Her breath audibly hitched in her throat. “You know, you’re getting better at the telling. Maybe you just need to practice.”
Her soft laughter turned to a sigh as he threaded his fingers through her hair and proceeded to practice both showing and telling.
Chapter 14
Sunny breathed a sigh of relief and closed her front door behind her. No one had accosted her with a camera on her way in, which was a very good thing. Hopefully everyone had moved on to something far more important. Forget global warming and human rights violations. Maybe a supermodel had sprouted a pimple right before a runway show or another Hollywood starlet had checked herself into rehab. The things people deemed important never ceased to amaze her.
Thursday midafternoon. She’d left with Cade on Monday night. Two and a half days. It felt more like a lifetime.
The small table-top fountain in the foyer burbled a welcome but her house didn’t feel nearly as welcoming, as comfortable to her soul as Cade’s. She’d always been the odd one out growing up, never fitting in. She’d waited, searched for a place that felt like home. That was what she’d wanted when she’d bought this house. But she knew now that was what she’d found when she’d walked into Cade’s house. Home. A place that engendered contentment, belonging.
She climbed the stairs to the third floor to her studio. Sunlight poured in through the rear window, illuminating the various stained-glass pieces she’d hung randomly from the ceiling.
She found a comfort in the familiarity of the rows of glass standing in their crates against two walls, the glass cutter, grinder, pliers, soldering iron and lead came. She stood at the big table placed to catch the window’s light where she assembled the glass, where she used woodstrips and horseshoe nails to hold the glass pieces in place until the design was complete and she was ready to solder the lead channel.
Her wolf, Cade incarnate, lay on the table, nearly complete. Yes, those were his eyes, that was the tilt of his head, the faint curl of the lip belonged to him. It was so obvious to her now.
She pushed up the sleeves of her sweater. She had a ton of stuff to do, check her e-mail, sort through her snail mail, grocery shopping, change into something other than these jeans and sweater and drag out her Christmas decorations, but those things could all wait. She was itching to work on her wolf.
She’d just gotten into the rhythm of working when the doorbell rang.
She thought about ignoring it. Another insistent ring and she threw up her hands. Okay. Fine. Maybe the media already had wind of this latest turn of events. If it was a photographer she’d head back upstairs—and yank the wire on the doorbell along the way.
She ran down the last set of stairs and peered through the peephole. Cade. Her heart seemed to do a slow somersault in her chest.
She slid the bolt, released the chain and opened the door.
“Hi.” She sounded as breathless as she felt.
It didn’t feel as if she’d last seen him five hours ago. It felt closer to an eternity. He stepped inside and seemed to fill her foyer. He tended to have that effect on space. He was a big man with an even bigger presence.
“Hello.” He wrapped one arm around her and pulled her against the hard wall of…him. She splayed one hand against his chest, feeling the thud of his heart beneath her fingertips. His mouth descended on hers in a thorough kiss.
Her knees weren’t quite steady when the kiss ended and neither was her laugh. “Wow. I’m glad you stopped by.”
“I brought lunch. Sandwiches.” He hoisted a bag from the deli around the corner. “I thought I’d better make sure you got my car here without ramming anyone.”
“Very funny.” She wrinkled her nose at him. “The bounty hunter comedian.”
“I’m a regular riot act.” A frown wrinkled his brow. “Any trouble when you got home?”
Ever the protector. “None.” She eyed him from head to toe, thoroughly appreciating the badass bounty hunter black-on-black “uniform.” One kiss and he had her sizzling. “I see you managed another morning without getting killed.”
“I did. Although you wouldn’t be inconvenienced now.”
“Shows how little you know. I’d be seriously inconvenienced.” She looked him over deliberately, suggestively, letting her gaze linger on the burgeoning bulge in the front of his pants. “You’ve got something I want.”
He smirked. “Is that a fact, Ms. Templeton?”
“That’s a fact, Mr. Stone. If you met with an unfortunate end—” she plucked the bag out of his hand “—who would bring me lunch?” She grinned at him. “Most inconvenient.”
“Do you have any picnic spots in your house?”
“It’s not as nice as your greenhouse but I’ve got a good spot. Come on.” She grabbed his hand in hers and tugged him toward the stairs. “It’s up here and I want to show you something.”
“You’ve definitely got something I’d like to see,” he said with a leer, eyeing her butt. A thrill ran through her, notching up her internal thermostat.
“Yeah? Well, there’s something else you need to see…first.” They’d get to that later.
She led him up to her studio. Dust motes danced through the sun slanting in the rear window.
Sunny spent a few minutes explaining the design process and showing him the various components. Cade seemed genuinely interested, asking intelligent questions. Sunny knew a thrill of pride that he seemed very impressed that she’d created the pieces hanging.
“But this is what I really wanted to show you,” she said, leading him to her assembly table.
She stepped aside and watched him, curious as to his reaction. Would he really see it?
Cade looked at the piece and started in surprise. “It’s a wolf?”
“Yeah.
He shook his head as if to clear it and gave a funny laugh. “That’s strange.” He looked at her, a faint perplexity shadowing his face. “Yesterday morning, when I left for work, I thought I saw a wolf at the edge of the woods, but it had to have been a stray dog because there haven’t been wolves here in over thirty years.”
Sunny smiled. “I started this project a couple of months ago. It was a good stress release during the election.” She circled to the other side of him. “Does anything about it look familiar to you?”
He cocked his head to one side and studied it, narrowing his eyes. “It does. I’m good with faces. I have to be in my business.” He canted his head to the other side. “But I can’t quite nail this one.” He shrugged and looked to her.
“It’ll come to you.” And it would, when he was ready to figure it out. It was all part of his journey. It would speak to him, he’d recognize himself, when he was ready to listen. “It took me a while to figure it out and I’m the artist.” Now it was time to show him the something else. “Unless you’re starving for lunch, there is something else I think you might be interested in.” She grabbed her sweater in both hands, pulled it up and off in one fluid motion, and dropped it to the floor.
“I’m starving,” he said with a wicked gleam in his eyes, “but it’s not for lunch.” He hooked his finger beneath her bra and tugged her to him. “This is exactly what I’m craving.”
* * *
Cade lay sprawled on her bed, wearing nothing but a satisfied smile on his face. The heady scent of sex, very good sex, hung in the air like an erotic perfume. “Honey, I love your lunchtime menu.” He folded his hands behind his head, all masculine arrogance. “Hot. Juicy. Satisfying. I could have that every day.”
They’d just made love but Sunny found her body quickening again. She loved it when he said stuff like that. It made her…well, hot. Again.
She knew exactly what she wanted. “I could go for hot and juicy myself,” she said, eyeing his naked body. “That is, if your kitchen’s not closed.”
His sac hung heavy beneath his penis. She knew exactly what she wanted. And thank goodness they’d gotten the awkward bill-of-clean-health part out of the way the other night.
She di
pped her head and swirled her tongue over his balls.
“My kitchen’s definitely open,” he rasped on an indrawn breath.
Wrapping her lips carefully over her teeth she sucked on first one ball and then the other, feeling them tighten in her mouth.
A shudder racked his huge body. She played with him, lapping and sucking until his breath came in hard, short pants. She loved the taste of him in her mouth, the smoothness of him against her tongue, the heady smell of male arousal.
“You’re killing me,” he gasped. “Put your lips…”
She cupped his testicles in one hand and swirled her tongue around the base of his shaft. “I love the way you feel.” She drew her tongue up the length of him and probed her tip along his slitted opening. “The way you taste.”
“Sunny…” he rasped.
He seemed incapable of saying more. Good. And it was no hardship. His cock had her wet and hungry. She tongued him like a melting ice cream on a hot day. When she’d worked her way around his world, she rose up over him, taking as much of him in her mouth as possible, reveling in the feel of his gorgeous hard erection. She wrapped her other hand around his base and moved her hand up and down in rhythm with her mouth.
“Oh, honey…” he moaned.
She moved her tongue in circles around his penis while she continued the up-and-down motion. He quivered and the juices of her own excitement flooded her. She wanted more of him. It would be impossible at this angle.
She released him from her mouth and slid up the hard plane of his body, blazing the trail with hot, openmouthed, sucking kisses, until she reached his lips.
“I want all of you,” she whispered into his ear, pressing her wet folds against his hip, letting him feel how much sucking him had turned her on.
Sunny rolled to her back, dropping her head over the opposite side of the bed.
He stood, his tawny eyes glowing. He knew exactly what she wanted. He rounded the bed and stood behind her and she wrapped her hands around his hips, her fingers digging into the muscles of his tight ass, pulling him forward, taking him into her mouth. She dropped her head farther back and drew him deeper.
Delicious. Hot. Erotic. He began to thrust in and out of her mouth. He leaned forward and she felt his mouth between her thighs, his tongue delving between her folds. He found her clit, laving, sucking, even as he rode his cock in and out of her mouth. It was the ultimate sixty-nine position. Cade gasped her name and she tasted him against her tongue as her own orgasm spiraled out of control.
Cade wasn’t too damn sure he could move. “Are you trying to kill me?”
“Hmm. You weren’t complaining two minutes ago.” She laughed sexily. “At least that didn’t sound like a complaint.”
His cell phone rang and he leaned over the side of the bed and snagged it from his pants. “It’s Gracie,” he said to Sunny. Most of the time when Gracie called it wasn’t important but he never knew so he always took the call if he could.
Sunny slid off the bed and padded into the other room, obviously giving him privacy.
“Hey, are you busy?” Gracie asked.
“I’m not in the middle of anything but this better be good.”
Gracie laughed on the other end. “It’s better than good. I just ran by the office and you are not going to believe it.” She paused for dramatic effect. “Daddy and Marlene are going on a cruise.”
“Yeah? So? He likes to gamble and he likes to dance. She must, too.”
“In February. As in two months from now. Two months being eight weeks. Do you get it?”
“Yeah. I get it.” He’d have to be simple not to. Martin, the original architect of the four-week rule of dating, was making plans eight weeks out with Marlene? Hell had just frozen over. And he’d warned Martin not to hurt Marlene but now…what was he thinking?
“I think he’s afraid someone else is gonna snatch her up,” Gracie said.
Sunny padded back into the bedroom, unfortunately no longer naked, and Cade knew exactly what Gracie meant. How in the hell had he ever thought his four-week rule would work with Sunny? Because he’d never felt this way with any other woman. Connected. As if he’d found something he never even knew he was looking for. He liked her, admired her, respected her, and he sure as hell didn’t want someone else snatching her up.
“Are you still there?” Gracie asked, snapping him out of his reverie.
“Yeah. But I’ve got to go.” He hung up.
“Everything okay?” Sunny asked.
He pulled her back to the mattress beside him. “It is now.”
The only person snatching her up would be him.
* * *
She’d just tacked another wood strip into place when her cell phone rang. She glanced at caller ID. Celia, her attorney. Please, don’t let Cecil have changed his mind. Could he change his mind? There was only one way to find out. She answered the call.
“Sunny, it’s Celia. I have some very, very good news. You might want to sit down.”
She sank to the floor, as much from relief that Cecil hadn’t reneged as in anticipation of the impending good news. “I’m sitting.”
“How do you feel about taking on the city council seat?”
Sunny’s head swam. She was glad of the hardwood beneath her. “What? How? When?”
“It may be several weeks or a couple of months, but that city council seat is yours. Cecil fixed the election.”
“He what?”
“Does the name Lavigne Carmidy mean anything to you?”
“No. Should it?”
“Not really. Lavigne was a ballot official in last month’s election. Cecil offered her a handsome cash deposit and she conveniently, for him, didn’t turn in several boxes of ballots in your favor.”
Sunny could hardly breathe, hardly dared to believe it. “And you know this how?”
“Lavigne started feeling guilty when you got such a bad media rap. Then when all this came down with the wreck, she snapped. She went to the district attorney this morning and turned herself in.”
“But won’t it be her word against his?”
“Lavigne took out an insurance policy. She knew if it ever came down to it, Cecil would hang her out to dry. He paid her in small denominations of unmarked bills. She, however, secretly tape-recorded their conversation when she played dumb and he spelled out for her exactly how she was to take the ballots and then dispose of them. Her plan was to blackmail him for more money down the road.”
“Oh, my God.”
“Exactly. Lavigne was watching a revival on late-night TV last night when her conscience smote her and she said God directed her to turn herself in this morning. She did, just as soon as she finished getting a wash and set at the beauty parlor. She said she wanted to look good for the cameras.”
“I don’t know what to say….”
“Judging from the number of ballots they recovered from Lavigne’s garage, you actually won the election. It’ll have to move through the legal channels, but sometime in the upcoming year, you’ll be sitting our city council seat. Congratulations.”
She and Celia wrapped up the conversation and Sunny was ashamed that the first person she thought about telling her news was Cade. Sheila, she admonished herself, should be her first call. She called Sheila and left a brief message outlining the situation on her voice mail. She was still sitting in the studio, a little dazed, when the doorbell rang.
She raced downstairs. She had an inkling it might be Cade. It was. She closed the door behind him, her heart beginning to sing because he was here and she could share her news with him. “I have some news.”
He grinned. “Cecil fixing the election returns?”
“How did you know?”
“I just found out. I thought I’d swing by and make sure you’d heard. Are you excited?”
“I think I’m still processing that it’s real,” she said. He caught her up in a hug and twirled her around.
She was laughing when he put her back down but she held on t
o him, her arms wrapped around his waist. He’d known when Cecil was dropping the charges and he’d obviously heard this news before it even made it to her. The man was well connected. She leaned back and looked up into his rugged face. “Do you always hear my news before I do?”
“Not always.” He paused, a sly humor lighting his eyes. “You had me on the arrest thing.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Congratulations, honey. You’ve got what you wanted and you’re going to be the best damn city councilman this city’s ever had. It’s a damn shame you had to go through the last month to get here.”
“I don’t regret a minute of it. I’d do it all over again because it brought us together. I love you.” She hadn’t planned to say it, it had just bubbled out in a moment of spontaneous oral combustion. And now that it was said, she was glad she had. When you loved someone you needed to tell them. Love was a joy that deserved sharing.
Cade pulled her close again and kissed her. It did not, however, escape her notice that he didn’t comment on her declaration of love. She was pretty sure that didn’t portend well.
She was perceptive that way.
* * *
A week and a half later the AA Atco Christmas party was in full swing. Cade watched Sunny, Marlene, Georgia and Gracie sitting around the dining room table talking and laughing as if they were all old friends. Sunny had fit right in, charming them all. He’d known she would.
She was talking now, her face animated, her hands punctuating her comments. Even in the middle of the party a familiar current of attraction surged through him. There was a pause as all the women looked at him and then burst into laughter. God knows what she was telling them.
“Don’t believe a word she says,” he called out over the jazz Christmas CD playing in the background, “she’s a pathological liar.”
“Right, caveman,” Georgia, Linc’s fiancée, yelled back at him, sending all the women into another laughing fit.
Cade turned to Linc propping up the counter in the kitchen with him, each of them nursing a beer. “Can’t you do something with that woman of yours?”
Linc grinned, shaking his head. “Georgia is a law unto herself. Same as your woman.”
The Big Heat Page 14