All Messed Up: Windy City Kink, Book 2 (17 page)

“Joe and I were doing some research about whistle blowing,” Mallory continued. “To see if I got any ideas about what to do.”

“Oh.” Mrs. Hurst’s face tightened and her eyebrows sloped down. “Oh, that’s good.” She sighed. “That’s such a mess, Mallory.”

“I know.” Mallory made a face. She pulled her headband off, ran her hands through her hair then replaced the headband. She looked so cute like that. “It’s a disaster. Still not sure what the answer is, but we found some things for me to think about.”

“I better get going,” Joe said.

Mrs. Hurst’s gaze fell on him again. She tipped her head to one side. “Would you like to stay for dinner, Joe?”

Joe sought out Mallory’s eyes. She probably didn’t want him meeting her parents and having dinner with them, as if this was something…usual. This was…fuck, he had no words to describe what was happening between them. Other than hot, sexy, and…um…maybe debauched.

The idea that her dad was a minister was enough to make his nuts shrivel.

“Thanks, but no,” he finally managed to say, though he kept his smile in place. “I’ve got plans tonight. But tomorrow…Disneyland, right?” He pointed at Mallory and winked.

“Yeah. Disneyland.”

What mother could object to her daughter going on a date to the happiest place on earth?

“I’ll see you out,” Mallory said, moving around the chairs. “Thanks for coming. You were really helpful.”

He followed her, with one more, “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Hurst,” for her mom. He watched Mallory’s cute ass in the little shorts as she led him through the kitchen, to the hall then the front entrance. They paused there, alone. Their eyes met.

“Close,” he murmured, sliding a hand under her hair. He pulled her closer, up against him, and she set her hands on his chest, her eyes fastened on his.

“Yeah.”

“It was fucking hot.”

“Yeah,” she said again, her eyes going dark. “Christ, Joe. We have to stop this.”

“Stop what?” He touched his lips to hers in a light kiss. “Stop having fun?”

She closed her eyes and did a face plant into his shoulder. “Stop taking risks.”

“You love it.”

She groaned. “Yeah.”

“D’you think we can have sex at Disneyland?”

Her head jerked up, eyes open wide, and she smacked his chest. “No!”

He grinned. “No?”

Then she laughed too. “People have tried, believe me. But it’s impossible. Too many cameras and people.”

One eyebrow lifted. “That sounds like a challenge.”

“No! No challenge. We are not doing that. No no no.”

He gave her another quick soft kiss, both of them still smiling, then he left.

Chapter Seventeen

“He seems like a nice young man.”

Mallory’s eyes nearly bugged out at her mother’s comment about Joe while they were eating dinner later. Nice? Frack, if she knew what they’d been doing seconds before she’d walked out that door…if she knew what they’d done in the airport, and on the plane, not to mention the hotel rooms…her stomach clenched hard.

“Yeah,” she said, dropping her gaze to the lasagna on her plate. “He’s nice.”

“He was helping her do some research about whistleblowers,” Mom explained to Dad.

“Like what?” Dad asked, frowning.

“We went on the Internet and found other cases where people blew the whistle on their employer. How they went about it, how it affected them, what the result was.” She set down her fork and met Dad’s eyes. “None of it was good.”

His eyes shadowed. “You’d think that doing the right thing would be rewarded.”

“Yeah.” A bitter taste rose up the back of her throat. “You’d think. But that’s not the way the world works.”

“Sometimes our reward doesn’t come in this world,” he said softly. “Or sometimes it does, but we don’t see it right away as a reward.”

“Oh, Daddy.” She blinked hard. She knew his intentions were good, but hearing that she’d be rewarded in another life didn’t exactly make her feel any better about her situation. “Thank you.”

“I know you won’t let us down,” he continued. “You’ll do the right thing.”

No pressure at all. No fucking pressure.

“It’s too bad you broke up with Michael,” Mom said, her eyebrows slanted anxiously. “He would be able to give you advice and help you.”

“Maybe.”

“You could call him,” she suggested. “Couldn’t you? He’d still be willing to help you. Maybe give you some legal advice.”

“I don’t think so, Mom. I have talked to a lawyer, unofficially, but still. If I need to go that route, I’ll hire someone.”

“That will cost a lot of money.”

“Yeah.”

“If you need help…” Mom’s voice trailed off and she looked at Dad.

“Of course we can help out,” he said immediately. She knew they didn’t have tons of extra money lying around. Ministers didn’t make a lot of money, although Mom and Dad lived a pretty simple life and weren’t extravagant, there was no way they could save up the kind of money she would need.

“I’ll keep it in mind,” she said. “Although I think if I was going to sue the company, a lawyer takes a cut of the settlement as his fee.”

She had no intention of launching a suit against the company. She wished she knew what she
was
going to do.

After dinner, they took a walk to the park. They watched a black lab playing Frisbee with his owner, which reminded her of Joe’s story about his dog and made her smile.

When she was alone in bed later, of course she started thinking about Joe. She actually got angry at him for making her do stuff that was so risky, like having sex on her parents’ patio just when her mom was supposed to come home. Holy jeez, what if she’d walked out there and caught them?
Oh my God!
Her eyes closed as hot mortification washed over her body.

She was angry enough that she considered calling him and cancelling their trip to Disneyland the next day. Then she decided she’d call in the morning.

But in the morning her anger had faded, and she found herself anxious to see Joe, waiting for him to arrive at the house. Mom and Dad were at work and she’d told them she’d be gone all day and not home for dinner and had even bravely told them she’d probably be gone all night. She had no idea if Joe wanted to spend the night with her, but—wait. That was stupid. Of course he did. She didn’t know how she could even doubt that. But if they were going to spend the night together, it sure wasn’t going to be at her parents’ house. And when she saw his rental car pull up and park at the curb in front of the house, her heart gave a happy little bump.

Shit. This was crazy.

She let him in the front door and he walked in, smiling, tanned, so damn gorgeous. “Hey,” he said. “All set?” And he slid an arm around her waist, pulled her up against him and kissed her.

Her heart went all soft and melty and she sighed against his lips. “Mmm,” she said. She drew back. “I’m ready.”

“Good. Let’s go have fun.”

And the faint shadow in his eyes reminded her that his trip hadn’t turned out the way he’d wanted it to. He hadn’t said a word about it yesterday. Which she got meant that he didn’t want to talk about it. She would let him have that, since there were things she didn’t want to talk about either.

There were clouds lurking in both their lives, but they were both apparently determined to ignore those and have some fun together, and surprisingly, it was actually pretty easy to let go and just have fun. Maybe because Disneyland was the happiest place on earth. Or maybe because Joe was fun to be around. He made her go on Space Mountain and California Screamin’, which she normally did not do because they scared the crap out of her. But he convinced her that these rides were a safe way to get a little adrenaline rush, as if he understood that every once in a while she needed a little adrenaline rush. She wasn’t an adrenaline junkie, like some people who took up extreme sports or went sky diving, although she suspected Joe might be. But she had to admit that since she’d met Joe, she’d rediscovered the feeling of excitement and how good it was.

They ate junk food and people-watched, inventing stories about them. They went on silly rides like It’s a Small World and Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. They got their pictures taken with Mickey Mouse and Goofy. Joe even rescued a little girl who was sitting outside Toon Town sobbing, lost, giving up an hour out of their day to get her to security and wait until her parents showed up, completely freaked out and then abjectly thankful to him.

That kind of gave her a funny feeling in her chest.

They stayed at the park until late so they could watch the fireworks, standing in the dark, in the middle of a crowd of people, her arms around his waist, his around her shoulders, like they were a real couple, and Joe even kissed her with a fountain of blue and red and white sparks cascading in the sky above them.

“Come back to my hotel room?” he asked in her ear.

She only hesitated for two seconds before nodding her agreement. Because she wanted to be with him again and she’d already allowed for this possibility. She even had a backpack with a change of clothes and a toothbrush sitting in the trunk of Joe’s rental car. Also, tomorrow was Friday, which was her last day there. Her flight left Saturday morning. They didn’t have much time left.

The weird thing was, they were both so tired from walking around all day in the fresh air, they got back to Joe’s room, undressed and slid between the sheets of the bed, and started kissing a little, but they both fell asleep before they even got to the good stuff.

Mallory woke up in the morning with a big, warm body pressed against her back, her ass in his groin, his arm around her middle. She lay there for a while, absorbing the feeling, the roughness of the hair on his legs against hers, the slow steadiness of his breathing, the scent of him all around her. She wanted to memorize it and keep it all inside her forever because this was going to be the last time she ever had this.

She felt as if her heart was being squeezed by a big fist, and she dragged in a big breath of air, dismayed when it came out all shaky.

Joe’s arm tightened around her and she sensed his breathing change. Then his lips hit her shoulder and he murmured, “You awake?”

“Yeah.”

“Can’t believe we both crashed like that last night.”

“I know.” She lifted her lips into a smile and turned her head to look at him. “So much for our wild times.”

He gave her a lazy grin, eyes still heavy-lidded, so sexy it made her pussy squeeze. “We can still have wild times,” he muttered. “Spend the day with me?”

She nodded. It was their last day. “But I’ll have to go home tonight. My flight leaves early tomorrow morning.”

“What time?”

“Ten after eight.”

He nodded then rolled her to her back and moved over her, his big thigh sliding between hers, his hand cupping her breast and gently squeezing. “Okay. We’ve got all day then. Let’s get our freak on.”

She couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her. “Okay. But first I have to brush my teeth.”

Chapter Eighteen

Mallory’s parents dropped her at the airport the next morning. She convinced them not to park and come in, and they said their goodbyes on the sidewalk in front of the terminal while cars and buses roared around them. She and her mom got a little teary and she promised to let them know what was happening with her job. Then she headed into the terminal, pulling her suitcases behind her.

She was barely inside the door when someone said, “Need some help with that?” and took her big suitcase from her. She stared at Joe. He grinned.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“Same thing as you. Let’s go check in.”

She followed behind him as he led the way with their luggage, now pulling only her carry-on. “Are we on the same flight again?”

“We are now. I called and changed mine. I was supposed to be on a later flight.”

“Oh.” This actually gave her a soft, swelling feeling in her chest. No wonder he hadn’t made a big deal when they’d said goodbye yesterday. He must have known.

They checked in together and got seats together, went through security then found their gate.

“Déjà vu,” Joe murmured as they took seats.

She huffed out a laugh. “Yeah. Again.” She looked around. “I need coffee.”

“Great idea. We passed a Starbucks. I’ll go get us one.”

“Thank you.” That was sweet.

“Milk, no sugar, right?”

“Right.”

“Anything else? Bagel? Muffin?”

“I’m good, thanks. Mom made me eat some toast and peanut butter before we left.”

He winked and took off toward Starbucks.

She sank back in the seat, all softened and smiling, while a hot guy went to get her coffee. She sighed and leaned her head back.

It must have been busy at Starbucks, because it took Joe a while and she felt guilty for sending him on a mission that involved waiting in a big line, but he was unfazed when he returned carrying two large cups of coffee. He handed her one and took the seat next to her.

“Thank you.” She popped the plastic lid off and breathed in the rich dark scent. “Sorry that took so long.”

“Not your fault.”

“I know, but you were getting me a coffee.”

“Babe.” He leaned over and touched his lips to hers. “I was getting myself one too.”

They shared a smile.

Crap. Crap, crap, crap.

She really liked this guy.

Now she felt a little spasm in her heart.

“I just want you to know,” she said, looking at her coffee. “There will be no mile high sex on this flight.”

He bumped her shoulder with his. “Well, damn. I changed my flight for nothing.”

She couldn’t look at him. She couldn’t look at his teasing smile or glinty eyes.

“Will you at least talk dirty to me?” he asked.

Crap! “No,” she whispered, but she couldn’t help the tug of a smile at the corners of her mouth. “Absolutely not. I’m on my way home now and this crazy kinky vacation stuff has to stop.”

She felt him lean back in his seat. He lifted his leg and rested one ankle on the opposite knee. She kept staring at her coffee.

“Mallory,” he said finally.

“What?”

“What does that mean?”

“What do you mean, what does that mean?” Ack, this was a stupid conversation. She knew what he meant.

“So you go back to Chicago, back to your job which I’m guessing is in a big high rise office tower downtown, probably on the eightieth floor of the John Hancock Center, wearing tidy little suits with your hair all smooth. You probably live in an apartment like that too…neat and perfect and safe. You’ll go out for manicures with your friends, go to hip hop class, and probably date some boring lawyer or accountant.”

She gasped.

“Are you dating some lawyer or accountant?” he asked, leaning forward.

“No. I told you I don’t have a boyfriend.”

“But you were.”

She paused then whispered, “Yes.”

“Fuck.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my life,” she told her coffee. “Other than a huge fucking problem I have.”

“It’s messing your perfect life up, isn’t it?”

“Yes!” She nearly shouted the word and she took a chance and glanced at him. “Yes, it is! Of course it is.”

“And so am I.”

Her eyes closed and her shoulders slumped a little. She gripped her cup in both hands. “No.”

“You just want me to go away, don’t you?”

It was sort of true. But not really. “This was supposed to be temporary. It is temporary.”

“Maybe I don’t want it to be temporary.”

Maybe she didn’t either. But how could it be anything but? This had been a crazy fling. Not like her at all. She wasn’t going to be so foolish as to think it could continue back home in Chicago. Back in the real world where she had an important, monumental decision to make that could change her life.

Joe’s cell phone rang. She glanced up at him. He frowned and pulled it out, giving her a raised eyebrow look that said he didn’t know who it was. She was more than a little relieved at the interruption in their conversation, which had veered into uncomfortable and was heading toward painful.

“Mason,” he said into the phone. “Yeah.”

Mallory watched his face change, watched him draw back, his eyes shutter, his jaw tense.

“I’m at the airport,” he said. “Ready to board a plane in about…ten minutes.” Silence. “Yeah, I’m going home.”

Mallory suddenly knew he was talking to his dad. Her mouth fell open and her body tightened as she shifted to the edge of the seat, watching him wide-eyed.

“Shit,” Joe muttered then set down his coffee on the floor at his feet. He covered his eyes. “I was here all week. You couldn’t have figured this out a few days ago?” His mouth tightened. “No, I stayed. I had vacation time booked; I decided to take it. I went to Disneyland.” He gave a short laugh.

Mallory set her hand on his knee and gave a gentle squeeze. He lowered the hand from his face and covered hers, meeting her eyes. She saw the confusion and pain there. She tried to offer him encouragement with her own eyes, wordlessly, and with her hand on his leg.

“Yeah, I get it,” he said. He listened. “Really? Don’t—” More silence. He gave a short nod. “Sure. Yeah. Whatever you want. Uh…okay. I won’t if you don’t want me to.” Again a long pause. “Okay.” Joe swallowed. “Okay. Yeah. Let me know. Bye.”

He ended the call and slowly lowered the phone.

She watched him. “Your dad?” she guessed.

He nodded. “Now, he fucking phones me,” he growled. “Fucking great timing. Jesus Christ.”

“It is shitty. Are you…still leaving?”

“Yeah. I have to get back to work.” His mouth twisted. “He says he’s going to come to Chicago. Now, he decides he wants to see me after all.”

“Really? That’s good. Right?”

He shrugged. “I guess if he really does it.”

She felt her forehead crease. “Why would you think he doesn’t mean it?”

He paused at that. “I have no idea. He actually thought I was already back in Chicago. I guess I just…whatever. It doesn’t matter. If he shows, he shows. If not, no big deal.”

It did matter. It mattered a lot. Why wouldn’t he admit that? She could see how pissed off he was that his dad hadn’t called him sooner, while they still had a chance to meet and maybe get to know each other. It was shitty timing. And he was pissed off because he was disappointed. Like the night he’d gotten drunk because he was disappointed, he just wouldn’t admit it.

She turned her hand over so their palms were together and curled her fingers around his. He twined his fingers through hers and squeezed. She leaned over and kissed his jaw.

Boarding started then, and they got their stuff together and waited for their row to board. Joe cracked jokes and smiled, their conversation forgotten, at least she assumed that was the case. He again was the perfect gentleman, helping load her case into the overhead compartment, giving her the choice of window or aisle seat, holding her coffee while she settled in and buckled up. But she could tell it was all an act, somehow. She didn’t even know him that well, but maybe doing risky, kinky things with a guy helps get to know him a little quicker than a couple of dinner dates.

Which they’d also had.

She went along with his act, smiling and laughing at his jokes.

Until they were on the ground in Chicago, when they came off the plane and headed to the baggage check where Mallory’s friend Paige was supposed to be waiting to pick her up. She’d texted with her last night to remind Paige of her flight number and time. She and Joe stood by the baggage carousel waiting for their suitcases to make an appearance, and she kept looking around, going on her tiptoes to look over the crowd, trying to find Paige. Maybe she was going to pick her up outside rather than parking in the parking garage and coming into the terminal.

Joe hauled her suitcase off the carousel, then his, and they were ready to go. They began to exit the terminal, and she pulled her cell phone out of her purse to check if there was a message from Paige. Nothing.

Out on the sidewalk, the weather gave them a fast reality check. “It’s cold!” The overcast sky looked ready to shower rain on them at any minute and the wind gusted around them. “I need my jacket.”

She had to pause to open her carry-on and pull out the jacket she’d worn on the trip down there, glad she’d at least worn ballet flats instead of the flip-flops she’d been wearing all week. Joe pulled a jacket out too. Once Mallory had shoved her arms in, she straightened to face him, ready to say goodbye. He was parked in a long-term lot and needed to take a shuttle bus there.

“Is your friend here?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I’m going to text her and see where she’s at.”

“I’ll wait and make sure she shows up.”

“You don’t have to do that.” She bit her lip as she thumbed in the text message to Paige.

“It’s not a problem.”

She held onto her phone as she waited for a reply.

“Got plans tonight?” he asked, reaching out to move a strand of hair off her face.

“No.”

“There’s a hockey game. Rangers are in town.”

“Do you have tickets?”

“Yeah. Wanna come with me?”

She found she did. And not just because she loved hockey. She didn’t want to say goodbye to Joe.

God.

She had to say goodbye. That was the plan. This was the end. “Okay,” she said.

His eyes warmed as he looked at her, and she knew he’d been trying not to show how much he cared about her answer. She was getting pretty good at reading Joe.

This was not necessarily a good thing, however.

“Jeez,” she said, impatiently glancing at her phone. “Where is she? I’ll try calling.”

So she hit Paige’s number in her contacts and waited while her cell phone rang and rang and then went to voicemail. “Damn.” She frowned. “What the hell? What am I supposed to do?”

“She knew you were coming today?”

“Yeah, I texted her last night and she texted back and said she’d be here. This is not like her.”

“Well, wait a few more minutes. If she’s driving maybe she doesn’t want to answer her phone.”

“Yeah. Possibly.” Mallory shivered and hunched her shoulders. “But you can go, Joe.”

“No way. I’m waiting until she’s here. If she doesn’t show, I’ll drive you home.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Mallory.” He gave her a look and she pressed her lips together.

He slid an arm around her waist and pulled her up against him and his warmth felt nice, so she snuggled in. Paige would freak out if she pulled up and saw her all cuddled up with a hot guy she’d never met. Then Mallory would have to explain how she knew him and…that wasn’t good.

But it turned out she didn’t have to worry because fifteen minutes and several more attempts at texting and phoning later, Paige still wasn’t there.

“Come on,” Joe said. “Let’s get on the shuttle bus and get my truck and I’ll drive you home.”

She agreed but was feeling a little annoyed with Paige.

She hadn’t known Paige that long, only about a year. They’d both moved to Chicago around the same time and met at hip hop classes. Paige had just gotten divorced, left her ex-husband, and quit her job in New York and moved to Chicago to start over. She was starting a new business. She was always cheerful and optimistic about her future, but Mallory knew this was all hard for her. Paige had an air of fragility about her that brought out an urge to protect her, even though clearly Paige was a strong and independent woman. It wasn’t like Paige to blow her off.

Mallory gave Joe her address and directions to her downtown apartment, which also had her freaking out a little, because in the last week she’d envisioned this all ending once they left L.A. She did not anticipate seeing him when they were back in Chicago, and here he was driving her home and then taking her to a hockey game later.

“Yup,” he said as he parked in the visitor parking area of her building. “Your home is just what I expected.”

Her condo was in a modern high rise on South Michigan, within walking distance of her office. “You haven’t even seen it yet,” she chided him.

“I can tell from the building.”

He came up with her in the elevator, carrying her suitcases for her since he left his in his truck and now had both hands free. They entered her apartment, the air feeling a bit flat and stale, but still faintly scented with “autumn leaves” candles sitting on the coffee table in her living room.

“Jesus,” he muttered, walking in. “I don’t even wanna know how much you paid for this.” He paused. “Or how much you make. Christ.”

This had never even entered her head as a topic of discussion. Yes, she was well paid at Zafir, but her pay was completely reasonable and in line with others in the profession.

Her condo was probably what he expected. Even she found it boring, although it was nice and tastefully decorated. Shiny hardwood floors stretched throughout, gleaming in the light that came from the big wall of windows even though it was an overcast day. She had a squarish sectional sitting on a patterned rug, flanked by a couple of tub chairs and some simple tables. The walls were a deep matte mossy green with white trim but it was open plan so stayed airy and light.