Two Captains, One Chair: An Alaskan Romantic Comedy (29 page)

I was throbbing, a full-body, soul-deep throb.  My muscles tightened around him with each retreat, not wanting to let him go, and with each advance, welcoming him back.

His hand came down on the counter as he worked himself into me.  He bent over me again, scraped his teeth across my shoulder.

I just about came unglued.  I shook underneath him, harder with each solid thrust, with the slapping press of his balls against my clit.  I panted, but couldn’t seem to find enough air.

I started to move under him, my hips tilting of their own accord, the muscles along my back tightening.  He moved harder.  Which is exactly what I wanted.  Needed.

I was crying out with every breath, helpless little sounds of pleasure.  I squeezed the shit out of the faucet, did my damnedest to rip it from its moorings.  Pleasure pounded through me, higher and higher, echoing the thrust of Ed inside me.

And then… well… we were hit.  I could practically hear the klaxon’s wail, the shuddering as our shields failed.  If my mouth hadn’t been 69% numb, I might have even called him Scotty.

My vision wasn’t all it could have been—were the lights flickering?—but I could see Ed’s grin.  His brow was sweaty, his arms straining, but as I plummeted over that edge, he bared his teeth in a triumphant, incredibly happy smile.

It was freefall for what felt like the longest moment of my life, like a vacuum in my very soul—a black hole I thought I’d never emerge from.  Then, impact.  I burned up.  I exploded.

I came.  Hard.

I was paralyzed by it, a cold fire taking hold of my nerve endings and expanding until it pushed out all intelligent thought.  I just hung onto the faucet as my body squeezed around him, and Ed rode me into oblivion.

I think he came too.  Honest to God, I wasn’t really paying attention.  He might have groaned.  I think he shuddered.  He pushed deep one last, amazing, satisfying time, and held.

Then he lifted me, gathered me against him, and his breath was like butterfly kisses against my cheek.

I
was sitting between his legs, leaning back against his chest.  He’d pulled me into the bathtub with him, and the bubbles were up to my chin.  The only sound was our breathing, the occasional drip of water.  His fingertips were running softly over my belly.

My mind was catching up with recent events. 
Right.  His talking-to.

“A fight club?” I asked.  “Really?”

I could practically feel his smile, but he didn’t answer.

“Why a fight club?”

“Ralph started it,” he said.  His voice vibrated in my ear, rumbled against my back.  “He opened the bar, and started the fight club in the basement the next year.  It was the perfect diversion for fishermen—booze, and fisticuffs.”

Under the water, I ran my nails lightly along his thigh.  “So… you grew up in a fight club?  Dotty was telling me Ralph took you everywhere.”

He cupped my breast, making me squirm.  “You were asking her about me?”

“Of course I was.”

“Because of the gold nugget?”

“Partly.”  I leaned my head to the side, hoping he’d kiss my neck.  He didn’t disappoint.

“Oh?  What was the other part?”  The question was a warm murmur against my skin.

“You, of course.”

“The mystery of me,” he asked, “or me, me?”

“Both,” I said.  Damn, but the man had the perfect touch.  He was gentle, but not so much so that his caresses felt anything less than masculine.  He smoothed his hands slowly over me, but not so slowly that I got bored.  A little impatient, maybe.  But bored?  Never.

His hands were drifting lower.  “So now that you know my big, dirty secret,” he said, “do you see yourself losing interest?”

I scoffed.  “I came home with you, didn’t I?”

“Suzy…”  His hands stopped.

I leaned to the side and turned my head so I could look in his eyes.  “Let me ask
you
a question,” I said.

His fingers slid between my legs.  He watched my face soften with pleasure.

I wouldn’t let him distract me though, not this time.  “Were you actually pursuing Helly, back when she made you cry at that party?”  His fingers had stilled.  At his look, I added, “Yeah, she told me about that.  We don’t have many secrets.”

He sighed.  “Yes.  I was.  But just FYI on the crying thing, it was an emotional time for me.  I’d just gotten the news that my dad was dying.”

I froze, barely hearing past the first couple syllables.  “You
were
?”  I’d expected him to deny it, to say he was just being nice and she’d misinterpreted it.  He’d been pursuing my best friend, when I was right there?  My soulmate would never do that, would he? 
Would
he?  What the
hell
?

“I was.” 
Way to make a girl feel special.

“But…”

He cupped my face, and dipped his head to kiss my pouting lips.  When he straightened back up, he looked into my eyes.  “I’ve wanted you for years, Suzy,” he said.  “
Years
.”

“But then why—?”  I could have had him, all this time?  All those years, it could have been me sitting at a picnic table making Helly jealous, instead of the other way around?  All those years he could have washed my dishes, and scrubbed my potatoes, and told me his embarrassing stories...

“I couldn’t have you.  When I first laid eyes on you, you were a teenager, and I’d just started working for your parents.  More than that, though, as I already told you, you’re a gossip.  And your dad’s a real piece of work, as I came to find out.  And the fight club’s illegal.  I couldn’t risk it.”

I shook my head.  I still didn’t like it, the idea that he’d chase after anything in his age range.

He blew out a gusty sigh.  “Of course I was attracted to Helly.  She’s a beautiful woman, and almost as strong a one as you,” he said, melting me just a little bit.  “We had a lot in common—she’s a fishing guide, I used to be a fishing guide.  I wanted to get to know her, see if there was anything there.”

I looked up at him uncertainly.

His eyes narrowed.  “I hadn’t been with a woman in five years,” he said.

My mouth dropped open.

“And I, like every man, have urges.  A biological imperative.”

I started to smile.  “So, what you’re really trying to say here, without riling my inner feminist, is that you wanted to hit that.”

“Yeah.  Pretty much.”

I nodded.  “Okay, last question—”

He made a disbelieving sound, which I ignored.

“—cuz I’m a direct kinda gal… You want more with me than just to ‘hit that’, right?”

His lips quirked.  “I like you, Suzy.”

I gazed up at him, waiting for the inevitable ‘but’.

His eyes flicked upward.  “I like your hair.  I like… hell, just about everything about you.  I love—”

Oh my god, had he just used the L-word?

“—how you enter a room.  How you drive that big boat.  How you sparkle,” he said, glancing down toward where my toenails would be.  He pulled me closer, looking intently into my eyes.  “I love how you brought joy to the last years of my dad’s life.”

I pushed back from him slightly.  “I wasn’t sleeping with him,” I said.

Ed laughed softly.  “I know.”  His lips quirked even as his eyes slowly darkened.  “I love how you tease me.”

“It sounds like your appreciation goes beyond my body,” I said breathlessly. 
What little of it there was.

“It does,” he agreed.

“So, you’re gonna want to have more to do with me?” I checked.  “You know, after you have your way with me?”

“I’m afraid so,” he said, his voice so serious it bordered on grave.  But his eyes were sparkling.

Oh damn, I wanted him again.  “I think we’re clean enough, don’t you?”

Chapter
Twenty-Three

E
d jerked, and pulled his foot away from my questing fingers.

“You said you weren’t ticklish.”

“I lied,” he said, turning to give me his back.  Or… the backs of his calves.

I lifted my head, trying to figure out how I’d wound up with my head down at the foot of the bed.  Had it been the reverse cowgirl, when I experienced post-coital collapse?  Or the… yeah, probably the sixty-nine that came a wee bit after.

I sighed, staring up at the ceiling.  “I still can’t believe you have a fight club,” I said.

“Mmm, why not?”  His voice was husky, sleepy, and made me want to touch him.

I smoothed my hand along his leg.  “You’re just… you’re you.  And fighting is so… brutish.”

“It’s an outlet,” Ed said, turning back to me.  “The guys get stuff off their chests.  They beat each other up at fight club, where there’re rules and first aid, and they don’t kill each other after hours.  Or beat their wives.”

I smirked, then jackknifed and crawled up onto his chest.  “Your dad started it, right?  Why did you continue it?  Why not shut it down?  Or hand it off?”

He combed his fingers gently through the tangles of my hair.  “I enjoy it.  I’m good at it.  It’s something to do.  Entertainment.”  He shrugged.  “Why not?”

“Because it’s illegal.  It could get you put in jail.”  And I really didn’t want Ed in jail.  How long would he stay like this, wonderful, helpful Ed, in an environment like that?

“Many things are illegal.  Many things that we do every day.  If we gave up everything, followed every rule, what would we have left?” Ed asked.

I saw his point.  “Not very freaking much.”

He smiled up at me as his thumb stroked the shell of my ear.  “You’re not very much your father’s daughter, are you?”

I shook my head.  “Are you kidding?  My dad’s crazy.  A total, raging, legal fanatic.  The only thing we have in common is being nosy, wanting to get to the bottom of everything.  The difference is, I just want to
know
.  Dad wants to get people arrested.

“Example,” I said.  “You wanted to know how I lost my virginity?”

Ed nodded.  “I do.”

“Well, the same way as a lot of people, I suppose.  My basement, in town, on a couch.  I was sixteen, and my parents had left to go out to dinner.  The guy’s name was Brian, he was in my chemistry class, and I’d invited him over to watch a movie.

“We were in the middle of the deed, when my dad walked in.”

Ed groaned.

“Yeah.  And he didn’t spin around and shut the door behind him like a normal, polite person.  No, he stormed into the room, grabbed Brian by the scruff of his neck, and dragged him off me.  Poor Brian was buck naked, and he got dragged through the house, down the snowy driveway, and my dad stuffed him in his squad car.  By the time I got my clothes on and ran after them, he was already pulling away.  Dad drove him to the police station, and had him charged with trespassing and indecent exposure. 
Would
have had him charged with assault if he could have convinced me to testify.”

“So you didn’t get to finish, either,” Ed said.

I grinned.  “No, I guess I didn’t.”

He was giving me that soft look again.  “Suzy, I’ve wanted you from the first moment I saw you.  The very first moment.  If it wasn’t for your dad, I would have acted on it.”

I threaded my fingers into his beard, tugged lightly.

“That’s not a handle,” he murmured.

I didn’t let him go.

He tugged on one of my curls.

I grinned.  “What was I doing in this first moment?”

“Well, you were fifteen—”

I slapped his shoulder and he laughed.  “What?  I was barely older myself; I was allowed to admire a hot neighbor girl.  You were at your parents’ dock, talking to a bunch of fishermen.  Charming all of them.  You had on these tiny denim shorts, and the sun was on your hair, turning it to gold.  You were so animated, like a happy little ray of sunshine.”

I felt a goofy grin creeping across my face.  “You really did notice me.”

“Of course I did.  You’re amazing.”

I was lost in his kiss when my phone rang.  Ed groaned as I went scrambling after it. 

“Hello?”  I tucked my hair behind my ear, listening intently to the man on the other end.  “Uh-huh.  Yes, of course.  I’ll be there.”  I hit
End
and started looking around for my clothes.

Ed had propped himself up on one elbow, and was giving me a questioning look.

“I gotta get home.  The Troopers are en route.” 
Oh, right.
  I’d snagged my phone, but my clothes were still in the bathroom.

“Troopers?  What Troopers?”  He sat up.

“The ones I called about my gold nugget,” I said.  “Your sister is being a real bitch about it.  Hounding me.  I need it found.”

“My sister?  What does my sister have to do with Troopers?”

I frowned over at him, realizing that in all my hunting and questioning, I still hadn’t actually told him what was going on.  “Your sister Chastity—”

“Half-sister,” Ed muttered.  “Another of Ralph’s by-blows.”

That
got my attention.  “How many of you
are
there?”

“Five, that I know of.  The other three, though, my dad never met.”

I snorted.  Dirty old man, indeed.  “Chastity’s attorney sent me a letter, saying that according to your dad’s most recent will, the gold nugget belongs to her.  She says if I don’t get it to her in the next few days—I think I have a week now, maybe—she’s going to sue me for the value of the nugget.”

“Sue you?  But that’s…  Wait.  The most recent will says it’s hers?”

I paused in pulling on my clothes.  “She sent me a copy.  It was dated five years ago, but yeah.”

Ed was frowning.  “Dad never updated his will, that’s true.  But I don’t remember that part.” He was up and digging in the papers on his dresser, more talking to himself than anything else.  “But then, I wasn’t really paying attention because it had been taken care of.  He’d put it in your hand, and that was good enough for me.”

“Well not, apparently, for the lawyers.  But do let me know if you find out otherwise.”  I have no idea how long I stood there, staring at his lovely backside, before I remembered I had somewhere to be.  “I gotta go.  The Troopers are supposed to be at my place in less than half an hour.”

Ed spun around, giving me the full frontal view.  “The Troopers are here
just
for the nugget, right?” he asked.

“What else would I call them for?”

“Are you going to tell them about the fight club?”

“Huh.  I hadn’t really thought about it.”  I tried to hold in my smile.

Ed groaned.  He crossed to me and caught my chin.  He tilted my face up, forcing me to look at him.  “Are you going to tell them about my fight club?”

I grinned.  “I hadn’t really decided.”

“I swear to God, Suzy, I’m going to lock you in a closet.”

I grinned wider.  “Sounds like fun, someday.  But not this morning,” I said.  I pulled away from him and headed to the door, casting him one last smile as I walked through.

He let me go, as I knew he would.  I threw my clothes on, and jogged out of his house.  I started missing him the moment I stepped outside.

Then, just steps from his covered bridge, I remembered I didn’t have a boat.  I poked my head back in Ed’s door.

He was already dressed and had his phone to his ear.  He was long and slim, and rumpled, with a love bite on his neck.  How had it taken me so many years to notice how freaking scrumptious he looked?

I waited until he ended the call to speak.  “Where are you headed?” I asked.

“The bar.  We’ve got a tournament today, starting early.  I was just talking to Gary—he says he wants in.”

“Ah.”

“But before I head to the bar, I’m giving you a ride to your place,” he said with a grin.

M
y cabin had been tossed.  I stood in the entryway for a full minute, just taking it in.

Every drawer was open, every item in my cabinets now out.  Cereal everywhere.  Books on the floor, cushion batting.  My clothes dangled from the upstairs railing, from the light fixture.  A mound of items spilled out of the closet.  DVDs.  Even the bathroom was trashed.

For a split second, I wondered if I’d been robbed again.

Then, realization came.
The brothers. 
I’d told them to search the place… and they had.

I spun on my heel, and slammed back outside.  As I rounded the cabin, I saw that,
oh, God
, they’d done the same to my shed.  My organized—a point of pride for me—shed.  It was an incredible mess.  A nightmare.

I went and got my shotgun, ready to drive them off once and for all.

But quickly found that they were missing.  Again.

“Fuck!  Hell!  Shit!”  I let loose in a manner that would have made Helly proud, and when I ran out of classics, I started in on the obscure and inventive:  “Damnable cousin-kissing perverted triceratops-loving nickel-pated asswipe, dickweed, inbred…”  I threw my gun on the table, and continued my tirade for another few minutes as I toured the house.

Ceiling?  Still fucked up.  Windows?  Still out.

And now there was the biggest mess I’d ever seen, covering every square inch of every horizontal surface.

I came back to myself standing on my deck, looking down at my overturned table.  I realized I had ahold of a couple good-sized hanks of my hair, and was trying to tear them out.

I stopped.  I sucked in a nice, long, deep breath.  No wonder Helly had anger issues.

Okay.
  I had a Trooper showing up here in just a few minutes.  I needed to get this cleaned up.

For the next fifteen minutes, that’s what I did.  I got the worst of it.

I was trying to scrape crushed Cocoa Puffs out of the rug when someone banged on my door.

I found a Trooper on my step.  He was wearing a crisp blue shirt under a dark jacket, and had very short light brown hair, matching brown eyes, and a mustache.  “Good morning,” he said.  “Suzanne Ramsey?”

I gulped.  The uniform shouldn’t have intimidated me, because my dad wore one for the first twenty years of my life.  But it did.  Maybe it was
because
of my dad.  “Yes.”

“I’m Officer Darcy Guileppe, Alaska State Troopers.”  He’d probably already seen the mess outside the shed as he walked up.  And as he stood there in my doorway, he surely saw the mess behind.

His eyes flicked back to me.  He pulled out a little notebook.  “You reported a stolen gold nugget?” he asked.

“Yes.”  Better to keep the answers short, give them as little info as possible.

Wait. 
This cop was trying to
help
me, I reminded myself.

“May I come in?”

“Yes.”  I stepped back, noting that his lips twitched a little when I gave him the same one-syllable answer.  So maybe he wasn’t without a sense of humor.

They’re not all like your dad, Suzy
, I told myself for about the umpteenth time. 
Lots of cops are not assholes.
  Maybe even
most
cops.

He looked around openly after stepping inside.  “Did this happen in the theft?”

“No.”  I sighed.  “It’s complicated.  Would you like to have a seat?”  Luckily, I’d already righted my dining room chairs.

He sat, and I explained about the brothers; how they’d busted my cabin, and then I’d made the colossal mistake of asking them to search it.

“Do you want to press charges?” he asked.  “This is vandalism.”

Oh, it was tempting.
  But if I did, I’d have to show up in court, when I’d really rather just take a branch of devil’s club to them.  The Alaska Natives had used it as a cure for insanity, or so I’d heard.  They just lashed the person with the prickly, stinging plant until they weren’t crazy anymore.  Supposedly, it worked like a charm.  I was eager to try it.

“No, thank you,” I said, knowing Helly would help me get justice.

He nodded, tapping his pen.  “So about this gold nugget.  When did you notice it missing?”

As I told him about it, as much as I knew, he took notes.  When I handed him the letter and will, he started to look confused.  I explained about Ralph giving me the nugget the day before he died.

“May I take a picture of each of these documents?” he asked.

“Please do.”

He took a couple shots, then looked up at me.  “You say you kept it on your dresser?”

I nodded.

“I’d like to dust it for prints,” he said.

I led him up into my bedroom, and only then realized that my Passion Party suitcase was open, and sex paraphernalia was spilling everywhere.  My cheeks burned.