Run From Fear (30 page)

Fuck.

And they were no closer to catching the shithead who
was tormenting her, so he was stuck here for the foreseeable future.

But really, what happens when you do find the guy? You really going to just tuck your tail in between your legs and run back to Seattle without a fight?

Everything in him rebelled at the thought of simply packing up and heading back to Seattle. Alone.

Jesus, when had he turned into such a pussy? He’d never shied away from a fight in his life.

Yeah, but taking down a couple Taliban soldiers is nothing compared to dealing with the damage Talia’s already suffered.

But he had to try, he thought, swinging his feet over the side of the bed and pulling on his boxers before he was even conscious of moving. He didn’t know exactly what he was going to do as he climbed the stairs, only that he couldn’t leave it like this.

Tonight Talia had been able to overcome her demons enough to turn to him. She felt it, too, this thing between them. She might not be ready to admit it was love, but she couldn’t say it was nothing. And Jack wasn’t going to let her run away from it, especially when it could turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to both of them.

He raised his hand to knock. When she didn’t answer, he tried the doorknob and found it locked. “Talia, come on, let me in.”

“Go away.”

“Dammit,” Jack said, unable to keep the irritation from his voice, “you can’t just run off like nothing happened.”

“It doesn’t have to mean anything, Jack. It doesn’t have to be important.”

“It’s important to me,” he said with another thump on
the door. “Really fucking important.” He waited several more seconds. “Come on, Talia, please open the door.”

There was no movement. He contemplated the consequences of picking the lock. Just as he’d decided he could live with them, he heard her footsteps and the spring of the lock popping on the doorknob.

His irritation evaporated at the sight of her tear-streaked face and swollen, trembling mouth. With his shirt swallowing her up and hanging down past her knees, she looked small and so fragile a stiff wind could sweep her away. “I’m sorry, Jack,” she said in a tight whisper. “I can’t do this. I thought I could do this…”

Jack pulled her into his arms, ignoring her stiffness and the way she held her arms up between them. He should have seen this coming. Talia had been shut down physically for so long, it made sense that the first time she finally let someone in—literally and figuratively—she would freak out.

He just had to keep proving to her that no matter what happened, she was safe with him.

“It’s going to be okay, Talia,” he said, stroking her hair. “We’ll take things slow.”

“You don’t understand,” she said, shoving at his chest. “I can’t do this again. I can’t let anyone in. I can’t let anyone hurt me.”

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Jack said, holding her tighter when she tried to pull away.

“I know that,” Talia whispered against his chest. “Logically, I know that, but there’s something wrong with me. Something I can’t fix. Tonight, for a minute there, I thought we could fix it, but it only made me realize how broken I really am.”

Jack grabbed her by the shoulders and held her away enough that he could look in her face. “You are not broken.”

She pulled away from him. “How can you say that when you know exactly what I’ve done, what I am?” She turned away from him, and he saw her arms moving but didn’t realize she was unbuttoning her shirt until she slid it off her shoulders and down her waist. “Isn’t this proof enough?”

The scars were white, puckered lines against the honey gold of her skin. Even now, the sight of them was enough to make fury boil in Jack’s blood. He wished, as he had a thousand times, that he’d been the one to kill Nate Brewster for the damage he’d done to her body. That he’d been the one to kill David Maxwell for the damage he’d done to her soul, making her feel cheap and used. Exploiting her love for her sister to manipulate her into doing things that continued to eat at her conscience until she felt unworthy of love and happiness.

Broken.

“And that sick piece of shit, whoever he is,” she said, almost to herself, “it’s like he wants to remind me exactly who I am and what happened.” Her breath caught in a sob that made his chest squeeze. “Like I don’t remember every goddamn day when the ugliness is carved in my skin.”

Jack stepped closer and reached out to stop her when she would have pulled the shirt back up to cover her back. Slowly, as carefully as if she were a wild animal he wanted to touch, he traced his fingers down the length of one scar. “When I see you, I don’t see broken, and I sure as hell don’t see ugly,” he said, his voice rough.

“Don’t,” she whispered, but she didn’t pull away when he landed a kiss on the smooth skin of her shoulder. His lips parted and he sank to his knees as he ran his lips and tongue across her back, along the length of one scar.

He could feel her tremble, hear her breath speeding up as he slid his hands around her waist and kissed his way across to her right hip and followed the other scar back up to her shoulder. He pulled her back against him and slid his arms around her waist.

He nuzzled his face in her neck and whispered, “When I look at your scars, when I remember what you went through, it reminds me how brave you are, how loyal. How much you love your sister that you’d do anything to protect her.” He straightened to his full height and pulled the shirt back over her shoulders.

Talia let out a little sob and turned in his arms. “I’m just afraid—all I know is that caring about someone makes me weak, makes me stupid,” she sobbed against his chest. “The last time I was with someone, he ended up controlling everything. I’m afraid of letting myself be that way again, even with you.”

Jack leaned down until his forehead touched hers. “You aren’t stupid, and you aren’t weak. And I don’t want to control you. Protect you, yes.” He shoved aside the little tickle of guilt that she might not see the distinction if she ever discovered that he’d “invested” in Susie’s restaurant and that he’d been secretly keeping tabs on her for the past two years.

“I just want to be with you, Talia, that’s all. I’m not going to push you into anything you’re not ready for,” he said, sounding like a broken record. “But it could be good between us. Really fucking good.”

She shifted against him, and he could feel his skin
heat, his muscles tighten at the feel of her bare breasts against his chest. “Try to let go and we’ll see what happens. Just be with me.”

Talia didn’t answer, her breath stuck in her throat at the feel of his hot breath on her neck, the growing hardness of him against her stomach. She wasn’t sure she could let go, wasn’t sure she knew how.
Just be with me.

It couldn’t be that easy, especially with someone like Jack, with the strength and the will to run roughshod over her if she wasn’t careful. But when had he ever pushed her into doing anything she didn’t want to do?

When had he ever gone behind her back and manipulated her into a corner until she had no other choice than to do what he demanded?

Just be with me.

A simple request, calling up the answering yearnings in her heart and her body that had been buried for so long under the black muck of her past. She’d had a taste of paradise tonight before the demons reared their ugly heads.

She wanted it again. She didn’t want to let the demons win. What she felt for Jack had to be stronger. And as she looked up into Jack’s face, his blue eyes full of emotions she was still too scared to name, she realized that if she was with Jack, she wouldn’t be fighting alone anymore.

Still, she felt as if she were sailing over the edge of a cliff as she wound her arms around his neck. “I’m scared,” she said softly.

“Me too,” he breathed against her lips right before they came down on hers. And then there was nothing but
heat and need curling low in her belly as his tongue slid against hers and he pulled her hips against his.

He backed up until the backs of his knees hit her bed. She reached down and shoved his boxers down his hips. He sat down on the edge of the mattress and pulled her down to straddle his lap. The thick head of his cock brushed the inside of her thigh and she felt a rush of heat and wetness between her legs.

Already her body was throbbing in anticipation and she marveled at this new craving to touch and be touched, this need to take his body inside hers. She reached between them and wrapped her hand around him, loving the way his breath hitched as he bucked his hips. He was as big and powerful here as he was everywhere else, and if she hadn’t already known how good he would feel in her, she might have been intimidated.

“Please,” he groaned as he ran his hands restlessly over her body. “I need you so much.”

He pulsed in her hand and she guided him to her core, rubbed him against her slick heat until they were both panting and shaking, their kisses almost frantic now.

Finally, when neither of them could take more teasing, she drew up on her knees and sank down, taking him all the way inside with a low sigh. He touched her everywhere, his hands on her back, sliding down to her hips as his lips nipped and sucked at hers. Skin on naked skin, sweat slicked and flushed with need.

He bent his head and took her nipple between his lips, sending a shock of pleasure straight to her core. Her orgasm hit her then, with such speed and force it ripped a startled cry from her chest.

Jack wasn’t far behind. Afterward, he pulled her down
next to him, covered them up with the quilt, and wrapped his arms around her tight, like now that he had her where he wanted her, he was never going to let her go.

And for the first time in her life, Talia couldn’t find a single reason why she’d want to escape.

The alarm shrieked them awake at four in the morning. Talia shot straight up in bed and had a moment of confusion when she found herself totally naked. When she would have swung her legs over the side of the bed, strong arms pulled her back.

Still muddled with sleep, she started to fight, thrashing and punching.

“Talia, stop!”

Jack’s voice penetrated the panic and calmed her down a degree. “What’s going on?” she asked in a shaky whisper. In the dark she could barely see the outline of Jack’s broad shoulders leaning over her. “That’s the alarm,” she said stupidly.

“I know,” Jack whispered, and reached over to turn on the bedside lamp. “And I want you to stay up here while I check it out.”

Jack was a badass, but if someone was still here, she didn’t want him taking them on alone and unarmed. “The police will be here soon,” she protested. “Let’s just wait.”

Jack was already out of the bed and pulling on his discarded boxer shorts. “No way. If the fucker is anywhere near here, I’m going to take him down.”

She didn’t like it, but she could tell from the hard set to his features there would be no arguing with him.

“Do you still have your Taser?”

Talia grabbed it from her bedside table and handed it to him. It was eerie, how his entire demeanor changed in an instant. Wearing nothing but his underwear and armed only with a small Taser gun, he should have looked silly. But somehow it was like an invisible cloak had dropped down over him.

Gone was the tender lover who waited patiently, even uncertainly for her to accept him. Now Jack was a warrior, tough, dangerous, afraid of nothing and capable of taking on the world.

Still, concern made her stomach tight as she locked the door behind him. Jack was tough, but what if someone was still down there with a gun or a knife…

She pulled on a sweatshirt and a pair of yoga pants and waited for what felt like hours but was probably only a couple minutes for Jack to knock and give her the all-clear. When she opened the door, she saw that he’d gotten dressed, too, in a T-shirt and jeans, a pair of black running shoes on his feet. They had a few damp blades of grass clinging to the top. He must have gone outside.

“No sign of him?”

Jack shook his head, his mouth pulled into a tight line. “Whoever it was lobbed a brick through the window over the kitchen sink.”

“The one that faces my neighbor’s house?” she asked as she slipped on a pair of flip-flops and followed him downstairs.