by Gemma Bruce
“I’ll let go when you call off the fight and apologize to Tilda.” Julie twisted his wrist for emphasis.
But it was unnecessary because she had everyone’s attention. The onlookers were all looking at her. The fighters disentangled themselves and slowly got up from the floor. Terrence waved at her from across the room, and Cas turned around and stared.
Julie swallowed. He did not look happy. Then he turned away and pushed the miscreant he was holding into Terrence’s waiting arms.
When he turned around to face the crowd, Julie could see his shoulders heaving as he got his breath. “If I had a big enough jail ... I’d lock up every damn one of you. But as it is, clean this place up and Henley ... you’ll turn over a hundred bucks to Tilda for damages and then get out.”
“Aw, Cas,” griped Henley. “We were just having fun. You got no sense of humor.”
“You have no idea,” said Cas in a voice that made even Terrence’s eyes widen. He crossed a suddenly silent room to where Julie held her captive to the wall. He barely looked at her as he eased the man out of her grasp. “You know, Bo. You want to be so much like Henley. You can pay Tilda a hundred, too.”
“I ain’t got a hundred.”
“Well, get it,” said Cas and shoved him toward the bar.
Julie was just thinking, not bad for a banker, when Bo said, “You can’t even break up a fight without getting a girl to do it for you.”
Terrence grabbed him by his jacket collar and lifted him off the ground. “And you’re going to be in deep shit if you don’t shut up.”
Bo shut up. Terrence lowered him to the floor and waited while he reached into his pocket and pulled out a few bills. “All I got.”
“Tilda will take an IOU,” said Cass. “You too, Henley. And don’t come back until you can pay.”
Henley glared at him, his fists clenched, his jaw jutting forward. “One day, Cas,” he muttered. “One day.”
“Yeah, sure,” said Cas. “One day.”
He waited at the bar while Henley counted out his money and the rest of the patrons cleaned up the fallen tables and chairs. Then he walked Bo and Henley out the door, passing Julie like she didn’t exist.
But everyone else was watching her. She caught Tilda’s eye and shrugged apologetically. Tilda just shook her head and grinned.
When Julie reached the parking lot, two motorcycles were pulling out onto the highway, and Cas was standing with his back to her, watching them leave.
“Cas?”
“Hm,” he said, not turning around.
“I didn’t know you were there.”
“Hm.”
“I’m sorry I caused so much trouble. Are you okay?”
“Mmm.”
“I’m really sorry. Say something.” Julie took his elbow and turned him around. There was blood on his lip and one eye was partially closed. There was a lump forming on his jaw. She’d seen Smitty look better after a dog fight.
“Which one did I do?” she asked.
“The jaw.”
“I’ll just ask Tilda for some ice.”
He shook his head, winced.
“Can I do anything?”
His mouth twisted in what could have been a smile but probably wasn’t.
“Are your teeth okay? Do you need a dentist? Ribs. Anything broken? Can I drive you to the emergency room?”
“I’m fine.”
He didn’t sound fine. He sounded pissed as hell.
“Good night,” he said. And touching his fingers to his eye, he walked away and opened the door to a ... rusty green pickup truck.
Julie stared, then hurried after him.
Cas pulled himself into the truck. Missed. Tried again. On the third attempt, Julie grabbed his butt and pushed him inside. “I’ll follow you home. Just to make sure you’re okay. You could have a concussion. Or internal bleeding.”
This time she was sure he smiled.
“It was a bar fight, not a car wreck. But you can follow me home.” Cas shut the door and started the engine.
Julie raced to the VW and took off after him.
Chapter 9
Julie began to have second thoughts as soon as she realized that Cas was driving down Old Mill Road. She was just deciding not to follow him over the bridge to Mill Town when he pulled into a parking area in front of a two-story cedar shake cottage.
Julie pulled in after him and came to a stop in front of a corrugated machine shop. Strange place for Cas to live, when he had that big house on the Hill.
She reached him just as he was falling out of the front seat. She put an arm around his waist and helped him toward the house. He was heavy and warm and Julie thought, why can’t things just be easy?
Then his arm went around her and she realized that she wasn’t really supporting him. “Overkill, right?”
“Yeah, but it felt good,” said Cas. “Come inside.”
Julie deliberated. She shouldn’t. She’d have to apologize for starting the brawl, he’d apologize for running out on her yesterday, then they’d talk and all sorts of shit would come out. And she’d end up asking him if he had a riddle, too, and he would probably lie to her.
And besides, they were practically opposite her old house. If she really tried, she might be able to see it across the river. Not that she wanted to. She didn’t want to be this close to the river at all.
She looked out into the darkness and could almost see them rowing on the water. Cas standing in the bow, a bandanna tied around his head, a black patch over one eye, saying with bravado, “You can’t escape me now. You’ll bring a good ransom, lassie.” And laughing until his voice cracked into a young boy’s unchanged tenor. Blushing, he sat down and began to row.
“Julie?”
“What?”
“Do you want to come inside?”
“Uh ... sure. You need ice on that eye.” She followed him up the steps to a wooden deck, waited while he unlocked the door, and then stepped inside. And forgot the past and riddles and everything. One room filled the entire house. The ceiling reached to the rafters. A kitchen was laid out in the back corner, and wooden stairs led up the left side of the room to a sleeping loft that ran along the back wall. The back wall was made entirely of glass, and she was sure it overlooked the river. But it was the fourth wall that drew her attention. It was filled with shelves holding rows of model sailing ships.
She stepped toward them. “I’ve never seen them all at once.” Each time he finished one, Cas had brought it to show her, because she could never go to his house. “I can’t believe you kept them all these years.”
“Christine salvaged them from the rubbish heap,” said Cas in a flat voice.
Julie’s mouth dropped open and she turned to look at him. “You threw them out?”
“Reynolds did. Right after he sent me away to boarding school. Christine saw him and saved them. She took them to Wes and he kept them in the spare room until I moved in here.” He shrugged. “They’re a little battered and some of the parts are missing. But I’m slowly restoring them.”
“Ice,” she said, ruthlessly suppressing the urge to hug him. “You’d better put some ice on that eye.” She walked blindly back to the fridge and pulled the door open.
“Julie.”
“Are you sure your teeth don’t feel loose?”
Cas tested his jaw. “Where did you learn to hit like that?”
“I didn’t,” said Julie. This was not the time to tell him she was a cop. Braver men than Cas had been turned off by that confession. “It was just dumb luck. I mean, not luck. I meant to hit Henley, but—I’m sorry.”
Cas walked up behind her and shut the refrigerator door. “Forget the fight. Forget the boats. Forget everything.”
She couldn’t look at him. “I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do about your jaw. It’s already turning purple.”
“There’s one thing you can do for me.”
She turned to find herself trapped between him and the fridge. “What?” she asked, a l
ittle breathless.
He leaned into her, so close that his breath warmed her cheek. “This.” His lips touched hers and a voice inside her head said, no, but a louder voice said, “Aw, what the hell.” And she opened her mouth and his tongue found its way inside.
Her fingers spread against his chest and she broke the kiss. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Never better.” He kissed her eyebrows, her nose, found her mouth again. And this time there was only one voice in her head. And it said, Me, neither.
Cas laughed into her mouth. “We seem to have this kitchen thing.”
“Yeah.”
“I have a king-size bed upstairs.”
“You don’t want ice? I have Percodan in my bag.”
“Later,” he said and kissed her over to the wall. He flipped off the lights and when the stairs appeared out of the darkness, they began to climb.
At the top, he turned her to the glass wall. The moon and stars hung like a mobile against a black sky.
Julie looked down and saw the dark, flowing river below them. Only it was smaller now, narrower. Or maybe it just seemed that way, because it couldn’t hurt her anymore.
Cas rowed them out into the river, leaving the harbor behind, and suddenly the boat shot into the current. One oar was wrenched from Cas’s hand and he fought furiously with the other to keep them from overturning, while the river carried them away.
And she—his captive princess, wearing a tablecloth cape and tin foil tiara—could only cling to the sides and watch, wide-eyed, as he frantically tried to turn the rowboat against the current.
Julie turned away from the window. From the river and from her memories. “I shouldn’t stay. There’s Smitty and the chickens and—”
“I might have a concussion.”
“Really? Are you dizzy? Do you feel sick? How many fingers do you see?”
He grabbed the fingers she held up and brought them to his lips. “I don’t think I should be left alone.”
“I think you’re goofing on me.”
“And I might have a couple of cracked ribs.”
“Then you should definitely go to the hospital.”
He smiled and wrapped a tendril of hair around his fingers. “Give us a chance, Julie.”
Julie pulled away. “Where is this going? Because if you’re going to get all weird on me, you’ll just have to croak in your sleep and be done with it.”
Cas grimaced. “I’m in pain. Would you leave a man who’s in pain?”
Julie raised a suspicious eyebrow. “Seriously?”
Cas nodded.
“Where?”
He took her hand, opened her fingers and pressed her palm to his jaw. “Here.” He pulled it down his chest. “And here.” Moved it again and Julie had an idea where it was going next.
“And here.” He pressed it against his erection.
Julie laughed; she couldn’t help it. “I’ll get some ice.”
“No-o-o. This calls for a massage.”
“Does it, Dr. Reynolds?” She stroked him through his jeans and Cas sighed and pushed his fingers through her hair and kissed her, the barest touch of his lips. She nudged his feet open with her knee and fitted her hand between his legs, running her nails along the seam of his jeans and back again. His hands gripped her head and he sucked her bottom lip into his mouth. Julie gave in to him, wondering why she wanted him so much, because she didn’t think it had anything to do with payback. And she was afraid to think further than that.
She rubbed her palm up the zipper of his jeans. His hands fell away from her hair, ran down her back until he could lift her shirt. Then his palms were on her skin, moving in circles as if to capture her whole. And she wanted to say something clever or at least something hot, but she couldn’t come up with a thing. She squeezed his erection through the fabric.
He pulled his hand out of her shirt and she thought, Don’t go. But he quickly unbuckled his belt and pulled down his zipper and went back under her shirt. Julie’s hand slipped inside his boxers and her fingers closed around him. His erection hardened even more beneath her hand.
They stood toe to toe, their hands inside each other’s clothes, with the stars up above and the river flowing by and it seemed so right.
But it was just a game.
Cas eased them down on the bed and rolled her onto her back. He braced himself on his elbows and looked down at her.
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
“I am now.” He pushed up her shirt, kissed her stomach, drew a line with his tongue down to the edge of her jeans, then licked beneath the denim, leaving a trail of searing heat across her flesh. He tucked his finger inside the waistband and popped the button open.
He moved slowly and she basked in it, reacted to it, and returned his touch. Tonight they would take things slowly. Tonight there would be no banging away like a couple of rodeo contestants.
Each touch was an exploration, a titillation, and Julie thought, I should knock you silly more often. And then she stopped thinking and wrapped her arms around his waist. She gently kissed him again and again, each touch of her lips a caress, until her blood ran thick with desire.
The kiss stopped being gentle. Their bodies pressed together, their arms and legs twining and retwining, and they rolled on the bed, pushing the blankets away and knocking the pillows to the floor. Finally Cas stood up on his knees and pulled her jeans down her legs and dropped them on the floor. He gazed down at her, his eyes smoldering in the moonlight, and smiled.
“God, Wes, thank you,” he said and pulled the new lace thong down her thighs. His hands followed the curve of her legs until he cupped her butt with both hands and he lifted her to his mouth.
“You’re glistening,” he said and bent to lick the sweet spot between her legs.
Julie wanted to say, “Not too fast, make it last.” But her hips rose up to meet his tongue, and she succumbed to the growing heat as it spread from that one spot to take over the rest of her body. When she felt herself begin to float, she rolled him away and began to unbutton his shirt.
Cas kissed her fingers as she worked her way down until he couldn’t reach them anymore. He helped her pull off the shirt, then yanked his T-shirt over his head and tossed it away.
His chest was broad and golden in the pale light. Her fingers ran across the dark diamond of hair until she found the medallions of his nipples and felt their peaks harden at her touch.
Cas sucked in his breath and Julie said, “Shh,” and brought her fingers together to trail down the line of hair to his navel and into his boxers. Banker’s underwear, she thought. So she pushed jeans and underwear down his thighs and continued her journey. His cock jumped as her fingers passed over the swollen head, barely touching the heated, silky skin as they continued south, outlining the shape of his erection. It jumped again when they came together again at the base of his penis.
Cas groaned. He lifted her hands away and pulled off her T-shirt. Found the front catch of her bra and flipped it open.
“Had a lot of practice?” she asked, trying to ignore the pounding in her ears. Trying to slow the meltdown that was pooling between her thighs.
“Hey, I went to college.” He grinned at her, then lowered them both to the mattress, catching her between his elbows. He kissed her neck, trailed his tongue across her collar bone and down the cleft between her breasts.
His tongue arced around one breast, moving in concentric circles. Getting smaller and smaller until his teeth nipped her nipple and she whispered, “I can’t wait. Take me.”
Cas shook his head. “I have to make up for last time.”
“Next time,” she said.
“And next time and every time.”
She sighed as he sucked on the tip of her nipple. “That’s good.”
“Yeah,” said Cas and sucked again.
Julie choked back a cry of pleasure and grasped his head, pulling his mouth closer.
His legs began to thrash, and she realized he was trying to rem
ove his jeans without letting her go. She bent her knees, ran the soles of her feet up his sides until her toes found the open waistband. She hooked them inside and pushed the jeans down his calves and onto the floor. An extra flick of her toes sent his underwear after them.
He lowered himself on top of her and covered her body with his. He rubbed his cock up her abdomen until it touched the navel ring. Cas shuddered.
“Your ribs?”
“Your French tickler.” He laughed, the laughter turned into a moan as he circled his groin against her. He slid down the length of her. His tongue flicked into her navel, sending shivers through her. Then he drew a hot wet line down her stomach.
He pushed back to his knees, lifted her thighs over his shoulders and Julie barely had time to think, Don’t puncture a lung, before his tongue cut a line through her mound of curls, then flicked up in just the right place to make her see stars and forget all body parts except the ones that counted.
“God, you’re sweet,” said Cas between licks. He pushed her knees higher, cupped her butt in his hands and plunged his tongue into her.
She spiked her fingers through his hair as he withdrew his tongue, flicked up again.
Her thighs began to shake. “Too soon,” she said and slid her knees off his shoulders. “I want some, too.”
Cas continued to assault her with his tongue while he crawled around and threw a leg over her chest. She wrapped her arms around his thighs, lifted her head and sucked one of his balls into her mouth. Cas shuddered and rolled over so that she was on top, his mouth never leaving her.
She slowly drew her tongue along the ridge of his penis over the tip of the head, across the cleft. Then she sucked him in.
Cas sucked in his breath, went still, then slowly began to pulse into her mouth. Julie tightened her lips around him, and after a minute, he groaned and pushed her away, pulling out so quickly that her lips made a popping sound.
He rolled away and Julie heard the sound of a drawer opening. Cas rummaging inside. “I’m trying ... to redeem myself.... But I don’t think ... I’m going to last. Sorry.”
Moonlight outlined his taut body as he ripped the package and unrolled the condom down the length of his penis. And a lovely penis it was, too.