Bound by the Past (26 page)

Carly turned.

Throughout it all, Jon felt like an observer, outside the events and helpless.

It was only when Reilly crashed through the hidden door from which Cassandra had appeared—followed by several CAA operatives—that Jon returned to his body.

“Thank God you’re all alive.” Reilly rushed over to them as Jon watched Night fall to his knees.

“Night.” Carly rushed to his friend’s side, kneeling quickly beside him. “Are you hurt?”

“Is she dead?” Night’s voice was flat, lifeless. Jon shook off his stupor and crossed the short distance to Cassandra’s body. Bending down, he turned her over and checked for a pulse despite the fact he already knew she was gone. He’d known the moment Night fired the shot.

Glancing over his shoulder at his friend, Jon nodded. “She’s dead, Night. She’s gone.”

“I killed her.”

Reilly’s expression darkened before Carly protested his words. “She would have killed me, Night, and if given half the chance, she would have killed you and Jon.”

Night didn’t reply, didn’t acknowledge her words for a long time.

Jon stood up and walked over to where his best friend was kneeling. He placed his hand on Night’s shoulder. “Carly is right. No prison would have held her for long. She was a manipulator and she was crazy. If we’d gathered every scrap of evidence and taken her to court, she’d have found some way to get off again.”

“It’s over,” Night said disbelievingly, and Jon realized that for the first time since he was a teenager, Night was free from the bonds of the past.

“It’s over,” he confirmed. “It’s all over now.” Jon smiled and was relieved when Night grinned back.

“Ding-dong, the witch is dead,” Reilly muttered, but Carly’s light laugh at his joke quickly turned into a sob.

Jon knelt as Night reached over for her. She clung to them, the fears, stress and trauma of the past few days pouring out of her in a barrage of tears. Jon tightened his grip on her, amazed yet again by her strength and courage.

“Hey now, Beauty. Please don’t cry.”

“I’m s-sorry.” She took a deep breath and, after several moments, seemed to finally pull herself together.

Jon wiped her tears as Night pulled away from her and shook his head. “Holy cow, woman, you’ve been shot at, tied up, stripped naked, nearly frozen to death and held at knifepoint. Now when you’re finally safe, you cry?”

She giggled at his jest, wiping away the last of her tears with the sleeve of Jon’s sweater. “I didn’t have time before.”

Reilly directed the CAA agents as they gathered up the remaining guards. “We caught up with Sammy and the victims just outside the compound.”

“Sammy switched sides, Reilly. We wouldn’t have escaped without him.” Jon didn’t want to see Sammy suffer any more than he already had at Cassandra’s hands. He began to suspect that Sammy was as much a victim to his mother’s evil as the women at the center were.

“That’s what a couple of the women said. Claimed he was a hero. We’re holding him for questioning but with Cassandra dead, I doubt we’ll press charges against him. It really is over.”

Night looked at Reilly and started to speak, but his mentor merely held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t say a word, Night. I already know what’s coming. You quit, right?”

Night nodded.

“Damn. I expected it. Just tell me you don’t plan to go back to school to become a teacher too. I think the idea of my two best agents educating future generations will cause the rest of my hair to fall out.”

“Actually,” Night joked, “I was thinking of pursuing a career in advertising.

Carly jerked awake, only to have to squint against the harsh sunlight streaming across the bed. She was trapped under a heavy weight and the stress and fears of the past few days crept up on her. Her cry of distress roused Jon and Night.

She was confused and disoriented. The last thing she remembered was sitting in Cassandra’s office, answering some of Reilly’s seemingly endless questions, and even that seemed a bit fuzzy around the edges. Her last truly lucid memory was that Trisha and her mother were okay. Mr. Jackson had come to the compound to retrieve them. After his wife left him, he’d quit drinking and had even found a job. Their family reunion had been a happy one, with many tears and promises of a better future. Mercifully, neither Trisha nor her mother had been raped, though Cassandra had subjected them to quite a bit of mental torture and more than a few slaps.

“Where are we?”

“Home.” Jon rose up on one elbow and smiled down at her.

Night chuckled on her other side. “Talk about the sleep of the dead. You were down for the count, Beauty. You never stirred when we carried you off the compound and brought you back here.”

She glanced down and realized they were in their bedroom and she was completely naked. “Did you undress me?”

Jon laughed at the offended tone of her question, and she rolled her eyes at the absurdity of it herself. They’d seen her naked more often than clothed these past couple weeks.

“Hell yeah,” Jon replied.

She grinned as he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Did you take advantage of me?”

Night’s erection seemed to rouse at her joke and she felt the weight of it begin to press against her bottom. “I wanted to, but Jon’s got too many damn morals. Said we should let you sleep in peace.”

She laughed, realizing Night was probably telling the truth. She had no doubt he’d made the suggestion. Outrageous, crazy man. God, she loved them both.

At the thought, her heart felt a serious pang of distress. It was their moment of truth. She knew that. She’d put off figuring out their futures together, knowing it was pointless to plan ahead while both men were constantly looking back. Now they were free. Where did that leave her? What if Night decided to leave? What if they realized they didn’t need to share a woman to be happy anymore? What if—now that they were free of the past and perfectly capable of living normal, productive lives—they wanted to end this unusual relationship?

Jon must have noticed her sudden misery. “Blue Eyes? What’s wrong?”

Jon’s question caught Night’s attention. He gently pulled her shoulder down until she lay on her back between them, looking up into the eyes of the men she would love until the day she died. Her original concerns about their relationship fled like deer in a forest fire. She really didn’t give a damn what most people thought of her, and her family was the absolute best in the world. They were open-minded and loved her. If she said she wanted to spend the rest of her life with these two men, they might balk at first, but then she had no doubt they would embrace them as part of the family.

The problem was based solely on her feelings and theirs. She could see now that she’d never truly loved Adam. Her feelings for her ex-husband were absolutely lukewarm compared to the boiling inferno of emotion she felt for Night and Jon. Looking into their eyes, she studied the differences in the brilliant hues reflected back at her. Night’s bright baby blues were confused, while Jon’s dark-brown orbs seemed to have turned black with worry.

Tired of being a coward in regards to her relationships, she took a deep breath. “I love you both,” she whispered. “Very, very much.”

Night grinned at her words but Jon wasn’t so easily appeased. “That’s it? You love us? I don’t think so, Carly. Try again.”

Night chuckled. “To hell with that, bud. I thought those words were more than enough. Can we take advantage of you now?”

She forced herself to smile at his joke, despite the fact her heart was racing with fear.

Night’s eyes narrowed. “Beauty? What’s wrong?”

She cleared her throat and tried to figure out how she could put every ragged, raw emotion coursing through her body into words. “Now that you’ve put the past to rest, you must be looking forward to moving on.”

Night relaxed at her comment, though she couldn’t understand why. “Is that what’s worrying you? Of course we’re going to move on.”

Jon laughed then, obviously in agreement with Night. Had they discussed ending things while she’d slept? “You didn’t really expect the three of us to shack up in this tiny little townhouse forever, did you?”

The bottom fell out of her world with his question and she struggled to breathe past the lump clogging her throat. They were leaving. Just like Adam. Quickly, she batted away the tears sliding down her face. Unfortunately she didn’t move fast enough and Jon grabbed her wrists.

“Oh crap, why are you crying?” he asked.

Night leaned forward, cupping her face gently in his hands. “Christ, Carly, what’s wrong? Is it moving that has you worried? From the way Jon talked, I didn’t think there was any love lost between you and that old house of yours. You don’t have to sell it if you don’t want to.”

“Sell my house?” She couldn’t make sense of their words.

Jon bent forward until his forehead was pressed against hers. “We thought between the profit we made selling this townhouse and your house, we could buy a nice piece of land and build. I know you’re worried about building being too stressful, but that won’t be a problem, I promise.”

“It won’t be a problem?” She was repeating his words merely in an attempt to make them soak into her exhausted, overloaded brain.

What the hell are they talking about?

“I’m a fair hand at construction, Beauty.” Night picked up Jon’s explanation. “I’ve saved up a hell of a lot of money and while I’m trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, I thought I’d build us a house.”

His eyes twinkled at her and she finally understood they weren’t moving away from her.

They were building a house and a future with her.

“So you aren’t leaving?”

Night shook his head and realization dawned on his face. “You thought when we said we were moving on, you weren’t coming with us?”

Jon growled. “Are you nuts? Where the hell have you been these last few weeks, woman? How could you think we’d leave you?”

She silently chastised herself for her insecurities. “I thought now that you’d put the unpleasantness of the past behind you, you’d want to move on. Move away from—”

“Each other,” Night finished for her.

Jon looked up at his friend, confusion in his face.

“Jon, she thinks now that Cassandra is dead and we’re attempting to put the past behind us, we’ll move on to those normal lives you’ve been preaching about us getting for so long.”

Jon glanced down at her, his eyes black with worry. “Is that what you want, Carly? A normal life? One husband?”

“God no,” she breathed out quickly. “I want you. Both of you. More than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life. But now that you’ve settled the things that have been hurting you, I was afraid you’d change your mind.”

Night grinned. “Beauty, you promised to give me time, remember?”

“I remember,” she answered.

“Well, you’re not reneging on that. I won’t let you. Even though I can tell you right now, I’m not going to change my mind about you.”

Carly smiled and felt her lip quiver slightly. “My mind is made up as well.”

Night bent down and kissed her gently, only pulling back when his fingers brushed against the fresh tears on her cheeks. “Crying again?”

“Good crying,” she answered with a smile.

“So have we gotten all the lovey-dovey crap out of the way?” Jon’s face appeared exasperated, but his eyes were sparkling.

She wiped the happy tears away with a grin. “I suppose so.”

“Good. Because I’ve waited four days to get back inside that gorgeous body of yours, and morals or not, I’m not waiting a second more.”

“Amen to that,” Night muttered. She giggled until Jon pulled the sheet down, his playful look quickly turning to one of unbridled lust.

His fingers lightly touched a small bruise on her breast. His gaze asked the question, but she was hesitant to answer. When he raised his eyebrows, she knew he would outwait her.

“Cassandra pinched me.”

Jon’s eyes narrowed in anger and Night growled. “What else did she do?” Night demanded.

“Nothing,” she quickly reassured them. “I swear that was it.”

Night shook his head. “My fault,” he muttered, but she quickly dismissed his self-recriminations.

“I never want to talk about Cassandra Walker again. We’re here together now and I refuse to let that bitch steal one more second from us.”

Jon bent down and placed a light kiss on the bruise. “No more talking then. Just us, together, loving each other.”

Jon moved closer to her breast and she gasped as he sucked her turgid nipple into his mouth roughly. “Mine,” he breathed against the sensitive tip, and she fought against a moan as Night bent down to offer the same treatment to her other breast. Together they worked her flesh with their tongues, teeth and lips until she thought she would scream in ecstasy.

She’d only reached the peak when Jon moved his lips up to whisper in her ear, “Come for us, Carly.” As he spoke, Night reached down to stroke her clit and Jon pressed two fingers deep inside.

She exploded into a million bright, shining pieces. When she came back to herself, she became cognizant of Jon lying on his back, pulling her limp body over his, caressing her hair and whispering lovely words in her ear.

“You’re ours, Carly.”

Gently grasping her around the waist, he positioned her until she was straddling him. The feeling of his hard cock against her stomach rejuvenated her sated body and suddenly she felt ravenous for more. Rising up on her knees, she guided him into her body, reveling in his gratified moan.

“So tight and hot. So perfect,” Jon muttered. She slowly rode him, up and down, until Night’s hands at her hips halted her movement.

“Wait for me, Beauty,” he murmuresd against the nape of her neck, provoking a shudder of desire.

As Night pushed her forward, she rejoiced at the first touch of his cock against her ass. Somewhere along the line, he’d retrieved a tube of lubrication from the bedside dresser and covered his cock with it. Slowly, he slid into the tight chamber, taking care not to hurt her. She marveled at the wondrous feeling of being claimed this way. Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined being so completely filled. The pleasure and pain of the position worked its way through her overwrought system like a glass of white wine, soothing the restless longings and satiating the frantic cravings.