Her Man Advantage (16 page)
“
I
NEED
TO
SEE
HER
RIGHT
now,” Axel Rankin demanded outside the room where Jennifer had been questioned by the police. “She’s answered more than enough questions and she’s here of her own free will. I’m taking her home.”
Inside the tiny room where she’d given her statement to a nice female police officer, Jennifer smiled. She could hear Axel in the hallway, demanding her release.
She hadn’t seen him after they were taken in to make formal complaints against the biker gang. During the night, she’d had a powwow with a Murphy family lawyer to be sure her rights were respected throughout the process. Kyle had been in to check on her at various times, and he’d told her Axel hadn’t been arrested, thank God. But with all the paperwork to sign, she realized she’d been here for so long the sun was already up. She’d been finished for nearly an hour, she’d just needed to check in with her boss. He’d left her a million messages after the good ratings news about the hockey documentary. The show had been a hit.
“Colin,” she told her boss over the phone as Axel charged into the narrow room. “I’m thrilled about the ratings and I’m glad we’re in good shape for next week. But I’ve got an important meeting that I need to take. I’ll have to call you back.”
She disconnected the call, knowing that Axel mattered more than her micromanaging boss.
“Morning,” she chirped nervously, unsure how to read his mood. The last time they’d spoken privately, they’d been crouched behind a bar while bullets flew around them and he’d been angry with her for following him to the warehouse.
Was he still upset? More important, did he still think they ought to part ways?
“How are you?” he asked, polite but somehow too formal.
Was it her imagination or was he more distant today? He wore a clean blue button-down and khakis, his shirt open at the collar with a gray T-shirt underneath. Kyle must have brought him clothes during the night after Axel had called him.
“Fine. They’re done with me, I was just checking in with work.” Her eyes raked over him as she remembered how he’d planted himself between her and the flying bullets, protecting her when she’d been too shell-shocked to understand what was happening. His big, strong body had sheltered her.
Would it be the last time he touched her?
“Good. My brother left a car for us so I can take you home.”
She nodded, wishing he’d wrap her in his arms. Kiss her. Tell her they could go back to the way things were before he’d broken her heart and told her they weren’t meant to be together.
“Have you seen the paper today?” He pointed toward the copy on the small table in the interview room as she gathered her things to head home.
“I saw you must have sent out a press release about your experience with the Destroyers as a kid.” The article had been short, but Kyle had told her they were eager to publicize Axel’s version of his past before the news leaked about Jaako’s arrest and attempted blackmail. “I thought it was well-handled.”
Her cell phone chimed and she turned it off, not wanting to disrupt their conversation.
“The Murphys have great connections.” They walked out of the interview room, and he gestured toward the front entrance, holding doors for her on their way out. “Kyle had everything ready for me to make a formal announcement last night. I think it was his way of apologizing for letting you out of his sight at the viewing party.”
In the parking lot, he pointed to the car his brother had left for them, a midnight-blue Audi Coupe in keeping with the showroom vehicles his family seemed to favor.
“He really didn’t have a chance to keep me there since I sneaked out right behind you.”
“You’re too impulsive,” he muttered, but there wasn’t much heat in the words. He opened the car door for her but she didn’t get inside.
She put her hands on her hips, bracing herself to stand up to this strong-willed man whom she desperately wanted in her life.
“Maybe
you’re
too stubborn, or you would have let me help you come up with a better plan in the first place.”
Sheltered from the station’s view by a police van, Axel reached for her as they stood toe to toe. He sketched a touch along her jaw that melted her insides even though she wasn’t nearly done giving him a piece of her mind.
“Don’t you get it?” He spoke to her tenderly, his words as soft as his touch. “I needed to protect you. I nearly had a heart attack when you showed up there last night.”
“I didn’t think they’d catch me,” she admitted, knowing she’d messed up. “But if I had to do it all over again…” She shrugged. “I don’t know what I would do differently.”
“You realize how much that scares the hell out of me?” His blue eyes warmed to a darker shade and she wished she could stare into them forever.
“So don’t get into trouble anymore,” she ventured, bringing up the idea of a future. “And I won’t have to bail you out.”
His fingers hesitated where he touched her.
“I’ve got a better idea.” His squared jaw warned her he would be digging his heels in on this point.
“Try me.” She wanted to turn her cheek toward his hand and place a kiss in his palm. Actually, she’d be content to kiss him anywhere.
“How about you stay with me and then neither of us will get into trouble without the other?” He stroked his fingers through her hair, combing gently. Slowly.
“Stay…with you?” she repeated, wanting to be sure she got this right.
A car backed out of a spot near them, but they ignored it, wrapped up in the moment.
“Yes.” He twined a lock of hair around his finger, his gaze probing hers. “You could find social causes to film in Philadelphia as easily as you can in New York. And if you decide to traipse through gang terrain or get on the wrong side of some corrupt government official, I’ll be there to make sure no one hassles you.”
Pleasure sparked, a warm hopefulness that lit her up from within.
“My own personal defenseman.” She pretended to mull that over, knowing she wasn’t going anywhere if Axel Rankin wanted her to stay. “You could help keep me safe while I fix the problems in the world, one film at a time.”
“It seems like fitting penance for a former gang member.” He was only half joking, she knew.
No matter that he’d only been a kid at the time, Axel carried guilt in his heart from those days in Helsinki. He didn’t know it, but healing that guilt was going to be one of her secret causes. He was too good of a man to be weighed down by those dark days.
“No.” Shaking her head, she stepped closer, needing to feel that connection between them after how scared she’d been for him the night before. “It seems like fitting penance for telling me we didn’t belong together.”
A police car peeled out of the station with the siren on, the sound piercing at such near distance, but that didn’t begin to faze her after what she and Axel had gone through last night.
“I didn’t mean that,” he admitted, folding his arms around her waist and pulling her close. “Although you can’t deny you’ve had reservations about my lifestyle.”
Awareness simmered in her blood and she breathed in his scent. She wondered how much room there was in the backseat of an Audi.
“For a so-called hockey goon, you sure are good at reading people.”
“I’m only good at reading you.” He placed a kiss at her temple, a soft slide of his lips along her hairline. “That’s because I can’t ever take my eyes off you.”
“Well, I think we can work around our lifestyles, don’t you?” She would never be a trophy wife with a standing spa appointment or a home on the cover of design magazines. “I could probably be swayed by the benefits of a bigger house and maybe you’d see the light and buy a hybrid.”
His laughter rumbled through his chest and warmed hers. She looped her arms around his neck, knowing she’d never let him go.
“Sounds like you’ve already got a plan.”
“Just ask anyone who knows me. I’m a problem solver.”
“Speaking of which, do you think your sister would be interested in trying on a Philadelphia school for size?”
The question stopped her. Made her heart trip up its rhythm.
“Honestly?” She wasn’t sure her sister would agree, but the fact that he’d offered…wow.
“I like big families.” The certainty in his voice told her they were going to agree on the important things in life. The things that really mattered. “And no one knows better than me that you don’t have to be born into a family to feel that connection.”
Tears warmed her eyes unexpectedly and she was grateful for the cool spring breeze that helped her keep them at bay. Even if she couldn’t convince her sister to come for school, she could picture Julia staying with them for the summers.
“Thank you,” she whispered, choked up and ready to fall into that fancy car with him. Cover him with kisses.
“Anything for you.” He captured her lips and she felt her knees turn to jelly.
She wanted nothing more than to lose herself in that kiss, to dream of forever with her sexy hockey player, the stubborn Finn who was more than a match for her.
But an abrupt honk from a nearby car interrupted the sweet heat flowing in her veins.
“Jen? Axel?” Bryce the cameraman shouted at them through the rolled-down window of a white Ford rental sedan, his voice an unexpected intrusion. “Sorry to startle you. You must have your phones turned off.”
“With good reason, dude. We’re kind of busy here.” Axel tucked her closer. “What’s up?”
Bryce grinned. “A lady from the features page is at the practice rink. Stacy someone or other. She wants to do a special about how Ax’s life turned around after the gang years. Colin thought it would be good to jump on this to boost the ratings—”
“Not right now.” Jennifer didn’t want to share Axel, no matter how good the publicity might be. They’d have time enough to make sure he talked to at-risk teens in the area. Told his story in places that might save other kids from making the same mistakes. For now, she needed him.
“Are you sure?” Bryce pressed. “You know how Colin is.”
But Jennifer was done kowtowing to her boss for the chance to make the stories she wanted. The good ratings on the hockey documentary were going to be her ticket to a stronger voice in the production company. And if he wouldn’t listen? She had options now. Commercial credentials.
“Colin will survive. You can tell the reporter—Stacy—she’ll just have to watch the next installment of the documentary,” Jennifer told him while Axel waved the guy’s car away.
Alone again, she sealed her aching body to the hard strength of Axel’s, ready to go home. She closed her eyes as he dropped a kiss on the juncture of her neck and her shoulder, the warm puff of his breath making her skin tingle everywhere at once.
Edging away from her heated flesh, Axel grinned.
“He could have just told her that I get one hell of a happy ending,” he added, right before he backed Jennifer into the car and reminded her why they were meant to be together after all.
* * * * *
ISBN: 9781459227125
Copyright © 2012 by
Joanne Rock
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