Breaking Bad (20 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

G
rateful Jack was holding her, Stevie shivered hard.

His arms tightened. “I’ve got your back, baby. He’ll have to get through me first.”

Looking up at him, she smiled at his alarm. It was good to be loved. “Before I met Rose Chambers in Maryland, I’d have disagreed with you. Spoltori is on a mission and I’m the woman who is getting in the way of that.”

“I read your reports. That’s some sick shit.”

She was still aghast at what she’d learned. “When I was at Rose Chamber’s house, and one of the foster kids came in and called her
maman,
I almost threw up.”

“That’s who he was cursing when he was masturbating in front of Regina Welsh??”

“Yeah. I spoke to a former foster kid of hers, a young woman who told me the aunt picked on all the kids, the boys especially, and that she had walked in on Chambers as she was forcing one to perform oral on her. The girl ran after that. It wasn’t until I told her that I was going to do everything in my power to see that the Rose Chambers was arrested that she opened up. It was ugly, the things she told me, Jack. The aunt must have abused Mario from the time he came to her at five. Sexually, verbally, and physically. He killed his cousin as retaliation, but his subsequent victims were his acting out the fantasy of killing his aunt.”

Jack smoothed back a loose tendril of hair from her cheek. “I believe he’s got you in his crosshairs because you’re a dominant female who is preventing him from carrying out his kill fantasies.”

“By killing his assistant, he’s gone completely off the deep end.” Pulling back, she looked earnestly at Jack. “He’s lost touch with reality, making him desperate and more dangerous than ever. I want to call off the dogs. Let’s set him up by letting him come to me. I’ll be ready for him.”

“Not on your fucking life.” Jack turned and hoisted her up the ladder and drew her against his chest. “No fucking heroics, Stevie. Promise me right now you play this one hundred percent safe.”

“I’d be a liar if I said Spoltori didn’t make me nervous. He could hurt me, but it’s a risk I’m willing to take. It’s a risk you’d take, too, Jack, and you know it. It’s what we do, who we are. I’m prepared. I’m a fourth-degree black belt in karate and jujitsu. I’m an expert on the range and defensive tactics, I can handle my—”

“I don’t care how many fucking belts you have or how accurate your aim, he’s vicious and dangerous. You don’t leave my side for anything,” Jack shot back.

She stiffened. “I beg your pardon, Special Agent, but I’m not going to be looked after like some spineless vic. I’m a cop. I catch bad guys. Don’t put your fear of me failing before that. You’ll cause me to hesitate. If I hesitate, then I’m as good as dead.”

He shook her. “I love you. I would die for you, damn it! I’m not going to allow anything, including your ego, to jeopardize us.”

Stevie broke out of his embrace. “I love you, too, Jack. Damn it, I do! I would take a bullet for you. But you’re not going to bully me out of fear.” Climbing completely out of the pool, she strode around it, and grabbed her robe. As she shrugged it on, she said, “I resent your remark about this being about my ego. It’s my job, Jack. You of all people should know that!”

Expertly, Jack swam across the pool and walked out of the water like Poseidon. He was spectacular. Tall, muscled, tan, and endowed. That endowment was growing by the second.

Shaking her head, Stevie tightened the belt on her robe and backed away. “No, Jack, you’re not going to push me into a safe corner while you go catch the bad guy. If we’re going to do this relationship thing, we do it as equals.”

“I need to know you’ll be okay.”

“I
will
be okay so long as you don’t impede my doing my job.”

Shaking his head, Jack continued toward her. “He’s a desperate, brutal killer on the run. He has nothing to lose. He will try and take everyone down with him when he goes.”

“You don’t think I don’t know that?” she asked, incredulous that he was being so obtuse about this. “I saw the autopsy photos from what he did to his cousin. I was there the mornings each of my vics were discovered. I’m insulted that you one, don’t think I understand the gravity of this case and two, you question my competency to bring Spoltori in.”

“I don’t question your skill set, Stevie, I’m just afraid his may be more evolved.”

That stung. “I’m sorry you think so highly of him and so little of me.” She turned on her heel and said, “I’m taking a shower. I’d tell you to leave, but I know you won’t and since I don’t feel like fighting over that I suggest you get dressed and go perch yourself out front or out here to be on the lookout for the super serial killer while I hide in my closet.”

Grabbing her pistol from beneath the lounger, then slamming the door as she entered her house, Stevie fumed. How dare Jack question her ability to take that scumbag down? She got that he was afraid for her. Hell, she was, too! But she was well trained. She could do this.

Angrily she strode into her bedroom and stopped short. The ceiling creaked above her. Her belly fluttered, every sense on high alert. Spoltori? She shook it off. She was just spooked. It couldn’t be him; the attic was too hot and too cramped for a grown man. It was those damn raccoons. They were back. She’d set traps again, and this time, she’d drive into the next county to let them go.

Hands pressed against the tile wall in the shower, Stevie let the hot spray of the water beat down her. When she felt a whoosh of cool air on her body, she set her jaw and glanced over her shoulder. Jack stood with a towel wrapped around his waist, his hard-on clearly defined beneath the beige terrycloth.

“What?” she snapped, exasperated. This relationship was going to kill her!

“I’m sorry,” he said, clearing his throat. “I’m afraid. When I’m afraid, I bully.”

Her mood softened. How could it not? Here was big bad Jack Thornton admitting to her that he was afraid. But she held her line. If she didn’t, she would give up territory she would have a hard time getting back.

Her grandfather, who had raised champion German shepherds, had once told her that there were two kinds of dogs. Soft dogs that were easy to train and who would do anything to please their master, with little encouragement. And then there were the hard dogs. These took an extreme amount of patience, a firm hand, and love to train. But in return for that patience and love they were the most loyal, protective, and loving of companions. Jack was a hard dog.

“What are you afraid of?” she asked.

“The dark.”

She scoffed. “Be serious.”

He stepped into the shower. “I am.” He dropped the towel and slid his hands along her arms as he pushed her gently against the tile. As he lifted her hands higher above her head, he held them with one hand, and his lips dropped to the bend in her shoulder. “Because without you in it, there would be no light in my world. And that terrifies me.”

“Jack,” she breathed as his lips trailed along her shoulder to her arm. His erection pressed hotly against her back. “I promise you, we’re going to grow very old together.”

“I’m going to hold you to that.” He nudged her knees apart, and with his free hand, he traced the curve of her hip. “I love your body.” Brushing his lips along her arm, he murmured, “Every curve.” His hand slipped around to her belly as his fingers splayed, teasing her mons. “Every valley.” His hand traveled lower, the tip of his index finger swirled around her swollen clit. “Every hot button.”

“Jack,” she gasped, pushing into his hand.

“Jack, what?”

“That feels really good.”

“You feel really good.”

Hiking her leg up at the knee from behind, he dipped his hips and pressed the thick head of his cock to her opening, sliding along her sweltering seam. When she pushed back and tried to impale herself on him, he slid his cock downward and out of her hungry pussy’s reach.

“Jack, please,” she whimpered.

He slid his hand up her back to her hair and pulled it back so that her ass rubbed his cock and her heavy breasts pressed against the cool tile. “I’m a flawed man, Stevie,” he said against her neck. “I don’t know if I can change.”

Despite the hold on her hair, Stevie was able to turn enough to look up at him. His gaze was serious and unwavering. Her heart swelled painfully within her chest. “I accept your flaws, Jack. I love you in spite of them. I don’t want to change you. I want equality.”

He cracked a smile and asked, “Does that mean you want on top again?”

“Grrr, Jack!”

His smile widened when he yanked her hair for effect. “Do you forgive me for being an overprotective, chest-beating, egotistical, afraid of the dark, bully?”

“That’s like asking me to forgive who you are. That I won’t do, because I love the overprotective, chest-beating, egotistical, afraid of the dark, bully.”

He nudged his cock upward, sliding it along her swollen lips, teasing her with it. “I wouldn’t change one thing about you,” he said. And then whispered, “Because you’re perfect for me.” He slid into her then, hitting deep. “God, I love the feel of entering you,” he groaned. He thrust again. “So damn good.”

He let go of her hands, but Stevie kept them high and pressed against the tile. She liked Jack this way. Primitive. Dominant. He grabbed her hair again, pulling her head back so that she bowed, the cords of her neck tight. He ravaged her lips as his other hand possessively gripped the curve of her hip as he pounded into her from behind.

She was there, right on the edge, when he pulled out of her, causing her to scream. Tossing her over his shoulder, he turned off the shower and strode with them dripping wet to her bed where he tossed her, then followed her down, covering her with his big body.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

“J
ack, what are you doing?”

“I’m going to make love to you.”

“But we were just—”

“Fucking.” He clasped her face in his hands. “And don’t get me wrong, I love fucking you, but I want to make love.” He dropped a kiss to her parted lips. “Slowly.” Entwining his fingers into hers, he languidly pushed them above her head, pressing her deeper into the duvet.

With exquisite slowness, he touched her body with his fingertips, then his lips, reacquainting himself with all the places that made her sigh while inflaming the places that made her weep.

Gently he nudged her knees apart and slid slowly into her. They moaned in unison, the feeling of his filling her pure sublimity.

“You’re my first, Stevie. I want you to be my last.”

Arching into his slow languid thrust, Stevie basked in the feel of his hard body against hers.

“Your first what?” she wanted to know.

Sweeping his tongue across a turgid nipple, he gently tugged the ring with his teeth, his thrust longer, deeper. Her body moved to the rhythm of his as emotion built within her. Raising his head from her breast he looked deeply into her soul. She held nothing back. She belonged to him.

As his lips lowered to hers, he said, “Everything.”

She closed her eyes and let him take her to a place she had never been before. She surrendered all. And reverently, Jack took it.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispered, his breath warm on her tender flesh. “And you’re mine, Stevie, never forget that. I’m a selfish man who never shares what belongs to him.” His lips collided with hers possessively. Stevie strained against him as their kiss deepened.

Love for this man swelled painfully in her chest. He had opened his heart to her, exposing his fears, his vulnerabilities, and despite them, he let her be who she was. She loved him most for that.

His fingers dug into her hair as his hips thrust, his thick, beautiful cock sliding in and out of her, the friction at critical mass. Sweat slicked their surging bodies. And then she was there, on the edge, the fierce emotions she’d been pushing away for so long erupting within her as the tension in her body snapped.

She screamed his name in their kiss, her body shuddering as it was overrun with hot, intense sensation. Her legs locked around his waist as he ground his pelvis into hers, the orgasm tearing out of her in long intense waves. Tears stung her eyes when she opened them, wanting to see Jack’s face when she came.

“Jack,” she cried. “I love you.”

His look of wonder as he followed her orgasm with his own would be imprinted in her brain for the duration of her life. Finally, their hearts had connected on every level, culminating in this epic expression of love. She would never be the same. The Stevie Cavanaugh that came to this bed was gone; in her place was a woman confident in the love of her man, and with that, she would set the world on fire and God help anyone who tried to stop her.

Entwined like a love knot, Stevie and Jack held each other as they came to terms with what had just happened. For Stevie it had been life altering. For Jack?

“You okay, Special Agent?” she asked playfully.

“I don’t know,” he said as he rolled over. Cupping her face, his eyes searched hers “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For giving me a third chance.”

She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. “The third time’s the charm.”

“Yeah, it is.” Capturing her lips in his, Jack pushed her back into the duvet and brought her into the protective fold of his embrace.

After several quiet moments, Stevie said, “Pilot.”

Jack, tightened his arm around her and sleepily said, “What?”

“A pilot. What I would be if I had the choice.”

He leaned up on an elbow, keeping her tucked closely against him. “You have the choice, you always have.”

“Not really. I like what I do.”

“But it’s not what
you
want to do.”

“I have my private license. I’m thirty hours away from a commercial one.”

His eyebrows rose. “You fly?”

“Yup.”

Now his brows crowded together. “How did I not know this?”

She shrugged. “You never asked.”

“What kind of pilot would you like to be?”

“A bush pilot in Alaska. Maybe own my own plane.”

Jack grinned. “Wow, I never would have thought that.”

“I have forty hours left for my chopper license. I like to fly those too.”

He whistled, impressed. “You’re a regular aviator.”

“I love it.”

“You’ll have to take me up one day.”

“When I get my chopper license, I want to go to Alaska, spend time up there during the summer. It’s beautiful.”

He smiled broadly. “I’d love that.” He kissed her and said, “As soon as we get Spoltori, you and I are taking some time away from the grind and relaxing.”

Snuggling up to him, Stevie closed her eyes and yawned. “That sounds wonderful.”

As she drifted off to sleep, she thought she heard the raccoons again. “Remind me to set traps in the morning,” she said groggily, before sleep claimed her.

Jack slowly woke to the lazy call of a mockingbird outside the window, and the wan rays of sunlight fighting to inch through the drawn shutters. It was going to be another scorcher. He grinned as his dick thickened in anticipation of waking Stevie up for a morning roll before they got back to the business of hunting Spoltori down and arresting him before he killed again.

Stretching, he felt the burn in his muscles. He was sore, having used muscles in the last few hours that he had never used to such extent. Because making love to Stevie once had not been enough. He’d woken her from a deep sleep and slid into her a second time. Her warm pliant body his.
All
his. He rolled over and snuggled against her. His dick swelled against the small of her back. Nuzzling her thick silky hair, inhaling the fresh scent of her, he thought he could stay here in her bed forever. His chest constricted with emotion that was so new to him he still had difficulty understanding it, but he knew one thing for certain— he had been a fool to let the years slip by. Stevie was special. She was his heart and soul, and he had nearly lost her because of his fear of committing to her.

Simon had been right. Life with the woman you loved by your side was so much more than life without. His heart thudded against his ribcage. A life without Stevie would be no life at all. His fear of losing her to a crazed killer tore him up inside. He knew she could kick Spoltori’s ass. He needed to let her do what he’d trained her to do. To do what she did better than most agents he worked with. If Jack could pick any cop on the planet to have his back it would be her. She was that good. Caging her would only cause her to resent him. Eventually hate him. The light in her eyes would go out and he could not live with himself if he were the cause of it.

As scared as he was, he needed to let Stevie do what she did best: catch bad guys.

He kissed a succulent nipple and nearly devoured her when she moaned, moving hotly into his lips. But one of them needed a clear mind. Besides, he had to piss, he needed sustenance, and he needed to get dressed and get the day started so that he could whisk Stevie away and devour her morning, noon, and night.

After using the bathroom, he walked naked into the kitchen in search of food. He frowned when he opened the fridge. Beer and leftover pizza. His stomach growled. It was only ten minutes into town. He’d be back and cooking before she woke. Gathering his clothes from the backyard, he dressed and headed out front to his bike. He was glad to see two marked cars at the end of the driveway. He gave the officers a wave as he rolled by. Making the turn at the end of her street, he gave the bike some gas and rumbled down the hill. The sooner he got there, the sooner he could get back to Stevie. As he raced down the hill and approached a wide turn, he tapped his brakes.

Nothing.

The bike continued to pick up speed. He tapped the brakes again, this time the front as well as the back.

Nothing.

Fuck.

His brake lines had been cut.