Chapter 34

JOEY

"It's enormous!" Lynn exclaims.

"I know, right? Care to take it for a spin?"

"Now?"

"Sure, why not?" I shrug from my spot in the doorway of my master bathroom. "Those jets at the end of a long day are just what the doctor ordered."

"I feel like I might need a life vest," Lynn comments.

I wrap my arms around her from behind and press my front to her back. "Don't worry. I'll keep you afloat."

It's Wednesday evening, and we're back at my condo. While I like Lynn's mom just fine, I prefer the privacy that hanging out at my place provides. Although my presence has been requested at dinner tomorrow night, where the entire family is expected to gather. Lynn's brothers are even leaving the brewery in the hands of other staff, so I have to assume this dinner will be a meeting to compare notes on The Diamond Group. The fact that Ginny wants me there must say good things, right? I sure as hell hope so.

"This sounds like a ploy to get me naked," Lynn says knowingly.

"One hundred percent."

When she turns in my arms and puts her hands up in the air, I don't hesitate to pull off her sundress before skimming my eyes down her body. She is utter perfection, with her perky breasts captured in a lace bra and her hips curving out from her waist and leading down to those fantastic long legs. Even the healthy roundness of her belly turns me on, and it pleases me to no end that she doesn't try to hide it by sucking it in. I don't want to see a woman's ribs when she's naked. I much prefer some softness I can sink my fingers into and enjoy.

"You are so fucking beautiful," I tell her, my voice coming out a little hoarse.

She blushes like I knew she would, and I reach out to brush my knuckles along the skin of her collarbone.

"Your turn," she urges, a touch of impatience in her voice.

"Give me a minute. I just want to look at you."

The heat in her cheeks heightens, and she starts shifting on her feet.

"You don't need to be shy, Lynn. There's nothing I'm seeing that I don't find perfect."

Her eyes shift to the side, but she doesn't cover herself, thank God. "It's just… nobody has ever been this… vocal before."

"You don't like it?" I ask, knowing that she does.

"I do. I just… need to get used to it." Her eyes finally come back to meet mine.

"Yeah. You do. Because I'm not about to stop telling you how I feel or what you do to me."

"Well, you're not going to like what I do to you if you don't strip, Ace."

I grin and acquiesce, pulling my shirt over my head and discarding my jeans and boxers in one swift movement. As I straighten, standing fully naked and half-hard in front of Lynn, she squares her shoulders and looks me right in the eye. She holds my gaze as she removes her bra and slides her panties down. Thatta girl.

My grin grows into a full-blown smile. "What are your thoughts on bubble baths?"

She laughs. "You own bubble bath? How evolved of you."

I shrug. "Well, Liv left it here last time she took over my bathroom to go swimming." I turn and take the bottle from a cabinet shelf, handing it over to Lynn.

"Lavender. Remind me to thank Liv next time I see her."

When she looks up at me again, I take her hips in my hands and drop my head to kiss her.

We almost don't make it into the bath since we make out the entire time it takes to fill the giant tub, and by the time we get in, I'm hard enough to pound concrete, and Lynn has already had one orgasm from me fingering her.

"I'm never leaving this tub," she groans as she lounges in the hot water, jets pulsing against our bodies and bubbles piled high on top of us. She's using me as her lounge chair, a role I'm more than willing to play as my hands run over her skin and my cock nestles against her lush ass.

When I pinch her nipple, she gasps and arches, so her ass shifts and my cock gets dangerously close to its favorite place. "Condom," I mutter through gritted teeth.

"I'm on the pill, but?—"

I cut her off. "I got a clean bill of health three months ago, and I haven't been with anyone but you since." The truth is, I haven't been with anyone since I tried to fuck the memory of Lynn away this past winter. It didn't work.

"I've never not used a condom."

The words are barely out of Lynn's mouth before I nudge her entrance, and she arches her back so I can enter her from behind. Fuck, that feels fantastic.

"Oh, god," Lynn moans as I thrust up and fully seat my cock inside her. Holy shit. I might not last long. It's been years since I had bareback sex, but I don't remember it ever feeling like this. "Joey," she pleads, and I bring both my hands up to caress her tits while she meets another of my upward thrusts.

It's not long before she pulls her torso upright for better leverage, and then she's riding me like my dirtiest fantasy come true. Water sloshes over the side of the tub, and bubbles launch into the air while she bounces on my cock, taking me to my balls with each downward motion.

I can feel her inner walls start to quiver, so I leave one hand on her hip and stretch the other over her to reach her clit with my middle finger. I swirl and rub that little bundle of nerves while Lynn rides me faster.

"You almost there?" I ask because I feel the familiar tingling at the base of my spine that says we don't have long.

"Yes," she pants, flexing her hips as she continues her frantic pace.

Fuck. Here it comes. I just manage to hold back until her spasms massage my cock, and she comes with a series of moans and whimpers. I thrust up into her with abandon as my orgasm leaves me and her pussy milks me dry.

She collapses back into me, both of us pulling in ragged breaths, and we come down from our high. My cock is still cradled inside her slick heat, and I have no plans to move anytime soon.

Reading my mind, Lynn asks, "Do you think Grubhub will deliver breakfast to a bathroom?" My responding laugh almost has me slipping out of her, but she holds onto me.

Despite our determination to settle into the tub for the long haul, the water eventually grows too cold and our fingers turn into prunes, so we get out. I wrap Lynn up in a fluffy towel and haul her into my bedroom before depositing her on my king-sized bed and telling her to stay there.

Surprisingly, she does as I say, her eyes unabashedly trained on my ass while I go to fetch cold water from the kitchen.

"I finally get what all the hype is about," she says when I return. At my questioning look, she continues, "The whole baseball player butt thing."

I choke on my first sip of water. "The what?"

"How all the female fans talk about players' butts in their uniforms," she says before face-palming. "Even my mama, apparently."

I climb onto the bed and draw the sheet over my lap before pulling Lynn to my side. "Yeah, well, we run and work out a lot, so the booty is hard-earned. It's nice to know our work is appreciated."

Lynn shakes her head at me. "No wonder y'all are so cocky."

She's not wrong, so I can only shrug. I switch to a topic I've been meaning to bring up. "So, anything I need to know before this dinner tomorrow night?" I'm hoping not to be blindsided by anything other than the expected glares and conspiracy theories.

"Nope. Just the usual, so you may want to wear that cup."

"Noted," I say. "Any news from that Duke guy yet?"

"Carter and Sunny are bringing him, so I expect we'll be updated over dinner."

"And what about Larry?" We haven't talked about the whole Eddie Dante thing since last night, but we've been together almost all day, so I'm confident she hasn't tried calling him. She'd tell me if she had, right? Fuck, I hope so. "You're going to come clean, right?"

When Lynn bites her lip before answering, I brace. "About that…"

"Lynn." I straighten, causing the sheet to slip, but Lynn isn't paying attention to anything but my face now.

"Don't Lynn me, Joey." She sets her water on the bedside table. "I have some news." When I nod to prod her along, she says, "I found an Edward Dante living in Raleigh while I was researching over lunch today."

"And?" I ask, trying like hell to keep my tone from giving away my fears.

She pulls the sheet up to cover her breasts and arranges herself so she's sitting and facing me. "And I want to go stake out the address. See if I can maybe get a picture or something. Then, when I tell my family, I'll have something concrete. Maybe one of them will recognize him as a developer representative from a past visit to the house."

I pause to maintain my composure. "Setting aside for a moment that you're not, in fact, a private investigator and that this guy could be dangerous, why can't you tell your family tomorrow, and then maybe it could be a group activity? Safety in numbers and all that."

"Are you kidding? My brothers will never let me go if I tell them first. They'll handcuff me to my bedpost and throw away the key while they traipse off and play hero. Trust me."

"Just tell them you're coming along. You're an adult."

She throws a bare arm out. "Have you not heard anything I've told you about my brothers? When I was seventeen, Cash actually had my car towed from my work parking lot because he found out I was driving a friend and myself to a concert in Charlotte that night."

I take another sip of water before responding, "You were a teenager. Surely he wouldn't do that today. I mean, they don't show up at your college campus to boss you around during the school year, do they?" I think she's underestimating her brothers. They're probably more bluster than action.

"Because I don't tell them what I'm up to." Her expression tells me she's had enough.

"Okay." I sigh, trying to think of a solution. "Then I'll go with you. We can go on Saturday." I have a mandatory team outing on Friday for a charity gig. And we've got dinner tomorrow, so those two days are out.

"I'm going Friday. It's my only day off. I have to work tomorrow and through the whole weekend, and I'm not waiting another week. The Diamond Group could have Winston's deed by then, for all we know."

"All the more reason to tell your family," I argue.

"Joey, please. I'm not going to be in danger. I'll drive over, take a few pictures, maybe talk to a neighbor or two. That's it."

"Are you hearing yourself? Do not get on this guy's radar, Lynn!" Why can't she understand why I'm worried?

"I promise I'll be careful. You'll see. It'll be a breeze. Then I'll tell my family. I promise. We can add whatever I find to Duke's notes and decide if we want to go to the police from there."

"Lynn."

"Joey." She reaches out and grabs my hand, giving it a squeeze.

I know I'm going to regret this, but I exhale loudly and then nod my head. What the hell am I doing? I just pray Duke has found enough to make Lynn's little field trip unnecessary.