(Blood and Bone, #2) Sin and Swoon (18 page)

I open the door, jumping back a bit when I see Dash holding my purse. “You forgot this.”

“Keep the damn thing.” I close the door in his face. It’s been three days since I left him in Virginia, and if I get a say in the rest of the evening, I can wait another three days before I have to see him again.

Instead he opens the door with his own key and walks in. I turn away and grab my meal from the microwave and slump with it at the table.

“Jane, we have to talk. You actually left this on my pillow and came back to DC? You really broke off our engagement over my brother lying, and my mother conniving, and Melody being the money-grubbing bitch she was when I was in twelfth grade? I was head boy at school, all because I was a Townshend. And she wanted the title of being my girlfriend. Then when we broke up, I discovered she and my brother had been sleeping together for a long time. He saw how ridiculous she was then, and he sees it now. She wants him to marry her. And she is under the misapprehension that catching my eye and making me like her again might get her back in with my brother since he always wants what I have. Like having everything else isn’t enough.”

I clap my hands slowly. “Bravo. That’s the meanest I have ever heard you be.”

“Oh, screw off, Jane. I’m not a simpleton, and I’m not some polite ass everyone can take advantage of. It just took me a bit longer than you to see their scheme. But you naturally go in skeptical, so what do you expect? Of course you’re going to find the worst in them, you were looking for it.”

“It’s self-preservation.” I take a steamy bite, burning my lips a little. “I don’t actually care about your family at all. That was a fiasco, and the fact you led me down there under false pretenses and let me be humiliated makes me pissed at you, not them.”

He sits across from me, taking my plate and my fork and getting himself a bite of cheesy pasta. “You care. You and I love each other.”

I shake my head. “You fed me to the wolves. I never would have done that to you. You made up so many lies I honestly doubted my being in my own body. I thought for sure I was mind riding. No one’s life is that silly.”

He passes me back the plate. “Mine was. My life was as silly as you saw. It’s all fake. Like you said, a dance.” He reaches his hand across, covering mine. “You are the real part.”

I blink a hot tear down my cheek, hating that I’m crying in front of him, but there is one insult I have to admit feeling the burn from. “I can’t have babies, Dash. I thought you knew that.”

“I do know that.” He nods. “I read your file.”

“Then why did you let her tell people we are going to have kids? That’s a lie.”

He shakes his head. “It’s not a lie. One day, we will have kids. We will just have to get a surrogate to carry them for us. Your eggs are probably fine, and my sperm is fine. I have tested it. We can
make
a baby.”

I scowl. “The fact you’re so obsessed with this makes me feel like I’m not the right girl for you. Have you considered that I don’t want children? I don’t know the first thing about having a baby.”

He sighs, covering his eyes for a second. “Yes, I’m obsessed with making you and me a family. If we are the only two people in the family, I will live, quite happily. It’s you that’s the crucial part, Jane. I need
you
to be happy.” He slides the ring across the table and cocks an eyebrow. “Put it back on, for the love of God, and stop messing with my heart.”

I almost fight him on it, but it’s actually the sweetest sentence two emotionally disabled people have ever gotten out of a relationship, and it far surpasses his proposal. I cover the ring with my hand and sigh. “You set me up to fail and then spent the entire time flirting with your old girlfriend.”

He closes his eyes and breathes out heavily. “I didn’t. I swear. I spoke to her for a second to be polite and then not again. She happened to be with a few of the people I was talking with. It’s my obligation to greet everyone and spend a few moments with them.”

“You kissed her hand and she touched your arm.”

“I kissed the hand of every woman there; it’s the polite thing to do. I suppose you missed all the others, no doubt under the pernicious governing of my troublemaking brother.” He sounds English and flustered, and I hate that he looks so adorable when he’s worked up. I rarely see it.

I scoff, pretending to be unfazed by his cuteness. “I don’t know what that means. Don’t go all Smarty McSmarter on me. Using big words isn’t going to change the fact that your mother was cruel to me, and you let the whole thing happen. I’m not so dumb that I didn’t see right through your jackass brother. Bringing me wine like a knight in shining Armani.”

He laughs, and I have the feeling the fight is over. My sails are windless and my insides are jelly, mostly because he’s giving me one of those gooey stares with his gray-green eyes, and his lips are toying with a grin. “I love you, Jane. Right now, I don’t care if we ever see them all again, but if we do, my mother owes you an apology. My brother already got what he deserved.”

I scowl. “I don’t even want to know.” I can guess by the state of his right hand. The knuckles are bruised, and one is even split.

“You have to see how crazy you make me. You see how much I love you?”

I shake my head slowly. “You can’t choose me over your family. That’s horrible, and I wouldn’t ever be that girl who would ask you to.”

“You don’t have to ask. If they can’t accept you, then they don’t accept me either.”

It stings to actually hear the words that they don’t accept me. I knew it, but seeing that he knows it too is much worse, as if he finally sees my worth.

He reaches across, lifting my hand and picking the ring up. “I want to marry you, Jane. I want to be your husband and be your family and show you that people can rely on each other. If either of us made any mistakes this weekend, it was me trying to squeeze you into the mold my family has set for me and my life. I should have just told them you are a badass ex-military savage who can kill people with her hairclip and takes no nonsense from anyone.” He slides the ring on my finger. “I am so sorry for trying to make you fit in their world, instead of just letting you be you.”

I nod, realizing saying anything would be petty, and I don’t like it when I get my petty on. So I smile and leave the ring on, even if it feels like it’s burning through my flesh and weighs twenty pounds.

“Now, the one thing I have to ask is that you consider marrying me in the family church. I understand you are Catholic, and we’re C of E, and that’s a serious request to mull over, but please just think on it. I’m not going to force you. I’m not going to lie about anything else. I’ve had my fair share of it and hated every moment. It felt like we were skating on thin ice at every turn.”

I agree. “Fine. I’ll think about it. But I need intel on this church, location, who else has been married there, and what kind of service would be expected.”

He laughs, and I can tell the fight is definitely over. He stands up, scooping me up into his arms, and carries me to our bed.

He places my head softly on the pillow on his side and closes the door, not before Binxy squeezes through and runs for the closet. Dash turns the lights off and flicks on the small light in the corner before walking to the edge of the bed, plucking my slippers from my feet, and tossing them in the corner where he throws my pants after taking them off.

I fight the images in my brain, the ones linked to Rory. The ones that sting a little bit everywhere still. I need Dash to make me forget them.

He kisses up my calves and thighs, spreading me open to him. He licks once, roughly, between my legs, and inserts his middle finger. My lips part, and a breath escapes like it’s fleeing.

He slides the finger in and out slowly, lubricating and teasing. His thumb begins rubbing my clit in a slow circular motion. I can’t watch any longer as my head falls backs and a gasp escapes my lips.

“Touch your breasts, show them to me.” His voice is smooth.

Without even hesitating I drag my T-shirt up my torso and chest, letting my breasts sit in the open air. I cup them, squeezing and rolling the nipples the way he likes as he increases the thrusting finger inside of me.

The sound of his belt and pants fills the air as he releases his cock and pulls his pants and underwear down. I don’t need to see it to know what he’s doing.

His punishing penetration makes my eyes roll into the back of my head as each thrust jolts my ass and pussy with pleasure. Where he’s landing when he pushes his finger in hits all the right nerve endings.

I squeeze my nipples, lifting my butt a bit to meet his rhythmic finger-fucking. He rolls me over, not letting me finish, and climbs between my thighs, spreading them wide and lifting my ass back to meet his ready and eager erection.

He rubs the head on my slit twice before pushing all the way in with a jerk. He pulls me to him with one hand and inserts the thumb of his other hand into my ass very slowly.

I moan, as he keeps his thumb planted deeply in my ass and punishes my pussy with his cock. The sound of him entering me is a mixture of the lubricant I have made and the gasping groans coming from us both. Mine is high-pitched and on the cusp as I near orgasm. His is deep and throaty, a grunt that mixes with a growl every time he is deep in me.

He pulls me back roughly, meeting my awaiting orgasm with his pulsating cock. Just as he feels me lose control of myself, he removes his thumb from my ass and slams my pussy as hard as he can. It’s rough and angry in a few ways, but exactly what we both want. He owns my body, we agree on that fact silently as I orgasm all over him and he fills me with everything he has.

He collapses on top of me, kissing the side of my face and muttering, “Admit you missed me.”

I shake my head. “Never.”

He laughs like he knows I don’t mean it. He knows me better than anyone.

15. Bedtime stories

 T
he text is a surprise. Mostly because it’s not my file anymore and I am awaiting my final assessment and debriefing on it. I rode the mind, the girl died. My team and I should be off it, and yet Angie is asking me back in. I realize I haven’t properly debriefed because the site has taken up everyone’s energy, but she isn’t ever my contact for debriefing.

I send her a message saying I’ll meet her at the office, and run to the door.

“You leaving?” Dash asks from the kitchen, where he’s holding a plate filled with cake. “I was going to feed you this in the bath and think of varying ways to call you beautiful in other languages.”

I pause, wincing. “As tempting as that cake looks, I never want to sit in a bath and listen to you gush. I’ll cut my wrists with my leg-shaving razor if you attempt it. And yes, I am leaving. I have to go back in.”

“Why?”

“I don’t actually know, maybe because the case has some loose ends they want to see if I can answer. Everyone is busy with the giant scene we have uncovered, and the higher-ups might just want the debriefing done.”

He wrinkles his nose, but I lift a hand. “It’s stuff I already know the answer to. I don’t have to go searching. As far as I understand, it’s routine in unsolved cases. You and Angie just aren’t part of this usually, you’re the mind-run team and doctors for the vic. I don’t know why she is the one asking me in to debrief, but it’s something I normally go through afterward. The difference with this one is that we haven’t ever crossed the bridge where I can’t solve the file with the mind run. This is new territory. But finding a den of dead women hasn’t ever happened before either. The whole thing is a brand-new situation.”

“When do you report in with the new profiling job?”

I wince, realizing I haven’t yet explained the job offer to him. I haven’t even had a chance to look at the details of the job. “I don’t know much, just that the first year of the job is in Manhattan.” That was the part I was not looking forward to discussing with him. Relocating when you’re a couple is not easy.

“Manhattan? My job is here; why would you agree to a job in another city?” He slumps, immediately looking annoyed. “When were we going to talk about this?”

I grin like a jackass. “I’ll leave you that to mull over while I go and help solve those eleven murders. You don’t have to decide now. You can think on it.”

“Have fun.” He lifts his middle finger in the air and then looks at it like he’s surprised to see it. I blow a kiss and walk out the door muttering obscenities and wishing I’d just taken the piece of cake.

On the drive over to the office I process; I can’t stop processing. My brain won’t stop sorting the details. We have lived in DC for a long time. Manhattan sounds appealing, but it’s no life for a couple talking about surrogates and marriage and old, crappy English churches. Manhattan is more single-friendly and fun-loving with amazing takeout. However, Manhattan has never been a place I have wanted to live, even when I was young and into takeout, and fun-loving at times.

The job felt like the right choice when I was offered it, after I did the mind run with Samantha Barnes. I accepted before I knew all the details. I just knew it was the one way I could do another mind run for Ashley Potter without a fight with Dash. He has always said seven was the limit for any mind runner. We take on small parts of the person we enter, and seven was the number all the doctors felt was low enough that enough of the mind runner would be left behind to ensure the person remained sane.