The Tempted by Amanda Stevens

Author:Amanda Stevens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Tess turned with an anxious glance when Jared stepped outside. She stood at the porch railing, one hand clutching a newel post for support. Jared didn’t think she’d moved a muscle since he’d left her a few minutes earlier.

“What did you find out?”

“Nothing more than you’d already told me.” He glanced back at the house. “I think they’re almost finished. If you still want to go out to search for Emily, I’ll take you.”

She hugged her arms to herself, looking exhausted in the dim illumination from the window. “I know you probably think I’m crazy, but I have to do something. I can’t stay here all tonight, pacing the floor. Thinking…what I know I’ll be thinking. I can’t be here safe and comfortable while she’s out there somewhere.”

His heart turned over at the look on her face. “I understand.”

As if overcome by weariness, she turned and leaned her head against the post, gazing out across the yard. “Sometimes I still can’t believe this is happening.”

Jared came up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. For a split second she tensed, but then, unexpectedly, she relaxed against him. He closed his eyes, wanting to pull her close but knowing that he shouldn’t. That he didn’t dare. The instinct to protect her had never been stronger in him, but there was danger in trying to rescue Tess. She’d rejected him once, broken his heart, and it had taken him a long time to get over it. He would be a fool to think that, in six years, anything had changed between them.

But something had changed. Her daughter was missing, and somehow Tess’s tragedy, her loss, had diminished the past, made the differences that still existed between them insignificant. Emily’s disappearance put so many things into perspective, at least for Jared.

Almost against his will, he leaned slightly into Tess, skimming his lips across her hair so softly he didn’t think she’d be able to feel his touch. “I’m sorry you’re having to go through this.”

She drew a ragged breath. “It’s not about me. It’s about Emily. What she’s having to go through. I just keep seeing her…”

She didn’t finish the thought, but Jared knew what she meant. The same images had been flitting through his head all evening. That innocent face he’d seen in the paper, that precious child so still and silent. Those dark eyes closed forever.

“Did you mean what you said earlier?” he asked in a soft, fierce voice. “That you’d know if Emily were dead? You’d feel it?”

She turned and gazed up at him, her eyes flooding with tears. “Yes.”

His grasp tightened on her arms. “Then that’s what you have to hang on to. That’s what you have to believe.”

“Jared—” Something swept across her face, an emotion so raw it took his breath away. It was almost as if she was reaching out to him, trying to connect with him in a way only the two of them could share.

But it was a fleeting feeling, because the front door opened, jarring the moment, and they both turned as Sergeant Cross came outside.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.