When he pulls back, I stumble and without his strong presence I might have fallen at his feet. “You better go ahead and come on inside.” He moves to let me in.
It’s hard to walk with my knees weak, but I do. Going over to his counter, I put our drinks down before turning to rummage in his cabinets for two glasses. I’ve been here enough times that I know exactly where to go, but I’m looking for one in particular. A plastic tumbler with a Texas Longhorn logo on it.
He eyes the cup in my hand. “I can’t believe you put that piece of shit in my cabinet.”
I grin, putting the plastic cup under his ice dispenser in the door. When I have enough, I start mixing my SoCo and iced tea. “Call it a piece of shit all you want, Sully. At any time you coulda thrown it away, but yet here it is. Each and every time I come here and go to make myself a drink. It’s in the back, but it’s always there.”
“Hmm.”
“Stop grunting like a cave man. Do you want one?” I tip my drink to him.
“Not in that cup, I don’t.”
“What?” I put the lip up to my mouth, licking the residue off of it.
His body tightens, his eyes flash with something I’ve never seen before.
“You don’t wanna put your mouth where mine’s been?”
I don’t know who this woman is that all of a sudden became outspoken and such a tease, but I’m not ready to put her back under wraps yet.
“I’ll put mine where yours has been all day, but not on a Longhorn cup. I’ll get what I need right from the source.”
He watches as I take a drink and set the cup down. Before I know it, he’s around the counter, his hands in my hair, tilting my head back, and claiming my mouth with his. For long seconds his tongue pushes against mine, tangling this way and that. When he pulls away, I’m unsure what time it is and how long we’ve been standing in his kitchen.
“You wanna make me one of those?”
The tone of his voice sends chills up and down my arms. Aroused, southern, a tinge of longing. It’s all there and at the same time, it’s all mine.
“Sure you don’t wanna drink mine?” I smirk.
“We talked about that.”
“We did, didn’t we?”
I pull away, going about making him the drink he requested. Sullivan has a seat at the bar, watching as I work. “So what did you go talk to Ransom about?”
Turning to look at him over my shoulder, I put a hand on my hip as I get his ice. “Like he didn’t tell you? That man has a mouth a mile wide.”
He laughs. “Ransom can keep a secret when he needs to.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“That’s the thing.” Sullivan pushes his hair out of his eyes. “You’ll never see it, ‘cause he’ll never reveal it.”
“Whatever you say. I’m sure he told you what I was there for.”
When I hand him his drink, he takes a big one, before he sets the glass down, eyes locked on mine. “Frank Gentry isn’t someone to mess with, Shelby.”
Ransom did tell him what I wanted.
“I’m not messing with him; I’m simply trying to find out information.”
“Being curious about someone like him isn’t smart.”
My mood deflates slightly. “You won’t help me?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to, but like Ransom said, it’s an ongoing investigation. You’d have to file an open records request and we both know how long that could take.”
“Why is it an investigation?”
“I wish I could tell you, Counselor, but I can’t.”
Frustrated, I take another drink. “Are you telling me what Ransom did?”
“What did he tell you?”
“To get a damn scanner and listen. Since I already have one at home, I’m considering getting one for my office.”
Throwing his head back he laughs so hard I have to join in. “Sometimes Ransom is too smart for his own good.”
“A smartass,” I correct him, brushing tears of laughter from my eyes.
“Yeah, heard you called him a douche canoe, gave Rambo some love, and then walked out.”
“See? He’s a gossip.”
“Didn’t say I heard all that from Ransom.”
“Then who’d you hear it from?”
His lips spread into a huge smile. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Are you gonna tell me?”
“Depends.” He reaches over, grabbing a lock of my hair with his fingers. Slowly, he twirls it around the knuckle, before letting it go.
“Depends on what?”
“On if you’ve been good enough to deserve the answer or not.”
“I assure you, Sully. I’m always good.”
“Same goes, Shelby. Same goes.”
Chapter 10
Sullivan
“If my mama found out, she’d kill me.” I wave off the money Shelby is trying to force into my hand. “Besides, you brought the drinks.” I pick my cup up, downing it as I make my way to the door. The doorbell rings again. “Coming.”
“That’ll be twenty-three even.”
I put thirty in the delivery guy’s hand. “Keep the change.”
Shelby’s at my kitchen counter again, mixing herself another drink. “You sure you want a second one so quick?”
“Today’s been a real shit day, Sully.” She uses her finger to stir, before bringing it up to her mouth.
The way she closes her lips around the tip goes right to my dick. I know she didn’t mean for it to, but I’m a man who finds her attractive. I can’t seem to help it. Walking over, I grab her hand, before bringing it up to my lips. “Why don’t you let me make it better for you?”
Her eyes are dark as she watches my movements, seeming to take in every single one.
“Oh yeah?” She brings her bottom lip in between her teeth. “What would you do to make it better for me?”
There’s only one thing I can say. “Whatever you want me to.”
Lifting her cup off the counter, she takes a long swallow. “You know what I want more than anything?”
“What?”
Shelby comes closer, sidling up to my body. Her fingers grip my t-shirt. The low-level buzz that’s always between us amps up in volume. The words she speaks are barely above a whisper, but they could be a shout in this room because it’s so quiet. “I want you to give me what it is you think I want. I make decisions all the time.” She curls her finger under the hem of my shirt. “When I’m with you, I don’t want to think. I just want to feel.”
Reaching out, I tip her chin up with my finger. “Are you sure, Shelby? I might be more than you bargained for.”
“And I might be able to take way more than you ever imagined.”
With her other hand, she has another drink, but as she brings the cup down, I remove it from her grasp, tipping it back into my mouth, getting rid of the remaining liquid. A noise of irritation slips across her lips, causing them to open slightly.
It’s all I need to take what I want.