CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
To: Eva Merill
From: Bruce Oakleigh
Subject: Intensive private therapy
Hello, Eva!
Bruce Oakleigh, president of the Beautification Committee here. I spoke to the Berkowiczs this morning and they informed me that you’ve reached out for help in cementing your relationship with Donovan Cardona.
Rest assured that the Beautification Committee will not abandon you in your time of need. Given your current circumstances (i.e. your mother breaking into your home, the systemic blackmail, and what one can only assume would be a questionable knowledge of healthy relationships), we are tabling all other matching projects for the foreseeable future to help mold you into a healthy, stable significant other.
Please be prepared to meet promptly at 7 p.m. at the police station for your first session. Please bring the following: a box of tissues, an item that brings you comfort, Sheriff Cardona, and a list of your mother’s transgressions as you can best recollect.
Yours in matching success,
Bruce Oakleigh, President
P.S. The aforementioned mission has received the code name Project Lazy Parrot. Please reference Project Lazy Parrot in all correspondence.
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“Ellery had better be planning the most epic thank you in the history of gratitude,” Donovan muttered as he held open the door of the police station for Eva.
“Yeah, about that,” Eva winced, stepping inside. “I didn’t tell her. I didn’t want her to know that her former friends were planning to ruin her wedding.”
He sighed. “You’re a good friend.”
“I didn’t do it just for her.” She winked. “You’re the one who would have to get up in the middle of ‘does anyone here know any just cause’ to arrest a dozen people in a public spectacle.”
“A good friend and a thoughtful girlfriend,” Donovan amended.
“Just try to keep that in mind during the interrogation,” she reminded him. “Hi, Minnie. Heading out?”
Minnie slung her hand crocheted purse over her shoulder. “Mr. Murkle got it into his thick head that we need a date night tonight.”
Donovan coughed out the word “Uranus,” and Eva elbowed him in his muscled six-pack.
“That sounds like fun,” she said brightly.
“It would be if it were a date with someone else,” Minnie sighed. “How about you? You doing okay since your mama went all breaking and entering on you?”
Donovan snickered behind Eva, and she shot him a dirty look. “I’m just fine. Thanks, Minnie.”
“Well, you all have yourselves a good night while I try not to stab my no-good husband for slurping oysters too loud.”
They waved her off, and Donovan towed Eva into his office.
“Since the Oakleighs aren’t here yet…” he said, pulling Eva into his lap behind the desk.
The unspoken insinuation had her blood simmering. “You’re insatiable,” she accused, feeling him harden beneath her.
“You’re the one wearing a sexy sweater dress thing that you knew would drive me nuts,” he shot back, his big hands cupping her breasts through the soft gray fabric that she’d known would distract him from whatever Bruce had cooked up for them. She looped her arms around his neck.
“I thought we’d already reenacted the sex in the office fantasy,” she said lightly.
His hands skimmed around her waist and down to grip her hips and pull her tight against his arousal.
Eva let her eyelids flutter closed.
“I bet I could make you come like this,” he said, dragging her over the rigid line of his erection.
She whimpered and went instantaneously wet.
“I’d pull this down,” he said, hooking a finger in deep v of the dress.
Her breath quickened.
“And while you grind yourself against my dick, I’d have my face buried in your beautiful—”
“Well, here you two lovebirds are!” Bruce bustled in with Amethyst on his heels.
Donovan swore quietly under his breath, and Eva jumped out of his lap as if he were on fire. She had to make it look like she needed the Beautification Committee’s undivided attention so they wouldn’t have time to even think about wrecking Ellery’s wedding.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” she said, her voice overly bright. “We were just… fighting.”
“We were?” Donovan frowned.
She kicked him.
“Oh, right. We were. We were definitely fighting,” he nodded.
Bruce and Amethyst exchanged knowing glances.
“That’s what we’re here for,” Amethyst said, smiling smugly.
“You fucking owe me,” Donovan growled in Eva’s ear as he stood. He pulled her in front of him, effectively hiding the tent in his pants. At least she wasn’t the only one battling a raging case of lust in the moment.
“We’re eager to fix everything that’s wrong with Eva,” Donovan joked.
Eva reached behind her and palmed his hard-on through his pants, daring him to say more. He hissed out a breath and shut up.
“Well, now. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Bruce held his palms up. “This could take months. There are a lot of issues that need to be brought to the surface and dealt with.”
“Then I guess we’d better get started,” Eva sighed. “Shall we sit?”
They gathered around the cramped conference table in the corner of Donovan’s office. Donovan’s hand immediately clamped onto her thigh beneath the table. When he trailed his fingers higher up her thigh, drawing the hem of the dress with them, she squeezed her legs together.
“We’re so excited to have you two with us tonight,” Bruce said, rubbing his palms together. “Amethyst and I have been happily married for thirty-four years—”
“Thirty-three,” Amethyst corrected him.
Bruce frowned. “I’m quite certain it’s thirty-four, my pearl.”
Amethyst shook her head, her beehive wobbling precariously. “Thirty-three.”
“I have our marriage certificate in our fire safe,” Bruce said, his voice rising. “We can settle this easily.”
“I can’t believe you don’t remember how long we’ve been married,” Amethyst pouted. It was the only time Eva had witnessed the woman being disagreeable in any way.
“So far, I think it’s going really well,” Donovan whispered sarcastically as the Oakleighs’ bickering warmed up. Eva’s eyes widened as Amethyst shoved out of her chair. Bruce was quick to follow.
“How could you forget our wedding day?” Amethyst demanded.
“How could you accuse me of forgetting our wedding day when you’re clearly the one with a deficient memory on the topic?” Bruce argued, tugging at the sides of his beard with both hands.
“It’s Uranus,” Eva hissed at Donovan.
“Fucking Uranus.” He glanced toward the door. “You know, we could probably sneak out of here and break into Gia’s studio for some fun…”
“What kind of fun?” Eva asked, suddenly breathy.
“The hot, sweaty kind.”
“The naked hot sweaty kind, or does she have some evening power class you’re trying to con me into?”
“Would I do that to you?” Donovan asked, trailing a finger down the nape of her neck.
“You absolutely would.”
“Probably, but this time I swear it’s just sex.”
Eva glanced toward Bruce and Amethyst. They were running down a laundry list of complaints against the other. Apparently, Bruce was physically incapable of putting his underwear into the hamper while Amethyst preferred to stock butter pecan ice cream even though Bruce repeatedly reminded her that he preferred brownie batter.
“Let’s do it,” Eva decided. “Let’s go fool around in my sister’s yoga studio.”
They made it out of Donovan’s office and to the front door without the Oakleighs missing a beat in their argument that had apparently been brewing for thirty-three or thirty-four years. When Donovan closed the station door behind them, they were heatedly discussing Amethyst’s poor attitude toward Bruce’s mother’s gravy recipe.
“Who puts bacon in gravy?” Amethyst shouted.
They hustled down the block and ducked into the alley. Donovan already had Eva’s dress up around her waist by the time she found the hide-a-key for the back door behind a loose brick in the building wall.
“Does it still count as breaking and entering if we use a key?” Eva asked, slipping it into the lock and opening the door.
“We’re only trespassing now,” Donovan said. He yanked her back against him and she felt him hard and willing.
“Come on. Let’s go in the private studio so no one sees us through the windows,” she whispered, grabbing him by the belt buckle and dragging him down the hall. Gia’s private studio was a fifteen by fifteen room with a wall of mirrors and a little altar table that held battery-operated candles.
Eva pointed at the stack of mats in the back. “We’re going to need one of those.”
Donovan grinned and grabbed one. Eva set to turning on the candles, bathing the room in a soft, flickering glow.
They faced each other from opposite ends of the mat. Donovan’s eyes seemed to glow in the candlelight. Eva slipped out of her boots and gestured for him to do the same.
“I think it’s time we satisfied one of my fantasies.”
“Here?” he grinned, removing his belt.
“That hot yoga class? I started hallucinating that it was just you and me.” She worked the buttons free on his shirt and raked her nails over his chest.
“What did we do?”
“Everything,” she whispered. She brought his hands to her breasts and moaned when he squeezed.
“There’s only so much I can take, Eva,” he warned.
She palmed him through his pants and felt him twitch against her. “You seem pretty in control to me.”
And then he was dragging her to the ground. He fell on her, yanking her dress open to feed on her breasts. His tongue and lips on the sensitive flesh of her nipple sent a throbbing straight to her empty core. She spread her legs wide for him, and he settled between them. Without releasing her nipple, Donovan slid his free hand down to pull her underwear aside.
“You know these lacy see-through things drive me insane,” he murmured against her breast.
“You drive me insane,” Eva whispered, arching her back up so he could take more of her. He knew just how to touch, to suck, to drag out the pleasure. He released her breast, gave her nipple another lick with the flat of his tongue, and then moved on to the other one.
She cried out as his teeth grazed her. He drove two fingers into her, and she thought she was going to come apart then and there.
“Did you think about me doing this to you in that class? Did you want to know what it felt like to have me inside you? Because I think about it constantly. Every second of every day, I’m wishing I were inside you, making you come on my cock.”
His words had her tightening on his fingers. He crooked them, grazing just the right spot inside her.
“Donovan!” she hissed.
“You’re so precious,” he growled. “So perfect, and I can’t get enough of you.” He abandoned her breasts, the tips wet from his mouth, and withdrew his fingers from her.
“Please,” she begged. “Please, Donovan.”
Without preamble, he brought his head between her legs, swiped his tongue through her slit.
Her hips jacked up off the floor at the sudden, jagged rush of pleasure.
“That’s right, baby,” he murmured. His fingers were back, gliding into her, brushing across that spot.
Her breath caught, and she felt her body tense.
“I feel it, Eva. Let it happen. Let me make you come.” He lathed her aching nub with his tongue while his fingers worked pure magic in her. His hips pistoned against the mat as if to relieve the growing ache in his own cock.
Her moan was breathy. She didn’t have to tell him what was happening to her. He had a front row seat to the orgasm that swamped her like a storm. It carried her up and up until it broke and she was hurtling back toward the earth.
He groaned against her slick folds as she came, clenching around his fingers, shivering under him. Her body was alive and not nearly sated enough. Still trembling, Eva grabbed Donovan’s hair. “Sit up,” she demanded. He sat cross-legged on the mat, and she straddled him.
“I need you in me before I stop coming.” The blunt head of his cock grazed her and it set her off again... or still. She didn’t know, and it didn’t matter.
“Eva,” he rasped brokenly.
She gripped his shaft with her hand and guided it to her opening. She wanted to go slow, to savor, but the need wouldn’t allow for that. She lined him up and lowered herself onto him, overfull and aching. Impaled upon him.
“I can feel you still coming,” he groaned.
She opened her eyes and found him watching her. Her nipples grazed the hair of his chest as she lifted. She paused at the top and watched him as she lowered onto him. The cords of his neck stood out. His jaw was clenched. And those blue eyes had fire in them.
She shifted her hips, trying to take all of him. And with a look of sheer possession, he gripped her hips and slammed home.
Eva cried out softly. Gripping her hair, Donovan drew her down for a kiss. She began to ride, mimicking the thrusts of his tongue. He set the pace with his hands clamped on her hips, lifting and gripping. Eva watched him, watched his control slip millimeter by millimeter as the thrusts got harder and faster.
They were bound by intimacy, intensity. Joined by the need to fulfill.
He dipped his head and licked at her nipple. She hissed through her teeth and rocked into him. They balanced there, on the knife-edge of desire and ecstasy. His eyes. Those true-blue eyes were dark, half-blind with lust.
“You’re mine, Eva. Mine.” He gritted out the words as she dug her nails into his shoulders under his shirt.
“And you’re mine.” It was a promise whether he knew it or not. But it didn’t matter because she was quickening around him. The glorious build broke, and then she was fisting around him, drawing his own release out of him whether he was ready or not.
They collapsed, shuddering, in a sweat-slicked heap on top of the mat that smelled like lemons and eucalyptus.
Donovan heaved a sigh. “I think we can work more of your fantasies into our sex life,” he breathed, his lips moving against the skin of her neck.
She laughed. “Are you running out already?”
“God no. I’ve got enough to keep us going to our twentieth anniversary at least.”
“And people think I have an active imagination,” Eva snickered. “I hope you know that everything we do is fair game for fiction.”
“I wouldn’t want your sheriff hero falling flat in the moves department. How is the book coming?”
He felt rather than saw the shrug.
“I’m having a little trouble focusing since… the break-in,” she admitted.
Donovan lifted himself up on an elbow. “Baby, maybe you should give yourself more than forty-eight hours to process.”
“I haven’t even gone back in there yet. Not since I walked through with Layla,” she confessed. She yawned. Her body was spent, and her brain was ready for bed. Everything had her feeling exhausted lately. She needed to get back into a routine, get her head back in the game.
“You don’t have to. Not until you’re ready.”
“It’s embarrassing. I’ve known since before kindergarten what kind of a person my mother was, and yet I’m surprised that she’s found a new way to hurt me. It’s pathetic. I’m letting her ruin yet another home for me.”
“Well, sooner or later you’ll be ballsy enough to stop letting her ruin anything for you,” he said.
Eva poked him in the chest. “I know exactly what you’re doing.”
He grinned. “You mean enjoying my post-orgasmic bliss?” he asked innocently.
“You’re getting me riled up to prove you—and me—wrong.”
“Now, why would I go and do a thing like that?”
“Because whining and feeling sorry for myself gets me nowhere. And it’s about damn time I take back what’s mine.”
“You better keep it down. If the B.C. hears you talking like that, they’ll be picketing Ellery’s wedding tomorrow.”
Eva laughed. “Once the wedding is over, I can be cured of all my hang-ups and baggage. And this planetary nonsense will be all over.”
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Maybe then I can take you out on a date?”
She smiled, happiness pooling in her chest. “I’d like that.”
He kissed her softly, lips warm and gentle against hers.
Eva pulled back. “Mmm, I can’t believe I finally get a date with Sheriff Sexy.”
“It’s about damn time.”
“Hey. Do you want to hear another secret?” she asked. She laughed when he flinched. “It’s not mine,” she promised. “Emma’s pregnant. Sounds like it’s going to be a pretty big surprise since they were just starting to talk about kids.”
“When are we going to start talking about them?” he teased.
Eva snorted. “How about we discuss that sometime after our first date?”
His phone rang from the depths of his discarded pants. “Shit. It’s dispatch. Hang on a second. Cardona,” he answered.
He tensed. “Uh, you know what. I’m real close to there. Why don’t you let me check it out first before you call the fire department?”
Donovan jumped up and made a grab for his pants.
“No, I don’t think the neighbor needs to break down the front door. I’m thirty seconds away. I’ll check it out and call it in if there’s a situation.”
Donovan hung up and grabbed Eva’s dress.
“We gotta get dressed real fast. Someone just reported a fire hazard at Gia’s yoga studio.”
“We’re in Gia’s yoga studio.” Eva reminded him.
He pointed at the flickering electric candles. “Neighbors apparently keep an eye on the place, and someone saw candlelight in an empty building. Got someone waiting outside to break down the door and save the day.”
Eva yelped and grabbed the dress. She put it on and did a frantic search for her discarded underwear.
“Well, well, well. I guess you owe me an apology, Beckett.”
Gia stood in the doorway, arms crossed looking smug. Donovan yanked his pants up over his hips.
Beckett peeked in and grinned. The swelling around his eye had gone down, but the shiner was still prominent.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” Eva began. “Donovan was showing me some yoga moves.”
“Really? Naked ones? Because it looks like you two broke in here to have sex. Also, your dress is on backwards.”
Eva looked down and the dress tag tickled her chin. “Crap.”
“I hope you were at least going to disinfect that mat,” Gia said, pointing with her foot at the mat they’d just sweated all over.
“I’ll run it through a car wash,” Donovan offered. “Oh, hey. Look at that. I’m getting a call. I should take care of this.”
“Don’t you dare fake a dispatch call,” Eva yelped.
“Sorry, babe. Duty calls. Hello?” he said into the phone.
“You didn’t even push Answer,” Eva yelled after him.