by Becky McGraw
Why this particular situation was so important to her, she didn’t know. There had been plenty of terrorist situations since she joined the FBI. It could be because this was the first since she’d been on the counter-terrorism unit, where she could possibly do something.
If what her gut was telling her was right, this could be her chance to help those people who would be targets, instead of watching them die on television like she had her parents.
But going out on this limb could mean you lose your job with the agency, too. If it didn’t pan out, or turned into a goat fuck, the odds were Brand would fire her. As long as she kept her cool, and didn’t do anything stupid, it should be fine.
Jules would take that chance, because this was too important not to.
To lower those odds, though, she would do this on her own time, with her own money. She had time accrued so beginning tomorrow, she’d take emergency leave. Should it turn out she was off base here, she’d never tell a soul, but at least she could sleep at night. Well, she could when the nightmares didn’t keep her awake.
Keegan MacDonald was her insurance she wouldn’t do anything stupid. He was a trained Navy SEAL, and she had confidence he knew what he was doing.
God had hired him, right?
“You’re welcome, but we need to get to bed now. It’s going to be tight in here, but we’ll make it work. Stand up,” he said, sliding out of the booth.
Jules grabbed her bag and stood, then watched while he removed the table and pole to slide out a partition before he arranged the cushions over it to make a twin bed. Tight? She’d have to be sleeping on top of him for both of them to fit.
A shiver racked her as the erotic kiss at the apartment replayed in her head. She definitely wouldn’t mind sleeping on top of that hard body, but doubted that’s what he had in mind.
He reached above the bed to open a cabinet and pulled down sheets, a blanket and pillows, then slammed it shut. Before she could blink, he had the bed made and was pulling off his t-shirt. Her mouth watered as her eyes ticked down the middle of his perfect abs to the waistband of his jeans.
“How’d you get that scar?” her mouth asked, without her brain’s permission. The three-inch long puckered, pink scar near his left shoulder was the only imperfection on his delicious torso, and stood out in stark contrast to his otherwise tanned body.
“That is my permanent reminder not to let a woman distract me on a mission,” he replied, tossing his shirt aside.
Not what she asked, but she wasn’t going to press him. She did, however, wonder what the woman who was on his mind when he was injured was like. Jules imagined she’d have to be pretty spectacular for this very focused man to be distracted.
Their kiss certainly hadn’t distracted him more than a minute or two, and he hadn’t mentioned it since then, or explained why he’d walked out. It obviously hadn’t affected him as much as it had her.
He unbuckled his belt, removed his jeans, then laid on the bed with his back flush to the wall. Jules took off her shoes and jeans, and sat on the edge of the bed, where she imagined she’d be sleeping too. But when she stretched out, he surprised her by snaking his arm around her waist to pull her back into his body. They fit together like two pieces of a puzzle, she thought, as her body suctioned to his and his heat soaked into her back.
With a deep sigh, he nuzzled his chin into her hair, then dropped a kiss on the top of her head. Jules sighed, and without permission, laced her fingers with his. Her body went limp and she drifted off to sleep feeling safer than she had in fifteen years.
***
Keegan woke up in a sweat with his right arm completely numb. He freaked out when he tried to move, but it was trapped. He looked down and saw blonde hair sticking out from under his blanket and shook the woman plastered to his body.
“Ceece? You’re lying on my arm, babe,” he mumbled, his brain in a fog as he shifted her weight on top of him.
Her heat settled onto his morning erection, her face nuzzled into his chest and her hips swayed against his. Keegan groaned as a wave of need swept through him. God, he loved when she did that, because he knew where it usually led. Sleepy, relaxed morning sex was just about his favorite kind.
His hands glided down her curves to her ass and he held her hips tighter against him. She gasped, her lips dragged over his skin and her moan set his nerve endings on fire. He bucked under her to remove his underwear then hooked his thumbs in the waistband of her panties to shove them down to her thighs. She took over and worked them down her legs until she kicked them over the edge of the bed.
Her wet heat scalded him as she spread her knees wider to lazily stroke him with her body. She scooted higher, and like a divining rod, the head of his cock found her slick opening. In a dream-like trance, he held her hips to piston himself up into her heat with a sleepy growl.
“Mmm…ohhh,” she murmured like she’d just tasted the most delicious thing on earth.
The sound made him harder, and her pushing down to take more of him dragged a groan from his lips. Her inner walls pulsed around him, inviting him deeper inside and Keegan held her to drive up into her body.
“God, Cecelia—you feel fucking incredible, baby,” he growled as a tremor rocked him.
A tremor shook her too, as he skimmed his hands up her silky body to stroke the sides of her breasts, but then she tensed. When the woman whose body his cock was buried in lifted to turn her head and look at him with angry, hurt eyes, he knew why. Shock rocked him, and his mouth flapped, but nothing came out.
“Oh, shit—I’m sorry,” he groaned, shoving a hand through his hair as she slid her body off him to stand beside the bed and glare down at him.
“Yeah, next time you start something, know who you’re with, asshole. I won’t be a proxy for your fantasies of another woman,” Jules said, bending to snatch up her panties.
With a growl, Keegan vaulted up on the bed to grab her and pull her to him. She fought him like a leashed cat until he rolled her on the other side of him, against the wall. Her eyes ripped him into tiny shreds and he couldn’t blame her for being angry, because he was disgusted with himself too.
“I’m sorry, Jules—so fucking sorry,” he said, knowing how insulted she had to be.
“Who is Cecelia?” she asked angrily. “Is she the woman who distracted you on the mission where you got hurt?”
Keegan laid on his back with a groan and his body tensed as the memory of the firefight with rebels at the Syrian border replayed in his mind. Of loading that shell into the launcher on his rifle, of pulling the trigger and seeing the flash then feeling the hot knife of pain that sliced through his shoulder as the rifle bucked from his hands. The mission recap said equipment failure, but Keegan knew he would’ve noticed a problem if he’d have been paying attention.
Who was Cecelia? “She was my best friend and the worst mistake of my life. An Army captain who was stationed at Ft. Story,” he replied, finally putting the correct label on their relationship. “She was beautiful, smart, easy to talk to, and in love with another man, while allowing me to fall in love with her.”
Why did finally saying that make him feel lighter inside? Admitting that it wasn’t all his fault? Actually having someone to admit that to was a relief.
If Cee Cee had just been honest with him up front about Cade Winters, Keegan wouldn’t have let that happen. He probably would have kept the benefits out of their relationship. And he certainly wouldn’t have gone to Texas to have his heart blindly stomped on by her rejection.
What he felt was used, and it burned. That fact just further fucked up his head. If that wasn’t the case he would not have just made the grave mistake he had with this woman, who he just realized looked and acted a lot like his ex-lover.
“That had to be tough,” Jules said her voice softening, but her body still rigid beside him.
“You have no idea. I kept a good face on it as long as I could, but almost broke her future husband’s nose in a game of full-contact basketball be
fore I left Texas.”
After a minute, she put her hand on his chest. “I’ll give you a pass this time MacDonald, but don’t let it happen again,” Jules said, her tone firm but sympathetic. “Things happen for a reason and that relationship evidently wasn’t meant to be. I’ve been in a couple of those hopeless relationships myself, because I am a shit magnet where men are concerned.” She laughed, but it wasn’t humorous. “You’re a prime example.”
Keegan’s insides untwisted a little, but he was insulted, too. He turned his head to look at her. It was time for honesty with her and a warning. “You’d better steer clear of me then, Natasha, because a worthless piece of shit is exactly what I feel like these days.”
Voicing that sentiment loosened the tight band around his midsection a little more, but even as the words fell from his mouth, his eyes zoned in on her lips and his body went rock-hard remembering how damned good she tasted, how intense that kiss had been. Jules Lawson had been totally plugged into the kiss—into him—when she kissed him. That is how a woman kissed a man she was interested in, something he realized then Cecelia had never done.
“No, you’re not a piece of shit, Keegan MacDonald, and do not ever say that again!” she said, her voice forceful enough to draw his eyes away from her mouth. The intensity in her gaze surprised him. “You are a hero who’s been hurt in more ways than one, so give yourself a break and time to heal.”
Jules punctuated her words with a kiss on his pec and the sensation of her hot mouth on his skin skittered down his body. His breath came out in a rush when she kissed the scar on his shoulder, before kissing the base of his neck. She kissed her way up his throat, across his cheek to the corner of his mouth and his lips buzzed. When she raised up a little, her eyes met his and her breath fanned his mouth.
“Who are you kissing, Keegan MacDonald?” she whispered, her beautiful blue eyes boring into his.
“I’m kissing you, Jules Lawson,” he replied, swallowing hard as he was catapulted out of the past and into the present.
She smiled as her mouth moved toward his. When their lips fused, the dam holding back his emotions broke. A rush of vibrant energy surged up to his head to make him dizzy and he felt like his battered soul was being sucked into her body and cleansed.
Keegan let the connection take hold this time, basked in it, instead of running. He shoved his hand into her hair to hold her closer and kiss her deeper. And she kissed him back like he was the only man on earth.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Jules could not believe she was about to have sex with another fixer-upper. That hurt and hopeless look in his gray eyes, the same look she’d seen in her brother’s, made her powerless not to try to make it go away. She knew the dire consequences of not trying to help.
Are you crazy? You’re doing it again, Jules—stop it. Now!
But she didn’t want to. This was different from those other mistakes. This man wasn’t a fixer upper—he really was a badass hero and worth the risk, she thought, finding his tongue to tangle it with hers. He might have issues, but Keegan MacDonald had stepped up to help her without a second thought, and she was very sure that was his standard mode of operation.
That thought eased her mind a little as she heartily participated in the second sexiest kiss of her life with a man who’d called her by another woman’s name, after he accidentally put his penis inside of her while he was half asleep. She’d like to meet the woman who’d treated him so shabbily and have a few words with her, but right now all she wanted to do was completely wipe her from his mind.
Jules wanted him to remember this moment—to replace that woman in his mind with sex so hot he’d never think about her again. From now on, he’d know who his cock was inside. His body shook, and he tore his mouth away from hers.
“Condom,” he said, his voice raw as he reached over the edge of the bed. He found his jeans, then yanked his wallet out of the pocket. She sat up as he flipped through it and smiled when he held up a shiny gold packet like a trophy.
“Is it lubricated?” she asked, as she took it from his hand.
“I don’t think so,” he replied, his eyes darkening as he watched her tear open the packet with her teeth.
“Let me fix that, then.” She winked as she removed the latex ring from the foil to place it between her lips.
His eyes widened, his breathing stopped, and his body tensed as she scooted down his body to his knees. She sat upright and let her eyes take a tour of his incredible body then followed the muscular ridge near his hips which formed an arrow to her destination. She rubbed her palm along his hot, silky, and very rigid length and he moaned as if she were torturing him. When she fisted his thick erection, his hand on her arm stopped her.
“Take your shirt off, Jules,” he commanded, his nostrils flaring with each indrawn breath.
She dropped the condom into her hand, then pulled her shirt over her head and unfastened her bra to slide it down her arms. His heated eyes scorched her breasts and her nipples puckered as she tossed it on the floor.
“So beautiful…perfect,” he whispered hotly as his eyes fixed on her breasts and he reached up to touch her.
“Let me get you suited up first, Boris.” Jules waggled her eyebrows and pushed his hands aside to place the rubber ring between her lips again.
She wrapped her hand around his cock once more and he raised up to watch her with blazing eyes. The hot hiss of breath he released when her lips touched the head of his cock danced along her nerves to drive her onward. Tightening her lips around him, she forced the latex band down over the head of his cock.
“Ohhh—that is soooo fucking hot,” he growled, shoving a hand into her hair as his thick thighs flexed under her and his knees converged. “So, so…good—”
Gently adding her teeth, Jules spread the condom down his shaft as she took more of him into her mouth. When he stretched her mouth wide and pulsed against the back of her throat, she cupped his balls and squeezed as she sucked him hard on the way back up. His fist tightened in her hair, he squirmed and the symphony of ragged breaths and agonized moans excited her.
“You’re killing me,” he growled as his hand tightened in her hair.
By the time she released him with a soft, wet pop it felt like he might pull a fistful from her scalp. Before she could rise up, he yanked her up by her hair and pain sliced through her skull. A thrill zipped down her body when he slammed her back into the wall and pinned her there to devour her mouth. He shoved his hand between them to rake it through her wet folds and she shivered.
Pulling her leg up over his hip, with one forceful thrust he shoved his cock inside her body and Jules moaned at the delicious, burning stretch. A violent tremor shook him and he sighed into her mouth and his ragged breaths became her own as he kissed her harder.
This is why she loved alpha bad boys, she thought―they knew what they wanted and took it. Keegan dominated her, overwhelmed her with his mouth and gripped her thigh with his strong fingers as he pistoned himself into her time and again. But she dragged her mouth away from his, because she had to know.
“Who are you fucking, Keegan?” she asked in a raw whisper and he froze mid-stroke. His muscles tensed and his cock throbbed inside of her.
“Nobody. I’m making love to you, Jules Lawson,” he growled, his eyes fierce as they met hers, his nostrils flaring. “If that’s not okay with you, tell me now, because just benefits isn’t going to work for me this time.”
Emotion shot up to choke her, and she nodded. With a roar, he kissed her again, dug his fingers deeper into her thigh and picked up right where he left off. With each thrust, he drove her into the thin, paneled wall behind her and carried her closer to a blinding release as his cock pounded against her clit with each stroke.
The band of tension twisted tighter inside her squeezing the incredible pleasure higher and higher until it swamped her and her insides quaked. A blinding release shattered her, her body shook in his arms and he held her tight.
When he
r tremors lessened, he pulled his mouth away to kiss her cheek and his short, ragged breaths seared her left cheek. He lifted her higher, dug his fingers into her flesh and made two more powerful strokes into her body, then went rigid and he roared his release. His heart pounded against hers as he held her there until his body relaxed.
With a shuddering sigh, he laid on his back and pulled her on top of him. She nuzzled her face against his chest and his skin felt like hot, dewy satin under her cheek.
“That was incredible, baby,” he whispered and his breath singed her scalp, before he kissed the top of her head.
Someone banged on the trailer door with one hard rap before the door flung back on its hinges. Shock rocked her when Keegan’s body jerked and she felt herself falling. He rolled to his knees but fell on top of her, taking her breath.
“Saw your bike parked out here, heard commotion, and thought you might need some help. I ah, see you don’t. Sorry, bud,” a man said with a snicker.
“We got in late and I didn’t want to wake you and tell you we were here. It’s all my fault,” Keegan said, lifting up on his elbows to take his weight off of her.
Jules craned her neck to look back and see a muscular, gray-haired man with plenty of tats. He looked a lot like Keegan, only about twenty years older and he was grinning from ear-to-ear.
Was that his dad?
“Uh—do you live with your parents?” she asked, blood rushing to her face as she thought maybe she had found another fixer upper.
Nothing like meeting the parents when you weren’t wearing a stitch and it was obvious you’d just had sex. Ten seconds earlier and he’d have really gotten a greeting.
“I work for my uncle in his bike shop. I own this trailer and he lets me park it back here,” Keegan replied, frowning down at her. “You have a problem with that?”
Jules thought about her quaint little house in Franklin that she’d inherited from her grandmother. The one she didn’t visit often because of her assignments.
