‘Do you think maybe we could just stay here?’ she said. ‘Right here in this spot on the grass, next to the woods, just stay here until the whole thing with Tess and the press blows over?’
‘It’s supposed to rain tomorrow. That might make the spot a little less pleasant,’ he replied, relishing the fact that he could stare at her endlessly in the dark and she wouldn’t squirm, wouldn’t be uncomfortable. Of course he really couldn’t see her, but he felt her. He felt her like she took up all the space in the field, all the space in the night sky, all the space inside him, and he would have gladly stayed there with her, even in the rain.
She sighed and snuggled closer to him. ‘I suppose so. Too bad, really. I like it here.’
Too bad, indeed, he thought. Any place where he had Kendra Davis’s undivided attention in such a delicious way, he was sure he’d gladly be willing to stay for at least ten or 15 years. He stroked her flank, then cupped her bottom. ‘But then again, if we stayed out here in the rain I might finally get that shower you promised me.’
She nipped his chin and settled a kiss on his throat. ‘That’s your fault. You could have joined me this morning. I wouldn’t have turned you away. The door was unlocked, but you know that, don’t you? I mean, I know you’d already showered and all, but you came right on in. You were standing right there at the bathroom door staring at me. All you had to do was take off your clothes and join me.’
Garrett felt a sudden chill climb his spine and clench at the nerves low in his belly. ‘Kendra, what are you talking about? I was going to join you, but my editor called, ragging on me about Texas Fire. I never made it upstairs, and if I had, I’d have done a helluva lot more than stand and stare at you.’
She pushed away from him and sat up quickly, pulling her shirt around her as though she was suddenly cold. ‘Garrett, you were standing right there in the door. I saw you. I asked you to come in and join me and you just stood there and stared. Then when you left, I figured you were mad at me.’
‘Kendra –’ He sat up and took her gently by the shoulders. ‘I swear to you, I didn’t come upstairs at all while you were in the shower. Are you sure? Are you absolutely positive there was someone?’
Suddenly, she was shivering. ‘I’m positive. Jesus, of course I’m positive. I mean, the glass was steamed, yes, but when I heard the door open, I turned and I could see … Well, I thought it was you. There was a man. I could see him, Garrett. I swear he was there. He was your height. I didn’t think … How could it have been anyone else? How?’
He pulled her tight against him and fumbled with his BlackBerry, punching in the number for the head of the security team at his house. ‘Gabe, yes, I need you to do something for me. I need you to check the windows upstairs. I think we might have had a break-in.’
Kendra pulled away and began dressing; he heard her more than saw her in nothing but the light of the BlackBerry. While he waited, he struggled to pull his jeans up with one hand while holding the device with the other. ‘You all right?’ he asked her.
‘Fine.’ Her voice was breathy, like she’d been running. ‘Put it on speaker phone, I need to hear.’ Still, in spite of everything, K. Ryde came to the forefront. K. Ryde, he thought, K. Ryde was just one of the many amazing facets of Kendra Davis. She wasn’t a different person, no matter how hard Kendra tried to keep the two separate, and no matter what she chose to call herself, no matter how tough she pretended to be, he knew better. But he wouldn’t let anyone hurt her. He wouldn’t! Ever.
At last the security man’s voice came onto the phone. ‘Mr. Thorne, there’s nothing amiss. There’s no evidence of forced entry, and nothing in the house out of place that we can see.’
‘Did you hear anything else, anything that might have seemed out of the ordinary?’ Garrett asked Kendra.
‘No.’ She chafed her arms. ‘Wait, wait, there was a smell. It didn’t smell like you. It smelled, I don’t know, disturbing. But then, before I had a chance to think about it, the man was gone.’
‘What about Ms. Emerson?’ Gabe asked. ‘Could it have been her you saw?’
‘Of course not,’ Kendra said. ‘This was a man and he was wearing jeans. Look, I know what I saw.’
‘Besides,’ Garrett added, ‘Stacie never left my side while you were in the shower, and even if she had, she would have never barged in on you. And while you were planning with Harris, she was in my study pumping me for more details about the situation. That’s where we both were when you called us down. You got ready in the guest room, for the meeting with the press. Did you notice anything strange then?’