Chapter 3
Jed
Sandee clutched the phone. White-knuckled, big-eyed.
I smiled at her, and oh, Jesus. Her pupils dilated, her eyelashes fluttered and her nipples went hard against the low-cut, stretchy shirt.
Whoa. The rush of lust knocked my mind right off its tracks, and my attention arrowed in on the soft, rounded shape of her lips, the up-tilted thrust of her tits. The pulsing throb of my own dick, trapped against my thigh.
I breathed it down. Resolute. I was not doing this chick any favors by being nice to her. I should have a Surgeon General’s warning label tattooed on my forehead. Proximity to this man could be injurious to your continued existence.
Just ask Shane. Hank. Billy. Franco.
Skip the smiling. No nicey-nice for Sandee. It was the kindest thing I could do for her. I took a deep breath. “So,” I said. “Here you are.” Wow. Stellar opening.
Her eyes dropped, her ridiculously long lashes casting a shadow on the curve of her cheek. “Um…ah…yeah.” Lush, glossy lips, quivering.
Her voice was beautiful. Husky and feminine. It affected me pretty much the same way a warm, tender lick of her pink tongue against my cock would affect me.
“You okay?” It popped out before I could stop it. It was a reflex, nothing more. It went against my most primal instinct to be rude to any woman, let alone a girl whose tits were offered up to my eyes like a tray of creampuffs.
“I’m fine.” She licked her full, plump lower lip, making my breath catch and my ass clench.
“You drove four hours from Gholston Flats this morning?” I couldn’t keep the disapproval from my voice. “In the freezing rain and the snow?”
“I came in yesterday,” she assured me. “Stayed at the Dew Drop Inn by the Interstate. Thanks for meeting with me. I wasn’t sure you ever would.”
“You shouldn’t be here.” I made my voice stone hard. “I told you.”
“So…why did you finally agree?”
I shrugged. “I just had to see if the girl in the photos was really you.”
“Did you like the pictures?” Hopeful eyes. Sweet smile. Perfect white teeth. Un-fucking-believable. I blew out a breath, keeping the stream of air slow and even.
Did I like them. Hah. They were etched into his mind.
Her in the baby doll nightgown, reclining on the bed.
Her in the red lace demi bra and boy shorts.
Her in the ruffly shirt, no bra, shirt unbuttoned, artfully draped to hide her nipples, but leaving her belly bare, down to that itty bitty triangle of white lace stretched over—well, I couldn’t call it a bush.
More like a swatch. A tantalizing shadow beneath the sheer white.
“I liked them.” My voice rasped. “I’d have to be dead not to like them.”
Her lips curved. “Great. So, are you convinced it’s me?”
Don’t fall in the hole! The warning yammered in my head. Lose the crazy girl. Send her running. Outraged and terrified. Burned beyond recall. Never to return.
Do her a fucking favor, dickwad. She has to scram. Now.
I kept my eyes steely. “Show me more.”
She blinked, looking bewildered. The chin went up a notch. “More?”
“Show me what you got, babe.” I projected the nastiest vibe I had in my playbook. Ugly, cold. Mean as a fucking snake.
She straightened, tossed back her hair, making it bounce. Eyes locked on mine. Shoulders back.
That hot glow in her eyes did not go away. It deepened. Her slender hands pressed her belly, then drifted up, barely cupping her breasts, brushing over them.
My heartrate kicked up to a panicked gallop.
It was the look in her eyes that undid me. That hot, buzzy glow of arousal and surrender, as if she were already spreading her legs for me. Baring herself completely.
Ready to reveal her own naked, beating heart.
I had to look away, close my eyes, use all my considerable training in self-control. Silent seconds ticked by. Back off. Simmer down. Concentrate.
I tried to reboot the flint-eyed predator look. “Let’s see the rest of it.”
Her gaze faltered. Her lashes fluttered. “Rest of what?”
“You know what I mean. Let me see the goods.”
A blush of pink crept up her cheeks. “Ah…how?”
I almost groaned. She was supposed to get pissed at my horndog thuggishness and tell me to fuck off and die. But she just kept fielding my shit like it was nothing.
“Your pussy,” I said. “Naked. Hot and juicy. Your fingers, going in. Diddling yourself. Let me see you do it.”
She glanced around, at the guards, the other visitors in the room. Gave me a panicked look.
I responded to her bewilderment with a feral smile. “Don’t tell me no.”
She hesitated. “I can’t. They’ll throw me out. But I’ll talk about it. If you want. They might be listening. They spot check. A woman outside in the waiting room told me. But I’ll risk it. If you want me to.”
Thud. Thud. Thud. My heart was slamming.
“I wore a silk thong just for you,” she began, in a voice so low it was barely audible.
“If we were alone, I’d let you watch me rub my pussy with the silk part.
I’d get so excited with your eyes on me.
So frustrated. Because you can look…but you can’t touch.
Then I’d roll over onto a big pillow. I’d lift my ass up for you to look at. ”
I stared at her, mesmerized. Open-mouthed. Holy fucking fuck.
“I’ll ride that pillow, just rubbing my clit against it until I’m so wet and desperate,” she whispered.
“Breathing hard. But I can’t come yet…because you told me not to.
So I make myself stop…right before I explode.
Just shaking, I’m so ready. It’s killing me.
Then I arch back and reach around so I can stroke my bare ass cheeks.
I’m so hot. Because I know you’re watching me. Looking at my pussy. My ass.”
I nodded, helplessly. Seeing it. All of it. My heart thudded wildly.
“And then,” she murmured. “…then I spread myself wide open. So you can see absolutely everything. But I can’t come without you.
I need your fingers in me. And your cock.
Only yours. Pushing all the way into me.
Fucking me and fucking me, so deep and hard, until I’m yelling, begging, for all of you. Please. Oh please.”
This was a trainwreck. I couldn’t even reply. Here I was, trying to scare her away by being an asshole, and she countered by talking dirty like a seasoned professional. Which she wasn’t. I was sure of that. No, she was just unhinged. And incredibly eager to please, and up for absolutely anything.
She was a force of nature. And I was right on the verge of coming.
“Why are you here?” I demanded. “I told you not to come.”
“I told you,” she said. “In my letters. I read about your story, and I—”
“I don’t want you, Sandee,” I cut in. “You know what I’m in prison for, right? You know the details of my case?”
“Of course,” she said eagerly. “I read everything I could find.”
“And you’re not scared?”
“Of you, no! Why should I be? You didn’t do it! I’m sure of it. You’re innocent, and you shouldn’t be here at all! You should be free! You’re innocent!”
“I can’t discuss that with you,” I said harshly.
She leaned forward, eyes sparkling with tears.
“Why not? Tell me the whole story. I could be, like, your advocate, from the outside, you know? I could find out things for you, do things for you! Whatever you wanted, whatever could help. I could prove your innocence, and we could be together! I would do anything you—”
“No!” My voice chopped down onto her eager rush of words.
“But—but—”
“The last thing I need is a brainless dollbaby messing around in my shit,” I said. “I have enough problems.”
Her spine stiffened. Pride flashed in her eyes. “Dollbaby? Brainless? Really?”
“You heard me,” I said. “Find someone else to fixate on, bitch. I got nothing.”
Her lips trembled. “I don’t believe you,” she said. “I have to follow my heart.”
“Hearts get confused,” I said. “Come on, Sandee. Wake up. You’re a beautiful girl. Any man with a pulse would want you. It shouldn’t be so goddamn hard.”
Sandee shook her head. “You’d be surprised. Most men are pigs. Or else they’re mean, or taken, or crazy. Or as dumb as a box of rocks.”
“And you think a maximum security correctional facility is the place to fish for your next candidate? Seriously? You think you’ll find a better class of man here?”
Sandee’s cheeks flamed. Her gaze slid away.
It made me feel like shit, but this tack seemed to be working. “You can do better than me,” I said. “I’ll never even be able to touch you.” I paused, and then added. “Wait. Is that what this is all about? You want a man, but you can’t stand to be touched? Is that what’s going on?”
She swallowed nervously. “No,” she whispered. “I would love to be touched. By you, anyway.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. Not ever.”
“Anything can happen!” she insisted. “I won’t give up hope!”
“Give it up,” I said. “I don’t want you. Not now, not ever. Get that through your thick head.”
She chewed her lip. “There are ways and ways to touch,” she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.
I squinted at her. “Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Minds can touch.” That hopeful, way-out-in-orbit look made me intensely uneasy. “Hearts can touch. Souls can touch. Even if bodies can’t.”
My head was pounding again. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Don’t start.”
“Don’t shut me out,” she pleaded. “It’s true. This isn’t all about sex. It could be bigger than that. You know it. You’re just afraid of it.”
Damn right, I was afraid.
“Listen up.” I made my voice ugly. “I met with you so I could tell you to disappear. I passed those photos out to the meanest motherfuckers in this place, to jerk themselves off to. Now they all owe me favors. So thanks.”
She stared at me, and for a split second, I saw it. She was angry at me. Furious. I’d finally gotten to her. Good. Now, to keep the upper hand. By brute force.
“Fuck off, Sandee,” I said. “I mean it.”
“James, please! Please, let me be sweet to you. It’s all I want.” Eyes wide. Begging, sweetly. In a heartbeat, she’d decided not to get her feelings hurt about him giving away her porno pix.
I shook my head.