“Don’t. I think Drew’s got a weapon.”
That didn’t worry her nearly as much as what Jake would do to Andrew. Assault would get him locked up for a while, and her timetable didn’t have room for that. The fact that she couldn’t get pregnant while he was held over didn’t bother her except that meant she wouldn’t be able to stay with him permanently. Forever was looking pretty good. She’d almost given up on forever.
She’d get out onto the roof. From there, she’d crawl along the ledge and find a sturdy drainpipe or tree to climb down, at least stay out of the way until the fire department arrived. Let Andrew and Donna explain why the only fire was a little bitty smoky one in a metal wastebasket.
She tossed her red heels out the window, and they bounced on the lawn. They were new, strappy, and sexy, and she still needed them to get Jake into bed. Next she peeled out of her stockings and swung one leg over the windowsill.
Jake yelled, “Stay there! Give me two minutes, just stay there?”
It was impossible to argue with someone who disappeared.
Too bad the faulty furnace had been at Cloud Nine instead of here. Donna deserved to have her precious house burn to the ground. A couple second- and third-degree burns would be justified. Something really painful but not life-threatening.
Finally, the shrieking alarm shut off. She didn’t know if Donna figured out how to silence it or what. Didn’t matter. What mattered was that she could hear Andrew banging on the hinges, loosening them.
Lilly glanced downward, measuring the distance to climb, the width of the ledge, the depth of the landing pile. She checked the rope—the curtains were anchored around the leg of a chair pressed against the wall— pulling and tugging on it to make sure it’d hold her weight. Even if the chair lifted off the floor, it wouldn’t fit through the window, so she felt okay about things on that end. Actually climbing down a bunch of knotted curtains was another matter entirely, but they only had to keep her from tumbling two stories into the thorny pyracanthas.
Leaning backward, she scrunched her other leg through the window, then wondered how she was supposed to hold on for dear life, turn around, and grab the curtains. She’d just eased onto her stomach and started to slide off when she heard boots thumping across the lower roof.
“Lilly!”
Her heart melted at the sound of Jake’s voice, her knight-on-a-white-steed to the rescue.
“Don’t move.”
“You better not have hurt yourself coming up here.”
Strong hands grasped her ankles. “I’m fine. Slide on down here, easy, I’ll catch you.”
“The ledge isn’t wide enough for both of us.”
“Don’t argue.” He tugged at her ankles.
She wiggled and slithered the rest of herself over the sill, feeling his hands slide up her legs, then her body, as she descended inside the circle of his strong arms. On the skinny ledge, Jake turned her and hugged her and nearly smothered her against his chest.
She didn’t care whether she could breathe. If he held her this way forever, if she felt this cherished forever, then all would be well.
Fire trucks roared up in front of the mansion. Lilly and Jake watched together, remembering a similar scene.
“We have to quit meeting like this.” His breath was hot on her ear, and he made her laugh.
“Promise.”
“Come on.” He took her hand and drew her carefully along the roof. “Don’t look down.”
She loved the way his voice was all rough and edgy and gave her goose bumps.
A subconscious sense of self-preservation forced her into a low crouch as she followed him, hand in hand, their steps slow because there was precious little moonlight on that side of the house to illuminate the way. They moved steadily onward until they reached the back of the house and the first-story covered porch that would provide a route down.
“Sit on the edge. I’ll lower you.” He never took his hands from her, touching her arms as he steered her, her body as she approached the copper gutter. Never had she felt so protected, so safe.
Peering over the edge as he inched her forward, she noted the more gently sloped roof below—far below, because the house was built with very high ceilings.
“What?” he said when she paused.
“How on earth did you get up here from there?”
“Guys with brains work out, too, you know. Chin-ups, push-ups, the whole works. Now sit.”
She dangled her legs over the edge, feeling cold copper against the backs of her thighs.
“Now just like you did up in the window, turn over onto your stomach, and I’ll lower you down.”
“Unless your arms telescope, I think we’re in trouble.”
“Shit, yours don’t do that?” He crouched on the roof behind her, still touching her at all times with his strong hands. “C’mon, honey, you can do it.”
She peered past her toes. “Is a smooth landing too much to hope for?”
“You ever crashed a landing yet?”
“No. Well, there was that one tiny incident when I was fifteen and overshot the end of the runway a little.”
“And to think I was considering flying with you. C’mon, don’t look down. Just turn around and flip over.”
Cautiously, she eased into position.
“Okay. Grab hold of this.” At least he’d been thinking ahead; he’d picked up one of the blankets she’d tossed out, and she hadn’t even noticed.
When he told her to slip off her perch, she trusted him completely.
Under cover of darkness, Jake and Lilly stood together beneath the widespread branches of an ancient oak tree, arguing Lilly’s options, which was the last thing Jake wanted to be doing right now. She wanted to march up to Donna and Andrew and punch out their lights. While Jake was somewhat in favor of this, he had something better in mind, if she’d just stop pacing—actually, stumbling over tree roots—and hear him out.
“See if I sell my house to her now.”
“Hey, listen—”
“I’ll donate it to the university myself, so there. As long as they give the rent to a needy cause—”
“Listen.” He grabbed her by the shoulders and held her directly in front of him so she’d have to focus on what he had to say.
Still, she clenched her jaw and swore. “I can take Donna, I know I can.”
“You know, you’re cute when you’re mad.”
She shifted from foot to foot, her hands tightly fisted. “She may work out, but she’s older’n me.”
Only one way Jake could think of to shut her up, only one way he wanted to. He framed her face between his hands and kissed her, just like that—no warning, no leading up to it, no giving her a chance to back off, just get it done.
It worked. Lilly froze in place, her gaze locked with his like a deer caught in headlights. She licked her lips, tasting where his had just been. For once she was speechless, couldn’t even manage a smile.
“Come on. Follow my lead.” He squeezed her hand to impart a little confidence, then kissed her knuckles.
In the front yard, Donna and Andrew were huddled with a fireman and a police officer, explaining that Lilly had a drug problem and didn’t really mean to set off a false alarm, but you know how these things are, it happened anyway. They’d been trying to help her through this on their own, “family, you know,” but they could see now that she needed to be checked into a resident program, and what could they do to make this whole thing disappear?
“I’d like to make two Marquettes disappear.”
Though Jake appreciated the sentiment, he said, “Hush,” squeezing her hand where it nestled in his. “Let ‘em talk.”
“But—”
“Trust me.”
“Fine, you listen to them, but I’m getting my purse before they steal my checkbook.”
It crossed his mind to take Andrew aside and tell him about the transmitter in the watch Lilly was wearing, to offer to make the evidence disappear for a rather large cont
ribution to the Murdoch-got-screwed fund.
But he chose the other path, the one that would get Lilly’s side on record and substantiated so if anything else happened to her—and it damned well better not!— Marquettes would be the primary suspects. Once they knew that, she’d be safe. Nothing was more important to him than her safety.
He didn’t wonder how or when he’d started to feel that way, because it was a combination of things she’d done and said over the past two weeks, things he’d never expected out of her: free day care for working teenage mothers, increased publicity for hotline numbers, literacy programs and adult basic education, scholarships to his alma mater, help for stray dogs and stray kids, and even something as simple and personal as a fudge treaty with Susannah.
“They’re lying through their teeth,” she said when she returned.
“Yeah, I know.” He grinned. “Give ‘em time, they’ll bury themselves.”
The little regard Donna and Andrew had for Lilly made Jake sick to his stomach, but Lilly’s recounting to the authorities, backed up by an audio and text demonstration of the watch and software, went a long way toward making him feel better. The best part was that most of that technology had been developed with none other than Brady’s money. Ha!
Getting Lilly home and safely in bed would finish the job. His bed would be nice.
And what of respect for his dead friend now?—his conscience prodded now that the adrenaline rush was over.
Well, he was pretty sure after rescuing Lilly twice that even Brady couldn’t object. Rationalization?—maybe. She was a helluva kisser.
Finally thinking clearly?—more likely.
Not giving a damn anymore?—definitely. Brady was dead, Jake was here, and Lilly was going to be his. Period. Forever, if she’d have him.
After Angie, after being pulled off the path of self- destruction, he hadn’t dared to share his heart with anyone else. Now—Well, now he was thinking he just might have a future with Lilly.
He only wanted what was best for her. He was it.
Lilly picked up her shoes. Jake draped his arm around her shoulders and steered her to the taxi.
Speeding homeward, safely by his side, Lilly said, “I don’t know what you’re smiling about. They’ll still find a way to come out on top, just wait and see.”
“You prefer to be on top?”
“Well of course!”
He grinned, thinking of the night ahead. “Fine by me.”
Jake kept his free hand on Lilly as they sped home. Not only did she enjoy his touch on her bare leg, her arm, her hand, anywhere he could reach, she was breathless with every minute of it.
He kept asking if she was okay; she kept gasping that she was fine. She considered begging him to pull over to the curb and climb into the backseat with her.
“Jake.” She was surprised to hear her voice shake.
“The hospital? Is it your arm again? Are you hurt? I’ll get you there—”
“You do, and I won’t sleep with you.”
“Well, screw the hospital.” His grasp on her hand softened. His thumb rubbed lazy circles on her thigh.
Finally, they were on the same page, and she drew confidence from that knowledge. It would take more than drugs for her to miss Jake’s intentions.
Finally, she’d be able to complete two goals: step one of getting pregnant was getting him in bed, and they were almost there.
But it was the other goal giving her goose bumps and quickening her pulse: she was about to experience the passion she’d longed for, the all-consuming heat that could make up for seventeen months of abstinence and years of ho-hum sex. About that, she had no doubt. If she was this turned on while he was driving, imagine how she was going to feel when they got right down to it.
It seemed like forever before they pulled into the driveway.
“It’s pretty rocky here. You might want to put on your shoes.”
When she opened her door, the overhead light showed how dirty she’d gotten the bottoms of her feet. “Nah, it’ll ruin them.”
Jake solved that quickly, bending down and draping her across his shoulders, uttering a very put on, he-man growl as he straightened up again, making her laugh so hard she had to pee.
“I’ve wanted to do this ever since I carried you out of the store.”
“Ah, so you are perverted.”
His bare hand grasped her naked leg. “You know, garter belts are a lot more fun when you have stockings attached.”
“I can slip some on,” she said wickedly, figuring she owed him any way he wanted her.
“Sweetheart, the next thing on you is gonna be me.”
A burning flame raced through her from head to toe, then returned to center and burned there, waiting for him to make good on his promise.
Dear Lord, if talk got her this hot, she wasn’t going to make it through the night.
As he thumbed open the back door, she slid to her feet and reached around from behind, blindly working on his zipper, ripping it down, dragging the coat from his shoulders. She tossed it toward a kitchen chair, neither knowing nor caring where it landed.
“Wait.”
“In your dreams, buster.”
He pulled her around him and grinned against her lips as she kissed him. “Oh, I think this could be better than my dreams, but…”
Whether he said more, she couldn’t say. She certainly didn’t hear anything. When he fanned those strong, stone-laying hands of his up alongside her face, holding her, making it impossible for her to continue blazing a path from his lips to his chest to points farther south, she had to go still—well, all except her fingers—and listen.
“Lilly, I want you to be, no, I need to know you’re sure about this.”
“Does take your clothes off before I rip them off do it for you?”
“You were drugged.”
“It wore off.”
She pulled his shirt free from his jeans, liberating his skin to her touch. He felt sooo good. Ten times better than chocolate tasted. No, a hundred.
If he hadn’t had such a good hold on her, she would’ve had his shirt over his head before he knew it, but as it was, she couldn’t raise it any higher than his nipples. Which, as it turned out, made perfectly good targets for her fingers, and she rubbed and tweaked and generally drove herself more nuts than she appeared to be doing to him.
“I wouldn’t want you to wake up in the morning and regret this.”
“For Pete’s sake, Jake, I’ve been after you for two weeks.” She made short work of his buckle, button, and that zipper.
In a raspy voice now, he murmured against her hair, his breath hot on her scalp. “It’s important that… that I know… hell, I don’t know, but I’m sure it was something.”
She breathed against his lips, lifting herself up, her skirt hiking itself around her hips as she wrapped her legs around him, pulling herself in tightly to where his jeans were spread open and he had only briefs to protect his erection.
“See how strong I am, Jake? Feel how tight I can hold you?”
His murmur was unintelligible.
“Feel me move against you?”
“Shit, my jeans’re falling down.”
“Good.”
“No, you don’t understand.”
“I think you don’t understand.”
“If they fall down, I won’t be able to get us up the stairs.”
She took a long, long moment sliding down him, teasing him naughtily on the way, wiggling against him, feeling her own moistness before she let go and yanked his jeans up.
He jumped. “Uh, careful.”
“Okay, big guy, get us upstairs.”
He scooped her up, right back where she’d just been, sliding his large hands under her skirt and cupping her bare butt as her thighs locked his jeans safely in place.
“Hot damn, another thong,” he whispered raggedly. “Hold on tight.”
“Oh I intend to.”
His devastating grin indicated he was back in
control, sure of himself, sure of her, certain he was going to give her the ride of her life.
They fell onto his bed together. Clothes flew every direction until they were both naked, and no matter how hard she tried to roll them over and get beneath him— because for this first time, she wanted him to be in control, really needed him to give her all the passion she’d dreamed of—he held her on top where his hands were free to roam, driving her slowly, madly insane with need.
Turns out his hands were highly accomplished with a lot more than laying stone and building gizmos. They were doing a fantastic job laying her and building her toward a shattering climax.
“Oh God, Jake, now.”
He shifted then, finally rolling to one side. Just when she thought finally, she realized he was reaching toward the nightstand.
Shit. She didn’t need this. She was about to burst, swollen and wet with need, aching for him to push inside her, and he was maintaining a comparatively clear head, fumbling for the drawer. No way she was letting him get a condom.
“Oh God, Jake,” she gasped loudly, then louder again because it seemed to interfere with him grasping anything he didn’t already have his hands on—her. He moaned in response, which made her hotter and she thought she was going to come too early. She wanted it to be with him.
Catching him off guard, she grasped his shoulders and rolled the both of them over, away from the drawer.
“Lilly.” He started to say something, but then his mouth was all over her, tasting her, kissing her. His fingers dipped low between their bodies and played her intimately until she was mindless and breathless and boneless and desperate to feel him inside her.
“Now, Jake,” she whispered. “Please.”
It was the desperate please that did it. There was no nudging this or grasping that or pausing anywhere. She was ready, and he took her in one swift movement. The dense thickness of him touched every sensitive spot inside and out and sent her flying over the edge, begging him to come with her as he pounded into her again and again.
He wouldn’t have to ask how it was for her. Hell, the neighbors probably knew, even the geriatric ones who took their hearing aids off at night. He gave her more than she’d bargained for, one orgasm after another until she thought she’d pass out.
A Date on Cloud Nine Page 18
