“Go to work, Haley,” Ian said with no inflection. “I’ll get this done for you.”
Chapter Nine
Piper was coming down from her loft fifteen minutes after she had turned her back on Brody and his erection to see him coming down the hall completely dressed and tossing his keys in the air with an easy smile on his face. “I’m ready for that prime rib. I’ve texted Ian and we’ll be lucky if he hasn’t already devoured his by the time we get there.” Taking her hand, he pulled her outside to his car fighting the urge to laugh outright at the surprised and wary look on her face. Obviously she had expected him to be angry over teasing him so mercilessly only to leave him hanging, but on the contrary, he found himself amused and energized by her continued taunting. As much as he had liked and had been drawn to her when she was much younger and meeker, he found himself completely enamored with the mature, feisty woman she had become. So taken with her, he knew he was going to have a hard time walking away when this case was finally settled. Of course, if his case ended with finding Charles alive and him being responsible for getting the information they needed to put him in jail, he was sure Piper would leave him no choice but to walk away.
Piper settled into the black leather passenger seat of Brody’s refurbished 1970 bright red Chevelle, Brody’s easy smile and nonchalant attitude taking her by surprise. She had expected him to be angry with her, or at least a tad put out, but instead he acted like nothing had happened, like she hadn’t had his cock in her mouth thirty minutes ago and her pussy soaked fingers in his mouth. She was beginning to think her little plot of revenge had backfired on her, leaving her more frustrated than him.
“Worked up an appetite, did you?” she asked sarcastically.
“Thanks to your help, yes. Aren’t you hungry?” Her piqued mood amused him, especially since he suspected she hadn’t gotten off like he had this afternoon. Not that his hand job had done much to lessen his desire to fuck her again, but it did take the edge off enough to help him keep to his resolve not to take her again until he was no longer involved with bringing Charles in.
Starving, Piper thought, but not for food. Refusing to give him the satisfaction of knowing how much she still wanted him again, she simply replied, “Yes, and to answer your unspoken question, I always get their prime rib when it’s on special.” When he simply raised an inquiring brow as he pulled out onto the highway, she smiled widely. “Contrary to Ian’s belief, I do occasionally indulge, just not often.”
Chuckling, Brody answered, “We’ll keep that our little secret. It’s fun to watch him stew over what you’re going to put in front of him.”
“He gripes, but he eats every bite.”
The feel of the powerful engine purring under her, relaxed Piper despite the unfulfilled arousal still plaguing her. If she didn’t get herself under control, the guys were going to have to
listen to the purr of her vibrator tonight, but that would be their problem and one that didn’t concern her. On the contrary, she found herself turned on even more imagining them sitting downstairs listening and suffering as she got herself off with her favorite toy.
“What’s that little grin for?” Brody asked suspiciously as he parked in front of the Main Street Diner and cut the engine. He’s learned not to trust that look.
“Oh good, Haley’s going to join us.” Ignoring his question, Piper’s attention focused on the bemused look on her friend’s face as she looked at Ian. While she would be the first to applaud and encourage her best friend’s interest in a man, she knew the trauma of Haley’s past, which made her protective of her and Ian was definitely not the man for Haley to end her six year celibacy with.
“Piper! Thank God you’re all right.” A woman in her mid-forties hugged Piper before leading them to a table for four. “You had us scared to death. What happened?” Handing them each a menu, she set her arms akimbo on her hips and glared down at Piper out of concerned brown eyes, yet her look was that of a worried parent.
“I don’t know yet, Mary, but that’s why agents Pearce and MacGregor are here, to help me find out.”
Mary was joined at their table by a man a few years older than her, a stained white apron wrapped around his small paunch, his eyes just as worried and filled with caring as Mary’s. “Are you taking care of our girl?” he asked both Ian and Brody point blank as he rested a large hand on Piper’s shoulder and squeezed.
“Ian, Brody, this is Clem and Mary Donaldson. They own the diner.” Piper introduced the couple who had suffered every parent’s worst nightmare when their only child had been killed in Iraq ten years ago.
Brody exchanged a look with Ian that conveyed both annoyance and amused tolerance as yet another towns person was hell bent on making sure they were looking out for Piper’s well-being. “It’s nice to meet you and yes, we’re looking out for Piper, trying to discover what happened the two days she went missing. Now that she’s being a good girl, it’s much easier keeping an eye on her.” When Piper glared at his smug look, he simply squeezed her thigh under the table, keeping his easy smile in place.
“I don’t know about them,” Ian put in as he set his menu aside, “but I want the largest cut of prime rib you’ve got, with the works.”
“On the house for all of you,” Clem generously offered then turned and headed back to the kitchen before they could argue.
“You two know it does no good to argue with him,” Mary said to Haley and Piper. “Eat your dinner all gone and I have lemon pie.”
“I think they’ve adopted you,” Ian commented, his look going from Haley to Piper.
“They lost their son in Iraq and tend to mother anyone younger than them,” Haley said as she tried to ignore the way Ian’s hard thigh was pressing against hers, that simple contact sending shards of pleasure through her.
Ian wanted to grin at her flustered look and the way she was fiddling with her silverware and avoiding looking at him. Damn he mused, if a simple kiss could do that to her, he wondered what her reaction would be if he spent a few hours fucking her. Quelling that thought before it could develop into a full-fledged fantasy, he turned his attention to the large basket of hot rolls and a salad that looked like a meal in itself being set in front of him, sternly reminding himself that she was not for dallying with.
“That’s about as rough as it gets,” Ian said, his eyes filled with sympathy as he looked over at Mary bustling around their small restaurant. The tables were decked out with red and white checked table cloths, framed black and white pictures of Hope from the forties and fifties adorned the walls, a jukebox was playing an old Elvis Presley tune popular from the late fifties and homemade pies were temptingly displayed in the glass case at the checkout counter. Every time an order was up, Clem rang a bell from the open window separating the counter from the kitchen. The wholesome look and atmosphere of the place had Ian itching to stomp down the street to Rowdy’s, and if it wasn’t for the plate size cut of medium rare prime rib being set in front of him, he would. “Fucking A that looks good.” Ignoring the grins of the others, he dove in and didn’t plan to come up for air until he had taken his last bite.
Piper grinned at Haley across the table. “I guess it’s true that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. I haven’t seen him that happy since he got here.”
“You can get there through sex too,” Ian said around a mouthful of food, “but since Brody’s taken that off the table, food it is, at least for now.”
“We’re on the job,” Brody bit out, reminding his partner of why they were here. “This is great, Mary,” he told the owner, quickly changing the subject when she returned at that moment to see to refilling their iced tea herself.
Piper tried not to let Brody’s reiteration of his no sex rule get to her, but she couldn’t help but be disappointed. By the time they finished pie and were ready to head back to her cabin, she was more than ready to torment them with the sound of her vibrator, not that she thought it would do any good to get Brody to change his mind about fucking her again. She had a feeling it would just give her even more erotic dreams to wake to.
“She’s doing it again,” Ian groaned two hours later when the soft but distinct buzzing of a vibrator echoed downstairs from the open loft. “I’d recognize that sound anywhere.”