Dashing Through the Snow (17 page)

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.