“Of course.” That suited Robert perfectly. He wouldn’t be comfortable using a six-foot single-tail whip on anyone without plenty of practice first—although he tended to be very accurate with it. He figured it was the surgical training that helped with that.
“The paperwork will take at least a week. In the meantime, there’s no reason why I can’t offer you a complete tour of my own little den of iniquity, and a round or two with the target balloons.”
The man had said that so matter-of-factly that Robert laughed, the response startled out of him. He looked over at David, who smiled back.
“We’ll take you up on that generous offer, thank you. We’d also be grateful if you’d allow us to purchase some basic supplies.”
Lyons smiled. “For the sub you’ve already found to share,” he surmised. “Yes, I’d say ensuring you had the necessities on hand would be prudent.”
Robert felt as if he’d already had a workout. The stress he’d noticed building inside him over the last week or so eased within him. Another man might chalk that up to simply being at a club where all his prurient needs could be met.
But Robert was a Jessop, and what he knew for certain was the emotion wending its way through him now had little to do with the
Lyon’s Den
, and everything to do with a blonde-haired, green-eyed pixie. They’d found their mate and she was back in Lusty, just waiting to be claimed and tamed.
“Let me help you with those, sweetheart.”
Startled, Michelle Parker nearly dropped the two large paper sacks she carried. Since one of the bags held a dozen eggs and a jar of expensive marmalade, that would have been downright tragic.
Her heart thudding as recognition kicked in, she offered her would-be white knight a smile and tried to quell her nerves. She always felt so clumsy around Joe Grant. He’d come in to the restaurant and sit in her section at least once every couple of weeks. Considering he was living in Dallas, that in itself was remarkable.
He’d always smile, and tease her a little. Chat with her a little. She knew she had a crush on him. How could she not? He was genuinely nice, and genuinely hot, too.
Michelle mentally sighed.
He’s just being kind to me
. Genuinely hot men are not interested in relationships with women like her. They want beautiful,
skinny
women, not plus-sized ones.
“Thanks, Joe. I appreciate that.” She handed him one grocery bag, and kept the second for herself. Then, “I didn’t know you were back in town. Did you come to visit Peter? He and Jordan and Tracy just got back a couple days ago from their honeymoon.”
“I heard that. I got in late yesterday. I’m staying at that new bed-and-breakfast that just opened up by the park. And no, I didn’t come to visit Peter. I never actually come to visit Peter. I come to Lusty to visit
you
.”
“
M–Me
?” Michelle nearly tripped as Joe’s words registered. Surely she couldn’t have heard him correctly? She couldn’t wrap her head around the idea that he’d come to Lusty all this time to see her. She always felt so awkward when it came to making small talk with the man. She never knew what she could possibly say to the urbane and cosmopolitan G-man that could hold his interest or attention for long.
He juggled the bag she’d given him so that he held it in his left arm, and then he slipped his right arm around her waist.
“Yes,
you
. Is that so hard for you to believe, sweetheart?”
“Yes.”
Oh God
. He’d called her “sweetheart,” twice, now. The sensation of his arm around her waist heated her and shivered her at the same time. As usual, words failed her.
Probably just as well
. When she did manage to say something to the man, it usually just came out wrong and left her feeling really stupid.
“Why? Is it because you don’t see me as a man who could be interested in you? Is it because you don’t like me?”
“No!” Michelle turned so she could see his face, straight on. Joe Grant had been coming around Lusty—and her—ever since Peter Alvarez—now Peter Alvarez-Kendall—found out he’d had a target painted on his back a few months ago. Of course, the women and men of Lusty had caught not only the would-be assassin but also the man who’d put the price on Peter’s head, so that danger was past.
Joe had worked with the family on that fateful day, and Michelle had just assumed that he and Peter—federal agents both—had become good friends.
Now looking into his eyes, she had the sense that she was looking in a mirror, in a way. As if the doubts and insecurities that had plagued her for nearly all her adult life were not unknown to this man.
How could that be? A man as buff and hot as Joe Grant should have all the confidence in the world! “No,” she said again. She didn’t know how she managed to hang on to her bag, she felt herself shaking that much. Never one to take a chance, Michelle tended to live her life in the background. She went to work and went to school part time, intent on getting her English degree. She wanted to be a writer. It was the second most important dream she’d had, forever.
The first she’d given up on long ago. Believed, somehow, that she’d needed to sacrifice it. Now, she had to wonder.
“No?” His look tender, his voice gentle, Joe Grant raised one eyebrow, telling her he needed more than a one-word answer from her this time.
Michelle swallowed. She was about to take a huge chance, and if it backfired, well, she’d…she’d hit him with her bag of groceries. But she
ached
for that bit of doubt she could see in him, knew it profoundly well, and it was that doubt she addressed now.
“No. I definitely see you as a man and I do like you.
Very
much.” She had the sense he sighed in relief. Before she lost her nerve, she said the rest of it. “I just never dared to hope you’d be a man who could be interested in
me
.”
“Did you drive to the grocery today, or walk, sweetheart?”
The term of endearment, used for a third time and therefore definitely not a figment of her imagination, made her tremble inside. She nearly couldn’t answer him. “I walked.”
“Okay.”
Okay
? What did that mean? Oh, why couldn’t she be one of those women who could read a man, who could wear just the right thing and say just the right thing? Why couldn’t she be, please God,
petite and gorgeous
?
He didn’t say anything as he walked beside her toward her home. Somehow, she had the sense that he already knew where she lived. She only felt a little embarrassed to admit that she still lived with her parents—even if it was in her own private apartment in the back of the house.
She was thirty-five years old and certainly could afford to live elsewhere, but she’d never seen the sense in it. She liked being close to her mom and dad. Besides, they were getting older. In not too many years they would need her, and she intended to be there for them just as they had always been there for her.
“Are you working tonight?”
“No. I get every third Sunday off.”
“Good. That’s good.” He sighed and Michelle felt herself begin to relax a little.
Michelle looked at him out of the corner of her eye. She recognized the expression on his face, because she’d seen it often enough in the mirror.
Why, he was as nervous as she was! Somehow, knowing that simply rocked her world. After a few moments, he said, “I thought, if you didn’t have any plans for tonight, we could go out to dinner. Not here, of course. I was thinking we could go into Waco, if you’d like?”
“I’d like that.” She could barely believe the man was asking her out. They turned down Maple Street, and walked two blocks. All too soon they arrived at Michelle’s home.
“I have an apartment in back,” she said.
“I know.”
Joe relieved her of the bag she’d carried so she could get out her key and unlock the door.
Now what? He’d asked her out, but was it for a date? Or would it be a case of just two friends having dinner out? Michelle blinked. He
had
carried her groceries for her. Maybe she should ask him in for a cup of coffee? “Would you like to come in?”
“I’d better not. Why don’t you set these down inside and then come back out here for a minute?”
Michelle blinked. The request sounded odd.
He did just ask me out to dinner, didn’t he?
Or maybe she’d imagined the whole thing. Maybe the lack of a social life was starting to wear on her, and her mind was manufacturing all manner of strange things.
Maybe she should just go out and adopt half a dozen cats so her life could be complete, and be done with it.
She said, “All right. Just give me a moment.” Fortunately her door opened into her own small kitchen, and it took her less than a minute to set the two bags on the counter, and return to the door.
Should she ask him if he’d really invited her out to dinner? But what if he hadn’t? What if—
Michelle was at the door and face-to-face with Joe. The man proved that even for a G-man, he could move. Before she could open her mouth, he clamped his hands on her arms, and pulled her forward, into his body, and into his kiss.
Michelle felt as if her bones turned to hot, liquid honey as Joe’s mouth closed over hers and his flavor saturated her soul. This was no tentative first kiss, for his tongue swept her lips and stole into her mouth, dominating her completely. He drank from her, and Michelle had never been so thrilled. She wound her arms around his neck, while she slid her tongue along his, unsure if she was doing it right, but gaining in confidence when he growled. That sound aroused her and she nestled even closer to him and wondered how her knees could continue to hold her.
Joe pulled her impossibly closer and she felt the hard imprint of his erect cock press against her belly. When he eased his hold on her, when he ran his hands down her sides and around her hips, Michelle tightened her arms around his neck.
This kiss was wet and wild, hot and heavy, and Michelle let herself go. She sank into him, her own tongue now dancing a slow and sexy salsa with his. The scent of him, totally masculine and pure sex, and the taste of him, pure sin, made her nipples peak and caused her panties to become damp for the first time in her life. Her inner muscles clenched, and she felt that ripple in her pussy, as if it was seeking a cock to hang on to.
Michelle had no idea her body could feel such things or react in such a way. She wondered if she would have her first orgasm, ever, on her own front stoop in broad daylight, from this man’s kiss alone.
Joe eased back from her, just far enough that she could see the look in his eyes. But his arms remained clamped around her hips, so that his cock still poked at her, feeling even larger than it had just moments before.
“That should assure you of two very important things, sweetheart. The first is that I want you. The second is that you want me. I’ll be here at seven thirty to pick you up.”
He leaned in and kissed her again, this kiss more of a light sip, a first-kiss kind of kiss. Then he stepped back, let her go, and smiled.
“I’ll be ready.” Except she didn’t think a lifetime would really be long enough to get ready for this man. Michelle stood in the door frame and watched him walk away.
He wants me, and he’s coming to get me.
A quick look down at her wrist told her it was just eleven in the morning. She had a feeling that today was going to turn out to be the longest day,
ever
.
* * * *
Jillian figured this particular Sunday was turning into the longest day, ever. The totally slow-motion feeling to the day she chalked up to two causes—anxiety over beginning a new job the next day, and her dream-riddled sleep of the night before.
Jillian hadn’t spent the last several years since her divorce living in a cave. She’d been a productive member of society. She’d gone to restaurants, movies, and on shopping excursions. She hadn’t actually dated, of course, but she’d been out and about, and she’d looked around. She’d seen achingly handsome men, some of them incredibly buff and drool-worthy, and some more lean and drool-worthy. She’d talked to several men—lawyers and accountants, store clerks and athletes, and yes, even doctors. Actually, she’d talked with a lot of doctors.
She’d had her share of hunks come in to the clinic where she’d worked for more than five years. Some had just flirted and some had actually asked her out.
And not once in all that time had she ever been tempted to say yes. Never had she been driven to have hot, erotic, hard-core X-rated sex dreams about any of them.
Not until last night, in the aftermath of meeting the younger Drs. Jessop.
Jillian didn’t have to look very far to figure out why here, and why now, either. Aunt Shirley had gossiped some over the years about her adopted hometown. There’d never been any malicious intent in her aunt’s chattering, of course. The woman had simply wanted to talk to someone about the remarkable lives and lifestyles she’d witnessed day after day for so many years.
It had been a constant amazement to Jillian that Shirley was unable to report on
any
cases of serious marital discord, cheating, or divorce. It seemed not only did the people of Lusty tend toward having ménage relationships. They appeared to be faithful to their chosen mates. Her aunt had become good friends with many of the wives of Lusty, and had sworn that unhappiness or disaffection didn’t seem to even exist amongst the womenfolk of this small town. Oh sure, they might get mad and have spats, same as any married people would from time to time. But those were only temporary annoyances, soon forgiven and forgotten.