Once they were back inside, she retrieved her phone. Virginia was no longer in the kitchen, and Lola was grateful Dylan had lingered. She plugged the charger into an outlet to revive her phone and immediately began scrolling through the missed text messages. There were the concerned ones from her family, and again, she regretted making them worry. Then there were a bunch from her girlfriends, fishing for details on the hunk they’d seen her kissing in the video. She was relieved not to see Jill’s number among them.
Lola swiped the screen to retrieve her voice mail messages and bit her lip. This time there was a message from Jill. Lola put the phone on Speaker. Dylan had worked hard to clear her name yesterday, as if he’d had as much vested in this opportunity as she had. It seemed right that he hear any update right along with her.
Unfortunately, the talent agent had said exactly what Lola had feared. The producers at America Live! had canceled her guest host stint on Monday.
“They were diplomatic about it, of course,” Jill had said testily. “Their executive producer said she thought it best to postpone your appearance for a while, as in indefinitely.” Jill’s long, put-upon sigh sounded from the tiny speaker, filling the cheery kitchen with its disapproval. “You couldn’t even go twenty-four hours without landing yourself in the middle of another calamity.”
The talent agent mentioned calling in some favors at the network to try to get her scheduled for another slot on the program. “But if I do that, I want you where I can keep an eye on you 24/7.” Her voice was heavy with reproach.
Lola knew Jill was frustrated with her. Still, she didn’t appreciate her tone. And as with her brother earlier, Lola had no intention of trying to explain her actions.
She was done defending herself.
Jill ended the message with the same admonishment Lola had heard for what seemed her entire life. “Give me a call when you get this message. By then maybe I’ll have come up with a strategy to fix your mess.”
Fix her mess...
Lola glanced at Dylan. He didn’t speak, but the frown on his face mirrored how she felt. She took the phone off Speaker and touched the screen to activate the callback function. Seconds later, Jill was ranting in her ear about blown opportunities and Lola being a magnet for trouble. Her agent hadn’t even taken a breath to say hello or inquire how Lola was coping after yesterday’s events.
“So what do you have to say for yourself now?”
A beat passed. One Lola would have once rushed to fill with explanations and a plea for understanding.
“Nothing,” Lola said. “You’re fired.”
Ending the call, she met Dylan’s gaze. A smile spread over his full lips. He held up his fist, and she promptly bumped it with her own.
“Good job,” he said.
And Lola found that although she didn’t need his approval to know she’d done the right thing, she liked having him in her corner.
“Does this mean you’re free this weekend?” He lifted a brow.
“I have a list of appointments in New York to cancel.” She began ticking them off on her fingers, including letting “Pablo” know he was free to enjoy his weekend. “Otherwise...”
In one swift movement, Dylan hauled her into his arms, and Lola gasped to catch her breath. He took full advantage of the opportunity her open mouth presented, and kissed her.
Lola’s fingers clung to his broad shoulders as his tongue stroked hers, doing things to her mouth she longed for it to do to her entire body—over and over again. However, Dylan’s kiss did more than stir her libido, more than make her desire him over any man. His taste, his clean masculine scent, the delicious feel of being in his strong embrace made her feel the same way their first kiss had, as if she’d been waiting for this her entire life.
When they finally came up for air, his dark brown eyes blazed into hers. “Do you remember how we planned to celebrate your victory in court? Well, before my uncle killed the mood.”
Lola tapped her forefinger against his broad chest. “I spent the majority of last night regretting not going home with you.”
“Well, there’s an easy way to remedy that,” he said.
“And does this remedy include you stripping?” Lola lifted a brow, feeling her panties dampen at the prospect.
“Definitely.” The planes of his face softened as the corner of his mouth lifted. “But I won’t dance.” His deep voice lowered an octave. “No matter how hard you spank me.”
Lola slid her hand down and pinched his firm ass. “We’ll see.”
Dylan nuzzled her neck and she giggled.
“Hey, you two can save your kinky spanking fetish for the hospital waiting room. This isn’t that kind of establishment.”
They turned to find Virginia standing in the archway to the formal dining room. She peered around the kitchen.
“Did that bougie family of yours hit the road?”
Lola barely stifled a laugh. “Cole and Ethan headed back to Nashville a little while ago.”
“Thank goodness. I thought I’d have to put up with that bossy brother of yours overnight.” Virginia strode into her kitchen, visibly relieved. “If what I saw of him is any indication, I don’t know how his poor wife puts up with him.”
Lola thought of her brother and Sage, and this time she couldn’t hold back her laughter. “Believe me, he and his wife are two of a kind,” she assured the older woman.
Virginia glanced at her watch and then at her son. “Don’t you have a patrol or something to get to?”
“I did a circuit around town and checked in at the station earlier.” Dylan looked down at Lola, still wrapped in his embrace, as he continued to answer his mother’s question. “But I do have two Little League games to umpire today, one this morning and another this afternoon. Maybe you can stop by the ballpark later?”
“Nope. She’s busy today.” Virginia answered for her. “So say goodbye, lover boy, because Lola and I have things to do.”
“We do?” This was the first Lola had heard of it.
Once Dylan was out the door, Virginia surveyed her from head to toe and then tapped her biceps as if she were testing it. “So a scrawny thing like you was able to lift Wilson and drag him to your car all by yourself, huh?”
Chapter 12
Lola’s brother-in-law had been right, Dylan thought that evening.
“Your nose is wide-open,” he mumbled.
There was no other explanation.
After a scorcher of a day spent in the park umpiring two games, and then making his evening checks around town, the only thing on his mind should be diving into the cool, chlorinated waters of his backyard pool. Instead, thoughts of Lola consumed him as he drove home. Just as they had all day.
He couldn’t wait to see her again.
Dylan had cleared his slate for the evening. He’d already checked in at the station, and then directed the county sheriff’s department to handle any calls tonight. Now all that was left for him to do was shower, change clothes and then pick up Lola at his mom’s. He’d planned to make dinner for her this evening. Green salad, and if the predicted rain held off, steaks on the grill. However, Dylan didn’t rule out the possibility of her unearthing a packet of protein powder from her purse.
Like so many things about Lola, images of her and that huge pink purse she lugged around made him smile. In fact, Dylan thought he’d exercised his smile muscles more in the last twenty-four hours than he had in years.
He slowed the truck as he came upon his mother’s house, and briefly debated whether to give in to his baser instinct. A part of him that wanted to kick in the door, throw Lola over his shoulder caveman-style and carry her to his truck.
Dylan vetoed the idea. The reality was anyone kicking in Virginia Cooper’s front door would land himself on the wrong end of her shotgun. Also, a whiff of his sh
irt convinced him it would be better all around if he drove around the corner to his house for a shower, and then returned for Lola.
It was dusk when he parked in the carport attached to his ranch-style home. Dylan stuck his key in the side door leading into the house and froze. The concrete stones and sacks of concrete mix he’d stacked near the door yesterday morning were gone. They’d been here this morning when he’d left the house.
“What the...”
Then he heard the sound of splashing water coming from the backyard. Not only were the supplies for his mother’s fire pit missing, someone was in his pool.
Back in Chicago, Dylan would have automatically reached for his service revolver before going inside his house to check things out. But this was Cooper’s Place.
Instead, he slid a hand down his face and exhaled, as he summoned the patience that usually came naturally for him. Some teens on the block had probably moved the supplies as a prank, he reasoned. Now they were sneaking a dip in his pool after a blistering hot day.
He’d had a six-foot privacy fence erected around the backyard the day after the in-ground pool was installed. Still, the wall of pine was designed for solitude, not security. Dylan entered his house. Not bothering to turn on any lights, he stalked to the sliding glass doors leading to his backyard. Whoever had taken the liberty of trespassing was about to find out pool time was over, now.
After flinging open the door, Dylan charged across the stone patio. He felt a muscle tic along his jawline as he stood at the edge of the dimly lit pool watching the shadowy form slicing through the water near its bottom.
A svelte form that, as he continued to stare, revealed itself to be both female and very familiar.
“Lola.” Dylan uttered the name just as her head popped up to the surface. The tension lodged between his shoulders receded, replaced by tension of an entirely different nature below his waist.
She blinked in surprise at the sight of him. Then that magnetic smile Dylan imagined sold millions of lipsticks to women desperate to achieve the same effect spread over her lips. It lit up her face, his backyard and his life.
Lola swam to the edge of the pool and folded her arms on the ledge near his feet. Water droplets clung to her heart-shaped face, shimmering like diamonds against her luminous skin. Her dark hair fell in wet waves down her back as she looked up at him.
“After working me like a dog all day, your mother offered me the use of your pool,” she said by way of explanation.
Dylan smiled, thinking of the hours of labor his mother put into her flower garden. Like her kitchen, it was her pride and joy. She must have recruited Lola to help her with it, he thought.
“Mom can be a bit of a fanatic about her garden,” he said. “Sorry you got drafted into pulling weeds all day.”
“Garden?” Lola huffed. “You familiar with a program called Granny’s Old House?”
Dylan’s mind flashed to the items missing from the carport. “Are you saying you and my mom moved those supplies from my carport to her house?” Those concrete stones were heavy and that sack of mix weighed at least forty pounds. No way the two of them had done it. At least, not on their own.
“I moved them,” Lola said. “Ginny supervised.”
“Ginny?” Dylan gave his head a quick shake as if he hadn’t heard her right. To his knowledge, no one, not even his dad, had ever called Virginia Cooper Ginny.
“She wasn’t big on the nickname,” Lola said, as if she’d read his mind. “But if I can spend all day laboring in the hot sun constructing her a backyard fire pit, I can most certainly call her Ginny.”
“Y-you built that fire pit?” Dylan stammered, looking down at her in the water. He was no sexist, but he did have trouble reconciling the idea of his elderly mom and a woman who at most weighed a hundred and twenty pounds doing a job that even for him would have been backbreaking work.
“I did,” she said proudly. “And the Granny who hosts that home-improvement show is full of it.” Lola chuckled. “No way that job was ‘as easy as arranging a vase of flowers’.”
Dylan crouched down and smoothed the back of his hand down the side of Lola’s face. Her wet skin felt like fine silk against his touch. “As with everything I’ve seen of you so far, Lola Gray, I’m impressed.”
“Then you don’t mind me using your pool?” She captured him with her gaze. Now Dylan was her prisoner, and he knew she could use anything she wanted of his, including him, for as long as she could stand it.
“Depends.” He leaned lower and peered into the water. “Is that a red bikini you’re wearing?”
Lola kissed him, and Dylan nearly lost his balance as his mouth melded with hers. Or was it his mind? Before he could decide or move to deepen the kiss, she abruptly broke it off and pushed off the pool’s ledge. Dylan watched her disappear under the water, and when she reemerged a few seconds later her breasts were bare and her bikini top dangled from her outstretched hand.
He licked his lips at the sight of her pert, perfect breasts, feeling his cock grow harder than those concrete stones she’d hefted earlier.
“Actually, I’m only wearing half of a red bikini.” She flung the top toward him, and Dylan caught the scrap of red in one large hand.
“You told me when we met that trouble was your middle name,” he said. “Now I’m convinced you were right.”
“Want to know what else I was right about?” The water rippled as her hands slid downward.
“What’s that?” he asked.
She shimmied out of the bikini bottom and threw it in his direction. “I knew you’d melt the panties right off me.”
Standing, Dylan snatched the miniscule garment from midair and tossed it over his shoulder. “Saves me the trouble of tearing them off your beautiful body.” His voice lowered to a growl he barely recognized. “With my teeth.”
Thunder rumbled in the distance as Dylan watched her swim to the pool’s edge. He followed her gaze as it fell below his waist, where his arousal tented his increasingly uncomfortable pants.
“Well, damn.” She looked up at his face briefly, before returning her attention to the real trouble her nakedness had stirred up. “Now it’s my turn to be impressed.”
His stiff cock twitched as if it was acknowledging the compliment. Dylan kicked off his shoes and unbuttoned his shirt. “So are you coming out of there, or do I have to come in and get you?”
“Come and get it,” she demanded.
And Dylan didn’t have to be told twice.
* * *
“Yes-s-s!”
Pinned between Dylan’s solid body and a wall of glass, Lola found her hiss of pleasure filling the close confines of the shower. Her hands clutched the water-slicked skin of his wide shoulders and her open thighs wrapped around his waist as he buried himself inside her.
The evening skies had opened up seconds after Dylan dived into the pool. Still, not even the sudden downpour could cool the heated moment when their naked bodies made contact for the very first time.
It had taken a crack of lightning striking dangerously close to the pool to pull them apart, and then Dylan had scooped her up in his muscled arms and carried her into the house. Dripping wet, he’d carried her through to his bedroom, continuing past the king-size bed into the bath. Only then did he set her on her feet, but only long enough to pull her inside the shower with him under the warm spray.
And now he thrust inside her with a force that both rocked Lola’s world and incited the fear they’d shatter the glass walls surrounding them. If the high notes she hit as she kept pace with him stroke for stroke didn’t do it first.
Dylan eased off his unrelenting pace. His big body stilled, and he leaned in until his forehead rested against hers. Steam rose and the water rained down on them, dripping from the planes and angles of his face onto hers. Although the thrusts had slo
wed to a stop, his thick cock pulsed inside her, needy and insistent.
“You okay?” she asked.
“No,” he rasped. “I’m supposed to be taking this slow and easy, savoring every touch, every kiss, every movement. I want to make our time together something neither of us can forget for a very long time.”
With her legs still wrapped firmly around his waist, Lola lifted his chin with her fingertip until their gazes met. “Do you see me complaining?”
He appeared to think about it a moment, and then the corner of his sexy mouth lifted into a half smile. “No. I didn’t.”
Lola tightened her inner walls around his deeply embedded cock. “Does it feel like I don’t like it?”
“God, no.” Dylan’s eyes slammed shut, and she could see him struggle for control.
“Slow and easy has its place, but I like it bumpy.” Supported by both him and the wall, Lola slid her free hand down his broad back, past her legs around his waist, and pinched his fine ass. “Don’t worry about me, Chief. I can handle the ride.”
Chapter 13
Dylan rolled over and looked at Lola, who’d just collapsed onto the other side of his bed with a satisfied sigh.
“Thought you could handle a bumpy ride?” He crooked his elbow and rested his head in the palm of his hand. Dawn had leaked through the narrow slats of the window blinds, illuminating the room in soft light. He watched the rise and fall of Lola’s breasts with his own sense of satisfaction as she caught her breath.
“Oh, my gawd, that was good,” she managed to sigh between pants.
“I heard.” Dylan felt the corner of his mouth lift. “In fact, I think everyone on my street heard you.”
“Oh, no.” Lola grabbed the sheet and snatched it over her head. She pulled it back just enough to reveal her face. Her teeth studied her bottom lip, which was already puffy from a night of his nonstop kisses. “Was I that loud?”
Heated Moments Page 13
