Need You Tonight, page 23
Her eyes were still full of shadows, but as her gaze ran over him, those shadows faded away to be replaced by a burning desire that seared him to his soul. ‘I think I can handle that.’ Reaching up, she pulled his head down and placed a nibbling kiss on his lips.
Flames leaped to life in Daemon’s veins. He returned her kiss, deepening it, his hands racing over her back, pulling her closer, wanting nothing more than to put their argument behind them and feel her hot, wet warmth surround him. Their teeth clashed with hungry passion-fuelled kisses. But it wasn’t enough. He needed more. She needed more. He lifted her off her feet and placed her on the desk, pressing in between her legs, pulling the jumper over her head.
‘Daemon, the door—’
‘It’s closed,’ he groaned as he trailed a hot path down her neck with his lips, undoing the buttons of her pyjama top, exposing her to his greedy gaze. He stroked her, his lips following where his hands led.
She moaned and pulled him closer. ‘Billy and Cat—’
‘What about them?’ He trailed passionate kisses from one swollen tip to the other.
‘They might come in … Oh god!’ She groaned as he blew cold air onto each nipple and then covered her cold skin with the heat of his mouth.
‘I don’t think so. I think they’ll be gone a while.’ He began to kiss a path down her stomach, her skin trembling with each moist touch.
‘But Cat. She—’
He cupped her face in between his palms. ‘You know it’s best to let her cool off. Billy’s with her. She’s in good hands.’ He began to nibble at her lips again.
‘The others … Bev, Karl. They could come in.’
He pushed down the tracksuit pants she’d put on after Cat woke up, fingers trailing on skin, lips and tongue following their progress in a slow, torturous journey. ‘It’s too early. Besides, the only person I’m interested in coming is you.’
Lexi laughed, a low, husky sound that drove straight into his gut, stoking the fire. ‘Is that how lovers talk to each other?’
‘It’s how I talk to you.’ And he proceeded to show her how words and touch worked together so well to build the fire of passion, thanking the good lord he’d thought to shove a few condoms in his jeans pockets just in case he could talk her into trying new things with him.
She was a quick learner, joining in, and they rose and fell, their bodies making intimate music together meant only for them.
Chapter 26
Lexi and Daemon showered together, Daemon making her feel blissful for a beautiful moment in time.
But it couldn’t last.
They were dressed and preparing breakfast when Bev walked in, the newspaper under one arm, roses from the garden in the other.
Lexi tried not to look disappointed. She had hoped Cat would have come back by now. She’d prepared her twin’s favourite breakfast.
Seeing the look on her face, Bev sighed. ‘Did you think I was Cat?’
Lexi frowned. ‘You know she’s woken up?’
Bev placed the newspaper on the table, took a vase from the dresser and began arranging the flowers. ‘Billy brought her to the cottage when she refused to come back here last night.’ The older woman took the spatula out of her hands and took over the cooking as she’d done with Billy yesterday.
‘She won’t come back to the house?’ She blinked back stinging tears. ‘She must hate me.’
‘She doesn’t hate you, love.’
‘You’re just saying that.’
‘No, I’m not. She’s your flesh and blood. Surely you can feel that. Surely you know the connection you have with her?’
‘Then why won’t she come back to the house and sleep in her own bed?’
She smiled, brushing a stray lock of hair off Lexi’s brow. ‘Your sister is a lot like you.’
Lexi’s lips twisted as she shook her head.
‘She is. She has your pride. Catriona feels bad about what she said to you. She was too ashamed to come back. She asked me to tell you that. She’ll come back later when she’s had some sleep. She was exhausted. Billy’s watching over her. Now, sit down and eat your breakfast.’ Bev gestured to the stack of pancakes Lexi had already put in the middle of the table.
Lexi sat with a plonk in one of the wooden kitchen chairs.
‘Are you alright?’ Daemon asked, taking her hand in his.
She wound her fingers around his, holding on tight. ‘Yes, I’m fine,’ she lied. She was tired, so tired. She wanted to lie down, Daemon’s arms around her, and just sleep. But she couldn’t. She wanted to be here when Cat came back to the house. Speaking of which … ‘I won’t be able to be a part of the roster to sit with Phil today.’
‘I think Phil will understand. I’ll let him and Craig know about Cat. They’ll be thrilled for you both.’
‘When are you going in?’ She didn’t want him to go, but she didn’t want to ask him to stay either. Hell, she was a mess.
‘Craig’s there at the moment. I’m sure he’ll be fine to stay longer.’
‘You don’t have to stay here for me. Phil and Melissa are your family.’
He stared at her, seemed on the verge of saying something, but then smiled. ‘Yes, they are. But they’ll understand if I don’t come in this morning. That’s what family does—understands.’
‘Yes.’ She just hoped that was true for Cat and herself, because if it wasn’t …
Daemon squeezed her hand before returning to his breakfast, flipping through the newspaper as he did so. Lexi grabbed a pancake, doused it in maple syrup then tried to eat. Each bite stuck in her throat.
After a few moments, she pushed her plate away. ‘I think I’ll go and make some calls I’ve been putting off.’
Daemon looked up at her, frowning. ‘Don’t be long.’
She hurried to the study and called Karl to tell him about the letter and see if he’d spoken to Detective Wheelan about the fence, but he didn’t answer the phone in the stable office nor his mobile. When she came back, not five minutes later, Daemon was no longer in the kitchen.
He hadn’t said goodbye.
She bit her lip, trying to ignore the bite of disappointment and took a deep breath. She really needed to ask Bev about the letter, but she was afraid of the answer.
Bev turned and saw her standing there.
‘Did you forget something, love?’
Lexi shook her head and swallowed hard, taking her courage in hand. ‘No. I wanted to know if you picked up the mail yesterday.’
Bev shook her head. ‘With everything that happened, I forgot. I hope there wasn’t anything important you needed straight away. I can ring Karl and ask him to go into Mansfield to pick it up now if you want.’
Lexi forced a smile. ‘No, it can wait.’ She turned to go and then stopped. ‘Besides, I just tried to ring Karl. He’s not answering his phone or the intercom in the stable.’
‘He must have gone out already and is out of range.’
She nodded. Picked up a fork and ran it through the maple syrup Daemon had left on his plate. ‘Umm, you didn’t find a letter addressed to me and put it in the study last night, did you?’
‘No. Have you lost something, love?’ She sprinkled flour on the bench and began to knead the bread dough. ‘I can look for it later if you like.’
‘No, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.’ Fear crawled like a spider up her back as she left the kitchen.
He had been in her house.
How had he gotten in, gotten past Karl and the men?
Why had he only left the letter?
She had to be thankful that was all he’d done after destroying the fence.
She really needed to talk to Karl, have him get his security buddy up here. She’d tell the others she’d put on more security to ensure none of them would be bothered by the media who were sure to catch on about Melissa’s accident any time now.
Her stalker would have to be pretty insane to try anything with extra security around.
But where was Karl? She decided to go out looking for him.
***
The phone rang and rang. Daemon was ready to hang up when Lyall answered.
‘Daemon, what do you need?’
‘Have you picked Nigel up yet?’ There was a pause and Daemon could hear Lyall fumbling, sounding puffed. ‘Did I catch you at a bad time?’
‘No. I’m at the hospital and had to get to where I could answer. Nigel’s been called back to Melbourne. He was on his way to the chopper when he got the call that something had gone cock-up with the contract for the big charity do. He had to go and sort it face to face.’
‘Damn. I need him to check on something for me and he’s not answering his phone.’
‘Is it about Professor Carlton? The other chopper I organised is picking him up as we speak. I’ve paid the pilot to land in the home paddock at Storm Haven to save time.’
‘That’s amazing. I’ll let Lexi know. But that isn’t what I wanted to speak to Nigel about.’
‘Oh. Well, is it anything I can help you with?’
Daemon thought for a moment but knew Lexi wouldn’t like him talking to Nigel, let alone Lyall. ‘Is there a way I can contact him?’
‘I’ll shoot him a text and an email. He’ll see one of them when he lands.’
‘Which will be when?’
‘I don’t know. An hour or so.’
‘Damn it!’
‘Can’t it wait?’
‘No. I really need him to take care of this now.’
A thought had crawled into his mind when he’d picked up the newspaper Bev had brought in this morning. A horrible thought that wouldn’t let go and had made him rush out with barely a murmured goodbye to Bev before racing back to the Barn House.
He’d only picked the newspaper up to check the Mansfield Courier were holding to the bargain struck with Lyall. There was a photo of the accident site and the rolled car, but it only mentioned a tourist being injured. He sighed in relief and was about to close the paper when his attention was caught by an article about Jenny Harrison on the opposite page. More particularly, by her photo. It was an old photo of her with long hair. But her hair hadn’t been long anymore. She’d cut and coloured it to look like Lexi’s. She wore clothes like Lexi’s. Did her minimal make-up like Lexi. She was similar in height and build as well.
Cold had crept over him. She wasn’t identical, but there were definite similarities.
She’d been choked to death while being raped and then left like garbage. A line from the letter he’d read last night blazed into his mind, vivid, violent words.
She should have been you.
Then his gaze had swept across to the picture of the smashed Landcruiser.
Lexi’s Landcruiser.
She should have been you.
Could Jenny’s rape and murder and Melissa’s accident have something to do with Lexi’s stalker? Had he used Jenny as a substitute when he couldn’t get to Lexi? Had he meant to run Lexi off the road and got Melissa by mistake?
Daemon had to find out. He really needed Nigel to use his contacts to push the investigation further along—the man had contacts everywhere.
‘Are you sure there’s no way to get to him sooner?’
Lyall clicked his tongue. ‘Yes. Are you sure I can’t help you with the problem? I know everything that goes on around here.’
Daemon sighed. He had no other option. He needed the police to treat the threat to Lexi seriously. He’d deal with her anger later. He quickly outlined his thoughts. ‘I assume Nigel has police contacts he can use.’
‘Nigel doesn’t, but I do. I’m Australian, remember? It was my contact Nigel used to get the information on Lexi. Although it helped that he already had a file on her.’
‘What?’
‘Yeah. He had a whole file on her career—newspaper articles, interviews, the whole lot. He said he was hoping to find something on AJ Denholm that would make her more amenable to working with you. You know what he’s like.’ There was an awkward pause, as if he were waiting for Daemon to say something. ‘Are you still there?’
‘I’m here.’ Daemon’s voice was hard, low. He’d have to have a few words to Nigel. Blackmail wasn’t something he or the band would ever want to be a part of. ‘Listen, just tell Nigel to call me ASAP.’
‘Okay. I’ll get right onto my contact in the meantime and let you know what happens.’
‘Thanks, Lyall. I’ll hear from you soon.’
Daemon stared out the window after he ended the call, trying to let go of the fury that burned through his veins. Just the thought that Nigel might try to use what they’d found out about Lexi against her … He shook his head. He knew Nigel played hardball but he hadn’t thought their manager would stoop so low. He couldn’t do anything about that until he spoke to Nigel. What mattered now was getting back to Lexi and not letting her out of his sight until he knew for certain this issue with the stalker had been taken care of. When he’d made certain she was safe, they’d have the conversation he wanted to have. A conversation that would change both their lives for the better if he had his way.
He found Lexi in the stables trying to track down Karl. She probably wanted to tell him about the letter given he seemed to be in the know. But she refused to be drawn on talking about it, and after discovering that Karl had headed out to get more lumber and would be back in a few hours, he’d managed to talk Lexi into going inside with him and trying to work on some music. She didn’t want to go to the studio in case Cat came looking for her, so they ended up in the kitchen at the main house.
They were there an hour later, Lexi staring blankly at her notes and Daemon playing idly on his guitar, when a distant whoop-whoop, echoing but coming closer, made her look up.
‘Finally.’ She jumped up and rushed to the door. Daemon followed close behind, almost smacking into her as she froze at the top of the stairs, staring towards the cottage. He followed her gaze and saw Billy leading Cat up to the house. Daemon reached out and took her hand in his, fingers twining, squeezing gently.
She took in a deep breath and then headed to the open space on the far side of the stables where the helicopter was landing.
An older man emerged from the chopper, his thinning hair blowing in the wind of the blades, coat flapping. He spied Lexi and Cat and ran towards them, bent down. Daemon hurried forward, helping with his bags as the rotor blades whirled above their heads. As they cleared the field, the helicopter took off again.
He stopped next to Billy who stood back a little, giving the reunion between doctor and patient some space. As the sound of the helicopter echoed faintly in the distance, Professor Carlton held out his hand. ‘Catriona. It’s nice to finally meet you.’
Cat frowned at his hand before hesitantly extending her own. ‘According to Billy, I’ve been under your care for eleven years.’
‘That’s true,’ he answered, smiling. ‘And it’s wonderful to finally meet as I always hoped we would.’
Cat seemed to study the psychiatrist carefully, taking in his suit, his face, the wispy tufts of snowy hair and the glasses perched precariously there, before her gaze met his in careful appraisal. Slowly, Cat’s mouth twitched into a smile. ‘I remember you.’
Lexi breathed out a sigh of relief. ‘Shall we go inside?’
Cat met her gaze, warmth and regret in her eyes. ‘Shall Billy and I show him to his room while you get some tea organised?’
Lexi smiled, lips trembling and grasped her sister’s outstretched hand. ‘Sounds like a plan.’
Professor Carlton at Cat’s side, Billy on the other, they walked back up to the house. Lexi watched them, visibly trembling. Daemon transferred the bag he was holding to his shoulder and took her hand, squeezing it again. ‘It’s going to be okay.’
She looked up at him, eyes full of unshed tears, then nodded before following the others.
She didn’t let go of his hand.
Chapter 27
Hours later, Cat still hadn’t emerged from talking with Professor Carlton. Lexi wandered through the house, restless, until Daemon managed to coax her into the library, promising a hot chocolate and a snuggle on the couch in front of the fire. When he walked back into the room with her hot chocolate, she was standing, staring out the window. ‘Another storm’s coming.’ She rubbed her hands over her arms. ‘I can feel it.’
Daemon put the mug down on the coffee table and joined her at the window. Hands on her shoulders, he turned her to face him. ‘I know,’ he said gently.
‘I need to talk to her. I haven’t been able to explain.’
Daemon pulled her into his arms and stroked her hair. ‘There’ll be plenty of time for that. Let the prof do his job. That’s why he’s here.’ He pushed her back a little, cupping her face, looking into her eyes. ‘Besides, she wouldn’t have taken your hand if she really believed you were to blame for what happened.’
‘I am to blame.’
Daemon frowned. ‘I know you can’t possibly mean that. Lyndon James is the one to blame. His family are to blame for not doing anything about their dangerous son, especially after you’d reported him for harassing you. You are a victim as much as Cat is.’
Lexi stiffened, pulled away, suspicion narrowing her eyes. ‘How did you know that?’
‘What? That you’re a victim too? It’s pretty obvious to anyone with eyes.’ He tried to laugh but the sound died on his lips.
‘I didn’t mean that. How did you know about Lyndon’s family being involved? I never told you that.’
A prickling sensation raced over his skin. Shite. ‘You must have.’
Lexi shook her head, lips thinning. ‘I didn’t. I’ve never spoken to anyone about it since that time. The media didn’t even know. The family pulled strings and had the case held in a closed court so they wouldn’t find out and threatened me and anyone else who knew about it to keep us silent. So how did you know?’
Daemon swore to himself. Why the hell hadn’t he told her about the dossier of information that Nigel had put together and shown him? Tried to explain why the other man had done it? Explain that he hadn’t read it—only knew what Nigel had told him before he stopped the other man. If he’d fessed up right away, he might have been able to explain it, make her understand why Nigel would do such a thing. That he was just protecting Daemon and the band, especially after what Darla had done. Now it just sounded like a betrayal. A betrayal he’d been a part of because he’d known but said nothing. Not to Craig or Billy. Not to her. Especially not to her. Especially after what they’d shared. After what she’d come to mean to him.
