B00MV3HMDW_EBOK (23 page)

Taryn continued to listen as Ethan talked well past the time where exhaustion claimed her. She could still hear him and treasured the sound of his voice as it soothed her to sleep, yet she was still hovering on the edge of awareness. The thought that they’d found something in each other that was very, very rare went round and round in her mind. The threats from outside forces appeared darker now more than ever, as if the clouds grew more ominous with their roiling darkness. They would both have to protect each other if they were to make it through the impending perilous storm.

Chapter Eighteen

E
than let the hot water cascade over him, soaking in the heat to ease the ache in muscles that hadn’t been used in a while. It wasn’t the strength in which he’d wielded the paddle but the continuous rhythm. He placed his palms against the shower wall and hung his head, wanting the water to knead the back of his shoulders. Damn, it felt good.

“Happy birthday to you.” The words were sung in a sweet voice that he’d heard numerous times when Taryn was either in the shower or the car. He smiled when she continued to sing and step into the bathtub, closing the shower curtain behind her. “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Ethan…happy birthday to you.”

“You remembered, did you?” Ethan asked, pushing himself off of the plastic surface and pulling her underneath the steady stream of water. Taryn lifted her head and let her hair get wet. When she opened her beautiful brown eyes, his chest tightened at the thought of them returning to their own world at some point. Would what they found here continue in the same manner? “Mom and Dad called while you were ordering room service. Did that tip you off?”

“No,” Taryn laughed, running her hands up his chest and lacing her fingers together behind his neck. Droplets hung on her lashes and made her eyes even brighter. “Your mom and I talked about it after dinner last week. I told her we’d try to be home, although I knew the possibility was remote. Is she mad at us?”

“Of course not.” Ethan dipped his head and licked the water off of her neck, savoring the taste of her. He nibbled a little more until she started squirming in his arms. “Mom understands that we have a job to do, although that doesn’t stop her from worrying.”

“Since I haven’t had time to buy you something yet, I’ve thought of another gift I could give.” Taryn’s half smile alerted him that she was up to no good…either that, or something well worth his while. As she slowly lowered herself to her knees he decided on the latter. He’d thought of this many times over the last month but literally seeing her kneeling in front of him was overwhelming. His morning hard-on was now quite painful with the need to feel the warmth of her mouth. “No wonder I still feel you.”

Ethan almost choked on his laugh as her lips surrounded the tip of his cock. Fuckin A. Her reference to his size wasn’t lost on him or the fact that her pussy was probably still slightly sore. It was her moist tongue that had him groaning and letting his head fall back in pure pleasure. She cradled his balls in her hand, massaging them like an expert. Where the hell had she learned to do that? If she kept it up much longer their shower would be cut short. He felt her tongue glide up the underside of his shaft and she didn’t stop until she reached his slit. Son of a bitch, this was the best fucking present he’d ever received on his birthday.

“Put your hands on my legs,” Ethan growled out between clenched teeth. “Breathe through your nose.”

He’d always been partial to blowjobs but being given one by Taryn took things to a whole other level. He locked his knees and dragged his fingers through her wet hair, holding her head in place. He took over the rhythm for her, dragging his cock over her teeth as she got used to the width. The moment her palms landed on his skin he slowly pulled her mouth over his cock until the tip was touching the back of her throat.

“Damn, your mouth feels like heaven.”

Taryn hummed and the pulsations went through his dick and into his sac, which was now tightening with the urge to release his seed. Her fingers dug into his hamstrings as he pulled her toward him once more, the tip of his cock sliding a little farther past the point where she was probably comfortable. Ethan saw stars.

In progression he continued to bob her head over his shaft and with each thrust Taryn was able to take more of him. He felt her breath come out of her nose and onto his skin right above his cock. He wasn’t about to ask where she’d learned this technique, since most women had trouble the moment his tip hit the back of their throat. She was his now and that’s what mattered. He felt pulses of electricity in his lower back and as his balls drew close to his body he knew he wasn’t going to last much longer.

The water seemed to have cooled, but it didn’t matter as his body temperature rose with each stroke. Taryn didn’t release her hold on him, but she did glide her hands around to where her palms were flat against his ass cheeks. When he drew her toward him, she tightened her hold and when his cock went past that wondrous point she swallowed. Ethan screamed her name and had to yank one hand from her head to place on the wall in order to keep himself from falling. She drank his seed until vertigo set in and the air was stolen from his body.

“Happy birthday, Ethan.”

*   *   *   *

“Taryn, could you give us a few moments?” Jax asked, anger evident in his voice. Ethan didn’t bother to look up from securing his holster to his belt. If his friend had a problem and had words to say, so be it. Jax wouldn’t like the way this conversation ended though. “Ethan and I have things to discuss.”

“There’s nothing you have to say to Ethan that I can’t hear,” Taryn replied, taking a seat on the side of the bed. Ethan did take time to look at her, seeing a glow of confidence that hadn’t been there days ago. She was happy with where they were taking their relationship and it was her opinion that mattered. “When I texted you the other day it was for advice—
not
for you to get your panties in a wad.”

“Fine then,” Jax stated, setting his hands on his hips. “What the hell do you think the two of you are doing? Ethan, you gave up your hotel room? Are you fucking kidding me? We’re in the middle of a case and you two are in here fucking like rabbits. Don’t even get me started on the fact that this is wrong on so many levels.”

“What we do in our personal time is our business.” Ethan sat in the chair and started to lace up his boots. He glanced up to see that Jax hadn’t moved from his position by the door. He’d swung his bag up against the wall since he couldn’t check into the hotel until mid-afternoon. “We’d put in our work day. Last night
was
our time.”

“This isn’t right,” Jax stressed, running a hand through his already messed up blond hair. “The two of you need to think things through before someone gets hurt.”

“No one is hurting anyone,” Ethan stated, finally done with his boots. He planted his elbows on his legs and met Jax’s glare. “Let’s get this straight, Christensen. This is our choice…our lives. The decision has already been made and guess what? Your wishes weren’t taken into consideration.”

“Would you two pussies stop?” Taryn stood and mimicked Jax’s stature by placing her hands on her hips. She looked downright gorgeous, with the lip-gloss glimmering in the morning sun and her cheeks flushed from their early morning endeavor. It had been one hell of a birthday present. “Jax, what Ethan and I do in our own time is our business. You’re family, just like the rest of the team…but this is between us. If we fuck it up it’s on us alone.”

“We’re not going to fuck it up,” Ethan growled at her, not believing that Taryn would say such a thing.

“I’m just stressing a point,” Taryn pointed out, her head tilting to the side that Ethan should help her out here. Technically she was right. They had a lot of ground to cover today and they needed Jax’s help to do it. She focused her sights back on Jax, who was now leaning against the wall as if he was looking at a battlefield and didn’t know how to navigate through the landmines. “Did we interfere when you got yourself back involved with Emily? Did we tell you it was a bad idea when she’d already hurt you more than once?”

“You didn’t even know about our past then,” Jax pointed out, throwing his hands up in the air in exasperation.

“That’s not the point,” Taryn said with a shrug. “If we had, we wouldn’t have said a word and we would have allowed you to make your own mistakes. And if I’m not mistaken it was your ass that was hiding in the office when she was puking her guts up from being pregnant—with your child, I might add.”

Ethan covered a grin with his hand when Jax cursed a string of cuss words, including wondering aloud why everyone kept bringing that up. Taryn was hell on wheels when she got started and she could damn well rationalize anything put in front of her. He was angry with Jax, but it was utterly unbelievable that Ethan and Taryn should have to explain their actions to anyone.

“Fine.” Jax straightened and looked between the two of them. “When this shit hits the fan because you two didn’t listen to me, I’ll be bringing a damn extra large size popcorn bowl to the pity parties. By the way, happy birthday, dipshit.”

Ethan shared a look with Taryn who seemed to be on the verge of laughing as well. Last night had truly solidified the course of their relationship. There was a ring of truth to what Jax said in terms of returning home. Ethan pushed all those doubts of how they would be in their normal routine out of his mind as Taryn changed the subject to Ryland and what they’d found out about his past.

“So Ryland was born Travis Bowers?” Jax stared at the military files that Taryn had gotten her hands on. “It’s not easy to falsify your death when you’re with the military. In fact, it’s impossible now that they keep DNA on record.”

“No, it’s not easy,” Taryn agreed, sitting back down on the bed. Jax joined her while Ethan remained sitting in the chair. “Crest pulled a few strings and called us right before you showed up. According to the Army Master Sergeant that had been the Staff Noncommissioned Officer in charge of Ryland’s unit, there had been rumblings of a few soldiers getting involved with some drug smugglers during the deployment. The only thing we can gather is that he used those resources to his advantage.”

“Or a deal went bad and Ryland had no choice but to fake his death,” Ethan interjected, trying to place another piece into the puzzle. “Somewhere along the way Ryland met someone to train him in his craft…just as he trained Yvette.”

“Where do we stand on that?” Jax asked and then stood to walk over to the desk. He started to fiddle with the one-cup coffee maker when he groaned and walked back to the bed. Ethan looked behind him and saw the third paddle that he’d never used on Taryn. “Wrong, I tell you.”

“Getting back to the to the conversation at hand,” Taryn stressed, holding up some more papers, “there’s something that you don’t know. We told Crest this morning and he’s probably coming down to Texas himself.”

“Ah, shit. Just spill it.”

“Ryland made contact with me last night.” Taryn picked up a pencil and started to tap it to her lip. Ethan lifted up one side of his mouth, remembering what they’d done this morning. She must have caught his look, for an unusual light tinge of rouge covered her cheeks. Her brows became a V in her irritation and she focused back on Jax. “Fallon is onto something when she said that Ryland has somehow transferred his feelings for Yvette over to me. I don’t think he wants to hurt me, although that remains to be seen. I think he wanted me to find out about Yvette being Sabrina…he wants me to sympathize with her, get to know who she used to be.”

“I’m not going near Ryland’s psychotic mind and his thoughts. I just want the fucker gone.” Jax looked between Ethan and Taryn, holding his hands up in question. “So what’s the game plan?”

“We’re heading back to Arthur Bowers’ residence today,” Taryn said, standing as she tossed the pencil back onto the bed with the scattered papers. “Ethan has the capability of cracking Art’s safe, which means you and I have the honor of keeping his attention on us. It’s easier than breaking and entering.”

“I love getting our hands dirty.” Jax rubbed his palms together, and with the way his hair needed cut he looked unpredictable. Regardless of his opinion of Ethan and Taryn’s relationship, there was no one else he’d rather have here. Jax could improvise with the best of them. “Let’s roll.”