But in real life a man like Gideon Trace was not so easy to rescue from the curse of his past, not so easy to gentle and tame. He was more complex, more unpredictable and far more powerful than any fictional hero.
Sarah came to an abrupt halt near a small tide pool as a familiar sense of tingling awareness went through her. She definitely was not alone on the beach. She stood very still, waiting.
A moment later Jake Savage materialized out of the fog, not more than ten feet in front of her. He was dressed with his usual flair, polished boots and khakis and a leather jacket that, although it appeared to be brand new, was designed to look well worn and extremely macho. His black hair was damp from the fog and his bright blue eyes were alive with an almost feverish anticipation. Sarah suddenly wished that Gideon was not sound asleep in the house.
"Hello, Sarah. I'm surprised Gid let you out of his sight. Or did you slip the leash?"
"I just felt like taking a morning walk. What are you doing here, Jake?"
"What do you think I'm doing here? I came to find you. I've been keeping an eye on the house since yesterday, waiting for a chance to talk to you alone for a few minutes. I caught a glimpse of someone coming down the path through the fog a while ago and decided to see if it might be you."
"You've been spying on us?"
"Like I said, just waiting to talk to you. I knew Gid wouldn't let me anywhere near you if he had anything to say about it."
"Why did you want to talk to me?"
Jake smiled wryly. "I know it's none of my business, but I thought you ought to be told a few facts. Call me sentimental, but I didn't want to see you go through what Gid's wife went through."
"Oh, yes, Leanna. She cheated on him with you, didn't she?"
"Is that what Gid told you?"
"Isn't that what happened?"
Jake ran a hand through his hair, tousling it rakishly. "She was a very unhappy woman, Sarah. She turned to me for comfort. I guess I felt sorry for her."
"But not sorry enough to marry her after she left Gideon for you, right?"
Jake frowned. "Leanna wanted rescuing and I'm not much into the role of knight in shining armor."
"You prefer the role of seducer and betrayer."
Jake's eyes narrowed. "Gid really told you a story, didn't he?"
"No. I've managed to piece a lot of it together for myself, thought. It's pretty obvious what happened. Leanna was an immature, unhappy woman who was probably initially attracted to Gideon's strength but later dazzled by your flash. I suppose one could say she got what she deserved, which was nothing, but that doesn't make you any less guilty of betraying your partner. Why did you do it? Surely one woman more or less wasn't that important. A man like you can probably have his pick of women."
"Is that supposed to be a compliment?"
"No. An observation. Why, Jake?"
"That's none of your damned business. I took what was being offered on a silver platter, that's all. Hell, Leanna was a beautiful woman. If Gid couldn't keep her satisfied, that wasn't my problem."
Sarah shook her head thoughtfully. "No, I think there was more to it than that. You were jealous of Gideon, weren't you? Sleeping with Leanna was a way of getting even with him."
"Are you nuts, lady? Why in hell would I be jealous of Gid?"
"Because you were nothing except a hustler without him and deep down inside, you knew it. He was the one who made the partnership work. He was the one who had the skill and the talent to find whatever you two went looking for."
"The hell he was."
"You knew that you were totally dependent on him and eventually you must have come to hate him. All you brought to the partnership was image and flash. Did you really scheme with those smugglers to betray him? What did you think was going to happen if you did get him killed? Savage and Company couldn't have survived very long without him. But maybe your jealousy was too strong at that point for you to see reason. Or maybe there was enough money involved to make it worth the risk of dumping your partner."
"You little bitch, I'll tell you what happened that day. Gid left me behind while he escaped with a suitcase full of cash, that's what happened. You think Carson, or Trace, or whatever he calls himself now is the nice, honest, up-front type? You think he's some kind of good guy, a hero out of one of your books who's going to help you find those earrings? Wise up, little girl. He's using you. When he does find your treasure for you, he'll also find a way to keep it for himself. That's his real specialty, you see, looking out for himself. And he's real good at it."
"You're lying."
"You think so? Just remember what I told you. When Gid goes out on a job, he never comes back empty-handed. And people who get in the way can get killed."
"You look very much alive to me."
"I was damned lucky. You better hope you're equally lucky, hadn't you?"
Jake swung around and vanished into the swirling fog.
Sarah waited a couple of minutes, but the tingling feeling of awareness did not ease. Frowning, she turned around to head back toward the bluff path.
And walked full-tilt into a large, solid object that had been shrouded in fog.
"Gideon."
His gemlike eyes were the only sparks of color in the swirling world of gray. "Do you believe him?"
Sarah took a step back. The depressed, moody feeling she had awakened with closed in upon her more heavily than the fog. "Does it matter?"
"Yes, damn it, it matters."
"Why?"
"Don't play games with me, Sarah."
"I'm not playing games. I have, however, finally come to the conclusion that I don't owe you anything more than what you're willing to give me in exchange. And I haven't gotten much trust from you, have I, Gideon?"
He caught hold of her arm as she made to step around him. "Where are you going?"
"Home."
"Seattle, you mean?"
"Yes."
"He got to you, didn't he? Just like he got to Leanna."
Sarah's eyes stung with tears. She dashed the back of her hand across them. "No, he didn't get to me the way he got to Leanna. You can't even give me credit for having more sense than your ex-wife had, can you? I've told you once and I'll tell you again. Leanna was a brainless little floozy without an ounce of common sense. Any woman should be able to tell at a glance that Jake Savage is a mirage of a man. All image and no substance. Amusing, perhaps, on occasion and definitely a sharp dresser. The kind who might look good escorting a woman to a fancy party. But that's about the end of it." She pulled her arm free of Gideon's grasp.
"Damn it, Sarah, you can't just walk away like this."
"Don't worry, I'm not running off with Jake Savage."
"You're not running off with anyone."
"Right. I'm going all by myself."
"Savage will try to use you," Gideon warned roughly. "Especially if he thinks we've split up. Remember what I said about him using the divide-and-conquer technique."
"I'm not going to lead him to that white rock."
"He'll find a way to make you." Gideon's voice was raw. "Tell me, Sarah, is it easy to walk away from me?"
She paused and looked back at him. His face was harsh in the gray mist. He stood there on the beach, a stark, bleak figure—a man who'd learned the trick of withdrawing completely into himself while he told the rest of the world to keep its distance.
"I was a fool to think you needed rescuing."
"Rescuing? What the devil do you mean by that?"
"Never mind. You like being alone, don't you? You like not having to take the risk of trusting anyone. No, Gideon, it's not easy to walk away from you. But I don't have much choice. Maybe you and my friends were right all along. I really shouldn't rely so heavily on my intuition." She smiled faintly. "At least this time I didn't get left at the altar, though, did I? Maybe things are looking up after all. Or else I'm getting smarter."
He made no move to stop her as she turned and started up the path toward the house.
/> GIDEON HUNCHED his shoulders against the chilled fog, his hands thrust into his jacket pockets, and listened to the sound of Sarah's car pulling out of his driveway.
She had done it. She had left him. A part of him could not accept it and he wondered if he would ever be able to fully accept it.
He could not believe how much he had grown accustomed to her foolish conviction that they belonged together. She had been so positive that they were made for each other, so convinced he was the hero of her dreams.
But he hadn't known how to deal with her at first. She had knocked him off balance right from the moment she had descended out of the blue onto his doorstep. And she had moved much too quickly for him. He was, by nature, not the type who could take the risks of real intimacy easily and he knew it. So he tried to resist Sarah at every step along the way, always looking for hidden motives, always searching for the cold reality that he knew had to lie beneath her warm, affectionate surface.
When they had become lovers that day in the mountains he had relaxed somewhat because he'd finally found a way in which he could trust her, a way in which he could feel sure of her. From the beginning he'd never really doubted the genuineness of her physical response.
Now, thanks to Savage, he was right back where he'd started. Alone.
But this time it hurt. He felt as if something inside him was cracking open, exposing him to the kind of pain he had protected himself from for years.
The worst of it was that even as he began to climb slowly along the path toward the house, Gideon knew he couldn't blame Jake for this latest disaster. He had no one to blame but himself.
Machu Picchu was sitting at the top of the bluff, tail coiled around his paws. He watched with idle interest as Gideon climbed the last few steps.
"She's gone, isn't she, Machu? I didn't even get breakfast."
The big cat followed him into the kitchen where Ellora sat in Sarah's chair. The silver-gray cat glared at Gideon with accusing eyes.
"Hey, don't blame me. She's the type who appears out of thin air and vanishes the same way. Here today, gone tomorrow. Flighty. Know what I mean?" Gideon put the kettle on the stove for instant coffee. No, not gone tomorrow—gone today. Now. This minute.
The cats continued to regard him in profound silence. Gideon poured hot water over the coffee and stirred absently. "I shouldn't have let her drive off in this fog," he announced after a minute. "The roads could be real bad."
The cats licked their paws.
Gideon climbed the stairs with his mug of coffee in one hand and went to see if Sarah had packed absolutely everything or if she'd left in such an all-fired hurry she'd forgotten a few items.
In her room he found no trace she'd ever been there. In a totally uncharacteristic gesture, she'd even made the bed up neatly.
Gideon went back downstairs wondering why the house felt so damned cold again.
The cats were sitting at the bottom of the staircase, watching him with their otherworldly gaze.
"I know, I know," Gideon said. "I shouldn't have let her leave alone. Not in this fog. Too dangerous. If she's got any sense she'll stop at a café and have a cup of tea or something until the fog lifts. I'll bet she's at one of the coffee shops in town. On the other hand, common sense is not her strong point. I probably ought to check on her. Make sure she waits awhile before heading for Seattle."
Ellora started to purr.
Gideon picked up his car keys and walked to the door. Behind him Machu rumbled plaintively. "You've got enough food and water to last for a couple of days," he told the big cat. "Don't worry. I'll only be gone for an hour or less."
But there was no sign of Sarah's car at either the coffee shops or the local gas station. The fog was not nearly as bad now as it had been a while ago. Sarah had probably not encountered any great trouble at all in getting to the main highway.
Gideon stopped at the edge of town and thought about going back to the big, cold, empty house.
He could not bear the thought. He started driving.
A few hours later he found himself in Seattle.
There was no great difficulty in locating Sarah's apartment building downtown. After four months of corresponding with her, he'd long since memorized the address.
HER WARM, CHEERFUL, sunny apartment wasn't nearly as inviting as it ought to have been. Sarah halted just inside the front door, her hastily packed suitcases in her hands. She glanced around uneasily. Something didn't feel right. She stood there a moment longer and then put down the luggage.
With a gathering sense of disquiet, she wandered around the living room. Everything seemed pretty much as she'd left it.
Until she got to her desk. It took her a minute or two to realize that the normal, exuberant clutter didn't look quite right. The desk was still a mess, of course, but it looked different somehow.
Someone had been through her things.
The maps.
On a hunch, Sarah gasped and yanked open the filing cabinet drawer where she had carefully stored the ten photocopies of her precious map. They were gone. All of them.
"Oh, you're back, are you, Sarah? Have a nice trip, dear?" Mrs. Reynolds from across the hall paused for a moment in the open doorway. "There was the nicest man inquiring about you after you left. A real charmer. Did he find you?"
"Yes, Mrs. Reynolds. He found me." Sarah slowly closed the cabinet door. Jake Savage had stolen the maps.
"Excuse me. I'm looking for Sarah Fleetwood's apartment." Gideon's gritty tones came down the hall from behind Mrs. Reynolds.
"Well, bless my soul, it's another one. Never rains but it pours, eh, Sarah, dear?" The elderly woman winked conspiratorially at Sarah. "Right this way, sir. Never knew our Sarah had such an active social life. Call me if you need help entertaining all these interesting young men, Sarah, dear." Still chuckling, Mrs. Reynolds disappeared into her own apartment and closed the door.
Sarah stared at Gideon as he came to a halt in the doorway. "What are you doing here?" she whispered.
"What the hell does it look like I'm doing? I followed you. I should have caught up with you long before you got to Seattle. The fact that I didn't means you drive too damned fast, Sarah."
She ignored that, feeling strangely weak. The stolen maps were forgotten. All the anger and hurt and frustration she'd been feeling since she'd left the coast were forgotten. All that mattered was that Gideon was here, glowering at her in his familiar, lovable, beastly manner.
"You followed me? All this way? You actually came after me?"
"Well, I didn't drive this far just to see the Space Needle."
"You came after me," she breathed, giddy with relief and euphoria. "You tracked me down to the ends of the earth so that you could drag me back to the coast, didn't you?"
Something warm and tender that was tinged with amusement flickered in Gideon's eyes, softening the grimness that had been there a moment ago. "I never really thought of Seattle as the ends of the earth, but I guess it's all relative, isn't it?"
"Gideon." She flew across the room and into his arms. When he caught her close, holding her in a grip of iron, she breathed a deep sigh of relief. "I was so afraid. I thought you just couldn't care enough, after all, that I didn't mean enough to you even though in the beginning I was so sure…"
"Sarah, honey, it's all right."
She clutched at him. "I don't mind telling you I was scared to death that it really was hopeless. You never seemed to be able to bring yourself to trust me. I couldn't believe I'd been so wrong about us, but you never know for sure. I've been wrong before and all the way back from your place I've been terrified that I'd made another mistake."
"Sarah, hush."
"Gideon, I love you so much and I've been so miserable. All those lonely hours on the road. It was the longest drive of my life, I swear. I just wanted to get home so that I could cry in the privacy of my own apartment."
"Sarah—"
"I've been telling myself I was a fool. I almost had myself believing it,
too. But now here you are. You've come after me just like one of the heroes in my books and everything's going to be all right. I wasn't wrong about you, after all."
"Sarah, I'm here. Let's leave it at that for a while, all right?"
She raised her glowing face to his but before she could say anything else, he was kissing her. She parted her lips for him, pressing herself close into the comfort and strength of his big frame.
Gideon groaned, kicked the door shut with the heel of his boot, and picked Sarah up in his arms. Without breaking the kiss, he carried her over to the black leather Italian sofa.
10
« ^ »
SHE WAS CLINGING TO HIM, holding onto him as if she'd never let him go. Gideon staggered a couple of steps and then fell onto the sofa, dragging Sarah down on top of him. He still couldn't believe the depths of the welcome he'd seen in her eyes when he'd stepped through the apartment doorway. He didn't think he'd ever forget it as long as he lived. He'd been right to follow her. She'd wanted him to come after her.
The thing inside him that had cracked open and caused so much pain was healing with miraculous speed.
"I'm no hero," he warned one last time, wondering why he felt compelled to try to set the record straight. It was getting hard to think. Her mouth was so warm and sweet and spicy as she persisted in raining kisses over him.
"Yes, you are," Sarah whispered passionately. "You're a perfect hero. I always knew it. It just took you a while to figure it out, too, that's all."
"Hell, who am I to argue? You're the expert." He tugged at her sweater, pulling it off and tossing it down onto the carpet. Her fine, gently rounded breasts tumbled into his waiting hands and he inhaled sharply as his whole body tightened.
When she wriggled against him, sliding her hips across his, Gideon gave a husky, choked laugh and tugged at the fastening of her jeans. Her small, gentle hands were already fumbling with the buttons of his shirt. As soon as the garment fell open he felt her fingers trailing through the hair on his chest. Waves of anticipation rolled through him.
He looked down at the scrap of turquoise she wore beneath her jeans. He knew he was looking at one of the seven pairs of brightly colored, sexy panties she had bought especially to wear for him.