I was breathing heavily and I just stared at him, trying to clear my head.

“Who’s in on this with you?” he asked.

I kept silent.

“Who’re you after?” he persisted.

“Please get off me,” I said softly.

He shook his head, his lips turned up a bit and he kissed me again.

I lost any clarity that I had gained with his mouth not on mine and kissed him back, struggling against his hands at my wrists. His mouth moved away, down my cheek to my ear and he said, “I’ll keep this up all day. You’re gonna talk to me, Jules.”

I twisted my head and, don’t ask me why, I was just driven by something I couldn’t control, I touched the tip of my tongue to his neck.

This caused an interesting response. His knees slid down so his body came to rest on top of mine and his hands let go of my wrists. My arms went around him immediately. He brought his lips to mine again and his kiss changed.

This wasn’t a muddle-your-mind, get-you-talking kiss, this was something entirely different.

My body reacted instantly, softening, melding itself to him and one of my hands went under his shirt, my fingers tracing the hard muscle and soft skin of his back above the waistband of his jeans then they slid up the indentation of his spine.

He made a noise, low in his throat that shot straight through my body and pounded between my legs.

He rolled to his side, taking me with him, kissing me, hot, hungry; his hands gliding over the satin of my nightie. I could feel the calluses on his fingers snagging at the material and, for some reason, this thrilled me.

His leg moved. He pushed a hard thigh between mine and his hand slid down my back, over my bottom, up the back of my thigh, lifting my leg at my knee and hooking it around his hip. Then his thigh pressed up between my legs.

It was then the phone beside my bed rang.

Vance ignored it, so did I. We kept kissing, Vance using his talented tongue, then he’d give me soft, quick kisses, then he’d use his tongue again. My hands moved up his back, feeling him and pressing him to me at the same time.

I hadn’t gone the way of voicemail. I still had an answering machine mainly because I liked to see it blinking on the very odd occasion that someone phoned me.

My voice could be heard asking the caller to leave a message as Vance and I kissed and groped, totally oblivious to the sound.

“Jules? This is May. I know it’s early, hon, sorry. Listen, do you know where Sniff and Roam are? Their beds have been slept in but they’re gone…”

My body froze for a nanosecond then I pulled away from Vance, rolled, came up on my knees, my ass again on my calves and I snagged the phone.

“May?” I said into the phone, slightly breathless.

May was a volunteer at the Shelter. She worked more than most of the paid staff. She was a sweetheart and a soft touch, but she hid it just enough so the kids wouldn’t walk all over her.

“Hey hon,” May said into my ear. “You sound like you were running.”

“No, just… never mind,” I said, not about to explain it. “What’s up with Sniff and Roam?”

“They’re not here. Thought you might know something. The kids are talking but not straight out. We think something is happening, or has happened, and we’re a little concerned.”

I closed my eyes and dropped my head.

Then I took a deep breath to calm my heart and mind and said, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Okay, hon. See you when you get here.”

Then she disconnected. I put the phone back and turned my eyes to Vance.

He was on his side, up on an elbow watching me.

“Sorry. Gotta go,” I said.

And before he could respond, I scooted to the end of the bed and, not using the steps, jumped to the ground, landing lightly on my feet. I headed straight to the kitchen.

I went to the table, pulled my cell out of my purse, found Roam’s number and called it. It rang to no answer and Vance walked into the kitchen, stopped, leaned a hip against the counter and crossed his arms on his chest, watching me while I left a message.

“Roam, you get this message, you call me immediately. Got me?”

Then I hit the off button and scrolled to Sniff’s number.

“You gonna share?” Vance asked.

I kept my eyes on him while I listened to the phone ring. What I didn’t do was share.

Sniff didn’t pick up either, so I left the same message.

I flipped the phone shut, threw it on my purse and headed to a cupboard. Boo was circling my feet, oddly absent during the bed area frolicking, he was now ready for breakfast and told me so repeatedly. I got out his wet food, got out one of his bowls and made him breakfast.

Vance watched me and I was acutely aware that I was only wearing my nightie.

Though, considering he had his tongue in my mouth and his hands on my ass (and elsewhere), being prudish about the nightie seemed a bit silly.

“Jules,” Vance called after I’d put the food down.

I headed out of the room, right passed him.

“I’m going to King’s,” I informed him, walked down the hall and went to the closet in my living room. I pulled out a pair of jeans and yanked them on under my nightie.

I had them zipped and buttoned when a hand curled around my upper arm and I was shifted and pressed into the wall. Then Vance got into my space, seriously into my space, head bent close to mine.

“We were in the middle of something,” he told me, like I didn’t already know that and wasn’t trying my utmost to forget it.

“Yeah. I know. Sorry about that,” I said airily, like it was all the same to me (even though it was not) and his eyes flashed dangerously at my tone.

Um.

Yikes.

I decided to explain. “It’s probably for the best. We don’t want things to get complicated.”

He came closer. “We don’t want things to get complicated?” he repeated what I said.

“Um… yeah,” I replied.

“You think things aren’t already complicated?”

He had a point.

I remained silent.

He got even closer, his hands slid around my h*ps and at the very top of my behind he pressed my body into his. His head tilted so it was a hairbreadth from mine. I put my hands between us but this didn’t serve any purpose, at all, because Vance didn’t let it.

“I know about Cordova. I know he wants to get in your pants,” he told me.

My eyes narrowed at him. “If you knew, why did you ask?”

He ignored my question and said something that threw me right off balance. “Jules, listen to me. Since I intend to get in your pants, he’s gonna have to back off,” Vance announced, rocking my world. Then before I could process his words, he finished. “I’ll take care of Cordova.”