Jake froze and his eyes hazed red. The urge to slam this fucker’s bald head on the table was overwhelming. If Schneider mentioned Stella by name, there was no telling how Jake would react. He had trouble keeping his seat as it was.
“What about her?” he asked carefully. “Haven’t kept up with local news except the thing on Wheeler.”
“My suspicion is she was in cahoots with Wheeler.”
“Are you saying she’s the one who has something of yours?”
Schneider smirked. “Now you’re following.”
“Not really. What does she have?”
The other man’s eyes narrowed as he continued to shuffle those cards. Now Jake wondered if that was his method of dealing with the loss of his guns, his way to remain calm because Jake sensed a white-hot rage simmering inside the man.
Finally, he stopped fanning the cards and leaned forward. “You and me. I don’t trust you yet. Be at the dock tomorrow.”
“Not working this weekend. I’ve got shit to do. Monday.” He bargained.
Schneider’s expression of surprise was so comical, Jake had to struggle not to smirk.
“Do you want the job or not?” he demanded.
“I do,” Jake said. “But I’ve also learned not to jump when someone says so. I quit the Navy for a reason—boss.” Pushing back on the chair, he stood. When it came to scum like Schneider, he had no problem using his height and bulk to his advantage. Compared to Gould, he knew Schneider would salivate in getting Jake to work for him. “Monday. Need to think this shit over. I’m interested. No doubt about that. But this thing with Wheeler makes me leery.”
“He deserved it.”
Jake shrugged. “If you say so.” He nodded to his empty glass. “Thanks for the drink.”
He turned his back, alert to a double-cross or Schneider blowing his top and simply shooting him, though that was unlikely given how crowded the tavern was tonight.
All he wanted now was to get back to Stella.
10
Jake barely kept the Silverado below the speed limit but getting flagged down by a state trooper would suck. Not when he couldn’t shake the look of fear on Stella’s face when he promised to come back. Fear for him. Something twisted in his chest, knowing that she cared and that made it important for him not to break that promise.
When he arrived at Castle Rock and after he made sure he had not been followed, he went straight to the basement. He didn’t leave instructions for Stella on how to close up for the night, and he was also certain she wouldn’t want to head up back to the apartment by herself. The control room was more interesting and there was stuff to do.
The elevator reached the basement and he yanked open the crisscross gates. She was nowhere in sight, but it wasn’t hard to figure out where she was since there was a section of cots at the corner. He rounded the divider and, sure enough, he found her.
On her side, curled up on the collapsible bed, hands tucked under a cheek. His chest spasmed again and, if he didn’t know better, he’d think he was having a heart attack. But he knew better, knew that in the span of just over a day, this woman before him had gotten under his skin.
Taking a deep breath, he crouched beside her and shook her shoulder. “Stella.”
She made a sleepy moaning sound that elicited an answering twitch in his dick. Someone shoot him in the head. This torture couldn’t get any worse. He wasn’t about to molest someone in their sleep.
“Stella,” he repeated.
She blinked, drowsiness weighing heavily on her lids. “Jake?”
“Want me to carry you?”
“Oh … no … I’m fine.”
Nodding, he stood and decided to busy himself shutting down the servers and lights. He put the security system in sentry mode. The motion detection should arm in fifteen minutes. When he turned back to face her, she walked into him and wrapped her arms around his torso, giving it a squeeze. He didn’t hesitate and hugged her back.
She rubbed her face against his chest, the top of her head barely clearing its midpoint. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Told you I would be back.”
She didn’t say anything, just sighed or maybe she inhaled. Jake wasn’t sure, but it was time to call it a day.
“Have a good chat with your gram?” he asked, punching the button for the first floor.
“She’s fine. I think I calmed her down. I showed her around the control room, you know, so she’ll know you’re legit.”
Jake chuckled. “Yes, I wasn’t her favorite person.”
“Well, seeing that if you hadn’t abducted me, I’d be sleeping in my bed right now and would be watching the guys in the Trident Run tomorrow.”
The elevator doors slid open. They both stepped out, but Jake grabbed her arm. At her questioning gaze, he said, “I’m sorry I messed up your life.”
“Well, it’s not exactly ruined.” A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and she stared back at the elevator. “Why didn’t Viktor make the elevator go all the way to the second floor from the basement?”
Jake shrugged as they continued walking down the hallway toward the stairs and up. “Maybe so we don’t become lazy asses? He’s very big on fitness. You should see his home gym and he’s all about interagency sports.”
“He’s competitive at that age?”
He burst out laughing. “You think he’s an old man?”
Stella had a pensive look on her face. “I don’t know why I thought that. Come to think of it … physically he doesn’t look old, but it’s his eyes, you know?”
Jake understood what she meant. “Like he’s seen a lotta shit in this world.”
“Yes.” When they reached the top of the steps, Stella gave an almighty yawn and said, “I think I’m going to bed.”
“Sure you don’t want to share an MRE with me?”
She winced. “I’m surprised you didn’t grab real food on the way home.”
“There’s some good stuff in the basement kitchen. It’s stocked with the best flavors. There are bacon and eggs.”
“Yum,” she muttered.
Jake grinned. “That wasn’t very enthusiastic.”
“That,” she pointed out, “was sarcasm. I ate a protein bar and some stale nuts.” She winced again.
Even when he knew she was teasing, that fact didn’t sit well with him. He remembered she was eating some ethnic delicacy at the convenience store. That sounded like an oxymoron, but she did say Pungo was a foodie destination, so maybe Jake needed to be less of a hick. Besides he wanted to … what did he want?
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Stella asked warily.
He dropped his gaze. He’d been staring, so he gave a shake of his head and grinned in self-deprecation. “Think I’m not keeping my promise to take care of you.”
Stella rolled her eyes. “Jake. We’re on the lam.” She started walking away. “I don’t expect five-star dining.” She made an exaggerated yawn again. “I’m just glad you’re home.” The smile she gave him was tentative—shy—no it was damn right endearing. “Good night.”
His grin faded as she walked away and disappeared into her room. A mild disappointment settled on his chest. He’d been eager to come home. And then he stilled and smiled again. She said “home” too. He turned to the pantry and whistled a tune. He shouldn’t expect too much too soon for fuck’s sake. They’d known each other a total of … he stared at the clock. Midnight … that would make it twenty-eight hours.
As he heated up the baked chicken pocket, his thoughts strayed to their hot encounter earlier. One he tried so hard to compartmentalize while he was facing Schneider. But now he was free to indulge in his fantasies of having her up against the wall. Just the thought of their bodies plastered together sent a bolt of lust through his veins and blood surging south.
The microwave dinged with his dinner. He was hungry enough to eat, but his hunger ran deeper than food… it was a hunger deep in his marrow, a craving for the woman sleeping in the room n
ext to him. It would be torture to sleep. He wasn’t sure he could, but maybe he could jack off in the shower.
Standing up, he disposed of the empty packet and marched with purpose to his bedroom, bypassing her door, refusing to be that pathetic person with stalker-like behavior and lurking in the hallway again. He stripped on his way to the bathroom. He was already at half-mast as the shower started. He gripped his cock and gave it a few tugs… yeah, he was hard, but he wanted to torture himself with Stella in the starring role.
He stepped under the warm spray, grabbed the soap and lathered, imagining Stella’s tits, the shadow of her nipples etched against her shirt. He encircled his cock which was stiff like an iron rod and started to pump. His lusty thoughts went to her mouth, how they would wrap around his cock, how he would thrust against the back of her throat. “Yeah, fighter girl. Take all of me.”
Did she have a gag reflex?
“Yeah, baby.” In his fantasies, she did not. His cock would disappear into her mouth and he would grab her head and keep her there. He would feel the scrape of her teeth warning him because she wouldn’t take his shit and he would … he would …
His fingers tightened, every muscle fiber in his body tensing. “Fuuuuuck!” He groaned as he ejaculated, the power of his climax sent him sagging forward, slapping one palm against the tile as the other milked every drop from his pulsing shaft. He squeezed his eyes shut as he shuddered through his release, repeating her name like a mantra. “Stella …. Stella … take it all, fighter girl. Stella … damn…”
Jake didn’t know how long he stood under the shower as he recovered his breath and the strength in his legs. He switched the water to cold and gritted his teeth, willing it to extinguish the fire in his blood and somehow help him get some sleep tonight. Jacking off once wasn’t enough, he needed to freeze his balls as well so they wouldn’t get any ideas in the middle of the night and give him insomnia or a wet dream.
Sufficiently cooled down, he fished the towel from the hook and wiped the droplets off him before sauntering into the room. His skin was still pebbled from the icy water, but his center was hot.
He paused. Something didn’t add up as his eyes swept across the room, his clothes were still scattered on the floor but the door … the door was closed. He didn’t remember fully closing it, but now it was.
Stella!
Somehow, he managed to hop into his boxer briefs, snag his gun from the dresser drawer and was out his door and barging into Stella’s room with a thump from his shoulder.
The nightlight was on and she was sitting on the bed, staring at him with mouth open. “Jake, what is it?”
“Someone’s been in my room.” He made a one eighty to head back out the door. “Stay here—”
“It was me.” A small voice squeaked behind him.
He stopped in his tracks, not sure he heard her right and slowly, very slowly turned to face her as he was suddenly feeling very naked. “You were in my room.”
His voice was low.
And he just noticed her face was darker under the orange glow of the lamp.
“Yes. I … couldn’t sleep … and your door was open.”
Jake inhaled sharply. “I was in the shower,” he said as he expunged the air from his lungs.
“I know.” She looked away. “That’s why I left.”
Charged silence crackled between them.
“You heard.” The words were like tacks in his throat. Very little embarrassed him having lived with a bunch of guys, and in the military, you needed to have the hide of a rhino. But knowing that Stella might have heard him jack off, calling her name while he was doing it—he was embarrassed, and yet super turned on.
“I tried to leave.” She glanced at him. “I should’ve left when I heard the shower.”
“You should have joined me.”
The color of her face deepened. “You said my name.” There was a slight accusation in her tone.
Jake prowled toward her. “I’ve never hidden my attraction to you.”
Her brows furrowed, and that damned sexy tongue swiped her alluring bottom lip. “Did you finish?”
He stopped short of the bed, towering above her. “I did.” His eyes scanned down her body, noticing her squeezing her thighs together, and he caught a whiff of her arousal, and he wanted very much to taste it. “Did you?”
Her laughter was a bit too shrill, and blubbering words of denial spilled out her mouth and Jake made out an I don’t know what you’re talking about in there somewhere. But yeah, she was lying. Stella Hunt had been masturbating when he so rudely interrupted.
Well, he was about to make it up to her.
Jake sat at the edge of the bed.
“What are you doing?” He loved how her breath caught at her throat.
“Lie down.” At his words, her eyes flared but she obeyed and sank into the mattress. He traced the fabric of her sweatpants up her leg toward the juncture where her thighs met, wanting to explore every secret she was hiding, noticing the laces loose at the waist. “I think, you’ve been a very naughty girl.” A finger followed the trail to the damp heat of her center. “Damn, you’re wet.” His eyes flicked to hers. “Show me what you were doing.”
Closing her eyes, she dipped her right hand below the band of her sweats and she touched herself. If Jake didn’t check his lust, he’d fall upon her like a horny dog.
“I’m close,” she whispered.
“Well, babe,” he said with as much control as he could muster. “Let’s get you there.” He leaned in, captured her mouth in a kiss and slowly extracted her hand from under her sweatpants as he laid beside her. Propping up on an elbow, he continued kissing her, his tongue exploring her inner cheek as his other hand charted her curves up and down her body until it slipped under her shirt and cupped a breast. As he flicked her nipple, she moaned into his mouth and his own breathing fractured at the sounds she was making. She started to writhe against him, so he dragged his mouth away as he shifted his weight over Stella, bracing both elbows on either side of her as he blazed a trail of kisses down her shirt, scraping a nipple with his teeth and sucking it through the flimsy barrier.
Her breathy mewls incited him to go lower and lower. He exposed her belly button and delved his tongue around the tender skin, into its sensitive hollow.
She trembled beneath him.
“Jake, stop messing around,” she whined.
Smiling against her skin, he hooked the waistband and dragged the sweatpants over her hips, pressing a kiss on her lower pelvis. He slid them lower, taking her white panties with them, and kissed the tip of her mound, giving it a broad lick, inhaling her arousal.
She squirmed and he had to flatten his palm on her pelvis to keep her steady. “Don’t move,” he ordered.
Her frustrated moan was almost his undoing. He quickly discarded her clothes, settled his shoulders between her legs and splayed them wide so he could see her. A neatly trimmed pussy was bared to his eyes, slick with her juices, its lips glistening, tempting him to dive in.
“Jake … you’re making me nervous,” she laughed breathlessly, shyly.
He leaned forward and licked her slit. Her thighs tried to clamp his head, but he shoved them apart and went deeper, laving, sucking, savoring, each drop from her pussy was a heady taste that fed him endlessly. He strained his cock against the mattress as his erection thickened. He continued to feast; she continued to writhe on the bed—his name a breathless imprecation on her lips. It spurred him to take her to the peak, back off, only to take her higher until she broke against his mouth. Her fully engorged clit was plump on his tongue and he fastened his lips and sucked and flicked the sensitized flesh until she screamed and yanked on his hair.
Her legs fell open as he bolted up her body, pinning her lower half with his weight. Her eyes were half closed, a satisfied smile on her face drew one of his own.
“Hey, don’t fall asleep now,” he murmured.
“I am just too sated.” She extended her arms and stretched li
ke a lazy cat. “Have your way with me.”
“Is that right?” He imagined pumping into her with abandon. Was it possible to get so hard your dick could drill through concrete? Except right now, drilling into this woman was all he could see. But there was one problem. He dropped his forehead to hers and groaned, “We don’t have condoms.”
“What?” her eyes popped open in almost comical horror.
He lifted his head and stared at her ruefully. “I’m clean, but I’m not going to put you in that spot.”
“I’m clean, too,” she mumbled. “But maybe put that at the top of our shopping list.”
He gave a pained choked laugh. “We sound like an old married couple.”
“Well, that’s not a bad thing.”
He fell on his back and peered forlornly down his cock that seemed to be pissed at him.
“Didn’t you take care of him in that shower?”
“You’re referring to my dick as a him now?” Jake raised a brow as he contemplated taking care of it himself.
“Would you prefer me to call him Jakey?”
He scowled. “Hell no.”
“There’s a simple solution.”
He glanced over at her and chuckled. “Yeah. No. I don’t want a blow job for our first time.”
An expression came over her face, one of wonder. “That’s … sweet.”
He huffed an aggrieved breath. “First you called me cute. Now you call me sweet. What’s next? Nice?”
“I wouldn’t go that far.” She turned to face him, palms cradled beneath one cheek, an uncertain expression on her features. “Stay?”
How could one word make his heart feel so much? Jake was in danger of falling too fast for his little feisty sprite.
Falling?
He had already fallen.
In less than forty-eight hours, he was gone for her.
Hook, line, and fucking sinker.
“I’d love to,” he said huskily.
Jake vaulted over her and walked to the door to close it, making a note to fix the lock tomorrow. Then he returned to the bed. Stella had snuck under the covers—thankfully, she slipped on her sweatpants again—and made room for his hulking frame. The bed squeaked under his weight. Funny he hadn’t noticed this before.
Protecting Stella (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) Page 8
