My mouth swallows her answer as my tongue invades her mouth, eager to explore.She responds in kind, our tongues at times dueling.She tastes like hops and something slightly spicy.
Tessa’s body presses against me from her generous chest right down to her soft thighs.There is no way for me to hide my body’s response to her, but she doesn’t seem to mind.
When we finally break apart, both slightly out of breath, my fingers have worked loose her braid and are tangled in her beautiful hair, and her hands are on my ass.
I’d love to hoist her up on the workbench along the wall and get up between her legs with my hands on those tits, but I let my hands slide down her back instead.
“You’ve gotta go see to your boys,” I fill in when she opens her mouth to speak.
“Yeah,” she confirms.“I wish…”
I lean in and brush those amazing lips with mine.
“It’ll keep for later,” I assure her.
She looks like a fucking angel with all that wavy hair hanging down her shoulders, and that pretty smile on her lips.
“Later,” she mouths as she turns and opens the door.
Chapter11
Clem
I don’t needto hear the words to know the kid’s not happy with me.
Tough.
Listening to Tessa lay out her fears the attack on her boy may have something to do with the murder of another teenager chilled me to the bone.I could see her reasoning for it and couldn’t stop churning it around in my head all night, imagining all kinds of possible scenarios.
By this morning I’d come to the conclusion, the only way to find out if I wasted most of my night thinking about Remi, instead of the toe-curling kiss his mother and I shared would be to get the kid to talk.
So after I finished the Mercedes and notified Merrick it was ready for pickup—leaving Manuel in charge of dealing with him—I headed upstairs.
My announcement we needed to have a serious chat about what happened to him was already not particularly well received.
“I’ve told everyone a million times; I fell off my bike.Why is everyone on my case about it?”he snarls, grabbing a throw pillow to cradle against his chest.
I take a seat on the edge of the coffee table across from him, and look him straight in the eye.
“Probably because it’s a bullshit story and everyone knows it.Your doctor, your mom, Chief Deputy Alexander, hell, even I know you made that crap up.”
His face registers shock, and I’m guessing no one has really called him out on it yet.Of course, the kid was in the hospital and incapacitated, or I’m sure he would’ve been pushed harder.But he’s no longer in the hospital now, and if he feels well enough to work on his truck—which he claimed when he got here—or to play video games on the PlayStation he brought over this morning, he sure as hell can handle an honest conversation.
But rather than fess up, he clams up, pressing his lips together so tightly they’re turning white.
“Look, Remi,” I try to appeal to him in a gentler tone.“People are concerned about you.I know your mom is.Can you blame her?She’s working on a murder case, a teenage boy who was not much older than you was killed.Did you know that?”
From his reaction, it’s obvious Tessa doesn’t bring her work home.He looks a little pale around the nose, but it doesn’t make him any less defiant.
“So?What does that have to do with me?”
But it’s all bluster; I catch the nervous nibble on his bottom lip.I scared him, and I should probably feel guilty, but I’d rather him scared and aware than oblivious and vulnerable.
“Maybe you should ask your mother that.In fact, maybe you should fess up about how you ended up here in the first place.It’s her job, not only as law enforcement, but as your parent, to protect you.How is she supposed to do that when she doesn’t have all the information?”
I give him a few moments to consider what I said, but when he doesn’t look like he’ll respond, I lean forward and add some pressure, “If you don’t, I will.You’ll leave me no choice.”
If I hadn’t grown supremely thick skin over the years, the glare he shoots me might’ve singed me.As it is, the cold silence he aims my way doesn’t affect me.Don’t get me wrong, I’m not getting any pleasure from pissing the kid off, but I’ll take it if it means we keep him safe.
