Man of Her Dreams by Debra Webb (best smutty novels txt) 📗

The light that exploded in her frontal lobe caught her completely off guard. She grabbed her head in her hands and doubled over with the intensity of it.

Take us home.

She straightened, the breath whooshing out of her lungs.

The children.

Please…take us home.

She turned around in the water, tried to see through the dark.

Where?

Aidan was watching her. Worried.

“They’re here,” she murmured. They’re here…somewhere.

Here.

So close.

She surged forward, moving past Aidan. He followed, giving her space. Somehow understanding.

“I’m coming,” she muttered.

Darby pushed through the water, not caring how much noise she made. She was getting closer. Almost there.

She stumbled. Fell face-first into the water this time.

Dammit.

She grappled to catch herself, flailed her arms, grabbed for something—anything—but it was no use. She went down. She scrambled onto the bank at the same time that Aidan’s arms went around her waist.

He seemed to be moving slower now.

But who wouldn’t.

“I’ve gotta get out of this water,” she said, exhausted. She clawed at the bank to pull herself upward. Her fingers wrapped around something hard—a root or stick.

It glowed eerily white against the grays and browns of the bank.

Long, thin.

A…bone.

Before the scream could escape her throat, Aidan had turned her away from the horrific sight and pulled her to him.

Her anguish was muffled against his chest.

Take us home.

Chapter Ten

Spotlights pierced the night.

The sound of radios crackling, a helicopter flying overhead and crime scene investigators wading through the muck created an unnatural cacophony amid the wild swamp setting.

Light and shadow bounced off each other, filtering through the heavy moss and highlighting gnarled cypress. The glassy surface of the water stood eerily still, holding its secrets unseen within its black depths.

Aidan shut out the noise and scene developing around the discovery of skeletal remains and focused on the dark unmoving silence beyond. Galen’s men were somewhere in this swamp. Perhaps Galen himself. A rush of knowing went through him. Yes. Galen was here. Watching, waiting for an opportunity to strike.

It didn’t surprise Aidan that he’d found himself new followers. A man like that could always sway support for his cause. Nothing short of death would stop him.

Aidan felt no qualms about delivering that ultimate fate. The man meant nothing to him. That he was the creative mind behind who and what Aidan was carried no weight. His gaze shifted to Eve—Darby—where Detective Willis and his partner were grilling her about how she came to be here.

Moving closer, Aidan monitored the conversation for questions about him. Darby would not think to mention that he had introduced himself as an agent for the FBI. Willis’s men had already likely told him that she had a friend accompanying her now. It wasn’t unusual for a woman to have a male friend. Willis wouldn’t ask. Not now. He was too focused on the discovery. Praying it would be the remains he sought so that he could put another aspect of this case to rest.

But there was still Jerry Lester.

Aidan slowly surveyed the shadowy woods around their location. He was out there. Not so far away. Aidan could feel his presence. He wanted to watch Willis’s men struggle with what he’d had to abandon in order to remain free. He wanted to watch Darby Shepard. She was his new obsession.

Maybe because she was a teacher or maybe because she’d touched his mind. Aidan couldn’t be sure. His mind was twisted…unreliable.

“I should haul you in for even being out here,” Willis threatened Darby. “I’ve got one man dead and another one missing.” He glanced at Aidan but said nothing about him. Though his dislike carried across the night, made Aidan curious.

Perhaps it was that the detective didn’t like strangers. Or maybe he sensed Aidan’s knowledge of this case and didn’t like anyone horning in on his territory. Then again, it could be Darby. Aidan noted the way the detective touched her…looked at her. He’d ensured that one of his men brought a blanket to put around her.

Aidan stayed on the edge of the fray, not wanting to draw unnecessary attention to himself and needing the distance for focus on the threat that lay beyond the events evolving here. Alerting the authorities had been simple since his cellular phone was waterproof and operated via satellite.

The first hint of dawn had lightened the sky. The coming sunrise would be a welcome benefit to the investigators scouring the scene. But for Aidan, it would present additional problems. In the dark, he maintained the advantage. He didn’t want Darby to be a sitting duck when the sun broke through the trees. He wanted her out of here before then.

“I had to come,” Darby argued with the detective. Her gaze wandered toward the place where she’d made her gruesome discovery.

“Sir, we’ve got trouble.”

Willis turned to the officer who’d just spoken. “What the hell is it now?” He slapped at a mosquito that lit on his neck.

The officer leaned close to his boss and whispered, “Two reporters have managed to find their way back here.”

Willis swore hotly, repeatedly. “Get her out of here,” he growled, then tossed a look at Aidan. “Him, too. I don’t want those reporters getting a whiff of her involvement.”

Two officers escorted Darby and Aidan farther down the waterway to an area where it widened enough for a properly equipped helicopter to land on the water’s surface. Any other landing would have been impossible in the dense woods.

When one of the officers would have led Darby into the water, Aidan reached out and pulled her back to him. He lifted her into his arms before she could question the move and carried her to the transport vehicle.

Inside, they settled in the cargo area of the craft and braced for ascension.

When they’d cleared the treetops, leaving the dangers of the swamp behind, Darby looked up at him, her expression grim. “He’s still out there. They’re not going to find him.”

She was right.

Detective Willis would not find the serial killer Jerry Lester today or even tomorrow.

But