The Parks Empire: Secrets, Lies and Loves

“Here’s the closet in case you need to hang anything.” Cade opened a door to show her a space about eighteen inches wide with a shelf over a clothes rod. He put her case on the floor between the bed and the closet. “We usually walk down to the beach first thing. Do you feel up to joining us or would you rather rest?”

“I’d like to go, too,” Sara said.

“Bring a jacket. It might be windy.”

After he left, Sara removed her pajamas and toiletry case, laid the pj’s on the bed and took the case to the bathroom to freshen up. Upstairs she could hear Stacy calling to her father, but couldn’t make out the words.

When she returned to the main area, she stood at the window and looked toward the ocean. It was more gray than blue. The horizon blended into a barely discernible line separating sea and sky. For some reason, the lovely vista seemed vast and lonely.

She smiled slightly, knowing the feeling was within herself. A nagging sense of deception hung over her spirits.

Stacy clambered down the stairs and dashed toward the door. “Come on, let’s beat Daddy to the shore.”

Sara followed her student out of the cottage and along a path that led down a rocky slope into a ravine cut by the periodic flow of a creek. From there, they walked out on the sandy shore cluttered with rocks and boulders of various sizes. A few pieces of driftwood littered the beach.

Cade caught up with them when they paused to remove their shoes and socks. He grinned and added his to the boulder where they left their things.

“We were here first, Daddy,” Stacy cried and raced into the shallow waves that crested on the beach.

Sara was in the water past her ankles before the sensation of pain registered in her brain. “Oh, it’s cold,” she complained, hopping from one foot to the other.

“Your feet will be numb in a minute,” Cade assured her.

“Right,” Sara agreed. “As soon as they turn to ice.”

“Look, sea lions,” Stacy called, pointing to a large rock in the water. “You can tell ’cause they have ears.”

“Sea lions still have visible external ears,” Cade explained. “Seals don’t. That’s how you tell them apart.”

The animals snoozed in the setting sun. One scratched lazily with a flipper. From down the coast, Sara could hear a foghorn sounding a warning off a rocky promontory.

“Each foghorn has its own signal,” Cade told her. “By timing the blasts and the silence between, sailors can tell which lighthouse they’re passing, even if it’s foggy. The same is true of the flashes of light.”

“How interesting,” Sara said, throwing off her qualms about being there. “I didn’t know that.”

Behind them, the excited barking of two dogs drew their attention. The animals rushed down the ravine.

“Teddy! Rufus!” Stacy clapped her hands and called the two pets to her. The dogs raced around the girl, jumping, barking and licking her face in delight. One dog had a rusty red coat.

“That’s Rufus,” Cade told her. “Teddy is the brown-and-white one. Stace thought he looked like her teddy bear.”

Teddy had thick fur with splotches of brown and white, and patches around each eye. Sara thought he looked more like a panda.

“I told her she should have named him Panda,” Cade said, echoing her impression.

Their eyes met, and they both smiled.

Warmth flowed over her, reminding her of the heat that flared between them when they had kissed. She stared at his mouth and wanted that fire again.

“Keep that up and I’ll be forced to kiss you,” he murmured, touching her lower lip with a fingertip.

“Come on,” Stacy yelled, running along the breaking waves with the two dogs circling around her. “Let’s explore the cave. This way.”

Flustered, Sara hurried after the girl. Behind her, she heard Cade’s chuckle and knew that he knew she was running from him, from herself, from the passion that rose too readily between them.

After exploring a shallow cave farther down the line of cliffs, they returned to the ravine to climb the path back to the cottage.

“I’m hungry,” Stacy announced upon their return.

Inside the cabin, they made sandwiches from supplies that Cade had brought, ate at a round pine table, then continued their exploration of the ranch.

“We’ll go for a ride in the morning,” Cade promised his daughter when five horses rushed to the fence and stuck their heads over the top of the barbed wire.

Sara slipped her jacket on as the sun dipped into the ocean and out of sight.

“It gets cold along the coast at night,” Cade commented as they ambled back to the house.

Sara nodded. “I read something about the tides along the coast. The current sweeps out of the north, flowing from Alaska, then southward down the continent’s edge. I assume that’s why it cools down so much at night.”

“Right. The current churns up colder water from the depths of the sea, which produces an afternoon breeze off the ocean and brings in the coastal fog.”

“I like to walk in the fog,” Stacy told them. “It’s creepy. You could fall off the cliff.”

“Which is why we don’t run when we can’t see more than a few feet in front of our noses,” Cade reminded the child.

She laughed and ran ahead with the two dogs.

Cade shook his head as he lightly clasped Sara’s hand. “Tell me, teacher, how do you keep up with that kind of energy from twenty kids?”

“With great difficulty,” Sara said.

They again smiled at each other. It was a moment to savor, she thought. A time out of time, separate from all the troubles that had been or were to come.

“Let’s make brownies for a snack,” Stacy suggested when they were back in the cottage.

“Good idea,” Cade said.

“Can we have a fire?” the girl wanted to know.

“After we get the brownies in the oven.”

They ate in front of the fire, then played Go Fish until it was time for Stacy to go to bed. Cade escorted the child upstairs while Sara sat on the sofa, relaxing in pleasant idleness.

The evening seemed like something in a play—the perfect family holiday…before the aliens landed or the body was found or some other tragedy befell the players in the scene.

She gazed into the fire as a shiver rushed over her. Someone was walking over her grave, as her mother would have said.

Hearing Cade’s steps on the stairs, she carefully wiped all emotion from her face and waited, heart pounding. She wasn’t sure what she was waiting for.

Chapter Six

Sara knew, when her eyes met Cade’s, that she’d lied to herself about her reasons for coming to his ranch. It wasn’t for fact-finding, but for herself and the hunger that refused to be suppressed any longer.

In the soft lamplight, his eyes were dark and mysterious. Alarm sizzled through her body, warning her against being foolish, but even that couldn’t overcome the intense need that surged like a lava flow in her blood.

He sat on the sofa beside her and kicked off his shoes, then propped his feet on the rustic coffee table that looked as if it had been made from saplings with the bark whittled away. The latest fishing and hunting magazines were stacked on it. Older editions were piled in a bookcase along a side wall. A small television resided on a shelf.

The cabin had a welcoming feel. It seemed comforting to her. A warm, safe place, the way a home should be.

But it wasn’t her home, she reminded herself.

“We don’t get cable here,” he said. “And I haven’t bothered with a satellite dish. Stacy and I keep movies and video games on hand. You ever played Banjo-Kazooie?”

Sara shook her head.

“We’ll have to try it. Tomorrow, maybe.”

When she glanced his way, the expression in his eyes told her movies and games weren’t uppermost in his mind. A sensation of anticipation, so strong it was painful, rolled over her.

He moved close, crowding her, but she didn’t mind. “I didn’t bring you here for this,” he said in a low tone, “but now that you’re here, I can’t stop thinking about it. About us. About making love with you.”

Sara sighed. “I know. I’ve argued with myself all week, going over the reasons I shouldn’t come up here and why it’s impossible for us to become involved.”

“Why?” he asked, leaning close and sliding his fingers into her hair. “Why is it impossible?”

Why? Let me count the ways… “I’m Stacy’s teacher, for one thing.”

He nodded. “She’s the most important element in this triangle. I don’t want her hurt by anything that happens between us. I think we can guard against that.”

“We hardly know each other.”

“Ah, but that’s not true. We’ve known each other all our lives.”

His quick smile was almost her undoing, but she held to her argument. “Not really. A year in the same kindergarten class doesn’t qualify as a lifelong friendship.”

“It counts for something,” he murmured huskily. “If I remember correctly, the second week of school you announced that we were going to be married when we grew up. Since then, when the world has seemed a dark and uncaring place, I’ve remembered that somewhere out there was a beautiful woman who loved me.”

His smile was so wonderful as he teased her, she could have cried. He caressed her scalp with his fingertips, making little round motions that soothed and excited her at the same time.

With a sigh, partly of defeat, partly of anticipation, she turned her face to his. Their lips were mere inches apart as they gazed into each other’s eyes.

“You remember because you associate me with happier times in your life.” She cradled his handsome face in her hands, returning the intensity of his stare with that of her own. “It’s the same with me. But Cade, that was long ago. So many years have passed. So many things have happened to each of us.” She dropped her hands to his chest.

“Yes, but we have this moment. The fact that we’ve found each other again must mean something.”

His eyes were sexy and compelling while he waited patiently for her agreement or rejection. Unlike her former fiancé, Cade didn’t insist on having things his way. He treated her as an equal, one who had opinions and needs as strong as his. She could have loved him for that reason alone.

No, not love, she quickly corrected. She wasn’t in love with anyone. But she was terribly attracted to this man.

Sex for enjoyment only, without love and commitment? a hesitant part of her questioned.

“You’re doing an awful lot of thinking,” he murmured, a smile playing across his lips.

She managed a laugh. “I know. My sister calls me Plato when I take a long time to decide something. My mother said we should ask ourselves if, a year from now, we would regret whatever we’d done. She said to let that be our guide.”

“A wise woman.”

“I think she learned from experience,” Sara told him, a strum of returning sadness running through her like the plaintive moan of a bass viol, low and mournful.

She stared into his eyes, then closed hers tightly, wanting his touch with everything in her.

When he kissed her, she forgot the qualms about sharing passion while planning his father’s downfall. Raking her fingers into his hair, she responded to the kiss by pulling him closer.

Cade felt as if he held a magical goddess who could change her form at will, becoming earth or air or water as well as flame. Whatever she was, her essence burned brightly through him. It tugged him ever closer to the pit of self-deception he’d experienced once before, when he’d thought fascination and desire were everlasting love.

When she slipped her hands under his shirt so that she was touching his flesh, he knew he would sell his soul to whatever devil wanted it, if he could but have her to himself for this one night.

He planted kiss after kiss over her mouth, her eyes, her throat. When he bit lightly, she gasped, then gave him a playful pinch on his chest.

Going back to her mouth, he tasted the honey inside, then parried the delectable thrusts of her tongue as they staged a mock battle, each knowing there would be no losers in this skirmish.

Sara soon found kisses weren’t enough. She kicked off her slippers and swung her legs up and around so they were resting across his lap. He pressed against her so that she half reclined in the cozy corner.

With his chest touching hers, she arched upward while exploring the muscles of his back. His skin was warm and smooth, inviting her to roam further. Their breaths mingled intimately as the embrace grew ever deeper.

“This isn’t going to be enough,” he said in a low growl, deserting her lips to nibble on her ear. “I need to touch you…all over.”

“I need it, too,” she whispered, frustrated with the clothing that interfered with sensuous stroking.

He lifted his head. “Your bedroom is close. It has a lock on the door.”

She could have refused. She could have weighed the situation and wisely refrained from giving in to temptation. It hardly crossed her mind. “Let’s go there.”

He stood and pulled her to her feet, then carried her on the short trip to the guest room. Standing her by the bed, he turned on the lamp, then closed and locked the door.

When he returned to her, her knees went weak as he took in all of her, from her head to her toes, his gaze rampant with hunger. With casual movements, he began to undress. She did the same. He finished first and helped her.

“Your hands are cold,” he said, catching them between his and pressing her palms to his chest. “You can warm them on me. I’m burning up.”

She nodded. “So am I. Inside, I feel as if a thousand fires are burning. Here.” She touched his lips. “Here.” She touched each of his nipples with a fingertip. “Here.” She slid her hands down, past his waist, his abdomen. “Here.”

Cade caught his breath as she touched him intimately. His body reacted eagerly, and he felt sixteen again with all of life still before him, his hopes high and certain.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve felt like this,” he told her, skimming the covers aside and gently pressing her onto the bed. Lying beside her, their bodies in full contact, he wondered if life had ever been this good or felt so right.

She touched his face so tenderly, he felt humbled by it and by the passion he felt for this woman, his childhood friend and long-lost sweetheart. When he smiled, she did, too. It did something to his heart, causing a strange ache inside that unpredictable organ.

Sara had never been so consumed by physical need, so driven to explore and excite another with every caress. A spark of wildness ignited her blood, and she writhed and moaned in his embrace, loving his masculine touch, the sensation of every part of her touching every part of him.

“Come to me,” she demanded after hours, days, eons had passed in hot, desperate kisses.

He caught her wandering hands and held them captive against the mattress. “I will,” he promised. “Give me a minute.”

This time he was prepared, she saw, as he removed a packet from his jeans and affixed the condom in place. She held her arms up to him when he turned back to her.

“I didn’t plan this far in advance,” he murmured, joining her again, “but I wasn’t sure I could stop again if things got heated between us.”

She nodded in understanding. “This time I don’t want to stop.”

He would have loved her for her honesty if nothing else. But there was more between them than the moment. A lifetime, he thought. A lifetime of waiting for her.

He moved over her, stroked her intimately, then slowly entered. Her quick inhalation told him how much pleasure she experienced as they merged into one.

“Yes,” she whispered. “Cade, yes!”

Everything became centered on the two of them after that…sweet words, sweet kisses, then bliss…sweet, sweet bliss…

Feeling her climax, Cade let go the reins on his own passion and took his fill of her, thrusting again and again until he was spent, and even then he didn’t want to stop, didn’t want it to end. He felt her tense beneath him, then heard her little gasps of ecstasy as she responded to him yet again.

Pleasure, so deep and primitive it rocked his soul, shot through him. He wanted to shout in triumph as a sense of primal possession rolled over him.

After they regained their breath somewhat, he turned them to the side, still holding her close.

Sara laid an arm across him and rested her head on the pillow beside his. Outside the wind off the ocean blew around the cabin, but inside they were snug and safe.

“I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything like that,” he said, kissing along her temple.

He turned the lamp off and pulled the covers over their cooling bodies. She was glad. The dark hid the tears that slipped unbidden from her closed eyes.

“See how easy it is,” Stacy shouted, looking back over her shoulder at the two adults who trailed behind her.

Sara nodded without loosening her grip on the reins or the saddle horn. Beside her, Cade chuckled.

“Try to relax,” he encouraged. “You’re hinged in the middle. Let the movement come from there.”

“That’s easy for you to say, but your muscles haven’t frozen in position.” She flashed him a quick smile as he laughed, then went back to concentrating on her horse’s movements while she hoped the mare wouldn’t make any sudden decision to run or something. “I may not be able to walk when I get off.”

“The lighthouse isn’t far,” he said.

The Point Reyes lighthouse was their destination this morning. Stacy had knocked on her door at seven o’clock and told her they needed to get on their way in order to beat the crowd.

Sara had been startled out of a deep sleep and relieved to discover she was alone in bed. She’d slept so soundly she had no idea when Cade had left her side.

A funny, warm thrill ran over her as she thought of the night and the passion. The closeness afterward had been a surprise, an unexpected gift….

“Stop thinking like that.” Cade’s deep, quiet tone broke into her wayward musing.

He reached out and stroked her cheek as heat rose to her face. His smile was solemn even though a flame burned in his eyes.

She lifted her chin and told him, “I was wondering about the lighthouse and how lonely it must have been for the lightkeeper to live there day in and day out for years and years.”

“Often a wife and family lived there, too.”

During the ride, she questioned him about the ranch and how he’d come by it. He told her he’d used a legacy from his maternal grandparents as a down payment.

“Against my father’s advice,” he added ruefully. “He thought it was a waste of money, but Stace and I needed a place to stretch our legs.”

“And to have the horses and dogs,” Stacy had chimed in, circling back to them, then racing ahead again. She was a fearless rider and good at it.

Sara nudged the conversation to the jewelry business. By listening and asking a few questions, she learned the family wealth had come through his mother and her mother before that.

“Did you know my father and yours were in a partnership when we were little?” he asked.

A jolt of guilt hit her at the question. “I vaguely recall they were planning something.”

“According to my father, they wanted to go after the really wealthy crowd—the crowned heads of Europe, billionaires and those types.”

“That sounds rather ambitious. Did they have the assets for it?”

He frowned as he considered. “I suppose together they could have swung it. They were planning to make the most expensive necklace in the world out of matched, flawless diamonds. Unfortunately things didn’t work out.”

“My father drowned. I guess that ruined the plan.”

She heard the bitter undertone, but couldn’t take the words back. If her father had invested all his money in the diamonds and Walter Parks had kept them upon Jeremy’s death, that would explain where her family’s wealth had gone.

The mare tossed its head as if catching her agitation. Cade rubbed the animal’s neck, which calmed it down.

“Aboard a yacht that belonged to my grandfather originally,” Cade continued her thought. “I’m sorry for that, young Sara.”

He spoke with such tenderness and compassion that the anger melted, leaving her feeling wounded and raw with guilt for wanting revenge.

Nodding, she urged the mare to a faster gait as Stacy waved impatiently for the two laggards to hurry. A few minutes later, they tied their mounts to a low branch on a scraggly cedar and walked to the crest of the hill.

From there the full vista of the sea spread before them like a painting. Seagulls wheeled overhead. Far away loomed the darker silhouettes of islands, barely visible on the horizon. A young couple walked down a long flight of steps toward the lighthouse on a promontory.

A park ranger stood beside a low building to her right. He smiled and spoke to them. A sign declared the area to be the Point Reyes National Seashore.

“Let’s go down,” Cade suggested. “Stace, hold the railing and don’t run.”

Sara held on, too. The stairs were steep and narrow. She noticed resting places at intervals along the side. “It’s a long way down,” she said over her shoulder to Cade.

“Three hundred steps. Just wait until we start back up.” His smile felt as warm as the sun that caressed her shoulders as they descended.

They, along with the couple, explored the well-kept lighthouse from top to bottom. Stacy decided she wanted to live there when she grew up and turn the light on and off for the ships at sea.

By the time they returned to the crest—all three hundred steps—Sara was ready for a rest. They admired the colorful flowers of the lupine plants in the area and the orange mossy lichens on the rocks before mounting and riding back to the cottage along the cliff overlooking the beach.

They spotted the ranger setting up road signs in a parking area a mile from the lighthouse area.

“When the parking lot is full up here,” Cade informed Sara, “he’ll stop traffic down there until someone leaves, then the next in line can come up.”

“I had no idea it would be that busy,” she told him. “It seemed so isolated when we arrived.”

“City dwellers like to get out on weekends. I don’t blame them. If I didn’t have the ranch to go to, I think I’d go stir crazy or something.”

His eyes went dark for a second, then he smiled at her, which generated a ripple of electricity throughout her body.

For the rest of the day, they ate and played games and napped. In late afternoon, they helped the farmer and his two sons and two hired hands with the milking.

Stacy proved quite adept at washing the cows’ teats in an iodine solution before the animals went into the milking parlor. Sara was conscious of four hooves near her head as she bent under the rounded bellies and followed the girl’s instructions. The cows were on a platform three feet higher than where she stood, which conveniently brought the necessary parts close to hand.

Behind her, Cade chuckled each time she gave him a mock fearful glance as she did the chore.

“Good job,” Stacy told her, obviously thinking her teacher needed some encouragement.

Cade suppressed a chortle as one sassy cow swung her tail and slapped Sara upside the head, startling her and making her slosh the cup of antiseptic solution on the concrete.

“You’ll pay for that,” she assured him as she refilled the cup and dipped each fat teat in the liquid before wiping it down with a soapy cloth.

“This,” he assured her, “will give you a deeper appreciation for farmers next time you’re at the grocery.”

When the cow whacked her again, Sara handed the washcloth to him. “You need to increase your own appreciation.”

He stepped up and circled her with his arms, then expertly performed the task. “This is the queen cow,” he said, looking over her shoulder, his mouth close to her ear. “She has two or three ladies-in-waiting who come in first to make sure it’s okay. They always enter in the same order.”