by Alison Paige
“Oh, Joe…” Kate arched into his touch, her legs spreading wide as he sank his finger deep inside her. He stroked her from the inside, feeling her muscles hug around him. His cock twitched in envy, need a tightening knot in his balls.
He leaned in, drawn by her feminine scent and her sweet soothing heat. With the very tip of his tongue, he tasted her clit. She flinched but then rocked into his face, so his mouth covered her. He drew the sensitive swollen nub into his mouth, a gentle scrape of teeth as his fingers drove in and out of her pussy.
Her orgasm thundered over her without warning, swelling her walls around his fingers, drenching her sex in a gush of release. Her hips bucked, pressing her clit hard against his mouth and he took all she willingly gave. When she’d stilled he replaced his mouth with her toy and Kate’s body roared back to life like a furnace freshly stoked.
“Show me where you like it,” he said after a few seconds, sensing he hadn’t quite hit the mark.
Her eyes nearly closed, her face radiantly flushed, hair wild around her head, she reached down and guided the toy with his hand. She found the mark instantly, her back arching as the vibrations hummed through her sex. Her hand shifted to the toy, took control.
“Jeezus, Kate that’s so fucking hot. Yeah. Keep playing with yourself.”
His hands free, Joe stroked himself as he edged closer, the other hand catching under her knee, lifting. The slick entrance to her body flexed before him. He drove into her hard and fast, his eyes locked on the pink bunny-eared vibrator working her clit.
The dildo vibrated her pussy around him, the hum of it tingling up his shaft, pulsating through his balls. “Fuck…”
The threat of release swamped him fast and it was all Joe could do to resist teetering over the edge. His chest tightened. He held his breath as her muscles milked his cock, hungry for every thick inch of him. He buried himself inside her, going harder, deeper with every thrust.
Both hands held her under her knees. The sound of their bodies slapping together echoed through the room, sending jolts of sensation ricocheting through his body. Sweet friction sizzled along his flesh, a swelling pressure building up from his gut, driving his hips, squeezing through his chest. He clenched his jaw, fought the primal urge to ride the wave of pleasure over the edge.
He looked at the connection of their bodies. The sight of his cock slipping in and out of Kate, her fingers spreading the lips of her pussy while her other hand guided the dildo made his cock thicker, tighter inside her. He wouldn’t last much longer. He didn’t have to.
“There. Yes. Don’t. Don’t stop.” Kate’s head pressed back into the pillows, her body pounded by his, the bed frame knocking a frantic rhythm against the wall.
She turned and muffled her raw howl with the pillows, heat flooding her sex, muscles throbbing wildly along his cock. Joe couldn’t resist a second longer, needing to thrust harder, faster, like he needed air. The sweet pressure her body had built in him rose fast, squeezing through every muscle, tightening through his chest until he couldn’t breathe. Sensation exploded inside him, charging through his veins, roaring from every corner of his body and out his cock.
Spent, Joe collapsed forward, catching himself before his full weight rested on top of her. Her vibrator hummed between them and Joe found the power button on the battery back to switch it off. He nuzzled under her thick fall of hair, pushing the pillow out of his way to plant kisses on her neck. Her sweat salted his lips and he licked her, making her squirm.
She twisted under him, turned her face to his. Her smile warmed something deep inside him and he had to kiss her quick or go mad from the urge.
Kate blinked, caught her breath. “I’ve done a lot—sexually speaking. But I’ve never done that. Never played with myself in front of anyone.”
“You’re a fuckin’ pro.”
She blushed. “You’re no slouch yourself.”
“Bah. Just warming up.” He kissed her again because he couldn’t be this close to her lips and not taste them.
“You’ll stay?” She asked when he released her mouth.
“I lost that argument the second you snagged my T-shirt, dollface.” And he had a feeling that’s not all he’d lost.
Weird. He didn’t care.
Chapter Fourteen
Kate snuggled into the spoon of his body and mumbled something about God being a woman. Joe didn’t agree. He smiled to himself, rocked his hips forward, pressing his morning hard-on against the soft give of her ass. Only a male mind could make an ass that fine.
He rooted through her thick swag of hair to her neck and kissed. She tasted like sex and heat, a salty sweetness that stirred his blood and pulled a nice tug through his muscles.
“Morning.” She encouraged his kisses with a tilt of her head. “So, five hours’ sleep and you’re ready to go again?”
“Been trying to hold still the last two,” he said against her neck. “Figured you needed your rest.”
She laughed, a small feminine snort that made him smile, and caressed the arm he held around her waist. “Thanks for the restraint, stud.”
“Welcome.”
“Although.” She squirmed around to face him. “That does explain my dream. I was a witch and my broomstick was being very naughty.”
“Broomstick?” Joe rolled to his back scooping Kate along for the ride. She straightened, pressing her hands to his chest, her knees on either side of his waist. The soft lips of her sex spread open on his belly, her sultry heat sinking through him to the bone.
“Oh. I mean, well, of course it was a very long, thick, meaty broomstick.”
“Thank you.”
She rolled her eyes and laughed. “Men.”
Joe squeezed his hands on her hips, his thumbs fitting along the crease of her legs. He lifted her, scooting her back so the head of his cock teased against the hot entrance to her body. “You lodging a complaint?”
She wriggled, trying to settle herself lower on him. Her green eyes flicked to his. “Absolutely not.”
“Good to hear.” He lowered her, painfully slow, feeling her muscles grip hungrily around him, drawing his body deeper and deeper into hers. Every muscle in his body coiled, awareness centering on the connection of their bodies, the heat spreading fast. His breath caught.
A loud bang startled them both. Joe jackknifed in bed, instinctively pulling her into the protection of his arms. It seemed endless seconds ticked by before his sex-fogged brain could puzzle out the sound.
“What was that?” she asked, breathless, her cheek to his chest.
“The door.” He stared as though it might make the noise again. “Someone slammed it.”
“Someone was watching us?”
He looked at her. “I can find out. You okay?”
“Yeah. Definitely. Go.” She pulled the sheets to her chest and slipped off his semi-hard cock. The room air cooled his sex and returned him to a manageable state before he’d finished pulling on his jeans.
Joe stopped at the door and glanced back at her. Worry wrinkled her brows, caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Her dark cinnamon hair tangled over her bare shoulders, the queen-sized bed dwarfing her, making her seem all the more precious and fragile.
He’d never allowed himself to care for his principal before. But in that moment Joe’s drive to protect her was more a part of him, more a primal need than any professional ethic could ever elicit. He would die for her. And that truth made his chest hurt.
“Lock this. Stay put,” he said then left.
It was early. The wide carpeted hallway was empty. Though in a house this size, empty halls were likely the norm. Joe glanced to his right. Kate’s room was the last on this end. A high windowed wall was only twenty feet away.
He turned and jogged on his toes toward the staircase at the center of the house, pausing for a quick listen at doors as he went. His gut told him whoever it was hadn’t risked hiding in an occupied room, but he needed to be thorough.
Two doors down from Kate’s
room, another two from the center of the house, the alarms suddenly blared. Seconds later voices yelled from the lower floor and Joe ran full-out to the stairs. Taking them three at a time he reached the bottom of the wide staircase in seconds and the front door four strides later.
“What’s going on?” Joe said over the trumpeting siren to the elderly man stabbing a control panel with his floppy gloved finger. He had a thick cap of butterscotch hair that touched the collar of his dirty blue overalls—pruning shears poking through a hole in his back pocket.
“Someone triggered the alarm. Can’t get the number punched in.” The man’s long face stretched, exaggerating the words as he yelled. His withered skin was like an old piece of crumpled vellum smoothed in the shape of a face. Lines that had nothing to do with worry or laughter, creased every which way over sun-ravaged skin that sagged beneath his eyes and chin like a basset hound.
“What’s the number?”
The man eyed Joe warily. Joe held his out hands to his sides, harmless. The man shrugged and stepped out of the way. “Two, fifty-eight, thirty-six, one, twenty-four.”
Silence.
“Who are you?” Joe asked him.
“Ralf Patroni, gardener. Who’re you?”
“You set off the alarm?”
“’Course not.” Ralf’s tight brow added to his wrinkles. “Who are you?”
Joe turned and headed for the entrance to the kitchen under the fat oak staircase, answering as he walked. “Joe Garity. Chief bottle washer.”
He broke into a jog before he crossed the threshold, then stopped short on the other side. The room was large, twenty by thirty easily, with high ceilings and a long island running parallel to the sidewall, cabinets above and below a long countertop.
There was a worn round wood table to the right where a barrel-shaped woman in a black maid’s dress and white frilled apron sat reading a newspaper. Another woman, older, thinner, wearing gray instead of black and a no-frills apron, stood at the sink on the far wall. She glanced over her shoulder at him just as the maid raised her eyes.
“You ladies set off the alarm?”
The maid at the table shook her head, her attention dropping back to the paper. “Ask Ralf.”
“No. Wasn’t him.”
The woman at the sink turned, wiping her hands on her apron. “You sure? He forgets to come in and out through the backdoor. Mr. Thorndike doesn’t turn the alarm off ’til after breakfast.”
“The backdoor’s not armed?”
Both women, now affording him their full worried attention, shook their heads.
“Where?”
They pointed behind him toward a narrow hallway in the far left corner of the kitchen. He followed the passage to the small rear entry room noting the slated closet door and the archway at the back of the little room. The exit led to the front foyer beyond. He checked the back door, yellow steel. It wasn’t locked.
The hallway continued past the backdoor into a large empty dining room. He checked then backtracked and took the archway from the rear entry room and passed into the main foyer. The grand front door loomed before him, to the left the staircase and beneath it the entrance to the kitchen.
“Garity.” Joe glanced up the stairs at Clayton. “You pissin’ with the alarm system?”
“No.”
Clayton stopped. “Ralf?”
“Not Ralf.”
“Shit,” Clayton whispered, lips tightening to a flat line.
“Right.”
The big towheaded blond jogged the rest of the way down the stairs and met Joe next to the control panel at the front door. “Where’s Kate?”
“Here.”
Both men turned toward the balcony railing before the stairs. Joe’s chest squeezed. “Can’t be. Kate’s waiting behind a locked bedroom door.”
“Get over it.” Kate tugged the silky tie of her robe and trotted down the steps. The luxurious material split over her naked thighs as she moved, fluttering around her calves like smooth green liquid.
“Was it Ralf?” she asked when she’d reached them.
“No,” Joe said.
Clayton’s jaw hung slack, his eyes full of male hunger, staring at her. Joe gathered Kate close, tucked her under his arm. Strictly territorial male, and it worked. Clayton’s mouth snapped shut, his white-blond brows slamming low over angry blue eyes.
“You two rush right out of bed? Couldn’t stop to dress or button your jeans?”
“Right,” Joe said.
“It’s not even six-thirty,” Kate said. “Clayton…” Their eyes met and Joe saw something pass between them.
“Yeah. Sorry.” The man shook his head and turned to the control panel.
“It looks like the front door’s the one that tripped the alarm.” Clayton’s voice wavered for a moment, but Joe had to hand it to the guy, he pulled himself together quick.
“So who?” Joe asked. “Another staffer?”
“The house staff has keys to the backdoor,” Kate said. “Ralf’s the only one who’s ever forgotten.”
Joe hitched a thumb toward the kitchen. “Talked to the maid and cook. They thought it was Ralf too. Poor geezer.”
“That’s everyone.” Clayton propped his hands on his hips. “If it wasn’t them, then someone’s here who shouldn’t be.”
Joe gave him a nod. “You check upstairs, I’ll take this floor.”
“Yeah.” Clayton jogged toward the stairs.
“What about me?”
Joe snagged her hand and pulled her along behind him through the archway to the back entry room.
“Stay.” He positioned her next to the wall while he opened the backdoor and examined the lock.
“What’re you doing?”
“No sign of forced entry.” Joe closed the door, shifting the puzzle pieces in his head.
“Why’s that light on?” Kate was at the slated closet door before Joe could stop her. He scooped an arm around her waist and put her behind him just as the door swung open.
“Eddy?” she said over his shoulder.
Wedged between the vacuum cleaner and mop bucket, the gangly young man gnawed his thumbnail, knees to his chest, back against the wall. His brows were high beneath his long bangs, eyes wide, glasses perched at the end of his nose.
All the fear and worry and rage that had built up over the past two weeks crashed through Joe’s mind and landed on Eddy like a big red bull’s eye. He reached in, fisting the collar of Eddy’s Star Wars T-shirt in both hands, pulled him out and set him on the wooden bench across the room.
It felt like he’d done it in one swift move. Blinking, Joe wasn’t sure he’d let Eddy’s feet touch the floor. Must’ve. Somewhere in the back of his head he heard Kate scream his name, but it took her elbow to his gut before the madman haze dissipated from his brain.
He staggered back as Kate wedged between him and the horrified Eddy. She clutched the edges of her robe together between her breasts and leaned over resting a hand on Eddy’s shoulder. “What were you doing in there?”
“I was… I…I was waiting.” His too-wide eyes darted back and forth between them.
“In the closet?” Joe asked, suspicious.
Eddy ignored him and spoke to Kate. “I mean, well, I started up to see if you were awake. And then I, um, I saw I had mud on my shoes. Figured I’d wait in the mudroom.”
Joe pointed to the floor. “This is the mudroom. That’s the cleaning closet.”
Eddy’s brows pinched, eyes going narrow on Joe, attitude winning out over fear. “Had to get somethin’ to clean up the dirt clumps. Didn’t I?”
Joe had a mind to adjust his attitude and shifted forward, but Kate shouldered him back. “Wait. Why were you waiting? Why’d you come?”
He shrugged, the snide glint in his eyes vanishing. “You have a morning class. Thought we could work on my psych project beforehand. Then maybe, I dunno, have breakfast together or something.”
“You tell anyone you were here?” Joe asked. “How’d you get in?”
Kate didn’t let Eddy answer. “We already did the camper evaluations.”
His pocked cheeks reddened. He glanced away. “I know. I just thought… It was fun talking about the kids and the farm and stuff. Like colleagues, y’know? Like we were…close.”
Joe’s mind seemed to be clicking on a two-second delay. Eddy’s responses were trickling through in spits and gurgles. He put a hand on Kate’s arm and nudged her to the side. “You were going to her room?”
Kate glanced at Joe then back to Eddy before he answered. “How’d you know where my room was?”
Eddy ignored Joe. “Clayton showed me last summer. He pointed out your old bedroom window. Figured that’s where you’d be since you moved back in.”
“You didn’t just start up the stairs. You made it to her room.” Joe was sure enough he’d made it a statement. Instinct prickled at the back of Joe’s neck, puzzle pieces shifting again.
Kate paled, straightened, clutching her robe tighter. “That was you? You were at my bedroom? You were…watching us.”
“No.” Eddy’s whole body lurched like he’d stand, but Joe was quicker with an easy shove to keep him in place. “No. I wasn’t watching. As soon as I saw… I mean, I closed the door right away.”
“You freaked,” Joe said. “Took off running.”
Eddy’s gaze slid to Joe, brows snapping tight beneath his bangs. “Did not. I left. That’s all.”
Joe folded his arms, shifted his weight to his heels. “Tried to run out the front door?”
Eddy brought his stubby thumbnail to his mouth, dropped his gaze. “Just wasn’t thinking.”
“And when the alarm went off you panicked and hid in the cleaning closet,” Kate said.
“I was gonna leave, but he came down so fast.” Eddy flicked his narrowed eyes to Joe. “What are you doing here so early?”
“What’d it look like?”
“Joe,” Kate said, ears flushing blood red. “Eddy, this is the Thorndikes’ home. It’s not appropriate for you to go wandering around. From now on, wait for me at the stable office. Understand?”