Catching Heat

by Alison Packard

  Reaching for her shampoo, she washed her hair, rinsed it and as she started to apply the conditioner she almost jumped out of her skin when a light knock sounded on the door.

  “If you need someone to wash your back, I’m available,” J.T.’s raised voice carried through the door. “I’m very thorough.”

  “I’ll bet you are.” She smiled and smoothed the conditioner over the ends of her hair.

  “May I come in?”

  “Only if you follow through on that offer to scrub my back.” She rinsed the conditioner from her fingers and wiped water condensation from the glass as J.T. opened the door and stepped inside. “What are you doing up so early?” she asked and let her gaze wander down his broad chest, past his six-pack abs and then lower, where a silky light brown hair began just below his navel and trailed to his groin. The mirror behind him, just above the vanity, provided an excellent view of his perfectly formed ass. “Did I wake you?”

  J.T. ran a hand through his tousled hair. “I had to use the bathroom.” He grinned. “I went to mine. I’m not sure we’re ready for that just yet.”

  Angie laughed. “I’m surprised you didn’t go back to bed.”

  “That was my intention.” His gaze raked over her body and then lifted. “But I changed my mind.”

  A thrill raced up her spine. The wicked gleam in J.T.’s eyes telegraphed he had more on his mind than an innocent back scrubbing. Her heart hammered against her ribs as he moved to the shower and opened the door.

  “What are your plans today?” she asked and moved a step back so he could stand under the shower head.

  “Besides visiting Justin at the hospital, I definitely need to carve out some time at the gym,” he said, then hesitated. “Are you okay with that?”

  “Of course,” she assured him. “I know working out is important to you.”

  His prolonged gaze seemed to burn right into her. “So is spending time with you.”

  “Then why don’t I meet you at the gym after you visit Justin?” she suggested. “I’d love to try that low-impact aerobics class Jake told me about.”

  A flicker of relief crossed his eyes. “It’s a date.” He closed his eyes and tipped his head back to let the water slick back his hair. Unable to resist, Angie slowly lowered her gaze and drank her fill of him.

  “Like what you see?”

  She jerked her head up and found J.T. watching her. Amusement quirked his lips. “Yes,” she said, not bothering to hide the fact that she’d been admiring what was right in front of her. “You must know you have an amazing body.”

  J.T. shrugged. “In my profession I have to be in shape. Other than that, I don’t think about it that much.” He flashed a sinful smile that tripped her pulse. “But I’m glad you’re thinking about it.”

  “About what?”

  “About my body.” He took a step toward her. “Because I think about yours all the time.”

  “Let’s see if you feel that way when I’m as big as a house.”

  “You’ll be beautiful even then, and I’ll want you as much as I do right now.” His strong hands spanned her waist. “I thought it was some sort of myth that pregnant women glowed, but you do, Angie. Every time I look at you, you take my breath away.” He searched her face as if committing it to memory and then backed her up against the wet tile.

  Angie moaned as his mouth came down on hers. Reaching up, she wound her arms around J.T.’s neck and gave herself up to his hard demanding kiss. Never had she imagined that just a kiss could lead to such raw hunger—such aching need. She’d always prided herself on her control, on her ability to stay detached when it came to sex. But then J.T. had come along and changed everything.

  With a low, nearly inaudible growl, J.T. blazed a scorching trail to her collarbone. She unwound her arms from his neck and let out a soft gasp as he lowered his head and captured one taut nipple into the hot, wet heat of his mouth. Each tug of his lips sent a blistering current of electricity straight to her core. In no time at all she was wet and ready for him.

  Anticipation hummed in her veins as J.T. dropped to his knees. She braced her hands on the slick tile, oblivious to the spray from the shower head as he tilted his head back and gazed up at her, his eyes simmering with arousal. Tiny droplets of water pearled on his lightly stubbled jaw and that, combined with his slicked-back hair, damp and darkened from the shower spray were so compellingly sensual that a whimper slipped past her lips, a helpless husky sound of pure lust.

  “Time to keep my promise,” he said, the throaty words sizzling over her skin as he pressed his lips to her stomach. Feeling like she was on fire, she couldn’t tear her gaze from J.T. as he urged her legs wider with his hands and then fulfilled his promise with a long leisurely swipe of his tongue over her swollen folds. Angie gasped and arched her back, pressing into his mouth.

  As if he had all the time in the world, J.T. lifted her leg, hooking it over his right shoulder, giving himself even greater access to her throbbing flesh. “You taste so good,” he murmured, then circled his tongue around her clit. The pleasure was sweet torture. She leaned her head back against the tile as he suckled her, his warm, moist mouth fanning the embers he’d ignited into flames. The need to come was intense. Blindly, she reached for his head and pulled him closer, rubbing herself brazenly against his mouth, desperate for the pleasure just within reach.

  She softly cried out as the first wave of her orgasm crashed over her. Just like the echo of her moans, the intense pleasure seemed to go on forever as J.T.’s lips and tongue coaxed her into a long and satisfying release. Relaxing her grip on the back of his head, she drank in a ragged breath, grateful for his hold on her. If not for him, she would have slithered into agelatinous heap on the shower floor. J.T. gave her a final hot lick and then pressed his lips to her inner thigh.

  Opening her eyes, she looked down and met J.T.’s scorching gaze as he slid her thigh from his shoulder. She smiled, and as he rose to his feet, one of Grandma Sophia’s favorite bible sayings—of all things—crossed her mind. Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you. Now that was a bible verse she could wholeheartedly get behind.

  * * *

  Bracing his palms to the wet tile, J.T. leaned forward and covered Angie’s mouth with his. The soft moan she made as their kiss deepened only served to turn him on even more. After what had just transpired, his cock was rock hard. He ached to bury himself deep inside her tight, hot pussy and never come out.

  Before he could fathom her intentions, she pressed her hands to his chest and pushed him until his back came into contact with the cold shower door behind him. His breath jammed in his throat as she knelt before him and then swirled her tongue around the head of his cock.

  “Fuck,” he muttered as her hot moist mouth closed over him and took him deep. It was almost more than he could take. Closing his eyes, he slapped his palms against the glass for support and drew in a sharp breath. He wanted to come so fucking much, but he also wanted it to last as long as it could. For months he’d been fantasizing about her sucking him like she had that night in August. And now that she was, it was better than any fantasy. Shit. This was almost better than winning the World Series.

  J.T. opened his eyes, looked down and the erotic sight of her kneeling before him, working him with her mouth almost made him explode. He closed his eyes and willed it not to happen. Not yet.

  He released his breath as she pulled back and his cock slid out of her mouth. His disappointment didn’t last long. Mesmerized, he watched as she tilted her head, held his cock and trailed her tongue down the length of his shaft. He let out a choked groan and closed his eyes again as she slowly drew one of his balls into her moist warm mouth.

  “Oh, yeah,” he whispered as she let it slip out with such aching slowness that he couldn’t stop the moan that escaped his lips. Before he could catch a breath, she wrapped her fingers around the base of his cock and gloved him again with her mouth. The combination of both was so warm, and so tight, it almost felt like h
e was inside her. And although that’s where he’d intended to be when he got into the shower, he didn’t stop her. He couldn’t, he was too far gone.

  Instinctively, he reached out and put his hand on the back of her head. Unbearable tension gathered within him as Angie took everything he had to give and then some. Finally, when he couldn’t wait one more second, he relinquished what was left of his control and let her send him over the edge. The pleasure exploded and so did he. It started at his groin and radiated throughout his body with an intensity that threatened to buckle his knees. And just as he’d done for the past two years, the name he whispered hoarsely as he came was Angie’s.

  As the last vestiges of his orgasm faded and the pounding of his heart began to subside, J.T. guided her up and pulled her against his body. Water from the shower head pelted one shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her and held her close. That she fit perfectly didn’t surprise him, the desire to never let her go did.

  “You’ve depleted me. I don’t think I can move,” he said as he fingered the long wet strands of her hair and inhaled the clean fresh scent of her shampoo.

  “We have to. Soon. The water’s almost cold.” She pressed her lips to his chest and sighed. “That was…well…wow.”

  “That was more than wow.” J.T. grinned. “I was hoping you’d do that.”

  Her breath heated his skin as she chuckled. “Who says women don’t do that after they get the ring on their finger?”

  “Married guys who don’t reciprocate.” He slid his hands to her ass and kneaded her soft flesh. “Do unto others and all that.” He frowned as Angie giggled. “What?” He lowered his gaze to her upturned face. Her eyes sparkled with laughter. “What’s so funny?”

  “Nothing.” She gave him a mischievous smile. “Nothing at all.”

  * * *

  Three hours later, J.T. walked into his brother’s hospital room and wasn’t at all surprised to see the scowl on Justin’s face. He was, however, surprised to see that his brother’s dark hair was longer than Josh’s and that he was sporting some seriously overgrown facial hair.

  “How are you feeling?” J.T. flipped the straight backed visitor’s chair around and straddled it. “Oh, and Tom Selleck called, he’s looking for his mustache.”

  “Bite me.” Justin reached up and smoothed his mustache. “I’m thinking of keeping it.”

  “Are you sure about that? You could probably braid that thing.”

  “And you’d know all about braids wouldn’t you, pretty boy?”

  “Don’t be jealous.” J.T. rested his forearms on the back of the chair and tried to ignore the cloying smell of the pine scented cleaner that every hospital he’d ever been in seemed to have. And what was up with all hospital rooms looking exactly the same? Now that his living room had been painted he was beginning to see the merit of color. “It’s not my fault I inherited Dad’s good looks and you didn’t.”

  Under the bushy upper lip, Justin’s mouth quirked. “It’s good to see you, man.”

  “Same here. You had us worried.”

  “It’s nothing,” Justin said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “The bullet didn’t hit the bone. I’ll be up and around well before you report to spring training.” Justin’s gaze lasered in on J.T.’s wedding band. “I hear you knocked up some cleat-chaser and married her. Didn’t you learn anything from that friend of yours?”

  “Angie’s not a groupie and she’s not lying about the baby.” Irritation sharpened J.T.’s tone. “I had a paternity test done and the baby is mine.”

  “What about your career?”

  “What about it?”

  “Do you think you can give it one hundred percent now that you’re tied down with a wife and a kid?”

  “I’m not tied down. I’m still training.”

  One of Justin’s brows lifted. “As hard as you were before?”

  J.T. remained silent. The truth of the matter was that he’d been distracted ever since he’d found out about the baby. Yeah, he’d been working out and watching film, but not with the single-minded focus he’d planned on right after the season was over.

  “I thought so.” Justin folded his arms over his chest.

  Annoyed, J.T. frowned. “I didn’t come here to talk about me. Mom’s concerned that you won’t take it easy after you get out of here. Do you think you could cut her a break and at least take some time to recover and spend the holidays with the family?”

  “So you and Jake are tag-teaming me now?” Justin glared at him. “He was just here with the same song and dance. I work undercover. While I’m on a case I can’t risk being seen.”

  “We get that. We’re not stupid.” J.T. shook his head. “But let’s not pretend that this is all about your undercover work. You’ve been keeping your distance from us for a while now.”

  A scowl darkened Justin’s face. “I don’t have three months off a year like you do, little brother. And when I do get time off I’m not in the mood to talk. I just want to be alone.”

  “I guess you’ve seen some pretty serious shit.”

  Justin averted his gaze. “You could say that.”

  “At least you were able to shut down that meth organization.”

  “Where’d you hear that?” Justin’s alert gaze snapped back to his.

  “Your captain told Mom and Dad that you got injured during the raid. He said one guy was killed and the other ran off like a scared rabbit. Sounds like you shut them down to me.”

  “That house was part of a much larger operation. They took a hit but they haven’t been shut down.”

  “Do any of them know you’re a cop?”

  “No.” Justin scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “But after last night, I’m off the case. I’ll be given a new assignment after this,” he gingerly rested his hand on his thigh, “leg heals.”

  “How long are you going to do this undercover stuff?”

  “I don’t know. I’m not ready to sit behind a desk filling out paperwork, which is the majority of what detectives do. I like being out in the field.”

  “You could have been killed last night.”

  “I could just as easily get killed crossing the street,” Justin countered with obvious annoyance. “Pedestrian deaths are up this year.”

  “Point taken,” J.T. conceded, knowing it was useless to argue. “Look, even though Mom doesn’t talk about it a lot, I know she worries about you. And she misses you. It would mean the world to her if you spent the holidays with us. Would you just think about it?”

  “I already told Jake I’d be there. I just wanted to hear your pitch.” Justin offered him a smug grin. “Besides, how can I pass up a chance to meet this new wife of yours?”

  * * *

  Inside the women’s locker room at Jake’s gym, Angie had just shoved her purse into a locker when her cell phone rang. A glance at the clock that hung on the wall near the shower area indicated she had ten minutes before the low impact aerobics class was scheduled to begin so she dug into the side pocket of her purse for the phone.

  “Hi,” she said after seeing her mother-in-law’s name on the screen. “Did you manage to get some sleep last night?”

  “Not much,” Sharon’s voice was strained. “When Joe and I got home from the hospital my supplier called with some bad news.”

  “Your supplier?”

  “Sorry, I guess we’ve never talked about my little business venture. About five years ago, I opened a small coffee café downtown in the business district. I’d been thinking about it for years and the location was too good to pass up. Anyway, besides coffee products, I also sell baked goods. The supplier I’ve been using for a while bakes out of her home. She called me last night to let me know that while she and her husband were away for the weekend some sort of electrical problem started a fire in their home. By the time the fire department got there and put it out, a good portion of the home was destroyed.”

  Angie put a hand to her chest. “That’s awful. I hope no one was hurt.”

  “T
heir dog was with them and they don’t have kids, but they’re devastated, as you can imagine.”

  “What a shock to come home and find that,” Angie said, and thought of all the personal items and photographs that had probably been destroyed. Still, the couple and their dog were alive, that was the important thing.

  “The reason why I’m calling is that I’m always getting requests from bakers who want me to sell their goods, but I don’t think I can get anyone lined up on such short notice. I’m going to take some of the scones and muffins you gave me yesterday over to the cafe tomorrow morning and I was wondering if you happened to have any in your freezer? I’ll pay you for them, of course.”

  “You don’t have to do that. I’m happy to help out. And if you need me to bake anything until you find someone permanent just let me know.”

  “Thank you, honey.” Sharon breathed a sigh of relief. “I was stressing out. The majority of my customers buy muffins along with their coffee. I’d hate to lose their business.”

  “You won’t,” Angie assured her. “I’m at the gym with J.T. right now. Can I call you when we get home?”

  “Sure. Take your time.”

  After ending the call with Sharon, Angie stowed her phone in the locker, grabbed her water bottle and hurried out of the locker room. The aerobics room was directly to her right as she exited and she smiled as she saw Jake talking to a few of the members waiting outside the double doors to the room. A large glass window next to the door revealed that another class was still inside and by the looks of it they were cooling down with stretches.

  “Angie.” Jake waved her over. “I’m glad you made it.”

  Angie halted beside Jake and met the friendly eyes of the blonde standing next to him. “You must be Melissa.” Angie held out her hand. “Jake said you’re a newbie to this class too.”

  “I’m new to all forms of exercise,” Melissa said with a wry smile as they shook hands. “It’s nice to meet you.”