She glanced over her shoulder. “Now, we go to higher land.”
She struggled up the muddy mound, and he stayed behind her in the event her foot slipped.
He was cold and wet and fighting the shivers racking his body. There wasn’t a dry speck on him, and now his gun and the picture he’d stolen were ruined.
“We need to get out of this rain,” he said from behind her.
“It’s not much farther,” she said, continuing forward. “Just up the hill.”
Her idea of just up the hill took another ten minutes. Finally, they emerged from the smelly, cold water and got back on solid ground. They were out of the standing water, but the rain pouring down on them didn’t appear to be letting up.
He followed her down a fence line. They turned into a stand of trees backing up to expensive homes in a gated community. The kind maintained by landscapers, maids and servants. His shoulders knotted, knowing one of the owners or their staffs would call the law on them just because they both looked like drowned rats.
She kept walking as if she knew where she was going, and he followed. She slid between two slats on a fence, creating a hole that wasn’t big enough for him. To his amazement, she unlocked the gate from the inside and let him in.
A three-story red brick home, complete with pool and pool house, sat in the distance. A single candle shined through the kitchen window.
Hugh pulled Honor to a stop. “Who lives here?”
“I did at one time,” she answered. “We’ll be safe here.”
Safe for her might be different than safe for him. Orphans only dreamed of houses like this and the families that lived inside them. Had that been what drew Teddy in to begin with?
Hugh should have known. Honor was one of them. Was Honor’s silver-spooned lifestyle what had cast a spell over Teddy to make him stick around?
“You come from money?” Hugh said out loud.
She tossed a look over her shoulder, and her brows dipped. “I don’t; my grandmother does.”
“Right,” he whispered as they reached the backdoor.
“You have a key or something to get in?” he asked.
“Yeah, but it’s back at my house,” she said and gestured to the pool house. “We won’t need one to get in there, though.”
She led the way across the patio and picked up a gnome off the ground. Flipping it over, she pulled a key out of the hiding spot.
“Your family really needs to work on those hiding spots,” he grumbled, but only for a second because they finally stepped into the little house and out of the rain.
He didn’t know what to expect. Maybe a house with some floats or extra towels or such, but it was like a tiny house, even if it was bigger than Hugh’s first apartment.
She shrugged out of her raincoat and hung it up by the door before toeing off her shoes. When the shirt and jeans came off, he could do little else but stare at her.
She was perfection in a tiny package.
“Well, don’t just stand there. Get out of those clothes. We need to get warm.”
Hugh kicked off his soaked shoes and peeled of his sopping-wet socks then reached for the hem of his borrowed shirt, wincing as he lifted it over his shoulder.
She stopped him with a hand on her chest. “Here, let me help. I forgot you’re hurt.”
He lowered his arms and let her ease the shirt over his head. He reached for the button on his jeans, and she stepped back. Her cheeks tinted a nice shade of pink, as if heat was returning to her cold body. Or, she was embarrassed.
“We’ll get warmer faster if we share body heat,” he said as his gaze rested on her lips.
Chapter Eleven
HONOR
“Yeah, no. There’s no need for that, and I’m not going to let us freeze,” I said, heading into the only bedroom in the pool house, bypassing the kitchen and bar my parents had used when entertaining by the pool. The cupboards were probably empty, but the closets weren’t.
I pulled open the linen closet and smiled. “We might not have much, but we can get by.”
I pulled out a long man-sized robe and tossed it to him along with several towels. I grabbed a robe for myself, wrapped myself in the warmth, and knotted the matching belt at my waist.
Walking back to the door, I picked up our wet clothes and stuck them into the washer.
“That’s convenient,” he said, helping me.
“This was originally the mother-in-law quarters that my parents had built for my grandmother.”
“Did she visit often?” he asked.
I grinned and poured detergent over our clothes and started the machine. “Too often, and this house was too small, so she bought the one next door.”
“So, your parents did have money?” he asked.
What was it with this guy’s obsession with money? My shoulders fell. “They did, and when they died, it went into a trust for my sisters and I. It helps pay the bills but by no means makes any of us rich. We grew up next door with our grandmother. She raised us, but this place was still our sanctuary and where the memories were. I think Grams couldn’t bear the thought of letting it go either.”
He gave a slow nod as if satisfied with my answer.
“I’m sorry about your parents.” His voice was quiet in the house as I moved to the fireplace.
“It was a long time ago,” I answered, arranging wood in the hearth for a fire.
“I’m surprised you didn’t sell the place. I’m sure it’s worth a ton.”
I glanced over my shoulder at him. “This is all we have left of our parents. None of us would sell. Ever.”
He held up his hands. “I didn’t mean anything by it. It just seems like upkeep probably still costs a pretty penny for the house, yard, and the pool.”
“This is our childhood home. This is the place we feel closest to our dead parents. I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
“Right,” Hugh said as his eye twitched. He grabbed the logs out of my hand and started setting them up. “You got any matches?”
“Let’s hope,” I said, walking into the kitchen, with him following. I checked all the drawers and the only spot where we kept the long lighter used to start the burn. Empty. “I guess not.”
“You ready for my body heat?” he asked, reaching for the tie on his robe.
My gaze landed on the little ashtray that Gwen had hidden during our teen years, and I grinned. “No need.”
I grabbed a chair and hurried to the closet again. Stepping on it, I found the pack of cigarettes that were more than a decade old and the lighter that Gwen had been using when she smoked. I flicked it once, then twice, and it flickered to life.
“We’ve got heat.”
I twisted to hop down and pitched forward, landing in Hugh’s arms. He stared down at me. There was no sign of pain on his face, not even from the shoulder. His touch sizzled every part of me until my heart quickened and I turned breathy.
“You need to be more careful,” he said as I slowly slid down his body. He gently skimmed my cheek with the back of his knuckles in a slow caress.
I was mesmerized by his eyes. A swirl of heat flickered in his deep blues, darkening them as he stared at me. The way he looked at me made me feel like I’d known him forever and not just in my dreams.