It Must Be Magic (17 page)

This time she did grate off the tips of her two longest fingernails. Damn, she’d have to start grating all over again.

“I think you’re doing a big disservice to Tanner by saying he can’t provide emotional sustenance for his daughter.”

“No. I’m trying to give this family the something extra it’s missing.” He tapped her on the nose. “And that’s you.”

The idea made her heart beat furiously and her brain spin. Maybe Erika did have a problem, Lili couldn’t say for sure anymore. She could, however, definitely say that Tanner Rutland was a solutions-oriented kind of man — come to think of it, most men were solution-oriented — but
this
solution would give him a massive heart attack from which he might never recover.

T
ANNER HADN’T AGREED TO MARRIAGE
or even dating, but he had agreed to let Erika spend more time with Lili.

The discussion left him feeling as if he’d been standing on top of an anthill, then sitting on it throughout dinner.

Lili had gone back to her own house, and Tanner had gotten Erika to take the cat outside to play while he and Roscoe cleaned up the kitchen. She needed more fresh air. She needed something, and Tanner wasn’t sure what the hell that was. The sheriff and his man had come and gone. They’d found nothing suspicious beyond the damage at the initial entry point. Lili said she didn’t use that door much — it was for the cats — and there hadn’t been a single fingerprint on the outside, and where there should have been a few prints on the inside, not a thing.

Someone had thought to wipe the door clean.

It was no wham-bam burglary. That scared the crap out of Tanner, worse than feeling as though he stood on an anthill.

“You can’t let Lili feed those cats all by herself. She could be murdered in a matter of seconds before she even got the chance to scream.”

“She’s fine, Roscoe.” But the thought did send a chill down Tanner’s spine as he set the last plate in the dishwasher, poured the soap in and started the wash cycle.

“Or she could be raped.” Roscoe shuddered dramatically. “You know you can’t let her sleep alone over there.”

Tanner felt the breath get sucked out of him, and he shot Roscoe a look. “What? You expect me to lay down at the foot of her bed with my sword in my hand fending off her attackers?”

Hell, it was exactly how he felt, metaphorically speaking.

Roscoe raised one brow. “Actually, I was thinking more in terms of having her spend the night in the guest room.”

“Oh. Oh yeah. Well, that was my idea.”

His idea did not center around having Lili sleep next door to his daughter. If she slept next to Erika, if she was in this house at all, she was off-limits to him, and despite all his best intentions, Tanner couldn’t rid himself of the image of Lili naked in his bed. Or her bed. Or on the living room carpet, in the shower, on the dining room table or anywhere else he could have her. He couldn’t get rid of the image of her taking him in her mouth. His pulse beat harder with the memory.

You’d have thought the mention of marriage would shock those thoughts right out of his mind. No such luck.

“If you’re not going to go over there and get her, son, I am.” Roscoe grabbed the butcher knife out of the block. “I’ll take this just in case.”

“You’re more likely to accidentally stab her. Or yourself. Give me that thing.” He put the blade back in the knife block. “Why don’t you go put fresh sheets on the bed?”

“Nobody’s slept in it for ages.”

“That’s why it needs something fresh.”

The fact was he’d never had any intention of letting Lili stay alone at her place. Yesterday she’d found a body. Today, everyone in town knew a cat had sent her blasted images. Now her house had been broken into. Didn’t take a genius.

It also didn’t take a genius to figure out that what he wanted from Lili was far more complicated than mere sex and far more dangerous than the simple date his daughter had suggested.

L
ILI WASHED CAT BOWLS AT
the sink. Surprised she hadn’t bolted herself inside, Tanner watched through the screen door. She’d long since taken off the heavy sweater. The day had warmed and now she wore a long-sleeved, scoop-neck top.

At dinner, he’d noticed how the tightness emphasized her breasts. Okay, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. A buxom bosom would have looked odd on her willowy body. He’d never been a breast man, anyway; he was a leg man, and Lili had long, long legs that made him ache to have them wrapped around him.

He rapped on the screen door, and Lili jumped a mile. A bowl clattered to the sink. Another rolled across the floor.

Tanner let himself in and caught the rolling dish before it disappeared under the kitchen table.

“You scared me.”

“I gathered that.”

She flipped her hair. “I have something to say.”

“You always get to go first. I’m going first this time.”

“All right,” she answered almost eagerly.

“I’ve spoken to Erika about our deal.”

She looked right, then left and bit her lip. “What deal?”

“That you’d spend some time with her. Woman to woman.” He kept the involuntary shudder to himself.

She let out a big sigh. “Ooh, I thought it was going to be something bad that I forgot about.”

He pushed a hand back through his hair. “Why does this whole family think I’m some sort of troll ready to rip the heads off everyone who crosses my path? I’m not a bad guy.”

Her eyes were an oddly charged lilac, like the edge of a setting sun just before it disappeared.

“What?” He had to prompt her when she didn’t answer.

“I’m not your family.”

“It was a figure of speech.” It was anything but. It was Roscoe and Erika pushing Lili at him. It was his own unrelenting desire. It was years of skimming the surface of relationships and thinking that was enough. It hadn’t been enough for a long time. He’d just never admitted that to himself. He also didn’t want to contemplate that Lili was the “more than enough” he’d subconsciously been searching for.

“I’m not a troll,” he said.

“I know. But you can be disapproving sometimes.” Then she put both hands on his arms. “I’m not complaining. I’m glad you’ll let me help with Erika. No one’s ever trusted me with anything that important before.”

She had such a way of tying him up in knots and making him feel like a king instead of a troll.

However, he was somewhat dictatorial, and figured he might as well go the whole way and tell her everything he planned to do to her. Well, not everything, at least not right this moment. “You’re spending the night because I’m not letting you stay here alone. Do you have a problem with that?”

She leaned back against the counter, crossed her arms and looked at him beneath her full lashes.

“What?” he was forced to say. Again.

“I’m thinking about whether I have a problem with it.”

“It was a rhetorical question. I don’t expect an answer or an argument.”

“What if I want to argue?”

“It won’t do you any good. I’ll win.”

“Do you always win, Tanner?”

There was more to that than four simple words. He’d never won with Karen. He’d tried to change her instead, tried to moderate her bizarre idea about being psychic. No, dammit, that wasn’t true. He hadn’t tried to change or moderate her. He’d simply drawn the line at certain things. He’d drawn it at allowing her to leave Erika for six weeks at her tender age. It wasn’t about winning. It was about what was best for Erika. He believed what he’d done was right, no matter the result.

Don’t confuse efforts with results.

He hadn’t confused them. He simply hadn’t retained control. And why the hell did Lili make him think about all that?

“No, I don’t always win. I don’t need to win.” He didn’t want to believe he
had
to win. “But I intend to win this time. For your safety.”

“Do you really think I’m in danger? They didn’t take anything. They didn’t trash my house. They didn’t hurt the cats other than seriously frightening them by invading their space.”

“It’s not about what the burglar did this time. It’s what he could do next time. Where are the cats, by the way?”

“Around. They vamoosed as soon as they were done eating.” Lili huffed and stomped her foot. “I’d just gotten them to come out of their hidey-holes, but now I’ve got to start all over. They’re absolutely traumatized. Cats don’t like their home being messed with. You didn’t answer my question.”

“That’s because I’ve forgotten what it was.” He hadn’t, but the way Lili talked, one could easily forget. Being around her sometimes made him forget his own name.

She pressed her lips into a line.

“I don’t know if you’re in danger, but I’m not taking any chances.”

“If I sleep at your house, I’ll have to leave the cats alone in my house. And what about Einstein? She can’t sleep without me.”

He’d thought about that earlier image, him lying at the bottom of her bed with his sword in his hand. No way. If he was over here and she was over here, they’d be
in
her bed, together.

“Einstein can come, but the others will have to stay here. I’m sure they’ll be okay. I don’t want Fluffy to totally freak out. I’m not even sure he’ll tolerate Einstein.” He quirked an eyebrow. “Where is my little darling?”

The cat was usually hanging around giving him the evil eye.

Lili pointed. “On the chair under the table.”

Tanner turned. Einstein hunkered down on the seat staring at him through the chair’s bars as if she were in jail. For a moment in the yard while Sheriff Gresswell had examined the door, Tanner had felt a communion with the cat. As if they were in total accord and shared a goal, keeping Lili safe. Einstein blinked at him, and he got a skin-crawling feeling they were communicating again on the subject of Lili
not
staying home alone.

“I suppose Einstein will sleep on the bed.”

“She sleeps wherever she wants. It’s hard to tell a cat she can’t snuggle up beside you when it’s the middle of the night, and she’s all warm and cuddly.”

Damn. Why did she have to say stuff like that? It made his libido skyrocket. He wanted to be the one snuggling close. And doing a lot more.

She grinned. “You win, then.”

“That was easy.”

“I’m scared to stay by myself, anyway.”

There was nothing like being the big protector. What man didn’t want to tuck the little woman beneath his arm and take care of her? It was one of the most powerful motivators on earth. It also made a man ignore his gut feelings.

His gut told him to run a mile a minute away from her. Every other fiber of his being made him stay.

“I’ll get a few things.” She pointed at the door leading to the hall and the stairwell, then edged toward it as if she were afraid of turning her back on him.

“I’ll check the doors while you get ready.”

She slipped out, her footsteps skipping up the stairs as if she took them two at a time.

Tanner checked the laundry room door. A faint residue blackened the white paint and brass knob. He clicked the closure in place over the cat door and flicked the upper door lock.

Back in the kitchen, Einstein jumped down from the chair, sat in the middle of the kitchen floor and blocked his way. There was a message in that green gaze, but darned if he could tell what it was. Blink, stare, blink, stare.

“I’ll take care of her, I promise.”

Blink, stare.

“What more do you want from me?”

Stare, blink. Then she rose and padded out of the kitchen.

“You just talked to a cat, and you actually expected it to answer.” He shook his head and headed for the front door. Lili had already taken care of locking it.

With his hand on the newel post, he debated climbing the stairs. He could wait here. He didn’t have to go up. He didn’t have to follow her around like a hound dog catching her scent.

He was still arguing with himself when he reached the second-floor landing. He’d stopped arguing by the time he got to her bedroom door.

Lili’s voice reached out into the hallway. “I can’t believe you said that.”

Einstein sat just inside, tail swishing on the hardwood floor. Lili clutched a small overnight bag to her chest. Her cheeks began to flame the moment she saw Tanner in the entry.

“I’m afraid to ask what she said.”

Lili took him in with eyes wide. “It’s not repeatable.”

“Which makes me have an even greater need to know that’s almost scary.”

She shook her head. Her dangling earrings jingled lightly like wind chimes. “Nope, can’t tell you.”

He sidestepped Einstein and stopped inside Lili’s personal space. Her overnight bag brushed his chest. “Don’t keep me in suspense.”

Her plump, kissable lips rose with a tiny smile. “Curiosity killed the cat.”

“Einstein’s still alive.”

“She won’t be once you hear what she said.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Did that cat threaten me with emasculation?”

“Nope. It was actually the opposite.”

He breathed her in, his mind whirling with her scent. “What’s the opposite of emasculation?”

“Um, she said I should put you out of your misery and finish what we started this morning.”

The cat
was
on his side.

He’d barely wrapped his mind around that when she tipped her head and looked at him through her lowered lashes. “Funny, I thought you did finish this morning.”

He stroked a finger down her cheek, along her jaw to the hollow of her throat. “We are far from finished.”

He’d known that from the first moment he’d touched her. He’d known it when he’d stuck a condom in his wallet before he’d come over.

As much as he’d like to say he was worried about Lili’s safety, her cats, her house, his daughter, etc., etc., it really came down to this. He wanted her, she wanted him, and this moment between them was inevitable.

A
CTUALLY, EINSTEIN HAD SAID
that Lili was like a cat in heat, and she should scratch the itch so that Einstein didn’t accidentally drop in on Lili’s X-rated thoughts. Very X-rated, as a matter of fact. And that was the gist of the diatribe.

Should she or shouldn’t she go through with it?

But oh, Tanner smelled so good. His eyes on her lips and his finger at her throat made her tremble inside. Who cared about “shoulds” when she felt like this?

“Why don’t you tell me what more you want to finish?” She trailed a finger down the buttons of his polo shirt. It was a teasing thing to say, and she didn’t usually tease, but it kept her from throwing him to the floor and climbing on top.

You are such a slut.

“Einstein, get out of this room right now.”

She left, with a snooty flick of her tail in the air.

Tanner rubbed his nose along Lili’s cheek, following with his lips. “Do I wanna know?”

“No. But it wasn’t about emasculation, I promise.”

He feathered a kiss across her eyelid. “You shouldn’t talk about emasculation right now.” Planting a hand at the small of her back, he pressed their bodies together, his erection to her belly, and leaned back to look at her.

“I want to take your nipple in my mouth and suck until you scream with the sheer pleasure of it.”

Her nipples tightened almost to the point of pain, she wanted so badly. She wasn’t promiscuous, but she wasn’t innocent, nor did she usually crawl into bed without knowing a man’s true intentions.

The things Tanner did to her, the way his words and his touch drove her body over the edge, she couldn’t seem to care about his intentions, at least not the emotional ones. The physical ones were quite clear.

He rotated his hips against her, caressing her stomach with all that hard male flesh.

“Then,” he went on, driving her crazy, “I want to push you down on the bed, spread your legs and taste you.”

Oh, oh, yes, please. Her breath rushed. Rapid, harsh. Her skin heated, flushed, and she was hotter on the inside. Creamier. She could come with a single touch from him.

He leaned forward again to feast on her throat, heading down to the swell of her breast.

“And finally, I want to be inside you,” he whispered against her skin, his warm breath setting her alight. “You can’t begin to know how many times I’ve dreamed about that.”

Oh, she could, she really could. She’d thought about it a thousand times today. Which was only a slight exaggeration.

He slid his fingers beneath her shirt, up, up, until he pulled it over her head and tossed it aside. Then he held both breasts in his hands.

“You’re beautiful.”

“I’m small.” She didn’t normally feel self-conscious about it, but Tanner made her want to be perfect. He flicked open the center snap of her bra and pushed the lace cups aside.

“These,” he murmured, brushing a fingernail across a hardened peak, “are exactly what I want. No more, no less.” The blue of his eyes darkened to a deep ocean storm, and the look he raked over her body stole her breath.

Bending at the knees, he scooped her up, pulled her legs around his waist, and held her firmly with his hand at her back. The first touch of his mouth swept through her like electroshock.

She wrapped her arms around his head, held him close and let him take her nipple with his lips and the sweet caress of his tongue. Tightening her legs around him, she rocked. He guided her with his hand at her back and an arm across her butt.

She couldn’t trap the moan inside and it slipped out, a low, needy sound. He matched it with a deep growl, then suddenly tossed her on the bed.

She bounced, then stared at him wide-eyed.

Hunkering over her, he reached beneath her and tugged on the back zipper of her capris.

She tried to wriggle away. “I can’t be naked if you’re not naked.” It made her a tiny bit vulnerable.

A wicked grin creased his lips, and his eyes turned almost black. “Oh, yes, you can.”

He grabbed the waistband of her capris and panties and pulled until they were all the way down at her ankles, stopped by her shoes. She should have been embarrassed, naked, legs slightly spread, but he sucked on her inner thigh. Sucked, then licked, moving higher, and she forgot to be embarrassed as she collapsed against the mattress. She didn’t even realize he’d removed her shoes at the same time until she heard them thunk on the floor.

Then she didn’t have time to think at all, because he parted her thighs and stroked straight up with his tongue. She grabbed handfuls of bedspread, called out his name, then panted in time with his lingual ministrations. His fingers dug into her bottom as he held her to him. She squirmed and moaned, cried out, and finally burst into flames when he thrust a finger deep inside.

She screamed, knew she shouldn’t, couldn’t help herself. Just as she couldn’t keep herself from grabbing his head in her hands and tightening her thighs about his ears. Then there was nothing but a wave of heat shooting through her body and pulling her under like a tsunami.

L
ILI ROLLED AND TRIED TO CRAWL
away from him. He wouldn’t let her go. Tanner wore his shirt, his pants, his shoes, but he followed, buried her beneath him and thrust up against her backside until he thought he’d explode.

She parted her lips, dragging in air. Her hair tangled about her ears and caught in the buttons of his shirt. She’d lost an earring, yet the other tinkled as she moved. The scent of hot arousal rose up to cloud his senses, flowers and sweet, needy woman. He shoved aside several pillows, then reached a hand beneath her. Rolling to his back, he carried her with him, laying her fully atop him, and buried his fingers once more in the dark curls between her legs. She split apart all over again, his name on her lips.

She came like a lioness, hard, forever, milking his fingers. He had never known such power as his body drank her shudders, her cries, her moans.

He soothed a hand over her belly, writing love words with his fingers, and nuzzled her ear.

“So did we finish what we started?” she whispered.

Her head lay on his shoulder, her hair across his arm and face, her cheek pressed to his. He thrust up against her, finding a home between her buttocks. “What do you think?”

“I think you take too long to get your clothes off.” She ended the speech with a long sigh he felt in his gut.

She slid away, rolled over and cupped him through his slacks. Rubbing, caressing, bringing him to an almost unbearable state of hardness. She unbuckled his belt, and he was afraid the first touch of her fingers would be his undoing.

It was a miracle he hadn’t lost it when she’d come.

He pulled her hand away. “No playing. I’m too sensitive.”

She eyed him as if she’d never heard of such a thing. Come to think of it, he’d never heard of it before, either, had certainly never experienced it. But she could make him come with one swipe of her tongue.

He sat up to pull his shirt over his head, throwing it over the end of the bed. Then he looked at her. She was gorgeous, she was naked, she was his. Long legs, silky black hair, luscious dark nipples and a thatch of matching hair between her legs, just as soft, just as silky. He tasted her essence on his tongue, and he wanted more. More of her taste, her scent, her heat. More of Lili.

“Shoes,” she whispered, her eyes big and dark purple.

He toed them off and kicked them to the end of the bed. They thumped to the floor.

“Pants,” she murmured.

He unbuckled, raised his hips and shoved everything off.

“Oh my.” Licking her lips, she glanced up at him through her lashes. “I think it’s bigger than it was this morning.”

It sure as hell felt bigger, and harder, and a helluva lot more needy. He reached in his pocket, yanked out the condom and threw the rest of his clothing off the end of the bed.

Holding the packet up with one hand, he took her chin. “I know what this looks like.”

“What does it look like?”

“As if I planned this.”

“Didn’t you?”

“Yes. But not because I think you’re —” He stopped. He couldn’t come up with the right way of saying it.

“Easy?”

He couldn’t tell a thing by her tone, which was slightly teasing, or her smile, which was almost flirty. It was her eyes, deep purple rather than their usual lilac. Desire was written there, but also something more, something that glimmered at the edges.

He palmed her cheek, passed his thumb over her lips. “Nothing about you is easy.” Pressing his lips to hers, he opened slowly to take her mouth with his tongue in sweet imitation of what he’d done to her. His heart somersaulted, and his desire spiked. “I’ve wanted you from the moment you told me you were a carnivore.”

She laughed, and whatever had been there, the slight mistiness, shimmered away. “No one has ever told me they wanted me because I’m a carnivore.”

He grabbed her hand, flopped back on the bed and pulled her on top. “I’d ask you to eat me, because you’re a carnivore, but I don’t think I’d make it through that.” He cupped her breasts, teased her nipples with the tips of his fingers. “I want to watch every move you make.” He wanted to carry the memory in his mind for cold, dark nights when he wasn’t in her bed.

She tore the little packet, held him aloft and rolled on the condom. Then she leaned down and sucked him all the way in, condom and all.

His hips rose and thrust.

“It’s not flavored.”

“Next time.” He pushed a hand between her legs, tested her moisture, stroked her clitoris, then declared, “Mmm, you’re ready.”

Her hands by his shoulders, she lifted above him, spread her legs and drove down, filling herself with him.

Throwing her head back, she sighed, moaned and took him deep. “That feels so good. I’d forgotten how good it felt.”

So had he. It had been so long since a woman had felt this perfect, the moment of entry this momentous. She found her rhythm quickly, a sweet, hard ride, her hair all around him, her musky feminine scent surrounding him, her hot, wet body enveloping him. He put his hands to her hips and matched her, thrusting high on her down stroke, going deep, deeper, until he shoved his head against the mattress and felt his eyes roll back in his head. So damn good.

“Look at me,” she whispered.

He opened his eyes. She was a dark, wild animal above him, taking him, controlling him, wresting every ounce of his strength from him. She strained and pounded, bit her lip to a deep crimson then opened her mouth to cry his name.

His blood rushed to his extremities, his ears throbbed, his cock pulsed inside her.

“Come now,” she demanded.

She dragged in a breath, her eyes darkening and her body tightening, but her gaze never left his, not even when she gasped, shuddered and convulsed around him.

And he lost himself forever inside her.

L
ILI CAME TO HERSELF WRAPPED
in his arms beneath the covers without quite knowing how she got there. At least not the specific movements.

His breath was harsh against her ear, and face-to-face on their sides, he pulsed lightly inside her. It was magic, total and complete magic. Lili floated gently on the wave.

Until Tanner’s voice brought her back. “What’s that?”

His body making love to hers? “What’s what?” she murmured.

“On the nightstand.”

She leaned back and looked over her shoulder, then put her face once again into the crook of his neck. “It’s a cat.” White, ethereal. Ghost. Who didn’t often come out to play.

He must have a streak of voyeurism in him.

“How long has that cat been there?”

“I don’t know.” Thank God it wasn’t Einstein or she’d never hear the end of it. From Einstein, not Tanner. Though he might have freaked.

“I feel a bit like we’re being peeped at.”

She laughed, then licked his neck and the laugh died as quickly as it came. She wanted so badly to ask him what it meant. Making love or casual sex? She hadn’t cared about the meaning when they’d started. She’d simply wanted him.

She cared about the meaning now, when it was too late to do anything about it. If he said it was as casual as with his other dates, she’d die.

He snugged her closer, settled into the pillows, and a moment later his breathing evened out into sleep.

He’d fallen asleep still inside her.

That had to mean something. She was just afraid it might not mean anything good.

“T
HEY’VE BEEN GONE AN
awfully long time, Grandpa.” Erika leaned both hands on the edge of the kitchen sink and held herself up, her feet dangling, to peer out the window at Lili’s house next door.

“Lili’s got a lot of cats to feed. And your father wanted to check the house over again very carefully to make sure nothing’s missing. They’ve got to get into every nook and cranny, and I’m sure it’s going to take a really long time.”

Erika glanced over her shoulder. “Grandpa, I don’t see how this is going to work. Most people do the opposite of what you tell them to do. So if I tell Dad he should marry Lili, he’s going to do the exact opposite thing.” Erika gasped, jumped down from the sink and put a hand over her mouth. “What if he decides to marry someone else?”

“Honey pie, you worry too much. It’s about planting seeds. They germinate, they grow, then all of sudden you have a full-blown blooming plant on your hands. Love will bloom if we tend it carefully.”

“Well, I hope it doesn’t backfire on us.”

Roscoe shook his head sadly. “Oh ye of little faith. Let’s go bake some cookies.”

They had to do something, because Roscoe had a feeling Tanner was going to be over at Lili’s a very long time indeed.

T
HE BANGING ON THE FRONT DOOR
jolted Lili awake. Oh, my God. She’d fallen asleep. This was terrible. She jumped from the bed, tripped over the pile of clothes, both hers and Tanner’s, that they’d left at the end of the bed.

Tanner didn’t budge, not even with the second round of banging.

God help her, it was probably Roscoe wondering why on earth it was taking them so long to feed the cats. Her hair was all over the place, her skin was flushed and she didn’t feel quite in her own body.