by Mary Behre
“Billy said the only way I could have known about the old woman, or where to find her, was if I’d been there.” More tears stung her eyes and she blinked rapidly to keep them from escaping. “It didn’t help that as the old woman lay dying, she said my name to the police. I was condemned before her body was cold.
“I spent the night in jail, terrified I’d go to prison for trying to help. Worse, I’d been friends with all the guys at the station, but that night, they treated me like a rabid animal. One they needed to put down.” Her hands shook and she hated herself for the weakness. Hated the memories of that horrifying night. “Michael and Martha’s parents refused to believe I could have been involved. They hired an attorney for me and had me out by the next day.”
“Thank Christ, someone in that damned county had some sense.” Seth turned her in his arms then crooked a finger under her chin. He tilted her head back until she met his gaze. “You saved their babies and they saved you. Thank God, they did.”
Warmth and something else filled his eyes. Something tender and powerful. Love?
That look succeeded in breaking her where the memories hadn’t. Tears trickled from the corners of her eyes. He drew her close. She sank into his embrace, absorbing his strength and allowing him to rock her as she wept.
Her own husband hadn’t had faith in her, but Seth did. Billy hadn’t trusted what Jules had just shared with Seth. He’d demanded to know more, and when she’d told him about seeing the ghost, he’d thrown her away.
While she hadn’t told Seth everything, he still believed her. Believed in her. If only he believed in psychics, she’d completely fall in love with him.
As it was, his faith in her made her want to thank him, to kiss him, to drink him in.
“Thank you for believing me.” Pushing up on her toes, she pressed a featherlight kiss to his lips.
CHAPTER 15
THE ELECTRICITY SETH had experienced when they kissed last night was nothing compared to the lightning arcing between them now. Jules had only given him a gentle peck but his lips sizzled. The scent of strawberries hit his senses and he went hard for her.
Jules’s story hadn’t turned him on, but her strength had. She’d had good reason not to trust another cop again, but she trusted him.
Sanity briefly reared its head. He shouldn’t be kissing her. He needed to focus on his case. But he couldn’t make himself stop touching her.
Screw sanity.
Seth sensed she needed this. She needed him. And, God help him, he needed her too.
Seth leaned in and kissed her again, exploring her mouth with his lips and tongue. She met him stroke for stroke and it made him hungrier.
He wrapped his left arm around her shoulders, then slid it down until it wedged between her back and the counter. At the same time, he looped his right arm around her waist, bringing her body flush with his. She opened her eyes and stared up at him with a hazy look of lust in those emerald depths.
Every fantasy he’d had since he met her came flooding back. He wanted her on the counter, on the couch, on the floor, in a bed, and everywhere in between. Even finishing what they’d started the night before against the front door made his personal top-ten list.
Keeping her wrapped in his arms, he backed out of the kitchen and into the living room. While he wanted her everywhere, for their first time, he wanted a bed. A warm, large bed with plenty of space to give her body the thorough loving he intended.
“Seth, what are you doing?” she whispered, stumbling into him.
“Taking you someplace a little more comfortable.” He dotted her cheeks, nose, and forehead with light kisses. With his lips hovering just above hers, near enough to kiss, he said, “Ah, precious. Tonight, you’re mine.”
He swept his tongue into her mouth, claiming her. He planned to explore every inch of her body. But not out here where the stacked boxes littered most of the free space in the room. Need to move to the bedroom.
She moaned into his mouth and drove her fingers into his hair, deepening the kiss. They half-walked, half-stumbled across the room, making it as far as the couch. He went down first and she landed on top of him.
Bed later.
He loved this side of her. At first glance, her slender body appeared fragile, but she wasn’t. Jules was strong and tough, and she was the sexiest woman he’d ever touched.
And her kisses were fearless, like she wanted to devour him. The feeling was definitely mutual. Breaking the kiss, he whispered in gravelly tones, “You taste so good, precious. I could spend hours licking you all over.”
She shivered in his arms.
He grinned in response. “You like that idea?”
Because it sure sounds good to me.
“Shhh . . .” She cupped his face in her hands and tugged him back to her, claiming his mouth in a kiss so hot, he thought his shoes would melt off.
He’d never been especially fond of kissing. It was a function to get his lover excited. But when Jules kissed him, it was scorching and eager. He simultaneously wanted to make their clothes disappear and keep kissing her.
Jules shifted and bumped her arm against the back of the couch. Hissing, she jerked away from his touch. The look of pinched pain on her face doused his libido.
“Let me see.” He reached for her arm and held it gently in one hand. He shoved up the sleeve of her gray sweatshirt and exposed the white bandage beneath. “Does it hurt much?”
“No, not much,” she said, trying to twist out of his grasp.
He tightened his hold just enough to convince her to stop moving. Pressing his lips to her wound, he trailed the kisses up to her shoulder, then to her neck, and finally to the tender flesh behind her right ear. “Maybe we should find a bed?”
“I only have a twin,” she said, but a look of doubt flashed in her eyes.
He leaned down and nuzzled her earlobe with his tongue and teeth until she moaned. “We can go to my apartment.”
“Oh, that feels good,” she breathed. “Or you can keep doing that and we can stay here a little longer.”
He pulled back enough to look at her beautiful face. “Precious, it’s taking every ounce of restraint I have not to take you right here on the couch like some horny teenager.”
“Really?” Delight lit her eyes and she dropped her gaze to his groin.
His cock jumped at her open perusal. Needing to convince her of his word and needing her hands on his body, he wrapped one hand around her wrist and brought it to his jeans.
“Oh. My.” She cupped him through the denim and rubbed him until he groaned. Pleasure, white hot and needy, burned through him. His balls sizzled with the need to come. And they hadn’t even undressed yet.
“Juliana, you’re killing me,” he panted.
“You like this?” Her tone sounded uncertain, yet she caressed him as if they’d been lovers for years, as if she knew exactly how to touch him.
His tenuous control threatened to break when she lifted her gaze to his. The contrast of the uncertainty in her voice and the surety of her hands, added to the fact her eyes had darkened to a smoky green, almost snapped his control.
She was a contradiction in terms.
And every bit as turned on by what she was doing to him as he was.
He let his gaze drop to her nipples, which were poking hard little points into her sweatshirt. His mouth watered for a taste of her, but his lips went dry. He licked them and was rewarded by her slamming her mouth against his in a kiss so explosive it made a mockery of every other kiss he’d ever tasted.
She broke the kiss but continued teasing his body to a spike of pleasure and pain. “Seth, touch me, please.”
Bending his face closer to her neck, he nuzzled the silken flesh at her collarbone and slid one hand up beneath the hem of her top. “Like this?”
“Yes. Yes, please.”
He continued upward until his fingers grazed one distended nipple. A small sound of pleasure escaped her. Tugging the sweatshirt up out of his way, he exposed her
breast to his gaze.
“You’re not wearing a bra,” he said, leaning down then taking the dusky bud into his mouth.
“Ah!” She drove the fingers of both hands into his hair and held him against her.
Rolling his tongue under and over the pebbled point, he licked it. Laved it. Her breasts were smaller than they had appeared in the corset she’d worn the night they met. But they were perfect.
She arched her back, offering him more, and he gladly accepted. He sucked the nipple into his mouth then popped it free, blowing his breath across it. She quivered in response. Then he turned his attention to the other nipple to give it the same loving.
“Off! Take my shirt off.” She started to pull her top over her head but stopped when the sleeve snagged at her bandaged arm. Drawing air in between her teeth, she emitted a small cry of pain.
He tugged her sweatshirt back down until it covered her breasts, leaving her belly exposed. “No, we can’t do this here.”
“Okay.” She pushed to her feet and stumbled a few steps before steadying herself, leading him toward the front door. She unlocked it and held it open. “Coming?”
“Not without you,” he replied, hurrying to her side. Leaning down, he whispered, “Don’t you know it’s impolite for a man to come before his lover?”
A burst of air escaped her and she blushed. “And you’re a gentleman, of course.”
“Of course.” He kissed her cheek. “And I’m going to make you come all night long.”
Her gaze darkened. He brushed his lips against hers then headed toward his home.
Seth had nearly reached his front door when he turned to see Juliana disappearing back inside her apartment. In three long strides, he ate the distance and caught her door before it swung closed. “Juliana, what are you doing?”
“I forgot my purse and keys,” she said. He held open the door and watched her disappear down the hall into her bedroom. She needed to hurry. His erection was close to popping the buttons on his fly.
She returned moments later, a confused expression on her face. “I could have met you in your apartment.”
“Yes, but a gentleman escorts his lady to the door.”
“And here I’d been picturing you more as a conquering warrior,” she said, then blushed. “I can’t believe I just said that out loud.”
He leaned over and kissed her until she started groping him again.
“Precious.” He groaned. “I’m fairly certain that tonight you’re going to be the conquering warrior. Keep touching me like that and I’m going to finish right here before we can get to my place.”
“We can’t have that.” Jules bolted across the hall to his door. She tried to open it, but it was locked.
He hugged her back to his front and nuzzled her neck as he unlocked his door, then opened it. Tugging her keys from her hand, he then patted her behind. “You didn’t lock your door. I’ll be right back. Make yourself at home.”
He left to lock her door, leaving Jules alone in his darkened apartment. She flipped on the light in his living room and tried to catch her breath.
Was she really going to do this? Have sex with him?
Heck yes!
When he’d said, “No, we can’t do this here,” she’d wanted to weep in frustration. For a split second, she’d feared he’d changed his mind.
Before he’d said that, she’d sensed his desires and fantasies. But the moment she’d lifted her shirt, baring her breasts to him, his fantasies had winked out of her brain. She wasn’t sure why, but she was too excited to care, especially after his promise to make her come all night.
Walking through the living room, she headed to Seth’s bedroom. She dropped her purse on the end table and continued on into the bathroom. She flipped on the light and the fluorescent bulb hummed to life. Quickly washing her face and hands, she ran her fingers through her shoulder-length red hair and tried to sweep some body into it. But it was no use; her hair was stick-straight.
Her reflection caught her attention. Her lips were swollen and red, her whole face was flushed, and she had the look of a woman who had been thoroughly kissed. She grinned, remembering the taste of him. And she wanted more.
Flipping off the bathroom light, she stood in the mostly dark bedroom and stripped naked. Except for the light from the streetlamp outside and the light filtering in from the living room, the bedroom lay in darkness.
She folded her clothes and set them in a neat pile on top of his dresser beside the bathroom door. Then she climbed into bed.
Manly but soft and inviting, the bamboo sheets were cool against her hot skin. Sighing, she reveled in the decadent sensation of the exotic material on her naked, needy flesh.
The front door opened and closed, followed by the distinctive sound of a lock clicking into place. Listening to his heavy footfalls, she silently imagined him crossing his living room, stopping only long enough to flip off the light, past his galley kitchen, down the hall, and into the bedroom. His footsteps paused at the door.
“Jules?” he called in a stage whisper. “Did you fall asleep?”
“No.”
“Damn.” He moved into the room with a slow, deliberate gait. “I was looking forward to finding a creative way to wake you up.”
“Hang on,” she said, feeling saucy. “I’ll pretend to sleep and you can show me.”
He chuckled. “I don’t think so. I want to truly wake you up when I work my magic.”
“Ooh,” she said, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice. “Well, then I can go to sleep now.” She faked a yawn.
Seth laughed again, then the bed dipped.
He sank down beside her and untied the laces to his sneakers one at a time, letting each one fall to the floor with a thunk. Stretching across her midsection, he reached out and turned on the lamp atop the bedside table.
“That’s better,” he said, propping his hands on either side of her head and staring down at her. “I could just look at you all night.”
I don’t think so.
She grabbed him and kissed him. He grinned against her lips and she smiled in return. Then she got down to some serious smooching. Driving her tongue into his mouth, she reached for his right hand, placing it on her bared breast.
He groaned into her mouth, then lightly pinched and plucked at her nipple until she moaned in response. When she finally did cry out, he broke their kiss and closed his lips around the aching tip while plucking and pinching the other one.
With each flick of his tongue or brush of his fingers on her breasts, she wound tighter and tighter until she thought she might shake apart with the need for completion. Then he dropped one hand between her thighs.
She spread wide for his touch, needing him to fill her and stop the torture. But he only glided one long finger inside her just enough to coat himself in her moisture, then he started stroking her. Not enough to bring her to release, just enough to keep her spinning with a growing, aching need.
“You’re killing me.”
“I am not.” He laughed. “Just tormenting you. Besides, you’re enjoying yourself. And believe me, I’m really enjoying it. You’re so damned sexy.”
Sexy?
She hadn’t realized she’d closed her eyes until she opened them and found him stretched out beside her on the bed. He was still fully clothed except for his shoes and socks.
Oh, this wasn’t fair.
Jules sat bolt upright, flipped over, and scooted down the bed until her face was in line with his jean-clad thighs. She yanked at the buttons on his fly. Excitement rippled through her when his erection sprang free.
“Commando?” she asked, licking her lips.
He might have answered her. She wasn’t sure because she’d already leaned forward and licked him from base to tip.
“Ah, precious, you’re going to give me a heart attack.” He gasped between each word.
She might have been to blame for that. Each time he uttered a sound, she licked or nibbled or reached into his jeans to
cup his sac. But he was so incredibly responsive to everything she did that he made her hungry to try more.
When he lifted a trembling hand to stroke the hair away from her face so he could watch her take him into her mouth, she nearly froze.
There was something sinful about being totally naked with a man who was still clothed. Especially when teasing him until he shook. Keeping eye contact with him, she inhaled and slowly took more of him into her mouth.
His breathing went ragged. His fingers tightened on her head as he guided her up and down, teaching her the best way to please him. The grip loosened after a minute as she caught his rhythm and did it on her own.
He sat up, forcing her to adjust her position in order to keep pleasing him.
Why’d he sit up?
As if to answer her unspoken question, he slipped a hand between her thighs and coated his fingers in her moisture again. Then he stroked her, rubbing the swollen, distended bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs.
Her heart rate accelerated and her whole body tensed. Squeezing her eyes shut, she slid her mouth down his shaft again and held it there as lights exploded behind her eyes. Reflexively, she sucked hard on his shaft and he groaned loudly. “Precious, stop. I’m barely holding back here.”
He tugged away from her touch and slipped his hands beneath her arms, dragging her sensitized body up his before flipping her onto her back and covering her body with his. He leaned back long enough to tug his shirt up over his head.
His beautiful naked chest glistened in the light. He was really about to make love to her. She’d thought he’d been sexy before, but actually running her hands over his naked abs, she realized he was even more so.
Oh, if this is a dream, don’t let me wake up!
She tried to help him strip but only succeeded in getting in the way since she couldn’t stop touching him. So she focused on freeing him from his jeans.
When her palm came skin to skin with his erection, Seth groaned deep in his throat, then laughed. “Stop helping me! You’re going to help us into waiting another hour if you touch me like that again.”
