The Wedding Audition (13 page)

Some of that scary feeling slipped away as she realized Wynn knew exactly how to take them where she wanted to go. This night wasn’t going to end in quiet contentment. It would end in fireworks.

With restless hands, she scraped at his tee, tugging and shoving cotton aside until he leaned up to pull it off for her. By the light of the moon streaming bright through the windows, she got an eyeful of naked broad shoulders and flat pectoral muscles. Abs that made her breath catch.

“Pants too,” she blurted, enjoying the show. “I mean, as long as you’re at it.”

“You make a sexy voyeur.” He worked the buttons on his jeans and shucked them faster than she’d ever have managed. His boxers disappeared too. “But if you keep looking at me like that, Annamae, I’m not going to last long.” He reached for her. “Did I mention I’ve been in hiding for the past year?”

“You mean no women?” Her eyes seemed stuck to him, refusing to obey when she was ready to stop ogling.

He was just so…
So
.

Everything about him was delicious.

“No women.” He pulled her up to stand beside him and her eyes still wouldn’t behave. He tugged off her jeans and tossed them onto the hardwood floor.

“So all these greedy looks haven’t been about me. You’re just starved for sex?” she teased.

“First of all, I’m not alone in the greedy looks department.” He nipped her ear and slid a hand around her waist, palming the small of her back. “Second, this is all about you. Only you.”

He pressed his hips to hers and she was already seeing stars.

She held tight to his shoulders, losing herself in another mind-drugging kiss. He whispered things in her ear. Naughty, hot things that should have made her blush but only made her whimper with need for more.

By the time he slid a finger inside her, she was so revved up she came instantly. Instantly. It was the most insane thing ever. Until he took her in his mouth and made her fly apart all over again. She would have used the last of her strength to straddle him and take what she wanted most, but he must have read her mind because he rolled her on top of him and handed her a condom.

Mindless with want, she simply followed the silent command and took him inside her.

She could have moved against him like a mad woman, but when she saw the sweat bead along his forehead, she knew he hadn’t been kidding about not having been with anyone for a while. She let him control the pace, humbled to be the one he chose after all that time.

Just when she thought the night didn’t have the power to surprise her anymore, she was most struck by that tender sentiment—that this was more than just a fling because he’d chosen her. The notion got under her skin and into her head until she wanted to hold him all night long and kiss every square inch of him.

He took his time, holding back, finding ways to drive the pleasure higher for her even though he teetered too close to the edge. In the end, she pushed him over, nipping his ear and whispering a precise description of what she planned to do to him the next time she got him naked.

She couldn’t savor the victory too long though. The feel of him throbbing deep inside her nudged her into a third orgasm she never would have dreamed possible in one night.

Fireworks, for sure.

She smiled as the aftershocks pulsed along her skin for long minutes afterward. She couldn’t speak. Could barely move. Instead, she just curled up against him and absorbed the warm feel of his chest beneath her cheek.

“Definitely unexpected.” His words made her smile right before she might have drifted off.

“You can’t have any morning-after regrets yet,” she informed him, only half joking. “I’m still in the afterglow stage.”

“I’m a guy. We never regret sex.” His hand curled around her shoulder, brushing lightly.

She laughed. “Right. Don’t know what I was thinking.”

Although she did, of course. She was worried he’d regret being with her. He’d be leaving Beulah soon for his trial. And she’d be…

She wasn’t even sure.

“I can hear you thinking.” He kissed the top of her head, a gentle press of his lips in her hair.

“Is that a crack on me for being an actress? Nothing but air between my ears?”

“Hell no.” He shifted her so they lay side by side on the pillow, facing each other. “That’s the psych major talking. You went all silent after you said you didn’t know what you were thinking—.”

“So you assumed I was suddenly thinking deep thoughts.” Who knew she was so predictable? Her grandmother had been right. She really wasn’t a very good actress.

“Bingo.” He lifted a strand of her hair where it lay between them. Stroked it between his thumb and forefinger. “It’s only normal, you know. You went from thinking I was some random good old boy farmer to finding out I’m law enforcement, to finding out I’m wildly attracted to you all in one day. Any woman would be overwhelmed.”

She knew he was making a joke, but she really did feel kind of undone by the last few days.

“I think I’m just punch drunk from all those orgasms.” She deflected the more serious part of the conversation, truly savoring the afterglow. She could live off those endorphins for months.

“Good to know. I hear there’s an unlimited supply when you sleep in this bed.” Carefully, he smoothed the strands of her hair back into place. “Red, I want you to know I’m going to keep you safe.”

Had she thought she’d deflected the more serious part of this conversation?

“I’m not worried. I feel safer here than just walking around Atlanta on any given day.”

“I mean from the Dimitris. From the trial hanging over my head. If it comes down to it, and I think it’s not safe for you here, I’ll make sure you get protection somewhere else.”

“I don’t want to be anywhere else.” Could he do that? Send her away if he was worried about her? As a law enforcement officer, maybe he could.

“All the stories that ran in the paper… they made me sound like I screwed up that op.”

She pressed a palm to his chest over his heartbeat. “No they didn’t.”

“Yeah, they did. They talked about the teen – Antony – who got caught in the crossfire of police ready to make a bust, but it was a cop from some other unit who jumped the gun. We’d been paired up for weeks, both working the same undercover operation—neither of us wanting to compromise our cases. It’s not like on TV where you can just pull rank and get rid of a guy when you feel like he’s not quite up to snuff. There’s so much time invested, lives at stake if covers get blown. You’re living in this elaborate web of lies. It’s… complicated.”

She heard something different in his voice. Something personal. He’d spent a lot of time thinking about this—she didn’t need a psych degree to know it.

“I thought the news coverage made it sound like that teen was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just bad timing. He went to try and talk his friend out of leaving a gang—”

His face was strained, taking on five years’ worth of lines in an instant. “He was a great kid. Antony. He’d been a runner in another crew when he was younger, had a long rap sheet he did earn, but he got out. Really worked his ass off to stay out of that bad element. He didn’t recognize me when I was working undercover, but I knew him from when I’d worked in Ft. Lauderdale. I helped him clean up when he hung out at a rec center where I volunteered.”

“So you saved him from street violence once, only to see him die the way so many gang members do.” She couldn’t imagine how hard his job must be. How painful it must be to watch a life end that way, especially a young person full of such promise. “I’m so sorry.”

“Right before he died, though, he recognized me.” The rawness in his voice made her throat close up.

“Did he say anything?”

He shook his head. “No. There was just that—light of recognition. And… I don’t know. I swear there was a peace in his eyes. I’ve thought about that moment so many times, knowing that I might have read into it what I wanted to see.”

He shrugged. Like he had more to say but changed his mind.

She held his hand. Kissed his cheek. “You know what you saw. Some people are born knowing exactly who they are. Maybe that boy felt a peace because he died doing something he believed in.”

Annamae didn’t know if it was the right thing to say. If it gave him any comfort. But he lifted their twined hands and kissed the back of hers. “Thank you.”

“I hope your testimony puts away the person who killed Antony.” She understood a little better why he’d given a year of his life to staying in hiding while the government built their case. It was about more than drugs or a job. It was about justice for a young man taken too soon.

“It will, Red. I know it.”

They lay together in silence for a long time, and she felt his breathing go even. Her mind was unsettled though, her afterglow chased off by criminals gunning for Wynn. What a dark world she’d stumbled into. She must have looked like something out of a cartoon with her red convertible and her dog and bleached blonde hair when she’d barreled up to his gate. No wonder he hadn’t wanted any part of her on his property.

She would never forgive herself if she’d endangered him. Or the case that meant so much to him. Which was why she needed to play by his rules, be discreet. And leave when he told her to.

She just hoped she wouldn’t leave too big of a piece of her heart behind when that day came.

When Wynn’s cell phone buzzed on the nightstand by her ear, she realized she must have fallen asleep too. Disoriented, she blinked in the darkness, but Wynn was alert instantly, his face illuminated by the phone.

“Hello?” His eyes went to her even as he fielded the call.

She liked that. Liked the connection. Wynn must have seen who it was on caller ID because he switched the call to speaker phone so she could hear.

“Mr. Lambert, it’s Gus Fields from the service station near the Sleep Tight Motor Lodge. I had a customer out here earlier tonight asking about that starlet. Ms. Jessup? She was real persistent-like.”

Annamae sat up, dragging the sheet with her. Who was asking about her? A reporter?

“What did you say?” Wynn slid out of the blankets, putting his feet on the floor.

Confused, Annamae wondered what time it was. Where was he going?

“I didn’t tell her anything, like we agreed. But Roofus Haverty has a mouth on him like an old woman.”

Annamae frowned, not appreciating that comparison.

“What did Roofus say?”

“He went and told the lady how Ms. Jessup went to your place one time. And this woman—kinda uppity like—she lit out of here a little while ago. Just now, Roofus told me she was asking for directions to your place. I woulda called sooner but I got busy—.”

“It’s okay, Gus. I appreciate the—”

The security alarm blared.

‡

W
ynn tossed Annamae
her phone. Her real phone this time. Not a throwaway.

“Take this, get dressed and get into the room I showed you. It’s safe in there. You can watch what happens on the screens.”

Her movements were shaky, but she was already in her t-shirt.

“Do you know how to get in there? Will I be able to get back out?”

“Yes to both.” His tone was even, but the lines on his face had reappeared. He pocketed his phone and checked the clip on his 9mm. “Take Bagel with you.”

“It’s probably just someone from the media.” Annamae wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and followed him downstairs, the rest of her clothes tucked under her arm. “Right?”

“Probably.” He ground his teeth together. Hoped like hell it was just someone looking for Annamae and not him.

And if they were looking for Annamae to get to him? Wynn’s brain blanked like a TV channel that wouldn’t come in.

“Be safe,” she told him, kissing him on his cheek and catching him off guard with the unexpected tenderness.

When had anyone ever looked out for him?

Even his partner had been trying to make the big bust, risking his ass to make the collar and not to protect their cover. And that guy had gotten
paid
to protect Wynn.

“You too.” He gave her a gentle shove into the safe room, stepping behind her to check the security cameras for a direction to go in.

Both their eyes went to the wall of video screens to see a woman in a white BMW and a pink short sleeve suit at the back entrance of the farm.

“Oh God.” Annamae gripped the wall. “It’s my mom.”

“Your mother?” Wynn swore while he shut off the alarm. “Where is the camera entourage? I thought your family normally travelled with a photo crew.”

He checked all the other cameras. Pressed a button for more angles on each, sweeping the road and the rows of trees.

“I don’t see Josephine—the woman who usual tapes my mother’s scenes.” Annamae shook her head, her hair tangled all around her, looking so damn sexy, so damn perfect. “Mom hasn’t gone anywhere by herself in years.”

“It’s your call as to what happens next. Do I let her in and risk her telling someone where you are? Or do you want to go out and convince her to go away?” He knew that wasn’t really a choice. Annamae could get hurt if she went out there and the gates were being watched. “Never mind. I’ll go get her.”