“That would be good,” he said. “You cause enough chaos every time you and your buddies are in town.”
“I hear you,” he said, “but we’ll be back. Don’t worry about that.” And, still grinning, he hung up. He sent a message to Diesel, catching him up on the events to date.
LOL. MI6 isn’t that bad, he texted. Make arrangements for flights out in the morning.
That would be good, Jerricho wrote. And then I’m not sure what comes after this.
It could be all kinds of things, Diesel typed. Depends on what you want.
More of the same would be good but maybe not quite the same people.
No, we try not to keep the same scenarios going.
Yep, I know. I hear you. I just … This doesn’t feel finished.
It will be. Just hold tight, and it will be.
With that, Jerricho closed the chat window. As he did, he heard Killian’s voice behind him. He turned, looked, and smiled to see his buddy standing there with a cup of coffee. “You good now?”
“I feel quite renewed,” Killian said. “You go crash.”
“I will.” Leaving Killian in the living room, Jerricho headed into the other room, where Brenna slept so peacefully. He quickly stripped off his outer layer of clothing and pulled up the bedcovers and crawled underneath. She rolled over and blinked up at him. He whispered, “Go to sleep,” he said. “It’s all well.”
She blinked several more times, reached her arm out, and curled it around his waist. He pulled her close and whispered, “It’s okay. Just sleep.”
She smiled and said, “It’s okay because I’m tucked up against you,” she murmured.
He smiled and waited, as her breathing slowed, and she fell asleep again. He let himself drift off, knowing he needed sleep, since they were heading out on another trip tomorrow, and they had no way to know where and when the next attack would come from. When he woke a little later, he felt like he was in a sauna. He rolled over, groaning, his erection lifting the covers.
She murmured, “That’s a hell of a way to wake up.”
“Ouch,” he said, trying to shift up and away, only her hand was wrapped around him. He looked down at her and said, “Unless you really want to go this direction,” he said, his voice gritty, “please remove your hand.”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” she said, gently sliding it up and down.
He collapsed back in bed, gritting his teeth, groaning ever-so-slightly, trying to keep it contained. “You have no idea,” he said, “how much I want to follow through on this.”
“Good,” she said, rising up over him and straddling him.
He gasped. She was 100 percent nude and gleaming in the moonlight. “Are you sure?” he asked, twisting beneath her, desperate to have her say yes but, at the same time, not wanting to push, not wanting to make any assumptions here. He’d always cared about her. Had never expected to see her again. But this person he now knew was so different from the Brenna he’d known before, and, honest to God, this one was a hell of an improved model. He really respected her. And he didn’t want to do anything that would upset a chance of them having a future together.
“Yes,” she whispered. “This is exactly what I want. It’s exactly where I want to be too.” She leaned over and gently licked his bottom lip.
He groaned, twisting, his body already shaking with emotion, knowing that he was so damn close already. He said, “I can’t hold back.”
“I wasn’t planning on it myself,” she said, slowly rising, rubbing up against his shaft. When she was over the top, she slowly lowered herself, even while he tremored underneath her. He arched, his hips slamming up hard, as his hands grabbed her waist, holding her firm, as he slammed into her several times. He opened his eyes to see her jerk above him, grabbing his hands and holding them against her breasts, as she took over the motions, her mouth open, passion soaring across her body, and he realized just how absolutely glorious she was. She always was wild, almost unattainable, when they were making love before. He’d never forgotten it, and it had been partly their sexual relationship that had kept him enthralled so long, when he should have left earlier.
And he couldn’t get enough. Now it was like, this was the time, this was them, this was what they needed, and he couldn’t even begin to let go. But emotions overtook him, passion drove him, and he plunged up high, holding her firm, feeling his climax ripping through him. It was all he could do to keep his voice quiet, as he bit down hard, his body shaking uncontrollably. She collapsed, her body trembling just as badly and still trembling in his arms. After he wrapped her up tight, he realized that, even though it had been close, they’d still both made it together.
Feeling an incredible heatwave wrapping around him and even through him, he whispered, “My God.”
“It was always like this for us,” she said.
“I know,” he said. “I know. It was one of the reasons it was so hard to leave.”
“It was still the best thing,” she said. “And maybe … maybe you’ll come to forgive me.”
“No forgiveness needed,” he said. “I keep telling you that.”
“Maybe if you tell me often enough,” she said, the sadness in her eyes heartbreaking, “I’ll believe you.”
“I could just kill your judgmental family and Princeton too,” he said, gently brushing up under her chin. “You’re a beautiful person. You were a little misguided. Yet you’ve done what you needed to do, and you’ve changed,” he said. “This person that is you is absolutely stunning, inside and out.”
She looked up at him. “Do you mean that?”
“Of course I mean it,” he said. “I’m really proud of all that you’ve done for yourself.”
She smiled. “It wasn’t easy.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t,” he murmured. And he knew it wouldn’t have been. Making any change was hard, but making a change on that level would have been excruciating. “You were always very honest,” he said, “and that’s what we need going forward.”
She collapsed back against him. “Okay,” she whispered. “As long as you don’t leave me.”
“I wasn’t planning on it, sweetheart.” And he kissed her again.
“You would have waited to make love until we got back home again, wouldn’t you?”
“I was. How’d you know?” he said.
She looked up at him, smiled, and said, “Because you’re too honorable.” She added, “I figured I would have to seduce you. Otherwise you would try to make it a long-distance thing.”
“And was that wrong?”
“I didn’t want to wait,” she said simply. “I care about you too much.” She shrugged. “I’ve been wanting this since I first saw you again.”
“Ditto,” he murmured, pulling her up close. “And still you need sleep,” he said.
“And maybe now I will,” she said. She cuddled up close. “You sleep too.” And she closed her eyes.
He held her close, his heart so damn full.
Chapter 13