Silver Bracelets: A Loveswept Contemporary Classic Romance Read online

  The sheriff was right about one thing. Sarah Wilson was special. He’d never known anyone like her. She was the all-American girl, a natural athlete and fervent do-gooder. She cut down her own Christmas tree and put it up the day after Thanksgiving. She was spotted puppies and picket fences and every time he was around her he could almost feel the pointed fence posts digging into his back.

  Sarah was a distraction.

  Sarah was a mistake.

  But Sarah was all he’d thought about for the last few days. She didn’t make him feel like a jaded thirty-five, more like an exuberant seventeen.

  There was a phone booth beside the service station at the corner, and although he knew better, he pulled in.

  The phone rang only once before she answered. “Deputy?”

  “Of course. Who did you expect?”

  “You. I’m just waiting to find out which one of you it is, Dirty Harry or Asa.”

  Asa could imagine her sitting cross-legged in bed, leaning back against her pillow, her hair mussed, her arm folded behind her head as she cradled the phone against her ear.

  “Which do you want?”

  “Well, I’ll take either one, but I’d like to have a little talk with the guy who’s worried about my security system.”

  “Oh, you know about that.”

  “I also know that Mother thinks you’re perfect for me, once I teach you about loving somebody.”

  Asa tried to answer, but his voice stuck in his throat and he couldn’t utter a word. He just stood there, hearing his heart beat like thunder in his ear.

  “Are you still there, Asa?”

  He cleared his throat. “I think we’d better talk, Sarah,” he finally managed to say.

  “When?”

  “Later.”

  “I’ll have supper for you.”

  “You can’t cook. Your mother told me.”

  “Even I can manage steak and potatoes.”

  “I can’t stay.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  Asa rubbed his eyes. He was tired. Too tired, and he had to eat somewhere. What she was saying was too appealing. He heard himself agreeing.

  “All right. I’ll be there, when I can.”

  “I’ll be waiting.”

  City Hall was closed on Saturday afternoon, but the police station next door was doing a brisk business. The officer on duty directed him through a maze of offices to the captain.

  “Asa Canyon, Captain.” Asa held out his hand and felt the rough grip of the prematurely gray-haired officer behind the desk.

  “Snow Sims, here. Heard about you, Canyon. Pull up a chair. What can the Smyrna Police Department do for you?”

  He told the captain about Lincoln Grimsley and why he needed to take a look at the Grimsley house.

  “You’ll have to wait,” Snow Sims said. “The old key disappeared and somebody was seen in the house. The historical society folks put a new lock on it. Now only the supervisor has a key, and he won’t be back till Monday.”

  Asa glanced at his watch. Almost seven. He exchanged the expected pleasantries with the captain and left, driving by the Smyrna Village construction site. Asa hadn’t realized that the bank was still in use until he saw a temporary entrance at the back of the building.

  On the way to Sarah’s place, he puzzled over the connection between the old man’s death and the house. Why would he have come here after all these years? And was his death related to the house?

  By the time he reached Sarah’s red barn he was still as confused as he had been when he’d left the police station. He didn’t even knock. He knew the door would be open.

  His boots made a thudding sound as he walked along the side of the basketball court and up the stairs. When he was halfway up, the door flung open and Sarah’s voice called out.

  “Hurry, please.”

  He covered the last three risers with one long step and walked into Sarah’s welcoming embrace. He’d waited all day for her kiss. Hell, he’d waited all his life for it. Foolish or not, he couldn’t turn it down.

  His arms slid around her, his hands tightening into fists as he tried to hold back. But he knew that tonight, there was no turning back. His mouth closed over hers, slowly, gently. She tasted sweet, as if she’d been eating brown sugar and cinnamon. There was a tantalizing smell of spice in the air.

  Sarah sighed, lifting her hands to the back of his neck and spreading her fingers through his hair. Her very touch was intoxicating and he knew that she was as drunk with desire as he. He’d never been so aware of a woman’s touch, of the scent and taste that separated Sarah from all others. She stirred his senses, making him feel more alive.

  Sarah’s thoughts were less coherent, less rational. She only knew that Asa was here and that was all she wanted. Her sigh turned into a low moan as the warmth of his touch brought her body to a fevered pitch. Her breasts began to burn. Colors swirled behind her eyelids, like a kaleidoscope of shades and lights that merged, separated, and reshaped themselves as the kiss went on.

  Then she heard a groan of anguish as Asa’s hands suddenly came to life and captured her bottom, pulling her savagely against him. And she knew that this man was as helpless against his need as she was against her own.

  She pulled back. Tearing her lips from his she drew in a long breath. Asa leaned his forehead against her head and swallowed hard. Sarah didn’t know what he was about to say, but she was certain that he had already started marshaling his forces to withdraw. She couldn’t let that happen, not again.

  “No,” she whispered, kissing him lightly. “Don’t talk. Don’t explain or excuse. Just be with me.”

  She slipped her fingers inside his shirt and began to unbutton it, skimming the matted curls of his chest hair beneath her touch. She felt him catch his breath when she tugged his shirt from his jeans and unbuckled his belt.

  “Do you know what you’re doing, lady?”

  “No. But I’m a fast learner.”

  The zipper slid open smoothly and she shoved his jeans down his legs. Catching sight of his underwear she began to grin. “Black? You’re a wicked man, Asa Canyon.”

  “I’m a—” He started to say, aroused man, but he realized that wasn’t necessary. His condition boldly announced itself.

  Asa stepped back, balancing himself as he tugged his boots off one at a time and stepped out of his jeans. When he raised his eyes again he gasped.

  Sarah was standing before him, completely nude, her proud breasts trembling with every uneven breath she took.

  “Are you sure, Sarah?”

  “I’ve never been more sure of anything.”

  He could see the fear in her eyes, but she was standing there, admitting her desire and asking him to make love to her. Suddenly he realized that this was what it was like to feel love, to want a woman so much that you’re afraid to touch her, to know that she’s giving herself to you with no regrets and no conditions, to feel certain that she’s the missing part of yourself.

  Sarah knew that she was swaying, that her breasts hurt with longing and that her insides were churning wildly under his gaze. She’d never been so bold before. She’d never wanted to. Now she could do nothing but offer herself and wait.

  “Sarah.” His voice was gravelly, as though he could barely speak. “Sarah, I want to make love to you. I want to touch you, fill you with my body and lose myself in your heat.”

  “I want you, too, Asa. But I’m scared. It’s been so long since I’ve been … with a man. I’m not very experienced. I’m afraid that I’ll disappoint a man like you.”

  Sarah knew that if he didn’t take her in his arms again she was going to fall apart and dissolve into thin air. She couldn’t be so close and not touch him. With a half-gasp she leaned forward, letting her nipples skim his chest, feeling the hair brush against her like tiny electric fingers.

  “Please, Asa.”

  “Sarah, listen to me. This isn’t easy and it may be the last rational statement I’ll ever make to you. Whatever I may feel
for you, I can’t make any promises. I don’t expect any from you. No commitment. No tomorrow. Can you accept that?”

  She raised her flushed face and gazed into his eyes. Her lips were parted and he could feel tiny puffs of air as she breathed in and out.

  “I don’t know,” she said softly. “I just know that we should do what we have to.” She reached up and pulled his face down to hers, kissing him, holding him with a tenderness that was stronger than bands of steel, drinking his essence as if she knew that she’d never be with him again.

  Asa lifted her in his arms and walked down the tiny corridor into her room. Sarah’s bed was a mattress on a built-up platform and covered with pillows.

  He knelt down, lowered her until her back was against the pillows, his knee between her legs. He could feel her body hair feathering his kneecap as he began to kiss her, skimming her face with his mouth, tasting, memorizing her features.

  A smile stretching across her face, Sarah openly watched him. No pulling back, no restraint. A coil of heat began to writhe in her lower body as she ran her fingers up and down Asa’s back, across his chest, circling his nipples and tracing the cords of muscle in his arms.

  He pressed himself against her, or maybe she reached out to touch him. She didn’t know. She only knew that they were still too much apart. She lifted her arms to pull him closer.

  She was no longer the inexperienced child of seventeen she had been the first time. Now she was a woman and no matter what had happened before, this was new. She’d never suspected that loving could be so good. There was no awkwardness, no embarrassment, only a feeling of rightness, as if they’d been drawn together in some sort of natural plan that was unfolding around them like a rare night-blooming flower.

  And then they were together, completely, joined as lovers, moving through the intricate dance of the senses. They were touching as if they’d never touched before and never would again, as if already they knew that they would lose their capacity to feel in the light of day and this night was all there would ever be.

  Asa had never known such intense pleasure, nor had he ever wanted so much to give joy to a woman as he wanted to now. When he breathed he shared the same air that she breathed. When he moved she followed his motion. They were like two leaves joined in a stream, rushing headlong into the white waters that flung them over the edge.

  Afterward they were drifting, holding each other, both stunned by the wonder of what they’d just experienced. Slippery bodies began to dry. Desire turned into fulfillment and the unknown became one priceless moment of belonging.

  Sarah lay with her head on Asa’s chest, one leg flung across his lower body. She held on to him, unwilling to move for fear of separating from this man who had suddenly become the center of her being.

  After a time, she recognized the old tension gathering in his body, and she stretched, sliding her leg even higher, wanting to gather him to her so that their parting wouldn’t come.

  “Hey, I thought it was the woman who was supposed to have regrets,” she said.

  “And do you?” His voice was tense.

  “Not one. If I never have your love, I’ll have had this.”

  “And that’s enough?”

  “No, but I’ll try not to be too greedy. I’m not one of those temporary people in your life, Asa, but I’ll never be a weight around your neck either.”

  “Sarah, listen to me. All my life people have pulled away from me. Oh, they’d start off by making me think that they wanted me, but sooner or later, they left. You will too. I know.”

  “Not me. Truth is, if you want me, big boy,” she said with exaggerated huskiness, “all you have to do is whistle.”

  “Don’t make jokes.” Asa pulled her over him, his forehead creased into a deep frown. “I don’t want to feel this way, as if we’re connected somehow and belong together. But I do, and I’m scared.”

  Sarah looked deeply into Asa’s eyes. She could see the little boy who was rejected, who was returned over and over again to the orphanage, and she could feel the hurt he’d known. Now, he was trying to build a wall between them by rejecting her. But even as she stared down at him, she felt the wall begin to collapse.

  “Don’t be,” she whispered and kissed him. As their bodies found new ways to fit together, their lips spoke words of promise that banished all their fears. The first time they came together Asa loved Sarah. This time Sarah loved him back.

  Later they lay entwined, sated, happy. The sky was black. Through the window the stars gleamed in the night sky.

  “Are you ready to eat?” Sarah finally asked.

  “I don’t think I can walk to the kitchen,” Asa admitted.

  “Then I’ll bring the food to you.”

  He came to one elbow and looked at her. “You already have.”

  “That was food for the soul, Asa. Now I intend to nourish your body.” She grinned and slipped unselfconsciously from the bed.

  Sarah was tying the sash of her robe when the phone rang. Captain Sims from the Smyrna Police Department was looking for Asa. She handed him the phone, covering the receiver as she whispered, “Snow Sims, for you.”

  Asa sat up, wondering how the captain knew he was with Sarah. “Yes.”

  “Sorry to bother you, but I just talked to Paul Martin.”

  Aha! Officer Martin must have told Sims to call Sarah’s number.

  “You’d better get over to Sarah’s shop,” Sims went on.

  “Why?”

  “You’re not going to believe this, but somebody’s trashed it big time.”

  A chill ran over Asa. When he was a child one of his foster mothers had been fond of the phrase, “A rabbit just ran over my grave.”

  Asa knew now what the phrase meant.

  Seven

  “Why would anybody do this?”

  Sarah stood in the middle of her shop, turning slowly around. The place hadn’t just been ransacked, it had been destroyed. The windows were broken. The shelves had been split. All the equipment was upturned and her stock had been unboxed and piled in the middle of the floor.

  Frowning, Asa studied the destruction. He felt great rage that someone had violated Sarah’s shop. This was her place, a part of her. Whoever did this couldn’t have known Sarah or it would never have happened.

  “Why?” she repeated.

  Asa reached out, put his arms around Sarah, and held her.

  “I don’t know why, Sarah. Vandals. Some kids having fun. I don’t know. Did you keep any money here?”

  She laughed. “Me? No, I don’t get much cash. There were a few checks. They were in a box under the counter.”

  Sarah pulled away and walked over to what used to be her counter. The box was still underneath, along with her receipt book and the container that had held her claim tickets.

  Officer Paul Martin was directing other officers in searching the building for evidence. “Glad you’re here, Asa. They broke in through the back door. Wasn’t even a professional job. Somebody just picked up a rock, broke the glass, and reached inside to open the door.”

  Asa turned to Sarah.

  “I thought you were in the security business. Don’t you have some kind of burglar alarm here?”

  “Good heavens, no. I’ve even been known to leave the door unlocked. If they’d tried they probably could have walked right in. Why would anybody break in? Everybody knows I don’t keep cash here.”

  “There must have been something here, something that somebody was looking for,” Asa insisted. “Think, Sarah.”

  “No. I don’t have anything valuable, not unless—wait a minute. The old man.”

  “What old man?”

  “He came in last week just before I closed. He had an old safe that he wanted me to open.”

  “Lincoln Grimsley,” Paul said.

  “Grimsley was here?” Asa turned a disbelieving look toward Sarah.

  “Yes. Do you know him?” Sarah asked, as Asa took her arm and pulled her over to one corner, away from the officers who we
re taking fingerprints on the counter.

  Paul followed. “Lincoln Grimsley was an ex-con, just got out of jail. Checked in over at the department last week when he first got to town. Just wanted to see his old family home. Seemed harmless enough.”

  “That’s why he was so pale,” Sarah muttered. “I thought he’d been sick.”

  “Tell us about the safe, Sarah,” Asa told her, trying to remain calm despite the fear growing in him.

  “Well, he was very anxious about opening it. It was pretty small and he didn’t want it destroyed. He was supposed to come back Monday morning. He never showed up.”

  “I think we know why,” Asa declared.

  Paul caught Asa’s worried expression. “Did you notice anything else unusual about him, Sarah?”

  “He was polite. He seemed nervous. Oh, and he was missing a thumb on his right hand.”

  “That was definitely him,” Paul stated.

  Asa paced back and forth, a frown on his face. “What about the safe? Any idea where he got it?”

  “Don’t know anything about that,” Paul answered. “He didn’t have it when I saw him. But he did call back later asking about locksmiths.” He groaned. “I recommended Sarah.”

  “I’d say,” Captain Sims commented, “that he found the safe in the house.”

  They were talking back and forth as if Sarah wasn’t there. “He did,” she interjected. “There was a family legend that said it was there, that it contained the family treasure. He said that the renovators had found an old room that had been sealed off. The safe was inside.”

  Captain Sims nodded. “Treasure. Now we’re getting somewhere.”

  “No,” Sarah said. “The safe was too light to have gold or silver, so Mr. Grimsley figured it was filled with Confederate paper money.”

  “Is it?” Asa and Paul inquired at once.

  “I don’t know. The numbers are worn off on the lock and I can’t figure out the combination.”

  “Then whoever killed him must be after the safe.” Asa let out a sigh.

  “Men, keep a watch out for a small safe. It would be something that could be carried about, wouldn’t it?” Paul asked, turning to Sarah for a description.