Loved by Darkness

by Autumn Jordon

  She’d slipped out of her dress and waded up to her hips in the surprisingly warm water before Norris reached the narrow beach with the towels.

  “Don’t you know you shouldn’t swim alone?” he called to her as he flung out the blanket. He picked up her dress and lay it and the towels on the edge of the blanket.

  “I’m not swimming yet. Join me. The water is beautiful.” Then she turned and dove into a wave. The water was silk against her skin. Only when her lungs felt like they’d burst, did she push off from the sandy bottom and come up for air. When she swiped the water from her eyes and looked to shore Norris had disappeared.

  “What the hell?” She took a step forward, scanning the path over the dune only to jump back when Norris surged out of the water a few feet in front of her. “Son of a bitch. You scared me.”

  “Good. We’re even.” He flung his hair back and droplets arched into the air. “I thought you got caught up in a riptide.”

  In the moonlight reflected on the water she admired his broad shoulders and the coarse hair covering his chest. Jolene’s heartbeat raced. “So, you dove in to save me?”

  “You look good in red,” he said, ignoring her question.

  Looking into his hungry gaze, her nipples puckered under her lace bra.

  A swell pushed her from behind like an invisible hand and she moved toward him.

  Norris’ strong arms caught her and he lifted her up against him so tightly her breath swooshed from her lungs.

  She smoothed her palms along his wet biceps, longing to feel every ripple of his hard muscles.

  A wave jostled them and she realized Norris was naked.

  Immediately, her skin grew feverish, despite the cool water. She looked at him devilishly through wet lashes. “No suit?”

  “Forgot it.” His gaze dropped to her mouth for a second before lowering further to where her lace covered breasts pressed against his chest. With an intake of air, his gaze rose and connected with hers. “Do you want to swim to the old pier over there?”

  “I sort of like it right here.” She pulled herself against him.

  “Hmmm.”

  Despite his erection nudging her leg, his expression turned pensive. His hold on her relaxed and Jolene worried she’d made a fool of herself.

  “I want you, Jolene, but if you don’t want me to make love to you tell me now and I’ll walk out of this ocean.”

  His fingers caressed her back.

  Certainly not. She had never wanted a man more. With one hand, Jolene broke the thin strap of her panties, slid them off and tossed them over her head and into the Atlantic. Then she pulled herself against Norris again and greedily captured his mouth. She opened her lips to him and he pushed his tongue, laced with beer and salt water, inside of her.

  His warm hands drifted down over her backside and cupped her ass cheeks. He kneaded her flesh and in turn rubbed his erection against her stomach.

  His fingers sought her entrance and stole her breath with their teasing.

  She broke free of his demanding lips and gasped. Heaven wasn’t only above them.

  Jolene laughed and tilted her face up to the stars. Norris took the opportunity to graze her exposed neck and tickle her cheeks with his whiskers. Electric charges followed the trail of kisses he placed on her shoulder and then lower to the swell of her breasts.

  Wanting to pleasure him too, she laced an arm around his neck and pushed back. Then she dragged her free hand down his solid abdominal muscles and closed her fingers around his thick shaft.

  His deep-throated moan made her core tighten with desire. She wrapped her legs around his hips and felt some relief with his shaft nestled against her clit. “I need you in me now, Chief.”

  “Rubbers are on the beach in my jeans, Agent Martinez,” he mumbled between clenched teeth as he turned them toward the shore.

  She dug her nails into his shoulder.

  “Oww.” He winced, nearly dropping her into the water. “What the fuck?”

  Nose to nose, she stared into his heart. “Pill. And recently had annual exam. You?” She pecked his lips and drew her tongue across them.

  A wave jostled them and Norris quickly found his footing. “Right after... I’ve haven’t been with anyone since.”

  She suspected as much.

  Jolene pressed her smile to his lips and arched up and guided him inside her.

  His neck, his shoulders, his arms rippled under her hands while he slowly took ownership of her body.

  Jolene rolled her hips, allowing him to bury his throbbing member completely within her warm walls. She watched his beautiful eyes close to half mast.

  She wasn’t as patient as Norris and began to rock against him wanting their heat to build to an inferno.

  Her sigh broke his restraint and he matched her thrusts and drove deeper into her until she shuddered. Norris’ arm tightened around her waist and after several intense thrusts the universe disappeared above them.

  Jolene was still floating, clinging to his shoulders when he whispered in her ear, “Welcome home.”

  She laughed. “Do not tell me you greet all new arrivals this way.”

  “Hell no. Only the really special ones.”

  She smoothed his damp hair back. “And exactly how many have been special?”

  “One.” He held her head between his large hands and kissed her deeply.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Outside, the birds burst into song. Through the French doors Jolene saw shards of yellow and pink shoot up into the early morning sky above the ocean.

  She sighed. The world could wait to greet her a little longer. She was right where she wanted to be, in Norris’ bed, with her leg draped over his hairy ones.

  Her body felt deliciously mellow as if she’d gone to a five-star spa. Last night, Norris had taken her in the sea, in the shower after the sea and in this bed after that. She felt totally rested and relaxed even though she’d had little sleep. Since waking she told Norris about her life with her parents and that churned up years of pent-up anger and self-doubt.

  He hit home when he noted she could’ve gone anywhere for a vacation, but had come home. Maybe on some level she had wanted to face her past. The past couldn’t be changed. She had to forgive those who’d kept secrets from her because ultimately they’d had her best interests at heart. And then she had to move on with her life.

  Jolene thought about her parents. She was part of the reason this feud, for a lack of a better word, had lasted so long between her and her mother. She had rebelled against her mother as a teenager and had carried the grudge into her adult years, refusing to bend and listen to her mother when she’d tried to talk to Jolene. It was true: Mom had reached out many times over the last ten years but Jolene wouldn’t have any of it. Even Martina had pleaded with her to talk to their mother. Now she felt terrible for causing her parents so much pain.

  Her poor listening skills... Another reason she would not make a good parent.

  Norris fidgeted, smacked his lips, muttered something unintelligible and then relaxed into the mattress.

  Jolene adjusted the sheet over his waist. He’d been right when he reminded her if life hadn’t happened the way it had, she wouldn’t be in his arms last night. He was so damn levelheaded, and optimistic and handsome. Why hadn’t some other woman snagged him up?

  Jolene snuggled into the crook of his muscular arm and began to play with his chest hair, pulling one course curl straight and watching it spring back into a tight coil.

  “Are you having fun?”

  Jolene gathered from Norris’ rough, sexy voice the little bit of sleep they’d had last night wasn’t enough for him. She should’ve let him sleep instead of rousing him for a third romp around two a.m., but he looked too damn sexy with his hair a mess and his broad chest exposed. It was all his fault she was horny.

  “I am.” She shifted and smiled up at him, loving the desire in his drowsy eyes.

  “Good. I want you to have a great time, so you’ll come
back tonight.” He pushed her bangs back and pressed his full lips to her forehead.

  “I think you pretty well sealed that deal several times last night.” His beard tickled her nose and she giggled. She combed her fingers through its fullness. She grew wet between her legs remembering how the coarse hair felt, tantalizing her breasts and stomach and the inside of her thighs. She wanted him again but instead she rested her head against his chest and listened to his calming heartbeat.

  They lay silent for a few minutes while she continued to play with his chest and he brushed his fingers lightly over her upper arm. She loved the way he touched her, as if she were fragile and might break. It made her feel girly and she didn’t feel girly very often.

  “What time is it?” His rock-hard abdomen muscles bunched under her palm when he pushed up on an elbow and stared across the room at the microwave’s digital clock. “Four thirty.”

  “Say you don’t need to get up for work yet,” she pleaded.

  He looked down at her. “Woman if you want sex again I can tell you it’s not going to happen. I’ve had exactly fours sleep in the last two days. And I haven’t made love three times in one night, ever. I’m spent.”

  She tugged his beard playfully. There wasn’t much he didn’t know about her past after her rundown, except for Stefan. She told Norris she’d been in love once and the man had died. However, she left out the part that Stefan was part of a Russian mafia ring she’d been sent to destroy. She also didn’t tell him she’d been the one to fire the kill shot that took Stefan’s life. “I thought you were a Special Force Army veteran and were used to days with lots of action and no sleep.”

  He chuckled, twining his fingers with hers. “You got the Army veteran right, but special forces, no. I was a grunt. Did what I was told for six years before getting out and going into the Norfolk Police Academy.”

  Norris lifted her hand and brushed his lips across her fingers, sending shivers running through her.

  She loved the tiny lines that formed at the edges of his eyes when he laughed. She fought the urge to reach over and touch them. She didn’t want to sidetrack their conversation. There was so much she didn’t know about Norris and she wanted to know everything. “You’re from Western Pennsylvania, right? How did you end up in Norfolk?”

  His full lips pressed flat for two seconds. “You want the truth?”

  “Of course.”

  “A woman.”

  She felt her heart wince with jealousy. “Ah.”

  “Ella and I met while I was on leave for a long weekend. One of my Army pals was from Norfolk and invited me to join him and his family for a Fourth of July barbeque. She was the friend of his sister. Afterwards, Ella and I stayed in touch. We saw each other whenever we could. A year later, I was out and I thought why not give the relationship a real go so I applied at the Norfolk Police Academy and the rest is history.”

  “Not all of it. What brought you here to Cape James?” She felt him stiffen next to her and noted his jaw clench. Whatever it was had hurt him badly. She suspected it had to do with Ella, since she no longer seemed to be in the picture. “If you don’t want to tell me, it’s okay.”

  He sighed and repositioned his arm under her. “I caught Ella screwing another man. I beat the hell out of him and almost landed my ass in jail.”

  His gruff words rushed out of him as if he thought them instead of intending to voice them. The vibrant forest-green color of his eyes deepened the way the earth darkens when a cloud moves in front of the sun. She knew then; he’d loved Ella once.

  In that instant, she both hated the woman for hurting this good man and adored Ella for screwing up so she could be here lying in his strong arms.

  Jolene stroked her hand over his heart, longing to sooth away his pain.

  “We were in engaged to be married in three months,” he said.

  “Ouch.” Jolene flinched with empathy. “Did you know the guy?”

  Norris inhaled deeply, held it as if he counted off from ten, and then blew his warm breath out slowly. “He was my partner.”

  “Oh fuck.”

  “Exactly my reaction too. Fortunately, Carson didn’t press charges. I guess he felt like an ass.” Norris swiped his hand over his face before he glanced down at her. “You know how they say guys fall for women who are like their mother. In my case, it was true. Ella was my mom’s twin through and through. She traded up for someone she thought could provide her with the better life she felt she deserved.”

  “Ah. Right. Your mother is on her fourth husband,” Jolene said. “I’m sorry.”

  He shrugged. “I’m over it.”

  “Are you?”

  “Sure.” He looked down at her. “Why did you question that?” The aching memories still etched his face. She rolled her lips together and shrugged.

  He shifted higher on his pillow. “Really? After last night, you think I’m not over her?”

  “I think you want to be.”

  Norris slid his arm out from under her and climbed out of bed. He grabbed a pair of sweat pants off the floor where he had peeled them off the night before.

  She’d upset him. She hadn’t meant to. She was only being honest about what she saw in his eyes. Whether he wanted to admit it or not, he still had feelings for Ella. And just like the advice he’d given her earlier, he would have to accept the past and let it go.

  Jolene propped herself up on the pillows and admired his body.

  His gaze went immediately to her breasts and she felt a rush of wet heat between her legs again. She tugged the sheets up and covered herself. “How many women have you dated since moving here?”

  “A few.”

  She skimmed her feet along the sheets where his body heat lingered and brought her knees to her chest. She wrapped her arms around them. “How many is a few?”

  “Okay, if you must know...” He yanked the drawstring of his sweat pants tight around his narrow hips. “I hadn’t gotten around to asking anyone out.”

  “Not one?”

  “You have a problem with that?” He crossed to the old wooden trunk standing at the end of the bed and opened the lid. From inside, he grabbed a T-shirt and let the lid drop with a thud. “I haven’t had time to meet anyone.”

  Inside, she smiled. She was the first woman he’d chosen to be with.

  Then her smile faded. Did he think there was a possibility of a happy ever after between them? She longed for an HEA for herself, one day, but now... Impossible. “Yet here you are with me. Why?”

  His head popped out from inside his shirt. “What do you mean, why? You’re hot. We have a lot in common. I like you. I assumed you liked me.”

  He was right. She did like him. In fact, more than she should. He looked so damn adorable with his hair messy. “You’re a great guy but I’m not going to be staying here in Cape James. I have a life and career back in Pennsylvania.”

  “I know.”

  “I don’t come home often,” she said quietly, watching his reaction.

  He remained silent. His expression unreadable.

  “You’re good about this...?” She waggled her finger between them. “Us being temporary.”

  “Sounds like a line I should be saying.” He stared down at her.

  He was protecting himself. He wanted her to believe he’d used her for sex but her instincts told her Norris longed for more in a relationship, more than she could give. “Then we’re on the same page.”

  His icy stare slashed at her soul.

  “Same book too.” With long strides he walked by her and headed to the bathroom. “I’ll be right back.”

  Jolene sat and waited for the door to close behind him before she flopped back on the mattress. She bumped her head on the railed headboard and immediately covered her mouth to conceal her whimper. She’d screwed up royally. Why hadn’t she just told him the whole truth instead of using her job as an excuse? She wasn’t the woman he needed. He didn’t have to say the words for her to know he was the type of guy who wanted a li
fetime with one woman and a family. She never allowed herself that dream. However, she had to admit while he kissed her, held her, made love to her, she had pictures of herself in his embrace years from now.

  “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” Clutching the sheet, she stared up at the white bead-board ceiling. Yes, she had known the second his gaze flickered to the side he was lying about the number of women he’d dated since the breakup. Why hadn’t she simply accepted his answer of a few as the truth instead of probing and pissing him off.

  For some reason, Jolene’s heart sank to her stomach. Admitting what he had to her, wouldn’t have been easy for any man. Guys seemed to have an unwritten code: They didn’t share their feelings under any circumstances. For Norris to reveal the source of his pain must mean he trusted her. And what did she do then? She reminded him she was out of here in a few days, taking his secret with her.

  She listened to the toilet flush and then the water in the shower turned on. Norris needed to wash away her scent.

  “Nice going, Jolene. You’re an idiot,” she mumbled, running her fingers through her short hair. She pulled the sheets to her nose, closed her eyes and drew in the smell of their love making. He might want to forget last night but she never would.

  She shot up and stared ahead. She was falling for him. Had she wanted him to confess he was falling for her too? Was that why she asked?

  What the hell was she thinking letting herself get involved with a man who lived more than three-hundred miles away from her home base?

  Someone she could easily love.

  ***

  Norris stood in the shower with his fists planted against the tile wall and water rushing over his bowed head. Jolene was right about Ella. He wasn’t over his ex. Until he’d met Jolene he had thought about Ella every day since he walked out of their apartment after finding her and Carson together. She totally captivated him. Now Jolene was the woman who preoccupied his thoughts, so much so he had to remind himself to concentrate on his job. With her by his side every day, it made the task hard.