Her mouth dropped open, and she could do nothing but gape at him. He wasn’t kidding! She was going to jail for practically nothing! Her heart did a backward flip. How had she gotten herself into this mess?
Joey took her by the elbow and led her to the cruiser’s back door on the driver’s side. He opened it and curtly told her, “Careful for your head as you get in.”
Totally baffled, Amber stared into those rich dark brown eyes and felt the sympathy she’d indulged in evaporate into thin air.
“You can’t arrest me!” she squeaked.
He shook his head from side to side. “I’m the law in Cedar Ridge. I can do anything I want.”
With those words of warning, he set his palm over her head and forced her down into the backseat, and promptly slammed the door.
“What about my car?” she wailed. This just wasn’t happening. How would she explain her criminal record to her mother? To her friends? How would she live with herself knowing she’d spent time in jail because of a lark?
“I’ll send someone to pick it up.”
She wanted to run her knuckle under her nose to stem the wetness. Joey couldn’t be doing this to her. He wouldn’t!
He seated himself behind the steering wheel. She sniffled and choked back the rising tears and the dread making its way up her throat.
“Buck up, kiddo,” he said, eyeing her in the rearview mirror. “The food isn’t so bad there, you know.” He started the engine, and they were off.
To jail.
* * * *
From eyes filled with tears that threatened to amble down her cheeks, Amber looked up and frowned.
“This isn’t the way to Cedar Ridge.” Not the station, at any rate.
Joey coughed.
She glanced at his profile in the rearview mirror. There were crinkles at the corner of his right eye.
“Joey,” she began, admonishing him. “You’re not taking me to jail, are you?”
“Jig’s up.” He glanced at her in the mirror, and their eyes met briefly. He burst out laughing. “You believed every word I said.”
She drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He’d been pulling a fast one on her, but she’d deserved it. She’d pulled several on him. Tit for tat.
“Where are we going?”
“My place. For that strip search I mentioned.”
Amber relaxed, resting her shoulders against the seat as best she could with her hands cuffed. She couldn’t resist. “Does that mean you’ll run those big hands of yours over my belly and up to my breasts?”
“Now, Sexy Lexy, don’t make me pull over and fuck you beside the car,” he warned.
She grimaced playfully, knowing he could see her face. “Why not? That might be fun.”
The car screeched to a halt. She slid forward in her seat.
“I don’t think that strip search can wait any longer,” he croaked, meeting her gaze in the mirror. He chuckled as wickedly as she had when she’d seen the lost expression on his face. Yeah, being with Joey would be an interesting experience indeed.
Joey’d had enough. He’d pulled onto a deserted side road he knew was never used any more. He flung open the back door, grabbed Amber’s elbow and unceremoniously hauled her out. She bit into her lower lip and flashed him a predatory and triumphant gaze, which stoked the heat within him higher.
“You’ve been tempting and teasing me for the last two days with your provocative clothes and your casual remarks.” They were meant to titillate and drive him wild with need. “You want me as much as I need you, right?”
He didn’t expect her to disagree, and she didn’t. She tilted her head to one side at a cocky angle and merely gave him a sexy kitten smile. Then she purred.
Joey growled, “Don’t ever mess with the sheriff.” And his fragile libido. He unlocked the handcuffs and threw them on the backseat.
“Oh,” Amber pouted, straightening her head. “I thought the back of the sheriff’s car would be a wonderful place to fuck.”
His blood sizzled. “There you go provoking me again.” Although that might not be a bad idea, but I have to make love to you in a hurry or I’ll explode into a million pieces.
“Maybe,” she replied. Again, she smiled.
He groaned, spun her around and commanded, “Hands on the trunk and feet apart.”
At first, she didn’t obey. Then slowly, she turned, lifted her hands and set them on the trunk. She wiggled her ass, which just about killed him. His cock was so hard, he thought he’d shoot his load right there before he ever had a chance to slide into her pussy and claim her as his if only for a few minutes.
“Like this, sheriff?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder coquettishly. Her hair swung to one side.
Joey kicked her feet apart. He growled again, the sound coming from deep within his parched throat. SXY LXY ramped up the already burning inferno inside him. He seized the edge of her neckline, feeling the silken strands of her hair brush the back of his hand. I have to be a throwback to the caveman era. I can’t believe I’m planning to fuck a woman outside my cruiser.
The black, lace body stocking tore easily, leaving her spine and the tender flesh there naked. Impatiently, he tugged at the rest of the fabric until Amber wore nothing but her heels, which turned him on even more. He’d always fantasized about taking a woman in this position outside his cruiser, and now, it was happening. SXY LXY was about to be his dream come true.
Unbuckling his belt and unzipping his trousers, he barely took the time to admire her perfectly shaped, bare ass. His erect cock sprang free of his briefs. He needed to make certain she wasn’t leading him on, saying she wanted him when the opposite was true.
“Bend over,” he ordered curtly.
Complying, she wiggled her butt again as he slid his hand between her legs, easily finding the hard nub of her clit and the moisture that told him she desired him as much as he wanted her.
“You’re a bad girl,” he whispered close to her ear.
She shuddered and released a long sigh. “Hurry up, Joey. I need you.” She flexed her fingers against the car.
Sweet mercy, but her entrance was slick with her juices. He rubbed the tip of his cock along her moist crevice and could wait no longer. Like a driven man, he slid into her as far as he could, stopped and groaned. She felt like heaven. Joey reached around to her breasts and tweaked them lightly. Amber’s whole body trembled.
She moaned, and pressed her ass harder into him. Her satin skin was so smooth under his large hands. He sighed and took in her fragrant, flowery scent, wanting this moment to last until the edge dropped off his lust. Like that would ever happen.
“Joey,” she pleaded on a whispery breath, “move inside me.”
Slowly then thrusting harder and harder, he took her, his palms against her taut nipples and his gaze fixed on her bare ass. She was an erotic elixir he could drink deeply from forever.
A man out of control, he responded feverishly to her whimpered moan and the slight shift in her expectant posture. As his muscles tensed, he clamped his lips together in a tight line.
“Joey,” she mumbled softly. “Joey.”
“I love hearing the sound of my name from your lips,” he ground out, his whole body attuned to hers, like a golden harp to the fingers of an expert musician. He wanted to tell her he’d loved her and had missed her something awful all these years, that if he’d have made it to prom, she’d have lost her virginity that night—a notion that disturbed him to his core and revealed itself to him just as he climaxed and roared out ferociously.
Breathless, he slumped against her, his heart racing, waiting for her to say anything, anything at all to him. Silence enveloped them. He was aware of her under him, straightening the slightest amount, and the skin of her back slicked with sweat. Quickie sex with Amber had been spectacular, what would slow sex be like, and what would it do to him? He wanted to watch her lovely face as she came.
He wanted to ask her a question, but remained mute, gently stroking her h
air. If he had made love to her on prom night, would she still have left Cedar Ridge, leaving him and his broken heart behind?
Chapter Five
Amber came right along with Joey as frenzied waves of pleasure poured over her. She rested her head on the car’s trunk and wondered at herself.
She’d pulled every string in her book of sexual games she knew, just to get Joey to notice her and bring them to this moment. A hot breeze fanned her body. She moaned as his cock stilled. He’d filled her to the utmost with his big instrument of pleasure. She giggled at the euphemism then smiled to herself before she realized he lived in Cedar Ridge, and she in Portland. Cedar Ridge was no place for her. They had no future and this had been a one-time stand. It could have once been so much more, a life and an unforgettable love shared.
She inhaled the scent of pine trees and nearby water, probably from the small stream that ran along one side the deserted highway. Being a one-time stand didn’t mean they’d have to end here. Couldn’t she spend the night with him and get him out of her system for good?
Silently, she shook her head at herself. She’d come all the way back to Cedar Ridge for revenge and had ended up being loved, big time, in a way she’d never imagined—out in the forest, on the shoulder of a lonely highway, next to a sheriff’s cruiser.
Joey’s husky voice intruded on her thoughts. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, unable yet to speak.
“That was mind-blowing.”
Her knees still shaking, Amber nodded again. “Yeah.”
He chuckled as he drew his half-flaccid shaft from her warm pussy. “I have never in my life done anything like this, but you made me crazy with your Sexy Lexy routine.”
Straightening slowly, still blown away by what had just happened, she turned but was unable to find anything to say.
Joey zipped his trousers and buckled his belt, his eyelashes fluttering on his cheeks. When he looked up and caught her staring, she drew her tongue over her lower lip.
He picked up the remnants of her body stocking. “I guess this achieved what it was supposed to.” He tossed the skimpy lace into the backseat, rounded the corner of the trunk and opened it. “Good thing I carry a spare blanket in here. It’s not anywhere near as enticing as what you were wearing, but it’ll get you back to my place pretty decent.”
“Your place?” she croaked, her eyes widening. Do I really want to go there and get more of this? Her body revved up. Sure she did. Then she’d leave Cedar Ridge and never return.
His questioning eyes sought hers out. “Yeah, my place. Something wrong with that? I did promise to make dinner.” He set the navy-blue blanket around her shoulders and wrapped her up in the fluffy softness as if she were a helpless babe.
Her fingers clutched at the blanket covering her breast. “I’m not hungry.” She saw his eyes flicker with doubt. “Not for food anyway.”
His devilish grin turned her insides to mush.
“More sex?” he asked, his voice feather light.
She nodded. What could she say, other than she’d been driven by revenge and bitten by her own need?
* * * *
When they reached Joey’s house, a two-bedroom bungalow with a vast backyard edged by pine trees that nearly met the cloudless sky, Amber glanced down at the blanket, wondering what else she could wear. Leaves to cover her breasts and mons came to mind and made her smile.
“What are you grinning at?” Joey asked from the driver’s seat.
The ride to his home had lasted a short ten minutes, but he hadn’t been able to stop examining her in the rearview mirror as she’d sat in the backseat behind him.
“I was thinking of clothes,” she murmured with a hint of a blush. “It’s not my style to wear blanket to dinner. Or to a gentleman’s house.”
Joey laughed good-naturedly. “Jen was living with me for a bit before she left for Seattle. I think you’re her size.” He hopped out from the car, gallantly opened the back door and eased her out.
Jen was his older sister by a couple of years.
“Why did she leave?” Amber left unsaid the town’s name, but they both understood.
“Nursing school after she broke up with her boyfriend.”
Amber nodded understandingly as they entered the house. “You still don’t lock your doors?” she asked in amazement.
Joey shrugged. “Why? The only thing that might break in is a raccoon on the hunt for food.”
She laughed. She’d missed his humor. “How long have your been sheriff?”
He canted his head to one side, estimating. “Eight years.”
He’d led her to Jen’s room, which was nothing more than a collection of cardboard boxes standing against the wall.
“I’m sure there’s something here. She couldn’t take everything with her.” He rummaged through several boxes, easily moving what appeared to be heavy ones, and finally found the one for which he’d been searching. He raised a smocked summer dress. “Will this do?”
His question made her laugh again. Joey was still goodhearted and natural. He didn’t put on airs like other men did, pretending to be someone they weren’t. She liked that about him.
“I’ll try that.” Not that she had a lot of options, but it was refreshing to be with Joey. She didn’t need to be anyone other than Amber Wyeth. “Where’s the bathroom?”
Joey led her down the hallway and opened the door to a small and quaint room. Her own condo in Portland had one several times larger, but she didn’t make the comparison. Cedar Ridge was country, and Portland was city, a big difference.
“Do you need help?” he inquired with a raised eyebrow.
“To take the blanket off?” she grinned, slipping into her sexy mode. “Why would I need help with that?”
He swallowed hard as she untucked the blanket and let it fall to pool around her feet in a small heap.
He licked his lips, and his eyes widened in appreciation. “I think I better make us something to eat,” he whispered in a gravelly tone.
Amber watched him turn his back and stride off.
“Well, that’s better than never showing up,” she muttered to no one in particular. Why hadn’t she found Joey the night of the prom to confront him, to demand why he hadn’t shown up? It wasn’t as if they were strangers. Not even close. They’d spent time in the meadow behind his house, kissing, and petting each other, and she’d known he wanted her sexually. Had she been afraid of that back then? Had she been pinning the blame on the wrong person for the last few years?
She slipped into the sundress, a pink confection that fit her perfectly, snuggling her breasts. If she’d gone after Joey on prom night to find him, she’d have been afraid of finding him in another girl’s arms, she guessed. He’d told her countless times she was his best friend, and she’d expected him to take her to the prom. When he’d asked, her heart had danced with joy. They’d had a future together. When he hadn’t shown up, she’d written him off, terrified that he’d do the same thing the mayor had done to her mother—dump her.
She ambled down the hallway, following the aroma of frying meat and a hint of onion and garlic, but paused in an open doorway to a very masculine room. There were several photographs of Joey and her on the dresser that, Amber remembered, his sister had taken in the months before prom.
“You look pretty,” Joey said from behind her.
Startled, she whirled around. “I didn’t mean to snoop,” she offered as a lame excuse for invading his personal space.
He shrugged. “It’s just a bedroom. No biggie.” He closed the distance between them. “I want to tell you some things.”
His stomach rumbled.
Amber smiled. “Maybe after we eat?”
He towered above her, and she desperately wanted him again. His strength, his masculinity, and his affection. The last startled her. She wanted affection, not sex?
He nodded, slowly lifted his hand and caressed her cheek with the back of his knuckles. Fire lit up inside her. Affection and sex
weren’t the same thing. Not by a long shot.
* * * *
Joey ushered Amber to the dining table, already set for dinner. He was hungry, but not so much for food as for her. The years of separation instantly evaporated, as did the loneliness and heartache. His intention to ask her to marry him on prom night returned full force, despite the interval they’d been apart. Would she still want him? Shouldn’t he make some effort to get to know her better, both in and out of bed? How much could a woman change in ten years?
What a stupid question. She was more beautiful than she had been at eighteen. More vivacious in a sexy way, too. And she was, apparently, wealthy as well, if she drove a Porsche. Yep, she’d changed a whole lot, and in fact, he’d hung onto the past, refusing to let his memories slip away in the realm of the forgotten. He still loved her, but the distance in terms of time, prevented him from saying so.
“This is good,” she told him, lifting her fork to her mouth with a piece of rare steak.
He nodded and watched as she closed her eyes and chewed thoughtfully. Every muscle in his body reacted, and his brain turned to mush again. Just the simple act of Amber eating was erotic.
Opening her eyes, she asked, “Aren’t you going to have anything to eat?”
That hadn’t changed. She was still concerned about his welfare.
“I was busy,” he muttered, casting his gaze to the plate in front of him. The hot steak was no longer appetizing. His stomach grumbled, but his mind told him he had to have Amber again, or else his welfare would suffer.
He admonished himself. His self-control was failing, and badly. He had to buck up and eat. He speared a bite of steak. “You never told me what you do.”
“I’m eating,” she told him, with a wide-eyed innocent look.
“I meant for a living. You left the day after prom, and you must have done something to survive.” He couldn’t imagine her taking notes from some hotshot businessman or cleaning other people’s houses. That just wasn’t who she was, but then, he reminded himself, she’d changed in ten years.
Sexy Lexy Page 3
