“Damn you,” he snarled against her neck, his hold tightening as he increased the pressure. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
But she wanted it. With each touch, Sallie shuddered at the increased pressure, desperate cries falling from her lips. Tightening her thighs around his, she dug her nails deeper into the material of his shirt, her neck arching for another of those sharp, heated kisses that never failed to mark her flesh.
“Jacob, I’m still here, buddy…” Mocking, amused, Justice spoke behind her as Jacob seemed to snarl against her neck. “And I think Lily blushed before she ran back to your office.”
Sallie laid her head against Jacob’s shoulder, eyes closed, and not for the first time, wished she could make Justice Culpepper just disappear.
chapter ten
Of course, Justice had no intentions of disappearing.
As Jacob lifted her from the counter, Sallie caught a glimpse of Jacob’s friend standing on the other side of the living room, just watching them curiously. Lily was nowhere in sight. But that didn’t surprise her. Lily would be too wary after what had happened at the house. And like Sallie, she wouldn’t be looking forward to Jacob’s questions. And even less, whatever Justice had to say. Lily had a volatile relationship with that particular rancher.
How Justice Culpepper and Jacob had become such friends, she couldn’t imagine. Justice was a pure ass from what Sallie had seen, and it seemed many shared her opinion, even if they did get along with him. Jacob, by contrast, was well liked and there were few people who had a problem with him. Of course, Jacob wasn’t as social as Justice, nor as prone to fight. The Culpeppers were known far and wide for their ability to fight as well as to party.
“Justice, I might end up killing you,” Jacob growled as Sallie stepped away, her head lowered, her expression hidden from him.
“Yeah, so you and everyone else keep threatening.” Justice grunted, resigned. “I thought you’d like to know Pride has everything taken care of in town and he’s on his way back. He found Deverson’s hotel room too, right in town, and there’s signs he wasn’t alone.”
Jacob saw the subtle flinch Sallie couldn’t fully hide at the other man’s words.
“He left two of our men to see if they could track the partner. We should have an update soon,” Justice concluded. “It would help if we knew why a Swiss terrorist cell has targeted one little Dillerman’s manager, though.”
Jacob watched Sallie shake her head before taking a deep breath and moving to stand next to the dining table, one slender hand gripping the back of a chair for support.
“Sallie, stop running,” Jacob told her, trying to sound reasonable. “Those bastards are going to kill you. Is that what you want?”
It wasn’t what she wanted. It couldn’t be, he tried to convince himself. There was far too much fire, too much fight inside her.
“I met my ex-husband in Switzerland six years ago,” she stated, pushing one hand through her hair, the desperation in her gaze causing tension to build through him. “When I returned home, he followed with my stepfather several months later and we married before the year was out.” She swallowed tightly before drawing in a ragged breath. “I’ve been running since the night he gave me annulment papers and walked out of the house a year later.”
Years. Jacob fought to hold back his anger. She’d been running for years. She’d been alone when she came here three years ago, so she’d been alone when she began running, he had no doubt. Delicate, fragile, she’d had no one to lean on, no one to protect her during that time.
“Who is he?” It wasn’t a gentle demand and Jacob knew it. Knew it, but could do nothing to soften it.
He watched her tongue flick against her lips nervously.
“He was my stepfather’s aide. John Dillon. But he couldn’t be behind this…”
Jacob could hear her talking, he could even assimilate the reasons why she believed her ex-husband wasn’t behind an assassin’s attack. But he knew something he didn’t believe she was aware of.
Jacob knew John Dillon.
Or at least the man who had used the identity John Dillon while in Switzerland, working as Ambassador Rance Dougal’s aide. But at that time there had been no information that the ambassador or his wife had children with them.
“Ambassador Dougal didn’t have any children with him at the time he was there,” he bit out, but as he stared at her, memories slowly began to form. “Who the fuck are you?”
Pain. Anger. Disillusionment. Jacob watched the emotions flicker across her face before she breathed in raggedly.
“My name is Kyra Sallie Dougal. I’m Rance Dougal’s adopted daughter. While I was in Switzerland, I was there as Kyra Bannon and introduced as part of his staff…”
Kyra Bannon. Young, so very pretty he’d found her irresistible. He remembered that when he hadn’t before.
And in that second, memories raced over him.
“… an intern, Jake…” Rance introduced the pretty young woman jovially. “Kyra Bannon … Dance with Jake, honey, it’s a party…”
Eyes filled with dreams, a laugh as sweet and smooth as honey and filled with warmth.
A virgin until he touched her …
His, until the world had blown up around him.
“If this goes bad, tell Kyra I was coming back to her…” Jake told his partner, the man posing as an ambassador’s aide.
“I’ll tell her,” John promised. “Watch your six, buddy. I don’t like the feel of this…”
Minutes later the world exploded around him. It was weeks later before Jacob had come out of the coma he’d been left in. And his partner had been there. Unfortunately, Jacob’s memories of the mission hadn’t been present.
“What did I forget?” Jacob remembered asking. “I feel like I’ve lost a part of myself.”
“Months’ worth of busting our asses to identify these bastards,” John had cursed. “Hell, buddy, this is bullshit.”
Not once in those weeks had his partner mentioned the woman Jacob had forgotten, or even hinted at the fact that she existed. Someone so important her memory had haunted nearly every night of his dreams yet he hadn’t known why, hadn’t known who she was. Until now.
Until she found him.
Until this moment he’d forgotten the woman he’d meant to hold as long as humanly possible. A woman he’d wanted to know, that he’d meant to return to. Instead, the son of a bitch that had remembered her lied to Jacob, to Sallie, then for some unfathomable reason, married Jacob’s woman.
The bastard was a dead man.
“Jacob…?” Justice began to pull back only at the quick look Jacob shot him.
The thing about having friends you once worked with in covert ops? They knew your history, your business, and they never forgot a fucking detail. And that was Justice.
Jacob couldn’t, wouldn’t address this in front of the other man. He clearly remembered the sense of pride Sallie had displayed as a young woman and now he understood the anger mixed with the hunger she’d felt for him when they met once again, three years before.
He hadn’t returned for her as he’d promised her and he hadn’t remembered her when he came face to face with her again.