Trouble With the Law (28 page)

Trace looked at his mother and she shrugged.  “
It’s not my house anymore.  I’m making him sell it.  One of his
ladies
must be arranging the party, since I’m not there to babysit him.  I’d like to see what the end result is,” she said with a mean laugh.  “That man wouldn’t even have ten cents to run his campaign if I hadn’t squeezed it out of the people at those parties.”

“Where does Leland keep his records he doesn’t want anyone to see?” Ronnie asked suddenly.

“In the safe in his office at home,” Allison replied.

“Do you have access to it?” Ronnie asked in a rush.

“I don’t have the combination if that’s what you mean, but I’m sure I could figure it out.  His memory sucks, so he always uses dates he can remember for his PIN codes and combinations.  His birthday, social security number, his girlfriend’s phone number.  Those change so much it might make it difficult, but if the first two things don’t work, I can find his little black book or his appointment calendar.”

“Does he keep his appointment calendars from year to year?” Ronnie asked and Trace heard the excitement in her voice.

“Yeah, but he documents most of the appointments in his own version of shorthand.  I don’t know how much help they would be,” Allison said with a short laugh.

“Can you read it?”
Ronnie asked.

“Some of it, but
Talmadge Bartlett knows it all.  It was his idea that they use code.”

“He’s
not in town,” Trace blurted then pinned Ronnie with his eyes.  “And there’s no way in hell I’m letting my mother go to that party.  Leland probably wouldn’t let her in anyway.”

“I could go,” Lou Ellen piped up.  “Leland Rooks doesn’t scare me.  I could put a bullet between that smarmy bastard’s eyes before he blinked.  And would enjoy doing it.”

“You carry?” Trace asked with a laugh.  He never knew that about his mother’s best friend.  The woman who had been almost like an aunt to him his whole life talked a good game, was always vocal with her opinions, but he had never seen her handle a firearm.

“I’m a card carrying member of the NRA,” she said proudly.  “A woman can never be too careful these days.”  Lou Ellen looked at Allison.  “I tried to get your mother to take the classes, but she
was too timid back then.”

Lou Ellen was a good woman, but she always got his mother in trouble of one kind or another.  Trace was glad she’d refused to take those classes.  Even if she had
taken them and had a pistol, she probably wouldn’t have the guts to pull the trigger if she was ever in the position to need to do it. That could be worse than her not having a gun.

“Let’s play it by ear.  I’m not sure that’s a good idea.  You picked up those bank records for Mama.  Leland could be on to you too.  Walking into that party could put you in danger whether you’re carrying or not,” Trace said.

“What’s life without a little danger,” Lou Ellen replied with a wink.

That woman was definitely trouble with a capital T.  “We have a week to weed through the information we already have.  Let’s see where we are next week, then we’ll decide.”

“Who put you in charge?” Ronnie asked tapping her expensive pen on the pad again.  It was the same pen she had at the jailhouse.  The same one he’d used to ask her to give him a blow job under the table.  His jeans got tighter at the thought of her on her knees under the table right now.

“Someone has to take the lead,” he said calmly.

Ronnie threw her pen down on her pad and leaned back in the chair to fold her arms over her chest.  “And you think that should be you, why?”

Because he couldn’t resist, Trace’s arm shot across the table and he grabbed her pen.  She made a swipe to stop him, but missed.  He sat back in his chair and twirled it through his fingers.  One side of his mouth kicked up.  “You want answers, Red.  You know how to get them.”

Her face flushed and her eyes darted to his mother, then back to him.  “I don’t have time for your games, Trace.”

“I told you I won’t play games with you, Ronnie.”

Narrowing her eyes, Ronnie held her hand out palm up.  “Give me my pen.”

“Come and get it,” he invited
, discreetly dropping it on the floor between his legs.  “Oops,” he said without an ounce of remorse in his voice.  His dark eyes held a challenge.

Ronnie glanced at Allison Rooks
.  Trace’s mother was concentrating on the file in front of her, not on him.  Ronnie’s eyes shot to Lou Ellen and she was occupied penciling in numbers on the spreadsheet she had started.  Trace wanted to play games? She could play them too.  Ronnie slid out of her chair and ducked under the table.  Her pen rested between his booted feet and she crawled down there.  It was dark under the table, but she had no problem seeing the bulge in his jeans either.  He was getting off on taunting her.  Well, Ronnie had enough of it. 

She stopped at his feet, sat back on her haunches, then pinched the end of his shoe laces.  They came untied, and she quickly tied them together.  Once she was done, she suppressed the laughter that bubbled inside of her as she placed her hand on his thigh and squeezed.  She heard him suck in a breath
. 

Ronnie trailed one fingernail along the
inseam of his jeans, then up the zipper track up to the tab.  When she slowly inched the zipper down his breath eased out in a low hiss.  The tab reached the bottom of the track and Ronnie looked up to discover he wasn’t wearing underwear and a dull throb started between her legs as she stared at his engorged erection.  Ronnie trailed her finger along the vein to the top, circled the head of his cock then paused.  He shivered and his hips slid lower in the chair which spread the sides of his fly wider, exposing more of him to her view.  Ronnie gently pressed her thumb and forefinger on either side of his cock then gathered the skin to the front where she pinched as hard as she could and even twisted it a little.

A roar
ing scream exploded from Trace, he shoved the chair back forcefully and shot to his feet.  He tried to take a step, but his feet got tangled and Ronnie saw him falling.  He landed with a loud thud and a grunt face down on the floor.  With a smug smile Ronnie picked up her pen off of the floor and crawled from under the table. 

Both women’s eyes landed on her and their eyebrows raised. 
She smiled at them as she stood and held up her pen.  “Found my pen.  I must have dropped it under the table,” she said with a laugh.  She glanced over the table at Trace.  “What’s wrong with you, big guy?  Trip over your own feet?” she asked sarcastically.

Trace mumbled something, then lifted his hips
evidently to zip his pants, before he turned over.  His eyes held murderous intent, as he sat up.  He untied his laces then retied them, before he stood.  Ronnie gasped as Trace walked around the table, then grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the dining room.  Over his shoulder, his voice was strained as he told his mother, “We’ll be back in a few minutes.  I need to speak to Ronnie privately.”

Ronnie stumbled behind him as he dragged her through the house.  “Slow down, I’m going to fall,” she complained as her ankles twisted in the high heels she’d borrowed from Lou Ellen, who thank god was her size.  It was a relief to finally be able to wear clothes her size
and length again.  The woman was older than Ronnie by a couple of decades, but she had good taste, and she was tall.  The soft floral skirt she had on was exactly something Ronnie would buy for herself. 

Right now though, she would welcome the too small tennis shoes she’d been wearing for days.  She could barely keep up with Trace’s long strides, because she was off balance. 
And every time she tripped across the hard uneven ground while he dragged her across the yard, the skirt flipped up and her ass shined to the world.

“Slow down,
Trace,” she growled pulling against his hold.  He tightened his grip on her arm and kept going.  They finally reached the woods and the air was at least twenty degrees cooler inside the canopy of trees.  When her skirt flapped up now, a cool breeze brushed her cheeks.  Next time she’d wear full-bottom briefs instead of the thong she had been washing out every night in the tub.  Trace didn’t stop until he was at the front door of the cabin in the woods, and only then long enough to fling it inward on its hinges. 

“Couldn’t you talk to me in the house?” she asked with a short laugh, as he sat down on the double bed across the room.

“Not for what I have to say to you,” he replied with a jerk of her arm that hurtled her forward to sprawl across his lap.  She tried to get back up, but Trace’s arm closed over her waist like a steel band, and her skirt floated down to settle around her waist.  Her heart pounded in her chest as Ronnie struggled against his hold.  She felt a breeze right before his palm connected with her ass in a stinging blow that shocked her.  The sound reverberated through the room.  Ronnie whimpered, as her breath caught in her throat.  She struggled fiercely to break his hold, but Trace held on tight.

She felt another rush of air and braced right before his palm landed across her cheek again.  She wailed, as pain rocked through her, but strangely shards of pleasure mixed with it to make her clit tingle, and she felt moisture gather between her legs.

Trace kneaded her stinging skin with his palm, rubbing warm circles to soothe the ache.  “You okay, Red?” he asked, his breaths coming shallow and quick.  His rock hard dick dug into her stomach where she lay over his lap.  Ronnie knew he was angry with her, but she could tell this was exciting him.  It was exciting her too. 

“Yeah,” she said in a
raw whisper and clamped her knees together to soothe the ache at her core. 

I’ll track you down and spank your ass until you beg me to fuck you.
 

His words to her at the jailhouse played back in her mind.  She pinched him, and she supposed that was the equivalent of biting him, like she had threatened.  This was her punishment.  But she
wasn’t going to beg him to fuck her.  She wanted to, but her pride wouldn’t let her.  When she had done that the other night he rejected her.  She wasn’t about to give him the opportunity to do that again.

Trace had
gotten his retribution for her naughtiness, now it was time for her get out of here.  If he wanted to deal with the
problem
digging into her hip, he could do that on his own.  “Let me up now.  I have stuff to do, and this isn’t my thing,” she said pushing up on her toes and the edge of the bed, trying to stand. 

Trace was quiet,
and he didn’t stop kneading her ass.  He gently pushed her back down across his lap.  Ronnie gasped and a shiver coursed through her when he stopped kneading to run a finger down the seam between her cheeks.  He lightly brushed his finger over her anus and that shiver turned into a tremor.  He stopped for a second, then made another pass there with his finger, and she quivered again.  Ronnie couldn’t stop the little moan that slipped past her vocal chords, but she fought the urge to raise her ass toward him and beg for more.

“
Oh, baby—that’s good news,” he drawled, as he moved his finger lower to slide it into her folds.  “You’re wet, Red,” he said as he slid that finger the length of her slit.  He gathered some of the moisture there by making a quick dip into her opening on the way back up and Ronnie shivered.  “You like this and want me to fuck you don’t you?” he said smoothly.  “Ask for it, Red.”

Yes she wanted that m
ore than she wanted her next breath.  But Ronnie was not going to voice those words to him.  She needed more than this from Trace Rooks.  She didn’t just want him to fuck her.  She wanted him to make love to her.  To show her he wanted something more than to use her again.  Ronnie needed to know this was more than about revenge or getting his rocks off with a convenient, willing woman.  It was odd, because she’d never needed that before with any other man she had been with.  But she needed it now for some reason.

Trace circled her anus
, spreading her moisture there, and Ronnie tightened her cheeks, fighting the urge to push up against him.  “No.  Let me up,” she said breathlessly.

He paused and she felt his body stiffen too.  “Don’t lie, Red.  You want me.”

“I’m not saying I don’t.  But not like this.”

“You don’t like this?” he asked with uncertainty in his tone
, as he moved his arms so she could stand.

“I didn’t say that either
,” she said with a huffed breath.  She smoothed her skirt around her thighs and looked into his eyes.  “I want more than a revenge fuck.  If you can’t give me that, then there won’t be any fucking.”

“I forgive you,” he said quickly.  “I see how hard you’re working to clear my name.  Even if you don’t succeed, I forgive you.  This isn’t about revenge.” 

Ronnie’s heart leapt in her chest, and she put her hand there.  Hearing him say that was unexpected.  What was more unexpected was the softening she saw in his brown eyes.

“What is it about then?”
she asked evenly.

He laughed and dragged his eyes from hers.  “I told you what would happen if you bit me.  I always keep my word.”

“I didn’t bite you.  And you taunted me,” she accused.

His eyes flew back to hers and he laughed again.  “Close enough.  Now you’ve gotten the spanking you deserved for it.”