Текст книги "In a Bad Way"

Автор книги: Karin Tabke

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Текущая страница: 5 (всего у книги 23 страниц)

Chapter Nine

An hour later, Izzy sat cross-legged at the kitchen table with her laptop open and stared at her Google search of Special Agent Flynn “A for Atticus” Ryker. There were pages of references, even a Wiki page. Not because he was a fed, but because he was a Ryker, as in one of the multimillionaire Rykers of the Maryland Rykers. Oil, finance, and biotech companies were just the tip of the empire iceberg. Damn, they owned three Kentucky Derby winners! Plus a huge thoroughbred farm in Baltimore County. That was some serious money.

Though it wasn’t all sunshine and unicorns for Flynn.

She frowned. His mother, Diana Margaret Marie Forsythe, of the Boston Forsythes, was dead. Fifteen years ago. Heart attack. Sadness filled Izzy’s heart. If Flynn loved his mother half as much as Izzy loved her mother, she knew it wasn’t something he was over.

According to the many articles that popped up in her search, Malcolm Stanley Jerome Ryker III, the Ryker patriarch, was a player. Figured. Rich, affluent men thought they were entitled to stick their dicks wherever the hell they wanted. Shades of her own sperm donor. Men like Mr. Ryker and the senator wielded their power with no regard for those they hurt. Looked like Flynn’s brother Malcolm IV was cut from the same cloth as the old man. Flynn had a sister, too.  Genevieve. She’d married into another prominent Maryland family. What the hell was Flynn doing working for the government when he could be a captain of industry?

As she contemplated that, there was a knock on her back door. Before she could get up to answer it, it opened and Flynn strode in with two bulging grocery bags in his arms and two hanging off his forearms. “You should never leave your door unlocked, Pink. You expose yourself to unsavory types.”

Openmouthed, she watched him kick the door closed with his heel and proceed to set the bags down on her kitchen counter. He turned and cocked that brow at her.

“I thought you had somewhere to be an hour ago?”

“I—um, it canceled.” Setting her hands on her hips, she cocked a brow back at him. “I thought you said you didn’t push a woman, Flynn?”

“I don’t. But since you’re in denial it doesn’t count. I’m thinking it’s because you’re in need of sustenance.” He turned to unload the grocery bags. As he did, he asked, “So did you dig up all the dirt on me and my family?”

Guilty heat flared in her cheeks. “What are you talking about?”

He suppressed a smile, but pointed to the open laptop. “If I check your search history, I won’t find my name anywhere on it?”

“No¸” she said slamming the laptop closed. “Don’t flatter yourself. You became history the minute you walked out that door. I don’t know why you’re back here except to harass me.”

“I have no compassion in my heart for your request to disengage, Pink. Besides, I really didn’t want to eat alone, so I brought Denny’s to you.”

Her stomach growled and her mood softened. The last and only person to make sure she ate a good meal was her mother. “I don’t cook.”

He turned and flashed a blinding smile. “I do.”

“I ate.”

“What, air and water?”

“I had coffee. I’m not a breakfast eater.”

“Consider this brunch. Now tell me what you dug up on me.”

“Nothing.”

“C’mon Pink,” he cajoled as he opened the cupboard to the left of her sink and found the only mixing bowl she possessed.  Then he opened a drawer and took out several utensils. Easily he continued to work his way around her kitchen. “We both know you’ve been pouty since I left.”

“Have not.”

He looked over his shoulder and smiled again. Damn he was good looking. “Have too.”

He cracked a half a dozen eggs into the bowl and added some spices and green stuff and milk and whipped them up. Setting the bowl aside, he fired up the griddle she didn’t know they had and placed several large sausage patties on it along with thick-cut bacon. Her mouth watered. Like a magician, he opened a white bag and pulled out the biggest, yummiest-looking chocolate croissant she had ever seen. Her favorite.  Her mother used to make them for her and Alex when they were little, along with homemade hot chocolate. They’d pour the chocolate into their teacups, nibble on the buttery croissants, and speak with French accents. They’d been tres chic!

Flynn set it on a plate and placed it in front of her. “Tell me you don’t want it.”

Oh she wanted it all right and him for dessert. “I don’t want it.”

He reached to take it away, but she grabbed his hand, staying it. “That doesn’t mean I won’t eat it.”

He nodded. “That’s my girl.”

His girl? Warmth infused her. Commit her now, because she was losing it.

As he cooked breakfast, she tried not to inhale the buttery chocolate decadence, but to eat it slowly and savor it. The aroma of sausage, bacon, and the herb-flavored omelet he was cooking was doing crazy things to her stomach. Chewing the last bit of croissant, she sat back and watched him move like a five-star chef in her kitchen.

“Where did you learn to cook?” she asked.

“Francois, our family chef. He couldn’t cook fast enough for me, so he taught me how to cook for myself.”

“Where did you go to college?”

“Why are you asking me questions you already know the answer to?”

“Fine, I snooped. Arrest me.”

“I still might.”

Ignoring his comment, she said, “So you went to Columbia business?”

“Yup.”

“Why did you decide not to go into the family business?”

He turned with two heaping plates of food. Setting one down in front of her and the other across from her, he poured them each a fresh cup of coffee before he sat down. “I did, actually, for a few years. I was bored. A college friend tapped me for the FBI and I figured why the hell not? The rest is history.”

“Do you miss the money?”

He chewed and shook his head. “Nothing to miss.”

Her brows crunched. He explained. “My mother left me all of her money. There’s a lot of it.”

“So you don’t have to work?”

“Yes I have to work. I love what I do. If I didn’t work I’d get into trouble and that’s not something I want to do.”

“Trouble how?”

“Boredom breeds trouble. I don’t like to be bored and I don’t like to get into trouble. I keep my nose clean and work my ass off for my government salary.”

“But you know if you lost your job you’d be okay.”

“Okay how? Financially? Money isn’t everything, Pink.”

“Says the man who has as much as God.”

He nodded. “There’s truth to that.”

“How do you know I didn’t let you back in to finagle a few bucks out of you?”

His brows rose before settling. “We both know how your last attempt at extortion turned out.” He set his fork down on his plate. “You want to try again, go right ahead.”

“I don’t want your money.”

 “I’ll give you whatever you need, just tell me.”

“I don’t need it. I’m doing fine.”

“Stripping?”

“I cocktail mostly.”

“Last night you stripped.”

She nodded.  “Last night I stripped.”

“How is it that both of Senator Chastain’s daughters are strippers?”

“I’m sure you did your own Google search while you were out shopping.”

“I made a few calls, did a quick search, but nothing popped up on you, only your sister. Who, by the way, according the federal, local, and state databases, isn’t officially missing.”

“You checked?”

“I told you I would help you.”

“I didn’t think daddy dearest would chance letting word get out that his only child was dancing at the Surf’s Up club, but I thought he would go quietly to the authorities and have them look for her when she disappeared. Or at the very least hire a PI or something. But for the almost three months I’ve been at the Surf’s Up, there has been no inquiry that I know of about her.  Except me.”

“So they were estranged?”

“I don’t know.  I didn’t keep in touch.”

“I’m intrigued that a senator’s daughter who hasn’t surfaced in over three months isn’t missing, according to her family. I’ll have more to go on when I get back to my office.”

 “Would you personally ask my father where she is? And when he says he doesn’t know, ask him how long he hasn’t known?”

“I’ll dig deeper into it, Pink. I promise.”

“I’d really appreciate that.”

Flynn finished his plate and set it aside. She’d barely eaten three bites. “I went to a lot of trouble fixing that for you. Eat up or I won’t give you your new phone.”

“What new phone?” He bought her a phone? Why?

He stood and dug through one of the bags and removed a small white box with an apple on it. He set it on the table. It was a brand new iPhone. She’d wanted one for forever, but couldn’t afford it.  Her little Samsung was four years old.

He slid the box in front of her. “I used your SIM card to activate it. You still have your  number and all of your data except texts and the video.”

She pushed the box across the table toward him. “I can’t accept this. I’ll keep my old phone, it works fine.”

Standing, he said, “Excuse me for a sec.” Then strode from the kitchen. A minute later Flynn returned with her cell phone, then proceeded to drop it on the floor. It broke into several pieces.

“Hey!”

As she stood to pick up the pieces, he crushed the main piece under his heel, destroying it. “Oops, I’m sorry I broke your phone.” He walked back to the table and sat down and pushed the box toward her. “Please accept my apology and this replacement phone and the two year replacement plan that goes with it.”

A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. She wanted to be angry, but he just made it so hard to be. “That was uncalled for.”

“You’re stubborn, Pink. Lighten up and let me help you out, okay?”

“Why?”

He grinned. “Because I want to have sex with you again. Really bad.”

His words had the same effect as if she’d been shocked. Her nipples tightened while warmth pooled at her core. She didn’t know what to say.

“Emperor penguins bring shiny rocks to the females they want to mate with,” Flynn said, then pointed to the new phone. “That’s my shiny rock. I hope you like it.”

Her cheeks hurt from smiling so wide.

“I know you want the same thing.” He pulled his chair around so that their knees touched.  “I think we need to come up with some terms for our lust. What do you think?”

Izzy could hardly breathe. She wanted to jump in his lap and get down to business.

He rubbed his big warm hands across her knees and said quietly, “Sex aside, I want to help you find your sister.”

“Why?” she rasped, as emotion swelled in her chest. No one had ever offered to help her.

“Because your boy Boris is dangerous. He’s armpit deep in criminal activity. You’re vulnerable and inexperienced. If your sister has been hurt or worse, you’ll end up the same way.”  He squeezed her knees. “I don’t want that to happen to you.”

“Was I that good a fuck?”

His eyes narrowed. “Knock it off.”  He stood and grabbed their plates and put them in the sink. “You were a great fuck, Pink, probably the best fuck of my life. Give yourself, and me, a little more credit than that.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I don’t want to stop seeing you.”

“I don’t trust easy, Special Agent Ryker. Especially when it comes to rich men who think they have the right to do whoever and whatever the hell they want.”

“Don’t judge me because of my last name. And don’t judge me because of your father’s deeds.”

“Then don’t judge me because of what I do for a living or the deeds of past strippers.”

His jaw dropped. Snapping it shut, he nodded. “Touché, Pink, touché.”

She smiled, not a happy one, a sad one.

Flynn moved back across the tiny kitchen to her. Reaching out, he touched her chin and raised it so that they saw eye to eye. “I understand your reluctance, Pink. My old man liked fast women when he was still married to my mom. I’m not like him, so don’t put me there.”

Izzy nodded, trying really hard not to sabotage whatever this was or could become.

“Okay, so here’s how I’m putting this together: You want to have sex with me, I want to have sex with you, and you want to help me find my sister because you’re afraid something bad will happen to me and if you help me find her we’ll be seeing a lot of each other and that will give you the opportunity for lots of sex?”

He stood smiling down at her. “Pretty much.”

“Okay, so what happens if we find my sister, and you don’t want to have sex with me anymore, but I still want to have sex with you?”

Silently, he contemplated her question. “How about if we give ourselves a week to see how the sex goes? At the end of the week we evaluate. If we’re both still interested in the other, then we give it another week and keep going until one of us is ready to move on?”

“What if at the end of the week we don’t find my sister and one of us doesn’t want to have sex with the other anymore? Will you still help me find her?”

“Yes.”

“One more thing.”

“Okay.”

“No pity fucks.”

He blinked as she elaborated. “I don’t want you to continue touching me because you don’t have the stones to tell me you’re over it. You touch me because you can’t stop thinking about how awesome it feels when you do. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

His features tightened, but he nodded. “The same goes for you.”

“One last bit of housekeeping.” She exhaled and said, “I’m on birth control pills, and I have no diseases. I didn’t like the feel of the condom. I’m going to assume you’re clean, otherwise you would not have had sex again without a condom?”

“Clean as a whistle.”

“Then if it’s okay with you, I’d rather you didn’t wear a condom. But I will concede the point if you insist.”

“I loved the feel of me inside of you without the raincoat.” He grinned.  “Another first with you.”

“Last but not least, while we’re in this arrangement, we remain exclusive.”

“You’re awfully demanding.”

“It’s a deal breaker, Flynn.”

“For me too. No one but me gets inside you.”

Izzy let out a long exhale. That was easy. She smiled, suddenly excited to begin. She extended her hand. “Then we have a deal.”

He took her hand into his and squeezed it. Then he swooped her up and turned with her in his arms and set her on the edge of the counter. Before she could protest, he yanked her panties down her thighs to her feet and tossed them to the floor. He unzipped his pants and pulled her toward his raging hard-on, but stopped as the thick width of his head brushed along her sultry seam. She was ready for him. Had been since she had been in the shower with him. It had never occurred to her that she’d enjoy going down on a man like she had with Flynn. How could she not? He was beautiful, and he loved what she’d done to him.

“I need to be inside you right now, Pink,” he said urgently. “I’ve been thinking of you like this all morning.”

“Me, too,” she whispered, afraid she was dreaming and if she spoke too loudly she’d wake up to find out it was all a fantasy.

She closed her eyes as the sweet pain of him entering her took her breath away.

“Flynn,” she breathed, as he filled her to capacity.

“You are so wet,” he said hoarsely, grasping her ass cheeks and holding her against his hips.  Despite being tender down there, her body welcomed him with a hot steamy hello, the urge to grind against him too strong to resist.

“No, baby, don’t, or I’m going to come.”

She loved it that she drove him to the edge so quickly. “You’re going to have to work on your self-control, Special Agent Ryker.”

“Stop being so damn sexy and I might be able to help you out there.”

Cupping the back of her head with his big hand, he pulled it back until she arched into him. His stormy blue eyes raged with hot desire. Her lips parted as she watched his gaze dip. She licked them and he groaned. “I loved watching you suck my dick this morning.”

“I loved putting my lips on you,” she admitted. “The way you tasted. Like the ocean.” She moved against him. “I want to do it again. Soon.”

He nipped at her bottom lip and sucked it. The sensation of his touch shot straight to her core and she clenched around his pulsing shaft. “Jesus, you wreck me,” he groaned.

He pushed deeper into her. Izzy gasped. “That feels so good,” she purred, locking her legs around his waist.

He nipped her bottom lip again while still not taking his blistering gaze from her. “When I’m done with you, you won’t be able to walk for a week.” He pulled from her, then thrust deeply.

A long breath of air escaped her lungs.

“You like it deep like that, Pink?”

“Yes.”

He pumped into her again.

“Deeper.”

“Greedy girl.”

Flynn pulled her ass harder against him as he slammed into her, one deep thrust after another. Her vision blurred as her body drowned in sensory overload. The feel of his thick penis inside of her, pounding her flesh, his pelvis bone hitting her sensitive clit with each plunge, wound her up so tight Izzy thought she was going to peel apart at the seams.

“Flynn,” she cried. “Don’t stop, please don’t stop.”

“Never gonna stop.” His lips crashed down on hers and as they did, she came undone.  Her cries of pleasure were silenced by his kiss as her body shattered into what felt like a million tiny pieces.

He didn’t stop. He drove in and out of her, holding her against his chest, his lips pressed to hers. “Oh, I’m—” Another orgasm slammed through her. Her body went limp as he drove home and in a deep hot burst, he came inside of her.

Slowly, their bodies came to a sated stop. Breathing heavily, they clung to the other, their breaths mingling. He’d wrecked her. Her heart thudded against his. He’d come back to her, fed her, offered to help her find Alex. And the sex. Holy moly.

His lips trailed her damp neck, as he continued to support her noodle-limp body.

“Do all your girlfriends come twice like that?” she asked.

“I don’t have girlfriends.”

 “Oh, yeah, I forgot, you just fuck.”

His words set her back in her corner. He’d been upfront about his relationship status. That they were exclusive sexual partners for the time being was probably as far as he went. If he did do the relationship thing, she could never expect to be his girlfriend. A rich law-enforcement guy like him? He’d pick a society girl with a blue-blood pedigree like her sister. Not the bastard sister. Izzy licked her dry lips and just went with the here and now.

“Do all the women you just fuck come twice like that?”

“I don’t want to talk about women I’ve fucked.”  He thrust into her.  “I want to talk about how I’m going to fuck you after lunch.”

She laughed, loving his insatiable lust for her. “But we just ate breakfast.”

“Yeah, lunch is right around the corner.” He smoothed her damp hair from her forehead.  “How would you like to be fucked after lunch?”

Tightening her legs around his waist, she smiled. “How would you like me to fuck you after lunch?”

He grinned. “Any which way you care to.”

“I want to do very bad things to you.”

“I’m going to let you.”

Chapter Ten

Standing with his slacks around his thighs, Flynn had just erupted like a volcano and he was still semihard. He couldn’t get enough of her. He wanted skin on skin with Pink. He pulled her T-shirt up over her head and when her bountiful tits popped into view, he groaned. They were exceptional. More than a handful, smooth and silky soft. Her nipples were a sweet succulent pink and when they were stiff and begging for attention like they were now, he couldn’t resist.

“You’re a handful in more than one way,” he said, cupping the full swells in his hands.

Mischief sparked in her eyes.  “That’s why God gave you two hands.”

Smiling, Flynn shook his head in silent awe.  She was a spitfire, this one. She gave as good as she got. And he just wanted to keep giving her more.

“You like me touching you, don’t you?”

“I love it,” she breathed, pressing against his hands.

Lowering his head, Flynn brushed his lips across the swell of her breasts, gently caressing each peak with the pads of his thumbs. Her back bowed, giving him greater access to her offering. The vision of her prancing half naked around a room full of slobbering guys flashed before him. Possessive anger followed. He knew it was irrational. He’d known this girl less than twenty-four hours and he had no right to impose restrictions. Yet that was all he wanted to do. Tell her to quit her job and strip for his eyes only. “Do you like taking your clothes off in front of strange men?”

Her body stiffened. “Don’t ruin this, Flynn.”

He caught a petulant nipple in his mouth and tongued it as he gently sucked it. He couldn’t get over how soft she was. Smooth and creamy. Even now she smelled like a fresh stick of bubble gum. He moaned as his dick thickened. She was wet from his ejaculate, but still so damn tight it felt like her pussy was fisting him.

He released her nipple with a soft pop. “I’m not trying to ruin this; I just want to understand why you do what you do. I think there must be something exciting about knowing that every man in the place would chop off a ball just to touch you.” He caught the other nipple in his mouth and sucked it deeply into his mouth. Her body tensed in a whole different way.  Her fingers dug into his scalp before running down his neck to his back. When he released her nipple, he stroked it with his tongue. It beaded tighter. “Is it a control thing?”

“Flynn,” she said, pushing away from him. “You’re seriously harshing my mellow.”

He didn’t pull her back. He wanted to know why she did it, because it really bugged him that she did.

“It shouldn’t matter to you why I do it.”

“Because we’re just fuck buddies?”

She flinched at his words.

“I’m sorry, that was uncalled for.” But he wasn’t sorry. He was pissed. Irrationally so.

She pushed back. Extending her arms behind her, she rested against the counter and looked closely at him. “We’ve been consenting fuck buddies for less than an hour and already we’re having our first fight, while you’re still in me.”

Flynn stepped back, slipping out of her. She gasped and he cursed, not liking the coolness of the air as opposed to her hot wetness. He pulled up his pants and buttoned them. “You can quit working there now.”

Picking her T-shirt up from the counter, Pink slid it over her head and grabbed a handful of paper towels. Pressing them between her legs, she shook her head. “I can’t quit. The money’s good and I have a sister to find.”

“I told you I’d help you. In case you forgot, I’m a Special Agent. I get shit done.”

She looked up at him in disbelief. “First of all, while I will happily take you up on your offer to help, and I’m sure the FBI has lots of cool state of the art toys to help you, you can’t do what I do. I’m in there, in the environment. Ears to ground and rubbing whiskers. I’ve been careful and patient. It paid off last night when Andre commissioned the video. He knows something and Boris knows everything.” She smiled and hopped off the counter and tossed the wet paper towels into the trashcan. “As hot as you are, Special Agent Ryker, you don’t have the kind of tits it takes to get the information I need.”

“Boris is not unknown to us.”

“Good, then we shouldn’t have any problem finding Alex. Until we do, Flynn, I’m going to strap on a bikini every night and work what God gave me until I find her.”

He opened his mouth, ready to tell her he was calling off their sexual arrangement. That he wouldn’t have any kind of intimate relationship with a woman who flashed her tits to strange men for a goddamn living! But he snapped his mouth shut. Because at the moment, not only was his lust factor in overdrive, so was his protective nature. She might be good at her job, but she was in danger every minute of every hour she continued to have any type of association with the Surf’s Up. Whether she liked it or not, he was in for as long as it took to keep her safe. Damn if he wasn’t going to find a way to make her quit.

Flynn moved away from the touchy subject and said, “We need to strategize how you’re going to handle the video issue when Andre demands it.”

On cue, the muffled sound of a phone ringing in the kitchen disrupted the tension. They both looked at the iPhone box. She hurried to it and opened it. He’d charged it at the store while he was shopping.

“Hello?” she answered. Wide-eyed, she looked up at him. “Oh, hi, Andre.”

“Tell him to hold on,” Flynn mouthed.

“Hold on, Andre, I have to pee.”

She hit the mute button and set the phone down on the table and followed Flynn into the small living room. “He’s calling about the video,” Flynn said. “When do you work next?”

“Thursday night.”

“That gives us five days to come up with something. Tell him you have it and will bring it then. If he insists on coming for it now, tell him you’re not home and the guy you spent the night with is a little possessive.”

“Okay.”

He followed close behind her. When she picked up the phone, her hands were trembling.  She acted like a toughie, but she was just a scared little girl. A chunk of the mammoth wall he’d erected around his entire self tumbled to the ground. Damn if this pink-haired little girl didn’t have a hold of a piece of him. He took her hand into his and squeezed it. “You can do this,” he said softly.

Unmuting the phone, she put it to her ear and said, “If you pinched some of my tips from last night, Andre, I’m going to tell all the girls that you jerk off when they’re giving private lap dances.”

Flynn choked back a laugh.

Andre’s response wasn’t clear, but the tone and volume were crystal clear.

“Yeah, well, then I’ll tell Boris how you use his bar money for your own private lap dances.” A raft of Russian cursing spewed from the phone. The giant was angry. “Oh shut it, Andre. Why are you calling me so early in the day?" She winked at Flynn. He watched amazed. Maybe he’d underestimated her.

“Yes, I have it—no you can’t come get it! I’m not home. You might as well know I’m not going to give it to you, Andre. I don’t trust you to give it to Boris. You’ll probably charge for it. Oh shut it. I’m doing you a solid, Andre! Call Boris and tell him I have a juicy tape of a lily-white FBI agent doing some bad stuff.  If he wants it, he’s going to have to pay big time for it.”

There was more cussing.

“And Andre? I’m back to cocktailing.” She looked up at Flynn and gave him a, “There are you happy?” look.

He grinned. He was very happy. He’d be happier if she never went back to Surf’s Up. But this was progress. One step at a time.

“Whoa, wait a minute, you crazy Cossack, I don’t do off-site parties, why’d you say I’d do it?” She shook her head.

Flynn stiffened. No fucking way.

“Oh. It’s at Boris’s private residence?” She looked to Flynn, and nodded, like it was a good thing.

Definitely not a good thing. Vehemently, he shook his head. She exasperated. “I’ll think about it, but Boris’s party aside, Andre, it’s cocktail or I walk.”

Please walk.

Pink smiled. “There, that’s a good Russian. I’ll see you Thursday at nine-ish.” She hit end and looked up at Flynn. “What video am I going to give Boris that will satisfy him?”

“We’re going to have to buy a little time. Do you belong to a gym?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, when you go in Thursday, tell Andre your cell phone was stolen at the gym, but since it’s password protected and you put a huge reward up at the gym for it, you think you’ll get it back.”

“He’s going to be pissed.”

“Then tell him you’re seeing me again this Friday and you’ll get a better one.”

“What if he doesn’t buy it?”

Flynn weighed the pros and cons. Would Andre slap her around? Most likely not, since he wouldn’t chance marking her. Pink brought in big tips and if Boris wanted her for a private dance party, Andre would make damn sure she was at her best. He needed her healthy. So long as that held true, she would be okay. Except if she thought for one minute she was going to Boris’s residence for a private party, she had another thing coming. He’d drug her and tie her up if he had to.

“He’s not going to have much of a choice.” Flynn pulled her into his arms. He didn’t want the day with her to end. “What plans do you have for the rest of the day?”

Pink shrugged, but smiled mischievously. “I know what I’d like to do, but I think my girl parts need a little rest.”

Impulsively, Flynn said, “I’ve been jonesing for some board time. Want to take a ride over to Half Moon Bay with me for the day?”

“You surf?”

“I try to.”

She smiled and said, “I have the perfect bikini.”

His lips drew tight. “I bet you do. It’s going to be cold over there. Bring it, though, and you can dance for me.”

“Depends on how you behave.”

“I can’t make any promises. We’ll need to stop by my place on the way out.”

She smiled brightly, stood on her toes and grabbed his face, and brought his mouth down to hers. She kissed him hard and quick. “Give me fifteen minutes.”

He stood there rooted to the floor, his lips throbbing. Damn it.

“Pack enough for overnight,” he called after her. He was going off the deep end, headfirst.

She poked her head back around the kitchen doorway.  “That’s pretty presumptuous of you, Slick.”

He grinned and curbed the impulse to snatch her up into his arms and maul her. “You know you want to.”

“That’s beside the point!” She disappeared.

Twenty minutes later she emerged freshly showered, with a pink canvas duffle bag, dressed in a short little denim skirt, white, tit-hugging, midriff-baring T-shirt that, despite the fact that she was wearing a bra, accentuated more than it covered. The cork wedge shoes she wore brought her up to his chin.  The only makeup she wore was mascara and pink lip gloss. He was spellbound.

She snapped her fingers under his nose. “Earth to Slick.”

Shaking his head, Flynn groaned and asked, “Could you change into a burlap sack, please?”

Throwing her head back, she laughed and slapped him good-naturedly on the chest.  “This is all for you, big guy. I want your eyes on me and only me.”

He grabbed her hand and pulled her against him. “Trust me, you could be wearing that sack and you’d have my undivided attention.”

Still smiling, she leaned into him and pursed her pouty lips. “Then you’d better be on your toes and make sure someone doesn’t sweep me off my feet on your watch.”

His face tightened. “I don’t share.”

She kissed his nose. “Neither do I.”