by HELEN HARDT
When her release subsided, she pulled me to her and kissed me hard. The mingling of our saliva and her juices intoxicated me. I swirled my tongue around hers, taking the flavor, the passion…until I remembered I wanted only to give.
She broke the kiss, pushing me away slightly. “Please, Talon, take off your shirt, take off your pants. I want to suck that gorgeous cock of yours.”
How could I turn that down? I moved slightly, planning to stand, when again I remembered. This is about her. Only her. I want to give. “No, baby. This is about you.”
She let out a giggle. “That’s sweet, really, but believe me, sucking you is about me. I’m dying to do it right now.”
My name notwithstanding, I wasn’t made of steel. I’d take her word that she wanted this, because damn, I sure did. I was harder than I’d ever been. I stood and slowly disrobed, her fiery light-blue gaze never wandering from me. When my cock sprang free of its confinement, she dropped to her knees and licked the bobbing head.
Fuck… I gathered every last shred of willpower I possessed. I longed to explode down her throat, but I also wanted this amazing sensation to last. She took such care, raining tiny kisses along the underside and then twirling her tongue over my balls while working me with her fist. Shudders raced through me, boiling my blood in my veins. When she returned her mouth to my cock and plunged onto me, I nearly lost it.
But no, I wanted to come inside that sweet pussy of hers. My heart stampeding, I pulled her off my cock, turned her around, bent her over the bed, and plunged inside her wet heat.
And again that soft sigh—the gentle caress of her vocal cords that I loved—escaped her lips as I entered her. With that sigh she became mine.
Or at least I imagined that she could be mine.
Her walls clenched around me, fitting my cock as though the universe had cast her to be my perfect match. As if she had been created for me. Only me.
I thrust and I thrust and I thrust and I thrust and I thrust—trembling, quivering—until I withdrew and flipped her over so her beautiful face was visible to me. Her gaze caught mine, and God, I could drown in those shining eyes. I sat up on the bed, she still lying down, and stuffed my cock inside her again. I held one leg of hers up over my shoulder, opening her to take me fully.
She closed her eyes and moaned. “God, Talon, that’s so good. I’ve missed you.”
She’d missed me? I grabbed both of her beautiful tits and squeezed, her nipples hard. I pinched them the way she liked.
Words strained at my lips. How I wanted to say I’d missed her, too. That my life had been empty for the three days without her. Instead I leaned down and kissed her softly, tugging on one of her nipples.
She jolted against me. “Talon, I’m coming again. Oh my God, I’m coming.”
She convulsed around my shaft, and I cried out. I was on the edge of the precipice, looking down into nirvana, but I wasn’t ready to come. I slowed my thrusts a little, willing myself to wait. But it was too late.
One more plunge, and I erupted inside her, giving her everything that I was. Through each spasm that sent me farther and farther into heaven, I gave. And I gave. And I gave her some more. When my climax ebbed, I pulled her up to me, wrapped her legs around me, and kissed her softly, as we had at the beginning of this lovemaking. I looked deeply into those steely blue eyes, aching to give her even more—all that was my heart, my soul.
Could I?
The question was moot. I had already given it to her. I only prayed that she would keep it safe.
Chapter Six
Jade
So tenderly, he kissed me.
How had I let this happen? I had so wanted to be strong, but any fortitude I possessed was useless where Talon Steel was concerned. I would always surrender to him. My only escape would be to leave Colorado altogether and get as far away from him as I could.
But I wouldn’t do that. Colorado was my home. I’d lived here all my life. I could go back to Denver, but he would find me.
I wanted him to find me.
I love you. Those words sat on the edge of my lips, hungering to spew forth. I clamped my mouth shut. He wasn’t ready to hear those words.
And I wasn’t ready to say them.
He pulled away from the kiss and gazed into my eyes, his own burning black. I waited for him to speak, but he did not.
“Talon.”
He arched his eyebrows.
“That shouldn’t have happened.”
I expected him to agree with me. He always agreed with me about that. Had always been the one to say he would never fall in love with me, that this would not happen again.
But instead, he said, “That needed to happen, Jade.”
I had no idea what he meant, and asking him to explain it would do no good. Talon didn’t explain things.
“I’m glad it happened,” I said, my voice low.
His dark eyes smoldered. “I’m glad you came back.”
My eyebrows shot up. Had I heard him correctly? “You are? You kicked me out, remember?”
“I was wrong to do that.”
“You were?”
“Yes. You’re Marj’s best friend. She wants you here. She needs you here.”
My heart fell. The barriers had risen once more. He was glad I was back for Marj’s sake, not his own.
I knew better than to try to get through to Talon when he was walled off. I didn’t believe him for a minute, but pressuring him would do no good. When the blockade went up, it became impenetrable.
“Well, I didn’t want to leave Marj either.” I looked away. I couldn’t stare into his beautiful eyes when he was barricaded. It was too painful, like a blade slicing my heart in two.
“Marj would like you to come back and stay at the house,” he said.
I blew out a breath of air. “As much as I love it at your house, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Marj is going to help me find an apartment. In fact, she was supposed to look today, but I haven’t heard from her yet.”
“She was pretty busy today helping Joe. His secretary called in sick, so he asked her to fill in. He had a bunch of filing that had to be done with the Secretary of State.”
That explained why she hadn’t called yet. “No problem. I’ll scan the paper tomorrow morning and maybe look at some places over my lunch hour.”
“I wish you’d come back to the house.”
I shook my head. “Believe me, I thought about it. I can’t.”
“Why not?”
Sometimes I couldn’t believe the things that came out of his mouth. “Because you kicked me out in no uncertain terms three short days ago.”
He stood, gathering his boxers and jeans and putting them on quickly. His gorgeous torso was still bare, still glistening with perspiration from our encounter. He was so beautiful. When I looked at him, when I saw through his invisible walls, I wanted nothing more than to hold him, to take all this pain away. Before I could do that, though, I needed to know what the pain was and why he was so closed off from everyone. I didn’t know how to find that out. Marj didn’t know, and if Jonah and Ryan did, they certainly weren’t talking.
“I shouldn’t have kicked you out like that,” he said.
“But you did, Talon, and you had a reason at the time. Tell me something. Does that reason still exist?”
He didn’t speak, only bit his lower lip slightly and let it go.
“I deserve an answer.”
He raked his fingers through his thick head of dark hair. “You know, I saw a gray hair in the mirror this morning.”
What did that have to do with anything? He was thirty-five. Of course he had a gray hair or two. Jonah had more than a few at his temples. It looked good.
“Please don’t change the subject. This is too important to me.”
“Maybe my gray hair is important to me.”
I shook my head, stood, grabbed my shorts and tank, and threw them on without my bra and underpants. “Leave, please.”
He widened his eyes. D
id he truly have no idea why I was asking him to leave?
“You hurt me,” I said.
He swallowed visibly, put on his shirt, and left my hotel room.
The next morning, I sat at my desk, scanning the local paper for possible apartments. The only one within walking distance to work was a room over the local beauty shop, and I didn’t relish smelling perm fumes all day. There were a couple of cute one-bedrooms on the outskirts of town, but until I had a car, that wouldn’t be feasible. So the beauty shop it was. I called Sarah, the shop owner, and arranged to take a look at the apartment over my lunch hour. Then I went back to work, opening the last folder of the stack Larry had given me yesterday.
The first few documents were still more bank accounts. Sheesh, these people had a lot of cash. Still, from what I could tell, all the deposits and withdrawals seemed legitimate—until something stood out at me almost as if it had been written in glaring red.
Twenty-five years ago, a withdrawal of five million dollars had been made from one of the operating accounts. I couldn’t tell from the bank account to whom the payment had been made. I would need to go through a bunch of documentation to find out where it had gone and why. Such a large amount of money had to go somewhere.
I hastily went through the rest of the documents in the last folder, but nothing stood out as important.
A few minutes later, Larry walked into my office. “Any luck?”
“As you probably know, all these folders that you gave me yesterday are mostly bank accounts. Honestly, I didn’t see anything that looked untoward until this morning.”
He came closer and sat down in one of the chairs opposite my desk. “What’s that?”
I pushed the requisite paper in front of him. “See that withdrawal of five million? It’s an incredible sum of money, much more than any of these other withdrawals. It just seemed to stand out to me. I wonder what it was for.”
“That is worthy of note.” He shoved a piece of paper with more private log-ins and passwords written on it. “I’m giving you full access to all databases in the state of Colorado. See what you can find.” He smiled and exited my office, leaving the door open.
I didn’t know where to start. I doubted I had access to any bank files, so how would I find out? I couldn’t ask any of the Steels. Heck, Marj had barely been born and the guys had been kids when this happened. They wouldn’t be any help at all. Their father was dead, and as far as I knew, they never had anyone else working around the ranch who would have had access to their accounts. But maybe… Steel Acres was a multi-million-dollar enterprise. Surely they didn’t handle all the money themselves. But how would I find out who had been handling it twenty-five years ago? Asking the Steels wasn’t an option. I couldn’t exactly tell them that my boss, the city attorney, had asked me to investigate them, nor could I tell them I had my own reasons for doing the detective work.
What happened twenty-five years ago? That’s what I needed to know.
I looked through the old newspaper archives and so far had come up with dead ends, when the alarm on my phone beeped. Time to go meet Sarah at the beauty shop and look at the apartment. I grabbed my purse, told Michelle I was leaving for lunch, and headed out.
The shop was two blocks over on Headley Avenue. I walked in.
The manicurist looked up from her station. “Hey there, can I help you?”
“Yeah, hi. I’m here to see Sarah about the apartment upstairs.”
“Awesome sauce.” The manicurist flashed a scarlet-lipped grin. “She’s in the back. I’ll go get her.”
She left her client. Within a few minutes, she was back with a middle-aged woman, slightly plump but pretty, her blond—clearly colored—hair pulled back in a ponytail.
The older woman held out her hand. “I’m Sarah Carter. You must be Jade.”
“Yes, I am. Great to meet you.”
“I only have a few minutes. I have a client processing. But the place is small.” She laughed. “It won’t take too long for me to show it to you. Come on back.”
The apartment was accessible from the back of the beauty shop as well as from the outside. Sarah led me up a flight of narrow stairs. She unlocked the door and opened it.
“It ain’t much, but it’s cheap. I’m your landlord. I own the building, and I live in the apartment next door. Just these two apartments. One of my girls was renting it, but she got married last week, so we’re vacant again.”
I looked around. I liked the hardwood floors, although they were in need of a good buffing.
“No bedroom, I’m afraid, but the living area is huge, so you can use a futon at night. I updated the appliances in the kitchen two years ago, so they’re nearly new. Updated the bathroom too. It’s small, but state of the art.”
“It’s actually pretty cute.” I was getting a good vibe from it, which surprised me. And heck, a manicure was only a couple steps away. I loved a good mani-pedi.
I looked through the kitchen and then the bathroom. “I assume it’s ready now to move in?”
“Yup. All you have to do is sign the lease.”
“Are you willing to go month-to-month?” As cute as the place was, I’d be moving into one of those better apartments on the outskirts of town when I got a car.
“Absolutely. Most of my tenants go month-to-month. Because the place is so small, it’s really just a starter pad. Usually people are here for six months to a year.”
“That sounds perfect to me. I work over the city attorney’s office, so it’s close enough to walk. I don’t have a car right now.”
“Sounds like you’re interested, then.”
I nodded. “I definitely am. I don’t have any furniture though. I’ll have to arrange for a mattress or futon before I could move in.”
Sarah nodded. “I can help you there. If you want the place furnished, it’s an extra fifty a month. I can move in a sofa, a coffee table, two chairs, and a pullout bed. Lisa had her own stuff, so the furnishings are in storage down in the shop. I can have my boyfriend move them up anytime.”
I let out a laugh. “By the end of the day?”
“You betcha.”
I held out my hand. “Then, Sarah, you’ve got a deal. I’ll write you a check right now for the first month.”
That transaction taken care of, I headed over to the hotel, grabbed my suitcase, let them know I wouldn’t be staying another night, and took my stuff over to my new apartment. By then my lunch hour was over, so I stopped by Rita’s to grab a sandwich to go and headed back to the office. These sandwiches were adding up and squashing my car fund. I’d need to get to the grocery store and lay in supplies.
No sooner had I logged back in, when my phone buzzed. Marj.
“Hey there,” I said.
“Jade, I’m so sorry I couldn’t find an apartment yesterday. Joe needed some help because his secretary was sick and he had some filings that couldn’t wait.”
“I know.” Shit! I cuffed my hand over my mouth.
“You know? How?”
I sucked air through my teeth. I had promised Marj no more secrets. “Talon told me.”
“Talon? When did you see Talon?”
I sighed into my phone. “He came to see me last night.”
Silence on the other end of the line. In my mind’s eye, I could see Marj’s mouth dropped into an oval.
“I promised I wouldn’t keep anything from you, remember?”
“Yes,” she said. “I appreciate that.”
“He wanted me to come back to the house.”
Marj squealed into the phone. “Yay! That’s great.”
“I turned him down. I don’t think it’s a good idea right now.”
“Are you kidding? It’s a great idea.”
“Well, it’s too late. I’m bound for at least a month for my new apartment. I just signed a month-to-month lease today.”
“You did? Where?”
“The apartment over the beauty shop.”
Marj huffed. “That dive? I would’ve fou
nd a much better place.”
“Marj, I scanned the ads this morning. The only other places are those apartments on the outskirts of town, and I need a car for them, so the beauty shop it is. It’s a cute little place.”
“If you say so.”
“I say so. Remember, I’m used to living modestly. It won’t bother me at all.”
“I’m sorry.” She sighed. “I don’t mean to go all diva on you. If you’re happy, I’m happy. But I’d still rather have you at the house.”
“I know, but it’s probably good for me to be on my—”
I dropped the phone.
Chapter Seven
Talon
I walked into Jonah’s office, needing to talk. What was it with me and talking lately?
His secretary was back today, though she looked a little pale.
“Are you feeling better, Dolores?” I asked the gray-haired woman who had once been my father’s secretary.
“Yeah. I look a lot worse than I feel.”
“Is Joe around?”
“He just went out to the pasture. I think he’s in the north quadrant today if you want to go looking for him.”
“Thanks.”
I drove out to the stables. Several months had gone by since I’d taken my horse, Phoenix, on a ride. I’d go out and find Joe, maybe help him a little if he needed it. I’d already been to the orchards and taken care of things there for the day.
Phoenix snorted when he saw me. The hands exercised him regularly, but I had been lacking in my attention to him lately. I’d had the horse since I was fifteen. I loved animals. This horse and Roger were my best friends.
I groomed him, saddled him up, and took him outside the barn, where I mounted and took off. The day was clear, the mountains green and violet in the distance, the sky a bright cerulean. Just another day in Colorado. I didn’t appreciate the beauty of my home enough. I needed to bask in it more often. I worked Phoenix up to a gallop, letting the wind ruffle my hair as we sailed through the breeze.
