Star Quality

by Lori Foster, Lucy Monroe

  That seemed to get his attention. He looked up at her.

  “That’s not good,” he said. His hands circled around her bare thighs right below her shorts. Her heart raced back into the danger zone, and her mouth went dry.

  “I’m working on a case for Cal; that’s where I was tonight. His client owns the motel by the expressway, and things are getting stolen. New hot tubs, in-room refrigerators, light fixtures, and things like that.”

  His hands inched inside her shorts, and she nearly swallowed her tongue.

  “Jerry’s the one doing the stealing, and he’s screwing around with the night desk clerk. Guess that’s how he finds where stuff is and what’s coming in.”

  “He’s cheating on Bridge?”

  Marc cupped Julia’s derriere in his palms, and she gasped as his fingers pressed into her soft cheeks. His eyes brightened with passion as he continued, “We have to tell Bridget. She deserves to know.”

  Bridget? Who’s Bridget?

  His fingers hooked under her panties, connecting with her bare flesh and setting her insides blazing. “Bridget’s not going to believe you,” Julia said, forcing her brain to function. “She’s in love with Jerry more than ever. Maybe I can lock her in a closet till she gets over it, and ohmygod, Marc, what are you doing?” she gasped as his palms held her bottom but his fingers met at the juncture of her legs.

  “Kidnapping’s against the law.” His fingers stroked her sensitive lips, opening her as she bit back a moan of pure delight.

  “Even for a good cause?” she managed to get out as his fingers pressed inside, making her legs part and her insides shiver with each stroke.

  “The courts won’t see it that way. We’ll talk to Bridget together. I’ll lay out the facts.” His fingers found her clit, and she nearly collapsed into his lap. “You’re so wet for me, Julia. So ready. You want me as much as I want you.” He gently stroked her swollen folds. “I want to finish this for you, babe.”

  “But Bridget. We have to think of her and—”

  “Jerry’s preoccupied right now with the desk clerk. We have…time, and we won’t need all that much of it.”

  “Garden shed?” She panted, her brain surrounded in a cloud of Marc and sex and one hot summer night. “Around back.”

  He took his fingers from her, making her fragile from unfulfilled desire. He grabbed her hand and led her down the steps. Keeping to the shadows, they made for the back of the house. Julia opened the door to the green shed, the smell of rich soil and plants washing over them. Moonlight filled the room. She closed the door quickly as Marc worked the button and zipper of her shorts, then dropped them to the floor in a soft swoosh.

  She undid his trousers, and he sat down on a bench. Their gazes fusing, desire was nearly palatable in the little space as he slid on a condom. She straddled him, bracing her arms on his shoulders. Her heart hammered, his hands stroked over her hips, and she slowly eased herself onto him.

  She gasped, his eyes blazed, his breathing harder, faster, her insides melting.

  “Oh, Julia.” He whispered her name as his erection opened her, taking possession of her.

  She paused, and his eyes widened. “Julia?”

  She straightened her legs, taking herself from him. “What are you doing?” he asked on a ragged breath, running the words together.

  “I’m giving us pleasure. Making this last.”

  “I don’t think I can make anything last right now.”

  “Try.” She lowered herself again, her own climax mounting with every movement, every inch of him penetrating deep inside her. She pulled back again, her body aching for his return. His jaw clenched; sweat glistened across his forehead. His hands at her waist tightened; his eyes dilated. “You are an incredible lover.”

  She brought her mouth to his, savoring his tongue and lips while she lowered herself yet again. Marc filling her, completely overwhelming her as all her senses now focused on him and making love with him. Inch by inch, his throbbing hardness slid into her, soft, wet and hot, sending orgasms pumping through her as they finally came together.

  Her head slumped onto his shoulder, her heart thumping wildly. She gulped air to calm it as Marc stroked her hair and her back, his own breathing tattered and shallow. Heat from their lovemaking filled the shed, making her slick with perspiration and dizzy from the experience.

  “I can’t get enough of you, Julia. After I make love to you, all I can think about is doing it again and again.” His gaze met hers. “In all my life, I’ve never been this obsessed with a woman.” He pressed his lips to hers. “And I don’t want it to end.”

  She kissed him back, her heart squeezing tight knowing it would end very soon. “We have to help Bridget. She’s planning on giving Jerry money for his business. Her retirement fund. She already gave him some of it.”

  “Will there ever be a time when we can make love and not have to go running off someplace right afterward?” He looked around. “How do we wind up in such bizarre places?”

  “Frantic desperation.” She grinned and brushed her lips over his, then stood, easing herself from him, already missing the connection, the lovemaking.

  She looked back to Marc. His eyes wide, a wolfish grin on his lips, obvious desire mounting once more.

  Holding up her hands she took a step away. “Don’t even think it!”

  “You’re right,” he said on a dejected sigh. “We have work to do, and it can’t wait. After Bridget hears what we have to say she’ll change her mind about Jerry.”

  “No, she won’t.”

  Marc gave her an incredulous look. “Why not? She’s smart; she’ll get it.”

  “It’s a moon thing.”

  He shook his head. “What’s the moon got to do with anything except tides?”

  She raked her hair from her face and paced the little room. “I should tell you what’s going on. You have a right to know what’s happening to you and why. It’ll make it easier for both of us. I know it’s not going to make much sense, and I didn’t mean for it to happen, but it did. I have no idea why, not really, but it works, and now you’re in a mess and so is Bridget and it’s all my fault and I haven’t the faintest clue what to do about any of it, or how to get out of it right now, so we’re stuck till tomorrow at midnight.” She stopped pacing and held out her hands. “Now you know.”

  “Have you been drinking?”

  “That’s one solution.”

  He stood and took her into his arms. “I have no idea what you just said, but we’ll work it out together, I swear it. All I know is I want you to be part of my life, Julia, and I don’t care who knows about it. No more boathouses, no more coatrooms. Just us together.”

  “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

  “You’re right. I’m under your influence, and it has nothing to do with the moon. It’s all you, and I can’t even think straight. I care for you, Julia.” His eyes darkened, and a soft smile touched his face. “I’m falling in love with you.”

  She froze, his words crashing down around her like a bucket of ice water poured over her head. With all her heart, she wanted to believe him because that’s the way she felt, too. But it was a lie…one big fat moonstruck lie…at least on his part. She’d wished for sex with Marc, not love, but how could he distinguish between the two? He didn’t know what was going on. In twenty-four hours he’d go running back to Cleveland, wondering what happened to scramble his brain in Delicious, Ohio.

  “Did you hear what I said? I love you. I’ve never said that to a woman before.”

  Her heart cracked a little. “We’ll talk later.”

  “Later?” He looked into her eyes. “I pledge my love and you say later?”

  “It’s the moon, Marc.”

  “Bullshit. I know how I feel, and the moon has nothing to do with it.”

  This was crazy. He was not listening to her. She needed something to put him off until he wised up on his own. The more they were together, the deeper their attraction, and the more it wou
ld hurt when he left. “I just got divorced. I have a lot going on in my life. I need time to adjust to your feelings for me. You caught me off guard. Can we discuss it later? Bridget talked about eloping with Jerry.”

  He pulled Julia into his arms, her damp, naked body tight to his, the sensual experience the stuff dreams are made of. “This isn’t over, Julia,” he ground out, a no-nonsense look in his eyes. “You love me, too. I can feel it with every part of my body and my heart. But something’s in the way, and you passing it off on the moon makes no sense at all.” He kissed her, then let her go.

  An uneasy silence stretched between them as she pulled on her shorts. She hated that silence. She wanted the camaraderie, the easy talk and banter they shared. It’s what made the relationship unique and special. And when he left her for good, she’d miss him terribly.

  Julia followed Marc back across the yard to the porch and peeked in the window to check on Bridget. Knitting lay on the sofa, no humming, all lights on, door ajar.

  She turned to Marc. “Good grief, Bridget’s gone! What the heck do we do now?”

  Six

  “We’ll find her,” Marc said, moonlight slipping through the leaves, falling around him in a soft halo, making him more handsome than any man has a right to be. “If she’s as crazy about Jerry as you say she is, she’s probably gone after him.”

  “To ruin her life for evermore,” Julia huffed. “I bet she’s on her way to that motel site right now. She thinks Jerry’s working late on a job and that’s why he doesn’t spend more time with her.”

  Julia grabbed Marc’s hand. “I just hope she doesn’t have much of a head start on us. We have to save her.”

  What to do? Julia wondered as she and Marc made for the car. She could wish Jerry not in love with Bridget, but it wouldn’t matter. He didn’t love her anyway or he wouldn’t be cheating. He’d just keep faking that he cared about her till he got his grubby hands on her money.

  “I’ll drive,” Julia volunteered. “I know the roads better.”

  “And I can call Cal and tell him what’s going on. The motel owner is his client. He can catch Jerry redhanded and consider pressing charges. That should make Bridget see Jerry for a sleaze.”

  That’s it, Julia realized. The answer to her problems. She turned the ignition, and Marc punched the numbers on his cell. She did a u-ee in the middle of Jonathan and tore down the street.

  If good old Cal fell for Bridget, at least for the next day, maybe he could keep her from marrying Jerry and handing over her savings. If he really, really had the hots for her, he’d at least get in the way of her plans, right? Maybe scare Jerry off. Cal was handsome enough and a good attorney. Very persuasive. With all that going for him he’d have no trouble convincing Bridget she was in love with him, not Jerry, and Cal could talk her out of the money fiasco. It was worth a try. Julia couldn’t think of anything else at the moment.

  She drove faster. Marc still talked to Cal. Besides, what was the harm of one more wish? This time tomorrow everything would get back to normal. Bridget would be rational, and Julia could reason with her. Cal could go back to being friendly old Cal, and Marc would still turn her on with one look, but he wouldn’t care because he’d be back in Cleveland.

  Course she’d care a heck of a lot, but this whole mess was her doing in the first place, so there was no one else to blame. She’d have to deal with the consequences as best she could.

  Marc continued his conversation, both hands in a white-knuckled grip, one on the phone and the other on the door handle, his version of city boy does two-lane country roads. Julia glanced at the moon. Okay, it was now or never. She muttered, “I wish Cal would fall head over heels in love with Bridget right now and pursue her till he had her for his own.”

  She let out a hopeful sigh as Marc’s eyes widened and he said to Cal, “Really? I had no idea you cared for Bridget in that way.”

  He took the phone from his ear and stared at it. “Cal cut me off. Said he was going after Bridget. Was going to have wild unbridled sex with her if it took him all night to persuade her he was the man for her.”

  Marc wagged his head. “I didn’t know Cal felt any of those things for Bridget.”

  Neither did he, Julia thought, keeping it to herself since Marc was in no mood for her moon theory. “Gee, this is a lucky turn of events,” she said innocently, dodging a deer bounding across the road. “With us telling Bridget about Jerry and all his shenanigans, and Cal making amorous advances to Bridget, maybe she won’t sign over her life’s savings to Jerry or marry him.”

  “And,” Marc added, leveling Julia a steady look. “After we take care of Bridget and her problems, we’ll deal with our own.” He gritted his teeth as she dodged an opossum glaring into the headlights. “Course, it would be nice if we lived long enough to have that conversation.”

  Marc dropped his phone on the console so he could hold on with two hands as Julia fretted. “What if Bridget and Jerry already eloped to Vegas and we’re too late?”

  “It’s not going to happen till she forks over the money and probably not even then. From what I could see through binoculars tonight, old Jerry and the night clerk were going at it pretty hot and heavy in the lobby. I can imagine what was going on behind the desk. Marriage to Bridget is not on that man’s mind, but money and sex sure are.”

  “I’m going to kill him dead! How could he do that to Bridget!” Julia seethed. She swung into the parking lot at the lit sign by the red brick motel, her headlights picking out Bridget and Cal standing close. They both looked around as Julia pulled the car to a screeching stop beside Cal’s car—lights still on and door wide open—parked in the middle of the lot beside Bridget’s car.

  Marc said, “Does everybody around here drive like a lunatic?”

  “It’s in all Midwest genes.” Julia threw open the door and ran for Bridget, getting between her and Cal. She gave Bridget a hug and said, “I’m so glad to see you. I thought you might have eloped.”

  “See,” Bridget said to Cal, pointing at Julia after she let her go. “It’s like I’ve been telling you for the last five minutes; everyone knows I’m crazy about my stud-muffin, Jerry. I’m flattered you find me attractive and want to get to know me better, but I already have my big hunk-of-man just waiting for me here hard at work.”

  Cal looked totally forlorn, then rallied and assumed his best lawyer stance. “I object. I’m the man for you, Bridget my love. I didn’t realize that till tonight. It just dawned on me, but you must give me a chance to prove myself. I can be a stud-muffin, too.”

  Cal the stud? Marc had never heard him talk like that, even during their days on the force.

  “But I’m engaged to Jerry,” Bridget implored. “Surely you understand that?”

  “And where is exhibit ‘A’?” Cal asked with an edge of courtroom authority as he held up Bridget’s left hand. “No ring to submit in evidence. Your protest is overruled, my most lovely Bridget.”

  Julia added, “Listen to him, Bridge. Cal’s really crazy about you. Jerry’s just after you for your money.”

  Bridget gasped, looked horrified, and gave Julia a squinty-eyed look. She wagged her school teacher finger. “That’s not true. How can you say such a terrible thing? Jerry loves me, wants to marry me and—”

  “And wants you to withdraw your savings and give it to him?” Julia added.

  Cal said, “Bridget, please don’t give your money away. If you would allow me to take you to dinner and discuss profitable investments and then—”

  “I need to find Jerry.” Bridget glanced around as the short, blond, twenty-something clerk came out of the motel lobby. She looked from one to the other. “Hi, I’m Dolly Mitchell. Can I help you all with something? Even though we’re under construction we are open for business, and we have some vacant rooms and a very nice breakfast bar in the morning.”

  Bridget said, “I’m looking for Jerry Price. He’s the foreman for this job.” Bridget sashayed her hips. “He’s my fiancé. We’re going t
o be married tonight. We’re going to elope.”

  Dolly took a step back, her cheeks pale. “Fiancé? Jerry? You can’t be serious. Wh…where’s your ring?”

  “I rest my case,” Cal said, looking totally pleased.

  Bridget tisked. “Okay, so I don’t have a ring. Big deal, but I love my honey-lamb.” She said to Dolly, “Do you know where Jerry is?”

  Dolly’s eyes narrowed, and she folded her arms, matching Cal’s stance. “More than I want to. He’s in room 309…getting a shower.”

  Bridget giggled like a schoolgirl. “Guess he needs it from all our excitement earlier. He sure knows how to pleasure a woman.”

  “Pleasure, you?” Dolly huffed, her eyes angry.

  “And there is my dreamboat now,” Bridget cooed as Jerry rounded the building. He spied the gathering and stopped dead in his tracks. Then he turned and ran in the opposite direction, and Marc gave chase.

  “Now you all went and scared him,” Marc heard Bridget say as he took off. How could she be so damn gullible? She was a teacher, an educated woman. Marc poured on the speed and cornered Jerry by his truck. “Going somewhere, Price?”

  Jerry raked back his still-damp hair. “Let me go, man. Those women are going to eat me alive.”

  “I know. And I’m damn happy to be here to witness it. Should be quite a show.”

  Jerry took a swing at Marc, but he snagged his arm, turned Jerry around, and put handcuffs on him.

  “What the hell’s this for?” Jerry bellowed as Marc marched him toward the others. “Screwing two bimbos at once is no crime.”

  “Bimbos?” Marc felt his blood pressure jump. “I’m sure Bridget and Dolly will love to know what you really think of them.”

  “Hey, give me a break.”

  “Think I’ll leave the breaking to the ladies.” Marc led Jerry around front and presented him to Dolly and Bridget. “Meet the man who’s been keeping both of you happy. I’m calling the owner to see what he wants to do with this guy.”