Page 42 of Black Ice
He cupped her face, tunneled his hands into her hair, tipping her mouth to the perfect angle. She couldn’t resist him. Had never wanted to. They were good together, at school, at work, and at this.
She smoothed her hands along his spine, her fingers digging in when he nuzzled that sensitive spot on her neck. With a chuckle, he brought his forehead to hers.
They’d exchanged versions of ‘I love you’, words she’d never given to another man, and yet the ramifications had to wait until Cordell was contained.
“Please stay here,” he whispered.
“Only if you stay here with me,” she countered.
“Mule.”
“Ass.” She softened the insult with a fast kiss and a squeeze of his backside before she slipped out of his arms.
She found a sweater and they both chose better cold-weather gear. Wyatt gathered a coil of rope and a hunting knife too.
“Flare gun?” he asked.
“No one would see it,” she reminded him. She emptied the pockets of Karl’s coat onto the front counter. “Here are the diamonds.” He walked up beside her and stared down at the massive Mae West Solitaire, giving a low whistle. Even the low light from the window set the gems on fire, the stones casting that fire across the walls and ceiling. Across his striking face.
“They’ll be safer here,” she said, dragging her thoughts back on track.
“We might need the leverage,” he said. “Above all, Cordell is greedy.”
She believed him. “They sure dress up a space.” Her gaze followed the colorful refracted light. “How did he plan to liquidate them?”
“I’m sure he has a fence lined up,” Wyatt said. “He paid me a few grand up front, and the rest was supposed to hit my account within a week of his escape. That’s all up to the FBI now. I just want him out of Deadwood and far away from you.”
She tipped one of the larger stones from Karl’s stash back and forth on the countertop. “Would you have come to see me?Be honest,” she added, without looking at him. She didn’t want to believe their new connection was completely a coincidence or a byproduct of an attempt to stop a thief.
Behind her, he sighed. “No. Yes. Probably no,” he amended. She caught him scrubbing at the stubble on his jaw and she wished they could go back to kissing. “I’d hoped to get in and out of town without seeing you,” he admitted. “But seeing you now, I know I couldn’t have left without checking in.”
Love was a multi-faceted pain in the butt, she thought. Chip away at one side and something else emerged. She gathered up the smaller diamonds for safekeeping and zipped them into her pocket. Going back to the storeroom, she found another sock to protect the Mae West and zipped that outrageous stone into a different pocket.
“I never wanted you to get hurt,” he said. “Then or now.”
She nodded, once. “I’m sorry.”
“What do you have to apologize for?”
She shrugged. “The years we lost. My bitterness over it.” She met his gaze. “All of the very dark thoughts I’ve aimed at you recently.”
He grinned. “Pretty sure I deserved every one of those dark thoughts.”
“Oh, you did.” She laughed, then braced against the counter to get her boots on. “Tell me what you have in mind for corralling Cordell.”
“Their only smart move was to go on to the mining museum. With luck they’re snowed in.”
“We haven't checked.” She glanced toward the window. “Odds are good we might be too.”
He grimaced. “We’ll find a way out, but how do we get to the museum without snowshoes?”
“I was thinking we’d use the snowmobile in the shed.”
“What?”
“See?” She grinned at him, delighted to surprise him. “You do need me.”
“Every damn day,” he admitted. “But I’m driving.”
