by Jill Shalvis
Lanie had to smile at that. The girl—and she really was just a girl—was pregnant, with apparently no one at her back, and she thought things were good. Optimism. Something she herself was missing. She looked down at a now sleeping Elsa and felt a totally unfamiliar ache in the region of her ovaries.
Kyle hadn’t wanted kids. She’d told herself she’d been okay with that and maybe she’d believed it at the time, but right now, at age thirty, her ovaries were definitely starting to say otherwise.
Mark had turned to the bartender, offering him a hand, pulling him up off the floor, clapping him on the back. They spoke for a moment and then Mark eyed the crowd. His sharp gaze found them, and with one last word to the bartender, he headed right for their table.
His gaze was on Lanie and Elsa, eyes soft. “You look like a natural.”
Oh boy. That look combined with the warmth of the sleepy baby against her chest was probably potent enough to make her pregnant. Because she couldn’t help herself, she pressed her nose to Elsa’s neck and inhaled that unique sweet baby scent.
And there went her ovaries again.
“She’s cute, right?” Alyssa asked. “It’s not just me?”
Mark laughed. “Are you kidding me? They have big, suck-you-in eyes and they smell good. It’s a scam.” He set himself to the task of untangling the sleeping Elsa’s fist from Lanie’s hair, then gave the baby a quick hug. Talk about being a natural. He rubbed gentle circles on the baby’s back and then handed her off to Alyssa.
He then pulled Lanie upright—in a much nicer fashion than he had the fighting idiots. He slid one arm around her waist, buried his other hand in her hair, and kissed her hard and with quite a bit more tongue than she would’ve expected in public before he pulled back.
“I’m an ass,” he said quietly, pressing his forehead to hers. “I don’t always think to pretty up my words before I speak.”
She felt like she had whiplash. She’d just seen him as the tough, impenetrable, stoic cop, and now she was back to dealing with the sexy, alpha man who’d kissed her on the beach before reminding her he wasn’t going to ever fall in love again. “I don’t want you to pretty up your words for me,” she said.
“I appreciate that, but I’d still like to try. After I deal with the dicks outside. Will you wait?”
She hesitated and then for some reason nodded.
He gave her a small smile. “Later?”
“Later,” she whispered and watched as he strode outside to make his perps regret their most recent life choices. Then she sank shakily back to her chair.
“That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen,” River said. “If I didn’t hate men so much, I’d start dating again just to get kissed like that.”
“It was a pretty great kiss,” Lanie managed.
They turned their attention back to the platter of wings, splitting a pitcher of iced tea in deference to the baby. Not what Lanie had come for, but it worked.
Holden showed up with a couple of other guys, but broke from the pack when he saw them. Well, not them, exactly, because he didn’t seem to notice Lanie or Alyssa at all.
Just River.
He’d changed from his work gear. Clean jeans, cleaner boots, and an untucked button-down shoved up on his forearms. His cowboy hat had been traded in for a baseball cap, which he took off. “Ladies,” he said. “Looking good.”
River rolled her eyes. “I’m big as a house.”
He shrugged. “I stand by my statement.”
River didn’t seem to know how to take that so Lanie kicked out a chair for him. “Want to join us?” she asked, purposely not looking at River shaking her head no-no-no behind his back.
“Thanks.” Holden sat and looked at River. “Wanted to know if you’d have dinner with me.”
“I already ate.”
“I meant another night. Any other night.”
River flushed. “Are you asking me out in front of Alyssa and Lanie?”
“Trying.” He slid them an apologetic look. “I’ve been trying to catch her alone to ask her, but she’s surprisingly sly and fast on her feet given how pregnant she is.”
Lanie smiled because River was beet red now.
“She’d love to go out with you,” Alyssa said.
Holden gave a rare smile, reminding Lanie just how good-looking a kid he was. “Great. I’ll pick her up tomorrow after work.” He rose, winked at Lanie, and stroked his fingers once over the back of River’s hand before walking away.
River gaped at them. “I can’t go on a date!”
“Why not?” Alyssa asked. “You’re single, right?”
“Yes, but look at me! I weigh as much as a two-ton cow. And I’m pregnant. And I don’t even know him!”
“You’re not even close to two tons,” Lanie piped in. “I’d be shocked if you were much over a hundred pounds. And being pregnant doesn’t mean you’re dead. As for not knowing him, that’s easily fixed by going on a date.”
River stared at her. “Why do you care?”
Lanie shrugged. “Maybe I want to see you happier than I am.”
“I don’t need a man to be happy.”
“Well, ain’t that the truth,” Alyssa said. “Look, you work hard, but you seem a little lonely. Holden’s a good guy with a good job and it’s clear he’s interested in you. What could be the harm in that?”
River shook her head and opened her mouth, but then closed it again. Lanie wondered what she’d been about to say, but it was really none of her business. And an hour later, when Mark still hadn’t returned, she drove herself back to the winery. Turned out that the bedroom they’d procured for her on the second floor at the end of the hall was . . .
Mark’s.
He would apparently be taking the twins’ room, who were having a sleepover in Aunt Mia’s room. Lanie stood in the middle of his bedroom looking around at the dark, masculine furniture and lush bedding and tried not to picture him lying in that bed wearing nothing but luxurious sheets.
Shaking off the image, she stole one of the T-shirts from his dresser for PJs and used the toothbrush someone had thoughtfully left for her on the bathroom counter. When a knock came, she debated whether to chicken out by turning off the lights and hiding under the covers—or running for the hills.
“I can hear you breathing,” came Mark’s low, amused voice. “Open up.”
Said the Big Bad Wolf . . .
Chapter 15
Why limit yourself to panicking in a crowd? Panic everywhere. Follow your wildest, most anxious dreams.
Lanie rolled her eyes at both herself and Mark and cracked open the door. “Yes?”
He hadn’t changed his clothes and his hair had dried a little crazy, as if he’d shoved his fingers through it a lot. “Try out my bed yet?”
Oh boy, she thought. Her body liked the low velvet in his voice way too much. “No. How did you know the bar needed a cop tonight?”
“The bartender’s an old friend. Boomer called me instead of 9-1-1.”
“That seems like a huge risk. What if you couldn’t get there in time to stop the trouble?”
“He knew I’d get there.”
So matter-of-fact. So confident. Not cocky, just very sure of his abilities. She wondered what that utter lack of self-doubt was like. She’d sure like to know. “So . . . did you want something?”
“Yes. It’s later. Sorry it took me so long at the station.” He leaned on the doorjamb looking like sin personified. “You going to invite me in?”
“You’re a bad idea. We’re a bad idea, remember?”
He laughed low in his throat. “How could I forget when I’ve told myself the same thing a hundred times?”
So he’d been thinking about them too. There was comfort in that. “I don’t think this is the time or place.”
“I know.” His dark gaze swept over her from head to toe, slowing at some strategic spots that quivered in response. “But you’re standing there wearing my favorite T-shirt from when I was a teenager and near
as I can tell, nothing else.”
She tightened her grip on the door because she didn’t trust herself not to give in at his first touch. “It’s your childhood bedroom,” she said. “We can’t do it in here.”
He just smiled.
She gaped at him. “How many girls have you had in this room?” She narrowed her eyes. “And if you tell me you lost your virginity here in this very bed, I’ll—”
“Zero,” he said. “I’ve had zero women in that bed. Hello, you’ve met my nosy-ass family, right?”
“So . . . you didn’t lose your virginity in here?” she asked.
He smiled. “Your fascination with my virginity is cute, but no, the main event happened in my dad’s pickup truck when I was fifteen.”
“By yourself?”
He laughed, the sound dissolving the rest of her resolve. “Trust me, there was plenty of that too, but no, I actually talked my chemistry partner into an experiment of . . . animal magnetism.” He flashed a grin and leaned in to speak softly into her ear. “We did some okay work that night, but I’ve learned a lot since then.” He nipped her earlobe. “Let me in, Lanie.”
He’d most definitely learned plenty, she thought wryly as her nipples tightened and her thighs clenched. “I don’t think so.”
Undeterred, he nuzzled her throat, brushing light kisses along her skin, setting her on fire from the inside out. “You in that shirt,” he murmured. “You’re a fantasy come to life, Lanie.”
She was trying to come up with a brilliant retort for that when he stepped into her and slid his magic hands to her hips. “I really am sorry about tonight.”
She looked into his eyes and saw that actually he wasn’t his usual confident self. He wasn’t sure what she was thinking or what she was going to do, and there was some unexpected power in that. Stepping back, she gave him room to pass. He held her gaze as he came in, his own revealing his surprise. He hadn’t expected her to let him in. Reaching past him, she quietly shut the door and then . . .
Pushed him up against it.
He raised a brow. “Feeling aggressive?”
“Apparently. You have a problem with that?”
“Are you kidding me? You’re every walking, talking fantasy I’ve ever had.” His hands went to her waist and squeezed gently before gliding up her body to cup her face. “Tell me what you want tonight.”
She didn’t miss the distinction but neither did she hesitate. “Your body on mine.”
His eyes both darkened and softened. “Lanie—”
She put a finger on his lips. “I know the rules. No need to complicate anything,” she whispered and went up on tiptoe to kiss him.
His groan rumbled from his chest through hers as his hand slipped beneath the hem of the shirt to palm her still-panty-covered ass, and she decided his clothes needed to come off and fast. He let her be in control for all of a second and a half as she tugged at his sweatshirt before he reversed their positions and had her up against the door, arms pinned over her head, kissing her until she couldn’t remember her name or why she’d ever thought to resist.
The shirt she wore hit the floor, exposing her bare breasts. The touch of his mouth working its way down her throat made her gasp in pleasure and arch into him as she reached for the string on his board shorts and tugged. “Tell me you have a condom.”
“I’ve got an entire box,” he said and covered her mouth with his.
She was nearly blind with need when someone knocked on the other side of the door right next to her head.
“Lanie?”
Oh dear God, that was Cora.
“I was just walking by and heard a thunk up against the door,” her boss said. “Are you okay?”
Mark lifted his head, his half-lidded sexy eyes both heated and amused.
Not Lanie. She stared up at him in horror. “I’m fine,” she called out. Or at least tried. Her voice was completely gone. She cleared her throat and tried again, but it wasn’t easy with one of Mark’s hands on her bare breast, the other fisted in her hair, a thick muscled thigh between hers.
And she was no better. She had her hands in his shorts!
“Honey?” Cora called. “I have a master key. Do you need help?”
“No!” she said. Maybe yelled. She grimaced and, eyes locked on Mark’s in sheer horror and panic, she said, “I’m fine! Totally fine! One hundred percent fine! Never been finer!” She winced. “Good night!”
Cora’s voice sounded suspiciously amused. “’Night, honey.”
“I think I’ve mentioned,” Mark said in her ear, “my family’s insane.”
“None of you have any concept of personal space boundaries!” she hissed. “Not a single one of you!”
He took a nip out of her ear. “Ironic, considering where your hands are.”
She snorted and tugged her hands free and gave him a push.
He laughed, low and soft and annoyingly sexy in his throat and . . . opened the door.
She stilled, shocked. First of all, his board shorts were opened and dangerously, illicitly low on his hips, revealing more than concealing anything. And second of all, he was leaving? He’d put her in this state and he was going to walk away and leave her to it? She’d self-combust!
Mark took a careful peek out the door.
“What are you doing?”
“Making sure the coast’s clear,” he said and looked down. “Not tonight, Gracie.”
The dog was in the hallway, giving him the sad eyes. With a huff, she ambled off to find another sucker. Mark shut the door and took in Lanie’s panic with a hint of a smile. The slow scan of his eyes made her very aware that she was wearing only a pair of bikini panties. The look also made her very hot in all the places he’d touched. And in the places she still needed him to touch. “Well?” she demanded. “Is the coast clear besides Gracie?”
His mouth twitched. “Out there? Yeah. How about in here?”
“What does that mean?”
He smiled. “You want me bad.”
God help her, but she did. “Not as bad as you want me,” she said with a pointed look at his still-pretty-impressive erection.
“Hard for a man to hide it,” he agreed.
“Will she be back?”
“Gracie? Yes. My mom? Probably not, but I stopped trying to figure out any members of my family a long time ago.” He flicked the lock on the door and turned back to her. “That’ll hold them all off for long enough.”
“Long enough for what?”
He smiled and she nearly orgasmed on the spot. But a part of her was also coming to her senses. “There’s a baby in the house. And impressionable children, your children, so—”
“Lanie, they’re all asleep.”
She bit her lower lip. “What if I make noise?”
His smile was both soft and wicked. “If?”
“What? It’s not my fault, I can’t help it!”
“I know. And I love it.” He snaked an arm around her waist, snagged her in close, and lifted her up so that she could wrap her legs around him, and then he turned to the bed.
“But—”
He tossed her to the mattress and followed her down, pressing his body to hers until every inch touched.
And there were some pretty damn great inches.
He kissed her deep and raw and shatteringly intense, the kind of kiss that stopped hearts and melted brain cells as he slid her panties down and made himself at home between her legs. When he pulled back to meet her gaze, she was panting, squirming for more, and pinned to the bed, spread for his viewing pleasure.
“We’re not going to hurry,” he said. “But we are going to be very quiet. Can you be very quiet, Lanie?”
Was he kidding? She’d do anything as long as he didn’t stop touching her. Arching up into him, she sought more contact even though they were already practically suctioned together.
“Lanie.” He caught her roaming hands. “I asked you a question.”
“Yes,” she gasped. “I’ll be quiet.”
A low, breathless laugh escaped her, which turned into a gasp when he found her very favorite kissable spot.
“Shh,” he reminded her, tightening his grip on her hips to hold her still for his special brand of delicious torture.
And when she couldn’t be still or quiet, he climbed up her body and kissed her again, probably to shut her up. She shifted as much as she could with a goal-oriented, sexually deprived male on top of her, wrapping her legs around him so he could rub himself against her with deadly precision.
She opened her eyes and he let out a very badass smile as he pulled out a condom and tore it open with his teeth. When he slid home, they moaned into each other’s mouths and as he moved over her in that sexy way of his, she lost herself completely in him. And in perhaps the most amazing part of the night . . . she knew he did the same in her.
Chapter 16
Me: It’s going to be a great day.
Anxiety: Let me show you how wrong you are . . .
When Mark woke, it wasn’t to the warm, sensuous glide of Lanie’s limbs around his body, but to her trying to shove him out of his own bed.
“You’ve got to go,” she whispered.
He cracked open one eye. It was two in the morning. “Hmmm,” he murmured into her hair and pulled her into him, smiling at the feel of bare skin. He cupped her sweet ass and started to roll her beneath him, but she shoved at him again.
“Mark! Wake up!”
“I’m up,” he said and flopped to his back.
“Yes,” she said, eyeing the part of him that was most definitely up. “But that’s not what I meant!”
He snorted and sat up. “You’re panicking.”
“Yes! Join me, won’t you?” She yanked on his T-shirt and slid out of the bed. The cotton fell over her curves and made him sigh. Apparently round two wasn’t on the calendar.
She pulled him off the bed, tossed his clothes at him, and pushed him to the door.
“Shouldn’t I actually put these on first?” he asked wryly.
She stood there, arms crossed, toe tapping while he pulled on his board shorts. “Where’s the fire?” he asked.