Deadly Clementine

“I should be back tomorrow,” he replied gently.

Clementine looked up when she sensed he was watching her. Their eyes clashed, slid away, and then met again. She sighed and began to smile when Moss stepped toward her. His hands were light upon her waist. She felt them burning into the soft material of her skirt as he eased her toward him. Without speaking, Moss lowered his head and captured her lips in a kiss that stole her breath. Her heart skipped a beat the second his cool lips slid against hers. She lifted her hands and settled them against the thundering of his heart. That heady beat was wholly reassuring because its clattering thumps echoed hers and reassured her that she wasn’t the only one being shaken by what they shared.

Within seconds, the kiss hardened. A raw need neither of them could ignore surged to life and began to flourish, snaking around them both and entwining them in a mutual desire that had them both narrowing the distance between them. Somewhere off in the distance, Clementine was faintly aware of the sound of footsteps, but she didn’t bother to try to find out who made them. She didn’t care who was approaching. All that mattered was being where she was; wrapped securely in Moss’s arms.

When Moss found himself contemplating backing Clementine against the door, he lifted his head and sucked in a huge fortifying breath while he tried to gather the determination to step away from her. It was damned hard to put any distance between them when she was so alluringly dazed by what they had shared. He was shaken by it too. The desire that pummelled him was new not least because it smashed his common sense to smithereens and made him want to make changes to be with her, to experience more of Clementine, and put their relationship on a firmer footing. That would lead them up the aisle, but shockingly, Moss found that he truly didn’t care. If he contemplated it seriously, he couldn’t find out ounce of regret.

“Ah, you are back.” Cameron tried to ignore how close Clementine and Moss were standing when he pulled his horse to a stop at the garden gate. He was certain he had just interrupted an intimate moment but didn’t make an issue of it, not least because it was high time that Clementine found herself a husband, even if it was shockingly in the middle of the garden at the front of the house. If Moss was to be Clementine’s future husband then he had no objection whatsoever to them having a private moment alone together, although he made a mental note not to cut the hedge just yet.

“We have just been to Sally’s house,” Moss murmured.

Cameron froze. “Find anything?”

Moss slowly shook his head. “We cannot see what anybody could have to do in there.”

“So the killer is looking for something,” Cameron mused thoughtfully.

“I don’t know what,” Moss snorted. “They are invariably going to draw suspicion if they keep going back, but something is compelling them to return. I just have no idea what it might be.”

“Are you going to keep watch over the house?” Cameron asked.

Moss shook his head. “Right now, I have to go and speak to Billsdon. The quicker we can get his support the better because there is only so much that I can do. I am one man in a village of many. I cannot cover everywhere. I know you and the Captain will help but you are also villagers and must consider yourselves in just as much danger as everyone else. I need the magistrate’s men for this.”

The men exchanged a knowing look.

“We shall have a bed waiting for you when you get back,” Cameron assured him, more than a little relieved that the private investigator wanted to come back to the village. Moreover, that Moss hadn’t made any attempt to deny or reject Cameron’s silent question. It seemed that Moss had finally realised his Fate and was accepting it.

When Cameron slid a look at Clementine, he suspected that while she had yet to understand just how much her Fate was sealed, she was at least contemplating a future with him.

Clementine had to force herself to watch Moss leave. She stayed where she was until Moss waved them goodbye before disappearing. With a heavy sigh, she then turned to look at her father, who was studying her closely.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Cameron replied quickly before he disappeared back around the corner of the house.

“I like him, all right?” she called, following him but slowly.

“Good.”

Clementine squinted after her father but didn’t take him up on the amusement in his voice. Instead, she preferred to think about the wink Moss had given her before he had left, and the silent promise in his eyes that they would take up where they had left off when he did return. As far as Clementine was concerned, the sooner Moss came back the better, but it had nothing to do with the need to catch the murderer, and everything to do with his fulfilling every girlish fantasy she had ever had.

Moss made his way through the village to the Captain’s house and contemplated what had just happened. He had never, in all his adult life, forgotten where he was like he had just now with Clementine, but when kissing her he had completely forgotten they were in her front garden for the world to see. No woman he had ever met had had the ability to make him forget everything like Clementine, and it made him wonder how much scandal they would find themselves facing if they carried on. With her, he seemed to forget everything that was important. The world around them ceased to exist, and Clementine became the centre of his world.

“I have to get out of this village so I can think for a while,” he muttered. “I swear to God, if I stay here for too much longer, I am going to end up married and living in one of the damned houses.”

Moss shook his head and contemplated how many people had died, and how many houses now stood empty because of it. There was plenty of vacant places where he and Clementine could set up home if they chose too, but he suspected Cameron would be the one to insist they stayed at his huge abode. Not that Moss had any objection to that. It was just something he had never considered he might do.

“But then I have never stopped to consider getting married before. I like my life. I have no wish to change it.”

“Talking to yourself again, my boy?” The Captain grinned.

Moss shook his head and threw him a rueful look.

“Temptation too much, eh? To err is human,” the Captain edged.

“Why do I get the feeling that I should get on my horse and ride the Hell out of here?”

“Self-preservation. You know she has the ability to turn your life on its head.”