Forever in My Heart Read online

  “That’s it, baby.”

  With the flick of her tongue across his tip he was gone. He held her head steady, and with a grunt, felt the orgasm explode inside her warm mouth. He couldn’t remember coming for so long. She stayed with him while he thrust until he was spent. Now it was his knees that were weak.

  ****

  Vicky let the water wash over her face and stood, allowing her hands to slide their way up Jamie’s sculpted body. She loved the feel of him and couldn’t stop touching.

  “I feel dizzy,” he said with a half laugh.

  “In a good or bad way,” Vicky asked.

  “In an unquestionably good way.”

  “I guess so after coming like that.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head down to hers.

  “That was amazing. You’re amazing.”

  His lips were tender when they met hers, and she opened at their touch until their tongues met for a soul-rending kiss. He framed her face as he deepened the kiss, and something more than passion surged between them. Vicky’s heart skipped a few beats. She’d never remembered feeling this intensely for someone, not even her ex-husband. No, these feelings Jamie stirred in her were new and a little scary to her.

  He must have also sensed the difference because he pushed her hair out of her face. “I feel it, too. Let’s not think about it too much for now, okay?”

  She nodded, not sure she could speak. Whatever the emotion, it felt good, and while she was hesitant to define it, Vicky sure as hell wasn’t ready to let it go.

  “The water’s getting cold,” Jamie said. “What do you say we get you washed and take this to the bed?”

  The man had a one-track mind where sex was concerned. A definite plus considering how good he was as it.

  “I’d say that’s a fabulous idea.”

  They dried each other off and were more than half aroused again when they stepped from the steamy bathroom clad only in towels.

  “If you’re hungry, I can make something or we can reheat my mom’s lasagna,” Vicky offered.

  “Great because I’ve worked up an appetite...” Jamie grabbed her around the waist and turned her to face him. “For you,” he murmured against her ear before taking her mouth in his.

  “I hope there’s enough for three,” a voice out in the main room said.

  Vicky jumped and let go of Jamie, the towel slipping from her body. He rescued it before she could flash their intruder.

  She fastened the towel securely. “Nick! What the hell are you doing in my apartment?”

  “Apparently getting quite an eyeful,” he deadpanned.

  “The door was locked. You had no right entering without an invitation.”

  “You’ve never minded before.”

  “Yeah, well things have changed.”

  Nick’s gaze shifted above her head. “So I see.”

  Jamie put his hands possessively on her shoulders, that one small movement a silent challenge between the two men.

  “I’ve been here a while. If it wasn’t for the fact that you’re screwing my sister, I’d say I was impressed.”

  The implication of Nick’s words brought heat to Vicky’s cheeks.

  “Did you know he was here?” she asked Jamie.

  “I noticed something was different when we came out of the bathroom. Then I saw a shadow off the balcony that looked like him.”

  That explained the kiss when they walked into the room. It was to make a statement to show she was with Jamie. She sighed. Men. Sometimes they were like little boys on the playground.

  Well, she could make a statement of her own. She stepped away from Jamie’s warmth and grabbed clothes from her dresser.

  She gave her brother the cold shoulder as she walked past him. “I’m getting dressed. Play nice, boys.” She paused in front of Jamie and planted a kiss on his lips while reaching down to cup him. Let’s see how he likes to be objectified in public. “We’ll save this for later.”

  The low grunt he made was worth her own embarrassment. After making her point, she locked herself in the bathroom. It was petty, but she couldn’t resist blow-drying her hair to give the two stubborn men outside more time to bust. Neither of them would appreciate hearing it, but they were similar in mindset and dedication to family and friends. Even if it made them act like assholes at times.

  Chapter Eighteen

  With Vicky sequestered in the bathroom and Nick rummaging through the refrigerator, Jamie walked to the duffel bag where he kept his clothes and grabbed a pair of running shorts and T-shirt.

  There were some weird boundaries in Vicky’s family. He didn’t remember them being so in your face about everything. Of course, it could be because Vicky was the youngest. He was, too, though his brothers couldn’t have given a damn about what went on in his life.

  Most times, Mario wasn’t so bad. It was only when Sal was around that Mario forgot he didn’t mind playing video games with Jamie and ditched him.

  Jamie went in search of that cold beer he never got earlier.

  “Want one?” he asked, holding a bottle out to Nick.

  He reached out for it. “Don’t mind if I do.”

  The microwaved hummed while the lasagna heated. Jamie grabbed three plates from the cabinet. Opening a drawer, he removed silverware and carried everything to the small round table outside the tiny kitchen.

  “You seem at home here,” Nick said, leaning against the counter while sipping his beer.

  “I am. You have a problem with that?”

  “Only if you playing house with my sister gets her hurt—and I don’t just mean because of Jimmy.”

  Of course he didn’t.

  “I’ve cared about your sister since I was a teenager and even more about her now. I have no plans to hurt her.” Jamie grabbed his beer off the counter and took a deep swig. “The opinion of her family means a lot to Vicky. It would help if all of you would ease off her about seeing me.”

  “Yeah, about that.” Nick glowered and crossed his arms.

  Here comes the lecture.

  “If you’re who Vicky wants, I won’t do anything to stand in her way.”

  Jeez, how big of you. “That’s not the same thing as accepting me for who I am.”

  “You’ll need to earn acceptance from the family.”

  Jamie hated that Nick was right.

  “It’s important to Vicky, so I’ll do whatever I can to make that happen. But I’m the same person I’ve always been. I’m not sure if that counts for or against me.”

  “It seems to be working for you from what I walked into earlier.”

  Jamie glanced over to the closed bathroom door. Yeah, it was working just fine for him. More than fine, if truth be told.

  “Your sister’s a smart and beautiful woman. Don’t underestimate her.”

  The microwave dinged, and Nick checked the contents. After resetting it, he swung back to Jamie.

  “Listen, about what happened nine years ago,” Nick said.

  Jamie held up a hand. “We don’t need to go down that road.”

  “I do.” Nick shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. “I was a jerk that night. I’m overprotective where my family is concerned.”

  No shit.

  “All I saw was someone on top of my kid sister, and I lost it. It didn’t register it was you until after I’d tossed you.”

  Huh. An apology, of sorts, from the almighty cop.

  “If I had a sister, I’d probably have reacted the same way,” Jamie said.

  “She was furious the next day when I refused to let you say goodbye to her. Didn’t talk to me for almost a month even though I apologized. Things have never been the same between us and that bothers me.”

  “Seems like you need to have this conversation with her, not me.”

  “First I needed to settle things between us. If I had realized initially it was you…” Nick ran a hand down his face. “Well, I wouldn’t have had as much of problem with it.”

  That revelation was a sur
prise. With not quite a decade separating them, Nick and he hadn’t been friends, but had been cordial to each other. It was hard not to be since their families vacationed every year together and with Kate and Mario being married at the time.

  “I appreciate that, man.” And he did.

  Jamie spent the first three months of the army with a chip on his shoulder, pissed off at the world. He had to put in a lot of extra effort and do a lot of extra suck-ass assignments because of that chip. Once the army had broken him—and they had—Jamie realized being angry at the world could get him killed and wouldn’t change the situation with Vicky. He accepted their separation and even acknowledged it was better this way. It seemed unfair for Vicky to live her life pining for him when he didn’t know if he’d live to see the next sunrise.

  He’d written her emails. Dozens of them in the first six months, but never had the nerve to send them and ended up deleting them.

  Now, listening to Nick, Jamie realized his anger at the man had faded years ago. Back then, holding on to the bitterness was eating him up inside, so he let both it and Vicky go. At the time it was necessary in order for him to focus and survive. But now, he’d fight for her with every ounce of strength he had.

  Jamie studied Nick, fatigue and worry etched on his face. Jamie leaned forward and reached out his hand. “We’re settled.”

  They shook.

  “What’s going on?” Vicky asked from the hallway, looking at both men like they’d grown horns.

  Jamie smiled at her. “Your brother and I were reaching a common understanding.” He held out his hand. “Come, let’s eat.”

  Nick spooned out portions of lasagna for each of them. Jamie poured Vicky a glass of wine and led her to the table. They ate quietly for a few minutes, enjoying Mrs. D.’s leftovers. The woman was a genius in the kitchen. Not that his mom was bad, but being Irish, she was more the meat and potatoes type of cook.

  “What did you stop by to tell us?” Vicky asked.

  “I’ve been investigating Sal’s three friends, Jimmy, Snake, and Tommy,” Nick said between mouthfuls of pasta.

  “The Three Stooges as I like to call them,” Vicky said.

  “They used to come by the house. Never came in, but would honk the horn for Sal,” Jamie said.

  Jamie remembered his mother had tried to convince Sal to invite them over for dinner, but his brother always had an excuse on hand.

  “All three are thirty-eight, the same age as Sal would have been. They connected after high school and remained tight throughout college. Jimmy Parente’s the oldest of six. He has a younger sister who got knocked up when she was sixteen and is living in Tallahassee with her biker husband. His mother remarried and has eighteen-year-old twins, a boy and girl, plus a fourteen- and ten-year-old.

  “Geeze, don’t they believe in birth-control?” Vicky asked.

  “According to my source, Jimmy’s been trying to put the twins through college, which is difficult with his father out of work and his mother working part-time at a grocery store.”

  “So he needs cash,” Jamie said.

  “Enough that he pawned his grandmother’s wedding ring to pay the past two months of rent,” Nick said.

  “What about the other two?”

  “Michael Riggio, fondly known by his friends as Snake, comes from a broken home. Parents divorced when he was in high school. Younger brother was hurt in an explosion and damaged his eyes. Eye surgery can help but is impossible without medical insurance.”

  “I remember,” Vicky said. “A chemical experiment gone wrong.”

  Jamie could only imagine what Snake Junior was brewing. Probably made himself a meth lab that went south.

  “I haven’t learned much about Tommy Lamberti other than he’s an only child,” Nick continued. “His parents moved to California after he graduated high school and from what I can tell don’t stay in contact with their son. He lives in a one room walk-up. No known family in the area.”

  “What does that tell us?” Vicky asked.

  “They come from messed up families, each have a reason for needing large amounts of cash. And…” Nick stopped and cast a glance over at Jamie.

  “Hooked themselves to Sal’s train thinking he’d lead them to the big money. Only he went to jail and then got himself killed.” He returned Nick’s gaze. “How am I doing?”

  “You nailed it. Motive with desperation is not a good combination,” Nick said.

  “Which means whatever Sal stashed, these three clowns think it’s worth a substantial amount of money—money they need.”

  “And they’ll take any risk to make sure they get it,” Nick finished.

  “Which means we’re all in danger.” Vicky carried her empty plate into the kitchen.

  Jamie followed her, rubbing her shoulders. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  No way in hell was he going to let any of those three hurt Vicky. They’d have to get through him first.

  She leaned into him. “I know you’ll try, but you can’t guarantee that. And what about you? They could hurt you.”

  “Which is why we have to find the drive before they do.” Jamie turned to Nick. “We got a lead, but it didn’t pan out.”

  “What kind of lead?” Nick asked.

  “We were at Mom and Dad’s earlier, and Mom mentioned Kate ran into Sal at St. Christopher’s last year,” Kate said.

  “Yeah. He cornered her in the prayer garden and harassed her. It was the first time he’d been seen after having been paroled,” Nick said.

  “We got to thinking the drive could be in the garden,” Jamie added.

  “Let me guess. You two got the brilliant idea to go sleuthing today?”

  Jamie slid a glance to Vicky.

  She exhaled. “I got the idea and went there on my own. Jamie arrived shortly after Jimmy and Snake cornered me in the garden.”

  “What the fuck, Vick,” Nick demanded.

  Vicky put her hands up. “I know. I know. This big guy here already gave me a lecture.” She pointed at Jamie.

  “What happened?”

  “Thankfully your sister has quick reflexes. I arrived in time to see her flip Snake.”

  “Jimmy was too chicken-shit to take Jamie on, and they both took off,” Vicky said.

  “And the drive?”

  “Not there from what we could tell,” Jamie said.

  Nick studied them. “I’ll run over tomorrow and take a look around. Maybe you missed something.”

  “Don’t rip up the flowers we planted. That took a lot of work,” Vicky said.

  “I won’t. Now what else are you holding out from me?”

  Vicky’s eyes widened. “Nothing. I swear.”

  “Didn’t I see Italian cream cake in the fridge?”

  ****

  “I don’t know how I let you talk me into this.” Vicky bit into half a cupcake Lucy had given her.

  “Oh, come on. The cupcake competition concept is good. Everyone says so.” Lucy shoved the other piece into her mouth. “Much better than a pie competition. That’s so 1990s.”

  Vicky rolled her eyes. “Explain to me, again, how it works.”

  “Anyone can enter as long as they’re a St. Christopher’s parishioner. Contestants submit their entries, along with a link to a three- to five-minute video. We’ll need to get a selection committee who will vote on the top ten and then ask the parishioners to narrow it down to the top three. Those finalists will compete.”

  “Sounds complicated to me,” Vicky added. “The carnival is at the beginning of June. That’s not a lot of time to pull this together.”

  Lucy reached into her bag on the floor and grabbed her laptop. “All the instructions are on St. Christopher’s website. Check it out.”

  Vicky scanned the page, impressed with how sophisticated it looked. No surprise given Lucy had done the website for the café. Her friend was quite the webmistress, which was great since Vicky’s knowledge was very basic. Hell, she didn’t even own a smartphone.

&n
bsp; “You did an awesome job. Who picks the secret ingredient?”

  “The selection committee. Finalists will be announced the week before Memorial Day. At that time, they’ll also announce the secret ingredient and theme. That will give us roughly two weeks to prepare our cupcake recipe and the display.”

  “Oh, crap. I’d forgotten about the display,” Vicky said, rubbing her temples.

  “Don’t worry. I’ve already spoken with Tristan. He and Jamie will help us with whatever we need.”

  “How are they going to have time in addition to finishing up the store and the work for the carnival?”

  “The work inside here is almost done. Tristan says another week and we can plan the re-opening we talked about.”

  “Another week? That’s it?”

  Lucy laughed. “Don’t Jamie and you talk?”

  Vicky flushed. They did…but they’d been working their way through making love on practically every surface of her apartment. And between getting up at four every morning and the intensity of the sex, Vicky was pretty wiped out afterward.

  Wow, had he really made her mind along with her body go to mush?

  “We do. I just forgot.” In her post-sex-hazed lull.

  “Yeah, right.”

  Vicky ignored her comment and waved a hand toward the laptop. “Moving along. Tell me what we’re doing on the video.”

  “I’ve scripted out what we’ll say. I’ve already taken footage of us baking and of the display case. We need to add something about ourselves and comments as to why we should be chosen.”

  “Okay. Let’s do this.”

  ****

  Only the beginning of May, and it was already a hot, sticky sauna in her apartment. Vicky lay on the couch with the less-than-cool air from the fan blowing over her, and wished she was on an island somewhere. One with a small hut on a private beach surrounded by white sand and the clear blue ocean. In her fantasy, Jamie was making love to her on the soft sand and afterward, they swam naked in the ocean.

  Drowsy, hot, and now aroused, there was only one way she was going to cool off. Rising, she stripped on her way to the bathroom. Inside the shower, she let the lukewarm water flow over her body. Eyes closed, she imagined Jamie pressing her against the cool tiles as his lips traveled down her body.