“Do we?”
Before he could answer, she brought her mouth to his. They’d both been through an experience he wouldn’t want to repeat. That was no excuse, he told himself as the feel of her lips on his radiated to every cell of his body. He’d picked her up to comfort her. Suddenly his reasoning wasn’t so clear. He’d wanted her in his arms. Now he was shaking with the need for her. As he kissed her with a passion gone out of control, she returned the fervor, her hands moving over his back and into his hair, holding his mouth to hers. The world had vanished around them. The only thing in his universe was the woman in his lap, her hip pressing against the erection suddenly straining the front of his jeans. He slid his hands under the back of her knit shirt, pressing them against her warm skin, reveling in the feel of her. But it wasn’t enough. Acknowledging his own surrender, he angled her away from his chest so that he could move his hands around to the front of her, cupping her breasts through her bra. They were small, but sensitive, and she moaned as he stroked his fingers back and forth across the hardened nipples where they poked through the clinging fabric.
Neither of them spoke, but words were unnecessary. She lowered her head, her teeth digging into his shoulder and her long hair hiding her face. For long moments, she stayed where she was as he continued to caress her. Then she moved, shifting her body so that she was straddling his lap, only a few layers of fabric separating his cock from her sex. It was a clear indication of what she wanted—a perfect echo of his own desire.
Chapter 14
Max didn’t know what would have happened if a loud horn hadn’t blasted through the bubble around them. Her head jerked up, her expression startled, and he followed her gaze, seeing that a huge truck had come around the curve in the road and slowed so that it was opposite them. The driver, who was much higher than the SUV, leered down at them.
“Get a room,” he called out.
Olivia slipped off Max’s lap and turned her head away, using her long hair as a curtain and waiting until the driver had started up again and disappeared down the road.
“Sorry,” both of them said at the same time.
“Not your fault,” Max said, his voice thick with frustration and passion. “I picked you up and put you in my lap.”
“It’s just as much on me,” she answered. “I shouldn’t have started anything out here.”
He didn’t ask what that last part meant. Would it have been all right to start something if they were in the privacy of the farmhouse?
She pulled down the visor, inspected her face and ran her fingers through her hair.
After taking a breath and letting it out, she asked, “We were going to see Brian Cannon?” she asked.
“You don’t want pizza?”
“After we finish with Brian.”
He reached for the starter button, and she reached for her seat belt. When he started the vehicle with a jerky motion, she grabbed the door handle.
“Sorry,” he said again.
She made a dismissive sound. “We’re going to his office? And you know where it is?”
Again he answered in the affirmative.
“Are we going to call him first?”
“Better if we just drop in.”
“What if he’s not there?”
He shrugged as he drove back the way they’d come. “There are a lot of other suspects we can try. Like maybe Tommy Larson.”
“Is he a suspect?”
“He was on edge at the meeting.”
“Right.”
“But everybody in the class is a suspect. Maybe everybody who was at Donley when you were.”
“You mean teachers or custodial staff?”
“It’s possible. Did you worry about any of the janitors?”
“No.”
He turned off when they reached the outskirts of Columbia, the town that had been built from scratch on Howard County farmland by James Rouse, who had wanted to make the new city a model for America. Back then, the local residents had resented the intrusion into their way of life, Olivia’s father probably among them. Had he vowed never to let his family shop at the Columbia Mall, but the decision had finally become too inconvenient?
The New Town, as it was still called forty years later, was divided by Route 29, with most of the more recent development on the east side of the major highway, and much of it built since the last time Max had been in Howard County.
Cannon Limited was in an upscale office park off Broken Land Parkway, and Max pulled into a parking space several rows from the glass and brick building. When they climbed out, Olivia looked down at her front, grimaced, and tugged at her bra before pulling at the hem of her knit shirt. Max inspected his own clothing, but didn’t see any sign of their previous behavior. Still, he ran a hand through his hair before they started for the building.