Here Comes Trouble (26 page)

“Oh my gosh, I think you killed me,” she said after she’d inhaled half the box of potatoes.

One side of Chase’s mouth kicked up when he reached for another chicken wing. “Don’t tell me you’ve never eaten at the Trouble Café.”

She shook her head and tore off a piece of bread.

“You’ve lived here how long and you’ve never been there?”

“My salary doesn’t exactly afford luxuries like that.”

“Hmm. Your boss should give you a raise.”

She dug her fork into the potatoes. “Maybe you could put in a good word for me.”

He opened the bag of turnovers. “Yeah, we are pretty tight. Are you ready for one of these?”

Her eyes narrowed. “You really
are
trying to kill me, aren’t you?”

“There are better ways to go than this, believe me.” Just to get his meaning across, his eyes lowered to her shirtfront as though he saw the flesh beneath. Her heart did a little triple beat beneath her rib cage. If he meant in bed with him then he was damn right.

“Just have a small bite.” He tore off a corner piece with his thumb and forefinger and held the treat out to her. A dollop of apple filling oozed out like molasses and fell to the blanket.

Before she had a chance to say, “no stinkin’ way,” Chase put the turnover to her lips and forced them open. Caught under the hypnotizing spell of his very blue eyes, Lacy opened her mouth just wide enough to let his fingers inside. His index finger touched the tip of her tongue before letting go of the food. Just because he was a teasing little sneak, he let his index finger linger so that her lips closed around it.

“That was sneaky,” she said, after regaining her voice.

He inhaled half the turnover with one bite. “But fun.”

She unscrewed the cap to her water bottle and took a sip. “If I eat another bite, I’ll explode.”

“Good stuff, huh?” They’d killed off the chicken wings, so Chase closed the lid to the container and stuffed it back in the bag.

“I can’t believe I’ve been missing that all this time. Their cooking ought to be illegal.”

A chuckle rumbled from his thick chest. “It reminds me of my mother’s cooking.”

Only half the potatoes remained so Lacy shut the Styrofoam lid and helped Chase clean the rest of their mess. “Do you remember anything about her?” Maybe his memories of his mother were a lot clearer than her memories of her own mother.

He tossed the last napkin in the plastic bag. “I was only seven when she died, so my memories of her are pretty fuzzy. I remember her cooking though. She used to make biscuits that absolutely melted in your mouth.”

Lacy had never tasted anything like that until today. “I’m sorry I never got to meet her. She sounded like an amazing woman.”

Chase leaned down on one elbow and stretched his longs legs out. “She had to be, to tame three boys.”

She crossed her legs under her. “You were the wildest one, weren’t you?”

“What gave you that idea?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she said then lifted his shirtsleeve to reveal the tattoo beneath.

He glanced down at his bicep. “Oh, that. You know, Noah and Brody have the same one in the exact same spot.”

She nodded and let her hand linger on his arm. “And they each have one that says Twelve-Inch Wonder, too?”

He lifted at thick shoulder. “I can’t help it if I’m bigger than them. Besides,” His gaze ran down to her toes. “You have enough first-hand experience to know the tattoo is pretty accurate.”

“You know, despite what some women tell you, size doesn’t always matter.”

The gorgeous man had the gall to laugh. “They only say that when the man they’re with is too small.”

Right, and he’d never had that complaint because he was the “Twelve-Inch Wonder,” a name most likely given to him by a woman. Lacy had a sneaking suspicion men didn’t go around naming other men’s penises. She shook her head and decided to change to subject. Discussing body parts associated with sex was not the wisest idea.

“How did it go at the police station yesterday?” he asked after they’d both been silent for a moment.

“As well as can be expected.” She’d officially filed burglary charges against her father the day before. This wasn’t the first incident where she’d filed charges against Dennis. But something about yesterday left her feeling almost sick to her stomach. Maybe all these years of being more responsible and mature than her father were finally starting to wear on her.

“You did the right thing,” Chase reassured her. “So what happens next?”

“They’ll have a formal hearing, then the judge will decide whether or not the case will go to trial.”

“If it does go to trial, will you have to testify?”

“I don’t know. I just want to forget about the whole thing.”

A cool breeze sifted through the leaves in the trees around them. Lacy let her eyes drift shut and her body float down to the blanket. She settled her relaxed bones next to Chase and savored the rare moment of having absolutely
nothing
to do.

“Are you sure you want to be in this position?” The man next to her spoke in low, bedroom-voice tones.

One of her eyelids cracked open. Her former lover leaned closer than he should have with his elbow resting against her shoulder. Half a day’s worth of light-brown stubble covered his square jaw and made him look even more disreputable. Within the past few seconds, his face had gotten closer. How had he done that without her noticing?

He traced her bottom lip with his index finger. “You make it so easy, Lace.”

Huh? Make what easy? His words didn’t make sense, then his blue eyes darkened and dropped down her mouth where his finger ran back and forth. A wave of goose bumps followed his finger down her neck and over one collarbone. Her eyes drifted shut again and her breath turned from even to shallow and erratic when his finger traced along the neckline of her shirt. How did he do that? Where did he learn these moves and turn a woman to a bowl of cottage cheese by touching her? Good grief, if he didn’t stop she’d forget her friend rule and pull his mouth down to hers.

“If I’m not mistaken, I’d say you’re turned on,” he whispered next to her ear.

She placed a hand one of his shoulders. “A good enough reason for you to stop.”

His lips found her neck and she tilted her head to one side. “Actually that’s a good reason to continue.”

She gave his shoulder a shove. “Did you bring me here to seduce me?”

“We both know I don’t need to bring you way out here to do that.” His kisses grew more insistent and traveled down her neck to her collarbone. Lacy sighed when his mouth found hers. His warm tongue danced along the seam of her lips, then slipped inside when she granted him entrance. A tingly sensation worked its way down her body when his tongue swirled around hers. He inserted one thigh in between both her legs and shifted himself more fully over her body. He was so big, his body covering her much smaller one like they’d been designed to go together. Oh, how she’d missed this and the feel of him on top of her. She missed how he made her feel beautiful and desirable, how one curl of his lips made her forget everything else in her life.

One of his hands slid into her hair and gently gripped the side of her head. His fingers massaged her skull lovingly. She arched into him, savoring the feel of all that masculinity. Without breaking contact, he shifted the angle of the kiss and plunged his tongue even deeper into her mouth.

All sense of time and reality drifted away from her as she wrapped her arms around Chase’s shoulders. The man was a master at making her forget her own name. All he had to do was crook his finger and she turned into mush.

His tongue continued to slide along hers in a delicious, erotic dance that had her heart cracking in two.

He finally lifted his head and skimmed his thumb along her swollen lips.

“We really shouldn’t do this,” she managed to say.

His mouth twitched in a small smile. “I’d say we already did.”

She pulled in a cleansing breath in order to clear her head. “I mean anymore.”

“You don’t sound too sure,” he said after disengaging himself from her.

“I’m not. That’s why we shouldn’t.”

His hand sifted through her hair again. “You tie me up in knots.”

“It’s not on purpose I can assure you. In the meantime I should be getting home.”

“All right.”

They reluctantly pulled themselves off the comfort of the ratty blanket and cleaned their picnic mess. Chase disposed of the garbage while Lacy folded the blanket and stuffed it back in the motorcycle. Once mounted, with Chase gripping the handlebars and Lacy wrapped around him like a glove, he pulled the motorcycle out of their spot and started their journey home.

All the way there, Lacy allowed herself to enjoy the feel of him against her front. He was so irresistible that it was all she could do to keep from begging him to stop the bike and continue his seduction. Instead, she dropped her head to his back and rested her cheek there for the remainder of the ride.

By the time he pulled into her driveway, twilight had set on their tiny town. She dismounted the bike and replaced her belongings with the helmet in the back compartment.
 
He didn’t kiss her or touch her at all, probably because he knew she wouldn’t want him to. Actually, she really did, but for the sake of her sanity it would be better if there was no touching at all.

“Have dinner with me,” he announced just before she wished him good-night.

“Chase…”

He held his hands up in surrender. “No seducing, I promise. I won’t even touch you unless you touch me first.”

“Just dinner?” Why did she get the feeling they were stepping into the dating category?

“Nothing else.”

She pursed her lips and hitched the art bag higher in her shoulder. “You have to take me someplace I’ve never been before. Someplace nice.”

He grinned and her insides melted like butter over a hot muffin. “I think I can manage that.”

She turned to walk to the door then spun around at the last second to catch him watching her. “Thanks for the afternoon out.”

His response was another grin then he kicked the motorcycle on and backed out of the driveway.

What in the world had she just agreed to? Her friendship rule wasn’t going to stay in effect if she kept letting him take her out. Even if he had promised not to touch her, Lacy couldn’t promise herself she wouldn’t be the least bit turned on. Her body might be safe from him but her heart was another story.

“You are glutton for punishment,” she chastised herself as she opened the front door and went inside.

Boris didn’t even twitch from his usual spot. The reason she knew he was alive was because he snorted then let out a low whine. Ray’s old dog was so predictable. She walked past the living room and almost made it past the kitchen when something beeped.

Her sandal-covered feet stopped in their tracks. Had she set a timer and forgot what it was for? The house didn’t have an alarm, nor did she have an answering machine.

Her cell phone. For some reason she hadn’t stuck it back in her purse from the last time she’d used it. Instead, the device sat on the kitchen counter where she absentmindedly placed it.

She picked it up and touched her thumb to the touchpad. The words, “One new voice message” blinked on the screen.

Her eyebrows pinched together as she listened to the mechanical voice.

“
Miss Taylor, this is Officer Williams with the Trouble PD. I just wanted to let you know we’re processing the charges against your father. I also encourage you to give me a call, should you remember anything else of importance. I’m available anytime.”

He rattled off his phone number, then the message ended with the automated voice telling her to press seven to delete. Lacy ignored the instruction and pushed the “end” button and dropped her phone. It hit the cracked tiled countertop where it had rested a second ago with a loud “
clack.
”

She’d been through this process before with Dennis. Something inside her churned like an unsettling thunderstorm ready to break. Little white stars danced before her eyes. Her once warm skin turned clammy cold until a thin layer of perspiration built up in between her breasts and upper lip. Just as she took a step down the hall, the floor tilted and her stomach did a little dip/somersault thing. She sprinted the rest of the way to her room, kicked open the bathroom door and tossed all her chicken wings into the toilet.

Damn Dennis. Damn him straight to hell for affecting her like this. She ought to be throwing a celebration party for the bastard’s being thrown back in jail. Instead, she was leaning over the toilet, hair hanging in her face, and throwing up the last of her delicious lunch, right down to the tiny bite of apple turnover.

What the hell was wrong with her?

Fourteen

Chase pulled into Lacy’s driveway at six-fifteen and cut the engine to his truck. The temperatures today had soared near one hundred. While the sun was not even close to setting, the material of his navy blue polo stuck to his skin, as he walked up the concrete path and rang the doorbell. The click-clicking of heels sounded through the old wooden door a second before it swung open. This time when his shirt stuck to his skin it had nothing to do with the unusual heat. His gaze drifted up a pair of smooth, bare legs, hips hugged by some weird stretchy material and breasts barely supported by a scooped neckline. He had to peel his tongue off the roof of his mouth when he got a load of floss-thin spaghetti straps that barely held the dress up her body. The deep, emerald-green color, for some insane reason, made her blonde hair shine even more than it already did.