The Gazebo

  Stone swore under his breath, rolled her underneath him, pinning her between his hard body and his bed. His mouth was all over her, tasting her, nipping at her, soothing the place his teeth had teased with his tongue. She kissed him back, her nails against his shoulders unbearably erotic. He arched against her, sweet temptation, feeling how ready she was to take him, knowing he’d only have to shift his hips just a little, spread her legs a little wider and he could drive himself home.

  Don’t do it, you selfish jerk. This is about Deirdre…she has to be so hot she can’t think, want you so bad she can’t remember….

  Stone kissed her throat, her body, suckled her breast with exquisite care. She moaned, and he knew the sensations were getting too intense. She tried to pull him back up to her mouth.

  He glided slowly downward, kissing her belly, her hip, his breath teasing her where she’d never felt a man’s mouth before.

  “S-Stone…Jake, no…”

  “Just let me try it. It’ll feel so damned good if you let me. I’ll stop if you want me to. I swear it, Dee.”

  She looked down her body at him, so damned vulnerable. Maybe he’d gone too far too fast. But it just felt so right. He wanted all of her. Wet and needing and mindless, flying apart the way she deserved to.

  She nodded. The tiniest damned nod Jake had ever seen. It was enough. He spread her legs a little wider, kissed her stomach and then…

  DEIRDRE JERKED as his tongue found her, wicked…wild…so primitive a possession she was drunk with it. He took his time, mouth and hands, until every atom of her body was focused there and she felt herself start to shake. Her legs, her hands, so restless, so intense it was almost pain. She threw her arm over her eyes as she writhed under Jake’s strong hands, but the image of his dark head between her pale thighs was burned onto the insides of her eyelids.

  She felt empty…so empty it was driving her wild. She arched against him.

  His finger teased, slipped inside her. It wasn’t enough. She was going to flame, turn to ashes, but she wanted him with her.

  What had he said? All of me…take all of me…

  With a strength she didn’t know she possessed, she grabbed at his shoulders. “Jake, I want you. Now. I want—”

  He sheathed himself in a condom. A heartbeat later, he was on top of her, full length, the hard length of him against the ember he’d stoked to an inferno. He felt so hard, smelled so good, his whole body magic against her. But he was so big…what if it hurt…?

  Don’t let me think. Please, God, don’t let me think….

  She felt the tip of him, there, almost there. This is Jake, she told herself. My Jake. He’ll take care of me.

  She ran her hands down his back to his hard buttocks. Felt muscles bunch, then the opening of her, the slow excruciatingly pleasurable filling of her, inch by inch. She arched her hips, the power of him, the rippling, hard muscles, the maleness of Jake Stone taking her breath away.

  It didn’t hurt. It felt… “Oh,” she gasped as Stone moved inside her. He rested his forehead on hers, his eyes filling her whole world.

  “Shh,” he hushed her. “We’re gonna take this slow, Dee…” He half groaned, half laughed. “Even if it kills me.”

  “This is about me, Stone,” Deirdre breathed, wriggling against him. “You make me want to…to…Oh, oh, Jake…Not slow. Fast. Hard. I want—” He drove deep, every muscle in his body clenched, and yet she could still feel it. He was being careful.

  She didn’t want careful. Didn’t want to feel breakable and small. She wanted all the power Stone had shown her she possessed, all that passion he’d promised was inside her.

  “I won’t break,” she said, pulling his mouth down to hers. “Not with you.”

  He lost it. She felt his control shatter. He filled her, inside of her, all around her, long, strong delicious strokes that hammered at the last kernel of fear inside her. She was splitting wide-open, felt the pleasure building, like flood tides hammering against some dam inside her she couldn’t see.

  “Come on, Dee,” Stone pleaded, so ragged, so urgent. “Do it. Come for me…you’re…so damned…hot I can’t…hold back…much longer.”

  Deirdre’s head tossed against the pillows, a low scream escaping her lips. Her whole body convulsing, her whole being seeming to fly apart. She was coming and coming and it went on and on and on. Stone swore, driving into her, feeling her stripped naked down to her soul.

  He cried out her name. She felt him go rigid, a guttural moan racking his body. Then he collapsed on top of her, his breath rasping in her ear, his heart pounding against her chest, his hair damp and silky on her cheek.

  She held him, even as he eased most of his weight off her, his face still buried in the hollow of her neck.

  “Jake,” she whispered, her eyes burning.

  He raised his head up, eyes so dark with concern, so beautiful her tears fell free.

  Don’t love me…part of her said. The other, deeper place begged, Oh, Jake, do.

  “You’re crying.” Jake slid all the way off her, his handsome face stricken with guilt. “I’m so damned sorry, Dee. I shouldn’t have—I should have been careful. I hurt you.”

  “I’m crying because…you didn’t hurt me, you big…big dope.” A sob caught on her breath. “Jake, I…I got it right. After thirty-three years, I…”

  Pride and triumph transformed his face, his grin flashing so bright it all but blinded her. “You sure as hell did.” He gathered her into his arms, rolled her on top of him, laughing. “I didn’t do too bad, either. For a bad-ass private investigator, I mean.”

  He expected her to laugh. Instead she pulled away from him.

  “Uh, about that bad cop stuff,” Deirdre said, suddenly so serious he went still. “There’s something you should know.”

  “What? Dee, you’re freaking me out here. The sex was great, but your follow-up needs a little work.”

  “Lucy told me.”

  Stone jackknifed up in the bed, staring down at her, looking like an angry pirate with his dark hair falling to his shoulders. “Lucy told you what?”

  She moistened lips still swollen and red from his kisses. “How you saved her family. How you took the fall for Tank. You gave up your own dream of being a cop because you loved them.”

  Stone swore, climbed out of bed. He stalked across the bedroom, all naked, angry male. “She was a damned fool to do that. Last time I told somebody they almost blew the lid off the whole deal.”

  “I’m not your ex-wife,” Deirdre said.

  “She told you about Jessica, too?” Stone said, outraged. “What the hell was she thinking?”

  “That you were too honorable to tell me yourself. And that you wouldn’t…wouldn’t feel right keeping secrets from someone you might…well…”

  “Love?” Jake snapped. “Why don’t you just go ahead and say it since I’m dead sure Lucy spit it out. Why the hell not, after everything else she blabbed. That’s no big deal.”

  Deirdre was looking at him with eyes so deep and blue he could dive into them. “Do you?” she asked. “Love me?”

  “Yeah, so what if I do?” Stone turned, hands on hips, glaring.“You made it crystal clear that you like your life the way it is. When I find your father we’re finished. But maybe I’ll get lucky and never find him. Maybe you’ll have to deal with me forever. Maybe I’ll pay the guy to stay the hell away.”

  He felt betrayed, felt relieved. Didn’t know how the hell he felt, truth to be told. Lucy broke his trust. She’d…told Deirdre all the secrets he’d been sure would keep them apart. Removed the only barricade to the relationship Jake wanted with this woman. Lucy had made “forever” possible.

  He was going to shake her silly for the risk she’d taken.

  Then he was going to buy her a new red dress and take her and Tank out on the town.

  But Deirdre was gazing up at him as if he were some sort of white knight. It didn’t sit right with him. His armor was tarnished as hell.

  “I’m sure
Lucy made it sound like I was…was a hero or something.”

  “Weren’t you?”

  Jake raked his hands through his hair. “Hell, no. I just…It happened so fast. Maybe if I’d had time to think about it I wouldn’t have had the guts to just cut everything I wanted loose. And then it was too late, you know? It was a done deal. We just had to wade through it as best we could.”

  “Nice story. But as I’ve mentioned before, Stone, you’re so full of bull.”

  “Damn it, Dee, I’m telling you the God’s honest truth. I’ve questioned what I did a dozen times. Wondered where I’d be now if I were still on the force. If I’d ever have made police chief, or detective like everybody said I would, instead of making a living following cheating husbands and tracking down con men who swindled old women.That first day when you came here, all the stuff you said about my job—plenty of it is true.”

  “Except the sacrifice you made to get here. And the courage you had to make a new start with a manslaughter charge hanging over your head. So that cons like those jerks who were here that day could taunt you, torment you.”

  “Oh, yeah. That’s right. They used words,” Stone said with burning sarcasm. “That hurt.”

  “My words did. And I’m sorry.” She climbed out of bed. She looked so damned small. How could something so delicate be so damned strong?

  She came toward him, but he felt too raw. He turned away, grinding his fingers against his eyes. “I swore I wouldn’t tell you. I meant it. But I…damn, the last few weeks I wanted to. You’ll never know how close I came, because…you’re everything I’ve ever wanted, Deirdre McDaniel. Everything I was so sure I couldn’t have anymore. Damn it, I love you. Okay? So…I know this isn’t great news to you. You wanted to keep things light—clear up this little sex hang-up you had and have some fun, a relationship with a finite ending, just the way you needed it to be. But that’s the way I feel. I can’t help it if you don’t feel the same—”

  “Shut up and listen, mister.” She pressed her fingertips to his lips. “Don’t even try to tell me how I feel, because even I don’t know. I’m scared and I’m flattered and I’m all shaken up inside. The only thing I do know is…I don’t want to go home tonight. Emma won’t be home until noon.”

  She took his hand, tugged him toward the bed. Throwing back the covers, she pulled him down with her. “Can’t this be enough? For now?”

  Jake had been so sure that it would be—sex, dancing, good times to remember. But now…

  He had to be truthful. “I want more.”

  “I know” was all she’d say as she pulled him into her arms once more.

  IT WAS EIGHT IN THE MORNING when the telephone buzzed. Jake rolled over, reached across Deirdre’s sated, sleep-softened body to grab the receiver for the portable phone. He grimaced, noticing that sometime after they’d slept Ellie May had sneaked up on the bed. Deirdre was sandwiched between Stone and his dog. He grinned. Good. She couldn’t escape.

  “Jake Stone,” he said, low.

  “I’m a representative for Mr. Jim Rivers, calling in regards to your inquiry.”

  “Just a minute.” Stone swore inwardly, splashed awake as if by ice water. Deirdre stirred against him. He sat up, turning his back to her. Careful not to disturb her, he slipped out of bed. He grabbed his dark blue silk robe, slipped it on, then padded, barefoot into the living room.

  “I’m right, aren’t I?” Stone demanded, keeping his voice low. “He’s the man I’ve been looking for.”

  The caller cleared his throat delicately. “A famous man like Mr. Rivers gets all kinds of crank calls, people trying to get their hands on a piece of his fame or a chunk of his money any way they can.”

  Stone’s lip curled in disgust. “My client doesn’t want his money. She wants to know if he’s her father. It’s that simple.”

  The asshole laughed. “Really, Mr. Stone. It never is.”

  “You listen to me,” Stone said fiercely. “I sent you a copy of the letter Emmaline McDaniel wrote to your client. I’ve spoken to the friend she confided in and—”

  “I know all that. You documented everything very professionally. Traced the path to Mr. Rivers quite convincingly.Enough so that he’s willing to see this, er, young woman—”

  “His biological daughter.”

  “Well, that’s to be established. You may have heard of Mr. Rivers’s jazz band, Spunky Bottoms?”

  “Anyone who’s ever listened to jazz knows they’re one of the greats.”

  “Yes. Well, as it happens, they will be playing a theater in St. Louis day after tomorrow. He’d be willing to see Ms. McDaniel after the show.”

  “I’ll tell her.”

  “A complimentary ticket will be waiting at the box office.”

  “Better make that two. I’m coming with her.”

  The caller hesitated, sounded a little patronizing. “As you wish, Mr. Stone. But if you have any plans to bilk my employer out of money, or blackmail him with some kind of exposé, I think I should warn you Mr. Rivers has a staff of lawyers who will make that impossible.”

  Rage settled over Stone. His fingers clenched on the phone. “I’ll tell you what. You tell your employer to watch his manners. I don’t like what you’re insinuating. When it comes to Ms. McDaniel, I’m a pretty damned fierce watchdog. You got that?”

  The man on the other end of the line gave a nervous laugh, almost as if he could feel Jake’s hand around his scrawny throat. “The show is at eight o’clock.”

  “We’ll be there.” Stone jabbed the off button on the phone, trying to imagine how he was going to tell Deirdre. What she’d feel. What changes this might set in motion.

  What if she called it quits? This thing the two of them had. What if she thanked him and told him she never wanted to see him again? Stone’s gut went cold.

  He needed to slip back in bed with her. Maybe make love to her one more time before he told her. He’d made her scream two more times last night. Maybe she’d be too sore to do it again.

  But damn it, selfish bastard that he was, he wanted her. Wanted to stake his claim on her. Wanted one more chance to convince her they belonged together before it all came apart.

  He turned. His heart dropped. Deirdre stood framed in the bedroom doorway, her red tunic wrapped about her, skimming midthigh, her feet bare and white on the floor, her eyes wide and shadowed by a haunting dread.

  “You found him,” she said faintly.

  Stone swore inwardly. No way out. Damn, why did he have to be so good at his job?

  “Who is he?”

  “Ever heard of a jazz band named Spunky Bottoms?”

  “I think Mom had some of their records. Their sax player is legendary. Does some vocals. Big Jim something or other.”

  “Big Jim Rivers.” Stone watched her face. “He’s your father.”

  STONE WANTED HER TO STAY, but Deirdre stumbled toward home in a haze, needing to be alone to deal with so many things: the fact that Stone loved her; maybe, God help her, she loved him; and that one of the greatest jazz musicians of all times was her father.

  The man who’d gotten her mother pregnant and then vanished, leaving Emmaline McDaniel alone to try to piece together her already rocky marriage, and go on with her life as if she’d never recklessly fallen in love and into bed with another man.

  If there was ever a warning…against love and marriage beyond the mess Martin and Emmaline McDaniel had made of it—this whole bit with Big Jim Rivers was one.

  She turned her car down the road to Jubilee Point, grateful Emma wouldn’t be home until noon. The last thing she needed was a bout of her daughter’s theatrics, though Emma seemed to be handling things better lately. At least handling Stone better. He’d bribed her by buying five tickets to the local dinner theater with Deirdre, Stone, Drew and Trula completing the party.

  Stone had done his best to charm Emma, and yet Deirdre wasn’t sure how she felt about it. She’d sworn when Emma was small she wouldn’t have men leaping into and out of her d
aughter’s life. Emma needed stability. What about a father?

  She’d never been able to even think of the word in connection to Emma without getting a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. And now Emma was all grown-up, would soon be leaving home.

  She still wouldn’t have anybody to walk her down the aisle someday, a voice inside her accused. She’d have Cade. The Captain. She could take her pick.

  But it was Jake Stone’s smoky eyes that rose in Deirdre’s mind, his hair loose against the corded muscles of his neck, black silk, tanned satin.

  “Oh, God. I’m so confused,” Deirdre said aloud as she pulled into the driveway, heaving a sigh of relief when she saw all the cars were gone. The guests had already cleared out for a day of antiquing or rambling along the river. She only hoped Finn and Cade had cleared out, as well. She parked the van and climbed out the passenger door, catching a glimpse of herself in the side mirror. Her lips were pink and a little swollen, her cheek whisker-burned. She hadn’t even brushed her hair. She looked as if she’d spent all night in the arms of a very bad man. And then crashed to earth with a bang.

  Seemed like her birth father had Deirdre’s rotten sense of timing.

  But she’d get herself put to rights—a hot shower, her hair washed and tamed. Throw on a pair of jeans and a baggy T-shirt and feel like her usual self again. Except that she would still feel almost painfully tender in all the places Jake had touched her—her body, her heart.

  She opened the kitchen door, walked in.

  “It’s about time you got home.” Emma sat at the kitchen table, a thunderous expression on her face, the cotton panties Deirdre had lost in the gazebo in a crumpled heap next to the yearbook Emma was going through.

  “What…what are you doing home?”

  “Jessie got the flu, so her mom dropped me off last night. When I got up this morning your bed hadn’t been slept in. Aunt Finn said you were going over to Jake’s.”