“Need more alone time?”
Twice in a week, Taylor had asked. Saturday night, she’d said she needed some alone time. The lie hadn’t set well. This was so much worse because it was Jace. Still, she searched for an excuse. “Actually, I have a meeting with Brian’s teacher.”
After Lou died, she’d had a lot of teacher meetings. Brian went through a bad time, acting up in school and picking fights with bigger boys. Things had gotten better, though, when Jace stepped in, spending much of his spare time with the boys.
“Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. It’s sort of an end-of-year meeting. Like a checkup.” She felt like she was digging her own grave.
“In the evening?”
“The teacher will be out of town for the day. He asked me to meet him at 8:30. Is that okay?” Lame, but Evelyn’s reaction to the truth worried her. She didn’t feel comfortable saying she had a date. Let alone that it was with Evelyn’s own son.
Evelyn sipped her coffee. “Sure. All right. Do you want them to spend the night?”
If she really had a meeting with a teacher, Evelyn wouldn’t need to take the kids for the whole night. “No. I should be able to pick them up before ten. No later than ten. Promise.”
“I really don’t mind having them spend the night.”
“I wouldn’t think of it, Evelyn. You had them on Saturday. Jamey said he beat his grandpa at checkers twelve times.”
Don’t wear any panties. The husky whisper tingled along her spine. Her cheeks heated, her body warmed, and her breath quickened.
Good Lord. She was talking to her mother-in-law about her kids and checkers and their grandpa.
But the taste of Jace was on her mind and on her tongue. Not even hot coffee nor the trace of guilt could wash it away.
She started to babble, and when Evelyn left, she couldn’t remember a thing they’d talked about.
Except the lie and Friday night.
And Don’t wear any panties.
* * * * *
The girl was giddy. Now, Connie was giddy, and Rina was equally as bad as her mother. But Taylor always had her feet on the ground. Good heavens, Connie, the little matchmaker, was right. Something was going on between Taylor and Jace.
Not to mention that story about Friday night. Meeting Brian’s teacher? School was almost out for the year. Why would a teacher ask for a meeting at this late date? And at night?
No, it was Jace who asked for the meeting. Or a date. Or an assignation. Evelyn had been watching out the window. Taylor had stayed on the front path as he drove away. Watching.
Heavens above.
Arthur would have a heart attack. To him, Taylor was the epitome of a mother. The mother of his eldest son’s children. In Arthur’s mind, she would always be Lou’s wife. He wouldn’t understand if Taylor turned to another man. To Arthur, no one could replace Lou. No one. Not even Jace. Especially not Jace.
She didn’t want to believe that Arthur blamed Jace for Lou’s death. He’d never said it, not once. Except one small hint the day they put their boy in the ground. The worst day of her life. Burying Lou made it all real. Arthur had held her hand and whispered, almost to himself, “If only Jace had done what he said he was going to do.”
The words themselves were blame enough.
Taylor and Jace together?
Evelyn prayed the family didn’t come apart at the seams.
* * * * *
“It’s me.”
Taylor didn’t have to ask who “me” was.
The TV was blaring, Brian and Jamey were yelling about something Spiderman had just done. Her house was a mess, popcorn all over the coffee table, and her sons were out of control.
All Taylor cared about was the way the deep timbre of Jace’s voice over the phone melted her from the inside out. The thing she’d done to him yesterday morning in her kitchen kept popping into her mind at the oddest moments. Like today, when she’d made a pot of coffee while the boys were getting ready for school.
But what did you say to a man you’d taken in your mouth just yesterday? Her son saved her from thinking about it. “Jamey, do not spill that soda on the carpet.”
“Is that Spiderman 2 I hear in the background?”
“That and those dastardly children of mine destroying the house. And how do you know we’re watching Spiderman 2? You’re not a closet Spidey watcher, are you?”
“They made me watch it three times the other weekend. And they got every line right just before Spiderman said it.”
“Them’s m’boys. A movie hasn’t been watched enough if they haven’t memorized the lines.” It felt so easy to talk to him, like it had been before Saturday night. Except for that lazy heat running through his low voice and elevating her body temperature. She snuggled into the couch, pressing the phone intimately to her ear.
“Will my mom take the kids on Friday?”
She didn’t want this conversation, not now. “She’ll do it,” she said, soft and low so the boys wouldn’t hear. Somehow it came out sounding sexy, matching Jace’s tone. “I told her I’d be back by ten.” She modified her conversation for the boys. Little children had big ears when you least expected it.
“You’ll only be on your tenth orgasm by ten o’clock, just getting warmed up.”
Her body started to buzz in reaction. The boys had quieted down, the Coke didn’t get knocked over, and Jace was turning her into a puddle of mush. But she wouldn’t reply in kind.
“You’re driving me nuts,” he whispered.
He was doing exactly the same to her. Jace made it so hard to be strong.
“Who ya talking to, Mom?”
“Nobody. Watch the movie.” She rose and carried the portable phone into the kitchen.
“Nobody? Did it feel like nobody when I came in your mouth?”
“No.” It felt like heaven.
“You liked what you did to me, didn’t you?”
“You know I did.” She’d loved it. She still tasted him.
“Put the boys to bed, and I’ll come over.”
“That’s not a good idea.” Oh so tempting, but a very bad idea. She had to make him see the risks in what they were doing. “It’ll be the only time. Friday, I mean. Then we have to get back to...normal.” She knew they never would.
He was silent a moment. “I know.” He exhaled, his breath teasing across the phone lines. “That’s why I’m going to make sure it’s so damn good you’ll never forget it. You’ll never feel like going alone to a bar.”
She already had some very big hints of how good Jace would make it. A stranger in a bar would never be enough now. “I told you I wouldn’t do that again.”
“You’ll be tempted. You’re too much woman not to need it.”
“I’m stronger than that.” The man she wasn’t strong with was him. Maybe Friday night was a really bad idea. If she knew the full scope, could she stop herself from going back again? And again. “Maybe we need to rethink this whole thing.”
“No.” He seemed to catch his breath, catch himself. “One time. Then it’ll be out of your system.”
She closed her eyes and dragged in a breath. She wanted so badly. She needed. It was like a drug, a habit harder to break the longer you did it, the deeper you went. “I really think—”
“You think too much, Taylor.”
“Wrong. I haven’t been thinking at all.” Except about what she’d done to him in her kitchen. And how badly she wanted more. Her nipples peaked against her T-shirt. Her panties dampened. And her good sense circled down the kitchen drain. “Tell me.”
He hesitated. “Tell you what?”
It was dangerous. Reckless. Her kids were sitting in the other room. She slid further into the darkened kitchen, further from her children.
“Tell me what it’ll be like on Friday.”
“Taylor...where are you now?”
“In the kitchen. They can’t hear me. And I won’t say anything. I just want to hear you say it.”
He was silent
several heartbeats, then he gave in. “I’ll suck your breasts until your nipples are tight and hard, and you’re arching into me for more. Begging.” His breath came a little faster than before. “And when you think you can’t take that without coming, I’m going to spread your legs and taste you the same way you tasted me.”
The thought of his mouth on her had consumed her last night as she tried to fall asleep. “Yes.”
“I’m going to lick you till you scream. I won’t leave an inch of skin untouched. And when you think you can’t come one more time, I’m gonna slide inside of you, and drive you fucking wild. Christ, Taylor, you don’t know what you’re doing to me.”
His breath was ragged. She knew what he was doing. She wanted to be there to catch him in her mouth. Her legs felt weak, her heart hammered. “Do it,” she whispered. “Now.”
“I want to be inside you so fucking bad.”
Something exploded on the TV in the living room as Jace came with a groan and a long sigh, then, “Shit.”
She wanted to slam down the phone and run from what she was doing with Lou’s brother. She wanted to carry the phone into her bedroom and touch herself with his harsh breath rasping in her ear. Leaning back against the counter, she closed her eyes and squeezed her thighs together.
“Mom, Brian won’t share the popcorn.”
Lord. Her children were calling. What on earth was she thinking?
“That’s only the beginning, Taylor.” Jace seduced her with his voice. “Then we’ll do it all over again.”
“I have to go.”
“Think about how good I’m going to make you feel.”
She wouldn’t be able to stop herself. “Only the one time. Just that night. Promise.” A panicky thread ran through her voice.
“I promise,” he murmured, “to make you feel better than you’ve ever felt. And I won’t ask for it again after Friday.”
She punched the end button without another word, but his voice still rang in her ear. As did that hot, heavy groan when he came. He wouldn’t have to ask again. She’d come begging.
Back in the living room, she clapped her hands. “Bedtime.”
“But the movie’s not over.”
“It’s school tomorrow.” She started gathering popcorn bits. “And you already know the ending.”
Jamey moaned and griped, but did as he was told. Brian tried to eke out another few minutes. “Go, Brian. Both of you brush your teeth, and I’ll be there in a minute.”
Grumbling, Brian followed his little brother down the hall.
Lord. This was crazy. Maybe even a little sick and perverted. She’d had phone sex with her boys sitting in the next room. She was losing it. Out of control. Obsessed.
And Friday felt three too many days away.
* * * * *
He’d lied. Once would never be enough.
Jace stood under the cold shower. He’d called only wanting to hear her voice. But he’d crumbled when she wanted to “rethink” and lost his mind when she wanted to hear the things he planned to do to her. All these years, he’d maintained his distance, separated thought from action. One kiss in the front seat of his truck had shot that distance to hell, and he’d lost all perspective. The memory of Monday morning in her kitchen pulsed in his blood. He’d been damn near dangerous at work today, his mind in his pants, his cock in her mouth. Not a good thing to be thinking about when you’re thirty feet up a tree with a chain saw in your grip.
The family had a rule. Work smart and no working alone. He wasn’t alone, but he sure as hell hadn’t been smart up there. His head had been filled with images of Taylor on her knees.
He needed to get this thing under control. Or he’d end up like Lou.
Hell, at least this time, the death he caused would be his own, not his brother’s.
Chapter Five
It was eleven-thirty in the morning, close to ninety on a summer day, and Jace was sweating buckets. He downed a bottle of water, then swiped his arm across his forehead.
“We’re making good progress,” his dad said, wiping his own brow. “Should be done tomorrow right on schedule.” They had another job in Bentonville on Friday, which would carry through to next week.
They cut in the mornings and hauled in the afternoons, so the homeowner wasn’t left with loads of crap cluttering the yard. Mitch and David were topping and shaping the last few branches on the oak. It had needed to be trimmed back off the roof for both winter-storm protection and to keep the carpenter ants from infesting the eaves. The two-acre lot around the house would be trimmed to retain the view and give the trees room. Like his dad and brothers, Jace knew every species of tree common to the area and its required maintenance to promote healthy growth. The underbrush needed clearing out, too. Willoughby and the five small surrounding towns nestled in the mountain foothills provided year round work for Jackson and Sons. Primarily, people living in the foothills didn’t maintain their yards with lawns and flowers. The only ones who did were flatlanders, recently moved from suburbia. Most residents let the forest grow around them, chopping it back only when it became a fire hazard.
“You put your sunscreen on, Dad?”
“You sound like your mother.”
Jace grinned. When he’d left the office this morning, Mom had told him to ask every half hour.
At fifty-nine, his dad still had a few good working years left. He let his sons do the higher climbing, but he hauled his share of the load. At damn near forty years in the tree business, he deserved more time on the ground.
“If you want, Mitch and I can finish up here tomorrow and you and David can start the Bentonville job.”
Jace didn’t suggest doing it the other way around. David hadn’t partnered him since Lou died. It was Mitch or Dad. Always.
His dad removed his cap and scratched his head. “Nope. We’ll stick to the schedule.”
In other words, he didn’t trust Jace alone with Mitch, even if they’d only be finishing the clearing, hauling and mopping up.
Together, they watched Mitch and David complete with synchronous teamwork. At one time, Jace had worked that way with Lou, each anticipating the other’s moves. Timing and skill. You counted on each other to be there.
He hadn’t been there for Lou that day. He’d been sleeping off too much partying the night before, and Lou had started without him.
Jace glanced at his dad, wondering how often he thought about that day. Hell, most likely every day. Dad had been the one to find Lou before Jace got there. His brother hit the femoral artery with the chain saw, though God only knew exactly how it happened. Alone in the midst of a nine-acre lot, Lou had been gone in a matter of minutes.
His father never said one bad word to Jace, never accused Jace of breaking his trust, of letting his brother bleed to death all alone. But Dad also never scheduled a job that put Jace alone with one of his brothers.
Shit. Jace popped another bottle of water and dug out the sunscreen tube for his father.
“You hungry?” his dad asked, smoothing a palm of SPF 30 on the back of his neck.
“I’ll make the run,” Jace offered. The job wasn’t far out of town, so they weren’t packing lunch. “Sandwiches okay?”
“Sounds good.”
His brain crammed full of everyone’s preferences, Jace took off, calling in the order so it would be ready when he arrived.
The moment he set the cell phone on the seat beside him, he started thinking about her. Taylor. Her shimmering hair, her nipples and the way she stroked him with her tongue.
Like yesterday and the day before, she’d consumed his daydreams. He’d have thought the relief he’d given himself last night would have lessened the tension. Instead, he kept remembering the heat in her voice on the phone. Do it. Now.
Considering his thoughts of a few minutes before, he should have felt guilty for thinking about her. He was too far gone for that. His guilt over Lou would never be over, but wanting Lou’s wife was a whole different matter. That guilt could be relega
ted to the back corner of his mind with the simple tactile memory of her mouth taking him to heaven.
Damn. Just like that, his pants were too tight, and his cock rock hard.
There was time before the sandwich order was ready. Just enough time. He picked up the phone and punched in the office number, hoping she was working today.
Taylor answered instead of his mom. He took it for a sign. “What time are you picking up the kids?”
“One. It’s a short school day.”
He glanced at his watch. Plenty of time. “Meet me at your house. Leave now.”
“You know I can’t do that.” She lowered her voice. “And you promised.”
“That was for Friday. This is for now. Meet me.” He’d beg if he had to.
She was silent so long, he dredged up pleading words.
Then she simply breathed her answer in his ear, “Fine,” and cut the connection.
He didn’t have a condom on him. He doubted she would have one in her bathroom cabinet. For what he planned on doing to her, he wouldn’t need one.
* * * * *
Lie number three. Taylor felt awful. Wasn’t that what criminals and addicts did? Said they were sorry, but kept right on doing it?
“I’ve got a couple of errands to run before I pick up the kids. I’ll take this stuff with me and finish it at home this afternoon while the boys are doing their homework.”
Her hands trembled as she stuffed papers into her briefcase. Eleven-forty-five. She’d have to leave for the kids in exactly one hour. Lord. She hadn’t had a quickie since before she and Lou were married. Lou always said marriage and babies put a damper on that sort of thing.
But with Jace? The anticipation was overwhelming, the fear and guilt debilitating enough to make her light-headed.
“See ya tomorrow,” she called as she barreled out the door. She hadn’t even looked at Evelyn. She felt like she had a neon sign flashing LIAR over her head.
Lies and sneaking around never did anyone any good. And sneaking around with Jace? She didn’t even want to think about the family’s reaction.
Somebody's Lover Page 4