Flirting in Traffic

by BETH KERY

  Esa laughed when she registered the expression of excitement and incredulous fear that the memory still had the power to bring to Molly’s face.

  “How many masks have we gone through over the years?” Mary Kate asked before she took a sip of beer.

  “At least a dozen,” Glory replied.

  “It was the best part of Halloween,” Mary Kate admitted as mirth gleamed in her blue eyes. “Running around out there in the pitch dark, both wanting to find one of the Uncle Wolves and practically peeing our pants we were so scared he was going to jump out from behind a tree and tickle us until we couldn’t breathe.”

  “Sounds like a blast,” Esa agreed, grinning.

  “Oh, it was. I was just telling Finn this evening that I kind of wish it was me out there instead of my kids,” Mary Kate said wistfully.

  They all paused when they heard a wolf howl and more shrieks of terror emanating from the backyard, followed by hysterical shouts and laughter.

  “From the caliber of those screams, it’s gotta be Finn,” Mary Kate said.

  “He’s the favorite Uncle Wolf,” Molly explained to Esa.

  “Is he?” Esa asked speculatively.

  Mary Kate nodded. “Of course my brothers are only truly ‘uncles’ to my kids but that hoard of cousins out there doesn’t know the difference. Even my little sisters think Finn is the best Uncle Wolf.”

  Esa wondered how much her expression revealed her thoughts when Glory gave her a searching look that reminded her very much of how Finn studied her sometimes.

  “Well?” the older woman challenged archly. “Why don’t you go and find out for yourself?”

  “Maybe I will,” Esa said slowly. “Where, precisely, is the Wolf Man’s territory?”

  Glory’s grin itself looked a little wolfish as she replied, “Our backyard and the backyards to each side of us.”

  “Our neighbors are tolerance personified,” Molly added wryly.

  “Wish me luck then,” Esa said before she turned and left the kitchen, smiling to herself at the sound of Glory’s chuckle behind her.

  Quite a crowd had gathered on the back terrace. Danny, Jess, Carla, Chase and a brunette woman dressed as a gypsy all glanced over at her when she walked out onto the large deck. Carla gave her a puzzled look but Esa just waved and said hello before she descended the steps into the backyard.

  She was a little surprised at how quickly velvety, impenetrable blackness of night surrounded her. Finn’s mother and grandmother lived in an older, established neighborhood that boasted enormous backyards that ended in an alley. Across the alley, another backyard stretched to the house on the next street. Detached coach-style garages blocked much of the light that shone from the house. The children certainly had an atmospheric arena in which to scare themselves silly.

  Esa peered through the darkness, afraid she would trip over a bush or a small child. The night was chilly but not overly so and she wore only a lightweight leather jacket. She paused when she heard the sound of muffled laughter in the distance and little feet scurrying through the leaves.

  She suppressed her own nervous giggle of excitement. Why did humans love to scare themselves so much? Something brushed against her outstretched hand and she jumped in alarm, sighing when she realized it was just the bark of a thick tree trunk. Thankfully she hadn’t walked straight into it and knocked herself out.

  She suddenly went very still when she heard footsteps in the leaves just feet away from her.

  “Wolf Man’s right on the other side of that tree,” Esa barely made out a boy whispering.

  “He is not. Quit trying to scare me, Cory,” a younger girl’s voice responded shakily.

  “He is. Let’s get him before he gets us!”

  The sound of rapidly rushing feet made Esa’s eyes go wide in panic. “No, wait. I’m not the Wolf Man, I’m Esa…oh—”

  She stopped speaking abruptly when the weight of a small body collided against her legs and arms wrapped around her thighs. She teetered for a second, almost losing her balance, but then righted herself and steadied the small body that had attempted to tackle her as well.

  “It’s a lady,” the little girl who had been correct to doubt the presence of the Wolf Man exclaimed.

  “Shhh, quiet, Amanda. He’ll hear you. You’d better not get us caught,” a boy admonished.

  “Are you all right?” Esa asked as she extricated Amanda from her legs. She bent down and peered at the vague outline in the blackness. From the size of her Esa guessed that she must have been around six or seven years old. She was accompanied by three other children, all of them older, given the sizes of their shadows.

  “Are you looking for the Wolf Man too?” the little girl asked in a stage whisper.

  “Er…yes, I am.”

  The girl giggled.

  “Let’s go, Amanda,” one of the boys hissed in a long-suffering big brother voice. They melted back into the darkness and were gone as quickly as they’d come. Esa tried to calm her rapid breathing in the silence that followed.

  She left the relatively secure landmark of the tree and wandered to the left of the yard, her arms stretched out in front of her. The children likely knew the territory of the backyards intimately but Esa was not only nearly blind but ignorant as she stumbled around back there. Her fingers encountered a waist-high bush. She tried to move around it but quickly realized it was a hedge that probably separated the two yards.

  A light rustling sound reached her hyper-alert ears and she paused. She drew her breath in cautiously but all was silent except for the muted voices and music of the party in the distance. It probably had just been some leaves scattering in the wind. Still, some instinct told her it was more than that.

  “Finn?” she queried softly, her heart hammering in her ears. “Is that you?”

  When she got no answer she resumed picking her way along the hedge, looking for an opening between the yards. Just when she found a gap in the bushes someone grabbed her from behind…someone who was most definitely not a child.

  Despite the fact that she’d come there specifically to find him, her nerves got the better of her. A scream rose in her throat. His hand was over her mouth in a second, stifling it.

  “What are you afraid of, little girl? Didn’t you come looking for a wolf?” he growled near her ear. His voice was muffled by the mask he must be wearing. He sounded both familiar and sinister at once. Esa shivered uncontrollably in fear and something else, something much more powerful.

  She twisted her head away from his hand on her mouth, freeing it. She squirmed in his hold. He wrapped her securely in his strong arms, making a mockery of her struggle. His body felt long and hard pressed so tightly against her. Excitement jolted through her with the strength of an electric shock, adrenaline pumping into her veins and a powerful sexual awareness enlivening her flesh.

  “Is this how you greet all your dates?” she muttered sarcastically between ragged pants. She yelped in surprise when he suddenly shifted his weight and fell to the ground, bringing her down on top of him. He rolled over until she was lying on her back in the cool grass, his body covering her.

  “Only the ones who come looking for it,” he said quietly near her face, amusement lacing his tone.

  It had all happened so quickly that Esa was momentarily stunned into silence. He must have removed his mask because his voice had sounded normal just now—that low, seductive rumble that she associated exclusively with Finn. His fragrant breath struck her lips and cheeks in choppy bursts of air. His scent reached her nostrils—subtle, spicy aftershave, clean male skin and fragrant leaves. She smiled to herself, realizing she wasn’t the first person he’d tumbled in the leaves and grass tonight.

  Her fingers came up to touch what she couldn’t see, lacing through the thick hair the collar of his jacket. She pressed her fingertips to his skull, applying a downward pressure.

  “I guess I was…looking for it, I mean,” she whispered breathlessly. “Come here, Wolf Man.”

  Bu
t she needn’t have said it because he’d already been on his way.

  Despite his aggressive play his lips were gentle and persuasive when they touched hers. Not that Esa required persuading. She curled her fingers in his hair and craned her neck up for more of the taste of him.

  “Shhh,” he whispered so softly that she barely heard him over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. He proceeded to nibble and eat at her mouth like it was a rare Godiva truffle that he’d found in the midst of his dime store Halloween candy. Esa felt herself turning to warm, sweet syrup under the influence of that kiss.

  She whimpered into his mouth when his tongue slid along her lower lip, politely asking for entrance. Esa granted it, melting into the cool grass beneath the divine heat of Finn’s hard body and his intoxicating kiss. When she began to rub her tongue next to his, matching his slow, erotic rhythm, he growled and rocked his erection against her harboring heat. Esa shifted her hips up against him, the resulting friction making their kiss hungrier. She applied suction, pulling him further into her.

  “Be careful about teasing, Esa,” Finn mock-threatened quietly next to her damp lips a few seconds later. His hand spread along her waist and found its way beneath her jacket, rising slowly up the side of her torso. She shivered almost uncontrollably beneath him despite the fact that heat emanated from his body. “It’s a full moon, you know…and you test the beast sorely.”

  Esa tried to snort in amusement when he flexed his hips for emphasis but was quickly silenced when he slid his hand over her sweater-covered breast. He cupped her softly then shaped her firmly to his palm. Her nipple stiffened against the pressure, sending a sympathetic jolt of pure desire between her thighs. She groaned and rubbed up against him to alleviate the sharp ache.

  “Esa,” he muttered as he continued to mold her breast with his hand and their flesh strained against one another’s with growing need. Esa was gratified to hear that all amusement had vanished from his tone.

  She heard a child’s muffled laughter nearby.

  “Finn, stop,” she whispered. “The kids are—”

  “They can’t see anything,” Finn growled into her neck between hungry kisses.

  “Yes, but—”

  “I’m just…kissing you… What’s the big…deal?” he asked between nibbles of flesh.

  The big deal was that Esa was so aroused as she lay there beneath Finn in the middle of his mother’s leaf-strewn backyard that it certainly didn’t feel like just kissing in the slightest.

  “But I think they might be—”

  “Now,” someone yelled.

  “Right there,” Esa finished.

  “Gotcha, Wolf Man!” a boy yelled at the same time that the weight of several bodies fell on top of them.

  “Ow! Hey… Watch the kidneys,” Finn ordered between grunts as child after child piled on top of them. Esa broke out in laughter when he covered her body from the tackling kids.

  “Tickle him like he does us!”

  Esa ducked her head into Finn’s chest for protection against the ensuing mêlée of laughing, squirming, tickling children. Finn finally managed to get them off them with a combination of half-serious threats, gentle wrestling and returned tickles.

  “There’s a lady here. Now cut it out,” Finn finally said as he wrestled one of his older, more boisterous nephews while trying to stop two giggling nieces from tickling his ribs. “Go and hide again. You guys conquered this Wolf Man. Another uncle is going to come get you.”

  “Who, Uncle Finn?” the boy who wrestled with him demanded.

  “I don’t know, but I’m gonna tell him to hunt you down first if you don’t get out of here, Aidan. Hurry up. He’ll be out here in a minute.”

  “Are you okay?” Finn asked softly as the sound of the children’s voices faded.

  “Yes,” Esa said with a laugh as she sat up. “Except for the leaves in my hair.”

  His hand spread along her neck, his fingers reaching to tangle in her hair. “I’m used to leaves in your hair. It’s one of the things I like about you.”

  Esa froze. Something about the warmth in his tone had taken her by surprise.

  It had taken her by pleasant surprise. So pleasant that Esa had been caught with her guard down. First there had been a burning-hot desire followed by the playful antics of the children. To have such lighthearted pleasure and fun followed by that indefinable something in Finn’s voice just now…the indication that he liked more than one thing about her left Esa mentally spinning.

  She wondered if he sensed the tension as well when he suddenly removed his hand and stood. He reached for her hand and pulled her up.

  “How about we get some food after all that wrestling?”

  “Wrestling, huh? Is that what they call it these days?” she asked, joining in his obvious effort to lighten the moment.

  His deep laughter made her smile into the darkness. She couldn’t decide as they walked through the yard whether or not she was relieved or disappointed to be back in familiar territory with Finn.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Esa had a good time over the next hour eating her supper in the crowded kitchen at a huge lovingly restored antique oak table with two long benches on each side of it. Finn, Dina, Glory, Ellen, Mary Kate, Danny and Finn’s garrulous, good-looking cousin Caleb Madigan all sat at the table, along with two of Danny’s friends from graduate school. Apparently Finn’s youngest brother Micah had been detained at school by a midterm on Monday morning.

  Everyone had already eaten besides Finn, Mary Kate and Esa, but they all talked so much that Esa didn’t feel self-conscious about stuffing her face with a cheese veggie burger and delicious homemade potato salad.

  She was a little envious of Finn for belonging to such a large, warm, easygoing family. Rachel and she had always been very close with their parents, but four hardly compared to the double- or even triple-digit total number of Finn’s close-knit extended family.

  She’d discovered during their meal that Caleb was the oldest son of Finn’s Uncle Joe. Joe and Ed, Finn’s father, had been exceptionally close and owned Madigan Construction together. The two families were closely tied as a result. The fact that the two brothers had died within months of each other pulled those familial bonds even tighter. Caleb looked more like a brother to Finn than a cousin, with burnished brown hair like Danny’s and green eyes like Jess’. Unlike Finn or his brothers however, Caleb wore a sexy, neatly trimmed goatee.

  Despite all the possible distractions of the loud, friendly banter, the good food and Finn’s gorgeous cousin and too-cute little brother, Esa’s attention was captured almost completely by Finn, who sat next to her on the wood bench. She was hyperaware of his body next to her, of every casual brush of their arms, of the pressure of his hip against her own.

  Once she glanced up to find him watching her with those incredibly blue eyes. What she saw in their depths made her stop chewing. She resumed a second later when she felt him place his hand on her thigh under the table and pull it next to his own hard length but she found it extremely difficult to swallow.

  He wanted to make love to her again tonight. That was what she’d read as clearly as a neon sign in his eyes. And Esa knew that was what she wanted too…more than anything.

  There was something else Esa knew for a fact in that moment. She was putting much, much more than her self-respect at risk by carrying on this way with Finn. Every minute that she remained with him would just amplify her pain when he eventually stopped wanting to see her. That moment might come as early as tomorrow morning or next month but it would inevitably come. He’d been engaged to be married just a month ago. Rebound relationships never worked out, at least in Esa’s experience.

  “Hey, I hope there’s no hard feelings about giving Finn your phone number, Esa.” Caleb interrupted her tumultuous thoughts as Mary Kate and Danny served everyone pumpkin cake and cinnamon ice cream for dessert.

  “You should apologize,” Finn interrupted before Esa could respond. “You gave me th
e wrong numbers, Sherlock. So much for the dependability of the state of Illinois’ law enforcement.”

  Caleb looked surprised. “Couldn’t have.”

  Finn just gave him a wry glance before he ate a bite of cake.

  “I think that Caleb was referring to the infringement on my privacy for non-police business,” Esa explained patiently. Finn didn’t bother to respond to the obvious however, and just continued to eat his cake.

  “You don’t live at 989 North Michigan Avenue?” Caleb persisted.

  Esa paused in the process of spooning some ice cream. “So that’s how you found me,” she said softly to Finn. He smiled as he chewed his cake and gave her thigh a tight squeeze.

  “See. I gave you the right information,” Caleb said, obviously feeling vindicated by the information. “How could I have gotten the address right and got the phone number wrong?”

  Finn’s smile faded. He didn’t say anything in front of everyone, thank God, but she had the sneaking suspicion that he was wondering if she’d been lying about not receiving those phone calls. It suddenly struck Esa full force that Finn had been calling her evasive, manipulative little sister all week.

  “Maybe my DMV information needs to be updated,” Esa answered Caleb evasively although her gaze remained on Finn.

  No wonder he’d been so confused. She and Rachel sounded very similar and Rachel’s messages were always brief and to the point. But why hadn’t Rachel bothered to return his calls to alert him of his mistake? More importantly, why hadn’t Rachel told Esa about the misunderstanding?

  Although that would have required that her sister had returned her calls at least once this week.

  What was Rachel up to?

  Esa shook her head in frustration and met Finn’s doubtful stare.

  “I never received any phone calls from you,” she assured him. When he resumed chewing again slowly, his eyes still on her, she continued softly enough for only him to hear. “There’s been a misunderstanding. I’ll try to explain later.”