Chapter Twenty-One

Eric shoved his legs into a pair of jeans and yanked a T-shirt over his head. Thankfully, his raging boner had calmed enough for him to zip up his pants without doing any damage.

As he hustled down the stairs, the doorbell pealed again. Tiger’s head hung low, hair on the back of his spine raised. Until his dog knew who was on the other side of the door, he’d assume it was a bad guy.

“I know you’re in there, Eric. Open up.”

Tiger jerked his head up and wagged his tail. During her stay with him, his dog had come to like Maggie. Probably because she fed him peanut butter chip cookies behind Eric’s back.

“Cool your jets,” he shouted, then unlocked the door and opened it. His sister stood on the stoop with her fist raised and ready to pound again. “What’s up, Mags?”

Over Maggie’s shoulder, he noticed a dark SUV brake at the stop sign at the end of his street then continue on. Dark SUVs were a dime a dozen in any state, but this was a residential neighborhood, and he didn’t recognize it as belonging to any of his neighbors.

“Well, good morning to you, too.” Her face brightened, blue eyes so similar to his, twinkling. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?” Without waiting for a response, she squeezed past him then knelt beside Tiger to give the dog a hug and scratch behind his ears.

Tiger’s body wriggled with glee as he landed a barrage of licks on his sister’s face, making happy whining sounds.

Eric closed the door and crossed his arms. “When you’re done with your little lovefest, do you mind telling me what you’re doing pounding on my door at eight thirty in the morning?”

“Eight thirty is late for you.” She gave Tiger one last pat before standing. “I have news I want to share.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You could have called.”

“I suppose I could have, but this is news that should be delivered in person.” Mimicking him, she crossed her arms, daring him the same way she’d done their entire life.

“Fine.” He uncrossed his arms and led the way into the kitchen. “Want coffee?” He pulled the carafe from its base and began filling it with water.

“Please.” She strolled to the table, touching her fingers to the vase full of the flowers Tess had cut from his garden. “Since when do you bring flowers inside the house? All that color must be driving you crazy.”

Ignoring her barb, he scooped coffee into the filter then opened the refrigerator and pulled out a container of milk. When he set the carton in front of Maggie, she watched him, tapping her long fingers on the table.

The tapping stopped. “Who owns the Camry?”

“None of your business.” He retrieved two mugs and set them by the coffeemaker.

She turned to the vase of flowers and her eyes bulged so wide he thought they’d pop out of her head. “It’s a woman! I should have guessed because there’s no way my brother would put flowers on his kitchen table.” She gave him a sly grin. “I’m right, aren’t I?”

Crap. He loved his sister to tears, but gossip was her thing, and she’d always given him shit about what she referred to as his “list of women.” How to answer her questions without letting her get too far into her Gestapo-like interrogation?

The idea of her lumping Tess in with those other women didn’t sit well with him.

“Who is she?” His sister leaned forward, resting her chin in her hand, her eyes glittering with hefty doses of curiosity and amusement.

He shoved a hand through his hair then stared at the flowers. He didn’t know how to answer her question. What exactly was Tess to him? Hell if he knew.

“She’s…” He paused, listening to the gurgle of the coffeemaker as it began dripping into the carafe. “A friend.” His lover, as of last night. For now, labeling her as a friend seemed like the simplest answer. Until he could figure things out.

“A friend,” Maggie repeated, nodding subtly and twisting her lips in a way that told him she wasn’t buying his shit.

His sister got up and went into the living room. A moment later, she giggled. “Candles?” She came back into the kitchen with Tiger. When she sat down again, his dog sat beside her. “I knew I smelled something in the air, and I’m not just talking about flowers and candles. Spill it, bro. How long has this”—she hooked her fingers into quotation marks—“friend been staying here? Looks like she kind of moved in.”

“A few days.” He leaned back against the counter and re-crossed his arms. He had a feeling he was about to regret giving her a straight answer.

Maggie didn’t disappoint. Her eyes went wide again, maybe wider than before. “A few days? Seriously?” When she laughed, a bead of sweat trickled between his shoulder blades. He was beginning to understand what a perp felt like during one of his own interrogations. “You didn’t give her a key to your house, did you?”

The last question was said with a snarky tone, because she knew damn well what the significance of that one little act would mean.

When he took a deep inhale, his sister gasped. Tiger gave a quick bark.

“You did. O. M. G.” She smacked her hands on the side of her face. “This is huge. This is beyond huge. It’s…unbelievable.”

“Lay off, will ya, Mags?” He pulled a chair from the table and sat across from her. “It’s work related, and she’s only staying here a few more days until her brother gets out of the hospital.” As he said the words, his heart felt heavy. His house would be empty without her.

“Her brother? Her brother’s here, too?”

“He got himself into a jam, and I’m only helping them as a favor to Nick and Andi. You remember Andi? Tess is her best friend up in Springfield.”

“Tess,” she repeated, her expression becoming thoughtful. “What’s she like?”

The corners of his mouth lifted as he thought about how to answer that. Before he could stop himself, he was grinning like an idiot. “She’s colorful, vibrant, full of energy, drives me crazy, and—”

His sister leaned back in the chair, her expression softening.

“What?” he growled, realizing he’d stupidly said too much, and from the look on her face, Maggie was about to latch onto his words and never let him hear the end of it.

“It’s finally happened,” she whispered.

“What’s finally happened?” He so didn’t like where this was going. “Look, we’re friends. Let it go.” She snickered. “Didn’t you come here to tell me something?”

“Yes. I did.” She cleared her throat and gave him a sarcastic smile, telling him she still wasn’t buying a single ounce of what he’d just said. “There are two noteworthy items I arrived on your doorstep to impart in person.”

“Impart away.” He waved a hand in the air, urging her to continue quickly. The last thing he wanted was for this conversation to drag on and for Maggie and Tess to actually cross paths. “I have to get to the office.”

“Fine. Your investigative powers of observation must be dulled by the presence of your friend.” She held up her left hand, waggling her fingers. Only then did he catch the huge rock on her ring finger. “Tom and I are engaged.”

“You’re what?” Now it was his turn to be shocked.

“Engaged,” she repeated. “As in, planning to commit to that holy state of matrimony for the rest of our lives.”

Speechless, he stared at the enormous, glittering diamond. It wasn’t that Tom was a bad guy, not at all, but after the hell his and Maggie’s parents had put them through as children, they really had sworn never to get married or have kids.

“I know it’s a shock,” she said. “But I love him, he loves me, and I want to give it a chance. Things change. Look at you. You have a girlfriend, and you actually gave her a key. Doesn’t that tell you something?”

Another bead of sweat trickled between his shoulder blades, and yet… For the first time in his life, the phrase didn’t give him heart palpitations.

My girlfriend.

Could he really do a total one-eighty in his personal life and let someone share it with him? His sister was doing it, but that didn’t mean he could.

Images of Tess in his life, his future, sent a bolt of unease shooting up his spine. Just as quickly, those images were replaced by ones without her, and the unease he’d felt seconds ago was replaced by emptiness and a panic that had him fisting his hands on the table.

Maggie leaned in, covering one of his fists with her hand. “Think about it.”

For one long heartbeat, he did. Then reality kicked in, and his thoughts fast-forwarded to Gant, Pritchard, and nailing their asses to the wall before anyone else got hurt.

“You said there were two things.” He pulled his hand away. “What else did you come here to tell me?”

“Your perspective may not be ready for this much change, but someone else’s is.” She grinned. “Mom is divorcing Dad.”

“What?” The world as he knew it had just imploded.

“Seriously.”

He shook his head in utter disbelief. “It’s about time.”

Now they were both grinning. Neither of them had stayed in touch much with their parents. It had been too difficult and too emotional, but Maggie occasionally spoke with their mother.

“Good for her.” He nodded, although inside he worried the world as he knew it was changing for the better and leaving him behind.

Soft footsteps came from the stairs, and a moment later, Tess stood in the kitchen doorway. Tiger scrambled to his feet, shoving his snout in her hand, pushing at it until she knelt and kissed the top of his head.

“Eric, aren’t you going to offer your sister some coffee?” Without waiting for a response, she extended her hand across the table. “I’m Tess, a friend of Eric’s.”

He nearly choked on her choice of word, although he appreciated her attempt at discretion. Too bad his sister wasn’t buying any of it from Tess, either.

“I’m Maggie.” His sister smiled broadly as she shook Tess’s hand. “It’s very nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you as well.” Tess smiled back.

Eric stroked his jaw. Some kind of mystical female protocol was at work here, one that he was totally ignorant of and didn’t stand a chance in hell of understanding. Or surviving.

When Tess walked behind him, Maggie arched a blond brow. As Tess headed for the coffeepot, he smelled soap and shampoo, and her hair was slightly wet, dampening the back of her pink tank top. She opened the overhead cabinet door where he stored the mugs, then stood on her tiptoes, still unable to reach them.

He rose and placed his hand at the small of her back. “I’ve got this.” When he set the mugs on the counter and turned, his sister was grinning like she’d just found a million-dollar lottery ticket.

Ah, shit.

He’d been so flabbergasted by his sister’s news about her engagement and his parents’ divorce that he hadn’t given it a thought.

The simple, yet intimate, way he’d touched Tess… He might as well have taken out a front-page ad in the local paper that they were more than just friends. Far more.

Fuck. Me.

…

“It really was a pleasure to meet you,” Tess said to Maggie as Eric opened the front door. She’d thoroughly enjoyed meeting his sister. Her only regret was that they didn’t have more time to chat.

Tiger pranced into the vestibule, standing in the middle of them, wagging his tail. Eric’s dog might be a cop, but off duty, he was a social glutton.

Maggie grinned, reminding her so much of Eric. But where his rich blond hair was usually sticking up in spikes from continually raking his fingers through it, Maggie’s was long and shiny and pulled back in a snug ponytail.

“Same goes. Really.” She clasped Tess’s hand, shaking it more vigorously than she’d done the first time. “Let’s do lunch soon. There’s a great little pastry shop in town that has chocolate croissants stuffed with so much dark chocolate, it’ll make you cry.”

“I’d like that.” She returned Maggie’s smile with as much genuineness as she could muster.

Given that it was obvious she was sleeping with the woman’s brother, Maggie had gone out of her way not to state the obvious and to make her feel at home. She clearly adored her brother, and Tess would have liked nothing more than to have her as a friend.

If only she weren’t leaving Flemington.

“Okay, you two. I have to get to work.” Eric leaned in to brush a quick kiss on his sister’s cheek, then gently ushered her to the door.

Maggie frowned. “Party pooper.” In a childlike gesture that Tess found adorable, Eric rolled his eyes. “Bye, Tess.” Maggie waved one last time as she went down the front steps to her car.

No sooner had Eric closed the door than Tiger headed into the living room and lay down in his dog bed.

“Your sister is very sweet,” she said, about to go into the kitchen to clean up their mugs when Eric clasped her around the waist, spinning her and tugging her against him.

“She’s meddling.” He nuzzled her ear, sending riotous chills down her neck.

“She loves you.” The chills multiplied, morphing into delicious tingles. “I didn’t realize you had a family.”

He pulled back. “I wasn’t hatched from an egg. I told you I had a sister.” She giggled. “I love it when you laugh.” He resumed his nuzzling, pressing his lips to the side of her neck, dropping hot, seductive kisses on her skin as he nibbled his way to her collarbone.

I could get used to this.

Beneath the hem of his T-shirt, her hands encountered warm skin and flexing muscle. She dragged her nails across the broad expanse of his back, loving how he trembled beneath her touch.

With his face pressed against the soft upper mound of her breast, he inhaled deeply. “You showered.”

The low rumbling of his voice against her sensitive skin made her gasp. “You noticed.”

“I need to shower. How ’bout I dirty you up again first?” He swung her into his arms, eliciting another round of giggles.

“Hey, I thought you had to get to work.”

“I do.” He easily took the stairs two at a time. “I may have given Maggie the impression that my departure was imminent, but I have a couple more hours before I have to leave, and I don’t know how much time we’ll have to spend together over the next week or so.”

Week or so?

Her chest ached more than she thought possible. As much as she wanted to be in his arms every night for the next week, making love until dawn, it would never happen.

Enjoy this moment.

Because it would be the last time. Had to be the last time.

He carried her into the master bedroom—his bedroom. She’d never been in there before. Seeing it now was so…intimate.

Using his elbow, he flicked on the bathroom light then set her on her feet. The master bath colors were predominantly white, with a creamy crackle tile running up the inside of the glass-enclosed shower stall. More neutrality.

She wanted to laugh at the irony. For a man who surrounded himself with black, white, and boring, there was nothing neutral or boring about the way he made love. Sex with Eric was like being in a kaleidoscope of color, bursting with every sensual crescendo in the spectrum.

He leaned in to crank on the spray. In a fluid motion, he slid his hands beneath her tank top, lingering on her breasts before pulling the shirt over her head. Unlike the first time he’d done that, she no longer felt self-conscious and exposed. Being naked and comfortable with a man had never been so exciting.

Next came her bra, shorts, and panties. Every inch of skin he touched made her blood sizzle and left her crazy with the need to have him inside her again.

She yanked up the hem of his T-shirt, allowing him to tug it over his head while her hands roved his bare chest. Then, he kissed her, a deep, penetrating, consuming kiss that left her head spinning, and all the while he sped up the lets-get-naked process by kicking off his jeans.

Ooh. She sucked her lower lip between her teeth, admiring his high, tight ass. Apparently, he didn’t always wear underclothes.

He opened the top drawer of the vanity then rifled around in the back, eventually finding a packet of condoms. After reopening the shower door, he slapped the condom on the soap ledge then held out his hand for her while she stepped inside. She turned to close the door behind her, and when she turned back, he was watching her with eyes so dark with desire, her breath hitched. The man was more than the proverbial sex on a stick. He was perfect in every way possible and not just physically. What she felt for him was inexplicable. Complicated and so much more.

Addictive was the word that sprung to mind.

Steam swirled around them. Hot spray pounded their naked bodies. For a moment, neither moved, then in a gesture so tender it nearly broke her heart, he cupped her face with one hand.

“Tess,” was all he said, then he brushed his lips against hers, rubbing them back and forth, teasing, hinting of the incredible lovemaking to come.

She cupped his muscled buttocks, smoothing his skin with her hands, wishing—no, craving with a desire so fierce it stole the breath from her lungs—that they could remain in this shower forever, shielded from the ugliness that awaited them outside these glass walls.

If only…

He kissed her again, with a gentle passion that made her belly quiver and her womb clench with need. For him. Only him. She could live to be a hundred, and there would never be anyone else in her heart.

Bending his head, he sucked her nipple into his mouth. She sighed, part groan, part ecstasy. When he lifted his head, his eyes glittered like shards of ice.

“Stay with me,” he whispered. “When this is over, I want you to stay here. Jesse, too.”

“Oh, Eric.” Her heart threatened to burst from her chest. “I want to.” But I can’t.

She couldn’t say the words—yet knew them to be true. Her other truth: she was falling in love. It was both wonderful and the worst thing imaginable.

Is it so foolish to hope we can stay here?

Not with her and Jesse’s secret lingering out there in the dark like an insidious disease. If there was any chance of making a life here in Flemington—with Eric—the truth would have to come out. Soon, but not now. This moment was so beautiful she refused to ruin it.

Tess pressed her lips to his chest, inhaling deeply, reveling in the heady, intoxicating scent of moist, male skin. She kissed her way down his abdomen then lowered to her knees and took his long, thick erection in her hand.

She flicked out her tongue to the tip of his penis. “Sex on a stick” suddenly took on new meaning.

Sexy lollipop.

“Tess, no.” He rested his hand on her head, shaking his own as he looked down at her. “You don’t have to do this, baby.”

“I know.” She’d never given oral sex before, had never wanted to, never had the desire to take a man in her mouth until he orgasmed. She’d always thought of it as being dirty, but Eric was so beautiful. His body and his soul. “I want to make you feel as wonderful as you make me feel. Let me give you the same incredible pleasure. Okay?”

When she gave him her sexiest smile and pressed her lips to the head of his cock, his jaw clenched, and his cheek muscles flexed. “Okay, but I’m wound so tight from wanting you.”

She closed her lips around the head of his cock, sucking on it while she squeezed his buttocks, holding him in place. “Sweet Jesus,” he groaned. “I may not last sixty seconds.”

“You’d better,” she mumbled around him.

“My god.” He threw back his head and leaned one hand against the tile. “When you talk with me in your mouth, you have no idea what that feels like.”

Briefly, she disengaged from him and began stroking his balls. Their time together was fleeting. If there was something she could do to maximize his pleasure as he’d done for her, she was all in. “Tell me. I want to know.”

His chest heaved. The look he gave her was searing and fierce. “It’s like having the sweetest, hottest, wettest glove wrapped around me, squeezing my cock until I want to explode like a ballistic missile.”

His erotic words made her feel sexy and far more experienced than she actually was at this. Most importantly, it spurred her to be more adventurous and more determined than ever to make this the best oral sex Eric would ever have.

She slipped her lips around him, taking him deeper. He began thrusting gently into her mouth, his thighs quivering as he held back. Wet muscles—shoulders, biceps, pectorals—glistened and bunched. He sucked in a tight breath, watching her from heavy-lidded eyes.

Not wanting to miss a single moment of his orgasm, she locked onto his gaze, sucking him in deeper, swirling her tongue along the underside of his cock, continuing to stroke his balls until they were as hard as rocks. With his hips thrusting and his handsome face tight with need…he was the sexiest man she’d ever seen.

“I can’t hold out much longer. If you want to stop, do it now. For god’s sake, do it now.”

“Nuh-uh,” she moaned, knowing how much he liked it.

“Oh, fuck.” He froze, every muscle in his body as rigid as a board.

A second later, his warm seed jetted against the back of her mouth. His body bucked as she swallowed every drop. Wanting to extend his orgasm, she continued sucking and licking until he had nothing left to give. Finally, his body bucked one last time.

He pulled away, his chest sawing as he sank to his knees, his big body trembling as he wrapped her in his arms.

I did this. I brought this incredible, wonderful man to his knees.

“I don’t think I can stand,” he muttered then rose unsteadily to his feet, taking her with him.

He grabbed the bar of soap and slicked it between his hands. When he’d amassed a handful of suds, he stroked his hands over her breasts, squeezing them, then rubbing and massaging her back and belly and kneeling to stroke down her buttocks, thighs, and calves.

If she died right then and there, she’d go with a smile on her face. It would never be enough. She wanted more. So much more.

As if knowing precisely what she needed, he pushed two fingers inside her then swirled his tongue over and around her clit until she clung to him, thrusting her hips and gyrating against his hand.

Oh, lord. “Eric, please.” Her head fell back. “I need you. Now.” Because they wouldn’t have tomorrow.

He grabbed the condom from the ledge then tore off the wrapper and rolled it on himself. With one hand, he hitched her thigh behind his buttocks, then did the same with her other leg and thrust inside her, pushing her back against the tile.

There was no time to worry about what was to come. There’s only right now. That’s all that matters.

His powerful hips thrust again and again until the pulsing and throbbing in her core escalated and she was on the verge of screaming. Her breath came quicker, her pulse racing out of control. She was flying in the most beautiful storm of swirling emotion and sensation.

“That’s it,” he said against her mouth. “Come for me. I want to feel you come hard around me.”

Despite being under pounding water, her body burned hotter and hotter until she couldn’t decide whether it was pleasure or pain spiraling outward from her core. “Eric!” she screamed, a deep, throaty sound that echoed in the shower.

Her body convulsed as he thrust twice more before groaning, a delicious, sexy rumbling.

They breathed heavily. Their chests pressed together. Keeping her eyes closed, she felt as if she were drifting back down to earth on a fluffy white cloud.

She clung tighter to him, not wanting to let go and make that final descent. When that happened, she would have to face reality again and the worst of her truths.

If she had to leave Flemington, she’d be leaving a piece of her heart behind.