Queen, page 21
“Queenie can make anything,” J.J. piped up. “She’s the best cook in the whole world.”
They laughed.
“It looks like I’ve just been invited to a party,” Queen said. “I’ll talk to you later about details.”
And then she knelt and took J.J. by the arms and pulled him close so that none of the other children passing by could hear. “I talked to Mr. Brass about the man, J.J. He’s going to take care of everything. You just remember what we talked about last night. If you see him again, you tell Mrs. Barrett, or Mr. Brass, or any of the other teachers who might happen to be close by, okay?”
Lisa Barrett frowned as she overheard part of what Queen was telling her student. “Problem?”
Queen nodded. “Mr. Brass will fill you in later, I think. I’d better go so you can get back to work and J.J. can get to class.” J.J. seemed reluctant to turn loose of her. “Pizza tonight,” she promised. He left with a smile.
“You’re very good for those boys,” Lisa Barrett said.
“No…quite the contrary,” Queen said. “They’re very good for me.”
She left the school with a lighter heart than she’d had in weeks and felt pleased with the fact that she’d made the right move. But there were a few more items on her agenda before she could leave Snow Gap, and she needed to hurry and finish them before Cody came home. She made a run for the Blazer and was soon headed back toward the shopping area of town.
She turned the corner and, as she did, saw that classes were changing in the high school on the opposite side of campus. It didn’t take long to spy Donny’s familiar dark head and lanky figure in one of the groups of boys walking from one classroom to another.
She honked, then grinned at Donny’s exuberant response as he waved and whistled while she drove away.
“Hey, hey, hey, Bonner,” one of Donny’s friends remarked, and added his own brand of wolf whistle to Queen’s retreating vehicle. “Who’s the babe? You been holding out?”
Donny glared. “That’s no babe! That’s Queen, the lady who takes care of us. And don’t get any fresh ideas. If my dad’s half as smart as I think he is, she’ll be my new stepmother any day now.”
The boy whistled beneath his breath. “She’s still a knockout, Bonner. Looks real hot.”
Donny punched his friend on the arm. “You don’t know hot from hopeless, Marv, and we both know it. So save it for some girl who’s stupid enough to fall for it…and you.”
The group laughed and went on their way, leaving Donny with a new awareness of his soon-to-be mother. His overprotective mode kicked in, and he renewed his efforts to be on the alert for the pervert she’d warned him about last night. That was all they needed—some guy trying to outdo that Virgil Stratton nut and hurt his Queenie or his little brothers.
He hurried on to class and hoped that when he got home this evening, his father would be back. Responsibility was a heavy load to carry alone.
Thanks to the abrupt change in weather, Wally Morrow had shed his trench coat for a rather weedy-looking sport coat and donned neat round sunglasses that unintentionally hid his small, close-set eyes and did their part in minimizing his beaky nose. The old soft-brimmed hat was worn more to hide his thinning hair than for style.
It was this small change in wardrobe that saved him from Queen’s notice as she walked out of the pharmacy and back toward her vehicle.
She might have missed him, but Wally didn’t miss a thing about her. It was his first up close and personal sighting of the woman he’d been hired to investigate. The description that Lenore Whittier had given him did not do justice to her beauty. He suspected that it was sour grapes as much as anything.
Wally turned his back to the Blazer at the curb and used the store window as a mirror in which to watch Queen Houston’s next move. She tossed a small sack onto the seat, locked the door, and then made a dash across the street between traffic to a dress shop on the opposite side.
“Okay,” Wally muttered to himself, taking the opportunity to make notes unobserved. “Been to the school, to the doctor, to the pharmacy, and now going shopping.” He dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s and privately thought that Lenore Whittier was spitting into the wind.
He’d been on the job for weeks and had yet to hear one negative thing about the lanky beauty under observation or see her do anything suspicious. But he had his orders, and they were to stay on the job until he found something Mrs. Whittier could use against Cody Bonner to prove him an unfit father.
He slid his notebook inside his jacket, stuffed his hands in his pockets, which made his pants sag even more across the rump, and shuffled down the street to hang out on the corner with a few ski bums who were waiting for a bus to take them to higher ground.
The chinook that had come and gone had left them with no powder on which to schuss, no moguls to attack, no place on which to execute perfect snowplows that would show off their highly defined thigh and buttock muscles.
Wally Morrow stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb in the crowd of young men bursting with vitality and joie de vivre. But it didn’t matter. As long as no one actually recognized him, he was satisfied.
Queen entered the store with one goal clearly in mind, and that was to add to her wardrobe of sweatsuits, sweaters, and jeans. Today she wanted soft and feminine. She wanted to look pretty for Cody. And the dress in the window would do the trick, if they had it in her size.
Minutes later she was in a dressing room, stripped down to nothing but her bra and panties. The dress she’d picked from the rack was a deep, dark, cranberry-colored knit that would hug her body in soft folds. Her fingers caressed the fabric, and then anticipation had her fumbling with the zipper as she quickly pulled it off the hanger and slipped it over her head.
It was better than she’d hoped. The color didn’t clash with her hair as she’d feared; quite the opposite—it enhanced the nut-brown undertones and auburn highlights to perfection. The sweetheart neckline was low enough to taunt an observer’s gaze to wander toward her generous bust and just high enough to remain sedate. The princess waistline emphasized her slender waist as well as the soft, gentle flare of her hips. And the fabric from which it was made molded against her shapely legs as she walked.
“This is the one,” she said, and in no time had dressed in her old clothes and paid for her purchase.
Minutes later she was back out on the sidewalk, her purchase in hand, a smile on her face that would have stopped traffic had the drivers been looking.
But only one person was watching her exit, and he wasn’t driving. Wally Morrow stared, blind to the fact that the crowd of young men in which he’d been hiding all got on a bus and left, leaving him alone on the street corner with his lust in high gear.
“Oh, my,” he muttered, feeling a strange stirring in his nether regions that hadn’t bothered him in months. “Oh, my,” he repeated, and watched her breasts bounce enticingly and her hips undulate in rhythm to the long strides she was taking.
Queen started across the street toward her Blazer, still thinking about Cody’s reaction to her dress, and almost missed seeing the man on the corner. In fact, if a car hadn’t honked for her to hurry across, she might not have looked up. But it did, and she saw, and something about the way he was standing, and the solemn, intent way in which he was watching, caught her attention.
Wally Morrow jerked as he suddenly realized she was staring back at him. “Oh, shit,” he muttered, and turned in a complete circle, so caught off guard by her attention that he forgot everything he’d ever learned during his fifteen years as a private investigator. Don’t call attention to yourself, and don’t panic. He’d just done both.
He looked around wildly and then darted into the first open doorway he came to, afraid to look back and see if she was still staring. He had a sudden flash of insight as to how the people upon whom he’d spied over the years must have felt and likened it to that of targets in a shooting gallery.
Queen’s stomach turned. Another car honked, and she looked around in shock, realizing that she was still in the middle of the street, and made a run for the other side, where the Blazer was parked. She had a sudden urge to get home and lock herself in—and the world out—until Cody came home.
Something told her that the man’s observations had not been all that innocent, especially after the way he’d behaved when he realized she’d seen him. And in spite of his funny-looking sunglasses, she would have sworn he had a sharp, pointy nose, just as J.J. had described.
Cody felt for the jeweler’s box tucked safely inside his pocket, as he had more than once during the trip from Denver.
“I’m hurrying,” Dennis said, and grinned at the look on his buddy’s face.
“I didn’t say a word,” Cody said.
“You didn’t have to. It’s called reading your body language, Coda-man. You’re as antsy as a green flyboy on his first scramble.”
Cody leaned back on the seat and tried to relax. Dennis was right. He felt just as he had the first time he’d been involved in an all-out alert—only the rush the pilots made to get to their jets and get them in the air was nothing compared to the rush of adrenaline shooting through his system now. He had a gut feeling about the odd message Queen had given him regarding a “problem” at home, and the feeling wasn’t good.
He sighed. Maybe he was just inventing trouble. All he needed was to get home and see Queen’s beautiful face, dig his fingers through her hair, and feel her wrap herself around him. Then he would be fine.
“Nearly there,” Dennis said as he topped the last hill.
Cody grinned. “Thanks for the ride. Next time, I’ll drive.”
“No, next time we’ll have your own car ready, compliments of Uncle Sam. A gray, government-issue special.”
“Oh, great.”
Cody’s sarcasm was not lost on Dennis Macon, and his easy laugh filled the interior of the car as they took the last turn toward home.
“Here we are,” Dennis said as he drove into the yard and parked.
“Sorry you can’t stay,” Cody said, making his point with a sharp look he dared Dennis to contest.
“Oh, Lord, but you’ve got it bad,” Dennis said. He looked up in time to see Queen exit the house and stand above them on the deck, waving down in happy anticipation. “And I can’t say as how I blame you.”
Cody didn’t answer, and Dennis didn’t wait around to see if he would change his mind about the invitation to come inside. He knew when he wasn’t wanted. And he also knew that if it weren’t for Queen Houston, he wouldn’t have Cody Bonner heading this project. Priorities being what they were in the military, he decided to take what he could get.
Cody met her at the top step and laughed with joy as she hurled herself into his arms. My God, but I’ve missed coming home to this, he thought. And then he recalled his life with Claire and realized that he’d never come home to this. She’d always been at some social function or didn’t want her hair or makeup mussed. He wondered what he’d done to deserve this kind of love, and this kind of woman, this late in his life.
“I missed you,” Queen said, feeling a surge of response from his body as he moved against her.
“I think it’s pretty damned obvious that I missed you, too,” Cody said, then took her upturned face as an offer to kiss.
Her lips were soft and tasted of strawberries. He wondered what she’d been cooking and then wondered why he cared. The last thing he wanted now was food.
Queen took in the scent and the feel of him, glorying in the fact that she could make him ache in all the right places with nothing more than a look or a touch. His mouth raked across her face, centering on her lips, and then insisted on staking a claim she would never deny him.
She groaned, and his hands slid behind her, cupping her hips and grinding her gently against the ache she’d created. “Cody, I—”
“Come inside,” he whispered, and lifted her off her feet.
“But we need to—”
“I know what we need, my lady. It’s each other.”
“Yes, but—”
“No buts. Besides, I distinctly heard you say ‘yes.’ Am I right?”
The wind caught in his hair and ran playful, gusty fingers through the raven-dark mane. His eyes, as blue as the sky behind him, dared her to argue with forces beyond their control.
Queen sighed with defeat and smiled in answer. She knew defeat when it came. And she was no match for the passion between them. “Yes, my love, you’re right, as always.”
Cody whooped with joy, carried her through the door, and kicked it shut behind him, careful to turn the lock before carrying her up the stairs.
Within seconds of entering his bedroom he started to remove their clothing, first his, then hers, one step at a time, increasing the need between them in slow increments.
“I seem to remember you telling me something special last night,” Cody said as he laid her on his bed and slid himself upon her. “Something I’ve been waiting a long time to hear.”
Queen feathered her fingers through his hair, combing the texture over and over in gentle strokes. Her eyelids grew heavy with passion as his body grew hard. The feel of his weight and his need, and the hard, rhythmic thump of his heartbeat against her breasts started a low and constant throbbing down deep in her body.
She moved, her legs shifting apart as her hands slid down the length of his back, and, when she’d made room for him, urged him in by digging her fingernails lightly across his backside and arching herself upward to meet the thrust she knew would come.
He couldn’t resist her offer and slid inside without conscious thought, moving on instinct. The groan that slipped out of his tightly clenched lips was one not of pain, but of ecstasy, and when she began to move beneath him, he knew that it had only begun.
“Oh, Cody!” she gasped, and then tried to focus when the movement inside her changed from controlled thrusts to a pounding need. One minute she’d known what she was going to say, and the next thing she could remember was an overwhelming rush of sensation that swept everything from her mind except the surge toward completion.
She clutched him, holding on for dear life as the world within her mind splintered, and knew as he wrapped his arms around her and laid his face against the curve of her neck that his sanity had shattered as well.
He shook, shoulders heaving from exertion and spent need. His hair was damp beneath her fingertips, and his breath against her breasts was short and uneven.
“I love you, you know,” she whispered, and held him as he grew still.
He lifted himself up, bracing on elbows that were barely steady, and stared down into a world of green that was wild and deep enough for a man to get lost in. He pressed his lips against her mouth in a fervent thanksgiving and knew that for him it was already too late. He was lost as hell and didn’t give a damn about finding his way out.
“Thank you, my lady,” he said, and kissed the smile on her face. “For giving me everything a man could wish for.”
Queen heard a clock chime downstairs and sighed. “You’re going to get a lot more than you wished for if you don’t let me up and let me get dressed. The boys will be here before you know it. And I don’t think they’re quite ready for this scene.”
Cody grinned, remembering the jeweler’s box in the jacket lying somewhere on the floor. “Oh, you’d be surprised,” he said as he rolled away and reluctantly let her up, watching her nudity with undisguised appreciation as she struggled back into her clothes. “I think they’re ready for more than you give them credit.”
She smiled and then remembered the problem that Cody didn’t even know existed. “When you get yourself together, come downstairs. There’s something you need to know.”
Moments later she was gone, and it was the tone of her voice and the look in her eyes that sent him scrambling out of bed and into his clothes, the jeweler’s box for the moment forgotten.
The work island in the middle of the kitchen was between them when he walked into the room. From the nervous gestures of her hands and the way she kept looking away, he knew it wasn’t good.
“What?” he said. “And for God’s sake, honey, please don’t be afraid. Whatever it is, you can always tell me.”
The knot in the pit of her stomach began to unwind. She’d known it. She’d just needed to hear him say it. “Some man was bothering J.J. at school. He wasn’t going to tell, but I overheard him talking to Will about it.”
“Oh, hell,” Cody said, and raked his hands through his hair. It was a parent’s worst nightmare—the thought of a pervert touching their child. “What did you do?” he asked.
“I hugged him. After that, he told me everything, even down to the fact that the man’s throat ‘poked out’ when he talked.”
Cody managed a grin. “Thank God you were here.”
“I went to the school today and told Stanley Brass. I didn’t think this should wait until you got home.”
Cody covered the space between them in seconds and pulled her into his arms. “Thank you, Queen. You did the right thing.”
He kissed her cheek and tilted her face toward him, needing to assure her by action as well as words that she had his full support in whatever had to be done regarding his sons. If his plans went on schedule, before long they’d be her sons, too.
“There’s more,” she said, pulling out of his arms. Until she finished the story, she couldn’t accept his gratitude when it might later turn into regret.
Cody waited.
“The man who bothered J.J…was asking about me.”
Cody jerked. She felt his shock even though they were not touching. “What do you mean?”
His voice deepened, his posture changed. Queen could see him going on alert. “I mean, he was questioning J.J. about me, Cody. And today, after I left the school…I thought I was being followed.”
“Damn!”
Cody spun, slamming his fist against the counter in a gesture of fear and frustration. Fear that once again Queen had been threatened, and as before, he’d been absent when it had occurred.
They laughed.
“It looks like I’ve just been invited to a party,” Queen said. “I’ll talk to you later about details.”
And then she knelt and took J.J. by the arms and pulled him close so that none of the other children passing by could hear. “I talked to Mr. Brass about the man, J.J. He’s going to take care of everything. You just remember what we talked about last night. If you see him again, you tell Mrs. Barrett, or Mr. Brass, or any of the other teachers who might happen to be close by, okay?”
Lisa Barrett frowned as she overheard part of what Queen was telling her student. “Problem?”
Queen nodded. “Mr. Brass will fill you in later, I think. I’d better go so you can get back to work and J.J. can get to class.” J.J. seemed reluctant to turn loose of her. “Pizza tonight,” she promised. He left with a smile.
“You’re very good for those boys,” Lisa Barrett said.
“No…quite the contrary,” Queen said. “They’re very good for me.”
She left the school with a lighter heart than she’d had in weeks and felt pleased with the fact that she’d made the right move. But there were a few more items on her agenda before she could leave Snow Gap, and she needed to hurry and finish them before Cody came home. She made a run for the Blazer and was soon headed back toward the shopping area of town.
She turned the corner and, as she did, saw that classes were changing in the high school on the opposite side of campus. It didn’t take long to spy Donny’s familiar dark head and lanky figure in one of the groups of boys walking from one classroom to another.
She honked, then grinned at Donny’s exuberant response as he waved and whistled while she drove away.
“Hey, hey, hey, Bonner,” one of Donny’s friends remarked, and added his own brand of wolf whistle to Queen’s retreating vehicle. “Who’s the babe? You been holding out?”
Donny glared. “That’s no babe! That’s Queen, the lady who takes care of us. And don’t get any fresh ideas. If my dad’s half as smart as I think he is, she’ll be my new stepmother any day now.”
The boy whistled beneath his breath. “She’s still a knockout, Bonner. Looks real hot.”
Donny punched his friend on the arm. “You don’t know hot from hopeless, Marv, and we both know it. So save it for some girl who’s stupid enough to fall for it…and you.”
The group laughed and went on their way, leaving Donny with a new awareness of his soon-to-be mother. His overprotective mode kicked in, and he renewed his efforts to be on the alert for the pervert she’d warned him about last night. That was all they needed—some guy trying to outdo that Virgil Stratton nut and hurt his Queenie or his little brothers.
He hurried on to class and hoped that when he got home this evening, his father would be back. Responsibility was a heavy load to carry alone.
Thanks to the abrupt change in weather, Wally Morrow had shed his trench coat for a rather weedy-looking sport coat and donned neat round sunglasses that unintentionally hid his small, close-set eyes and did their part in minimizing his beaky nose. The old soft-brimmed hat was worn more to hide his thinning hair than for style.
It was this small change in wardrobe that saved him from Queen’s notice as she walked out of the pharmacy and back toward her vehicle.
She might have missed him, but Wally didn’t miss a thing about her. It was his first up close and personal sighting of the woman he’d been hired to investigate. The description that Lenore Whittier had given him did not do justice to her beauty. He suspected that it was sour grapes as much as anything.
Wally turned his back to the Blazer at the curb and used the store window as a mirror in which to watch Queen Houston’s next move. She tossed a small sack onto the seat, locked the door, and then made a dash across the street between traffic to a dress shop on the opposite side.
“Okay,” Wally muttered to himself, taking the opportunity to make notes unobserved. “Been to the school, to the doctor, to the pharmacy, and now going shopping.” He dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s and privately thought that Lenore Whittier was spitting into the wind.
He’d been on the job for weeks and had yet to hear one negative thing about the lanky beauty under observation or see her do anything suspicious. But he had his orders, and they were to stay on the job until he found something Mrs. Whittier could use against Cody Bonner to prove him an unfit father.
He slid his notebook inside his jacket, stuffed his hands in his pockets, which made his pants sag even more across the rump, and shuffled down the street to hang out on the corner with a few ski bums who were waiting for a bus to take them to higher ground.
The chinook that had come and gone had left them with no powder on which to schuss, no moguls to attack, no place on which to execute perfect snowplows that would show off their highly defined thigh and buttock muscles.
Wally Morrow stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb in the crowd of young men bursting with vitality and joie de vivre. But it didn’t matter. As long as no one actually recognized him, he was satisfied.
Queen entered the store with one goal clearly in mind, and that was to add to her wardrobe of sweatsuits, sweaters, and jeans. Today she wanted soft and feminine. She wanted to look pretty for Cody. And the dress in the window would do the trick, if they had it in her size.
Minutes later she was in a dressing room, stripped down to nothing but her bra and panties. The dress she’d picked from the rack was a deep, dark, cranberry-colored knit that would hug her body in soft folds. Her fingers caressed the fabric, and then anticipation had her fumbling with the zipper as she quickly pulled it off the hanger and slipped it over her head.
It was better than she’d hoped. The color didn’t clash with her hair as she’d feared; quite the opposite—it enhanced the nut-brown undertones and auburn highlights to perfection. The sweetheart neckline was low enough to taunt an observer’s gaze to wander toward her generous bust and just high enough to remain sedate. The princess waistline emphasized her slender waist as well as the soft, gentle flare of her hips. And the fabric from which it was made molded against her shapely legs as she walked.
“This is the one,” she said, and in no time had dressed in her old clothes and paid for her purchase.
Minutes later she was back out on the sidewalk, her purchase in hand, a smile on her face that would have stopped traffic had the drivers been looking.
But only one person was watching her exit, and he wasn’t driving. Wally Morrow stared, blind to the fact that the crowd of young men in which he’d been hiding all got on a bus and left, leaving him alone on the street corner with his lust in high gear.
“Oh, my,” he muttered, feeling a strange stirring in his nether regions that hadn’t bothered him in months. “Oh, my,” he repeated, and watched her breasts bounce enticingly and her hips undulate in rhythm to the long strides she was taking.
Queen started across the street toward her Blazer, still thinking about Cody’s reaction to her dress, and almost missed seeing the man on the corner. In fact, if a car hadn’t honked for her to hurry across, she might not have looked up. But it did, and she saw, and something about the way he was standing, and the solemn, intent way in which he was watching, caught her attention.
Wally Morrow jerked as he suddenly realized she was staring back at him. “Oh, shit,” he muttered, and turned in a complete circle, so caught off guard by her attention that he forgot everything he’d ever learned during his fifteen years as a private investigator. Don’t call attention to yourself, and don’t panic. He’d just done both.
He looked around wildly and then darted into the first open doorway he came to, afraid to look back and see if she was still staring. He had a sudden flash of insight as to how the people upon whom he’d spied over the years must have felt and likened it to that of targets in a shooting gallery.
Queen’s stomach turned. Another car honked, and she looked around in shock, realizing that she was still in the middle of the street, and made a run for the other side, where the Blazer was parked. She had a sudden urge to get home and lock herself in—and the world out—until Cody came home.
Something told her that the man’s observations had not been all that innocent, especially after the way he’d behaved when he realized she’d seen him. And in spite of his funny-looking sunglasses, she would have sworn he had a sharp, pointy nose, just as J.J. had described.
Cody felt for the jeweler’s box tucked safely inside his pocket, as he had more than once during the trip from Denver.
“I’m hurrying,” Dennis said, and grinned at the look on his buddy’s face.
“I didn’t say a word,” Cody said.
“You didn’t have to. It’s called reading your body language, Coda-man. You’re as antsy as a green flyboy on his first scramble.”
Cody leaned back on the seat and tried to relax. Dennis was right. He felt just as he had the first time he’d been involved in an all-out alert—only the rush the pilots made to get to their jets and get them in the air was nothing compared to the rush of adrenaline shooting through his system now. He had a gut feeling about the odd message Queen had given him regarding a “problem” at home, and the feeling wasn’t good.
He sighed. Maybe he was just inventing trouble. All he needed was to get home and see Queen’s beautiful face, dig his fingers through her hair, and feel her wrap herself around him. Then he would be fine.
“Nearly there,” Dennis said as he topped the last hill.
Cody grinned. “Thanks for the ride. Next time, I’ll drive.”
“No, next time we’ll have your own car ready, compliments of Uncle Sam. A gray, government-issue special.”
“Oh, great.”
Cody’s sarcasm was not lost on Dennis Macon, and his easy laugh filled the interior of the car as they took the last turn toward home.
“Here we are,” Dennis said as he drove into the yard and parked.
“Sorry you can’t stay,” Cody said, making his point with a sharp look he dared Dennis to contest.
“Oh, Lord, but you’ve got it bad,” Dennis said. He looked up in time to see Queen exit the house and stand above them on the deck, waving down in happy anticipation. “And I can’t say as how I blame you.”
Cody didn’t answer, and Dennis didn’t wait around to see if he would change his mind about the invitation to come inside. He knew when he wasn’t wanted. And he also knew that if it weren’t for Queen Houston, he wouldn’t have Cody Bonner heading this project. Priorities being what they were in the military, he decided to take what he could get.
Cody met her at the top step and laughed with joy as she hurled herself into his arms. My God, but I’ve missed coming home to this, he thought. And then he recalled his life with Claire and realized that he’d never come home to this. She’d always been at some social function or didn’t want her hair or makeup mussed. He wondered what he’d done to deserve this kind of love, and this kind of woman, this late in his life.
“I missed you,” Queen said, feeling a surge of response from his body as he moved against her.
“I think it’s pretty damned obvious that I missed you, too,” Cody said, then took her upturned face as an offer to kiss.
Her lips were soft and tasted of strawberries. He wondered what she’d been cooking and then wondered why he cared. The last thing he wanted now was food.
Queen took in the scent and the feel of him, glorying in the fact that she could make him ache in all the right places with nothing more than a look or a touch. His mouth raked across her face, centering on her lips, and then insisted on staking a claim she would never deny him.
She groaned, and his hands slid behind her, cupping her hips and grinding her gently against the ache she’d created. “Cody, I—”
“Come inside,” he whispered, and lifted her off her feet.
“But we need to—”
“I know what we need, my lady. It’s each other.”
“Yes, but—”
“No buts. Besides, I distinctly heard you say ‘yes.’ Am I right?”
The wind caught in his hair and ran playful, gusty fingers through the raven-dark mane. His eyes, as blue as the sky behind him, dared her to argue with forces beyond their control.
Queen sighed with defeat and smiled in answer. She knew defeat when it came. And she was no match for the passion between them. “Yes, my love, you’re right, as always.”
Cody whooped with joy, carried her through the door, and kicked it shut behind him, careful to turn the lock before carrying her up the stairs.
Within seconds of entering his bedroom he started to remove their clothing, first his, then hers, one step at a time, increasing the need between them in slow increments.
“I seem to remember you telling me something special last night,” Cody said as he laid her on his bed and slid himself upon her. “Something I’ve been waiting a long time to hear.”
Queen feathered her fingers through his hair, combing the texture over and over in gentle strokes. Her eyelids grew heavy with passion as his body grew hard. The feel of his weight and his need, and the hard, rhythmic thump of his heartbeat against her breasts started a low and constant throbbing down deep in her body.
She moved, her legs shifting apart as her hands slid down the length of his back, and, when she’d made room for him, urged him in by digging her fingernails lightly across his backside and arching herself upward to meet the thrust she knew would come.
He couldn’t resist her offer and slid inside without conscious thought, moving on instinct. The groan that slipped out of his tightly clenched lips was one not of pain, but of ecstasy, and when she began to move beneath him, he knew that it had only begun.
“Oh, Cody!” she gasped, and then tried to focus when the movement inside her changed from controlled thrusts to a pounding need. One minute she’d known what she was going to say, and the next thing she could remember was an overwhelming rush of sensation that swept everything from her mind except the surge toward completion.
She clutched him, holding on for dear life as the world within her mind splintered, and knew as he wrapped his arms around her and laid his face against the curve of her neck that his sanity had shattered as well.
He shook, shoulders heaving from exertion and spent need. His hair was damp beneath her fingertips, and his breath against her breasts was short and uneven.
“I love you, you know,” she whispered, and held him as he grew still.
He lifted himself up, bracing on elbows that were barely steady, and stared down into a world of green that was wild and deep enough for a man to get lost in. He pressed his lips against her mouth in a fervent thanksgiving and knew that for him it was already too late. He was lost as hell and didn’t give a damn about finding his way out.
“Thank you, my lady,” he said, and kissed the smile on her face. “For giving me everything a man could wish for.”
Queen heard a clock chime downstairs and sighed. “You’re going to get a lot more than you wished for if you don’t let me up and let me get dressed. The boys will be here before you know it. And I don’t think they’re quite ready for this scene.”
Cody grinned, remembering the jeweler’s box in the jacket lying somewhere on the floor. “Oh, you’d be surprised,” he said as he rolled away and reluctantly let her up, watching her nudity with undisguised appreciation as she struggled back into her clothes. “I think they’re ready for more than you give them credit.”
She smiled and then remembered the problem that Cody didn’t even know existed. “When you get yourself together, come downstairs. There’s something you need to know.”
Moments later she was gone, and it was the tone of her voice and the look in her eyes that sent him scrambling out of bed and into his clothes, the jeweler’s box for the moment forgotten.
The work island in the middle of the kitchen was between them when he walked into the room. From the nervous gestures of her hands and the way she kept looking away, he knew it wasn’t good.
“What?” he said. “And for God’s sake, honey, please don’t be afraid. Whatever it is, you can always tell me.”
The knot in the pit of her stomach began to unwind. She’d known it. She’d just needed to hear him say it. “Some man was bothering J.J. at school. He wasn’t going to tell, but I overheard him talking to Will about it.”
“Oh, hell,” Cody said, and raked his hands through his hair. It was a parent’s worst nightmare—the thought of a pervert touching their child. “What did you do?” he asked.
“I hugged him. After that, he told me everything, even down to the fact that the man’s throat ‘poked out’ when he talked.”
Cody managed a grin. “Thank God you were here.”
“I went to the school today and told Stanley Brass. I didn’t think this should wait until you got home.”
Cody covered the space between them in seconds and pulled her into his arms. “Thank you, Queen. You did the right thing.”
He kissed her cheek and tilted her face toward him, needing to assure her by action as well as words that she had his full support in whatever had to be done regarding his sons. If his plans went on schedule, before long they’d be her sons, too.
“There’s more,” she said, pulling out of his arms. Until she finished the story, she couldn’t accept his gratitude when it might later turn into regret.
Cody waited.
“The man who bothered J.J…was asking about me.”
Cody jerked. She felt his shock even though they were not touching. “What do you mean?”
His voice deepened, his posture changed. Queen could see him going on alert. “I mean, he was questioning J.J. about me, Cody. And today, after I left the school…I thought I was being followed.”
“Damn!”
Cody spun, slamming his fist against the counter in a gesture of fear and frustration. Fear that once again Queen had been threatened, and as before, he’d been absent when it had occurred.
