He caught her breast in his free hand, squeezing with a tenderness so at odds with the ferocity of his passion. She gripped the back of his head with both hands and ate at his mouth, sucking his tongue and moaning as the orgasm hit her with the force of a hurricane. He choked out her name as she tightened around his thrusting fingers, her body trembling so violently she thought she might break apart into thousands of tiny pieces.
It was Jared who held her together as the pleasure raced across her nerve endings like an electrical charge. He sank onto the bench and pulled her into his lap, his arms banding around her as she shivered with sweet, fiery aftershocks.
Chapter ten
Jared finished his list of unusual package deliveries to investigate and began gathering up the items he needed to take with him to the motel. When Darcy’s doorbell rang, he straightened and moved toward it, waving her back when she headed for it, too.
“I’ve been perfectly safe for three years now,” she reminded dryly, but she backed off and let him get it.
Finding Jim Ralston on her doorstep with a six-pack of beer in his hands made Jared immediately irritable. He’d never been the possessive type, certainly had never cared who his lovers had fucked before he’d come along. But the animalistic drive to claim Darcy as exclusively and irrevocably his extended beyond the bedroom. He fought it back with effort.
“Inspector,” he greeted the man.
“Deputy,” Ralston returned, his eyes lit with amusement. He was dressed casually in black jeans and a button-up shirt that was rolled up at the sleeves and open at the throat. His civilian clothes made him look younger and gave Jared his first inkling of what might’ve prompted Darcy to have a friends-with-benefits relationship with the man.
Darcy rounded Jared with a welcoming smile. “Come in, Jim. Ah, and you come bearing gifts. Deputy Cameron’s heading out for pizza with his partner, which has got me craving some. You up for that?”
Ralston stepped into the house, the storm door gliding closed behind him. “I’ll have to take a rain check. I’ve got a date with the insurance adjustor who’s looking over Nadine’s shop. She called after I’d already left the house to say she was running late, so instead of driving all the way back and waiting around, I figured I’d make a pit stop here until she calls again.”
Her eyes brightened. “Yeah, a hot date trumps pizza. Good for you.”
Returning to the coffee table, Jared grabbed what he needed along with the keys to the BMW. “I’ll be no more than a few hours. I’ll call if I’ll be back later than that.”
Darcy came to him, looking just as hot in stretchy pants and a V-neck T-shirt as she had in the red dress she’d worn to lunch. “You know where to find me.”
“Walk me out.” He glanced at Ralston, feeling marginally better knowing the man was going out to get laid tonight. “I’d like to see you tomorrow, Inspector. Go over a few things with you.”
“Absolutely.” Ralston gave a curt nod. “Buzz me and we’ll work out a time.”
When they reached Darcy’s car, Jared dropped his stuff in the back through the open roof, then turned toward her to catch her close. He brushed his lips across hers and murmured, “When Ralston leaves, lock up the house.”
She looked prepared to argue, then seemed to think better of it. “Okay.”
“Thank you.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “For everything.”
“It’s been my pleasure, Deputy.”
“I’ll be back quick as I can.” He smacked her ass cheeks with both hands and squeezed playfully, lifting her to her toes against him. “Set out some lube on the bedside table. Bottled water, too.”
“You’re a machine.”
Flushed and sporting kiss-swollen lips, she looked like a woman who’d been fucked long and well. It suited her. If he had his way, she’d be looking just like that every day from here on out.
She grinned as if she knew his thoughts. “Lucky for you, I can take it.”
He pressed his temple to hers, needing her safe and happy and close. He needed the time and space to explore the connection between them, both physical and emotional.
Backing away, Jared admitted that his emotions were still raw from their interlude in the shower. She was deep under his skin already. “Yeah, lucky me.”
WAVING, DARCY WATCHED Jared drive away in the car that was her last real piece of her former life. She clung to it for that reason and because she loved it. Thankfully, her parents owned the house outright and she didn’t have to pay rent. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to afford to keep the car with what the town paid her.
“Things are moving pretty fast with you two,” Jim said, coming out of the front door with an open beer in each hand.
She accepted the one he handed her and smiled. “That’s an understatement.”
Together they walked back up to her porch and sat on the swinging bench. With one leg tucked beneath her and the other on the ground, she rocked them gently.
“He likens it to being smacked upside the head,” she said. “I have to say, I did feel like I’d been sucker-punched when I first saw him.”