CASE
FILE: CANYON CREEK,
WYOMING
Deleted
Scene
This
is a snippet of a scene that would have followed the first time the hero
and heroine made love. I
cut this scene because I didn't think the characters were really ready to
be so frank with each other out loud. I thought there would be more
tension between them after making love for the first time in such a
volatile situation, and a little added tension would also be good for the
pace of the story, so I cut the scene. But I think the emotions conveyed
are still valid. And I did use a little of his internalization in the
scene that replaced this one. Just not the conversation.
"I
don't regret this," Hannah said softly.
Riley stirred from a half-doze at her words. He slid his hand up the curve
of her hip. "Did you expect you would?"
"I wasn't sure."
He nuzzled her ear. He hadn't been sure, either.
"Do you regret it?" She twined her fingers with his.
"I don't know." He wasn't the kind of guy who dwelled on his
emotions. He didn't try to analyze every choice he made. Second-guessing
was usually a waste of time. He wanted what he wanted. He took what was
offered. That's how it had been for him since Emily's death.
About a year after her murder, when his self-imposed isolation had begun
to make him crazy, he'd gone to Jackson for a weekend, just to be around
people who didn't know who he was or what he'd lost. It hadn't been hard
to find a woman as uninterested in happily ever after as he had been.
Trips to Jackson had become a regular thing for him, once or twice a
month. Just to take the edge off.
But tonight had been the first time since Emily's death that he'd made
love to a woman he really cared about.
He realized Hannah had gone very still. He bent and kissed her shoulder.
"I don't regret it," he said, and meant it.
She lifted his fingers to her lips and kissed each knuckle softly. "I
don't do this kind of thing. Not within a week of meeting someone, and not
when I know it's going nowhere." He could tell she was trying not to
sound as if she needed assurance.
He gave her none beyond the grazing kiss along the curve of her jaw. Until
he caught the killer, his life would continue to be a search for
justice--and vengeance. And Hannah would go home to Alabama in a couple of
days.
There was no happily ever after in store for them.
Copyright
© 2009 by Paula Graves
