by Han, Barb
Of course not.
Lauren followed his instructions without argument, still numb, feeling even more violated at the realization of why his place was close to hers. He’d been sent to watch her. It suddenly dawned on her that he probably knew a lot more about her than she would ever know about him. The real him. Has anyone ever gotten inside the real you, Jaden?
“I can’t help but think this whole situation is unfair. You know so much about me, and I can’t return the favor.”
“Your intel folder was a little thin to be honest,” he said before his gaze rose. His entire posture tensed at the realization she was hurt. Like he’d blurted out an insult and wished he could take it back. “I’m sorry. I’ve been on this side too long. It must feel like an invasion to have all your personal data out there for others to read.”
She broke eye contact, focusing intently on folding and placing clothes in her overnight bag. “What did you learn about me in my folder?” Did it tell him how much of her life had been spent alone?
“That you’re a runner. You like to jog in the morning.”
Her gaze trailed up to meet his. He alternated between watching the door and the window, and she was reminded of how dangerous it was to be alone with a virtual stranger in her bedroom. Although he didn’t feel like a stranger. Not after what they’d survived together. “What else?”
“You’ve been an entrepreneur since a very young age. Your business is doing well.”
“It won’t be for long. Not after I raided all the cash.” She suddenly realized she didn’t leave enough to pay vendors next month. She’d taken it all. Left her entire life savings along with all the money she could secure on a boat in the middle of the sea. She heaved a deep sigh. “I was a successful business owner. Did that file tell you anything else about my private life?” Anger flooded her, had her asking questions before she could stop and think. “Does it say who I’ve dated? Who I’ve —”
“Slept with? No, it doesn’t. Satisfied?”
A flash of what looked like shame crossed his features. A pang of guilt washed over her. She was yelling at him because she couldn’t yell at the real people provoking her.
Frustrated, Lauren sat down on the edge of her bed. “I’m sorry. I’m taking all this out on you. Look at you. You’re hurt. You’ve been through everything I have and more. I shouldn’t be giving you a hard time right now.”
“Believe me when I say I’m just as irritated,” Jaden said, holding his position and watching the door intently.
“Of course you are. I remember you told me about your brother and how you hate all this. You must see his face in every situation.”
“It’s more than that. This one’s even more personal for me.”
“Why? What happened?”
“This bullet hole in my shoulder happened. I attended the funeral of one of my operatives. Not two weeks later, I had to tell a wife she was going to bring up her children alone. I lost one damn good man on the beach and a fucking kid at my safe house.”
“How did you get shot?” She could tell this wasn’t easy for him. Every muscle in his body tensed. His hands fisted and released. His lips thinned. She’d never had this much difficulty getting a few words out of him.
“Miscalculation. I trusted my partner. Smith got involved with a woman whose brother is a big time dealer in South America. She convinced him she was innocent. I believed her too.”
Hard to believe anyone had ever tricked a man like Jaden. Then it occurred to her why a man’s judgment might slip, and a pang of jealousy rippled through her.
“Was she very beautiful?”
“Yes.”
Is that why you didn’t trust me back on the rocks?
“What happened?”
“She walked us straight into a trap. We were supposed to meet to exchange guns for drugs. Instead, we marched into an ambush. My partner, Smith, took a bullet between the eyes. I took one to the shoulder.”
“And lived,” she added, unable to imagine the sense of betrayal he must’ve felt. “You said before that this could be someone from the inside. Why would one of your own do something like that?”
He shrugged. Anger scored his stormy blue eyes. “Why does anyone maim or murder? Greed. Sex. Power. Money.”
A creak sounded on the stairs. Jaden switched gears instantly. He pulled his gun from his waistband and unlocked the safety. “It’s probably nothing. Settlement noise. But stay here while I check it out.”
Lauren was used to the sound. Dallas houses were built on clay soil. And yet, it unnerved her just the same. She quickly finished packing, more than ready to get out of her house.
Jaden returned a moment later. “Looks fine. We should get going, though.”
“I’m ready.”
As they returned to the borrowed vehicle, Jaden kept a close watch all around them.
Sitting there, doing nothing but waiting for him to put her suitcase in the trunk made her feel like stink bait being dragged along the bottom of a pond full of catfish.
Her skin pricked.
Her stomach clenched.
Then she caught sight of a blacked-out SUV creeping along the garage.
“I see someone coming,” she said, and pointed. “Over there.”
Jaden slipped into the driver’s seat and adjusted the rearview until the sight of the dark car moving toward them filled it. “Don’t panic. They haven’t seen us yet.”
He turned the key, and the sedan’s engine purred. It quickly responded as soon as he tapped the gas, and moments later, they were snaking through the five-story concrete garage. The squeal of tires rounding a turn behind them signaled that the other driver realized they were sneaking out.
Lauren glanced back, but couldn’t make out anything in the dark shelter. Then, round flashes of light blinked at them as a dark SUV screamed up to the bumper.
The blaring horn’s echo nearly shattered her eardrums. If the car was human it’d be shouting, threatening her, thrusting angry fists toward her.
Jaden gripped the steering wheel. “Hold on.” He winded down the exit ramp three levels, and then glided onto the roadway.
Calm down. She took in a measured breath, and then tried to exhale for the same length of time. She focused her gaze on the twists in the road ahead while breathing deeply.
The SUV roared up from behind, nearly slamming into them. Then came the horn and the floodlights, but a car swerved in between them just in time to stop the SUV from tapping their bumper.
Jaden gunned the sedan, causing it to lurch onto Mockingbird Lane, and nearly sideswiped a late-model Nissan Maxima in the process. He popped in front of the Nissan, ignoring its blaring horn.
Lauren didn’t bother to look back either, she could already imagine the gestures that were being made back there.
The car fishtailed as he whipped into the turn lane. Spying an opening in traffic, he darted in between two cars and barely made the entrance ramp onto highway US75.
Lauren checked the rearview. The dark SUV was a few cars back, but not nearly far enough for comfort. “They’re still there. They saw us.”
He hopped off at the next exit and maneuvered through three lanes of traffic. He pushed the car past a hundred miles an hour.
For a moment, the SUV disappeared. Before she could congratulate Jaden for losing it, she caught sight of a dark spot making its way through traffic. Looked like whoever was following them had quickly regained his bearings. Jaden seemed to spot NorthPark mall coming up at the same moment she did.
“Maybe we can lose them in the parking lot,” he said.
She prayed the neatly stacked buildings housing designer stores and twisty, manicured roads teaming with expensive cars would give them the edge they needed to disappear.
He cut over two lanes of traffic on the service road and made a hard right.
She checked back.
Damn.
The black machine was still there.
He slowed and snaked through the parking lot, whic
h was bursting with high school-aged kids looking like they’d jumped straight from the pages of an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog.
It had to be closing time based on the number of people exiting at once. The spillover in the parking lot looked like someone had opened the cap of an ant farm. Winding through the buzz of activity would give them a chance to consider their next move.
As Jaden maneuvered through the twist of vehicles, he nearly rammed a baggy-pants kid who popped out from in between two cars. Lauren’s breath caught in her throat. Her pulse pounded like a drum beat.
The young man’s arm went up, gesturing an apology.
Jaden cut out at the next exit. “Hold on. I can lose him in here,” he said.
The red light changed. Jaden gunned it, crossed under the highway, and made a hard right into the parking lot of a ToysRus grand opening.
The jammed lot, a mix of Tahoe’s, Suburbans, and BMW’s, boomed with local radio station personalities broadcasting in one corner against the backdrop of a live band in another. Shopping carts littered the aisles.
The black SUV would blend in, making it harder to locate.
Lauren glanced back. Her stomach lurched. There it was. She sucked in a panicked breath about the same time their second break came that day. The SUV got slammed by a mini-van backing out of its spot.
Not wasting a second of their good fortune, Jaden grinned and eased off the lot.
Her heart raced and her breath came out in quick bursts.
“We lost them,” Jaden said.
For now. Those were two words she was beginning to hate.
“When can I see my brother?”
Jaden glanced at his watch. “It’s too late tonight. We’ll go in the morning after we make a few changes to your appearance.”
An urge to see for herself that Max was still okay gripped Lauren. She didn’t want to wait. She was tired of waiting. What if his injuries were too great and he slipped away in the night? “What if Max doesn’t —”
“Make it? He will.”
She would argue the point, but Jaden had been spot on so far. “Did Gunner say he’d let us know if anything happened to him?”
“Yes. But nothing’s going to happen. He’s in good hands,” Jaden said emphatically.
Lauren wished she possessed the tiniest bit of his confidence.
It pulsed from him.
As it was, her insides burned to the point of being sick after the chase. Or was it because her brain insisted on reminding her Jaden was only with her temporarily?
For now.
Those had become the two most hated words in the English language.
Why did everything and everyone in Lauren’s life feel so fleeting?
Chapter Thirteen
Jaden’s temporary home had no unnecessary furniture. The living room had a couch and TV. The kitchen had a small table and chairs. There were a few dishes in the sink. The bedroom housed nothing more than a bed, and a TV tray for a nightstand. A handful of change had been tossed on top. A cord lay draped across, which looked to be a charger for his phone.
“You can put your stuff in here,” Jaden said. His blue eyes darkened. “The shower’s in the next room. I’d like to dress your wounds again when they’re clean.”
Lauren put her bag in the bedroom and moved to the bathroom where she took a hot shower. It was nice to have some comforts from home, like a razor and shaving cream.
Home.
Home had been destroyed. Like so much in her life recently. She felt emotionally wrung out and drained from the inside out.
“There’s food in the kitchen,” Jaden said, after knocking on the door. “I made a few phone calls. We can see Max in the morning. They’ll expect us around nine.”
“Did they say how he was doing?”
“Better than expected.”
His voice, soothing and calm, shouldn’t make her feel like everything was right with the world.
It did.
The knob twisted.
“Lauren? You okay? I’ll come in to check if I have to.”
“No. I’m fine,” she said, allowing his deep baritone to wash over her for another minute. “I’ll be right out.”
She finished dressing in her nightshirt and pajama shorts and joined him in living room. When Jaden’s gaze landed on her, appraising her, heat flooded through her, and her heart stuttered.
***
Jaden’s pulse hummed when he saw Lauren standing there in her sleep clothes, her fiery hair silky and flowing down her back. He was becoming painfully stiff, so he readjusted his pants.
The rosy hue in Lauren’s cheeks brightened.
God, she looked beautiful.
He moved to her and leaned close, breathing her in. She smelled like fresh flowers.
When she didn’t step back, his erection throbbed. His hand smoothed over her flat stomach before lowering to wrap around her waist as he pulled her tightly against his bare chest, skin pressed against life-giving skin.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to the bruise on her forehead. Then, he lowered his hand to her sweet round ass and squeezed. “And incredibly sexy.”
“Keep that up, and I won’t be able to stop you,” she said as her bright eyes twinkled. She took a step back. “Jaden. We should think this through. There are probably a thousand logical reasons as to why this shouldn’t happen.”
“Do you want this? Me?”
A pink flush rose to her cheeks. Her gold-brown eyes darkened with desire. “Yes.”
“I said we were going to finish what we started yesterday, and I meant every word of it. But you tell me to stop, and I will.”
He took another step toward her, and she didn’t back away. He was close enough to touch her again. He felt good in this space.
After tasting her sweet skin the day before, knowing the pure ecstasy to be found there, he couldn’t stop his wandering hands. Desire fueled their every move.
Kissing the top of her shoulder, he guided his lips up the nape of her neck, across the smooth skin of her face. He feathered a kiss on the small freckle above her mouth, until his lips found hers. She parted hers and teased his tongue into her mouth.
He moved them to the bed, undressing her along the way.
His tongue, hot and needy, pressed into her mouth as she pulled him on top of her. He instinctively reacted to her slightest movement. His passion heated with the kind of fire that had been shelved for years and finally set free.
He took his time tasting every inch of her neck. His solid body warmed her, covered her, made her tremble beneath him. Every action and reaction in his body was perfectly timed to hers.
As her back arched and her hips shifted, her soft skin pressed against his erection. One of his hands searched her breasts urgently, while the other one trailed down her stomach. He stopped at her mound using the tip of his index finger to circle her.
She moaned. Every inch of her warm body cried out for more as Jaden pulled and tugged at her nipples. His other hand swirled around down below in perfect tempo, until her body responded, grinding hard on his erection.
With Lauren’s naked and warm body pressed up against him, he couldn’t ignore the fact that she fit every part of him. He lifted her up, over top of him, and slowly pulled her mouth toward his. Their bodies melted into one. Her supple lips, moist and parted, like icing on a perfect cake. He thrust his tongue deep inside.
Rolling over, he gently placed her on her back before parting her legs with his thighs. The feel of her bare, clean skin was enough to drive him to the brink. But he would wait, hold off until the passion couldn’t be forced down.
Lauren returned the intensity of his kiss. He thrust his tongue deep in her mouth, needing to taste every inch of her.
He pulled back and took in her beautiful body, eyeing every curve of her incredible figure, watching as her breasts rose and fell with every deep breath she took.
With one arm wrapped around her waist, he pulled her body in tight against h
is, allowing his hands to wander as he touched every inch of her stomach, then her full breasts. Feeling the softness of her back, his hand moved lower, slowing at the curve, before wandering down over her full bottom.
He buried his face in her long hair. The crush of fresh flowers enveloped him. Her clean skin was so soft. This close, he could no longer make sense of anything. Didn’t even try.
The tip of his tongue flicked the crest of her nipple before taking it completely in his mouth.
She moaned.
After tracing the tattoo on his chest with her index finger, she coaxed him down on top of her.
Lauren lay back and reached up to touch him, but he stopped her.
“No. I want to really look at you.”
He’d waited, patiently, for what felt like an eternity, and he had no plans to rush. He wanted to look at her. To allow her to see herself through his eyes. To know he found her to be beautiful.
Her lips quivered, and her tongue darted across her perfect pink lips. To quiet them, to reassure her, he pressed his lips to hers. When he was sure she was rendered breathless from his kiss, then and only then did he slide his tongue down the clef of her chin nibbling and biting a trail down the soft curve of her neck. His thumb grazed her nipple, and he groaned when he felt it swell under his touch.
“Just a minute,” he said when he could barely contain himself. He wanted nothing more than to bury himself inside her. “Hold that thought.”
He disappeared into the bathroom to retrieve a condom.
***
“You’re beautiful.” His lips crushed down on hers, kicking a whole new wave of desire in her still-tingling body as he sheathed himself.
Lying next to him, she tried to catch her breath. He smiled and sent a new wave of desire rippling through her.
He leaned over and kissed her belly. Moved down her leg, lingering behind her knee. He brushed kisses down her calves, stopping at her ankles. Making his way back up, he slowed at the bend of her knee before brushing his lips up her thigh.
His hands moved up the curves of her stomach as his lips painted a sensual trail up to her neck. He stopped at her ear, took his time nibbling.
“You’re incredible.” He propped up on one elbow, his Adonis-like body completely naked and glowing. Each muscle clearly defined by its shadow in the soft light from the moon.
