Deadly Storm (19 page)

“Maybe he didn’t kill her because he saw you,” Mandy suggested.

“He didn’t see us,” Jake said. “Every time he even came close to looking in our direction, Ally dragged me into a corner and made me make out with her. Even if he did see us, he probably thought we were horny students on the make rather than investigators following him.”

“Nice,” James said.

“I try.”

“I’m not sure where that leaves us,” James said.

“Me either,” Jake said. “I … .”

“Omigod!” Ally jumped off the couch and practically mowed Jake over to get him to move out of her way as she scampered to the far end of the room. “You showed it to him.” She picked up the painting and displayed it for Jake’s benefit. “I told you it was awesome.”

“That is pretty good,” Jake said, moving closer to Ally so he could study it. “This is nice.”

“I want one,” Ally said. “If I give you a photo of Jake and me, can you do one for my house? I’ll buy the canvas and paints.”

“I … um … .” Mandy looked conflicted.

James rubbed her back, watching her face closely as she grappled with the request. “How come Ally knows about that painting? You hid it from me and showed it to her?”

“I didn’t show it to her,” Mandy said.

“I snooped,” Ally said. “People shouldn’t close closets when I’m around. That always means they’re hiding something.”

James rolled his eyes and kissed Mandy’s cheek. “You don’t have to answer her now. I know you want time to … decompress.”

“I’ll do it.”

“Seriously? Just like that?” James couldn’t get a handle on where her head was.

“I want to finish a second painting,” Mandy said. “If I promise to do it for Ally, I’ll have no choice.”

James rubbed his chin, considering. “That actually makes sense.”

“I always make sense,” Mandy said.

“She does,” Ally agreed.

“I guess it’s good you two were too drunk to remember some of the nonsense you were spouting last night,” Jake said.

“Be quiet or I’m going to pull you into a corner and make you kiss me,” Ally warned.

“If you do that I’m going to beat you,” James said.

“This is a rough family,” Jake said. “I either get threatened with kisses or punches.”

Mandy rested her cheek against James’ and smiled. “It’s a good family, though.”

“It is indeed, baby,” James said, kissing her softly.

“What are we doing?” Mandy asked, eyeing James warily as he led her down to the kitchen Sunday morning. “Are you going to make me do something dirty?”

“First off, I never
make
you do anything,” James said. “I always ask nicely.”

“You usually use your tongue.”

“That is asking nicely,” James said, tousling her hair affectionately. “I plan on begging you with my tongue later.”

“For what?”

“You’ll see,” James said. “I have a whole day planned for us.”

“But it’s Sunday,” Mandy whined. “I thought we would just hang around naked together all day.”

James grinned. “Nudity is going to play into our day. Don’t worry. I just have a few activities I want to do together while we’re naked.”

“Okay, but if I don’t have at least four orgasms I’m going to be mad at you all week.”

“Baby, don’t sell yourself short,” James said. “If you don’t have six orgasms today I’m going to be mad at myself all week.”

Mandy smiled and rolled to the balls of her feet so she could kiss him. “If I didn’t think you were the best husband in the world before … .”

“You’re not allowed to finish that sentence for at least ten hours,” James said, ushering her into the kitchen. “Our first stop of the day is going to be the kitchen.”

“You know that we’ve done it on a table the last two times, right? Are you in a rut?”

James scowled. “Nice.”

Mandy pinched his rear. “Maybe you can be on the bottom this time so we can shake things up.”

“We’re not doing it in here,” James said, grumbling something that sounded suspiciously like “rut, my ass” under his breath. “We’re cooking breakfast in here.”

“Do you want me to make you an omelet?” Mandy asked.

“No, I want you to teach me how to make an omelet so we can do it together,” James replied.

“You do?”

“Yup.”

“Why?”

“Why are you so suspicious, wife?” James asked.

“I … you’re right. That’s not fair. I guess I’m just touchy when it comes to cooking.”

“That’s why we’re doing it together,” James said. “Everything we’re doing today is going to be together.”

“Okay,” Mandy said. “We’ll make breakfast together.”

“We’re doing other stuff together, too,” James said.

“I draw the line at going to the bathroom with you,” Mandy warned.

“Sometimes I forget what a prude you are,” James said, leaning down so he could kiss her. “Get everything we need to make an omelet. I’ll get the bowls.”

“Okay. If this goes badly, though, I’m blaming you.”

“That’s why I’m here.”

“THAT
was kind of fun,” Mandy admitted, loading the last of the dishes into the dishwasher and closing the door.

“It was,” James agreed. “I especially liked the part where you told me I was chopping the tomato wrong and took the knife away from me.”

“The pieces were too big.”

“I thought you liked them big,” James teased.

Mandy pinched his side. “You’re really going out of your way to be charming today, aren’t you?”

“You haven’t seen anything yet, wife,” James said.

“Oh, right, you’re little list,” Mandy said. “What’s next on our agenda?”

James looked Mandy’s tiny sleep shorts and tank top up and down. “Do you care what happens to that outfit?”

“I wouldn’t call it an outfit.”

“I mean … do you care if it gets ruined?”

“Are we going to mud wrestle?”

James’ eyes sparkled. “Would you be willing to do that?”

“Mud wrestle with you?” Mandy tilted her head to the side, considering. “I guess. I’m not doing it naked, though. I don’t want dirt getting … there.”

“Prude.” James put his hand to the small of Mandy’s back and started herding her toward the sliding glass door. “Let’s go.”

“Where are we going?”

“The guesthouse.”

“Are we going to do it on top of the pool table? Is that how you’re going to shake up your rut?”

“If you say ‘rut’ one more time I’m going to have to throw a flag on the play and interrupt our day to rut your ass off,” James said.

“See, that’s not much of a threat,” Mandy said, smirking.

James loved the look on her face. She was in full “tease” mode, and he was willing to play the game as long as she was enjoying it. “I’ll work on my torture techniques. Now, move.”

Mandy let James lead her to the guesthouse. Instead of stopping in the kitschy saloon on the first floor, though, he climbed the stairs to her studio loft. Once they were in the room, Mandy glanced around dubiously. “You want to do it here? Okay, but you have to be on the bottom. The carpet in here is really rough and I don’t want to explain rug burn at work tomorrow.”

“I … we’ll talk about the rug burn later,” James said. “We’re here for another reason.”

“What?”

“We’re going to paint.”

Mandy stilled, her heart flopping with an emotion she couldn’t identify. “What?”

“We’re going to paint, baby,” James said. “We’re going to sit down on the floor with a fresh canvas and we’re going to create something together.”

“Why?”

“Because I want to see you work,” James said, fighting the panic clawing through his chest. He was terrified he was going to push her too far. “I want to spend the entire afternoon doing a project together.”

“But … you don’t like to paint.”

“You don’t know that,” James said. “I don’t know that. I’ve never painted anything before. I do know I love spending time with you. You love to paint. We’re going to paint together.”

James moved to the stack of empty canvases in the corner and picked a medium-sized one and brought it back over to the middle of the room.  He braced the canvas against the wall and grabbed the tackle box that housed all of Mandy’s paints and brushes.

He sat on the floor and glanced up at her, waiting.

Her heart-shaped face was bare of makeup. Her hair was still a mess because they hadn’t showered yet. Her eyes were clouded as they bounced between him and the canvas. Finally, she sat down on the floor next to him and wrestled the tackle box from his lap. “What do you want to paint?”

James exhaled heavily, relieved. “I don’t know. Let’s do something fun.”

“Like a shark?”

“Do you want to paint a shark?” James was intrigued with the suggestion. “We can paint a shark. You’re not going to make it gross and eating someone, are you?”

“I don’t know,” Mandy said. “We’ll have to see where the canvas takes us.”

“Then let’s go on a trip, baby.”

“OKAY,
that is officially … disgusting.”

James leaned back on his elbows and studied the finished painting. While she’d been nervous at the onset, once she got going and realized he was onboard with anything she wanted to do, Mandy finally relaxed and gave in to her inner muse. Since she was a geek, though, her inner muse had a dark side and it took the form of a great white shark eating a bikini-clad swimmer. The image was realistic and schlocky, and James was in love with it.

“I like it,” Mandy said, tilting her head to the side.

“I like it, too,” James said. “Where are we going to put it?”

“You want to hang this, too? Are you going to hang every painting I finish now?”

“Yup. Eventually, we’ll run out of room, but I figure we’ll deal with that when it happens.”

“I want to put it in my office,” Mandy said.

“That makes sense,” James said. “That’s where you insisted on putting that huge
Jaws
sculpture we got at Detcon.”

Mandy shifted so she was facing James, her face earnest as she leaned her head over closer to him. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For … everything. For believing in me.”

“Baby, I will always believe in you,” James said. “I’m the one who should be thanking you, though.”

“For what?”

“Loving me … and forgiving all the stupid things I do.”

Their lips met in a sensuous kiss, their tongues touching as James tilted her head back to deepen the exchange. He ran his fingers through her hair and down her back, tugging her against his chest and holding her tightly as he rolled them both away from the painting.

She was underneath him when he stopped rolling, their tongues still twining together. He pulled his head back slightly and stared into her eyes. “I’m ready for our third task of the day, wife.”

Mandy laughed as she ground her pelvis against his hardening length. “I noticed. Do you want to go out to the hot tub?”

“Eventually. I thought we would start here, though.”

“What about the rug burn?”

“I’ll be gentle.”

“What if I don’t want you to be gentle?”

“Then you’re going to have to live with the rug burn.”

“Love is pain,” Mandy said, smiling.

“It is.” James kissed her again, propping himself up on his elbow so he could use his left hand to trail down her chest. He cupped her breast under the tank top, glad she wasn’t wearing a bra, and then slipped it lower so he could inch his fingers beneath her cotton shorts.

Mandy moaned as a finger dipped into her folds, widening her thighs to give him better access. James licked the inside of her mouth as he fingered her, rubbing her sensitive nerve bundle until her hips started bucking up. Her first orgasm was swift, and James had a feeling she needed that immediate release after the emotional buildup of the afternoon.

When she was done shaking, James tugged her shorts down and removed them from her body. Her tank top followed, along with his shirt and shorts. They were both naked in moments, and James was trying to decide what he wanted to do with her first when she rolled to her knees and pushed him down on the floor.

“What are you doing, baby?” James asked, his eyes bright. “Are you going to give me rug burn?”

“Shh.” Mandy kissed him lightly and then moved her mouth to his stubbled chin. She trailed a series of kisses over his chest, flicking her tongue out and sucking on each of his nipples a few moments before moving lower. She slipped her tongue into his belly button, causing him to shudder, and then she pushed his legs apart so she could settle between them.

Her fingertips were soft as she rubbed his erection. Even though he knew what was coming, James moaned as her mouth descended on him. Sex between them had never been awkward. It was always easy. They moved together like they were always meant to be joined.

“Ugh.” James wriggled underneath Mandy’s insistent mouth, almost whimpering as she cupped and massaged his testicles. It didn’t take him long to peak, and he was orgasming in her mouth within minutes.

Mandy sucked him until the last tremor passed and then crawled up his body, a self-satisfied smile on her face. “I think that makes us tied,” she murmured, kissing his neck.

James held her for a moment, loving the way she nuzzled her face against him, and then he flipped her over quickly. “Not for long, baby.”

He lowered his mouth to her breasts, pushing them together to give himself easier access as he laved them with his tongue. He grazed his teeth against the sensitive nubs and enthusiastically suckled until she was gasping. Then he moved lower, kissing his way down her abdomen and not stopping until he was at eye level with her hot core.

“Tell me what you want, baby,” James ordered.

“You,” Mandy murmured.

“Tell me specifically.”

“James,” Mandy whined. “You’re killing me.”

James thought about torturing her a little longer and then gave in. “You’re lucky my whole day is about you right now, little lady,” he said. “I’m going to torture you tomorrow, though.”

Mandy bit her lip and nodded, her eyes screwed shut with anticipation. James didn’t make her wait long. He flicked out his tongue, making contact with her clitoris briefly before licking her up and down like an ice cream cone. He kept his hands on her thighs to hold her in place, and then he attacked her relentlessly.

Mandy was writhing against the floor, all thoughts of rug burn long forgotten, and James brought her to the brink of orgasm three times before backing off. She was a sweaty mess when she started begging. “Please, James. I … please.”

“Tell me you love me,” James murmured, flicking his tongue out again.

“I love you more than anything.”

James returned to his task and she was so keyed up she orgasmed almost immediately. The power of her release was breathtaking to watch, and James banked the memory because he’d never seen anything more spectacular.

She was still shaking when James crawled up her body and slipped his hands beneath her rear. He pulled her up as he settled into a sitting position on the floor, positioning her body so she was straddling him and they were face to face.

He’d been ready for her to slide herself onto him for a long time, but he knew they had all day and he was willing to take his time. Her warmth fit him like a glove as she slid down, and by the time they were fully joined they were both gasping.