Chapter 16
Callie washed her face and brushed her teeth, reveling in the fact she didn’t need to rush. She’d peeked into Jack’s room a few minutes ago to find him and Jonathan still cuddled up together in the big bed. Their son had been awake but lay quietly next to the sleeping man, watching him closely. Did Jonathan think if he looked away, Jack would disappear? It had happened far too often in his young life.
She swept her wayward curls up into a messy bun then gently opened the door to Jack’s room. This time he was awake and speaking softly to their son.
“Good morning. How are you feeling today?”
“Mama. Daddy here.” The boy beamed with pleasure at the unexpected treat. She’d given in last night when Jonathan had wanted to sleep in Jack’s bed. She’d wanted it herself but had succumbed to her son’s pleading after making sure Jack wouldn’t be uncomfortable with the child near him. Jack had been delighted to have his son nearby even after Callie had warned the child sometimes kicked and squirmed in his sleep.
“I see that, sweetie. Daddy will be here for a while. He needs to get better and we need to help him.”
Glancing over at Jack, she found his eyes devouring her. Why hadn’t she thought to change out of her tank top and pajama pants before she came in? Of course he’d seen her in less but not in a long time. A lifetime ago.
“Did the little wiggler let you get any sleep last night?”
The crooked smile she loved so much appeared. “I slept great. Better than I have in three years. Must have been the company.”
“Or the concussion,” she replied drolly. “How about some breakfast, you two? I can go make something and bring it down here. Can you both be good until I do?”
“Be dood,” Jonathan replied, bouncing up and down.
Jack winced at the movement then looked up. “I need to get up and use the bathroom anyway. We can go upstairs and eat there. It’s probably easier.”
“No, it’s –” Her voice froze as Jack slid the covers off and stood up. His boxers were all he wore. He must have removed his clothes sometime after she’d gone to bed last night. Her breath caught in her throat. His long, muscular legs caught her attention then her gaze followed up to the tenting in his shorts. Keep those eyes moving north. Nothing to see here. Certainly not the chest she’d loved touching. She hadn’t been able to get enough of dancing her fingers through the swirls of hair covering it.
“See something you like, Calico?”
Heat rushed through her and up to her cheeks. Her tongue slipped out to wet her now dry lips. “No, I um…just…we should put some ice on those bruises.”
Close call but his expression told her he knew what she’d been thinking. His gaze traveled from her short, snug top to the bottoms that hung off her too curvy hips. She pulled on the hem of her top but that caused her breasts to be more exposed. Why hadn’t she put on some high-necked flannel number last night? Oh, yeah, she didn’t own anything like that. Maybe she’d have to get one soon if Jack was planning on staying here for a while.
His eyes twinkled with mischief. “Let me put some clothes on then we can all go up. Unless, you’d prefer me like this?”
Oh, yes, she definitely preferred him like this. But she couldn’t have him. Like this or any other way. Keep reminding yourself of this. He’ll be leaving you again soon enough.
“You might shock Heather if you go up like that.”
Moving to the bathroom, he paused on the threshold. “I don’t know. Heather seems like the type who might appreciate a little shake up every now and then.” He disappeared inside.
A huge sigh escaped. How could she handle being with him for the next week or so? Her legs shook seeing him and it had barely been five minutes. Um, yeah, so he was practically naked. She’d have to avoid that from now on. If he didn’t have any pajamas, she’d have to get him some.
“Jonathan, when daddy comes out you need to use the bathroom.”
The boy nodded and climbed down from the bed. She should get dressed herself while Jack was in the bathroom. It was fastest to cut through there, but no way she’d do it while Jack was using it. She moved toward the hall and the bathroom door opened again. When he came out, he still wore nothing but his boxers. Had she expected clothes to materialize inside the room?
“Let me get your clothes so you can get dressed.” Pulling the bag from the floor, she rummaged through it. Jeans, shirt, socks and another set of boxers.
“Are you going to lay them out for me on the bed like you do for Jonathan?”
The teasing tone was back and she blushed again. Couldn’t she feel maternal toward him instead of…well, definitely not maternal?
She patted her son on the head as she ushered him into the bathroom. “Go potty, Jonathan, then get dressed in the outfit I left on your bed.”
She moved through the bathroom to her room but not before Jack’s laughter floated through. Digging through her clothes, she searched for something high-necked and baggy. As she was hooking her bra a thud sounded from Jack’s room followed by swearing.
Rushing in, she found Jack sitting on the floor, one leg in his jeans.
“What happened? Are you all right?”
“A little dizzy and the leg gave out. I’m fine.” The words were gruffly tossed out through his tightly clenched jaw. “You can go back to your room and finish what you were doing.”
In nothing but her bra and her pajama bottoms that were slipping precariously low, she should be embarrassed, but she couldn’t leave him on the floor. She reached down to help him up then lowered him to the bed.
“Let me get the bottoms on first then we can stand to pull them up.
“I’m not a damn baby, Callie. I can manage to get dressed on my own. It’s—”
His words cut off as he stared at her chest. The crooked grin returned full force and she shook her head. Such a man.
“Uh, sure, you can help me get dressed. I might need your help later getting undressed too.”
Glaring, she bent and pulled the jeans over his feet then slid them up his legs. “If you stand, we can get them up the rest of the way. Hold onto me if you start to feel dizzy again.”
Placing his rugged hands on her bare shoulders, he grinned. “Dizzy, yeah.”
He pushed on her shoulders and stood up. She tugged quickly but at Jack’s indrawn breath of, “Callie,” she realized she had to pull them out a bit more in the front to accommodate a growing part of his anatomy. God, how embarrassing.
After zipping and buttoning he sat back on the bed, returning his hands to her waist this time. “Sorry, the sight of your bare skin does that to me.”
She attempted to pull away but his hands held firm, his mouth inches from her chest. “You’ve got the pants on now. You can do the shirt by yourself, right? You don’t need to stand to put that on.”
He wasn’t listening. His nose was between her breasts, having pulled her closer. “I thought you said you didn’t need a bra. This one’s extremely nice though. I like it.”
Pleasure rippled through her as he studied her lingerie. This was a recent purchase, on a whim. It was pale pink lace with a little padding underneath to accentuate the small curves she did have. The ones Jack’s fingers started to caress.
A shaky breath escaped as she pushed on his shoulders once more. But her hands turned traitor at the feel of his flesh and sinew and began their own exploration. She kneaded and massaged while his lips moved over her own exposed flesh. Grasping his head, she held it near, needing the contact between them.
Closing her eyes, she relished the feel of his rough hands along her waist and his lips and tongue nipping at her throat. Colors swirled behind her eyelids as he moved his mouth lower to lick the curve of her breasts then down to her stomach. Sliding his hands inside her bottoms, he clenched her cheeks, massaging like she was doing to his shoulders.
As he slid his hands lower, her pajamas went down as well. She shivered as he drew lines with his tongue from hip to hip then lower still…
“Mama, all done.”
Snapping back to reality, she pushed away from Jack’s tempting hands, rearranging her bottoms back into place. Her breath came in tiny pants as she looked at their son.
A small chuckle forced its way from her mouth. His clothes were on backwards.
“Fix your son’s clothes while I go and put some on.”
Swiftly moving through the bathroom, she shut the door to her room and leaned against it. Her breathing was still harsh as her mind tried to get a grip on what they’d done, almost done. Having Jack here was dangerous, no doubt about it. Stay on your toes. The biggest threat right now wasn’t from Victor finding Jack. It was Jack himself.
* * * *
“Dinner was great, Heather. Thanks.”
Jack wiped his mouth on a napkin, pushed his plate away and sighed. Jonathan, sitting next to him, did the same thing. Too cute. Aside from the hospital visit, he’d never spent this much time with his son before and he was getting far too used to it. The boy had stayed close today with the exception of when Callie had taken him outside sledding. They’d even taken a nap at the same time. It was ridiculous he even needed one but the headache he’d been fighting all day had finally made him give in. Having a few hours with his son snuggled by his side had been worth the humiliation.
“You’re welcome,” Heather replied with a wry grin. “Though I can’t take credit for it. All I did was chop a few vegetables. Callie did the rest. I was never allowed in the kitchen as a kid. Our cook was a little proprietary with her domain.”
“Maybe Callie could teach you,” he suggested. “She’s an amazing cook. Used to make me all sorts of great meals when she was seeing Angelo. Although for some reason he always seemed to get them first.”
Callie picked up his and Jonathan’s plates and her elbow smacked into his head as she walked by. A far-from-innocent, “Oh, sorry,” tumbled from her mouth, her eyes twinkling with mirth.
“He barely came once a week and I had to keep him busy somehow. Figured eating lots of food would make him full and tired. Then he could go home and sleep it off. But I always made enough for you to have leftovers.”
Touching her arm as she walked back to continue clearing the table, he said, “And I appreciated it, immensely. The number of hours I drove Cabrini and his family around, there wasn’t time to do any decent cooking.”
Her eyes softened as she looked at him and her hand lifted. Then paused. Was she going to touch him? It continued but stopped to pat his shoulder. Disappointment rolled through him. He wanted more than that.
“You spent quite a bit of time driving me around. I appreciated that.”
Had she really? He couldn’t tell. At the time, maybe. She hated pretending to date Angelo but had still done it. They’d discussed many times how she’d break it off with the mobster’s son, though she’d worried Victor wouldn’t allow it. Once both men were behind bars, it shouldn’t have mattered. One more thing he’d screwed up.
“Daddy, wead a me?” The boy’s speech had improved so much in the past month since he’d last seen him and spoken to him. Good thing Victor wasn’t here. The daddy/doggy thing wasn’t going to work any longer.
With a look of longing in his eyes, Jonathan held out one of his books. Puppy dog eyes, his mother used to call them. She said he’d done the same thing when he was little.
“Sure, pal. Let me help Mommy and Auntie Heather get the dishes cleaned up first.”
“No, no, no,” Heather scolded, pointing to the living area. “You go read to your son. We’ve got this. In a few days when you’re feeling better, then I’ll have you slaving away, but today you get a freebie.”
He stood, taking a second for his head to stop pounding then settled on the couch, Jonathan right behind him.
“Come on up here, pal. Let’s take a look at this book.” Jonathan snuggled in his lap and he opened the book, trying not to wince at the ache in his ribs. The book was one his son loved to read, though it was mostly pictures. As they turned the pages and Jonathan practiced his vocabulary, Jack focused in on Callie.
After they’d come inside from playing in the snow, she’d changed from her jeans into a pair of stretchy yoga pants and a long sweater. When she bent over to reach for something on the table, the sweater rode up and her lovely assets were on display for his viewing pleasure. Oh, to enjoy them even further. He wasn’t sure she’d be up for that. And he shouldn’t push.
As much as he wanted Callie with every cell in his body, he’d be leaving her alone again soon. It wasn’t fair to her. Not that life had been all that fair to him either.
Attention back on the child in your lap. Watching Callie’s gorgeous curves wouldn’t do anything for him except make part of the lap bigger. How do you explain that to a two-year-old child?
Callie’s phone buzzed on the table beside him and he looked down. Victor? Couldn’t the man leave them alone?
As she walked over to see who was calling, he scowled. “Ignore him.”
Picking up the device, she frowned. “I would except I know he’ll start to worry and either come up here to make sure nothing’s happened to us or send someone else. We don’t want that.”
She pressed the button and answered, “Hello.”
Gritting his teeth made his headache increase, or was it the pleasantries she made with the criminal, assuring him they were fine and didn’t need him for anything. This had to stop. You need to find the evidence to get this bastard away. But what else could he do? Steve could barely be trusted anymore, not after what happened to Jonathan. Any other resources he’d had at the Bureau were unavailable to him. Chris had offered to look into things but doing that could be dangerous if anyone found out. Shaunessy could lose his job, or worse, his life, if the leak discovered who he was helping. Don’t need more guilt. Have enough already, thank you.
Callie put the phone back on the table and sighed. “I managed to convince him we were fine. I also told him we wouldn’t be back until after Christmas. He was insistent I come to the big New Year’s Eve party he’s having though. Heather, are you available to watch Jonathan that night?”
“I thought you said you didn’t want to go,” Heather said, coming into the living area.
The look she threw Heather was sly. What was she up to?
“I didn’t originally. But now I’m wondering…”
“Don’t do anything stupid. The best thing for you is to stay as far away from Cabrini as possible.”
“I hate being with him but after a few weeks away, I think I need to go even if only to appease him. It’s better going there. Having him at my house gives me the creeps. I’ll be able to see who comes to the party.”
“Callie,” he warned, fear rushing through him at the thought of her putting herself in danger. “I can handle this. I’m digging as deep as I can. Those numbers you gave me are a great start. I’ve gotten a few other leads from them.” Now if some of them would pan out.
She sat next to him, her hand touching his. What he wouldn’t do for her touch all the time, for the sweet smile to light her face when she looked at him. It was enough to get him through the worst day.
“You don’t have to worry about me, Jack. Victor trusts me implicitly. He’d never suspect anything if I simply ask a few questions. I try and make him think I’m concerned for his welfare. But I promise I won’t do anything to put myself in danger. If I manage to get any information that could help at all, then it’s a bonus. I’m going to the party. Don’t argue with me on this one.”
No, he wouldn’t argue. Had no rights where she was concerned. He barely had rights with his son. No legal ones anyway. Didn’t mean he had to like it. But knowing Victor was having a big shindig on New Year’s Eve gave him an idea. A risky one. He’d have to work on it while he was here.