Private Affairs Read online

  “Penelope!” her grandmother called. “David’s about to find out about what Janice has been up to! Hurry it up already!”

  She gave an eye roll as she said to Barnaby, “Upset? No, no. Of course not. Why would I be upset?”

  “No reason. I guess. I just thought… Well, anyway. I just wanted to explain why I hadn’t called.”

  “Thank you, Barnaby. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.”

  A trait that made it all the more difficult to live with herself after what happened between her and Palmer the night before.

  But that wasn’t the handsome sheriff’s fault. She was on her own in the guilt department when it came to that.

  “Penelope!” Her great-aunt this time.

  “I’m on the phone!” she shouted.

  “Ouch. I think you may have just broken my ear drum,” Barnaby said.

  “Sorry.”

  “That’s all right.” He paused for a moment, then added, “So…I was thinking that maybe we’d go out again this weekend?”

  Penelope nearly swallowed her tongue as the dog now also barked at her. “What do you want?”

  “Pardon me?”

  She was destined for the flames of hell. “Not you, Barnaby. I was, um, talking to Thor.”

  “Oh. Good. That’s a relief.” He chuckled. “Sounds like a madhouse over there.”

  “You have no idea.”

  “What do you say? Should I pick you up Friday at eight?”

  The dog overturned a pedestal holding a fern and she cursed. “Look, Barnaby, I’ve got to go. Why don’t you try calling later in the week?”

  “What? Okay. Sure.”

  “Good night.”

  “Good—”

  She didn’t wait for his response as she took the phone from her ear and pressed the disconnect button. “What is the matter with you?” she demanded of the insufferable canine. “You’ve eaten. You have water. You’ve been outside…”

  He barked again as she righted the plant. Thankfully, it was one of her grandmother’s fake ferns so there was no soil to clean up. While she worked magic in the garden, she had a tendency to kill whatever was inside the house.

  “What? You want to go back outside?” She stood straight. “Fine. Let’s go.”

  He fairly galloped to the door ahead of her, blocking her path as she tried to make her way around his furry butt. Finally, she leaned over him and opened the screen door. He hit it in his hurry to get outside, and she nearly fell onto the back porch.

  “Oh, for God’s sake,” she muttered under her breath, regaining her balance and staring at her hand to make sure no major damage had been done.

  The hair on the back of her neck stood on end.

  Someone was there.

  Thor hadn’t needed to water the grass. He’d wanted to come out to greet his new old buddy.

  Penelope slowly looked up.

  Palmer.

  He stood in the shadows near the gazebo, and she might not have made him out at all had Thor not run straight for him, planting his paws against Palmer’s chest for a thorough ear scratch.

  “Good boy,” he said quietly, his words sending a thrill rushing over her skin.

  Penelope looked behind her at the empty kitchen, wondering how long till the next commercial. After last night’s impromptu tarot card reading, she was sure she didn’t want her grandmother and great-aunt to discover Palmer in their backyard.

  She quickly crossed the garden to meet him.

  “I sent the dog telepathic messages to bring you out here,” Palmer said with a grin. “I tried the same with you, but you appeared to be preoccupied.”

  It was all she could do not to say something along the lines of “I was on the phone with my boyfriend.”

  Instead, she whispered, “What are you doing here?”

  The grin slid from his face. She was pretty sure she wasn’t the cause of his sudden seriousness. Rather, she sensed that something had happened.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Can I talk to you?”

  Penelope looked over her shoulder again. The clock was ticking until the show hit a commercial and her housemates came looking for her and the snack she had yet to return with.

  “Please.” Palmer’s voice was low and somber.

  Penelope eyed him in the dark. If she had been about to refuse him, any thought of doing so now was out of the question.

  She grasped the back of Thor’s collar. “Meet me around the corner in ten minutes,” she said.

  Palmer surprised her by leaning in to kiss her.

  “Come on, boy,” she rasped, tugging on the collar. “Let’s get back inside.”

  12

  PALMER LOOKED AT THE dashboard clock for the fifth time. It had been at least twenty minutes since he’d left Penelope in the garden. Had he gone around the wrong corner? Even though this had been the place he had waited for her so many times before, perhaps she had forgotten and meant the next block.

  He rubbed the back of his neck. The tensions of the day had knotted up there, clinging to him like a bad scent. He wasn’t sure why he’d sought Penelope out tonight. He’d figured that after what had happened at the shop, she might need some time to adjust.

  A brief knock on the passenger window. Palmer leaned over and opened the door for her.

  “Hi,” she said, bending to look in at him.

  “Get in,” he invited.

  She looked over her shoulder and then climbed inside.

  And he knew immediately why he’d sought her out.

  The knot in his neck began to ease merely having her sit next to him. The world suddenly seemed to make more sense. And although he hadn’t realized he’d felt that way, he no longer felt so alone.

  Alone.

  Funny, that’s the word that jumped out at him. For the past fifteen years he’d flown solo. But ever since returning to Earnest, he’d felt as if something was missing.

  “Sorry I took so long…I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I had to wait until the TV show was over and then faked a headache so I could lie down.” She stared at him. “I actually snuck out of my bedroom window.”

  “You didn’t?”

  “I did.” She laughed and then turned to stare out the window.

  When he didn’t say anything for a long moment, she asked, “What’s wrong?”

  Palmer grimaced as he started the car.

  “Where are we going?” she wanted to know.

  He gave a brief shrug. “I don’t know. I think it might be better if we maybe drive around while we talk. You know, in case someone calls your boyfriend.”

  He’d meant it as a joke, but a glance at her pained face told him she didn’t find it funny.

  “Thanks for coming. I…” He turned left at the next corner. “I didn’t know who else I could turn to.”

  And just like that he was telling her about his uneasy visits with his father over the past few days. About how he’d taken him groceries that morning, and the animosity he’d encountered. About how he’d arranged for a landscape company to go to his place and see to the lawn and how they’d reported back that his father had chased them off.

  “You’re kidding.”

  He shook his head. “No.” He couldn’t help a quiet laugh. “They say he turned the hose on them and wouldn’t stop until they left.”

  She smiled.

  “Have you seen that place? I mean, I almost didn’t recognize it.”

  She nodded. “I’ve seen it. A couple of the neighborhood boys have mowed the lawn once or twice this summer, but the shrubs are overgrown and the flowers…well, I don’t have to tell you.”

  “Yeah. I thought about doing it myself, but with every thing that’s going on with my business here…” He drifted off, not wanting to fill her ear with all that was happening. He could barely shoulder it all.

  He cleared his throat.

  “Anyway, I’d promised the old goat that I’d be coming back tonight to fix dinner…”

  He turn
ed onto the main highway that ran west out of town.

  “You cook?”

  “Huh?” He looked at her and then offered up a slow grin. “I do.”

  “Oh, I see. You grill.”

  “No, I cook. In fact, I make the best damn seafood linguine this side of the Pacific.”

  She smiled doubtfully.

  “Okay, maybe in Earnest. But it’s damn good, if I do say so myself.”

  “So did you go? To your dad’s?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Or, rather, I should say that I tried to. He wouldn’t let me in.” He tightened his hands on the steering wheel.

  She didn’t say anything. Merely sat waiting for him to continue.

  “Funny, we never used to lock our doors. And this morning they were both open. Then I go back tonight and the screen door is locked tight and the inner door is closed.” He dragged in a deep breath. “I waited, looked in the windows, but I couldn’t see if he was home or not.”

  He explained how he’d put the groceries he’d bought down on the steps and went around the house, finding the source of the rotting smell he’d noticed in the morning by way of a dead squirrel. The back door was shut as well, with no lights on inside.

  “Maybe he was out.”

  He gave her a long look.

  She shrugged. “I hear that he goes to church every now and again. Maybe he made the nighttime service or something.”

  “I’ve never known my father to go to church.”

  “Well, perhaps it’s time to accept that maybe you don’t know your father very well.”

  She had a point there.

  “What else do you know?” he asked.

  It felt odd to be asking someone else about his own parent, but not as strange as he might have thought. At least not when it was Penelope.

  “I know that he hasn’t worked since the mill closed two years ago,” she said. “Not unlike a lot of the men who worked there their entire lives.”

  He nodded, having gleaned at least that much from his father during his sporadic phone calls over the years.

  “Has he…dated?” he asked.

  Penelope’s eyes widened. “What? I don’t know. How should I know that?”

  “The town is small—”

  “It’s not that small. Besides, I have my hands full trying to keep up with my grandmother and aunt…”

  She fell silent.

  “What?”

  She stared through the windshield at their surroundings. “First I sneak out the window and now…” She squinted at him. “You aren’t taking me to Makeout Cove, are you?”

  Palmer raised his brows. He hadn’t realized that’s where he was heading, but it did indeed appear that he had driven to the secluded place to which horny teens had been drawn since before the paint on the incorporation sign for Earnest had dried.

  “Christ,” he murmured.

  She laughed. “No. I think it’s funny. I haven’t been here since…”

  He was pretty sure he knew the last time she’d been there. It probably coincided with the date of his last visit.

  “God, look. There’s two cars parked over there.”

  “Judging from the well-used path, I’m guessing the place still sees a lot of traffic.”

  “Especially since it seems it’s a God-given right that all sixteen-year-olds own cars.”

  “And cell phones.”

  Her laugh made him remember exactly what they’d done the last time they were there.

  And sparked in him a desire to revisit some old memories.

  “Over there,” she said, pointing to a favorite spot under an old oak tree.

  He pulled in and turned off the engine, completely unprepared for the sexy assault Penelope instantly launched on his mouth…

  PENELOPE WASN’T SURE what had come over her. One minute she’d been immersed in family problems—both hers and Palmer’s—the next she was acting like an over-sexed teen.

  Perhaps dating on the sly was like riding a bike; once you got back on, you instinctively knew where to put your feet.

  Balance, on the other hand, was something else entirely.

  She spread her fingertips over Palmer’s stubble-peppered jaw, holding him still as she tasted his lips. Mmm…better than she remembered from even last night. Of course, then she’d been caught off guard, hadn’t had a chance to register every last sensation. And she intended to do exactly that tonight. She wanted to savor every moment, commit it to memory so she might draw on it whenever she pleased.

  The problem was, she couldn’t seem to get close enough to him.

  She scanned his side of the car.

  “What are you looking for?” he asked.

  “Doesn’t the seat go back?”

  “Back? Oh. Yes.”

  And just like that, a humming sounded and his seat began sliding backward. “Mmm…much better.”

  Hiking up the skirt of her dress, she straddled him, glad for the wide, plush seats of the high-end car.

  “Whoa…” Palmer murmured.

  When she made to get off, he held her steady with two viselike hands on her hips.

  She leaned in and kissed him. And kissed him again. “I think this thing with your father…”

  He squinted at her in the dim light from the dash. “What?”

  She popped open the first button on the front of her dress. “Keep at it. He won’t be able to shut you out forever.”

  “Are you really talking about my dad while you’re undressing?”

  She smiled. “You can’t do two things at the same time?”

  “Walk and chew gum, yes. Make love and talk about my father…no.”

  She laughed as she shrugged out of the top of her dress, baring her bra-covered breasts.

  She heard his hard swallow and began to say something.

  “Shh,” he said, placing his fingers lightly against her mouth. “Don’t say another word about anything.”

  “Why?” she managed through his hand.

  “Because the only sound I want to hear right now is the sound of you breathing…”

  She shivered at the softly said words, holding his gaze for a long moment before leaning forward again and kissing him. This time leisurely. With sweet deliberation. Not unlike the car seat when he’d moved it back, she felt like she was humming, vibrating with anticipation of what was to come, yet reveling in each sensation that washed over her.

  He reached up and cupped her right breast through her bra, sending heat winding through her like a red ribbon. He lightly pinched her nipple, bringing it to a stiff peak and then fastened his mouth over it, moisture penetrating the fabric of her bra. Remembering her underwear preferences, he pushed the cups upward and then the entire sports bra up and over her head, the elastic snapping as he tossed it to the other side of the car.

  Penelope made a move to complain and then froze when she felt his mouth directly on her nipple.

  Dear God in heaven…

  His tongue made slow circles around her areola and then he suckled that über-sensitive bit of skin, the sensual act accelerating her heart rate and dampening her panties even further.

  She pressed herself more firmly against him, feeling his hardness against her softness…and hungering to feel an even closer connection.

  She reached between them, tugging his shirt from his pants, then dipping her fingertips inside the waist. She knew a little thrill when she instantly met with the burgeoning head. But there were too many clothes in the way!

  She quickly undid his belt and popped the catch on his slacks, not stopping until she held his long, thick length against the palm of her hand.

  Her mouth watered with the desire to taste him. But she didn’t want to break the connection as he stroked and licked her breasts.

  Instead, she pulled aside the drenched crotch of her panties and positioned him in her shallow channel.

  She shuddered from head to foot.

  Palmer groaned. “I’m not wearing protection,” he said between clenched teet
h.

  She swallowed past her tight throat even as she shifted her hips, moving herself back and forth over him, her own juices lubricating the movement.

  So hard…so hot…so good.

  He grasped her hips. “Let me get a condom from my back pocket.”

  She jerked herself until the thick top of his arousal was positioned against her.

  “You don’t need it,” she said, and slid down over him, taking him in inch by precious inch, feeling him stretching her filling her loving her.

  13

  THE SENSATION OF HAVING Penelope surround him, no clothes, no latex, nothing between them, was like emerging from the clouds to find a sun-drenched heaven.

  Fire licked through his groin, coalescing in his aching balls as she shuddered around him.

  He forgot where they were, what they had been talking about, lost in everything that was Penelope Weaver.

  She shifted her hips, grinding her pelvis against his, the friction sending spiraling flames up into his chest. He felt like a powder keg with the fuse burning closer and closer. He tried to slow her movements to ward off climax, but she was having none of it. She kissed him soulfully, seeking an even deeper meeting. He could hear the hiss of the fuse and…

  The beam of a flashlight cut across Penelope’s beautiful face, following by a hard rapping of knuckles against the hood.

  “Break it up in there,” a familiar voice said.

  PENELOPE FROZE. Not in crisis but in horror.

  Barnaby…

  Palmer helped her cover herself with her dress that was bunched around her hips, but she didn’t dare to move so they remained joined, staring at the sheriff’s shocked face through the open window.

  “Aw, Christ…”

  Barnaby snapped upright and then paced a ways away, cursing under his breath as he gave them some space.

  “Oh, God.” Penelope slid over to the passenger’s seat, trying to find her bra, then giving up and doing up the front buttons of her dress. At least she was saved the humiliation of searching for her panties.

  She straightened herself up and looked over at Palmer who only had to tuck himself back inside his pants and pull up the zipper and cinch his belt.

  She closed her eyes tightly.