And then I remembered.
“Hey. How did the bust go for Tex and his team? Did they catch that guy?”
John and Jason exchanged a look before John shook his head.
“No. It seems Brody wasn’t working alone. Someone else at the office is playing both sides of the field. Until we figure out who it is, we’re going to have to bench our team and let the CIA take over until we know for sure that our office is clean.”
“Oh, John. I’m sorry. That’s awful. You guys work so hard to help people.”
Jason rubbed my arm. “Unfortunately, money makes people do crazy things. I’m sure Patzkowsky’s pockets are deeper than ours and someone thought it was worth the risk.”
Heather leaned forward and stared at Jason for a minute. “Can’t you just follow the money then?”
He looks surprised and then confused. “What do you mean?”
“Well, Mr. computer-hacker-genius, if you can pull up everything you did on Emma and Dan, can’t you do that to John’s employees and figure out who it is?”
I could feel Jason looking at me and heat spread into my cheeks. I finally turned to see him staring at me, equal parts hurt and upset. “Heather and I talk about everything….”
His eyebrows shot up toward his hairline before his eyes darted to Heather and back to me. “Everything?”
Heather laughed and I felt myself turn fluorescent pink before I covered my face with my hands for a minute.
“Don’t worry, sailor boy. No matter how much I ask for specifics, all she does is smile and blush. Your secrets are safe with her.” She smirked and winked at me.
Jason ran his hand over my hair and gripped the back of my neck. “That’s good. I’d hate for your friend to discover what a wanton hussy you’re becoming.”
My mouth fell open in shock as he started laughing and Heather and John joined in.
“I…. What?” I stared at him and narrowed my eyes. “Shut up. You love every second of it.”
It was Jason’s turn to look shocked before his eyes heated and his gaze dropped to my lips before coming back up to mine.
“Damn right I do. I have no idea how I got so damn lucky, but I sure as hell have no intention of giving it up now.”
After a moment of silence, Jason turned back to Heather and John. “What she said isn’t impossible. It will take a long time to dig that deeply and I will need permission for some things from an outside party or I’ll end up triggering an investigation because, even if I’m careful, repeatedly breaching the same firewall will catch someone’s attention.”
John nodded. “It’s worth a shot. Tex suggested feeding some misinformation into the system and using it to catch the double-agent, but there are a lot of variables to work out and we’ll have to pick just the right bait to set that trap.”
“Tex is right – flushing them out that way is probably the easiest way to do it. But I can run all this behind the scenes just in case. Everyone signed on at RED-Stone knowing background checks were part of the deal, right? Well, this is just a continuation of that…just a million times more in-depth….”
Emma and Heather stood up to start clearing the dishes and John watched them leave the room before his gaze lasers in on me again.
“I won’t tolerate it, Bourne. We find this fucker and end it. I will not let RED-Stone’s reputation – the legacy Stone left in my care – fall to the ground because of a few greedy, disloyal fucks.”
“Understood. We’ll figure it out, boss.”
~Jason~
Heather was in the middle of telling us about one of the new waitresses at the bar when I felt Emma’s breathing change. We were on the loveseat in the living room and she had curled up against my chest about half an hour ago because she was cold. I knew it was getting late – Mia had played on the floor with the dolls Heather keeps for her and the next thing we knew, she was asleep with her little backside sticking up in the air and her thumb in her mouth. I raised my hand to catch Heather’s attention and pointed at Emma with my eyebrows raised in question.
Heather smiled softly and nodded. She stood and walked to me. “I’ll keep Mia if you want to take Emma home. It might be nice for y’all to wake up without the little monkey in the morning. Wink wink, nudge nudge.”
I huffed out a laugh at her comment, but she’s right, it’d be nice to have Emma to myself without the worries of everything else for a little while.
“That would be great, Heather. Can you walk out with me and get the door so I don’t have to wake her up?”
John stood up and said, “I’ll help Jason if you’ll get Mia into her bed.” When he was right next to Heather, he leaned close to her and continued, “and then get your sexy ass into my bed – naked.” I’m pretty sure he meant to say that so I couldn’t hear, but I did. I laughed and shook my head.
John held the front door for me and then jogged ahead to Emma’s car and unlocked it before pulling open the passenger side door. Emma stirred as I lowered her into the car and I kissed her cheek and whispered, “It’s okay, baby, go back to sleep.”
After shaking hands with John and saying goodnight, I circled the car and got in. Emma was watching me.
“I didn’t mean to wake you up, Em. I know you’re exhausted.”
“Heather’s keeping Mia?”
“Yeah, uh, she suggested that we might like a morning alone without the human alarm clock….” I suddenly felt like maybe I overstepped making that decision. Mia wasn’t my kid and I didn’t ask Emma before I agreed with Heather.
“Okay.” Well, then.
“Why don’t you lean your seat back and try to go back to sleep?”
She didn’t answer, but she didn’t lean her seat back, either. After a minute, she reached over and rested her hand on my thigh. I covered it with mine and she curled her fingers around mine and held my hand. It was completely quiet in the car for a long time.
“He was going to kill me.” This came when we were almost halfway back to the apartment building. It startled me enough that my hand actually jerked the wheel just a little.
I glanced at Emma and saw her staring forward at the dark road ahead of us. I honestly had no idea what to say to that, but she wasn’t waiting for me to say anything.
“You and John both told me to press charges and I didn’t. He and Heather pushed me for two days to let you take those pictures. You told me he was stalking me, but I still didn’t believe it. He hurt Heather. He hurt me. He could have hurt you, too. I can’t even… can’t even imagine what he’d have done to Mia.”
She shifted in her seat, turning to look at me.
“You put yourself in harm’s way for me. For me and for Mia. You took care of us and dropped everything else going on in your life to do it. You haven’t slept, you haven’t gone to work – you made it all about us, even when I didn’t take it seriously.”
“Emma –“
“No. Let me finish, please…. He had a gun. If things had gone another way, you could have gotten hurt or…killed. Because of me. Because I was too naïve or oblivious or just stupid to see what was happening in front of my own eyes. But you never let it hurt me or Mia. So, I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for protecting us at great cost. Thank you for doing that for so many people long before I knew you – because that’s who you are. It’s one small part of why I love you.”
I pulled the car to the shoulder of the road and turned on the hazard lights so I could face her. I cupped her chin in my palm and stroked my thumb over her jaw.
“Em, I love you, too. You aren’t stupid at all. You are gentle and kind and sweet and you try to see the good in everyone. You give people the benefit of the doubt – even when they don’t deserve it. Because that’s who YOU are. And I love you because of that and a million other things.”
I leaned in and kissed her lightly.
“You aren’t supposed to see the danger every day. You aren’t supposed to see the thousand ways someone could hurt you or con you or whatever. That’s my job
. I spent so many years in the darkness fighting the darkness itself. The thing is, when it’s so dark, you don’t even realize how dark it really is until there’s light. That’s you, Emma. You walked into my life and shined light into the darkness. The world is so much better in the light and I never want to go back to living in the dark. So, thank YOU, Emma. I may have saved you and Mia but, the truth is, you saved me more.”
She struggled with her seatbelt for a second and damn near climbed over the console between our seats to get to me, tears filling her eyes. She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed every part of my face that she could reach. When she finally settled on my mouth, the kiss went from sweet to nuclear blast in a heartbeat. She slid her tongue in my mouth and stroked the roof of my mouth and then curled it around my tongue. Her nails scratched the back of my head and neck, her arms pulling me tighter against her. She sucked my tongue, hard.
Before I lost control of myself, I pulled back enough to rest my forehead against hers and closed my eyes. My pulse was pounding in my ears and in my crotch. There was no thought cold enough to pull that blood back out of my groin.
“Dammit, Emma.”
She laughed softly, the sound of her tears still in her voice. “You say that a lot.”
I sighed. “You tempt me a lot.”
After another moment, I kissed her once more and pushed her back toward her seat. I waited while she buckled back in and got settled.
“Let’s go home, babe.”
“I love hearing you say that.” Her hand curled around mine again and I knew it was exactly the right word: home.
Chapter 22
~Emma~
By the time we got back to our building, we were both dragging. It was late and dark and Jason hadn’t slept in a few days, I’m sure. We held hands through the garage, up the elevator and all the way into his bedroom. He asked if I wanted to go back to my apartment but, without Mia, it really didn’t matter.
I used the restroom and brushed my teeth and hair and then Jason took a turn. When he opened the bathroom door, I was pulling my sleep tank top on over my head.
“Nope. No kid, no clothes.”
“What?”
“Mia isn’t here. I want you naked in my bed, even if we aren’t having sex.”
I stared at him for a second before I pulled the tank top back off and set it on the nightstand. Then I pulled my panties down my legs and do the same with them. It was almost awkward to be getting undressed and in bed without planning to have sex with him. We’ve slept together without sex before – but not naked….
“Is this going to be a long-term rule or just for tonight?”
He looked thoughtful as he pulled his shirt over his head and tossed it toward the hamper.
“Long-term, I think. As long as we’ve got the house to ourselves, we should be naked.”
“Hmmm” is all I said as I pulled back the covers and moved my pillow.
When I looked toward him as I slid into bed, my gaze dropped to the massive erection he was sporting. I smiled and looked him in the eye. “We’re not having sex, huh?”
He did almost look embarrassed for a second. “Em. You’re naked and three feet away. I’d have to be dead not to respond to you.” He hit the light switch and I felt the bed dip.
I sighed as he curled up behind me and pulled the covers over us. No matter what, he was always so warm. I didn’t know if it’s all the testosterone or the muscle mass or just Jason – but my cold feet and hands are always ridiculously happy when he snuggles with me.
His erection poked my lower back. Even as I closed my eyes and thought happily of sleep, I couldn’t help but wiggle just a little. He groaned and pulled me tighter against him, but his arm stayed around my waist and he didn’t make any move to make me think he had changed his mind. Part of me was still considering changing his mind for him when I drifted off to sleep.
Hours later, when the faintest shades of morning were falling through the curtained window, I woke up to him lifting my thigh as he pressed into me from behind. I sighed as my body rushed to catch up and my mind drifted in the fog between sleep and wakefulness.
After a moment, he pushed my leg forward and slid his knee between mine so he was almost kneeling over me while I was still on my side. The angle is…different. I looked up at him in the dim light and saw his eyes were closed, his face was soft and relaxed. I couldn’t help but smile. His eyes opened and he smiled back at me and leaned down to kiss my mouth.
He leaned back and pushed my knee up toward my chest and put one hand on the bed behind my back. His right hand cupped my breast and he pinched my nipple and pulled just enough to be sure my body was totally paying attention. I can feel my body catching fire.
I reached up and stroked his chest, dragging my fingernail across his nipple in return. I couldn’t reach much of him from this position, but I ran my hand over what I can.
His strokes sped up and he ran his hand down my side and over my hip. He pulled my leg up and propped my ankle on his shoulder, opening me wider for him. He groaned in approval as he slid a little deeper into my heat. Trailing from my ankle down the inside of my leg, his hand came to my center, swirling through my folds and caressing all of me.
I moaned as he began to circle my clit with his fingertips and I brought my hand down to hold his wrist. Not to control or stop, I just need to be grounded when he made me fly. He stirred his fingers around and around as he pressed deeper and deeper into my body. I could feel the flush spread from my chest up my neck and face. God, he knows my body so well.
He groaned and shifted forward, pushing my leg back in front of me and leaning over me more fully, moving his hand behind me forward for more leverage as his thrusts become harder and faster and I knew he was getting close, too. I sunk my nails into his wrist, now nearly trapped by my thighs, as he rubbed over my clit and I jerked beneath him, moaning his name. He rubbed over me quickly, sending lightning through my body as I climbed higher and higher, before he pinched my clit between his fingers at the same time he sank his teeth into my shoulder. I screamed as I catapulted over the edge. My body went stiff as the orgasm rushed through me.
I heard Jason groan as my clenching walls sent him over, too. He jerked into me over and over, pressing as deep as he could get before he finally went still except for his heaving chest. After a moment, he fell behind me and dropped his arm back around my waist.
“Fuck,” he whispered behind me.
I tried to roll to my back to see him but he held me still, with him still inside me. “What’s wrong?”
“Emma. I…I didn’t use a condom.” Oh. We hadn’t had that conversation.
“I’m on birth control,” I offered.
“I get a physical every six months for work. This sounds so fucking false, but I promise I’ve never forgotten a condom before. I’ve always been careful. And I’m clean. I just…I just cannot believe I fucking did that.”
I started to laugh a little and his arm tightened around me.
“What the hell is funny about this, Em?”
“It’s…flattering almost. You’ve never gotten so carried away that you slept with anyone else without remembering a condom. But I, Emma Parsons: technical writer, single mom, owner of at least two dozen stretch marks and one of the least sexy women I know, made you forget to grab one.” I laughed again as it all sinks in a little more.
He pulled out of me and flipped me to my back so he could see me.
“Emma, you are the sexiest woman I’ve met in my life and somehow you get sexier every damn day. Watching you with Mia makes you more attractive, not less. And those stretch marks? They prove that you carried that little girl in your body and kept her safe and that makes you strong. They’re like scars, baby. Battle wounds. They prove you’re a survivor. And that’s sexy as fuck.” He leaned down and kissed me hard.
He pulled back and stared at me for a minute and his expression shifted to…something. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking just then and I was about
to ask when he shocked the heck out of me.
“Marry me, Emma.”
I knew my shock had to show on my face because I’d never been able to hide anything from him.
“I know it’s too soon and maybe it’s crazy but, I love you and I love Mia. I want to be part of her life and watch her grow up. I want to be her Dad. I want to hold your hand and cheer her on when she plays sports and hug her tight when some shithead breaks her heart. I want to give her a little brother to pick on and love. I want to watch your belly grow with our child. I want to love you and protect you for the next fifty years…. Marry me? Make us a family?”
I felt the tears slip down my cheeks as I looked up at him.
“Yes,” I whispered, my throat clogged with emotion.
He kissed me softly over and over before he hugged me to him and started to laugh. I totally got it. Our lives were nothing alike. Our experiences were completely different – night and day. But both of us had believed that we would never find this. Not a love this big. Not a love this strong. Not a love this true.
I had never been so happy to be proven wrong about something so much in my life.
Epilogue
~Jason~
“There are almost 200 people with access to our systems, John. I’ve already run through a quarter of them without finding anything, but this kind of sweep takes a lot of time and work. I can’t do this sh--, er, stuff overnight. I’m working on it, I promise.”
John and Tex give me shit about editing myself, but Mia has started repeating almost everything since she turned two and I’ll be damned if she’s going to get sent home from preschool in a few years because she offended someone by saying ‘fuck.’ I could still hear her singing down the hall, so editing it is.
I listened as Tex went over his team’s preparations for the mission they were working in the interim since we were all still on hold in the case against Patzkowsky.
“Okay,” John took over. “Tex, you’re a go. Keep me updated but you’re on point. Bourne, keep digging. If we don’t find this mole, we close down. I won’t run things if we can’t run it clean.”
Bourne to Love Emma (RED-Stone Operatives Book 1) Page 20
