Redeemed

by Becca Jameson

  Finally, he looked up with a triumphant grin. “There.”

  She lifted both brows. “Okaay.”

  “Don’t you have some studying to do or something? You’re making me…nervous staring at me.” He nodded toward the computer he’d carried in for her and set next to the couch. “I assume your on-line classes require some sort of on-line work.”

  She glanced at her own computer bag and exhaled. “Fine. Okay, but you’re acting peculiarly.” She reached over the edge of the sofa and grabbed the case. No part of her had any desire to actually study, but she also knew if she didn’t she would get behind in her classes.

  “All in good time, baby.” He turned back to his work and left her hanging on his words.

  •●•

  Two hours later, Evan jumped out of his skin when the doorbell rang. He’d finally gotten engrossed in his research and had completely forgotten he was expecting a delivery. Not that he’d lost track of every movement Ashley made. Nope. The woman distracted the hell out of him with her sighs and the tiny noises she made while she tapped away at her computer.

  Her eyes were huge round balls of fear when he stood and headed toward the door. “No worries. I ordered a few supplies.” He leaned over the edge of the couch and kissed her forehead on the way by. He found he would take any opportunity to touch her. The sweet torture of contact with her skin was always a conundrum. He ached for the contact, but then ached more from the contact.

  He stroked one hand down her face as he stepped away to get the door, intensifying his lust. Making matters worse for his permanently stiff cock.

  “Evan Harmon?” the man questioned as Evan opened the door.

  “That’s me.” He reached for the electronic pad and scribbled his name for the second time this morning. A variety of boxes littered the front porch once again. This time, he knew well what the contents were. Nothing as ominous as research into the disappearance and drug trafficking of Damon Parkfield. Not this time.

  As the man dashed back to his truck, Evan hauled several boxes inside. It took him two trips, but finally he shut the door and dead bolted it behind him.

  “How many times a day do you get deliveries?” Ashley asked.

  “Never. This is a first.”

  “You sure are popular.”

  “This time it’s not for me.” He smiled at her. “Come. Help me out.”

  She stood cautiously, her gaze roaming around the various boxes. As she stepped around the couch, she gasped. “What is all this?” She had to have recognized the writing on some of the packages.

  “Art supplies.”

  “I can see that. Why?”

  “It’s your passion. You’re bored without them.”

  “I was fine. You didn’t have to do this.” She rubbed her hands together in front of her, her body language defying her words. She was itching to rip open the boxes and examine the treasures they held.

  “I wanted to.” He heaved the largest oblong package up and headed toward the hall. “Come on. I have the perfect place for you to set up a studio.” Evan nudged the first door on the right open with his foot and stepped inside. He set the easel down against the wall and rushed across the room to gather his belongings from the desk.

  “Is this your office?” Ashley asked as she set another box down on his desk.

  “It was.” He stacked papers and files and gathered them up in his arms. “It’s your studio now.”

  She shook her head, gasping. “You can’t do that.”

  “Why not?” He glanced over his shoulder as he headed across the hall. He took a deep breath and turned the knob. This room had been designated as the Hunt-for-Damon office. He was seconds from transforming it into a real office.

  “Because it’s crazy. We barely started speaking to each other yesterday. You can’t just … move all your shit around and…” she voiced from her new studio.

  Evan dropped his stack on the floor inside the Damon room. He glanced around, ensuring there was nothing particular that stood out and would give away any hint he’d been obsessed with finding Ashley’s asshole ex. Somehow he didn’t think she’d approve. And besides, now that he was working for The Council, he didn’t have a choice. He needed to keep her out of this room and all would be good.

  She was standing in the same spot when he returned. He wanted to touch her. Hell, he wanted to flatten her against the wall and engage in a lip lock. But he resisted. She was still fragile, and the best way to ease her stress was to keep the pace slow.

  What he knew for sure was he wasn’t alone, and that fact kept him moving. As he leaned under the desk to detach his desktop from the wall, he smiled. He wasn’t close to being alone. Thank God for wolf senses and their hormones. It boosted his confidence scenting her. He both loved and loathed that she was so aroused.

  Baby steps, Evan…

  Hopefully when he got himself set up across the hall, he would be able to see her, but not have to inhale her essence with every breath. Sure, you can tell yourself that, but you know good and well her scent has filled this entire house now and you are doomed to distraction.

  Chapter Fifteen

  By mid-afternoon, Ashley had a new studio she hadn’t dreamed of owning in this house twenty-four hours ago. It had taken some rearranging, but Evan had moved all his belongings out of the room and tugged all her art supplies in. They’d worked separately for several hours, each organizing across the hall from one another.

  Ashley had the better end of the stick it seemed. Evan had left the mahogany desk for her and a love seat sat against the wall under the window. She’d arranged her schoolwork and computer on the desk and filled the rest of the space with the numerous art supplies. The man had gone a bit overboard when he’d placed the order.

  When she’d questioned him he’d simply shrugged. “I didn’t know what you might need,” he’d said.

  “You could’ve asked.”

  “And ruin the surprise?” He’d winked and moved on.

  As she sat at the stool in front of her easel, she watched Evan across the hall. He had placed his desktop computer on a folding table. The rest of the room was filled with two other long folding tables that were covered with a haphazard spread of papers. Whatever he’d been hired to do, the case sure had a lot of baggage.

  Midway through the rearrangement they’d stopped for lunch. Evan had made sandwiches and they’d sat at the kitchen table as if they did so every day.

  What she wanted to do was drop everything and pad across the hall. She closed her eyes, visualizing leaning over him while he worked, her hands running across his shoulders and down his chest until her mouth could nibble on his ear.

  Her vision was ridiculous. First of all, she’d never wanted any such contact with another person, at least not since she’d been an adult. And second of all, Evan hadn’t said so in specific words, but she got the distinct impression she wasn’t welcome to peer at his massive research.

  It was some top-secret project. He’d only said the client who’d hired him for this was loaded and wanted results.

  She knew he was going to take several days to read through the boring throng of pages, but then he was going to have to leave town again.

  It was the nature of his job. Private Investigators did occasionally have to investigate.

  Considering the ramifications of him leaving town made her heart beat faster. She tried to ignore the reality, but it loomed in the back of her mind.

  Meanwhile, she had other issues to consider. She was playing house with the man of her dreams and she couldn’t—or wouldn’t—let him claim her. How long could she keep this up without irritating him? Eventually he was going to crack. If he was as aroused as she was, and she knew he was, he would only be able to take so much of her hesitation before it started to leak out in his demeanor.

  She rubbed her hands on her jeans. She couldn’t work. The room was all put together—everything in its place. Her laptop sat open on the desk. She could work on her school assignments. She c
ould paint. She could read one of the books she’d brought.

  But instead all she managed was to stare at Evan’s ducked head, wishing she had the guts to go to him. She wanted to feel the strength of his muscles under her fingertips. Every time she touched him, she calmed. Well, her inner turmoil soothed. She couldn’t say the same for her sex drive. It did not calm.

  She stared, unable to stop herself, not wanting to do anything else but watch the top of his head, the way his hands moved around, rearranging papers, opening folders, scribbling notes.

  “You’re going to bore a hole in me,” he said without looking up.

  Ashley flinched, embarrassed, but then she realized he was teasing her. She glanced at the canvas on her new easel, but had no inclination to dip her brush in the paints.

  When she looked back, Evan was stalking toward her, a smirk on his face.

  Normally she would have been horrified by such a look, but in the last day she’d grown close enough to him to realize he would never harm her. Instinctively she knew this. If Damon had looked at her that way it would have been followed by a backhand to the face.

  Evan’s hands didn’t twitch at his sides to go with his expression.

  When he reached her, he circled behind her and picked up the brush she’d set next to the pallet. He dipped it in orange paint. She couldn’t imagine what he was going to do next, nor was she prepared for what happened.

  While she stared at the canvas assuming he was about to attempt to create art, he tapped the brush to her nose.

  Ashley gasped. She swiveled on her stool to face him. “Why’d you do that?” she asked, a giggle bubbling up from her chest. She swiped at the sticky spot on her nose, undoubtedly smearing it, and spread orange all over Evan’s face, shocking herself.

  She sucked in a deep breath when she looked at his expression. He narrowed his gaze, but then casually tapped the brush into the blue acrylic next.

  Frozen in stunned shock, she couldn’t bring herself to duck as he painted her forehead. And then his face broke and he laughed. He set his own forehead against hers, rolling it from side to side until his skin was smeared with the blue paint and they were a matched set. “You’re too serious.”

  “Me? You’re the one buried in work over there. I’m sitting here minding my own business.” She pointed at the stool beneath her.

  “I don’t see any evidence you’ve minded any business whatsoever.” He spread his arm in an arc to indicate the pristine condition of the room that had this morning been his office. “All I’ve seen you do is study my profile.” He lifted both eyebrows, teasing her again. And then he dipped all five of his fingers in her paint, coating each one with a different color.

  He wiggled them in the air, stretching his arm toward her clean canvas.

  She gasped and grabbed his forearm. “Don’t you dare. Those are expensive.”

  “I know. I bought them.” He stretched farther, almost reaching the white surface.

  She jumped up from the stool and put herself between him and the easel, shoving at his arm. “I’m not kidding.” Her effort to thwart him backfired when she bumped into his hand, causing his fingers to drag across her shoulder and down her arm.

  Or maybe he did it on purpose. In any case, a rainbow of colors now streaked down her T-shirt. She grabbed his wrist, but he was stronger than her and he twisted out of her grasp easily to dip his fingers back in the paint. “I think I like this canvas better anyway.” He stroked the acrylic right down the center of her face.

  It had been years since Ashley had engaged in anything so…silly. She jumped out of his reach, backing up across the room. But he was relentless and determined to annoy her. After dipping his hand again in the colors, he darted forward. She leaped to the side, feinting right but going left. He missed her face that time, but his hand landed in her hair, tangling in the length.

  “Oops,” he lied. “Look what I did to your hair.” He picked up the long locks and grinned.

  Ashley took another step back, trying to dislodge Evan, but she hit the wall.

  He crowded her, his hand, still wrapped in her hair, landing on the wall next to her face. “You look so fucking sexy when you aren’t trying to maintain the serious façade,” he whispered. His voice came out shaking, deep, gravelly.

  Ashley licked her lips, her shock over his behavior turning to lust at the look in his eyes. She squeezed her legs together and smashed herself into the wall. She should feel claustrophobic. In fact, she hadn’t been cornered like this by anyone well-meaning for years. But all she could think about was his lips.

  Her gaze landed on the full bottom one, eyeing the orange paint smeared into the corner. “Kiss me,” she blurted.

  Evan lifted his free hand to her cheek and cupped her face. “May I?”

  “Please.”

  He lowered his face slowly, his eyes never leaving hers. He’d kissed her last night and then again this morning, but this was different. This time she knew with certainty she was his.

  Evan tugged on her chin, his thumb pressing down until she opened her mouth. When his lips stroked hers with the barest pressure, a shiver swept through her body. She reached with both hands to grasp his forearms and steady herself.

  Instead of intensifying the kiss, Evan reached out with his tongue and licked a circle around her lips. So intimate, the touch made her vision blur, and her eyes fluttered shut. She concentrated on nothing but his mouth, his breath mingling with her own, each inhalation sharper than the last.

  She squeezed his arms tighter, undoubtedly leaving marks from her fingernails.

  His tongue grazed her top teeth, and he flinched from the sensitivity behind her lip. Each stroke tickled the inside of her mouth and goose bumps rose all over her arms as he teased.

  And then in an instant, he consumed her, a moan escaping his lips as he tipped his head to one side and pressed his mouth into hers. The pressure was welcome. She needed more of him. Anything would be better than the teasing flicks of his tongue against her lips.

  She let him duel with her tongue, learning the feel of his mouth, his taste. She’d never been kissed like this. Even last night paled in comparison. Her entire body reacted to his mouth and she arched her torso against his, trying to increase the contact with him.

  He got the message and stepped closer, straddling her legs and pressing his body into hers.

  His cock nestled against her belly and she quivered at the firm length of him against her. Part of her was dying to know what he looked like, how he felt. And that section of her brain was taking over, slowly seducing her in rhythm with Evan’s lips.

  She pulled him closer, her breasts aching for any sort of contact. They felt full and the tips poked against her bra, rubbing the cotton material, pleading for more. Even the pressure of his chest against her own was better than nothing.

  Still Evan kissed her. He made love to her mouth so intimately she lost all ability to think. He was a trained master, tipping his head left and right, angling her face with both hands now to suit his needs. A low hum continuously escaped his lips as he seduced her.

  And God, she never wanted him to stop. No matter what the consequences, she needed this more than her next breath.

  She jumped when his toes hit the wall with two soft thuds. Truly pinned, she knew deep in her mind she should be frightened, but it didn’t come. The fear never reached the surface. Nothing about the way Evan touched her made her concerned for her safety, neither physically nor emotionally.

  Warmth suffused her body; a tingling entered her limbs. Her temperature seemed to rise with each breath either of them took, bringing their chests in closer contact. Ashley released her grip on Evan’s forearms and wrapped her arms around his body, pulling him against her.

  He resisted. The stiffness of his rigid stance was evident.

  Finally, he released her lips. He set his forehead against hers and peered into her eyes as she widened them. The loss of his mouth was unacceptable. Why did he stop?

  She
searched his gaze for anything that would answer her question.

  His mouth tipped up on one side in a grin. “You liked that.”

  She could only blink. She more than liked it. She wanted more.

  He held her head with both hands, caressing her cheeks with his thumbs. His smile dropped as he lowered his lids and inhaled deeply. “You’re so aroused. You’re going to kill me.”

  Those words made her tighten her pussy. Moisture leaked out to dampen her panties. Her jeans felt too tight, the seam pressing into her clit and threatening to buckle her knees.

  And she wanted more. “Don’t stop,” she murmured.

  “Baby…” He circled her mouth with one finger.

  Her swollen lips opened in attempt to capture his finger.

  “Any more of that and I won’t be able to stop myself.” He heaved for oxygen as he spoke.

  “I don’t want you to stop.” Had she said that? Her body trembled, but it was true. She was done dancing around the elephant.

  He stared deep into her eyes, seeming to read her soul, making her feel exposed from the inside out. Long deep inhales filled his lungs.

  She barely breathed herself. She couldn’t and remain standing. While he scented her she had to keep herself in check or she really would collapse against the wall. His masculinity oozed from every pore, calling to her on a primitive level. It wasn’t to be denied and she couldn’t fight it any longer. But still she couldn’t inhale too much at once or she feared she would faint.

  “Are you sure?” he asked. He tapped her temple with one finger. “Here, I mean? I know your body is primed for mating, but I need to know your mind is on board also. I won’t do anything to jeopardize your mental progress. I would never be able to forgive myself if I did anything that upset you.”

  “I’m more sure than ever in my life. Claim me, Evan. Erase all the bad experiences in my past and smother them into nonexistence with new ones…true ones.” She was sure. Suddenly nothing else mattered except being with Evan, closing the gap between them and letting him into her heart, her mind, her body.