Chapter 22 Dredging Up The Past #2
“Good. Come to the kitchen and keep me company. The shrimp will take less time than the pasta; then I’m putting in blistered tomatoes, butter sauce and spinach. A quick, easy meal.”
“Tell me about your humorous conversation when you got home,” he said, sitting at her island.
“Remember when I said that when I was looking at the video footage of the condos that Kane, Daniel and Rocco all walked out together while I was in the reception area?”
“Yep. I think it was staged.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know that for sure, but it doesn’t matter. Rocco was given some crap about checking in with Cindy and not leaving her waiting and having to keep her happy. Cindy Fryer lives in my building.”
“Do you think it was the same person?”
“Don’t know. Cindy is on the town board. She’s been on it for almost two decades.” She told him what had been said. “Then Rocco let it slip that she got a deal when she bought this condo.”
“Just another person Daniel has in his pocket?” he asked. “You’re thinking maybe she slipped the note under your door? Do you think she’d go to my place?”
“I don’t see her running to yours to do it, but what do I know? But putting it under my door, it’s possible. No one would question her being in the building.”
“The paper was open,” he said. “She’d know what it said.”
“And mine wasn’t that threatening. Not like yours was.
The fact that she is so pro anything advancement in this community and what the McGregors do, she could think that is all mine meant.
I’m not saying it’s her, just saying it’s a possibility and this all could be nothing more than the McGregors have more expansion in the works and they fear it being halted. ”
“It just blows my mind that is what their concern is for things.”
“Mine too. But that’s American greed for you too.”
Dinner was on the table ten minutes later. They were only chatting about the notes he had from the court case and his frustration that nothing was solid against Cooper and how astonishing it was they even got to trial.
“Let me help you clean up,” he said.
“I’m going to let you,” she said, smiling.
Once dinner was cleaned, he had her in his arms, her back to the wall, his mouth on hers.
“Am I being too forward?” he asked, nibbling around her lips. “You can tell me.”
Her arms went around his neck. “I’d tell you if I wanted you to back off. I don’t. I want you to take me to my room.”
“Thank God,” he said. “It feels as if it’s been a lifetime when it’s only been five days.”
She’d never had a man say that to her. As if he couldn’t wait to get his hands on her again, let alone missed her or needed to be with her the way Rory did.
She worried he might use her, and he was, but not maliciously.
Some might think they were getting the same thing from each other.
That it was, she thought, what she wanted.
She seized his hand and dragged him down the hall with her pulse thundering in impatience.
By the time they hit her room, she shoved the door shut and pressed him back against it, her fingers already yanking at the hem of his shirt.
The fabric was gone in seconds, his bare chest exposed to her hungry touch.
He wasn’t about to let her set the pace alone, his hand lifting her shirt out of the way, then sliding over her, finding the clasp at the front of her bra and flicking it open. Her breasts spilled free, and he caught them greedily, molding them to his palms as she arched into him for more.
Foreplay? Not tonight. She didn’t need slow. She needed him and she needed it now.
Speed and urgency almost always won her over.
“My turn,” she whispered, her voice husky as she reached for his jeans. Her fingers slipped the button free, tugged down the zipper, then shoved denim and his boxers in one impatient motion.
Clothes flew. Hands tangled. They stripped each other bare like two people on fire until nothing but skin pressed against skin, fueling the burn more.
And then, for just a second, they paused, standing there naked and breathless staring at each other. The air between them crackled like an echo of the last time and the memory of their touch. That night had been more than unforgettable. It had been defining.
This night would be the same, but only different.
“Condom,” he said, reaching for his jeans on the floor.
He had one in his hand, opened and covered himself in less time than it took for her to say, “Thank God.”
Once he was ready for her, she pulled his head down for another kiss, his hands going to her ass and lifting her. She wrapped her legs around his waist as if they’d shared how this was going to go without words.
He nudged around, found her opening and slid in with quick and agile precision.
She wiggled around to get him deeper, make him tighter and just feel more that he had to give.
He turned as if he was going to be the one to choreograph their dance, had her back to the closed door now, pressing her there, one hand next to her shoulder ready to brace for impact.
She hoped so because what the two of them shared when they came together wasn’t only mind blowing but ego lifting.
He was jerking up into her wet heat and she was hanging on because it wasn’t as if she had anywhere she could go or anything she could do other than give her complete surrender.
And enjoy it, for a woman who never gave control up to anyone.
Each movement, each stroke, each jerk of his body gave her another taste of him.
Another feeling to hold on to and cherish.
Another set of sensations building inside, making her question what it was about him that pulled her in so quickly.
Her body was climbing fast, winding tighter with every breath and cresting toward the edge she craved. The bruising grip of his hands on her ass told her everything she needed to know. He was right there with her straining against the same unbearable need and just as close to breaking free.
“That’s it,” she said, her body lifting with each jam of him into her. “Harder. Just like that.”
They were grinding against each other, hard and fast with sweat slicking their skin.
His grip on her forced her down onto every thrust, her nails digging into his shoulders as she rode the pounding rhythm.
Their bodies worked with a brutal, perfect sync of driving, taking and giving until release was the only outcome.
Dual cries of triumph filled the air in her room, her forehead landing on his shoulder in defeat.
That was exactly how it felt.
As if she’d lost all possession of her body, and maybe a tiny bit of her heart with it.