Jed Had to Die

Jesus, how do you say no to something like that?

“So what you’re saying is, you want me to distract you with sex?” I ask, looking down at him with a smile as I run my fingers through his hair.

He smiles back up at me and I lean down and kiss him while he grabs onto my ass with both hands and carries me up the stairs.

I forget about the secrets I’m keeping when he lays back on the bed and pulls me on top of him so I’m straddling his thighs.

I forget about murder weapons and suspects when I lift up just enough to unbutton his jeans, slide down his zipper, and reach inside his boxer briefs to palm his hardness and pull it out.

I forget about my life in Chicago and how whatever this is that’s happening between us will never work out, when he pushes my dress up to my hips, slides my white lace underwear to the side with one hand and clutches my hip with the other to position my body over him.

I forget my name and what day it is when he thrusts his hips up, filling me so quickly and perfectly that his name comes out as a gasp when I almost forget how to breathe.

He holds tightly to my hips, slamming me up and down on top of him until there’s nothing I can feel, nothing I can do, and nothing else I care about but taking away his worries and making him forget right along with me.

It’s fast and it’s hard and it’s wild, and somewhere along the way, Leo rips my dress the rest of the way off of my body and tosses it across the room, pushing himself up to sitting so he can slide a lacy cup of my strapless bra to the side and latch his lips to my nipple, sucking it into his mouth. I move up and down faster and harder in his lap, gripping his hair tightly in my fingers until we’re both covered in sweat, moaning and muttering each other’s names.

When he pulls my nipple harder into his mouth and moves his fingers between my thighs to rub and slide them against that perfect spot, I come with his name on my lips and he quickly follows, pumping up inside of me and jerking his hips between my legs until we both get lost in blissfully mindless oblivion.

CHAPTER 35

I’m a bitch before coffee. And after.

—Coffee Mug

Pulling Emma Jo’s car into the driveway, I grab the bag of Styrofoam containers from the front passenger seat and head into the house, knowing I only offered to go pick up breakfast so I could butter Leo up and to get out of the house as fast as possible so I could have a little time to collect my thoughts.

Don’t judge me. Desperate times call for desperate measures and an omelet from The Hungry Bear would have to do.

As soon as I walk through the front door and head toward the kitchen, I see Leo coming down the hallway and I smile at him as I pause and wait for him to get to me. The fierce, pissed-off look on his face makes my smile drop and I set the bags of food down on the floor by my feet. He walks right by me without saying a word and I quickly turn and grab onto his arm.

“Hey, what’s going on? What’s wrong?”

He jerks his arm out of my hand and the look he gives me is enough to make any woman want to shrivel up into a ball and go off to cry in a corner.

“First, you keep a secret about the damn pie, then, I can tell you’re still keeping something from me even though you promised you wouldn’t, but I let it go because I just wanted to be with you and none of that seemed important in the grand scheme of things,” he states in a low, angry voice that renders me speechless. “This whole time, I’ve been busy falling in love with you, and you’ve been busy planning your fucking wedding.”

“Sweetheart, you’re home!”

This confusing, Twilight Zone moment is brought to you by Benjamin Montgomery, the dumbass who just waltzed into the hallway from the kitchen.

When I realize what Leo is so upset about, ignoring the minor detail about me still keeping something from him and COMPLETELY passing right over that whole declaration of love thing for the time being, my heart stops trying to beat its way out of my chest and I stop panicking. And start laughing. Which is the absolute opposite thing you should do when a guy you’ve been sleeping with who thinks he’s in love with you, who looks five seconds away from slamming his fist into the wall, and also thinks he just found out you’ve been lying to him about being engaged.

“Glad you find this amusing,” Leo growls at me, looking over at Benjamin and giving him a nod. “Nice talk, Ben. You’ll excuse me if I don’t feel like staying around to chat more.”

“It’s BENJAMIN,” the dumbass replies as Leo turns and stalks to the door, yanking it open so hard it slams against the wall.

“Fuck you very much, Benny,” Leo mutters over his shoulder, giving Benjamin the finger as he starts to leave.

I finally pull my head out of my ass, stop laughing, and lunge after Leo, grabbing his arm again, tugging him to a stop and making him turn around to look at me.

“You, aren’t going anywhere,” I inform him, still clutching tightly to his arm as I look back at Benjamin. “And YOU are a fucking idiot! We are not engaged, there isn’t any wedding, and you need to get that through your head before I ram it in there with a two-by-four!”

Benjamin’s face falls and as I stand here looking at him in his three-piece suit and slicked back hair, I wonder what in the hell I ever saw in him. He’s a pansy-ass idiot, and I can’t believe I never realized just how stupid he was.

“But, mother already booked the country club! It’s a fantabulous location for a wedding and I can’t just have her cancel it,” he whines.