Badass: Deadly Target (Complete): Military Romantic Suspense (11 page)

“I’ve got an old truck you can—”

But Jax is already shaking his head. “Don’t want anything coming back on you.”

“You got enough for a car?” Dave asks, eyeing the box.

“Plenty for now.”

Dave frowns, looks at me, then back at Jax. “Alright.” He picks up an iPad and taps the screen. “Code’s 7591 if you get locked out.” He hands the tablet to Jax, then picks up some keys and is out the door.

“That’s a good friend you have,” I murmur, knowing I don’t have anyone in my life that I could turn to like that. I have friends, but nothing close to this bond. I don’t even have anyone to feed my cat. My cat! Poor Libby, she’s going to starve. Then I look at the clock on the stove and realize I’m completely over reacting. I should still be at work right now, would be still at work for a couple hours on a normal day. In that other life, I’d just be taking my mid-afternoon break.

It feels like I’m stuck in a time warp. Was it only a couple hours ago that Mom called?

“Dave’s the best,” Jax says, pulling my attention back to him. “Did a couple tours with him. Salt of the earth. Injury knocked him out and he retired.”

“He doesn’t look disabled.”

One side of Jax’s mouth lifts. “No, he doesn’t. Doesn’t look at all like a man who was never supposed to walk again. A year of intense therapy and he not only walked out of that rehab center, he fucking danced out, flipping everyone off in the process.”

My mouth falls open and Jax’s eyes fall to my mouth. The atmosphere in the small kitchen changes. Thickens. Making it harder to breathe. His eyes move back up to meet mine and my insides twist, my nipples harden. Needing some relief from the desire spiraling into my groin, I press my thighs together.

Seconds pass before Jax exhales, turns in a circle, pushing a hand through his dark hair. Then he looks at me again, his face softer than before. “Here, let me check your other cuts. Make sure the glass is out.”

He pulls a chair in front of me. Straddles it until his legs are on the outside of mine. I can feel the warmth of his inner thighs on my outer ones. And I can smell him again. The citrus and sandalwood has faded, leaving only a hint of that fresh scent. His sweat isn’t unpleasant. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. I find myself leaning toward him as he inspects my hands, his strong fingers tracing over the scrapes and cuts. I want to run my tongue up the tendon in his neck, taste him, the salt I know I’ll find there. I want to press my lips against his, know his tongue intimately.

He looks up and we’re face to face, only inches apart. He exhales again, the warmth of his breath heating my skin. His fingers lift to my cheek, his thumb brushing over my bottom lip. Then his hand curves around the base of my skull, fisting into my hair.

“You,” he says softly. “Why did it have to be you?”

Then I’m pulled forward until our mouths connect.

Since I was a little girl watching Disney movies, witnessing the prince and princess’s first kiss, I’ve wanted a kiss like that. A soul searing, breath taking, heart rending kiss that sealed two people together for life. I’ve searched for that kind of kiss, even had one come close to the fantasy I held in my mind. But this one. This kiss with this man, it made me forget all I’d been hoping for, because it was
that
kiss. And it couldn’t have been more right. Or wrong.

Chapter 13 – Jax

What in the hell am I doing?

Even as my lips move over hers. Even as my tongue begs for entrance. Even as her mouth opens in welcome, I know what I’m doing is wrong.

For so many reasons.

Yet I can’t pull away, can’t take my fingers from her hair, can’t stop my other hand from moving up to her face, tilting it to give me better access to her sweet mouth.

She moans and the sound goes straight to my cock, even as her nails sink into my shoulders, holding on so tight. Her mouth is exquisite. Her lips the perfect partner. Her tongue sweet as it twists around mine.

This is so…

Wrong.

Right.

Necessary.

Inevitable.

I try to pull away, put even an inch of distance between me and Mia, the woman who caught my attention from the moment I turned and held open that door. It was the same with Laura. I’d seen her and I’d known.

God, I’d known so hard, with a bone deep certainty that we were meant to be together. And it’s like a slap in the face this time. Because this time, I don’t know the person who’s kissing me back.

And God help me, I don’t think I care.

Pulling her closer, she melts into me, her feet leaving the salt soak, water splashing onto the floor and dripping down my pants as she climbs into my lap. So sweet. The little mewling sounds she makes as my hand trails up her ribs to cup her breast, my thumb brushing the hard pebble of her nipple is precious. The little whimpers. The little gasps for air.

Fisting her hair tighter, I pull her head back and trail my tongue down her neck, tasting the salt lingering on her skin. She whispers something I can’t understand as my teeth graze the shell of her ear. Goosebumps break out on her flesh.

I need to stop. And I will. Soon. Right after I get another taste.

Her mouth clashes with mine again, our tongues at war this time. Attempting to take siege of one another. Holding the other hostage, then releasing to pet and stroke.

She moves until she’s straddling me, her fingers inching under my shirt, touching skin, traveling up to my chest. She whimpers as I jerk her to me, my cock pressing into her sex through our clothes. I want her. Need her. Need to sink into her warmth and forget everything that’s happened the past two hours.

Licking into her mouth, I swear to myself this is the last time, even as I pull her harder against me and nibble on her bottom lip. Lifting my hips, I grind into her, feeling her heat, loving it when she tilts her hips forward and grinds back, needing me too.

Just one more.

Easing my fingertips inside her sweater, I’ll just allow myself another touch. Her skin is hot and damp as my palm skates up her back. She’s so soft and smooth. Her fingers moving down my abs and into the waistband of my pants.

Christ, if she touches me, I’ll probably come all over myself. It’s been so long, so damn long since I’ve been with a woman. Touched and been touched. Gave and received. I’ve missed this so much.

Our mouths separate when her tongue traces a line down my jaw, coming up to lick into my ear. I shiver, just as I shivered every time Laura did that same thing. Grief tugs at my heart as I think of her. Remember her. Long for her. My wife. My dead wife. The wife I made a promise to. A promise I couldn’t fulfill until…

Mia is up and off me, jerking away with the opening of the kitchen door. She steps into the tub of water, slides and falls backwards, her arms pin wheeling at her sides. Reaching for her, I catch the front of her sweater along with a handful of breast. Her eyes grow wide, her face an immediate mortified red as Dave steps inside, takes in the situation with one glance and turns around with a mumbled, “I’ll just get the rest of the stuff.”

Yanking her back to me, I curse when she lands in my lap, this time with a knee in my dick. But she’s turned into the Tasmanian devil, spinning around, leaping off my lap, half sliding, half hopping to the doorway. She grabs hold of it with both hands, panting heavily.

When I catch my fucking breath, I stand, nearly do a split in the water, but hold on to the table until my balance is back.

“Safe to come in?” Dave shouts, but barges through the door before either of us can say a word. He gives me a “what the hell, man” look before his eyes slide to where Mia is standing. Correction, where she had been standing until a second before.

I hold up a hand, silently begging him not to ask me questions and run after Mia. The bathroom door slams shut before I can make it there. I knock and try the doorknob at the same time. Locked. I knock again. “Mia, it’s okay. Open up. We need to talk.”

Holy damn.

Did I just tell a woman we need to talk? What in the hell is wrong with me?

“Just give me a few minutes, okay?”

I consider her request and it’s actually smart. Looking down at my pants, I need a few minutes myself.

“Hey, lover boy.” I slide a look toward Dave, who’s standing in the kitchen doorway, two bags in his hands. His eyebrow is still raised nearly to his hairline, but a grin is twitching the sides of his mouth. “Give her these bags, tell her to take a shower and I’ll bandage her up when she gets out.” He tosses them to me. “I picked up some pizza while I was out too, if you’re hungry.”

Knocking on the door again, I relay the message and am rewarded with the door opening just enough for her hand to stick through. I hang the handles on her fingers and she snatches it back, the turn of the lock immediately following the slam.

Adjusting myself, I head back to the kitchen to face the hell I know Dave will give me. I’m less than one foot in the small room before it starts. “Man, you gonna sign your death warrant with your damn dick?”

“Probably,” I mutter and reach for a roll of paper towels to clean the water up off the floor.

“Seriously, Jax. What the hell are you thinking? For all you know, that’s Mati Hari’s great-great-granddaughter in there.”

I can’t help it. That gets a laugh.

“Not funny, man. And I’m going to tell you something else not funny. While I was out, I saw a couple of banged up black SUVs cruising around. They’re looking. Looking close. So you need to pull your head out of that girl’s ass and get a strategy…”

Mmm. Mia’s ass and all the things I could do to it.

I get a towel in the face. “Seriously, Jax,” he yells, scowling at me. “You act like that’s the first pussy you’ve seen since…” He covers his face with his hands. “Sorry, man. Wrong place to go with that.”

I toss the towel back. “Truthful place to go with it.”

And that was the thing. The big thing. Bigger than the idea that Mia could be a spy, a liar, a traitor to her country was that I could see us fitting together. And how I felt like I was cheating on the woman I’d loved with every fiber of my being.

Promise me you’ll find love again.

Dave opens his fridge and brings out two beers. Pops the top off one and hands it to me. “You’ve not dated anyone since Laura?” he asks.

I shake my head and toss back a long sip.

“And this woman here, she’s special?”

I nod and gulp again.

“So not only are you dealing with not knowing who this girl is,
what
she is, you’re dealing with some fucked up shit about Laura? On top of running from your life from God knows who’s after you or what’s in that box. Oh, and let’s not forget that you’re also mourning your boss and several other co-workers. And none of us know what the shit is happening around the globe.”

“You a therapist now?”

Dave taps his temple. “Seen enough of them, I should be a shrink.”

“True that, brother,” I say and lift the bottle to his, clinking them together. “You sleeping better?”

He lifts a shoulder. “Most nights.”

“No more pills?”

He takes a drink. “No more pills. And no more than two beers a day. Didn’t want to switch one habit for another. Was hell breaking the first. Don’t think I could manage a second without eating a bullet.”

“War is hell.”

Dave shakes his head and takes another drink. “No. Life is hell. War is just the cherry on top with a big ripe worm in it.”

I’d laugh again if what he’d said wasn’t the truth. Life is hell, but it could also be bliss. A little slice of heaven even. Sometimes.

He picks up his iPad. “Now, let’s get you some wheels and figure out you and your hot ass spy’s next move.”

Chapter 14 - Mia

I shower until the water turns cold, then shower longer, punishing myself under the freezing water. When my teeth are chattering so hard my jaw almost feels numb, I turn it off and grab a towel to briskly dry off.

My body is a mess, bruises and scrapes everywhere, each muscle protesting as I step out of the tub. But underneath the pain is an aliveness, a humming vibrating through my system. I kissed Jax. Hard. And he kissed me back.

Hard.

Wiping the lingering steam from the mirror with my hand, I look myself in the eye. Who is that woman standing there? That woman who wants to have sex with a man only hours after meeting him? That woman, I don’t recognize. Because Mia Hewitt has a firm three date rule. If I like a man enough to go out with him three times, I’ll consider taking him to my bed. But dammit, it’s been a long time, over a year if I was counting, since I liked any of my dates enough for that.

But I like Jax.

And I shouldn’t.

But I do.

Winding a towel around my wet hair, I dig through the bags Dave so thoroughly provided. He thought of everything. Shampoo and conditioner as well as a thick, creamy liquid soap that I’ll need to remember to get out of the tub. He’d even bought razors, which had surprised me when I first peeked into the bag.

Seems like Dave has a soft side.

Like Jax.

Pulling out a bottle of lotion, I smile as I pour some into my hands and smooth it on. It smells wonderful. A mix of vanilla and lavender that I rub into my stiff muscles, soothing over the scrapes that are plentiful on my knees and elbows.

He bought me a hairbrush and a comb, probably not knowing which would work better on my mop of hair. And ponytail holders and clips. Deodorant. Toothbrush and toothpaste. How thoughtful.

Digging further into the bag, I pull out the clothes. A bag of white underwear and several tank tops with built in bras that will save me from having to put back on my sweaty one. Yoga pants, both the tight legging ones and soft cotton boot legs. Long t-shirts and a sweater that I can layer over everything. Socks and a pair of flip-flops. A generic version of Keds.

At the bottom of the bag is face moisturizer and Chap Stick. No make-up. It probably only took one look at me to know I’m not really a make-up kind of girl. I always end up with lipstick on my teeth, or black smeared around my eyes. And I suck at putting on blush, ending up more clown like than seductive.

After pulling on the clothes and slipping my feet into the flip-flops, I comb through my tangles then pull my hair into a high messy bun, knowing I’ll regret putting it up wet later, but not caring right now.