by Susan Stoker
Kyle arched an eyebrow. “My job?” His gaze slid over to his youngest brother. “Really, Beau? You’re worried about my job?”
A flush climbed up Beau’s neck. “Um, we…” He looked at Troy and back. “We know how much you like being sheriff and would hate if, um, something were to interfere with that.”
Beside him, Troy lifted his sweat-laden iced-tea glass to his lips, his hands as steady as a rock. Kyle loved his family but obviously his twin hadn’t given up the notion of getting Tess out of his life.
“I’m guessing that you’ve all seen the newspaper articles this week,” Troy said, then dapped his cloth napkin to his lips.
Kyle glared at his siblings, intimidating only the youngest three. Troy met Kyle’s glare with a sarcastic lift of his eyebrow.
“Dr. Sweeney is being not only a pain in my ass, but she’s become a real liability to the hospital.”
The waitress came by and Kyle ordered coffee. Although he was sorely tempted to walk out, that wouldn’t solve anything. Maybe if he stayed, he could get his three younger siblings into his boat and the four of them could tell Troy to go jump in the lake.
“Let me tell you all something,” Kyle said. He leaned on the table and aimed a particularly mean glare at his twin. “If I have anything to say about it, Tess Sweeney will be around in this town and in my life forever. Forever. Get it?”
His brother Heath nodded. “Good. I like Dr. Sweeney. Hell, the whole family owes her for saving your worthless hide. I tried to tell Mr. High and Mighty here”—he indicated Troy with a lift of his chin—“that he was barking up the wrong tree both with this family meeting and with trying to get Dr. Sweeney fired. Go on, Dr. Jackass. Tell our brother what your little hospital investigation showed.”
Troy’s back stiffened.
“Let me guess,” Kyle said. “You found she did nothing wrong.”
“Well, I’ll just say that the staff couldn’t confirm nor deny whether she’d been drinking that night.”
“Bullshit.” Kyle slapped the table top and shoved his chair back with a loud screech on the wooden plank floor to stand. “I can, and you don’t trust me? I told you I’d been with her all evening. She hadn’t had a drop to drink.”
Around them, other late lunch patrons were beginning to turn toward the noise.
“Sit down,” Beau said. “Don’t make a scene.”
“Which is exactly why we met here, isn’t it? So you could try to control me?”
“Please sit down, Kyle,” Risa said. “Please.”
Kyle sat, but the gritting of his teeth was starting to give him a major headache. “Troy. I’m warning you. If you do anything to Tess, I will never speak to you again in this lifetime.”
Troy rolled his eyes. “Please. So dramatic over some woman.”
“That’s enough,” Heath said. “You two may be three years older than me but you’re acting like a couple of high schoolers.” He turned to Kyle. “I don’t think the rest of us were aware of how serious you’d become about Dr. Sweeney. Troy said you had a mild infatuation, but I’m thinking he undersold what’s going on.”
“Well now you know. One of these days, I’m going to marry that woman, so he—and you three—need to understand that.” He looked at Troy. “Weren’t you going to order an autopsy?”
“Lloyd didn’t want one done.”
Kyle snorted. “I bet he didn’t”
“Didn’t matter. State police ordered one.”
“And? Holding out on me, brother?”
Troy blew out a long breath. “Severe trauma from being ejected from the car. Massive internal injuries and bleeding. Basically, it was amazing the kid lived long enough to make it to the OR.” He shrugged. “Combined with the staff reports, looks like Sweeney did what she could. I’ve turned everything over to the state police per their request.”
“God, you’re a jerk. If you weren’t my brother—worse my twin—I’d take you outside to the parking lot and put a dent in that perfect nose of yours.”
“I’m just trying to watch out for you.”
“Ha.” Kyle glanced around at his three other siblings. “What exactly did Troy tell you to get you all here?
Risa leaned on the table. “Not what I’m hearing tonight. Not even close.” She held Troy’s gaze, apparently not fazed by his glare. “Alcoholic doctor, check. Not serious, check. Probably going to get rid of her from hospital so it’d be better if you moved on, check.” She moved her gaze to Beau and then Heath. “The same?”
The two men nodded.
“Then let me be frank. I’m in love with Tess Sweeney. If she’ll have me, I plan to marry her.”
Surprise opened Risa’s eyes wide. “How can you be so serious and not brought her around to meet Mom and Dad?”
“I’ve met her,” Beau said.
“Me, too,” said Heath.”
“How? When?” Risa demanded.
“She’s been riding at the sables for the past year or so. Always requests Blaze,” Beau explained. “Since I’m usually in the stables, I take care of her. We”—he indicated Heath with a head tilt—“were a little nervous about giving her Blaze. You know how he can be with new people but he and Tess connected immediately. She saddles Blaze herself and unsaddles and grooms him when she gets back.”
“I told her she didn’t have to do that,” Heath said.
“Well.” Troy snorted. “Looks like she had her eyes on our brother for a long time…longer than he even he knew.”
“You’re way off-base,” Kyle said. “She’s a rider. There aren’t that many stables that rent horses in our area.”
“But there are others,” Troy said.
“True, but we have the most acreage for riding.”
Troy shrugged. “The way I see it, she was planning on worming her way into your life one way or the other. The gunshot was her lucky break.”
“I am seriously thinking about busting your lip at the same time I dent that perfect nose of yours if you say another word.”
“Hate to say this, Troy, but I’m thinking you sold the three of us a bill of goods on Dr. Sweeney,” Beau said.
Risa put her hand on Kyle’s wrist. “Bring her to dinner on Sunday. Let us get to know her as someone other than your doctor and one of our renters.”
“Maybe. How do I know he’ll behave?” He glared across the table at his twin.
“He will, or I’ll bust his nose…and you know I can,” Risa said.
Kyle rubbed his nose. Risa had busted it with the back of her head when he’d been trying to teach her self-protection. He chuckled. “I remember.” He stood. “I’ll talk to Mom and Tess about Sunday. Anything else?”
“Yeah,” Heath said. “Sorry about the intervention.”
Kyle smiled. “Love you guys. I just don’t love you guys in my business.”
*
The week ended better than it started for Tess, well, until she pulled into her drive Friday afternoon. The Kyle Monroe for Sheriff sign had been sprayed with the words BABY KILLER in blood red. She sighed, pulled into her garage and went back out to collect it. She’d have to let Kyle know about it.
This wasn’t the first mutilated or spray-painted sign she’d seen this week. Not only did this property destruction make her angry, but it embarrassed her that he was catching all the flack because of her. It just wasn’t right. He was too good of a man, and a hell of a good sheriff, for her to be casting her negative shadow over. She’d told him to move on and forget her, and she hadn’t heard from him in the last couple of days. Had he decided that she was right and being with her was too much trouble? Her gut turned a tad sour at the thought.
She propped the sign in her garage and unlocked the door to her house. Walking in and seeing the sparkle of the lake out the back glass wall always lifted whatever weight was on her shoulders. She sagged against the kitchen counter for a minute and took in the view of boats cutting through the waves, sending glimmering sunshine across the ripples. Sure seemed like the boaters came o
ut earlier and earlier every year.
One more long breath of relaxation and she began to strip off her scrubs and head for the shower. At least her surgery schedule had picked back up, not back to normal, but up. Of course that was probably because Judge Worthington had had a press conference on Wednesday to reaffirm his belief in her and to tell how she’d saved his son’s life. Wow, had that set off Preston, or she assumed it was Preston. She’d had hang-up calls all night after that.
The man was losing all sense of right and wrong. Oh, to the outside world he still appeared to be the polished and well-spoken district attorney but she saw through that. In his eyes, she saw the dark madness brewing. Every day she waited for the other shoe to drop but nothing happened.
Out of the shower, she dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, sans bra. Mother Nature had already bumped up the temps and since her nightly plans were a pizza and a book, the less she wore, the cooler she’d be.
After putting her pizza in the oven, she padded barefoot around her kitchen as she brewed a fresh pot of tea to drink with her dinner. She’d just pulled the pizza from the oven when there was a knock at her front door.
When she opened the door, Kyle caught her face in his hands and drew her into a rough, hungry kiss that demanded she respond. She did, grabbing the belt loops of his jeans and pulling him into her house.
He touched the tip of his tongue to her lips, and she opened. He swept in and her knees buckled under the onslaught. She moaned, the sound vibrating deep in her soul. She soaked up his attention like an arid desert in a rainstorm.
Pulling back, he stared into her eyes. “Do not ever let a week pass again that I don’t see you.”
He left a trail of kisses along her cheek back down to her mouth. She moaned her response, which could have been anything from “No, no, stop,” to “Take me to bed now.”
As though he heard the second option, he slipped his hands under her T-shirt at her waist and began walking her backwards toward her bedroom.
Chapter Eleven
‡
Tess’s stomach quivered. His fingers were ten lit matches to a brush of dry kindling. Flames of lust shot through her. Heat flared from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet.
“Too slow,” Kyle said. He swept her up into his arms and, with long strides, carried her to her bedroom, all the while continuing to make love to her mouth with his tongue.
It was all too much, and at the time, it wasn’t enough. Her clothes were too tight, too restrictive. She couldn’t breathe. Her heart played her ribs like a xylophone. Could he not hear the loud pound of her heart?
As he lowered her to the floor next to her bed, she slid down his body like an exotic dancer with her pole. He stepped back and looked deeply into her eyes.
“Tell me you want this as much as I do.”
With the Cheshire Cat smile, she unbuckled his belt, then his jeans, and finally lowered the zipper. A smile pulled at the corner of his lips.
So he thought he was in charge?
Tess plunged her hand under the waistband of his briefs and took the velvety rod into her hands. Kyle sucked in a breath, the smile falling from his mouth as his eyes darkened with desire.
“I think actions speak louder than words, don’t you?” she asked, giving his cock a long, firm stroke. And then another.
His eyes rolled back in his head before the lids fell. His nostrils flared as he sucked in a long draw of air.
He pulled her hand from his pants. “No more. Not now. Not if you want this to last longer than the next three minutes.”
She laughed. “Finger on the trigger, Sheriff?”
“Only with you, love. Only with you.”
He pulled her to him for a long kiss, all lips, and tongues, and teeth. They ate at each other’s mouths, needing to take as much as they could from the other as if their kisses were the life-sustaining force required to keep living.
“Overdressed for this ballgame,” he said, pushing her shorts down her legs.
She jerked her T-shirt over her head.
“Why, you’re commando,” he observed. “How convenient.”
“I try.”
Kneeling in front of her, he lifted one foot and then the other, removing her shorts and tossing them in the corner.
“Spread your legs.”
Oh man, she loved when he used his take-no-prisoners voice. His sharp command shot a volt of lust through her, ramping up the fluid trickling from her canal.
“Wider.”
Holy hell. If he kept this up, her knees were going to give out and she’d collapse to the floor. Still, she did as she asked, separating her feet into a wide-straddled stance.
He blew on her coarse hair and then across her swollen vulva.
She shivered as an army of goose bumps slid down her spine.
Nuzzling his nose in close, he inhaled. “Mm. Love the way you smell.”
Before she could respond, he darted out his tongue and licked her engorged clitoris. Tess’s knees shook.
“Damn. I’m not sure how long I can stand up with you doing that.”
“I can fix that.” He rose, took her shoulders, and pushed her back on the bed. “Scoot to the edge.”
He draped her legs over his shoulders and found where he’d left off. His tongue and mouth played a cruel game of tag, retreat, and attack again until Tess shook with built-up tension.
“Let go, my darling. Let me take you over.”
His words were the final stroke she needed. She gasped out his name as waves of pleasure washed over her.
Pushing her eyelids open was a struggle, but it was so worth the effort as it brought the sexiest man she’d ever known into view. He removed his shirt, providing her with a delicious view of his broad shoulders and wide, muscular chest that tapered down at the waist to a set of perfect hips. She absolutely loved the smattering of his chest hair, especially the arrow that shot from his naval to his…oh my. She blew out a long breath.
“You like something you see?” Kyle asked with a self-satisfied grin.
She held up her arms. “What I want is way too far away.”
He chuckled and opened the drawer in the bedside table. An open box of condoms set next to a loaded Smith & Wesson forty-five.
“How could I not fall in love with a woman who keeps her condoms next to her gun?”
“Well, that’s so if I’m disappointed, we can either try again or I can politely ask you to leave.”
He laughed and opened a condom to roll on himself.
“Wait,” she said. “Don’t I get to have a little fun before the…um, main event?”
He shook his head. “Sorry, babe. I have almost no control left.”
“Great. I love it fast and hard.” She wiggled her fingers. “C’mon, big guy. Show me whatcha got.”
“No pressure,” he joked as he joined her on the bed.
The joking came to an abrupt halt as he took her into his arms and looked deeply into her eyes.
“I love you, Tess. I know you’ve never said those words to me, and that’s fine. Know that I’ll always be here for you.”
He kissed her, and she felt his passion and love as it flowed from him in his touch. Her heart swelled until it felt as though it would explode in her chest. Elation and joy flowed through every cell. When he slipped inside her, she moaned her pleasure.
Her response seemed to be the encouragement he needed. He withdrew and plunged in again.
Her toes curled as an intense energy developed and moved like a tidal wave up from her feet and at the same time, down from her head. The two swells of powers met midway and exploded. Her orgasm hit her hard. She gasped and thrust her head hard against the mattress.
“Oh crap,” he muttered. “I can’t hold any longer.”
He slammed into her, held tight against her as his cock jerked inside. His breathing came in pants and gasps as he lay on top of her.
“Sorry. Give me a minute and I’ll move. I think you killed me.”
Un
wanted tears built and trickled from the corner of her eyes.
“Hey. What’s this?” He brushed a tear from her temple. “Am I hurting you?” He began to move, but she wrapped her arms around him to hold him where he was.
She shook her head and sniffed. “It’s just that…well…no one has ever made me feel the way you do.”
He pulled her close. “Oh, babe. Nobody will ever love you like I do. Ever.”
“I know. It’s so hard for me.”
“I understand. I really do. Lloyd hurt you. He stole everything good about love from you. Let me give that back to you.”
She sniffed again. “I…I…” She hesitated, gathered her courage and said, “I love you, Kyle.”
He kissed her softly. “I know, honey. Even when you didn’t, I knew. We are meant to be together. Hell, I knew that back when you called me a red-necked Barney Fife.”
“But I’m bringing so much grief down on you.” She shook her head. “Your reelection signs are being destroyed. I’m driving a wedge between you and your brother. The horrible stories in the newspaper. You can do so much better than me.”
“First, there is no one better than you, at least not for me. And second, everything you just said is total bull. The signs could be anything. Kids. Guys I’ve arrested. My opponent. And my brother? A wedge?” He chuckled and the vibration of it rattled from his chest into hers. “Honey, we’re twins. You can’t drive a wedge between us. My brother is stubborn and a lot of the time a complete jerk, but he’s my brother.” He kissed her. “I hate that he’s making your life hard. Could be because he’s jealous that I found the perfect woman.”
She smiled. “Perfect woman? Have I met her?”
He wiped another tear away. “I don’t know. Have you?. Dr. Sweeney? Have you met Dr. Sweeney? The most perfect woman in the world.”
She punched his shoulder. “I’m not perfect.”
“You are for me, Tess. You are for me.”
His words were like cold water on a stinging burn.
“Thank you. You always know what to say.”
“You know what I need now?” His stomach rumbled.
“I hear rumor there’s a pizza in the kitchen.”