Tempted Again (26 page)

He rolled away from her.

“Never mind,” she said. “I shouldn’t have asked you that.”

“You can ask me anything you want.”

“I can?”

He nodded, his back to her. “I’ll grant you three questions.”

“What are you doing?”

“Counting how many condoms are left in this package. I bought it the day you came back to town.”

“You did?”

“Yes, and that’s question number two,” he said. “You only have one left.”

“What happened today?”

He gave her a heated look over his shoulder. “We had sex.”

She pulled him back down to her and ran her fingers over the faded scar on his shoulder. “I know we had sex. That’s not that I meant. What happened?”

“I got in the middle of a knife fight my rookie year back in Chicago.”

“Is that why you left?” she asked.

“Hell no, and that was question number four.”

He lowered his head to string a line of kisses from her mouth down to her breast. She arched her back as shards of intense pleasure shot through her.

“I think we need to work on that triple wow again,” he murmured against her skin.

“A repeat sounds like a good idea.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of a three-peat,” he said.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” He trailed his fingers down to her intimate feminine folds, brushing her clitoris with his thumb in a way that set her entire body soaring. “What do you think?

“I think that’s an…
oh yes
…right there…excellent idea.”

“Excellent, huh?” He gazed down at her, his eyes dark with hungry passion. “My idea or this?”

He caressed her with his wicked tongue. She clutched his shoulders and held on for dear life as the earlier inner flashes of lightning returned with a vengeance.

By the time dawn came, Connor had more than delivered on his promise of a three-peat and Marissa had never experienced such utter and total satisfaction.

The four-peat took place in his shower, where he soaped her naked body with naughty enjoyment. Twining his fingers through hers, he held her hands over her head as he kissed her all over. The cool ceramic tiles were at her back while his hot, aroused body was pressed against her. Foreplay had never been so much fun or so powerful. He released her hands to widen his explorations to her hips and beyond.

By the time he turned off the shower, Marissa was saturated with satisfaction. Her sexual hunger had been totally appeased but her stomach growled. “I didn’t eat any dinner last night,” she said in embarrassment.

“I love it when you blush,” he said, grabbing a huge bath towel and drying her off. Her entire body was tingling by the time he was done. He handed her one of his chambray shirts. “Let’s get you something to eat.”

She followed him into the kitchen, where he made her a batch of toast with strawberry jam.

“Do you have to work today?” she asked before remembering the Corn Festival was still on.

“Yeah, but not for an hour or two.”

She watched him move around the kitchen. He had only a bath towel tied around his waist.

He caught her staring at his scar. “It’s not pretty, I know.”

“It looks serious.”

“Nah. It was just a nick.” A nick that had almost killed him. Connor knew Marissa was dying to ask him more questions. He was just as eager to avoid them.

He didn’t want to talk about what had happened to him at the festival yesterday when that kid had bled all over him.

The bottom line was that the kid was going to be okay. That’s all that mattered. Finally a kid would be okay, after so many hadn’t made it. Like Hosea.

The blood had gotten to him yesterday. The sticky warmth of it and the metallic smell. Which was stupid. He’d never been one to cringe at blood. Cops couldn’t afford to have weak stomachs. They saw too much.

As a third-generation cop, he had quickly developed the gallows cop humor and emotional calluses that numbed him to the painful realities of his job.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked him.

“You,” he lied.

“I sure hope not,” she said. “Because you had a really sad expression on your face for a moment there.”

“Maybe it’s gas.”

She socked his uninjured shoulder. “Go ahead, try to humor your way out of telling me the truth.”

“Humor my way?” he said. “How about seducing my way?”

“You think I’m that easy?”

“I think you’re that incredible.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really. Do I need to convince you again with a five-peat?”

She gave him a demurely sexy look. “Well, I wouldn’t want any of those condoms to go to waste.”

He swooped in for a kiss but, just as things were getting interesting, his cell phone interrupted him. Swearing under his breath, he checked it. The mayor was calling. Connor wasn’t officially on duty for another hour but as sheriff he was always on call. “I have to take this,” he told her regretfully before answering the phone.

“Sheriff, we have a problem. I need you to come down to Centennial Park and the Corn Festival right away.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’d rather show you than tell you.”

“And I’d rather you told me,” Connor said. “Was there some kind of accident?”

“No, I believe this was deliberate.”

“What was?” Connor’s growing impatience was reflected in his voice. He couldn’t help it. Why couldn’t people just get right to the point instead of running this fifty-question routine? “What’s the emergency?”

“The damage has already been done.”

“What damage?”

“To the festival. If word of this gets out…I’ve got people cleaning things up now before the event opens.”

“Cleaning what things?”

“The vandalism. Spray-painted graffiti on several booths.”

“Are you messing with a crime scene?”

“We’re not messing it, we’re cleaning it.”

“Well, stop right now,” Connor growled. “You’re tampering with evidence.”

“We already know who did it.”

“Who is we?” Connor was already in his bedroom, yanking on clothes while speaking into the phone.

“Chester. He’s here with me. He saw who did it. He saw Jose Martinez running from the area but he didn’t know that there was any vandalism or he would have called the police at the time. And there’s more. There’s money missing from the food pantry booth’s cash box.”

“Don’t touch anything,” Connor said. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”

“But—”

“Don’t touch anything,” Connor ordered.

“What’s going on?” Marissa asked as she joined him in the bedroom, his chambray shirt barely covering her upper thighs.

“There was vandalism and robbery at the park last night.”

She frowned. “I thought the vendors hired a private security firm to patrol the area after closing hours.”

“They did.”

“Then what happened?”

“That’s what I’m going to find out.”

*  *  *

Connor arrived at the park to find the mayor and Chester waiting for him. “Why aren’t you at Jose’s house arresting him right now?” Chester said.

“Because I have to investigate a crime before I arrest anyone.”

“But I saw him,” Chester said.

“Did you see him spray-paint anything last night?”

“Well, no, but…”

“No buts. There are no buts in police work,” Connor said. “So why don’t you just step aside and let me do my job.”

“If you were doing your job properly, you would have made sure Jose wasn’t included in the Corn Festival at all,” Chester said. “I told you that those kids would be trouble, and now you see that I’m right.”

What Connor saw were footprints. A
lot
of footprints.

“How many of you stepped here?” Connor said.

“I don’t know.” The mayor appeared a bit chagrined. “Chester and I did for sure.”

Connor took photos with his smartphone of the footprints and the graffiti. Then he took notes on what Chester and the mayor told him. “Why were you here so early?”

“I always check on our festivals before they open,” the mayor said. “I walk the grounds and make sure everything is shipshape.”

“What about you?” Connor asked Chester. “If I recall correctly, you are on the planning committee for the Rhubarb Festival but not the Corn Festival.”

“I just had the feeling that those rowdy teens were up to something.”

“So you have ESP now, do you?” Connor said.

“It doesn’t take ESP to know that there would be trouble.”

“Where is the person in charge of the booth with the missing money?”

“It’s the local food pantry. Flo is volunteering there for today.”

Flo stood nearby. Upon hearing her name, she moved closer. “I’m madder than a hornet! Can you imagine, stealing money from the mouths of babes? Not that they were going to actually eat money, that isn’t healthy.”

“Show me the money box,” Connor said.

“It’s gone.”

“Vendors are supposed to take their money boxes with them when the event closes for the night,” Connor said. “Why didn’t you do that?”

“I wasn’t working the booth last night.”

“Who was?”

“Brenda. Your landlady, Sally, was going to do it but she got food poisoning. We think it was from the sushi booth in the Food Hall. Anyway, Brenda stepped in.”

“Where is she?”

“Right here.” Connor had seen Brenda around town but didn’t know her well. She was one of those women who valued her looks. “I forgot to take the money box with me. I’m so sorry,” Brenda said.

“You’re sure you left it at the booth?”

Brenda nodded.

Connor continued his line of questioning with Brenda and Flo before moving on to the security detail charged with securing the area after hours. And all the while, he was praying that none of his teens was involved with this incident, no matter what Chester claimed to have seen. But that spray-painted tag had looked like Jose’s work and that didn’t bode well.

Marissa snuck out of Connor’s apartment in the clothes she’d worn last night and quickly scuttled into her own place right next door. In a way, she was glad that he’d gotten called in to work because it gave her a moment to catch her breath. She certainly hadn’t been doing much of that last night. Instead, she’d been involved in all sorts of wildly satisfying acts of pleasure.

She felt delightfully wicked.

She didn’t want to think about where this was going. She just wanted to bask in the afterglow for once and not worry. She almost felt like dancing. She took a few tentative steps then stopped. No, she wasn’t quite there yet. But for the first time, she felt confident that she’d work that out. That she’d work everything out. That she had a bright future.

She popped two blueberry frozen waffles into her toaster. She was still hungry despite the several pieces of toast and jam that Connor had given her. A few minutes later, she was sprawled in the armchair in the living room, eating waffles with strawberry cream cheese spread on them. She felt decadent eating in the chair instead of sitting up straight at the dining room table. At this rate, she’d be dancing in no time at all.

Hopefully she’d be back in Connor’s bed in no time as well. She was really looking forward to that. Maybe next time he should come to her bed?

While trying to decide, her cell rang. Maybe it was Connor. She checked the screen. No, it was Flo. Marissa couldn’t imagine why she’d be calling this early on a Sunday morning.

“Hi, Flo. What’s up?”

“Did you hear what happened at the Corn Festival? The vandalism? And the missing money. They’ve had to delay the opening by half an hour. That’s never happened before.”

“Wait. What vandalism? What money?”

“The money box from the food pantry booth is missing. And there was graffiti spray-painted on that booth and several others. Chester is saying he saw Jose running away last night after closing time. Connor has gone to talk to him now.”

Not without me, he’s not
. “I’ve got to go, Flo. Please keep me posted.”

“Sure thing, hon. You know what they say. Flo always knows.”

Marissa disconnected the call and quickly changed into a pair of jeans along with a red T-shirt. Red, the power color.

Ten minutes later, she and her loco lime VW were outside Jose’s grandmother’s house. Connor was just getting out of his police vehicle. He didn’t appear thrilled to see her. “What are you doing here?”

“That same thing you are.”

“I doubt that.”

“Flo called me. She told me what happened. You can’t trust anything Chester says about Jose. He’s disliked him from day one.”

“Do not block my investigation,” he said.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Emboldened by the way he was staring at her mouth, she moved closer to murmur, “I loved the way you investigated me last night.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.” She stepped back and put her hands on her hips. “Our kids didn’t do it.”

“How do you know?”

“I trust them,” she said.

“Why?”

“I just do.”

“Then trust me, too,” he said.

“I’m coming with you to talk to Jose. I won’t say a word.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Are you charging him with something? Should he have an attorney present?” she asked.

“I’m just going to ask him a few questions.”

“Okay then.”

“I’d rather you wait out here,” Connor said.

“And I’d rather Chester hadn’t tried to make trouble with Jose but there you have it. The reality is we’re here and we need to work together.”

He raised an eyebrow. “We do?”

She nodded. “Jose needs us. He’s depending on us.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he’s standing on the front porch waving at us.” Marissa waved back.

Connor moved forward. Marissa tried to keep up. She could tell he was already in his cop persona. “Where were you last night, Jose?” Connor said.

“At the Corn Festival. Why?”

“Until when?”

“Closing time.”

“What about after that?”

Jose’s defenses rose. Marissa could see his body language changing. The door behind him opened and his grandmother poked her head out. “What’s going on? Why is there a police car in front of our house?”

“Hello.” Marissa held out her hand. “I’m Marissa
Barrett, the librarian in charge of the teen group at the library.”