In the Line of Fire: Hot Desert Heroes, Book 1

by Jett Munroe

  Well, hell. He guessed she wasn’t the only one to get shaken by their kiss. “Yes, let’s. Then we can get out of this heat.” He took her hand and they walked back to her car. He walked around it, looking at the locks on the doors before heading around to the back. Dropping her hand when he got to her trunk, he bent and studied the lock. “None of the locks were forced or picked.”

  “Because there are no marks?”

  “Right.” Beck glanced at Delaney, pleased as fuck by her intelligence.

  She blushed slightly. “I probably watch more TV than I should,” she said with a grimace and slight wrinkle of her nose.

  He couldn’t resist that cuteness. Sliding an arm around her waist again, he pulled her against him. This time their kiss wasn’t soft and it wasn’t quick. It was deep, it was hard, it was wet, and it was great. No. Better than great.

  Spectacular. Just like her.

  When he lifted his head they were both out of breath.

  “Beck,” she whispered. She lifted one hand and cupped his jaw, stroking her thumb over his cheek then his bottom lip. “This mouth should be classified as a lethal weapon.”

  He smiled. “Come on. Let’s get out of this heat.”

  “I could use a drink of water,” she told him.

  He linked his fingers with hers again. As they walked back to the building, she swung their arms. He hid his grin. She was a goof, his woman.

  Once they were inside, he led her toward his office. She looked around the entire time. “I’m impressed,” she said as they went past the conference room. She lifted her free hand shyly in greeting to the men still inside and got chin lifts in return. Ty’s face split into a wide grin, and when Delaney wasn’t looking, he gave Beck two thumbs-ups.

  Beck shook his head and pushed open the door to his office. Delaney went inside and he followed, closing the door behind him and depressing the button to lock it. He didn’t think any of the guys would interrupt them, but he’d make it so that they couldn’t just walk in. Just in case.

  Crossing the room, he went to a minifridge tucked in between his credenza and the wall, and pulled out a bottled water. He twisted off the cap and handed the bottle to her.

  “Thanks.” She took a few long draws.

  As she pulled the bottle away from her mouth, he asked, “What do you want to do about your quilt?”

  She sighed. “What can I do, really? I mean, I can call the cops and report the theft, but there’s no evidence my car was broken into.” She shrugged.

  “Does your company have surveillance cameras?”

  She looked startled. “No. At least I don’t think they do.”

  “I’ll check. You had enough?” he asked with a tilt of his chin toward the water bottle. At Delaney’s nod, he took it from her and set it on his desk, then drew her into his arms. “Now, how’re you doin’?”

  “I’m all right.”

  Beck gave his arms a little shake, jiggling her. “Let’s try it again. How’re you doin’, baby?”

  Her full lips pressed together; then she burst out, “I’m a little freaked out, okay? Someone stole something out of my car, just a quilt, which is nothing, but because it’s so nothing it’s really something. I might lose my job. And if I lose my job and can’t find another one soon, I’ll lose my house. I have to sign a lease renewal by the end of the month—which is only two weeks away—or be ready to move out. I have some savings but not much. I know there’s always unemployment, but I’m sure that’ll barely cover my rent and nothing else.” She took a breath and sailed on full steam ahead, “My sister, whom I love, is planning on retiring from modeling and moving to Tucson in six months or less, which is great news, but also means my mother, with whom I do not get along, will not be far behind.” She gave him big eyes. “Is that what you wanted to know?”

  “Yeah, that’s what I wanted to know. So let’s break it down, right?”

  She frowned at him. “Break it down?”

  “Yeah. Break all this down so we can handle it one issue at a time and you won’t have to worry anymore.”

  Her lips parted on her gasp. “Beck.”

  He drew her over to the wide sofa that was placed beneath the blind-covered window on the outer wall. Sitting down, he pulled her onto his lap. The curve of her luscious ass nestled between his thighs and her legs rested over his, her feet dangling above the floor.

  “Beck,” she protested, wiggling.

  The soft, sweet weight of her made his blood fire. His cock started to harden.

  She must have felt it because she gave another gasp and stilled. “Beck.” This time her voice was throaty.

  “We’ll get to that in a minute,” he promised, and grinned when she scowled at him. The scowl didn’t hold any real heat and, again, she was pretty as fuck doing it. “So, first, we’ll check and see if there’s any surveillance set up at SNJ. If there is we’ll get a look at the footage. Second, we’ve been talking about hiring an Office Administrator here. There’s too much paperwork for Ty and me to keep up with. You can have the job if you want it.”

  “You’re making that up,” she accused.

  He held up two fingers. “Scout’s honor.” Not that he’d ever been a Boy Scout, but he wasn’t lying. “I’ll have to talk to Ty, but he’s been just as reluctant to go through the hiring process as I have. We hadn’t gotten around to placing an ad yet because, also, neither one of us wanted to be the one to field the calls.” He slid his hand beneath the heavy fall of her hair and curled his fingers lightly around the back of her neck. “The position would manage the office, man the front desk, and answer the phones.”

  She glanced at the phone on his desk, which had yet to ring. Looking back at him, she raised an eyebrow and said, “Somehow that doesn’t seem like it’ll be too taxing.”

  “Most of our calls come over our cell phones, but just you wait,” he threatened with a smile. “One of the other guys from my squad, Rafe Delgado, has joined us, and it’s a matter of weeks before Solomon Quincy comes on board. We took on two new cases today, so business is picking up.”

  She rolled her lips between her teeth and her gaze dropped to his shoulder. “If you’re sure the others wouldn’t mind…”

  “Laney, look at me. Look at me,” he repeated, and her eyes came up to his face. He swiped a thumb up her jawline then slid his fingers into her hair, cupping the side of her skull. “I’m sure you do a good job for your boss.” He paused. “How fast do you type?”

  “Ninety, ninety-five words per minute.”

  His brows shot up. “Wow. I’m probably lucky if I do twenty. Do you take dictation?”

  She shook her head. “It’s been too many years since I had shorthand. About the only thing I remember is how to write ‘dear sir’. But I can transcribe from a tape,” she added with hope in her voice.

  “Then the job’s yours, seriously. The guys will be fine with that, especially since it’ll mean we won’t have to waste time and money running ads and doing interviews.”

  Delaney’s tongue swept over her lips. Beck held himself back from following it with his own, barely. “How do you know I do a good job?” she asked softly, going back to an earlier point in the conversation.

  “Because SNJ has a reputation for excellence and they wouldn’t retain someone who’s incompetent. Plus, I know you. With the great work you did on that quilt, which you did for free, I know you’d give at least that much attention to something you get paid to do.”

  “Well…” she held his gaze for another few seconds then hers dropped to his mouth, “…thank you,” she said. “Though, I hope I don’t have to take you up on your offer. No offense,” she added, her eyes darting to his.

  He smiled. “None taken.” He shifted, leaning over to place her on her back on the sofa. Her skirt hitched up and he made a space for himself between her legs. He stayed up on one forearm propped on the sof
a cushion between her shoulder and the back of the couch. “Now that we’ve gotten that worry scratched off your list, let’s tackle the next one.”

  She licked her lips again. This time he couldn’t resist and lowered his mouth to hers. When he lifted his head, she drew in a breath. “Um, can’t we have this conversation sitting up?”

  Beck shook his head. “No, we cannot.” He grinned at her disgruntled look. “Aren’t you comfortable?”

  “That’s not the point.” Her gaze darted to the door then back to his face. “Someone could come in.”

  “No one’s going to come in.”

  “But they could.”

  “They won’t. I locked the door.” He bent and placed a soft kiss against the corner of her mouth. “Tell me about your mom.”

  “You locked the door?” She frowned. “I didn’t see you lock the door.”

  “Did it when we came in. Tell me about your mom.”

  She huffed out a breath. “Beck—”

  “Tell me. About. Your mom.”

  “I think…” her lips rolled in again before she blurted, “…she doesn’t like me. My mom.”

  It wasn’t unheard of, he knew, for parents to have little to no affection for their offspring. But, hell, this was Delaney. “How can she not like you? You’re adorable.”

  Delaney gave a shrug that tried to be nonchalant but was so far from it he had to clench his jaw against the anger he felt on her behalf. “I don’t know what to tell you,” she said, her voice soft but not disguising the hurt she felt. “From the time I can remember I was never enough for her.”

  “Never enough what?”

  She shrugged her shoulders as she whispered, “Enough anything.”

  He slid his hands beneath her and drew her closer. “Explain that to me, Laney.”

  “When I was younger she put me in beauty pageants, even though I had zero interest. Well, I suppose early on I did but only because I wanted to make her happy. But later on…” she shook her head, “…I hated them. And as far as she was concerned, the reason I never placed higher than third was because I wasn’t pretty enough. I wasn’t talented enough. I wasn’t graceful enough. I wasn’t smart enough. I just wasn’t enough. And when I hit puberty and my face broke out and I wasn’t as cute anymore with crooked teeth—at least she paid for me to have braces—she gave up.”

  “She’s full of shit,” Beck spoke through a clenched jaw. That any parent could make their child feel unworthy angered him, but that Delaney’s parent would do it made him furious. When she looked startled at his comment, he tried to gentle his voice and went on, “Baby, you are beautiful. I’m not the only one who thinks so. I can guarantee if your mother truly doesn’t think you are, she’s the only one who has that opinion, and it’s bullshit.” He leaned down to press a kiss to her lips. “You’re able to make gorgeous quilts, so that takes care of the talent part. I’d say you’re plenty talented.”

  Her eyes went liquid. He cupped her face in his hands, swiping at the wet trickling from the corners of her eyes.

  “Having watched you walk through a restaurant in high heels, you seem graceful enough to me. But, I gotta tell you, even if you were a klutz, that wouldn’t take away from your beauty. At all.”

  He had to wonder what kind of relationship she had with her model sister. She seemed to be on great terms with her but, still, it had to eat at her, being constantly compared and, supposedly, not coming out favorably.

  “What else was there?” he asked. He thought a second until the final one came to him. “Oh, right. Not smart enough. That’s bullshit too. I bet you got good grades all through school, didn’t you?”

  She bit her lip and nodded.

  “Did you go to college?”

  Another nod.

  “What was your major?”

  “Business administration. With a major in management and a minor in Spanish.”

  “See, that right there was smart, since you live in the Southwest with a large Mexican population.”

  “Beck—”

  “I bet your boss thinks you’re smart.”

  From the look on her face he could tell he was right.

  “Stop listening to your mother, baby,” he whispered. “Because she is wrong. Whatever all that’s about, it’s about her, not you.”

  Her breath hitched; then she was wrapped around him, her fingers curling into his hair, her face shoved into his throat.

  Delaney fought back tears. She’d been trying for the last three years to rescue her self-esteem. Somehow, hearing Beck say “because she is wrong” in his deep voice made more impact than anything her sister or any of her friends had told her countless times through the years.

  Morgan had never bought in to her mother’s spiel that she was better than Delaney. As they had gotten older, Delaney had come to realize that, for Morgan, being the perfect child came with a different but just as difficult cross to bear. And that realization had deflated the burgeoning resentment she’d come to feel toward her younger sister and had brought them closer, banding them together to survive the momzilla to end all momzillas.

  Beck was right. Her mother had been telling her she was a failure since before she was in grade school. Who did that, other than an extremely unhappy woman?

  “Beck,” she whispered and let her head fall back onto the sofa. She had so much to say she couldn’t find the words. “Thank you,” she finally settled on.

  His smile lightened his face. “You’re welcome, baby.” He dipped his head and touched his mouth to hers. When he moved to draw away, she pulled him back down. After that, all it took was one single touch of the tip of her tongue to his lower lip for him to take command.

  He slanted his head, mouth bearing down on hers with firm pressure, tongue sparring in a kiss that was deep and almost desperate. Most of the desperation came from her, and for once she didn’t care. She needed Beck. She wanted him, and she wasn’t afraid of letting him see how much.

  One big hand ran slowly up her thigh and under her skirt then slid beneath her panties to cup her buttock. God, it felt good there. She moaned into his mouth and moved her hands over his shoulders, beneath his jacket, and shoved it down his arms. When he tore it off, she lost his touch but she didn’t complain because, once the jacket hit the floor, she got both his hands back in her panties.

  Delaney maneuvered to a sitting position and with shaking hands unbuttoned his shirt, pulling the tails free from his trousers. She rubbed her palms over the hard planes of his chest. He tore his mouth away and went to the curve of her neck. Her entire body shivered and clenched, and she rolled her hips into his hard groin. She made another pass over his chest then ran her hands down his belly, enjoying the peaks and valleys of his washboard abs, but she didn’t linger because she had another prize in mind. She twisted her wrist, flattened her hand, and stroked it over the fly of his pants.

  “Fuck.” His groan came openmouthed on her throat.

  “I want you,” she whispered and pressed her hand hard against him.

  He raised his head and stared down at her with storm-cloud eyes. “Now?”

  The door was locked. As long as they stayed quiet, no one would know what was happening in here. She hoped. “Now,” she said.

  Beck didn’t say another word. He shifted to one side, a hand leaving her ass to pull his wallet from his back pocket. Delaney went for his belt, then his zipper, and finally was able to slide her hand into his boxer briefs to wrap her fingers around the prize.

  It was big. It was hard. And it was all hers.

  She pulled his cock free and stroked from base to tip.

  He groaned, his hips jerking forward. “Let go of me, baby. Gotta get this on,” he said, holding the condom in his hand.

  She didn’t want to lose him but knew if she let go she’d get more of him, so she released her hold on him. He made quick work of rollin
g the condom on, thank God, but it still seemed to take forever. He’d barely gotten it to the base before she shoved his hand away and latched back on.

  “Baby. Fuck,” he rumbled.

  “I want you,” she whispered again, in case he’d forgotten.

  He reached under her skirt and yanked her panties off. He dropped them to the floor then rolled to a sitting position, lifting her up and over him so that she straddled his lap.

  “Then have me.”

  Oh God.

  Delaney lifted up on her knees and lined him up. As she started to lower herself, his hands went to her hips, fingers digging in. She dropped down, filling herself inch by glorious inch. Then she was riding him, driving down and lifting up, Beck’s hands on her hips holding her steady.

  “Give me your mouth,” he demanded.

  Careful not to lose her rhythm, she leaned in. The kiss was brutal, primitive. He moved one big hand from her hip to behind her neck, keeping her close, mouths fused. The other hand moved between her thighs where he put pressure on her clit with his finger.

  The instant he touched her sensitive flesh, her orgasm ignited. Her cry of release was muffled by Beck’s mouth. He pulled her off him and flipped her to her back on the sofa, her skirt up around her waist. He fit himself between her legs and powered back inside.

  She tilted her pelvis, still coming, and raised one leg to wrap around his hips.

  “Christ,” he grunted. He rammed into her again and again, grinding against her each time he hit bottom. Then he found his release, his breath coming harsh and turning into a long, low moan he buried against her throat. He slid in and held, lowering his torso to hers. “Baby,” he breathed.

  Delaney lost herself in the glow of climax, both hers and his, before she got self-conscious about what just happened and, more to the point, where it happened. She stiffened and pushed against Beck’s shoulders.

  His head snapped up. “What the hell?”

  “Get off,” she implored. “Before they know what we just did.”

  “So what if they do?”

  Shock held her immobile for a moment then she started shoving at him again. “It’s private.”