Damned If You Don't

by Linda J. Parisi

  “How’s that?”

  “Once Dr. Lee saw what I was working on, he’d want in. I’m certain of it.”

  Jack nodded. “Not a bad plan, kitten.”

  “I know. But I’ve been in such a quandary,” she replied, her tone worried. “I don’t want to put him at risk.”

  “Sounds like he can take care of himself,” Jack answered.

  He watched her face fall. “I hear a ‘but’ in there.”

  He gave her a what-can-I-tell-you shrug. “Like I said, not a bad plan but Sam’s going to figure out Dr. Lee soon enough.”

  “Damn,” she muttered. “Can we beat him there? Once Dr. Lee hides the stick, Sam won’t be able to do anything, will he?”

  Jack honestly didn’t know. His best friend had been willing to kidnap Morgan. Well, that might be construed as a gray area too. But even so, if you broke the law once, what was once more?

  “I’m not sure. I’ll have to think about it.”

  He watched her remove the data stick and shut down the computer. When she turned to him, she hesitated. “We’ve known each other for all of about twenty-four hours. In that time, we’ve made mad, passionate love and cut each other to the quick. You betrayed me because you thought you were doing the right thing. I’m a wanted woman for trying to do the right thing. There’s a common thread here.”

  “True,” he answered, wondering where she was going with her speech.

  “Here,” she said, holding out her hand. Inside rested the data stick. “Do the right thing. You take this to Dr. Lee. I’ll keep running in the opposite direction. If we split up, we’ll have more chance at success.”

  Stunned, Jack didn’t know what to say. His heart leaped into his throat at her trust. Then he realized she didn’t trust him, but she trusted him to do the right thing. There was a huge difference.

  He grinned, closing her fist around the data stick. “Hotel California, eh?”

  She laughed softly and shrugged. “I’m only human.”

  He lifted her fingers and pressed tiny kisses against her flesh. “Does this mean I get a chance to redeem myself?”

  Her gaze darkened as he licked each knuckle. “Maybe.”

  “You won’t stop in the middle again, will you?” he asked with a terrified shudder. “A certain part of my anatomy wouldn’t be able to withstand another blow like that.”

  She guffawed, sobering slowly. “You deserved more.”

  “Perhaps. But you owe me an honest answer. You do that again, and I might not be able to walk for a week.”

  “You keep looking at me like that and we might not get out of bed for a week,” she countered.

  He grinned. “Works for me. But who needs a bed?”

  “Oh no, Jack. You can’t be serious.”

  He pulled her close, nuzzling the soft skin of her neck. “Dare me.”

  She reared back, a look of total disbelief on her face. “No, Jack. We’re on the run. Why risk being hauled into jail on an indecent exposure charge?”

  “Because with you, I can’t wait.”

  He let go of her hand, bent his head, and crushed her against his body. His cock hardened into steel. They’d been at this juncture before, not too long ago.

  “Jack, don’t. Stop. Someone might come in.”

  He let go of her and grinned. Walking as best he could in his condition, Jack turned out the lights and started backing her up into the farthest corner of the room.

  “You must have a thing about doing it in public,” she said as he advanced and she retreated.

  “I’ll admit, you’re the first person to tempt me this way. But I’m also rather pragmatic. I’m not into coitus interruptus. So we’re going to get over this hurdle now. Before I get another bathroom door slammed in my face.”

  “I—” He didn’t give her a chance to continue. He had her jeans unsnapped and his finger deep inside her core before she could get her next word out. She grunted and sucked in her breath.

  “God, you’re hot.”

  She didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. Not right at the moment. She was busy nipping and biting his neck. Hard as steel? Try titanium.

  “Ah, God,” he said, releasing a low growl of pleasure as her fingers clawed at his fly. Once the material parted, he breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  Until her hand started working up and down on his erection.

  “I know I’m not totally out of Chateau Bow-wow yet,” he choked out, pushing her pants down to her ankles. “But I would never lie about being clean.”

  She lifted back. “You were in a rather compromised situation.”

  “Yeah, I was. So…are you?”

  She smiled. “Geek PhD? Of course.”

  Jack thanked his lucky stars. He lifted her up onto the computer table, pulled her legs apart, and didn’t give her a chance to say no.

  Chapter Eleven

  “God,” he whispered into her neck. “You’re so hot, I think I’m gonna burn.”

  She smiled. “That was the idea.”

  Morgan reached up and initiated her first real kiss. Sure, she’d kissed other men, and she’d made love to them too. But those few experiences paled in comparison to this. Like precursors, lessons learned, they led her down a path she no longer wanted to walk.

  She could feel every inch of him inside her. His arms tightened, and he slid so he was lying full on top of her. With long and slow strokes, he explored every crevice of her mouth with his tongue. He didn’t move his hips. Just made her realize she’d never joined with a man like this before.

  He lifted back up and grinned that so very Jack grin. Morgan couldn’t believe how deeply he nestled inside her. His hands knew exactly where she wanted them, tweaking her nipples and sending sparks of desire shooting through her veins.

  “Jack,” she strangled out, “I can’t move. So either you start, or I’m going to—”

  She didn’t have to say anything more. He thrust into her once. Hard. He pulled all the way back out until she thought she would lose him and his hips slammed hard into her thighs. She watched his face tighten in an effort to hold back as he repeated the movement. He gritted his teeth.

  He pinched and played with her nipples, and she was gone. Done. He started moving faster and faster, thrusting so deep at one point she thought he touched her womb.

  Then they both hit the precipice. His breath hitched. Hers caught. The world exploded between their locked bodies. Morgan thought she would never stop coming as he came with her. He collapsed on her chest and the most amazing thing happened. He kept moving. As if he knew. And she reached the precipice again, jumping into the molten lava of sensation. She screamed—this orgasm more intense and incredible than the first, just as his mouth covered hers. Otherwise they’d have ended up in deep trouble.

  But that didn’t stop her from giggling like a teenager or him from smiling at her as he slipped out of her body.

  “Jack.”

  His head remained nestled between her breasts.

  “Jack. The table.”

  “Hmm?”

  He lifted back and pulled her arms up. She looped them around his neck and he nuzzled her lips before giving her a last hard kiss. She stood, and Morgan knew a woman’s pride at making love. She’d never felt that before. “C’mon. Let’s get dressed. Before we tempt fate to the utmost.”

  She grabbed his hand once they were finished dressing and pulled him out of the room. They practically ran to the elevator. Morgan couldn’t believe she’d let go of all her reservations like that. Whenever she was with him, just one touch, just one look, and her insides melted. He had the power to do anything, anywhere, with her and she’d let him.

  “What are you thinking?” he asked, nuzzling her neck, his warm breath sending shivers up and down her spine.

  “That I’d like to try a bed someday.”

  He laughed, and the doors opened. They raced down the hallway, and she noticed his fingers tremble slightly as he put the key card in the lock. She smiled and looked up at him. He
smiled back, the banked fires in his gaze flaring as they both thought of the things they could do with one another.

  Actions always speak louder than words.

  As soon as the door closed, Jack tried to embrace her. But she held his shoulders and shook her head. Swirling light touches up and down his arms, Morgan undid each button of his shirt with slow sensuality. His head cocked as if he didn’t quite understand her game. But he did. It was the oldest game known to man.

  She slid his shirt off and ran her fingertips up and down the hills and valleys of his chest. She paid special attention to his nipples, watching them tighten and delighting in the way his chest muscles jumped each time she caressed them.

  Of course, that wasn’t the only muscle jumping.

  Morgan undid his belt, opened his pants, and slid the zipper down, all the while drowning in the heat of his gaze. His lips parted slightly, and a thrill of promise shivered through her. She caressed his hips with her fingers as she slipped his boxers down, and her breath caught as he sprang free.

  God, he was beautiful.

  He stepped out of his clothes and cried out as her lips closed over his cock. He reached his hands down to rest on the top of her head to tell her to hold on a moment. She waited, barely moving until his hips began to flex, and then she took him all the way into her mouth.

  Sweet, salty, all male. She made love to him, paying special attention to every detail until he pulled away in desperation.

  She grinned up at him. He lifted her to her feet, had her clothes off in less than thirty seconds. He lifted her in his arms, staggered to the chair nearest them, and fell into it. Morgan needed no other invitation. She twisted around and climbed up onto her knees, spreading her legs wide.

  They both watched as she impaled herself on him. He reached out to play with her nipples, and his hands curled around her back to pull her forward so he could bring her breasts to his mouth. His hips strained upward as she lifted and sat back down again. It took a moment to find a rhythm, but they did, and Morgan began to climb again. She gazed down at Jack, falling into the depths of his desire, and began to ride him hard. His cheek tightened as he held on, but Jack was no match for Morgan. She milked him for all he was worth, and she let go just as she saw him give in. Her orgasm built, and she climbed with him until they both fell. They cried out their pleasure in unison, and Morgan collapsed on his shoulder, unable to catch her breath.

  How long they stayed that way, she wasn’t sure. Finally, he quipped, “We never made it to the bed.”

  She laughed softly. “I know.”

  Later that night, Morgan curled deeper into his body, awakening slowly. A tiny band of light from the street cast a gray shadow in the room. But it was enough for her to lift up and lean back so she could watch Jack sleep. God he was beautiful. And she wondered why she’d been so lucky to “borrow” him.

  After all, the geeks never get the captains of the football teams.

  With her body clock in complete disarray, Morgan knew she’d never go back to sleep right away. So she contented herself with staring at him and creating happy endings in her mind. She daydreamed a lot when she was a child. Old habits, she supposed, never truly died.

  Funny, she’d never been with a man who made her yearn to watch him sleep before.

  Her fingers itched to trace the outlines of his muscles. Not that he was a bodybuilder. Well maybe a cross between a linebacker and a tight end. He certainly carried a physique she’d never had the pleasure of pleasing before.

  Morgan smiled. She had it bad.

  Her smile faded slowly. She was going to have to tell him the truth. Sooner than later.

  She knew that too.

  And for a moment she stopped breathing as another thought occurred to her. She could get out of the bed, get dressed, and leave.

  Of course, she’d given her word that she wouldn’t. But when balanced with the thought of his life, the scales tipped far in the favor of leaving and not staying. Only the picture of his face as he slept kept her in the bed. Morgan knew she couldn’t do that to him again, no matter how much she wanted to.

  His gaze burned into hers as he rolled over to face her. Just as she thought of promethium tantalum, his lips turned up at the corners. “Kinda hard, wasn’t it?”

  Her hand fell to the steel pipe poking her thigh. Would they really be able to burn up with the sun? “Yeah, I guess it still is.”

  He began to laugh. Funny, she didn’t quite have the heart to do more than smile. At the very worst time in her life, she’d found someone worth making love to.

  Instead of replying, he flipped her over on her back and started tickling her ribs. “Now you get tortured.”

  She cried out and started laughing. “Stop. Please. I’m really sensitive.”

  He sat back on his heels half covered by the sheet, looking so delectable that she had to lock her hands into the mattress to keep from crawling all over him.

  “I know.”

  “Jack, I—”

  “Shh,” he whispered, giving her the sweetest kiss imaginable.

  Morgan broke the kiss, trying so very hard not to let the tears well in her eyes. “I don’t want anything to happen to you. You can still walk away. Go. Now. Before it’s too late.”

  He sat back again, a very disappointed look on his face. Seemed she had quite a few lessons to learn. But she’d always been an A student. “Do you really think I could do that?”

  “Well, not right at this exact moment,” she quipped, referring to his steel pipe.

  “But—”

  He shook his head at her as if she were acting like a child. Maybe she was. “You just haven’t figured it out yet, have you?”

  “Figured what out?”

  “I really do care about you.”

  Could she really believe that? After only one night? After what they’d been through? Done to each other?

  “That’s not how it works.”

  “How what works?” he asked, genuinely confused.

  “It. Jocks don’t fall for geeks.”

  “I left high school a long time ago, Morgan,” he admonished. “I thought you did too.”

  She had. Sort of. But old lessons learned the hard way died hard.

  “I’m a bad health risk.”

  He stretched back out on the bed, leaning nonchalantly on one elbow. “I thought we decided we were going to do this together. Did you decide something else now?”

  “No, of course not,” she exclaimed.

  He smiled. “So, are you going to admit you like me too? Or make me stay in the Chateau for the rest of my life.”

  “Jack, it’s not that. Honest.”

  “I’ll tickle you until you tell me,” he threatened.

  “I’d much rather lie in bed and ogle your buns. They really are nice. And very bitable.”

  “Morgan,” he growled.

  “Except that you’re not getting anywhere near me for the next few hours at least. I can barely move.”

  He laughed and got out of bed to go to the bathroom. He really did have a nice ass. And while she really wanted to do nothing more than admire his body, Morgan knew she was on a speeding train without any brakes, heading straight toward disaster.

  Jack was about as pliable as a block of granite. Funny, in their own fashion, they both were. He was going to figure out she hadn’t told him everything. He was going to want to know why.

  He shrugged into his T-shirt and pulled on his boxers when he came back. “I need a kiss first.”

  She gave him one. A wet, sloppy one. Which made them both forget their primary objective for the moment. “Morgan?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Does this mean you forgive me?”

  “Don’t you ever take a break?” He shook his head and she rose up on one elbow. “I’ll let you know.”

  He sighed. “All right.”

  He climbed back in bed, and Morgan licked her lips in anticipation. Jack bent down and gave her a long, slow, thorough kiss. She finally br
oke away and rested her head against his chest. His heart beat fast and furious beneath her ear, and she still couldn’t believe she had the power to do that to him.

  “Make me a believer, Jack.”

  His arms tightened around her. “You already are. I won’t let you down. I promise.”

  “It’s not me I’m worried about.”

  “We’ll be all right, kitten.”

  She lifted her head to look at him, those pesky tears filling her eyes again. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

  JACK HADN’T HAD many women that were more than one- or two-night stands. And, well, he wasn’t proud of that period of his life, so lying in bed with Morgan was an unexpected treat. In spite of their auspicious, inauspicious, beginning.

  “You haven’t told me much about yourself,” she said, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. “You know a whole lot more about me than I do about you.”

  Did he? He had to wonder about that.

  “Not much to tell. I enlisted in the army as soon as I got out of high school. I guess I displayed some talent, and I became a Ranger.”

  “You have an aptitude for detail.”

  “How’d you know?”

  “The OCD thing. Takes one to know one.”

  Interesting. “Anyway, I loved the challenge of being a tracker. And, as far as I was concerned, the people I hunted down were enemies of the United States. They would get what they deserved.”

  “What happened to change your mind?”

  “A couple of kids.”

  Jack tried to dismiss her swift, indrawn breath. But he couldn’t. Any more than he could dismiss the picture in his mind, still clear as day even in the pitch of night. The target’s body draped protectively over them, riddled with bullets. Rolling him off them in horror, that cold, ugly, hollow ball forming in the pit of his stomach.

  “They weren’t supposed to be in the car. He wasn’t supposed to put up a fight.”

  She squeezed his hand hard. “I’m sorry.”

  “I lost my taste for the hunt after that.” He barked out a bitter laugh. “Lost my taste for everything.”

  “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “Oh yes it was, kitten. That was my job, a job I screwed up. Royally.”