Jar of Hearts: (Family Stone, # 5 Keisha and Shane) (Family Stone Romantic Suspense) (7 page)

Jack asked, “If he switched the banned substance with the allowed substance he would have a use or outlet for the allowable pesticides you purchased.”

“I’m not sure I follow,” Shelley said reluctantly.

“Say he had some Aldicarb gathering dust at his corporate farm and he knew he couldn’t use it. This was the perfect way to get rid of the chemicals. He’d save on the purchase of legal pesticides and then substitute the illegal for the legal and use the correct safe pesticide at his corporate farm.”

“That’s awful.” Shelley reluctantly admitted, “But possible.”

“We need to find out where those chemicals came from and who authorized the use of the pesticide.”

“Oh, my God.” Shelley put her hand to her forehead. “We’ve got to get that produce out of the warehouse before it’s distributed to the public.”

Jack stood and wrapped his arms around his mother. “Don’t worry. Luckily Bob Michaels wanted to test the produce before he started delivering it.”

“Wait, so you investigated the food bank?” she asked as if she were just putting all the pieces together.

Jack shrugged. “Actually, Shane and Keisha were undercover at the wine and dine the other night.”

“I thought I saw you!” Shelley’s eyes watered and she blinked rapidly. “Do you really think that Don Wallaston would have authorized the use of an illegal substance on produce for the hungry?”

Shit, Shane did not want to deal with tears.

“It’s either him or you.” Keisha snarked.

“Now, Shelley. We are going to nail that sucker.” Shane had gentled his voice, and softened his tone, wanting her to settle. He’d been pretty sure she hadn’t had direct knowledge of the tainted produce and now that they knew for sure, Shane’s job was to protect her. Keisha was staring at him with an enigmatic look on her face.

“How?”

That was a good question. Because they needed to proceed carefully. They had to make sure that they caught the culprit either without implicating Jack’s mother or with a way to clear her, because right now Shelley was still considered culpable.

Keisha patted Shelley on the back, trying to comfort her, as if to make up for the fact that she had earlier believed that Shelley was guilty. “Don’t you worry, Shelley. Jack, Shane, and I are going to get him.”

Jack said, “Go on to bed. I’ll let you know if we need your help with anything.”

Shelley wiped the wetness from beneath her eyes and nodded. After she left the room, Jack sighed heavily. “Unless we can get Wallaston to confess, she’s fucked.”

“So let’s get him to confess.” But Shane knew they were going to have to come up with a plan and no matter how he twisted things around, they were likely going to have to use Shelley as bait.

Seven

“Well, that was fun.” Shane rubbed his large palm over his bald head and huffed out a breath as they walked to his car. “Let me get you home.”

And maybe while he had her captive in his car, he could delve into the workings of her mind. Then once he’d discovered her secrets, he’d move on to exploring her body and they’d engage in a repeat of their incredible sexual chemistry from last night.

He mentally snorted.

Shane started the car, headed out of Seventeen Mile Drive and toward the highway. The car was filled with an easy silence as they both contemplated their thoughts.

“You were good with her,” Keisha said. “I mean it.”

“I felt like a big bully.”

“We needed to know for sure if she was involved.”

He’d been rough on Shelley at first but it had been necessary. And while he’d managed to get the information by being scary, he’d eased off once they had her ‘confession’.

“You thought she was guilty.” Shane kept the statement as noncommittal as possible, trying hard not to piss Keisha off. But he really wanted to understand her. Wanted to know what made her react the way she did in every situation.

“Yes.”

“Why did you assume she was guilty?” He glanced at her as he took the bend in Highway 1, juicing the engine and increasing his speed.

“People let you down.” Keisha shrugged. “I try to believe the worst, and be surprised by the best.”

Shane shifted his attention back to the road. People let you down. People. Before tonight, he would have thought she meant men, but now he perceived it was more than just a disappointment in men. “Parents?”

“Maybe.”

“My mama
never
let me down.” Shane emphasized never. Because it was true.

“And what about your father?”

“Never knew him.”

“Left before you were born?” Keisha asked. “Like mine.”

He’d take that out and examine it later. She expected his father to be a deserter. “No. He was killed in a drive-by shooting. The bullet was meant for a gang banger walking past his house. Unfortunately, it ricocheted, went through the living room window, and pierced his heart.” Shane rubbed his hand over his chest to ease the ache that never seemed to go away.

The physical ache was a sadness for his mother. For Shane, it was hard to miss someone he’d never known, but his mother had never gotten over his father’s death.

“Oh.” Keisha laid her palm over his wrist, her fingers delicate compared to his larger thicker bones. The simple contact zapped straight to his groin. His cock swelled with desire as she turned that sweetness on him. “I’m so sorry for your mother.”

“Yeah. She never got over him.”

“So, she never got together with anyone else?”

“She’s had a few men friends.” Shane winced. He really didn’t like to think of his mother that way, which was head-in-the-sand silly of him. She was a grown woman. But she was still his mama.

“So why are you such a player?”

He’d grown up with a mother who pined for her dead lover for years. He had no intention of giving away his heart and winding up sad and alone and filled with heartache. The truth was, forever came with a lot of pain.

So many people had clearly let Keisha down, and he ought to be honest, but this was a subject he’d avoided for years. So he did what he always did and tossed off another truth that was far less revealing. “Because no one could ever compare to my mama.”

Shane shut down the engine. They were in the parking lot of Keisha’s condo building. It was late. She was illuminated in the shimmering moonlight with her tough clothes, black combat boots, black cargo pants, and a tight black athletic wear shirt that emphasized her round, high breasts and the flat plane of her stomach. She looked like a bad ass.

But underneath the slick material he could see the satin and lace of her bra.

And he remembered that earlier, before everything that happened with Shelley, he’d had his hands on those breasts and she’d promised him a viewing of her underwear.

Shane leaned toward the passenger seat and nuzzled the long column of her neck. He pressed wet openmouthed kisses along her shoulder and eased the tight material aside to catch a glimpse of a pale pink bra strap. The sweet pearly pink was at odds with her tough clothes and her bad ass vibe.

“You gonna invite me in and show me more of your Victoria’s Secret obsession?” He smiled against her shoulder and prayed she wouldn’t kick him to the curb. A sultry musk and the scent of patchouli and lemon rose from her skin.

Memories from last night cascaded in his mind and his body reacted as if they were both naked and tangled in her sheets. Right where he wanted to be again tonight. He wanted to have sex with her all night long. Again.

He was pretty sure that was all he’d get from her.

He thought about how she’d comforted Shelley. After Keisha was convinced of Shelley’s innocence she’d once again revealed that soft center. And Shane finally realized that the only way to get her to open that gooey center was to be vulnerable. That wasn’t ever going to happen, because his sense of self-preservation was far greater than his wish to have her turn that sweetness on him. But he’d take another night of sex if she’d give it to him.

Keisha was silent but she wasn’t pushing him away. And her non-reaction gave him hope. If he wasn’t mistaken she’d just tilted her head a little to the right to give him better access to the sweet spot behind her ear.

Shane pressed a kiss against her skin, gratified by the sensual shiver that shook her body. Uneasy with his urgent need, he fought his near desperation for her, even as he considered how to get her to agree to let him spend the night.

Keisha shivered. Her nipples sharpened into hard bullets pressing against the delicate lace and tight Under Armour with almost painful intensity. God, she wanted to invite him in.

Repeat last night. Over and over.

The sex had been amazing, energetic, and physical. He would wear her out and she’d be unable to worry about the consequences of having him spend a second night in a row at her place.

Keisha still had her fists clenched against her thighs, fighting the urge to clutch his head to her breast. Somehow she knew that if she touched him, she would be lost. The only place they had contact was Shane’s fingers curled on her top’s neckline and his mouth against her collarbone.

She wanted to give in. Wanted to lose herself in sex, in him. Even though she knew it was a bad idea because it wasn’t just about sex anymore. They had connected on another level beyond the physical. And she wasn’t sure her heart could stand the pain when they were over. But her heart overruled her head and even though she knew it was a terrible idea, she gave in. “Let’s go inside.”

“Hot damn,” he breathed against her neck. Shane pressed the unlock button on her seatbelt, freeing her from the safety restraint.

The dark thrill in his voice was gratifying. She didn’t want to regret tonight. They still had to run the sting tomorrow. But their undercover operation as husband and wife was already mostly over. She could rationalize that the more comfortable they were together the easier the sell to get Don Wallaston to confess would be. But the truth was it didn’t matter if he bought their fake marriage.

Shane reached for the glove box. “Okay if I bring my weapon inside?”

Keisha glanced down at the bulge in his cargo pants. “I don’t think you can leave it here.”

Shane snorted. “Funny. I meant my gun.”

“Of course.” Keisha was still chuckling over her joke when he took her mouth like a conquering invader. He ate at her lips like a starving man at a banquet. Keisha’s heart quickened and her lady parts combusted. One hand cupped her breast firmly through the sleek material of her shirt. He brushed his thumb back and forth over her distended nipple until she moaned into his mouth.

Keisha shoved the tight material of his shirt up so that that she could run her hands along his hot, smooth skin, his abs rippled at her light contact. Desire rose between them like searing summer heat on a shimmering blacktop.

The gearshift dug into her side as Shane half lifted her up so that he could scrape his teeth over her neck and down the sensitive curve of her breast before suckling her tight nipple into his mouth right through the clingy material.

Keisha undid the snap on his pants and got his zipper down in record time. Shane grunted as she reached inside and found his bare cock. Commando, good lord.

Damn. She’d forgotten how big he was as she wrapped her hand around his thick length and pumped twice. A drop of pre-come was hot on her palm.

Shane stopped, rested his forehead against her collarbone. “It’s fucking amazing how hot you get me in such a short amount of time.”

“Give me a few more minutes and you’ll be even hotter,” she promised.

He huffed out a laugh. “The front seat of my car was not made for a man my size to get it on.”

“Come on,” Keisha said with a strange desperation. Her body was aching, on fire, empty and she needed him inside her. “Be adventurous.”

“Babe.” Shane groaned. “We’ve got to get inside.”

“You. Inside me. Now.” She rolled through the gap between the front and back seats and shimmied her pants down to her ankles, but her combat boots stopped her progress.

“I really want to take my time and enjoy that underwear.” Shane was trying to hold out against her desperate need but when she splayed her legs on the leather backseat, her top wet from his mouth, and her scent rising from the pale pink triangle of lace that covered her mound, she knew she had him. As his gaze dropped to her pussy, she watched him lose the battle.

“Enjoy it later.”

Shane climbed through the opening, fairly smoothly for a man his size. His cock jutted from the open V of his pants, thick, wide, pre-come beading on the dark tip.

And she moaned.

Her whole body clenched at the sight of his magnificent muscled abs and the knowledge that very soon he would be buried deep inside her weeping sex.

“Babe.” He rolled a condom on. “I can’t believe we’re going to do this twenty feet from your front door.”

“Now.”

Shane pushed aside the pearly pink thong, his fingers coated with her slickness, and Keisha moaned again. Then he slid home.

There was no other word for it.

Her pants hobbled her legs and made it difficult to spread wide. As he rocked in and out of her slick heat, his cock hit all of her zones, her g-spot, her clit. His hips rocked hard against her partially open thighs, effectively bracketing him.

He knelt between her legs, his feet hung over the edge of the seat, and his shoulders blocked out all the light from the parking lot, bathing his face in shadows.

His expression was fierce as he braced one arm on the back head rest and slid his large palm under her ass. Then he lifted her, changing the angle of penetration and suddenly Keisha hurtled over the edge as she flew apart and disintegrated into a million little pieces. She contracted around his thick invasive cock, and Shane groaned and stiffened. She rejoiced as he flew with her. His cock pulsed inside her, his head thrown back, his muscles tight, gripped in the throes of release.

Her heart was pounding so loudly it was a wonder she didn’t wake the neighbors.

Shane was breathing hard as if he’d just run the O course in record time.

“Damn, babe.” He brushed a stray lock of hair from her sweat dampened cheek and then nuzzled her neck in an uncharacteristic display of sweetness. “You about killed me.”