by Lisa G Riley
“Don’t you stonewall me, boy. You still got feelings for her, I know it. You young people always make things more complicated than they have to be. I don’t see why you don’t just snatch her up and be done with it.”
Smith didn’t say anything and let his uncle continue his rant to the accompaniment of his silence. He rose again and took his dish to the sink where he washed it and his silverware. He grabbed a bottle of Shiner Bock from the refrigerator and a bag of nacho chips from a cabinet. As he passed his uncle’s chair, he bent and kissed his naked head, an action which made Rowdy make a disgruntled sound and wipe at his shiny pate. “That was a great meal, Unc,” Smith said with a grin. “Just what I needed on a night like tonight. I’m going to watch the game. You comin’?” He left the kitchen.
Chapter Fourteen
Lily slammed her front door shut behind her and walking into the living room, dropped her purse onto the sofa and slumped down next to it. She didn’t want to admit it, but simply had to. She was stalled on her case. It was Thursday and she hadn’t a single lead – everything she’d had had fizzled out. “At least they have in Sheffield-Chatham, anyway,” she muttered, knowing without a doubt that she’d have to make a trip to Chicago.
She dreaded sending Mrs. Landry her daily report, and thought about taking the chicken’s way out and not following up with a phone call once she sent over the electronic version. She rose and took off her coat. It was one o’clock and she’d stopped home for lunch after spending the first part of the morning at the beauty parlor with her mother and the latter half knocking on doors and asking people if they’d seen Mr. Landry. “What a waste,” she muttered as she stepped into the kitchen. She hadn’t even made it into the office. Quincy was there and she’d talked to him, telling him to put any calls through to her cell phone. She hadn’t gotten a single call.
Her mother had insisted she come with her to the beautician’s because she felt only Lily knew the right questions to ask to get the answers she needed. Lily had spoken to several women, catching them as they came in for their appointments. Only two were able to offer what Lily thought of as semi-salient information. Aurora Jones and Cathy Spander had told her that the Landrys had had a temporary separation as recently as two years before. She hadn’t been able to tell Lily the reason why, but there was speculation that Mrs. Landry had been overspending and that in an effort to curb the habit, he’d had her credit cards canceled. Well, she’d high-tailed it back to Chicago, which was where, they speculated, she really wanted to be anyway.
No one knew for sure if that were true, but Lily felt it was worth looking into. She pulled leftover pizza from two nights before from the refrigerator to nuke in the microwave. As the sausage and mushroom pie heated, she leaned against the counter to mentally review what she had. She’d spent two hours going floor to floor in two of the high rises showing Landry’s picture and asking if anyone had seen him last Friday. It had been a monumental waste of time. She had gotten zip.
She had yet to talk to Landry’s friends from the club, but she had spoken to their wives. “They were about as helpful as a couple of turnips,” she said aloud in disgust and took her two slices out of the microwave.
Carrying the pizza into the dining room, she decided that she’d make a diagram detailing everything and after putting her plate on the table, went back to her purse and grabbed her pen and pad. “I bet you Smith has got the damned thing half way solved by now.” She felt some self-pity and allowed herself to wallow a bit. She’d gone to see her cousin John again on Wednesday and he’d basically stonewalled her for the next twenty hours. When he finally did talk to her, he told her that she’d have to talk to Smith because he didn’t feel right sharing such personal information about a citizen with two non-relatives.
“That was a bunch of bull,” Lily said between bites of pizza. She hadn’t gotten around to calling Smith yet, but figured she had to if she wanted the information. “Or better yet…Lily, you idiot!” she accused as she realized getting the information might be as simple as picking up the phone and asking Mrs. Landry to tell John it was okay to share it with her. “Or even better,” she said again with sudden clarity, “I could see if she has the information I need.” Feeling better now, she took a more enthusiastic bite of her pizza. It was a small battle won and she didn’t even know if the information would help, but she still felt better.
Humming now, she finished sketching out her diagram. She’d taken a few bites of a second slice of pizza when the doorbell rang. She opened the door and narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “You,” she said in a clipped tone.
Smith grinned and walked past her and into the house. “Now is that any way to treat your savior?”
Lily shut the door and followed him into the living room. She watched him amble along in front of her in his jeans and cowboy boots and her mouth went bone dry. She couldn’t take a big juicy bite out of him like she wanted, so she took a bite of pizza.
“Explain,” she told him once she swallowed. “And count yourself lucky that I don’t scratch your eyes out over that little stunt you pulled the other day with Mrs. Popkin.”
He took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair, and a shocking bolt of lust shot through her system, making her shudder and almost moan out loud. In response, she quickly took another bite of pizza.
Still smiling, Smith took off his leather jacket to reveal a thick, black, cable knit mock-turtleneck sweater with a short front zipper that darkened his already dark blue eyes even more and played off the shine of his black hair. She swallowed loudly.
Smith was in the process of draping the coat across the back of a chair when he heard her gulp and caught wind of the look on her face. His eyes narrowed and the jacket dropped to the floor. He inclined his head towards the pizza. “That looks good,” he murmured as he took the two steps necessary to get close. “May I?”
Seeming unable to speak, Lily nodded. She was still holding the pizza near her mouth and she gasped when he simply leaned in to take a bite, his lips rubbing against hers.
He raised his head to look at her. She was his, had always been and he didn’t know if he’d ever get enough of her sweet, addictive taste. All he knew was that he had to have her, and have her now. “I was thinking, sweetness,” he said in a low voice after he’d swallowed the pizza, “that you and I could team up,” he whispered as he nipped in for another bite of both the pizza and her bottom lip. He snaked an arm around her so that his hand landed on the small of her back and urged her closer. Lily went willingly, her mouth open now as she tried to catch his tongue. “We’d be so good together,” he continued and nicked the last bite of pizza from between her fingers, “on the case and in bed. No strings.”
Lily grasped his face and pulled his mouth down to hers. He chuckled and even though he’d been ready for such an impatient move from her, he still felt relief that she even felt desire as his mouth opened over hers greedily. He didn’t bother to tease or woo her this time; he pulled her tongue into his mouth and sucked on it until she came up on her toes and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck.
The kiss was voracious and using lips, teeth and tongue, he soon had her squirming against him in an effort to get closer. “That’s right, baby,” he said growling, when finally, she simply gripped his shoulders and boosted herself up so she could wrap her legs around his waist. He moved his hands underneath her thighs to support her weight, and still kissing her, moved to the chair and sat with her straddling him.
Lily opened her eyes to look down at him. “I’m so glad you came to your senses,” she said as she traced his lips with her finger. He licked the digit before sucking it into his mouth and she bit her lower lip and closed her eyes in response. He growled. She’d always been so damned responsive to his touch. Placing his hands underneath her sweater, he began to push it up, revealing the smooth brown skin he loved so much inch by inch until she raised her arms so he could pull it over her head and toss it aside.
Seeing her small, lace-
covered breasts made him want to plunder and he swallowed to quench a suddenly dry throat. He stared appreciatively at the delicate globes. They were no more than a handful, yet he’d gorged himself on them the last time they’d made love. The nipples began to harden and elongate and growling low in his throat, he bent to take one between his lips, sucking it like it was manna from heaven.
Whimpering, she widened her thighs to grind against his cock. He pulled her closer and took her nipple between his teeth, making her fall against him and wrap her arms around his head and in the process surrounding him with her fresh scent. “Please,” she begged and he tightened his grip on her torso, feeling greedy as the taste of her filled his mouth.
“Smith!” The cry broke from her throat, the desperate sound of it only making him want to take more. He unzipped her jeans and slipped his hand into her panties, groaning again at the dampness that immediately engulfed his hand. “You’re so wet,” he said in a low voice as he felt his cock strain against his pants. He tunneled two fingers through her heated folds and suddenly they were there pushing inside of her, stretching her wide. Her hands clenched on his shoulders and her sheath closed tightly around his fingers as her hips began a mad pistoning rhythm and she begged him some more as her voice faded into nothing. He lifted his head to look at her. With her eyes closed, her skin flushed and head thrown back, she was the picture of ecstasy. “Come for me, Lily. I want to feel you on my fingers.”
She screamed, her voice breaking, and came hard, her back and neck arching in unison. His name flew from her mouth on a sob and as the wildness began to leave her, she fell against him, panting and moaning as she began to come down.
“Again,” he whispered hoarsely and pulling her other nipple into his mouth, began to take her right back up again, using his hand to pull her jeans and panties down around her thighs. His fingers were still furiously plunging inside of her while he sucked hard on her nipple, drawing it deeper and deeper into his mouth. He found her clit with his thumb and strummed a beat that had her moaning in desperation.
“Oh, God, Smith! I-I-I can’t,” she breathed frantically. She came up on her knees now, digging them into the chair on either side of his hips and riding his hand like a mad woman. She cried out again, her head falling forward and her fingers clinching in his hair for purchase as another orgasm ripped through her and slammed her over the edge. She shuddered in his arms as she came down, and smiling, he rubbed her back soothingly and pressed a kiss in her hair before she nestled her head under his chin.
“You permanently wedded to this position, sweetness,” he asked her a little while later when she still hadn’t moved, “or do you plan on movin’ soon?” She continued to sit astride his lap half naked with her pants and underwear still around her thighs while she had her arms wrapped around his waist and her face buried in his neck. He cupped her naked behind and squeezed gently. “Not that the position doesn’t have its benefits, you understand,” he offered with another squeeze, “but we could do so much better, you and me.”
Snuggling deeper in his arms, she mumbled something he couldn’t hear.
He bent his head. “Hmm?” he asked tenderly, his lips pressed against her forehead.
She cleared her throat. “I said, not from where I’m sitting,” she repeated herself softly.
He burst out laughing. Her shoulders began to shake and he felt her laughter before he actually heard it. After a moment of this, she lifted her face to look at him and he laughed harder. She was grinning from ear to ear and both the grin and her gaze had a lingering tinge of mad pleasure and deep satisfaction. Saying nothing, she bent in to kiss him.
Smith accepted the languid, but explicit, kiss. “Feeling just a wee bit grateful, are we?” he asked after she’d given him one last lick around the rim of his lips.
Smiling again, she nodded vigorously, making him laugh harder before she cut the laughter off with another kiss.
“Well two orgasms will do that to a woman,” he murmured with pleasure when she once again broke off the kiss. When she only nodded again, he laughed some more, but the laughter quickly died when she tongued the sensitive spot behind his ear.
She unzipped his sweater and pressed her face inside. He felt her breathe in his scent, moaning and burrowing into his body more as she did so. She trembled against him, making him shudder from the intense intimacy of the move. He wrapped his arms around her and angling his head, rested the side of his face on the top of her head for a moment. “Ah, Lily-bud,” he got out, “the things you do to me.”
Her hands slipped underneath his sweater and he felt her tapered fingers pressing lightly and fondling his ribcage. The rough heat of her tongue contacted with his skin and he jumped reflexively, but she held him still and took her pleasure, licking and sucking a trail from his neck to his chest. Her mouth closed over his nipple and he felt her take it between her teeth. “Jesus,” he groaned, “reciprocity is a beautiful thing.”
She raised her head, but kept her eyes down. “I love your smell,” she told him dreamily as she pushed his sweater and T-shirt up so that they bunched at his armpits. Murmuring, she sucked his nipple back between her teeth. “You always smell so incredibly good.”
Smith pulled the garments off and held her head, his fingers massaging her scalp. He tightened his grip and grit his teeth when she scraped her nails lightly against the tautness of his belly and made his muscles jump. She slid from his lap to kneel between his thighs, always touching him in some way. Hands tangled in her hair now, he threw his head back when she trailed wet kisses down his torso, ending with a slow tongue of his navel. His belt was unbuckled, his zipper was unzipped and then her mouth was on the skin above the waistband of his boxers and his entire body tensed in anticipation.
She bit him.
“Aw, Jesus, Lil.” The words were tortured and came out in a hoarse whisper. She continued to bite, her mouth making deeper and deeper forays into his shorts. Smith writhed, knowing he was putty in her soft hands. The slick feel of her tongue on his pubis had him rushing up out of the chair. Reaching down, he grabbed her arm and brought her to her feet.
He pulled her into his arms and pressed a quick, hot kiss to her mouth, and looking at her passion-dazed face with her eyes closed at half-mast, kissed her again, more thoroughly. When he felt her hand slipping into his jeans again, he broke from the kiss and led her toward the sofa until they were standing behind it. The lust was surging through him now and frantic; he turned her around so that her back was to his front. “Lean over the couch, baby,” he told her and growled appreciatively when she obeyed without question. He yanked her jeans and panties farther down so that they were around her knees.
“I’m afraid I’m not gonna be able to help myself, sweetness,” he murmured as he stared at the rounded cheeks of her behind. He first palmed it, squeezing it and making a hungry sound, and then bending, bit into a cheek while tunneling two fingers through her slick vaginal lips to find her clit. She jerked and cried out, spasming against him and he licked and bit her again, this time sucking a bit at the skin. “Damn, Lily, you’re drenched.” Unable to resist, he rubbed her lips greedily, and adding his thumb, pressed her clit on every down stroke.
Whimpering, she bucked, pushing back so that her ass rubbed against his hand. “Smith!” she pleaded softly.
“It’s all right, baby, I’ll take care of you,” he promised and tugged his own pants and underwear down. He sheathed his engorged cock in the condom he’d ripped open after pulling it from his pocket. Placing a hand in the middle of her back to hold her in place and bending his knees, he watched as his dick disappeared beneath her ass cheeks to bury itself in her slit.
“Oh, yeah,” he said, his words barely coherent as he nestled himself inside her. He couldn’t hold back any longer and began thrusting into her. Over and over he invaded her body, losing himself to the feel of her sleek muscles clamping tightly over his cock and milking it greedily.
He withdrew…paused…entered…withdrew…paused
…entered…withdrew… paused
“Oh, God, Smith! Please!” Lily was sobbing now.
Eyes closed, he gripped her hips with both hands and entered her again. This time he took her slowly and leaning over, kissed the side of her neck before whispering in her ear, “Come for me again, baby.”
He growled when with a cry, she began to push back against him in desperate motions. Smith tightened his hold and began to control her movements as he thrust into her in a frenzy of excitement. She cried out again and turned her head to offer him her mouth. He took it, but then broke away to press his open mouth to the side of her neck to bite and suck at the skin, and slamming into her one last time, took them both gleefully over the edge.
Chapter Fifteen
“Smith? Smiiiiith…”
Smith blinked his eyes several times before finally lifting his lids to half-mast. They were in Lily’s bed where they’d eventually fallen into a pleasured heap after showering. He was on his back and had an arm wrapped around Lily, who had apparently awakened before him and was now intermittently drumming her fingers on his chest and pulling gently at the sparse hair there.
She leaned her head back to look up at him and he quickly shut his eyes…and was soon jerking away from her touch, and smarting from a sharp pain. “Ow!”
He looked over at her. She had moved away from him when he’d risen up on his forearms. She folded her arms and looked smugly at him. “I knew you were awake.”
“Jesus, Lil.”
“We need to talk,” she told him and when he continued to just stare at her, sighed impatiently and elaborated, “About the case.”
Smith shook his head, and then as quick as a snake, reached out and yanked her against his chest. He held on tighter when she struggled. “Be still, you spoiled little hell cat,” he demanded and whacked her hard on her behind with the flat of his hand, his palm connecting loudly with her naked flesh.
