Embattled Hearts 1 (24 page)

She rocked her head against his chest. “I just…didn’t actually think I’d have to kill anybody. I mean, you told me I might, but I never really considered it, you know?”

He heaved a heavy breath. Thoughts of young men saying the same thing to him years ago filtered through his mind. “Killing a person isn’t easy, but you have to be willing to step up and realize that your safety is paramount. If you hadn’t pulled that trigger, you would be dead right now. The end. The most important thing you can do is get back to your family.”

“So, who did you have to come back to?” she asked softly. “That it allowed you to protect yourself that way?”

John’s throat clogged with emotion, and it took several long seconds for him to be able to talk. Nobody had ever thought to ask him that before. “Well, I didn’t have the family, but the kids I was training did. I fought so that some of those kids wouldn’t have to feel what you are now.”

Shannon’s tears flowed faster then, and he knew she’d just have to work it through in her head. She hadn’t done anything wrong, but she needed to believe it herself. After several minutes of emotion, she drifted back into a deep, restful sleep.

The tension that had furrowed her brows was gone, and she looked peaceful. The fact that he had eased her humbled him. He hadn’t done anything to justify her belief in him, but he would take this last little escape for now, until the guilt overwhelmed him.

He watched her for hours, until the sky began to lighten outside and she shifted.

Her eyes fluttered open and her lush lips spread in a smile. “Hi.”

“Hi,” he whispered back. Awareness trickled down through his body as she shifted, rubbing her breast against his side. Deliberately or not, he couldn’t tell.

Until she drifted her hand a little lower.

Craning his head around, he raised his brows at her. Rather than answering him, she rolled out of bed to pad to the bedroom window, twisting the rod on the window blinds to seal out the morning light. He was a little curious about her actions, but marked it up to insecurity.

As she walked back to bed, she slipped her sweat pants down over her hips, then her sweatshirt over her head. Her dark nipples were already pebbled from the coolness of the room, and she shivered as she slipped back under the covers beside him. John lifted her up to drape over his chest, and she took it one step further by straddling his hips. The awareness that had curled through him intensified, and he felt himself harden between their bodies.

Shannon rested her chin on her interlaced fingers and gave a subtle wiggle. John clutched her hips in his hands and ground her into him. She gasped and moved again as if she couldn’t help herself. The heat of her core aligned with his hardness.

She pulled away and pushed the blankets back to expose his body. Grinning seductively, she grasped the elastic of his underwear and dragged them down his legs and off his feet.

John felt a flash of insecurity and she knelt above him, glorious in her nudity. He wished he looked just as good for her.

But she didn’t let him linger on his uncertainty. Her gaze latched onto his hungry cock and she paused, then licked her lips. “My mouth just watered.”

He grinned in spite of himself. “Really? And what are you hungry for?”

“You. And to feel alive.”

She reached forward to wrap her hand around his hardness. John moaned and let his eyes fall shut so that he could focus on the feeling. Her thumb located his slit and began to rub gentle circles against it. Her other hand drifted between his legs to fondle his balls, lifting and tugging.

He was in heaven. And hell. He didn’t deserve this after the way he’d let her down. The fact that he wasn’t there for her just reinforced all the fears he had initially. Even though she appealed to him more than any other human being ever had, he had nothing to offer her other than trouble and work to take care of him.

“Hey, whatever you’re thinking about, you need to stop. We were on a roll.”

John looked down the length of his body and felt his cheeks heat. He needed to get his head back in the game, so to speak. “Sorry.”

Shannon leaned forward to kiss him and smoothed his brow. John closed his eyes and just absorbed her touch, so thankful that she hadn’t been seriously hurt.

His dick started to take interest again and he flexed his hips up into hers. Shannon gasped against his cheek and lifted enough to grin down at him. “I love it when you do that.”

Holding her hips in his hands, he centered her exactly over top of him. Her moist folds spread and wrapped around his shaft, as if to welcome him in, but he didn’t enter her. Instead, he guided her hips in a forward and backward motion. At the top of the slide, he worked the head of his cock against her clit. She gasped and sat up enough to rest her hands on his pecks. “My God, more, please.”

For several minutes he did that, until she moaned and grew impatient over top of him. Her nails dug into his chest as he dragged her hips faster over himself, but he had to pause. His own climax wasn’t far away, and her excitement fed his own. He refused to come before she did this time. Panting, he tried to catch his breath. Shannon wiggled over top of him, until he growled at her to hold on a minute. He actually lifted her out of contact with his body and dragged oxygen into his lungs, slowing down.

Shannon moaned and kneaded his chest like a cat, leaning down to press kisses to his mouth and down his neck. John’s cock continued to reach for her heat, until he couldn’t deny himself any longer. Tilting her hips, he pushed her down onto his aching length.

They both cried out at the incredible union. It was all he could do to hold off his straining release. Pushing her shoulders up, he sat her astride him. He moved his hand to where they were joined and worked the pad of his thumb into her wetness, finding and circling her hard nub.

Shannon cried out and bucked her hips. John’s hand followed her movements, working in tandem with her. And when she cried out in joy, arching over top of him, John was ready. Her rippling orgasm forced him over his own edge, and he was lost to everything around him except her body depleting his.

*****

She fell across John’s chest, quivering from being used and manipulated so well. Chair or not, legs or not, John was a master lover. He’d made her body dance, over and over again.

And forget.

But the memories started to filter back, flashing before her eyes like a movie on a screen. Mere hours ago, she’d been on the verge of being murdered. Now she’d just experienced passion like she’d never tasted before.

It was a struggle for her brain to process the dichotomy.

Tears leaked from her eyes and rolled across the bridge of her nose to land with a splash on his bare chest. She felt him shift beneath her, and he tipped her chin up. “What did I do wrong?”

The tears came harder then. “You didn’t do anything wrong. At all. You’ve done everything right.”

He snorted. “Not even. I damn near got you killed.”

Shannon jerked upright in alarm, her tears clearing. “No, you didn’t! If it hadn’t been for you, I would have been dead.”

John shook his head on the pillow, looking mulish.

“I’m serious. If you hadn’t made me start carrying my pistol, I would have been shit out of luck. As it was, I just barely got it out in time.” She waved a hand. “And we were all sucked in by Lisa. Never in a million years would I have suspected my friend of being out to kill me.”

He didn’t say anything, but she could tell by the look in his eyes he wasn’t hearing her.

Shannon left the bed and padded to the bathroom. When she came back she put on the same pink outfit she’d had on before. John was sitting up in the bed, getting ready to transfer into his chair.

She grabbed his underwear from the floor and held them out to him. Fury darkened his expression and he snatched them from her hand. “I can get my own fucking underwear!”

Shannon turned away so that he wouldn’t see the fresh tears in her eyes. She’d only been trying to help. John seemed particularly aggravated right now, though, and she didn’t know why. “What’s wrong?”

He clamped his jaw and refused to look at her as he settled into the chair and turned for the bathroom. “Nothing, Shannon.”

Nothing, my ass
. The shattered door lock caught her eyes, and she thought of the glass in his hands. He’d done everything he could to get to her, and he hadn’t been able to. Hell, he’d been the one to send her into her bedroom to get out of the gunfire.

Knowing John, he was wallowing in guilt right now.

Shannon shook her head at his stubbornness. He’d done everything he could to protect her. It wasn’t his fault they’d all been taken in.

Restless, she headed to the living room and switched on the news. But nothing was said about her abduction or even the fact that the Denver PD had been dispatched en masse. National news was the same old crap.

She had so many questions floating around in her head right now and she didn’t know which way was up. John being shitty left her floating in insecurity. She looked at the clock on the DVR. Almost eleven o’clock. She was wide awake and didn’t know what to do.

*****

Everybody was in good spirits as they walked in the door of the Frog Dog. Shannon had been rescued safely, one of the bad guys was dead, and the other two were in jail. A good day’s work by Lost ’N’ Found Investigative Services. All while rubbing the PD’s nose in their incompetence.

Ember called out a ’hey guys!’ and motioned to the back wall. Their table was open again. Chad shook his head. They’d been here twice and he already considered this “their” table. The four of them settled into the same chairs they had last week.

Ember arrived within seconds and asked for their beer order. Zeke glanced up at her and smiled, asking for a Frog Dog. He didn’t stutter or hesitate, and she raised an eyebrow at him, then moved on to the other guys. She smiled and disappeared.

The crowd tonight wasn’t nearly as large as last week, but they weren’t as friendly either. There was a group of guys a couple of tables over rumbling about the lack of service. Ember appeared to be the only one serving tonight, and she was hustling. She brought their order then moved on to the aggravated table of men.

Zeke turned to watch her, but she handled them with charm and ease, then moved on. Chad had to admire her finesse.

They had several rounds that night. Ember stopped at one point, dragged a chair from an empty table and plopped down into it, sighing raggedly. “Any of you guys want to wait tables? I’m pooped.”

“Where are the other waitresses?” Chad asked.

She shrugged, rubbing her tired eyes. “Wish I knew. One said she was sick and the other didn’t even bother calling in, she just didn’t show.”

“Can you call…an…anyone else in?”

She shook her head at Zeke’s question. “There’s no sense now. The night’s almost done.”

The rowdy guys a couple tables over were calling for her, so she pushed to her feet, resting her hand on Zeke’s shoulder. “You guys need another round?”

They all shook their heads and watched as she went to the rowdy table. One of the more vocal guys reached out a hand to cup her butt and pull her closer. She swatted at him, but he pulled her in tighter. She began to struggle. “No!”

Zeke was out of his chair and across the room before Chad could even blink. The drunk restraining Ember looked up at the glowering giant with the scarred face and immediately let her go.

“You need to leave before I feed you to the bears outside.”

Within seconds they were shoving to their feet and dropping cash on the table. With a final, nasty look over their shoulders, they were gone.

Ember laughed and wrapped her arms around Zeke’s massive chest. “Thank you! Those guys have been bothering me all night.”

Chad laughed at the deer-in-the-headlights look on Zeke’s face, but made a motion with his hand. Zeke wrapped his arms around Ember and squeezed her back. Even from across the room, Chad could see how stunned his buddy was.

Ember pulled away with a last, lingering smile and went to start bussing the other tables that were leaving. Zeke returned to his chair and dropped down, obviously shocked.

“Dude, you didn’t stutter at all.”

Chad clapped him on the back and Terrell popped him in the shoulder. “You didn’t even give us time to provide backup.”

He grinned and took the last swallow of his beer. “I just didn’t even…think about it.”

Ember waved them off that night as if they were friends, and Zeke seemed just as reluctant to go. Chad wondered what it would take to get the two of them together.

S
hannon woke to a light stroke on her cheek. John sat in front of her. The light from the dying fire highlighted his frowning face. “I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier.”

She yawned hugely and stretched on the couch. “And I’m sorry I handed you your underwear. That was my mistake. It’ll never happen again.”

He glared at her, but she could see his dark eyes dancing with humor. “Smart-ass.”

“Hard-ass.”

He barked out a laugh and grinned at her.

She sat up on the edge of the couch and pushed her hair away from her face. John reached out and tugged at a curl, as if he couldn’t help himself.