Carolina Blues by Virginia Kantra Page A

and pulled his head down for her kiss.
    And hello, yeah, she could kiss.
    Her mouth was hot and slick and sweet. Her kiss cut into him like a knife into butter, melting him with her response. Well, except for the part of him that definitely wasn’t melting, that jutted, hard and eager, against her stomach.
    “Jack.” The interruption dashed over him like a bucket of cold water. “Luke didn’t tell me you were coming by today.”
    Tess Fletcher. Luke’s mother.
    Reluctantly, Jack raised his head. Lauren stared back up at him, her eyes wide and dark, her lips pink and wet.
    His mind blanked. Stumbled.
    Lauren was a guest of Tess’s inn. Okay, so the Pirates’ Rest wasn’t the no-tell motel next to the trailer park on the other side of the bridge. But the inn had a goddamn honeymoon suite. Guests probably had sex there all the time. Just because Tess Fletcher found him kissing the shit out of a guest in the pantry was no reason he couldn’t . . . They shouldn’t . . .
    Fuck.
    Or not.
    He turned, sliding his hand to the small of Lauren’s back, shifting her in front of him like a shield to hide his obvious erection.
    “Tess.” Even to his own ears, his voice sounded husky.
    Luke’s mother, Teresa Saltoni Fletcher, was a slim, attractive woman in her fifties with a smile-lined face and dark Italian eyes. Her gaze met Jack’s. Her eyebrows rose, very slightly. A mother’s look. Ah, hell. This woman knew him, had invited him to Christmas dinner at her house. He felt fifteen again, sneaking Amy Wolacek down to the basement rec room to have sex on the gnarly brown couch.
    Lauren grinned, unabashed. “It was kind of an impulse thing.”
    “I see.” Tess regarded them thoughtfully.
    Jack bet she did. The woman was married forty years with two sons. He was pretty sure she didn’t miss a trick.
    She smiled. “I didn’t realize you two knew each other.”
    Jack’s brain still wasn’t working properly, his dick still focused on getting upstairs and into Lauren. He was determined to keep things compartmentalized, to separate sex and the job,
Lauren here, Dare Island there, no problem
. But Tess’s arrival had blurred his neat divisions.
    Before he could formulate a response, he heard quick, firm strides cross the kitchen floor and Luke Fletcher walked in.
    “Hey. Hi, Mom.” His sharp blue gaze cut to Jack. “I saw the patrol vehicle outside. Mom acting drunk and disorderly again?”
    Tess rolled her eyes, clearly accustomed to her son’s teasing.
    But Jack heard the concern beneath the gibe. If he’d been thinking with his big head instead of his little one, he would have realized that a police vehicle parked outside the Pirates’ Rest in the middle of the afternoon would be a red flag to Luke.
    But he hadn’t thought at all. And now Tess and Luke were both looking at him, speculation in their eyes.
    “Everything’s fine.” Everything but his dick, pressing insistently against his fly. He cleared his throat. “I gave Lauren a ride home.”
    “Lauren Patterson.” She offered her hand to Luke, a smile in her voice, like she was delighted to meet him. Like she wasn’t embarrassed at all to be caught tangling tongues with the town’s chief of police.
    Maybe she did this all the time, brought men back to her room. Jack realized he was clenching his jaw and relaxed it deliberately. He’d been only too happy to follow her upstairs. He was in no position to judge.
    “I’m a client of Meg’s,” she was saying to Luke.
    Luke shook her hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m Meg’s brother.”
    Her smile broadened. “I guessed. You’re getting married soon, right?”
    Luke’s pleasure showed in his grin. “Next week.”
    “Congratulations,” she said warmly.
    “Thanks.” Luke threw a wicked look at Jack. “Are you Jack’s date for the wedding?”
    Jack narrowed his eyes. He might have to put up with Tess mucking around in his personal life. He didn’t have to take that shit from his