Moon Fever

by Susan Sizemore, Maggie Shayne, Lori Handeland

  But today, she wasn’t content to settle. At least Jimmy made an effort.

  Not to mention he could get her off.

  Damn. She caught herself smiling again, wiped it off her face, and tried to focus on her guest.

  Brian got up off the couch slowly and stood there, looking down at her really hard. “This have anything to do with the stranger who spent the night here last night?”

  She licked her lips. Aha! I knew it. That’s the only reason he showed up. After a moment’s thought, she said, “I’ll tell you what it has to do with. I’ve come to the realization, Brian, that I can do a whole lot better. I’m getting the feeling that you’re just using me for my money, and I don’t deserve that.”

  “How can you say that? I’m not using you!”

  “Yeah? Well, if you decide you want to prove it, pay me back, and ask me out again with the understanding that there won’t be any more cash exchanging hands here. Not a penny. Not ever.”

  His eyes narrowed. “You are one tough bitch, you know that?”

  She almost smiled. She’d never been called tough before, and she felt rather proud of herself for earning it. “I’ve got stuff to do, Bri. Call me next week if you find the money to pay me back—all of it—and if you still want to go out after that, you’re buying.”

  He turned on his heel and slammed out of the house so angrily that the windows rattled. He spun his tires when he left, too.

  Well, hell. Good riddance.

  “What took you so long?” a voice whispered.

  She turned around, searching the area behind her, but there was no one there. And yet the voice—a female voice—had been vivid. Real. Audible. Not in her head, in her ears. “Mary? Is that you?” Dumb question. It hadn’t sounded like Mary, it had sounded like someone much younger.

  No one answered. She shivered and went to pick up the telephone, flipped through the memory to find the number for the real estate agent she’d used to purchase the place, and hit the button. She had questions, and they were big ones.

  She still didn’t have any answers several hours later, when she and Jimmy drove over to Pete and Mary’s for a Sunday night barbecue with the kids. It was something she did nearly every Sunday during the spring and summer and well into the fall. She’d brought Brian once, but that had been disastrous. He’d spent the entire afternoon sitting on his ass, slugging back beer, and scowling at the kids. No wonder her family hated him.

  She probably should have taken their advice way sooner. That thought came with a grimace as she sat at an umbrella-shaded table enjoying the warmest day April had yet offered and sipping an iced tea while her nieces and nephews raised hell in the backyard. The grimace was because she was imagining what her family’s advice would be where Jimmy was concerned. They’d be scandalized.

  And why was she even thinking that way? This was not a relationship. It was one night on third base, and she was making way too much out of it.

  Ten-year-old Kevin was tossing a football back and forth with seven-year-old Katie. Kristen, who’d just turned four, was sitting on Jimmy’s back with her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck in what looked like a choke-hold, while Jimmy flipped burgers and said something that made the little girl laugh hilariously.

  “He’s great with the kids, isn’t he?” Mary said. Krissie, her two-year-old, was on her lap, a bundle of golden ringlets and chubby cheeks. “They all adore him.”

  Caroline dragged her eyes off Jimmy, realizing belatedly that they’d been glued to him way too often since they’d arrived. But even as she did, he glanced back at her, as if he could feel her looking, and gave her one of those smiles that made her insides start quivering.

  She chose not to respond directly to Mary’s comment. “Where are the twins, anyway?”

  “Inside, probably on the phone or the Net or both. Or more than likely, fighting over the phone or the Net or both. Kyle and Kenny are like oil and water these days. They’ll be out when the food’s ready, though.”

  “Thirteen isn’t the most sociable age, I guess,” Caroline said.

  “No, not really. But they love Jimmy, too. Hell, I don’t know why we didn’t think to invite him for Sunday dinner sooner. He really fits.”

  Caroline looked at her sister-in-law. “Why didn’t you?”

  “Well, I didn’t want you think it was a fix-up. You know, didn’t want it to be awkward.”

  “Hell, Mary, I wouldn’t have thought that. At his age, I mean—”

  Mary waved a hand as if brushing off Jimmy’s youth. “Doesn’t seem to bother him any.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Mary just smiled and sipped her tea. “Hey, guys, the womenfolk are starving over here. How close are we to being fed?”

  Peter looked back at her. “Five minutes. Can you last that long?”

  “Well, there’s a slim chance.” She got up. “Let’s get the salads and set the table. Maybe you can shame the twins into helping. God knows they won’t listen to me.” As Caroline followed her inside, she kept talking. “I take it Jimmy’s staying at your place again tonight?”

  “Um…I…”

  “I just noticed he didn’t bring his stuff back with him. And I know the apartment won’t be ready for him for a few more days, at least.”

  “Oh.”

  She opened the fridge, taking out salads, condiments, and hamburger buns and handing them off to Caroline one by one. “Do you mind having him there?”

  “No.”

  “And what about Brian?”

  “Brian’s…um…well, I told him I wouldn’t see him until he paid me back in full. And we both know that’s not going to happen.”

  Mary turned with a dish in both hands, shoving the fridge door closed with her hip. “You ditched him? And you tell me this now, when my hands are too full to hug you?” Her smile was huge. “I’m so proud of you, Caro!”

  “Yeah, well, you shouldn’t be. It took me way too long.”

  “Maybe you just needed the right motivation.”

  Before she could even begin to guess what Mary meant by that, the door from the backyard opened, and Jimmy poked his head in, saw Caroline with her arms full of supplies for the meal, and made a beeline for her to begin taking items out of her hands. Even as he did, he called, “Boys, get your butts out here and pitch in, or you’ll handle cleanup on your own.”

  The stampede of two pairs of feet down one set of stairs was almost deafening. “Hey, we didn’t know you were coming, Jimmy!”

  “Yeah, you should have told us sooner.” The two gangly teens rapidly relieved Mary and Jimmy of everything they’d been carrying and took the lot of it out to the backyard.

  Caroline lifted her brows. “Sure. They never get that excited when their beloved aunt comes to visit.”

  “Ah, they’re just complacent. You’re here every Sunday,” Mary said. “Jimmy’s a novelty.”

  Yeah, in more ways than one, Caroline thought. But she grabbed a dish of coleslaw the boys had missed and went back outside. Jimmy held the door for her and then walked close beside her. He sat next to her at the table. He paid attention to her as no one ever had, making sure she had tried every dish, refilling her iced tea glass when it got low, handing her a napkin just when she’d been needing one.

  The guy was amazing.

  And her sister-in-law was noticing all over the freaking place, damn her. Peter, of course, was oblivious.

  They were driving home later, and she was trying really hard to ignore the female part of her that was practically singing all the way. So, he was great with the kids. So, her brother and sister-in-law adored him. So, he was attentive and polite and helpful and funny and smart and just fun to be with. So what? None of that mattered, because this was just sex, and there was no way in hell a guy like him—if he was for real—could be interested in her for anything…more.

  “I had a ball today,” he said. “You guys do that every Sunday?”

  “Pretty much, at least during th
e warm months.”

  “What would it take to score a standing invitation, do you think?”

  She swung her head toward him. “You’d be willing to do that every Sunday?”

  “I’d pay to do that every Sunday.”

  Caroline frowned, searching his face for signs of a lie but finding none. He looked really blissed-out. “Don’t you get the chance to do stuff like that with your family?”

  “Tommy lives on the West Coast now. Still at UCLA. Mom’s in a nursing home about fifty miles away.” There was real regret in his voice and on his face as he went on. “Alzheimer’s. I took care of her as long as I could, but it got too bad. She needed someone with her twenty-four seven, and I’d have to work twenty-four seven to afford that kind of care.”

  “I’m sorry, Jimmy. I didn’t know.”

  “It’s a bitch. I don’t like her being that far away. There are three homes closer, but this one was the best, and I wanted her to have the best.”

  “Do you see her often?”

  “Twice a week without fail, three times when I can manage it.” He sighed. “She’s beyond knowing I’m there, or so the staff tell me. But I like to think she knows, somewhere way down deep.”

  Add another notch to Jimmy’s list of pluses. He loved his mother. Good grief, was the man even human?

  “What about your dad?” she asked.

  “He died two years ago. Cancer.”

  “God.”

  He shrugged as if it were of little consequence, and she thought there was more there, something deeper to that part of his story, but she didn’t ask. He changed the subject, turning her own questions on her.

  “How about your parents?”

  “Retired, living in Florida, happy as clams. We visit them in the winter, and they come up here for a few weeks in the summer. It’s all good.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. So we got off the subject, didn’t we?”

  “What subject was that?”

  “Me wrangling a standing invitation to your family’s Sunday barbecues.”

  She smiled at him in spite of herself. “I think all you’d have to do is ask. Everyone adores you.”

  “Really? Everyone?”

  He said it with an intense look, and she had to look away. She didn’t answer. She was too busy kicking herself, because she was actually starting to believe he was for real. And believing that was insanely dangerous. No guy was as good as this one seemed. It just didn’t happen.

  “Hmm. No answer. But that’s okay,” he said. He reached across the seat to trail his fingers along the side of her neck, and his touch gave her chills right to her toes. “I fully intend to see to it that you adore me, too, before the night is out.”

  She closed her eyes and tried not to hear her body whispering to her brain, Hot damn.

  Chapter 5

  I t was late when they returned from Pete and Mary’s, and the way Jimmy had been looking at her all the way home had her pulse racing long before they pulled into the driveway.

  He got out of the car and came around to her side before she managed to get out herself. He took her by the hand and tugged her to her feet. She closed the car door behind her, and the next thing she knew, his arms were around her, her back pressed to the Jeep, his body pinning her there.

  “I’ve had a hell of a time keeping my hands off you today.” His hands proved his words by running up her sides from her hips to her waist and back again.

  “I’m glad you managed. I’m not sure what my brother would think.”

  “We’re going to have to find out, eventually.” He said it as he was lowering his head to kiss her, but she was shocked enough to turn her head aside.

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  He took her chin with one finger and gently turned her head back to face him again. “Come on, Caroline. You didn’t think this was just a fling, did you?”

  Well, duh, she thought. “Of course I thought it was just a fling.”

  He blinked as if his feelings were hurt but seemed to cover it quickly. “Is that…what you want it to be?”

  “Jimmy, that’s all it can be.”

  He lowered his head for a moment, let out all his breath. Then he inhaled and looked her in the eye. “Then it’s gonna be the best fling you ever had. And the only one you’ll never forget.”

  Oh, hell, now he was ambitious. And not just the ordinary, I’m-gonna-impress-her-in-bed sort of ambitious, but something above and beyond that. It was more like an I’m-gonna-be-the-best-you-ever-had-or-ever-will variety. And she was feeling pretty selfish, because she couldn’t wait to see how close he would come. Or how many times she would. And all without even dropping him a crumb in return. Yeah, she felt mean and cruel, but dammit, she wasn’t about to leap into an actual relationship with a guy this much younger than her, one whose motives were still unclear. Not as many times as she’d been hurt.

  She had to keep her distance here. She had to keep her head involved and her heart in the clear. Her body was already down for the count, so that didn’t even bear debate. He had her there.

  “Is that okay with you?” he asked.

  She’d lost track of the question. Oh, right. Was it okay with her if he was the fling she would never forget? “It’s a pretty big promise.”

  “You know I’m gonna keep it.”

  She smiled slowly. “Damn, I hope so.”

  He kissed her then, right there, up against the Jeep, and it was raw and hungry and urgent. His hands kneaded her backside, and she arched her hips against his. Then he slid his hands down the backs of her thighs and pulled them up around his waist. Holding her that way, still kissing her to within an inch of sanity, he carried her into the house. He made it to the staircase and no further, just lowered her down there on the third step and started undressing her, hurrying so much he was clumsy. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have believed he was shaking. And maybe he was.

  God, she was. When he pushed her blouse open and down her shoulders, bending to nuzzle between her breasts, she braced her arms on the step behind her, arching her back. He pushed the bra straps down, then the lace cups, baring her breasts, kissing and sucking them until she was shivering with pleasure.

  “Jimmy,” she whispered. “God, Jimmy.”

  He slid his hands lower, unfastened her jeans, and pushed them down. She lifted her hips up to help and kicked them off her legs. Her panties followed, and then he was sliding down her body, kissing her all the way; her belly, her thighs, and then in between. And when his tongue went to work on her there, she moaned and threw her head back. Her fingers tangled in his hair, her entire body shuddering with every flick of his tongue. He played her, God, he played her like a master, and she prayed he wouldn’t stop. Not until…and then he was pushing her over the edge, and she screamed his name over and over as her entire body erupted in spasms of mind-numbing ecstasy.

  Gently, he kissed his way back up her body, paying extra attention to the crook of her neck, which made her shiver even harder. She was floating in a state of sensual bliss as he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bedroom. He laid her down again there on the bed and quickly undressed to join her there. And the moment he pulled her close and started kissing her, the passion she’d thought was spent began to build anew.

  He took his time, appreciating every part of her with his hands, his fingers, his lips. He kissed her earlobes and whispered that she was incredible, and beautiful, and that she drove him wild with wanting her. And then he pulled her on top of him and slid himself inside her, and everything in her seemed to catch fire. She braced her hands on his shoulders and moved with him, over him, taking him deeper each time, moving faster. He clutched her hips and thrust up into her, his pace getting faster, more urgent. Locked together, they moved in unison as the flames built higher, and there was no room in her mind for thought or logic. Only feeling, only sensation, only passion. And when she came this time, he did, too, holding her and driving himself deep and then pulsing there.


  She collapsed on his chest, and he wrapped his arms around her and cradled her, kissing her hair.

  She had never felt so cherished in her entire life. And if this was a fling, then she was a blushing virgin. It wasn’t. She knew it wasn’t. And the knowledge terrified her. She tried to chase her fears away and just enjoy the sensation of falling asleep contented and safe in his arms.

  “Now, remember, Pete,” Jimmy said in the sternest tone he could come up with. “No matter what, you do not tell Caroline about this.” He’d spent the entire morning with Peter, and the whole time, he’d been hoping his feelings for the man’s sister were not written all over his face.

  But last night had been beyond anything he’d ever known before. Better than he had even imagined. And he’d imagined it a lot.

  “I’m not gonna tell her,” Peter said. “I gave you my word. I just don’t know why. She wouldn’t be mad.”

  “Yes, she would.”

  Pete rolled his eyes. “Okay, she probably would. But she should be grateful instead.”

  “Yeah, well, I don’t want her gratitude.”

  Peter stared hard at him. “I’ve pretty much figured that out.”

  “Figured what out?”

  Peter shrugged and nodded toward the camera with the zoom lens that was currently sitting in the front seat of the Jeep, between him and Jimmy. “You knew her ex was cheating on his new wife. You knew where, and you knew when. Clearly, you’ve been checking into this for a while.”

  Jimmy nodded. “Well, I am a PI, after all.”

  “Don’t give me that bullshit, pal.”

  He sighed. “Okay. I heard you and Mary talking about how far behind he was on the money he owes her for the business and her share of their house, and the fact that he transferred the title of their vacation cottage on the lakeshore to avoid having to pay her anything for that. It burns me. I thought maybe I could help. That’s all.”

  “And being a PI by trade, you knew how to go about it.”

  “We show good old Shawn these photos and tell him he can pay up or we’ll send copies to his wife. He’ll pay up. Then we’ll give him the negatives and all and forget we ever had them.”