Hard Hat Man (18 page)

“And then what?”

Her eyes widened.
“Oh, God. I think he killed her.”

“Why do you think that?”

“
He
kept hitting her
on the head
with a big stick
and saying
,
‘
you deserve to be punished.
’
And then she stopped moving. And she was all bloody. Oh, my God, Kyle. Nancy’s dead. She didn’t run away. She’s dead.”
She dropped back against her pillow and closed her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“Jan, you were only dreaming. Listen to me.” He reached over and shook her until she opened her eyes and stared at him. ”Listen to me, Jan. It was just a dream. It wasn’t real.”

She sat up.
“Yes, it was. I heard Aunt Esther crying and I started crying too. She knows Nancy is dead. That’s what she’s
always crying. That’s what she’s
trying to tell us. That Nancy is dead.”
Jan
broke into tears again.

Kyle pulled
her
into his arms and held her close until her sobs were spent.

“There must be some way to find out if she’s still alive somewhere,” Jan said
, lifting her head and looking at him
.
“When I get home, I’m going to try searching for her on the internet.”

“Good idea. If she hasn’t changed her name, you should be able to trace her.”
He rubbed a hand along her back, realizing she wore only a thin summer nightgown.
Her skin felt warm and smooth under the cloth.
The room suddenly felt stifling hot. Horace had never put in air conditioning.

Jan nodded and smiled, obviously feeling better.
“Even if she married, there should be a record somewhere. I mean, you have to buy a marriage license and use your real name,” Jan said. “You’re right, it was only a dream. But I can check it out and see if she’s out there somewhere.
Even if I have to hire a private detective.
Maybe
,
after all this time, she’d be willing to make contact again.
”

“True.” Kyle
met her gaze and couldn’t look away. Her eyes were wide and her lips parted in anticipation. He couldn’t stop himself. Leaning forward, he touched her lips with his. When she didn’t pull away, but met him with a sigh of pleasure, he pulled her close and deepened the kiss.

“I’ve been dying to do this all evening,” he muttered.

“Me, too,” she answered, snuggling closer.

Then his lips trailed down her throat, tasted her earlobe and found the rapid pulse below it. Her hands reached up to cup his head
. She
br
ought
him closer, then eagerly kiss
ed
him back.

She grasped his hair and raised her chin to allow him more access to her throat and below it.

With a groan, he
laid her back onto the bed and found a nipple through her thin cotton nightgown. It pebbled hard in his mouth, and she arched up to him. His mouth suckled first one, then the other nipple, and the action sent his pulse racing and enlarged and hardened him down below. Aching need for her rippled along his veins
,
urgently hurrying him on.

The nightgown was in the way. Reaching down, he shoved back the sheet and brought the nightgown up to bare those delightful globes to his hands. She raised up and pulled the gown over her head and tossed it onto the floor, then reached down to run her hands over his chest and abs.

Feasting greedily on her bare skin, he rained kisses all over her torso, making her squirm in pleasure. Her hands sent waves of pleasure through him and his member responded.
He groaned as
she pushed his pants down. He helped her by kic
king them off, leaving him bare and exposing a very erect hard-on.
She giggled. “I’ve been wanting to pull down your pants ever since grade school.”

“Oh, yeah? Why?”

“It seemed the perfect payback for all the times you pulled my pony tail.”
H
er fingers circled him and slid up and down, tempting him onward.
“I’m glad I waited until we’re older. Just look at my reward. She leaned down to kiss the tip, making him gasp and pull away.

Sliding down between her legs, he
s
p
r
e
a
d them wider, glancing up to see her reaction as he touched his tongue to her center, teasing and taunting her. “Oh, my God.” She dropped her head back onto the pillow and closed her eyes in pleasure
, her hands grasping the sheet
on either side of her
.

Grinning, he continued to tease her, using his hands and mouth until she went taut and gasped
aloud
as her climax overcame her
.
He pulled away for a moment, searching for his pants pocket and the foil packet there.
Quickly he
roll
ed it into place.

H
e rose above her
,
took her mouth in a searing kiss, then
entered her wet, hot center with one smooth stroke
and stopped, holding himself deep inside her
. “Oh, that feels so good,” he gasped. “You feel like you’re grabbing me inside.”
Slowly, he began moving in the age old rhythm of love.
Leaning down, he nibbled and suckled each breast in turn.

“Yes, oh, yes,” she said
, matching him stroke for stroke and kiss for kiss.

She wrapped her legs around him and squeezed him
, urging him deeper
.
“I could do this all night.”

“Sorry, but I can’t hold out that long,” he said,
and
c
ame
with a loud groan
of pleasure
.

She hugg
ed
him tightly as they floated back down to earth.
“Then we’ll just have to start all over again.”

He laughed
and rolled to one side, pulling her with him and refusing to separate
. “Give me a
few minutes to catch my breath
first, woman.”

“Okay.” She
sn
u
gg
led up to him
, nibbled his neck
and pulled up the sheet. “But not for long.”

***

Kyle woke
and eyed Jan
with a satisfied smile
. She slept on her side facing him, snoring lightly. Of course, he’d never tell her she snored. She wouldn’t be pleased. But he found it endearing.

Careful not to wake her after their exhausting night of pleasure, he slipped out of bed and showered, shaved and dressed.

After breakfasting on coffee and cereal, he headed out to where his men were already assembling heavy machinery. Taking down the old cement stave silo was today’s project.

The hours passed with good progress. He sent one of the men into town for sandwiches and coffee for their noon lunch. Most of the silo was now down, the heavy slabs of cement loaded on a truck and hauled away.

A couple of hours later, they were down to removing the cement foundation. Because he planned a swimming pool for this area, it all had to be dug out and removed. A couple of his men used noisy jack-hammers to break the huge cement slab into manageable pieces, then the crane picked them up and loaded them onto the truck.

Suddenly, one of the men down in the pit yelled and waved at the man working the crane
to stop
. The others turned to see what was up.

Then as his men just stood there, staring, Kyle strode over to the pit. Fear knotted his stomach. Had one of his men been injured? After all the things that had gone wrong already on this project, he sure didn’t need any more trouble.

“What is it?” he yelled
over the noise of the engines
as he got closer. A couple of his men backed away from the pit and turned to look at him.
The man operating the crane shut off the motor, so suddenly all was quiet.

“Somebody was under the silo,” one finally said.
The men stepped back to allow Kyle to approach the pit.

Kyle reached the edge of the site and saw scraps of cloth hanging from the edge of the crane.
Looking down into the hole, he saw more cloth and a skull and bones. Exchanging disbelieving glances with his men, he backed away
. “Everybody stay away from the site,” he ordered, pulling out his cell phone and punching 9-1-1.

When
Sheriff
Casey answered, he said, “Sheriff, this is Kyle Hart, at Hart Construction. We were removing the silo on Horace’s farm and found a body under the cement foundation….

“Yes, a body. Well, just bones and some bits of clothing, so it must have been here since the silo was built….

“Yeah, you know the place, you were just out here when the barn burned the other night. Okay. I’ll secure the site ‘til your guys get here.”

He hung up and looked back at his watching men. “Nobody touch anything. The sheriff will
be out in a little bit. We’ll have to answer his questions, then we’ll go work
on the apartments
until he says we can finish up here.
”

“Is this gonna set us back again, boss?” one of the men asked.

“Not if I can help it,” Kyle said. “But we may have to rearrange our work a bit.”

***

Jan
awoke alone in her bed and stretched
, listening for any sounds, but hearing none
.
Kyle must have already left.

They’d made love several more times before finally falling asleep cuddled together. What would it be like to
share a bed with him every night? To be able to run her hands over those hard, bare muscles whenever she wanted?

She swallowed and pushed back the covers. What was she thinking? Her life was back in Chicago. Dreaming would get her nowhere.

After showering and dressing, she went to the kitchen to find coffee already made and a cereal bowl and spoon in the sink. At least he’d found some food before disappearing.

She glanced out the kitchen window. A large crane stood beside the silo and half of the cement staves were already on the ground. A tractor with a bucket loader on the front was putting the staves into a truck.