Chapter Nine
Ian met her at the door of his trailer, brow furrowed. “Bethany? Is everything okay? What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you.” She hurried up the steps. “And before you say anything—I have a good reason to be here. Let me in and I’ll tell you.”
She was prepared for him to argue, but instead he ushered her inside and locked the door behind them. “What’s going on?” he asked. Good. He didn’t appear angry, only concerned. Maybe a little worried on her behalf.
Bethany moved to the sofa and sat. “Search and rescue got a call late this afternoon about an overdue hiker,” she said.
“Did you find him?
“We did. He had a sprained ankle, but he’s going to be fine.” She patted the cushion beside her. “Come sit down and I’ll tell you all about it.”
He sat. “Guess who the hiker was?” she asked.
“A celebrity? Some famous actor or something?”
“No, he was Gerald Boston’s nephew.”
“No kidding? Did you ask him about Gerald and Abby? Or is that kind of thing not allowed in search and rescue?”
“We’re encouraged to make conversation when the patient is alert, in order to take their mind off their troubles and pass the time. We had to wait for the rest of the team to show up with the litter and the first aid supplies.”
“So you figured talking about his dead relatives would be a good distraction?”
She made a face. “He didn’t mind at all. And I did tell him I was sorry for his loss.” She flushed. “I know some people think I’m impulsive and even rude at times, but I always figure I should be upfront with people. And in this case, I learned a lot of interesting stuff.”
“Such as?”
“Craig—his name is Craig Boston, which is how I guessed he was the nephew we’d heard about—he said Gerald really loved Abby and that she was pretty and sweet and very different from Gerald’s first wife.”
“Katherine.”
Bethany nodded. “Katherine sounds like a real piece of work. She drank and told lies and was very jealous. And apparently she ran around on Gerald, because Craig said there were a lot of rumors about her being seen in the company of another man,” she explained.
“And while she was with that man, she fell out of a car he was driving. The wheel of the car ran over her leg, and he drove off and just left her there! Can you imagine? Craig said instead of blaming the other man for her accident, she blamed Gerald. After the accident, she had to walk with a crutch and couldn’t go very far. ”
“So she couldn’t have killed Gerald and Abby.”
“Craig didn’t think so. But he said he wouldn’t be surprised if Katherine’s unknown boyfriend had been involved. He had no idea who the man might be. He said the sheriff’s office promised to investigate, but he doesn’t think, after all this time, they’ll find the killer.”
“Abby could have been the original target,” Ian said. “Maybe a jilted lover, or just some guy who was obsessed with her, who was upset that she married Gerald and decided that if he couldn’t have Abby, no one would.”
She sat back and chewed her thumbnail. “You’re right. I should have asked him more about Abby. By then the other SAR members had arrived, and they needed to get Craig ready for transport to the ambulance.”
“Maybe we can talk to him again sometime.”
“Maybe so. Have you been back up to the caves since we found them?”
“No. The sheriff’s department had people up there for a couple of days, taking photographs and collecting anything that looked like evidence, though I don’t think they came up with much. After that, I never went back up there.”
“I’d like to go up there again to look around,” she said. “Not that I think I would see anything the sheriff’s deputies missed, but now that I know more about Gerald and Abby, I can better envision their situation.”
“Won’t that just make you sad?”
“A little. But I want to see.”
“It’s too late tonight.”
“I know that, silly.” She leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed.
“Rough day?” he asked.
“A little.”
He waited a beat, then asked, “Want to talk about it?”
Did she? Maybe. “Today was supposed to be my wedding day. Well, not today, but this date a year ago.”
He grew very still. Maybe not even breathing. She raised her head and looked at him. “I’m not pining over him—my former fiancé,” she said. “Just, well, grieving what might have been.” She could have been married by now. Maybe even planning for children.
“What happened?”
“He changed his mind about wanting to marry me. But he waited until one month before the wedding—after we had made all the reservations, hired the caterer and the photographer and the DJ. After we’d sent the invitations.
We’d already had one wedding shower. I had wedding gifts at my house. It was humiliating.”
“That’s tough,” Ian said. “But maybe better to know that about him before you were legally tied.”
“Oh, yes. I’m sure it was. But I wasn’t thinking about that when I was calling people and canceling, and hearing we couldn’t get our deposits refunded. Or when I was returning gifts and being asked over and over ‘What happened?’ I couldn’t help translating that question as ‘What did you do wrong?’”
“I’m sure you didn’t do anything wrong.”
She blew out a breath. “Maybe not. But Justin was such a great guy. I mean, that’s what everyone said. Even after I told them he had called off the wedding, at least sixty percent of the people said, ‘But Justin is such a great guy.’”
“Justin sounds like a grade-A jerk.”
She laughed—at the words themselves and the fierceness with which he said them.
He pulled her close once more. “Where does this guy live? Next time I’m in the area I could stop by his house and punch him.”
“Thanks, but you don’t have to do that.”
“I think it would feel pretty good.”
“You feel good.” She snuggled closer. For maybe the first time since Justin had told her he didn’t love her enough to spend the rest of his life with her, she felt truly grateful for his decision. If he hadn’t dumped her, she wouldn’t be here now with Ian.
He took her hand in his and kissed her knuckles. One by one, brushing them with his tongue, like flames licking along her body.
Bethany tilted her mouth to meet his, his lips caressing, carrying a heat that flowed through her. She slipped her arms around his waist, reveling in the feel of his body, all taut muscle and masculine angles.
His fingers threaded through her hair, cradling her head as he deepened the kiss, his tongue tangling with hers, gentle and teasing.
His other hand slid down her body, his palm tracing the fullness of her breast and the curve of her waist and hips.
She gripped his hips and then his buttocks, bringing him closer still.
Ian moved his lips to kiss her neck and then her ear. “I want to make love to you,” he growled.
“I want to make love to you,” she echoed.
“Let’s go into the bedroom.” He moved back enough to take her hand.
She was too focused on him to register more than an impression of the bedroom—dark colors, a big bed, the soft glow of the lamp he switched on beside the bed. He pulled his shirt off, revealing a sculpted chest and ridged abs.
Her heart pounded and she was hot all over. Yes, she was definitely wearing too many clothes.
He apparently had the same thought and moved in to slide his hands beneath the hem of her Eagle Mountain Search and Rescue T-shirt.
She lifted her arms, and he tugged it over her head, then reached around to unhook her bra.
“Nice,” he said as he tossed it to the floor, and she wasn’t sure if he meant her choice of undergarment or her naked breasts, the nipples taut with both arousal and the sudden draft.
They finished undressing, and Ian led her to the bed.
Once there, he lay back and beckoned her.
She didn’t move in close right away, preferring to sit back and admire him.
How had she never appreciated the benefits of climbing before?
“I’ve fantasized about you naked, but the real thing is even better,” she said.
“Mmmm.” He sat up and cupped her breasts. “Even better,” he murmured, then drew one taut peak into his mouth.
Arching her back, Bethany laughed. He looked up at her. “What’s so funny?”
“I’m just so happy.” She wrapped her arms around him, and they fell back together on the pillows.
“I love that I don’t have to guess how you’re feeling,” he said. “Because you always tell me.”
“Some people see that as a flaw.” She kissed her way along his jaw. “But right now I’m feeling like I don’t want to wait any longer.”
He leaned over her to reach into the drawer of the bedside table. She kissed his chest, then slid lower, kissing her way down his body. He groaned but stayed still on his hands and knees as she moved down…down.
“You keep that up, and this is going to be over before we’ve really started,” he said after a moment.
With feigned reluctance, she slid up to lie beside him and watched as he rolled on the condom. A flutter of nervousness passed through her. This man had dated actresses and models, athletes with perfect bodies like his own. What was he going to think of her?
He rolled over and took her in his arms. “Come here, beautiful,” he said.
He kissed her, and in that moment she did feel beautiful. Desirable. His every movement communicated how much he wanted her. She relaxed and focused on enjoying the moment—on giving and receiving pleasure with a man who was helping her to trust again.
Ian told himself not to rush. They had waited for this moment.
He wanted to enjoy it. One thing he had already learned about Bethany was how much she could surprise him.
She was so open with her feelings—so willing to laugh and to risk being awkward or different from everyone around her.
In lovemaking, that translated to a contagious enthusiasm.
As they moved together and came to know each other’s bodies, he found himself feeling more sheer joy than he had in a long time.
He didn’t have to impress her or live up to some myth of the perfect partner.
With her, it was enough to caress and hold, to give and receive all the pleasure they could find.
When he finally moved into her she accepted him with an openness that pulled at him, somewhere deep inside.
Though his instinct was to close his eyes, to keep her from seeing how much she moved him, he forced himself to keep them open, to keep looking into her eyes, seeing his own desire and need and satisfaction reflected back at him.
Bethany’s climax shuddered through him, and she cried out her pleasure, uninhibited and delighted.
His own climax overtook him, and he shouted her name, something he had never done before.
She had vanquished his famous reserve, tearing aside the aloofness that had earned him a reputation as someone who was hard to get along with.
“Do you know how special you are?” Ian asked as he cradled her to his side moments later.
“I’ve always been different,” she said. “I used to think it was a bad thing, then I decided every one of us is set apart from others in some way. When I started to embrace my quirkiness I felt better about myself, even if not everyone understands me.”
“I don’t have to understand you to appreciate you.” He’d almost said love—but that was too soon. Ian couldn’t remember using the word with anyone, even his parents.
But here with her, in this moment in the darkness, hearing her heart beat against his side, feeling the sigh of her breath across his chest, he felt closer to knowing the meaning of love than at any other time in his life.