Gabrie's eyes widened. "That's what this is about? You think I slept with Darren."
He took another step forward. "What exactly were you doing with him? You tell me to stay as far away from you as possible and the next thing I hear is that you're having meetings with him in his room?"
"How could you think I'd be with him?" For some reason, her mind only then registered just how good he looked. He hadn't shaved in days and his denim shirt was unbuttoned down to mid chest. Darren was attractive, sure, but Jack just...something about him caused her brain to go all haywire.
"Why wouldn't I, Gabrie? We're not exactly together and he had you first."
His words jerked her out of her admiration, and if it was physically possible, her jaw would've dropped to the floor. "You think I'm getting back together with him?"
"What am I supposed to think? You told me to stay away from you. Then I don't hear from you at all and today everyone is talking about you spending time with him. Give me another logical explanation."
"I was asking him about my mother, you dolt! I don't want those conversations in public."
"So I offer to help you with your investigation and you turn me away, but you're more than willing to ask for help from Darren? What's the difference? What does he have that I don't?"
Was he seriously asking her the exact same thing Darren had? "Nothing. He has nothing you don't have. He's leaving today."
Jack frowned. "Huh?"
"Darren is leaving tonight. That's why I had to talk to him today. And you asking what he has over you is the stupidest question ever. From the second I showed up here, you're the only one I thought about, okay? You're the one I choose."
Jack went stock-still. "You're serious? There's nothing between you and Darren anymore?"
"I wanted there to be. You know, when I came back here. But I can't imagine ever going there with him again. I want to try this with you, Jack. I want you to come back to Cross Falls."
He cocked his head and looked at her. "This isn't so the town will stop hating you?"
She snorted. "Let them hate me. I'm sure they'll find some reason." She smiled up at him and for the first time since Drake had dragged her off, she felt some semblance of peace.
"Gabrie, I—"
She didn't wait to hear what he had to say. She leaned forward and kissed him, her fingers curled in the light denim of his shirt. Without hesitation, he kissed her back, his lips pushed hers open, and his tongue invaded her mouth.
He closed the small remaining distance and pressed his hips against hers. She could feel his erection against her stomach even through his jeans and her shorts. At the physical reminder of how much he wanted her, she kissed him harder.
Jack's hands roamed up and down her back and front as though he couldn't get enough. Every touch was too brief. He'd barely graze her breasts before he moved around to cup the curves of her ass and then ran up and down her shoulder blades. The overwhelming sensations had her wanting more and feeling overdressed at the same time.
Fine. If he didn't want to take off her clothes, then the least he could do was get naked. Gabrie pulled away from his kiss and tried to get her shaking hands to undo the few shirt buttons that were actually done. After a few seconds that felt like an eternity, she gave up and just pulled the damn thing over his head.
As soon as his chest was bared, she couldn't keep herself from touching him. She ran her fingers through the small amount of hair and slid her palm over the hard ridges and planes of his stomach, laying a soft kiss right over where his heart beat frantically.
Good. At least she wasn't the only one losing it. She kissed her way down his chest, and his groan vibrated against her lips. God, she loved knowing what she did to him. Spurred on, she went lower and gave him a tiny nip above his belly button and then a soothing kiss below it as she inched closer to the waist of his jeans.
"What are you doing?" he asked hesitantly as she started to tug at the button of the offending pants.
She looked up at him through her eyelashes. "Do I need to explain?" The sound of his zipper descending punctuated the question.
"I mean, are you sure?" His chest rose and fell with tension and Gabrie knew he was only asking for her benefit.
But she was sure. She wanted to do this for him. To show him that she chose him.
She also wanted him to lose control. To feel him lose it the same way she did any time his name was even mentioned. No thought, no logic. Just whatever she wanted him to feel.
Gabrie pushed his pants and boxers off with one tug, and this thick, straining cock was right in front of her. From the looks of him, he was close to the edge, but she wasn't going to let him get off easy.
She lightly wrapped her thumb and pointer around the middle of his erection before she closed her other fingers one by one. When she looked up to gauge his reaction, she had to hold back a smile as the muscle in his jaw ticked.
She kept eye contact as she started to move her hand up and down his length. He clenched his hands at his sides, and for a brief moment, his eyes drifted closed. When he wasn't looking, she took him in her mouth in one deep motion.
Immediately he groaned, and for a second, it seemed as if his legs would buckle. But then he steadied himself and rested one hand on her head. Not moving her. Just resting there.
But then she tuned him out and just did what she wanted. Taking him fast and deep in her mouth, she moved her fingers up and down the base and made sure every part of his cock got attention.
His moans came faster, and she could feel the struggle within him. Maybe he was struggling to stand, maybe he was trying not to come. She didn't care. As long as he knew her struggle. The power rush was intoxicating and only made her want him more.
But the closer he got, the more she didn't want to stop. She wanted to take him to the edge and watch him fall over. All because of her. She moved her mouth over him with renewed vigor and relished every groan, moan, and grunt, knowing it was all for her.
And then he was out of her mouth. "What—" Strong hands gripped her around the waist, and she was lifted up into Jack's arms and met with the fiercest kiss of her life.
"I'm never going to get enough of you," he growled. He stepped out of his pants and carried her to the small, twin-sized bed.
"I wanted to finish," she breathed as he lowered her onto the surprisingly soft blue comforter.
He knelt on the floor between her legs. "I promise I'll let you." He tugged her shirt up. "Next time."
Her shirt landed on the floor and she didn't wait for him as she reached behind herself and unclasped her bra. But as she threw it on the ground next to her shirt, Jack's eyes were no longer filled with desire.
"What the fuck did he do to you?" He splayed his fingers over her bruised ribs.
She took a deep swallow. "They're healing. It looks worse than it is." Well, it used to hurt worse than it looked, but sometime in the past day or two, the pain had finally gotten a bit more bearable while the bruises took on a dark yellowish tint. Probably the only good thing about how furious she'd gotten with Jack was for a few hours, she forgot about the pain altogether.
"If he weren't dead, I swear to God, I'd—"
Gabrie sat up and cut him off with a gentle kiss. "He is dead, okay, baby? He can't hurt me anymore. Now make me feel better. Please. I need you inside me." She took his face between her hands and stared into his eyes. She didn't want to focus on her hatred of the monster who did this.
She wanted to focus on Jack. "Please," she whispered once more.
That seemed to break him. Keeping eye contact, he reached between them and unfastened the button of her shorts and her zipper with one quick, expert motion. She lifted her hips up and he finally looked down to help pull them off, pausing to take off her tennis shoes. As soon as she was naked, he stretched up on his knees, the height of the bed perfectly lined his erection up to her entrance.
In one deep stroke he was inside her, and Gabrie's head fell back as she tried to adjust for his
size. But before she could, he moved within her. The friction set off nerve endings she didn't even remember she had.
He pushed back in with another deep thrust, and her fingers fisted in the comforter.
His big hands closed around her hips and he held her steady as he picked up the rhythm. Every stroke and thrust fanned the flames higher. Sensation seemed to race through her body, and she arched her back to savor the rush of pleasure after her stressful week. To anticipate the release so close.
Without warning, Jack pulled completely out. She let out a moan of despair, but before she could demand he get right back inside her, his mouth closed over her clit and her entire world seemed to fracture.
It was as though lightning shot through her body, and she would've bucked him completely off if he hadn't held her hips steady and made her remain still for his sensual assault. His lips, tongue, and even a gentle scrape of teeth drove her higher and higher.
The second he combined the tiniest nip with two fingers sliding deep inside, Gabrie completely lost it. As she fell back, her orgasm ripped through her. Jack entered her again, dragging out her climax and making the pleasure go on and on. As the waves of pleasure completely took over her mind, all she could do was cling to him and hold on. As his own orgasm hit, he tensed over her. His fingers dug into her hips as his neck corded and he called out her name.
They both were left gasping for breath as they started to come back down. Jack gently pulled out and nudged her to move farther over on the bed.
She frowned down at where their bodies were just joined. "The mess..."
"I'll buy them a new damn blanket." He crawled in next to Gabrie and wrapped his arms around her.
Most of the mess was confined to the edge of the bed, so Gabrie didn't fight him. She turned onto her side so she faced him and laid an arm across his chest.
"So we're doing this for real this time?" He pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head.
"I hate to break this to you, but after what you just did there, I think you're stuck with me."
CHAPTER FIVE
Jack looked at his old family home, which no longer belonged to his family. He tried to determine what all Gabrie had changed, but it was hard with a ninety-pound freight train of a dog frantically demanding attention right in front of him.
"And here I thought he was your dog." He smirked and looked up from his crouching position on the floor of the entryway at Gabrie.
"I think he's sick of me. We spent too much time together this week." She kicked off her shoes and padded into the living room.
He followed her and saw that the furniture was back in place, the walls completely bare and sanded down. It looked as though all they needed now was a fresh coat of paint. "You made good progress." He stopped for a minute to admire the patch of wall between the two windows where he and Gabrie had first...gotten to know each other.
"No. I made progress. Tiny bits of progress. This whole thing has had me way too distracted to worry much about the house. Besides, I don't think Darren is funding the repairs anymore and it will take a few months for your father's estate to be settled. So except for the things my severance can afford, not much is changing in the house for now."
"So you really think my father believed Darren killed your mother?" Gabrie had filled him in on Darren's confession and suddenly everything made so much sense. No wonder his father spent every spare minute with Darren. Philip was scared of him. Scared of what he might do.
And it also explained why Darren had been such a dick to Jack during high school. Jack thought their father favored Darren, but Darren knew that Philip just trusted Jack more. If Dad would've just said something, or talked to them about it, so much of this bullshit could've been solved. But that wasn't Philip Cross.
No. He would bear it and carry on. The only sign that something was wrong was the neglectful state of Cross Falls. As though the house reflected the crumbling state of the family.
It was probably best it wasn't owned by the Cross family anymore. Maybe Gabrie could actually bring some light to the place for the first time in decades. More than he or Darren had ever brought to it.
"So what all did you find this week?" he asked. Gabrie blushed a damn sexy shade of pink and for a minute, he debated throwing her down on the couch and going for round two.
"Nothing useful," she muttered. "Probably more of your childhood stuff than I had any right to go through and boxes and boxes of what looks like junk to me. Do you think you can go through it with me later and see if anything strikes you as odd or out of the ordinary?"
He could think of better ways to pass the time with her, but he supposed he'd have to go through Dad's stuff eventually. He just didn't know what he would be able to identify that Gabrie wouldn't have noticed already. "I can take a look," he said cautiously.
She pointed to the stack of pictures on the coffee table. "You can look through those if you want. Not sure there's anything you would be able to spot, though. Chris is looking into if you or Darren would've had the opportunity to take the pictures, so you'll officially be cleared off the suspect list soon."
The corner of his mouth hooked up. "I'm still a suspect?"
She raised a brow. "Well, officially yes. But I have faith."
"Good," he muttered. "Because I was working some pain-in-the-ass jobs in Dallas back around the time you said those were taken. Ever build a skyscraper in the middle of a Texas summer? Not the best time."
She frowned. "Then why do it? I got the impression you just did whatever the hell you wanted."
He shrugged. "Well, yeah. But I still need to eat. Besides, I was being contracted out for a company that offered great benefits and pay. If they liked my work enough, they would hire me on full-time and I couldn't say no to the opportunity."
"Did they offer you the job?"
"You're looking at a bona fide project manager," he said with a prideful smile. He'd been an idiot to turn away college that his father or football could've paid in full, but he'd worked his ass off to make sure he would never have to ask them for help. He might not be a rich CPA like Darren, but he did okay for himself. Never missed a bill. Never went hungry.
And when he found out that Dad left everything to Gabrie, he really didn't feel that much anger or loss. He'd spent years proving to himself and his family that he didn't need the help. Nothing really changed now that Dad was dead.
"So when are you thinking of going back?" She perched on the edge of the couch as Tank plopped on the ground next to her.
"Don't have a date yet. When I'm ready, they'll let me know when there's a job that needs me."
"So if we were, you know, serious, would you be gone for months and months at a time?" Her eyes were big blue saucers as she waited for him to respond.
He frowned and crossed the room to sit next to her on the couch. Well, he tried to sit next to her, but Tank stubbornly remained at her feet. Yep, it really was her dog now. "If we decide we want to spend more time together, I might be able to get into a logistics position that would have me work mostly from home."
"But only if we were serious," she clarified. She obviously felt awkward. Her eyes were locked firmly on the ground and her fingers fiddled with the string on her shorts.
For some reason, he didn't feel strange about the conversation. He didn't know why. If any other woman asked about him transferring to a different job to be closer to her, he would've freaked and run probably. But it just felt natural with Gabrie. Everything felt more natural with her. It was why it hurt like hell when she kicked him out and why it felt so right to come back to Cross Falls with her.
"Come on." He stood and held a hand out to her. "Might as well start looking now, right? If we have to ask Darren anything in person, we only have a few hours, so sooner is better."
Gabrie bounced off the couch. "Right." She gave him a soft, thankful smile, but he wasn't sure whether she was thanking him for helping or for giving her an easy out of the awkward questions.
She crossed to th
e stairs and he followed, enjoying the sway of her hips in those short shorts a little too much. "I left most of the stuff in the boxes I found them in. But a few things I didn't know about, I separated out and put into one of the empty bedrooms." She started up the stairs. When she reached the top, she turned left, the opposite direction of her bedroom.
When she opened the third door on the right, he frowned at the stacks and stacks of boxes. "I thought you said most of it was still in the attic."
She sighed. "It is. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Hate to break it to you, but your family is full of packrats."
"Okay." He clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "What are we looking at? Where are we starting?"
"You are starting wherever you want to." She took a seat on the bare hardwood floor. "I've already been through all this stuff three times over."
Jack grabbed the box on top of the nearest stack and sat next to her. When he opened it, the contents looked like a bunch of thrown together papers. "You have a game plan?"
Gabrie glanced in the box. "That's everything handwritten by your father as far as I could tell. I've read them all a bunch of times, but couldn't find anything strange."
"So what am I supposed to do?"
"Read them over. See if he was, you know, speaking in code or if anything seems out of the ordinary to you."
Well, this was going to be a boring search.
Gabrie set a hand on his leg and he looked over to see her gorgeous smile. "Thanks for doing this, Jack."
Totally worth it, his mind screamed. "Let's get started."
Two hours later, he'd officially proved himself wrong. The search wasn't boring at all. Every letter and note of Dad's was another reminder that his father was gone. Except now he could read them without the false perception that his father never thought he was good enough. Most of the letters were work related, but the few mentions of him were always full of pride. There was a mention of his 4.0 GPA when he graduated from high school. Another mention of how Jack managed to make a name for himself despite not going to college.
Cross Falls Saga - Southern Suspense Box Set Page 16
