The feel of his lips and tongue almost on her sex caused more dampness than she’d ever thought possible. And when he finally got tired of the barrier and ripped it away, Penny could only rejoice, no matter how much the lace thong had cost. It was getting in the way. It had to go.
“I promise, one day we are going to make it to the bedroom,” Jason said as he stood, removed his pants and sheathed himself for their protection. “But not right now.”
He lifted her up against the wall and entered her as his mouth claimed hers again. She arched her back and tilted her hips to give him greater access. Each stroke of his sex in hers, along with his tongue in her mouth, felt like a mark of ownership, a move in reclamation. She could hardly wrap her mind around what it meant to be making love to her first love against the wall, not when her heart felt as if it were about to explode.
The only thing she could do was open herself. Open to the sensations. Open to the building explosions bubbling under every single one of her cells. And open to the love…
She pulled her mouth away from his probing tongue, turned her head and panted. The palpitations in her chest made it almost impossible to breathe. And the steady, strong, steadfast piston movement of his hips didn’t bring any calm. If anything, it stirred the storm inside her to a pitch so high she couldn’t imagine bringing it back down. She just rolled her hips and let her pelvis connect with his and gripped his firm, muscular behind with her feet, which were still clad in her strappy sandals.
“Give me those lips back, Penny.” Jason licked from the V of her cleavage to her chin and continued to move his hips in and out, faster and deeper.
There was nothing she could do to stop the release of the slowly building tension traveling from her stomach to her heated sex. The explosion splashed forth and continued all the way down to her toes. She still couldn’t turn her head as she tightened around him. But she could shake her head, even as her hands gripped his shoulders the way her sex gripped his shaft.
Once her body settled from the most intense orgasm she had ever experienced, she decided to take a chance that her voice might actually work. But when she turned her head and looked at Jason, the thudding in her heart picked up double time.
No…You cannot fall in love with him, she pleaded with herself.
Silly girl, you never fell out of love with him, she mentally chided herself in response.
“Open your mouth, baby. Let me taste that luscious mouth of yours.” He had the most seductive look in his eyes, and he seemed so content to just stand there stroking away and bringing her to mind-shattering orgasm after mind-shattering orgasm.
“I could do this all night. I need those lips to finish me off, baby. Give me a kiss. Come on, open for me, baby.”
She closed her eyes and tried to block out the feelings stirring in her heart as she pressed her mouth against his. She felt him smile against her lips as he began to mimic stroke for stroke between his mouth and his hips. The kiss became more intense as his hips moved from side to side in all kinds of angles. Her bottom bounced up and down and round and round on his firm thighs.
It felt like the wildest ride she had ever been on, and just like on a roller coaster, she began to get that tingling feeling in her stomach on each trip down. Except this feeling wasn’t content to just hang out in her belly. It wanted to put each and every nerve ending in her body on alert, and she let it. Soon she was screaming out his name around his tongue in a muffled and mumbled voice.
She felt him smile again, and heard him groan as he moved in for the kill and sent her bouncing even higher and back down again on his slick, soulful shaft. She grabbed the back of his head and clutched him as her sex wrapped itself around him as if it never wanted to let go. He let out a long and low moan and leaned into her, pressing her against the wall with his hands, firmly holding on to her behind.
“Penny…Penny…Penny…”
Her name sounded like a prayer coming from his lips.
She didn’t know when she had ever heard such reverence. But she did know her heart hadn’t calmed down one bit. If anything, the aftermath of his lovemaking, and him saying her name that way, sent her heart into overdrive.
How was she going to deal with what would surely only end in heartbreak?
Jason let Penny down from the wall and stepped back. His entire body felt invigorated, and he had a sense of purpose unlike anything he’d felt in years. It all should have been perfect. But as he looked at Penny and realized that he still had feelings for her—feelings deeper than anything he’d felt for her as a teenager, even—he didn’t feel the happiness that should have accompanied those feelings.
He’d just made love again to the woman he now knew without a doubt was the love of his life, and he didn’t feel an ounce of joy.
He didn’t have any regrets, but he wasn’t happy.
She pulled her dress down, and without even looking at him, she headed toward the kitchen. That action alone let Jason know she wasn’t going to willingly do what she needed to do in order to bring him to a place where he could possibly be happy about their union.
After he got rid of the protection, he found her in the kitchen, talking on her cell phone.
“Call me when you get this message, Carla, please. I don’t want to spend the night worried about you. Bye.” She hung up the phone, he assumed after turning the ringer back on.
He could tell she was very concerned about her mother, despite the argument they’d had earlier in the day. And he wished he had better news to give her. But after checking in with C-Money’s parole officer and doing some more digging on the cold case that had reopened the moment the DNA evidence cleared Gerald, Jason was more and more certain they were dealing with a clever and crafty sociopath. He wished Carla would file a complaint, but even then they’d have to find the man to make sure everyone was safe.
“Is she not picking up the phone?”
Penny gazed up, and once again he found himself almost lost in the copper pools of her eyes. He almost forgot that he was determined to find out once and for all if she had lied to him fifteen years ago. Everything in his cop’s instincts said yes, she had.
But what if she hadn’t? Would he be able to be with her and trust her again, knowing she’d cheated on him with their best friend? He didn’t know if he really could.
“She’s not answering. If she doesn’t call back—”
Her phone stared playing Tupac’s “Dear Mama,” and he had to laugh. She clearly had different ring tones for different people, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out it was Carla on the other end.
“Where are you? I called Big Mama’s line and then I called your cell and I got no answer. You know you need to be in the house until the police find that fool who hurt you. And even then, you need to come clean about who really did it. But that’s—”
She stopped talking for a moment, and her eyes narrowed before she rolled them. “I know you’re not a child, Carla. I was worried—” She took a deep breath and sighed. “Well, is Gerald still there with you?”
She looked at him, and he could only feel sorry for her. Between Big Mama’s death and Carla’s attack, she had a lot going on. And Carla being Carla didn’t make things any easier. He wished he could back off and not press Penny for the answers he needed.
But he needed them, and he intended to get them. Tonight.
“Fine, Carla. Just stay in the house, please. And think about—” Her left eye slanted, and she hissed before hanging up the phone. “She hung up on me. No, she didn’t just hang up on me!”
“She’ll probably call back. Come here. We can leave these for tomorrow. Let’s go to bed.”
“Ewwww. Now I know Mrs. Hightower didn’t raise you to leave a dirty kitchen. You relax. I’ll clean up the kitchen. It’ll take my mind off Carla, or at least it’ll let me think about what I’m going to do. I can’t leave her here, with C-Money on the loose. Crazy as she is, she’s the only mother I have. I’m going to have to take her to Los Angeles with
me.” Her shoulders relaxed.
Jason arched his right eye in surprise.
Penny actually appeared to lighten with her statement. It seemed as if at least one weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
“I’ll tell you what. We can clean up the kitchen together, and I’ll tell you what I found out about C-Money today.”
“Okay. I’ll wash. You dry.”
He nodded, and they started working side by side. The way it was supposed to be, as far as he was concerned.
“Have I told you what my specialty is in the department?” Jason asked. He realized he hadn’t really shared a whole lot with Penny about his job, except for the fact he was a cop.
“I know you normally work on cold cases. So, I’m happy you’re taking the time to look into what happened to Carla.”
Jason wondered where she had heard about him, but decided to put that aside for now. “Yes, I normally work cold cases. Anyway, your father’s case opened up one pretty huge murder case, and I was already looking into it when I found out who your dad was. From what I can tell, there may be a link between the double murder he was falsely convicted of and Carla’s attack. The link is C-Money. If it all pans out, then we won’t need Carla to testify. There’s no statute of limitations on murder. But we need to find C-Money. He’s been a ghost. He does have DNA on file, since he was recently in the system, and I have ordered forensic tests that should be back in a week or so. The same DNA evidence that cleared your father should help us put the real killer behind bars, if my hunches are right.”
“That’s good news. Isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is, if I’m right and he’s the murderer. Then all we have to do is bring him in. But first we have to find him. His parole officer hasn’t seen him since his release. He’s been keeping a pretty low profile on the streets, too. I think the fact your father was released around the same time as him has him a little shook. That little bit of time he did for drug dealing won’t have anything on what he’ll do for a double murder.”
Penny shivered. “Carla sure knows how to pick them. Goodness gracious, I don’t know how Big Mama did it.” She dried her hands on the dish towel and smiled. “See, now we can sleep well, knowing the kitchen is clean.”
Jason smiled. He noticed that Penny seemed to be holding her breath.
She placed her hand on her chest and patted it.
He walked over to her and held out his hand. He hoped she was ready to finally come clean, because his good-cop gloves were about to come off.
Chapter 13
While Jason showered, Penny went out into the living room to call Terrill. She said she needed to wrap up some business calls, but what she really needed was a friendly sounding board.
Everything was happening so fast, and she needed some clarity. If she could talk things out with the one person in the world who knew her secret, the one person she trusted more than anyone besides Big Mama and—oddly enough—Jason, she felt like she might be able to gain the courage she was going to need.
Unfortunately, Terrill wasn’t answering his cell, and the three-hour time difference meant she probably wouldn’t be able to speak with him this evening. She left her ringer on, hoping that he’d call back before Jason was done in the shower. Unfortunately, he didn’t, so she left her phone in the living room and took her own shower.
After showering, Penny felt as if she’d cleared her head. Jason had gone above and beyond what he said he’d do, and not only had he found out who might have hurt her mother, he might have found the man responsible for her growing up without a father.
The way he looked at her made her think he wanted something big in return. How could she possibly deny him the truth, after all he had done for her and her family?
Entering his bedroom in the nude, she couldn’t help but remember the first time she’d taken her clothes off for him. She’d been so nervous about her first time, and he’d made everything special for her. She couldn’t think of anyone she would rather have shared the first time with. And she couldn’t think of anyone she wanted to be with more right now. If she could just have one more special night with him, she wouldn’t be greedy. She knew it wasn’t going to work out for them, but she wanted to take something back to Los Angeles with her.
Like the rest of his home, Jason’s bedroom showcased style and comfort. The California king-sized bed was made of the most gorgeous wood platform, with a mix of mahogany, redwood and pine crafted together splendidly in the headboard. The bed, like the man, personified strength, character and beauty. The rest of the furnishings played off the woods represented in the bed. The bedding offered a masculine pattern of bold stripes that seemed to echo the rich browns of the woods.
Jason was sitting on the bed, with his back up against the pillows and the headboard. He wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing, and he looked delectable. She ran her tongue over her lips and took him in. So many scandalous thoughts came into her mind as she took in his perfect form.
His calves and thighs offered just the right amount of bulk and strength. She got goose bumps just thinking about the way they’d just held her up against the wall and taken her on the ride of her life. As her eyes traveled up his chest and the length of the pipes of steel that made up his arms, she realized she wanted to ride again.
“Are you just going to stand in the doorway, or are you going to come in here and let me make love to you in this bed?”
“Oh, I’m going to come over there, all right.” She took slow steps and climbed onto the huge bed. She started from the foot of the bed and did a seductive crawl, wiggling her behind the entire time, until she was right smack dab between his legs.
“But I don’t know about letting you make love to me.” She took him in her mouth and tasted him. She wanted to remember each lick, each suck, each pull. She wanted to remember the salty masculine flavor for the rest of her life. So she twirled her tongue and savored him.
“Unhhhh…Penny…girl…if you don’t want me to make love to you, you better stop what you’re doing.”
Penny lifted her eyes and saw that Jason’s head had fallen back against the headboard as his hips slowly started to move up and down on the mattress. He caressed her face with his hand.
“Penny, let me make love to you, baby, please.”
Penny lifted her head. “Nope. You can’t do that tonight. Because it’s my turn to make love to you.” She crawled forward and straddled him, bringing his head to her own for a kiss.
She kissed him hard before reaching for the protection. She stopped the kiss just long enough to cover him and then lower herself onto his shaft. He felt glorious, and she found it impossible not to cry out as he entered her.
“Oh, baby. Oh, Penny. That feels so good.” He took her nipple in his mouth and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her so close she could barely distinguish where he stopped and she started.
He alternated between her nipples and thrust his hips up to meet her downward strokes. The combination created a quick and almost debilitating climax that made her almost topple off her riding position on his lap. Luckily, he held her tight.
He lifted his head and smiled his disarming smile, and she felt her sex tighten around him again.
Did he just make me come by smiling at me? Surely not…
But she screamed out in release nonetheless, and covered his mouth with hers.
She let her tongue make love to his mouth and opened her own mouth to his probing. She bounced and rotated her hips until she thought she might pass out.
When Jason grabbed her and held her close to him, stilling her hips as he moved his like a hard-striking piston, in and out, harder and faster, she knew he was about to explode again. He called out her name, and his head fell back against the headboard. She kissed his face and trailed more kisses down his chest. Her body was shuddering, and her legs were shaking.
She rolled off him and stared at the ceiling in a daze. She felt the bed shift and figured that he must have gotten up to get rid of the p
rotection, but she couldn’t spare the strength to look and see for sure. When the bed shifted again and he pulled her into his arms, she felt those chills that came with the feelings of love and desire mixed to a fever pitch.
His hand trailed down her arm and her back, and she savored the strength he exuded. How had she managed to let this man go all those years ago? And how would she manage to do it again now? Because it was only a matter of time before everything hit the fan.
Knowing Jason the way she did, she figured his “good cop” routine would be up soon, and he would be back to his tell-me-the-truth and give-me-answers self any moment now. She just hoped she got to spend one more night with him holding her tight before it came to that.
“Penny?”
“Hmm?”
“I know we agreed to a truce until we figured out what happened to Carla, and I know Markum hasn’t been arrested yet. But I feel like things are moving really fast between us. And I think we need to talk about the past and get it out in the open, so we aren’t taking it with us into the new area we are headed to.”
Penny sighed. “Do we have to do it now?” Can’t we do it later? One more night, that’s all I ask. Please…
“Baby, can you turn around and look at me? Please?”
Against her better judgment, she turned and looked at him. His eyes held a sincerity that took her breath away. She placed her head on his chest.
He lifted her chin and stared at her. “Did you love me fifteen years ago? Were you as madly in love with me as I was with you? Was that real, Penny?”
She couldn’t look at him and lie. “Yes.”
“Do you still love me?”
Oh. God. Yes.
How could he ask her that? How could he expect her to put her bare soul on the line like that? She took a deep breath and tried to turn away, but he held her chin and kept her facing him.
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