I pressed into his hand, arching into the tender, yet needy touch, savoring and enjoying him touching me in such an intimate way.
Then he pulled away from my lips and released me, dropping his hand.
“It’s okay, you can touch me,” I assured him when I noticed the worry in his eyes.
“I can’t,” he answered breathlessly. He ran a hand over his beard and stood up.
“Why?”
“Jia, I should take you home now.” His eyes became guarded and he resumed that reserved look, as if the last few minutes had never happened.
I stood up too, feeling foolish. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Nothing… I just can’t.”
Before I could say another word he put out the fire, extinguishing the break I’d had in my time spent with him along with it and the doom came rushing back on me.
Chapter Twelve
Xander
I was such an idiot sometimes.
Sometimes I got myself in all manner of shit because I didn’t think first, or at all.
And, here was the fruit of my lack of thought. Reality.
My good friend reality was always there, knocking on the door.
We drove to her place in silence and I swear to God when I pulled up at her house and saw the men waiting outside I nearly, very nearly, continued driving past.
Like fuck, I very nearly did and I worried what I was bringing her back to.
It was late too, so not good, but it would have been much later if I’d lost my mind by the lake and taken her on her hands and knees like instinct told me to.
I wouldn’t have taken her to her home if that had happened. No way.
Right now though, it felt like a bad idea regardless of what had happened between us.
I was about to get out of the car when I pulled up but she got out and Armand came and took her, giving me a hard stare as he took hold of her arm.
She didn’t look back to me. I never expected her to because I’d shot her down the way I did.
“You can go now,” Vinny barked. He came up to my car and fisted the door.
Idiot. One of the worst things about this stupid job was having to put up with the shit.
If I didn’t have to, I would have gotten out of the car and rammed his face down his fucking throat. These guys – all of them – were complete pricks. Lucky for me I was a prick too. Just one who had to wait.
As soon as I drove off the phone rang on the dashboard.
Giovanni again.
I answered.
“Is she okay?” he asked. His voice seemed calmer now than earlier when he was barking at me.
“No,” I replied.
“You’ve been gone all day. Did something happen between you two?”
I had to laugh. This guy was something else. He really was. “You strike her down so hard it leaves a mark and you’re worried I defiled your daughter. Really?”
“Did you?” he asked, ignoring the rest of my comment.
“No,” I answered flat and held off saying that I wanted to and enjoyed the good feel I had of her tits.
That fucking asshole. I nearly blew this mission out of the water when I saw him hit her. If so much hadn’t been at stake I would have. If I’d had some damn idea about where he was keeping the fucking prints I would have given him a taste of his own medicine and knocked him back. No matter that the man was twenty years older than me and I was twice his size, he would have deserved it.
“What did she say about me?” he asked. “She upset with me?”
“Look Giovanni, you haven’t exactly shared much with me but asking me if your daughter is upset with you because you hit her is very stupid. What do you think the answer is?”
“Fuck, Xander, I know what the fucking answer is. Of course she’d be upset with me, but I was hoping you’d share more of what she might have said.”
“There is nothing to share. I suggest you ask her yourself if you want to talk.”
He sighed. “There are things I need to be mindful of and Jia needs to know I live in a dangerous world. I rule with a heavy hand but be assured it’s with love.”
Now it was my turn to assert my authority. “Giovanni, I don’t give a shit what type of hand you rule with, if you use that hand on her again I’ll cut it off.”
I actually meant that.
He gave me a crude laugh. “You know what kid, you have some balls, but I’m gonna tell you I’d allow you to cut my hand off because I should never have hit her.”
Good for him to come to that conclusion without me having to guide him to it.
“No you shouldn’t have.”
“Goodnight Mr. Cage. Make sure you’re not late for work tomorrow.”
He hung up and I sped up down the road, pushing my car twenty miles faster than the speed limit. I wanted to get back as quickly as I could.
Wes was waiting for me at my apartment. He looked worried.
“Man where the fuck were you?” he asked.
“Don’t ask.” I just wanted to roll into bed.
However when Ethan stepped out from the sitting room, I knew bed might be a long way away.
“Jesus Ethan. It’s been a long day. I can’t tonight.”
Ethan held up his hands. “Just come to check in. This is an off the record visit. I won’t even stay long.”
I nodded. That seemed okay.
“I ordered pizza,” Wes chimed in with a smile. “It should be here in about ten minutes.”
Since I hadn’t eaten all day pizza sounded good.
It would help to get the taste of temptation out of my mouth. The taste of Jia.
Fuck, I really was such an idiot.
I didn’t know how I’d gone from my self-caution not to go there with her to filling my palm with her breasts and wondering what her nipples would taste like, then very nearly finding out.
I just about lost it when she told me it was okay to touch her.
God, did I ever want to.
The pizza came and we ate. Wes talked his usual shit then got on the phone to talk to a woman. It left me with Ethan and suddenly it was like I was transported back to the good old days.
This felt like back then— the point in my life when I’d reached the destination that direction guided me.
I was happy working in the unit. It felt like I was in my element for the first time in my life.
“You really look like you had a bad day,” Ethan stated.
“It was just difficult.” Difficult for many reasons.
I didn’t want to get close to Jia. It wasn’t fair. It was just that the more time I spent with her, the more I saw that desperation.
Today was filled with it.
She wasn’t like her father. Nothing like him. However that didn’t give me a hall pass to shake the nest.
“This whole mission is difficult, Xander.”
“And the days are going by. I’m none the wiser about where the prints are. And something is up with Giovanni. I mean something more. That attack on his men has him riled up real bad and he’s taking it out on his daughter.”
That was what it was. He was worried for her safety and worried he couldn’t control her.
“Remember he has a lot to lose if shit goes down. I’ve been thinking, based on what you said yesterday about the Castle and the vaults, it does seem like it could be a place where he’d keep the prints.”