So incredible.
So exhilarating.
But reality, as she tended to do, crept in and reminded me of one important fact: this guy attached to my lips hated me. It was just the icy reminder I needed to pull myself away from the deputy and take a step back. Without thinking, my hand went up to smack his face, just like in the movies. Only it didn’t feel good. It made me feel guilty.
“Sorry.”
He just smirked like none of it mattered to him, and that fueled a determination I didn’t know I had as I flew into his arms and attacked his mouth with my artless kisses. He didn’t seem to mind, gripping my behind to lift me in his arms, growling when my legs automatically circled his narrow waist. He wasn’t bothered at all by the layers of fabric falling all around us.
If heaven felt anything like this, I was pretty sure Austin was getting the better deal because the deputy was everywhere. His hands were on my butt, squeezing and kneading and pulling me closer to the hard ridge at his center. It sparked a heat between my thighs that made me kiss him harder, grip his hair tighter. I’d never felt anything like it and I didn’t want it to stop. Not ever.
He pulled back and looked at me with a predatory gleam in his eyes and a sexy smile curling his full lips as he took a few steps and laid me across the table. My kitchen table! The cool wood touched my back and it instantly arched the moment his lips went back to mine, devouring my mouth in a kiss so hot, my head began to spin. But then his hands, big and strong with thick fingers, slid up my thighs and pushed my panties aside. I couldn’t have stopped him if I wanted to and my body certainly did not want me to, not when one thick finger pressed into me. I sighed, arching into him even more.
Deputy Vargas growled deep in his throat as my body clenched around his finger, pulsing intensely as if it knew just what to do. He added a thumb, pressing rapid circles against my clit until I felt pleasure build from somewhere deep inside of me. And then it was bliss—pure unadulterated, unabashed bliss.
My body felt like it was floating on clouds as the orgasm worked its way out of my body. It wasn’t my first orgasm but it did have the distinction of being my first with another person, and it was amazing.
Too bad it was with this particular man.
That was the exact thought I needed to pull me out of this fog. No matter how good I felt right now, he was not what I needed or wanted. Pushing at his chest, I pulled the miles of fabric around my still-throbbing thighs to cover myself and slid off the kitchen table while making a mental note to clean it. Thoroughly. “What was that?”
He shrugged, that damn smug gleam still in his eyes. “That, Elka, was inevitable.”
I didn’t want to believe that I could so easily get physical with a man who treated me no better than my parents had. I couldn’t. “It was a mistake,” I corrected and smoothed the fabric down my legs. “Tomorrow at six. Be here if you’re serious about helping. If you think this—” I motioned between the two of us, “will happen again, don’t bother showing up.”
He smirked and leaned in, kissing me before I could dodge his attempts. “See you at six, Elka.”
“Good evening, Deputy Vargas.”
He turned to face me, another cocky smile on his handsome face as the finger that had been inside me slid between his lips. “I know what you taste like now, Elka. What you feel like when you come.”
How crude! Arms crossed, I glared at him. “What’s your point?” Because my body thought it as an invitation to pick up where we left off. I had to press my heels into the floor to stop from flying back into his arms.
“My point is that I think you can call me Antonio.”
Yeah, I wouldn’t do that. Formality was an excellent way to keep distance between us. “See you tomorrow, deputy. Or not.” I watched him leave, heart racing as I thought about what had just happened. I’d gotten intimate with a man who not only did not like or respect me, but one I was pretty sure actually hated me for some reason.
“The words glutton for punishment come to mind,” I said out loud as I looked at the untouched, uncooked ingredients on the countertop, deciding they could wait until tomorrow.
I curled up on the sofa and spent the rest of the night avoiding another call from my parents, along with all thoughts of Antonio and the way my body still hummed with pleasure.
Antonio
Getting to the office early wasn’t something I did regularly, mostly because I didn’t want Tyson to start to expect it, but today I wanted to get a jump start on some paperwork so I could make it to Elka’s as close to six as possible. The last thing I needed was to piss her off again, especially after that kiss. It was hot, sexy as hell, and thinking about the way she came apart so easily was enough to have me hard under my desk. Even thinking about the way she smacked my face and immediately apologized had me smiling. Elka was a walking contradiction, one I was determined to figure out.
Starting tonight.
Ty knocked on the door and when I looked at him, his expression was serious. “Come with me.”
I cocked a brow. “Not another moving trip, is it?”
“Nope,” he answered and turned on his heel, giving me no choice but to follow.
Which I did. Inside his office sat a man who was at least fifty years old with salt-and-pepper hair that hadn’t seen a comb in at least a week. He wore faded blue jeans, a plain black T-shirt with a navy-blue blazer on top, all of it cheap except his expensive, designer shoes. The shoes gave him away as a private investigator. They all had a certain stink about them, which, unlike most in my field, I didn’t mind all that much. PIs were a good resource to have because they could go places we couldn’t and because they weren’t bound by the same constraints as traditional law enforcement. “What’s going on?”
The man stood, wearing a greasy smile that instantly put me on edge. “Reece Wilson, private detective.”
“Deputy Vargas. What do you need?”
“Information.” He smiled again and shoved his hands into his pocket in an effort to appear unassuming. Non-threatening. “I was hired by the Nyland family after their daughter disappeared. She just up and left,” he said and snapped his fingers for emphasis. “Her brother died and a couple months later, she split. I have reason to believe she’s here.”
My gut clenched at his words because I knew Elka was hiding something, but so far, he’d given no real information other than an adult chose to leave and didn’t tell anyone where she was going. It was odd and maybe callous, but not illegal. “No one in town by that name, I’m afraid.” I didn’t bother looking at Ty because I knew his face would show shock that I was protecting Elka.
“I know she’s here, deputy. This little town has fallen for her act and it seems you have too.” The guy was so damn smarmy it took everything I had not to punch him in the fucking face. “I came here as a courtesy to law enforcement, but I can keep snooping around on my own, find out about that life insurance claim she cashed in.” His words were meant to scare us into giving him information he wasn’t privy to and the bastard knew it. Probably thought he was dealing with a bunch of small-town hicks.
“Do what you have to, just remember that this is Texas. We shoot trespassers and ask for ID later.”
“Suit yourself.” He shrugged like it didn’t matter, but we both knew it did. He wouldn’t have come to the sheriff’s department if he’d been able to get the info on his own, but Tulip protected their own, and they had already adopted Elka.
After Reece left, I could feel the weight of Ty’s stare. “What?”
“Why did you cover for her? This guy gave you the opportunity you’ve been looking for and you blew it.”
He was right and I couldn’t explain it. “Hell if I know. Something about that guy rubs me the wrong way.” But I couldn’t deny that his words only enhanced my doubts about Elka. What kind of woman just up and left her parents after they’d already lost one child?
“Bullshit,” Ty said. “What’s the deal with you and Elka? I’m not judging, and I won’t
give you any shit. I just want the truth.”
“There is no deal, Ty. I don’t trust her, haven’t since I spotted her on the side of the road when she blew into town.” I knew it sounded irrational, but it was the truth. “Think about it: she’s too young to move to a small town for no reason unless she’s hiding. She works for herself but somehow has money to rent that cottage. It doesn’t make sense.” And until it did, I knew I needed to keep my distance.
“Bullshit,” he said again. “There are all kinds of reasons she could have left that aren’t bad. Maybe she was escaping an abusive relationship or maybe she only stuck around her parents because of her brother. Maybe it was too painful to stick around after he was gone.” He raked a hand through his hair and blew out a breath, leveling me with a sympathetic look. “I know I didn’t do big-city homicide like you did, Antonio, but I’m good at reading people and Elka is good people. She’s kind and she’s sweet, and yeah, a little on the hippy-dippy side for Texas, but I like her.”
That was exactly the problem. I liked her too. Everyone did. Because that’s how good manipulators were. They snowed you so completely that it was difficult to tell up from down. “I still want to run background on her. That guy just gave us probably cause.” It was a weak excuse but one that would be overlooked if something came up.
Ty shrugged and took a seat behind his desk. “If that’s what you want, go ahead. I just hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Me too,” I told him honestly and made my way back to my own shoebox office. Nothing about the PI’s story felt right, but like Ty said, his story gave me the excuse I needed to find out more about Elka.
An hour later, I had everything that was publicly available on Elka Louise Nyland, including the two years she’d attempted to go to college only to never attend any classes, as well and the five-million-dollar life insurance policy she’d cashed in before leaving her family in the dust.
Women. They were all the same.
Elka
All the ingredients were laid out on the island counter, again, ready for a real attempt at making chili. It was already past seven and I’d given up hope that Deputy Vargas would show up. It was clear he was in the market for some kind of casual hate-sex. I’d spent the entire day working on new products and fulfilling orders, which meant I could spend the rest of the night on this. Cooking chili.
I laughed as I thought about the ridiculous sight I made, knowing that if Austin were here, he would give me a hard time and probably mock me for the Kiss the Cook apron I wore. He’d probably lecture for me letting Antonio touch me so intimately given the way he’d treated me from the second we met. You’d be right, I said to him, acknowledging what a bad idea it had been and what a worse idea it was to fantasize about what we’d done. And to wish we could do more.
We couldn’t and that was that.
“Back to work,” I growled in frustration because thoughts of the man wouldn’t stop distracting me. Thankfully the bell chose that moment to ring and I knew that his company was the only thing that could remind me what a terrible idea it was to fantasize about him. “You’re late,” I told him when I opened the door and returned to the kitchen.
“Paperwork,” he grumbled close behind me.
My body tingled with the intensity of a live electrical wire and I made sure to keep my distance. “I’ve done everything that needs to be done because I wasn’t sure if you planned to show, so there’s nothing for you to do.” With my back to him, I added oil to both pots and turned on the fire.
“I can keep you company.” It was a nice offer but we both knew he’d rather pull out his own fingernails.
“Not necessary. If it’ll make you feel better, you can tell Janey you helped.” It was no skin off my back. In fact, I’d rather he take credit for something he didn’t do than sit there and stare at me.
“I thought we were starting over,” he said, voice low and sexy, almost like he was flirting.
“I never agreed to that.” And I wouldn’t. Just because my body found him irresistible didn’t mean my heart and mind would let it go beyond wanting. Longing.
“How was your day?” he asked.
“Seriously?” He nodded and leaned against the counter. “My day was fine.”
“Mine too. Thanks for asking.”
It turned out trying to cook two types of chili at once was too much with a six-foot-three distraction so close by, so I turned off one of the burners and added the base vegetables to the other. “You work with your best friend, so that isn’t surprising.”
“What about you—do you have a best friend?”
Why was he suddenly acting so interested in me? It didn’t make any sense and I was going crazy trying to figure it out. “Not anymore.”
“What about family? My dad died when I was working in New Orleans so it’s just me and Mom now. She’s a handful—always butting into my business whether I want her to or not.”
A meddling mother sounded both nice and and foreign to me. “I wasn’t born in a lab, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Are you close to them?”
“No.” A sprinkle of salt and pepper went into the pot and I had to consult the recipe to see what came next.
“Where are you from, Elka?”
Okay, now I was just plain upset and I turned to face him, smacking my hands on the counter. “What the hell is going on, deputy? I know you don’t care, so just run a background check to satisfy your curiosity!”
“Or you could just tell me.” He thought he was being cute, but despite how sexy he looked in jeans and a fitted gray T-shirt, he was not as cute as he seemed to think.
“Fine. I had a brother and he was my best friend and now he’s dead. Happy?”
If he was shocked by my outburst, the deputy didn’t let it show. “Is that why you moved here?”
I nodded and turned away. “It was too painful to stick around without him there.” I heard the snort of disbelief before it truly registered and when I glared at him, I found a matching glare.
“You’re lying.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me. Tell me why you came to Tulip.”
And now I was officially back to being pissed off. “None of your damn business, deputy.”
Deputy Vargas unfolded his big body from the deep red chair and his long legs ate up the steps that separated us. “You’re incapable of telling the truth, aren’t you?”
“Fuck you.” The words were new but they felt right on my tongue. “I don’t owe you any explanation and if you came to fight with me, you can go away. Now.”
“I could, but that’s not what you want.” His voice was pitched low and sexy and my body responded instantly. The pull was strong and I was powerless to stop the surge of desire that shot through me.
“Y-y-yes it is.”
“Another lie,” he said with a smack of his smiling lips. Before I could tell him to go straight to hell, his mouth was on mine again and my body lit up like fireworks.
I felt hurt and confused and angry, but none of those feelings managed to make it to my body. Once again, I melted into the kiss, unable to think clearly about anything except the way he was making me feel. His kiss was like pouring gasoline on a raging fire. When Antonio added his hands to the mix, a moan erupted, and he quickly swallowed it.
I should stop him. I knew I should.
But I couldn’t.
When his lips moved from my mouth to my neck, I could only lean back to give him better access. When his hands slid under my shirt and found bare breasts, I gasped. The gasp turned to a cry when his lips closed over a nipple. All I wanted to do was beg him to taste more of me. To make me feel more of what I was feeling. “Oh god!”
My shirt flew over my head and he pushed up my skirt. “Fuck, I love that you’re always wearing skirts.”
His hands were hot and rough on the soft skin of my inner thighs but a low moan escaped when his hands gripped my thighs and laid me on the kitchen table. Again. “Oh!
” Antonio shoved my thighs apart and buried his head there, licking and sucking me in an unbelievable sensation that made my whole being vibrate with need. “Oh my god!”
He chuckled but when he looked up at me, it wasn’t just desire swimming in his eyes. It was anger or something close to it. I froze, watching mutely as he opened his pants and exposed an impressive erection. “Elka,” he growled, and that one word snapped me back to action.
“Wait, I don’t—”
He cut me off and rolled his eyes. “Do this often? I’ve heard that before, sweetheart, but you don’t need to lie to me.” I was too stunned by his words to think straight, but the moment his giant erection slid inside of me, my eyes clouded with tears.
“Ow!”
He froze and stared at me like I was an alien and that only compounded my humiliation. “Elka, I’m—”
“Get out.” My voice was low and I was proud to say there were no tears in sight, even though I felt them stinging the back of my eyes.
“I’m sorry, Elka. I didn’t know.”
“Get. Out.” Of course he didn’t know because Mr. Arrogant Cop thought knew everything, including the fact that I was some criminal whore who had done him wrong in a previous life.
“Elka, please.”
I looked down at myself, naked from the waist up with my skirt up around my hips, I looked exactly like what he thought. “Get out! Get out!” I pushed at his chest until he moved and jumped off the table as the weight of my humiliation brought me to my knees.
“Elka.” He reached out for me and I smacked his hands away.
“Get out! Get out! GET. OUT!” The more he tried to talk, the louder I screamed, feeling more worthless than I had ever felt in my whole damn life. More than when I realized my parents had forgotten about me and left me at the funeral home. It had taken them just three days to forget about me. “Go. Please.” I glanced up into his horrified face then away, not daring to look up again until I heard the front door close behind him.
Mr. Cop: An Enemies to Lovers Romance Page 9
