Justice for Hildie

by Reina Torres

  Hildie reached for his wrist, but Jake flexed his arms and the snaps popped open. She looked up at him with more than a hint of suspicion. “You could have done that before.”

  “I could have, but I wanted to see what you would do.”

  Getting up from her chair, she tugged the shirt free from his arms and dropped it over the chair.

  “So,” she gave him a pointed look, “do you have any surprises left before- Hey!”

  He swept her up onto his shoulder and carried her out of the room. Her laughter trailed after him. “Where’s your bedroom?”

  “End of the hall.” She was laughing and grabbed onto the back of his undershirt as he walked. “I’m loving the view from here,” he felt her hand give him a crisp smack. “You’ve got a fantastic ass.”

  “Careful,” he warned her as he neared the end of the hall.

  “Ha! You’re the one carrying me!” She wiggled against his back, and he shook his head.

  “Don’t you dare, woman.”

  She shifted against him, and he knew she was trying to look at him.

  “Stay still before I drop you.”

  Her laughter only made him harder.

  He pushed open the door and ducked down far enough to make sure they cleared the top of the doorway.

  She let out a whoop and a laugh. “It’s like a roller coast- oh!”

  He tossed her on the bed and left her sprawled over her comforter, laughing.

  It only turned him on more.

  “Come ‘ere.” He reached out a hand and grabbed her ankle. The thick pile of blankets on the bed made it easy for him to pull her closer.

  Jake stopped when her feet were near the edge of the bed. Her knees were bent and her cheeks were flushed with brilliant color. Once he let her go, she stopped laughing and looked him over from his head down toward the edge of the bed and back again.

  She wasn’t breathing as fast as she was when she was laughing, but the way she looked at him, her gaze passing over his body, made his blood surge through his body. He swore he could feel himself swell under her blatant admiration.

  “Lose the shirt.”

  He heard the command in her voice and gave her a narrowed look. “You’re still dressed.”

  She arched a brow at him and used her hands to push herself into a sitting position. “Okay. I can see where this is going.” She reached down and lifted the hem of her blouse. The flowery material had been pretty to look at, but what was under it was even better.

  Hildie’s rounded curves were better than his imagination, and when she crossed her arms to lift the blouse over her breasts, he saw the lace she’d been talking about earlier.

  Her bra was the thing of dreams. The lace was a deep rose color that her peaches and cream skin set off to perfection. He could see her nipples pressed tight against the fabric. They were tightening, but he’d enjoy seeing just how hard he could make the delicate points before the night was over.

  She reached behind her to the back, and he shook his head. “Let me.”

  The look she gave him held just a hint of innocence, and when she reached for the button at the waist of her jeans, his gaze followed.

  She popped the button open and heaven help him, she didn’t bother with the zipper. Hildie laid back on the bed and braced her feet, lifting her hips.

  A moment later, the jeans and a delicate pair of rose-colored panties landed at his feet.

  “Beautiful, Hill. Every inch of your body. Beautiful.” His hand closed around his cock and stroked from the base to the tip and back again. “I need to touch you.”

  The movement of his hand drew her eyes down, and he watched the flush of color in her cheeks deepen and her lips part. When her hand settled on her belly and slowly inched down, he gave his cock a squeeze and stroked again.

  When her fingertips brushed the delicate curls of her sex she stopped and pulled her hand away.

  “Hill?”

  She looked up at him, but didn’t quite meet his gaze.

  “Why did you stop?”

  “I’d feel… strange.”

  He lifted his hand and reached behind his head, pulled off his undershirt and dropped it down to the floor at his feet. “Do you like watching me?”

  Jake wrapped his hand around the base of his cock and drew his hand all the way to the top.

  “Do you like that?”

  The hitch in her breath, and the breathy parting of her lips, told him what he needed to know, but he wanted to hear it. From those amazing lips.

  “I’d want to watch you.”

  She didn’t look away from him, but her gaze was fixed on his face as she slid her hand down her thigh, and when she drew it back up again, her fingers trailed through the curls shielding her sex. It wasn’t so much where she was touching herself, it was the sudden brightness in her eyes and the full breath of air she dragged into her lungs.

  Her whole body changed as if she was suddenly more. More awake. More alive.

  And he knew the moment her finger slipped through her folds and into her body. Her back arched ever so slightly, and her eyes darkened.

  She drew up one knee, flattening her foot on the mattress, as her fingers slipped into her body and as they came out again, he saw the silken web clinging to them.

  Jake crouched down and drew a condom from the hip pocket of his jeans and tossed it on the side edge of the bed. He bent one knee and climbed up beside her. She watched him carefully as he took her hand and drew her fingers into his mouth.

  The soft moan from her throat encouraged him, and he swept his tongue hungrily against her skin.

  With her eyes sparkling in the semi-darkness of her bedroom, he reached for her. Pulling her closer, he drew one hand up along her ribs until his hand cupped her breast. He swept his thumb over her nipple and felt the tip tighten with the friction he created.

  Her hand touched his shoulder as she leaned into his touch.

  “You’re so perfect for me, Hill.” He shifted his hand against her and felt her breast fill his palm. “So perfect.”

  She shifted her body, wiggling closer into his heat, and his hand reached around behind her and unhooked the clasp of her bra. He helped draw it down her arms, but before she could feel the air against her breasts, his hands were there, gently teasing the sensitive flesh to tightened points. Plumping one breast to meet his mouth, he settled over her nipple, suckling softly on her sensitive flesh.

  She touched him, her hands skimming over his shoulders and his back.

  She called out to him, her voice soft and pleading and then breathless with need.

  She moved closer and then away, fitting their bodies together, searching for something while his mouth and hands worshiped her.

  It wasn’t until he tried to work his way down her body that she stopped him. One hand gripping his arm, and the other fisting in his hair.

  Looking up at her face, between the pale perfection of her breasts, he saw her eyes fill with one emotion and then another.

  “Later,” she told him, her hands drawing him up. “I don’t want to wait any longer.”

  He saw the caution in her eyes and listened to her pleas.

  Jake reached out and picked up the packet along the side of the bed and managed to open it without incident. It had been quite a while since he’d had the interest to be with someone, and he didn’t want to look like a fumble-fingered teenager.

  Hildie lay back on the bed, her sweet thighs spreading open on the coverlet.

  “You have no idea how many times I’ve dreamed of you like this.”

  Her smile transformed her face, and she reached out a hand for him. “Probably as much as I’ve been dreaming of you.”

  Jake straddled one of her legs and braced one arm at her side. His free hand settled on her knee and smoothed its way up and along the inside of her thigh until the tips of his fingers came in contact with the same liquid heat that he’d drawn into his mouth. “Are you ready for me, Hill?”

  She almost groaned as sh
e pulled him closer, her fingers digging into his arms. “More than ready. Please, Jake, I need this. I need you.”

  He didn’t want to make her beg. He wanted to make her his.

  Jake drew her leg up and over his thigh as he slipped the arm already on the bed under her shoulder.

  Taking hold of the base of his cock, he leaned forward and placed the tip against her slick heat. Tilting his hips, he slipped inside of her, just an inch.

  “Oh,” the word whispered from her lips as her body welcomed him, closing around the head of his erection like a glove.

  And he swore it was her body that pulled him in farther. He tilted his hips and let gravity take its course. Jake sank into her body, drawing soft sounds from her throat while her hands gripped him tighter. He was just inches from full penetration when her body tensed around him, and he saw the flash of pain in her eyes.

  “Do you want me to stop?” It would hurt like hell, but he’d do it in an instant. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her.

  “It’ll be okay in a second. I promise.” She nodded, but the tight set of her mouth told him otherwise.

  He reached down between them and slipped his fingers into the apex of her thighs, finding the remnants of her arousal coating the tips. A gentle sweep of his fingers found the plump flesh of her clit and circled it with a hint of pressure.

  Hildie’s eyes flew open in shock.

  “Sore?” He had to know. Needed to know if he was helping her.

  When she didn’t answer, he repeated the tender sweep and felt her leg slide higher on his thigh, increasing the depth of his penetration.

  “Yes,” she sighed, and he held still for a moment.

  “Tell me, Hill. Do you want me to stop?”

  She wiggled her hips and the movement pulled him in deeper as he felt her fingers dig into his flesh and then relax. “If you stop, I might just kill you. Whatever you’re doing, do it more.”

  He rocked deeper into her core as his fingers continued to stoke the fire building inside of her.

  They lay on their sides facing each other as he filled her, feeling every inch of his cock surrounded by her. The tight grip of her body held him in its thrall, but it was the look in her eyes that took his breath away.

  She had a look of wonder in her eyes, and knowing that he had put that look on her beautiful face made him feel like a king. They were moving with ease in moments, and the heavy fall of his hand on her hip anchored him to her body.

  Again, and again, like a storm building waves on the sea, he surged into her, deep. The sensations rolled over them and left them panting for more as the pace built. Jake couldn’t believe his luck. He was holding onto this woman as if his life depended on it.

  And maybe it did, because he was coming so close to losing himself inside of her, but he needed to see to her first.

  He leaned in and kissed her, enjoying the slight pinch of pain as she bit at his lip. When she let go, she could only groan and move her hands restlessly against him.

  “Tell me, Hill.” Her eyes opened to look at him, and he saw the blatant hunger in her gaze. “What do you need? Tell me how to make you come apart in my arms.”

  “Harder, Jake. I need you deeper inside me. All the way inside, over and deliciously over again. I can feel it building inside of me. Can you feel it too?”

  He braced his heel on the bed and hitched his hand up higher, onto her waist. He held her there as his body sank into her, and every stroke moved them closer to the edge. Jake didn’t have to ask Hildie how she was feeling. Since he’d picked up the pace, rolling his hips into her, Hill had begun to tell him exactly what she felt.

  “Oh, yes, just like that. Don’t stop. So damn close. No, no, don’t slow down. Faster. Harder.”

  And he gave it to her.

  Leaning forward, he pressed a kiss to her lips and mumbled against them. “Anyone ever tell you that you’re bossy in bed?”

  Before she could think twice about his words he continued.

  “And I love it, Hill. Don’t ever feel like you need to be quiet. Not around me.”

  He pulled her close, and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he pushed them harder and harder until they both went over the edge with her cries ringing in his ears.

  It was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard.

  Chapter 9

  A phone ringing in the middle of the night was never a good thing.

  No one calls you in the wee hours of the morning to tell you they got a promotion, got engaged, or found out they were pregnant. No, the calls you get in the middle of the night are the ones that stick with you the longest. They’re the calls to tell you to go down to the hospital, or that someone’s already dead.

  The call that rang just before dawn was from a number that Hildie recognized all too well. It was one of the burner phones they gave to their clients.

  She didn’t have to worry about waking Jake up. He was the one who handed her the phone.

  Holding up a finger to her lips to keep him quiet, Hildie answered the call and put it on speaker. “Hello?”

  “Hildie? I’m so sorry to wake you up, but I had to call.”

  “Anne? Don’t apologize. You know we’re here for you. What’s wrong?”

  A giddy laugh reached Hildie’s ears. “That’s just the thing. I don’t think anything is wrong.”

  Hildie shared a look with Jake. Neither of them understood the tone in her voice.

  “I think I found some information that you can use. I mean that the Rangers can use. I found a book. One of those things that’s about the size of a checkbook, but it’s a monthly planner. Anyway, I found it in my car. You know that space between the seat and the thing that’s in the center. I was looking for my earring that fell off, but when I got down and looked into the crack, I saw it. It’s so narrow I couldn’t even get my hand in there, but I managed to shove something in there far enough to push it out on the other side.”

  “And the book has information in it?”

  “All kinds of stuff. The men he worked with didn’t trust phones. Even if you erase stuff from phones, they’re like computers now. You can erase information, but someone can always get it.”

  Hildie had to agree with that reasoning, but, “He wrote it all down?”

  “That’s what it looks like. I drove him to the club the night that he was arrested. We’d been fighting at home, and things didn’t get any better in the car. I remember how he’d shoved all of the things he’d taken with him in the pockets of his coat.”

  Nodding, Hildie understood. “So, it might have fallen out.”

  “And,” Anne continued, “with it sliding between the cracks, he might not have noticed it was gone.”

  “You’re at home, right?” Hildie scooted to the edge of the bed and moved toward her drawers.

  “Yeah. I’m at home.”

  “Okay, I’m going to get dressed and come over. I’ll call someone-”

  Jake was standing in front of her, his hand out, and a sleepy smile on his face. ‘Let me talk to her,’ he mouthed.

  Smiling at how gorgeous he managed to look at that ridiculously early hour she spoke. “Anne, I’m going to put Ranger McGowan on the phone.”

  “What? Huh? Um, okay.”

  Jake took the phone from her hand, and she grabbed some clothes from the dresser and put them on while he was talking.

  “You haven’t told anyone else about what you found?”

  “No. Definitely not.” Her voice was full of conviction even if it wavered a little. “I called Hildie as soon as I realized what it was.”

  “Good.”

  Hildie turned around at the muffled sound of his voice and saw him picking up his undershirt from the floor.

  “Hildie knows where you live?”

  “Yes. She’s been here before.”

  Hildie nodded as he looked at her.

  “We’ll be there as soon as we can. Sit tight.”

  “Thank you. Thank you both.”

  Hildi
e moved closer and leaned in toward the phone. “You’re so brave, Anne. Keep it up. We’ll be right there.”

  When they pulled up in front of the house, Jake looked up and down the street for anything that looked out of place or dangerous. Hildie looked over at him from behind the wheel. “You okay?”

  He gave her a quick nod and reached over to touch her thigh. The leggings she wore under her sundress were silky soft and reminded him of her bare skin. “This isn’t a trap, right? You know that she’s on the up and up.”

  Her expression soured a little and then relaxed. “I know you have to ask because of what you do, but I’ve spent hours and hours with Anne. I can tell you that she doesn’t want anything to do with Joe’s criminal activity. She was already head over heels for him when she found out what he was doing to support them.”

  “Okay.” He tilted his head toward the door. “Let’s go.”

  He met her near the front of the car, and reached an arm around her back to offer her as much protection as he could as they stepped up onto the curb and walked across the lawn. The grass had long ago given way to the weeds and brambles, but there was a path that was worn enough that they could pass through unscathed as long as they walked close.

  Jake put Hildie slightly in front of him, shielding her from the back.

  His eyes worked over the front of the house and the shadows from a nearby tree. “It looks empty.”

  “She’s leaving the lights off. Lights on, in a neighborhood like this, draws attention.”

  He knew the reasoning behind it, but it didn’t stop him from being hyper aware of their surroundings. He was used to it from his on the job training and his normal interest in self-preservation, but he was there with Hildie and that alone made him search every shadow for danger.

  Jake set a hand on Hildie’s shoulder as she approached the door. “Stand off to the side. I’ll knock, but you stand away.”

  She didn’t argue with him. She didn’t even pause to think, she just stood off to the side and let him knock softly on the door.

  The curtain in a window just to the side of the front door lifted for a moment and then closed. A moment after that the lock disengaged and the door opened inward.