by M. Malone
Motherfucker. Noah fought dirty. Because, he was right. JJ would need him. She needed him now. If he ran off after this asshole, she would be all alone tonight. And she deserved better than that. His shoulders sagged, and he let one of the pistols fall into his palm. Gingerly, Matthias came forward and took it from his hands. He ensured the safety was on, and removed all the ammunition. Piece by piece, his boys took all the guns from him. Even his personal piece. Noah took that one.
When he growled at his friend, Noah held up both hands. "Sorry man. You'll get this back in the morning when you're more level headed, you hear me?"
Yeah, maybe Noah had a point. This way, he couldn’t wake up in the middle of the night with a penchant for murder. That wouldn't be good for JJ.
"I hear you. But just so we’re clear, that asshole dies, right?"
Matthias and Rafe nodded immediately. The thought of killing didn't turn their stomachs. What surprised him was that Oskar and Noah nodded as well. Noah had never taken to the life of an assassin very well. It had always eaten at him a little. And Oskar. Oskar hadn't been an assassin like the other three. But when it came to protecting women and children, he erred on the side of killing the assholes and asking questions later.
"Yeah, okay. I'm gonna go see JJ."
Noah clapped him on the back. "I think that's a good idea. You'll do her more good being with her than going off half-cocked."
There was a knock at her door and JJ lifted her head to find Jonas in the doorway. “Hey you.”
His voice was soft, but she could sense the turmoil in him. He nearly vibrated with it. “How you feeling?”
“Tired. Raw. Like I scraped the scab off of a healing wound with a dull rusty blade.”
He smirked. “You’ve always had a way of painting a picture. You got room in there for one more?”
She nodded and scooted aside in her bed, alarmed at how much she needed him. When Jonas reached the bed, he gently tucked her hair behind her ear, and then stripped off his own clothes.
Unmistakable heat flashed between her thighs, and she couldn’t help a smile. Sliding in beside her, Jonas tucked her against him so they spooned with his hand cupping her breast.
“Jonas, what—”
“I’m going to hold you, if that’s okay. You know how much I want you.” He dragged in a sharp breath when she wiggled her ass against his thick erection. “Hell, you can feel it.” His cock twitched against her ass. He clearly wanted her, but all he did was continue to hold her. “I need to hold you more than I need to make love to you. If that’s okay.”
She nodded then whispered, “Thank you for today.”
Jonas kissed her ear softly. “You have nothing to thank me for. I’m not going anywhere.”
It was in the cocoon of his arms that she was finally able to fall asleep.
Hours later, with streaks of moonlight casting shadows into her room, JJ moaned into Jonas's chest. She was awake enough to know she was having either the very best of dreams or one hell of a wakeup call. Jonas kissed her as his thumb and forefinger rolled one of her nipples. Sighing into the caress, she let herself relax into the kiss. His expert tongue caressed and teased hers into playing.
God, she relished what he could do to her body. The way he made her pliant. He never rushed her, even when she wanted to hurry. He always took his time with everything, even kissing her, like they had all the time in the world. Like his erection wasn't straining.
She loved kissing him. His lips were so soft and skilled, and his tongue–every time he licked into her mouth, it made her shiver. When his hand dipped between her thighs, she parted them to ease his way. Skilled fingers stroked her cleft, teasing her, driving her crazy. She arched her back trying to angle her hips into his hand.
Jonas slid a finger inside her as his thumb caressed her clit and she cried out and sank her fingers into his hair. He grunted in satisfaction as her hips bucked, then he sucked on her tongue in time with his fingers sliding into her slick center. His heavy erection continued to press into her thigh and she moaned. She would never get over what he could do to her body. She'd never been so carnal, so aroused, so willing to give herself completely to anyone.
With a groan, he pulled back from their kiss and she mewled as she tried to follow his lips. His gaze scorched her. Dark and fiery, he stared at her under hooded lids. “Jesus, what are you doing to me?”
Her constricted throat made it impossible to speak, so she responded the only way she knew how—by arching her hips into his hand again.
He muttered a soft curse, and squeezed his eyes shut. As his fingers strummed her to the edge of orgasm, he chewed on his bottom lip. When he increased the pace of his questing fingers, JJ held tight onto his shoulders. She rotated her hips around and around until he swore again and rubbed his thumb directly over her clit.
Her orgasm ripped through her, laying waste to every nerve and cell. Unable to think, she threw her head back giving herself over fully to the sensation.
“Holy fuck, you are so beautiful when you come.”
She smiled up at him, expecting him go for a condom, but instead, he burrowed under the covers. His hands parting her thighs had her tensing. “Jonas, I–”
He tugged the sheet down and lifted his head. After he crawled back up her body, he turned her chin firmly so she was looking at him. His gaze burned hot, the desire etched on his face was unmistakable. “Do you trust me?”
JJ nodded. “Of course.”
“Good. Now I’m going to erase every memory of that asshole from your body. I will erase every memory of any other man before me. Tasting you is one of the highlights of my day.”
“I-uh...” Wow. “In that case, who am I to stand between a man and his mission.”
“There’s my girl.” His smile was lopsided. “Look at us sharing control.”
He slid back down her body, placing kisses across her chest and belly as he went. When he reached her hips, he nibbled at the flesh on her pelvic bone, then scooted still lower.
Dusting feather light kisses on her inner thighs, he paused when he got to her cleft. “So pretty. And so soft.” His first stroke of her slick center had her clenching her hands into the sheets. Oh God. He lapped at her, kissing her and exploring her with his tongue. He took his time, as he did with everything else. He seemed in no hurry. When his tongue circled the throbbing bundle of nerves, JJ flew apart in his hands again. But he didn’t let up. He kept stroking her. Kept lapping at her.
It wasn’t until he slid a finger into her moist sheath again that she lost all her inhibitions. Forgot everything she’d been afraid of. Forgot the shadows that had been chasing her and gave herself over. If he was intent on killing her with ecstasy, then who the hell was she to argue?
Finally relaxing, she let her thighs fall apart and he moaned, parting her folds and dipping the tip of his finger into her center. Her third orgasm rolled through her, chasing the tail of the previous one, he didn’t let up until she lay limp.
He drew himself back up her body, pausing to nip at her hips again, then to suckle her breasts.
When he made it to her lips, he said, “I’m going to make that a new daily habit.”
She shivered. He could do that to her any time he wanted. “God, yes.”
He shifted against her parting thighs with his. And she moaned when the tip of his erection nudged her cleft.
He squeezed his eyes shut tight as he entered her inch by inch. JJ met him halfway by raising her hips. His jaw stayed tight until he was seated all the way inside her. He made love to her sweetly. Kissing her, holding her to him and looking into her eyes. “You’re mine. And I am yours.”
In that moment, the fear fell away. This was the perfect moment, the one she'd always looked for. This was the kind of love and acceptance she'd been seeking all her life. “I know.” Blissful abandon started in her toes and cascaded through her body. She held onto him tight and muttered how much she loved him as the orgasm took over all her conscious and subconscious thou
ght.
As her body held him inside her, he whispered in her ear, “I am so lucky.” With two more deep strokes, his whole body shook with release.
chapter 19
"You know you can't save the day every day, right?"
Jonas looked up from his post at the floor-to-ceiling windows. He’d left a sleeping JJ to think this shit through. Besides, if he’d stayed, he’d have made love to her again. Marked her as his … again. He hated that someone had hurt her, that that jackoff had bruised that beautiful body.
Noah braced his arms in the doorjamb and studied him.
"Yeah, I know."
"Trust me. Above all else, I understand the run-in-and-kill-it compulsion when the woman you love is in danger."
"I know that, Noah. I just can't help it. I want to be out there. To find him."
"I know. And I get it. But first of all, that's not you. You are the law-and-order guy; the justice guy. He's a prick. And very likely deserves to go home in a body bag. And that's what we'll do. But you know why I can't let you go off all renegade. This is not a Rambo movie."
"I just need to fix this for her. She is afraid, and there is nothing I can do. Do you have any idea what that feels like?"
Noah fixed him with a slanted glare. "Have we met?"
Jonas shook his head. "Yeah, I know. I know you know. I just—" He sagged against the window. "Is it supposed to fucking feel like this?"
"You mean that feeling of being totally out of control, when the only person you ever cared about this deeply is the one person you don't know how to protect?"
"Yeah. That feeling."
"Yeah, it's called love."
"I mean, this is JJ. She's brash, and bold, and doesn’t need anyone. On any given Sunday she's telling this lot over here, a den of killers, to go suck a bowl of dicks. More often than not she doesn't listen, she does not temper her emotions, and fucking hell is that woman loud."
Noah grinned. "Yeah, we've heard."
Jonas glared at him. "You know, we all had to endure you and Lucia, attempting to sneak around but doing a shit job of it. So JJ likes to scream.” He shrugged. “I'm not going to stop the woman."
Noah put up his hands. "I'm not saying you should. It's just, well, we have a sleeping baby most of the time."
Jonas rolled his eyes. "Shut the fuck up."
Noah chuckled low. "Yeah, I hear you. Look, we’re a team. We do things together. We go in together, always. That is how we stay alive. That is how we keep JJ alive. JJ, Lucia, Isabella, each other. Not one of us gets to go off on our own. We've all seen how poorly that ends up."
"I love her," Jonas whispered, finally giving himself permission to say the words. Some of the tension coiled tightly in the center of his chest eased. He did love her. All he wanted was her. Safe. That was it. Even if their shit didn't work out, and God, he hoped it did, but he still just wanted her happiness most of all. Then keep her alive.
Noah smirked. "Yeah, I was wondering when you were going to get around to that."
Jonas chuckled. "Did everyone in this office think we were going to get together?"
Noah snorted a laugh. "What? You didn't think so? Because I could pretty much see where this was heading the moment you first laid eyes on her. You were completely gob smacked, standing there with your mouth open, catching flies and shit." His chuckle deepened. "I will never forget it. JJ strolled right up to you and said—"
Jonas didn't even let him finish before quoting JJ himself. "’Yeah, I get this reaction a lot.’" He shook his head. "She was so full of herself. Seriously. I just wanted to shake her. And kiss her. Which irritated me even more."
His friend’s shoulders shook with mirth. "I know, man. She's a handful. And she deserves someone as good as you. So for once in your life, listen to me. We will get this asshole. But we will do it together, and we will do it smart. No one is going to touch her. This is our family. And we protect what's ours. We'll figure out what's going on with ORUS. What they're up to. And we’ll get retribution for JJ. But first, we watch them. We study what they're doing. We keep this shit methodical. Then we move.”
Jonas nodded. "And then we kill the bastard."
Noah nodded. "Yeah, that too."
This was all JJ’s fault. Every single man in this penthouse was in total kill mode. Now, while some of that was kind of hot, she didn't want this kind of fuss just for her. This had not been her intention. But what are you gonna do? Tell them not to protect you? These guys, however frustrating they were at times, were her family. Which meant they would protect her with their lives. Not that she wanted that, but she knew them well enough to know that they would not listen.
"You guys, thank you for rallying the troops and all that. Especially since I have a penchant for telling you to go suck on a bowl of dicks. I appreciate it."
Matthias shook his head. "Don't mention it, love. We're family. We stick together."
His words were soft. But he was nearly as scary as Rafe with the look he had in his eye. JJ didn't have all the details, but she knew that Matthias, Rafe, and Noah were not your garden-variety security folks. First clue were those tats that they sported on the backs of their necks and their wrists. They were all different, but extremely similar. To the casual observer, they were just a clustering of dots. Maybe freckles? But Lucia had told her once they were tattoos and refused to tell her anything else. Truth be told, she had a feeling that she didn't really want to know. Although, she really did want to know. But these were the kind of secrets she had a feeling would get someone killed. So she kept her mouth shut.
Regardless, Noah was the least scary of the crew. He was mostly charming and happy-go-lucky. Unless it came to Lucia, and then the man went insane. He would do anything to protect her.
Rafe, by contrast, was serious. All the time serious. He rarely joked. The smiles were few, unless he was holding Isabella. Or talking to Lucia or Nonna. He had a few smiles for her too, but he didn't say much.
JJ had a feeling his seriousness had everything to do with whatever the hell had caused him to fake his own death. Again, it was one of those things that no one talked about. She was personally just happy to have Rafe back in their lives. And happy to see her friend get her brother back.
Rafe had tried to kill Noah and the other guys at Blake Security last year, so pretty much no one talked about that time. Except Oskar. Oskar brought it up as often as possible. Always poking and needling Rafe. She was secretly terrified that a proper fight would break out one of these days.
And then there was Matthias. Yes, he could be scary. Especially when he looked like this. But mostly, he was sweet ... as sweet as a British, tattooed, hacker-type could be. As far as she knew, he didn't do as much of the personal security work. He was more on the tech side. Whenever he did do security though, he got this look on his face. Like he’d beat anyone who even considered getting in his way. And when he looked like this, it was scary shit. He looked almost as lethal as Rafe did.
She wasn't an idiot though. All three of them were lethal. She just didn't want to ask if they had any practical experience.
"Thanks for saying that Matthias. You guys are the best family a girl could ask for. But seriously, this whole place has a Debbie Downer mood on it. You guys should go out. I get it; Jonas will be my bodyguard.”
Oskar snorted. "Yeah, we all know how he guards your body."
JJ flipped him off. "Seriously, though. Noah, take Lucia out of here. She's worried. And it's not good for Isabella. You guys go with Rafe. Jonas and I will stay and babysit."
To her surprise, Jonas nodded his agreement, even though Isabella was known for just smacking him in the face whenever he held her. She did it with such glee and a giggle, like it was her favorite activity. And she also had a penchant for vomiting on him. But still, he volunteered for babysitting duty.
"She's right. You guys go out. We'll stay here. Keep an eye on things."
Noah shook his head. "No one's going anywhere. We’re all staying here until we get the
lay of the land."
Matthias threw up his hands. "I swear to God, you lot act like a bunch of old biddies. I have eyes on Chamaeleon. JJ is safe. No one is going to let him near her. Why don't the lot of you go out? Lucia, you call the nanny. I'll stay and keep eyes on things. And that way, JJ, you get out too. Jonas, if I have to look at your dour face for another minute, I'm likely to stab you in the chest. So all of you go. Leave the baby with me. It's not like I don't know how to change little love’s diapers by now."
JJ giggled. No one was sure what it was about Matthias. But every single time someone handed him the baby, Isabella gave him a nice warm diaper. So he had a lot of practice changing her by now.
Oskar tsked from the corner. "Does you wanting us out of here have anything to do with your crush on Katie the babysitter?"
Poor Matthias. A flush crept up his neck even as he glowered at Oskar. "Shut it."
Of course that just made Oskar laugh harder.
Lucia stepped forward and put her arm around JJ. "What do you think? Can you try and forget about things for a night and let us cheer you up? We'll have Noah and Jonas and Oskar, and I assume we'll be taking Ryan and Dylan as well. Rafe begged off, said he needed to crash. We'll have a night out. Most of the gang."
JJ slid Jonas a look, and he nodded at her.
"I don't know. I just feel like you guys will be all worried and tense, and I don't want anyone to feel like that."
Lucia just gave her a tight squeeze. "Come on. We're going out. Go get some sexy heels on and make these men buy us drinks and chocolate desserts, and maybe even makeup. You know how Oskar just loves spending an hour in Sephora while I look for just the right shade of lipstick.”
From the corner Oskar moaned. "Please don't. Anything but that."
JJ grinned. "I'm having fun already. Okay. If you guys are sure."
Jonas came over and kissed her on the forehead. "Go get changed. We'll work out some security protocols. We'll go have some fun and attack the problem in the morning, okay?"
