Soft Sounds of Pleasure (17 page)

What had Reggie Martin said about her problem-solving abilities that first day? Game, set, and match? Once again, it seemed Lila had her own way of looking at things. Colton stared at her with solid admiration.

"Jonah, up to this point, your behavior has been unacceptable," Lila intoned. "If you work with your teachers, they will work with you. If not, I have nothing better to do than come back, since your uncle is needed at the garage. Do I need to spend my day at school with you, or can you become a help rather than a hindrance?"

Colton wasn't sure exactly who had been threatened, but the teachers appeared intimidated and the kid had lost his grin. Jonah looked downright horrified, in fact, at the thought of Lila dogging his steps all day. And Lila had demolished the principal's suggestion she had no business in the room.

"Go get your books and wait for Colton and me in the outer office," she continued, again preempting the man at the head of the table with a flick of her fingers. "Be sure you have everything you need for your homework," she added in a tone glinting with gunmetal, "because from this day forward, you will produce it, for every single class, every single day."

Jonah locked gazes with her, then with Colton before nodding and stepping out, closing the door behind him.

Colton realized he'd sweated through his shirt and felt another unexpected surge of compassion for his father.

"I have one question," Lila continued, again pre-empting the principal, staring now at the guidance counselor. "Mr. Garnett, could you please explain to me what exactly you do here?"

Colton saw anger flash in the man's eyes as he returned Lila's implacable gaze steadily. "I'm pretty sure you've asked me that before, Mrs
.
Walker
."

Colton wished he could have blocked that blow for her, because even he felt its punch.

"I was hoping your job description had changed since you left the high school," she returned, her tone so falsely friendly now that Colton cringed inwardly, again reminded of Reggie. "Because you told me then your only job was to help these kids make career decisions, if I recall correctly. I've had a lot of time to think that over. Here's what I think."

Her tone switched from friendly to fillet-knife sharp as she went on the attack.

"I think that Charlie and Jonah cannot be the only two kids you've ever called to your office that could use some grief counseling. If you've never had instruction in how to provide such, I'm positive I can find my way to the district office to insist some be provided for you, courtesy of my tax dollars. This lack of compassionate counseling looks like a shortcoming that needs re-examination." She stood, effectively ending the meeting.

Colton, along with everyone else, stumbled to his feet as Lila squared her shoulders and raised her chin, as regal as any queen, in spite of her shorts and casual shirt. And still, she talked, but things felt more balanced now that he—and she—towered over most of the people in the small room. "We'll all work with Jonah, he's not getting a free pass, I promise. And Mr. Gordon, be sure to let me know if you need me when you lobby for Mr. Garnett's training at the district level. I'd be delighted to share my story."

Something passed between those two, but Colton saw the man give in and nod, anger fading from his eyes, replaced by something that looked an awful lot like respect.

"Wait a minute, what grief?" the counselor demanded, sounding annoyed to have been called out for not doing his job. "He's bored, he said so. He wants to move back to California, that's all."

"His mother was murdered three months ago." Lila bit off each word, and now Colton felt the score between the two had evened. "And if you'd talked to that kid for five minutes, you might have learned that, young man. I'm not excusing his behavior, but it makes me wonder if any of you know how to recognize a cry for help or if you're just too burned out to give a damn anymore. With only two months to go when he arrived, why knock yourselves out for this kid? As I said, an outrage and hardly what I'd call professional conduct on the part of anyone here."

Colton proudly took her hand as they walked out, leaving Mr. Gordon and staff to figure out how their time-honored battle plan of 'put all the blame on the parents' had gone awry.

"You know, I could blow you for giving me the chance to get that off my chest," she said with a laugh as he stared at her with admiration while they let Jonah lead the way to his truck.

Before he could stammer out an answer, she spoke to Jonah. "You can ride shotgun today."

As they settled in the car Jonah asked mutinously, "So you can stab me in the back again, Lila?"

"You might want to try seeing it in terms of we have your back," he suggested, fixing Jonah with a look he'd learned from her, the one saying he saw through the whining and loved him, but wasn't taking any shit. "You know what you did was wrong, Jonah."

Jonah merely slouched down in the seat, putting his sneakers on the dash.

"You know what, Colton?" Lila said as he cranked the truck. "I'm looking forward to sitting beside a cute boy like Jonah in class, now that I don't have that breakfront to keep me busy during the day. I kind of miss school."

Jonah looked so horrified Colton had to fake a coughing fit, mentally adding up the pearls she'd cast him this particular day as Jonah took his feet off the dash.

He would never sit across the table from her in a game of poker, either
, he decided. Not unless the game was strip poker and she paid off on that blow job as soon as he lost all his clothes.

Chapter Twenty-Four

"I can't believe it's the same cabinet." Mr. Pearls and Pumps was agape as Lila supervised the delivery and installation of the big breakfront. The De Marco men did the heavy lifting while she and Jonah replaced the shelves on their brass brackets.

"It used to look like pumpkin… poop." Jonah shot her a mischievous look as the group stood back to admire the massive piece of furniture while Mrs. Pearls and Pumps wrote out her check. Lila put an arm around him, giving him a squeeze, accepting his olive branch. She grinned in triumph at Colton over his head when he hugged her back so hard she lost her breath.

"It sure did," her customer's husband agreed with a chuckle. "I'm so glad we decided to have it restored."

Lila winked at his wife as she accepted her payment, glowing from the compliments Mr. Pearls and Pumps lavished on her as he inspected the work she'd done.

There had been a few moments when she had wondered if she'd bitten off more than she could chew, but the finished job seemed more than worth her efforts and Lila allowed herself to bask in the glow of a job well done. Her glow grew as she listened to both the couple as well as Jonah and Colton explain to Dan and Eric just how bad the piece had looked when Lila picked it up.

In their driveway as they returned to the trucks, Dan asked how in the world she had managed such a large job alone.

"It's a sin to paint over a piece of fine wood furniture," Lila declared with a laugh. "There should be a special circle of Hell reserved for people who do it. Whenever I strip off the paint and liberate the wood, I like to pretend those souls get out and move on their way in the afterlife. Keeps me from giving up on the project."

"Charlie said something like that to me once, about you, Lila." Colton suddenly spoke up. "He told me when you saw potential in something, you never quit, even when your project happened to be the screwed-up guy looking back at him in the mirror. It was the day after his team won State."

"I remember that," Dan added. "Charlie said that was why he decided to join the Corps rather than take that scholarship. He said watching you never give up on his dad had taught him a lot, and while the attitude had helped him on the mound, he figured there were more important things he could do with a never-quit attitude than play a game when his country was at war."

Be safe, Charlie.
Lila prayed silently, staring in surprise as comprehension melted her anger toward Charlie the way the chemical had done the orange paint.
I forgive you for following your heart.

Impulsively, she hugged Dan. "Thank you for telling me. I never knew why he didn't take the scholarship. I always thought he was punishing Pete in some twisted way for getting hurt, by walking away from Pete's dream for him."

"You're a good woman, Lila," Dan said gruffly, returning her hug. "Colton's a lucky bastard you let him and the kid hang out with you."

"Hey, where's my hug?" Colton demanded, pulling her way from Dan. "I brought it up."

"You get a kiss," she answered, uncaring whether Mr. and Mrs. Pearls and Pumps saw the public display of affection taking place in their driveway as he gave her one of those kisses that made her forget her own name.

On the way home, she sprang for steak dinners for her helpers, ignoring their teasing about her driving when she mentioned buying a trailer.

"I fear for the mailboxes on your road, Lila." Eric shook his head as he cut into his steak. "I'm going home and put some extra concrete around mine tonight, just in case."

Since she'd been described as a bad driver longer than she'd been called a cougar, Lila figured she could live with that.

* * * *

"Get something to drink and sit down at my table to do your homework," she told Jonah when they got back to her house. "Colton and I are going fishing."

"Yeah, I bet," Jonah said with a leer. "How come you never wanted to fish before?"

"Young man, do I need to get my soap for that dirty mind of yours?" Lila asked, a grin nevertheless twisting her lips.

"No, but tomorrow night I expect fish for dinner," the kid answered with a grin of his own.

"You can't handle homework you claim you've already done before," Lila shot back, "but now you want to take on menu planning?"

* * * *

Colton laughed all the way to the edge of the water. Since they hadn't stopped for rods and tackle, he doubted very much she planned to fish. Yet for the first time, she didn't appear to mind if Jonah knew their relationship was sexual. He figured some wall inside her had gone up in flames at the school as she'd battled for the kid's future, taking no prisoners along the way.

As she'd obviously done for Charlie.

He figured that meant something too.

Lila studied the shoreline and led him to a spot that wasn't visible from her kitchen table. She placed her hands on the waistband of his jeans. "You know a summons to the school is bad news, right?" she asked as she got the button open and eased his zipper down.

Colton's smile was wolfish, his cock beginning to harden as he realized her intent. "Very bad news."

"Did I overstep?" she asked, as she lifted him from his jeans.

"I figure we had each other's back today," he said as he unbraided her hair. "I'll do the heavy lifting, Lila, and you can pad your body count while I watch and learn."

* * * *

"The only body on my mind is yours," she said as she knelt in the tall grass. "Hello, monster," she murmured affectionately as she stroked her lover's beautiful cock with both hands, twisting and massaging the entire length before tasting the welcoming drop glistening on the broad head. She sucked the perfectly formed head into her mouth, her tongue exploring the well-defined edges of the helmet-like shape, probing the sensitive area below.

"Yes, suck me," he groaned. "I love how you do this."

The power washed over her again, and she lost herself in the act, massaging the balls that often caught her admiring glance as he pulled up the front of his t-shirt and jerked it behind his head, leaving it wrapped around his arms while he tangled his fingers in her hair.

She took him deeper, one hand still locked tight to her lips, her fist curling around his shaft. The falling dew chilled her butt cheeks and knees, a delicious contrast to the heat rising between them.

As the bullfrogs began to bellow the bass notes of their evening song, she borrowed her rhythm from the cicadas as they rubbed their wings together, welcoming the onrush of night.

A mockingbird joined the symphony, but this song was no love song; his mate had been found. His notes were those of a warrior's song, a warning to stay away from the lofty curve of grass-lined twigs that held the three or four speckled spheres that Lila knew would now comprise his complete concern.

A father to be, protecting his unborn and his mate.

Her lips brushed against the soft curls at his base.

Colton began to thrust himself into her mouth, his gaze locked on her. His balls tightened, signaling he was close. His moans mingled with the cacophony by the water's edge; another bass dove for heaven, came up short and fell back to earth with a splash, and it must have been his undoing.

Hot, salty spurts hit the back of her throat and she took all of him, swallowing as tears stung her eyes.

"Stand up," he urged, helping her. One hand went to the back of her head to pull her close for his kiss. The other worked frantically at the waistband of her shorts until he got his hand inside her panties.

Two large fingers slipped inside her easily, she was so wet. She moaned as her pussy pressed back in welcome.

"I love… the way you get wet for me, Delilah." His thumb found her button and he strummed it as she rode his thrusting fingers. "The way you suck me."

She focused on her need now as twilight pressed against her vision. It took little effort for her to come on his fingers. He captured her cries and held her close to his chest, still massaging her clit with the base of his palm. He waltzed her backward a few feet up the bank, hotly whispering that he intended to back up her against a certain tree in her side yard, out of sight of the big bay window of her kitchen where they could see Jonah sitting, but her heels caught something and they tumbled into the soft grass. He stripped off her shorts and panties, making her come twice more with his tongue until he hardened again.

When she was ready for him to let her go, they rearranged their clothes and headed for the house. As they walked up the ramp arm-in-arm, they saw Jonah's amused face lit by her back porch light as he lounged against the railing, arms crossed over his chest.

Lila calmly tried to put the kid on the defensive. "I'll need to see that homework, young man, since you have time to loaf."

"Fish weren't biting?" Jonah asked with a smirk. "I can see them hitting the surface from here."

Fully dark now, the fingernail sliver of moon showed nothing except its own bright curve. Lila chuckled confidently. "No, you cannot. Think about this, though. How do you think I deal with a kid who lies to my face?"

"Peace out, Lila," Jonah said, waving the first two fingers of both hands. He reached out, out suddenly, plucking at her hair. Lila glared at the sword of grass he waved under her nose. "Take him home," Lila ordered Colton, who was laughing helplessly as he held the screen door open for them.

"Get your stuff together, brat, before you get us kicked out for good," Colton choked out, poised by the back door. "We'll pick you up tomorrow for the game around five-fifteen, sweetheart." He kissed her lightly on the lips.

"What, nobody wants to check my homework?" Jonah asked sweetly. "It's Biology." He smirked.

"Colton can, I'll just call your teachers," Lila said calmly. "In case you didn't get the memo, we're acquainted." She pushed his hair out of his eyes and sighed. "I'll be so glad when these bangs grow out past your ears."

* * * *

Jonah hastily packed his books. In the truck, he turned to Colton. "You ever win an argument with her?" he asked.

"Unlike you, I make it a point not to antagonize her."

Jonah seemed to think that over and nodded. "She's not like Mom. Mom screamed and cried, and she smacked me sometimes, but Lila actually scares me."

Colton winced, swallowing hard. Sarah had run all the way across the country but had carried the worst of what she tried to escape with her, he realized. He realized too, what Jonah had labeled as fear was actually respect.

Jonah spoke again. "Thanks for not yelling at me, Uncle C. I'll do better from now on. School's almost out anyway."