Asking For Trouble (38 page)

A thought occurred to Jazzie and she
blushed. "What about Cole and Sabrina? Won't the kids be home from
school soon?"

"Cole took a shower and crashed. He's out
for the count, and Sabrina is waiting for Lucy and Robbie to get
out of school, she's going pick them up and take them to get some
ice cream."

A smile kicked up the corner of Jazzie's
mouth and she purred, "Let's soak then."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Beau's hand rubbing her bare ass woke Jazzie
from a very erotic dream, bringing her into the reality of it. She
snuggled her cheek into the soft hair on his chest and moaned
sleepily, then kissed him there. Her hair was a tangled, snarled
mess, because she hadn't dried it after they got out of the tub.
She'd had other things on her mind at the time, and so did Beau.
Flipping it back over her shoulder, she looked up at him with a
satisfied grin.

"Surely, you're not suggesting..." she said
and slid her hand slowly down his rock hard stomach to another part
of his anatomy that was also rock hard. He sucked in a breath and
his jaw clenched, as she stroked him. "Mmm...looks like you
are."

"I would love to, darlin'...can't think of a
thing I'd like better...but we need to go downstairs. Bri is
probably back with the kids," he told her with a rueful smile.

Jazzie's hand stilled and she nodded, then
threw back the covers, climbed over him, then jumped down from the
bed. "I lose all track of time and space when I'm around you," she
told him with a laugh. "You're very distracting." The clothes that
Sabrina had given her were still in the bathroom, so she headed
there to get dressed.

"I'm distracting?" Beau hooted, then watched
Jazzie's pretty naked ass sashay across the room to the bathroom.
"You're the one walking around naked and making me want to tie you
to the bed and keep you in here for days!" he yelled after her,
then got up and found the spare jeans that Cole had loaned him.

"Promises, promises, cowboy," she told him
sassily from the bathroom.

"Keep that smart mouth going, sugar, and I'm
gonna make good on that promise," he growled and shoved his legs
into the jeans and snapped them, then grabbed his cell phone off
the dresser and shoved it in his pocket. "Or I'm gonna spank that
pretty ass of yours," he told her relishing that thought.

"More promises," she said with a lilt in her
voice, "You're just full of them, and something else too..."

"Oh, yeah?" he said with a huff. This woman,
who was a virgin not long ago, was sexually teasing him to the
point he really
did
want to spank her ass. She was a quick
learner that was for sure, she kept him tied in knots. He pulled
his shirt over his head, then walked quietly to the bathroom then
went inside. She was bent over putting on a pair of socks with her
round butt in the air. Perfect, Beau thought, then grabbed her
around the waist to hold her steady, and smacked her ass with his
hand.

Jazzie yelped, then wiggled trying to get
out of his hold, but he didn't let her go. "Promise kept," he told
her gruffly, as electricity traveled up his arm, through his body
to settle directly behind the zipper of his jeans. Beau sat her
down and turned her in his arms, then pulled her against him and
closed his mouth over her lush lips, and feasted on them. Jazzie
Ramos was the most responsive woman he'd ever been with. When he
touched her, she went from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye.
She rubbed her hips against him and her hardened nipples raked his
chest through his t-shirt. Beau growled and lifted her against him,
then deepened the kiss, and she mewled, and wound her tongue with
his.

Somehow, Beau managed to break the kiss and
pull back, "Jesus..." he said breathily, then ran a hand through
his hair. "I'm not the distraction, darlin', you are," he told her.
"I can't be within ten feet of you without wanting to bury myself
inside of you."

She smiled that sexy toothy smile at him,
and her beautiful brown eyes sparkled when she took a step toward
him. "So who's stopping you?" she asked putting a hand on his
chest, then moving it up to cup his jaw.

"Two kids, and my sister," he told her
gruffly.

Jazzie dropped her hand and took a step back
from him, then grabbed the hair brush on the counter and started
forcefully brushing her lustrous black hair into submission. When
she went to braid it, he stopped her.

"Leave it down, it's beautiful," he said
softly, then lifted a section and rubbed the silky strands between
his fingers. "You're beautiful..."

Jazzie sat the brush back on the counter,
then put her arms around his waist and hugged him. "I love you,
Beau Bowman," she told him and squeezed him.

Beau's heart jumped in his chest and he
swallowed hard, as the words tried to work loose inside of him. He
just couldn't manage it, so he pulled her closer and hugged her,
then kissed her hair. "I'm sorry, baby..." he whispered, almost
wishing she wouldn't say it to him again, because it broke his
heart not to be able to return the words. He cared about her, a
lot, but love? What the hell did he know about that emotion?

"I'm not going to stop saying it, Beau...I
don't care if it makes you uncomfortable," she mumbled softly
against his chest, then stepped out of his arms to look up at him
with her warm chocolate brown eyes. "You need to hear it...everyone
needs to know that someone loves them."

Jazzie didn't wait to hear what he had to
say, he watched her walk out of the bathroom, across the bedroom,
then out the door without a backward glance. Beau huffed out a
frustrated breath, then followed her.

When he got downstairs, he found Jazzie in
the kitchen with Sabrina and the kids. Will was gurgling happily in
his high chair, gnawing on a cookie, and Jazzie was sitting at the
table with Lucy and Robbie, hearing about their day.

"And I made a picture with glue and
macaroni. Billy tried to eat the macaroni and got in trouble,"
Robbie told her excitedly, and Beau saw her trying not to laugh.
When Robbie spotted him, his eyes lit up and he jumped up from the
chair and ran to him and threw his arms around his waist. "Hey,
Beau!" he said then stepped back and grinned up at him.

Beau ruffled Robbie's dark hair then said,
"Hiya, sport...have you been good for Miss Bri?"

"Yep, ask her," he said proudly, then took
Beau's hand and pulled him over to the sink where Sabrina was
slicing vegetables.

"Has this munchkin been good?" Beau asked
her and looked down at him.

"He sure has...he kept Will entertained last
night, and I actually got some things done! He was a big help,"
Sabrina said and gave him a wide smile. "That's why I took him and
Lucy to get ice cream after school."

"I got chocolate with sprinkles," Robbie
told him.

"Wow, that's my favorite kind too," Beau
said then added, "Must be a guy thing."

Robbie poked his chest out and folded his
arms over it to mimic Beau's stance, then nodded and agreed, "Yeah,
it's a guy thing." Beau stifled a chuckle and gave his shoulder a
squeeze, then walked over to the table and sat down next to Lucy,
who was talking quietly to Jazzie. She wasn't smiling and his good
humor fled.

"They don't have a music program at the
middle school," Lucy said quietly, then lifted her chin and said,
"Doesn't matter though, I won't be here long enough to learn
anything anyway." Lucy shoved her chair back and grabbed up her new
back pack. "I have a lot of homework to do..." she announced and
started to leave the room.

Beau saw Jazzie's eyes fill with tears and
she put a hand on Lucy's forearm and said, "Wait...sit down, and
let's talk." Lucy hesitated for a moment, then dropped her book bag
and sat back down. "There has to be a music store around here
somewhere," she told her then smiled, "We'll find one that gives
lessons. You want to take violin? Or piano lessons?"

"I'm not sure...I had a few violin lessons
at the school in my foster home before the last one...I really
liked it," she told Jazzie shyly and her face flushed. "That's why
I signed up for your classes without my new fosters knowing...and
why I didn't have a ride, and why..." she stopped abruptly and
looked away.

That's why she got the shit beat out of
her when they found out
, Beau finished mentally for her, and it
felt like his teeth were going to shatter his jaw was so tight. He
wanted to find her former foster father and bit the shit out of
him
.

"Don't worry about that, Lucy, we'll figure
something out. You can have the violin that I used when I started
playing. It would fit you just about right, I think," she told the
little girl, and Beau's heart clamped down on the feelings
marinating his heart. He couldn't afford to get soft here, and get
attached to these kids, and that would be so damned easy to do.

Beau had a life and a career to get back to,
one that didn't include two needy kids and a needy, but
breathtakingly gorgeous, woman. He was going to make sure they were
all taken care of then he was getting the hell out of here, before
he did something stupid, like start thinking they were, or could
be, a permanent part of his life. He'd stay a couple more days to
make sure Jazzie was safe, and find somewhere for the kids to stay
for a while, then he was going back to Lubbock, and back to doing
what he knew how to do.

"Where's Cole, sis?" Beau asked suddenly
realizing his brother-in-law wasn't there.

"He got called into the station on a
domestic," she informed him with a frustrated sigh. "Oh, and
Jazzie, Jess called for you a little while ago...I told her you
were okay, but she wants to hear it from your mouth," Bri told her
with a laugh.

"I haven't talked to her, since...so yeah, I
need to call her," Jazzie said and stood. "Is there a phone I can
use?"

"Study is down the hall on the end at the
right. There's an extension there that's private," Bri told
her.

"Thanks, I'll be back in a few minutes,"
Jazzie said, then walked down the hall. Beau watched her go, and as
soon as she rounded the corner, he felt her absence. It was like
the temperature in the room had dropped twenty degrees and the air
had gone stale. Yeah, he had to get out of here fast, tie things up
and leave.

"Can I borrow your car?" Beau asked
hesitantly, because he knew she never loaned it out to anyone.

"The mustang?" she asked with a snort, and
widened eyes.

"You have anything else I can drive?" Beau
asked, knowing the only other vehicle here right now was Cole's
motorcycle, and Beau didn't have a death wish. Him and motorcycles
didn't mix.

"Cole took the 'stang to go to the station,
he didn't have a choice, since his truck is still in Dallas. Gabe's
not taking him to get it til tomorrow."

"Oh, I thought maybe Gabe had picked him
up," Beau said and his shoulders sagged.

"Where do you need to go?" she inquired with
a raised brow.

"I was going to go into town, maybe to the
Blue Bird, and see if I could spread the word about Lucy and
Robbie." He just needed some space to get his head on straight,
really, but a trip to the Blue Bird might not be a bad idea to
start his search for foster parents for Lucy and Robbie.

He saw her eyes dart over his shoulder then
back to him. "Kids, why don't ya'll go outside and play, there's
about an hour until dark, you can do your homework after supper,"
she told Robbie and Lucy, who he noticed had gone awfully quiet
since Jazzie had left the room.

They got up and walked past him toward the
front door, and when he heard it shut, Sabrina put her hand on her
hip and told him, "Don't say shit like that in front of them,
okay?"

"What? They know I'm looking for a home for
them!" Beau said defensively.

"You're treating them like pound puppies,
and they're children...have a little compassion. They like it here,
and they've been shuffled around enough! They're expecting to have
to go to another home, probably back in Dallas. They don't get
attached to anyone or any place, because they never know when
they're going to be uprooted again. That's no way for kids to
live!" Sabrina's eyes glittered with tears and her face was
flushed.

"I know it isn't, but their situation isn't
my fault, sis...I'm doing what I can to help them," Beau told her
evenly.

She huffed out a breath and her shoulders
slumped, "I know you are, but just don't bring it up in front of
them, okay? If I didn't have so much on my plate, I'd adopt
them!"

"But you do--you have a toddler and a
business, and a husband...that's enough. Thank you for taking them
in temporarily. Something will shake loose," he told her.

"I want better than that for them...I'll
start asking around tomorrow too. There has to be someone in
Bowie," she said with determination.

***

Jazzie sat at the kitchen table at Jess and
Wade's house on the backside of the Double B and twirled her glass
of wine between her fingers. Her best friend was sitting across
from her gnawing her lip with concern. "It's only been a week,
Jazz..."