A Drive-By Wedding Page 7

  Allyn pulled a pillow over her head to muffle the explosion of mirth she couldn’t hold back. Jeth was completely out of his depth. He knew it, she knew it, but there was no way he planned to lose track of a conversation with a two-year-old.

  “That’s not what I said,” Jeth corrected him. “I said Sasha not say bad things.”

  Eyebrows screwed up in a miniature copy of adult confusion, Sasha regarded Jeth. “Papa ucky t’ings?” he asked.

  Unable to contain herself, Allyn roared.

  “Thanks a lot,” Jeth told her darkly. “I wish to hockey sticks I’d never car jacked you.”

  “Hockey sticks?” she asked, full of innocence—and mischief. “As in H. E. Double?”

  He glared at her.

  She struggled for a semblance of sobriety. “Oh, dear, and just when I was starting to have such a really good time at your expense.”

  “That’s the problem.” Sasha squirmed to get out of his lap, and Jeth set him on the floor. “This entire day has been your good time at my expense. Most self-respecting kidnap victims would offer their abductors a little more deference, treat the situation with the reverence it deserves.”

  Allyn waggled a book at Sasha. “Most self-respecting abductors don’t eat purple lollipops or let their victims talk them into buying a carload of baby stuff or wedding rings.”

  “And you would know that because?”

  She ignored the question. “Besides, I don’t remember having any fun at all when you committed the actual crime or during that mad chase sequence.” She captured Sasha when he reached for the book, tickled him until he giggled. “You were, however, awfully cute when we went shopping.” She stripped Sasha of his clothing, fitted him into his new pajamas, careless of the effect her pronouncement had on Jeth—or of the effect it would have on her later when she had a chance to realize what she’d said. “Leads me to believe you’ve got possibilities beyond your chosen profession.”

  It was a quirk of thought, an aberration, Jeth assured himself, that made him suddenly want to know just what possibilities she believed he had.

  “What possibilities?” he asked before he could stop himself. It had never occurred to him to consider other ways to live his life than the one that had led to Marcy’s death. “What else am I if not that?”

  Startled, Allyn looked at him, flushed under the intensity of his gaze. “I don’t know. Just…possibilities. I work with a lot of men. Banter is how I handle their idiocies where women are concerned. It was something to say.”

  “Liar,” Jeth accused softly.

  He rounded the outside bed, caged her in the narrow path between it and the inside bed. She tried to take Sasha and duck around him, but now that he’d begun the question he had no intention of letting her answer slide. It had been a long day, and wise or not, he needed human contact, wanted to know her, what made her tick, made her help him without any reason whatever.

  Except Sasha, that is. And even there, now that he thought of it, Jeth realized he’d actually left Allyn alone with the boy often enough today—trusted her implicitly for reasons he wasn’t sure he comprehended—so that if she’d chosen to take off with Sasha at any of several points, she might easily have done so. And since Allyn was both bright enough and stubborn enough to have found a way out of this mess for both herself and Sasha if she’d wanted to, Jeth suddenly understood that something had to have kept her with him, made her choose to help him as well as Sasha. He wanted to know what and why.

  Had to know.

  He caught Allyn’s arm, hefted Sasha away from her and sat him on the inside bed with the word book they’d purchased. Walked across the room to the chest of drawers with Allyn in tow, sat on it so they were nearly at eye level and drew her to stand between his thighs.

  Physically it was an exquisitely painful, torturously dangerous position for him. Her hip merely brushed his denim-covered crotch, but that was all it took to tease him alive. For better or worse, however, he knew instinctively that the way to get truth from Allyn Meyers was through the intimate use of a moment.

  However hard on him it might also prove.

  He winced at the unintentional mental pun, but he didn’t back away from it. Once begun was, as the old rhyme went, half done, after all.

  Allyn looked almost into his eyes, looked away. He was much too close like this, much too tempting, brought her past week and early-this-morning druthers too easily within reach.

  She could imagine—well, almost imagine—what it would be like to be with him, lie down with him, take him into both her body and her life. The very thought, the mere idea was beyond silly, outside of fantastic, ludicrous beyond belief, but still she entertained it. The semblance of what she’d recently begun to envy in her sister’s life lay inside this room: adorably near in Sasha jabbering away on the bed; devastatingly, kissably close in Jeth, whose touch sent heat tingling through every nerve and pore, torching the brain cells that had once been so wise about trying to keep Becky out of trouble.

  That had never, until today, been made dim-witted by the sight of a man’s mouth.

  Of their own volition, her eyes fastened on Jeth’s lips, tried to discern what it was about that wry, late-day-beard-surrounded line that fascinated her hormones so much. Simple proximity, perhaps, as her grandmother often said. Her mind taking an unknown, unwelcome situation and turning it into something pleasant, pleasurable that she could deal with. That’s what, Julia Brannigan often proclaimed, had happened to Allyn’s mother, Alice, when Gabriel Book had come to town.

  Of course, Julia always hastily added, Alice and Gabriel had proved the exception that made the rule. Which was why, Allyn understood suddenly and with trepidation, she’d thought about calling Gabriel to help her out of this situation, but hadn’t actually done so. Her stepfather would, she knew, blow reality through this adventure like a force-five tornado, destroying a fantasy Allyn had never entertained before now.

  Nor wanted to.

  Trying to sort it all out, make sense of the suddenly insensible, Allyn breathed. Air tangled in her lungs, left her natural ability to inhale and exhale as muddled as her thoughts.

  Aware of the abrupt shift in her breathing, the pulse beneath his fingertips, the temperature and color of her skin, Jeth wedged her closer, more tightly between his legs. Lifted his hand to her face and raised her chin so she was forced to see him, not simply parts of him.

  Used two fingers to brush the hair out of her eyes and was instantly lost to what he saw there: vulnerability, availability, need.

  “No,” he heard himself say raggedly, distantly. “This is stupid, it’s not what you really want, I won’t let it happen,” but even as he said it, his body recognized the lie for what it was; he cupped her face in his hands and dragged her in.

  She came willingly, bracing her hands on his chest and leaning into him. Her breath caught against his lips.

  “What do you want from me?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” she whispered. “Everything.”

  Her mouth pressed his, hesitant lips slightly parted, light as a moth’s caress on his.

  When she ducked her chin and drifted away from the half-kiss, he scooped up a handful of her hair and hauled her back, bumped his mouth against hers again and again, seducing her lips until they no longer parted company with his, merely unsealed enough to share his breath, his life, feed his passion.

  Realize her own for the first time.

  Thought did not exist. Neither did the motel room, the events of the day, any druthers outside of this dark instant, this heady seduction that deepened with every movement of his mouth against hers.

  He was wrong, she knew it in every nerve, every cell, every fiber. She did want this, want him. Craved this sensation of time out of mind that only he could give. When he slid his tongue over the sharp edges of her teeth, she opened for him eagerly, moaned low in her throat, slid restless fingers across his chest, encouraging the mating play, the prelude.

  Lifted her arms to slide them
around his neck, wordlessly offering him access to parts of her she’d never let a man touch, begging Jeth alone to teach her what she’d chosen to ignore in favor of twenty years of nonstop education.

  Jeth felt the tide shift, the world begin to slide out from underneath him, draw him into a vortex that threatened not to let him go; he couldn’t give in. He drew a harsh breath, pulled himself together and pushed the gift away. Allyn made a small sound of denial and tried to pull him back. Only Sasha tugging at his leg prevented Jeth from returning to her embrace.

  Even though he’d been the one to pull away, Allyn was the one to recover first. A little unsteadily, she backed away from Jeth and reached to pick Sasha up.

  “What’s up, squirt?” she asked hoarsely. Lord, had that really been her kissing Jeth like there was no tomorrow and no consequences to consider?

  Like she was the neediest, most sex-starved woman on the face of the earth?

  Sasha bobbled his head back and forth and told her something absolutely fascinating and completely unintelligible that sounded—phonetically spelled—a lot like Chee-tat, cheee-tat! She nodded as though she understood.

  “Is that so? You think maybe we should brush your teeth and get you ready for bed, then go read some more about it?”

  Nodding, Sasha pointed to the book on the bed, named it knee-ga or something similar and tried to use his legs and knees as he might on a horse to turn Allyn in the direction he wanted to go. She held firm.

  “Nuh-uh, bud. Teeth first, then book.” She glanced at Jeth, blushed at the look of disbelief and desire he sent her in return and glanced away. “I’ll get him ready for bed then read to him for a bit.”

  She didn’t ask, “Okay?” but the question seemed somehow implied—useful victim to genial car jacker. Jeth’s jaw clenched, unclenched; he gave her a clipped nod.

  “Good.” He stalked to the door. “I’m taking a walk. Lock up and put the chain on behind me. Don’t let anyone in but me.”

  “I won’t.”

  He put his hand on the doorknob, hesitated. Eyed Allyn up and down. Grimaced and worked his jaw. “That shouldn’t have happened,” he told her flatly.

  Something wilted inside her. Maybe for reasons she couldn’t remember at the moment it shouldn’t have happened, but he didn’t have to sound so disgusted that it had.

  “No,” she agreed. “I’m sorry, it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have attacked you like that. You must think—but that’s the first time I ever—” Her mouth twisted with self-contempt, she straightened and eyed Jeth squarely. “I’ve never thought of myself as a dolphin, no matter what you must think right now.”

  Jeth eyed her quizzically and, it must be admitted, with more than a little poker-faced resolve. He would not make this worse by laughing, no matter what odd thing she said to provoke him. “A dolphin?” he asked with effort.

  “A dolphin, a dolphin,” Allyn repeated exasperated. “A deep-sea mammal, bottle-nosed, natural enemy of sharks, incredible skin, more intelligent than humans, promiscuous as minks. I really don’t have a libido like theirs, I promise. It won’t happen again.”

  “A libido like—” Astonished, Jeth stared at her for a full two seconds, torn between wry laughter and the desire to shake Allyn Meyers—and her mistaken view of why he’d pulled away from her—silly. Three long strides brought him to catch her chin in his palm so he could haul her into a swift, fierce kiss. “It’s not your libido I’m worried about,” he told her dryly. “It’s mine. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt—” He paused, shook his head. “No, back that up. Make it, I’ve never felt anything like that. And I can’t, Allyn. I can’t. Not now. Not here. Not with you. Not ever.”

  “Not with me?” She couldn’t believe her ears. The very idea that she’d managed to throw herself into the arms of a man who would kiss her like that only to have him tell her practically in the next breath not with you, well, it made her blood boil. “What are you talking about, not with me? If you felt and I felt, and you want and I… Well.” She shook her head. “I mean, I can understand the not here and now part, but you realize you make no sense with the rest of it. Because I have never, ever done anything like that before in my life, so you just stick that in your shorts and think about it while you’re walking, buster!”

  For the approximate space of two shakes of a lamb’s tail Jeth simply gaped at her dumbstruck. Then laughter bubbled to the surface, left him doubled over, snorting and gasping for breath. My God, she was a handful and a half. Stick that kiss in his shorts and think about it? He doubted he’d think of anything else, imagine anything else, fantasize about anything else for the better part of what was left of his life other than stripping her naked and letting her have her way with him until they were both too exhausted and too sated to move. And the way he felt right now, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t want to leave any bed she was in sooner than Christmas, and that’d be to get a snack to bring back to bed with him.

  He leaned against the wall weak with mirth. Stick it in his shorts and think about it. Yeah, right. Sheesh.

  Allyn grabbed the front of his T-shirt, rattled him physically the best she could with a toddler in her other arm. “Don’t you dare laugh at me.”

  Jeth laughed harder. “I can’t help it. Do you realize how funny you are or how painful your suggestion is?”

  Allyn stuck her nose in the air and gave him miffed. “I know where there’s a cold shower, and you can just get in it and shrivel.”

  Amusement and astonishment threatened to drop him to his knees. Judas, what avenging angel had wished her on him this morning? What devil incarnate made her do this to him now? He tried to hide fresh sputters of laughter, failed. If she kept on like this, he’d never survive. But he’d sure as hell go enjoying himself. And he hadn’t been able to say that about himself for a good three years.

  Allyn ignored him in favor of completing her thought. “In fact, you can take Sasha right in with you and bathe him, too.” She eyed the tyke with some maternal worry. “Just don’t douse him in cold water, okay? I don’t want him sick again.”

  Sobering only enough to marvel anew, Jeth stared at her. How did she do that, he wondered. Go from vamp to mother without so much as a finger snap between the phases?

  Talent, he decided. Plain old awesome woman talent.

  “Okay, Jeth? Please? Come on.” Allyn prodded him out of his reverie by poking him in the chest.

  He blinked at her. “What?”

  “Don’t take a walk, just take a shower—with or without Sasha,” she pleaded, “I mean because he’s already ready for bed except for his teeth even if I didn’t bathe him, but it must be safer for all of us if you stay indoors, isn’t it? Don’t go out there just because I’m an idiot who got you to kiss me. It—really, it won’t happen again. I’ll stay on my side of the room, you stay on yours, we’ll be fine. I just, well, I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you—” she bit her lip, backed up into hopefully less personal territory “—that is, if anything happened to Sasha or you, so—”

  Amazement turned to astonishment turned to wonder, to awe and back again. Even his thoughts failed to form adequately around the thing he wanted most to know. All he knew was that as of this moment, if from none of the moments before, he was lost. Now might not be the time or place, but someday, when this was over and things—her emotions—had a chance to settle, he would find her, knock properly on her door, wherever it was, and then they’d see.

  And his rules about civilians be damned.

  For now, he did the only thing he could: lifted Sasha out of her arms, set him on the floor and drew Allyn into a kiss that was as long and promise-filled but unerotic as he could make it—a difficult feat at the moment. Then he took Sasha’s hand, led him into the bathroom and shut the door behind them.

  Chapter 6

  By the time Jeth and Sasha came out of the bathroom, Allyn was curled up on the outside edge of the inside bed asleep, a gate of pillows beside her along the inside edge of the bed
.

  Jeth’s lips curled and twitched at the sight. Clearly she’d decided where Sasha would spend the night: with her. He looked at the little boy.

  “I think you’ve got yourself a mama for as long as you need her,” he said. Lord, he wished he could be the one to crawl in beside Allyn. Wished he could wrap himself around her and will away everything but the instant she wakened in his arms and turned to him. Opened to him.

  Loved him.

  Loved him? He gave himself a mental shake, staggered half a step back from the thought. Yeah, her kiss had lengthened his stride and practically polished his zipper from the inside, but holy hell, loved him? Where had that come from?

  Sasha bounced in his arms, providing sudden and necessary distraction. “Mama,” he agreed and gestured impatiently at the book on the bed beside Allyn. “Chee-tat.”

  Chuckling, Jeth tousled Sasha’s hair, marveling at the resilience of babies. “Anyone ever tell you you’ve got a one-track mind, kiddo?”

  Sasha wriggled, trying to get down. “Mama chee-tat,” he insisted loudly.

  Jeth put a finger to his lips. “Shh. Mama sleeping,” he whispered, and stepped over to pick up the book, careful not to let his wistful fingers graze Allyn. “How about Papa chee-tat?”

  He wasn’t sure he’d gotten Sasha’s accents on the word exactly right, but it didn’t seem to matter. Sasha nodded enthusiastically, dug his heels into Jeth’s torso, spurring his human horse forward.

  “Chee-tat,” he urged in his two-year-old version of Jeth’s whisper. The effort hardly came close, was, in fact, louder than Sasha’s normal tones. “Papapapapapapapapapa!”

  Stifling laughter, Jeth covered the toddler’s mouth lightly with a hand, urging silence exactly as Allyn had only a short time before. This time, however, the youngster stiffened without warning, his eyes went wide with terror, and he began to struggle in earnest to get away from Jeth. Instantly Jeth withdrew his hand, dropped into the armchair where he’d planned to read to Sasha and hugged the little boy close, instinctively pressing Sasha into his shoulder and gently rubbing the toddler’s back.