The Lawman

by Martha Shields

  She felt him come up behind her.

  “Tabitha, look at me.”

  She slowly turned and peered up into his intent green eyes. “Every penny of profit went to crime victims. I’m not your father.”

  “I know, Jake. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply—” She gasped as he set his hands on her waist and lifted her to the counter.

  Separating her legs with his hips, he positioned himself against her, wrapping his arms around her and taking her mouth in a bruising kiss. When her breath was coming hard, he trailed kisses down her throat.

  “You changed clothes,” he said.

  She smiled. “You finally noticed.”

  “I noticed the instant I walked in the door.”

  She threw her head back to give him better access. “You didn’t say anything, so I thought—”

  He growled against her ear. “Don’t think so much.”

  “Well, I’m having difficulty at the moment.”

  He chuckled. “Good. You’re going to have a lot more difficulty later.”

  “I am?”

  “Yep. I’m going to peel your tight jeans off you like an onion skin, then I’m going to nibble on your legs, starting at this big toe…” He reached back and caressed the big toe of her bare right foot, then trailed his hand along the inside of her leg. “…all the way up, and then down the other leg.”

  She shivered. “And then?”

  He chuckled again and pulled her tighter against his hardness. “You can’t know everything.”

  “Why not?”

  He bit the lobe of her ear.

  The shiver that hit her this time racked her entire body.

  “But I want you to know one thing,” he whispered in her ear.

  “What?”

  “I won’t hurt you, Tabitha. I will never, ever hurt you. I won’t do anything you’re afraid of. If I do something you don’t like, tell me.” He drew back far enough to see her. “Okay?”

  “Okay.” She was only half aware of what she was promising.

  He glanced down and drew in a quick breath.

  She followed his gaze and saw her hard nipples poking through her shirt.

  His open hands followed her curves upward from her hips, but all he did was cup the underside.

  She thrust her chest out, wanting more.

  “Damn.” With a sudden movement, he pulled back and set her on the floor. “The fish need turning.” He gave her a quick kiss, then turned back to the fish. “Chop that onion, woman.”

  Grabbing the edge of the counter to keep her balance. Tabitha blinked. How could he turn his desire on and off so quickly, so completely?

  Miffed, she stirred the corn one last time, then turned off the burner. With the spoon still in her hand, she smiled. Time to see if he could take a little of his own medicine.

  She asked him a question about his job and as soon as she had his attention, she began to lick the spoon in long, lazy strokes.

  His answer trailed off as his eyes followed every movement. Just before his eyes began to burn, he yanked his gaze away and finished answering her.

  Frowning, determined, she reached up into a top cabinet for a serving bowl for the corn. She could feel his gaze on her, but he didn’t move from the fish. When that didn’t work, she broke off a bite of cooked fish and walked over to Billy’s crate in the corner. She bent over, with her butt high in the air, and fed it to him.

  “Woman, if you ever want to eat tonight, you’ll stop what you’re doing right now.”

  She twisted to find his gaze on her, hot and wanting.

  Finally. She widened her eyes deliberately. “What am I doing?”

  “You’re trying to seduce me.”

  She straightened. “Is it working?”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think,” she said, walking slowly toward him and swiveling her hips with each step, “that you’re ignoring me.”

  “Ignoring you?” He snorted in disbelief and shook his head. “One thing you don’t have to worry about is seducing me. You’ve done a damn fine job already.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, you’re the one insisting on eating.”

  His gaze traveled down her body. “Oh, I’m going to eat, all right.” He shook the moment off. “And so are you. You’re going to need every ounce of energy you can get.”

  Satisfied, Tabitha asked, “When is the fish going to be ready?”

  He lifted the last piece out. “It’s done. Now I just have to cook the hush puppies.”

  “I’ll fix some tea.”

  They began their meal ten minutes later. To keep from talking about what was uppermost on their minds, Tabitha led the conversation to mundane topics. She gave Jake a litany of the work she’d done on the little house. He pretended he was interested.

  Tabitha half expected Jake to start their sexual encounter as soon as they finished eating, but instead he insisted on clearing the dishes. He washed them while Tabitha dried and put away.

  When that was done, he called his men at the hospital, then checked on the men outside.

  Tabitha let Billy out of his crate and petted him to keep herself from screaming in frustration. The orange cat rolled to his back. He lay alongside her leg, his purring nearly drowning out the air conditioner.

  Finally, just as it was getting dark, Jake reentered through the back door. He locked it, then searched for her. The living room was the last place he looked.

  “Ready for bed?”

  Fourteen

  Tabitha went still. The only part of her moving was her heart, which beat double time. She cleared the lump from her throat. “Yes.”

  Jake smiled. “Me, too. It’s been another long day.” He walked to her and held out his hand. “Shall we?”

  She couldn’t smother a giggle as she placed her hand in his. “You sound as if you’re asking me to dance.”

  She gasped when, as soon as she stood, he lifted her in his arms.

  He grinned. “Is that better?”

  She wrapped her hands around his neck and held on tight. If she’d ever been picked up by anyone, she couldn’t remember. It was a definite loss of control and, as such, unnerving. “I don’t think so.”

  He stopped in the hallway. “Give me my macho moment, okay?”

  She smiled. Trust him to make this fun. “Okay, Mr. Macho. Carry me away.”

  “Oh, I plan to, kitten. Don’t you worry.”

  He turned sideways to fit her through the bedroom door. Instead of laying her on the bed, however, he stood her next to it. He folded her in his arms and kissed her tenderly, then passionately, then sweetly, then deeply. He varied the kisses until, mindless with wanting him, she began to clumsily undo the buttons of his shirt.

  “Not yet.” He took her hands away and pulled them around his waist. “We have all night.”

  “All I care about is now.” She found the waist of his pants and worked her hands beneath. She smiled when she felt the silk of his boxers. “I want you now.”

  He closed his eyes on a shiver and kissed her forehead. “Damn. If you don’t stop it, I’m going to take you right here and now.”

  “Okay.”

  “No.” He pulled her hands out from the back of his pants and put them behind her back. “I want our first time to be all for you. I want you screaming my name.”

  “Screaming?”

  He nodded.

  She giggled. “Won’t that bring your men running in?”

  “Witch.” He took her mouth again, hard and deep. Holding her hands behind her with one hand, he twisted enough so he could run his free hand up her side to cup her breast.

  She gasped to finally feel his hands rubbing across the nubs that had been wanting his touch all evening.

  “You drove me crazy during supper,” he said. “Your nipples stayed erect the entire time.”

  “That’s because you had me on the edge the entire time.”

  “The edge of your seat?”


  “The edge of frustration.” She tilted her head back so she could see his face. “What have you done to me? I’ve never felt this way. I’ve never wanted a man so much I want to rip off his clothes.”

  He growled for an answer, then released her hands so he could use both of his. He yanked her top off over her head, then stopped on a quick breath when her breasts were bare. “Oh, my God. Tabitha. I knew you’d be beautiful.”

  He slowly, almost reverently, pushed his hands upward from her waist, watching his progress intently.

  Tabitha’s breath caught when he finally cupped her breasts, dragging his thumbs across the sensitive tips. Grabbing his bottom, she ground her hips against his. The pressure felt good but wasn’t satisfying. So she reached for the button of her jeans. Her hands were immediately pulled away.

  “That’s my job.”

  “Then do it. Please! This isn’t enough.”

  He smiled with pure male satisfaction, but instead of obeying her, he bent and dragged his tongue across her nipple.

  Tabitha convulsed with pleasure, instinctively leaning back over his arm to give him better access.

  He held her upright in his strong grip, laving her breast with his mouth. Then he sucked it in, drawing it out to the nipple. He bit lightly, just enough for her to feel the edge of his teeth.

  “Jake, please.”

  Jake’s tongue drew a wet path down her stomach as he slowly dropped to his knees. Placing his hands on the waistband of her jeans, he unbuttoned them, then slowly slid down the zipper. As her belly button was bared, he dipped his tongue inside.

  Tabitha set her hands on his shoulders to maintain balance.

  With the intensity of a man concentrating on a difficult but interesting job, he peeled her jeans down her hips.

  He growled when he got to the waistband of her red silk thong. “More red panties just for me?”

  She gasped when his teeth snapped the elastic. “I aim to please.”

  He pulled her jeans down her thighs, but stopped when they were at her knees. He ran his hands up the inside of her thighs. When they were about six inches from the place she wanted them most, he touched the inside of her left thigh and looked up at her. “You have a mole on your thigh.”

  She shook her head. “It’s a birthmark.”

  Apparently the difference didn’t matter. He kissed it fervently, then yanked her jeans the rest of the way off.

  Tabitha lifted each foot in turn to help, then sat on the edge of the mattress when he urged her back.

  True to his words, he lifted her right foot. Starting at her big toe, which he sucked, Jake kissed and licked and nibbled his way slowly up her thigh.

  Tabitha had never felt anything so sensuous. Her heart beat faster, the closer he came to her moist, throbbing lips. Then without touching them, he passed over her panties to the left thigh.

  “Jake!” She fell back to her elbows.

  “Yes, my kitten?”

  “What are you doing?”

  “It’s called foreplay. Ever hear of it?”

  “I’ve…heard of it.”

  She must not have been as successful as she’d wanted to be at keeping the meaning from her reply, because he lifted his head and met her gaze. “Don’t tell me no one has ever kissed you like this?”

  She gave a small shake of her head. “It’s driving me crazy.”

  He smiled. “It’s supposed to. Lie back and enjoy.”

  But she didn’t lie back. She wanted to watch. There was something naughty—and thrilling—about seeing a man’s head between her legs. A full-dressed man, at that, when all she wore was a skimpy pair of panties. But he wasn’t just any man. He was the man she loved. That turned what might have been naughty into the most natural thing in the world.

  Wanting to touch him but unable to reach, she lifted her right leg and ran her toes across his shoulders, then down his back. He arched into it, letting her know he enjoyed her touch. That thrilled her as much as anything.

  “I want to touch you,” she whispered when he was at her knee. “Please. You promised I could.”

  “I’m not finished yet.”

  “Hurry up!”

  “No. You’ve never experienced foreplay.” He nibbled along the inside of her calf, tickling her just enough to make her muscle twitch. “And I want to experience you.”

  “Torture me, you mean.”

  “Exquisitely.”

  Exquisite torture. Her elbows weakening, she finally slipped to her back onto the bed. What an apt description.

  “There are other parts of me— Oh.” She drew in a breath as his tongue moved back and forth on the arch of her foot. “There are other parts that want to be tortured.”

  “Are there?” He finally stood, his eyes traveling up her bare body.

  Feeling wanton, and wanting to torture him, too, she stretched like a cat. “Mmm.”

  “Such as?” He reached up to pull off his tie.

  “No!” With more energy than she thought she had, Tabitha sprang to her knees and threw his hands aside. “That’s my job.”

  He smiled slowly. “By all means.”

  She slowly guided the tie from its knot, then slid the silk from his collar. Leaning to the side, she carefully laid it across the footboard.

  He ran his palm over her hip as she did, sliding across her bottom.

  She felt the muscles of her butt move against his hand as she straightened, drawing a moan from him. She smiled, then slowly unbuttoned his shirt, stopping now and then to play amid the hair on his chest.

  She let his hand stroke her bottom until she needed to undo his cuff. Keeping his palm in contact with her skin, she pulled his arm around her body, settling it against her pelvic bone as she undid the button.

  He set his other hand on the other side of her hip and slipped her panties over the curve of her bottom. His eyes burned green fire as he bared her pubic mound. One hand returned, the fingers digging into the hair, one finger slipping inside.

  “You’re so wet.”

  Her hips jerked in reflex toward him, not away. But since she wanted to give him as much exquisite torture as he’d given her, she pulled his shirt off his shoulders, dragging his hand away. “Not yet.”

  His fiery gaze met hers. “Isn’t that one of the ‘other parts’ I’m supposed to torture?”

  She smiled. “Not until I do a little torturing of my own.”

  With that, she bent and took one of his flat nipples in her mouth. It wasn’t easy, but he reacted every bit as strongly as she had. The small nubs puckered under her tongue and he sucked in a tiny gasp.

  He let her move to the other side before he drew one arm from his sleeve and grabbed her around the waist. He stripped her panties completely off, then placing a knee on the bed, he carried them both down, his hard body landing on top of hers.

  She glared at him. “I wasn’t finished.”

  He shrugged out of his shirt. “Too bad. I nearly was.”

  When he’d tossed his shirt off the bed, he took her mouth with a ferocity she’d never felt. But she loved it. She wrapped her arms around his neck and held on, responding to his wildness with her own, plowing her fingers through his thick hair, arching her hips into his.

  He moaned, then with her cooperation, parted her legs and settled between them.

  They groaned in unison.

  Tabitha giggled, then gasped when he thrust his hardness against her. “Take off your pants, Jake.”

  He rose to his knees, his hot gaze looking down at the moistness bared to him.

  Tabitha didn’t care. She watched him as intently as he did her, willing his hands to work faster.

  Finally, he lowered his pants, baring his thick, hard maleness.

  She gasped and, rising to one elbow, she reached out to stroke the velvet length. “Oh, Jake, you’re beautiful,” she breathed, running her thumb over the tip.

  “More torture, witch?”

  She smiled. “Can I?”

  He groaned and dropped to
the bed, lying half on top of her. As he covered her mouth with his, he cupped her breast, making her arch into his touch, then ran his hand down her stomach.

  She parted her legs for him, but he still didn’t touch her where she was now giving him tacit permission. He dragged his fingers down one thigh, then up the other.

  Tabitha didn’t know which sensation to concentrate on. She dug one hand into his hair and with the other scraped her nails along the inside of his forearm.

  Finally his hand settled on the mound throbbing for his touch. One finger slipped into her wetness, flicking between the heated lips until it touched the nub pulsing with every heartbeat.

  Tabitha’s whole body jerked in reaction.

  “There?” he asked against her lips.

  “Yes. Oh, yes.”

  He flicked harder, faster, making her buck against his hand. He held her tight enough to stay in place, but loose enough to allow her movement.

  Tabitha felt the train coming, rumbling along the tracks of her body until it hit with sudden, violent impact. Grabbing hold of his shoulders, she spasmed against him, over and over, toward the exquisite torture and then away. But it followed, relentless, forcing her higher and higher into paroxysms of pleasure that finally burst into a tunnel of light, lit by a thousand burning stars.

  Jake held her tight, rocking her in his arms.

  “Oh, Jake. I’ve never felt anything like that before. It was an orgasm, wasn’t it?”

  He laughed in pure delight. “An amazing one, if I’m not mistaken.” He kissed her thoroughly. “You’re a sensuous little kitten.” He pushed back a strand of hair from her face. “You’re my sensuous little kitten.”

  Tabitha couldn’t believe what she’d just experienced. She didn’t know pleasure like that existed.

  “Shall we see how sensuous?”

  She peered into his intense green gaze. “What do you mean?”

  His hand drifted down her stomach to touch her there again and immediately set her off once more. She convulsed against him, writhing under his inexorable torture like a wild wanton. Her release was every bit as intense, every bit as astounding.