Flirting in Traffic (13 page)

Esa wondered how much her expression revealed her thoughts when Glory gave her a searching look that reminded her very much of how Finn studied her sometimes.

“Well?” the older woman challenged archly. “Why don’t you go and find out for yourself?”

“Maybe I will,” Esa said slowly. “Where, precisely, is the Wolf Man’s territory?”

Glory’s grin itself looked a little wolfish as she replied, “Our backyard and the backyards to each side of us.”

“Our neighbors are tolerance personified,” Molly added wryly.

“Wish me luck then,” Esa said before she turned and left the kitchen, smiling to herself at the sound of Glory’s chuckle behind her.

Quite a crowd had gathered on the back terrace. Danny, Jess, Carla, Chase and a brunette woman dressed as a gypsy all glanced over at her when she walked out onto the large deck. Carla gave her a puzzled look but Esa just waved and said hello before she descended the steps into the backyard.

She was a little surprised at how quickly velvety, impenetrable blackness of night surrounded her. Finn’s mother and grandmother lived in an older, established neighborhood that boasted enormous backyards that ended in an alley. Across the alley, another backyard stretched to the house on the next street. Detached coach-style garages blocked much of the light that shone from the house. The children certainly had an atmospheric arena in which to scare themselves silly.

Esa peered through the darkness, afraid she would trip over a bush or a small child. The night was chilly but not overly so and she wore only a lightweight leather jacket. She paused when she heard the sound of muffled laughter in the distance and little feet scurrying through the leaves.

She suppressed her own nervous giggle of excitement. Why did humans love to scare themselves so much? Something brushed against her outstretched hand and she jumped in alarm, sighing when she realized it was just the bark of a thick tree trunk. Thankfully she hadn’t walked straight into it and knocked herself out.

She suddenly went very still when she heard footsteps in the leaves just feet away from her.

“Wolf Man’s right on the other side of that tree,” Esa barely made out a boy whispering.

“He is not. Quit trying to scare me, Cory,” a younger girl’s voice responded shakily.

“He
is.
Let’s get him before he gets us!”

The sound of rapidly rushing feet made Esa’s eyes go wide in panic. “No, wait. I’m not the Wolf Man, I’m Esa…oh—”

She stopped speaking abruptly when the weight of a small body collided against her legs and arms wrapped around her thighs. She teetered for a second, almost losing her balance, but then righted herself and steadied the small body that had attempted to tackle her as well.

“It’s a lady,” the little girl who had been correct to doubt the presence of the Wolf Man exclaimed.

“Shhh,
quiet,
Amanda. He’ll hear you. You’d better not get us caught,” a boy admonished.

“Are you all right?” Esa asked as she extricated Amanda from her legs. She bent down and peered at the vague outline in the blackness. From the size of her Esa guessed that she must have been around six or seven years old. She was accompanied by three other children, all of them older, given the sizes of their shadows.

“Are you looking for the Wolf Man too?” the little girl asked in a stage whisper.

“Er…yes, I am.”

The girl giggled.

“Let’s go, Amanda,” one of the boys hissed in a long-suffering big brother voice. They melted back into the darkness and were gone as quickly as they’d come. Esa tried to calm her rapid breathing in the silence that followed.

She left the relatively secure landmark of the tree and wandered to the left of the yard, her arms stretched out in front of her. The children likely knew the territory of the backyards intimately but Esa was not only nearly blind but ignorant as she stumbled around back there. Her fingers encountered a waist-high bush. She tried to move around it but quickly realized it was a hedge that probably separated the two yards.

A light rustling sound reached her hyper-alert ears and she paused. She drew her breath in cautiously but all was silent except for the muted voices and music of the party in the distance. It probably had just been some leaves scattering in the wind. Still, some instinct told her it was more than that.

“Finn?” she queried softly, her heart hammering in her ears. “Is that you?”

When she got no answer she resumed picking her way along the hedge, looking for an opening between the yards. Just when she found a gap in the bushes someone grabbed her from behind…someone who was most definitely
not
a child.

Despite the fact that she’d come there specifically to find him, her nerves got the better of her. A scream rose in her throat. His hand was over her mouth in a second, stifling it.

“What are you afraid of, little girl? Didn’t you come looking for a wolf?” he growled near her ear. His voice was muffled by the mask he must be wearing. He sounded both familiar and sinister at once. Esa shivered uncontrollably in fear and something else, something much more powerful.

She twisted her head away from his hand on her mouth, freeing it. She squirmed in his hold. He wrapped her securely in his strong arms, making a mockery of her struggle. His body felt long and hard pressed so tightly against her. Excitement jolted through her with the strength of an electric shock, adrenaline pumping into her veins and a powerful sexual awareness enlivening her flesh.

“Is this how you greet all your dates?” she muttered sarcastically between ragged pants. She yelped in surprise when he suddenly shifted his weight and fell to the ground, bringing her down on top of him. He rolled over until she was lying on her back in the cool grass, his body covering her.

“Only the ones who come looking for it,” he said quietly near her face, amusement lacing his tone.

It had all happened so quickly that Esa was momentarily stunned into silence. He must have removed his mask because his voice had sounded normal just now—that low, seductive rumble that she associated exclusively with Finn. His fragrant breath struck her lips and cheeks in choppy bursts of air. His scent reached her nostrils—subtle, spicy aftershave, clean male skin and fragrant leaves. She smiled to herself, realizing she wasn’t the first person he’d tumbled in the leaves and grass tonight.

Her fingers came up to touch what she couldn’t see, lacing through the thick hair the collar of his jacket. She pressed her fingertips to his skull, applying a downward pressure.

“I guess I was…looking for it, I mean,” she whispered breathlessly. “Come here, Wolf Man.”

But she needn’t have said it because he’d already been on his way.

Despite his aggressive play his lips were gentle and persuasive when they touched hers. Not that Esa required persuading. She curled her fingers in his hair and craned her neck up for more of the taste of him.

“Shhh,” he whispered so softly that she barely heard him over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. He proceeded to nibble and eat at her mouth like it was a rare Godiva truffle that he’d found in the midst of his dime store Halloween candy. Esa felt herself turning to warm, sweet syrup under the influence of that kiss.

She whimpered into his mouth when his tongue slid along her lower lip, politely asking for entrance. Esa granted it, melting into the cool grass beneath the divine heat of Finn’s hard body and his intoxicating kiss. When she began to rub her tongue next to his, matching his slow, erotic rhythm, he growled and rocked his erection against her harboring heat. Esa shifted her hips up against him, the resulting friction making their kiss hungrier. She applied suction, pulling him further into her.

“Be careful about teasing, Esa,” Finn mock-threatened quietly next to her damp lips a few seconds later. His hand spread along her waist and found its way beneath her jacket, rising slowly up the side of her torso. She shivered almost uncontrollably beneath him despite the fact that heat emanated from his body. “It’s a full moon, you know…and you test the beast sorely.”

Esa tried to snort in amusement when he flexed his hips for emphasis but was quickly silenced when he slid his hand over her sweater-covered breast. He cupped her softly then shaped her firmly to his palm. Her nipple stiffened against the pressure, sending a sympathetic jolt of pure desire between her thighs. She groaned and rubbed up against him to alleviate the sharp ache.

“
Esa
,” he muttered as he continued to mold her breast with his hand and their flesh strained against one another’s with growing need. Esa was gratified to hear that all amusement had vanished from his tone.

She heard a child’s muffled laughter nearby.

“Finn,
stop
,” she whispered. “The kids are—”

“They can’t see anything,” Finn growled into her neck between hungry kisses.

“Yes, but—”

“I’m just…kissing you… What’s the big…deal?” he asked between nibbles of flesh.

The big deal was that Esa was so aroused as she lay there beneath Finn in the middle of his mother’s leaf-strewn backyard that it certainly didn’t feel like
just kissing
in the slightest.

“But I think they might be—”

“
Now,”
someone yelled.

“Right
there
,” Esa finished.

“Gotcha, Wolf Man!” a boy yelled at the same time that the weight of several bodies fell on top of them.

“Ow! Hey… Watch the kidneys,” Finn ordered between grunts as child after child piled on top of them. Esa broke out in laughter when he covered her body from the tackling kids.

“Tickle him like he does us!”

Esa ducked her head into Finn’s chest for protection against the ensuing mêlée of laughing, squirming, tickling children. Finn finally managed to get them off them with a combination of half-serious threats, gentle wrestling and returned tickles.

“There’s a lady here. Now cut it out,” Finn finally said as he wrestled one of his older, more boisterous nephews while trying to stop two giggling nieces from tickling his ribs. “Go and hide again. You guys conquered this Wolf Man. Another uncle is going to come get you.”

“Who, Uncle Finn?” the boy who wrestled with him demanded.

“I don’t know, but I’m gonna tell him to hunt you down first if you don’t get out of here, Aidan. Hurry up. He’ll be out here in a minute.”

“Are you okay?” Finn asked softly as the sound of the children’s voices faded.

“Yes,” Esa said with a laugh as she sat up. “Except for the leaves in my hair.”

His hand spread along her neck, his fingers reaching to tangle in her hair. “I’m used to leaves in your hair. It’s one of the things I like about you.”

Esa froze. Something about the warmth in his tone had taken her by surprise.

It had taken her by
pleasant
surprise. So pleasant that Esa had been caught with her guard down. First there had been a burning-hot desire followed by the playful antics of the children. To have such lighthearted pleasure and fun followed by that indefinable something in Finn’s voice just now…the indication that he liked more than
one thing
about her left Esa mentally spinning.

She wondered if he sensed the tension as well when he suddenly removed his hand and stood. He reached for her hand and pulled her up.

“How about we get some food after all that wrestling?”

“Wrestling, huh? Is that what they call it these days?” she asked, joining in his obvious effort to lighten the moment.

His deep laughter made her smile into the darkness. She couldn’t decide as they walked through the yard whether or not she was relieved or disappointed to be back in familiar territory with Finn.

Esa had a good time over the next hour eating her supper in the crowded kitchen at a huge lovingly restored antique oak table with two long benches on each side of it. Finn, Dina, Glory, Ellen, Mary Kate, Danny and Finn’s garrulous, good-looking cousin Caleb Madigan all sat at the table, along with two of Danny’s friends from graduate school. Apparently Finn’s youngest brother Micah had been detained at school by a midterm on Monday morning.

Everyone had already eaten besides Finn, Mary Kate and Esa, but they all talked so much that Esa didn’t feel self-conscious about stuffing her face with a cheese veggie burger and delicious homemade potato salad.

She was a little envious of Finn for belonging to such a large, warm, easygoing family. Rachel and she had always been very close with their parents, but four hardly compared to the double- or even triple-digit total number of Finn’s close-knit extended family.

She’d discovered during their meal that Caleb was the oldest son of Finn’s Uncle Joe. Joe and Ed, Finn’s father, had been exceptionally close and owned Madigan Construction together. The two families were closely tied as a result. The fact that the two brothers had died within months of each other pulled those familial bonds even tighter. Caleb looked more like a brother to Finn than a cousin, with burnished brown hair like Danny’s and green eyes like Jess’. Unlike Finn or his brothers however, Caleb wore a sexy, neatly trimmed goatee.

Despite all the possible distractions of the loud, friendly banter, the good food and Finn’s gorgeous cousin and too-cute little brother, Esa’s attention was captured almost completely by Finn, who sat next to her on the wood bench. She was hyperaware of his body next to her, of every casual brush of their arms, of the pressure of his hip against her own.

Once she glanced up to find him watching her with those incredibly blue eyes. What she saw in their depths made her stop chewing. She resumed a second later when she felt him place his hand on her thigh under the table and pull it next to his own hard length but she found it extremely difficult to swallow.

He wanted to make love to her again tonight. That was what she’d read as clearly as a neon sign in his eyes. And Esa knew that was what she wanted too…more than anything.

There was something else Esa knew for a fact in that moment. She was putting much, much more than her self-respect at risk by carrying on this way with Finn. Every minute that she remained with him would just amplify her pain when he eventually stopped wanting to see her. That moment might come as early as tomorrow morning or next month but it would inevitably come. He’d been engaged to be married just a month ago. Rebound relationships never worked out, at least in Esa’s experience.

“Hey, I hope there’s no hard feelings about giving Finn your phone number, Esa.” Caleb interrupted her tumultuous thoughts as Mary Kate and Danny served everyone pumpkin cake and cinnamon ice cream for dessert.

“You
should
apologize,” Finn interrupted before Esa could respond. “You gave me the wrong numbers, Sherlock. So much for the dependability of the state of Illinois’ law enforcement.”

Caleb looked surprised. “Couldn’t have.”

Finn just gave him a wry glance before he ate a bite of cake.

“I think that Caleb was referring to the infringement on my privacy for non-police business,” Esa explained patiently. Finn didn’t bother to respond to the obvious however, and just continued to eat his cake.

“You don’t live at 989 North Michigan Avenue?” Caleb persisted.

Esa paused in the process of spooning some ice cream. “So that’s how you found me,” she said softly to Finn. He smiled as he chewed his cake and gave her thigh a tight squeeze.

“See. I gave you the right information,” Caleb said, obviously feeling vindicated by the information. “How could I have gotten the address right and got the phone number wrong?”

Finn’s smile faded. He didn’t say anything in front of everyone, thank God, but she had the sneaking suspicion that he was wondering if she’d been lying about not receiving those phone calls. It suddenly struck Esa full force that Finn had been calling her evasive, manipulative little sister all week.

“Maybe my DMV information needs to be updated,” Esa answered Caleb evasively although her gaze remained on Finn.

No wonder he’d been so confused. She and Rachel sounded very similar and Rachel’s messages were always brief and to the point. But why hadn’t Rachel bothered to return his calls to alert him of his mistake? More importantly, why hadn’t Rachel told Esa about the misunderstanding?

Although that would have required that her sister had returned her calls at least once this week.

What was Rachel up to?

Esa shook her head in frustration and met Finn’s doubtful stare.

“I never received any phone calls from you,” she assured him. When he resumed chewing again slowly, his eyes still on her, she continued softly enough for only him to hear. “There’s been a misunderstanding. I’ll try to explain later.”

He merely nodded once.

Caleb looked excited when Esa told him she liked to play poker and was in the midst of asking people at the table who wanted to get a game going when a spine-chilling scream of terror reached all of their ears.

And this scream
hadn’t
been a child’s.

Her eyes widened in disbelief when the woman followed the eerie shriek by shouting a name.

“
Eeesaaa!”

Esa flew out the front door directly after Finn. The once-crowded front porch was now empty. She tried to keep up with Finn’s long legs as he ran around the side of his mother’s house in the direction from which they’d heard the scream.

“What the hell…
Jess?”
Esa heard Finn ask a few seconds later when he came to an abrupt halt in the side yard. She tried to peer around his tall form but she couldn’t make out anything in the darkness.

“Get the hell off me, you animal!” a familiar voice shouted from the ground, followed by a man’s grunt of mixed surprise and pain.

“
Rachel
? Is that you?” Esa cried out.

“Esa? What kind of a party are you attending anyway? I heard the music and was going around to the back to find you and this…criminal, barbarian…
asshole
attacked me.”

“Give me a break. I thought you were one of the kids. You’re small enough to be one of the teenagers,” Jess said in a mellow tone that surprised Esa, given the bizarre circumstances.

“And that makes it all right, I suppose—attacking a child! Esa, call the police,” Rachel ordered.

The panic she heard in her sister’s tone took Esa by surprise. She was vaguely aware that several people had come up behind her and were listening to the entire conversation. “Rachel, he’s not a criminal. He was playing Wolf Man. It’s a game the Madigans play on Halloween—”

“He knocked me to the ground and then he…he…” Rachel made a strange choking sound of mixed disbelief and outrage. Esa was suddenly very curious as to what exactly Jess Madigan
had
done to her little sister in the dark. “Let me up, you jerk,” Rachel screeched.

“I think you need to calm down a little bit before I let you go. You almost gave me a black eye just now with that elbow,” Jess replied evenly.

“You bastard,” Esa heard Rachel hiss at him, her insult striking Esa as entirely too personal given the circumstances.

Esa opened her mouth to speak when someone stepped up beside her. “Who is that obnoxious person maligning my grandson?”

Esa blinked in surprise at the sheer outrage in Glory Madigan’s trembling voice.
Great.
This just kept getting better and better.

“It’s okay, Grandma Glory. This is just a misunderstanding,” Finn said. But instead of being placated by his reassuring tone, Glory stepped forward aggressively.

“Get off this property, you little strumpet, before I call the police and have you thrown in jail where you—”

“Grandma Glory, calm down,” Finn interrupted.

“I’m not calming down when that woman is attacking my grandson!”

Everyone began to talk at once

“Esa, get this idiot off me!”

“Jeez, what are you
doing
here?” Carla suddenly asked from the darkness on the other side of Jess and Rachel.

“Calling the police…” Glory said in a shaking voice that alarmed Esa.

“I
am
the police, Grandma. Finn? What’s going on?” Caleb demanded.

“Quiet
everyone,” Esa shouted. She inhaled slowly, gathering her frayed nerves in the silence that followed.

“Rachel, stop acting like a loon and promise not to hit Jess again if he lets you up. I swear—I don’t know what’s gotten into you. Finn, if you would be so kind as to go to the kitchen and get some orange or apple juice?”

“
What
?” Finn asked incredulously.

“Glory…I apologize for my sister’s dramatics.” Esa placed her hand gently on the older woman’s arm and felt the clamminess of her skin as well as the fine tremor in her flesh. “Why don’t we go inside and I’ll try to explain.”

“Esa?” Rachel asked from the ground in a beleaguered tone.

“Just do as I say,” Esa barked before she took Glory’s arm and led her through the small crowd toward the house.

She was glad that Glory didn’t put up any resistance when Esa guided her down the corridor to the right of the living room.

“Her room is right in here,” Molly Madigan directed from behind Esa.

Esa glanced around, thankful for Finn’s mother’s presence. She led a dazed Glory into her bedroom and set her on the edge of her bed.

“May I see her medications please?” Esa asked Molly briskly as she checked Glory’s pulse.

“That woman was your sister?” Glory asked.

“Yes, she’s my sister. From the sound of her voice, Jess scared the hell out of her. I’ve never heard her act that way before,” Esa mused as she removed Glory’s black Cleopatra wig and unclasped the heavy gold necklace from around her perspiring neck.

“Thank you. I’m so hot…but I can’t stop shaking,” Glory muttered.

Esa read each of the four pill bottles that Molly had brought her. “Do you have an Accu-Chek, Glory?”

“I’ll get it,” Molly answered for her mother-in-law.

“Oh, good,” Esa said both to Molly and to Finn, who had just entered the room carrying some apple juice. “Set it down there, would you, Finn? When’s the last time you ate, Glory?”

Glory’s forehead wrinkled as she tried to recall.

“Can’t remember,” she finally answered dully. “Maybe four or five this afternoon. Didn’t want to eat too late and be bursting out of my Cleopatra costume.”

Finn’s handsome face was creased in mixed concern and confusion when Esa requested that he go and get some food from the kitchen but he went without comment. Esa took the blood glucose monitor from Molly when she returned to the room.

“Is high blood sugar what all of these episodes have been about?” Molly asked.

“This has happened before?” Esa asked sharply.

Molly nodded. “Several times in the past month. Her doctor ran some tests but everything was fine. Glory’s been taking diabetes medication for two years now and there’s never been a problem. Her sugars weren’t that high to begin with and her doctor said that they were well-controlled with the medication,” Molly fretted as Esa poked Glory’s fingertip with the lancet.

“Ouch!” Glory protested sluggishly.

“A little too well-controlled, I’m betting,” Esa said. She nodded her head in self-confirmation when she saw the numbers that came up on the screen and handed Glory the apple juice. “Drink up. Your sugars are low.”

“
Low
?” Glory frowned. “I thought I was supposed to be taking medication for
high
blood sugar.”

Esa prodded the bottom of the glass as a reminder for the older woman to drink. “You are. But all that exercise and meditation at the senior center is changing the chemical scenery of your body. Your dosage on the diabetic medication is too high. Lots of people have to be recalibrated, so to speak, when they start a regular exercise or meditation routine. I’ll bet your blood pressure has gone down nicely as well.”

“It has,” Molly confirmed. “Her doctor made a point of telling me when we went last week. I made a special appointment because of these periods of irritability. It’s out of character for Glory.”

“Did you tell your doctor that you’ve been exercising regularly?” Esa asked Glory when she finished her juice.

“I think so,” Glory replied.

“I made a point of telling him if Glory didn’t,” Molly said.

Esa frowned and took the glass from the now exhausted-looking older woman. If it was true that Glory had lost twelve pounds like she’d reported so proudly to Esa earlier tonight, then her doctor should have questioned her extensively about it as well as her exercise routine and then reevaluated Glory’s medication requirements.

Too many physicians—especially the younger ones—were prejudiced when it came to matters of older adults, automatically assuming that any exercise or activity that a woman Glory’s age undertook would be minimal and, while beneficial to health, nowhere near the strenuous health club routines they considered to be “real” workouts. But one only had to glance at Glory to know that she was a strong, athletically inclined woman who would do everything she undertook with passion and dedication. Undoubtedly Finn’s grandmother could leave Esa in a panting, quivering heap as she ran laps around her at the gym.