True to You

by Jennifer Ryan

  That all ended tonight.

  He appreciated how hard she tried to relax and be a part of the conversation and getting to know everyone. She didn’t just let them talk about him; she asked questions about each of them.

  And he sat back and let the feeling that this was just right settle into him. He’d meant it when he said she’d be his wife. He’d spend every second of every day making her want to be by his side. Forever.

  Cara leaned back against Dawson’s chest and the arm he had draped on the back of her chair. Little Amy sat on Cara’s lap drinking her bottle, blond wispy hair tickling Cara’s chin.

  Emily’s eyes filled with a wistful look that tilted her lips into a soft smile. “You and Dawson are going to make beautiful blond, blue-eyed babies.”

  He kissed the side of her head, tickled his niece, then blew off his sister’s comment. “How about I take her on a real date first and see if she can live with my crazy work schedule?”

  The pair shared a look Cara read as Shut up, sis and It’s true.

  Cara had to admit, the baby lying on her chest felt pretty damn good. And now that she didn’t have the threat of retaliation and death looming in her life she could think about her future in a new way. With Dawson in her life, she had a real shot at normal.

  “It’s time to go,” Dawson announced.

  Cara had to admit, she liked it here. Grace and Dawson’s mother were in the kitchen cleaning up. His father and two brothers were in front of the TV catching up on the sports scores. Emily stayed at the table with them and Amy, playing matchmaker with little comments like “You guys are so cute together” and that one about them having babies. She guessed this is what family was all about, sharing a meal and their lives, which included their gentle and sometimes overt meddling.

  She could live with it. And Dawson, so long as he kept loving her with gentle strokes of his fingers on her shoulder, kisses that came out of nowhere and packed a punch of warmth and love, and his steady presence beside her.

  Dawson slowly stood, pushing her up. He took Amy from her arms and held the little girl to his chest. He looked so natural and happy to nuzzle his nose in Amy’s neck to make her laugh.

  Cara smiled up at him. “I have to admit, that’s damn sexy.”

  He stared down at her and shook his head. “You’ve had a long day. We still have a lot to talk about.” Dawson handed Amy over to his sister. “See you soon, sis. Thanks for coming.”

  Emily stared up at him. “I like her. I like seeing you happy even more.”

  Dawson stared at Cara. “I am happy.” He held his hand out to her. She joined him on the other side of the table and he pulled her close as they said their goodbyes to everyone and walked out to their cars.

  “Where’s your truck?” she asked, looking for the old white one.

  Dawson pointed to a practically brand-new black Ford truck. “That’s mine.”

  “The other was just for work?”

  His gaze fell away. “Yeah.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Where are you staying? We’ll go, we’ll talk and clear the air about what happened.”

  She put her hand on his chest. “I’ll follow you home.”

  “It’s quite a ways. Are you sure you’re not too tired to drive? I don’t want you dozing off on the road.”

  “Dawson, I’m fine. Let’s go. You seem to have a lot to say to me.”

  He frowned, but held her door open for her and closed it after she slid behind the wheel. She wanted to ride with him, but didn’t want to have to come back to pick up her truck tomorrow. She wanted to spend the whole day with him before he went back to work. They needed time alone to settle the tension between them and get their rhythm back. Tonight with his family had been a good start, but when it came to matters of the heart, that was better done in private.

  And with no clothes if she had anything to say about it.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Dawson held Cara’s hand and walked up the path to his front door, unsure how this would go. Dinner with his family seemed so natural and right, but now his nerves returned as he tried to put his thoughts in order. He needed to apologize, make his case, and find a way to convince her to stay. Not just tonight, but forever.

  “Are you sure this is okay? We’re kind of out of the way. The drive back to town and wherever you’re staying means even more time on the road. I don’t like it.”

  “I’m fine where I am.”

  He didn’t know what that meant.

  She tugged his hand. “How come you didn’t plant anything along the path?”

  “I did. They all died because I work long hours, get home late, and forget to water them.”

  “I hope you treat that beautiful black horse in the barn better.”

  King stopped on the porch and stared down at her. “How did you know—”

  “Did you take every blanket I made from my place?” She pulled her keys out of her purse, unlocked his door, and pushed it open. All the bags and boxes she’d packed into her truck the day she left sat in the entry way. She walked in ahead of him and waved a hand toward the living room. “The one from your bed at my place is draped over the couch.”

  King didn’t know what to say or do. He couldn’t believe she was here. In his house. Ready to stay. Right?

  She scrunched her lips into an unsure pout. “You ordered me to come home.” She held up the key he’d tucked into the letter he’d written her. “Isn’t this what you meant?”

  He walked into the house, slapped the door shut, and approached her with an intent she never saw coming. “Well, if you’re staying, I’ve got some rules.” He mimicked her statement to him when he went to live at her place. “But first, I’ll need to search you.” He spun her around, took both her hands and planted them on the wall at shoulder level. He pressed his body against her back, her sweet ass snug against his aching cock, and whispered in her ear, “Just to be sure you’re not hiding anything illegal beneath this sexy dress.”

  “You’ve already seen what’s beneath this dress.”

  He smoothed his hands down her arms to her shoulders, sliding his fingers up and into her soft hair, sweeping it up and out of his way so he could kiss her neck and inhale her intoxicating scent. “I’ve missed you so damn bad.” He slid the zipper down her back, swept his hands inside the two sides, and brought them around to cup her breasts. With his hands full, he grazed his thumbs over her tight nipples and rubbed his hard length against her bottom as she rocked her hips into his.

  “Find something you like?” Her husky voice drove him wild.

  He unhooked the lace bra and slid his hands beneath the cups and weighed her bare breasts in his palms. “I like these a lot, but I’m not done with my search.” He trailed his fingertips over her breasts, down her belly to the edge of her panties. “What do we have here?”

  She leaned back against him, dropped her hands, so the open dress and her bra fell free of her arms and draped from her hips. “Well, Mr. DEA-man, you should investigate further.”

  “I’ll give it a thorough going over.” He slid his hand down and over her mound and wet panties. He stroked her with one hand and pushed the dress off her hips and down her legs with the other to pool on the ground at her feet. With her hands splayed once again on the wall in front of her and wearing nothing but a swatch of lace that barely covered her, she let her head fall back and rocked against his hand, sighing with pleasure.

  He wanted to give her more. He wanted to take more. A trail of kisses down her spine made her tremble with anticipation. He hooked his fingers in her panties and dragged them down her legs. With her round bottom in his face as he bent to relieve her of her last stitch of clothing, he couldn’t help but lean in and give one soft cheek a nibble. When he grabbed both globes in his hands and squeezed, she pressed her ass into his palms. He rose and spun her around by the hips. Her back hit the wall just as he pressed his body into hers and took her mouth in a deep, hard kiss, his tongue sliding in to taste and tempt. She took
it and gave back, sliding her tongue along his, her hands fisted in his hair, holding him to her.

  He broke the kiss only to plant more down her neck and chest to her breast. He took her hard nipple in his mouth and sucked, then licked softly as she arched her back and offered up the bounty before him.

  “Dawson,” she pleaded, her hips pressing forward, seeking his touch.

  He had other ideas and kissed his way down her body. He slid his hands over her sides and bottom as he planted a kiss just above her damp heat. He pulled one leg over his shoulder, opening her to him. From his knees, he stared up at her, his breath fanning the spot she most wanted him to touch. “Say it again.”

  Her heavy-lidded gaze stared down at him. “Dawson,” she sighed out his name.

  He planted his mouth over her center and sank his tongue deep inside her wet core. Her fingers raked through his hair and massaged his scalp as he licked and laved that sweet little bud and sank one finger deep inside of her. God, she tasted like heaven and sounded like a song as she moaned and sighed above him.

  Her body tightened. She pressed into his mouth and down on his hand and shattered with a soft cry of his name.

  He caught her in his arms before her trembling legs gave out and she sank to the floor. He kissed her, sliding his tongue along hers much the same way he’d made love to her moments ago. She sucked his bottom lip, tasting her and him all at once, then let him go and let her head fall back against the wall.

  Her sultry blue eyes stared up at him and the sexy grin on her lips sent a renewed bolt of lust through his system. “That was a very thorough search.”

  He chuckled, took her face in his hands, and brushed his thumbs over her soft cheeks. “I’m not done yet.”

  The smile she gave him warmed his heart. “I hoped not.”

  He dropped his gaze down over all her curves. “I think I like you best in nothing at all.”

  She gathered his shirt in her hands and pulled it up and over his head, dropping it on her discarded dress on the floor. “We agree about so many things.”

  “Like the fact that you live here now?” He wanted to be clear about that.

  One of her eyebrows cocked up. “Well, so long as we agree about your rules.”

  He hooked his arm around her waist and picked her up, using his free hand to help wrap her leg around his waist. “Rule number one, every disagreement ends with you and me making up in bed.”

  She kissed him softly as he walked down the hall to their bedroom. “I foresee a lot of disagreements, then.”

  He chuckled, fell forward, and laid her out on the bedspread he’d taken from her place. One she’d spent hours knitting but didn’t feel the need to take with her when she left. He took it to make sure she didn’t leave everything behind.

  He was so glad she hadn’t left him behind.

  With her under him, he stared down at her. “If I make love to you as much as I want to, you won’t have any time to disagree with me about anything.”

  She undid the button on his jeans and slid the zipper down, freeing his achingly hard cock. “Prove it.”

  He didn’t move. Couldn’t. Not when her hand wrapped around and stroked him from hilt to head, her thumb brushing over the top before she stroked down again. “Christ, Cara, you kill me.”

  “All I want to do is make you happy.”

  “I couldn’t be any damn happier having you here with me.”

  She kissed him softly and sent her hand up and down his hard length. “Let’s see if I can make you even happier.” She kissed him again and he rocked into her bold hand.

  Unable to sustain her sweet torture, he pushed her hand aside, tore his clothes and shoes off in record time, and managed to remember the condoms he’d thrown in the bedside drawer.

  Cara rose and pushed him onto his back. Willing to do anything she wanted, so long as he had her in his arms, he lay back and let her have her way with him. Desperate to have her, he brought her down on top of him, her breasts crushed to his chest, her hands sliding through his hair, her body pressed down the length of his. Lost in kissing her, the feel of her body moving over his, he desperately wanted to sink deep inside of her. She broke the kiss, then rolled the condom on. She rose above him, looked him in the eye in the dim light, and sank down on him, filling herself and sighing out her pleasure. Buried to the hilt, he clamped his hands on her hips and rocked her back and forth. He kept the rhythm slow and steady; she fell over him, her hands planted on both sides of his head, her breasts bouncing in front of his face, until he rose up and took one pink tip into his mouth. She circled her hips as she rose up, then sank back hard on him.

  He lost all control, hooked his arm around her, flipped her over to her back and drove into her hard and fast. Her hands slid down his back, covered his ass, clamped on, and pulled him close. Her body tightened around his and he lost himself in her and the love neither of them could deny.

  Cara lay at Dawson’s side, his arm around her back, his big hand resting on her hip. She listened to the steady beat of his heart and traced the contours of his six-pack with her fingertips.

  “I love you, Cara.” His deep voice broke the quiet night. “I don’t ever want to lose you again. I understand why you had to leave, why you thought everything here had been tainted. But from now on, when it comes to you and me, no more lies, no more leaving to figure things out. We stick together. We find a way to make things right. We decide what we want and what makes us happy. Together.”

  She slid her hand down his side and over his thigh to the puckered scar where her uncle shot him. “You need to know, I don’t blame you for what happened. You saved me. My life has always been complicated. Meeting you, falling in love with you, finding out you’re DEA, showed me just how complex things can be and still make perfect sense. You and I wanted the same thing: my father to stop doing what he was doing. Neither of us wanted it to end the way it did. He brought you into my life and made sure you’d stay in it.”

  “He saved my life. I never expected that, but I am so grateful he saw that what I felt for you was real, even if I was on the other side.”

  “It’s time to let this go. You did your job with the best of intentions to keep me out of it and safe.”

  “When your uncle went off the rails, I had no other options than to eliminate him before he killed you.”

  “I know.”

  He brushed his fingers through her hair. “You understand, this is part of my job. This is what I do for a living.”

  “I understand, and I’m sorry you have to do it and live with it. I can’t imagine what it’s like for you.”

  “It’s a lot of sleepless, lonely nights.”

  “Not anymore. I will always be here to get you through the tough times. I know that dark world and I won’t let you get trapped in it when you’re trying to do good. That’s if you want me to stay.”

  “Next rule, this may have started as my house and property, but this is our home. This is where you will always belong.”

  She believed that. She felt it. “I like this place.”

  “Our place,” he corrected her, making her smile.

  She hugged him close. “But it doesn’t matter where we are, you will always be home for me.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Two weeks after moving in with Dawson, she’d settled into their routine. He left early in the morning to go into the office or on whatever assignment he refused to give her details about but assured her he was safe. She spent her days working with the insurance company to close the claim on her restaurant blowing up, unpacking the items she’d had packed and shipped from her house and the barn that she had put up for sale, and trying to figure out what to do next with her life.

  She liked working, having a purpose, but she had to admit decorating their home, making dinner for them every night, and riding the horses on the vast property wasn’t bad either.

  She still had a lot of her past to clear up, including the number of questions the DEA still asked abou
t her father and uncle. Dawson tried to stay out of it and let her handle it. He didn’t want to muddy the waters anymore between their personal life and his job.

  She couldn’t wait for her past to remain there instead of intruding on her new and developing future.

  It wasn’t so far in the past that she didn’t still have her suspicions and guard up. She’d spent the last couple hours shopping in town. Truck loaded with groceries and plants from the nursery, she checked the rearview mirror again and spied the same black SUV she’d seen at all her stops in town.

  Uneasy, she dialed Dawson’s cell.

  “Hey, sweetheart, where are you?”

  “On my way home. Are you there?”

  “I came home early. I thought I’d take you out to dinner at the Italian place you like so much. I have a surprise for you, too.”

  “That sounds great.”

  “What’s wrong?” His voice notched down to that serious tone he used when he talked on the phone about work.

  “Um, I think someone is following me.”

  “Where exactly are you?” Concern filled his voice, amping up her anxiety.

  “I’m about ten minutes away on the main road home.”

  “Give me a description of the car and whoever is driving.”

  “Black Suburban. I can’t see the driver. He’s hanging back too far.”

  “Are you sure he’s not just going in the same direction?”

  “I saw the same car in town everywhere I stopped. Maybe I’m paranoid . . .”

  “No. You’ve spent too long watching your back for a threat. Come home. Park with the driver’s door at the house, the passenger side of the truck facing down the driveway, blocking you from whoever drives in after you. I’ll be ready.”

  “What does that mean, Dawson?”

  “You know exactly what that means.” Yeah, time to open up that huge gun cabinet and pull out the rifles he used with deadly precision. “I’ll stay on the line with you, so you can update me if they pull up closer or try to run you off the road.”