She’d smiled coyly, praying her next words would be enough to get him to relinquish the check. “Well, Tony, you’re in luck. I’m the kind of woman who happily honors her commitments, especially… attractive ones.”
She’d punctuated the comment by trailing one manicured finger down the sleeve of Tony’s tailored suit jacket, and he’d released the check into her hands then. Lily Mae had paid off the loan on her SUV that day, which allowed her to travel for work. And she’d allowed herself to hope that hard work would improve her situation. But even as she picked up some clients, the ones Tony sent her fell away. Lily Mae had started to wonder whether this was by design. Whenever Tony saw her, he made it a point to smile broadly and ask how business was. Sometimes the question was accompanied by a possessive stroke of his hand down her back, and while she knew most women would have been thrilled by the attentions of a gorgeous, dark-haired man who only wore Italian suits, Tony Orzo’s behavior and rumored organized crime ties scared her to death.
Now instinct told her that this debt couldn’t be explained, at least not yet. So she’d left it off, telling herself that there was no way Tony would have known where she’d gone, and that he’d hardly try to track her down for what had to be a small amount in his eyes.
“Your car will be fixed by next Wednesday.” Jace was walking back inside now, and Lily Mae smiled as he walked over to take her in his arms. “Did you make that list like I asked?”
“Yes,” she said with a sigh. “But do we have to go over it right now?”
“No,” he said. “I think right now we need to get you to town and buy you some clothes. I’m pretty sure I owe you a dress.”
“You don’t have to do that, Jace,” she said.
“I know, Lily Mae. But I want to.”
She frowned as she looked down. “We have a problem, though. I’m still wearing your shirt and I didn’t bring anything else.”
Jace took her by the hand. “I want to show you something,” he said, and led her upstairs to the guest room where Lily had stayed on a few occasions, always under the supervision of Jace’s conservative parents. Now she stood in the doorway as he walked to the closet and opened it to pull out a pink and white flowered sundress.
“You’ve got to be kidding…” She walked over, taking the dress from his hand. “After all these years?”
“You were so forgetful. You always used to leave stuff here. I couldn’t bear to part with it.” Jace paused. “I bet it still fits.”
“I’ll need to take this shirt off to see,” she said seductively.
“Allow me, baby.” She could see the bulge forming in the front of his pants as Jace began to undo the buttons down the front of the shirt. When he shrugged it off her shoulders, Lily Mae stood back, allowing him a good look at her body. Of all her insecurities, body image wasn’t among them. She’d always been a lean, well-muscled girl who enjoyed physical activity. Her breasts were just large enough to overflow the large hands of a man like Jace, the dusky pink nipples thrusting upward in an impudent taunt. Although she was short, her waist was long, and her belly was nearly flat save for the slightest feminine swell between the V directing his hungry gaze to her shaved pussy.
Lily Mae caught her lower lip in her teeth as Jace reached down to drag his finger up through her slit, pausing to press the tip against her throbbing clitoris. When he removed his drenched finger and sucked her arousal from the tip, she felt herself go weak in the knees, so it was a welcome gesture when Jace lifted her to place her on the edge of the bed. Lily Mae’s bottom was still sore beneath her, and she groaned with pleasure-pain as he slid his hands underneath her to cup her tender cheeks and squeeze as he growled for her to open her legs.
“I’m going to eat your pussy until you scream for mercy,” he said, and Lily Mae couldn’t even respond from the delicious thrill she gleaned from hearing Jace Whitaker state his intentions as if she had no say in the matter.
He was a man true to his word. From the moment he latched onto her clit and sucked until her toes curled until the moment Jace laved the last drop of arousal from the folds of her open pussy, he kept Lily Mae seeing starburst after starburst of ecstasy. Several times she worried that her eager thrusts against his face might be a bit too enthusiastic, but then she’d feel his mouth growling possessively against her labia and her toes would curl from the experience of feeling completely dominated. And just when she didn’t think she could be any more satisfied, he raised himself up and pushed his cock balls-deep into her soaking pussy, his hands fisting in her hair as he looked into her eyes.
“I love you so damn much, Lily,” he said, and she could smell her pussy on his breath as he confessed his feelings, then taste it on the tongue that plundered her mouth.
“I love you, too,” she said aloud, and to herself vowed to work for a future where no secrets would ever hang between them.
Chapter Seven