Slim To None (Cedar Tree #1) (6 page)

"Erm...need any help in there?" She quickly made her way over to see how deep his investigative powers went, hoping to God her little bedside buddies were still in their protective pouches and tucked away nicely.

"Nope, finding everything just fine, thanks."

Oh no. She could hear it. She couldn't see it yet, but she could hear the contained laughter in his voice. Cocky bastard had found something to smile about. She began a deep breathing exercise to fight off the blasted perimenopausal flush that was creeping up her chest again. She made her way around the doorway to find him sitting on the bed with the contents of all her drawers spread out around him.

"What are you doing?" She managed to get out.

Eyes sparkling with amusement, the bastard looked at her with the edges of his mouth twitching, like he was fighting a losing battle not to burst out laughing. He'd better win that battle, or he might find a cane up his arse!

"Picked up everything that was tossed from the drawers onto the floor and put it on your bed. I was just trying to sort through it to see if I could put some stuff back for ya."

"Uh huh... and, eh... were you successful?" She ground out, now trying to hold back on her own grin that was trying to make its way out.

"Sorta..." Gus said, bringing his hands up from beside his legs where they seemed to be resting on the bedspread, but instead, were apparently covering her best little buddies...

"I rescued these from the floor. Is there any particular spot you would like these?" And with that, Gus let go, bending over laughing while clutching her pink rabbit and her sparkly g-spot stimulator to his stomach, which, in turn, made Emma lose it. Nothing she could do now, her secret was out... she liked her toys.

*****

"A
gain, I'm really sorry." Gus said over lunch. "I probably should've just stayed out of your bedroom, but I wanted to get a head start there so we'd have more time for the office."

"Don't sweat it. Other than it being a tad embarrassing to have you find my mechanical companions," Emma blushed, "it is what it is. I'm too old to really give a shit, so there. If you have any lasting issues, well, I guess that'll be your problem." She looked at him from under her eyebrows, giving him a little smartass smile.

"Oh, I don't have any issues, but thank you very much for your concern. While we are on the topic, I think there is something you should know."

Straightening her shoulders, Emma prepared herself for some bad news, always expecting the worst.

"I heard Arlene mention something about a phone call at the sheriff's..."

"Oh, that's nothing. It’s nothing to worry about because it was just a wrong number. She shouldn't have even mentioned it. It was just once, and it was nothing. Really." She nervously interrupted Gus, not wanting to go there at all.

"Yeah, but Emma, I need to tell you something about that phone call. You deserve to know now too."

Finding him tilting his head so he could look her in the eye, she was starting to feel an odd little tingle of premonition in her stomach. Oh God. Don't tell me...

"See, you know me better than you think, Emma. That was me on the phone."

Slapping her hands in front of her face, she dropped her head down on the counter.

"How? Oh my God... O.M.G! I'm gonna be sick."

Gus started chuckling. "Well darlin', that's not the first thing that comes to my mind when I remember the phone call − at all. I have very fond memories of that phone call, in fact; I can't seem to get it out of my mind, but it was a mistake. I did dial a wrong number, and I ended up having one of the shortest, yet hottest, conversations that I can remember. It was with a very sexy woman who ended up being you. I didn't know at the time, and didn't put two and two together until after I saw you here at your house when I had called in the burglary."

Barely able to contain what he was telling her, Emma's mind was still reeling with the fact that the person she shared a very private, and what she thought was, a very anonymous moment with, was sitting right in front of her in her kitchen. Holy fuck. She would never be able to look him in the eye again. Never. Oh God, he knows she shaves. She frickin' told him she shaves. How crazy was that? She would never do spontaneous shit again... never! She was absolutely mortified.

"Emma, darlin', look at me." Lifting her chin, he tried to catch her eyes, but she stubbornly kept them downcast. "Don't be a brat, Emma. Look at me − I still have more to tell you."

"I can't look at you. I am so, so embarrassed right now. You must be disgusted. I... I just... whatever. I don't want to bawl all over you again." Fighting to keep her tears in check, Emma was swallowing like crazy, but Gus grabbed her jaw, forcing her to face him.

"Listen." The rumble of his deep voice gave her goose bumps. "Did you hear me when I said I had no idea it was you until you showed up on the burglary call? And do you remember what took place before that?"

Tentatively she lifted her eyes to meet his. His warm, deep chocolate brown eyes that carried laugh lines at the outer edges, were soft and kind, so she nodded, an indication for him to go on.

"When you came to the diner to drop off your pies, I had no idea who you were; not one. All I saw was a gorgeous, ripe and vivacious woman who obviously took life by the balls, no matter what. I saw all that in the two minutes it took you to get out of your car and to the door of the diner, and I hadn't even talked to you yet. When you opened your smart mouth, and that rich, full-bodied sound came out, it rippled down my back. You gave me attitude, then joked around a bit. Darlin', phone call or not, I was attracted to you already. Finding out that was you on the phone? I'll admit, that was a very welcome surprise."

Slowly stroking his thumbs down her cheeks, he could feel Emma's face relax in his hands.

"You okay, darlin'?" He needed to know.

Looking up at him with her head tilted, Emma frowned a little. "Who is Katie? Is she your wife, your girlfriend? I would feel pretty shitty if knew I had been stepping all over someone else's territory."

What the fuck? That was what she comes back with? Amazing. He just about spewed his guts all over her kitchen counter, and she wanted to know who Katie was. Fine. Letting go of her face, he straightened up, schooling his features for this disclosure. This should be fun.

"Katie is just a friend I call from time to time."

"Ahh. So she’s a booty call then?" Glancing up at him, she looked to be enjoying making him squirm a little.

"Booty call? Umm... well, she... we've known each other for a long time, but it's not like that, we just hang out sometimes. Or call. Or something, ya know." This was so uncomfortable, and the more he wanted to get out of this conversation, the more Emma seemed to brighten up.

"You know, we should get going on the office area, and then we have to make some arrangements for you." He tried to steer things in a different direction.

"What arrangements. What do you mean?"

"You can't stay by yourself, and I don't want you staying with Arlene either, because it might put her at risk as well. Frank doesn't have the manpower to have someone assigned to you full-time, and I’m pretty sure whoever came, will be coming back. They'll figure out there is nothing stored on your laptop and they will need some way to get the information, or, well, whatever. Point is, you can't be alone."

"Are you serious? What the hell? Look, I don't even understand half of what’s going on, and I certainly don't understand what any of it has to do with me." Her earlier warm and fuzzy feeling was slowly starting to make her hot under the collar. This was getting ridiculous. What was she supposed to do? Not being in control really pissed her off. "You know, I already can't stand not having any control over my bloody body, now fucking everything feels like it's running off the rails!"

Loudly slamming the remnants of lunch in the sink, she didn't notice Gus coming up behind her until she suddenly felt a hand between her shoulder blades, sliding up to grab her firmly by the neck. He leaned in to her line of sight, so close, Emma could count his eyelashes.

Gus's deep voice soothed over her, "Easy, darlin'. I hear ya, and we'll get this sorted as soon as we can, but let's be smart about it, Okay?" Leading her to a stool, he nudged her to sit and grabbed the stool next to her. He turned to face her; bracketed his knees around hers, holding her legs.

"This Ernst Corbin I’m looking for has a bit of a criminal history. He was about to rat out a bigger player and either got cold feet, or he was found out and decided to run. Either way, he’s running scared, and that is always dangerous, so I’m not gonna take any chances with you, Emma."

"But how long will this take? I mean, how do you know for sure he isn’t running for the border already and you’re just wasting time here?"

“'Cause if my guess is right, that truck you described for the sheriff, the one that's been following you into Cortez, is the same truck I saw peeling out of your drive last night. Someone who spends that much time casing you is not gonna give up now unless he found what he was looking for. I would assume that given the state of your house, plus the fact that I interrupted his business, he isn't done yet. So for now, you're gonna have to put up with me."

Emma had a hard time concentrating on what Gus was saying, but was acutely aware of what he was doing. He was slowly rubbing his thumb over her knee as he talked, mesmerizing her. It felt good. Crap.

"Okay. I’ll put up with you, alright." She muttered as she was enjoying being distracted.

******

F
ucking adorable, Gus thought as he was pulling out of the driveway on the way to the diner for some dinner. She's fucking adorable, and she doesn't have a clue. For all her tough cookie exterior, it was obvious he flustered her and he liked it; liked having that effect on her. Being a bit of an ass, he held her a little longer than necessary when helping her into the truck, getting her all flushed. Of course then he had to adjust himself again while making his way around the Yukon, but that was his own doing. Well, technically no, it was all Emma's doing. Fuck. What that woman did to him was unbelievable. Here he was, forty-five years old, for all intents and purposes, his dick should be getting old and tired, but instead it's was fired up and ready to go like it was his first time. Wise? Probably not. Hell, he was too tired and too old to play games, or to pass up on good things when they would come along. He just needed to make sure to keep his head in the game and keep her protected while he got this asshole off the streets. Good thing he'd had a chance to fill Joe in today, and had the support back from his office because he had a feeling he might be busy tonight.

Feeling Emma's eyes on him, he glanced over at her. "What's up, darlin', you hungry?" 

"Getting there. Pretty wiped out to be honest. Been a long day, but I'm glad it's done. There’s not too much damage, and I feel better with that security system in; although I still can't figure out how you managed to get them out here so quickly. I'm not buying for one second that they “owed you one”, so you better hand over the bill when it comes, because I'm aiming to pay for it."

Looking at Emma, he shook his head. "No, darlin', that is on me. Call it part of the service. I toss these guys business all the time, and they work from Cortez as well as Grand Junction, so it wasn't that hard to get someone out to the house on short notice. Don't sweat it, ‘cause I don't wanna hear about it." Then he broke out into a grin, saying, "But if you really wanna pay me, you can bake me a pie. I'll take that as payment any day of the week." That drew a snort from Emma, who gave him a half-assed slug to his arm.

"Fine, but you pick what kind." She smiled.

Pulling into Arlene's Diner, he could tell there was a decent dinner crowd. He also spotted Emma's SUV still sitting in the handicapped spot.

"Why don't I drop you off at the door and see if there is room around the back. Place is busy."

"Just take me around the back with you and we'll go in through the kitchen. Seb won't mind so there’s no need to make an extra stop here."

Luckily, there was plenty of parking space in the back.

"Do you mind if I grab your arm and leave the walker? It's a pain to move around with that thing when it's this busy."

"Yeah, sure, hang on. Let me get you down safe first." Opening up the door for Emma, he reached up to help her down, but instead of putting her down, he simply held her wrapped in his arms with her feet dangling just shy of the ground. For once he was looking straight in her eyes.

"Short little thing, aren't ya?"

"Gus, what are you doing?" Emma breathed out.

"Holding you. Feels good having my arms full of woman. Are you gonna smack me if I kiss you?"

Before Emma had a chance to respond, his mouth settled firmly over her half-opened lips. Pulling back, he looked at her slightly stunned blue eyes, and moved back in at an adjusted slant. With a strong swipe of his tongue, he claimed access to her mouth.

Oh yeah, that woke her up. Her two small hands grabbed the hair at the base of his skull, while her tongue gave as good as it got.

Her body slowly slid down until her feet touched the ground, leaving his hands free to roam over the luscious curves of her ass; more than just a handful and feeling so fucking good. He couldn't help but rock his rejuvenated hard-on against her body, letting her feel exactly what she did to him. Fuck. That woman could kiss thirty year old paint of the walls. Her sweet taste and spicy little tongue seemed to satisfy a hunger he didn't realize he had. Her small, but strong hands were kneading the contours of his back and ass, making his skin tingle and his balls draw up tight.

She was rubbing her breasts up against his chest, eager for friction. She made little groaning noises that drove him wild. His hips were involuntarily dry humping into her and he felt so fucking sexed up and hungry to come. He hadn't felt this way since he was about sixteen and had his first taste of a girl's pussy.

The slam of the trash can lid by the backdoor had them jumping apart. Seb was standing with the door in his hand and a big-ass grin on his face.