Broken Justice (Justice Brothers)

by Halliday, Suzanne

  Shifting her bags before they all went tumbling to the ground Lacey muttered under her breath, “Um…. Jeez….a little help here would be greatly appreciated,” as she made to unburden her load onto the sofa by the door.

  After an agonizing, sleepless night that had Lacey tossing and turning for hours, she finally just let herself succumb to the inevitable decision. The only choice she could reasonably make. So much unhappiness had been visited on her young life that having hope seemed like a fool’s errand. But somehow, someway, this man named Cameron Justice had burst upon the scene and completely shaken up her carefully orchestrated life of invisibility. And in doing so caused a tidal wave of optimism to creep into her soul. She would put her big girl knickers on, stop being such a wuss, and tag along to Arizona with him, fingers crossed.

  With the hard part of the decision behind her, Lacey was swamped with practicalities like getting some real clothes and preparing herself for a new life. She’d been hoarding every penny she could from the odd jobs she’d picked up with an eye to finding employment and a decent place to live. With a figure in mind of what she could frugally spend, she was up and out at first light to troll through the second hand stores downtown for items she would need. She was, after all, operating at a deficit. She could barely remember a time when she wasn’t obsessed with where her next meal would come from or whether she had a roof over her head.

  On her way back to the motel she wondered what Cameron would make of her spontaneous shopping spree. She was relying on him to provide the transportation to her new life and while she doubted he’d let her chip in for gas, he was going to have to accept that she wanted to pay for her own food and whatever else she needed along the way. Lacey knew the funds she had would start to dwindle quickly but starting out by putting her best foot forward was the only way she knew how to proceed. She’d never relied on anyone, knew better than to even try, and wasn’t about to start now.

  Right this second however Cameron was helping her pick up several items that had spilled off the sofa and was, in fact, holding up the single extravagance she’d purchased - an almost brand new pair of strappy sandals with a chunky heel that would look great with the new pants, tops, and skirts she’d found. His look of astonishment made her stop and pause. Did he think they were too…..too? She hated feeling unsure. When she was around him it was like every single female insecurity ever recorded bloomed in her mind.

  “Hmmmm,” she heard him rumble as he carefully considered the shoes he was dangling in the air. “I like these,” he informed her solemnly with the briefest suggestion of amusement coming from his eyes. Clearly he was going to joke with her about what she bought and just like that, another crack appeared in her invisible armor. He. Was. Teasing. Her. Wow.

  Oh God, each time all that dark eyed intensity focused solely on her, she couldn’t concentrate. How was it that he could scramble her thoughts so completely without saying a word? Standing as they were, with her packages tossed on the sofa and by their feet, separated by just a few inches, she was enthralled by the power radiating off of him. That she felt compelled to put her hands on his chest shook Lacey considerably.

  He didn’t skip a beat as he playfully pretended to peek in her bags. “I hope there’s a pair of shorts in that pile ‘cause with these shoes on, your long legs would look magnificent.” How she stayed standing, she did not know.

  Pulling herself together with a strong mental shake, Lacey neatly sidestepped the flirty banter with a very specific segue back to more important matters. Coughing lightly to clear the sudden thickness in her throat, she ended by tugging at her bottom lip with quick bites of her teeth.

  The shoes completely forgotten, Cam had to restrain himself from reaching out his hand and smoothing her luscious lips with a stroke or two from his thumb. She was trying to look so serious but was hiding her eyes from him. Remembering his earlier instinct that he’d foolishly bullied her into compliance, he remained silent and waited.

  “Cameron,” she started. Hesitating and still not fully meeting his gaze, her eyes darted in every direction as she shifted on her feet. He held his breath for what came next because he understood that she needed to own her part of this decision. She was not a coward and probably felt that she would stand or fall on the strength of her actions. Hmmph, he grimaced. She’d probably want to lay down a few well-stated rules if he was reading her correctly. Okay Ponytail, he thought, give me your best shot.

  Squaring her shoulders and straightening to every one of her five feet and eight inches of height she nodded in his direction. “Thank you for your incredible offer. Even though we just met, I am grateful and beholden to you for this opportunity.”

  Unable to stop himself, Cam blurted out, “Wait! What does beholden mean? If it has anything to do with obligation, forget it Lacey. You won’t owe me a thing. I had a rough time growing up so I’m in a unique position to understand what you’re going through.” The admission of his difficult past came out of nowhere, shocking him almost as much as it clearly intrigued Lacey, if the expression on her face was any indication.

  “All you need is a break, the rest is up to you. If you’re like me, you’ll grab the opportunity and wrestle it to the ground. Make it your bitch!” he snarled good-naturedly. Finally, because he couldn’t hold himself back any longer from touching her, he wrapped his big hands around her upper arms and rubbed slightly. “I have faith in you, Ponytail”.

  There was more she wanted to say about sharing expenses and honorable stuff like that but all her mind could comprehend was the way his green eyes gleamed when he said ‘if you’re like me’. He was so solid and hard, focused, intense. Lacey assumed that was the military in him coming out. Learning some of that may have come from circumstances much as her own made her stop and pause. Maybe her dark knight understood. Actually understood.

  Aware of a tingling warmth spreading through her arms where his large, muscular hands rubbed against her, Lacey swallowed back an unwanted moan and tried to put a smile on her face. “Well, I don’t know about making it my bi……uh, you know,” she sighed, “but I promise to make the most of this unexpected opportunity.”

  Cam had to chuckle at her shy response. What a delight his Ponytail was. Now if only she would touch him back, he thought. Maybe she heard his thoughts because she laid both her palms upon his chest when he used his grip on her arms to gently move her forward.

  Lowering his gaze to her mouth, he watched as her tongue snaked out to swipe moisture along her lips. She was going to be his. At some point. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself. The only thing holding him back right now was that he actually liked her. That and some hidden crumb of male honor in his conscience.

  Liking her meant he had a hard time shutting down the other thought screaming inside his head to take her. Now. Make her his in the most primitive way possible. Mark his territory, his possession. Hell, he didn’t want to scare her away but he also wanted to taste her. Deeply.

  In the end he didn’t hesitate, although he should have. Common sense on hold; Cam grabbed Lacey around the waist, pulling her quickly up against his body as his mouth descended on hers for a hungry kiss that held little finesse. His libido was on fire and nothing less than a no-holds barred oral invasion was going to satisfy his desire.

  Startled by his actions, she didn’t have the time to resist before his lips were feasting on hers. Lacey had never experienced anything quite like this. She had, in fact, never been kissed by a fully-grown man. His tongue stroked the seam of her mouth touching off a firestorm of awareness that had her trying to drag oxygen into her rapidly muddled mind.

  When her lips parted, he took full advantage by swiping his tongue inside her mouth in a way that made her forget all about remaining independent and in control. Instinct, raw and untried, brought her inexpert tongue in contact with his as she shyly answered his incursion into the moist recesses of her mouth. Swirling her tongue around his, she was shocked when his grip became bolder and he molded her trembling body
against his powerful heat while sucking greedily on her response.

  Lacey didn’t know what to do; this was way outside her known world. She knew she shouldn’t be encouraging this madness but the strange force that had been between them from the moment they met kept her willingly in his bold embrace. With mind and senses on overload, she experienced a growing sensual tension that was as totally foreign and confusing to her as a trip to Mars would be. Heat deep within was spreading through her quaking form, making an explosion of throbbing awareness go off in in the juncture of her thighs. She experienced a series of firsts when liquid arousal flooded her panties and a desperate need to taste Cameron shot into her awareness.

  Keeping her hands on his impossibly broad chest, Lacey leaned into him and let all those feelings have their way. She operated on instinct and pure desire, opening up to his questing tongue and voracious lips as he devoured her inexperienced response. He tasted amazing. She couldn’t get enough.

  Cam was on fire and sinking fast. When he lost his intention to keep her at arm’s length and simply grabbed hold, the feeling was like free falling without a parachute. She tasted a thousand times better than he imagined, and the exquisite sensation of her long, lean body pressed so perfectly against his was like nothing he had ever known. And certainly nothing he was prepared to deal with. It was easier to think that what was enflaming his senses was nothing more than biology. He wanted her in the most basic of ways. He was a normal male who sensed an available female. Simple.

  Yeah, right. Nothing was simple about this. Nothing. Pretending that what was happening was just sexual arousal and nothing else was insane but Cam couldn’t bring himself to admit to anything else. Sure, it was knocking on the door of his brain, especially now that he’d admitted to himself that he truly liked her, but he was in no way ready to accept what that meant.

  Right now all he could concentrate on was the way her trembling body moved against his when she raised up on her toes to fit more intimately against him or the hushed moans of need that were rumbling in her chest. Both were enough to render him mindless and on sensual autopilot as he plundered her mouth with abandon. When her hands moved from his shoulders to spear unsure fingers into his hair, he lost whatever small hold on reality he’d been clinging to.

  They stayed like that, wound around one another, held deep in a sensual thrall through a kiss that defined what kissing should be all about, for a long, long time. Lacey’s fevered moans and shaky gasps eventually struck a chord in Cam’s oxygen starved brain. It hit him like a ton of bricks that her responses indicated she’d never been kissed like this a second before that thought expanded all on its own. He knew with absolute certainty that she’d never done any of this before. The thought sobered him up faster than an ice bath. Shit.

  The groan he let out as he left her lips and peeled her off his body sounded harsh and loud in the silence of the small room. “Do you know what you’re doing, Lacey?” he ground out a bit more harshly than intended. “Do you realize what your kissing like that does to me?”

  Lacey got caught completely off guard by the question. She’d been so lost in the sensation of being kissed by Cameron that the last thing she expected was for him to push her away. Embarrassment shot along her nerve endings as she cringed, knowing that her complete lack of experience with the opposite sex had been so obvious to someone who clearly knew his way around seducing a female. She was overcome with feelings of disappointment and self-protection when she realized how close she’d come to making a complete fool of herself.

  When she didn’t answer right away, Cam was gripped with frustration, which he could handle, and a sense of protectiveness for the confused female in his presence, which he couldn’t. Protective wasn’t something he did. On the battlefield he looked out for his brothers, and they him, which was expected warrior behavior. However, in his personal life, he’d never felt protective toward a single human being, ever. Lorraine had seen to that. The only person he’d learned to be protective of was himself. The feelings he was forming for Ponytail were unfamiliar and uncomfortable.

  Sighing, he tipped her chin up with his fingers so she had to look at him. The sheen of embarrassment and uncertainty lighting up her eyes told Cam a hell of a lot. The pieces started falling into place. “Tell me Lacey, are you a virgin?”

  Her blue eyes, which seconds before had been smoky with arousal, turned sharp and defensive at his question. The wary shield she kept around her started to go up until she wavered under his intense perusal. Satisfied that he had her full attention he was flabbergasted when he saw a film of tears appear in her eyes.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered lowering head before he saw any deeper than he already had into her tormented soul. Lacey didn’t know why she’d answered him that way because she knew her words invited the inevitable follow-up. She never discussed this part of her life with anyone. Hell, she never discussed anything at all with anybody, but for reasons she couldn’t fathom this dark haired man with the gruff outer shell and don’t mess with me persona made her feel safe for the only time in her life.

  Keeping her gaze lowered Lacey waited, feeling her heart pounding with anxiety as the silence around them grew. When she finally couldn’t take the suspense any longer she slowly raised her eyes to his, quickly sucking a hiss of air into her lungs at the intense expression on his face. He looked mad, though not at her, which was a relief. She suspected his anger stemmed from having already surmised something of the dark acts that hid in her past.

  Cam hadn’t been prepared for the tears or for her answer. He figured the question had a simple yes or no answer. Her shaken response of I don’t know hadn’t been on the list of possibilities he’d imagined when he asked the question. Kicking her bags out of the way and pulling her toward the sofa, he sat them down. “Explain,” he grimly countered when the tense silence lingered.

  Lacey wished she knew what to say. She hadn’t thrown herself at him, at least she didn’t think she had. They had ended up in each other’s arms when he seemed to give in to something she was just barely starting to understand.

  Sitting cross-legged against the arm of the old sofa she snatched up an ugly throw pillow and pulled it protectively against her middle. God, she hated feeling nervous and really hated the sudden jarring loss of self-confidence that she counted on to keep herself together. Could she tell him about her past? Why in the world would she want to? He was practically a stranger - one who could vanish from her life as quickly and easily as a puff of smoke. Why, even though she knew that, did she feel so pulled in his direction? And why, dear God why, was she letting him so far inside her mind?

  The answer to her question was looking at her across the small distance that sat between them. Lacey might not know who he really was or where he came from but she did know with every fiber of her being that she could trust him, mystique and all. He had his secrets and so did she. They were strangers, yes, but somehow they were also, quite impossibly, becoming friends.

  Cam watched the play of thoughts and emotions on her face, noting each one. She was deciding whether to open herself to him. He felt like a man waiting on the judgment of a jury. His mouth ran dry, then turned to dust when she reached up and yanked the band from her ponytail, letting the brownish gold waves fall softly against her shoulders. The smattering of light freckles across the bridge of her nose taunted him with her innocence and he wondered if it would always be that way even as she aged and matured. She had a natural beauty that left him breathless and made him forget that he didn’t trust women. He suspected she could make him forget a lot of the emotional nonsense he’d been clinging to all his life but right now, he was not the person on the hot seat.

  When she’d gasped at his question and answered that she didn’t know, a piece of his heart squeezed in painful contraction. He’d tasted her innocence and been enthralled by it but her full reaction suggested a darker truth that made his insides churn in anger. The agonizing suspicion that she’d been assaulted or abused becam
e very real as the silence lingered. He wanted to hurt somebody in a powerfully aggressive way. Fearing that this lovely young woman had been harmed for someone else’s perverse satisfaction ripped open a wound in his soul. If his suspicions were correct, he was going to kill the motherfucker who had harmed her.

  “Just let it out. Some things aren’t meant to stay hidden forever.”

  Lacey nodded at his choice of words, sensing he realized some portion of what she might be about to say. She wanted to be brave and fearless, and most of all she wanted this secret to be behind her once and for all. With a deep sigh, she filled her lungs one last time, blowing away years of anger and fear as she simply dove right in and went for it.

  “My mom died when I was only a baby. I don’t really remember her but I do know she loved me. For a while after she was gone, my grandmother was in my life and I remember more of her. Dad was not around very much; he seemed to always be working so Gran did the day-to-day stuff. When I was eight we moved to Oklahoma where dad had gotten a job. We lived in a trailer and all I really remember of that time was being alone and how isolated everything felt. I cried for my Gran but she was far away and after a while she just faded into memory.”

  “Right after my fourteenth birthday, Dad signed on as a pipeline foreman in Alaska. It wasn’t a job that allowed him to bring his teenage daughter tagging along so without any warning I was dumped on an uncle’s doorstep in Florida that I’d never met or known about.”

  The silence lengthened as she struggled to keep a firm grip on her emotions. Lacey had hated the man on sight and while it was apparent from the way the two brothers interacted that they weren’t exactly fond of one another, that hadn’t stopped her father from walking away from his only child without a backward glance, leaving her in the hands of an evil psychopath. Some things can never be forgiven. Her father’s desertion was a perfect example.