“Of course,” Lieutenant smiled smugly. “I told you I had things under control.”
Kingpin shook his head. “Not everything. What about the kid’s parents? Do you know where they went?”
Lieutenant shook his head. “Nope. Monstruo and Caja swear they never saw them. They also say the guy they found dead was a stranger.”
“Of course he was a stranger. All the wetbacks are strangers.”
“He had a visa.”
Kingpin waved his hand. “Semantics. They’re all wetbacks. Get this stuff cleared up.”
“Okay,” Lieutenant twirled on the ball of his foot.
“Hold on, one more thing.”
Lieutenant turned back. “Yes, sir?”
“On the grapevine, go for another vine. One that’s been growing longer.”
****
“You know, Monstruo, if Kingpin ever finds out we had anything to do with that Mexican couple, we’ll be begging for the police to take us into custody.” Caja, standing on a ladder, took another one-pound bag of pot and stuffed it up in the attic of the abandoned house.
“You worry too much,” his partner told him. “Keep taking this stuff and hurry. I don’t know why they have to package it in these tiny one pound bags.”
“Duh! To keep the police from finding it in the cars, you asshole.”
Monstruo chuckled. “Not likely if they make it all the way out here. Sheriff’s Department is made up of a bunch of dim-witted goons.”
“This place still smells.” Caja took the last of the bags and groaned as he forced it up and placed the door back where it should be, locking it.
“They’re dead, all right.” Monstruo grinned. “I guess they’ll meet in another pathetic life.”
“You don’t care, do you?” Caja asked. “That kid’s an orphan and you have no remorse.”
“Hell, no.” Monstruo’s eyes grew black and ominous. “Why should I? Scum should’ve stayed south of the border.” Suddenly he stopped and walked over to the corner of the room. “Well lookie here. A blanket and teddy bear.” He laughed.
Caja climbed down from the ladder. The laugh was like one from the depth of hell, menacing and evil. “What’s so funny about a bear?”
“That kid must have slept here.” He snickered. “Don’t you think it’s funny he stayed in this house of all houses and his parents were rotting away on the other side of the wall?”
Caja felt his gut convulse. He threw up against the baseboard.
“God, you don’t have any stomach for this. Why don’t you go be an ice cream man?” he asked in an exaggerated voice. Monstruo shook his head. He picked up the bear. “I think I’ll hold onto this. If that kid shows up again, he’d be good money on the black market.”
****
“Hey, Millie,” Grady waved at her from his booth at the pharmacy.
She walked over. “Well, hello, stranger. Haven’t seen you in more than a day, not since my debut on television.”
He leaned back in the booth. “You’re one hell of a woman, Mil. I think you would’ve taken that guy out of it hadn’t been for Maggie getting in the way and then your niece making a run for him.”
“Thank you, I think.” She smiled. “Want some company?”
“Sure,” he said. “But don’t you have to take orders?”
“I own the place,” she said. “I can turn it over to somebody else. Hey Flo, take orders, okay? I’m gonna set a spell.” Millie scooted into the other side of the booth. “Tell me what you want, and she can come over and pick up the ticket.”
He ordered. “Don’t you want something?”
“Hell, no,” she said. “I ate about two hours ago. People call me Rooster Mil ’cause I get up before dawn and tell everybody else to get moving.”
“Yeah, I do too,” Grady said, nodding. “I didn’t know that, though. You stayed over with us and I never heard you up that early.”
She nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. I was up, but I just read my devotional and bided my time for a while. Didn’t want to cause anyone to lose sleep.”
He whistled through his teeth. “How about that? I lie in bed at Emily’s every morning so I won’t disturb anyone, because, as I guess you know from experience, she doesn’t get up until seven-thirty. I’d get up at five, but bless her heart, she makes coffee for me to go off at six. I guess she doesn’t think anybody on earth gets up an hour earlier than that.”
Millie set back in the booth. “She knows her aunt does. I just haven’t pushed it when I’m over there. I’ll have to talk to that girl.”
He shook his head. “Don’t, please. She’s trying so hard. Which brings me to why I’m here.”
“Yes?” Millie leaned forward.
“I think something’s getting ready to go down between those two young’uns.”
“You do?” Millie clapped her hands. “Thank the Lord for small favors, and bring the babies too. Why do you think so?”
“Because last night Emily got this dazed, starstruck look in her eyes and after that, Nick started talking about melons.”
“Melons?”
He shook his head. “Never mind. Anyway, I went to bed. But, I can tell you right now, Nick was whistling all the way to the building site despite the fact the adjuster was there, and he didn’t get bent out of shape even when the guy said the builder and loader couldn’t be settled for the money he wanted.”
“I guess that’s big.”
Grady smiled again. “For Nick? Huge. He’ll negotiate a dime into a quarter. That guy is smitten.”
Millie handed her order slip to Flo. “Hurry up, my buddy’s got the growls.” She turned back to Grady. “Gotta tell you, it’s about time,” Millie said. “But I don’t know if she knows where to put it anymore.”
“Do you?” He watched, as Millie turned, her eyes sparkling.
“Are you kidding, sweetie? I know all sorts of places to make it feel like it just went to heaven and discovered a suck farm.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Nick glanced over at Emily as she dutifully shook melons and sniffed them. “Here’s a good one,” she told him.
He took it in his hands. “Great. I haven’t had a Virginia melon before.”
“They’re the best,” she said, grinning broadly. “A little tangy with just a touch of acid. Ripe only when squeezed and very enticing just to feel.”
Nick jerked his head around and stared at her. “You know we’re talking about something else besides this melon, don’t you?”
She nodded, biting on her lower lip. “Oh yeah.”
“But you came with me anyway?” he asked, his voice a bit shaky, even to him.
She nodded. “I just wanted to see how far you’d go without divulging the truth.”
“I’d have gone a lot farther if you hadn’t caught me.” He licked his lips as he looked down at her cleavage in the low-cut tee shirt. “Maybe not even divulge anything at all until I completely sampled the merchandise.”
She placed her hand on his arm. “Not for sale.”
Deflated, his smile faded. “No?”
She laughed. “But it could be free if somebody plays his cards right.”
He hurried after her as she twirled around and walked to the checkout to pay for the melon.
“So, what kind of card game are we playing?” he asked with a grin as he handed the guy a five and waved off the change.
“Strip poker.” She winked. “Winner takes all.”
****
She knew he’d planned on taking her back to the house and making love in his room, but she’d suggested they detour to a spot off the beaten path. He drove there under her direction, admiring the winding of the shadowed tree-lined road, speckled with wildflowers. Birds whistled in the trees. The day was cooler than it had been, a sign autumn would soon be there, but there was still a sun-kissed smell of summer wafting through the air.
The trees began to part about a half-mile down the road, and there, in a clearing, was a small A-frame building sitting
next to a creek.
He parked and they got out of the car. Emily smiled, feeling shy. “Come on inside and get your bearings and you can signal when the strip poker begins.”
He crossed the threshold of the house and looked at the wide-open great room, fully furnished, including a huge screen TV in the corner.
“The back of the house has a kitchen.” Emily gestured. “And off the kitchen is a screened-in porch with a sofa.” She beckoned with her finger. “It has a pull-out bed.” She began to walk a few steps and stopped again, turning. “And a hot tub.”
He was all over it, rushing after her through the kitchen and out the door to the porch. “Who owns this, anyway?” He laughed. “It’s Taylor’s isn’t it?”
Emily nodded. “He built it a long time ago when he got engaged. Sometimes he comes up here and stays by himself, but to my knowledge, he’s never entertained a woman here alone.”
Nick began to unbutton his shirt. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to break it in for him.”
Emily turned and placed her hand on his bare chest, and it burned her palm with urgent need. “Hold on, tiger,” she said. “A woman has to have a bit more of a buildup than the sight of a hot tub and a bed.”
“Right.” Nick took a deep breath. “Okay, what do you suggest?”
“I’m sure there’s something in the wine fridge, and knowing Taylor, he still has beer in the regular refrigerator. He was just out here this past spring. What’s your poison?”
“Uh, a beer’s fine.”
“Okay,” Emily said. “I guess I’ll have that too. Be back in a sec.”
She watched him as she round the corner, sitting down on the side of an ottoman and staring out over the land, watching the creek bubble over rocks just feet below. As she got the beers, she thought it was the perfect time to come here. Now that the temperature was warmer, steam was rising from the thunderstorm they’d had last night, giving the scene a surreal atmosphere. Everything seemed magical.
She wondered if she was rushing this. Maybe last night’s zeal, the adrenaline-popping experience of the fire, had sent her emotions into overdrive.
She licked her lips again, remembering the taste of him. Her hand began to tingle, phantom passion, she decided, left over from the enticing feel of his cool all-male skin. Yes, yes, her hormones were screaming, warring strongly, beating down the no, no echoing from her rational side. “Hell,” she murmured. “This is pleasure. Oh boy, howdy, is it ever.”
He turned as he heard her enter the room behind him. Emily handed him a beer.
“Thanks,” he told her, his hand brushing hers momentarily.
She felt the touch of his fingers and smiled. “No problem,” she said, sitting down on the other end of the large ottoman.
She sipped from the bottle, the cool sparkling fluid sliding down her throat like a snaking elixir, sent to start the flames. She took a deep breath. “It smells like honeysuckle back here.”
“I’m sorry,” he said turning. “What sucks?”
Emily giggled, and her nerves took over, making her giggle some more. “I’m sorry. I was just thinking nothing’s sucking anything. Yet.”
Nick turned so he was seated facing her and slowly removed the bottle of beer from her hand. He set both bottles on the coffee table. “It seems we’ve had enough of a buildup.”
“Shut up and kiss me.” Emily scooted closer to him, and he grabbed her shoulders. She was ready for him as his mouth connected with hers. She could taste the cool flavor of the beer on his mouth, but inside he tasted sweeter, like mint and fresh air and a musky flavor that was all male. He smelled like that same indefinable dusky scent, half leather and half a signature scent of his own.
His tongue probed deeper, and she let it, as she felt his hands began to roam over her body, his fingers digging into her back as he pressed her closer to him. She knew her own breathing had quickened and felt his heart beating faster in his chest.
“We need more room,” he said, his voice deep and liquid, pouring over her like warm oil, massaging into her senses.
“The bed,” she said, pointing.
“We don’t have time for beds,” he growled, hungry for her, pulling her with him to the floor. “Is this okay?” he asked, as a seeming afterthought. “Is the floor too hard?”
“What floor?” she asked. She pressed her body against his again and kissed him fervently.
He broke the kiss. “We’re overdressed.”
“Right,” she said. “The strip part. Almost forgot.” Concentrate on the sex and not on what your body looks like. She sat up and started to pull her top over her head.
“Let me,” he said, running his fingers up the sides of her chest and pulled it, inside out over her arms. His fingers lingered on her arms and traced back down them, then slid quickly behind to her back, popping her bra.
“You do that like you’ve had practice,” she said.
“It’s like I never had right now,” he said, his breath coming in shallow gulps. “I can’t wait until I see you. Really see you.”
Her hands rose upward, caressing his arms, and drew them further up his shirt to his shoulders, knocking the already unbuttoned shirt back off his neck. He lifted his arms so she could remove it and then pulled off her bra. “Halfway there.” She tried hard to act as if she’d done this dozens of times. But she knew her eyes betrayed her as she saw the taut muscles in his lower abs and the pale brown hair snaking below the snap of his jeans.
She reached out and popped the snap, letting her fingers trail down his fly as she unzipped it. Emily delighted in his swift intake of breath, the sudden tightening in his stomach and the strain across the fly. “Oh my,” she murmured.
“Oh, yeah,” he said, bending down and kissing along her collarbone, across her chest and licking down her cleavage before taking a nipple in his mouth.
Her body began to shake as he unleashed small ripples, twitching along her nerve endings, like an electrical current traveling quickly throughout her limbs. She felt the immediate release of heat, pooling between her legs, hot and ready. Now she was thankful they were on the floor, because she was wet, not just moist, with need and pent up desire and stoked embers from years of yearning. Embers burning white hot and ready to burst into flame.
He nibbled on the nipple and then encircled it with his tongue. Her breath was shallower than his now. She grabbed his arms kneading them with her fingers. “Oh,” she moaned. “It’s like small shocks from a loose electric wire are dancing on my skin.”
He came up from her chest. “Get ready for electrocution.” He smiled, his grin slightly lopsided. “Take off your jeans and your underwear.” He eyed her crotch. “If you’re wearing any.”
She bit her lip again. “Not with jeans.”
“I knew it!” he chuckled. “I get ten points. There’s no way that lovely little ass could have another layer of cloth away from my hands.” His eyes grew heavy with lust, signaling his animal hunger ached for a feeding. “Take them off and spread your legs.”
“Now?” she asked, shocked. “But, I’m not ready. I…”
“My cock isn’t penetrating you, sweetheart. Not yet.” He leaned over and nibbled on her neck. “Humor me.”
She kicked her jeans free. “Now you.”
His eyes trailed over her body starting at her neck and slowly making their way down, pausing at her crotch, where he took a deep breath. “Oh, boy.” He scooted on the floor and kicked the jeans off over his feet, then threw them out of the way. His cock sprang up like a rigid pole, turgid and red and ready.
“Oh, my,” she whispered. He bent quickly toward her, and his hands and knees on the floor, he pushed her backward until she was prone. “Spread your legs some more.”
“What are you going to do?” she asked.
“Sample you,” he said as he sank to the ground and held her thighs with each hand. He sank his head in the vee of her crotch. Then she felt him as he licked, slowly over her vulva and found it. Her butt raised inches a
bove the floor, and he chuckled.
Muffled in my muff. A smile came to her lips.
His tongue dove into her as his finger began to massage her. Within seconds, he hit the G-spot and an ache of shear pleasure made her lurch. “Oh, my God.”
He quickened his massaging motion as he sucked on her, moaning himself. As her legs began to twitch and tension began to mount inside her gut, her body releasing more hot fluid between her legs, she wondered if the spirals of throbbing wonder could intensify more. They did.
He climbed on top of her, his cock rubbing between her legs, as her tension continued to mount. Then he drove inside her. She opened to him, feeling no pain at all, just tightness and beauty and heat. He rocked inside her, taking her further up the spiral. She gripped his length with her muscles, hugging him tighter as her desire continued mounting. “Oh God,” he cried out. “I’m coming, I’m coming. Come with me, come with me.”
Her tension peeked. Legs raised from the floor. Crotch melded into his. They crested in overrunning pleasure, before sliding downward, panting, in each other’s arms.
****
“Afternoon delight is much better than midnight romance,” Grady said, stroking Millie’s arm.
Millie threw a leg over him and drew her body flush against his side. “I’ll take it anytime and anywhere I can get it.”
He turned partially to one side feeling his dick brush her stomach. “Trouble is the mind may be willing, but the parts keep on chilling.”
She snickered. “Your parts weren’t chilled a few minutes ago.”
“No, not hardly.” He gave her a kiss behind her ear. “That’s because of your expert skill at cranking the lever.”
She reached down and stroked his unit. “Not cranking, darlin’, just good old lubrication and age-old friction.”
He took a deep breath of exhilaration “Oh, yeah. Well, you’re good at it. You also don’t run out of steam like I do.”
“Now, honey,” Millie said, giving him a swift kiss on the lips, “I’ve had a lot of time off just waiting for the opportunity.”
Unforgettable Heroes II Boxed Set Page 136