All Through the Night (Liar's Web) (20 page)

The minute he touched her with the scrubby, she let out several moans and groans of appreciation, the sounds emanating from deep within her.

Jake didn't know how much more he could take of this. Ever since she'd moved in with him, he'd fantasized about giving her a bath. In his mind there was something so sensual and arousing about a woman's naked body immersed in water and suds. He'd taken things up a notch by lighting the candles, cueing the music and treating her to a full on body scrub. Although his mind was focused on the task at hand, his anatomy was another matter.

Seeing her laid out in the bath as naked as the day she was born was doing crazy things to his self-control. Ever since he'd walked in the bathroom, he'd had a massive, impossible to miss hard-on. And truth be told, he wanted nothing more than to cram himself next to her in the tub and make long, leisurely love to her. He couldn't stop thinking about dipping his fingers beneath the surface of the bubble-filled water and exploring the areas of her body hidden from sight. The impulse to reach out and touch her burned inside him.

He was so distracted by her he couldn't think straight, and he couldn't take his eyes off her for a second. No woman had ever had this incredible power over him, this mesmerizing pull that pushed well past lust and attraction. Love. He loved this woman. Although the feeling was foreign to him, he knew enough to know this was the real thing. He wanted to be around this one special woman, wanted to do things to make her happy, wanted to do right by her.

“
Wait a second,” he said as he quickly got up and retreated to the bedroom. In a few minutes he came back through the bathroom door carrying a silver tray with two champagne flutes and a bottle of Moet. He poured the bubbly into the flutes and handed one to Darcel in the bath.

“
Champagne!” she squealed with excitement as she reached for a flute, her face lighting up with joy.

Jake shrugged, pleased at Darcel's enthusiastic reaction. “I figure we should celebrate.”

She reached out and clinked his glass with hers. “Cheers. Thanks for keeping me alive, Sheriff.”

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Thanks for trusting me.”

“
This is truly decadent. A bubble bath and champagne. And Bruno Mars. I don't know what I did to deserve this, but it's a nice treat. I can't think of the last time I luxuriated in a bubble bath. I always buy champagne for the realtors in my office when they reach milestones. You know, like selling their first house or making that huge sale. But I never treat myself to it. I always think it's something to share with someone special.”

“
When was the last time there was someone special?” he asked in a gruff voice. He knew it sounded like he was fishing, but he couldn't help himself from feeling jealous over the men in Darcel's life. Past, present, future. It didn't matter to him. He hated them all. And although it killed him to ask the question, curiosity got the better of him.

“
It's been a while. I was dating this guy named Chazz last year, and for a while there I thought he was pretty special.” Darcel crinkled her nose as if she'd just smelled something foul. “Until I found out he was seeing a few other women in town at the same time.”

Jake felt his face drop. “Chazz? Chazz Brown?”

“
Yup. The one and only,” she said dryly.

Aargh! Of course she was involved with him. Chazz made it his business to date every good-looking woman in Liberty Creek. He was a player and an opportunist, not to mention a liar. And the ladies in town lined up in droves to date him. Heat suffused his face as he attempted to get a grip on his out of control emotions.
Chazz Brown? Seriously?

“
And you? Anyone special?”

“
There hasn't been anyone special.”
Not until you came along.

She looked at him with a skeptical expression, her mouth puckered and her eyes boring a hole straight through him. He wasn't an expert on body language, but if he wasn't mistaken, she was giving him the stink eye.

“
What's that look for?”

“
Nothing. It's just that I heard you were seeing someone in town. And I wasn't gossiping about you. I swear,” she quickly added. “Someone happened to mention you were seeing Grace Wheeler.”

“
I'm gonna kill Bo!” He growled as images of putting Bo in a headlock danced in his head.

“
What? I never said a word about Bodine,” she said, her face a mask of innocence.

“
Grace and I were never dating,” he stated emphatically.

“
So you were…what exactly?”

“
I guess you could say we were friends with benefits.”

“
Oh.” Darcel’s eyes lowered, and she was no longer looking in his direction. She crossed her arms across her chest, and to him she looked incredibly vulnerable.

“
Darcel, look at me.”

She turned her head to look at him, her eyes looking suspiciously moist.

“
What Grace and I had was…it was nothing more than physical.”

“
You don't owe me an explanation,” she said briskly. “It's none of my business.”

He moved himself closer to the tub, reaching out and grazing her cheek with his knuckles. “I want to explain. I've never…I'm not used to having relationships where my heart was involved. It may sound clinical, but it was only physical with Grace. Being with you, it's different than any other woman I've been involved with. It's not just sex. Please believe that.”

He leaned in and kissed her, his lips moving over hers in a sensual, powerful kiss. He needed to show her with his actions what he wasn't able to say yet with words. Putting his feelings into words wasn't easy for him. Kissing her came naturally, and for now he hoped it was enough to show her how important she was to him. Desire sparked within him as she kissed him back, sliding her tongue inside his mouth and deepening the intensity of their kiss.

He reached out and grasped her head in his hands, anchoring her as close as possible to him. The splash of the bath water as she shifted her body brought them both back to reality. They pulled away from each other at the same time, their breathing a little choppy and uneven.

“
Ready to get out?” Jake asked. “The water must be getting cold.”

“
Yeah, I'm starting to get a little pruney.” She held up her wrinkled fingers and laughed at their appearance.

When she stood from the bath, he couldn't help himself from staring at her naked, glistening figure. Water dripped in rivulets down her body, coursing down the length of her until they found themselves back in the bath water. A few patches of suds were scattered across her body, and he resisted the urge to reach out and wipe them away with his hand. It was all too clear to him where that would lead. He quickly covered her with the towel, trying to resist the pull of desire tugging at him.

She blotted herself with the towel, working it across her body so she could dry off different parts of her. He watched in fascination as she exposed a thigh, a calf, boobs, neck, abdomen, hips. By this time he was rock-hard, his arousal straining against the denim fabric of his jeans.

“
I forgot about the oil,” he said, his mouth dry as sandpaper. Sheepishly, he held up a bottle of Morroccan argan oil, a product known for its healing properties.

Without warning, she let the towel drop to the floor, exposing her glorious mocha body for his full inspection. He twisted open the cap of the oil, slathering some on his hands before reaching out and smearing it on her shoulders, working his way down to her breasts. She let out a cry of pleasure as he smeared it on one of her nipples, gently tugging at it until it puckered under his finger. He moved on to her other nipple, vigorously kneading her skin as he battled his own desire.

He palmed both of her breasts with his hands. His erection was getting bigger by the minute and it was now pressing uncomfortably against his jeans. He moved his hands down to her abdomen, spreading the oil across her delectable skin, admiring the way it shimmered like polished mahogany. He recognized the flare of desire in her eyes as his hands delved lower and lower, flitting across her dark triangle and on toward her shapely thighs.

“
Open your legs,” he commanded, his voice husky with need.

She opened her legs, and he slid his hand upwards, massaging her muscled upper thigh before moving down to her legs and calves.

When he was done, he sat there for a moment, kneeling in front of Darcel, his face mere inches away from her honey pot. There was nothing he wanted more than to spread her thighs wide open and feast on her delicious nectar. He shut his eyes tightly, trying to stop the flood of images from making their way to his brain. It was pure torture denying himself what he wanted most. Before he could change his mind, he stood up and grabbed a white quilted robe from a hook on the bathroom door. “Here, put this on. It's for you.”

He saw the look of surprise in Darcel's eyes, recognized the utter bewilderment and astonishment on her face. It was clear what she was thinking.
Why isn't he making love to me?
Even though he was the one calling the shots at the moment, his self-restraint surprised him. For him, not taking her right there on the bathroom's tile floors was the hardest thing he'd ever done in his life. It was a necessary evil, he realized.

More than anything he wanted Darcel to understand that his physical desire for her wasn't the most important thing about their relationship. They weren't just friends with benefits. What they shared was different from any other relationship he'd ever known, and he was determined to do this right. What he wanted from Darcel was something he'd never dreamed of sharing with any other woman. He wanted a lifetime.

* * * *

“
Comfy?”

“
Very comfy.” Darcel snuggled beneath the duvet cover, rubbing her legs together to bring some warmth to her chilled bones. The bath had been an amazing treat, but once she'd gotten out of the tub, she'd gotten the chills. As soon as she shivered, Jake had ordered her to bed in her PJs.

“
It's been quite a day,” he announced, his eyes looking weary as he tucked her into the bed as if she were a child. She felt a pang of guilt as she looked at him. Finally, he was showing the stress and the strain of the past week. Was he tired of watching over her? Drained from all the responsibility of keeping her out of a killer's grasp? Or was he simply eager to get his life and home back?

She couldn't blame him for feeling that way, if she was honest with herself. She'd been a pain in the butt, especially in the beginning. She'd resisted him at every turn—in the hospital room when he'd announced she was coming to live with him, at her house when he'd read Lenny the riot act, and when he'd invited her to Sunday dinner at Aurelia's. Each and every time he'd been patient with her, promising to keep her safe no matter how much she fought him along the way.

“
An eventful day,” she said as she thought about everything that had gone down earlier.

After leaving the Reservation they'd headed straight to the sheriff's office so Jake could look over the forensics report on the gun found next to Cree's body. He'd also taken a drive over to the crime scene, read the note Cree left behind, perused the initial autopsy report, and interviewed members of Cree's family.

According to Jake, everything had been in order, other than a latent print found on the gun for which he'd ordered a series of forensic tests. She had no idea what a latent print was, but from what she'd overheard sitting in the sheriff's office, it was part of Jake's tying up loose ends in the investigation.

And now, according to Jake and the Liberty Creek's Sheriff's Department, she was a free woman. Starting tomorrow, she would be released from Jake's custody and able to move back to her yellow Victorian. She'd be able to return to her place of business and stop her staff members from gossiping about her disappearing act. Strangely enough, she wasn't feeling motivated to celebrate her freedom.

Leaving Jake's house would essentially be leaving Jake and everything they'd shared during the past week. If anyone had told her a week ago that she'd bond on an intimate level with Jake Trueblood, she would've called them a liar to their face. But, in a week's time, she'd managed to fall head-over-heels in love with the bravest, most sensual man on the planet.

“
Anything else you need?” Jake handed her a piping-hot cup of green tea.

“
Are you kidding? You're spoiling me like crazy. You bathed me in that ridiculously decadent tub, made me smell good, rubbed me down with oil. The only thing you haven't done is polish my toenails.”

A panicked look crossed his face. “Uh, I don't have any nail polish. But I guess I could run out and buy some at the drugstore.”

Her heart lurched wildly at Jake's generosity. “I wasn't hinting that you should do that. I was just making the point that you've already treated me like a queen. And I appreciate it,” she said with a tender smile.

Jake fidgeted a little, shifting his weight from one leg to the other. “You must be tired.”

Tired? Was he serious? He'd just treated her to the most sensual bath, complete with champagne and pampering. Then he'd really gotten her aroused by massaging her body with fragrant oils. She'd practically orgasmed on the spot. Every nerve ending in her body was pulsing with desire, all because of him.