“I’m sorry! I hate school. I just can’t be there.”
“Well, hell, kid. Nobody likes school. Someone bullying you there?”
He shook his head.
“You get bad grades?”
He shrugged.
“You keep doing this shit you’re going to get locked up. You got a school ID?”
He nodded.
“Give it to me.” Jed held out a hand. The kid dug it out of his pocket. He glowered at the kid and said, “If you run, I will call the cops.” He let go of him to take a picture of the ID and then he handed it back to him. “I’ll make you a deal. Every day you go to school, you come here afterward. I’ll give you lunch and pay you to wash dishes. Think you can handle that?” He knew he didn’t have the authority to make the offer, but he’d pay the kid out of his own pocket if he needed to. He just wanted to get him off the streets.
“Aw, man, come on. I gotta wash dishes every day?”
“You don’t have to do a damn thing. You can keep fucking up. I’m just giving you a chance not to. Start with today, work off that burger and fries, and if I never see you again, then so be it. But you’ve got a chance to earn money so you don’t have to steal. The rest is up to you.”
Jed held on to him as he took him through the bar and into the kitchen, where Finlay was busy making a sandwich.
“Hey, Jed,” Finlay said cheerily. She wore a bright pink apron, and her blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail. “Who’s your friend?”
“Finlay, this is Ricardo. He’s going to wash dishes for the next hour.”
“Sounds good to me,” Finlay said. “Nice to meet you, Ricardo.”
Jed turned a threatening stare on Ricardo and said, “You know the big bearded monster you just saw out front? That was Bullet, and this is his wife, Finlay. You will treat her with the utmost respect, or you’ll have Bullet to deal with.”
“Yes, sir. Hello, Miss Finlay. It’s nice to meet you,” he said nervously.
Finlay gave Jed a questioning glance. “Nice to meet you, too.”
Jed got Ricardo set up at the sink, and then he leaned against the counter where Finlay was working and crossed his arms. “He tried to dine and dash,” he explained quietly. “Figured I could teach him something.”
“He’s so young,” she whispered.
“Yeah. Exactly.”
Ricardo worked without complaint, and an hour later Jed said, “Good job. You’ve worked off your lunch. If you want to walk out of here with ten bucks in your pocket, you can stay and wash for another hour.”
Finlay walked quietly past Jed and set a plate with a pink frosted cupcake on the counter beside Ricardo and said, “Go ahead. That’s for you.”
Ricardo looked to him for approval.
Jed nodded. “Say thank you.”
“Thank you.” He ate half of it in one bite, set the other half on the plate, and said, “I’ll keep washing. But I gotta be home by four.”
“You wash. I’ll give you a ride when you’re done.”
WEDNESDAY NIGHT JOSIE and Hail were elbow deep in baking all things gingerbread when she saw the headlights from Jed’s truck in the driveway. Her heart did a happy dance.
He’d been spending most of his free time with them since they’d moved in to Scotty’s. Saturday night after they were all unpacked and Hail had gone to bed, she and Jed had discussed Sarah’s advice and had decided to let their relationship progress naturally in front of Hail—and then they’d christened her new bedroom. Josie had thought she’d feel funny about being intimate with Jed in Scotty’s house, but she didn’t. It was the strangest thing, but even that felt natural with Jed.
She and Jed had taken Hail to a movie with Sarah and Bones and Truman and Gemma and all the kids on Sunday. Hail was loving spending time with his cousins and new friends—though he called Kennedy and Lincoln his cousins, too.
She saw Jed walk past the front windows, and Scotty went to answer the door. Things with him had been comfortable, too. After dinner he usually spent time with Hail, then headed out with friends or hung out downstairs.
“She’s in some sort of a baking frenzy,” Scotty said when he answered the door.
“Moon!” Hail ran out of the kitchen.
“Sticky hands! Don’t let him touch anything—” Josie called over the half wall just as Hail threw his arms around Jed’s legs. He had chocolate and sticky dough all over his clothing and face. “Sorry!”
Jed lifted a giggling Hail into the air, holding him away from his body as he carried him toward the kitchen. “What did you do, dive into a vat of flour?”
He was so good with Hail, patient, funny, and caring. Knowing what Sarah, Tracey, and other women at the shelter had gone through, Josie counted her blessings. She knew just how lucky she was to have found two incredible men in her short life.
“We’re making gingerbread everything!” Hail exclaimed. “Want to help? Uncle Scotty helps by eating the stuff Mama said is wrong.”
Scotty grabbed his coat from a hook by the door and said, “Just doing my part.”
“You bet I want to help,” Jed said, and set Hail down.
“I’m heading out. Don’t wait up.” Scotty waved as he headed out the door.
“Bye, Uncle Scotty!” Hail yelled as he climbed onto a chair by the counter beside Josie.
Jed slid a hand around Josie’s waist and said, “Hey, beautiful baker.” He kissed her on the cheek and whispered, “I missed you.”
“I missed you, too.” They’d begun holding hands and sharing tender kisses in front of Hail, and Hail had started kissing Jed good night and hugging him more often. He’d even climbed onto Jed’s lap Sunday night and asked him to read a bedtime story. It was amazing how things had fallen into sync once Josie let go of the guilt and worry.
“I had the greatest day.” She motioned to the table where gingerbread bowls and cups of various sizes and gingersnap cones were cooling. On the counter was another pan of gingersnap cones, which they’d dipped in chocolate. Some of the cones had also been rolled in sprinkles. Scotty had brought home a child-sized table, which he said they needed for nights when Sarah’s kids were over for dinner, and they’d set it by the glass doors. It was covered with gingerbread men and goodies to decorate them.
“Holy cow, Jojo. What’s all this for? Is it all gingerbread?” Jed asked.
“Mostly, but the cones are gingersnap. I have so much to tell you,” she said as she rolled gingersnap dough into a thin layer. “Penny showed me how to make cones today from scratch, and as we were dipping them in chocolate and adding sprinkles, she was talking about how much busier they are in the summer, and I got to thinking about gingerbread.”
“Can I do the circles?” Hail asked.
“Yup.” She handed Hail a plastic circle-shaped dough cutter and said, “Be careful, and remember, hands stay on the handle.”
“I know,” he said with a harrumph, like he’d been cutting dough his whole life.
He practically has, she mused.
As Hail worked, she said, “Brian’s grandmother taught me everything I know about cooking and baking. She loved gingerbread and she showed me how to make gingerbread houses, like we made over Christmas, and lots of other gingerbread things—cookies, cakes, muffins, trifle, fudge. You name it, I can make it. So, after work, I started thinking about those cones…”
“We tried to make ’em,” Hail said as he leaned all his weight on the handle of the cookie cutter. “But they didn’t work.” He pointed to a pile of broken gingerbread pieces.
Jed lifted his brows. “Are those up for grabs?”
“Yeah. Take your fill. Lord knows I’ve eaten a million pieces too many.” She took the cookie cutter from Hail and set it aside as Jed dug in. “Okay, bean. Good job. You can decorate the cookies if you want to.”
“Yay!” He went to the kids’ table to decorate the cookies.
“Jojo, these are delicious.” Jed took a handful of broken pieces. “You’re not throwing these away, are
you?”
“I’m glad you like them. I thought I’d make a gingerbread construction yard for Hail and use the broken pieces as mounds of dirt. We’ve been baking since we got home. I’m going to bring all of this to work in the morning and show it to Penny. Who knows, maybe these types of novelties would help her business in the winter. Think about it. Gingerbread bowls for the sundaes, gingersnap cones that we can dip in white chocolate and decorate with green, white, and red sprinkles at Christmastime. Or turn them upside down on a scoop of ice cream and make faces like clowns, so the cone is the hat, and decorate the cone with blooms of icing. There are so many things she can do.”
She opened the freezer, which was full of gingerbread cups. “These have to freeze overnight to retain their shape. I’ll get up early and bake them before I take Hail to school tomorrow, and put the handles on using caramel as glue, like little coffee cups. I figured Penny could fill them with ice cream, custard, whatever she’d like, put whipped cream on top, and sell them as a wintery delight.”
The shock of astonishment in Jed’s eyes as he reached for her made her feel like her idea was a bad one.
His strong arms circled her waist and he said, “Babe, this is beyond incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it. Not at the bakery, not with Finlay…”
“Thanks. I hope Penny likes the idea and doesn’t feel like I’m overstepping my bounds.”
“Penny’s going to love it all.”
Josie went up on her toes and kissed him. “I hope so. When I was a teenager, I dreamed of having a little shop and selling all sorts of gingerbread things. Over the holidays I hoped to host gingerbread-house-making parties, and in the spring I planned to make gingerbread flowers. I even picked out a name for my business. Ginger All the Days. I was so into the idea, I even thought up what the business would look like. A little gingerbread house with a pink, white, and brown striped awning above the door, and everything inside would be decorated in those colors.” She laughed and said, “Pipe dreams.”
“Babe, from what I’ve seen in the last ten minutes alone, it doesn’t seem like it has to be a pipe dream. I bet Penny’s going to be thrilled with this.”
“Maybe. I hope so, but that’s still just a few novelties for Penny, not a shop.” She picked up a cone they’d dipped in chocolate and handed it to him. “Taste this. See if you like it. It’s a gingersnap tuile, which is like a crisp cookie. Gingerbread doesn’t get crisp enough to work as a cone.”
He bit into it and closed his eyes. “Mm.” When he opened his eyes, he leaned closer and whispered, “I can think of only one thing more delicious, and that’s not fit for little ears.”
Heat snaked its way through her core as he pressed his lips to hers in a sugary kiss. They hadn’t made love since Saturday, and she already felt like an addict who needed another hit.
Jed took off his leather jacket and tossed it over a chair. “What can I do to help?”
Put your hands all over me. Or your mouth. Oh God, yes, your mouth. Her cheeks heated up as more sexy suggestions flew through her mind.
“Help me decorate!” Hail said, saving her from her retreat down the dirty rabbit hole.
Thank goodness.
They decorated cookies while Josie finished baking. Every time Jed got up, he discreetly brushed against her, dragging his hand over her ass, or his chest along her breasts, dropping kisses on her cheeks. Each sensual touch amped up her neediness, but it was his naughty whispers that had her counting down the minutes until Hail’s bedtime. Save some frosting for later. Tonight you’re coming on my tongue.
Jed helped her bathe Hail and get him ready for bed. When Hail asked Jed to read him a bedtime story, Josie took advantage of her free time and hopped in the shower quickly. As the warm water streamed over her breasts, she thought about the shower she’d shared with Jed at his apartment. She’d showered with Brian, but Brian hadn’t been as sexual as Jed, and while they’d tried once to have sex in the shower, between their height discrepancy and the awkwardness, they’d given up and never tried again. But with Jed there hadn’t been any awkwardness. He’d backed her up against the tile wall with ravenous kisses, and then he’d taken her breast in his mouth as he teased her with his hand. Water had rained down on them as he’d lifted her easily and lowered her onto his rock-hard shaft. Using the wall for leverage, he’d pounded into her like he could hold her there forever, and when they’d come, they were loud and rough and…
Her body shuddered with the memory. As she dried off and wrapped herself in a towel, the heat never dissipated. She opened the door quietly and peeked into Hail’s room. Jed sat with a book in one hand, his other hand resting on her sleeping boy’s back. Hail’s stuffed rabbit was squished between his belly and the mattress. Jed set the book on the nightstand and climbed carefully from the bed. His piercing gaze raked boldly over her as he closed the distance between them like a hungry wolf stalking its prey. Every step made her pulse beat faster. By the time he took her hand and led her from the room, her nipples burned with anticipation.
She pulled Hail’s door partially closed behind them and crossed the hall to her bedroom. Jed’s shirt was off before he even closed her bedroom door. But he didn’t reach for her towel. His fingers trailed slowly over her shoulders and down her arms, holding her captive with a dark stare.
“What have you done to me, Jojo?” he whispered as he lowered his mouth to her shoulder.
The first touch of his lips sent shivers of heat coursing through her. He kissed her so lightly across her shoulders, over the curve of her arm, she held her breath so as not to miss a single one.
“I can’t wait to feel you come on my mouth,” he said in a low voice.
Her insides vibrated with desire. Her sex was swollen and greedy, but so was she. She reached for the button on his jeans and said, “You first.”
As she worked his zipper, he grabbed her wrist and said, “You’re playing with fire, Jojo. Your mouth on me will make me come.”
She wrenched her wrist free and said, “I sure hope so.” She yanked his jeans down and wrapped her fingers around his cock. “Step out of your jeans and let me do what I’ve been dreaming about.”
“Fuuck…” he said as he lowered his mouth to hers while also trying to take off his boots and jeans. He used the wall for leverage, and they both ended up laughing.
When he was finally naked, she turned and pushed his back against the wall. Then she dropped her towel and did something she’d never done before in front of a man. She’d read all sorts of things about how to turn on her man over the years, though she’d never felt compelled to put most of them into play with Brian. But no part of her wanted to hold back with Jed, and she knew she could trust him with this side of herself. She palmed her breasts and moaned, loving the wickedness rising in his eyes. Then she slipped one hand between her legs and teased her sex, making more sensual noises. He grabbed her by her arms and crashed his mouth over hers, until she was pressing her body into his, ready to give herself over. But she wanted to be in control this time. She’d spent the last few days thinking of how much pleasure he brought her and wanting to give it back.
She tore her mouth away, leaving them both panting, and slipped her damp finger into his mouth. He sucked it hard, just as she’d hoped he would. “I’m going to suck you that hard,” she said, surprising herself, “and I don’t want you to hold back.”
Her eyes never left his as she sank down to her knees and she licked his balls. His cock bobbed and he groaned. It was the sexiest, most utterly male sound she’d ever heard, and she wanted to hear—to earn—more of them. She cupped his balls and sealed her mouth over his inner thigh, sucking and licking until his entire body flexed and his hips thrust forward. His eyes closed, and his jaw tightened. He was so sexy and turned on. Knowing she’d made him feel that way made her feel even bolder.
“Watch me,” she said, and slicked her tongue along the length of him.
“Fuck, Jojo. When you talk like that—”
&nbs
p; “I’m yours, Moon. Make me yours in every way.”
She lowered her mouth over his cock, working him with tight strokes of her hand as she sucked. He moaned loud and fast as she quickened her pace. He grabbed her head and held on tight. Yes! Oh yes! But when she realized he was still letting her lead, she covered his hands with hers and forced him to move her head faster.
He thrust his hips, fucking her mouth like she was his, and she not only loved it, but she craved it. He’d unleashed a part of her she hadn’t known existed—or maybe she knew all along from the first time they’d had sex that something dark and erotic lived inside her, but she’d denied it. Probably to keep from realizing what she was missing.
“Holy Christ,” he growled, full of heat and greed. “Jojo—”
The warning in his voice only made her crave him more. She grabbed his ass with both hands, letting him know she was all in. He pumped harder, faster, rougher, and when he found his release, she stayed with him, taking everything he had to give.
His head fell back against the wall as aftershocks rumbled through him, each one accompanied by a fast jerk of his hips. It was a solid minute before his grip on her head eased and he helped her to her feet. He cradled her face in his hands like he wanted to say something, but then the edges of his mouth tipped up and he lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her deeply, thoroughly.
When their lips parted she said, “I’ve never finished like that before.” She couldn’t bring herself to say swallowed. It sounded dirty, and what they were doing wasn’t dirty. It was intimate and right and…love?
His brows slanted, like he was trying to make sense of what she’d said, and she knew the moment that understanding dawned on him. His eyes widened with surprise. “Aw, babe. Thank you…?”
She laughed, and he swept her into his arms with a playful growl and tossed her onto the bed. “For the record,” he said as he shifted her to the edge of the mattress, “kissing a woman after a blow job is a first for me. But I can’t fucking resist your mouth.” He knelt before her, his eyes simmering with seduction as he said, “Or any other part of you.”
Mad About Moon Page 17