Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Tully had always loved the Hennessys’ house. Unlike the neat brick home she’d grown up in, the Hennessys’ home looked like a kid had constructed it using different Lego kits. The main house was river rock and the additions were a variety of different material—Austin brick, stucco, wood siding.
It was as pieced together as the treeboat.
Pulling up behind Jaxon’s classic truck, she cut the engine and got out.
She didn’t know why she was there. Maybe she just wanted to prove to herself that she wasn’t like her daddy. That she didn’t hold what happened in the past against people. But when she reached the porch steps and saw the soft glow of light coming from the windows, she faltered.
What did she plan to say?
Hi, Jaxon, I just stopped by to say hi . . . and see if maybe you wanted to have a little fun.
She rolled her eyes and turned back to her car.
A deep voice stopped her.
“Leaving so soon?”
She whirled back around and looked at the dark corner of the porch where Jaxon’s voice had come from. She could barely make out the outline of him reclining in the porch swing.
“Oh! I didn’t see you.” She scrambled for a reason to be there. “I was just coming to check on the renovations.”
He sat up. “And then leaving before you even knocked on the door?”
“I decided it was too late to come calling.”
His head turned to the light coming out the window. “Yeah, it looks like we’re all in bed.” He turned back to her. “Renovations are going the same. Workers don’t show up and there’s always some problem we didn’t foresee. But Huck claims that’s just part of construction. How’s your ankle?”
“Much better. What problem didn’t you foresee?”
“Plumbing. A pipe burst, but we got it fixed.”
“Did it damage anything?” She took off her hat and moved closer. Jaxon looked like he’d just gotten out of the shower. His hair was loose and damp and his western shirt unsnapped, revealing a peek of hard body.
“No, it didn’t damage anything.” His eyes squinted. “You didn’t straighten your hair.”
His comment had her reaching up and tucking the curly tendrils that had come out of her ponytail behind her ear. “Oh . . . yeah, I didn’t really have time.”
“Ahh. Well, I like it.”
Her stomach did a little flip and it took her a moment to find her voice. “Thank you.” She stood there awkwardly, searching for something else to say. Of course it would turn out to be something stupid. “Nice night.”
One side of his mouth tipped up. “If you like humidity thick enough to slice with a knife.”
“You should be used to humidity since you worked in the gulf.”
“The ocean breeze helped. Would you please sit down so I don’t get a crick in my neck?”
She was already struggling to keep the kiss out of her head. When she sat down next to him, the image grew even sharper. He smelled nice, like an earthy soap and shampoo. It was a struggle to keep the image of him naked in a steamy shower out of her mind.
“So did you like working on oilrigs?”
He set the swing to swaying with one bare foot. Even his feet were masculine. Broad with a sprinkling of dark hair. They swung back and forth for a few seconds before he answered. “I hated every second of it.”
“Then why did you go?”
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, causing the scent of shampoo to fill her lungs again. “I just needed some space from Texas.”
“So you won’t go back once you get your inheritance?”
“Hell, no.”
“So where will you go?”
Again, he took his time answering. She didn’t mind. There was something nice about sitting next to him, swaying back and forth to the squeak of the swing chains.
“I’m not sure where I’ll go. Maybe a place with a good culinary school.” When she turned to him with surprise, he laughed. “What? You can’t see a Hennessy Hooligan as a chef?”
She shook her head. “It’s not that. It’s just that I wouldn’t have pictured you wanting to do that.”
“What do you picture me doing? Holding up banks and robbing gas stations?”
Before he’d left town, she had pictured him leading a life of crime. But now . . . now she was having doubts that he’d ever committed a crime. She knew the next question she asked would be betraying the trust she’d always had in her father, but she still couldn’t stop herself.
“Did you rob Mickey’s, Jaxon?”
He stopped swinging and turned to her, his gaze direct and unblinking. “No.”
She knew her next words would change their relationship forever. And not only theirs, but also hers and her daddy’s. But she couldn’t stop them.
“I believe you.”
Ever since she’d known him, Jaxon’s face had always been unreadable.
Indifferent. Emotionless. But for one brief second, it flooded with emotion.
So much emotion, she struggled to read it all.
Pain? Relief? Desire? Before she could untangle what she was seeing, she was lifted onto his lap and his warm palms cradled her face.
“Why the hell did you have to go and say that?”
He kissed her.
Not like he had kissed her the other night.
This kiss was slow and gentle and achingly sweet.
Like she was something precious he wanted to savor.
She opened to him and their tongues met in a sultry mating that left her feeling breathless and needy.
She wanted to be consumed by Jaxon. To feel his bare skin on her bare skin.
To feel her soft curves against his flexing muscles.
To feel the bulge pressing against her bottom deep inside her.
Her hands slipped beneath the open edges of his shirt. His skin was as hot and smooth as the night they’d danced together at Honky Tonk Heaven. That night, she kept her hand resting on his shoulder, afraid to move it. Afraid to feel too much.
Tonight, she wanted to feel everything.
She let her hands wander where they would—up the tight rows of his abdominals, over the hard ridges of his ribs, across the muscle slabs of his pectorals that flexed beneath her palms, sending a skitter of heat through her.
She wasn’t what anyone would call experienced. She’d dated in college, but had never done more than heavy groping. But, for some reason, she didn’t feel inexperienced with Jaxon. She just felt . . . lucky. And she wasn’t about to let her luck run out before she had gotten her fill.
When he started unbuttoning her deputy shirt, she drew back from the kiss and stopped him.
“No. I want to touch you.”
He studied her for a moment before he let his hands drop. “Then touch me.”
She slipped his shirt off his shoulders and admired the landscape of skin and muscle for a long moment before she pressed her face in the curve of his neck and shoulder and took a deep, heady breath.
When her lungs were full of his freshly showered scent, she kissed her way along his jaw, enjoying the rasp of his stubble on her lips.
She kissed the bridge of his nose, each defined cheekbone, the soft skin of his eyelids.
She didn’t think for second that what she was doing was a turn on.
She just wanted to touch all of him while she had the chance.
So she was surprised when she felt him harden against her bottom, heard the low growl deep in his chest, and felt his hand tighten on her hip.
“Tallulah.” Her name had never been spoken with so much raw need. When she drew back, she read that same raw need on his face. If his heated eyes and heavy breathing weren’t enough to say he wanted her, the hungry kiss he gave her was.
Within seconds, the buttons of her shirt were undone and his large hand slid inside and palmed her boob over her sports bra.
He moaned with satisfaction as if she was the perfect fit.
After learning her shape, he drew back from the kiss and stared into her eyes as he used his thumb to brush back and forth over the nipple that strained through the spandex.
Desire tugged her under like a riptide. The feeling only grew when he pinched it. Not too hard, but just hard enough to have wet heat flooding her panties.
“Jax . . . Jax.” She grounded her bottom against the hardness she desperately wanted inside her.
His jaw flexed and his pupils seemed to fill up his irises.
“I know, baby. I’m gonna take care of you.
” He lowered his hand from her breast and turned her so she was sitting with her back against his front, her head resting on his shoulder.
Then he slid his hands along her inner thighs to her knees and spread them wide.
His fingers tightened as he spoke in a soft whisper.
“I’m going to touch you, sweet Tallulah. You want me to touch you?”
She had never wanted anything so much in her life. “Yes.”
While one hand gripped her knee, the other slid toward her throbbing center.
It would take a lot to get to that throbbing center.
She wore her duty belt with her gun and holster.
But he didn’t head for the buckle on her belt.
Instead, he headed straight for the seam of her pants, cupping her firmly in his large hand.
Both their breaths came out in a rush.
“Ahh, Tallulah.” He brushed a kiss on the side of her head. “Is this damp heat all for me?”
She couldn’t have answered if she wanted to.
All she could do was groan as he massaged her, grinding the heel of his palm against the exact spot that begged for release.
A tremble ran through her and her legs started to close as if to shield her from such intense feelings.
But he hooked her boots with his feet and drew them back apart.
“Easy,” he whispered against her temple.
“I got you, Tull.” He softened his grip and ran two fingers up the seam to the spot just below her fly.
He pressed down and her body quaked with the flash of heat that assailed her.
“Ahh, right there.” Then he started moving his fingers in tight little circles.
It was like he was building a fire inside her pants with nothing but friction. A spark flared and then another and another until the flame caught and suddenly her entire body was ablaze and she was bucking against his fingers and moaning as the orgasm swept through her.
When it was over, she wilted against him and shivered as the last of the tingles popped through her like fading bath bubbles.
Once they were gone, embarrassment set in and she realized she was sitting spread eagle on Jaxon’s lap with her hands gripping his tattooed forearms like she never wanted to let him go.
“Oh my God.” She released him and started to get up, but one of those arms curled around her waist and kept her right there.
“Tully. It’s okay. There’s no need to freak out.
” He adjusted her legs to the side and cradled her jaw in his hand, his fingers lightly caressing her flaming cheek.
She kept her gaze lowered too embarrassed to look at him.
“Hey.” He lifted her chin until their eyes met.
“You don’t ever have to hide from me. I want to see all of you.
Dancehall-loving Tully. Messy Tully. Curly-haired Tully.
” He smiled sexily. “Especially Orgasming Tully.”
Her cheeks flamed hotter and his smile faded.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen. I just can’t seem to keep my hands off you.”
Before she could tell him that she wasn’t sorry at all, a flash of headlights swept over the house. Figuring one of Jaxon’s siblings would be there soon, she quickly moved off his lap and started buttoning her shirt.
“Here.” Jaxon turned her and slipped the band from her hair, quickly and efficiently pulling her hair back into a neat ponytail before they both stood to see who had pulled up in front of the house.
Tully’s eyes widened when she saw the sheriff’s SUV parked behind hers.
“Oh my God! That’s my daddy.” She straightened her shirt and made sure it was tucked back in properly as she issued an order to Jaxon.
Or not an order as much as a plea. “Please go back inside and let me handle this.” She hurried down the porch steps and met up with her daddy just as he was getting out of his car.
“What are you doing here, Daddy?”
“Why didn’t you answer your phone or radio? I’ve been trying to get ahold of you.”
“Sorry, I left both in the car.”
Her daddy’s gaze narrowed. “What happened? You were just supposed to keep an eye on the house while I checked out the silent alarm. Did something make you believe the Hennessys were at the hardware store tonight?”
Right then, she should have defended Jaxon. She should have told him he’d made a big mistake assuming the Hennessys had anything to do with the silent alarm going off and that she believed Jaxon was innocent of robbing Mickey’s.
But as she stared into the face of the man she had always looked up to, the words refused to come.
He was wrong about Jaxon, but that didn’t change the fact he’d been the best daddy in the world.
A daddy who had loved her and never lost faith in her .
. . even when she had failed time and time again.
How could she tell him that she believed Jaxon over him?
She couldn’t. But she couldn’t let him continue to believe Jaxon had robbed the hardware store either.
“Jaxon wasn’t at the hardware store tonight, Daddy.”
“How do you know that?”
Before she could answer, Jaxon spoke behind her. “Yes, how do you know, Officer Gentry?”
Tully whirled to find him standing not more than ten feet away, close enough to hear everything she and her daddy had said.
She couldn’t see his eyes in the dark, but she could feel the anger radiating from him.
She knew exactly why he was angry. He believed she hadn’t just stopped by to see how the renovations were going.
He believed she’d stopped by to check and make sure he wasn’t robbing the hardware store.
Which meant he thought she’d lied about believing he didn’t rob the gas station.
He tipped his head. “Cat got your tongue, Officer Gentry?”
She swallowed hard and looked back at her daddy. “He’s been here ever since I got here and it was obvious that he just got out of the shower.”
“So observant, Officer Gentry,” Jaxon said. “But I could have quickly jumped in the shower after I robbed the hardware store.” He looked at her daddy. “You here to arrest me again, Sheriff Gentry?”
Her daddy’s jaw tightened. “Since no money was missing and Tully claims you were here, then it must have just been a false alarm.”
“Must’ve been.” Without a glance in her direction, he turned and headed back to the house.
She wanted to call out to him. She wanted to apologize and explain. But how could she explain not having enough guts to stand up to her daddy and tell him the truth. She and Jaxon were business partners . . . and more. Much more.
“Come on, Tully,” her daddy said. “Let’s call it a night.”
Tully hesitated for only a moment before she turned and headed to her patrol car.