Deadly Christmas (4 page)

Mandy slid down his length, enveloping him inside her velvety warmth. James kissed her deeply, moving his hands down to her rear end to help her get the rhythm they preferred.

Their breath came out in mingled gasps, and James kept one hand on her rear end as he moved the other around to the front so he could rub circles against her sensitive core. He captured her mouth again when he felt her increase her pace, rubbing vigorously until her body went stiff in his arms. James met her body from beneath and joined her over the edge seconds later, moaning her name as they collapsed back on the bed.

“Now that was a welcome home, baby.”

“Tell me every single thing you did while I was gone,” James instructed, lifting Mandy’s legs so he could settle underneath them on the couch in her reading nook an hour later. After their first “welcome home” round, the duo decided breakfast was in order. Pajamas were the only clothing allowed for their day together, and James was trying to negotiate a way to make those go away – even though Mandy insisted it was too cold to go naked because of the snow.

“You want to know every single thing I did while you were gone?” Mandy asked, arching an eyebrow. “That seems a little … time consuming.”

James smirked. “I have other plans, too. I just want your breakfast to have a chance to settle.”

“Good thinking.” Mandy scooted closer to him so she could rest her head against his shoulder. She wanted to touch him every second. Two weeks of not being able to touch him made her realize just how much she missed the constant contact they had when they were around each other. She inhaled deeply, the remnants of their sweaty sex session mingling with his breakfast. “I even missed how you smell.”

“Did you just sniff me?”

“I … .”

“It’s okay, baby,” James said, brushing his lips against her forehead. “I smelled you, too.”

“We seriously can’t go two weeks without seeing each other again,” Mandy said. “I … I know you’re going to think it makes me sound needy and pathetic, but I don’t care. I ached for you.”

James’ expression was earnest as he regarded his wife. “Every part of me hurt I missed you so much,” he said. “I know you don’t want to talk about leaving your job right now, but I’m serious. I’ll give you a job in the office. You can work as much as you want and take whatever time off you want to paint. Just … quit your job at the courthouse. Now would be the perfect time.”

“You know I can’t do that, James.”

“I don’t know that,” James argued. “If you quit, baby, we could take all the trips together. You want to travel. We both do. Think how great this could be.”

“It sounds great,” Mandy admitted. “I still can’t.”

“Tell me why.” James was serious. “Give me one good reason why you can’t turn in your letter of resignation Monday. Hell, if you agree, I’ll let you get dressed long enough to drive into the courthouse today and do it. We’ll pack up your stuff and send your office out in style.”

Mandy barked out a coarse laugh. “I see you’ve given this some thought.”

“I have given this a lot of thought and the only reason I haven’t pushed you on it until now is because I knew you were going to put up a fight. There’s no reason to fight now, baby. The company is growing. There’s a lot of work you could do for me.”

“First off, you know we can’t work together,” Mandy said, her expression rueful. “You would get bossy and then I would get belligerent because I don’t like you ordering me around. Things would get ugly.”

“I’m not sure I believe that.”

“You’re just basking in a happy homecoming,” Mandy teased, pressing her finger to his chin. “You know very well we would end up screaming at each other if we worked together. Do you really want to risk our marriage because you don’t like my job?”

“No,” James said, although the word chafed coming out. “I wouldn’t risk our marriage for anything. That doesn’t mean you need to stay at the courthouse. I hate you going there. Half of the truly horrible things that have happened to you have occurred there.”

“Only half? Are you keeping score?”

James ignored the dig. “Troy stalked you there. You were almost shot there. You were blown up in the parking lot there. Someone tried to shoot you up outside the courthouse. I … baby, it’s not safe there and you know it.”

“Given my track record, is anywhere really safe for me?” Mandy challenged. “I’ve been attacked here, too.”

James scowled. He didn’t need to be reminded of that. “I love you more than life itself and I want to be able to take you with me on jobs like this. More and more of them are going to start popping up. I can’t send Finn. He’s going to be a father. Grady will be willing to take some of them, but he doesn’t want to be away from Sophie any more than I want to be away from you – and she refuses to take time off work because she’s a freak about stuff like that.”

“What about Jake?”

“We both know that Ally is going to wear me down if I try to send Jake out of town,” James grumbled. “She’s mean and vicious when she wants to be.”

“Oh, my poor husband,” Mandy cooed, kissing his cheek. She sobered after a moment. “I want to be able to travel with you. I can’t quit my job until I can replace the income, though. I told you that.”

“I don’t understand why,” James pressed. “I make more than enough money for the both of us. You don’t have to work.”

“I need to work,” Mandy argued. “I’m never going to make the same kind of money you do, but I still need to feel like I’m contributing to the household. I know you probably laugh every month when you tally up the money I put into our accounts but … .”

“I don’t laugh,” James cut her off. “It makes me angry that you work so hard and get paid so little. Baby, being a clerk is not your dream. Your dream is to be a painter. You have a studio here. Why can’t you do that?”

“That’s my goal,” Mandy replied. “I’m not making money at it yet, though.”

“I don’t want to fight about this,” James said. “You’re not going to back down. This isn’t the last time we’re going to talk about this, though. I’m going to give you until after Valentine’s Day and then we’re going to have a serious discussion.”

Mandy bit her lip and nodded.

“And then after you ignore the serious discussion, we’re going to have a huge fight,” James added, causing Mandy to purse her lips to keep from smiling. “And then after the big fight, we’re going to have a huge round of makeup sex. I think there’s going to be whipped cream involved.”

“I see you’ve given this some thought, too,” Mandy said, grinning.

“You’re all I ever think about, wife,” James said, kissing the tender spot behind her ear. “I want you with me. I can’t tell you how horrible it was being away from you for two weeks.”

“You don’t think I missed you, too?”

“I know you did,” James replied. “I also know you had Ally, my brothers, Heidi, Emma, and Sophie to distract you. I had an empty hotel room. Every night I saw something fun I could be doing with you.”

“And instead you went back to your hotel room and cried,” Mandy said. “That must have been awful.”

James grabbed Mandy around the waist, causing her to giggle as he wrestled her down and tickled her ribs. “It was awful. Just … think about it.”

“I promise.”

“Good,” James said, lowering his mouth until it was an inch from hers. “Now that your breakfast is settled, I have an idea.”

“I can’t wait to hear this.”

“Oh, I’m not telling you, baby,” James said, his smile slow and seductive. “I’m showing you.”

“THIS
had better be life or death,” James growled, stalking into his Sterling Heights office at Hardy Brothers Security two hours later. “I have a naked wife at home and I wasn’t supposed to have to do anything but her for the entire weekend.”

Grady, the middle Hardy brother, glanced up from the laptop he was working on behind James’ desk and fixed his brother with a saucy look. “Nice.”

“Don’t make me pound you, Grady.”

Grady flipped his shoulder-length hair behind his ears and regarded his brother with an impish grin. “You haven’t seen me in two weeks. I thought you missed me.”

“I didn’t.”

“Lies,” Grady said, making a face. “I know darned well you missed me. You called me every other day to see what was going on. That was a total chick move, by the way.”

“I called you to make sure the business was running smoothly and to check that you were stopping in and visiting with Mandy so she wasn’t lonely. That was the only reason I called.”

“You are such a Grinch,” Grady said, rolling his eyes. “How did your reunion with the blonde of your dreams go?”

James fought the urge to smile – and lost. “We were having a great time until you called. What do you want?”

Grady’s amusement faltered. “I really am sorry I had to call,” he said. “I figured you would rather get it out of the way now than deal with it after dark.”

“I still don’t know what
it
is,” James pointed out.

“Oh, sorry,” Grady said, shaking his head. “It’s actually two things. One I didn’t need you here for, but it saves me from having to stop by your place and seeing some horrendous nudity.”

“Grady, you’re on my last nerve.”

“I would think with all the sex you’ve gotten since you’ve been back you would be easier to get along with,” Grady mused.

“Well, you thought wrong,” James countered. “Tell me what I just had to see and make it quick. I promised Mandy I would pick up dinner and then we’re decorating the tree tonight.”

“That doesn’t sound very romantic.”

“We’re doing it naked.”

“That sounds potentially dangerous with all those pine needles,” Grady teased. One look at James’ murderous face told him he’d taken it too far. “I just meant in case they … go somewhere they shouldn’t get … or in somewhere they shouldn’t be or … okay … big brother is not in a good mood.”

“Big brother was in a great mood cuddling with his wife and eating ice cream when you called,” James shot back. “Mandy took the day off from work so we could spend it together. I don’t want to be here with … you.”

“You really missed her, didn’t you?”

“You have no idea how much I missed her,” James replied. “I missed her so much I asked her to quit her position at the courthouse so she could travel on jobs with me.”

“I’m going to bet that went over like a lead balloon.”

“She’s not ready,” James said, running a hand through his messy hair. “She’s got this weird idea about money and having to contribute to the family income. I offered to hire her here, but she says we’ll end up fighting and get divorced.”

“She’s right,” Grady said. “No matter how much you love someone, you can’t spend twenty-four hours a day with them seven days a week. You know that.”

“I
do
know that,” James agreed. “It’s just … I missed her.”

“You’ll figure it out,” Grady said. “We shouldn’t have any jobs out of town for at least the next month. You don’t have to take them all. I’ll take some of them.”

“And then you’ll realize how much you miss Sophie.”

Grady smiled at mention of his live-in love. Sophie Lane was the one thing he never saw coming. She stole his heart with her mouthy attitude and beautiful face. He couldn’t imagine going two weeks without seeing her. “On second thought, let’s work as a family unit on getting Mandy to quit.”

“That’s what I thought,” James said, rolling his neck. “What is so important that I just had to come down here?”

Grady pointed at the computer screen. “The new system at Carmichael’s in California seems to be working perfectly. Art is so happy he wants to set up the system in all of his stores. I told him we could start with the Michigan one – it’s at the mall in Sterling Heights – but we couldn’t do the rest for a few weeks because the equipment is on special order.”

“That sounds fine,” James said, confused. “Why did I need to come down here for that?”

“Well, there was one unforeseen problem,” Grady said. “I’m not sure everyone realizes where all the cameras are in the California store.”

James moved around the desk and stared at the screen, rolling his eyes when he saw Ava making out with one of the clerks at the California store. They were on top of the glass display case in the far corner. They either thought the cameras didn’t reach that far – or they didn’t care. James wouldn’t put either scenario past Ava.

“That’s not our concern,” James said. “If Art wants to watch his video feeds … well … that’s his prerogative. Ava knew cameras were going into that store. Maybe she wants to get caught.”

“Wouldn’t that end her gravy train?”

“That woman is a viper,” James replied. “She hit on me every single day I was there. She knew I was married and she didn’t care. Hell, I told her I was happily married and would never cheat on my wife and she still went after me. It was absolutely pathetic.”

“How does Art act around her?”

James shrugged. “I don’t think Art is in this union for love,” he answered. “This is his third wife. He told me that mouthy wives weren’t for him and maybe I would realize that by the time I was on my third wife. I explained I was sticking with the first wife forever and he didn’t believe me. It was as if the idea of actually loving Mandy never entered his mind.”

“He sounds like a real prince.”

“He’s a real douche is what he is,” James countered. “I don’t mind taking the man’s money for security, but I’m not hanging around this guy at social gatherings and calling him a friend. I don’t like him and the way he thinks.”

James glanced at the computer screen again. “I definitely don’t like Ava,” he added. “We’re not editing anything out of this footage. Let Art find what he wants to find. Ava is not our concern.”

“Okay,” Grady said, holding his hands up. “I just wanted you to see. I figured you would want to know what was going on.”