by Jane Graves
“I always had a feeling you were a pervert. Is it the discovery fantasy about doing it in a public place?”
“No. It’s the dessert fantasy of intensifying the brownie-eating experience by having an orgasm.”
John eased closer. “Tell you what, sweetheart. You eat the brownie”—he slid his hand over her thigh under the table—“and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Never in her life had a man looked at her the way John did, as if he wanted to gobble her up in a single bite. She thought about being alone with him later, and her stomach swooped with anticipation.
She smiled to herself. Why wait?
She pulled out her gift card, went to the counter, bought half a dozen brownies, then came back and grabbed her drink off the table. John looked up at her questioningly.
“I have the brownies,” she said. “What are you waiting for?”
Chapter 20
John figured if he went ten miles over the speed limit all the way back to Darcy’s house, he had maybe a one in twenty chance of getting caught, but he also had maybe a one in two chance of being stopped by a cop he knew who would let him slide on a ticket. Those were odds he could live with, particularly when Darcy spent the entire trip running her hand up and down his thigh and speaking only one word.
Hurry.
Fifteen minutes later, they were at her front door. The wind was up, and she was having a hard time getting the key in the lock with her hair flipping into her face. Finally John took over, unlocked the door, and pulled her inside, dragging her up next to him for a kiss. She reached over to close the door, but the wind blew it back open. John gave it a push with one hand at the same time he tugged up her skirt with the other, wrapping his hand around the back of her thigh and pulling her up against him. He heard the soft thud of the sack of brownies as they hit the floor. A second later, when she reached between them for his zipper, the world seemed to slip out of focus, and he stopped thinking about anything except getting naked.
After leaving a trail of clothes all the way to the bedroom, they fell into bed. Darcy curled her hand around his neck and pulled his mouth to hers. When he slid his hand between her legs to find her hot and slick already, the urgency he felt took a quantum leap.
No. You can’t hurry. Take it easy. Take your time. Make it good for her.
He stroked her incessantly, then delved inside her, then pulled back to tease her again. He did it over and over, kissing her lips, her breasts, then coming back up to whisper dirty little nothings in her ear. She squirmed beneath him, and then all at once she shimmied and shook him away.
“Darcy?”
“Now.”
“No,” he said. “Too soon.”
“I said now!” She grabbed him by the arm, but he shook loose and reached for her again.
“No,” he said. “It can’t be. Just let me—”
“Oh, for God’s sake!” She pushed him away, shoved him over on his back, and straddled him. She pointed down at him.
“Don’t move!”
She reached into the nightstand drawer, found a condom, rolled it down over him, guided him to her, and plunged down hard.
John squeezed his eyes closed, gritting his teeth against the sudden indescribable feeling of being inside her all the way to the hilt. She picked up his hands, shoved them over his head, and before he knew what was happening, she laced her fingers through his and pinned him to the mattress. And then she was moving against him, her warm breath spilling across his neck, her nipples dragging along his chest with every stroke.
Holy shit.
“You’re such a know-it-all,” she said breathlessly, finding a hot, even rhythm. “A hardheaded know-it-all who never listens to anyone. Did I ever tell you that?”
He arched up to meet every stroke, astonished how quickly the feeling was building. “Repeatedly.”
“Well, I’m telling you again.” Her fingers flexed against his, her face tight with passion. “From now on, John, when I say now, I don’t mean next week.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She kissed his neck, then whispered in his ear. “So I have your attention?”
“Oh, sweetheart,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’m hanging on every word.”
But then she moved faster, with hard, grinding strokes, and her words fell by the wayside. He rose to meet her, wanting everything she had to give him any way she chose to do it.
She moaned softly. Then let out a tiny gasp. She threw her head back, and seconds after she cried out, he was coming, too. He clasped her hands so tightly he was in fear of breaking bones, groaning at the flood of heat that spilled through him.
She fell against him. He shook his hands loose from hers and wrapped his arms around her, stroking his hands up and down her back. He felt as if he’d been hit with a sledgehammer. No pain, though. Just pleasure so complete it was almost unbearable.
Darcy finally rolled away, falling to her back with all the muscle control of a marionette. She took a deep, cleansing breath, then rose on one elbow, fumbled in her nightstand drawer and pulled out her vibrator. With a sharp underhanded toss, she threw it toward the corner of the room. It bounced against the wall, then fell into the trash can with a satisfying clatter. She rolled back against John, resting her head against his shoulder and twining her leg with his.
John smiled to himself. What man wouldn’t love the ego boost of beating out your average battery-powered device?
Darcy put her hand against his. He turned it over and laced his fingers with hers. She looked at him, her eyes sparkling in the dim light.
“You know what?”
“What?”
“Everybody has best days of their lives.”
“Yeah. I guess they do.”
“This was one of mine.”
Her words flowed over John like warm honey. As crazy as it seemed, he couldn’t imagine a time in the future when she wouldn’t be part of his life.
They lay there a moment more, and then he rose and went to the bathroom. When he came out, he decided he’d go back to the front door, get those brownies, and feed every last one of them to her while he did unspeakably carnal things to every inch of her body.
He rounded the doorway into the entry, surprised to find the front door standing open. He thought he’d shut it, but evidently he hadn’t done it hard enough, and the wind had blown it open again.
Then it dawned on him. Pepé was nowhere to be seen.
Darcy’s heart pounded with apprehension as she and John hurried along the sidewalks of the apartment complex, calling Pepé’s name.
“I can’t believe the door was just standing open,” she said. “I swore we shut it.”
“So did I.”
“He’s probably scared to death.”
“He has tags,” John said. “If somebody finds him, they’ll call you.”
“As long as he doesn’t get scared and do something stupid first, like run right out in front of a car.”
“Take it easy. We’ll find him.”
“How long were we in the bedroom? How far could he have gotten by now?”
“I don’t know. Surely he’ll stay around the complex, won’t he?”
“John, I love my dog to pieces, but I’m afraid he’s not terribly smart. I’m just so afraid he’s going to—”
“Wait! There he is!”
“Where?”
She looked where John pointed and spotted Pepé huddled against a wall behind a shrub. She hurried over and scooped him up.
“Oh, he’s so scared! See how he’s trembling?” She kissed his furry little head. “We have to be more careful about the door from now on.”
“We will.” John reached up to stroke his head. “Wow. He really is shaking, isn’t he?”
“Poor baby,” Darcy said, hugging him closer. “It’s a big bad world out here, isn’t it? You have to watch out for all kinds of—”
“Is that a dog?”
Darcy spun around, and she couldn’t believe who was standing be
hind her. Damn. Was it too late to try to stuff Pepé into her pocket?
She sighed. “No, Charmin. This isn’t a dog. It’s an elephant.”
“I know a dog when I see one. You haven’t paid a pet deposit.”
“I was going to, but I was a little short, and—”
“You owe me three hundred bucks.”
“Come on, Charmin! Most hamsters are bigger than he is!”
“Doesn’t matter. You got a dog, you pay the deposit.”
“Oh, all right! I’ll pay it! But you have to give me a little time.”
“You’ve got twenty-four hours.”
Darcy recoiled. “Twenty-four hours? I can’t get that kind of money together in twenty-four hours!”
“Pay the money, or the dog goes.”
Charmin gave Darcy one last snotty look, then shot one at John for good measure. Most people wouldn’t take the chance of irritating a man like him, but Charmin was too mean to be intimidated.
“What am I going to do?” Darcy asked as Charmin disappeared around the corner of the building. “I don’t have three hundred dollars! I barely have enough money to survive until payday! Can she really make me give up my dog?”
“Technically she could get a court order.”
“And she will, too. I know her. God, three hundred dollars? It might as well be three thousand.” She put her hand to her forehead, her mind reeling. “Do you know Warren and I used to have dinners at our country club that cost almost three hundred dollars?”
“I don’t doubt it. What a waste of money.”
“Okay. Maybe it was stupid. But a lousy three hundred dollars shouldn’t matter this much to anyone.”
In the distance, she heard the door to the apartment next to hers open, and one of its many scroungy residents came out. He locked the door behind him and headed for the parking lot, the hot evening wind blowing his scraggly hair in a swirl around his head.
“Will you look at that guy?” Darcy muttered. “I swear everyone who lives here looks like a drug-addicted serial killer. Those who aren’t transvestite hookers, anyway. Not exactly Mr. Rogers’s Neighborhood, is it?”
John was silent, which meant she’d spoken the truth so he didn’t know what to say. Darcy hated this. She hated that she lived in this crappy place. Hated that she drove a crappy car. Hated that she had to watch every dime she spent. She hated it.
“John?” she said. “I know this is a lot to ask, but I can’t give Pepé up. I can’t. Do you think . . .” She exhaled. “Do you think you could loan me three hundred dollars?”
He sighed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“But I’ll pay you back.”
“I know you will. It’s just that . . .”
“What?”
“You need to do this on your own.”
“On my own?” she said incredulously. “How am I supposed to come up with three hundred dollars in twenty-four hours?”
“Tell you what,” John said. “Why don’t you let Killer here come stay with me until you can get the deposit together? He’s used to me by now. And it’ll be like a vacation for him. He’ll love running around in my backyard.”
She shook her head. “No. It would feel like I’m giving him away.”
“It’s only temporary.”
“Temporary could turn into a long time.”
“Do you trust me to take care of him?”
“Of course, but—”
“Then I’ll keep him as long as you need me to.”
“Okay. That’s fine for this time. But what about next time?”
“What do you mean?”
“What do you think I mean? I’m just one paycheck away from being on the street!”
She spoke louder than she intended, and Pepé squirmed in her arms. She hugged him closer and lowered her voice, but her frustration seeped through just the same.
“Gertie could break down any minute,” she told John. “The IRS could hit me with back taxes. My electric bill could be even bigger next month. As long as I’m living paycheck to paycheck, it’s always going to be something.”
“And there’s always a way out. You’ll find it this time, and next time, too.”
“None of this would be an issue if you’d teach me to be a repo agent.”
John closed his eyes with a hard sigh. “You know how I feel about that.”
“You won’t loan me money, yet you won’t let me make more?”
“You make enough money. You just need to learn how to manage it.”
“Will you stop patronizing me?”
“You’re making too much out of this.”
“Don’t you get it? If a lousy three-hundred-dollar pet deposit sends my finances into a tailspin, how am I ever going to—”
All at once, a loud boom shattered the night, sounding like lightning striking the ground only yards from where they stood. John grabbed Darcy and spun her around, shielding her body with his as pieces of debris fell to earth.
With her ears ringing, Darcy looked around John’s shoulder, trying to see what had happened. And when she did, the most horrible feeling of dread slammed into her.
The door of the apartment next door to hers was blown off its hinges. Windows were shattered.
And the building was on fire.
Minutes later, the apartment complex was a whirlwind of activity. Tenants poured outside to see where the explosion had come from. Red and blue lights of emergency vehicles swirled around the scene as firefighters hit the ground running to try to put out the blaze. The sun had slipped below the horizon, and the red-orange sky behind the burning building made it look as if the entire landscape had descended into hell.
Fortunately there hadn’t been anyone in the apartment where the explosion occurred, and everyone else in the building had gotten out without injury. When the police arrived, they directed all the tenants who were standing around to the front of the complex to clear the way for more emergency vehicles and personnel. Vans from local news stations that had been tuned into the police band were already parked at the front of the complex, and reporters and cameramen were covering the story live. As they milled around, Darcy heard one of them tell another one that they should just let the whole crappy complex burn to the ground. They were probably right, but still it made her feel awful. This horrible place was the best she could do, and now she didn’t even have that. She could only stand there beside John, watching as the fire consumed everything she owned in the world but a beat-up car, a terrified dog, and the clothes on her back.
“Well, it looks like there really was a meth lab next door to you, huh?”
Darcy turned to see Charmin walk up beside her, and she almost groaned out loud. She did not need this woman right now.
“Yeah,” Darcy said. “I guess it wasn’t just a rumor.”
John’s eyes widened. “Did you say meth lab?”
“Don’t know what else would cause an explosion like that.” Charmin huffed with disgust. “Damn. Dealing with this is going to be a pain in the ass. The owner’s gonna go nuts.”
“I don’t really care what you’re going to have to deal with,” Darcy said. “Not when I don’t even have a place to live!”
“Cheer up, Darcy,” Charmin said. “You know that pet deposit you owe me?” She chuckled. “Looks like you’re not going to have to pay it after all.” She looked back at the burning building. “And while you’re at it, looks like you can forget about the rent, too.”
As she walked away, Darcy gritted her teeth. “Did I tell you I hate that woman?”
“You knew there was a meth lab next door to you and you didn’t tell me?” John said.
“Nobody knew for sure.”
“But you should have told me, anyway! I could have had the cops all over this place!”
“John—”
“Damn it, I should have known. I saw all kinds of people coming in and out, night and day. I should have known. I should have—”
“John! It’s done! The damned
thing blew up! So why are we still talking about it? And it doesn’t really matter, anyway. If it hadn’t been this, it would have been something else.”
“What do you mean?”
“Crazy Bob would have left a cigarette burning, or an electrical short would have popped up somewhere, or the owner would have burned the place to the ground himself to collect the insurance money. At a place like this, it’s always going to be something!”
“Take it easy, Darcy,” John said. “Everything’s going to be okay. You have renter’s insurance, right?”
“Renter’s insurance? You must be joking.”
“Are you telling me you don’t have—”
“No, I don’t! What was I supposed to buy it with? My extra disposable income?”
“Forget it. It doesn’t matter. You can start over again.”
She looked at him incredulously. “Half an hour ago, I couldn’t even come up with a lousy pet deposit, and now I’m supposed to start over again?”
John took her by the shoulders. “Things aren’t as bad as you think. We’ll evaluate where you are financially and put together a plan to get you back on your feet. Then we’ll go from there. Everything’s going to be okay.”
“Will you stop saying that?” Darcy said, shuddering away from him. “Everything’s not going to be okay! How many more times am I going to lose everything before I just can’t take it anymore?”
When John turned away with a sigh of resignation, she knew the truth. He didn’t really believe the things he was telling her. For all the times she thought she’d been at rock bottom, she hadn’t even come close. This was rock bottom, and she didn’t see any way out.
Suddenly John came to attention. He lifted his chin, focusing on something over Darcy’s shoulder.
“That son of a bitch,” he muttered.
Darcy turned to see a sleek black limousine pull to the side of the road in front of the apartment complex and come to a halt. The back door opened, and Jeremy Bridges stepped out.
Chapter 21
John’s hand tensed against Darcy’s arm. “What the hell is he doing here?”
Jeremy walked over to where they stood, zeroing in on Darcy and completely disregarding John. “I heard a news report on the radio. Did the fire get your apartment?”