She hesitated, looking bewildered. He grunted and yanked open the sash of her trench coat.
That jolted her into action. “No, no, I'll do it.” She tugged her boots off with a wistful sigh. “These boots were so beautiful.”
He pulled his knife out of his pocket while she was peeling off her jeans and underwear and slid his knife beneath the sole of one of her discarded boots, managing at the same time to keep an eye on the tantalizing nest of ringlets at her crotch. She pulled on one of the thong undies. The hot pink one, he noted with unquenchable interest.
“These things are not comfortable, Seth,” she grumbled.
He gave her a wolfish, unrepentant grin. “Sorry, sweetheart.”
He peeled back the upper. Bingo. He pulled out the tiny chip with its dangling antenna. “Check this out.”
She stopped in mid-shimmy, her new jeans halfway up her thighs. Her jaw sagged in horror. “Victor?”
“Hurry, Raine,” he said grimly.
She needed no further encouragement. In moments, she was freshly clothed and ready.
“Leave it all there on the floor,” he instructed. “Let's go.”
“We're just leaving the car?”
“We'll get it later, if we can,” he said indifferently.
He grabbed the bag that held his laptop and his X-Ray Specs gear, and pulled her through the pelting rain at a dead run, expecting every set of headlights to veer towards them, for someone to lean out and open fire. They darted across the highway, to Schultz's New And Used Cars. Fifteen minutes later his emergency cash wad was a hell of a lot slimmer, and Samuel Hudson, one of his alternate identities, was the proud owner of an only slightly dented bronze '94 Mercury Sable. Not what he would have chosen, but it was the best of the lot for the cash he had on hand.
After forty minutes of winding torturously through streets and back roads, Seth was reasonably sure they weren't being followed. He got onto a small highway that began to climb into the hills. The rain got heavier, verging on slush. On the outskirts of a little town called Alden Pines, there was a neon sign that read “Lofty Pines Motel- Cabins-Cable-Vacancy.” He pulled into the long, forested driveway and parked.
The desk clerk was a fugitive's wet dream, deeply involved in an old Clint Eastwood movie that flickered on his twelve-inch screen. He was completely unperturbed by Semis preference for paying in cash, and barely glanced at the fake driver's license before shoving a key attached to a cedar shingle across the scarred counter.
“Cabin number seven,” he said, eyes riveted on the screen. “Check-out time, eleven-thirty.”
The room itself was musty and cold. Seth fiddled with the antiquated heating device and Raine dragged the extra wool blankets out of the closet. The radiator hummed and clanked The cracked, brownish lampshade cast a dim light onto the fake wool paneling, the threadbare furniture. The stark reality of the past twenty-four hours rendered them speechless. They stared at each other across the bed.
Raine shrugged out of her new coat and walked over to him. She pushed gently on his chest until he understood that she wanted him to sit down. He did so. The lumpy bed sagged under his weight.
She crossed her arms, adorably cute in her new, raspberry red wool sweater. It clung to her soft, braless tits. “So?” she prompted.
The pink swelling on her face would ripen tomorrow into bruises. It made him clench up inside, to think of how close to the edge she'd come tonight. “Let's get into bed,” he suggested.
A half-smile curved her solemn, sexy mouth. “If you think you can distract me from this conversation with sex, think again.”
“No way,” he protested. “I just want us to get warm.” He rummaged through the bags until he found the nightie. “Put this on.”
She took the tiny scrap of a thing, and regarded it with deep suspicion. “This is supposed to keep me warm?”
“No,” he said curtly. “I'm the one that's going to keep you warm.”
She disappeared into the bathroom. He stripped, laid the SIG on the bedstand, got the condoms out of his bag and slid naked into the bed with a harsh gasp. It was like a wintertime leap into Puget Sound.
After a ridiculously long time, the bathroom door squeaked open. She stood, silhouetted against the light for a moment before she stepped out into the room.
She did it to him every damn time. He just couldn't get used to how beautiful she was. The peach thing clung tenderly to her body, showing off the sway of her breasts, the curve of her belly, the soft indentation of her navel. Her eyes had that soft, shining look that made his throat tighten up until it hurt. “Come here,” he said, scooting over to the icy side. “I warmed it up for you.”
She smiled her thanks and slid under the covers, signing with pleasure when he pulled her close against his heat. He ran his hands all over her body, needing to reassure himself that she was real, and safe. Warm and soft and right here in his arms. He pressed his aching erection against her thigh and pulled up the brief skirt. She was naked beneath it, her soft downy curls open to his teasing fingers.
She stiffened. “Wait. You promised!, Seth. I need to know—”
“Please, Raine,” he pleaded. “The adrenaline got me so jacked up. I have to touch you. I was so scared of losing you tonight.”
She gave his chest a little push. “You're not getting away with it this time, my love. Adrenaline is no excuse. I had an adrenaline rush, too, you know. I don't know why you're so afraid to talk to me, but you have got to get over it. Right now.”
He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. At least she had called him “my love.” He would cling to that when it all went to shit. “It's true,” he said tightly. “I don't want to talk. Talking is where I get into trouble. At least when it comes to ... relationships.”
“Trouble? What trouble?”
He rubbed his face with a grimace of discomfort. “You've seen how I am. You saw it tonight I open my mouth, and things just come out. And I ruin everything. Every time.”
“Oh, Seth,” she whispered.
“I'm so flicking scared of wrecking this.” His voice came out rough and raw. It embarrassed him. He covered his face with his hand.
Raine cuddled closer. “I'm not afraid of the truth,” she soothed, stroking his hair. “And even if I get mad at you, it's not the end of the world, I've gotten mad at you lots of times, remember? And here I am.”
“Right. I have a hit man to thank for that,” he said sourly.
She kissed his nose. “Don't be silly.”
He closed his eyes and cautiously allowed himself to enjoy the little butterfly kisses, her fingers stroking his hair. “Easy to say right now,” he said. “Wait till one of my moods comes over me. Then you'll see.”
“I've already seen you at your worst, Seth Mackey. More than once. And it's true. You can be just awful. Despicable.”
He opened his eyes. She wasn't exactly laughing, but he distrusted that bright sparkle in her eyes. “I don't see what's so goddamn funny” he growled.
She pulled his hand up to her lips and kissed his knuckles. “It's so simple, Seth,” she said “You're being sweet to me, and everything works beautifully. It's easy. Just... keep on being sweet to me.”
He stared down at her pink, amazingly soft lips as they brushed against his big knuckles, covering them with tender little kisses. “I can't always be sweet,” he said starkly.
“Why not?”
He pulled her closer, almost angrily. As if someone were trying to drag her away from him. “Because the world's not like that.”
Her smile was so beautiful it made his chest burn. Her fingers were so cool and soft, stroking his hot cheek. “Then let's change the world,” she whispered.
Breath jerked into his lungs in sobbing heaves. She did not protest when he rolled on top of her, settling his hard weight into the cradle of her hips. Her body softened, clasping him. Accepting him.
Seth was a millimeter away from losing it. The only way to hold his emotions together was to kiss her, with all of himself. All his desperate hunger. Need pounded through his body, but he held it back, trying to express with his kiss everything that was so impossible to say. His anger and grief and confusion, his growing awareness of how important she was to him. How much that awed and terrified him.
