“I caught him being rough with one of the girls who hung around. Let him know that wasn’t an okay thing to do.”
Gwen set her shit coffee on the table and leaned forward, elbows on knees, face in hands. This was insane. She rubbed her temples as her mind raced. Suddenly her stomach dropped.
She jerked her head up. “You said if you told the police too much, they would have killed you.”
Joe stayed quiet beside her.
“Ohm’god.” She sat up straight. “Oh my God.” She stood in front of him. “Is that really what this means? Is that why you’re here?”
“That’s why we’re here.”
Wait.
“You are shitting me!” No fucking way. She didn’t do anything. There was no fucking way she was going to have anything to do with any of this shit.
She grabbed her purse off the table and grabbed the door handle. It was locked.
She banged her hand against the steel. “Goddamnit Heath. I swear to God I will call Gabbi.”
The door opened. Heath and two uniformed cops blocked her way.
“I’m going home.” She stared down the three men, all a good six inches taller than her. She almost smiled as each, shifted uncomfortably under her glare.
“You’re not.”
She turned to look back at Joe. He shook his head.
“Where, may I ask, do you think I am going to go then?”
Heath held out his hand. “Give me your cell.”
He’d lost his damn mind. “No way.”
“Gwen, all somebody has to do is swipe your phone and they have everything they need to find all the people you care about.” He opened and closed his outstretched hand, waiting for her to give in.
She thought about Gabbi and the girls. Son of a bitch. She slapped the phone into his hand, getting some satisfaction when he winced.
“Plus I don’t trust you.” He handed the phone to one of the cops behind him who slid it into a bag marked with her name.
“What?”
“You aren’t the kind of woman to run scared and that makes you more likely to make stupid mistakes that could get you hurt. I need your house keys.” He held his hand back out. “And if you get hurt on my watch, your sister will kill me and I don’t really feel like dying over this either.”
Cop Heath was kind of a dick. She might like him better this way. “Don’t have keys. I use the keypads.”
The cops exchanged glances before the two uniformed officers left, taking her phone with them.
“I get that back, right?”
“Only if you’re nice.” Heath smiled at her. She couldn’t help but smile back.
Heath was a nice man and a good cop. Hopefully a really good cop and this could all be worked out in time for her to go to work Monday. She was ass deep in restructuring the way she ran her office. She had a life to plan.
“You still haven’t told me where you’re sending me.”
Heath wiggled his eyebrows at her. “You get to enjoy a lovely stay at the Hotel Mariott.”
“You could at least spring for the Hilton.” If she was going to have to spend her whole weekend hiding out like she was in witness protection, it could at least be a comfortable one.
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“I’m happy to give you my card for the upgrade.” She smiled sweetly as she pulled out her wallet and held out a black AmEx.
“And that’s why I don’t trust you.” He plucked the card along with the wallet out of her hands. He leaned around her to look Joe's way. “You’re gonna watch her, right?”
“It’ll be fine.” She felt Joe’s hand on the small of her back.
“Do I at least get to go get some of my stuff?”
Heath was already turned and walking down the hall away from her. Joe’s hand pushed her gently ahead of him as they followed behind. “They’ll take us home and let us pack what we need while they check our places for anything odd. Then we get dropped off and they try to sort this out.”
He made it sound like a normal way to spend a weekend and maybe for the guys driving them around it was, but this was not normal. Normal people didn’t end up spending a weekend holed up hiding from outlaw biker gangs.
Normal people made dinner and went to movies and talked about their hobbies and their crazy family members. She wanted all of that. She wanted a nice normal life. With Joe.
Heath directed them into another small room. “Hang out in here for a second. It doesn’t look like the guys are ready to head out yet.” He turned and headed down another hall as Joe led her into the room and closed the door behind them.
One second she was fumbling across the wall in the darkened room feeling for a switch, the next, her feet were off the floor and her back was pressed against the wall, pinned in place by the pressure of Joe’s body against hers.
“Sweetheart, I’m so sorry.” She felt his lips move softly across her neck moving slowly toward her ear. “I will make this up to you. I promise.”
His teeth caught the lobe of her ear, gently scraping as his tongue flicked against it. She gripped his arms, the thought of him using that same technique on other parts of her body making her head spin.
He continued to nip and taste at her skin. Heat rushed through her body, collecting between her legs. His mouth found hers, his tongue immediately filling her mouth with the taste of his.
The door handle jiggled. “Joe, man. They’re ready to go.”
Maybe normal was overrated.
****
Joe laced Gwen’s fingers with his as they sat silently in the back seat of an unmarked cruiser on their way to the Hilton. Joe promised to reimburse Heath after it was all over. It was the least he could do. Gwen seemed to think this was going to be a weekend trip and no one had the balls to tell her that might not be the case, instead letting her float along as if this would all be over soon.
Maybe they were right.
But probably not.
He rubbed his thumb across the soft skin on the back of her hand. Since the call from Heath, he hadn’t wanted to let her out of his reach, let alone his sight. Knowing she was in danger, probably even more than he was, meant there was a distinct possibility he would lose his mind before this was all over.
The night sky was turning from deep midnight blue to a smothered black as heavy clouds moved in from the east, low and threatening. It would be pouring by morning. At least the weather would make it easier to be inside.
Gwen’s head hit his shoulder as she nodded off. It was late. She was exhausted and probably hungry. And he was an ass for putting her here.
“Can we stop and grab some food before we hit the hotel?” He shifted to one side, careful not to disturb Gwen, and pulled out his wallet handing the cop driving the car a twenty.
“Sure.”
They pulled through a drive-through and he ordered a burger and fries and a chicken salad. Most women liked salad.
He looked down at Gwen.
“Give me another burger meal too.”
A few minutes later he was ushering a semi-lucid, soda carrying Gwen through the hall with one hand and carrying all their bags with the other, the food tucked under his elbow.
He slid the key card through the reader, the deadbolt making a loud click. As he pushed open the door a frigid gust of air smacked him in the face.
“Holy shit it's cold in here.” Gwen wrapped her arms across her front as she headed to the air conditioner at the far end of the room. She opened the cover and fiddled with the thermostat while he emptied his arms, dropping their luggage on the floor and laying their dinner out on the two seater table in the corner.
“Are you hungry?”
“I am starving. Some guy was supposed to take me to dinner, but instead I got to help him unclog a toilet and enter the witness protection program.”
He cringed. “Yeah, this isn’t really how I imagined we’d be spending our night either.”
“Really?” The closeness of her voice surprised him.
He turne
d around to find her right behind him. “How did you imagine we would be spending our evening?” Her voice dropped low as she rested her hand on his chest, the heat from that one point of contact burning like it was on fire.
They were alone. Alone in this room for who knows how long. He swallowed.
Up until this second, his only concern had been to make sure she was safe. He didn’t want her out of his sight until he knew this was all over, that no one was going to try to get to him through her. Now he was rethinking the situation.
He was set on making sure he gave Gwen exactly what she deserved before things went any further between them, physically. A nice dinner, a proper date. Show her how he intended to treat her for the rest of...
“What’s wrong?” Gwen’s hand still rested on his chest, but the suggestive look on her face was gone.
“I was teasing before. I know this isn’t your fault.” She slowly took her hand off his chest and stepped back. “Did you get me a burger?” She glanced at the table and then back at him, her face uncertain.
He’d spent many nights around a poker table at the house with the guys from the club and he’d always done well because no one could ever read him. No one but Gwen apparently. She seemed to be able to sense even the slightest shift in his mood. And then call him out on it.
At least this time she didn’t seem to know the exact thing that was worrying him. Not yet.
“I got you a burger and a salad. I wasn’t sure what you’d feel like eating after the evening we’ve had.” He pulled out his burger and fries and sat down across the table from her as she started unwrapping hers.
“I’m starving and that salad isn’t going to cut it.”
She was halfway through her burger when she paused to look up at him. “How long do you think we’ll be stuck here?”
“I don’t know.” He wanted to give her a better answer. He wanted to tell her what everyone else seemed happy to say, that they would be home by the end of the weekend, but he wouldn’t lie to her. “I’ve never really had to deal with this before.”
It was true. He’d been lucky enough to escape the club without ending up on their bad side. Until now.
Unfortunately, he was the exception to the rule when it came to the kind of men who ran with those clubs. Most of them wouldn’t bat an eye at hurting someone, anyone, if that’s what they were told to do. He had seen what they did to people they felt betrayed them and it wasn’t pretty.
He shoved the rest of his food back, his appetite gone. If they got a hold of Gwen and hurt her, because of him, he would never be able to forgive himself. She sat across from him, blissfully unaware of the danger she was in.
They wouldn’t be looking for him. Not at first anyway. They would look for the ways to hurt him the most and it wouldn’t take someone following him long to figure out he cared about Gwen. More than cared.
He watched as she finished her food and crumpled up the empty wrappers before tossing them into the wastebasket by the table. She kicked off her shoes and walked across the room, twisting her long hair into a knot at the back of her head as she went. Grabbing the remote off the long chest below the television, she backed up and sat on the upholstered bench at the end of the king size bed.
She shivered as the air conditioner kicked back on, blowing a cool breeze across the room, the chill bringing her nipples to tight peaks under her gauzy floral dress.
He immediately went hard, the zipper of his fly digging into him uncomfortably leaving him wanting nothing more than to adjust, but he resisted hoping the discomfort would discourage his body’s reaction to her.
She shivered again, her buds growing impossibly tighter. He could almost feel them beneath is tongue, relaxing first as he pulled them into the heat of his mouth then puckering again under the gentle scraping of his teeth.
Jumping up, he grabbed his bag, trying to keep his back to her so she didn’t see his undeniable excitement. “I’m gonna take a shower.”
He headed to the bathroom. He needed to do something or it was going to be a very long night.
Twenty-Two
It was going to be a very long night.
Joe walked out of the bathroom, the droplets from his hair soaking the shoulders of his t-shirt. He should have tried to dry it a little more, but he felt like the time he was taking was about to become suspicious so he hurried to dry off and dress, forgetting about his hair.
From the looks of the current situation, he probably should have spent a little more time in the shower. Gwen was propped up on the bed, covers pushed back, in a teeny, tiny t-shirt that probably wouldn’t cover her ass if she stood up.
Please God don’t let her stand up.
“Feel better?” She smiled and he thought he caught a glimpse of satisfaction in her eyes.
“Not really.” A few minutes ago he thought he felt much better, now he was surprised at his own virility.
He held his bag against his chest as he tried to decide what in the hell he was going to do.
He looked at the couch. The small loveseat would be miserable to sleep on, but sleeping next to Gwen in that shirt would be agonizing.
“Joe, this isn’t your fault. Heath is a great cop. He’s going to figure all this out and everything is going to be fine.” She patted the bed beside her, no clue that her assumptions about the cause of his distress were way off.
“Come relax and watch TV with me.”
He had two options right now. Option one, go sit on the bed beside Gwen and spend an evening of slow torture while he tried to keep his hands, and his obnoxious pecker, away from her. Option two, leave the hotel and take his chances on not getting killed.
Definitely option two. The odds were better.
“Please.”
Gwen got off the bed. He fought to keep his eyes on her face. Nothing good would come of him looking anywhere else. “Just try to relax.”
She stopped in front of him, the bag he clung to keeping her from being able to get too close. “Think of it like a mini vacation.”
She ran her hands up his arms, his skin jumping at the softness of her touch. She meant to be soothing, but all she was doing was stoking the fire burning inside him.
She grabbed the bag. “Put your bag down.” She tugged at it, trying to pull it from his grip. “Unless you’re thinking of running away.” She gave him a wink as she yanked the bag, managing to pull it free, and tossed it on top of hers.
“Much better.” She stepped forward as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
He cringed inwardly as her breath caught as their bodies met. The cotton shorts he packed left nowhere to hide.
Her lips parted and her pupils dilated as she pushed up against him more firmly, her belly rubbing against the underside of his dick, his shorts doing very little to protect him from the sensation.
“Sweetheart.” His voice broke as he tried to think of a way to get her back in the bed and far away from him.
He tried to step back, but only had a few inches before his back was up against the wall. Literally.
She moved with him, keeping her body pressed firmly against his, the wall at his back leaving him no way to ease the pressure of her rubbing against him. “Gwen. I think you need to go back to bed.”
And maybe put on some pants.
“I agree.” She pulled hard on his neck bringing her mouth to his as she continued that slow sway of her belly against the underside of his straining cock.
She broke their kiss before running her lips up the side of his neck, biting gently as she went. “But I want you to come with me.”
“I don’t know if it’s a good idea.” He couldn't even manage to take her out for a proper date. All the time they’d spent together had been chaos. He wanted to give her what she deserved. Dinner, flowers, romance. This wasn’t how he imagined it would be.
She put her hand between them, running her hand slowly up and down the length of his shaft through his shorts, pausing to let the pad of her thumb tease the tip.
“It doesn’t seem like you think that’s a bad idea.” She continued her slow torment, watching him intently as she did. “Maybe I could convince you to change your mind?” She tucked the fingers of her other hand into the elastic waistband of his pants and started to slide in.
He should stop her. He should sleep on the couch and leave her the bed. He shouldn't sleep with Gwen until...
Until...
Fuck it.
He grabbed her wrists and laced her arms around his neck before wrapping his arms tightly around her and pulling her hard against him. He covered her mouth with his as he let his hands run down her body, stopping to palm the fullness of her bottom. He pulled her up against him as he ground against her.
She pushed her upper body away from him and tugged her shirt over her head before pressing back against him, her bare breasts making him wish he'd skipped the shirt after his shower.
Her tongue ran along his lips as she pulled one of his hands free and cupped it around her breast, covering his hand with hers. “Touch me.”
It was one thing to know you're dealing with a woman who's used to being in control. Gwen was the boss. She ran the show. He expected her to be the same way in the bedroom. He was prepared. He thought.
Having a woman who not only wanted you touching her, but wasn’t scared to tell you so was probably the sexiest thing he'd ever experienced, and that was going to be a terrible thing.
He'd never wanted to impress a woman more. Make a woman feel better. Leave her panting, breathless and soaking wet, moaning his name. That all seemed like it was going to happen, but he might not be on the side of the equation he thought he would.
“Please.” She squeezed her hand where it remained over his. The feel of her soft flesh under his palm made him grow harder than he thought possible. He needed to turn this around at least a little bit or he was going to end up looking like a lame lay.
He released her backside, bringing his other hand to her free breast and gently rolled her pale peach nipples between his thumb and finger as he pushed against her, forcing her to take a step back.
Her legs hit the side of the bed and she fell back, her hair loose around her head. He hesitated.
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