Somebody's Lover (5 page)

“I was wondering if you could take
the kids Friday night. For a little while.”

Her mother-in-law gazed at her,
then blinked and said, “Sure. You know we always enjoy having the boys over.”

Her stomach tied itself into guilty
knots. “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“Need more alone time?”

Twice in a week, Taylor had asked.
Saturday night, she’d said she needed some alone time. The lie hadn’t set well.
This was so much worse because it was Jace. Still, she searched for an excuse.
“Actually, I have a meeting with Brian’s teacher.”

After Lou died, she’d had a lot of
teacher meetings. Brian went through a bad time, acting up in school and
picking fights with bigger boys. Things had gotten better, though, when Jace
stepped in, spending much of his spare time with the boys.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah. It’s sort of an end-of-year
meeting. Like a checkup.” She felt like she was digging her own grave.

“In the evening?”

“The teacher will be out of town
for the day. He asked me to meet him at 8:30. Is that okay?” Lame, but Evelyn’s
reaction to the truth worried her. She didn’t feel comfortable saying she had a
date. Let alone that it was with Evelyn’s own son.

Evelyn sipped her coffee. “Sure.
All right. Do you want them to spend the night?”

If she really had a meeting with a
teacher, Evelyn wouldn’t need to take the kids for the whole night. “No. I
should be able to pick them up before ten. No later than ten. Promise.”

“I really don’t mind having them
spend the night.”

“I wouldn’t think of it, Evelyn.
You had them on Saturday. Jamey said he beat his grandpa at checkers twelve
times.”

Don’t wear any panties.
The
husky whisper tingled along her spine. Her cheeks heated, her body warmed, and
her breath quickened.

Good Lord. She was talking to her
mother-in-law about her kids and checkers and their grandpa.

But the taste of Jace was on her
mind and on her tongue. Not even hot coffee nor the trace of guilt could wash
it away.

She started to babble, and when
Evelyn left, she couldn’t remember a thing they’d talked about.

Except the lie and Friday night.

And
Don’t wear any panties
.

* * * * *

The girl was giddy. Now, Connie was
giddy, and Rina was equally as bad as her mother. But Taylor always had her
feet on the ground. Good heavens, Connie, the little matchmaker, was right.
Something was going on between Taylor and Jace.

Not to mention that story about
Friday night. Meeting Brian’s teacher? School was almost out for the year. Why
would a teacher ask for a meeting at this late date? And at night?

No, it was Jace who asked for the
meeting. Or a date. Or an assignation. Evelyn had been watching out the window.
Taylor had stayed on the front path as he drove away. Watching.

Heavens above.

Arthur would have a heart attack.
To him, Taylor was the epitome of a mother. The mother of his eldest son’s
children. In Arthur’s mind, she would always be Lou’s wife. He wouldn’t
understand if Taylor turned to another man. To Arthur, no one could replace
Lou. No one. Not even Jace. Especially not Jace.

She didn’t want to believe that
Arthur blamed Jace for Lou’s death. He’d never said it, not once. Except one
small hint the day they put their boy in the ground. The worst day of her life.
Burying Lou made it all real. Arthur had held her hand and whispered, almost to
himself, “If only Jace had done what he said he was going to do.”

The words themselves were blame
enough.

Taylor and Jace together?

Evelyn prayed the family didn’t
come apart at the seams.

* * * * *

“It’s me.”

Taylor didn’t have to ask who “me”
was.

The TV was blaring, Brian and Jamey
were yelling about something Spiderman had just done. Her house was a mess,
popcorn all over the coffee table, and her sons were out of control.

All Taylor cared about was the way
the deep timbre of Jace’s voice over the phone melted her from the inside out.
The thing she’d done to him yesterday morning in her kitchen kept popping into
her mind at the oddest moments. Like today, when she’d made a pot of coffee
while the boys were getting ready for school.

But what did you say to a man you’d
taken in your mouth just yesterday? Her son saved her from thinking about it.
“Jamey, do not spill that soda on the carpet.”

“Is that
Spiderman 2
I hear
in the background?”

“That and those dastardly children
of mine destroying the house. And how do you know we’re watching
Spiderman 2
?
You’re not a closet Spidey watcher, are you?”

“They made me watch it three times
the other weekend. And they got every line right just before Spiderman said
it.”

“Them’s m’boys. A movie hasn’t been
watched enough if they haven’t memorized the lines.” It felt so easy to talk to
him, like it had been before Saturday night. Except for that lazy heat running
through his low voice and elevating her body temperature. She snuggled into the
couch, pressing the phone intimately to her ear.

“Will my mom take the kids on
Friday?”

She didn’t want this conversation,
not now. “She’ll do it,” she said, soft and low so the boys wouldn’t hear.
Somehow it came out sounding sexy, matching Jace’s tone. “I told her I’d be
back by ten.” She modified her conversation for the boys. Little children had
big ears when you least expected it.

“You’ll only be on your tenth
orgasm by ten o’clock, just getting warmed up.”

Her body started to buzz in
reaction. The boys had quieted down, the Coke didn’t get knocked over, and Jace
was turning her into a puddle of mush. But she wouldn’t reply in kind.

“You’re driving me nuts,” he
whispered.

He was doing exactly the same to
her. Jace made it so hard to be strong.

“Who ya talking to, Mom?”

“Nobody. Watch the movie.” She rose
and carried the portable phone into the kitchen.

“Nobody? Did it feel like nobody
when I came in your mouth?”

“No.” It felt like heaven.

“You liked what you did to me,
didn’t you?”

“You know I did.” She’d loved it.
She still tasted him.

“Put the boys to bed, and I’ll come
over.”

“That’s not a good idea.” Oh so
tempting, but a very bad idea. She had to make him see the risks in what they
were doing. “It’ll be the only time. Friday, I mean. Then we have to get back
to...normal.” She knew they never would.

He was silent a moment. “I know.”
He exhaled, his breath teasing across the phone lines. “That’s why I’m going to
make sure it’s so damn good you’ll never forget it. You’ll never feel like
going alone to a bar.”

She already had some very big hints
of how good Jace would make it. A stranger in a bar would never be enough now.
“I told you I wouldn’t do that again.”

“You’ll be tempted. You’re too much
woman not to need it.”

“I’m stronger than that.” The man
she wasn’t strong with was him. Maybe Friday night was a really bad idea. If
she knew the full scope, could she stop herself from going back again? And
again. “Maybe we need to rethink this whole thing.”

“No.” He seemed to catch his
breath, catch himself. “One time. Then it’ll be out of your system.”

She closed her eyes and dragged in
a breath. She wanted so badly. She needed. It was like a drug, a habit harder
to break the longer you did it, the deeper you went. “I really think—”

“You think too much, Taylor.”

“Wrong. I haven’t been thinking at
all.” Except about what she’d done to him in her kitchen. And how badly she
wanted more. Her nipples peaked against her T-shirt. Her panties dampened. And
her good sense circled down the kitchen drain. “Tell me.”

He hesitated. “Tell you what?”

It was dangerous. Reckless. Her
kids were sitting in the other room. She slid further into the darkened
kitchen, further from her children.

“Tell me what it’ll be like on
Friday.”

“Taylor...where are you now?”

“In the kitchen. They can’t hear
me. And I won’t say anything. I just want to hear you say it.”

He was silent several heartbeats,
then he gave in. “I’ll suck your breasts until your nipples are tight and hard,
and you’re arching into me for more. Begging.” His breath came a little faster
than before. “And when you think you can’t take that without coming, I’m going
to spread your legs and taste you the same way you tasted me.”

The thought of his mouth on her had
consumed her last night as she tried to fall asleep. “Yes.”

“I’m going to lick you till you
scream. I won’t leave an inch of skin untouched. And when you think you can’t
come one more time, I’m gonna slide inside of you, and drive you fucking wild.
Christ, Taylor, you don’t know what you’re doing to me.”

His breath was ragged. She knew
what he was doing. She wanted to be there to catch him in her mouth. Her legs
felt weak, her heart hammered. “Do it,” she whispered. “Now.”

“I want to be inside you so fucking
bad.”

Something exploded on the TV in the
living room as Jace came with a groan and a long sigh, then, “Shit.”

She wanted to slam down the phone
and run from what she was doing with Lou’s brother. She wanted to carry the
phone into her bedroom and touch herself with his harsh breath rasping in her
ear. Leaning back against the counter, she closed her eyes and squeezed her thighs
together.

“Mom, Brian won’t share the
popcorn.”

Lord. Her children were calling.
What on earth was she thinking?

“That’s only the beginning,
Taylor.” Jace seduced her with his voice. “Then we’ll do it all over again.”

“I have to go.”

“Think about how good I’m going to
make you feel.”

She wouldn’t be able to stop
herself. “Only the one time. Just that night. Promise.” A panicky thread ran
through her voice.

“I promise,” he murmured, “to make
you feel better than you’ve ever felt. And I won’t ask for it again after
Friday.”

She punched the end button without
another word, but his voice still rang in her ear. As did that hot, heavy groan
when he came. He wouldn’t have to ask again. She’d come begging.

Back in the living room, she
clapped her hands. “Bedtime.”

“But the movie’s not over.”

“It’s school tomorrow.” She started
gathering popcorn bits. “And you already know the ending.”

Jamey moaned and griped, but did as
he was told. Brian tried to eke out another few minutes. “Go, Brian. Both of
you brush your teeth, and I’ll be there in a minute.”

Grumbling, Brian followed his
little brother down the hall.

Lord. This was crazy. Maybe even a
little sick and perverted. She’d had phone sex with her boys sitting in the
next room. She was losing it. Out of control. Obsessed.

And Friday felt three too many days
away.

* * * * *

He’d lied. Once would never be
enough.

Jace stood under the cold shower.
He’d called only wanting to hear her voice. But he’d crumbled when she wanted
to “rethink” and lost his mind when she wanted to hear the things he planned to
do to her. All these years, he’d maintained his distance, separated thought
from action. One kiss in the front seat of his truck had shot that distance to
hell, and he’d lost all perspective. The memory of Monday morning in her
kitchen pulsed in his blood. He’d been damn near dangerous at work today, his
mind in his pants, his cock in her mouth. Not a good thing to be thinking about
when you’re thirty feet up a tree with a chain saw in your grip.

The family had a rule. Work smart
and no working alone. He wasn’t alone, but he sure as hell hadn’t been smart up
there. His head had been filled with images of Taylor on her knees.

He needed to get this thing under
control. Or he’d end up like Lou.

Hell, at least this time, the death
he caused would be his own, not his brother’s.

It was eleven-thirty in the
morning, close to ninety on a summer day, and Jace was sweating buckets. He
downed a bottle of water, then swiped his arm across his forehead.

“We’re making good progress,” his
dad said, wiping his own brow. “Should be done tomorrow right on schedule.”
They had another job in Bentonville on Friday, which would carry through to
next week.

They cut in the mornings and hauled
in the afternoons, so the homeowner wasn’t left with loads of crap cluttering
the yard. Mitch and David were topping and shaping the last few branches on the
oak. It had needed to be trimmed back off the roof for both winter-storm
protection and to keep the carpenter ants from infesting the eaves. The
two-acre lot around the house would be trimmed to retain the view and give the
trees room. Like his dad and brothers, Jace knew every species of tree common
to the area and its required maintenance to promote healthy growth. The
underbrush needed clearing out, too. Willoughby and the five small surrounding
towns nestled in the mountain foothills provided year round work for Jackson
and Sons. Primarily, people living in the foothills didn’t maintain their yards
with lawns and flowers. The only ones who did were flatlanders, recently moved
from suburbia. Most residents let the forest grow around them, chopping it back
only when it became a fire hazard.

“You put your sunscreen on, Dad?”

“You sound like your mother.”

Jace grinned. When he’d left the office
this morning, Mom had told him to ask every half hour.

At fifty-nine, his dad still had a
few good working years left. He let his sons do the higher climbing, but he
hauled his share of the load. At damn near forty years in the tree business, he
deserved more time on the ground.