No Ordinary Hero Read online

  Then, with obvious reluctance, he broke the kiss. His face inches from hers, he said, “I don’t think this is the time or place. If a door slams again, I may become impotent for life.”

  The way he said it made her giggle, a sound surprisingly like Colleen’s. She leaned toward him and kissed him lightly. “I can’t say I blame you.”

  “Coffee,” he repeated. “I’ll get it.”

  And right then she absolutely hated this house. Absolutely hated whatever was wrong with it, because otherwise she’d be heading upstairs to lie down beside Mike and share lovemaking with him, something she hadn’t wanted since Don died. Something she wanted more now than she could ever remember wanting it before.

  Instead she had strange noises and a diary which, frankly, wasn’t all that interesting.

  She glanced at the wall clock above the sink as Mike poured the coffee. “I need to go help Colleen get ready for bed soon.”

  “Sure. Just say when. If you want, I can stay here.”

  “Maybe fifteen minutes.” She reached for the fresh coffee and sipped it gratefully. “What’s your bet on how much we learn from this diary?”

  “I think we need to keep reading.”

  “Yeah.” She sighed. “That feeling. It’s still nagging at me, too.”

  “I’d like to point out that so far I haven’t read a single thing that would require that diary to be hidden from anyone.”

  Del arched her brow. “So you think things changed later?”

  “Most definitely. Because Madeline felt she had to hide it securely, and we’re not talking about between the mattresses or beneath the socks in a drawer.”

  “You’re right.” She glanced at the clock again, feeling reenergized. “Let me go take care of Colleen right now. I’ll be right back, unless you want to come over with me.”

  “Can I confess I’ve been thinking of chocolate chip cookies?”

  So they went together, and she noticed that it was he who this time picked up the diary, as if reluctant to leave it in the house.

  But she had changed all the window locks, and as far as she knew she and her aunt Sally were the only ones who had keys. So nobody could possibly get in, right?

  Back at Mike’s, they found Colleen quite ready for bed, although she was still in the midst of an animated movie. Sally was sitting in an armchair, with one of the magazines she had apparently brought with her.

  Mike found the cookies and put a half dozen in a small bag, and then they headed back to her house. Once again at the kitchen table, they resumed reading.

  That was when the horror began to unfold. Madeline went from thrilled about her marriage and the excitement of being a newlywed to something furtive and ugly. Bubbling with excitement gave way to terser notes, a record of being increasingly abused. Threatened, yelled at, controlled and finally beaten.

  And the final note: I’m leaving. Tomorrow. I can’t hide this anymore and I don’t want to. He could kill the baby! I hate him, I hate him, I hate him…

  Page after page filled with “I hate him” until there was nothing at all.

  “Good God,” Del whispered. “Oh, God.”

  Mike reached for the book and closed it. The sound seemed almost final.

  They sat silently as minutes ticked by. Del felt as if she’d just been touched by a toxin so awful she wanted to wash it off. The anguish in the final entries, so few and so sparse, had hit her as hard as if she’d witnessed it all. It was as if she could mentally fill in all the gaps that Madeline had left in her tale.

  Mike rubbed his eyes with thumb and forefinger, sighing heavily. “I guess,” he said eventually, “that’s why she hid it.”

  “I guess.”

  He leaned back in his chair, drumming his fingers absently on his thighs, staring into space.

  “She wanted us to find this.”

  Del’s gaze snapped to him. “What?”

  “Don’t you feel it? She wanted us to find this. For someone to know…”

  Del wasn’t ready to leap quite that far. “You can’t know that.”

  “She wanted someone to know what happened to her. I feel it. Laugh at me if you want, but the house isn’t quite as sad now.”

  Since she’d never really felt the house’s sadness, she wanted to argue. Then she noticed the qualifier in what he said. “Not as sad? You mean it’s still sad?”

  He nodded slowly. “There’s a lightening, but it’s not finished.”

  “Hell.” Del nearly snapped the word, then felt immediately awful. “Sorry. It’s just…”

  “Just that you can’t handle my way of looking at the world.”

  “No!” She glared at him. “It’s not that. If you want to listen to rocks, that’s fine by me. My problem is that you keep saying something is wrong in this house, my daughter is scared of this house, I’ve started to hate the place, and I don’t know how the hell to fix any of that!”

  “I don’t listen to rocks. Not the way you mean.”

  “You don’t know what I mean, obviously, or you wouldn’t be getting all offended. What I meant was, I have no problem with your beliefs. I have a problem with the mess I’m in, and I don’t know how to fix it. I don’t really know where to start. Stop hearing me through your filters. I’m open-minded. If you say the house is still sad, the house is still sad, whether I feel it or not. But damn it, I need some way to fix this.”

  “Del…”

  “I don’t necessarily mean fixing the house’s sadness. Have you forgotten that there’s good cause to believe that someone is getting in here for some reason? That there are noises I can’t explain? That my tools move? And excuse me if I don’t think a house can do all that.”

  She jumped up from her chair, wrapping her arms tightly around herself, and began to pace the kitchen. “What do I do? Tearing out walls isn’t going to fix it. Moving out is impossible, at least at this point. As long as only Colleen and I can live in this place while it’s torn up, I need to keep trying to rent the other place I just finished so I can meet my bills. Colleen doesn’t want to come back here. I promised she didn’t have to until I solved the problem. This is one huge heaping stinking mess!”

  She reached a counter and came to an abrupt halt, leaning forward on her elbows and putting her forehead in the palms of her hands. “Damn,” she whispered. “Damn, damn, damn.”

  “Maybe I’m not good for you.”

  “Oh, cut it out,” she said wearily. “You’ve been good for me. I was all alone and now I’m not. You saved Colleen from spending another night here. You opened your home to virtual strangers, you helped me tear out walls and cart a ton of trash. If you haven’t been good for me, then nobody could be.”

  Silence answered her. Then, amazingly, strong arms closed around her from behind and lips found the nape of her neck. A shiver trickled through her, one of pleasure. Oh, Lord, here? Now? In this house?

  “Del.” He murmured her name and kissed the nape of her neck again. Another thrill ran through her.

  “Nothing’s adding up,” she whispered.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m so upset and yet I…want you. Now. Here.”

  “I want you, too,” he said huskily. “Here. Now. I’ll risk it if you will.”

  She straightened then, turning within the circle of his arms to look at him. Reaching up, she touched his cheek, tracing his beautiful cheekbones, tracing his wonderful lips. “Am I going crazy?” She whispered the words.

  “No crazier than I am.”

  She felt so off-kilter from the past few days, but one thing shone through as strong and certain: she wanted him. She wanted to lie naked with this man and learn his body as well as she knew her own. She wanted to know every secret that could make him sigh or moan. She wanted to feel her body hum once again to longing and rhythms she’d abandoned four years ago.

  He seemed to read her answer in her eyes. “Just be sure,” he asked. “Just be very sure.”

  “I’m sure.”

  “And
no matter what we hear, we ignore it.”

  “I’ll ignore everything short of a human being walking into the room.”

  At that he smiled faintly and dropped a kiss on her nose, then on her lips. “The house will leave us alone tonight.”

  And she didn’t care how he knew that. When he took her hand and guided her toward the hall and the stairway, she felt as if strength was entering every muscle. A troubled thought flickered through her mind, because he brought the diary with them. He seemed so protective of it.

  But whatever compelled him to do that, she soon forgot. Standing in her bedroom, in a pool of moonlight, she watched him close and lock the bedroom door.

  “Maybe,” she said, “you should block it somehow.” And then she laughed.

  He laughed, too, and the whole mood changed. From a heaviness, in an instant they moved to a lightness, a readiness to smile as if they were embarking on a wonderful journey and could hardly wait.

  He pulled her dresser over, though, so it would prevent the door from opening. “Good enough?”

  She laughed again. “I defy anyone mortal to get in here.”

  “That’s all we need then. I may have animistic tendencies, but ghosts don’t scare me. They can whisper, they can talk, but they can’t hurt us.”

  And for some reason she spread her arms and said to the house, “Give us tonight. Just tonight. I promise we’ll work on finding out what happened tomorrow.”

  Mike stepped toward her, smiling. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  “Ah, but will the house listen?”

  “For tonight.”

  He kissed her again, long and deep, then stepped back. Button by button he began to open his shirt. Smiling, she felt the courage to do the same, reaching for the buttons on her work shirt. At the same moment they dropped fabric to the floor.

  “You’re beautiful,” he murmured. “So beautiful.”

  “So are you.”

  He reached out and ran his fingertips lightly across her midriff. At once her center clenched with delight and another shiver of longing passed through her. “Oh, Mike,” she whispered raggedly.

  In the moonlight, half dressed, he looked like a god to her. His chest was smooth and perfectly muscled, telling her that being a vet wasn’t light work.

  He ran his fingers along her shoulders and down her arms.

  “Can I tell you a secret?” he asked softly.

  “Sure.”

  “I’ve always been drawn to women who work hard with their bodies. Women have such beautiful musculature.”

  “Only a doctor could say that.”

  A quiet laugh escaped him. “I know some men look for softness, but for me a woman with an athletic body has always been more appealing. It’s one of the first things that attracted me to you.”

  “I hope you like callused hands.”

  “Love ’em.”

  Then like a magician, he unhooked the front clasp of her bra and her breasts spilled free.

  “Perfect,” he murmured, and before she could answer, he swooped in and took one of her nipples in his mouth, sucking strongly. An instant cord of electricity ran from her womb to her core, causing a resonant throbbing that drew a groan from her.

  The world tilted, and she found herself on her back on the bed. He popped the snap on her jeans and tucked them down along with her panties until they caught on her work boots.

  “Oh, crap,” he said, sounding amused.

  “What?”

  “Damn boots have laces, and right now I’m feeling ham-handed.” But he dealt with that by pulling the boots off, still tied.

  And then she lay naked in the moonlight while he stood over the bed, drinking her in with his eyes. “I wouldn’t change one thing about you,” he said.

  “Not even my mind?”

  “Most especially not your mind.”

  A kind of peace flowed through her when she heard that. They might have arguments in the future because of their different worldviews, but he didn’t want to change her. She could live with that. But as soon as that feeling of peace hit, it was followed by something much less peaceful.

  “Are you going to leave me here by myself?”

  Another laugh escaped him, short and thickened, and he kicked away his own boots then reached for the snap on his jeans. He paused then, looking down at her.

  “Quit teasing,” she whispered. “Mike, quit teasing.”

  “I just don’t want to stop looking at you.”

  “Try feeling me instead.”

  The words seemed to galvanize him. He stripped his jeans then stood for a few moments in the moonlight, giving her a chance to drink him in. “Do I meet your approval?”

  “More than you can know.” She thought she’d never seen a man so perfect. A man so ready for her. That gave her another delicious thrill. She held out a hand, and at once he joined her on the bed, driving the rest of the world away, replacing it with the most basic and elemental reality: that of a man and a woman coming together for the first time.

  Skin against skin. Was there a more glorious feeling in the world, than two bodies joining this way? It felt to Del as if every cell of her skin responded to every brush of his from head to toe, demanding that she just let go and give in to primal need.

  His lips painted her with fire, moving along her neck and then lower as her hand sought to discover him, moving over the rippling, bunching muscles of his back, then lower until they found his waist and the powerful muscles of his rump. There her hands paused, trying to grasp, trying to bring him closer still. But he wasn’t yet ready to yield. Instead his lips continued their magical quest, first from one nipple to the other, sucking so strongly that her entire body responded, arching toward him, demanding fulfillment.

  But even as he sucked her to a near frenzy, his hand wandered over her midriff, over her belly until it found the damp nest between her legs. There his fingers played her as if she were an instrument, stroking, teasing, promising but never delivering.

  Soft moans escaped her, and a kind of delightful frustration filled her. Had she ever been ready so fast? Doubtful, but she was ready now, yet he kept her waiting, hovering on a brink that was almost scary in its height, knowing that one step, just one step, would carry her off into the chasm.

  She hardly realized that her hands began to nearly claw him as she voicelessly begged for more. Her legs clamped around his hand, rocking against him, trying to find the answer she so needed.

  Until finally, finally, he rose over her.

  He swore. “I don’t have a condom.”

  “I do…I do…” She knew they were old, but she didn’t care. All that mattered was that nothing stopped them now. Reaching out, she fumbled at the drawer in the night table. He took over, pulling out the box, tearing open a packet as he straddled her.

  Then she reached out and took the latex from him, refusing to be denied the experience of feeling him as she rolled the protection smoothly onto his staff. Loving the way he groaned at her touch. The way he threw back his head as if it was almost too much to bear.

  And then he lowered himself over her, finding her breast with his mouth at the same moment he thrust into her. It was like the completing of a circuit. The thrill rocketed through her, holding her taut in its grip as he plunged, filling a long empty place, as he sucked a breast that had not nursed in too long.

  With one hand she clasped the back of his head; with the other she gripped his rear, urging him on, wanting him deeper inside her than he could possibly go.

  He thrust again and again, and any one of those thrusts could have pushed her over the edge, but she fought to hold the moment back, to cling to this amazing, aching, overwhelming anticipation as long as possible.

  But her body betrayed her. With a cry she tumbled over the edge, and just moments later he followed her with a deep groan.

  And then the house felt happy.

  And sated.

  With her body still clenching with aftershocks, Del clung tightly to Mike. Sh
e never wanted to let go.

  Chapter 10

  M orning arrived all too quickly. After a night of cuddling and lovemaking, Del didn’t feel quite so much anger and dislike for the house.

  But a change in her feelings didn’t solve any problems. She showered quickly, changed into fresh work clothes, then took Colleen to school. Mike went off to work, promising to try to get back early again to help her.

  Edgar and Jimmy showed up at eight-thirty. Edgar went to work on installing the new shower in the downstairs bath so that Del would no longer have to lift her daughter over the edge of the tub to sit in her shower chair.

  “That’ll save my back,” she told Edgar.

  “I can see how it would. I don’t know how you’ve managed all this time, Del.”

  “I have a strong back, I guess.” She glanced over her shoulder to see Jimmy checking all the exposed wiring in Colleen’s former bedroom, using a meter to look for shorts. Then she went back to helping Edgar pull the tub out after he disconnected the plumbing.

  At once Jimmy was there. “Let me do that, Ms. Del. That tub’s heavy.”

  “Must be one of those old wrought-iron ones,” Edgar grunted as he shoved. “Shame to throw it away.”

  “I just want to get it out to the garage,” Del said. “If not today, at least we can get it out of the way for now. I figure I can probably sell it.”

  “Don’t doubt it,” was Jimmy’s response as they worked on tugging the tub through the door. It took the three of them nearly a half hour to get the tub through the kitchen and to a place near the back door.

  “Cripes,” Edgar said, wiping his forehead with his sleeve. “Let’s let it rest for now. We can move it the rest of the way later.”

  So it was back to work in the bathroom, this time extending plumbing up the wall to a good height for a showerhead.

  “Okay,” Edgar said finally after he’d welded the last copper pipe. “Let’s go get the enclosure.”

  Del had had it delivered through the outside cellar doors so it was in the basement. She and Edgar headed down the stairs together and found Jimmy down there.

  “Is something wrong?” Del asked immediately.