For that, Jared was truly sorry. But he couldn’t fault Mike. He had only asked a question. A simple answer from Jack could have ended it peacefully.
Jared tightened his arms around Dee, slowly rubbed his bristly cheek over her silky hair.
Jack refused to answer questions. He refused to listen to Jared’s explanations. He had, at one point, demanded they get off his property. All that was bad enough without Katie’s call. But her timing had been spot on. She had both men climbing into Mike’s truck like whipped pups, Jack’s shouted “She’s got you so tied up in knots you can’t think straight” echoed behind them.
Jared slid a hand up Dee’s back until his palm cupped her head, pressing her face even closer. His lips brushed lightly over her smooth forehead. Jack was wrong. Dee loosened the knots that bound him. She pulled things from him he’d never known were inside.
Like this incredible, consuming need. The rightness of her in his arms.
He feathered his lips down her button nose. As if sensing his need, she tilted her head and offered her mouth.
For the space of five slow heartbeats, Jared stared into her golden eyes and saw reflected in their depths her gifts of comfort, acceptance. Her generosity humbled him.
He kept his eyes locked with hers as his lips, in the lightest of touches, settled over hers. Her eyes grew cloudy, moist. She trembled in his arms.
With soft, slow passes, he cherished her lips. He wanted to show her all she made him feel.
A low moan sounded deep in her throat. Her hands smoothed up his chest, framed his face, pulled him closer.
What she stirred in him was too big to hurry, too new to rush. He needed to savor and coax this same tidal wave of emotion from her.
Time lost meaning, and the universe narrowed to hold only them. His languid pace, his thorough tasting, his explorations seduced him as much as her. He didn’t know himself, didn’t recognize where he was going. But he was unable, unwilling to go in any other direction.
Her skin felt like warm satin. Her curves made just for him.
He slid the backs of his fingers down the slope of her breast and thrilled at the tightening of her nipple beneath his touch. The way she arched her back to press against his fingers.
Her breath tore in and out in quick bursts as he nibbled the delicate line of her jaw. His hand returned again and again to the soft mound of her breast.
Unaware of any movements but those of the woman in his arms, Jared was surprised to see the bed behind her. He needed her flesh bare and warm beneath him. Around him.
Lowering her to the rumpled sheets, he followed her down and cradled her head between his hands. As he deepened his kisses she lifted against him, slid a leg up and over his hips in silent entreaty. “Jared,” she whispered.
Pressing his thumbs under her chin, he tilted her head back, giving himself better access to the slim column of her throat. There was so much he wanted to give her, so much he wanted to take. This wasn’t simple lust; it was soul-deep need. A need focused so specifically on her that nothing before or after mattered. Just her. Just him. Just them.
“I know,” he murmured. “I know.”
Her urgency lit a wildfire in him. Slow seduction became impossible. Hands grown clumsy with impatience tugged and tore at clothing while his hungry mouth explored each new area of exposed skin.
Dee’s writhing, bucking body demanded he come to her. Fill her. Now. The heaviness in his groin agreed. Jared slid off the bed, his hands working on the snap and zipper of her jeans until she lay naked before him. Perfect. Pagan. His. As he moved over her, he knew he would never have enough.
****
A fat grin split Dee’s face as she sprinkled cheese over the chicken enchilada casserole and slid it into the oven. The food secure, she threw her arms wide and danced in circles around the kitchen. Happiness was a boundless, bubbling energy that she couldn’t contain.
She was in love. The emotion was too big to deny, too joyous to ignore. “And why should I?” she asked Lucky who sent her cautious glances from under a chair. “I’ve never been here before. There’s no one in the world like Jared.”
She covered her mouth with her hands trying to stifle her giggles. Jared, her lover, her lover was asleep in her bed. A certain, sassy satisfaction filled her. She’d worn him out.
“Truthfully,” she said to the pup as she bent to give him a reassuring pat on the head, “we wore each other out.” Her snicker sent the dog scurrying further under the chair.
Setting the oven timer, Dee tiptoed down the hall and stopped in the bedroom doorway. Jared lay spread across the bed, arms flung wide, the sheet tangled over and under his legs, the corner reaching over his hip, leaving the scars exposed. He claimed his hip was okay, but he hadn’t argued when she insisted on being on top. He’d taken it like a man.
Her heart pounded. Emotion clogged her throat, burned her eyes. He was magnificent. Long limbs and hard muscles that could soothe as easily as crush. A wide, defined chest that had become one of her favorite playgrounds. His full, erotic lips, slightly open in sleep, were familiar with every inch of her body. How could she feel so much, so fast?
Thirty hours. Thirty perfect, glorious hours. Since he came back yesterday afternoon, he’d been glued to her side or over her or beneath her, teasing her, teaching her, tormenting her to madness.
When Bernie had called to say her Jeep wouldn’t be delivered until Monday, Jared had suggested she help him wash his car. Something to distract her. But somehow all her clothes wound up soaking wet, and goaded by her impetuous nature, she had tossed each article of clothing, piece by sodden piece, at him while his protests grew weaker and weaker until the hose fell, forgotten, to the ground.
Dee leaned her head against the doorframe. He was a perfect lover. Sometimes wild and fast, full of heat. Sometimes slow and savoring, like yesterday, when he seemed intent on branding her soul.
And afterward, when she’d told him she was on the pill. Again. They’d failed to use protection. Again. A reckless, dangerous thing to do in this day of AIDS. She’d bet her last dollar Jared had never been that reckless before.
He’d rolled onto his side, bent his elbow to prop his head, and spread his fingers over her lower abdomen. In growing silence, he measured her from hipbone to hipbone.
There was no fear in the moment, only curiosity.
Her heart had stumbled and fallen.
Fate. Fate had brought her to the one person meant for her.
Carl had plucked her out of California; fear had chased her into Kentucky. Poor map-reading skills had dumped her into Moore’s; car trouble put her at Jared’s feet.
This was where she belonged.
She stepped to the side of the bed, drawn by the white ribbons of his scars. This kind of injury would have other people filing for disability. But not Jared. He used it as an excuse to push himself harder, to be not just as good as, but stronger than before. His scars didn’t diminish him but were a testament to the man he was.
Bracing her hands on either side of his hips, Dee leaned down and paid homage to his courage by planting tiny kisses over his hip.
His head jerked up off the pillow, awake, alert, and interested in what she was doing. She held his gaze as a slow smile spread over her lips.
Like a furnace suddenly stoked, heat poured from his body. “You like my scar?” he rasped.
“Mmm hmm,” she murmured as she placed a wet, open-mouthed kiss along his hip.
He pulled in a stuttering breath and pushed at the sheet. “I think I have another one.”
“So I see.” Dee took his hand and lifted it over his head as she crawled up his body. Face to face, her hair hung in a dark curtain, creating a cocoon of intimacy. “Tell me about them.” She pressed her lips to the starburst pattern at the point of his chin.
His eyelids were heavy, his panting breaths brushed warm over her face. He was aroused, ready. “Later,” he said, lifting his hips off the bed.
Her hands smoothed up
his chest, along the side of his neck. She cupped his head while she kissed his chin. “Now,” she murmured.
His chest expanded on a deep breath. “You already know about the car wreck.”
Her lips followed the line of scars that curled beneath his jaw.
He shifted beneath her, his voice a strained croak. “Plank board. Came through the windshield. Missed my head by inches but shoved the shattered glass inward.”
Her hand slid down to his hip. His body was such a delight of angles and planes, of smooth skin slicked over firm muscle. “This one?”
“Front end folded in. The steering wheel crushed my left side.”
She lifted her head and studied his expression. “It still bothers you.”
He wanted to deny it. She could see it in his eyes, the way he looked away. “Yeah.”
His body was tense beneath her. She smoothed her thumbs over his cheeks, lowered her head, and touched her lips to his. She deepened the kiss, following an urge to erase that horrible memory.
“Dee.”
He would have twisted his head away, but she held him steady and kissed him again. The air around them was different, thicker, closer.
She led with her heart. “I love you,” she murmured before leaning down for another taste of his lips. “I love you.” She slithered down to explore the many textures of his chest. “I love you.” She removed the sheet as she continued toward the end of the bed and slowly, thoroughly, showed him everything she was feeling.
Chapter Seventeen
Dee stood at the foot of the bed, hands on her hips surveying his ragged remains. “You’re proud of yourself, aren’t you?” Jared accused when he managed to catch his breath.
She lifted her chin; her grin was shameless. “Yes.”
The woman could drive him totally insane and make him love every minute of it. Jared rolled off the bed and stalked her.
Dee held up a stalling hand, laughter filling her voice. “We don’t have time. We’ve got to be at the party in less than an hour.”
“When we get back,” he growled a dark promise even though his hip protested each step.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re going to do your worst.” She backed into the bathroom.
He winked. “I was thinking I’d do my best.”
She pulled the door close, framing her face between the door and jamb. “How about both?” she waggled her brows.
Jared laughed as he pulled on his pants. “Get ready, woman.”
The second the door closed, he shut his eyes and bore down on the tearing pain. It was a miracle he could even walk.
Not that he was complaining.
Jared limped down the hall. Taking something for pain was his first priority. A spicy, cheesy aroma filled the kitchen. He opened the oven and peeked at the casserole she’d fixed. His mouth watered. Another talent—she could cook.
He chuckled as he hooked Lucky’s leash and took the dog outside. He was becoming a sap. He had no complaints about that, either.
Dee was different. Everything about her, about them, was new. Like the way she reacted to his injuries, his scars. She didn’t pretend to ignore them. She acknowledged them; she touched them. The memory of her lips on his hip had him thinking about showing her his scars again.
Then there was the way he felt when he considered the possibility he might have made her pregnant. There was no panic. Instead he felt fascinated. Content. Connected.
He wanted to take her to the lake, play with her in the snow. She fit into every image of his favorite parts of life. She would be enthusiastic about Christmas, about decorating, about planting flowers in the spring.
Jared turned his head and looked at the house. He wanted to touch her, another dose of physical connection. He would want that for the rest of his life. She was his future.
Tugging on the leash, Jared hurried the dog into the house, fed him, and secured him in the kitchen.
Dee was still in the bathroom; the blow dryer blared full blast. He pulled open a closet looking for clean sheets. Tonight was going to be special. He would set the stage, make her see they belonged together, no more running. This was her home. He was her home.
When his cell phone rang, he had to sift through bedclothes to find it.
Mike’s misery poured through the phone, but he didn’t let his personal problems cloud his update.
“We’ve got eyes on him?” Jared asked in thrilled disbelief. He patted the warm hand Dee rested on his arm. The warmth from her shower surrounded him. “He’s right; Dee’s safety comes first.”
Dee pressed her forehead against Jared’s shoulder, and he pulled her close.
“We’ll see you soon.”
“You’ve found him? Carl?” Dee asked as soon as Jared disconnected. “He’s here?”
“Everything’s going to be fine. Carl’s not here.”
“But you said you were watching….”
“Jack. We’re watching Jack.”
She pulled away. “Jack, not Carl.”
He knew that look. He’d seen it often enough on Katie’s face when Mike did something to aggravate her. Anger and defensiveness were always Mike’s instant reaction. And damn if the same feelings didn’t sprout in Jared. “Look….”
Dee stepped back. “Katie was right,” she murmured. “You guys have it out for Jack.”
Okay, that accusation burned. “Jack has had opportunity both times. He’s got something to gain with you out of the way.”
Her voice grew stronger. Defiant. “If that’s your motivation, it’s gone. Jack has nothing more to gain. I’ve already decided to use him.”
“But….”
“And he knows it.” She pulled in a deep breath. Her golden eyes narrowed in magnificent rage. “Where is Carl?”
Jared’s temper spiked another ten degrees. “Carl is in Columbus.”
She turned to the dresser, scooped up her phone and started punching in a number.
“What are you doing?”
She didn’t bother to look up. “I’m verifying Carl’s location.”
Jared grabbed her phone and pitched it on the bed. “Stop it. Just stop it.” He got a stranglehold on his temper. “Dee, I’ve checked him out. I promise. I did a soft pass the first day you mentioned your suspicions. All the reports have him clean and clear in both cases.”
She stood still, listening. A small victory.
“I ran a second pass, a deeper look, after the first accident.” Paperwork, reports, things he could access without raising an alarm. “And a third one yesterday.” There was no point in mentioning he hadn’t actually gotten in touch with anyone yesterday. He’d reached out to districts neighboring Columbus. So far, no one had responded to his message. “Dammit, there’s nothing.”
Her rigid stance had not eased a fraction.
“Dee, honey, how well do you know Melanie’s sister?”
She locked her arms over her chest.
“I’m sure she’s upset about her sister’s death, but smearing a decent guy isn’t going to bring her back.”
He thought she’d been angry before. Now Dee exploded. “What about what I know? What about what’s happening to me?”
Jared inched a cautious step closer. “Stupid isn’t a crime.” He lifted his hand and slid the backs of his fingers down Dee’s cool cheek. “And he was stupid to ever hurt you or let you go.”
She jerked away from his touch.
“They did look at him for Melanie’s death, but he was cleared.”
She nodded, careful to keep her gaze away from him. “Saint Carl.”
She deflated before his eyes. Her energy, her sparkle, her strength drained away. “Did you ever believe me? Or has this all been about placating me?”
“You know it’s not….”
“Yes or no.”
He refused to feel guilty. “I considered it possible, obviously. I looked. But there’s no proof.”
She turned away. “Carl Ormsby was a mistake that nearly cost me my life. I can’t afford
a second one.”
“Dee….”
She shook her head. “Just go.”
“I’m not going to….”
“Go!”
He dug his fingers into his scalp. She was way off. Too upset to see reason. He wasn’t about to let her go. They’d work it out. But maybe an hour or two to cool off would be best for both of them. “I’m going to leave now. But I’ll be back tonight.”
“I don’t want you here.”
“I don’t care. I’m not leaving you alone. Not tonight, not any night. Not until whoever is stopped.” He continued before she could protest. “I won’t sleep in your bed if you don’t want it.”
She snorted.
“I don’t have to sleep in the house. I can stay in my car. But I will be staying. Your safety is all that’s important to me.”
The click of the oven registered in the silence. The warm, spicy aromas wafted down the hall. “I promised to help set up at Moore’s.”
She made no move to get ready. Obviously she wouldn’t be riding with him.
If he left, she’d be without protection and without a ride.
Jared made two calls as he walked toward the kitchen. Mike was already at the bar, most likely groveling to get back in Katie’s good graces. But Frank was available. “Dee,” Jared called down the hall.
Her response was nothing more than a muffled sound.
“Frank is coming by to pick you up. He’ll take you to the party.”
Silence. Had she heard him? He wasn’t about to walk back to the bedroom and check. She’d figure it out.
****
Dee felt the snick of the closing door all the way to her bones. She tracked the sound of his footsteps as he walked across the deck. Heard the motor turn over, and the car pull away.
She sank to the side of the bed. “Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.” Dee pounded a fist against one knee while shoving away tears with the other. She had rushed through her shower, hurried through make-up and hair drying, anxious to be with him. “You are so pathetic,” she told the image in the mirror.
Unforgettable Heroes II Boxed Set Page 248
