CHAPTER 7

C HAPTER 7

"The first time I saw you, my heart danced in my chest," Sylvia read aloud from one of the letters. "It was love at first sight."

Reese rolled her eyes but kept her mumbled profanity to herself. Well, most of it anyway. Every now and then, a muttered "BS" escaped.

She hated watching her great-aunt go through this emotional wringer, but she was hoping the letter was also giving Sylvia some closure. Or rather, that the closure could start. For now, she figured, Sylvia just had to finish reading what her so-called husband had left behind and then process it.

Arabella and Maeve were no doubt doing the same thing, but they'd chosen to go through their stashes in their own rooms at the inn. Harry, Harrison, Hal, and Zack's grandfather had opted to give them privacy by heading back to their own homes. Zack had left as well, to go to his office so he could try to track down a death certificate for Happy Harry under whatever name he had been using.

That left Reese with her great-aunt, and Reese tried to keep her emotions in check while she watched and listened to Sylvia read and cry her way through the envelopes. Three had been birthday cards, and those had simply been sweet and sentimental with no real personal greetings. He'd simply signed them "Love you, Babe. HH."

The carefree tone had made it hard for Reese to keep her emotions in check, especially when she'd realized HH had likely bought and signed some of the cards while he'd been married to other women. Ditto for the two "Just Thinking of You" cards. And the anniversary one? Well, three BSs had escaped her clenched teeth.

Sylvia had made it through the cards with tears and her own muttered anger and then had moved on to the letters. In these there was some personalization. Lines and lines of it, and while it had been hard for Reese to stomach, she was glad Sylvia was reading them aloud.

"Love at first sight," Sylvia repeated in a tone that made it clear she was giving that some thought. "Yes, it was, I suppose," she added in a mutter, and continued to read. "Everything between us happened so fast, and it didn't help that we were so young. We didn't stop to think. We dived right in."

Reese mentally muttered more profanity, but of course, she couldn't stop herself from thinking about Zack and her. Things were indeed moving fast between them, too. And they had also done some diving in. Was that a mistake? It didn't feel like one, but then, things were nowhere near the marriage stage for them. But the heat was continuing to simmer and soar.

Part of her wanted to just enjoy the soaring, the heat. Another part of her, that cautious part that had been hurt by Paul's antics, wanted things to slow down. That part of her wanted to guard her heart. At the moment, she wasn't sure which of those two forces would win out.

"Do you regret it?" Reese asked. She figured her great-aunt would wonder what she meant by that. However, Sylvia seemed to grasp her question.

"I'm not sure. The hurt is still there. It's a mix of rejection and knowing that I should have figured out something was wrong before he left me." Sylvia stopped and shook her head. "But I didn't see it coming. I honestly didn't. I thought everything was wonderful between us, and that our marriage and love would last forever. I think that's why the cut was so deep when he left and didn't come back."

She watched as her great-aunt blinked back tears. Sylvia carefully refolded the letter and placed it back in the envelope. She stood. "I think I'll go back to my room, drink some wine, and take a long bubble bath."

Alarm shot through Reese. "Maybe now isn't a good time to be alone."

Sylvia managed a smile, and she kissed Reese on the cheek. "I'll be fine. I just need a little time to myself." She held up her envelope stash. "Time for not only what's in these, but also for the fact that I might never be able to confront Harry . . . Elwood," she corrected.

"Do you think it'd be easier if you had been able to confront him?" Reese wanted to know.

Her great-aunt seemed to give that some thought and shrugged. "Perhaps." She looped her arm through Reese's, and they went to the door. When Reese opened it, she saw Zack standing there.

His back was resting against the wall, and he was reading something on his phone. His body language indicated that he'd maybe been there for a while.

"Did you find anything on Elwood?" Sylvia immediately asked him.

Zack shook his head. "Two of my deputies are very good at internet and database searches. They're both working to try to find anything. Since he was known to use aliases, the search might not be a quick one."

Sylvia nodded as if that were the answer she'd expected. She smiled again, and this time it was Zack's cheek she kissed. "I'm going to my room, but I didn't want Reese to be alone. She's worried about me," her great-aunt added in a secretive whisper. She turned to head down the hall but then stopped and met Reese's gaze. "Don't let anything in these letters stop you from going where your heart leads you."

Reese nearly blurted out that it wasn't her heart doing the leading here. It was the heat from this blistering attraction to Zack. An attraction she could feel even now, when she was indeed worried about her great-aunt.

"Call me or come back if you decide you don't want to be alone," Reese insisted. She watched Sylvia walk away, and that's when she saw Zack's grandfather waiting down the hall outside of Sylvia's room. The woman greeted him with a warm smile and, yes, a kiss on the cheek.

"So, maybe she won't be alone after all," Reese muttered, and Zack and she went into her room. She looked at him. "Please tell me your granddad is a good guy."

The corner of Zack's mouth lifted. "He is. One of the best. He won't push but will be around if your great-aunt needs him to be." He paused a heartbeat. "If we do manage to come up with a death certificate for Elwood, Sylvia, Arabella, and Maeve may be shaken to the core."

"Yes," Reese muttered. It was something she'd already considered, and she was bracing for it. Hopefully the three wives were preparing themselves as well. She gave one last glance down the hall but didn't see either her great-aunt or Zack's granddad, so she shut the door.

"Was there anything in any of the cards or letters that might help with the search for Elwood?" he asked.

She sighed again. "No." Then she huffed, "Apparently, Elwood's heart danced in his chest when he first saw Sylvia, and he claimed it was love at first sight. Yeah, right."

"And Sylvia's take on that?" Zack pressed.

Reese really didn't like admitting this. "She more or less confirmed it. I think that's why she doled out that really bad advice to us about going where the heart leads."

He smiled, took hold of her, and eased her into his arms. Not the best time for it, with this firestorm of emotions coursing through her. Or so she thought. But Reese instantly felt most of the tension slip right out of her body. Leave it to Zack to manage such a miracle.

"I just don't want Sylvia to be hurt by anything else she learns about the man she married," she muttered.

Zack made a sound of agreement and continued to hold her. He was no doubt giving her a chance to vent. To spill out more of her worries. And she could have.

But she didn't.

Reese eased back enough so their gazes could meet. Then she silently cursed. Because she could have sworn her heart did do some dancing. She had to be wrong about that. Or maybe the revved-up heartbeat was because of the spike in heat when she looked at his face.

Despite her own earlier mental warning about being close to him, she leaned in and kissed him. Of course, that bounced up the heat even more, and the dreamy feel of pleasure slid through her, canceling out the worry. Making her believe that trusting her heart was indeed the way to go.

A sound rumbled in Zack's chest. A sound to let her know that he was pleased with the kiss. Pleased and aroused.

Yeah, she was right there with him.

Reese deepened the kiss and got a fresh kick of heat from the taste of him. It was as if pretty much everything about Zack, including his taste, had been designed to pleasure her. There'd definitely been no disappointments in that area, and it felt as if he were taking them up a ladder with amazing things waiting at the top.

He added his own zing and deepened the kiss. Added the pressure of his body as well when he inched her against the wall. Good thing, too, because she wasn't sure she could feel her legs. But, mercy, she could feel everything else, and that's what counted.

Zack gave her memory a refresh when he kissed her neck, and he managed to find just the right spot to make her feel as if she had stepped up another rung on that ladder. The heat stirred inside her. Building, building, building. Until the kiss became hard and hungry. Until she wanted so much more.

He gave her more, of course. After all, this was Zack, and more was his specialty. As he brought the kisses back to her mouth, she felt his hand between them, and he moved his clever fingers under her shirt. Bare skin on bare skin.

Another step up that ladder.

It occurred to her that if she was going to stop, it had to be now. If she was going to attempt to guard her heart, she should do it before things went any further.

She didn't.

Reese decided in that instant that she would indeed take the advice to follow her heart, and her heart was saying to latch on to Zack and this moment and just enjoy everything that was happening. That's why she went after his shirt as well.

They did some fumbling with their clothes, mainly because neither of them wanted to pause the kissing long enough to make things easier. Easier didn't hold a candle to steamy, hot kisses. And touching. Yes, there was some of that, too, once the shirts were off.

Reese ran her hands over the muscles of his back and returned the favor of kissing his neck. She got a welcome response from him—that husky groan of pleasure. So she did it again. And again. And she might have continued to torture him if he hadn't rid her of her bra and done some torturing of his own on her breasts.

There it was. More steps on the ladder.

The heat and need created a demand for more, of course. That was the problem with really good kisses and touches. They started off as wonderful sensations but then snowballed into a demand for something else. Release from the pressure cooker heat that was building.

Apparently Zack was right there with her on that because he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. He kissed her again when he eased her down onto the mattress and then moved back.

Reese cursed the loss of heat from his body. Or at least she did until she saw that she had an amazing peepshow going on right in front of her. Zack was stripping off his boots and socks, then his belt, then his jeans.

Then, his boxers.

Oh, yes. An amazing peepshow.

It occurred to her that no one should have such amazing DNA, the combination of such a hot body and face, but she was thankful for it. Because she was definitely reaping the benefits here.

The benefits increased when he shimmied her out of her pants and panties, and he gave a scorching look of approval before he reached down and retrieved something from his pocket. A condom. Thank goodness he'd remembered it because Reese certainly hadn't.

Zack finally moved onto the bed with her, bringing back all that amazing heat. Enough heat that Reese figured it counted as at least six ladder steps, but he apparently wasn't easing up on generating fire because he started right back up kissing her. And this time, he did some additional exploring.

He trailed his mouth from hers, to her breasts, where he dallied for a while and soon had her moaning in pleasure. He didn't stop there. Zack kissed her stomach, continuing to move lower and lower until he reached the inside of her thighs. Then, he gave her a kiss that Reese was sure she'd remember for the rest of her life. Talk about an avalanche of good, steamy sensations.

Yep, she'd remember this.

And she might have rolled Zack on his back and returned the favor, but the man outmaneuvered her. He put on the condom while he lit more fires by kissing his way back up her body. With every inch, she felt slam after slam of pleasure, rendering her speechless. Thankfully, Reese no longer cared about such things as speech. She only wanted one thing.

For Zack to give her release from this intense heat.

He got started doing just that by easing inside her. This next wave of sensation was the strongest yet, but he stilled a moment. And looked at her. Just looked. It might have gone on, oh, forever, if she hadn't lifted her hips, taking him in even deeper. That seemed to snap something inside him, and it revved up the urgency and need for both of them.

With each thrust, Reese could feel herself moving up those steps. She wanted to hang on, to draw this out as long as possible, but there was no way her need would allow that. It had to happen now. Zack understood that, too, because he gave her exactly what she needed—hard, fast strokes, moving against the most sensitive part of her body. Giving and taking everything both their bodies demanded.

Reese moved up, up, up. Until she reached the top. Until she could take no more. And then Zack gave her exactly what she needed to finish.