Page 31 of Mac
“What?”
“I know that’s not what you asked and I’ll get to that, but… I didn’t think you’d touch me. All this time, I heard your words about wanting me, but I didn’t believe you meant them. What man would want me? Really want me if he knew what I’d done?”
“Please tell me that’s a rhetorical question because I have known and I have never given a shit.”
“It is and it isn’t, but it doesn’t need elaboration.” She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling beams. They were the same shade of wood as the rest of the treehouse, a sort of burnt gold and orange. They interlocked and came to a point, high up in the center.
It was a magical place. Something completely unexpected about Mac. But then, maybe she should have known to expect something out of the ordinary.
She was still naked and hadn’t bothered to cover her body. She felt no embarrassment with Mac. She felt the one thing with him that she’d never felt with anyone else. Herself. Belonging.
“I did it because I could. Not a very good reason, right? One of the guys that used to come into the strip club offered me five grand if I had sex with him.”
“You’re worth more.”
“I know. I asked for ten.”
Mac laughed beside her. “That’s not what I meant.”
“It know it wasn’t, but honestly, I soon got addicted to the money. I’d grown up in the foster care system and I’d had nothing until I was adopted. I’d had to scrap for everything and here, men were throwing money at me to blow them or fuck them.”
“Do you regret it?”
“I’ve asked myself that for years, even while I was doing it and the truth was, no. I didn’t live on the streets, but I worked them when I first started out. After six months, I’d made enough and bought a small condo. I had the name of every city councilman in my phone. I had the mayor and a few congressmen. The church deacons and the pastors were the dirtiest.”
“When did you quit?”
“Just before Jaz got out of jail. I wanted to be there for him and I had money to help us both start over.”
Mac rolled toward her and touched her face with the gentlest of fingers. “Hear me, all right? I don’t care that you stripped and I don’t care that you fucked for money. I care about you. I care about the woman you are.”
“I never told you that I had thought about propositioning you when you busted me that night, did I?”
“No. Good thing, too. I’d have had to turn you down.”
She rolled toward him, now, and inched closer until she could feel his body heat reaching out to waft over her. “Would you have wanted to turn me down?”
“Nope.”
“Maybe I should try now.”
“Mmm.” He leaned in and kissed her lips with heartbreaking tenderness. “Ma’am, do you know breaking and entering is against the law?”
Jackie slid closer until her nipples grazed his chest. She gave him her best innocent look. “Yes, Sheriff. Would you like see if you can break me and enter?”
Mac groaned and shifted her under him. She spread her legs for him to fit himself between them. “Are you offering me sex in order to get out of going to jail? You do know that’s a crime, don’t you?”
“Yes, Sheriff, I do know it’s a crime. But I won’t tell anyone. It can be our little secret.”
“And what do you expect in return for keeping such a secret?”
“You in my bed anytime I want you.”
He buried his face against her throat and his cock inside her cunt. “I think I can handle that. Little lady, you’ve got yourself a Sheriff.”
