Chapter 41
Forty-One
E than lay next to Jane and inhaled deeply. The lingering scent of their lovemaking clung to the sheets and filled the air.
He hadn’t felt this way in a long time—being with a woman who made him laugh and was still irresistibly sexy. And lordy, Jane was sexy.
He looked over at her lean form resting beside him. Her skin was soft and dewy. His gaze traveled up to her perfect breasts, making him want to caress and suck them again. And he remembered how she was so responsive to his every touch.
He looked at his watch and cursed. Damn. He was due at the station in an hour, and all he wanted to do was lie here, tangled in the sheets with her, and make love again. First, though, he needed to shower, and more importantly, he needed to find out who was targeting Jane.
“Hey, you.” She looked at him lazily and murmured, “That was fantastic.”
Ethan leaned over, pressing a tender kiss to her lips. “It was. Unfortunately, I need to shower and get to the station. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be leaving this bed.”
Jane chuckled. “And I have farm work to do, plus I need to check on Bucky.”
He reluctantly slid out of bed, giving one last look at Jane lying there, her lips swollen from his kisses, her nipples hard and puckered, and groaned. Damn. He didn’t want to leave.
“Go,” teased Jane, “before I have my wicked way with you again.”
Ethan sighed, got up and walked into the bathroom and turned the shower on. When it was warm enough, he stepped in. Steam quickly filled the room, fogging the glass door. He let the hot water sluice over his tired muscles. He was rinsing the shampoo from his hair when a sudden draft caused him to glance over to see Jane naked, stepping into the shower with the steam surrounding her. She knelt in front of him, the water dripping down her hair. His heart started racing.
“Jane,” he said, his voice rough. “What are you doing?”
She looked up at him with twinkling eyes and said, “If you don’t know, I’m not telling.”
Wrapping her hands around his shaft, she began stroking his cock up and down while licking the head.
Then she changed positions and licked his sensitive cock until it felt like it had grown a foot and would explode with need.
Ethan groaned and steadied himself against the shower wall. She twirled her tongue around the head of his penis, driving him crazy. He couldn’t move, didn’t want to move. It felt so unbelievably good. She took his entire cock deeper into her mouth and sucked faster while she played with his balls, driving him crazy.
“Stop, or I’m coming in your mouth,” he warned.
But Jane only smiled around his cock and sucked harder. He couldn’t hold back any longer. With a guttural moan, he came hard, and she swallowed every drop.
When he was spent, he pulled her up and kissed her hard. “You didn’t have to do that,” he murmured.
“Why not?” she replied. “You gave me all the attention earlier and wouldn’t let me touch you then.”
“That was all for me,” he said and kissed her again. “That was the best blow job I’ve ever had.”
“Well, I am an overachiever,” she teased. “We stubborn weeds are like that.”
“You’re going to be the death of me.” Ethan laughed, turned her and opened the shower door and lightly slapped her ass. “Now get out before I take you again. I’ve got to get to the station.”
Ethan hated leaving, but more pressing was finding out what his deputies had discovered. He changed at his house, managing to avoid Tanner, who would have made some lewd comment, thinking he was funny. Actually, all the brothers would have and had teased him at some point. Not that he hadn’t teased them as well, but still.
The drive was pleasant, and he waved to a few familiar faces. Parking in front of the station, he grabbed his hat and walked into bedlam. Someone was singing at the top of their lungs from the jail cell. Two deputies were interviewing an irate man while Rosie shouted over the chaos on the phone.
“Sheriff.” Nora handed him his messages.
He raised his brows.
“Bart tied one on last night and got into a fight,” she said, answering his silent question.
“Crap.” He sighed. The day had started so well. “Hopefully, he’ll get tired and fall asleep.”
“We can only wish,” she replied.
Ethan walked back to his office, stopping to ask Rosie, Adam and Jimbo to stop in. He stared at the growing pile of mail he needed to go through and pulled his chair out.
The deputies filed in and took seats.
“What did Scotty say?” asked Adam.
“It’s looking like arson.” He tapped on the desk. “Any similar incidents in town?”
Rosie looked up from the information on her lap. “Nothing that I could find. We also checked with Mr. Pomeroy, who sold the heater to Jane, and he claims it was in perfect working order. He didn’t need it because he couldn’t maintain a greenhouse anymore.”
Well, that wasn’t unexpected.
“Anything else on Thornton?”
“Well, the name Viper keeps popping up in Thornton’s bank account. No one with that name is registered at any of the hotels or motels in the area. Although I’m sure that’s not his real name.”
“Did you check the Airbnb’s?”
She pursed his lips and rolled her eyes. Guess she did.
“How much money are we talking about?” Ethan asked. This could be the link they needed to tie the case together, and if he were a betting man, this man was probably tied to the gang Sean was looking into.
“Thousands.”
“Still doesn’t explain the events at Jane’s farm.”
Adam raised a finger. “It does if this Viper and Thornton were trying to buy the farm and then oversell it or use it to launder money or … there’s something on it one of them wanted.”
“Okay. I’ll go along with that. Why don’t you check the county clerk’s office and tax assessor’s office records and see if anything pops up? Also, back issues of the newspaper. Go back as far as you can.”
“Will do,” replied Adam.
“Jimbo, anything?”
“Nothing. It’s impossible to know who’s new in town, just visiting, or passing through. There’ve been no incidents of any kind. Emmett’s still checking, but that’s going nowhere.”
“Okay, I’m going to check with Sean and see if that name rings a bell,” Ethan said. Crap. The list of information they didn’t have was growing, and Jane’s life was still in danger.