The Shadows of Christmas Past Read online

  Sensation after sensation rocked her body, heat seared her until she thought she would have to scream for him to relieve the terrible ache. More. She wanted more. Everything he had, everything he was. She gave herself up to him, surrendering completely, her hips rising to meet the brutal thrust of his, every bit as hard, desperate for him to fill up every empty space.

  "Maia, you're so damned tight," Cole's voice was husky, the words torn from his rigid throat. "Hot and tight and dammit all, you belong to me. Like this, baby, just like this." He plunged into her again and again, groaning with pleasure as her muscles pulsed and throbbed around him even more. Until her control was shattered and she burst into fragments, her body convulsing around his, tightening and squeezing and milking him dry so that he called her name aloud, his voice rough with sensuality.

  Maia stared up into his face. The harsh lines were gone, the horror of his nightmares replaced with satisfaction. He looked like a well-sated lover, his body relaxed and his piercing blue eyes soft with contentment.

  Cole propped himself up on his elbows, looking down into her face, still trying to get his breathing under control. He could feel her body still rippling with aftershocks around his. "You're so beautiful you take my breath away."

  Her laughter was soft, musical, tightening his body all over again. "That's not what took your breath away. And you lie so wonderfully. I'm ordinary-looking, but I don't mind if you want to delude yourself." Her hands slid over his body, traced his sculpted buttocks and hips. She could see a brand burned into his flesh on the back of his thigh. Her fingertips smoothed over the ridges with a small caress.

  "I probably should sneak back to my room," she added.

  He stiffened. "This is not a one-night stand, Maia. I told you that."

  "You did not. I forget your exact words, but…"

  He caught her hands, stretched them above her head, pinning her wrists to the mattress so he could bend his head and take possession of her lips. He sank his tongue into the velvet darkness of her mouth, his tongue tangling with hers, exploring, commanding a response. He bit lightly at her lower lip, her chin, blazed a path of fire from her throat to breasts.

  For a moment he breathed in the sight of her bathed in the silvery light as it spilled across her breasts. Her nipples were peaked and hard, already roused. Her soft mounds were rising and falling with every breath she took, jutting upward toward his mouth. His body stirred to life, deep inside of hers, hardening impossibly. He bent to the offering, flicking her nipple with his tongue, feeling her response, the way her hips thrust upward and her body convulsed around his. He drew her breast into his hot mouth, suckling strongly, his tongue teasing her nipple, teeth scraping gently.

  Maia gasped and moaned, her body tensing, her breasts swelling with the attention. His body began to move, long slow strokes that left her moaning and lifting her hips in an attempt to control the rhythm. Cole held her beneath him, pressing kisses between her breasts, nibbling at her chin and lower lip, using his mouth to bring her to another climax while his body kept a slow, lazy tempo.

  "Cole." It was a protest. A plea.

  He smiled. A genuine smile. He felt it welling up out of nowhere. Cole could make her want him, plead with him, make her body come apart. She didn't try to hide the way she felt such an urgent need of him, and that was more of an aphrodisiac than anything else ever could have been.

  "Cole what?" he whispered against her mouth. Her muscles were already suckling at him, so tight and hot he wasn't certain he could keep the slow, languid pace he was setting. "What do you want, Maia?" The pleasure kept building and building inside of him, starting somewhere in the region of his toes, becoming an excruciating pleasure/pain in his groin and belly. There was fire in her tight sheath, her skin soft and inviting, her breasts thrusting up toward him with her arms stretched out above her head. An offering to him. Maia gave herself to him completely, and there was so much seduction in that knowledge.

  "Hurry up. Now you're killing me." She lifted her hips again, deliberately tightening her muscles around him.

  With a groan, Cole gave in, plunging deep and hard, unable to resist the hot furnace of her body. He couldn't resist kissing her, sucking on her lower lip. How often had he found himself staring, enthralled by the soft curve of her mouth? His tongue plunged into her mouth with the same urgency his hips drove into her. It could never be enough with Maia and he knew he never wanted it to be.

  Stretched out under him as she was, helpless under the pounding force of his body, she still tried to reach him, to lift herself to meet him. Cole felt her body stretching to accommodate him as with each thrust he seemed to grow thicker and harder, nearly bursting with the pleasure she brought him. He held them there, on the edge of a great precipice for what seemed forever, then both went over, climaxing together, the force of it leaving them shuddering and limp, a fine sheen glossing their bodies.

  Cole groaned softly and rolled his weight off of her when he could, but he kept his hand on her ribs, just under her breast, wanting to keep her in his room. "Just stay," he ordered softly. "I need you to stay."

  It took Maia longer to catch her breath, to gather her scattered thoughts. "I've never felt that way before, Cole."

  He turned his head to look at her. "That's a damned good thing, Maia. I'm looking to be number one in your life. Being a fantastic lover is one of the requirements."

  She laughed, just like he knew she would. "Is it? I had no idea. Well, you definitely passed that test." She glanced at the door. "I hope I didn't scream. Please tell me I didn't."

  "Unless Jase has a nightmare, he sleeps deeply, and his room is way down at the other end of the floor. We wanted to give one another a lot of space when we first moved in together."

  "He's a good kid."

  "Yeah, he is. All along I've been so worried that Jase might have killed the old man. I wouldn't have blamed him for it, but I didn't want him to have done it. I couldn't find a way to prove him innocent and even in some of our conversations, little things he said made me wonder."

  "How awful for you both," Maia sympathized. She reached for his hand, twining her fingers through his. "Jase isn't naturally violent, Cole. If he killed his father, he would have done it in self-defense. And to be honest, I don't think he could have. He was too afraid of him. And it isn't in him to kill anyone."

  "No, it isn't." Cole turned over, his arm sliding around her waist. "But it is in me, isn't?"

  The sadness in his voice shook her. Sadness. Distaste. A note of fear. Maia framed his face with her hands, shifting so she could rise above him to look directly into his eyes. "You're nothing like that man, Cole. You're strong and yes, you could be violent if the circumstances called for it, but you're nothing at all like him."

  "You don't know that, Maia."

  "Yes I do. I saw your face when you touched the mountain lion, when I worked on the horse. I watch you with Jase, how careful you are. Even when you're trying to get him to play, you protect his falls. There's nothing in you that is cruel. Your father reveled in being cruel. It isn't in your nature, or in Jase's nature. You like to be the boss, but you're not out to control everyone. You encourage Jase to speak his mind and make decisions. That's not wanting control."

  Cole slid his hands up her rib cage, cupped her breasts in his palms and leaned forward to rest his head against her soft flesh. Maia immediately cradled his head to her. "I read people, just as I read animals, Cole. I would never have allowed myself to become involved with you and Jase if for one moment I thought either of you was cruel to humans or animals. I have too much respect for myself."

  She smiled. "I have a little bit of violence in me as well, and a great deal of self-preservation."

  His arms tightened around her. "I see him in myself sometimes, Maia."

  "He had strength of will, Cole, and he passed that to you. He must have had a way with women, and you have that attraction as well. Not everything about him was bad. Some of his traits are useful and, hopefully, both you
and Jase have them."

  He lifted his head, his blue eyes moving over her face, studying her features inch by inch. "You're a damned miracle, you know that?"

  "Of course I do. Temper and all." She laughed, the sound happy and warm, filling the large bedroom.

  Cole felt her laughter all the way to his bones. She had the power to shake him with that simple lighthearted sound. Her body was soft and warm and welcoming, but she was so much more to him. She would always be so much more to him. The revelation was no longer a shock. Maia seemed as much a part of him as breathing. She was the joy that had been missing from his heart. When he woke in darkness, she brought light to him. She brought out things in him he hadn't known were a part of him.

  How could he tell her these things when they'd only been together so short a time? She wouldn't believe him. How could she? His arms tightened until she stirred in protest.

  "You're going to break me in half, Cole," Maia said. "What's wrong?"

  He forced himself to let his arms slide away from her, to lie back and lace his fingers behind his head. "I know you've told me about the images the animals have shown you several times, but would you go over it again in detail. Everything you can remember."

  "Why?"

  "You ought to be over being uncomfortable about it with me," Cole said. There was a soft growl in his voice, a deep note that seemed to vibrate right through her skin. "I'm just thinking about all the images the animals have been conveying to you, and I'm trying to put it together. Maybe the answer to the mystery of what's going on at this ranch is in those images."

  Maia sat back, her hand on his chest, right over his heart. She knew he hadn't told her what had put the shadows back in his eyes, but if he wasn't ready to tell her, she wasn't going to force a confidence. "I'm going to let you get away with that just because I know you're worried about something happening on the ranch, and I want to be filled in, but I know that's not what you were worried about."

  Maia waited, but Cole didn't respond. "Fine. The owl was very vague. Impressions of dangers, something flying overhead. Flashes of light. Horses moving. I couldn't get a very good take on it because the images seemed faded and far away." She shrugged. "I know that sounds dumb."

  "The deer then."

  "Blood on the grass and rocks. Fists hitting flesh. More impressions of danger."

  "Were the images as vague?"

  "Distant. And the wolves were even more so. Something overhead. Blood on the ground. The one I treated was injured sometime ago."

  "Someone shot it?"

  "No, I think it was kicked by a horse or trampled. The bone was out of the socket, but I'm not certain how the injury actually occurred or how long ago. The poor thing had really suffered."

  "All this time I thought my father's death had something to do with his fortune or the ranch or Jase. I couldn't figure out why he was murdered and how anyone other than my uncle would profit and only if he was named guardian, which he wouldn't be. Besides, he wouldn't want the responsibility."

  "So if your father wasn't murdered for the inheritance, what was the reason?"

  He shrugged, a small sigh escaping. "I'm not actually certain, but I think your animals were trying to tell you something. I'm working on a time line. Tell me how preposterous this sounds. I think your cat, the owl, and the wolves were showing you something that happened a while ago."

  "Maybe. It was vague."

  "Exactly. The memory wasn't fresh."

  Excitement flared. "You're right. When Wally showed me the images of Jase as a boy being beaten, the memories weren't nearly as vivid as when he showed me how he was driven into the fence. I had a very difficult time making out the images from the owl and the wolves, but the mountain lion's images were much clearer."

  "You're certain she was shot the day Wally was injured?"

  "The wound would have been infected if more time had gone by. Yes, it was definitely fresh."

  "Could she have been shot from someone in a helicopter?"

  Maia shook her head. "No, she was above the shooter, at least that's the way the angle of the wound appeared to me."

  Satisfaction edged his expression. "That's what I thought too. So the event in which the helicopter was flying overhead could have taken place when my father was still alive."

  "Well, of course there's no way of knowing for certain, but it's a realistic possibility," Maia said. "I'm lost, Cole. You obviously have an idea where all of this is leading, but I haven't a clue."

  He kissed her, a brief hard kiss, his eyes alive with excitement. "That's because you don't think a like a criminal."

  "I suppose that's a compliment. You have such a sweet tongue on you."

  He showed her he did, kissing her again and making a thorough job of it.

  Maia caught his shoulders and pushed him back down to the bed. "Talk. Explain."

  "I think my father brought something onto the ranch, most likely something illegal. Some of the ranch hands were probably involved. They would have had to be. Most people didn't know it, but the old man could fly a helicopter. He employed a full-time pilot, but only because he liked to feel superior to everyone and give orders. He thought flying was a menial task."

  Maia reached for his hand again. Cole didn't seem to realize how agitated he became when he talked about his father. It wasn't overt, but more a subtle tension rising, building and building until she felt he might explode with the force of a volcano. "I'm not certain I understand."

  "Suppose he brought in something worth a fortune, and some of the hands were in on it and expected to get a share. The old man goes out with his pilot and moves it from wherever it was originally stashed."

  "You're thinking of a shipment of drugs."

  "I always think in terms of drugs or weapons. It's my job. But yes, suppose the old man was running drugs out here. He has a few thousand acres. The ranch backs up to a national forest. Parts of our ranch are on the border. He could bring in drugs, and no one would be the wiser. Or diamonds. Anything. An illegal shipment worth a fortune."

  "The horses and packs. The helicopter overhead. Maybe. It's a stretch."

  "Not that big a stretch if you knew him. He would revel in working outside the law. He thought he was smarter and more cunning than anyone. I could easily see it. And if some of the hands were in on it and knew he had the shipment and he suddenly announced he was cutting them out, it would be a damned good reason for someone to kill him."

  "Why would he do that?"

  "Because he could. You would have had to know him. He liked the power of it all. Suppose he went with his pilot and moved the shipment somewhere the hands wouldn't know about it, and then he killed the pilot and left him behind with the stash."

  Maia shook her head. "It doesn't make sense."

  "You said someone was killed. I checked, Maia. The pilot went missing a few weeks before the old man was murdered. He was actually considered a suspect. No one's heard from him. The rumor was, he and the old man had a falling out, and he quit."

  "So your father killed the pilot, but why?"

  "Because the old man moved his stash, and the pilot knew where, so he had to die. Then he told the ranch hands he was cutting them out of the deal. He knew they couldn't go to the police, and they wouldn't want to lose their jobs, so he felt very safe. But one or more of them decided they didn't want to take orders from him. So they killed him in his office and went out to pick up the stash, only it wasn't there anymore."

  "Because he'd moved it before he cut them out of the deal."

  "I think that's what's going on, Maia. They didn't care who was named guardian because we didn't know about the stash. They could look around the ranch for it, and we'd never know."

  "Until you fired them."

  "That's right. I fired them, and I'd be very suspicious if they began hanging around the ranch. Jase told me some maps disappeared from the office. I didn't really give it all that much thought, but it makes sense. They're looking for whatever the old man hid."

/>   "So they wanted you out of here at least long enough to do a thorough search of the ranch. That's why the rumors, to get you to take Jase and leave."

  "And that's why the accidents. They knew the storm was coming. Jase was supposed to go into town with me that day, but he decided he wanted to hang out with Al. So they tried to injure him just enough so Al would have to drive him into town, and they could poke around. That didn't work, so they drove Wally into the fence thinking Al would trailer the horse into town. The storm was breaking too fast, and I opted to bring you home with me."

  "Why push it? Why didn't they just wait?"

  "Maybe they have a buyer, or they're getting anxious. Whatever it is, one of my horses was ridden the day Wally was hurt. I think while Al and Jase were tied up looking after him, Fred took the horse and went looking. That's probably when he shot the mountain lion."

  "This is all speculation."

  "Yes," Cole admitted. "But Fred was watching us when we went to get the tree yesterday. And I've got this gut feeling. I've never been wrong when I've had that feeling before."

  "So why the ice on the walkway?"

  "To get us out of here. If you or Jase or even I were injured, we'd have go into town to the hospital, and they'd be able to search without interruption."

  "In a blizzard?"

  "Four separate storms, Maia. It wasn't supposed to be this bad. And if we were trapped on the other side, the road wouldn't be cleared, and we'd have a hard time getting home."

  "So how do you prove it?"

  "I'm working on it." He reached out to cup her breasts again, thumbs caressing her nipples into hard peaks. "I'll think better in the morning. Right now, I want to spend the rest of the night getting to know every inch of your body intimately."