“I’ll go quietly.”
Chase removed his foot from the man’s back, released his arm, and stepped back. Arrogance no longer in evidence, Dorman got awkwardly to his feet, massaging his shoulder. Puppy excrement now Rorschached the front of his tee shirt. He muttered an angry, “Goddamn it,” under his breath and, being careful to hold the front of the shirt well away from his face, peeled it over his head. Face glowing bright red, he stepped back into his flip-flops and said with strained bravado, “I’m finished with Larissa. You’re welcome to her.” He hurled the soiled tee shirt to the ground and stalked toward his truck.
The engine roared to life and the truck rocketed down the alley with a screeching of tires. Chase carefully retrieved the discarded shirt and deposited it in the trashcan. The now wide-eyed Yumiko was still standing where he’d left her, and he thanked her as she handed the puppy across the fence. When she finally found her voice, her first question was not one he’d expected. “You really going to marry with Larissa?”
“I am, but Larissa doesn’t know it yet.”
“I don’t tell her,” she promised.
Normally Chase wasn’t one to stand around making small talk, but since the subject was Larissa, he was in no hurry to escape. He was impressed but somehow not surprised to hear that when Yumiko’s toilet wouldn’t stop running, Larissa had fixed it for her. She’d rewired one of Yumiko’s lamps and had even installed a ceiling fan in her living room. “Larissa know how fix anything.”
When he finally returned to the house, he found that Larissa had somehow slept through the backyard skirmish. He fed the puppy and, once it was sated, carried it into the bedroom and deposited it onto the foot of the bed. It immediately bounded across the rumpled sheets to lick Larissa’s sleeping face.
She jerked awake and squealed, which only intensified the puppy’s assault. Grabbing the small, furry form, she hugged it to her and planted several kisses atop its head. Raising heavy-lidded green eyes to Chase’s, she gave him a sleepy but blissful smile. “I love the smell of puppy breath in the morning.”
He lowered himself to sit on the edge of the mattress and brushed sleep-tousled hair from her face. “So, what’s his name?” When her cheeks flushed and her eyes slid away, he said with feigned affront, “You gave the dog my name, didn’t you?”
“Don’t be so conceited, it had nothing to do with you. I named him Chase because he chases his tail.”
“Yeah, I’m sure I’m gonna fall for that.”
“I guess we’ll have to call him Chase Junior.” When he gave her a mock glare, she laughed. “I’ll rename him.”
“Thank you. I met Yumiko and, just so you know, you and I are old friends who’d lost touch.” He leaned down to give her a kiss. “I took the liberty of rummaging through your pantry, and since neither frozen dinners nor ramen noodles make for a very nutritious breakfast, I’m going to run to the store. Is there anything in particular you’d like?”
“Surprise me. You know I have absolute trust in you.”
* * * * *
Accustomed to men who expected her to wait on them, Larissa watched, fascinated, as Chase moved confidently about her kitchen, creating an odd picture of masculine domesticity. Dressed in nothing but khakis, his jaw dark with stubble, he was so incredibly sexy it was all she could do not to throw herself at him.
Now encased in aluminum foil, the bundled bills sat on the table before her. “I can’t believe I left eighty-thousand dollars sitting out in plain view overnight.”
He turned the strips of bacon sizzling in a skillet. “At the time, I believe you had more pressing matters on your mind.”
“I did, but still.” She got up and shoved the foil-wrapped bundle into the back of the freezer, behind a stack of frozen dinners. “Monday, we’ll rent a couple of safe-deposit boxes but, in the meantime, having this much cash in the house makes me extremely nervous.”
“It’ll be fine for two days, but one box will be sufficient.”
She cast him a sharp glance. “I told you I’m only keeping half.”
He paused in the act of beating egg yolks and cream together. “I’ll wrestle you for it. Loser keeps all.”
“Yeah, like that would be a fair contest.”
“To make us more evenly matched, I could coat your naked body in oil.”
“Would you be naked as well?”
He gave her a lascivious grin. “If you insist upon it, I suppose I’ll have no choice.”
The mental image of the two of them nude, coated in oil, and wresting, caused her stomach to do an erratic dance. “Hmm. I might just be amenable to this suggestion of yours.”
“And you have the nerve to accuse me of being a pervert.”
She felt warmth flow into her cheeks. “It’s not my fault. You’re corrupting me.”
The corners of his mouth quirked up. “I haven’t even begun to corrupt you yet.”
His words sent a little thrill coursing through her, making regions south of her naval thrum as she imagined the myriad possibilities. As if he could read her mind, he gazed back at her, insolent grin still in place. Feeling her cheeks grow even warmer, she dropped her eyes and sought a change of subject. “Honey, are you sure you don’t want me to help? I could at least grate the parmesan.”
“It’s all under control.”
While water came to a boil on the stove, she said, “Somehow I never imagined you being handy in the kitchen.”
“After my old man split, my mother and I moved in with my grandmother. Both of them worked — my mother two jobs — and I did what I could to ease their load. I helped my grandmother make dinner every night and found that, not only did I have a knack for cooking, I enjoyed it. Sometime this weekend, I’d like to go shopping for some decent pots and pans. And an espresso machine. I don’t know how you can drink this instant.”
“I hope you realize you’re going to spoil me.”
He gave her a wink. “It’s a tactical maneuver. I intend to spoil you to the point where no other man will do.”
“You’ve already done that.”
Ten minutes later, he dished linguine carbonara into bowls he’d pre-warmed in the oven. Larissa took a bite and closed her eyes in ecstasy. “Oh my god, this is to die for. And here I thought all your skills resided in the bedroom.”
He grinned lewdly as he skillfully twirled linguine onto his fork. “You’ll find that I’m full of surprises.” With deceptive casualness, he asked, “Is the guy in the black pickup truck still troubling you?”
She rolled her eyes. “He calls or comes by a few times a week, but I won’t answer the phone or the door, and Brendon won’t let him in the salon. Why do you ask?”
“He stopped by while you were asleep.”
She froze with her fork halfway to her mouth and stared at him for the space of a dozen heartbeats. “Did you hurt him?”
“Only his pride. I doubt he’ll be back.” He regarded her silently for a moment. “Should I have hurt him?”
She gave it a brief moment’s consideration. “No. He’s a pain-in-the-ass, but I don’t think he intends me any harm.”
“He’d better not, not if he values his life.”
They cleaned up the kitchen together. While Chase showered, his cell phone rang. “Ah, shit,” he muttered from behind the shower curtain. “Would you get that? I was supposed to call Travis last night, and I completely forgot.”
“But … what if it’s Cheyenne?”
“What if it is?”
With great trepidation, she flipped the phone open. “Hello?”
There was a pause on the other end, and then a man with a voice as smooth as black velvet, said, “Larissa?”
“Yes?”
“This is Travis Barker.”
“Hello, Travis. Chase is in the shower. He apologizes for forgetting to call you last night.”
“Then I assume you didn’t shoot him.”
She laughed. “No. But while I have you on the phone, I’d like to thank you — and I
hope you’ll convey my thanks to Roach and Mad Dog as well — for what you all did for Chase. He’s very lucky to have you all for friends.”
“Believe me, it was our pleasure. I take it things are going well between you and Chase?”
“Everything’s absolutely wonderful.”
“Then I guess there’s no chance of me stealing you away from him.”
She laughed again. “Not a snowball’s chance in hell. Would you like him to return your call?”
“There’s no need.”
After they said their goodbyes, she turned to find Chase leaning indolently — and magnificently naked — in the bedroom doorway. “Not a snowball’s chance of what?”
“Of Travis stealing me away from you.”
He crossed the room toward her. “You may have spoken too soon. Travis is a good-looking son-of-a-bitch. He could pass for Denzel Washington’s younger, better-looking brother.”
“Honey, Denzel Washington’s brother has nothing on you. Now come over here and lie down.”
* * * * *
Chase sprawled back onto the bed as ordered. Larissa knelt astride his body and, when he tried to wrap his arms about her, she grabbed his wrists and pressed them to the mattress. “Just relax,” she ordered. Starting at his neck, she worked her way slowly down his body, using lips, and tongue, and teeth.
The muscles in his stomach jumped and quivered as her mouth caressed his abdomen. She nuzzled lower, then kissed the velvety head of his penis, which jerked at the touch of her lips. “You wouldn’t let me do it in the motel,” she said as she flicked her tongue back and forth across the shaft. “Do you trust me now?”
“I trust you,” he whispered breathlessly.
“Are you sure?” she teased, trailing the flat of her tongue along the length and over the tip. “I wouldn’t want to do anything you’re not comfortable with.”
A groan escaped him. “Ah, Jesus, Larissa, I’m comfortable! Don’t torture me.”
She’d been kneeling, but now she shifted position to sit between his legs, with her own splayed straight beneath his. “Why not? You tortured me. Now it’s your turn to suffer and beg.”
Every nerve ending in his body was firing in anticipation. Despite the fact that he’d made love to her countless times in the past twelve hours, he was as horny as if he’d been celibate for six months.
When she leaned forward to engulf him, he moaned aloud. Oh, blessed Jesus, being in her hot sweet mouth was almost as wonderful as being between her legs. His shaft throbbed as her tongue did the most amazing things, while her unconventional sitting position left both of her hands free to explore his body.
When she deep throated him, his eyes popped open in shock, to find green eyes watching him. Her mouth worked its way to the top, and then back down again, to the very root. Jesus, no woman had ever taken him so deep in her mouth before. She had absolutely no gag-reflex.
He closed his eyes again so that there was nothing but her mouth and the intense pleasure she gave him. Her hands never stopped moving, trailing over his stomach, his chest, his sides, his thighs, sending a surge of swooning ecstasy to heat the pit of his groin.
He’d found that most women tried to rush matters when they went down on him, but Larissa’s mouth slid up and down his shaft with exquisite slowness, as if she wanted to make it last forever.
It was having the opposite effect, though, since the very slowness of her movements seemed to make the pleasure all that much more acute. She seemed to sense that he was treading close to coming, for she suddenly removed her mouth from his cock to lavish her tongue over his testicles. The pleasure was almost too much to bear. “Jesus, Larissa. You have no idea how good that feels.”
Before long, she took him back into her mouth again, while her hands stayed busy at his testicles and the sensitive area just below them. Then there was nothing, no thought, no words, nothing but sensation and an ecstasy so profound it was nearly unbearable.
As his orgasm once again neared, she again removed him from her mouth. “Don’t torment me, Larissa.”
She paused from flicking her tongue up and down his shaft. “I will have my revenge for last night.” She reached up to grasp his nipples and roll them between her fingers. He winced, the sensation balanced perfectly between pleasure and pain, and his cock throbbed in response. He arched his back as she drug her fingernails across his chest, down his abdomen, his thighs.
When she took him in her mouth once again, his body disintegrated into nothing more than a mass of nerve endings. “The next time you stop,” he gasped, “I’m going to throw you onto your back and fuck you.”
Her response was to grasp his balls firmly in one hand, and wrap the other around the base of his cock, while her mouth and tongue were suddenly relentless on his cock. With his orgasm approaching as fast and unstoppable as a freight train, he warned her, “I’m going to come!” Then, a moment later, he was coming, and still she didn’t pull away and — Oh, sweet Jesus — he was coming in her mouth. He reached down to thread his fingers through her hair as his eyes rolled back in his head. Someone was yelling, and he was only faintly aware that that someone was him.
As the final tremors shook him, the movements of her mouth grew slower and gentler and, when his arms fell limply to the bed, she stopped.
When she moved up to straddle him, he opened his eyes to find her licking her lips like the proverbial cat who’d eaten the canary. “Jesus, you took me by surprise, Larissa. I wasn’t expecting you to swallow.”
“Actually, there was nothing to swallow. You shot a blank.”
His eyes widened in mock horror. “You’ve drained me dry? You succubus!”
She grabbed a pillow with both hands and plopped it onto his face, trying to smother him. He yanked it from her grasp and hurled it from the bed. They wrestled, laughing like children. Still giggling, she finally relaxed atop him, her head on his chest. “Next time I’m going to tie you up. Then I’ll be able to torment you as long as I want.”
“If anyone gets tied up, I guarantee it won’t be me.”
“That’s not fair. Why do you always have to be such an alpha male?”
“Admit it — that’s what you like about me.”
He could feel the curve of her smile against his chest. “It is indeed.”
CHAPTER 42
Through their combined efforts, Larissa and Chase forced themselves from the sanctuary of her bed. Chase had retrieved his suitcase from the trunk of his rental car and was now in Larissa’s sewing room, ironing.
Larissa donned a sleeveless calf-length blue sundress with traceries of yellow flowers and green leaves wandering over the fabric. She was just slipping her stockingless feet into a pair of white leather sandals when he strode into the room. A pair of impeccably pressed khakis clung to the long muscles of his thighs, and a white tee shirt hugged the broad expanse of his chest, doing nothing to disguise the muscles beneath. His sockless feet were clad in leather huaraches. For several beats they simply stared at each other. When he twirled a finger in the air, a silent command for her to turn, she obediently did so.
Finally, he broke the fervid silence. “Jesus, you are sexy as all hell.”
“I was just thinking the same about you.”
He gave her a lascivious grin. “Maybe we should stay in today.”
“That’s actually a very tempting suggestion but, since you’re thinking of moving here, you should see the city. It’s supposed to rain all day tomorrow, so we’ll stay in then.”
Holding the puppy on her lap, Larissa directed him to the sixty-acre Hampton Park. With the leashed puppy bounding before them, they strolled hand-in-hand along the trail that ringed the park. She inhaled deeply, savoring the heavenly floral scents drifting from the rose gardens. The sun seemed brighter, the sky bluer, the air sweeter than she could ever remember it being. Although Chase seemed to be enjoying himself as well, he constantly scanned their surroundings, as if searching for something or someone. When they stopped by the lake to
feed the ducks with bread scraps she’d brought from home, she remarked on his distraction.
“You know that feeling you get when you’re being watched? I’ve had it since I arrived yesterday.”
Despite the oversized sunglasses, people had been pointing and whispering. “People are watching us, Chase. They recognize me from the news.”
“I’m aware of that. This is different.”
Shading her eyes against the sun, she did a slow 360 to scan the collage of dog walkers, joggers, and picnickers all availing themselves of the park’s landscaped beauty. Spotting nothing out the ordinary, she raised up on tiptoe to kiss him. “You’re just paranoid.”
“I hope that’s all it is.”
They left Hampton Park and headed to the Market area. As they strolled among the colorful souvenir stalls, innumerable people took advantage of the opportunity to congratulate her for having survived a serial killer. As if it wasn’t enough that everyone in Charleston recognized her, many addressed her by name as well. Chase stayed protectively by her side, his looming presence discouraging anyone from overstepping the bounds of propriety.
When they stopped at a stall to look at sweetgrass baskets, Chase leaned down close to her ear. “Should I keep people away from you?”
“All the attention is rather unsettling, but I don’t want to be rude, especially when everyone means well. Once the news about Sparrow dies down, they’ll forget all about me.”
A little after one o’clock, they stopped for lunch at a sidewalk café. Ignoring the sparrows policing the ground for crumbs, the puppy sprawled in the shade under her chair and fell promptly asleep. When their server arrived with menus, it took all of Larissa’s willpower to keep from banging her head on the table as the young woman nearly shouted, “You’re Larissa Santos, the woman who was kidnapped!”
To her immense relief, Chase diverted the woman’s attention by relieving her of the two menus she still clutched. “What would you recommend today?”
The young woman immediately forgot about Larissa as her heavily mascaraed eyes unabashedly roved over Chase’s body. Clearly appreciating the view, she bent forward to point out and comment on various menu selections while providing him a generous and unobstructed view down her pink scoop-neck tee. Barely daring to breathe, Larissa watched this little tableau, almost afraid to see how Chase would react. Intent upon the menu, he appeared oblivious to both the young woman’s gawking admiration and her physical charms.
The Heart Has Reasons Page 41