Black Girls and Bad Boys: Stealing Loretta (12 page)

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L
oretta watched Jordan leave. She could
still see the flash of scarlet on his handkerchief. It might have been stage
blood. But somehow she didn’t think it was.

She brought her attention back to the here
and now. With him gone, she was very exposed.

“You know him, don’t you?”

She wasn’t a good enough liar to play
games. “Yes.”

“I believe you when you say you weren’t
cheating, but there’s more to this than either of you are telling me.” Marcie
went to the drinks cabinet in the corner of the room and came back with two
glasses of cognac. “Sit down.” She pushed a glass across the table to Loretta
and took a drink of her own. “Tell me your story.”

So she did. Well, carefully edited
highlights. She left out the part where she suspected Jordan had been the one
to steal from the cashier. As far as Marcie was concerned, he was a just a
worried boyfriend trying to protect her after she went looking for the wrong
poker game.

“He must be shit-hot in the sack if you
came here to win money for him.”

She looked up at the bodyguard. He was
doing an impression of a deaf brick wall. “Actually, he is.”

Marcie threw her head back and let out the
dirtiest laugh Loretta had ever heard. It was hard to stay scared when she was
cackling like that.

“Then take your winnings and catch up with
him. Get yourself another slice of heaven.”

Loretta took that as her cue to leave. Was
she really letting her walk out with all that money?

“And Lorraine, don’t come back. You’re not
cut out for this.”

“I won’t.” The high of winning those games
had quickly turned sour. Her nerves couldn’t survive another night like this.
She walked out of Marcie’s office and went to collect her chips.

***

J
ordan sat on the bonnet of Loretta’s Mini
and waited for her to come out. The fire in his thigh had died down to more of
a slow smoulder, but he was still glad to have the car to lean on.

All sorts of stupid ideas ran through his
head as the minutes stretched out. Like running inside with his gun drawn to
find her. Or offering to return the money if they’d let her go.

It was ridiculous. Suicidal. But he was
getting closer to hobbling back up those steps by the second.

Luckily for him, she appeared at the front
door before he got that far.

A rush of good feeling warmed him from head
to toe. And that’s when it hit him. It wasn’t just lust and a good time. She
was more than an easy way to get hold of some money and have a little fun.

She walked down the stairs, graceful and
elegant even when she didn’t know he was watching her. She was totally
different to any of the other women he’d been with. It wasn’t the colour thing
– he’d dated a few black women – it was her whole mind-set.

She wasn’t looking to him to make her life
better. It was such a relief not to have to deal with that.

In fact, he’d got pretty damn close to
ruining the life she’d made for herself and she’d still stuck around. If that
had been the case with any of his exes they’d have screamed and shouted and
persuaded some other man – a father, a brother, a lover – to teach him a
lesson. But not Loretta.

She dealt with him herself. No woman had
ever put him in his place like that. Or put herself at risk for him the way she
had.

She caught sight of him and rushed over.
“Oh my god. What the hell happened to your leg?”

“It’s fine.”

“It didn’t look fine in there. What
happened?”

Gina wasn’t a topic of conversation he
wanted to explore right about then. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you later.”

She lifted her eyebrows.

“I promise. Are you okay? What did she say
to you back there?”

She gave him a tired smile. “Girl talk.”

He shook his head. Fine. It would be
hypocritical to complain about her holding back.

“How did you even know I was in trouble?”

He hesitated. She wouldn’t like the truth.
Hell, what would he gain by lying. “I got someone to accuse you of cheating.”

Her mouth fell open. “You what? Why? Why
would you do that?”

“To get you out of the way. I knew where
they’d take you and it made you look like a patsy for the robber.”

“Or an accomplice. She was going to cut off
my finger.” She looked away, clearly horrified.

“It would never have got that far.”

“If you’d been a couple of minutes later,
she’d have bloody done it.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe you.”

He straightened up stiffly, leaning on the
cane.

Loretta looked him up and down, unsure
whether to be angry or sympathetic.

“I wouldn’t have let her hurt you.”

Her hazel eyes looked black in the dark.
They were serious. He’d put his foot in it again.

“I’d never let anyone hurt you.”

She tried to smile, but her bottom lip just
trembled.

“Let me take you home.”

“Okay.” If he hadn’t been in such pain, the
prospect of being dropped off at home alone would have been more depressing. He
couldn’t blame her. But he’d have enjoyed waking up beside her.

She sighed, but she seemed more tired than
upset. “So. You robbed the poker game,” she said as they climbed into the car.

“I never said that.”

Her body language loosened up as she
fastened her seatbelt. “Where’s the money?”

“In the back.”

She turned to look at the bag on the back
seat. “But the car was locked.”

He nodded, raising an eyebrow.

“Stupid thing to say. Is there enough?”

“Depends how much you won.”

She passed him a black canvas bag and
waited while he counted what was inside. It was comfortably more than enough.

Looking into her wide eyes, he felt an echo
of the warm relief that had flooded him moments before. Against all the odds,
it had worked out and nobody had got killed.

“So, do we pay off Ursino tonight?

After all the trouble they’d gone to, he’d
forgotten about that part. “Probably a good idea.” Getting it done straight
away would cut down the chances of anything else going wrong. “But there’s
something I want to do first.” He leaned over, took her face in his hands and
kissed her soft lips.

She was stiff at first, holding onto her
anger, but then she started to soften. The kiss deepened as she responded to
him, her body melting into his. What began as a tender exchange quickly pushed
him into more urgent territory. With his eyes closed, his hands roamed over her
dress, searching for bare skin. He found her back and smoothed his way across
it. She gasped and it made his eyes roll back in his head.

Had any two people ever wanted each other
more? He couldn’t imagine they had.

Damn Gina. Why did she have to put a bullet
through his leg?

He brought the kiss to an end and let out a
heartfelt sigh. “I don’t think I can give you more than that tonight.”

She looked down at his thigh. When she
looked up again, her eyes were less clouded by desire. “That’s okay. I can
wait.”

***

L
oretta sat in the waiting room outside
Ursino’s office and tried to stop reliving how it had felt when Jordan had
kissed her in the front seat of her car. It was almost over. She should have
been getting ready for his inevitable exit.

But all she could think about was the way
his tongue had played over hers and the disappointment in his sigh when they’d
broken apart.

Every time she caught Jordan’s eye, the
pair of them broke into matching grins that probably gave them an air of
insanity. Not the best look when you’re about to meet with one of the most
dangerous men in the city.

A buzzer sounded and the secretary ushered
them in.

“Sit down, sit down.” Ursino was dressed
relatively informally in a pair of indigo trousers and an open-necked shirt.
There was no sign of the cane she’d heard so much about. That was probably for
the best – Jordan still had his and if she’d seen them both walking about with
matching sticks it was more than likely she’d get an inappropriate attack of
the giggles.

“Mr Ursino.” Jordan put a briefcase down on
the desk. Inside were Loretta’s poker winnings and the money he’d stolen.

Ursino took the case and made a show of
counting each note. It took a long time – there was a lot there. Watching him
arrange it all into neat piles killed any sniggers that had been building out
in the waiting room.

It was every penny he’d asked for, but she
knew that didn’t mean much when you were dealing with men like him. The rules
were whatever he wanted them to be. If he said it wasn’t enough, then it wasn’t
enough.

“I take it some of this is to do with what
happened at Marcie Harmon’s place this evening?” It was hard to tell if the
twist of his mouth meant he was irritated or amused.

“If I answer that question, I might
incriminate myself.” Jordan kept his expression similarly inscrutable.

Loretta literally sat on the edge of her
chair. All this male posturing was dragging things out unnecessarily.

“So, what are you going to do now you’re
out of the business?” A feline smile spread over Ursino’s face, transforming
him from a menacing hard-man to an avuncular uncle.

Jordan did well not to sigh with relief,
but the tension in the room dropped by a very noticeable notch or three. “I thought
I might go away. For a while at least.”

She turned to look at him. So he was
leaving.

“With anyone I know?” He fixed Loretta with
a look that sent heat blazing up her throat and across her cheeks.

“Maybe. If she agrees to come.”

Her pulse skyrocketed. After her initial
fantasy about settling into a relationship with him had run its course, she’d
seen the light and prepared herself for the moment when he told her he was
going. The possibility he might ask her to come with him was one she’d discounted
pretty early on. How would that ever work?

“You get to be one of the good guys now. I
think she’ll say yes.” Ursino stood up and held out his hand, shaking Loretta’s
first, then Jordan’s. “I’d like to say I’ll see you around, but I don’t think
that would be a good thing under the circumstances.”

“Thank you.” They held the shake for a
fraction of a second. Tough as they both were, it was easy to see the respect
and affection between them.

Jordan and Loretta walked out of the door
and out of the Ursinos’ world. It had taken so much trouble and drama to get to
that point it was all a bit of an anti-climax. If she was honest with herself,
this was the part she’d been dreading – the return to reality.

“So, what do you say?” Jordan asked when
they were out on the street.

“About what?”

“A couple of weeks in the sun, sipping
cocktails on the beach.”

It sounded heavenly, but what about when
the holiday was over? “I don’t know, Jordan. Things are going to be crazy at
the bank. I might not be able to get the time off.”

“Don’t you want to come away with me?”

She’d truly expected him to drop her as
soon as he got his hands on the money. Now another thought came to her. What if
he was just postponing it until after he’d had another two weeks of sex? “Do
you really want me to come?”

He looked shocked. “What do you mean?”

Maybe it would be better to end it now. It
was ridiculous when you thought about it – the assistant bank manager and the
ex-bank-robber. Amazing sex was no guarantee of a lasting relationship. “We had
a good time, but can you really see us together? For the long haul?” He didn’t
answer and she knew she was right. She kissed him on the cheek and walked away.
It hurt like hell, but it was the best thing for both of them. It was what he’d
been trying to tell her all along.

She turned the corner into the car park.

He ran around in front of her. “Dammit,
Loretta. No. I’m not going to let you walk away. I do see us together.”

She looked up at him, wanting to see the
lie in his eyes. It wasn’t there.

“I know I’ve got this awful past. I
wouldn’t even tell you some of the things I’ve done.” He took hold of her hand.

She told herself to pull away, but she
couldn’t do it.

“I wouldn’t have had the chance to put it
behind me if it wasn’t for you.” He squeezed her fingers.

That one hit her hard. He was either a very
accomplished sociopath or he meant every word.

“I like you, Loretta. A lot. I’ve never
been with a woman like you. Hell, I don’t think I even knew there were women
like you.” He broke into a nervous smile that she couldn’t help returning. “I
want to be with you. I want you to bust my balls and keep me on the straight
and narrow.”

Her smile grew, but she still didn’t
respond. She didn’t trust what she might say.

“I want to see how far we can go, because I
think you just might be the one.”

She covered her mouth with her hand. Now
she really couldn’t say anything.

“Say you’ll come away with me.”

She just stared at him, her hand clamped
over her face.

“Please, Loretta.”

She nodded and he folded her into his
strong arms. Listening to the steady beat of his heart, she didn’t feel as
though she was making a mistake. It felt like this was the way things were
meant to be.

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S
itting in her new office, Loretta glanced
at the clock and typed another sentence into the report she was working on. She
was making herself late, but she couldn’t bear to leave for lunch without
getting one more paragraph down.

Her phone trilled, telling her she had a
new text message. She didn’t read it – she knew exactly what it would say. One
more sentence, then she locked the screen, grabbed her bag and ran for the
door.

She made herself slow down when she got out
of the office. It wasn’t professional for the manager to go running round the
bank like a crazy woman. She knocked on the door next to hers and popped her
head around it.

“Off to lunch?” Her new assistant manager
was a fresh-faced graduate called Paul who rather reminded her of Sean on a
good day.

She was doing her best to make sure he
didn’t fall into the same macho trap her old boss had. “Yeah, I’ll be about an
hour.”

“See you later.”

Halfway down the bank, she spotted Edna in
the road outside and her face creased into a smile. She hurried out to the
street. “You’ll get moved on by the police.” She trailed her fingers along
Edna’s bonnet. Bright red and perfect. Danny had been a real life-saver when it
came to getting hold of parts for her.

Jordan got out and greeted her with a kiss.
Surely the touch of his lips shouldn’t still make her feel giddy after six
months together?

“The cops love me.” He held out the keys.

“No, it’s okay. You drive.”

He opened the passenger door for her and
climbed back in behind the wheel. When he didn’t start the engine, she turned
to give him her full attention. “What?”

He looked at her with his ‘
I can’t keep
a secret’
face.

“What is it?”

“I got the job.”

“Oh my god!” Without a proper employment
history, he’d been struggling to even get interviews. The best he’d managed so
far was some casual labour and a few evenings on the door of the local
flea-pit. Now he was going to manage a staff of eight at a home security firm.
“When do you start?”

“Next week.” He gestured at the picnic
basket on the back seat. “I thought we should celebrate.”

“Congratulations.” She leaned across and
kissed him. Things were going so well she couldn’t help worrying something
would come along to jinx it. Twisting her hands in the strap of her bag, she
wondered if she should seize the moment or wait for the picnic.

He slotted the key home and turned it,
prodding Edna’s engine into life.

Screw the picnic, she’d do it now. “Jordan,
wait a minute.”

“Hmm?”

She reached into her bag and brought out
the ring box she’d been carrying around for the last two weeks. When she
flipped it open and showed him the white-gold band with three inset diamonds,
his mouth fell open. “Will you marry me?” She’d been agonising over this for a
lot longer than two weeks. Would his ego handle a proposal or would he get
offended?

His hands fell off the steering wheel and
he went very quiet.

“Say something.”

He turned off the engine. “Hold on.”
Kneeling up on the seat, he reached into the hamper and fetched something out.
When he sat back down, he opened his hands to reveal a similar burgundy ring
box. “Snap,” he said as he pulled it open. Inside was a beautifully delicate
solitaire.

They both started to laugh. “I suppose we
know what the answer is, then.” He kissed her.

“Yes, yes, yes.” She took his ring out of
its box and held it up.

He put out his hand for her to put the ring
on, then did the same for her.

They sat for a moment, admiring their
diamonds.

A question began to nag at her. She was
reluctant to ask him, but they had a strict ‘open and honest’ policy so she
took a breath and put it out there. “How can you afford a ring like that
anyway?”

“Don’t worry, it’s not fenced.”

“I didn’t mean it like that.” She was
relieved to see he was still smiling. She hadn’t offended him with either
question.

“I’ve still got a little put aside. Well, I
did until last week.” He kissed her again and the last of her worries died
away. He’d got the job he wanted and they were going to get married. Things
didn’t get any more perfect than this.

“Come on,” Loretta said after a while. “I’m
hungry. Let’s go and have this picnic.”

“I’ve got a better idea.” He took off his
seatbelt, pushed back his seat and got down on the floor.

“What are you doing?”

“Shh.” Leaning over into her foot-well, he
slid his hands over her knees and under her pencil skirt.

“Jordan. Someone will see.”

“No they won’t.”

Despite her protests, she still lifted her
ass up off the seat so he could pull down her panties. The thought of what he
was about to do was making her extremely wet. He had to tug hard to drag her
underwear away from the sticky juice of her sex.

He kissed her knee, the inside of her
thigh, her other thigh. Her muscles tensed as he moved closer and closer to her
centre. And then he was right between her legs, holding her open with his
fingers and darting at her clit with his tongue.

She closed her eyes, no longer caring what
any passers-by thought. As long as he didn’t take his mouth away from there,
the whole world was welcome to watch.

Her breathing came faster and he slid his
thumb over her lower lips. He was teasing her. Working her up into a frenzy
that only he could bring to a head. His tongue flicked and licked and twisted
all over her until she was grabbing at his shoulders and squeezing him between
her knees.

Gasping out his name, she felt the slow
build of orgasm start up deep at her core. He moved his tongue faster and
speared her on his thumb. She fell back against the seat. When he circled his
thumb inside her, rubbing her pussy walls, her climax roared towards her with
overwhelming force.

He stopped sucking and bit down gently on
her clit. Everything exploded as her orgasm hit. It blew away all the feelings
that had come before it. There was nothing but Jordan’s mouth and his thumb and
her sex fluttering out of control. Her stomach muscles clenched as she rode out
the high.

Slowly, he let go of her, but she held him
close between her thighs and didn’t release his shirt until the last of the
tremors had worked their way through her body.

Finally, it was over.

He sat back in front of his seat and wiped
his mouth. “Better than any picnic.”

It was impossible look at his naughty smile
without one curling her own lips. She let out a shaky breath. “It’s a good job
you’re driving. I don’t think I’d be capable after that.” He’d really outdone
himself that time – she felt like she’d fallen off the top of a building.

“Sit back and relax.”

She rearranged her clothes and let her
breathing get back to normal. He put his seat back in place, sat down and
started the car. Every few seconds, they’d catch each other’s eye and enormous
smiles would spread across their faces.

“Do you think we’ll still have time for the
picnic?” he asked.

She looked at the basket on the back seat.
“I could always have some food at my desk.”

“But what would we do with the rest of your
lunch hour?” He raised an eyebrow.

The thing about making love to Jordan was
it always left her wanting more. “Let’s see what we can come up with on the way
home.” It was a shame she didn’t live closer to work. Every minute on the road
was a minute wasted.