“I’m glad you’re happy there.”
Small talk. I was dying to know what he had wanted to tell me last night. “So what did you want to talk to me about?” I asked.
“Let’s have our dinner first.”
Fine. I could wait. “What’s on the menu?”
He lifted the silver dome from my plate. “Tenderloin with green peppercorn sauce, broccoli rabe, rosemary polenta, and a sunflower seed baguette.”
I inhaled. “It smells great.” I took another sip of wine. “Felicia must’ve really outdone herself.”
“I asked her to make something special, and this is what she came up with.”
“Special indeed. Although any of her delicious meals would have sufficed. She’s a wonderful cook.”
Now I was making small talk. But we had to talk about something while we ate.
Talon picked up a steak knife and cut a piece of meat. “How was your day?”
“Good. A lot of investigating on the computer. Next week I’ll probably have to do some footwork for a new case. I’m sure glad today is Friday. I can use a day off.”
More small talk. How could we have so little to say to each other? Was sex all there was between us?
No. There was more. So much more. Love.
For the first time, I admitted it to myself. I had fallen in love with Talon. It scared the hell out of me, but it was the truth. Sometimes we were so close I felt like we were one person. And other times, like now, he was miles away, across from me at the table. His walls were up, and the only time he let me through them was when we were intimate.
I looked down at my plate. My filet was cooked to perfection—rare, just how I liked it. The red juice meandered into my polenta. I mashed the polenta with my fork.
Marj’s birth certificate popped into my mind. Jonah had told us to leave it be, but maybe Talon knew something.
“Talon?”
“Yeah?” He took a bite of steak, chewed, and swallowed.
“Marj and I found her birth certificate the other day.”
“So?”
“Well, it’s kind of confusing. It says her name is Angela Marjorie Steel. But she says you guys always told her that her first name was Marjorie and she had no middle name.”
He was quiet a moment. Then, “Why do you care?”
“I would think that’s obvious. She cares because it’s her name. I care because I care about her. We asked Jonah about it, but he wouldn’t tell us anything. He told us not to go snooping or we’d find things we didn’t want to know.”
He looked down at his plate. “If I were you, I’d take Joe’s advice.”
“Do you know anything about it?”
“I’ll just echo Joe’s sentiments. Leave it alone.”
“That’s not fair. Marj only wants to know who she is.”
“She knows who she is. She’s Marjorie Steel. She’s my sister. She owns a quarter of the goddamned richest ranch in Colorado. What the hell more does she need to know?”
“Well, her name for one.”
He raised his gaze and glared at me. “Don’t push this, Jade.”
“So you’re going to clam up, just like your brother. Great. Something is going on around here, Talon, and if you don’t want me to know about it, that’s one thing. But Marj is your sister.”
“Marj is better off. She has a great life. She doesn’t want it screwed up.”
“But, Talon—”
His fist came down on the table, jarring my plate of food. He stood. “Damn it, Jade. Don’t push it,” he said through clenched teeth. He came toward me, grabbed my arm, and jerked me into a standing position.
“But—”
His mouth came down on mine violently.
I responded to him as I always did. Our bodies were drawn together, our lips perfect matches for each other’s. I opened to him, and his tongue dived into my mouth. We kissed with passion, with fervor, our mouths open and clamped together.
When he finally broke the kiss and we both gasped in much-needed breaths, he trailed his lips to my ear.
“You’re the only thing I’ve ever wanted in my life,” he whispered.
“What?” I gasped. My heart was beating a mile a minute, stampeding against my chest. My breath was coming in rapid puffs. I couldn’t breathe. What had he said?
“You, blue eyes. You are the only thing I’ve ever wanted.”
His lips came down on mine again. We kissed and we kissed, and he edged me toward his bed.
Within seconds, we were lying together, still fully clothed, making out on his bed like a couple of sex-starved teenagers. Our mouths were melded together. Boiling honey flowed through my veins.
He cupped one breast and found my nipples through my sundress as he continued to violently love my mouth.
My body quivered. I was ready for him. My pussy pulsed, and I knew I was wet.
“You,” he said, panting. “You. All the other women. Never one of them. Just took what they gave freely. But you…you…”
“Talon…”
“You, Jade. I want you.”
“Then take me. Take me tonight. Make me yours.”
He grimaced. “Can’t. Can’t. Can’t make you mine. You don’t want to be mine.”