by HELEN HARDT
She gave me another smile. And then her phone beeped. “Excuse me, I just need to take care of this.” She walked outside to the reception area to take the call. Within a few minutes, she was back. Her eyes were rimmed again with sadness—or was it fear?
“Melanie? What is it?”
“Nothing. But I’m afraid I can’t—”
“Oh, hell, no,” I said. “We’re having dinner. And then we’re going back to your place, and you’re going to tell me every little thing that you’re keeping from me. In your business, you know it helps to talk to someone.”
I just hoped I could be there to listen and not get so crazy that I had to fuck her brains out first.
Chapter Twenty–Two
Melanie
I could tell that sushi wasn’t Jonah’s favorite meal. But he was a trouper, and he tried everything I ordered. He actually liked the unagi—freshwater eel—quite a bit. I almost felt bad having to tell him it was cooked. We talked mainly about the food. One thing that was great about Jonah—I didn’t feel like I had to keep talking. I hated small talk, and I sucked at it as well. So we finished up, shared a dessert of green tea ice cream, and then walked back to my place.
“Do you want a drink?” I asked. “I can open a bottle of wine.”
“No, I have to drive home later, and I already had that sake at the restaurant. But I’d love a cup of coffee if you have it.”
“Sure. I’ll start a pot. Make yourself at home.” I walked to the kitchen, fiddled with the coffee maker, and ground some beans.
Then I went into the living room. Jonah was leafing through a copy of my book.
He looked up when he saw me. “That first time I met you, when you were at the psychology conference and I was at the agricultural conference, you told me you were working on a book. Is this the one?”
“Yes, although the book was done by then. I just said I was working on it because it hadn’t been published yet. It came out a month ago.”
“You said it was about overcoming childhood trauma. That caught my interest. Obviously, it’s a topic I’m familiar with.”
“Of course. Talon.”
He nodded. “I kept your card. That’s how he came to you.”
“I know. He told me.”
“I told him you came highly recommended. But I have to be honest with you. I really didn’t know much about you, other than that you had written a book and you were presenting at the conference, so I figured you were an expert.”
“That’s how a lot of people get referrals. By doing conferences.”
“You turned out to be a great fit for him, Melanie. He’s a changed man. He really is. I mean, he told me he still has dreams sometimes and that he knows there are parts of this that will never leave him, but he’s dealing with it now, and he’s living his life.”
Warm happiness dribbled through me. I did have successes—far more successes than failures. But that one failure really hurt. I didn’t want to go there. I couldn’t go there with Jonah.
“You know,” I said, the sake from dinner giving me the courage, “Talon told me something at one of his sessions. Something about you.”
He quirked his eyebrow. “Oh? I hope it was good.”
I gave him a half smile. “He said you had the hots for me.”
His cheeks went ruddy. Difficult to discern on his nicely bronzed face, but I could tell.
“I hope I haven’t embarrassed you.”
“Why should I be embarrassed? I think it’s clear from my behavior up to this point that what he said is true.”
I couldn’t help a little laugh.
“Look, now, there’s nothing I’d like better than to take you to the bedroom, but I want you to tell me what’s going on. Something scared you earlier today, and then you got that phone call. Maybe this is none of my business—in fact, I’m sure it’s not—but you can tell me anything. My word is as good as gold.”
The second time he had used those words. I knew I could trust him. I never doubted it. And oh, how wonderful it would be to unburden myself to someone. I had opened up a little bit to Oliver about it, as another physician. But to tell Jonah? To him, I was the brilliant therapist who’d saved his brother. What would he think of me? I couldn’t bear it if he thought less of me. And at this point, I didn’t think much of myself. I just couldn’t tell him.
“I can’t.”
“You can. It will help. You know it will.”
From the kitchen, the coffee maker dinged, telling me my pot of coffee was ready. I ignored it. There was only one way to get Jonah’s mind off of what was bothering me. And I knew what that was.
I sat down on him, pulling my spandex skirt up my thighs and straddling him, cupped his cheeks, and lowered my mouth onto his.
It didn’t take long for him to respond. His cock hardened beneath me. I ground against it, my clit tickling from the roughness of the denim enclosing him. Oh, how good it felt.
He broke the kiss. “My God, you’re driving me fucking insane.”
I took his lips again. Good, insane. Exactly what I wanted. I wanted to be driven insane too. I wanted to escape from the emotions overwhelming me. Escape from my patient who had taken her own life, from the love she’d hidden from me, from her father who’d threatened me.
Just escape.
And even though I knew it couldn’t last—escape never did—what better way to escape than in the arms of the most beautiful man on the planet? For that’s what Jonah Steel was. He was darker and even more rugged than his brother Talon. The silvery flecks in his stubble and in his beautiful black hair made me swoon. I unbuttoned his shirt quickly and pushed it over his shoulders. A gorgeous chest, too, adorned with just the perfect amount of black and silver chest hair. He let go of me long enough to pull his arms out and then grabbed me, cupping my breasts. He found my nipples through my blouse and bra, and they hardened, pushing through both layers of fabric.
I gasped into his mouth.
He pushed me off of him and laid me on the couch, touching me between my legs.
“Oh my God. You’re so wet. So wet for me.” He pushed my skirt the rest of the way up to my waist and spread my legs. “The lips of your pussy are engorged, Melanie. I’m going to eat you raw. And then I’m going to stuff my cock into you and fuck you. Fuck you all night long.”
I closed my eyes as he lowered his beautiful mouth to take my most secret place. When he swiped his tongue across my clit, I nearly unraveled.
“God, you taste so good.” He nibbled on my thigh, sucking, biting. “I could suck you all night long.”
“I won’t stop you,” I said, my eyes still shut.
“Open your eyes, Melanie. Open your eyes. Watch me as I lick you.”
My head was propped up slightly by a pillow on the couch, and I opened my eyes. His own brown ones were blazing as he licked between my legs.
“Don’t stop looking at me, Melanie. I want you to look as I suck this pussy. Tell me you want that. Tell me you want me to eat your pussy.”
“Yes. I… I w-want you to eat my pussy.”
He dived back in, shoving his tongue into my wet channel. Frantically, I unbuttoned my blouse and then lifted my bra over my chest to expose my breasts. I grabbed them both, flicking my fingers over my hard nipples.
Jonah dropped my labia out of his mouth. “So hot, sweetheart. Beautiful. God, I’m so hard right now.”
I continued twirling my nipples with my fingers, and he went back to my pussy, nibbling on my labia. I was going crazy, still playing with my nipples.
I closed my eyes.
He dropped my lips again. “I told you to leave those eyes open.”
I opened them once again, and he was staring at me, his eyes alight with fire.
“Don’t close those eyes again, Melanie, or I’ll stop eating you.”
I panted. “Oh my God, no. Don’t stop. Don’t ever fucking stop.”
He smiled. “I like it when you talk like that. I like it when you talk dirty.”
&nb
sp; I was sure my cheeks were turning red, though I was already so warm I couldn’t tell. I was so hot, on fire, flames reeling all around my body.
When he forced two fingers inside my heat, I splintered around him. The orgasm came up on me fast, starting in my clit and then radiating up into my abdomen, my chest, throughout my limbs. I trembled, shouting, squeezing my nipples harder.
“Yes, Jonah, yes. I’m coming. So good. So good. So fucking, fucking good.”
In a flash, Jonah had unbuckled his jeans, unzipped them, and pushed them and his boxers over his hips, his cock springing forward. He climbed atop me and thrust inside.
“Oh, God,” he moaned.
“Yes, yes, you feel so good inside me.” I was still on the edge of my orgasm, and I could feel my walls spasming around him. “You feel that? You feel me? I’m still coming. Still coming.”
He groaned. “God, yes, amazing,”
He thrust and he thrust, panting against me, his chest hair abrading my bare breasts. When he finally released inside me, I came again, and together we completed our journey, panting against each other.
He took my lips in a kiss so violent, so fierce, I was sure we would both have bruises. I didn’t care. I wanted it. I wanted it all.
Our orgasms finally subsided, and he broke the kiss.
I looked around the room, embarrassment flooding me. My skirt was around my waist, my slingback sandals still on my feet. My bra was up around my breasts but still hooked, and my arms were still in the silky sleeves of my blouse. Jonah’s shirt was gone, but his jeans and boxers were midway down his thighs.
For the second time tonight, we’d screwed each other nearly fully clothed.
There was something hot about that.
I cleared my throat and pulled my bra down over my breasts.
“It’s a shame to cover those,” Jonah said.
I gently eased my skirt back down over my butt and thighs. “The coffee’s ready.”
He smiled, his beautiful lips and chin still glistening with my juices. “Yeah, let’s have a cup of coffee because, Melanie, neither one of us is going to sleep anytime soon.”
Chapter Twenty–Three
Jonah
Melanie’s coffee was a lighter roast, like a breakfast blend. I preferred a dark roast. French roast was my favorite, but no matter. Coffee making could be taught. As could many other things. I planned to teach Melanie a lot. She would eventually surrender to me.
But the essentials I didn’t have to teach her—like how to kiss me like a fucking siren, how to give me head as if she were sucking a golf ball through a garden hose, how to clamp my cock in her pussy so sweetly.
No. The essentials she had down.
The rest I could teach her. I would teach her. For I wasn’t giving her up anytime soon.
I took a sip of my coffee and felt the buzz of my cell phone through the pocket of my jeans. “Excuse me,” I said to Melanie. I pulled out the phone. Talon.
As much as I wanted to take Melanie to her bedroom and finish what we’d started, I couldn’t ignore Talon. Not after I’d failed him. I would always come whenever he called.
“I need to take this. It’s Talon.”
She nodded. “I understand.”
I stood and walked from the kitchen into the living area. “Hey, Tal.”
“Joe, thank God. Where are you?”
“In the city. What’s wrong?”
“I need you to come home. I hired some high-priced detectives to go through Jade’s old room at the house to figure out where the rose might have come from. You won’t believe what they found.”
Talon hadn’t told me what they’d found, just told me to get home right away. It was late, but Melanie understood. I rushed home.
When I got to the main house, Talon and Jade, along with Ryan, Marj, and two guys I didn’t recognize, were sitting at the kitchen table.
“What’s going on?” I asked. It had better be good since it interrupted my night with Melanie.
“A huge clue, Joe,” Talon said, rising to greet me.
“What is it?”
One of the guys I didn’t recognize held out a business card in gloved hands. I reached for it.
“No, don’t touch it,” he said.
“Then why the hell did you hand it to me?”
“So you could see it.”
“This is Trevor Mills and his partner, Johnny Johnson,” Talon said. “I hired them to go through Jade’s old room and also to try to figure out how someone got into this house. Guess whose business card this is?”
“Well, if you let me see it, I’ll tell you.”
I moved forward and took a hard look at the glossy card the man named Mills held. Colin Morse. Jade’s ex-fiancé.
“So you think Colin left the rose?” I asked.
“Not necessarily.” Jade shook her head. “He never gave me a card either of the two times he was here. The guys found this wedged under the carpeting.”
“It was planted,” Talon said. “If someone had dropped it, we would’ve found it. But no one could drop it so that it ended up wedged under wall-to-wall carpet.”
“Still, it’s pretty good evidence that Colin left the rose,” I said.
“We could go with that”—Talon sat back down at the table—“if Colin’s fingerprints were the only ones on the card.”
I raised my eyebrows.
Mills spoke up. “Johnny and I have dusted the card, and there are three distinct sets of prints on this card.”
“See, Joe?” Talon rubbed his temple. “Even if we assume that one set of prints belongs to Colin, there are still two others who touched this card.”
I turned to Jade. “Are you sure he never gave you a card? Maybe those are your fingerprints.”
“No. I’ve never seen this card. He never gave me one. Even if he had, why would I hide it under the carpeting in my room?”
I had no answer for her.
“We need to get all of you guys fingerprinted,” Johnny Johnson said. “Just to rule out anyone with access to the house. Your housekeeper too.”
“Of course, whatever you need,” Ryan said. “Though I’m pretty sure you won’t find any of our prints on that card.”
“I’m sure we won’t,” Johnson said. “But we need to rule out everyone in the house first.”
“Why would anyone leave Colin’s card lodged in your room, Jade?” I asked.
She sighed. “Beats me.”
Mills shook his head. “We can’t assume it was Colin, based on the fact that there are three distinct sets of prints on the card.”
“Is there any way Colin’s prints might be on file somewhere? You have access to the state databases at work, don’t you, Jade?” I asked.
“Yes, I do. But I doubt Colin’s prints are available. I don’t think he’s ever been arrested or charged with any crime.”
“What about Larry Wade?” Marj piped in. “Since he’s been arrested, his prints will be on file somewhere.”
Jade raised her eyebrows. “They’ve been on file for a while. Every person who takes the Colorado bar exam has to be fingerprinted. I was.”
“Well then, eureka,” Ryan said, standing. “Let’s get that checked out.”
Mills nodded. “Will do, first thing in the morning. But even if Wade’s fingerprints are positive, there are still two other unidentified sets on the card.”
“And I know just whose they are,” Talon said. “I bet you anything they belong to Colin and that idiot boyfriend of your mother’s, Jade. Nico Kostas.”
Jade shushed him. “For God’s sake, Talon, don’t mention him. My mother’s asleep, but if she hears his name, she’ll wake up in a second. She’s still convinced he’s coming back to her.”
“Besides, you’re jumping the gun,” I said to Talon. “We still have no proof that Nico Kostas is even involved.”
Talon gritted his teeth. “I have all the goddamned proof I need.”
I wasn’t so sure. I wanted to believe we were on the path to o
ne of the other criminals as much as Talon did. But we had no idea where this Nico character was, and even if we found him, we had no proof he was guilty.
Then something occurred to me. Talon was sure. I recognized that look in his eyes.
It was the same look he would have seen in my own eyes when I became convinced of Tom Simpson’s involvement.
I had to tell Talon sooner or later of my suspicion, but now was certainly not the time. I wanted him to heal, and as long as he was hell-bent on catching these guys, he wasn’t paying attention to the things that really mattered—his healing, his relationship with Jade, his relationship with the rest of us.
I looked over at Jade. She was smiling up at him adoringly. Maybe their relationship was okay after all.
“So tell me exactly where you found this card,” I said to the two detectives.
“We can do better than that,” Mills said. “We can show you.”
I followed them down the hallway, Jade at my heels, toward the guestroom Jade had used when she first came to the ranch. The room was vacant, and the carpeting had been pulled up, rolled into a cylinder, and was standing against one wall.
“We went through all the furniture with a fine tooth comb.” Mills said. “Then we moved it to another spare room so we could take a look in all the crevices.”
He showed me the spot where he’d found the card, right against the wall, where the foot of the bed had been.
“Whoever did this got in and out quickly,” Jade said. “I couldn’t have been in the shower for more than about fifteen minutes.”
“It wouldn’t take long for someone to slide this card into the carpeting and put a rose on the pillow,” Mills said.
“Yeah, but how the hell did he get in this house?” I asked.
“We’re still working on that,” he said. “We’ll figure out what happened. Don’t you worry. There’s not a case in the world Johnny and I can’t solve.”
“I hope you’re right. Where did Talon find you guys?”
“We found him.”
I widened my eyes. “What the hell do you mean?”
“We’re friendly with the police departments around the state of Colorado. When there’s a case they can’t figure out, they pull us in sometimes. The city of Snow Creek has never used us before. Small towns can’t usually afford our services. But they figured your brother might be able to.”
