The Law of Desire (10 page)

“Yes. Mmm…baby…yes.” His hands grabbed her hips, halting her movement.

Perplexed, she stared at him. “What’s wrong?”

“I got this, baby. Time for your first lesson.” He lifted her slowly and slid her back down his slick soulful shaft.

She groaned. It felt so good, so achingly good.

He kept at it, moving her up and down, slowly, over and over again and again until she thought she would get seasick. The sound of the water splashing and the feel of her own wetness overwhelmed her. She felt soaked, but she knew one feeling was just out of her reach and it would remain out of her reach as long as he controlled her movements the way he was.

“Lawrence…please…”

He smiled. She covered his mouth in a passionate kiss and he held her suspended with just the tip of his sex resting inside of her. She twirled her tongue and nibbled his lips earnestly.

“Please, Lawrence…”

He groaned and picked up his pace, moving her up and down harder and faster, touching spots inside her she had never known existed and sending off rockets in her core.

She screamed and screamed again. She loved the feel of her breasts bouncing fast, up and down, up and down. She wrapped her arms around him on the down-stroke and clung to him the way her sex pulsed and tightened around his. A soft sigh escaped her lips and she shook.

He laughed and lifted her off his lap, positioning her so that she was kneeling on the bench of the hot tub and her hands grasping the edge. He entered her again from behind, stroking in sure possessive measures. He moved in and out with such powerful quickness she would have started speaking in tongues if she knew how. She moved her hips in circles, meeting his every thrust. All she could do was mumble and sigh and moan and grunt, at least until she had to scream. Then she turned around to look at him.

His scream followed hers as he grabbed her and held her close to him, his sex still pulsing hotly inside her. They remained like that for a couple of minutes, each panting in satisfaction. The warm water felt so good and he felt even better.

She smiled and stretched as she yawned and remembered all the ways that Lawrence had taught her lessons,
all night lon
g. He hadn’t been making idle threats. They were really hard lessons. It was a good thing she was such a quick study.

She sat up just in time to see Lawrence come into the room with a tray full of food. There was coffee, fruit and French toast—enough for an army. He probably hadn’t eaten himself yet. She figured the bulk of the food had to be for him.

“Aww…did you cook all this for lil’ ol’ me?”

“I told you I had you for breakfast and lunch…And if you’re really good, I might just throw some steaks on the grill for dinner and some baked potatoes in the oven. And I make a mean hot fudge sundae.”

“Well, now, just exactly how good does a girl have to be? And can’t I be a little bad?” She stretched her arms and arched her back as she winked at him.

His gaze heated up to a sensual simmer. “You need to eat and get your strength up, baby. I can see you’re ready for another lesson or two.” He cut the French toast with a fork, dipped it in the syrup and fed it to her.

“Umm…full service. A girl could get used to this.”

She picked up one of the strawberries, dunked it in the bowl of whipped cream and placed it near his mouth. He opened his mouth for a taste and she placed it in her own mouth instead, making a show of chewing.

He smiled a devilish smile as he watched her. “Oh, yes, baby, eat up and eat well, you’re going to need your strength for sure.”

H
e was getting in too deep and the only problem was he didn’t want to get out. If Minerva Jones wasn’t the perfect woman for him, then the perfect woman for him, didn’t exist.

He flipped the steaks on the grill, happy for the slight chill in the air. He hated grilling in the summer, but liked to crank up the fire in the fall and winter. When the patio door opened he turned to see that Minerva had woken up from her nap and joined him.

They had spent most of the day in bed. And if he hadn’t worked up such an appetite, he might have been content to just lie there holding her until she got her energy back.

He couldn’t contain his grin at the sight of her. “Look who’s finally awake.”

“Yeah, you went to sleep first. So it’s only fitting that I woke up later. I had to listen to your snoring before I could doze off.” She smirked as she took a seat on the teak lounge chair.

“Well, at least my snoring didn’t wake you up out of a dead sleep,” he teased. Her snoring didn’t really wake him up. She actually had a cute little half wheeze, half-breathe snore.

“I don’t snore…that bad…” She giggled and leaned back on the lounge. “The steaks smell great. I’m starved.”

“Worked up an appetite, huh?” He flipped the steaks and closed the grill before giving her his full attention.

“Yes, I did. I think I’ve learned my lesson.” She shot him a sly glance and licked her lips.

He gave her a mock stern stare. “I’ll be the judge of that, baby. I think you need a little more schooling.”

She laughed. “It’s really nice up here. The air smells so crisp, so fresh. It feels like a world away from Paterson and definitely a world away from smog-filled Los Angeles.”

He took a gulp of air. The refreshing mountain air was a big change from Jersey. He’d forgotten how nice it was to just come up here when it’s not ski season.

“Do you miss home?”

“Sometimes. I miss my brother the most. And I miss…some friends. But I think I would be really lonely if I were in Los Angeles now. I miss the social worker—Valerie—who was always there for us. With Calvin gone, I don’t have anyone else. The McKnights were the closest thing to family for me, and now they’re gone.”

The pause she gave troubled him. Who did she miss in Los Angeles? A boyfriend? Maybe the person who was after her? He suddenly had an overwhelming need to get the truth out of her again.

“And don’t you want their deaths vindicated?”

“Of course!”

“Then why aren’t you helping the police? Why didn’t you stay and talk with the LAPD? Why aren’t you doing everything you can to help us find the people who killed the McKnights?”

Her beautiful eyes formed big circles and she looked as if she’d been struck. She squinted and then stood. The hurt expression on her face cut him deeper than if he had hurt himself.

Yes, he was in too deep. That’s why he had to make sure that she was on the up-and-up. He had trusted in the past and been burned. He didn’t know if he could take it if Minerva proved to be lying to him.

“I’ll go make a salad and check on your baked potatoes.” She didn’t wait for his response. She didn’t tell him to kiss her behind,
nothing
. She just left him standing there at the grill.

If he could have taken the hurt out of her eyes, he would have. But he needed to know what he was dealing with. He didn’t feel like getting caught on the bad end of a surprise.

Not again. Not
ever
again.

He placed the steaks on a plate and covered them with foil to rest before they ate. Once inside the house, he found her in the kitchen.

She had the salad fixings out and she was pouring olive oil into a bowl as she whisked it with the rest of her dressing ingredients.

He didn’t say anything. He just watched her chop and dice and then pour what appeared to be some kind of homemade dressing onto the salad.

They ate in silence for a little while and then she cleared her throat.

“I think that we should probably stop this…this…whatever we’re doing. It seemed like a good idea at the time but in hindsight it really wasn’t. You don’t trust me and I don’t blame you. But I can’t continue to be this open and share this much of myself and still have you treating me like an immoral liar. If I knew who killed my brother or Tommy or Timmy, I would tell you. I would have told the police. If I had gone to the LAPD, it would have been a waste. I had nothing to tell them. But it only took me leaving the police department in Paterson to get shot at.”

His gut clenched. This wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted her to be open with him and tell him what she was holding back. He didn’t want her to break off what they had started to share. He cleared his throat. “So you want to end this?”

“I don’t want to. I
have
to. For my own good…You’re…” Her lower lip trembled and he felt a sharp pain in his heart.

He had to try and make her see where he was coming from.

“When I was sixteen, I used to run with a pretty bad crowd. We thought we were too cool for school, work, anything that even hinted at respectable. We cut classes so much that a few of the guys in the crew even ended up getting kicked out of Eastside High School during the days of Joe Clark. I had always kept up with my schoolwork, at least enough to pull Cs and Ds. So I didn’t get kicked out. I had a cousin who was the same age as me, Michael, the chief’s baby brother. Anyway, we had been tight growing up. But once I got with that crew, I didn’t want Mike around ruining my rep. He always found a way to tag along, though.

“We were all cutting school and hanging out. The most we had ever done before was drink liquor we could steal from our parents’ cabinets or that we could pay an old drunk to buy for us. But on this day, Johnny decided to bring drugs. I didn’t know there were drugs there. I never would have suspected my friends of having anything to do with drugs. And while my cousin was a nuisance and I didn’t want him hanging around, I believed with all my heart that he was safe there. But he wasn’t.”

He took a deep breath. He had never really talked to anyone but his father about how he really felt, how guilty he felt. And that had been years ago, when it happened. He tried not to talk about it a lot, opting instead to just live his life in a way that would honor Michael’s memory. But if talking about it would get Minerva to understand where he was coming from and trust him, so that he could trust her, he had to open up.

Taking another deep breath and running his hand across his head, he continued. “A bunch of them got high in the basement and then thought it would be cool to play Russian roulette with a handgun. My cousin died high on weed in a basement all because I trusted the wrong people, including a girl I loved who was part of the crew.

“My family forgave me and said that it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t make him take the drugs or hold the gun to his head. But I don’t believe that. He was a good person. He wanted to continue the Hightower legacy of public service and be a cop one day. And now he’ll never be able to.

“You’re holding something back, Minerva, I can tell. And, I won’t be able to trust you until you trust me enough to tell me what it is.”

She couldn’t help but stare at him. She had told him everything she knew. The only thing she had left out was David’s involvement in helping her get out of town. But bringing David further into this mess was
not
an option.

“Then I guess it’s really best that we end things now, Lawrence. I’ve told you everything I know. And while I can see where your distrust is coming from, it hurts too much to keep doing this. I
can’t
continue to do this.” Her entire heart was on the line. Couldn’t he tell?

He nodded. “So that’s it?”

“Yeah. Maybe once the murderers are caught and you realize that I’m not a criminal. Maybe then we can see.”

She wanted to tell him that she loved him. That she trusted him with her life. She wanted to, but she knew she couldn’t. He probably wouldn’t believe her anyway.

She got up and started clearing the table. “I’ll clean up tonight, since you cooked.”

He shook his head. “I’ll help.”

As much as she wanted to tell him that she just wanted to be alone with her thoughts, she recognized the hard glint in his eyes. He was going to stay and help because that’s what he wanted to do.

At least he had the decency not to talk. Or maybe he had an attitude and was just withholding speech. Whatever the reason for the silence, she welcomed it.

When they were done, he ran his hand across his head. “It’s early still, Minerva. Do you want to watch a movie or something? We have a pretty decent collection of DVDs here.”

She shook her head, even though it would have made her so happy to spend the evening wrapped in his arms, laughing and enjoying a film, maybe even having some popcorn. It sounded positively divine. She wished she could have said yes.

But now that she realized how much she felt for him—how deeply his distrust had the potential to hurt her—she had to protect herself. She had to protect her heart.

“No, I’m thinking I’ll just turn in early and read that Toni Morrison novel until I doze off. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Minerva…” His voice trailed off and she knew it was because he couldn’t say what she wanted to hear.

He really couldn’t trust her and if he couldn’t trust her she knew she couldn’t continue to make love to him.

Since his conversation with Minerva didn’t go anywhere near where he wanted it to, Lawrence decided to just watch a film by himself and figure out another way to get at what she was keeping from him.

His feelings for her wouldn’t allow him to just pretend he didn’t want the truth. And they damn sure wouldn’t let him stop pressing her for honesty. He had to admit he hadn’t expected her to just cut him off and halt their exploration. That threw him for a loop. It had him almost questioning if he could just let it slide.

Almost.

The buzz of his cell phone pulled him from his thoughts and he saw that it was Kendall calling.

“What’s up, Chief?”

“We picked up the folks in the white van. They had the same guns they’d used to shoot at you and Ms. Jones on them. The forensics just came back. None of their guns were the guns that killed the McKnights, however. We’re trying to get them to talk. But so far all they’re saying is they were working for someone who wanted them to get the girl.”

His blood chilled. “A hit?”

“No, they claim they were just supposed to grab her.”

“Yeah, so why were they shooting at her?” He let out a hiss of air. The thought of Minerva in danger had an unnerving effect on him. He didn’t like it one bit.

“They won’t say. It’s gonna be tough to get them to talk. Whoever they’re working for must be a really scary character. These guys look pretty hard-core and they’re facing hard time. But so far they won’t talk.”

He gritted his teeth, imagining all the ways he could make them talk. “Oh, I’ll bet I could make them talk. I’m coming back up there.”

“Hold off on that for a minute, Lawrence. Let’s see what else we can turn up here. Until we know who hired these guys, she’s still in danger. How is she, by the way?”

He paused, taking his mind off the criminals for a moment. There was something about the sound of Kendall’s voice that made him uneasy. “What do you mean by that?”

“What do you mean, what do I mean? How is she? Is she talking yet? You two called a truce? I’m assuming since I’m talking to you and you sound fine, you two haven’t done each other bodily harm.”

“Yeah. We’re good. She’s fine.”

“Mmm-hmm…Interesting.” There it was again, that weird, all-knowing, putting-two-and-two-together-and-getting-a-million tone in Kendall’s voice that made him stop and wonder what his cousin thought he knew.

“What?” He had a feeling he would regret asking Kendall that question.

“You forget, I’ve known you since you were a snot-nosed kid, you and your brothers running around the house with Michael. I can tell when something’s up with you. You like her, don’t you?”

Hearing Kendall mention Michael’s name when he had just opened up to Minerva about his guilt about his cousin’s death brought everything full circle. He couldn’t give up on getting her to tell him everything. He couldn’t risk it.

“It doesn’t matter, Kendall. It’s not going to stop me from doing my job if she turns out to be dirty.” He leaned his head back on the chair and willed the conversation over.

“I don’t think she’s dirty, Lawrence. I’m just worried that whoever her brother crossed in Los Angeles will end up getting to her before we can get them, or the LAPD can get them. I’m waiting to hear back from the detective in the LAPD who’s been looking into the murder. Victor Morales. We’ve been playing phone tag.” Kendall paused. “My gut tells me she’s scared. She’s holding something back. But she’s not a criminal.”

“Well, she still won’t talk. She still won’t say who killed her brother or who’s after her.” Uneasy about the neediness he heard in his own voice he tried to push it from his thoughts. There was really no way around it. He realized that he needed her to open up to him.

“Maybe she really doesn’t know.”

“You said it yourself, she’s holding something back…Did you say Victor Morales? I think that’s Maritza’s brother…Penny’s friend.”

“Really? I didn’t know that. If I ever get him on the phone, I’ll ask him. As for Ms. Jones, maybe we’re asking the wrong questions. Let us put the squeeze on these two white van idiots and then maybe we’ll have more to go on with her.”

Lawrence gritted his teeth. Waiting around for someone else to do the investigating and find the information went against his nature. He ran his hand across his head in frustration and let out a hiss of breath.

“We’re on it, here. I’ll call you in a couple of days—”

“A couple of days!”

“You’re the one who wanted to take some personal time. You all but volunteered to watch out for Ms. Jones. What, are you getting cabin fever now? Can’t hang?” Kendall had the nerve to chuckle.