Summer Heat (Wyoming Fever Book 2) by Elizabeth Lennox (books for new readers TXT) 📕

thought possible!  Unbelievably, another climax hit her and she grabbed onto his shoulders, hanging on to him as her only lifeline in an ocean of desire deeper and more powerful than she’d ever believed possible!

When he finally collapsed against her, she couldn’t catch her breath. It was as if he was a lightning bolt and she was the rod.  It was…magical!

She’d just closed her eyes when pounding thudded against the ceiling.  Someone yelled but their words were muffled.

“What’s that about?” she asked.

Arik lifted his head, laughing down at her.  “I think your screaming woke my upstairs neighbor,” he explained.

Sage stared at him, not understanding.  She hadn’t screamed.  She never screamed.  “I didn’t!” she whispered.  But even as she said the words, she realized her throat felt scratchy and sore.  “I did!”

He laughed, hugging her close and kissing her neck.  “It was awesome!”

Chapter 9

“Sage!” a female voice called out.

Sage turned, smiling as her older sister burst into the house.  “I’m fine!” she said to her sister who hadn’t bothered to knock.  Nor would she.  Jade wasn’t going to let a mere piece of wood or lock get in the way of protecting her baby sister, even if that baby sister was only two years younger than herself.

Sage could hear her sister’s shoes on the floors.  “Where are you?”

Sage stepped out of the kitchen, drying her hands.  “I’m right here,” she said with a calm, even voice.  “I’m perfectly fine.  No reason to worry.”

Jade kept moving forward until she could hug Sage.  The sisters stood like that for a long moment, only half aware of the two men watching with amused resignation.

“She okay?” Simon asked his partner.  Arik immediately nodded.  “She’s fine.  She was pretty exhausted when you asked me to check on her.  I knew immediately that something was off.”

“Why?”

Arik sighed.  “She was visibly stressed and exhausted.  I doubt she’d slept more than two hours before that night.”

Simon turned to frown at his friend and partner.  “What the hell is going on?”

Arik crossed his arms over his chest, but kept his body at an angle so that he could keep an eye on Sage.  “She knew that something was wrong.  Things were missing in her house, flowers outside stepped on and damaged, pots broken on her patio, and,” he paused to check on the ladies before he continued, quietly, “and someone jimmied the lock on her back door.”

“What the hell?” Simon growled.  “I installed those locks myself!”

“I know.  They’re good.”  He rubbed a hand over the scruff that he hadn’t bothered to shave this morning.  Mostly because he was preoccupied with a very lovely lady.  “I didn’t tell her about the lock because I didn’t want her to worry, but I also don’t want her around here until we catch the guy.”  He sighed.  “I’m taking her to my place every night until I catch whoever it is.  I want her far away from here.”

Simon’s eyes narrowed as he considered his friend’s words.  Slowly, he nodded, glanced pointedly at Sage, then back at Arik.  “So it finally happened then?”

“Finally?”

Simon smiled.  “Hell, man.  I’ve known that you’ve had a thing for Sage ever since the first moment you laid eyes on her.”

Arik considered arguing the point, but didn’t bother.  Simon was right.  He’d been struck dumb and blind where Sage was concerned, since he’d first seen her.  He would have done something about it months ago, but she had pushed him away.

Now he understood why.  Now he wanted to find her ex-husband and kick his ass!

“I want to go around and check out the hotels,” he said, keeping his voice low so Sage and Jade couldn’t overhear.

“You think it’s someone from out of town?” Simon probed.  “You don’t think it’s a local who saw her in the grocery store and…I mean, she is a beautiful woman, Arik.”

Arik looked over at Sage. The two sisters had moved to the kitchen and were whispering together. Sage must have felt his gaze because she glanced up, and their eyes locked.  In that instant, he knew that she felt just as connected.

“Snap out of it, man!” Simon cautioned, adding a playful punch to Arik’s arm for emphasis.  “We have to figure this out.”

Arik jerked his attention back to his partner, nodding sharply.  “Right.”

“You were telling me why you think that it’s an out of towner.”

Arik rubbed the back of his neck.  “I don’t know.  It just doesn’t feel like someone from around here.”

“In what way?”

Arik thought back to the foot prints.  “Well, for one thing, most people around here wear boots.  It’s part of the job, in most cases.  And part of the culture.”

“Agreed.  So what?”

“The foot prints I noticed outside of Sage’s windows weren’t boots.  They were shaped…more like a dress shoe.”

“In what way?”

Arik heard the intensity in his partner’s voice and appreciated the fact that the man wasn’t questioning his instincts.  Just trying to understand.  “There were lines on the prints.  Men’s dress shoes have rubber soles with lines for traction on concrete sidewalks.”

Simon nodded.  “And here, boots don’t have the lines because they’d interfere with horseback riding.”

“Exactly.  We need a smooth sole for the stirrups.”

Simon’s eyes narrowed.  “Okay, so we’ll check the hotels on the edge of town first and work our way in.”

“I agree.  I don’t think that the person doing this would be too close though.  In fact,” Arik sighed and looked over at Sage, then dropped his voice lower still.  “I think it’s her ex-husband.”

Simon stared for a long moment, then glanced at the sisters who were settled at the table now, steaming mugs of tea at hand.  “Sage was married?”

“Yeah.  The guy was a real bastard.  Emotionally and psychologically abusive.”

“Physically?” Simon asked, the tension in his body increasing tenfold.

“Not that she said.  But I