Chapter 14: Murder In Harmony
Chapter 14:
It only took a moment before the shock wore off and Ivy melted into Sam’s kiss. The sensation of his body against hers caused her mind to swim, filled with memories of his touch. It was so much better than she remembered. She was completely lost in the moment when their lips finally parted. She opened her eyes slowly and looked down at Sam’s shocked face.
“Ivy, what’s going on?”
“I, I, I was just trying to wake you up and you grabbed me and started kissing me. I’m sorry, I wasn’t…” Ivy stammered as she got off the bed. “I just came to wake you up because uh,” Ivy bent down and picked up Sam’s pager that she’d dropped when they were kissing. “Your pager was going off in your jacket downstairs and I thought it might be important. I was just coming to wake you up, that’s all really. I wasn’t trying to…”
“It’s okay Ivy. It was my fault. I must have been dreaming or something,” Sam said sheepishly. “I just wasn’t expecting to see you.”
“I decided to come back early. I had no idea you’d stayed the night.”
“I hope you don’t mind.”
“Of course not, your welcome to come here and visit with Kay anytime.”
“I’m really sorry about what happened with Julian,” Sam said sympathetically and laid his hand on her arm.
“How do you know…well, I shouldn’t be surprised, news travels fast around here.”
“I can’t believe what a bastard Julian is.”
“You can’t expect a leopard to change his spots. Oh I don’t care that Julian was cheating on me. He’s done it our entire marriage and I sure as hell have no intention of letting him touch me. What made me so mad was that he had that slut in my room. They were actually going through my things. It was like he was taunting me or something.”
“You don’t deserve to be treated that way.”
“There was a time when I figured you thought I deserved to be treated like that and worse.”
“Ivy…”
The pager beeped in Ivy’s hand. “They’re calling you again. It must be important.” She handed it to him.
“It’s the station, I have to go.” Sam pulled his pants on and slipped into his shirt, but left it unbuttoned. “I’m glad your back Ivy, but I was happy to get the chance to spend some time with Kay. She seems really happy and I owe that all to you.”
“All I did was give her a place to live.”
“You did much more than that and you know it. I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you.”
“There’s no need for that Sam.”
“Yes there is Ivy. There’s a lot of need.” Sam turned and walked out of the bedroom. As he walked out of the house it took a lot of self-restraint to keep him from going back to Ivy and taking her in his arms again.
After Sam left, Ivy sank down on to the bed and ran a finger lightly across her lips. She could still feel her body tingling where Sam had touched her and she didn’t want to let that feeling go. She laid her head on the pillow where Sam had slept, letting his lingering masculine scent surround her. She lay there for a while until Pilar came into the room.
“Mrs. Crane, what are you doing in here?”
“Oh Pilar, it was so wonderful,” Ivy gushed, “Sam kissed me.”
“You mean you came in here while he was sleeping and he didn’t realize it was you.”
“No, I came in and tried to wake him up and he grabbed me and pulled me down in the bed on top of him and started kissing me. It was wonderful. He said he was dreaming, but before he grabbed me he said my name, so he must have been dreaming about me.”
“You shouldn’t be doing this Mrs. Crane. What if Kay had come in here to see her father and found you two together? She trusts you and something like that could upset her and she might run away again. And what about Mr. Crane, if he were to find out about you and Chief Bennett he would destroy Sam’s career and his life. And there’s no telling what he would do to you. You need to be careful. You have to keep your distance from Sam Bennett.”
A knock on the front door of Sheridan’s cottage interrupted Luis’ perusal of the paper. “Hey Ethan, come on in.”
“Is Sheridan here? I need to talk to her about something.”
“She’s in the shower. Is there anything I can do for you.”
“Well, I just wanted to tell her that I officially called off the wedding today?”
“You broke up with Gwen? What happened?”
“This has been coming for a while now. Gwen just isn’t the person I thought she was. It had gotten to the point where I was dreading every phone call, every time I would see her, and that certainly isn’t the way you’re supposed to feel about someone you’re going to spend the rest of your life with.”
“I remember Sheridan saying once how glad she was that you and Gwen were getting married because you two were so in love. What changed?”
“I always thought that I loved Gwen. I don’t know, maybe it was because I was expected to. But now I know the way I felt about Gwen was never really love. I didn’t know what love really was until…”
“Is there another woman?” Luis asked.
“I never cheated on Gwen or anything like that, but there is someone else and she is amazing. Whenever she is around my heart just races.
She accepts me for who I am and never judges me. I can tell her anything and except for Sheridan I’ve never had anyone in my life that I can trust like that. I’ve never met anyone quite like her before.”
“So are you going to start seeing her now that you’ve called off the wedding?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t even told her how I feel. I’m not sure if she’s even interested in me other than as a friend.”
“Let me give you some advice Ethan. Ask her out; let her know how you feel. If you’re ever going to be happy you have to take a chance. Sheridan and I wasted a lot of time that we could have been together because we didn’t tell each other about our feelings.”
“Um, there’s one other problem though,” Ethan said nervously, “her brother doesn’t want her going out with me. If we start dating and he finds out about it he won’t be happy. He’s very protective of his little sister.”
“Listen Ethan, you and this girl have to follow your hearts. If the two of you decide you want to be together then you have to fight for it. Julian hates me and he doesn’t want Sheridan to have anything to do with me, but we love each other and we aren’t going to let him keep us apart.”
“You really think so. Thanks for the advice Luis. I think I’m going to go talk to her today. Will you tell Sheridan I came by.”
“Sure, good luck.”
Sheridan came out of the bedroom right after Ethan left. “I thought I heard Ethan out here?”
“You just missed him. He came by to tell you he called off his wedding to Gwen.”
“Did he say how she took the news?”
“He didn’t say, but you sure don’t seem surprised.”
“We already talked about it and I knew he was planning on doing it soon. Did he say anything else?”
“He was telling me about this girl he’s in love with and how her brother doesn’t like him.”
“Oh really,” Sheridan said keeping her expression neutral, “and what did you think about that?”
“I told him he should take a chance and ask her out anyway. I mean your brother hates me and we’re not letting that get in out way. They should follow their hearts, just like we are.”
“I’m so glad you feel that way about it, I just hope you never change your mind about the situation.”
“Why would I?”
“No reason,” Sheridan answered “are you ready to go, I’m starving.”
“Sure, I’ll get our coats and we can go.”
All through dinner Sam pushed his food around on his plate.
Listening to Grace go on and on with such intense interest in Charity’s day was making him sick to his stomach. She never even asked him about what happened when he stayed at the Crane Mansion with Kay. After dinner he took a shower and was sitting on the edge of the bed wrapped in a towel thinking about the kiss he’d shared with Ivy that morning when Grace walked in.
“Hey Sam, honey, I want to talk about Charity’s birthday. I think we should have a party for her,” Grace said.
“Aren’t you even going to ask me about Kay or do you even care about our daughter?”
“I’m sure Kay is just fine, but Charity has had a rough life and I think we should do something special for her birthday."
“What in the hell is the matter with you Grace? Don’t you even care about anything but Charity? One of our own children ran away from home and refuses to come back because of the way you have been acting. She thinks you don’t care about her and you only care about Charity and I’m beginning to think she’s right.
“Kay is just being selfish,” Grace said, “Charity has lost everything and been through a lot. She is the one who needs our love and attention.”
“And Kay doesn’t? She is our daughter. Do you have any idea of how much you’ve hurt her? I don’t know how I could have been so blind when it comes to you. The way you’ve treated Kay makes me sick. She’s our child and you don’t give a damn about her or her feelings.
Ever since Charity has been here you’ve changed and I can’t stand it any longer. I can’t live here with you any more. Tonight I’m going to go over to the B&B and stay in one of the rooms there and tomorrow I’ll find somewhere permanent to live.”
“You’re leaving me,” Grace shrieked, “you can’t do that. We need you. Charity will be devastated.”
Sam just shook his head in disbelief and threw some of his stuff into a bag. “I’ll go explain to the kids. Goodbye Grace.”
“I can’t believe you Luis,” Sheridan yelled as she swung the front door of the cottage open and stomped in. “Would you stop being so pig headed.”
“I am not being pig headed Sheridan. I’m right and you know it.” Luis threw his jacket on the couch.
“You are not right, in fact, you’ve never been more wrong in your life,” Sheridan hissed, “but for some reason you always think everyone should just accept what comes out of your mouth as gospel, even when you’re so obviously wrong.”
“Look Sheridan, if you’d stop being so mad for a minute and use a little common sense you’d realize that I am right about this. I don’t know why you are being so stubborn.”
Sheridan grabbed Luis and pushed him up against the wall and kissed him ravenously. She yanked his shirt over his head and sank her fingers into the newly exposed flesh.
“What were we fighting about?” Luis panted as Sheridan’s mouth devoured his neck.
“Who cares. I want you Luis.”
“What’s gotten into you Sheridan? I thought you were mad at me?”
“I am,” Sheridan said while raining kisses across his body.
“The reason I always used to go off in my room whenever we use to fight is that if I didn’t get away from you I would have thrown you down on the floor and ravaged you.” Sheridan unbuttoned Luis’ pants and pushed them to the floor. “You drive me so crazy Luis.”
“If I’d know that’s what you were thinking all those times when we were fighting I never would have let you walk away from me.” Luis reached around behind Sheridan’s back and unzipped her dress letting it slip down her body. “I hate to admit it, but you are incredibly sexy when you’re mad.”
Sheridan pushed Luis down into a chair and climbed on top of him. She fisted her hands into his hair and pulled his mouth roughly up to hers in a smoldering kiss. “The good thing about fighting with you now is that I don’t have to walk away. I want you Luis, and I intend to have you.”
“Oh god Baby, you can have whatever you want, whenever you want,” Luis moaned, “I’ll give you anything, anything you want.”
To Be Continued…