In Deep Shitake (A Humorous Romantic Suspense) (42 page)

“I don’t understand,” the little guy sobbed.

“They are either magician and have dematerialize or you let go.”

“No, boss. No.”

“Yes. I think they make deal with you.”

“No. I just went to get some wings at the club. I was hungry. They were here when I left. They were still tied up.”

“How much they pay?”

“Nothing.”

“Then explain where they at?”

More sobbing. “I don’t know.”

A long spate of Russian sounding words spilled from
Kubikov
. In response,
Gigantor
dragged the little guy out of the building.
Kubikov
strolled to the door. He seemed to scan the building before snapping off the light. The building sank into total blackness.

The clanging of the lock being secured on the door seemed to echo in the building before they heard a car depart.

Ross carefully removed enough of the duct tape to slip out. Mo heard him flip on the light switch and check the door. “
Dammit
. They locked it.” Returning to the float, he hopped up and ducked back into the opening in the hill. “I think we should stay in here. We don’t know if they’ll come back.”

“Yeah, but can we leave the door off unless we hear something?”

“Yes, but I’m going to turn the light back off.”

“Do you have to?”

“Yes. If
Kubikov
comes back and remembers he turned it off, he’ll be certain we’re in here. Right now he’s going with the idea that the little guy let us go.”

“You’re right. They’d probably tear this float apart to find us if they were certain we’re here,” Mo acknowledged grudgingly. “But get my purse would you? It’s on the floor near the door.”

“I’m not even going to ask why,” Ross said as he picked it up.

“There’s a small flashlight on the keychain.”

He soon scooped it out. “Got it.”

When he’d turned out the light and found his way back to the inside of the float with the help of the small pin light provided by Mo’s keychain, Ross propped the door so that it could be quickly placed over the opening. He settled in to sit beside Mo, handing her the messenger bag.

The pin light provided enough light for Mo to dig through the contents and come out with a candy bar. “I’ve got a Snickers bar here,” she said, inspecting the paper wrapping. It’s only a little bit mashed. I’ll share with you.”

“Cheers. I’m starved.” Ross held out a hand.

Mo tore the bar in half and offered a part to Ross but snatched it back before he could take it. “Hey, wait a minute. You really don’t deserve this. You were a huge pork ‘n beans earlier today.”

Ross’s hand fell. “I know I was completely and utterly wrong and I grovel at your feet with my wrongness.”

“I don’t see any groveling, mister,” Mo said trying to joke but she had to look down to keep the real hurt from shining out.

“I would grovel if we weren’t hiding from Russian mobsters in a paper
mache
strip club crawl space. It’s a bit cramped in here to accomplish truly effective groveling.” From Ross’s light tone, Mo knew he had picked up on her effort to lighten things up.

Ross took her hand and the look in his eyes wasn’t light at all. “Mo, I am so sorry about how I acted earlier. I don’t have a proper excuse. There is no excuse.” Ross reached out and stroked a finger in a sensuous line down along her cheekbone. “I should have trusted you. I don’t really know what else to say. You have every reason to hold a grudge, but I hope you won’t because I love…being with you and I don’t want to lose what we’ve started to build here.”

When he leaned toward her, Mo knew he was going to kiss her. She pulled back, placing a finger to his lips.

She couldn’t kiss him. But he looked like such a puppy dog Mo couldn’t resist offering the half a Snickers bar again. “Okay, have the candy if you’re that desperate.”

Taking it with a laugh, Ross tore back the paper and bit off a chunk, which he then chewed with gusto. “If this is all I can get, I’ll take it…for now.”

His words sent a shiver through her. Not from fear but from the sensual possibilities they promised for the future. Mo studiously avoided any eye contact and instead concentrated on carefully peeling back the paper and nibbling on the chocolate.

Chapter Nineteen

Being this close to Mo was doing things to Ross that he knew he shouldn’t allow under the circumstances. Russian mobsters could come back and kill them at any minute. But Russian mobsters be damned, he wanted Mo. The only thing really stopping him was Mo herself. She hadn’t forgiven him and he didn’t blame her.

“I think we should turn out this light,” Ross said.

“I really don’t want to,” she responded. “But you’re right. We don’t want to run the battery down.” She picked-up the keychain from where it lay on the floor. “You may as well put the door into place. If it’s dark, I won’t be able to see that it’s open anyway.”

After Ross taped the door into place, Mo snapped off the switch on the key chain and plunged them into blackness.

Almost immediately, Ross heard Mo’s breathing become more ragged with the kind of choppy sounds he sometimes heard from young actors about to go on stage—and about to suffer a panic attack.

His own breathing had become more rapid, but Ross knew it wasn’t panic, but the smell of Mo that he now knew so well had its effect. He couldn’t think of anything but her. It was as if the darkness had focused all his attention on her.

Feeling his way, Ross tried to place a comforting arm around Mo’s shoulder and encountered her breast instead. The unintended caress did not help him in his effort to ignore his desires or the reaction of his body.

“Hey, watch it,” she said.

“Sorry.” He moved away. “You were panicking. I was just trying to comfort you.”

“By groping me?”

“Again, sorry.” He settled in the cramped space by leaning in a sitting position against one of the two-by-fours.

“Okay, then,” Mo said and fell silent. A few seconds later, she spoke. “My leg is going to sleep.”

Ross heard movement and assumed she was trying to get more comfortable. He felt Mo’s hand fall on his upper thigh, just grazing his hardness under the jeans zipper.

“Hey, watch it yourself,” he said. He hoped she didn’t notice his state of arousal and think he was a lecher.

“Sorry. I thought you were panicking,” Mo said sardonically. “I was just trying to comfort you.”

Silence reined in the darkness as Ross fought for self-control. Finally, he lost the battle and said, “You can comfort me like that any time you want.” He couldn’t hide the desire that strained beneath the joking words.

 “Yeah…well,” Mo said. “It wasn’t sex that we had a problem with. I seem to recall we couldn’t handle…other things. Relationship things.”

“I know. My fault.”

“I’m not looking for an explanation, Ross. And I’m not asking you to apologize again. Apology accepted. Okay? Just stop apologizing.” Her words dripped anger.

“You say apology accepted, but it doesn’t feel like you’ve really forgiven me,” Ross replied.

Snap. The pin-light illuminated a small circle of area between them. The upturned light cast harsh shadows over Mo’s face. Her cheekbones appeared sharp, her eyes submerged in dark circles.

“I’ve forgiven you.” She blew a tendril of hair out of her face. “Just because I didn’t immediately offer you a blow job, you act like I’m carrying a grudge.”

“A blow job would be fabulous, but I’d settle for a kiss.”

“All right already. I’ll kiss you.” Mo leaned toward him with an exaggerated pucker. She poked her lips into his cheek like a dunking bird toy diving into the water glass. “There. Happy now?”

“I changed my mind,” Ross said. “I’ll take the blow job instead.”

“Ugh.” Mo snapped the light off. They were in darkness again.

“How about a real kiss?” He softly whispered the words.

He heard rustling. Then Ross felt soft lips press to the corner of his mouth. Turning his head to meet the lips fully, Ross deepened the kiss. His arms came around Mo and grasped her to him. Hungry for her, he began to devour her mouth with his until she drew away.

“Is that good enough?” she asked.

“Excellent,” he panted out.

“No. I meant is that a good enough kiss for you to believe I forgive you.”

Was that a smile he heard in her voice?

“Oh, no. I need another kiss to really be convinced.” Ross nuzzled her cheek and their lips locked together again.

Mo pulled back—too quickly for his liking.

“Clarence was murdered.” Mo’s breath was gentle against his cheek.

“
Mmmmm
. You already told me that.” After clamping his hand on the back of her head, he pulled her toward him for another taste of the sweetness of her.

She allowed only a sip before withdrawing again. “The police suspect you did it.”

“Don’t change the subject.” His hand came up under the hem of her shirt to caress her breast over the bra.

“What was the subject?”

“The forgiveness kisses you were giving me.” His hand slipped inside the bra cup to fondle her.

“Oh yeah.” Mo collapsed against him and they melted together for more mutual tasting.

* * * * *

Ross had taken the “forgiveness kisses” to another level and now they were sprawled together on the floor of the
Hoochie
Mama’s House hide-hole. Mo had tried dropping the Clarence information and that hadn’t even bought her a few seconds of distraction to save her from making another mistake with Ross. For “making a mistake”, read “sex”.

It was really her fault. She had to admit it. She’d kissed him first. She’d pretended to herself that it was just to prove that she wasn’t holding a grudge and that she wasn’t afraid to kiss him. But the truth was that she’d wanted it to escalate to more.

She really should have pulled away.

But she didn’t pull away. Instead, she hiked up his shirt and caressed the hard muscles of his chest over one erect nipple. Mo enjoyed the sharp intake of his breath between their kisses that her hands caused. Trying for more effect, she dipped her hand downward running over his naval then lower and he moaned.

“Do you want to stop?” Ross gasped out.

His question stunned her and her hand halted at his waistband. “Do you?”

“God no. But you just said something about this being a bad idea.”

“I did?” She didn’t realize she'd mumbled her thoughts out loud.

“Would I say so if you didn’t? I’m in a little pain here. I think I’ll die if you stop.”

The fact that he would stop even though he so clearly didn’t want to, removed the last of the barriers. She ran her hands and fingers over him almost like she was reading Braille. Mo found the part she sought and cupped his crotch through the denim. Ross jerked and she heard the thud of his shoes against one of the planks of wood holding up the paper wall.