Cold River - Carla Neggers [109]
He was on fire now. Heat and desire poured out of her, and she cried out as he drove into her, clawing at him in a frenzy of wanting, matching his pace with a want and urgency of her own. She held him, quaking in his arms as she came, and it was all he needed before he let himself go.
It was a long time before they needed to crawl under the blankets.
“Sean…” She felt warm next to him. “I don’t think you need to worry about the furnace this winter.”
He laughed and held her close, knowing there was no going back now. Elijah’s truck was parked outside. It’d be parked out there in the morning. By dawn, word would be out that he’d spent the night with Hannah Shay.
Twenty-Nine
January 4—Black Falls, Vermont
Hannah had showered, dressed and was on her way down to the café before sunup, leaving Sean warm under the covers in her bed. She didn’t know whether he was asleep or wide-awake, contemplating finding himself in her bed. Would he get out of there before either of her “sisters” arrived, or would he join them for coffee and scones as they did their morning routines?
He’d been about five minutes behind her, and when she’d seen him in the light in the café dining room, dressed and fully awake, she’d had to stifle a wave of the stubborn self-consciousness that had plagued her for so long. He’d caught her around the waist and kissed her, lifting her off her feet. Dominique or Beth or anyone could have walked in, and it pleased Hannah that he didn’t seem to care. He’d gone off to collect Elijah to see their sister and take another look at the crypt.
She hadn’t had any nightmares last night.
Now, ten minutes after Sean had left out the back, she pulled a stool over to the counter to do paperwork ahead of a visit from a supplier later that morning, but she couldn’t concentrate and closed her notebook and laptop. Beth and Dominique had the routines at the café under control. They hadn’t mentioned finding a cold cleaning bucket in the dining room. Hannah figured they could draw their own conclusions. She could feel Sean warm next to her in her bed and suddenly she realized she didn’t care who knew he’d spent the night in her apartment or what anyone thought of it.
Beth sprayed hot water into a sink full of baking pans. She shut off the faucet and wiped her wet hands on her apron. “I hate doing dishes. Have I ever mentioned that?”
Hannah smiled. “Every day.”
“Ah. Every day I forget how much I hate doing dishes. Especially pots and pans.” She leaned back against the sink. “Plans for the day?”
“I can finish up here. After that I don’t know.”
Judge Robinson appeared in the back doorway to the kitchen and invited Hannah to join him out in the café. “If you have time,” he said.
Beth turned back to the sink and said cheerfully, “That’s the judge’s ‘make time’ voice. I’m fine here. Back to sink duty. You two go talk Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.”
Hannah joined the judge at his favorite table in the corner by the side porch that faced Elm Street. “I crave sugar and caffeine,” he said cheerfully, a warm scone and mug of coffee in front of him. “I wonder if it’s winter.”
“In August you wondered if it was summer.”
“I always said you have a mind for detail.” He leaned back in his chair. “It’s also a mind that’s not focused right now on getting ready to study for a bar exam.” He smiled at her. “I’m an experienced jurist. I can tell.”
Hannah didn’t argue. “I’ve been thinking about Drew and Bowie in the months before Drew’s death. I knew Bowie was working in Black Falls. I thought I had Drew all figured out as a hard-bitten, unforgiving man—decent, but once you’d crossed him, you were done.”
“But he gave Bowie another chance and recommended him for a job at the Four Corners church,” Everett said.
“What if it was a mistake that cost him his life? What if Bowie knew about Drew’s cabin and told Melanie Kendall or Kyle Rigby—”
“Inadvertently, Hannah, or deliberately?”
She looked out at the street, quiet on the cold morning. “Bowie’s an expert on historic stonework.”
“Yes, he is,” the judge said. “It’s an interest of mine