Mind Tricks (23 page)

The edges of her lips curled up in a
smile. “I feel that already,” she said, answering his thought out loud. She
seized one of his hands, flattened his palm so it was open against her belly,
and then guided his hand underneath the pink lace of her panties. His fingers slid
through her silky pubic hair and pressed against her slick clitoris. “See?” she
gasped.

“Hmm.” He circled his fingers against
her, and she arched against him with a small moan. “I need to investigate this
more. Be truly convinced.”

Almost as soon as the image of what he
wanted to do had formed in his mind, Emma began to wiggle out of her jeans and
panties, and Jake realized she’d seen his desires as clearly as if he’d filmed
it and projected it on a wall. Still seated on the bed, he watched her as she
stood and shimmied out of her clothes, for the moment neither of them touching
the other.

Was this a good thing, Emma knowing each
and every one of his erotic thoughts the very moment he had them?

Her jeans hit the floor. Nude and
utterly gorgeous, she climbed back onto the bed and into his lap. Twisting so
that her legs dangled over one of his thighs, she leaned back all the way until
her head and shoulders rested on the bed, and she smiled up at him. She was bared
completely to him, a sensual offering like he’d never been given before.

Well, there was his answer. “Wow, having
a psychic girlfriend sure is coming in handy,” he said.

She laughed. “Stop talking and start
touching.”

“Like this?” He brushed his knuckles
over her stomach, her thighs, her pubic curls.

Her legs fell open, exposing her core to
him. “You’re getting warmer. Warmer…warmer…oh, hot.”

As each one of his knuckles skimmed
across her clitoris, she let out a breathy whimper. Then he pressed the heel of
his hand firmly against her, and she rocked her hips into the pressure.

Jake dipped his head and captured one of
her pink nipples in his mouth. Reversing the position of his hand between her
legs, he dipped two fingers inside her, pushing deep as he sucked hard. And did
it again, and again, and again.

Emma propped herself up on her elbows,
and Jake switched his lips to her other breast, biting down gently on her hard nipple.
She gasped his name, and he hardened like granite beneath her bare bottom.
He
was doing this to her;
he
was making her feel this pleasure.

He glanced up to see her expression.
Emma was staring down the length of her naked body, her eyes fixed on his hand
rhythmically riding her.

So she thought that was sexy, huh? Wait
until she saw the length of him pushing inside her.

Her gaze went unfocused. “Oh, god. Now,
Jake. I want that now.”

He wanted to say something clever or
funny but all he could think about was getting the condom out of his pocket.
The desire on her face was redoubling his own desire, and for a moment he
thought he understood exactly what she meant by feeling things twice.

She moaned in protest when he removed
his fingers completely, but then she sat up and helped him yank off his shirt
and pants in record time.

He sheathed himself with the condom.
When he put the foil wrapper aside and looked up, he saw that Emma had gotten
off the bed and was standing next to him. She bent over, put her elbows on the
edge of the bed, and then gave him a sideways, sultry come-hither look.

His penis thickened when he realized
what she was suggesting. Oh, man, he wanted to, was dying to, but… He smoothed
one hand over her beautiful bottom even as he said, “I thought you wanted to
see—”

“I can see that through your eyes,” she
interrupted. She wiggled her hips and smiled. “Just make sure you give me a
good view.”

He wasn’t going to argue with that.

He stood and positioned himself behind
her. Hands braced on her hips, he pushed slowly into her. The heat of her stole
his breath, and it was all he could do to not thrust deep.

Halfway in, he paused and sucked in a
ragged breath. “Like what you see?” he said. Without waiting for an answer, he
slid one hand around to her front and flicked his fingertips against her slick,
swollen nub. With a cry, she shoved her hips back against his even as he pressed
all the way in.

Almost immediately he pulled out until
he was on the verge of slipping completely free and then pushed in again,
making sure he kept his eyes open and focused on where he and Emma were so
intimately joined. As he sank all the way into her, she sighed his name once
more and then said, “Again. Please, again.”

He thrust in and out, caught up in a rhythm
he quickly lost control of and that instead controlled him, until Emma cried
out again beneath him and shuddered. He plunged deep and held still, trembling
as his own spasms rocked his body.

After a few minutes, he curled his arm
around Emma’s waist and guided them both back onto the bed, where she collapsed
beside him with a satisfied sigh.

“This is just the beginning,” Jake said.
He wasn’t sure exactly what he meant or what he was promising, but he wanted to
make clear that he didn’t consider this a one-time fling.

“Good,” Emma said, and promptly fell
asleep.

• •

A car engine starting outside shook Emma
from her nap. Jake lay sprawled beside her, his face unlined by troubles, his
breathing even.

Her own breath caught in her chest as
she gazed at him. His desire—no, his
need
—for
her had thrummed through every cell of her body as they had made love, erasing
all the bad memories caused by the wrong men in her past. It had taken a while,
and it had not happened the way she’d ever imagined it would, but she’d finally
found the right man.

A man who, unfortunately, was still the
number-one suspect in a murder investigation.

She twisted to look at Jake’s watch: six
o’clock. God, had she and Jake been up here for that long? Oh, well. Even a
niggle of guilt for neglecting the search for Brutus couldn’t disturb the
contentment and satisfaction stretching through her like a lazy jungle cat.

Next time, maybe they’d even make it to
her own bed.

Moving carefully, trying not to disturb
Jake, she reached down for her shirt on the floor.

Jake’s thoughts, a quiet burble in the
background of her mind, sprang to life. Oops, she’d woken him.

“You’re a wicked woman,” he said,
opening his eyes. “That’s twice now that you’ve seduced me.”

She smiled. “You were ripe for the
taking.”

“That’s for sure.” He pulled her flush
against his side and kissed her neck.

She let herself tumble back into the
sexy chaos of their combined thoughts. But the image of the man with the knife
lurked around the edges, unsettling her. Finally she sat back up. “I don’t want
to ruin the moment, but what about Ginny? What’s our next move?”

He propped himself up on his elbow,
displaying a nice amount of naked chest. “Let’s go talk to Mickey. Sometimes
three minds are better than two.”

“Sounds good.” She paused. “Shower
first?”

“Sure. Want me to scrub your back?”

• •

Mickey’s dog Lindy met them at the front
door, and Emma bent down to stroke her ears. Lindy vibrated with happiness
under her hand, and Jake had to laugh. He’d probably had the same goofy
expression on his face a few hours ago when Emma had been running her hands all
over him.

“You look better today,” she said to
Lindy. “All that anxiety gone.”

Mickey scooped up Lindy and tucked her
under his arm. “Maybe she was picking up my anxiety about Jake.”

“She was anxious before that,” Emma
pointed out.

Mickey shrugged. “So what can I do for
you two?”

Jake started to follow him down the
hall. “Emma helped me—”

Emma shook her head at him sharply.

Right, she didn’t want him to mention
her mind-reading talent even to Mickey. “Uh, while I was at Emma’s this
afternoon, I managed to get my memories back. Some of them, anyway.”

Mickey stopped abruptly in the middle of
the hallway and turned to face them. “And?”

“Just flashes, really.” Jake continued
into Mickey’s living room and sat on the couch, then reached out his hand and
pulled Emma down next to him. He didn’t let go of her hand even after she’d
plopped onto the soft leather. She tugged a little, unobtrusively trying to
escape, but he pretended not to notice. Of course, if she peeked into his brain,
she’d be able to tell that he was pretending. Hmm, this could get tricky. They
were going to have to figure out some ground rules about this telepathy thing.

He rubbed his thumb across the back of
her hand, tracing the bones there.
Just
let me hold you,
he thought at her. She sighed and stopped her subtle fight
against him. She even rested her shoulder against his while they sat together.
Good.

Mickey cleared his throat. “You were
saying?” But the corner of his mouth twitched up.

“Uh, right. I don’t have full
memories—they’re just bits and chunks, like a puzzle that has half its pieces
missing but enough there to show the picture. I know I didn’t kill Ginny. And I
briefly saw the man who did.”

Mickey went still. “Who?”

“I don’t know,” Jake answered. Frustration
tightened his insides like a torque wrench. Not being able to identify the guy
was the whole problem. “I couldn’t see his face. But it was a man, with short
hair and a kind of blocky body.”

“That describes half the men
hereabouts.”

“I know. It gives me almost nothing to
tell the police. Not that I expect them to believe me anyway.”

“So then you haven’t told them yet.”

“No.”

Emma twitched beside him, as if she was
going to say something, but remained silent. When Jake raised his eyebrows at
her, she shook her head.

“Maybe you shouldn’t tell the police
just yet,” Mickey said slowly. “I know, it sounds illogical, but if you come to
them with a story about you getting some of your memories back, but you don’t
recognize the killer, then it’s only going to make them suspicious again.”

“They’re already plenty suspicious.”

“Still. Give your lawyer a call in the
morning and see what she thinks.”

“Sure.” Jake drew his thumb across
Emma’s hand again. He could do this—holding hands with her—for hours. If they
could break out of this nightmare, maybe he’d be able to, without worrying
about the police leaning over his shoulder or slipping cool metal handcuffs
around his wrists.

“What shook the memories loose?” Mickey
asked. “Just time?”

Emma tensed and quickly fielded the
question. “Some bodywork. Energy manipulation, working with the chakras—that
sort of thing. We’d tried earlier, but the Rohypnol in Jake’s system had
blocked my efforts. We gave it another shot this afternoon, and it worked a
little bit.”

“And you were a skeptic,” Mickey said to
him chidingly. “Look how much you’ve been missing all these years.”

“I still don’t believe in the Loch Ness
monster.”

“Your loss.”

Speaking of strange sightings… “Mark—the
waiter at the Waterview—told me that you’d been in the restaurant that night
Ginny and I were there. How come you didn’t say anything about it?”

Mickey blinked. “How come? Because on
your way out, you waved to me. You’d seen me. So why would I— Oh. You didn’t
remember that.”

“I still don’t remember that.” There
were too many things he didn’t remember, and some things, like that kiss with
Ginny, he wished he hadn’t.

Shrugging, Mickey said, “If I’d known
you didn’t remember, I would’ve said something.”

“Who else was there that night? Me,
Ginny, you…”

“Oh, the usual crowd. Joey Gilbert, the
Jameses, Halliburt, that couple who owns the bookstore and café, Paula
Jefferies and an artist, plus a few boat owners jawing together. And of course
millions of tourists eating lobster. No one who looked out of place.”