Free Badland Bride (Book 2 - Dakota Hearts) by Lisa Mondello

eyes were illuminated by the dying fire.
    “I’ve never taken this off since,” he said, looking directly at her. “I’ve never told anyone else that story.”
    She sat up and touched his chest in an effort to comfort him. She didn’t care that she was naked and her breasts were fully exposed in probably the most unflattering position.
    “What about the cross?” she asked.
    “That’s the odd thing. I don’t know anything about this cross. I knew so much about my brother. Of all my brothers, I was closest to Wade. But I don’t know how he got it or why he wore it. He used to only have the medallion on the chain. But this is the way Wade gave it to Logan, so I kept it that way. It makes me feel like…he’s close by somehow.”
    She lay back down against Keith and he pulled her close to him.
    “Like a part of him is always with you,” she added.
    Keith lifted his head a fraction and looked down at her, but said nothing. Then he lay back again.
    “I have my mother’s hairbrush,” she finally said. “It’s nothing special. It’s just a big silver brush. I don’t even know if it’s real silver or just plated. She couldn’t take living on bases and moving all around the world.”
    “With your dad gone so much, I’m surprised she didn’t take you with her.”
    “Yeah, well, she didn’t like family life so much either, and having a six-year-old in tow didn’t fit into the next phase of her life.”
    He cursed quietly and shook his head. “Sorry,” he said.
    “Why? Because of my mother or your foul mouth?” she said chuckling. “Remember, I lived on Army bases. You couldn’t possibly say something I haven’t already heard.”
    Keith chuckled too and then became quiet again.
    “It doesn’t really matter though. It’s just a hairbrush,” she said. “I just…with all the moving, I was never able to let it go.”
    He squeezed her harder until she thought they couldn’t get closer. And still she wanted more. She wanted to feel that connection she’d felt when they’d made love.
    She lifted up on her side and put her arm around him. “Keith?”
    “Hmm?” he said, his voice groggy.
    “The fire is dying.”
    “Do you want another blanket?”
    She smiled and kissed him slowly. “I had something else in mind.”
    She felt his smile against her lips and felt the thundering of his heartbeat beneath her palm. Then he said, “I like the way you think.”
    * * *
    The next few weeks had been the happiest Regis had ever known. She spent the mornings working in the senior center with a long line of people filing in to ask questions and fill out paperwork. Some afternoons she’d go on the road with Keith and visit properties. She’d listen to the stories about the people she’d meet and at night, the two of them would lock themselves in his log home and make love.
    Soon the number of people needing help grew shorter and somewhere in the back of Regis’s mind, she knew her time in Rudolph was close to coming to an end. But she’d decided to relish each and every moment she had with Keith for as long as she possibly could.
    And then came the afternoon when she knew all that love and beauty was in jeopardy. She answered her cell phone call from her manager as she stepped into the motel room, wondering why she even bothered to keep it since she’d been spending every night for the past two weeks with Keith.
    “Is there a problem?” she asked Mike.
    He hesitated a fraction. “You’re doing great there. I’m just wondering why you’ve sent this claim for the Buxton Mills through with a recommendation for full replacement when it’s clear it was flood damage.”
    She dropped her briefcase on the bed and sat down next to it. “The roof and siding show that the ice storm did some damage to the property. I have pictures to support that.”
    “I see them, and I don’t dispute that. But I also see the water line on the inside of the property showing that there was a flood.”
    She bit her bottom