blissful welcome. Toward the end, she was beginning to pick up the pace on her own, but he didn’t feel like waiting. His demons wouldn’t allow it. He came in a selfish, pissed-off, jet-propelled, slam-bang orgasm.
Seconds later, nostrils flaring, they confronted each other at close range.
“Thanks for nothing,” she spat, her face only inches away.
“Don’t worry,” he said, insolently. “The night’s still young.”
“What makes you think you’re staying the night?”
“This,” he said, shoving his hand down between them and brushing her clit with a featherlight touch. “This little baby wants more.”
She shut her eyes against the feverish rapture, calling herself every name in the book for not having any sense of propriety or self-discipline when it came to Jake Chambers. Damn him! Try as she might, she couldn’t resist; worse, she could feel tears welling in her eyes because she wanted him and didn’t want to want him this dreadfully. Great-now she was going to cry like a baby over sex!
She tried to think of something else in an effort to quell her tears.
But considering her current position, it was hard to think of anything but the fact that his cock was still inside her. She wanted it there. And she was an idiot.
He saw the tears when she opened her eyes and felt instant remorse.
“Sweetheart, I’m sorry,” he whispered, brushing away the wetness spilling down her cheeks. “You’re driving me crazy, and I’m taking it out on you.” Holding her close, he gently kissed her eyelids and nose and lips. “I’ll make it up to you. I’ll make it all go away. I promise.”
She sniffled and tried to smile and eventually slid her arms around his neck and kissed him back because she could no more subdue her screwy, fanatical feelings than he.
“Tell me you forgive me,” he murmured sometime later, tracing the pale curve of her brow with his fingertip.
She nodded and blew out a small breath. “You should go, but I don’t want you to go, and I don’t have a clue why. Maybe we could just agree this is beyond reason and leave it at that.”
“Agreed.” He would have agreed that the world was flat if she’d smile again.
“Okay.” She smiled-a weather-permitting smile, but nevertheless a smile. “Would it be my turn again, then?”
“It’s your turn all night if you wish.” He suddenly felt unburdened, swept away by an unalloyed sense of well- being and good cheer. “Consider me at your disposal.”
“Oh my God. Did you feel that?” Her vagina had done a quick little tango step at that remark about him being at her disposal.
“Yep.” How could he not with the strength of that vaginal flourish moving up his cock. “Give me a few seconds to clean up,” he said, lifting her off his lap, “and then we’ll see about sweet-talking your little pussy into an orgasm or two.”
He was a master of sweet talk as it turned out.
Although darling Livvi had a certain competence when it came to sexual address, too.
And the remainder of the night was given over to a particularly endearing and affectionate form of communication.
Twenty
The knock on the door was loud.
And early.
Liv glanced at the bedside clock. Seven. Jeez-who was knocking on her door at this time of the morning?
“Don’t answer it,” Jake mumbled, his face buried in his pillow. “They’ll go away.”
But Liv was already reaching for her robe hanging on the bedpost. “I can see a car in the drive from the window. Maybe it’s someone I know.”
Reaching the window, she surveyed the expanse of gravel fronting her backyard. “Holy shit.” Two county police cars were parked there.
“What’s up?” Jake rolled out of bed, his brain’s warning system switching on at her sharp expletive.
“The county mounties are paying a call.” She tossed her robe aside, figuring clothes were required for this encounter.
“Here?” He dropped back onto the bed, his sleep-deprived senses overriding his brain’s warning system.
“No, Siberia.” She pulled a T-shirt from her dresser drawer.
O-kaaay… that was sarcasm. Coming to his feet in a surge of conciliatory good manners, he reached for his jeans. “Let me go talk to them. I’ll tell them you’re not home. They’ll go away, and we can get back to sleep. Oh, shit.” He felt the adrenaline rush as his brain cells engaged with reality. “This is about Janie and Matt. It’s not about you. Look, stay here. See that no one comes out. I’ll handle this. In my business I deal with security types all the time.”
Pulling his T-shirt over his head, he was halfway to the door when Liv caught up and grabbed his arm. “Wait. It’ll be better if I go out there. I know the county mounties. You don’t. Also, this isn’t the big city where your expertise with security types matters.”
“Who cares whether you know these guys or not if Leo sent them? By the way, just how well do you know these guys?” His voice had taken on an edge.
“Is this where I say, ‘It’s none of your business’?” Her voice was equally sharp.
“I’d like a better answer.”
“And I’m not giving you one.”
Another knock on the door brought them back to the issue at hand.
“Sorry,” Jake said. “I’m losing it.”
“I apologize, too.” She smiled. “And I lost it a long time ago.”
“Since we’re both semirational once again, may I politely point out that I could very easily deal with these deputies. I’ll say you’re on vacation. I’m house-sitting. I’ll tell them to come back in a week.” He figured he might be better with bullshit than she, seeing how he spent his whole life dishing it out to rich customers who all expected personalized service.
“My car’s out there.”
“So? You took a plane.”
“Look, I grew up with these guys. They’re good kids.” She picked up the shorts she’d tossed on the floor last night. “And if this is about Leo, I guarantee you, his reach doesn’t have the same power out here as in New York. This is the hinterland where no one’s ever heard of him,” she added, stepping into the shorts. “So be a dear and warn Janie.” She zipped the zipper. “Then come down and see how I’m doing. ”
He hesitated for the briefest second. “Okay,” he said, clipped and low. “We’ll do it your way.”
She lifted her brows. “That sounds as though you don’t normally utter that phrase.”
“You got that right,” he muttered, still not sure he couldn’t handle the situation better.
Another round of knocking echoed through the house.
Jake’s jaw twitched, then he reached out and opened the bedroom door. “Go.”
“I told Janie to stay in her bedroom,” Roman said, his voice taut. “Matt’s still sleeping.”
“Liv thinks she might be able to talk these guys into going away,” Jake explained.
“Could be.” Roman nodded toward the stairs. “Better go before they wake up Matt. We’ll watch your back.”
“Please, don’t say that. I’ve never in my entire life needed anyone to watch my back. Okay?”
Roman and Jake exchanged glances.
“And don’t do that either,” Liv muttered. “You’re creeping me out. It’s only the diaper patrol outside. I’ve known these guys from day one of their deputy jobs. Neither is over twenty-three, and the only reason they have these cushy, do-nothing jobs is because their daddies have money and connections in the county. We have no crime around here unless you count the occasional fight that breaks out at closing time at a local bar. So trust me. I’ll
