Not commenting on her joking response, John used his unshaven chin to point to the apartment sized couch he probably took up most of the space on. Mariah smiled and nodded, moving in that direction. He returned moments later with the pizza box, paper plates, and a bottle of red wine he’d opened in the kitchen. On a second trip, he brought back wine glasses, bottles of water, and napkins.
“We can turn the game off and talk,” he said as he sat.
“No,” Mariah said firmly. “I just needed to see you in person. The ballgame is good by me. I’m even giving you optimism points for wearing that shirt. I expected you to be more of a realist.”
“Stuff it, Bates. I believe in loyalty,” John said.
Mariah nodded. That had always been important to her too. Her celibacy had been sacrificed to the loyalty gods when she was trying to work through the problems in her marriage.
She opened the pizza box on autopilot and put food on their plates. Reaching over, she put a napkin on his knee, then handed him a plate.
“Eat. I’m fine,” she said.
When she’d finished her slice of pizza, Mariah poured wine for both of them. Scooting to the edge of the small sofa, she pushed back into the corner of it and got comfortable. John was quieter than he’d been before she’d arrived, but at least she hadn’t ruined the game completely.
She sipped her wine and tried to watch, but ended up watching John more. Her mind kept wandering to all she’d learned about her life. Suddenly, she felt like she was playing a game herself. She eased out of her cozy spot and set her wine down on the coffee table. It was probably best if she just excused herself and left.
“Stay,” John ordered, not even looking. “So long as you’re not angry at me, I really don’t care what brought you to my door.”
“And that’s why I noticed you. You’re eerily observant,” Mariah said.
“It’s innate. My choices were cop or scientist. When I was growing up, geeky guys never got lucky with girls. I figured my chances were better in a uniform.”
Mariah giggled and picked up her wine again. “As in football uniform?”
“You got it.”
She laughed when the dimple appeared in his cheek again. “That’s kind of sad. You could definitely make the whole white lab coat thing work in those sexy glasses you’re wearing.”
“Can’t wear contacts all the time. Got to give the eyeballs a break. Science taught me that, but pretty much everything else came from football.”
Mariah smiled at his efforts to tease. “I think you look cute in your glasses. You should wear them with all the confidence in the world.”
John turned to her. “I think you look cute too, even if you have cried all your makeup off.”
“A genuinely observant man. You do know you’re a dying breed, right?”
John took her glass of wine and placed it on the table for her. He bent to the floor, slipped off her shoes, and then lifted her feet to his lap.
“Sleep. It makes everything a little easier to handle,” John suggested, pulling a Bengals throw from behind him. He wrapped up her feet, then tossed the rest of it over the rest of her.
Mariah stared at his profile… knew he was being careful with her… appreciated it even. “I’m sorry I didn’t call first.”
“I’m not. I’m just glad you wanted to see me and made it happen. Just don’t tell anyone you made the first serious move. I might lose my man card.”
“If what I feel under my feet through several layers of blankets is any indication, I think your man card is safe.”
His full belly laugh over her boldness was like winning the lottery. Despite his arousal, John got more lazily comfortable with her after that. He stretched out in her direction, sliding his long arm nearly the full length of the small couch. She wasn’t exactly sitting in the circle of his arm, but she felt like she was.
She also felt wanted for herself. Their attraction had truly defied their sucky circumstances so far. She’d be the first to admit John’s attentiveness was a healing salve to the wounds Dan’s infidelity had created.
She closed her eyes, letting herself enjoy the feeling of mattering to a man, and fell asleep.
Chapter Thirteen
She woke some time later all warm and comfortable. John smiled down at her as she blinked up at him. His unshaven beard was nearly as silver as his hair. He really was incredibly sexy in those glasses. “How long did I sleep?”
“Through the rest of the game and a whole movie. The evening news is on.”
“Wow. That’s late.” Mariah scooted to a seated position. John’s fingers dropped to her shoulders, playing with the ends of her messy hair. “Some fun date I am.”
“Was this a date?” John asked, his eyes crinkling behind his lenses.
Mariah groaned and closed her eyes. “I have no idea. It’s been a very, very strange day.”
“Is your mother going to be worrying about where you are?”
“That question makes me feel like a kid again.” John laughed as she rubbed her eyes. “I told her I was coming to see you and to not wait up.”
John’s fingers stopped what they were doing and his eyebrows went up.
“I was planning to sneak in after Mom went to bed so I wouldn’t have to explain things to her just yet. I’m still processing what I learned. Are you going to explain your role to me?” Mariah asked.
John pulled back his arm and blew out a breath. He nodded reluctantly. “If I have to.”
Mariah chuckled at his flat tone and pulled her feet out of his lap. She stayed where she was though, and just pulled her knees up to wrap her arms around them. The throw covered her bare legs and the bottom of her skirt.
“How about I start the discussion?” Mariah asked.
John nodded at the offer.
“I saw with my own eyes today that my ex-husband has a whole other family. The oldest child is old enough to mean Dan was cheating on me long before the divorce proceedings started. During the year we were living apart, he also got Beth Stanley—now Luray, according to her mother—pregnant a second time. They have a darling baby girl born during the year of our divorce.”
“So it’s true, he did marry her?” John asked.
Mariah nodded. “That’s what her mother said. And he used the divorce settlement I gave him to buy her a house.”
John turned and met her gaze. “How bad did all that bother you, other than kicking your ass emotionally?”
Sighing, she blew out a breath. “On a scale of mildly annoyed to completely devastated, the truth put me in the god-how-could-I-have-been-such-a-fool frame of mind. My mother is going to be the one devastated. For all his faults, my father was a faithful man who loved my mother madly. Now my children… well, I can’t even think about them yet. Their reactions could be off any scale.”
“I’m sorry, Mariah.”
Mariah shrugged. “Dan’s betrayal didn’t keep me from wanting to come see you. I consider that a positive sign. I hope you do too.”
John reached out and took her hand. He squeezed it tightly. “I was married once. When I had to be away a lot for work, she found someone who wasn’t gone all the time. Before that happened, though, we had a son together. Will is twenty-seven, a little younger than Elliston. I confess that I let work keep me from being there for Will as much as he needed me to be when he was growing up. We see each other, but we’re not very close. That’s all on me.”
“My kids have the same relationship with their cop father. Side effect of the job, don’t you think?”
“Or of not having the right priorities. I haven’t had anything but casual relationships since that one time in my life. I think the longest I’ve dated a woman has been a few months. Seems it always fizzles out when I have to work on something like this case where I can’t really discuss much. When things get tough, I let her go with no hard feelings. Less trouble that way.”
Mariah nodded and squeezed his hand back. “In most relationships, things change very quickly. I
t’s obvious you love your son. I bet he knows that.”
“He says he does, but you know how guys are,” John joked.
“I thought I did once. I’m supposed to be an expert,” Mariah joked back. “Are you planning to let me go as easily as you did the others? Seems you could have just asked to be reassigned. Why haven’t you?”
John looked in her eyes for nearly a full minute. When he finally spoke, Mariah could tell he’d made some profound decision about her.
“The office I work for—really work for—assigned me to watch Dan. He’s a good cop on the edge of going bad. Beth Stanley, on the other hand, could be considered a criminal for bringing false charges against your company. It’s obvious both of them are trying to get into your wallet.”
Mariah pushed her hair behind her ears as she remembered Bill’s remarks. How could she feel guiltless about John if she prosecuted Dan? Beyond involving John further, there were also four other good reasons not to want any serious harm to come to her ex-husband. There was no choice except to let Dan get by with hurting her one more time.
“Is there any way for Dan to keep his ass out of legal hot water at this point?” Mariah asked.
“Why? You wanting to save him?” John asked in return.
Mariah unbent her legs and scooted closer, not letting go of his hand. “Anything I wish for Dan is because of all four of his children. They didn’t ask to be part of this mess. They don’t know their father is not being a good guy right now. Clawing out Beth Stanley’s eyes or cutting off Dan’s balls, while both could be satisfying, neither would help anyone in the long run. I also could say he indirectly brought me you, which is something I don’t want to regret. The only evil Dan really did to me was take my money and be unfaithful. No divorce is pretty. Right?”
“No, it’s not. I can validate that for sure.” John grabbed her hand and tugged her closer.
She resisted but only enough to hold his steady gaze. “If I go after one or both of them, then I have the welfare of the children on my head, and a host of other things to contend with. Also, I won’t be able to stalk you with a clear conscience like I did today. Do you want that outcome for us? Avenging all the wrongs might seem the right thing to do, but it would not in this case be helpful in resolving any of the real problems. I’d rather cut my losses on the money and the infidelity, especially if I can have this connection between us be guilt free.”
John swallowed hard. “Come here, Dr. Bates. I need to hold you while I think about your argument.”
Mariah started to crawl into John’s lap, surprised when he easily lifted her across his legs. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek. He put his hands under her skirt, making her squirm from the pleasure it gave her.
They sat that way for several minutes while he thought about what she’d said. She was just about to talk when he finally picked up the conversation again.
“Technically, I don’t have enough to fry the bastard yet. Dan’s been skirting the illegal line, but he hasn’t crossed it in a way I could recommend taking him out of his job over. You’re right that my conflict of interest problem with you complicates things for me… and us. Me being involved with you looks just as fishy as anything Dan’s done, but I can’t seem to help myself. And yes, I could have asked to be reassigned, but then I’d have worried myself sick about what he might do to you. I wanted to throttle him the day he served you and was such an ass. I could only hope like hell you didn’t believe any of that shit he said.”
Mariah nodded and then laid her head against his shoulder. “If I have to pick which man to save in this scenario, I’d rather save John Monroe, even if it means asking him to let the bad guy get away this time.”
His answer was an indignant grunt. It made her smile and want to laugh at her luck with men. Was she really thinking about getting involved with another cop?
“John? I’m planning to talk to Dan and see if I can’t get him to stop taking legal potshots at my business. Bill says I already have enough to prove Beth Stanley is trying to extort me. Naming Dan in that suit would bring everything he did as a cop into question, especially if he has indeed married her. The threat of me bringing a criminal or civil lawsuit should be threat enough to get both of them to back off.”
“And if talking to him doesn’t go the way you think it will?” John asked.
Mariah shrugged. “Do you really want to play the ‘what if worst case scenario’ game tonight? Sitting in your lap is giving me a much better idea of how to make use of our time. I cried out my disappointment in the last man I cared about already. Don’t make me cry about losing my chance with you.”
She giggled when John bent and leaned his forehead against hers. His hungry, nearly desperate kiss after that was expected, but the power it had to move her was far more thrilling than she’d imagined it would be. His demanding kiss matched the excitement his hands were creating with all their exploration under her clothes. She drew the kiss out for both of them, pulled gently away, and then as gracefully as possible backed off his very appealing lap and everything in it.
“Let’s go climb into that unmade bed of yours and be happy for a few hours,” she whispered.
John narrowed his gaze as he let her pull him up. “My bed could be covered in an expensive comforter and have a dozen decorative pillows tucked neatly on it.”
Mariah laughed. “I know. Morbid curiosity over your bedroom decorating skills is why I’m seducing you. I want to find out for myself if you have better taste in bed linens than I do.”
John looked around, whipping his head left and right before grinning at her. “Seduction? Is that what this joking around stuff is? Damn. I’m more out of practice than I thought I was.”
Mariah rolled her eyes and dropped his hand, only to squeal when John scooped her up in a fireman’s carry over one shoulder. She was still laughing at his caveman action when they got to his bed. It was incredibly messy and just as plain as she’d known it would be.
“Ha! I knew it,” she bragged, looking at the crumpled covers bunched in the middle of a large mattress. Nothing was tucked under the corners.
“Mind your bedroom manners, woman,” John commanded, his large hand playfully smacking her bottom.
“If you think that’s going to stop my mouth…”
“God, I sure hope it doesn’t,” John said sincerely.
She was still giggling over his flirty comment when he pulled off his sexy glasses, put them on the nightstand, and then finally, finally crawled on top of her.
It was the happiest Mariah could remember being in a very, very long time.
Fully dressed the following morning, well, except for her shoes which were still by the sofa, Mariah walked back to the bed with the sexy man still in it and scooted onto the edge until she could be close to him. With her muscles still protesting last night’s activities, she bent one long bare leg to make herself more comfortable.
Biting her lip in a near star struck state, she stared at the surprisingly fit man who’d managed in one awesome night to restore the female self-esteem the last couple of celibate years had taken away from her.
John must have felt her intense gaze because he rolled his head and looked at her fully clothed body with both disappointment and disgust. “Oh. You’re one of those hit and run women, huh? Just use a guy and move on. That will teach me not to open the good wine next time. I could have had a couple of beers and gone to bed alone.”
Not in the least put off by his joking grumpiness over her leaving, Mariah leaned down, kissed his chest, his neck, and his bristled chin while he groaned, before moving to John’s mouth for a true good morning hello.
When she broke away finally, her heart was racing and she was aching for him. His hand was in her hair and tightening with every second she continued to stare at him. If she didn’t leave soon, he might not let her. She certainly wouldn’t mind if John used that incredible body of his to persuade her to stay. Not at all. Not even a little bit. He was an ocean’s worth o
f sexy in the sexual desert of her life.
“Just so you know, I normally hang around after such excellent debauchery hoping for more of it. Though I would expect you to make me breakfast afterwards. How much triteness can you handle this morning?” Mariah asked quietly.
“I don’t know. Try me,” John replied, huskily.
She felt him loosen his grip in her hair and run his fingers through it instead. She leaned her cheek against his stroking. “Last night was seven kinds of wonderful and then some.”
His dimple appeared when he grinned, which made him seem boyish and carefree. Could she truly have this lightness of being with him? She sure hoped so.
John cleared his throat to speak and cupped her face with one large palm. “Last night was something I’d only managed to dream about until you came along. You’ve ruined me for all other women—and I’m not joking about that—not even a little. It would be terrible of you not to stay in my life. Aren’t you feeling guilty now for getting dressed this morning?”
Mariah closed her eyes, wanting more than anything in the world to believe she really could be every answer to John Monroe’s sexual dreams. Wanting him made everything she needed to do just that much more important.
“I’d like to stay, but I need to go talk to my mother. I’m also tempted to tell my kids and let them torture Dan for me. Then I’d have to deal with their emotional issues around him letting them down, and that might tempt me to change my mind about what I intend to do. To you, I may not seem angry at him, but believe me, I still am. I’m just working to make the big decisions from a place where I don’t hurt anybody out of revenge or bitterness.”
John scooted up and scooped her up. His bear hug threatened to break her, or at least rob her of breath. Lord, the man was strong. Which was very nice in bed. Going to bed with John again was something she was going to be thinking about the rest of the day.
“Just don’t change your mind about us,” he ordered… or pleaded… or both.
Mariah honestly couldn’t tell from his tone.
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