“Depends on who the girl is, in my mind,” he replied against the shell of her ear in a low growl that was anything but professional. His breath bathed her nerves with a zinging shock as he whispered those slow words into her ear. The rumbled sensual depth of it made her blood run hot. That flutter intensified into its own earthquake and a shiver rocketed down her length. Her heart jumped and tripped for a completely different reason than being shot at. She could feel every inch of his tensed length and even in the most inappropriate of moments, it was hard not to take notice. Where he lay above her, the hard outline of his cock was pressed deliciously against her thigh. She felt herself begin to smolder with desire.
“Don’t move,” he warned her, his voice neutral again. Thankfully popping her lust-filled bubble. She had to be out of her mind to be thinking about him like that at a time like this!
He reached behind his back, and she saw a handgun appear from beneath his light charcoal jacket. He rolled off of her body, glass dropping with a tinkling sound to the wood covered floor. Shattered bits crunched beneath his feet as he crab walked along the wall and peeked out between blind gaps. She watched as he followed something outside with his gaze. A second later the sharp scream of tires told her the shooters weren’t sticking around to see if the job was done.
He stood slowly at the wall, fixated as the sound disappeared. A moment later, he reached down and offered a hand.
“What, might I ask, was the point of that?” she demanded.
“It’s a mind game. They know you are involved and are warning you.”
“Really? A strong email would have done just as well.” She carefully shook her body to remove lingering glass slivers, trying to not do the natural thing and brush her hands down her suit.
He produced a handkerchief and helped dust her off, carefully lifting the ends of her hair away from her collar and brushing anything harmful free. She noticed his lips were twitching.
“What?” She didn’t want to have to deal with a smart-aleck agent next.
“I’m glad you’re not the type who falls back on hysterics.”
“Hysterics?” He was kidding right? She did have every right to, but being the daughter of a policeman she’d kind of had the trait trained out of her.
A solid brown eyebrow rose over his green and blue melded eyes as he paused, his hand hovering over her shoulder. She’d never seen such an artfully constructed color in her life. He dusted her off on both sides. She felt the heat from his hand against her neck and the throb of her pulse quickened. It wasn’t the only thing to start throbbing either.
“Hysterics,” he murmured. Then he smiled. A real smile, pleasured and content. The dimple she’d only seen hinted at, appeared. The urge to press a single kiss to the sexy facial marker made her heart hitch against her ribs. He was a gorgeous guy, several inches taller than herself, with laugh lines around his eyes. He had a slightly short nose and a sexy mouth. Kind of a darker version of Keifer, and she wasn’t the kind of woman who’d turn him out of her bed.
It was obvious Jonas shaved regularly. His skin was nearly smooth with a taut suppleness, his face full of character but firm. She spotted only a few grays peeking from the full bodied brown of his trimmed hair. Late thirties was her best guess, and fit and solid if her recent introduction to the world of Agent Hard Bodies was any indication. At thirty-six, she wasn’t any kind of spring chicken either, but something about him, his smile, that dimple, made her want to see just what the rest of him would feel like pressed against her body, without the glass and definitely without clothes. The idea of it sent another warming tingle to between her legs.
Slowly the air in the house changed, became charged between them. It swirled around them with something awakening. Something wicked and taunting and hungry. And she wanted it. Her pulse ticked, beating harder against her ears as his eyes met hers and stayed. A shiver rocked her spine when the lightest touch of his fingers stroked beneath her ear where he’d been clearing her hair of glass fragments. The rough feel of his tips forced a light gasp of shock and pleasure all wrapped together from between her lips. She’d forgotten he was helping to dust her off when she’d become absorbed in her study of him. A delicious study she really wanted to continue. The indistinct scrape of his touch jolted her back to the room.
And the most intense, drugging stare in a pair of eyes she’d ever encountered.
They stood less than a step apart. A single movement, from either, would bring them body to body.
Just a little closer, she willed him. She wanted to taste him. She wanted to feel the strength of his kiss, to caress his lips and have it returned.
Jonas made the move before she did. All she could see was the heat in his gaze, the tanned warmth of his skin, the way his lashes lowered over his eyes just enough to make them sizzle when he moved closer. She inhaled and found the warmed scent of something woody, a light cologne maybe, heated by his skin and it made her tremble within as he hovered over her lips. Her breasts grew sensitive, desire making them, her, throb. Her nipples hardened and she ached. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had such a deep and needing reaction after hardly more than a few words.
“Beautiful,” he whispered, his breath a bath of heat and hunger against her lips. Then he closed the gap completely. Her eyes fluttered closed as sensations hit her with the shock of a steamroller. Zings of heat coursed through her body and she quivered, feeling the sudden dampness between her legs. She was falling, but he held her as her legs dared to quake. His fingers threaded completely into her hair and held her steady, captured, but not with harsh strength. With a gentleness that shook her to her core. With nothing but the mere strength of his kiss, he held her to him. He brushed against her and she hungered. Her fingers rose and clutched as though seeking a lifeline at his waist in answer. She had to hold on or be pulled in too hard and too fast into the searing heat that enveloped her. Then she stopped worrying about it.
So long… It had been so long since her last kiss. Her divorce was a long six years in the past. A few failed dates afterward and she’d laid her sex life on the back burner to concentrate on her business. She remembered now what she’d been missing out on. She moaned as the seductive whip of his tongue stroked her bottom lip and opened for him eagerly.
She knew she felt the earth shift when something deep and hungry rose from him, a growl, a groan, she wasn’t sure, but it enveloped her as completely as a cocoon of velvet. The trailing tease of his tongue dared her and she answered, kissing him back with a reawakened desire that scorched her from the inside out.
A shrill tone, a song jingle sliced through her bliss with little welcome.
Calmly, he sipped once, twice, releasing her slowly. She wanted to cry out in denial, but knew it had to end. That was her phone cutting into her moment of heaven. Her office to be exact.
Warm fingers slid from her hair, caressing her tenderly in their retreat. She pressed the button on her Bluetooth when he stepped back then watched as Jonas reached for his own phone. Likely doing the same thing she was doing. Explaining why shots had been fired.
“No, I’m fine,” she answered once Rebecca had calmed down. The perimeter company had called the office when the windows had been shattered, disrupting a field of protection. Stacee’s gaze followed the man a few feet away as he spoke calmly into his own phone. She heard snatches of his conversation, giving details about the car and answering questions.
“Stacee?” came the worried query. “Is everything okay now?”
She smiled at her secretary’s concern. A sweet girl, younger, newly married and sharp as a tack. “I’m fine, really,” she went on. “There’s been a misunderstanding. I have an agent here with me now.”
“Oh, that’s good!”
Stacee thought so too, her gaze following him hungrily. “I’ll call as soon as I can. Hopefully, things will be back to normal soon.”
“Okay.” Then she went on to rattle off the changes that had been made for the day, and Stacee nodded
or made suggestions as her day was rescheduled.
“I’ll call later if tomorrow is bad too.” A final note and then she hung up. Jonas was done only a moment after her.
“Everything okay?” she asked him. He seemed troubled, his gaze far away and thoughtful.
He spun on a heel and prowled back to her. She couldn’t think of any other way to describe his walk. It was more than a swagger and twice as dangerous. “I’m not sure. I need to get back to the office and check on a new lead.” He lifted a hand to her face, cradling her with a tender awareness that made her heart beat like crazy all over again. She almost whimpered. “You all right?”
She nodded, having a hard time finding her voice. Her lids closed as sensations bombarded her again. The rough but tender comfort of his hand, the strength she’d felt in his body, the undeniable urge to feel him against her. All of that was nothing compared to the piercing sharpness of his eyes. She felt powerless beneath his stare. Her heart was pounding.
She instantly craved his touch again when he let it slide free. What she craved she couldn’t put into words and prayed it wasn’t so obvious in her expression. Every touch added fuel to the hunger.
“If you see anything out of the ordinary, don’t hesitate. Call me. I don’t care how unusual. Okay?” he pressed.
She blinked and nodded, barely able to breathe and talk. It was one or the other, and breathing took precedence.
“The local boys will be here in a couple minutes to take a report on the shooting.” He handed her an extra card, standing so close she was able to see the rise and roll of his chest as he breathed. “Just tell them to contact me. I have to get back to my database. They know where to find me.”
“Why?” she asked, not wanting him to go, knowing there was more here than simply the need to follow through on his case. She palmed the card and waited.
“I caught the license plate on the car. They’re getting careless, which means they’re getting desperate.”
“What was the stolen property?” If people looking for it were getting desperate… It was enough to freeze the unending lust into a block of ice.
Jonas frowned, obviously debating on how much to share with her. His prolonged silence wasn’t easing her worries any. His eyes gave away nothing as he debated. Finally he told her, “Three memory chips. National security sensitive information. They were stolen a few days before you had this,” he tenderly brushed hair away from her forehead, exposing the still tender spot, “happen. We tried to stop them before they actually got the chips, but something went wrong. They had a decoy and slipped out of the noose.”
She caught a ripple cross his shoulders. It could only be frustration. “There was someone on the inside, wasn’t there? Your inside guy gave it away, didn’t he?”
He snapped up, blinked at her suggestion, then laughed a mirthless sound. “Too many drama shows,” he retorted flatly.
She shook her head, sure her next answer was going to throw him for a loop. “No, my dad was a cop too. He died in the line of duty. I even took the first year of academy training thinking it was the right thing to do, but it wasn’t. I wasn’t being a cop for me.”
“Shit, Stacee. I’m sorry.” He seemed genuinely apologetic.
She shrugged. His sincerity was appreciated, but not necessary. “He would talk to me about the cases he was working, or the stories going around the precinct and we’d work out the angles. I liked pretending I could be a cop at that point in my life. He said I was deviant enough to see it from both sides.” A reminiscent smile flitted over her mouth as she remembered her father and those discussions. That ability to see more than the obvious was what made her a good realtor now. She could read buyers like her father used to read liars and crooks.
Jonas’s chest rocked with a hard chuckle, shaking his head as though in surprise, then all humor left him again.
He neared her. She felt the tingle of his gaze on her skin, touching her, searching her. “You’re something else,” he said, an unknown meaning to the words. A meaning she didn’t understand at all. But the heat in those marine colored eyes made her want, more than she had in a very long time.
His lips were hot, catching her by surprise, claiming her kiss. Staking his claim. Desire and want wrapped into the single action, and she felt herself sink into it instantly. It was over before she’d realized it had begun, and then he was gone.
CHAPTER FOUR
Six hours later, Jonas still tasted her kiss. Nearly strawberry but something much, much sweeter. Tantalizing. And a sexy bottom lip that he’d wanted to kiss since the moment she was close enough to smell her perfume. He’d seen the way desire had darkened her speckled hazel eyes. He knew was going to kiss her. Like breathing, it wasn’t conscious. It just was.
He dropped his head, cinching his scalp between tightening fingers in frustration. Sexually and otherwise, Stacee was killing him. He ached in so many places, in ways he’d never touched on. That was why he’d left her. He’d run. No lying to himself. He should’ve stayed and given his half of the incident report. He had to leave or the urge to do more than kiss that mouth would have become a reality. One kiss and he’d almost forgotten everything—including his own name. He wasn’t sure what he was doing about any of it yet, either.
Marriage had never been a thought because of his lupine tendencies. It still wasn’t. Instead he’d opted to go into the Army, using the underground channels to smooth his enlistment. Secrecy came with a price, and modern times were making it more and more of a challenge but there were those in the pack who thrived in that kind of subterfuge. Hidden from the world in plain sight. It helped that the pack had connections all over the world, in all societies. He had to admit, he’d tasted the adrenaline rush himself. It was part of why he worked for the DOD. Couldn’t be much more entrenched in the wheels than working with the damn government.
But Stacee was creating a wrinkle in his world. He’d been told he was too cold, too untouchable by more than one female. They were right. They’d also likely run screaming if they learned why that was the case. But Stacee didn’t seem to know that, or care if she had any idea. He knew she didn’t have any clue to his nature. It wasn’t possible for a human to tell the difference. Only his own kind could, and he knew most of them in his region. Regardless, he hadn’t been able to forget her since that first moment, and it was driving him up a wall. He was ready to howl he was so wound up over the woman.
He almost snorted as his thoughts sank deeper into an unknown territory of lust, imagining her the way he’d seen her that morning, forceful, demanding answers then pliant beneath his kiss. He could easily see her in much more arousing ways too. Naked, beneath him, or riding him, taking in every solid inch of his cock. Lush, silky skin slick with passion, her heat enveloping him as he sank deep into her welcoming body. He could imagine quite a lot, as he quickly discovered. He shuddered as the images sliced his control like that horror movie character Jason and his knives.
She even spelled her name like some pep squad cheerleader girl. That same girl had grown into one hell of a woman. His body was only too willing to point that out. Savvy, unshakeable and intelligent were just a few things he’d noticed since meeting her. Curvy and luscious with a scent that made him want to pull her against him and never let her go, and all that hair. If he’d been alone, he probably would’ve howled for quite a long while.
He thought for a brief instant about slackening his body’s hunger but just the idea made him tremble with the urge to hurl. And grown men did not hurl. Not at work. Not at their desks. God, I have this bad. He rubbed at his temples a little harder but it had no effect. The last stress relief he’d had in the name of a roll in the hay, because he knew he’d never remember the girl’s name, had been longer in his history than he cared to remember. The less he’d had as he’d matured, the less he’d missed it. Until now. And damn, what he wanted, he wanted bad. He growled in his throat at the admission. The noise of the office surrounded him, thankfully hiding his turmoil.
“Here’s your car info,” Randy announced, dropping the file at Jonas’s elbow, yanking him back to the chaos of the offices surrounding him.
He snapped around to look up at Randy. The interruption was a touch of relief with the latest news. And a relief to be out of his own thoughts for five seconds. “Thanks for being fast.”
Randy shrugged. “There were only so many possibilities with what you gave me, and I didn’t think the eighty-two Dodge was going to be it.”
Jonas grinned. Randy was thorough besides being fast. He flipped the file open and read the car specs. “Did you put out the APB on it yet?” he asked as he read the details.
“First thing,” Randy confirmed, leaning on the edge of Jonas’s desk. “You think they are the buyer?” He flipped a look toward the file beneath Jonas’s fingers.
“Or the next courier.” He glanced at the vehicle owner information on the paperwork. A business entity, one he recognized from months of reconnaissance. He let out a slow breath. They were getting closer. Finally. Unfortunately, seeing how close they were gave his stomach a twist that he really didn’t like. He knew who would be next if they were searching from their end if he thought about it. It didn’t take very long at all to figure it out either. Hell, they’d just shot at her that morning.
What was he waiting for?
“Thanks again.” He stood from his chair and grabbed his jacket, shrugging it over his shoulders to hide his holster. No sense in lying. He was going to check on Stacee. The real lie was that his only motivation was to make sure she was still safe and sound.
Watching Her Every Move Page 3
