Love Plus One ('G-Man Series')

by ANDREA SMITH

  “I take it Taz is back.”

  “Yes, Mom, he is. I’m spending the night over there tonight, as a matter-of-fact.”

  “Well, I hope you’re using protection, Lindsey. I’m not just talking about birth control either. I worry about you catching some STD you’ll have for the rest of your life.”

  She was really getting on my nerves. She didn’t seem like my mother anymore. I realized she was ill and nervous; carrying twins that might not come to term, but why in the hell was she being so judgmental with me?

  “Mom, do you need anything else?”

  “No, Lindsey, I’ve had enough.”

  I left Bryce with her and went to the living room and switched on the television. I wasn’t sure how much longer Taz and Slate were going to be.

  I snuggled up on the sofa and had just dozed off when I felt Taz’s hands brushing my hair.

  “Ready, baby girl?”

  I pulled myself up, grabbing my jacket.”

  “Oh yes,” I replied, shrugging it on. “Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER 38

  (Taz)

  Lindsey fell asleep in my truck on the way to my place. She had better rest now; she wasn’t going to be getting much later. Hell, just kissing her earlier had left me with a hard-on that I’m sure Slate hadn’t missed when I joined him.

  I gazed over at her face as she slept. Lindsey was beautiful and cute, innocent and sexy, sweet and a smart-ass. That was what fascinated me so much about her. She was multi-dimensional, yet not complicated.

  I felt bad that I had purposely not called her while I was gone. I had ample opportunity to call her more than I had. I guess I was trying to prove to myself that I wasn’t pussy-whipped (like Slate) or that she wasn’t under my skin. Clearly, I was in denial, because I was and she was.

  I pulled my truck up to the curb.

  “Come on, sweetie,” I said, leaning over and kissing her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled. I loved her smile. It was one of those smiles that included her eyes.

  Once inside, I helped her off with her jacket.

  “Why don’t you go crawl into my bed, baby girl? I’m wall-to-wall stink here, so I’m going to grab a shower. I’ll be there in a few.”

  “Okay, Taz,” she answered, standing on her tiptoes to kiss me sweetly. “Don’t keep me waiting long.”

  She had no worries there.

  I jumped into the hot shower, lathering up and washing the grime of the day off in record time. With nothing but a towel wrapped around my hips, I headed to the bedroom. There she was, curled up in her sexy, silky underwear, sleeping soundly.

  There was no way I was going to wake her up. I had an angel in my bed. I dropped the towel and climbed under the covers, my arm reaching out to pull her against me.

  I fell asleep wrapped around her. I never slept better than when Lindsey was in my arms.

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  When I awoke, the sun was streaming in through the slats of the blinds. I felt Lindsey stir against me. I was fairly certain she had felt my morning wood poking into her backside.

  I nuzzled my face into her hair, softly kissing the nape of her neck. I felt her shiver against me.

  My hands found her breasts, gently massaging and teasing the nipples with my fingertips. She wriggled back against me, my hardness now very evident.

  She turned from her side onto her back, and I straddled her, bending down to kiss her face, the tip of her nose, her chin and then her lips.

  My fingers lowered to the sweetness between her legs; she was wet already. Lindsey and I generally enjoyed a fair amount of foreplay, but this morning, both of us needed something different.

  My knee nudged her thighs apart and she looked up at me.

  “We need a condom still, remember?”

  “I need to feel you,” I replied, lowering myself into her.

  In one, quick thrust, I buried myself into her. She moaned and wrapped her legs around my hips, pulling me deeper if that was even possible.

  I rose up, balancing my weight on my arms that were placed on either side of her. My hips swiveled as I backed in and out of her, thrusting myself into her warm sweetness again and again.

  Her soft moans were music to my ears. I had never felt the satisfaction I felt in pleasuring Lindsey with any other chick. For whatever reason, she mattered to me and her pleasure seemed more important than mine.

  “Fuck me harder, Taz,” she moaned against my lips, her back arching upward as I slammed in to her.

  Our rhythm increased, and like clockwork, we came together, spiraling into the pleasurable abyss of release.

  Afterwards, she rested her head on my chest as my fingers stroked her face and hair.

  “I really missed you, Taz.”

  “I missed you too, baby girl.”

  “Really?”

  I lifted her chin so that she was looking at me. My eyes studied hers.

  “Why do you doubt that?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” she shrugged. “I didn’t hear much from you. I figured it was out of sight, out of mind.”

  “Yeah,” I sighed, “I know I need to get with the program, babe. I’m new to this boyfriend stuff.”

  “That’s okay,” she said, smiling impishly at me. “You’ll learn.”

  Lindsey and I spent another hour in bed, making up for our lost foreplay. Afterwards, we showered together. I cooked breakfast for her and she cleaned up the kitchen afterwards.

  I had questioned her during breakfast as to whether she had heard from Kyzer lately. She said she had not.

  It was odd that he had slipped beneath the radar just around the time we had made the bust in Philly. I made a note to check his whereabouts on the GPS. I hadn’t thought to do that since Lindsey had moved back home. I hadn’t felt the need.

  The bust in Philly had gone down beautifully. Some major players were popped, and the district agents in Philly were taking over with the federal prosecutor to see if plea bargains were an option for names of others, higher up.

  Unfortunately, Calvin had “lawyered-up” immediately. That had actually surprised both Slate and I since he was relatively new at criminal activities and fairly small-time.

  I figured he had watched a lot of television and knew to clam up and ask for a lawyer.

  Now that he was dead, we had no means of getting a plea deal with him, meaning we didn’t know the identity of the dirty CBP agent that was clearing the illegal substance coming in with the green coffee beans.

  Slate had ordered U.S. Customs to release the details on every manifest coming into the Port of Baltimore with cargo coded as “coffee beans” for the past three months, plus those coming in for the next two weeks. He was hoping to find a match.

  I don’t think he knew just how much coffee is imported into the U.S., not to mention that “green” coffee beans aren’t assigned a separate Harmonized Tariff Code than any other type of coffee bean.

  We had been swamped with copies of commercial invoices and import declarations to sort through, recording information as to the shipper and consignee or importer of record.

  We scanned all the docs, including those shipments currently on the water, and uploaded them to Kim at headquarters for analysis. This was her expertise. She could pull, scrub and analyze data better than anyone I had ever known. She was also a great hacker, but that was just a sideline usually requested by me.

  Lindsey interrupted my thoughts as I was checking my email on my laptop.

  “You aren’t going to be working all day, are you?”

  “Slate asked me to hang tight until he gets back from Deep Meadows prison. He wants to fill me in on what he finds out from Davey, and then compare it to what our lab came up with on their interpretation of that formula that was in the metal lockbox.”

  “Hmmph,” she mumbled, “so I guess you are working all day.”

  “It comes with the territory, Lindsey. Sorry babe.”

  “Well, I had plans to meet Darcy for lunch later this afternoon
. I was fully willing to blow her off for you, though.”

  I pulled her onto my lap, giving her wet, sloppy kisses on her neck.

  “Why don’t you go ahead and meet her? You guys don’t see each other that much anymore. I’ll take care of business here and wait for Slate to fill me in when he gets back. How about I make dinner for us tonight here?”

  “Well, I do have to eat, I guess. Is there a sleep-over involved?”

  “As long as you don’t have to be anywhere else,” I said. “Clear it with the folks.”

  She gave me a hard smack on my shoulder.

  “My mom knows about us and she isn’t pleased.”

  I could tell she regretted saying it the minute it left her lips.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “It isn’t that she doesn’t like you, Taz.”

  “Well, I’m glad to see it’s nothing personal then.”

  “I mean it’s more about the age and level of experience difference.”

  “She thinks I’m a whore dog.”

  Lindsey got a sheepish look on her face and looked up at me. “She’s worried you’ll give me some lifelong STD.”

  “Jesus Christ,” I bellowed, “you’re the only chick I’ve ever rode bareback on, does she know that?”

  “No, she doesn’t know that and it’s really none of her business,” she replied, irritated.

  “I mean, Christ, if she knew how much more pussy Slate tagged than me, yet I’m labeled as the man-whore.”

  “Oh, stop,” she said, getting up from my lap. “Let’s not let her cause friction between us. I shouldn’t have said anything but in case she seems different with you, I thought you should know why.”

  I shook my head, smacking her rear end. “Come on, I better get you home.”

  “You know, Taz, Mom is going through some stuff now with her health, being worried about Grandma, and now me so she hasn’t really been herself. She’s been kind of salty with me, especially. I’m sure in time she will get back to normal.”

  “Yeah, and I will be happy when that day comes. Trust me; Slate is no picnic to be around these days since he hasn’t been getting pussy.”

  “You did not just say that to me.” She was giving me the evil eye, her arms crossed in front of her.

  “Sorry, Linds,” I said, grabbing her for a hug. “I keep forgetting that’s your mom I’m referring to there.”

  I dropped her off at the house. There was a car in the driveway. Lindsey said it belong to Donna, the home healthcare nurse that was helping out.

  “So what time do you want me back over?”

  “How does seven sound?”

  “That works for me,” she said. “I’ll see you then.”

  “Oh and Lindsey,” I called after her, “bring your appetite.”

  “I’ll bring both of them,” she answered, giving me her sweet, sexy smile.

  I watched her ass the whole way to the door. Damn, she was hot.

  CHAPTER 39

  I phoned Darcy when I got upstairs to my room. Donna had everything under control and was scheduled to stay until Slate returned.

  I had peaked in on Mom and she was napping, as was Bryce.

  I stripped off my clothes and waited for Darcy to answer.

  “Hey Linds, still wanna meet?”

  “Uh, yeah. That’s why I’m calling because obviously you weren’t going to.”

  “Sorry, I fell back asleep. Darin and I had quite a fuck-a-thon last night,” she bragged.

  “That’s nice,” I replied, rolling my eyes.

  “You just rolled your fucking eyes.”

  “How did you know that?” I asked, laughing.

  “Your voice tone. Whenever you use that particular tone in your voice, it is followed by an eye roll. I know you well.”

  “So, you do.” I replied, digging in my closet for a clean pair of jeans and sweater.

  “Want to meet around two at Applebee’s? I’m going to have to get on the road and head back to Charlottesville after that.”

  “Yeah, that sounds good,” I replied. “See you then.”

  Right after I got off the phone with Darcy, my phone rang. I checked caller I.D. and was surprised to see it was Kyzer. Wow, it had been awhile.

  “Hey, stranger,” I said when I answered.

  “Hey, Lindsey.”

  He sounded kind of down and out.

  “Is everything okay, Kyzer? I’ve tried to call you.”

  “My father passed away last week. I was in Miami for his funeral.”

  “Oh my God, Kyzer! Why didn’t you call and let me know?”

  “What difference would that have made, Lindsey? It wouldn’t have changed anything.”

  “Well, yeah, but still, I would have liked to talk to you, offer whatever comfort I could. Are you still in Miami?”

  “No, he said, “I’m on the road back to Charlottesville. I just wanted to check in with you, you know, to see if you needed any help with Physics.”

  That was so damn thoughtful of him thinking about me after the grief he was feeling.

  “Kyzer, I am fine. Don’t worry about me. I wish there was something I could do to make you feel better.”

  I couldn’t imagine the grief that he was feeling right now. No brothers or sisters to share the pain, only a houseful of servants most likely. Yet he still cared about me and my problems with Physics.

  “You know me, Lindsey, I live for science problems.”

  An idea suddenly sparked. Maybe I could temporarily distract him from his grief. I thought about the piece of paper we had recovered from the locked metal box. I was certain that Kyzer could read the formula equation and figure it out more quickly than anyone else. He would probably love the distraction. He didn’t need to the specifics around it.

  “Hey, you know what?”

  “What?”

  “I came across something the other day kind of out of the ordinary. It was something I found in an old lockbox. It looks like some sort of chemical formula or equation. My stepfather scanned it and sent it off for interpretation. Too bad you weren’t around. I’ll bet you could have figured it out in no time.”

  “A formula?”

  “Yeah. It was something from Banion Pharmaceuticals. Probably nothing, but you know how anal my stepfather can be.”

  “Yeah,” he said, “Well, it goes with the job, I suppose. Do you still have the paper?”

  “Yeah, it’s around here somewhere.”

  “Lindsey, do you have plans this afternoon?”

  I’m meeting Darcy for lunch at two at Applebee’s, just off the by-pass.”

  “Do you care if I drive up to see you? I just feel so lonely and hate going back to that apartment and being alone.”

  “Well, Kyzer, I’m seeing Taz at seven, so you know--”

  “I’ll head out before then. Hey, bring the paper with the formula equation to Applebee’s with you. I guarantee you, I will decipher it before I leave, and then you can impress your stepfather. I just need some company.”

  How could I possibly refuse him? Hadn’t he been there for me when my family needed help?”

  “Okay, sure,” I reluctantly agreed. I knew Taz would not be pleased. I didn’t plan on telling him, though. Why start a war?

  “Okay, then, I’ll see you in a couple at Applebee’s.”

  “See you then, Kyzer.”

  I let Donna know I was meeting a friend at Applebee’s and would be back between 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. I wasn’t sure how long Kyzer planned on sticking around. She said she would let Mom know when she woke up.

  Darcy and I spent an hour catching up on everything: her relationship with Darin, my relationship with Taz, Jill’s relationship with Gabe. I told her about my mother’s out of character behavior regarding Taz.

  “You know, Linds, her hormones are probably all out of whack, plus with the stress and everything, I wouldn’t worry too much. She’ll get with the program. This has to be pretty tough on you, too. Are you keeping up okay on your online classes?”


  “It’s been going okay. Speaking of that, Kyzer Stanfield should be here anytime. He called earlier. His father passed away and he wanted to drive up to talk. He’s lonely.”

  “You mean creepy,” Darcy replied.

  I was taken aback by her comment.

  “Since when do you think he is creepy?”

  “Since forever,” she replied, stuffing a fried mushroom into her mouth.

  “Why haven't you said anything before now?”

  “Hon, you were trying to get laid. Who cares if some “Norman Bates” type is the one to get your cherry? It doesn’t mean I thought you would ever have a real romance with him. You’re too smart for that.”

  “Geez, its nice knowing you have my best interest at heart.”

  “Whatever,” she said, waving her hand at me. “Speak of the devil, Norman is here.”

  I turned and saw Kyzer looking around. I raised my hand up, waving to him. He smiled, immediately making his way over to us.

  Darcy wasted no time in finishing up her fried mushrooms and getting her bill. She claimed she had to hit the road back to Charlottesville to study for an exam.

  Yeah, right.

  We said our good-byes as she fled.

  Kyzer and I sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments. The waitress came over and cleared off the empty dishes.

  Kyzer ordered an iced tea; I ordered a refill of Diet Coke.

  “Kyzer, again I am so very sorry for your loss. Do you want to talk about it?”

  “There’s really not much to say, Lindsey. It was imminent. It was just a matter of time, I knew that. But still, when it does happen, it takes you by surprise. If it hadn’t been for Sue Ellen being with him those last few hours, he would have only had a nurse. I was driving like mad, but didn’t make it back in time. Sue Ellen is inconsolable.”

  “I’ll bet,” I replied. “What are her plans?”

  “She’ll just continue running the businesses until I graduate. My father left 75% of his total estate to me, 25% to her. I don’t see a problem with continuing to let her draw a salary as CEO over Stanfield Group until I graduate. She will then assume a post at whatever entity she wishes. She has proven herself to me.”