“How my mom died?”
“It happened when you were young,” I told him. “I remember you telling me it’s why your dad started drinking.”
“She was sold to hunters.” He washed his hands and arms in the sink then dried them on the hanging towel before finishing. “There was a ledger listing dates, initials, and the amount of money paid. Mom’s was 725 for July twenty-fifth, RC for Rose Corman, and 17000 for—”
“Seventeen thousand dollars,” I whispered as the horror of it settled in. “Gods damn them all.”
“Don’t worry,” Jo Jo said. “They’re all dead.” He clenched his fist. “We buried their heads and bodies in different graves.”
“Why?”
“Sunny can see ghosts,” he replied nonchalantly. “It turns out that if someone isn’t buried with their head, they can’t pass on from this world.”
I put my hand on his arm to comfort him. “It’s no less than they deserved.”
He nodded, then turned to me. “I don’t think about her as often as I used to. Funny how time does that. She used to be all I thought about. Waiting for her to come home. Wondering why she left in the first place. People in town were convinced she’d run off with another man.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. She’s at peace now. That’s all I care about.”
His chiseled jaw softened. I could see the lost boy peeking out of his eyes.
Impulsively, I wrapped my arms around him. The heat of his chest warmed my cheek. I don’t know if the smell of garbage had become less pungent or if I’d just acclimated to the odor. Either way, I didn’t care. I needed the hug as much as he did.
“I’m so sorry.” We both had lost our mothers, but I would never grieve the way he did. It’s hard to grieve for someone you didn’t know. But Jo Jo had been loved, something I’d never experienced, and the loss had to be immense.
He dropped his forehead down and slid his arms around me. “Thanks. You’d think it would get easier to talk about, but it doesn’t.”
I tilted my head back. “It just means that she was important.” I tried to smile as tears edged my eyes. “I hope someday I’ll be that important to someone.”
Jo Jo brushed his hand against my cheek. “You already are.” His green eyes were intense as our gazes locked. “I want to kiss you.”
I swallowed the nerves bubbling up inside then nodded. “I want that too.”
He wrapped me into a possessive embrace. My body sizzled at his touch. There was no hesitation when he slanted his mouth over mine, his tongue tenderly parting my lips.
The logical part of my brain told me this was a bad idea, but the pleasure part of my brain told logic to go screw itself. I might’ve run away from Jo Jo before, but it hadn’t stopped my cravings for the man. On the contrary, our time apart had stoked my hunger for him. I felt as if I’d been starved, and he was an all-you-can-eat buffet. I laced my fingers behind his neck and kissed him hard and fierce.
Jo Jo met every thrust of my tongue as I sagged against him. I moaned into his mouth when his hands roamed down to my ass. He smiled against my lips as he lifted me up and swung me around until my butt knocked the toothbrush holder off the vanity.
“Cripes!” he complained. “You need a bigger bathroom.”
Shaking my head, I giggled. “I’m never getting that security deposit back.”
He kissed me again. This time it was something gentler, more intimate—wondrous. All my reticence melted away in his arms. His fingers stroked the side of my breast, and I wanted nothing more than to remove all the fabric between us as I lost myself in our careful seduction.
“Off,” I said, tugging at the bottom of my shirt. Jo Jo’s hands met mine, and he slid my shirt over my head.
He licked his lips as he popped the front latch on my bra, exposing my breasts. “You’re so fucking beautiful, Etta.” His dark green eyes shone with an emotion I couldn’t read. Lust? Yes. But there was something else. Something I’d never seen before.
“You’re beautiful, too, Jo Jo,” I said. “Exquisite.”
His lips brushed against mine again before he nibbled down my jaw to my neck to my collarbone, then finally— “Ah!” I gasped as the heat of his tongue grazed my nipple and sent a jolt of pleasure down to my groin. “Holy shit.” If my clit was a light bulb, my nipple was the switch because I was lit up and turned on.
I’d had doubts about many things in my life. Wanting this man wasn’t one of them. “Jo Jo—” I was cut off by the ringing of his phone.
“Shit,” he muttered. “Ignore it.”
“I like that plan.” We kissed until it stopped ringing, but the minute it ceased, the ringing started again. I leaned my head back and groaned. “Noooo. Damn it. We better answer.”
Jo Jo nodded. “Fine, but this, uh, conversation isn’t over.”
