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  Since it was so late when they arrived, they ate at a table in the kitchen, a big open space like Daniel’s, this one painted a pretty robin’s-egg blue. Heddy had fixed a salad and homemade Parker House rolls to go with the casserole. A big slice of chocolate cake appeared for dessert.

  “This is soo good,” Lily said, getting thick chocolate frosting on her mouth. Ian leaned over and wiped it away with his napkin, smiled and tweaked her nose. Lily laughed. Watching Ian with her little girl, Meri felt a clutch in her chest.

  Don’t even think about it, warned a stern voice in her head. A man like that isn’t for you.

  After supper was over, Meri helped Heddy with the dishes, then put Lily to bed upstairs. But Meri had too much on her mind to sleep.

  The doors to all the bedrooms were closed as she walked down the hall and descended the stairs, wandered out to the stable where the little bay foal stood in a stall with its mother.

  Moonlight slanted in through the open windows of the barn, illuminating the interior, which smelled sweetly of fresh-cut hay. Watching the mare with her baby, Meri found herself smiling.

  At the sound of footsteps, she turned and saw Ian walking out of the shadows. Moonlight shone on his pirate-gold hair and his eyes were a fierce shade of blue.

  Meri’s breath caught. She told herself to make an excuse and leave, but her legs refused to move.

  “I guess you weren’t sleepy either,” he said in that sexy, seductive voice she heard in her dreams.

  “I was a little keyed up, I guess, being somewhere new.”

  “It’ll only be for a couple of nights.”

  “I don’t mind. Mrs. Peterson is really nice.”

  “Yes, she is.”

  A soft nicker came from one of the stalls farther down the line. Ian tipped his head in that direction. “Come on. Meet Sunny.”

  She let him guide her deeper into the barn, toward a stall near the door opening onto the open pastureland beyond. A beautiful golden palomino stood inside, his long blond mane and tail freshly curried. Clearly Ian had been the one to do the work.

  “He used to be mine,” he said a little gruffly, stroking the horse’s velvet nose. “Dad sold him when Mom died. I never knew Heddy was the one who bought him until I spotted him in the field when we were here looking at the foal.”

  “She never said?”

  “I was almost never around back then. First I was in college; then I started working. I had my own business by the time Mom had a heart attack and passed away.” Ian smoothed a hand over the horse’s muzzle, scratched between his ears. Sunny rubbed his golden head against Ian’s hand.

  “I think he remembers you.”

  He smiled. “I raised him from a colt.”

  “Maybe you could buy him back.”

  Ian shook his head, but she thought she caught an instant of regret. “I’d have to leave him here. Unless Dad got interested in horses again, it wouldn’t be fair to Sunny.”

  Meri glanced back at the beautiful golden palomino. “It must have been great having a horse of your own.”

  “It was,” he said. “I was a pretty fair rider in my day. I thought about doing a little rodeoing, but Mom thought it was too dangerous.” His mouth edged up as if he were amused by some inner joke.

  Meri wondered what it was. Her mind sifted through the possibilities, but when she looked at him again, his focus had shifted away from the horse and he was looking directly at her.

  “I can’t stop thinking about you, Meri,” he said softly. She felt his big hand on her cheek, gliding gently down to tilt up her chin. Then he was bending his head, covering her mouth in the gentlest of kisses.

  Her heart started racing, her stomach fluttering like the wings of a bird. He tasted like chocolate frosting and strong, sexy male, and when he kissed the corners of her mouth, ran his tongue along the seam of her lips, coaxing her to open for him, she couldn’t resist.

  Meri moaned as she went into his arms and Ian deepened the kiss, stirring the warmth she felt inside into a roaring blaze.

  “Ian . . .” she whispered, clutching the front of his shirt, then sliding her arms up around his neck.

  “Meri . . . God, I want you.”

  But he didn’t press her the way another man might have, just kissed her softly, one way and then another, kissed her and kissed her, until her insides burned and her womb grew damp and achy. Ian nibbled the side of her neck, then returned to her mouth, kissing her as if he had all the time in the world.

  As if she were something to treasure, not something to plunder. Meri kissed him back, letting the heat pour through her, letting the yearning build. Dear God, she had never been seduced with such tenderness, never been so tempted to give in to the wild yearning he stirred.

  Never been so tempted to let him take her where he wanted, give her the pleasure each of his hot kisses promised.

  Instead, he let her go, stepped back so they were no longer touching. The rush of cool air stirred an aching sense of loss.

  Reaching up, he touched her cheek. “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

  She swallowed against the lump that rose in her throat. “I’m sorry, too.” Sorry she’d given in to the desire she felt for him? Or sorry he had stopped instead of taking his tender seduction further?

  “I’d better go in,” she said, fighting to control the tremors still running through her, the longing to go back into his arms.

  “Good night, Meri,” he said.

  Her heart squeezed. Deep down, she knew it was time for her to leave.

  “Good night, Ian.” Turning away from him, she hurried out of the barn.

  * * *

  Ian watched Meri until she disappeared out of sight. He could still feel the imprint of her breasts pressing into his chest, her slender body fitting so perfectly against his. The taste of her still filled his senses.

  It had been years since he’d wanted a woman the way he wanted Meri. Maybe never. He still couldn’t believe he’d been able to stop. In another few minutes, he would have pulled her down into a bed of straw and taken her. He would have ruthlessly plied her sweet body with kisses, stroked and touched and relentlessly seduced her.

  He hadn’t planned it. Had gone out of his way to make sure nothing like this would happen. He didn’t want to hurt Meri. It didn’t take a genius to realize she had been hurt enough already.

  But the moment he’d kissed her, the moment he had tasted those cherry-red lips, run his fingertips over the smooth planes and valleys of her face, held her in his arms, he’d been lost.

  Even in her jeans and sneakers, she was a sweet demon in his blood, a sensual little witch he couldn’t resist.

  Ian sighed into the darkness. Beyond wanting her, he admired her. More every day. Which only made his need for her worse.

  He had to stay away from her. Had to make sure what had happened tonight didn’t happen again. It was only fair to Meri.

  Thank God, he would soon be leaving. Or Meri would be leaving. The farther they got away from each other, the better for them both.

  Unfortunately, there was no way in hell he was leaving until he was sure Meri and Lily were safe.

  Ian silently cursed.

  * * *

  “So what about it, Dooby? Did it work?” Joey pressed his cell phone tighter against his ear, blocking out the Portland street noise outside the fleabag motel room he and Kowalski were staying in. “Were you able to track her? You said you could find her with GPS. You said it would be a snap.”

  “Cool it, dude. I said I could find her, but she turned off her phone. All I had to work with was the last call she made.”

  Joey shifted the phone to his other ear. After he’d left Michelle Peach’s apartment, he’d found a cheap place to stay till he could figure his next move. Then lightning had struck and he’d thought of his old juvenile detention buddy, Dooby Brown.

  The skinny little runt owed him for protecting him when they were kids. Dooby had done well for himself since th
en, becoming some kind of tech wizard. Fortunately, he still got a thrill out of an occasional detour into the wrong side of the law.

  “She’s somewhere east of Spokane, okay? I tracked the call to a cell tower near exit 287. That’s as close as I can get unless she starts using her phone again.”

  Joey violently cursed.

  “Are you sure she has the money?” Dooby asked.

  “Hell, yes! That old lady put Meri through junior college. When she died, the old bat owned a house and a car. She treated Meri like a daughter. She probably left her everything. And since I’m the father of Meri’s kid, she owes half of it to me.”

  Dooby laughed. Joey didn’t know why. It made perfect sense to him.

  “Good luck, dude.” Dooby ended the call.

  “He figure out where she was?” Kowalski asked. He was fiddling with his gun, a big semiauto Walther PPK that made Ski look even more badass than he was.

  Joey didn’t much like guns himself. Just watching Kowalski dicking around with his flashy piece made him nervous. Still, the kind of business he was in required he have protection. Joey owned an old, banged-up Ruger he had bought off the street. He kept it in the trunk of his car, but if he had to, he knew how to use it.

  “Put that thing away before you shoot yourself,” Joey said.

  Ski pointed the weapon in Joey’s direction. “If I shoot someone, it won’t be me.” He lowered the pistol and shoved it back into his holster. “Besides, we might need it, you know? If you want her to give us the money.”

  Joey nodded. “Yeah, maybe.” Using his smartphone, Joey pulled up a map that showed the route from Portland to Spokane. He’d paid his Verizon bill with some of the money he’d gotten from Meri, figuring he’d need a phone on the road when he went after her. If Meri was still anywhere near exit 287, he’d find her.

  Joey thought of the tweak he’d had to sell and worried what would happen if his supply ran out. His hand balled into a fist. The longer it took him to find Meri, the more he was going to enjoy paying her back for the trouble she’d caused.

  Chapter Seven

  The house was finished. They had stayed an extra day at Mrs. Peterson’s so that the carpets could be cleaned, along with the sofa and chairs in the living room and den. Everything was shipshape.

  While Lily went out to watch the kittens, Meri worked with Ian and Daniel to put the rest of the furniture back in place. Everything was ready, except for the dining room.

  Though the room had been painted the original shade, a lovely sea-foam green, Meri had insisted the furniture remain draped until she could get the beautiful mahogany sideboard and table, the high-backed chairs and silver tea service, polished to the mirror-sheen the pieces deserved. She planned to have everything finished by tomorrow at the latest.

  By lunchtime, the only thing left to do was rehang the pictures, which they would get to as soon as lunch was over.

  “Soup and sandwiches!” she called out to the men, excited for Daniel to see what she’d done in the kitchen. The stark white walls, white-and-red curtains were gone. The room looked warm and welcoming in creamy butter yellow.

  “Lunch is ready! Come and get it!” Yellow curtains hung at the windows, the oak table in the middle of the room was set with yellow ruffled placemats and matching yellow napkins. Yellow-and-white kitchen towels hung at the stove.

  She was grinning when Ian and Daniel walked into the kitchen.

  Ian smiled.

  Daniel stopped cold. “What have you done?”

  Meri’s smile slipped away.

  “How dare you!” Daniel shouted. “This was Emma’s room! How dare you change it!” His face was red, every muscle in his body vibrating with anger.

  “Dad, take it easy. It’s just a room. Mom isn’t here anymore.”

  Daniel drilled his son with a glare. “What do you know! You don’t know anything about it!” Storming out of the kitchen, Daniel disappeared into the mudroom, then slammed the back door as he stomped outside the house.

  Meri looked down to find Lily pressed against her side. “It’s all right, sweetheart. Mr. Brodie just got a little upset. Sometimes change is hard.”

  “Why is he mad?” Lily asked, looking up at her with a worried expression.

  “Because he loved his wife very much,” Meri said. “When she died, it made him really sad. Changing the kitchen reminded him of her and made him feel sad again.”

  “I’ll talk to him,” Ian said, and started for the door.

  “Let him go, Ian. Daniel was right. You can’t really understand the way he felt about her.”

  Ian’s gaze remained on the mudroom door. Then he sighed. “I’ll give him some time.”

  Meri nodded, pasted on a smile. “Why don’t we have some lunch? Chicken salad sandwiches and homemade cream of tomato soup? Lily, that’s one of your favorites.”

  The little girl looked up at her. “I’m not hungry. I feel sorry for Mr. Brodie.”

  Meri wasn’t hungry anymore, either, and Ian wore the same unhappy look as her daughter. “Tell you what. I’ll put the soup back on the stove, and we’ll eat a little later, okay?”

  “Okay.” Lily headed for the back door. “I’m gonna go watch the kittens.”

  “All right, but don’t bother Mr. Brodie.”

  “I’m going to hang a few more pictures,” Ian said as the little girl disappeared outside.

  “I’ll help you,” said Meri.

  Covering the sandwiches with plastic wrap, giving everyone a little time to settle down, she and Ian went to work.

  * * *

  “Mr. Brodie?”

  Daniel looked up from where he sat on a bale of straw in the barn. “Go away. I’m not in the mood for conversation.”

  Ignoring him, Lily walked over and plunked down right next to him. “Please don’t be mad at my mama. She worked really hard to make your kitchen pretty. She thought you would like it.”

  “Well, I don’t. And she had no business changing it without my permission.”

  “She looked really sad. I think she’s sorry.”

  He grunted. “She oughta be. All of you coming in here, changing things around, changing a man’s life. That isn’t right.”

  Lily picked up a piece of straw and waved it through the air like a magic wand. “Your house was really dirty. You needed to get it clean and Mama helped you. It looks a lot better now.”

  He glared down at her, into blue eyes the same shade as his and Ian’s. He tried to frown, but the hell of it was, she was right.

  “It’s my house. If I wanted it dirty, that was my choice.”

  “Did you like it better dirty?”

  He tried not to smile. He liked it spotlessly clean the way Emma had always kept it. “No. I didn’t like it dirty. I let things go and I shouldn’t have.” He sighed. “The truth is, your mama and my Ian set things right. I’m glad they did, even if it means I have to change, all right?”

  Lily started smiling. “I like it better clean, too.”

  He just nodded. His chest was no longer squeezing down the way it had been.

  “So you aren’t mad anymore?” Lily asked.

  He should be. Ian and Meri had taken a lot for granted when they had started messing with his things. But it took a lot of effort to stay angry. Somehow he just couldn’t muster the will. “No, I’m not mad anymore.”

  “Good. ’Cause I’m really getting hungry. Mama made sandwiches and soup. She makes really good tomato soup. Let’s go eat.” She jumped off the bale of straw and held out a tiny hand. Daniel reached down and took it, stood up and let her start leading him back to the house.

  The hell with it, he thought, and lifted her up against his chest, set her on his shoulder the way he used to do Ian.

  He was smiling when he walked back into the mudroom, ducking through the doorway so Lily wouldn’t hit her head.

  “Where is everybody?” he called out as he walked into the kitchen. “We’re hungry!” Daniel set Lily back on her feet just as Ian and Meri hu
rried through the kitchen door.

  “Daniel, I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean—”

  He held up his hand. “Yellow looks better. Let’s eat.”

  * * *

  It was peaceful out here in the country, especially at this time of night when everyone was in bed. In Bellevue, where Ian lived in an apartment not far from his office, there was always something going on. Which suited him just fine. He liked the hustle and bustle of city life, liked to interact with the men and women who worked for him, liked the challenge of running a company of his own.

  And Seattle was really more of a town than a city, kind of the best of both worlds. He didn’t have a lot of time off, but that was his own choice. Once in a while, he liked taking a date to a movie or going out to a fine restaurant.

  Still, he missed the quiet out here in the country. It was a good place to get away from the stress of running the business, away from the traffic, if only for a while. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t stay away as he had before, and it was a promise he meant to keep. Not just for his father’s sake, but for his own.

  Stepping off the back porch, he headed for the shadows behind the barn, a towel slung around his neck. There was a man-made pond out in the pasture. His father had built it and had a well dug to keep it full. It had been used for watering the horses.

  As he approached, he saw the big sycamore tree near the edge. As a kid, Ian had tied a tire on a rope to one of the lower branches. In the summer, he and his buddies would swing out and drop into the water.

  The tree was still there, but the tire was gone. Just the rope hanging down, rotted and forlorn.

  The pond was still full, though. Tossing the towel onto the grass, he sat down and jerked off his work boots, pulled his T-shirt over his head, unfastened his belt and unzipped his jeans, slid them and his boxers down over his hips. Naked, Ian waded in and sank down till the water came up to his neck.

  For a while, he just paddled around, enjoying the cool liquid against his skin, remembering the fun he’d had back when he was a kid. He’d brought a girl out here once when he was in high school. With his folks in the house, nothing much happened; they’d just made out for a while. He grinned, remembering it was the first time he’d gotten to second base.