I didn’t know what it was. The way he talked about his wife and daughter, the sadness in his eyes, the sheer vulnerability that he had shown. It all mixed together in a mesh of emotions that had me wishing I could have him all to myself, behind closed doors, where I could hold him and make him feel that everything was alright.
I had never really expected to see that side of him. The confidence he radiated, the strength in his demeanor, it had made me a little cautious. A part of me had believed that my attraction to Alex was solely physical, and the fact that he was a cop had only added to the appeal. The ‘danger’ that I was always drawn to.
But this was different. This feeling in the pit of my stomach, the emotions coursing through me, I had never felt anything like it before. All of a sudden, I saw him in a different light. He was still the strong, confident DEA agent with all the testosterone filled appeal that I loved. But there was also another layer there, hidden beneath the surface. Gentle, loving, caring, willing to give the people he loved everything and anything. And after glimpsing it, even if for such a short period of time, I felt drawn to him even more.
You’re in a lot of trouble, Jenni Wright.
“You don’t say,” I muttered to myself.
Alex leaned against his car and folded his arms across his chest, his eyes boring into mine, and I felt that if I met them for too long, I’d end up breaking down and just admitting everything I felt to him.
“I had fun,” he said.
“Definitely an interesting cup of coffee,” I replied, returning his smile and thanking the fact that the night was hiding the blush I could feel creeping into my cheeks.
He opened the passenger door for me. “Let’s get you home before you collapse right here.”
I laughed as I got in, the day truly taking its toll on me, but that wasn’t the reason why I wanted to go home. A part of me knew that if I spent any more time with Alex, I’d be inviting him up for more coffee, and maybe a little more.
He was closing the door when he stopped. He was looking out at the other parked cars, and I turned to see what had grabbed his attention. A few cars down, I caught sight of one of Heath’s friends.
I had immediately disliked the guy when I had first seen him, and hated how he seemed to be stuck to Garth and Heath’s hips wherever they went.
He was standing between two cars talking to a couple of kids that looked like college students, and as I watched, they exchanged something quickly between them.
Oh shit!
“Hold on,” Alex said, closing the door.
This was not going to go well.
Chapter 13: Alex
“Jack, right?”
Jack swirled around just as I came up behind him, I smiled at the other two as they quickly pushed at each other and rushed away. I saw one of them pocket something, telling the other to hurry as they made their way to a car parked a few feet away.
Jack blocked their retreat, standing in front of me with his arms crossed and eyes squinting at me, an aggressive stance that almost made me laugh.
“Just thought I’d come over and say hi,” I said. “Oh, and maybe tell you that what you’re doing is considered illegal in most states. All of them, actually.”
“And what am I doing, exactly?”
I smiled. “Come on, buddy,” I said. “It’s pretty obvious. I mean, you might as well hang a sign around your neck saying, ‘buy drugs here’.”
Jack pulled himself up straight and took what I honestly believed he thought was a menacing step towards me. “Yeah? And what is it to you?”
“Well, given that it’s my job, I feel obligated to make a citizen’s arrest and take you for a ride to the Sheriff. You know, Kent being out of my jurisdiction and all.”
Jack laughed, actually laughed, and leaned against one of the cars. “That’s cute.”
“Isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“Good, we both see eye to eye, then,” I smiled. “So, easy way or hard way?”
Jack shook his head, stepped closer and looked over my shoulder. “Hey, Jenni, can you tell your friend here to mind his own business,” he said. He looked me in the eye as he continued, “He might get himself hurt.”
I didn’t turn around, and silently cursed the fact that Jenni hadn’t stayed in the car. If things got messy, I didn’t want her close to the action where this dimwit could take advantage of her presence and use her against me.
“Kent’s really not the kind of place where you want to use a threat like that,” I said. “I mean, are you going to beat me with one of those flamingos?”
“No,” Jack said, pulling a switchblade out of his pocket and flipping the blade open. “Turn around and walk away.”
“You’re threatening a DEA agent, you know that, right?”
Jack smiled. “I said, walk away.”
I glanced down at the blade, then back at Jack. He was feeling big, confident that he was in charge of the situation. The fact that he had the audacity to even pull the blade out in the first place made my blood boil. It was one thing to not care about the local, small town authority, but it took a completely different level of ‘idiot’ to actually threaten an officer with a weapon. The smirk on his face didn’t help, either. It made me wonder just how much pull Heath and his friends had in Kent.
“I’d put that away, if I were you,” I said, the jovial tone in my voice gone now, my firsts curling.
Jack waved at me with the knife, gesturing for me to keep moving, his smug smile making matters worse. “Get moving before I decide to use this,” he said.
Without thinking twice, my hand shot out, almost as if by instinct. I grabbed his wrist, twisted hard, and pushed him against the car. He cried out in pain as the knife fell from his grip and clattered against the asphalt.
He threw a fist at me. I dodged, let go of his hand and threw one of my own, feeling a sharp pain in my knuckles as they connected with his jaw.
Jack’s head snapped to a side and he fell to one knee, the blow taking him as much by surprise as the speed of his disarming.
The bastard was quick, though. He jumped at me, wrapping his arms around my waist and slamming me into the other car, immediately kneeing me in the side as he threw one punch after the other.
I blocked most of them, one or two getting past my defenses. I felt my head rattle, and steeled myself against his flurry of punches. As soon as I found an opening, I grabbed him by the wrist, twisted his arm, and brought my elbow down against his, bending it out of place.
I heard the snap of his joints and the satisfying shrill scream of pain that followed. Not letting go, I kicked him in the back of his knee, brought him down, and slammed his face against the car door.
“Alex!”
The whole thing had probably taken a few seconds. Jenni was pulling at my arm and trying to drag me away. Jack was coughing, blood oozing out of his nose, and he looked up at me with rage.
“You’re dead, man!”
I pulled out of Jenni’s grip, grabbed Jack by the collar and heaved him onto his feet. I grabbed his arm, applying as much pressure as I could to his broken elbow, and he screamed in pain.
“Watch it,” I warned, hissing the threat between clenched teeth.
He squirmed, tried to kick out, but the effort was weak. I punched him again and let him drop to the ground in a heap, his head rolling to a side as he wheezed through his broken nose. Jenni pulled at me again.
“That’s enough, Alex,” she was saying. “I think he’s gotten the point.”
I looked around. A small crowd had gathered around us from the coffee shop, eyes wide, some holding their cellphones and filming everything. I let Jenni drag me away and back to the car.
“What the hell were you thinking?” she shot.
“You’re kidding, right?” I shot back. “We have to get this guy to the Sheriff.”
“The Sheriff isn’t going to do anything,” she said. “Just get in the car and let’s go. You’ve taught him his lesson.”
<
br /> I frowned at her, looking back at where I knew Jack lay sprawled on the asphalt between the two cars. What did she mean by the Sheriff wasn’t going to do anything?
“Let’s go, Alex,” Jenni urged.
I shook my head in confusion, unsatisfied with the fact that I wasn’t putting the prick behind bars. I looked at her, and she just waved at me to hurry up.
I got into the car, shifted into reverse, and pulled out of the parking lot. I took one last look at the scene, then turned the car around and drove away.
Chapter 14: Jenni
“This is going to sting.”
We were in my living room, Alex on a chair by the window while I dabbed the cut above his eye. He winced just a little, but didn’t pull back, and I would have mocked his macho attitude if it weren’t for the fact that he had just pissed off a lot of the wrong people.
Jack was Garth’s lap dog, and if there was one thing Garth hated more than anything, it was attacking one of his own. It was like an attack on him personally, and he took this shit far too seriously.
“I’m fine, you know,” Alex said.
“Shut up,” I replied, angry and worried at the same time.
There was a lot about Kent that Alex Logan didn’t know, and I doubted Samuel had brought him up to speed on even the half of it. Ever since the college popped up and brought with it a new kind of community, Garth had quickly gotten into the distribution business. There was a reason why my father thought he was bad news, and although no one could really pin anything on Garth, it was common knowledge that he had his fingers in one too many cookie jars. The drug dealing was only the half of it, but a pretty lucrative half, especially amongst college kids.
He had a big stake in the casino and university, too. There was no telling how big his business would grow once those kicked off. And there was no doubt how much more aggressive and possessive he would become. He already had the Sheriff in his pocket, and I doubted there would be a limit to how much money he’d be willing to throw around to get what he wanted.
The only thing standing in the way of the casino was Samuel Logan, and now Alex had just beat the shit out of one of Garth’s ‘friends’. That was definitely not going to sit well with him.
I dabbed at the cut on Alex’s head. You need to let him know. He’s in the middle of all this now.
But I couldn’t. If today was any indication of how Alex’s moral compass swung, he’d probably try and put a stop to all this. As a DEA agent, I expected nothing less, and knew what that meant. He’d taken a risk and had almost been killed in the process. What would happen to him here where he didn’t have backup? And what would his involvement mean for Samuel, or Kelly for that matter?
I sighed, my mind whirling. This is one fucking mess.
“There,” I finally said. “I don’t think you need stitches.”
“I know I don’t need stitches,” Alex smiled.
“Stop that,” I said. “There’s nothing funny about what happened back there. What the hell were you thinking?”
Alex frowned. “I was stopping a drug dealer from distributing.”
“You do know that he’ll probably just be doing the same thing tomorrow, right?”
“With an arm in a sling.”
“Funny.”
“Seriously, why are you surprised?” Alex asked. “You know this is my job.”
“Not in Kent,” I shot back. “We have a Sheriff for that.”
“Right,” he scoffed. “The same one you said wouldn’t do anything?”
“That’s beyond the point.”
“Then what is the point?”
I opened my mouth, hesitated, and closed it again. “You’re not on home ground, Alex,” I finally explained. “The dynamic here is different. This isn’t the Kent we grew up in.”
“Care to explain that?”
I shook my head. “Let’s just try to remember that you’re here to spend time with your father and recover. It’s not fair for your family to get in the middle of the crap that goes on here.”
Alex shook his head. “That makes absolutely no sense.”
“It doesn’t have to,” I said. “Just let the local authority deal with this shit, and enjoy the summer, would you?”
Alex stood up. “What aren’t you telling me?”
I collected the cotton and Betadine, carrying back to the kitchen as he followed me. “Nothing,” I said. “I just want you to be safe. I want Kelly to be safe.”
“Okay, first of all, I can handle myself just swell, thank you very much,” Alex chastised. “Secondly, no one’s going to care about my daughter’s safety as much as I am.”
I whirled around. “Right, and you have the bullet wounds to prove it?”
Alex stopped and stared at me, his eyes locked on mine.
“I’m sorry,” I said, turning away. “That’s not my place.”
“No, it’s not,” Alex replied, his voice calm yet firm.
I looked up at him, nodded and dropped the cotton and Betadine onto the counter. I ran a hand through my hair and sighed.
“Listen, tonight was fun, despite everything,” I said. “Thank you for driving me home.”
Alex looked at me a moment longer, his eyes searching mine. “No problem,” he said. “I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess.”
I gave him a weak smile and nodded.
“I’ll let myself out,” he said. He leaned in, kissed my cheek, and walked out.
I listened to him open the front door and called out, “Alex!”
I hurried out of the kitchen. He was standing by the open door, looking at me, waiting. I walked over to him, slowly, hesitantly. I placed a hand on his chest, leaning into him as I closed the door and locked it. I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks, and when I looked up at him, I immediately lost all restraint. I kissed him, softly at first, wavering for a second before I felt his lips move against mine as he kissed me back. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pushing into his hold, pressing tightly against him as the kiss quickly turned into a heated lock of lips that sent shivers up and down my spine.
I felt my entire body go flaccid, his hands running up and down my back, his lips kissing me hungrily as we moved away from the door, locked in each other’s embrace. I led him to the couch, not breaking the kiss as I fell back onto it and brought him down with me. I loved the feel of the weight of him on top of me, and our kiss intensified as his hands explored every inch of me. I gave into his touch, feeling tingles everywhere, shockwaves shooting up and down my body. His lips kissed along my jawline, then down to me neck and my collar.
His hands found their way under the hem of my shirt, pushing it up as he continued to explore my body, gently cupping my breasts as he kissed me. The heat in my body rose, and I could feel every inch of me begging to feel the touch of his lips against it. I laced my hands in his hair, pulling him closer, feeling like I wanted to crawl up inside him, his embrace like a warm blanket around me.
He looked up at me, our eyes locking, my chest rising and falling in deep, heated breaths. He pushed my shirt higher, and I raised my arms as he slipped the fabric off me and tossed it onto the ground. I kissed him deeply, unbuttoning his shirt and pushing it off. I ran my hands across his chest, the perfectly chiseled body I had imagined finding finally under my fingertips. I wrapped my arms around him, feeling his breath against my neck, moaning softly as he pressed up against me. I could feel every inch of him against me, the touch of our skin driving me crazy and making me want him even more.
I sat up, grabbed him by the hand and led him to the bedroom. Before we even got to the bed, his arms wrapped around me, and his lips kissed the nape of my neck, sending shivers through me. I pushed back against him, feeling him hard against my ass, his fingers expertly unbuttoning my jeans. I slipped out of them quickly, turned around and kissed him. His touch felt like heaven, is strong hands holding me tight, the heat emanating from him mixing with my own as we fell back onto the bed.
His kisses traced lines down my ch
est, across my breasts, down the side of my body and across my stomach. I raised my hips against him, opening my legs as he adjusted himself between them, kissing his way back to my neck. His hands flicked at the front clasp of my bra, and he bent down, hungrily sucking at one nipple after the other. His tongue swirled, his teeth nibbled, and it was all I could do to not jump him right there. I closed my eyes and lost myself in the feeling, his lips everywhere, his hands squeezing my breasts. I could feel him rock hard through his pants, pressing against me, grinding slowly.
I gasped as he pulled my panties down, sliding them off my legs slowly and kissing the inside of my thighs. I curled my fingers in his hair, and held my breath as he made his way up higher. I was gushing, his touch and kisses driving me insane, and when his lips locked onto my pussy, I arched my back and moaned out loud. His hands grabbed my ass, pushing my hips up, his tongue lapping at my pussy, moving up and down slowly and sliding into me. My legs shook as he sucked at my clit and nibbled at it, his hands squeezing my ass as his tongue expertly worked at me. Before I knew it, I was pressing his face against my pussy and exploding with an intense orgasm that shook me to the core.
My hips fell back, and I clutched at the sheets, breathing heavily, my eyes closed and my head spinning. The bed shifted as he stood up, and I could hear him unzip his pants. I opened my eyes just as he crawled back on top of me, pushing his hard cock against me, burying the width of it between my pussy lips and rubbing against me. I grasped onto his arms, the muscles there flexing against my touch as he moved against me. I locked my eyes onto his, waiting for him, grinding against him and letting him know I was ready.
He slid in effortlessly, and I felt my pussy stretched to the limit against how hard he was. He filled me up, slowly, completely, pressed against every inch of me as I reflexively clenched down on him. He closed his eyes and groaned, settling inside me. He sucked at my nipples, and slowly began to move, out and then in. I wrapped my arms around him, my hands tracing the lines of his muscles, my nails digging into his back as he began to pick up the pace.
Passion: A Single Dad Small Town Romance Page 9
