Move the Sun (Signal Bend Series) (4 page)

CHAPTER THREE

Lilli woke from the dream on full alert, on her feet and on the defensive before she was fully conscious. After a tense second, she realized where she was and concentrated on pushing the adrenaline surge down. She woke like this three or four mornings a week, sometimes in the middle of the night, too, so the process was routine.

Better than coffee, she supposed, for getting the day started quickly.

By the ambient light in the room, she guessed it wasn’t long past dawn. She went to the dresser and fished her phone out of her pocket to check the time: 5:52am. Good morning, Signal Bend. She went into the shitty little bathroom.

Her stomach growled. She’d never had much of the burger she’d shared with Isaac last night, and it was pushing 24 hours since she’d eaten anything else. Plus, she might not strictly
need
coffee, but it was a nice start to the day nonetheless. Sadly, she had nothing in the house yet. Fuck.

Okay. Run first, then find that diner Mac Evans recommended—Marie’s, she remembered—for some breakfast. Then errands to stock the place up. She rummaged through one of her duffels and dug out a pair of
spandex running shorts and a top. She combed her fingers through her hair and yanked it into a high ponytail. She found her trail running shoes in the other duffel. She intended to run through what served as residential areas, but there was a lot of gravel out here, and she didn’t want to roll an ankle.

She hid her keys behind the garage. Signal Bend was probably one of those towns where nobody ever locked anything, but Lilli protected her shit. She had shit to protect.

Running through Signal Bend and the surrounding countryside gave Lilli a different insight from what she’d seen from the Camaro. The homes were widely spaced, even in town. A lot of them were obviously empty. Even banks seemed to have abandoned them. All that remained were swing sets rusting in yards, sometimes a car on blocks, weeds growing up through the engine. She passed one car with a tree growing through the back seat and out the empty rear window.

The occupied houses she passed were often lovely and quaint in their simplicity. Lilli saw lots of washing hung on lines, sheets catching the breeze and early morning sun. Just after six in the morning, and women were deep into their chores. Country life. It wasn’t a world Lilli had grown up in.

She noticed that she was noticed as she ran. People—women and small children in their yards, men passing in trucks and tractors—gawked as she passed them. Isaac had told her that people don’t move to Signal Bend, so she was obviously a curiosity as a new person in their midst.

She ran for nearly an hour, judging by her pace that she’d gone about eight miles or so, when she was ready to head back. She wanted to loop rather than simply turn around, so that she could see more of the town, but she wasn’t sure she had her bearings well enough to accomplish it.

Oh, well, one way to find out. She had her father’s sense of direction. She’d figure it out.

It was coming up on 8am, and she’d run about sixteen miles, when she turned onto the gravel road that would become the driveway to her little rental. She saw the bike pulled up in front of the garage as she crested the last hill. She’d only seen it a couple of times, never clearly or up close, but she guessed this was Isaac’s Harley. He’d already gotten some intel on her, then.

And this was why she locked her shit.

She saw him sitting on the steps of the little wooden deck leading to the sliding glass back door. He was leaning back against the steps, his hands linked across his chest, his legs outstretched and crossed at the ankles. Damn, he was big. And not hard at all to look at. Well-worn black engineer boots. Dark straight-leg Levis. Black button-down shirt,
folded back on his arms and open at the throat. Leather cuffs. Leather kutte. Black Ray-Bans. He looked like Mr. June in the Harley Biker Beefcake calendar.

She took all that in by the time she’d reached the garage. Without indicating that she’d also seen him, she paused at his bike, breathless from her run, and gave it a once-over. It was a nice bike, a huge black Dyna. Had some miles on it, but it was obviously well cared for.

“You like?” Isaac called over from the porch, where he was still sitting in the exact same position.

Lilli turned to him and shrugged. It pleased her to see him cock his head, as if he’d expected to startle her with his presence. “It’s nice. I prefer something with a bit more speed.”

She had to get her keys, which meant he was going to see that she’d hidden them. Letting him see
where
wasn’t a problem—she could hide them elsewhere—but seeing
that she had
gave up a lot. Another new plan she needed. This biker was getting in her way. She went behind the garage and dug them out.

He was still sitting in the same position when she walked up to the deck. Even behind his sunglasses, his eyes were devouring her, she could tell.

“That bike is plenty fast, Sport. You ride?”

“I do.”

“What d’you ride?”

“Last bike I had was a BMW—
K 1300S.”

He looked impressed, his eyebrow cocking up above his Ray-Bans. “Not much for the crotch rockets, but that’s a lotta bike for a girl.”

“Same thing you said about my car. Like I said, I like speed.”

“Like
I
said, my bike’s plenty fast. But it’s about more than speed, Sport—or maybe you prefer
Lillian
.”

She didn’t miss a beat. As soon as she’d seen his bike in front of her garage, she’d known he had her name. “I don’t, actually. I prefer Lilli.
Three Ls, two Is. Got an early start this morning, I see.”

He stood and took a long stride, so that he was standing right in front of her, looming over her. She was tall, but by her estimate, he had
a good nine inches on her, at least. “Actually, haven’t been to bed yet. It’s still last night for me. My guy tells me you’re Lillian Carson, from Austin, Texas.” Brazenly, he slid his hand into the front of her running shorts, hooking his fingers over the waistband. He made a growling noise in the back of his throat. “Girl, these are the tiniest shorts I’ve ever seen. They distract a man from his work.”

She liked his hand where it was. Her attraction to this man didn’t surprise her; if she’d been asked to describe what she found sexiest, she’d pretty much describe him head to toe. And she was by no stretch of the imagination shy or prudish. Under normal circumstances, she’d have few qualms about putting him on the ground and mounting him right here. But he could be a danger to her. He had power—what she’d seen last night told her that he was
the
power in this scant little town and probably for some distance around it. It could be problematic if their needs crossed.

The question she asked herself, as her body responded enthusiastically to his touch, was whether she was better off keeping him close or keeping her distance.

She smiled up at him, seeing the sass of it reflected in the lenses of his sunglasses. “Work? That what you’re here for?”

He turned his hand so that his palm was flat on her belly and then pushed it around, still partially under her shorts, until he hooked it over her left hip. She saw him notice the ink there and felt his thumb trace it. She managed to keep her heart steady and her breath even, but it was becoming a struggle. His palm was hot and rough on her bare skin.

“Well, work to start. See, my guy found something pretty interesting. I like to be forthright. I’m not much for poker. Chess is my game. Think it serves everybody best if things are laid out neat. So I thought I’d run it by you. He tells me he came up quick against a wall, looking into you. Not a lot of history. I find that  . . . intriguing. You pop out of a pod a few months ago, all shiny and new?”

Okay. So he had a decent hacker in the club. Good to know. Not necessarily a crisis, though definitely a problem and a potential risk. At best, again, Isaac was changing the way she intended to do things. And her decision was made.

Keep him close. She couldn’t say she was sorry about that.

Lilli shared Isaac’s affection for forthrightness. As much of the truth as possible was always the best approach. Getting caught out in a lie always made everything more dangerous. Only as much subterfuge as was necessary.

“No, no pod. Don’t suppose you’ll just let that wall stand?”

He tossed his head back and laughed, a deep, mirthful sound that made Lilli’s running shorts all the wetter. When he looked down at her again, his lopsided smile was broad and bright. “Sorry, no. You could make it easier on Bart and let me take a peek over it, tell me why it’s there.”

“Where would be the fun in that?” Her keys hooked on a finger, she reached up and undid a couple of buttons on his shirt. Around his neck, he wore a leather cord with a small silver medallion; it was nested in a moderate coverage of dark curls on his chest. She did love a hairy chest. She circled her fingers in it and felt his hand grip her hip hard.

He growled again, shaking his head. “I don’t like secrets, Sport.” His free hand gripped the back of her neck, and he came down close, not yet kissing her,
though she could feel his beard tickling her chin.

She reached around his neck and brought his braid forward over his shoulder, pulling the elastic band loose from its end and running her finger through the middle to undo it. She wanted to see his hair. “Would you believe me if I told you it doesn’t concern you?” She truly didn’t know whether it did concern him, but the question she asked was not a lie.

“Everything that happens in this town concerns me.” He tipped his head back and shook his hair loose. Then he pulled his sunglasses off and tossed them onto the deck. In the daylight, his eyes were even more intensely green, rimmed with dark emerald and changing gradually to peridot at the pupil. The thought occurred to her that a man like this might object to having his eyes described in terms of gemstones, and she was amused.

His hair was beautiful, thick and dark and wavy from the braid. She took a handful of it and pulled him down until his lips were heavy on hers.

He kissed her fiercely, his tongue thrusting immediately into her mouth, going deep. She matched his with her own, reveling in the scratch of his beard against her face. She hooked her arms around his neck and fed both hands into his hair, grabbing it tightly into her fists. He shifted his hands so that she was encompassed by his long, thick arms.

His chest was a broad rock wall crushing her breasts. Fuck, the man was all elemental sex. She moaned and tore her mouth free, tipping her head back to take a deep inhale. He shifted again, and she felt his hand on her throat, lightly, his thumb tracing a path down its length. She brought her head forward and met his intense gaze.

“I mean to fuck you, Sport, secrets or not. Now’s the time to say you don’t want it.”

She grinned. She wanted it. But she’d play a little coy. “I have a pretty full day planned. Breakfast, errands. You weren’t on my calendar. And I just ran a long way. I’m sweaty, and I stink.”

“Yes, you do. I like it. I want you sweaty.” He pulled her hips sharply against his thighs, pressing his erection to her belly. “How ‘bout I buy you breakfast after?”

She released one of her hands from his hair and dragged it lightly around his neck, stopping when she got to the place where his shirt was open on his chest. She spread her fingers through the hair there, and he took in a breath and closed his eyes. “Can I eat my own, or are we sharing again?” she asked.

He opened his eyes and winked. He was enjoying the banter as much as she was. “You don’t like sharing with me?”

“Barely got any of my burger last night.”

“Hey—that wasn’t my fault.” He cocked his eyebrow at her. “I’m not hearin’ you say no, Sport.”

She pushed away from him, and disappointment passed over his face, but she grabbed his hand. “Gotta go in the front. I don’t have a key for the slider.”

He let her lead him around the house. As she unlocked the door, he said, “Nobody locks around here, you know. Folks trust each other. You want to blend in, you should pick up the customs.”

She opened the door and stepped in, turning back with a welcoming gesture. “And yet you were skulking around while I was away. You’d have been inside if the door weren’t locked, right?”

He came in and took the door from her to close it. “Hey, I was worried. Your cage was here, you weren’t. Thought there was trouble. Who’d’ve thought you were running around town in your underwear. On purpose.” Without even a pause, he grabbed her arm and turned her, pushing her front-first against the wall. He leaned down, and she felt his beard on the skin of her shoulder. Growling again, he licked from her shoulder to behind her right ear. “You taste great—salt and musk, and something sweet.” His hands went around her hips and into her shorts, pushing between her legs. “Oh, yeah. Feel how wet you are.”