“The two of them were so far gone, their eyes glazed with booze and euphoria it’s like they didn’t even know what they were looking at. Until my brother’s eyes widened, he stared at me, then at Helen with horror in his face. And he said one word, as though it was torn from his throat. Brother.”
I closed my eyes imagining everything he said and feeling the intense waves of hurt flooding my entire being.
“I left without a word and crashed at a hotel. Drank myself into oblivion until the next day when I called Ryan. He picked me up and I moved into his spare bedroom.”
I pressed off his chest and looked into his eyes, while he reached for my glass and set both of them, now empty, on the side table. Then he cupped my cheeks and wiped away my tears with his thumbs.
“You crying for me, sweet girl?”
My lips trembled as more tears fell. “Yeah, because it was an incredibly sad story. I’m sorry you lived that, especially after all you dealt with on the case prior to it. To come home to that…” I shook my head and sniffed. “It’s inconceivable.”
He pressed his forehead to mine. “At the time, yeah, it was. Which is why I’m so fucked up about women. Especially women I’ve saved, since my ex-wife was one of them.”
I lifted my eyebrows in question.
He sighed deeply. “There was a party near campus. Ryan and I were there picking up girls, shooting drinks back. You know how it is.”
I nodded with a grin, wiping at my eyes.
“Some jock was out of his mind, having a bad trip on acid. He was dating Helen. She was fighting with him, telling him to stop freaking out and to calm down. The guy pulled a gun out of the back of his jeans and started shooting wildly screaming about people not being people but aliens from another planet. Then he pointed the gun at her head point blank and told her that her face was melting off before his eyes. Which I knew meant he’d lost it completely and was about to kill this woman in front of my eyes. Ryan and I ran up from the side and I tackled him and scrambled for the weapon. He got off a couple more shots but none of them hit anyone by the time that Ryan and I wrestled it away. The cops came and he was taken in and charged.”
“Holy shit. You’ve been through a lot.”
“Says the woman who lost her parents at a young age and was raised in foster care.”
“Sure, but I was loved and never part of anything like that, well, until the bad guy hid in the back of my car.” I frowned. “You have a knack for hooking up with damsels in distress, huh?”
He chuckled. “No. Just Helen and now you.” He ran his hand up and down my back then yawned.
“We could go to bed…” I bit down on my bottom lip and looked into his dark eyes as I reached my fingertips out and ran them across his sexy pout. “I’m certain we could find some other really wonderful things in order to make us both smile.”
He tunneled his hand through my long hair to curl around my nape. “I want to drown myself in you, Simone, let it all go, and live in the moment.”
“That sounds awesome.” I ran my finger down his chest until he gripped my wrist with his other hand.
“We gotta do this right. You need a little more time to process all that’s happened in the past three days. It wouldn’t be right for me to take advantage…”
“You wouldn’t be taking advantage. I want you.”
He smiled, dipped his head, and took my mouth in a brief, sweet kiss. “I know. And I want you. More than I’ve wanted another woman. I haven’t been with anyone since Helen and after just seeing her, reliving my story, I…”
I pressed my mouth to his, wrapped my arms around his neck, and tangled my tongue with his. We kissed for a long time, slowly and luxuriously. I plucked at his top lip and then bottom lip the same way he was so fond of nipping at mine. I rested my forehead against his as we both panted, taking in air.
“It’s okay. I get it. We have all the time in the world,” I reminded him. “I’m not going away. Well, eventually you and Ryan and the team will catch the bad guy and I’ll be in my own place. Though it won’t be that apartment, I can tell you that much right now.”
“Simone,” he cut me off.
“What?”
“Shut up and kiss me,” he teased and took my mouth in another blistering kiss.
“Howdy, kids,” Ryan’s voice came from the doorway behind us.
We both turned our heads and saw the man grinning, arms crossed, the fingers of one of his hands curled around the neck of a beer bottle.
“Your timing is impeccable…as always,” Jonah grumbled.
“Just wanted you to know that you’re needed for the meet up tomorrow morning at eight.”
He frowned. “Can you go hang out with your sister Sonia tomorrow?”
I scrunched up my nose. “My sister’s workplace is really boring. Can you drop me off instead at Perfect Petal? I’m supposed to be arranging flowers and helping out. I can tell Auntie Delores that I can’t leave the shop or be alone for any reason. She’ll be cool with it. Her and my mom have been best friends since the dawn of time so I’m certain she’s already up to date on what’s going on.”
“We can put a patrol outside the area too,” Ryan offered.
I clapped my hands together lightly. “Yay!”
Jonah sighed and got up from our clinch. “You need to get some sleep.”
“I would sleep better if I had a big hunky FBI agent cuddled up next to me.” I laid out the bait.
“And that’s my cue,” Ryan chuckled and walked away leaving us to ourselves.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea…”
“No, it’s a great one!” I snuggled up against his warm, tall body.
One of his hands automatically soothed down my back and went straight for my ass, pressing me up against a very sizeable erection.
I moaned.
“Believe me when I say I want to. Lord knows I want to, but it’s not smart. You need time. I need a little of my own, after all I shared tonight. The first time we share a bed, Simone, I do not want the ghost of my ex in it.”
That had me pouting because he was right.
“Fine, be logical, but I’m stealing one of your T-shirts, and you’re tucking me in.” I grinned.
“Yes, to the T-shirt. Fuck no to the tucking in. If I see you laid out in my bed, I won’t have the fortitude to do the right thing.”
“And what about tomorrow? Will tomorrow be enough processing time to get over the doom and gloom and bitch-face?” I tucked myself against his body and ran my hands down his frame to cup his hard ass making my intentions one hundred percent clear.
His lips twitched. “Maybe.”
I smiled wide. “I love your maybe’s.”
“Mmm.” He kissed me for a long time until it started to get heated. Then he pulled away, physically turned me toward the house and smacked my ass. Hard. “Get to gettin’, woman, before I lose all control and do the exact opposite of what I promised I’d do.”
“Hey, you’re not going to get any help in that department. I want the naked time with my new hot FBI guy.”
“Simone,” he grumbled.
“All right, all right. I’m moving. Spoilsport.”