honey, but you weren't cooperating.' Prizing her hands from his body, he pulled away from her.
Elizabeth sighed. 'You were trying to scare me away, trying to prove to me what a rotten, no-good skunk you are.'
Reece turned around slowly. 'You think you're so damned smart, don't you?'
'I'm not leaving, so you might as well cut the rest of this macho-idiot act!'
'You have got to be the most stubborn, bullheaded woman I've ever known!' Reece unzipped his jeans, pulled them off and tossed them on the floor.
Elizabeth stared at his naked body.
'If you want to stay, then stay.' Reece lay down on the bed. 'I've had a long, strenuous day and things are bound to be worse tomorrow. I'm going to get some sleep.' He punched one of his pillows several times, bunched it into a wad and stuck it under his head. 'You can do whatever the hell you want to do.'
Reece turned out the nightstand lamp, pulled the covers up over himself and closed his eyes. Elizabeth stood in the middle of the motel room, her gaze riveted to Reece Landry. Why, of all the men on earth, had the good Lord in heaven sent her a man like this? A man who could shield his heart and his mind from her. A man who fought her efforts to help him every inch of the way. A man so scarred by his past that he was afraid to trust another human being.
Elizabeth turned back the covers and crawled into bed beside Reece, then pulled the covers up to her neck. Lying there quietly and unmoving, all she could think about was the way Reece looked naked. Big, tall, muscular. His arms, legs and chest covered with dark brown hair. He possessed an aura of strength and ruggedness, from his thick, overly long brown hair to his wide chest, to his impressive manhood.
Elizabeth shuddered at the thought of the way Reece had touched her, the memory of his lips at her breasts, his hands fondling her to the point of arousal. As the minutes passed, Elizabeth relaxed, her mind centered on the big, naked man lying beside her. She drifted off into sleep, succumbing to dreams of Reece Landry. His smile. His amber eyes. His naked, aroused body covering her.
Reece lay awake for hours, feigning sleep but unable to rest knowing that Elizabeth lay next to him. She'd fallen asleep quite some time ago. The sleep of the innocent. A clear conscience and a pure heart.
He'd done some damn fool things in his life, but his actions with Elizabeth tonight had to top the list. Had he actually been stupid enough to think she'd fall for his rapist act? He had spent four days alone with her in her cabin and had allowed her to get to know him, the real Reece Landry, the man he barely knew himself.
She hadn't bought the story of his rendezvous with Luanne and she hadn't believed him capable of brutalizing her. He had to face the facts. Elizabeth Mallory, for whatever misguided reasons, was determined to stand by his side, to march head-on into disaster, to go the limit to help him prove his innocence. What had he ever done to deserve the loyalty and trust of a woman like Elizabeth?
Did he dare believe what she believed? That they were predestined to meet? That she and she alone could save him?
Whether he believed or didn't wasn't the point. The point was that Elizabeth was in his life and in it to stay. Now, the question was, what the hell was he going to do with her?
Elizabeth snuggled against him, resting her head on his shoulder, cuddling her body into his. Swallowing, Reece opened his eyes and looked at her. She was asleep, and practically in his arms. Strange thing was that as many women as he'd bedded over the years, he'd never slept the whole night with one. Not ever.
A narrow ridge of illumination filtered through the window where the flowery drapes didn't quite meet, a combination of moonlight and fluorescent motel sign. Rising up on one elbow, Reece gazed down at Elizabeth. For a split second his heart stopped. She was so incredibly lovely, and he wanted her desperately.
Her dark hair looked like black silk in the shadowy room. Reece lifted a strand and brought it to his lips, then dropped it, watching it fall back to her shoulder. Her eyelashes were long and thick, her cheekbones high and only slightly rounded. And her lips-those full, luscious lips. The memory of how those lips had felt when he'd kissed her was enough to arouse him.
When she nestled more snugly against him, Reece slipped his arm under her, lifting her even closer to his side. Still asleep, she laid her arm across his chest, her fingers curling around his hair. He sucked in a deep breath.
He touched her cheek with his fingertip, tracing the lines of her face, slowly, lovingly. She moaned in her sleep, pressing her body into his. He leaned over and kissed her tenderly on the lips, then drew her securely into his arms.
Whatever tomorrow brought, Reece knew one thing for certain. He wasn't going to let anything or anyone hurt this woman. Not ever. And that included him.
Chapter 7
The jarring ring of the telephone woke Reece instantly. Instinctively reaching toward the nightstand, he grabbed the phone. Suddenly he realized that there was a woman in the bed with him, a woman lying there beside him, her head resting on his arm. Elizabeth! She opened her eyes and smiled at him.
'Answer the phone,' she said.
Glancing from her sleep-fresh face to the phone in his hand, Reece growled at the caller. 'Yeah?'
'It's Flossie, sugar.'
'Flossie?' Reece sat upright in the bed.
'Look, you've got to hightail it out of there as fast as you can. Luanne just called me and said she remembered where she'd seen you-that Mr. Jones in number nineteen was that Landry fellow who killed old man Stanton.'
'Dammit!' Reece jumped out of bed. 'Can you trust her to keep her mouth shut?'
'Not hardly,' Flossie said. 'Not where there's money involved. Guess you didn't know that your half brother has put up a fifty-thousand-dollar reward for information leading to your capture.'
'Hell!' Reece held his hand over the bottom half of the phone and turned to Elizabeth. 'Get our stuff together. Quick. We're leaving.'
'Look, sugar, I tried to persuade Luanne that she was wrong, but she said she planned on calling the sheriff just in case she was right. They're liable to show up here any minute now. I'll do whatever I can to stall them, but-'
'Thanks, Flossie. I owe you one,' Reece said.
'You don't owe me nothing, sugar. I just wish you hadn't come back to Newell. They're all out to get you, and the Stantons won't rest until you're back behind bars.'
'I won't let that happen.'
'You got some place you can go?'' Flossie asked.
'B.K.'s old hunting lodge.'
'I wouldn't go there. The sheriff might not check it out, but you don't need to take any chances. Kenny's liable to remember you've been to the lodge. You need some place the law would never look.'
'What about your old place on Lilac Road?' Reece asked.
'That place has been condemned for nearly a year,' Flossie told him. 'Besides, the sheriff is bound to check out any place you've ever been connected with.'
Reece hadn't thought beyond his plan to hide out at B.K.'s cabin, but he realized that Flossie was right. Any place the law could connect him to would be suspect.
'I've got it! The Burtons' summer house up at the lake in Spruce Pine.'
'Perfect,' Flossie agreed. 'Get going, boy, and good luck. If there's anything I can do to help you, just let me know.'
'I've got a friend with me.' Reece watched Elizabeth stuff their belongings into their bags. 'If she ever needs anything, Flossie, I'd appreciate your looking out for her.'
'Sure thing, sugar. What's her name?'
'Elizabeth.' Reece hung up the phone, grabbed his jeans and shirt as Elizabeth threw them across the bed, and dressed hurriedly. By the time he was fully clothed, she was pulling on her boots.
Reece grabbed her by the shoulders. 'Do you still feel the way you did last night? Are you still determined to stay with me and help me prove who killed my father?'
'You know I am.'
'Okay, then, listen carefully. I'm going to take your Jeep and drive out to Spruce Pine. An acquaintance of
