Forbidden Pleasure (24 page)

As she had gotten to know the couple, she had learned that Joseph had a wicked, quiet wit, and that he was the perfect counterpart for his vivacious wife.

"There you are." Max bounced from the couch where she and Joseph had been sitting talking to Jethro. "We've been talking to your guest." She turned to her husband with a grin. "Why don't you ever have such good-looking friends visit?"

"Because they know you," he snorted. "You terrify them."

Keiley smothered her laughter at the frown that pulled at Max's pretty face and the little pout that pulled at her lips.

"You'll pay for that, Joseph," she warned him.

He winced, though there was an edge of laughter in his gaze. "I'm sure I will, Maxine."

He rose to his feet to meet Mac's outstretched hand then. "Mac." He nodded to Keiley.

"Keiley. It's good to see you two. I hope we aren't disturbing you. Maxine was supposed to have called you before we arrived." He gave his wife a mocking glare.

"Oh, dear. Did I forget?" Maxine blinked innocently. "How rude of me."

Mac laughed. "You're always welcome, Max. I see you've met Jethro."

"We have indeed," Max drawled. "I'm impressed, Mac. He's actually very charming."

"What did you expect?" Mac chuckled as Jethro rose to his feet as well.

"Well, according to Delia, your houseguest was a cross between a pit bull and an ogre.

Of course, I just had to find out for myself." Her tone gave every appearance of friendly laughter, but Keiley heard the anger just beneath it. "And can you imagine?" She turned to her husband, meeting his wary gaze. "We must have missed the orgy, honey. Do you think we should come back later?"

Joseph's expression tightened for an instant before he turned back to Mac with rueful amusement.

"She promised to behave."

"Yes, I did." Maxine turned to Keiley. "Where the hell have you been? You missed last night's meeting and Delia is telling everyone far and wide it's because you're having orgies out here, and evidently the whole damned FBI agency Mac was a part of is participating. Really, Keiley. You didn't invite me."

"I would have." Keiley shook her head mockingly. "But you know how it is, Max. I had to try them out myself before I introduced them to you. I know how picky you can be."

Max's green eyes twinkled with merriment as a spurt of laughter left her throat.

"I am very picky." She cast her husband a teasing glance before moving to Keiley.

"Let's go discuss their fine qualities while Mac and Jethro entertain Joseph." She gave Mac a warning look. "And be nice or he won't play with me later. I wouldn't like that."

"Yes, Maxine." Mac was obviously restraining his own laughter. "I'll be very gentle with his delicate sensibilities."

"You do that." Maxine nodded as she pulled Keiley from the room. 'And remember, he blushes easily. So don't embarrass him."

Keiley couldn't help but smile as Maxine pulled her across the foyer and into the kitchen before releasing her arm and heading for the refrigerator.

"You know, Keiley," she commented as she pulled a drink free from the interior and popped the cap. "We're going to have to have a little talk about the best way to weather gossip. Hiding out at home isn't going to do the job."

"I had no idea there was any gossip, Max." She stared back at her friend, at once amused and concerned.

Maxine was furious beneath the amusement. She had to be the only person Keiley knew who could be equally amused and angry at the same time.

"Figures." Max plopped into a kitchen chair and stared back at her with a grin. "All those orgies take time, I imagine."

"She's really saying that we're having orgies?" Keiley winced.

"I don't know if she started it or if she's just pushing it along." Max shrugged then.

"But it's working its way through the charity committee and likely through town as well.

Thankfully, no one is really taking it seriously. What's happened to the world? Ten years ago, we would have all been suitably horrified by the prospect and blacklisted you immediately."

"Progress. Go figure." Keiley laughed as she sat down across from her friend. "Maybe orgies just aren't fun enough anymore."

"Or too tame," Max snapped, the edge of anger showing in her voice again. "Delia's becoming a problem, Kei. She's managed to even surprise me. Did you know she's trying to have you thrown off the committee?"

"She's been trying to do that since my first year there." Keiley shrugged as she tucked her leg beneath her on the chair and leaned her elbow on the table. "Come on, Max, she's harmless. She's just jealous."

"Jealous, you say," Max snorted. "I swear, she had a nipple hard-on when she was talking about immorality within the committee ranks, and if she didn't cream her tight-laced panties when she said the words
ménage
and
orgy,
then I don't know my body language." Max paused. "We both know I know body language, right?"

"You do know your body language," Keiley agreed.

"It was gross." Max gave a mock shudder. "She was standing at the podium during the meeting last night getting wet at the thought of hurting you and Mac. The woman is rabid."

"She's sad." Keiley shrugged again. "I signed the contract; they took my money. They can't take me off the committee and their petty shit doesn't affect me."

"Keiley, can she have any kind of proof?" Max asked her softly then. "I don't care what you do here in your own home, and if you were getting it on with both those lean, mean hunks in there, then more power to your energetic ass because you have a hell of a lot more stamina than I would have. But Delia is too confident that she can have you voted out."

"Delia's always confident and never successful," Keiley assured her. "She's making a lot of noise, Max, and noise is something better off ignored. She'll get tired of it eventually, as she always does, and go away."

"You can't keep missing meetings." Max shook her head. "Promise me you won't. You have to face them, sweetie. I know how hard it is, hell, poor Joey, he goes through hell because of me and I know it. But I can't be someone I'm not and still be happy. That's how I know you can't hide from it."

"I'm not hiding from the gossip," Keiley assured her.

"Keiley, listen to me." Max leaned forward, her green eyes compassionate. "You're one of my best friends and I know you. I know what you told me about your past with your dad, and I know how gossip hurts. You're hiding."

"Not from the gossip." Keiley breathed out roughly the minute the words left her lips.

Damn it. The last thing you did was give Max a lead when she was in protective mode.

The other woman was like a protective mother wolf when it came to her friends.

"Then what?" Max frowned. "What the hell is going on, Keiley?"

"Keiley has picked up a stalker, Max," Mac said from the doorway as he, Jethro, and Joseph walked into the room.

Silence filled the kitchen.

Joseph moved around the table, pulled out the chair beside his wife, and sat down beside her, his arm going around her as Mac sat down beside Keiley and Jethro moved to the refrigerator.

"Mac just explained everything to me, Max," Joseph told her, his voice soft as Max stared back at her in horror. "It's an old case that Mac was working on. It's followed him here."

Jethro sat out three beers as Keiley stared back at Max. Then she shot Mac a disapproving frown. "I could have handled this, Mac."

"Oh, listen to Superwoman here." Max threw her hand toward Keiley as her green eyes glittered damply. "You could have handled it. Well, God bless your heart."

Keiley winced. It was never a good thing when that comment came out of Max's lips.

"Now, Max."

"Don't you 'Now, Max' me, Keiley McCoy," she snapped. "I'm glad you're handling it so damned well by yourself because honest to God, I just felt my heart fall to my stomach and it's not in the least comfortable buried down there."

Keiley's lips twitched. That was Max, dramatic to the end.

"I could have handled telling you myself," Keiley explained. "Mac and Jethro are taking care of things, Max. It's going to be okay."

"That bitch, Delia," Max muttered then. "She's a viperous little wannabe slut with no way out from beneath her mommy-in-law's eagle little eye. You know she's doing this because she wants in Mac's pants. Right?"

"She's welcome to try." Keiley shrugged. "I just can't promise she'll have a hand left when I get finished with her."

Max sniffed as an unwilling laugh roughened her throat. "Don't make me laugh, Keiley. I'm too horrified to find any amusement in this."

Then her gaze shifted to Jethro as he took his seat on the other side of Keiley.

"I liked the idea of the ménage better," Max sighed, staring back at Keiley sadly. "That sounds like a lot more fun."

She had no idea just how much more fun it was.

"Mac, is there any way we can help?" Joseph asked then.

"Stay away," Mac warned him. "I don't want him to find another victim to focus on, Joe. And keep your ears open. I don't like the way this rumor of a ménage has suddenly flared up. See if you can hear where it started."

"I can find that out." Max glared back at Mac. "Trust me, Delia can't keep a secret, and I know she's behind this. I'll find out where it started or if she just started it on her own."

And Max could do it. The woman was a dynamo. She could widen her green eyes with naive innocence and play the clueless Southern belle with just the right touch of realism.

False realism, but it worked.

"See what you can find out for me, Max." Mac nodded as Keiley glanced over at him.

"And don't say anything about the stalker. I'd like to keep this quiet if we can."

That was all it took. Maxine might give the appearance of flightiness, of cluelessness, but it hid a mind as sharp as a razor and a loyalty as deep as the oceans.

"Of course we'll keep it quiet." Max stared at Mac as though he had lost his mind.

"You think I want Delia Staten to get her hands on this information? She would find the bastard and help him out."

"Max," Joe chastised gently.

"You know it's the truth," Max pouted back at her husband. "And Keiley knows it as well. Delia would do anything for a chance to get in Mac's bed." She turned to Mac.

"Why didn't you just give her some before you left town fifteen years ago instead of leaving her in suspense?"

Joe lowered his head and shook it, helpless as his shoulders shook in silent laughter.

Mac stared back at her with brooding mockery. "And how would that have helped me?"

"Well." Max waved her hand blithely. "We all know how inexperienced eighteen-year-old jackasses are. She would have never looked at you twice when you came back."

"Max," Joe groaned in protest.

'Joe, you're lucky someone didn't steal your wife away before you ever moved back here and rescued the rest of the male population," Mac laughed.

"I'm lucky someone didn't kill her," Joe grunted, though his expression was filled with pride, his eyes alight with love when he looked at her. "Come on, wildcat. Let's do as Mac suggests and get out of here."

"You have to be at tomorrow night's meeting," Max all but ordered Keiley, rising from her chair and pinning her with an eagle stare. "Other people will end up coming out here to check on you if you don't. I was just elected as the advanced strike."

Keiley looked back at her in surprise.

"Honey, you have friends here." Max shook her head at Keiley's surprise. "More friends than you know. I've had five phone calls since you missed that meeting, and one came from the old dragon lady Victoria Staten herself. And trust me, she doesn't normally call and check on anyone."

"I'll be there," Keiley promised, rising to her feet as Max moved around the table.

"And you take care yourself."

As their goodbyes were said and Keiley accepted a fierce hug from her friend, she stood back while Mac led the couple to the door and walked to the car with them.

Behind her, she felt Jethro, far enough away for decency's sake, near enough to remind her of the warmth and strength of his body.

"I'm going to have to go to that damned meeting," she muttered. "I really don't want to have put up with Delia Staten this week."

She was still too raw, too aware of the truth behind the gossip. She would have much preferred to hide in the house and pretend that the world outside had ceased to exist.

"You can't hide forever."

Keiley swung around, meeting his dark blue eyes, seeing the fall of his black hair over his brow and the wicked, sensual dip of his thick lashes over his brilliant eyes.

She pushed her hands into the pockets of her shorts before moving around him and heading back to the kitchen. "I'm not in the mood to argue with you. I've already been there with Mac and once a day is enough."

"Keiley, am I hurting you?"

She turned back to him quickly. He stood framed in the doorway, watching her with an assessing gaze, his expression cool, almost forbidding.

"Do you want to hurt me, Jethro?"

"I don't want to hurt you. If it's hurting you, I'll leave."

"You're not hurting me." Confusing her. Making her question herself. But it wasn't pain. She wondered if the pain would come if he left, though.

"I need to go back to work." She shook her head as he stepped closer. "I just need to get away from you and Mac. Just for a little while. Just—just for a while."

The next day Keiley sat in the garage, stretched out on the old sofa she and Mac had discarded the year before, and worked on the data program she was still tweaking on Mac's laptop.

She could have worked more much effectively in her office, but Mac refused to allow her to work there alone, and he and Jethro were busy "sparring." It looked more like they were busy trying to kill each other.

Wearing only a few pads at elbows and knees and lightly padded headgear, they went at each other with fists, kicks, and heavy male grunts in the center of the thick mat Mac had unrolled across the cement floor.

She winced as Mac landed a hard blow to Jethro's gut, then closed her eyes as Jethro landed a double-fisted blow to Mac's back that nearly took him to the floor.