“Something about a spotted pony.”
Jake smirked. “I’m going to take you horseback riding one of these days.”
“Do you promise to wear one of those Stetson hats? I think you would look sexy as a cowboy.”
“We’ll see,” Jake said. “Go back to the bar, though. What do you remember about being in the bar?”
Ally shrugged. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I remember listening to Mandy … and making fun of her soup. Never eat anything she makes, by the way. She’ll give you food poisoning. I’m not even sure I remember you coming in to get us.
“I mean, I know you came in to get us, but it’s not really a memory,” she said. “Why? What happened?”
“This is why you’re never drinking again unless I’m there to watch you every second,” Jake said. “You would’ve walked off with a random stranger and not even thought twice about it.”
“Oh, please, you’re the only person I want to have sex with,” Ally said. “It doesn’t matter if I’m drunk or not.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Jake said. “I’m talking about Mandy’s professor.”
Ally stilled. “Wait … her professor? Was he there last night?”
“Yes,” Jake said. “He showed up when you guys were getting ready to leave. You told me last night you didn’t tell him where you were going and you didn’t invite him. Was that true?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t lie.”
“I wasn’t suggesting you were lying,” Jake said. “You were really drunk, though. I thought there was a chance you might have confused yourself.”
“You’re not getting sex for a week,” Ally grumbled.
“Honey, I can hold out longer than you can,” Jake said, rolling his eyes. “You’d be begging me in two days flat.”
“We’ll play the begging game later,” Ally said. “Go back to the professor … I can’t remember seeing him there. What were we talking about?”
“As far as I can tell you weren’t talking about much of anything,” Jake said. “Professor Barnes was rather insistent on trying to take Mandy home, though.”
“So he could take advantage of her?”
Jake shrugged, unsure. “That’s the feeling I got. It was like he wanted to isolate her.”
“And kill her?”
“Don’t jump to that conclusion, angel,” Jake said. “I hate it when you get all excited about stuff. It never ends well. You get crazy ideas in your head and I can never rein you in.”
“Do you know what we should do?”
“Oh, no,” Jake complained, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“We should follow the professor tonight and see where he goes,” Ally said. “We might be able to catch him in the act.”
“No.”
“It will be fun,” Ally said. “It’s not like we can do anything else until I feel better.”
“No.” Jake was firm.
“We might be able to solve this case and give Mandy and James a happy ending starting tomorrow morning,” Ally said. “We’ll be heroes.”
“No.”
“I’m going to pinch you until you say yes,” Ally warned.
“That’s not going to … ow! Fine,” Jake said, rolling off the couch. “You’re vicious sometimes, angel.”
“If you’re good I’ll … entertain … you in the truck while we’re watching Professor Barnes.”
Despite himself, Jake was intrigued. “How?”
Ally smiled devilishly. “I’ll tell you how while we’re in the shower … together.”
“HOLY … wow.” Jake clenched Ally’s apple-shaped bottom as she stiffened on top of him, her forehead dropping to his as she sucked in a steadying breath. “Okay, this was totally worth it,” Jake muttered, kissing her chin.
“I feel a lot better,” Ally agreed, licking his neck as she rested against him for a moment.
“I’m glad, angel.”
They were sitting in Jake’s truck outside of Professor Barnes’ house. They knew he was inside because he occasionally walked in front of the bay window in his living room. He was on the phone with someone, and Jake was convinced he would be leaving soon.
After an hour of watching the professor do nothing, Ally got bored and decided to fulfill her promise and entertain Jake. They both were definitely entertained – even though they were only partially naked.
Ally moved to climb off Jake’s lap, but he stilled her with a soft kiss. “I guess that was just as good as a picnic.”
“It wasn’t anywhere near as good,” Ally said. “I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”
“You don’t need to make anything up to me,” Jake said. “Life with you is an adventure. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
“I love you, Jake.” Ally’s eyes were somber.
“I love you, my angel.”
After two more minutes of cuddling, Jake allowed Ally to move to her own seat. He shimmied his jeans back up and buttoned them, all the while keeping an eye on Professor Barnes’ house. “Duck, angel.”
Ally didn’t argue and did as she was told. A pair of flashlights flashed on Jake’s truck as a vehicle backed out of a driveway and continued down the road.
“Is that Barnes?”
“Yup. Put your seatbelt on.”
Jake fired up the truck and followed Barnes down the street, seamlessly merging with Gratiot traffic and following him toward the M-59 corridor.
“Where do you think he’s going?” Ally asked, tugging her own pants up and fastening them. “By the way, do I have great timing or what?”
Jake grinned. If someone had told him a year ago he would’ve been happy spending a Saturday night having truck sex with a beautiful brunette and then shadowing a cooking professor who may be serial killer, he would’ve called them crazy. Life was funny, and yet he’d never been more content. “You’re the best, angel.”
“Is he heading back toward the campus?” Ally asked, narrowing her eyes and leaning forward as she watched Barnes navigate his car to the far left lane so he could pull into the turnaround lane.
“That’s what it looks like, doesn’t it?”
Jake followed, keeping another vehicle between him and Barnes to cut down on suspicion should the cagey professor recognize his truck. “When we get to the college, I want you to promise me that you’re going to lock yourself in this truck and not get out for anything while I follow him.”
“No.”
“Ally … .”
“You’ll look suspicious if you follow him alone,” Ally said, stubbornly crossing her arms over her chest. “If we go together we can pretend we’re just a couple in love and make out.”
Jake groaned. “You just want to make out. Admit it.”
“We just had sex,” Ally said.
“Fine,” Jake said, giving in. He’d rather have her with him than worry about her anyway. “You can come with me.”
“And if I want to make out, you’re darned well going to make out.”
“Yes, angel.”
“ARE you sure?” James asked, leaning forward in his armchair and snagging Mandy around the waist so he could pull her to his lap as she walked by.
“I’m sure,” Jake said. “We followed him back to the campus and he met a female student there.”
“He had sex with her in your cooking classroom,” Ally said, making a face as she regarded Mandy. “I would sterilize your utensils very carefully the next time you’re in there.”
James opened his mouth, a smart retort about how Mandy was never returning to the class on the tip of his tongue, and then he wisely snapped his trap shut. There was nothing in this world that could make him have that argument right now. “How old was the student?”
Jake shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m going to guess twenty.”
“And you’re sure they were having sex?”
“I know what sex looks like,” Jake said dryly.
“We had it in his truck while we were on our stakeout,” Ally said, grin
ning lazily.
“My baby sister, ladies and gentleman,” James grumbled.
Mandy patted his cheek. “You’ll be okay.”
James kissed the palm of her hand, relieved she seemed to be mostly recovered from her hangover and still wanted to touch him. “I’m going to let it go for now, but only because we have bigger things to worry about.”
“Thank you.”
James turned back Jake. “What happened after they finished?”
“Well, two minutes after he started he was done,” Jake said.
“He’s not joking,” Ally said. “He was like a two-stroke maniac.”
“Then the student took off. I followed Barnes, just to be on the safe side, but after checking something on his computer he got back in his car and went home,” Jake said.
“So he called this student, made a rendezvous, had really short sex, and then just went home?”
“Pretty much.”
“What do you think about that?”
“I think he’s definitely having sex with anyone who will put out,” Jake said. “I don’t know if he’s a killer, though. He seems like a complete and total tool. He had plenty of opportunity to kill that girl tonight – or, he did as far as he knew – and he didn’t seem overt or menacing at all.”
“Maybe he didn’t kill her because he saw you,” Mandy suggested.
“He didn’t see us,” Jake said. “Every time he even came close to looking in our direction, Ally dragged me into a corner and made me make out with her. Even if he did see us, he probably thought we were horny students on the make rather than investigators following him.”
“Nice,” James said.
“I try.”
“I’m not sure where that leaves us,” James said.
“Me either,” Jake said. “I … .”
“Omigod!” Ally jumped off the couch and practically mowed Jake over to get him to move out of her way as she scampered to the far end of the room. “You showed it to him.” She picked up the painting and displayed it for Jake’s benefit. “I told you it was awesome.”
“That is pretty good,” Jake said, moving closer to Ally so he could study it. “This is nice.”
“I want one,” Ally said. “If I give you a photo of Jake and me, can you do one for my house? I’ll buy the canvas and paints.”
“I … um … .” Mandy looked conflicted.
James rubbed her back, watching her face closely as she grappled with the request. “How come Ally knows about that painting? You hid it from me and showed it to her?”
“I didn’t show it to her,” Mandy said.
“I snooped,” Ally said. “People shouldn’t close closets when I’m around. That always means they’re hiding something.”
James rolled his eyes and kissed Mandy’s cheek. “You don’t have to answer her now. I know you want time to … decompress.”
“I’ll do it.”
“Seriously? Just like that?” James couldn’t get a handle on where her head was.
“I want to finish a second painting,” Mandy said. “If I promise to do it for Ally, I’ll have no choice.”
James rubbed his chin, considering. “That actually makes sense.”
“I always make sense,” Mandy said.
“She does,” Ally agreed.
“I guess it’s good you two were too drunk to remember some of the nonsense you were spouting last night,” Jake said.
“Be quiet or I’m going to pull you into a corner and make you kiss me,” Ally warned.
“If you do that I’m going to beat you,” James said.
“This is a rough family,” Jake said. “I either get threatened with kisses or punches.”
Mandy rested her cheek against James’ and smiled. “It’s a good family, though.”
“It is indeed, baby,” James said, kissing her softly.
Twenty-One
“What are we doing?” Mandy asked, eyeing James warily as he led her down to the kitchen Sunday morning. “Are you going to make me do something dirty?”
“First off, I never make you do anything,” James said. “I always ask nicely.”
“You usually use your tongue.”
“That is asking nicely,” James said, tousling her hair affectionately. “I plan on begging you with my tongue later.”
“For what?”
“You’ll see,” James said. “I have a whole day planned for us.”
“But it’s Sunday,” Mandy whined. “I thought we would just hang around naked together all day.”
James grinned. “Nudity is going to play into our day. Don’t worry. I just have a few activities I want to do together while we’re naked.”
“Okay, but if I don’t have at least four orgasms I’m going to be mad at you all week.”
“Baby, don’t sell yourself short,” James said. “If you don’t have six orgasms today I’m going to be mad at myself all week.”
Mandy smiled and rolled to the balls of her feet so she could kiss him. “If I didn’t think you were the best husband in the world before … .”
“You’re not allowed to finish that sentence for at least ten hours,” James said, ushering her into the kitchen. “Our first stop of the day is going to be the kitchen.”
“You know that we’ve done it on a table the last two times, right? Are you in a rut?”
James scowled. “Nice.”
Mandy pinched his rear. “Maybe you can be on the bottom this time so we can shake things up.”
“We’re not doing it in here,” James said, grumbling something that sounded suspiciously like “rut, my ass” under his breath. “We’re cooking breakfast in here.”
“Do you want me to make you an omelet?” Mandy asked.
“No, I want you to teach me how to make an omelet so we can do it together,” James replied.
“You do?”
“Yup.”
“Why?”
“Why are you so suspicious, wife?” James asked.
“I … you’re right. That’s not fair. I guess I’m just touchy when it comes to cooking.”
“That’s why we’re doing it together,” James said. “Everything we’re doing today is going to be together.”
“Okay,” Mandy said. “We’ll make breakfast together.”
“We’re doing other stuff together, too,” James said.
“I draw the line at going to the bathroom with you,” Mandy warned.
“Sometimes I forget what a prude you are,” James said, leaning down so he could kiss her. “Get everything we need to make an omelet. I’ll get the bowls.”
“Okay. If this goes badly, though, I’m blaming you.”
“That’s why I’m here.”
“THAT was kind of fun,” Mandy admitted, loading the last of the dishes into the dishwasher and closing the door.
“It was,” James agreed. “I especially liked the part where you told me I was chopping the tomato wrong and took the knife away from me.”
“The pieces were too big.”
“I thought you liked them big,” James teased.
Mandy pinched his side. “You’re really going out of your way to be charming today, aren’t you?”
“You haven’t seen anything yet, wife,” James said.
“Oh, right, you’re little list,” Mandy said. “What’s next on our agenda?”
James looked Mandy’s tiny sleep shorts and tank top up and down. “Do you care what happens to that outfit?”
“I wouldn’t call it an outfit.”
“I mean … do you care if it gets ruined?”
“Are we going to mud wrestle?”
James’ eyes sparkled. “Would you be willing to do that?”
“Mud wrestle with you?” Mandy tilted her head to the side, considering. “I guess. I’m not doing it naked, though. I don’t want dirt getting … there.”
“Prude.” James put his hand to the small of Mandy’s back and started herding her toward the sliding glass door. “Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
“The guesthouse.”
“Are we going to do it on top of the pool table? Is that how you’re going to shake up your rut?”
“If you say ‘rut’ one more time I’m going to have to throw a flag on the play and interrupt our day to rut your ass off,” James said.
“See, that’s not much of a threat,” Mandy said, smirking.
James loved the look on her face. She was in full “tease” mode, and he was willing to play the game as long as she was enjoying it. “I’ll work on my torture techniques. Now, move.”
Mandy let James lead her to the guesthouse. Instead of stopping in the kitschy saloon on the first floor, though, he climbed the stairs to her studio loft. Once they were in the room, Mandy glanced around dubiously. “You want to do it here? Okay, but you have to be on the bottom. The carpet in here is really rough and I don’t want to explain rug burn at work tomorrow.”
“I … we’ll talk about the rug burn later,” James said. “We’re here for another reason.”
“What?”
“We’re going to paint.”
Mandy stilled, her heart flopping with an emotion she couldn’t identify. “What?”
“We’re going to paint, baby,” James said. “We’re going to sit down on the floor with a fresh canvas and we’re going to create something together.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to see you work,” James said, fighting the panic clawing through his chest. He was terrified he was going to push her too far. “I want to spend the entire afternoon doing a project together.”
“But … you don’t like to paint.”
“You don’t know that,” James said. “I don’t know that. I’ve never painted anything before. I do know I love spending time with you. You love to paint. We’re going to paint together.”
James moved to the stack of empty canvases in the corner and picked a medium-sized one and brought it back over to the middle of the room. He braced the canvas against the wall and grabbed the tackle box that housed all of Mandy’s paints and brushes.
He sat on the floor and glanced up at her, waiting.
Her heart-shaped face was bare of makeup. Her hair was still a mess because they hadn’t showered yet. Her eyes were clouded as they bounced between him and the canvas. Finally, she sat down on the floor next to him and wrestled the tackle box from his lap. “What do you want to paint?”
Deadly Storm Page 16
