Breaking Bad (15 page)

“I’m worse than a heart attack on a plate, Jack,” she said hoarsely.

“What a way to go.”

“You might regret it.”

Sliding his hands along her arms, he pulled her in to his embrace. “My only regret is not calling you after that most amazing night.” The words were out before he realized what he said. But they were true. So he owned it.

She stiffened and he chastised himself for reminding her of his major fuckup. When she tried to push him away, he pulled her back toward him and caught her deep gaze. He took the next step.

“I’m not back in the Bay Area by accident, Stevie.”

Her eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve put in for the Bay Area since I came out of Quantico. I could have put in for anywhere, with no guarantees of anything, but I chose here. Where you were.” When she trembled in his arms, he gently caressed her. “When I told you I missed you, I didn’t lie.”

“You’ve been back for how long?”

“A year.”

“A year?” She asked surprised. “It took you a year to make contact?”

“I was working on a task force that had me traveling extensively. I wanted the time to be right. This case was the right time.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Would you believe me if I told you I was afraid to reach out to you? That I could not have dealt with you refusing me?”

“So you created a way I couldn’t?”

His gaze dropped to her lips. “Yeah. And I don’t have one regret this time.”

As his eyes lifted to hers, he saw the doubt and wished he could convince her that he was not going to run again.

“I want to believe you, I do, but damn it, I just—”

“Remember what I taught you? About following your instincts?”

“Yes.”

“What are they telling you now?”

“That you’re trying to be serious.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

“I’
ve never been more serious in my life,” he said.

His words, the way he looked so intently and unblinking at her, Stevie knew he believed he was sincere. And she believed he was sincere…but was he for the reasons she wanted him to be?

“I believe you believe that, Jack, but—” She slid her hand along his thigh to his erection. He was so warm. So virile. A fresh rush of heat flooded her veins. He groaned when she gently caressed the thickening mound. “This bad boy does a lot of speaking on your brain’s behalf, only to regret the trouble he caused after the fact.”

“You minimize my sincerity, Stevie.” He picked up her hand and set it back in her lap, then moved away from her. Cool air swooped in, taking his warmth with it. “This isn’t about sex. But I won’t lie; I want to tie you up and spank that sweet ass of yours pink. I want you squirming and begging for my dick so deep inside of you, you can’t breathe.” He paused for a moment to allow his words to sink in before he continued. “I want to bend you over my kitchen table and fuck you hard from behind, then turn you over and fuck you face-to-face.” He lowered his voice. “And I want to lay you down on my bed and make love to you, too. I won’t deny any of that.” He leaned toward her, his breath warm and moist on her cheeks. “But there’s more, Stevie. I want to possess you. I want to be your one and only obsession. I want everything you own.” He smiled, the gesture dangerous as his fiery gaze swept her. “I want to own you.”

Excitement sizzled through her. So did fear. Being possessed by a man like Jack came at a price. Could she sell her soul to the devil? “I don’t belong to any man.”

“You belong to me. The sooner you accept that, the sooner we can get on with the business of us.”

Her jaw hung open. She snapped it shut and looked past him. Everything he said, she wanted, too. But that meant giving up control. Completely. A man like Thorn was possessive, like his friend Simon was with Katrina. Jack never did tell her what happened to the guy who touched Simon’s wife. Stalling for time she asked, “What happened to the last man who put his hands on Doc?”

Jack’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Her husband beat him so viciously; he was in the hospital for three weeks before they could take his mug shot.”

“Oh.”

Jack stood and tossed a couple of twenties onto the table.

“I was supposed to pay,” Stevie said, attempting to turn the conversation away from where she so desperately wanted to go with him.

He held out his hand for her. “You’re going to. More than you know.”

She swallowed hard. She wanted to know, God help her, she did.

He guided her up from the seat, then dropped her hand and stood aside so that she could precede him to the front door, which he opened and held for her.

When they came to the passenger side of his car, he said, “You will spend as long as necessary at my place, Stevie. I will put my hands on you. And you will allow me to.” He yanked the passenger door open. “There is nothing short of you tapping out that will stop me from taking what I want from you.”

As she moved to get in, he caught her around her waist and pulled her against his chest. His confident eyes held hers. “Do you understand?”

Not trusting her voice, she nodded.

He smiled the smile of an outlaw who had just held up a bank and was about to shower in the bounty.

Her bounty. Heat liquefied between her thighs. Squeezing her eyes shut, Stevie fought an internal battle she knew her brain was not going to win. It never would, not as long as her heart and body craved Jack Thornton.

The drive to her house was silent, each of them allowing this shift in their relationship to settle in. Jack had laid down the law. Stevie was shocked that she, a control freak, a modern-day woman who needed no one and nothing, would entertain the idea of being in a relationship with a man who demanded total control of her. But was it control when she wanted the same things? She wanted to be possessed by Jack. He had been her obsession these last seven years. That wasn’t going to change except for her obsession becoming more desperate. Obsessing wasn’t healthy. Hell, it was the polar opposite. How would she survive him tiring of her and walking away?

She exhaled loudly, as if she had been hit in the chest.

“Stop thinking about it, Stevie, just go with it.”

No guts no glory, right?

Swallowing hard, she nodded, again not trusting her voice. After a few long minutes she said, “I’m afraid.”

He reached over and entwined her fingers with his. “I’ll protect you.”

When she looked over at him, he was smiling. “How can you, when you’re the one I need protection from?”

“I think you have that turned around, sweetheart.”

His words washed warm through her.

“I guess we’ll have to see how this plays out to know for sure.”

“I guess we will.”

While Stevie threw together a suitcase for Jack’s place and their trip east, Jack was on a conference call updating her men as well as Deavers and Flynn. From their end: no sign of Spoltori at his apartment or his office. His Beemer had been located earlier in the day in Castro Valley just down the street from the registered owner of the black truck he’d tried to run Stevie off the road with.

He was still at large, however. As Jack came back into her bedroom he said, “Spoltori gave us a gift by parking so close to the truck owner’s house. I wonder why he was so sloppy.”

“Not sloppy; he’s arrogant and figured he’d be back and driving away in his car in no time.”

“Which makes him all the more desperate.”

“He knows we’re on to him.”

Jack nodded and made a quick call on his cell. “Ryker, I need you to add an addendum to the warrant we wrote up today, documenting the theft of the truck and the proximity of Spoltori’s vehicle to the residence of the stolen vehicle. I’ll need it no later than eleven thirty tonight. Thanks.”

Jack looked up. “If that judge doesn’t give us everything now, I don’t care how bad it looks; we’re going to shop the warrant until we get a judge to sign off on it.”

“Just turn that special agent charm of yours up a few notches and you’ll have Judge Halpert eating out of your hand.”

Jack grinned. “A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.” He glanced at his watch. “It’s eight; I want to be at the meeting location by nine, which mean we leave here in thirty minutes. That doesn’t give us enough time to get to my place and be in Fremont by nine. What do you have left to do?”

“Nothing. I’m packed. I just need to lock up on our way out.”

Jack slid his phone into his pocket and stalked to where she stood by the side of her bed. “We’ve got a few minutes to kill.” His eyes blazed as they raked her from head to toe. “Unbutton your blouse,” he commanded softly.

Swallowing slowly, Stevie reached up and began to unbutton her blouse. When it hung open he moved into her space. “Slide it off your shoulders, slowly.”

She did. Her breasts plumped as her nipples poked against the thin lace of her bra.

“Now take off your pants but leave your panties on.”

“Jack—”

“That’s one spanking for later. Now do as I say or I add another one.”

She did. He nudged the shirt off her shoulders, his fingertips grazing her sensitive skin. Warmth flushed in the wake of his touch. “Take off the bra.”

As it slid from her fingertips, he said softly. “I love your tits. I love the nipple rings.” He plucked one gently. Shivers raced across her skin. “Why did you do this?”

“I—” She was embarrassed to tell him.

“That’s two spanks, Stevie.”

“My nipples are really sensitive. I never knew how much until you. I had them pierced so that when I played with them, I’d get the maximum sensation, just like I had with you.”

He smiled and plucked the other one. “You’re beautiful, you know. Everything about you. I like the way your breasts flush when I look at them, how they grow heavy from my touch. The way your nipples are so responsive to my fingers and mouth. You are the most sensual creature I’ve ever met, Stevie. Your body was made for sex.” His eyes blazed. “With me. And only me.”

He stood back and held her gaze with his. She stood tall and proud, before him.

“Take off your shoes.”

She did.

“Don’t move,” he huskily commanded, then walked into her closet and returned with the peek-a-boo pumps she’d worn to the fundraiser. Handing them to her, he told her to put them on.

As she slipped them on, her sensitive breasts bobbed, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from Jack. Heat infused her, and so did a sense of the power she held over this man. She had something he wanted badly. She was the gatekeeper, she decided if he got it or not.

When she straightened, Stevie looked directly at him, a small triumphant smile on her face. He smiled back as he sauntered toward her, a big dark panther about to pounce. He moved as close to her as he could without actually touching her. He had not removed one stitch of clothing while she stood before him almost naked. The contrast hyped up her excitement.

“You like the fact that I’d do anything just to touch you?” he rasped.

“Yes.”

He closed his eyes and softly inhaled her scent. “That I’d kill any man who tried to harm you?”

“Yes.”

He opened his brilliant green eyes. “That I’d sell my soul to the devil to be inside you?”

“Yes,” she breathed. Her heart beat like a drum. Her nipples were so tight, they ached to be touched.

“I’m glad we have that understanding.” His lips brushed against hers. She whimpered, wanting more.

“I know you have toys,” he said. “Get one.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

A
wave of shyness swept through her, but it was quickly replaced with heady excitement. She turned to her nightstand, opened the drawer, and pulled out her favorite vibrator. When she turned back to face Jack, she smiled and stroked it. “His name is Jack.”

Her vibrator’s namesake grinned. Her gaze dipped to his tenting trousers.

“Lie down,” he commanded.

As she slid back on the bed, Jack’s gaze held hers. “Sit up against the headboard, put a pillow under your ass, then bring up your knees so your heels are digging into the bed.”

A rush of heat flooded her. Stevie did as commanded.

“Spread your legs.” His voice had lowered to sandpaper rough.

Letting her knees part, she closed her eyes as shyness swept through her again. Jack snapped his fingers, getting her attention. “Eyes on me, sweetheart.”

Biting her bottom lip, Stevie nodded and caught his hot stare.

“What do you think of when you touch yourself, baby?” Jack asked softly.

“You.”

He smiled and nodded. “Your nipples are so hard and we haven’t even begun.” His eyes darkened. “They’re going to get harder,” he promised.

Having no doubt about that, Stevie was having difficulty catching a regular breathing pattern, her anticipation was so extreme.

“Are you wet for me, sweetheart?”

She nodded, unsure of her voice.

“Show me how wet.”

Setting the vibrator down on the bed beside her, she slid her hands down her taut belly. Jack’s nostrils flared with the rapid rise and fall of his chest. Power surged through her. He might be calling the shots, but she was in control. Sliding the sodden edge of her lace panties aside with two fingers of her left hand, she slid two fingers from her right along her smooth mound, moaning softly at the contact.

“So pretty and pink,” Jack rasped. “I want to eat you up.”

“I want you to.” She was famished for him.

He inhaled, the heavy lids of his eyes falling low. “I can smell your sex from here. Dip a finger into that sweet pussy, Stevie.”

She did and they moaned in unison, their simmering desire building.

“Yes. Damn, you are so fucking hot right now. Keep your panties pulled aside so I can look at you. Now lube your nipples with your juice.”

When she did, Stevie bit back another moan.

“Pluck your nipples, Stevie. Imagine it’s me. Yes, like that.”

Inhibition fled her. The power of being exposed on such a primal level to this man left her breathless and wanting to give him even more of herself. As her hips bucked, grinding against his imaginary cock, her knees fell wider apart.

“So hungry, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she breathed.

“What do you think of when you’re alone, touching yourself?”

“How much I want you.”

“How do you want me?”

“Deep. Hard. Relentless.” Pulse racing as she said the words, her fingers tugged harder at her nipple ring. God, she wanted Jack’s mouth on her.

“That’s how I’m going to take you, Stevie,” he promised. “I’m going to hit you deep, hard and relentless.”

She licked her dry lips. Her clit throbbed for the attention she was dying to give it.

“Turn your toy on.”

Breathless, she did. As she started to press it between her legs, Jack shook his head. “To your nipples.”

She arched as the slow swirling vibration touched her ultrasensitive nipples. Blood thundered through her veins.

Jack’s eyes deepened to dark green. “Now, slide it down your belly.” She did. Her mouth gaped as the vibrations hit her clitoris. “Does that feel good?”

“Yes,” she gasped.

“I’m so hard for you right now.”

“Touch me,” she begged.

“No, baby, this is all you. I love watching you pleasure yourself.”

“I need to come, Jack.”

“Slide it along your lips.”

She moaned loudly as she did, her hips rocking as sensation rushed through her.

“Slowly, up and down. Oh, no, don’t be greedy, Stevie, no penetration.”

She cried out, frustrated. “Jack,
please
.”

“You are pleasing me. Doesn’t that feel good?”

“Yesss.”

“Good, now take some of that sweet honey and swirl it around your clit with your finger.”

Her breath hitched at the contact. Her nipples were abuzz with sensation combined with her stroking herself and Jack watching. She was on the verge of climaxing.

Swallowing hard, she slid “Jack” along her straining nub and nearly came. Overcome with sweet, hot desire, she closed her eyes to savor this new empowering feeling.

“Eyes open, Stevie.”

They opened. The planes of Jack’s face had tightened. He was completely focused on her.

“Rub the tip of the vibrator back and forth across your clit. Slow and soft. I don’t want you to come yet.”

She did as he said.

“I wish you could see how sexy you look right now, sweetheart. Those fuck-me heels digging into the bed, your legs spread apart, that sweet cunt glistening wet and pink. So swollen with desire. Your stiff nipples begging for my mouth. Your luscious lips parted, your big blue eyes begging for permission to come. Every part of you wanting to explode.”

He stepped closer to the bedside.

“Jack,” she moaned as her hips rocked against the vibrator. “Please…”

“Please, what?”

“Let me come. I need to.”

He leaned down to her pussy.

“Yes,” she gasped. “Please,” she begged, raising her hips to him in offering. “Take all of me.”

He blew on her swollen folds, pushing her so far to the edge she nearly launched.

“Not yet, sweetheart.”

“Jack,” she cried, writhing beneath him. She was desperate for him.
“Please
.
”

“No, baby. Not yet.”

He took the vibrator from her and turned it off. Breathless with anticipation she waited, ready to hang on to his next command as if her life depended on it.

He pulled her legs down so that her entire body was flush against the mattress. In a push-up position over her, he lowered his lips to hers and brushed them against her. Like a starved bird she begged for a deeper kiss.

He moved away, his dark, dangerous eyes holding hers.

“Jack,” she pleaded. “I need to feel you inside of me.”

His eyes flashed fire. “When I fill you, you’re going to feel me for days.” He pushed off the bed and said, “When you come, you come because I made you come. Now get dressed. We have a bad guy to catch.”

“Jack!” she screamed, so frustrated she wanted to hurt him. “You can’t leave me like this!”

He smiled and tapped his watch. “We’ve run out of time.” He tossed the vibrator into her open drawer and said over his shoulder on his way out, “You won’t need that anymore. When you come, you come with me inside you. Now get dressed.”

Stevie cursed Jack the entire drive to Fremont. Every nerve ending in her body throbbed. She felt raw. Exposed. On edge. Every sense heightened, on alert.

As they exited the freeway, she glared at him. “I hate you,” she hissed.

“You’re going to love me later on,” he promised.

The old Stevie would have been embarrassed and felt as if he was playing with her. And while he was, it wasn’t to prove a point. Well, yes it was, the point being hyping up the anticipation of him inside of her. Hence her forbiddance from orgasm.

But how could he be so casual about what had just happened between them? He must be as frustrated as she.

“Are you still hard?” she asked.

His jaw tightened when he said, “As granite.”

“Good. I hope it hurts.”

“Like a mother.”

She sat back in her seat, slightly mollified. “That makes me very happy.”

“I had no doubt it would.”

As they came to a light, Stevie said, “Payback is a bitch, Jack.”

“Is that a threat?”

“Nope, it’s a promise.”

He grinned as they pulled up into the empty parking lot of the address Spoltori’s secretary had given them. It was nine on the dot, a solid thirty minutes before the agreed-upon meet time. The day care center was a single-story building in a decent part of town. The lot was large and well lit and looked like it went all of the way around the building.

When Stevie’s cell phone chirped it startled her. “It’s Spoltori!” she said, recognizing the number.

Hitting speaker, Stevie answered. “Hello,” she said, as casually as she could. Her heart belied her tone. It raced like a greyhound after a rabbit.

“My friend won’t be needing that Valentino after all, Detective,” he said, then hung up.

“Mario!”

But the line was dead. She hit End and looked at Jack, who scowled heavily. “Something’s off,” he darkly said.

The hair on the back of Stevie’s neck spiked. “Do you think he knows she called us?”

“I don’t know but I’m not taking any chances” When he put the car in drive, he said, “Call Fremont PD and Fire and tell them to roll code.”

Pulling her radio out of her purse Stevie called in to her dispatch and gave her the instructions as her eyes scanned the parking lot. As they turned toward the back lot, Stevie pointed to their two o’clock direction. “Over there in the corner, under the light.”

Facing them, showered in the light from a security light pole, was a small dark four-door vehicle with its parking lights on. There was no missing it.

As they cautiously approached it, Stevie pulled out her radio and called in the plate to dispatch.

“Registered to a Joan B. Schillner, 30323 Stevenson Boulevard, apartment three, Fremont,” Dispatch replied.

“Looks like she’s waiting,” Stevie said. She shook her head, slipping the radio back into her bag. “If I had had to put money on her showing, I would have bet against her, especially arriving early.”

Jack put the car into park, then pulled the key from the ignition. “Me, too,” he said getting out of the car. “Keep your eyes peeled.”

“This isn’t my first rodeo, cowboy.”

Stevie exited and followed him, her head on a swivel, scoping out their surroundings.

“Fuck!” Jack cursed, rushing to the driver door. Stevie stepped to the side and looked at the driver. The hair on the back of her neck spiked.

Joan Schillner had made it all right, along with a bullet right between the eyes.