Broken Justice (Justice Brothers) (11 page)

He was a fucking mess and had to admit he didn’t know how to find the door at that moment without a valet, a GPS, and a personal Sherpa. A low, feral growl of frustration rumbled up from his chest and split the air at the exact moment his bare foot came in contact with her crappy backpack. Standing there frozen like an idiot, Cam tried to wrap his mind around the evidence staring him in the face. If not for his heart thumping wildly in his chest, he might have found two threads of reason to string together in quicker fashion.

“Okay man,
think
!” he murmured grittily. Her backpack was here but she wasn’t. If her backpack was here, she would be returning, right? Hope started spreading through his brain. Sprinting the rest of the way to the bathroom he washed up and dressed in short order and was putting his wallet in his pocket and reaching for his keys and sunglasses when the door to the motel room burst open.

Cam recovered from his shock at Lacey’s abrupt entrance and moved quickly to help her with lord knows what, as bags went spilling everywhere. He tried to push aside the joy that lit up his soul at her appearance. As he reached out to pick up a rather nice looking pair of strappy sandals his one thought was that if he knew how to smile, he’d be doing just that right about now.

“What have you been up to, woman?” he asked as he surveyed the pile of stuff on the motel room couch. Noting that everything had hand-written tags, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to make out that she’d been to the local thrift stores for what looked like a new wardrobe. Well, maybe wardrobe was a bit of a stretch, but she’d definitely picked up some new jeans, a couple of pretty tops, and an overnight bag covered in blue flowers.

Lacey had a heck of a time getting through the door with her arms laden with plastic bags. Her limbs felt dead from all the carrying and walking from the bus stop to the motel. She wanted to toss everything down on the floor and just collapse but right at this second she was struggling with the key to the door. Stomping her foot in frustration just as she finally managed to get the door open, she practically fell head-first onto the floor from the forward momentum of her actions. Catching herself at the last second she nonetheless managed to stumble to a halt directly in front of a startled Cameron who was looking at her like she’d grown a second head.

Shifting her bags before they all went tumbling to the ground Lacey muttered under her breath, “Um…. Jeez….a little help here would be greatly appreciated,” as she made to unburden her load onto the sofa by the door.

After an agonizing, sleepless night that had Lacey tossing and turning for hours, she finally just let herself succumb to the inevitable decision. The only choice she could reasonably make. So much unhappiness had been visited on her young life that having hope seemed like a fool’s errand. But somehow, someway, this man named Cameron Justice had burst upon the scene and completely shaken up her carefully orchestrated life of invisibility. And in doing so caused a tidal wave of optimism to creep into her soul. She would put her big girl knickers on, stop being such a wuss, and tag along to Arizona with him, fingers crossed.

With the hard part of the decision behind her, Lacey was swamped with practicalities like getting some real clothes and preparing herself for a new life. She’d been hoarding every penny she could from the odd jobs she’d picked up with an eye to finding employment and a decent place to live. With a figure in mind of what she could frugally spend, she was up and out at first light to troll through the second hand stores downtown for items she would need. She was, after all, operating at a deficit. She could barely remember a time when she wasn’t obsessed with where her next meal would come from or whether she had a roof over her head.

On her way back to the motel she wondered what Cameron would make of her spontaneous shopping spree. She was relying on him to provide the transportation to her new life and while she doubted he’d let her chip in for gas, he was going to have to accept that she wanted to pay for her own food and whatever else she needed along the way. Lacey knew the funds she had would start to dwindle quickly but starting out by putting her best foot forward was the only way she knew how to proceed. She’d never relied on anyone, knew better than to even try, and wasn’t about to start now.

Right this second however Cameron was helping her pick up several items that had spilled off the sofa and was, in fact, holding up the single extravagance she’d purchased - an almost brand new pair of strappy sandals with a chunky heel that would look great with the new pants, tops, and skirts she’d found. His look of astonishment made her stop and pause.
Did he think they were too…..too
? She hated feeling unsure. When she was around him it was like every single female insecurity ever recorded bloomed in her mind.

“Hmmmm,” she heard him rumble as he carefully considered the shoes he was dangling in the air. “I like these,” he informed her solemnly with the briefest suggestion of amusement coming from his eyes. Clearly he was going to joke with her about what she bought and just like that, another crack appeared in her invisible armor. He. Was. Teasing. Her.
Wow.

Oh God, each time all that dark eyed intensity focused solely on her, she couldn’t concentrate.
How was it that he could scramble her thoughts so completely without saying a word?
Standing as they were, with her packages tossed on the sofa and by their feet, separated by just a few inches, she was enthralled by the power radiating off of him. That she felt compelled to put her hands on his chest shook Lacey considerably.

He didn’t skip a beat as he playfully pretended to peek in her bags. “I hope there’s a pair of shorts in that pile ‘cause with these shoes on, your long legs would look magnificent.” How she stayed standing, she did not know.

Pulling herself together with a strong mental shake, Lacey neatly sidestepped the flirty banter with a very specific segue back to more important matters. Coughing lightly to clear the sudden thickness in her throat, she ended by tugging at her bottom lip with quick bites of her teeth.

The shoes completely forgotten, Cam had to restrain himself from reaching out his hand and smoothing her luscious lips with a stroke or two from his thumb. She was trying to look so serious but was hiding her eyes from him. Remembering his earlier instinct that he’d foolishly bullied her into compliance, he remained silent and waited.

“Cameron,” she started. Hesitating and still not fully meeting his gaze, her eyes darted in every direction as she shifted on her feet. He held his breath for what came next because he understood that she needed to own her part of this decision. She was not a coward and probably felt that she would stand or fall on the strength of her actions.
Hmmph
, he grimaced. She’d probably want to lay down a few well-stated rules if he was reading her correctly.
Okay Ponytail,
he thought,
give me your best shot
.

Squaring her shoulders and straightening to every one of her five feet and eight inches of height she nodded in his direction. “Thank you for your incredible offer. Even though we just met, I am grateful and beholden to you for this opportunity.”

Unable to stop himself, Cam blurted out, “Wait! What does beholden mean? If it has anything to do with obligation, forget it Lacey. You won’t owe me a thing. I had a rough time growing up so I’m in a unique position to understand what you’re going through.” The admission of his difficult past came out of nowhere, shocking him almost as much as it clearly intrigued Lacey, if the expression on her face was any indication.

“All you need is a break, the rest is up to you. If you’re like me, you’ll grab the opportunity and wrestle it to the ground. Make it your bitch!” he snarled good-naturedly. Finally, because he couldn’t hold himself back any longer from touching her, he wrapped his big hands around her upper arms and rubbed slightly. “I have faith in you, Ponytail”.

There was more she wanted to say about sharing expenses and honorable stuff like that but all her mind could comprehend was the way his green eyes gleamed when he said ‘
if you’re like me’
. He was so solid and hard, focused, intense. Lacey assumed that was the military in him coming out. Learning some of that may have come from circumstances much as her own made her stop and pause. Maybe her dark knight understood. Actually understood.

Aware of a tingling warmth spreading through her arms where his large, muscular hands rubbed against her, Lacey swallowed back an unwanted moan and tried to put a smile on her face. “Well, I don’t know about making it my bi……uh, you know,” she sighed, “but I promise to make the most of this unexpected opportunity.”

Cam had to chuckle at her shy response. What a delight his Ponytail was.
Now if only she would touch him back
, he thought. Maybe she heard his thoughts because she laid both her palms upon his chest when he used his grip on her arms to gently move her forward.

Lowering his gaze to her mouth, he watched as her tongue snaked out to swipe moisture along her lips.
She was going to be his.
At some point. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself. The only thing holding him back right now was that he actually liked her. That and some hidden crumb of male honor in his conscience.

Liking her meant he had a hard time shutting down the other thought screaming inside his head to take her. Now. Make her his in the most primitive way possible. Mark his territory, his possession. Hell, he didn’t want to scare her away but he also wanted to taste her. Deeply.

In the end he didn’t hesitate, although he should have. Common sense on hold; Cam grabbed Lacey around the waist, pulling her quickly up against his body as his mouth descended on hers for a hungry kiss that held little finesse. His libido was on fire and nothing less than a no-holds barred oral invasion was going to satisfy his desire.

Startled by his actions, she didn’t have the time to resist before his lips were feasting on hers. Lacey had never experienced anything quite like this. She had, in fact, never been kissed by a fully-grown man. His tongue stroked the seam of her mouth touching off a firestorm of awareness that had her trying to drag oxygen into her rapidly muddled mind.

When her lips parted, he took full advantage by swiping his tongue inside her mouth in a way that made her forget all about remaining independent and in control. Instinct, raw and untried, brought her inexpert tongue in contact with his as she shyly answered his incursion into the moist recesses of her mouth. Swirling her tongue around his, she was shocked when his grip became bolder and he molded her trembling body against his powerful heat while sucking greedily on her response.

Lacey didn’t know what to do; this was way outside her known world. She knew she shouldn’t be encouraging this madness but the strange force that had been between them from the moment they met kept her willingly in his bold embrace. With mind and senses on overload, she experienced a growing sensual tension that was as totally foreign and confusing to her as a trip to Mars would be. Heat deep within was spreading through her quaking form, making an explosion of throbbing awareness go off in in the juncture of her thighs. She experienced a series of firsts when liquid arousal flooded her panties and a desperate need to taste Cameron shot into her awareness.

Keeping her hands on his impossibly broad chest, Lacey leaned into him and let all those feelings have their way. She operated on instinct and pure desire, opening up to his questing tongue and voracious lips as he devoured her inexperienced response. He tasted amazing. She couldn’t get enough.

Cam was on fire and sinking fast. When he lost his intention to keep her at arm’s length and simply grabbed hold, the feeling was like free falling without a parachute. She tasted a thousand times better than he imagined, and the exquisite sensation of her long, lean body pressed so perfectly against his was like nothing he had ever known. And certainly nothing he was prepared to deal with. It was easier to think that what was enflaming his senses was nothing more than biology. He wanted her in the most basic of ways. He was a normal male who sensed an available female. Simple.

Yeah, right
. Nothing was simple about this. Nothing. Pretending that what was happening was just sexual arousal and nothing else was insane but Cam couldn’t bring himself to admit to anything else. Sure, it was knocking on the door of his brain, especially now that he’d admitted to himself that he truly liked her, but he was in no way ready to accept what that meant.

Right now all he could concentrate on was the way her trembling body moved against his when she raised up on her toes to fit more intimately against him or the hushed moans of need that were rumbling in her chest. Both were enough to render him mindless and on sensual autopilot as he plundered her mouth with abandon. When her hands moved from his shoulders to spear unsure fingers into his hair, he lost whatever small hold on reality he’d been clinging to.

They stayed like that, wound around one another, held deep in a sensual thrall through a kiss that defined what kissing should be all about, for a long, long time. Lacey’s fevered moans and shaky gasps eventually struck a chord in Cam’s oxygen starved brain. It hit him like a ton of bricks that her responses indicated she’d never been kissed like this a second before that thought expanded all on its own. He knew with absolute certainty that she’d never done any of this before. The thought sobered him up faster than an ice bath.
Shit
.