
“Is that?”
He chuckled and she felt it against her skin, the vibrations were heavenly.
He let her go with a soft pop of sound and gave her a hungry look.
“Yes, that is.”
She reached back with a hand and felt the tip of it against her palm.
Landon hissed in a breath.
She pulled her hand away. “Did that hurt?”
“No,” he shook his head, but she could see how tight his jaw was. “It feels too good.”
“Yeah?” She moved slightly to the side and turned so she could wrap her hand around it. “This?”
He groaned. “Willa, I-”
“I’ve always wondered…”
“Wondered?”
She moved, carefully lifting a leg over so she could sit at his side.
“Willa?”
She turned and reached her hand under the elastic waistband of his sleep pants and found what she was looking for.
It was warm silk against her palm but hard underneath. Rigid.
She tried to use her other hand to pull the waistband down but it was too tight and awkward when she didn’t want to let go of him with her hand.
“Want some help?”
She smiled and looked over at him. He was almost smiling, muscles in his jaw locked tight.
“Yes,” she felt her own smile broaden, “I want your help.”
“You’re trying to drive me crazy.” It was hard to hear him through his clenched teeth, but she didn’t mind. “Here,” he grunted, “let me lift up.”
She eased her hold on him when his muscles tensed. He planted his feet and lifted his hips.
Willa watched the play of his muscles across his chest and his abs, but when his waistband stretched over the top of his erection, she found herself staring.
“It’s not going to bite you.”
LANDON
Landon had never been accused of having a great sense of humor. He liked jokes, laughed at them, but delivering them tended to fall flat.
“It’s not going to bite you.”
That was a dud.
What was he thinking?
Willa leaned forward, and holding him still with her hand, she blew his mind. She touched her lips to the crown of his head and moved her head so that her lips swept all around the swollen skin at the tip.
She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled.
He had no idea what she was about to do, but whatever she wanted to do-
“Holy sh-”
She wrapped her lips around the head of his cock and dragged her tongue over the tip.
“Fuck…”
She smiled and her lips tightened around him, her tongue curling up along the shaft.
“Willa, please”
“Hmm?” The question hummed and the vibrations teased him, bringing him closer to the edge.
He’d never come so close so fast.
Willa may not have had experience in sex, but she certainly wasn’t shy about trying things.
Landon reached out his hand and touched the curve of her backside. She shuddered at the touch but she didn’t move away or ask him to stop.
He rubbed his palm along her curves, only pausing when he felt his tip slide along the top of her mouth.
When her tongue lifted and flattened against his shaft he felt his dick flex and he moved his hand again.
Slipping between the elastic waist of her panties and the smooth skin of her ass, he found her wet slit and traced his finger through her heat.
Fuck!
He’d never been so hard or so turned on and they’d barely…
Willa pushed back and the tip of his fingers slipped into her body.
Willa moaned softly.
And while he couldn’t see her face, he could see some of it. Her eyes were closed, her cheeks flushed, and her lips were stretched around his dick like she was biting into a ripe strawberry.
He worked his fingers in up to his knuckles and dammit, it felt like her mouth working on his cock.
He knew that it wouldn’t… couldn’t be long before he’d lose himself.
“Willa, stop. Baby, please.”
She released him from her mouth but he continued to move his fingers inside of her.
“What- what about you?”
“Up on your knees, Willa.”
When she did it, his heart was in his throat. She didn’t question him, she just put her trust in him and her body in his hands.
He plunged his fingers into her wet heat, over and over as she struggled to hold herself up.
She showed him how wild and beautiful she could be as she opened up to him. She pushed back again and again, meet his thrusting hand with her sex.
“Landon?”
He met her eyes with his own and saw her plea.
“Come here, baby. I’ll give you what you need.”
WILLA
Willa hoped that he knew how to get her there. She certainly didn’t know how to.
She turned toward him and froze when she saw him lick his fingers, his gaze fixed on her face.
When he was done, she took his hands and moved closer until he wrapped her up in his embrace and laid her out on his bed.
It all seemed so strange.
Years ago this man had saved her life, now he was making her come alive with every look and touch.
Landon stripped her panties off of her body and parted her legs. “So damn pretty, Willa. So beautiful.”
She looked away at first, unsure of what she’d look like in his eyes. Yes, he said the pretty words but she wasn’t sure sheknew how to believe them.
“I’ve wanted to be here with you,” his voice was deeper than normal, rough rather than smooth. “I’ve been dreaming of this.”
He reached into a drawer beside the bed and when he pulled out a condom wrapper, it only took a moment for him to tear it open and smooth it on.
“This is ours, Willa. You and me. “
She breathed as he braced an arm beside her shoulder. She didn’t want to tense up, but she was nervous.
As he settled between her thighs, she put her hands on his chest.
“You and me.” Shecouldn’t help but smile at him, “I didn’t know this is what was going to happen.”
“Me, too.” He smiled at her, “any regrets?”
She shook her head. “None. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
“I’ll do my best to make sure that you don’t change your mind.”
She smiled at him and he gave her a look that made her shiver from her head to her toes, but she wasn’t cold. No, being under Landon, ready to feel him inside of her, she was in danger of overheating.
The moment she felt him against her sex, his cock pressing inside of her, she pulled in a breath and sighed when he slipped inside.
Her body welcomed him and even though she had to relax into the stretch it was a feeling that she’d never forget.
Landon bent his head down and she could see the strain that he was under. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead.
She brought up her hands to wipe away the sweat. “You okay?”
“I’m trying to hold myself back. You’re so hot and tight. It’s like the first time for both of us.”
“Prom night?”
He laughed, but the sound was tight.
“Then I need to get you some flowers, you already had the pretty dress.”
Willa heard the soft grunt from the back of his throat and she sighed out the breath she’d been holding.
She felt full. Spread wide under his body, she’d never felt so womanly before.
Her breasts ached and even though she’d had his mouth on her minutes before, she wanted it again.
But then he started to move and her body wept for the loss of his weight and the fullness in her body, but he surged back in and all the air rushed out of her body.
“Hold on, love,” he touched his forehead to hers, “I’m going to take you over the edge.”
She gripped his shoulders and wrapped her legs around his waist. “I’m here with you, Landon, all the way.”
HIM
He must have driven past Willa’s house ten… twelve times but there were no lights. No signs of life inside the house.
It pissed him off.
After he saw her at the bar, he was sure that the officer would have taken her home and tucked her in for her safety.
He had plans for that.
He knew what to do with that.
He didn’t like the idea that she’d spend the night somewhere else.
It put her out of his sphere of control.
It had taken him years to find her.
He’d let time pass after he’d nearly killed her.
He didn’t want to be caught, but he wanted her dead.
She could identify him.
By the time he’d gone to find her, she’d left home.
Gone off the grid.
She was young, but she was driven.
That only made the chase better.
Made it harder for him and that only got him… harder.
How fortunate that when he found her again, she was connected to a friend of his.
His granddaughter.
One more pass by the house in the wee hours of the morning and still nothing.
He squeezed the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles ached.
If she’d been home, he might have put his hands around her throat.
As he drove away, he smiled and felt the muscles pull his skin tight across his cheeks.
She would die, but the more she made him work, the longer it would take, and the more painful it would be.
He wasn’t driven by youth anymore.
He wanted to finish what he started and that meant killing Willa Abelson.